by John Corwin
Max grunted and blinked as he caught our mood. "Okay, then."
Asha smiled gently at us. "I'm certain the headmaster will recover from his episode. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Goodbye, Asha." I touched the top of her hand. "Thank you for your concern."
Emotion filled her eyes. "Any time, Conrad." She turned and walked back toward the dining hall where security now clustered around the doorway.
We headed toward our next class, Advanced Potions.
Ambria raised an eyebrow. "What's going on Conrad? Why were you so eager to leave Professor Fellini?"
I waited until we rounded the corner and made sure the hallway was clear before detailing the horrific revelations from my vision and summing it up with the terrible conclusion. "Asha is a demon golem and I think Victus plans to clone Galfandor so he can control the entire school!"
Ambria leaned against the wall, face ashen. "Asha is an infernus?"
"It makes sense now." Max slapped a hand against the stone wall. "No wonder she looks so similar to your mother."
"What do we do?" Ambria's question emerged like a frightened whimper. "Who else has Victus cloned? Who can we trust?"
I had no easy answer for her. I spun my finger in a circle between us. "Us three and Shushiel."
Max grunted. "In other words, the usual suspects."
"Exactly." I gave him a grim smile. "It's no different from any other time." That wasn't completely true. Galfandor and even Delectra had helped us and proven they could be trusted. But now the people we thought we knew could be impostors.
"The healers took Galfandor for treatment," Ambria said. "If his copy simply shows up one day, won't everyone know it's a fake?"
"Not if the healers are infernus working for Victus," Max said. He grimaced. "My god, there's no telling how deep this runs."
"What do you suppose those coffins are used for?" Ambria asked. "You said Delectra woke up in one?"
"Probably enchanted with preservation spells," Max said. "I'll bet Victus kidnaps people and puts them in the coffins so he can take soul fragments whenever he wants."
"Then why didn't he kidnap Galfandor?" I asked. "Why put him in a coma with a ripper wyrm?"
Ambria pursed her lips and tapped the bottom of her chin. "Maybe we're looking at this wrong." She stopped tapping. "Ansel and Galfandor were our supports. I think Victus wanted to remove them from our lives, not clone them."
Max sucked in a breath. "Wyrms don't take enough soul essence to harm unless the controller knows how to make them do it."
"Exactly." Ambria shook her head slowly. "And if you want to clone people so you can covertly take over the government, don't copy the most recognizable people. Copy the ones who support them."
"Like healers and clerks." Though I'd encountered plenty of them over the years, I couldn't remember a single face. "They're invisible to most people, unlike the politicians."
"Victus could have an entire network already." Ambria shrugged. "It just depends on how long it takes to make an infernus."
"Did you see where the foundry is?" Max asked. "If we could find it, we could look inside the coffins and know exactly who's affected."
"No." In the few visions I'd had, I hadn't walked outside of the building. The memory of the white house on the hill flickered like an afterimage in my mind. I tried to link the visions of the foundry with that place, but it didn't feel right. Delectra had been desperate in that memory, as if she were on the run.
"We need you to remember," Ambria said.
"I wish I could, but the memories come back at random." I leaned back against the wall and gently banged my head against it. "I need to know more."
"They're triggered somehow." Ambria stepped in front of me. "Haven't you been in unpleasant situations each time?"
I tried to remember specifics. "I think so."
"Maybe we need to replicate them." She shrugged. "It's worth a try."
"Too complicated," Max said. "What we need is a hypnosis spell."
"Or a memory extraction spell," Ambria replied. "Can't you just tap a wand on someone's head and pull them out?"
Max shook his head. "Never heard of such a thing. If I could do that, I'd pull out tons of memories and flush them down a toilet."
I laughed. "That's awful."
"Awful, but true." Max sighed. "My brothers once used a hypnosis spell on me. They told me I was a frog and made me hop around until my hands were bloody, and my knees were bruised and raw."
Ambria grimaced and put a hand over her mouth. "That's horrible, Max."
I put a hand on his back. "Do you remember being hypnotized?"
"Oh, yes," he said. "They ordered me to remember everything." His fists clenched and his face reddened. "That's a memory I'd love to flush away."
"Well, if Devon and Rhys managed a hypnosis spell, then we can." I looked inside the classroom to make sure it was still empty. "I'll bet there's one on file in the vault."
"How is hypnosis supposed to help?" Ambria said. "Can we order you to remember?"
"Absolutely," Max said. "It'd certainly be more convenient than waiting for another episode."
"Let's go there after class." I took a lab table near the back. Ambria nabbed the seat next to me.
"Hey, I wanted to be Conrad's lab partner," Max said.
Ambria shook her head. "It was punishment enough having to be your potions partner last year, Max! I want a better grade this time."
Max sighed and slumped into the seat at the table next to us. "I'm almost afraid to see who I get."
Lily was the first person to enter the classroom. She smiled brightly at us and considered Max for a moment. "I'm curious to see what disasters you brew up this year, Max!"
He groaned and looked down. "No one wants to be my lab partner."
"Well, you caused six of the ten potions accidents last year," Lily said. "I think it's safe to say you'll continue that trend." She took the table on the far side of the room. "I'll observe from a safe distance."
The other students filed in, all of them assiduously avoiding Max's table. Harris and Baxter entered, the latter holding a cold pack to his nose. Ambria giggled. Harris sat next to Lily, and Baxter took a seat next to the short and talkative Kimmy Kaspersky. Before long, everyone had seats and partners except for Max.
Professor Rhona McTrask entered, worry etched into the lines on her face. She began roll call only to be interrupted by a late Geoffrey Simmons. He saw the empty seat next to Max and groaned.
"It would seem you have the honors, Mr. Simmons," McTrask said in a sharp voice.
Max grinned at his new partner only to receive a glare from the short boy in return.
"It's the first day of class," McTrask announced. "A long road and a difficult year lies ahead as you start your advanced classes. Today we will learn a helpful potion that will strengthen your memory without any ill side effects."
"A forget-me-not potion?" Lily said brightly.
"Do not interrupt, child." McTrask gave her a stern look. "No, this is the Fortify Memory Longevity potion, or as we call it, the FML potion."
Lily didn't seem the least bit deterred and rubbed her hands with excitement.
McTrask wrote the ingredients and instructions on the board. "This potion helps your short-term memory convert into long-term storage in short ten-minute spurts. I recommend that you not use it more than once a day, as too much can cause diarrhea."
Snorts and murmurs of laughter echoed around the room, quickly quashed by a stern look from McTrask. "Start now."
The potion was fairly complex, requiring freshly squeezed fish oil, shaved carrots, and the crushed petals of forget-me-not flowers, among a host of other items. Ambria and I finished in thirty minutes, boiling the dark mixture and then rapidly cooling it with a freeze spell to turn it crystal clear.
Max and his unwilling potions partner bickered constantly until the two of them stopped working together and began mixing their own separate potions.
McTrask tested o
ur concoction, declared it acceptable, then did the same for Lily and Harris's. Nearly half the class had finished when Max reached the final stage of boiling. He aimed his wand at the potion and zapped it with a stronger freeze spell than the one prescribed by McTrask.
The mixture froze in an instant. The beaker cracked and broke apart, leaving a black cylinder of ice behind.
Geoffrey finished his potion, managing a cloudy solution that barely earned a passing grade from McTrask.
"No, no, no." Max threw up his hands. "What happened?"
Harris and Baxter burst into laughter.
"Making popsicles, Tiberius?" Baxter said. "What flavor is it? Dirt?"
Max snapped off a chunk of jagged ice from the top of his ruined potion and threw it at Baxter. "Why don't you taste it!" The ice shattered on Baxter's lab table and vaporized into black gas.
Kimmy threw up her hands and shouted in surprise, as the vapors flashed past her and Baxter before dissipating. The pair of them blinked and stared at their completed potion with almost comical confusion.
"What?" Baxter rotated the beaker. "How is it done? We were only halfway there!"
"It just changed right in front of my eyes!" Kimmy said. "How did you do that?"
"What do you mean?" McTrask said. "What stage were you working on?"
"Heating up the solution," Kimmy said. "We have to heat it for eight minutes, then cool it for two."
"You don't remember doing any of that?" McTrask asked.
Baxter and Kimmy looked at each other, foreheads furrowed, then shook their heads. "No."
"Don't remember making fun of Mr. Tiberius's botched potion?" she asked.
Baxter looked at the black ice on Max's desk and burst into laughter. "What happened, Tiberius? Making popsicles?"
Max ignored the jibe and grinned at the frozen concoction on his lab table. "It made them forget the last ten minutes!"
Rhona McTrask face-palmed and shook her head. "Only you could turn a memory fortification potion into a memory loss potion, Mr. Tiberius."
Max clapped his hands and grinned. "Awesome!"
"You have thirty minutes to clean up that mess and create the proper potion before I give you a failing grade for the day."
Max bit his lower lip and nodded. "Got it." He grabbed a mason jar and put the ice inside, closing the lid tightly. "Maybe I can use this stuff to make me forget my father is the new Arcanus Primus."
Ambria giggled. "Max, you're a mess."
Max managed to earn a satisfactory grade before the end of class, and we hurried to Advanced Enchantments with a new professor, Devon Mallory.
It was hard not to compare the tall, flamboyantly dressed professor to the bald and often absent Professor Sideon he replaced. Sideon, of course, had been Victus in disguise. In retrospect, is lessons about enchanted objects now seemed more about what relics he wanted to enhance his own power.
Mallory started with basic enchantments, quizzing us on what we should have learned in previous years to make sure our false professor hadn't led us too far astray. He stroked his silky pink tie as he listened to our answers, nodding and applauding as appropriate.
"Wonderful, children." He clapped, moving his hands in a circle as he did so. "Give yourselves a round of applause for remembering the basics!"
Ambria and Lily mimicked him, delighted smiles on their faces, though other students looked perplexed at the marked difference in this man's attitude compared to other professors. Praise was rarely, if ever, handed out by the likes of Gideon Grace and Rhona McTrask.
"Advanced enchantments are just basic enchantments layered together," Mallory said piling his hands one over the other repeatedly. "Just like advanced spells, you need to know how to merge them together so you don't get any unexpected explosions."
Ambria and I gave Max a wary look to which he shrugged and said, "I'll do my best."
By the end of class, I couldn't help but feel empowered by Professor Mallory's encouraging attitude. He was certainly a far cry from the false Professor Sideon.
After class, we hurried to the broom closet so we could get to the vault and test a hypnosis spell on me. Max carefully tucked his anti-memory potion in the saddlebags on his broom so it wouldn't break in transit.
"I wonder if I invented another new potion," he said as we boarded our brooms.
"What good is a potion that makes you forget the last ten minutes?" Ambria said.
Max grinned. "I'd love to use it repeatedly on my brothers. Maybe I can make them braindead."
"Just don't go testing it on me," Ambria said.
My arcphone buzzed with a call from Percival. "Yes?"
The healer spoke without preamble. "Did your cousin suffer from any allergies? Did he take any prescribed medications?"
I'd seen Ansel take all sorts of medications and recreational drugs during our training sessions. "Yes, why?"
"I need a list," Percival said. "Do you know where he lives?"
"Down in Queens Gate." I'd been there once to get a new spell program from him. "Do you think he keeps a list there?"
"A list?" Percival sniffed. "No, of course not. I need you to check his medicine cabinet and send me a list of potions he's taking."
The hypnosis spell would have to wait. "Okay, we'll do it." I ended the call and told my friends what Percival wanted.
Ambria hopped on her broom. "Well, let's do it, then we'll find the hypnosis spell."
"Should we fly or use a portal?" Max said.
"I don't remember what Ansel's house looks well enough like to open a portal there," I said. "Let's just fly."
We headed out over the cliff on our brooms and dove into the valley below, heading toward the dingy gray and decrepit northeastern side of Queens Gate. Hulking mansions packed the cobblestone streets, but they'd seen better days. Shuttered windows and peeling paint told a story of neglect and abuse.
Most of the houses were abandoned, making the neighborhood a lonely place, and probably the reason Ansel decided to squat in this part of town. We set down in front of a dark gray house with barred windows and stout steel doors. The house stood two stories high with hardwood porches wrapping around the front and sides. It could have once been a quaint bed and breakfast, but now it looked like a stylish prison.
Max opened his mouth to say something, but Ambria clamped a hand on his face and pointed at the doors. One of them hung slightly ajar. I guided my broom closer so I didn't have to walk across the wooden porch, and peeked inside. I couldn't see anything so I landed the broom and got off.
Footsteps clomped on the porch from the left, but I couldn't tell if they were upstairs or on our level. I motioned for Ambria and Max to go. They zipped across the street on their brooms and hid inside an alley between houses. Ambria spun around and gave me a horrified look when she saw me still on the porch. I grabbed my broom and slipped inside the house.
The smart move would have been to run, but I had to know what was going on. The scene inside made it clear—broken furniture, strewn books and paper, shattered glass. Someone was looking for something. I slipped into the kitchen and ducked behind a broken cupboard as the front door opened.
"Nevil, the place is trashed," a woman called. "There's nothing good left!"
Hard-soled shoes clomped down the stairs. "Those men were looking for something valuable, and I don't think they found it."
"They looked for three days, Nevil!" The woman sighed. "What makes you think we can find something they didn't?"
"I'll bet it's in the walls," Nevil said. "Let's go get a sledgehammer."
"Are you kidding me? I'm out of here!" The front door slammed.
"Hey, baby, wait!" The door opened and shut again. I peered through the window and saw a short, bald man chasing a skinny woman down the front sidewalk. He grabbed her arm and the pair got into a heated shouting match.
The woman jerked free and walked away. The man threw up his hands and looked back at the mansion, back to her, to the mansion again, and finally took off runnin
g after her. Max and Ambria ran across the street and into the house once the couple of looters walked around the corner.
"Conrad?" Ambria whispered.
I came out of the kitchen. "I'm here."
She shook a fist at me. "Don't you ever do that again."
"I thought it would be easier if just one of us had to sneak inside." I gestured at the wreckage. "Maybe there's no connection, but what are the odds that Ansel was hit by a wyrm and then his house was tossed?"
"Oh, it's gotta be connected," Max said. "Maybe Ansel had something Victus wants."
"What do you think it could be?" Ambria said.
I shook my head, unable to come up with anything. "Victus probably knew Ansel is Delectra's nephew. Maybe he thought she gave him something."
"Maybe." Ambria stepped carefully through the wreckage and peered into the neighboring rooms. "There's so much furniture and this house is huge. I'll bet there are lots of hiding spots."
"Yeah. From what those two said, whoever did this didn't find what they were looking for." I wondered what it was, but in the short term, I had another mission. I went upstairs and looked through the bedrooms. Broken wood and glass strewn everywhere, the mattresses ripped open, stuffing hanging out. Only one bathroom had toiletries, and they were smashed open, toothpaste and even soap squeezed out into the sink. The potions cabinet hung open, the glass vials empty or broken on the countertop.
I dug through the broken glass for the labels. Careful not to cut my fingers, I picked up the four I found and took pictures of them. Clarity, Probiotic, Dandle, Kefarin. I knew what clarity and probiotic were, but hadn't heard of the other two. I sent the image to Percival along with a query.
Ah, yes, he texted back. Dandle and Kefarin are used to combat hyper-allergenic response.
"Should we look around?" Ambria said.
Max looked around warily. "What if that couple comes back?"
"I don't know how we could find what they were looking for," I said. "Let's take care of the hypnosis thing first, then we can come back here."
Ambria nodded. "Agreed."
I grabbed my broom. We went back out, made sure no one was in sight, retrieved Max and Ambria's brooms, then flew back up to the university. We headed back to the keep, to the vault's hidden door and inside. Instead of searching the aisles, I flew to the table where we'd left Adam Nosti's spell coding tutorials and looked through the library of pre-programmed spells—or spellgrams, as he called them.
