Matt nodded.
“There’s a small entrance around the back. Not sure what it’s there for, but if we get around the back without being found…”
“What if there are more inside?” Leigh questioned.
“There will be more inside. But we do actually know how to fight,” August noted.
“We know the basics,” I corrected her. “We can fight each other, but that doesn’t mean we’ve got a chance of fighting fully grown, fully trained fighters.”
“Not that we have much of a choice…” Matt muttered.
“Matt, do you know how to get to the door?” I asked.
“Yeah. If we take a shortcut around the back of building C, we should be able to stay out of the way of any open areas.”
“The Syndicate probably won’t be expecting anyone to be brave enough to try and fight back, so they’ll be focusing their efforts more on the main building. We should be able to get there largely uninterrupted,” Raven agreed.
“And when we do?” August asked.
“We need to work out how to get to Professor Greyford’s office,” Leigh suggested.
“Easier said than done…” August remarked.
“The school will be crawling with Syndicate fighters…” Raven noted.
“Split up?” Matt suggested.
“No. We need to stay together. We’re not strong enough to fight anyone on our own. The only chance we have of this plan working is fighting together,” I decided. “If the door is near Building C, it’ll take us to…”
“The infirmary,” Leigh finished. “We should find Dr Birchwood, if he’s there. He might be able to help us.”
“Good idea,” I agreed. “Okay, so we get to the infirmary, find Dr Birchwood, and get to Greyford’s office, and do something to get rid of the army of crazy Magicals that are currently occupying the school. Without getting killed.”
“Oh, that all?” Matt commented.
“No problem…” August added.
“I know it sounds impossible…” I started.
“And?” Leigh questioned, waiting for the end of the sentence.
“That’s it. It sounds impossible,” I shrugged. “Sorry, there’s nothing else to it. There’s a pretty huge chance that whatever is inside the school, we’re not going to be able to handle it…” I admitted. “But that doesn’t matter. Things might look bad, but it doesn’t mean they are. We’re going to make it through this. All of us.”
I looked the corner. The Syndicate fighters were all on the other side of the courtyard, away from where we were. “Okay, let’s go,” I whispered as I started sprinting in the direction of our target.
As we neared the entrance to the school, all of us were ready to fight. My arm was covered in ice; Raven’s was on fire. Matt had already created a staff from a railing, and August had a handful of cards, ready to charge them.
“There’s gonna be a hell of a lot of Syndicate agents behind that door, you know,” Matt pointed out.
“Probably,” I agreed. “Me and Matt will take the front, focus on hand-to-hand. Raven, August, you two stick to taking out anyone behind us. You’re both stronger with distance, so we need to use that to our advantage. Leigh, can you put up a field enchantment?”
“I… I might be able to...” Leigh replied. “What sort of enchantment?”
“Some kind of alert field. If we’re going to have anything close to a fighting chance, we’re gonna need to know when they’re attacking.”
“I might be able to… But it might take me a few seconds.”
“That’s fine. Just get it up as soon as you can,” I replied. “Okay, everyone ready?” Everyone nodded hesitantly. “That’ll do…” I muttered as I walked to the door. I stood next to the door and reached for the handle. Matt stood on the other side.
“This is a terrible idea, you know…” he joked.
“Oh, don’t worry, I know.” I formed a blade with my ice and turned the door handle. I swung the door open, and Raven fired a blast of fire into the building. Me and Matt ran into the Main Building.
“Can you deal with the smoke?”
Matt nodded and flicked his hands around. The smoke shifted, rising up to the ceiling, and letting us actually see what was around us. It was a good thing as well, because what was around us were three Syndicate members, all charging towards us.
I held my hand out at one of them, trapping their legs in ice, followed up with an ice-covered punch straight to the chest. Matt incapacitated another with a blow from his metal staff straight to the stomach, followed by another swing at his head. The final attacker was dealt with by a flaming card to the back, courtesy of August. I froze the three of them to the floor and breathed a sigh of relief.
“That went better than I expected…” I admitted. “Nice job everyone…”
“The infirmary is this way. We should get there before they realize that three of their men have had the shit beaten out of them…” Matt decided, walking off down the corridor.
After narrowly avoiding being caught by another group of Syndicate operatives, the five of us piled into the infirmary.
“What the hell are you all doing here?” Dr Birchwood questioned, clearly surprised by five idiots running into his room as if the school wasn’t under attack (Not that I blame him, to be fair). “You should be in the dorms!”
“Blame Emilie…” Matt grunted as he pushed a cupboard in front of the door.
“Hey, you could have said no.” I shrugged as I made sure that the windows were locked. “Sorry for barging in like this, doctor. We were nearby; thought we should make sure you were okay.” I breathed out and relaxed, at least as much as I could, given the situation. Birchwood took off his coat and sat down.
“So, how did you all get involved in this? And what exactly is this?”
“The school is under attack from the Syndicate. We don’t know why they’re here, but we think they’re looking for… something, and they don’t seem to be interested in the students. We’re here because we’ve been spending the last six months training to fight. Because… Because I’m the Guardian.”
“Guardian? As in…”
I rolled up my sleeve and showed him the stone.
“Incredible. I wasn’t even aware that we had an Arch Stone here, let alone that a student was carrying it… I did see it when you were in here after the accident, but I never assumed…” he admitted. “So, you’re trying to find out what the Syndicate is doing here, then?” he asked, quickly moving away from the stone.
“We’re trying to find Professor Greyford,” Raven replied.
“That’s probably wise,” Birchwood agreed. “But, knowing him, he won’t be easy to find. He’ll either have barricaded himself in his office with Magic, or he’s on the other side of the school by now.”
“Shit…” I sighed.
“Well, that totally screws up the plan then…” August complained.
“We’ll work something out.” I was trying to convince myself that it was going to be okay, more than anyone else. I was also lying through my teeth.
You’re just children… You can’t beat them… You’re useless…
“Great… I was wondering when you were going to chime in…” I hissed under my breath.
“Are you okay?” Dr Birchwood asked. “I suppose you’re still struggling with the hallucinations, then…”
“I… have good days and bad...” I shrugged. “And, I’ll admit, today’s not going too great…”
“How about now?” I shrugged. “Are they loud?”
“You get used to it. Don’t worry about it.” I brushed him off. I dropped down on one of the beds and sighed again.
“So, what’s our plan?” Matt asked.
“If Dr Birchwood’s right, then we haven’t got a chance of finding the professor…” Raven noted.
“What else are we supposed to do?” August questioned. “It’s not like we can fight them on our own. Whatever happens, we’re going to need more people. Preferably teach
ers.”
“I know…” I tried to think of who else there was. “Is Mr Sokolov still in the school?”
“Ivan Sokolov? He’s here?” Birchwood seemed confused.
“Yeah, he’s been giving us defensive training. Didn’t you know?”
Birchwood shook his head.
“They don’t tell me anything around here.” he sighed. “If he’s around, he’ll probably be in the thick of the fighting, knowing him.”
I looked out of the window, through the blind. They were Syndicate operatives everywhere, patrolling. There didn’t seem to have been anyone from the school around, thankfully. But the Syndicate were still there, and we still didn’t really know what they were planning, not for sure. I punched the wall.
There’s nothing you can do… They’re adults... You’re just a child…
“I can’t just sit here doing nothing!” I shouted over the voices.
But what difference can you make? You don’t really think you can beat them, do you? You’re going to get killed… You’re going to get your friends killed…
The voices kept getting louder, because that was exactly what I needed when the entire school was under attack. I slid down the wall and buried my head in my arms, doing everything I could to keep myself under control, if only outwardly. I tried to force even the smallest amount of magic energy out to try and reset my brain, but it was impossible to concentrate. The voices were louder than they’d ever been. The hallucinations were at their worst when I was under stress, and there isn’t a much more stressful situation to be in than having your school attacked by an army of crazy Magical revolutionaries. But I didn’t have time for a full-scale mental breakdown. I tried to concentrate on the voices, trying to control them. Truthfully, any tactics I was using to try and help myself were based on pure bullshit, but what was the worst that could happen?
What are you trying to do? You can’t control us… We’re not really here…
“Be… Quiet…”
We’re the ones in control… You can’t just get rid of us…
“You’re in my head. My head. I don’t have to let you control me…” I decided. “I don’t have to let you control me…” I opened my eyes and stood up. “I’m done with this.” I decided. “I’m not going to sit here while the school gets torn down.”
“It’s too dangerous out there for students, Emilie,” Birchwood protested.
“We’re not just students. This is what we’ve been training for. We can handle ourselves. We can handle the Syndicate,” I argued. “We can do this.”
Matt, who was leaning against the edge of one of the beds, laughed.
“You know, we probably can’t. Still, I don’t know about you, but I’m not going down without a fight,” he asserted. “Right, guys?”
“I’m not letting all the training go to waste.” August smiled confidently.
“It’s not like we have much of a choice.” Leigh shrugged.
“So, you guys are with me?” I questioned.
“Always,” Raven agreed. I turned to Birchwood.
“Doctor, you should stay here. We don’t know if everyone’s managed to make it too the dorms, so we need someone to keep this place safe. Hold the fort, that kind of thing,” I told him. “Come on. We need to go.” I pulled the blockade away from the door and peered around the corner. The area was empty. I gestured for the others to follow me, and they all ran after me.
“Hold the fort?” he shouted after us. “How the hell am I supposed to do that? I’m a doctor, not a guard dog!”
26
About ten minutes and a fair few Syndicate agents later, we managed to find our way to Greyford’s office.
“Professor!” I shouted in, banging on the door. “Are you in there? There’s no one else out here, it’s just us.”
After a few seconds, the door creaked open. Greyford walked out of the door and looked around the hallway.
“Come inside.” He hurried us into his room, locking the door behind us. “Is everyone alright?”
“Tired, scared, and probably with a few bruises...” I sighed. “But we’ll live.”
“What’s going on, Professor?” August asked.
“The Syndicate are here. I don’t know how, but they seem to know about the Arch Stone.”
“How?” I asked.
“That’s not worth worrying about right now. But we need to push them back.”
“We need to find Elijah,” Raven decided. “If anyone’s leading these forces, it’ll be him.”
“We don’t know that for sure. You can’t run out there blindly, Miss Blake.” Greyford argued.
“It’s him…” I interrupted. “I know it is… I can feel it…”
Greyford looked at me.
“Elijah Blake… Does he have an Arch Stone?” he asked.
“He does,” I replied.
“The Arch Stones are strongly linked, so if one’s here, you might be able to-”
“Have you known he was here the whole time?” Raven suddenly questioned.
“What?” I asked.
“Elijah. How long have you been able to feel him here?” Raven asked again.
“I… I…” I trailed off.
“Have you known the whole time?”
“I… I felt something…” I replied. “But I wasn’t sure what it was, so I didn’t mention it.”
“You knew? Seriously? You should have said something!”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t… It didn’t feel like a priority at the time…”
“Hey!” Matt shouted. “We don’t need you two arguing like a pair of kids!”
Greyford sighed.
“Thank you, Mr Silvemist. Now, whether or not Elijah Blake is here isn’t really relevant, for the time being.”
“We need to find him if we’re going to stop them!” Raven pointed out.
“We need to find their leader. Who it is isn’t important,” August decided. “If it is Fire-Bird’s brother, then she can be the one to take him out. But that’s not the aim. Got it?”
Raven nodded.
“So, what do we do then?” Matt asked. “We have no idea where they could be working from.”
“There’s not that many places that would be a good base of operations. We’re in one of them. The restaurant has the space, but there’s not really much there…” August admitted.
“The library,” Leigh spoke up. “There’s a lot of space there, and it’s pretty close to the middle of the school.”
“Not to mention the information in there…” August added.
“That seems to be a fair assumption,” Greyford agreed.
“So, what do we do?” Raven asked. Greyford looked over at me.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“You’re the Guardian, Emilie. How this situation is dealt with is up to you.” Greyford answered.
Ha! You’re all going to die… You can’t possibly beat-
“Shut up!” I scolded the voices. I clenched my fist and took a deep breath. “It’s up to me…” I muttered. “Professor, are there still teachers at the school?”
“Most of them are watching the dorms. They won’t be able to help us while we’re in lockdown.”
“Dr Birchwood’s still in the infirmary. We told him to stay put,” August informed the professor.
“What about Mr Sokolov?” Leigh asked.
“I haven’t heard from Ivan, I’m afraid.”
Leigh looked down. I put my hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry about him. You know how tough he is. He’ll be fine. I promise.”
“But you can’t, can you?” Leigh sharply asked. “We have no idea what’s going on here. We don’t know what the Syndicate are planning. You can say ‘it’ll be alright’ as much as you like, but that doesn’t make it true!”
I froze in my place. Everyone stared Leigh for a moment. I don’t think any of us knew she was capable of acting like that.
“Leigh…” Matt walked over to his sister, but she pus
hed him away.
“Seriously?” August loudly questioned. “You’re saying all this shit now? After all of this, you’re giving up now? Do you think that none of us are scared? That we’re not all worried that we’re not going to make it out of this?”
“I… I…” Leigh scrambled for an answer.
“You’re not the only one who’s struggling with this. But you don’t see any of us bitching about it, do you? We agreed to do this. We knew it would be dangerous going in. So did Sokolov. So quit being so fucking depressing, alright!”
“Well, that was certainly… Impactful…” Greyford sighed. “As it is, we can’t stand around for too long. I can get you all to the library, but I fear I won’t be much use after that.”
“You’re going to teleport?” I questioned.
“I’m going to teleport everyone else. You’re going to do it yourself,” he replied. “You’re going to need to master this at some point, so I think this is a suitable situation.”
“I think we have different definitions of suitable…”
Greyford teleported the others to a safe place in the library, one by one, until we were alone in the office.
“Is something wrong, Emilie?” he asked, after realizing I wasn’t moving. Tears were filling up in my eyes.
“Leigh’s right…” I quietly confessed. “I don’t think we can do this… I really don’t…”
Greyford sighed and sat down in his chair.
“I believe in you. All of you. You’ve trained non-stop for this. And in any case, the Arch Stone chose you as its Guardian.”
“But what if it was wrong.”
“It’s magic. Right or wrong aren’t really accurate concepts. That’s now how it works.” Greyford stood up and walked over to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder. “Everything is going to be alright. Try and focus on that,” he encouraged me. “Now, you should hurry. Your friends are waiting for you to take back our school.”
I smiled.
“Thank you, professor.” I wiped the traces of tears away from my face and stepped into an emptier space and started constructing the spell.
“Good luck, Emilie,” Greyford said as I crossed my arms over.
An increasingly familiar sensation spread across me as the professor’s office faded away, with the top level of the library replacing it. Matt, Leigh and August were all hiding at various points around the area.
The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1 Page 17
