Arcane Dropout 2

by Edmund Hughes

  “Fuck,” muttered Gabby. She hesitated instead of taking her chance and bolting. “You’re not… dying, are you?”

  Lee tried to answer with an appropriate amount of snark only to taste blood and to cough on reflex. Gabby scowled and stayed where she was for another few seconds before shaking her head and moving to continue her escape.

  She was only a step or two away from the exit that led out onto campus when the door slammed open. Harper assessed the situation in the instant she entered. She sent a blast of wind surging through the hallway, pinning both Lee and Gabby against the far wall.

  Harper’s face was cold and flat with anger. She slowly walked forward, shifting casting stances to secure Gabby with conjuration bindings. She hesitated, staring at Lee as though considering whether he was complicit in her escape and would require similar measures.

  She left him be, and within a minute, Gabby was back in her cell. She swore at them in Spanish, throwing herself at the bars of her cell as tears streaked down her cheeks. Lee brought a hand to the back of his head and his fingers came away bloody. From the sluggish way his thoughts were churning along, he was reasonably sure that he had a concussion.

  “Come with me,” said Harper. “You can explain what happened in my room.”

  Lee nodded, accepting her help as she slid an arm under his shoulder to help him walk. The sun had set and they didn’t attract much attention as they walked across the college grounds toward the Five Towers, where the instructors had their quarters.

  “I tried to warn you,” whispered Tess. “I should have said something earlier. I had a bad feeling about you trusting her. She just seemed too happy today.”

  Lee mumbled a few sentences that even he couldn’t really make sense of. This was at least his second or third concussion in under a month. Not a good routine to solidify into habit.

  The Five Towers were each similar to what Lee had seen of the Head Wizard’s private tower, except easier to gain access to. Various mages at the college, under research grants or newly graduated and not yet assigned, moved through the first-floor lobby of the Elemental Tower carrying books and supplies. They all seemed to recognize Harper, but she ignored them as she carried Lee onto the lift.

  They traveled up to one of the higher floors, down a narrow hallway, and then into Harper’s private room. It was expansive, complete with a dining and kitchen area, a queen-size bed, a bathroom, and a study. Harper helped Lee lie down on her bed, taking his shoes off for him.

  “You opened her cell door,” she guessed.

  “Yeah,” muttered Lee. “She wanted cake, and it wouldn’t fit through the… slot thing, whatever it’s called. Pretty stupid.”

  Harper shifted him so that his head was resting in her lap and very carefully began to examine his wound, caressing his hair and scalp on either side of it.

  “I told you to build up her trust in you. I also told you to go along with any small requests she made. I can’t really say I’m surprised.”

  Lee let out a small grunt of agreement. Harper ran her soft palm across her forehead and sighed.

  “I would have taken you to the infirmary, but I don’t want this to get back to Mattis,” she said.

  “Probably for the best,” he said, slowly. Nurse Susie would have taken full advantage of the opportunity had he been dropped back into her grasp.

  Harper continued petting his head, her hand veering farther down to gently stroke his cheek.

  “I didn’t have to bring the girl here,” said Harper. “I could have left her with Daryl at the prison, if necessary. I probably should have left her there, all things considered.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “You know why.” Harper slid one of her fingers along the edge of his hairline. “I was so desperate to connect the jailbreak to Zoe and what my mother claims to have seen.”

  “They could be connected. Gabby did mention Zoe, after all.”

  Harper didn’t respond right away. Lee could feel the softness of her thighs underneath the back of his head, and he closed his eyes as he leaned into the sensation of her hands running over his hair and skin.

  “It’s hard for me to express just how much I miss your sister,” whispered Harper. “You’re one of the few people who understands what it feels like. I… wonder sometimes if I made a mistake by taking you as an apprentice.”

  “What?”

  “Not because of your abilities, or anything related to your usefulness. We’re both blind in the same way. The mistake we made with the prisoner was primed by our shared lack of foresight regarding situations related to finding Zoe.”

  She let out a small, yearning sigh.

  “You didn’t make a mistake in picking me,” he muttered.

  “You don’t think so?” Harper ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe not. Either way, I honestly don’t regret it. Of course, I’ve never had much trouble living with my choices. Most of them, anyway.”

  “She’s still out there. We’ll find her. I know we will, Harper.”

  “I’ve been waiting for so long,” she whispered. “Hoping that Zoe would turn up. That we, the two of us, could just go back to the way things were. She came to mean so much to me. It scares me the way our emotions can undermine so much about who we are.”

  She started rubbing Lee’s chest, then slid a hand into the first few inches of the neckline of his t-shirt.

  “Why are you telling me all this?” he muttered.

  “Why indeed,” said Harper. “You gave me a scare, Eldon. When I first came into the jail, I saw the prisoner out of her cell and you bleeding from your nose and scalp. I thought, at least for a moment, that it would be so very fitting. First to lose Zoe, and then to lose you.”

  “I’m made of tougher stuff than that. You’re stuck with me for a while longer.”

  Harper chuckled. She leaned over him and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. Lee felt her lips against his skin and her hot breath as she slowly pulled back. It sparked a matching hotness in his face, and he felt an urge to reach out and touch Harper that was only just offset by the dizziness induced by his injury.

  “I still intend to keep you as my apprentice after we find Zoe or discover what happened to her,” said Harper. “Is that selfish of me?”

  “Not really. But that’s assuming that I don’t get kicked out of the university before then. I still have to pass your class, remember?”

  “Technically, I could still keep you in my employment even if that happened. But you do make a good point. You’ll need to focus on your studies once you’ve recovered from this.”

  She interlaced her fingers through Lee’s, squeezing his hand.

  “Does fighting the prisoner count as extra credit?”

  “No,” said Harper. “Unless you want me to dock even more points from your grade for losing.”

  CHAPTER 25

  Lee’s head injury wasn’t as bad as it had initially seemed, and he made it back to his dorm after resting in Harper’s room for an hour or so. Several of the mages within the Elemental Tower favored him with scowls as he passed by. He was confused by that until he made the connection that some of them had likely been angling to become Harper’s apprentice before he showed up.

  He collapsed into bed once back at his dorm room and slept straight through into morning. He awoke to the sound of Toma pacing back and forth across their dorm room floor, though this time his attention wasn’t on his conspiracy diagram.

  “Morning, Toma,” muttered Lee. “What’s got you in such a fidgety mood?”

  “The Equinox Ball is tonight,” said Toma.

  Lee shrugged. “So? What does that have to do with you?”

  “This girl asked me to go with her,” said Toma. “Out of nowhere. I mean, I know I’m handsome, and I have a certain charm about me, but it was still completely out of left field.”

  “Really?” Lee grinned. “I figured you were fending off all your potential dates with a stick.”

  “Shut up. My
point is, I was asked to go to the Equinox Ball. Unlike you.”

  “I asked Eliza,” said Lee. “She said yes.”

  Toma looked surprised, but his expression shifted past it into something akin to relief.

  “Then you’re in the same boat I am! We need to go shopping for clothes, Lee.”

  “What? Is this really like a formal ball, or whatever?”

  “Of course it is,” said Toma. “There’s even a dress code. No jeans, no sneakers, dress shirts or fancier. I don’t have money for that. I should have just told Jenna no, but like I said, a guy with my kind of charm can’t let a girl so obviously in love with me down like that.”

  “Oh yeah, totally,” said Lee. “Look, I have money. I’ll hook you up.”

  “Really?”

  “I’d rather not have to go clothes shopping on my own. Besides, I’m sure I can think of a few favors you could do for me in return.”

  Favors which Lee planned on saving until he needed a distraction to keep Toma from keeping such a close eye on Nurse Susie, assuming he continued his vigil once the ball was over.

  Lee got dressed, and the two of them headed out. It was a Saturday, which meant that there were no classes that morning. He’d asked Tess if she wanted to come with them while he’d been putting on a shirt in his closet, but she had opted to give him and Toma some “boy time” instead of sneaking along.

  Gillum had a single clothing store, and the owner was a plump young woman who seemed surprised when they walked in. She was sitting behind the register reading a fashion magazine and all but jumped to her feet in her rush to show them to the men’s section.

  “There isn’t a lot left,” she said. “Most of the other boys from the college already took their pick of the dress clothes we have in stock.”

  “Can’t you like, tailor some of this stuff to fit us better?” asked Toma.

  The woman frowned at him. “I’m not a tailor. You’re welcome to go elsewhere if you can’t find what you need.”

  “This is the only clothing store in town.”

  “Exactly.”

  Toma scowled at the sparse selection left on the clothes hangers. Lee started flicking through dress shirts, trying to find one in his exact size. There was a single button-up shirt that would fit him, but it was an odd, pastel-teal color. Luckily, he found a pair of dress pants that were a greyish blue color that matched with it perfectly, if more in spirit than in a practical sense.

  “I’m going to try these on,” said Lee. “I’ll be right back.”

  He headed for the dressing room, opening the door to hang the outfit from a hook while he undressed. He was about to close the door and get started when he saw her.

  She was outside, looking into the clothing store from the snowy morning street. Her hair was longer than Lee remembered, but still a few inches above reaching down to her shoulders. She wore a white parka with black jeans and the same pair of knee-high leather boots that he’d remembered going with her to buy before she’d first left for Primhaven.

  “Zoe…” Lee muttered.

  He couldn’t believe it. She could see him too, though it took her a few seconds of scrutiny before a small smile of recognition played across her mouth. She lifted her hand and gave him a quick, uncertain wave.

  Lee made no attempt to subdue his excitement as he sprinted through the clothing store and toward the door. The plump woman behind the register shouted something, probably concerned that he might be trying to take off without paying.

  Lee pushed the door open, turned to look at where Zoe had been standing a few seconds earlier, and saw nothing but the empty street. There were footprints, but it was a Saturday and the traffic through Gillum was enough to make it impossible to track and follow the specific set. He spun in a circle and then looped around the building once, finding no sign of her.

  “Uh, Lee?” called Toma, from the door. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I… thought I saw someone.”

  “The owner is pretty worked up,” said Toma. “She thinks you—”

  “It doesn’t matter!” he snapped. “She was here. She…”

  He ran his hands through his hair, feeling more frustrated than he ever had before in his life. Lacking any other options or actions that would make a difference, he headed back inside the clothing store.

  He stayed in Gillum after paying for his and Toma’s outfits, searching the town as thoroughly as he could without trespassing onto private property. She wasn’t in the Frostfire Tavern, and neither the doorman nor the bartender had seen her. Nobody Lee spoke to on the street seemed to remember a girl matching her description: short brown hair, tall and lanky build, white parka.

  He would have kept looking for the rest of the day if not for Harper. Lee almost ignored his phone when it first vibrated, assuming it was another text from Nurse Susie.

  HARPER: Meet me outside your dorm. Zoe left me a note.

  He headed back to Primhaven immediately, carrying his dress clothes with him. Tess met him at the gate, her smile fading into a confused frown when she saw his expression.

  “It’s my sister,” said Lee. “She’s here.”

  “Isn’t that good?” asked Tess. “You came to Primhaven to find her, after all.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. She ran away from me. Why would she do that? Why would she go so long without letting me know that she was okay in the first place?”

  Tess, of course, had no answer. Lee had already pulled her into his mystic stream, and she took his hand into hers, hurrying to keep pace with him as he rushed back to his dorm. Harper was waiting outside his door with her arms folded, her countenance matching the way Lee felt on the inside.

  “Good, you’re here,” said Harper. “I came back to my room this morning to find an envelope pinned to my door. The message is short, but it’s in her handwriting.”

  “I saw her.”

  Harper’s eyebrows went up in surprise. Lee explained what’d happened in the clothing store while Harper pulled out the note to hand to him. He unfolded it and scanned over two simple sentences.

  We can’t meet here. I’ll be waiting in our secret spot. — Z

  “There’s an old, frozen shipwreck that Zoe and I used to like to visit,” said Harper. “It’s a two-hour ride by snowmobile. That’s where she’s talking about.”

  “Two hours there, and two hours back…” Lee frowned, doing the math in his head. “We might not be back in time for the start of the Equinox Ball.”

  “Does it matter? This is Zoe, your sister. Eldon… we’ve found her!”

  There was a tremor in Harper’s voice that reflected a bursting well of long-held emotions underneath. Lee felt his own heart running wild in his chest. He wanted to see her again so badly, but something didn’t feel right.

  “I’m going, regardless,” said Harper. “If you’re coming with me get your snow gear on. Now.”

  “I’m coming with you. But we have to think this through. Why would she show herself now, and not earlier? Why couldn’t she meet you in your room, or wait for me when I saw her in Gillum?”

  Harper set her hands on Lee’s shoulder and looked deep into his eyes. It was like staring into the soul of a kindred spirit, a veteran of an emotional battle that the two of them had fought on the same side of.

  “That’s what we’re about to find out,” she said.

  CHAPTER 26

  Lee followed Harper outside the campus and into the cold. They headed for Primhaven’s external supply garage, near where the airstrip cut across the ice. Lee was pleasantly surprised when Harper secured not just one, but two snowmobiles for them. She showed him how to work the basic controls as they brought both machines out into the open.

  “Care to tag along?” Lee whispered to Tess.

  “On a snowmobile?” She grinned. “Absolutely!”

  Harper led the way, gunning her snowmobile forward with practiced ease. It took Lee a minute or two to gain confidence on the back of his own mechanical steed, but once
he did, the experience was pure elation.

  The treads of the snowmobile dug in just deep enough to gain traction in the snow, not sinking any deeper beneath the powder and frozen crust than they needed to. Lee had Tess in his mystic stream, and he felt her arms holding on to him tight from behind. She let out small, exhilarated gasps each time he caught air off a snow bank, and she’d shout outright when Lee began to approach speeds she apparently considered to be too fast.

  As fun as it was, they traveled with caution. Harper would slow every few minutes to lead Lee on a careful detour around deep fissures in the ice or patches of ground that she suspected might contain them. He never complained. He still remembered falling into one during his fight with the ice trolls and the hellish ordeal that had resulted from it.

  They had been traveling for nearly two hours when their destination finally came into view. What first appeared to be no more than a dark brown splotch on the horizon eventually resolved into a massive 19th-century galleon that had run aground against the ice. The river it had once attempted to travel was completely frozen, locking it into a very strange position so far inland from the coast.

  “Let’s wait here a moment before we approach,” said Harper as they drew to a stop.

  “If your interpretation of her note was correct, she should be here. Right?”

  Harper nodded, but she had a worried frown on her face.

  “Usually we spent our time atop the deck,” she said. “There is an unpleasant, musty smell inside the actual ship, despite all the time it’s been frozen for. We only ever went down there when we were desperate for a place to… ahem, we didn’t go down there much.”

  “Right…” muttered Lee. “So you don’t think she’s inside the ship?”

  “I doubt it. I’m going to do a quick lap of the nearby area, search for signs of a camp if she’s set one up, or her tracks. Why don’t you take a look at the ship. Be careful if you do go inside.”