My Exploding Cat

Chapter Eleven–Home

CHAPTER ELEVEN—HOME

We found Mom waiting patiently right outside the cottage. Turns out she had been tracking me from my cell phone, which had a GPS thing in it. I found this weirdly funny. She has the most rare magic known to Anoki, but she tracks me with a cell phone. We all have our quirks.

“Oh, you found Akana,” Mom said. “She’s your sister as well, but she wandered away when she was a toddler and landed in the Zepha tribe. You took care of her as you took care of all the children, and she eventually ended up with you, although you didn’t seem to recognize her then. I let her stay. She learned things from you.”

Akana smiled brightly. I guess she never really knew Mom either.

“Where do you live, exactly?” I asked Mom. She took us there.

Her house was nothing super fancy or weird like Katyen’s, but one of the bedrooms looked exactly like mine. It looked like the inside of a tree, with hardwood floors and a mossy green rug that came close to the color of the walls. But a lot more light came into this room than my room in the Zepha tribe. I wondered who would live in that house now. I had an idea.

I could definitely live here. It was becoming real.

I met my father. He had an odd personality, and would listen to a conversation for a while, then pipe up with a witty comment. He sounded a lot like me, but less chatty and less bold. And a heck of a lot calmer. But I knew where Kaye and Akana got their blonde hair.

I wanted to stay. Kaye had had a semi-normal life, but I wanted a break from fighting. I was happy. I wanted to stay.

I had to go back to the Zepha tribe for a little. I had unfinished business.

“Tony!” I called. He dropped out of a tree. What a surprise.

“Yeah?”

“Have I got a deal for you.”

“Yeah?”

I took him behind the house. “The plants like you, and I’m moving in with my mom, who I just discovered isn’t dead. I can’t fit all these plants in my room, so I want you to have the greenhouse and keep it. And if you ever want more magic lessons, it’s a short flight to the Skiea tribe.”

I took the mint plant in a basket and some of my seeds, but I left the rest for Tony. Which was a lot. I taught him to use the sprinkler system (dump water in tub. Watch planty things get water. You done now) and left him. I wasn’t sure what to do with the house, but I figured Tony might live there when he got older.

I was glad I didn’t bring many plants home, because I had a tree house full of them now. My parents had been ready, and my mom had obviously been up on my status.

I was overjoyed. This made the whole mission thing worth it. It was perfect. I didn’t have a reason to stay with the Zephans and definitely not with the Kliid, but I had every reason to stay with my own parents and sort of catch up. I decided I wanted to be a magic/weapons teacher right here in the Skiea tribe. I could live here.

I saw someone in the sky. Someone with hunter-green wings…

“Tony!”

“My parents said that if I wanted to do Earth magic, then I was going to have to go to you for schooling, if you said yeah. It only took me a few minutes to fly.” He landed, looking windblown and cute (though I’d never say that to his face).

“Heck, yeah!” I said automatically, grinning wide. “I was just thinking of starting a school somewhere around here.”

“You’re acting normal,” he said, astonished.

“Which still counts as acting weird because I never do it,” I pointed out.

“Okay, that makes sense. I think,” he said. “Sort of. Maybe weird, perverted sense. I learned that word from you.” He grinned at me. I got this weird impulse to back away slowly, turn, and run the other direction at mach speed. He was creeping me out.

I was becoming normal, yes, but I felt after my life, I deserved it. Most people work the other way around, but I was so weird that, even when weird is normal for an adventure, I was on a whole different level of weird so that I was weirdly weird, and now I’m weirdly normal. Weird.

I still had some questions, though.

“What did I do?” I asked Mom. “You said you saw me make up spells, but I don’t know what I was doing.”

Kaye was sitting in the living room, talking excitedly with Dad. Akana was petting the humongous lump of fur that was vaguely feline (my mom called it a cat). His name was Cat-Flat, and it had nothing to do with lack of roundness, a trait Cat-Flat seemed to have in abundance. No, Cat-Flat was named for his… anomalies. Need I say more? Didn’t think so.

“Star magic enables you to do the elements Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Light, Darkness, Time, Storm, Dreams, and Star. You simply didn’t know that Star magic has an element of its own that no one else can do. It has very little to actually relate to the stars, and more to relate to whatever you use it for. Wardrobe catastrophes. House décor. Problems with child discipline. I once made up a spell that glued children to whatever they touched until they listened. The floor. Their toys. Each other. I did it once when the high school boys were slapping the doorframe to go into school. You should have seen their faces when their hands stuck there. Then I dropped them just before they dislocated their shoulders and watched them land in a heap. But I’m mean that way.” She grinned.

“You sound creepily like me.” I grinned.

“Kaye can do nine of the ten elements. She can’t do Star magic. She’s a Storm Anoki, like her father. Air and Storm magic for her. And Light. Anything in the sky. She couldn’t do Earth, though. That brings me to my other point. Do you know why that man got possessed by Star magic even though he did not undergo the Commitment Spell?”

“No dang clue.” I liked how she always asked whether I knew something before explaining it. I hate it when people start telling me stuff I know already because they assume I don’t and I can’t tell them to shut up already like I want.

“Simply because this is the nature of Star magic. You have to be a certain kind of person to wield it properly. You have to be good, yes, morally and in magic, but there’s a little more than that. You were grounded in Earth magic. You’re an Earth Anoki before you are a Star Anoki, and you didn’t let it go to your head. You’re strong enough in yourself, and you don’t pretend to be someone you’re not or wish you were something else. You wanted to fly, yes, but you got that already from Akana. Since you were occupying every part of yourself evenly, it didn’t have a place to take over that didn’t have you and your Earth magic leashing it. Magic is weird.

“Your Earth magic was dominant, and it was also the reason you couldn’t take the village through mutiny or brute force.  People notice hurricanes, tornadoes, and people notice forest fires and volcano eruptions and floods and winds that blow things over. But people can sleep through earthquakes that may cover a certain poisonous plant that would normally kill someone, or a certain rock falls on a certain head. Someone up there makes sure that the right people get killed and the right people stay alive.”

I was thinking. “If there is someone ‘up there’ who supervises, then why do bad people tend to live so long?”

“Just because we’re watched doesn’t mean that the world is perfect. It’s a cursed place. All we can do is make it as good as possible, but people will always be slightly evil. No matter what. But it does mean that 99% of human worries are needless. They think the earth is going to dissolve into nothingness if cows are around.”

“What?!”

“Cows. I heard. Something about farting.”

I shook my head. “You’re nuts.”

“Don’t blame me! The humans came up with it!”

“Do you know how Anoki get magical talents, anyway?” I asked, changing the subject. “It seems like they just show up sometimes.”

“Usually it’s because they run into a loose patch of magic, or someone puts too much power into a spell and that extra power becomes ambient magic. Then when someone finds it, it’s like walking into a cloud of gnats, and if the magic acknowledges the person because they’re the right personality, the right type to carry that magic, then it’s theirs. You ran into the Star magic that I used from the sky to disguise the bodies. I did it there so that it would be unlikely for people to run into it and use it badly. But you could fly, and you were the first to find it. I’m surprised Kaye didn’t, but I’m glad. She would have been possessed. Magic is dangerous. And the Kliid leader you dealt with had run into either your Star magic, or had found Akana’s spell and run into mine while flying.”

“Did Akana make that spell up?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It feels like Light magic, but she seemed to make it up. Her talents are strangely limited, though, to the natural elements and Light. She can’t do other Star magic or make up other spells. I call it Moon magic, just in case she’s discovered a new element. When you did it, it felt to me like Star magic, but Light Anoki can do it—I asked one. And it feels like Light magic when she does it.”

“I don’t know what to make of that kid,” I said. I didn’t.

“And if you don’t accept the magic when you run into it, it doesn’t take. You couldn’t do Darkness magic well, even though it came with the Star magic, because you’d only half accepted it, just enough to get the Star magic. I have to agree with you—I like night, because night is natural, but darkness is created. Night isn’t really dark. There are stars, each the same as the sun, across the sky with you. The moon reminds you that the sun is only on the other side of the world and still exists. Night is real. Darkness is when you are shut inside a building and someone doesn’t want light there. You can’t see a thing, and sometimes there’s a reason for that.”

“Uh, bad.” I crossed my eyes.

Mom grinned impishly. I don’t know how many moms are as naughty as mine, or if they’re just mainly mischievous. “I remember hearing that one time, on an airline that had older people running it, the pilot said to the passengers, ‘The lights are dimmed to improve your experience if you get tired and to enhance the appearance of the wait staff.’”

“Are you sure?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

If she’d approached us with lemon cookies and a huge white smile, I’d have run away fast in the other direction and nicknamed her CreepyGirl. But she hadn’t. She approached us with biscotti and a snigger at our expressions when we’d learned the too-obvious way why her cat was named Cat-Flat. I hadn’t flinched.

I went outside. What was I going to do now? Mel had the Zephans, and Kaye had the Kliid now. And I would be the Unconventional Schoolteacher. But I needed a building… or did I? I took flight and looked at the forest below until I found a clearing. I landed, went home, and mapped it out on paper. Then I used the photocopier, stolen from humans by a Water Anoki with an invisibility spell (and a camera—he took a picture of their faces), to copy it like a million times. I folded them up and stuck them in a bag. I wrote out:

Magic School—All Elements, 9:00-6:00

Schedule: Stay as long as you like throughout the long school day and come as you like. Hiring and registering! Taught by Star Anoki Amanda Unger.

All ages, all elements. 5$ per student per day. Outside, rain or shine, in mapped clearing. Contact me at amandarocks@amail.com for more info.

I decided that I might have to make a new email for the school. I erased Amandarocks@amail.com and went to the email site. Yes, Anoki have their own email site. We could have used the humans’, but that would have prevented us from building a website housing a reputation as superstition geeks by making email themes with blurry pictures of Anoki. I know why they’re blurry, too; it’s because the person holding the camera is laughing so hard when they take the picture.

I replaced amandarocks@amail.com with magicschool@amail.com. I figured that would be enough. Scrabbling around for something to shove the maps in, I found an empty Ziploc bag and stapled it to the poster I’d written out. I shoved the maps in the bag and flew (literally) to the grocery store bulletin board. The Skiea tribe was much smaller than the Zepha tribe and lacked the huge money-making megamall, but it did have a pretty big population anyway, and a lot of kids. In case you haven’t caught on, I have a thing for kids. Yeah, I was definitely here.

I went home. I read my book for about an hour, then, on a whim, went to check my email. There were three new messages:

Do you teach Water magic? –mycrazypuffycat@amail.com

count me in –leafyjaniegirl@amail.com

hey Mrs. Unger im gonna join ur school  –imnotschizo@amail.com

I responded to each of them.

I teach all elements, mycrazypuffycat. –Amanda Unger

Okay, leafyjaniegirl, just show up with a five at the clearing and you’re in. –Amanda Unger

Imnotschizo, when I email teachers, I don’t usually use chat speak. And, um… I’m not married. Otherwise, good! No papers, just show up with a five every day and stay however long you want.

I left for the clearing. I didn’t know if they’d be there already or not—I hadn’t specified a time—but if they were over there, I didn’t want to miss them.

Good thing I did, because five kids had already showed up. Word had traveled of what I’d done in the Zepha and Kliid tribes. Kind of creepy, really. People watched.

But anyway, it was twenty-five bucks. I spent the day dodging fireballs and saying shield spells so fast that the words became a blur. Probably the reason humans thought that all spells had to be some gibberish in a secret language. Sheesh.

I was exhausted when I went home. Completely and utterly exhausted. I was also sick of seeing wet sneakers from failed Water spells, sick of seeing people stomping out embers and patting scorched clothes from Fire spells, sick of those little green-and-purple spots blinding me periodically from Light spells, sick of watching someone crack the same stupid joke again and again from Time spells that went wrong (or just because the kid keeps doing it, which is worse because I can reverse Time spells), and sick of having kids get caught up in their own Air tornadoes, getting dizzy, sick, and throwing up, and then having to pull leaves over it and making ginger extract. And I wanted to do it for weeks on end.

The next day I had fifteen kids. Apparently the Skiea tribe was more magically diverse, or maybe just a hideout for the more weirdly talented Anoki. Or they’d all got caught up in my mom’s magic and were doing the magical equivalent of sitting in radioactive waste. Yeah, that sounded more like my life.

“Kiera! You cannot set your brother on fire! Now sit down, or I’ll really teach you how to fly.”

Kiera sat down quickly, grinning broadly. I turned to another kid, who was intentionally making someone throw up. Sheesh. I grabbed his shirt and pretended to Super-Glue him to the forest floor. I wasn’t mean enough yet to try my mom’s spell, but I was getting close.

“Hey guys, how about a talent show?” I called. “Everybody sit down.”

Everybody… ignored me.

“EVERYBODY SIT DOWN,” I said, and everybody sat down. Immediately.

“Show me what you can do. Up here. Let’s see, who to pick on first?” I scanned the squirming kids, most of them around Tony’s age. “Lina, how about you?”

Lina got up. “I can make a level four hurricane,” she offered.

“Maybe something a little less dangerous that won’t cause us to drown?” I suggested. Lina was an adorable blonde girl, yes, but she was also the Water version of a pyromaniac.

“I’ll make tea from poison, then. Safe tea.” She pulled out a jug from her backpack. “This is the most dangerous stuff a kid can find anywhere. Assassins use it all the time. It’s tasteless, fast, and deadly.”

I was really questioning this kid’s parental supervision.

She poured some into a Dixie cup. We’d used them for juice. The poison was a nondescript brown color. Lena flexed her fingers, muttered some spells I couldn’t hear (uh oh), and the poison turned clear. Not that that meant squat. Lena set some branches on the ground, lit them by magic (YIKES), and set the Dixie cup in the flames without burning herself or the glass. Its contents bubbled. Lena grew some plants, picked some leaves, and dropped them in the (water?).  She was really starting to scare me. A minute later, she had some tea, which she fed to a rabbit that did not fall over, dead. We’d waited five minutes in horror.

“It would have died by now, guys!”

None of us questioned how she knew this. Then she fed the actual poison to the rabbit, and it fell over after thirty seconds.

“Okay, guys! Let’s give her a hand and everyone remind me to make my own tea!” I made a mental note never to do Star magic around Lena. She’s creepy without making up spells—as is.

“Make your own tea!” several voices chorused.

I laughed at them. This was definitely not normal school. It was much more controlled… and better air conditioned. Not that I was using cooling spells. I smiled. I could definitely do this for a while. Maybe a long while. And if not… I can find my own entertainment. Insert evil grin here.

I don’t know what else to tell you, but if you want to know more about magic…

…meet me in the clearing.

The End

Chapter Ten–Mother

CHAPTER TEN–MOTHER

My jaw dropped. I blinked. I should have known! Her voice was familiar, she was protective, she spied on me just to know who I was. It made sense.

“Why?”

“Like you, your father and I didn’t want to be used as weapons. But we were required to be warriors because of our powers. Your father can do rare and powerful magic as well—his specialties are Air and Storm, but he is not a Star Anoki. We left fake bodies the second we got the chance, but they didn’t look real. I had to use Star magic to make them look right, like we’d been shot. I couldn’t go get you or Kaye, or we’d all be hunted, and I didn’t want to actually die in the war and leave you parentless forever. But I watched you and made sure that you weren’t hurt. You don’t know how hard it was not to just go up to you and snatch you away, although you probably would have killed me if I tried that.

“I was never worried about you. You had strong magic, and Mel took care of you. You’re strong, and brave, and beautiful. You taught yourself Star magic. I saw you make up spells, though you didn’t know what you were doing at the time. You used Star magic to decorate the house for your plans. You were clever.”

That was why she looked like me. Under the dark hair dye, I could see traces of auburn, like mine. Her eyes, so near my deep blue-green, could look threatening but didn’t now. I was nervous. I felt vulnerable.

I didn’t know what to do. I sat down on the pine-needle floor of the forest and broke down into tears. I rarely cry. But I was doing it now.

“It’s all right.” She sat down right by me and hugged me like I was some little girl. “It’s all right.”

*          *          *

I don’t know how long I sat in the stupid pine needles sobbing like some idiot. But when I cry, I cry. The trees’ sympathy was wonderful, but actually having my mom there was better. I definitely took after her. I wondered what my father was like—maybe like Kaye? Now there’s a weird thought.

“What am I going to do?” I sobbed. “I have two villages that need me, I’m an emotional wreck, and—big surprise—thirteen years old. And I’m not sure whether to break down crying or do a dorky King Tut dance.”

My mom pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. But she did grin at me, and I grinned back.

“I don’t want this power. I don’t know what to do with it.”

“You’ve done your part,” my mom said.

“That’s just it. I’m stuck with an extra job.”

“Do what you want. But you have to do it fast or someone else will take over. Get yourself together and go to them. It’s okay if you choose to stay and govern the villages. I live in a village nearby. Go now.”

I did. I ran and took off, and raggedly flew to the Kliid.

“I am your new leader,” I shouted. “I have more power than the previous ruler, whom I have dealt with separately. First thing: stop all warring with the Zephans!”

I went to the area of the battlefield right where the two armies mixed in combat. “Stop and retreat! Both armies!”

There was a pause. Both went straight back to the camps, muttering. I was expecting trouble, but it didn’t come. I guess killing like a ton of people off and fighting vigorously for hours on end kind of shows that you’re really serious. Even if you’re a teenage girl with weird taste in hair color.

I landed and found the Fire Anoki who had stuck up for me against Jaken. “What’s your name?”

“Aaron?” He looked undecided—freak out or not?

“I’m putting you in charge of the first army group I had. Sector seven. They’re powerful. I trained them myself. You’re trustworthy; you’ve proven that to me through several things.” I grinned coyly and left him standing there, confused.

I flew to Mel’s friend’s place. He answered the door, and I went in. “I have both villages,” I said sadly.

“Good for you!” Mel said. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to sit around barking orders all my life. Mel, you can take the Zepha tribe. You’re smart. I’ll find someone to take the Kliid.”

“Why?” Mel said. “Where will you go?”

“I found Mom… well, she found me.”

Everyone but Mel looked surprised.

“You found Mom!?!” Kaye shrieked, bouncing up and down. And there’s the difference between Kaye and me. I break down in tears from stress and emotion, she dances around. Wahoo.

“Mel, you knew she was alive, didn’t you?”

“Yes. But if you went after her, the dictators would have sent troops to go kill you and your mom for lying to them. I was protecting you, like she was.”

“And I don’t want to sit around settling disputes and giving commands and whatever when I can have a normal life for a while after having, well, this. I’d give Kaye the Kliid village, but I think she’d want to be with Mom, too.”

Kaye’s mouth twitched. I could tell she didn’t know what to do.

“Mom said she lives nearby,” I added.

Kaye nodded. “I’d like to stay near the Kliid, since all my friends are there. But I want to see Mom.”

“No duh,” I said. We all started giggling.

“I’m definitely staying with the Kliid,” Li said. “Seeing as my mom’s there. Maybe Kaye can help convince my mom to stop calling me by my full name, Lisanti. She saw that name on a sugar packet from a Chinese restaurant and thought it sounded pretty.”

“But what do I do?” Akana said.

“You can come with me,” I said. “I’ve taken care of you this far. I’m not going to stop.”

“Dang,” Mel’s friend said. “One minute she’s my girlfriend, the next minute she’s Zephan leader. Dang.”

We all cracked up. I didn’t know what to say.

“I want to see Mom,” Kaye said.

Chapter Nine–Resolution?

CHAPTER NINE—RESOLUTION?

I decided to do what I’d planned: stop the wars. To do this, I had to negotiate. I dragged Kaye and Li along.

I picked out a leader, a “permanent president,” standing at the very edge of the battlefield on the Kliid side and supervising.

“Call off the war,” I shouted over the thwap of arrows and clang of swords.

I was rewarded by chortling laughter. “Go home, little girl.”

“I happen to be the new leader of this tribe,” I shouted. “I govern the entire village. Face it, buddy, I’m at your status. Call off the war or I destroy your people. I AM A STAR ANOKI!”

The warriors stopped. We were rushed by arrows, swords, even just thrown rocks. I shielded my tiny group.

“Nice to hear that. So am I.”

My turn to giggle. “As if! Star magic is too rare.”

“I learned your little flight trick and found the magic months ago.”

“Then you don’t know how to use it. Call off the war or I’ll destroy you now!” I was starting to feel queasy from panic and looking down in flight. I wasn’t scared of heights, but I was getting really disoriented.

“No.”

I threw a fireball at him. He shielded. “Overused!” he taunted. I flooded his immediate area, but he used Air magic to keep breathing. I had the trees nearby uproot themselves and choke him, passing him from branch to branch until he was at eye level. I kicked his nose, hard, and blood squirted out. He started cutting through the branches, but I just told the tree to drop him anyway, maybe 100 feet to the floor. I sent another fireball just as he was snapping his wings out, and he couldn’t shield well.

“Your toupee’s on fire.”

I saw that his eyes were dark; I couldn’t tell where the pupils ended and the irises began. Which told me something: he’d been taken over. I shot him; he healed himself and yanked the arrow out. Wrong order! He kept bleeding.

“I’ll kill you the same way my father killed your parents!”

“You’re lying. I can see it in your face. You don’t know how my parents were killed.”

I realized something more, and grinned. When he’d reached the bottom, I twisted his arm, shin-kicked you know where, and applied a fist to his temples hard enough to make him black out on the ground.

“Are you going to kill him?” Li asked.

“No. I don’t want two villages. I’m taking him prisoner.” I picked up the scrawny person, who looked like he was in his early twenties, and flew him off to the Zepha tribe dungeon. He deserved to be there. I waited until he’d woken up, but had all shields on. I let Kaye and Li leave.

“You have three options,” I said casually. “You can sit here the rest of your life. You can ally with the Zephans, call off the war, and I’ll let you go. Or I can destroy your guts. Pick.”

He fired spell after spell at me, but I made up a spell to prevent him doing magic for the next hundred years. I was hoping that the spell would outlive him.

“Release me. I’ll fight you, if you aren’t too chicken.”

“I’m supposed to be the immature one, remember? Now I gave you options. You can sit here the rest of your life. I won’t hesitate.”

His eyes narrowed.

“And if you think that’s too good for you, I can cut off all food supply. Put you in a cell made entirely of metal. Maybe a sealed cell. And I’ll put Fire magic on it so you can’t melt the bars. I’m sure you’d love that. You can go crazy in there. I’ll even supply Sharpies for you to doodle Kill-Amanda pictures on the walls. Unless you want to go for the cliché and use your own blood. I’ll give you a few canvases if you want to do that.” I smiled.

“You do realize that the more you threaten me, the less I want to negotiate.”

“Hey, me too. I’m getting some good ideas, and they’d be a heck of a lot easier than dealing with you. Destroying your guts has its appeal, too.”

I don’t think he minded the threats, but my being young, pretty and female was definitely taking its toll. I could tell.

“Do you want an Etch-A-Sketch?” I said, smiling more.

“Shut up!”

I grinned. “You are the immature one.”

“I’m eighteen.” He sulked angrily.

“Maybe I should just keep you by my side. You make me look older.” Okay, yes, I’m mean.

“I bumped off the elders of this village to free it. Why don’t I free yours now?” I said, pacing back and forth in front of his cell. I was feeding the flames.

“Yes, why don’t you? You haven’t killed me yet. You’re too soft.”

“Do you really want my response to that?”

“I won’t negotiate. You’ve killed all my generals, and I’ve had to replace my best fighters.”

“Uh, that’s because you killed my generals and my best fighters?” I said in a “duh” tone.

“This anti-magic curse is taking your energy. I feel it. You can’t kill me.”

“I have a forty-five pound bow right here. Do you want to test that?”

“I want to kill you.”

“There’s a surprise.” I grinned wider.

“You don’t want to kill me. You don’t want the village. That’s why you’re not hurting me.”

“Amazing, genius! He can read minds.” I clapped slowly in that “bored” way.

The kid fumed. I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t acting like the Darkness Anoki did when they got possessed by bad magic. Maybe the Light area was affecting him. When someone takes too much magic all in one go, a part of them that normally takes backstage comes forth and houses the extra magic. That part of them becomes full of magic, and since it wasn’t full of the person, it has the most magic in it. The person is locked into their normal personality, which now takes backstage to the other part, and the magic becomes sort of the dominant force. It kind of depends what the person was like and what kind of magic took over to know how they’ll start acting over being possessed. It’s complicated. If I had my say, nobody would get possessed by any type of magic. It’s bad, it takes over a helpless person, and that person can’t control themselves afterwards. Maybe there’s a way to un-possess someone.

I made up a spell to do so, hoping not to remove all the magic. The kid ruler slunk to the floor. I picked him up, skinny thing, and carted him out to somewhere else in the forest, a long way away. Using some Dream magic, I convinced him that he was a Chiki (Chikik are forest elves with wings. They can scream so loudly and so high that if you don’t want to be deaf,  you should be several miles away. With earplugs.

I set him on the forest floor, and did some basic healing magic. I removed the anti-magic curse. He smiled, and I immediately protected myself against the same spell.

“Now it’s time for me to destroy your guts,” he said. I guess my magic didn’t work.

“Yeah. Whatever. Unfortunately, I can’t just fast-forward through this stupid fight with Time magic to the point where I’m standing over your cold, dead body.”

“That’s because it won’t happen.”

“Ooh!” I said. “I love witty banter! Can I put the poison in both cups and heal myself?”

He growled and lunged at me with a fireball.

“Overused!” I chirped. The trees sniggered. I socked his nose again (which just stopped bleeding) and it broke this time. I went in with ice shards to the neck, but it only cut away flesh.

I tried invisibility, and when he copied me, I simply did a spell to undo his. He didn’t know what I’d done, though, because I was invisible. Duh. I pulled out the bottle the spy had given me, hoping it was still water because I was really thirsty, remembering that it would be anyway because I needed it, and having it snatched away by the leader, who gulped all of its contents. Unfortunately, the bottle hadn’t been invisible as I was, because I hadn’t been directly touching it.

“No water for you, girl!”

I decided, right then and there, that what I needed was poison. I smiled.

The Kliid leader gaped and bent double, then got caught up in a nasty localized tornado. It seemed to last just long enough to dislocate his shoulder. But he’d traced the magic and knew where I was now. I ducked to avoid a badly-aimed spell and fired like seventeen of my own. His face had gone blank–very blank. He was actively possessed now. The magic was taking over. I knew, because he’d gotten a lot better. But that meant that his melee defenses were down. I took the rabbit knife out. Grimly, I neared him fast. Better to die than be possessed.

The spy lady appeared suddenly and held a magical shield over me. I would be fine.

Moving fast before the actual person came back, I stabbed him in places that were generally bad to be stabbed in: the chest, the head, the neck. I left him to die alone and with dignity (well, as much dignity as one can when one is defeated “by a girl”). But the truth was, I didn’t want the Zepha tribe, let alone the Kliid. I just wanted them safe.

I turned to the spy lady. “Who are you?”

“Amanda… I’m your mother.”

Chapter Eight: Henrei and Raystar

CHAPTER EIGHT—HENREI AND RAYSTAR

I woke up staring at a pink ceiling. That was how the whole day went. It was one of those I-wanna-scream-now days. Those why-did-I-invite-a-smart-kid-over days. Those seriously-need-to-go-back-to-bed days.

One of those days where you habitually get up and wander into the kitchen, pouring some water into a mug and stuffing it in the microwave with a bamboo stick, staring so mindlessly at the microwave door as it heats that you don’t notice when it bubbles over and makes a mess, nor do you notice the nine-year-old kid sitting at the kitchen table pointing to the hot water tap that got fixed a month ago. You clean up the mess, still only 1% awake, and burn yourself.

You proceed to scrabble around for your tea bags, only to find the charcoal aquarium filter and dump it in while the nine-year-old quietly makes you tea and tries to gently drag you back to bed as you stare at the filter, waiting for it to steep.

All of a sudden, you realize that you’re in your room again and can’t quite figure out why. You reason that it must be to get dressed. So you grab for your jeans and T-shirt, only to find that the nine-year-old did your laundry when he woke up at 7:00 and you’re actually wearing chartreuse Flower Power shorts and a muddy orange plaid shirt, neither of which you actually know the origins of.

You wander into the bathroom, still in costume, only to realize too late that the toothpaste is not the hairspray. So you walk/fall/leap into the shower, turn on the water, learn the difference between blue and red and wonder, all of a sudden, why you’re wearing rather damp clothing.

You smell French toast, and realize that it seems out of place because it happens to be 11:00… and not nighttime. Although you’re more awake from the freezing shower, you still have no clue what’s happening, and try the whole shower thing again with your clothes off, finding out quickly that the soap isn’t the shampoo, mostly because your shampoo isn’t blue. You sort yourself out and get the shower done, stepping out onto the slippery floor into a full split on the second step. You’re automatically grateful that a) your bathroom’s big, b) you’re flexible, and c) you’re not a guy.

Wrapping yourself in a towel, you watch the mirror de-fog and realize that maybe it wasn’t blue soap, vaguely remembering the leftover hair dye from your Halloween costume. Oops.

Slapping yourself until you regain consciousness, doubting that you’d ever really not been asleep, and then trying to unravel your own sentence can really confuse a girl in the morning. Even more so when she sees blue hair and remembers that she’s got to play host to a pompous intellectual who hates teenagers, then sees pajamas on the floor that don’t match, and wondering how long she’s been sleepwalking and what she’s been doing all that time.

Going through all that sort of made me panicky, though I wasn’t sure why. I got dressed, and not in the weird shorts and stuff I found on the floor. I had to admit that my new electric blue hair went quite well with the turquoise shirt. Though I did stop to properly dye the rest of my hair blue, because it didn’t go that well with my Irish origins. I just hoped that Henrei would buy that it was so our troops could spot help better. I did my makeup, to preserve what little sanity I had left, and tried to brush my hair. I undid the magic on my room and felt a lot better. Its dryad-habitat appearance was much more welcoming to me, more familiar. The maple sapling outside my window chirped, “Don’t worry, guys! She’s still sane!”

Somehow I was kind of doubting that.

“Are you all right?” Tony asked as I walked into the kitchen with electric-blue hair.

“Just dandy,” I muttered.

“You didn’t die overnight and come back as some kind of zombie?”

“It’s daytime.” I started making some tea the normal way.

“Uh, yeah,” Tony said. “Very much so. That’s kind of why I asked.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Seriously, though, blue?!”

“It’s so the soldiers can see the healer running around. It’s blue so that it blends enough with the sky that the Kliid can’t.”

Pause. “You’re a really good liar, you know that?”

“I think that’s a compliment,” I said, adding coffee grounds to my tea in an effort to try and wake myself up. As if.

I outfitted the living room to look like a library—in fact, I put four bookshelves along one wall. Tall ones. I returned the rest of the magic I’d done for Katyen to normal. I didn’t do much to the rest of the house, but I dusted off a few existing bookshelves and dragged the encyclopedias out of the basement.

I went out with Tony and bought about a million different books. I shoved them on the shelves, and we went out to fight the Kliid some more. The regenerating healing spell that I’d left was wearing off, but Tony was getting better. All of a sudden, he’d seemed to have a burst of progress that had started after I’d bumped off Katyen. I kind of doubted that the two facts had anything to do with each other. I just noticed.

I’ll spare you the graphic details, but I must have disposed of about fifty more warriors, at least. It wasn’t a crucial battle, so I wasn’t getting very serious. But I was starting to get paid a lot. I was missed when I was with the Kliid. A lot.

Although Tony could shoot his bow well, he wasn’t much of a fighter. He was a healer. He didn’t kill very many people and only did a few revenge attacks, but he was starting to get good with magic. He had an invisibility spell on at all times, but I knew where he was, anyway, because a neon-green shoelace dangling from the Water force field/protection spell is kind of misplaced in the sky unless it belongs to a flying kid trying not to be seen. It’s kind of a tipoff.

I fought for a while, but my heart wasn’t in it. I was getting tired, and less angry at everything and everyone. Fight for what’s right. I had forgotten what was wrong. I had been here too long. I… was sensing mind control magic from below. Swooping, I got ready to attack. Of all the counterproductive attempts, this was the worst. I was angry as anything now. Whoever had gotten a peek in my twisted brain had probably gotten a few mindfuls. My overwhelming logic as well as my burning anger and protective emotion for innocent Zephans, especially children, must have been horribly bright.

As it turned out, I traced the magic to the city prison, an unguarded place which was called a prison but was actually a dungeon, a sadistic house of horrors designed by–you guessed it.

Most of the prisoners were sulking in their cells, plotting escape plans, or singing as if they were drunk because there was nothing else to do. Those people counted as one of the horrors.

But in the most distant cell, in the area of the people who had been there for eons, someone writhed and screamed as if he had just arrived. Now that I was near the source, I could tell that the magic branched across the whole village. Here was the reason that there hadn’t already been a mutiny. Everyone here had been blinded with one big Dream spell. I was the only one who had ever been immune to it. That was why I was truly different.

“That’s why!” I said in surprise, aloud. “I just don’t believe in Santa! It’s all a lie!”

Then I realized how crazy that sounded. My metaphors came at the weirdest times.

If this poor crazy person was being used to control the minds of the village… why was he sobbing on the floor? I looked deeper into the spell.

The person’s name was Rendarr, and he was a Dream Anoki who had been “employed” by the dictators right after the founding of the city to create a permanent spell that would blind people. As expected. But he also got the combined thoughts of every person he controlled.

I am HERE, I thought hard. He would hear me best because I was the closest.

“Why?”

I will KILL the dictators. You will be free. It was a statement.

“No… I am never free…”

Can’t you end the spell?

“No…”

Yes, you can, you whimpering fool. I killed Jaken. Whatever mind control he had over you is gone. You  can end this.

“No. I can only end the spell by ending.”

This poor, poor soul. “Do you want me to kill you?” I asked, seriously.

No response. He couldn’t hear me. I dug into my backpack and handed him some granola bars.

Do you want me to kill you? I repeated. The man sat up.

“Why would you do this?”

You are in pain. Do you want me to kill you?

“The magic will stay for at least a week, if that’s why.”

I need the magic for a little while. But you are in pain. I will ask again: Do you want me to kill you?

“Yes…”

I didn’t kill him with the bow, but by magic. It wouldn’t hurt. Wherever he was going, it had to be better than here. Sometimes protection has nothing to do with sustaining life.

Humming Andrew Bird’s Heretics under my breath, I left quickly. Of all the deaths I’d seen, this had to be the saddest. Sometimes deaths were sad because people always got the most out of life and were enjoying it, only to die. But this death was sad because the person did want to die… and had a reason to.

*          *          *

I went home. I cooked dinner. There wasn’t much to do. I wasn’t happy, but I was incredibly and utterly furious with the elders. I wanted to kill them all… well, kill them both. There aren’t enough left to have an “all.”

Raystar the werewolf, and Henrei the bookworm. Henrei would have to be first. I felt magic from Raystar; she was forcing people into believing her innocence with strong Light magic. These freakazoids relied too heavily on brainwashing. That was going to change. This place would be run right or destroyed. And that would be the final word.

I went out and asked around (from different people, of course) where Henrei lived. I was going to ask him to come over and talk about battle strategies, and I’d dressed the part: I looked like a newscaster. Khaki jacket, green shirt, black jeans. Fancy jewelry. I felt like I was acting in a play, being anyone but myself. It didn’t feel natural. I didn’t like it. I was sad again, but remembered why I was angry.

I wondered how long it would be before the more strong-minded Anoki broke free of the brainwash spell. But I wasn’t wondering long, because I saw Tony’s shoelace stop in midair and the invisibility spell faltered. He blinked and frowned, then really frowned. Then he looked downright furious, like I was. He started firing shot after shot at the Kliid. My, how short weeks are.

I couldn’t see anyone else stopping and realizing stuff, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t anyone. I knew Tony was pretty strong-willed, but hoped he was stronger than I thought. I wanted to do this secretly, for reasons I couldn’t explain except that I wanted to make sure the city fell in my hands, or Mel’s, and not the hands of some wacko who plans to do the same thing.

I was directed to a normal house. I was expecting, I don’t know, some evil, looming stone castle. Whatever.

I’m sorry, but when Henrei answered the door, I had one thought: Dang, he looks like a chipmunk! His head shape, with no neck, combined with his too-conservative hair, just made him look like he should be annoying Daffy Duck on some golf course or something. I tried hard not to giggle.

“From what I hear, you seem like the type of person who would be intelligent enough to plot battle strategies. You could show me how to improve my approach.” Please, please let this guy’s ego call off his guard, I silently prayed.

“Indeed,” he said, and I was suppressing giggles as the stocky man tried to “draw himself up to full height” and looked like some kind of pompous, chubby dwarf preparing to give a speech on how great he was. I smiled, letting Henrei think it was because he had agreed to “teach” me. I had seen generations of generals’ approaches and had seen the life and death of each. I knew what worked, and I knew why. I knew how soldiers survive. I don’t think Henrei had anywhere near the seven years of experience I had, and if he did, it had been spent sitting on his 70-pound butt looking out a window and barking orders. The only thing he had to teach me was how to gain weight faster than the speed of light. And Mel had said that Butan was the fat one. He must have been spherical.

Henrei ushered me in and dragged me awkwardly down the stairs, to a basement that would have freaked a mole out. I bet that moles couldn’t navigate it. Henrei couldn’t.

It was all a library, a maze of bookshelves. Actually, it served as a public library and had a back entrance for normal people. It wasn’t all Henrei’s; he just happened to live in the house above.  I had to fly to the ceiling a few times, work out the maze, and direct Henrei to the door at the back, which he unlocked once we were finally there.

I was exhausted from craning my neck in that weird way that some people (and apparently Henrei) think looks intelligent. I was going the whole ten yards because I wanted to maintain an innocent appearance until the last mission, in which I would “slay the evil werewolf that was in Raystar’s kitchen.” I needed to get rid of Henrei fast so that I could make the full moon on Thursday. Since it was still Sunday-ish, I had plenty of time.

I listened to Henrei babble for a while.

“Why don’t we discuss this formally at my house? Say, tomorrow? I have a rather impressive collection of books, and we won’t be interrupted by the local bookworms. Plus, my plans are all there.” And nonexistent, I thought. I knew what I was doing tomorrow.

“Of course,” Henrei said haughtily, propping himself up against a bookshelf and trying to look taller. I was still on the verge of a giggle fit.

“I can see my own way out,” I said. Henrei left, sauntering between shelves and inevitably getting lost. I didn’t care. The librarian would find him eventually.

I left through the back door that was right there and grinned at the world at large. Then I started laughing my head off.

I went home. Tony, predictably, dropped down from a tree (but without crash-landing this time, since he could fly).

“Where you going tonight?” he asked, grinning.

“Home now. You keep missing the pompous excitement.”

“Hmm.”

I was in the mood to fly again, and going home didn’t have much appeal. I was in the mood to be by water.

“I think I’m going home too,” Tony said. “My parents have a heck of a lot of questions.”

I noticed that he still had his bow on his back. He saw me looking and said, “I want to know how to make these. This one’s getting too easy to shoot.”

It was a twenty-pound bow. Though Anoki are slightly stronger than humans, it’s kind of odd for a nine-year-old kid to pick shooting up that fast. Or maybe Tony was just strong. Being angry helped the workout of fighting.

“I can teach you more after tomorrow. But you need to get home now. You’ve become valuable in the war, so I advise that you use an invisibility spell and make sure you cover your shoelaces.”

Tony grinned. “It’s so the warriors can see help and small enough that the Kliid can’t!”

“Oh, shut up!”

Then I realized that Henrei hadn’t asked me about my hair at all. Must be colorblind.

I waited until Tony had gone home, then ducked into the forest and flew above it. I didn’t go high. I stayed near the top leaves and watched the battle from their cover. I was angry again. The Kliid seemed so superior compared to the Zephans now. Zephan rulers relying on magic at someone else’s expense… I wondered how many cockroaches were in the Kliid’s basement. Their government was free—sort of—and even the most strong-minded people didn’t seem to be blatantly ticked with anyone. But that didn’t mean something wasn’t going on.

I fell asleep to the sound of battle coming from the field, and woke up several times that night. I wanted someone desperately. Someone to talk to. Not Mel. Mel was just a good friend, and though I trust her, it’s kind of hard to talk to her sometimes because she can seem like a teacher or even a babysitter sometimes. Kaye might have been my sister, but I didn’t know or trust her very much. My trust was too hard to earn. Akana was too young, and I barely knew Li.

I felt more Dream magic, and traced it to a person right below the foliage of the trees. I ducked back into the forest canopy. It was that spy lady again!

“Look. If you’re here because you’re spying on me and letting me know it because you think I’m going to blurt out my feelings to you, then you obviously missed the part about how my trust is hard to earn. Ring a bell?”

“Yes. I don’t expect you to say anything.”

I realized that she wasn’t talking like Yoda anymore, and for some reason, her voice sounded oddly familiar. She still wore a ton of perfume and enough clothing and jewelry that, if she wore the same every day, her own friends wouldn’t recognize her with it off.

“Then why are you here? Don’t give me any guardian angel garbage.”

“You seem to dislike me. Is there a reason?”

“One, you’re spying me in the middle of an ongoing covert mission,” I said, frowning, “and two, I rarely trust anyone without knowing them for a long time. In my life, everyone is under suspicion. That’s why I survive. People have lied to me for as long as I remember. My paranoia is justified.”

“I never said it wasn’t. But I am not Kliid or Zephan, and I have not hurt you.”

“And I don’t know who you’re reporting to. You might not be Zephan, but that doesn’t mean that someone else is sitting and listening to my everyday life. I have a reason not to trust people, and I’ve only known you since I caught you spying on me.”

“No, Amanda. You have known me all your life. I am surprised that you do not know who I am.”

“Then perhaps you should tell me if you want my trust. Why do you want my trust, anyway? I wanted the elders’ trust right before I killed them. What’s your reason? I don’t know.”

“I want to know you, Amanda. That’s it. I haven’t known you, not really.”

“You said I knew you all my life!” I said angrily. “Why are you contradicting yourself?”

“As for simply telling you who I am, Amanda,” Alicia said coolly, “I will tell you after your mission. Both of them. Do not let your guard down after killing Raystar. I will not attack you, but someone will.”

“Who?” I asked. “Their families?”

The spy scoffed. “As if! You could take a few angry villagers. No. But you will see eventually. Go to bed. You’ll need it.”

She left. I went to bed—in the house, this time.

I woke up, looked in the mirror across the room from my bed, and screamed. Then I remembered yesterday. I don’t think you know what bed head looks like with blue hair. Especially if you sleep in the sky half the night.

I brushed it out and got dressed. Who did Alicia think she was and why did she think I bought that junk she told me. I was used to being lied to, but from someone who wants my trust…

I wasn’t sure what to make of it. But I decided to put that off for a while. I wasn’t in the mood to think. I’m not what you’d call an early bird (but I think you got that from how yesterday started out) and I’m not a Monday person, either. But I decided that I could still plot out battle sketches to annoy Henrei with. Hopefully he would get bored fast, because my plan involved that.

I spent the day forging meticulous plans that I came up with on the spur of the moment, then giving orders to the troops to do them. I previously hadn’t planned much for defeating the Kliid beyond telling the troops to just blow them the heck up. It had worked. But I was sitting here and giggling, writing “defensive maneuvers” and “weak points” of each type of Anoki. All I cared about as far as weak points was simple: As long as they keel over when I shin kick them in the crotch, I’m good.

I couldn’t wait for today to be over. Then I’d only have Raystar to deal with. I was ready.

Before I knew it, the plans were as done as plans would get. I made dinner and brought out a bottle of wine for Henrei. The more drunk he is, the better for my plot.

It was 5:00. The troops were doing a defensive plan I’d seen once (which hadn’t worked, but Henrei would like it and I wouldn’t have to do it long). The plan involved lacing the edges of the battlefield, including the edge going back to the Kliid, with humans’ gasoline, then having the Fire Anoki light it, sealing the Kliid off from help by a wall of fire. It only lit for a day, though, and the Kliid had just gone back for help when it had burned out. But I didn’t need it for long, and it was perfect for this mission.

Henrei came over soon. I hoped he didn’t notice when I widened the narrow doorway so that there wouldn’t be a scene. I blabbered on for a while about the plans, then took him out “to see it in action.”

“Of course, I bet you’ve seen this plan before, seeing as you’re the village elder!” I let my voice go a little louder. That did it—he was too much of a target for the Kliid to resist, and though I walked on, he didn’t, being surrounded immediately.

I started pulling the rabbit knife on the attackers, but acted like they were pushing me away and went slow enough that I allowed them to kill him before dispatching them. I slapped Henrei’s cheeks for signs of life, but he’d been stabbed. I ducked my head, smiled, and dragged him off of the battlefield.

*          *          *

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday training Tony with the bow and in healing magic. He was strong, stronger than he’d been at Water magic. Making potions wasn’t a problem, either. I taught him some of the more advanced Water magic, too. He picked it all up fast.

I met his schoolteacher once. She’d seriously underestimated him, and had only kept to the basics. He could probably beat her in magical combat now. I could tell that the real reason she hadn’t taught him anything was because she didn’t know anything other than the basic Water magic. She should have been a babysitter, not a teacher. I offered to put her with Jane and Ivory to help with the little kids. She accepted and left to find them.

When I wasn’t helping Tony with… um… extracurricular activities, I fought the Kliid and healed people. I dropped by the hospital and saved people from the price monster. I restored the potion stock. I grew food, made bows and arrows, tutored people with less archery experience and taught them the fast way to make arrows, and listened to people.

What the people talked about was magic. Normally there would be gossip about Katyen’s stupid-looking pink hair (which there still was—she would be a legend for generations), but this time it was mostly about Auntie Em’s new ________ magic.

I ignored this. I had better things to do than question this new burst of power.

Finally, Thursday came. It was a full moon as predicted. I knew where Raystar’s house was. Everyone knew where Raystar’s house was. We’d all been invited to some tea party or something at some point.

I had a bag of goodies with me.

“Raystar!” I knocked on the door. “I heard you weren’t feeling well! I brought you dinner!”

No response. I expected.

“Raystar?” I injected innocence into my voice. My bow was on my back, of course. I wasn’t going to let on that I had a sword, let alone one I could lift.

I opened the door into Raystar’s kitchen and screamed. Following lines, of course. I shot the wolf and went “looking for Raystar.” Not finding her (duh), I dragged the wolf into the back yard. I left the basket on the counter, feeling like a perverted Red Riding Hood, and left. I couldn’t believe it. My mission was done. I couldn’t even sleep that night.

I passed the night by looking for Alicia, the spy lady. I couldn’t find her. I was disappointed, though I didn’t know why. I didn’t trust her, right? Right?

But for some reason, I was liking her a little more. I would like her a lot more if I knew who she really was and where she lived, or even who she was reporting to. I had a few theories, including the crazy one: she wasn’t reporting to anyone, but actually did want to know me. Unlikely as that was, it had felt like she was telling the truth. And my instincts are usually pretty accurate.

I left for Mel’s friend’s place. It was dawn by then, and he was the only one up. I returned the sword.

“Keep it,” he said. “You may need it again.”

“Unfortunately, that’s a plausible possibility in my life.”

“I am glad that I am not you.”

“Then you got me right.” I sighed. He made tea in a French press.

It was a long time before anyone else woke up, or at least it seemed like it to me.

“You killed Raystar in werewolf form last night?” Kaye asked.

“Yep. I dragged her into the back yard.”

“I’ve never seen a werewolf,” Akana said, intrigued.

“She’s probably changed back, but I don’t know. We could see.”

We went to Raystar’s back yard. She had changed back, and she looked oddly familiar.

“That’s my Light teacher!” Akana shrieked.

My mouth dropped open. Moonray? Raystar? I can’t believe I didn’t catch that!

“So that was how the people who attacked us could fly!” I said. “She’s been giving out secrets!”

We bought a newspaper. “Without a leader, the Zepha tribe is falling into chaos. Many candidates have offered to take the elders’ place, but were all quickly vetoed by the general populace.”

“Take it, Amanda.” Mel was firm. “You left the tribe without a leader. You freed the people, but they have to be led. Anarchy is bad.”

“Yeah, think of all the bad stuff that could happen if you don’t. Communism. Another dictatorship.” Kaye was looking straight at me, not sure what I’d do with the power.

“I’ll take it,” I said, “but I don’t want it. I’ll take it because I still haven’t resolved issues with the Kliid. I need power. But I need you, too, Kaye, because you’re what will bend the Kliid to our will. And Li, too.”

Li had been silent, as if she wasn’t sure what to make of this. “You guys are on happy pills, aren’t you?”

“Huh?” I said.

“You think the Kliid will stop a war that’s been going on for generations because of a few girls.”

“I think the Kliid will stop a war that’s been going on for generations because I’ll kick their naïve butts if they don’t.”

“Amanda, you’re thirteen.” Li said.

“Thank you, Ms. State The Obvious! Are the warriors thirteen? No. I’ll have a big honking army at my disposal. You’ve convinced me to take the power; now don’t go running the other way.” I left. I wondered where I should apply for such a position.

I went around and got people’s signatures, et cetera. When I’d gotten about 500, I went and shoved it at the newspaper editors and stuff. Anoki are kind of informal, so if the newspaper declares something like this, it’s true. And I was now leader.

There was one more question. “Well, what the heck do I do now?”

It went unanswered.

Chapter Seven: Katyen and Butan

CHAPTER SEVEN—KATYEN AND BUTAN

The next day, I got out of the house and asked Jane where Elder Katyen lived. She pointed me to a brown two-story house with hot-pink accents in so many places that there might have even been less brown than there was pink. I thanked her and left her with twenty bucks. My income had gotten surprisingly higher lately. Wonder why.

From the house, I got what Katyen’s taste was. I went out and bought a slim black dress and a handbag that was very pink. I went out and bought the makeup store out of eye shadow and found some leopard-print heels, really glad that it was Thursday and not, say, a Saturday. I explored the extents of the Zepha tribe, which happened to be one of the biggest and oldest Anoki tribes still in existence, more like a city than a village, if you ask me. Let’s just say that nobody really knows what goes on in the very middle of a forest. No matter how many bombs go off around here, the invisibility/silence spell that was kept strong by the mere existence of Star Anoki prevented humans from ever hearing or seeing us. Gee, another responsibility I had now. Great.

I sat at my dining-room table and made a checklist:

1. Invite Katyen to dinner, spruce up the house and buy an evening gown. Cook something fancy. Build her trust while getting her drunk. Kill her fast and get it over with.

2. Find where Butan lives and buy enough wine to drown a horse. Cook a lot of food, get him drunk and kill him off.

3. Get Henrei over to pore over some book. Kill him from behind.

4. Invite Raystar over to talk about Tony or something. Kill her from behind too.

5. Worry about that spy lady.

6. Win the war and make peace with the Kliid.

7. Do something.

I wasn’t too sure about number six. It sounded out of place. I could just see the difficulties that would cause. My Time magic said so.

Then I realized that the list could be used against me, as it held all of my plans. I chucked it in the fireplace. So much for that.

As for Katyen, I wanted to wait until evening to ask her. I couldn’t see doing it in daylight. I would do the house by magic, I decided, but I wasn’t sure what kind would be suitable. I drew a picture of what I thought the inside of Katyen’s house would be like, but decided to leave the magic for until after I’d gotten a glimpse of her own house.

When the sky darkened, I put on the black dress and the heels. Can we say torture? This thing felt like a corset. I felt vulnerable without my bow, and this skirt prevented me from kicking noses. And though I’d love to be able to fight in heels, I don’t think I’ll risk it with these. I did find comfort in the fact that I could rip them off and smack someone across the jaw with the back end. I didn’t find comfort in the fact that I could barely walk.

I went up to Katyen’s house, looking as prissy as possible. I rang her doorbell, regretting that I didn’t paint my nails. I was dying to yank at various parts of the dress and straighten them out, but Katyen could answer the door at any moment.

When Katyen opened the door, I could see that her obviously-not-natural honey-blonde hair was twisted up into a curly bun with hair cascading down in random places, as if it were intentionally messy. Her rainbow of eye shadow put mine to shame—not that I gave a rip. I could only stand this getup for about ten more minutes.

“Oh, please, come in,” Katyen said in that slight British accent that you get after years of badly trying to fake a British accent and then giving up. Ironically, hers sounded more accurate than most people’s.

Oddly, her entry room looked fairly normal, and the kitchen, from what I could see, looked like a Starbucks with gold and tan accents and stylishly uncomfortable chairs. But her room door down the hall was painted hot pink and chocolate brown, and I dreaded to think of what might be inside.

“I was thinking,” I said in a fake British accent myself, “that you might enjoy a dinner at my humble residence. I redecorated recently; perhaps you might like to see it.” Watch me lie on the spot.

“Of course! Do come in for tea.”

I sat through a session of tea in cups I was afraid I’d break combined with paranoia that she might be watching my every word with a little terror that I’d drop the fake accent any minute, or fall in these stupid shoes while she gave me a tour of the house, or bust a seam on this all-too-tight dress. In case you haven’t guessed, this isn’t really my normal nature. And for the record, her room was painted entirely hot pink. No brown. Not even chocolate whatever. It was pink.

“I always thought you were a warrior,” Katyen started in with approval.

“By day, yes,” I said, feeling like Princess Mia trying to keep her balance with her ankles crossed. “By night…” I flipped my hair for effect. Katyen smiled at me.

“Of course,” she said agreeably. I still couldn’t get over the fact that I would have to kill her later. But then I remembered that she hadn’t protected the kids, either, and that made me angry.

Great. One more thing to worry about.

Finally, Katyen concluded the visit and said she’d come on Saturday. Smiling (well, clenching my teeth, but Katyen saw a smile), I let her close the door before ripping off the stupid heels, dumping them in the nearest trash can, and running barefoot back home. Fast.

*          *          *

It was 7:02 when I got home. I tried to get the stupid dress off. It didn’t work. My stress had made me sweaty, and it wouldn’t slide. I tried again, and realized that if I didn’t get this thing off, I would suffocate. I tried to cut the dress free with scissors and found out that it had some sort of wood or something in it.

I reached for my rosebush pruners. They weren’t by the door. By now I was wandering the house, halfway undressed, locking doors. I bent down to look for them more and gagged. I couldn’t get them, and I didn’t know any magic that gets rid of ugly corset dresses. This was ridiculous. I wondered how many times Katyen had done it, or if maybe it was this personality thing, like trying to fake her style was usually about as unsuccessful as trying to fake a British accent.

So I decided to make up a spell. I didn’t care what it was; I just needed something to save me, now. I told the spell to unweave all the threads of the dress.

How could that possibly work? I wondered as the dress literally fell to threads, leaving me in my underwear, standing in the middle of my living room. I’d never heard of magic outside the Anoki elements. That was weird—and not just normal weird. I mean weird for me, which meant something.

I realized that my foot really hurt from the thin board wedged into the dress falling on it, so I had nothing to do but go and get some pajamas on, attempt to sweep up the remains of the ugly “fashionable” dress, and go to bed. I would deal with Saturday’s attire and the house tomorrow.

*          *          *

I woke up at 10:00. At least I felt better. Whatever unknown magic I had used to dispose of the dress, I would also use it to redecorate the house. Because I had no clue what it was I had to be cautious of using this magic too much. It could be dangerous.

I started with the bathroom. If Katyen had a second house, what would it look like? I could only guess what her bathroom looked like. I hadn’t seen it. I was guessing bubble gum pink. So, pink rug, pink shower curtains, pink towels, gold-ish-colored faucet, whatever. I left it there.

Kitchen. Okay, maybe colors. Something pastel and cutesy. Yellow table. Turquoise dishwasher. Pink sink. Cutesy orange oven. The remaining glow from the magic was blinding me, so I went into the living room. Teal curtains, a red sofa, and gold chairs all seemed to fit Katyen’s weird style. I changed the sturdy hardwood floors to red and gold swirly carpet that I’d seen in a library once. It had fit there, but I couldn’t exactly see it in my house unless I was playing house dress-up or something, like right now.

I decked out the entry room and my bedroom in pink and looked over the house. A few hallways had to be done, but otherwise the house was good. Now I had all day to find something to cook and to find a dress that wouldn’t suffocate me. I got dressed and went out to the mall. From a different dressmaker than before, I bought a cutesy wrap dress that, when I tried it on, did not choke me to death or require rosebush pruners to take off. On a whim, I bought some plant food. My plants probably needed it by now, and I needed to find some kind of clippers quickly. The squashes were probably big enough to use as baseball bats by now.

I went to the grocery store and bought a solid pound of lamb and the smallest bit of saffron. I figured that would be sophisticated enough for Katyen, with a salad. But the spice cost about as much as the lamb did, and the lamb was pretty dang expensive. Didn’t matter. I had money.

I went home and cooked the lamb, grew a salad and put everything in the oven, where it would keep warm and the cat wouldn’t get it.

I went out to tend to the tomatoes in my teensy greenhouse. They were suffering from my absence and the lack of rain (the greenhouse was designed to water them continually with the rain through sprinklers on the ceiling so that all I had to do was go out and water the container that provided water for the sprinkler. The container was dry, and the plants, though still in the greenhouse, had been without water for two weeks. I took the hose and set it in the container on full blast. I wished I’d set it to drip in the bucket before I left. Oh well.

“Hi, guys, I’m back,” I said conversationally, entering the greenhouse. The chirpy voices of the plants all chorused at once.

“I brought you some fertilizer,” I said, beginning to dump the blue powder in each of the pots. As predicted, the tomatoes were suffering but not too badly. My Earth magic combined with the moisture-trapping greenhouse and the sprinkler container that had been full when I left had meant that none of them were too wilted. The plants knew why I’d left, anyway.

“Can you fly now?” the cucumbers asked.

“Yeah, let’s see it!” the cherry tomatoes twittered. I smiled at the plants. They reminded me of little kids. They were fun. Trees are reliable and down-to-earth, no pun intended, but plants are fun and upbeat.

“Yeah, I can fly. And a heck of a lot more.” I saw that the clay corner of the greenhouse had a humongous thistle in it. I set the flower seeds on fire so that they wouldn’t grow. I like setting thistle seeds on fire, because of how the fluff just lights up. It’s especially fun if you put dandelion or cottonwood seeds on top, with maybe a little coffee creamer or eye shadow (especially 80’s eye shadow) on top if you’re in a place where nothing will burn down. Light it and watch the “poof.” Mwahaha!

I cut the thistle down with a hack saw and picked it up with my gloves on. The plants watched as a Fire spell reduced it to cinders. I swept them into a corner.

“But you can’t do Fire magic!” a pea plant twittered.

“Oh, yes I can.” I grinned.

“You’re going to do something you’re not sure about,” the mint said. The mint had an uncanny way of reading me. I didn’t know if it was my face, my mood, or just the way I moved, but the mint always knew what I was thinking. I kept fertilizing the plants.

“It has something to do with the village. You’re trying to be strong, but you’re panicky inside. You’re worried about the kids.”

It wasn’t my expression, and I’d been acting pretty upbeat.

“Your posture,” the plant continued. “Your footsteps. The way you breathe. You are who you are, and you know it. You knew who you were before your powers came to you.”

My eyes narrowed. Sometimes I didn’t want the mint shouting my thoughts to the world. Fortunately, I’ve been the only person who’s been able to talk to plants, as far as I know.

Unfortunately, Tony was standing in the doorway. “The mint is right, you know. You’re tense. You don’t want to kill anything, but you know you have to. To protect the village. To protect… us.”

“How did you do that?” As far as I knew, the mint was the only thing capable of really reading me.

“You’re incredibly easy to read. To avoid being read and also possibly being red, you need to convince yourself that you’re feeling something different. You’re worried about the kids. No… you’re worried about the other kids. You’re not worried about me.”

“That’s because you have Earth magic,” I said. “Don’t underestimate its strength. I did. It’s not a sissy healing talent… well, it is kind of a sissy healing talent, but it’s not just a sissy healing talent. If you are gentle and kind, you can direct the trees to help you in battle. Find a spot in them to hide and drop rocks on someone.” I frowned. “I wonder if you can shoot my old bow?”

I led him into the house. “No, I’m not this girly,” I said in response to his odd looks at my pink entry room. “I’m having Katyen over for dinner to… gain a little power. It’s a long story.”

“Is that what the plant meant when it said you weren’t sure about something?”

“The mint? I don’t know. I can’t read my own mind, strange as that sounds. Wait here.”

I left him staring in disapproval at the pink feather boa over the doorway and found the hall closet. I went rummaging through the closet past generations of random bows. It was exactly the closet you would expect from me, with the occasional slingshot (which I’d never gotten the hang of) littered around the floor. I found the flimsiest bow there, which hadn’t been my first bow, but just one I’d made for the heck of it once. I never intended to shoot it, but it looked like nine-year-old Tony probably could.

I brought the bow outside. I hadn’t made arrows to go with it, so I taught Tony to do so.

“You have to use Earth magic, or they don’t work. Earth magic is kind of unique. It doesn’t use spells, exactly, just mind tricks. You know you want to heal a wound. Vocalizing it is just focusing your power. You can do Earth magic silently. You can’t do Light magic silently. Earth magic is communication, and it’s usually with your own power. Magic is a force, but it has raw feelings: a sense of humor, pity, anger and the desire to get revenge on those it sort of protects. I could go on.”

I started making arrows and explaining how to do them. In about fifteen minutes, we’d made enough to stuff a quiver. Which he needed now.

I went into the house again and found a laundry bag. I cuffed it a little and safety-pinned it so that it wouldn’t drown the arrows.

I came out. “This will do.” It was a drawstring bag, so it fit Tony almost like a backpack. I was doing what Mel did for me, I realized. But Mel hadn’t been an Earth Anoki then, and she couldn’t have taught me Earth magic. I could teach Tony, though; I did teach Tony, come to think of it.

Tony tried to draw the bow. We were aiming at a tree stump, out in the forest. I wasn’t sure if Tony should actually try to fight. He was older than I had been when I started healing warriors and shooting people, but he didn’t have an incentive to do it, and his parents would probably be much too worried about him. Which also reminded me that I had to keep this training out of sight of any adults. I knew Tony wouldn’t tell his parents, but he wouldn’t be able to hide the bow.

I realized that Tony was standing there, waiting for instructions, with the bow drawn.

“No,” I said. “You need to draw it sideways. Watch.”

I drew the tiny bow. It was an out-of-proportion example. When Tony tried it, he wasn’t drawing the bow all the way back to his face, because I wasn’t.

“You’re still not standing sideways. Look.”

I drew my own bow (like I said, I always have it with me if I have a choice) and shot the stump squarely. “Try to get your arrow in that area,” I said.

Tony drew his bow, not perfectly but almost right this time, and shot an arrow right next to mine. Granted, the stump wasn’t that far away and the bow was really easy to draw, but this kid must have been a fast learner. Like I had been. I found this almost creepy. Déjà vu to the max. That stuff. Yikes.

I corrected his stance a little and let him shoot again. He knocked a little bit of my arrow’s fletching to the ground, the realistic version of a Robin Hood split. But when he drew another arrow, I noticed that his stance was odd again. But he was shooting the bow to its full length.

“You need a thicker bow,” I said. “This one’s too easy. A heavier draw will require you to stand right and you’ll do it instinctively.”

I went back into the house and returned with a heavier weight bow—maybe about five pounds more? For those of you who aren’t archers, “heavier weight” doesn’t refer to the actual weight of the bow, but how hard it is to draw, to pull the string. And who says I’m not educational?!

Tony shot that one as well, knocking my arrow and his arrows out of the way. His stance was still weird.

“Dang, kid, you’re strong.” I went back in the house and returned with a bow that was a little heavier still, another five pounds. Tony had to shoot that one right. It was just about perfect; he wasn’t drawing it quite to full length, but pretty darn close.

“That’s yours. Don’t shoot it around other people unless those other people are attacking you. But a bow isn’t very useful when someone attacks you up close. You’re going to learn Amanda-Kwon-Do now. I taught myself by watching the warriors and adapting their techniques. Anoki have weak points, and basically if it’s unguarded, you hit it. Your defense is mainly dodging stuff and waiting. Because once you attack, you compromise your defense. But that works the other way too, so once someone tries throwing a punch, you go for their unguarded jaw, or their temples or nose. You can kick their feet out from under them, once you get older and heavier, and if they aren’t standing sideways like an archer…” I lowered my voice. “Go for the crotch. That’s the one place that you hit to guarantee that someone’s not going to try striking again for the next three-to-something seconds, depending on how hard you kick and whether your opponent is male or female.”

“You are so weird.” Tony rolled his eyes.

“That’s my job!” I giggled. Well, it was. “Wouldn’t it stop you throwing punches? Anyway, your goal is to get the other dude on the ground. A really hard hit to the temple will black someone out, and you can make them wake up with any number of bruises, or if they really threaten you, make them not wake up at all. But only if they threaten your life. Otherwise, dragging their knocked-out body to the police does fine.”

“That’s what you’re not sure about,” Tony said. “You’re going to kill someone. Did they threaten you?”

“No. They threaten you. They threaten everyone.”

“The Kliid?”

“No.”

“A Zephan?”

“Several. The wars will stop, though, once I’m done. You’ll see.”

“Then they do threaten you,” Tony said, “because the wars would stop without them, and the wars threaten you.”

I was about to say that the wars didn’t threaten me, but then I thought. The wars killed my parents, and my mom was a Star Anoki. They’d managed to kill her. I didn’t know how, but they had. And they’d gotten my dad, too. Somehow this made me slightly more cautious, but not scared. Just really, really teed off. Who knew how long it would be before more kids’ parents got killed? I never knew mine, not really, and that sort of made it better, I guess. But if you know what you’re missing, that’s got to be worse. Really worse.

Now I was angry and totally ready to assassinate someone. Usually, logic whips people’s poetry, so it’s unwelcome, but right now I kind of liked that idea. Logical. Mechanical. Sturdy. Intelligent.

“Don’t let anyone know I taught you this,” I said grimly as a warning horn sounded: the Kliid had attacked again, even though their Air Anoki was missing. Foolish. That wasn’t logical, or any of the other adjectives I listed (especially the last one). It made me angrier. I couldn’t believe I’d thought of the Kliid as my home for any length of time. I ran away and took off.

My warriors were, all of a sudden, boring through the Kliid like moles. There were fireballs. There were splashes. There was a ton of street fighting, swords and bows, like all the army had suddenly been replaced by Romans. But right now, I wanted revenge. For everything.

*          *          *

About fifty fireballs, twenty mass healing spells, and a flood that left Zephan warriors in air bubbles and looking like Moses. The Kliid warriors that couldn’t swim drowned. It was too good for them.

No matter how much I fought, I couldn’t get rid of this burning desire to kill whoever did it. I started shooting the older Kliid troops. I still felt… I don’t know. I went back to healing and realized that I wasn’t the only one. Mel was still babysitting my friends…

I looked over to try and see where Tony was, and if he needed help himself. Probably not. But I wanted to know, anyway. I scanned the crowd, only to turn and see him perched in a tall tree, grinning at me.

“Did you really think I’d leave you alone?” he said.

“You remind me of me,” I said. “Protect your parents.” Tony, instead of climbing down, had the tree lower him from branch to branch. It was slow, so I just picked him up. His new bow was strapped to his back. He’d figured it out with the typical cleverness of an Earth Anoki, and I noticed that his ring was hunter green. Like a guy.

“Where are your parents?” I asked. Tony pointed to an area of the battlefield. Dang.

“Both of them?”

He nodded.

Mega dang. I flew him over but decided that it was much too dangerous. I couldn’t take him to Akana or he’d be left to a fate fighting. But if his parents got killed, like mine… then again, I couldn’t leave the Zephans without a healer. I decided to do the spell myself and set Tony in a tree.

“Hold still for a minute, would you?” I did the spell, remembering perfectly what Akana had done. I hoped I’d done it right.

“You can fly now, I think,” I said.

“You think?!”

“Look, I’ll put you on the ground first. You can try and take off from there.”

Turns out, I did the spell right. Tony could fly.

“Can Earth Anoki fly?” someone asked, confused. There were murmurs of “No…” everywhere as Tony flew to his parents and shot their attackers in the stomach. Moving targets didn’t seem to bother him.

Tony fought as I did, despite being an adorable nine-year-old boy with fluffy brown hair. I had to remember that in times of crisis, kids were violent when threatened, or at least tried to be. I had no clue whether the shield I’d tried to put around my friends earlier had worked, since they hadn’t been attacked, but they hadn’t been hurt, either. I did the same spell for the village kids. All of them. Nobody could hurt them now, not if the spell had worked.

I sent another mass healing spell and landed in a tree. I didn’t know what to do. Something was telling me to worry about safety and about Katyen and the other elders, but my violent half wanted revenge. I was rattling with adrenaline,  but I was also tired in that way you only get with adrenaline. I sent another mass healing spell, but I was physically and magically exhausted. At least the meal was cooked and still warm in my Fire Anoki-made oven. I sent a new spell, a regenerating healing spell, but it took all my energy and I had to climb down the tree the conventional way. I went home.

*          *          *

I wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t have the angry bloodlust that I’d had earlier. I took a nap, knowing that I couldn’t possibly manage Katyen and an assassination without magic. I was really debating the merits of just killing them off before anyone can object. Seriously.

This playing dress-up just so I could…

I fell asleep before finishing the thought. A self-defense system programmed into Anoki instinct everywhere demanded that we fall asleep after running out of magic. It’s protection, because without magic… we die. Anoki require magic, both feeding off of it and supplying a home for it, and both die if the magic is overused. That’s why everyone needs to learn not to use magic for everything. Yes, it’s easy. No, you shouldn’t be using it just to use it.

When I woke up, I had only an hour before Katyen was to be here. The Anoki that got killed almost immediately died, but flesh wounds and more minor wounds got healed through the spell I’d left, and it probably worked a lot better once I was awake and able to do magic again, since it had a source.

I was angry again, but I didn’t know why. I considered stopping time again and killing Katyen now. I don’t know why Mel said to invite her to dinner, or any of them. It would be obvious that they had been killed at my house… unless…

I knew why Mel had told me to do that. I hurried and put on the dress I’d bought. It was actually halfway comfortable, almost like my normal green dresses (which I’d sewn myself so that I could make the skirts loose enough to kick in, and which I wore shorts underneath).

I found the dinner still good and warm. I set the various types of wine on the table, wondering when Katyen would arrive. I didn’t know what to do next when the doorbell rang and I didn’t have any more time for preparations. Things would have to be as is.

I did the whole welcome thing, then led her to the table and set out plates and dinner. I set out a glass for her and offered any of the wines.

“Aren’t you going to have some?” she asked with surprise.

I wanted to say, “I’m thirteen, lady,” but what I did say was, “It’s not healthy. I have to fight.” It definitely sounded more like me.

“Of course you do,” Katyen said with that smile adults give kids when they think they’re being cute. She’s really going to think I’m cute later.

I served her the meal, but I think she approached it with the same attitude one approaches a child’s tea party. It didn’t matter, anyway, because all I needed was to get her here.

I gave her the silly tour of the house. “It looks like my vacation home,” Katyen said.

SCORE!

Then she got ready to leave, and exited my doorway.

“Hold on,” I said. “There are Kliid warriors snooping around everywhere. I should go with you for protection. I’d hate for you to get ambushed without someone around. I’ll walk you home.” I slipped on some sandals and started walking with Katyen to her house. Which she’d never reach. I’d hidden the sword in my quiver, and in the dark, Katyen couldn’t see it. When we were halfway to Katyen’s house, I whispered, “Wait, I heard something!”

I snuck over to the nearest house, peered around it, and jumped back. “Close your eyes. I’m going to do magic now that will blind you if you don’t.”

It worked. I tiptoed back to behind Katyen, her eyes still shut and totally believing me, and I stuck her in the back with the sword, yelling, “Katyen!” as if I’d just realized that she was being attacked by “another warrior.” I hid the sword in a raspberry bush and, forcing myself to sob, ran straight to the police.

I faked a story about how the Kliid killed her from behind while I was distracted, and they bought it, too, with a little bit of secret Dream magic. It’s a good thing that, at least according to legend, only Star Anoki can tell when someone’s doing magic. I know that before leaving, I couldn’t. I can now, so I’m assuming it’s true.

Two down, three to go. I headed home.

“I can’t believe it,” Tony said, dropping out of a tree. “That was who you had to kill?”

I made the cut-throat motion. Fortunately, no one was around.

“Decent story, though. Why’d you go to all that setup? You are a Star Anoki. Everyone knows now.” Then Tony shut up all too quickly.

“Cat got your tongue?”

“Butan got my tongue,” Tony said in a whisper. “Here’s your sword.”

Oh, whatever. I had a story going. I snuck up behind him and stabbed him as well. I was really glad I didn’t have to play Southern Belle with some old fat dude, but I had other problems. A Kliid troop had seen me. I dispatched him immediately and stopped time. I didn’t find anyone else, so I returned time to normal.

Three down, two to go. Now I needed Intellect Guy and Fairy Godmother Wannabe. I’d have to get them differently. I reminded myself that I had to do this for the safety of the tribe. The dictators had laws that we disagreed with. People were drafted into the army—they didn’t have a choice. There was the commitment law. And technically, you weren’t allowed to speak against or insult the dictators or their laws, but they couldn’t get rid of me without having to face a revolt, more in the form of everyone starting to ignore them than everyone starting to kill them. The dictators could almost face a fight. They couldn’t persuade people into listening.

“Where are your parents?” I asked Tony.

“Asleep. They know I go out, but they also know I can do enough Water magic to make myself invisible and sneak out of anywhere.”

“Whatever,” I said. I wasn’t looking forward to the other elders, but Mel had said that Katyen was one of the worst, so I should deal with her first thing. I’d visit Mel tomorrow, but first, I was going to get some sleep.

“Come on,” I said to Tony. “Stay at my house. It’s going to be a long night.”

Chapter Six: Power

CHAPTER SIX–POWER

After the Kliid warriors finally retreated, the warriors went straight back to the shelter. Who knew what kind of long-range weapons the Kliid had retreated to use? We weren’t about to follow them.

“What about the kids?” I asked a random Zephan.

“They have houses,” the Zephan said.

“Houses aren’t bombproof. Get them over here.” We herded the kids over. At first, they wouldn’t respond to the warriors because they thought they were scary. But they responded to me, because I’d kept them safe. Which raised a question: “Haven’t any of you tried to protect these kids?”

“They’re just kids,” someone said.

“So were you, once,” I hissed. “What are you fighting for if you aren’t fighting to defend them?”

I watched as she unraveled my sentence, then she shrugged. “We’ve just never been given orders to do it.”

“Ditch orders,” I said. “They should be in the shelters day and night in the middle of a battle like this.”

“Who are you to tell us what to do?”

“I’m Amanda. And everyone should be able to voice what’s right.”

She left it at that. I wasn’t sure if it was because I had a little more political power now, because I was getting a little more known around here as a fighter, or because I would berate her morals, but she went away and I herded more kids into the shelter. I wasn’t relying on infuriated instinct and adrenaline now, fortunately. That sort of stuff tends to make me jumpy.

The shelter was scrawny, but it was made with metal reinforced by the strongest Fire magic, and could have handled a nuclear bomb. It would do for now.

I let the kids sit in the corner. “Is there any food?” I asked.

“No,” Jane, a Light Anoki, said. “There’s a shortage.”

“I can deal with that. Kids, your job will to be picking the vegetables.”

“What?!”

I took some seeds out of my backpack and buried them in the clay (yuck) floor of the shelter. It’s hard to grow seeds in such bad soil, but I did it anyway.

“That looks easy,” one of the kids said. “You just go to the place where you can tell the seeds to grow and do it. That’s not real magic! You’re just telling something to do something…”

The kid stopped and realized that all his friends were staring at him.

“What’s your name, kiddo?”

“Tony.” He scowled, as if daring me to make anything of it.

I took his hand and pressed a squash seed into his palm. He smiled slowly.

I turned back to the warriors.

“Jane?” I said.

“Yes?”

“You and Ivory are to take care of the children and kill anyone who threatens them.”

“Yes’m.”

“As for the rest of you, travel in groups. Don’t let yourselves be singled out, ever. And no rushing them in a thin line. It’s weak. Gang up on them. And if you need healing, I need you to scream as loud as you can. I’ll be fast. Don’t separate yourselves into Fire parties, Water parties, whatever. Make sure that each group gets as even a number of each talent as possible. If you do get separated, yell and I’ll take you back to a group. Otherwise…” and I paused dramatically… “You will die. Don’t underestimate the Kliid, because you really don’t want to be unpleasantly surprised. Too much force on the enemy is better than not enough. Take no prisoners, but take revenge and use anger. And don’t be afraid to kill, because they aren’t! Now stay here and I’ll come back with some more food. Do you have a basket?”

I returned with a much-too-full basket and a pitcher of lemonade. Everyone, including the adults, fell on it all like rabid wolverines. Uh.

I made two more trips with the basket before my group slowed down.

A Fire Anoki poked his head in the door. “Elder Jaken wants to see you, Amanda.”

“Take a picture,” I said, “if he wants to see me. I thought he knew what I looked like.”

“I think he meant that he wants to talk to you.”

“Talk with me or at me? If it’s about battle strategies, he’s done a lousy job.”

“He didn’t say,” the messenger said, looking like his patience was wearing thin. “Can you just go?”

“All right,” I said, knowing that someone behind me was giggling slightly.

I followed the messenger out to—points to you for not guessing a Quonset hut—a three-story mansion with no bomb protection whatsoever. There’s a surprise. Someone opened the door from behind it. I went in, and the messenger fled.

“You are Amanda.” It seemed more a statement than a question.

I resisted the urge to blurt out, “That’s my name! Don’t wear it out!” and nodded.

“You have taken control of one of the army groups.”

“Technically, I was asked and I accepted.” Jaken had his back to me. I read this as, “I don’t want you to see my expression.”

“How old are you, exactly?” The age-old question.

“Thirteen. And a half,” I added.

He turned, so I had to wipe the grin off my face. “And what makes you think you are capable of leading our troops into battle, let alone qualified?”

“Because I just saved your butts several times today, I’ve been fighting since I was seven, and your previous general got killed before I got back here.”

“That brings me to my other point,” Jaken said, frowning in that way adults do when they think you’re too stupid to know what you’re really asking and thinking that they’re not being paid enough to explain how audacious you’re being. Too bad. “You left, leaving our village in peril. Your lack of responsibility, as well as your audacity…”

Here we go, I thought. Jaken babbled on a little more, but I’d stopped listening.

“Excuse me,” I said, “but you never employed me. I wasn’t in the army. Ever. I defended people, but I was never paid, never employed, and never thanked, I might add.”

“You knew full well that you were the only Zephan healer. You left us.”

“And you didn’t pay me for that, either! My parents were killed. I healed little kids’ cat

scratches for their lunch money so I wouldn’t starve! Not to mention that I did teach Zephans conventional medicine and left you with numerous stores of potions. I bet you aren’t even out of them yet. I can see it in your face.”

“There are rumors that you ran to the Kliid tribe,” Jaken said. I could tell that he was running out of cards to play.

“So you drag me here based on rumors to accuse me of something you don’t have proof of. And even if I was there, how do you know I wasn’t spying on them? I’m sure you don’t pin down your spies like this.”

“We didn’t employ you for that, either!” he said, trying to use my own argument against me, but realizing how ridiculous he sounded.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” I said.

“Minors are not fully mature. Teens especially are impulsive and hard to control.”

“And in battle, this matters how? I’ll tell you what matters. What matters is that there are Zephans alive now. What matters is that the tribe is safe. And you can’t even bother to defend children! In ten years, what army will you have? The only people still alive will be old, retired farts who fought in the war that one time!”

Jaken was constantly giving me that well-that’s-quite-an-interesting-bug look, especially when I used phrases like “saved your butts” and “old, retired farts.” Then I noticed that the retired fart thing had struck a note with Jaken, who must have been fifty-something.

“What’s your argument?” I kept going. “That I’m rude? Oh, no! The Kliid will be so angry at me! Oh, wait! Half the Kliid army is pushing up daisies. Well, they’ll be very offended in hell.” I wanted to add, “Tell me if I’m right when you see them there,” but decided against it.

*          *          *

Jaken… lost the argument. I didn’t know until later that he was skilled in Dream magic and had been reading my mind the entire time. Oops. Well, I do have witty banter. Wait a minute… dang it, I could have said it and it wouldn’t have made any difference!

After that demoralizing situation, none of the other elders came near me about it. I was irreplaceable; they might have Mel, but she wasn’t trained in Earth magic, and as far as the elders knew, she couldn’t fly. Besides, if they killed me off, they’d have an army of really teed off soldiers, all whose lives I’d saved at one point or another, as well as a mob of ticked kids. They couldn’t do anything to stop me. Which was ridiculous. I mean, think about it: you’re a dictator, you think you have ultimate power, but if people just stop obeying you, all at once, you know you don’t have that power any more. Because if the general populace takes your word and throws it in the river, you know that your guards are going to make a break for it, too—and you can only pay them so much.

The Kliid still hadn’t attacked us. I wasn’t sure if the war was considered over for now or not. But I wasn’t going to let my guard down; I would make use of the time.

“Why is there a food shortage?” I asked Jane.

“There’s a drought. Nobody here knows how to farm without water.”

“And yet, you have Water Anoki all over the place? Don’t you know that any of them could have summoned rain a long time ago?”

“But that’s Storm magic! How do you know this, anyway?”

“It’s a long story. But if I’m not mistaken, the stronger Water Anoki should be able to summon rain as well. I’ll teach them. I’ve… gotten better,” I finished lamely.

“Do you want me to get them?”

“No. You’re busy.” I frowned. “Where is that one kid from last night?”

“Tony?” Jane asked. “Probably up a tree somewhere around here, knowing him.”

“Of course,” I murmured, and climbed up the easiest tree myself. I figured he’d be there. I was right. He was sitting right there, sulking.

“Can’t get the seed to grow,” he grumbled.

“The tree sympathizes,” I said.

“How do you know that?” he asked.

“It says. Don’t you ever talk to trees?”

“No. They never said anything to me.”

“Have you ever listened?” I asked.

“Not really,” he hazarded.

“Well, let’s climb down and we’ll get the seed to grow. Come on. You’ve got to stop pouting sooner or later.”

He followed me reluctantly.

“Where did you plant the seed?” I asked. He pointed to an area about three inches from the tree trunk. “No, that won’t do,” I said. “It needs room. Give it some space.” I dug the seed up and re-buried it several feet away.

“I bet you didn’t talk to the seed, either,” I said.

“I told it to grow, but it didn’t respond.”

“Seeds are finicky. But squash is one of the easier seeds to grow. At least, they were for me. Maybe you’re not a vine person.”

He looked at me blankly.

“You’ll understand later,” I said. “The thing is, you can’t command it to grow. That freaks a seed out. You have to suggest it, casually, like it wouldn’t matter anyway, because really, the seed’s going to grow anyway. You’re just suggesting that it could get it over with if it grew faster, so it might as well do so. But with squash, you have to pick it fast, while it’s still growing, or it’ll get huge enough to use it as a baseball bat. Ask me how I know. Try it again.”

“What?”

“Try it again. I’ll leave you alone now—you can tell me about it later. Right now I have to teach some Water Anoki some stuff they should already know.”

As I got up and turned to leave, there was the leafy rustle of a plant growing very, very fast. I smiled and walked on. There was that constant popping noise about every five seconds of a kid trying to pick vegetables very, very fast (which is hard with squash). I guess people everywhere are gaining Earth talent. Hmm.

I found Andrew, a Water Anoki who happened to be one of the better warriors. “Round all the Water Anoki up in front of the shelter,” I commanded, and both of us went off to find them.

Soon the Water Anoki were standing, confused, in front of the shelter.

“Clouds are just water, water that’s far away. This is simple. All you have to do is make the water cluster together so it drops, like running your finger on a fogged-up mirror. Look.”

I located a cirrostratus cloud that was probably a remnant of the storm that had hit us in the other area of the forest and gathered the water into one huge clump. It fell like bricks.

“This might be hard. Anyone can make a cumulonimbus or a nimbostratus cloud rain, but it’ll take talent to do it with altocumulus, cirrus or altostratus, just because they’re so far away and so often, you have to melt them because they’re frozen. Otherwise, you’ll get snow, or worse, hail.”

I was looking out at blank expressions. “Seriously? You can’t predict weather from clouds? You guys must have more to learn than I thought.”

Later, it had started to rain so hard from the collected efforts of all the Water Anoki that nobody could see their hands in front of their face. I don’t call that a drought.

“See?!” I heard someone say. It was that Fire Anoki messenger, talking to Elder Jaken. “She shows up, our problems are all solved. She’s our key to the Kliid. You can’t forbid her from fighting. We’ll lose!”

“I cannot tolerate this,” I heard Jaken say. “She is disrespectful. She leads too well. If I don’t do something, I’ll be looking at an overthrow. Who knows what the villagers will take into their minds to do? This, and she is the Star Anoki that the Kliid spoke of. That Anoki left the Kliid just before Amanda came back. She’s a traitor.”

“Why would she leave the Kliid? Have you thought of that? They could pay her a lot better than we could. You never paid her, but she came back anyway. She didn’t fight for the Kliid—in fact, she left them in a bad spot, where they were relying on her to win the battle. Now you have her. If you forbid her from fighting, she might leave again and fight with the Kliid! And you can’t stop her. She can fly; you know that. Nobody will be able to kill her at all. If she is the Star Anoki that you speak of, then nobody will be able to hurt her. If she is not, then you have no reason to forbid her doing anything because she doesn’t pose a threat, nor did she go to the Kliid. Why would she try to overthrow you, anyway?”

“She’s already expressed a dislike towards our system. That’s the reason she left—she’ll tell you herself. And she wouldn’t leave to fight with the Kliid—she cares about the Zephans too much. Don’t you know that’s why she came back? It’s not for me, it’s for her precious little kids!” Jaken stopped in thought. “Wait a minute… it’s for the children…” He smiled maliciously.

“I really don’t advise that,” said the Fire Anoki nervously.

“Leave me to think it over.”

I gasped, knowing what he meant immediately. Using my new Time powers, I stopped time for everyone else and went and got the sword and killed Jaken immediately—a stab through the heart, then the brain. I left as fast as possible, sick to my stomach, and released the time back to normal. And he called me a traitor! Plotting to destroy your own people to regain your power! I’d almost say that he’d gotten possessed by Darkness magic, if I didn’t know better. It crossed my mind to kill all of the elders like that, but I wasn’t sure how long it would be before the Time Anoki broke free of the spell and changed everything back to normal, and I didn’t want them doing that while I had my sword stuck in someone’s head. Plus, it’s completely obvious when Time magic is being done.

I decided that I was going to give up hiding my Star magic. With that Fire Anoki around to defend me, I wouldn’t need to worry about being called a traitor. I don’t see how they’d ban me from fighting, either. I’d stop, and they’d lose the war. If they put me in prison, I would melt the bars, kill the threats, and break out. You can’t contain me. You can’t control me. You can’t catch me. Even if you somehow prevent me from doing magic, I have a bow and seven years of fighting skills.

I didn’t want to be considered harmless. I wanted to be dangerous to them like an axe to butter. Because they’d be finding out soon that this was very true. I wanted to be sucked up to, to be talked to with care as not to upset me. Respect. Respect is power, and power can be used a number of ways—not just good/bad. And I was going to use it in a different way from just about everyone else in the world. A new way. I don’t think this has ever happened before.

I was feeling sick with guilt and anger, but my reasons were clear, and they’d nailed them. I was defending the kids… and not just from the Kliid.

I decided to go check on Mel and the girls. I took to the air and saw nobody, so I went to Mel’s friend’s cottage. I was relieved to see that everyone was there, drinking tea—as opposed to, say, in prison, trying to bribe the jailer.

“How’s it going?” Mel asked. “Did you kill anyone?”

“You have no idea.”

“We watched you fight for the first two hours. I’ve never seen someone so aggressive, and then you didn’t get tired.”

“I killed more than Kliid.”

“This early?” Mel said, shocked. “I thought you wanted to build trust.”

“Wasn’t working. I ripped Jaken’s face off the other day, and in the middle of a discussion with his advisor, he figured out a way to bend me to his will. I froze time and killed him before the word could get out.”

“So that’s what that was. Aren’t you worried about the advisor?”

“No. He was defending me. I spied on them for maybe half an hour.

“What exactly did you do to Jaken?”

“I disarmed his arguments against my becoming general to a war group, and then I disarmed the argument he hadn’t said, which was that I was too rude. I told him that most of the Kliid army was dead anyway, so they’d be teed off in hell. I didn’t know he was reading my mind when I was thinking about telling him to confirm my suspicion when he got there.”

Mel’s jaw dropped, and she cracked up. “Well, there’s one less constipated old dude badly running this place.”

“Oh! Dang! I missed a phrase!”

“Amanda!” Mel giggled. “Shame on you!”

Even Mel’s friend was laughing now.

“Jaken was easy,” I went on, “but I’m not sure now how I’m going to get the others.”

“Somebody hand me a pen and paper,” Mel said. Mel, being very political, knew who everyone was around here. “You have Elder Katyen, who will do anything you want if you appeal to her ego. She’s very prideful, and she’s… you know how some cats are more feline than others? She’s more fiery than most Fire Anoki, and not in a good way. You might want to invite her to dinner at your parents’ house and cook the most elegant dish you can prepare. Act like a fashionista, and dress like one, too. Get her to trust you as one of her advisors. Don’t let your guard down, though—she’s nasty, and she’s a true tyrant at heart.

“Elder Butan—remember to pronounce it right—is a fat old dude who’s only stayed alive through his Time magic. The way to his nonexistent heart is through his stomach, preferably all the way through… with an arrow. Just stuff him right, and he’s your friend. You might need a longer sword to get all the way in to kill him. Invite him to dinner, stuff his face and get him drunk. Then slit his throat before he can kill you.

“Elder Henrei is a thinker and a Water Anoki. Watch your words, and make intelligent and interesting conversation for a while. He’ll start to trust you if he thinks you’re smart enough not to try and kill him. Unfortunately for him, you’re past that into being smart enough to know he doesn’t rule this place right and needs to be killed. That guy will be a challenge, but at least he’s cocky enough that he’ll think he’s too clever to fall into any traps. Fortunately, he can’t read your mind.

“Elder Raystar is a Light Anoki. She thinks she’s this kind little fairytale spirit who grants everybody’s wishes. She’s not. She’s what I call a pyrite person—looks like gold, and might even convince you that she is. But keep in mind that her sweet persona doesn’t always hide that she’s a truckload of fool’s gold—sometime around midnight on a full moon. If you ever see a werewolf fighting the Kliid, that’s her. Raystar isn’t what she says she is.”

“Thanks, Mel,” I said.

“Anytime. By the way, you might want to tackle these people in that order. Especially Katyen. Do her fast, or she might get nervous and start throwing fireballs out of habit. You don’t want her to burn the house down. And everyone but Raystar enjoys wine, especially the expensive stuff. They’re going to be pretty neurotic by then, so buy sealed wine, and if the vendors give you trouble, explain that it’s for the elders and they’ll give you a discount. No wine vendor will ever deny the elders their drinks.” Fortunately for me, Mel had been writing all this down.

“It’s a good thing that you keep up with politics,” I said. “Otherwise, I’d be in deep doody.”

“Hey, it pays to help out the future Zephan leader.” Mel grinned. Zephan leader… wow. I wasn’t too sure about that, but it had been what I’d been planning. I hadn’t really thought past “assassinate all these sadistic egotists and stop the wars.” Dang. Did I really want to do that for the rest of my life?

Chapter Five: Return

            CHAPTER FIVE–RETURN

            Going higher, I could see both villages clearly. I could see the battlefield between them. In a flash of anger, I sent each warrior back to their own army camp. Bugger them.

            I zipped toward the Zepha tribe. I was getting angrier. Not because they were trying to capture and use me, but because my previous work defending Zephan kids is moot if they got killed anyway. They just had to live through more dictatorship because I’d saved them that time.

            “It’s not far, guys,” I called.

I was ready to overthrow anything, but I wasn’t sure how. Somehow I think they might be magically protected. I didn’t think the bow would be much good, either. It would be all too obvious who assassinated everybody. I hadn’t kept my archery practice a secret. And I wasn’t going to be able to arrive in secret, either. Not only would my face be spotted easily, but I carried my bow no matter what, and I was the only person who really liked green clothes. My wings had been green when I left, too, so I would have to tell my magic to keep them that way as not to cause a major ruckus. Which, in turn, would make me even more recognizable. Dang it.

I would have to see the weapons the army used. People would think that someone in the army wasn’t satisfied with the power they had. Maybe one of the generals would get cocky and try to usurp power, or one of the Darkness Anoki would run rampant. Cough.

I decided to forget most of my planning, stay normal, and just kill people off. After all, if it seemed like I was getting quiet and secretive, it would raise suspicion. Hmm.

I stuck my wings out wide, braking over the village. It wouldn’t work very well to fly in—too conspicuous, and it made it obvious that I had new talents. I was sure that the village elders had heard about me from spies that were in the Kliid tribe, but maybe they didn’t know it was me.

I circled around to meet the others. “I guess we can’t put it off any longer.”

They nodded gravely, and we all dropped into the forest.

“You guys stay here,” I said. “They’re really going to think you’re Kliid warriors. I’ll go first, because they’ll recognize me.” I changed my wings back to normal and put on my old green clothes, as if I hadn’t gotten any new ones. Then, one freaky step at a time, I went back to my old village.

                                                *          *          *

“Amanda!” someone hissed. I jumped. “It’s just me,” someone said, coming out from behind a tree. It was Mel, the Anoki who had taught me to shoot the bow, and how to make them too.

“Where did you go?” she asked.

“I ran away before the commitment spell,” I said. “They kind of want to kill me now. I have this really dangerous plan I need to follow through on, and you can choose to help me or not. You could get in serious trouble, but it’ll stop the wars and free everyone.”

“I’ll help,” she said, and we both disappeared back into the forest. Several Zephan warriors were in the place my friends had occupied just moments before. Mel and I drew arrows and shot them, but not fatally. I punched mine in his temple, watched as he went down, and kicked his jaw hard enough that he wouldn’t be telling anyone about this anytime soon.

“Nice bow,” Mel said. I couldn’t respond quite yet. The others might have been in danger, and I got this odd idea: I should make up a spell to shield them. I told Mel to hold on, and used the wand to try the spell I’d come up with. Apart from that, I could only hope that Kaye and Li could fend off any attacks. I knew that Kaye could, but whether she would was another story.

            “What was that?” Mel asked me. “That didn’t seem like Earth magic. Where’d you get the wand?”

“Don’t you dare tell anyone, but I have new power now. Sky power. Not Air, but Star magic.”

“I thought that was mythical!” Mel said, lowering her voice. “I always knew you were different from everyone else. Just happens, I have new power too. Earth power. Odd, isn’t it? That’s why you weren’t followed any more. They didn’t think I don’t think they’ll try to kill you now.”

“Always nice,” I said. “What weapon does the army use?”

“Bows,” she said, “and swords, a lot of the time. They figured out that you were killing most of the enemies, and they’re suffering without you. So they tried to fight like you… but it’s not working. Like I said, they won’t kill you now. Why?”

“Remember that dangerous plan?” I said. She nodded. “Well,” I said, “we’re going to kill the dictators and take over the village. I have some allies from the Kliid tribe now who are going to help govern the village afterwards. The Kliid won’t attack them.”

“You have allies?” Mel said, astonished. “How’d you manage that?”

“Where do you think I’ve been for the past several months? They wouldn’t kill me either, but then, I never told anyone I was from around here until it looked like I was going to stay there. But when they figured out I could do more than they thought—when I figured out I could do more than they thought—I had to leave or I’d be used in the war.” I noticed that Mel was looking at the ground.

“What?” I said. I almost regretted it when I saw the look on Mel’s face.

“You sound like your mother,” she said.

“Is that bad?” I asked.

“No,” she said cautiously.

“Then let’s go defend my friends. And my sister.”

“Sister?” Mel said, confused.

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Kaye is my Kliid sister. Then there’s Akana, a little girl I found in the forest with a shoulder wound from an animal. I healed her and cleaned her up, and she’s with us now. She can do Light magic.” I paused. “Can you fly?”

She gave me a bewildered/shocked expression. “No!” she said. Her expression melted. “I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised. After all… but then, why are you asking me? You know I’m not an Air Anoki.”

“I can fix that,” I said. “Or, more correctly, Akana can.” I frowned. “I bet I could do the spell, too. I don’t remember how she did it, though. Let’s go find the others now. Stay here a minute.” I zipped into the sky, wings blending automatically. I heard Akana’s innocent voice echoing through the tree’s leaves. I dropped back into the forest, just barely, and asked the trees if they’d seen her. I never talk to trees when other people are around because they tend to think I’m crazy, but they’re actually really smart and informative. Some of my best friends as a kid were trees. Climbing trees—or, more precisely, falling out of them—had been the closest thing I’d had to flying. All the trees pointed me to an area of the forest. I went there quickly, finding everyone safe and silently hiding. Badly.

“Seriously, guys?” I called out. “Hiding behind trees is for preschoolers.”

Cautiously they came out, one by one. I explained that I had someone waiting, so we took off quickly.

“I wasn’t expecting kids,” Mel said when we got back. “Are you sure they have enough influence on the Kliid?”

            Actually, I wasn’t sure. I knew Kaye had some weight, being the best magician of the Kliid, but Akana had barely been there at all and wouldn’t matter, and Li’s Fire magic wasn’t exactly rare; there were other Anoki in the Kliid tribe that had her talents. Maybe if they knew that she was a Star Anoki and could blast their head off… but she’d spend the rest of her life casting war spells. Hmm.

            “No,” I said finally. “I’m not sure. But unless the Kliid are really dense, they’ll realize that we could easily kill them all.”

            “That’s true,” Mel said, and I mentally patted myself on the back. Now I had another person on board. I thought periodically about causing uproar among the people, and just let the mass force overthrow the government, but that would be loud, and people would get killed, and a free village would be useless if nobody lived there to enjoy it. No, it wouldn’t do.

            Night was falling. I liked that. My night vision had gotten suspiciously better recently. And it was one of my favorite parts of night, too: just after twilight, when the air is still hot and crisp from the warmth of the day, but cooling, and you can just about feel it—or, at least I can, in the sky, where it matters because the temperatures are diverse.

            I got this sinking feeling that though I felt safe now, my instincts were not only off the mark, but blindfolded and pointing the bow in the other direction while Anoki ran away from the space in front of it. Which didn’t make sense, because the sinking feeling was also part of my instincts. It was like saying that magic always works the way you don’t expect it to (just to be contrary. It does have a sense of humor), although you expect both of two opposites. What does it do? Do I have two sets of instincts? Would the Amanda action figure come with what-the-heck-am-I-doing features, paranoid twitches in five directions, and 10 “okay-that’s-weird-now” sayings? Now there’s a picture.

            Akana had finished her spell, so I put this whole deal aside for later and asked Mel, “Where would the elders be right now?”

            “Not in the war, that’s for sure,” she said. “They’ll be eating dinner now. You could substitute the chef and poison them, say, with foxglove or something. It would be easy enough. Or do you have another way in mind?”

            “I do,” I said. “Poison could come from anyone, but we want to make sure we’re excluded from the suspects. Which means we need to use a sword. The same one, all the time. They’ll suspect the crazy Darkness Anoki. But it would be all too obvious what we’re doing to buy a sword from a blacksmith. Are there any other villages nearby?”

            “Just the Kliid,” Mel said. “But I know of a blacksmith who can get you what you need. He’s in the forest. Alone. Used to be my sweetie, and he owes me a favor at any rate.”

            We helped Mel into the air, and she led us to a clearing maybe twenty miles away. I kept looking around suspiciously. Mel dove (on purpose, fortunately) and we flew to the doorstep of a large cottagey-type building.

            Mel rapped twice, and we heard a male voice mutter something at us. Mel opened the door.

            “Hello, Melody,” someone said, rather wistfully, as if something had just happened to discourage him. “Do you need something?”

            I could barely believe that this downcast-spirited man had interested Mel for any length of time at all.

            “Actually, yes,” she said primly, her head high. Oh, I thought. That’s why.

            I explained our dilemma.

            “An interesting tale. So you need a sword from me?”

            “Yes,” I said. “That’s sort of why we’re here.”

            “A noble cause requires the most noble of swords. Take this.” It was the traditional long, brown paper package. With a shaggy red cloth tied around the hilt. Tsk.

            We left with the blacksmith staring wistfully at Mel’s back.

            “He wasn’t always like that,” Mel said, her voice suggesting that she knew what she thought everyone needed, and it mainly involved having your face slapped until you could only mumble incoherently and then start acting like a Dlitchian dancer, whose routines involve steps that shouldn’t exactly be possible, nor should they be performed in the presence of small children. (Life as a Dlitchian can be… very different at times. I really should give a ceremonial cough here, but to try and keep from giggling, crying, and throwing up all at the same time after coughing ceremoniously, the noises may be more inappropriate for kids than the abovementioned dancing.)

            We reappeared at the edge of the village. I watched my Zephan friends fight. They had no clue how to do it, and I realized that they weren’t even in the army. They were trying to protect the kids I’d normally defended.

            “Go fight,” Mel said, reading either my mind or my expression.

            “What do we do?” Akana said.

            “You can watch,” Mel said. “It’s fun to watch Amanda fight.”

            I think that was a compliment, but it hadn’t mattered at the time because I was running as fast as my skirts would allow, and then stopping to slit them, giving up, and hiking them higher than any sane body would ever do except in crisis. I snatched up the kids, hauled them to a rooftop, and fired arrows so fast that I ran out and had to make more, which didn’t take too long since I’d gotten even better at Earth magic as well as everything else…

            I watched each body fall individually. I didn’t care who they’d been. These kids weren’t soldiers, yet they were firing at them. Innocent kids!

            “Jackie!” I yelled at the Water Anoki just as she’d gotten fired at and hit. “Stay here and hunker down,” I growled at the kids, and then jumped off the building as they gasped. There was no hiding my flight abilities now. I had to defend my friends. I picked Jackie up by her armpits and flew her to the rooftop. I took the arrowhead off—it had gone all the way through her shoulder–yanked the arrow out smoothly, and healed her. She stood up and yelled something incomprehensible at me, trying to be heard over the din. I shook my head and grabbed her again. She struggled as I jumped off the building again, but gaped as I picked her up again. She didn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds, anyway, so I lifted her pretty easily.

            I set her down at the edge of the battle and went to help Derek, a Fire Anoki who had failed to fully melt the sword coming at him. I sent a mass healing spell that hadn’t been meant to be very powerful, but ended up that way. Leaping upwards, I flew fast over the mass of Zephans.

            “Amanda’s back!” I heard someone yell. I couldn’t deal with that now, though. I swooped over the crowd and handed Chloe more arrows, healed her and socked a Kliid warrior in the nose. It broke.

            Pulling an arrow, I shot the Kliid general on sight. I swept down and fixed Andrew’s weakening invisibility spell (which was Water magic) and then threw a major fireball at some Kliid warriors.

            “That’s her!” I heard a voice shriek. Fienne. I pulled an arrow, tipped it with fast-acting  poison (which was Darkness magic, but I was so dang angry I didn’t give a rip) and shot her personally. But she’d already been heard: sound travels faster than arrows. Perhaps, if someone was killed fast enough, they could be heard after they were dead by someone far away, maybe in Alaska. Hmm. Somehow I felt better knowing that she was dead, despite the fact that at least thirty more people knew who I really was. Soon it wouldn’t matter. Soon I would govern the village—officially, that is, because I’d really protected it for all my life.

            I wondered how much that would endanger me. Really. If I killed everyone with a sword, maybe in their sleep, then it wouldn’t obviously be me…

            “Traitor!” someone shrieked from below. I didn’t know which side it was from, and didn’t really care in any case.

            Then I realized that I’d never told anybody that I went to the Kliid tribe. Maybe I wouldn’t be targeted, at least not for a while. In this noise, Fienne could have only been heard by a few people… and she was far on the Kliid side, which would mean that the “traitor” call came from the Kliid.

            The motion of a person falling caught my eye, and I sent another mass healing spell before going after him. I shot the person punching the air in triumph on the way down. Showing off isn’t always good, guys. After dealing with Jacob’s arrow wound, I personally went over and kicked the shooter’s nose. It also broke, and bled enough to… never mind, I’ll skip this metaphor. Ew.

            I watched the catapult hurl thousands of stones, then saw so many warriors go down. I sent another mass healing spell and flew fast to shoot the person manning the huge weapon. Always kill the threats first.

            I really ought to be tired by now. I remember thinking that just as the seventeenth shot in a row left my string and hit someone—I didn’t know who, because I hadn’t really been aiming. But usually after the third mass healing spell and after fifty revenge shots and fifteen personal run-over-to-heal-someone jobs… I would usually be exhausted, and by the time I was thinking this, I had at least doubled each of those amounts, and I’d been working for seven hours. I knew Mel would take care of the others, even if Kaye was still super-afraid of defending herself.

            I considered stopping to rest, but then a surging though shouted, NO! I need to defend, protect, defend… it kept muttering to itself, but I kept fighting anyway. Fly down, heal, shoot the attacker, fly up, spot someone else, do a quick revenge attack, shoot the threat, go down, knee-kick-shin-kick-he’s-on-the-ground-now…

            I wasn’t tired. Just angry. Angry. It didn’t manage to describe my burning rage. It felt like the word belonged to kindergarteners. It seemed like the world was being run by kindergarteners.

            They dared to do it! They dared to hurt my people! They dared to touch my people!

            I sent a (tenth?) mass healing spell, and then sent a mass weakening spell to the enemies. Our troops suddenly realized they were getting the better of their enemies and raged on.

            “Amanda?” someone asked as I returned to the ground to heal someone. I turned; he was Zephan. A Time Anoki, I rendered him harmless–at least to me.

            “Yes?”

            “Um, our general got killed… and you’re the best warrior on the battlefield…”

            “I accept,” I said briskly, and took flight again, sending yet another mass healing spell. My healing spells were getting progressively stronger now that I was constantly using them. I WAS NOT TIRED. I couldn’t believe it but was glad that it was true. My village needed me. I had to protect the innocent people… roundhouse-kick-watch-her-stagger-quick-move-with-rabbit-knife… I WOULDN’T let my people down… back-kick-head-snap-move-punch-fast-he’s-down-kill… I would fight until everyone was free!

Chapter Four: Spy

CHAPTER FOUR–SPY

            That night, something said to me that what I was doing was a bad idea. It wasn’t some supernatural magic this time, either; it was my own fighting instinct. I promised myself I’d never let my guard down.

            Unfortunately, my efforts proved futile when I realized that a spy was watching us from the horizon. In the light of dawn, I could barely see the strange Anoki, who seemed to be easily aloft on incredibly large wings. I detected a listening spell and traced it to a dark haired Anoki in her late thirties. She wore a lot of makeup and drank coffee every day. I could also tell that she wasn’t too sure what we were up to. I signaled to Kaye, below: “Mom time,” and went to investigate. Silently I swooped up, but when she realized I was approaching, she flew away fast. I poured on the speed. I was going to catch her and question her. She wasn’t Zephan, but she was very pretty and looked like she could be younger, or older, than my estimate.  She stretched her arms out and rolled completely over, like I did, and cut across the sky even faster. I copied her movement, finding I could go faster if I accelerated while rolling. It was like a video game cheat code!

            I wondered if she’d caught on that she was teaching me how to catch her. The sunlight glittered on her wings. She must have been doing magic again. I recognized it as Air magic, and realized that she was speeding us both with wind. Then she dove into the trees and dodged every one of them, as if she were used to being there. We must have been going over a hundred miles an hour now.  I felt powerful, I was powerful, and I was taking her down. With a new rush of extra adrenaline, I rolled again and accelerated, adding my physical strength to my magical, and sped up so fast that I collided with the strange lady and we both crashed to the ground. She looked oddly familiar. Her eyes looked like mine, deep blue-green and sometimes rather threatening. Hers softened when she saw my face, which confused me. I frowned and helped her up, catching her firmly when she tried to escape my grip.

            “I’m armed, silly,” I said. “Why were you watching us?”

            Her eyes flared. “Us?”

            “Yes, us!” I said.

            “You,” she said. “No one else.”

            “Who are you?” I asked.

            “I am more than you know and more than you will.”

            “Why?” I asked.

            She smiled. “Good, child. Some may think you inarticulate, but I see you as clever. You know I will not explain my words’ meaning. You will know their meaning eventually. I like you; you look right. Perhaps you are who I am looking for.”

            “I’m armed,” I repeated.

            “Yes, you are. Show me.”

            “First…” I said, and summoned a tree’s root to wind around her ankles. Yes, it’s cheesy, but it works. I took my bow off my back and, with a glance at my pitiful quiver, drew an arrow and shot a tree fifty feet away, square on the trunk.

            “Now,” the strange lady said, “protect yourself. From behind.”

            I drew another arrow and whirled. The lady wasn’t talking about herself, but a Darkness Anoki trying rather unsuccessfully to hide in the foliage. But you can’t hide black well. So he charged, ready with a sword. I shot him, but not crucially, and pulled my rabbit-cleaning knife out as a hand-to-hand weapon. I approached, folding my wings back but not enough that I couldn’t easily escape. As I got closer, he jumped up, sword ready, and basically tried to kill me. But he was inexperienced and cocky, and trying to show off.

            “I can kill you,” I said.

            “I’d like to see you try,” he hissed. I realized that this was one of those cases where the Darkness magic had taken over its user, and power had taken its toll. He could love no one. Then his eyes flashed, and he muttered, “Stay back, Anise…” and I wasn’t sure I was right.

            “I’ll grant your wish in a minute, unless you surrender. I can’t have you killing me or anyone else. This is war!”

            “Which are you?” he hissed. “Zephan or Kliid?”

            “Yes,” I said, and applied a fist to his temple. He went down like potatoes, and I shoved the knife into his neck. I don’t think he’ll be attacking anyone anytime soon.

            “Where is this Anise?” I said grimly. Actually, I knew, because my unusually good hearing had picked up her movement. I made no sound as I approached her, and I grabbed her shirt collar. About half of the shirt was in my hand.

            “What element?” I growled.

            “Time,” she said, big-eyed.

            I let go of some more of the shirt collar, so she wouldn’t choke. “You must never tell of what happened here. If you do, I will track you down and kill you. No one can know where I am.”

            “You’re a thug,” she said.

            “I am going to free an entire village, and stop a war that has been going on for decades. I have reasons, and I must keep my companions safe. But I will let you go, because I know that you won’t say a word. He got caught in a sinkhole and was buried. All right?”

            “It’s okay,” she said.

            I frowned. “What?”

            “He was Zephan. An employed mercenary. I was his prisoner.”

            “You are Kliid?” I asked. The war’s started again, I thought.

            “Yes!” she whispered. “Are you going to kill me?”

            “No,” I said. “I told you.”

            “Are you Kliid?” she whispered.

            “I grew up Zephan, but I lived with the Kliid recently. They are the better side, but I’m going to stop the war before more people get hurt.”

            “Will you take me with you?” she pleaded.

            “Too dangerous,” I muttered. “I would take you back to the Kliid, but I have a prisoner of my own to deal with.” I heard the lady laugh behind me. “The village is that way.”

            I let go of her shirt, and she turned. “Wait,” I said. She came back. I put a spell over her. “You won’t be seen until you are safe within the village. Go, and don’t let me see you turn back.” I wouldn’t be able to see her anyway, but it sounded good.

            I turned back to the lady.

            “What element are you?” she asked.

            “Earth,” I lied.

            “You are not,” she said. “You, Amanda, are a Star Anoki, the best magician of many villages.”

            “How long have you been spying on me?” I asked.

            “You chose the cleaver,” she said. “That’s a decent knife, there.”

            “I can’t believe I never noticed you!” I shouted.

            “Quiet,” she said. “The forest must be thick with spies worse than me.”

            “Why would any of them attack?” I said. “I am Zephan and Kliid.”

            “Or neither. Perhaps all of them would attack. As far as they are concerned, you are an outsider.”

            I have no home, I thought.

            “The sky,” the strange lady said.

            “I’ll fight all of them,” I said.

            “No…” the strange lady said. “You don’t want to. You just want an outlet for your anger. You won’t hurt innocent people.”

            “These aren’t innocent people!” I shouted. “They’ve been taken over! It’s that stupid commitment spell! It’s wrong! These people don’t even know what they’re doing!”

            I grabbed her collar and ignored the clattering of the seven pounds of wooden beads she wore. “You will tell me who you are.”

            “This is fair,” she said, “because I have figured out who you are. My name is Alicia; you may know that much.”

            I frowned. “Important people in my life have often been named Alicia. Somehow, I don’t think this will be much different.”

            “You are thinking of your mother?” she said.

            “My mother is dead!” I yelled. “And these wars will stop. I have power now, and I’m going to use it!” I stopped. “You can help… or not.”

            “I will be there,” Alicia said, “when you need me. But not in my current state.”

            She was referring to the roots. As I let her go, she handed me a small bottle.

            “It’s morphing potion,” Alicia said. “It morphs into whatever you need at the moment.”

            “It’s water,” I said flatly.

            “That’s because you don’t need it right now. If you get caught, your capturers will only see a bottle of water.”

            “Where are you from?” I asked.

            “Where I am from and where I stay now are different things. It is a long story. Something says that your friends need you now.”

            I stared at her, unsure. Something about this lady was familiar, and at the same time foreign, like food that I haven’t eaten for a long time and tastes different than I remembered.

            “Go ahead,” she said. “I will take care of myself.”

            Before I turned, I healed her, and she gave me a thin smile as I silently took flight.

                                                            *          *          *

            I found everyone in the air, scrambling, splitting up and coming together, flying as high as possible and looking really, really odd. Not funny odd. Creepy odd. Like something was happening. So, big surprise: something was.

            I found some Time, Water and Fire Anoki chasing Li, Kaye and Akana. There might have been twelve of them. As far as I was concerned, it was a fair fight: me against a dozen attackers. I was so fast, so powerful, and so, so mad. I must have hacked through nine of them with the bow and the cleaning knife (which, granted, was a bit degrading for these guys, but not like I cared) when I found I couldn’t see anything. With a healing spell that was so strong it sent out a shock wave that nearly knocked our enemies out of the sky, I warded off the spell. As I watched my enemies fall, it struck me: THEY WERE FLYING.

            They didn’t fall for long. I watched as a Time Anoki swooped up to face me.

            “We were told to bring you back. Your powers are a threat to us.”

            “What powers?”  I said evenly. “I’m an Earth Anoki. And you can already fly.”

            “Don’t be coy. We know what you can do.” She hissed at me. “Many would kill to have your powers.”

            “I wouldn’t try if I were you.”

            “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “You have to come back alive.”

            “So they can use me to win the war? I don’t think so.”  I drew the cleaning knife and said, “Do you know where this has been?”

            “No.”

            “In a rabbit! Oh, wait… it still is!”

            I inspected the work. All done in self-defense, and, after all, in war. Unless you have a terrorist pointing a gun at you, follow the rule we all know: “Don’t try this at home, kids!” No matter how witty my banter is.

            I… erm, disposed of the rest of the attack squad. It really did help my anger issues.

            “What was that?” Kaye asked. “We’re not worth the stronger Darkness Anoki, so they just send a bunch of redshirts?”

            “No, that’s not it,” I said, running my fingers through my hair. “You’re worth the war itself, because I would have come after you and they’d have all of us. They just don’t think you’re enough of a threat to bother with more powerful mercenaries when I’m off somewhere interrogating someone. I wonder if they baited me out there with that spy.”

            “I won’t ask,” Kaye said. “It’s not that we’re weak. Not physically, not mentally, and definitely not magically. I just didn’t want to kill them.”

            “And that’s what you need to get over. This is war. It’s you or them. You can’t dodge it. Once we kill some major warriors, they’ll stop sending them because they need warriors on the battlefield so they’re not taken over by Zephans.”

            “The village is bigger than you think, Amanda,” Kaye said. “Most families have at least five kids.”

            “Then we’ll deal with what they give us. Anyone else they’re stupid enough to send is obviously as dumb as the government behind them. From now on, we kill anyone who threatens us! And no getting soft. I won’t kill innocent people, but these aren’t innocent. That’s why we fight, and that’s why we need to kill. We kill to protect—not just ourselves, but everyone in the Zepha tribe, and everyone in the Kliid tribe. All right?”

            “No,” Kaye said. “It’s all wrong. I’ve never killed someone in my life. I don’t plan to.”

            “Kaye,” I said, “it’s them or us. Think about it. If we let too many people go free, we’ll be tracked easily, which will force us to kill more people. If there’s hope of finding us, then the Kliid and the Zephans will try to get us. At once. Them or us.”

            It’s amazing how people seem to really hate logic at times. Logic whips poetry. But really, I didn’t need a squad of peacies. Or PCs. And I’m not talking about computers. What I really needed were warriors, and I had three girls who didn’t want to kill anything. It didn’t work, and I knew this was driving Kaye nuts.

            Maybe not three girls. I’d seen the look of victorious satisfaction on Li’s face when I came down on Kaye. I knew she’d been the one to fight, to get everyone into the sky, and probably the one who taught them the evasive maneuvers. She’d saved them. And Kaye had objected. Whatever. I was staying out of that fight.

            I turned to Akana, though, to see what her view was. She held up her hands in an “I let them argue” gesture.

            I didn’t see any more people around. Not the Anoki who had attacked us and not the strange spy lady who, now that I came to think of it, had such a stilted way of talking, as if she’d planned this speech for a long time. Or was trying to disguise her voice. Hmm. I hadn’t noticed in the action of a) catching her spying, b) killing someone, and c) not killing a girl hiding in the bushes. Come to think of it, I was talking like that, too. Maybe I was subconsciously role-playing. I am so weird.

            The sun was already getting high, so I convinced the others to leave:

            “We’ve been seen here. We need to leave now.”

            “Whatever.”

            Okay, so they didn’t put up much of a fight. But I got them to leave. We all took off, up in the air again. I still loved it, despite the fact that we were running again. But now we were at least running with a purpose. We were leaving.

Chapter Three: Escape… Again…

CHAPTER THREE—ESCAPE… AGAIN

We took to the skies, and my wings changed back to their speckled periwinkle. It was night before I was satisfied with our distance from the village. We set up camp quickly. The fire flickered as we all gathered around it for warmth, a contrast from the windy chill that loomed above us.

I didn’t like what was happening. I had a feeling that we shared similarities other than being able to fly. I didn’t know Li well enough to judge her on this, but Kaye, Akana and I definitely had something in common that I couldn’t quite place.

I wasn’t sure what I was thinking. I wasn’t worried, exactly, except that I knew that wherever we went, we would have to run away. I wanted to land, to be closer to the forest. Even in the sky, I dropped a little to be a few feet closer. I felt better, sort of more concealed, even though it was in fact the opposite.

I didn’t want to be here. I was tired, and I wanted to lie down on the ground and sleep there. I didn’t want to be in the sky any more.

“We should land,” Kaye said. “There’s a storm coming.”

“How do you know that?” Li said.

“I just know,” Kaye said. “We really ought to land.”

“Yeah, guys,” I said. “We should go.”

We landed. Li needed some help to avoid ending up on her face, since it had started to rain already, and she was the last one down. The rain didn’t work well with her magic, and she was getting rather cranky. Through sopping wet black hair, she muttered a few words.

Kaye found, under a tree that gave good shelter, dry wood. She set it up with a bunch of rocks around it, and Li lit it. She looked like she felt a little better. I mean, wouldn’t setting stuff on fire make anyone feel better?

Everyone huddled up around the fire. It really was warm, though that wasn’t saying I absolutely loved it. I wouldn’t be happy until I had the tent up and was out of the rain. I sent a spell to make the temperature warmer, at least.

Kaye sat on her legs, making herself look taller. Her normally wispy blonde hair sat limp over her face. She wasn’t too happy.

It looked like a recipe for poetry, but I was kind of too tired to care. Fire-flicker, pouring sky, snoring Anoki… uh.

I wanted to set up the tent and sleep there. But I didn’t want to do it in the rain. I thought I might have to, but I got a better idea.

“Let’s go above the storm,” I said. “It’ll be clear skies there.”

“Good idea,” Kaye said. “I would never have thought of that.”

I hoped that the storm was low. I wasn’t sure how high we could go. But we all went.

“Fly as fast as you can,” I said grimly, dripping. The rain felt like hail. The fire went out.

And I did: I was flying maybe eighty miles an hour, straight up. There was mist around, and my wings automatically blended with it. Before I knew it, I was in the cloud. It was wet, and freezing, and I wanted to get out of it as soon as possible. So I did. It took a while, even for me, but the sky was clear as glass above the clouds. I waited for Kaye, but she took a while. I went higher still, not knowing how much further I could go before I got short of breath. I went for a long time before hearing this serene music played by an instrument I couldn’t quite recognize. Maybe several instruments.

I know this sounds odd now, but I was whisked into the music without knowing it. I danced as if I weren’t even in the air, as if the sky was as familiar to me as the ground always had been. There was a lot of magic here, but it wasn’t mine. And then – it was. It was mine, and it made me feel different, less tense, happier. A voice joined the music, and I knew the words. I caught myself singing it as well, the way you catch yourself singing the sour cream commercial jingle. Even when the other voice grew fainter, mine didn’t. I’d never realized I was that good at singing, simply because I’d never tried. I wondered who the other voice was. I knew that I could stop singing anytime, but I didn’t want to. The sky was where I belonged.

I was thousands of feet in the air, singing a song I didn’t know I knew, feeling like I belonged there. I wasn’t short of breath. I must have been fifteen thousand feet in the air. And even such a simple reality check seemed sort of fictional, as if those rules applied only to other people.

There were no nagging doubts about the others. I knew they wouldn’t be here for a while. Kaye couldn’t fly quite as fast as I could, and I had left her miles behind. I still can’t quite see her as a Star Anoki. She seemed a lot more like an Air Anoki. I wasn’t even sure I was more Star than Earth. But I couldn’t see myself just able to do Earth magic. Ever. I needed to be able to fly, needed to be in the air. It was the only thing that worked for me, that clicked, other than my herbs and healing.

I wasn’t flying; I was suspended. I didn’t need to work at it. I was just there. I never got tired while flying. It was like… it was as if it were a magical exercise and I could do it so well that it didn’t wear me out, like walking was a physical exercise. For Kaye, Akana and Li, flying was physical. But not for me. And I was so good at magic in general that this seemed small in comparison to the other magic I was able to do.

I realized that Li’s orange wings weren’t far below now, but she wasn’t coming any higher. She was shouting at me, so I flew down and met her. It didn’t take me too long, because she was about a mile below me. The air was so thin that I could see her and hear her.

“Why didn’t you just come up to meet me?” I asked.

“Uh,” Kaye said, joining her, “because we don’t want to suffocate?”

“You’ve tried?”

“Yes,” Kaye said. “Silly. Don’t you think we’d try if we didn’t know?”

“We’re above everything now,” Akana said, and it took me a while to realize she was talking about the storm.

“It seems so much prettier from above,” Li said. She still looked, literally, out of her element up here. And let’s just say sky blue was not her color, especially for an Oriental-bred girl with dark hair and olive skin. Fire fit her, but periwinkle was out of the question.

It was pretty. The clouds were so much fuller, it seemed, from up here. It was gray, but you could see it clearly because you didn’t have the raindrops in the way, hopping and bouncing off the ground like crickets.

Kaye didn’t know what I’d been doing, and neither did Li or Akana. I’d been too high, and too transparent. How did I know? Kaye’s expression. But I’d known what I’d been doing, and it had been real. Realer than most things I did. I mean, walking was real. I was on the ground. But stuff like knitting, or typing (we hacked into the fairies’ Internet too)… that wasn’t quite as real to me, not quite as close to my nature. Getting dressed in the morning wasn’t as real, though that wasn’t to say I was going to forgo it.

“What are we going to do?” Akana asked, brushing hair out of her face. The wind was amazing up here. It was fast, and strong. I think Kaye was enjoying it thoroughly.

“Well,” Kaye said, “first, I think we ought to have a leader. Someone in charge who halfway knows what she’s doing.”

“Maybe you should,” I said.

“I was thinking more of you,” Kaye said. “You’re the best at magic, and you even have your own weapon.”

“You’re the oldest,” I said.

“Does it matter?” she said. “You’re a lot stronger than I am, physically and magically.”

“You’ve never had to be strong. I had to chase off invaders in the war. They found my house. I attacked them with Mom’s chef’s cleaver. But it got wedged in someone, so I had to use the bread knife.” After that, I decided to teach myself to use a bow. I’d made my bow myself, with an inherited knife from the kitchen – one without blood on it. For the record, I washed those knives multiple times very carefully.

Kaye stared at me for a little bit. “I flew away. But that’s kind of why you should be leader.”

Okay, so my past has been a little odd, but it wasn’t that bad. I mean, I had a reason. The tribes were warring constantly. And even a six-year-old kid, when backed into a corner by a bunch of killing “meanies,” as I later called them, will attack with a chef’s cleaver or, possibly, a bread knife if the cleaver gets stuck in someone’s skull. At least I had good aim. The only complaint I had afterward was that they knocked over the jar of sugar and I had to clean it up. I didn’t really care what had just happened, but I was hoping I’d get candy for it. The fact that there had been three people invading the house was an irrelevant detail. The person who’d come to take the dead bodies away found me in the living room, playing video games and looking much too innocent.

“Which is the chef’s cleaver?” Kaye said, bringing me back to reality.

“That’s the big, heavy, square one with a hole in the top since it can’t be stored any other way than hung up.” Let’s just say that I wasn’t the kind of kid who had trouble with kidnappers, or got beat up (kind of hard, since I had Earth magic), or got squashed trying to lift something too heavy. Ever. I wasn’t mean–just defensive–and lots of other kids found it beneficial to be friends with me. Not because I’d beat them up if they weren’t, but simply because nobody else would.

“I vote for Amanda,” Akana said. “She did save me.”

“You’re a nine-year-old,” I said. “I couldn’t just leave you, and that wound might have bled you to death if I hadn’t healed you. Besides, you look after yourself well.”

“Cough,” Li said, and I realized what I’d just said. That was a rather counterproductive argument on my part. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be leader, it was that I didn’t know how to. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, though Kaye did. I thought I was more the protector, more the bodyguard, not really the one in charge. I wouldn’t know what to do, anyway.

“I wouldn’t know what to do, anyway,” Kaye said.

“Do any of us?” Akana said. There went my excuse.

“Come on, Amanda…” Li said.

“All right,” I gave in. I was losing the argument. “But don’t expect brilliance.”

“What do we do now?” Kaye asked.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“We can’t just stay here forever,” she said.

“Right,” I muttered under my breath. I sure felt like I could stay here for a while. Louder, I said, “Well, I have a crazy idea. It’s dangerous, stupid, and will save a bunch of people from barbaric death.”

“Sounds like my kind of idea,” Li said.

“What is it?” Kaye asked. “Will it stop the wars?”

“Yes,” I said. “Basically, we kill all the elders of the Zepha tribe and take it over. Us. And since we’re Kliid allies, the Kliid tribe won’t attack us like they do to the Zephans. And we won’t kill anyone but the dictator and his advisors. The villagers won’t attack us. We’ll set up a democracy like the Kliid have, minus the plotting leaders. With our power, that’ll be easy. I hope.”

“Bring the cleaver,” Kaye muttered.

                                                *          *          *

Now it was my responsibility to keep everyone safe and happy. Safe, I could manage, but apart from Akana, I’d never taken care of anyone, and “happy” sounded foreign. I’d never had a little brother or sister; Kaye was the only living relative I knew of. I was generally a catlike loner in school, someone dependable but never cool, and never with very many friends, exactly, but just people who depended on me to protect them and heal them. The whole village depended on me. I’d protected village kids in wars several times, hiding them on roofs of buildings and shooting anyone who came near with my homemade bow. I figured out quickly that arrows were exceedingly hard to make, and if they didn’t corkscrew right, exceedingly ineffective. So I made them with Earth magic, finding that they became easy to mass produce, and my quiver was never really empty.

That reminded me: I had to get a better quiver. Mine was in pitiful shape and fell apart routinely, being made from three buckets, two of which had the bottoms hack-sawed off and were Super-Glued to the other buckets, making a tube-like canister that held the arrows just enough that I was able to pull them out without dislocating my shoulder. Ask me how I know.

I felt a surge of adrenaline. I had power now, and I would use it. But that didn’t mean I wanted all of it.

            “Kaye, I appoint you official mom.”

            “What?!”

            “I will protect us, but while I’m fighting, you have to stay out of the way, and you need a bodyguard with good magic to lead you while I’m not there. Kaye is a Star Anoki too.”

            “Do we have to do anything?” Li asked. Akana nodded.

            “If two ride on a horse, one must ride behind,” I quoted primly, though I wasn’t sure where the saying came from.

            “And I’m going to kill someone,” I growled. “No more death, especially that which leaves children alone.” Hmm, was I referring to someone?

Chapter Two: Magician Girl

CHAPTER TWO—MAGICIAN GIRL

We landed in front of a bunch of shocked Anoki, in the middle of the village. One Air Anoki would be the surprise of their life, but never in their wildest dreams did they expect two. Especially since, by chance, they already had one in the village.

Akana and I studied under Kaye, the village Air Anoki. After about a week, Akana quit out of frustration. I could do every one of the spells with ease. Kaye also knew some Water magic, and she taught me that as well. I started to discover spells on my own, though rarely and sometimes by accident. We were trying to cleanse and purify water when I ended up making a potion that helped with bronchitis. We would try to make a little whirlwind and mine would show up in the nearby water glass as a vortex instead. And most of all, I could fly faster than even Kaye. She got exhausted when she tried it. I tried to explain how it felt, almost like weightlessness. I loved it, and I felt bad that she couldn’t. So one day I left my bow at home (you can tell it was a special occasion) and I strapped Kaye onto my back, between my wings. Kaye was skeptical, but I wasn’t.

I proved to be right. Nothing went wrong. But nothing really went right either. Kaye was panic-stricken at going that fast, like riding a roller coaster, and though she was in no danger, she still didn’t get to feel it. She wasn’t for long, because the magic wave knocked her out. I had only heard of that happening with magical messages before, when the super-advanced magic can knock weaker creatures into unconsciousness, usually in the form of sleep. I couldn’t get Kaye to wake up until I did healing magic on her. I don’t know what I did, but it seems to be pretty powerful stuff.

I think Kaye exaggerated over how powerful, though. She was freaking out. Kept saying that I didn’t know the intensity of what I was doing. Hel-lo, I said, that’s why I’m here. Then her eyes got really big and said that I really didn’t know what I was doing. And that I should try some of the other elements as well. I quizzed her on why, but she refused to leak any info. So even though I flunked the teachings of my friends, I would be trying Time magic tomorrow.

*          *          *

I mastered one of the basic spells. Just one. I didn’t know how, but I was better at Time magic here than I was at home. Akana said that the Light teacher was amazing and pretty and really nice. Her teacher was about twenty-one years old. Kaye was much closer to my age, about fifteen years old, but was the only person in the village who knew Air magic.

Akana wanted to try her new spell on me, the real version of what she’d done to let me fly. I said it was fine. She did the spell, but unlike in the forest, I didn’t feel any different. Akana was disappointed. I mentioned that sometimes a simple spell can do things that bigger spells can’t. She looked a little happier, but still really down. I wasn’t used to seeing her like this, and I tried to use healing magic on her. I always try that, because it can’t hurt anybody and it has a shot at working on random things. It didn’t this time, though.

I made Akana sit down and said that maybe it would have an unusual effect later. Maybe I would get better at Time magic, or maybe I could do Fire spells that I otherwise couldn’t. She looked even sadder when I tried to cheer her up and just shook her head. She said that I was supposed to feel something. I suggested that perhaps since she’d already done the spell on me, it would have a different effect than what they’re used to, but it she just got worried. I told her to chill–it’s a Light spell. The worst thing that could happen is sunburn. She considered this, and went to bed looking a little better. So I did also.

*                      *          *

Then, in the middle of the night, the magic hit me like a tsunami. I was groggily half-awake and not really controlling myself. However, I stepped out of my bed with grace as if I were sleepwalking, though I knew that I was doing it.

Something impelled me out into the fields. I did not resist. I was no longer tired, but the most energetic being in the universe. I took off into the night, pouring on my magical speed. It felt so natural, blending with every tree, my bow safely in the tent, and out in the night. Alone. Without any other Anoki, no fairies or dragons or Chikik or upset nine-year-olds. I spun as I shot through the sky, shot through the clouds, rolled completely over. And kept going.

I knew that, from then on, walking would never feel the same, and neither would flying. I would not feel satisfied while walking. In the air, I would feel the need to cut across the heavens like some super-aerodynamic comet or meteor or something. I did not want to go back to bed. I whizzed across the sky with no idea how much ground I was covering. I felt a major pang of magic, but not the dangerous, pyrotechnical Fire magic, or the cold twist of Storm magic. It was something not really warm, but incredibly comforting. I blended with the trees and the ground and the air and… and the sky…

The sky seemed to be the center of it all. I felt as if my home was here. I would never really belong anywhere else. By “sky” I don’t mean the air. The air was nothing to me right now, nothing important. Even the trees faded into the background as the sky took over my vision, my thoughts, and the dream that I was still halfway in, while still being alertly awake. I floated in the air, resting on my back without beating my wings. And I stayed there.

*                      *          *

I woke up still in the sky, my only proof that it had not been a dream. I went home. I was energetic in that way where you want to rip off into the night in bare feet at mach speed, which you feel like you could do if other people were around or if it were actually night. But with the wet, dewy grasses and the sky’s yellow tint, I knew dawn was leaking slowly above the horizon. Giving into temptation, I shot straight up into the air and did so until about a mile off the ground, then dived into the village. I felt better, but was still not entirely satisfied. I went home.

I sat around in a cozy armchair in my new apartment. After five minutes of trying to calm down, I felt like I was gonna barf. I called in sick and stayed home reading. I wasn’t able to concentrate on the story, because all I could think about was last night, feeling the amazing rush of adrenaline, shooting into the night sky, never stopping, never feeling tired. I loved it, and I wanted to do it again. Now I felt like a fish out of water on the ground. Literally.

I don’t know what kind of magic that was. It definitely wasn’t Air magic, and Earth seemed more fitting but not quite right, because I was too far in the air. It wasn’t Water magic, of course, and definitely not Fire. It wasn’t Time or Storm. It might have been Dream magic, but I’d felt too awake then. And I could already do Air magic, which was one rare talent; I wasn’t likely to get a second one. It felt… right. Almost too right. I don’t know how that works.

I couldn’t get to sleep that night. I rolled, tossed, turned, thrashed. You’d have thought I was having a seizure. It crossed my mind that I might get some sleep if I slept outside again, but I didn’t want to do it two days in a row and since I was sick, I really shouldn’t be out running around.

I ended up without a minute of sleep. By the time I was ready to give in to the urge to fly away, dawn was licking its way across the sky.

Why did I just say “licking?” I’ve just been poetically weird lately, I guess. Insomnia does that to me. Why didn’t I just heal myself? You ask. I wasn’t hurt. I’m a healer, not a psychiatrist. I knew one trick in acupressure that helps me fall asleep–rubbing the back of my neck above my hairline–but it wasn’t working tonight.

I was too exhausted to go anywhere, so I just called in sick again and stayed home. I claimed I had a cold, and nobody seemed to notice that I could have just healed myself. Except Akana.

“You don’t have a cold,” she said, pushing my door wide open and letting it shut hard behind her. “What’s up? Why are you home?”

“Just tired. I didn’t get any sleep last night.” It was the truth, but not all of it.

Akana didn’t look like she believed me, but she sent a few spells toward me as she left.

*                      *          *

I stayed in my room again the next night as well, but forced myself to magic practice even with the minimal sleep I got. The Time magic teacher was busy with something else, so Kaye was teaching me more Water magic. Halfway through the lesson, Kaye noticed that a) I was falling asleep and b) I was doing the most advanced Water magic anyway. She pulled over a Fire Anoki called Li and asked her to try and teach me a fire spell. I picked it up on the first try. Li taught me another, and I did that one with ease as well. Then she tried a really advanced spell, and I did that one too.

Kaye shut her gaping mouth and ended the lesson. Unaware of what I just did in my groggy state, I nodded and went home to go be comatose.

*                      *          *

I tried for only five minutes to get some sleep. Then I went out into the night and leapt into the air, gliding across the sky like I’d never been able to do until that day with Akana. Like I’d wanted all my life. Like I could do, now that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get any sleep anyway and that I was feeling slightly better with nightfall.

I sailed into the sky like a well-shot arrow, feeling the exuberant rush of energy. I rolled over, stretching out my shoulder blades after they were so cramped in bed for so long. My wings seemed larger and more supportive than ever when I rushed into the night. It wasn’t less powerful the second time, this night magic. I wondered if the magic was with me, or just stayed in this place. Or if it was waiting, waiting for someone to find it. What kind of person? Did I fit the criteria, since I found it? Was it calling me back every night? Was that why I couldn’t sleep?

As I shot higher into the sky, the answers to the questions came to me.

Yes. It was waiting here. I fit perfectly. It called me back. I couldn’t sleep.

And then every worry dissolved as I twirled straight up and rested on my own wings, three thousand feet in the air.

*                      *          *

I felt amazing the next morning. I was back to my, well, not exactly bouncy, but at least not lethargic, self. The Time magic teacher was still busy in another village, so it was all Fire spells today. I didn’t know the teacher. I did every one of them, despite my previous attempts at learning the spells in my own village. I did not get burnt like I had the last time I tried the spells. I wasn’t even focusing on most of them; my mind was on last night.

I’d always thought that magic was a force that had a mind of its own. Everyone thought I was nuts. But I’d always known that it had motives for doing stuff–it wasn’t like a person or an animal, just a force with sort of an instinct and kind of… raw emotions. I knew that I would be going back again tonight, because that magic was sustaining me. I now depended on it. I think it’s mine now.

Akana looked surprised when she saw me again.

“What?” I asked.

“Have you looked in a mirror recently?”

I thought. “Not really.”

“Well, you should.”

I thought Akana was making fun of my unbrushed, windblown hair, but when I looked in the mirror, I saw what she was talking about.

My wings were a misty green, like my ring. They had dark blue flecks around the edges. I realized that my clothes didn’t go with them at all anymore and went out to buy new ones. I found some turquoise shirts and blue jeans that worked, and I went home to put them on.

I ran into Kaye, who gave me a questioning look and then walked a little faster. I went home and changed.

Akana was waiting at my house. She said she liked the new clothes. She also gave me an update on her classes: She could do Light magic, some of the simplest Earth spells, some simple Fire magic, and a good deal of Water magic. She couldn’t do anything outside the natural elements except for the Light magic. And she couldn’t do Air magic at all, something that I was still puzzled over. She could fly, but didn’t have Air talent. Maybe other Anoki can fly. I asked Li over to have Akana do her spell.

Akana did the newer version of the spell that she learned in magic lessons first. Li tried to fly, but it didn’t work. Akana looked down. I asked her to try the spell she’d used in the forest. She did so halfheartedly, but Li was airborne before long.

“It’s not the same spell,” I said. “It’s a flying spell.”

Akana was happily surprised. She’d figured it out herself without another Anoki. I don’t think she realized the full extent, though; she could make anyone fly even if they didn’t have Air magic, whereas nobody except a lucky few could without her. I immediately realized both the potential and the danger here.

“Akana…” I said, “…we’re not going to tell anyone about this… right?”

Akana thought about this, realized what I was talking about, and agreed. Li did also. I was relieved. I decided to go to the library and get a new book; I’d finished mine. I ran into Kaye in the nonfiction section, near the encyclopedias.

“What are you looking up?” I asked.

“You.”

I frowned. “I wouldn’t be in an encyclopedia. I didn’t do anything spectacular in the past or anything.”

“No,” Kaye said. “You’re still doing it.”

“What?”

“I didn’t think you knew. Some Anoki have blends of magic talent, but all of them have one thing that they’re the best at, and everything else is kind of minor. But you–you’re good at everything. And, um… the other Anoki don’t change appearance. I mean, your wings are bigger and a different color. And it looks like you sandblasted them with glitter when you do magic.”

I was kind of shocked. The weirdness of going out every night and sleeping in midair without beating my wings at all had vanished, replaced by a deep contentment with being in the sky whenever I could, especially at night.

“So now,” Kaye said, “I’m trying to figure out who you are. You might be just Earth, but I really don’t think so, not after what I’ve seen.”

I’d known Kaye for months now, months of magic lessons. I knew what magic she could do, of course, and that her favorite color was blue and she liked to read romance novels, especially Jane Austen ones. And more importantly, I knew that she was trustworthy. So I didn’t hesitate as much to tell her what I did at night, especially since it would most likely help her search. But still, part of me wanted to retreat out of her mess.

Kaye looked sort of like a deer in the headlights. I wondered if I had been right to tell her, or if my reluctant side should have won out.

“That’ll help,” she said faintly, and I left, wondering what I’d just done.

*                      *          *

I returned to the library later, realizing that I had yet to find another book. On a whim, I went back to the encyclopedias to see if Kaye was still there. Her page was still open, and she’d left a bookmark, but Kaye had gone home. I saw one word and something made me check out the book I’d selected and run for my life.

I went home and tried to read. I could only think of the one word I’d seen, though I had forgotten what word it was. I both wanted to go back and read more of the encyclopedia and to stay home, huddle up, and forget I had even walked into that area of the library. I decided to go visit Kaye. Maybe she’d found something.

I was reluctant to visit Kaye, almost as much as I would be to go back to the library. But curiosity won out, and I went ahead and dropped by to ask her what she’d found.

Apprehensively, Kaye started an explanation. “I don’t want to disappoint you with your result unless I’m sure that my theory is true. I want you to take several different types of magic lessons tomorrow. If you can do them, I will tell you your answer.

I didn’t know what she meant. I was confused as anything and a little concerned by Kaye’s almost fearful tone. So I went home and read my book. I felt anxious and excited about tomorrow. Maybe I was something special after all.

*                      *          *

That night I went higher than I normally did, maybe five thousand feet in the air. Way above the trees, I felt oddly separated from anything below. I slept soundly and came down at dawn.

I read for a while. Kaye’s teachers hadn’t come to the practice grounds yet. I finished a couple chapters and went out again to check if they were there. Nobody was around yet. I checked my clock. Still 6:30. So I flew up again, trying to see how high I could go. I bolted much farther past where I had slept and up into ten thousand feet. The air was thinner, but I didn’t mind and I didn’t have breathing problems. It was a little easier to fly in, even. I went faster. I looked down at my new village and realized that this was my true home, not just some village I’m visiting for magic lessons. I fit here. I was respected here. And they didn’t require the commitment spell, which was important. The dictating elders always did.

The village looked tiny from here. I wondered what it would be like to sleep here. I dove straight down, and gave my wings a huge beat. I was blind and watery-eyed from wind, but I was flying and I didn’t care. All of a sudden, I was in the village, braking fast, wings catching me like a parachute. Several weirded out faces watched as I almost bent double upon attempting to stand and, gasp, walk. I realized that the first teacher was just arriving. I hurried to the grounds and tried to smooth down my super-windblown hair.

The first teacher was one who had mastered the four natural elements. I was to learn the most complicated spell for each. I did the Earth one on the first try. I had the teacher explain the Water one a couple of times, but I still only needed one try to do it. For Air, I felt a little bit of stress doing the spell. I had to do the Fire spell twice, but I got it.

The next teacher was a Dream Anoki. I did every spell that she showed me. I could put her to sleep, wake her up, make her hallucinate, and read her mind. I wondered how I could do all that to her but couldn’t cure my own insomnia last week.

The Time teacher was easy. I even sent her off looking ten years younger.

I did all the storm magic. I could create hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, lightning storms, straight-line winds, and probably a bunch more. But the teacher gave up trying to find something I couldn’t do as well. I considered helping her appearance as well to make up for it, but decided against it.

 The Darkness spells were saved for last. I had major trouble with these. I had to do the simplest ones three to four times to get them right, and the strongest one took me ten times to finish. It was still half the time of the more advanced students, but doing the Darkness spells made me not only uncomfortable like anyone else who could do Light magic, but also kind of queasy. I didn’t like this much, and I was glad when the lesson ended. Kaye, who was sitting around watching all this, shook her head in the dust that my last spell had created.

“I advise,” she said, “that we go somewhere less public before I tell you any more.”

“I think so too,” I said.

*                      *          *

Half an hour later, I was bewildered, shocked, weirded out, and inanely happy.

“You are a Star Anoki. You have the rarest talent known to any of us. You can do all the kinds of magic, except a weakness in Dark magic. But I expected that.” Kaye gathered the notes she’d taken. “The only other small weakness is in Fire magic. But then, that kid trying to roast marshmallows might have been a small distraction.”

“There was a kid trying to roast marshmallows?”

Kaye sighed. “The point is that you’re not really an Earth Anoki. You’re a Star Anoki whose strongest power is in Earth magic. I think your wings changed color that night you went out and claimed the magic as yours. Or it claimed you. Magic works that way. I’ve never been able to explain it. It’s just, Amanda…”

I gave Kaye a “go on” look.

“…the Star magic tends to take over anyone who accepts it and can’t handle it. I don’t know. I think you’re good enough to handle it. Star magic is usually pretty good at Dark magic, but I could see your reluctance to do it. And you controlled yourself enough to not do it except to get on with the test. You didn’t want to. It had nothing to do with your inability. But there’s one thing that confuses me.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I’m one too.”

*                      *          *

“I thought,” I huffed as I tried to keep up with Kaye, “that you couldn’t do Fire magic. You told me once.”

“I can do any element!” Kaye hissed. “I just keep it secret. I’ll explain why later.”

We were shopping for magic stuff. I was looking for a decent cloak when Kaye popped her head around the corner and dragged me over.

“Wands,” she said. I was puzzled.

“But we’re Anoki. Why would we need wands?”

“Because people would think that we’re human magic wielders. Besides, they sometimes help amplify a spell, especially healing spells. The wood just seems to make Earth magic a lot more effective.” She leaned over and whispered, “And they look totally awesome!”

“Can’t argue with that,” I said. I bought one for myself, but Kaye skipped it after all that. I went back and picked up the thick green cloak I’d been eyeing. I might not be an Earth Anoki, but I was still an Amanda. Even though right now I was wondering who Amanda was. I was wondering who I was.

I was also wondering who Kaye thought she was. I mean, pulling me to the shops to get all this stuff. Was she planning something? The fact that I didn’t know Kaye as well as I thought I did screamed “YES” even louder.

I bought a backpack that held much more than it implied from the outside. Useful. We stocked up on seeds and lots and lots of candy and other junk food. Most of it was Kaye’s idea. I didn’t know where she was going with this until she bought a huge tent that she stuck in the backpack and said that we’d be gone a while, so we might as well make it comfortable. We bought tons of blankets, a teensy heater (which could be powered with Storm magic or batteries) and other stuff that somehow all fit in the pack without being heavy.

We went Kaye’s house. She started packing, and I started interrogating.

“Why did you hide your talent from the rest of the village?”

Kaye was silent for a minute. Then she said, “I suppose you also want to know why we’re packing. Two questions, one answer. The village elders have been planning a war with the Zepha tribe for almost a year. The two tribes have always been hostile toward each other. And if they realize that they have a Star Anoki, they will attack as soon as possible because that Anoki will win the war for them. I mean, Star Anoki can fly, and Darkness cloaks make it incredibly easy to spy. Flying makes stealing plans and stuff easier–a lot easier. And of course, the ability to do any kind of magic allows certain advantages. Plus, if they had a Star Anoki, they’d have a healer as well. The Zepha tribe’s healer disappeared a while ago.” Kaye shot a pointed glance at me. “And, of course, you’re FROM the Zepha tribe and would know everything about it.

“So anyway, Elder Fienne was watching at the edge of the training grounds while you were taking your test, and you can bet your life that she saw that you could do every single kind of magic. Now she knows that she has a Star Anoki from the Zepha tribe and that it’s incredibly likely that they don’t have another. After all, magic talent isn’t determined by genetics. You wouldn’t inherit your power; it’s all you.

“They raided your house last night. I saw them, even though they were totally silent. To tell the truth, I was out too.” Kaye blushed.

“But Kaye, the Zepha tribe is directed by these horrible tyrants. If we took over the village, it would only benefit the Zephans.”

“Not if they kill everyone there,” Kaye hissed. “And the people in the war get killed also. My mother was an amazing healer, my father a Storm Anoki. Both were killed in a war we had with the Zephans.” Kaye’s eyes became miniature fireballs, conflicting with her icy blue wings.

“Weird,” I said. “My parents were killed in the same war. But they were traitors to the Zepha tribe. I used to be angry about it, but now…”

“Maybe I knew them. What were their names?”

“Alicia Errea…”

“…and Jared Unger… right?”

I frowned. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

“Because they’re my parents.”

*                      *          * 

I stared. I frowned. “But you’re older than me.”

Kaye shrugged. “So? Our parents weren’t traitors to the Zepha tribe; they were spies for the Kliid tribe that came back with secrets about the Zephans. They weren’t traitors, not really. They were on a secret mission to get inside information about the Zephans. They pretended to be traitors while they were in the Zepha area, and tried to look like they were here to stay. They set up a house and fed the war leaders chicken feed–that’s useless information that made them look good–and ended up with a second daughter. When they had to escape with the secrets, they got out in the nick of time and had to leave you here. I guess you saw Mom doing Earth magic a lot while she was there and picked it up yourself.”

“She taught me,” I said. “She tried to teach me a lot of kinds of magic, but back then, Earth was the one that stuck. That was the only one I was able to do then, and that was all the school trained me in, even though I could do Light and Water magic when my friends taught me. I can remember my mother doing every kind of magic except Darkness. She told me that she could, but said that she didn’t want to. I never did see her do it. From the time she disappeared, I decided that I didn’t want to do that kind of magic either.”

“She was a Star Anoki too? Maybe magical talent is hereditary.”

“It’s a mystery. But it deserves to be our mystery. It’s nobody else’s business. And we need to leave before the elders discover us further. If they so much as see either of us again, it’ll be easier for them to track us down. Unfortunately, anyone in the village who can fly will be the ones tracking us.”

“Then we need to bring Akana too,” Kaye said. “Nobody else in the village can fly.”

“Wait,” I said. “Li.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kaye said, sighing. “I really don’t want to take another person along with us, but we can’t afford to let anyone who can fly stay in the village.” Kaye finished packing up. “I’ll get Li. You find Akana. She’ll believe you better than she’ll believe me. We need to get out of here. Make sure you’re not seen.” She examined me critically. “Bring your old green clothes too. You stick out like a periwinkle thumb.”

I left to find Akana. Kaye disappeared down an alley. One of the elders almost spotted me, but I darted behind a building. Kaye was right; my periwinkle clothes would blend better with the sky than the trees.

Wait a sec.

I slipped into the forest and shot up far enough that nobody could see me. Nobody who could fly was looking for me, so I figured I was pretty safe up here.

And apparently Akana was thinking the same thing. Because she was up here also.

“Akana,” I said. She jumped in midair, then realized it was me and flew over.

“Yeah?”

“We’re running away for the second time before the elders can use us in the war. I’m a Star Anoki and they’re going to use Kaye and me to attack the Zepha tribe, so we’re getting our butts out of here before they can attack.” My explanation was admittedly shorter than Kaye’s, and also minus the emo weep-fest about our parents.

“Sounds good,” Akana said. “Why do you need me?”

“Because they’ll use you to track us. Kaye’s bringing Li. Oh, by the way, Kaye and I found out we’re sisters.”

“Really?”Akana asked. “She doesn’t look anything like you. Oh well. Let’s get going.”

Akana was right. Kaye looked more like Akana than she did me. “Your parents didn’t die in a war, did they?”

“No,” Akana said. “Why?”

“Never mind. Let’s get going.” Akana only kept a backpack anyway, and she conveniently had it with her. Minus Kaye’s contagious wordiness, we were out of the sky and out of the village in no time flat. But Kaye and Li weren’t.

“What do you say we go back and get them?” Akana asked. “I say if we don’t, then they’re never going to show up.”

I was about to agree when Kaye and Li crashed through the trees above us. “Li was spotted!” Kaye said.

“Somehow I’m not surprised,” I said, eyeing Li’s orange countenance. I dropped back into the village and got her normal, non-fiery clothes in dark green and sky blue, to blend in. I fireproofed them and Li put them on, but her wings still blazed bright red. She looked sort of like a trigger-happy Christmas ornament.

“If we fly high enough, none of us will be seen. Including Li’s pyrotechnic persona,” I said.

“Oooh… I hate alliteration!” Kaye giggled. “It reminds me of the guy on the candy show!”

All of us started giggling. Sure, the fairies tapped into the humans’ satellite signals, but we tapped into the fairies’.

When the giggling subsided, we had only hopes that we hadn’t been heard. I glanced from Li’s bright orange wings to Akana’s vibrant yellow to my own, which were now periwinkle and splattered with indigo at the edges. There was no way any of us would blend with the forest–

As soon as I thought this, my wings turned the very same green as the forest around us. With my green clothes and auburn hair, I blended pretty well. Kaye saw me and tried the same thing, but it didn’t work for her. I wondered why. Maybe she was just weaker at Star magic than I was, for some reason. Weird.