Tala Phoenix and the School of Secrets

by Gabby Fawkes

  As we walked, we passed several canals, some with the odd honking swan. The buildings were cool too, there were many thin canal houses, each in a unique yet unmistakably European style.

  But, as soon as we spotted the palace between the final two blocks, we knew. With its wide, gray-stoned window-studded façade, topped with a green-roofed turret, it was in a class on its own.

  “Just follow me,” Axel said again as we approached it.

  Although part of me rebelled at just blindly following what Axel said, I also didn’t want to waste any more time. Besides, Axel knew his stuff and was strong – he’d gotten us this far and hell, I’d seen him throw a horse.

  The two ceremonial guards didn’t seem to notice us until we were directly in front of them. “Halte!” one of them said. “Wie gaat daar heen?”

  When we didn’t respond, with angry sighs, they repeated, “Halt! Who goes there?”

  Kian and I exchanged a look. Were these guys for real, or were they just instructed to say that sort of stereotypical bilingual thing to scare off annoying tourists after hours?

  In any case, Axel didn’t halt, and he didn’t say anything. Not anything we could hear anyway. He strode ahead, muttered something indistinct and, seconds later, the guards were moving aside without further comment.

  “That’s it?” Demi said hopefully.

  “We’ll see,” Axel said, handing us black ski masks. “Wear these.”

  “Yeah, this doesn’t make us look sketchy at all,” Kian muttered, although she tugged hers on.

  “Better looking sketchy than recognized,” Axel said.

  He had a point. Especially since lately my friends and I had had a habit of turning up places we weren’t supposed to be. Better to not push our luck.

  Axel looked around. “Looks like the royals must’ve put off their trip for some reason.”

  “What makes you say that?” I asked.

  “There would’ve been ten times that many guards if they were within ten miles of this place.”

  I gulped. “Lucky us.”

  Axel didn’t say anything. Already, I had the sense of being watched, although I didn’t mention it.

  My PV/dragon sense was probably still pissed from getting wet.

  Wandering through the palace wasn’t as fraught with danger as I’d feared. Turned out that not only was the palace incredibly under-staffed outside, it was mostly unguarded inside, other than the security cameras that Kian did a simple spell to mess with. One fizzling click and we exchanged thumbs-up. Although Kian wasn’t so confident.

  “I mean, it looks and smells and seems burned and shattered,” she said thoughtfully, eyeing a camera that had no power light on and was smoldering. “But what if I missed one?”

  “Guess we’ll find out,” Axel said. “Come on.”

  We made it through the countless luxurious halls and staircases without incident, and headed for the top floor.

  “You just remember the way in and everything?” I asked skeptically.

  “If they didn’t change it, then yeah, basically. I didn’t go in this way, my comrades did,” Axel said as he strode into a richly furnished room.

  I made a mental note to ask Axel about the whole him being a rebel thing, along with all the other questions – about him and Aphie, how exactly he was punished – I still had.

  There was no time now, though. We were inside. The gold-red paisley wallpaper gave me a headache just looking at it. Although the aroma of smoldering wood was pleasing.

  Axel chuckled as he strode straight to the massive hulking fireplace. “This is too easy.”

  “What is?” I said. His whole, just-follow-me no-questions thing was getting annoying.

  “You’ll see,” he said.

  Just like that, he walked into the fireplace. A shriek burst out of Demi. She clapped her hand over her mouth, and Kian and I shushed her. Ahead of us, Axel was standing in the flames, gesturing for us to follow.

  “Coming?”

  “You…” I glanced to Kian, who was shaking her head definitively. “So, those flames won’t burn us?”

  “No, I’m in agony right now,” Axel said in a deadpan voice. “Now come on, we have to go!”

  We walked up to stop at the edge of the fireplace. Judging by the heat emanating out of it and the look of it, heck, the smell, this was the real deal.

  Then again, shouldn’t dragon shifters be okay to walk through fire? I was more worried about the others…

  I reached one hand forward, experimentally, feeling the heat prickle at my fingertips. And yet, when my fingers grazed the flames, I felt… Nothing. I gaped at my unharmed hand, then took a step forward, wincing despite myself.

  Only once I was on the other side next to Axel, staring back at my friends did I realize what had happened.

  “Guys, how does it feel?” I asked.

  Just because I’d walked through a-ok, I didn’t want to just assume they could too.

  “The flames won’t hurt you,” Axel told them. “They’re an illusion.”

  I glared at him. “You couldn’t have told me that in the first place?”

  Demi and Kian were looking at me uncertainly.

  “Just test them,” I urged them.

  Holding out her hand gingerly, Demi’s face showed discomfort, but nothing more serious. Finally, with a sharp inhale, Demi speed-walked through the flames.

  “That wasn’t bad,” she said as she stopped beside us, although she looked like she might keel over any second.

  We all looked back at Kian, who was waving her hand through dubiously.

  “Yeah, yeah, it’s easy peasy for the gods and shifter,” she muttered. “What about the measly witch?”

  “There are witches in the DSA,” Axel pointed out. “Now, come on, or we’re leaving.”

  As Kian took a glaring step back, I pleaded with her, “Kian, please. You know we can’t just leave you. But we came all this way… we have to do this for Jeremy.”

  That seemed to get her back on track.

  “Ugh, screw you both,” she said. “And I swear to John…”

  She clamped both eyes shut and ran through. Straight into me.

  Her eyes snapped open. “I did it.”

  I gave her a quick hug. “You did it. Now let’s go.”

  Turning around, we were in another world. One that was dark and musty.

  “Hold on,” Demi said.

  The next second, light snapped on.

  “That isn’t the mirror flashlight,” I said, grinning.

  In the dark, I couldn’t see whether Demi was grinning too, though I could just tell she was.

  “Yep, it came in handy again,” she said. “But where are we?”

  “No clue,” Axel said.

  “But I thought you said…”

  “That I entered the base decades ago as a rebel, yeah. But this was the back entrance I only heard about, never actually used.”

  “And we couldn’t use the main one because…” Kian said petulantly.

  “It required getting filled with tons of bullets and nearly dying.”

  “Whatever,” I said. “We’re here now, in this entrance. Let’s stay on task.”

  We ventured further in, as Demi’s wispy flashlight beam glanced up and up and up…

  “It’s a warehouse?” I said, my gaze going up the wooden shelves.

  “Looks like it,” Kian said. “At least this part.”

  I turned to Axel with the question I’d never thought to ask before. “The old base, how big was it?”

  “Huge,” Axel said. “And only part of it was destroyed in the fire.”

  I groaned.

  “C’mon,” Demi said cheerfully, shining her beam every which way. “Let’s go.”

  After the second time Demi accidentally got Kian in the eye with the light, Kian said, “That’s it –Ellumino.”

  The lights crackled on.

  “Nice one,” I told her. “Your spell words are in Latin?”

  “My life’s
in Latin,” she said drily.

  “I didn’t know you could light up light bulbs,” Demi said.

  “Sometimes I can. Saying the word also instead of just using my hands helps,” Kian said. “Other times they just explode.”

  “Those aren’t light bulbs,” I said, my gaze on what was providing the light. All around us, built into the wooden walls were hundreds upon hundreds of wax candles. Their illumination showed a massive space that was all exquisitely carved wood, with strange doors further down that seemed to float in thin air.

  “Aren’t candles and wood a no-no?” I asked Axel.

  “Not if they’re magical fires,” he said.

  “What is all this stuff anyway?” Kian wondered, approaching a shelf with a whole row of what looked like upside-down lampshades and smelled like bubblegum.

  “Don’t touch that,” Axel said sharply.

  “Why not?”

  “The DSA have been known to do experiments, to confiscate dangerous magical items…”

  “Is the DSA just your entire government?” I asked. “Since it sounds like they do basically everything.”

  “No, they’re just like the reggies’ CIA. Our ruling body is the one in charge. Although the DSA do interfere in the other departments a lot, and often have jurisdiction over them. Over the years, they keep getting more and more power.”

  “Don’t touch the maybe-cursed crap, got it,” Kian said. “Anyone have any ideas where to go?”

  “I smell a plant this way,” Demi said with a contented sniff.

  All I could smell was dust and old books.

  “Is that supposed to be a good thing?” I said.

  “Maybe, actually,” Kian said. “The DSA don’t seem like plant types to me.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning I doubt they’re the type to have an orchid on their desks – or any plant at all, unless it’s some cursed monstrosity. So, Demi’s nose is leading us to one of those or…. Maybe food for Jer or another mutant creature or something.”

  “All right,” I said, following her as she weaved past sky-high shelves upon shelves of strange objects. I spotted a floating sombrero with sequins that wriggled, an immobile turtle with an empty void for a shell, a flat number that shifted from 0 to 7.

  Axel walked slowest of all, his head rotating around like a searchlight.

  “What is it?” I asked him. “What’s wrong?”

  “We got in too easy,” he said. “No enchantments or puzzles, no guards or anything.” He peered at me avidly. “Didn’t it ever strike you that it was strange, how Stewie just basically told you where the base was?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Kian mentioned it a few hours ago. But I thought-”

  “He’s supposedly an idiot who thought you were a hooker, I know. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned with dealing with the DSA, it’s to not take anything for granted.”

  “Uh, guys?” Demi called over.

  She looked to be beyond the several doors, which, now that I was closer, I could see actually were floating.

  “Hold on, what is this?” I said, going over the final door. Behind it was the hugest filing cabinet I’d ever seen. It was as wide and tall as an elephant, and had a ladder leaning against its sculpted wooden exterior.

  “I’ve heard about this,” Axel said softly.

  “That’s nice,” Kian commented. “Mind telling us what it is?”

  “It’s the Files. Apparently, they contain a record of any magical being who’ve ever lived or died. Every significant historical event ever to occur. Every DSA mission ever to be undertaken.”

  Now I was the dubious one, yet a little hopeful too – would it have a record of my family?

  “The DSA is that old?”

  “Older, maybe,” Axel said with a bitter smile. “As far back in the history we have, there has been a DSA – or some version of it. At one point, they were even a part of the Knights Templar, but split off.”

  I crouched down to peer at a lower drawer of the wooden filing cabinet, still unconvinced. “And they just leave it out in the open.”

  I reached to give the floor-level drawer a yank.

  “Don’t!” Axel said, too late.

  My right arm dropped to the ground, as though it was made of wood. Probably because it was made of wood.

  I cried out as I saw the reason – my arm had not only turned into the dark cherry wood the cabinet was made of, it had fused with it. I was now part of the cabinet.

  “Tala!” Kian cried.

  She tried to grab my arm, but started back with another cry– the tips of her fingers had taken on the wooden grain too.

  Demi’s blast of plant turned into shaggy wood attached to my horrible arm.

  I tried twisting it, and let out a groan. It felt like I was trying to rip off my arm.

  Worse still, the massive cabinet was creaking, rocking forward and back, almost like it was going to tip over…

  My friends were yelling, and Axel was yelling. I was yelling, trying to pull myself away. But it was no use. My arm was a part of the cabinet, and the cabinet, when it fell over, was going to crush me…

  There was a piercing pain as my arm was sliced into and I was thrown to the side. A harrowing boom! echoed around us.

  And my right arm…. I wiggled my right hands’ fingers. Was okay. Was an arm again.

  I turned to gape at Axel. “How did you…”

  He lifted the blade. “Poseidon steel. All Zeus’ children have a blade made from it. It can cut through anything – magic included.”

  “And you knew that… my arm.”

  “I figured.”

  I stared at him. “And if you were wrong?”

  He twisted around so I could no longer see his shaken face. “Then you would’ve lost an arm and kept your life.”

  “What the hell was that?” Kian shrilled.

  “That was why you don’t touch the cabinet under any circumstances,” Axel said coldly.

  Another creaking noise and, as we gaped, the cabinet righted itself. It gave itself a little shake, as if to dislodge some dust, then stood immobile once more.

  “Talk about an unfriendly cabinet,” Kian muttered, although her face was white.

  Already, Demi had ventured ahead.

  “Demi, what was it you were saying you found before?” I called after, my voice oddly high and breathless. “Something through one of these doorways?”

  “I wish,” she said, walking away a bit further. When she spoke again, her voice was a bit muffled, since whatever she was near was making a sort of grinding and crashing sound. “The plant smell is through here.”

  Kian was the first to reach her, and said immediately, “Nope. We’ll have to go another way.”

  “Why?” I said, falling silent once I arrived. Why was now obvious. Here, the wall was fused with newer construction, some metal and a computer screen, with enough space for an arm.

  “Si veram dabit, vobis brachium, et in vobis erit.”

  “What is that again?” Kian asked.

  “Losing your Latin already?” I teased, trying and failing to lighten the mood.

  “It’s ‘If you be true, give forth your arm and enter shall you.’”

  And that was when the machine crashed down onto itself, crunching whoever would’ve been unwary enough to have their arm there.

  “So basically, if the machine doesn’t like us it eats our arm?” I said. “Yeah, another way sounds good to me.”

  “What’s with all this Latin anyway?” Kian said. “I mean, does anyone need any more proof that the DSA were somehow connected to our Latin-obsessed school?”

  “No,” I agreed. “But still, it doesn’t make any sense. Why have us learn Latin?”

  “I don’t know,” Kian said.

  “Where’s Axel?” Demi asked.

  “Uh…” I turned around, but there was no sign of him.

  “There is no other way,” Axel said, suddenly appearing to our left.

  “What? How did you?
”

  “The doors,” he said. “Try them.”

  “I just got my arm turned into part of a cabinet – no thanks.”

  “Fine. I’ll just tell you where they lead – nowhere.”

  “What do you mean nowhere?”

  “I mean they lead to different parts of the warehouse area. I know this because I just tried going through them. Every last one of them. But I just ended up in different parts of the warehouse. I’ve scoured the whole place too – there’s no other way out. This is why it was so easy to get through the fireplace. The DSA probably don’t care as much if people trespass here. The doors are probably portadoors – if you know where you’re going, you just have to say it and you’ll get there easy – and vice versa.”

  “But why’s there so many of them?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “The DSA are lazy, this is a big place, and they probably want to get where they’re going fast.”

  “And you did that all in like 15 seconds?” Kian said.

  “I do have super-fast agility,” he reminded her.

  “Oh yeah. But still,” I said, “we can’t just… put our arm in the crushing machine.”

  I turned to look at the machine with a shudder. As if aware it had an audience, the machine crashed down with an ear-splitting grinding of gears.

  “Dibs on not doing it,” Kian said.

  “We should turn back,” Axel said. “See what the others can make of it.”

  “After how lucky we got about the royals not being here and security being lax?” I said. “We won’t get so lucky again.”

  “Facing off against an arm-crunching machine isn’t lucky,” Demi said quietly.

  “I don’t care,” I protested. “We can’t just – we have to…” I reread the carved Latin message above it, each of its letters with lines coming out of it like it was glowing. “Si veram dabit, vobis brachium, et in vobis erit … If you be true, give forth your arm and enter shall you.”

  “It’s not just saying that if you’re DSA it’ll let you enter,” I reflected.

  “What else could it mean, being inside a DSA base?” Kian insisted.