Wizard Hall Chronicles Box Set

by Sheryl Steines

  “We need her!” Cham insisted.

  He turned his attention to Jason but was startled to see Melichi, who stared at his father-in-law, a lopsided grin across his lips, his palms facing them.

  “And this is how it will end for you,” Melichi jeered.

  “At least Annie’s safe and the magic will never be yours.” Jason ripped off the bandages, ignoring the pain in his burning hands.

  Jason and Melichi released their magic simultaneously. It streamed from their palms and exploded; the force of the impact threw them backwards. Jason slid along the rocky cliff until he reached for a rock at the edge and held on tightly.

  Melichi flew and landed against one of the stones that covered an air vent. Poisonous gas and smoke rose from the opening. He scampered away and lunged for Jason.

  Cham blocked Melichi’s path with a jinx when Jason staggered up. As Melichi cast another spell, Cham lunged for Jason, pushing him out of the path of the jinx.

  “Ahhhhh!” Cham screamed as he crumpled to the ground. His leg, from the knee down, was blown apart by the black magic and oozed with blood, muscle, and sinew.

  Melichi grinned and aimed his palms at Cham. Jason stumbled up, swaying slightly. With determination, he ran for Melichi, wrapping his arms around the man and pulling him over the cliff.

  At just that moment, Annie arrived and ran frantically toward her father. “No!” she screamed.

  “Annie,” Cham murmured.

  Seeing the pool of blood and Cham’s missing leg, Annie ran for him. “I need to get you out of here.”

  “No. Stop this now,” Cham pleaded. He breathed deeply as he tried to stop from fainting. “Please save them.”

  She looked into the desert. The wizard guards were holding their own, but the ranks were thinning. She could hear them shouting and screaming. The chaos made her heart break. She ran back to Cham, lay him flat, and shrugged off her jacket, using it to raise his healthy leg. She wrapped a tight bandage around his thigh to stop the flow of blood, then touched his ashen face.

  “Don’t die on me,” she ordered.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he groaned.

  She ran for the cliff’s edge. Her muscles shuddered and spasmed—so much magical energy had been released from her that day. When she raised her palms, magic flowed with ease. She parted the sand that hung above the outcropping, exposing everyone.

  From the high perch, Annie clearly saw the wizard guards, outnumbered by the Fraternitatem.

  Not for long!

  Annie wasn’t completely sure what her magic could do, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t do what she wanted to do.

  “Fraternitatem,” she murmured as she cast the spell into the valley.

  Magic rushed from her body as if it understood her desire. A steady stream of magic searched out the men and women in the Fraternitatem robes.

  How?

  It wasn’t for her to worry about now. She knew only that she could think it and it would happen, much like the magic of the portal in the basement of the Snake Head Letters.

  Annie remember when she sat beside the portal, how she and the portal magic seemed as one, as if they breathed together.

  She no longer had control of the magic as it flew from her palms. It was as if a dam broke.

  This is too much!

  Behind her, Cham moaned in pain.

  Annie’s arms shook as her magic was depleted. It hummed and zinged as it stretched out across the desert, searching out for the Fraternitatem as though murmuring the name would force the magic to find them.

  I know it will.

  Her magic hovered over the outcropping of rocks. Then it flew from the desert, searching for Fraternitatem members not in the desert: those that were in the markets, those that had hidden in their homes, those in Tartarus Prison.

  Mom!

  The magic continued to search for every member of the Fraternitatem of Solomon. All of the men, women, and children who had magically pledged themselves to the group or who had signed a contract in lieu of magic if they had none. The magic contained Annie’s fury and anger as it sought out anyone under the umbrella of the Fraternitatem. Wherever they were, they’d be rendered incapable of movement. Annie didn’t care that this could potentially expose magic to the nonmagical world. It was too important.

  Her legs trembled and her hands shook uncomfortably. She held the magic as long as she could, but it was too much. She fell to her knees and let the magic go. She stared at the motionless Fraternitatem members across the sand.

  Cham moaned again.

  Summoning what little energy she had, she scrambled to him, he was sweaty and ghostly white. Wrapping her arms around him, she teleported him away.

  Chapter 36

  The magic stopped.

  The dust settled.

  Magical energy still buzzed in the desert.

  Giants and wizard guards worked side by side in silence as they pulled Fraternitatem members from the rocks and locked them into the holding pen, which was quickly filling with unconscious people.

  The jinx had been an awesome sight as it flew from the mountaintop and covered the desert. Annie had delivered the spell with such strength and accuracy, only Fraternitatem members were effected.

  Shiff returned to the middle of the rocks frantically searching for Brite. He stopped at an unconscious Fraternitatem member and dragged him back to the holding pen. He couldn’t stop looking around for Brite even as he ran an injured wizard guard to the medical station, where staff had been waiting.

  Shiff continued to cross the two-mile-by-two-mile wide rocky land until he had scoured it four times. He hadn’t found Brite yet and he was ready to drop from exhaustion.

  He pulled one more man from the path and carried him over his shoulders. His arms and shoulders ached and shook, while his legs felt as though he was walking through gelatin. He handed the man to the giants.

  Shiff glanced up toward the cliffs where Cham and other teams had waited for the fighting to begin, where Annie had shot off the strongest spell he had ever seen. As he returned to the rocks, he saw other members of the Wizard Guard and members of the VAU as they assisted with the cleanup.

  He recognized the team from Amborix, the teams from the satellite offices in the U.S., but he still didn’t see Michael.

  I wonder if Michael took someone to the Hall.

  Shiff leaned against a large boulder, put his head against the hard rock, and took a sip of water. He turned and saw the hem of two more red cloaks lying in the sand. Gingerly, he pulled himself from the rock and found Roland kneeling beside a man and a woman. Roland glanced up and grimaced. Blood had dried from his forehead to his chin.

  “I need help,” Roland rasped.

  Shiff examined the woman, checking her pulse and looking into her eyes.

  “The spell was strong,” Roland said. He stood carefully and pulled up a short thin man, placing him over his shoulder.

  “It was. It knocked them out cold,” Shiff replied.

  They were silent as they trekked to the holding pen to deliver the unconscious pair.

  “Have you seen Michael Brite?” Shiff asked before he re-entered the rocks.

  “No. I was wondering where my partner, Jory, was.” They stopped at the first large boulder. “That spell was something. I hope Annie is okay.”

  “It was so focused. So strong. I’m sure she’s fine,” Shiff said, though he was trying to convince himself. He had seen the magic she wielded, how quickly the magic felled only the Fraternitatem members, as if she could think it and it would be. Remembering the power frightened him and he didn’t know why. He shuddered as he and Jory moved on to the next red cloaks, pulling them from the desert.

  *

  Brite lay in the sand. The heat and sun burned his skin, and his mouth was dry. He imagined what it would be like to see Jory come back for him, for anyone to find him, for that matter. Several times he looked toward the fighting and thought he saw someone walking toward him, but each time it was
merely a mirage that shimmered in the sunlight.

  He shivered in the heat. Closing his eyes, he took a sip of the last of the water. He turned his gaze back toward the outcropping, where he could see movement but nothing more clear than that.

  What happened?

  Brite shook as he waited until he finally saw Shiff’s form glide across the sand. He closed his eyes, grateful that Shiff found him, and smiled. When he opened his eyes, ready to greet him, Shiff wasn’t there.

  He began to cry. All his hopes and dreams seemed to float away from him, leaving nothing but his fear. He heaved as he cried, and yet, no tears fell. Not in this heat, not now.

  “Sebastian,” he murmured.

  Two arms reached down for him and pulled him up. He floated upwards, afraid to open his eyes in case he saw that he was no longer in the desert, that maybe there was an afterlife and he was now in hell.

  His head rolled toward a taut body. The stench of body odor and burnt embers filled his nose. The arms that held him shook violently. Brite opened his eyes.

  “I’m sorry it took so long,” Jory said, his voice gravelly and tired. He limped away from the fighting.

  “Where are we going?” Brite managed to ask.

  “To the teleportation line. It’s time to go home.” Jory’s knee buckled and he held Brite tighter.

  Brite glanced up at Jory and smiled as the other guard carried him out into the desert where the protections wards had been taken down. When they arrived, Jory glanced back at the outcropping of rocks and teleported Brite from the desert.

  *

  Scott rushed Lial to the Wizard Hall hospital, bursting through the doors. “I need help!” he shouted.

  The medical team was prepared for any wizard guards that entered; extra staff had been brought in. Dr. Christine was the first to meet him.

  “Oh, my,” she said. “I need nonmagical medicine, now.”

  She stared at Lial in Scott’s arms and summoned a stretcher. She and Scott placed him gently on his back. She did a basic assessment, checking his pulse and eyes and listening to his heart; but she could feel from his skin that it was too late. She shook her head.

  “He didn’t make it?” Scott asked tearfully.

  “No.” She summoned a crisp, white sheet and placed it over Lial. As the director of Black Magical Medicine, she worked with the Wizard Guard a lot. She knew them all personally. When Lial was wheeled to the morgue, she let herself cry.

  *

  Annie landed outside the hospital doors, cast a spell, and threw the glass doors open. They bounced against the wall. One shattered with the force.

  Nauseated and worried, she held Cham in her arms. He lay unconscious. His leg pumped blood profusely around his protruding shinbone.

  Dr. Christine flew from the emergency room with a stretcher. She stopped short when she saw Cham on the ground and Annie covered in his blood.

  “Help him,” Annie murmured.

  Dr. Christine, along with an orderly, pulled Cham up and lay him on the stretcher, racing him inside.

  Annie stumbled after them but was stopped in the waiting room.

  “You look like you need help too,” a medical student told her. He gently led her back inside.

  “I need to see Cham,” she murmured.

  “In just a bit,” the medical student said as Annie fell to her knees.

  *

  Annie turned quickly. Her eyes popped open. She blinked several times as the light from above blinded her. It took her several moments to figure out where she was and what had happened. Her father’s face clouded her memory. She couldn’t stop picturing his arms around Melichi as he pulled the man from the cliff.

  Dad!

  She felt nauseated as the memory returned. It felt like she was living it all over again. Her brain struggled to remember more. Her eyes darted across the room as she took in the sounds, the footsteps across the floors, the monitors beeping wildly.

  The hospital! Cham!

  She raised her hand. It was hooked to an IV. Weak and exhausted, she pulled herself up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She held her breath as she yanked the tape from her skin, held the needle firmly, and pulled it from her arm.

  She ignored the blood as it spurted across her arm and hopped off the bed. The world spun in front of her and she slipped to the ground.

  “Annie!” Cham’s younger brother, Danny, a fourth-year medical student, rushed up to her. “You need treatment,” he said and helped her to the chair.

  “I don’t need treatment. I need to see Cham!” she shouted. She whipped the nasal cannula from her nose and tossed it to the floor.

  “You need fluid. I’ll go find him. He’s got to be in the waiting room,” Danny said as he stabilized her back on the bed.

  “Cham. He’s here. He… he…” Her skin began to crawl with magic; she feverishly scratched at herself.

  “Let me get you to bed.” He glanced at her hand where the IV needle had been. “You pulled it out. I’ll start with the other hand.”

  She pulled her arm away. “You’re not listening. I need to see him. His leg is horribly injured!” she screamed, clenching her fists. Magic billowed from her palms.

  “He—let’s get you to bed,” Danny said as his hands shook.

  “I want to see him now!” she screamed.

  Danny knew better than to fight her. He led Annie from the room. She stumbled against him. Dr. Christine exited Cham’s room toward Annie’s panicked cries.

  “You can barely stand. You’re going to stroke out with the magic. Back to bed,” she instructed.

  “No! I need to see him now!” Annie screamed and pulled from Dr. Christine. The doctor waved for a wheelchair and sat Annie down.

  “What happened to him?” Danny asked, each word filled with worry.

  “Call your family. He lost most of his leg and is bleeding profusely. We’re prepping him for surgery,” Dr. Christine advised. “Come, Annie. I’ll let you see him and then you need treatment. I won’t have you stroking out. He needs you now.” She wheeled Annie inside Cham’s makeshift room.

  Cham lay unconscious. Tubes poked out from his arms and nose, and monitors beeped and flashed.

  “He can’t hear you and you need to get stable,” Dr. Christine said.

  “No. No. No!” Annie shrieked.

  Dr. Christine held her shoulder firmly. “Now, Annie,” she said.

  Annie slumped in the chair, too tired to fight, and let herself be wheeled from the room. As they left, Don and Marina rushed into the emergency room, followed by Kathy, Ryan, Samantha, and John.

  “Annie, how is…” Marina could barely keep from crying.

  Magic billowed from Annie’s hand at an alarming rate. She trembled.

  “Cham is in good hands. Please try to calm yourself,” Dr. Christine said.

  Behind her, the surgical team wheeled Cham from his ER room to the operating room. Marina cried out. Annie sobbed as she watched him being taken away. Her magic continued to flow from her hands, gathering around her head, and wrapping her in light. The world swirled around her.

  She could hear monitors beeping around. Graham entered the area and spoke with Ryan. Annie strained to catch their conversation, but the stress overtook her and the world went blank.

  *

  “No. He’s still in surgery. We don’t know how long it will be,” Ryan said into the phone. He placed himself away from the group as he spoke to Graham Lightner. While Cham was indisposed, Ryan took to directing the final stages of the battle with the Fraternitatem. Hundreds of members were being housed not only in Tartarus but also, the wizard prisons in several other countries. The cells everywhere were filling fast.

  The VAU enlisted the help of the Zoology Society and other departments in the Wizard Hall as they collected as many artifacts as they could. Robin Price was cataloging and packing them as they were brought in. Dead and injured wizard and witches were brought to the hospital for treatment or prepped for burial. Ryan only listened half-
heartedly to the updates as he looked on at the family and friends assembled.

  John Chamsky tried his best to comfort Samantha. She was near catatonic as she came to terms with the death of her father for the second time in nine years. Danny and Jimmy Chamsky sat with their parents as they attempted the same. Marina would cry and stop and then start again as they waited for word that Cham had come through the surgery.

  Ryan glanced inside Annie’s room. She was unconscious, which he thought was a blessing as Cham fought for his life. There would plenty of time for her to come to grips with everything that happened.

  Ryan walked the corridors and found an empty spot near the nurse’s station. “Thanks, Graham,” he said. “Use whatever department you need to help clean up. Have you heard from the guards at the market?”

  “Annie kept the portal open long enough for people to get out. Spencer kept the magic up when she left. There are about seventy-five Fraternitatem trapped inside the market. Petra Johnson has a pretty good handle on the inside. Whatever Annie did knocked out all Fraternitatem members everywhere.”

  Ryan knew he should be more upset, but he smiled as Graham gave him the report. Annie’s magic had done what she asked of it and they had won. The Fraternitatem of Solomon had been torn apart that day. For that he was happy. For everything else, there would be time to deal with the sadness and the pain.

  “And what do we do if there were Fraternitatem members not in the market and not in the desert?” Ryan asked, though he thought he knew the answer.

  “Bucky Hart and the telecommunications department are on the lookout for weird illnesses or people just keeling over unconscious.”

  Ryan nodded. “Thanks, Graham. Keep me apprised. I’ll take over the wizard guards until Cham is healthy enough to do so.”

  After ending the call with Graham, Ryan strolled back to Annie’s room and watched as Kathy and Dave sat beside her, holding her hands, moving hair from her face. Kathy glanced up, tears welling in her eyes, and then she glanced back down at Annie.

  Ryan returned to the waiting room to offer what little comfort he thought he could to the family members there.