The Magic Collector

by Clayton Wood

  “What?” he asked.

  “You’re not such a bad guy after all,” she observed. “Now that you’re not with that jerk Stanwitz.”

  “He was a psycho,” Piper agreed.

  “How’d you end up working for a guy like the Collector?” Bella inquired. Piper shrugged.

  “I was just following Kendra,” he answered. “She’s a lot like your mother was, you know.” Bella’s expression soured.

  “Your wife tried to kill me, remember?”

  “Nah, she wouldn’t have killed you,” Piper countered. “She wanted you alive, trust me. That’s why she sicced Nightmare on you, to take you away safely. Gideon fought back, so she had to do what she had to do.”

  “Nightmare?” Bella asked.

  “Her Familiar,” he clarified. “The cube with the tentacles.”

  “Oh, right.” She paused. “Why is she like my mom?”

  “They were both free spirits,” he answered. “They hated that the Pentad tried to control us artists. Telling us what we could and couldn’t create, then taking most of our creations away from us to increase their own wealth and power.” He gave a wry smirk. “That’s what people who can’t create always do. We create all the value, then they steal most of the profit from us artists, and hand us a pittance for our efforts.”

  “Is that why Mom ran away?” Bella pressed. “Gideon said she sold most of her paintings on the black market.”

  “According to Kendra, yeah,” Piper replied. “Anyway, the Collector offered Kendra a job…freedom to work on whatever she wanted, and to keep most of the profits if she sold it. All he asked was to collect a small percentage. If he wanted to keep something she made, he’d pay full price for it.”

  “Huh.”

  “With that kind of deal, you can imagine why so many artists – including the ones from the Pentad – flocked to him. The Pentad couldn’t have that, of course. For one, it violated their laws, and two, if they let him get away with it, lots of others would try to get away with it too. So they tried to have the Collector arrested.”

  “I’m guessing that didn’t work out so well,” Bella ventured.

  “Right,” Piper agreed. “The Collector fought back. Hard. So the Pentad declared war. That’s when the Collector did a pre-emptive strike, taking Blackthorne…one of their most valuable assets.”

  Bella frowned, taking this in.

  “So…you’re saying the Pentad started all this?”

  Piper shrugged.

  “Depends on whose side you’re on, kid,” he answered. “The Pentad will say the Collector violated the law…so he started it. If you ask the Collector, he’ll say he’s helping to free artists from a tyrannical government.”

  “Yeah, well the Collector murdered my mother,” Bella reminded him. “And he kidnapped Grandpa. And he tried to kill me.”

  “I know,” Piper murmured. He hesitated, then put a hand on her shoulder. “Sorry kid.”

  She lowered her gaze, feeling suddenly glum. She’d spent the last few days trying not to think of what’d happened to Grandpa. Every time she did, she felt like lying in bed and doing nothing…and she couldn’t afford to do that.

  “The Collector isn’t a nice guy,” Piper admitted. “Kendra knew that. I knew that. But to Kendra, he was better than the Pentad…and where she goes, I go.”

  Bella glanced up at him.

  “So what do you believe, Piper?” she asked. He sighed, taking his hand off her shoulder.

  “I’m an Actor, kid. Sometimes I have to play the hero, sometimes the villain.” He paused. “And you know what?”

  “What?”

  “When I’m playing the hero, I feel like the hero,” he answered.

  “Duh,” she replied. “And when you’re playing the villain?”

  “I feel like the hero.”

  Bella stared at him, processing this.

  “So, from where I’m standing, a lot of the time, heroes and villains are just different teams playing the same game,” Piper concluded.

  “So…how do you know what’s right?” she asked. He smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

  “Honestly, I just try not to be an asshole,” he answered.

  Bella smirked.

  “I take care of the people I care about,” he added. “Because that’s my team.”

  Bella arched an eyebrow.

  “Am I on your team?” she asked.

  “You are now, kid,” he answered, giving her a squeeze. “You are now.”

  There was a moment of silence, and Bella slipped her arm around his shoulders. They held each other for a while, until Bella cleared her throat.

  “You really love her, don’t you?” she asked.

  Piper gave her a sad smile, his arm slipping away.

  “I’ve lived a few lifetimes kid,” he replied. “And trust me when I say it’s hard to find someone you’ll get along with after a few years, much less someone that’ll make you feel the way Kendra makes me feel.”

  “What does it feel like?” Bella pressed. He slipped away from her touch, turning to the painting.

  “Like having a Familiar, but it’s another person,” he answered. “You’ll know when you feel it,” he added. “If you’re ever lucky enough to.”

  Bella nodded silently. She’d never really dated. Grandpa wouldn’t have allowed it, and besides, she’d found the boys at school to be a bit…one-dimensional. No surprise, she supposed. They couldn’t be anything more than what they’d been written to be, and Belthazar Squib’s name was easily the most impressive thing about the author.

  Piper cleared his throat.

  “So, you gonna draw that thing out?” he inquired, gesturing at the dragon. Bella glanced at it, feeling sudden trepidation. How many times had she imagined her dragon becoming real, back when she’d been in school? Of it leaping off the page and becoming her constant companion?

  “I don’t know,” she mumbled.

  “Nervous?”

  “Yeah,” she confessed. “I’ll do it when I’m ready.”

  Piper smirked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Gonna let you in on a little secret, kid,” he replied. “People who wait until they’re ready to do things never end up doing them. If you want to get ahead in life, you gotta take a leap into the unknown…and trust yourself enough to deal with whatever comes next.”

  Chapter 41

  Afew days had passed since Bella had completed her painting of her Familiar…or at least, thought she’d completed it. She kept finding more and more things to add and change every time she looked at it. Small details, but important; it was as if gazing at the painting summoned the Flow, demanding that the alterations be made.

  So she did.

  In the meantime, she made a few more paintings, of things she’d need for the upcoming battle…like a weapon. She chose to paint a long whip made of human vertebrae, with a femur for a handle. It was Sleep Terror, a whip that, in her story, was owned by a great demon that planted nightmares into people’s brains. A single lash from the whip instantly put any opponent to sleep, making them suffer horrifying nightmares. So horrifying that even when they awoke, most would be so fearful that they could only run from battle. She practiced using this for hours, then continued building her arsenal of magical items.

  Bella also needed a light source like Gideon’s lantern. For this she painted a will-o-wisp, a forest spirit that drew power from being around living beings. It was intelligent, a product of magic from forest sprites, and understood a few commands. And it was drawn to Bella’s heart-shaped necklace…a way to ensure that it wouldn’t just go wandering off when it felt like it, and never come back.

  For a heat source, Bella painted a Lava shroom, a glowing red mushroom that was not hot to touch, but radiated a comfortable heat and as much light as a small campfire. Like a real mushroom, it derived its nutrition from dirt and decomposing things, making it radiate more heat when placed on top of such things.

  Each time she painted, she found
the stories behind her paintings easier to create and tell. So much so that it was hard to believe that, only months ago, she’d struggled just to paint a flower. The more she told stories, the better she got.

  If you want to be it, do it, she found herself reciting.

  Lastly, she rolled up some of the paintings of various food items from her mother’s pantry, as well as plates, bowls, and utensils. A girl had to eat, after all.

  Piper kept himself busy by practicing Acting, which Bella often paused her own work to watch. While at first blush it seemed like Acting would be a relatively weak magical art, she soon found otherwise. For Piper could change from one person to the next at a whim, impersonating anyone he studied for long enough. And he could turn into beastly characters that didn’t exist in real life…characters he’d created. All of them seemed to represent a different aspect of his personality…good, bad, weak, strong, and everything in-between.

  Eventually Bella found herself returning to her dragon painting…and just staring at it. No new ideas came. No alterations. But she couldn’t help worrying that there might be something missing. That it wasn’t quite perfect yet.

  But what that something was, she couldn’t say.

  She stood there in her studio, chin in hand, studying it.

  “Hey,” Piper greeted from behind. He stopped by her side. “How’s it going?”

  “It isn’t,” Bella replied. “I have no idea what else to do.”

  “Must be done.”

  “Done?” Bella blurted out, glaring at him. “It’s not done.”

  “It’s done enough,” he countered.

  “Mmm…no.”

  “Look, I’m no Painter,” he told her, “…but I’ve seen a lot of paintings. Kendra’s, Gideon’s, and quite a few of the Collector’s Painters’ paintings too. This painting is one of the best I’ve seen.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, really,” Piper confirmed. “You got talent kid. Loads of it. And this story…it’s good. It’s…you.”

  She smiled.

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t make a habit of lying,” Piper told her. “Too much work.”

  “I still think it’s missing something,” she insisted, turning back to the painting. Piper put a hand on her upper back.

  “It is,” he agreed.

  “What’s that?”

  “Your signature,” he answered with a smile. She smiled back, nudging his side with her elbow.

  “Alright, I’ll give it to you, that was smooth.”

  “I’m an Actor,” he replied with a wink. “Smooth is what I do. Now go sign that thing and meet your Familiar.”

  Bella took a deep breath in, then let it out, squaring her shoulders. She reached down for a fine paintbrush, dipping it in pale blue paint. Then she walked up to the lower right corner of the canvas.

  And hesitated.

  “What’s wrong kid?”

  “I…kinda wanted Gideon to see this,” she admitted. “I think he would’ve wanted to be here.”

  “I’m sure he would’ve,” Piper conceded. “But we don’t know when he’s coming back, and the longer we wait…”

  He trailed off, giving her an apologetic look.

  “You’re right,” she decided. “I’ll draw her out…soon.”

  “Her?”

  “Yeah,” she confirmed. “But first I’m going to try the lake again. We aren’t going anywhere until we have the Dragonkin on our side.”

  “Good point.”

  “Let’s go,” she prompted…and promptly left the studio, starting the long journey to the base of Dragon’s Peak. They reached the mouth of the cave, spiraling down the mountain to Lake Fenestra far below. It looked much as it had before, its waters placid. Bella stood at the edge, staring at the surface of the water. Again, she saw the reflection of the sky and Dragon’s Peak…but this time, she couldn’t see her own reflection.

  “Alright,” she declared. “I’m going in.”

  She jumped forward, landing feet-first in the lake…and felt her legs immediately burst through to air below, then her body…and her head. The world shifted, and then she fell head-first into the water again…and her head burst through the surface again. She bobbed up and down, then reached an equilibrium, floating waist-deep in the water.

  Piper stared at her from the shore, his mouth open.

  “Get me out!” she ordered. Piper extended an arm, and she grabbed it, letting herself be hauled out of the water. She turned back to face the lake, soaking wet.

  “What the hell happened?” Piper asked.

  “I think I went through,” she answered. “Everything shifted…it was upside-down. I think I need to go head-first, so I’ll emerge on the other side and be able to grab onto the shore.”

  “Okay, try it.”

  Bella took a deep breath in, then dove into the water, head-first.

  She plunged through…and found herself bursting head-first out of the water near the shore. She extended her arms, grabbing onto the shore, then hauled herself up.

  And found herself surrounded by Dragonkin.

  * * *

  Bella froze.

  Over a dozen dragon-like creatures were standing around the lake nearby, some with children on their backs, others in mid-stroll down the path toward Dragon’s Peak. All with long necks, dragon-like faces, and wings folded on their backs. More of them flew in the sky high above, their wings and long bodies silhouetted by the sun.

  And Piper was nowhere to be found.

  Bella stared at the Dragonkin, and they stared back at her. She swallowed in a dry throat, waving rather lamely.

  “Hey,” she greeted.

  They continued to stare.

  “I’m um, Bella,” she introduced. “I’m Thaddeus Birch’s daughter.”

  Still no response.

  Bella lowered her hand, trying her best to smile. No one said anything. She began to wonder if any of them understood her. There was no guarantee that they spoke English, after all.

  “I’ve come to speak with the king,” she announced. “Thaddeus was kidnapped. I need your help to save him.”

  One of the Dragonkind, obviously a woman, strode up to her, inclining her head.

  “We have witnessed the attack on your realm through reflection,” she declared. “If perchance you are indeed our Creator’s daughter, then we shall do any deed you require. Come, I shall take you to our castle with great haste, so that you may have audience with our king.”

  Bella blinked, taken aback by the woman’s odd way of speaking. She found the dialogue rather stilted, but it’d been that way in Grandpa’s book as well…a fact that had made parts of it painful to read. But apparently some people liked that sort of thing.

  “Thank you,” she replied.

  The Dragonkin woman led her leftward around the lake – rather than rightward, as it would have been in the real word – bringing her to the base of Dragon’s Peak. Everything was a mirror-image of the real world, or rather, the original world. For this world was as real as any other, the sun, ground, and air indistinguishable from that of the world Bella had just come from. And, given that this world had been created by a book, but was now part of the real world, she should be able to feel the Flow here. Indeed, the Plane of Reflection had existed even before Grandpa’s first book; ‘The Magic of Havenwood’ had merely created a new land within that realm. The idea that a book could create a whole alternate world, wherein other books could add to it…

  It was a lot to process.

  Bella followed the Dragonkin woman to the top of Dragon’s Peak, seeing the Castle Havenwood ahead, a familiar bridge arcing over the moat. She glanced down the side of the mountain, seeing the mushroom forest…but no White Dragon. Which made sense; the White Dragon had crossed over in the original world long ago…at least in the book. The idea that history could be created in a book, and then retroactively become true for a place, was mind-boggling.

  They made it to the entrance to the castle, passing through
to the foyer beyond. It was identical to the one in the original world, except of course for all the Dragonkin milling around. There were far more Dragonkin here than there were artists in the original Havenwood. This Havenwood was densely populated, with crowds of Dragonkin all around.

  And all of them where staring at her.

  Bella kept her shoulders back and her chin up, forcing herself to appear confident and relaxed. She had a mission to focus on.

  Grandpa’s life – and Kendra’s – hung in the balance.

  She followed the woman through the lobby to the room that was The Studio back home, but appeared to be a large meeting hall here. They made their way past it, up some stairs, through a maze of corridors, up more stairs, and finally to what was obviously the throne room…a long room with a single, massive throne at the end, the seat back a huge marble carving of a dragon rising up a good twenty feet in the air, its head nearly touching the vaulted ceiling. A very large Dragonkin man was seated upon it, dressed in golden armor and wearing a golden crown resplendent with shimmering jewels. He was easily four times the size of the other Dragonkin, filling his huge throne easily, a golden staff in one hand.

  “Your majesty, King Draco, I bring forth to you the esteemed Bella Birch, sole granddaughter of the Creator,” Bella’s guide announced, bowing before the man. Bella bowed as well, following her lead.

  “Are you truly kin of our great Creator?” Draco inquired. Bella nodded.

  “I am, your majesty,” she confirmed. “I’ve come to make a request.”

  “Make it and it shall come to pass,” King Draco declared.

  “Thaddeus Birch has been taken by the Collector,” she informed. “Kidnapped…or worse.”

  There were a few gasps from the guards and Bella’s guide.

  “Who is this ‘Collector?’” the king demanded.

  “A dangerous man,” Bella answered. “He lives in a castle far away. A castle with an upside-down castle on top of it, on top of a mountain.”

  “This castle is known to us,” King Draco revealed. “There is a great mirror in the sky between the two castles…a magical one that serves as a doorway between our worlds. It is called Chiral, and was created long before the castle it reflects.”