What if, what if, what if? It occurred to John as he watched Mizar packing the carriage with bundles of food, a few weapons—gifts from the carnival men—that he was finished with horoscopes. But as he checked the wagon over with Tygo and Mizar, he could not help but wish he had some map for what was about to happen. But John knew that believing in Tygo’s vision of the world to come was also him taking ownership of his own. There would be no shuttles. At least not now. The True King would not be returning to Kansas with them.
If only he had a few of his instruments. It would have been nice to bring them along. But going back to Urania would be madness in the commotion, especially driving a cart with a Cape insignia. Outlaws marauded everywhere, looting. His precious instruments had probably already been dismantled for their metal. He sighed.
“What’s wrong?” asked Tygo. He chewed on a piece of tough meat while he strapped down a few pikes. John noticed he avoided the pile of Heads the carnival men had given them, stepping gingerly around them every time he walked past.
“O. My instruments. Nothing.”
“That’s a shame, Lord Astronomer. A real shame. Which brings me to a confession.”
“O?”
“I hadn’t thought we’d be together this long, to be honest. It just … it wasn’t in my mind. I’m sorry.”
John shrugged. “Mine either.”
“So I stole your mirror. The black one.”
“What? My chip of the Sky Mirror? Whatever for?”
Tygo blinked. “So I could have another vision.”
“You said your vision that night was false. You said you made up tellochvovin and the rest of that gibberish.”
“I did. But maybe…” He trailed off. “Maybe we could try again.” He kicked at the dirt, embarrassed.
John was amazed. “I told you, I never saw a damn thing in all my life.” But a smile broke over his face as he clutched the chip of mirror, its surface cracked only a bit. He held it up and dusted it off. “How did you keep it safe during the battle?”
“Luck, I guess.” He rolled his eyes. “Magic.”
John laughed, a gush of relief sweeping him from his toes to the top of his head. At least he had this, a small piece of his collection. “How fortunate for you.” He took a breath as Tygo looked away. “And for me.”
At last, they disembarked, Mizar at the reins. John looked up at the sky he had pondered all his life. He could see the palace and the spires for some time. In the sky, those two arcs bending over the Cape, drawing nearer like fish swimming toward a succulent waterplant, their paths exactly like lines one of his compasses might draw, just like that. Except they had been predicted by no one—not him, and not anyone who had come before him as far as he could tell. They were here of their own accord. Even holy perhaps, even if they were not the Return. The cart turned away then, and they went into the wilderness. Beside him, Tygo sat with his eyes closed. Tygo was the failure, now, returning to the Mystagogue without the True King.
John felt calm. Perhaps all moments of peace were like this: just perilous calms between one catastrophe and the next, for eternity. That these quiet periods could last a hundred years, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand—this seemed less interesting to John than those bookends of calamity. The Disease on one side, and on the other, these two lights, whatever they were.
Moments of unaccountable terror and irrevocable change. That was what changed the ordinary into the Sublime. Was that, John wondered, the only real miracle the world could offer men? A reformation of the ordinary, bent as if by magic, by an infinitely mysterious force, indecipherable as fortune?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Julia Whicker received her MFA in 2006 at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she won both the prestigious Capote Fellowship and the Teaching-Writing Fellowship. She’s had her poetry and essays published in the Iowa Review, Word Riot, and The Millions, among others, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A version of the first chapter of Wonderblood was published in the literary journal Unstuck. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Epigraph
Map
Chapter 1. The Uncrusher
Chapter 2. Ears
Chapter 3. The Executionatrix
Chapter 4. The Comet
Chapter 5. The Pardoness
Chapter 6. The Angels
Chapter 7. The Third Queen of Cape Canaveral
Chapter 8. The Rider
Chapter 9. Marvel and the Astronomer
Chapter 10. The Carnival
Chapter 11. Queen Alyson
Chapter 12. The Wedding
Chapter 13. Tellochvovin
Chapter 14. The Unicursal Hexagram
Chapter 15. Friendship
Chapter 16. A Headache
Chapter 17. Huldah
Chapter 18. The Game
Chapter 19. The Thunder, Perfect Mind
Chapter 20. The Watchtower of the Universe
Chapter 21. The Pardon
Chapter 22. Faith
Chapter 23. Escape
Chapter 24. The Law of Mercy
Chapter 25. Orchid’s Loss
Chapter 26. The Breach
Chapter 27. Fortune
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
WONDERBLOOD. Copyright © 2018 by Julia Whicker. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover photographs: woman © David & Mytille/Arcangel; paper © Paul Taylor/Getty Images; texture © iStock.com/DenKuvaiev; stars © iStock/Wnjay Wootthisak
Illustrations by Esbee Bernice
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-06606-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-7337-7 (ebook)
eISBN 9781466873377
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First Edition: April 2018
