Sean Cullen - The Prince of Neither Here Nor There

“Hey!” Brendan had suddenly found his tongue. “You tossed the vice-principal onto the roof!”

“Yes, I did.” Orcadia smiled. “Wasn’t it hilarious?”

“Hilarious?” Brendan was incredulous. “She might be dead!”

“Why should I care? Humans are like cockroaches, Breandan, they breed and breed. When you step on one, a hundred spring up to take its place,” Orcadia said. “Now, come with me. You needn’t live in this filthy world of Humans any more. There is a whole new world for you to explore.” She smiled again and held out an elegant hand to him.

In spite of his horror, Brendan found himself compelled to take that hand. There was something mesmerizing about her voice, something intoxicating about her beauty.

Still, something in his mind was repulsed by her.

“Cockroaches?” he said. “We aren’t cockroaches. Who do you think you are?” he managed to croak. “I don’t want to come with you. Why don’t you leave us alone?” He stepped away from her, taking his place beside Kim.

The woman laughed, a sound like the peal of bells in a dark cathedral. The sound pounded against Brendan’s skull, threatening to upset his precarious balance. He steeled himself not to act on the urge to fall to his knees. “It’s not polite to laugh at people,” he said, annoyed.

“Oh my.” The woman grinned, a fierce expression that held no mirth. Her teeth were a deep, startling blue. “That is so sweet! He thinks he has the right to comment on my manners. I, who was old with power at the quickening of the world, who was old when the People of Metal first cringed in their caves at the sound of the thunder. How dare you question my manners, whelp?” 48

“Whelp?” Brendan said angrily. “I don’t even know what a whelp is but it doesn’t sound good to me. If you’re going to insult me, use words I can understand.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Ignorant little child! You dare to question me?” she thundered. She gnashed her teeth and bright blue sparks flared between them. She seemed to expand, to tower above Brendan. Her pale face twisted with rage. Even as his heart shrivelled in fear, Brendan felt a yearning. She was cold and beautiful like the glaciers he’d seen in Alaska on a cruise with his parents. She was poised above him, ready to crush him, grind him underfoot. He raised his eyes to the chips of flaring ice that were hers and waited to be destroyed.

“Enough, Orcadia.” Kim’s voice shattered the moment. “He doesn’t want to join you.”

The woman’s head snapped up, releasing Brendan from the spell of surrender. He shivered and stepped back, tripping on the bottom step and falling hard on his bum.

Kim stepped out in front of Brendan and faced the woman. “Orcadia, the truce stands. He is not for you to take or destroy.”

“Fool,” Orcadia spat. “Step aside or perish.”

Kim looked so small in the face of the dark woman’s fury. In her RDA school uniform, short school kilt, grey cardigan, and knee socks, she was hardly a match for the force of nature seething on the pavement of the parking lot. On her back, Kim carried her green nylon knapsack with her trusty field hockey stick poking out of the top.

“You know the Law,” Kim said in a chiding tone as if Orcadia were an unruly child. “He cannot be touched.”

“Indeed, I know the Law. I don’t respect the Law but I know it: he may not be interfered with so long as he bears the Ward. The Ward is gone.”

Kim stiffened. “What?”

“It is gone. Removed by a Weaver. 49 See for yourself.”

Kim whirled and stared at Brendan. “Is it true?”

Brendan gaped. “Is what true? I don’t know what anybody’s talking about!”

Kim’s hand lashed out and tore open the front of Brendan’s school shirt. Buttons flew everywhere. She was impossibly strong for such a slender girl.

“Hey,” Brendan protested. “That was a new shirt!”

“Shut up, idiot!” Kim snapped.

“Don’t you call me an idiot! Idiot! Whelp! What’s with you people?” Brendan began but he stopped when he saw the stricken expression on Kim’s face. She stared at the spot where Brendan’s scar had been until just the night before. Now there was only a reddened patch of skin. The irritation was already fading.

“Where’s the Mark?” Kim demanded.

“I had a dream last night,” Brendan explained. “Deirdre D’Anaan came and her little… flying thingy ripped my scar away!”

“That interfering…”

Orcadia laughed. “He is ready to be initiated. I will do the honours.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, nutcase!” Brendan shouted.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kim snarled at Brendan.

“Tell you what?” Brendan snapped back. “That my scar’s gone? Why would I tell you about it? I have athlete’s foot! Should I alert the media?”

Kim rolled her eyes in disgust and whipped around to face Orcadia, taking a defensive stance. Brendan couldn’t believe it. She was actually going to fight this woman? “Are you nuts? Let’s run!”

“I am your protector. Get behind me,” Kim said, shoving him back.

“Protector? You can’t take on that woman!” Brendan couldn’t believe what he was seeing. This kind of stuff happened in the movies or in comic books. Orcadia looked like a total badass and Kim, grade nine student at Robertson Davies Academy, was acting like she was going to throw down with this total nightmare. “I’ll say it again. Let’s run!”

“His instincts are good, Ki-Mata,” Orcadia sneered. “You can’t hope to resist me.”

“Ki-Mata? Kim, what is she talking about?”

“Zip it, Brendan,” Kim snapped impatiently at him. Then she snarled at the smirking stranger. “You will not take him. He is under my protection. And we are in the open, where the People of Metal will see.”

The cold laughter froze the air again. “What care I for the Humans? Vermin! The bird doesn’t ask the worm’s permission before devouring it! When we take back the world, they will know of us soon enough. They will have no choice! Ki-Mata? You honestly think you can stop me from taking him? Oh, that is rich.” Orcadia raised her arms slowly from her sides until they were spread like wings. As she did so, her body levitated off the pavement until she hovered a metre off the ground on a cloud of crackling energy. “Your house will keen 50 for you, Ki-Mata Na Graal. Alas, they will have no body over which to perform the rites.” Lightning crackled in icy blue filaments surrounding Orcadia’s form, outlining her in a nimbus of shuddering violet. She looked like a crane, 51 black as midnight, ready to spear a fish with its sharp beak.

“Don’t, Orcadia,” Kim demanded. “Not here. The Law forbids it.” As she spoke, Kim reached over her shoulder and pulled her field hockey stick out of her pack. It was nicked and scratched, the tape fraying on the handle, and Brendan doubted it would be very effective against the woman levitating in front of them.

“A field hockey stick? Are you kidding?” Brendan cried. “Do you have something a little nastier in there? I’m thinking a machine gun

…” He stole another look at Orcadia. “Or maybe a rocket launcher?”

Kim sneered at him, “Just stay out of my way!” She pushed him behind her.

This isn’t happening! It can’t be! I’m gonna wake up and realize all of this was a dream. Any time now! Like right now! Or maybe now?

“Laws are made for weaklings,” Orcadia hissed. “I am my own Law!”

“No,” Kim said, flexing her shoulders. “The Laws are there for our protection as well as the Humans’. We can’t survive without them.”

“Laws were made to be broken, so…” Orcadia shrugged. With a final peal of exultant laughter from her, the air itself ignited.