A Tale of Magic... (15 page)

“Um…
hello
,” Brystal said, wondering how long the little girl had been standing there. “Can I help you?”

“Pip,” she said.

Brystal was confused and sat up to get a better look at the odd little girl.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“It’s
Pip
,” the little girl repeated.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Brystal apologized. “Does that mean something in another language?”

“At dinner you asked me what my name was,” the little girl said. “It’s Pip.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Brystal recalled. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Pip. Is there a reason you’re giving me your name so late?”

Pip shrugged. “Not really,” she said. “I just finally remembered it.”

The little girl’s distant gaze never changed, but there was an innocence about her that Brystal found charming.

“Do you have a last name, Pip?”

The little girl looked at the floor and her shoulders sank. Remembering her first name was such a challenge she hadn’t prepared for any more questions.

“Wait, I
do
,” she said. “It’s Squeak—
Pip Squeak
.”

“Pip
Squeak
?” Brystal was surprised to hear. “Is that your real name?”

“It’s the only name I remember being called,” Pip said with a shrug. “Then again, I don’t have many memories from before I lived here.”

“How long have you been here?” Brystal asked.

“About six years, I think.”

“You’ve been here
that
long?”

“I was just a toddler when I arrived,” Pip said. “My parents brought me here as soon as they realized I was different. I started showing signs pretty early.”

“You mean signs of
magic
?” Brystal asked. “You were doing magic when you were just a toddler?”

“Mhmmm,” Pip said. “Still can, too. Want me to show you?”

“Please,” Brystal said without hesitating.

The little girl looked up and down the hallway to make sure they were alone. When she’d seen the coast was clear, Pip stretched out her neck and limbs, and then pressed her head against the barred door. Brystal watched in amazement as, slowly but surely, the little girl squeezed through the bars like her body was made of clay. Once she was on the other side, Pip’s body snapped back to its original shape.

“That’s unbelievable!”
Brystal exclaimed, forgetting to keep her voice down. “You’ve been doing that since you were a baby?”

“I used to squeeze through the railing of my crib.”

Brystal laughed. “I guess that explains how you got out of your room tonight.”

“I sneak out all the time,” Pip said. “Oh, that reminds me, I came to bring you this. I could hear you shivering from my room, so I snuck into the Edgars’ linen closet to get you an extra blanket.”

She wrapped the blanket around Brystal’s shoulders. Brystal was extremely touched by Pip’s gesture—but she was also extremely cold and had no trouble accepting it.

“That was so kind of you,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t need it?”

“No, I’m used to the cold,” Pip said. “Although it’s been getting a lot colder lately. It usually starts warming up this time of year, but I overheard Mr. Edgar saying there’s a really bad blizzard in the Northern Kingdom. We’re not too far from the border, so let’s hope the storm doesn’t get any closer.”

“Yes, let’s hope,” Brystal said. “I don’t think I could manage anything colder than this. It rarely snows in Chariot Hills.”

“What’s Chariot Hills?” Pip asked.

Brystal was shocked she had never heard of the city before, but then reminded herself that Pip didn’t even know her own real name.

“It’s the city where I’m from,” she explained.

“Oh,” Pip said. “I’m sorry, I don’t get out much—well,
never
, actually. What’s Chariot Hills like?”

“It’s big and busy.” Brystal described it: “There’s a town square with a courthouse, a cathedral, and a law university. It’s also the capital of the Southern Kingdom and where the king lives with the royal family.”

“You’re from the same place as the
royal family
?” Pip asked. “How did a girl like you end up here?”

“Same as you. I got caught doing magic,” Brystal said. “I didn’t even know I was capable of magic until a week ago. I found a book called
The Truth About Magic
in the library I worked at. There was an ancient incantation in the book to test whether someone has magic in their blood. I was stupid enough to read it aloud, and now here I am.”

“What happened when you read it?”

“The first time, I covered a room in flowers. The second time, I filled the room with thousands of lights and made it look like the universe.”

Pip’s large eyes grew even larger. “That’s amazing!” she said. “I’ve never met someone who could do anything like
that
before. Most of the girls here just have little tricks like mine. A girl down the hall from my room can grow her hair at will, a girl on the second floor can stand on water without sinking, and I’ve seen one girl talk to the cows outside—but that might not be magic, she might just be
weird
. You must be really powerful if you covered a whole room in flowers and lights!”

Brystal had never thought about it before. “You think so?” she asked. “I’ve never had anything to compare it to. Your magic is the only magic I’ve seen besides my own. I’m glad Mr. and Mrs. Edgar haven’t drained it out of you yet.”

“Don’t worry, their treatments don’t actually
cure magic
,” Pip said. “This facility is just a front for the Edgars’ family business. It was a regular boot factory before Mr. Edgar inherited it—hence the name
Bootstrap
. The only reason he and his wife turned it into a correctional facility was to get free labor out of young girls. At least, that’s what I heard the gatekeeper say—he’s also an aspiring poet, but that’s a different story. It’s funny how much you learn when no one thinks you’re listening.”

“The Edgars are such terrible people!” Brystal said. “And they have the nerve to say
we’re
the sinful ones!”

Suddenly, both girls jumped at the sound of footsteps echoing from a few floors below.

“Who is that?” Brystal asked.

“The wardens are making their nightly rounds,” Pip said. “I should get back to my room before they reach our floor.”

“Wait, don’t forget this.” Brystal removed the blanket from her shoulders and tried to hand it back, but Pip wouldn’t take it.

“You can keep it for the night,” she said. “But I’ll have to collect it early in the morning and return it to the closet before Mrs. Edgar wakes up. She caught me sneaking out of my room last week and chopped off all my hair as punishment—if it happens again they’ll put me in the
dunker
for sure.”

“What’s the dunker?” Brystal asked.

“When girls misbehave—I mean
really
misbehave—they’re strapped to the well outside and dunked in the cold water until Mr. Edgar thinks they’ve learned their lesson. Sometimes it takes hours!”

Brystal couldn’t believe her ears. “This place gets more dreadful by the minute!” she said. “How have you survived it for so long?”

“I guess it could be worse,” Pip said.

“How?”

“Oh, I don’t actually know how it could be worse,” she said. “I haven’t been many places to compare it to—well,
none
, actually.”

“It’s certainly the worst place I’ve ever been to,” Brystal said. “But I’m grateful I met someone as kind as you. Let’s break out of here one day and move someplace warm where we can see the ocean. What do you say?”

Brystal knew the thought intrigued Pip because the corners of her mouth began to twitch and slowly curved into a smile—possibly the first smile she had ever had.

“It’s a nice thought to fall asleep to,” she said. “Good night, Brystal.”

Pip squeezed through the bars and quietly snuck back to her room before the wardens reached the fifth floor. Brystal lay back down on her cot and tried her best to sleep. She was still cold even with a second blanket, but she shivered a lot less thanks to the warmth of her new friend.

By the end of each day, Brystal’s body ached so much she didn’t even notice the freezing temperature. Pip was kind enough to sneak her a blanket each night after the Edgars went to bed and then she promptly returned the blanket the next morning before they woke. Brystal hated that Pip was risking getting caught for her sake, but their nightly visits were all she had to look forward to. Their daydreams about escaping the facility and moving to the coast were the only thing that kept her going—she didn’t know how she would survive without them.