The Gathering Storm (9 page)

Jiichan muted the TV. Images of leveled houses, downed trees, and rescue workers sifting through rubble flashed across the screen, lighting the living room.

“Well, now you know that I am no ordinary grandfather,” Jiichan said, turning to Mack. “And that, I'm afraid, is no ordinary hurricane.”

“Are you going to tell us what you mean by that, or are we supposed to guess?” Mack asked. Even he was surprised by the rudeness in his voice, but only Mack knew what his bad attitude was supposed to conceal: the deepest, most unsettling surprise he'd ever experienced. All this time, Jiichan was a Changer—a
kitsune
like he was—and he'd never told Mack. It hurt a lot more than Mack wanted to admit.

“Of course I will,” Jiichan replied. “Darren? Would you care to join us?”

Mack had almost forgotten that Darren was hanging back in the doorway. The boys sat next to each other on the couch, across from Jiichan. “Dorina has kept me informed about your studies,” Jiichan told them. “But I know there is a great deal you still yearn to know. It appears I have no choice but to tell you about it tonight. Circumstances demand no less.”

“What's going on?” Mack asked.

Jiichan nodded toward the TV. “That's not a storm,” he said again. “It's an army of Changers preparing to descend on Willow Cove.”

It was a crazy thing to say—it barely made any sense—but Mack had never seen such a serious look on his grandfather's face before. It chilled him to the bone.

“But to understand what's happening today, you must understand what happened in the past,” Jiichan said with a heavy sigh. “Dorina told you there was a time when humans and Changers lived in harmony. We used to protect villages, summon rain for crops—even heal the sick. But one thousand years ago, an evil
warlock came into being. He knew that to achieve absolute power, he would need to harness the abilities of the Changers.”

“How could he do that?” Mack asked.

“The darkest magic imaginable,” Jiichan said as a heaviness settled over his shoulders. He suddenly looked older to Mack than he ever had before. “The warlock forged an iron horn, carved with ancient runes we thought had been lost to history. The evil that went into creating the horn and gathering the runes is unthinkable, but when he was finished, the warlock had made the most powerful weapon in the history of magic.”

“What could the horn do?”

“It bound the Changers to him, putting them at the mercy of his will. Across the land our armies fell with a single blast. The horn forced them to turn against normal humans—destroy their food, burn their homes, take their lives. Dark days followed. The darkest days our world has ever seen. Changers were powerless against the warlock's horn. There was little happiness and less hope.”

Jiichan paused to let the boys take in his words.

“It wasn't until four young Changers stood against the warlock that he fell,” he continued. “Four young Changers, untested and unproven, found themselves immune to the horn's call. Today they are the First Four, the leaders of all Changer-kind.”

“They're still alive?” Mack broke in. “That was a thousand years ago!”

Jiichan smiled enigmatically. “You have much still to learn about our kind.”

“What happened to the warlock's horn?” Darren asked.

“The horn could not be destroyed, so it was locked away, never to be used again. And that, they thought, would be the end of it. Life would go back to normal.”

“But that didn't happen, did it?” asked Mack. He'd watched enough superhero movies to have a pretty good idea of what happened next.

Jiichan shook his head. “The damage had been done. Humans no longer trusted Changers. They'd seen what our powers could do, and no promises or assurances could calm them. Instead, humans decided that Changers must be hunted down and then erased from
history. We became myths, folklore, the boogeymen in their children's stories. And that's why we live as we do now—lives of secrecy, spent in the shadows.”

Mack clenched his fists. “That's not
fair
!” he said hotly. “It wasn't our fault.”

Jiichan smiled sadly. “Sometimes the concept of magic is just too much for ordinary humans to believe. As far as people knew, Changers had tried to destroy them. They then had to live knowing we could destroy them, if we wanted to. I can't blame them. Fear makes people act in desperate ways.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Darren asked suddenly. “All this stuff happened—what, a thousand years ago? Why does it matter now?”

Jiichan regarded Mack and Darren in silence. At last, he spoke. “The horn is gone,” he said. “Stolen by a new warlock who goes by the name of Auden Ironbound—stronger and even more driven than his ancestor, who began the first age of destruction.

“Even now, at this very moment, Auden Ironbound and his army approach,” Jiichan continued. “
That's
why it matters.”

“Here?” Mack asked incredulously. “Auden Ironbound is coming
here
? To Willow Cove?”

“Willow Cove is the final fortress against him,” Jiichan explained. “This is where the First Four live. If they can't stop Auden Ironbound, no one can. He means to defeat the Four and then take the world for himself.”

Mack jumped up from the couch. Even though it was the middle of the night, he had way too much nervous energy to sit still for a moment longer. “The First Four live
here
?” he asked. “Who are they?”

“You already know, Mack,” Jiichan said. “In fact, you've known them your entire life.”

Mack's breath caught in his throat. “Jiichan,” he whispered. “You?”

Jiichan didn't speak. He didn't need to. The answer was written on his face.

This can't be true,
Mack thought wildly. How was it possible that his grandfather—
his
jiichan
!
—was one of the most powerful Changers to ever live? Was one of the legendary First Four?
Was more than a thousand years old?
It was too bizarre to believe. At least it would've been if Mack didn't have a deep sense of certainty in the pit of his stomach.

Jiichan said I knew the others,
Mack thought.
So who are they?
In his mind, Mack raced through just about everybody he'd met in Willow Cove, from his teachers to his pediatrician to the grumpy lady who worked at the post office. No, no, and no.

My whole life—

The realization hit Mack with tremendous force. Of course. How had he missed it? The answer was staring him straight in the face: Jiichan's mah-jongg set, neatly polished and waiting for Thursday night, when his three best friends would come over to play. But were they ever truly playing? Did he ever hear the pieces move? All Mack remembered was the low talking coming from the other room while he turned up the volume on the TV.  They hadn't been discussing mah-jongg at all.

And it wasn't a coincidence that Ms. Therian and Jiichan were such good friends. No, they were friends because they were both Changers. And if Jiichan was one of the First Four, then Mack had a pretty good sense that Ms. Therian was, too. And so were Sefu Badawi and Yara Moreno, Jiichan's other mah-jongg buddies.

“Ms. Therian is one of the First Four!” Mack was
practically shouting as he turned to Darren. “And—”

“It's time to take Darren home before his family awakens and realizes he's gone,” Jiichan interrupted.

Darren glanced around the room for a clock. “My dad gets up pretty early for work,” he said anxiously. “What am I going to tell him if he's already awake?”

“Don't worry. He's still asleep,” Jiichan said.

“How do you kn—” Mack started to ask when he suddenly thought,
Duh, of course he knows, that's probably some special
kitsune
power or something.
Mack had so many questions for Jiichan that he didn't know which one to ask first. And he wasn't alone.

“Mr. Kimura,” Darren said as they piled into the car, “if there are all these secret magical beings—Changers and warlocks and stuff—does that mean that vampires are real, too?”

“What about zombies?” added Mack. “Bigfoot?”

Jiichan chuckled. “Don't be ridiculous, boys,” he said. “There are Changers, humans, and what you might call witches and warlocks. That's all.”

That's all,
Mack thought as he glanced out the car window.
A hidden world full of magic that I never knew
existed.
The sky was still heavy with clouds; in the distance he could see one of the clouds light up from within.
Lightning,
he thought. Or was it?

“Maybe we should get out of town,” Darren said suddenly, making Mack wonder if Darren had also noticed the glowing cloud. “If Auden Ironbound uses the power of Changers to make himself stronger, won't he just use us, too? Why are we sticking around?”

“This is not the time to flee,” Jiichan replied. “This is the time to take a stand. We must stop Auden Ironbound before he grows more powerful. Here. Now.”

“You mean Darren and I are going to fight Auden too?” Mack asked in excitement.

“You and your young friends will have your role to play, but it will be far from the action,” Jiichan replied.

“Aw, come on!” Mack groaned.

“No, Mack,” Jiichan said in a firm voice. “The danger is too great. The First Four—who are immune to the horn—will make a stand. We should be able to defeat Auden, just as we defeated his ancestor a thousand years ago.”

No one spoke again until Jiichan pulled up in front of Darren's house. It was dark and still; the rest of
Darren's family was obviously still asleep, just as Jiichan had predicted.

“Thanks for the ride, Mr. Kimura,” Darren said, stepping out of the car. “I probably should've just flown home myself and saved you the trouble.”

Flown home?
Mack thought.
Did Darren just—

Jiichan held up a warning finger. “Please be careful, Darren,” he said. “The danger is greater for you. Should you lose control of your transformation midflight, the consequences could be disastrous. Your human form has the same limitations as anyone else, after all.”

“You transformed?” Mack asked Darren. “And
flew
?”

Darren nodded. “Crazy, isn't it?”

“How?” demanded Mack.

“It happened while I was asleep,” Darren admitted. “Then I flew and ended up in a field, and your grandfather was waiting for me, like he already knew I was going to be there. So, I don't really know how I transformed.”

“Oh, I think you do,” Jiichan said. Then he pointed up at the second-story window, which was wide open. “Go ahead.”

Darren's grin lit up his entire face.

Mack watched closely as Darren shut his eyes. His
eyelids were doing something weird, Mack noticed—fluttering, as if Darren couldn't figure out how to open them. His face twitched twice—three times—like something deep inside was causing him pain.

Suddenly, a shimmering ripple moved over Darren, from his head to his feet, leaving in its wake the striking
impundulu
. The bird cocked its head, staring at Mack and Jiichan with a glittering eye. Mack had never seen a bird smile before, but this one sure was.

“Whoa,” Mack said, amazed.

“Well done,” Jiichan said, but his simple praise was underscored by the delight in his voice.

Then, while Mack and Jiichan watched, Darren flew up to the window and ducked inside.

Mack was silent as he and Jiichan drove home. Watching Darren transform had impacted him in ways he didn't completely understand. It was so glorious and so unexpected; like living in the most exciting superhero movie ever. And yet Mack felt strangely lonely and incomplete. When would it be
his
turn to experience a transformation? Mack's longing to take his
kitsune
form was greater than ever.

“You seem troubled, Mack,” Jiichan said.

That's the understatement of the year,
Mack thought. But what he said was, “Fiona and Darren have already figured out how to transform, but I don't even have a clue.”

“In time you will find your own path,” Jiichan replied calmly.

“Time? We don't have time,” Mack argued, his voice rising. “You just said that Auden Ironbound is on his way to Willow Cove, like,
now
! Please, Jiichan, can't you just
tell
me how to transform? Or—better—
show
me?”

“Perhaps you should focus more on the journey than the destination,” Jiichan said.

“Seriously?” Mack groaned. “Come on, Jiichan! Can't we just skip over all the pearls of wisdom and get to what really matters?”

“No, Mack,” Jiichan said firmly. “My word on this is final.”

Mack sighed in frustration as he twisted in his seat, staring out the window. The sky was gray now; morning was almost upon them, but Mack hardly noticed.

As much as he hated it, he knew in his heart that Jiichan was probably right.