by James Riley
“I don’t know what the right answer is yet, Damian,” Dr. Opps said. “But we need the power to send it away if it turns out to be misleading us.”
“It’s not—”
“That’s not a chance I’m willing to take,” Dr. Opps told him. “Do not seek it out, Damian. If it returns, call for me at once. You are not to speak to it alone, not ever again. And you certainly shall not use any magic at its request or command. Do you understand me?”
Damian started to say something, then looked up at Dr. Opps’s stern glance and just nodded instead.
“Good,” the doctor said. “Now you rest for a bit, Damian, and try to remember if there’s anything you saw in your mind that you haven’t told us yet. Sierra, come with me.”
She nodded and walked with Dr. Opps outside Damian’s room. The doctor gently shut Damian’s door, then paused and turned to Sierra.
“I want the power to destroy that thing,” he told her. “Just in case. What spells do you have that might work?”
She grinned. “I’ll make a list.”
- TWENTY-NINE -
WAKE UP!” SOMEONE SHOUTED, AND Fort bolted up.
Jia stared down at him in horror from the entrance to the Viewing Room, and the night before came crashing back in on him.
“I fell asleep?” Fort said, his eyes widening. “Rachel, you let me fall asleep?”
“Shh, five more minutes,” Rachel said from the other side of the room, her eyes still closed.
“What time is it?” Fort asked, panic flooding his fevered body. “Did I miss the test? Am I too late?”
“I’m here to get the book,” Jia told him. “But what did you do? Do you know what would have happened if Dr. Ambrose had come down here instead of sending me? Or if Colonel Charles had come for the Destruction book?”
“This is terrible,” Fort said, jumping up. “I can’t believe I did this!”
Jia stared at him for a moment, then sighed. “It’s fine, I won’t tell on you or anything. I mean, you’re already probably in trouble for not returning to the dorm last night. Just hurry, because—”
“No, I mean I can’t believe I fell asleep!” he shouted at her. “I needed to master the second two spells, and I . . . I don’t even remember if I did!” He paused, staring at her, then leaned in close. “But I do remember that you lied to me, Jia. You did know Sierra. Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
Jia flinched. “I don’t know what you think you know—”
“I saw it, in her memory!” Fort shouted. “I don’t think I know anything, I watched it happen!”
“You don’t know what you saw,” she said softly. “Now I have to go.”
“Why did you lie to me?” Fort said as she pushed past him to grab the Healing book. “What did I ever do to you?”
Jia stopped in place, then turned to stare at him. “Maybe it’s not all about you, Forsythe.” With that, she walked past him, only to pause at the door. “If I were you, I’d get to class immediately. Dr. Ambrose will be there any minute.”
Fort watched her go, not sure how he’d suddenly lost the high ground in that argument. Jia had been the one to lie to him. How had she gotten to leave indignantly?
Sighing, he turned back around and noticed the Destruction student still lazing on the bench. “Don’t you have to get up too, Rachel?”
She yawned, then slowly sat up, cracking her neck. “I guess I’ve done my job here, protecting the school by watching you carefully.”
“Really? That’s what you call sleeping the entire time?”
“You’re just cranky ’cause you were up all night,” she told him, stretching. “Don’t take it out on me. Wow, these benches are not comfortable, huh?”
“How’d it go?” said a voice from the door, and Fort looked up to find Cyrus standing there, holding a new uniform for Fort.
“How did it go?” Fort shouted. “I fell asleep! I don’t even know if I mastered the spells. If only you’d seen this coming, I might have found a way to set an alarm or something. . . .”
Cyrus slowly turned red. “Um, honestly? I sort of did see it, back when I went through all the different ways of getting us here last night.”
“What?”
“I didn’t want to tell you,” Cyrus continued as Fort changed his burned shirt. “But if you’d tried to get back to the dorm last night, you were going to get caught. Sleeping here was basically the only future where you made it to your test on time.”
“What use is being on time if I slept through all my studying?”
“Think positively!” Cyrus said, pushing him toward the door. “Maybe your unconscious picked up something by osmosis!”
Fort growled in frustration but hurried after Jia.
“The least you could do is wait for me, after I helped you study all night!” Rachel shouted from behind him. “And don’t forget our deal!”
The soldiers behind the glass walls all gave Fort a confused look as he and Cyrus passed by, jogging for the elevators, probably wondering if they’d seen him enter earlier or not, but that was the least of Fort’s concerns now. Chances were that he was about to fail out of the school. And that couldn’t happen.
Cyrus left Fort at the elevator, giving him a thumbs-up as the doors closed. Thankfully, there weren’t any other students in the elevator with him, so Fort collapsed against the wall, trying to calm down. The last thing he needed to do was panic; it wouldn’t exactly help anything.
Even if panicking felt really, really tempting.
Bursting into the Boneyard, Fort found Jia placing the Healing book on the podium at the front of the room as other students began filing in. Today the steel tables were all bare, except for the one that still had sheets on it from where Fort had been healed.
The sight of the sheets reminded him of something, and he quickly slipped Dr. Ambrose’s badge back onto the table she’d left it on the night before, hoping no one saw him. He thought he escaped notice, only to turn and find Jia glaring at him, definitely having caught him in the act. He shrugged, not willing to get lectured by her on anything, and she just shook her head.
“So I did leave it here,” Dr. Ambrose said from behind Fort, grabbing for her badge. “How did I not see it last night?” She gave Fort a suspicious look, then moved up to the front of the classroom.
“Dr. Ambrose?” Mason said, quickly walking up to her from his table as the other students arrived. “I’m having a weird problem. For some reason, I can’t cast Heal Minor Wounds. I mastered it months ago, but I tried to use it on a blister this morning and couldn’t think of the words.”
“Oh, Mason,” Dr. Ambrose said. “Maybe another round of Destruction training will jog your memory.” She surveyed the room as Mason gasped, then dejectedly walked back to his table. “Everyone here? I got a report of someone missing from a class earlier.” Again, she gave Fort a long look.
Fort just gave her a nervous smile, which she rolled her eyes at.
“Fine, then,” Dr. Ambrose continued. “Class, we have a special treat today. Forsythe, get up here.”
Fort stood up and slowly moved to the front of the room as the other students all watched him intently. He couldn’t tell if they were on his side or hoping he’d leave, especially given how many had laughed at him in the boys’ dorm two nights ago. The girls didn’t look much friendlier either, though that could have been confusion over what was happening.
“Forsythe will be taking a quick test,” Dr. Ambrose said, taking three bandage pads out of her pocket and placing them in Fort’s hands. “It’s really quite simple. You’ll cast each of the first three Healing spells once, then a second time, at which point you’ll infuse these bandages with your magic. If you can’t create three separate bandages, then out you go.” She nodded at the door, then lowered her voice so only Fort could hear. “At which point everyone here will be much safer.”
For the first time, it dawned on Fort that there were no school administrators or military officers around this time. “Is it just
us?” he whispered to Dr. Ambrose. “Dr. Opps and Colonel Charles aren’t coming?”
“No, they and the other administrators are watching on the security cams,” she whispered back, giving him a look. “For some reason, none of them wanted to be in the same room with you. Any idea why?”
Fort swallowed hard. “Can’t think of a reason.”
She narrowed her eyes but nodded. Louder, she asked, “Are you ready?”
“I am,” Fort said, hoping he was telling the truth. At least there’d be fewer people around to watch him fail, if nothing else.
“The process of creating a bandage isn’t difficult,” Dr. Ambrose told him. “Begin your spell like you intend to heal someone, but instead of releasing the energy altogether, just let it flow slowly into the bandage, like it’s a sponge for your magic. Don’t let go of the spell until the bandage is full, though, or the magic won’t stick, and you’ll fail the test.”
Fort swallowed hard. That actually did sound pretty difficult, at least without knowing exactly what he was doing. “How did you learn how to do this, if you can’t use magic?” he whispered.
“We had the students experiment early on,” Dr. Ambrose said. “Stop stalling. You have one minute to cast Heal Minor Wounds, then create a bandage.”
Fort closed his eyes, trying not to let the panic derail him before he even started. He pulled his sewing needle out of his pocket and pricked his finger, then quickly healed it, showing it off to Dr. Ambrose.
“Right, right,” she told him, waving for him to continue.
He nodded, feeling nervous even though he knew he’d mastered this spell at least. He grasped the bandage in his hand (“It’s not a stress ball, don’t crush it,” Dr. Ambrose told him), and slowly repeated the spell words.
He felt the familiar cold energy in his hand, but as Dr. Ambrose had advised him, he didn’t release it, and instead just let it seep into the bandage as slowly as he could. The bandage began to glow with a dull blue light, surprising Fort to the point that he almost released the magic by accident. He quickly concentrated on reining it in, though, and the glow faded slightly at first, then brightened even more as the rest of the magic filled the bandage. Finally, the last of the magical energy left his hand, and the bandage lit the room in an eerie light before fading away completely, leaving the bandage looking ordinary once more.
“Hey, you really did master a spell!” Dr. Ambrose said, looking surprised. “That’s one more than I would have thought you could. But the odds get pretty long from here. Next one, please. Cause Disease, if you don’t mind.”
Fort slowly raised a trembling hand and took another bandage from her. Here it was, the real test. Had he mastered the spell last night, or just passed out from lack of sleep? Would he be going home to a life of never knowing what he’d left behind at the Oppenheimer School, from answers about his father to the power to destroy the creatures that might have killed him?
Please, he thought. Please. I have to know the spell.
And then he tried to cast Cause Disease.
But there were no words to use. The spell wasn’t there.
Not only hadn’t he mastered the spell, but he must have forgotten to read the spell words again so couldn’t even cast it once.
- THIRTY -
WELL, FORSYTHE?” DR. AMBROSE SAID. “Let’s see a disease. If you’re not able to do the spell, just say the word and we’ll end this right now.”
Sweat rolled down Fort’s neck, and he swallowed hard. He glanced quickly at Jia, not sure what help she could be, but she just looked away. The rest of the class had no problem staring, though, and Fort could feel their eyes burning into him as he tried to think of what to say next.
“Just give me . . . one minute,” he said instead, not even sure why. What was the point of delaying things if he hadn’t mastered the spell?
Dr. Ambrose sighed, but she crossed her arms and waited. Jia turned back to look at him almost curiously, like she wanted to see what he was stalling for. If only he knew. But he couldn’t just give up! He wouldn’t. Why couldn’t he have mastered the spells last night—
Something slammed into Fort’s mind with the force of a hammer, almost knocking him back.
The Cause Disease and Cure Disease spells were now in his mind, front and center.
So were four others.
Fort’s eyes widened in surprise. Without any idea how, he now had the spells Heal Heavy Wounds, Paralyze, Ethereal Spirit, and Protective Armor all swirling around in his head, in spite of never having heard of half of them before, let alone seen them in the book.
He almost dropped the bandage, completely confused. Where had the spells come from? It was like someone had just downloaded them right into his head. Had Sierra done this somehow? But if she’d used her Telepathy magic on him, wouldn’t she have had to copy the spells from someone else’s brain? If so, then whose?
Looking around the room, his eyes fell on Jia, who was now staring at him with horror, her mouth hanging open. She reached up to touch her forehead, then mouthed, What did you do?
She did not look happy.
“Forsythe,” Dr. Ambrose said, and Fort nodded, closing his eyes again. He quickly cast Cause Disease on himself, and the fever and aches began almost immediately. He coughed once, then cast the same spell on the bandage, and opened his eyes to watch as it glowed brightly only to fade away just as the last one had.
“This can’t be,” Dr. Ambrose said, her eyes widening. “How did you do that?”
“I . . . I practiced,” Fort said, feeling miserable. “Now Cure Disease?”
“It shouldn’t be possible,” she said, still shocked. She took his arms and pulled up his sleeves. “Did you write the spells down? No, that doesn’t work. How could you—”
The class seemed to realize things were getting uncomfortable, as they began to shift and whisper to each other. “Um, should I do the next spell?” Fort asked again.
Dr. Ambrose just nodded silently, still looking utterly baffled. Fort quickly cured his flu, then concentrated on the third bandage and cast Cure Disease a second time, letting the magic seep in until the spell was complete.
“No,” Dr. Ambrose whispered so that only Fort could hear her. “You were supposed to go home. To be safe! How could you do this? It simply isn’t conceivable that anyone—”
Fort flashed a look at Jia, who looked like she wanted to strangle him. “I had . . . help,” he said, just as quietly.
Dr. Ambrose went silent for a moment, then fell onto her stool next to him, almost deflating before his eyes. “Well, do you want a medal?” she said, her voice returning to its normal tone, though she still looked haunted by the results. “Take your seat, student. You more than anyone need to hear today’s lesson if you’re going to earn your place in the Oppenheimer School.”
Fort slowly walked back to the tables, choosing an empty seat behind Sebastian, who glared at him as Fort passed him. Fort fell into the chair, still in a daze about what had just happened. He’d actually managed to pass the impossible test, which meant he wasn’t going to get kicked out of the school!
Except he hadn’t done it himself. Somehow, he’d stolen Jia’s spells and definitely didn’t deserve to have passed. Granted, the whole test had been a sham, but still. It was hard to feel victorious when he’d passed by cheating, even if he had no idea it was happening.
Would Jia’s spells just disappear now, and hopefully reappear back in her head? Or had he taken them for good? And if that was the case, what did that mean for Jia?
As Dr. Ambrose began talking about the various sections of a human heart, showing far too graphic slides of each part, Fort laid one hand over the other and gave himself the flu. As the chills began, he quickly cured himself, then concentrated and repeated both spells again.
Cause and Cure Disease weren’t disappearing from his head. He really had mastered them.
“No magic during lectures!” Dr. Ambrose shouted, not even turning around. “That’s rule number one. I
don’t care if you just passed a test or not, one more time and we’re having a pop quiz on healing bedsores!”
The other kids all turned to stare at Fort, and he quickly placed both hands up in surrender, then dropped them to his desk.
Was Telepathy magic really powerful enough to copy, even steal someone else’s spells for good? That could mean anyone who knew mental magic could learn . . . well, any other spell from someone who’d mastered it. That kind of power was terrifying—
Something smacked him in the back of his head. He turned to find Jia glaring at him with her teeth clenched, and he slowly reached to the floor to find whatever she’d just whipped at his head.
It turned out to be a piece of paper folded into a triangle. As quietly as he could, Fort unfolded the paper and laid it on his lap to read.
You IDIOT. You stole those spells from me. I had mastered them, and now they’re gone. GIVE THEM BACK NOW.
He looked up at her again, and for a second he thought she might attack him then and there, she looked so furious. He tried to give her an apologetic look, but she just gave him a death stare, her knuckles white as she grasped the edge of her desk.
“And of course the pulmonary arteries carry blood from your heart to your lungs,” Dr. Ambrose said, advancing a slide to show a pair of lungs on a table. “Now, if the heart stops and there’s a Destruction student nearby, a burst of lightning might get it going again. . . .”
Fort pulled a pen from his pocket and quickly wrote down his reply on the note.
You of all people know I didn’t have anything to do with this. It was Sierra. Why don’t you tell me where she is, and maybe we can fix this!
With that, he folded the note back up, and as soon as Dr. Ambrose wasn’t looking, he tossed the note to Jia.
A few moments later the note hit him in the head again, this time even harder. He groaned a bit, and Dr. Ambrose turned around. “Was there a question?” she asked.
“What if . . . um, there’s protective armor around someone’s body?” Fort asked, using the name of one of his new spells. “What would we do then? Would a spell like Ethereal Spirit work?”
