by Shea, K. M.
Raven weighed her options for a moment. The prospect of breaking into the library was terrifying, but what was the worst that could happen? Director Eastgate might find out, but if the twins had done it before and survived it wasn’t like they were going to get fired. Not telling her dad made her uneasy, but the twins were right. If the EC knew the library had a weakness they would exploit it to the point of ruining the library. “Okay,” Raven said, her shoulders slumping with defeat. “We’ll do it.”
“Excellent.”
“Wise choice!”
“So. Why are we standing here?” Raven asked turning in a circle to inspect the tunnel. Directly ahead of them was a steep incline, otherwise the passageway was utterly unremarkable.
“Ah, we wanted to show you something,” Aron said, rubbing his hands with glee.
“Demonstrate, actually,” Asher said, starting for the hill.
“It is very likely that this cauldron of yours is stored past this incline,” Aron said as the trio started up it.
“Why?” Raven said, grunting as she walked up the steep incline.
“This is undoubtedly the best guarded part of the whole library. Nothing else comes close to the amount of protection that is invested past this hill,” Asher said as they strained forward.
“Based on what you’ve said about your cauldron, if it is really that sought after it’s most likely here,” Aron finished.
“Let’s hurry up then,” Raven said, increasing her pace.
“Wait,” Asher said, grabbing Raven by the wrist he halted her progress. “Turn around.”
“What? Why—,” Raven cut herself off when she turned around. They were only about six feet away from the base of the incline.
“This is as high as you can get. No matter how much you run, walk, jump, whatever, you can’t get any higher up the incline than this point,” Aron said, pointing down.
“But we—we’ve been moving. I know I stepped forward,” Raven said, her gaze swinging back and forth between the bottom of the incline, and the tunnel that stretched upwards.
“Yeah. We know. We don’t know how it works either, but it’s definitely magic,” Asher said, still holding onto Raven’s wrist.
Raven took a few steps forward, dragging Asher with her, and stopped to turn around. She was still six feet away from the base.
“We’ve tried walking backwards, crawling, once we even tried scaling the walls and climbing there via the ceiling,” Asher said.
Aron winced. “That attempt didn’t go according to plan.”
Raven stared at the base of the incline as the twins skid down it. As they dusted themselves off and muttered to each other she slowly turned around and gazed up the hill.
“Come on, we’ve got to start planning for our break in,” Asher called.
“Okay,” Raven said. She took one step down and paused when she could hear a faint tinkering noise, like a tiny bell or a wind chime. Raven paused, and the noise was gone.
“What’s wrong?” Aron said.
“…Nothing,” Raven said, returning her attention to the twins before she skid down the embankment. As she followed the twins away, Raven couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was watching her from the depths of the tunnel. The feeling didn’t leave her until she left later that evening, heading home with her mind full of delinquent plans and tricks.
Chapter 12
“I will buy you a sturdy pair of shoes. How do steel toed combat boots sound?” Asher said as the trio wandered down the sidewalk, on their way to Saint Cloud on a blustery Wednesday afternoon.
“They wouldn’t match my skirts,” Raven sniffed. “Besides, today I’m in sturdier shoes.”
“Buckled dress shoes are still dress shoes,” Asher argued.
“Yeah, but did you see that ugly bruise they gave Daire last Saturday when she threw it at him?” Aron pointed out.
“Wait, I bruised him?” Raven blinked.
“Heck yeah,” Asher chortled. “His stomach looked like he was turning into an X-Man before Jeremiah finally found some healing cream for him. Totally classic moment.”
“But Asher is right. You’re going to need sturdier shoes tomorrow,” Aron concluded, looking up from the list of necessary items they were amassing for the break in.
“I might have something around from before my relocation. I’ll have to dig deep, and there’s no way I can wear it to school,” Raven said, adjusting her sunglasses as she looked up at the bright afternoon sky.
“Of course,” Aron snorted, nibbling on the tip of his pencil. “Wouldn’t want to blow your already revealed cover.”
“Hey, the kids at school don’t know!” Raven protested.
“Maybe last week, or Monday. But since you started hanging out with us? Hah!” Asher barked, throwing an arm over Raven’s shoulders before speaking over her head to his brother. “Aron, I’m hungry. Let’s stop at Muligan’s.”
“Muligan’s?” Raven blinked.
“It’s the only KQ Convenience store in the area, come on, we’ll show you,” Aron said as the trio crossed the street.
“Wait, it’s Kingdom Quest sanctioned?” Raven asked, hope rising in her stomach.
“Yep.”
“It’s the only place where you can get any decent Kingdom Quest snacks,” Asher grumbled.
“Yeah. Hippies have taken over KQ Headquarters, so they don’t even have a decent vending machine,” Aron complained.
“Where is the KQ city headquarters anyway?” Raven asked as they strolled up to a seedy looking grocery store.
“The town post office. Can you believe it?” Aron complained as the brothers escorted Raven to the store.
“Wait, this is the KQ convenience store?” Raven asked, pulling her lips back in a grimace.
“This is the grocery store that serves as a front for Muligan’s. Come on,” Asher chided as he pulled the doors open.
Asher removed his arm from Raven’s shoulders to stretch as he led the way through the dimly lit grocery store.
There was only one open register, and the cashier perched behind it was grizzled and warty, reminding Raven of an ogre.
Aron waved to the warty cashier as they walked down one of the long aisles. The tiling in the store was a distinct shade of 80’s mustard yellow, and between the dim lighting and the large cracks in the wall the place fairly screamed Black Market.
Raven followed the twins, but she sunk back on her heels when they tried to yank her into the men’s bathroom.
“You have got to be kidding,” Raven said, planting her hands on her hips.
“We’re not,” Aron insisted.
“Come on, Raven,” Asher said. “Don’t you want a Honey Cake? A Chocolate Chimera Tail?”
“This had better not be a joke,” Raven said, giving the twins the evil eye before following them into the vile bathroom.
While Raven marveled over the rusty and corroded sinks Asher strode across the room to the empty paper towel dispenser. He pressed the button to release the door, which swung open. He peeled off the edge of a sticker that illustrated how to replace an empty paper towel, and sprung a little door. The door popped open to reveal a little button, which Asher did not press. Instead he swung the door so it folded out over the sticker and pressed it as hard as he could.
There was a chime, one Raven recognized as the warning chime for a portal painting entrance that was about to open.
“Come on,” Asher gestured, walking into a bathroom stall after closing the paper towel dispenser. Raven followed him with a pinched expression, Aron bringing up the rear.
The three squeezed together to fit in the stall. Raven glared up at Asher as she was smashed into his chest while Aron wrestled the door shut.
“Isn’t this fun?” Aron brightly asked.
Asher said nothing but looked uncomfortable.
After Aron clicked the lock shut, the lid of the toilet smashed shut. The toilet folded up and was plastered to the wall before the back wall swung away. Asher slowly
backed up through the open space, Raven and Aron inching after him.
Raven uttered a little cry when she entered the secret room. “It’s, it’s,” she passionately stammered, looking for the right words.
“Muligan’s,” Asher and Aron grinned.
Muligan’s was a sight for sore eyes. The small store was styled in the familiar, extravagant style of Kingdom Quest architecture and magic. The floor was shimmering white tile buried under several inches of glass. The walls were pristine white, and the ceiling was charmed to reflect the outside weather. Immaculate shelves and coolers lined the wall, and there was a checkout counter (also sparkling white) where a human sized pixie was stationed. She wore a perfectly pressed white and sky blue uniform of a skirt, dress shirt, and vest. The pixie nodded at Asher and Aron as she pushed a delicate, wire swing. Perched on the swing, or more correctly clinging to the swing, was a miniature dragon. His scales gleamed sky blue and cloud white, perfectly matching the pixie’s uniform.
“Welcome to Muligan’s,” the dragon said in a surprisingly deep voice, even though he was barely the size of a parrot. After greeting Raven and the boys the dragon snapped at the pixie’s finger as he flailed on his swing.
“Wow, this is a big deal for you isn’t it?” Asher asked, looking down at Raven.
She was almost drooling.
“My hometown doesn’t have a KQ Convenience store,” Raven said, gazing at the goods on the white shelves with adoring eyes before hustling into the one room store.
Asher and Aron swapped glances. “What kind of Podunk town did you live in that you didn’t have a Kingdom Quest convenience store?” Aron drawled.
Raven ignored him, she was already going through the candy bars with the eye of a connoisseur. “Marshmallow-Mellow Star Blast, Arctic Dragonite Breezes, Fairy Dust Sugar Pops, Glazed Cashew Crunch, come on, where are they?” Raven grumbled.
“Looking for something special?” Asher asked, crouching beside Raven.
“Firebird Toffee Tail Feathers,” Raven replied, still searching the rows of candy.
“Hey Tamar, is this melon bread fresh?” Aron called from across the store.
“Got it in from a festival in Kyoto today,” the pixie replied in a bored voice.
“Here they are,” Asher said, tapping a box filled with shiny wrapped candy bars.
Raven’s eyes glowed as she stared at the conquest. She uttered a quick “Thanks,” before swiping the entire box and calmly strolling to the counter.
“Asher, should we buy some Pixie sparklers for tomorrow?” Aron asked, surveying the Kingdom Quest goods.
“Wouldn’t be a bad idea. Farfa, do you have anything new that might interest us?” Asher asked, walking to one of the built in fridges to remove three cans of coconut juice.
The dragon clung to his perch, both his back legs and front legs clenching his bar. “No, I don’t believe so. You were here when the sneezing chili powder arrived. I do recommend the dragon rockets, though. The hobgoblin that made this batch is a pyro.”
“Excellent,” Asher cackled.
The trio loaded their goods on the front counter.
The pixie, Tamar, boredly plopped down on a stool. “Thank you for shopping at Muligan’s, dear customers,” she said with the same enthusiasm one used to remove leeches from their feet. “Please remember to conduct yourselves in an orderly fashion when leaving the store. Do not allow citizens outside of Kingdom Quest to view your newly purchased goods. Muligan’s is not responsible for the misuse of any purchased goods, including: fire damage from fireworks, unexpected side effects from purchased magical charms, and the inexplicable search and seizure methods of the Silent Bamboo Ninja Association. Side effects may include giddiness, the inability to sleep, sudden fur growth, a flock of swans visiting your bedroom, inexplicable mood swings, and the inability to walk straight,” the pixie said.
“Wow,” Raven said as the sky blue/cloud white dragon fell off his perch and waddled around the countertop, inspecting Asher and Aron’s purchases. “What’s with the third degree warning?”
“Them,” Tamar the pixie said, flicking a finger at Asher and Aron.
“Hey, come on,” Aron whined.
“You gotta admit, that thing with the Silent Bamboo Ninja Association was pretty dang awesome.”
Tamar popped a piece of gum in her mouth, clearly unimpressed, but Farfa the dragon said, “You two are a lawsuit waiting to happen. Muligan’s used to not worry about these sort of things. Ahh, I remember the good old days. Back before you could walk,” he said before shaking his tiny head. “Will this be all?”
“Her box of Toffee Tail Feathers too,” Aron said, prying the box from Raven’s hands to set it on the counter.
“Come on guys, I can pay for that,” Raven protested.
“No, it will be your treat for the day,” Aron said, pinching Raven’s cheek.
“That’s right. Farfa, Tamar, this is Ray-Ray. Our new pet. Isn’t she cute?” Asher asked, wrapping an arm around Raven’s neck.
“Cut that out,” Raven complained, squirming out of his grip.
“Never thought I’d live to see the day you two made a friend,” Farfa dryly observed.
“Will you be paying in Muligan Money, or regular cash?” Tamar asked.
“Muligan Money,” Aron said, handing over a card.
“You can’t even drive yet, but you have a credit card?” Raven asked.
“We shop here enough Dad decided to get us a Muligan Debit Card. It gives us purchase points for everything we buy,” Asher said.
“Plus then he can view what we’ve bought,” Aron said. “He didn’t take too kindly to the Silent Bamboo incident.”
“So really you’re not buying. Your father is,” Raven said as the little dragon ran the card through the cash register.
“Yep.”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t feel bad though. He shed a few tears when Uncle Harold told him how you hung out with us for the day.”
“We’re pretty sure you are his hero.”
“You’re set to go,” Farfa said as Asher and Aron slipped their backpacks off and started dumping their food and supplies in their bags.
“Put your candy bars in your backpack, Ray,” Aron instructed. “We can’t carry Muligan’s bags or some of the locals will notice.”
“Except for the coconut juice. We’ll drink those on the way to Saint Cloud,” Asher said.
“Gotcha,” Raven happily hummed, slipping her bag off her back. “So what next?”
“We plan,” Aron grimly said, leading the way to the bathroom.
“And see if Zappos.com has 24-hour shipping,” Asher added. “We are getting you practical boots.”
“No, you aren’t.”
“Yes, we are.”
“Fine,” Raven said, stopping in front of the bathroom stall entrance to the store. “Then I want both of you to weigh in about color, boot height, whether or not they’ll make my calves look fat, if I should get water proof ones, and help me estimate how long they will be fashionable.”
The twins stared at each other for a moment before Asher said, “We are not getting you practical boots.”
“That’s the spirit,” Raven smirked.
“I can see how you three came to be friends,” Farfa shouted to them before they disappeared into the magical bathroom stall.
Chapter 13
“So here’s the plan,” Asher said, spreading a rolled up paper across Raven’s desk the following day. “There are only two spots in the entire library that are free from magical monitoring. When the library closes down at night the page turner on duty personally searches them while full time staff member—Like Miss Morris or Director Eastgate—sets the system.”
“After the page turner searches them, they leave the building with the remaining staff members, giving us the opportunity to frolic through the library, unfettered.” Aron said.
“Okay, so where are these spots?”
Aron grinned. “Here,” he sai
d, pointing on the map, which was a basic, public floor plan. It was one Raven had studied a lot for her Saint Cloud début.
Raven stared at the position of his index finger. “The bathrooms?” she asked, unimpressed.
“The big wigs at headquarters decided to ban magical monitoring from all public restrooms for legal reasons. That’s why a page turner has to physically check them,” Aron said.
“How are we going to keep Jeremiah from finding us in a bathroom?” Raven asked, rubbing her forehead as she leaned back in her desk. “They’re tiny.”
“I’m so glad you asked. We will use these,” Asher asked, pulling a bottle of pills out of his backpack. He set them on Raven’s desk with a thump.
“Lucky Brewster’s Magic Enhancement Pills,” Raven said, reading the label. “Boggle your friends with tricky charms such as invisibility, decoding charms, lucky charms—not the cereal—x-ray vision, shielding spells—guys these seem shady,” Raven said, prodding the bottle with a manicured finger.
“Pshaw, no way,” Aron gaffed.
“We got them on the internet. Everything on the web is legit,” Asher said.
“Besides, Farfa said he wouldn’t order them for us at Muligan’s,” Aron said.
Raven tipped her head back, stared at the ceiling of her English classroom, and wondered if breaking into Saint Cloud with the Montamos brothers was really a good idea.
“They even come in flavors!” Asher brightly added, as though this was an added bonus. “Just stay away from the yellow ones. You have a fifty-fifty chance of getting lemon or onion.”
“We needed the chewable kind. Easier to grind up and hide in food that way,” Aron chimed in.
Raven lowered her gaze to stare at the twins. “And why would you need to do that?”
“Someone had to test them, and Uncle Harold happened to be home when they arrived.” The twins grinned like a pair of jackals.
Raven closed her eyes and delicately placed her hand over her heart. “I feel sorry for your father. He must be nearly bald.”
“No, actually. He’s got loads of hair.”
“But we’re not sure if that’s genes or the magic pills.”
