by Rain Oxford
“What about payment?” I asked before chugging down the potion.
He grabbed the blood-soaked rag. “This will do.”
“No.”
He took an empty bottle off the shelf and stuffed the rag into it. “I will not use it to harm you in any way. It’s this or no iBox for you.”
The potion was working fast and my foot had already completely stopped bleeding. “Fine. But if you try anything, my gargoyle will kick your ass.”
He laughed. I checked my foot again. There weren’t any scabs forming; the healing was too quick, apparently. The wound was closing, leaving only black sigils. I looked up, but Ascelin was gone.
When the “tattoo” was healed enough that I could walk, I returned to my car, drove to the larger city, and bought a memorabilia bag to carry the syrus in. It was too late to get a flight, so I had to stay at a hotel.
In the morning, the only flight available had two stops along the way. I got strange looks at the airport, but I wasn’t doing anything illegal. The flights back to the east coast were uncomfortable because my foot kept prickling like it was asleep.
I wished the little old lady sitting next to me on the longest flight wasn’t a ghost. I especially wished she didn’t talk to me the entire way once she realized I could see and hear her.
Chapter 12
Thursday, September 1
It was dinner time when I finally got back to the school. Traveling definitely wasn’t my favorite part of the job. Darwin was eager to hear about my trip, but I decided not to say anything in public. My foot was prickling really bad, which I figured meant that more than one of the people around me was a ghost. It was easy to tell when I was in a classroom of kids. When I was in the dining room of adults, it was less obvious.
“Meet me in my room after dinner,” I said.
“Oh? Should I bring a whip or a CWU-27p flight suit?”
“Why a flight suit?”
“You don’t geek hard enough, bro. I’m disappointed in you.”
“I don’t care.” Before I finished eating, I sensed a ghost approaching me. I didn’t make eye contact, wondering if I should pretend I didn’t see her.
She stopped behind me. “Jack said you can see us. Is that true?”
I didn’t move. I didn’t want a bunch of ghosts following me around because they want someone new to talk to.
“My husband is plotting to kill the new headmistress and I can’t warn her, so if you can hear me, talk to me.”
I turned so that I was facing Darwin and quietly said, “Yes, I can hear you.”
She sighed with relief. Darwin frowned, but he was also brilliant, so it didn’t take him more than a split second to realize what I was doing. He didn’t speak.
“Who can you hear?” Amelia asked.
Darwin put his hand on hers and shushed her. “We need a few minutes alone.” After a moment, she nodded and left.
“Ms. Hunt has tea brought to her office every morning an hour before breakfast. Her habits are easy to track. My husband, Duke Hunter, is going to poison her tea. He tried it before, but I was able to knock it over. I’m not strong enough to keep doing that.”
“Dani brings Ms. Hunt her tea, so how was your husband able to poison it?”
“He has a girlfriend who works in the kitchen. She isn’t part of it, but he goes to ‘visit her’ and poisons it. Then Dani takes it to Ms. Hunt.”
“I’ll tell her. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She vanished.
“What’s up?” Darwin asked after a few minutes of silence.
“One of the staff members is trying to poison Remy. His late wife wants to stop him.”
“Damn.”
“Yep.”
* * *
After dinner, Darwin and I met in my room and told him about Ascelin, the tattoo, and the syrus. Once he was done teasing me about a tattoo on my foot and having itchy feet, I showed him the magic chest.
“I’ve heard of them before. Syruses used to come in all forms, like books and jars, but in the early 1600s, wizards started cursing their gold to protect it from pirates and other treasure hunters. Well, by the 1660s, it became a problem for wizards to steal each other’s gold. Plus, transporting it across sea was difficult. Thus, wizards started making Syruses to look like treasure chests and stashing their gold in them, because they could contain the curses. They were sturdier than books or jars, so those ones tended to survive. It became a pretty standard shape for a syrus. Nevertheless, they all work differently. How you trap someone or something in it is specific to the syrus, like a key.”
The inside of the chest was lined with black velvet. “How close to Eugene do you think we have to be to capture him?” I asked.
“I suggest we do it in the library, just to be safe. Speakin’ of doing it in public, how’s it going with you and Remington?”
“That’s none of your business.”
He grimaced. “That bad, eh? No relationship is perfect these days. Take Amelia and me for example. She wants to---”
“Nope. I’m not listening. Get out of my room.”
* * *
We left and went to Remington’s office. Her office had been cleaned up and repaired, and she was going through paperwork at her desk. “I really hope you have good news,” she said.
“I’ve got a magic box.”
“Okay.”
“I wanted to let you know that Duke Hunter is trying to poison your morning tea.”
“Did you read his mind? Because thinking about it and---”
“His late wife told me, and he already attempted to. She was able to stop it so far, but she doesn’t think she can again.”
“Crap. Please thank her for me if you see her again. I’m starting to think I should get rid of all the original staff.”
“Some of them are glad you’re here. Do you want me to dig around in their minds?”
“No. You have your hands full with the comatose students. That comes first. I really wanted to take over the school on my own.”
“You hired me to help, so using my abilities to help is the same as you doing it on your own in my opinion. I’m not doing it for you; I’m getting information for you to do with what you will.”
She considered it and nodded. “I will let you know if I want you to.”
I went to the infirmary after that to check on the students, but there was still no change.
* * *
I spent three hours getting paperwork done in my office before Darwin knocked on the door. “Should be clear.” I stood and stretched the stiffness out of my muscles.
The school was quiet as we made our way to the library. None of the students had any business in the school and the teachers didn’t have offices, so while a few might have stayed in their classroom to finish work, most of them preferred the comfort of their bedrooms. Nevertheless, I wasn’t surprised to see Cy when we entered the library.
He jumped when the door opened. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. We need the library, though, so you need to go to your room.”
“But my roommate locks the door if I’m not there by the time he goes to sleep.”
“Take your books and go hang out in my class, Cy,” Darwin said.
“Thank you, Mr. Mason.” Cy stood and started gathering his books eagerly.
“Whatever noises you hear from this room, don’t come back in here until tomorrow,” I said.
“Yes, sir.” He left with a stack of two dozen massive books.
I emptied the bag on a table. In addition to the syrus, I had the incantation, some paper, and a small utility knife. “I hope you washed that,” Darwin said.
“I’ve have to cut rope from my wrists and ankles with a piece of dirty glass.”
“I hope you’ve had your tetanus shot.”
“I don’t play tetras.”
“I’m not joking, bro.”
“I didn’t say I cut it with a rusty nail.”
He rolled his eyes. “Clostridium tetani
is usually spread through dirt, saliva, and muck, not rusty metal. Rust makes the metal rough, which is a good habitat for the bacteria. Plus, most rusted metal is outside in the elements, where there is dirt. You can get it from touching an infected surface with an open wound. You can get tetanus from a dog bite.”
“I don’t bite dogs, either.” I wrote Eugene’s full name on the paper with my blood. “I wish this bastard had a shorter name.” I got a bandage out of my pocket to patch the cut and make Darwin feel better.
I focused my power into heat and visualized the note catching on fire. Flames ignited it exactly as I expected. As it disintegrated, I dropped it into the chest. After that, I picked up the note Ascelin gave me and recited the incantation.
By iron’s breath and sigil’s law
Bound within the blood syrus lock
Until time end’s, Eugene Cecil Greenwood
As I finished the incantation, a bright glow formed inside the syrus. Eugene appeared in front of us and my tattoo instantly started tingling. “You’re trying to capture me in that weak trap? That’s an insult!”
The chest closed with a snap and Eugene disappeared. My foot stopped tingling.
“It didn’t work,” Darwin said.
“Your grasp of the obvious is astounding. What I want to know is why it didn’t work. Maybe he was too powerful.”
“Let’s go talk to Dr. Martin.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, we were in the infirmary with Dr. Martin. I told the doctor what he had done and showed him the syrus.
“I was trapped in a syrus,” he said.
I knew that, because I saved him from it when we met, but I figured it was very different from the one he was caught in. “I vaguely remember you telling me that was what it was. That glass ball with herbs, right?”
“Yes. It was different than this one, but the concept was the same. That one would have killed me if I didn’t protect myself. This one is only meant to contain a powerful being or creature.”
“Then why didn’t it capture Eugene?”
“It sounds like Eugene isn’t powerful enough to have been caught.”
“Isn’t that like saying the bear was too small to get snapped in the trap?” Darwin asked.
“It’s like plankton slipping through whaling net,” Dr. Martin corrected.
“But that would mean he’s not the one doing this to the kids,” I said.
“Right.”
“Shit. I really want to know what the hell happened that night.”
“Why didn’t you come to me to help you interrogate Eugene?”
“Because I thought he kicked my ass on Tuesday night and I didn’t think you’d…”
“Fair better?”
“Yes.”
“I am a Dothra wizard.”
“Yeah, but you’re not the fighting type,” I said. While Andrew Martin was weird and a little creepy sometimes, I didn’t think of him as particularly intimidating. Langril took him out of Dothra because it was too dangerous, and when we were attacked by one of Hunt’s golems, it was Langril who jumped in to help.
“You’re right about that. However, I can make this ghost talk to me.”
* * *
Dr. Martin, Darwin, and I went to the library. Dr. Martin made a magic circle out of dried roots and herbs on the floor. Inside the circle was a pentagram and a number of sigils. When he was done, he set five fat black candles inside the circle.
“Is this like the ritual you used to talk to Miranda?” Darwin asked.
“It’s easier to call a soul that is in this realm rather than another. Like the syrus, I need a name, blood, or an object that was important to him. We have his name. Be quiet so I can concentrate.”
Darwin and I didn’t speak.
Dr. Martin motioned with his hands and the candles lit. The lamps instantly went out. Instead of slowly melting like normal, it was as if the candles were bleeding. Red blood poured over the sides of the candles and pooled on the floor. Even as the blood became an inch deep, it didn’t cross the circle of roots and herbs. The incantation he spoke was in another language, which I suspected was the language of Dothra, Enochian.
The air above the circle wavered and then Eugene appeared in it. He didn’t look solid, as if his form was dependent on his power and the circle was draining it. My tattoo still prickled, though.
“I can see him!” Darwin said.
“It is because of the spell,” Dr. Martin assured him. “You will not see him outside the circle.”
“Let me out!” Eugene demanded.
“You will speak the truth to us,” Dr. Martin said.
“You can’t hold me here!”
“We’ll release you when we figure out what’s going on,” I said. “How are you involved with the students in comas?”
“I have been trying to protect the students and you keep getting in my way!”
“Protect them from what?”
“From death!”
“You threatened them.”
“I warned you of what would happen to them and you too, if you didn’t leave.”
“We’re trying to help the students.”
“You’re going to fail.”
“Just tell us what you’re trying to protect them from.”
“From the end.”
“Stop being so cryptic.”
“Wizards a hundred years ago were a lot more cryptic than they are now,” Darwin said.
“More cryptic than Hunt?”
“Yeah.”
“Damn. I remember following the students in here, but not what happened afterwards. Leon was in a coma this morning. I have to know what they did so that I can stop them.”
“It’s too late.”
“It’s not too late; they’re still alive. Do you know who’s doing this to them?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Instead of answering, he pointed to the gas lantern at the end of one of the shelves. “If you can’t stop him, you will be the seventh. Then blood will rain and the sun will die.”
I went to the gas sconce that Eugene gestured to and pulled it. The shelf slid out of the way, revealing a narrow opening and a set of stone steps. It was right next to the shelf that fell on me.
“Whoa. I suddenly like this school a lot better,” Darwin said. I pulled out my penlight and aimed it into the darkness.
* * *
Tuesday Night
Jessica pulled the lantern and revealed the secret passageway. All three kids disappeared down it. I threw open the door and followed.
“You have to stop them!” Eugene demanded.
“I intend to.”
I pulled out my pen light when I couldn’t see the steps, more worried about me or the kids tripping and dying than them seeing me. The kids didn’t react to the light, although it reached their feet as they stepped onto level ground. We were in a concrete hallway that disappeared to the left. I figured it was a storm or war shelter. In the ceiling, I saw metal and concrete reinforcement beams as well as wires and pipes.
“Leon,” I called. He was ten feet in front of me, yet he didn’t respond.
I followed them for ten minutes through the maze of hallways that was just a little too similar to the underground tunnels of Quintessence. From the looks of it, the hallways spanned the entire grounds of the children’s school, instead of going further underground like the tunnels. That meant there were probably more secret entrances in the other buildings. There were also many rooms, but I had to ignore them in order to keep up with the kids.
My instincts were screaming at me that this was dangerous, but I couldn’t stop the kids without my mind control and I couldn’t help the comatose students if I didn’t find out what was wrong with them.
It also didn’t escape my notice that the shadows seemed to move away from the light like a living entity would. Yet this didn’t feel like a demonic shadow; it didn’t feel like there was a shadow walker trying to form.
Finally, we
came to a metal gate. Jasmine put her hand on one of the blocks of the wall to the right of the gate and it caved. She pressed another one and it caved, too. She repeated this process with three more blocks before stepping back. The gate slid up. The room beyond didn’t belong on the property of a school.
It was twelve-by-twelve, but instead of a back wall, it disappeared into blackness. There was a stone casket covered in Egyptian-looking sigils. At the top end of the casket was a stone altar with a thick black book and a large metal bowl on it. There were torches at the corners of the casket, which lit when the gate opened.
Now the shadows were obvious, but they didn’t avoid the light like shadow walkers did.
Leon stepped up to the casket, picked up the dagger, and used it to cut his palm. A cloud of shadows formed behind him. He chanted something in a foreign language as his blood spilled into the crevices on the casket. After a minute, he set the dagger down and walked away. The shadows followed him. Jessica approached the casket and picked up the dagger.
“Jessica! Stop!” I yelled. Not to my surprise, she didn’t hear me. I tried to enter the room, but I encountered a ward that sent painful shocks through my body. My legs gave and I hit the floor. I tried again to reach through the ward, but the pain grew and the ward was as solid as a brick wall.
When I tried to reach for her mind, the ward blocked that, too. Even if my magic could get through, the chain would have prevented me from actually stopping her. Jessica completed the ritual, followed by Jasmine.
Leon went to the altar, picked up the book, and read a passage from it. I had no idea what language it was in, but I didn’t like it. When he was done, he put the book back, pulled a black sack out of his pocket, and dropped it in the bowl. Then he waved his hand over the bowl, dripping more blood into it, and the contents lit with flames.
* * *
“Devon?” Darwin asked, bringing me back to the present.
I had walked down the steps without realizing it. “I just remembered what happened Tuesday. Some of it, at least. The kids came down here and…” I panned my penlight around. “They went this way. They couldn’t hear or see me, like they were in a trance.”
