Nightmares of Weirdwood--A William Shivering Tale, page 21
Wally stroked the giant bird’s beak. “Will you take us above the city? I need to show Arthur something.”
Liza quirked her head. The real test was whether she would allow Arthur to step onto her wing or if she would snip him in two. She clicked her bill in thought, then extended her wing like a ramp, allowing both boys to step up onto her feathery back.
Liza flapped her wings, lifting them off the roof and high into the clouds until they could see Kingsport’s four quarters laid out in a circle below them.
“I don’t see the point of this, Cooper!” Arthur called. “We should be on the ground, helping—”
“Just watch, Arthur!” Wally shouted back. “For once. Just watch.”
The two sailed over Kingsport, gazing down at the breathtaking chaos of the melding cities. In the Wretch, a gang of Corvidians flew circles over a gang of armed Black Feathers. In the Gilded Quarter, the rich panicked while peacocks in tuxedos and ball gowns appeared in the gardens of their stately houses. On the Port, fishermen dumped nets full of mermaids onto the docks. And in the Bliss, church leaders shouted sermons to the masses as demon-red fingers reached up through the drains.
Every situation was ready to break out into chaos. But the Fae-born glowed golden with spores as Breeth kept them reined in.
“The Wardens always talked about keeping the Balance between the Fae and the Real,” Wally said. “But I see suffering on both sides. Starving orphans. Dying forests. Crumbling cities. The Pox. Are you really happy with the Balance as it is, Arthur?”
“Of course I’m not happy about the bad things. I just don’t want any more porcelain dolls or Corvidians or tentacle monsters destroying our city.”
“That was a planned attack by Alfred Moore,” Wally said. “And we stopped him. Not the Wardens. You, me, and Breeth.”
“Mirror Kingsport is dangerous, Wally. We almost died every twenty minutes!”
“You think our city is a walk in the park? How many times were we beaten by Oakers? How many nights did we starve? Our friends died. Our parents died.” Wally drew a deep breath, preparing his heart for what came next. “People will always get hurt, Arthur. Veil or no Veil.”
Arthur didn’t respond, and Wally looked back to find his friend staring across the ripping horizon, now a patchwork of Kingsport’s bright blue and the Mirror City’s slate gray.
“The Eraser isn’t tearing these Rifts,” Arthur whispered with a horrified expression. “It’s you.”
Wally looked at the same horizon and smiled. His brother’s dream—his dream—was finally coming true. “Lady Weirdwood gave me the solution a long time ago when she told me about Voids. They’re created when a beloved character in the Fae is forcefully ripped from the imaginations of the people in the Real. Like when Garnett Lacroix was written out of existence by a dragon-bone Quill. But with enough Rifts, that missing feeling will leave, and the Eraser will vanish like it never existed.”
“But that missing feeling won’t leave, Cooper,” Arthur said. “In case, you forgot, there isn’t a Garnett Lacroix on the other side!”
“That’s where you come in, Arthur,” Wally said. “Without a Veil, you’ll be able to write a new Gentleman Thief wherever you want. Your fictions will be realities.”
The horrified expression didn’t leave Arthur’s face. “What do you mean ‘without a Veil’?”
Wally sighed with a smile. This was it. It was time to tell his friend the truth.
After watching the interactions created by hundreds of Rifts, Wally had decided that bringing down the Veil was the right thing to do. But he still had had no idea how to do it, let alone how to make sure no one would be hurt in the initial chaos that would follow. Meanwhile, Breeth hadn’t stopped bouncing off the walls of the Trackdragon compartment, complaining about how frustrating it was that she had finally learned how to possess multiple Fae-born but was unable to show off in the grayed-out past. Once they found Liza, it had all clicked, and Wally realized he had everything he needed to safely bring down the Veil.
Liza, happy to complete her father’s work, would spread the Mycopath’s spores with her wings while Breeth, ready to play and eager to find as many lonely ghosts as she could, would possess every Fae-born in sight, misusing magic and tearing enough Rifts in the Veil to bring the entire thing crashing down.
“Combining the Real and the Fae might be the only way to save everyone in our city from being erased,” Wally said. “But if a better city emerges once Kingsport and the Mirror City combine, I’m going to keep tearing the Veil until it spreads across the whole world.”
“Wally,” Arthur said in shock. “That’s not funny. Usually when people say things like that, they break out in evil laughter.”
Wally bit his lip. He was doing his best not to sound like Graham—so full of frustrating certainty about a vision that couldn’t be confirmed by anyone but himself.
“I’m not some villain in one of your adventure stories, Arthur.”
“You sure about that?” Arthur said, gesturing to the Rifts tearing throughout the city. “Looks to me like you’re still blindly following your brother.”
Wally drew a breath, trying to get on top of his frustration. He didn’t want to fight his friend. He just wanted Arthur to listen.
“Graham was convinced the Veil did more good than harm,” Wally said, “but I didn’t take his word for it. I went and found out for myself. By boarding that Trackdragon at the beginning of the story, I’ve been able to study this stuff as long as you and I have been on these adventures. I wasn’t looking at the Real and the Fae in bits and pieces the way Graham saw them whenever he gazed into the future. I was seeing them as they are right now. I’m not tearing the Veil because it’s my fate. I’m tearing it because it’s the right thing to do.”
Liza glided through a golden spore cloud, and Wally noticed that Arthur didn’t hold his breath as usual. He wondered if his friend was so angry with him that he had forgotten his fear of the Mycopath.
“Let me get this straight,” Arthur said. “You’re ready to gamble away the safety of every person in our city just because you saw some pocket-worlds with cracked glass and dirty water?”
“It’s not a gamble when I have Breeth to help keep things calm,” Wally said.
Arthur still looked upset, so Wally steered Liza toward their old stomping grounds.
“Remember that knot in your stomach?” Wally asked. “The hunger that turned your morals to mush, making it so you never thought twice about stealing?”
Arthur sighed, his anger relenting a bit. “After we got to the Manor, I still hid food from the feasting hall in my pockets.”
Wally nodded. “We’re lucky that we got to leave our thieving days behind, Arthur. We accidentally stumbled into magic, and it changed our lives. We can do the same thing for our friends. It’s just like a Garnett Lacroix story, stealing from the rich to feed the orphans. Only we’re giving them magic.”
Arthur folded his arms, his anger clearly returning. “What would you know about Garnett Lacroix?”
“I know he wouldn’t like Kingsport the way it was when we lived here,” Wally said.
Liza swooped low, and Paradise/Parasite Lane rushed beneath them.
Wally pointed out interactions that Breeth’s spores were not controlling. On the street where the Battle of the Barrows had raged, a garden grew. Near the officers’ watering hole, a dozen Oakers were trying to arrest a single Ogre Oaker, who was comically trying and failing to arrest them back. And outside the StormCrow Pub, which Liza had cleaned up in her human form, a reformed werewolf exchanged recipes with Charlie, the Rook’s ex-bodyguard. Finally, Wally pointed out the Ghastly Courtyard where the dreams of doomed Black Feathers spouted into the sky, dazzling those who lost them.
“See?” Wally said. “Good things are happening all by themselves. No heroes needed.”
Arthur didn’t so much as crack a smile.
Wally searched the horizon for more evidence that his plan was working. “Look what’s happening where Greyridge used to be,” he said, pointing toward the Port’s cliffs where the skeletal frame of the strange new building was continuing to blossom. It was starting to look familiar. “I can’t tell what’s growing in its place, but it’s gotta be better than a hospital.”
Arthur pointed over Liza’s opposite wing. “What about that?”
Wally looked down at Meadow/Mildew Street and saw a giant ball of elephant trunks, dripping and sniffling as it rolled like a boulder after a crowd of screaming people.
“Or that?” Arthur said, pointing to a different emergency. “Or that?”
Directly below, a gang of goblins smashed the window of a restaurant, sending the customers scattering and urchins scrambling inside. One street over, a bloody fight had broken out between a scarred weasel and one of the Black Feathers’ old gang captains. They were going to kill each other.
Wally anxiously searched the scenes for the telltale glow of spores. Where was Breeth and why wasn’t she taking care of this?
“You’re forcing this new life on our city,” Arthur said. “And now people are getting hurt.”
Wally closed his eyes and steadied himself. “I’m not saying it’s perfect, Arthur. Of course it will be chaotic at first. That happens in every revolution. But I still believe that humans and Fae-born can learn to work together and that both sides will be better in the end.”
“Make it stop, Cooper,” Arthur said behind him.
“I can’t do that, Arthur,” Wally said sadly. Even with all the evidence sprawled out before them, Arthur couldn’t see the bright future that awaited them.
“I said make it stop!” Arthur shouted.
“Oof!”
The air was knocked from Wally’s lungs as Arthur tackled him from behind. Without thinking, Wally threw an elbow into Arthur’s stomach, then rolled and tried to get his friend into a headlock, hoping to stop this stupid fight before it began. But Arthur threw back his head, cracking Wally’s jaw. The boys wrestled along Liza’s feathered back, coming dangerously close to spilling off one wing, then the other.
“What are you gonna do?” Wally shouted, struggling to pry Arthur’s fingers from his shirt. “Throw me to my death? That won’t stop Breeth from tearing the Veil!”
The fury didn’t leave Arthur’s eyes. “I’m just trying to show you how evil you’re being!”
His hands whirled back as Liza tipped her wings, trying to make Arthur fall to the street below.
Wally leapt forward and grabbed hold of Arthur’s suspenders, saving him from a fatal fall. “We’re not trying to kill him, Liza!”
She leveled her wings, and Arthur grabbed Wally’s shirt in his fists while Wally held Arthur’s wrists. They breathed heavily, staring into each other’s eyes.
“It’s already done. The Veil is torn. I just…” Wally sniffed blood back into his nose. “I just wanted you to be a part of it.”
“Never.”
The two continued to struggle against each other as Liza swooped down and perched at their destination.
“Look, Arthur,” Wally said.
Arthur looked.
Liza had landed on a roof directly across from the tenements where the boys had grown up. The building looked halfway through a magical renovation. What had been a patchwork of crumbling bricks and rotting wood was now growing ivory columns, multicolored Fae bulbs, and living gargoyles and grotesques.
One of the windows glowed with pearly light. Inside was Harry. Arthur’s dad seemed to be back on his feet, having paid the owed rent. But that wasn’t the important part. Harry was dancing with a breathtaking woman of blue glass.
Arthur looked away, a pained expression on his face. “Nice try, Cooper. But you can’t pull on my heartstrings with a sappy scene like this. I created that ghost in the Great Elsewhere.”
“Look again, Arthur,” Wally said.
Arthur furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, then looked back toward the pearly window. He released Wally’s shirt as his angry expression melted into that of a young boy who had been lost for a very long time.
“Breeth heard her weeping in the hospital walls before we left gray Kingsport,” Wally said. “She’s been there since the day she died. I don’t think she wanted to leave the city you were in.”
Arthur stared at the ghost of his mom. His real mom. No tears streamed down his cheeks.
Wally continued. “After the Battle of the Barrows, you made me believe my parents were in a good place. That they were happy. Your words made me feel safe for the first time in … I don’t know how long. That was what made us friends, Arthur.” He smiled at Harry and the ghost in the window. “I wanted to repay the favor. By giving you the real thing.”
Arthur looked away as if embarrassed.
Wally placed a hand on his friend’s back. “Just think of the good your magic could do in a Veil-less world. You can use your writing to help Breeth maintain the new Balance, keeping people safe while they have experiences like the one your dad is having right now.”
Arthur still wouldn’t look at him. He was staring toward the cliffs of Greyridge.
“I know it’s scary,” Wally said. “I’m terrified. But back in the Impossible Wood, you told me yourself that fear is good. Those words guided me when I was riding the Trackdragon, looking for answers. I realized that fear keeps you sharp. It makes you pay attention. If you’re afraid, it means you’re doing something that’s important to you. And you’re extra careful about the decisions you make.”
Arthur stared at his hands. “I said fear is good, huh?”
“You did.”
Arthur sniffed. “Are you saying I can be pretty smart sometimes?”
A laugh burst out of Wally. “If it will get you to stop being so mad at me.”
For the first time that day, Arthur smiled at Wally, tears finally spilling down his cheeks. “I guess if it’s the difference between having my mom back and total nothingness”—he gazed up into the unzipping sky, the Rifts gaping wider and wider—“you and I had better go tear ourselves a Veil.”
Wally smiled back, a little shocked and a lot relieved that he had finally gotten his friend to see what he saw. He didn’t want to give Arthur another second to change his mind, so he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a paper and pen.
Arthur’s eyebrows raised. “You realize this is like handing me a weapon, right?”
“To fight beside me.”
Arthur took the pen and paper and arched a gentlemanly eyebrow. “From Thieves to Novitiates to Maverick Heralds of Magic. Who could ask for a better ending?”
“Not me,” Wally said quietly. He crawled across the feathers and straddled the great bird’s neck. “Come on, Liza. Let’s go kill the Eraser.”
They soared away from the tenements and toward the coast.
“Wanna hear something funny?” Arthur called over the screaming wind. “When I went to see Harry after we first visited the Manor, your brother’s hand told me I would bring the Veil down. Later, I thought maybe Graham was hedging his bets, hoping someone would make his fake prophecy come true for him. But well, here we are. I never told you that because I was terrified he was right.”
Wally chuckled. “I know the feeling!”
They descended toward the sea, whose waves surged and frothed as the Eraser finally exited onto the beach. On the coast, armed and waiting, were the Wardens of Weirdwood.
“Amelia!” Arthur said with relief. “Linus and Ahura! Willa and Cadence! And … Sekhmet! She’s okay!”
“Like I said”—Wally smiled back at him—“I’m not following my brother.”
After rescuing Arthur, Wally and Liza had returned to the disintegrating Manor, found Sekhmet, and flown her to safety. They’d found the others wandering through the blank DappleWood. A part of Wally had worried the Wardens might interfere with his efforts to bring down the Veil. But he couldn’t let any harm come to the people who had given him this magical life. Even if they were in the wrong.
“Wait,” Arthur said. “Who’s that?”
As Liza glided closer, he noticed the other figures on the coast: a tall man with ill-fitting clothing, a wisp of a woman, and a hulking stone figure.
“You … You saved the Order too?”
“They’re humans, Arthur,” Wally said. “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just like us. And the Eraser’s been erasing the Fae wares they need to survive. They have just as much interest in defeating the Eraser as the Wardens do.”
Arthur gritted his teeth.
The Order and the Wardens closed in on the Eraser from opposite sides of the beach, their mutual enemy seemingly causing a temporary alliance. Silver Tongue had replenished her flask and was thirstily gulping her mercury. Cadence drummed a steady war beat while Willa released her tin kites into the air. Rustmouth licked his brown teeth as Linus and Sekhmet ignited their swords. And finally, the Astonishment beat together her stony fists, stomping craters in the sand.
The Eraser reached the shore, and the Wardens swept in, attacking with fire and fireworks, with kites and rhythmic bursts of sand, throwing everything they could at the Void to keep it away from the city. The Astonishment stepped beside the Wardens, hurling giant beach rocks at the man-shaped nothingness.
Every spell and rock vanished into the Eraser as it came toward them, unimpeded. It reached the Astonishment and seized her arm, slowly disintegrating her rocky fingers.
“No!” Wally cried. He knew the Astonishment’s story now. She had a wife and children. She hadn’t chosen this life. He looked to the Wardens, hoping they could save the poor stone woman from being erased.
But something terrible was happening. Willa had turned her furry wings on the Wardens and was commanding her sharp kites to slice their arms and faces. A high-pitched cackle pierced through the frothing waves as Silver Tongue used her mercurial voice not against the Eraser but the Wardens.
“Still happy you saved the Order?” Arthur asked.
Wally watched, terrified. The Astonishment’s arm had been erased to the elbow. No one was saving her.
