Page 66 of Junk Magic

“We went to the beach one time,” she said, after a minute. “I’d never been. My parents were always going to take me, but then the Corps came. . . I was so excited. So scared but so thrilled to be getting out for once, to see the waves, to splash in the water, to sit in the sun and eat a terrible hot dog. To be normal, just for a day . . .

“And they ruined it. There were so many war mages, just so many. I was only ten, and the rest of my class weren’t much older, but they sent an army to guard us. They kept their hands on their weapons most of the time, and followed every move we made with suspicion. I finally asked one, ‘why don’t you just kill us?’ Because it was obvious to me, even then, that they hated and feared us.

“Do you know what he said?” she asked, turning to me. “Do you know what he told a ten-year-old girl?”

I shook my head.

“You haven’t done anything . . .yet.”

I winced, but didn’t reply. I wasn’t sure what to say. I’d have liked to wring that man’s neck, but honestly, the same sentiment might have come from half the Corps.

Those special schools took manpower to guard and were expensive to operate. Plus, they perpetuated the problem in a lot of people’s eyes. Some of the kids grew up, got out, and had kids of their own, sending that so-called junk magic into the next generation.

Of course, when pressed as to what the alternative was, that same group tended to get cagey. Nobody liked to remember when people like Sophie were just quietly disposed of, with the argument that it was good for the magical community. Or later, in a slightly more enlightened age, when they were sterilized, to ensure that their problems died with them.

No, nobody liked to remember that.

But you could see it in their eyes sometimes.

I bet Sophie had seen it a lot.

“Some are crazy,” she admitted, still staring outward. “I don’t dispute that. I hear them sometimes at night, screaming themselves hoarse in the basement, in warded cells they never leave. Until they take them away, and nobody ever sees them again. I used to wonder: did they start out that way? Or did they start out like me, but weren’t able to learn enough control?

“And will we end up like that? Me or Kimmie or Dimas . . .”

She shook her head after a moment, and glanced at me. “But staying is a risk, too, right? We’re cannon fodder, just like you. We’re all supposed to die on cue, and maybe take a few of the other side with us.”

“Maybe,” I agreed steadily.

She frowned, looking genuinely puzzled. “You just say things, don’t you?”

“You levelled with me. I thought you wanted the same. Or would you prefer a lie?”

“No.”

And, for the first time since I met her, Sophie seemed to be listening. Not with hackles raised, defensive before I even opened my mouth, but genuinely, sincerely. I decided to honor that.

“They did this before, in the Middle Ages,” I told her. “During the Vampire Wars. Gave people willing to risk their lives a pass from the murder squads who used to hunt them. Gave them a way out.

“But freedom came at a price, and a lot of those who volunteered never came back. This is war, and you’re too young to fight it. But so are the rest of the students I’ve been getting lately. You’re seventeen, right?”

She nodded. “Well, in a month.”

I tried and probably failed to keep the anger off my face. “That means you’re only a year or two younger than them. Too young—far too young. Still a child, but fighting an adult’s war. We’re eating our own, but if we don’t . . .”

I stopped myself, because honesty or not, there were some things she didn’t need to hear. Some things I wished I didn’t know. It was an ugly fight, and getting uglier as the war dragged on and both sides became more desperate.

“There’s no good solution,” I finally said. “But you don’t have to do this. You can go back to the schools you came from, buckle down, bite your lip when you want to answer back, and do what you must to get out of there. And maybe, by then, this will all be over.”

“Or it’ll be worse,” she said steadily.

“Or it will be worse,” I agreed. But maybe that wasn’t her problem. Why fight for a world who hated and repressed you? For a moment, I was afraid she’d ask, because I didn’t have a good answer.

Or any at all.

But she didn’t. “And if we stay?”

“I will train you, and try my best to protect you. But there are no guarantees.”

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