by N. M. Howell
As she headed for SKY 6, Andie noticed that the bracelet felt weird. No, not weird, good. She held up her wrist to check it. The purple glow made her wonder. Could it be dragon magic? Whatever was inside of it was very dim, almost extinguished. She couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but she knew it was magic. That much was clear.
Chapter Twenty-Six
As always, Andie was able to relax on SKY 6. The train was traveling somewhat slower that night and whether it was to show off the views of Arvall City and Brie Mountain or the amenities of the train itself, Andie didn’t know. Every seat on the train was taken, filled with the sleek silver tuxedos or luminous, pearlescent ball gowns of people who looked far too wealthy to be sitting in coach. Andie felt strangely at ease among them; they were rich and thrilled, and she knew that they would leave her to herself.
She was becoming nervous about her mission. She knew she could trust Yara and Carmen, and she knew that when the moment came for her to reveal to them exactly what they had signed up for, they would follow her into danger. She also knew that despite Lymir’s claims to ignorance and superstition he was a wise man, and the charm bracelet he’d given her was somehow meant to protect her. The other thing she knew was that she had an even wider network of people looking out for her. There was Marvo who—human or not—would give his dying breath to help her. There was also Tarven, the boy who’d changed her life. Despite all his secrets there was no doubt in her mind that he would come to her if push came to shove. Even her father back in Michaelson would risk everything just to be able to protect her for a single moment. And Raesh. Warm, sweet, loyal Raesh, who would never let so small a thing as jealousy keep him from her.
Andie’s concern now was moving more toward what would happen to that network of friends. She wasn’t without her own sense of self-preservation, but she’d long since come to terms with the realization that she was probably going to die. Lymir was right: she was playing the game, but without knowing the rules or who the other players were. And the University had hundreds of years of murder under its belt. Every day she walked into that black marble structure she knew it might be the last. But that was for herself. If anything were to happen to the people she cherished—the people who believed in her enough to follow her—she hoped that she would die first because she would never be able to forgive herself.
SKY 6 reached the University and the passengers began to unload, more than a few of them were already reeling from wine and whatever else they’d been ingesting on the way up. As soon as the mountain altitude hit some of them, they collapsed into heaving piles. Andie skirted the chaos and went inside. It was a struggle to navigate the halls as almost all of the University’s six hundred thousand students were in attendance. There were also the faculty, visitors, and important figures from around the world. Andie fought hard for every step, with perhaps a hundred “Excuse me’s” and “Sorry’s.” Things petered out some when she finally reached the end of the hall and was under the endless void. The ethereal glow of the marble was even more magnificent than usual and even after her many months there Andie still didn’t know where the light came from.
To reach the Grand Mirror Hall of Terpsichore, Andie had to venture down a new hallway. There was no hope of getting lost though, for the closer she got to the ballroom the more the smell of the mixed fuil glas and anáil fuar filled her body. She knew immediately it had been a success. How could it not be? There were simply no words for the smell and as she turned the corner and entered the room she was nearly bowled over by the sight. The entire upper halves of the walls were covered with the mixed species, which Tarven had named anáil saol. The new species was cerulean and forest, brilliant in the University’s glow and strong in the greatest way. Andie couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride.
She felt prouder still when she noticed that several eyes were watching her make her entrance and more were turning by the second. She walked slowly, trying to affect some grace if it were possible, smiling that beautiful smile that had won so many hearts in her favor. People were whispering as she passed by and from their expressions Andie knew they were impressed. She kept talking to herself to stay calm. “Don’t fall.” “Head high.” “Remember to thank Carmen for this dress.” “Find Tarven.” People began to smile and nod at her. She nodded back, queenly for a girl not used to the spotlight. For once in her life, she had some true conception of her beauty.
As she was thinking his name, she saw his face. Tarven was standing in the middle of the room, his arm already up and waiting for her as if he’d known where she was all along. He’d decided to skip tradition and wear a dark blue tuxedo with a black shirt and tie. he did, however, opt for one of the traditional hairstyles. He looked exceptionally handsome. Perfect. She walked up to him and took his arm.
‘Hi,” she said. “I feel like all of Arvall’s watching me. I guess with so many foreign dignitaries all the world is watching.”
“Well, you’re the most beautiful woman breathing. And now the whole world knows it.”
It was the perfect thing to say.
Tarven led her up the stone steps onto the main level of the mirror room where the dancing would be. Andie looked around and saw that the board had formed the room to look like one of the great ballrooms of Hightowyr. Three rooms, in fact. Now that Andie had reached the main level she could see that the room had been thought into an additional grand ballroom on either side. Tarven held her wand and they walked over to fountain that had to be at least fifty feet tall. Andie was surprised to see people holding their cups beneath the stream.
“Am I seeing things or are those rich people drinking the water from the fountain?” Andie asked.
“It’s not water, silly. Of course, we call it fountain water, but it’s actually a kind of wine made from the recipe of the Terpsichore founding family. It’s only made during the time of the Winter Festival.”
“And they couldn’t think of a better name than ‘fountain water?’”
“Its proper name is comhlacht bunaitheach, but I suppose that was a bit of a mouthful.”
The voice belonged to a young-looking man dressed in the traditional silver tux and holding a champagne flute of the fountain water. He had a smile that made one trust him instantly, but wasn’t arrogant or pompous in the least.
“Where are your manners, Tarven?” he asked, grinning. “Introduce me to this beautiful lady who seems to have gotten drunk and accidently fallen into your company.”
Andie smiled and blushed for the third time that night.
“This is my date, Andie Rogers. And this, Andie, is one of my professors, Marcus Iceubes, professor of folklore.”
“I resent that,” Marcus said, shaking Andie’s hand.
“Well, you are.”
“True, but that makes me sound so boring and narrow. I want to be exciting.”
“Well, you did introduce yourself with a historical anecdote.”
“Hm. Fair.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Andie said, taken with him immediately.
“Not quite. You have to try this very, very old wine first.”
He turned to pick something up. It was a glass figure shaped like a funny sphere. Andie looked closer and saw that it was a palm-sized miniature of earth with a snowflake perched on top. Marcus handed it to Andie, shaking his head as if embarrassed on behalf of whoever had crafted it.
“You never know what they’re going to do with the spellglass from year to year,” he said. “How about a champagne flute?”
He looked at the spellglass and it formed itself into a frosted champagne flute to match his own.
“Thanks, but I think a brandy glass will do,” Andie said. “You know, country girl and all.”
Instantly the spellglass shrunk and widened to become a brandy glass. Andie thought for a moment then decided to manifest a panorama of a snowstorm along the sides.
“Oh, I see we have a show off among us,” Marcus said. “Welcome home.”
He led her and Tar
ven to the fountain and Andie held the glass under the stream. Marcus handed her a napkin and she wiped the side. She took one sip of it and from the look on her face they knew she’d never tasted anything so delicious. She downed the glass and reached for more.
“Oh, I like you,” Marcus said.
* * *
From there Tarven led Andie around the crowd and introduced her to some faculty members and professors, as was customary for anyone working at the University who brought a date. Andie also met the provost, an old woman with kind eyes and the air of someone who never intended to die. She spent the greater part of the evening with Tarven. Marcus popped in occasionally and kept them from the boredom that was the introductory phase of the celebration. Still, Andie couldn’t stop herself from getting anxious. It was getting later and later, and she was no longer sure she would have a chance to get away. Every time she tried to excuse herself someone started a conversation with her. She was flattered by all their attentions, but she had somewhere to be. If it wasn’t other people, it was Tarven. He really was trying to be a terrific date—and he was succeeding—but he never let her get more than a few feet away.
Finally, she managed to get Tarven deep into conversation with three young men who’d tried to talk to her. She was slowly slipping away when Carmen and Yara found her.
“Come on,” Yara said. “Girl time.”
“Definitely,” Carmen added, in that accept-this-as-your-circumstance way of hers. “We’ll have her back soon enough for you to dance her off her feet.”
“Or whatever you were planning on doing to her,” Yara mumbled devilishly.
“But I’ve not had my chance yet.”
It was Professor Harrock. Andie nearly sighed in despair, but he was actually one of her favorite instructors. He held out her hand, like the shiest, but most determined gentleman on earth, and she accepted.
“After this one,” she said to the girls.
They walked out to the middle of the dance floor. Andie wanted desperately to be investigating the secrets of the archives, but she knew she could last one more dance. She gave Professor Harrock a genuine smile and tried not to laugh when Marcus put on a face of exaggerated sympathy across the room. Andie prepared herself for another sweet, but mundane dance. But she was greatly shocked when he pulled her in close, all the way against him and whispered in her ear.
“So, you think your magic protects you?”
“What?”
“You think no one can see who you are or know what you’re doing. You think you’ve outsmarted an institution that has enslaved or destroyed every enemy to cross its path in the last five hundred years. You think you’re powerful. Special.”
Andie tried to pull away, but Professor Harrock was strong, much stronger than he looked. Much stronger than he should have been. She tried to release magic into his arm from her hand, but it didn’t seem to have an effect
“You’ve been putting that pretty little nose where it doesn’t belong. You think we’re oblivious because you meddled with your icon, but we know everything you’ve been up to since you first sunk it into your palm.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it? Who do you think allowed that so-called spell to reach the students? We wanted you all to think that we weren’t watching you and like dumb sheep every last one of you believed yourself free.”
“You’re a villain. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’ll-”
“You’ll mind your tongue or I’ll rip it out and send it home to your cripple of a father. You’ve been warned. The dragons and everything they spawned is off limits, and by off limits I mean on pain of death. I do not fear death and thus I deal it willingly. You’re beautiful and brilliant, maybe even stronger than we think, but we will lay waste to you and every inch of the nineteen years of your life. Everything. Everyone. Even Tarven.”
“You won’t touch him.”
“Touch him? Stupid girl. We’ve already done more than that. Look at him.”
Andie started to turn her head and then stopped. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“Look at him or I’ll burn your friends in their beds tonight.”
Andie tried to think of a way out, an escape, but couldn’t. She wouldn’t risk her friends lives for her own pride. She turned and looked for Tarven. He was already watching her. As soon as he caught her eye, he tried to smile and look excited, but she’d already seen the truth on his face. He knew what Professor Harrock was doing. He was a part of it.
“See, we took him and made him ours. That’s what we do. We corrupt for the sake of purification. One more thing. Stay away from the portal. We’ll know if you go near it again.”
Professor Harrock let go of her and stepped away. He bowed, smiling, and then left. Andie made her way back to Tarven, not because she wanted to see him, but because she didn’t yet know where else to move to.
“Are you okay?” Tarven asked, in full cover-up mode. “Come here. What was Professor Harrock talking about?”
“Nothing,” she said. “It was just about some research I was doing. He says it won’t be... suitable for my final essay. Excuse me, I need some air.”
She left. She couldn’t look at him anymore and it took every ounce of her strength not to vaporize him where he stood.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
On her way out, Andie found herself walking between Carmen and Yara. She didn’t know if shed found them or they found her, but she felt a surge of strength the moment she knew they were beside her. They never stopped walking, just left the grand mirror room side by side, three young women with a secret purpose.
Andie moved differently then. With purpose. She’d heard everything Professor Harrock had said and she was afraid—she knew she was afraid—but she couldn’t stop. She had to open the door, touch that portal, save those voices. Consequences or no. Yara and Carmen moved silently beside her, giving her a kind of fortitude as they weaved through the crowded halls in the direction of Leabherlann. Andie couldn’t lie to herself: She was playing fast and loose with their lives. She’d been told, explicitly, only moments ago, that if she continued to look into these things she would be condemning everyone in her life. Truth be told, she hadn’t yet decided what to do and she knew she had until they reached the archives to decide. It was coming to the point where she would have to decide between saving the voices in the portal and saving the living bodies around her.
They reached Leabherlann and Andie taught Yara and Carmen the spell that allowed them to pass through the door. Once inside, Andie made straight for the archives without a word. How would she tell them their lives were in danger? How would she tell them the University had been watching them ever since they put the icon in? How would she handle their fear? She began to move quicker and with more focus, perhaps driven somewhat crazed by the sheer weight of the moment that waited ahead. Leabherlann was totally empty, not a soul apart from the three of them, and their footsteps echoed like sharp yelps in the great darkness. As they neared the archive, Andie could hear Carmen’s footsteps slowing, lightening, the fire going out of the girl as she realized where they were heading. Yara seemed less apprehensive, but Andie could hear the change in her footsteps as well. At last they descended the short staircase to the lower level and stood facing the entrance to the hallway, beyond which lay the archives and the door that hid the portal. Andie turned to face them.
“If you go into this room with me your lives will be in danger,” she said. “After that, the chances of things returning to normal for you are pretty slim.”
“As in our lives are completely screwed if we take one more step,” Yara said.
“Exactly.”
Yara took a step back and collapsed against the wall. Carmen stood bewildered and mute, gazing around her as if she didn’t know which way to turn.
“There’s more.” Andie said. “They’re monitoring us, right now. They have been since we put the icons in. The dampening spell never worked. They only wanted us to t
hink it did. They’ve known everything we’ve done since we inserted it. I’m still not sure exactly who we’re up against or what is going here, but Professor Harrock is in on it. He just threatened me on the dance floor. He basically said that anyone I care about will be killed if I continue. I don’t know if I’m going in yet or not, but you two need to turn back.”
“Turn back?” Carmen asked.
“Now. For all I know they’re already planning our deaths and I won’t have the two of you on my conscious. You’ve been too good to me.”
“Who do you think you are?” asked Carmen, staring at Andie with utter fury. “Do you think the world revolves around you? That you can just... just take what you want when you want without consequences? Do you think you get to make all the decisions for the rest of us? Beg for our help one minute and turn us away the next? Do you think we didn’t understand what you wanted? Do you think we’re stupid, or blind, or foolish? You don’t control us.”
“You never will,” Yara said. “You asked us to come with you because you trusted us and you needed us. I cast an augmentation spell on myself earlier tonight. Like I do every year. I make it so that I can hear a conversation a hundred yards away because I like to know what the foreigners think of Arvall. I heard virtually every word of Harrock’s poison. I heard what he told you to do, the things he threatened he’d do, and yet here I am. I told Carmen and yet there she is.”
“We’re your friends, Andie,” Carmen said, standing straighter then than Andie could remember. “Danger or no. Don’t insult us by trying to push us away when you so clearly need us with you.”
Andie simply nodded. She was so happy she could have collapsed against them there.
“Besides,” Carmen added, “If they’ve really been watching us since we first got our icons, I expect they’ve already gotten quite an eyeful from me.”
“They’ll be long dead before they finish sorting out my perversions and crimes,” Yara said with a smile.