“Yeah,” I said. “I can do this. Okay? I promise you.” I looked at each of them, one at a time, so they could see just how serious I was. “I’ll do so good. I’ll make you proud of me, okay?”
Dad’s breath hitched. “We’re already proud of you,” he said gruffly, because he was a Northern man who didn’t show weakness. “You are everything we could have ever asked for.”
“And we don’t need this for us,” Mom said, rubbing a hand up and down my back. “If we do this, it’ll be for you.”
“But why can’t it be for all of us?” I asked them.
And they both seemed to be at a loss for words.
Finally Dad said, “Well, I’ve always wanted to say that I lived inside of a castle. Maybe we could send a postcard to your mother, just to rub it in a little bit.”
Mom smacked his shoulder and said, “Josh!” but we could see the sparkle in her eye, fiery and bright. “Maybe just one.”
“Does that mean we can go?” I asked, wriggling in my dad’s arms.
Dad glanced at Mom, his eyes lingering on her before he looked back at me. He took a deep breath and said—
WE DIDN’T have much. But that was okay, because it meant it didn’t take long to pack. Morgan sat on my bed in my room, listening to me babble as I filled a pillowcase with everything I could lay my hands on. I told him I would need to meet the King right away, because I had some ideas about corn that I just couldn’t wait to share. Oh, and could I possibly be part of a parade the next time there was one? It didn’t need to be about me, I assured Morgan, and I didn’t even want to lead it. I just wanted to march in the parade like I’d seen other people do, and smile and wave at all the people who came to watch. “I’ve wanted to do that for the longest time,” I said, frowning at the drawer full of three hundred and forty-nine rocks. “Everyone in the parade always seems like they’re happy, and I want to be that happy too.”
“Have you been happy before?” Morgan asked me quietly.
I glanced at him before I closed the drawer. I wanted to seem like I didn’t need to bring much, so they wouldn’t get mad at me. I could leave the rock collection here. Maybe they’d let me start a new one.
I shrugged. “Most of the time. We had it pretty okay, for being in the slums. Hey! Maybe one day we could help all the other people here!”
“I’d like that very much,” Morgan said, looking down at his hands. “I know the King would too.” Then, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For how it was for you here.”
I smiled at him. “You didn’t know me before. It’s okay, dude. We’re cool now. Like, so cool, you don’t even know. I’m all done.”
He looked surprised. “That’s it? Just the one pillowcase that’s barely full?”
“Yeah. We don’t have a lot of stuff, you know? But Dad said we don’t need it, because we have each other and that is what’s important.”
“He’s a very smart man.”
“The smartest,” I agreed.
He stood up from my bed, accidentally bumping his head against the ceiling. He frowned up at it before looking back at me. “If you could have anything right now, anything your heart desired, what would you ask for?”
I thought for the longest time—at least a minute. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “You’ve already given me all I could ever want. It’s hard to think.”
He closed his eyes. “There isn’t anything at all?”
“Well, maybe like a turkey leg or something. We didn’t have a lot of dinner today because Dad says payday isn’t until next week. It happens sometimes.”
He snorted as he opened his eyes again. “Out of everything in the world, a turkey leg is what you wish for the most. You…. Okay. Let’s go get you that turkey leg.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Yes!” I fist-pumped the air. “Can my dad have one too? He gave me his food today. He said he wasn’t hungry, but he is such a liar sometimes. I mean, come on, right? I’m always hungry, and Dad is, like, a hundred times bigger than me, so he has to be hungry too.”
“Right,” Morgan echoed. “Yes. Of course, yes. And for your mother too. All the turkey legs you could ever want.”
“Dude,” I breathed. “So awesome.”
I took his hand and pulled him away from my room.
And I never went back.
THE SUN was beginning to set as we stood out on the street in front of the house. People were watching curiously, peering through their windows or standing in their doorways. I waved at them. Some of them even waved back.
Dad stood next to Pete, Mom in his arms, her head on his chest as they looked at the house. It wasn’t the nicest house in the world; it wasn’t even the nicest house in the slums. But it had been our home for as long as I could remember. We had been happy there, most of the time. Dad had been right when he said that as long as we had each other, we’d be okay. I tried to see what my parents saw when they looked at the house, but the promise of a future full of adventure tugged on me more than the memories the house held.
Mom wiped her eyes, but she was smiling.
Dad kissed her forehead, and he was smiling too.
I liked it when they smiled.
The knights had loaded up a horse-drawn cart with our belongings. Pete climbed up in front, took the reins, and rested them in his lap. “You ready, kiddo?” he asked, looking down at me.
“The readiest ever,” I said as seriously as I could.
“You want to ride with me?”
I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head. “Wizards don’t need to ride like that. We’ve got legs.”
He laughed. Then he flicked the reins and clicked his tongue, and the old horses began to move forward, the cart’s large wheels clacking along the cobblestones. The few knights marched in formation behind him, shields strapped to their backs, swords at their sides.
Mom and Dad followed, hands clasped.
I grabbed Morgan’s hand again, demanding he tell me all about the castle before we got there so I would know what to expect.
I only looked back once, head already filling with Morgan’s descriptions of the King and the Prince, the throne room and the gardens. Right before we turned the corner, leaving my old life behind, I felt a tug of something at the back of my head, like a whisper only I could hear. I glanced over my shoulder and saw someone I didn’t expect watching me.
Nox.
He stood in the middle of the street, brow furrowed, mouth in a thin line. He was breathing heavily, like he’d just run a great distance. I told myself that maybe he’d heard that something strange was happening at the Haversford home and came to snoop. I regretted leaving my rock collection, sure he was going to steal it. But I didn’t want to go back for it. That life was over.
I could have ignored him.
I could have stuck my tongue out at him.
But I didn’t.
I didn’t, because even though Nox was a bully, even though he was the poster boy of teenage douchebag, he was staying in the slums while I was leaving. And it almost looked like he was upset about something, but I didn’t know what.
So instead of being a jerk, I raised my hand in his direction and waved, just a little.
He surprised me by waving back, a forlorn shake of his hand from side to side.