The Magi (The Magi Series) (16 page)

“I miss him a great deal when he’s away, but he’s doing one of the most important jobs we can do as Magi. He’s protecting children from the Maliphists.” Still, as Mrs. Roddick said this, Elijah could detect a hint of grief in her voice. The sacrifice her husband was making clearly impacted her even though she believed in the good he was doing.

Elijah also learned more about Savenridge. Master Roddick took Elijah through the city center and showed him the market. The city, during the day, was turned into what looked like a giant swap meet. Many Magi gathered around the stone tower and set up temporary shops in front of the existing stores and shops that lined the street. They sold all kinds of things: meat, fruits, vegetables, housing supplies, art, books, toys. They even sold trees during the Christmas season and fireworks to celebrate the new year. Roddick explained to Elijah that it was impossible to guess what you were going to find at the market. Every day would bring new and exciting things. Roddick told Elijah a story about Mrs. Roddick coming home from the market with a bird caller for the girls. It worked very well! After an entire day of blowing the bird caller, the Roddick girls had successfully summoned hundreds and hundreds of birds. Mrs. Roddick didn’t question why Tirzah and Lizzy kept coming in asking for bread (and when the bread ran out, other bits of food). When she finally wised up and went outside, after hearing a deafening amount of chirping, the entire roof was covered with birds, and many more were waiting close by for their share of food. It took Master Roddick two months to clean up all the poop.

Elijah found that Savenridge was filled with all sorts of animals—wild and tame—and they were sold and cared for by many of the Magi. He was most taken by the stables, where the city’s horses were kept for important journeys outside the walls.

“What kinds of journeys do they take?” Elijah asked curiously.

“Depends,” answered Roddick. “Most are used by our local marshals.”

“What’s a marshal?” Elijah inquired. He remembered the name mentioned before.

“The marshals are a sort of Magi police,” he explained. “It sounds like your uncle was one. There are many kinds of marshals. Most are located outside the city working in secret to stop the Maliphists, but we have local marshals keeping order here in the city.”

“I thought all Magi were good,” Elijah said.

Roddick smiled. “All Magi
try
to be good, but there are lots of Magi that aren’t the nicest people at times. We have our squabbles and conflicts. Savenridge has seen its fair share that go bad, too.”

“What happens to them?” asked Elijah.

Roddick flashed his eyebrows. “They’re sent to a place called Valcore. It’s a city made entirely of stone, where elements can’t be used. The Magi send their criminals there. If a Magi goes bad—turns evil or threatens our existence in any way—they are taken straight to a city where they are held and can never leave. Savenridge isn’t the only city that sends them there. Valcore holds criminals from all the Magi cities.”

“There’s more than one Magi city?” Elijah asked.

“Oh yes!” said Roddick. “The Magi live all over the world.”

“Where is Valcore?”

Roddick shook his head. “I don’t know. No one knows except the marshals who transport the Magi criminals there.”

“So would my uncle know?” Elijah asked.

“I don’t think so,” answered Roddick. “Your uncle would have been an outsider. He worked among the common people. That’s why it’s going to be hard finding someone who knows him. Outsider marshals usually work alone so people can’t trace them back to us.” Elijah began to feel discouraged. He was running out of leads to find out what happened to his parents.

The last day of the holiday recess was emotional. Elijah was supposed to report to the training quarters by the end of the day. After a scrumptious dinner, when it was getting close to the time Elijah needed to leave, Mrs. Roddick was still giving Elijah training pointers, as she had been doing all day. She continued reminding him that it was going to be tough, but that he shouldn’t get discouraged.

“Remember, you can always come here and ask questions,” she said. “Plus, then I can make you a nice home-cooked meal, or if you’d prefer, I can bring it to you at the barracks whenever you’re feeling lonely.”

“Miranda, he’s going to be fine,” said Roddick chuckling. “And you’re really not supposed to do that. Let him experience it for himself.”

Miranda shot Mr. Roddick a scowl and then resumed instruction. “You’re going to be behind, so remember to ask for help. Keep your emotions in check, but also use them to help you. Get lots of rest and drink lots of water, especially at first. Don’t forget to do the mind exercises they teach you. Oh,” she said suddenly. “For heavens sake, be careful. If something happened to you, I don’t know what I’d—”

“—Oh, Miranda for Pete’s sake,” Roddick interrupted. “You’re going to confuse him before he even gets there.”

“Oh all right, Glen,” said Miranda a little irritated at her husband. She stepped forward to hug Elijah goodbye. She leaned in and whispered into his ear. “We’ll just keep the homemade meal to ourselves then, huh?” Elijah smiled and hugged Mrs. Roddick back. He was going to miss her warmth and kindness. Before he knew it, the Roddick girls were hanging on his legs too.

“G’bye Elijah,” said Tirzah. “Come back soon.” Elijah bent down and gave them both a big hug. It was the most wonderful moment he had felt since before his own family was taken away from him.

Master Roddick left Elijah with Mr. Button at the training quarters just after sunset. It was a warmer night outside than earlier in the week, but the large fire in the middle of the oval room felt good. Mr. Button escorted Elijah up the large staircase to the second floor. They came to a room with chairs and couches overlooking a giant window. The room, which Mr. Button called the neutral area, divided two massive hallways each lined with rooms. They turned right and stopped halfway down the hall.

“This hall is for the boys,” Mr. Button said. “The other hall on the other side of the neutral area is for the girls. I shouldn’t have to tell you that you’re not allowed over there. I walk the halls many times during the day and night, so I’d better not catch you even thinking about going over there, eh?” Elijah nodded in understanding.

“Yes, sir.”

“Here is your room,” Mr. Button said as he opened up a wooden door on the left side. To Elijah’s delight, his room had a window. Mr. Button opened it, allowing fresh air into the room. Right under the window was a very large wooden chest with a big brass latch. The chest was almost as long as the wall. Elijah ran his hand over the dark maple wood.

“It’s for your belongings,” explained Mr. Button. “Here.” Mr. Button opened one half of the chest, and Elijah saw dozens of compartments for his belongings. After Saint Phillip’s Academy, this was quite a treasure. To his surprise, Elijah found that not all of the compartments were empty. He had apparently been supplied with clothes—lots of them! There were winter clothes, summer clothes, hats, gloves, shoes, boots, scarves, and a brown outfit that intrigued Elijah the most. He pulled it out and examined it.

“It’s for training,” said Mr. Button, referring to the outfit. All students in training wear brown.”

“What about the other colors?” Elijah asked, thinking about the cloaks he saw the Magi wear in town.

“The other colors represent our selected element,” said Mr. Button. Elijah squinted and furrowed his brow in confusion.

“Selected element?”

“Yes. Each of us has an element that we are more natural to? One that speaks to us louder. That’s the one we use,” Mr. Button said. Elijah remembered Roddick trying to explain this to him on their way to the city. Master Roddick used water, and he wore a blue cloak in town. He assumed this was what Mr. Button meant by an element ‘speaking louder’ to them.

“What do the colors stand for?” asked Elijah.

“Well, brown is for training. Blue is for water, green is for earth, white is for wind, and red is for fire.”

“When do I choose my element?” asked Elijah. Mr. Button’s eyes got real wide and he shook his head.

“Oooooh, I can’t tell you that,” he said slowly. “You’re gonna have to make that decision with your mentor, not me? But be patient, eh? You haven’t even been through preliminaries yet. You’ve got a ways to go,” said Mr. Button.

“Preliminaries?”

Mr. Button grinned. “You’ll find out tomorrow. I’d suggest lots of rest tonight. You ever swing an ax for six hours and then try to climb a tree?”

Elijah looked horrified and wondered what he had gotten himself into. “No.”

“Well,” Mr. Button said, “after tomorrow, you’ll only wish your body felt like that.” Mr. Button gave Elijah a key to his chest and walked toward the door. “Sweet dreams.” He left Elijah standing with his mouth hanging open.

Elijah walked over to the large wooden chest that lined the wall under the window. He used his new key to lock the chest and then to unlock it, just to make sure it worked. He opened both sides of the chest and began to survey the items inside. The compartments were more fascinating to him than the new clothes he had been given.

He pulled his pack off his shoulder and unloaded his belongings. Mrs. Roddick had packed Elijah a sack of non-perishable food and wrapped a loaf of sweet bread for him. Master Roddick gave him the boots he used to climb the mountain on his journey to Savenridge. He put them next to the boots already in the chest. As he did, he noticed a long, thick line of rope coiled up in the bottom of the chest. He thought it would have been helpful to have it on the journey to Savenridge, so he moved the boots next to the rope. Finally, and most carefully of all, Elijah selected a compartment to be the new home of his mother’s locket, Kyria’s diaries, and his father’s pocket watch. He closed the chest, but kept one of the diaries.

Elijah walked over to his bed and held Kyria’s locked diary on his lap. No one alive seemed to be able to answer the questions he had about his family, but maybe he could get the answers from someone who wasn’t alive. Kyria knew something he didn’t. He remembered reading that from her other diary. Maybe she knew the connection between the Magi and their family. The only problem standing in the way of reading her diary was a tiny golden lock.

At first, Elijah thought opening the lock would be simple. It didn’t look very big, so he tried to gently pull it open. No luck. He pulled harder. The golden lock remained. Before long, Elijah was violently banging the lock on the floor in frustration to get it open. He heard a metallic noise, and he thought it opened. Upon further inspection, however, he saw that it remained locked, but the continuous smashing caused a dent in the lock, which made Elijah upset at himself. He was dying to know what was inside, but he couldn’t bring himself to do any more damage to his sister’s memories.

Hearing a loud knock at his door, Elijah placed the diary in the chest and opened the door. In front of him stood a boy that looked to be about Elijah’s age. He was very good-looking with sad, brown eyes and smooth, dark skin. He reminded Elijah of a lost child.

“Hi,” Elijah said trying to be friendly. The boy held out his hand and Elijah shook it.

“Are you okay?” the boy asked timidly.

“Yeah. I’m sorry I was making so much noise,” Elijah said.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” The boy had a sincerity about him that Elijah liked. He looked Elijah directly in the eyes and never wavered.

“I’m sorry,” Elijah said. “I was trying to—fix something—and I must have made more noise than I thought. My name’s Elijah.”

“I’m Adam Flemming. I’m sorry to bother you.” He turned abruptly and walked away. Elijah watched Adam enter his room, which was four doors down on the other side of the hall. All around, he saw lots of boys meandering the halls, visiting with one another. Elijah felt a sudden pang of loneliness. Clearly, most of the boys knew each other and were getting reacquainted after the short recess. Elijah didn’t know anyone. He was about to walk back into his room and close the door when he saw a familiar face approaching.

“Samuel!” Elijah exclaimed. “You want to come in?”

“Sure,” said Samuel. Elijah flopped on the bed and Samuel grabbed the chair in front of Elijah’s desk.

“I haven’t seen you since I left the council. How did that go?” he asked.

“It was strange,” Samuel admitted. “They kept asking me all these questions about my background and what I believed. Lots more than they asked you.” Elijah remembered Master Roddick saying something about Samuel’s case being very different, but he didn’t say why.

“What do you mean?”

“I dunno. They just wanted to know what I thought about certain situations. Like they asked me what I would do if I saw someone bigger than me hurting someone else. Or, if I had lots of money what I would do with it. Things like that.”

“What did you say?”

“You try remembering every answer to about a thousand questions asked by different people! I’m sure after a while I didn’t even make sense. I’m not even sure I spoke the same language after all that,” Samuel said chuckling. Elijah laughed with Samuel. “But it’s over.”

“So who’s your family?” asked Elijah. “I mean the family you stay with.”

“Some old couple,” Samuel replied. “They’re real nice. They just don’t talk much and they go to bed real early. I was pretty bored most of the recess, but I got to come here a day early. I’ve been here since yesterday, and I’m real excited now. Can you believe what we’re going to learn to do?” Elijah wasn’t sure what Samuel was talking about. He surely couldn’t be talking about the training Mr. Button mentioned because Elijah was not excited about that at all.