Trials of Magic

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  "What? No!"

  Aurie ducked under a swipe of the demon's tail. "Just do it!"

  Focused on her, the demon didn't see Pi running up behind. But Aurie barely noticed as she dodged the demon's lazy attacks. He clearly sensed danger, by his slow advance. It was the only thing saving Aurie from being impaled at this point.

  "Come on, you bastard, step forward," she said under her breath, being careful not to kick the salt lines behind her.

  The scorpion-tailed demon paused before putting his second leg into the circle. He started to turn his head, which would give him a good view of Pi, right behind him.

  Aurie threw faez at him, which was ineffectual at best. The unformed magic splattered against the demon's bony leg before slumping to the floor and dissipating. But it had the intended effect.

  The demon stepped forward, and when his second foot crossed the barrier, Pi slid next to the salt lines and repaired the circle. At the same time, because she didn't want to get trapped, Aurie kicked a hole into the side nearest her. She stepped through and quickly reformed the barrier.

  At this point, the magic was paper-thin. The demon threw himself against it. Aurie poured faez into the protection circle. A moment later, Pi joined the effort. Together, they were able to make the barrier strong enough to keep the demon from breaking through.

  "Hold the barrier," Aurie yelled at Pi.

  Pi opened her mouth to object, but Aurie had already stepped away, chanting a simple banishing spell. It wasn't the ideal way to get rid of a demon, but without a good look at the ritual Pi had used, it was the fastest way.

  After a good thirty seconds, Aurie finished the spell and the demon howled as he returned back to his realm.

  The moment after the demon was gone, the storm broke. Winds died down, and the rain stopped hammering the warehouse, turning to a light sprinkle.

  "What the hell were you thinking?" asked Aurie, the adrenaline from the encounter hammering at her heart until her hands shook. "That was a fucking demon prince."

  Pi scowled and went running over to the tripod that Aurie had thrown. The camera was busted into black plastic and circuit boards.

  "Shit. Everything's fucked. Why'd you have to throw that? You're always trying to save me, and ruining things instead," she said, digging her fingers into her short black hair.

  "Is this for Coterie?" Aurie asked.

  Pi looked away, the scowl still affixed to her face. "He said he would sponsor me if I got an answer to his question. Without that, I can't get into Coterie."

  "Then you can be in Arcanium with me," said Aurie.

  "I don't want to be in Arcanium," said Pi, then when she saw the hurt on Aurie's face added, "I'm sorry, Aurie. I really want Coterie badly. Arcanium's my second, but it's not for me. You know that. I don't ever want anyone to be able to take my family away from me again."

  Aurie didn't want to get into their old arguments after the battle, especially with their blood hot, so she bit her lip instead.

  "You really want to be in Coterie?" Aurie asked quietly because it hurt to even ask the question.

  "Come on. You know that. Not that it matters without the video," she said.

  Aurie let a sigh out through her clenched teeth. "What if I told you I know a little Infernal."

  "You do?" asked Pi, nose wrinkled with confusion.

  Aurie threw her hands up. "It might be useful for the Merlins. You never know what they're going to throw at us."

  Pi ran over and hugged her sister. Aurie was taller by a head. She wrapped her arms around Pi.

  "Thanks, sis," said Pi, then added, "Dooset daram."

  Hearing the words let the air out of her rage. Aurie responded in kind, "Dooset daram."

  Pi pulled away. "So the translation?"

  "Don't get too excited. I'm not completely sure what I heard. And what is that Rod anyway?" asked Aurie.

  "The key to me getting into Coterie," said her sister with a forced grin.

  "Fine. This is what the demon said," said Aurie, then she repeated the Infernal phrase, which made her throat hurt. Speaking Infernal was like gargling salt water and hot sauce.

  "And that translates to?"

  "Something about 'beneath city of lights in the halls of the dead,'" said Aurie, then added in a slow drawl, "but I could have a word or two wrong."

  "That could mean the catacombs of Paris?" asked Pi.

  "Well, there you go. A plausible answer. Your sponsor should be happy," said Aurie, holding back her concern.

  Pi pushed her hair back, head rotating as she surveyed the destruction. "What a mess."

  "Let's get this cleaned up and get back to the apartment," said Aurie. "We're gonna need our rest. The Merlins are going to be harder than this."

  Chapter Eight

  After Aurie fell asleep on her side of the tiny apartment, Pi grabbed the broken camera and quietly went out the door. The drug dealers she'd tangled with earlier in the day were in the lobby having a party. Their whoops and hollering echoed up the stairwell. Pi went out the back hallway window and used the metal fire escape to get down to street level.

  The bottom part of the stairs had been ripped off, probably for scrap metal, which was a violation of building code, but no one cared about anything in the thirteenth ward. The alleyway smelled like stale beer and urine.

  Using the Green Line, Pi headed to the fourth ward's city library. The old building had enchanted stone lions outside that watched your approach. She patted their heads before going in.

  Pi used the library's computers to check if anything was left on the camera's drive. After bending back the little brass nubs in the connector, she was able to get a garbled version of the events to come up on the computer screen.

  Half the summoning was distorted, including the part where the demon gave his answer, but there was enough to use as proof that she wasn't just making something up. Pi recorded a video screen capture, leaving out the parts with Aurie, and made two copies.

  Pi headed to the first ward using the Red Line. The whole way across the city, her knees bounced as her mind went through all sorts of scenarios. What if he isn't home? What if he forgot what he'd tasked me with? What if he thinks the video was a fake? What if he won't sponsor me?

  These thoughts chased themselves around her head until the Red Line train ascended above the buildings, giving her a clear view of the city, distracting her. Lighted gondolas looked like slow-moving fireflies floating above the buildings. Some of the city's famous halls were visible: the Society for the Study of Animals' ark-like structure, the Order of Honorable Alchemists' eight-sided dome, and the Coterie of Mages' imposing obsidian tower, which was commonly called the Obelisk.

  Seeing the Obelisk made Pi flush with excitement. It wasn't the tallest or biggest tower—that prize went to the Spire, which was in the center of the city and housed the administration of the Hundred Halls—but the Obelisk had a weight that conferred to Pi that it would always be there for her.

  The city disappeared from view as the Red Line train neared her stop. Leaving the station, she received many a withering glance as the men and women in their business attire quickly identified that she didn't belong in her black hoodie and ratty jeans.

  The first district was alive with magically steered Rolls Royces and ornate carriages being pulled by unseen beasties. Pi lost count of the expensive sports cars whose brands she'd never heard of after the first two dozen. The blight that had affected the rest of the city went unnoticed in this ward.

  She found the home of her sponsor after a couple of double backs avoiding roaming security guards. It annoyed her that she didn't know her sponsor's name. He had a masking enchantment on it. But she knew where his home was, which was good enough.

  Pi didn't dare circumvent the ornate cast-iron fence that circled the three-story shotgun-style home. She knew the sort of protections he employed were well beyond her skill level.

  A security guard stood in the shadows outside the gate. Pi caught the whiff of metal
, which warned her that the guard was a supernatural.

  She'd barely taken one step towards the gate when a silky voice came out of the shadows.

  "You don't belong here. Go away," said the female voice.

  The words wrapped themselves around Pi's feet, and she found herself back on the sidewalk before she realized it. She had the urge to keep going towards the train station, but willed herself to stay put.

  Pi hadn't anticipated a succubus guardian. It both frightened and excited her. A sponsor with this level of power was worth the effort.

  Steeling herself against the voice, Pi marched back up the drive.

  "I said, go away," said the succubus with a tinge more threat.

  While fighting the urge to obey the command, Pi held out the copy of the summoning. "Your master is expecting me. Give this to him."

  A hiss came out of the darkness. When the succubus moved forward, Pi averted her gaze.

  "You're not on my list, and if you're not on my list, you're not welcome. He," —which didn't come out as the male pronoun, as the name was obfuscated by his enchantment— "told me I can have anyone who's not welcome."

  Panic set in, but Pi held her ground, holding the disc out and shaking it. "He won't be happy if you turn me away."

  The succubus moved close. Pi's boot inched backwards. Doubt consumed her. A sharp fingernail poked into Pi's chest.

  "Go away, sweetling," said the succubus. "You're just a whelp, and there's nothing on this disc that my master wants to see. Go away, before I indulge my hunger."

  Pi clamped her eyes closed as the demon moved within inches. Every fiber of her being ached to obey. She dug into her pocket and pulled out the runestone that Radoslav had given her. She shoved it into the succubus' face.

  A noise of surprise left the demon's lips. "Where did you get this?"

  "I work for Radoslav," she said, which was the truth, but she didn't think he'd intended for her to use his name like this. She hoped it wouldn't get back to him.

  "What would Radoslav want with a whelp like you?" hissed the succubus.

  Pi shook the disc emphatically.

  "Fine," said the demon, snatching it from Pi's grip. The demon vanished through the gate without opening it. Pi wondered what kind of magic it employed.

  But more so, she wondered if her sponsor would remember her. Now that she'd handed over the disc, she had her doubts. Pi had gotten an audience with him by confronting him in the men's bathroom at the Luminaire, a high-end restaurant. She'd gotten a job there as a dishwasher and waited until he was in the stall to make her request.

  When the succubus came back, Pi almost forgot to avert her eyes. The demon moved close and growled, before saying, "Come with me."

  Pi moved towards the gate, and after a few steps, she found herself inside the house. Looking out the window by the doorway revealed a different lawn than she'd expected, which told Pi that the mansion on display from the street was different than the one she was standing in.

  The entryway was an immaculate display of marble and gold. The statue of an imposing mage with a knifelike nose and piercing eyes was nestled into an alcove.

  The succubus tugged on Pi's arm. In the light, she caught a glimpse of the supernatural creature's uniform, which consisted of copious amounts of black leather across her milky white skin.

  The guard left Pi in a study that was larger than her whole apartment by a wide margin. Pi suspected even the bathrooms would be bigger.

  Pi didn't have long to investigate the room before she heard a voice from behind her. "I assume you're not here to waste my time."

  Her sponsor was cloaked in a shimmering shield that looked like heat waves from a summer highway, but she remembered the voice. It had an aristocratic tilt that dripped with disdain.

  "I have the answer, if that's what you mean," said Pi, and then she repeated the Infernal phrase.

  While her sponsor chewed on the answer, she massaged her throat.

  Suddenly, he was upon her. He grabbed her, digging his fingers into her wrist.

  "How did you get this information?" he asked, the threat as plain as a knife to her chest.

  "I...the demon, Pazuzu. You saw it," said Pi.

  He released her arm and stalked away. His shield reflected his mood, shifting around, distorting his features even more severely. Then just as suddenly as he had become angered, a calming wind overtook him.

  "It's quite impressive, Miss Pythia. A considerable feat for a mage not even in the Hall," he said. "Not unprecedented, but impressive, nonetheless."

  Pi caught the undertone to his message: he hadn't expected her to actually succeed. A wave of embarrassment flushed her skin, but she kept a stoic face. He'd given her the task to get rid of her.

  "The storm played a big part, in both your success and near downfall, but something else was at work," he said, sounding like he was speaking to himself. "But no matter. The important thing is that you succeeded in your task. And I am not one to renege on my promises."

  The sudden reversal was a little disorienting. Somehow she knew that things could have gone quite differently, badly even. She resisted the urge to blurt out her thanks. She knew a man like him didn't care about the little niceties. He respected power, and nothing else. Pi didn't want to go so far as employing demons for protection, but she surely wanted the security that his kind of power enjoyed.

  "I will send a note to the Coterie and let them know that you have a sponsor. But know that if you don't pass your Merlins, my offer is retracted," he said.

  Pi opened her mouth to reassure him of her impending success, but before the words left her lips, she found herself back on the sidewalk, momentarily wondering if it had happened at all, until she heard a low chuckle from the succubus guard in the shadows.

  Chapter Nine

  The morning of the Merlins, Aurie woke well before sunrise and reviewed her binders of notes on spells, rituals, and other magical studies. After Pi groaned awake, they shared a couple of granola bars for breakfast. Aurie was still hungry afterwards, but too nervous to eat anything else. Pi shoved the remaining bars from the box into her hoodie to eat later. It was the last of their food.

  Pi left the apartment early so she could take the broken equipment back to her friend Adam with a promise of getting it fixed later. Aurie assumed her sister was also taking the summoning focal back to whomever she'd gotten it from. Aurie would have asked about it, but being test day, she didn't want to distract her sister.

  It took a few tries to find the right outfit for the trials, not because she was trying to look fashionable—that was Pi's thing—but because she kept imagining the different types of exams they might throw at her and what clothing would work best. In the end, she decided on a pair of comfortable fitting jeans, the stained running shoes she'd gotten at the thrift store, and a gray tank top. Her dark hair was in that weird place that was too long to style and too short to put in a ponytail.

  Aurie poked the puffy dark bag beneath her blue eyes. She just needed to get used to them. It wasn't like she was going to get any more sleep if she got in Arcanium—when she got in Arcanium, she reminded herself.

  The weather mirrored her mood: flashes of exuberant sunlight followed by thick gray clouds. Aurie tried not to think about the Merlins on her way to the Spire, but it was so hard. It wasn't like anyone knew anything about them. The only thing the administrators would tell her was to "be ready for anything."

  There were prep classes to take, and tutors to hire—not that they could have afforded them. The Internet had thousands of videos about what might be in the trials. A whole industry had sprung up around preparing for the Merlins. But in the end, no one knew anything. And that scared Aurie the most.

  Her whole life teetered on this one day. It made her sick with worry. She had no idea what she would do if she didn't get in. It'd never been a part of her mental vocabulary.

  When she neared the city center, Aurie headed for the gondola station designated for potential students. I
t was one of the few times non-Hall members could ride in one. She'd left with plenty of time to reach the Spire, deciding it was better to wait nervously at the test place than to risk being late.

  As she turned the corner into the waiting area, Aurie smelled musky plum. Violet Cardwell and her mother, Camille, waited at the head of the line for the gondola. Camille wore a flamingo pink dress with a pillbox hat and an Alchemist guild pin next to the flower on her lapel. Violet had on a sensible, but fashionable light blue workout outfit. She looked ready to run a marathon with her blonde hair high in a ponytail.

  Surprisingly, Violet was not face-down in her phone. Her lips soured as she saw Aurie. Then Violet got her mother's attention and nodded towards Aurie.

  "Shit," said Aurie, getting in line, wishing she'd worn a hoodie like her sister so she could hide her face from the Cardwells.

  To keep from getting freaked out, Aurie studied the other people in line. At least half of them were potential students. She could tell by the way their eyes shifted around, never resting on one place, mind clearly on the upcoming Merlins. The other half were either parents of the nervous, or administration types.

  A relief-filled exhalation of laughter traveled through the line when the gondola was sighted sliding through the air towards the station. A quick count confirmed that she would ride up on the first trip. She'd have to share a car with the Cardwells, and Violet's awful perfume, but it was better than waiting.

  Aurie might not have caught the spell except she was staring straight at the gondola attendant when Camille moved forward to enter. She leaned closer, as if she had something to say, and her hand squeezed something on her chest, the flower perhaps. A mist spritzed the attendant's face, and he jerked slightly.

  Aurie looked around to see if anyone else had seen it, but they were talking amongst themselves. She was the only one. Then her stomach dropped as Camille pointed back into the crowd, directly at Aurie. Based on Violet's smug expression, Aurie knew this wasn't going to be good. She hoped that Camille had just made the request that Aurie not ride in the same gondola as her daughter. It would be disappointing not to be in the first car up, but she'd still be fine riding in the second. She didn't allow herself any other thoughts, for fear of them coming true.