Web of Lies (The Hundred Halls Book 2)

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  "I understand your plight," said Pi. "I'll speak to him and try to get him to come back."

  Lady Amethyte patted her hand, gratitude glistening in the corner of her eyes.

  "It's all I can ask," said Lady Amethyte. "Would you like to leave now?"

  "If possible," said Pi.

  "A busy young woman," said Lady Amethyte with a wink. "I have another appointment waiting, so I'll have my server take you through that door and to my private portal. It'll bring you right to the back room in the Glass Cabaret."

  Moved by the maetrie queen, Pi bowed. "Farewell. It was good meeting you, Lady Amethyte."

  "You as well, Pythia Silverthorne."

  The server led Pi through the swinging doors. Right as she left, Pi heard a familiar voice greet the Ruby Queen. Before the server noticed, Pi leaned back in, catching a glimpse of the fifth-year student Zayn from the assassin's guild.

  The implications of why he was at the Ruby Court weighed on Pi's mind until she was back in the Glass Cabaret. She went right away to find Radoslav behind the bar, wiping down glasses.

  He took one look at her and held up his hand. "I see that eager look in your eyes. You think you have something gravely important to tell me. But I don't care. So don't bother."

  "But—"

  He snapped his fingers, which made her lips clamp closed.

  "I said, I don't care," he said, his black eyes smoldering. "You will not speak of what you learned with anyone, especially me."

  "Then why did you send me?" she asked.

  "I didn't," he said. "You wanted to go. Now you know. I hope your curiosity is sated."

  Before she could speak, he walked through the back curtain into his private room, leaving Pi behind the bar alone. The heated exchange had drawn a few side-gazes from the clientele. With cheeks burning, Pi rushed out the front, angry at herself for ever getting mixed up with that murderous bastard.

  Chapter Nine

  Aurie was late for a meeting with the Harpers in the competition room. She'd been waiting for her sister, but Pi had never shown up, and no one had seen her in Arcanium. After she'd decided that Pi was on some errand for Radoslav, she headed to the Spire.

  The sullen November sky was draped with shades of gray that Aurie could sense even when she passed beneath the over streets and various mezzanines that made up the center of the city. The lower areas of the Spire had been relegated for student use, while the mid-levels were either administrative or housed magical conferences. No one had gone into the upper section since Invictus had died. They used to hold fund-raising events or other important Hall meetings in his areas, but since those areas were blocked, everything had gotten shuffled downward.

  Aurie was headed through a parking garage filled with administrative vehicles. She found herself constantly looking over her shoulder as she walked through the empty garage, her footsteps echoing. She kept telling herself that her unease was due to the unearthly drivers that haunted a few of the cars, but she'd come through the garage previous times without feeling this way.

  A middle-aged male geist in the driver's seat of a bright blue Beetle watched her pass, and when its gaze flickered behind her, she knew someone was following. Aurie sped up her pace, hoping to either outrun whoever it was, or get them to reveal themselves.

  The startling sound of squealing tires as a car entered the garage on another level gave Aurie the opportunity to slip behind a concrete pillar. Once the noise had abated, Aurie stilled her breath and listened.

  After a dozen heartbeats, she heard quiet footfalls, confirming her suspicions. Rage filled her chest, turning her hands into fists until her fingernails cut into her palms. Why would someone follow her? They were going to pay the price for whatever mischief they were planning. As the footsteps approached, Aurie prepared an ambush.

  At the right moment, Aurie jumped out, unleashing a spell upon her pursuer.

  "Entangle!"

  The laces on his shoes untied themselves and wrapped around his ankles, tripping him forward. The dark-skinned guy that'd been following her fell onto his face, barely getting his hands up in time to prevent busting his nose.

  "Who are you and why are you following me?" yelled Aurie, nerves pulsing through her. "I'll turn your underwear into leeches if you try anything stupid."

  The guy groaned and moved cautiously to his knees. About the time he spoke, Aurie noticed the web tattoos on his arms.

  "Be a good trick, considering I'm not wearing any," said Zayn as he looked up at her.

  Aurie's cheeks turned into a forest fire. "Oh shit. I'm so sorry, Zayn. I thought you were a stalker."

  He rubbed the back of his neck. "Technically, I was. I'd seen you through the columns and was coming up to talk to you."

  "Do you normally sneak up on people when you do?" she scolded.

  "Probably?" he said, sort of laughing. "Habit I guess. Honestly, Priyanka would kill me if she knew that you surprised me like that. I was purposely not trying to be quiet."

  "Priyanka?" she said, hearing jealousy in her own voice.

  "She's the patron of my Hall," said Zayn. "She's why I was down here anyway. I'm her assistant."

  Aurie didn't know that patrons took students as assistants, but then again, each Hall was quite different, as she'd learned from Pi's stories about Coterie.

  He climbed awkwardly to his feet and indicated his entangled sneakers. "Could you?"

  "Yikes. Sorry," she said, then released the spell. The shoelaces returned to their previous positions. "So what did you want?"

  Suddenly, Zayn didn't know what to do with his hands. He glanced askance and bit his lower lip. Aurie wanted to rescue him from his nervousness, but decided against it, in case she was wrong about what he was about to ask.

  "Do you..." he started as he crossed his arms and looked at his feet, "do you think you...could help me with a project?"

  "Oh," she said, internally cringing at the disappointment in her tone. "Um, I don't know? I mean, why would you ask me? I'm a second year."

  Zayn pulled his shoulders back as if he hadn't considered the question. His face went through a few contortions before he answered.

  "My Hall has a narrow focus. The problem—project—I have requires a broader knowledge base. You're in Arcanium, and I saw you in action at Trials last year," he said.

  Her fantasy of what he was going to say deflated as he spoke, but instead of being disappointed, she wanted to punch him.

  "So?" he asked tentatively, his ice-blue eyes searching her for answers.

  Zayn looked like he could free climb a building, probably knew deadly forms of hand-to-hand combat, and had learned the arts of killing from his Hall. He might have even practiced them. Hell, he was the assistant to his patron, a powerful woman who was probably the least moral of the Cabal. She didn't necessarily want to help him. She wanted something else entirely.

  "No," she said.

  He startled, clearly not expecting the answer. "No?"

  "Not entirely no," she said. "We'll call it a maybe. Take me on a date. Nothing normal. We don't even have to eat, but it has to be something unique to you."

  Zayn stammered over his words, and he didn't appear the kind of guy that was ever at a loss for them. "I'm, well, I mean, yes, of course." His brow furrowed. "Is this a date or a test?"

  "I'll let you know afterwards," she said.

  He chuckled lightly, as if he were amused that he'd found more than he'd expected. He quirked a grin.

  "Well, alright. Something unique to me. I'll work on that," he said, looking forward to the challenge.

  "Saturday," she said.

  "I'm not sure..."

  "Saturday," she repeated emphatically.

  He held his hands up, laughing. "Okay, okay."

  "I have to get going. We're practicing at sucking in the contest," she said.

  His eyes went wide. "I could help you. I've heard a few things."

  "That'd be cheating," she said.

  He gave her a look that said
are-you-that-naive? "Do you really think the other teams are playing fair? Especially with that whole special prize thing from Invictus. Some teams have rich backers that are actively funding research into the contest."

  "We don't need it," she said.

  He raised an eyebrow. "Really? I've seen your score. You need help."

  "You're keeping track?"

  He gave her a funny look. "Everyone does. There's huge bets placed on the contest every year. This year is worse."

  "Did you place a bet?"

  "I'm not saying," he said, eyes sparkling with mirth.

  "Goodbye, Zayn," she said, and started walking away.

  "I'll see you Saturday, Aurie," he said.

  Aurie purposely didn't look back, even when she knew that he was watching her. She made her way to the contest room. She knew he was probably the last person she should be getting involved with, but she didn't care. For years, everything she'd done was for her sister or to get into the Hundred Halls. She wanted to do something for herself for once.

  Rigel was digging through the refrigerator for an energy potion when she stepped through the door.

  "At least one of the Silverthorne sisters has decided to grace us with their presence," he said.

  "Sorry. I was waiting for Pi. I think she had some class work or something," Aurie lied.

  Rigel seemed to sense her deception, and he shook his head as he popped the top on his can and took a tentative sip.

  Before she went through the portal, Aurie checked the scoreboard which had showed up on their wall after the first day. One hundred and fifty-two teams filled the space. The top team, the Indigo Sisters, had a score of 38,222. Another twenty teams had scores around that level, all of them heavily filled with members of the Cabal, as if they were sharing information. The next groupings were above the 10,000 mark, which was the score people got for solving the first room. At the bottom, Harpers didn't even have a score. There was just a dash line, not even a zero. They hadn't registered a single point in the Grand Contest.

  Aurie stepped through the portal. Despite the score, the encounter with Zayn had left her flushed with excitement. She knew they'd get the first challenge down eventually.

  The others weren't as positive as she was. The giant floating cube hadn't changed, but the tension had. It felt like she'd stepped into a pressure cooker.

  Hannah was skating around the cube in her block skates, the wheels making a constant whirring noise, which clearly annoyed Raziyah, who seemed to be the only one actually studying the cube. Each time Hannah went past, Raziyah wrinkled her nose, which made her glasses shift. The drama between the two went unnoticed by Echo, who was seated on the cube picking at his fingernails.

  Rigel walked in behind Aurie and made a sweeping motion with his hand to indicate the dysfunction of the group.

  "Looks who's here," said Rigel. "Fifty percent of the Silverthorne sisters, not that one hundred percent has been doing us any good. And by the way, for those keeping score, which is hard not to do with that damn board in there, the Young and the Breastless team has officially climbed out of the bottom, leaving us as the one and only team not to have advanced past this stupid cube."

  The whole team, minus Echo, groaned.

  "Learn anything new?" asked Aurie.

  Raziyah pushed her glasses up her nose with a single finger. "How can I think with that constant noise!"

  Hannah slapped her hand against the corner of the cube. "I think better on these. At least I'm doing something, unlike Echo, who thinks he's a mountain goat up there, or Rigel, who spends his time sucking down free food and drinks and using the bathroom."

  "I'll have you know, I have a delicate constitution. It upsets easily," he said, holding a hand to his stomach.

  "Come on, Harpers," said Aurie. "We need to work together."

  "Says the girl who showed up late and without her sister," snapped Rigel.

  "Yes, I was late, but I'm here now," said Aurie, containing her anger. "Have you guys learned anything?"

  "Hannah just skates in circles, doing nothing. At least Echo is examining the cube from a new angle," said Raziyah.

  Rigel cleared his throat. "What Raz is so inelegantly trying to say is that we haven't learned one single thing this entire time."

  "That's not true," said Aurie. "We've learned things that don't work."

  Rigel huffed and put his hands under his armpits. "I guess we've learned it's not a box. There's nothing inside. Solid cube as far as we can tell."

  "Good," said Aurie, "anything else?"

  Hannah did a block skate pirouette. "It absorbs faez, though doesn't charge it."

  "Probably not an artifact," said Raziyah. "Not that they'd have one hundred and fifty-two of them lying around for the contest."

  "Good thinking," said Aurie. "We also haven't figured out why it floats, which could indicate some extra-dimensional magic. It might be held up from another realm."

  "Heavy. It's very heavy," said Echo, from atop the cube.

  His comment tugged at something. While the others clearly dismissed him, Aurie thought there was something to his insight. She didn't think he was saying it randomly.

  "It's a portal," said Pi, who strolled into the room with a turkey sandwich in one hand and an energy potion in the other. Her mouth was half full, and her eyes were delirious with the enjoyment of eating.

  "Sorry I'm late," she said through the food. "Prior engagement."

  That was code for Radoslav. Aurie wondered what she'd been doing that she hadn't had time to eat.

  "It can't be a portal," said Hannah. "There's nothing to go through."

  Pi took another bite of her turkey sandwich. After she swallowed, she said, "I guess the technical term is a Dimensional Fusion Device. It shifts the alignment of two realms overtop each other so you can easily move from one to the other."

  Aurie rubbed her forehead. "So it is trans-dimensional. That's why it's floating. Because in the other realm, it's on solid ground. They've shifted them in the z-axis so this one appears to float."

  "How do we activate it?" asked Rigel. "I'm unfamiliar with these types of magics."

  "These types of magics are the purview of Acoustic Architectural Institute of Design." When everyone rolled their eyes, Raziyah added, "Or Stone Singers. I haven't taken the class yet, but the theory is simple. You just need to…"

  She placed her hands on the cube and closed her eyes. The white walls faded away immediately, giving Aurie vertigo. She barely had time to orient herself before movement from multiple directions had her backing against the cube.

  Dozens of angular fast-moving insects, each the size of a bear, came chittering at them from every side. Aurie watched in horror as a giant bug rose above Hannah, then jammed a chitinous foot through her chest.

  Rigel created a mechanical warrior, something out of Japanese anime, to protect him. Aurie saw right through the illusion, and to her and Rigel's disappointment, the bugs did too. They chopped him up like a frog in a blender.

  To her right, Pi, turkey sandwich abandoned on the floor and lettuce sticking out of her mouth, lashed out with flame, but the insect came through the fire and tackled her onto the ground. Aurie had no time to watch, because two insects were bearing down on her. The first one had its leg snapped in half by Raziyah, who'd thrown a rock or something small from a squatting position, but the creatures kept coming. Aurie tried building a makeshift wall out of the earth beneath her feet, but the giant insects burst through it like rice paper. The last thing she remembered was a pair of glistening mandibles snapping towards her neck.

  Chapter Ten

  The first act of Professor Mali's bibliomancy class was to eat a book. They were meeting in the Tower of Letters, where ancient typeset blocks draped the walls. Each class, they met in a different location of the hall. For the first month, they'd learned the mundane practice of creating books using a printing press.

  While Pi thought the exercise exquisitely boring, when they got to use the same press t
hat Ben Franklin had made his pamphlets on, she started to come around.

  The professor had ingested Magical Wings of North America, a book about butterflies. After the last corner was poked into her stern mouth, the professor swallowed, followed by an enormous belch.

  "Excuse me," she said, pounding on her chest. "Now that I've had my fiber for the day, ask me any question you want from the text."

  Everyone had their own copy of the book. They'd each printed and bound their own editions using special ink and paper.

  Deshawn raised his hand first, and the professor called on him. "What's the lifespan of a Brimstone butterfly, and what potions can you make with it?"

  The professor closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them as if the answer had appeared in her mind like a light bulb. "Nine to ten months, and they can be used for fire breathing and, quite inexplicably, indigestion potions."

  Other hands went up. Professor Mali answered each one with precision, though she'd never read the book. Pi wasn't a book lover as much as Aurie, but she recognized the power of being able to absorb a lot of knowledge in a short amount of time. The more research-oriented fifth-year students were said to consume two to three books a day, and could recite the most obscure facts about diverse subjects. Pi had no intention of doing that, but there were a few tomes of magical information she would like to absorb. Too bad they couldn't do this trick with spell books. Those had to be learned the hard way.

  A groan went up around the room when Violet raised her hand. She gave the rest of the class a nasty look. Her clique had grown smaller after the incident with Aurie had gone viral.

  "What are the Monarch butterfly's natural predators?" asked Violet.

  Before the professor could answer, Aurie leaned over and whispered to Pi, "The blonde parasitic fly."