Chapter 53: Statue of Liberty VS Dragons

  What did I offer? What could I offer? I had no idea how to access my bag in the state I was in.

  “What do you want?” I asked, wondering what I could possibly offer a Primordial.

  It floated in silence for a few seconds before giving me a reply. “You’re an interesting one. I’ll give you that. Most mortals can’t survive in here, yet you’ve found a way to convince your shadow to betray our kind. I’ll offer you a deal. Make a pact with me, and your blood will carry my essence.”

  “Does that mean I can use my blood to make the bag work?” I asked.

  “Yes,” the Primordial hissed in reply.

  I grinned, holding out a shadowy hand. “Deal!”

  Rather than accept the handshake, the Primordial lashed out, leaving a long gash that stood out, red in the dark.

  “Ow!” I groaned, covering the wound with my other hand. “Why did you do that?”

  “It is done,” the Primordial said, his voice sounding more human, though no less sinister. “You are not a suitable host, but with my blood coursing through your veins, one of your offspring is sure to be.”

  “My offspring?” I asked. “What if I don’t have kids?”

  The Primordial shrugged. “That is a risk I am willing to take. Perhaps I will take control of your body when you are done with it.”

  A shiver ran down my spine as I pictured it using my corpse like a sock puppet. “Can I go now?”

  The Primordial floated back a few feet. “You are free to go whenever your shadow chooses to return you to your realm. Should you require my assistance again, speak my name.”

  “What is your…” But it was too late. The darkness imploded, and I was once again bathed in light.

  I wasn’t in the library anymore. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the sunlight. When they finally did, the first thing I saw was the Statue of Liberty towering over me. A harbor full of water stood between me and where I needed to be.

  I was just starting to panic when a large gloved hand patted me on the shoulder. “Hey there. You lost, Son? Don’t tell me you swam out here.”

  “I…” I hesitated, unable to come up with a plausible story for how I got to Liberty Island.

  The man smiled down at me. “It’s okay. You’re not in any trouble. Did you run away from your parents?”

  “Uh, no,” I answered honestly. “My parents both died. I’m an orphan.”

  He sighed. “Ah, yeah. There’s too much of that going around with this depression. Tell you what, Kid. Come with me and I’ll see to it that you’re on the next ferry so you can get back to town.”

  I perked up. Problem solved. “That would be great, Sir. Thank you so much.”

  “Think nothing of it,” he replied with a smirk. “So, did you come out here to climb the Copper Lady?”

  I looked back up at the statue, unable to come up with any other reason I was on the island. “Uh, yeah.”

  “Normally I have to charge ten cents for that sort of thing,” he said, turning me toward the statue. “But I’ll tell you what, I’ll let you climb her for free. Just be back down here in twenty minutes. That outta give you enough time to catch the next ferry. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait another hour for the next one.”

  “Okay…” I hesitated for a moment before remembering my manners. “Thank you very much, Sir.”

  “Think nothing of it,” he repeated, ushering me to an iron-framed double door that led into the star-shaped pedestal at the base of the statue. “Twenty minutes. Don’t forget.”

  “I won’t,” I promised as I made my way toward the coiling stairs that led up the statue’s innards.

  Analysis: Golem Inactive. Fuel at 2%. Minimum 10% Etherite required to activate.

  I gaped at the message. Was the Statue of Liberty a weapon of some sort? And if so, what for? I looked for signs of magic as I ascended the interior of the statue. The smell of oil and metal left a coppery taste in my mouth that I imagined to be the lifeblood of the machine. Analysis worked in overdrive as it pointed out flaw after flaw and how they could cause the golem to malfunction. Apparently, it hadn’t been activated for some time and would require a little loving care to get it back in fighting shape.

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  As I got closer to the top, Analysis painted a different picture.

  Error: Damage detected. Frame Bent. It is unsafe to proceed into the torch arm. Reinforcement is required for full functionality.

  Red spots lit up the walls where my skill determined the damage to be the worst. It made me nervous, so I quickly descended the stairs and exited the statue.

  “That was quick,” the man said when he saw me return. “I figured you’d stay in there until you saw the ferry.”

  “I think it’s broken,” I said, pointing up at the torch. “That part is a little bent.”

  He gave me a knowing smile. “Ah, yes, you noticed. The old lady was damaged during the war. Those Krauts nearly sunk half of Jersey with that blast.”

  “What blast?” I asked.

  The man smiled. “Ah, that’s right. It would have happened before you were born. Back during the Great War, just over there on Black Tom Island. The explosion twisted the old lady up good. She’s never been the same since.”

  I looked up at the statue again, wondering how hard it would be to fix. The fact that it was a machine or some sort further complicated matters. I doubted ordinary craftsmen could fix it at all.

  “Ah, here she comes,” the man said, pointing to a ferry approaching in the distance. “Come on. Let’s get you home.”

  I beelined straight for the shopping arcade after I got back, eager to start work on a new bag.

  “Did you know the Statue of Liberty is a machine?” I asked excitedly, interrupting a conversation between Mr. Yu and Miss Drips.

  Mr. Yu waggled a finger at me. “The correct term is automaton. And yes, I’m well aware. I was around when they brought her over.”

  I had to wrack my brain to remember when exactly it was that the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York. I knew it was a gift…from somewhere. “What exactly is an automaton?”

  He patted the chair beside him. “Have a seat. This is some advanced-level crafting, and it’s going to take a while to explain all the moving parts.”

  I did as instructed, but what he said didn’t make sense. “I climbed the inside of that thing. There are no moving parts.”

  “To the naked eye,” he said. “I’m surprised that skill of yours didn’t show you the magitech that makes her go.”

  “It did tell me she’s broken,” I shot back defensively. “Her arm is bent.”

  “Yeah,” Mr. Yu twirled a beard I hadn’t noticed before as he spoke. “That was some battle. We should probably look into repairing her before the next big war.”

  “War?” I asked.

  He chuckled. “It’s nothing for kids to worry about. Magic wars are different from normal ones. We decide most disputes with big magic. Civilians like you don’t have to get involved unless you wish to. In the case of the Statue of Liberty, she fought a fire-breathing dragon to settle a trade dispute with Europe. Needless to say, we won.”

  “A trade dispute?” I asked in disbelief. “The guard at the statue said it was an explosion caused by the Germans.”

  Miss Drips chuckled. “There was an explosion. The big lady used her special attack.”

  “Special attack?” I asked, flabbergasted. “What kind of attack can a statue have?”

  Mr. Yu chuckled. “The attack has a fancy name, but it’s just a fireball when you think about it. It’s simple magic, just on a very large scale. Anyhow, it sent the invader right back where he came from. The damage to the statue has been kept a secret…for the most part.”

  “That’s amazing,” I swooned. “Do you think I’ll get to watch a battle like that someday?”

  Mr. Yu and Miss Drips shared a knowing glance. He chuckled when he replied. “Leave it up to the youth to romanticize war. You might not believe it now, but peace is always a better option. We try to handle international disputes in a civil manner, but that often bleeds out into the non-magical world, and those wars do suffer casualties.”

  I still wanted to see the Statue of Liberty fight some unknown invader, but I kept my mouth shut about that. Instead, I started gathering supplies.

  “You guys are going to love this,” I announced as I prepared a ragged bag that just happened to be in Mr. Yu’s pile of rubbish.

  They leaned over my shoulder as I worked. Fortunately, Madam Hurst had let me keep the quill and some extra parchment, so crafting the spell was a piece of cake. Mr. Yu frowned when he saw what I was doing.

  “Are you printing copies of your techniques?”

  I waved him off. “Wait till you see what I do with it.”

  I set the newly minted Mimic scroll aside and focused on the bag in front of me. When Analysis didn’t immediately pop up with instructions, I spoke out loud. “Now, how do I use the essence in place of a shadow thread?"

  Analysis: Coat any thread with Primordial essence. Your blood should contain sufficient essence for this purpose.

  It took a while after that to find a needle to prick my finger with. When I did, Miss Drips stopped me before I could do it.

  “Sterilize that first,” she announced. “You don’t know what any of this junk has been used for.”

  “What are you calling junk?” Mr. Yu griped, but he didn’t stop her from wiping the pin down with a cloth and heating it with a tiny blue flame that seemed to emanate from her fingertip.

  “Oh, this?” she asked when she saw me gaping at it. “Even crafters benefit from learning magic. You might want to look into it.”

  Mr. Yu chuckled. “I was going to get to that lesson. The boy didn’t need it yet.”

  “Sure you were,” Miss Drips gave me a good-natured grin, handing me back the pin. “Now. Show us your brand of magic.”

  I wasn’t quite sure it was magic, but I pricked my finger anyway. The droplet of blood that came out was black. I gasped and wiped the dark blood away and squeezed my thumb again, hoping the second sample would be normal. Unfortunately, it was not.

  “Is that supposed to happen?” Miss Drips asked, leaning in for a closer look.

  She didn’t look concerned for my well-being at all. To the contrary, she grabbed my hand and squeezed a liberal amount of blood into a small vial she seemed to have produced out of nowhere.

  “Hey!” I protested. “That’s…uh…mine!”

  She ignored me and scurried off back to her booth, leaving me to pick up some thread I’d taken from the bag to coat in my blood. It shimmered and turned an inky black color similar to the hair my shadow produced. I squeezed out a little more blood so I could coat the entire thread.

  Next, I sewed the lining of the bag and confirmed that it was indeed spacial. Then I set to work on drawing the ritual, moving tables around in Mr. Yu’s booth first so I’d have enough room.

  “I’m going to need more people to do this,” I informed Mr. Yu as I painstakingly worked to get the rituals just right.

  He stood well back, letting me work. “How many do you need?”

  I pointed at one of the ritual circles I’d already completed. “At least eight, but the ritual requires thirty-two thousand mana total. I can connect everybody, but we need at least that much.”

  “I think we can do that,” he replied as he set off to hunt down reinforcements.

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