Arcane Dropout 5

by Edmund Hughes

  Martin downed the rest of his liquor in a single gulp. Lee did the same, though for his own reasons.

  “You need to help me, Lee Amaranth,” he said. “If you give a damn about my daughter, you’ll help me find her and protect her, and be her shield. My family and I can’t do it alone. We need you to wait for her, to be at Primhaven, to watch and wait. You’re quite frankly the last person I think I’d ever willingly ask for help… but I’m asking you for it.”

  “I’ll help,” said Lee, his voice shrunken like a grape in the sun. “I’ll help.”

  “Swear to me on your honor as a man that you won’t let them hurt her. That’s what they’ll do, Lee, if they can’t find an easy way to fix her. I know the Order, I know how they think, I know how they fail. They only know how to destroy what they don’t understand.”

  “I swear it. Even if it means making a stand against the Order.”

  For once, it seemed as though he’d said the right thing. Martin nodded, a portion of the tension relaxing from his shoulders. He poured himself another drink and then raised a questioning eyebrow.

  “How drunk can you get before your instructor makes a fuss?”

  CHAPTER 39

  The taste of bourbon was bitter on Lee’s tongue as he made his way back to Harper and Allison in the mansion’s foyer. An unexpected scene greeted him there, though not an unwelcome one.

  Harold, the improbable calico tomcat kitten, was being petted and fussed over by Allison, Eliza’s sisters, and Harper. The bag containing Eliza’s belongings was open, which explained how the cute stowaway had made his escape.

  “He’s gorgeous!” cooed Allison. “Look at his eyes.”

  “Such a handsome little guy!” said Molly.

  Harper stood and gave Lee a look as he approached the group. “I’m assuming this wasn’t intentional on your part?”

  “Far from it. I can’t imagine he was comfortable in that tightly-stuffed bag.”

  “He’ll have to stay here until we get clearance for him to go back through the Arcane Way.”

  “What?”

  Harper frowned at him. “Pets can’t just travel through it on a whim. It would be chaos for local ecosystems. It’s necessary to clear all non-human animals with the Order before making a trip with them. We didn’t know the kitten was with us, but we do now, and the protocol has to be followed.”

  Allison had begun making baby noises and scratching Harold’s stomach, the cat purring blissfully and stretching out across the floor.

  “Well, at least we know he’ll be in good company,” said Lee.

  He hoped Tess would be understanding about the temporary departure of her feline friend. He and Harper managed to steal Allison’s attention away from the critter to say their goodbyes and then headed outside to the car.

  “What did Eliza’s father have to say to you?” asked Harper.

  Lee buckled his seat belt. “About what you’d expect. Her family really loves her.”

  “Eldon…” Harper chewed her lip as she started the car. “You should… prepare yourself. I know you want to help your friend, but—”

  “I don’t want to help her; I’m going to help her.”

  “I didn’t tell you this before, but there was a report of an attack on a small group of snowmobilers a dozen miles outside of Gillum from right around the time Eliza underwent her change yesterday. Dead, all of them, with a level and style of destruction comparable to what you described at the frost troll camp.”

  “So? Just because it was similar doesn’t necessarily mean it was her.”

  His words felt hollow, and judging from Harper’s delayed response, they must have sounded that way, too.

  “We’ll try to help her,” she said. “But we also have to protect innocent lives where we can.”

  “Eliza is an innocent!”

  “Eldon…” She sighed. “I’m sorry.”

  Little else was said between them until they arrived back at Primhaven and stepped out of the First Tower and onto campus. Harper smiled at him then, glancing toward the Seruna Center.

  “You should get something to eat,” she said. “It would be best if we ran a patrol route looking for her before sunset tonight. Far better for us to encounter her away from Primhaven and Gillum, if possible.”

  “Right.”

  It was an odd experience to enter the dining hall and know that none of his friends would be at a table, waiting for him. With Toma back home and the situation with Eliza, he was the only one left.

  Lee filled up a plate with a tuna sandwich and chips, not trusting his stomach to hold down anything more complex. He found a seat at an empty table and felt lonely, doubly so because of how justified he knew the emotion was.

  Two ethereal hands suddenly settled over his eyes, bringing about a less-than-pleasant tingling sensation across his forehead and face.

  “Guess who?”

  “Hmm… this is a tricky one. Willow, is that you?”

  “As if. She’d probably just stick her boobs in your face if she wanted to play a prank on you.”

  “Ooooh, that sounds like an awesome idea for a prank.”

  “Lee Amaranth!”

  “You could give it a try, too. The size of the endowments doesn’t have any real bearing on the humor of the joke.”

  He pulled Tess into his mystic stream and hugged her from the side. She was still standing up, and he buried his face into her abdomen, heedless of who might be watching. Tess was barefoot and wore a white flower-patterned shift dress with grey leggings underneath.

  “What’s wrong?” She ruffled his hair and took a seat next to him, helping herself to a chip off his plate. “You seem… really sad.”

  “It was just tough seeing Eliza’s family.” He shook his head. “They’re taking the news really hard.”

  “I can imagine,” muttered Tess. “Losing their youngest daughter. It must be a nightmare for them.”

  “One other thing,” said Lee. “Um, about your kitten. He sort of… tagged along for the trip. Harper wouldn’t let me bring him back when she found out. Harold is still with Eliza’s mom and sisters.”

  “Good.”

  “I swear, I’ll file the paperwork and… wait, what?”

  “I’m glad.” Tess flashed a dimpled smile and shrugged. “For a while now, I’ve felt it would be better for Harold to, you know, have a proper home.”

  “You seemed to be doing a pretty good job of looking out for him.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Ah, yes. Feeding him stolen bits of human food and constantly watching over his shoulder to make sure nobody stepped on him. I was the ideal pet owner.”

  “You could have asked me to take more of a role.”

  “You’ve been so busy lately. The last thing I ever want to do is be a bother to you.”

  “Trust me, you will never be a bother to me,” he said. “Unless you start forcing me to take you on fancy dates again.”

  “It’s not forcing if you owe them to me. It’s merely fulfilling a legally binding obligation. Anyway, my point is just that if Harold can cheer Eliza’s family up during their hard time, and they can provide for him better than I can, then it’s an ideal situation.”

  She was still smiling, but Lee could see it sagging at the edges.

  “You loved that kitten,” he said.

  “I loved it dearly,” she said. “But sometimes you have to let go of the things you love.”

  Lee set a hand down on top of hers. “Sometimes.”

  She grinned at him. “Can I have some more of your chips?”

  “Get your own.”

  “Lee Amaranth! Don’t be mean, it doesn’t even cost you anything to share with me.”

  “Make me an offer, and I’ll consider it.”

  “One kiss.”

  “One kiss… on any part of my body?”

  “You are so gross!”

  CHAPTER 40

  The dining hall filled with students as the afternoon gave way to evening. Lee took his time eat
ing, surprised by how comforting it was to just have a quiet meal with Tess.

  Between exploring ancient ice tombs, dealing with his sister and the House of Shadows, and serving as Harper’s apprentice, he’d almost forgotten what the experience of Primhaven was like for its normal students.

  He watched groups of friends joking and laughing with one another or sharing food. He saw a group of second-level disciples practicing telekinesis with a plate of sliced carrots. Instructor Eileen was overseeing the chamber, and her face seemed set into a perpetual frown, though she made no move to interrupt the activities or scold anyone.

  Lee felt the creeping loneliness, an insidious and somewhat paranoid sense of standing out from the crowd. He had Tess with him, of course, but to the eyes of his peers, he was sitting by himself and having what they must have assumed to be a miserable solo dinner.

  He briefly considered trying to sit with Harper in the future before coming to the conclusion that it would seem equally weird. The idea of starting over at Primhaven with a new group of friends had an unappealing, borderline terrifying quality to it. How had he even made friends with Toma and Eliza to begin with?

  He was on the verge of sinking into the depths of what he knew to be a rather typical variety of teenage angst when a slight but noticeable tremor ran through the chamber, causing his tray to drift a few millimeters across the table. He glanced around, wondering if anyone else had noticed.

  A few people had, though they didn’t get a chance to say anything about it. A second tremor was followed by a loud but muffled bang from outside.

  “Lee!” said Tess. “What’s going on?”

  He shook his head and started to get to his feet. The blast came before he’d completely risen from his chair, bringing blinding red light and deafening noise, the floor shaking hard enough to steal his legs from beneath him.

  People were screaming as he pulled himself back up, but the noise was muted by ringing in his ears. The dining hall was on fire in several places, though the smooth stone of the floor and walls was stubbornly refusing to feed the blaze. There was a massive hole in one of the walls, the campus visible in the gaping space beyond.

  It was snowing, which never happened within Primhaven’s walls. Lee blinked in disbelief. He glanced over at Tess, who was similarly caught off guard. She took his hand and they hurried forward, climbing over chunks of wall and building material to make it outside.

  He almost didn’t recognize the area where he found himself. The western side of Primhaven’s wall was in complete shambles, with a crumbling, partially enflamed gap large enough to march an army through. The Seruna Center which Lee had just emerged from was also on fire, the blaze making slow but steady progress across the roof.

  Students were running in all directions, screaming and stumbling, feeding into the atmosphere of general panic. Another massive blast sounded somewhere in the distance, shaking the ground enough to force Lee’s knees to do work to keep him standing.

  “We have to find Harper!” he shouted.

  Tess opened her mouth to reply, but her eyes widened an instant before her response. She pointed behind him. He turned around in time to see a figure flying through the air, sheathed in a cocoon of crimson energy.

  They both fell flat on reflex, the evening sky briefly flaring with red energy too bright to look at directly. Screams came from all directions, a chorus of fear and confusion. Lee gripped Tess’s shoulder tight as he rose to his feet.

  “Stay close!” he said.

  She nodded furiously, color fading from her body as Lee released his mystic stream. He sprinted forward, looping around the edge of the Seruna Center and heading toward the center of campus.

  Most of Primhaven’s other main buildings were in similar states of fire and collapse. The school had fallen victim to a vicious attack, and the culprit now hovered in the sky, alongside the Zephaphine Islands. Lee stared upward, taking in the figure wreathed in evil crimson, as sure that it was Eliza as he’d ever been of anything.

  His first impulse was to head for Harper’s room in the Elemental Tower, but he heard someone shout his name before he’d taken more than a few steps. He caught sight of Gen and Harper to the north, closer to the First Tower, as though the two of them were lamely attempting to cordon off an opponent who could levitate wherever they wanted.

  “Eldon!” shouted Harper. “Is it her?”

  Lee nodded slowly. “I don’t see who else it could be.”

  “Head Wizard Odarin has begun evacuating the students,” said Harper. “Regardless of whether this is a fight we can win, it’s not one we can take on with innocent lives at risk.”

  Lee saw Odarin running around, waving his arms, slowly directing students toward the First Tower and the Arcane Way beneath it. It was not an easy evacuation, given the fact that the enemy everyone was fleeing hovered above the escape route like a vengeful god descending from the heavens.

  “Initiate Amaranth, for now, you should lend your aid to the evacuation,” said Gen.

  She already had Savoire Solaire out of its sheath, the enchanted blade gleaming in the ambient red light, its aura pulsing bright under the gaze of Lee’s mystic sight. His eyes held on the sword for an instant longer than he’d intended as he remembered Zoe’s harrowed plea and the help that he might well need from her just as desperately.

  “We’ll confront her above,” said Harper. “You focus on helping your classmates down here.”

  “No.” He stood his ground, letting his gaze match each of the women in turn.

  “Eldon, this isn’t a game.” Harper gripped his shoulder, her fingernails digging in through his shirt. “People are already dead. This is no time for you to be rebellious.”

  The falling snow felt so out of place amidst Primhaven’s green grass. A white flake landed on one of Harper’s eyebrows. Lee brushed it away with his finger before she had a chance to.

  “She’ll listen to me,” he said. “Let me go up first to speak with her.”

  “If she came here to talk, I’d expect she wouldn’t have attacked the school on sight,” said Gen.

  “There’s no way of knowing what she wants if we don’t try this. Eliza is… still in there. That much I do know.”

  “Eldon, you’re out of your mind,” said Harper through gritted teeth. “This is out of the question. I refuse to let you get yourself killed in pursuit of whatever delusional heroic scenario you’ve imagined in your head.”

  “He might die anyway,” said Gen in a pensive tone. “We all might. Honestly… I see no harm in letting him try.”

  Harper whirled around, her expression twisted with annoyance bordering on outright fury. “He is not your apprentice!”

  “He’s also not a child. You forget this entity that we’re facing, the Unavowed Queen, if I understand correctly, already had a chance to kill him once. The fact he’s still alive seems to lend credence to his line of thinking.”

  “We don’t have time to argue this,” he said. “Harper. I’ll be okay. I promise.”

  He removed her hand from his shoulder and gave a quick squeeze. Harper’s glare shifted from Gen back to him. He took a step forward. Harper pulled him back.

  “Eldon…”

  She kissed him, her lips desperate and furious against his. It was brief, but the sensation of it lingered as she pulled back and gave him a reluctant nod. Lee only hesitated for an instant before turning and sprinting off toward the First Tower, Tess trailing but a few feet behind.

  There was a crowd not far from the entrance, held off from the allure of escape through the Arcane Way by the presence of Eliza’s ominous glowing figure above them. Lee pushed his way through the First Tower’s partially open entrance and ran straight to the arcane lift.

  He stopped right outside of it, finally letting go of Tess’s hand and turning to face her. They were alone in the lobby, but he wasn’t sure he would have needed to say much to get his point across.

  “You should stay here,” he said.

  “L
ee…” said Tess. “She knows me. She might listen to me.”

  “The fact she knows you, knows about you, is why it’s too dangerous. She’s more unpredictable now than ever. I can’t afford to lose you, Tess, and having her threaten you in order to get something out of me is a risk I won’t take.”

  Tess nodded slowly, though her expression looked anything but convinced. “Promise me you’ll be careful?”

  “I promise.”

  He hoped it was one he could keep. He stepped into the arcane lift and triggered the rune that would carry him to the upper levels.

  CHAPTER 41

  The ride up felt slow, and each arduous second left plenty of room for Lee’s anxiety to worm its way in. He forced himself to control his breathing, trying to make each long inhale last until the lift had made it past three or four of the its usual stops up the tower.

  He recognized where he was when the doors finally clicked open. The second-to-highest floor in the tower was a simple balcony extending flush with the Zephaphine Islands. One of them was usually near enough for a person, preferably one with no fear of heights, to step onto from the edge.

  Eliza had made the floating islands her own. Her crimson aura of power had been too bright for Lee to clearly see what she’d done from his vantage point on the ground. She’d arranged them like stepping-stones leading across a stream, each one offset higher than the last, so anyone seeking to reach her on the largest, highest island would be forced to climb back and forth.

  “Any chance you’d be willing to come down here to talk?” he called up.

  There was no response, but he wasn’t sure the words had been meant for her, anyway. He took a slow breath. He felt for his dagger. He felt for his gun which he’d only brought with him to avoid leaving it in the mess of his destroyed dorm.

  The first island was just to the side of the tower’s balcony, the grassy edge low enough for him to get his elbows on and leverage himself up with his feet. It was small, not much wider across than the lawn of a suburban house, with a perfect circle of wildflowers at its center.