Billy: Messenger of Powers (75 page)

“So?” asked Billy.

“So,” said Mrs. Russet, “as much as I like Vester, and respect him as a smart and good person, he is
not
a great Power. And there’s no way that he could have kept Prince alive to protect you the way that Fizzle did.”

“Then how did it happen?” asked Billy.

Mrs. Russet smiled. “
You
did it, Billy.”

“Me?” said Billy, nearly dumbstruck. “But I didn’t mean to.”

“No, you didn’t,” agreed Mrs. Russet. “But I theorize—I
believe
—that you did it nonetheless. Just as I believe that you were the one who turned Fulgora into a dragon each time you were worried she was going to come to harm. You wished her to be saved, and the Elements themselves moved to change her, to save her according to your will.”

“But,” Billy stammered, struggling with these ideas, “but I didn’t want those things to happen. I mean, I wished for
something
to happen, but not those things in particular.”

“That may be true,” said Mrs. Russet. “But I still think you did those things. You showed control of Red Fire, when you saved Fulgora and when you walked the halls of my Memory to save me from my Dread—something that no one else has ever done before. And when you were in the sea you were able to stay alive and call to Artemaeus to rescue you, with the Power of the Blue. You saw the future when you had a dream while riding with Artemaeus, and saw yourself wielding the sword of the White King, though you didn’t know it at the time. That’s one of the Powers of the Gray, to see the future. You wielded the White Sword, made of diamond, purest of the treasures of the Brown. And,” she continued in what was almost a whisper, “you saved my husband. You called forth the Unicorn, and it brought the Element of Life on its wings.”

“What
was
the Unicorn, anyway?” asked Billy.

“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Russet.

“You don’t
know
?” said Billy incredulously.

Mrs. Russet laughed. “Believe it or not, there are a great many things I don’t know, Billy Jones,” she said. Then she sobered. “The war has just begun. Eva Black was the real power behind this most recent struggle, and she is still at large, and no doubt angrier and more vengeful than ever. The Darksiders have grown more powerful than we had imagined, and Wolfen shows us that we cannot trust anyone to be what they appear. And most important, the weapons of the White King must be found so that the world can be prepared for his return. So though some things have been made clear, there are many mysteries still to solve, many strange things to understand.” She leaned in close to Billy, almost conspiratorially. “But I
have
figured out some things,” she said.

“Like what?” asked Billy.

“Like who the White King is,” she said.

“Well, he’s the White King,” said Billy, confused.

“Yes, but I think I have discovered his name. And I think you know it, too,” said Mrs. Russet.

“I do?” asked Billy. He thought. “No, I don’t.”

“You mean you haven’t figured it out?” she said, and laughed again. “Billy, don’t you realize what you did when you drew the White King’s sword from the Diamond Dais?” Billy shook his head. The twinkle in Mrs. Russet’s eye brightened still further, and she said, “Young man, you pulled the sword from the stone.” She waited, then said, “You held Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur, the White King who brought peace to the earth, and who will bring it one day again.”

She laughed again at Billy’s expression. “But I thought he was a legend,” said Billy.

“And so he is,” said Mrs. Russet. “But like many legends, this one has its roots in fact.” She nodded at the nearby river. “Haven’t you wondered why Blue the mermaid wanted the sword so badly?”

“She said it was hers,” said Billy.

Mrs. Russet nodded, “And so it was, once, long ago. I believe she was once the original Blue Power, one of the six Councilors who helped Arthur craft this island from raw Element. And it was she who designed the sword, and dipped it in the living waters of the Earthsea, so that it would be ever sharp and true and never broken, just as the seas of the world will never break. Then she cast it into Arthur’s hands, and now she holds it in her own, the sword returned to its maker, a woman who had a name long ago, now named Blue the mermaid, but once known as the Lady of Shallot.”

Billy reeled, trying to digest all this information. Then he thought of something. “It can’t be,” he said decisively.

“And why not?” asked Mrs. Russet curiously.

“Because, well…wasn’t the sword only supposed to be pulled from the stone by someone who was going to be a king?” asked Billy.

“Interesting, isn’t it?” was Mrs. Russet’s only reply, and she looked sideways at Billy with an expression he didn’t quite understand, but one that made him thoroughly uncomfortable.

“So what do we do now?” asked Billy, changing the subject.

“We look for the White King’s weapons. And then we try to find him, and bring him back to us to restore the earth to peace again.”

Then Mrs. Russet’s expression sobered. “But before that happens, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”

“What?” asked Billy, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“When the Darksiders arrived, you remember how Wolfen said they didn’t need to come through the Accounting Room anymore?” Billy nodded. “Well, it turns out that’s because they somehow managed to destroy—or at least weaken—the spell that separates Powers Island from the rest of the world. So they could just Transport in, rather than having to come through the conduits that were originally required for entrance to the island. And there’s been an…unfortunate side effect of that.”

“What?” asked Billy.

“Our time has slowed down,” replied Mrs. Russet.

It took Billy a few minutes to understand what that meant. “You mean….”

Mrs. Russet nodded. “Yes. Normally the time passed here would be as nothing back home. But with your time on Dark Isle, and the time you’ve passed here after the broken time spell, I’m afraid several
weeks
have passed back home.”

Billy paled. “My parents are going to be worried sick!”

Mrs. Russet nodded. “And that’s why it’s time to go home.”

“But what are we going to do? They’re going to want to know where I was! What am I going to say?” He stopped a moment, then added, “And what about Blythe?”

Mrs. Russet’s expression darkened a bit. “Blythe is a young girl. Perhaps she was a Darksider because her parents were, and she simply didn’t know any better. Perhaps she was a follower and believer, though I didn’t see her among the Darksiders whom we found after the battle. Either way, from what you said to me about her, she was someone that was good to you, and whom you cared about.”

Billy nodded. “Then,” said Mrs. Russet, “let us see what happens, and not borrow trouble. Perhaps you will return to find her still a friend. And perhaps,” she added as the twinkle returned to her eye, “perhaps even more.”

Billy looked away, embarrassed. To change the subject, he said again, “But what about my parents? And what about school? I missed all that time. How are we going to explain that?”

Mrs. Russet hugged Billy, and then, in defiance of all laws of the universe, his teacher kissed the top of his head. “Oh, Billy, I think we’ll find a way to take care of those problems.”

“But how?” Billy insisted.

Mrs. Russet laughed long and loud, seeming to find his expression deeply comical, then said, “How will we do it? Why Mr. Jones, hadn’t you heard? We can do magiq here.”

And Billy jumped. Because he had heard the silent “q.”

And he suddenly knew that he would one day do magiq too.

EPILOGUE

Billy sat and looked at the horror that hunched before him. It was oozy, slimy, something that had once been alive, at least theoretically, but now was only a man-made terror to be visited on those who least deserved it. But no matter how much he hated and feared what was before him, he knew there was only one thing he could do.

He opened his mouth wide, stuck a piece in, and chewed.

“Ugh,” he said to himself after swallowing. “I hate Salisbury steak.”

He was sitting alone in the hall outside the cafeteria. Actually, not in the hall: he was sitting under a water fountain, hoping that no one would find him here. But someone did.

He watched as a foot in a white sneaker walked into view and stopped in front of his hiding place. The sneaker was connected to an ankle, and the ankle—as Billy knew ankles tended to do—turned into a leg. Billy’s gaze followed the leg up. It was a girl’s leg, and a nice one at that.

The girl squatted down and smiled at him. “Hi,” said Blythe Forrest. She, too, was carrying a lunch tray. She sat down next to him, and looked around. “No admiring fans?” she asked.

Billy shrugged. The “reason” that had been invented for why he had been gone for more than a month had turned him into something of a celebrity. Suddenly all the people who had dismissed, ignored, tormented, or avoided him were now his best friends. He had dreamed about being one of the Popular Kids his whole life. And now that he was one, he could only hope that he wouldn’t be one forever.

“Well,” said Blythe, “I guess it must be tough, being famous and all.” And to Billy’s great dismay and horror, she consumed her own oversized helping of Salisbury steak in two gulps that would have been the envy of a three hundred pound lumberjack with a tapeworm.

Billy watched her eat—if you could call inhaling something like a vacuum cleaner “eating”—and a thousand questions ran rampant through his mind. Why was she a Darksider? Was she, as Mrs. Russet had said, one who truly believed in their cause, or just someone who happened to have been born into that group and never really realized what it was? Had she seen him on Dark Isle, as he had seen her, or perhaps later when he and his friends spoke to Blue on the cliff of Dark Isle? Had she fought in the Battle for Powers Island? If so, had she seen him as he bombed Darksiders with Tempus?

Did she know he was the Messenger, and that he had found the White King’s sword and defeated the Darksiders, at least for now?

Was she a spy?

That last thought sent a shiver through his spine. What if she
was
a spy? Sent by the Darksiders to gain his confidence, and then destroy him?

“You okay?” she said. Billy nodded. She laid a hand on his arm, and he felt a thrill run through him, though whether happiness or terror was its origin he could not say.

“I never told you this, but right before you disappeared, I got knocked out or fainted or something. Remember?” Billy nodded. With his understanding that Blythe was a Darksider, he knew as well that she had to understand what had happened when the zombie had touched her. But here she was, feigning utter ignorance, and her motives still completely unclear to Billy. But he forced himself not to think about that as she continued, “Well, ever since then, I dunno….” She finished her Salisbury steak and went to work on the potato side course. “I’ve felt….” She stopped a moment, clearly trying to think of what to say. Then, finally, she simply said, “I’ve felt like we were friends, Billy Jones. And that’s made me happy.”