Of Sorcery and Snow (2 page)

“
I
can. You're taking this tournament way too seriously,” Chase said, obviously trying to sneak in one last lesson before we reached EAS. “You're never going to beat Hansel if you don't loosen up. Getting all nervous is going to make you stiff. It'll slow you down a fraction.”

“No, Rory—you're going to do great,” Lena said firmly, but she was just saying that to be a good friend. She was more of a magician than a fighter. “You'll beat him easy.”

“I hope so,” I said.

I'd been watching Hansel for two years. I knew his habits. He always fought with a broadsword, and he always finished duels in one of two ways: If he wanted to lull his students into overconfidence, he struck high with a one-handed strike, then low, faked a blow to the left—and
always
left; I think he had an old injury that made him a little slower coming from the right—stepped inside
the kid's guard, and disarmed them. If he just wanted to get the duel over with quickly, Hansel switched to a two-handed grip, locked swords with the student, and kind of leaned on the crossed blades until the kid either buckled or freaked.
Then
he did the disarm. I'd never seen him end a fight any other way—not even with his advanced classes.

Chase and I had run through both scenarios until I was sure I could outmaneuver Hansel. All I had to worry about now was if the tricks I planned would work on an opponent bigger, stronger, and heavier than Chase. And more experienced. And not nearly as likely to go easy on me.

Right. I wasn't worried at all.

The street was full of traffic. Some smoke wafted toward us, and Lena waved it away, shooting a glare at the driver who'd rolled down his car window for a cigarette. He didn't notice. He was too busy turning up the radio.

“. . . a frightening case of misreporting,” said the announcer. “The incident in Portland was not an April Fool's joke. Those children
are
missing. The mass kidnapping is still under investigation, and the authorities have yet to name any suspects.”

Mass kidnapping sounded serious. So serious that my worrywart mom would probably want to see me as soon as she heard about it.
That's fine,
I thought, walking even faster,
as long as I have my match with Hansel first.

We stepped into the park, and the trees closed over our heads. Pine smells replaced exhaust. Tourists passed us on their way to the exit, see-through ponchos over their
I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO
T-shirts. No other humans were in sight, but two huge dogs sat beside the trail ahead. The dark gray one with white paws tilted its head at us and whined, but the brown one
nipped its ear. Golden Gate Park had some weird strays.

Suddenly Chase flinched. “Did I just feel a raindrop?” He hated the rain, especially getting his wings wet. He told me once that they itched while they dried.

As I pulled up my hood, Lena shook her umbrella open, happy to be prepared. “I can share!”

“We'll just hurry,” Chase said, practically running down a sidewalk lined with benches. “It's not bad yet.”

My eyes landed on a puddle forming on the concrete ahead, the perfect revenge for earlier. I grinned. “Lena, are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

She spotted it a second later. “Yep!”

Lena and I ran up to it, bending our knees dramatically. Catching on, Chase sprinted out of the splash zone.

We didn't jump.

“April Fool's!” I said, and Lena and I cracked up.

“Hilarious, you guys.” Chase turned onto the next trail.

“Ooooo, I see,” I teased as we veered toward the bridge. We always crossed Stow Lake and followed the path around the island. Lena was sure gnomes had built and hidden a colony between the waterfall and the gazebo. She was hoping to find one of their hats for an experiment. “You can dish out the April Fool's jokes, but you can't take—”

Three enormous dogs stood on the bridge, blocking our path. I stopped in my tracks, wondering how they'd caught up to us so fast.

“I've seen those dogs before.” I was sure they were the same ones—the black one from the crosswalk, the older brown one, and the little gray with the big, white paws. All three triangular faces turned toward me in unison, pink tongues hanging past
long teeth, and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

Lena squeaked and ducked behind a tree so she could unzip her backpack.

“Crap.” Chase thrust his arm in the front pocket of his carryall—the one Lena had designed specifically for easy access to weapons—and drew out his sword.

If these two started freaking out, then we had a battle coming. So I started searching my backpack too. Somewhere in there was my sword, but since my carryall was the older model, it didn't have the convenient sword pocket—my sword could be anywhere.

“Rory, those aren't dogs!” Lena whispered. “They're wolves.”

I could tell from the way she said it that these weren't the regular, endangered variety. The Snow Queen sometimes made wolves for her army, transforming criminals to create a soldier with the intelligence of a human and the teeth and claws of an animal.

Magical creatures sometimes snuck into human areas, like the bridge troll we'd once caught in Boston, but I had the awful feeling that these wolves had been waiting for us.

“At least there are only three of them—” I started, trying to make myself feel better.

Behind us, something howled, and a half dozen other wolves joined it, including the ones on the bridge. Forget the hairs on the back of my neck. Every hair on my body stood up.

“Looks like you're going to get that warm-up fight after all, Rory,” Chase said.

But they weren't attacking. The three furry guys on the bridge hadn't even moved, except for the younger one, who tilted his head a little. Maybe they were here for some other reason. “So, what do we think? Did one of us just become the new Little Red Riding Hood?” I asked.

Lena shook her head, kind of apologetically, like she knew how much I hoped that was true. “I think one of us would have to be wearing red for that.”

“The Snow Queen just sent something new to kill us,” Chase said. “You know, since dragons, ice griffins, and trolls didn't work.”

I'd been afraid of that. The Snow Queen liked to send her minions to kill Characters.

She especially liked trying to kill
us
. This was the second time her forces had ambushed us out of the blue. In February she'd sent a squadron of trolls after Lena at home. Luckily, Chase and I had been visiting. We'd managed to fight them off and transport Lena's whole house to EAS's courtyard.

“We've never been attacked in public before.” I stuck my head half in the carryall, determined to find my sword.

“First time for everything,” Chase said. “We have company. Four more wolves at two o'clo—
Watch out!
”

I looked up. The big black wolf had run forward, snarling seven feet away. Chase raised his sword to defend us, but he didn't notice the little gray one running at us.

Neither did Lena, who was busy tucking a baby food jar labeled
3
into her raincoat. When the gray wolf leaped, teeth bared, I shoved Lena down with my right hand and swung out with my left.

The punch connected with the wolf's muzzle. It sailed back thirty feet and hit the lake with a splash so big that lake water doused the top of the bridge. Whoops. Definitely overkill.

I was still getting used to the silver ring that gave me the West Wind's strength. I hadn't learned how to totally control all that power yet, but at least I had gotten better at not smashing stuff accidentally.

The little wolf didn't surface. His brown pack mate on the bridge howled, probably calling for backup.

“Thanks.” Lena peeked inside my bag, pulled out my sword, and pressed the ridged hilt into my palm. “Remind me to put a hook in here for your sword belt.”

“We need to get out of here, before the rest of them catch up,” Chase said, as Lena and I slung our carryalls back on. He sprinted down the path along the lake, not even looking twice at the pile of black fur he'd left behind.

My stomach squirmed. Chase killed bad guys so easily, and I knew he wanted me to do the same. But I couldn't imagine killing one the way I slayed dragons and ice griffins. These wolves had been human before the Snow Queen enchanted them. I didn't want to go home knowing I'd taken a life, without being able to tell my mom why I was upset.

Something snarled at my elbow. I spun and crashed my hilt between the eyes of a small red-brown wolf. It fell, legs sprawled out in all directions, its breath whistling through its black nostrils. It didn't get up.

Knocking a wolf out with one blow felt pretty satisfying though.

“We need a doorway,” Lena said, huffing just ahead. “We're not going to make it to the Door Trek door.”

She was right. The director of EAS frowned on temporary-transport spells, but for emergencies, Lena had premixed some paint with just enough powdered dragon scale to magic the three of us back to EAS. This definitely counted as an emergency.

“What about the museum?” Chase said.

“In this rain?” Lena asked, incredulous.

“It'll probably be filled with tourists right now,” I agreed. “We need to look for a shed or a public bathroom or something.”

Lena read the sign we sprinted past, her hands on her glasses to keep them steady. “Or the Shakespeare Garden!”

Chase snorted. “You want to go
there
? What'll keep the wolves away? The flowers or the poetry?”

“No, the fence has a
gate,
” I said. “Where is it?”

Lena double-checked the sign. “Oh,” she said in a small voice. Then she pointed at the far side of the lake.

“You mean, back
toward
the wolves?” Chase said, obviously not a fan of the idea.

But Lena was right on this. “We need a door frame. It's better than losing time searching for one.”

“Time's not the issue.” Chase said. “Wait, are you still afraid we'll miss the tournament? I was
joking
.”

A wolf howled in the distance, and we all turned to stare in that direction. All we saw were trees.

“There's probably more than one,” I said.

“Lena, can you check?” Chase asked.

We ran up the path.
His
way, unfortunately. Since he had the most fighting experience, he was used to taking the lead during attacks.

Lena fumbled inside her jacket and pulled out a fabric-covered square—her mini magic mirror. This was an improved one. Since the first walkie-talkie M3, she'd added a video recorder, a flashlight, texting capabilities, and most recently, a radar for bad guys.

“Lena?” Chase said, sounding impatient.

“It's a lot harder to read when I'm running! Wait, just a—” Before we rounded the corner, Lena gasped and threw out both arms. Chase and I skidded to a stop. Four wolves stood shoulder to shoulder across the trail, growling. White teeth gleamed in their
black gums, gray fur bristling around their necks. The second pack had outrun us.

“Rory!” Chase grabbed a fallen branch from beside the trail, hacked some vines to free it, and tossed it to me. I passed my sword to Lena, so I could catch the branch with both hands. The wolves plowed forward. I swung. A gust of wind built up over my left hand, and then the branch connected. Three wolves whooshed backward. With a crunch of broken glass, two hit a car parked thirty yards away; the other smashed into a tree as big as the one in EAS's courtyard. It slid to the ground, leaving a canine-shaped scar on the tree bark.

It whimpered, its forelegs bent in an impossible direction.

Lena handed my sword back. Chase had taken care of the fourth wolf. Red spilled into the fur above its heart. With his sword, he pointed at the injured wolf beside the tree. His blade was covered in fresh blood. “Are you going to finish that one off?”

I scowled at him but didn't answer.

I tried to explain it to him once. As much as I loved EAS, being a Character wasn't easy. It forced me to do things I would have really liked to leave to the grown-ups. Because I had to, I would face off with the Snow Queen and her minions. I would keep Chase's secrets from Lena, and even lie to my family, but I drew the line at killing. Not forever, of course—I knew I'd need to kill enemies
eventually
, but it could wait until high school.

Maybe I hadn't explained myself all that well, because Chase had only replied, “Waiting won't change anything, Rory.”

He still bugged me about it too. And
only
me, even though I knew for a fact no one else in eighth grade had slain anyone besides beasts, like dragons and ice griffins. Even Lena, who had been in almost as many battles as me and Chase. It drove me
crazy
.

Chase rolled his eyes. “Come on, Rory—”

Lena sprinted back the way we'd come, cradling the M3 to her chest. “Tell her off later, Chase. More are coming, and one of them is
really
big.”

Chase wheeled around too. “Better to take on two than five.”

We dashed around the lake again. It was pouring now. The ground was soggy, and mud splattered up the back of my clothes.

Lena led us down a sidewalk between the road and some trees. Three cars passed, and I really hoped it was raining too hard for the people inside to notice that Chase and I both had swords. The path opened up, and I saw buildings—one was big and boxy, another had a lawn and glass bubbles on its roof. Between them was a sunken courtyard.

Chase wiped the rain out of his eyes. “Last call for the museum.”

“I don't think so.” A very big group of tourists, all with cameras, stood under the awning.
They
saw the swords. A few even took pictures.