by Ella Summers
“No, she doesn’t,” Aradia shot back. “You had to be sure you’d actually found me this time. You didn’t want another false alarm. Sonja wasn’t pleased with the last one.”
Surprise flashed across his face. “How did you know?”
“The scars on your arm.” Aradia pointed at his scarred arm. “Those were made by Sonja’s famous chains. She punished you. And she coated the chains in a powerful poison to do it. That’s why your wounds haven’t healed; that’s why they scarred over. I bet it was Nectar, which is poison to soldiers of the Dark Force. Sonja would consider that an appropriate punishment. The irony of hurting you with what gave me, once a Legion soldier, power, would appeal to her. That’s how I know she punished you for failing to find me. Because I understand Sonja much better than you do.”
Harrows knocked the sword out of her hand. “You’ve always been too smart for your own good, Aradia.”
His statement echoed Aradia’s earlier words to me.
He grabbed her by the neck, hefting her off the ground.
“I’m certainly smarter than you,” she ground out tightly.
Her hand flashed out and she stabbed him through the chest with a knife. He fell dead to the ground. She must have poured a lot of light magic down her blade.
Chambers didn’t give her a chance to catch her breath. He was already running at her. “Harrows and I have worked together since the day we joined the Dark Force!” he shouted. “And you killed him! I’m going to kill you!”
Chambers had gone berserk. He grabbed large pieces of furniture and began throwing them at her. Aradia was flicking them away with her magic, but she was having a hard time keeping up with his fury.
When Chambers ran out of furniture to throw, he started ripping kitchen appliances out of the wall. And when those were gone, he tore the kitchen counter off its legs and hurled it at her. He had her so busy casting defensive spells that she didn’t have time to attack him.
Soon Chambers ran out of obvious things to throw, so he grabbed the knob on my bedroom door, but he retracted his hands when he was dealt a shock.
Aradia took advantage of his shock. She launched a fireball into the bubbling cauldron. It exploded all over Chambers, splattering him with blue potion that began to hiss and burn the moment it touched his skin. There must have been too much light magic in that potion.
Covered in burning boils, Chambers ran blindly at Aradia like an enraged bull. He knocked her right through the wall, out into the back yard. Bricks showered down on both of their bodies. The spell on the bedroom door flickered out.
Only a few moments later, young Leda emerged from her room. Her eyes took in the destroyed furniture. They grew wider when they saw the large monster on the floor, where Harrows was supposed to be. Aradia must have transformed his dead body into that of a dagger-clawed wolf. My younger self should have remembered that no monsters could exist on this side of the wall, but emotion must have won out over reason.
Young Leda moved toward the gaping hole in the wall. She climbed through it. That’s where she found Aradia and Chambers, whom she’d also transformed into another dagger-clawed wolf. Both she and the transformed soldier were half-buried in debris. Young Leda began pulling bricks off of her foster mother, trying to unbury her.
Aradia caught her hand. “Stop.” Her bleeding lips barely moved.
“Julianna, I have to get you out of there,” young Leda said, her eyes trembling. “I have to get you to a healer.”
“It’s too late for that,” Aradia croaked.
“I’m not giving up on you!”
“Don’t give up on yourself, Leda. You can take care of yourself. Just don’t pick any more fights.”
Tears streamed down the young girl’s face.
Aradia smiled. “I am so proud to have known you.” Her hand dropped. She was dead.
Young Leda stood there for a moment, shaking. Then she wiped away her tears. She kissed her foster mother’s cheek and walked away, disappearing into the shadows of Purgatory.
“After that, I lived alone, on the streets,” I said. “Until Calli found me two years later.”
We’d moved forward in time two years. Young Leda was now twelve years old—and so filthy that she was hardly recognizable. I watched my younger self steal a bun off a baker’s cart in the Bazaar, Purgatory’s outdoor open shopping area.
Young Leda snuck away, her dirty body blending into the shadows. She moved toward a side alley but changed directions when a man in a purple suit walked out of that alley to enter the Bazaar.
“Leda, look at his face,” Nero said.
So I did. “It’s Gaius Knight. He walked there on purpose to make me go somewhere else.”
I watched young Leda slip away, moving down another narrow street that led away from the Bazaar. Nero and I followed her. We came around the corner to find young Leda standing face-to-face with Calli.
“Now I remember this day,” I said.
“Ah, so you so often stole buns from the baker’s stand that the days all blended together?” Nero pretended to be lecturing me, but I recognized that teasing spark in his eyes.
“Not always buns,” I told him. “Sometimes it was a muffin or a croissant. A few times, I was lucky enough to nab a whole loaf of bread. That kept me well-fed the whole day.”
“You led a hard life,” he observed.
“That changed this day. The day I met Calli.”
Calli was talking to my younger self. “That’s a tasty treat you have there.”
Young Leda hugged the bun tightly to her body.
“What’s your name?” Calli asked her.
Young Leda pressed her lips together and didn’t answer.
“When’s the last time you had something hot to eat?” Calli said kindly.
“Sometimes the bread is hot.”
Calli smiled at her. “How old are you? Twelve? I have a girl about your age.”
Young Leda looked her up and down. “You look too young to have a daughter my age.”
“Are you always so blunt?” Calli laughed.
“Yes,” young Leda said defiantly. “Are you trying to kidnap me?”
“Goodness, no. Do I look like that kind of person?”
“Not really, but you were using the promise of a hot meal to try to lure me home with you.”
“Not to kidnap you. To help you. But you’re right,” Calli chuckled. “I guess I did come across as suspicious. What if I took you to the Jolly Joint for lunch? That’s a very public place.”
Young Leda’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You could be hoping to feed me into an overstuffed stupor. And then kidnap me.”
“You’re a smart girl.”
Young Leda sighed. “Too smart, some people say.”
“Who says that?”
Young Leda shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.” She gave Calli a long, assessing stare. “You don’t look like a kidnapper.”
“I’m not. In fact, I’ve been hired to find whoever has been kidnapping children off the streets of Purgatory.”
“You’re a bounty hunter.”
“I am.”
“Cool,” young Leda cooed.
“Some of us are. And some bounty hunters would sell out their own family for a tidy profit.”
“You’re not one of those bounty hunters,” young Leda decided.
“Glad we’ve agreed on that.”
“Do you think you’ll catch the bad guys?”
“I usually do,” Calli said. “Though at the moment, I’m still trying to figure out how they’re nabbing kids and disappearing without anyone seeing a thing.”
“I bet they’re using the underground tunnels,” young Leda told her.
“Purgatory has underground tunnels?”
Young Leda nodded. “I discovered them two years ago when I was running away from the baker I’d stol—um, a baker who was chasing me. There’s like a whole city down there. I think the city sank long ago and Purgatory was built on top of it. I sometimes us
e those tunnels to hide from the others.”
“The other kids on the streets?”
“Yes. A lot of the other kids are very mean. They’re monsters.”
“Could you show me to these underground tunnels?” Calli asked her.
“All right. But if I help you, you’ll owe me much more than a meal at the Jolly Joint.”
“How do you figure?”
“This gig of yours…finding missing children,” young Leda said. “That has to be worth at least ten thousand dollars.”
“Twenty thousand. The sheriff wants this sorted quickly, so the Legion doesn’t come into town.”
“The Legion of Angels.” Young Leda’s voice was full of awe—and something else.
“Right.”
“The angels are pretty, but there’s something weird about them,” the young girl observed.
“Oh?”
“The angels always follow the rules,” young Leda said. “Even when it’s the wrong thing to do. People should always do the right thing. Otherwise, what’s the point of life?”
“You are wise beyond your years,” Calli told her.
Young Leda looked her over. “So are you.”
Calli laughed.
“Leda.” She pointed at herself. “That’s my name.”
“Nice to meet you, Leda. I’m Calli.” She extended her hand to young Leda, and the girl shook it. “So, Leda, how about you show me to those underground tunnels?”
“I will. After we agree on my reward.”
“Ah, so you haven’t forgotten about that.”
Young Leda gave her a stern look. “You hoped that I would.”
“No. I’m glad that you’re as shrewd of a businesswoman as I am.”
Young Leda stood a bit taller.
“What happened to your family?” Calli asked her.
“Dead. All of them.”
Calli set a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
Young Leda shook her head and cleared her throat. “It happened a long time ago.”
“I was wrong,” Calli said. “You need more than a hot meal. You need a new family.”
“You want me to come live with you?” Young Leda didn’t look too opposed to the idea actually.
“It wouldn’t be the first time I took in a child in need,” Calli told her.
“How many children have you taken in?”
“Four.”
Young Leda thought that over for a moment, then declared, “If you weren’t such a softy, you’d be able to afford better boots from all that money you make on bounties.”
Calli laughed. “Likely so. But someone wise once told me that people should always do the right thing. Otherwise, what’s the point of life?”
“I like you, Calli,” young Leda told her. “You don’t treat me like I’m stupid just because I’m a kid.”
“So you want to come live with me?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Ask me again when the job’s done.”
“What job?”
“Your job. I’m not just going to lead you to those underground tunnels. I’m going to help you catch the kidnappers too.”
“We will face many dangers,” Calli warned her.
“I live on the streets. For me, just fetching breakfast means facing many dangers.”
Calli and young Leda walked off together down the street.
“Calli told me one of the jobs Gaius had gotten her led her to me,” I said to Nero. “This job. Gaius got Calli the job. And he was waiting in that alley to head me off, to make me change direction so I’d cross paths with Calli. I’d once thought we’d met by chance, but nothing was by chance. It was all meticulously arranged. Nero?”
Nero looked away from Calli and my younger self. “Sorry, Pandora. I was distracted.”
I smirked at him. “Curious to know what I was like as a child?”
“You didn’t have a handle on your mouth back then either,” he scolded me. “Mouthing off to a stranger, an adult who was much bigger than you, and who was armed. What were you thinking? How could you be so reckless?”
“You’re chastising me for my recklessness twelve years ago? Seriously?”
“With that mouth of yours, it was a wonder you survived long enough for us to meet.”
I snorted.
“Leda, this is no laughing matter.”
“Of course not, General Killjoy, but laughter makes me keep a grip as I watch my past unravel before me—and realize that my whole life was completely manipulated. I never had a choice in anything.”
Nero set his hands on my shoulders. “You did have a choice. You chose to help Calli.”
“Gaius had probably been watching me and knew what kind of person I was. Hell, he’d made me into that person by having me grow up with Aradia. He knew where Aradia’s house was. Where I was. He could have told the gods or demons at any point where I was living, but he had me grow up with Aradia. And then he made sure Calli took me in. He also made sure that Calli took in Zane, Gin, Tessa, and Bella. Why? Who is Gaius Knight? And what does he want?”
I looked at Arina. “Can’t you tell who he is? Isn’t that information kept somewhere inside the Vault?”
“I can’t tell,” Arina replied, and she looked frustrated. “Whenever I try to figure it out, I’m blocked. In fact, whenever I try to find out anything more about you, Calli, or your foster siblings, my magic is blocked. Whoever is blocking me understands my magic extremely well. That’s the most unsettling thing of all.”
Indeed. Arina’s magic was on the passive magic spectrum. There weren’t a whole lot of people around here who knew much about that kind of magic.
“Whoever is doing this, whoever put these visions into the Vault, they’re only letting us see what they want us to see,” Arina said. “And no more.”
Then, suddenly, I felt a rough jerk, and the three of us were ripped from the streets of Purgatory and thrown off the Road of Time.
22
Leda
We stood at the crossroads of four ecosystems laid out in a perfect grid, each one beautiful, each one dangerous. I wasn’t sure how I knew that dangers lurked inside those gorgeous natural environments, but I did. Danger lurked there. And death.
In front of me, in the grid’s upper-left quadrant, lay a field of flowers. Sweet-smelling, colorful flowers. They were all different—and yet all sang notes of the same melody. The flowers and notes blended together in a superlative, seductive song. The song, combined with the gentle breeze and warm sunlight, made me feel kind of drowsy.
A dark forest covered the grid’s upper-right quadrant. Though it was daytime just next door, here it was night. Darkness reigned supreme. I heard the foreboding, bewitching melody of animals inside the forest. Brightly-colored, poisonous spiders perched on gigantic webs strung between the trees.
The crossroads point was small—barely large enough to fit me, Nero, and Arina—so I turned carefully on the spot to get a better look at the two quadrants behind us.
The lower-left quadrant was a sunny meadow. There was no grass, and there were no trees or bushes here. Mushrooms were all that I saw. Mushrooms in every conceivable color and pattern. I stared at them, transfixed. And the longer I stared at them, the more transfixed I became. I couldn’t look away. My vision blurred. I thought I saw one of the mushrooms change into a bunny, then it started hopping around.
“Careful,” Nero said.
He’d caught me as I’d swayed.
I smiled at him. “Thanks.”
When I looked back at the meadow, the bunny wasn’t there.
“That area seems to have hallucinogenic qualities,” Nero observed.
That explained the bunny. I decided not to stare at the mushrooms too much longer, in case I started seeing more things that weren’t actually there.
I turned my attention to the final quadrant. The ecosystem in the lower-right area of the grid was dark. Very dark. Brightly colored fuzz that looked like some kind of bacteria had covered some
of the darkness like a layer of moss on a tree. I felt a very weird, very irresistible urge to touch the foul stuff. I reached out. The multicolored fuzz spread toward my hand.
I retracted my hand. “Ow!” I’d felt a surge of pain where it had touched my fingers.
“What are you doing, Leda?” Nero asked me.
“Looking before I leap again, apparently,” I said sheepishly.
“You really need to stop doing that.” Nero looked my hand over. “I don’t see anything. Does it still hurt?”
“No, the pain is gone now, but that was really weird. This whole place is weird. Where are we anyway? This isn’t a memory or a vision. It’s something else entirely.”
“I believe this isn’t a real place at all,” he said. “It’s a metaphor.”
“A metaphor?”
“A symbolic representation.”
“Yeah, I know what a metaphor is,” I chuckled. “But what’s this place a metaphor of?”
“Magic. I believe we are looking at the four quadrants of magic.” He pointed to the field of flowers in the grid’s upper-left quadrant. “Active light magic, the magic of the gods.” He pointed out the blossoming flowers. “The magic of Nectar.”
He indicated the dark forest in the grid’s upper-right quadrant. “Dark active magic. The magic of the demons.” He looked up at the venomous spiders in the webs. “The magic of Venom.”
He turned with me and indicated the sunny meadow with all the hallucinogenic mushrooms in the lower-left quadrant. “Light passive magic.”
“The magic of the spirits,” Arina chimed in. She indicated the mushrooms. “The magic of Elixir.”
“Spirits? Elixir?” I asked her.
“The spirits are like gods or demons,” she explained. “They’re another kind of deity, a deity with passive light magic. And Elixir is like Nectar or Venom.”
I turned to the final quadrant, the one with the multicolored, biting fuzz. “Then that makes this area the representation of dark passive magic.”
“Yes,” Arina said. “The magic of the eidolons. And Blight.”
I guessed the eidolons were the passive dark magic deity, and that Blight was their equivalent of Nectar or Venom.
