The Curse of Arkady Read Free Page A

now?” Trent shot him a look. “You think they couldn’t?”
    â€œI think,” Rich said, tilting his head in Trent’s direction, “that we’re small fish to them.”
    â€œNot so small,” Bailey muttered. “Remember what Jon did to Henry Squibb!”
    They all sat in silence for a moment thinking of round-faced, funny, and smart Henry who’d had his newly found Magicker powers destroyed by the traitor Jonnard. The discovery that Jon had been a thief, traitor, and destroyer had shocked them all. Ting let out a little sigh. “I see Henry sometimes,” she said. “At our dentist. I can’t tell if he remembers me or not.”
    The Magickers had ways of protecting their existence, and one of them had been used on Henry after the disastrous theft of his fledgling powers. It had sent him home in a baffled, cheerful, totally clueless state. Not that Henry had been all that different, but . . . well, he had been magickal. “You don’t think he does?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
    Trent said quietly, “I miss Henry.”
    â€œMe, too.” Danno scratched his hand through thick, dark hair. “Think we’d get in trouble with . . . them . . . if we said hi or something?”
    â€œI don’t think we’d get in trouble, but would it be fair to Henry? Seems to me, he’s better off not knowing what he lost. Ignorance is bliss and all that.”
    Bailey glanced at Trent. “I thought it was ‘Ignorance is best,’ ” she said. Trent nudged her. “You would!” acknowledging that Bailey seemed to have a bottomless source for her slightly twisted sayings.
    â€œI think,” Jason said slowly, “that being a Magicker—past, present, or future—is too important to forget. I won’t forget Henry, and I hope someday he’ll have a chance to remember just who all of us are. Ting, if you do see him, tell him I’d like to talk to him sometime. Maybe over the computer, he’d like that.” Jason rolled his paper into a scroll and popped it back into a vest pocket. “We’re the only ones left from camp with crystals and our full memories of what happened.” Silence fell over all of them as they remembered the dreadful storm of power called mana that brought wild Magick as well as torrential rain and thunder and lightning, nearly destroying Ravenwyng. Their summer of learning the mysteries of Magick had come to a sudden ending, but Ravenwyng had survived, with their help. Jason took a deep breath. “I called us all together to . . . well, to make sure everyone was all right, and to see if we could set up a ring, to keep tabs on each other, to help out.”
    â€œWe’ve got the alarm beacons if something goes wrong,” Danno said. He watched Jason’s face. “The last thing they taught us.”
    â€œWhat if it’s not enough?” Jason looked around at all of them sprawled on Trent’s back lawn. He did not want to discuss his dreams and what Gavan had said, but the foreboding it had left him with was like a bad taste in his mouth that wouldn’t go away.
    â€œWhat did you have in mind? We can’t meet like this all the time.” Trent studied the crystal in his hand, saying nothing else, but Jason knew his inner thoughts. They’d used their crystals to step through, but that ability was new and rather untried with them, not to be misused or used often. They all needed far more training. Destinations could be rocky, even dangerous without it. The elder Magickers were busy trying to ready a training program that would make up the gaps, but until then, they had to be very careful what they did.
    Trent, of all of them, was in the most jeopardy. Only Jason knew his secret. Trent had no power. Not even the elder Magickers had seen through the powerful screen of wit and knowledge he’d thrown about himself. His quick