17. The Nameless Martyr
2078 Words
17
The Nameless Martyr
Emilia tried to think as she moved up the aisle. Iz never took medication. She had lied to give Emilia a chance to save the plane. But how could she find a magic user without doing a location spell people would notice?
She stopped in the aisle next to a man who barked, “The fasten seatbelts light is on for a reason, girlie!” when she bumped into him. But Emilia ignored him and closed her eyes.
She took a breath, willing herself to focus on the flow of energy around her. The engine pulsed electricity into the plane, which shook violently. There was magic in the air, but it was too scattered to follow.
The people she passed tried to calm one another in panicked voices. The plane bounced so badly now no one noticed her grabbing roughly onto their seats as she made her way up the aisle. She kept moving, scanning every face she passed, looking for signs of a spell.
She had almost reached the back of the plane when she felt a burst of energy. Her eyes darted between the passengers surrounding her. It had to be one of them.
On one side, an elderly man grumbled at his pale and wrinkled wife, who looked as though she might be ill. Behind them, a young couple were entwined, kissing one another. None of them could be performing the spell. None of them were concentrating on the plane.
All the other passengers near her were glancing around nervously, talking to their companions, and tightening their seatbelts.
The plane lurched harder than ever, throwing Emilia headfirst into an armrest. Something hot trickled down her nose. Emilia pushed herself up, struggling back to her feet as she wiped blood away from her eyes. The armrest she had hit her head on was slicked with red. The plane shook again. She stumbled and grabbed the shoulder of the armrest’s owner, coating him in her blood.
“I’m so sorry,” Emilia said.
The man hadn’t seemed to notice the blood she’d smeared on his bare arm. He smiled as he listened to music through his headphones, swaying to a rhythm only he could hear. A dragon tattoo wrapped down the man’s neck from his cheek to his chest. Emilia stumbled backward, fighting the urge to run away.
“I love you, baby. From now till the end of forever, I’ll love you.” The couple behind the man professed their undying love for each other, but Emilia concentrated on the man’s voice.
“Navista obitum. Rexhibeo omnis grexa.”
He was chanting a spell. Speaking calmly, with a smile on his face.
The plane shook violently, sending luggage tumbling into the aisle and oxygen masks falling from the ceiling. Lights flickered overhead. In the front of the plane, someone started to shout the Lord’s Prayer.
“Fulguratus!” Emilia shouted, no longer caring if anyone noticed her magic. She threw the lightning shard into the phone in his hands, then watched as the energy from her strike streaked up the wires, through the headphones, and into the man’s ears.
He screamed and scraped at his ears, but his headphones were melting down his face like lava, burning a path through the dragon tattoo.
“Oh God!” someone shouted from behind her. People had turned to stare at her and the man. The smell of burning flesh and plastic mixed with the scent of Emilia’s blood. The elderly man’s wife vomited onto his lap.
“I think lightning struck the plane,” Emilia said, trying to avoid the eyes of everyone around her. “He needs help.”
Emilia ran back up the aisle, leaving the man screaming in agony behind her. Her legs shook so badly she didn’t notice the plane was flying normally again. As she slid into her seat, one of the passengers in the back of the plane called for someone to help the man with the dragon tattoo, screaming about lightning striking the plane, but no one shouted to bring back the girl who had hurt him. No one understood what they had seen. Emilia turned her face to Jacob, trying to hide the gash on her head from her fellow passengers without leaving blood on Jacob’s chest.
“Emi.” Jacob tilted her chin up so he could see where she had been hurt.
“I’m fine.” She put her head back down just in time as the flight attendant helped Iz back into her seat.
The pilot came over the loud speaker as Iz fastened her seatbelt. “Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the unexpected turbulence, but we seem to be all right now. You may remove your masks. We have requested to be moved up in the landing order and should be setting down in New York in just a few minutes.”
Emilia tried to staunch the bleeding, hoping it looked like she was covering her face to cry. But as Iz thanked the flight attendant for her help, a drop of blood fell from Emilia’s hands onto her unfortunately pale pink shirt.
The flight attendant reached for Emilia and tugged at her hand. “Miss, are you injured?”
Emilia kept her face turned away, but her palm was slicked with blood.
“Miss, you require first ai―” The flight attendant stopped as Iz gently touched her wrist.
“Immemoris,” murmured Aunt Iz.
The flight attendant relaxed, and her eyes glazed over.
“Nonsense.” Iz patted the flight attendant’s hand. “This girl is perfectly fine. She just spilled her drink. However, I would appreciate your giving us several moist towelettes.”
The flight attendant turned slowly and walked away.
“Let me see, Emilia,” Iz said.
Emilia turned, still trying to keep her face out of view of the other passengers.
“Pelluere,” Iz whispered.
Emilia gasped through her teeth as the spell took effect.
She turned back to Jacob when the attendant returned with the moist towelettes.
“Here you go, and don’t forget to keep your seatbelt fastened. We’re gonna be landing soon,” the woman said with a huge smile.
“Is she okay?” Jacob asked.
“She’ll be fine.” Iz unwrapped a towelette for Emilia.
Emilia took the sweet smelling cloth, trying to clean her hands. “Memory spells can have a few undesirable, temporary side effects.”
Iz reached into her purse and pulled out a small, silver-backed mirror. “All this excitement. I think I need to powder my nose.”
“Skry,” Emilia murmured as Jacob stared after Aunt Iz. “MAGI would be my guess.”
No one stopped Iz when she left for the toilet. The flight attendants were too busy looking after the man with the dragon tattoo, except for the one Iz had used a spell on. She was sound asleep in her seat at the front of the plane.
“Here.” Jacob opened a packet and began to clean Emilia’s face.
She touched the place where the cut had been. The skin on her forehead had knit perfectly back together. The problem was her shirt. More blood had trickled onto it, leaving stains too big to hide.
Jacob took all of the b****y wipes and put them in his waxy paper airsick bag before struggling out of his sweater. “Cover the blood.”
“Thanks.” Emilia slid into the sweater. It felt warm and cozy, two things that didn’t mesh with the last few minutes of her life.
“Thanks for keeping us alive.” Jacob squeezed her hand.
Fire trucks and ambulances surrounded the runway where the airplane landed. The first passenger off the plane was the man with the dragon tattoo. He was moaning, barely conscious as the paramedics wheeled him down the aisle.
“I don’t feel guilty,” Emilia said, hanging on to Jacob’s hand, fighting the fear that someone would try to tear her away. “Is that bad? I just destroyed a man’s ears. There’s only so much magic can heal. Spell damage like that, I don’t think he’ll ever be able to hear again. And I don’t regret it.”
“You saved us, Emi. You shouldn’t feel guilty for doing what you had to.”
Emilia held her breath and tried not to be sick at the sight of the plastic still melted to the man’s neck.
“The real pity,” Iz said, “is that the police will never arrest him. Even if they knew he was responsible, they could never prove it. MAGI is sending representatives over to the hospital. We can only hope they get there before the Dragons try to rescue their comrade. Although I’m not sure it should really be called a rescue. Going back to a group like that after a failed mission must be very unpleasant.”
As they made their way through the crowds to baggage claim, Emilia couldn’t help scanning the faces of everyone passing by. Would the Dragons send someone else after them? Jacob’s arm brushed Emilia’s as they walked, and somehow feeling him next to her eased her panic.
“But if he had taken down the plane, wouldn’t he have died, too?” Jacob whispered while they waited for their bags. “Could a spell save you from that?”
“No,” Iz said. “The leader of the Dragons must be a very persuasive person to convince him he should be a martyr and not even be allowed the credit.”
“Huh?” Jacob asked.
Iz’s phone buzzed. “Ah, Samuel is here. We can finish our conversation in private.” She led them out the doors to where Samuel waited with the black BMW.
“Nice to see you all,” he said, and though he seemed at ease, Emilia followed his gaze as it roamed over each of them in turn, searching them for signs of damage.
Once they had all climbed into the car and Samuel had pulled out into traffic, Iz resumed her explanation. “You see, Jacob, it is too much of a coincidence that a Dragon tried to crash the plane we, or much more importantly you, were on. If that man had been successful, the Council of Elders and MAGI would have blamed you. They would have had no way of knowing there were, in fact, four wizards on the plane. You would have been branded a killer and made an honored martyr for the Dragons, which means the man who actually destroyed the plane would never have been discovered by MAGI or celebrated by the Dragons.”
“But how did they know which plane we were on?” Emilia asked. “You only booked the tickets a few hours ago.”
“Someone told them,” Samuel said from the front seat. “Someone with access to that sort of information. It could be a Council member, or a MAGI agent, or a friend someone in the family spoke to.”
“So really all we know is that we can’t trust anyone. Great.” Emilia pulled off Jacob’s sweater. She started a cleaning spell, removing the blood from her shirt.
“There are people we can and must trust,” Iz said. “If we stop communicating with our allies, we will be alone and more vulnerable than we have ever been before. We simply need to be much more selective. The most important thing is to get Jacob through his trial tomorrow. After that, we will turn our attention to these terrorists.”
Terrorists. That sounded right.
“For now, Samuel and I will leave you two to enjoy yourselves for the rest of the day. Please be home by ten o'clock. Jacob has a very long day tomorrow.”
“What? Is that safe?” Emilia asked. “If there are people trying to get Jacob, they need to do it before tomorrow. Shouldn’t we stay with you?”
“No. Samuel and I are going to the house to redo all the safety enchantments and make sure no one has been there who should not have been. Then I will meet with some friends from MAGI. I have also instructed the professor to bring the rest of the household here. It would be best if we were all together.”
Emilia started to protest again.
“But not,” Iz interrupted, “until the house is secure. I don’t want either of you there until everything is ready, and since we don’t know who else to trust, there is no other safe house for you to go to. The safest thing for you to do is disappear into the crowds of the city. Do not use any magic, and no one will be able to find you. No one knows you are going to be roaming the city except Samuel and me.”
Emilia nodded. “What about you?”
“Samuel and I will take care of each other,” Iz said as Samuel pulled over on 5th Avenue in front of a large department store. “Stay together, and try to enjoy the day. In times as uncertain as these, we must find joy and freedom whenever we can.”
Emilia pulled Jacob out of the car.
Iz pressed a clip of bills into Emilia’s hand.
“Thanks, Aunt Iz,” Emilia said.
“Call if you need me,” Samuel said.
And with that, Jacob and Emilia were alone in the Big Apple.
- Writer
