A Tale of Magic... (32 page)

As Brystal walked down the third-floor corridor, she could hear a couple of her classmates snoring in their bedrooms. She passed Xanthous’s door and remembered his painful confession from circle of secrets. Brystal’s heart filled with sympathy for the boy. She decided to check on him and quietly pulled open his heavy steel door. When she peeked into his room, Xanthous was sound asleep on his metal bed, wrapped up in his foil sheets. He had set his Muter Medal on his iron nightstand, and while Xanthous slept, the flames on his body increased and decreased as he inhaled and exhaled.

Brystal felt strange watching him sleep, but it was nice to see Xanthous resting so peacefully. With his secret finally off his chest, she figured he was sleeping better than he had since arriving at the academy. Before leaving, Brystal waved her wand, and a collection of aluminum dolls appeared in the corner of Xanthous’s room, so he would have a fun surprise to wake up to in the morning.

The castle was dark and quiet as Brystal moved through it, but she found the solitude comforting. She stepped outside and stood on the castle’s front steps and was happy to see that the rain had finally stopped. The night sky was starting to lighten as dawn approached, and the gryphons were already awake, hunting for breakfast. Watching the majestic creatures flying through the air reminded Brystal of how lucky she was to live in such a wonderful place. She had been at the academy for less than a month, but already Brystal couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the world—and she hoped she’d never have to.

As she gazed around the property, admiring all the colorful trees and flowers, Brystal spotted something shiny moving toward her in the distance. Madame Weatherberry’s golden carriage had returned to the academy, and Brystal was so thankful to see it she jumped up and down with excitement. Eventually the carriage pulled up to the castle’s front steps and Brystal ran to it to greet her teacher.

“Madame Weatherberry!” she cried. “I’m so glad you’re back! I was worried you—”

The carriage door swung open and Brystal stopped in her tracks—she hardly recognized the woman inside. Madame Weatherberry had aged another decade, she wore a thick violet coat that covered her whole body from the neck down, and there was a large black bruise on the left side of her face. She looked at Brystal and the castle in a daze like she was confused about where she was. Madame Weatherberry tried to climb down from the carriage, but she was so weak she could barely stand, and the fairy collapsed on the ground.

“Madame Weatherberry!”
Brystal screamed.

“Better, but not by much,” Mrs. Vee said. “I cleaned the wound on her face, but it was the only injury she would let me look at. A few of her bones might be broken, but she wouldn’t let me get near them.”

“Can’t she heal herself with magic?” Brystal asked.

“Usually,” Mrs. Vee said. “Unless the injuries were
caused
by magic.”

“Did she tell you what happened?” Brystal asked.

“She said she slipped and fell while she was visiting her friend,” Mrs. Vee said.

“A
fall
?” Brystal said. “She said a
fall
caused this?”

Mrs. Vee sighed. “I don’t want to start rumors, but if I’m honest with you, I’m starting to get a little suspicious. With all the strange letters, the unexpected trips, the witches, and now
this
—I think something is going on that Madame Weatherberry isn’t telling us.”

Clearly, the housekeeper thought her suspicion was a brand-new discovery.

“I’m glad you found me this morning,” Mrs. Vee said. “Lord knows Madame Weatherberry would rather have crawled into the castle than call for help. She wants to save the world, but heaven forbid if someone cares for
her
. What did you tell your classmates?”

“I just told them Madame Weatherberry returned early this morning and wasn’t feeling well,” Brystal said. “I tried to be as vague as possible so they wouldn’t worry.”

“Well, I hope it works,” Mrs. Vee said. “Madame Weatherberry said she would like to speak to you now. Maybe you’ll have better luck finding out the truth than I did. But I have to warn you, she’s not in her normal spirits.”

The housekeeper headed down the floating staircase to put the unused bandages away. Brystal knocked on Madame Weatherberry’s door and peered inside the office.

“Madame Weatherberry?” Brystal asked. “Mrs. Vee said you wanted to see me.”

The fairy was seated behind her glass desk and looked so exhausted Brystal thought she might fall asleep at any moment. She had popped the collar of her violet coat to conceal the bruise on her face. The veil on her fascinator was lowered to cover her weary, bloodshot eyes. Besides being tired and injured, Madame Weatherberry was completely drained of her cheerful disposition, and she stared at the floor with a melancholy longing.

“Close the door behind you,” she said softly.

Brystal followed her instructions and then sat at Madame Weatherberry’s desk.

“How are you feeling?” Brystal asked. “I heard you had a bad fall while you were visiting your—”

“You can stop pretending, Brystal,” Madame Weatherberry said sharply. “I know you’re aware of much more than you’re letting on.”

Brystal’s initial instinct was to act like she didn’t know what the fairy was talking about, but as Madame Weatherberry looked deeply into her eyes, Brystal realized a performance was useless.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“Sometimes magic has a mind of its own,” Madame Weatherberry said. “On your first day at the academy, I suspected the castle put you in a bedroom directly above my office for a reason. It wasn’t until I was leaving with the witches, and you hugged me good-bye, that I realized
why
. The castle put you in that room because it
wanted
you to spy on me. It knew we would be having this conversation long before I did.”

“Madame Weatherberry, I don’t understand,” Brystal said. “What conversation are we having?”

“Before we get into that, I want to make sure we’re on the same page,” the fairy said. “I’m sure you’ve developed a few theories to explain my questionable behavior. So tell me what you think is going on, and I’ll fill in the blanks.”

Brystal was thrilled for an opportunity to finally learn the truth, but she worried that Madame Weatherberry wasn’t in the right state of mind to be handing out information.

“Are you sure you want to do this now?” she asked. “I don’t want you to regret it later.”

“I insist,” Madame Weatherberry said.

“All right, then,” Brystal said. “From the information I’ve gathered so far, I know you haven’t been leaving the academy to visit a sick friend—you’ve been traveling to the Northern Kingdom to help solve something called the Northern Conflict.”

“And what do you suspect the Northern Conflict is?” Madame Weatherberry asked.

Brystal hesitated to respond. “As ridiculous as it sounds, I believe the Northern Conflict is just a code name for a woman known as the Snow Queen.”

“Go on,” the fairy said.

“Well, the Snow Queen is a very powerful witch who’s been attacking the Northern Kingdom,” Brystal continued. “She’s covered the kingdom in icy blizzards and caused massive amounts of destruction. No matter what the Northern Kingdom’s army does, they haven’t been able to defeat her yet. Before you had the idea to start our academy, you saw defeating the Snow Queen as an opportunity to gain worldwide acceptance for the magical community. You thought if someone
like you
saved the world, then the world would finally have a reason to respect people
like us
. So you teamed up with the witches and created a plan to stop her, but it’s been more difficult than you predicted.”

Brystal felt silly after hearing herself say it all out loud. She half expected Madame Weatherberry to laugh at the outlandish theory, but the fairy never flinched.

“You’re only wrong about one thing,” Madame Weatherberry said.

“Which part?” Brystal asked.

“The Snow Queen
is
the sick friend that I’ve been visiting,” she said. “I haven’t been lying about that. After a very tragic loss, my dear friend Queenie became infected with
hate
—and hate is the most powerful disease on the planet. For years, I watched the illness consume her and change her into a monster, and regrettably, I did nothing to help her. By the time she was wreaking havoc on the Northern Kingdom, it was too late to reason with her. Queenie has been blinded by vengeance, and now violence is the only language she speaks.”

“But how could you be friends with a witch in the first place?” Brystal asked. “Wasn’t she full of evil and darkness to begin with?”

“It’s possible to love a person beyond their demons, Brystal,” Madame Weatherberry said. “After all, there was a chance that Lucy was a witch, but it didn’t stop you from following her into the In-Between. You chose to love Lucy for
who
she was instead of
what
she was, and I made the same choice with Queenie. But unlike you, I failed Queenie as a friend. The angrier and more hateful she became, the more distance I put between us. I abandoned her when she needed me most, and now I’m partially to blame for what she’s become.”

“Then she’s still alive, isn’t she?” Brystal asked. “If you had already defeated her, you wouldn’t be referring to her in present tense.”

“My friend has been dead for years,” she said. “But unfortunately, the Snow Queen is still very much alive, and stronger than ever.”

Brystal glanced up at the enlarged Map of Magic above the fireplace. “If she’s so strong, why doesn’t she appear on the map?” she asked.

“I’m afraid you won’t find the Snow Queen on any Map of Magic,” Madame Weatherberry said. “She’s made herself untraceable so she can attack without warning. I’ve managed to stop her destruction from spreading beyond the Northern Kingdom, but each encounter is more taxing than the last.”

“You aren’t going to face her again, are you?” Brystal asked.

Madame Weatherberry closed her eyes and nodded in despair.

“I’m afraid I have no choice,” she said. “No one else
can
face the Snow Queen. Right now I’m the only thing standing in the way of her attempts at global obliteration.”

“But, Madame Weatherberry, you can’t!” Brystal objected. “Fighting her in your condition would be suicide!”

Madame Weatherberry raised a hand to silence Brystal, and her eyes beamed with a grave urgency.

“Now we must have the conversation I was referring to earlier,” Madame Weatherberry said. “Please don’t share this with the others, but there is a very strong possibility I won’t survive defeating the Snow Queen. I remain optimistic, but one must never let positivity outweigh practicality. It’s only a matter of time before I’m called back to the Northern Kingdom, and if I should perish, I want
you
to take over the academy.”

“Me?” Brystal asked in shock. “But what about Mrs. Vee? Or Tangerina? Or Skylene?”

“Mrs. Vee and the girls aren’t as strong as you are, Brystal,” the fairy said. “From the moment I placed the magic wand in your hand, and watched your star on the Map of Magic grow, I knew you were the only person who could replace me. So please, if I don’t live to see another year, promise me you’ll continue my work, promise me you’ll help your classmates reach their full potential, and promise me you’ll use your magic to help and heal people, and change the world’s perspective of the magical community.”

Tears ran down Brystal’s face as she imagined a world without Madame Weatherberry. She couldn’t believe the responsibility her teacher was asking her to accept, but Brystal knew in her heart there was nothing she
wouldn’t
do for the fairy.

“No one could ever replace you, Madame Weatherberry,” she said. “I could never repay you for the life you’ve given me, but I promise to continue your legacy in your absence, whether that day comes soon, or decades from now.”

A faint grin grew on the fairy’s face, but it quickly faded. Brystal could tell there was something else that Madame Weatherberry needed to discuss with her and it was a topic the fairy dreaded with all her might.

“And now I’m afraid I have an even greater request to ask of you,” Madame Weatherberry said. “It brings me great pain to place such a heavy burden on your shoulders, but there is no way around it.”

Brystal was confused. She couldn’t imagine a bigger task than the one she had already accepted.

“What is it?” she asked.

Madame Weatherberry took a deep breath before making the difficult request.

“In the event that I perish
without
defeating the Snow Queen,” she said with difficulty, “then
you
must kill her, Brystal.”

Brystal felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. Her heart began racing, her palms became sweaty, and the office started spinning around her.

“Madame Weatherberry, I can’t
kill the Snow Queen
!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never hurt anyone before! I couldn’t even defend myself against the witch hunters—I panicked under the pressure!”

“That wasn’t your fault—it was
mine
,” Madame Weatherberry said. “I’ve made a grave mistake as your teacher. My lessons have been preparing you and your classmates for the world I
wanted
you to live in, but I have
not
prepared you for the world that actually exists. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to begin instructing you and the others in how to use magic to defend yourselves. You may not be ready to face the Snow Queen today, but one day you will be.”

“But, Madame Weatherberry, I’m only fourteen years old!” Brystal reminded her. “I’m just a child! You can’t ask me to do this!”

“Brystal, you may be young, but you’ve never had the luxury of being a
child
,” Madame Weatherberry said. “You’ve been a fighter since the day you were born. You looked beyond the limits the world placed upon you and strove for a better life, and now you must look beyond the limits you’re placing upon yourself and strive for a better world. If neither of us can successfully defeat the Snow Queen, then everything—the world, the academy, and life as we know it—will be destroyed.”

Madame Weatherberry was putting Brystal in an impossible position. She had never killed anything before, but now she was being asked to kill the most powerful witch in the world. Brystal wanted to refuse her request with every fiber of her being, but Madame Weatherberry gazed at her with such desperation in her eyes, Brystal didn’t have the heart to disappoint the fairy. She looked to the floor and reluctantly nodded in agreement.

“Okay,” Brystal said. “I hope and pray it never comes to that, but if you can’t kill the Snow Queen… I will.”

After Brystal made her second promise, Madame Weatherberry closed her eyes, leaned back in her chair, and sighed with relief.

“Thank you, Brystal,” the fairy said. “You have no idea how comforting it is to hear you say that. Now if you’ll please excuse me, I should rest. We’ll both need all our strength for the days ahead.”