by Sean Cullen
Kim stepped in front of him, blocking his way. “Oh, no you don’t!”
“Why not?” Brendan was secretly delighted that he’d hit a nerve. “What’s he going to tell me?”
Kim was about to respond when she was cut off by the harsh voice of Ms. Abernathy.
“What’s going on out here?” She stood in the open door of the school, glaring at the two truants. “The bell has rung. You are both late.”
Brendan froze. He had never been on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing by Ms. Abernathy. He had only watched others be dressed down by her. He tried to speak but all that came out was a strangled squeak.
“I asked you a question!” Ms. Abernathy barked. “What is going on out here?”
Brendan tried to clear his throat and make an excuse but Kim cut him off. “We’re having a private conversation.”
Brendan had never seen such an expression of complete shock on a human face before. Ms. Abernathy stared in disbelief. “No one speaks to me in that manner.”
“Well, I just did,” Kim said evenly. “Deal with it!”
Brendan thought the vice-principal was going to have a heart attack. Her face turned an interesting shade of puce. Her eyes bulged with outrage. “You … You … You …” the woman stammered.
“We’d like to finish our discussion so why don’t you run along,” Kim said. “Now!”
Ms. Abernathy quivered with rage. She reached out and grabbed Kim by the arm. “You are coming with me, young lady.”
Kim looked slowly down at the offending hand and then back into Ms. Abernathy’s eyes. “First of all, I am not young. Secondly, I am not a lady. Thirdly, take your hand off me if you ever plan on using it again.”
Ms. Abernathy’s mouth dropped open. She was about to speak but something in Kim’s eyes made her snap her mouth shut with a click. She let go of Kim.
“Better,” Kim said simply. A peal of thunder rolled across the sky. The three people on the steps looked up. The sky was clear. There was no imminent threat of rain, just a few white clouds drifting. The thunder rolled again.
“That’s odd,” Ms. Abernathy said softly.
“Uh-oh.” Kim’s voice was filled with dread. “This is gonna be bad.”
Brendan didn’t understand. He looked up into the sky again. Without any warning, a finger of lightning lashed downward from the empty sky, blasting into the middle of the sidewalk with a deafening bang. He was thrown from his feet, skidding along the steps and smacking into the metal railing. He tried to blink away purple spots from his eyes, the aftereffect of the lightning strike. When he could see again, he found himself staring at the most beautiful and terrifying woman he had ever seen.
She was tall and graceful, her long legs sheathed in black, tight-fitting leather trousers. She wore a bodice,47 brocaded with intricate lightning patterns. Her long, pale blond hair flowed over her shoulders in a wintry cascade. Her face … oh her face!
“So beautiful …” he breathed.
“Ah, nephew!” She smiled. Brendan’s heart shuddered. The sensation was like being smiled at by a hurricane. “At last we meet. They tried to hide you but I’ve found you at last.”
Kim had fallen on the steps beside Ms. Abernathy. She staggered to her feet. “He’s not for you, Orcadia.”
“Ki-Mata,” the woman said, chuckling. “You’re the best they could come up with? How sad.”
Brendan, still dazed, was trying to figure out what was happening. “Who are you?”
The woman smiled her ferocious smile. “I am your aunt Orcadia, my dear child. I’ve come to take you away from these weaklings. Together we have work to do. Together we are destined to do great things.” She took a step closer, and Brendan smelt ozone burning in the air around her. “Together we shall destroy the Humans and take our world back.”
Brendan cringed away from her outstretched hand. She pouted prettily. “Don’t be afraid. I don’t bite.”
“See here.” Ms. Abernathy stepped into Orcadia’s path. “You have no business being on the grounds of Robertson Davies Academy! You must leave at once.”
Brendan couldn’t believe his eyes. Ms. Abernathy was crotchety, mean, and annoying but he had to admit, she had guts. He felt he should warn the vice-principal that she was out of her depth but he was having enough trouble trying to stand up.
Orcadia looked at the vice-principal with a disdainful smile on her perfect face. “I’m not going to leave the grounds. But I’m afraid you are.” She lazily pointed a finger at Ms. Abernathy, and a jagged string of blue energy lanced out from her pale fingertip to engulf the hapless VP. Then, with a negligent flick of the wrist, Orcadia sent Ms. Abernathy cart-wheeling through the air to disappear over the edge of the roof.
Satisfied, Orcadia turned her attention to Brendan and Kim on the steps. “That was fun but I’m losing my patience. Brendan, come along.”
46 Astigmatism is a visual defect caused by the unequal curving of the refractive surfaces of the eye— usually the cornea, or lens of the eye. Astigmatism therefore makes wearing contact lenses impossible. Astigmatism is also difficult to spell. I like saying astigmatism. Astigmatism. Astigmatism. Astigmatism. Okay, I’m done ... astigmatism.
47 A bodice is a close-fitting, often laced-up top worn over a blouse. Very few people wear bodices any more: vampires, people who want to look like vampires, and the odd evil Faerie.
PURSUIT
Brendan looked into Orcadia’s face. Her eyes were icy blue. In fact, her skin had a tinge of azure underlying its pale chalk surface.
“I’m waiting,” Orcadia snapped.
“Orcadia, give it up,” Kim said. “You have no place here. Your actions threaten us all.”
“Shut up, you little fool,” Orcadia hissed. “You have no place here. He’s my nephew, son of my brother Briach Morn. Do not presume to tell me what to do, dung beetle!”
“Hey!” Brendan had suddenly found his tongue. “You tossed the vice-principal onto the roof!”
“Yes, I did.” Orcadia smiled. “Wasn’t it hilarious?”
“Hilarious?” Brendan was incredulous. “She might be dead!”
“Why should I care? Humans are like cockroaches, Breandan, they breed and breed. When you step on one, a hundred spring up to take its place,” Orcadia said. “Now, come with me. You needn’t live in this filthy world of Humans any more. There is a whole new world for you to explore.” She smiled again and held out an elegant hand to him.
In spite of his horror, Brendan found himself compelled to take that hand. There was something mesmerizing about her voice, something intoxicating about her beauty.
Still, something in his mind was repulsed by her.
“Cockroaches?” he said. “We aren’t cockroaches. Who do you think you are?” he managed to croak. “I don’t want to come with you. Why don’t you leave us alone?” He stepped away from her, taking his place beside Kim.
The woman laughed, a sound like the peal of bells in a dark cathedral. The sound pounded against Brendan’s skull, threatening to upset his precarious balance. He steeled himself not to act on the urge to fall to his knees. “It’s not polite to laugh at people,” he said, annoyed.
“Oh my.” The woman grinned, a fierce expression that held no mirth. Her teeth were a deep, startling blue. “That is so sweet! He thinks he has the right to comment on my manners. I, who was old with power at the quickening of the world, who was old when the People of Metal first cringed in their caves at the sound of the thunder. How dare you question my manners, whelp?”48
“Whelp?” Brendan said angrily. “I don’t even know what a whelp is but it doesn’t sound good to me. If you’re going to insult me, use words I can understand.”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “Ignorant little child! You dare to question me?” she thundered. She gnashed her teeth and bright blue sparks flared between them. She seemed to expand, to tower above Brendan. Her pale face twisted with rage. Even as his heart shrivelled in fear, Brendan felt a yearning. She was cold an
d beautiful like the glaciers he’d seen in Alaska on a cruise with his parents. She was poised above him, ready to crush him, grind him underfoot. He raised his eyes to the chips of flaring ice that were hers and waited to be destroyed.
“Enough, Orcadia.” Kim’s voice shattered the moment. “He doesn’t want to join you.”
The woman’s head snapped up, releasing Brendan from the spell of surrender. He shivered and stepped back, tripping on the bottom step and falling hard on his bum.
Kim stepped out in front of Brendan and faced the woman. “Orcadia, the truce stands. He is not for you to take or destroy.”
“Fool,” Orcadia spat. “Step aside or perish.”
Kim looked so small in the face of the dark woman’s fury. In her RDA school uniform, short school kilt, grey cardigan, and knee socks, she was hardly a match for the force of nature seething on the pavement of the parking lot. On her back, Kim carried her green nylon knapsack with her trusty field hockey stick poking out of the top.
“You know the Law,” Kim said in a chiding tone as if Orcadia were an unruly child. “He cannot be touched.”
“Indeed, I know the Law. I don’t respect the Law but I know it: he may not be interfered with so long as he bears the Ward. The Ward is gone.”
Kim stiffened. “What?”
“It is gone. Removed by a Weaver.49 See for yourself.”
Kim whirled and stared at Brendan. “Is it true?”
Brendan gaped. “Is what true? I don’t know what anybody’s talking about!”
Kim’s hand lashed out and tore open the front of Brendan’s school shirt. Buttons flew everywhere. She was impossibly strong for such a slender girl.
“Hey,” Brendan protested. “That was a new shirt!”
“Shut up, idiot!” Kim snapped.
“Don’t you call me an idiot! Idiot! Whelp! What’s with you people?” Brendan began but he stopped when he saw the stricken expression on Kim’s face. She stared at the spot where Brendan’s scar had been until just the night before. Now there was only a reddened patch of skin. The irritation was already fading.
“Where’s the Mark?” Kim demanded.
“I had a dream last night,” Brendan explained. “Deirdre D’Anaan came and her little … flying thingy ripped my scar away!”
“That interfering …”
Orcadia laughed. “He is ready to be initiated. I will do the honours.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you, nutcase!” Brendan shouted.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kim snarled at Brendan.
“Tell you what?” Brendan snapped back. “That my scar’s gone? Why would I tell you about it? I have athlete’s foot! Should I alert the media?”
Kim rolled her eyes in disgust and whipped around to face Orcadia, taking a defensive stance. Brendan couldn’t believe it. She was actually going to fight this woman? “Are you nuts? Let’s run!”
“I am your protector. Get behind me,” Kim said, shoving him back.
“Protector? You can’t take on that woman!” Brendan couldn’t believe what he was seeing. This kind of stuff happened in the movies or in comic books. Orcadia looked like a total badass and Kim, grade nine student at Robertson Davies Academy, was acting like she was going to throw down with this total nightmare. “I’ll say it again. Let’s run!”
“His instincts are good, Ki-Mata,” Orcadia sneered. “You can’t hope to resist me.”
“Ki-Mata? Kim, what is she talking about?”
“Zip it, Brendan,” Kim snapped impatiently at him. Then she snarled at the smirking stranger. “You will not take him. He is under my protection. And we are in the open, where the People of Metal will see.”
The cold laughter froze the air again. “What care I for the Humans? Vermin! The bird doesn’t ask the worm’s permission before devouring it! When we take back the world, they will know of us soon enough. They will have no choice! Ki-Mata? You honestly think you can stop me from taking him? Oh, that is rich.” Orcadia raised her arms slowly from her sides until they were spread like wings. As she did so, her body levitated off the pavement until she hovered a metre off the ground on a cloud of crackling energy. “Your house will keen50 for you, Ki-Mata Na Graål. Alas, they will have no body over which to perform the rites.” Lightning crackled in icy blue filaments surrounding Orcadia’s form, outlining her in a nimbus of shuddering violet. She looked like a crane,51 black as midnight, ready to spear a fish with its sharp beak.
“Don’t, Orcadia,” Kim demanded. “Not here. The Law forbids it.” As she spoke, Kim reached over her shoulder and pulled her field hockey stick out of her pack. It was nicked and scratched, the tape fraying on the handle, and Brendan doubted it would be very effective against the woman levitating in front of them.
“A field hockey stick? Are you kidding?” Brendan cried. “Do you have something a little nastier in there? I’m thinking a machine gun …” He stole another look at Orcadia. “Or maybe a rocket launcher?”
Kim sneered at him, “Just stay out of my way!” She pushed him behind her.
This isn’t happening! It can’t be! I’m gonna wake up and realize all of this was a dream. Any time now! Like right now! Or maybe now?
“Laws are made for weaklings,” Orcadia hissed. “I am my own Law!”
“No,” Kim said, flexing her shoulders. “The Laws are there for our protection as well as the Humans’. We can’t survive without them.”
“Laws were made to be broken, so …” Orcadia shrugged. With a final peal of exultant laughter from her, the air itself ignited.
Or so it appeared to Brendan. A wave of blue fire flared out from her. She was like a star going supernova. In the instant before Brendan buried his face in his hands, he saw Kim whack her field hockey stick against the concrete paving stones. He waited for the end.
It didn’t come. He crouched, his arms over his head, waiting to be incinerated, but nothing happened. Instead, his nostrils were filled with the sharp smell of burning wood, like the fires his father made when they went camping. Because his father always managed to find the dampest wood available, his fires were more smoke than flame. Now there was heat, uncomfortable heat, but he wasn’t being burned alive.
He tentatively lowered his arms and stole a look. His mouth dropped open in amazement. Kim stood in the path of the blue flame, her field hockey stick firmly planted on the concrete. She was humming softly, a haunting, lilting sound that seemed to fill the air around them. Brendan couldn’t believe his eyes. Radiating from the hockey stick, a thick, thorny hedge sprouted in a protective shield. The branches of the hedge were large and black, glistening with sap. Wherever the white fire touched the foliage of the hedge, the sap bubbled and spat, turning to gas and dissipating the heat. Brendan followed the thorny brambles and discovered that the hedge sprouted from a single tiny crack in the pavement where a shoot of green vegetation had managed to force its way out into the light. Kim seemed to be coaxing the wall of thorns from this single small sprout.52
The heat from the fire was intense. Brendan could feel his hair curling and crisping. The hedge wrapped around them in a cocoon of branches. If he hadn’t been in danger of being incinerated, Brendan would have felt more awe than terror.53
“What is going on?” he cried. “How are you doing that?” He grabbed Kim’s arm.
The contact startled Kim, her singing faltered, and the hedge contracted. The heat washed closer and their clothing smoked.
“Don’t touch me! I have to concentrate,” Kim shouted at him. Brendan dropped his hand. She picked up the tune again and the melody steadied. The hedge inched outward again and the heat lessened. Sweat beaded on Kim’s brow.
Brendan peered through the branches and saw Orcadia. Her face was twisted with rage. She raised her arms higher. The heat intensified. Kim groaned and the hedge contracted. Brendan studied Kim as she struggled to keep her composure. She clutched the field hockey stick closer, her knuckles whitening on the wood. Her shoulders trembled. Sweat ran down her f
ace and plastered her hair to her forehead. Obviously, the strain on her was tremendous. Brendan had no idea what she was doing or how she was doing it, but he doubted she would be able to do it for much longer.
He had to help her. But how? Who were these people? How could they do these amazing things? They seemed to know him. He’d believed Kim was just an ordinary teenage girl, a high school kid like him, and now she was making trees grow out of nowhere and fighting weird women who could float in the air and shoot lightning from their bodies. What could he hope to do? And why was nobody calling the police?
Beside him, Kim gasped and the hedge contracted.
You’ve gotta do something, Brendan. He looked around him. The parking lot was behind the school, hidden from the busy street. No one was in sight. Kim gasped again. He felt desperation grip him. There has to be something I can do!
In an answer to his mental cry, a switch flipped in his mind. His vision sharpened as if someone had placed a set of goggles over his eyes that allowed him to really focus clearly. He saw each blade of grass, each leaf. He saw the texture of the flame coursing from Orcadia and realized that she was channelling the stray electrical energy from the atmosphere around her, her body like a conduit for the free electrons that might normally form bolts of lightning during a storm. He cast his vision further. He saw how fiercely Orcadia was concentrating to maintain her assault.
That’s it, Brendan realized. Break her concentration. Then we might escape. But how?
In a large oak tree just across the parking lot, he saw a flock of sparrows, crouching in the boughs, taking shelter from the storm they sensed was coming. Their tiny minds appeared to Brendan like glowing motes. It was almost as if he could sense their thoughts.
Fear. Fear. Hide. Shelter, they tittered.
Their tiny minds were so simple. Brendan recalled the squirrels he’d encountered earlier in the day. They were motivated by their quest for food. Maybe I could make a suggestion to these birds, something along the same lines.
