by John Corwin
He stalked down the hallway, muttering under his breath.
"What is it?" I asked, jogging to catch up.
"Bloody hell," he said, and stopped at the end. He touched the blank wall. Unlike the previous one, this one appeared real. He kicked at the stones, but they didn't budge.
I gripped his arm. "What are you doing?"
"There's something on the other side of the wall. It's pulsing like a bloody star."
He didn't need to say another word. I pressed a foot to the wall, and shoved, putting all my strength into it. Without warning, the wall caved in, and I almost tumbled in after it. A large slab of stone narrowly missed my head, and a cloud of dust sent MacLean and I coughing and backing away. When the dust cleared, a tunnel, this one obviously hewn from the mountain, lurked on the other side.
MacLean jogged down the narrow tunnel, as if drawn like a magnet. The illumination from the previous area dimmed to nothing, but light flickered from somewhere ahead, blindingly white one minute before dimming to ultraviolet. The Scot abruptly stopped, and I plowed into his back, rocking him forward on his feet.
"That's it," he said, pointing after he regained his balance, stepping forward into a wide chamber with walls of polished obsidian.
An Alabaster Arch sat in the center.
Chapter 36
The center of the arch crackled with a malevolent pulsar of energy which phased from white to ultraviolet as if a kid were playing with a sliding light switch on a wall. It hummed with the promise of death should anyone touch it, and teased the hairs on my arms with static.
The room wasn't very tall, perhaps thirty feet, and probably as wide and as long as a four-car garage. Not daring to take another step closer to the malfunctioning arch, I magnified my vision, examining its physical properties. I noticed something so odd, it took a couple of repetitions before I felt sure it wasn't my eyes playing tricks. As the white spectrum of light brightened, alabaster veins twined through the obsidian material of the arch, snaking through the material until it looked very similar to the Alabaster Arch I'd seen beneath Thunder Rock. But when the white light waned, the white veins faded until only black obsidian remained during the full power of the ultraviolet spectrum.
I scratched my head, still staring at the odd transformation. One minute it looked like an alabaster arch, the next pure obsidian. "What in the world is going on with the colors?"
MacLean looked just as confused. "It's like the blasted thing can't make up its mind."
I held my phone up to an ear to ask Zagg a question, and heard nothing but static. "I think it's interfering with my phone."
"If this thing is what made your friends sick," the Scot said, "I don't want to stand near the bloody thing a second longer than I have to."
The almost constant pull of static on my clothes and arms was enough to make me wonder what horrible things this pulsar was doing to my internal organs, though I realized with a wry chuckle, it couldn't be much worse than what the vampling curse was already doing. Before I turned, I noticed a doorway on the opposite side of the room. I tried to make a video with my phone, but my phone had other ideas.
"Where do you think that goes?" I asked, pointing toward the mysterious exit. I ran to it, and peered into a small room with a sturdy metal door. Thick bands of steel ran through grooves, holding it shut. It looked formidable, even for my supernatural powers.
MacLean shrugged. "I don't know, and right now, I don't bloody care. I'm getting out of here, and not returning without a magic hazard suit on."
I backed away from the arch, turned, and jogged after MacLean. After we passed through the broken wall, he looked around the room.
"Did you notice how the lamps in here grow brighter during each pulse?" he said.
They did indeed seem to brighten and darken in time with the light from the arch. "I don't understand how magic could make people sick like that."
"Aye, I don't know either. You could stand in the middle of a ley line and not get sick." He shrugged. "I don't know who to even ask about it."
"Maybe an arch operator?"
He snorted. "Those bloody imbeciles know how to push buttons, and that's about it."
"They were working on an arch for the Conroys. They can't be that stupid."
"Well, true. But do you really want one of them poking around down here?" His gaze met mine. "What if this thing could be used as a weapon, or to open a gateway to the angel realm? Then we'd be in a bloody mess, wouldn't we?"
I couldn't argue with him there. "We need to make sure nobody else comes down here."
"No argument there, lad."
We made our way back to the main dungeon, and headed back through the hole in the grate. Once outside, MacLean snapped his staff to full length, and whipped up an illusion barrier, that matched the corridor wall, solid to the touch.
He snapped the staff back down to the size of a small rod, and slid it into a pocket in his pants. "That'll do for the time being."
"We'll have to go back down there and study it," I said. "We have to find out why it made people sick." I tried to call Zagg, but my phone still wasn't responding very well. After a restart, it seemed to function normally once more, but by then, we were already topside. "Let's talk to Zagg."
MacLean looked up and down the hall, eyes darting nervously. "What about the bloody Flark?"
"Do you really think he'll try to kidnap you with witnesses everywhere?"
"Even if he doesn't, what if he follows me to my hideout?" Worry creased the corners of his eyes.
"We need to figure out a permanent solution to our Bigglesworth problem," I said with a growl. "There's got to be some way to burn his bacon."
MacLean chuckled. "True, or there'd be a lot more of the nasty buggers running around." He regarded me with a serious expression for a moment before nodding. "Fine. Let's go talk to Zagg. I'm probably safer with you lot than going bloody insane in the secret chambers behind the library walls."
"I even have a place for you to stay," I said, thinking of all the rooms going to waste at my haunted mansion.
We found Zagg and Cinder in the historian's office. I saw Cinder fiddling with one of the marble-sized ASEs and a scroll of parchment.
Zagg looked up when we entered the room, relief evident on his face. "Man, I was wondering what happened to you down there. Some kind of static burst nearly blew up Cinder's phone." He did a double-take at the big Scot. "Hello, Professor MacLean. Um, why did you bring him in on this, Justin?"
I figured MacLean wouldn't want me spilling his secret affiliation, or his gift. "He's familiar with the dungeons."
"I was dragged into this bloody mess by one of the Conroy's minions," MacLean said. "Justin helped me out, so I'm helping him."
"The static burst was disconcerting," Cinder said, his voice devoid of inflection as usual. "I suspected you might have been annihilated, but Professor Zagg convinced me it was likely a malfunction."
"Thankfully, just a malfunction," I said. "But the cause of it…" I whistled. "I don't even know what to think." I was grateful for Cinder changing the subject, even if the golem hadn't intended to.
MacLean and I told them the details, drawing sounds of amazement from the historian. He consulted the diagrams, but found nothing indicating a room of any sort where the arch sat.
"Maybe it was a getaway portal," Zagg suggested. "After all, the Illuminati were very secretive."
"Not so bloody much anymore," MacLean said in a disgusted voice.
Zagg's eyes widened. "You know something about the Illuminati?"
The big Scot's mouth opened a fraction, the expression on his face clearly indicating he felt like a moron for having opened his big mouth. "They're in movies…and stuff," he said. "Now, about that portal—"
"You're the Illuminati Justin knows," Zagg said, eyes narrowed.
I didn't want Zagg's personal interests to interfere with the matter at hand, so I jumped back into the conversation. "There are people possibly dying right this very minute
because of that arch. Do you think Healer Hutchins might be able to help?"
"How?" MacLean said. "She'd just look at it and be as confused as the rest of us."
"We can't just sit here." I huffed out a breath.
"This is a rather vexing problem," Cinder said, never looking up from his work with the ASE and the scroll. "I would suggest a team meeting. Perhaps our cumulative processing abilities will solve the problem." He looked up at me, gray eyes never blinking, and said, "It is time for a brainstorm."
I grinned. "Gold star for your first successful use of an idiom."
"Thank you, Justin. I will proudly display my gold star." Cinder simulated a stiff smile, showing a few too many teeth, though not enough to frighten small children, and turned back to his work with the scrolls and ASE.
I figured Shelton and Bella would probably be finished doing…whatever. I really didn't want to think about where their kissing had led. I called, and told them to expect a group.
"I'll order pizza," Shelton said.
I'd kind of wanted chicken wings, but didn't complain about it.
I arrived with my ever-growing entourage, made introductions. MacLean and Shelton exchanged grips.
"Been too long since we attacked Greek Row with spider bats," MacLean said with a broad grin.
A smile broke Shelton's sober face. "Yeah. Those were the days."
I grabbed a slice of pizza and nommed it in a matter of seconds. As I was grabbing seconds, I heard a disturbance and turned to see Zagg, one hand gripping Shelton's collar, the other cocked back threateningly.
"Whoa!" I said, blurring over to hold Zagg's arm. "What's going on?"
"Let him," Shelton said, face dull and impassive. "I deserve it."
"You're damned right you deserve it, you bastard!" Zagg shouted, straining uselessly against my grip. He pushed Shelton away, jerked his arm from mine. "Did you know about this, Justin?"
Crap. Shelton must have told him about the evidence planting. "I just found out today."
"And you were going to tell me when?" His angry face melted into a hurt expression. "I trusted you, man!"
"I did what I promised, Zagg. Nothing has changed. I didn't want to tell you because I knew this"—I waved my hand between him and Shelton—"would happen. There are other important matters at stake here, damn it." I struck a fist into my palm. "Kids are dying, the Conroys are trying to let the Seraphim into our world, and we don't have time for a personal conflict to destroy everything!" I was shouting at the top of my lungs by the end, as frustration and desperation swelled in an insurmountable tide. "What in the hell do I have to do to get everyone to cooperate?" I threw up my hands. Stormed away.
"Justin, wait," said Zagg in a contrite voice. "Please."
I stopped. Turned. "What do you want? I'm trying to make a dramatic exit to prove my point."
Zagg lowered his head. "I'm sorry I let my temper get the best of me. I'll wait to deal with this jackass"—he thumbed Shelton's direction—"after we save the world. Okay?"
I took a deep breath. It failed to clear the knot in my stomach and the pressure in my chest, but the frustration faded, leaving behind its partner in crime, desperation, to remind me how hopeless our task seemed.
"Looks like a fun lot," MacLean said, taking a big bite of pepperoni pizza. "I think I'm going to enjoy this."
I moved the group to the planning room. A large conference table stretched part of the length, giving it a polished look, even though we were down to three chairs thanks to Shelton's earlier outburst. I called Meghan on my phone since she was a healer, and might have some idea as to how we could treat those suffering like Lina. Once everyone was assembled, I filled in the gang on my and MacLean's little adventure.
Meghan, her pint-sized holographic image hovering above my phone, pursed her lips in thought and said nothing for a long moment after I finished. "I remember something very similar to this happening some years ago, but the cause was much different."
All heads turned to her.
"Go on," I said.
"A Templar was pursuing a lurker through its warrens deep underground and stumbled into a leyworm nest." She grimaced. "Even baby leyworms are quite large."
"Tell me about it," I grumbled, remembering the one I'd freed from Dash Armstrong's lair. He'd been using the leyworm to power an arch and all sorts of other crazy equipment.
"The baby apparently thought he was food and swallowed him," Meghan continued saying. "And then threw him back up."
"How the hell did he survive the teeth in that thing?" I asked, thinking of the jagged shard-like teeth I'd seen in the full-grown creatures. The term "worm" was a misnomer despite the outward appearance of the giant beasts. Technically, they were dragons of some sort, sans legs.
"His Nightingale armor protected him from anything too grievous," she said. "But while he was inside, he was exposed to raw aether."
"Raw aether?" I said. "Um, isn't it all raw until we use it?"
She shook her head. "The aether carried by ley lines might make your hair stand on end, but it certainly won't harm you. The worse that could happen is you get sick if you draw in too much. Leyworms, on the other hand, are named so because they have a peculiar relationship with ley lines."
"They eat the aether," Bella said.
Meghan shrugged. "I don't think they eat it, exactly. We know the creatures eat flesh and even stone."
"All part of a well-balanced diet," Shelton said.
"My point is," Meghan said, giving him a flat look, "the quality of the aether inside a leyworm is quite different than what we usually use for magic. It soaked into the Templar's body, giving him something akin to radiation poisoning."
"Were you able to treat him?" I asked.
She nodded. "The solution was simple, but it took time to set up." Her image vanished, replaced by the image of an intricate rune carved into stone.
"A drain ward," Bella said, clapping her hands together. "How simple and exquisite!"
"Thank you," Meghan said. "Diagnosing the man's precise issue took time, but once I studied it from every angle, I decided a drain ward might be the only way to leech the magic from his body." Her body appeared in the hologram again. "Due to the sheer volume of aether, however, I had to anchor the ward in a ley line, or the siphoned energy would simply form an invisible but harmful cloud."
"Exactly right," Bella said. "I am working on such a ward myself."
Meghan raised an eyebrow. "You planned to use one for the children?"
"Not exactly," I said. "We were planning to trap Ivy with it."
"Ah." The healer touched her chin with a hand, as if in thought. "Adam and I will come to the university. It sounds like you need all the help you can get, Justin."
"Would you, really?" I asked, my hopes lifting.
"Of course."
"Justin, I believe I have made a startling discovery," Cinder said.
"That you're a robot?" Shelton said with a snort.
The golem gazed at Shelton for a long moment with a bland expression. "Ah, you were attempting humor. Unfortunately, I am not familiar enough with the concept to know if your attempt was funny or not." He looked at me. "Was it Justin?"
I burst into a laugh. "No, but you are."
"Tis a sad world when a ruddy golem is funnier than a human," MacLean said, chuckling.
Shelton blew out a breath. "Whatever."
"What is this startling discovery?" I asked Cinder.
The golem retrieved an ASE and spun it on the table. Beams of light crisscrossed each other in a patchwork of colors until a three-dimensional image of the university filled a large portion of the table. "While I was cataloging some of the old ASE videos Zagg gave me, I realized the audio portion was damaged."
"Yeah, that's the way most of the old ones are," Zagg said.
"Despite this damage, I was able to read the lips of those speaking, so long as I had a clear view," Cinder said. "I believe this video was not meant for public consumption." He tapped the air, and t
he video flickered on, showing a group of men in a very familiar room as they carried on an animated conversation.
"Isn't that this room?" Bella said, looking at the wood paneling on the walls.
"Well, at least we're doing something right," Shelton said.
I shushed them. "What are they saying?" I asked Cinder.
He paused the playback, pressed his hands together in the center, and spread his hands. The three-dimensional image spread like a long poster, flattening to reveal a panoramic view of the entire room. It was rather disconcerting to watch since the men sitting around the table now all seemed to be looking directly at me instead of each other.
"I will speak for each person in turn," the golem said, and resumed playback.
"She will find it otherwise," Cinder said in time with Ezzek Moore, the founder of the Arcane Council, though I noticed Moore's lips didn't quite synch with Cinder's, like the bad dubbing of a kung fu movie.
Alexander Tiberius shook his head. "No, there's a way to hide it. Tell him, Sydow." His gaze went to a creepy-looking man with short black hair, apparently another of the original Arcane Council.
Sydow glanced to the left, presumably at Moore, though the flattened perspective made it hard to tell. "We hide it in between. Neither here, nor there."
Moore held up a hand palm out. "Say nothing more. She is brilliant, and more powerful than I could have believed. She knows we have it, and could be listening."
"You're being paranoid again, old man," said Tiberius.
"Perhaps," Moore said with a nod. "But there is no reason to chance it." He turned to Sydow. "Do what you think best. Either it works, or she will have what she wants, and god help us all." He bowed his head, eyes closed. "My journey is almost to its end, and I do not wish to leave behind a legacy of death and destruction."
