Claire bent down and kissed her father on the top of the head. “Octavia’s working on Florence’s legs. She ought to have them solidly reattached by the end of the day, walking around good as new.”
“How’s Octavia’s stump?”
“Oh, it’s good. She’s perfectly fine. Though a tad annoyed, since it was her eraser appendage. She’ll have to adjust a bit until the new one grows in.”
“And the twin, Aaron?”
“In custody for now. Beside himself over Justine’s death but trying hard not to show it.”
“How did Samheed know he wasn’t Alex?”
“Alex is left-handed. Aaron was ready to throw a scatterclip, probably aiming at you, Father. He held it in his right hand.”
Mr. Today pulled on his hair. “Of course,” he murmured. “Identical twins—sometimes a righty and a lefty. I had forgotten that. He’s brilliant to have noticed.”
“Samheed knows Alex well. Perhaps now he will try to be a bit more like him.”
Meghan stirred and opened her eyes. When she saw Gunnar Haluki pacing the floor, she sat up, alarmed. “What is he doing here!” she cried out, waking Lani in the process.
“It’s okay, Meghan. Gunnar is on our side, and always has been,” Claire told her. “We kept it a secret to protect him.”
Lani sat up and looked around. Gunnar Haluki stopped in his tracks.
“Hey, you,” Lani said, a sleepy smile spreading across her face. “You’re pretty sneaky. I couldn’t find you last night. Sorry about your shoulder.”
Gunnar pressed his lips together, perhaps to stop them from quivering, and reached out his good arm to her. Lani stumbled over to him and buried her face in his shoulder.
Samheed awoke, his face throbbing, his voice hoarse. “What’s going on? Good grief, what happened to Alex?” He blinked his good eye in surprise when he saw Lani embracing her father, and then glanced at his beside table, where Mr. Appleblossom’s small, icelike sword gleamed in the morning light. He bit his lip, wincing at the pain but smiling inwardly as he remembered the words from his mentor, and his own ultimate save in recognizing Aaron. Perhaps it had been enough. Gingerly he rolled onto his side to watch and listen.
Mr. Today gazed over the small group with a tired half smile. All in good time, he thought. He rested his eyes on Alex, whose pale face set the mood for days to come. But deep down Mr. Today knew that Alex would mend and that the boy would rise up, stronger and wiser than before, preparing to take on a new role from an ailing mage. It had to happen this way, Marcus thought. For him. For Artimé.
Alex stirred and opened an eye. When he caught sight of Mr. Today, he whispered, “Don’t forget … to go back … and feed the guards.”
Mr. Today, overcome, nodded his assurances.
“And … Aaron?”
Mr. Today hesitated. “We’ll take care of him, too.”
Alex closed his eyes again and slept.
Over the next days the mess of broken-down vehicles was cleared from Artimé. The remaining Quillitary, none the worse off for the dip in the ice, had been immediately freed from the sea, and those who had been attacked with permanent spells had been disarmed and released one by one, with the understanding that everything had changed, Quill had been defeated, and the war was over.
Samheed was up and around after a day or so, and he joined Lani and Meghan at Alex’s side whenever the protectors would allow them to visit. “I heard what you did,” Alex told Samheed. “Thank you.”
Samheed smiled grimly. “I’m sorry … about everything,” he said.
Alex smiled and held out a weak hand. “I still get to punch you, right?”
Samheed laughed and shook it. “And I still don’t guarantee what will happen if you do.”
Although Alex didn’t know it, Mr. Today spent his nights watching over the boy until he fell into an exhausted sleep, at which time Simber took over, both of them keeping their worries to themselves. And when Alex finally came around for good, even the enormous stone beast shed a private tear, or perhaps even two.
Every day Mr. Today, Gunnar Haluki, and Simber took a trip to the palace to check on the guards. And finally, one day, seeing no reason to keep them entombed in the palace, Mr. Today removed the spell from the palace entrance and set them free. Gunnar Haluki was grateful. So were the guards. Simber … well, not so much.
And as it happened, no one but Lani knew for sure who had uttered the curse that had eliminated the High Priest Justine. At least, that’s what Lani thought. Though she wondered deep down if her father knew it had been she. They never spoke of it.
“So, Senior Governor Haluki was the friend you mentioned to me in the boat?” Alex asked as he slurped soup, feeling decidedly better, though still keeping to his bed for the most part.
Mr. Today smiled. “Gunnar Haluki and I were fast friends back when Justine took that turn for the worse. Gunnar, a young governor, also bought into Justine’s plan at first. We desperately wanted her to be right, just as you did with Aaron,” Mr. Today said.
“And though Gunnar and I kept our relationship a secret from everyone else once I moved to the Death Farm, I kept no secrets from my friend. We shared our changing thoughts whenever we met together in the wee hours of the night in my office. And that is how we formed a plan together. Gunnar worked his way up the seniority ladder until he was next in line to the high priest, putting himself into the best position to stop the madness.”