“What?!” I said incredulously.
“Oh, it's very similar to a blood caster’s wand,” she said, as if that was my biggest problem with the declaration. “Alaria will never know the difference, until it's too late.”
“Wait, why do I need an arcanist’s wand?” I asked, confused.
“Oh.” Serana let out an honest-to-god cackle that sounded way too much like Alaria for my comfort. She fixed me with a predatory smile. “Because the only spell that can kill an arcanist must be cast using an arcanist’s wand.”
My eyes widened in alarm. “What does that mean?” I cried in horror. “What is this spell?”
“An arcanist’s wand,” she said, as if I hadn’t spoken at all, “is very similar to a regular blood caster one, with a couple of key differences. Like the other wand, you must obtain an iron blade. However, this blade must contain iron and silver. The two metals must be turned to liquid and mixed. While they are molten, you will add the stone you are so fortuitous to have already obtained. Then, you must add the blood of no less than three non-human magics.”
“So, I do have to sacrifice people!” I gasped. “I can’t-”
“A few drops will be sufficient,” she spat, as if my reluctance to kill people was somehow offensive. “Your ‘victims’ can be alive.”
“Then you can have mine,” Shannon said instantly.
The words were hardly out of her mouth when Ember and Mariana both volunteered as well.
“There,” Ember said in satisfaction. “That’s three right there. Now, you’ve got the stone, the blood, and the blade, all taken care of.”
Serana huffed and I honestly couldn't tell if she was pleased I already had the components or not. “You'll still need the iron to be molten to add in the blood.”
“I'm a fire elemental,” Ember said indignantly. “I can melt iron in my sleep.”
“That may be,” said Serana. “But unless you want to try and incorporate a big chunk of iron into your wand, you're still going to need a way to shape it into a blade.”
“The word you're looking for is forge,” Ember said. “It needs to be forged into a blade. And seeing as I've been blacksmithing since before I could walk…” She crossed her arms over her chest and fixed Serana with a challenging stare, eyes flaring. “Like I said, the blade is taken care of.”
Serana laughed. “You certainly have surrounded yourself with the right people. What disgustingly loyal friends.”
I considered saying something in their defense, but decided against further irritating her.
“In addition to their blood, you must add some of your own. Lastly, you will need…” Serana pulled out a small notebook and swiftly began to write, “a potion. I have written the ingredients and how to prepare them. The potion must be—what?”
I cleared my throat nervously. “I can't um… I can't make potions.”
Serana looked at me in disdain. “You haven't learned how to make potions?”
“No,” I confessed.
For a moment she looked like she was too irritated to even speak. Then, she threw up her hands and said, “Well, fortunately for you, as long as the ingredients are properly prepared you merely need to stir them into the molten iron.”
“I um…” I hesitated. “I don't know how to prepare potions ingredients either.”
“Why the hell not?” she snapped. The sudden loss of her composure made me jump and clench my fingers around my wand.
“Because I'm not…” I swallowed nervously. That was something I hadn't really wanted to tell her.
“Not what?” Her eyes widened suddenly, then narrowed at me. “How old are you?” she growled. I shrugged one shoulder and her eyes narrowed further. “Tell me,” she snapped.
I cleared my throat and admitted, “Twenty-eight.”
Serana actually pinched the bridge of her nose as if my answer had given her an instant headache. “Twenty-eight,” she repeated with a groan. “No wonder you're willing to risk everything to rescue your boyfriend. You're stupid and young.”
I bristled at the insult. “Well, so far I seem to be the only witch you've spoken to who's actually willing to try! Maybe I’m the one who should walk away, if you’re going to keep insulting me,” I bluffed.
To my relief, she laughed and almost smiled. “You are spunky,” she said dryly. “I'll give you that. Fine.” She held out the piece of paper. “Procure these ingredients. Someone at the apothecary will prepare them properly for you, if you ask.”
She shook the paper impatiently at me. I warily stepped forward and, staying as far from her as possible, reached out and took the piece of paper. I almost tore it, trying to snatch it away from her, but she didn't release it, instead fixing me with a stern look.
“I suggest you split it up and take it to several different apothecaries. No one but you should see this list in its entirety. If a blood caster just happens to be working at the apothecary…”
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Burn it when you’re done.”
I nodded and she released the paper. I stepped back quickly and she smiled as if knowing I didn't want to be too close to her. Then, she bent and wrote something else on her notepad, then tore off another piece of paper. “These are the specifications for the blade. Here, imp.” Ember nervously inched across the room and took it, wrinkling her nose at the insulting tone.
“Now,” Serana continued. “You will add the blood, the stone, and the potion to the molten iron and then make the blade. After that, you can incorporate it into your wand.”
“Then what?” I asked nervously. My chest felt tight with dread and my legs were heavy, I wanted to sit, but didn’t want to do it now and seem weak. I wanted to know this spell she kept refusing to tell me, but at the same time I didn’t want to know.
“Do you remember the first part of the blood magic spell for sacrificing? Say it.”
I swallowed nervously and nodded, wondering just why it was so important to her that I remembered it. “Skal-ven-resh,” I said softly.
“And?”
Heart pounding, I mimed slicing my palm with my wand.
“Then?”
“Then skal-ven-resh, ayer-ven-resh, and… and stab the…sacrifice.”
“Yes.” Serana said, but her tone suggested there was more. I waited, feeling sick from trepidation. “Unless one is an arcanist. Then, the spell is skal-ven-resh, ayer-grash-kren.”
She fixed me with a look that clearly said she wanted me to repeat it. As I obediently whispered it, I remembered Alaria screaming the same words as she murdered the air elemental and felt myself shaking.
“At this point during the ritual, as with blood magic, the essence of the sacrifice will be transferred to the wand. In the case of an arcanist, it is the power of the magic itself. The chant is repeated again and…” She drew a finger across her throat. “The power is released into the arcanist as the sacrifice dies. Now the arcanist is able to draw on the power of a non-human as if it were their own.” She took a deep breath. “That is how you kill an arcanist.”
My stomach twisted into knots and I swear and I could feel my hand shaking as I clenched my wand. “What?” I choked.
Serana fixed her gaze on me; her expression was serious, but it was impossible to tell if she was enjoying this moment or not. “The only way to kill an arcanist, short of an entire army, is to use their own spell against them. With an arcanist’s wand and the proper spell, you will draw out the powers Alaria has stolen.”
“But then what happens? If I use that spell against her and kill her…” I cried. “Wouldn’t that make me…”
“An arcanist, yes. Isn’t that thrilling? All that power.”
Thrilling was not the word I would have used. Given the way my stomach had started twisting, vomit-inducing would have been more appropriate. I put a hand up to my mouth, suddenly feeling like I would actually be sick.
“Of course,” Serana said almost reluctantly, “there is another option.”
“What?!
” I cried desperately.
“You have a choice,” Serana said. “After you have completed the first part of the spell my sister's power will be contained temporarily within the wand itself. If you complete the spell, that power transfers to you and she will be dead.” She paused and I swallowed nervously, waiting for the other option. “Or you can choose to destroy the wand without completing the spell.”
“I—”
She held up a hand for silence. “If you do that, the power will be destroyed with the wand. However, Alaria will still be alive and the spell will not take her magic as a witch. You will find yourself facing my, likely very angry, sister, who is a powerful witch in her own right and you will be without a wand.”
My breath hitched as I paused to consider it.
“Does that mean that if Jen chooses to destroy the wand instead of killing Alaria, she is basically just going to turn around and kill Jen?!” Ember demanded.
It was exactly what I had been thinking, something about hearing it out loud was another matter.
Serana seemed unconcerned. “I thought you were serious about this,” she said. “Surely you realized your life would be at stake.”
“I did,” I said, “but…” I certainly had assumed that this was going to be dangerous, but I hadn’t expected I was going to be forced to choose between using blood magic or almost certain death. Serana seemed content to wait and let me mull it over, but I felt like the more I thought about it the more the more nauseated it made me. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that Thomas, TS, Dani, and Charlie were all counting on me.
I took a deep breath and nodded to Serana. “Okay. What now?”
“Now?” she repeated, seemingly amused. “You need to make the wand. You have your instructions.”
“Then what?” I asked. “You said you could get me into the castle.”
“Yes. But not for a couple of weeks.”
“A couple of weeks?!” Ember cried. “They could be dead by then!”
“They could be dead now,” Serana retorted. “Regardless, my sister is not. Attempting to enter the castle any way but mine will result in your death. You have no choice; you must wait. Be here, with the wand, in thirteen nights. If you are not, you have already failed.”
With that, she turned and strode toward the door. Before she reached it, she turned back to us and bared her fangs. “Do not breathe one word of this to anyone. Or I will kill you.”
We nodded and mumbled in agreement, she swept out the door and into a swirl of snow.
Everyone stood silently after she was gone, all of us looking uncomfortably at each other
At last Shannon spoke. “We should probably get going. I don't really feel all that confident driving this kind of weather, but…” Her eyes flicked up briefly to Turner and I nodded; I certainly didn't feel like spending the night with him either.
True, it was thanks to him we had found Serana and she was the only chance our friends had, but I still barely trusted either of them.
“Good luck,” Turner said softly as we headed for the door.
For a moment I resented the well wishes and Turner himself; if he had just gone ahead and done this – who knew how many years ago –none of us would ever be in this mess. We probably never would have ended up at Mystic Cay or even in the labyrinth. But the feeling quickly passed; I was barely even sure if I wanted to do it and the lives of some of my closest friends were at stake…
“Thanks,” I murmured, sliding open the door.
The wind was blowing hard and the snow lashed and stung my bare cheeks. I welcomed it – anything to distract me from what I was going to have to do.
Chapter Seven
Ember
We drove home from the farm in a quiet sort of shock. I was glad that Shannon was driving – not just because I couldn't hope to see in the falling snow with regular or heat vision – but because my thoughts were racing after our encounter with Serana, I could never have even hoped to focus on driving. As it was, the drive home seemed agonizingly slow. I wondered if Shannon was deep in thought as well or just being extra cautious in the snow.
Once we got home, we tried a few times to half-heartedly start a conversation and decided that it was best to sleep first. I didn’t know about the others, but I was awake for hours, staring up at my ceiling, and thinking of everything Serana had said. Thinking of my parents, trapped in that terrifying place. And Thomas and TS. They were family too, really – uncles, if not brothers, now that I was old enough to hang out with them instead of being watched by them.
Yet as frustrated as I was at the fact that going into the castle after them myself was impossible, I felt relief too. I didn't want to face Alaria or blood magic; the thought of it was terrifying. I couldn't begin to imagine how Jen must have felt being told she was the only one who could go in after them. At the same time though, being relieved that I wasn’t the one who had to do it made me feel guilty too.
We finally all sat down the next morning and started to talk and decided to give Jen a couple of days to think it all over. She wasn't just being asked to rescue everyone by herself, after all. I was uncomfortable with the idea of having to kill Alaria in the first place, but using blood magic, or more accurately arcanism, to do it was almost too much to process. I wasn't sure I'd want to and, honestly, I was glad I didn't have to make that choice.
We figured that since we had no way of contacting Serana until the agreed upon date that we could spare a couple of days to let Jen make up her mind if she was really willing to risk it all or not. I went ahead and started gathering the right iron and silver to meet Serana’s specifications and making a mold for it.
While we waited for Jen to make her decision we were forced to go about our daily lives again, with the added difficulty of making sure Jon didn't suspect anything. We all wanted to tell him the truth; about Serana, about the castle and about stopping Alaria. But Serana was right; there were too many traitors inside MES to risk it. I knew without a doubt that we could trust Jon, but unless he was planning on infiltrating the castle in place of Jen, there was really no point in telling him. He'd tell us not to do it; and as Jen herself pointed out, if the worst came to pass, she was technically more expendable than Jon. If she failed, we could still tell Jon what happened and try to defeat Alaria with sheer numbers, while hoping the others were still alive to rescue. But if Jon went in and failed, I doubted anyone else in MES with enough rank to gather a literal army would believe us. That was without taking into account the fact that one of Alaria’s people within MES would find out about a large scale attack and warn her. Given what Alaria had done to Mystic Cay, we were all afraid that if she felt threatened, she’d destroy the entire damn castle and vanish again.
The only way our plan had a hope of succeeding was keeping it to as small a number of people as possible – even if that meant just Jen would be going to the castle.
“I'm going to do it,” Jen announced a few nights later.
We were all sitting in the living room once again, surrounded by the stacks of research we had been doing for months, picking half-heartedly at our dinners. There was no question what she was talking about. I looked up at her. Somehow, even though we were already sitting in silence, the lack of noise became oppressive as we all looked at Jen. The only one who didn't look surprised was Rak, not that his expressions were always easy to read. He was sitting next to her on the couch and did nothing except lift his head to look at her as she spoke, without even a telltale twitch of emotion from his tail or ears.
“I thought you would,” Shannon said softly.
“I just don't think I have a choice,” Jen said. “I'm the only one who has any chance of getting in there, without risking Alaria finding out.”
“What if you do have to use blood magic?” Mariana asked.
Jen bowed her head and murmured softly. “I don't know. I won't. I just won't.”
We all glanced at each other and it was clear that everyone knew there was a possibility she wou
ld be forced to.
“Every blood caster we've spoken with says once you start…” Mariana let it hang.
“I know.” Jen forced flashed us an obviously forced smile. “But we've met some who have stopped.”
I nodded, but actually wasn't sure if that was true. Aside from Serana, who couldn't use blood magic anymore, I didn't think any of the blood casters we encountered had actually stopped using blood magic; they were just against Alaria’s methods. I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood, forcing myself not to blurt out my concern. It wouldn't do any good to worry everyone. Jen's mind was already made up. And, an admittedly selfish, part of me didn't want to give the only chance my dads had at rescue a reason to not go.
“Besides,” Jen added with another forced smile, “as long as I can just get close to Alaria, all I have to do is use the spell one time and then destroy the wand.” She shrugged. “Then I'd have to go to the effort of getting another wand if I wanted to use blood magic. I don't even think it would really affect me, if I don't follow through with the spell.”
“That's true,” Shannon said.
“So, all I have to do is get close to her.” Jen didn't sound very confident. Not that I blamed her.
“Ember?” she asked softly. “You said you can make the blade?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Thanks. I guess now we just need the potions ingredients…” Jen went to her purse and pulled out the papers from Serana and held them up. “I figured that we should divide this up between the four of us and all go to a different apothecary to get it taken care of.” Her brow furrowed. “Then, I just need a new wand…”
I excused myself and raided a couple cupboards in the kitchen. I returned with a small crate full of short branches and set it down in front of Jen.
“What is this?” she asked.
“It’s wand wood,” I told her. “We usually have a little on hand for special treats. I thought if you can find some that works for you…”
She looked up at me in surprise and gratitude. “Thank you, Ember!” She laughed weakly. “I've been wondering how I was going to get a new wand.”
Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6 Page 61