The Magickers (45 page)

“You can do that?”

“I don't know. I know I have to try.”

Trent licked dry lips. “Okay. You're sure?”

“If I can get that Gate open, the storm should drain off through it. The Borderlands live off manna washes. Right now the Iron Gate is like a wall . . . the manna is coming in to pound on us and it'll just bounce off that wall and pound us some more.”

“Sounds dangerous.”

“Chicken?”

“Nah, but frankly, I think your plan needs some work.”

“Think about it, then.”

Trent nodded. “I intend to!”

Danno came in with the girls and Rich and Stefan. They dropped their bags in the corner.

“There's seven of us. I think we can make a difference, and this is how.” He pulled out his crystal and lit it, then formed the shield which he had accidentally formed against Jonnard's attack. He strengthened it, extending it as he concentrated, until he had both girls behind it.

“Hit 'em, Stefan.”

“Me?” The stocky boy's face reddened. “C'mon.”

“Just do it.”

He rocked from side to side. “Lissen. I play pranks now and then, but I never clocked a girl in the face.”

Rich said calmly, “This is just for demonstration purposes. It's okay, big guy.”

Stefan rubbed his nose vigorously. “Well. Okay.” He lumbered over and swung halfheartedly at Bailey. He wouldn't have hit her anyway, her reflexes were too good for that, but before she could even dodge away, he bounced back with a yelp, thudding to his tailbone on the cabin floor.

He grunted. “Ow.” He rubbed his face again.

Rich nodded to Jason. “That'll work. Show me?” He tugged on Stefan's ear. “Get up, you aren't hurt!”

“Just my dignity.” Stefan grunted again as he shuffled to his feet.

Danno grinned. He danced on the balls of his feet. “Try again? On me?”

Jason put his shield down and said, “Everyone get their crystals out and let's do this.” Trent moved to Ting, helping her Focus.

Stefan scrubbed at an itchy ear. He rolled his eyes. “Buses are all gone.”

“Can't hear 'em?”

“Nope. Last one pulled out about ten minutes ago. Haven't heard one since.”

The rain beat down. “We have a day, maybe two.”

Rich gave Stefan an uneasy look. “I don't know if we can keep him quiet that long . . . especially if he gets hungry. . . .”

“We have to try. I want to show you all what we're doing and then, we can practice.”

After what seemed hours, Ting and Stefan could manage a shield over themselves and two other people. Danno wavered, sometimes himself and two, sometimes himself and three. Bailey could shield herself and four, and Rich a surprising six people in total. Trent had been with Jason, moving back and forth, testing the crystals once they got everyone Focused.

They went to sleep, after pooling their resources and making sure Stefan ate well. Lacey even stayed quiet through the night, as if tired by all the Magick being wielded around her. They woke to a gray, misty morning, with rain glistening blackly on the ground.

Trent and Danno made a run to the mess hall and brought back leftovers from a refrigerator.

“Where is everyone?”

Trent shook his head. “In the Gathering Hall, I guess. Making a fortress out of it. Warding it, maybe?” He held out a bulging bag. “This ought to hold us for a day.”

Stefan reached out and hugged the bag to himself, grunting.

“Or not.” Trent looked at him thoughtfully.

They all did eat, although Stefan grudgingly passed out helpings of this and that from his grocery sack.

They practiced all day, in shifts, until Jason knew that they would be a help to the Magickers and not a burden. It was Trent, though, who said, “We have to hit the computer room.”

“Why? That could get us busted.”

“They called all the relatives, Jason, told them we were being sent home. We have to let them know something.”

Ting made a small sound. Bailey hugged her. “A quick call each,” she pleaded.

Finally, he nodded.

Perhaps it was the tone in their voices. Perhaps it was the hidden knowledge that loving parents and children share. Not one parent said no, although several said, “Do you want us there?” without even knowing what the problem was.

Bailey's mom, sounding ever so much like Bailey, choked a little when she said, “Good-bye, hon . . . and be careful.” It was heard throughout the room despite the tight hold Bailey had on the receiver. She took a deep breath as she hung up. “Jason. How are we going to get home if everything goes wrong?”

He hesitated a moment then said, “I'll show you.” And back at Dead Man's Cabin, he showed them how to open a door in their crystals and walk through. None of them dared to try it, knowing that the working of such Magick would alert Gavan and the others. Trent clutched his crystal tightly. Stefan told them when all the buses returned. They ate whatever was left for dinner and fell into fitful sleep, dreaming of tombs and howling storms.

If that first morning was eerie, the second morning was worse. The sun struggled to pierce the storm clouds that turned day into night. The strings of lights thrashed back and forth, and those on the outbuildings glared dimly, as the wind tugged and roared about them.

They were down to juice drinks and polished them off quickly. Stefan licked his mouth and drank the one remaining carton. No one begrudged him seconds. Ting looked at him in sympathy. “Not only is he a growing boy, but he's got to eat for a growing bear, too.”

Stefan sighed sadly and nodded.

Jason gazed up from the cabin doorway. “It's dark and quiet. I'd say the attack is about to begin. Let's go set ourselves up.” Before he could say anything else, a tremendous ker-ack and BOOM split the skies. The lights went out all over the camp.

Tomaz sensed them first or perhaps he caught wind of Stefan. He turned on the heel of his cowboy boot and then frowned heavily as he caught sight of the group.

“We had just come to the conclusion that a few of you had slipped away. We all mistakenly thought you were on another bus.”

“We came to stay.”

Gavan shook his head. “We cannot let you do this.”

“We are all Magickers.” Jason nodded to Stefan who already had his crystal curled in his big hand.

Without a word, Stefan slipped in behind him, and set his shield up over himself, Tomaz, and Hightower. Both Magickers raised eyebrows in surprise.

Each of them did the same, except for Jason and Trent. Trent shadowed Jason as he raised his shield over Gavan and Eleanora. The two of them would likely take the brunt of the attack, so they had agreed to swap shielding. When one tired, the other would take over.

Gavan considered Jason, his lips pursed in thought. “This is something you want to do?”

“This is something we have to do.”

The Magicker nodded. The dark skies reflected in his eyes, making the blue irises almost black. “I cannot tell you if we'll see the Dark Hand themselves or not. They may stay behind the storm and the wolfjackals. But whether we see them or not, they'll throw everything they can at us, to break us here, and drain the manna. So if you see the line breaking, lad, take the others and flee. Promise me that?”

“Bailey has those orders,” Jason said calmly. “I've shown them how to walk through their crystals.”

“And you can do it?”

He nodded solemnly.

“All right.” Gavan turned about, settling himself. He put his face into the wind, as the first drops of rain began to fall. “Here it comes.”

If he lived to be a hundred, he would never be able to tell the wonder and horror of the storm that came sweeping down to attack them. Cloud creatures of twisted form and might rose to pound at them, swirling around into motes of sizzling energy. Rain that poured for hours and lightning that crashed around them till the very earth crackled with its discharge. Wolfjackals that came and went in howling packs, circling and attacking only to be driven away gnashing their ivory fangs.

He thought he saw forms striding through the clouds now and then. Once, he glimpsed the pale angry face of Jonnard staring at him, but of that he could not be sure. He was too busy to be frightened.

And no matter what they faced, they turned the enemy back. Again and again, until Eleanora sat in weariness, one hand bracing her wrist to hold her crystal up. Until Stefan lost his shield entirely and sat snuffling and bawling, bearlike, at failing them. Rich took over, shielding all of that group, his face dead white under his coppery head of hair. All he said was, “You done good, bro.”

And they fought like that with no end in sight.

Until, hours later, when Gavan looked into the sky grimly through weary eyes and said, “Now comes the worst of it.”

“It's now or never,” Jason said to Trent, and signaled with a jerk of his chin. Rain fell and evaporated in sizzling drops as it spattered across the lines of Magick and wild manna and energy. The air shivered electric blue and stank of ozone and spent spells. Lake Wannameecha moved in obsidian black waves, reflecting the storm boiling over it.

They fell back from the battle line and ducked into the Gathering Hall. Jason shrugged out of his backpack and dumped its contents out quickly. Firecrackers, duct tape, and other odds and ends slid onto the varnished floor.

Trent said dryly, “Everything but garlic.” He leaned over, then poked a finger at curling white cloves lying amidst the other junk. A pungent aroma drifted up. “Never mind, I stand corrected.”

“You never know,” Jason said. He tucked some unpeeled cloves into his pocket, and the Chinese firecrackers into his shirt. Matches went in the other pocket. The box of kitchen matches had come from FireAnn's apron and, before that, apparently an English pub. He stood up.

“What's the plan again?”

“We crystal to the Gate. The wolfjackals, some of them, will be on us almost instantly. I'm fairly sure they'll sense us right away. You'll have to hold them off while I get the Gate open.” He didn't mention what he thought he would have to do to open that Gate, what Aunt Freyah had hinted to him. They had tried nearly every other way, and nothing had worked. But the Gate had to be opened. Left shut, it was damming up the manna and the storm, and the camp lay helpless in a hurricane of uncontrollable, raging Magick. Open, the manna would sweep through, into a world that not only could absorb it, but most likely needed it. Once past, the Gate's boundaries could be extended to embrace the camp. Jason had been over and over and over it in his mind. He couldn't see any other way. He left his backpack on the floor. He wanted to travel light in case he had to sprint. He touched his crystal in his pocket for the third time, just to make sure he had it. “Ready?”

Trent took a deep breath. He shook his head. “No.”

“What did we forget?”

“I'm not going,” Trent said.

“What—” Jason stopped in his tracks. “I can't do this without you!”

“You're going to have to.”

He could not believe his ears. “You're with me. You helped me plan this. You
know
what I have to do. Look, I'm scared, too, but we've got to try this.”

Trent shifted his lance in his hands. “It's not that. I'm not a Magicker. I have no Talent. I can't help you.”

Jason stared, thinking he hadn't heard right, but his friend's face was serious. “You . . .”

“I'm a poser. I've been faking it. And, lately, I've been wondering when it was going to catch up with me. Well, it just did. Maybe that's why the other failures got sent home, because when you need to count on somebody, when you need them the most, you've got to know what they're made of.” Trent looked up. “I'm not made of Magick, Jason. I wish to God I was, but I'm not. You know I'm telling the truth. I kept backing out on you, because I didn't want anyone to know. I didn't want anyone to catch me.”

“I . . . I don't believe that.”

“Have you ever seen me light my crystal?”

“Well . . . no.”

“Because I can't.” Trent inhaled deeply. “Ever seen me move anything through thin air? Did you see me put a shield up? No, you haven't, because I can't. You were busy with the others. I was, too. No one ever noticed I never did it myself. Henry Squibb had more Magick in his little finger than I've got in my whole body. I've been ducking out on stuff for weeks, wondering when someone was going to notice, especially you. You, with all your Talent.” He smiled sadly.

Despair sank into Jason. “Come anyway. You can . . . you can use the lance. You don't have to have Magick to fight the wolfjackals.”

“You don't need to be worried about protecting me. You need to be doing what you have to do. And let me do what I can.”

“Which is . . . what?”

“I can get the backup generator hooked up, pump some electricity into this place. I am pretty sure, with the computers up, I can put on a sound and light show that will knock 'em off their feet. Remember, I've been in the computer lab for weeks. Gavan is pretty savvy, but even so . . . this is my magic. I can use it. They depend on other means. I may even have a few moves in me that would halt a Magicker in his tracks.”

They looked into each other's faces.

Jason hardly knew what to say. “Sure?”

Trent nodded solemnly. “Pretty sure.”

“I can't do this alone.”

“Sure you can. All you need to do is swing that Gate open. We're doing the tough stuff here. Give me those firecrackers.”