Her eyes widened, “RUN!”
Mitch jerked into motion, tugging Adam along behind him as another quake struck. He half ran down the corridor, doing his best to ignore Adam’s cries of pain and his own injured ankle. They would all hurt a lot more if the ceiling came down on them. Thankfully he didn’t trip on the heaving floor though he had to catch himself more than once as he almost fell. He could hear the children and Hayley panting along behind him, guided only by the light of his glowing hand. Maybe she really did deserve that name, Angel Girl, he couldn’t imagine anyone else coming down here for a bunch of children they didn’t know. If it weren’t for Cullum... he pushed that thought away and pounded up the stairs. He would have taken them three at a time if he could have but Adam had a death grip on his hand.
They made it to the top of the stairs and staggered along the corridor, keeping one eye on the ceiling and the other on the still shaking floor. Surely it would stop soon. A chunk of ceiling fell and he stopped so suddenly that Adam crashed into him with a cry of pain but it was better than being squashed like... no, he needed to keep moving. He edged around the rubble and resumed his staggering run, not noticing when the shaking ceased, not stopping until they were clear of the building and had been engulfed by familiar faces.
It was only then that he realised Hayley wasn’t behind them.
Cullum
Mitch watched as the Academy’s medical staff bustled about. One of them had fed Adam some sort of Alchemical concoction that had numbed his arm, before they straightened out the bone and gave him something else to help it set. It would still be tender for a few days, and Adam had been fitted with a proper sling, but he no longer had a broken arm. There wasn’t even a cut where the bone had pierced the skin. They’d bandaged Mitch’s ankle as well and ordered him not to run into any more collapsing buildings. As if he would, he’d only done that to find Cullum.
Someone incredibly brave and stupid and much more successful than he was, had retrieved half the infirmary storeroom and the large marquee that was serving as a makeshift hospital. There were surprisingly few patients. He hadn’t even had to wait to get treatment for the ankle he’d twisted running through a collapsing building like an idiot. Bates and Mindy were here somewhere, they’d given Mindy something to calm her down after he’d told her what he’d found underground. Mitch just felt numb. His baby brother was dead. They hadn’t even been that close but now he was dead and somehow that changed everything.
The parts of the sky that weren’t blocked off by the marquee were clear and blue and perfect. They were a lie. The world wasn’t perfect, it was dirty and chaotic and perfection was nothing more than a deceitful dream. He shivered as he felt an aura of incredible power flare nearby. He ignored it, all the magic in the world couldn’t bring Cullum back. A second later the power vanished and he heard someone throwing up.
“How are you feeling Mitchell?” asked the doctor. “Staring at the ceiling is not a response Mitchell.”
Mitch turned his head to the side and saw that the cot next to his had been filled by Nikola, his golden hair darkened by sweat and his usually-pale face flushed. The doctor was putting a needle in his arm but he still managed to keep one eye on Mitch.
“My brother is dead, how do you think I feel?” Mitch asked, wishing the doctor would just go away. Surely he had other patients to tend to. Nikola laughed, or perhaps he was coughing. He retched into the bucket the doctor gave him and shook his head when he was offered a glass of water.
“If you’d drink something I wouldn’t have to stick needles in your arm,” the doctor said as Nikola tried to make himself comfortable despite the drip.
“I’ve thrown up five times in the last hour, if I drink something it will come up again in the next quake which is entirely too close for my liking.”
“You know when the quakes are going to strike?” Mitch said, finding the energy to sit up. If he could sense the quakes coming then he could have saved Cullum.
“No, I just...” he flinched and lay there panting. “Are you sure you have everything you need?” he asked.
“If we need anything else we’ll get it the old fashioned way,” the doctor replied, “you’re in no shape to be doing any more magic.”
“I’m fine.”
“Most people’s definition of fine does not include nausea, a severe headache and a slight fever.” Nikola was definitely laughing this time. Mitch couldn’t remember ever hearing Nikola laugh before. He had always seemed so utterly miserable, now he sounded on the edge of hysteria. Maybe the two of them had traded places.
“You sound like my cousin,” Nikola explained.
“And do you listen to your cousin?”
“Of course I do, he’d tie me to the bed if I didn’t,” the laughter in his voice died as did his fleeting smile.
“Get some rest or I will follow his lead.” The doctor rose to his feet and left.
“You’ve never mentioned a cousin before,” Mitch said. In fact Nikola had never mentioned any kind of family before. Nikola studied him with over bright grey eyes.
“Stars curse you,” he finally spat, “I’m not going to be your distraction.”
Mitch slumped back onto the cot. A distraction. A distraction would be nice right now. Maybe he could get Nikola to talk about something else, though he suspected Nikola had exhausted his allotment of words for the day.
“What kind of magic do you use?” he asked.
“Which part of I’m not going to be your distraction did you not understand?” Nikola replied, “I don’t...” he retched, bringing up bile and not much else.
“Brace yourselves,” a magically amplified voice roared just as the fourth quake struck. Mitch was almost thrown from the cot as the first wave of the quake rushed through the ground and for a second he thought the marquee was going to come down on top of them. Magic coiled around him, rapidly expanding to encompass the entire tent. Cots stopped bouncing up and down, jars stopped shaking and the marquee stopped rattling on its poles. The ground still heaved violently but somehow the marquee and everything it sheltered was protected.
Mitch stared at the source of the magic; he had known Nikola was powerful, it was the only way he could have transferred to the Academy, but he had never expected this. The ground stopped shaking and the magic vanished as quickly as it came. The doctor rushed over almost as quickly and inspected Nikola.
“Are you going to rest or do I need to find one of those suppressants you just saved for us?” he asked.
Nikola shuddered and pressed himself into the cot, his face turning a waxy grey, “I’d settle for a blanket.” Mitch had never taken a magical suppressant but evidently Nikola had.
“I’d prefer to give you a sedative, you need to rest before you make yourself really sick.”
“Give me the blanket and I’ll let you,” Nikola said. He was shivering though it had to be almost thirty degrees. The doctor waved one of the nurses over and a minute later she returned with a blanket and a needle. There were some things that science did better than Alchemy. Nikola curled up under the blanket and was soon asleep.
“What kind of magic does he have?” Mitch asked, genuinely curious now.
The doctor shrugged, “No one’s entirely sure, I had no idea he could do that.”
“Belle!” Mindy’s ear-splitting shriek ripped through the air. Mitch and the doctor both flinched, Nikola didn’t even twitch; apparently the doctor had wanted to make sure he stayed asleep.
Mitch looked at Mindy who was sprinting towards the end of the tent where Belle and Cullum had just been escorted in by Mr McCalis. Mitch lurched to his feet, almost nosediving before the doctor steadied him, and dashed towards his brother, ignoring the pain in his ankle. Belle clutched a torch in one hand and Cullum in the other. Mitch enveloped Cullum in a bear hug that his brother didn’t return while Mindy inundated her sister with questions.
“We’re trying to bring Miss Band out now,” Mr McCalis told the doctor, “Miss Lamdon says that her
leg was trapped beneath some rubble.”
The doctor nodded and ordered one of the nurses to prepare while the other succeeded in freeing Belle from Mindy’s grip and examined her.
Mitch released his brother and took a step back. Under the dust coating him Cullum was dead white and Mitch had never seen anyone’s eyes so wide. It wasn’t like Cullum to be so quiet either and he wouldn’t stop shaking.
“Cal? Cullum, it’s alright now, you’re safe.”
Cullum didn’t respond.
“Let’s get him onto a bed,” the doctor said. Cullum still didn’t react so Mitch was forced to take him by the hand and half drag him down to his cot. A few years ago he would have been able to pick Cullum up, but Cullum wasn’t seven any more so he had to make do with a painfully slow zombie shuffle.
“He isn’t seriously injured,” the doctor said at last.
“But he hasn’t said anything,” Mitch said.
“He’s probably in shock,” the doctor said, “the best thing for him now is rest.” He produced another needle. Surely that would elicit a reaction; Cullum had screamed the house down last time someone tried to inject him with something. It didn’t. Cullum just sat there staring at nothing as the doctor cleaned a patch of arm and plunged the needle in. A minute later, Cullum was asleep.
#
It was dark when they were finally allowed inside. They had spent almost eight hours under the blazing sun without any sunscreen. Something that no one realised until they got inside and saw their burnt faces. There had only been one more big quake and as soon as the Academy’s resident earth wizard, Mr Crane, had assured them it was safe to so do they started checking the buildings.
The infirmary was the first to be cleared and reopened. They’d let Mitch help carry Cullum up to it but refused to let him stay and he’d been forced to sulk back to the field and join Mindy, who was also sulking after being abandoned by Belle in favour of Hayley. It was Hayley who had found her and Cullum trapped in the back of the room after the third quake. They hadn’t been buried after all, just cut off.
Angel Girl had sent Belle and Cullum out and stayed with Miss Band until the teachers had rescued them, bringing Miss Band to the marquee just as the final quake struck. They had almost been buried when the marquee collapsed on top of them and it seemed like everything that could break or fall over did so. Mitch had concentrated on keeping Cullum in his cot and wondered if the doctor regretted his decision to sedate Nikola. One of the teachers had caught the marquee and held it up until all the lines and pegs could be properly set once more.
“I see the quake didn’t do much damage,” Bates said, eyeing the clothing scattered across Mitch’s bedroom floor.
“Guess I got lucky,” Mitch replied. He’d had to close a couple of drawers and pick up the desk chair but so far nothing seemed to be broken or any messier than it had been when he left that morning. Mitch had mastered the art of unpacking but putting things away had always eluded him; why waste time shoving things into drawers when there was a perfectly good floordrobe to use?
“Want to play cards?”
“Sure,” Mitch said, picking his way across the room and following Bates next door to his far tidier room. Bates had even made the bed, which Mitch promptly ruined by sitting on it. Bates rummaged through a desk drawer, he hadn’t time to straighten everything, and pulled out a pack of cards. There was a knock at the door followed by Mindy letting herself in. Mitch shuffled across the bed so she could join them.
“What do you want to play?” Bates asked.
“Threes,” Mitch said.
“Presidents,” Mindy said at the same time.
“Presidents it is then,” Bates said, beginning to deal.
“I thought you said you would never let a girl come between us,” Mitch said.
“That was five years ago, I was ten,” Bates said, dealing the last of the cards.
“What kind of excuse is that?” Mitch said, inspecting his hand. If he didn’t know better he’d think Bates had rigged the deck, his cards were terrible.
“You’re just jealous because Sam dumped you over the summer,” Bates retorted.
“It was mutual.”
His friends laughed and they started to play.
“I thought you’d be with Belle,” Mitch said, handing his best cards over to Mindy as he had lost the first round.
“I thought you’d be with Cullum,” she replied. Mitch flinched, he had thought his days of babysitting Cullum were up but he hadn’t enjoyed thinking his brother was dead. It was almost enough to make him envy Bates; his best friend didn’t have any siblings. The teachers had given permission for the children with older siblings to stay together that night. The primary dormitories and classrooms had both been declared unsafe and for now the entire school was staying on the secondary campus, the children sleeping in the gym and auditorium. Bates reached over and squeezed Mindy’s knee gently.
“Sorry,” she said, “Belle wanted to stay with Hayley and no one could be bothered arguing. She can be someone else’s problem for the night.”
“Think there’ll be any big aftershocks?” Bates asked. There had been little tremors throughout the afternoon but there hadn’t been any more big quakes.
“I hope not,” Mitch said, trying to get out of his room in an earthquake would not be fun. Maybe he should shove everything into the drawers after all.
“I overheard Mr Crane talking,” Mindy said, “he doesn’t think they’ll be any big ones but they were saying something about keeping an eye on Ruapehu.” Great, that was just what they needed, an active volcano.
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The Zero Blessing Page 42
