School by Nathaniel Hardman (top reads .TXT) 📕

been staring out the window, “You should ask again if you can go to the school today. And if they say no, we should ask if we can talk to Ushegg. Get him to talk to his dad, pull some strings.”

Peter said, “His dad was the maddest one. He’s not going to help.” He didn’t look up from the UNO game, but continued, “We should break out. Maybe go through the ceiling again, and get those wands.”

“Yeah, maybe,” said Jeff. He had been fooling around with something at the window, and now Suzy saw it was a makeshift rope made from knotted garbage bags. He saw her looking and made to hide it, then shrugged and held it up. “I’m just thinking... IN CASE... you know. We’re so close. If they don’t let us out, maybe we could climb down and make a run for it. It’s not that far…” He broke off as he saw, through the window, a form riding out the main gate on spiderback. “Hey, I think that’s Ushegg’s dad. Maybe we should ask now.”

Suzy pursed her lips, then nodded. “All right. Might as well.”

It turned out easier than she expected. The guards at the end of the hall were deep in discussion when they approached and hardly seemed to notice, waving them past as they continued in an intense whisper.

Suzy heard, “This has to be it. The Chushr are coming rulx bug,” to which the other responded, “But we biaysrx be otyu to kuy it from here.”

In the courtyard, one of the guards tried to stop them, but Jeff smiled and said something semi-coherent about the guards inside wanting them to go to zvuiy. The soldier grumbled something about asking Boshk.

Jeff said “Igoth,” okay, and kept walking.

The guard seemed to be debating whether to bother stopping him, but finally turned away with a shrug. Suzy caught up to Jeff, and together, they were off.

In the city, there were lots of people about, talking in excited tones, so when they arrived at the field in front of the school, Suzy wasn’t surprised to see no one was playing – just standing around, comparing notes on the last few days. Several pointed up as they talked.

They perked up when they saw Jeff and Suzy, and Shovuy came over and launched into a too-detailed account of all that had happened at school for the last two days, including that school had actually been dismissed early yesterday because everyone had been so agitated.

Qush Yurwush came out and ushered them into the school. He seemed especially cheerful during his first lesson, speaking with great animation about something called the “Chushr”, pulling out a map, which under normal circumstances would have fascinated Suzy. Today, she just wanted to get to the wands.

When the first lesson wrapped up and Yurwush opened the door, she almost ran past him to the courtyard.

“Shovuy,” she said, grabbing her friend by the hand and pulling her over to her tree, “How do...” and she mimed grabbing the tree and pulling it out.

Shovuy’s eyes widened, and she shook her head and babbled back something with a lot of ri’s in it. Suzy shook her head back and said her own RI, “I need...” and she reached toward her tree and repeated her pulling motion.

“Qush Yurwush,” Shovuy called. Suzy frowned at this betrayal, but when the teacher came over, Shovuy seemed to be asking for his help rather than tattling. Yurwush listened, tight-lipped, then turned to Suzy.

“You want to chegg the tree?” Yurwush leaned toward her, his eyes drilling into hers.

Suzy nodded.

“You nerg you can jorsyu it?” He asked, and once more, she nodded. So did Yurwursh. He straightened and called to the class, “Come!”

As the class gathered at the back wall around Suzy’s tree, Qush Yurwush gave instruction. Suzy didn’t get much, but she heard “kepx” – fight – again, and Qush Yurwush repeated the words of the spell several times for her.

Down on his knees, Yurwush mimed digging his hand into the ground and grabbing the tree from beneath. He looked meaningfully at Suzy, who nodded back.

Suzy wondered suddenly why Jeff wasn’t going first. She glared at him, and he started back, confused. She turned to the tree, took a deep breath and wriggled her hand into the dirt, which was remarkably crumbly and loose.

As Suzy wormed through the dirt to the base of the tree, Yurwush prompted her, “Shixz er, tshorvuz er...” Suzy felt the familiar sting in her hand as the first of the roots found her fingers, but she ignored it and began the chant. She wished she understood more of it. “Shixz in, tshorvuz in, oyetu in my hand, my wand.”

Suzy glanced up at Yurwush, who nodded and motioned for her to keep going. She repeated the words and dug her hand in deeper. She almost had a grip on the central root directly below the stem. And then something drove into her palm, hard.

Suzy gasped and barely stopped from jerking her hand away. So that’s why he kept saying FIGHT. She gritted her teeth, closed her hand tightly on the root, and started pulling up on the tree. Yurwush put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head emphatically. “Shixz er, tshorvuz er,” he prompted.

“Are you kidding me?” Suzy muttered. She closed her eyes for a minute. It’s a good thing they can heal stuff, she thought. Voice shaking, she re-started the chant.

Another, deeper stab of pain. Suzy could feel it MOVING, writhing and digging its way through her hand. Suzy thrashed out with her other hand and was surprised to find Jeff there, kneeling by her. She wrapped her hand around his arm and shouted, “Oyetu in my hand, my wand!”

Something changed. There was less pain. Suzy looked at the tree, then did a double-take. It was smaller.

Yurwush prodded her, and