by Sever Bronny
“I took the proper precautions, thank you very much,” Malaika replied, ignoring her friend. “No mention of names or anything like that.”
“Indeed now? Nothing suspicious at all about horses waiting in a stable—”
“Don’t be paranoid,” Charissa said. “We sent the letter by courier and paid extra.” She gave a firm nod. “Lots of extra.”
Leera opened her palms to Augum. “They paid extra. Problem solved.” She dusted her hands. “Nothing to worry about here because they paid extra. Ugh, only spoiled, bratty rich girls think—”
“Lee, enough,” Bridget cut in with a deep sigh. “We have to trust they did it without tipping our hand. We’re out of time, we have to go.”
Leera smacked her bowl further away, sloshing goop onto the table, but said nothing more. The trio departed, leaving Malaika and Charissa to finish their meal with frowning faces. They retrieved the gargoyle coins and made their way to the Training Room just as the crier let everyone know the ninth evening bell had struck and the library was closing.
The middle-aged attendant gave them a kind smile. “Training Room’s closed, sorry.”
“Yeah, we know,” Augum replied, giving the girls a reminding look to trust him, then made sure nobody was near. “Sir, we were hoping that, uh, well …” He cleared his throat lightly and dropped his voice to a whisper. “This library has a long and rich tradition of making warlocks earn their way into the, uh, labyrinth.”
The man’s brows rose up his forehead.
“And we can’t get there because the Legion blocked all the entrance points. We want to explore the old traditions before it’s too late.”
“We’re aware of the risks, sir,” Leera added. “Please, let us stay. We can find our way down there and back without getting caught—”
“We’ve already done it once,” Bridget piped in.
“You have?”
The trio gave fervent nods.
“We were in the round room with all those doors,” Augum said, “and already passed a bunch of challenges.”
“I see.” The man glanced back at his stall of armor pads. “It would be against protocol—”
“We know that, sir,” Augum whispered. “But we think it’s important some of us learn about the old ways. We know the library was built on curiosity and mischief and stuff. Shouldn’t all be necromancy now, should it?”
“We promise we won’t tell anyone you let us stay,” Leera said.
“And we promise to be very careful,” Bridget added.
The man studied them a moment more before the crow’s feet returned around his eyes along with his smile. “You remind me of myself. You better hurry then. They’re going to bring in the walkers soon.”
“Thank you so much, sir,” Augum said, shaking his hand.
The man stopped Augum at the last moment. “But you’ll still have to pay the evening toll, I’m afraid. It’s tradition—toll to pass. Otherwise you’ll incur very bad luck.”
“Of course. How much is it?”
“Same as the day—spine a head.”
Bridget handed over three silver coins.
“Good luck and be careful.”
They scurried to the pool, jumped in, and swam toward the waterfall. Augum stole a glimpse of the distant entrance to the Training Room, just in time to witness walkers being ported in, escorted by Legion warlocks. He wondered how they were going to get past them on the way back and exactly how many they would face.
The river moved slowly through a rocky cave with a low ceiling. The trio lit up their palms. Leera used her Shine extension to make the water ahead visible, something that seemed to give her great pleasure.
“And look, I can make it blink too!” she said, flickering her pale blue underwater light. “Ooo, let me try something—” She concentrated for a moment as they bobbed along, then she made a small portion of the water rise, forming it into a crude figurine. “I knew it! I can manipulate water!”
“That’s just Telekinesis,” Bridget said, but when she and Augum tried the same trick, nothing happened.
Leera raised a sharp brow that paired nicely with the smug expression on her face. To her credit, she did not rub it in their faces. Instead, she dove. After surfacing, she said, “Huh, I swear I can see better underwater than above it.”
“Water’s moving fast,” Bridget said, getting increasingly nervous as the ceiling dipped lower and lower. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea …”
The ceiling ahead dropped suddenly to the water, and Bridget got a panicked look on her face.
Leera dipped her head below water and shone her light ahead. “There’s a perch just on the other side,” she said after rising. “Get ready to get out on the left.”
They swam over and, due to her good spotting, were able to catch the ledge and climb out onto a small alcove with drawings on the wall.
“Look at that, it’s a map!” Leera said, dripping water everywhere.
Augum brushed her wet hair away from her face so she could see better. She smiled at him. Unlike back at Milham, they had hardly spent any time alone together, and he missed that.
“Focus, you two,” Bridget said absently, holding her greenish glowing palm closer. “There’s a fork up ahead. River to the right looks like a dead end. Leads to some sort of large pool that feeds the other water sources in the Training Room. That’s my interpretation of these markings, at least.”
“And the path to the left?” Augum asked.
“Goes down. But this … this doesn’t make sense.”
Leera spotted something else on the wall. “Hey, there’s old graffiti here. ‘Sepitus Ptelmus, 3241, water, 3rd’. That’s a hundred years ago! And there’s more—‘Grazilda Cunningsworth, 3101, water, 5th’. That’s even older!” She scanned the walls reading out the names and the dates. “Huh, they’re all water warlocks … why do you suppose that is?”
Bridget was frowning at the map while biting a nail. “Because I think this is a water trainer.”
Leera exploded in a giant smile. “It is? Awesome!” She smacked Augum and Bridget’s arms. “That means there’s got to be a secret lightning and a secret earth trainer somewhere around here!”
“Maybe.” Bridget stabbed a tunnel with her finger, on the other end of which was a fountain within a maze. “This is where we need to go. I remember that fountain from the map in the round room of doors.”
Augum tapped at the room adjacent to the tunnel, scratched with four marks. “In order to get to the tunnel, we’ll need to get into this room.”
Bridget traced the scratches. “Four marks. Four degrees?”
“I think so. All the rooms are scratched with marks, starting with one. Looks like they go all the way up to ten. Ten degrees, wow.”
“We’ve gone blind into rooms before,” Leera said. “Hasn’t stopped us yet. Besides, it’s part of the castle. Can’t be that dangerous.”
“Well, technically,” Bridget replied, “we’ve never been to rooms that demanded a certain degree of skill.”
Leera’s head bobbed as she playfully but silently mimicked, “ ‘Technically’ ” behind Bridget’s back.
“First up is a distance swim,” Bridget said. “Underwater. Hold your breath for …” She traced a finger across a long tunnel up ahead. “A while.”
“Hmm, they didn’t mess around back then,” Augum said. “Wonder how many drowned trying this.”
“From what I remember reading,” Bridget replied, “people did die on the obstacles. Back then, they were more about weeding out the weak than being safe.” She gestured at the fast-moving river. “I mean, look, there isn’t even a way to get back if you wanted to with that current. And imagine if some poor warlock who couldn’t swim accidentally stumbled in here.”
“Maybe they shouldn’t have then,” Leera muttered. “Stumbled in here that is.”
“Don’t be insensitive. Imagine your child dying from some stupid obstacle course—”
Leera placed her hands
on her hips. “Arcanery isn’t a safe discipline, you know that. Never was, never has been, never will be.”
Augum glanced between their reddened faces. “What’s with you two? You’ve been squabbling a lot lately. Can we just work together?”
Bridget rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault. All this worry and planning and … combined with those stupid nightmares …” She sighed. “I just … I just need a good night’s sleep, that’s all.”
“We all do,” Leera said. She turned toward the water and rubbed her hands together. “All right, you two ready for a long dip? Catch your breath, because this one’s going to be a long one. And watch your heads!”
They took a series of deep breaths together before holding the last one and jumping in.
Water Obstacles
The supposedly long underwater tunnel passed rather quickly, for the water sped up in the tight rocky space. It was the part after that was a surprise—the trio didn’t even get a chance to catch their breath before being dumped over a high waterfall, splashing into a deep pool thirty feet below.
They clambered out over the edge and collapsed, panting, necrophyte robes suddenly twice as heavy from being water laden. When Augum finally caught his breath and re-lit his palm, he took a good look around, spotting a great many slides and a bunch of harmless looking water specific obstacles.
“It’s some sort of 1st degree fun room,” Bridget said, getting up to examine a water wheel that slowly revolved, dumping water into a basin, which then dumped water over a series of old chimes that no longer worked. “Doesn’t appear to have been cleaned in ages though.”
“I guess people don’t come down here as much as they used to,” Leera said, flaking rust off a windmill painted with faded targets. “Not since they’ve switched to necromancy. Kind of sad, seeing as it’s a 1st degree warlock’s paradise.” She used Telekinesis to zoom a crude miniature wooden boat around the pool.
Augum could almost hear the echo of young warlocks laughing and playing here in ages past. Some of the obstacles were ancient, so caked with rust they probably stopped working hundreds of years ago. Others looked like they had been installed more recently, but before the Legion took power.
“There’s a portal etching here that looks like it will take us back to the Training Room,” Bridget noted. “I guess this is an official secret trainer, even though it looks like it was unsupervised.”
Augum strode to one of the rock walls. “Found another map. Next room is down the river.” He nodded at a portion of the wall. “Got to dive for it though. Says it’s the 2nd degree room.”
“Relax a little, you two. Let’s have some fun!” Leera went down one of the slides, hands raised, “Weee!” She splashed into the pool, surfaced, and slicked back her hair. “I feel like a kid again. Wish I’d discovered this place when I first began arcanery.”
“How did you begin arcanery?” Augum found it surprising he had never asked either of them that question before.
Leera swam over, placing her chin on her arms at the edge of the pool. “Took an aptitude test when I was thirteen. Showed some promise, so Mum and Dad put me through basic lessons. Only theory kind of stuff. Hated it, don’t think I remembered a single thing. Everything was so repetitive. But I did finally manage to move something telekinetically—”
“—cause someone helped you with the training,” Bridget said with a wink. “And it was a feather which I blew. Remember? You thought you did it yourself, and that gave you the belief you needed to actually perform the spell.”
“What? You never told me that!” Leera slapped water her way.
Bridget reddened. “I didn’t? Oops.” She shrugged and smiled. “Surprise, I guess.”
Leera rolled her eyes, but was smiling. “Anyway, went to the academy a year later, after summer. But then we had to flee because the Legion did this whole purge and forceful recruitment thing. The parents built a village in the middle of nowhere. Almost got killed, like, a bazillion times after meeting you. Rest is history.”
“A bazillion?” Augum brushed that aside. “‘Tis but a trifle.”
Bridget chuckled. “You wanted to be a knight. I still remember that. Both of you, actually.”
Leera slapped water her way again. “And I would have been a fine one too!” Then she grumbled, “Or a blacksmith. I’d have been good at that. I like working with my hands. Besides swords, I’d have made, like, stupid iron baskets, or coat hooks or something. You know, useful stuff.”
Augum raised a brow. “Baskets—?”
Now it was his turn to get splashed. “Shut up. I happen to like certain girlie things, all right?”
“An iron basket isn’t very girlie,” Bridget remarked.
Leera shrugged. “I’d have started there. Then, I don’t know, made iron barrel straps … or something.”
Bridget snickered. “You would’ve been a terrible blacksmith.”
“Yes, yes I would have.”
“I still remember when you told me about the sword your father gave you,” Augum said wistfully, thinking back to what felt like a more innocent time, even though they had probably been in as much danger then as now. “It was named Careena, because it careened into things.” He smiled. “Cute.”
“Cute? You don’t describe a sword as cute—”
“I was talking about you.”
“Oh.” She snorted, wagging a finger at him. “You.” She raised one of her sharp eyebrows. “Bridge ever tell you how she started arcanery?”
Bridget instantly stopped snickering. “Not this story again.”
“Why? He’s never heard it—”
“Please no.”
“She’s embarrassed. Look at her cheeks!”
Bridget hid her face behind her soggy sleeve.
“Tell me,” Augum said, amused.
“A boy who had a massive crush kept teasing her, until she had some kind of fit and used wild arcanery to shove him down an outhouse.”
“It wasn’t like that!” Bridget said, still hiding her face. “I shoved him against the wall of the outhouse.”
“But he still fell in, didn’t he?”
“Wait, our Bridget used wild arcanery?” Augum pointed at her. “This Bridget here? This very one?” He folded his arms. “I refuse to believe it. She’s incapable of doing anything that breaks rules, let alone such barbarity.”
“I didn’t know better back then, all right? I was only twelve! And I got into so much trouble for it.”
“She started arcanery young,” Leera said. “But parents forbade her from doing anything for ages.”
Bridget raised her head, and she was actually smiling, even though her cheeks were the color of autumn apples. “Only after I turned fourteen was I allowed to learn arcane theory and history and everything else. Still wasn’t allowed to cast a single spell until I attended the academy.”
“She would have been a genius if they had let her study early. Too bad she shoved a boy down an outhouse—”
“Stop already,” but Bridget was giggling along with Leera, who suddenly started in with, “Shtop! Shtop zis zilliness!”
“Unnameables, no, not that again!” Bridget said, covering her ears.
All right, all right, I’ll stop.” Leera’s chortling settled down as her chin returned to her arms. She gazed at Augum, her legs kicking the water lazily behind her. “You ever had any clues about your talents?”
“Not that I recall. Didn’t even know warlocks existed. Always assumed people were telling tales.”
“Oh, right, the farm boy thing. Yeah, them country folk can be dumb an’ ignorant as dirt.”
Bridget made a noise with her teeth. “Leera, not everyone can grow up in a city or be surrounded by books.”
“I know, look, he turned out all right. And handsome to boot—”
“I was talking about regular country folk. You shouldn’t make fun of them. Most are very poor, and are not doing so well, especially in this day and age.”
Leera sighed.
“I was talking about the ones that suppress arcanery. But yeah, I know I can be crass sometimes.” She let go of the edge and gracefully dove. Augum watched as her light swam searchingly around in the dark pool like an underwater firefly.
“Have you noticed how long she can hold her breath?” he asked Bridget. “I think she might be turning into a fish.”
“What do you expect, she’s a water warlock. You just wait until she gets higher in degree.” She thumbed at the wall. “We’ll see her swim to the bottom of the ocean.”
“That’s … that’s a joke, right?”
Bridget snickered as Leera finally resurfaced.
“Can you show me your neck?” Augum asked.
Leera gave him a suspicious look. “What? Why?”
“I think there might be gills there.”
“Eww, that’s just … ugh, eww!” She shook the idea off, rubbing her neck, then brightened. “Hey, did you two know there are a whole bunch of mini trainers at the bottom of the pool?” She dove again, resurfacing quickly this time. “There’s broken stuff down there that you can fix with Repair, stuff that reforms itself! Oh and guess what! I can cast spells underwater! Watch—” She dove again and a jet of water burst out of the pool.
Augum, after enjoying watching her in her natural element, could no longer resist the fun and dove in. “Let me try,” he said after surfacing. He dipped down and slammed his fists together underwater, gurgling, “Annihilo!” but the spell didn’t work.
Leera, who had been watching him underwater, surfaced alongside. “Maybe you’ll be able to get it after a bit of practicing.”
Augum doubted it though. He suspected complex underwater spell casting came easily to a water warlock, and was one of the perks of her discipline. It was interesting to see their arcane differences slowly start to take shape.
He punched her lightly on the shoulder. “And you cried about how useless your element was.”
“I did not!”
Bridget strode to the edge of the pool, arms folded across her chest. “I remember that, Aug. ‘My Shine extension sucks!’ ” she mimicked in a pretty good impression of Leera, doing the nose crinkle.
