Lives of Magic (Seven Wanderers Trilogy)

by Lucy Leiderman

  When I clearly wasn’t getting his point, a look of sadness floated across his face. He obviously had thought he was making some progress with me. His forehead crumpled up into a frown and his voice took on a new sense of urgency. I couldn’t help but feel like I had disappointed him — even in my situation, lying in some shed in the middle of the forest, covered in goo and probably broken in several places.

  Kian could tell I was getting distracted. “You are one of those warriors, Gwen. We had no way of knowing how far into the future you would be carried, but the magicians are here. And you need to run. Recover your memories and gain your strength before they destroy you.”

  Now the air definitely did stop dead in my throat and I stared blankly at him. I could not believe I was hearing this correctly. The threads of understanding in my mind tied themselves into a neat bow as Kian’s story and my involvement were made official.

  “You have all been scattered. Born into new places and homes some seventeen years ago,” Kian explained. “You began new lives, but it is my responsibility to remind you of who you are, and why you were sent here. You have been reminded, your memories have become unleashed, and you have no choice now.”

  The stubborn set to his jaw told me he wouldn’t back down. My logical mind took over and I slowly started to understand. Kian, mysterious, handsome, and absolutely crazy, thought he was on a mission to collect magical warriors from the past who were sent ahead in time so that magicians would not take over the Earth. He was so convinced of this that he had managed to get me to listen to all of this without trying to escape once. He was good. But like I mentioned, I had seen too many crime shows.

  Things were getting too delusional for me. I sat up slowly, in case he tried to stop me.

  “No,” I said sternly. “Not me. You’ve got the wrong girl. Sorry.”

  “I knew you wouldn’t believe me,” he said, sounding truly disappointed.

  I felt an undeserved guilt and willed it away. My strength seemed to be coming back to me exponentially, and now that I was sitting, I was panicking. Was this what an adrenaline rush felt like? I assumed being able to sit up was equal to being able to run, and I eyed the door as my temper rose. I had probably missed the first day of school by now.

  A feeling that I can only describe as an itch settled over me — I had to leave. Now.

  “You thought I wouldn’t believe you when you told me that I’m some kind of magical warrior sent forward in time to stop world-destroying magicians?” I said, perhaps more snippily than required. If Kian noticed the sarcasm, he didn’t comment on it. I tried to grip the chairs to steady myself but couldn’t because my hands were covered in that green goo.

  “And what is this?” I asked. I was getting frantic and fed up with the entire situation. The stuff was all over me. Kian did not seem dangerous, at least not now, and I was getting braver.

  “Avocado,” Kian answered simply, “and some other ingredients.” He hadn’t moved, even with all my fidgeting.

  “You made me into a human chip dip?”

  Now that I look back on it, it was probably not the time to be focussed on this. I had just been told that everything in my life was leading up to this moment and that I was in danger. But I was covered in avocado.

  Kian’s calm demeanour was making me seem like the crazy one, trying to wipe as much of the guacamole off of me as possible.

  “Avocado is a miracle vegetable. I was only able to discover it recently, but since then have found its potential in healing remarkable,” he said plainly, seeming unconcerned that I was trying to leave.

  “I —” I stammered, unable to reply.

  He was calm and still and it drove me crazy. I just wanted to go home, and the urge to do so swept over me like an uncontrollable craze. I was tired, hungry, and sore. All I wanted was a shower and my own bed. For the moment, I forcefully pushed all thoughts of magicians, world destruction, and magical powers to the back of my mind.

  Eventually, I was able to wobble onto my feet and slip into my boots, which were waiting by the door. I expected Kian to try to stop me, but he sat and watched my struggle to move after the long fall down the hill.

  “You have been reminded, Gwen,” Kian said, still cross-legged on the floor. He was covered in bits of avocado pulp from when I tried to clean the goo off myself. “The process has begun. Restoration of your memories and powers will not stop.”

  I was already outside the shack, but I turned around one last time. “Avocado is a fruit!” I yelled and slammed the door.

  Chapter Four

  I stumbled through the forest for only a few feet, blinking in the late afternoon light. Late afternoon! I still couldn’t believe my luck at being able to get away, and the fact that Kian had let me go made me all the more paranoid. Was he after me? The thought kept my feet moving and my heart pounding.

  I imagined my parents had already put out a missing person’s report on me. I didn’t want to think about explaining my appearance and blowing off school on the first day. But as I stumbled a little further, dark thoughts sinking my already sunk mood, I suddenly realized where I was.

  Just through the trees in front of me was a little house with an add-on in the back. VETERINARIAN, it said.

  “Ha!” I barked one small bit of laughter and the noise scared some birds out of the trees. The shack I was held prisoner in had been in my own backyard.

  I suddenly stopped and swallowed hard. Kian was still hiding there. My mind raced. Call the police. Run. Get out of here.

  No, a voice said in my head. I was shocked to hear it was my own. I supposed he hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, he had saved me from drowning and didn’t keep me against my will. A blanket of comfort wrapped itself around my mind, easing my worries, and I forgot about asking for help. In fact, I forgot all about Kian being so close.

  The hoarse noise that had escaped my throat had gotten some attention inside the house. A window opened from the vet clinic and my mom popped her head out. I had never been so happy to see that round, curly-haired woman in my life.

  “Gwen?” she called, squinting in the fading light. Her eyes widened when she finally saw me. “Good heavens! What happened to you?”

  She grimaced when she saw that I was covered in green slime. My clothes hid most of my injuries.

  I didn’t have the energy to respond. Instead I trotted to the house, the several yards between the shack and my new home making all the difference in the world. My clothes caught on leaves and my wet-and-dried rain boots were leaving blisters on my feet, but I didn’t care. I ran through the short bit of woods and right into the house.

  My mom was already at the door when I ran up. Luckily for me, most of my appearance was hidden in the dusk of the evening.

  “How was school? Goodness, did you run into something?” she asked me. I tried to slink around her in the darkness to avoid more questions. No one had called from the school. I had been lucky.

  “School was … good,” I improvised. “I fell in the mud, Mom. No worries.”

  I was almost at the stairs.

  “You sound absolutely beat,” my mother called. “Where were you?” I rolled my eyes while taking the stairs in twos. If she only knew.…

  “Tired. Going to bed,” I called back, wincing at the small amount of information I was actually giving. As I turned into the hall I set our burglar alarm. My mother raised her eyebrows at me and I shrugged, trying to get away as fast as possible.

  I remembered Kian’s neat little suitcase, all shiny and new. He did not have the appearance of one who lives in the forest. I briefly tried to convince myself that he had in fact left my yard. After all, there was no reason for him to stay.

  At the top of the stairs, I waited to see if there were any more questions from my mother. Breathing heavily, more due to stress than to stairs, I listened for any restless-mother signs. Luckily, a cat in the vet clinic began to howl and my mom rushed off, muttering something about teenagers.

  Now I felt absolutel
y awful. I hadn’t gone to school and made friends. Instead, I had been chased down by Kian, a lunatic I was drawn to empathize with. I had lied to and avoided my mom, and I was pretty sure I had just tracked avocado all up the stairs and against the walls too.

  I sighed so heavily that I thought my chest was going to collapse into itself.

  My parents were battling with the angry cat downstairs. Their voices came muffled through the old floorboards of the house. Somehow I felt safer, and as I walked towards the shower I began to peel off my clothes.

  Wincing and in pain, I eventually managed and climbed in. Naturally, the water ran green within seconds. I stood for ages, thinking about my day and at the same time pushing everything Kian had told me out of my mind.

  I couldn’t explain how I had done what I did. I met the Pacific and I sat on top of it. I had seen images play in front of my eyes. I shook my head with the wonder of it all. But out of all things, I was most confused about Kian.

  He was eerily handsome and calm. I remembered how he had carried me off the water, walking on top like it was ice. Slinging me over his shoulder as if I weighed nothing. He radiated warmth, but his face was cool, unreadable. He had told me I was special.

  I opened my eyes in shock as I realized that I wanted to believe him. I pressed my palms against the shower walls to steady myself. He must have drugged me. His story was so unbelievable and fantastic. I watched the water drip off of my eyelashes as I stood there, thinking about the possibility of being extraordinary.

  Suddenly my ears popped like water had flooded them. The sensation was painful and I covered them with my hands on reflex. But then my eyes started to smart and I squinted until spots appeared in my vision. Confused, vulnerable, and being pelted by the suddenly freezing water, I started to shake. Reaching for the temperature knob, I groped at something that felt like rock. My ears were now thundering and I chanced opening my eyes.

  I was standing under a torrent of water, but I was no longer in my shower. To my surprise, and extreme fear, the water pouring over my head was icy cold and heavy, as if it fell from a great height. It made my breath catch in my throat. I swallowed some water in shock — it was cool and fresh, unlike anything I had tasted before.

  My feet ached and I realized I was standing on stones, round ones that shifted every so often with the weight of the water. The thundering in my ears had been these waterfalls.

  There was no doubt about it. I was not in my house anymore, not safe in my shower. I noticed I still lacked any clothing at all, and suddenly felt that much more exposed. Goosebumps covered my arms as I raised them to my eyes, trying to clear my vision and see my surroundings for the first time.

  Unexpectedly, the first thing I saw through the water was another person. Blurry, but definitely there, someone was approaching me. I gasped and choked on a lungful of water. Collapsing, struggling for air, I grabbed a hold of my shower curtain and pulled it down with me.

  After another coughing fit, I stood up at home again, in my own shower, clutching at my torn shower curtain. The water was spilling out onto the floor where my avocado-stained clothes still lay.

  I sat for a minute, doing nothing, thinking nothing. I could only stare, gasping a little bit. My heart was pounding wildly, and despite myself, the only mystery I could think of was who that shadow had been coming towards me. I had not felt afraid … I couldn’t put a name on how I felt, standing in the freezing water. It was as if I rode in someone else’s body.

  I remembered Kian’s words. He told me that whatever memories I had would not stop. I briefly considered believing his story but decided against it. If such a thing existed in the world, there was no way I could be a part of it.

  I climbed out of the shower and threw my clothes in after me. Some items were torn beyond repair, but I thought I’d rinse out as much avocado as possible to avoid more questions.

  Surveying myself in the mirror as the steam filled up the bathroom, I knew whatever vision I had just had was due to a possible concussion. I was obviously confused and disoriented. My body was like a bad tie-dye: all yellows and reds that would soon turn into blues and purples. I washed the blood off the bigger scrapes on my arms and legs, but my torso was still covered in bruises. The pain was such a constant throb that I could not tell where it was coming from.

  As I lay in bed that night, I couldn’t keep my mind off what I had seen. My body was in agony, to such an extent that I had debated asking my mother to buy a few avocados when a handful of Tylenols hadn’t helped. I was sure some ribs were fractured if not broken, since lying on my back and breathing at the same time was excruciating. But distractions from the pain floated around my mind.

  A waterfall … it was so real! I could feel the uneven rocks underneath my feet, the strain on my neck as the water poured down on top of my head, the cold rush through my body and into my bones! There had been someone else there.…

  I had spent a large part of the evening thinking about what I had felt as I saw that figure. It was the strangest feeling. I was terrified, panicked … but that seemed like only one mind. It was the mind that was attached to everything around me in Oregon: my room, my parents, and my ordinary surroundings. But in that moment I had felt a second mind, one that was calm, confident, and absolutely overjoyed at seeing that figure through the haze of water. Was that love?

  For an embarrassingly long time, I lay in bed, closing and opening my eyes. I was hoping to reignite whatever had made me see that other place. I wanted to go back, explore. The need to see that place again and experience those feelings grew in my chest and ate away at me. Scared, I noted that something inside me had awakened — something wild and uncontrollable that longed to get control.

  I was wading through a creek. The cold water went up to my waist and I wearily scanned the riverbanks on either side of me. I towed a small, round, floating thing behind me. It was only big enough for one and looked as if it was a giant shield turned on its front. I knew someone would track me sooner or later, but I wanted some time before getting discovered.

  I picked my way carefully along the rocks in the river and avoided the middle due to the strong current. I was worried about being seen. Frightened of the consequences. Very aware of the fact that I was unarmed, I tried to make as little noise as possible.

  Suddenly, in the distance, the bushes on my right rattled slightly. I hugged the riverbank and tried to tuck myself into its side, hiding. A hand reached out for me from the bushes. I gasped but my panic turned to exhilaration in a heartbeat. I knew that hand. I loved that hand. Overjoyed, I grabbed it and was pulled onto dry land.

  I awoke expecting to be somewhere else but was still in my dark room. Tossing and turning, I eventually fell back to sleep.

  Surprisingly, I felt rested in the morning. The sun was beating against my eyelids as soon as I woke up, and I knew it was late in the morning. Suddenly, a shadow blocked out the sun and I threw my eyes open.

  “Ah!”

  I screamed and jumped back, kicking at my bed sheets. It hurt. Kian was sitting on the end of my bed, looking perfectly at ease. The previous day’s events, the pain in my body, and my memories of those visions came back like a torrent. Whatever magic he had used to make me forget his presence evaporated in an instant.

  I heard my mother call from somewhere in the house.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked. Then, “Why aren’t you at school?”

  I was breathing hard, torn between curiosity and not wanting to believe any of it. But he looked so trustworthy.

  I’m not going to lie. I debated telling her to call the police. Screaming help, fire, etc. But he was looking at me so imploringly, and my chest started fluttering with memories of what I’d seen yesterday — the other place. I had no idea why I wanted to go back there so badly, but I did, even if it meant trusting Kian. I mentally kicked myself.

  “Gwen?” My mother was still waiting for an answer. I realized time had passed while I thought through my next course of action.

>   “Everything’s fine!” I yelled back. “I saw a spider. And I have first period off.”

  “Geez — sounded like you saw a ghost or something,” she called.

  I rolled my eyes and listened for more, but that was it. My lie seemed to satisfy her, and I was left to stare at Kian, thankful I had remembered to put on pyjamas the night before.

  “Okay,” I told him. All my doubts and misgivings were pulsing in my throat and I swallowed them down, leaving room for the uncontrollable urge to see that other place again. My next words came from that overwhelming desire.

  “Tell me. Everything, this time,” I said, and couldn’t believe myself as I said it.

  Chapter Five

  Kian looked just slightly surprised as his eyebrows lifted, but he regained his normal cool composure. He was wearing the same denim jeans with the white t-shirt as the previous day.

  My mother’s assumption had not been far off. He seemed like a ghost, pale and immune to all the elements around him. It was like time didn’t matter for him. I felt certain that his pitch-black hair would never go grey, and his porcelain skin would never wrinkle. The thought scared me, but he seemed helpless at the moment.

  He scooted a little closer to my end of the bed and looked at me with such earnestness that I thought I would melt.

  “Everything I told you was true, Gwen. You are the first I’m collecting. You must help me find the others like you. The magicians are here and they need your power. Your soul. If they get it, you will not only be enslaved but they will have what they need to continue destroying the world. Millions of lives depend on you.”

  I stared. My mind was buzzing and I knew I had to get some answers before I could sort things out. It was too early.

  “The magicians,” Kian went on, “are trying to do the same as they did in their previous lives. They will destroy the world to own it. They will cow the Earth into submission. They have already begun.”

  “But … but … global warming….” was all I could say.