Legend (The Arinthian Line Book 5)

by Sever Bronny

  At long last, Leera’s stone began to waver, causing a ripple of whispers.

  “Concentrate, Miss Jones,” Mrs. Hawthorne said in a kind and supportive voice. When Leera’s stone stopped wavering, she added, “Excellent.”

  “How can they do that?” Elizabeth whispered.

  “Training, Beaumont,” Mrs. Hawthorne replied, her own stone steady before her face. “Training, concentration, and willpower. They push themselves. Even now, before your eyes, they push. Watch.”

  But while Mrs. Hawthorne could still talk and pay attention to others, the trio had to focus intently on the task at hand, for each of their stones now occasionally wobbled, drifted or dipped before being recovered.

  Augum’s head began to throb. Soon he felt a trickle touch his lip. But it was on course for his longest casting.

  Heads continued to shake in disbelief.

  “His nose is bleeding,” someone whispered in awe.

  “Gods, I’ve never seen such a thing,” someone else added. All spoke quietly now, apparently wanting to see the trio’s arcane endurance.

  And endure they did. Augum was barely aware of tears of resolve flowing down Leera’s cheeks or of Bridget’s clenched fists.

  “Impossible …”

  “Must be some kind of record …”

  “Keep it up, Miss Burns,” Mrs. Hawthorne quietly said. It did not escape Augum’s notice that she had begun to watch her own stone now. For him, the throb had increased in severity, to the point of reducing his peripheral vision with each heart-pulsing hammer blow.

  Bridget, who had been shaking beside Augum, finally gasped and dropped to one knee.

  “She’s still holding on!”

  “Unbelievable—!”

  Sure enough, the rock wavered before Bridget as she winced, blood running from her nose. But it didn’t take much longer for her to finally fold, collapsing to both knees and gasping for breath, her stone tumbling to the ground before her. She cleaned her nose with a cloth, got up, and strode to the fail group, who patted her on the back, some even hugging her in praise, everyone looking upon her with admiration and respect.

  “Well done, Miss Burns,” Brandon said with a chortle. “Well done indeed,” drawing a scathing glance from Bowlander.

  “Look, Mrs. Hawthorne’s is wavering!” a student cried.

  Mrs. Hawthorne said nothing as she recaptured the attention of her stone, which had drifted ever slightly.

  At long last, Leera screamed in frustration before suddenly smacking her stone out of the air, then marching to the fail group, nose bleeding. She too received a small hero’s welcome.

  Augum was peripherally aware of all this but refused to give up. Mrs. Stone watched him the entire time, not paying attention to her own rock, only him.

  “He’s definitely taking on Mrs. Hawthorne!” someone whispered.

  “Come on, Aug,” Leera said. “You can do it.”

  “Keep it up, Augum,” Jengo added.

  “Nice and level,” Haylee chimed.

  Augum began to shake as blood dripped from his chin.

  “Mind that you do not overdraw, Great-grandson,” Mrs. Stone only said.

  He gave the slightest nod, aware of the dividing boundary of the arcane ether rapidly drawing near, that point where it became incredibly dangerous to continue, for it meant arcane fever, or even death.

  “Unnameables,” a student whispered, for Augum continued to hold the stone, pushing himself … except that it had begun to slide around in his blurring vision. The crowd gasped with each recapture. Everyone had begun to cheer him on.

  “Come on, Augum!”

  “Go, Aug!”

  “This is crazy, look at him—!”

  At last, just as the cliff boundary of the ether finally arrived, Augum snatched the stone out of the air, to an eruption of enthusiastic cheers. Mrs. Hawthorne took her stone in hand and joined in the applause. Mrs. Stone gave only a slight nod as she turned to the group, which Augum merged with, receiving claps on the back and handshakes.

  “What you have witnessed is the ancient Arcaner training tradition in practice,” Mrs. Stone said when the tumult had died, her stone floating lazily near her. “It is the way of sacrifice, hardship, fortitude, and drive. You will note that although the trio are only 4th degree, they managed to continue to hold on for a length of time commensurate with their true arcane strength and skill.”

  The group was now paying rapt attention, believers to the core.

  “Today, you will train in that ancient Arcaner tradition. It will not be easy, but I urge you to push yourselves, not only for your own gain, but for the sake of the kingdom.”

  Bogdan cleared his throat. “Forgive, Great Archmage, but how long you keep stone up?”

  Mrs. Stone gave a small smile. “Let us focus. In the tradition of combat and adversity, we shall now hold a series of classic arcane contests. We shall challenge that which we already know by pushing to the edge, thence reflecting upon what we have learned. These contests are designed to provoke and hone your arcane weaknesses. They are not safe.”

  Mrs. Stone let that thought sink in before moving on to briefly lecture on the three basic principles of arcanery and how they applied to Arcaner combat. Augum, who had suffered through this speech before, closed his eyes and relaxed his mind to renew his arcane strength a little faster.

  The second contest was a telekinetic tug of war which, despite their exhaustion, the trio finished in the top four, with Augum once again winning against Leera, but only just losing to Bogdan, who was 8th degree, after all.

  The group took a short break for lunch, during which they got to know each other a little better with idle banter. Mrs. Stone sat apart with Mrs. Hawthorne, the pair talking in low voices. Augum sat with Leera, Jengo, Haylee, and a bunch of students, mostly boys, while Bridget sat with Bowlander and the rest of the students. She was explaining how to use the Exot ring to Elizabeth. Bowlander was meek and contrite and did not seem to draw the ire of the others at the moment, probably solely due to Bridget’s compassion.

  Leera elbowed Augum. “Oh, give him a chance, will you, big brother.” She tore a large chunk of journey bread in two, handing him one.

  “I don’t trust him,” he whispered back, taking the piece.

  Haylee leaned in. “What are we conspiring about?” which of course drew Jengo.

  “What’s happening? Is there an attack coming?” His eyes flicked to the entrance.

  “Aug is worried about Bridge,” Leera said.

  “I just want to make sure Lord Slimey Smile over there doesn’t try anything.” He noticed Bridget chortle at something Bowlander said.

  Haylee swept long blonde hair away from her eyes. “Aug, she’s a big girl. She can take care of herself. Besides, if he tried anything, she’d shove him through a wall faster than he could blink.”

  Leera made a small scoffing sound. “No she wouldn’t, she’d probably scold him and march off. She doesn’t get that kind of upset.”

  Jengo chewed a hard chunk of salted and dried beef. “The way I see it, she could use a distraction. She’s been working very hard. Training is her life.”

  The others nodded. Even Augum had to agree. Of all of them, Bridget took it the most seriously, what with training, communicating via the Exot orb, organizing, even getting them up in the morning. He just needed to trust her.

  Despite that, he found himself glancing over now and then, noticing Broderick constantly whispering into her ear.

  Brandon leaned into view, sitting cross-legged nearby and holding a skin of water. “So I know we’ve been told not to ask you where you all are staying, but, you have to tell me, is it someplace cool?”

  Augum smiled. “I suppose so, but Mrs. Stone has given us strict instructions not to even hint at the location for now.”

  “She’ll change her mind,” Leera said, reaching out to Brandon, hand gesturing a Gimme gimme motion. He handed her the waterskin and she drank greedily.

  “What makes
you say that?” Augum dug out a small pebble stuck in his turnshoe and flicked it away. It accidentally plonked off Cry, who was sitting apart from the group in a sullen cloud.

  Oops. Augum played dumb as he barely even glanced up, apparently used to this kind of thing.

  Leera fake-coughed “Saw that,” and then passed the waterskin along. “Look, I’m telling you, she’s going to change her mind.”

  “But how do you know?” Augum asked.

  She shrugged. “Think about it, why would we all meet up like this if not to see each other again where it mattered?”

  “In the castle?” he mouthed, making sure to shield his mouth.

  She gave him a smirking Obviously look. “I don’t know,” she added, “that’s just my hunch.”

  “What’s it like training under her?” Alyssa asked, nodding at Mrs. Stone. Alyssa was the only one not sitting cross-legged, preferring to sit on her knees, necrophyte robe folded under her.

  “Tough,” Augum replied. “Real tough.”

  “She’s as no-nonsense as they come,” Haylee said.

  “How long can she keep that up?” Brandon asked, nodding at the rock still floating near Mrs. Stone.

  “No idea,” Augum replied. “She’s never competed with us before.”

  Alyssa glanced over at Elizabeth, who looked unimpressed listening to some elaborate story Bowlander was telling. “Your old pal didn’t take it too well that you’re seeing a Henawa.”

  Haylee shrugged. “Yeah, well, I don’t care. Hey, weren’t you her close friend once?”

  Alyssa took her turn at the waterskin and tipped it back to hover above her lips. She drank and passed it on. “Some people do change.”

  “You know we’d all b-be training t-together if it wasn’t for our families,” Garryk said, pushing on his grimy spectacles.

  “Can I clean those for you?” Kiwi asked in a meek voice, cringing. She was sitting nearby and shooting him occasional looks.

  “Uh, sure, I g-guess.” He handed his clunky spectacles over and she gingerly began cleaning them.

  “We are training together, Garryk,” Brandon said. “Oh and hey, want to finish my parchment scroll homework for me? I’ve got some killer Canterran chocolate I think you’d like.”

  Garryk immediately extended a hand. “Deal.”

  Brandon took it. “Thanks, Wart.” He playfully placed a hand on his heart and put on a wilting accent. “An’ I say tha’ wi’ nothin’ but affection, ma good lad.”

  “So what’s the academy like?” Augum asked. “Never been there—”

  “You never go academy?” Sasha interrupted. Her harsh and accented voice reminded Augum of an old village woman he had known back in Willowbrook who had been smoking a pipe all her life.

  Sasha leaned in closer, inspecting Augum with her angular features. “Not even moment? Your famous great-grandmother had statue at—”

  “—the top of the steps, I know,” Augum said.

  “Before the Legion tore it down,” Brandon added, making a grab-and-yank gesture. “Why’d you never go?”

  “Never got the chance. Only hope to visit it before I bite it.”

  “B-bite it?” Garryk asked, accepting his now clean spectacles from a blushing Kiwi.

  “He means before he dies,” Leera said, idly chewing on a chunk of beef. “That was Augum pretending to be a city kid.”

  Augum gave her a small shove with his shoulder. “I’ll have you know I know lots of city words now. Like … cool.”

  Leera nodded gravely. “Yup, you know cool, that’s good, Aug, very good.”

  “And I know skull, spine and castle.”

  “Yes indeed, slang for gold, silver and copper Legion coins, very good, Augum Stone, very good indeed.” Her head bobbed along, face serious. After a moment of him hesitating to come up with another word, her sharp brows arched. “Anything else, Mr. Stone?”

  “Um …” Shoot, there had been another one recently, hadn’t there?

  Alyssa laughed—the sound a slow but gentle undulation resonating with joy. “You two really are in love.”

  Augum drew Leera closer by her waist. “Nah, hate her guts.” He kissed her freckled cheek.

  “Gah, let go of me, you fiend,” but she was smiling. “You’re embarrassing us,” she added through her teeth.

  “Is everyone about finished?” Mrs. Hawthorne asked from her seated position with Mrs. Stone. “Hurry up, we’ve got much to do still.”

  There was a frantic stuffing of faces and gulping of water.

  The third contest involved mind attack spells for those that could participate (the lower degrees had a separate contest involving pebbles, Unconceal, and Object Track). It was a one-chance knockout tournament. One by one, the warlocks faced off against each other. One would cast a mind spell and the other was forced to defend, and then they would switch roles. Two failures meant the person had been knocked out. The students faced each other first, Mrs. Hawthorne purposefully saving the trio and Bogdan for last. The students yielded mixed results, with many succumbing to each other’s onslaughts right away.

  “I want to see Augum have a go,” Brandon said finally. “Come on, Mrs. Hawthorne, stop making us wait.”

  “Patience, Summers, patience. Fairweather is still alive.”

  Alyssa adjusted one of her lip piercings as she confidently stood in the center of the Blade Room, having defeated three opponents in a row, including Bowlander, Olaf, and Isaac, the latter resorting to hurling a string of nonsense words amidst the true spell incantation while swinging his arms wildly, only to be disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct.

  “Luganov, you’re up.”

  Sasha smoothed her necrophyte robe and placed herself opposite Alyssa, smirking. “Ready, half-head?”

  Alyssa returned the smirk. “Hit me first, marble mouth,” but by their tone, Augum could tell they were friends who enjoyed verbally jabbing at each other as much as they seemed to enjoy wrestling together.

  As per tradition, the two opponents bowed to each other, flashing their rings to inform the other they were fairly matched—four blue ice stripes around Sasha’s arm, four flaming rings around Alyssa’s.

  After a moment of concentration, Sasha shot an arm out. “Flustrato!”

  Alyssa squared her jaw and raised her chin, breathing a little faster. She stood firm, and soon Sasha dropped her arm with a disappointed frown.

  Next, Alyssa prepared herself by changing to an attack posture. After a moment of concentration, she shot her arm out. “Dreadus terrablus!”

  Sasha stood silent a moment, angular features sharpened, only to suddenly yelp and retreat a few steps. But Augum could tell it had been a weak casting. A truly powerful casting would have had her screaming.

  “Good, Fairweather,” Mrs. Hawthorne said as Sasha quickly shook the feeling off.

  Alyssa grinned at her counterpart, who surrendered a grudging nod before taking her place with the others.

  “Jones—you’re up.”

  The crowd immediately bubbled with excited whispers.

  Leera smiled glowingly as she exchanged a look with Augum. He knew what that look represented—Mrs. Hawthorne had called her by her last name, as if she was one of the students. That meant a lot to her, and it meant a lot to Augum too. Nothing would give him more pride and joy than to be considered an academy warlock.

  Leera planted herself opposite Alyssa, who betrayed her anxiety by her rapidly flicking fingers. The two opponents bowed to each other while flaring their arm stripes. Leera then politely gestured that Alyssa may go first, the position of advantage.

  Alyssa took a little longer than usual to prepare. At last, she flung out her arm. “Paralizo carcusa cemente!” but Leera immediately shook her head slowly and raised a hand, indicating the Paralyze spell had not worked. By the casual nature of it and Leera’s facial expression, Augum could tell Alyssa wasn’t particularly strong with that spell. She would have done better if she had cast one she had more experience with, especially s
eeing as she was 4th degree and the spell was 5th. But he suspected Leera would have blocked any spell regardless.

  The crowd turned their undivided attention to Leera. All was quiet. After a tense moment, her hand shot forth. “Flustrato!” and Alyssa immediately stumbled and fell, blubbering, “Yeah, it’s fuzzy, but I tell you it’s cute, look at those antennae,” and the crowd burst with laughter.

  “An excellent Confusion casting, Jones,” Mrs. Hawthorne said as Alyssa was helped back to the group, still completely out of it. “What’s your favorite color?” she innocently asked Olaf, who couldn’t help but chortle at the fierce-looking sixteen-year-old reduced to a confused child.

  Mrs. Hawthorne turned her hawk-like gaze upon Bridget. “Burns, let’s see it.”

  Bridget exchanged a look with Bowlander before stepping forth, the crowd shushing in anticipation. The girls bowed to each other while flaring their arm stripes—four earth and four water, respectively. Leera then politely indicated Bridget could go first. Bridget curled her long cinnamon hair around one ear and then the other. She took a deep breath while studying Leera. Suddenly she whipped out her arm.

  “Voidus aurus!”

  Leera stood still with a stiff upper lip, shaking her head with a victorious smile. “Strong, but not quite.” The Deafness spell had failed. They were on the Arcaner honor system and were required to say if a spell like that had worked.

  Bridget’s shoulders drooped. “Got you with that one before though.”

  “You did, but Aug and I have been working on it.” Leera now prepared herself for the counter attack. After a moment of concentration, she narrowed her dark eyes and shot out her arm. “Paralizo carcusa cemente!”

  Bridget froze with a determined look on her face, only to unfreeze a moment later. But it had been enough to score a victory. The crowd expelled a tense breath.

  “Someone’s been practicing that one,” Bridget said with a smile as she made her way back to Bowlander’s side.

  “Good effort, Burns,” Mrs. Hawthorne said as the crowd clapped politely. “Stone, hustle up.”