by D J DuMont
“Anjali never said the well was sealed,” Locke piped in from across the room, where he was struggling to fluff out the branches of a pine tree he’d just wrangled into a tree stand. Pine needles carpeted the floor beneath him, the pile growing thicker with every shake he gave the branch.
Willow glared at him, trying to decide whether she wanted to tell him that Anjali had said that, or whether she just wanted to yell at him to mind his own business. Before she could decide, he was speaking again.
“She said the situation was being taken care of. She didn’t say the well was sealed.”
Willow opened her mouth to tell him that he was wrong, but then she shut it again. He wasn’t wrong. That was actually what Anjali said.
Willow frowned. “Well, in any case, I don’t see why we can’t go near the well. It’s not like any of us are dumb enough to jump in and try to cross over to Birch Point.”
“Maybe not,” Cara said as she crossed the room holding a large box of ornaments that were intended for the Christmas tree Locke was still shaking out. “But you never know who might suddenly come through from the Birch Point side. Next time, it might not be someone as harmless as Marcus and Kent.”
Cara visibly shuddered, and Willow resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Cara had been given a magic ring with the virtue of courage, and Willow had no idea why. The girl trembled like a leaf in the wind if anyone so much as looked at her the wrong way.
“No one is coming through that portal by surprise anymore,” Sylvie pointed out. “I’m sure they have Agents guarding it heavily on both the Birch Point and Dragon Heart campus sides. It wouldn’t be much fun to explore anyway, with so many Agents hanging around. Those guys are so grumpy these days, probably because none of them get to go home for the holidays either. Come on, let’s focus on making this dining hall pretty for them. At least if they can’t go home they can have a festive Christmas dinner.”
Willow did feel a bit badly for the Agents, but they weren’t her top worry right now. Still, decorating was better than being assigned more class work, so she fell silent and continued decorating.
The group worked mostly in silence after that, until a few hours later they stepped back to survey their handiwork. Lighted garlands, bright poinsettias, and shimmering baubles hung everywhere.
“Wow,” Locke said. “I’m not a huge fan of Christmas, but even I have to admit that this place looks pretty magical now.”
“Not magical enough,” Willow said, a grin spreading across her face as she raised her magic ring. “Watch this. Ninguo!”
After a few moments, fluffy white snowflakes started falling from the ceiling. They looked so real that Cara reached out to touch them, her eyes widening. The snowflakes disappeared a moment after hitting her fingers, but she smiled.
“It’s even cold!”
“Ok, real cute, Willow, but you can’t just leave it snowing in here like that,” Locke said in an exasperated tone.
“Why not?” Willow asked, flicking her magic ring a few more times to intensify the snowfall.
“Because as all that snow melts it’s going to soak everything in here. All the decorations, the tablecloths, and the seat cushions…it’s all going to be soaking wet.”
“Nah,” Willow said, waving her hand back and forth to send ripples of wind through the snow. “It’s enchanted snow. It doesn’t leave wet spots behind when it melts. It just disappears.”
Sylvie was catching the snowflakes in her hand now, and she giggled. “It’s true. Look! My hands are completely dry.”
“It’s beautiful, Willow,” Cara said with a sigh. “This hall really looks like a winter wonderland. Maybe the holidays this year won’t be so bad after all.”
“Or maybe they will,” Locke said.
Willow turned toward him, about to tell him to stop being so pessimistic, when she saw that he was pointing out the large bay windows that graced the eastern wall of the dining hall. There, Anjali stomped across the yard toward the Dragon Heart building, looking the way you’d expect someone to look when they were about to murder someone.
“Looks like she’s had a bad day,” Sylvie mused.
“You think it has anything to do with those two?” Cara asked, pointing just beyond Anjali. Behind their professor, Marcus and Kent were nearly running to keep up. Their faces looked pale, and Willow felt her stomach flip-flopping. She hadn’t been allowed to see or speak to Marcus or Kent since she’d run into them that fateful day by the well. Would they be angry at her for all the secrets she’d kept from them? Would they chew her out for leaving them to be found by dozens of Dragon Heart Agents?
They better not, Willow thought. I tried to warn them not to run, but they wouldn’t listen. They left me no choice.
Whatever the boys or Anjali might have to say, Willow wouldn’t have to wait long to hear it. As the four Dragon Heart students stood there watching Anjali march ever closer toward the building, the giant door to the dining hall creaked open. Willow turned to see one of the Dragon Heart Agent guards poking his head inside.
“Ah, good,” he said. “Anjali told me I’d probably find all four of you here. She’d like to see you in her office, and she said to tell you not to make her wait.”
The Agent flashed them a quick smile, then disappeared before they could ask him any questions.
Willow shuddered. Whatever Anjali wanted to talk to them about had left the professor in a foul mood. Willow bit her lower lip nervously as she followed the other students out of the dining hall. She hoped that she wasn’t about to hear bad news regarding Alexis or her father, but she couldn’t think what else could have possibly made Anjali so upset.
There was only one way to find out. Willow took a deep breath, and quickened her steps in the direction of Anjali’s office.
Chapter Twenty
“Sit down, all of you,” Anjali barked.
Marcus and Kent were the first to sit, both of them refusing to make eye contact with Willow. That was not a good sign.
Reluctantly, Willow sat, choosing a seat in the furthest corner of Anjali’s office. Sylvie and Cara meekly sat down as well, but Locke, looking as defiant as ever, crossed his arms and remained standing.
“What’s this all about? Is there news about Alexis?”
Anjali fixed him with a death glare. “Sit, before I cast a spell on you that will force you to do so.”
Locke rolled his eyes, but sat. Anjali shuffled some papers aside, took a giant swig of what must have been cold, hours-old coffee from a mug on the desk, and then finally looked back up at the students.
“Alexis has been found.”
Gasps rang out across the office, and Willow realized that one of those gasps was hers. After a moment of shock, the questions were thrown at Anjali, hard and fast.
Where is she? Is she alive? When can we start the rescue mission? She is alright, isn’t she? What has Stein done to her?
Anjali held her hands up for silence, but it took a few moments for all of the students to comply. Everyone was too wound up by the news to be able to keep their mouths shut. Finally, though, the group in the office settled once more, and Anjali began to explain.
“Yes, she’s alive. At least, she was the last time our spies caught sight of her.”
Sighs of relief filled the air. Willow stole a glance at Marcus and Kent, and saw that Marcus’ eyes were glistening. She wanted to go over to him and squeeze his arm, telling him she understood how he felt.
But did she understand? He must be dealing with quite a few emotions, between losing his girlfriend and then finding out that a world of dragons and magic existed. He obviously had been briefed on the basics of what was going on, but how much did he know? And what was his role now? A liaison, as the President had wanted? But if he was a liaison then why hadn’t he been allowed to talk to any of the Dragon Heart students. A liaison who never actually spoke with them wouldn’t be much use.
Willow tore her gaze away from Marcus when she realized that Anjali was still speaking
.
“We found her in Maine, but quite a bit north of here. Almost in Canada, actually. It seems that even though we found many of the hideouts that he’d previously used here in Maine, he still has several that we haven’t found. Our spies have been mapping out the hideout as best they can based on sightings of Alexis. We’ve spotted her quite a few times now, always in a slightly different spot, but in the same general area. We’re almost certain she’s being held in an underground bunker. As far as we can tell, Stein has not realized that we’ve been watching him, or that we know where he is, so that’s good news. We’ve seen before that if he sees us, he gets spooked and quickly moves on to a different hideout. He seems to have quite a few of them scattered across the globe.”
“So what’s the bad news?” Locke asked. “All of that sounds relatively good, but your face looks like you just found out that someone died.”
Willow felt an old, familiar fear gripping her heart. Was the bad news something about her father? Perhaps the Agents who had found Alexis had also found her father, injured, or worse. She bit her lower lip so hard that she tasted blood as she waited for Anjali to respond.
“No one has died, as far as I know,” Anjali said with a meaningful glance toward Willow. Willow relaxed slightly, but still felt nervous as Anjali continued to speak. “But rescuing Alexis isn’t going to be easy. It’s the dead of winter, and the winter up north is even worse than it is here. The weather is harsh and unpredictable, with blizzards being the norm rather than the exception.”
“A little cold and snow isn’t going to keep me from going after Alexis!” Marcus suddenly burst out. It was the first Willow had heard him speak since they’d arrived in Anjali’s office, and the conviction in his voice was so strong that it made her shudder.
Locke was shuddering too—with laughter. “You? You’re not going after her. No offense, Marcus, but this is a job for wizards. Unless I’m seriously mistaken, you don’t have any magical abilities.”
Marcus turned venomous eyes on Locke. “I don’t need to hide behind magic to be a true man, and a true man would never leave the woman he loves in the hands of a monster like Stein.”
Cara frowned. “Technically, you’re not a man yet. How old are you? Sixteen? Seventeen? You’re not an adult until you’re eighteen, and so—”
“I’m seventeen, and already more of a man than Locke will ever be,” Marcus spat out.
“Enough!” Anjali cried out. “You’re all going.”
Silence fell over the office again.
“All of us?” Willow finally asked. “Even Marcus and Kent?”
“Even Marcus and Kent. The President has insisted upon it.”
Willow’s jaw dropped. “At the risk of sounding like Locke, I have to say that I’m not sure non-wizards are such a good idea for a mission like this.”
Anjali sighed. “I’m very sure it’s not a good idea. In fact, I’m very sure it’s not a good idea for any of you students to go on this mission. Stein is a sophisticated, powerful enemy who is skilled at using trickery and magical projection. To be frank, I’m terrified that one of you is going to end up dead. But President Newson insists on being reckless and putting your lives at risk. If you ask me, he’s seen one too many superhero movies and thinks that putting in the underdogs—a.k.a. all of you—is the key to success.”
Willow had never heard Anjali speak against the President so openly, but if anything could convince Anjali North to act disrespectful toward her Commander-in-Chief, the fact that he was putting her students at risk would do it. Her bad mood suddenly made perfect sense. She wasn’t upset because she had bad news about Alexis or Willow’s father. She was upset because the planned rescue mission for Alexis was spinning wildly out of control.
Locke jumped to his feet, anger turning his face beet red. “This is absurd. You have to talk some sense into the President. What can Marcus or Kent possibly do except get in the way?”
“Hey!” Marcus shouted, jumping to his feet as well.
“Silence!” Anjali yelled before anyone could say anything else. “Both of you sit down. Arguing about it amongst yourselves isn’t going to help. Believe me, I’ve tried to talk the President out of this. I’ve tried to talk him out of sending you Dragon Heart students, and I’ve tried to talk him out of sending Marcus and Kent. He’s delusional, and thinks that this master plan of his to send all of you is going to result in some sort of spectacular victory. To be honest, he has no idea what he’s dealing with. He’s never liked the Dragon Heart Agency, and he’s never made an attempt to figure out how we work. He’s never made an attempt to understand magic. But he is the Commander-in-Chief, and he has a great deal of influence over the head of the Dragon Heart Agency. So, for now at least, I’ve been outvoted. You’re all going on the rescue mission. All six of you.”
Marcus let out a whoop, but everyone else in the room had the sense not to say anything else. Anjali looked like she might explode with rage at any moment.
“There’s more,” Anjali said in a tight voice.
Willow gulped and leaned forward. More? She hoped it wasn’t more bad news, but Anjali still wasn’t smiling.
“It might be quite some time before an actual rescue attempt can be made. We want to move as quickly as possible, for fear that Stein might move Alexis again. But we can’t move too quickly and botch things up. Careful plans will need to be made that account for northern Maine’s harsh winter weather, and for the fact that we only have a very rough idea of how the hideout is set up.”
“I want to go after Stein now!” Marcus said, starting to rise to his feet again. But before Anjali could tell him to sit down, Kent was pulling him back.
“Stay cool, man. You know this is out of our control.”
Willow stole a glance at Kent. He looked as handsome as he had the first day she’d met him, but he looked tired. Getting dragged into a world of magic in the midst of a big crisis would do that to a person, she supposed. She wondered if she could date him in good conscience now, since she wouldn’t have to hide who she was from him. Then she wondered if she actually wanted to date him. She’d been so desperate for a normal high school experience, but even if she dated Kent now, things would never be “normal.” Both of them were too far into this world to ever hope for things like normal. Fighting a wave of sadness, Willow turned her attention back to Anjali, who was shaking her head in frustration.
“As you all know,” the professor said, “We still don’t know who is responsible for leaking information about the Dragon Heart Agency to Stein. The search for Alexis has been kept quite secret, and no one except those who absolutely need to know have been kept abreast of developments. The vast majority of our Agents are not even aware that we’ve found Alexis, and we aim to keep things that way. The less people who know, the less of a chance that the traitor is one of the people who learns of this and leaks details to Stein.”
“That’s smart,” Locke said. He was bobbing his head up and down, like keeping things top secret had been his own genius idea.
“I’m glad you think so,” Anjali said. “Because all of you are forbidden from speaking of this to anyone. And I do mean anyone. Those of you with parents in the Agency are not even allowed to speak with them about it.”
Cara let out a strangled, squeaking noise. “I can’t even talk to my parents about this? But I tell them everything!”
Locke was leaning back in his chair, dramatically rolling his eyes. “Oh, come on. Our parents aren’t the traitors. This is overkill.”
“I don’t care if it’s overkill,” Anjali said. “No offense against any of your parents, but we can’t start making exceptions. The moment we do, the information will travel fast and wide throughout the Agency. Before we know it, the majority of Agents will know that we’ve found Stein’s hideout up north. The traitor can warn him, and we won’t be able to trace who told Stein, because there will be too many people who know.”
“Fine,” Locke said in an annoyed tone. “I won’t say anything t
o anyone, even my dear parents.”
Cara sighed, looking distraught. “I won’t say anything either, but my parents are going to be upset when they hear that I knew about all of this and didn’t tell them.”
“They’ll understand,” Anjali said. “And speaking of overkill, we’re moving you all back to the safe room.”
“What?!?” the Dragon Heart students all exclaimed at once. Marcus and Kent looked at Anjali in confusion, not understanding what she was saying.
“You heard me,” Anjali said. “It’s a precaution. We want to very closely control what information is being passed around related to Alexis and the rescue mission, so keeping you all in there is the best way to do that.”
“You don’t trust us,” Locke said flatly.
“I don’t want you to be tempted to say anything to anyone,” Anjali said. “We’re worried that if the traitor finds out what’s going on, he or she will make an attempt on your lives, since you’re the ones who will be going to get Alexis. We don’t know who we can trust right now, and we can’t be too careful.”
Willow felt her heart sinking. The prohibition against speaking to parents didn’t affect her much. Her father was missing, and her mother wasn’t a Dragon Heart Agent, so Willow had never been allowed to tell her anything, anyway. But going back to the safe room? That sounded like torture.
“How long do we have to be in there?” Cara asked. “And what about Christmas? You can’t expect us to celebrate Christmas in that awful, cramped room!”
