“Oh, they stocked the fridge, too,” Clem said from its open door. “They put steaks in here. Good ones.”
“I’ll have to figure out how to cook them,” I said with a grin. “Let’s check out the rest of the house.”
A single door to the right of the refrigerator led into a narrow hallway. A carpet runner ran down the center of the hall, its surface stitched with a big black bird with fire around its eyes and wings locked in a battle with a black serpent.
A staircase off the kitchen led up to the cottage’s second floor. Every one of the steps creaked under our feet, a chorus of squeals and groans that filled the house with unexpected noise. We both laughed at how surprised we were by the noise and shook our heads at how jumpy we were. There was no one here to hurt us, no traps waiting to spring on the unwary. The cottage was exactly what it looked like: a nice and cozy place for the School’s champion to relax alone or with friends.
This year was suddenly looking up.
The upper floor of the cottage was an open bedroom. The king-sized bed was situated at the back of the house, under a wide picture window. The wall to its right held a closet with wide sliding doors. I took a peek inside and saw a selection of sleek black robes draped over wooden hangers suspended from a rail. A small shelf above my clothes held my personal effects, including the Manual of the New Moon. I slid the closet’s doors closed before Clem spied the book; she’d go crazy trying to get a look at the thing. I didn’t want to go down that road.
A heavy desk of dark-stained wood crouched at the front of the house under another window. A laptop, clearly one of the quantic models, sat in the center of the desk’s uncluttered surface. A black-covered notebook sat to the left of the laptop, and a red-lacquered pen lay on the desk to its right.
What grabbed my attention, though, was the golden envelope on top of the computer.
“Oh, that looks intriguing,” Clem said. “Open it!”
I didn’t need any further encouragement. Maybe it was a reward for being the only undefeated champion in the past hundred years. Maybe it was a letter from my mother.
Excited, I snatched the envelope off the laptop and turned it over in my hands. It was surprisingly heavy and sealed by a thick disk of black wax. There was no monogram or sigil pressed into the seal. With a shrug, I cracked the stamp and collected the brittle black remnants in my left hand.
The envelope didn’t so much open as unfurl. Its top flap curled away from the bottom flap, and the other seams unfolded so quickly I scarcely had time to realize what was happening. In less than a second, the envelope had opened into an origami phoenix, its beak slowly opening and closing, its wings gently flapping up and down.
“We humbly request the presence of the school’s honored champion,” the phoenix said in a deep, sonorous voice. “Would you do us the kindness of joining the elders of the Shadow Phoenix clan?”
My breath caught in my throat. The elders of my clan had sent Hagar to kill me less than a year ago. But my standing in Empyreal society had changed since those dark days, and the power that had gone into creating this elaborate invitation could just as easily have gone into a simple bomb that would have blown me to shreds the instant I opened the envelope.
“You should say yes,” Clem advised. “Seriously, not everyone gets to meet their clan elders.”
“Fine,” I said. “Yes, I will join you.”
The world unraveled around me, opening and unfolding just as the envelope had. The cottage vanished, its simple walls suddenly replaced by darkness. The smell of smoke and fire filled the air, and when I spun around, Clem was gone, too.
The Elders
THE WORLD WHIPPED AROUND me in a dizzying whirlwind of sights, sounds, and smells. The rich scents of seared meat, exotic spices, and woodsmoke replaced the clean, clear scent of my island cottage. The bright walls of my bedroom had transformed into dark wood paneling with heavy velvet curtains the deep red of wine. I no longer stood on a wooden floor, but on a carpet so thick and deep I sank half an inch into its pile.
Most alarmingly, I was no longer alone with Clem.
“Ah, here he is,” said an older man with a wispy gray beard waxed to a sharp point.
He sat at the head of a long table, an empty plate in front of him, his fingers steepled against his chest. Though I’d never seen the man before, the raw power that radiated from his form made it clear he was one of the clan elders. He appraised me with sparkling gray eyes, and his attention bore down on my aura like a hydraulic press.
There were other powerful men and women at the table. The three chairs on the left side were occupied by a striking woman with tightly braided black hair who looked like she could have stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine. Her robes clung to her curves in ways that made my heart race and my thoughts stumble over one another. She smiled, a dazzling expression that sent a rush of warmth through the chamber. Her dancing amethyst eyes sized me up much more gently than
