A Flicker of Courage Read online

  Henry shivers. “Oh no.”

  Henry wants to drop to his knees in despair. His whole body clutches up with anguish. Vlad Luxor is their Horrible Ruler with Magic. Vlad is so powerful and his temper is so random that everyone in the Timeless Province is both terrified and at his mercy. His mood changes in an instant. It’s impossible to tell what might happen next. There have been other HRMs in the eons of history, leading to long, yucky years of hideous hate and putrid power. But there have also been the majestic RMs, with no H at all, who made sure that you could rest easy, who brought peace and joy to the grown-ups and children and animals of the earth and the oceans far and wide.

  Their last ruler was one of those. Best Farriver was good and decent, an RM through and through, though Henry’s parents detested him. When Best Farriver sadly croaked of old age, they had no idea who would step up to fill his place. You never knew which particular child had grown up to discover that they possessed the M. Who had realized that they could make a dog fly instead of just sit, shake, or roll over? Who had begun to slowly see that they had the power to make people applaud or do good or do evil? It could be the best and brightest and kindest person or the worst, most insufferable one. Fate is unpredictable like that, Henry knows from personal experience.

  To their great misfortune, after Best Farriver kicked the bucket, the person who came forward was Vlad Luxor, one of the H-est of HRMs in history. The first thing Vlad Luxor did was cover Best Farriver’s beautiful old stone tower in shiny black mirrors. The next thing he did was put a high, frightening fence of iron bars around the entire base of Rulers Mountain, which used to be open to everyone who wanted to shop in the small village at the top, or play in the grassy park in front of the tower. Now only Vlad’s people were allowed in.

  And then the real horror started. He turned the news anchor of WKZP into a zucchini just for speaking badly about him, and he transformed his own right-hand man, Devin Cowlick, into a crumbling statue for not admiring him greatly enough. He changed Ms. Bedlam’s hair from brown to blond simply because he preferred it that way. A grandmother was zapped across the world, never to be seen again, for entirely mysterious reasons. He turned their science teacher, Mr. Neutroni, into a scary clown, because Vlad Luxor doesn’t believe in science. This is shocking and almost too awful to believe, but some children were even put into cold, windowless rooms and locked up.

  It’s hard to truly know how much damage Vlad has done. How can you tell how many people have been turned into snakes or worse when snakes can barely speak above a whisper? When trees only shush? When clowns only honk annoying horns instead of using actual words? And the feeling of danger is everywhere, always. Henry feels it, like a ghost-shadow hovering over his shoulder. He gets the nervous creeps on every street in town. He carefully walks the halls at school, clutching his books to his chest. Whenever he goes through the town square, past the big billboard where Vlad Luxor’s enormous image gazes down, he turns away as fast as he can, even on the good days when it is streaked with bird poop. Everyone whispers behind their hands that those birds aimed on purpose.

  The thing is, there’s Vlad Luxor’s singular power and magic, and Vlad Luxor’s one set of eyes and ears, but there are also Vlad Luxor’s employees, like his new right-hand man, Mr. Needleman, whose job it is to know things even before Vlad Luxor knows them himself. There are Vlad Luxor’s supporters, too, people who actually like him or are too afraid not to, people who actually can’t wait to tattle about your possible wrongdoings so he’ll maybe turn you into a badly carved jack-o’-lantern, with a single tooth held in place by a toothpick. You have to be careful. You can’t tell who is who just by looking at a person. It feels like danger is everywhere, because danger is everywhere. Your neighbors might secretly work in Vlad Luxor’s fifty-eight-story tower of black mirrors. A friend might turn out to be a spy. Even your own parents might praise his wise decisions and firm leadership.

  “Are you sure that’s Rocco?” Henry asks, hoping against hope that Apollo is wrong.

  Apollo sniffs a long sniff of sorrow, and nods. “I’m sure. Show him, Rocco,” Apollo says to the lizard.

  Suddenly, a little pink bubble emerges from the lizard’s mouth. It grows and grows until there is the tiniest, quietest pop.

  “I taught him how to blow bubbles last week, and it’s all he’s been doing since.”

  All He’s Been Doing Since

  Henry leans down toward Apollo’s hands. He smells the cotton-candy-like smell of Big Yum Bubble. The lizard makes a little squeak. And when he listens more closely, Henry hears actual words. He hears the lizard speak, and it is terrible.

  “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me,” Rocco says, and waves his tiny arms.

  CHAPTER 3

  Rocco Disappears

  Well, naturally, Henry is shocked to hear Rocco’s voice coming from the naked lizard. And poor Apollo looks like he’s been sent through a car wash without a car. Henry has no idea how to be a good friend here. And, wow, Henry would really, really like to be a good friend. The loneliness he feels at home is something he feels pretty much everywhere. He carries it like a loneliness backpack, from home to school and back again.

  “This is horrible,” Henry says.

  “Rocco gets on my nerves, but he’s still my little brother. I love him,” Apollo says, sniffing. “And my mother has been crying her eyes out.”

  Oh, those words. Henry’s insides bash around with feeling. He loves Apollo’s mother. She’s the nicest mother Henry has ever seen. She cuts sandwiches into triangles. She carries baby Otto on her hip, and claps with enthusiasm after Coco sings the Rocket Galaxy theme song while hopping on one foot at the same time. She helps out in their class at school, too, and when Olivia Pimento threw up in the hall one day, Mrs. Dante acted like it was one of the most natural things in the world, when it actually looked like a bad plate of Pasta Blobberini.

  A Bad Plate of Pasta Blobberini

  And Rocco! He has those little-kid knees that are always muddy and shoes that are always untied. He chases Apollo with the garden hose, yelling, I’m a fidafighta! when he means firefighter. This dreadful tragedy fills Henry with sorrow. And weirdly, because this is so unlike Henry, he’s suddenly mad, too. When he thinks of a crying mother and a naughty brother who is loved regardless, he feels a rising hurricane inside.

  “We’ve got to do something,” Henry says.

  “What can we do? It’s hopeless.”

  Apollo has a point. It sure seems hopeless. The important grown-ups in the province they’ve always counted on before to save and protect are nowhere. The mayor has packed her bags and left. The police officers tremble and keep their mouths shut. The government officials have turned into spineless wimps. No one is doing anything to stop him. Vlad does whatever he wants.

  And no one has ever been able to undo a spell, either. Well, this is not quite true—no one today can do the job. Over the years, there have been small groups of certain individuals—spell breakers—who could do it. Born with special abilities, of course, but also exceedingly brave, knowledgeable, and lionhearted, too, because undoing a spell is quite dangerous and no easy business. But not a single individual has stepped forward or even been identified. Worse, even saying the words spell breaker could bring great danger.

  Why evil men have always existed, jumping out from the ickiest dark corners throughout our history—that is a true mystery, though. The minute Vlad arrived, their lives changed, snap, just like that. One day there were just regular problems like gross stuff under tabletops and people walking when the signs said DON’T WALK, but now everything is a disaster. Vlad seems to hate whatever matters most. Parks with swing sets—poof, gone! Rocket ships—zap, vanished! Kind people who help old ladies—pow, you’re out of here! Vlad strolls down the street of their town, pinching the bottoms of ladies like they are loaves of bread. He gazes at himself in store windows, smoothing his hair, which loops upward like a soft-serve ice cream cone. People tell him he’s marvelous instead of disgusting. Slim instead of poochy. A great leader instead of a giant mess maker. It’s a dark, dark time.

  “Come on. I have an idea.”

  The words just pop out of Henry’s mouth. He’s surprising himself left and right. It’s crazy, but all the things he desperately wants and all the things he so badly needs seem to be slamming together with the unfairness and wrongness he sees before him. An energy shoots through him right there on that sidewalk. His feet are moving toward his own front door.

  His own front door.

  This is a problem.

  A big, big problem.

  There’s a particular something in there that might save the day, but his own house—well, it’s not the best place to bring Apollo and Rocco. It’s not the best place to bring anyone, which is why Henry has never done it before. There are dangers all around, and there’s stuff Henry would rather keep secret. And there are dangers specific to naked lizards, too. Number one: Button, Henry’s Jack Russell terrier. Number two: Henry’s parents themselves. Number three: the Lewyt Deluxe, Model 55.

  The Lewyt Deluxe, Model 55

  This is probably a good time to mention once more that Henry’s home is not the haven of safety, security, and comfort Apollo’s is. Imagine a world where fear and solitude meet. Where you’re on edge every moment. Where there are bad moods, short tempers, and clouds of doom. One minute, you’re smothered in a horrible hug, and the next, you are smacked repeatedly with the nearest object—a hairbrush, a cooking spoon. Henry’s mother is large and angry, and she wears an old fuzzy bathrobe that smells of cooked cabbage. His father has mean, spiky hair shaved in a straight line across the back of his neck
, and he stomps when he walks, and his bristles poke like slivers when he pretends to show affection to Henry in public.

  Henry screws up his nerve, though, the way you do in an emergency. Apollo is suffering and Rocco is a lizard and Mrs. Dante is crying, so Henry leads Apollo across the scratchy brown grass of his lawn and up the two tilted steps to the door. He turns the handle warily. When he and Apollo step inside, Henry’s father is doing his favorite thing: making a pyramid out of empty Pendleton Pale Ale cans. The television is blasting.

  His mother is vacuuming, using the Lewyt Deluxe, Model 55. One of his father’s socks disappears with a horrible screech, as if she’s just sucked up a parrot, and the corner of the curtain is grabbed next. She wrestles it like it’s a giant, thrashing serpent. Something smells like it’s burning, and Henry guesses it is the beer can chicken that is his mother’s favorite recipe.

  Beer Can Chicken

  It is going to be a long childhood.

  “Henry?” Apollo looks at the scene before him with uncertainty.

  “It’s okay. Come on.”

  Well, it’s not okay, not in the slightest, but for now, Henry, Apollo, and Rocco creep past Mr. and Mrs. Every and sneak up to Henry’s room as Button follows. Truthfully, sneaking isn’t necessary. Henry’s parents barely notice he’s there unless he does something wrong. So he tries not to do anything wrong. His very own voice gets him into trouble, so he stays quiet as a moth in a closet. He does what he’s told, and always uses his manners. When he talks back, it’s only in his head, and even that makes him nervous. He keeps his room clean. In it, there’s a small dresser and a creaky iron bed with a thin mattress. He also has a few secret prized possessions: his lucky marble, and two gifts from his grandfather—the book Sinister Forces, by Alvin Westwood, and a copy of Amazing Stories magazine, featuring tales of fighting evil.

  Henry shuts his door without making a sound. Button lies on the bed with her chin on her paws, looking worried. Apollo paces.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Apollo says.

  “If we can find answers anywhere, it’s here.” Henry reaches under his mattress. His fingers wiggle until they grasp one of his other most prized possessions—an old, battered Ranger Scout Handbook, sixth edition, that he bought at their neighbor’s yard sale for twenty-five cents.

  How to Stop Severe Bleeding

  Henry jumps immediately to the section on first aid. “How to stop severe bleeding. Artificial respiration. Something in eye. Burns and scalds . . .” It’s hopeless. There is nothing about turning naked lizards back into boys.

  “Oh no!” Apollo suddenly says in alarm. “No!”

  “What?”

  “Where did he go?”

  “What do you mean, where did he go?”

  “He’s gone! Rocco is gone! I put him in my pocket for safekeeping, and now it’s empty!”

  “He can’t be gone! This is awful! The world is a dangerous place for a lizard!”

  “I know the world is a dangerous place for a lizard! There are birds of prey, and mammals, and lizards that eat other lizards, and parasites, and humans . . .”

  Henry’s heart sinks at the word humans. “Rocco!” he calls. “Rocco, where are you?”

  Apollo is shaking out his shirt and—ugh—looking at the bottom of his shoes.

  “Where would he go?” Henry asks.

  “If I knew the answer to that, do you think I’d be in such a panic?” Apollo is on his knees, searching under the bed. “Rocco!” His voice is urgent and on the brink of despair. His eyes meet Button’s from the bed.

  “No. No, no, no!”

  “Oh, Button.” Henry feels sick.

  “You didn’t!” Apollo cries.

  Button looks innocent. She’s a good dog, a real friend, but Henry forces her jaws open anyway, and peers into the ribbed cavern of Button’s mouth.

  “Nothing,” Henry says. What a relief. If you’re trying to become a best friend, you definitely don’t want your dog to eat the person’s brother.

  “Thank heavens! But where could he be? He could be anywhere! He could be out in the street by now. He could be deep in a lawn, face-to-face with a mower! He could have run—”

  There’s a shriek from the living room below. A high-pitched, piercing SCREAM practically rattles the three coins in Henry’s piggy bank, and causes Button to leap from the bed and bark in alarm.

  Henry and Apollo look at each other with doom in their stomachs.

  And then they hit those stairs in two seconds flat.

  CHAPTER 4

  A Devouring Beast

  Rocco is clinging to a lampshade. Henry’s mother wildly swings the gaping hose of the Lewyt Deluxe in Rocco’s direction. This is terrible! What was Henry thinking? He should never, ever have brought anyone here. He’s made the situation a million times worse. He’s got to rescue that reptile and fast, but with all the shouting and clinging and the great, sucking hose, he has no idea how.

  “Get over here, you little vermin!” Mrs. Every yells.

  “Kill the ugly monster,” Mr. Every says, bashing his bedroom slipper right and left.

  Rocco’s little tail is waving like a flag in the huge tornado of vacuum cleaner wind, and he is gripping as hard as he can with his tiny reptile toes. Poor Rocco is clearly petrified. He has lost his gum. Henry sees a tiny dot of pink right on the power button of his father’s remote control.

  “He probably jumped out of my pocket when he heard the vacuum!” Apollo says. “Lizards have very keen hearing, due to an absence of eardrums! They can hear better than snakes, even.”

  Henry admires Apollo’s intelligence, but this is not the time for random reptile facts. “Get him!” Henry says.

  Just as Apollo reaches out his hand, Rocco drops with terror onto the coffee table. He races like mad, right through the pyramid of Pendleton Pale Ale. The cans come tumbling down with a clatter. Mr. Every’s face turns red, and his jaw gets tight, and Henry knows what this means: He’s about to blow like a volcano.

  When his father blows like a volcano, well, imagine a feeling where your insides curl up like one of those charcoal snakes you light on the Fourth of July. Where you wish you could drop through the floor and disappear forever. Where you’re sure that hot lava will boil and burble over you until you become a fossil embedded in the earth.

  A Fossil Embedded in the Earth

  These are all the things Henry feels now. His shoulders hunch up in protection. The danger is a rumble underground, and there are tremors in the air itself. His father’s eyes narrow into slits. His mouth opens until it looks huge and devouring. This is bad, but then things get worse. Rocco leaps from the table and lands on the back of Button, who jets through the living room and across the kitchen floor and out her dog door like she just robbed a bank and Rocco is the loot.

  “ROAR,” his father says. Or something like that. That’s all Henry really hears.

  “Run!” Henry cries, because the first order of business is escaping his father’s meaty hand. They duck. Apollo flees from the room and races through the kitchen. Henry can practically feel the lava heat of his father’s anger behind him.

  Apollo flings open the back door. Henry sees Button, running at top speed. Button goes this fast only when she’s dashing under the bed to hide from his parents, or chasing a squirrel, or when she’s just grabbed the topmost prize, a chicken bone that missed the garbage can. Henry fears that an old chicken bone is not nearly as delicious to a dog as a fresh, wriggling reptile.

  “Quick! Get her!” Henry shouts. They hurry out that door as Button’s little white-and-brown backside rounds the corner of the house.