Surviving Magic (The Legacy of Androva Book 6)

by Alex C Vick

  He said this world was so stupid, it never suspected the deaths were murder until it was too late. Now he had mastered the Death Spell, and he had power over all Androva.

  He had no doubt he would conquer the world of Terra as well. Many had already died. It was only taking longer because Terrans were accustomed to war and death.

  He had killed the inhabitants of this city, he said, to make his intentions clear. He would not hesitate to kill everyone. He could repopulate this world from Terra if necessary.

  “On Terra, the name Angelus means messenger. I do hope you all understand the message I have given today.”

  He looked at me, obviously making some kind of point, but I didn’t know what it was. I was still too shocked to do anything but stare.

  He leaned down to whisper in my ear.

  “Now Androva and Terra will be enemies forever. That will be your legacy. No matter what happens to me.”

  Before I could take this in, he addressed the crowd again.

  “This is my brother.”

  His hand was on my shoulder, the fingers digging in.

  “His name is Alexander. It means”—he suppressed a smirk—“defender of Terrans. But you don’t need to stand on ceremony with him. You can call him Sandro.”

  I bent over to hide my face. The professor laughed, no doubt thinking I was horrified at Terra being blamed in this way. But I was not. A wave of incredulous hope was rising in my chest.

  It was exactly as Jax and Shannon had described. My actions had changed nothing. Although it is still a living nightmare, perhaps it isn’t all my fault.

  “You’ll have to excuse my brother. He recently lost his magic, which makes him nervous in front of crowds.”

  That made me pause. He was correct, I wasn’t a magician any more. So how am I supposed to harvest all the living magic that defeats him?

  One thing at a time, Galen . Five minutes ago I’d been convinced the entire situation was a disaster. I could afford to wait a little longer to figure out the rest.

  I kept my face down, and by the time I raised it again, its features were arranged in my best imitation of what broken looked like.

  Either my skills were better than I hoped, or the professor saw what he wanted to see. In the days and weeks that followed, I threw myself into the role, blocking out thoughts of Claudia and my family.

  I have to make this work . I could not save those who had already died, but I could certainly do my utmost to save the future. The sooner I had him trapped inside the Immobility Spell, the sooner the killing would stop.

  When I thought I’d been at rock bottom for long enough, I asked him for help. I begged him to tell me what to do to win his forgiveness. I tolerated every degrading task he set me. He relished my transformation. His ego could not resist it.

  The challenge reminded me of when Nico and I had deceived him before. That small glow of remembered partnership kept me going. Even when Nico had been all alone, he’d still resisted. If he could do it, then so could I.

  I think I succeeded in befriending the professor because he was alone. I was the only one who knew his true self. When other magicians tried to get close to him, willing to sacrifice their decency to win favours, things always ended badly. He trusted no one.

  Except for me, the broken non-magician.

  Gradually, I was given more freedom. I tried to stop him from taking more lives, but aside from his determination to rule, he enjoyed the killing more than anything. Androva was now obedient to his every whim. Terra continued to resist.

  He never mentioned the other six worlds Androva had discovered, but I feared he would not stop at Terra. Not once it had fallen. And I had no doubt it would fall, in the end.

  Entire armies succumbed to the Death Spell. As much as the power of the spell itself, which he could now project some distance, it was his single mindedness that made him unbeatable. He never hesitated. He never showed remorse.

  He worked his way through all the Terran coordinates Nico and I had documented. The second magical civilisation we’d found was subjected to the same merciless assault as Roma.

  He told me after every battle he felt younger and his magic felt stronger. I began to worry. What if he becomes too powerful? At this rate, even two thousand years of Immobility Spells might not weaken him enough for Jax and Shannon to stand a chance.

  Then I remembered that Claudia and I had never created the spell that would make Shannon into a magician in the first place. Don’t panic. One thing at a time.

  The professor kept up his ridiculous game of pretending to be Terran. He researched Sygnus adoption and experimented with Androvan clothing.

  I, of course, had no Sygnus to worry about. The reality of being without magic was a never-ending struggle. I still didn’t feel like my old self.

  We lived in his new tower on Mount Landor. I suggested he have some storage space built into the base of the mountain so that his perfect white stone rooms were not cluttered. He agreed. Unfortunately, I had no living magic to put into it yet.

  I took over the running of the professor’s life, managing the tasks he found boring or beneath him. I was also supposed to search out any potential resistance. I got to know some of the other magicians a little.

  However, none of them would talk to me about harvesting magic. Whenever I mentioned opposing Angelus, they ran away, thinking it was a trick of some kind. I could hardly blame them, but my non-existent progress was becoming very frustrating.

  Gradually, I was permitted to travel greater distances on my own, until one day the former city was mine to explore. I waited until the professor had opened a portal to Terra, where he was going on yet another killing spree, and I ran to my old house.

  The streets were mostly deserted. A few of the buildings were in use again, but the rest were still empty. The fear of being mistaken for their previous inhabitants, and suffering the same fate, tended to keep people away.

  I had begun to hope my house might not be abandoned. That perhaps someone had survived after all. Perhaps they would be the ones to help me. I knew the treaty was signed in the year eighty, and if I were to make that happen, I’d have to start harvesting magic very soon.

  Hope is very difficult to deny, once it takes hold, and it had really taken hold of me. I ran so fast I could hardly breathe by the time I got there. Everything was much harder with no force field.

  The dusty, silent rooms hit me like a punch to the stomach. I didn’t need to check the whole house. I could tell from the stale air that no one lived here anymore.

  I sat at the kitchen table, head in hands, and caught my breath on a sob. I should never have allowed myself to hope. I’m a fool.

  Pushing myself upright, I decided to go to my bedroom. Since I was here, confronting my pain and my memories, I might as well finish the job. I didn’t know when or if I’d get the chance to return.

  I sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, and immediately jumped up again with a yell of surprise.

  “Who’s there?”

  No answer. And without magic, I was helpless.

  “Get out of my room, you… you…”

  The air shimmered in front of me, and I could not carry on.

  “Galen! Galen, Galen!”

  Claudia flung her arms around me and burst into tears. Her force field covered me like a blanket, and I nearly started crying too.

  I leaned against her, struggling to control my breathing. My arms tightened around her shoulders. Is she real, or have I finally lost my sanity?

  “Claudia? Please be real. Are you real?”

  I felt her lips widen in a smile against the side of my neck. Her tears were wet on my skin.

  “I’m as real as you are. But Galen, where have you been? We’d almost given up looking. How did you escape Angelus when he killed everyone in the city?”

  “I… I…”

  “Tell me this way if it’s easier,” she said, and I felt a tingle of magical energy against my palm. Of course, nothing happened.<
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  I shook my head, and tears rose up again to blur my vision. She drew back, and looked at me properly. Her smile faded.

  She touched my cheek, and the bone underneath was sharp against her fingers. She pushed back my hair. It was the longest it had ever been, and I knew there was now some grey mixed in with the black.

  Then she looked at my shoulder, where the material was plain. There was no seven-pointed star. No magic. Nothing.

  “Oh… Galen. What happened to you?”

  “I became Sandro.”

  Chapter 27 - Some Things Cannot Be Changed

  “Tell me,” she said. “Tell me. How is that even possible?”

  “I will. But first, please, I need to know…”

  I struggled to complete the question, aware that I might not like her answer.

  She closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them, I knew.

  “I’m sorry, Galen. Serena and I tried to convince them to escape with us, but they insisted on staying.

  “We ran out of time. It all happened so fast. They… they said they loved you. Your father said to tell you he still supports your choices. Always.”

  I looked away, trying to get my emotions under control. Then I frowned.

  “Wait, you said Serena, you and Serena… She’s alive?”

  Claudia nodded.

  “On the island, with me. She’s the only reason I haven’t done something stupid like confront Angelus.”

  I grabbed hold of her in another hug.

  “I love you,” I whispered fiercely.

  “Forever,” she replied.

  Her force field expanded again, tingling against my skin, and I tried to breathe it in. It made me light-headed. Compared to the professor’s magic, it was so bright and clean.

  Feeling a little better, I stood up.

  “I have until sundown before Angelus returns to Androva. He stops killing when he can no longer see them fall.

  “Can you take me to Serena? I’ll explain to you both what happened. We’ll need her help. The two of you have to start harvesting magic.”

  I made a noise of frustration. There was still so much to do.

  “I wish we had more magicians, but the Terrans are unskilled, and everyone here is just terrified. Most of the educated magicians are dead. I don’t know if two of you will be enough to fill that room…”

  I was pacing up and down by this point.

  “Galen,” said Claudia, standing up and putting her hand on my arm, “calm down. We’ll figure it out together. But I can already tell you there’ll be three magicians harvesting magic.”

  I didn’t understand.

  “You saved someone else?”

  “Not yet. But I will. I’ll show you when we get there.”

  She indicated the portal, which was brilliantly concealed in the silver pattern of the curtains. I would not have known it was there.

  When I stepped onto the island, Serena was waiting, force field half projected in readiness as if she were keeping guard. I suppose she might have been.

  She saw me and gasped.

  “Gale?”

  We held each other. I closed my eyes against the mingled emotions. I was so happy she was still alive, but at the same time I knew for certain that our parents were gone.

  The words tumbled out of her mouth so quickly I could hardly understand them. She kept saying sorry. Sorry that she hadn’t been able to save our parents or anyone else.

  Finally, she let me speak.

  “You have nothing to say sorry for. Nothing,” I added when she objected. “Serena, I know what it’s like to wish you’d done more, or better, or something different,” I said, wiping her tears away. “It nearly broke me.”

  She put the flat of her hand against my shoulder, where my Sygnus had been. I put my hand on top of hers and smiled.

  “There are plenty more choices left to us. If we only look backwards, we might miss them.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” she said softly.

  “Me too. You have no idea how much.”

  “Since you mentioned choices,” said Claudia, “I have one you can make right now, if you want.”

  “What is it?”

  Her smile was growing bigger.

  “Would you like to be a magician again?”

  Hope rose in me so fast that for a second I could not speak.

  “You figured out the spell? How?”

  “It would be easier to show you.”

  “That’s what I said to Jax.”

  “I know,” she replied, with a grin.

  Then she took my hand, her palm already dark blue. I felt the magic against my palm again.

  “No, it won’t work like—”

  She put a finger from her other hand against my lips, and I stopped talking. A frown of concentration wrinkled her forehead.

  The spell travelled up my arm and pushed inside my head, making it buzz. Her eyes blazed silver, and I thought I felt a flicker of something, but I wasn’t sure. Then she sighed, and her force field retreated.

  “The Communication Spell,” she said, “has more layers than we realised. It can reach into the very centre of the mind, where the spark of magic is located.

  “It’s like building a Terran fire. I open up your mind bit by bit, flooding it with magical energy as fuel. When I finally get to your centre, I reveal my own spark, and bang. Lightning. Magic.”

  I blinked.

  “I hate to say this, but are you sure? I hardly felt anything.”

  “No, you won’t have. But I did. Give it a week or two, and you’ll be back to the way you were. It’s fast.”

  “How can you be certain?”

  “Because I tried it,” said Serena. “We tested it on the flowers, and then the trees, but eventually we had to try it on a real magician.”

  “You tried it? You mean… you suffered the Spell of Removal too?”

  She nodded. A shadow passed over her face at the memory of it, and she pushed it away with a small smile.

  “It was worth it. Now it’s done. Claudia’s created the spell. It’s waiting for Jax to activate it.”

  “So that’s why Shannon’s force field was so familiar,” I said to Claudia. “It wasn’t only Jax’s magic, it was yours too. And the Signature Symbol?”

  “It’s there,” said Serena.

  I was finding it hard to absorb so much good news at once. I had to sit down on the sand. It was warm between my fingers.

  “Well, that’s pretty amazing,” I said, somewhat inadequately.

  “Do you want some food?” asked Claudia. “You look like you haven’t eaten properly for a long time.”

  I looked up at the sun, which was further across the sky than I’d expected. I had been feeling hungry, but my appetite vanished when I thought of the professor.

  “I need to tell you what happened, before I run out of time. I’ll eat later. But can one of you make me a Portal Remedy?”

  I explained as quickly as I could, keeping my voice matter-of-fact. I drew patterns in the sand, looking down rather than at their faces so that I wouldn’t be distracted.

  I’d nearly finished when Claudia interrupted. I knew what was coming, and I wondered why it had taken her so long.

  “But wait a minute, you can’t be Sandro! He d—”

  She bit off the word before she could complete it.

  “He dies? Is that what you were going to say?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “He does. And he will.”

  I held up my hand at their exclamations of protest. I grinned.

  “But Galen won’t.”

  I explained my idea. We would combine the Immobility Spell in the harvested magic with one of Nico’s and my Distraction Spells. The professor would think he was projecting the Death Spell when I pushed him into it, but he would not be.

  “Combining different magic has been our advantage all along, right from the first spell that Nico taught me. Jax and Shannon. Claudia and I. Claudia and Serena. A Te
rran Sygnus. The present and the future. Every time we make a new combination we become stronger.”

  I was glad that Nico’s spell had been the foundation of it all. His bravery in resisting his father had counted for so much. Suddenly, I was hungry again. We talked excitedly until it was time for me to leave. Despite my appetite returning, I decided not to eat. I did not want the professor to notice anything different about me.

  As my magic grew, and thank Androva it did, I had to learn how to hide it. Pushing my force field back inside my head made it hurt, but it was a pain I welcomed.

  Gradually the empty storage room filled up with harvested magic. I added a new layer to my Protection Spell every day so it would stay hidden. Fortunately the professor was not in the habit of visiting that part of the mountain.

  Claudia and Serena travelled across Terra to harvest the most intense sources of living magic they could find, avoiding the coordinates Nico and I had written about.

  They told me they often encountered images and statues looking like the flying creatures of Imbera. Unfortunately there was no time to investigate, but it did make me wonder if there was more to portal travel than we had first understood.

  Newly determined, I managed to convince a small group of magicians on both worlds to support our plan. Including Emperor Titus and a leader from the other Terran civilisation called Emperor Zhang.

  I knew Androva and Terra would need to work together on the treaty once I’d gone, and the more I could do to enable this, the happier I’d be. Several underage magicians from Androva learned how to harvest living magic, a skill their survival would now depend on.

  I didn’t worry anymore about what I was supposed to do to preserve the correct future. I just did what felt right. It saved time, and saving time was the same as saving lives.

  I never told anyone about Claudia and Serena. I thought they should remain hidden, because Jax and Shannon had not known their names. I could only talk in general terms about some very brave magicians whose skill was the only reason we had a chance of making this plan work.

  Finally, I was ready. I told the professor I’d found something that might interest him in the old Foundation records. I pretended I’d come across some research on spell combinations which I’d not seen before.