Terrestrial Magic (Jordan Sanders, #1)

by Marina Ermakova

  Yeah, Dr. Berti had a reputation among the legends all right. And not necessarily a good one. They couldn’t know for sure whether or not she was disposed against them—hell, even I didn’t know that—but there had to be some suspicion. And Alcides was a teenager. I didn’t know how the modern day House of Hercules felt about childhood—maybe he didn’t qualify. But even if he was considered an adult, he’d still be a relatively new one. He probably wouldn’t know anything that wasn’t common knowledge. And he’d reacted like he’d met the boogeyman.

  If suspicions about Dr. Berti were that widespread, the House of Remus had to have heard them, too. So why were they helping us? Did they not believe the rumors?

  I took a moment to berate myself for not bothering to find out these things sooner. I should have known how Dr. Berti’s politics were perceived by the legend community, even if they didn’t directly concern me. She was my advisor. There was no way the lab group would be left out of the politics of it, just because that wasn’t what we were there for. We were associated with Dr. Berti, one way or another.

  I should have thought of all of this sooner, before circumstances forced my hand, but I didn’t. And now I was wasting time catching up. Scaring away the people who could answer my questions because I didn’t know what their society was telling them about us. Damn it.

  Why did dealing with people have to be so complicated?

  Luca stepped closer to me. “What was that supposed to accomplish?” he asked with a casual curiosity. Reasonable Luca was back in full force, as if his testy alter ego had never been.

  “That was to give me a sense of what the legends, aside from the House of Remus, think about Dr. Berti.”

  His face was blank, before comprehension dawned. “Oh. Yeah.” He paused for a moment. “I suppose that didn’t look good, right?” Daring and spontaneous maybe, but a deep thinker he was not.

  “So she isn’t particularly popular among the legends,” I mused. That was completely unhelpful in terms of narrowing things down, though it did mean the landscape was different than I’d assumed. Our attackers could still be anyone. “I need to straighten some things out with Dr. Berti before I can figure out anything else.”

  “Is that something I can help you with?” a voice intruded. Luca and I snapped to the side to see the Remus standing nearby. Damn it, and here we were discussing things out in the open, like the complete amateurs we were. While surrounded by legends, any one of whom could have some kind of hearing power for all I knew. Or a listening bug, if they were from the apparently technophilic House of Remus. I needed to be more careful.

  Turning my attention to the Remus’ question, I tried to think of an out. There wasn’t a good way to say no, was there?

  The Remus gestured with his arm towards the park’s exit. “Please,” he said. “We may speak somewhere more private.”

  Oh, great. Luca glanced at me for direction. Well, I still hadn’t thought of a good way to refuse. And anyway, what would be the point? Might as well ask him something.

  I did as I was bidden, trying not to give any indication that I was worried about turning my back on the Remus. Luca would watch out for me, I told myself. And there were too many witnesses anyway. Right?

  The Remus fell in beside me, with Luca a few steps behind us, still within easy hearing range. We continued down the street, past the parking lot, flanked by warm-colored buildings and an orange wall. A few palms were sprinkled between stone pines, giving a clear view of an open sky that darkened with the sunset. It was deceptively relaxing, given that we were walking to a secluded area with a potentially dangerous man.

  I still felt nervous. The Remus was in control here, and I had no idea where he was taking us. No idea why he thought this conversation warranted privacy. Whatever happened next, I had to be careful.

  Or Luca and I might pay for it.

  WE REACHED A PIAZZA of some sort, enclosed by white walls with pillars on three sides. Trees and buildings rose up from behind the walls. I looked closer and realized some of the pillars were obelisks. Attached to the wall on the right appeared to be a gatehouse of some sort, with a large green door.

  “The keyhole in that door provides a direct view to the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica,” the Remus said. “It is a great symbol for my House. As our ancestors have in the past, we still to this day watch over Rome. This is a core aspect of who we are.”

  I tried to parse whether this was just a prideful description of his community’s history, or a veiled threat. Was he pointing out how close he was to our safety zone? Hinting that he could breach it?

  “Please, feel free to ask anything,” he continued. “I know everything Simonetta knows. We are, after all, partners in this. She had been a dear friend for a long time.”

  Sure, they seemed to have a cordial relationship and all, but friends? It came as news to me that he considered her along those lines. It didn’t seem to be mutual, considering.

  Still, I had to ask him something. The safest thing to do was claim ignorance, and allow him to feel like he was educating me. “Alright. As Dr. Berti’s involvement in politics hasn’t affected me before, I don’t know much about it. But since people might associate us with her, I’d like to know more, so that I know what sort of reactions to expect from the other legends.”

  The Remus’ lips quirked upward, in amusement. Nope, that was totally not reassuring.

  “Of course,” he said. “And as Simonetta has hand-picked all of you, this is clearly something you can be trusted with.” If he thought that, maybe he didn’t know Dr. Berti as well as he imagined. “Our ultimate aim is the unification of the humans in Italy into one cooperating society, and the reclamation of the countryside that has been vacated since the Boom.”

  Uh. He just...said that. So casually. Without even addressing the implication that legends might become disadvantaged in a cooperative Italy that excluded them.

  The Remus smiled. “I know what you are thinking. This new world order would be empowering human communities. And yes, it would be empowering them at the expense of legends, who would be left out.”

  And...he was okay with that?

  “What?” Luca asked, surprised. Because of course, it was the first he was hearing about it.

  The Remus chuckled. “But you knew that already,” he told me, before turning to Luca. “You did not.”

  Luca sent me a quick glare that had me feeling a bit defensive. I mean, when exactly was I supposed to tell him?

  “Yes,” the Remus continued. “We are indeed not looking out for the welfare of legend communities. If you had ever been present at the meetings that take place between legends, you would understand. There is no spirit of cooperation among them. The others live in their own territories and want everything their own way. They would not want to fit into a larger whole, and they would fight any progress humans tried to make for themselves. Because to them, that would be a threat. It is time for us to move on and leave them behind.”

  Well, that was a very depressing line of reasoning. I wasn’t sure I was entirely comfortable with it.

  “But,” Luca interrupted, “you’re also a legend.”

  “Yes,” the Remus responded, in that disarming, gentle tone of his. “I am. But the House of Remus has always been more interested in cooperating with Rome than ruling it. Do you not know? The Aventine is associated with the common people. And you have met some of the members of my House. They all want to fit into the same world as you do. Some more than others, yes, but none of us are afraid of gaining a powerful neighbor, especially if we make ourselves a part of that. This is a new age. We trust we can work with you.”

  I thought of Jessie and her smartphone. Her questions about America, about cooperation. Yeah, I could see what he was saying, if the rest of the House was anything like our wayward bodyguard. It almost made me feel guilty that I hadn’t known the import of what I was telling her. If she was looking for a utopia, it didn’t exist anywhere, let alone in my old home.

 
My eyes flickered towards Luca. His attention was locked onto the Remus in what was almost a cool, piercing gaze, but for the raised eyebrows that accompanied it. It left him looking a little lost.

  I didn’t understand this. But being here, listening to the Remus speaking about it...I believed him. Which meant I didn’t need to understand. It was true, and I could be sure the Remus didn’t have anything to do with the assassination attempts. All of his potential motives had dissipated into nothing.

  It surprised me, how relieved I felt. How good it was to know that we didn’t have to worry about this one House. And weirdly enough, I liked the Remus, all my prior suspicions aside. Maybe some of the consideration he’d shown to us was calculated. But even then, so what? Was I going to reject every show of kindness anyone ever made, because I suspected ulterior motives? I was good at suspicion. If I went looking for something to object to, I’d find it. Maybe this time, I could accept a helping hand instead.

  But of course, if the House of Remus was innocent, someone else was still guilty. “Then that brings us to the issue at hand,” I said. “That other legends might not feel the same way.”

  “No,” the Remus agreed. “They certainly would not—well, some individuals would, and maybe even a few Houses. But most of them, no.”

  “So the question is, who knows about Dr. Berti’s plans?”

  “This is not only about Simonetta,” the Remus responded. “She is part of a larger wave of Italians who want to restore a sense of infrastructure to their country. Who want to reach to a time before the Boom. However, most legends like how the aftereffects of the Boom worked out for them. They like the lands they’ve settled, and they like dealing with human cities as independent settlements. Your research empowers humans to take control of their own destiny. That is a tempting target, even without Simonetta’s involvement.”

  I thought about that for a moment. “So you’re saying they’re against anything that’s good for us?” Even if it could be good for them, as well? The knowledge wasn’t exactly under lock and key. They could use it, too.

  With a sympathetic glance, the Remus said, “Yes.”

  “They wouldn’t see it that way,” Luca cut in.

  And, of course he’d be looking at it from their point of view. What with his degree in psychology. “What do you mean?” I asked him.

  “Well, they think in terms of more traditional mentalities, right? If the society next to them becomes rapidly stronger, it’d be more likely to invade.”

  “Invade?” I repeated, dubious. This was 21st century Italy. The borders here hadn’t changed for—well, I couldn’t remember for how long, seeing as I hadn’t studied contemporary Italian history, but it must have been at least a century or two.

  “Yes,” the Remus said. “That is a good idea of how legends are likely to think. They are powerful and insular. They disdain outsiders, and anything that shifts the balance of power away from them is a threat.”

  Hey, on behalf of my own insular community back home, I was offended. We were nice to outsiders. We didn’t get many, due to the instability of the area, but we took care of the ones we did get. Hell, my mom was originally an outsider. And wasn’t the whole world somewhat insular these days? What, with all these dangerous creatures running amok everywhere?

  But I bit that response back, because their misconceptions were not my problem.

  “It’s reasonable that they’d worry a powerful Italy might want its land back,” Luca continued. “And even if it wasn’t an invasion, strong societies tend to bully their neighbors sooner or later. Right now, the city of Rome is just another of several communities that can be dealt with as relative equals. If all the Italian cities banded together and expanded to more of the countryside, the legend communities might not feel like equals anymore—unless they banded together themselves, or unless each legend community became more influential at the same time.”

  “They will not band together,” the Remus said. “They have as little in common with each other as they do with the humans.”

  I was getting a headache. Why was adding to the sum of human knowledge a bad thing? Why did progress have to have winners and losers? But I didn’t know how to fix the world, so I turned my attention back to the thing that was actually my problem. “Whatever else is true, someone tried to kill us. The only real ways we have of narrowing down our suspects are through the techniques they’ve used to attack us. The helmet and the flood.”

  The Remus nodded. “Yes, it would appear so. I have been brainstorming myself as to which Houses have the appropriate connections. But I stand by my earlier assessment, that only the Houses of Hercules and Aeneas could have done this.”

  “Why?” Luca asked. Oh, right. He was the one who didn’t think it was the House of Aeneas, for some reason.

  “The flood is simple. Anyone could do that.” Great. So, anyone could drown me with a spontaneous flash flood. Good to know. “However, to transmit the power of one object onto hundreds of objects is much more complicated. The minor houses could not do it. The most powerful and resourceful families in the immediate area would be those two Houses.”

  “Really?” Luca pressed. “There aren’t any other candidates?”

  A casually raised eyebrow was the only reaction my teammate got from the Remus. “If it had been done on a smaller scale, there would be. For instance, the House of Anna is very versatile. But for the amount of blocks which were placed to construct this wall, no.”

  “Okay,” I said, “about the flood. You said that anyone could do that.”

  He paused. “Perhaps not anyone. But there are many ways to divert a river, if one is willing to be creative. In order to find out who could have done this, it would be more beneficial to look at the more difficult task. Making that invisible wall. I still have no notion as to how they put all those bricks in place. Finding that out may be the key to figuring out which House is responsible.”

  “Okay,” I began, thinking about the possibilities. “So the question is, how does a wall made up of large, heavy bricks get erected in—Luca, how long were we there for before we noticed the wall?”

  “Why are you asking me?”

  “Because you were the one with the camera.”

  “Oh.” He paused, thinking about it. “Probably a few hours.”

  “Okay.” I took a deep breath, leaning back into the bench. “No mortar or anything. They were being held in place just by weight, as far as I could tell.”

  “That is significant,” the Remus commented. “If the blocks were all separate from each other, then they may have been placed independently of one another.”

  So again, something that would require a lot of power. Did any of the Houses have telekinetics? That was the obvious thing that came to mind, but someone would have thought of it already, if it was relevant. Without a few very powerful telekinetics, though, there had to be some other power making the task achievable. Even with that, it was hard to imagine them not needing a good deal of manpower, too. “Which Houses have the most people in them?” I asked.

  The Remus looked surprised for a moment. “Yes, I had not thought of that. I would say the Houses of Numa Pompilius and Aeneas have the greatest populations.”

  And the House of Numa had not been included in our earlier talks of possibilities at all. Of course, they were generally proponents of peace. The stories of Numa, which apparently determined his House’s power set, were completely unfitting for the sort of stuff we’d encountered. I mean, seriously. Would they legislate us to death?

  “But,” Luca argued, “The House of Hercules wouldn’t need as many people as another House might.”

  “Yes, I do suppose so.” The Remus placed a hand on his chin. “They are not a small House either, though hardly the largest. And due to the versatility of their founder, they have many powers available.”

  Aeneas. Hercules. Numa. It wasn’t Numa. So back to our original choices. “Thank you for your help,” I said to the Remus.

  He smiled
indulgently. “Believe it or not, I am here to help.” I believed him. Dr. Berti would never have been this frank with me. With Hayley, maybe, but not with me.

  He’d given me plenty to think about, to work with. And I had crossed one House off my list, if not off of his. I had to talk to my team.

  Chapter Ten

  FINDING HAYLEY AND Carter was easy enough. Tony was a bit of a challenge, especially since he wasn’t picking up his phone, but eventually we tracked him down and backed him into a corner. He could complain all he wanted, but we all knew that fixing this was important to him too.

  The real problem was that I wanted Pradip included, and if I tried calling him, he would hang up on me. Eventually, I decided to go for broke and led the team over to his room. I hoped he wouldn’t kill us, for invading, but I wasn’t going to leave him out of this. Not when he was the most knowledgeable of all of us about Dr. Berti’s policies. And hey, maybe we haven’t appreciated him as much as we should have. Now was as good a time as any to demonstrate that he was one of us, right?

  Well, I would try, anyway. Why not at least do that much?

  I knocked on the door. Pradip opened it. He barely had time to scowl at us before I pushed past him, with the others following me in. At least this way he couldn’t just slam the door in our faces.

  “What are you people doing here?” he asked, his voice coming out as haggard.

  “Group meeting,” I responded, trying not to feel bad for him. I headed for the couch and sat down. Hayley managed to snag the armchair, while the guys took up the rest of the couch and the floor.

  “And it has to be here?” Pradip crossed his arms.

  I ignored his response, instead spending the next little while catching everyone up on what I’d learned so far. Including every House name the Remus had mentioned, whether or not he’d ruled them out.

  “So what are we focusing on? What should we be thinking about, here?” Hayley asked, a light note of worry in her voice.