Read The Lightning-Struck Heart Online
Authors: TJ Klune
“I keep him,” Tiggy said. “He’s mine.”
“You can’t keep him,” the unicorn said. “He’s a
human
. Do you know how much upkeep they require? They eat and poop
all the time
.”
“Not all the time,” the boy said. “I feel I eat and poop the regular amount of time. Maybe even a little less.”
“He’s mine,” Tiggy said again. “I call him Steve.”
“Uhhh,” the boy said.
“Steve,” the unicorn said flatly. “That’s… okay. He looks like a Steve. I guess.”
“I’m not a Steve,” the boy said. “I’m a Sam.”
“Steve,” Tiggy said. “You’re Steve. My Steve. I love you, tiny Steve.”
Sam twisted in the half-giant’s arms until he could get level with his face. He reached out and squished Tiggy’s cheeks in his hand, making the half-giant pucker his lips. “Saaaaaam,” the boy said slowly. “Saaaaaaam.”
“Steeeeeeve,” Tiggy said.
“Oh my gods,” the unicorn muttered.
“You can keep me if you call me Sam,” the boy said.
Tiggy pouted.
“Aww,” Sam said. “That
face
.”
“Sam,” Tiggy said and Sam grinned. Tiggy sat down and held the boy in his lap. “I keep Sam,” he told the unicorn.
The unicorn leaned forward and snuffled along Sam’s face and neck and the boy laughed and laughed. The unicorn finished and stepped back. “You smell like magic,” he said finally.
“I’m a wizard.”
The unicorn waited.
“Okay. Not
quite
a wizard. An apprentice.”
“To who?”
“Morgan of Shadows,” Sam said proudly.
The unicorn looked suitably impressed. “You’re an apprentice to the King’s Wizard?”
“Yep. What’s your name? How old are you? Do you like cheese? I once ate a whole block of cheese by myself and threw up for six hours.”
The unicorn stared at him. Then, “Gary.”
“Your name is Gary,” Sam said.
“Yes.”
“Ah. That’s… not very unicorn-like.”
Gary scowled. “And what is unicorn-like?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. Like Princess Moon Cloud or Ethereal Tear or Star Shine.”
“You think a normal unicorn name is Princess Moon Cloud or Ethereal Tear or Star Shine.”
“Yes.”
Gary looked up at Tiggy. “Yes. We can keep him.”
Tiggy held him tighter.
They stayed in the clearing and Gary and Tiggy told him how they’d escaped from a traveling carnival where they’d both been held prisoner by a man named Koklanaris. He’d kept them in cages for months, charging humans to come in and gawk at them, calling them unnatural wonders of the mysterious world. One night, not long before they’d met Sam in the clearing, Koklanaris had gotten drunk and hadn’t properly redone the wards and dark charms that kept them in the cages. They’d escaped and run as far as they could until their legs grew tired and they could run no more.
Sam heard this story and felt a heavy weight on his heart. He reached out and touched Gary’s face, running his hands gently along his snout. “Did he take your horn?” he asked quietly.
Gary shuddered and shook his head. “That happened. Before.”
“You’re very pretty,” the boy said. “With or without it, you’re very pretty.”
And the unicorn said, “Thank you, little twink,” pressing his face against the boy’s.
They stayed the night in the clearing and the boy shared his food. They slept curled around each other until there came an angry snarl from the woods.
They woke instantly and the unicorn and the half-giant began to tremble.
Men stood in the clearing. Four of them, holding ropes and chains. There was one who seemed to lead the others. He stood in front of them, eyes shrewd and calculating. He was tall and imposing, looking as if he’d been carved cruelly from a mountain. His head was shaved and as Sam watched, he unfurled a whip in his hand.
“Those are my property, boy,” the man said. His voice was like gravel and it grated on the boy’s ears.
The boy shook his head. “They’re no one’s property. You can’t own what belongs to the world.”
Koklanaris (for there was no doubt in the boy’s mind who he was) said, “Is that so? And who are you to stand in my way?”
“Sam,” the boy said. “And these are my friends.”
“Monsters don’t have friends,” Koklanaris said. “They exist to make me money and nothing more. Step aside and let the adults handle this.”
“I am the apprentice to the King’s Wizard,” Sam said, standing tall. “You answer to the Crown, and I am an extension of that Crown.”
The men laughed. Koklanaris said, “Boy, I don’t give two shits who you are. Step aside before I kill you.” He cracked the whip, and Tiggy whined quietly in fear.
Sam had had enough.
There was an anger in him, then. That the hearts of men could be so dark that they could not see the beauty of the creatures before them. This Sam was not the same Sam who turned the boys to stone in that alley years before. This Sam was practiced. This Sam was controlled. This Sam had friends, finally had friends that he would do anything to protect.
This
Sam said, “Leave. I’ll give you one chance.”
Koklanaris raised his whip, and Sam raised his hands. Words came to him, words he’d never used before like
gre
and
san
and his fingers moved and twitched as the whip came down. Before the leather could crack against his skin, the green of the forest filled Sam’s eyes and instead of pain, Sam felt the flutter of wings.
He opened his eyes and saw the whip had turned into dozens of butterflies, and they fluttered in the moonlight, swirling around Sam and Koklanaris. Tiggy and Gary gasped behind him and the men behind Koklanaris took a step back.
Koklanaris grew angry. He raised his hand back to slap the boy, but the boy said, “I could kill you,” and Koklanaris hesitated.
“I really could,” the boy said pleasantly. “I could kill you with the smallest of thoughts.”
Koklanaris slapped him. The boy’s head rocked back.
Tiggy roared. Gary growled.
And Sam (who was not the boy in the alley anymore) said, “You shouldn’t have done that,” while raising his hands again.
The men in the clearing ran.
Koklanaris said, “You don’t scare me.”
“I do,” Sam said. “You’re sweating.”
“I smash,” Tiggy said in a low voice. “I smash so good.”
And the carnival man’s eyes widened in fear and he too left the clearing. He looked back only once but then he was gone.
They waited until the fleeing men could no longer be heard before they each let out the breaths they’d been holding.
“You okay?” Sam asked his friends.
And Tiggy picked him up again and held him close. He said, “Tiny Sam. Tiny Sam. Tiny Sam.”
They left when morning came.
As they reached the gates to the City of Lockes, people began to stare. They whispered about the boy from the slums who came back to the city from a wizard’s quest with a half-giant and a hornless unicorn.
Morgan waited for him at the castle gates with his mother and father. The King was there too, and he had a small smile on his face as he watched them approach. The Prince was not there, but Sam didn’t think too much on that.
Morgan said, “And what have you brought me?”
“Something unexpected,” Sam said proudly.
“You return from the wilds with a half-giant and a unicorn,” Morgan said. “That is
very
unexpected.”
But the boy shook his head. “That’s not the unexpected part.”
Morgan, in his infinite wisdom, said, “Oh?”
“I went into the wilds alone, and I returned with friends,” Sam said. “I’ve never had a friend on my own before. And now I have two. Unexpectedly.”
And the great wizard looked away and took a stuttering breath. When he looked back at the boy, his eyes were bright and he said, “I think the most unexpected thing of all is you, little one. Because no one could ever hope to fathom the wilds of your heart. You were sent out on a quest and returned with more than I could have ever believed. I will give you your name now. Because you’ve earned it.”
And the boy smiled so wide that it felt like his face would split. His parents cried, though his father would never admit to it. Even the King wiped away a tear, and Sam would make fun of him for years after because of it.
But he looked up at his mentor and said, “Yes, please. And thank you.”
Morgan of Shadows smiled and said that until the day of the Trials when he would become a full-fledged wizard, Sam Haversford, the strange and somewhat lonely boy from the slums, would be known as Sam of Wilds.
Gary said, “This has been the weirdest twenty-four hours ever.”
T
HE
FIRE
was almost out by the time I’d finished. My voice fell away and I looked over at my friends, still snoring and curled against each other.
“You love them,” Ryan said, the first time he’d spoken since I started the story.
“Very much,” I agreed. “I wouldn’t be who I am without them. We might fight with each other and piss each other off, but I would die for them. And they would die for me.”
“I don’t want you to die at all,” Ryan said quietly.
I looked over at him. He was staring up at the stars. “No one is dying,” I said.
“Sam.”
“What?”
“I….”
I waited.
“I knew you,” he said in a rush. “From before.”
I sat up quickly. “You did? How?”
He pushed himself up too, chewing on the inside of his cheek like he was
nervous
about something. He shook his head, steeling himself for
something
, and then did the most ridiculous thing. He covered his chest with his hands and said, “Please don’t make my nipples explode!”
I said, “What?”
He blushed and dropped his hands. He looked away again, then back at me, eyes searching for something. “You ever been turned to stone, Sam? It’s an interesting experience to say the least.”
“No. Fucking.
Way
,” I breathed. “
Nox
?
You’re
Nox?”
He shrugged. “In the flesh. Go by Ryan now, in case you didn’t notice.”
“But… but… you were such a
dick
,” I said, my voice going high. “What in the name of fuck?”
“I
was
a dick,” he corrected me. “Things change.”
“Um. No. Sometimes, you’re still a dick.”
He scowled at me. “Thanks.”
“How the hell did I not know this?” I asked. I was pretty sure my world felt completely altered.
“I grew up,” he said. “Worked out. Gained muscle. Joined the King’s Army. Got recruited into the knights. Came to the castle after that.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?” I asked. “At any point?”
He looked a little hurt. “Would you have even given me a chance if you’d known?”
“A chance for
what
?”
And
that
seemed to fluster him. “For… just… oh my gods. Sam. I don’t… friendship, okay? Like… or whatever.”
“Or whatever,” I echoed. “So, instead of telling me that you were the guy that stole Mrs. Kirkpatrick’s cloth, you decided to be dashing and immaculate.”
“Maybe?” he said with a wince.
I just stared at him, too many things running through my head, so many things I wanted to say to him. So, of course, I said the thing that mattered the least. “Why did you steal her cloth?”
He rolled his eyes. “I was a teenage asshole from the slums. I stole everything.”
And it hit me. Why my magic had manifested then. Why I’d been able to turn them to stone when I did. Why I’d done magic so complex without ever having done it before. Ryan had been there from the very first. He was my cornerstone, even then. He was the reason I was able to do what I did.
“Holy fucking shit,” I whispered.
“What?” he asked.
“I… don’t….” I shook my head. “I’m just… surprised. Of all the things you could have said, that’s probably the thing I expected the least.”
“Yeah, I figured as much. I don’t think I’ve ever seen your eyebrows go that high before.”
“It was very shocking,” I assured him. “The most shocking of all. Why now?”
“Why tell you now?”
I nodded.
He looked down at his hands. “I don’t know. You were telling me about Tiggy and Gary and it was personal and sweet, and I just couldn’t take the thought anymore of you not knowing who I was. You said you didn’t have friends before and there were times when we were kids that I wanted you to be my friend, but I didn’t know how to ask.”
“So you were a jerk instead,” I said. “Makes sense.”
“Teenagers usually do,” he said. And then he blurted, “I did it because of you.” He winced. “Ah shit.”
“Did what?”
He groaned. “Gods, forget I said that, okay?”
“Yeah, because when have I ever done that? Remember who you’re talking to here.”
“Sam.”
“
Nox
.”
“I am never going to hear the end of this, am I?”
“Not ever,” I agreed. “You have decades of this to look forward to. It probably would’ve been in your best interest to not have said anything at all. I will lord this over you until my dying breath, and at no point will I feel badly at doing so.”
For some reason, he didn’t look too upset at the prospect. In fact, his mouth curved gently upward. “Everyone talked about you. Even before the alleyway happened. ‘Little Sam,’ they said. ‘Little Sam who is going to do great things.’ They talked about you like you were this sight to behold, and when I saw you for the first time, I thought there’d been a mistake. I thought that this kid, this tiny little kid whose mouth never closed, couldn’t possibly be who they meant.”
He reached and stoked the fire with a stick I’d used before, the tip blackened and charred. The flame flared briefly, little sparks rising with the smoke. “But then, one day, you knocked me down and took a bag of cloth from my hand. Do you remember what you said to me?”
I shook my head. “I remember you glaring and me thinking I was going to die a painful death. That’s about it.”
He chuckled. “You looked down at me and said, ‘Don’t be a jerk, dude. You don’t have the right to take away something that makes other people happy.’ And then you grinned at me and started running.”