Surviving Magic (The Legacy of Androva Book 6)

by Alex C Vick

  We waited in silence for the last Council member to join us. My panic escalated when I realised it was Professor Cassius. He was on the Council? When did that happen? Now it was his word against mine. And he was very believable. His earlier sneer was nowhere to be seen.

  He had, apparently, not told anyone what he had learned of my rule breaking before now. He’d wanted to preserve my family’s dignity and protect his poor son, whose only crime had been that of trusting the wrong person.

  I wanted to shout the truth at him about the years of cruelty he’d subjected Nico to, but I choked down my anger. Losing my temper would damage any small degree of credibility I might still have. The circumstantial evidence was entirely against me.

  When I tried to put my warning to them, I was angrily interrupted.

  “Are there no depths to which you will not sink?” said Mirrem. “To repeat these lies in front of your Council, when it is now clear your entire life has been built on deception and dangerous magic… You are arrogant beyond reason.”

  “It’s true!” I shouted. “Why would I come back to Androva to commit murder? It doesn’t make any sense!”

  “You came back to silence the one person who knew what you really are,” said the professor. “My son.”

  He put his hand over his face in an imitation of grief. “I can only assume Vandra was unfortunate enough to get in your way the first time.”

  The Council voted for the Spell of Removal. Punishment to be carried out immediately.

  Chapter 25 - Where Is Angelus?

  There was a buzzing in my ears. This cannot be real. Am I back in my dream? My legs were trembling. I was terrified. I had no idea what to do. The indecision gripped me, magnifying my fear.

  Try to escape? No. I will fail. Twenty Council members were in my way, all of them experienced magicians.

  Resist the spell? Possibly. The Spell of Removal was a matter of honour on Androva. It could not be carried out on an unwilling recipient.

  Except… my family would be punished in my stead, and I would still be a prisoner. Who would help Claudia then?

  Maybe I could bargain for a moment alone with my sister, and use the Communication Spell to explain what was happening. Serena might be able to help them to defeat Angelus when he did eventually show up.

  Angelus had succeeded because he had the element of surprise. He’d struck at the heart of Androva and exploited its naivety. Our society had not seen war for centuries. If Sandro can be found and taught Claudia’s Harvesting Spell rather than having to figure it out himself…

  My thoughts trailed off, unresolved, when I noticed Mirrem standing in front of me. I was out of time. A fresh wave of panic dragged at my chest and stomach, and I feared my trembling legs would give way. I opened my mouth, but the words refused to come.

  “Remain exactly where you are.”

  The room was silent. Jax did this. So can I. If only Shannon were here to rescue me too.

  I stared at Mirrem’s Sygnus, which was made up of two diamond shapes, the smaller inside the larger, with crossing lines at its centre. They started to spin.

  When the Spell of Removal hit me, I flinched. It was ice cold, which masked whatever it was doing to my force field. But I knew when it reached my spark. It felt like my mind and body were being torn in two. I thought I would die.

  I realised I was hunched over, kneeling on the stone floor. I didn’t care. I wanted to weep. It hurt so much. Physical pain and emotional pain, churning inside me, unbearable in their intensity.

  Someone was clapping. I might have wondered who it was, but all my energy was being put towards surviving the next five minutes. This was terrible. I should never have submitted.

  “Professor Cassius, please do not clap. As a new Council member—”

  A bark of laughter interrupted the female voice.

  “Well done, all of you. Very well done. You have successfully incapacitated the only magician I considered a serious threat.”

  “The only magician…? What are you talking about, Cassius?”

  Mirrem’s voice , I thought vaguely. The pain was starting to reduce, but I wasn’t sure I had the strength to raise my head yet.

  “Would you like to know how I spent my day? While the rest of you were huddled in here, debating, philosophising, and generally wringing your hands about how terrible everything was?”

  The professor was talking to the Council in that soft voice he used on first years, right before he hurt them.

  “Oh, I know you imagined me prostrate with grief as I mourned the loss of my son. No. I was refining a particular spell at the Foundation for Research. By killing everyone inside of it.”

  There were shocked gasps and exclamations, followed by urgent words, too fast and too many for me to follow. I gritted my teeth and managed to lift my head. The professor was standing, and I noticed his hair was more blond than grey. He looked younger.

  He was projecting magical energy from his hands. The silver was threaded with strands of black, swirling together in a menacing cloud.

  Everyone was staring at it. A few magicians had risen to their feet. Hands were glowing in readiness. Mirrem was edging slowly towards the door. Almost carelessly, the professor pushed his spell outwards.

  He passed along the stone table, allowing the black-and-silver mist to caress his victims, and they fell like gladiators dealt a death blow with a sharp sword.

  With every step, Professor Cassius grew younger, as if each victim turned back the clock of his existence a little more. It was repulsive and fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, watching was all I had the strength for.

  Mirrem tried to run for it, but by now the spell was everywhere, surrounding the room.

  “No, no, no,” the professor said with an indulgent smile. “It’s too late for that. Everyone outside is dead as well.”

  “Why?” asked Mirrem desperately.

  “Again, no. You will not win yourself extra minutes of life that way. I am not so vain as to be distracted by the chance to tell my story to the likes of you.”

  Mirrem looked in my direction for a second, panic contorting his features. He took a step backwards, and as soon as he touched the spell, his body collapsed.

  Then it was my turn.

  “However, I am tempted to let you live a while,” the professor mused. “I’m curious. You obviously came back here to deliver some kind of warning. Yet there is no way you could have known.”

  This entire situation made no sense. I was about to be killed by the wrong magician.

  You’re not Angelus . You’re not even Terran!

  “My son died because of you, Galen. You know that, don’t you?”

  “No…” I protested, hating that my voice sounded so weak. The Spell of Removal had taken so much from me.

  “Oh, but he did. I would have allowed him to rule Androva at my side, but his loyalty to you was his undoing.

  “I always suspected you were behind what happened to me at the Seminary. You stole him from my training. It took me and Krysta months to break your hold over him.

  “And then you played right into my hands by disappearing! Abandoning him, just because your Terran girlfriend died. He hated you, then. He told me everything.

  “After that, I had access to all the spells in the Foundation. The power I had only dreamed of was now within my grasp, and my son was right there with me.

  “But somehow, you won him back,” he continued bitterly. “You weren’t even here, and he returned to you. He created that ridiculous statue. He cried in his sleep and begged for your forgiveness.

  “Vandra only found me out because Nico stopped helping me. Fitting, really, for her to be my first victim, when it was reversing her incomplete spell for eternal life that gave me the idea in the first place.

  “Nico was going to look for you. He was about to open a portal to Terra. He knew I would kill him for it, but he still chose you.”

  I closed my eyes. I’m sorry, Nico. Please forgive me. If I’d known
what was happening to you… I’m so sorry.

  When I opened my eyes again, the professor was waiting. He shrugged when I remained silent.

  “No matter. I can live without your contribution, I’m sure. It’s enough that you know.”

  My temper rose. If I were about to die, I might as well go down fighting. I got to my feet.

  “Stop! Just stop talking and get on with it!”

  With a malicious smile, he projected more of the spell. I felt it tingle against the skin of my throat.

  “Around the neck?” I asked, scowling. “A bit dramatic, isn’t it, considering you no longer have an audience?”

  There was a shocked silence as it became clear to him I was still alive. We stared at each other, the spell swirling between us.

  He covered me in it from head to toe before he gave up. It seemed there was an advantage to my punishment after all. The professor’s spell only worked on magicians.

  I felt a hysterical laugh forming in my throat at the look on his face. He can’t kill me. And, knowing his distaste for all things Terran, he was unlikely to try non-magical means. His frustration would have been comical under any other circumstances.

  “I might have known,” he said, his voice low and furious. “You’re the only student ever to get the better of me. And you’re still doing it!”

  His force field changed colour to the unmistakable glittering red of a Sleep Remedy.

  “I have a world to conquer, boy. I will come back for you later.”

  The Assembly Rooms swam in and out of focus, and I crumpled, landing on the floor with a painful thud. For a few seconds, I tried to fight the spell, but was soon overpowered. I slept.

  Time passed, and I had no way to keep track of it. Without magic I was utterly helpless. The professor appeared younger every time I saw him. I could only guess at the lives he was taking. He could pass for my age.

  His force field turned completely black, and the dense, bitter strength of it could be felt from across the room. I had thought Shannon powerful, but this was on a different level entirely.

  He never allowed me to wake up for very long. Part of me was glad, because as I slept, I could hope the whole thing was just a dream. Whenever I woke up enough to know it was real, I tried to escape, dragging myself to the door and sometimes even managing to open it. But he always came back in plenty of time to stop me.

  Each time I was weaker and sleepier. My emotional strength had not recovered from the loss of my force field, and my physical body was giving up. The Assembly Rooms did have a supply of drinking water, but it wasn’t enough to live on.

  Sometimes I dreamed of Claudia gazing out across the blue ocean. I could never get her to turn around, no matter how loudly I shouted. Eventually, I stopped shouting.

  I opened my eyes to see the professor staring down at me. He was grimacing with disgust. I found it quite unnerving that in his newfound youth, he resembled Nico.

  “You just won’t die, will you, Galen?”

  I closed my eyes again. I probably would die if this went on much longer. It might have been weeks, I couldn’t be sure. I was light-headed all the time. My body felt like it belonged to someone else.

  “My beautiful spell kills quickly and cleanly. My victims don’t make a sound. Whereas you insist on lingering in this revolting fashion. I find myself thinking it might be easier to let you live than endure such a spectacle.”

  I might have laughed, if I’d had the strength. You, Professor Cassius, are not enduring anything. If you were only prepared to get your hands dirty, you could have killed me ages ago.

  “And that’s another thing,” he went on, huffing with irritation. “You’re still defying me. I can see it in your face. I will break you, Galen. I don’t care what it takes.”

  His voice lowered to a mutter as he turned away.

  “Androva knows there are few other challenges left to me now.”

  This time, he left without projecting the spell to make me sleep. A boy I didn’t know came in with a small bowl of soup. He refused to make eye contact with me.

  I remained in the Assembly Rooms while I recovered my physical strength. It was painful and slow. I was desperate to know what was happening outside. The professor told me nothing.

  When I finally cracked and started asking questions, he was delighted. Every day he tormented me with different stories about what he was doing to Androva and Terra, until my mind was full of sickening images. I did my best to control my reactions, because I had no idea if any of it were true.

  He mocked me for the dreams Nico had seen inside my head, telling me that a marriage between an Androvan and a Terran would never have happened.

  “If your Terran was still alive, I would seek her out and kill her in front of you,” he said. “Your pain would be exquisite to watch.”

  I recoiled. I had no doubt he would do it if he could. And it would break me.

  “Interesting. Terra is most definitely your weakness, isn’t it?”

  That day, he left with a smile on his face.

  The same boy brought me food for each meal. Sometimes he looked as if he’d been crying, but he always ignored my attempts to comfort him.

  At first, I was too weak to escape. And then, when I felt strong enough to try, the professor warned me he would kill the boy if I did. I immediately backed down.

  “So sentimental,” Professor Cassius said, and he smirked. “How many deaths could your conscience bear, I wonder, before it collapsed under their weight? Ten? Fifty? One hundred?”

  He opened his hand, and a black tendril curled towards the boy.

  “Or perhaps only one?”

  The boy cringed away from it. I didn’t know whether to speak up or say nothing. I still remembered the perverse games Nico had never been able to win.

  The professor laughed at my hesitation.

  “It’s a shame I can only play with the lives of strangers now, isn’t it? Everyone who lived in Landor previously is already dead and buried.”

  I froze in horror. Everyone? The boy had not even blinked. This was not news to him. Everyone? My family, my friends, all of them? And what about Claudia?

  I turned to Professor Cassius, shaking with anger. My hands clenched into fists. I had no magic, but I was furious enough to attack him without it.

  “You’ll be unconscious before you can touch me, and the boy will die.”

  His voice was matter-of-fact. My anger faltered, and fierce grief rose up in its place, taking me by surprise. I blinked back the sudden tears. Everyone is dead.

  I felt so helpless. Where is Angelus? Why aren’t things happening the way they’re supposed to? Maybe I had ruined everything by coming back. The thought was too awful to contemplate. I pushed it away.

  “Everyone who ever knew you is gone,” the professor continued. “They don’t know who you are, and they don’t know…”

  He stopped mid-sentence, and looked down at where his Sygnus was supposed to be. Ever since his magic turned black, it was no longer visible.

  “They don’t know who I am either.”

  Then he gave me a speculative look.

  “I might have thought of a way to break you after all.”

  Chapter 26 - All Is Revealed

  The following day, he subjected me to a thorough Cleaning Spell and gave me new clothes to wear. I felt absolutely wretched, having convinced myself in the night that everything was my fault.

  He stared into my eyes. I knew they’d be red from lack of sleep. He drew in a breath, and that disturbingly young face lit up.

  “Oh, yes, this is progress indeed, Galen. I recognise the signs.”

  He tilted his head.

  “Strange, isn’t it, after taking all these lives, it’s the thought of breaking you that gives me the most satisfaction. And finally, we are getting there.”

  “There’s no we, Professor,” I said, sounding braver than I felt.

  “Oh, I think you’ll find there is, Galen. Wait and see.”

 
I watched while he systematically destroyed all the records in the Assembly Rooms with his magic. Everything documenting my return to Androva and my interrogation disappeared.

  Then he checked something in a small book he’d brought with him. It was the one that Nico had written about Terran names, which seemed a completely bizarre subject to be reading about. I had no idea what he planned to do.

  He pushed me outside, and the glare of the sun blinded me. I knew there were a lot of Androvans gathered in front of the Assembly Rooms waiting for us, but I could only see their shadows while my eyes adjusted.

  The silence was absolute. Fear crackled in the air, almost like magical energy. The professor began to speak.

  “I will make three announcements today, and you will listen closely.

  “First and foremost, you will cease your pathetic attempts to overthrow me. If I even suspect another magician of such treachery, I will seek out and kill one hundred of your children, and I will enjoy it. Do you understand?”

  I could see the mass of faces now, and I wished I could not. They were terrified. Frantic. Powerless in the face of such evil.

  “Second, I require magicians proficient in Movement Spells to rebuild these Assembly Rooms in the form of a tower on Mount Landor. Something befitting my status.

  “I am well aware Androva’s most skilled magicians are now dead, because I was the one who killed them. However, you will find a way to do this.”

  No one moved.

  “Twenty volunteers, if you please.”

  He had more than twenty by the time the black cloud had expanded to swirl between his hands.

  “Excellent. On to the third announcement. Well, it’s more of a history lesson. It occurred to me recently”—he glanced at me—“that I never introduced myself to you all. You’re probably wondering where I came from and why this is happening to you.

  “My name is Angelus. I am eighteen years old, and I come from Terra.”

  I gaped at him.

  “What did you say?”

  He ignored me. He went on to tell the story I had first heard from Jax and Shannon. About his discovery of an open portal, and how he’d concealed himself at the Foundation, learning sophisticated magic and killing twice without being discovered.