Sorcerer's Secret

Table of Contents

 

 

Rory regarded Hex, feeling sick as he realized what he had to do. Finally he nodded. “You can come. But one wrong move and it's over. You can't hurt me, remember? I'm protected.”

“I know,” Hex said even as Fritz and Bridget both cried their disapproval.

“You can't trust him!” Bridget screamed.

“This is a mistake,” Fritz told him.

“What else can we do?” Rory asked them. “We will need magic, I know it.”

“Soka's spell—” Bridget began, but Rory cut her off.

“Is not enough. I'll do anything to save Mom, even deal with the devil.”

PUFFIN BOOKS
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First published in the United States of America by Dutton Children's Books,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2010
Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2011

 

Copyright © Scott Mebus, 2010
All rights reserved

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE.

ISBN : 978-1-101-54744-1

 

 

 

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product
of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

 

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume
any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites- or their content.

To Brian,
who always has my back

Rory Hennessy
—A thirteen-year-old boy; the last Light in New York City
Bridget Hennessy
—Younger sister to Rory Hennessy
Lillian Hennessy
—Mother to Rory and Bridget Hennessy
Peter Hennessy
—Rory and Bridget's father; missing for past ten years

 

 

Nicholas Stuyvesant
—Son of Peter Stuyvesant
Alexa van der Donck
—Daughter of Adriaen van der Donck
Simon Astor
—Son of John Jacob Astor
Lincoln Douglass
—Son of Frederick Douglass

 

Fritz M‘Garoth
—Lieutenant-Captain and Rat Rider of M'Garoth Clan
Liv M'Garoth
—Captain and Rat Rider of M'Garoth Clan. Wife of Fritz

 

Mayor Alexander Hamilton
—God of Finance; Mayor of the Gods
of Manhattan
Willem Kieft
—First Adviser to Mayor
Peter Stuyvesant
—God of Things Were Better in the Old Days
Caesar Prince
—God of Under the Streets
T.R. Tobias
—God of Banking
Walt Whitman
—God of Optimism
Dorthy Parker
—Goddess of Wit
Boss Tweed
—God of Rabble Politics and Back Alley Deals
William Randolph Hearst
—God of Yellow Journalism
Mrs. Astor
—Goddess of Society
Alfred Beach
—God of Subway Trains
Jimmy Walker
—God of Leaders Who Look the Other Way
Nathan Hale
—God of Martyrs
Robert Townsend
—God of Ornamental Handkerchiefs
Teddy Roosevelt
—God of Valor
Aaron Burr
—A fallen god

 

Wampage
—Only Munsee to escape the Trap
Tackapausha
—Sachem of the Munsees
Sooleawa
—Daughter of Penhawitz; sister of Tackapausha; Medicine Woman
Sokanen
(Soka for short)—Daughter of Sooleawa; Sister of Tammand
Tammand
—Son of Sooleawa; Brother of Soka
Askook
—A magician
Buckongahelas
—Murdered son of Tackapausha

 

Rufus King
—God of Also-Rans
Robert Moses
—God of Power-Hungry Politicians

 

Washington Roebling
—God of Dangerous Projects
Emily Roebling
—Goddess of Finishing What Others Have Started

 

David de Vries
—God of Just Causes
Cornelis Melyn
—God Wishing Life Were Fair

 

The Abbess
—Founder of the convent on Swinburne Island
Sly Jimmy
—Member of the B'wry Boys
James DeLancey
—Leader of the Cowboys
Colonel Smallwood
—Leader of the Marylanders
Colonel Wood
—Leader of the Red Legged Devils
Perewyn
—A Raritan medicine man
Admiral Howe
—Leader of the Redcoats on Staten Island

 

Blood
(Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, etc.)—The restriction of a divine being to the boroughs where his or her mortal self was known to dwell. For example, a god whose mortal self lived on a farm in the Bronx possesses “Bronx blood.”

pau wau
—Munsee word for medicine man or woman

patroon
—Dutch word for landowner

C
aesar Prince had a bad feeling about this.

He'd been called into the bowels of City Hall, deep into the maze of hallways that zigzagged beneath the ancient seat of the gods' power. All the gods had their own rooms down here, and the older the god, the deeper the room. Prince's own room was not easy to find, which was just as he liked it. But even he'd never been this deep before. The rooms down here were old, so old that most of their owners had faded away, left behind and forgotten as the city above moved ahead without them. But Willem Kieft never forgot.

It was Kieft who had called him to this place, into what appeared to be the room of the long-gone God of Barrelmaking. Metal hoops hung on the wall, coated with dust; rotting wooden slats lay in cobweb-covered piles in the corner. The room's owner had fallen victim to the changing times, leaving behind only this musty place and a dead-eyed painting in the Portrait Room upstairs. No god felt comfortable standing in a dead god's room—and causing discomfort was obviously Kieft's intent.

Prince glanced around at the others whom Kieft had called. There were Kieft's staunchest allies, of course: Tobias the banker, Boss Tweed the rabble-rouser, and Jimmy Walker the look-the-other-way politician. Tobias was flanked by two large green Brokers of Tobias, the metallic monsters who guarded his bank; both Brokers had scorch marks and metal drips across their broad green bodies, as if they'd recently been in a fire. Curious. Leaning against the wall, William Randolph Hearst nodded at Prince with a smirk when Caesar inadvertently caught his eye. Prince was always on edge around the God of Yellow Journalism, as Hearst seemed to know everything about everyone, and wasn't shy about using his knowledge to his advantage. Finally, the Goddess of Society, Mrs. Astor, stood haughtily by the door, barely consenting to associate with the riffraff. They all kept their distance from the strange Munsee Indian across the room, he of the twin snake tattoos practically crawling across his face. There was something profoundly wrong with this man who called himself Askook, and they all studiously avoided his oily gaze as they waited uncomfortably for their master to arrive.