Rise of the Evening Star

That’s why I don’t need the milk to see anymore?

And why Warren found himself drawn to you. And why you understand Goblush, along with, I imagine, the other tongues derived from Silvian, the language of the fairies. Your grandfather has been in touch with me regarding the new abilities you have been manifesting. The

Sphinx leaned forward and tapped the little gong with the hammer again.

Kendra took another sip from her mug. This morning,

Coulter was showing us a ball protected by a distracter spell.

Seth couldn’t pick it up; he kept losing focus and getting170 redirected someplace else. But it didn’t work on me. I couldgrab it just fine.

You have apparently developed resistance to mind control.

Kendra wrinkled her brow. Tanu gave me a potion that made me feel ashamed, and it worked just fine.

The potion would have been manipulating your emotions.

Mind control functions differently. Pay close attention to all the new abilities you discover. Report them to your grandfather. Unless I am mistaken, you are only beginning to scratch the surface.

The thought was thrilling and terrifying. I’m still a human, right?

You are something more than human, the Sphinx said.

But your humanity and your mortality remain intact.

Are you a human?

He smiled, his teeth shockingly white in contrast to his black skin. I am an anachronism. A holdover from long-forgotten times. I have seen learning come and go, empires rise and fall. Consider me your guardian angel. I would like to conduct a simple experiment. Do you mind?

Is it safe?

Completely. But if I am right, it could provide the answer to why the Society of the Evening Star has shown such interest in you.

Okay.

A pair of short copper rods rested on the table. The

Sphinx picked up one and handed it to Kendra. Hand me the other one, the Sphinx said. After Kendra complied, he171 held his rod in both hands, one at each end of the rod.Hold your rod like me, he instructed.

Kendra had been holding the slender rod in one hand.

The instant her other hand touched it, she felt a sensation like she was falling backwards through the chair. And then it passed. And she was inexplicably sitting where the Sphinx had been sitting, and he was seated in her chair. They had instantaneously switched places.

The Sphinx released one hand from the rod and then grabbed it again. The moment his hand came back into contact with the rod, Kendra felt her insides lurch again, and suddenly she was sitting back in her former chair.

The Sphinx set the rod down on the table, and Kendra did likewise. We teleported? Kendra asked.

The rods enable users to trade locations over short distances.

But that is not what makes what happened unusual.

Those rods have been dead for decades, useless, drained of all energy. Your touch recharged them.

Really?

Fairykind are known to radiate magical energy in a unique way. The world is full of burned-out magical tools.

Your touch would revitalize them. This amazing ability alone would make you tremendously valuable to the Society of the

Evening Star. I wonder how they know. An educated guess, perhaps?

Do they have a lot of things that need recharging?

The Sphinx tapped the gong again. No doubt, but

I refer more directly to the five hidden artifacts your grandparents told you about. The ones on the five secret172 preserves. If any of them lie dormant, as is likely, your touchwould reactivate them. All five would have to be functional in order for the Society to achieve their goal of opening

Zzyzx and freeing the demons. Without your gift, reactivating talismans of such monumental power would be most difficult.

Here’s what I don’t get, Kendra said. Why have keys to the prison? Why not make a demon prison without keys?

The Sphinx nodded as if he approved of the question.

There is a fundamental principle of magic that applies to many other things as well: Everything with a beginning has an ending. Any magic that can be done, can be undone.

Anything you can make, can be unmade. In other words, any prison you can create, can be destroyed. Any lock can be broken. To construct an impenetrable prison is impossible.

Those who have tried have invariably failed. The magic becomes unstable and unravels. If it has a beginning, it must have an end.

The wise learned that rather than attempting to make a prison impenetrable, they should focus on making it extraordinarily complicated to open. The strongest prisons, like

Zzyzx, were crafted by those who understood that the goal was to make them nearly impenetrable, as close to perfect as possible without crossing the line. Because there is a way to open Zzyzx, the magic that holds the demons bound remains potent. The principle sounds simple, although the details become quite complicated.

Kendra shifted in her seat. So if the Society just173 destroyed the keys, would that unravel the magic and openthe prison?

Nimble thinking, the Sphinx said, dark eyes twinkling.

Three problems. First, the keys are virtually indestructible-note that I say virtually; they were made by the same experts who created the prison. Second, if my research is correct, a fail-safe would cause any destroyed key to be reconstituted in a different form in an unpredictable location, and that process could go on almost indefinitely.

And third, if the Society were somehow to free the demons by permanently destroying an artifact, they would become victims like the rest of humanity. The Society must parley with the demons before their release in order to obtain any measure of security, which means they must open the prison properly rather than simply undermine the magic that upholds it.

Kendra drank the last of her cream soda, ice tumbling against her lips. So they can’t succeed without the artifacts.

Therefore we must keep the artifacts from them. Which is easier said than done. One of the great virtues of the

Society is patience. They make no rash moves. They research and plan and prepare. They wait for the ideal opportunities. They understand that they have an unlimited amount of time in which to succeed. To them, it is the same to achieve their aims in a thousand years as it would be to triumph tomorrow. Patience mimics the power of infinity.

And nobody can win a staring contest with infinity. No matter how long you last, infinity is just getting started.174 But they aren’t infinity, Kendra said.The Sphinx blinked. True. And so we attempt to equal their patience and diligence. We do our best to stay far ahead of them. Part of that means moving an artifact once they learn its location, as we fear has happened with the artifact at Fablehaven. Otherwise, somehow, sometime, they will exploit a mistake and lay hands on it.

Grandpa mentioned another endangered artifact, in

Brazil.

Some of my best people are working on it. I believe the artifact remains on the fallen preserve, and I believe we will retrieve it first. He threw up his hands. If the Society manages to recover it, we will have to steal it back.