by John Corwin
Something cold and reptilian sweeps over her features. Her eyes go black as pitch. She releases my hand abruptly and a sneer twists her lovely face. "Serena is a fool. We should have never let her search for the eye alone."
"The hand is enough." Victus puts the doll away and stares at Delectra. "You become too sentimental when I let the boy off his leash. Remember, he is a tool, our insurance policy if things go awry."
"Of course I remember," Delectra says haughtily. "It is your fault you didn't extinguish the soft parts of me. There is still a part of the weak, pathetic girl I once was hiding inside me."
"It will die soon enough," Victus says. "Once we control the Overworld, there will be no room for weakness."
I try to listen to more of their conversation, but the words grow muffled and the color fades until all is black and white. My younger self is once again shrouded in a poison cloud of demon magic.
Eyes crusted with sleep, I wakened to a blurry world. The imagery of my dream remained sharp in my mind. The dreams of Cora and a ship were too vivid to be mere products of my imagination. It meant I'd actually met her long before she became my foster mother. It meant I'd overheard Victus plotting to trap Justin Slade and his army in Seraphina.
I jerked upright. "He used a relic of Jura!"
Max leapt out of bed at my outburst, his wand at the ready, though he staggered, still drunk with sleep. "Who is it?" He stumbled against the wall. "Are we under attack?"
I laughed. "No, I was having a dream." The sun peeked through the window and my phone informed me it was time to get up anyway. Excitement heated my blood. "You won't believe what I dreamed about."
Max flopped back in bed, his wand arm dangling over the side. "I can't believe you woke me up so early."
I shook him. "Get up, Max. I remembered something important in my dream."
He mumbled something and rolled out of bed. "I hope it's good. I was dreaming about pancakes."
As I showered, I thought about the doll Victus touched and how Delectra had gone from being happy to evil in an instant and complained about being weak. Did that mean there was still good in her? Victus seemed convinced he could kill the good in her. If that was true, it meant she might be beyond redemption. It meant even the Broken Relic might not be able to fix her.
I showered and dressed then went to the common room between the dorm towers where Ambria waited.
"Where's Max?" she asked.
"Slow as usual," I said.
He met us a few moments later and we set off to eat. The roar of conversation quieted noticeably when we entered the dining hall, and the weight of stares felt heavy on my shoulders. I stiffened my back and pretended not to notice. Some students looked curious while others outright glared at us—some more than others.
Then I saw the terrible trio. Harris Ashmore stood up, his long brown hair slanting sideways across his angry green eyes. He'd obviously spent a great deal of time styling it in dramatic fashion this morning. His friend Baxter Troy emulated him, his thick red hair a messy curtain against his pale freckled forehead. Lily Crown remained seated and smiled at us.
"I don't understand that girl," Max grumbled. "Wish she'd just be mean to us and get it over with."
"Conrad's parents killed Harris's parents, not hers," Ambria said. "Just because Lily is Harris's friend doesn't mean she has to hate us too."
I winced at the reminder.
We found an empty table and took a seat. Moments later, wooden golems dressed in servant livery delivered steaming plates with sausages and eggs.
Ambria took a sip of tea. "Conrad, did you have a chance to read those books you took from the kidnappers?"
I shook my head and swallowed food. "No, but I have something exciting to tell you."
"About your dreams?" Max quirked his lips.
"More like memories." I told them what I'd seen.
Ambria's eyes widened. "Your parents used a Relic of Jura to disable the Alabaster Arches?"
I nodded. "We have to find out what the Hand of Jura does."
"Is it literally a hand?" Max said. "Sounds disgusting."
I shrugged. "I guess so."
Ambria frowned. "Maybe we should talk with Galfandor."
"He never told me that he was Delectra's mentor." I felt angry at the old headmaster. "If he kept that from me, he might not tell us everything we need to know about Jura."
"We need to start somewhere," Ambria said. "I wouldn't even know where to start looking for these relics."
Max nodded. "The headmaster has been helpful before. It can't hurt to ask."
I didn't want to agree, but they were right. Galfandor might have good reasons for not telling me about mentoring Delectra. We finished eating and made our way through the maze of halls to a classroom for our first class, Intermediate Spellcasting. The dark hardwoods creaked under my shoes in the empty room.
"Are we the first ones here?" Ambria checked the time on her watch. "We're only ten minutes early."
"What's this?" Max pointed to a piece of parchment taped to the chalkboard in the front of the room. "It says, 'To find the class, perform this spell; if you don't, you'll surely fail.'"
I groaned. "Professor Grace doesn't believe in making things easy."
"What was that noise?" Ambria looked around.
Max shook his head. "I didn't hear anything."
"Sounded like a laugh." She shrugged. "Probably my imagination."
Holding out the parchment, Max flicked his wand through a pattern and said, "Decreptis!"
Ambria turned in a circle, looking around the room. "Well, that's a rather profound lack of results."
Max blew out a breath. "Can't expect me to get it perfect the first time." He tried it twice more and had no more success than the first time.
Ambria snatched it from him. "Let me try." She squinted at something. "There's a drawing of bookshelves at the bottom of the page. Why didn't you mention that before?"
"I thought it was just decorative," Max said in a defensive tone.
"Professor Grace doesn't believe in decoration." She pointed the wand at the bookshelves on the wood-paneled wall. "You're not very good at seeing clues, Max."
Max threw up his hands. "Then you do the bleeding spell!"
Ambria sniffed. "I will." She practiced the pattern a couple of times, said the magic word, and flicked the wand at the bookcase. The wooden shelves creaked, groaned, and promptly collapsed in a heap. Books scattered across the floor, pages spilling out from loose bindings.
We jumped back at the unexpected literary carnage. The parchment burst into flames. Ambria squeaked and tossed it away. It vanished in a puff of white smoke.
"What spell did you use?" Max said. "I was expecting some arrows to point the way, not collapsing bookshelves!"
"What is the meaning of this?" Gideon Grace stood just inside the classroom, his thin lips peeled back in a snarl. "Is this your idea of a joke, Edison?"
"Me?" I poked a finger against my chest. "There was a parchment with instructions on it."
"A parchment?" His sour voice rose an octave. "Where?"
Ambria swallowed hard. "Well, it sort of burned up after I cast the spell."
"A likely story," Grace growled.
Max smacked his forehead. "We've been tricked."
"Let's see how much you enjoy detention," Grace said.
Ambria's eyes flicked to a corner of the room and narrowed. Without a word, she picked up a leather bound book and threw it across the room. It thumped something before it hit the corner, eliciting a loud grunt. The air shimmered ever so slightly, but enough to tell me that something wasn't right about that dim corner of the room.
Grace's lips pressed tight as he stared at the corner. "Come out this instant."
Harris and Baxter appeared as if someone had dropped a curtain. Behind them stood Lily, a guilty look on her face.
"Was that a camouflage veil?" Grace said.
Lily nodded. "Yes, sir. I've been practicing all summer."
> His lips tried to smile, but his face said no. A sneering grimace replaced his dour look for an instant. "Most impressive, Miss Crown."
She smiled sheepishly. "Thank you."
"What was the spell on the parchment?" he asked.
Harris and Baxter looked at Lily again.
She sighed. "Decreptis, sir. It weakens objects."
"That's a rather advanced spell." Grace tried to smile again. "You've obviously spent your summer productively."
Ambria flashed me an annoyed look. "Does that mean I also did well, Professor? After all, I was able to cast it."
Grace's nose wrinkled, lip curled into a sneer. "It was an act of stupidity, Miss Rax. You should never cast a spell if you don't know what it does."
Other students began filing into the classroom, curious eyes darting back and forth between us, the books, the professor, and Harris. It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that something bad had happened, if evidenced only by the pile of books on the floor.
Ambria's face burned bright red and her fists clenched by her sides. She seemed to barely restrain a retort, but it would be unwise to antagonize Grace. He'd proven on more than one occasion that he despised our families. Though Ambria had never known Cyphanis Rax, a man who'd usurped and abused power, sharing the same blood was enough for Grace to dislike her.
Max tried to make himself smaller, shoulders slumping, eyes on the floor. The attempt didn't work.
"I'll see the three of you for detention after school today," Grace said to us.
"What?" Ambria jabbed a finger at Lily. "She tricked us! We thought it was a test."
"A test you failed," Grace said. "No one made you destroy the bookshelf. You and your friends will clean up this mess and construct a new one."
My face heated and my hands tightened into fists. I felt something in my hand and looked down to see my wand. How did it get there? I didn't even remember pulling it from my pocket. I met Harris's delighted eyes. He looked at the wand, eyes eager for me to try something. After all, he was the child of destiny, the one who was supposed to destroy me.
I wanted nothing more than to punch him in the face. Once again, we were being unfairly targeted because of our rotten parents.
Chapter 7
Weak boy, Della said. Do not fight when you can be clever instead.
Clever? I didn't see how my brain could get me out of this one.
Other rules were broken, Della replied.
It was the most she'd said to me in a while. Helpful advice was not something Della offered. Then again, she probably hated Gideon Grace as much as he hated her. An image of parchment flashed through my mind. A rulebook. It was the rules and regulations of Arcane University that we'd had to read and sign before being admitted.
I closed my eyes and saw it with perfect clarity.
Spellcasting shall not be allowed on university ground without direct professorial approval and supervision.
Under no circumstances are students to teach other students advanced spells without professorial supervision.
I might have been viewing a photograph. The list of rules was so long and complex, I doubted anyone could remember them all, much less see an image of the pages in their minds. Since I didn't have photographic memory, I wondered if Della was showing this to me.
I swallowed the anger and forced a smile. "Professor Grace, perhaps I could refer you to paragraph twelve, subsection three of the university rules on spellcasting without supervision."
Grace's brow pinched with confusion. "What are you getting at, Edison?"
I quoted the paragraphs. "As you can see, Lily and her friends cast their veil spell without approval or supervision, and then instructed us how to cast an advanced spell as well." I shrugged. "I believe the punishment for such offenses is detention or worse."
Harris's mouth dropped open.
"He's lying!" Baxter shouted. "There's no such thing."
Lily turned pale. If anyone in that group knew what rules existed, it would be her. She was obsessive about knowing everything. Then again, most girls claimed to know it all. Perhaps she was just smarter than others.
Max gripped my shoulder and whispered in my ear. "How'd you know that?"
I didn't answer. The other students seemed entranced with the unfolding drama. Some seemed to be placing bets on the outcome.
Liana Augustus leafed through one of the thick tomes that had fallen off the bookshelf. "Conrad is right, professor." She hefted the rulebook off the floor and put it on her desk. "Would you like me to look up punishments?" An innocent smile spread across her face.
My head flinched back with surprise. I barely knew Liana, having seen her in the common room at Moore Keep a few times, perhaps greeted her on my way out to Kabash practice. I certainly never would have expected her or anyone but my closest friends to back me up.
Grace clenched his teeth, eyes shooting daggers at me and Liana. "It appears Harris, Lily, and Baxter will be joining you for detention." He spun toward a gaggle of girls rushing into the room and roared, "Get in your seats!"
The girls screeched and hurried to sit down, even though they were a minute early.
Graced raked his eyes over us and Harris's group. "I want the six of you to move those books out of the way this minute."
Moving the books proved considerably harder than it seemed. Many were damaged by the Decreptis spell and pages spilled from the covers unless we were careful to squeeze them tight while carrying them. Harris and Baxter scowled at us the entire time. Lily giggled nervously as if this were all some huge misunderstanding that would be cleared up shortly.
We still hadn't cleared the entire mess when Professor Grace ordered us to our desks and started the lesson. Coincidentally, the lesson was on advanced wand patterns and why they mattered. He demonstrated how precise movements earned more powerful iterations of the same spell even though his patterns looked equally precise each time. It was a relief when the gong chimed in the distance and class was over.
Professor Sideon was surprisingly on time for our next class, Intermediate Enchantments. He seemed particularly focused on a rugged leather-bound text on his desk and didn't look up once as students poured into the room. The minutes ticked past and it wasn't until Harris cleared his throat that Sideon looked up and blinked with confusion.
He sighed and muttered something as he stood. "What's the most powerful enchanted object?"
Lily's hand shot upward. "The Sword of Shanria!"
"Wrong," Sideon said. Rory Culpepper chuckled and drew the professor's attention. "Do you have an answer?"
Rory Culpepper snorted. "Everyone knows the Swords of Power are the most powerful."
"They don't even exist," Anna Greene said. "Besides, my father always said the Alchemist's Ring is the most powerful. It could turn people into stone or gold."
Sideon's eyes flashed. "Yes, now that was a powerful enchanted object. What else?"
"The Crown of Knowledge," Lily said, apparently willing to give it another go.
The professor nodded. "Knowledge is power, but there are other enchanted objects that offer more."
"An arcphone," Max said.
Sideon offered the barest of smiles and then he locked eyes with me. "What do you think, Edison?"
I felt intense discomfort looking into this man's gaze. His shaved head and lean narrow face reminded me of a weasel. I didn't want to answer him, but before I could control my nervous lips, I said, "The Broken Relic."
The murmur of conversations faded to a chorus of confused exclamations.
"The Broken Relic?" Lily said querulously. "I've never heard of it."
Baxter snorted. "Making things up again."
Sideon's tiny smile spread across his weasely face. "Edison is not making it up. The Broken Relic is very real, students." He leaned on his desk. "I'd be most curious to know where you heard of it."
My mind scrambled for an answer. "My great-grandfather was a relic hunter."
Yes, he was, Della said.
That's the truth?
She didn't answer. I could only surmise that she'd put the answer in my head.
"How interesting." Sideon drawled. "What other relics do you know of?"
"Uh, I don't remember." If I'd hoped Della would provide me with more answers, I was disappointed.
"What is the Broken Relic?" Lily asked.
"That is a very good question," Sideon said. "Some say the Broken Relic was once something whole that broke into many pieces, all of which are valued relics in and of themselves. Others say the name is metaphor and that broken may refer to an emotional state." He paced in front of the room, unusually animated for a man who typically sat behind the desk and made us read our textbooks without actually lecturing. "While there are many powerful relics, the most powerful and useful arguably originated with Jura, also known as Juranthemon."
"I've heard of that," Lily said. "Justin Slade used the Map and Key of Juranthemon to lead Templars out of Colombia so he could fight an army of vampires."
"Yes, yes!" Sideon said. "The map is capable of linking two doors anywhere in the world. When opened with the key, the door will lead to the linked destination."
"Why not just use portals?" Baxter said.
Sideon didn't seem to hear him. "We're going to try something new this year, class." He rubbed his hands together. "Instead of reading this useless textbook, we're going to seek out and find an ancient relic of power, be it from Jura or elsewhere."
A chorus of oohs and aahs rose from the students as the most boring class suddenly became the most interesting.
"That means we must comb texts and search for clues." Sideon sat on the edge of his desk. "Do any of you know relic hunters?"
Rory and Liana raised their hands.
"My father is in El Dorado looking for old Seraphim and Siren artifacts," Rory said. "He wants to find out how the Sirens built the arch systems so we can build more of our own."
Sideon pursed his lips. "Interesting. Has he ever sought any relics of Jura?"
Rory nodded. "Yeah, but he stopped after someone almost killed him."