11

Mallory was surprised to see Caleb at the hospital. He had been very busy, not just with the Chorus-cart project, but his father had appointed him to oversee other projects around the city. It was odd what the sprites wanted to maintain and what they did not. For example, the Culture Co-op sprites wheeled around and continued to mow the grass in every yard and park in the city on the same schedule they always had since any of the citizens could remember. However, these same sprites previously maintained the flower gardens and the hedges with the direction of a member of the Culture Co-op, but these more aesthetic duties were completely discarded without the Dikaió. The flower gardens and hedges, being heavily watered from the recent storm, quickly overgrew their boundaries, and weeds sprouted up amongst the flowers. The Culture Co-op guild tried to compensate for the lack of mechanical help by using their hands, yanking out weeds and trying to prune the out-of-control flowers with their fingernails, but the work was slow and the plants, good and bad, were out-pacing them.

The City Council declared gardening an essential service and added it to the list of projects Caleb would oversee as heir to the Governorship. Their reason was that as the plants grew wilder, mosquitoes and other pests began to take up residency in them. However, the state of the wealthiest citizens’ prized flower gardens suggested that pride was more at the heart of the decree. However, the Council did tie Caleb’s hands somewhat in telling him that the Culture Co-op’s first responsibility was food production atop the skyscrapers downtown, so he could only have twenty members of the guild to get the flower gardens into shape. They were out every day with small silver scissors cutting branches and stems and pieces of old leaves, digging out the prolific weeds.

 

Another issue the City Council thought was important was getting the hydrant sprites to be more functional in case of another fire in the city. The loss of City Hall was devastating, and the city could not sustain more building losses. Ultimately, they hoped to figure out how to build structures again—their ancestors were able to, so they should be able to manage—but for now, maintaining what the city had was the goal. Caleb had come to Mallory’s house to ask her for help with that task.

 

He smiled in his usual ‘Caleb’ way at her door when he asked, but she was still confused about the way he had acted at the Sprite Rookery, and she was not sure she wanted to help him with any more of his projects.

“What do you want me to do, Caleb? I’m stuck in this cast.” She raised her incapacitated arm, so he could see it.

 

He just smiled, shrugged, and then held up his hands, palms facing her. “We’ll do it just like the carts, Mal. You tell me what to do, and I’ll be your hands.”

 

She wanted to tell him to use his hands to smack himself in the mouth, that annoying but charming mouth. Instead, she sighed, and said, “Okay, let’s see what we can find in my workshop.”

Caleb smiled sheepishly as Mallory took him back to a dilapidated shed behind the Matriarch’s house where she kept the various construction supplies that she found around town, which usually consisted of rusted hunks of metal and scrap wood. The occasional nail and screw were like gold, but the shed was mostly filled with junk. The doorframe to the shed was warped with age and wedged up against the doorjamb, so she usually had to use both arms and her entire body leaning back as a counterweight to tug it open. Since she was incapacitated, Caleb had to pull the door open for her, which he managed with one hand and a quick yank. She found his physical strength both impressive and deeply irritating. He held the door for her like a gentleman, so she gave him a smile anyway and entered the shed in front of him.

Inside, she was surprised to find all her construction supplies were gone—not a single rusty nail was left—but the shed was not empty. Someone had filled it with shiny silver sprite parts of all shapes and sizes. Mallory was set back for a moment and then asked, “Where did this come from?”

“We’ve got to learn how to live without the Dikaió, Mal, and while I can get people to do things, I can’t figure out how to join things together and use the old magic to make them do what I need. You’ve been an old-magic user your whole life, so I had your workshop here filled with supplies. Look at these,” Caleb pulled her over to the bench and desk. “Reddy managed to design some tools for you with the sprite steel they syphoned off for bolts and screws for the carts.”

Mallory picked up a silver-colored hammer in her hand—it was light as a feather. There was also a saw, a screwdriver, pliers, and a few wrenches that could fit different sized bolts. Caleb took the hammer and pounded it on the desktop: “They’re super durable like the sprites. Pretty much indestructible.”

Mallory did not say anything. She was overcome by an emotion she could not quite place. On the one hand, she was excited to use all the new equipment, but on the other hand, the loss of the old equipment felt like part of her childhood had passed away. She looked around the room at all the sprite parts and then her eye fell on something useful. She rushed over and pulled out a conical-shaped piece of metal. It might have been joined to a kitchen sprite for cooking, but it also looked similar to the nozzles on the end of the hose-like arms of the hydrant sprites. Then she grabbed some rubber tubing lying nearby. “Look,” Mallory called. She held the tube up to the narrow end of the conical steel. “If you were to attach this tubing to the hydrant sprite’s nozzle like so, and then make another nozzle on this side like so.” She moved the cone to the other side of the hose with the wide end on top. “Then you could redirect the water from the hydrant sprites wherever you wanted it to go.” She waved the makeshift nozzle back and forth making water noises, “shhhh shhhh shhhh.”

“Awesome, Mal! This will be perfect! How do we make a nozzle?”

Mallory laughed, “Well, you want a lot of water going in one end, and a smaller amount coming out this side—that way there’s pressure. The smaller the hole on this side, the more pressure. And the hydrant sprites are already supplying a lot of force behind the water, so I don’t think it has to be perfect to redirect the flow—just a tight fit. Let’s see,” she scanned all the parts and found some rubber gaskets in a small pail. She stretched them out and then put one on the hose, then the cone, and then another gasket, which cinched the end of the hose a bit tighter. “Yeah, something like this. I’d have to fiddle with it a bit. You might not even need the cone, just a gasket on the hose connected to a hydrant sprite’s nozzle.”

“There might be a couple of inactive hydrant sprites in the piles of un-birthed sprites at the Rookery. Maybe Reddy could find us some joined nozzles that we could cut off and attach to your hose?”

Mallory frowned, “Why do you call the Sprite Master by her first name?”

Caleb smiled, “Why? Are you jealous? Now what about my idea with the nozzles?”

Mallory shook her head. “The woman’s twice your age. What do I have to be jealous of?”

Caleb’s smile grew bigger. “We’re not going to talk about the nozzle anymore are we?”

“C’mon, Caleb. What’s the reason? It’s not normal for children to call adults by their name and not their title.”

Caleb’s smile faded, and he turned serious. “Mal, I’m eighteen. The Council appointed me to lead all these projects, and my father told me I should start to act like an adult, or no one will take me seriously. That means calling other adults by their first names.”

“Is that why you’re calling me ‘Ms. Knenne’ in front of others? To show off how grown-up you are?”

He paused and looked her in the eye. “Me growing up and taking my place among the city’s leaders also means I need to start thinking about getting married and starting a family. You know the customs, Mal. I’ll be expected to announce my choice for the Governess by my twentieth birthday, and my father says that with the Dikaió gone we need to hold to the old customs even more. The people can only handle so much crisis . . .” He paused when Mallory winced at the word crisis. “. . . I mean so much change. He’s been talking to your mother about uniting our houses with you or your sister; whoever is not going to be the Matriarch.” Then he reached down and took Mallory’s hand. “If I could, I would choose you, Mallory.”

“Would the old customs allow it?” Mallory pulled away, reeling from a conflict of emotions. “The Matriarch and the Governor enjoined? The balance of power would be upset.”

“Not if you let your sister be Matriarch. I mean, with the Dikaió gone, what difference would it make?”

Mallory stood up straighter and turned away slightly. “I feel like we’ve talked about this already, Caleb. With the Dikaió gone, I could be Matriarch as a Chorus just like my grandmother foresaw. The City Council can’t even argue that I shouldn’t be, as my sister won’t be a Syntec either. You’ll just have to wait until my sister comes of age for a wife, I guess.”

Caleb deflated and ended the conversation. He was not there to argue with her. “Thanks for your time, Mal. I may need some more help later. Would it be okay if I stopped by when the next crisis needs a solution?”

Mallory winced again. He’d switched back to ‘crisis’ on purpose, but she was not going to bite: “Of course, I’m always happy to help the heir to the Governorship.” Two could wage a war of words. She felt even more irritated with Caleb than when they were in the Sprite Rookery. Maybe it was frustration with his dismissal, or tradition, or her grandmother’s prophecy. Maybe it was that the confusing old dilemma was rearing up once again: duty or love.  She wished she had someone to talk to about her emotions—someone who had faced this dilemma before her. But Caleb was right that the city and its citizens loved their traditions, and it was impossible to find any empathy. Everyone here chose duty; love was always an afterthought.

Caleb left the shed without another word, carrying off the rubber tubing and cone. He had not called on her again since. In fact, she did not see him again until he surprised her and caught her arm inside the hospital entryway. She was even more surprised by how happy she felt in seeing him. Maybe love was stronger than duty.

“Caleb, what are you doing here?”

Caleb laughed, “You didn’t think I would miss out on the day you got your arm back, did you? Besides, once you’re free of this,” he tapped her cast, “I have something amazing to show you!”

He was so frustrating. Was he really standing there flirting without even a hint of acknowledging their last discussion? Did he still intend on convincing her to marry him? Part of her wished he would, and she did not want him to leave; the other part was still anguishing over the sense of purpose her grandmother’s prophecy had given her.

“What is it? Some more carts? Sprites that need alterations? Does the Culture guild need me to fashion spades and shears for them?” She loved the thought of a fresh project with two free hands.

“Spades and what?” Caleb shook his head with genuine mirth. “No, none of that. No more guessing. You’re not going to ruin my surprise. C’mon, let’s go get your arm free.”

He pulled Mallory down the corridor to the lobby and the reception desk. Silver sprites were running in and out of the medication room behind the desk, carting off little cups of pills on trays. An older nurse with a pixie cut of gray hair and bifocals sat at the desk, smiling and completely ignoring the sprites just like the staff used to in the days of the Dikaió.

The nurse looked at Caleb and Mallory and said, “Hello! What can I help you with?”

Mallory watched a sprite carrying a tray of medication cups run over to a pair of double doors that opened for it and disappear in the labyrinth of the hospital. Mallory asked, “So are the hospital sprites working properly again?”

The nurse looked at a sprite bringing its empty tray back to the medication room and shook her head, “Oh, heavens no—they seem to be fulfilling the same orders they were given on the night the magic ended. They carry those pills up to empty rooms, feed them to empty beds, and come back down here for more. We’ve got a whole team of orderlies who are just collecting the pills and bringing them back here for a pharmacist to sort out.” She huffed and looked over the rims of her glasses at them, “But that’s confidential, you know? Now, how can I help you two?”

Caleb grabbed Mallory’s cast and held up her arm nearly toppling her over with the shift in her center of gravity. “She’s ready for someone to take this thing off!”

“Name?” the nurse asked.

“Mallory Knenne,” Mallory answered.

The nurse pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, so she could get a closer look at who she was talking to. “Hmmm . . . so, you’re the one who caused all this trouble? You’ve been a real pain in the neck for me, you know that?”

Mallory and Caleb inhaled sharply.

“What?!” the nurse asked. “Afraid of some words, are you? If the Dikaió is really, truly gone, I can say whatever I want, and I’ll tell you something,” she pointed a withered finger at them, “I’ve never felt so free in all my life. I’ve had a lot going on up here,” she touched her head meaningfully and then touched her mouth, “that I could never let out here. It’s not such a big sacrifice if you ask me to give up a little convenience to say what you think. Not a big sacrifice at all.”

Mallory smiled. She liked this nurse. “Yes, I completely agree!”

“Don’t get friendly with me, Miss! That doesn’t mean I think you aren’t a troublemaker, putting the city in peril like you have. Just that I’m pleased to tell you as much. That’s all. Now, if you’ll come with me, I’ll lead you to the doctor to get that cast off, and I’ll mind you not to get too chatty on the way. I can’t have the rest of the staff thinking we’re chummy or anything, you know?”

Mallory hid her smile and pretended to button her lips. She looked at Caleb; he was staring at the old woman with his mouth agape. Mallory was probably the only other person he had heard speak her mind in his life. Mallory elbowed him gently in the ribs, and as if a spell had broken, he looked down at her. When he saw her hidden smile, his face broke into a grin, and his blue eyes twinkled. The nurse set off at a slow, hobbling pace to the same double doors they had wheeled Alex through six weeks ago.

Alex.

Mallory had wondered about how her friend was doing constantly since that night, but she had not heard any word on her condition since then. She cleared her throat and asked, “Is Alexandria Nelson out of the ICU yet?”

The old nurse answered without turning around, “That girl had a lot of troubles, but they managed to stabilize her a couple of weeks ago, sure enough. Going to have scars for life, but she’ll live. Just this week she was downgraded to a regular room . . . 220 on the second floor, if memory serves. Probably won’t be long now until she gets checked out of this place. Of course, that’s confidential information, you know?”

Mallory and Caleb smiled at each other. Their relief was palpable. Alex was going to be okay.

“Okay, son,” the old nurse said. “You’ll have to wait over there in the waiting room for your girlfriend here.” She pointed toward a small alcove with some uncomfortable looking rust-brown and khaki-plaid couches.

Mallory watched Caleb walk toward the room and thought he would likely be quite comfortable over there on the couches. It would be just like the old couch in the Book Club. The Book Club was something Mallory had thought a lot about over the last few weeks. With the city needing more old magic, she had desperately wanted to go to the Administrator’s attic to raid the collection of books locked away up there, but under what pretense could she go? The general sentiment of being anti-book had likely intensified among the City Council and the ruling class after another book had been to blame for the current crisis facing the city. She was still certain that if they knew there were at least a hundred volumes hidden away, they would take them out and destroy them—even if they held the keys to keeping the city alive. Now that she knew Alex was going to be getting out of the hospital soon, there was a chance to get to the books again, and together maybe the three of them could figure out some solutions to the new problems that losing the Dikaió had created.

The nurse pulled Mallory through a door, breaking her train of thought slightly. They entered a bright, artificially-lit hallway full of doors and no windows. Doctor Navarro was just walking out of a door on the left, her jacket and stethoscope swinging in the speed of her exit. She spotted Mallory and the old nurse and yelled, “Oh, you’re ready to get that cast off, are you?”

Mallory nodded.

“Put her in 17. I’ll be there in just a minute. I need to get a saw.”



Mallory’s eyebrows raised. “A saw?”

The nurse herded her toward the room with a smile. “’Course, honey! How do you think casts come off? Used to be the sprites would handle the sawing. They have little spinning blades. But we wouldn’t trust them not to take your arm with it, so now the doctors are sawing things themselves. Don’t worry, there’ve only been a few nicks. Nothing serious. And besides, if the doctor does cut too deep, you’re in a hospital—we’ll fix it right up!”

Mallory’s eyes widened to match her raised eyebrows, but there did not turn out to be much to worry about. Doctor Navarro appeared with a small handsaw and hacked the cast off with no muss. A cleaning sprite appeared out of nowhere and vacuumed up the pieces of cast, chips of bark, a butter knife, and plaster powder off the floor then disappeared just as quickly. She looked at her right arm, and a stranger’s arm was in its place. The arm was pale white and slightly shriveled. She wiggled her fingers and marveled that the wiggling mass of flesh was even attached to her. Then pins and needles rushed through her hand. She squirmed and shook her fingers trying to get rid of the sensation.

Doctor Navarro nodded, “You might notice a bit of tingling as more blood flow reaches your fingers. Make sure you get some sun, but not too much, because you don’t want a burn. Before you know it, you won’t be able to tell the difference. Also, please wash that arm now. There’s a sink and soap right over there.” She plugged her nose and waved her hand in front of her face.

Mallory lifted her newly-freed right arm to her nose, and it smelled a bit like a piece of musty old cheese. She jumped up and ran to the sink and started washing, and washing, and washing. Even with the hospital’s antiseptic soap, it was hard to get the musty smell off her arm, but eventually her arm at least smelled more like soap than a dirty sock. When she turned around, Doctor Navarro was gone, and the old nurse was standing impatiently by the door. Mallory quickly wiped around the sink, and the nurse led Mallory back to the waiting room and Caleb.

Caleb was sitting in the plaid chair, slumping with his shoulders hunched up by his ears and his legs spread out. His hands were clasped on top of his chest, and he was staring at the Dikaió ceiling light intently. Mallory looked up and saw the object of Caleb’s interest. A green and blue dragonfly had slipped inside the hospital, and it was perched upside down on the light. The girl and the dragonfly regarded one another for a moment; its small globular eyes tracking her movements, gauging the threat she might pose. Mallory’s eyes traced the feathery veins in the dragonfly’s wings in fascination. Her chest tightened, and she thought of her grandmother and about the curse she had put on her, which was now the whole city’s curse. She wished she were a child again without the burden of duty, when love ruled every moment of the day, and her dreams were more real than life.

Caleb looked up then and noticed Mallory standing in the room. “Ewww! Your arm’s all white and shriveled. It looks like a snakeskin!” he yelled.

Her eyes met his, and she smiled. “You want to touch it?” She reached out with her shriveled hand and flexed her fingers.

“No way!” He waved his hands to ward her off.

“It wants to touch you, Caleb Aiworth!” She ran for him, arm outstretched. He tried to melt out of the chair and roll away from her, but she pinned him with her knee in an instant, rubbing her white arm up and down his face while he squealed and squirmed. She laughed triumphantly, and soon his squeals turned into laughter too. Then Mallory sat up, still pinning Caleb with her knee, both of them laughing hysterically.

The old nurse cleared her throat behind them. Mallory had forgotten she had walked her to the waiting room and looked back at the nurse, flushing. The old woman was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed; her eyebrows were furrowed and her upper lip was curled in disgust. Mallory looked back down at Caleb, expecting even more amusement on his part. He always enjoyed making adults feel uncomfortable. Bright red color had blushed up through his cheeks, and there was embarrassment in his eyes. With a quick twist of his core and a shrug of his shoulders, he brushed Mallory off him. She felt her center of balance shift twice as Caleb bucked, and she spun through the air, landing sprawled out on the floor.

“Oof!” she exclaimed and just lay there looking up at the Dikaió light. The dragonfly was still there staring down at her; its perch unperturbed by the commotion below. Her grandmother’s winged messenger looked down at her with the same disgust the old nurse had on her face. It brushed its arms on its mouth and seemed to whisper the word ‘duty’ to the girl on the floor. Mallory’s eyebrows furrowed, and she stuck her tongue out at the dragonfly.

Meanwhile, Caleb jumped up, dusting himself off, and then he offered Mallory a hand to help her off the floor. His eyes were focused on the corner of the room to avoid the eyes of both the nurse and the girl he loved. Mallory looked from the dragonfly to Caleb’s hand and back again. She felt the decision before she made it, and she grabbed his hand with her shriveled white one and started to pull herself up. Her weight made Caleb look down at her momentarily, and when he saw which arm he was holding, he closed his eyes and sighed heavily. Mallory smirked at the snoopy, old nurse still staring down at the two of them. The nurse rolled her eyes, and then walked away leaving Mallory and Caleb alone in the waiting room.

When Mallory was right-side up, Caleb took back his hand and wiped it on his pants. “There’s something I wanted to show you,” he said without the earlier enthusiasm.

Mallory nodded but said, “First, I want to stop by and see Alex.”

“I don’t have a lot of time, Mal. There’s a lot to get done around the city. Can you see Alex another time?”

“Have you seen her since that night, Caleb?”

“No, I haven’t had time.”

“We’re her friends. Besides, she’s still the heir to the Administration. The Triad must remain united, right? Could the city really stand a crisis of future leadership after the crisis it just faced?”

Caleb looked down at his shoes, clearly uncomfortable to have his father’s words thrown back at him. “Okay, Mal. Let’s go see her.”

The Dikaió elevators were still running at the hospital, so they were able to rapidly reach the second floor and room 220. The door was open, but Mallory still knocked quietly. There was no answer. Mallory poked her head into the room. It looked very similar to the room she had been in just six weeks ago, but the furniture was flipped and situated on opposite sides of the room. Mallory glanced at the whiteboard and confirmed that Alex’s name was listed as the patient in residence. The other half of the board was blank, so Alex had the room to herself. Mallory walked cautiously into the room. The bed nearest the door was empty, and the curtain separating the beds was drawn. “Alex?” Mallory called as she stepped around the curtain to see her friend.

Alex startled at Mallory’s voice. She clearly had not heard the soft knock on the door, and she quickly grabbed a white knit blanket and threw it over her arm, but not before Mallory saw the white and red welts that ran like intertwined rivers up and down her forearm and onto the top of her hand. Otherwise, she looked good. Her face and her other arm were spared from any lasting marring from the fire. Her legs were covered by another knit blanket, so it was impossible to know if Alex had sustained any other scarring, but it looked like it was mostly the arm that had been trapped under the burning debris. Mallory’s gaze moved up Alex’s body until she was looking at her friend’s face, and her friend looked back at her with embarrassment. It was nearly the same look Caleb had given the old nurse in the waiting room.

Mallory’s chest tightened, and tears sprang into her eyes. “Oh, Alex! I’m so glad you’re okay!” She ran to the side of the bed with Alex’s good arm and fell on her friend in an unabashed embrace. Alex began to cry, and the two girls held each other for awhile, communicating without words.

Caleb cleared his throat and kicked at some imaginary dirt on the floor. “I’m glad you’re okay, too. Any room for another friend in this hug?”

Alex nodded, knocking off her knitted blanket as she reached for Caleb with her scarred arm. Then she realized what she’d done and tried to get it back beneath the blanket.

Caleb laughed, “I already had to touch Mallory’s creepy arm, I don’t mind getting hugged by yours, too.”

“What?” Alex looked perplexed, and then looked at Mallory’s white arm draped across her chest. “Gross, Mallory! Why?” She squirmed a bit like she was trying to get away, and Caleb laughed again. Then he grabbed Alex’s scarred arm and threw it around his neck, and the future of the city embraced in the hospital bed together for a time, swearing their fidelity to one another, imperfections and all, without speaking a single word.