The Heart of the Phoenix

by Brian Knight

  A bang and a scream as Imogen flew backward into the man standing behind her.

  Shouts from above and below, drawn wands, and a few tense seconds before the first bolt was fired. It came from above and struck Tracy in the chest, knocking her to the ground. Roars of anger drowned her cry of pain, and the tentative peace broke.

  Erasmus fought off the renewed attack from the sepulcher, simultaneously defending his back against attack from above. The trees came to his aid, jabbing, smacking, and clobbering all they could reach. A short redheaded man fending off the willow limbs with a spear spotted Zoe holding the trunks of a pair of trees at the hollow’s perimeter, her eyes open but rolled up to the whites, and took aim.

  Penny fired at him, missed.

  “Zoe, look out!”

  A large gray hand on a skinny arm reached from the sepulcher wall and yanked the wand out of his hand. A second later Rocky and the wild homunculi burst from the wall and joined the fight.

  Zoe came out of her trance to see the homunculi cleaning up the rest of the Red Soldiers below, and smiled. One of the hollow’s tallest willows bent low with a great protesting groan, and slammed itself against the door to the citadel of the Reds just as reinforcements arrived and began to bang on it from the other side.

  “Penny!” Ellen tackled her to the ground. “You almost lost your head.”

  Ellen’s own head had stopped bleeding, but the layer of blood covering her cheek was gruesome to look at. She smiled and offered Penny her hand.

  They were barely on their feet again before Penny had to duck to avoid Ronan’s leaping form. He cleared the distance from the floor of the hollow to the top of the trail, and taking hit after hit, rampaged through the army of Reds. Penny saw bodies flying in his wake.

  “Come on,” Ellen grabbed Penny by the arm and dragged her. “Your dad’s asking for you.”

  They came to Torin and Flanna crouched low and talking. He saw Penny and pulled her down into the huddle.

  “Is Rocky still here?”

  “Yes!” Penny didn’t have to search. She could feel him close by, and the moment her thoughts turned to him, he turned up at her side.

  “The box,” Flanna asked Rocky. “Did you find it?”

  Rocky gave an abrupt shake of his head.

  “We need him to find it,” Torin shouted. “If it’s still here.”

  Rocky gave a nod and was off.

  “We need you to take the fight to them,” Torin said. “Keep them out of here.”

  “What’s the plan?” Ellen pushed herself into the huddle and regarded Torin hopefully. “There is a plan, right?”

  “Yes,” Flanna said. “I’m going to open the gateway again, and we’re going to get the Chaos Relic back before it’s too late.”

  Penny felt the barest flicker of hope before she recalled Erasmus’s warning, and her own memory of the gray man who had discovered it in the rubble of the House of Mirrors.

  “No, you can’t touch it!”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, forcing a smile. “We’ll think of something.”

  “Just keep them away from us,” Flanna said, and hugged Penny so tightly it hurt. “I’m sorry for everything I did, now let us fix it.”

  Penny hesitated, nodded. “Be careful!”

  “You too,” Torin said, and bent to kiss her cheek. “I love you Penny.”

  “I love you, Dad,” Penny said. She found her father’s eyes, then her sister’s, and though she had a bad feeling about the parting, turned away and strode with Ellen back to the fight.

  Disaster was all around them, their one chance at salvation too slim for anything but a fool’s hope.

  “Stand back,” she said to Ellen, and then let all of her anger and fear burst from her in a bright sheath of flame.

  “Zoe, give me a boost!”

  She felt a dozen slim willow whips slip down around her, first yanking her from the ground, then swinging her back toward the defeated Red Soldiers by the sepulcher door. Then she rushed forward as they reversed their swing, felt them loosen as it reached its apex, and she flew through the air into the midst of the fight on Clover Hill.

  * * *

  They scattered when they saw Penny flying at them, flames and all. She landed on her feet, and by a miracle managed to stay on them as she stumbled to a stop. A magic bolt flew at her from the crowd on her right, but missed her. The next rebounded off her hastily cast shield.

  “Penny!” Ronan stood at the center of the smaller group to her left. Penny was surprised but heartened to see a number of red robes in that group, Reds who had switched sides following the Flanna’s revelation. Imogen lay sprawled, defenseless until two other Reds broke from the group, Penny recognized them as Tabor and Fabia, two of Flanna’s favorite cousins, dragged her to safety. Tracy, Nancy, and Janet were also in the group, and Penny saw Erasmus struggling up the trail to join the fight.

  Ronan motioned her over, but she ignored him and turned back to Tynan and his fighters.

  “Do not fear her,” Tynan shouted to his suddenly nervous band. “Her flames are harmless.”

  Penny smiled.

  Emboldened, Tynan’s followers resumed their attack.

  Penny countered with another shield, this one made of pure flame. It absorbed the bolts, and Penny retaliated with a pair of fireballs than exploded near Tynan’s feet.

  A screech from above signaled the return of the avian mercenaries, but Susan met them in the failing light of evening and confounded them with an aerial display their large wings and gangling bodies couldn’t match.

  “Harmless?” Penny shouted to be heard by all, then sent another fireball into the heart of Tynan’s group.

  They blocked it with a dozen shields, and the resulting explosion of fire drove them back further. Despite her bluster, Penny’s flames were more flash than substance. She didn’t want any deaths on her conscience, only to keep them occupied.

  She kept the flames burning while Erasmus emerged from the trail, winded and puffing. Zoe, Katie, and Ellen emerged from the hollow as Erasmus retreated to their allies.

  Her friends drew close, even Katie, ignoring her fear of fire.

  “If we’re going to do this,” Katie said, “let’s do it right.”

  She flipped up the hood of her black robe, the concealing spell Erasmus put on it swallowing her face in shadow. Zoe and Ellen followed her example, and then Penny.

  “Procellium!” Katie shouted and raised her wand, and the darkening sky grew darker as she rose from the ground, suspended between earth and sky. Lightning lashed the sky, thunder shook them where they stood, and the rain began to fall. It hissed and steamed off Penny’s living fire.

  Zoe crouched down and placed the palms of her hands against the ground, and it began to shake.

  Ellen held her hands out wide, and a strong wind began to blow through her. It whipped Penny’s flames around them in a vortex.

  Penny let the flames burning around Tynan’s fighters die, and enjoyed the reaction.

  Tynan’s face was as dead expressionless as she had ever seen it, but around him every face was bloodless, shocked.

  Zoe didn’t give them a chance to rediscover their bravery.

  The ground beneath them lurched violently, then split and broke open. Screams of terror sounded and several of the red robed figures dropped from sight.

  A blast of wind hit them, rain pelted them, and when they tried to run, Penny hemmed them in with jets of Phoenix Fire from her wand.

  They began to back away, firing at the Phoenix Girls, but the shots that didn’t go astray were blocked.

  Imogen and her contingent of Reds drew close on one side, Tracy, Nancy, and Janet on the other. Above them Susan shouted with delight. Her glee was answered by a squawk of pain, and one of the avians thumped to the ground.

  A roar rang out above the tumult, and Penny heard the thunder of approaching footfalls. A second roar, and the head of a giant grizzly bear appeared. It rose up on its hind legs, and Penny saw Zoe’s m
om clinging to the fur on its back. It dropped back to all fours and raced up behind Tynan and his fighters.

  “Your dad’s back, Zoe,” Penny said.

  Behind Reggie and Dana, Michael now armed with a wand instead of a gun, Jaiden, Flanna’s tiny wand in one hand, her father’s hand in the other. Behind them, what seemed like every carnival employee that had come in with the Reds, and at least a dozen townies.

  “Surrender, cousin Tynan,” Imogen shouted. “Abdicate, and perhaps your brother will show mercy.”

  Tynan looked all around him, saw his fighters discard their wands and raise their hands in surrender.

  “Your blood protects you from them,” Ronan said. He bared his teeth in a snarl. “But not from me. Do as you’re told, patricide.”

  Exhausted, Penny let her flames burn down, then out. Zoe rose and clutched at Penny’s arm to steady herself. With a final flash and crash of lightning and thunder, Katie settled back to the ground, and Ellen steadied her when she began to wobble.

  Reggie, back in his human body, walked with Dana to Zoe’s side, and Penny saw Mr. And Mrs. West standing with Michael.

  “Give up, Uncle Tynan,” Penny said. There was a tearing, crackling sound, and Penny turned to see a glow like purple fire flare up through the boughs that covered the hollow.

  They had the box now, and they had opened the gateway where the Chaos Relic was at work breaking down the barrier between worlds.

  “It’s over,” Penny said.

  Tynan turned to watch the lights from the hollow, and his hand crept to the pendant hanging from his neck.

  “It is not over,” Tynan roared.

  Half a dozen bolts flew at him, and he blocked them.

  “It has only just begun!”

  Tynan grabbed his closest comrade by the throat, the skinny tattooed mercenary, and jammed his wand tip into the man’s chest.

  The mercenary shrieked, shook in Tynan’s grip, began to wither away. Others reached for Tynan, and fell away missing the hands or fingers that had touched him.

  Tynan seemed to swell inside his robe, growing taller, wider, but his true body could be seen beneath the translucent form growing around him. Inside was Tynan’s slim form and furious face, the short-cropped hair rising from his scalp like flames. Growing around him, the half-real form of another man. The only shared features were the flame-like hair and the scarred cheek.

  I am seeing the Blood King, Penny thought. Erasmus was right!

  “The Blood King,” cried a voice from the town’s people, and Bowen stepped to the front of the group, to the very fringe of the unfriendly Reds. “He is possessed!”

  Tynan aimed without looking, and blasted Bowen from his feet. He landed next to Reggie, back arching in a convulsion before he fell still.

  “Stay back from him,” Ronan shouted, and Penny felt a large furry hand on the nape of her neck, pulling her back.

  Tynan ignored them all and began walking toward the trail into Aurora Hollow. The Blood King however turned his head to regard Penny. His lips curled in a sneer, then formed words that Penny could not hear, but could read easily enough.

  I will kill you all.

  Penny yanked free of Ronan’s grip and shot a stream of Phoenix Fire at Tynan, not to frighten or even hurt, but to kill. One of Katie’s lightning bolts struck him in the back, and Penny’s fire blazed around him, but he shook them off without a backward glance.

  A moment later he spread his arms wide and glided down over the edge of the drop and into the hollow.

  “Dad! Flanna!” Penny screamed and ran.

  She stopped at the edge of the trail, saw her father reaching into the breach, toward the bright black gem that floated above his head. Flanna stood behind him with the Blood Opal box open in her hands.

  Rocky was the first to see Tynan and the Blood King’s revenant, and he moved to stop them.

  “No!” Penny screamed.

  The Blood King turned again to regard her while Tynan faced forward and drew his wand. He blasted Rocky, and the homunculi shattered.

  Torin looked and saw his brother advancing.

  Flanna looked and saw her murderous uncle raise his wand again, and when Tynan fired, Flanna flung herself in front of her father.

  Tynan’s killing spell struck Flanna and threw her body to the ground at Torin’s feet.

  Chapter 20

  Return of the Phoenix

  Penny couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t look away as her sister shuddered on the ground at their father’s feet. She wanted to scream, but her throat was locked. She couldn’t even draw breath.

  Torin dropped his wand and fell to his knees beside Flanna, took her by the shoulders, screamed her name. Behind him, the crack between the worlds closed again, and the Chaos Relic fell from view to continue its destructive work.

  The screaming and chaos above them on Clover Hill quieted, as if they had all vanished from the world. Even Tynan seemed shocked by what he’d done. For a moment the revenant of the Blood King that surrounded him like an aura contracted, almost vanishing back into him. He lowered his wand and watched while her convulsions first slowed, then stilled entirely.

  Now! She had to kill him now!

  She wanted to, but could not. She could not lift her wand arm, could not lift a foot from the spot where she stood.

  Penny, I am sorry, a voice spoke. You cannot stop this revenant of the Blood King. He is too powerful.

  She tried to turn her head, to seek out the voice, but only her eyes moved. It was a moment before she realized no one else was moving in the hollow; Tynan, her father, or the remaining wild homunculi standing guard over the defeated Red Soldiers. It was yet another moment, when the voice spoke to her again, that she realized it was in her head.

  She knew who it was. It had spoken to her before, out of the flames.

  I have waited for him, the Phoenix said. He killed me, he stole my heart, but I remain, and I have waited.

  Though the rest of the world was frozen in this instant of time, flames leapt from the fire pit. Inside the flames, the Phoenix rose and danced.

  What am I supposed to do? As the specter of the Phoenix broke free of the flames and moved toward her, Penny realized she knew the answer.

  Let me, the Phoenix said. I have waited, and now my wait is over.

  Penny waited. The flames bloomed around her, but they weren’t her flames. A new sense of power swelled within her, but it wasn’t her power.

  She waited as time started again.

  The tumult above returned as a distant babble, as if from miles away; a low confusion of voices, screaming, crying out.

  Her father began to move, but slowly. He brushed the hair from Flanna’s face, away from her open eyes. They were eyes that Penny knew from her own mirror.

  The revenant of the Blood King swelled around Tynan again, and he raised his wand, aimed it at her grieving father.

  Penny opened her mouth to shout his name, Tynan, but another voice, and another name, came out.

  “Tarvus!” the Phoenix spoke, and Tynan paused for a moment before turning to her. The revenant of the Blood King was clear around him again, and their two faces contorted when they turned on Penny.

  “You!” Tynan and Tarvus said together, and Penny thought she knew what they were seeing. Not just the skinny red-haired girl, but also the revenant she carried.

  The revenant of the Phoenix.

  He raised his wand.

  Penny reacted, or the Phoenix did. She couldn’t tell where her will ended and the Phoenix’s began, or even if they could be separated.

  Tynan/Tarvus fired at her, and she met it with a bolt of her own. They collided in the air and careened off each other. He fired again, and she sidestepped as it crackled through the air past her ear.

  She lowered her wand and took a step toward him.

  Behind him Torin wept and laid Flanna’s head down. He shot to his feet, raised his wand, and fired, almost point-blank.

  Tynan/Tarvus seemed no
t to notice.

  More bolts flew at him from above, but the revenant managed to absorb them.

  He snarled and trained his wand on her, aiming for her head.

  Penny raised a hand, palm out, and a lash of flame snapped out, wrapping itself around the wand in his hand, burning it to ashes. She took another step, but her feet missed the ground. She looked down and found herself rising, rising until she looked up and found herself eye to eye with her uncle and the thing that possessed him.

  You killed her, Penny tried to say, but what she heard in the Phoenix’s voice was “you killed me.”

  “Then stay dead!” He reached out and grabbed her by the throat, but drew his hand back with a scream of pain. The fingers were blackened and blistered.

  Without her commanding them, Penny’s arms lifted and reached for Tynan. They moved toward his throat and seized the pendant hanging around his neck, the ancient heart of stone that had once beat inside the living Phoenix’s chest.

  “No! You can’t!” Tarvus screamed with Tynan’s mouth.

  The Phoenix gave no reply, and Penny didn’t care to argue with this man. She had watched her sister die at his hands, and she wasn’t interested in what he thought she could or could not do.

  Penny and the Phoenix took the heart in their hand, and the chain anchoring it to Tynan’s neck melted away.

  He shrieked again as the molten metal links burned through his shirt, then stumbled away, dropped to his knees in the dirt.

  Penny and the revenant of the Phoenix gripped the heart and poured their fire into it until it glowed through the flesh of her fingers.

  Tynan shrieked louder than before. The blurred image of the Blood King’s revenant began to smoke. Tarvus spoke again, but Tynan’s mouth did not move.

  “The beautiful chaos... it would have suited me well.”

  With that final lament, Tarvus the Blood King passed forever from the worlds of the living.

  * * *

  Penny fell back to the earth with the heart of the Phoenix still clutched, smoking, in her fist, and felt the revenant leave her.