Rimwick

Leatherbound

"I'm fine, Riley, thanks for asking."

"I'm fine too."

"You weren't ever hurt!"

"I got a rock stuck in my heel- here, look!"

"Anvil, get your nasty feet away from me before I-"

"Fal, Echo is morally wounded. Could you threaten Anvil somewhere else?"

"Morally?" I ask, bending over the cot Echo and Roman are sitting on."Do you mean mortally?"

Roman looks confused. "What's the difference?"

"A substantial one," I say dryly, taking a mug of tea from Anvil and handing it to Echo. She drains it and I hand it back to Anvil, who glares at me.

"What's your problem?" I ask.

"You shouldn't have done that, Riley."

"Done what?" I'm half surprised, half angry. I haven't done anything wrong!

"Just left like that! Okay, so the magic wasn't your fault. But Echo was unconscious-"

Roman kisses Echo's cheek.

"-and you went waltzing off to the town instead of staying and making sure she was alright, or calming everyone down, or, or something!"

"He's right," Fallon says. With a flick of her knife, she slices another strip of skin off of whatever small mammal she's holding.

"We went to Birchwood clan-" I start, trying to explain that I hadn't just abandoned them.

"So?" Anvil demands. "We're a clan too, Riley."

"I-" I start to protest, but Roman raises his eyebrows at me, and a piece of skin hits me in the back of the neck. I throw it back at Fallon, who kicks it into her pile of animal organs, and turn to Anvil.

"You're right. I shouldn't have left without making sure you were all okay first. I'm sorry."

"I accept your apology," Anvil says, somewhat stiffly, but then he meets my eyes and smiles.

"How was Birchwood?"

"Awesome." I feel my eyes glowing. Metaphorically. "They all sing!"

"Yeah, but our Echo is the best," Roman says.

"No one else makes images like she does," Fallon elaborates.

Echo shakes her head. "I'm okay, but not great. Did you meet Lyric?"

I shake my head. "I don't remember."

"Oh. Well, my cousin, Lyric, he's got this incredible range. Eight octaves."

"Eight what?" Anvil asks.

"Stir, please," Echo orders. "It means he can sing very high and very low. I'm a mezzo."

"A what?"

Echo sighs. "My voice is in the middle."

"The middle of what?"

"A scale."

"What's a-"

"Kid," Roman groans. "Don't you have a bedtime, or something? Dawn was two hours ago."

I yawn. "We should all have a bedtime."

"Where's Felix?" Fallon asks.

My insides go a little hot and giggly at the mention of the name. "He's talking with Master Atlas."

"Dawn, but you'd think those two were part of a secret cult, way they carry on," Roman says.

I frown. Do the others not know about The Patrol? I've never heard them talk about it before. Maybe they actually don't. But why not?

I yawn again. "I'm going to bed. Later, everyone."

"Later, Riley."

Inside the wood sanctuary, the lanterns cast their usual orange shadows. I check to makes sure no one is here- Brooke, for instance, lurking in some dark corner- and then I pull the journal out from beneath my pallet.

The next name is Adrian Lapsle.

"You know I'm right, Adrian. If you and Lapis combine your gifts-"

"No." I go over to the door of the hut and look out. It's raining, a bleak sheet of clouds obscuring the sky. Droplets fall onto the trees and roll off their leaves, only to splash firmly against the forest's undergrowth.

"Adrian. Listen to me. The use of magic is getting out of control. If the people can be safe, at least during the day when they have to work... it will be much better."

"No, Maida. It's too dangerous. And I will not reduce the magic users in such a blatant manner-"

"At night! Restricting magic to use only after dark will not degrade anyone! It will make Wickrem more just!"

When I do not answer, Maida drums her fingers on the table. Her long yellow curls are pinned up tonight, her books stacked on the table and floor. They cluster around her flowing brown skirt like a horde of clinging cats.

"There are two main dangers facing us, correct?" Maida asks. She has her philosophical voice on. "One is the desert, and we can't do anything about that. But the other is strife from within. Limit the magic, and in return, inflict higher punishments for non-magical harassment. Both sides will see the wisdom in such a compromise."

Rationality drips from every syllable, the pearl-like strands of her words shaping into a logical attack. When Lapis made me her apprentice, she took Maida in too, and taught her the magic of argument.

It is times like this when I wish she hadn't.

"What could we do, Mai? Even if I were considering this- which I am not- how would Lapis and I manage such a thing?"

"She'll amplify your power to manipulate the magic of others. It may take some time, but we can figure it out."

"I miss the days when you called me Rim-boy," I mutter. "That was a much better way of resolving debates."

"Adrian. Will you do it?"

I look at her. "Will I decrease the power of every magic user in Wickrem, thereby creating an eternal chasm between those with power and those without, possibly killing myself and my mentor in the process?"

Maida waits patiently.

I sigh and lean against the table. "For dawn and dusk, Mai. I suppose I have to."

The transitions out of living memory are getting easier. The rain soaked colors of the woods are replaced by the warm brown tones that cloak the bedroom beneath the hill, leaving only a mild headache. The feeling I am left with is not pain or shock like it's been before; it isn't surprising, somehow, that one of the Keepers manipulated those with power and turned them into things that are only feared at night.

If I weren't so tired, I might be angry that the magic users were limited by someone who was supposed to take care of everybody. But at the same time, I get it. I grew up in Rimwick, and before I found my power, I was scared of the things that go bump in the dark. I don't know if Adrian Lapsle did the right thing as Keeper, but maybe he made the best decision at the time.

And now it's my job to make similar decisions, right and wrong at the same time. To preserve the fragile peace of Rimwick and its border. My turn, to be Keeper.