Story Thieves Page 10

  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” she said, and suddenly her ray guns were in her hands, aimed right at his face. “Instead, I’m going to shoot you. You have one minute to tell me who you are and what happened to Kiel Gnomenfoot.”

  CHAPTER 19

  All Bethany could see was the ceiling as if she were looking at it through a telescope. Even as she struggled, something within her grew almost calmer as the ceiling got smaller and smaller, blackness folding in around it. Weirdly, it occurred to her that this must be tunnel vision, even as the tunnel of her sight began to collapse in on itself.

  Then she slammed into the floor and suddenly could breathe again. She gratefully sucked in as much air as she could as her head pounded. What had happened?

  “I said, stop,” said Kiel from somewhere in front of her.

  Everything in the room dimmed except for the Magister, who glowed from deep down inside. “What do you think you’re doing, apprentice?” the old wizard said, his voice low and dangerous. “I would not have hurt the girl. But I need her power, and cannot take it while she defies me. You must understand what—”

  The Magister abruptly went quiet, only to groan from a lot farther away than he had been. Bethany pushed herself up so she could see what was happening, and found Kiel holding double magic wands that looked like they’d been sharpened into knives. The wands pointed at the now crumpled form of the Magister where he’d just slammed into the far wall.

  “That’s going to cost me at chore time when this is all over,” Kiel said. He turned to Bethany and winked. “Look, I get it. You’re impressed with me, and probably dumbfounded. It happens. But don’t just sit there. Maybe do something a little more useful than jumping into blank sheets of—”

  He didn’t finish his sentence; instead, he rocketed up into the ceiling, then down onto the floor, back and forth like a pinball machine.

  “You will not raise your hand to me, boy!” the Magister said, stopping Kiel in midair. “After everything I have done for you? All the years of teaching and raising you as if you were my own?”

  “This from the guy . . . who said none of that . . . was real,” Kiel said to Bethany, cringing in pain. “Wouldn’t that mean . . . all those years of being my guardian . . . didn’t happen either?” He forced a grin, then aimed his twin wands at the Magister and mumbled something. Instantly, lightning launched from the tips of the wands directly at the older magician.

  The Magister raised his hand, and the lightning absorbed right into his palm. “Always playing the hero, aren’t you, Kiel? In your own mind, if nowhere else. But this isn’t our world anymore, and things have changed. You’re protecting a girl who has the power to save everyone and everything you know. She could end all the conflict back on Magisteria, end all the pain!”

  “Weren’t you going to do something?” Kiel asked Bethany, only to shout in surprise as hundreds of tiny imps appeared out of nowhere, holding his arms out to his sides to keep him from using his wands.

  “. . . . um,” Bethany said, and grabbed the blank page from the floor where it’d landed, then sprinted as fast as she could up the stairs.

  “You’re lucky I’ve got this!” Kiel yelled after her, struggling against the imps as they tried to pry the wands out of his hands. “Anyone else would probably be worried right now!”

  How was he still making jokes while being attacked? That was so like a book character, to say clever lines while crazy things were happening. Bethany didn’t waste her time responding as she pushed her way up the stairs, only to almost fall back down them as the Magister exploded through the floor, holding Kiel in midair as he turned to face Bethany.

  “You cannot leave, Bethany,” the Magister told her, his eyes glowing. “I must have your power!”

  “Shouldn’t you be . . . worrying more about me?” Kiel yelled at the Magister, despite not being able to move due to the imps. “I don’t need . . . my wands to . . . beat you.”

  “Is that so?” the Magister said, and the imps finally pulled Kiel’s wands out of his hands and dropped them onto the ground in front of the Magister. “And what magic have I taught you that could possibly defeat me?” He bent down to pick up the dropped wands.

  Kiel half smiled. “Let’s call it the magic of planning ahead.”

  One of the wands exploded in the Magister’s hand, sending the older man crashing into a column in the middle of the room. The imps abruptly disappeared, dropping Kiel to the floor, which he hit hard with a loud groan. With the Magister distracted, Bethany sprinted for the library doors, then paused.

  Owen would have helped Kiel here. It was probably the brave, heroic thing to do.

  Like she was ever going to follow Owen’s example.

  With that, she leaped into the library to hide, leaving the door open just wide enough so she could watch what happened.

  Kiel stood up, trying to catch his breath, and held his remaining wand aimed at the Magister. “This is all . . . making me seriously rethink . . . my apprenticeship,” he said, then mumbled a spell. The marble floor shuddered, then rose up around the Magister, trapping the older magician in place.

  The Magister’s eyes lit up with blue fire, and the floor tiles exploded toward Kiel, who waved them away with his wand, then sent ice shards hurtling toward the Magister.

  The shards slid around the older man, hitting the wall behind him.

  “NO MORE!” the Magister roared, and Kiel suddenly dropped to the floor, his legs and arms flopping around uselessly, leaving the boy unable to stand, cast a spell, or even think. “This is but a Crisis of Confusion spell, Kiel, and you will eventually return to normal. But continue defying me and I shall take the magic from your mind altogether! We cannot continue living out the whims of these writers, living out conflict and hate for their entertainment!”

  He stepped forward to kick Kiel’s remaining knife-wand from his hand, then gestured, wiping Kiel’s mouth off his face like zipping up a zipper. Dark shadows grabbed each of Kiel’s hands and feet and dragged him over to the wall, holding him in place.

  “For the love I hold for you, Kiel, please, listen to me.” The Magister, breathing hard, held out a shaky hand toward his apprentice. “Stop this, or I shall have to take steps. Be reasonable! You cannot defeat me with the magic I taught you myself.”

  Kiel closed his eyes, then slowly nodded.

  The Magister gestured, and Kiel’s mouth reappeared. The boy sighed, his eyes still closed. “You’re right,” he said. “I can’t.”

  Then Kiel slammed his chin into his chest, and an impossibly bright light exploded like a sun in front of him, destroying the shadows holding him against the wall. The magician looked away with a cry as the light quickly faded, only to find Kiel standing just inches from him, holding a ray gun to the Magister’s head.

  The older man’s eyes widened and his voice cracked with rage. “You . . . you would use science against me?”

  Kiel shrugged, his eyes wild. “Charm gave me this ray gun and that flare for emergencies. I feel dirty even using them. But, like you said, there’s no way I’m going to defeat you with magic. Now calm down and maybe we can fix all of this before it gets even worse.”

  “There is no going back, Kiel,” the Magister whispered. “Not to our world, not with the knowledge we now have.”

  “Yes, there is!” Kiel shouted. “Maybe that Porterhouse guy did create us. So what? You say he made us into who we are? Magi, you made me into who I am! You raised me, led me, taught me. You created the me that I am today, more than anyone else.” He glared at the Magister. “Now look at you. Attacking innocent people? Threatening them, torturing them? This isn’t you.”

  The ray gun exploded into a thousand pieces, and the Magister began to grow, magical energies exploding all around him in his rage. Ten feet, then twenty, and he cracked the ceiling of the room, his height still increasing.

  “This doesn’t look like calming down,” Kiel said from below.

  “The Magister who raised you never truly existe
d!” the magician roared, and his voice was as loud as thunder. “For his sake, and for the sake of all those trapped within every other story, I will have the girl’s power!”

  “Uh-oh,” Kiel said quietly.

  “Are you ready for someone else’s idea?” said Bethany from his side, holding a book in her hand.

  Kiel glanced over and shrugged. “It’s not my typical strategy, but I’m flexible.”

  Bethany quickly whispered into his ear, then threw the book open onto the floor in front of them. As the Magister raged above them, casting some sort of elaborate spell, Bethany grabbed Kiel’s hand, and the two of them leaped forward into the now-open book.

  “NO!” the Magister shouted, realizing too late what was happening. He struck out and magical energy exploded from his hand, but they were already gone.

  The book burst into nothingness, leaving behind just a blackened mark on the floor, the air still crackling with deadly magic.

  The Magister settled to the floor, his eyes wide. “What have I done?” He touched the floor gently, the spot where his bolt had destroyed the book. “Kiel? What have I done ?”

  CHAPTER 20

  Who are you?” Charm said, her ray guns powered up and ready to fire.

  How had she seen through his disguise? What was going on here? “I’m Kiel Gnomenfoot, Charm!” he said, holding his hands up in surrender.

  “Are you?” she said, her weirdly cute robot eye staring right through him. “You haven’t been the same since I found you in the Magister’s tower. You’re not acting like your usual self. The cat’s ignored you completely, instead of hanging on your shoulder like it usually does. You’re not worried about Magisteria being attacked.” She frowned. “Also, that spell book is trying to eat your hand.”

  “What, this?” Owen said, frantically trying to shove the spell book off of himself. “This is just a difference of opinion!”

  “Scientific Method,” Charm said to her ship, “scan him against all known records of Kiel Gnomenfoot, down to the quantum level. Show me the results on-screen.”

  The viewscreen changed from the empty space outside to an X-ray kind of image of Owen’s body. He immediately dropped his hands to cover anything embarrassing, but it didn’t seem to help. “Stop it!” he shouted, trying to stay calm but not succeeding at all. “I’m really Kiel. Quiz me. I can answer anything.”

  “There’s no need,” Charm said, her ray guns still aimed at him. “The scan will cover it.”

  His eyes flashed to the screen as his empty body began to fill up, like a countdown. “Remember when we found the First Key, back beneath twenty tons of dragon’s gold, using that electromagnet of yours? You said that gold isn’t magnetic, but the iron key would be. That’s how we found it.”

  “The real Kiel never listened to what I said in his entire life,” Charm told him. “Especially not about science.”

  “We went to the future! You ate a rat by accident! I had to use your arm as a wand once, in that alternate reality where magic was science! You get annoyed by everything I say, but secretly I make you laugh—”

  “You do what?” Her eyes narrowed, and her fingers tightened on the triggers.

  “I do! You hate to admit it, but I’ve seen it!”

  “Name one time,” she said as the viewscreen showed the scan just about finished.

  Owen’s mind raced frantically through the books. It was a huge part of their friendship, and came up at least once a book. Why couldn’t he remember a single—

  “The ruins of that magical school!” he shouted. “Remember? I said something like, ‘I guess school’s out,’ and you snorted! Okay, it’s not really a laugh, but it’s pretty close, and I bet you thought it was funnier than you let on.”

  “You’d lose that bet,” Charm said, just as the scanner chimed. “Looks like the results are in. Move even an inch, and you get rayed.”

  Owen watched her glance over the scan results, his eyes wide. Could he cast a spell? Not without the spell book, which still hadn’t let go of his hand. But if he got called out as not being the real Kiel in front of everyone reading the book, it’d change the whole story, and Bethany would kill him.

  Not to mention the fact that Charm might shoot him.

  Charm raised her eyes from the screen. “This is interesting,” she said. “Apparently, you’re allergic to peanuts.” Then she slowly lowered her ray guns. “Something’s off. The Scientific Method claims you’re Kiel down to your core, but I’m not sure.”

  Owen let out a huge breath. “But it’s science, so you have to believe it. The computer said so. I’m Kiel! I’m just acting weird because of, you know, the Magister. I’m sad!”

  She gave him a careful look. “The ship’s never been wrong before. But I’m going to keep an eye on you. And if you keep messing up, scan or not, I’m leaving you on some deserted planet until I find the Seventh Key. There’s no more time for grieving. Get it together. We’ve got a war to win.”

  Owen dropped his hands, wanting to laugh or shout or just pump his fist in an awesome victory celebration. The scan hadn’t seen through his disguise. Apparently, magic was a lot more thorough than he’d thought.

  For a moment there, he’d actually been worried she was going to shoot him, and suddenly everything had seemed a lot less fun. But he had to remember that as far as the book was concerned, he really was Kiel Gnomenfoot. And that meant nothing really bad was going to happen to him. The hero always made it through.

  “You did laugh at the school comment,” he told her, his heart slowing back down to normal.

  “Prove it,” she told him, sitting back down in the pilot’s seat. “Repairs are just about through. Are you ready to go on, or do you want to talk more about your feelings or something dumb?”

  “I just miss him,” Owen told her. “The whole thing just really threw me. It’d throw anyone. Even unfeeling half robots.”

  One of her hands rested on her ray gun again. “I can still shoot you, you know.”

  He smiled, hoping she was kidding. “I’m sure he’s still out there somewhere. Maybe in some other world, watching over us, reading about our adventures, so proud that we’re saving the world.” Or maybe on his way back with Bethany and Nobody. What was taking them so long, anyway?

  Charm snorted. “No one would bother reading about us. We never do anything exciting.”

  “We just saved ourselves from a whole bunch of attacking spaceships!”

  She shrugged, turning back to her pilot controls in midair. “I guess we have different ideas of exciting. Now, where is this Seventh Key?”

  “The Magister said that we had to go somewhere called the Original Computer, and that’d tell us more about it,” Owen said.

  “WHAT?” Charm said, spinning around. “No. Not the Original Computer. That’s a bad idea.”

  “Why?” Owen asked. “It can’t be worse than almost getting blown up by Science Soldier ships.”

  “It can, and will.”

  Owen shook his head. “That’s where the Magister said to go, and he spent the last six . . . the last year looking for even this much information.”

  Charm growled in frustration. “This is such a bad idea. Promise me that you’ll do everything I say when I say it while we’re in there, or I leave you here. Got it?”

  “Gotten,” he told her. “Why is this place so bad?”

  “You’ll see,” she said, then touched a panel in front of her, sliding something off of it. “Here.” She held out one finger to him. “Put this in.”

  He bent forward and stared at the tip of her finger, where a tiny, almost microscopic square of metal lay. Owen touched one finger to hers, pushed down, and took the metal square up off her finger. “Um, what? What am I doing with it? Other than losing it?”

  “Don’t lose it,” she told him. “Plug it into your brain stem, and we’ll get going.”

  He blinked. “Into my who?”

  Charm sighed. “Do I have to do everything for you? Here!” She turned him
around until his back was to her, then pushed his hair up over his neck. “It’s right . . . huh?”

  “What’s right huh?”

  “You don’t have a brain stem input.” She grunted. “You people are so backward.”

  “Since when was I supposed to have a brain stem?”

  “Brain stem input. And since you were born. How do you ever learn anything without just plugging it right into your brain stem for uploading?”

  “It’s a rough life,” he told her. “So what was that thing supposed to do?”

  “We have to get into the Original Computer,” she told him. “And that means we need to become something that’ll actually exist within it. That takes digital avatars. This chip was supposed to connect you directly to the ship’s computer, which will download everything about you and spit out your avatar into the Nalwork.”

  “The what?”

  “It really is like talking to a child, isn’t it? The Nalwork? Short for interNAL netWORK? It’s what connects the citizens of Quanterium to every computer on the planet.”

  Owen gave her a confused look. “Don’t you mean INTERnal NETwork? The Internet?”

  “The NALWORK. It’s not complicated.”

  Even when she was annoyed, Owen just wanted to do things for her. Maybe clean her ray guns or give her an upgraded arm as a present or something. “Okay, the Nalwork. So how do I get in, then?”

  She shrugged. “The chip’s going to need to get into your brain one way or another. I guess we’ll just have to do some surgery.”

  Owen laughed. Charm didn’t. Owen laughed again, just to see if she needed some encouragement. Apparently, that wasn’t the problem. He tried one more laugh, and she slapped his face.

  “NO!” he said.

  “Sit down,” she told him, pushing him into one of the chair’s seats. “Don’t be such a baby.”

  “IT’S NOT BEING A BABY TO NOT WANT YOU DOING SURGERY ON ME!”

  “I won’t be the one doing it,” she said, then tapped something in the air. The chair’s arms spit out straps that covered Owen’s wrists, then yanked them down, holding him still. He squirmed and tried to break free, but the chair wouldn’t let him so much as move.