The Warlock's Gambit Read Free Page B

exasperation. “And why?”
    “I’m trying to find my mother’s gear … to see if the dream I had was something that actually happened.”
    “It was most likely just a dream, darling,” Lexi said, “a dream that recalled some random things from your past.”
    Light poured out of the locker for Companion #2, and Arms, who was now standing in front of it, gestured toward it. Arthur hurried over. He touched the glass door, but it didn’t open. That didn’t matter, though. Inside sparkled the silver cloak his mother had worn, hanging alongside the circlet with the ruby and her special gloves. All the normal companion gear and armor was there as well.
    “It was real,” he muttered. “Morgan, I saw my mother in the dream, and this was what she was wearing.”
    She stepped up and whistled. “Wow, that cloak is amazing.”
    “It lets you turn invisible if you put the hood up. I think you have to keep still too, though.” Arms gave him a thumbs-up, which was always his way of saying yes. “Each glove can project an energy knife, while the circlet makes these rays that can mesmerize your enemies.”
    Morgan raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t remember any of this until the dream?”
    He shook his head. “It wasn't just a dream. It was a specific memory of … well, I think it was the last time I saw her. I was really young, and she, my mother, hit me with the rays from her circlet. She told me if nothing else, I would one day remember that afternoon and her telling me that she loved me. I didn't remembered any of it until today.
    “My mother was going off on a mission, deep undercover. She was afraid she wouldn’t make it back. My father was there, too, and he had his sword, Bright-Cage. I saw him use it — he was amazing. I’m nowhere near as powerful as I should be. I can’t even do a fraction of what he could. He fought the takaturio like we did plus five other monsters in the Training Room. And he toyed with them; they were nothing to him. When he had to quit fighting suddenly, he summoned this giant, glowing triskelion in front of him. It flashed once, and the creatures were turned back into smoke instantly.”
    Morgan turned to Arms. “Is that possible?”
    Arms gave a thumbs-up, and Valet nodded.
    “Wowza,” Morgan muttered.
    Arthur put his hands on the case and peered inside. This was the closest he had felt to his mother in a long, long time. He had always thought about his dad more, just because for so long he had thought his dad might come back for him while his mother couldn’t. Everyone had told him she had died.
    “You know what’s weird,” he said, furrowing his brow, “I don’t remember my mother’s funeral.”
    “Well, you were really little, right?” Morgan said.
    “I was three, maybe almost four, so you’d think I’d remember at least a little something about it. I’ve never been to the cemetery, and Grandma has never mentioned it.”
    “Well, if your mother was killed on another planet while undercover,” Vassalus said, “then your family might not have a body to bury.”
    “But how would they know she was dead?” Arthur asked. “They didn’t know anything about the Manse. Grandpa Nelson might’ve. Mother said he knew a little bit about what was going on, and he seemed to know something about the device over my heart. But the others didn’t know anything. What could my father tell them to convince them my mother was dead but that there was no body to bury?”
    “What did they tell you she died from?” Morgan asked quietly.
    “Rock-climbing accident.”
    “Huh,” she replied. “That really doesn’t make a lot of sense. But maybe you just don’t remember the funeral, and your grandparents couldn’t bear to talk about it.”
    “Maybe … Arms, Valet, do you guys know anything about this?”
    Both shook their heads. Of course, they didn’t. The Manse’s memory had been wiped clean after Arthur’s father had died, and the Aetherian who powered the Manse had died