by DB King
“I’m not surprised,” the gnome muttered. “We certainly won’t be entering that door anytime soon, young Alec. Probably not at all, now that I think of it.” He looked Alec up and down, as if judging some quality known only to him. “Is the compulsion irresistible?”
Alec shook his head. “It’s just... it looks really awesome,” he said, a little shocked by his own boldness. “It’s like there’s someone behind the door, telling me there’s something really exciting inside.”
“Oh, there most certainly is,” Maimonides said darkly. “Only it’s not the kind of excitement any young man would want to court. I myself would have a great deal of trouble walking back through that door once I stepped through it. Speaking of which, there’s something you should be aware of.”
Alec listened.
“These doors don’t always look the same from the other side,” Maimonides explained. “You could step through an ordinary wooden door inside this building, and turn around to find the portcullis of a ship or the drawbridge of a castle stretching behind you. Sometimes the door to return may not even look like a door at all. You must be careful, and cautious, and above all observant.” The gnome let out a little huff. “It’s a good thing you’ve got me with you. Maybe Urry is right about the danger here…”
“No, let’s try one!” The thought of leaving now was intolerable—and Alec did not savor the idea of a long ride in that metal box with Maimonides. It was long past time for his training to begin, as Archmage Diamondspear had said. “A simple one, Maimonides. As you said, I need to learn to face danger.”
“But you must learn to face it wisely,” Maimonides said, sighing softly. “And for a young mage to just stroll through one of these doors having just discovered their magical talent…” The gnome shook his head. “That would be almost as unwise as venturing into a yeti-borne snowstorm in only your underclothes. If your magic were to fail you and fizzle, you don’t even have armor to protect—”
“Isn’t that the point?” Alec said, cutting him off. “The point of coming here was to force me to use my magic, not to rely on armor to save me.”
The gnome paused, then nodded, acknowledging the wisdom in his words. “This one,” the gnome said, walking through the room. He stopped before a tall oaken door reinforced with metal studs, like the doors in the guard tower of the Archon Temple. Thomas had loved to run his hands over those doors, gasping at the contrast between the rough wood and the smooth, cold metal. It was yet another thing the foundlings teased him for.
They wouldn’t tease him now, Alec thought, pausing before the door. Imagine, me about to step through a magic door!
“This should be acceptable,” the gnome said, rubbing his hands together. “I’ll let you do the honors, Alec. Go ahead and open the door.”
Chapter 17
Warm wind blew through the doorway as Alec pulled the heavy door open a crack, and before he knew it, he and Maimonides were through. The door slammed shut behind them, and Alec found himself standing in a vast, sylvan forest.
Remembering Maimonides’s lecture about entrances and exits, he turned around to scrutinize the way they’d come. The door was the same on this side as it had been in the House of Doors, only inverted—it was now a steel door ‘reinforced’ with carved frescoes of oak in the shape of studs. Alec rubbed one of the wooden pieces and winced as a splinter pricked his finger.
“Careful,” came Maimonides’s warning. “Blood attracts predators. As does noise.”
Alec rubbed his finger, pulling the sharp splinter of wood from the digit. “Attention’s exactly what we want,” he muttered, following Maimonides down the path. “Besides, we haven’t even gone far. This is the forest outside the Northmund Estate.”
Maimonides turned around mid-stride, walking backward as naturally as most men walked forward. “Oh. Is it now?” he said sarcastically.
Alec glanced around. The trees looked exactly like the ones surrounding Uriel Diamondspear’s manor, and the weather held the same combination of warm sun and chilly wind he’d experienced on his journey upward to the House of Doors. His senses told him he hadn’t gone far—and he guessed that Maimonides’s first door was more of a tutorial than an actual experience of dislocation.
Then Maimonides pointed to the sky, and Alec gasped.
A clear blue sky rose above their heads, just as it had above the Northmund Estate. Only here, two suns glowed in the atmosphere. Each of them were dimmer than the star he knew, providing slightly less light together than his native sun did alone.
“Where are we?” Alec asked, aghast.
“Another realm,” Maimonides said sagely. “Follow me, Alec. And ready yourself. You’ll be jumping into combat before you know it.”
Alec tensed, but Maimonides had merely stepped into a clearing. A small, flat hill rose in the center of the clearing, the perfect place for a picnic. Only Alec was fairly certain Maimonides had something far bloodier in mind.
“Here we are,” the gnome said once the two of them stood at the summit.
From this slight elevation Alec could see the treeline in all directions, and only now did he notice the strange growths of bright purple leaves interspersed within the trees. Bright vines like nothing he’d ever seen wrapped around their trunks, filling the world with unnatural colors.
Cold sweat broke out on Alec’s forehead. He was in another world! Within the House of Doors, about to practice magic! He felt faintly dizzy. His legs trembled beneath him as Maimonides pulled a slender silver horn from his robes and brought it to his lips.
“How many items do you have hidden in there?” Alec asked, chuckling.
The gnome didn’t answer. Instead, he blew a clear, high note on the horn, so piercing it rode the edge of Alec’s hearing. A flock of birds scattered from a nearby tree, taking flight and disappearing into the distance.
A few moments later, Alec heard sounds coming from the forest. Lots of them.
“Pull out the Diamondspear,” Maimonides commanded. “And ready your magic!”
Alec caught flashes of motion between the trees. Whatever had heard the note from Maimonides’s horn was responding to it, and they’d brought an entire clan along with them. Panic surged in Alec’s veins. His hand drifted to his Bloodcloak, ready to teleport himself to safety.
No, he thought. I have to face this head-on.
“What Element should I concentrate on?” he asked, his thoughts a whirl. “What can I even draw from a crazy place like this—”
“Relax,” Maimonides chided him. “Panic will only get you killed, Alec! Look where you’re standing, young man.”
Alec looked down. What he’d taken for a hill in the center of the clearing was actually a large boulder with a flat top, so overgrown with grasses and weeds that it was indistinguishable from the landscape surrounding it. Shimmering patterns shone in the rock, and for a few moments, the world shrank down to the energy rippling beneath his feet.
Rock. He thought of the stone plant in his quarters and put his hands against the boulder.
Just then, creatures burst through the treeline. Alec looked up to see dozens of spiders streaming across the clearing, their segmented limbs stabbing the doughy earth. His heart leapt into his throat. Once, at Master Abel’s request, Alec had been tasked with cleaning out a cellar beneath the Temple’s kitchens that had been abandoned for three summers. What every monk had assumed to be merely a boring, filthy job turned out to nearly be a fatal one. A Queen Spider had made her nest in the cellar among discarded barrels of ale, laying a clutch of eggs the size of a horse and carriage. In the end, Master Matthias had ordered the entire cellar burned.
The incident left Alec with a deep-seated fear of spiders, even small ones. And these were nearly the size of horses!
As they charged, Alec’s fingers dug deep into the rock beneath his feet. He reached out for the energy within the rock, grabbing onto it with a fearful desperation. The spiders charged ever closer, and now he could hear the chittering of their whisker
-covered legs as they sensed prey and made for the boulder.
“I would recommend readying your Shield Ring,” Maimonides said, his tone strangely calm considering the storm of arachnids bearing down on both of them. “Unless you’re able to pull the Element of Earth from that rock within the next few moments—”
Alec lifted an arm just as the first three spiders leapt onto the rock. Within the span of a heartbeat, glowing plates of spectral armor snapped to life over his left arm. A spider’s fangs came down on the limb, intent on filling his veins with poison, only to clamp down on the magically enhanced armor.
Alec screamed. He flailed outward, spilling the arachnids in every direction. The first spider, its fangs nearly torn in two from biting down on the diamond-hard armor, seemed stunned by its aborted strike. Alec’s victory was short lived, however—as soon as one was tossed from the boulder, another half-dozen rose to take the spider’s place. Arachnids swarmed the platform, surrounding Alec and Maimonides.
A bubble of pure magic sprang to life around the diminutive gnome. “I’ll place this over you as well if need be,” Maimonides explained, watching Alec intensely. “But as you said: you came here to be forced to use your magic. Grab the magic, young man! Quickly!”
The danger increased with each passing moment. He struck out with the Shield Ring once, twice, scattering spiders as they tried to leap upon him. The creatures moved without even the most rudimentary intelligence, unable to do much more than swarm him in a mindless mass. Had they been even half as intelligent as bandits, they’d have brought him down easily.
I’m going to die, Alec thought, ducking backward as the gleaming fangs of a spider closed inches from his face. In that moment, all of Maimonides’s and Uriel’s assurances—and his own budding confidence— disintegrated within his mind. He wasn’t safe—far from it. One bite from these spiders and the poison would spread, leaving him paralyzed and helpless.
It was exactly the push he needed. As his fear became mortal, the energy contained within the rock jumped into his hands like a swarm of angry bees. Pain flared up and down his arms as he pushed the magic into unrecognized forms, absorbing far more of it than he’d ever done before.
More spiders jumped onto him—far too many for the Shield Ring to block. Despite his best efforts, one of the beasts managed to reach his shoulder and sink its fangs deep.
Into smooth, unbroken stone.
As if from the bottom of a deep well, Alec heard Maimonides gasp. When he opened his eyes, he saw a half-dozen spiders helplessly biting his arms, doing less damage than a summer’s breeze. His tawny arms were made of solid rock, just like the plant inside its pot in his suite. Only he hadn’t died—he’d transformed himself, turning his body rock solid in the most literal fashion.
“My... Gods,” Maimonides laughed. The gnome hardly noticed the spiders smashing into his shield, or the sparks thrown up by the contact of living flesh against magic. “Take them down, Alec! Quickly, before the magic runs out!”
Alec wasn’t so sure if it would. Just as he’d done when pulling the essence of Earth from the potted plant, it ran hot and thick within his body. Strangely, he didn’t feel sick, even with this much Earth energy coursing through him. But every time the fangs of a spider tried and failed to pierce his enhanced flesh, he felt that power weaken just a fraction.
He drew the Diamondspear, no longer worried about the bloodlust it would provoke in him. He wanted it. These weren’t his fellow men he was staring down—they were a pack of bloodthirsty beasts out of his worst nightmares. Today, the cellar beneath the Archon Temple would well and truly be avenged.
He roared, striking out with the sharp edge of the blade. It sunk into the nearest spider, covering the handle in greenish black ichor. The spider made a high-pitched chittering noise as Alec severed it cleanly into two sections, already in motion toward the thick of the pack.
As the air filled with the scent of ozone, Alec waded into the carnage. The Diamondspear moved like a living thing in his hands, a snake that struck out at the swarm of spiders again and again. On each attack, dozens of the creatures died. They rolled onto their backs, limbs clenching inward like arthritic fists as they curled up and expired from their wounds.
Alec heard someone screaming dimly in his ears. With a start, he realized it wasn’t Maimonides. It was him. All the terror and fear he’d felt at the intrusion of spiders as a child powered his wrath. The Diamondspear’s bloodlust surged within him, no longer fighting against his better impulses but riding them like a skilled jockey on a horse. He moved faster, his strikes becoming a blur as dozens of spiders died before his blows.
Finally, he twisted to the side to find no more targets waiting for him. The last few spiders to ascend the platform took one look at what he’d done to the rest of the swarm and fled, leaving nothing but stringy remnants of webbing behind them.
“Well done,” Maimonides said, sounding prouder than Alec had ever heard. “The line of Diamondspears are known to be warrior mages, but adding bastard’s blood to that line has made them more vicious than ever before—”
Alec’s blade struck Maimonides’s shield. The crackling energy around the gnome rippled, absorbing the shock, and for a moment Alec thought he might actually have broken through the Shadebringer’s potent magic. Then the shield reasserted itself, and a wave of shock pushed Alec backward.
“I’m not a Diamondspear,” Alec growled, wiping his mouth with the back of a hand. Blood pounded in his ears like the drum of a great army, commanding him to fight on. To destroy evil wherever it hid, for whatever value of ‘evil’ his mind might be able to come up with. “Uriel’s sister isn’t my mother. That’s all a lie.”
Maimonides stared at the smoking rent in his magical shield for a moment, his eyes wide with shock. Then he recovered. “Of course you’re not,” the gnome said smoothly. “You think I didn’t know that, young man?”
The words were like cold water on Alec’s senses. The bloodlust brought on by the Diamondspear fled him, leaving his shoulders sagging with the exertion of combat.
“There’s that Diamondspear bloodlust,” the gnome said, shaking his head. “There may not be a drop of Diamondspear blood coursing through your veins, young man, but you certainly have more in common with that fabled line that you’d like to admit. As long as you wield their family heirloom in battle, you’ll always carry their thirst for battle.” He gave his shield a desultory look. “Make sure it doesn’t overwhelm you, Alec. Else you’ll wind up spilling truths you never intended to share—and shedding blood you never intended to spill.”
The gnome was right, of course. This was all another sort of test: one he’d failed. He’d lost control in the heat of battle, struck the shield at the lie about his parentage. He could slaughter enemies in the thick of combat, but could he control himself?
With the Diamondspear whispering in his ears, it was a hell of an ask.
Grunting with effort, Alec snapped the metallic baton shut. “I’ll endeavor to do better, Maimonides.”
The gnome grinned. “Yes, you will, Alec. Are you ready for the next wave?”
Alec’s eyebrows rose all the way to his hairline. “You mean there’s more?”
The gnome began to laugh. “Oh yes, child. Much more.”
Chapter 18
For once, Maimonides wasn’t exaggerating. The rest of the week passed in a blur—Maimonides blew on the silver horn, summoning a different kind of monster every time. He seemed to want Alec only pulling energy from the rock beneath him, so each time he turned his body to stone to shield himself against the new threat’s attacks. Alec couldn’t help but notice that the monsters grew steadily stronger, until he fought rock trolls with hides almost as thick as his own.
The boulder beneath his feet seemed a font of pure energy. It never went dry—not even after Maimonides took him back to the same spot the next day and summoned even more monsters from the forest. This time the gnome gave Alec no instructions or help at all—he merely relied on A
lec to figure out how to proceed against each wave of creatures.
It was a bloodbath. Alec’s experience with the Diamondspear grew every time he used it, and he remembered Uriel’s explanation that the weapon grew in power along with the wielder. By the time centaurs crashed through the treeline, scattering wayward branches in their wake, Alec held three different elements within himself while striking with the long, magical spear.
“Very good,” Maimonides said once the centaurs were dead. “Come with me.”
He led Alec back to the door through which they’d come. As they approached, it swung open, revealing a narrow rectangle in mid-air showing the main hall of the House of Doors. Alec expected a spell from Maimonides, but suddenly Uriel and Eleira stepped through into the forest.
“Ah, I see your training is proceeding well,” Uriel said, giving Alec a pat on the back. If the sight of blood and ichor dripping from his Bloodcloak bothered the Archmage, he gave no sign—nor did he seem to notice the remnants of various elements waiting within Alec to be transformed into magic.
Eleira, however, took all this in with a narrowed gaze. “I’m catching up to you,” the elf girl said, the corner of her mouth curling in a smirk. “The House of Doors is just as splendid as I expected.”
“Good luck with the spiders,” Alec teased, savoring the look of shock on the girl’s face. Apparently Eleira liked them about as much as Alec did. He caught her unconsciously brushing her shoulders, looking up at Uriel with eyes wide with fright.
“Spiders?” Eleira asked. “What kind of spiders—”
Alec and Maimonides stepped through the door. Alec laughed as it closed behind him, grinning wickedly. “Let’s see her deal with that,” he said, looking to Maimonides for support. “I bet it’ll take her longer than two days to clear that boulder!”
To his surprise, Maimonides wore a frown. “You should be helping each other succeed,” the gnome explained, the corners of his lips arcing downward. “This isn’t a zero-sum game, Alec. Both of you need to be at your best if you’re going to succeed at the Academy.”
