by John Corwin
"Hang on." Max picked up an upside-down paperweight. "This one has a wand inscribed on the bottom."
"This one has a broom, and this one has a bottle," Ambria said.
I sorted through the others and found one with a stoppered vial engraved on the bottom. "Is that a potion?"
"Looks like it to me." Max held the green glass up to the light. "What does it mean?"
"I don't see a key inside." Ambria rubbed the paperweight.
I smirked. "Trying to summon a genie?"
"These are paperweights, Conrad, not keys." Ambria dumped it on the desk. "I'm sick of solving puzzles. Why can't we ever get a straightforward answer from people?"
Max sucked in a breath. "Maybe it's more straightforward than we think." He grabbed the green paperweight. "Let's go find out."
Ambria sniffed. "Do you plan to hit the door with a paperweight until it breaks down?"
Max didn't look back at her. "If that's what it takes."
We left the manor and flew back to campus. We took two flights of stairs down, a spiral staircase up a tower and then walked upside down on the other side of the stairs, slid down a long brass pole, and navigated a small maze of corridors before reaching the ingredients storage room. Students weren't authorized, under any circumstances, to enter or even go near it, but Shushiel had shown us the path to this place and other hidden gems around the castle.
Max inspected the door and grimaced when he found the ordinary lock. "Well, maybe I was wrong."
Ambria snatched the paperweight and pressed it to the lock. The latch clicked and the door creaked open. "You give up so easily, Max."
"You're just rude." Max shoved past her and into the room.
The storage room stretched on for nearly a hundred yards in all directions. We referenced the picture I'd taken from the book and tracked down the ingredients without much trouble since they were in perfect order.
We were down to the last few items when Max froze. "Do you hear footsteps?"
We stopped what we were doing and listened. Hard soles clomped on stone in the distance.
"There's no way out but the way we came in." Ambria ran in a circle like a frightened squirrel. "We've got to hide!"
I ran to the door and eased it shut while Max and Ambria searched for a place to hide, but the warehouse was so impeccably neat, that there was nowhere to go. The ceiling was only twenty feet high and the entire room brightly illuminated so we couldn't hover out of sight on our brooms. Max pointed frantically toward burlap sacks on the bottom shelf near the back wall. We tugged out one and Ambria climbed behind it, then Max. The door clicked open and I clambered behind another sack, wedging myself between it and the back of the shelf.
The door clicked open and hard soles stomped inside. "My supply is on aisle three, case four, shelf two, section one." Gideon Grace's sneering voice echoed down the aisles. "I am still unclear as to why you need it."
"Must I give a reason?" Agatha Grint replied.
"It would certainly be polite."
"I am here to do a job, not waste my time with explanations." Grint huffed. "However, we have decided to move the victims to a dedicated facility in the Grotto first thing in the morning."
"There's nothing in the Grotto better than our healing ward." Grace scoffed. "What Percival lacks in bedside manner he more than makes up for in skill."
"Bring me the lavender sap, Professor." Steel laced Grint's tone.
"The patients are already asleep," Grace said. "Are you certain you know what you're doing?"
"Professor. The sap, now."
"Minister or not, I will not brook that tone," Grace hissed. "I have personally gathered every ingredient in this warehouse and reserve all rights to them."
"The council can commandeer whatever it needs." Grint sniffed and smaller shoes tapped down the aisle. The silence endured another moment and the feet tapped further away.
"That sap is ultra-pure and concentrated," Grace said. "Use it properly or your patients will become corpses." The door clicked open and shut and the voices faded down the hallway.
We must have remained cowering behind the sacks for another five minutes before we dared make a peep. Ambria crawled out while Max and I poked out our heads like frightened prairie dogs.
"Put the sacks back exactly as you found them," Ambria whispered. "I'm certain Professor Grace will notice our theft soon enough as it is."
Max and I replaced the burlap sacks as we'd found them and rejoined Ambria who'd collected the rest of the ingredients in the meantime.
"Agatha Grint is completely unreasonable." Max pulled our brooms from behind a sack and handed them out. "Why would they move the patients to another facility?"
"I don't like it one little bit." Ambria zippered the pouch of ingredients and put it in the saddlebag on her broom. "I hope they don't move them before we have a chance to use the ritual."
"Something feels horribly wrong about all this." I closed the door to the warehouse and climbed on my broom. "We need to do this tonight."
"Agreed." Max rubbed his belly. "Let's eat first."
We made our way back into the main halls, treading carefully in case Grace or Grint happened to be in our path. Explaining why we'd taken the upside-down staircase would be difficult since it led to an area off limits to students. We encountered no trace of the unpleasant pair and ate dinner in the crowded dining hall.
All the professors were absent, presumably attending the debate and the noise level seemed louder than usual without the watchful eye of authority present. A heated conversation at a nearby table abruptly escalated into full volume.
"You're full of it," a burly fifth year named Josh Cole shouted at an equally proportioned Paul Thomas. "We own the arches. The other factions need to pay their fair share."
"It's bleeding magic, you imbecile!" Paul slapped a hand on the table. "It doesn't cost a thing to run the arch."
"Time and labor," the other shot back.
"Is this really worth arguing about?" Nancy Mayhew held up a hand between the boys as they leaned across the table, faces red.
"Josh is a bloody traitor if he supports Galfandor's open Overworld platform." Paul leaned back, fists flexing atop the table. "It's about time we stopped getting pushed around by the vampires and lycans and commanded some respect."
"Arcanes First is a bunch of factionist imbeciles," Josh growled. "The Overworld is a steaming turd pile and guess what? We live in it. Making the other factions hate us even more won't help."
Paul made it clear he'd had enough by lunging across the table. Dinnerware and plates scattered and clattered. Fists pounded faces and the pair wrestled in a mound of mashed potatoes spilled during the melee.
"Stop it!" Nancy screamed. "I thought you were friends!"
School security rushed in and separated the boys, dragging them away even as the pair still shouted at each other. A crying Nancy and two other boys trailed in their wake.
Shouting echoed from the opposite side of the lunchroom and another fight erupted.
"What in the world has gotten into everyone?" Max shielded himself from a gob of hurled potatoes with his empty dinner plate.
"It's insanity!" Ambria ducked as the food fight in the middle of the hall exploded out of control.
I grabbed her hand and made a run for the door, ducking flying food on the way out. Max squawked and slipped in a puddle of gravy. "Man down!" he shouted.
I burst into laughter and dragged Ambria out into the hallway.
"Conrad!" She shook her hand loose and wiped pudding off her cheek. "You pulled me right into the line of fire."
I couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of it all while a part of me wanted to go inside and throw food with the rest of them. "Here, you missed a spot." I wiped a glob from her cheek and wiped my hand on my pants.
It suddenly occurred to me how close we stood, our faces only inches apart, her other hand touching mine, and a lovely smile spreading across her lips. Heat flushed my face and my knees didn't
want to support my weight.
"My knight in shining armor." Ambria pressed a hand to my cheek. "It looks like someone hit you too."
Mouth dry, I tried to respond. What's wrong with me? I'd never felt so awkward around Ambria before. Never been so entranced with how her eyes shone when she smiled, or how her smooth cheeks begged my hands to touch them.
"It's a warzone!" Max crashed into the middle of us, his pants and shirt coated with food. "I took down three bogies with potato bombs, and winged another with a cupcake."
I finally found my voice. "You wasted a perfectly good cupcake?"
He looked down, eyebrows pinched with regret. "It was the only way I could survive."
Ambria's eyelids fluttered as if waking from a trance. "Max, you're such a warrior."
I looked down at my clothes, splotched and stained from the food war. "Well, we can't break into the healing ward like this. Let's get cleaned up first.
Ambria swallowed. Nodded. "I need to prepare the ritual ink."
Max flashed a toothy grin. "And then it's go time."
Chapter 14
We met on our brooms outside Ambria's window, several stories above the ground beneath a starry sky. A crescent moon offered little light, leaving the trees in shadow, highlighting the Dark Forest like a cutout against the sky. An owl's hoots echoed from the trees below. In the distance, a flock of spider bats screeched.
Ambria produced a sealed inkpot. "This is it."
Max arched an eyebrow. "You're sure you made it right?"
"Shall we put some on you and set it ablaze to test?" Ambria said sweetly.
Max stuck out his tongue. "You'd like to set me on fire, wouldn't you?"
Ambria held her thumb and forefinger apart by an inch. "Only a little."
"Let's save the ink for the ritual," I said. "You can use the rest to set each other on fire all you want afterward."
Max snorted.
We flew down to the university castle and sneaked through the halls until we reached the corridor with the healing ward. As Galfandor predicted, two guards in the blue livery of the Arcane Council security forces stood outside the main entrance. We bypassed the hallway and took a different turn down to the Burrows.
Since Kanaan had removed the challenges, the route took us through the old dungeons until we reached the corridor with the gauntlet room on one side, the mansion on the opposite, and the omniarch at the end. We sneaked past the large opening leading to the mansion and entered the omniarch room.
I stepped inside the silver circle around the arch and took a breath. "I hope I can do this."
"You can." Ambria patted my arm.
I touched a thumb to the circle and willed it closed. The static rush of aether tingled against the hair on my arms. I looked at the image of mine and Max's room on my arcphone, fixed it in my mind and willed a small portal to open there.
The air between the columns split and a window to our room appeared.
Max pumped his fist in the air. "Great job!"
I stepped through. The world warped for an instant and snapped back. I stood in the room, an oval portal a few feet tall and wide hovering just above the floor. I walked to the side of the portal. It was paper thin, and invisible from the back, allowing a clear view of the wall behind it.
When I reached my hand around to the other side, however, I couldn't see it. "That's odd." I knew as long as we didn't cross through the portal, no one could see us, but I'd expected to become visible once we stepped through. I picked up a sock from the floor and tossed it on the other side. The portal blocked it from view as well.
I stepped to the front of the portal and motioned to the others. "Come take a look at something."
They stepped through and I showed them what I'd discovered.
"I wonder if what we're seeing is an afterimage of the wall," Max said. "When the portal appears, the image of whatever it's facing is captured like a picture until the portal is off."
"I suppose that makes sense," Ambria said. "At least it's something to hide behind."
"Well, let's get to it then." I led the others back through and deactivated the portal.
Max took out his arcphone and thumbed through the pictures. "Here's a picture from the summer."
It was a picture of me and Ambria standing in the back corner of the healing ward. We'd taken Max there after he knocked himself unconscious in a broom racing accident. In the picture, I faced the camera. Ambria looked at me, a smile on her face.
"I look awful in this," she said.
"What's that stupid grin for?" Max said.
Her face turned pink. "I was probably happy you'd injured yourself."
"Figures."
I ignored their banter and concentrated on the wall in the picture. Does Ambria like me in a different way than just friends? We're best friends. I shouldn't feel like this around her. I like the way she smiles.
"Problems?" Max nodded toward the inactive arch. "You've been staring at the picture for a full minute now."
I cleared my throat. "Sorry. I guess I can't see the wall behind us well enough." I refocused my efforts, clearing the stray thoughts from my mind and stared only at the image of the wall instead of the smile Ambria wore in the picture. The portal flickered on, the very same wall only a few feet away.
Finally. I stepped through and peeked around the portal. A nearby empty bed had been shoved a few feet to the side by the edge of the portal. I hadn't even considered the dangers of opening a portal in a space occupied by a person and gave silent thanks it didn't slice right through matter.
Ansel lay in the bed nearest the door leading out into the lobby. I saw no guards inside this room, but took a moment to thoroughly survey it before motioning the others to join me. Ambria stepped through. Her body seemed to warp and stretch ever so slightly before snapping back into shape on this side of the arch. Max joined us an instant later.
"The room is clear," I whispered.
"Tonight?" a deep male voice said. "I thought it was tomorrow."
"I want it done tonight." Grint's voice emanated from the next room. "Clear out the ward and transport them all to the new facility."
"Yes, Minister," the man replied.
"We'd better hurry." I stepped out from behind the portal and padded across the room.
"Let's get it over with, Clancy," another man said. "I've already got the gurney carpets here."
Clancy, the male with the deep voice groaned. "Man, I was hoping to pass this on to the next shift."
Boots clomped our way. I spun around and fell over Max and Ambria in my haste to get back behind the cover of the portal. We scrambled to our feet in silent panic and cowered behind the portal as the men came into the room.
"Let's start at the back, Harold," Clancy said. "Put 'em on a carpet and take them into the hallway."
"You got it."
I peered around the portal and watched two orderlies in white robes head our way, their target, a comatose boy lying on a bed only feet from us. One orderly unrolled a carpet and left it hovering next to the bed then lifted the boy beneath his arms while the other gripped the patient's feet. They carefully slid him onto the carpet and then guided it out of the door and presumably into the hallway beyond the lobby.
"We need to abort," Max whispered. "We don't have enough time to do the ritual."
"Not in here," I said. I counted the seconds until the orderlies returned for a middle-aged woman in the bed next to the boy's.
Ambria's brow pinched in concern. "What's that supposed to mean?"
I mimicked grabbing something. "We're taking Ansel with us."
"You're mental," Max hissed.
Ambria put a finger to her lips and glared.
"Did you say something, Clancy?" the other orderly said.
"No, why?"
"Thought I heard something."
"Wasn't me." Clancy paused. "Got her?"
"Yep. One, two, three." A pair of grunts sounded.
I peeked and watched them push out
the carpet with the woman. The instant they stepped through the door, I motioned to the others and raced across the room to Ansel. His face was pale, lips slightly blue, but his breathing sounded regular. He wasn't the most pleasant person in the world, but I hoped he wasn't dying.
I grabbed one of the carpets from the pile the orderlies brought in and unfurled it to hover next to the bed. Max unceremoniously rolled Ansel onto the carpet where he ended up facedown. Footsteps sounded in the hallway. I grabbed the carpet and dragged it through the air after me, pulling it behind the portal just as I saw the orderlies enter the room.
"Hey did you see that?" Clancy said.
"Huh?" Harold said. "See what?"
I pushed the carpet through the portal.
"Thought I saw a boy in the back of the ward."
"A patient?" Harold asked.
Max and Ambria dashed through the portal.
Hard soles raced across the floor. "I don't know."
I jumped through the portal and willed it to shut just as the footsteps were nearly upon me. It winked out. I panted as if I'd just run a mile. Max leaned against the wall, holding a hand to his heart, eyes wide.
"That was too close." Ambria hugged herself and rubbed her arms. "I can't imagine what Grint would to do us if those orderlies caught us in there."
I rolled Ansel over onto his back and put a hand on his forehead. His skin felt clammy and cool. "I can't tell if he's getting better or not."
"Doesn't look like it," Max said.
Ambria removed the ink from her pouch. "Shall we?"
I took out my phone and projected a holograph of the image I'd taken of the ritual page. Ambria pulled up Ansel's striped pajama shirt to reveal pasty white skin while Max lowered the flying carpet to hover waist-high to her.
"No hair, thankfully." Ambria grimaced. "I'd have let you boys shave his belly if necessary."
"Yuck." Max tugged the shirt up to Ansel's neck. "Where does the symbol go?"
"Right here." Ambria traced a circle around Ansel's belly button. She took out the inkpot, dipped the tip of her wand in it, and scribed a neat circle. Aether crackled in the ink, the wand infusing it with magic. She drew a nine-sided star inside the circle, and wiped off her wand while inspecting her handiwork.