8 Chapter Eight

Greenbrook

The information that Mother Moon had given them was as worrisome as it was comforting. These lizards were supposedly as broken as the humans were, and scared. But Vand admitted to being a false apprentice, so who was to say that he knew the real situation? What if the depojico, as they called themselves, were actually using the information that they’d gathered from the beginning of humankind to now? What if they had an army that they were secretly gathering? They wouldn’t tell that to a front-line apprentice who was likely to get caught.

A false, lying, front-line apprentice. So much for Vand’s story of being the most powerful of his mysterious people.

The lizard had collapsed onto the floor of his cage and was now curled up and shivering. Greenbrook imagined that it wasn’t pleasant to have Mother Moon force one to give up the secrets of their people. He lowered the cage and looked down at the pitiful form inside. Something like sympathy began to stir inside him.

Forced to betray his people. That has to be a fatal wound to his conscience.

Greenbrook was so deep in thought that he didn’t feel the swell in magic until after the village around him turned luminescent red and green. The ground, cabins, bonfire, nearby grass, and even the people were glowing red, green, or both. The people began to shout in alarm. Greenbrook saw Trail and his betrothed, Elmtree, look down at their clothes and grab them. Trail began trying to wipe the color off of him.

But Greenbrook didn’t look to see what the magic had made him look like. He recognized this spell from the one that had attacked the meeting that had brought him here. If this was like that attack, then any second now-

On cue, Greenbrook felt the quick swell and release of an experienced user’s spell. The village went silent. Vand slowly lifted his head, small flecks of brown crossing his scales for the first time since his capture. Greenbrook whipped around to face the direction that the spell had come from. There were only trees, but he knew that a depojico was hiding there. Judging from the experience of the user and Vand’s reaction, it was probably the lizard’s teacher.

Chief Firmstone lifted Vand’s cage from Greenbrook’s hands and motioned around at the now-chaotic village. The message was clear enough: fix this! Greenbrook nodded.

These huge spells must take more magic than the tiny lizards can breath, so he closed his eyes and scanned for a thinning of magic in the air. There, on a tree, was the source of the silence. Greenbrook locked the experienced depojico onto his spot, then turned to the problem at hand. He extended his arms and remembered Trail’s words from the night before:

“Magic is just air, so make the magic invisible again. Simple.”

The solid masses of color and silence were not the same as illusions, but they were still magic. With some difficulty, Greenbrook began to dissipate the silence, sending small bits back at his prisoner to prevent him from replenishing the spell.

The sounds of the night and tribe came back gradually. Being able to hear again seemed to calm the people down, and the terrified shouts and screams transitioned to offended or embarrassed chatter. All but one voice.

“-A filthy depojico, come to rescue the false apprentice!” Chief Firmstone’s voice rang out, “Get it!”

“Mahela, get out of here!” Vand yelled.

The lizard paused, then followed up his shout with growling and clicking sounds.

Greenbrook didn’t dare focus on what was happening behind him. It was hard enough reversing the depojico spells alone. Because of his focus, he didn’t see Mahela reach the cage. He didn’t hear the chief drop it. He didn’t see Trail turn to his father and reach out a hand.

All that Greenbrook knew, when he opened his eyes to a normal village and turned to learn what the fuss was about, was that Trail had neutralized Mahela.

And Vand and his teacher had escaped.

* * * * *

Jaumes

Humans. Thousands of them. They were climbing the Mountains, climbing to Jujavu. All around Jaumes, depojico threw spells and rocks at them, trying to defend the literal height of depojico existence. Trying to defend the ones that lived there, who had left the caves to dwell in the open sky above the Mountains. Jaumes didn’t join in, however. He climbed ahead of the humans, sights on the same target.

Jujavu was lost, and it was his fault. All Jaumes needed was to get to the Jujavu before the humans did and apologize. To his mother. To Mahela’s family. He had to explain why Mahela would never join them in eternal rest in Jujavu…

“Jaumes, yuwan, wake up,” Reni’s voice cut into Jaumes’ dream.

Jaumes lifted his head and looked up at his mentor. Reni had always called Jaumes and Mahela his vandy dunasa, or family apprentices. Jaumes had always assumed that it was because he and Mahela were practically siblings, but with Mahela gone, that relationship was gone. Now Reni was calling Jaumes son. Apparently there had been more to the title family than Jaumes had thought.

The middle-aged depojico looked careworn and ancient in the half-light of the apprentice burrow. The light that had made it through the burrow entrance betrayed that it was almost noon. Jaumes cocked his head.

“You let me sleep in,” he noted.

Reni only gave him a confused look. The magic now in Jaumes’ bones shifted painfully as he realized that he’d spoken the human language. He winced and lowered his head. Reni was crouching next to him in a heartbeat.

“What did they do to you?” he asked softly.

“I-” Jaumes swallowed and forced himself to speak Edlara, the depojico language, “I think they pushed magic into my bones. I can understand the huma- the esosa language now.”

Reni put a concerned foot onto Jaumes’ back, but Jaumes pulled away. He didn’t care much for physical contact normally and this sympathy touch was even worse.

The humans were so powerful that they could push and pull magic into and from living things. The moon could make the mountains crumble. Mahela had gotten her magic, her sentience, taken away, so she effectively no longer existed. She wasn’t even a depojico anymore. She had been reverted generations to the parent species that had gotten struck in the first place. A little physical contact wasn’t going to change any of that.

Reni sighed and didn’t try to touch Jaumes again. There was silence for several minutes.

“I guess the riesy are right for once,” he finally said.

“What do you mean?” Jaumes asked, not looking up.

“You need to go home,” Reni said.

Jaumes stared at the wall next to him with unfocused eyes. Unbidden, the image of a cooked fry, split three ways, came to his mind. Only this time, the tail vanished as soon as it was separated from the other sections.

Mahela was gone.

All the fire that Jaumes had had was gone.

All the desire to prove the riesy wrong was gone.

It didn’t matter to him that a bunch of stuck up depojico in their capital didn’t think he was a true member of their species. He wasn’t. Not anymore. Instead, he had become something that didn’t belong to the depojico in the slightest:

A magic-chosen.