by John Corwin
"Brilliant," Max drawled. "You can camouflage?"
"Indeed," Galfandor said. "It is a skill only the second generation ruby spiders possess."
Why would the cuttlefish DNA become active in the second generation? Vic murmured in my head. He didn't bother to answer his own question, but a surge of pride told me he was quite pleased with his creation.
"What if people bump into you?" Max asked.
"She is inhumanly nimble," Galfandor said. "While she does have other duties and cannot be with you twenty-four hours, rest assured, Shushiel will be nearby."
"Thank you." I laid a hand on her leg. "I feel much safer knowing you're around."
"I will keep my cousin safe," she assured me.
Galfandor boarded his broom and turned toward the window. "I am glad you're safe, Conrad. I will do what I can to contact the Seers and find out what it is they're up to." He left before I could respond.
When I turned for bed, I realized Shushiel had also vanished.
Max lay back on his bed. "Wow." He yawned. "A ruby spider guardian." Another yawn kept him silent for several seconds. "I hope she scares the crap out of Harris." He stopped talking, and I realized he'd drifted to sleep.
The distant alarm went silent, and the light in the room dimmed. I turned on my side and tried not to think about everything that had happened. Della's shade waited for me when I closed my eyes, the smoky black figure reaching for me one last time as it dissolved.
Della had expressed pride in me, but never kindness. Even then, she rarely spoke more than a few words. What had given her the strength to achieve lucidity? Why did she suddenly want me to survive?
Maybe something had changed, but more likely it was a ploy.
When he is dead, I will at last be reunited with the whole. Vic spoke of me in third person, as if he didn't realize I could hear the thought. It confirmed that at least one of the voices in my head wanted me dead.
Chapter 12
As Max, Ambria, and I went about our day, I often wondered if Shushiel was invisible on the ceiling above us, or walking by our sides. She spoke once during Gideon Grace's class but only to say that she disliked how the professor spoke to me.
During lunch, Max got his certificate of invention, declaring his potion to be a unique mixture.
"Can you believe it?" he told us.
Ambria sniffed. "That they'd award you for a mistake? Hardly."
After classes, I told the others I was going to get lessons from Ansel.
"I cannot follow you there, Conrad," Shushiel said, still camouflaged. "I am too heavy for your broom."
"I should be safe at Science Academy," I told her. "I doubt anyone would think to look for me there."
"Can we come?" Ambria asked.
"I don't think Ansel would like that." I climbed onto my broom. "Maybe you could find out more about the Seers while I'm gone."
"How are we supposed to do that?" Max asked. "Even Galfandor doesn't seem to know much about them."
"Maybe there are books about them." I pointed toward the crystal-domed library in the distance. "It couldn't hurt to check."
"Boring," Max drawled.
"Don't let Ansel mistreat you," Ambria said. "You need to maintain your strength."
Ansel would probably stop helping me if I tried to stand up to him, but I nodded as if agreeing with Ambria and flew off the cliff and across the valley.
Arcnology Lab teemed with activity. Students lined up at tables where distinguished-looking individuals signed autographs and demonstrated gadgets. A banner hanging in the atrium proclaimed: Arcnology Academic Expo.
A lovely woman in lab clothes that looked several sizes too small smiled and grabbed my hand. "Have you tried the new rocket broom? It combines all the speed of a magic broom with the sleek technology of a rocket stick!"
"It sounds impressive." I slid my hand free. "Unfortunately, I have to meet someone first."
She waved energetically and bounced on her heels. "Be sure to stop back by for some neat swag!"
I pushed my way through the crowd and down the hallway to Ansel's office. A woman in a scanty red uniform emerged from the room looking rather rumpled and paid me no heed as she hurried back to the expo. Ansel sat behind his desk, feet propped up, and staring at the ceiling, eyes lost in contemplation.
Clearing my throat didn't shake him from whatever thoughts held him captive and neither did snapping my fingers. I walked around the desk and hesitantly nudged him. He blinked, turned to me and a lazy smile came across his face. "Do you think it's possible to destroy that which is indestructible?"
I suspected a trick question, but answered plainly. "No."
"And that is what makes something indestructible." He stood and slapped the desk, the sudden impulse startling me. "Magic is based on faith while science is based on fact." He waggled a finger. "And ne'er shall the two coexist."
"Isn't that what arcnology does?" I asked uncertainly.
"Yes, to an extent." Ansel waved away the conversation. "Musings, my friend. Simple musings. Do not trouble your childlike mind with such things for we must make you special."
"Special?"
He bared his teeth in a grin. "Oh, yes. Aren't we all special, some more so than others?" His fingers twirled the brass arcwand on his desk. "Esma sees you as more than the sum of your parts. Therefore, I must make you more special than your precious little self already is."
I didn't know what to make of his rantings, so I let him prattle on until he finally got to the lesson.
"How do you feel today?" Ansel asked.
"I feel okay unless I try to cast a spell." I had a feeling that wouldn't matter to him.
"Naturally." He handed me his arcwand. "Remember all the spells I programmed into this wand yesterday?"
"Yes."
"You will practice casting them." He showed me lines of code on his arcphone. "I uploaded the script to the wand. To activate it, all you must do is start casting the patterns and focusing your will through the wand." Ansel turned off the screen. "I want you to push as hard as you can, cousin. I want you to impress me." He placed a book on a stool at the end of the room. "Begin."
I swallowed my apprehension and began to draw in aether. The mild effort brought acid into my throat. Unwilling to let him see my discomfort, I steeled myself and aetherated deliberately but slowly. The nausea grew stronger, a slick fat slug trying to crawl up my esophagus. It took everything not to gag. When I had enough aether in my well, I held out the wand and began the rune patterns, keeping them as tight as possible.
Focusing my will through the wand, I targeted the book. The moment I completed the burn pattern, sizzling energy sprang from the wand, burning a hole clean through the book. My gorge rose and I heaved so hard it drove me to my knees. I dropped the wand and projectile vomited everything I'd eaten that day, spewing it all across the floor.
I doubled over, weak and spent. Ansel clutched the damaged book and glared at me. He knelt just outside the puddle of vomit and pointed at the charred hole. "You didn't finish the job, you weak pathetic thing!"
I noticed the title—Moore Family Genealogy—just before he threw the book in the vomit and stormed out of the room.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my sleeve and gagged at the acidic odor. A disc-shaped robot with a trunk like an elephant wheeled into the room and vacuumed the puddle from the floor while I watched numbly. It rinsed the floor and polished it, then vanished back into the hallway.
When I was able to stand again, I left the room in search of Ansel. The crowd at the expo made it impossible to find him so I climbed on my broom and rose up to the top of the atrium. I looked and looked but he was nowhere to be found.
I'm pathetic and weak. Ansel would probably never speak to me again.
The next day before class, I went straight to Esma's office to ask her advice, but her door was shut and locked with a note:
Professor Emoora is out sick until further notice. Please direct all questions to Professor Fell
ini.
What had happened to Esma? Terrible thoughts raced through my mind. What if the Seers knew she was my mentor and kidnapped her? What if Asha was truly evil and had done something to her?
"You look worried," Shushiel said in her soft voice. She faded into visibility, hanging from a thread next to me, all eight eyes looking concerned.
"Professor Emoora is my friend," I said. "I want to make sure she's okay."
"I will ask Galfandor for her address," the spider said. "Go to class and I will meet you there." One of her forelegs gently stroked my hair. "Do not worry, Conrad." She rose back to the ceiling and vanished.
Max and Ambria didn't seem the least bit concerned when I told them Esma was out sick.
"Maybe she just wanted some time off," Max said.
"On the third day of school?" Ambria sniffed. "I'm sure she'll be back tomorrow, Conrad."
We ran into Liana outside Professor Grace's classroom. She took me by the arm and kept me in the hall while my friends took their seats. "Are we still on for tomorrow night, Conrad?"
The touch of her hand made it difficult to answer. "Yes, of course."
Her face lit. "That's great! She asked if you could come without Ambria and Max."
"Why?" I backed up a step to free my arm.
"She thinks it will be easier to talk without interruptions." Her smile did little to soften the request.
My gaze wandered to my friends and caught a questioning look from Ambria. I really needed to talk to Liana's sister, but excluding my friends seemed suspicious. I couldn't afford to trust Liana blindly, especially not after what had happened last night. "I'm sorry, but if Max and Ambria can't come, then I can't either."
Liana's head snapped back. "Oh." Her shoulders drooped. "Well, I'll talk to Gwyneth again. Maybe she'll reconsider."
I hope so. What if Gwyneth was the vital link that could help me find the relic? I smiled to cover a nervous twitch in my lips. "Thank you."
"What was that about?" Ambria whispered the moment I sat down.
I told her and a delighted smile crossed her face. "Oh, really?"
"I hope her sister still meets you," Max said. "You should've agreed, and then Ambria and I could've sneaked in and watched your back."
"That's actually a good idea, Max." Ambria's smile faded, and she almost looked ashamed. "Conrad, tell Liana it's okay for you to go alone."
"Are you certain?" I felt foolish for being so quick to turn down Liana without asking my friends what they thought.
Ambria patted my hand. "Absolutely, though it means a lot to me that you'd insist we come anyway."
"Wands out for a pop quiz," Gideon Grace declared, striding into the classroom, a tall thin wraith of ill tidings. His crooked index finger found me first. "Level two Illumus, Edison."
In the scant few seconds since he'd entered the room, I'd anticipated him singling me out and had already aetherated. The mild effort made me queasy, but casting the light spell wasn't enough to make me vomit. I cast the spell properly and Grace's lips puckered like he'd just eaten a lemon. He turned to another student and ordered them to cast the shocking spell, Zzt. The day was barely started, and already it seemed grueling since I was hardly recovered.
Asha Fellini taught third period in place of Esma, which came as quite a relief for most students who didn't like Esma's aggressive teaching methods. Asha preferred to have students practice rune patterns instead of firing spells at them.
"Thank goodness," Max said. "Professor Emoora keeps me on edge all class long."
I found her methods boring. Asha was much better teaching history than magical defense.
On our way out of class, a soft touch from Shushiel's invisible leg startled me. Once I realized she was trying to get my attention, I took Ambria and Max aside to get out of the crowd of students heading to lunch.
"Esma lives on campus in the teacher apartments," Shushiel said.
Max made a face. "Those are off limits to students."
"Where are they?" Ambria asked.
"The back wing of the university," Shushiel said. "You must have a pass to enter."
"Do you know of a way in, Shushiel?" I couldn't hide the pleading tone in my voice.
"I cannot help you break the rules," she said. "I am here to protect you, not get you in trouble."
I clasped my hands together. "Please?"
She didn't answer.
"You shouldn't bother Professor Emoora," Ambria said. "And it's rude to ask Shushiel to break the rules for you."
I bit back an angry reply and walked toward the dining hall. If they wouldn't help me, I'd find a way to reach Esma myself.
When I reached Arcnology Lab after school, Ansel wasn't in his office. Instead, I found a note taped to a brass arcwand.
Dear little boy, I left you a portrait in the desk chair. Do not come back to me until you're able to destroy it with the scripted spells.
A man with sharp blue eyes, his chin resting on steepled fingers looked out from the painting. Behind him rose a crooked old tree, its leafless branches bearing skulls. At first I didn't recognize Jeremiah Conroy because he looked much older in the other portraits of him. The first Arcane had taken many identities but was most famous for his origin as Moses, and later as Ezzek Moore, the founder of Arcane University and the Arcane Council.
It was during that time he'd fathered the Moore family tree that spawned Delectra, Ansel, and me. The tree of skulls indicated the distaste the artist had for Jeremiah, though I wondered why he'd chosen the final incarnation of Moses for this portrait. Despite his rocky history, Jeremiah had given his life to save Justin Slade.
I tucked the portrait under my arm, put the wand in my pocket, and left the Science Academy campus. From there I flew straight to the Fairy Gardens. As I soared over the stone wall around the garden, I saw a reminder of Victus's evil. Where there had once been a thick forest filled with dryads, nowstood a graveyard of stumps.
I steered toward the ruins of the mansion in the back—a favorite place of mine to practice in private—when I saw a lithe figure with blue skin and silver hair dancing among the stumps. She jumped up and down, waving both arms when she saw me.
Evadora giggled and spun in circles as I came in for a landing. "Conrad!" I got off and she threw herself against me so hard, I lost my breath and dropped the portrait. Just as quickly, she jumped back, clapping her hands, wide eyes curious. "Are you coming to the Glimmer?"
It took a moment to recover my breath so I shook my head. "No, I was going to practice magic in the old mansion." Movement drew my eye to the field of stumps. Branches with bright green leaves sprouted from the sides of the shorn trunks. "What are you doing?"
"The spirits are still alive." Evadora knelt next to one of the thick trunks and kissed the spiral rings. "I am the Glimmer Queen now. I must care for the forest. The Lyrolai who survived the massacre ran into the Dark Forest. I hope they will return."
"I thought there were dryads here," I said.
Evadora rested her head on a stump as if it were a pillow. The roots shuddered just beneath the soil. "There are many kinds of Lyrolai—tree people, glade people, earth people, and more."
"Do they all look like you?" I asked.
"No, only those who lived in the mountain look like me." She ran a hand on the tree bark. "Others look like dryads, and some are purple like the grass." Evadora held out a hand and it changed from silver to purple. "Most are able to change their appearance like me, or so Naeve said."
I watched her skin in fascination. "She put everyone to sleep, right?"
"No, there are a few who remain awake, though I try to avoid them." Evadora's eyes widened. "I know for certain Naeve left Treek awake to punish him."
"Treek?" It was an odd name. I set my broom and the portrait against a stump. "Who is that?"
"Treek is one of the mountain people—a royal like me." Her eyes grew sad. "When Naeve began putting people to sleep, he rebelled. She was so angry that she turned his skin into bark, and his h
air into vines, then filled his mind with madness."
I shuddered. "That's awful."
Evadora nodded slowly. "Now he haunts the crimson forest, forever roaming and killing anyone who dares enter."
"I suppose he doesn't kill many people since they're all asleep," I said.
Evadora nodded. "Yes, I don't think Naeve thought it out very well." She turned onto her stomach, propping her chin in her hands. "I have been learning about my people so I can help them leave the Glimmer."
"Leave the Glimmer?" I rubbed a finger in my ear, not sure I'd heard her correctly. "What are you talking about?"
"Naeve put all the people to sleep, Conrad." Evadora moved to another stump and pressed her small hands to it. "I must wake them and lead them out of the broken world and into the light. There are many forests that need us. We will start here in Queens Gate and find another realm to populate."
I sat on a stump. "What about the creatures in the Glimmer?" Calling them creatures was a kindness. The broken realm was filled with monsters that had no place here in Eden. "It would be dangerous for the people here if you brought them with you."
Evadora drove her fist into the soil and closed her eyes. "The earth here is healthy again. Now I can help the trees regrow."
"You didn't answer my question." I touched her arm. "You can't simply bring everything from the Glimmer into this world."
She sighed. "I must find another empty realm for the beasts. I have looked at the realms around the anchor stone, but I do not know how to get to them."
I sighed with relief. Relocating the entire population of the Glimmer to Queens Gate would be catastrophic. "The Alabaster Arches don't work. Are there places where the Glimmer touches other realms? Are there other cracks between your world and another?"
"If there are, they are well hidden." Evadora's forehead wrinkled with worry. "Something bad is coming, Conrad."
My insides knotted. "What do you mean? What's coming?"
Evadora gripped my hand. "Come."
I grabbed my broom and followed the girl around the ruins of the sprawling mansion. Vines claimed most of the stonework and bushes sprouted up in the charred remains of the east wing where a powerful Arcane named Harry Shelton had dropped a flaming meteor on it. Behind the mansion was a copse of trees hiding a crack in the cliff face.