Abby thought it highly doubtful that a single clap was going to be heard over the maelstrom of noise that was whipping around the arena, but she decided not to say anything.
“Are you both ready?” Master Tamper asked.
Both Abby and Radella gave short nods.
“Well then… commence!”
Master Tamper shimmered and was suddenly gone from the sandy floor of the combat circle, back in his place on the hovering judging platform.
No sooner had he vanished then Abby charged at Radella. Her first idea was to get to grips with the other girl before she could even get a single piece of paranormal witchcraft away. Abby ran, the little foil packet still clutched tightly in her hand.
Radella still had the incident of that day’s lunch on her mind, for she engaged with Abby in a flurry of punches that forced Abby to adopt a defensive stance, blocking with her forearms. The young witch’s face was pinched with fury as she struck out with a scything left haymaker, which Abby dodged.
Abby stepped in as Radella overbalanced and hit her with a beauty of a right hook in the ribs. She followed this up with a hard left jab to her adversary’s shoulder, which opened up her body, and then delivered a textbook boot to the green-skinned girl’s midriff.
Radella staggered back, winded, but before Abby could reengage, Radella made a sharp little motion with her hand and Abby was flipped onto her back. It wasn’t a hard throw – Radella hadn’t been able to summon enough supernatural force, winded as she was, to do anything too bad – but it was enough to get Abby off her feet and bought Radella time to catch her breath.
Abby rolled quickly to her feet, but by then it was too late. Radella had staggered a few steps backward and now had the time necessary to conjure something a little more creative. The witch’s specialty lay in the manipulation of light and being able to levitate objects, and she hit Abby with both of these abilities in a one-two punch.
First, she sucked the light from a lamp and caused it to pop sharply back into existence right in front of Abby’s face like a strobe. Abby, momentarily blinded, lost all sense of where Radella was and could only lash out recklessly at where she thought she might be. She heard Radella give a bark of laughter and then Abby was picked up by an invisible hand and tossed roughly away like a piece of trash. She flew through the air and landed heavily on her side on the sandy ground.
Able to see again, Abby picked herself up quickly. The sandy bottom of the combat circle was more forgiving than the thin mats they used in class, and she had taken minimal hurt from the fall. That was the thing about Radella’s abilities: they were still in their infancy, and because Abby weighed considerably more than the pens and shoes and other little items that Radella usually practiced her levitating skills on, the witch bitch was only capable of throwing and holding her for so long.
Abby charged at her adversary again, noticing that Radella didn’t make a move to stop her. The noise of the crowd was a formless roar in Abby’s ears as she pelted toward her target. Then, just as she thought that Radella was primed for a little more fisticuff action, the witch bitch moved and ducked down, sweeping her arm over her head in a way that Abby had never seen her do before in class.
Abby was swept up, flung somersaulting over the crouched form of the raven-haired witch. She cartwheeled through the air, carried by her own impetus and smashed hard into the stone circle of the combat arena.
It was a jarring shock, and Abby felt her teeth rattle in her head. Purple stars winked merrily across her vision as she crumpled, upside down, onto the ground. From her prone position, her face squashed into the cool sand, she could hear the crowd give one great collective groan.
Carefully and quickly, Abby unclenched her hand and, using the cover of the wall and her own body to shield what she was up to, opened up the little foil packet. Inside was about half a gram of finely ground coffee, specifically robusta bean, which contained 2.4% caffeine. She’d taken it from one of the money coffee stalls in the main atrium of the S.B.A. – the Hopper – while mostly everyone had been watching the preceding fights.
Abby, squirming and moving like someone who was dazed – which wasn’t too hard to fake, considering the knock she’d just taken – poured the contents of the packet onto the back of her hand and, without another thought as to what might happen next, sucked the coffee up one nostril.
The effect was instantaneous. Clarity seemed to flow like molten silver through muscle and sinew, her head cleared and her vision sharpened so that she could see the minute imperfections in the grains of sand in front of her face. Not knowing why she was lying on the floor like some sort of loser, Abby hopped quickly to her feet, careful to tuck the foil into her bra.
The crowd was roaring again now. Cheering her on, she thought.
Everyone loves an underdog.
Radella didn’t look as pleased. The look on her face was similar to that of someone who’d just found one half of a caterpillar in their salad.
Abby smiled and, feeling the caffeine surging through her head and heart like a hot torrent, she dug deep within herself and summoned forth the light that she’d used to defeat the red-eye demon all those weeks before. The ball of blinding blue light shaped itself in her hands, causing those in the first few rows of seating to shield their eyes with their hands, then she unleashed it. It flew across the combat circle, a thin streak of white light following after it like the tail of a comet.
Radella, struck motionless by the supernatural sight that bore down on her, managed to conjure a shield from what looked like solidified air just before the ball of light hit her. The light-ball exploded against the shield, fragmenting it and sending the witch flying straight backward. The shield took the brunt of the power, but Radella was still sent skittering across the sand as a stone skipped over a pond. She landed against the stone wall on the other side of the arena.
The crowd, most of whom were out of their minds on caffeine, roared their approval.
Abby watched as Radella hauled herself to her feet. Her hair was wild and stuck out like the bristles of a porcupine. Her face was flushed a darker green and her dark eyes shone with hatred and the need for vengeance. She raised her hands and started to mutter something that, over the sound of the crowd going mental, Abby had no hope of hearing.
There was a dull rumble and something struck Abby on the shoulder. She looked up and a pebble dropped from the roof of the open cavern and hit her on the head.
“Ow,” she said.
Then she realized what was happening. She looked down at Radella and back up at the ceiling of the cavern, at the selection of deadly boulders that Radella was seemingly intent on wiggling free to send crashing down on Abby’s head.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” she said weakly.
“Enough!” a voice roared.
Abby looked up at the floating assessment platform. Miss Hightide had gotten to her feet. As Abby watched, she clapped her hands over her head and the noise of it was like a small explosion. A shockwave emanated out and knocked both Abby and Radella onto their asses. The sound of the thunderous clap also snuffed out all the sound, striking every single spectator dumb.
“That,” Miss Hightide said in a voice that sparkled with authority, “will do!”
Abby started as an all too familiar grip seized her arm. She looked up into the livid face of Drake.
“You,” he hissed, “come with me!”
Without even waiting for her to obey, Drake grabbed Abby and tossed her bodily over one of his broad shoulders.
Charged up as she was with caffeine, Abby beat on Drake’s back with her fists. “Let me go, you goddamn brute! You asshole! What the hell did I do wrong now?”
She hated the way that Drake was carrying her off like some naughty child, as if she were to be sent off to bed without supper.
“Where the fuck are you taking me?” she said angrily in his ear as the noise of the crowd started to re-establish itself.
“To Miss Hightide’s office,” he said.
And that was all.
Drake manhandled her out of the arena. As they passed Radella, the witch forced a furious smirk onto her face and said, “I guess that’s the last we’ll see of you, you fucking crazy bitch! Good riddance. This was no place for someone like you.”
Abby roared and thrashed on Drake’s shoulder, trying to get free so that she could get at Radella and tear her to pieces. But Drake’s grip was unbreakable.
Abby, through the red rage that had descended like a fog across her vision, did realize that Drake had her clasped to him with one hand clamped firmly over her ass. Even though her fury, Abby thought ruefully, This is the most action I’ve had in months!
Chapter 6
Drake, taking as much notice of Abby’s kicking and hitting as an elephant does of a fly, carried her through a network of corridors until they arrived outside the elaborately carved coffeewood doors of Miss Delphine Hightide’s office. Drake nudged the doors open with his foot and they swung smoothly inward.
In one last futile attempt at giving physical embodiment to her displeasure at being lugged out of her Assessment Duel like a sack of potatoes, Abby twisted her head and bit down hard on Drake’s ear. Drake grunted with pain and, in response, dumped Abby onto one of the sofas that lined the walls of the airy room.
Abby, still stuffed to the gills with the caffeine she had snorted, bounded to her feet and gave an animal snarl. Instinctively, she reached within herself for the power that she had unleashed upon Radella in the arena. She felt the tickle in her palms as the sensation of energy flooded from some deep core into her every fiber of her being. She felt as if she could suffuse her whole entity with light.
Drake saw what she was doing. Without so much as moving a muscle, he suddenly seemed to grow even taller. Abby had the distinct impression of being loomed over, though Drake hadn’t stirred an inch. She looked into his cool gray eyes and saw that they weren’t cool any longer; deep within them, she saw a dull flicker of red-hot orange begin to glow. The sensible, scientific part of her brain understood that if she kept on like this, Drake would unleash something on her that’d make her fifteen minutes in the combat circle with Radella look like a picnic.
“That,” came a gentle and yet commanding voice from behind the desk, “is quite enough, thank you very much.”
At once, the curious, foreboding orange glow in Drake’s eyes faded, like a glowing poker suddenly plunged into ice water. He seemed to relax. The sense of looming menace dissipated.
Abby followed suit. She was wired, but not so pissed off that she couldn’t recognize an order when she heard it. To keep going down the road she had almost taken and try her luck at nailing a full-fledged Guardian would undoubtedly end in disaster.
“Abby Hall,” Miss Hightide said, her voice as cold and calm as a frozen river. “Abby Hall, calm yourself. I realize that I didn’t specify any of the more unbendable rules when you arrived, so hasty was your coming. But let me tell clarify something for you now: it’s seen as terribly bad form to try and kill another novice while undergoing an assessment duel.”
“Kill her? What do you mean kill her?” Abby asked, her anger momentarily banked by this accusation. “I didn’t try to kill her. I just wanted to… rough her up a little, like she was doing to me.”
Miss Hightide regarded her thoughtfully, scrutinizing her with such a piercing gaze that Abby felt naked. She shifted uneasily and looked away.
“The attack that you used – that you attempted to use – against Radella would have reduced her to something that we would’ve been picking up in a bucket, had the young woman not had the presence of mind to employ a shielding incantation,” Miss Hightide said. “It was in no way a perfect block, but it was enough to deflect and absorb most of the brunt of your attack. It saved her life.”
Abby shook her head confusedly. “But I can’t even use or access my supernatural capabilities most of the time, not without…” She trailed off, realizing that she’d almost fallen on her sword inadvertently.
“Without what?” Drake rumbled from behind her.
Abby remained silent. She didn’t want to lie. Lies had a habit of making life more complicated than it needed to be. She opted to try a change of direction.
“How could I have killed her? That’s what I don’t understand,” she said. “I mean, I’m just a novice. I don’t have the skills or practice to even summon my powers when I need them. How could I possibly produce magic that can snuff someone out?”
Drake cleared his throat in a manner that suggested that he had something to say. Miss Delphine Hightide gave him a nod of assent.
“Out beyond Ravencharm, in the forests that surround the lower slopes of Mount Hypo, there are many wondrous and dangerous animals. One of them is the cinnamon-striped boa. It’s a snake that grows about two and a half feet long and lives in the trees, and it is one of the most venomous animals that you will ever come across. This snake is so generously endowed when it comes to the venom that it can kill a horse in forty-five seconds with just one little bite. Now, you have to watch out for the adults because their venom is more potent than that of the juvenile snakes. However, it’s the young cinnamon-striped boas that are more dangerous. An adult will bite a human but not inject them with any of the lethal venom. The reason for this is simple: the production of venom takes a lot of energy and time and the adult snakes know through experience that the action of the bite alone is normally enough to freak out any human they encounter and send them running for the hills. The juveniles, though, don’t have that experience or that knowledge. If you accidentally disturb a juvenile cinnamon-striped boa they will hit you with every last drop of venom they have, which is enough to drop eleven full-grown human beings comfortably.” Drake paused. “You are a juvenile cinnamon-striped boa, Abby. You have no experience fighting; you have no idea the damage that you’re capable of when you lash out. In a situation that requires a show of strength, you react with lethal force. Do you see?”
Abby nodded slowly. “It’s just that, you know, you’d think that the amount of energy required to kill someone would take it out of you, be as much of a drain on you physically as it should be emotionally, but that ball of light… That was easy for me to conjure. Well, easy after I’d…” She tailed off again, blushing slightly.
Miss Hightide continued to look at her for a while, unblinking, until finally, she said, “Hmm, well, Abby, seeing as you weren’t strictly aware of the rules, let me candidly tell you in no uncertain terms that you have a choice here. When you’re training and studying to become part of the Supernatural Barista Academy, you never use lethal force or powers on your fellows.”
Radella’s face swam into the forefront of Abby’s mind at these words. “That,” she said, her anger flaring again, “is too fucking bad when it comes to some people.”
Miss Hightide either did not hear or chose to ignore Abby’s remark. She continued, in a slightly louder voice. “The other rule, and one that I should have made clear to you from the beginning, is that caffeine – unless unambiguously stated by a Master – is banned during lessons and especially during assessments and organized fights. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Abby said. “Now.”
“And do you understand that, if you decide to flout these two policies, that you’ll be kicked out of here and sent back to Rotwood Harbor quicker than you can say ‘macchiato’?”
“I do,” Abby said. “But what if I wanted to leave?”
“Then I can have Cherry and Pea in here in two shakes of a luwak’s tail to escort you out – though you should know that you’ll be watched closely until we decide that you can be trusted not to use the powers that you have uncovered outside of our select community. And, depending on the way you decide to have yourself expelled, I can’t say whether you’d be dropped off by those two fae from a height that you would find altogether comfortable.”
Again, Abby nodded a slow acknowledgment.
“Now,” said Miss Hightide, “concerning your performance at
the Assessment Duel, some might think that it would be shrewd of me to run a caffeine test on you after your overzealous performance.”
Abby opened her mouth to protest, but Miss Hightide forestalled her with a wave of her hand.
“I could also throw you into one of the decaffeinated tanks until you’ve come down, without bothering about something so pointless as a formal test. Such is my authority. No doubt the Hopper would fill up fast were it known that the girl who almost kicked off a lethal duel in front of the whole of S.B.A. was on display, free to be ogled at leisure.”
Abby bit her lip nervously.
“However, I’ve decided that perhaps it might be better for all concerned to have Drake here – who, I’ll remind him, was supposed to be watching you like a hawk, for your protection as much as anything else –to take you to one of the rooms in the part of our facility that we called the Steam Wand, so that you can relax those muscles and, more importantly, sweat out any… impurities. Do either of you have any reason to oppose this plan?”
Drake sighed, as if he could think of a million things he’d rather do than take Abby anywhere, but held his tongue. Abby did likewise.
“Good,” Miss Delphine Hightide said. “Now run along. And remember, it’s hard to keep your nose clean when you’re up to your eyebrows in fecal matter. Bear that in mind.”
***
Twenty minutes later, Abby was getting changed out of her torn and tattered clothing and wrapping a towel around her middle. Drake had led her, without so much as a word, through the tangled passages of the S.B.A. until, stepping through a sleek metal door, they entered a very straight, very even corridor which, Drake informed her, was the Steam Wand.
Steam was, indeed, thick in the air, hissing lazily through vents overhead and creeping under the many doorways spaced along the pristine corridor.
Forgetting, for the moment, that she wasn’t talking to Drake, Abby asked, “Where does the steam come from?”
Caffeinated Magic: Supernatural Barista Academy Page 8