Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror (34 page)

“Whoa,” said Max.

“Boys and girls,” said Mr. Hake. “This test of the first year of the Academy has brought you suffering, has brought you sorrow. But it has made you strong! And now, it is my happy duty to announce that you have all passed this test. Yes, passed! One thousand and one happiness stars for everyone! Tonight we will celebrate your graduation with a Monsters' Bash! With glasses of Sicko Sauce flowing on every side! And music! And cake! Yes, yes!
There will be cake! Hooray for cake!”

Everyone cheered and jumped up and down, and as they did, Mr. Hake transformed back once more into the Terrible Kraken and waved his rubbery, squiggly legs in every direction.

Mrs. Redflint reached into her satchel and threw dozens of marshmallows in the air.

The Crow stepped closer to Falcon, who could now hear the stopwatch ticking from around his father's neck. “I have to go back to my tower now,” said the Crow. “But I wanted to say—” The Crow stopped, though, uncertain of his words. He reached out with his suction-cup hand and placed it on the side of Falcon's face.

“Wait!” said Falcon. “You're not going to—”

“No, no, Falcon,” said the Crow. “I just wanted to—” He patted Falcon's face with the suction cup. “You come up to the tower any time you like. We'll talk. Yes? Talk?”

“I'll come up and see you,” said Falcon.

“Good,” said the Crow.

“What happened to Jonny?” said Falcon. “What did you do to him?”

“I sent him back to her,” said the Crow. “As you wished.”

Six yellow school buses now drove down the lane and stopped in the driveway of Castle Grisleigh with a loud
exhalation of diesel brakes.

“I have to get back,” said the Crow. “Come to the tower. Come see me! Please…”

“Okay,” said Falcon.

“You never told me,” said the Crow, “what she looks like now. I would be glad to hear about her.” He looked embarrassed by this, and then drew himself up into his full and menacing height once more. “Not that I care. But perhaps it would do you good to speak of her. While I listen.” He flapped his wings. “Farewell for now.”

A moment later, the Crow was soaring over Falcon's head, and swooping into an arched window above the enormous clock in the Tower of Souls.

“Boys and girls,” said Mrs. Redflint. “Some of you no doubt have wondered where the students of the Upper School have been all this time? Oh yes, I'm sure this crossed your minds as you—ah—
explored
—the other campus. Well, our Upper Schoolers have spent the last month on a community-service project, which they undertake every year at this time on our private resort—Monster Island. But now that you have finished with your exam, my dears, your classmates have returned. They will join us tonight, welcoming you at the Monsters' Bash!”

The doors of the buses opened, and a moment later, scores of young monsters were disembarking. There were
zombies and vampires and werefoxes; dwarves and fire giants and cyborgs. A band of leprechauns jumped off of a bus carrying guitars and fiddles. Four manta rays floated on the air on wide, rubbery wings.

“Dude,” said Max, “it's a monster-splosion!”

A group of older zombies joined Mortia, Putrude, Crumble, and Molda, and they all embraced and gave each other high fives. A moment later they were all doing the Zombie Snap together.

Sparkbolt, for his part, was soon surrounded by five other Frankensteins, including a very sophisticated one who wore a pair of oval, wire-rimmed spectacles. This was a young man who introduced himself as Crackthunder, the editor of the Upper School's literary magazine,
The Gullet.

Sparkbolt caught Falcon's eye and introduced him to the others. “This Falcon Quinn! Friend!”

“A pleasure,” said Crackthunder, with a crisp British accent.

“Crackthunder publish poems,” said Sparkbolt. “Magazine! Good!”

A creature that looked very similar to Pearl buzzed toward her, then bowed in midair. He had thick black wings and a heavy, drooping mustache. “I am—
el Chupakabro
!” he said. “The famous goatsucker of
Argentina
!”

“I send you my greetings!” said Pearl. “
I
am
la
Chupakabra
! The famous goatsucker of
Peru
!”

“Uh-oh,” said Max.

“Falcon?” said a voice, and he turned to see two young women standing at his side. They looked familiar somehow, but he wasn't quite sure where he'd seen them before.

“Are you Falcon Quinn?” said one of them, a girl with shocking red hair.

“Yes?”

“You probably don't remember us,” she said. “But I'm Maeve Crofton. Megan's sister?”

“I'm Dahlia,” said the other, who had pale, liquid eyes.

“We're looking for Megan,” said Maeve. “We heard she was with you?”

Falcon opened his mouth, but no words came out at first. He didn't know how he could possibly tell these girls what he suspected—that Megan was either dead, or lost somewhere in the winds of the world.

“You're—alive,” he said lamely. “She thought you—”

“I know,” said Dahlia. “That's the way it has to be, when you leave the world of humans and enter the world of monsters. But we want to see Megan! We have missed her so badly!”

“Something's wrong,” said Maeve. She seemed almost angry at Falcon. “What?”

“I…I don't know where she is,” said Falcon. “She was captured—by the guardians. But I think she escaped. I
don't know where she is. She blew away—and—”

“Did you give her to the guardians?” said Maeve. “They told us you were half—”

“I didn't give her to them,” said Falcon. “She escaped, and blew away.”

“Blew
away
?” said Dahlia.

“She's a wind elemental.”

“I knew it,” said Maeve. “I knew it!”

“We're elementals too,” said Dahlia. “I'm water, she's fire.”

“Seriously?” said Falcon.

The two girls looked at each other, then back at Falcon.

“Seriously,” said Maeve.

“Where was she when she escaped?” said Dahlia.

“Outside the Hidden City.” He sighed. “The Crow can tell you more.”

“The Crow,” said Dahlia a little timidly. “Are you kidding? No one talks to the Crow!”

“I do,” said Falcon, and he looked up at the Tower of Souls. But his father could no longer be seen. When he turned to look at her again, there were tears on Dahlia's face.

“I thought we were finally going to be together again,” she said. “I thought—after all this time…Do you really think she's okay? You said she escaped?”

“I don't know for certain,” said Falcon, “but I think so. She blew off over the sea.”

“She doesn't know anything about being an elemental yet,” said Dahlia. “She's so young. Megan doesn't know how to control it!” Her voice caught. “What if she gets stuck and can't come out of it?”

“Don't cry,” said Maeve. “You know what happens.”

“I don't care,” said Dahlia, and she dissolved into a small weeping cloud. Tiny bolts of lightning flickered from its dark underside. “I want my sister!” said a watery voice, and then the cloud blew away, its dark mist dissipating toward the open gates of the Upper School.

Maeve looked at Falcon. “What happened to her?” said Maeve. “Tell me!”

“I don't know,” said Falcon.

Maeve's hair burst into red flames all at once, and she shouted at Falcon. “Tell me!”

“I said I don't know!” Everyone looked over at the flaming Maeve. One of the seniors, a minotaur with a big ring through his nose, came over to them.

“What's the matter, Maevey? Kid giving you trouble?”

The flame atop Maeve's head extinguished itself, and the girl stood there for a minute, her cheeks red. “I have to see if Dahlia's all right,” she said, and walked back toward the Upper School.

The minotaur put his big bull face next to Falcon's and said, “Maybe you think you're something special, but you're not. As far as I'm concerned, you're just a
spy
.”

“I'm not a spy,” said Falcon.

“That's not what I heard.” The minotaur puffed his hot breath in Falcon's face. “You watch your
step
, angel face.”

Mrs. Redflint arrived on the scene and looked at the minotaur proudly. “Oh, how nice you two have met. Falcon, this is Picador. President of the student body.”

Picador slapped Falcon Quinn on the back. “We were just talking, me and the kid,” he said. “I heard he's a regular hero!”

“He is,” said Mrs. Redflint. “He swooped right down and saved the day.”

Picador gave Falcon a hard look. “We'll be seeing a lot of each other over the next few years, you and me,” he said. “A
lot
.”

He nodded to Mrs. Redflint, then loped off in the direction that the Crofton sisters had gone.

“How nice,” said Mrs. Redflint. “You're making new friends already.”

T
ippy sat in a window looking out at the Hidden City, where soldiers were drilling and, just before the portcullis of the fortress, Cygnus was reviewing warriors arrayed in columns. A mockingbird flew in a circle around one of the lower towers, and Tippy watched it with a hungry expression.

“Bite him,” said Tippy. “Bite him with the fangs.”

“What's that, dear?” said Vega, coming over to the window ledge.

“Mockingbird,” said Tippy. “It does not belong.”

“A mockingbird?” said the queen curiously. As she watched, the mockingbird flew toward the window and then swooped into the room. The bird landed on the back of the smaller chair next to the queen's.

“You have failed, then,” said Vega, looking at the mockingbird contemptuously. “You have been sent back here—with a beak. And
feathers
.”

The mockingbird hopped down onto the seat of the prince's chair and flapped his wings twice. “Aww,” he said.

“I suppose you think I'm going to turn you back into yourself again, after you return here in
failure
,” said Vega. “Well, you're wrong.”

“Aww,” he said.

“What's that?” said Vega. “They wouldn't have you either? Somehow you found they weren't enthusiastic about having a creature join them who had worked so successfully—until recently—for their destruction? And what part of this did you find surprising? Is it that they've welcomed Falcon? Is that it?”

“Aww,” said the mockingbird.

“Well, Falcon will find what it is like to be torn between worlds. He thinks he's with his friends now, with his fellow monstrosities. But he is young. They will turn on him, one by one, as they see what the price is for befriending one who is neither one thing nor the other.”

Tippy the dog snuck up quietly behind the mockingbird in his chair, and then crept closer and closer on his soft, padded paws.

“And when Falcon realizes that his precious friends are not his friends at all—well, then he'll realize his mistake. And do you know what will happen then?
He will come back to me.
On his hands and his knees, he will come
back
.”

“Aww,” said the bird. Tippy was a foot and a half below the bird now, frozen still, waiting to pounce.

“Perhaps he will ask you, when he returns, what it is like to be neither one thing nor the other. Do you suppose? You would be the one to ask, I think, having sought to destroy the dark world, only to be seduced by it in the end. But he will be disappointed, Jonny. For he won't find you here. He won't find you anywhere. You will be
gone
.”

Tippy pounced upon the chair at this moment, and snapped with his tiny mouth at the mockingbird. But the mockingbird spread his wings and rose in the air. The bird circled the room, and the little dog ran in circles on the floor, barking. Then the mockingbird swept out of the window and flew off. Vega stood at the window and watched the mockingbird sail toward the sea.

“I almost had him!” shouted the dog. “I almost bit him with the sharp, pointy fangs!”

Vega watched the mockingbird for a moment longer before leaning down and picking up the tiny dog and cuddling him against her shoulder. “Someday, Tippy,” she said. “You'll get your poison into something. Something
worthy
of your poison.”

“I almost had him,” said the dog.

“I know,” said Vega, and sighed. “I know.”

She turned from the window, still carrying the dog, and walked out of the throne room, down the hall and up the stairs to the top of the Pinnacle of Virtues. From there the queen observed her realm—the calm and rigidly
regulated city where there was neither sickness, nor fear, nor aberration.

“Do you think he knows we have her?” said the dog.

“No,” said Vega, and turned to look at the shoulders of Mount Silence. “He thinks she's free. I think he imagines that he did Falcon a great service, rescuing the girl so that she might blow away from us.”

There on the mountain, upon an outcropping of rock, was a dark blue windmill, its sails whirling around madly.

“He's wrong,” said Tippy.

“Sssh,” said Vega. “Listen.”

They looked at the windmill, and as they did, they could just barely hear the voice of Megan Crofton, crying out and carrying on the wind.

Falcon. Help…I'm here…. Help…

“She just keeps those sails going round and round, doesn't she?” said Tippy.

“It's the perfect trap for a wind elemental, those Entangling Sails.”

“And you really think he'll come for her?”

“Of course,” said Vega.” And then—”

“And then?”

“Then he takes his rightful place. And the chair beside mine will no longer be empty.”

Tippy watched the sails of the windmill rotating
around, and around, and around. The girl's voice blew past them again, crying out for help.

“I would have bitten her,” said Tippy, “the girl. But you can't bite the wind. It's
impossible
.”

Vega petted the little dog on the head and smiled, as the sails spun before her in an endless circle.

Falcon…help…

“You think?” she said.