by James Riley
Jia turned around to face the others as Fort and Rachel both leaned in. “Ridiculous how exactly?” Rachel asked. “Considering some of what we’ve been through so far, I’m thinking that might be a higher bar than you know.”
“Not like this,” Ellora said, picking at a fingernail anxiously. “There’s a lot of British history that sounds unbelievable, especially concerning its kings and queens. Did you know that William the Conqueror, who the current royal family is descended from, was actually French? He came from Normandy.”
“What does this have to do with anything?” Jia asked.
Ellora shrugged. “I just always thought that was odd, considering how many times France and Britain have gone to war. But I suppose all the European royal families are related at this point.”
Jia seemed like she might turn away again, so Fort jumped in. “That is pretty funny,” he said. “But why would the book be at Stonehenge? What’s there, other than some stones standing in weird places?”
Rachel rolled her eyes at this. “It’s like five thousand years old, New Kid. And the stones line up with the sun rising and setting twice a year, so maybe give the builders a little more credit.”
“Plus, it’s been associated with magic for all of its history,” Ellora said, blushing more now. What was she so embarrassed about? “So it would only make sense for the book of Spirit magic to be there.”
“Fine, so we go,” Jia said. “I don’t even get why we couldn’t just teleport straight there from the school.”
Ellora looked over her head for a moment, like she was scanning the sky. “You’ll know in a few minutes. But there’s more I have to tell you. I don’t really know how to bring it up, but …”
“It’s okay,” Fort told her, mostly so Jia didn’t start yelling. “Just take your time.”
Jia glared at him for that.
Ellora, though, took a deep breath. “So, before Sierra helped bring us back to the present, each of us was stuck in a different time, without a clear idea how to get home. Our bodies were here, but our minds were in other times. You all know what that feels like now. William was the closest to the present, and Simon just a year or two out from him, but the rest of us were all further away. Me most of all, I think.”
“You must have been in the past, if you know where the book of Spirit magic is,” Fort said. “How far back were you?”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to say. There weren’t many calendars. But if I had to guess, it was around the year 500 AD or so, give or take a century.”
One thousand five hundred years in the past? What had Ellora seen, that long ago? How different was life back then? And was there magic still? She might even know what had happened to it—
“Wait a second,” Rachel said, her face lighting up. “You were around here in 500 AD?”
“For much of it, yes,” Ellora said, looking almost relieved. “So you know what was happening then?”
“I mean, no one knows for sure, but yeah, that’s right around the time of …” Rachel trailed off, her eyes widening.
Ellora nodded, and Rachel gasped loudly.
Jia shook her head, looking as confused as Fort felt. “How about you back up a bit and explain? Not all of us are up on British history.”
But Rachel didn’t seem to hear her. “So? Did you see him? Was he real? How much of it was true?”
Ellora winced. “Not all of it. A lot of the stories were made up by French writers, after all. Strange how many times France has affected the British, isn’t it?”
“I don’t care,” Rachel interrupted. “Tell me you saw him. Did he have the sword? Was there a huge castle for all the knights?”
“Seriously, who are you talking about?” Fort asked, but again, the other two just kept going like he and Jia weren’t there.
“He had the sword, yes,” Ellora said. “I’m so glad you don’t think I’m mad, bringing him up like this. I thought you all, especially as Americans, wouldn’t believe me. I wouldn’t have believed it, and my grandparents came here almost sixty years ago. But I’ve never understood the British and their love for him.”
“I do!” Rachel shouted. “Are you kidding? All the quests, the legends? The sword? I always wanted it to be true. I can’t believe it actually is! What else did you find?”
“His mantle,” Ellora said, looking away, like talking about it bothered her. “That was basically an invisibility cloak. Also a dagger and spear, I think. But that’s not—”
“Hello, some of us aren’t following here,” Jia said, sounding as annoyed with them as Fort was feeling.
“Who cares about all of those things!” Rachel asked, ignoring Jia as her excitement grew. “What about the sword ?”
“What sword?” Jia said. “Can you—”
“Buried with him, as far as I could tell,” Ellora said.
“What are you talking about?” Jia shouted, grabbing Rachel and turning her around.
“Oh, sorry!” Rachel said, giving her a guilty look. “I thought it was obvious. We’re only talking about, like, the most famous sword in history.”
“It was actually called Caliburn,” Ellora said, still not looking at them. Instead, she stared off over the nearby railings into the city. “I got sent after an Irish sword at one point with a similar name, because they weren’t sure if the two were related.”
Sent after a sword? What did that mean? Hadn’t she said she was stuck in the past somehow, lost there? Who would be sending her places?
“Caliburn,” Jia said, giving Rachel a strange look. “Am I supposed to have heard of that?”
“You might know it by its more common name,” Rachel said, not able to contain her grin. “Some called it the sword in the stone, but that was only until a young boy pulled it from—”
“King Arthur?” Fort shouted, his mouth dropping open in wonder.
Jia groaned loudly. “Who?”
- SEVENTEEN -
KING ARTHUR! GEE!” RACHEL SHOUTED. “You never heard all the stories about Camelot when you were a kid?”
“I heard something about an American president and Camelot,” Jia said, frowning. “But no, my parents read me stories about Chinese heroes, like Lady Mu Guiying.”
“Who?” Rachel said.
This time, Jia gasped. “The famous general from the Song dynasty, still commanding troops into her eighties? How have you not heard of her?”
Rachel just stared in awe. “I don’t know, but I want to!”
“Wait a second,” Jia said, looking up at the ceiling of Big Ben. “Arthur’s the one with the round shield?”
“That’s Captain America,” Rachel told her. “Also a great hero, but less real.” She paused and looked at Ellora. “Unless you know something?”
“Just about King Arthur, sorry,” Ellora said. “But only one Arthur had the round table.”
“Only one?” Fort and Rachel said at the same time.
“There were actually several,” Ellora said. “From what I saw, it was more of a title than anything: Artorigios, meaning ‘great warrior’ or ‘bear king.’ ”
“Bear king!” Rachel said, and swayed a bit like she was going to faint. “This is everything I ever wanted.”
“But why does it matter?” Jia shouted. “Why do we need to know? Why can’t you just tell us where the book is so we can go get it and fix everything?”
“Because the book of Spirit magic is buried with the last King Arthur, Arthur Pendragon, in his tomb,” Ellora said quietly.
This brought Rachel up short. “Why would he have the book?” she asked, her excitement fading quickly. “It’s evil. King Arthur would have known that. His whole thing was justice and honor. Spirit magic is the opposite of those things.”
“He, ah, didn’t feel that way,” Ellora said, wincing. “In fact, he used it himself to create Camelot.”
“What?” Rachel and Fort both shouted.
“He didn’t take control of his people,” Ellora added quickly. “Instead, he took out their b
ad impulses. When he was done, no one wanted to hurt anyone else, or steal from their neighbor. It was a paradise.”
Fort began to rub his forehead, far too much coming at him at once. King Arthur, the man who led the Knights of the Round Table, not only wasn’t made up, or the only King Arthur … but had used Spirit magic on his own subjects?
But from what Ellora said, was it really that bad? If he hadn’t taken them over, and instead just basically made sure everyone followed the law by not wanting to break it … wouldn’t that make for a better world?
Or would it be taking their freedom still, just in a much sneakier way?
“Wait, you can use Spirit magic like that?” Jia asked. “I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know because it can’t be true,” Rachel said, then turned to Ellora. “I don’t care what you think you saw, I don’t believe he’d do something like that.”
“You thought he was made up a few minutes ago!” Jia said.
“Yes, and the made-up version would never use Spirit magic!” Rachel shouted back. “So why is the real one breaking my heart like this?”
Jia rolled her eyes, but Ellora held up her hands for calm. “I’m not saying he’s right or wrong, Rachel, but there’s a reason we’ve all heard about Camelot. It really was like heaven on earth. No one hurt anyone else; no one broke the law. No one even wanted to. Would that really be so bad?”
“Yes!” Rachel shouted, and she and Jia began to argue about it.
But Fort wasn’t so sure, and from the expression on her face, Jia wasn’t either. If Spirit magic made it so no one committed violence, how was that different from a law saying the same thing? Wouldn’t it be better, because the violence would never happen with Spirit magic, but it obviously still did even when there were laws against it?
But Rachel wasn’t wrong, either. Using Spirit magic like that on someone would change them, even if it was for good reasons. And what right did anyone have to do that to someone else?
Unless it was to help more people? Ugh, this was way too big a question for Fort to figure out at the moment.
“Um, we’re going to need to be going soon,” Ellora said, her eyes on the sky outside the clock tower again. What was she watching for? “Forsythe, I’m going to give you a photo of the exact spot we need to teleport to.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded paper.
He took it from her, wondering why this was necessary. It wasn’t like Stonehenge was that big, was it? He started to unfold the paper.
“Not yet,” she said, putting a hand over it. “Wait until right before we go, okay?”
“Uh, okay,” he said, as confused as ever. “Shouldn’t we go now?”
“One more moment,” she said, scanning the sky. She nodded. “Ah, okay, I see him now.”
“See him?” Fort asked, as Rachel and Jia looked over. “See who?”
Ellora pointed, and Fort followed her finger to what looked like a dark dot against the black dome, only visible because it covered the weird glow of the Time magic. What was that?
“Is it some kind of airplane?” Rachel asked, and then gasped. “Oh, right. Him.”
Fort frowned, squinting off into the distance. As the dot grew closer, he began to make out something moving up and down every few seconds, like huge wings flapping. But no bird could be that large. No, the only thing he’d seen that size that could fly was—
“Damian,” he said, his eyes widening. “We have to go!”
“There’s no point,” Ellora said. “He’s going to reach us before we can escape.”
“What?” Fort shouted. “I thought the whole point was to get the book before he does! Why are we waiting around for him to capture us?”
“I didn’t say capture,” Ellora said, then turned to face the direction where the frozen tourists were. “I said he’d reach us first.”
As she finished, a green, glowing circle opened in the middle of the clock tower, right where she was looking, and a dragon maybe half the size of the Old One who’d flown Fort around the world landed with a roof-shaking thump on the floor.
And then the dragon shrank down, its wings disappearing into its back as its enormous front legs pulled up into arms, leaving them facing an annoyed-looking boy in a long, black coat that looked just like his scales had.
“Sorry to burst in on you like this,” Damian said. “But we need to have a little chat.”
- EIGHTEEN -
OH, THIS WAS BAD. THIS was very, very bad.
Rachel immediately moved to stand in front of the group, while Fort prepared a teleportation circle, not exactly sure what he’d be doing with it. But considering what they’d seen Damian do in their future vision, they might need to get off the clock tower fast.
“Damian,” Jia said, her own hands glowing with Healing magic. “The Time students have shown us the future, what’s to come if you use the book of Spirit magic. William can show you, too; it’s horrible. Please—”
“Oh, I saw it,” Damian said, shaking his head. “Used my Mind magic on him once they put the dome up, to see what was going on.” He smiled. “Don’t worry, it won’t happen.” He turned to Fort. “You’re that boy Sierra talks about, the one who almost tried to stop us leaving the school. What’s your name again?”
Fort clenched his teeth. Was he so unimportant that Damian couldn’t even be bothered to remember who he was? “It’s Fort.”
“That’s right,” Damian said. “You’re her good friend, aren’t you? Do you think she’d be trying to help me get the books of magic if she thought I’d do what William showed you?”
Fort felt a wave of anger pass through him. Damian was trying to use his friendship with Sierra against him? “She hasn’t seen what we saw,” he said quietly. “If she had, she’d be against all this too.”
“You never did trust me, did you?” Damian said. “She always wished you would.” As Fort fought to hold himself back, Damian turned to Rachel. “As for you, I don’t think we’ve met.”
“My parents named me Dragonslayer,” she said. “But you can just call me D.S.”
Damian rolled his eyes, then turned to Ellora. “And hey, the girl from the Carmarthen Academy. I don’t think I ever got your name either, before you and your friends all attacked Sierra and me.”
“There wasn’t much time for introductions, I guess,” Ellora said. “Considering we were trying to save the world.”
He sighed loudly. “You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. Do you know what your friend’s future vision looked like to me ?”
“You burning down Buckingham Palace, then destroying London?” Rachel asked.
He glared at her. “It looked like I’m under someone’s spell, actually. Probably Spirit magic. Which makes it even more important that I get it first, before anyone else.”
“Oh, someone used magic on you?” Rachel said. “Then it’s totally okay that you destroy London! Why didn’t you tell us before?”
“Damian, all you have to do is disappear for a few days, just to be sure it doesn’t happen,” Jia said. “Once the danger passes, we’ll figure out what’s going on, and make sure no one uses the Spirit magic.”
He made a face. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for me, because someone showed the Old Ones where I am.” He gave Fort a quick look, and now it was Fort’s turn to blush. “If the dome above us weren’t masking any magic inside of it, they’d have already found me again, considering I had to teleport to catch up to you. For all I know, they do find me, and it’s the Old Ones who take over my head like what you saw. So no, I can’t just sit it out. I have to find the book of Spirit magic, if just to defend myself. And once I have that and the book of Time magic, I can actually fight them off, and for real save the world, unlike whatever you all think you’re doing.”
Rachel growled low in her throat. “Are all dragons this big of a jerk, or are you just special?”
Damian smiled. “Oh, I’m probably special. That’s what Dr. Opps has been telling me my wh
ole life, at least.”
“Damian, let us get the book,” Fort said. “Then we can have it just in case the Old Ones do come for you, but also make sure that nothing happens to London. We can work together here; it doesn’t have to be like this.”
“Like what?” Damian asked. “You all are the ones being insulting, telling me I need to be stopped and calling me a jerk.
“Because you won’t listen to us,” Jia said. “Fort’s right. Let us take the book, and—”
“Oh, because this kid is so good at keeping things safe?” Damian said, pointing at Fort. “No way. It’s way too dangerous to leave in your hands. Your human hands.”
Rachel snorted. “Wow. You’ve been a dragon for what, two days now, and you’re looking down on us?”
Damian’s eyes narrowed. “No, I’ve been doing that my whole life, actually. I just never knew why the rest of you were so slow and cared about such unimportant stuff. Now that I know where I come from, though, it explains everything. Especially how you humans couldn’t keep up with me magically, either.”
Rachel laughed. “Oh yeah, Lizard Butt? Bring it.”
And then the floor beneath Damian’s feet reached up and grabbed his legs, pinning him in place.
Oh no. Attacking him was not a good idea. They were going to have to get out of here, now. As much of a jerk as he was, it wasn’t like Damian was wrong about being talented at magic. Dragons were even created from magic itself by the Old One of Healing magic, so it made sense.
Fort readied a portal to Stonehenge but realized if he cast it now, Damian would probably be able to see where they’d gone. Stonehenge was too well-known a spot to escape to for him not to recognize it right away. But maybe Fort could send them to a spot nearby, something that Damian wouldn’t know?
Except he needed to have seen a spot like that, and all Fort had ever seen of Stonehenge was the actual site itself, in pictures.
