The Arcane Ward

by Jeffrey L. Kohanek

  Cassie’s brow furrowed. “Your fault?”

  The king nodded. “Yes. It demonstrates the need for more challenge in your lives. The instruction you have received while living at the castle has prepared you well, but it apparently came too easily. That will soon change.”

  Brock stood and again began to pace. “I have arranged transportation for you to go to Fallbrandt. There, you will find a new sense of purpose.”

  Brandt sat forward and looked at Cassie. She sensed his excitement through their bond. “We are to attend the magic academy?”

  Brock paused his pacing and shook his head. “No. Not quite.” He resumed pacing and continued to speak. “There is something else I must tell you, another secret you must hold close and share only with careful thought.

  “Within the school is a highly restricted tower. We tell others that master arcanists live there, practicing magic – dangerous magic. Under this guise, other things occur, for it is the headquarters of a secret organization known as the Issalian Clandestine Operative Network, or ICON. You two will travel to Fallbrandt to join this group. There, they will train you to become wardens.”

  Cassie turned toward her brother with an odd feeling in her stomach, excited at the idea of traveling to Fallbrandt and experiencing something new, yet she felt apprehensive.

  “What, exactly, is a warden?” Brandt asked.

  Brock smiled. “You’ll find out.”

  A frown crossed Cassie’s face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that your precise role has not yet been defined. Regardless, you should know that your new home is a wondrous but dangerous place. Your past antics will not sit well there, and you had best respect the powerful magic and inventions you will be exposed to.”

  As Cassie considered her father’s warning, she wondered what mysteries awaited them. “This place you mention – our new home. What else should we know about it? Does it have a name?”

  “It is the home of the most powerful secrets mankind has ever discovered,” Brock replied. “As for the name, ICON’s headquarters is known as the Arcane Ward.”

  7

  Training

  Jacquinn Gulagus leaped. A whoop of joy emerged as she sailed up into the air at an incredible speed, reaching the apex of her jump four stories later. One hand reached out to grab a metal bar, and she swung herself forward to land on a platform thirty feet away. Without pause, she ran down a narrow beam, fifty feet above the Atrium floor. When she approached the end, she launched herself again. Up, she arced through rays of sunlight streaming through the windows above. The beams that supported the skylights drew closer until they were less than eight feet away, and then she began to descend. When she looked down, her breath caught in her throat. The drop was terrifying, deadly under normal circumstances. However, she was hardly normal at the moment.

  She grabbed ahold of a thick rope that dangled from the ceiling, gripping it with one gloved hand as she swung forward. With her target in sight, she released her grip and flew toward it…to land upon the platform with a thud and a few quick steps to stop her momentum.

  Already upon the platform stood an eighteen-year-old boy with a nest of black hair on his head. His most notable features were the contraptions strapped to his legs – mechanisms that gave him the ability to walk.

  Quinn stood and beamed at her brother.

  “Show off,” Everson said.

  Still grinning, Quinn responded. “You seemed overly proud of your new invention. I thought I would prove that there’s a faster way to the twelfth floor.”

  He chuckled. “We don’t all have the advantage of a Power augmentation. In fact, you will rarely have the ability yourself.”

  “I know. But the augmentation is so fun! It makes me feel invincible.”

  She thought of Iko, wishing she could face him while charged by Chaos magic. With such an advantage, it would be impossible for him to stop her. Losing to him in their duel during the TACT games still annoyed her. A sigh slipped out when she thought of Iko…and the murders he and Percy had committed. The sting of his betrayal had faded, but her resentment toward him had not. Nor had the tear he had rendered in her heart.

  Everson’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

  “Would you like to be the first person to get a ride down?”

  Quinn blinked, regained her focus, and smiled. “Sure, Ev. Jumping from this height while endowed with a Power rune probably won’t kill me, but it may hurt…or even damage the floor.”

  Everson snorted. “I doubt it would damage the floor. Those tiles have all been Infused with an Elastic rune. They cannot crack, nor can they break.”

  “So you tell me. I can’t say I really understand, but I trust you.”

  Rolling his eyes in response, Everson flipped the lever and it engaged with the rod that ran up the wall. The motor below began to whirl, joined by the squeaking of the massive pulleys above. The platform began to move downward at an even pace – the four ropes secured the platform rails moving with it.

  Quinn turned and gazed out at the Atrium interior, brightly lit by the mid-day sun. The elevation platform that Everson had built stood in one corner of the indoor space, five hundred feet from the adjacent corners. The Jungle – a contorted array of beams, poles, and ropes – stood on the opposite side of the space. Rows of balconies slid past them as the platform drifted toward the Atrium floor – a grid of square stone blocks that appeared like a giant Ratio Bellicus board.

  As they neared the bottom, the people waiting below came into view. Rena stood beside Masters Elias Firellus and Benny Hedgewick. The trio began clapping in applause, the sound growing louder as the platform slowed and stopped.

  Quinn bowed and addressed them with a grin. “Thank you. I do what I can to impress my fans.”

  “Sorry, Quinn,” Rena said with a wry smile. “The applause was for Everson’s invention.”

  Her brother moved forward, his mechanical legs whirring as he opened the platform gate and descended the stairs with Quinn following behind.

  Master Hedgewick patted Everson on the shoulder. “Well done, Everson. This lift will make trips to the upper levels much easier for everyone.”

  A grin formed on Everson’s face. “Thank you, sir.”

  Elias grunted. “If anyone deserves thanks, it’s you, my boy.” He waved his cane about, pointing it toward the upper floors. “All the blasted stairwells have been my enemies since they built this place. Your lift is a gift from Issal himself, if you ask me.”

  Everson glanced toward his own legs. “Trust me. I understand, Sir.”

  Quinn understood her brother’s reference. Having lived most of his life relying on braces to bolster his legs and canes to help him walk, Everson had a perspective few others could appreciate. However, his brilliance had solved that problem by inventing the mechanical legs…and by discovering the energy source that powered them.

  Hedgewick pointed upward and asked, “What happens if someone down here needs to use the lift when the thing is at one of the upper floors?”

  Everson glanced up. “I considered that. I plan to add a lever at the top and bottom floors that will enable a user to call the lift to them.” He pointed toward the two chains of metal rods that ran up the length of the lift track. “Those metal rails are conductors for the Chaos that drives the lift. All I need to do is add a means to activate the downward drive at the bottom and the upward drive at the top.”

  Everson smiled. Hedgewick nodded at the idea while Elias shuffled up the steps to the lift. The expression on Rena’s face informed Quinn that the girl was as clueless about the conversation as she was. Yet, Quinn was used to Everson speaking in that manner, as if engineering were a language unto itself, something beyond what normal people like her understood. Her thoughts drifted back to moments earlier, recalling her superhuman ascent to the top of the Atrium – a display that nobody would consider normal.

  Hedgewick patted Everson on the back as they joined Elias on the lift. “I’l
l be interested to see your next application for Chaos Conduction.”

  Everson closed the gate and turned toward the control panel. “Well, the first Flyer upgrade should be ready in a few weeks. Flying should become far less work…and it may be faster as well.”

  The teen engaged the lever and the lift began to rise, the motor below the platform whirring as the pulleys lifted toward the upper floors. The conversation faded and Quinn turned toward Rena.

  “I think I’ll play for a bit. I have some time before the augmentation wears off, right?”

  Rena nodded. “Yes. It should begin to fade around an hour after it was applied. Until then, have fun.”

  Quinn returned the girl’s grin. “I will. And, thanks. I love this augmentation.”

  “It was my pleasure.”

  With a nod, Quinn leaped for a platform that waited forty feet above her.

  A foot flashed toward Quinn’s face. She ducked beneath it, spun and kicked, her boot grazing Nalah’s backside. As she came around, the woman’s fist lashed out and Quinn swatted it away while throwing a counterpunch that was blocked. They traded a flurry of blows, high and low, until Quinn grabbed Nalah’s wrist and chopped down on the woman’s arm with her elbow. Nalah grunted in pain, jabbed Quinn in the kidney twice, and tore her wrist free. When Nalah spun away, she held one arm close to her side, her face twisted in a grimace.

  Quinn eyed her opponent and wiped her swollen lip, leaving a streak of red across the back of her hand. Nalah eased forward with caution, feinted with a spinning kick, completed the pirouette and leaped. Quinn’s attempt to avoid the low kick left her open, and the woman’s boot connected with her cheek, sending her spinning and stumbling to the Atrium floor. Landing on her hands and knees, Quinn shook her head clear and turned as Nalah kicked toward her midsection. Quinn spun away while swiping her hand beneath Nalah’s boot, lifting hard enough to pull the young woman off balance. Nalah fell backward, rolled with her momentum, and stood as Quinn rose to her feet.

  Pain throbbed in Quinn’s cheek. Anger filled her for allowing the kick to connect, the fury reshaping itself into determination. With narrowed eyes, she eased toward her opponent and then burst forward. Leaping high into the air, she kicked as Nalah dodged to her right, protecting her injured side as Quinn had expected. Quinn had already pulled her kick in to ensure a stable landing. By the time Nalah, had spun about, Quinn’s foot was sweeping low and connected with the woman’s knee with a solid crunch. Nalah cried out as she collapsed, and Quinn dove on top of her.

  “Match.” Nalah said as tears clouded her eyes.

  Quinn smiled as she stared down at the woman. “I won!”

  “Yes. Now get off me,” the woman replied between clenched teeth.

  Rising to her feet, Quinn shifted away while Nalah clutched at her knee. The sound of applause attracted Quinn’s attention. She looked up and found a man ten years her senior leaning over the nearest balcony – the one that led to his room.

  Delvin stopped clapping and gave her a grin as his hands settled on the balcony rail. “You’ve improved, Quinn.”

  “When did you get back?” Quinn asked.

  “Last night. Late.”

  Motion in her periphery caused Quinn to glance to the side as Rena strolled in and knelt beside Nalah. It’s nice not to be the one requiring healing, Quinn thought before turning toward Delvin again.

  “Where were you, anyway?”

  He stood, smoothing his dark hair. “You know better than that.”

  She shrugged. “A girl can try.”

  That earned her a nod. “True. There are bits that I can tell you, but that will have to wait. I’m off to meet the others for a debriefing. We have some decisions to make.”

  Quinn frowned, her bloody lip responding with a twinge of pain. She had discovered an exhilaration from being included in secrets. Her exclusion felt quite the opposite. Since both were parts of her new life, she knew that she would have to take the good with the bad. However, accepting and knowing are not necessarily equivalent.

  8

  Secrets

  Everson Gulagus leaned over the table, sketching the plans for his next creation. As he scrawled the lines, his tongue stroked across his upper lip – a habit he had carried his entire eighteen years, a habit he seldom noticed. Warm afternoon sunlight streamed through the glass-paned balcony doors and lit the diagram before him. Slowly, the image in his mind began to form on the paper and excitement brewed inside him, forcing the pen to move faster and faster. Once he had traced the last line, he stared at the image in satisfaction.

  Shaped like a disc with a short metal rod sticking from it, his invention began to crystalize – at least the prototype. Bent metal conduction strips ran from the rod to a glass encasement in the middle, where the Chaos-charged stone would sit. Staring at it sent his thoughts drifting back to the discovery and the events that led him there.

  The secret to enchantment was the lure that had led Everson and Jonah to the ovens in the academy kitchens. The Heat runes inside the ovens gave them a clue, but when they tested the rune in the old quarry behind the academy, the rock had flared up with an intense heat that burned for over an hour and then subsided. All that remained was a blackened rock, so dark that it seemed to absorb all light. Weeks later, they returned to the same rock and tried again. With the second attempt, the rock itself drank the Chaos rather than it charging the rune. That stored energy remained weeks later and had led Everson to discover Chaos Conduction. The charged chunks or rock proved to be an immense power source…but not an endless one. The more power that was drawn, the faster the Chaos would expire, requiring a new charge or a new chunk of charged rock.

  A knock on the door echoed in the recesses of his brain, the sound unable to penetrate his concentration. A second knock – louder this time – successfully intercepted his focus. He looked up, and his eyes shifted toward the rack he had built to hold his prized invention. The mechanical legs stood there, waiting for him to don them again. Hence, a trip to the door seemed rather inconvenient, so he answered from his seat.

  “Who is it?”

  A voice he knew well responded. “It’s me. Can I come in?”

  “Yes. The door is open.”

  The door swung open, and his sister entered the room. Matching him in height, she had an athletic build with lithe muscles and a confident gait. Her blond hair was two shades darker than normal, clearly wet. The girl’s face was normally pretty, sharing expressions that ranged from a wry smile to a steely defiance. Instead, Quinn’s face was marred by red and purple tones, her cheek swollen such that one of her blue eyes was barely visible.

  “What happened to you?” he asked from the table.

  She strode toward him, and as the lighting grew better, her appearance grew worse.

  “I was sparring with Nalah earlier.” Quinn pulled out a chair and sat with a grunt.

  “Does her face look as bad as yours?”

  “Oh, her face looked far worse before she was healed. I also broke her arm and destroyed her knee.” When Quinn grinned, Everson saw a gleam of pride in her eye. “I’m finally getting it. The form of fighting Kwai-Lan teaches was difficult to learn. After ten weeks of frustration and all those times she beat me bloody, it was rewarding to get the better of the woman.”

  “If she was healed, why didn’t you get healed as well?”

  “Rena offered. Since there was no real damage, I told her no. Bumps and bruises will heal, given a few days.” A grin crossed Quinn’s face. “Nalah didn’t seem to like it much. I suspect she thinks I’m showing off, attempting to prove my toughness.”

  He snorted. “She doesn’t know you that well if she thinks that. Everyone knows you’re tough. However, I also know that you don’t care what she thinks.”

  Quinn’s grin grew wider. “True.”

  “So why do it? Why not let her heal you?”

  She shrugged. “When I’m on a mission, I may not have access to a healer. I am choosing to get used to minor
pain now, so I’m prepared to handle it in the future.”

  Everson stared at his sister as he considered the statement. He knew her well, better than anyone did. Quinn tended to walk a line between eagerness and boldness. Both had likely been gnawing at her over the past few days.

  “You’re anxious to be assigned a mission.” He said it as a statement of fact.

  Quinn nodded, showing no trace of her previous mirth.

  He added, “It’s driving you crazy that Chuli was selected for one first.”

  Again, she nodded.

  “I’m sure you miss her. I miss Jonah as well,” Everson sighed. “This apartment is nice, but living alone feels strange, even after just two days. Before coming to the academy, you and I roomed together our entire lives. Since then, I have roomed with Jonah for almost a year – ten weeks here in the Ward and far longer while at the academy.”

  “I do miss her.” Quinn’s gaze shifted toward the Atrium beyond the balcony. “And…I guess I understand why she was chosen for this mission. After all, she is the best with a bow. Delvin tells me to focus on developing my skills until I receive an assignment. All I can do is just continue training so I’m prepared when I am called upon. I just wish…I wish I knew when it was coming.”

  Everson looked down at the image on the paper. “When it comes, I hope that my next invention will be ready. If it works, it might be of help to you.”

  She leaned forward to peer down at his plans. “What is it?”

  He shook his head. “You know better than that.”

  Quinn rolled her eyes. “Really? You and your secrets.”

  “Remember, we do work for a clandestine organization. Secrets are at the core of our very purpose.”