Instrument of Peace (Symphony of the Cursed Book 1)

by Rebecca Hall

  “There is no public holiday, no great historical event. No, today is the day that will determine your future.”

  That was pretentious. Mitch suspected that his exam results would have a far greater effect on his future. He didn’t particularly care for any of the magic based subjects but he did want to study maths. He glanced at Belle, hoping for some hint of what was to come. Belle was pale and shaking which couldn’t possibly hint at anything good. The most optimistic explanation he could think of was that she hadn’t been able to eat before the teachers arrived, but he thought she’d beaten him to breakfast. Next to her Angel Girl was staring bloody murder at Miss Band, her eyes a luminescent white. No, not Miss Band, a point to her left, a void where the light wasn’t. Mitch rubbed his arms. Lightless voids were another thing he was learning to dislike.

  “We have the ability to be great as we were in the days of Merlin and Faust.”

  Merlin was one thing but Mitch wasn’t sure he wanted to be like Faust. He’d eventually managed to parse his way through the book he’d borrowed from Nikola and come to the conclusion that Faust was a complete ass who deserved his fate. If it came right down to it he didn’t want to be like Merlin either; his magical battle with Morghana had created more Teratos than any other single event in history.

  “We will cull the ghouls and their mindless hunger, defang the vampires and force the Sidhe to surrender their secrets.”

  The rest of the students seemed to be hanging off her every word but Mitch was repulsed. She was talking about genocide. He didn’t know much beyond what Dr Henly had taught them but he knew enough. The Ghouls might not be exceptionally bright but they were sentient, most vampires tried to avoid killing and had since the days of the Inquisition, and the Sidhe lived in another world. Given what he now knew about Alchemy he didn’t think their secrets would do them much good; Faerie appeared to be a hellishly difficult language and Mitch wasn’t sure how you could force someone whose every word was magic to surrender anything.

  “For too long we have ignored their depredations and–”

  Mitch wasn’t really sure what happened. One second she was trying to justify genocide to a horde of lunatics who looked more than happy to go along with it and the next she was a collapsing pile of pink goo. Mitch barely kept from vomiting down Adnan’s back. Dr Henly’s death had been an accident, he didn’t think you could accidentally turn someone into a pile of pink goo. Judging by the silence no one else could make sense of it either.

  Down the row Belle had her eyes squeezed shut, tears trailing down her face. Angel Girl was tracking the movement of the lightless void as it left Miss Band’s side and flew towards the stage.

  “No!” Mitch yelled guessing what was to come. It hovered over Dr Dalman’s remains and for a brief second Mitch was relieved to see that her spirit was still intact and then those wings closed around her and she was gone.

  “Azrael.” Hayley’s soft voice broke the silence, her footfalls echoing as she stepped into the aisle. No one else moved, no one else spoke. Mitch knew that the second someone did the wrong thing the spell would break and all Hell would break loose. Mitch started edging along the row, hoping that he’d be able to get to Cullum in time, and Belle was silently trying to slip out the back. The only other person moving was Miss Band. She’d abandoned her charges and was heading for the stage. Mitch wondered what she thought she could do; Dr Dalman was beyond all help.

  “We wondered where you were,” Azrael said, drifting out over the aisle, his wings outstretched until they reached from wall to wall. Mitch squeezed his eyes shut, Azrael had been smaller in the dining hall. He glanced back at Hayley, her eyes were the same luminescent white they had been at the lake and Mitch could make out the ill-defined outline of wings. He thought they were larger than Azrael’s, folded in on themselves to fit within the confines of the hall. He didn’t know what that meant, any more than he knew what it meant that he could see Azrael in exquisite detail.

  “You made a contract,” Hayley said, undaunted by Azrael’s presence though it took Mitch everything he had to advance. He didn’t know how the children could stand it; they were right underneath him. He took another step forward, feeling his head start to pound as he was assaulted by Azrael’s magical presence. Nikola was probably throwing up wherever he was.

  “Yes.” Nothing incorporeal should have had a voice so enchanting. Mitch wanted to hang off his every word, to devote himself to Azrael and serve however he wished. He focused on getting to his brother instead. The continuing silence suggested that no one else was able to resist. He looked for Miss Band but she’d disappeared into the wings of the stage. Mitch had no idea what she thought she was doing.

  “You agreed not to wage war over the Academy,” Hayley said. The two of them were going to meet in the middle of the auditorium and when that happened... Mitch gulped, he could feel the magic radiating from Hayley though the magic saturating the air was now far too strong for him to clearly identify any of it. His nose started to bleed and he fumbled for the packet of tissues that he’d started carrying in one pocket.

  “Yes,” Azrael said, “we agreed not to wage our war over this school.”

  Mitch snorted, realising for the first time just how ineffectual that promise was. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes were rarely localised events and the Academy had probably been built on a fault line. The entire country was built on fault lines or in volcanoes.

  “You could not maintain such a bargain indefinitely,” Hayley said. The two of them were almost touching now. Mitch started shoving his way along the row to Cullum, his brother would sit in the middle wouldn’t he? Mitch wasn’t the only one to have a nose bleed but he did seem to be the only one who had noticed. Here and there students had passed out; those with the greatest sensitivity to magic he suspected. It was a good thing no one had thrown up, everyone seemed too dazed to stop themselves from choking if they did.

  Now that he was no longer pressed against the wall he could see backstage. There was no sign of Miss Band. Mitch frowned, there was a door up there but he was reasonably sure that it was on the other side of the stage. He would have seen if Miss Band had crossed the stage to it. A flicker of movement in the tangle of walkways and cables above the stage caught his eye just as he reached Cullum. Despite his best intentions he froze as he realised what she meant to do. Miss Band had made the contract, probably because of the earthquake at the start of the year that had broken her leg. The Academy had been protected from the Eternity War while the Twisted Curse destroyed it from the inside and now she’d found the loophole. The other loophole.

  Mitch was torn between dragging his brother away before he could see what was to come and trying to stop Miss Band but he didn’t think he could get there in time and if he didn’t Cullum would watch his teacher hang... He didn’t know what do to. Miss Band had grabbed a rope or cable of some form and looped it into a crude noose that she was lowering over her head. Mitch grabbed his brother and started dragging him away, he might as well have been dragging a dead weight, an ungainly dead weight. There was a crack as the rope snapped taught and then the sound of Miss Band coughing and choking. Mitch forced his brother to look away and kept dragging him along the row.

  “I will see you in Hell,” Azrael said, offering his hand. Mitch finally reached the aisle and forced his brother into a shambling run. It might have been easier to carry him but Mitch didn’t want to risk hitting one of the dazed students on the head.

  “Yes.” Hayley shook the monster’s hand and then he was gone. The spell broke. The screams started, the cries of pain and disgust, hysterical weeping, people being sick. Cullum started to yell and fight against him but Mitch ignored his efforts until they were safely outside.

  The only thing he could think, the only thing he allowed himself to think, was that Nikola was going to be devastated.

  FRIENDS OLD AND NEW

  Everything ground to a halt. There had been chaos after Dr Henly’s funeral, and before and during. The de
aths of Dr Dalman and Miss Band had a much more profound effect. Mitch wasn’t the only one to put two and two together. Their teachers were making a determined effort to get everything back to normal, their behaviour uniform and so carefully controlled that Mitch suspected they’d put together some guidelines to follow until they overcame the effects of the curse.

  His fellow students were not so lucky. The curse had found them to be much more malleable and had had a correspondingly greater effect. The youngest children had been the worst affected but they also recovered the easiest, their behaviour, even while cursed, was heavily restricted by their age and lack of magical abilities. Mitch’s year, and the ones above and below, were the worst affected and Mindy wasn’t the only one forced to see a psychologist. Many went willingly to address the issues that the curse had brought to the fore but just as many had to be ordered to attend.

  Classes resumed a week after the assembly and the imposition of order seemed to help a little. Mitch was just glad to have something to do even if their teachers did push them along at an alarming pace. Apparently they’d fallen behind while under the influence of the curse and Mitch no longer had dominion over the library.

  The end of term was a subdued affair. Several students wouldn’t be returning for term four; a number had been pulled out already. Nikola wasn’t among them though it had taken him days to recover from Azrael’s appearance in the auditorium.

  Mitch wasn’t sure how he would be spending the holidays, the ski fields at Ruapehu were closed and the thought of flying south to the ones in Queenstown didn’t appeal. Queenstown was where he had started dating Gwen. He’d considered the Gold Coast as well but he hated the thought of visiting the theme parks and beaches alone. He wished he still had friends to make plans with.

  He finished chucking clothes into his suitcase and forced it shut. He’d packed for almost every sort of weather; even if he didn’t know where he was going, he was looking forward to escaping the confines of the Academy for a couple of weeks. It was impossible to avoid people when you had classes with them every day. Gwen didn’t seem to be at all bothered by the fact that she’d cheated on him.

  The bus into Taupo was surprisingly empty. The Academy was insisting that most of its students remained where they could be carefully monitored and most of those who were on the bus were ones that Mitch knew wouldn’t be coming back. He spotted one person that he knew would be returning.

  “You ok?” he asked, claiming the row of seats in front of Nikola. Nikola was pale-faced, though he hadn’t looked sick at breakfast, and his breathing was fast and shallow.

  “Fine,” Nikola replied, staring at him with wide grey eyes, “I hate buses.”

  “They’re not that bad,” Mitch said. The Academy bus was a nice one with comfortable seats and plenty of leg room, something that Mitch was beginning to appreciate.

  “They’re better than planes,” Nikola conceded. “Still too many people and not enough space.”

  “Oh, right. Can’t the doctor do anything to boost your immune system?”

  Nikola shook his head, “He says time will do it, eventually. I didn’t have a lot of contact with humans before being sent to school so I have almost no resistance to everything.”

  Mitch nodded, one of their lessons on magical theory had discussed healing. Healers could repair physical damage without trouble but healing an illness damaged the body’s ability to fight it off on its own. Healing, when it was an option at all, was a last resort.

  “Are you flying home?” Mitch asked.

  “I’d have to take suppressants and two twelve hour flights to get home and by the time I did I’d be too sick to get out of bed. I only get to go home over Christmas and no one else is on my schedule anyway,” Nikola said, staring at his lap.

  Mitch felt sorry for him. He never got to go home either, over the last few years he’d spent more time in the beach house that his parents rented up north than he did in the States but he’d never really minded. He liked summer and Christmas on the beach and he’d long since come to think of the Academy as his home. Besides, two months was more than long enough for him to become thoroughly sick of his family.

  Someone cleared their throat behind him and Mitch turned away from Nikola to face Bates.

  “Hey man,” Bates said, grinning sheepishly. Mitch grunted, he preferred discussing Nikola’s misery to dwelling on his own.

  “I, ahhh, I came to apologise. I should have told you about Gwen and...” he trailed off, suddenly aware that they were surrounded by people who hadn’t had much by way of entertainment for the last few weeks. “I should have told you.” Bates ran a hand through his disordered hair, his eyes looking everywhere except at Mitch. He still hadn’t made eye contact. “I thought that she... that you... I guess I didn’t think at all really and I should have told you the first time it happened.”

  Mitch forced himself to keep his hands flat and not curled into fists. He’d deliberately avoided hearing anything about Gwen and Richard, preferring to believe that their first time had been when he caught them.

  “I really am sorry mate,” Bates said, “not telling you was a dick move.”

  “Damn right it was,” Mitch growled. If Bates mumbled one more apology to the empty air or the floor then Mitch was going to hit him. But he didn’t want to hit him, he wanted his best friend back. Apparently his mouth was a sucker for punishment. “Did you sleep with her?”

  “No way mate, she was your girlfriend that would have been way too weird.”

  “Richard did,” Mitch pointed out. It would have been a lot easier to believe him if he’d been able to make eye contact.

  “Yeah, well, Richard’s a dick, I’m not.” Mitch smirked.

  “What about Mindy?”

  “I don’t think she slept with Gwen either though that would’ve been...” he trailed off before he could sound too creepy and voyeuristic. Mitch actually preferred the idea of Bates and Gwen to Bates watching Gwen and Mindy. Sometimes he really wished his imagination had an off switch.

  “Where are you going?” Bates asked as the silence stretched. Mitch knew that Bates was trying to apologise but he was finding it difficult to accept. Bates had suggested that he have a three way with his cheating girlfriend and he’d fully supported Mindy’s attempted murder with an undead weapon.

  “Away,” Mitch said, checking his watch. In his eagerness to leave he’d actually been on the bus early but now the time was beginning to drag. They had to be leaving soon.

  “Away where?”

  Mitch shrugged, his plan, insofar as he had one, was to catch the first bus out of Taupo.

  “Can I come with you?”

  “Can you?” Mitch snapped, “shouldn’t you be with your nut bar girlfriend?”

  “She’s getting help,” Bates said in that carefully contained tone he used whenever his fuse was about to blow. “We made a deal, she makes up with Belle and I make up with you.”

  Mitch crossed his arms, his best friend had had to make a deal to try and make up with him instead of just doing it. What the Hell did he think Mitch was going to do?

  “Look Mitch, I know things got a little out of hand this term but I’m trying to fix it.”

  A little out of hand was not how Mitch would have described the events of this term. ‘Cluster-fuck’ was much more appropriate to his mind and even that didn’t truly do it justice. He did appreciate that Bates was trying but... He wished Bates sounded more sincere, or would look him in the eye. He thought that Bates really did want them to be best friends again, he was equally certain that Bates didn’t really understand why they weren’t.

  “I guess,” Mitch said, “but the bus is about to leave.”

  “The driver already stowed my luggage, can I sit?” Mitch nodded and let Bates take the seat next to his.

  #

  Bates sniggered. Mitch followed his gaze to where Nikola had collapsed onto a bench gasping for breath, his face sheened in sweat. If anything saying that he hated buses had been an
understatement, Mitch had half expected him to have a panic attack before they reached Rotorua. Nikola coughed, still gasping for breath and Mitch realised that it was too soon to rule that possibility out. Mitch looked at Bates again and saw his undisguised glee at Nikola’s discomfort.

  “You know what? Screw this,” Mitch muttered, starting towards Nikola.

  “Mitch?” Bates called. Mitch ignored him.

  “You ok?” Mitch asked, sitting next to Nikola.

  “Fine,” Nikola said, glancing at Mitch with wide eyes that gave him the lie. He pulled a drink bottle from his bag and slumped when he saw that it was almost empty.

  “Want me to get you some more?” Mitch asked, glancing at the bus where their bags were still being unloaded and picked over by tourists eager to get their holidays started.

  “I don’t have any change,” Nikola said, emptying his bottle in a single swallow that did nothing to ease the hoarseness of his voice.

  “It’s a bottle of water Nikola,” Mitch sighed and got it for him, grabbing a bottle of coke for himself.

  “Thanks.” Nikola was calmer now, his breathing slow and even, and Mitch was beginning to suspect that he came to Rotorua because it was as far as he could go. Anything further would almost definitely require drugs of some sort.

  “So where are you staying?”

  Nikola rattled off an address that Mitch didn’t recognise. It didn’t mean much, he wasn’t even sure which street they were on now, but none of the residential areas were nearby.

  “Can you get there on your own?”

  “I always do,” Nikola replied with a bitter smile. He started to cough, his cheeks flushing, and Mitch awkwardly patted him on the back, surreptitiously looking around for Bates. There was no sign of him.

  “Yours was the green bag right?” The throng around the luggage had lessened slightly and Mitch had already spotted his own bag.