Does your brain hurt yet? 'Cuz if it does, try being me. Anyway, here's the short of it: You might think Grandpa's Talent works only when he's late. But that's not true. It works when he thinks he's late.
There was no way he was going to get the knights to Tuki Tuki on time. His Talent wouldn't let it happen. But if he thought that he was already late . . . If I could persuade him that he needed to be there at midnight . . .
Then he might just arrive at twelve thirty instead.
In the sky above, a bird flew by with a distinctive, white-haired man in a tuxedo riding on the back, waving a sword wildly like he was a conductor leading an orchestra. I smiled despite myself. I'd gotten my grandfather to arrive early - all by tricking him into thinking he was late.
But I was still captured. None of the knights came near to where I was laying. The Librarians around me looked to the sky with shock, guns out. The one holding my Lenses - the single remaining Bestower's Lens and my one Truthfinder's Lens - dropped them for the moment.
The fighting in the city grew louder.
This left me feeling very odd. I'd been convinced I couldn't save Tuki Tuki. But I had saved it. Or, at least, I'd taken a large step toward doing so. I hadn’t failed them as king.
The me from the past had been clever enough to come up with a plan, even if the me from the future hadn't been able to. (Not me from the far future, that's the one writing these books, I mean the me from the slight future, the me tied up, which is actually the me from the past, as the me from right now is the one writing. Actually, that me is the past me too, by the time you read this. And actually -)
"Shut up!" I said to myself. Or, at least, I tried to. Being still gagged, it came out as "Shusmalgul pulup!"
There wasn't time to think about my failures, my past, or my future. Because my Librarian captors were focused on me again. One lowered a gun, pointing at my head.
I felt a moment of panic. These were Librarians of the Shattered Lens. They were the most devoted, the most fanatical of all Librarians. And they hated Oculators passionately.
They knew what I was, and they weren't about to let me get rescued. The lead Librarian cocked his pistol. It didn't look like one of the fancy, laser pistols used in the war. Just an old-fashioned Hushlander pistol, the kind that shot out a bullet and made you very, very dead.
I tried my Talent. Nothing. I struggled but was pinned tight. I could wiggle my right hand, but that was it.
One of the Librarians said something, as if objecting to the murder of a tied-up kid.
The Librarian with the gun barked something back, quieting the opposition. He looked at me, eyes grim.
I panicked. I couldn't fail now! Not when everything was confused. I needed to know. Was my father right, or was my mother? What was this all about? I'd gotten the knights to Tuki Tuki. I couldn't die now! I couldn't! I -
The Librarians had dropped my backpack right beside me.
I blinked, realizing for the first time that a string was peeking out through the back zipper. One of the pull-tag pins for the bears tucked inside; I could see a bit of purple fur peeking out behind the tag.
Frantic, I strained my fingers out and pulled the tag, yanking it. The backpack lurched up against me, but the tag pulled free.
The Librarian pulled the trigger.
There was a crack in the air as the gun fired.
Something flashed in my eyes, the backpack exploding, vaporizing, the bullet vanishing in the air. The explosion washed over me, and - as I'd planned - it destroyed the net, the tag, and everything tying me down.
Of course, it also vaporized my clothing.
CHAPTER ∞
Now, perhaps, you can see why I asked you not to act out that last chapter. If you decided not to take my advice, then I really can't be blamed if you get in trouble for tying yourself to the ground and running around naked for the rest of the afternoon.
Anyway, what just happened is something we call a teddy bear on the mantle. This is an ancient storytelling rule that says, "If there's an exploding teddy bear that can destroy people's clothing in a given book, that teddy bear must be used to destroy someone’s clothing by the end of the book." Coincidentally, this is actually the only time a book has included a teddy bear that can destroy people’s clothing, and hence is the first, last, and only application of this literary law.
The blast radius of the bear grenade wasn’t large enough to hit the Librarians. (Pity.) However, it was just large enough to vaporize the ends of their guns. It also dropped me into a crater in the ground that was some five feet deep. I could see the Librarians above, standing, dumbfounded by what had happened.
I felt a surge of adrenaline. Not because I was still in danger, but because I was now lying stark naked in the middle of a war zone. And though the weather was tropical, the night air still felt rather chilly on my skin.
I scrambled free of the hole, blushing furiously, dashing past the Librarians. I stopped only long enough to scoop up my jacket - with the Bestower's Lens and the Truthfinder's Lens lying on top of it.
The Librarians finally began shouting and giving chase. The explosion had shocked them, but a naked Smedry seemed to have shocked them even further. I tried holding my jacket down to obscure the most delicate parts of my anatomy, but that made it really awkward to run. Keeping my skin intact was more important than keeping it covered, and I started running through the zoo as quickly as I could, holding the jacket and Lenses in my right hand.
So it was that I tore around a corner, completely in the buff, and ran smack-dab into the middle of Aluki, Aydee, twenty Mokian soldiers of both genders, and Draulin, Bastille's mother.
It was not my finest moment.
"Librarian commando superspy assassins!" I cried out, hiding behind Draulin, who wore her full Crystin plate armor and helm. "Following me! Gak!"
The group turned to look in the direction I'd come from. No Librarians followed. We all waited for a few tense moments, then finally Draulin looked back at me. "Er, Lord Smedry? Are you all right?"
"Do I look all right?" I asked.
"No, you look naked," Aydee said.
"Gak!" I said, quickly covering myself with my jacket, tying the sleeves around my waist. It had been cut off of me, though, so it didn't stay on real well.
“Ah," Aluki said, nodding. "I know this story. His Majesty is pretending to wear invisible clothing to show how stoopid we all are."
"I don't think that's how the story goes," Draulin said, eyeing me appraisingly, "nor do I believe that Lord Smedry is taking part in such an elaborate scheme. Those are grenade powder marks on his arms."
I looked down, noticing that the explosion had dusted my arms with a bit of burned gunpowder. "Er, yes,” I said, holding the jacket in place. "And I was being chased by Librarians."
"It is well that we came, then,” Draulin said. "Come with me, Lord Smedry. Aluki, you should take your soldiers and warn the perimeter guard that a group of Librarian infiltrators are haunting the zoo. They likely saw us up here and decided not to confront us directly."
The Mokian saluted, taking his soldiers and rushing away. Draulin steered me and Aydee toward a field behind us, where a glass bird was waiting, this one shaped like an owl. I hurried forward eagerly, hoping to find some kind of clothing inside. We found Kaz waiting for us, a big grin on his face.
I hurried op to him. "Kaz! You did it! You got the message to your father!"
He shrugged modestly. "I should have realized why you chose the words you did, kid. The moment I spoke them to him, the ships all seemed to speed up, instantly." He eyed me. "You may have just revolutionized the way we think of Talents. If my pop's Talent can be tricked into making him early . . . Well, it will change everything."
"It's what we were already doing with Aydee," I said as Draulin and Aydee herself climbed into the glass ship. We stood in a kind of cargo bay at the base of the owl. "She's the one who sparked the idea in my head, actually.”
The girl smiled pleasantly at
that, though she obviously had no idea what I was talking about. It was her ability to keep getting fooled that made her Talent work.
Though . . . as Draulin sent Aydee off to the head of the owl to help pilot, I thought I saw a twinkle of understanding in the girl's eyes. Could she understand? Did she know exactly what was happening when we tricked her into adding things wrong? Sometimes, living with a Smedry Talent requires a person to develop in very odd ways. As a child, I'd learned that everyone would hate me for breaking things and had compensated by pushing people away.
Could Aydee have learned to trick herself into ignoring numbers and speaking randomly, off the top of her head, when asked to add something?
Perhaps I was reading too much into that simple glance. I didn't really know what she was thinking, all those years ago. Here, wait a second. I'll go talk to her.
. . .
Okay, I asked her and she says yup, that's exactly what she does. Also, she said, "If you're writing about the fall of Tuki Tuki, you’d better make certain to include that part where we caught you frolicking in the zoo naked. I think you were seriously going crazy there, cousin."
Ahem. Let it be known that I was not frolicking. And the naked part ended the moment a Mokian woman in the glass owl brought me one of those colorful islander wraps they wear, and so I tied it on. There is NO MORE NUDITY. You can proceed with acting out the rest of this, if you want.
I stood on my head while singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" and juggling seventeen live trout with my feet.
Oh, wait. I hope you weren't wearing only a Mokian wrap like me. Sorry about that.
Aluki rushed up the gangplank a moment later, holding his spear. "The Librarians have liberated the captives in the zoo and the university! That's what they must have gone to do after letting you go, Your Majesty.”
"Shattering Glass!" I said. My mother was free now. Her captivity hadn't lasted long.
And I still didn't know what I believed and what I didn't. However, as I looked out of the cargo bay of the Owlport, I saw several Librarians fly their mechanical bats right into the walls of the glass dome. It shattered finally, falling in. The larger forces of Librarians outside the city surged into Tuki Tuki.
The city was burning. Huts aflame. People fought and warred in the night. Screams rang in the air. Shadowy groups moved against one another, struggling. In the background, an enormous force of Librarians - with hulking battle robots and wicked rifles - marched in through the open gap.
At that moment, I understood what it was to be in the middle of a war. And I came to a horrifying revelation.
The Knights of Crystallia were no cavalry come to rescue. Two hundred people, no matter how skilled, could not turn the tide of this entire war.
Tuki Tuki was going to fall anyway.
"Let us be going," Draulin said, waving to a Mokian who was in contact with the flight deck.
"Going?" Kaz said as the gangplank was raised.
"Back to Nalhalla,” Draulin said, folding her armored arms. "We came here to get Alcatraz, after all. Now we can go back."
"What? No!" Kaz said. "We have to fight! That's why we brought you here, Draulin! Lower that gangplank!"
I simply stared out at the horrific scene.
Draulin stepped up beside me. "I'm not certain if I should curse you for forcing us into this nightmare," she said to me, "or if I should bless you for giving us the excuse to come and fight. Many of us wanted to, even though we knew it was hopeless. To fight in one great battle against the Librarians, rather than suffering as they slice us apart kingdom by kingdom.”
"Draulin?" Kaz said. "Blasted woman. You knights are all -"
"She's right," I said as the owl began to lift off. "I can see it. Even with the knights, Mokia can't win. If you’d thought you could make a difference, you would have come and helped, wouldn't you?"
“It was a difficult decision to make,” Draulin said, and I could see that her eyes were solemn. Agonized. "It was the decision of a surgeon with two patients, one less wounded than the other. Do you abandon the more wounded, let them die while helping the one you can save? Or do you try to help the more wounded, and risk losing them both? We thought Tuki Tuki beyond help. Many of us still wanted to come help."
"So you're just giving up?" Kaz demanded.
"Of course not," Draulin said. "Now that we're here, we will fight. And die. But my duty is to get Alcatraz – and you other two - to safety. My brothers and sisters will fight."
And fail. The owl got higher, and I could see just how big the Librarian army was.
I'd done it again. I'd thought I was saving Tuki Tuki, but I hadn't. Just like helping my father had been turned against me, I found my efforts here twisted on their heads. Not only would Tuki Tuki fall, but the majority of the Knights of Crystallia would be destroyed as well.
I'd accomplished nothing.
When I was young, trying not to break things had only made it worse. Fix Joan and Roy dinner, but burn down their kitchen. Polish my foster father's car, but break it apart instead. It was all coming back to me, the times when the Talent dominated my life.
Things change. Perspectives change. The knights hadn't been cowards for refusing to help Tuki Tuki. They'd made a difficult decision, the right decision. But I'd forced them to come anyway, turning a huge disaster into a colossal one.
"We're just going to . . . leave them?” Kaz said.
"This ship has the king and queen on board," Draulin said. "There's a chance that we might be able to bring them out of their coma in Nalhalla." She didn’t sound like she believed it was very likely. "You've accomplished what you wished. Now, at the very least, allow me to salvage something from the fall of this city."
My heart was a tempest of emotions, my mind a tempest of thoughts. I didn't know what to feel or think. How could everything have turned upside down so quickly? The arrival of the Knights of Crystallia was supposed to save things, not make it worse.
"What of my father?" Kaz said.
"Lord Smedry is leading the evacuation of the children and the wounded," Draulin said. "He will leave with them."
In the midst of my heart arguing with my mind arguing with my soul, one single thought pressed through the others. Something I could grab on to, something I could hold on to, something real.
Bastille was still down there. And she needed me.
I ran through the Owlport, leaving Draulin and Kaz behind. The ship rose high, passing through the hole in the dome - the one atop the city, not the one that had been broken in the side. Glass rooms passed beneath my feet and to my sides, but most of these Nalhallan vehicles were constructed with the same general layout. I burst into the flight deck a moment later, Draulin and Kaz chasing behind me, calling out, sounding confused.
Aydee and a Nalhallan man I didn't recognize were in the piloting seats. "My name is Alcatraz Smedry,” I said loudly, "and I'm taking command of this vessel.”
The man blinked at me in shock, but Aydee just shrugged. "Okay, I guess."
"Fly us down there," I said, pointing at the Librarian army camp outside the city. I could see the place where they'd taken Bastille.
"Lord Smedry,” Draulin said, voice disapproving. "What are you doing?"
"Saving your daughter."
Draulin showed a moment of indecision. "She'd want you safe, she is a knight and -"
"Tough," I said. "Aydee, take us down.”
"All right . . ." Aydee said, steering the Owlport. The vehicle wasn't terribly maneuverable - it was meant as a troop transport - and kind of lumbered through the air as Aydee flew it down toward the Librarian camp.
Most of the Librarians were invading Tuki Tuki, and the Librarian camp itself was relatively quiet. There were some guard posts and a couple of thousand Librarians as a reserve force. The prisoner tent was at the back portion of the camp, and the flaps began to blow as the Owlport flew down low.
A dozen or so guards raced out of the building. “Hey, Aydee,” I said. “If we’ve got six plus
six guards, how many is that?"
"Er...four?"
"Good enough," I said, and suddenly there were only four guards, the other eight having been sent away somewhere by Aydee's Talent. Hopefully they wouldn't cause too much trouble there. "Draulin, Kaz, four guards for you."
"Sounds good to me," Kaz said, Warrior's Lenses in place. He raised his pistols as the Owlport settled down, face forward, resting on its belly.
Draulin gave me a suffering look, but opened a side door with steps down to the ground, and then followed Kaz out. They charged to engage the Librarian guards.
That was mostly a distraction. I took the other door out and slid down the wing. The floor of the camp was made up of packed-down jungle leaves and fronds, trampled flat by Librarian feet during the months of their siege. They rustled as I ran around to the back of the tent and slipped in.
The Librarians had left their captives lying in rows. I found Bastille near the center of the row, lying asleep in her tight white shirt and uniform pants. There were several dozen others in the tent, all Mokians. Officers or generals who the Librarians had considered valuable as prisoners.
I felt horrible for leaving them behind, but there wasn't much I could do. It was foolish of me to come even for Bastille, since we probably wouldn't be able to wake her up. But with Tuki Tuki falling, with all of the mistakes I'd made, I had to try to do something.
I slung Bastille over my shoulder and - teetering (she's kind of heavy, but don't tell her I said that) - I jogged back out the way I had come. Draulin was dusting off her hands, Kaz holstering his pistols, the four Librarian guards unconscious on the ground before them.
And then a cannonball crashed through the Owlport, smashing in the side, blowing off one of the wings.
I stumbled to a halt. Another cannonball followed, smashing off the owl's feet and toppling the massive vehicle to its side. I could hear Aydee inside crying out as it fell. A Librarian cannon team had set up nearby. The reserve force of Librarian soldiers was running out in front of it.