Two of the younger girls were muttering to each other. Demarlza must have heard them. She gave the nearest a bat to the side of the head. “We will not betray our mistress. Burn!”
A blast of flames was deflected by her wind barrier.
“Go upstairs and gather the others, I’ll hold her here,” Demarlza ordered.
The other girls hesitated and for a moment Emily dared hope they might come to their senses, but it wasn’t to be. Four of them rushed up the stairs, leaving their unconscious companion behind.
“Just you and me.” Demarlza offered a cruel smile. “You don’t seem so tough now.”
Demarlza raised her free hand and a ball of fire appeared. The instant the spell formed Emily pointed. “Jet Gust.”
A focused line of wind struck the fireball and detonated it. Demarlza’s concentration broke and the torrent of flames vanished. This one was clearly beyond redemption. “Your breath is your life. Cease to breathe and cease to be, Asphyxiation.”
Demarlza scratched at her throat as the wind magic stole the air from her lungs. She clawed and gasped and fell to the floor where she kicked around before going still. Emily shook her head again. What a waste. The girl had such potential.
The tap, tap, tap of the Death Stick alerted her to Angeline’s approach. She eyed the two bodies in the hall and sighed. “It couldn’t be helped.”
“No. Amelia?”
“That also couldn’t be helped. Not that she was worthy of our help. The other pups?”
“They ran upstairs, I assume to set a trap.”
“Perhaps a display of sufficient force will knock some sense into them.” Angeline had a wicked gleam in her eye.
“What did you have in mind?”
“I’ll blast a path out of here and you fly us through. Once I saw the boy use Death Spiral I got an itch to try it myself. I haven’t cast it since I came to teach.”
“I suppose that might work. Did you teach the spell to Conryu? Death Spiral seems a bit stronger than what we’d discussed.”
“No, I suspect his book taught him. There isn’t much regarding dark magic the scholomantic doesn’t know. I’m impressed he managed to cast it so well so quickly.”
“I agree. Perhaps next year we should design a new course of study for him. I won’t bother submitting it to the Department for approval. As long as he passes the midterms and finals they won’t care how we go about teaching him.”
“That’s an excellent idea. Have we given them enough time to get nervous?”
“I think so. Whenever you’re ready.” Emily moved back to give Angeline some extra room as well as making sure she wouldn’t get caught in any magic spillover.
Angeline chanted and spun the Death Stick in a slow circle. Dark magic gathered around the silver skull. When she’d built up the necessary power she thrust the Death Stick at the ceiling. A spiral shot out, smashing through the ceiling and carrying the debris along with it.
Emily moved back beside Angeline. “Father of winds, carry us into your domain. Air Rider.”
The wind gathered around them, strong but gentle, and carried them through the floor and up out of what remained of the roof.
A group of sorority members had raised a wall of flames to hold off the approaching students and teachers. Girls poured out of the collapsing house and onto the field outside.
Emily guided them to the ground between the students and the house. The remains of the building collapsed at the same moment they landed. It was an unintentional but powerful bit of symbolism.
The girls faced them, hands raised and ready to cast.
Emily held her hands to the side in a gesture of peace. “Your leaders are dead as is the sorority. Whether you face a wizards’ tribunal or we bury you at the bottom of the lake is up to you.”
At that moment Assistant Dean Saint rose up behind them on the head of a water serpent. That was the final straw. The rebellious students threw up their hands in surrender and the wall of flames vanished.
Teachers rushed down to join them and Emily directed the new arrivals to take the sorority members into custody.
Now that everything seemed under control Hanna landed beside them. “Looks like I missed the excitement.”
“On the contrary, your timing couldn’t have been better. Your water serpent knocked the fight out of them and allowed us to avoid any more deaths. I’m grateful beyond words for that.”
“How’s the boy?” Angeline asked.
“Conryu and Kelsie are fine. They were sitting on the beach watching the fireworks. He lost his robe somewhere on the island, but other than that they didn’t have any visible damage.”
Emily sighed. “All and all as good a result as we could have hoped for. Did you take them to the nurse’s office?”
“No, the barrier is still up.”
Angeline frowned. “I know they collected all their keys. What’s the hold up?”
Hanna shrugged. “I couldn’t get close enough to ask.”
Emily patted Angeline on the shoulder. “We’ll find out in the morning. Right now we have a mess to clean up.”
The pops and flashes from the sorority bungalow had ended hours ago. The sun hung low in the sky as Conryu dragged the last dry branch into the pile he’d made on the beach. Kelsie lounged on the sand and stared up at the sunset. She’d offered to help him gather wood, but he didn’t want to risk her injuring her leg again.
He heaved the stick into the pile and nodded. The pile was almost as tall as he was. The nights were still chilly so a fire would be nice.
Kelsie rummaged through her pack for a drink and walked over to him. “It’s a nice pile of wood, but I don’t think my lighting spell is going to be enough to get it started.” She flicked her finger and a little flame appeared on the tip.
“Getting it going won’t be a problem.” Conryu moved a safe distance away and raised his hand. “All things burn to ash, Inferno Blast.”
A stream of blue-white flames streaked out. After a few seconds he had a roaring bonfire going. Conryu ended the spell and turned to Kelsie. “See, no sweat.”
“Where’d you learn that? The only fire spells they taught us in universal magic class was a light globe and how to ignite and snuff out a candle.”
“A girl in my club taught me. Maybe you know her, Sonja Chard?”
“I don’t know her personally, but my mother regularly curses her family for stealing a portion of our military business. That alone is enough to make me think I’d like her.”
“I think you would too, she’s spunky. Remind me to introduce you when things calm down.”
“She might not be so friendly since our families are in direct competition.”
Conryu laughed and lay down on the sand near the fire. “Sonja’s about as enchanted with her family’s business as you are with yours. It’s amazing how much you two have in common.”
Kelsie lay down beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. When he didn’t say anything she snuggled in closer. It had been a crazy day and he understood if she needed a little reassuring.
When he turned his head to look at her Kelsie was already fast asleep. That struck him as an excellent idea and the moment he closed his eyes he was dead to the world.
The next thing he knew someone was kicking his foot. Maybe if he ignored them whoever it was would go away.
“Wake up, sleepyhead.”
Conryu opened one eye. The youthful face of Dean Blane was staring down at him. He started to sit up, but found his movement restricted. He opened the other eye. Kelsie had draped herself over him and his arm was pinned under her, and her leg draped across his thighs.
“I don’t want to get up,” she grumbled in her sleep and moved closer.
“You didn’t bring Maria with you, did you?” The fact that no one was strangling him at the moment argued that she hadn’t, but he wanted to make sure.
“Nope, it’s just me and Hanna and she’s waiting by the boat. You had quite an adventure yesterday.”
“Yeah.”
Conryu gave Kelsie a shake and she finally opened her eyes. The moment she realized who was there and how she was wrapped around him she scrambled to put some space between them. “Sorry. I was asleep and I didn’t realize what I was doing.” Her face was bright red.
“Relax.” Conryu patted her knee. “Time to go back.”
“Almost time to head back.” Dean Blane plopped down beside them. “There are a couple matters we need to discuss and there are far fewer ears out here. Tell me what happened.”
Conryu did as she asked, with Kelsie chiming in here and there. When he finished Kelsie asked, “Do we still pass even though one of the keys was broken?”
“Absolutely. The fact that you survived that monster would earn you a passing grade in my book.” Dean Blane fixed Conryu with a serious look. “You really channeled light magic with nothing but willpower?”
He nodded. “The backlash made the headache I got from dominating those demons feel like a tickle, but Kelsie’s okay, so it was worth it.”
“I assume you saw the battle at the sorority house?”
“Yeah. Let me guess, they left the chimera for me?”
“Exactly right. Apparently Amelia Light was a Sub-Hierarch in the Society. We’ll have to search through the rubble, but I hope to find out more about the group.”
“I thought they were a political committee that supported women looking to advance to high positions in the government and at companies,” Kelsie said.
Conryu didn’t pay much attention to politics, but Dean Blane seemed to know what Kelsie was talking about.
“The Le Fay Society has two groups. The one you’re talking about claims to be a nonprofit dedicated to women’s issues and unaffiliated with their more aggressive sister organization. The second group is more of a terrorist organization determined to change the world directly with violence and fear.”
“Why do they hate me so much?” Conryu asked.
Dean Blane sighed. “The Society believes the world should be ordered in three tiers. Wizards at the top, non-magic-using women below them, and men as slaves and breeding stock at the bottom. The appearance of a male wizard elevates a being they consider little better than an animal to a status equal to theirs. That isn’t something they can accept. Hence you need to die.”
“Is it me or is that a little harsh?” Conryu grinned, hoping some humor might lighten the suddenly serious mood. It didn’t. “Right, so what now?”
“For you two it’s a full examination by the nurse. Graduation is in two days. Then you return home for summer vacation.”
“I was thinking more about what we were going to do about the crazy people trying to kill me.”
Dean Blane clambered to her feet. “I don’t know about that, but I think we’ve rooted out all the snakes here.”
Kelsie raised her hand as though asking permission to speak. “But you didn’t actually know Ms. Light was a member of the bad Society, did you?”
“Not with certainty, though I had my suspicions. Until she made her move I couldn’t prove anything.”
No one said it out loud, but Conryu at least was wondering whether there were any other snakes hiding in their midst.
12
End of The Year
Maria stared in growing horror as Conryu explained what had happened on the island. She’d seen the battle with the Le Fay Sorority, the whole school knew about it at this point, but she’d had no idea what precipitated it. She shouldn’t have been surprised it was an attack on Conryu.
“So I destroyed the chimera and healed Kelsie—”
“Wait.” Maria was certain she must have misunderstood. “You healed her? How? You’re a dark wizard.”
She tried to comprehend what he was saying, but her brain refused. If Conryu could heal he really didn’t have any use for her. All her hard work this semester had been for nothing.
“Willpower. Anyway, you remember the light gem reacted to me as well. Dark magic is my focus this year, but I have the potential to use all types of magic at a fairly high level, at least Dean Blane seems to think so. You should have seen how excited she was when I told her. You’d have thought I’d given her a million dollars.”
They were standing outside the nurse’s office waiting while the nurse checked Kelsie out. Conryu had come through with a clean bill of health. In fact, he barely had a scratch on him. It was easy for her to think of him as indestructible, but Maria knew just how near a thing it had been.
“So what happened next?”
Conryu told her the rest including how they ended up on the beach sitting beside a bonfire. Sounded a little too romantic. On the other hand she didn’t want him shivering through the night and getting sick either.
“The dean and assistant dean came to fetch us when the barrier went down. Sorry if I made you worry.”
Since no one had told her what happened she wasn’t as worried as she might have been. “It’s not your fault.”
“How’d you do on your final?”
“I passed and no one tried to kill me. That’s how finals are supposed to work.”
He laughed. “Yeah, well, maybe next year. I forgot to tell you. I invited Kelsie to come for a visit this summer. Seemed like it would be nice if she saw what a normal family looked like.”
Maria stared at him, her brain not fully processing what he just said. “What?”
“I said I invited Kelsie to come for a visit this summer.”
“What?”
“Don’t be that way. She’s a sweetheart. If you gave her half a chance I bet you two would get along great.”
Maria heartily doubted that. She saw the way Kelsie looked at Conryu even if he wasn’t willing to acknowledge it. That girl wanted more than to be just friends. “Where’s she going to stay?”
“I figured on the couch. The apartment’s only got two bedrooms after all.”
“She’s staying with you?” Maria’s voice went up three notches. This had to be a bad dream. She was going to wake up in her bed any second now.
“You don’t trust me?”
“With a beautiful girl sleeping twenty feet from your bedroom door?”
“What? You used to sleep over all the time when we were kids.”
“Focus on the last part of that sentence. We were kids. You two aren’t kids.”
The door to the nurse’s office and Kelsie emerged. She glanced at Maria and ventured a faint smile. “I couldn’t help overhearing. If it’s going to be a problem I don’t have to visit.”
She wanted to tell Kelsie it absolutely was going to be a problem, but Conryu said, “No, no problem. We sorted it all out. Assuming you don’t mind sleeping on the couch.”
“No, I don’t mind. Though I don’t think I’ve ever slept on a couch. It couldn’t be any less comfortable than the beach, right?”
“Not at all. I nap on it all the time.”
Maria looked from Conryu to Kelsie and back again. They were chatting and smiling like they were perfectly comfortable together. When had all this happened? At least before they’d been a little awkward around each other. Maybe it had something to do with the battle and his healing her. Sometimes using light magic on someone created a powerful bond.
“Are you going to send your mother a note?” Conryu asked.
“Yes, this afternoon. I wouldn’t want my driver to come to pick me up and not be there. I’m afraid Mom won’t be very happy with me.” She grinned in a near-perfect imitation of Conryu. “But that’s part of the fun.”
Kelsie acted more like his girlfriend than Maria. Standing there with them she felt like a disapproving sister, looking for reasons why they shouldn’t do what they were planning.
It sucked.
Conryu and Maria walked side by side toward the cafeteria. Graduation wasn’t an especially big event at the academy. Since only students were allowed on campus they didn’t bother with handing out diplomas or making speeches. Instead there was a big group gathering with food and
games where the seniors could say goodbye to their fellow students and the teachers.
This year the staff had decided to go all out, with fancy catering arriving by train that morning. Dean Blane said it was to help take everyone’s mind off what happened at the sorority. Conryu thought it would take more than appetizers to do that, but he didn’t want to sound negative.
The members that surrendered had been taken to Central where they’d face a wizards’ tribunal led by Kelsie’s grandmother. He shivered, not envying the girls that encounter. He felt bad for anyone that had to deal with that woman, even people that wanted him dead.
“So what’s your mom got planned for you this summer? Will you be able to hang out with us a little?”
“I’ll just be helping her with whatever I can. I wouldn’t want to get in you and Kelsie’s way.”
He groaned. “Are you still going on about that? What’s it going to take to convince you we’re just friends?”
“I think you believe you’re just friends. If you still believe it at the end of summer break I’ll be convinced.”
Conryu sighed and pushed the cafeteria doors open. He couldn’t figure out why Maria imagined he’d change his mind about Kelsie after her visit, but maybe when he didn’t that would convince her. He certainly hoped it did. Things had gotten far too uncomfortable between them.
Inside most of the students and faculty had gathered. As usual Conryu was among the last to arrive. He caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye and the next thing he knew Sonja leapt at him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I did it,” she said far too loudly right next to his ear. “They didn’t even yell, just like you said they wouldn’t. I’m so relieved.”
Maria muttered something about him being popular with the ladies before wandering off toward the laden tables to find a snack.
“What’s with her?” Sonja asked as he lowered her to the ground.
“Long story. So what were you saying with such enthusiasm?”
The Chimera Jar: The Aegis of Merlin Book 3 Page 18
