Secrets and Spellcraft

by Michael G. Manning

  Will let Tailtiu retire and returned to the college. As it happened, he saw a carriage pass down the lane as he walked back to his dorm. Janice, he thought. He quickened his step and managed to reach the entrance to the girls’ dorm before she went inside.

  The look she gave him was one of extreme displeasure coupled with concern. “You!” exclaimed his spurned dance partner.

  Abashed, Will studied the ground. “I can explain—”

  “Why bother?” she responded, irritation plain in her voice. “I already know what you’ll say.”

  That surprised him. “You do?”

  “Shall I make the excuses for you?” asked Janice. She didn’t wait for a response. “I’m sorry, Janice. I had to do something dangerous and it couldn’t wait, so I snuck off. No, I can’t tell you what it is, it would only put you in danger as well. Oh, and by the way, someone stabbed me twelve times, but I’ll be better in a few days, don’t mind the blood on my clothes.”

  “I didn’t get stabbed,” said Will defensively.

  She stepped forward aggressively. “You didn’t? Maybe I should fix that for you.”

  Will stood his ground. “I really am sorry.”

  Janice deflated, then reached up to remove her earrings. “Do you need to return these?”

  “They were a gift, not a rental,” said Will. “Did you have fun tonight?”

  Her eyes seemed to shoot flame for a second. “You really have the gall to ask me that?”

  He shrugged, not knowing how to answer.

  She sighed. “The first two hours were grand, until Lady Alice explained that you had abandoned the palace—and me. After that I pretended that you were still there, somewhere. I figured it might benefit you if no one knew you were actually gone. With me there they might not have realized.”

  He hadn’t thought of that. Damn, she’s quick. Will felt another surge of guilt, since he didn’t deserve such a friend. He apologized again, earning himself yet another glare.

  “Are you going to tell me what happened? Or will you really leave me in the dark—again?” she groused.

  “Tomorrow,” promised Will. He was beginning to realize he needed more opinions and Janice was definitely sharp enough to offer some insights he might have missed.

  As soon as he was alone in his room, he consulted the ring. “I’m in over my head,” he announced.

  “Nothing new there,” said the ring. “The miracle is that you haven’t drowned yet, but then I suppose since you’re already brain dead you don’t need air.”

  Will felt a grin creep across his face. “I snuck into the Arenatas’ home.”

  “I presume you had a reason,” said Arrogan, “unless you’ve decided to start a new career as a housebreaker.”

  He relayed the tale of how he had tracked the demons, then added his talk with Duchess Arenata at the ball. “I found a book in her cellar too.”

  “What was it called?”

  “The Book of Seals.”

  A loud groan came from the ring. “Oh, please, not that one.”

  Will winced. “Is it bad?”

  “The name is misleading,” said Arrogan. “It’s one of the hidden texts of the Priests of Madrok.”

  “It’s their holy book?”

  “There’s nothing holy about it, but no, it’s not their main religious text. The Book of Madrok is mostly useless gibberish. The Book of Seals deals in far more practical information.”

  Will’s anxiety was increasing. “Practical how?”

  “It details the rituals and rites necessary to summon many of the greater demons and generals who serve Madrok. The only bright side is that this duchess of yours couldn’t possibly use it. The power requirements for those rituals are too high. She’ll just wind up killing herself,” Arrogan explained with a note of satisfaction.

  “Maybe,” replied Will. “I haven’t told you what else I found in her house.” He described the strange chamber beneath the manor, with its crystal outcropping and copper-inscribed ring. Will ended by detailing the altar and chains.

  The ring said nothing for a moment, then began to speak in a somber tone. “Will, I want you to listen carefully. You need to leave Cerria. Go home and get your mother, then find a new place to live. Darrow isn’t as bad as it sounds, or you could go to Trendham, they’ve got a very enlightened government if you like making money.”

  “Why?”

  “Don’t ask why. Just do it. Take that girl with you if you like her. What did you say her name was?”

  “Selene.”

  “No, not her, the other one. Your princess is a lost cause.”

  “Janice?”

  “Yeah, Janice. She sounds like she’s got a level head on her shoulders. Take her, go get your family, and move to Trendham. Make some babies. If you’re lucky, her good looks will offset your crippling ugliness and they won’t turn out too bad. You can even finish mastering magic there. Maybe someday you can lead a magical revolution and start a new age of proper wizardry. Just don’t stay in Cerria.”

  “I’m not leaving,” said Will firmly. “So, you might as well tell me what’s going to happen so I can do something about it.”

  “First, I don’t know what will happen,” said Arrogan, “not without seeing the circle you described firsthand, but I do know that it will be bad. Second, you aren’t equipped to interfere with a strategic-class ritual. You’ll only get yourself killed and the people in the city will still wind up suffering some awful catastrophe. The best thing you can do is go somewhere else.”

  “Strategic-class ritual? What does that mean?”

  “Remember when you asked me about ley lines?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Cerria sits atop the crossing point of two major ley lines. It’s one of the reasons the city was built here. Back in my day, there was a chamber just like the one you described. I thought it was buried, but apparently someone figured out where it was and excavated the damned thing. The crystal you saw was the contact point, a device used to tap into the ley lines. Are you beginning to see where I’m going with this?”

  “You think she’s going to destroy the city?”

  “Not necessarily, but if you go in there and try to stop her you almost certainly will. You can’t stop a ritual like that without causing feedback.”

  Will repeated himself. “I’m not leaving, so tell me what you would do if you were alive, because I know you wouldn’t just sit back and watch everything go to hell.”

  “You don’t know that. I was stubborn, not stupid,” said the ring in a grouchy tone.

  “I do know that. You ruined your life and your marriage just to get rid of sorcery. Stop trying to make me do the wise thing and tell me what I can do.”

  Arrogan sighed. “I don’t know. I can’t see the ritual that you sketched out. The only person who could decipher it would be Aislinn. Does she owe you a favor?”

  Will knew the answer to that. “No.”

  “Then get out of town. You can’t afford her price whatever it might be.”

  “She’s my grandmother,” Will reminded him.

  “She’s fae! Whatever hidden sentiment there is in her heart doesn’t mean a damn to her. Trust me, I know!”

  “If that’s all you’re going to say then we’re done talking,” said Will.

  “Listen up, you little shit! If you think you can shut me—” Arrogan’s voice ended abruptly as Will dismissed the limnthal.

  He stared at the wall for half an hour while he thought about everything he had learned. He knew Arrogan was right. He didn’t know enough. He didn’t have the power necessary. He was inadequate in every way, but he didn’t have to do it alone.

  He still wasn’t ready for sleep, so he practiced with the point-defense spell until his mind was numb and his body was tired enough to rest.

  Chapter 51

  The next morning Will ran through his spellcraft exercises then set about recopying his hastily made sketch of the chamber beneath the Arenata home. He redid the drawing of the r
oom, including the central crystal and circle, then made a separate drawing of the circle with the runes inscribed around it. He used pen and ink this time and took his time so he could actually fit the runes around the circle.

  It still wasn’t perfect, but he hoped it would be enough for Aislinn to sort out what the circle was meant to do. With his preparations made, Will dressed in his brigandine and a simple tunic, then set out. He headed out of the city and made his way to the congruence point that Tailtiu had met him at once before. Once there he called Aislinn.

  He felt a connection after he uttered her name, but it wasn’t a positive response. Will waited anyway. An hour later he called her name again. While he waited, he practiced the point-defense spell, and when that became too boring, he ran through his other spells once more. Since he was in an open field, he also took the opportunity to actually practice casting the wind-wall spell so he could get a better feel for its effects as well as how quickly he could recover from using virtually all of his turyn at once.

  He couldn’t say for sure, but it felt like he was getting better at it, both in his ability to draw in a large amount of turyn quickly, as well as the sheer quantity he could hold and use at once. He wondered what his limit was, or if there was one. There has to be, he told himself, otherwise there’d be no reason for people to create rituals to tap into ley lines.

  Another hour passed and despite the winter sun, his body was growing cold in the constant wind that blew across the field. He called again, and this time he could feel annoyance from Aislinn’s end of the connection. Too bad, he thought. This is too important for me to leave you be.

  Will went back to practicing the point-defense spell and another hour passed. Just as he was about to call again, he saw a figure walking toward him across the field. It was Tailtiu. He waved and waited until she had reached him.

  “This is counting against the time you bargained for,” she stipulated as soon as she was within earshot.

  “Fine. Where’s your mother? I need to speak with her.”

  “She’s busy. She told me to warn you that if you keep calling her she may lose her temper.”

  Will arched one brow. “I wasn’t aware of self-restraint being a thing for the fae.”

  “You’re still alive, aren’t you?” said his aunt.

  “Point taken. Can you give her a message for me?”

  “I am at your service after all,” she responded. “What’s your message?”

  “Someone is planning to tap into the ley lines and enact a strategic-class ritual in the city. I think they’re planning to summon a demon lord or something similar.” He summoned his journal and showed Tailtiu his drawings. “I was hoping she could tell me what this will do. These are the drawings I made after our scouting mission last night.”

  His aunt sneered. “Why do you think she would care?”

  Will stared at her for a moment, thinking carefully. Why indeed? “Aren’t demons and fae enemies?”

  “Demons are inimical to all living beings,” returned Tailtiu. “But we have no particular concern for what they may do to humankind.”

  “Tell her I plan to stop the ritual, one way or another,” said Will, remembering what Arrogan had told him. If she has any concern for me at all, she’ll want to see what it will do.

  Tailtiu shrugged. “I’ll pass your message to her.” Then she left.

  Will waited another hour, continuing his practice, before giving up. He sat down in the grass and stared at his knees. He felt lost. The whole world was going to hell and no one knew or cared enough to help. That’s not true, he reminded himself. You just want to wallow in self-pity.

  He thought about his options again. The one that made the most sense was contacting the king. As much as he disliked the man, he doubted King Lognion would turn a blind eye to even his most trusted retainer trying to use such a ritual within the city.

  He didn’t trust the king, however, and he suspected that Selene’s engagement to Count Spry was partly to punish him. It was ridiculous to think that, since he was completely beneath consideration, but it felt that way no matter what his logical mind told him.

  Will got up and dusted off his trousers. Janice was probably looking for him, anticipating his explanation. No one else wanted to listen to him anyway. Besides, she understands the politics of the nobility far better than I do.

  Back at Wurthaven, he discovered that Janice wasn’t in the girls’ dorm, so he went back to his room. Dianne caught him before he went upstairs and told him that Janice had been by twice looking for him.

  “I’ll be in my room if she returns,” he told the resident assistant. Will went upstairs and did what he did best, mindlessly practice. After a while he got so bored that he fell asleep sitting on the bottom bunk.

  When he woke, it was to the sound of someone knocking on the door. He rose and found Janice standing in the hall. “Where have you been?” she demanded.

  “Trying to talk to the goddess of magic,” he snapped.

  That set Janice back on her heels. She slipped around him and went inside while he closed the door. “I never know when you’re joking,” she told him.

  “I rarely do. It’s just that my life is so laughably absurd that the plain truth usually sounds like a joke when I try to explain it.”

  She gave him a serious look. “Are you saying you really were trying to talk to the goddess of magic?”

  He nodded. “She isn’t really a goddess, though, just a fae wizard from antiquity.”

  “And you think she might respond to you?”

  “She’s my grandmother, sort of.”

  Janice held up her hands. “Let me sit down. The more you talk the less sense you make.”

  “I have a lot of secrets,” Will warned.

  She nodded and scooted back on the bottom bunk so she could rest her back against the wall. “There’s no class today and I’ve got plenty of time.”

  He debated with himself, wondering how much he should tell her. Almost no one had heard everything, and he tended to keep things even from those who knew most of his story. Arrogan and Aislinn were the only ones that he hadn’t kept anything significant from. Could he tell Janice all of it, when he hadn’t even shared as much with Selene? Well, Janice isn’t bound by an enchantment for one thing, he observed, and she doesn’t owe fealty to anyone.

  She had the added advantage of not being biased in any way regarding the various supernatural factions he dealt with. She probably knew next to nothing about the fae, the goddamn cat, or demons. Janice wasn’t a sorcerer, or connected with any political factions—she was just his friend. And she fancies me, he reminded himself. So, she’s probably as loyal as anyone could possibly be. That could be a problem later, though, if jealousy caused her to become scornful of him.

  He decided to be honest. It was far past time to find someone he could trust. “I have a question for you first.”

  “All right.”

  “I know you have some feelings for me. I worry that later you might become resentful. You already know where I stand, but some of these secrets could be used against me—”

  Janice cut him off. “I’ve spent most of my life with an axe over my head, in one form or another. The Spry family always had my family in the palm of their hands. Coming to Wurthaven was just the latest example of their generosity, generosity that could be taken away at a moment’s notice. Even if I came to hate you, I wouldn’t betray your trust.”

  “Here goes then,” said Will, and he began his story, starting from the beginning. He told her about his first meeting with Selene, his training with Arrogan, the invasion of Darrow, and his complicated relationship with the fae. He even included the goddamn cat, which was something very few people knew about. With that background, he moved on to his time at Wurthaven and gave her the details of the attempts on his life and some of his activities that were outside of the law. The only thing he restrained himself on was his time in Selene’s room. He only shared enough so that she would know his relations
hip was more than an unrequited love. His break-in at the library and at the Arenata house were what he finished with.

  Janice’s face went through a variety of transformations during his story, but she managed to wait for him to finish—somehow. When he eventually ended, she asked, “Are you done?”

  He nodded.

  “Sweet Holy Mother Temarah!” she exploded. “Was all of that true?”

  “As far as I remember it.”

  “You slept with the princess? What were you thinking?”

  He held up his hand. “I never said we slept together.”

  She goggled at him. “Do you expect me to believe you didn’t?”

  “Only if you’re going to throw things,” he said jokingly.

  Janice didn’t laugh. “She might be pregnant. Have you thought about that? How careful were you?”

  “It was my first time,” he said defensively. After a second he added, “Hers too.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Did she ask you to be careful?”

  That was a question that hadn’t occurred to him. “No. It was in the heat of the moment. I don’t think either of us were thinking clearly.”

  “She was thinking clearly, you dimwit. Women don’t forget something like that! Hell, she practically ambushed you. So, I’ll ask again, how careful were you?”

  Will was blushing several shades of red by then. “The first time caught me by surprise, but after that—”

  Janice covered her face with one hand. “This is so fucked up,” she muttered. “She was trying to get pregnant, or at the very least, she didn’t care.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Will.

  “She’s getting married,” spat Janice. “Consciously or not, she was trying to take some part of you with her, or maybe she wanted some sort of revenge against her future husband. It’s the same either way, though, whether she was motivated by love or hate.”

  It made a pretty big difference in Will’s mind, but he held his tongue. Janice’s perspective was already helping him to see things that had never occurred to him.