"Don't listen to him," said Pi. "He was lying. He's been lying the whole time. Think about it. If he said he'd killed them, we would have attacked. He was delaying so he could ready his spell. It was him the whole time."
"What do we do now?" asked Aurie.
"We get through that pile of rocks," said Pi.
Aurie nodded towards the black stone leg. "What about...?"
"You'll have to get the Rod and fix me," said Pi.
They stood up and examined the collapse together.
"Shit," said Pi. "Do you sense that?"
Aurie nodded. The professor had layered spells on the other side. Any attempt to magically move the rock would bring down more stone on the caster. He'd not only buried them, but made it impossible to escape.
After a moment of quiet contemplation, Pi said, "I know how to get you out."
"Us out," said Aurie immediately.
"No," said Pi. "You'll have to get the Rod and come back for me. I won't be able to move much longer."
Aurie took a quivering breath. "Tell me."
"I'm going to lift the rocks, just enough that you can get through," said Pi.
"But won't that bring down more upon your head?" asked Aurie, then realized what she meant. The curse was turning her to stone, which would protect her from the worst of the collapse, unless of course it broke her.
"I can't let you do that, Pi," said Aurie. "You'll end up as a pile of rocks."
"Can't you let me be the hero just once? Let me save you, rather than the other way around," said Pi.
"But...but you're my little sister. I promised Mom and Dad that I would take care of you. I've screwed everything else up already. Can't I at least do that one thing right?" asked Aurie.
Tendrils of black stone were crawling up Pi's neck as she spoke. "Aurie, it doesn't matter what happened that day. Stop beating yourself up about it. You've been the best older sister you could be. I couldn't ask for anything else. But you're going to have to let me do this, this time. It's the only way."
Aurie bit her lower lip, hard, until it hurt enough that she could speak again. "Okay. Tell me what to do."
"You're going to let me turn to stone, like almost completely into a statue. I'll prepare my spell, and then like Augustus did, hold it until the last second. When I open a hole, you have to be quick. Use your truth magic, or something. Whatever, it doesn't matter. But you have to be fast. Faster than you've ever been."
"Does it hurt?" asked Aurie.
Pi frowned. "No, and that's what worries me most. It's sort of like being erased piece by piece. The feeling is worse the deeper it goes into me. I'm afraid that once I'm completely stone, all the way down to my guts and heart and brain, that even the Rod won't save me."
"Then let's do this," she said.
Aurie did as Pi had suggested, speaking softly to herself, convincing her limbs to move like lightning once the hole was opened. Pi made preparations of her own, casting her spell while she could still use her fingers. When she was ready, she nodded to Aurie, though it wasn't much of a nod, since her neck was black stone.
"We ready?" asked Aurie.
"Not yet," said Pi. "I want to wait until the last second for the maximum protection."
Aurie hugged her sister, but Pi couldn't return the favor, so she placed her head against Pi's forehead. They stared into each other's eyes.
"Dooset daram," said Aurie.
A weak smile formed on Pi's lips as she fought the curse. "Dooset daram."
"Dooset daram," said Aurie, more emphatically.
"Dooset daram," said Pi as her lips turned black.
Energy crackled between them, as if their sisterly bond was being transmitted through the magic. Static tickled Aurie's eyelashes as love burned in her heart.
"Kheyli dooset daram, azeezam. You're the best sister I could ever have," said Aurie. "Stay alive in there. I'll get you out, I promise."
The words barely whispered out of Pi's rigid mouth, but Aurie knew them just the same. "Dooset daram," followed by a hard blink.
Faez crackled into existence as the spell thrust itself beneath the rocks, forming a tunnel. As the hallway broke apart, Aurie threw herself into the hole, limbs churning.
She barely made it through before the secondary collapse took apart the remainder of the hallway, burying her sister beneath the stone.
Once Aurie was able to regain her feet, she placed her fingers against her lips, then placed her hand on the rocks.
"Dooset daram."
Chapter Thirty-Five
With the fallen archway behind her, and Pi beneath the rocks, Aurie had no time to delay. There were ten other arches in the room, and she had no idea which one Augustus had gone into.
Focusing on him made her think about what they had spoken about. The silence screamed in her head: You killed your parents! It was a truth she'd fought since they'd died. Had it been her fault? She'd always thought that she'd never know, that it was a truth beyond the grave, and only when she followed them into the bleak would she learn.
Now she knew that Professor Augustus knew the truth. Her version of the facts wavered like a mirage on the hot desert. If she ran towards it, would it disappear or turn into an oasis? Could she even get him to tell her?
To track the professor, Aurie made a couple of gestures with fingers crooked and spoke a few words. Glowing mist formed at points of the room, revealing the areas that faez had been spent. As she'd guessed, the glow listed around one of the arches, showing where the professor had gone through, saving her from having to decipher the puzzle.
The next room glittered with gold, enough to make Fort Knox jealous. Granite pillars supported an enormous chamber. At the far end stood a massive statue of Osiris, the god of the dead. He had a pharaoh's head and mummy-wrapped legs, and in his grasp held two rods in an "X" across his chest: a crook and a flail.
Professor Augustus rocked on his heels, admiring the statue, whistling a tune. She thought he was just being flippant until she heard the spell amid the notes. The song coaxed dust and other small pieces of rock to bounce across the floor towards the statue, an explosion in reverse. The stones were like children running home to play, forming a series of steps that would help the professor reach the rods.
The demonstration made Aurie pause. She'd never seen someone with such exquisite control of their magic. He wasn't even using his fingers to help shape the spell.
The song came to an abrupt end. The professor spun around to face her with his hands behind his back.
"You've proved to be quite resourceful. I'm sure it would be quite a story to hear how you escaped the trap I laid on the passage," he said.
"You lie," spat Aurie. She'd planned on something more eloquent, but the words just didn't fit together.
He raised a petulant eyebrow. "Why would I lie about that? Certainly I would like to hear the tale. I am a connoisseur of magic."
"Not that," she said. "About my parents. You killed them."
The professor held his hands out as if the truth was somehow held there. His expression relayed his reluctant annoyance.
"I told the truth. Please do not mistake me," he said, seeming to say more with every shift of his eyebrows.
She squeezed her hands into fists. Why am I wasting time on this when Pi is dying? But if she killed him—could she even kill him?—then she'd never know.
"I don't believe you," she said, feeling like a foolish young girl.
"I know you're mad. You have every right to be. I just tried to kill you. So why would I lie to you now? My suggestion for you would be to scurry out of here, take your sister if you can, and never let me see you again," he said.
"I need the Rod to save her," she said. "It's the only way to get rid of the curse."
He shook his head slowly as if what he had to say hurt him. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that can't happen. The Rod of Dominion was used by the pharaohs for two things: war and healing. The flail symbolizes war, and the crook, healing. You choose which one you pla
n to use, which makes the other useless. When I form the Rod using the flail from Osiris, it will give me the power to command people, to bring terrible lightning, to wage war like no one has ever seen before. But when I form the flail, the crook will become useless, and it cannot be reformed for another hundred years. Once I take the flail, I suggest that you not be standing in this room, though in the end, it may not matter."
He looked to the floor, as if he were thinking about something. Then magic flew from his fingers, a jet of fire to crisp her to bone. The white flame flew at her with a lion's head, roaring as it approached, giving her no time for a response.
She might have been immolated had she not been preparing her own spell. She'd noticed him constructing his spell during the speech, knowing that he had the ability to disguise it.
Complex spells were impossible, so he'd resorted to a higher level version of Five Elements. He'd thrown fire, while Aurie countered with water, a geyser formed from twisting water snakes. The two elements impacted in the middle, turning to steam.
The professor was her superior in the technical aspects of magic, but Aurie had raw power on her side. He didn't even try to switch elements. They battered each other, mist billowing from the conflict.
Rather than compete with her, he made changes to the patterns of the fire, deflecting water unspent, which made the fire more effective. She'd never considered it was possible, no one had ever done it before. It turned his flame into an impossibly hot drill, spinning through her water. The steam wall where the two magics slammed into each other started moving towards her.
Aurie panicked, releasing as much faez as she could muster, but it wasn't enough. He was overcoming her raw ability with subtle skill. She knew she had more to give, but it wouldn't come.
Why am I holding back?
Was she afraid to kill him? Afraid to lose the truth about what happened with her parents? Or was it something else: was she afraid to lose control? Was it guilt or fear?
Then again, she realized, why does it even matter? They're dead. That's the only truth that's real. If it'd been her, or Professor Augustus who had caused it, either way, they were dead and never coming back.
Acknowledging that, no matter how painful, released a weight from her shoulders that she hadn't realized was there. She felt like she could touch the ceiling. Was this what Professor Mali had wanted her to learn in the Verum Locus? Not the physical truth, but the underlying one?
The power flowing from her felt like a river was rushing right through her. It was exhilarating and frightening at the same time. Part of her reckoned that if she diverted the flow it would tear the room apart, her included.
By the time Aurie looked back up, she'd pushed the impact wall back towards the professor. She could barely see him through the mist, it'd filled the room.
But she could see when he took a step onto the stairs. Rather than fight back, he was going to make an attempt on the Rod. He'd realized she was eventually going to win, but not if he was able to grab the Rod of Dominion. There'd be nothing she could do against him once he had that in his hands, dooming her sister to a permanent death.
Aurie tried pushing harder, but the water magic was sputtering at the edges. She'd never fought this long with this much power. She tried twisting the elements, lacing in earth—she'd never done that before—and to her surprise, it worked. Only it wasn't working fast enough.
She needed another twenty seconds, twenty-five tops. Aurie knew she was going to win, eventually, but she'd run out of time. The professor reached towards the flail of Osiris. His fingertips brushed the thick handle. She felt her obliteration coming, like standing on a track before an oncoming train. His hand curled around the flail like a lover as his lips sneered with victory.
Something dark moved ponderously through the mist near the professor. A black arm reached out and grabbed his leg, yanking him away. It was Pi!
The professor's fingers bounced off the bottom of the flail. He flew backwards, his magic faltering. Aurie released the water magic as his fire went careening off the ceiling, charring gold plating to drip down like golden rain.
Aurie was running when Pi brought a stone fist down upon the professor's head. He was unconscious when Aurie pulled up short.
"Pi! You're alive!"
She was, but she wasn't. Her whole body was glistening black stone, even her eyes, which made her unnaturally creepy. Pi's lips moved but no sound came out. She motioned towards the statue of Osiris.
"I get it! No time!" exclaimed Aurie, racing up the steps.
She grabbed the crook without hesitation. When her fingers touched it, a spike of electricity went through her arm, nearly knocking her off the steps.
Aurie knew instinctively what to do, as if the Rod of Dominion gave her that knowledge. She pressed the curved end of the crook against the area of Pi's leg where the scarab had gone in. Power flooded from the Rod with the ease of simple intention. She felt, for a moment, a god.
Almost immediately, the skin turned translucent, revealing the beetle curled up against Pi's thigh bone. Aurie commanded it to get out, using the proper amount of profanity. The beetle burrowed back out and as it did, Pi's body turned back to flesh.
The scarab fanned its shimmering wings, and for a moment, she thought it was going to fly away, then it dove straight into Professor Augustus' midsection. The beetle dug into his belly before Pi or Aurie could stop it. The professor hardened into black stone before the sisters had taken another breath. The curse had been so powerful that even the crook hadn't dispelled it; it only removed it from her body long enough that it could find another host and finish what it had started.
As the mist faded, they threw themselves into each other's arms. Aurie still had the Rod of Dominion clutched in her fist.
"Dooset daram," said Pi.
"I love you, too," said Aurie. "Especially for saving me at the end, a second time. But how did you do that? I thought you couldn't move anymore. You were practically a statue back there."
Pi's gaze glittered with happiness. "You don't have to be modest. You used your truth magic to give me strength."
"I did?" she asked.
"Kheyli dooset daram, azeezam. You told me to stay strong, then I felt the most wonderful warmth and love emanate from you, as if I was getting to feel your love, not just hear the words. It was bound up with faez, and when the hallway buried me, I just slowly worked my way out. It was your love that saved me," said Pi.
Professor Mali had told Aurie that truth was a powerful force. She'd never understood it until that moment.
"What do we do about him?" asked Pi.
"I don't think there's anything we can do," she said, knowing she was right by the magic of the Rod. "The curse was transferred to him. He's as good as dead."
"Do you think he killed our parents?" asked Pi.
"It doesn't matter. They're dead. If it was the professor, then he got the justice he deserved. If it was me, then I'm doing the right things to work on my control. That's all I can do."
"I can't believe we have the Rod of Dominion," said Pi, shaking her head.
"We're not going to have it for long," said Aurie, rubbing the overlapping pattern on the grip. Holding it was easy, but yet, she felt its weight, as if the magic of the Rod gave her the strength to hold it.
"We should keep it," asked Pi in wonder, entranced by the Rod. "How can we trust anyone else?"
Aurie twirled it in her hands, mesmerized by the balance. Part of her wanted to march out of the Undercity and start healing anyone she saw. She imagined the throng following her through the city like the Pied Piper as she healed the sick and infirm. She imagined herself climbing up a great pyramid.
"No," she muttered. "We need to give this to someone else."
The call was strong, but she had resisted.
"I know one person we can trust," Aurie said.
"Are you sure?" asked Pi, blinking hard as if she'd shaken off the Rod's snare.
"It's going to the hospital even
tually, but we can't take it ourselves. It's too dangerous, and they won't let me in anyway. We need help to make sure it's guarded properly and that the wealthy donors like Camille Cardwell don't know about it."
Pi gave her a reassuring nod, but Aurie wasn't as confident, despite what she'd said. The only thing she did know was that the alternatives were worse.
Chapter Thirty-Six
A delivery guy in a red T-shirt balanced a stack of pizza boxes as he maneuvered through the main room in Freeport Games. A competitive card game tournament was in full swing. The occasional shouts of "Judge!" punctuated the cacophony.
Semyon Gray, the patron of Arcanium, looked quite out of place in his tweed jacket, silk vest, and tie as he surveyed the room with a keen eye. The participants of the tournament were too deep into their matches to give him much notice. Aurie waved him down from one of the side rooms.
"Miss Aurelia. Miss Pythia," he said, a little wide-eyed, as if the room he'd passed through had contained two-headed aliens rather than overly caffeinated gamers. "I received your urgent message. I assume this doesn't have to do with whatever ruckus is going on out there?"
"They're playing a card game...err...never mind, it doesn't matter," said Aurie. "This is about..."
Semyon held up his hand. He had long fingers. "If this is about your final test, I told you before, I can do nothing about it. Professor Mali's judgment is final."
Aurie had almost forgotten about the actual test. It seemed like it'd been days ago, rather than earlier that morning.
"It's not about the test. C...can I ask you a question?" She'd never felt so nervous in her life. "You knew my parents and knew about the work they did."
Patron Semyon steepled his fingers. He made a noise of agreement.
"What if I told you we found one of the artifacts they were after?" asked Aurie.
His gaze immediately cast about the room. "I'd say you were fools. Your parents were in terrible danger every time they went on a mission, and they were brilliant wizards of their respective fields. You are both initiates, barely a spark of magical wisdom to your names."
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