School Nathaniel Hardman (the best ebook reader for android txt) 📖

TWENTY ONE

Tuynomosh rubbed absently at a bruise on his chest. The projectile weapons on this planet packed a punch, even if they couldn’t actually hit him. He had been knocked around earlier, more than he liked to admit. He would need new beads.

Shegush was giving him a report – armored wagons and warriors still surrounded the castle, but they weren’t attacking. And the flying machines were holding back now. Tuynomosh frowned. That made it hard for him to do what he needed to do on this planet, this “Earth.”

Boshk had said earlier that the castle had taken the place of a school. Perhaps it was time to use that. Everyone loves children.

The king stood abruptly, cutting off Shegush. “Choose a man,” he said, and strode out of the room.

By the time he reached the main doors, Shegush was at his side with a breathless young soldier, Feququth, in tow. Tuynomosh looked the youth over, nodded, and struck the boy’s shoulder companionably. The guards threw open the door, and they walked out, Shegush in the lead.

Tuynomosh held back a smile as they walked across the no-man’s land, watching these Earth-people scurry. Twenty paces from the armored wagons, Shegush stopped.

One of the Earth-warriors stepped forward. Shegush addressed this one and said, “That you may understand we have your children, and you would be wise not to interfere with us.” The Earth-people wouldn’t understand the words, but it didn’t matter. They would see soon enough.

Tuynomosh pointed his wand at young Feququth and began to whisper as the Earth-man responded to Shegush. “Feququth to alien, alien to Feququth, Earth to Uoshn, Uoshn to Earth, switch. Feququth to alien...” he chant-whispered for a half minute, letting the power build. The spell didn’t really require this much power, but he wanted to make sure he got the right target.

Just as he saw that the Earth-people were beginning to notice the power gathering around him, he whispered, “Oqur!”

Feququth was gone, replaced by a fat, middle-aged Earth-man wearing glasses. He appeared in sitting position, but without a chair, so he immediately fell to the ground in a heap.

The man looked around, gaping, first at Tuynomosh, then at the soldiers, then at the castle behind him. Tuynomosh saw terror and confusion in his eyes, then growing hope as he recognized his planet.

Shegush jerked the man to his feet. “Speak to them,” he said, pointing to the line of excited Earth-soldiers.

The Earth man stammered back a question in their unintelligible language. Shegush repeated himself, shook the man, and pointed to the Earth-warriors, many of whom were now pointing and yelling.

The Earth man called to the nearest person he could see, the human spokesman, who blared something back[4] through his voice-amplifying device.

The Earth man responded, then asked a question in a hopeful tone. Tuynomosh could feel the excitement from the crowd as the spokesman and the man conversed.[5]

Tuynomosh stopped listening and began to whisper. This would be enough. Let them see who had the power, who had the children.

He didn’t build the spell up this time; it didn’t matter so much if it found the right target. Just, “Oyeur xi Feququth, zbexvu,” and the Earth-man was gone, replaced by the young soldier. Tuynomosh nodded.

There was uproar among the Earth-people, but Tuynomosh ignored it as he strode back to the castle. They would know now that their children could be brought back. And while they believed in that possibility, they would wait, begging and praying and above all, not shooting him with those fearsome projectiles.

It was one less thing to occupy his attention while he puzzled out how to work the Great Magic, how to break the Chushr.

TWENTY TWO

They had only recently returned from the morning trip to the outhouses – not Suzy’s favorite experience, but better than peeing out the window – when the guards opened the classroom door.

She noticed Jeff and Nacho scramble to hide something as one of the guards came into the room and looked around, inspecting their faces. Finally, his gaze settled on Suzy. “Thia,” he said, pointing at her. Then he motioned her to come. “Ggicu jushu[6].”

Suzy stared at him wide-eyed, then looked to her classmates. Paola scooted away several feet. Jeff stood up and said, “You can’t take Suzy!” The guard looked at him for a long moment, scrutinizing his face, then nodded.

“Thia xi, ggiqu ben qu.” He was motioning for both of them to come now. There was a long moment of hesitation that ended when the other guard lost his patience, pulled out his wand, and started yelling things. Suzy took Jeff’s hand, and they scuttled out into the hall, Jeff pausing to slip something to Nacho.

Into the hallway, down the stairs, through the hall, and Suzy’s mind was racing all the time. Jeff whispered, “No worries. They probably just want to ask us some questions.” Suzy didn’t bother pointing out how unlikely that was, considering the aliens couldn’t speak English.

Through the front doors, out into the courtyard, and there, waiting for them with a wide grin, was one of the alien boys from yesterday, the captain of the two-man soccer team. The sight of him brought Suzy up short. Of all the explanations that had occurred to her on the walk down, this was not one.

“Juth cathz,” the boy said, his enthusiasm bubbling over, “Quth sos zothz thia ggor ggiqu ben qu xi zvuiy xisoth!”

Suzy had no idea what he was saying, but she relaxed marginally and began to breathe easier. Jeff whispered, “I guess they’re not taking us to harvest us for meat after all.” Suzy gaped at him. He shrugged. “That was my guess.”

The boy waved for them to follow and headed toward the front gate in the wall. Suzy looked from the boy to the guards and back. “But, we can’t...” She