Awakening Camelot: A Wizard's Quest (Awakening Camelot Duology Book 1)

by Dan Wingreen

  The reaction was immediate.

  "Terrorists!" a woman screamed. There were sounds of people running.

  "There are more down here!"

  "Get out of my way!"

  "Everyone get on the floor! Now!" That one sounded like a DMS agent.

  "They're after the Prime Minister!"

  "Someone send for backup!"

  Aidan felt the agents start to fire spells at the shields. The shields didn't even slow, and he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. Unlike normal shields that were hollow to protect the person inside, these shields didn't have anything inside them except more shield. The agents in the hall could throw deathbolt after deathbolt at them they wouldn’t do anything but chip away at what amounted to dozens upon dozens of densely packed shield spells.

  "Told you that you were having fun," Lee said after taking his finger off the light.

  Aidan didn't even bother to deny it.

  Lee laughed gleefully. "Let's add a little diversity to our invasion."

  He pressed his finger to the next light on his wrist.

  "Amende le Premier Ministre! Chaîne lui par sa chèvre et de couper son chat!" he yelled, his voice coming from down by the opposite set of shields. He let go of his wrist. "Hope nobody speaks Frankish," he said with a frown. "Ain't exactly sure I got that one right."

  Aidan rolled his eyes. He felt the smoke spell starting to wind down, so he pulled out another page and recast it before flipping back to the shield spells. "Second wave?"

  "Of course," Lee said. "Every invasion needs a second wave."

  Aidan snorted, and cast. Another set of shields popped to life, this time halfway between Aidan and the first set of shields. Lee did the same thing on his side.

  "There are more of them!"

  "How did they get behind us?"

  More spells bounced off the shields.

  "Der Mann in Schwarz floh durch die Wüste, und der gunslinger gefolgt!" Lee yelled out of the third light. He pulled his finger away. "Oh no, the Germans are coming," he mocked.

  "They're foreigners!"

  "Sweet Merlin's corpse, they're Aztecs!" a woman shrieked.

  "Germans!" Lee yelled back. Aidan hit him. "What?"

  Aidan rolled his eyes. "Just finish up, I'm starting to feel a lot more magic getting thrown around, so they probably already have more agents here."

  He really, really hoped everyone who wasn't an agent was staying down and not getting hit with any badly aimed death spells.

  "All right, all right," Lee grumbled. He cracked his knuckles. "Let's see how they deal with the Roman legions, then."

  He pressed the last light. "In Gallia Caesar, et matrem tuam!"

  "Romans?" Aidan asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Lee shrugged. "Seemed appropriate, what with the whole Arthurian theme of the day and all."

  Aidan felt another tug on his magic, telling him his first shield spell was about to run out. He recast it and decided to let the Romans thing go. "Let's get to the door." He hesitated, then added, unable to resist, "Unless you wanna spell up some Moors, or a dragon, maybe?"

  Lee scoffed. "Now who's being ridiculous?" He shook his head. "Like I speak dragon."

  Aidan blinked. "Wait, wha—"

  Lee grabbed his wrist. "Come on, let's get out of here."

  Aidan let himself be dragged along with Lee.

  He'd ask about the dragon later.

  Chapter 3

  Lee kept a tight grip on Aidan's wrist as they crouched and walked quickly down the hall, their shoulders pressed up against the wall. Even though the smoke had lightened, it was still easy to get disoriented. All around them were the sounds of spells being cast and people yelling. Purple and deep blue lights flashed through the smoke, and more than once Aidan had to blink rapidly to clear his vision after accidentally looking right at a particularly bright one.

  "Ah!" Aidan yelled as Lee pulled him to the ground just before an errant deathbolt slammed into the wall above him.

  "We've gotta get out of here," Lee muttered, helping Aidan back up.

  Aidan rubbed his shoulder. "No shit. Where's the door?"

  "No bloody idea. Can't see anything in this smoke."

  Aidan sucked his bottom lip thoughtfully, then closed his eyes and concentrated. Even with part of his attention fixed on the six shield spells, it wasn't that hard to pick up the thread of his smoke and make it a tiny bit more transparent in a small bubble around them. He opened his eyes and grinned up at Lee, who raised an impressed eyebrow. Before he had time to really enjoy it though, he felt one of his shield spells give one last sharp tug on his magic before it snapped.

  "The first set of shields are going out!" Aidan said, raising his voice just enough to be heard over the noise of 'battle'. He fumbled with his bag, trying to open it so he could get his book and recast the spell, his hands suddenly shaking. They were supposed to have found the door by the time the shields ran out! That was the plan. He didn't know what to do. Should he cast again? Did they miss the door? Did they completely misremember where the door was in the first place?

  What in the hells do I do?

  Lee grabbed his shaking hands and gently pulled them away from the bag.

  "Come on," he said. "Door's here somewhere." And with that he was pulling Aidan along behind him again.

  Aidan let out a relieved breath. Lee had done this kind of thing before and he'd always gotten out of it okay, even when his plans went spectacularly wrong. All Aidan had to do was listen to him and they’d be fine. He liked the idea of Lee being in charge; the thought relaxed him.

  I wonder how much of that's because I trust Lee, and how much is because I was raised to let other people make all my decisions for me?

  He decided he didn't really care.

  They slipped past a crouching shadow that was firing magic into a set of shields that were almost completely obscured by the smoke. Lee paused and Aidan held his breath.

  "Here," Lee whispered. Aidan tore his eyes away from the shadow that was way too close for comfort and found himself looking right at a grinning Lee.

  Behind him was a door.

  Aidan let out a silent, relieved sigh. Their entire plan hinged on getting into an empty room above the basement so they could cut through the floor the way Lee had back when he broke Aidan out of the interrogation room. The two problems with that were they couldn't just slip away from the tour and go into a room since they all had guards in front of them, and they had no idea which rooms were actually above the basement. The only reason they even knew there was a basement in the first place was because of Aidan's vision.

  And it was the vision that ended up solving their problem. When Aidan's perspective had pulled back to show the White House, he was almost completely sure that one of the halls he saw was the one they were currently in. So, theoretically, they were standing over the basement right now, very close to the room they needed to get to as well.

  The problem with theories was that it was impossible to tell if they were true until they were tested.

  There was more shouting from the end of the hall behind them, followed by more spells being fired off and the dull thump of boots pounding over carpet. If they stayed there too much longer, they were either going to get hit by a badly aimed spell, or one of the agents was going to end up tripping over them. Aidan made a sharp, impatient gesture towards the door. Lee looked slightly put out over not being praised for finding it, but he turned around and tried the doorknob.

  To their surprise, it was unlocked.

  They shared a puzzled look, but didn't waste any time rushing inside and, silently, closing the door behind them just as another one of Aidan’s shields collapsed.

  They were in a supply room, Aidan realized. Small and filled with white cardboard boxes and barely enough room for both of them to fit inside. Which made no sense. Why was there a guard on a supply room?

  Maybe…because it isn't a supply room?

  Aidan took the lid off one of the box
es. It was filled with blank paper. Another one had folders emblazoned with the Seal of the United States; a hooded sorcerer with his head lowered respectfully and the words "Unity. Safety. Obedience." written under him. Lee pulled an inkwell out of another box.

  "Think this is exploding ink?" he asked, bemused.

  Aidan shook his head. "Why guard office supplies?"

  Lee put the stapler back and shrugged. "Either to keep folk from doing exactly what we're tryin' to do, and if that's the case why keep the door unlocked, or…I dunno, maybe to impress the tourists? Keep 'em from thinkin' that there ain't a single room in here that ain't anything less than incredibly important?"

  That…seemed more plausible than Aidan wanted to admit. He pushed his hair out of his eyes impatiently. "It doesn't matter. Let's just do…" He trailed off as something occurred to him. "Can we even get through the floor? I mean, it's a lot smaller than the last room you did this in…"

  There also wasn't a lot of floor space that wasn't covered with boxes.

  Lee crossed his arms and leaned against the boxes behind him. "I ain't the one doing it, so I guess we'll see."

  Aidan blinked. Oh, right. I wanted to do this part, didn't I? After a short internal struggle, he decided they didn't have the time to waste arguing; he already felt more of his shield spells starting to give out. Visions of the entire floor dropping out from under them, and mountains of office supplies crushing them to death as they fell, filled his head as he flipped the spell book to one of the pages that said "cut". He tore it out and, after a moment of hesitation where he tried to figure out the best way to do this, ended up placing it in the middle of the worryingly small area of the floor that was uncluttered. He knelt down as far away from the spell as he could and stretched one arm out, so his hand was resting on the sheet.

  "You might wanna get behind me," Aidan said, already feeling the strain of trying to hold the uncomfortable position.

  "Nah," Lee said with easy confidence. "I trust you."

  Aidan scowled, wishing the damned sorcerer had picked any other time to try and make a point.

  "Fine," Aidan muttered. He closed his eyes.

  "Cut through the floor."

  He concentrated hard on what he wanted to happen, his eyes snapping open as he felt the page disintegrate under his hand. The page was ash, but in its place was a glowing white outline, hovering half inside the floor. For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then, the outline expanded.

  Aidan scrambled away from it as it stretched until it took up more than half the clear floor space, then stopped. It flashed brightly, making them wince, and then disappeared, leaving an inch-wide gap through the floor where it had been. The thick section of floor inside the gap fell, landing with a loud thud. It left behind a square hole in the floor just large enough for a person a little bigger than Lee to squeeze through.

  "Guess that answers that then," Lee said with a grin.

  Aidan ignored him and slowly crawled over to the hole. Tentatively, he peered over the edge. The bit of floor that had fallen through was lying in the exact middle of a dimly lit hallway about twelve feet below them.

  He looked up at Lee, a small, proud smile tugging at his lips. "There's a basement down there."

  Lee reached over and tousled his hair. Aidan shoved his hand away and glared as he smoothed it out. "We should probably go down, then, don't cha think?"

  Aidan ran his fingers through his hair one final time, then shot a dubious glance towards the gap. The drop seemed slightly higher than the last one… "Are you gonna lower me down?"

  "Nope!" Lee said cheerfully and jumped into the hole. Aidan's breath caught in his throat. Any second he expected to hear a snap as one or both of Lee's legs broke, but before his torso had even cleared the edge he gestured with his hand and slowed his fall, levitating until he gently landed on the piece of floor/ceiling.

  "I'll catch you!" he yelled up, holding his arms out.

  You have got to be fucking kidding me.

  "You said you couldn't levitate!" Aidan glared.

  "That was last time," Lee said, waving his hand dismissively. "I got all my magic now. Come on, just jump down. I promise I won't drop you."

  "I'm not—" No time to argue, remember? As if it was trying to underline the thought, his last shield spell died, which meant Lee’s were out too since he needed to preserve his magic more than Aidan. The smoke would only last for another few minutes, and then it was only a matter of time before a search for the intruders led to someone finding the giant hole in the storeroom floor.

  That didn't mean he was going to be caught like some kind of Arthurian damsel, though.

  He opened his bag and shoved the battered spell book in, then took out the newer one. He flipped open to the first page and scrawled on it before ripping it out and putting the book away.

  Please don't die.

  "Levitate," he said. The page burned up, and he jumped.

  It turned out levitating was exactly as much fun as he'd thought.

  As Aidan landed gently, he shot Lee a gloating smirk. "You're not the only one who can do awesome shit now, remember?"

  Lee slowly lowered his arms, looking put out. "I was looking forward to catchin’ you. Had it all built up in my head and everything."

  Aidan stared at him. "I can never tell when you're being serious."

  Lee instantly brightened up. "So, I am good at lying, then?"

  "You're good at being annoying," Aidan shot back.

  Lee grinned. "I'll take it."

  Aidan hid a smile and turned away, wondering exactly when some of Lee's more infuriating traits started to seem charming.

  "So, where do we go from here?" Lee asked.

  Aidan looked around. Good question. The 'basement' wasn't what he was expecting. In his vision he'd seen a large, open room filled with metal boxes. Instead of that, they were in a long, straight hallway that seemed to stretch from one end of the White House to the other, and possibly beyond too. Every twenty feet there was a large, sturdy looking metal door and after every three sets of doors two more hallways split off to the left and right. If the rest of the basement was laid out the exact same way, then each room, or whatever was behind the doors, was completely self-contained in its own perfectly square grid surrounded by small, badly lit hallways. It was the kind of uninspired uniformity that Aidan had always taken comfort in. The problem was, none of this looked anything like the room in his vision. That room had boxes that seemed like they were tossed haphazardly inside with no rhyme or reason. Nothing like the crisp corners and neatly planned, straight corridors he was looking at now.

  Although as he looked closer, he noticed, for all the precision of the layout, there was an atmosphere of neglect that hovered about the halls. Cobwebs hung from almost every corner and the air smelled stale and musty, like no one had been down there in a very long time. The only lighting came from exposed bulbs hanging from a single wire attached to the ceiling, and several of them kept dimming and brightening like they were about to give out. It took decades for bulbs to break down to the point they couldn’t be repaired—assuming someone was even repairing them—and Aidan had never seen this much wear and neglect outside of a Wizard’s Quarter.

  "I…have no idea," Aidan answered finally. Nothing about this was anything like what he'd seen.

  "Your vision didn't tell you?" Lee asked.

  Aidan shook his head, staring down the corridor that seemed to stretch endlessly off into the distance. "I just saw a room."

  "All right," Lee said with a sigh. "Old fashioned way, then."

  He walked over to the nearest door and turned the knob. Neither of them were surprised that it was locked. A cobweb fell onto Lee's head and he brushed it away absently. He stared at the door for a moment, then nodded to himself, seeming to make up his mind about something. Lee placed his hand on the doorknob again, but instead of twisting it, he left it there. A second later, his hand started glowing a bright red that quickly turned to a blinding wh
ite that had Aidan squinting and holding his hand up in front of his eyes. A second after that, the knob melted into molten metal that ran down the door as the light died. Lee reached into the empty hole where it had been with two fingers and pulled. The door squeaked loudly, but otherwise opened surprisingly smoothly. He walked in, slowly. Aidan followed him.

  The entire room was filled with statues.

  There were busts and idols, full statues and broken ruins, marble and metal. They were placed on tables or shelves or just on the floor completely at random with no pattern or care that Aidan could see. Most of them were of people, and well-crafted too, but there were some in the shape of strange creatures and symbols, like a cross with a loop on top of it and a six sided star set into a piece of stone that looked like it was cut off of the side of a building.

  Lee walked into the middle of the room, then turned slowly in a circle, a look of awe on his face.

  "Look at all this," he said, his voice soft. "Busts of Julius Caesar, a Star of David, Egyptian Ankhs…"

  He let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "Do you know what this is?" He walked over and picked up a metal cauldron that had scenes with strange creatures carved into the side. He pointed to one of them, a weird looking man with antlers growing out of his head, who was holding a snake with the head of a ram in one hand and a circular loop in the other. "This is Cernunnos, a bloody Gaelic god!"

  He held the cauldron up to the light, twisting it around so he could inspect it from every angle.

  "This isn't the room I saw," Aidan said slowly.

  Lee shot him a disappointed look. "No bloody sense of history you got. These are ancient artifacts from all over the world! All here, in a storeroom in the bloody White House. In Pennsylvania! Aren't you even the least bit curious how they got here?"

  Aidan looked around the room. All the history he'd ever read, while interesting, had been about Arthur and battles and adventure and heroism. This stuff just looked like a bunch of old junk someone had thrown in a closet and promptly forgotten about.