Sourcewell Academy

by S T G Hill

  Even in her growing panic, Ellie knew that Caspian meant I want to be here.

  Belt gave him a sharp look. “No. What I need is for you to allow me to complete my task without getting in my way.”

  Caspian’s lips trembled and his jaw worked. He clearly didn’t want to go. He looked from Belt to Ellie, and she saw the open jealousy on his face.

  “Of course,” Caspian said, lowering his head in a little bow. He backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  Right away, Ellie felt cut off from the world. As though her own universe had shrunk down to this space that was no more than 10 feet wall-to-wall.

  “Oh,” Belt said, walking around the chair until he stood behind her, “Don’t worry about starving, or relieving yourself, or any of those trappings of mundanity. I’ve cast a spell to keep such former needs from your body. It only works so long as you stay within this amplification chamber, but I don’t see you checking out anytime soon.”

  “What are you going to do to me?” Ellie said, trying to turn her head enough to see him. She couldn’t.

  He laid his hands on her shoulders gently, as though examining a prized possession. “I told you, it’s what we’re going to do together.”

  “What?” Ellie’s head throbbed.

  She wished so badly she were back in bed in Mr. Fichtner’s apartment, waiting for Chauncy to appear on the fire escape.

  “Thorn told you what you are, I know that,” he said, “But Thorn left me before he could learn everything. Or even much of anything. Magic is dying in this world, Ellie. But you, you are magic. We’re going to restore it all, you and I.”

  Ellie swallowed hard against the lump forming in her throat. “If you want my help, why don’t you just let me go? I’ll help.”

  Belt let go of her shoulders and came around to face her. He knelt down in front of her so that they were face-to-face. This close and unable to look away, she realized he looked older than she’d first thought.

  His eyes were a dull gray, like a lake reflecting an overcast sky. And, she realized, they beheld her with pity.

  “The spell is a long one. And like most great magic, it exacts a price. You are familiar with the cycles of magic? Yes? Good. Long ago, before the oldest civilizations in your history books, magic used to be everywhere. It did not ebb and flow like the tides. It simply was, and more potent than you can imagine.

  “I’ve waited a very long time for you, my girl. Longer than anyone could guess. And with you, I can restore magic to what it used to be. Cassiodorian and the other Magisters will question me at first, I’m sure. But in time they’ll see that I am right.

  “And now, to answer your question, the price that must be paid for this greater good is a life. Your life. A great price to you, to be certain. But for the rest of the world? Not such a large price.”

  Ellie choked back a sob. She couldn’t hold back anymore. Her eyes stung. She blinked and a single hot tear rolled down her cheek.

  Gently, Darius Belt cupped her face with one hand and brushed that tear away with his thumb. “It is your destiny. I’ve seen it. Cassiodorian would, too, if the magic were stronger. And you can’t fight destiny.”

  He let go of her and glanced around the amplification chamber. “This room will help you build that inner power up to where it needs to be for the first part of the spell. I will return to you then.”

  “Please, just let me go,” Ellie breathed when Belt levered himself to his feet.

  Belt didn’t answer until he opened the door to the chamber and stepped one foot out. Then he looked back at her over his shoulder, that awful pity still in his eyes, “I want you to know that I admire you greatly, and that I’ll never forget your sacrifice.”

  Ellie hung her head as far forward as her head restrain would allow.

  All around her, the walls of the room seemed to hum. Something inside her body picked that hum up.

  She screamed. No one heard.

  Chapter 42

  Ellie awoke with a splitting headache. She looked around at the octagonal room with its dully reflective walls.

  How long had she been in that place by this point? It was impossible to tell without any window outside. And the room stayed completely lit despite the lack of any source of light.

  She remembered sneaking to Thorn’s bedside at Sourcewell’s infirmary and marvelling over the bright dots of energy that crawled over his body.

  She remembered his words most. His words, and that awful look that he fixed her with. The one full of guilt and anger and sadness and pity all in one.

  “Find the gem,” he’d told, “And get it away from him… and Ellie? Don’t touch it!”

  Of course, in order to find the gem she’d have to get first out of these restraints and then out of this room.

  A small, scared voice deep inside of her that she wasn’t quite ready to listen to kept whispering about how Belt was going to keep her locked in here forever.

  Then she saw the face staring in at her through the small porthole in the door. The person on the other side wore one of those weird beaked masquerade masks.

  When they saw they had Ellie’s attention, they nodded towards her hands. They then raised their own, pantomiming them being bound together. Then they pulled them apart, free.

  A jolt of excitement ran up Ellie’s stomach.

  That excitement turned to roiling anxiety when she looked down at her wrists, invisibly bound to the arms of the chair.

  She didn’t want to feel that awful crawling, shocking sensation that happened if she struggled.

  And besides, what if the masked person was merely trying to make her attempt to get free so that they could laugh when the pain struck her?

  It was either try or stay in that awful chair forever.

  Ellie took a deep breath, wincing in anticipation. Then she lifted her arms. They came free.

  She was free.

  Grinning stupidly, she tried pushing herself to her feet. Her grin slipped along with the rest of her when she tumbled down against the oddly warm and smooth floor of the chamber.

  Her muscles were so stiff that her legs refused to bend. Her shoulders ached, too.

  Scratch that; everything hurt. It wasn’t that terrible prickling sensation of blood returning to muscle. She guessed Belt’s spell allowed for good circulation. It was just plain stiffness.

  She moved her arms and legs experimentally, wincing at the pain in her joints. If she got out of this place alive, she promised herself she’d never mock anyone suffering from arthritis.

  She also wanted to just stay on the floor for a while longer. Belt and Caspian did visit, but there seemed to be long, solitary stretches of loneliness. She probably could stay on the floor if she wanted.

  But what if this was one of those times when someone did want to come and test her again?

  Gritting her teeth, she moved her arms to a better position and levered herself up to her knees. From there, even though she never wanted anything to do with it again, she grabbed the chair and used it to haul herself to her feet.

  But what about the door? There was no way Belt didn’t keep it locked with some malicious warding spell. Someone like Belt was never too careful about anything.

  She didn’t need to worry. When she looked at the door, it stood ajar. The masked person on the other side had vanished as well.

  Ellie moved cautiously, touching and then pushing the door like someone testing their weight on some questionable ice.

  It swung outward with fluid silence, revealing that library-like hall she remembered from coming in.

  Her heart hammered the blood past her ears, making it difficult to listen for footsteps.

  But the place seemed empty.

  Ellie crept out and stayed low and close to the wall, wincing with every crawling footstep. Would her knees and hips and shoulders ever stop aching?

  She wished Sybil were there to help her. Sybil helped her focus, helped her stay calm.

  Ellie also couldn’t re
member the way out. Especially since Belt’s apartments seemed to rival that awful Minoan Labyrinth he’d created for them.

  She took a left, then a right. Each hallway looked the same. Sometimes there was a room. Some of them were libraries, other offices loaded with slick-looking desks and top-of-the-line computers and electronic gadgets.

  “How big is this place?” she murmured when she paused at an intersection of hallways. She leaned against the wainscoting, palm pressed against the veneer.

  And so far she hadn’t seen or heard anyone else. Not even her masked savior. She wondered who kept this place clean, but then figured that Belt probably used magic for that.

  The place didn’t even smell of dust. It didn’t smell of all the old books in the library, or of the overstuffed leather furniture in the offices. It smelled of nothing.

  Like someone had run the whole place through a filter. A filter of magic. Belt didn’t just use magic where it would most benefit him.

  He used it for everything else.

  In a world where magic was declining, where sorcerers often couldn’t call on enough power for many spells anymore, where those awful Errants hoarded and stole what power they could, Belt seemed to use it for everything. As though it would never run out.

  Never run out for him at least.

  The hand she’d pressed against the wainscoting warmed up.

  “Oh!” she said.

  Forking, zig-zagging lines of power crisscrossed beneath the skin of her wrist and hand. Those same lines continued along the wall, spider-webbing out several feet until they faded.

  Ellie jerked her hand away and the lines faded.

  The entire building was absolutely soaked in ethereal energy!

  She reached out, wanting to feel that strange sensation of warmth again. Just as her hand touched the wall, she heard it.

  Here.

  She yanked her hand back once more and turned her head to look up and down the hall.

  Here.

  She heard it again. Except the sound came from within her own thoughts. And yet, despite that, she got the distinct impression that it was also coming from the left fork of hall from the intersection where she crouched.

  Her skin prickled, the fine hairs on her forearms standing up.

  Here, it said again. Although it was less a word and more an impression or idea.

  Ellie pushed up to her feet, standing straight for once. That beckoning thought continued. And she followed it.

  She came upon a closed door. Power pulsed from the other side like a heartbeat, though it made no sound.

  Ellie swallowed hard against her suddenly dry throat.

  She knew she didn’t have time to dally. That she needed to get out of this place.

  Still, it spoke to her. And she listened. How could she not? It came from within her own mind!

  She opened the door and found herself within a long study. It was bigger than any she’d seen so far. Curio cabinets and shelves lined the walls, the shelves extending out onto the floor to farm a narrow path that led towards a large desk.

  Strange and wonderful things sat on all those shelves. Some pulsed with odd colors Ellie never knew existed. Others hummed with power.

  But she didn’t look at any of them. Didn’t even care about any of them.

  The only thing that held her interest sat behind that broad desk. It looked something like a small treasure chest banded with steel and a big, ornate lock.

  She knew right away that the thing within the box had called to her.

  All desire for sneakiness dissolved within that powerful need to look within the box. To look and to answer.

  And maybe… to touch? She didn’t even know what waited for her, but she wanted to touch it.

  She walked towards the desk, each footstep faster than the last. That heartbeat of energy that pulsed through the air grew in power and volume, pressing in against her eardrums.

  I’m here, that pulse said, Come and see.

  She stepped around the desk, barking her hip against the corner but hardly noticing the deep throb of pain that resulted.

  The box was locked, she saw. Not really knowing how or why, she waved her hand through the air.

  The lock made a thick clunk noise.

  Ellie stopped breathing. Her hip hurt from hitting the desk, but she didn’t care. She had to see. She needed to see.

  Here I am, Here I am, Here I am. The idea pumped through her mind.

  She needed both hands to open the heavy lid of the box. The wood between the steel bands felt warm.

  A red velvet lining waited within. And nestled within that scarlet bed waited the gem. It was large and smooth and black, about the size of her open hand.

  Ellie didn’t notice the way the room darkened around her, as though the gem pulled the light towards itself.

  No light played off its glasslike surface. But if she looked hard she thought she could see something shifting within. Something like seething black thunderheads.

  She lifted one trembling hand, wanting to feel just how smooth the surface was.

  “Don’t touch the gem!”

  Ellie turned slowly. It felt like dragging herself through molasses. And it actually hurt to pull her eyes from the black gem.

  Darius Belt stood partway down the path between the shelves, hands clenched into tight fists against his sides. He wore another of those expensive soot-colored business suits, the knot of his tie immaculate as always.

  For the first time in what Ellie thought was a long time, Belt looked apprehensive. His handsome features were drawn and tight, his eyes wide.

  “Why not? What is it?” Ellie’s eye felt the tug of the gem.

  She knew she should be frightened right then. That she should be trying to escape.

  But all she really wanted to do was turn around and look once more at the gem. It continued calling to her.

  Not his, the idea appeared in her mind, just as all the others had already from the gem.

  “That, young Eleonora, is power. Too much even for you, I think. How do you imagine those Errants could put up such a fight at the Academy? First, you will step away from the strongbox. Then you’ll tell me how you escaped the amplification chamber,” Belt said.

  He tried to appear calm and in control, but she could see the cracks. She saw them in the way he kept glancing at the box behind her. At the corner of it that he could see past her, anyway.

  She saw it in the way his eyes darted, and in the way his hands kept clenching over and over at his sides.

  She could feel him trying to press his way into her thoughts, the pressure of it warm against her mind.

  “It told me it’s not yours,” Ellie glanced at the gem and then tore her eyes from it once more.

  “It speaks to you?” Belt replied, swallowing hard.

  “It doesn’t speak to you?” she said. She could feel the gem in her thoughts, too. Like a whisper she couldn’t quite make out.

  That started a thin thread of worry low in her chest. She ignored it. She wanted to turn around so badly and look at the gem some more.

  But that would mean turning her back on Belt.

  And you never turn your back on anyone. That came from her old life, she remembered. Before Sourcewell, even.

  She shook her head at that thought, like someone trying to shake off some cobwebs they’d just walked into.

  Something else came into her thoughts, then: Thorn in his narrow infirmary bed. “Find the gem and get it away from him!”

  There were numerous gems in this room, but Ellie knew that he couldn’t be talking about them. It had to be this one.

  “It is mine,” Belt took a step forward, “Just the same as you. The gem stays in its box, and you stay in your chamber.”

  He lifted his hands and instantly the air thickened with power. Tight bands of it started to encircle her.

  “No!” Ellie said, panic coursing through her veins.

  Panic that triggered her own power. She smashed Belt’s entangling
spell aside so hard that it snapped back at him. When it struck him he slammed back into a shelf, knocking over odd artifacts.

  Some hovered in the air while others fell with strange slowness. Ellie hardly noticed, because Belt’s demeanor broke, all semblance of calmness gone.

  He snarled and held his hands out to his sides. A pair of huge spectral wolves appeared, growling and bearing their fangs.

  They leapt for her.

  At the same time, tendrils of power tried to bind her up. He tried forcing his way into her thoughts again, his psychic attack a sharp dagger against her mind.

  Here I am. The pressure of the thought wrenched her attention from the apparitions charging down on her.

  Ellie turned away from her attacks and faced the strongbox. The air shifted behind her, and somewhere in the back of her thoughts she knew those wolves were almost on her.

  She reached for the gem, gritting her teeth at the effort required to reach through those magical bonds.

  “No!” Belt roared.

  She grabbed it with one hand and lifted it from its velvet bed.

  It was just as smooth as she’d anticipated. And hot. So hot.

  That heat raced down her arm, smashing through her body. She went stiff. For a moment, her entire body glowed so hot and white that the wolves that had leapt at her dissolved back into their magical essence.

  Belt threw his hands up in front of his face, that roar of denial still on his lips.

  The power encased her completely, mingling with her own energy. Ellie lifted up off the floor, her body bent backwards, her eyes clenched shut and her jaw hinged open.

  Then she disappeared along with the gem, snapping out of the room so fast that the air clapped together like thunder.

  Darius Belt sank to his knees. The Gem of Orlyon was gone along with the Omenborn.

  A Plea from the Author

  Hey, Reader. So you got to the end of my book. I hope that means you enjoyed it. Whether or not you did, I would just like to thank you for giving me your valuable time to try and entertain you. I am truly blessed to have such a fulfilling job, but I only have that job because of people like you; people kind enough to give my books a chance and spend their hard-earned money buying them. For that I am eternally grateful.