Hidden Magic

by Melinda Kucsera

  Blushing, he took the crackers. “Aren’t you upset?”

  “Upset?” Grandma Katona raised her chin. “I am livid with rage, child. Every fiber of my being seethes at these monsters who dare invade my home, murder a member of my family, and attempt to kidnap my grandson.”

  She held in her anger and used it as fuel. Her every thought burned toward the purpose of survival and justice.

  He wished he could do the same.

  Algernon stuffed crackers into his mouth, trying not to think of the man who’d made them. As always, the crunchy squares tasted buttery and salty, light and flaky. That seemed wrong.

  Ernold’s crackers refused to mourn their creator by turning bitter or crumbling to dust.

  Grandma Katona climbed the stairs. Algernon followed. They paused at the second floor and heard nothing through the closed door. Both pairs of monsters had moved on.

  They climbed upward. Grandma Katona paused with her head at the level of the third floor. After a few long moments, she returned to the second floor and beckoned for him to follow.

  In the largest sitting room with the main staircase, full of chairs and more artwork made from pieces of colored glass, Grandma Katona pointed to an armchair with a floral print and a high back. “Move this as quietly as you can, Algie,” she whispered. “Get it over here.”

  He lifted the front half of the chair and pushed it on the thick back legs. Under her direction, Algernon moved the chair near the open doorway step by agonizing step.

  His arms complained and he panted for breath. Swordwork had given him some muscle and endurance. Not enough for this.

  In his head, he promised to spend more time lifting heavy things and exercising. The next time Grandma Katona asked him to undertake this kind of physical labor, he’d have no trouble with it.

  Following her orders, he moved three more chairs. The arrangement formed an obvious hiding spot for a frightened child.

  By the time he finished, sweat stained his brow and back.

  “Good work, Algie.” Grandma Katona patted his shoulder. “You’re doing a good job.” She held up the game piece she’d taken. “Go to the top of the stairs and throw this at the door. Run back here as fast as you can and stand there, beside the door. Whimper loudly enough for them to overhear. When the first one comes through, use this.”

  To Algernon’s horror, Grandma Katona pointed to the knife in his hand.

  He blinked at her, certain he misunderstood. “Use it to do what?”

  She touched his cheeks with her warm, wrinkled hands. Her smile seemed sad and soft and sweet all at once. “Algernon, I’m sorry to ask this of you. You’re so young.” With unexpected strength, she pulled his head closer and kissed his forehead. “I need you to kill them.”

  Sparks shot through his body. It felt the same as when he almost fell down the stairs but saved himself seemingly by chance.

  His parents believed wholeheartedly that killing was the greatest sin ever committed by women and men. Mother believed it so strongly that the family never ate meat.

  Though he opened his mouth to tell his grandmother he couldn't do it, no sound came out.

  “I’ll help you, but I can’t reach high anymore. The best thing you can do is stab them through the spine and throat so they fall fast and can’t make any noise. It’s hard, but you can do it. For a blow like that, you get one chance. One. Make it count.” She let go of him and pressed the game piece into his towel-wrapped hand.

  Algernon gasped for breath. He wanted to crawl into the hiding spot he’d created with the chairs and stay there.

  Grandma Katona turned him around by his shoulders and nudged him toward the stairs closet. “Be swift. Stop thinking and start doing. We’re going to deal with these monsters so they never hurt anyone again.”

  “Yes, Grandma,” Algernon whispered, still trying to breathe.

  He couldn't drag in enough air.

  His feet shuffled forward. He wanted to sprint for the front door and flee the house. Why couldn't they flee the house?

  When he glanced toward the front door, he heard his grandmother sigh.

  Then he heard voices. Jannil and Benny prowled the ground floor. They might sweep past any of the staircases at any time.

  Jannil and her team could outrun Grandma Katona. Algernon knew that. Grandma Katona knew that too.

  He had to trust that she’d already thought this through. And that she knew the limitations of her illusions better than he did.

  These monsters deserved a terrible, agonizing death. He held onto that truth.

  Algernon gulped and hurried to the stairs closet.

  As Grandma Katona had instructed, he climbed as far as he needed into the closet on the third floor and threw the game piece at the door. Before it hit, he sprinted down the stairs and returned to the sitting room. He stopped and stood beside the entry, trying to catch his breath.

  Instead of Grandma Katona standing in the room, he saw deep, dark shadows.

  In the distance, a door opened. Algernon whimpered without needing to fake his distress.

  He heard nothing else. The monsters made no noise.

  Or they saw through Grandma Katona’s trick.

  At once, he wished for both.

  For good measure, he whimpered again.

  Moments later, a soft shadow approached. He heard a soft swish of fabric and smelled sweat. The man from the second pair stepped into the room, his boots quiet and careful.

  The man’s attention focused on the arranged chairs.

  Algernon had one chance. He lunged with the knife as the man passed him.

  His tutor had made him practice slashing so many times against a training dummy that his body carried him through the movement despite his hesitation.

  The knife sank into the man’s unprotected neck. His flesh yielded. Blood sprayed in a spatter and a gush.

  It happened so fast.

  It happened so slow.

  Algernon watched the blood, mesmerized by the showering fountain, as his body carried through the strike for maximum effect.

  The monster stared at him in wide-eyed shock for a heartbeat. He stumbled a step deeper into the room. His hands waved in the air and he gurgled.

  Watching a man die, Algernon staggered into the wall. His knife hit the carpet. He didn’t remember dropping it. Sliding down the wall, he tried to make sense of what he’d done.

  “Such a mess,” Grandma Katona said with a sigh. She tousled Algernon’s hair. “Good job, Algie.”

  The monster crumpled to the floor with a thump. He gurgled and flailed with fading strength. His limbs flopped on the floor, thumping and bumping.

  “What did I do?” he whispered.

  Grandma Katona stepped on the monster’s twitchiest limb, his leg. “You stopped the monster. I know this is upsetting, Algie, but I need you to get up.”

  She needed him to kill three more people. Two had names.

  “If we hurry,” Grandma Katona said, “we can catch the one upstairs before she comes to check on the noise and sees all the blood.”

  Algernon blinked as he raised his head. The wonderful old woman he loved and respected as a wise teacher wanted him to rush off and kill another monster before the first one’s heart stopped.

  “You poor thing,” Grandma Katona said with a sigh. She took hold of his chin. “This goes against everything your mother has ever told you. Listen to me, Algie. I know this Miru gentleman. He was your mother’s magic tutor. I tried to teach her, but she had no patience for what I do with magic. He came in and trained her to harness her power for what she wanted.

  “So this woman who wants to kidnap you? She’s doing it to gain leverage against your mother for Miru. They want to use you. I don’t know why, but I know they intend to stick you in a cage of some sort. And when they get what they want, they’ll do what their kind always does. They’ll say they mean to set you free. Then they’ll kill you both.”

  She wanted him to kill them to save himself. And her, and
his mother. His father too, because when Dad lost his only family, he would lose himself.

  Algernon nodded.

  Grandma Katona let go. “I love you, Algernon. You’re a bright light in the darkness. Get that man’s sword and let’s go hunting. And don’t forget you can use magic.”

  Magic took focus. How could he focus in this kind of situation? He could barely breathe.

  He wiped his face, surprised to find his cheeks damp again.

  The dead man on the floor had murdered Ernold. Even if he hadn’t held the deadly blade, he’d stood by and watched. All four of these monsters had murdered an old man in the middle of making bread.

  For what?

  To keep him quiet and contained, a small part of Algernon knew. They placed so little value on life that they saw no reason to knock him out and tie him up when they had the opportunity to slit his throat instead.

  Algernon stepped close to the corpse and tugged the sword from its sheath. The still, dead thing on the floor had earned his fate.

  Blood already soaked into the rug ruined Algernon’s shoes. He stepped out of them as he reached the edge of the sodden carpet and flung both shoes deep into the sitting room.

  While Grandma Katona waited, he pulled off his damp woolen socks and threw them into the room also. Then they climbed the stairs to the third floor, taking care to shut the door behind them.

  The closet on the third floor served the same purpose as the one below it and duplicated the contents.

  The dead monster had left the door open.

  “Tonno, you find him?” the woman asked. She sounded close.

  Grandma Katona pointed for Algernon to stand beside the door frame. The room grew darker bit by bit, resisting the feeble light from tiny glowing spots along the hallway floor.

  “I’m afraid he did,” Grandma Katona said as she climbed the last few steps.

  Algernon froze, unable to think, to breathe, to move. He hadn’t expected her to reveal herself so brazenly. If anything happened to her, he had no idea what he would do.

  The woman’s boots scuffed the rug down the center of the hall, drawing closer. “And you’ve come to me to bargain for his release?”

  “Something like that,” Grandma Katona said. Without glancing at Algernon, she stopped several feet before the doorway and crossed her arms. “I thought this was a robbery?”

  “It is.” The woman remained outside the closet.

  Jannil had ordered them to kill Grandma Katona on sight. The longer Algernon waited to act, the better the chance this monster carried out that order.

  “Why don’t you come out of that closet so we can talk like civilized people?” the monster asked.

  Though he had no doubt Grandma Katona could answer the question and maintain a conversation as long as needed, Algernon lunged through the doorway, swinging his new, unfamiliar sword.

  He tried to fling out the one magical attack he knew well. A thick strand of power sprouted from his left palm and hit the woman in the face.

  It was supposed to wrap around her.

  The surprise of power slapping her cheek sent the woman a step backward with a grimace.

  His sword lacked the reach he expected. The strike which should have cut off her head instead slashed through her clothes to score a shallow cut across her chest.

  She gasped and fumbled for her sword.

  Algernon cursed himself.

  He rushed her.

  The collision knocked both to the floor. She squawked. He grunted.

  “Jannil!” the woman shouted.

  Algernon cracked his elbow against her jaw.

  Darkness shrouded the pair.

  Pain exploded across Algernon’s cheek and his head snapped to the side. He fell with the blow he never saw. The woman scrambled to the side. She scrabbled for her sword.

  “Third floor!” the woman screamed.

  A vase hit the woman’s head. She stumbled against the wall.

  Algernon wanted to stay on the floor and wallow in the ache across his cheek. Any moment, he’d wake from this terrible nightmare to discover he’d fallen asleep in the sitting room. Grandma Katona would chastise him for staying up too late the night before.

  “Algie,” Grandma Katona said, her voice strangled.

  He looked up. The monster held his grandmother by the neck. Grandma Katona gripped the monster’s arms with both of her spotted hands.

  Algernon flung out his left hand, demanding his power work for him. He needed it to save his grandmother.

  How dare this monster try to harm his family?

  An eldritch rope sprang from his hand. The end slapped the monster’s shin hard enough to make her squeal. It snaked around her legs, wrapping them together.

  Ready to cry with relief, Algernon yanked on the rope.

  The monster fell with a screech. She let go of Grandma Katona and her head thumped against the rug.

  Algernon wrapped the rope around his elbow and used it to pull himself to his feet.

  “They’re fighting back!” the woman screamed.

  He raised his sword and leaped at her.

  This time, the blade plunged through his enemy, hitting her in the left shoulder. He landed beside her with both bare feet on the floor.

  She shrieked.

  As she flailed her other arm at him, he ripped out the sword. The blade slashed open a ragged line toward her neck. Blood sprayed in the air, trailing the tip of his sword.

  She gasped and curled into a ball.

  Algernon staggered a step backward, panting. His ring already softened the pain in his face. It did nothing for his heart.

  The darkness lifted to one side. The end of the hallway toward the main staircase remained swaddled in shadow.

  Grandma Katona rubbed her neck. “You’re doing fine, Algie,” she murmured.

  He swiped his sleeve across his face and discovered blood. “I killed them,” he said, each word falling dull and empty to the floor where they swirled into the pool of blood forming around the fading woman and soaking into the rug.

  The woman whimpered and twitched. Her bladder failed, adding the stench of urine to the cloying musk of death.

  “Yes.” Grandma Katona beckoned him closer. “We need to move. The other two will come.”

  “I killed them.” Algie dropped the sword and sniffled. “Grandma, I killed them.”

  “Go fetch your sword,” Grandma Katona said. She pointed to his room.

  The door stood open. Bright light flashed through his windows, painting the pain on the woman’s face with sharp, accusing shadows.

  He couldn't move.

  Grandma Katona sighed and hurried into his room.

  Algernon rubbed his face. He’d done the worst thing anyone could do. Committing the greatest sin made him a pariah.

  His mother would cast him out of her sight.

  For saving her mother’s life and protecting himself.

  “Rina?” Jannil called.

  Her voice, distant enough to be certain she had yet to reach the third floor, snapped Algernon into action. He leaped over the body and rushed inside his bedroom. Grandma Katona met him with his elegant fencing blade already in hand.

  She pressed the sheathed sword into his arms. The moment he took it, she touched a finger to her lips and led him to the hallway again.

  He averted his eyes from the monster on the floor as she shuddered and twitched. Algernon stepped past her, his bare feet squishing in the blood.

  On the edge of the carpet, he did his best to wipe off his feet.

  Once they reached the spiral stairs closet, Grandma Katona led him inside and shut the door. They paused in the dark to listen.

  Algernon heard voices too low and distant to understand. Grandma Katona shooed him down the stairs.

  They moved swiftly. Algernon’s bare feet and Grandma Katona’s indoor shoes pattered softly on the bare stone. She urged him to descend all the way to the cellar.

  Cool and dry, the cellar housed tubers, racks of wi
ne, and jars with pickled or preserved fruits and vegetables. In crates along one wall, they stored off-season linens and special occasion decorations. Tiny dots of magical light glowed around the stairs.

  Though Algernon couldn't see the other end of the cellar, he knew it had a set of stairs to an outside door.

  The concrete floor stung Algernon’s feet with its chill. “What do we do now?” he whispered, certain his voice would carry through the entire house.

  Grandma Katona hugged him. “I’m so sorry this has happened. You should escape. You can run fast enough to get away.”

  He nodded, ready to cry with relief. “Let’s go,” he whispered.

  She sighed. “I’m staying.”

  “What?” He blinked at his grandmother. “Why?”

  “Go, Algie.” She touched his cheek and smiled. “You should leave. I’m sorry I asked you to do these things. It was wrong of me. But I can’t allow these people to leave without at least trying to make them pay for Ernold’s death.”

  “But…” Algernon covered her hand with his. “But Grandma, what if they see through your illusions? What if they catch you?”

  “Use your head, Algie.” She tapped his forehead. “I’m proud of you. I wish I could teach you everything I know. Promise you’ll practice with your illusion weaving. I know you don’t believe you’ll ever become good enough to use it for anything important, but you can and you will.”

  Only when she reached this point did Algernon realize she was saying goodbye to him. Grandma Katona expected to die.

  They should have protected Ernold.

  Whichever servant Jannil had hurt or killed to take their key had also deserved their protection.

  Leaving meant saving himself and forgetting about anyone else.

  Algernon sighed and consigned himself to more nightmares. “I’ll stay too.”

  In the distance, thunder boomed.

  Grandma Katona hugged him again. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

  “I’m sorry too.”

  She nodded and took his hand. “The last two have found the bodies by now. They’ll be expecting the simple attacks now, and they’ll stick together. We have to set a trap and lure them into it.”