"It's okay. I'm not squeamish," she said, catching his nearly imperceptible nod of approval.
"Once they get enough venom in the rodent, it won't feel anything. It's a powerful paralytic. Then like ants, they'll drag it back to the nest for feeding," he said.
The swarm of spiders came on rapidly. They were quicker than Aurie anticipated, and slightly larger, maybe the size of her palm, covered in fine black hair. The young rodent was only moments from death when its mother darted in from above, grabbed its baby by the scruff, and bounded away from the incoming spiders.
"Yay!" Aurie exclaimed, her cry of victory lasting until she realized the mother rodent was bounding up the slope towards them. With no more concern than if they were a pair of rocks, the rodent mother carrying her injured baby sprinted between them and out of the cave through the ravine.
Like a carpet of living earth, the spider swarm moved after the rodent, directly at them.
"Oh, shit," said Zayn.
Aurie was up instantly.
"Run," he said, pushing her towards the crevice.
The way in had been slow due to the torturous nature of the path, but with the spider swarm in pursuit, Aurie slipped frantically through the tight spaces, smashing her hips and legs on the rocky outcroppings.
The silent pursuit seemed almost worse than any chittering horde. Every time she looked back, Zayn urged her onward. She felt their presence almost directly behind them.
Aurie thought they might be breaking away, when her boot ripped at the seam, the magic of her lies failing at the worst time. Her unprotected foot slammed into rock, forcing her to cry out.
"Keep moving," he pushed at her.
The boot was ruined, and there was no way she could run over the sharp rock at the bottom of the crevice.
When she summoned faez to repair the boot, he said, "No magic!"
But she had no choice. She told the boot how it was almost brand new, that the threads hadn't broken, just stretched a little, and that everything was going to be fine. Mendancy felt warm and syrupy when she used it. With the covering back over her foot, Aurie continued down the crevasse.
She looked back and almost wished she hadn't as the swarm had nearly overtaken Zayn.
As the crevasse curved, part of the swarm broke off, heading over the edge to cut them off.
"Let's stop and fight," yelled Aurie over her shoulder. "We can burn them."
"No," he said. "It won't work. They eat magic."
Aurie growled in frustration.
"I have one thing left to do," he said through hurried breaths. "Keep going, don't look back. There's a white line painted on the rock in the place you have to climb up."
"Don't be an idiot. You can't face them alone," she said.
"I'll meet you at the portal," he said. "Just promise me you won't look back."
Her hands were raw from scraping along the rock. She couldn't imagine how many bruises she had on her legs.
"Don't be a hero," she said.
"Don't worry, I never am," he said, and the unrelenting anguish almost made her stop until he added, "No looking, and keep running! I'll meet you at the portal!"
Despite every urge to look, Aurie kept scrambling through the crevasse for what seemed like forever. Eventually she came to the white line and looked back. No spiders were following. She wasn't ready to chance their eventual return, so she climbed as if they were hot on her trail.
Thankfully, she'd been paying attention on the journey out, and found the rock garden, though she couldn't pass the archway. Standing in the darkness wondering if a horde of magic-eating spiders was going to appear at any moment wasn't the greatest of feelings, but Aurie survived it as well as she could.
An hour passed, and she was wondering if Zayn hadn't survived and if she would have to find her way out of the Undercity on her own, a prospect she didn't relish, when he came stumbling up the path.
Except Aurie didn't recognize him at first. He looked like he'd been hit with a heavy stick multiple times. He had lumps all over his body. Even his face was misshapen, which she assumed was from the poison.
"Zayn!" she said, holding him up before he fell.
Through one eye, he gazed wearily at her. He didn't look strong enough to stand let alone use magic to get them back.
Aurie used mendancy to convince him he was doing better than he thought. He perked up after the spell was over, and got them through the protective wall.
"Marron-gris," he said, bringing them through the portal.
Aurie half carried him out of the secret garden. He had foam on his lips and a pallor to his skin.
Once she was outside, she knew instantly where she was, only a few blocks from Golden Willow. Aurie spelled her tired limbs and carried Zayn the final distance like a firefighter, heading straight to the emergency doors.
When she stumbled through, Dr. Fairlight greeted her with a smile until she saw Zayn on her shoulder. Together they got him on a gurney.
"Spider poison," she said. "Achaeranea magicaencia."
Dr. Fairlight gave her a funny look, but marshaled her team. In moments, they whisked Zayn away, and she was left to collapse from exhaustion.
Curled up on a couch, Aurie slept until Dr. Fairlight woke her with a gentle shake.
"Is he okay?" asked Aurie, heart tearing as she remembered the horrible flight from the cave of spiders.
"He's fine," she said, nose wrinkling. "Or he'll be fine because you got him here in time."
"Can I see him?" asked Aurie.
Dr. Fairlight looked like she didn't know what to say. "He's in a private room now. He has other visitors."
"Oh," said Aurie, guessing someone from his Hall had come for him. "Priyanka?"
Dr. Fairlight raised an eyebrow, but nodded, releasing a bloom of jealousy. She wanted to be at his side when he awoke. But then she thought about her patron, Semyon. She imagined that if she were injured, he'd be at the hospital to check on her.
The subject changed to small talk. Dr. Fairlight checked up on how school was going, before she got called to another emergency.
When Aurie finally left, she was awash with mixed emotions, mostly because she liked him, despite the dangerous implications of his hall. It wasn't that good girl likes bad boys thing, or at least she hoped not, but that he'd seemed to be trying to tell her something through their conversation, something even he didn't necessarily want to admit.
She knew it because that's what she'd been doing for the last year, until she'd finally been able to put her parents' death behind her.
One thing she did know for sure, she was going to get a look at this book Impossible Magics. Either it would tell her something about Zayn that he didn't want to admit or it was a clue to what he—or really, the Cabal—really wanted.
Chapter Twelve
While the other Harpers were in the portal room, Pi confronted her sister.
"Are you going to tell me what happened on your date? You wouldn't shut up about it before when you left, but came back covered in bruises and haven't said a peep."
Aurie was wearing a shirt of light chain, which she kept shifting and adjusting. They'd borrowed the gear from Hannah's friends at Freeport Games who did live action role-playing.
"Because I already know what you would say," said Aurie. "You don't like him."
"What's not to like?" said Pi. "But I don't trust him, and neither should you."
"He seems to be genuine," said Aurie.
For an older sister, Aurie could be so naive. "Isn't that the whole point of his hall? To practice deception? Academy of the Subtle Arts is a nice way to say that they're practiced liars."
"There's nothing wrong with lying for the right reasons," said Aurie.
Pi put a hand to her forehead. "He's already gotten to you."
"He hasn't, I swear," said Aurie, but Pi knew her sister. She could see that look in her eyes. She always believed the best in the guys she met, and was typically devastated when they turned out to be the jerks that
Pi told her they were.
"I was the one to ask for the date," said Aurie. "He wanted something."
"Of course he did. Don't they all?"
"Not that. Well, probably, but that's not what he asked for. He wanted to see a book from the Arcanium library called Impossible Magics," she said.
"He's on orders from the Cabal, I bet," said Pi.
"The problem is that book isn't in the library. I checked with the Biblioscribe. Never had a copy. Nothing on the internet either. If it exists, it predates Hall records," said Aurie.
When neither sister had an explanation, they joined the others, who were milling around the obsidian portal cube nervously. Only Echo seemed impervious to the task. He was sitting in his traditional spot on top, wearing bulky padded armor. Everyone looked uncomfortable in their gear except for Hannah, who had a set of Army-issued body armor she'd acquired for cosplay.
"Are we ready to do this!" said Pi, trying to get her team pumped up.
Rigel gave his answer with a series of dry heaves along the wall, while Raziyah paced back and forth, mumbling and constantly pushing her glasses back up her nose. She had a bulletproof vest on that was two sizes too big.
"Time to take off the roller skates," said Pi.
"No way," said Hannah. "I'm better on these."
"But that courtyard is rocky and grass covered. You'll just get tangled up," said Pi.
"I'm wearing the skates," said Hannah.
Pi sighed. "Well, then. Positions everyone. Remember your jobs."
"I don't want to die again, I really don't," said Rigel, his color resembling old porridge.
"Don't worry," said Pi. "You'll respawn back here."
"It's not the respawn I'm worried about. It's the actual death. I've had nightmares since last time," he said.
"We all have," said Pi, "but we have to do this."
"Chin up, Rigel. We've got this," said Aurie as she placed her hand on the obsidian cube.
Rigel audibly groaned.
Everyone was in position, even Echo, who looked as uninterested as possible, but at least he was standing.
"Three. Two. One. Go."
This time, Pi had a moment to orient herself before the bugs attacked. They stood in an old stone fort, walls mostly intact, except for two areas that had collapsed. The greenish-blue bugs had six legs, were tall and angular, and had powerful mandibles. Once they identified their targets, they moved without hesitation, chitinous cow-sized insects intent on dealing quick death.
A bug came straight at Pi. She twisted fire and earth into a spear, the heat radiating off her face, and threw it. The bug was knocked back, one leg dangling at an obscene angle, but it kept coming.
Pi threw a second and third fire spear, collapsing the bug a few feet before it ripped her face off. On the other side of the cube, Rigel screamed. The bug had a leg through his midsection. She blasted it with another fire spear at the same time as Echo from atop the cube, killing the bug.
When the initial ambush had been turned back, the Harpers convened near the dead bug that had killed Rigel. Thankfully, his body disappeared. Seeing him die was bad enough.
"Not bad. We only lost one," said Hannah.
Raziyah squeaked. "We can't lose any if we're going to progress."
"Come on, Harpers. We've got to stay together," said Pi, then noticed Echo wandering away to look at some purple flowers along the walls. "Echo, come back. We need to stick together."
"I'll get him," said Hannah, half skating, half stepping across the uneven ground.
She was almost to Echo when a bug burst from the earth, showering everyone in dirt. Hannah went to turn, but her skates got tangled, and she fell to the ground.
Pi was going to throw a fire spear, but Echo was standing in the way. Everyone was shouting. The bug was on Hannah before she could do anything. It struck her neck, ignoring the body armor completely.
Everyone converged on the bug, killing it before it could move after anyone else.
"There might be more hiding in the courtyard," said Pi. "Let's sweep together and clear them out."
They killed three more, one at each corner, before considering the interior safe.
"It takes too many fire spears to kill one bug," said Raziyah. "We've got to find a better way if we're going to progress."
Though no one was sharing details about this phase of the contest, they'd learned that more bugs would attack the fort. They would have to withstand multiple waves, nobody knew how many, to get past the fort phase.
"Let's see how far we can get today." Pi pointed towards the gaps in the walls. "Can you fix those, Raz?"
Raziyah blinked hard. She frowned. "I can try. Echo, can you come with me to keep look out?"
Echo nodded and trudged off behind Raziyah. She seemed to have a soft spot for Echo. Whenever they had downtime, she was usually chatting quietly with him, trying to get him to open up about himself.
While Raziyah stood in front of the gap, singing softly and making gestures, Echo crouched down, pulled weeds from the earth, and looked at the roots as if they contained deep mysteries.
Pi climbed up a set of stairs to the top of the wall. Aurie followed. A forest surrounded the old fort. The whole scene didn't seem strange—they could be in the hills of West Virginia, or somewhere like that for all she knew.
"Any ideas?" she asked.
Aurie lifted one shoulder and had opened her mouth to speak when Raziyah screamed. A squad of bugs sprinted from the forest towards the gap in the wall. Raziyah had managed to raise a lump of earth in the space, but it would barely slow the bugs down.
Pi ran along the top to the gap. She didn't bother with the fire spear, there were too many for that to work. Instead, after using verumancy on her arms to give them more strength, she grabbed hunks of stone that had broken away from the wall and threw them at the incoming bugs.
The first one bounced harmlessly off the lead bug, then surprisingly, exploded into shards, knocking them back like bowling pins.
Pi hadn't made it explode. Only when Raziyah shrugged and yelled, "Throw another," did she understand. It seemed she was better at demolition than construction.
Pi threw a fastball at the bugs, who had closed the distance. Raziyah made a gesture like snapping an invisible stick between her hands, and the hunk of stone exploded, killing one bug and slowing the others.
Aurie moved past the mound of earth and knelt in the grass with her hands on the ground. The bugs were coming fast.
"Watch out," screamed Pi, but her sister didn't move.
Pi kept throwing rocks for Raziyah to explode, being careful not to throw short and get Aurie caught in the shrapnel. Echo was still on the ground, pulling weeds and inspecting the roots.
"Echo, do something," she said between throws.
The first bug was almost to Aurie when its legs sunk into the earth as if it were quicksand. The others toppled over the first, and the whole knot of them became tangled in legs and mandibles.
Then Aurie stood and pulled her hands back, as if she were withdrawing her faez. The bugs were trapped in the earth.
"Now!"
Pi lifted a rock larger than her head and launched it at the bugs. Her shoulders would pay for it later. When it hit the center, Raziyah exploded it, ripping the bugs into discarded legs and heads, orangish ooze leaking from the limbs.
The three of them gave a victory holler. The excitement didn't last but for a few seconds before movement from the other three sides of the fort brought them around.
Bugs flowed over the walls. Three more groups came from the undefended sides. Pi and Aurie shared a glance before they were overrun.
Chapter Thirteen
Broken glass covered the floor of the clinic, trampled to fine powder. Dust and other junk, blown in through the open window, gave the room a musty smell. It would take days to clean it up, even if Aurie had help.
"What the hell did this?" asked Pi, turning in a slow circle to survey the damage. The air had grown cold, but Pi
still wore a white tank top and jeans as if it were still the middle of summer, which meant she'd enchanted herself to withstand the November weather.
"I don't think they were undead, or at least not the typical kind, like zombies or vampires, but you know, I'm not an expert," said Aurie. "They were attracted to light and magic. Undead faez eaters, or something."
"Whoa, cool," said Pi.
"You wouldn't have thought they were cool bursting through the windows hot after my blood," said Aurie, the echoes of her terror as the horde broke through the doorway making her heart rate double.
The strange thing was that the glass and debris on the outside had been swept up. Only inside her building did the destruction reign. Maybe the district had a janitorial elemental keeping it clean, since it was so deserted she doubted someone would have gathered up the glass on their own.
Pi wandered to the front and stuck her head out the door. "High noon. My kind of daylight in a district full of undead."
"I don't know if they're undead, though they don't come out during the day. I've been back a few times to check, and to see if I could find Nezumi. Haven't seen any of them, nor the winged thing that tried to kill me," said Aurie.
Aurie checked the back room. The mannequins had been torn apart, and mouth-shaped gouges decorated the hunks of plastic. That would have been her fate if they'd gotten hold of her.
"What gives?" asked Pi. "Are you doing this because of Mom and Dad?"
The question made Aurie pause. It wasn't hard to imagine that her parents had an influence on her, but something about the idea went deeper than that.
"Do you know why I picked Arcanium?" asked Aurie.
"No, actually. For the longest time, I thought you were going to Aura Healers, to follow in Dad's footsteps. Especially when you started working at Golden Willow," said Pi.
"I thought I would be in Aura Healers too, but Golden Willow changed that," said Aurie, holding up her hand, "but not for the reasons you'd think. I love working there. But on the other hand, it seems so futile. What's done is done. We can fix it, but it's just going to happen again to someone else. Some of those kids ended up in the hospital because their parents were mixed up in dangerous things. That's what had happened to Emily."
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