Betrayal: An Urban Fantasy Academy Series

by Bob Dattolo

  “Oookay? What’s it telling us to do?” Cesare joined his girlfriend.

  “Looks like a barrier or maybe a shield.” She pointed to the steam of smoke going into a hole on our right. There are four other holes around it.

  “What about the holes?” Angelica smells nervous as she asks that. That’s a good question, though, because this could be tricker than it seems.

  “Maybe we have to get the smoke into one of them? Or maybe all four of them? Or one after another?” Levi rubbed his chin, “It could be any of those. Or maybe we block the smoke so that nothing gets into any of them.”

  “Dammit, you had to say that?” Kynal shook his head and started pulling magic. “How do we want to test this? The others got through, so we gotta be able to do it.”

  Huh, “That’s a good point. We didn’t wait all that long before heading down the hallway, so the others made it through this without anyone being killed or killing anyone themselves. They’re not here, so that means it’s not that complicated. Are we overthinking things?”

  Levi stepped over the line, a tilted barrier forming that directed the smoke into one of the holes. In less than five seconds, the barrier flashed, and he stepped through.

  “So yeah, we were overthinking it!” Parece’s comment got a laugh, so we lined up to get through. I went last, trying to keep an eye out behind us. I simply don’t believe no one will be coming for us. Even if they don’t know that we’re here together.

  Once we were through, we took off jogging again. I simply don’t get how they fit these massive hallways in the building we saw outside. I get that they turn and go back against the way you came and all of that, but they’re freaking looong. Someone last year estimated that the hallways were something like seven miles long. It’s not a maze, but damn, they make you work to get through it.

  So our jogging continued. We encountered a teeter-totter type thing over a gaping hole. We had to go across one at a time, with me peering into the darkness, “You think anyone is down there?”

  “I’m not about to find out, so let’s keep going. I’m thinking once you pass a certain point, you don’t get out. So going down on purpose is probably just as dangerous as being shoved, falling, or being tossed with magic.” Samantha stared into the seeming abyss with me for a moment before we started walking again.

  Then jogging once more.

  “Okay, it’s kinda quiet. We haven’t gone too far, but we’ve only had one test. There’s gotta be another coming up soo…” Paige grunted, “there we go.”

  Another large room. This time there’s someone at the test trying to get through. Once they see us coming, they stop and step out of the testing circle, “Stay back!” Their hands go up as they point their mace at us. There’s our mace swinger.

  We came to a stop, with Samantha answering for us, “Just get through the damn test. We’ll wait here.”

  He squinted at us before nervously stepping back towards the test area. He should have hurried, because the room rumbled as another doorway opened in it about 100 feet farther down on the other side of the test from us. We all stared in shock, not expecting it. Nor were we expecting to hear a dragon’s roar.

  I took off running towards the hallway, “Get through the fucking test and keep running!” He didn’t answer and I didn’t wait for one as I rushed to get a look-see.

  “Who is it? What are they?” Levi’s voice came from back where I started.

  The hallway is empty, but not all that crazy long. Dammit. “No clue. The hallway’s only about 70 feet long. Sounds like fighting back beyond the turn. Getting closer. I can’t tell if it’s just one dragon or more.”

  Back where we started, Samantha growled at the guy at the test. Dang, I can’t remember his name at all. “Look, just get through! We gotta clear this room before whoever back there catches up to us!”

  His shoulders dropped, “I don’t know how to get through! I don’t know what they’re trying to get me to do! The last person that was here was passing through when I arrived! I have no idea what they did. At all.”

  Dammit!

  The noise is getting closer.

  My allies moved closer to the test, Samantha still speaking, “Just don’t freak out, we need to see what the hell it’s trying to get us to do.”

  “Don’t try anything!”

  “Look, there’s 11 of us not counting wonder stricken. If we wanted to kill you, we would have done it. Just stop freaking out.” Levi calls it like it is.

  Okay, I gotta go see what’s happening.

  Their voices fade behind me as I race into the tunnel, shifting and launching myself up to fly. So much faster. Plus, while the full-size dragons can’t fly in the hallway, I’m not their size. That lets me hit the corner way faster than anyone else could have.

  Another empty passage, so I take it, stopping just before the next turn. There’s soooo much noise that way.

  Peeking around the corner shows me a mess I don’t want to get involved in. Three shifted dragons and eight not shifted. They’re battling it out, but I can’t tell who the allies are. Or if there are any.

  Dammit. Okay, I gotta slow them down in case they head our way. That has me backing up and focusing my magic on the floor and walls. Over about five minutes, a mass of stone flows out of the wall, creating an opening only a human could fit through, then a small maze of hallways until it reaches where I’m standing.

  That was harder than it should have been due to my current issues from having to save myself, but maybe it’ll slow them down? I doubt a dragon could beat through the stone, so my only worry is if one of them is an earth mage. They could probably remove it in no time flat.

  Time to head back.

  In the room, the original guy is gone and four of us are on the other side, “What’s the test?”

  Kynal looks back at me as he steps through, “Kinda tricky? Gravity manipulation to hold up the stone there in the middle, then you have to spin it and set off a light ball on it and then make the other stones spin around it.”

  Holy hell, “Like a tiny solar system?”

  Nods from everyone, “Yeah. That’s what Milky Way means.” Levi shook his head at the crappy hint. What’s happening down the hallway? The sound died down? You didn’t kill everyone, did you?”

  Everyone seems to think that maybe I did, at least based on the matter of fact look on their faces. “Umm, no? Three shifted dragons and eight not shifted. No one was dead when I left. I semi blocked the hallway so that only a human can get through, then they have to go through a small maze. They could bust the hell out of it and avoid it or manipulate it if anyone can work with stone. Otherwise, they may have to go through it. Dragons shouldn’t be able to fit.”

  “What the hell?” Cleo sounds shocked and kinda upset at what I said, “How did you do that? Manipulate stone?”

  Dammit.

  Parece tried to save the day, “She has some broad skills. Let’s get through and keep going. We’ve wasted too much time at this one.”

  Cleo continued to stare at me. I didn’t realize Cesar was doing the same until that point. Same with Stacey.

  The rest of them made it through, although it took way longer for some of them to get everything moving correctly so that they could pass through. When my turn came, I triggered everything at one time and stepped through a few seconds later. I was by far the fastest to get through.

  “That was…you’re way more powerful than I ever thought.” Cleo jogged next to me.

  “I’m really strong. True.”

  “That’s not just it, though. Parece tried to sidetrack me, but it didn’t work. You manipulated stone.”

  Damn! “Umm, yeah? I did.”

  “You also called down lightning.”

  Levi snorted from the front of the group, “Is this the right time to be having this conversation? Maddie’s got mad skills and abilities. There’s a reason most of us only made it through the challenge last year because of her. I know some people don’t believe it, but it’s
true.”

  She didn’t respond for the longest time, “I’m gonna get to the bottom of this. I’m not letting this go.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’d just rather not talk about it right now if I can help it.”

  She stopped pushing, but I know she didn’t forget it.

  Chapter 46

  We made it through three more tests and four more challenges without anyone getting killed. We did find a body at one of the tests, which pretty much forced us to really pay attention. That one was harder to get through for most of them than they would have liked, but we managed it.

  Now we’re at the opening of a huge room, marveling at what we’re seeing.

  “What the fuck, man, there’s like 20 of us here?” Kynal’s shocked voice doesn’t hide the scent of his worry.

  “This is…this could be bad. It’s not the final one, right?” Paige looked across us as if we’d know for a fact.

  “I’m gonna go with a no on that. It’s too early in things. And no huge clock. I’m just not sure what’s happening. Is it separate tests for each affinity?” Samantha leaned out a little more.

  “Yeah, it is. That might be bad.” Watching the people out there argue and threaten is making my skin crawl. With rage. Such an odd feeling.

  Levi sighs, “Okay, so…yeah. None of the ally groups that I’m seeing have the same affinities. That means they have to split up. Which makes each one vulnerable. The individuals are already vulnerable. None of them want to join together to get through.”

  That’s what I’m seeing too. “In that case, how do we want to do that? We have three fire, two ice, four metal, one water, one earth, then me.”

  Cleo gave me a look at not including myself into one of the affinities.

  Angelica stepped out more, “How about this? We stay as a group and get either our largest group or the second largest through. Then we stay together and get our water and then earth through. That’ll keep them protected on the other side. Then we get through the next smallest and move back up to the largest?”

  “That’s freaking diabolical. I like it.” Stacey has a smile on her face. Her first in a while. “Which do we get across first, then? If we go with metal, then that means we lose some of our strongest. We can go with fire, although I’m not sure I love the idea of being over there with just three of us in case things go wrong.”

  Joint agreement from folks about how risky that could be.

  Paige noticed it first, “Then how about we head to fire first? Ice is right next to it. If we can get everyone across, that’ll give us five over there. Then we continue? Water and earth and then the metals?”

  Quiet thinking from the group before everyone starts agreeing. “Okay,” Samantha takes the lead. As I kinda expected. “Fire and ice first. Split up as evenly as possible to guard both. Let’s see if we can push through and get our folks into testing. If anyone comes for us, do we back off?”

  “Kill ‘em.” Levi doesn’t pull any punches. “If they’re coming for a group this size, they mean business. We can’t risk it. Watch for anyone going through, too. If we can? We should try to have the first two go through at the same time. That’ll give us one fire and one ice together. Then we get the rest of fire to rush through.”

  “Good idea. Let’s go.” Samantha takes off at a steady jog, not quite a lope. It’s not a reckless speed yet still allows us to clear ground pretty quickly.

  Sound in the huge room dies as we arrive, with many that are already there starting to back away. This is too cohesive of a group to mess with.

  The yells for us to leave don’t start up until we’re approaching fire and ice. Those of us on the outside are faced out towards possible attacks, so I’m tracking everyone that I can see.

  There are two fire mages already there and one ice mage. She’s arguing with another that wants to get through.

  Samantha starts talking before we come to a stop. “You have one minute to start the test, or we push you to the side and go ourselves. Am I clear on that?”

  The closest fire mage spits on the ground, “Fuck you and your group. You can’t order us around! We want to get through, but that’ll leave our allies behind!”

  Angelica jumped in before Samantha could react, “Who’s your ally?”

  He pointed off to the side, “Larry. Water mage.”

  Larry’s in a bit of a pickle, arguing with two seemingly separate water mages.

  “Get testing. Right now. I’ll go see if I can get Larry into testing.” He’s not one of the people that destroyed my stuff or laughed at me.

  No one reacted before I shifted again and jumped into the air, coming down between Larry and the other two, wings spread wide. Now these two laughed at me. The one on my left added to the destruction of my stuff.

  “What the fuck?!?” Larry sounds freaked.

  “Get the fuck out of here, Maddie. You got no place here.” The one on my left looks ready to attack.

  “Hi. I haven’t talked to any of you, not really. But I’m here now because, Larry? Your ally is holding us up. He won’t go through without you going through, and our group there? In a minute or so, or people will start going no matter who tries to stop us. So you need to step up and start the test.”

  “He’s not getting through the test ahead of me!” The mage on my right pushes forward, “You can’t stop me!”

  Rage flowed through me a little stronger than before. “I remember you. You destroyed my stuff. You laughed at me. Larry, on the other hand, didn’t. So Larry? Get through. You two? Don’t. Fuck. With. Me.”

  Larry didn’t move until I literally backed into him and pushed him to the test. He wasn’t amused by that, but he at least realized his ally was starting his too.

  Isn’t it better to get along?

  His test was started, and he moved farther into it and away from us. I figure he made it about 20 feet before the mages in front of me attacked.

  The one on the left led with a spell barrage, while the one on the right tried to add to it.

  Too bad I was ready for this and had just a bit of shielding prepared.

  For a moment, our area of the room was bright enough to cause vision issues, then it ended with an explosion of sound.

  I was bleeding from some of the spells that got through, but my attackers? They’re fucked.

  Scissoring rock from the floor removed their legs a hairs breadth before crushing power, some other sheering forces, and fireballs destroyed them further.

  Their power flowed into me without anyone knowing. I absorbed one, keeping the other locked away for now.

  My magic feels immeasurably better after letting his power in.

  The room broke out into bedlam at my actions, but I didn’t let it bother me as I flew back to the group, my shield blocking scattered attacks the entire way.

  Paige and Cleo had already started on their test and seemed to be making good time through it. We can’t see everything they have to do from here, but the start looks like what we did last year. Affinity-specific spells that others can’t match. That means that I should probably take metal’s test if that’s the last one for us.

  Gage and Kynal started as soon as they could.

  More people joined the room, adding to the chaos.

  My blood ran cold when I heard it. Next to me, Samantha tensed and slowly turned to look back the way we came, “You, umm…you guys heard that too, right?”

  “Yeah? An ice cream truck? I haven’t been to one in forever.” She hit my arm, “Fighting dragons? Yeah, I heard. This could be a fucking nightmare in a moment. We gotta go faster.”

  Our first two testers are out and together, watching everything as they wait for the next two.

  “Stacey, get through, now now now!” She jumps into the test at Cesar’s command.

  Once she was at least somewhat safe in the test, we huddled together and headed for the water test. There are five people arguing there, and they’re very near to attacking each other.

  Samantha starts in as soo
n as they see us coming, “Get the fuck through the test! Right now! We got dragons coming! There were three last we saw, so there could still be three. Or maybe more. Get. Through. The. Test!”

  The closest mage points at us, “Stay the fuck away! We want to get through the test, but we can’t! As soon as we try, someone’s gonna attack us!”

  Oh my God, this is insane.

  “One of you step the fuck up and start testing or we’ll put our people there. We’re getting through before this place turns into a deathtrap!”

  Four of them faced us more, bristling with anger and magic, “Fuck you! You don’t order us around! We got here first!”

  “You’re gonna be dead here first in a minute! Someone start testing!”

  That started an even larger and louder argument, which I sidestepped by forming stone walls creating a path for Cesar to the test. He smiled as soon as he saw it and ran for it and was passed the beginning before the first mage managed to tear the wall down enough to see what was happening.

  “You fucking bitch!” She pointed at me.

  “Look, we told you to get through. Now you can go back to arguing. Have fun with that.” Yeah, she’s someone that laughed at me.

  Earth was next, and there are three people there when we arrive. They just start an actual fight among them when we get there. I’m kinda shocked as magic goes off, tearing them away from each other and separating them. “Stop fucking fighting! Just get through the test!” There are definitely three dragons back there. If not more. It’s so freaking clear, which makes me think they’re running this way.

  That’d be bad.

  The closest earth mage pulls power, then collapses as Levi steps in and bitch slaps him. “Fucking stop it and get with the testing!”

  The one closest to the test jumps at it and starts the process. The second one tries to stop him, but Levi’s well-timed slap stops it. Soon enough, the first one is far enough along to be safe.

  Samantha physically picks up the next closest and puts them at the test. “Start it up and get the fuck over!”