The Future King

by James Riley

  If they could just get the book of Spirit magic away from William and use a spell on him …

  “Are we finally ready?” the self-proclaimed king asked, and Rachel turned to him and bowed low.

  “We’re your loyal knights now, devoted in every way to Your Majesty,” she said, holding her sword’s hilt out to him. “You have my sword now, and forever—”

  “Yeah, keep that thing away from me,” William told her, then pointed at Fort. “You, teleport us to the throne room of Buckingham Palace. I’m going to use Spirit magic on the royals to start, then move on to Parliament and the military. You don’t need a photo, right?”

  Not to teleport you to Jupiter, no. “No, Your Majesty,” Fort said, trying to fake the adoring gaze he’d just been giving William. “I saw Buckingham Palace in the future, when Damian destroyed it.”

  At least that wouldn’t be happening, not with William in control.

  “Well?” William said, waving at him to hurry.

  Fort hid his anger as best he could and quickly opened a portal to Buckingham Palace, then bowed to William, letting the “king” go first.

  William leaped through the portal with a grin, Damian right behind him. They heard shouting, some scuffling, even Damian roaring before everything went quiet. Fort threw Rachel a look, but she just shook her head slightly, saying it wasn’t yet time. He frowned but hoped she knew what she was doing. If nothing else, she could try to free Ellora, as it’d be nice to have at least one Time-magic user on their side—

  And then William peeked his head back through the portal, almost scaring Fort out of his skin. “The royal court has been assembled!” the fake king said with a smile. “Come, join us, my friends!”

  The rest of them, including William’s fellow students, followed him into the portal, having no idea what to expect. At least it wouldn’t be on fire, if nothing else.

  On the other side of the teleportation circle, they found themselves in the same long, luxuriously decorated room that Fort had seen in Ellora’s future vision. Beautiful red tapestries and elaborate wallpaper ran the length of the room, culminating in some velvety red curtains behind two red-and-gold thrones.

  Various guards and officials lined the hall, all on their knees, while a man and a woman in formal clothing, each wearing elaborate sashes covered in medals, stood next to the thrones, bowing low. William led the group of magic users slowly toward the end of the hall, waving and nodding in greeting to everyone he’d used his magic upon.

  Finally, he reached the thrones and turned to face them all before sliding slowly into the seat, as if he was lowering himself into a hot tub. “Ah, that’s the stuff,” he said as he made himself comfortable. “You know, I always wondered if I was related to one of the Arthurs. I probably am, wouldn’t you say?”

  The assembled gathering all agreed loudly, with a few yelling, “Long live the king!”

  “Yes, I would like to long live,” William said, then beckoned to Damian. “Dragon, now that I’m sitting on my seat of power here, I’m finding myself less interested in getting back up again. How about instead of traveling to the various ministries and Parliament and such, you just teleport them all here one by one? Much more efficient that way. But let’s get it moving; I don’t want anyone panicking and ordering a missile strike just yet.”

  “Of course, Your Majesty,” Damian said, then opened a portal and disappeared through it. A moment later, he returned holding a woman up by her suit coat and presented her to William.

  “Prime Minister,” William said, his hands glowing with orange light. “So nice to finally meet you in person. How much did you know about what your government did to us at the Carmarthen Academy?”

  “Everything, Your Majesty,” she said as the light filled her head. She tried to bow but couldn’t as Damian hadn’t yet put her down. “I cannot begin to express how awful I feel about that. What can I do to make it up to you?”

  “I’d think giving a speech to the public revealing everything would be a good start,” William said. “I’ll need you to inform my new subjects around the world that I, the future king of the world, have come to fix everyone’s problems. They should lap that up.” He paused for a second, considering. “And after that, you should make a list of the most humiliating things you can think of, then just start working your way through them. You know, still on television. That should be a good way to start earning my forgiveness.”

  “Gladly, Your Majesty!” the prime minister said as Damian dropped her to the floor. She quickly picked herself up and bowed again and again, backing out of the room. “Thank you, Your Majesty! Your greatness is truly—”

  “Who’s next?” William said, bouncing on his throne with excitement, and Damian opened a second portal.

  “Be ready,” a voice said in Fort’s ear, and he turned just enough to see Rachel at his side.

  “What’s the plan?” he whispered.

  “Jia paralyzes him, and then I smack him over the head with the flat side of the sword,” she whispered. “Hopefully it’ll cancel all of his magic like it did his spells on us.”

  “I can teleport you right next to him,” Fort said, a bit surprised she wouldn’t be using the sharp end of Excalibur. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist, if it were him.

  “On my signal, then,” she whispered, and Fort readied himself. All they’d need was a distraction, and Rachel’s plan should work.

  Just then, Damian emerged through his portal holding a man in a military uniform. But as he did, his eyes lit up with the yellow light of Mind magic, and he turned to point at Rachel and Fort. “Your Majesty! Your knights are plotting against you! I can hear it in their thoughts!”

  - FORTY-TWO -

  RACHEL WINCED. “GUESS THAT’S THE signal! Jia, go !”

  Jia immediately cast her paralysis spell on William, then turned to face Damian. Before she could, though, Simon reversed time, freeing William, while another Time student quickly froze Jia.

  As fast as it all happened, Fort almost couldn’t believe how easily they’d been countered. But if this was going to be their only chance, he wasn’t going to just throw it away, not now. He quickly opened a portal between Rachel and William, ready to open another if Damian or a Time student tried to stop her.

  “Looks like there’s a revolution coming!” Rachel shouted as she leaped through the portal, then swung out with the flat of her blade.

  William flinched in surprise and fear as the sword swung toward him, then disappeared into thin air. The sword passed through the spot he’d been, while from across the room, Fort caught Ellora’s hands glowing black out of the corner of his eye.

  “Don’t you touch His Majesty!” Ellora shouted as William reappeared, having jumped forward just a few seconds in time.

  “Oh, come on!” Rachel shouted, aiming her sword at Ellora, who sent another Time spell at her. The magic hit the sword and fizzled out, making Rachel stare at it in surprise, then grin. “Whoa, I do love this sword. That’s all you’ve got?”

  “Try me,” Damian said, transforming in midair into his dragon form as he leaped at her. One strike on her hand from his enormous claw sent the blade spinning across the floor toward Fort.

  For a moment, he considered grabbing it. But the memory of the sword’s flame burning his hand was too strong, and he couldn’t bring himself to try again. Fortunately, that wasn’t the only weapon they had here. If he could just get the book of Spirit magic away from William, he might be able to use it on the king himself.

  Except Fort had seen what he’d become if he started using it again. Could he take the chance, even with the world falling apart?

  As it turned out, he didn’t have a choice.

  “Your Majesty!” Damian shouted. “Fitzgerald is going to take the book of Spirit magic!”

  Fort cursed, really wishing he had one of Colonel Charles’s mind-blocking amulets right now.

  “Of course he would try to steal it,” William said, sneering. “But you had your ch
ance, Forsythe. Damian?” He held up the book, then grinned. “You really should learn to keep your plans to yourself, Fitzgerald,” he said as the book disappeared in a glow of green light.

  Damian growled, the book reappearing in his claws. “I will protect it with my life, Your Majesty,” the dragon promised.

  That didn’t bode well. Even with Damian under William’s spell, they weren’t going to have much of a chance against him, especially not without Jia. And William had all of the Time students on his side, even if they hadn’t yet started moving against Fort and Rachel.

  It was almost like none of them really wanted to act unless ordered to by William. Sure, they’d protected him when Rachel had attacked, but that was it. Was this actually a weakness in the magic? If it meant William had to order them to fight, Fort might be able to use that.

  But first, they’d need the book themselves. And for that, they’d need a weapon.

  “Why are you people even doing this?” William shouted at Fort and Rachel. “I’m just trying to save the world, you jerks ! Would you rather have the same terrible people in charge, ruining everyone’s lives like they did ours, like they’re doing to you at your school? How do you not see how awful they all are?”

  “William, the magic is making you just as bad as them!” Fort shouted as he dove for the sword. But instead of taking it himself and burning his hand again, he kicked it back to Rachel, just as Damian in dragon form dove for it too, his teeth snapping out toward the blade.

  Rachel reached it first, picked it up, then slammed the flat of the sword against Damian’s snout.

  As she did, Fort wondered what Damian would do, freed from William’s Spirit magic. Whose side would he be on? Were they unleashing a monster even worse than the one they had now?

  But instead of waking up from the magic, Damian shrieked in pure agony, the sound so loud that everyone immediately covered their ears. As he screamed, he writhed in pain, shooting plumes of flame in every direction, forcing several of the other Time students to jump forward in time to avoid being burned.

  Damian’s tail struck out, striking Simon right in the chest, knocking him into the nearest wall, where he hit hard and slid to the floor, dazed. The dragon’s flames struck the curtains and the wall hangings, immediately setting them all on fire, but Damian didn’t even seem to notice, his pain was so intense.

  And that was when Fort got the worst feeling of déjà vu he’d ever had. He’d seen this exact scene before, when William had shown them the future back at the Carmarthen Academy. This Damian was destroying Buckingham Palace exactly as they’d seen him do it before. But how could that be? Damian wasn’t even using the book of Spirit magic! William had told them exactly what to do to stop this, and yet, here it was, happening again right before Fort’s eyes! How could …

  Oh. Oh.

  William had told them exactly what to do. And now he’d gotten the book, just like he’d wanted.

  They hadn’t been stopping this. They’d been causing it. This had to have been William’s plan all along. Even Ellora had said William had shown her this future, not that she’d gone here herself. He must have shown her, and them, a possible future, if Fort and his friends were gullible enough not to ask any questions and just get the book of Spirit magic for him.

  But why would William want to see London destroyed? Fort could understand him wanting the book of Spirit magic, given how much he wanted to change things, but this was still a city full of innocent people. Why would he let it, or even Buckingham Palace, be torn down?

  “That’s enough, Damian!” William shouted, and Damian’s eyes filled with orange light. The order seemed to cut through the agony he was feeling from Rachel’s sword strike, and he shuddered, quashing more flames. “I know this was the future I promised everyone, but I do kind of like this place. Best to keep it in one piece.”

  Rachel looked at Fort with wide eyes, and he knew she’d figured it out too. “All this time, you were lying to us?” she shouted, getting even more angry, if that were possible.

  “Call it what you want,” William said with a shrug. “You didn’t see what I saw, all those years in the future.”

  “And what’s that?” Fort asked. “Yourself on a throne?”

  William smiled at that. “No, actually. Not at first. No, what I saw was this large reptile here destroying the world!” He pointed at Damian, who looked pained at being pointed at in such a negative way by his idol. “I was the one stuck in the near future, so I saw everything. Sierra would bring us back, and she and Damian would read Ellora’s mind to find the book of Spirit magic. They’d get it, and use that to find the Time book, wherever our teachers took it. And then he’d call the Old Ones, challenging them to a fight!” William snorted. “A fight, against the embodiments of magic! And he thought he’d win!”

  “Um, did he?” Fort asked.

  “Of course not!” William shouted. “What he did was bring all the Old Ones back here, and then lose to them pretty much instantly. And where did that leave humanity?” He shuddered violently. “You really don’t want to know. So I knew I’d have to stop him.”

  Could that be true? Had William actually stopped Damian from letting the Old Ones return? It wasn’t like he had any reason to lie at this point, but after what he’d done to them, Fort also had no cause to believe him either.

  Even if William had saved the world, it definitely didn’t justify what he was doing to it now.

  “Why bring us into this?” Rachel demanded. “You couldn’t start a world war all on your own?”

  “If I hadn’t needed you, trust me, you wouldn’t be here,” William said. “But to get to the book of Spirit magic took either one Damian or three of you. But you don’t have to worry about the war. When I take over everyone using Spirit magic, there’ll be no one to start it.”

  “You can’t do this,” Rachel whispered. “You can’t take away everyone’s free will!”

  “Really?” William said. “Because actually, it looks like I can, and pretty easily.” He looked around at his adoring subjects, then frowned. “You know what? I think I’ve changed my mind.”

  Changed his mind? Was he actually going to turn away from the Spirit magic and let them go?

  “I don’t think I like this place that much,” he said, crinkling his nose. “I’ll find a different castle to live in. Damian? Take this one down.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” Damian said, and let loose another huge barrage of flame, straight into the walls.

  “No!” Fort shouted, teleporting the dragon’s next fiery attack out over the California desert. “William, call him off! There are innocent people here!”

  “Innocent?” William said, staring at his subjects. “I wouldn’t call them that. They’ve all done horrible things in their lives.” He turned to a group of older men in suits to his right. “Wouldn’t you agree, gentlemen? Getting stuck here in this fire would almost be fitting for you, I’d say.”

  “Agreed, Your Majesty!” one shouted, and the others all nodded.

  Fort didn’t even know what to say, had no idea how to help. He could try to teleport them all out—

  “Jia!” Rachel shouted, and Fort turned to find Damian’s next blast heading straight at the Healer, who was still frozen in time. He quickly opened a portal beneath Jia, and she fell through a moment before Damian’s flame plowed into the spot she’d been standing. Jia landed right next to Rachel, and Rachel quickly tapped her with Excalibur, freeing her from her Time prison.

  “Damian!” William shouted. “Hurry this up. If I remember right, and of course I do, the Americans will be showing up any moment now.” He laughed. “Invading my city? They need to be taught a lesson. I won’t even take them over. They don’t deserve to see my new world order. Let them instead see what kind of spirit the British people have!”

  Damian, still apparently in pain from where Rachel had slapped him with her sword, nodded vigorously to William. “Yes, Your Majesty!” he shouted, unleashing even more fire.
>
  Fort dodged another burst of flame, having no idea what to do. If this was all happening exactly as they’d already seen it, did that mean there was nothing they could do to stop William from destroying London?

  Even if so, he had to try! “Rachel, use your sword on Damian again!” Fort shouted. “We need that book to stop William!”

  The fires spread toward the ceiling, which began to creak and moan, making things even more dangerous inside the palace. “Take them down!” William shouted at the other Carmarthen Academy students. “I won’t have these children disobeying me!”

  And just like that, the remaining Time kids turned on them, with Ellora in the lead, looking angrier than Fort had ever seen her. Whatever advantage they’d had before William had ordered the Time students into the fight was now completely gone.

  Jia managed to get a Sleep spell off on one of the Time kids, but that was it before the rest were upon them.

  “You’re ruining His Majesty’s plan!” Ellora shouted, throwing Time spells at both Fort and Jia, which Rachel slapped down with her sword. “Who do you think you are?”

  “Speaking for myself, I’m an American,” Rachel said, then leaped forward and smacked Ellora’s arm with her sword. “And we’ve never really had much time for royalty.”

  Ellora’s eyes widened as her mind was freed of the Spirit magic, and she turned to Fort in disgust. “Augh, that was awful ! Rachel was right; we can’t use that magic on anyone!”

  “Oh, way too late, Time Girl,” Rachel said with a snort. “Can you freeze Damian? We need that book back!”

  But before she could, Simon blipped out, as did the other Time students. Ellora swore softly, then disappeared as well, all of them now moving too fast to see, just a bunch of shadowy blurs between the flames.

  Someone slammed into Fort from behind, and he fought back, discovering that it was one of the government officials. “All hail the one true king!” the man shouted, making a fist while pinning Fort to the ground. Fort started to defend himself, but the man fell unconscious as Jia hit him with a Sleep spell as well, snoring before he even landed on Fort.