by John Corwin
The new foundry! Dozens of people with shaved heads toiled at clearing broken rock and sweeping dust. Not one of them looked up at us, or seemed aware we were passing through. Their faces remained blank and expressionless. A man in white robes stabbed the tip of a finger and trailed blood into the grooves of the pattern.
The blooded mage picked up a stone and threw it at a nearby worker. It bounced off his head, leaving a spot of blood. The man didn't even blink. "If we don't catch the assassin, I'll make sure Zarin turns you into one of his drones." The mage sneered. "Got it?"
Drones? What was wrong with those people?
"Yes." Ambria bobbed her head. "We won't fail."
We made our way through the rubble and into a hole broken in the wall. Beyond it lay a series of broken tunnel walls where Victus's people had created a shortcut through the wending Burrows.
"If the killer came through the Burrows, he's got an hour of walking ahead of him." The mage bared his teeth in a grin, made fiercer by his thick beard and bloody streaks on his face. "He won't know about our new secret shortcut."
"Truly genius," Kanaan said. His wands blurred and jammed up the mage's nostrils. Blue fire erupted from the man's ears. Eyes popped from his sockets. A death rattled gurgled in his throat, and a foul odor filled the air.
Ambria shrank back. "My god, I wasn't expecting you to kill him right now!"
"The blooded are an affront to magitsu." Kanaan gripped the corpse under the armpits. "Help me move him."
We hoisted the body and dumped it on a mattress in one of the nearby rooms. Sleeping bags, blankets, and furniture confirmed my suspicions Victus's army used this area as living quarters.
"That'll be a nasty surprise for the occupants." Ambria shuddered.
I walked toward the room with the shortcut. "Victus thinks the assassin is trying to escape."
"Obviously," Ambria said. "What's your point?"
"He wouldn't expect someone to go for the kill now." I pointed behind us. "He didn't even recognize me."
She grabbed my arm. "Don't you dare get yourself killed, Conrad."
"It'd be worth it to stop him." I glanced at Kanaan's impassive face. "We could destroy the start of the new demon pattern right now, too."
He shook his head. "It would take considerable effort without the proper potions, and we do not know how those drones would react."
"Well, with Victus dead, Zarin probably won't complete it."
"There is more at stake here." Kanaan walked past me. "I had not realized it before today."
"Realized what?" I grabbed his robe to stop him from walking. "Look, I can get close enough to kill him. I can end all this in one blow."
"We witnessed the power of Moses back in the mansion." Kanaan folded his arms and faced me. "If you die, that is lost forever."
"The shaking of the house. Everything levitating—" Ambria's eye flared. "That was all Conrad?"
"Yes," Kanaan said.
I tried to remember the details, but the void, the endless energy seemed like a distant dream. "It couldn't have been me. I'm not that powerful."
Kanaan turned toward the room with the shortcut. "Now is not your time to die. We must ensure you reach your potential, for you are more than just Conrad Edison."
"Agreed." Ambria gripped my hand. "You're coming with us, Conrad. I swear if you try to go after Victus, I will tie you up and drag you behind us."
I wanted to argue, but remembering the incident at the mansion filled me with curiosity. "What do you mean I'm more than Conrad Edison?"
"I think that should be obvious." Kanaan ducked through the first broken hole and continued toward the next one. "We will talk more when it is safe."
I resisted the urge to argue and followed him.
We traversed the series of blasted holes and reached the exit to the Burrows within twenty minutes instead of the usual hour or more. Kanaan sealed the exit with a ward and we headed up several flights of stairs and into the university building itself.
Posters of Arcanes battling snarling vampires, lycans, and other supers covered the hallway walls, each one emblazoned with the slogan, Arcanes First! A stack of pamphlets sat next to a newspaper stand. I snagged one and stuffed it into my pocket. The newspaper headline also caught my attention: Vampire Registration Starts Today. I rolled one up and stuffed it into my back pocket.
Ambria frowned. "What is all this?"
"Propaganda." Kanaan tapped a wand to a poster and the parchment crumbled to dust. "The information war is well underway."
"Where to now?" Ambria said.
"The rear doors." Kanaan pointed in the direction of the gondola that took passengers down the cliff to the waystation. We reached the back entrance and stepped outside. Webbings of energy laced around us and an alarm wailed.
We were snared in a trap.
Chapter 25
I gripped my wand. "We tripped a ward."
"I did not think they would trigger on exit." Kanaan slashed a wand at the honeycomb webbing, but it refused to part. He pointed to three joints. "Focus a dispel on these points and cast on my mark."
Ambria flicked her wand through a pattern. "Ready."
I readied the strongest dispel I knew. "Ready."
"Now." Kanaan touched his wand to a joint. Ambria and I tapped our assigned sections. The energy flickered and fluctuated. The honeycomb merged with the one below it, leaving a larger gap in the prison.
"They're the ones who triggered it!" A man in blue security robes led a group of Arcanes down the hallway toward us. "Detain them."
Ambria gripped her wand. "I'm ready to fight."
Kanaan shook his head. "No fighting. More dispelling." He readied his wand. "Once again."
Ambria composed herself and summoned another dispel. We widened the gap, but it still wasn't enough to get through. The security Arcanes closed fast, but the same webbing that held us prisoner, prevented them from reaching us.
"Where's the damned ward master?" the first security Arcane said. "I don't have the dispel token."
"He's coming," another Arcane replied gruffly.
"Again," Kanaan said. "Hurry."
We three hit the joints of the next honeycomb with more dispels. A gap barely large enough to squeeze through formed. Kanaan went first. The hem of his robes touched a glowing line and smoked.
"Stop right there!" The security head fired a wand from his spell, but the honeycomb trap deflected it.
Ambria gasped and gathered her robes so they wouldn't touch the webs. I followed her example and went through. We raced toward one of the gardens as a third guard rushed up behind the others and deactivated the web.
"Where to now?" I said. "There's no way we can reach the gondola."
"We must find brooms and fly across to Science Academy," Kanaan said.
Ambria huffed. "The broom closets are inside the university!"
A large contingent of security Arcanes appeared at the far end of the building near the student keeps and charged our way.
Kanaan sighed. "Then we must fight our way free."
I looked beyond the gardens and the wide field at the tree-covered mountain rising in the center of the Dark Forest. "Maybe we can hide in the forest. If we find Shushiel, she can help us escape."
More security Arcanes emerged from the university building behind us and another group flanked from the west. We're boxed in.
"It appears that is our only option." Kanaan sprinted through a garden filled with bushes trimmed into the shapes of unicorns and other magical beasts. The high walls of Colossus Stadium rose several hundred yards to our right, and beyond it, the walls of the Fairy Gardens.
Ambria jogged alongside me. "I don't think the Dark Forest is a good idea. We'll be eaten for sure."
"No choice." I glanced back over my shoulder. Arcanes on flying brooms soared from the turrets of the university and zipped toward us.
Our physical conditioning allowed us to easily outpace the Arcanes on foot, but those on brooms would be upon us
within seconds. Spells splashed against the ground behind us, their effects weakened by distance. A pair of flying Arcanes swooped low, blasting destructive spells in front of us.
"Halt!" one shouted. "I'll shoot if you take another—oof!"
A spell from Kanaan knocked the man from his broom. His comrade tried to catch him, but he fell twenty feet and plowed a furrow in the grass. Kanaan flicked his wand toward the shimmering shield holding in the deadly denizens of the Dark Forest and opened a hole. We rushed into the trees and the shadows swallowed us.
Light glowed at the tips of our wands, piercing the gloom so we could see a few feet ahead. Though the underbrush thinned, the canopy overhead only grew thicker. Trees measuring at least twenty feet around at the base towered hundreds of feet into the air. Pulsating clusters of glowing fungus on their trunks offered enough light for us to extinguish our wands.
Ambria shivered and looked around. Chills crawled up my spine. Unseen eyes seemed to watch from all directions. Distant screeches, hoots, and other noises echoed sporadically. The one thing missing from this forest was the constant hum of insect life. What threats waited in these woods if even the insects remained quiet?
Only Kanaan seemed unconcerned, walking down a wide path clear of any underbrush. We covered at least a hundred yards before I broke the silence.
"Where are we going?" I asked in a hushed voice.
Kanaan stopped and held up a hand. He tilted his head as if listening. "We are safe for the moment."
Ambria's eyes flared. "Until something eats us?"
Kanaan looked at me. "I will tell you what I meant now."
My chest tightened. "About why you think I'm more than Conrad Edison?"
"It certainly makes no sense," Ambria said.
"You are a direct descendant of Moses—Ezzek Moore—Jeremiah Conroy." Kanaan took my wrists and examined my scarred hands. "The blood of the first Arcane flows within you."
"Yes, but it also flowed in my mom." I resisted the urge to scratch my wounds.
Kanaan released my hands. "Have you ever heard of the first power?"
The words summoned flashbacks to Victus sending Delectra over the bridge in the rift. "In one of Victus's memories, he thought Delectra could control the rift guardians because she was linked to the first power. Serena thought she was too tainted by demon magic."
Kanaan nodded. "Tell me more of this memory."
I closed my eyes to recall it, and relayed what I remembered without actually reliving it. "Victus wanted the first power for himself, but Serena seemed convinced only Delectra could wield it."
"Very few can even sense the primal fount," Kanaan said. "I believe you have actually touched it."
I remembered the crackling spheres, the infinite beam of energy in the vision at the mansion. "When I had the vision of Moses, he tapped into this incredible energy. I think it was the primal fount."
"I don't understand." Ambria waved a hand to interrupt. "Don't we all draw power from the same source—aether in ley lines and the air?"
"Yes." Kanaan stroked his beard. "The primal forces of the universe are creation, destruction, and equilibrium. The Seraphim call them Murk, Brilliance, and Stasis. The ley lines carry the primal forces, filling the world with aether."
"We studied this in elementary magic," Ambria said. "Arcanes can't isolate the prime forces like Seraphim, nor can we channel. We have to cast using stored aether instead."
"Correct," Kanaan said. "The primal fount is the origin, the first power of the world. It is the wellspring from which all magic flows."
"I thought magic was created in the Gloom by minders," Ambria said.
"That is a source, but not the origin." Kanaan turned his gaze on me. "Moses told Justin Slade how he originally gained his powers. I later read the full account. The earth dragon, Altash, sent Moses deep into a cave to touch a glowing river. I believe the dragon allowed Moses to bind himself to the primal fount."
"Maybe that's why Lulu called to me." I held out the backs of my hands and stared at the scars. "Maybe that's why she burned me with her breath and I started having visions of the bearded man—of Moses."
Kanaan stroked his beard. "Tell me every detail."
There wasn't a lot to tell, but I told him how Moses told me to expand my well and of the twin stars pulsating with magic.
Kanaan stood silently for a moment. "Yes, it makes sense. You are nearly of age so your well is only now able to handle so much pure power. Moses reached out to you from the afterlife so you can claim your birthright."
Could it really be the spirit of Moses? "Is using the fount more powerful than using aether?"
"The fount is pure, its power immeasurable." Kanaan nodded. "It is the source of magic that flows to all the realms."
"This is amazing, Conrad." Ambria took my hand. "You need to do whatever you can to gain this power. Victus won't stand a chance."
"No man is an army unto himself." I gave her a sober look. "That's what Moses thought right before he died."
"Way to ruin the moment." Ambria gave me a small smile. "I suspect you'll need to strain yourself even more so you can expand your well."
Kanaan nodded. "Agreed. Conrad must have the capacity to wield such power. Victus believes he can harness the power through him."
"That's why Victus sent Delectra toward the rift guardians," I said. "He wanted her to gain the power, but she couldn't."
"Why would he send her to get zapped by the guardians?" Ambria grimaced. "It's insane."
"The guardians were created by Moses." Kanaan's gaze seemed to focus inward. "But are they sentient, or merely wards? Would they kill the wielder of the fount or obey him?"
I closed my eyes and recalled the memory, but through Victus's eyes this time. I focused on Serena. The short Arcane was methodical in her study of magic. If anyone could connect the dots, it would be her. As the scene played out in frightening detail, I ignored Delectra's plight so I could focus on the conversation between Victus and Serena.
I cast a shield to push Delectra toward the guardians. Without the demonic influence, she is weak and frightened.
"I'm certain the guardians would recognize Moses or his proxy," Serena said. "They wouldn't attack him, but the taint of demon magic in Delectra might make her vulnerable."
"You speak as if those things are alive." Victus pshawed. "They are merely wards, conjured from the first power. If they strike Delectra, they will infuse her with their power."
"Doubtful." Serena hummed tunelessly. "I would so hate to lose such a valuable asset as Delectra."
I woke from the memory before they snatched Delectra back from her death. Though I had more information, I still had no answers. "Serena thought the guardians wouldn't attack Moses or his proxy. Victus thought the guardians had to attack Delectra to give her access to the first power. I don't know if either of them were correct."
"Maybe you had the vision of Moses's final battle because of the close proximity of his grave." Ambria shrugged. "Maybe we need to go back there."
"Perhaps," Kanaan said. "Or the rift guardians may be what we seek."
"We're still not terribly far from Moses's grave." Ambria waved a hand to the east. "Can you feel anything now?"
I closed my eyes and reached for aether. Through it, I linked to the ley lines. I sensed a powerful presence, but try as I might, I couldn't touch it. I opened my eyes and shook my head. "It's just out of my reach."
Ambria tapped a finger on her chin. "Lovely. How are we supposed to reach the grave with the entire university on alert for us?"
"They don't know who we are," I said. "They just know some strangers triggered the wards. Maybe we can exit the forest closer to the manor and reach the grave."
"They know we are in disguise." Kanaan held out his wand like a divining rod and let it guide his arm. "I detect arachnids in that direction. Perhaps Shushiel can offer camouflaged escort to the destination."
Ambria seemed to take notice of the shadows again and shivered. "Anythi
ng is better than sitting all alone in this awful place."
I took out my arcphone. "Shushiel has a comm pendant. Maybe she can come to us."
Ambria nodded enthusiastically. "I like that idea better than traipsing through the Dark Forest."
I tapped the symbol. "Shushiel?" The range on the pendant was limited, but we were well within range of anyone in Queens Gate. "This is Conrad. Are you there?"
Only the soft hiss of static replied. I tried a few more times before giving up. "She's not answering."
Ambria's eyes filled with worry. "I hope she's okay."
"For now, we follow the wand." Kanaan began walking.
We hiked in the direction indicated by Kanaan's wand, our own wands at the ready in case of attack by lurking monsters. The path turned up a rise toward the mountain in the center of the forest. Even my conditioned legs began to tire from the constant climb.
It seemed like an hour had passed when we finally came upon strands of large webs high in the trees.
"Thank goodness." Ambria stopped and leaned against a tree trunk. "Shall I call out for Shushiel?"
Kanaan shook his head. He flicked his wand and sent a rock sailing up and into a web. A huge eight-legged form skittered out onto the web, a frightening silhouette for any who hadn't met Shushiel.
On the other hand, we hadn't met any of her relatives. "Um, are the other ruby spiders friendly?"
"Unknown." Kanaan watched as the arachnid descended on a strand of silk. "We shall soon see."
Ambria backed up a step, wand at the ready. "I hope they are."
The furry form resolved into shape and color as it grew closer. Even if it had not been a hue of bright blue, I would have known this spider wasn't our friend, Shushiel. Its abdomen was fuller, its legs longer and thicker. The spider's mandibles twitched and a whispery voice drifted from its mouth. "Mages come for more?"
Ambria's eyes tightened. "For more?" She shook her head. "We're friends of Shushiel. Is she here?"
"Friends?" The massive blue spider rotated slightly to face her, its eight eyes blinking calmly.
"Yes." Ambria put a hand to her chest. "We are friends with Shushiel. I didn't realize there were blue ruby spiders."