Infinite Core (School of Swords and Serpents Book 5)

by Gage Lee

  I hoped it was Theodosia. She deserved a sharp smack upside the head for her role in all this. Taking the fight to the entire Reyes clan seemed like the logical end to this mess. They’d never see me coming. If I took out their most powerful members with a sneak attack, the others would be too terrified to defend themselves. I could—

  No, that was the Eclipse Warrior talking. And as much as I wanted to let him have his way, there were more important things to do than kick my enemies’ guts out.

  I could still save the world.

  Maybe.

  “Elder Warin?” Byron’s voice was strained and thin.

  When I opened my eyes, he was kneeling a few feet in front of me, his head bent to the floor. “We’ve barricaded the doors with books, and the tables are behind them. We’ll continue adding to our defenses, but I wasn’t sure what else we should do.”

  My growing awareness of Empyreal metaphysics showed me just how badly Byron was hurting. Worry and grief aspects clung to his aura like red and black blisters, and gray ribbons of exhaustion weighed him down. Willpower and fear were the only things fueling him.

  “You need rest,” I said, and was surprised to hear how tired I sounded. “We all do.”

  Byron nodded, but he didn’t move. After a few seconds of silence, he raised his head to meet my eyes. “I’m scared, Elder Warin.”

  In that moment, all the garbage that had sprung up around Byron peeled away. I saw him as I had on our first meeting. He was scared and out of his league, a pawn used by powers he couldn’t understand. My life had been hard, but Byron never had a chance.

  “We all are,” I said. “But we’ll get through it.”

  Byron nodded, tears trickling from his eyes. He wiped them away. “I’m sorry for what happened. I don’t want to cause trouble. I just... there’s something in me. Bad thoughts, I guess. I’m fighting them, but it’s getting so hard.”

  Peering at Byron didn’t show me anything hiding in his core or lurking in his aura. He still looked for all the world like a young kid who badly needed a shower and seventy-two hours of sleep. “What kind of bad thoughts?”

  A dark shadow flickered over Byron’s eyes as he looked away from me. His jaw clenched and his hands tightened into white-knuckled fists. “I want to stop you,” he whispered.

  His voice dropped several octaves, and when he looked back at me, oily threads crawled across his eyes like tiny worms.

  “I want to kill you,” Xaophis croaked through Byron’s mouth. “It is my duty as the guardian of the Grand Design.”

  And then Byron went limp, and he slumped to the stone floor.

  The Calm

  I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE a chance to pick Byron up off the floor before something heavy slammed into the Stacks door. The blow would’ve shattered the door and its frame into a thousand splinters if it hadn’t been for my spell.

  But the sorcery I’d woven leeched away the force aspects from the battering attack and funneled them into my aura. Whoever was on the other side of the door must have been very surprised when their thunderous blow landed with all the power of a feather’s tickle.

  “Elder Warin,” Theodosia shouted from beyond the barrier. “I have a warrant for your arrest. Open the door and surrender to the Golden Wardens, and the Triad may yet show mercy.”

  Mercy seemed highly unlikely. Tru had warned me that most of the powerful seers in the world had seen the flare go up when I created the orichalcum core. That combined with the outbreak of violence washing over the School would have been enough to convince the Consul Triad to string me up by my pinky toes until they could figure out what to do with me.

  The warrant could have come as a favor to the Scaled Council. Maybe they didn’t like what Tru had told them.

  Whatever the reason, the powers that be had decided to slow my roll. Theodosia and the Wardens were ready to take me. But, as confident as the Disciple acted, there was a note of stress in her voice. She was worried about something.

  Now what is bothering you, dear Theodosia? I thought to myself. Whatever it was worked to my advantage. Nervous enemies were careless enemies.

  Another blow bounced off the door, and another surge of aspects flooded into my core. Whatever was attacking had some serious power behind it.

  And now that strength was mine.

  My serpents scooped Byron off the floor and cradled him in front of me. A quick examination showed he wasn’t injured, just exhausted. The effort of fighting off Xaophis had worn him down to a nub. I carried him back to the cots, my steps measured off by the relentless hammering at the door. My clan mates shouted for me, panic rising in their voices.

  “Calm down,” I called as I moved toward the door where my allies gathered. They’d begun stacking books to form a secondary wall to slow down our enemies. I was proud of them, and I wanted them to know that we still had a chance.

  “Listen up,” I said in a voice loud enough for them all to hear. “Stop worrying about the door. Our enemies won’t be able to breach it for quite a while. Let’s use that time to restore our energy and prepare ourselves.”

  Ricky raised his hand. When I nodded to him, he asked, “How will we get out of here?”

  I held a finger to my lips and smiled cryptically. “Trust me. I have a plan, but it’s a secret for the moment.”

  I didn’t have a plan outside of getting the Flame into its core. I crossed my fingers and hoped that would be enough to get us through this mess. Even if it wasn’t, what choice did I have? The world was falling apart. Until I stopped the damage, nothing else mattered.

  “Now get to the cots,” I said with a forced smile. “Catch some sleep while we can.”

  My clan mates nodded, then headed past me toward the cots we’d arranged in a makeshift dormitory. A thick wall of books surrounded the sleeping area, and I hoped that would deaden the sound of Theodosia’s forces hammering on the door.

  While my clan mates settled in for a nap, I set off to deal with our newest recruits. I didn’t really want them in my clan, but they served another very important purpose. It was time to let them know why they were useful to me, and how they could remain that way.

  “Let us go,” Michelle said when she heard my approaching footsteps. “You can’t keep us prisoner here. My parents will be very upset when they find out what you’ve done.”

  I kneeled down in front of the former Titan and pushed her blindfold up to her forehead. Her big brown eyes met the black pits of my stare. She instantly flinched and looked away, fear plain on her face. I tried to smile, but that only made her more nervous.

  “You are not a prisoner. You are a member of my clan,” I explained. “As your elder, I can keep you here for as long as I want. We have food and water, though not as much of either as you’d like. You won’t be harmed for as long as you are under my care.”

  “And how long will that be?” Kevin snapped, interrupting my conversation with Michelle. “The Disciples are looking for me. When they find us, you’re a dead man, Warin.”

  “You’d better hope that’s not true, for your sake,” I said. “Because you’re in my clan, and if I go down, so do you.”

  The four new recruits had nothing to say to that. The reality of their situation had finally sunk into their panicked minds. They hadn’t been kidnapped or stolen from their clans. These young men and woman were taken by the Right of Primacy. They weren’t Disciples of Jade Flame, or a Titan of Majestic Stone.

  They were Shadow Phoenixes, and that made them outlaws and rebels.

  Just like the rest of us.

  “I know this is difficult for all of you,” I said in a voice that I hoped was comforting and reasonably kind. “Harming you is not on my agenda. You’re more valuable to me as hostages, and that forces me to keep you alive. But if you try to escape or help my enemies in any way, then that value drops to zero. Betray me or your new clan and I will punish you. Severely.”

  Kevin glowered beneath his blindfold, his mouth pursed into a tight line. Anger and deceit as
pects buzzed in his aura like angry hornets.

  It was time for a lesson.

  My serpents flashed out in four different directions at once. Their razor-sharp tips sliced away the blindfolds, then pressed against the throats of my new recruits.

  “If you think you’re a match for me, that you can trick me and escape, you are wrong,” I said, black light pulsing from my Eclipse Warrior eyes. “If you think I won’t cripple or kill you as punishment for betrayal, you are wrong. Do you understand?”

  All four of the recruits stammered their answer at the same time, “Y-y-yes, sir.”

  “Good,” I said. “Now tear off the sleeves of your robes. Tie your feet together with them.”

  The four of them shook like leaves as they followed my orders. Their trembling magnified tenfold when I blindfolded each of them and bound their hands with strips of cloth from the hems of their robes. Fear wafted from them like the stink of rotten food from a dumpster, and they flinched at my touch.

  I took no joy in being feared. Most of the time, I hated the way people shied away from me or avoided looking into my black eyes. This time, though, I was glad that the rumors of my monstrous ways had infected the minds of my new recruits. Their fear made it far less likely I’d have to kill them, and I was grateful for that.

  When this was all over, I’d cut them loose and send them back to their clans with their tails between their legs. For now, though, I needed them afraid for their lives so they wouldn’t become a problem.

  With that issue squared away, I retreated to the rest area, where I found my clan mates already snug in their cots. Most of them weren’t yet asleep. They stared at the ceiling, cycling their breaths to restore their sacred energy. Others had already drifted off, exhausted from the manual labor of moving the books and the emotional trauma we’d dealt with so far.

  My eyes slipped closed almost as soon as my head hit the cot’s lumpy pillow. The accommodations were far from luxurious, and Theodosia’s ranting and empty threats were annoying, but none of that could keep me awake. My body and soul needed rest, and I couldn’t resist the siren song of oblivion any longer.

  Sweet, undisturbed hours passed while I slept. My body soaked up the rest like a parched sponge dunked in water, and it took more willpower than I’d like to admit to drag myself out of bed even after six hours of sleep.

  “Everybody up,” I called, clapping my hands together with a gunshot-loud slap. “Time to get back to work.”

  My clan mates scrambled out of bed at the noise, eyes bleary, but looking well rested, all things considered. Even Byron seemed a little better off for the sleep, though he still looked wrung out and weary, like he’d run a marathon while the rest of us snoozed.

  “Ricky, go grab some food from the pantry,” I said. “Let’s have a little breakfast, then we can discuss what happens next.”

  While my clan mate ran off to grab some supplies I’d squirreled away in the Stacks, I decided it was time to give whoever was on the other side of that door a taste of their own medicine. I waited until they hammered the door again, then sent the force aspects I’d gathered rushing through the spell on the door. There was a thundering crack from the hallway outside, and Theodosia shouted in alarm. It was impossible to suppress my wicked grin. I’d just pushed every aspect I’d gathered over the past several hours back through the spell and into the hallway. It wasn’t a focused strike, but there was enough power in it to seriously rattle my enemies.

  Unfortunately, it was a trick I could only use once. I wasn’t skilled enough with sorcery to rig a more durable trap, and I’d burned some of the threads of jinsei around the door to trigger it. Doing that stunt again would weaken the spell too much, and the bad guys would walk right in.

  That was okay. My aura was clean, and I’d be able to hold off the enemies for hours longer. Now, though, it was time to get to work.

  “I hope you’re ready in there,” I thought to the power within my core, “because I can’t give you much more time to rest.”

  Ricky returned with packets of beef jerky and bottles of water. It wasn’t a gourmet feast, but the calories would keep our stomachs from chewing holes in themselves. We ate in silence, and when we’d finished, I laid out the plan.

  “The bad guys will come at us harder than ever,” I said, and raised a hand to silence my clan members’ questions before they could rattle them off. “In the meantime, I need you to help me hold the door. We’ll bond our cores, like we did to get the gold and copper out of the wastewater. Sound good?”

  Byron looked at me with hooded eyes and shook his head. “I’ll go watch the new recruits.”

  The determination in Byron’s eyes made me both sad and proud. He’d chosen to isolate himself from the clan rather than risk exposing us to Xaophis. It was a brave gesture, and an honorable one.

  “Thank you for volunteering,” I said to Byron. “I won’t forget what you did.”

  Byron nodded and walked away from the clan without another word, his shoulders slumped, eyes downcast. I caught him by the shoulder as he passed me.

  “Hang in there,” I said. “We’re almost out of the woods. When this is over, I’ll help you in any way I can.”

  Byron looked at me, his eyes sad and lost. “I know.”

  But what we both knew was that there might not be a “when this is over.” The wolves were at the door, my worst enemy had its claws sunk into Byron’s brain, and we were still a long, long way from the end of this quest.

  Byron didn’t challenge me on any of those points, though. The clan needed strength, not just mine, but every member’s. He gave me a somber nod and headed out on the mission I’d given him.

  “Okay, then,” I said. “Let’s do this.”

  My serpents spread out from my shoulders like the grasping claws of an enormous bird. Their tips made contact with the students nearest me as Theodosia’s gang pounded on the door in a relentless, ominous rhythm.

  The force aspects flowed from the spell on the door into my aura, where they swirled like crimson fireflies. Before they could build to dangerous levels, though, they found the connections I’d forged through the Borrowed Core technique. The captured aspects flowed to my clan mates, turning my enemy’s strength into a weapon we could wield against them.

  “What do we do with all this?” Ferundo asked, marveling at the aspects that swirled in his aura.

  “Nothing, yet,” I said with a dark smile. “But if that door comes down, put the power you’re storing to good use. Wrap the force aspects around your blades, use them to strengthen your fists and feet. Put up the fight of your lives.”

  My clan members all snapped to attention and raised their clenched fists in a militant salute. They weren’t just students anymore. They were rebels, fighting for survival against a system that had used and betrayed them. The fire in their eyes told me they’d battle to the last breath against the forces aligned against us.

  I prayed it wouldn’t come to that.

  “I need time to finish this work,” I said. “It’s up to all of you to protect me until I’m finished. Can you do that?”

  “Yes, Elder!” they shouted.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I promised, and retreated to the back corner of the Stacks, where I wouldn’t be disturbed.

  My core ached as I cycled my breath, but meditation soon plunged me far below the level of awareness where such petty concerns existed. I’d fallen beyond the material world into the spiritual realm, where the greatest powers were found.

  And where Xaophis lurked.

  The oily, serpentine spirit circled like a hungry shark. “I cannot allow you to tamper with the Design. It is my sacred duty to defend it. I will destroy you if you persist.”

  “You can’t stop me,” I said. “And the Design you’re protecting is broken. Step aside, and I won’t destroy you along with it.”

  Xaophis’s laughter was the screeching, mechanical clatter of a failing engine. “You know nothing, boy. My influence has spread through your path
etic school in a plague of violence. Forces you cannot imagine have gathered at the threshold of your fortress. Nothing you say or do will change the future that awaits you.”

  The beast’s words drew my eyes to the black stump of my thread of fate. “My destiny is my own to create,” I said. “I’ll give you one more chance to get out of my way before I destroy you.”

  “And I must refuse.” Xaophis seemed strangely content, as if it had known this moment was coming and had given up trying to avoid it.

  “Then prepare to die,” I said.

  The Storm

  XAOPHIS WAS MUCH STRONGER than the last time we’d met. The fringe of black threads that bound him to the Grand Design had multiplied into a centipede’s army of ebony legs. They dangled below the spirit, twitching and writhing as currents of jinsei flowed up through the black cords into its sinuous body.

  Each of those threads represented one of the poor souls who’d fallen victim to Xaophis. They were puppet strings in the hands of a psychopathic killer who would bend every ounce of its power to destroying me.

  And I’d return the favor.

  The force aspects I’d stolen from the spell I’d cast on the door flowed out of my aura to form a twisting helix of red power around my fusion blade. I held my ground rather than turning to follow Xaophis as it swirled around my back. My serpents would guard me against its ambush.

  It was strange to fight in space that wasn’t space. In the spiritual realm, only jinsei and consciousness were real, but the only way for mortals to operate there was to create a mental model that we used to understand our experiences. In my case, the weight of my fusion blade in my hands, the feel of cool air blowing across my skin, and the boundaries of my body were the tools I used to function in a realm never intended for mortalkind.

  The spirit didn’t have those limitations. It was a native of the supernatural landscape. The form it wore wasn’t really its body, but the only way my senses could perceive the creature. Xaophis had all the home court advantages.