Of Feathers and Thorns

by Kit Vincent

“They’ve killed magicians; they’ve opened holes in thin air and let sludge out; they’ve made giant airships fly and trapped magicians inside their wells.

But for some inexplicable reason, my arm didn’t hurt—it didn’t feel like anything. Maybe that was normal when thorned magic ate your limbs. I had no idea.

Hanska gone, yes. Oi knew, Oi replied simply. But my deal not with Hanska. Now with Kieren. It was?

Kieren, magic see magic, he said, gazing at me intently. Magic know magic.

Travel magic, Oi answered. Meet on other side? And then there was a quiet swoosh, and the wooden doll that used to be Oi fell on the ground as though empty.

His deep concern momentarily caught me off guard.

Yes, Oi finally responded, his voice clearer than I had ever heard it. It me. Welcome to my home.

Other world. Oi live here—Oi friends live here, Oi said.

“Are you saying people emptied their wells into this world using the rifts?”

Calamity. Ruination, he murmured. People here not know magic. Only Oi people do. But Oi people cannot stop what not belong here. We can eat magic, so we tried. But wells—too much, no good. Poison.

“Am I right, Oi? Your people turned into the sludge after eating thorned wells.”

It was you who swallowed my rebound when I raised the tornado in the house, didn’t you? That’s why you had indigestion?”

Instead of the usual report to Probos, Esten sent him a letter containing only one question: What is the iron word?

He was not surprised by what Probos had said, and he certainly did not find it funny. I felt ill.

“You knew Master was dead already, didn’t you? And still you chose to send Kieren here!”

astounded. He was worried about me. He felt responsible for my magic mishaps even though they weren’t his fault.

Humans there routinely massacre entire groups of people based on the color of their skin, the languages they speak, or who they fall in love with.

The knowledge that in the original world our families would’ve burned us alive simply for existing was difficult to swallow. How could people live like that?

Oi was living proof that magic wasn’t a thing that could be limited, a commodity to be claimed.

He does not yet know the true nature of our world, and the two of you will have to explain it to him when he joins you.

I found myself smiling at Esten’s half-hearted complaint. I honestly loved the feeling of his magic around me.

Did Esten still want to kiss me now that we were both sober? I got my answer when Esten maneuvered his empty plate out of the way, then slowly, without taking his eyes off my mouth, leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.

“Kellar’s paradox? You mean the magician who tried to master time travel?”

I had this weird feeling that if I got distracted and lost sight of Roy for a moment, I’d become completely lost in the maze of hallways

Ellis’s magic was the most intense I had ever felt. It warped the space around her like a magnet, beautiful and terrifying at once.

“But I must have been too late, because it . . . ate my hand? I’m not sure, to be honest. It all happened so quickly.”

Esten’s face paled. “Who?” he asked, his voice taking on an icy edge.

Oh, heavens—just like Esten, they probably couldn’t hear Oi and had no clue what Ellis meant. To them it must have looked like she’d been having a very animated conversation with a wooden doll. I stifled a smile.

Before I stepped into the stream, I searched for Oi to say one last silent goodbye, but he was no longer there.

insides. I frowned. The ship was full of magic—strong magic in different colors.

but her getting lost sounded extremely unlikely. Cynn was too experienced a magician.

Not to mention how well-timed those explosions had been and how much those cylinders reminded me of the one we’d seen in Spiht’s possession . . .

What was Cynn doing there with Kavender? With Nogg, the murderer? She was supposed to have been helping us!

I can’t go alone against two magicians . . .” Wyckett looked down, his shoulders suddenly heavy.

suspicious

I had no doubt she could’ve easily transported us away after Wyckett’s warning, but she’d chosen not to so she could study what was happening from the inside.

Ellis observed the debris flying around us with narrowed eyes, and by the look on her face, she did not like what she saw.

“Also, if you step away and I let go of your shoulder, you will plummet and probably break your spine.”

bolt of blue lightning ripped out of the sky and struck him where he stood.

“Go after him,” Wyckett urged. “I’ll handle Cynn.”

had to make a shield out of nothingness.

Or did you think that being chosen was without consequence? Life doesn’t work like that. You don’t get to run around doing selfish and horrible things, even killing people, because you don’t like feeling obligated. Grow up, Cynn!”

“I don’t really hate your singing,” she confessed, her voice barely audible. “Just . . . it reminds me of the things we can’t have . . . I loved you, and I hated that.” Cynn’s chest shook one more time, and she gasped for air. “I know, Cinnamon,” Wyckett whispered back, holding her head gently. “I know.” But Cynn could no longer hear him.

They just failed to realize that we were the gods they’d been waiting for.”

“Considering the consequences of emptying wells into an unsuspecting world, I’m rather inclined to call it a magically wasteful instrument of murder.”

Ellis sighed, side-eyeing the scythe scornfully. “Are you still on about your holy aspirations? Do you fancy yourself an ancient god of war? Is that why you’re trying to start one with those nasty cylinders?”

But in the end, those humans can’t help but try to slaughter one another. That’s what they do, and who are we to change the nature of an entire species?”

Despite the heat that still hung in the air, a chill ran over my skin as I listened to Kavender callously philosophize about the deaths of millions of people as though it were merely an opportunity too good to miss.

“Are you implying,” Ellis asked, the crease between her perfectly arched eyebrows deepening with every word, “that you created this ship and these weapons for your own use?”

“You seem to assume that magicians and non-magicians belong to separate species.

“This is what we’re meant to be—letting our magic be free with no restrictions. This is our nature! Why deny it?”