Even with David driving recklessly enough to risk getting pulled over, it took them over an hour to get back to the city. David dropped Alexandra, Anna, and Hela off in Chinatown while he looked for parking; the alley leading to Little Wuyi was too narrow for the Escalade.
The Chinese wizards surrounding the house at the top of the hill had been joined by many of the wizards that had attended last night's gathering. They parted for Anna and her friends. The three girls hurried into the house, and found Geming Chu looking at a map unrolled across the main table. Pieces of ivory in square and hexagonal shapes were stacked upon it, glowing or moving about by magic. A Mage-General, the man with the sea lion Patronus, and one of the Majokai witches were closest to the table. A dozen others stood a few paces back.
From the wizard wireless, a CNN announcer was reporting a battle between Confederation forces and secessionists in Alta California.
They said secession, Alexandra thought. Even the CNN wasn't pretending it wasn't a war anymore.
"The black mist in Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Oklahoma City is so well-timed one would almost think the Dark Convention coordinated with us," the Mage-General said.
"Black mist in Detroit?" Alexandra said, thinking of David's parents.
Geming Chu looked at the three girls. "I told you to stay here and not venture into the city on your own! Let alone run off to the very place where the Confederation's troops are encamped!" His anger was tightly controlled, but he was obviously furious. Anna trembled.
Alexandra's temper flared. She controlled it, barely, but said, "With all due respect, Mr. Chu, I'm not very good at taking orders from my own father. I didn't swear to obey you." She guessed she was about to get kicked out of Anna's house, but she was done being ordered around to no purpose.
Anna looked as if she wanted to disappear. Hela went still and showed no expression at all.
The fury in Geming Chu's eyes was different from the frightening rage Alexandra sometimes saw in her father's eyes, but it still made her regret her defiance. Maybe he couldn't do more to her than expel her from Little Wuyi, but she was definitely making Anna's life more difficult.
He spoke curtly in Chinese. Anna answered in monosyllables, with head bowed. Then to Alexandra's surprise, instead of ordering her to leave, he said, "How quickly can you travel to Alta California, Miss Quick?" He bit his words off as if it pained him to ask her a question.
"My Seven-League Boots will take me there faster than anything but a Portkey," she said.
"And are you willing to be of service, without swearing an oath?"
Alexandra noted the sarcasm, but she nodded, and said, "Yes, sir," in a milder tone.
"Excellent," he snapped. "We cannot Apparate directly out of the city, the New Regiments are engaged, and we are having difficulty communicating with the Majokai or locating the Confederation Air Force. I would send you to find out what is happening."
"Don't you have anyone with crystal balls or scrying spells?" Alexandra asked.
"Of course we do. And the Confederation conjures storms and uses anti-scrying spells to foil us. We were waging this war for quite a while before you arrived in California, Miss Quick."
"Well, I'm here now, and obviously you need me."
Geming Chu gave her a long look, and Alexandra saw more looks passing between the other wizards in the room. Anna's expression was pained.
"This is to be a scouting mission only, Miss Quick," he said at last. "You are not to involve yourself or engage in any fighting. Am I understood?"
Alexandra hesitated. Anna looked pleadingly at her.
"Perfectly," Alexandra said.
"Excellent," Anna's father repeated. He turned to the Majokai woman next to him. "Madam Minemata, will you show Miss Quick where on the map she should go? Miss Quick, I understand you have a Lost Traveler's Compass?"
He knew about her boots and her compass. She glanced at Anna, then stepped over to the table. "Yes, sir. I can find my way there once I know where I'm going, even if it's hidden from No-Majes."
The Majokai witch appeared to be about the same age as Geming Chu. She wore a dark gray kimono with a wave pattern crest. Her black hair was tied up in buns and held with long pins. Last night it had looked elegant, but now it was starting to unravel, and Madam Minemata looked too haggard to care.
She beckoned to Alexandra to come closer. "We are scattered from Alta California to Baja, but mostly in small farms and family residences. Only in two places have we built wizarding communities, and one of them can only be reached by magical means."
"Okay," Alexandra said, looking at the map. It showed all three California Territories in great topographical detail, with the wizarding population highlighted in blue and Muggles in red. San Francisco and Monterey had pinpoints of blue amidst the sea of red. Mount Diablo was another blue dot. There were pinpoints of blue all over, but especially far to the north and in the mountains and deserts to the south, though if Alexandra concentrated, she could see them in all the bigger cities. She remembered Agent Rafferty telling her that she and the Thorn Circle weren't the No-Maj government's only "assets."
Madam Minemata pointed at a blue dot in the hills near Los Angeles, and said, "That is Matsuzaka."
"Matsuzaka?" Alexandra said. "I know a Tomo Matsuzaka, from Charmbridge." She looked over her shoulder at Anna again. Anna and Tomo had not been friends. When Tomo first came to Charmbridge four years earlier, the animosity between Chinese and Japanese wizards had manifested in an intense interpersonal conflict between the two girls. Alexandra had helped settle that, but there was still history there, not unlike the history between Geming Chu's people and the Majokai. Once bitter rivals, now allies against a common enemy.
Madam Minemata smiled wanly. "Yes, I know Tomo-chan. She's Seijin Matsuzaka's youngest daughter. We've already sent to fetch her. We expected to join Congressman Chu and the MACUSA, you see, and as soon as the Confederation learned of this, Tomo would no longer be safe at Charmbridge. We Minematas are the traveling ones, and we promised Seijin Matsuzaka we'd bring his daughter home."
Alexandra nodded, though she wasn't sure what Madam Minemata meant by "traveling ones."
"The Matsuzakas were the first Majokai in the New World," Madam Minemata said. "They built a small community, not unlike Little Wuyi, though not in the middle of a Muggle city. Matsuzaka is their ancestral home, and they permit no Muggles or Muggle devices there. Normally we could communicate with them magically, but right now…" She shrugged. "We cannot. And Matsuzaka retainers said they saw dragons in the sky."
"Retainers?" Alexandra asked.
"Muggles who have long sworn service to a Majokai clan. You can recognize them if you know to look for the charm we cast on them."
"You… mark them?" Alexandra said.
"They serve willingly, Miss Quick. No one is marked against their will, and anyone who wishes to leave service is free to do so. We are very respectful and protective of them. They are not slaves or house-elves. None live in Matsuzaka, but some live nearby. That's how we learned of the Confederation Air Force's attack."
"And you want me to go down there and see what happened? If they're still under attack?"
"Yes. I understand you communicate by Muggle phone. You are familiar with those devices." Madam Minemata said "devices" as if they were something dirty. "I wish you had a mirror to speak to me directly, but I suppose relaying messages—"
"I have a mirror," Alexandra said.
Madam Minemata seemed like a woman who was struggling to put on a courteous face under very trying circumstances. "I meant a magic mirror," she said, as if speaking to a rather slow child. She reached into a sleeve, and withdrew a small hand mirror. "Those aren't common and I've already asked Congressman Chu…"
"I have a magic mirror," Alexandra said, dropping her pack at her feet and opening it, while Madam Minemata closed her mouth at the second interruption. Alexandra retrieved the flattering magic mirror Julia had given her and held it up with both hands.
Madam Minemata looked into the mirror and blinked in surprise. For a moment her expression softened and she looked wistful. Then she cleared her throat. "Quite charming. It will do." She drew her wand and said, "Imagos Imagos." Both Alexandra's mirror and her own sparkled briefly. "Say Imagos Imagos Minemata Maeko when you want to speak to me through the mirror."
"Cool," Alexandra murmured, slipping her mirror back into her pack.
"Right now, the rest of the Majokai are gathering in Mahomachi, including my husband and my sons," said Madam Minemata. She pointed at another blue dot on the map, much farther to the south and on the coast. "It is a town built by Muggles but hidden by us from outsiders. Everyone there knows about us."
"Are any of the other Majokai going to Matsuzaka?" Alexandra asked.
Madam Minemata shook her head. "Between the ROC and the Confederation Air Force, we haven't the numbers to engage directly until we have assembled in force. We need to know if the Matsuzaka fled or are under siege. They command the earth and wood and they are very powerful, but as I said, we cannot communicate with them. This is concerning."
"Yeah, I guess so." Alexandra looked around the room at all the wizards staring at her with undisguised skepticism. "Well then. Guess I'm off to Matsuzaka to find out what none of you can."
Congressman Chu and the Mage-General folded their arms.
"I'll be back," Alexandra said, and walked out of the room.
With her backpack over her shoulders, Alexandra walked downhill, once more accompanied by Anna and Hela.
"I need to say something," Anna said. Her eyes were fixed straight ahead.
"Okay," Alexandra said.
"My father has been really patient with you," Anna said. "I mean, you're right, you don't have to obey him. But when you defy him to his face like that… it's disrespectful. You have no idea."
"I'm the same way with my father," Alexandra said.
"And how has that turned out?"
Alexandra frowned. She wanted to argue, but Anna's unflinching remarks carried an authority Anna had never displayed before, and despite her nervousness, it was clear she had prepared herself for this confrontation. And Alexandra didn't want to clash with Anna.
From behind them, Hela spoke. Her voice was also quiet and firm. "You expect submission from everyone else. You will suffer no disrespect or defiance. But you do not feel you owe respect to anyone else."
Alexandra walked on, rather than stopping to argue. After a moment, she said, "I don't think either of you are being entirely fair. I defied my father over a lot of things, including being used like a tool. And Hela, even if you didn't do everything I accused you of, you know what you did do."
Anna and Hela said nothing. Alexandra realized even defending herself to Hela meant things had changed, just as Anna's resolute silence was something new.
"You're not being entirely fair," Alexandra repeated. "But…" She bit her lip. "You're not totally wrong either."
Halfway down the hill, they encountered David and Dylan climbing the path, both dressed very obviously like Muggles, bringing Chinese residents to their porches to fold their arms and frown in disapproval. A fiery cloud floated out of a chimney and drifted near them.
Alexandra gave them a quick explanation. David said, "So Mr. Chu is okay sending you alone?"
"I think he'd take my Seven-League Boots from me if he could," Alexandra said.
"We should go with you," Dylan said. "You're totally gonna get into trouble by yourself."
"I'm sure you'd be a great help," Alexandra said. "What do you want me to do, carry you piggyback?"
Anna bit her lip. "I don't like you going by yourself either, Alex."
"She is right," Hela said. "Your father would not want—"
"He's lost any say over what I do," Alexandra said. She resumed walking. With several glances amongst themselves, the others followed.
Anna said, "My father just told us we're not supposed to go anywhere because it's too dangerous, and now he's sending you all the way to Alta California because it's convenient to use you."
"That's kinda what soldiers do," David said. "In case you ain't noticed, your old man's been using us whatever way is convenient."
"You aren't soldiers, and my father hasn't been using you," Anna protested. "You volunteered—"
"So did Alex," David said. "Doesn't mean we ain't being used. Just like you. Your father uses you for his image. The good Congressman and his dutiful daughter. Not like that terrorist Abraham Thorn and his Dark daughter."
They had almost reached the bottom of the hill, and the waiting swans, but Anna and Alexandra both stopped to stare at David, who kept walking for a few paces until he realized they'd stopped. He turned to face them, and folded his arms. "What? Not sayin' I blame him. But let's be real. We're fightin' a war. And Alex's old man ain't no different, 'cept he don't care about being called a terrorist. Just like you and her both pretend we're just runnin' around on quests, 'cept Alex don't care about being called Dark." Next to him, Dylan nodded.
Alexandra and Anna looked at each other.
Behind them, Hela said, "The boy is right."
"Goddammit it, what did I tell you, you Eskimo bitch!" said David.
"David!" Anna exclaimed.
"Dude, chill," said Dylan, grasping David's sleeve, while Alexandra put a warning hand up as Hela raised her wand. Behind them, the swans started honking.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Alexandra said. "Are you really going to fight each other right here?" She knew Hela was being deliberately rude, but David's temper had taken an ugly turn since coming to San Francisco.
"I don't know what's happened to you," she said, "but you know Anna has seen battles, and plenty of things have happened to me on my 'quests.' So you're right, our fathers are using us, and we signed up for it, and now I'm going to go see what's up with the Majokai. I couldn't take you with me if I wanted to. So act like soldiers, if that's what you insist on calling yourselves."
Hela slowly lowered her wand. David did likewise. Dylan let out a breath.
After a long, tense silence, David asked, "Do you need a ride? Or can you just step right out of the city?"
"I could," Alexandra said, but thought about what Hela had said about tracking her. "Probably better if you could take me to the beach or up into the hills."
"I'll come with you," said Anna.
"Your father told you not to leave Little Wuyi," Alexandra said. "What happened to respecting him?"
Anna smiled. "You've always been a bad influence on me. Anyway, I'm not defying him to his face. His dutiful daughter can always beg for forgiveness."
They all came with her, even Hela. David drove them to a windy hill several miles south of San Francisco. They got out of the SUV and stood amidst tall brown grasses near a lookout point with a view of the ocean to the west and the bay to the east.
"I'll be back before you know it," she said.
"Don't do anything stupid," David said.
"Pot, kettle," Alexandra said, and stepped seven leagues to the south.
California was densely populated, but less so inland, and Alexandra mostly stepped around the towns and cities along the highways. Here and there she startled motorists at rest stops, a solitary trucker climbing a long uphill stretch of highway, and some farm workers amongst vast irrigated rows of produce, but ley lines that paralleled the Interstate guided her south without having to go through the large cities.
Somewhere, in the desert not far to the east, she understood that the California Regiments—the so-called "New Regiments" that had seceded and joined with the MACUSA—were battling a Confederation Regiment. Torvald and Stuart might be there.
I've been kept out of the fighting this entire war, Alexandra thought. But would she really be more useful as a soldier? In the New Regiment, she'd be just another wand.
You'd have to kill people.
She'd killed Cejaiaqui, the leader of the Generous Ones. She hadn't meant to, but that killing was what led indirectly to her debt to the Generous Ones, which gave her only five more years to live.
Since then, she'd come close to killing more than once. She'd convinced Hela she was a cold-blooded murderer. But she didn't think of herself as a killer.
It wasn't her job right now to go join the fighting. She was supposed to find out what had happened to the Majokai, and whether they needed help.
She followed her Lost Traveler's Compass to the mountains outside Los Angeles. She saw smoke from a distance, and as she came closer, she saw numerous wildfires burning. Muggle firefighters were already battling the blazes. There were trucks and helicopters all over.
None had reached the upper peaks, and there, where Alexandra's Lost Traveler's Compass pointed, she also saw smoke and blackened trees.
She bypassed roads and Muggle firefighters easily enough with her Seven-League Boots. Soon she was standing on the mountain the Majokai called Matsuzaka.
It was cloudy and cold, and the ground was damp. Walking cautiously through pine trees on a steep upward slope, Alexandra saw something huge lying across a path wending through the woods. There were crows perched atop it. They cawed angrily as Alexandra approached.
She shrugged off her jacket and wiggled a bare shoulder out from beneath her shirt, exposing her raven tattoo. Charlie emerged from her skin and cawed, louder than the crows. The crows answered with even more raucous caws.
"Stop arguing with other birds, Charlie," Alexandra said. "Watch from the trees for me."
"Charlie's a raven, not a crow," said Charlie, loud enough to be heard by the crows. Then the raven flew into the upper pine branches. The crows cawed mockingly.
Alexandra approached the large inert form with her wand at the ready, walking around it carefully and ignoring the crows that continued to caw at her.
It was a dragon.
Alexandra could see no obvious injuries. No wounds in its thick, scaly hide, and no blood. But it was clearly dead. Its wings were strangely shriveled and looked far too puny to carry it aloft. Its hide was wrinkled and desiccated. Its eyes were open and staring and glassy white. Even in death, it looked fearsome, but the dead dragon gave Alexandra the creeps because it seemed unnatural and wrong. Lying here in a forest that, while secluded from Muggle sight, was still not very far from the nearest road, Alexandra wondered how long it would take to be discovered.
She made a face at the crows and continued up the hill. Overhead, Charlie moved from tree to tree, and then made an ominous croaking sound.
"What?" Alexandra asked, and then jerked to a halt when she saw what Charlie had seen.
Yards from the dead dragon was another body, wearing the blue and red of the Confederation Air Force.
Alexandra swallowed and approached the figure. She realized immediately that the man was dead also, even though he still wore a helmet covering his face. There was a thick shaft of pine wood through his torso. The end that jutted out of him was dark red, and his body was twisted in a way that no living body could be.
Alexandra knelt next to him, wondering for a moment who the man had been, how old he was. If she removed his helmet, would she see a grizzled officer, or a young man Torvald's age (or Larry's)? The dead man had been fighting for the Confederation. Did he do it out of duty, because he was loyal to the Confederation and everything it stood for, or had he been forced into service? Did he think, like Witch-Colonel Shirtliffe, that they had to crush the enemies of the Confederation before they could end the Deathly Regiment?
If so, they'd treated the Majokai as enemies of the Confederation. That thought made Alexandra's lips tighten in a grim line as her sympathy for the dead Deathie vanished. She stood up and looked upwards at Charlie, whom she was suddenly aware was looking at the dead man the way the crows had been looking at the dragon.
"Don't even think it, Charlie," she said.
"Charlie's a raven," said Charlie from above.
Alexandra continued hiking uphill. The smell of burning wood became stronger, and then she saw the glow of still-burning fires. She had to cast a Fresh Air Charm as she continued on, because the air was full of white haze and ash.
Once, there had been a community here. It had been smaller than Little Wuyi, but it had occupied the top of this mountain. There had been residences, and probably temples and tea shops and warehouses…
All she could see now was charred ruins. Wooden frames that were still burning. A stone well that glowed and had partially turned to slag. Paving stones that had cracked with the heat. The Majokai had not cleared the trees away from their residences but built their houses amongst them, and all those trees were charred black, some still dripping embers.
It was winter and they were in the mountains, but Alexandra could feel the heat so strongly that it was uncomfortable until she cast a Flame Freezing Charm. Then she walked into what had once been Matsuzaka.
There were blackened shapes lying on the ground, mostly clustered around annihilated buildings. Smoldering bits of what had once been clothing were still recognizable on some.
Alexandra looked for anything that hadn't been incinerated, and shouted: "Hello?" And again: "Can anyone hear me?"
Charlie flew overhead, but saw nothing but small animals moving near the burning mountaintop.
The burning smell that was not wood filled her nostrils. Alexandra could see charred bodies everywhere now. Most were burnt beyond recognition, but she could tell some had been children. She didn't know how many people had lived here, but there had been many, and it didn't look as if anyone had escaped. Here and there were shattered trees and blasted earth, more signs of a fast and furious battle that were even now being consumed by fire and covered with ashes. Through the trees opposite where she'd found the dead dragon, there was another, much smaller winged corpse, and when she went to investigate, she found half of a hippogriff. No sign of the other half. All the surrounding trees had blood spattered on their bark, and bits of red and blue fabric. Downslope, Alexandra saw even more bodies.
She waved her wand and said, "Homenum Revelio."
The Revealing Charm revealed nobody.
She dashed all around what had once been Matsuzaka, She kept waving her wand, saying, "Homenum Revelio!"
The entire mountaintop was a charnel pyre. There was no one left alive.
She staggered away from the burned Majokai village, with ash and smoke stinging her eyes. When she was far enough away, she set down her pack and took out her magic mirror.
The reflection cast by the magic mirror made even her grim, sooty face look attractive. Serious, a little goth, her eyes smudged as if with kohl, her lips bright red in a pale face. Edgier and prettier than her true, plain appearance. Alexandra thought the mirror had made her a suitable messenger of death.
"Imagos Imagos Minemata Maeko," she said.
Smoke filled the silvered glass, then it cleared and Madam Minemata looked back at her from the mirror she held in her own hand.
"They're all dead," Alexandra said.
"Miss Quick," said Madam Minemata. "Wait a moment—" Her eyes darted to her left, looking at something outside the mirror's field of view.
"I'm at Matsuzaka," Alexandra said. "It's all gone, burned to the ground. They're all… they're all incinerated. Everyone." The words came out of her in a rush. "The Confederation Air Force was here, but they've moved on. There's no one left alive here. Just… just bodies. There are no survivors."
Madam Minemata's open mouth closed, and she visibly controlled her expression. Only her eyes showed the shock and horror caused by Alexandra's words.
She turned, and in her hand, her mirror turned with her. In its reflection, Alexandra saw Geming Chu and Anna standing just past the front foyer of their house, and next to them, small and pale, Tomo Matsuzaka.
