Heart of Dorkness

Terror Forty-Nine - Arrival

The courtyard is a wide spot, walls along opposite sides, and then two rows of buildings closing off the other two sides. There’s a big fountain in the middle, and a few waist-high hedges around statues of Héroe posing with a sword by his side and a foot on the head of a stone monster.

There are flowers too; obviously someone takes very good care of this place. The far end of the yard is a wide expanse of packed sand where I think students train. The paths through and around the area are all carefully placed cobbles. It’s a nice spot, I think.

Too bad it’s a terrible place for a fight.

“Stop running!” Lily roars behind us.

“Where are we going?” Esme asks me.

“Just to the middle,” I say. “Next to that fountain!”

“She’s going to catch up before that!” Felix shouts back.

She will. This Lily girl is nuts.

“I can’t believe this girl,” I grumble. “Alright, I’m going to kick her butt some more, you two get to the fountain and hunker down.”

“Hey, wait,” Esme says. “How are we going to get out of here?”

“I have a plan,” I tell her.

“And I want to hear it,” she snaps.

I glance back. Lily really will catch up to us soon. “I don’t have time...”

Esme glares at me, but it’s hard to miss the hurt under all that anger.

“I have a dragon,” I tell her as I let go of the cart and slow my run down.

“You have a what!” Esme shouts, hair sparking. She doesn’t stop running though. Good, I don’t want my friends to be hurt.

Lily slows down too, until she comes to a stop a few metres away. “Finally give up on running?” she asks.

“No. I decided to take you out, since you’re so annoying,” I say.

“Your friends are stuck here, you know. You’ll never get to leave this place.”

“We’ll make it out just fine,” I say. “We’re not going to be stuck here for long.” I reach for the inside of my cloak, then grumble as I realize that I’m wearing the disguise robes over my cloak. “Gimme a sec,” I say.

Lily actually does wait, which is great. I shuck off my stolen robes and toss it to the side where it flops onto a hedge, then I straighten out my cloak. Finally, I can reach within and root around my inner pockets until I find my token.

“Thanks for waiting,” I say.

“No problem,” Lily replies. She’s grinning, and I have the impression she’s been using this time to strengthen her own magic. Well, fair’s fair.

I raise the token before me. A metallic disk, with a line of small holes down its middle. It's covered in little marks and encryptions, and it’s hard not to feel the magic oozing off of it. “Come, Livonas!” I call as I snap the token.

I frown, lower the token, and grab it in both hands.

I snap the token.

...

It’s hard.

I try twisting it, but that doesn’t work, nor does just pressing it in the middle and pushing on the edges.

“One second, this is...”

“Need a hand?” Lily asks.

“Uh, I should... be... urgh, this is like the pickle jar all over again,” I say.

Then a fireball whacks me in the face and I stumble back with a gasp. Lily is running towards me, one arm cocked way back. “Take me seriously!” she shouts.

I raise my arm to block, Dark magic pooling into it to absorb some of the impact. I’m not sure if it will be enough.

Her fist is engulfed in flames as it rams my forearm, and I can’t help but gasp as I’m shoved back. “Rude!” I shout. That was underhanded of her. All I’m trying to do is summon a dragon to leave this place. I don’t even want to fight her.

Lily throws a fist my way, but it’s a feint to get my arms up. I only see her leg moving up in time to brace for the kick that hits me right above the hip. I duck down, trying to at least catch her leg before she pulls it back, but I’m way too slow.

Her movements are faster, much faster than before.

Lily starts to laugh, and I catch on. She’s using Joy magic on herself. Not to manipulate the wind, but to speed herself up.

I back up under her constant assault, focus split between using more magic to defend myself and summoning a dark disk to block off some of her attacks.

This isn’t great. She looks like she’s the same age as me, but she’s definitely kicking my butt here. How? I’ve had mom to help me, and I only get distracted by fiction... alright, maybe I haven’t been practicing enough.

I’m an idiot.

A burst of raw disgust fills my core and I scream as my veins pulse. Magic is flowing through them, a black ooze that’s neither warm nor cool, it’s just lukewarm, like mud flowing down a hillside.

I feel the token snap in my hand and grin as Lily punches me right in the face. It’s going to leave a bruise, but the look in her eyes as I don’t even flinch is worth it.

My hand wraps around her wrist, and I swing as hard as I can with my other arm, balled fist burying itself into her ribs.

My magic doesn’t make me stronger, but I’m not exactly unfit, and neither fire nor wind helps Lily endure the blow to her short ribs.

She stumbles back with a cough, a burst of flame around her arm forcing me to free her before I burn myself.

“You... you no good mean monster!” she shouts. “You’re the same as all of them, aren’t you?”

“I literally don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say as I rub at my face. I can feel it swelling already.

Lily glares, but she turns her gaze away from me. “Fine,” she says. “You’re just a monster, you’re evil for your own reasons, aren’t you?”

“Uh, maybe? I’m trying really hard to be.” Like mom! “Don’t know who you’re comparing me to. So I can’t say whether I’m like them or not.”

I glance up, but the skies above are filled with lots of clouds and no dragons. The token is definitely broken. I toss the remains of it to the side. No point in holding onto that now.

“You have no idea what it’s like, being the one that Héroe chose, and having to deal with all the stupid bigots in this place,” Lily spits. She brings her fists up again, a boxer’s stance. “But maybe you can fix that for me. If I kick your butt, maybe they’ll finally treat me right.”

“That’s not how things work in most of the books I’ve read,” I say. “I figure they’ll just say that they could have kicked my butt themselves. Not that they could. My butt’s pretty hard to kick.”

I shift, one hand up before me, the other lower by my side, my legs bent a little at the knees and ready to take my weight.

I hear steps behind me, and a quick glance over my shoulder reveals Felix and Esme coming to join me. I don’t think either of them know how to fight, but I’ll take any help I can get. “Use ranged stuff,” I tell them. “She’s tough close up.”

“Got it,” Felix says. She’s grinning from ear to ear, her blindfold resting around her neck even as her eyes practically glow yellow.

“We’re not going to kill her,” Esme says. “Monster or not. And we still need to get out of here. I think some people are starting to wonder what’s going on.”

She’s not wrong, I can see a small crowd gathering on the edges of the courtyard. Mostly students, but there are a couple of adults who are just standing by and watching for now.

“Fine, three against one. Nothing new there,” Lily says.

Everyone tenses.

I swallow, and get ready to fight properly, this time. We need to put an end to this before others start to move over. And even then, we might end up having to fight a lot of people.

That wasn’t part of my plan.

A whomp fills the air.

It’s a strange sound, like a giant tarp caught in the wind snapping full.

Another beat sounds, and I find myself.

The wind picks up, beating down on us in great, heavy gusts.

“What the--” Lily begins.

Then a shadow swallows the courtyard, the buildings around it, and the walls on either end. It’s cold in that sudden partial darkness.

I see Lily looking up, and the blood drains from her face.

The ground skips out from under us as a massive boom sounds out. Glass bursts in window frames across the academy. People scream.

I wave my arms around to stop myself from falling, and Esme eeps as she fails to keep to her feet and lands on her bum.

Felix starts to laugh.

Livonas has arrived.

***