Mysticons--The Stolen Magic

by Liz Marsham

  Zarya opened her mouth to explain everything. To tell Ami that she was a Mysticon, to explain that it was much more than a job, that she was part of an unbreakable team—a sisterhood—bound together by duty and loyalty and friendship and family and magic, all at once. But she never got the chance.

  KA-KRAAAACK! With a huge rending of wood and metal, the top of the pyramid lifted off and toppled away. Zarya and Ami threw their hands up to shield themselves as splinters of wood and coils of rope fell all around them.

  Squinting up through the settling debris, Zarya saw that something had bent back the trees all around the house, giving a clear view of the night sky. Hovering in the sky were three familiar figures, mounted on griffins.

  No, Zarya thought. Oh, NO.

  “AMILETH,” came Arkayna’s voice, booming from above in full Dragon Mage mode. “RELEASE THE PRINCESS AND RETURN WHAT YOU HAVE STOLEN.”

  14

  In Which a Rescue Turns Regrettable and a Friend Turns Foe

  Still crouched defensively, Amileth stared at the Dragon Mage, stunned. “The Mysticons?” She blinked. “Most of the Mysticons. But how did you … and why would you…” She gasped and turned to Zarya. “You. This is what you were talking about.”

  Zarya nodded miserably. “I was about to tell—”

  Amileth kept talking. “This is your job? You’re a Mysticon? But I heard the Mysticons were heroes!”

  “You heard right, lady!” yelled Piper. “So give that magic back already!”

  Straightening, Amileth threw her shoulders back and addressed the airborne girls. “You come here uninvited,” she began. “You invade my privacy and destroy my home. And you accuse me of, what, holding Zarya against her will, without a hint of proof?” Her eyes began to glow and crackle, and her lip turned up in a sneer. “These are not the actions of heroes. How dare you!”

  “Ami, wait!” Zarya jumped in front of Amileth and put a hand on her shoulder. “This is all a mistake!” Then she turned to Arkayna. “Why are you here? I told you not to come! How did you even find me?”

  Em spoke up. “When you stopped answering glyphs we … well, we got worried. Malvaron helped us find a spell to track your phone.” She winced. “It seemed like a great idea an hour ago.”

  Zarya groaned. “I told you not to worry! So many times!”

  “But we did,” said Arkayna. “And we were right to! You’re out here with no powers and no backup, facing—well, facing her!” She gestured to Amileth, who grimaced.

  Zarya clenched her fists. “I wasn’t facing—”

  “No, Princess, the Dragon Mage is right,” said Ami, stepping away. “You came here ready for a fight.”

  “I didn’t!” Zarya protested. “But when I saw you had my powers, I—”

  “You knew the rest of your team was looking for you,” Ami continued, her hands tightening into fists, “and you left your phone on, which means you let them track you here. Was this your plan, to stall me until they arrived?”

  “Probably!” Piper called out. “She’s really good at plans!”

  Zarya waved her hands frantically at Piper, groping for words. “I—no—”

  “Normally,” Ami said, so softly that only Zarya could hear, “I would really like that about you.” She gestured, and the blue light uncoiled from her fingers and hissed against the ground.

  “Izzie, go!” cried Arkayna, urging her griffin into a dive. She waved her staff, and a green energy blast shot from the orb and impacted at Ami’s feet, making the illusionist jump back. In the same motion, Arkayna leapt into the air and landed nimbly in front of Ami, her staff held out protectively to block Ami’s access to Zarya. “If you want to get to her,” Arkayna said, “you come through me.” She pointed an imperious finger at Ami. “Now: Give. That. Magic. Back.”

  “STOP,” Zarya screamed, startling everyone. She balled up her fists at her temples. “You’ve got it all wrong!” she yelled at Arkayna. “All of it! She didn’t do this on purpose, and I can take care of myself, and you are ruining everything!”

  Ami tilted her head to the side. “It’s a good show, Princess,” she said, “but after all this, I don’t think I’m buying it.”

  Zarya opened her mouth to say something, anything. “Ami, I—”

  But Ami thrust her hands out, and blue, sparkling smoke came pouring from her fingertips.

  “Don’t let her get away!” Arkayna commanded, stepping forward.

  “You’re still not listening,” howled Zarya desperately.

  In seconds, the smoke surrounded all four Mysticons. They couldn’t see one another, let alone Amileth.

  “Uh, I don’t think the Striker and I can land in this,” said Em.

  From the corner of the room came a bang and then a ratcheting clank.

  “What’s that?” yelped Piper.

  “It’s the way out of here, locking behind her,” said Zarya. “Ami’s gone.”

  15

  In Which the Escaping Entertainer Encounters a Familiar Face

  Ami bolted down the spiral stairs, through the door to the basement, and down the steps past the dangling swords. Her heart was racing and her hands were sweating. Weaving her way expertly between the piles of trinkets and props, she approached a large framed poster on the wall. The poster showed a grinning Ami, loops of heavy chain restraining her from neck to toes, under the headline The Amazing Amileth and Her Extraordinary Escapes!

  Ami ran a hand along the underside of the ornate frame and pressed a catch. Silently, the poster and its glass swung back, revealing a secret passage. She swung her legs over the lip of the frame and groped along the tunnel wall for the flashlight she kept there.

  Then she stopped and her lips quirked. She snapped her fingers, and a blue flame appeared, hovering before her. Nodding in satisfaction, she hurried down the tunnel.

  Several twists and turns and one long staircase later, she reached the hidden garage where her truck was waiting. She hauled herself up into the cab, started the engine, and floored the accelerator.

  Speeding along her underground driveway, which would take her to a secluded back road just outside the Weaving Woods, Ami finally had a chance to think.

  What just happened? And what do I do now? She didn’t have a good answer to either question. Her perfectly designed, wonderfully useful house was damaged and compromised, perhaps forever. She needed to act as if the contents of this truck were all she had left in the world.

  She felt another surge of anger toward the Mysticons. She had done nothing wrong. She had accidentally borrowed something that she fully intended to give back, and look what they had done in return! And Zarya, especially—to think that Ami had felt a connection with her, had thought they shared so much in common, and had assumed Zarya had felt the same. Ami’s brow furrowed. Zarya was just another spoiled princess, throwing a tantrum when she couldn’t immediately get her way. Well, she was just going to have to live with disappointment.

  Ami huffed in frustration as the truck chugged up a steep incline toward the surface. What was she going to do now? The Mysticons would hunt her down, and when they found her they would—what? Ami honestly didn’t know, and she didn’t want to find out.

  She couldn’t believe that those four girls were the revered, chosen Mysticons. She had heard such glowing things about them—how they had saved Drake City time and time again, from orcs and the undead and evil liches and who knew what else. And the people of the city loved them for it, apparently. Ami snorted. What rubes.

  Do the Mysticons just keep getting lucky? she wondered as she steered the truck out of the hidden tunnel mouth and onto the road. Or are they actually fooling—WHOA.

  She slammed on the brakes, hissing air between her teeth. The huge truck, not made for abrupt stops, juddered alarmingly before coasting to a halt. Six inches from the front bumper, a lone figure stood in the middle of the road. A dark, tattered cape was draped over his broad shoulders, making him almost invisible against the black road. The only thing that stood o
ut clearly, shining in Ami’s headlights, was his bare skull, cracked across the top.

  It was one of the Mysticons’ greatest enemies: Dreadbane.

  16

  In Which a Threat Becomes a Plan

  “The Amazing Amileth,” intoned Dreadbane. He spoke in such a low voice, Ami had to strain to hear him over the truck’s idling engine. “I have been looking for you. I followed your vehicle’s tracks from the city, but here…” He gestured around him. “They seemed to vanish.”

  “Yes,” said Ami. “That’s on purpose.”

  “It is good you have come to me, then,” Dreadbane said. He didn’t move from his place directly in the truck’s path, just continued to stare up at her with his glowing red eyes.

  “Listen,” snapped Ami. “On any other night, this quiet, menacing thing you’re doing would be making me very nervous. But tonight?” She jumped out of the truck and stalked toward him, crooking her fingers and making blue lightning dance between them. “I am in no mood.”

  To her surprise, Dreadbane took one look at her glowing hands and sighed with dismay. “Ah,” he said. “I was hoping your show was a genuine marvel, but I see it is not. How disappointing.”

  “My show?” Ami snorted. “You’re standing in the road at night, all settings on Maximum Creep, to make me perform for you?”

  “Not at all. I am not interested in your tricks. I am interested in your footlights. My instincts told me that they actually work to drain away magic, but, since you clearly are a magic user, I conclude that my instincts have failed me. You are a fraud.”

  “Hey.” Ami bristled with pride. “I’m no fraud. The lights work, all right?”

  For the first time, Dreadbane’s eyes flared with energy. “They work? That is wonderful news.” He cleared his throat and raised his voice intimidatingly. “In that case, I am Dreadbane, and I demand that you—”

  “As for me being a magic user,” Ami went on, oblivious to Dreadbane’s demand, “before a few hours ago, I would have been happy about that! Delighted, even! But now? Ha!”

  Taken aback, Dreadbane shut his jaw with a snap. After a moment, he lifted a hand in a “go on” gesture.

  Ami began to pace back and forth in the road. “I always, always thought magic was this wonderful, special thing. Part of me was always sad that I didn’t have it. I’ve spent my whole life imitating it, trying to get close to it. But tonight I finally got it, and right away, things started going wrong. I lost my house. I lost someone I thought was a friend.” She flapped her hands, feeling helpless and angry. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”

  Dreadbane nodded. “I agree, Amileth. Magic causes nothing but trouble.”

  “Exactly!” Ami pointed a finger at him, then continued to pace. “That’s exactly what I was getting at.”

  “So what will you do about it?”

  She pulled up short. “Do about it?” she echoed.

  Dreadbane smiled. It was not a comforting sight, but Ami found herself wanting to listen to him anyway. “You have the power to banish magic from your stage, correct?” he asked. “Why not think bigger?”

  “Bigger?” He just kept surprising her. “How do I do that? Do you know how long it took me to build those lights by myself? A stage is about as big as I can manage.”

  “Ah, but you’re not by yourself anymore,” replied Dreadbane. “I count two of us here, and I can get more. How big can you think, with an army of helpers at your back?”

  Ami’s eyes unfocused as she pondered. “I have thought before about building enough lights to perform large-scale illusions. Something that would cover a whole building, or an arena.”

  Dreadbane leaned toward her. “Bigger. Much bigger. And I’m not talking about a mere illusion. I’m talking about removing the trouble that plagues us both. I am talking about taking magic away … from all of Gemina!”

  17

  In Which an Outfit Forms While a Team Unravels

  “We can fix this,” Arkayna pleaded from the doorway to Zarya’s room. “Once we catch up to Amileth, we’ll—”

  “You are not catching up to her,” shouted Zarya. “You’ve done enough! I had everything under control, and you … you … argh.” Throwing up her hands, Zarya turned back to her closet in the Stronghold, tossing pants and jackets blindly into the room as she rummaged. Choko, perched on the bed, dodged back and forth to avoid the flying clothes.

  The Mysticons had blasted the lock off the pyramid’s hatch and searched the rest of the house, but they hadn’t found Ami. The ride back to the Stronghold after that was quiet and tense. Zarya had barged straight up to her room, Arkayna on her heels, while Em and Piper had stayed downstairs, looking for a way to track Amileth.

  “At least let me help you find what you’re looking for in there,” Arkayna said now. “Or maybe you can borrow something of mine?”

  “I need a disguise,” Zarya muttered. “Since I still don’t have my magic, and thanks to you the person who has it is … who even knows where.” She flung a belt behind her with one arm, and Choko barely managed to leap over the whirling leather in time.

  “We screwed up, I know!” Arkayna said, wringing her hands in distress. “We shouldn’t have been so quick to judge her. So let us make it right!”

  Zarya rounded on her, a pair of jeans in her hand. “You still don’t get it,” she said. “Not trusting Ami isn’t the only thing you screwed up.”

  “Okay! Then tell me what else needs fixing, and I’ll fix it!”

  Zarya tossed the jeans on the bed and stormed across the room, stabbing her finger at Arkayna. “You didn’t trust me. You don’t trust me to be on my own, and you don’t trust me to pick my own friends. How are you going to fix that?”

  “Oh no,” Arkayna said. “That’s … oh, Zarya, that’s not what this means at all. I just … I love you, so I worry about you, that’s all. And sometimes I feel like you don’t listen to me when I tell you what I’m worried about.”

  “Well, you definitely don’t listen to me when I tell you not to worry, so I guess that makes us even.”

  “I’m so sorry. I really am. But we’re a team, Zarya.”

  “Yeah,” snapped Zarya. “A team. Tonight we were a team that found someone powerful and confused and innocent, and what did we do? We scared her, smashed up her house, made her mad, and then drove her away.” Zarya shook her head. “I don’t know if I want to be part of a team like that.”

  “Zarya!” Arkayna gasped. “What are you saying?”

  “Uh, hello?” Em knocked gingerly on the doorframe.

  “Em, this isn’t the best time,” Arkayna said.

  Zarya snorted and stuck her head back into her closet.

  Em took in the scene and winced sympathetically. “Yeah, I’m super-sorry about that,” she replied, “but Nova Terron just sent us a message.”

  “This isn’t the best time for him, either, Em,” said Arkayna. “Zarya and I need to finish talking. We’ll get back to him in a minute.”

  “I hear you,” Em said, clearly uncomfortable, “and again, so very sorry. But it can’t wait.”

  Zarya sat back on her heels and looked Em up and down. “Something happened. What happened? Is it Ami?”

  “You’re not going to believe this, but it’s Dreadbane,” said Em.

  “Yeah!” cried Piper, pushing past Em into the room. “Old Boney’s back, and he’s in the Sword’s Rest graveyard, turning skeletons into … well, skeletons! But alive ones!”

  “He’s raising a new army?” said Zarya, jumping to her feet in alarm.

  “That’s what I said! So let’s go!” Piper glanced at the mess on the bed, where Choko had wrapped himself in white and blue fabric and tied a blue sock across his face. She clapped her hands and hugged Zarya. “You’re making a costume! You’re so smart.” Running out of the room, she called over her shoulder, “Hold on, I have a thingy for this!”

  Em looked from Zarya to Arkayna, noticing the tension still in the air. She backed out of the room, mutteri
ng about getting the griffins ready.

  Arkayna fidgeted. “I’m not sure … I mean, without your magic, do you…” She sighed. “I just want you to be safe!” she blurted.

  “Oh, I’m coming with you.” Zarya really wanted to find Ami. But Dreadbane was serious business, and she wasn’t going to let Arkayna think that she couldn’t pull her weight. So she stared Arkayna down, and eventually Arkayna dropped her eyes and left.

  Zarya turned to Choko and sighed. “Go, team.”

  18

  In Which Bones Are Picked

  As the four of them flew at top speed toward the graveyard on the outskirts of town, Zarya’s eye kept darting to Wells’s Comet. Now a quarter as large as the moon, the comet sparkled like a diamond, catching the moonlight and refracting it into thin rays. There were still a few hours until dawn, and Zarya couldn’t believe the comet was going to get even closer. That thing would be scary if it weren’t so pretty, she thought.

  She tugged her makeshift cape, hastily constructed from an old sheet, away from her neck. The magical one doesn’t chafe like this, she thought. I’m never taking that for granted again. Absentmindedly, she raised a hand to scratch her cheek.

  “Ah ah, no scratching!” Piper sang out as Miss Paisley glided down next to Archer. “You’ll smudge your mask and get makeup on your glove! Two bads, no goods!”

  Zarya dropped her hand with a sigh. That was another thing—her magical mask was way more comfortable. On the other hand, Piper had been so excited to paint the mask on—“Aw, yay, you got some festive face paint after all!” she had squealed—that it almost made up for the itchiness. Almost.

  “Eyes front, girls,” Arkayna called back. “We’re here.”

  “I see him!” said Em. “Great goblins, he’s been busy.”

  The graveyard stretched in front of them. Paved paths wound among rolling hills, most topped by white stone monuments. Near the center of the graveyard, halfway down one of the larger hills, they could make out Dreadbane, surrounded by at least two dozen white figures. At the bottom of the hill was a huge, animated vulture skeleton, idly pecking the ground as it waited.