When the mat held, Aurie looked down at her patron, surprised.
"Brilliant. Now walk across," he said.
The moment her shoe touched the mat, it collapsed, pulling off the pole. She plummeted face-first towards the ground, a scream trailing from her lips.
She jerked to a stop as the bracelets halted her fall, then fell the remaining distance, landing heavily on her hands and knees with her hair hanging into her face.
Patron Gray's stoic expression did not give her much encouragement.
"Again."
The climb up the pole was excruciating. Whatever stores of energy she'd had left, they were spent in the terror of the fall.
She tried to recreate the brief success another forty times, but the bridge never held again. By the time her quivering legs could barely hold her up, her head swam with vertigo.
When Patron Gray spoke, and it wasn't the word, "again," she stared at him, confused for a moment.
"We're finished for now," he said. "But clearly you haven't been diligently practicing as I asked, or you would have made more progress."
Aurie was too exhausted to counter his claim.
"You may use this room as much as you'd like, though you'll have to come in through the administration offices. I've left instructions. Make sure you leave the safety links here. They won't work anywhere else."
"Patron Gray," she said.
"Yes?"
"Thank you," she said.
"Verbal thanks are unnecessary. This is my duty. What I expect is more focus next time. I don't think you're taking this properly serious," he said. "Now I must excuse myself. I have another appointment. Good day, Aurelia."
Too exhausted to stand, Aurie remained on the floor for a half hour before removing the bracelets and climbing to her feet. She felt rice paper thin. She wasn't sure what was worse, dying to the bugs in the contest, or learning mendancy.
Chapter Fifteen
Pi was in her room reviewing a lesson on somniancy, waiting to be tired enough to practice the spells, when Deshawn stuck his head through the open door.
He had a stupid grin plastered to his lips. "Some cute girl in glasses is here to see you."
"Me?"
He nodded enthusiastically. "She's waiting on the other side of the drawbridge."
"Thanks," said Pi, then added when he lingered in her doorway, "and let me guess, you want me to get her number for you."
"If it's not too much trouble to ask," he said.
Pi closed her book and grabbed a hoodie from the bed. "You owe me."
"Now and forever," he said.
The end of January had brought a cold front down the east coast. There wasn't much snow on the streets, but the lakes were frozen and the brisk winds made being outside long perilously cold. Pi cast a warming spell on her hoodie before venturing outside of Arcanium.
A single figure in a parka with the fur-lined hood pulled up waited for Pi. She had a premonition of danger, and almost went right back inside. Pi looked around to make sure no one else was around. The normal tourist crowd that lingered outside Arcanium had disappeared during the cold spell.
Once she crossed the drawbridge, Raziyah revealed herself, bringing a sense of relief.
"Hey, Raz, what's going on?" asked Pi. "I didn't think I'd see you till our next attempt after finals."
Raziyah laughed nervously. "I actually asked for your sister, but you can help just the same. If you're willing."
"Everything okay?" asked Pi.
"I'm fine," she said, pushing her glasses back up her nose. "But I'm worried about Echo. I try to keep in touch with him, make sure he's okay and all, but I haven't been able to get a hold of him the past few days. He lives in a pretty dangerous area, and I didn't want to go alone."
"Where?"
"Southside of the thirteenth ward," said Raziyah.
Pi chuckled. "Yeah, no problem. That's where Aurie and I used to live. You came to the right person."
Raziyah blushed, and pulled her coat tighter. She was squarely middle class. Exactly what Pi would have been had her parents lived.
They took the Blue Line to the Red Line, chatting about the contest along the way. They'd been stuck on the third wave of bugs for the last three attempts.
"I don't think we're good enough," said Raziyah. "I'm last in my Stone Singer class, Echo would rather spend his time smelling flowers in the fort, Hannah keeps getting killed because of her roller skates, and Rigel doesn't have much to offer with theater magic since the bugs see through any illusions, nor will they succumb to any hypnotism magic. We're lucky you and your sister are in our group."
"That's not true. We just haven't found a way to leverage everyone's abilities yet," said Pi.
"The top teams are on wave seven. I hear there are flamer bugs and jumper bugs from five on. I have nightmares just thinking about getting burned alive," said Raziyah, squeezing her coat against her chest.
"The good thing is that no one is past the bug section, which means we have time to catch up," said Pi.
"I don't know," said Raziyah, "those top teams have a lot of outside help working on strategies. Plus, they've got the top people from their halls. It's like some of them spread out into different halls just so they could compete together. Of course, you'd know that."
The train lurched to a stop as Pi said, "What?"
"The Indigo Sisters," said Raziyah, as if Pi should already know what she meant. "That girl, the one whose mom owns the Herald of the Halls."
"Violet Cardwell?"
"Yeah. We think she's in Arcanium so they would win the contest. Why else would she not be in Alchemists?"
The realization was like a smack to her forehead. It made sense. Violet had been planted in Arcanium, which meant the Cabal had known about the special prize long before this year. Or she could be a spy, since Patron Gray opposed them.
"Something wrong?" asked Raziyah, looking at Pi's hands.
Pi unclenched her fists. "No." She looked up. "Let's go, our stop."
No one else got off at the station, and a few people gave them are-you-crazy looks. It wasn't the stop she'd used to get to her apartment, but the one deeper into the thirteenth ward. There was a good side and a bad side, if that could be believed, and they'd lived in the area that despite being poor, people looked out for each other.
While they were second-year mages at the Hundred Halls, with more power at their fingertips than a normal person, a gun could still kill them from a distance before they could do anything. And people who lived in the City of Sorcery were well acquainted with what a mage could do given the chance. It was better to shoot first and deal with the consequences later if there was any question of magic.
Pi led them on a roundabout way to get to the address that Raziyah had for Echo. She'd lent him a cheap phone to keep in touch, since he couldn't afford one himself.
When they arrived at the address, they learned it was a group home for autistic adults. A lot of his behavior became clear upon seeing that sign.
"Is this why he doesn't live in his Hall?" asked Raziyah.
"What hall does he even belong to?"
Raziyah blinked. "I don't know. I've never gotten that out of him. Maybe it's one of the smaller ones that doesn't have a building to live in. They use rooms in the Spire for lessons."
A knock on the door brought an older woman with heavy bags under her eyes.
"We're friends of Echo's from the Halls," said Raziyah.
The older woman didn't seem to understand.
"Ernie," said Pi.
"Oh, Ernie," she said, her face drooping with sadness. "Have you seen him? He hasn't come home the last three nights. I thought he might be, you know."
The woman didn't look like she'd come to terms with him being able to wield magic, which Pi decided would be a concern in a home like this.
"That's why we're looking for him," said Raziyah. "He hasn't responded to my texts or anything."
The woman touched Raziyah's arm. "Bless you both for
befriending him. He's a good kid, but I don't know what to do with his abilities. Sometimes strange things happen in the house that I can't explain. The others have begun to fear him, and blame anything that happens to them on him. I'm afraid he might have run off."
"How did he come here?" Pi asked.
The old woman sighed. "He's a ward of the state. That's all I know."
"If he comes back, could you contact me?" asked Raziyah, then she gave the woman her number. "I'll let you know if we find him."
"Bless you both," said the woman before she slipped back inside.
Pi and Raziyah shared worried glances.
"This is not good," said Pi. "How do we find him?"
"I have an idea," said Raziyah, "if you promise not to freak out."
"Try me," said Pi, suddenly curious.
Raziyah pulled out her phone and started typing away on it. "Before I knew I was strong enough to get into the Hundred Halls, I was working on being a programmer. Like I said, I'm good at math, but I'm even better at hacking."
"I'm shocked," said Pi.
"I've only ever done, you know, white-hat hacking, but I know how to get into his phone and check his GPS," she said.
"Whatever gets us there," said Pi, wondering what Raziyah would think if she knew about the demon she'd summoned to get into Coterie, or that she was bound to the Black Butcher, a city fae of ill repute.
After a few minutes, Raziyah said, "Got it. Not far from here. Three blocks."
The place was an old abandoned apartment building with the windows boarded up. A couple of gang members with guns sticking out of their pants were hanging around front.
They stayed way back and discussed what to do about it.
"You know, it's possible that they stole his phone and he's not in there," said Pi.
Raziyah looked shaken. "But what if he's in there?"
"We're going either way, don't mistake me. But I want you to be prepared if he's not and we've done some not so very nice things," said Pi.
"Maybe we should get the rest of the Harpers," said Raziyah.
Pi shook her head. Aurie was in the Spire practicing mendancy, and she didn't keep her phone on her. Hannah had taken the train south to visit family, and Rigel was auditioning for the lead role in a play in the theater district.
"I think it's just us two," said Pi. "If you're not up for it, I can do this alone."
Raziyah blew out a steadying breath. "No. I'm good. I just hope you have a good idea on how to get in there."
"Well, they're not going to let us walk in. Honestly, I don't think we can get near without risk of getting shot. Can you make us a bridge from one roof to another? We could go over?" asked Pi.
Raziyah sunk lower. "Even if I could, they'd hear my singing."
"Good point," said Pi. "I don't think we want to go in anyway. Probably a drug operation inside. If Echo's in there, they're probably using him to make drugs. A good mage can speed up the process, make it more potent, and so on."
"How do you know so much?" asked Raziyah.
"The dealers near our apartment made us many offers before we joined the Halls. Thankfully, they were the less persistent ones. I've heard of underage mages getting pressed into service before they had a patron, going mad from faez making drugs."
"No one tried with you or Aurie?" asked Raziyah.
"We made it clear that if anyone tried anything, we'd burn the motherfucker down rather than work for them. Being known as a crazy bitch in these parts has its advantages," said Pi with a wink. "Which gives me an idea. Maybe we don't have to go in. Maybe we can get them to come out."
The pair crept around to a back alley. Standing back from the apartment, Pi lobbed a ball of flame into a dumpster. Flames sprung from the beaten blue box immediately.
They waited for a minute as the fire simmered, but no one came to investigate, and the fire was only burning inside the dumpster.
Raziyah pulled back her sleeves. A hint of ozone filled the air. Then a brick at the corner of the wall exploded. Then another, and another, eventually collapsing a section of the wall. The guards from the front came running around and started yelling into handsets.
The pair hid in the shadows. When the guards weren't looking, Aurie lobbed a ball of flame against the hole, catching the wood inside the building on fire.
Within minutes, gang members were fighting the fire with extinguishers, and when that grew to be too much, they evacuated the building. It looked like an ant farm upended. Guys in hazard suits and face masks came stumbling out of the front door. When Echo walked out, handcuffed to a gang member, Pi and Raziyah quietly cheered that he was still alive.
The pair waited down the street. The gang was making headway on the fire as more of them brought extinguishers, so Raziyah called 911.
There were a lot of guns in the street, which made the pair nervous while they watched. They kept expecting the sirens to make them scatter, but no one came. Pi began to suspect that the emergency services either thought it was a prank or didn't care enough about the area to bother. The gang was getting the fire under control, which meant they would be going back in soon. Echo looked bruised and beat up, his head down like a whipped dog. Pi couldn't let them take him back in.
"Shit," said Pi. "Stay here, and tell my sister I was an idiot, if she asks."
Raziyah tried to pull her back in, but Pi was away in an instant. The gang didn't notice Pi until she was halfway to them. She stopped when they trained a half-dozen guns on her.
"Whoever you are, girl, you need to get the fuck out of here," said one gang member wearing a skull shirt. He had an AR-15 tucked under his shoulder.
"I can't," said Pi, holding her hands up and nodding towards Echo. "You have my friend."
"He ain't your friend if you dead," said Skull Shirt.
"I promise you that gun is useless, and even if you did manage to kill me, I summoned a demon the next block over. If I die, then he's been instructed to kill you all. A task I'm sure he'll relish, and it won't be a quick death either," said Pi.
The gang members shared glances.
"You ain't a mage," said Skull Shirt, taking a step forward, jabbing his AR-15 in Pi's direction.
Pi made a fire spear in her right hand. She was used to creating them at the bug fort.
A wave of expletives traveled through the gang members.
"Maybe I think you lyin' about the demon and kill you anyway," said Skull Shirt.
"I didn't come alone," said Pi.
And as if on cue, a rock near Skull Shirt's foot exploded. Half the gang threw themselves on the ground.
Once they picked themselves up, they whispered amongst themselves while keeping an eye on Pi. At each glance, she was sure they were going to shoot. After a full minute, Skull Shirt motioned towards the gang member who was chained to Echo.
"Fine. You can have him. We done anyway," said Skull Skirt.
Pi sensed a trick, but didn't want to try any spells and spook them.
They uncuffed Echo and pushed him in her direction. The whole time, Pi expected them to shoot. When he neared, she whispered, "Keep going. Raz is back there."
As she turned her head, she caught movement from Skull Shirt. He lifted his AR-15. Pi was too slow with her spell.
As the first shot popped, an explosion ripped through the building, and a bullet sung past Pi's head. The gang was knocked to the ground.
"Run!" yelled Pi, grabbing Echo's hand and sprinting down the street.
She expected a hail of bullets to rip into her back. When she reached the corner, Raziyah came running up from the alleyway. They ran the whole way back to the train station. Once the doors had closed, they checked on Echo. He had bruises up and down his arms and a burn mark on his neck, from what looked like a cigarette.
"I'm so sorry, Echo," said Raziyah with tears in her eyes. "I wish we would have figured this out sooner."
His eyes were glazed, and he mumbled something below hearing, repeating it over and over. Eventually, he leaned
against Raziyah, fidgeting with his hands the whole way.
Once they got away from the thirteenth ward, Raziyah had him put up in a hotel near Stone Singers so he didn't get picked up by the gang again. She said she'd work with the home to find him a safer apartment, maybe even the university would help. Pi offered to help, if she needed it, but by the time she left for Arcanium, she was sure that Raziyah had it all taken care of. Pi just hoped that the experience hadn't irrevocably injured Echo, and if it had, she'd go back and make that gang pay for what they'd done.
Chapter Sixteen
A light snow covered the Enochian District, giving the squalid streets a fresh coat of fluffy paint and washing clean the normal smell of garbage collecting in the alleyways. Icicles ringed the dragon fountain like teeth. Aurie broke one off, the ice snapping like a muted gunshot.
"It's like the rest of the city forgot this little idyllic corner," said Aurie, hugging her arms to her chest. The air didn't feel as cold as it had near Arcanium.
"Just like you seem to be forgetting the murderous horde of faez-eating thralls and the winged demon that controls them," said Pi.
"Minus that," said Aurie. "It'd be neat to see this place filled again like it used to be when Mom and Dad used to come here."
"I thought this wasn't about them," said Pi, frowning.
"It's not, but it'd still be cool," said Aurie, kicking the snow playfully.
Pi scooped up a handful of snow and threw it at Aurie. "We need to work on what you think is cool, big sis."
"I will take your disapproval as a compliment," said Aurie. "Enough dillydallying. We've got a demon to banish."
"Nobody says dillydallying anymore," said Pi, accessing the GPS on her smartphone. "The address you gave me is over there, down that street. Are you sure it's living there?"
"Technically the mage that summoned it bought that place. It could be living anywhere, but I suspect it didn't bother finding a new home," said Aurie with a shrug.
"Don't you think it's strange that the demon doesn't come out during the day?" asked Pi as they wiped away snow on the porch numbers to find the correct house.
Web of Lies (The Hundred Halls Book 2) Page 12