by John Corwin
"Oh, stop with the theatrics," Tiberius said, rolling his eyes. "One can hardly blame you for sleeping with—"
Cinder abruptly broke off. "From this point, the council meeting devolves into Tiberius bragging about the concubines he once had during the Roman Empire, and Ezzek Moore sighing a lot. I do not think it contributes to the discussion at hand."
Zagg bolted to his feet, face lit with wonder, and said, "I know where the Cyrinthian Rune is."
Chapter 37
Huh?" I asked, feeling like a complete buffoon.
MacLean slapped a palm against his forehead. "Of bloody course. That would explain it."
My head snapped to him. "Explain what?" I said, feeling like an English major in a calculus class.
"The rune is between realms where Daelissa can't find it," Zagg said. "It's caught in a loop 'neither here, nor there'."
"You're making even less sense now," I said, my mind desperately scrambling to reach the same answer everyone else apparently had.
"Ah," Bella said. "How very obvious and clever"
Shelton's mouth stretched into a knowing grin.
"I see the direction the logic is leading," Cinder added. "I was, however, converting their speech from Latin to English, so it is possible I lost something in the translation."
"What did you figure out?" I shouted above the din of all the stupid know-it-alls.
Zagg raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Oh, the rune. It's in the arch you and MacLean found."
Neither here, nor there. "Oh," I said, dragging out the word for several seconds to indicate just how idiotic I felt.
"It's so bloody powerful, it's poisoning anyone who gets near it," MacLean added.
Bella gave him a concerned look. "Does that mean it's dangerous to handle?"
"I do not believe so," Cinder said. "I also restored the damaged video in several other council meeting videos which occurred chronologically after the one we just viewed. There is no mention of aether radiation in any of them, nor mention of hazards associated with handling the rune."
I chomped on a slice of pizza with more savagery than necessary, and chewed it for a moment. "Maybe it wasn't dangerous at first. Maybe centuries of being inside the arch caused a reaction."
"Possibly," Zagg said.
"We should go get the bloody thing right now," MacLean said.
I almost choked on my pizza. "Are you kidding? That thing needs to stay where it is. I say we close the wall back up, and interdict the place so it never sees the light of day."
"There may be a problem with your solution," Cinder said.
I met the golem's emotionless gaze. "I'm all ears."
His eyes wandered across my body for a moment before he said, "Ah. Another idiom. Perhaps you could define this one so I may file it away—"
"What's the problem with my solution?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Cinder's eyebrow rose slightly, though whether he was mimicking me, or expressing genuine emotion, I couldn't tell. "When one enters an arch, it is much like looking through a telescope at a far-off location, and quickly traversing the space between through the telescope."
I nodded. "Good description. What's your point?"
"In truth, you are actually speeding at tremendous velocity through a traversion tunnel. If the other arch were sealed off somehow, you would reach the end, and ricochet back toward your origin."
"I wouldn't splat against the other end?"
He shook his head stiffly. "The magical properties of the tunnel would simply reverse your course, while slightly increasing velocity to your trajectory."
I nodded, feeling a bit more in my element with the magical equivalent of physics. "So they put the rune in an arch, and sealed up both ends to trap it. All these centuries it's been bouncing back and forth at higher and higher speeds."
"Indeed," Cinder replied. "I believe this is the cause of the anomaly you witnessed. The pulsing colors change depending on the location of the rune within the tunnel. The closer to this arch it is, the whiter the light." He took out his phone, and brought up a holographic display, showing a tiny dot bouncing along a curved traversion tunnel.
"That's why it looks like an Alabaster Arch during a white phase?" I asked.
"Yes." Cinder zoomed on one arch, and told his phone to simulate the effect. "The attenuation of the rune could cause this."
"Because it was meant to power an Alabaster Arch, it's somehow affecting the properties of this normal arch, morphing its attributes," I said, hoping my brain had finally come to a conclusion on its own.
"Precisely." He made a few adjustments, and sped up the simulation running on his phone. The brilliant pulsars at either end grew larger and suddenly burst into miniature supernovas, the light blotting out everything else.
"Holy goat turds in a picnic basket," Shelton said in a hushed voice. "We're on a countdown to boom, aren't we?"
"I believe so," Cinder said. "One moment, please." He ran the simulation several more times while the rest of us watched the same explosion happen over and over again. "Using the brightest moment of the anomaly at this end, I am able to calculate the speed of the rune. With that information, I am also able to calculate the distance between points, and approximate the location of the other arch."
"I could've done that," I mumbled under my breath. What had been wrong with my mind lately? I wondered if the vampling curse was affecting it, too.
"Where's the other arch?" Bella asked.
"Although I have the distance, I can only approximate the location." He shrugged, the motion a jerky up-down motion. "The distance would place it in either Antarctica, or the North Pole."
"Well, ain't Santa got a nice gift for us this year," Shelton said with a roll of his eyes.
Bella elbowed him.
I turned back to Cinder. "Any idea how bad the explosion will be?"
"The physical damage might be enough to collapse the dungeons, and cause the university campus to cave in," he said.
I imagined kids falling into bottomless chasms as the ground collapsed beneath their feet.
Cinder continued. "There would likely, however, be a more severe side effect."
"Worse than destroying the school?" Shelton with an incredulous look.
"Indeed." Cinder adjusted a setting to simulate a wave of energy. "The physical concussion would be limited to the dungeons. The wave of corrupted aether, however, would travel through physical barriers, and irradiate all of Queens Gate before imploding back upon itself."
"So everyone else would get sick like those kids in the healing ward," I said.
The golem tilted his head slightly. "I'm afraid it would be worse than that, Justin. This implosion would likely rival that of the Grand Nexus destruction. The implosion would drain everyone of light soul essence."
Gasps went up around the table.
"It would turn us all to husks?" I asked. I imagined the brightest minds in the Overworld reduced to soul-hungry shadow people and cherubs. I briefly wondered what kind of husk I would become.
"It is also possible the explosion would open a rift into the Gloom large enough to allow anything living inside to come here, and vice versa." Cinder stared blankly for a second. "I cannot be sure."
I asked the next dreaded question. "How long do we have?"
"That answer is much simpler," the golem replied. "We have until this Saturday at one-thirteen in the afternoon."
"Wait a minute," Shelton said. "That's the day of the Grand Melee."
"Isn't the Grand Melee on the anniversary of the university's completion?" I said, one of Zagg's history lessons coming to mind.
The historian nodded. "It was to commemorate the occasion. Alexander Tiberius started the tradition, perhaps because he missed the gladiator battles from his Roman days."
"In other words, the school is going to blow up on its anniversary," I said.
"Delicious irony," Shelton said, as if he were really happy about it.
Bella elbowed him, eliciting a wince.
> Knowing what we were facing at least removed the uncertainty. Or maybe it just increased it even more as another what if occurred to me. "If we unseal the arch at this end, will the rune explode on impact? I mean, that thing's travelling at an ungodly speed by now, and the last thing we need is it pounding into the ground like a meteor."
Cinder's calm gaze rested on me. "Once an object emerges from a traversion tunnel, it realigns with its original speed. I do not believe an explosion will be the outcome."
"But this thing's been bouncing around for centuries," Shelton said. "What if it doesn't stop and plows to earth like a meteor?"
"It doesn't matter," I said. "We can't just let the arch explode."
"And if you release it and it explodes anyway?" he said.
"We should warn the populace," Bella said. "Make them evacuate Queens Gate."
"I agree," Meghan said.
Zagg wrinkled his forehead and raked the room with a look usually reserved for mental patients. "Evacuate? Haven't you noticed the tent city going up in the meadow near the stadium? We're talking about thousands of people from both universities, the city of Queens Gate, and thousands of people arriving via the arch for the Grand Melee." He scrunched his forehead, as if painfully calculating. "They'd have to blockade the arch and start an immediate evacuation. That could take weeks."
"What if the Primus orders it?" Shelton said, face grim.
"We have"—Meghan consulted something on her end—"five days until the Melee. Is it enough time?"
"Not even close," Zagg said.
Bella gave us a resolute stare. "We must try."
"Do. Or do not. There is no try," Shelton said.
"Is the Primus on campus?" Meghan asked. "I don't know how we'll speak to the man, otherwise. He's notoriously hard to reach."
"Of course he'll be on campus," Zagg said. "It's the Grand Melee. The entire Arcane Council will be in their usual club seating."
Shelton sighed. "Don't worry about contacting the Primus. I got it covered."
"You?" Meghan said, scorn very clear in her voice. "Why should we trust you with such a task?"
The question seemed to take something out of Shelton. He looked away from the holographic image of the healer and muttered something.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't hear that," Meghan said.
Bella touched Shelton's arm, and whispered to him. He nodded. Took a breath, and steeled himself, spine going straight. "Jarrod Sager, the Arcanus Primus, is my adoptive father."
In the rush of things, I'd forgotten not everyone knew Shelton's secret. I felt like I knew almost too much about the man now. Part of me liked the gruff Shelton. The one who never let anyone in. He might falter at the beginning, but he'd proven time and time again that he could come through in the clutch. I just hoped Bella wouldn't turn him into a pansy.
"Your father?" Meghan said, face aghast. "But how—"
"Long story," Shelton said. "Save it for another time." He squared his jaw. "I'll talk to him and make him understand."
"Make sure he keeps the reason on the down-low," I said. "If the Conroys get wind of this—"
"The Primus must know about the rune," Zagg said. "I'm sure he'll come up with some other excuse about why we're evacuating."
I suddenly saw two big glowing neon dots in my mind's eye. One said "Cyrinthan Rune", and the other, "Gloom Initiative". Slowly, carefully, I drew a line between the two dots. The connection made so much sense, it was all I could do not to jump up and shout, "Yatta!" at the top of my lungs. Turning to Shelton, I said, "Did you ever find out what the Gloom Initiative was really all about?"
His eyebrows arched at the sudden change in direction. "Wasn't it for finding alternative travel options to the arches?"
Here goes, I thought, and opened my big mouth. "If the Primus is on the council, and the council is supposed to know about the rune, then maybe they already know about the danger presented by the arch. What if the Gloom Initiative was really about finding another way to hide the rune from Daelissa?"
"Justin, that is a brilliant observation," Cinder said, speaking in the unemotional tone one might use to discuss toilet paper. "I suggest we warn the Primus about the imminent destruction of Queens Gate just in case he is unaware of the short time left."
Shelton stood, and headed for the door. "No sense wasting any time. I'll do it now."
"Don't you need to call him first?" Bella asked.
"Nah. I know exactly where he'll be. It's the same place he always stayed when I was going to school here." Shelton opened the door.
I stood, pushing my chair back, and joined him. "I'm coming, too."
He shrugged. "Knock yourself out."
"Adam and I will leave for Queens Gate immediately," Meghan said, and her image winked out.
"Cinder and I should stay and study more of these archival videos," Zagg said. "There might be something vital we're missing."
"I suppose I'll stay and help," Bella added. "Although a game of Scrabble would really take my mind off things right now."
"I bloody love Scrabble," MacLean said. He directed a questioning eyebrow at Zagg. "You wouldn't have happened across a way to kill a Flark in all your historical studies, eh?"
Shelton stepped through the door, and I followed. We walked down the path without a word, the only sound that of our feet scuffing the yellow brick road with a pair of brilliant full moons lighting the shadowy landscape around us. I almost opened my mouth to make a comment about something, but one look at Shelton told me all I needed to know. He looked pensive. Worried. Talking to his father wouldn't be pleasant. The man had used his adopted son in the most unimaginable ways possible, first to catch Shelton's supposedly evil parents, and then to take out political opponents. Sager deserved a punch right in the throat. And maybe a broomstick up his rear end.
Somewhere in the distance, a lycan howled at the full moon. Afterward, all went silent except the incessant chirp of insects.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Shelton said, the statement surprising me both for the sincerity in his voice, and the shock of broken silence.
"Uh, sure. Poop happens, I guess."
He snorted. "Yeah. It sure does." Shelton checked the time on his phone. "The old man likes to stay in the Fairy Garden Estate."
I felt my forehead pinch. "What kind of man stays in a fairy house?"
"Bunch of women named these gardens if you ask me," Shelton said with a laugh. "Don't even get me started on the Unicorn Garden." He motioned me to follow him down a path I hadn't taken before which curved through the rear garden, past the meadow where Vallaena and I practiced, and around the imposing stadium. The path bordered the forest where the tragon lurked, and up to an iron gate flanked by tall stone walls.
I stopped in shock and stared at the landscape through the iron bars of the gate. A crystalline pond sat in the middle of a glade. A shaft of pure moonlight shined on the water, where a group of figures splashed each other, laughing and giggling. The yellow brick road continued past the pond and into a dense forest. Lights of every color glittered in the trees, like thousands of tiny light bugs.
"Holy farting fairies," I said, borrowing one of Shelton's scatological phrases. "This looks amazing. Are those really fairies?"
"Geez, kid. How many times I gotta tell you there ain't no such thing?" He pushed through the unlocked iron gate.
"Whatevs," I said, and followed him down the path.
As we drew closer to the pond, the figures abruptly stopped splashing, and the shaft of moonlight faded. Shelton pulled his staff from a pocket and snapped it to full length. I realized I hadn't brought one, and felt naked even though my magic wasn't much to brag about.
The barest pat of dripping water was all the warning we had before two wet figures appeared in front of us. Wood groaned and creaked, and my jaw almost bounced off the ground as several trees tore themselves from the ground and surrounded us.
A beautiful and very naked woman stood next to a heinously naked man, their eyes full of suspic
ion. I forced my eyes north of the border, desperate not to see man junk of any kind.
"What is your business?" the woman asked in a pure melodic voice.
"We're here on official business to see the Primus." Shelton said.
"Lies!" said the man, his voice every bit as pure and musical as the woman's. "Take them," he said, presumably to the trees.
Giggles bubbled from every direction, and girls, naked but for leaves and foliage draped over their generous curves, appeared from behind the trees, their eyes sparkling with mischief. One gripped my bicep, and suddenly, my feet rooted themselves to the ground. I tried to move, but even my supernatural strength wasn't enough to uproot them.
A savage snarl peeled the man's lips from his teeth. "Get rid of them."
Chapter 38
I hardly had a chance to yelp in surprise at the sudden development. "Why are you going to kill us?" I asked, still straining without results against the force holding my feet to the ground.
The angry man looked confused. "I said nothing about killing you, fool. They will escort you from the garden."
Shelton growled and stopped struggling against his own captors. "Fine. You want the truth? I'm here on unofficial business. The Primus is my absentee asshole father, and I have to warn him about a nuclear friggin meltdown about to blow everyone in Queens Gate to hell. You happy now?"
The man's face flashed to surprise, and then alarm. "He speaks the truth."
"Children, release them," the woman said.
The girls slid their hands away, and the pressure holding my feet to the earth vanished. I almost stumbled backwards as the girls danced back behind the looming trees.
"You may pass, wizard," the woman said, smiling.
Shelton brushed at his sleeves, grumbling something about dryads, and stomped down the path. I hurried to keep pace.
"What was that about?" I asked.
"Security. You think the Primus would stay out here without guards?"
I looked around at the dense forest. Giggles echoed from the dark spaces between the trees. I switched to night vision. Hundreds of glowing eyes flickered on and met my gaze. My heart screamed and cowered behind my guts. I very quickly switched night vision off. "Uh, Shelton? We're being watched."
