Titan Magic

by Jodi Lamm

  Something in the back of Maddy’s mind screamed at her to protest, but she could think of nothing to say to him. She didn’t even know why the thought of losing him terrified her. She only knew she would not allow him to walk away when the time came.

  “No more sleepless nights,” he continued. “No one will tie you down or hide you away. Wouldn’t you like that?”

  She shook her head.

  “Don’t be that way.” He sounded disappointed. “At least make an effort to fight your instincts on this. I’m not the only one who needs protection. Your life is in danger.”

  “I don’t see how,” she tried to keep her voice steady, “except maybe you’re being terribly careless with that priest, telling him everything.”

  Jas chuckled. “Uncle, she doubts your loyalty.”

  “Oh?” Father Androcles turned to face them. “All done?”

  “Can you believe it?” Jas went on as though the priest had said nothing at all. “Put her at ease, will you?”

  “Of course, young master.”

  The two advanced toward each other in a way that made Maddy back away from them both. “Are you his master, too?” she asked Jas.

  “Not at all.” Jas turned his attention to Father Androcles. “She’s curious about why you call me master.”

  “Is she?” Father Androcles rubbed his hands together. His eagerness made Maddy take another step back. “I call him by an old title we gave to practitioners of magic before it became a crime. I call him Master James Mahler because I’m proud of my nephew’s talent, even if he doesn’t believe he has it.”

  The name Mahler scuttled around Maddy’s mind, trying to find something to connect to. It seemed familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place it.

  “Father Androcles is the elder brother of the man who raised me,” Jas said. “More importantly, he is my only confessor.”

  Father Androcles smiled wider and Maddy found herself looking for pointed teeth in his mouth. “I keep the young master’s secrets,” he said. “I keep them in the glass box behind you.”

  The glass box on the altar. She had almost forgotten the thing was there, assuming it served some ritualistic purpose for a religion in which she had never been able to participate. But now, as she moved closer, she saw the thing for what it was: a coffin. She crawled up the stairs on her hands and knees and peered between the steel vines, all the while muttering, “Snow White. It’s Snow White.”

  Her amazement only grew when she saw the young man whose body lay in Snow White’s coffin. His heavy, golden curls were in perfect contrast to his iron pillow. She thought she might have seen him once before in one of her picture books—a royal footmen or some other background servant, who blended perfectly with the richness of the palace—just an ornament for the story. She pulled herself to her feet and gazed down into the coffin. He seemed to smile up at her with dimples that would have been more appropriate on a boy half his age.

  Maddy felt her heart fluttering at the base of her throat as she asked, “Is he dead?”

  “No.” Jas’ voice sounded more melancholy than usual. “He isn’t dead.”

  “He’s enchanted, you see?” Father Androcles put an arm around her shoulders, but Maddy barely noticed.

  “We have to get him out of there.” She ran both her hands along the glass, trying to find some way in. There had to be a hinge somewhere. A lock. A handle. Something.

  “Madeleine…” Jas began.

  “He’s not breathing!” She lifted a fist to punch through the glass.

  “Stop,” Jas commanded her, and her fist hung in midair. “You’re being irrational.”

  Irrational? Maybe. But the face she’d seen in that coffin made her sick to her stomach. He looked as though he were only sleeping, but he was too still, too peaceful. “There must be some way to wake him.”

  “You don’t want to wake him,” Jas said. “Trust me.”

  Father Androcles tightened his arm around Maddy’s shoulders as she whispered, “Why?”

  “Because, Madeleine,” Jas’ voice fell, “he’s a Titan. If you wake him, he’ll kill you.”

  Maddy dropped her hands to her sides. It wasn’t possible. He didn’t look like a monster. She stared into the coffin and tried to couple the word Titan with the image of her new Snow White. Impossible. She could only imagine that face smiling at her.

  “It’s true,” Father Androcles said. “Master James dispatched the Titan to save you.”

  Maddy couldn’t look at Jas. “You did this to him?”

  “Do you even care what he did to me?” Jas said.

  Maddy clenched her teeth to keep from screaming. It gave her no comfort to know her frustration came from Jas.

  “He will kill you.” Jas searched her face for some sign of understanding. “I can’t stop him again. I’ve already given everything I have.”

  When Maddy turned her back to Jas, his anger overwhelmed her. She tried to think of some way to ease his mind, but by the time she finally decided what she would say to him, he had already slipped outside.

  “How vicious,” Maddy chided herself. “After all he’s done for you, you still fight for his enemy.” She wondered whether the guilt was her own and hoped it was. Something had to be hers—something more than instinct. She wanted to believe she cared for Jas, that she felt some loyalty to her savior, but when she saw her reflection transposed over the face of the Titan, her heart beat quicker. “How shallow,” she said, and she traced the shape of her reflection in the glass. “How cruel.”

  She understood that she had once been a slave to Jas, but he had also raised her, so perhaps he was a kind of parent, too. He fought to save her from a Titan and was transformed, while the Titan was entombed and guarded by a strange and truly frightening priest. Still one question nagged her. One piece of the puzzle didn’t fit with all the others. Jas had told her he was only an amateur magician, yet he had gone up against a Titan… and won.

  6: The Titan

  “Puppet,” Father Androcles sang into Maddy’s ear. She realized he had been trying to get her attention for some time. “Say, puppet, is something the matter?”

  Maddy refused to face the priest. She didn’t want to see his eyes again. The outlines of countless plans lived in the color of his eyes. People like him could control others without force or magic. Their power was of a different kind. She patted her thigh thinking she would pull her book from her pocket and write to him. Then she remembered she had no coat, therefore no pocket, no book, and no pen.

  Father Androcles tapped her shoulder.

  She knocked his hand away.

  “What’s bothering you now?” he said.

  “As if I could tell you even if I wanted to,” she said to no one, throwing up her hands in frustration.

  Father Androcles smiled. “Surely, we can find a way to communicate, don’t you think?” He offered her the underside of his forearm. “How about you trace the words onto my arm?”

  She backed away.

  “I’m very good at this game. We used to share secrets this way during the lectures in seminary. No one was the wiser.” He laughed. “Though, we did get strange looks when they thought we were being amorous. Try it.”

  The more she heard his voice, the more Maddy found herself softening to the priest, despite her initial doubts. He had a vulnerable tone that did not match the shade of his eyes. What if she’d misjudged him? She decided she shouldn’t have judged him at all before she even knew him. So she reached out and traced letters onto the underside of his arm, pausing between each word to give him time to piece them together.

  IS HE A TITAN? She pointed to the golden boy.

  Father Androcles tilted his head toward the coffin. “Do you find that hard to believe?”

  She nodded.

  “Why?”

  She reached out to trace her message on his arm again. He was warm, like the tailor, like her mother. HE LOOKS, she paused and considered whether to finish, HUMAN.

  Father Androcles la
ughed. “So you see things aren’t quite the way you’ve been told they are. He is a Titan, no doubt about that. And you and I are both guilty of treason.”

  Maddy shook her head.

  “We are,” he said. “Take a good look at him now and answer one question. Are you going to kill him?”

  She shook her head more vigorously. Kill him? Never. More than anything, she wanted to lift him out of his coffin and carry him to a safe place. She snatched the priest’s arm and started tracing more letters.

  “Whoa there,” he said. “Slow down a bit. Start over.” He waited as she tried again, a little shaky, but slower.

  WILL HE KILL…

  Father Androcles stopped her hand before she finished. “I’m afraid Master James was telling the truth about that. This boy will kill you one day, whether he wants to or not. He is a Titan—a manifestation of the demiurge, the god of artifice and ignorance—and that is what Titans do: they create and they destroy.”

  Maddy looked the priest in the eyes and mouthed the words, Why me?

  “You mean why would he destroy you?” His face was full of regret. “He has to, eventually,” he glanced into the coffin, “because he is the one who created you.”

  Father Androcles must have made a mistake, or perhaps she had misheard him. Maddy rifled through a mess of words and phrases to find what else he might have intended to say.

  “You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you these things when I’m supposed to be keeping the master’s secrets,” he said. She wasn’t, but she didn’t correct him. He laid one pale hand upon the glass. “I only keep those secrets it benefits me to keep. I’m selfish, you see? Right now, I would be most benefited by gaining a friend in you. I want to give you something that will endear me to you. Tell me, Miss Lavoie, do you appreciate my honesty?”

  Maddy had to remind herself to nod.

  “Good.” Father Androcles patted her shoulder. “I’m going to tell you some things I think you should know—some things the master will never tell you.” His eyes lost their dullness as he spoke and Maddy knew he was using his talent. He was a dealer in secrets. “Do you know why they call our ruler the Queen of Silence?” He lowered his voice. “Because she made listening to God a crime. In the old days, this was one of many Listening Sanctuaries.” He gestured to the expanse around them. “Now it is the last one standing. All the others were burned to the ground. I’m only allowed to keep this one because my brother is the most powerful man in Frieden, and he has convinced the queen that I’m just a harmless madman.”

  The priest’s brother was Jas’ adoptive father. Another Mahler. For Maddy, the name finally latched on to a memory. The most powerful man in Frieden was the Duke of Silence, His Grace Eli Mahler. Why hadn’t she recognized it sooner? She traced the word DUKE onto Father Androcles’ arm.

  His eyes glittered at her recognition. “You’re running amongst quite a few fallen giants: General Lavoie’s widow and heir, Duke Mahler’s estranged son, an enchanted Titan. These are all people who have lost something important to them. Each of them will take a side in this holy war. And whichever side you’re on will win.”

  Father Androcles dropped to his knees and gazed up at Maddy. “I’ll tell you the truth, Miss Lavoie. You represent a great deal of hope for me. The queen wanted to have the final word with her people, so she silenced our god, our holy Sophia. And we were too stupid to fight back. But you,” he took both her hands in his, “are the most powerful ally in the world. A thousand suitors will vie for your hand when they learn of your existence. I just want to offer you some perspective before they do. Because you know how it feels to be cut off from your creator, from your god,” he gestured to the Titan in the coffin, “you know how we suffer.”

  But Maddy couldn’t think of anything beyond her own distaste for the words he had used. “He’s not my god,” she said to herself, “just because he made me into a slave.”

  Father Androcles rose to his feet. “You were this Titan’s protector, and he needs you more than any of us. All the world is out for his blood.” He laid his hand on the glass, covering the marks he had made earlier, print for print. “I’ve done everything I can to guard him, but I’m weak compared to you and all the giants around you. I know you would choose to protect him, were you given the choice. This young man,” he patted the glass, “was a good boy, who just happened to be born a Titan. If you could remember him, you would mourn that you were forced to leave his side.”

  Every minute she knew him, Maddy liked the priest better. As long as she didn’t stare into his eyes, she was almost comfortable around him. He wasn’t an evil person, just earnest.

  Father Androcles smiled. “I’m telling you this Titan’s secrets because I want to give you the chance to fight for someone who was once important to you. It won’t be easy. Master James hates the Titan for reasons only he understands. But you’ll continue to feel like an empty shell if you aren’t allowed to fulfill your purpose and protect your creator. I know that much, at least. So this information is my first gift to you.” He held out both his palms as though he were handing her a lovely, wrapped box. “The second gift, I will give you when the time is right.”

  Maddy stared into the coffin again. The young man inside seemed fragile, like the slightest upset would turn him to dust. She wanted to carry him home, wherever that was. She wanted to see him smile. Her mind wandered so far from the derelict sanctuary, she did not even notice the priest leaving her side or the ticking of hooves against the marble floor. She didn’t hear the stag breathing behind her as she whispered, “He’s so beautiful.”

  “You have terrible taste in men,” Jas said. Maddy felt his bitterness before she recognized it in his voice. “Only you could look at someone who means to kill you and call him beautiful.”

  She blushed, or she thought she did. Then again, it might have been Jas.

  “I wish you could let go of him,” he said.

  “Then why did you bring me here?” Maddy refused to tear her eyes from the Titan.

  “Because Father Androcles was the only one I could trust to help you.” Jas paused. “But maybe part of me wanted you to see the Titan, to be afraid of him. Maybe I wanted you to loathe him as much as I do.”

  “I want to bring him back.”

  Jas groaned. “Are you suicidal?”

  “No.” She brought her face closer to the glass. “I don’t think he’ll kill me.”

  “Why? Because you think he’s handsome? You’ve been reading too many storybooks.”

  “Everyone deserves a second chance.” She tried to separate his frustration from her own feelings. “Even Titans.”

  “Not this one.”

  “He hasn’t killed anyone yet, has he? Maybe he’ll be merciful.”

  “You’re foolish, as always.” Jas shook his head. “But it doesn’t matter. There’s no way to restore him.”

  Maddy hesitated, but Jas’ nervousness made her doubt him. And the more she doubted Jas, the more she believed Father Androcles. “There must be a way,” she said, pressing her hands against the glass. “He’s a Titan, after all. Her Majesty wouldn’t be so frightened of Titans if they were defeated as easily as that,” she eyed Jas, “and by an amateur magician, too.”

  “Are you trying to appeal to my pride?” Jas chuckled, but Maddy felt him ruffle and tense inside. “I don’t remember you being such a manipulative thing.”

  She closed her eyes and used his bitterness to create some of her own. “As you said, I’ve changed.”

  “Maybe you have and maybe you haven’t. Your instincts are the same, but your methods are crueler.”

  Though Jas’ words stung her, Maddy knew she couldn’t take anything back. She had to stay her course if she was going to win this one. And she had to win. The prize was too precious to lose.

  “You would do anything for him,” Jas said, and Maddy wondered for a moment whether he could read her thoughts. “You would lay down your life to save him and nothing I could tell you would convince
you not to. No matter how he abused you, hurt you… He destroyed you, but you won’t stay away from him. No, I don’t think you’ve changed at all.”

  Maddy bowed her head over the glass and tried to hide the tears she shed onto it. It wasn’t her pain and she knew it, but it hurt all the same. And the guilt… “Help me,” she whispered to the Titan.

  The Titan seemed to sigh and say, “I suggest you move away from the glass,” but his lips were still. Jas backed away from the coffin and repeated himself. “Madeleine, please move away from the glass.”

  “Why?” Maddy slid away as Jas lowered his head. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m giving him to you.” Jas charged the coffin. His antlers hit. The glass cracked. “You want him so badly?” Jas backed away and prepared to charge again. “He’s yours.” The second time he hit, the coffin shifted and the fissures spread. “No one deserves him more than you.” At the third hit, the glass coffin shattered. “Do whatever you want with him.”

  The figure that lay among a thousand shards of flickering glass now seemed more fragile than ever. When Maddy leaned over his body, she saw a person who was more boy than man, more human than god or monster, but still beautiful. He was a carved figurine, art or something equally beyond her informal education. She reached between the vines to touch him, but as her fingertips found the rough cotton of the Titan’s waistcoat, she drew back. She had to remind herself to breathe, to hide her horror from Jas. Because what she noticed in the coffin would mean the end of her if he saw.

  “Don’t you want him any more?” Jas said.

  Maddy didn’t respond. She was focused on the Titan’s waistcoat: a dark, peppered grey, with those buttons that had left countless marks on her cheeks.

  “Madeleine?”

  “Why are you giving him to me?” she said, and she heard her own voice tremble.

  “Because you want him. He’s worthless, a coward and a monster, but you want him. So take him.”