Chapter 36
The Schemer
Lily approached the gym building a half-hour before Four. As she circled around to the entrance to the large building's basement floor, she could hear the sounds of squeaking of sport shoes and voices calling out to one another. She took a brief look around to make sure no one was looking and then rolled back the sleeve of her jacket. The sapphires on her blue bracelet sparkled and shined.
"No need to go through the same thing twice," she said. "Take me straight to the end."
The bracelet responded with a brighter shine from its jewels and then the next thing Lily knew, she found herself once more in the large room where she had met the Schemer for the first time.
Nothing had really changed about the room since her last visit. Same walls made of rough, dark stone, same circular shape and same ginormous slab of glowing sapphire sitting in the middle with a young girl around Lily's age trapped and sleeping inside, the Sapphire Princess.
Only one thing differed from last time. This time, there was another, slightly smaller slab of sapphire sitting next to the Sapphire Princess that housed an adult man who looked wide awake while miming a howling monkey in mid-leap attack. It was Uncle Viceroy.
Lily walked up to him, took a closer look and then smacked herself in the forehead with a groan.
"Seriously, Uncle Viceroy? Even at a time like this . . . Even at a time like this!"
"I know, right? No matter what, he will never miss a chance to act like a clown."
Slowly, Lily turned her head and watched as someone stepped into view.
She scathingly glared at the person and growled, "You."
School Director Julius Bluestone looked coolly back and replied, "Me. You don't seem surprised."
Lily shrugged. "Yeah, well, we all kind of thought you were the the one behind everything along since the beginning. Your family did own this land for over two hundred years after all. It just became more clear after Uncle Viceroy told us his side of the story. You'd have told him about the Schemer already, otherwise, seeing as you did hire him to take care of all the school's magical problems in the first place. But Oliver really wanted to believe in you until the end."
Bluestone rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "I see. To be blinded by personal feelings, Oliver has a long way to go before he can become the detective of his dreams."
Lily's fingers curled tight at her sides, nails digging into her palms as she inwardly seethed.
"Why are you doing this?" she quietly asked.
Feigning innocence, Bluestone asked back, "Why am I doing what?"
"Don't play dumb!" Lily exploded. "You know exactly what! Why play the Schemer? Why steal people's treasured stuff? Why make Melody faceless? Why capture Eddie? Why take away all those people's most important talents? Why kidnap Tanja? Why . . . Why turn my friends into stone statues? Why frame Uncle Viceroy as the bad guy? Why trap him and the Sapphire Princess in gem stone? Why all of that? Why do you keep hurting us?"
Bluestone looked Lily straight in the eye and said, "I thought that question was answered already. Because it's fun."
Lily shook her head and argued, "That's a lie. I know there's another reason behind all this. More than just because you felt like turning evil."
"Believe what you want, Lily Wong. But we did not come here to chat about my motives, did we?"
"No, we didn't," said Lily.
That's right. Saving Uncle Viceroy and the Sapphire Princess was more important. Who cares about Bluestone's motives right now? There'll be plenty of time to find that out later.
"But can you at least tell me this much?" One question remained burning in Lily's mind and she needed an answer right this instant. "You've been disguising yourself and hiding your identity this whole time. Why ditch the costume and show me your real face now?"
"You wanted to end this rivalry between us once and for all, right? That's what my friend, the parrot, told me. That's great timing, actually. I was getting tired of it too. So I figured, why not just make this our final battle? And since this is going to be the last, there's no point hiding my identity any longer."
Bluestone strolled over to Lily and stopped right in front of her. He leaned down, putting his face close to hers.
"But I'm curious," he said. "Just how are you planning to put a permanent stop to my schemes?"
Lily glared back, refusing to look away. "Same way I got that parrot to give back all the stuff it stole," she said, "by making a bet and winning."
Light flashed from her bracelet and drew a circle filled with lots of fancy shapes on the floor around her and Bluestone.
Bluestone gave the circle of light a glance and chuckled. "Ah, I see. So you plan to use a magic contract. Certainly, there's no going against a magic contract. But you know, Miss Wong, a magic contract will only work as long as both sides agree to it. I could easily just say no and the spell will be useless."
"Wow, Director," said Lily. "I didn't think you'd be so afraid. What's the matter? Think you'll lose to a little girl?"
Bluestone just chuckled at Lily's taunt. "I was just joking, Miss Wong. I'll happily sign a magic contract or two for you. But are you sure you want to do this? There's no getting out of a magic contract, you know. That's what makes them both useful and dangerous. Especially when gambling. If you lose, you'll be the one paying whether you like it or not."
"Then I'll just have to not lose then," said Lily.
Bluestone shrugged. "Very well, then. Name your demands."
"I win, you quit this villain business for good."
"Then if I win, you give me that." Bluestone pointed to Lily's bracelet.
Lily glanced down at her bracelet and then returned her gaze to Bluestone's eyes.
"Deal," she said. "So, what's the name of the game?"
"Let's go with something simple," Bluestone said. "Something fitting for our final battle. Oh, I know. Let's have a game of two-way tag, the same sort of tag you played with the parrot."
"Sounds good to me," said Lily. "But are you sure about that? Aren't you worried you might throw your back, old man?"
Bluestone chuckled. "Oh, there's no need to worry about that."
He spread his arms apart like a showman and slowly floated up to the ceiling.
"I think I'll be just fine."
Lily swallowed and then held her hand out. Bright light flew out of the jewels of her bracelet and transformed into a broomstick painted blue. She snatched hold of the broom, got ready to fly and looked up.
"Let's do this!"
After giving a shout, Lily took flight. She zipped straight towards Bluestone with her hand outstretched to tag him. But before she could get close enough to touch him, he vanished into a swirling vortex of smoke behind him only to reappear down below. He gave Lily a small, cheery wave before sliding across the room like a figure skater on ice.
Lily grit her teeth and stretched her hand out again. She gave her bracelet a silent command to make stone walls spring up from the floor in order to trap the old man. But in a display of skill at skating, Bluestone swerved right and left around the walls and slipped through narrow gaps before they closed.
He did a short, graceful spin and then stopped as a fishing net dropped down. The net narrowly missed Bluestone and landed on the floor in a heap. Lily pulled more nets out of her bracelet and flung them all at Bluestone, but he dodged them all while making ballerina poses.
Frustrated, Lily yelled before flinging more nets, "Hold still!"
But, of course, Bluestone didn't listen and continued his figure skating across the rough stone floor, gathering up discarded nets which he draped over his right arm.
Lily focused all her frustration to her hands raised high over her head. From the bright light of her bracelet, a net bigger than all the rest appeared. It was wide enough to cover half of the chamber. When Lily's hands dropped down, so did the net.
There's no way he can escape this, Lily thought. Just to make extra sure, she coated the net with magic power to stop him from disappearing in one of those vortexes.
Bluestone gazed coolly at the net dropping down over his head and then sighed. With a flick of his wrist, the bundle of nets he had collected became a sharp blue sword that, with one swing, split the falling net in two. He remained untouched as the two separated halves of the giant net hit the floor.
"Really, Miss Wong?" he said, flicking his wrist again. The sword turned into an elegant cane that he planted onto the floor in front of himself to lean on. "That bracelet gives you the power to do almost anything, and a net is all you can think of?"
Lily glowered at him. But then her face lit up with an idea and she said, "You're right, Director. Then let's try this!"
She swung herself off of the broomstick while keeping hold of it. As she fell down, the brush part of the broom turned into a hammer big enough to smash an elephant.
With magical super-strength and a mighty yell, Lily swung the giant hammer down against the floor. The impact made the entire room shake. Pieces of the floor cracked and sprung up, turning it into uneven terrain. Including the floor beneath Bluestone's feet. Although not completely thrown off-balance, it was enough to make the old man stumble a little, which was what Lily had been aiming for.
She seized her chance and leaped. But before she could tag Bluestone, his arms suddenly transformed into blue-feathered wings and he shot towards the ceiling, out of Lily's reach. Lily fell and was jabbed all over by the jagged points on the floor she had created herself. Bluntly, it hurt a lot and left bloody cuts on her hands and left cheek.
While hovering in the air, Bluestone looked down and said, "Better. But still not good enough."
Lily tried to stand back up. But the moment she got on her feet, sharp pain in her knee made her cry out and fall back down.
Nearby, the see-through gemstone that entombed Viceroy suddenly got a long crack that made a jagged, diagonal line across of him. The whole thing just ever so slightly trembled.
Lily didn't notice, but Bluestone did.
"Truly an absurd man," he grumbled to himself. He returned his gaze to Lily who continued to try, but fail to stand back up. Her hands left red prints on the broken-up floor. "I've fooled around too much. Time to end this now."
He gently returned to solid ground, his wings turning back into arms. The cane he discarded flew back into his hands and he leaned on it as Lily looked up at him. After crouching down, he gave Lily's forehead a light tap of his finger.
"I win."
When he straightened back up, he had Lily's sapphire bracelet around his wrist.
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