The Test

by Todd Fahnestock

  Tower of the Four

  Episode 3: The Test

  Todd Fahnestock

  F4 Publishing

  Copyright © 2020 Todd Fahnestock

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9863756-9-9

  Cover illustration and design by: Rashed AlAkroka

  Printed in the United States of America

  For Dash,

  Who taught the dog how to bounce on the trampoline and love it. May we all have your zest for life.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EPILOGUE

  Tower of the Four

  About The Author

  Praise For Author

  Books By This Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  Oriana

  Oriana had heard the varied legends of what happened to Quadrons who used their final Soulblock. They fell to a pile of dust. They became demons who hid in forest shadows or underneath the bed. They screamed in a high-pitched voice, never stopping until they suffocated. Horrific stories, all. Whether the specifics were true or not, Oriana didn’t know.

  What she did know—what everyone in the academy knew—was that draining your fourth Soulblock was certain death. The books in the academy library agreed that the fourth Soulblock was the most powerful of all, that it filled the user with unimaginable magic as well as a sense of invulnerability, right up to the point that the fool dropped dead—the soul drained away, the body shriveled, the skin as pale as snow.

  Brom was already deathly pale.

  She laid him down and shot her thoughts into the sleeping minds of Royal and Vale.

  “Wake up! Brom is dying. Come to my room immediately,” she thought to them, then added, “and quietly.”

  Mere moments passed before Royal opened her door without knocking. The giant man hadn’t made a sound. He’d obviously opened his first Soulblock and was using his Impetu magic. His face was alive with a protector’s instinct. His gaze flicked about the room for enemies, and he stepped inside, ready to use his body as a shield.

  “Where?” he thought to her. “Are we being attacked?”

  “Not directly. Not yet,” she replied.

  Vale came next, her frantic pattering feet audible a few seconds before she arrived. The moment she entered the room, Oriana felt the crackling rush of her own Soulblocks doubling, giving her far more magic than before in addition to a seductive feeling of invincibility.

  Vale’s gaze shot to Brom on the floor. Her face remained expressionless, which Oriana thought was decidedly odd. Either Vale had expected this, or she was intentionally keeping her true feelings off her face.

  Since they’d broken through their individual barriers and bonded as a Quad, Vale’s face had worn as many expressions as a rainbow had colors. It was always one thing or another—joy, excitement, interest, sadness, frustration... But Oriana couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Vale impassive.

  “What happened?” Vale asked in a monotone.

  The non-expression, the monotone... Together they sent up a flag of warning to Oriana. Whatever had happened to Brom tonight, Vale was a part of it somehow. They’d broken the rules together. Again.

  It frustrated her. All this time, she thought they’d all been operating smoothly and honestly.

  Fine, she thought. If they’re going to break rules, so will I.

  Angrily, Oriana reached into Vale’s mind without her permission.

  Wiggling Will, he drunk the draught.

  And spun his dagger by the haft.

  The giggling maidens showed delight.

  And spun his dagger through the night.

  Wiggling Will, he drunk the draught.

  And spun his dagger by the haft.

  The giggling maidens showed delight.

  And spun his dagger through the night.

  Oriana narrowed her eyes. Vale was repeating a drinking song in her mind, over and over. It was a crude but effective method of temporarily blocking a Mentis. Oriana could dig deeper, of course, but that would take time, concentration, and more magic. She couldn’t afford to spare any of those, but she didn’t need to. Vale had told Oriana everything she needed to know by throwing up that makeshift mental wall. The little urchin wanted her thoughts hidden. She was guilty. Whatever had happened to Brom, Vale knew about it.

  “Oriana,” Vale repeated. “What happened?”

  “You tell me,” Oriana said.

  Royal picked up on Oriana’s frosty tone, and turned to Vale.

  “What happened?” Royal growled.

  “I don’t know,” Vale said, again in that monotone.

  “I think you do,” Oriana said.

  The little woman’s eyes flashed angrily, the first emotion she’d shown since stepping into the room.

  “Are you going to let him die to keep a secret from us?” Oriana pressed.

  “What secret?” Royal asked. He glanced back and forth between the two of them.

  “Brom opened his fourth Soulblock,” Oriana said. “He’s dying.”

  “What?” Royal roared. He flinched, jumped to the door, closed it softly, then lowered his voice. “What?” he whispered.

  “He snuck into the tower of The Four,” Oriana said. “They chased him.”

  “The Four chased him?” Royal blurted, incredulous.

  “No...” Vale whispered, and genuine surprise broke her impassive mask. She sank to her knees next to Brom. “No, Brom...”

  Royal shook his head. “If The Four chased him, they’d have caught him.”

  Oriana gestured to Brom’s unconscious body as if to say: here’s the proof. But even she had her doubts, and she’d plucked the story from his own mind. “He opened his fourth Soulblock to escape them.”

  Tears stood in Vale’s eyes as she bent over Brom, clutching his shoulders. “You idiot,” she whispered.

  “Why did he go there?” Oriana asked.

  “We were going to do it together,” Vale suddenly said.

  “Vale!” Royal blasted, looked guilty again, and lowered his voice a second time. “You planned to break into the tower of The Four? The Four!”

  Oriana had known Vale and Brom were capable of deceit, but that they’d successfully kept this from her worried her on multiple levels. Honesty obviously wasn’t important to Brom or Vale, even with their Quad. Second—and more important—they’d actually been able to keep a secret of this magnitude from Oriana. She had read their minds on multiple occasions over the past weeks, in some cases quite thoroughly. She should have been able to pick up something of their secrets unless they’d worked ha
rd—very hard—to deceive her. They had to have planned it.

  “You were keeping secrets from us,” Oriana whispered. Even now she didn’t want to believe it. “From your Quad.”

  “The Four were keeping secrets from all of us,” Vale said, “And you two refused to look at it, what else could we do?”

  “Not break the rules,” Royal growled, obviously frustrated. His big fists were clenched. “Not do what you were doing! Of course The Four have secrets. They’re The Four!”

  “There are deadly things happening here on this cursed campus. Brom tried to tell you. You ignored him. Just because you’re determined to be blind doesn’t mean I am,” Vale said.

  “I’m not determined to be blind. I’m determined to have honor,” Royal said.

  “Fuck your honor! I’m talking about truth.”

  Royal shook his head. “I thought you were growing, Vale. I thought you were learning what it means to be part of a team, part of a family—”

  “She’s right,” Oriana said softly. She hated that she had to take Vale’s side. She wanted to agree with Royal. Order was paramount. She wanted to believe in the rules. She didn’t want to believe this horrible truth that Brom had unearthed. She didn’t want to think the academy was a pen for slaves. This was supposed to be a place where people came to find their power, not lose it. But just because she didn’t want to see this horrible truth didn’t make it go away.

  Both Royal and Vale watched her.

  “Brom and Vale were right. The Four aren’t what they seem,” Oriana said. “They plan to... They’re going to put hooks in us, some kind of magical control. They do it to all Quadrons who pass the Test. And those who don’t pass...” She let that hang. They all knew what happened to those who didn’t pass. Or they thought they did. “They don’t just die. They...are used. And then they die. And Vale...” Oriana remembered Brom’s thoughts about Arsinoe, about what he wanted to do to Vale.

  “What about me?” Vale asked.

  “They chose you. You’re the one who will fail the Test. They already know what will happen. And they have something...horrible planned for you.”

  “Why?” Vale said, frustrated, angry. “Why me?”

  “Apparently Arsinoe...their Motus—”

  “I know who Arsinoe is,” Vale said gravely.

  “He has...taken a fancy to you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Royal asked.

  “The Test of Separation isn’t a test,” Oriana said. “This academy is...it’s like a pen for cattle. It’s where they brand us, castrate us, then send us back into the two kingdoms. If we survive that long, that is.”

  “I was right...” Vale whispered.

  “What do you mean you were right?” Royal growled. He was a step behind in piecing this together, and his frustration was obviously mounting. Oriana knew Royal could only be pushed so far before he resorted to violence. Raging into the corridor. Looking for the fight. He was an Impetu and a Fendiran both, after all.

  And she couldn’t let this disaster spread any further than this room. If Brom had actually stung The Four tonight and escaped, it would be exceedingly dangerous for Quad Brilliant to draw attention to themselves. The last thing they needed was the student in the dorm next to Oriana’s waking and overhearing this conversation, then passing it on to a master.

  “Brom revealed to me what he has seen and heard. I will relay it to you,” Oriana said in both of their minds.

  She opened her mind to Royal and Vale and delivered every bit of information she’d gleaned from Brom’s story, quick as a flash of light. It wasn’t much, and it came scattered, with parts missing. But two things were clear: the academy was a trap, The Four were monsters.

  Royal’s jaw dropped. Vale bared her teeth, furious.

  For Oriana’s part, she felt ashamed. She should have seen this. No Quads ever graduated whole. How had she not thought of that as insidious? It was so obvious that Oriana suddenly wondered if their minds had been altered when they’d come into the academy.

  Was this inclination to ignore the obvious part of Brom’s green fire spell?

  “That’s what Brom learned,” Oriana said. “Leastwise, that’s what he was able to tell me before he fell unconscious. But we don’t have time to be horrified or outraged, to think about how we’re being prepped like livestock. He is dying, and we must make a decision.”

  “I can’t believe it...” Royal spoke softly to himself. He seemed to reel from the information. He’d put one hand on the wall, and his gaze was far away.

  “What decision?” Vale asked Oriana.

  “To try to save him or not,” Oriana said.

  “Save him?” Royal asked, snapping his focus back to the conversation. “Is that even possible?”

  “Perhaps, but...” Oriana trailed off.

  “But what?” Vale said.

  “We could die with him.”

  “We do it,” Royal said without hesitation. Oriana gave him a little half smile. Despite the fact that he was a Fendiran, Royal made it very hard to dislike him. His unthinking bravery and total dedication to the Quad inspired her.

  “It will require all three of us,” Oriana said. “If we do not succeed, we die. Even if we do succeed, we may die trying.”

  “I’ll do it,” Royal said immediately.

  Vale went silent. She glanced at Brom, who was now as white as the snow outside. Finally, she narrowed her eyes at Oriana. “You can’t come back from opening the final Soulblock. You open it, you die. No one has ever survived, not in the entire history of magic.”

  “There are two stories,” Oriana countered. “Two attempts to save someone like this that almost succeeded.”

  “Almost?” Vale said.

  “I’ve been researching Soulshock since we thought Brom had done it after his first discovery. There may be a way. We have to give him our Soulblocks. We have to fill him up and...repair his fourth Soulblock. Close it again.”

  “The fourth Soulblock can’t be closed. The first three only close themselves because they’re regenerated from the fourth,” Vale said. “They all come from the fourth. It’s why the fourth doesn’t regenerate.”

  After a moment, Oriana nodded. “I know. But there has to be a way. Some way.”

  “That’s your plan?” Vale asked. “By Kelto, you want to try this, and you don’t know how to do it?”

  “Nobody knows how to do anything until someone does it first,” Oriana said.

  Vale bit her lip, looked back at Brom.

  “If we don’t,” Oriana said, “then we have to run.”

  “Run?” Royal said. “Why?”

  “Brom escaped The Four,” she said. “But Olivaard knew he’d opened his fourth Soulblock. Once Brom shows up dead tomorrow, sucked dry from a drained fourth, they’re going to know who invaded their tower. And then they’re going to kill all of us.”

  Royal seemed like he wanted to be angry. His face reddened, but then a reluctant smile curved his lips. He shook his head. “He jumped from the cliff with us attached to him,” he said. “But by Fendra... It’s the bravest thing I’ve ever even heard of.” He looked down at Brom with admiration.

  “They were going to kill us anyway,” Vale said. “Well, they were going to kill me. You two were just going to be slaves. That’s all.”

  “So our choices are,” Royal mused, and he seemed to have his anger under control now. “We run. Or we try something—as second-year students—that’s never been achieved by a Quadron before, not even by The Four themselves. And then if by some miracle we succeed, we still have to flee.”

  “If we can repair the damage, we may not need to flee,” Oriana said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because then we won’t have a corpse to explain,” Oriana said.

  “And you think The Four won’t find us because there isn’t a corpse?” Royal asked. “They’re The Four.”

  Vale, hands on Brom’s chest, stared at him without seeing anything, as if deep in thought.


  “Vale?” Oriana said.

  “We have to try,” Vale whispered. “Either we all escape this, or none of us do. It’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

  Royal nodded. “That, I agree with.”

  “Then let’s be quick,” Oriana said. “Royal, put him on the bed, pull it away from the wall.” Royal lifted Brom gently and put him on the bed like he was a child, then picked the entire bed up, Brom and all, and moved it to the center of the room.

  “Vale, here. Royal, on that side.” Oriana indicated that they kneel on either side of Brom and put their hands on his chest. She knelt at Brom’s head, put her fingertips on his temples. Royal crossed to Brom’s other side, knelt, and put his hands next to Vale’s.

  “Royal, you’ve already opened your first Soulblock. So have I. Vale?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, so... We could open one Soulblock at a time and feed them into him,” she said, “like we did when he drained his third Soulblock. But I don’t think we should.”

  “You want to open them all at the same time,” Vale guessed.

  “Being together, we all have twice as many Soulblocks to work with. Now is the time to use them. Open your first five, right down to the top of the sixth, then stop. Save your sixth, seventh and eighth or we could all be bedridden for a week. That would be almost as suspicious as a corpse. I’ve never opened more than one Soulblock at a time, but what I’ve read says it varies from student to student. For some, it is exhausting. For some, it is euphoric and addictive. You begin to feel omnipotent, and will keep opening them. So you must set your intention strongly to stop after the fifth. Just stop. No matter what your mind or heart or body wants to do. Stop.”

  “And if we need more than the first five Soulblocks?” Royal asked.

  “We will cross that bridge if we come to it,” Oriana said. “I will let you know.”

  “Okay,” Royal said gruffly.

  Oriana closed her eyes and composed her mind. She felt the others doing the same. Thoughts silenced. Just as she was about ready to give the signal, Vale spoke.