Every year at the citadel, the adults would put together a camping trip that anyone under the age of fourteen could attend. I never went. I was already hated by everyone in the Citadel, I didn’t want to spend hours at a time with my many enemies without any books to read. And they wouldn’t have wanted me to come along anyway.
I’ve come to regret that since I left the Citadel. I read every book I could find in our library about wilderness survival, but nature doesn’t really look the same in real life. The trees are much bigger, the plants all look mostly alike, and I’m never quite sure the water’s safe to drink even after I purify it. I was so excited when I made it to Portland because I knew the food was (mostly) safe to eat and the water from the taps was safe. But we had to leave, and now we’ve been walking for days, trying to survive on what we can find or what we can get strangers to part with. Zac’s been a godsend. He’s lived on his own since he was six and knows how to appear menacing or innocent if the situation calls for it. Michael and I have a lot to learn.
“My father kicked me out of the house for being stupid.” He told me one day after we stopped for the night. “I couldn’t get anything over an F at school and I kept running into things at home. He told me if I couldn’t shape up I should just leave. So I did.”
“Didn’t your mother say anything?” I asked. I know parents can be truly terrible, but I find it hard to believe that people would be cruel enough to kick their small child out of the house because he was awful at math.
“I don’t know.” Zac said. “It was years ago. If anyone said anything, it wasn’t enough to get me to stay home.”
From what I understand, Michael is in a somewhat similar situation, but what I don’t understand is why his family would kick him out for trying to give his father his doll, er, action figure. I find it tacky, but if the worst thing my sister ever did was offer me her Lulu Christie dolls, we’d be best friends instead of very bitter enemies.
“Are you sure he wasn’t cursed?” I asked Michael at some point. In books, whenever someone does something cruel, they are either evil or cursed.
“I don’t think so. Papa doesn’t deal with magic all that often.” Michael said. “Though he did get a bit weird after that lady came to visit.”
“Which lady?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. She looked very big to me, but Mama said she’s small for an adult.” He seemed unsure.
“Don’t you remember anything else about her?”
“Not really. She was a little bit like you.” He said, pointing at me, “If you weren’t standing right there, I’d forget you even existed.”
We sat in silence for a moment as I swallowed the urge to say, “Why thank you for the gracious compliment.” When I wouldn’t have meant it at all. Instead, I said, “Did she do any magic?”
“Not that I noticed, but I’m not good at magic. I think she had a mages badge though.” Michael said.
“Did she wear any fancy jewelry or have any embroidery on her clothes?” I asked.
Michael wrinkled his nose. “I think she had both.”
I don’t have any proof, but I would be very willing to bet that the enchantress paid him a visit. The fact that he couldn’t remember her is a good hint in and of itself. And anyone wearing fancy jewelry who wasn’t at some sort of party probably comes from the Citadel.
See, it wasn’t that long ago when items imbued with magic were common. Not many people could afford them but anyone who could bought as many as they could get away with. While a lot of magical artifacts had everyday uses, such as beating eggs or washing clothes, the most popular were the ones with one very specific application: killing people as quickly as possible.
The artifacts that could kill could be in almost any shape and size, but the most common were wands, jewelry of various sorts, and specially embroidered clothes. Whole kingdoms rose and fell because they had access to the best woods for wand making, or the best materials for fancy vests and coats. But then one day, someone discovered that you could use computers to do the same job more cheaply and with a wider access to spells. Everyone wanted a computer after that, and the old magic artifacts fell out of fashion. Except for in the Citadel.
See, time moves slowly in the Citadel, hence the lack of indoor plumbing or central heating. Despite the fact that Magic artifacts had been in common use for about five hundred years, they were only just starting to catch on in the citadel when computers came into use. But everyone who lived at the Citadel took one look at computers and said, “Humph, it’s useful for those who don’t already have magic protecting them. Anyone of us can do what these things can do by just thinking about it. What use have we for these little toys?”
As a result, they still were embroidered clothes or jewels, and that’s mainly just for show. Any mage worth their salt knows the only reliable magic is the one you can perform by yourself. So any magic artifacts we keep on us just uses spells meant to disorient or confuse, not hurt or kill. We can do the hurting and killing on our own.
Or, at least, most of us can.
****
We’ve come to our first village outside of Portland. I know there was a name for it on a sign somewhere, but I don’t remember what it said. I think it was something like Dog’s End or Hog’s Breath. It’s not a very large village, but it’s the only one for miles, and the towns people all know it and as a result are charging us way too much money for everything we might have wanted to buy.
We can’t afford to stay at the inn, and none of us think it looks safe, so we’re camping somewhere out of town. We’d worry about getting rained on, but I brought a copy of a spell that creates a water impervious shield for a ten-foot radius around the user. It doesn’t do anything for privacy, so we often try to sleep off the road if we can.
We were walking away from town when we saw some travelers walking towards us. I was going to ignore them, but then I felt a spell go off. Specifically, it was the shield-masters talking shield spell, supposedly the most widely used among assassins, but in reality it’s mostly used by people trying to prank people who don’t have any magic to defend themselves. I’ve been on the receiving end of far too many of these spells. Deciding I didn’t have the energy to argue with a wannabe spell master, I opened my Big Book of Enchantments to the cancel spell and cast it. I must have been fast, for the spell collapsed in a way that suggested the caster hadn’t had time to finish casting it. I looked around for the person responsible, but didn’t see anything, although it felt like someone was using an invisibility spell not far away from where we were. Maybe I should have been scared, but I was tired of people attacking me because they think I can’t fight back.
“Do you really think I’m stupid enough to fall for that? If you were as sneaky as you think you are, you wouldn’t attack people in a public road in broad daylight. Go back to your mother. I’m sure she’s worried about her sweet little boy missing his Din-Din.”
I turned to make sure Michael and Zac were alright, then saw that one of the traveler’s had a sword out. “Are you really planning on fighting us?” I asked, wondering why it was I had to deal with so many idiots at once.
The idiot with a sword jumped and shielding it. “The sword wasn’t for you, miss, it was for the assassin who just tried to ensnare and kill us.”
“Do you really think that was an assassin?” I said, putting my forehead in my hands.
“Yes it was.” A shrill voice piped up. “The Enchantress of the Citadel sent it after me and Julia.”
I turned to see what looked like a young girl and her older sister. “Did she? Did you tell her that yes, the pants she was wearing did make her butt look big?” I smiled, but I’m not sure I was joking.
The older of the two, I assume it was Julia, turned to me and said, “I don’t know what got into that woman’s head, but she sent an assassin after us, so far we’ve managed to avoid him, I don’t know if we’ve just gotten lucky or if assassins are normally this incompetent. I really hope I don’t have to learn.”
I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m one of the few people in the world who know just how mean the enchantress can be when she doesn’t get her way.
“So are you on the run until he gives up in disgust?” I asked. I figured that if I knew what was going on, I might be able to help.
“No,” said the idiot with a sword on his back, “I’m taking them to the capital city, where my mother can sort out this mess for them.”
“You’re going to the capital city?” I said. “Do you mind if we tag along?”
“What for?” He asked.
“Firstly, Michael here was kicked out of his home a while ago for reasons that sound very suspicious to me. I strongly suspect that a curse was involved, and I know the capital city has the largest library of magical tomes in the kingdom of Altra. Secondly, I just ran away from home a month ago and would like to find a place where I could live without worrying about being shipped back to my parents. Thirdly, I’ve never been to the capital City, and I would very much like to see it for myself.”
“You ran away from home?” He asked me.
“If you’d spent you’re entire life in the Citadel of Magic, you’d have run away from home too.” I replied.
He looked at Zac and said, “And what about you, are you on an errand for your parents?”
“Nah,” He said, “I’ve been on my own for about four years at this point. I just go wherever they won’t throw me out.”
“You don’t have a family?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Is it any of your business?” Zachary replied.
He shrugged and said. “Well, alright then. If we’re going to be travelling together, we may as well introduce ourselves. My name is Johnathan, and this is Rachel and Julia.”
“I’m Jessica.” I said. “And this is Zachary and Michael.”
“Can we get going?” Julia said, “It looks like it’s getting dark, and I want to be in the village before it gets too late.”
“Why don’t we just sleep outside? I have a spell that’ll keep the rain off.” I said.
“Does it do anything for privacy?”
“No, but It’s much cheaper than an inn.” I said. “I don’t think there’ll be much of an opportunity to make money until we get to the city.”
Julia, Rachel, and Johnathan exchanged glances. “True enough.” Johnathan said. “Fine, then, let’s find a place to camp.”
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