Omnibus Three: Magical Arts Academy ~ Books 9-13

by Ashta, Lucia

  She smiled weakly and met my eyes. She must have read my concerns from my expression, because she said, “Don’t worry. You seem to be a lot like me. You’ll figure out your magic sooner rather than later, I have the feeling.”

  If that was meant to encourage me, it didn’t. She’d nearly lost control of the air element and torn apart every person she cared about all at once. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to manage things as you did,” I said, though I wasn’t sure whom exactly I was trying to convince. If I’d really moved tons of rocks without realizing it, what else might I do beyond my awareness?

  Clara was studying me, I noticed with a start. I pretended that her amber stare didn’t unnerve me, but it was cutting me right to the bone.

  She said, “Now that I think about it, I believe your magic is very different from mine, but no less commanding. You don’t access your powers directly through the elements as I do. It seems you might bypass all that entirely and create with your... thoughts? Your imagination? Am I on the right track here?”

  “No, I don’t create just with my imagination,” I said before reflecting, mostly because I didn’t want to accept what she was saying. I didn’t want to fear what I might do just by thinking. That was a tremendous amount of power, too much for me. What if I accidentally pictured something bad happening to Nando? Would it come true? And how would I keep myself from having bad thoughts when just the intention of not having them made them pop into my brain?

  “No,” I affirmed. “I’ll have to learn the spells like everyone else. Assuming we actually have lessons again.”

  Clara laughed, surprising me. “I know what that’s like, trust me,” she said. “I descended on Albacus and Mordecai without knowing anything about magic, other than that I had these crazy abilities that endangered everyone around me, including myself.”

  When it became clear she wasn’t going to continue, I prodded her. “So how did you learn to control your magic?”

  “Oh, well, a whole lot of lessons grasped the hard way.”

  “But... but then how will I learn how to do magic?” I fully realized she’d just implied that I should master my powers the hard way, but that didn’t sound like a good idea. I hadn’t forgotten how terrible it was when I accidentally portaled. My entire body felt as if it’d been torn apart and hastily glued back together. I wasn’t eager to experience anything like that again.

  She smiled sympathetically. “Being different has never been easy, but it is worthwhile, I promise you that. I’m sure that once we get back to Acquaine, Arianne will get the academy back up and running, and lessons will resume.”

  Well, that sounded good. I’d finally begin to have real lessons.

  “But don’t deceive yourself in thinking that classes will teach you all you need to know. Witches like us can never learn everything we need to from others, because we’re the first to walk our paths.”

  Witches like us. Her words echoed through my burdened mind.

  “I’m sorry, Isa, but if you expect that your powers will emerge through simple, safe lectures, you’ll be disappointed. You’ll learn best from challenges that force you to surpass the notions of your own limitations. For you, the way you’ve been studying is best, not sitting in a classroom with a lesson on the chalkboard and your spell book in hand.”

  But... but that’s all I’d been looking forward to. Classes. Lessons. A neat spell book all my own. An academy that would teach me everything about magic—in a safe setting.

  As if she read my mind, or maybe it was simply because we were more alike than I was ready to admit, she said, “Magic isn’t safe for people like us. It never will be. It can’t be, because what we do pushes the boundaries of what people believe is possible, even those who accept magic. I can tell you’re disappointed, but you shouldn’t be. I have the feeling you’re capable of more than either of us has imagined, and that’s saying something. I have a pretty wild imagination.” She winked at me, more lively than she’d been since exiting the castle.

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to all that. I wanted to pretend she was wrong and that things would be easy for me, that I’d surprise her and learn from a spell book like everyone else. But I’d always had trouble lying to myself, and I wasn’t succeeding now.

  “Seriously, don’t worry,” she said, as if she hadn’t just given me a whole heap of stuff to worry about. “It will be better than you think. There’s nothing like discovering what you’re truly capable of for the first time. It’s exhilarating and freeing… and entirely amazing.” She shrugged happily. “All you have to do is find the way to survive while you master your powers, and then you’ll develop into the extraordinary witch I have no doubt you’ll become.”

  All I have to do is find the way to survive? Was she serious? If this was her pep talk, I didn’t want to hear how she tried to discourage people.

  There went my dream of ordinary classes at the academy.... My shoulders slumped.

  “Cheer up. We survived the day, and there was no guarantee of that. When Mordecai suggested breaking into Maurisse’s castle to rescue Albacus, I thought he’d gone mad. Maurisse is the king’s brother, the most formidable duke in this land. But we did it.”

  By the way Clara said it, I deduced that she’d never truly contemplated not coming along. The members of the academy considered themselves a family. I suspected they might even storm the most dangerous castle in the region to rescue the likes of Madame Pimlish, and if they’d risk everything to rescue the most annoying among us, I envied the bond they shared.

  A bond I was quickly becoming part of. Somewhere along the way, I’d begun thinking of them as my family too. Which meant I was willing to endure miserable days like today to make sure we all remained together—and intact—as much as a family that included a ghost could be.

  The ghosts! I’d promised Ama I’d free her and the rest of them, to the best of my abilities at least. But I hadn’t seen her since before Marcelo and Brave pulled me out of the castle, with Sir Lancelot safely cradled in my palms.

  I turned back and forth, from side to side and up to the skies, searching for her, for any of the ghosts. But I didn’t find a single one, not even Albacus, the ghost that was visible to everyone there.

  “What’s wrong?” Clara asked.

  “Where’s Albacus? You said you freed him of the spell that kept him trapped in the castle, right? That all of the spirits were free to go now?”

  “Yes, all the spirits are now able to leave the castle.” Clara glanced around too. “Did none of them make it out?”

  “I don’t see any of them. Not a single one. Not even Albacus. Especially after being separated for all this time, Albacus would surely be with Mordecai now.” But Mordecai was otherwise preoccupied. He, Marcelo, and Grand Witch Tillsdale gathered around Walt, who lay on the ground unconscious, with a nearly frantic Marie holding his limp hand. Gertrude placed a hand on Marie’s shoulder in comfort, quite a gesture for the aloof and often taciturn redhead.

  “Mordecai’s working on healing Walt’s leg,” Clara said. “He probably figures Albacus is out here somewhere.”

  But he wasn’t. From our vantage point, I could see everyone and everything. The horses on the far end of the castle were blessedly tranquil and exhausted. Trixie bent one of her hind legs and rested along with the other horses, while Brave lingered nearby to calm them if necessary, I assumed. Delilah was bandaging Nando’s head, after she quite forcefully told me to come over here because I was in the way with all my fussing over Nando. She promised I could join him once she was finished, and the look Trevor gave me suggested I’d better listen. He and their children hovered around Delilah and Nando, but stayed out of her way.

  Arianne and Gustave seemed to be faring better. At least, neither one of them looked despondent anymore. If anything, they seemed angry and determined to fix all the problems Maurisse had caused. I’d handed Sir Lancelot off to Arianne, fully confident that she and her twin were the most qualified to deal with any magical creat
ure.

  The dragons and firedrakes continued to fly, and since Wizard Meedles portaled the hellhounds and Madame Pimlish away, that was all of us, wasn’t it? And there were still no spirits in sight, and no Albacus.

  Wait. There was someone else. “Count Vabu? Where is he?” I asked Clara.

  Her brow scrunched in concentration as she squinted into the bright day, searching everywhere I’d already looked. “You’re right. I don’t see him or Albacus.” She hmphed. “I don’t see Priscilla either.”

  I didn’t want to tell her, but since she brought it up, it didn’t seem right not to say it. “Um, ah, Priscilla is dead.”

  “Oh,” she said, and I nearly could feel her deflating next to me at the weight of losing one of our own, even if none of the magicians had decided whether or not Priscilla was trustworthy. Clara’s face fell and tears brimmed in her eyes before she hurried to blink them away. I had no doubt she’d cry for Priscilla—only later, when there weren’t a protector and a hundred spirits to locate.

  I was grateful she didn’t ask me how it’d happened, because that was a detail I definitely didn’t want to recount, let alone remember in the first place.

  Several beats passed in silence, during which I tried hard not to remember Priscilla, and I suspected Clara might be doing the same. Finally, she suggested, “What about connecting to Elwin?”

  “Elwin? I’m not sure he’ll hear me through all that.” I gestured above us with my head.

  The firedrakes had flown wildly once they were free from the castle, as if being locked in there had done something to their psyche. They flew to experience their freedom again, I guessed, to convince their minds and bodies they weren’t trapped any longer. When Humbert joined them, they only got riled up all over again. They squawked and screeched in a frenzy.

  “Hm, maybe you’re right,” Clara said. “It does seem like they need some time to calm down after all they went through.” She paused. “Still, maybe you should try. Elwin will be able to see more than we can.”

  “All right. I’ll call out to Elwin.”

  “Good. There’s nothing to lose by trying, is there?”

  I searched for Elwin’s telltale flash of indigo scales amid the flock of batting wings. There! I found him.

  I closed my eyes to better focus on speaking with him, when an unexpected voice spoke to me first.

  Chapter 2

  My eyes popped open. “Ama! There you are. Where’ve you been?”

  “Helping some of the other spirits. Well, actually Albacus and Malachai were the ones doing the helping, but I stayed with them. We all did.” She gestured with her arms to encompass the many ghosts who were streaming out of the gaping hole in the castle. “After all we’d been through together, we wouldn’t leave anyone behind.”

  “What’s she saying?” Clara asked, but quickly added, “Never mind. It’ll be too taxing to relay everything. I see Albacus making his way toward Mordecai. I’ll head over there to see if I can assist in any way.”

  I simply nodded at her as she rose to leave, thankful I wouldn’t have to expend extra energy. I too should make myself useful in some way... just as soon as Ama updated me.

  Many of the ghosts emerged from the castle and immediately began to float upward, where they faded from sight. As soon as Clara was outside of hearing range, I asked Ama, “Why couldn’t the spirits leave before? What was the problem? Was it Maurisse’s spell?”

  “I don’t think so.” She glanced between the gathering of frazzled and beaten magicians, the spirits who continued to emerge from the castle, and those that vanished into what appeared to be thin air.

  “What then?” I took a moment to actually study her, then said, “Are you all right?”

  She sighed heavily, letting out who-knew how many years of pent-up frustration. “No, I really don’t think I am. But I suppose now I’ll have a chance at being all right.” She shrugged sadly. “For a dead girl, anyhow.”

  What was there to say to that? Maurisse had separated her from her family and killed her. As if that weren’t enough, he’d imprisoned her immortal soul. So I said the only thing I could. “I’m so sorry, Ama. I wish I could fix it all for you.” Too bad I couldn’t.... “Why did some of the spirits need Albacus and Malachai’s help?”

  “Albacus said that the energies of some of them had become linked with the energy of the physical space, since they’d been trapped in the dungeons for so long.”

  “So it wasn’t just the spell keeping them there?”

  She shrugged. “I guess not. Albacus and Malachai didn’t actually do any magic, none that I noticed anyway. They told the spirits they needed to—what was the word they used?—visualize themselves outside... or something like that.”

  “Great,” although nothing seemed particularly great. Everyone there had paid a steep price to rescue Albacus and the others, all because of one man. My jaw tensed and my nostrils flared. Any remnants of haziness fled my mind as I focused on the person who’d caused it all.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Ama asked, and my heart clenched at the way she shrank away from me without actually moving.

  I mindfully softened my expression. “Of course not. I was thinking about Maurisse and what he’d done to you.”

  “Oh.” There was no need for further explanation.

  And it was time I join the others. Delilah must have finished bandaging Nando and, given that Mordecai hadn’t paid attention to Albacus, I also worried about Walt.

  When I returned my focus to Ama, she looked in the direction the many spirits were disappearing. Her face, too unlined and fresh for someone long dead, was wistful.

  “What will you do?” I asked. “Will you search out your family? Or will join the others?” When she didn’t reply, I added, “You know, I helped another spirit, a girl much like you, to move on. There’s nothing to be frightened of. Everything felt... right. Nice and peaceful.”

  “Thanks, but I’m not worried about that.”

  I waited.

  “I’m worried about what I might find if I search for my family.”

  Although now that my brain had cleared, I was in a hurry to check on Walt and the others, I gave her the time she needed. It was the least I could do after all she’d been through.

  “It’s been a long time, so long that I’ve lost track.” She stared off into the distance, avoiding the rush of ghosts desperate to be free not only of the castle, but of this world. “I don’t know if I’ll like what I find if I go looking for my family. My parents will be old, if not dead. And my brothers....”

  “You’re worried that your death made their lives hard.”

  “That, but there’s also more, and I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t feel it. It’s wrong of me.” Her long hair hung limply across her filthy dress, no doubt soiled from her time as a prisoner in the dungeons, before she died.

  The firedrakes and dragon continued to swoop above us while causing a horrible racket, and the tension among the magicians of the academy was tangible. Add to that the constant stream of emerging spirits, and the frenzy that surrounded me was enough to keep me on edge.

  But not Ama. She was too still for the circumstances, the entirety of turmoil taking place within.

  “Then what are you worried about?” I asked, trying to be as gentle as possible. The girl seemed fragile, as if she’d used all her strength to endure what she had. Now that she was free, she could grant herself permission to break.

  But I wouldn’t allow that. Now was her chance to find peace, something she clearly deserved.

  In a voice so low I edged closer to hear her over the racket, she said, “I don’t want to see them because I’m worried they’ll be happy.” She pursed her lips and her face scrunched. If she’d been capable of real tears, they’d be sliding down her face. “That’s a horrible thing to say, isn’t it?”

  “Only on the surface. I’m sure you want your family to be happy, don’t you?”

  She nodded, and her lips trembled.

 
; “You just don’t want to think that you weren’t important to them, that they could have moved on without you. Am I right?”

  She nodded again, reminding me of a child many years younger. “I want them to be happy without me, of course I do. I just... I just miss them so much.” She sobbed, but the sound wasn’t right. Her cries were dry and harsh. She could no longer cry real tears, and without them, her grief was little more than a shell.

  I rose, taking a second to steady myself. I reached out with my arms, but froze in an awkward gesture. I wanted to comfort her, but I couldn’t very well embrace her without making it worse. No ghost wanted a reminder that they couldn’t experience the basic comforts of the living. I knew it from experience.

  Finally, I brought my arms to my side, trying not to draw attention at my failed attempt. “What you’re feeling is completely normal.” I spoke with self-assurance, although I clearly wasn’t an authority on what the dead should or shouldn’t feel. Still, I’d say anything at this point to help the girl. Her sense of solitude was rubbing off on me, and I yearned to relieve the hollow ache that consumed her inside.

  “No one wants to feel as if they aren’t missed,” I said, casting a glance in Nando’s direction and discovering his eyes on me already, seeking me out.

  While Ama tilted her gaze toward the sky, I put a palm up indicating to Nando that he should wait, then pointed toward Ama, and next snapped my fingers together with my thumb. Since to him I’d signaled to empty space and done odd things with my hands, I could only hope he’d get the message. I wouldn’t abandon Ama.

  He gave me a quizzical look before Delilah stepped between us and spoke to him. Whatever she said, Nando turned his attention to her, and I hurried my gaze back to Ama. I didn’t want her to think she didn’t matter to me as she worried about not being important to her loved ones.

  “I’m sure your family struggled to continue without you,” I said, immediately regretting my choice of words. I hurried to make it right, without any idea how to do that. “You’re very special.”