Instrument of Peace (Symphony of the Cursed Book 1)

by Rebecca Hall

  The second buoy was easier than the first. He’d adjusted to the cold and settled into an easy freestyle. The third was harder, the temperature was really beginning to drop and the once-calm waters were becoming increasingly rough. Tendrils of fog were writhing across the lake and he had to correct his course twice to reach the fourth buoy. By the time he reached the fifth buoy, waves of semi-frozen slurry were pounding against him and for a single disorientating second he thought he’d been completely turned around before the buoy bobbed up underneath him and almost gave him a bloody nose.

  He retrieved the strap and heaved himself as far out of the water as he could, shivering in the cold despite his magic. He craned around, peering through the fog in search of the next buoy. He thought he saw it before realising that he was staring at the fourth buoy. He couldn’t see any of his classmates either though they had to be out here somewhere, he couldn’t be the only person who had yet to finish. He was about to give up and head for shore when he finally spotted it.

  He plunged back into the lake, so relieved to be out of the cold wind that he didn’t even notice that it was more semi-frozen slush than water. His muscles were beginning to burn despite his magic and most of his attention was devoted to keeping track of the buoy; if he lost it now he’d never find it, even if his magic barely required a flicker of thought to maintain. He hoped he didn’t exhaust himself before making it back to shore. A swell rolled over him and slammed him into the sixth buoy, making him gasp and choke as he inhaled water.

  He clung to the buoy, coughing and trying to work some feeling back into frozen fingers before he was swept away. Getting the Velcro strap was going to be a real bitch with numb fingers and almost no visibility. He managed to attach the strap to his arm a second before it was swept away as another wave pounded into him, the cold pressing against him uncomfortably as he gasped for breath in the wet air.

  He looked around but he could barely see three metres in any direction and after the constant pounding he was no longer sure which direction the shore was in, never mind the remaining six buoys. He shivered violently as the cold began to seep into his limbs, no longer warmed by the effort of swimming.

  “A good magician knows how to work in a team,” Miss Sindri said, her voice muffled and echoing through the fog. If he hadn’t been so cold he would have laughed, teamwork was all well and good but he couldn’t see the rest of the class and he doubted they could see him. How the Hell were you supposed to work with people you couldn’t even find? He shivered again, finally understanding what Belle had meant about burning cold.

  He coughed again after inhaling another mouthful of water, the sound unnaturally loud in the fog. He hoisted himself a little higher, it meant exposing himself to the freezing air but it also allowed him to shout for his classmates without breathing more water than strictly necessary.

  “Hikari!” he yelled, hoping that she hadn’t finished already. “Hikari!” The fog billowed around him and Hikari alighted on the buoy, maintaining her balance with the aid of gusts of warm air. Even the aeromancer hadn’t been able to stay dry, droplets of water glistened on her eyelashes, her clothes were soaked through and her black hair was plastered to her head. She still looked warmer than he felt. Mitch shuddered as his extremities began to thaw out.

  “Can you do anything about this fog?” he said, almost biting his tongue on every other word but unable to stop his teeth chattering.

  “I already tried,” Hikari said. “There’s too much water in the air, I can barely fly now.”

  “Where’s everyone else?”

  “Gwen was on eight, Rodrigo nine and Sam and Adnan on five.”

  “Was?”

  “There’s a lot of fog Mitch,” Hikari pointed out, “even up there I can only see so much and they could have moved.”

  “We did,” Gwen confirmed stepping out of the fog. She stood in a tiny bubble of calm; she’d even managed to remain perfectly dry.

  “We heard you shouting so we thought we’d join you as well,” Rodrigo said. He floated in the water beneath her and Mitch was glad that Gwen was wearing pants rather than a skirt. Mitch glared at him anyway; he didn’t seem to be bothered by the cold or the pounding waves, but he was a hydromancer. “Can you get any higher?” Rodrigo asked.

  Mitch dragged himself up the buoy and Hikari hissed in frustration as he almost overbalanced her before offering her hand and lifting him out of the water. Mitch yelped and clung to her, flying was definitely not for him, not without a plane. Gwen glared at both of them but Mitch was too busy trying not to vomit to care. The water around the buoy slowly solidified and Rodrigo pulled himself onto the platform anchored around the buoy.

  “That’s the best I can do,” he said.

  Hikari set Mitch down on the ice and he dropped to his knees, wincing as fine cracks spread out around him but relieved to be on solid ground once more. He thought he heard Gwen giggle and decided that he’d imagined it when she sat down beside him.

  “Thanks,” Mitch finally managed to gasp. He didn’t think ice rafts were for him either but it beat flying.

  Rodrigo shrugged, “I’ve got a rip bringing Samara and Adnan to us.”

  “What can Adnan do?” Mitch asked, he’d had a few lessons on Tai Chi and co-ordination with Adnan but no actual magic classes.

  “Shape shifter,” Hikari said, “he spent the first forty-five minutes giving himself gills and webbed feet and fifteen minutes getting to the fifth buoy.”

  “Not much of a team player then,” Mitch said. The only things he knew about shape shifting were that it couldn’t be forced onto someone else and biology got in the way of a complete shape shift.

  “And you’re so much better Mr self-manipulation,” Hikari snapped. This time there was no mistaking the giggle but it came from Sam rather than Gwen.

  “Can you keep that frozen while I heat the air?” Sam asked as Rodrigo gave her a hand up. Adnan remained in the lake, keeping the gills that adorned his neck underwater. Mitch looked away, fighting the urge to vomit; human necks were not supposed to have gills. The air around them heated a little more, though not enough for him to stop shivering, and the ice began to gleam wetly.

  “Let me help,” Gwen said, “an illusion that mirrors reality is easy enough to maintain.” Rodrigo nodded and Mitch stopped worrying that the raft was going to melt under them.

  “Six down, six to go,” Adnan said, his voice oddly distorted. He’d probably had to rearrange his vocal cords to get the gills working. He ducked underneath another wave and Mitch squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn’t have to see the gills running down his back. That definitely wasn’t right.

  “Nine actually,” Gwen corrected, “Rodrigo and I cleared the next three.” She pulled a bundle of Velcro straps out of her jacket and handed them out. Mitch noted that Hikari didn’t need to take any.

  “Three left,” Hikari said, “and I doubt Miss Sindri will make it easy on us and freeze the lake.”

  “Can you guys retrieve the other tags?” Mitch asked, feeling a little guilty. It wasn’t as if he could help them with his magic.

  “My gills would freeze up halfway,” Adnan said, “I needed Sam’s help to get here.”

  “Too much ice in the water,” Rodrigo said, “this was easy,” he patted the raft, “anything else and I’ll be fighting Miss Sindri.” Mitch winced, Miss Sindri was a fully trained cryomancer.

  “Ditto,” Hikari said, “too much water in the air for me.” They looked at Gwen.

  “You heard what she said, we need to work as a team.” Gwen paused for a moment, thinking. “Rodrigo, do you think you could pull enough water out of the air for Hikari to fly?”

  “Maybe over a small area,” he said, “but I can’t clear this fog.”

  “Then you two have twelve,” Gwen said, “Sam and Adnan can get eleven and Mitch and I will go for ten and meet you back here.”

  Sam was the first to react, slipping back into the water and paddling off with Adnan. Rodrigo wrapped himself around
Hikari and the fog thinned around them, allowing Hikari to lift them both into the air and almost overturn their raft. The only reason it stayed upright was because it was centred on the buoy.

  “I hope you know where ten is,” Mitch said.

  “Of course,” Gwen replied, “you wouldn’t believe how many memory exercises they make me do.” She sighed, “looks like I’ll have to get wet after all, I can’t make a path for myself and heat the water for you.”

  “What do you need me for then?” Mitch asked.

  “You can swim faster than I can,” Gwen said, “and I don’t think I have enough magic left to make a path there and back again.” She pulled off her socks and her outer layer of clothes. Mitch was relieved to see that she was wearing black underwear.

  “Don’t think about the temperature,” she ordered, sliding into the lake, “illusions don’t work so well when you insist that they’re not real.”

  “Yes ma’am.” Mitch followed her into the water and found that it wasn’t quite as bone chillingly cold as he recalled. He smiled at Gwen, confident that the two of them could reach the next buoy without turning into human icicles. She paddled over and latched onto him, carefully positioning herself so that she wouldn’t be in his way as he started to swim.

  It was actually easier with Gwen there. He didn’t have to worry about his lungs constricting in the cold and he could devote his magic to cutting though the water as quickly as possible instead of splitting it to keep himself warm. Stroke by stroke it got harder and it wasn’t until Gwen started swearing that he realised it was because the current was trying to drag them back to shore. He doubted it was Miss Sindri trying to be helpful.

  “I’ll blunt the current a little,” Gwen said. She was as good as her word but the water grew a little colder. He strained, pushing himself to go faster as the water grew cooler.

  “Gwen,” he grunted, the water was nearing subarctic temperatures and believing that he was swimming through warm water was incredibly hard when he was worried about frostbite.

  “Sorry,” Gwen replied, “the current is a lot stronger now.” Mitch gritted his teeth and kept going. It took a long painful minute to free the Velcro tags, the coarse fabric cutting into his frozen fingers. As soon as the tags were secured he released the buoy and they allowed the current to sweep them back the way they had come.

  “Mitch. Mitch!” Gwen yelled in his ear.

  Mitch floundered. “What?” he asked choking up another lungful of water.

  “The current has changed direction, we need to go that way,” she pointed perpendicular to their current direction of drift. He forced his muscles into motion once more, screaming his chant inside his head as if imaginary volume would increase the effectiveness of his magic. The current changed direction abruptly and the two of them were dragged forward like fish on a line. Mitch threw his arms forward to break his landing and his wrist screamed as he slid across their makeshift iceberg. Now he knew how the Titanic had felt.

  “Welcome back,” Hikari said, sidestepping and allowing him to crash into the buoy instead of bowling her over. “Sam and Adnan are almost here.”

  “I’m never swimming in this lake again,” Mitch said between coughing up lungfuls of water. Rodrigo patted him on the back and Gwen dressed. Mitch shivered and sneezed, wishing he had his own clothes. There was a loud whoop and Mitch barely managed to scramble out of Sam’s way. The rogue waved deposited Adnan on the raft as well but he slid over it and back into the water. Mitch stared, Adnan had continued to work his magic, covering himself in sleek grey scales and raising a spiky fin from his back. It least he hadn’t given himself a tail. Mitch wondered if he could make himself into a merman.

  “We should go swimming more often,” Adnan said, high fiving Rodrigo. Mitch sneezed again and shook his head.

  “You ok?” Sam asked, she shuffled over to sit next to him. Mitch managed to smile at her as he was engulfed in warm air.

  “How are we getting back to shore oh glorious leader?” Hikari asked.

  “Can you melt the chain tethering the buoy?” Gwen asked, “without melting the raft.”

  Sam shrugged, “I can try. Sorry Mitch,” she added in a whisper as the heat around him vanished.

  “Hikari I need you to make us as aerodynamic as possible. The boys are responsible for propulsion and Sam and I will try to keep you from freezing your balls off.” Mitch slid to the edge of the raft, waiting until it gave a sudden lurch before immersing himself in the water again. The water felt even colder this time though he knew that Sam and Gwen were doing everything they could to warm it. For the first few seconds the current tried to drag him away, at least there was no chance of getting lost now the current was pulling them directly away from the shore, and then Hikari and Rodrigo went to work. The current reversed direction and a cone of air formed around them, cutting through the fog and water as the raft inched forward. Mitch focused on keeping the raft balanced and straight and Adnan did the same, the raft focused on capsizing or spinning everyone dizzy.

  The raft began to accelerate and Mitch hurled himself back on board before he could be left behind, slithering over to Sam so that he could shiver in the bubble of warm air she’d created. Adnan swam off to the side, doing a convincing dolphin impersonation, gliding through the water and occasionally diving through the air.

  “Gwen?” Hikari asked.

  “Yes?”

  “Your brilliant plan didn’t happen to include brakes did it?”

  Mitch raised his head and made out the shore approaching far faster than he thought was entirely safe.

  “My brilliant plan didn’t anticipate us moving this fast,” Gwen replied, staring at the rapidly approaching shore. Miss Sindri was waiting for them and Mitch noted that she stood well to the left of where they were going to crash. The fog was breaking up, allowing them to see just how rough the beach was and just how solid the tree beyond it was. Hikari stopped channelling their air cone but the sudden reassertion of friction and air resistance had no noticeable effect on their velocity.

  “Rodrigo,” Gwen yelled, her words whipped away by the wind.

  “I’m trying,” Rodrigo yelled back. “You try fighting a teacher.”

  Hikari leapt ahead of them, alighting on the beach and directing a gale of wind at them. Their raft slowed but not nearly enough. The temperature began to plummet as the lake finally froze solid, forcing their raft to cut through the ice and slowing it a little more. The ice broke up as soon as they hit it but the pieces were getting bigger and thicker and Mitch abandoned any thought he might have had of taking his chances in the water.

  The lake surged ahead of them and Hikari bounded into the air a second before being swept away. Mitch threw himself forward as the raft threatened to flip. It slid up the makeshift ramp Rodrigo had made instead, already frozen solid by Sam and Gwen and breaking under their weight. The ramp shattered and they skidded forward, finally beginning to spin, before coming to rest against the tree.

  Mitch didn’t move, not with the world spinning around him.

  “Never again,” Gwen mumbled, her face buried in her hands. Sam nodded in agreement. Rodrigo was throwing up.

  “At least we got all of the tags,” Hikari said, perching on a tree branch. Mitch risked raising his head and saw Adnan further down the beach, his fins and scales slowly disappearing.

  “See what you can do when you work as a team,” Miss Sindri said, treating them to a bright smile that almost made Mitch feel warm again. Mitch groaned and flopped back onto the ice.

  A BURNING FEATHER

  Mitch coughed and resigned himself to not getting any more sleep. He groped across the desk until he found his lamp and hit the switch, peering muzzily at his alarm clock: 6:36. Mitch groaned; he was never up this early, no sensible person was. He could hear birds singing and he was certain that the sun wasn’t up yet.

  He dragged himself out of bed anyway and shuffled down the hall to the bathroom. Apparently he wasn’t the only person up; one of t
he showers was locked though he couldn’t hear any water. Probably someone trying to beat the morning rush. He grabbed a handful of toilet paper and blew his nose.

  “I have a box of tissues in my room if you want.”

  Mitch jumped and turned to face Nikola. He was wreathed in steam and water dripped from his curls onto his bathrobe. Mitch shook his head, anyone else would have just used their towel or boxers, it wasn’t as if the girls were allowed to spend the night in their wing, before realising that it might be interpreted as a no.

  “Thanks,” he croaked, trying to remember where Nikola’s room was relative to his. He couldn’t help feeling that the universe had been turned on its head; he was sick while Nikola looked completely healthy apart from the fading rings around his eyes. “What are you doing up this early?”

  “I went running.” A box of tissues appeared in his outstretched hand and he tossed it to Mitch who dropped it.

  “How did you do that?”

  “Magic. I’ll tell Miss Sindri you’re sick,” Nikola said, heading for the door. It took Mitch a second to remember that Nikola was in his Alchemy class and by the time he did Nikola was gone. He peered at the tissue box but it looked completely normal; there was nothing to indicate that it had appeared out of thin air and tissues were definitely preferable to toilet paper.

  He went back to his room and had almost managed to fall asleep despite his sniffling when Bates pounded on the door. Mitch groaned and pulled his blankets a little higher, hoping Bates would just leave him alone. Bates cautiously opened the door, ready to duck back behind it to avoid any ballistic alarm clocks Mitch sent his way. He’d actually managed to turn it off on his first try this morning, something he would have sworn was impossible.

  “You ok?” Bates asked, inching into the room.