Fei Wang Reed's first inkling that things might not be going according to plan was when he could no longer view Peaksville. His mirror showed nothing but rolling bands of gray and black interference.
When had that happened?
Fei Wang Reed really couldn't say. He hadn't paid much attention to his pawn in Peaksville, and couldn't recall the last time he'd bothered to check on the dear little waif. He'd had other futures to influence, other schemes to guide. The brat's life had been going as expected, so Fei Wang Reed had left matters alone, assuming they would take care of themselves.
But obviously that had been a mistake.
Annoyed, Fei Wang Reed scowled and tried the mirror again. Still no images of Peaksville, still the same frustrating static on the mirror's large, round surface.
He spent the next few weeks attempting to view Peaksville, with no success. It became something of an obsession for him. Fei Wang Reed hated being thwarted—and by his own bratty little tool, at that!
There might be another explanation, he conceded in a moment of contemplation. The brat might not have done it himself. Perhaps the Dimension Witch had discovered his revised ploy and had set some spells in place to block him. She always went to great lengths to try to hinder him, although he couldn't imagine why. After all, his plans wouldn't just be of profit to him. They should also benefit her. She should be grateful to him, but she displayed a profound lack of appreciation for his efforts.
Whatever the reason for his thwarted attempts to view Peaksville, the situation annoyed him.
Then one day, he again stood directly before the mirror. He still couldn't view Peaksville, but the patterns of interference had changed. The static hissed, the black and gray bars rolled first up, then down, then up again. Fei Wang Reed could have sworn that the wretched thing was taunting him. Inexplicably, the rolling became irregular, the lines wavy and undulating, then the mirror went blank.
"So this is where you live," came an unexpected voice from behind him.
Startled, Fei Wang Reed spun around. He goggled at the youthful owner of that voice. An adolescent boy with blond hair and bright blue eyes stared back at him with curiosity and purpose.
"How did you get here?" Fei Wang Reed blurted. No one should be able to enter his sanctum without his permission. It should be impossible. He had set the magical wards himself. And besides that, why hadn't he sensed the boy's arrival?
The boy smiled. "That was easy. I just wished real hard that I would be where Fai was, and I came."
"You wished?" said Fei Wang Reed. Not an ordinary wish, nor the type that was granted by the Dimension Witch. The boy seemed to have used a rather crude and rudimentary form of spellcasting, but obviously it was serviceable, and very, very powerful. Recognition suddenly struck him. "Wait, you said Fai? You're—"
"I'm Anthony Fremont. Don't you remember me?" The boy, Anthony, looked slightly disappointed.
Fei Wang Reed remembered, all right. "You've grown since I last saw you. How old are you now?"
Anthony perked up. "I'm thirteen now! I've done what you told me." His voice cracked. "I replaced him, the other Anthony, and I learned my magic real good. I can do anything." The last word pitched high and low as his voice broke again.
Fei Wang Reed winced at the youth's difficulty controlling his larynx. There were differences in the flow of time between worlds. Time clearly passed more swiftly for Peaksville than it did for him. He had missed so many of Anthony's growing years. The fact that he'd been prevented from watching hadn't helped.
Anthony had managed to invade Fei Wang Reed's home without apparent difficulty, and now he was bragging about his abilities. How aggravating. "I hadn't realized so many years had passed," Fei Wang Reed said. "I lost my ability to look in on you."
"Yeah, I decided I didn't want anyone spying on me," Anthony said darkly, confirming that he was the source of that blasted static. "Now no one but me can watch anything that goes on in Peaksville."
Fei Wang Reed didn't like that tone. It suggested that his little pawn had ideas and plans of his own.
Anthony said, "So, I'm ready for that journey you talked about."
"You are much too early," Fei Wang Reed told him. "You still need to finish growing up, and none of your companions is ready to depart yet." In fact, Fei Wang Reed had barely begun those other preparations. They were nowhere near complete. "Go home and wait until I'm ready for you."
"How much longer will it take? I'm ready now!"
"The timing is not certain. The future is a fluid thing. Other pieces of the puzzle must be assembled first." Now go home, you stupid brat, Fei Wang Reed thought with annoyed contempt.
Anthony gave him a strange look. "Can you really bring Fai back from the dead like you promised? Turn back time and make it so that Fai's death never happened?"
"Of course I can. Do you think I lied?"
"Yes," Anthony said simply.
Fei Wang Reed was taken aback by that plain statement. His lip twitched into an unpleasant sneer. Teenagers! Puffed up, self-important children who thought they knew it all.
Anthony said, "I think you've lied to me about everything." He sniffed arrogantly.
Fei Wang Reed felt his blood pressure rising. "Now, look here, you little brat—"
"Shut up."
To his shock, that was exactly what Fei Wang Reed did. His hands flew to his throat and mouth. He couldn't utter a sound, not even a halfhearted choke.
At that moment, he realized that the brat wasn't afflicted by any uncontrollable impulse to kill him, despite the proximity. Despite the curse the brat still bore. But that could only mean… No! It wasn't possible.
It wasn't…
Could that misbegotten child actually be more powerful than himself?
"Adults are so useless," Anthony said. "They can't do anything. I learned that a long time ago." He curled his lip. "You're no different, are you?"
Fei Wang Reed glared at him.
"I also learned I didn't need you. I destroyed your language charm years ago, and I did just fine without it. I told you, I can do anything. What do you think of that?"
The silence stretched out. Anthony stamped his foot impatiently. "Say something."
Totally outraged now, Fei Wang Reed touched his throat.
"Oh, sorry." Anthony didn't sound the least bit contrite, but he did remove his magical gag.
Fei Wang Reed coughed a little. His broken toy had grown up, all right. The arrogant brat! Cocky teenager! How dare a mere pawn use magic as cavalierly as that on him! He'd make the whelp pay—but more important matters came first. With effort, he worked to get control over his temper, and schooled his expression and voice into a semblance of calm reason. "Anthony, I can return Fai to life," he said smoothly. "But first you must go on that journey, and gather those feathers."
"You want me to do all the work, just for some stupid wish of yours! You never even told me what the wish was. You barely mentioned it, but I remember. Back then, I thought that maybe you wanted the same thing as me..."
"My wish... Yes, my wish is all important," Fei Wang Reed said patiently, ignoring Anthony's speculation. It was true, but not the way Anthony imagined, and Fei Wang Reed had no intention of enlightening a mere pawn. "Its fulfillment will allow me to do everything I promised for you. But first you must do those things for me."
Anthony stuck out his tongue and made a rude noise. Fei Wang Reed drew back in surprise.
Anthony said, "I'm not doing all that stupid work just for you! I don't even need you. So I don't need to help you get your wish. In fact, you shouldn't get your wish ever!"
"I must get my wish, you-you—you teenager!"
Anthony said, "No, no, I don't think you should ever get your wish."
"My wish will allow your brother to return to the living!"
"I don't need you for that," Anthony said. "I only need enough power." He held out his hand, and a magical memory feather glimmered above his palm.
Fei Wang Reed narrowed his eyes. Two of those feathers had been destined to fall into Peaksville. The wretched child had this one, so where was the other one? Fei Wang Reed made a show of being unconcerned.
"What good do you think that will do you?" he sneered. Inside, he felt a tiny quaver of trepidation, but he covered it with outward contempt.
The feather transformed into a dark brown lump. Anthony popped it into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed with obvious enjoyment.
"You-you-you ate it?" Fei Wang Reed couldn't believe his eyes.
"I turned it into my mom's fudge, first. She makes the best fudge. She sweetens it with honey, and it's so delicious."
"The feather..."
"I've found a lot of them in a bunch of different worlds. There are probably more waiting out there, but they haven't gotten to all the worlds yet. They all seem to arrive at different times, and some are slower than others. It's really weird." Anthony looked thoughtful for a moment, but it passed. "I'm really super powerful now."
Fei Wang Reed groaned. The obnoxious little adolescent had been consuming the feathers. Although they had not done so yet, and would not until everything and everyone was in the proper position, those feathers would one day scatter not only to different worlds, but also different times, even into the past. There was no telling how many Anthony had found—or how many he had yet to find. Many of the memory feathers had yet to arrive at their ultimate destinations.
No wonder Anthony had become so insanely powerful—far more so than he would have become through the natural growth of his own magic. This was a catastrophe. But it wasn't completely unsalvageable. All Fei Wang Reed needed to do was make sure that Anthony met the false desert princess. The false princess would absorb all her memories, and as for what would happen to Anthony when that event occurred...well, the brat had sealed his own fate.
Fei Wang Reed supposed he'd have to find another way to dispose of the false princess's other two traveling companions. Clearly, using Anthony for that purpose was no longer feasible.
"Where is Fai?"
The abrupt demand—accompanied by another voice crack—interrupted Fei Wang Reed's enjoyable scheming. "Your brother?"
"Where is he?" Anthony demanded again. "You'd better not have let him rot!"
"I have not," Fei Wang Reed said with perfect truth. It was time to use his ultimate lever against this snotty stripling. "Your brother is in exactly the same state in which you last saw him."
"So he's still broken?" Anthony asked.
"Yes," Fei Wang Reed said smugly. "I will repair his body only after you complete your part of our bargain."
"You'd better not be lying again." Anthony's blue eyes blazed with crackling power. "Now, you tell me where he is, and don't lie!"
To his utter horror, Fei Wang Reed found himself doing exactly that.
"You're a very bad man," Anthony said when Fei Wang Reed had finished. "You would have lied if I hadn't made you tell the truth." He scowled. "I'm going to go get Fai."
"No, you willful little worm, you will not. Not until you complete our bargain." Anthony might be absurdly powerful, but Fei Wang Reed was not without resources of his own, and it was past time he used them. At a mental call, his created minions rushed to the cavernous chamber.
Anthony didn't spare them so much as a single glance. "You're a really bad man," Anthony said, unimpressed. "Go away, monsters."
Fei Wang Reed's army disappeared. "Where did they go?" he blurted in surprise. They had all just vanished. How had the impudent youth disposed of so many without even blinking an eyelash?
"I sent them to the cornfield," said Anthony. "I sent every bad thing in this place there. I should send you there, too..." His voice trailed off, and his expression turned impish. "But I've thought of a better way to punish you."
"You stupid child!" This brat was a lost cause. Enraged, Fei Wang Reed lashed out at Anthony with all the magic at his command. The raw surge of pure, blazing energy engulfed the blond boy and should have torn him into atoms. Instead, an answering burst of power shattered all of Fei Wang Reed's, and shattered something inside him, too.
Fei Wang Reed gasped at the flash of incredible agony and clutched his chest. He felt lacerated inside, like shards of broken glass were slicing his vitals. Magical energy snapped and crackled, whirling in a fiery pillar right in front of him, circling and scintillating—controlled, but not by him.
The maelstrom vanished as abruptly as the monsters. Anthony stood in its place, untouched. "I really don't like you," he said.
"Wha—?" Fei Wang Reed hadn't even finished his question before his entire perspective changed. His field of vision was higher up, somehow, and facing his blank mirror. He couldn't speak, nor move his limbs. In fact, he couldn't feel his body at all. He could only move his eyes. He looked down, and saw the seat of his throne directly below him.
Anthony smiled at him, and it was a creepy smile. Fei Wang Reed would have panicked, but he felt strangely calm. He couldn't even feel his breathing or his heartbeat.
"See what I've done," said Anthony, giggling. The mirror became reflective.
In utterly profound shock, Fei Wang Reed gaped at his reflection—the reflection showing that he no longer had a body. His head was mounted on the backrest of his own throne.
"You don't have any magic at all anymore," said Anthony. "I broke it when you attacked me, then I took the pieces away when I took your body away. You can stay like this forever, for all I care."
With that, Anthony walked out of the room.