Volinette’s heart fell. Blackness still covered the girls’ dormitory. The thing they had killed hadn’t been the cause, or killing it hadn’t been enough to release the building from the evil that gripped it.
Olin and Baris, who had recovered his feet for the second time, were rushing toward her from across the courtyard. Sudden pain ripped through her body, setting her aflame from the inside out. She burned from tips of her toes to the top of her head. An anguished wail escaped her lips, burning her throat as it passed from deep within her soul, out into the world.
Volinette saw the looks on Olin and Baris’s face change as they ran toward her. Olin’s was a look of horrified realization. Baris’s was pure, unfettered panic. She didn’t have more than a few seconds to consider either expression before she tumbled into the darkness between the realms.
Chapter Seventeen
It seemed to Volinette as if she were stumbling down a long, dark tunnel. She could see nothing, and her grasping fingers met only a spongy resistance. Something like thick carpet was underfoot, flexible and not feeling sturdy at all to stand on. Droning, like the distant hum of a thousand bees, filled her ears and made it impossible to think with any clarity, much less call on the power of the Quintessential Sphere.
“I told you it was dangerous,” a voice echoed through the void. Her father’s voice. “I told you it was dangerous and you weren’t likely to survive.”
Volinette ignored him. Wherever she was, it was comforting to know that her father’s arguments were the same predictable, paranoid drivel they’d always been.
“Look what you’ve done to your grandfather’s lute!” her mother screeched. “Ruined! Just like you’ve ruined your life and career. Just like you’ll ruin this family!”
Other voices rang out through the darkness. Her brother. Her sisters. A dozen people from Dragonfell who had told her that hiding her magical ability was the only sensible thing to do. She was born into one of the most prestigious entertaining families in the whole Imperium. What did she need with magic anyway?
“The Head Master believes in me,” Volinette said. “Master Jotun thinks I’m special. Baris believes in me too.”
“You’ll never be a Master,” a voice sneered. That one was easy to recognize as well. That was Janessa’s voice. “You’ll never be as important as I am.”
Volinette stopped her aimless wandering. She wasn’t getting anywhere anyway. She thought about the words that the non-Janessa had spoken. It surprised her that she didn’t feel badly about it. Those words summed up the greatest fears she’d arrived at the tower with. Since then, she’d faced far more insidious words, said by far more insidious people. Somehow, hearing that she might never be a certain rank didn’t hurt as much as they might have before.
“I’ll be what I am meant to be,” Volinette said, feeling the weight of the words as she said them. “If what I’m meant to be is something other than what I’ve dreamed of, then so be it. I’ll adapt. I’ll grow. I’ll learn. That’s what I’m meant to do. Anything else that happens is a gift.”
It took a moment for her to realize that the far off droning had stopped. Though just as dark, the quiet of the void seemed more welcoming. The ground underfoot now seemed to support her instead of impeding her. Her steps no longer stumbled when she tried to walk.
“Volinette?” Baris’s voice wasn’t the directionless voice of the void. In seemed to be coming from far up ahead. She stretched her arms out in front of her, though she saw nothing, and walked toward the sound.
“Baris?”
“Volinette!” Baris sounded scared. “Wake up!”
“I’m awake,” she protested, still plodding toward his voice. “I’m here.”
“Then open your eyes! We need to go.”
Light flooded her vision. She raised a weak hand to block out the offending brightness and realized how badly she hurt all over. Her head pounded as if there were someone inside it, beating on the biggest drum in the world. Her arms and legs were leaden and burned with the slightest movement. Her chest hurt worst of all, a deep burning ache that seemed to be lodged under her breastbone and wrapped around to her spine.
When she was finally able to focus her eyes, Volinette saw Baris and Olin crouched over her. Ignoring the screaming of the muscles in her arms, she managed to sit up. The world swam and she groaned, shaking her head to try and clear away the worst of the fog.
“Are you okay?” Olin asked her in a more solicitous tone than she’d ever heard from him. “We need to get you to the tower. There seems to be more portals opening.”
“I’ll manage,” she said through gritted teeth. She forced herself up onto her knees, then onto unsteady feet. She swayed from side to side, in danger of losing her balance, before Baris put one of her arms across his shoulders and Olin did the same on the other side.
What should have been a mild tingle of link-shock, instead tore through her already weakened frame like wildfire. She cried out and went rigid, but Olin ordered Baris to keep moving.
“She overtaxed herself with that amazing piece of spellcraft,” the Inquisitor said. “Her system is raw, and any magical stimulation is going to be quite painful for some time. It will pass.”
As Baris and Olin carried her into the lower floor of the Great Tower of High Magic, Volinette saw that she was in much better shape than some. The entrance hall had been converted into a temporary triage ward. Injured students and Masters alike were laid out where there was space, or propped up against walls and made as comfortable as possible. From what she could see, there were far too many patients and far too few healers and clerics scurrying back and forth between their charges.
“I need to leave you here, I’m sorry.” Olin lowered her to the floor and rushed off, calling to another mage who was passing through the entrance hall.
“How long was I out?” she asked Baris, who looked adrift in a sea of memory.
“Not long,” he replied, snapping out of his reverie. “A couple of minutes, maybe. You gave Olin a right scare. He wasn’t sure you were coming back.”
“And you knew I’d be fine, right?”
“Of course,” he said with a grin. “It’ll take more than some fancy spell to knock you out of the game. I’d ask you how you did it, but I’ve got a feeling I already know the answer.”
“It just came to me.”
Baris grinned. “’Course it did. Cause you’re Volinette Terris, super mage.”
“Cut it out,” she snapped, feeling her cheeks burning.
“I told you that Master Jotun was right.” He looked out past the entrance, beyond the Academy walls. “I hope he’s okay. How are you feeling?”
“Like someone took me apart and put me back together wrong. I’ll live. Think there’s anything we can do to help?”
“Dunno, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask.”
Getting on her feet took longer than expected. They had to find someone who wasn’t busy with the injured and avoid the Masters who were gathering. They stumbled, quite literally, over Master Casto, who was sitting up against the wall, holding a pad of folded cloth to a nasty gash on his forehead.
“Master Casto!” Volinette dropped to one knee beside him. “Are you alright? Did you find Adamon?”
“I did. How do you think I got this?” Fulgent peeled back the bandage to show that, while the wound bled freely, it was shallow. “I’m glad that both of you are safe. I was worried since you were still in the School of Sorcery when the attack began.”
“What’s going on? Where did these things come from?”
“I wish I knew what was going on, dear girl. I can tell you with certainty that there are demons from the Deep Void loose on the Academy grounds, and I’d give anything to know how that happened.”
Baris and Volinette exchanged worried looks. She couldn’t be sure that her theory was right, but it was obvious that Baris was thinking the same thing, or close enough not to matter very much.
“Master Casto,” she asked through lip
s that didn’t want to move. “Could the Transcendental Prism be used to open portals to the Deep Void?”
Fulgent gave her a startled look and her heart sank. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew exactly how the demons had gotten loose in the Academy. If she was right, Baris had been spot on when he said that Nixi wouldn’t show her face in public. She hadn’t. She had done something much worse.
“I suppose, in theory, yes, the Prism could be used to pierce the Meridian and open a gate to the Deep Void. Why?”
“Janessa stole the Prism from the Hall of Wonders,” Volinette said. Ignoring the shock in the old Master’s face, she continued, “Even under the threat of censure, she wouldn’t reveal where it was hidden, but I bet that Nixi, Syble, and Halsie knew exactly where to find it.”
Master Casto shook his head and sighed. “No, I don’t think that a single, inexperienced Quintessentialist could open a portal to the Deep Void. Not even with the focus of the Prism.”
“What about the three of them working together?” Volinette asked, her eyes begging him to deny that it was even a possibility.
Fulgent lowered his bandage and laid it in his lap. He bowed his head, as if the blood-stained cloth held the answers to the mysteries of the universe. He stayed that way for so long that Volinette thought he might have fallen asleep. When he looked up at last, the look she saw in his eyes made her wish that he had.
“The three of them working together? Yes, I believe they could. The demons of the Deep Void will exploit any weakness they perceive. If the girls managed to even come close to finishing a portal ritual to the Deep Void, I’m sure there was something on the other side just waiting to help them open the door.”
“Those things are intelligent?” Baris asked in disbelief.
“Not all of them,” Fulgent said with a sigh. “Some of them? Absolutely. Intelligent enough to keep the Pheen busy with a war that’s been raging for millennia.”
“The Pheen!” Volinette seized Master Casto’s words as if they held the key to stopping the madness going on around them. “Can’t we ask Lacrymosa for help?”
Fulgent shook his head slowly, his eyes sad. “Once Pheen leave the Meridian, they’re stripped of most of their powers. Lacrymosa would be in great danger, for reasons I don’t have time to explain. As soon as I knew there were demons on the Academy grounds, I banished her. I sent her to Master Jotun in the library.”
“What chance do we have against them?” Baris slumped over, the picture of defeat. “If the Pheen have been battling them for hundreds of years, what are we going to do? Make them a welcome banquet?”
“This is no time to be flippant, young man. As luck would have it, the demons, much like the Pheen, are weaker the farther away from their native plane they travel. It’s not going to be easy, but we should be able to drive them back.”
“Where do we start?” Volinette asked. Despite the pain still wracking her body, she’d do whatever she could to ensure the safety of Blackbeach and the people who lived there. Master Casto raised a hand, arresting her enthusiasm.
“I appreciate your willingness to help, Volinette, and no one disputes your strength or the power you’ve already demonstrated, but this is a matter for the Masters to deal with. The best thing you can do is stay out of the way and let those more powerful do what they need to do.”
Before Volinette could object, Maera, Adamon, and Olin arrived. Under normal circumstances, she would have been sobered by the arrival of some of the most powerful Quintessentialists in the Imperium. Instead, she was annoyed that their presence meant that she would be excluded from seeing the incursion through until its end. Those more powerful, indeed. If it hadn’t been for her abilities, both Olin and Baris would be in much worse shape than they were now.
“Master Casto,” Maera said without even acknowledging that Volinette and Baris were standing there. “If you’re well enough, we need you in the Council Chamber at once.”
“Of course, Head Master.”
As soon as Fulgent stood, he, Adamon, and Maera strode across the chamber toward the corridor that would lead to the Council room. Olin, to his credit, hung back.
“The two of you should go up to the third floor. The rest of the apprentices and Acolytes are gathering there. It will be safe until we get things under control.”
“We can help,” Volinette said, but Olin shook his head.
“No, the best thing for you and Baris to do now is stay with the others. You’ve got a story to tell. A lot of the younger apprentices are saying that the demons can’t be defeated. The two of you know better, don’t you? Share your experience.”
“I guess,” Baris said, but it was clear that he’d rather be in the thick of things.
“You’ll get your chance when you’re older.” Olin gave Baris a light punch in the shoulder. “You’d make a good Inquisitor.”
Olin excused himself and hurried after the Head Master and the others. Baris looked at her, and Volinette shrugged. The decision had been made for them. Looking around the room, she saw a few of the older journeymen escorting the younger students through the triage area and into the lift that would take them to the higher levels.
“I guess we might as well go up. I don’t think there’s much we can do down here.” Volinette rubbed her temples with her palms. The ache was maddening, but it was starting to subside. She’d take what she could get. “I could use the rest, to be honest.”
Baris’s eyes lingered on the corridor where the Masters had gone. He looked as if he wanted to protest, but he shrugged with a sigh.
“Alright. I suppose we’d better. No sense in making more of a mess of things down here.” He brightened. “Besides, the Masters wouldn’t like it if you made them look bad with your tricks.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she countered, somewhat heatedly.
“Maybe not, but you had the good sense not to fight it. How many of these people do you think could do that? Can you just imagine Janessa giving up control and letting the power of the Quintessential Sphere guide her? Not bloody likely. You’re special. All the important people think so. Just deal with it.”
Volinette was very quiet as they followed the steady stream of students. The queue outside the lift dock was thick with bodies, enough to convince them to take the curving stairs that led up through the interior of the tower. As they stepped out onto the wide landing two stories up, a journeyman greeted them and ushered them into a large storage room that had been cleared for their use.
A few tables and lots of chairs were scattered about. A group of journeymen was moving cots into the room and arranging them along the walls. Soon, there would be enough accommodations to turn the room into a makeshift dormitory.
Judging by the tear-streaked faces of some of the younger apprentices, she knew that Olin had been correct in his assessment of the emotional toll being taken.
Baris leaned in close so he could whisper in her ear without anyone else hearing.
“Did you notice who isn’t here?”
She had, but her stomach still gave a lurch when he mentioned it. Halsie, Nixi, and Syble were nowhere to be found. Deep in hear heart, she knew the girls were responsible for the chaos that was unraveling around them.
For the better part of an hour, Volinette and Baris toured the room. They spoke to members of their School, as well as apprentices from the School of Summoning, and the School of Enchantment. A few of the children were so rattled by the experience that Volinette wondered if they’d be able to continue their education.
With nothing better to do, Volinette flopped onto a cot and laid back. Everything hurt. Sitting hurt. Standing hurt. Laying down hurt. As promised, the pain was beginning to fade, but it was going much slower than she would have liked.
Baris dragged a chair over and dropped into it, propping his feet on the edge of her cot.
“I wonder what the Masters are doing. Think they’re done with the Council meeting by now?”
“I hope so,” Volinette said, agh
ast. “If not, how many of those things do you think would be rampaging around the Academy?”
“Dunno, but I wish we could be out there instead of cooped up in here. We can’t even see what is going on.”
A shudder ran up Volinette’s spine as she remembered how ugly and terrifying the creature they’d fought had been. She wasn’t sure she needed to see any more of them. As if reading her thoughts, Baris sat bolt upright.
“Hey!” he said, dropping his feet from her cot. “I’ve got an idea.”
Volinette sat up, eyeing him warily. When Baris used that particular tone of voice, he was scheming. Sometimes his plans worked out perfectly. More often than not, however, they ended up going all sorts of wrong.
“What?”
“Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand and ignoring her yelp of pain. “I need to talk to that girl from the School of Summoning. You know, the one with the long black hair.”
“The one you were making eyes at?”
Baris clutched his chest and pantomimed pulling a dagger out of his heart. Volinette gave him a weak laugh.
“I was not…but I totally will if she can do what I want her to do.”
It didn’t take very long for them to find the girl with the long, silky black tresses.
“You’re back,” she said with a smile as Baris approached. Volinette nudged him in the ribs, and he pointedly ignored her.
“I am. You said you are an Acolyte in the School of Summoning, right?”
“Yes.” The girl’s smile faded a trifle and her eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Well, since we’re stuck here for the time being, I wondered if you could summon something for me. I can tell you exactly where it is.”
“Baris,” Volinette interrupted. “What are you doing?”
“Trust me. I just want my cube back.” To the girl, he added, “I left my Seer’s Cube somewhere. If you can summon it, we can see what’s going on outside.”
“Oh. Sure. I can do that easy.”
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