by James Riley
“Like anyone does,” Gabriel said with a snort. “Let’s get moving. What’s the first trick?”
As Sebastian began lecturing the other students on proper use of the book of Healing, rubbing his shoulder, Fort found a pack of needles up on Dr. Ambrose’s desk. He grabbed two and brought Gabriel over to the book, which was sitting on the podium, open to the first spell, Heal Minor Wounds.
Like Jia had shown him back at the old school, Fort walked Gabriel through sticking the needle into his finger just enough to draw a drop of blood, then cast the spell to heal it, repeating until he’d mastered the spell.
“That’s it? That’s the trick?” Gabriel didn’t seem too impressed, but he did as he was told and was quickly running through the spell at the same rate Fort was.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last long, as Sebastian finished his lecture and the other students began lining up at the book for their turn. That was the problem with just having one book of magic.
“This is going to take forever this way,” Gabriel told him as they moved to the back of the line for another shot at learning Heal Minor Wounds. “Are you sure we can’t write the words down and take them with us or something?”
“Doesn’t work, they’ve tried it,” Fort said. “But Colonel Charles said you could use the book after class, so we can try then. They’re really strict about who can get access to it—”
“Oh, Gabriel has permission,” Dr. Ambrose said from the side of the stage. “Golden boy here has permission to do almost anything he wants, as long as he’s studying. Lucky, huh?” She gave Gabriel a cold look. “I’d tell Colonel Charles about you assaulting my assistant, but I have a feeling he’d take your side.”
Gabriel just shrugged at her. “If we can’t get access to the book now, it doesn’t make sense to wait around here. Let’s just come back when it’s not being used.”
Without waiting to see if Fort agreed, Gabriel turned and walked out of the room.
“Ugh, you kids,” Dr. Ambrose told him, and for once she seemed annoyed at someone other than Fort. “Be careful around that one, Fitzgerald. There’s a lot you don’t know about him.” She gave Fort a quick look. “Remember how you were when you first got to the school? He’s even worse. And look what damage you caused.”
- NINETEEN -
MATH AND SCIENCE FOLLOWED HEALING one after the other, not leaving Fort much time to think about what Dr. Ambrose had said, let alone anything else. The guards around the school seemed to be watching him more closely now, stopping him to make sure he was still wearing Agent Cole’s amulet.
All in all, he wasn’t sure things could get much worse. But considering lunch was next, Fort stayed optimistic that running into his friends again would prove him wrong.
This time, Jia, Rachel, and Cyrus were leaving as he and Gabriel entered, now on a completely different schedule than he was. Jia avoided his look again, but Rachel glared at him the whole time, bumping his shoulder hard as she passed him. Behind them, Cyrus looked like he was about to explode, he wanted to talk to Fort so badly. Fort told Gabriel to go on ahead. “I’ll be right behind you,” he said.
“Don’t let him guilt you,” Gabriel said, loud enough for Cyrus to hear. “You did the right thing.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t!” Cyrus said, waving at Gabriel. As the other boy left, Cyrus gave Fort a worried look. “There’s a lot I need to tell you, and I don’t have much time. Can you come with me for a minute?”
Fort winced, staring at two guards watching him from the cafeteria entrance. “If I go too far, the guards will bust me for not having lunch with Gabriel. Colonel Charles wants us together twenty-four seven for some reason.”
Cyrus made a face. “This is really important, and it might be the last time I see you.”
Fort’s eyes widened. “The last time? What… why?”
Cyrus nodded. “Dr. Opps wants me out of here. He said something about how Colonel Charles is dangerous, and we needed to figure some things out.”
Colonel Charles was dangerous, and no one knew that better than Dr. Opps, who’d first been imprisoned by the colonel at the last school, and just yesterday had the books of Summoning and Mind magic taken from him. Not to mention that Dr. Opps wanted Sierra and Damian finding the other books of magic. “What do you mean, out of here? Where are you going?”
“Back to the school in Wales. A lot’s going to happen there, and they’ll need me. But that’s not what I have to tell you. The bad things that are coming are going to happen because of you.”
Fort stopped dead in the hallway at this, but Cyrus yanked him into an empty side room, this one with the presidential seal on a podium and a bunch of seats facing it. Maybe this was where the president would address the nation if the government had to be evacuated underground for protective reasons?
“I don’t know how, but I didn’t see your real plan,” Cyrus said, looking apologetic. “If I knew you were going to take the Summoning book to find your father, I would have told you what was coming. But for some reason, I saw you destroy the books, so I messed up.”
“You did tell me,” Fort said, blushing badly. “But I didn’t want you to give it away to Rachel or Jia, so I asked Sierra to make you remember things differently. I’m… I’m so sorry, Cyrus.”
His friend seemed taken aback for a moment, then shrugged. “Well, that explains a few things,” he said, leaning in. “So you know what happens if they go with you?”
Fort nodded, unable to forget their previous conversation. “You told me that if anyone comes, I’ll lose one of my friends forever.” He cringed. “You had a long list of what might happen. Jia would get taken over by an Old One. Rachel would shut down the portal from the other side to save everyone. It was awful.”
“That’s not all,” Cyrus said quietly. “If you bring them both along and you, Jia, Rachel, and your father all make it back safely… that’s when everything falls apart.”
“What?” Fort said. “You never told me that. I can make it back okay with everyone?”
“No, not everyone,” Cyrus said. “That’s not what I said. And if you do, the future looks awful, Fort. The worst-case scenario.” He shuddered. “I don’t even want to tell you some of the things I’ve seen. They’re terrifying. The Old Ones make it back, and that’s not even the scariest part.”
Fort went cold at the image of the Old Ones returning, but at least it confirmed what he had thought. “Okay. Then it’s back to my original plan, then. I just go alone.”
“What? No, you can’t!” Cyrus yelled. A guard looked into the room at the sound of his voice, staring at them both, then slowly continued on. “I must not have told you,” Cyrus continued, his voice lower now. “If you go by yourself, you might rescue your father, but you won’t make it back!”
Fort looked away. “I know. You told me that, too.”
Cyrus’s eyes widened. “Are you joking? You’re still going to do it, even if you know you might get trapped there forever? Or worse?” He grabbed Fort’s uniform and pulled him closer, more upset than Fort had ever seen him. “You can’t do that, Fort! Why are you—”
“If I take anyone, I lose one of them instead,” he said sadly. “Either that, or I cause some horrible future. It’s not even a choice, Cyrus. It’s my fault that my dad is there in the first place. If I had been closer, I could have helped him escape, and none of this would have happened. I’m doing this, and by myself. That way no one else suffers because of me.”
“So what then?” Cyrus asked. “How do you know we won’t all go after you, too? Things could end up even worse, Fort! There’s only one way to keep everyone safe here.”
“I agree,” Fort said, moving toward the door. “By me going alone.”
Cyrus just shook his head, looking a bit sick. “No. You’d have to… to leave your father there.”
Cyrus’s words hit him like a punch in the stomach, and Fort backed away, his mouth hanging open. “Not going to happen,” he said finally. “See you around, Cyrus.
”
“Fort, wait!” Cyrus said as Fort turned around and made his way to the door. “I’m not finished! Rachel said I should come up with some story to make you take off that ‘stupid amulet,’ as she put it, or else she won’t be able to—”
But Fort shut the door behind him, cutting off whatever Cyrus had been trying to say. The last thing he cared about was Rachel’s feelings about his amulet. It wasn’t just her, either. He felt dead inside, after Cyrus telling him to leave his father behind. Everything felt more numb, less important.
The only way to save everyone was to leave his father trapped in the hands of the Old Ones, or something worse? No. No matter what it took, there was no way Fort would allow that to happen.
And if all it took was trading himself for his father, then that’s just what Fort would do.
- TWENTY -
GABRIEL TOOK ONE LOOK AT Fort’s face and didn’t say a word to him for all of lunch, which Fort was thankful for. He almost immediately regretted closing the door on Cyrus as soon as he entered the cafeteria, especially if this really was the last time they were going to see each other for a while, but it wasn’t like his list of regrets wasn’t already full of him being a jerk to his friends. Just another item to add to it.
As lunch ended, something happened to take his mind off of Cyrus, though. Two soldiers came by with lists of students for their next classes. “We’ll be splitting you up for weapons training, so when you hear your name, stand and follow me,” one said.
Weapons training? Fort looked at Gabriel, who just shrugged. What did that mean? Wasn’t the whole point of the school for students to add magic into various items for soldiers to use? What were they going to need weapons for?
The first group called was for archery training, which sounded fun, but neither Gabriel nor Fort made the list. Gabriel was named for shield training, which didn’t sound much like a weapon, but even more shockingly, Fort wasn’t with him. For the first time, he and his roommate would be able to do something alone, and Fort was a bit surprised to find he wasn’t looking forward to it.
Finally, Fort’s name was called for a third class, which the soldier said was “Bow training.”
That seemed confusing. Weren’t bows used in archery?
But as they entered a medium-sized room with old, dusty gym mats covering the floor and mirrors on the wall, things got even stranger, as there were no bows, arrows, or targets.
“Everyone grab a broomstick,” said a soldier in camouflage, who introduced himself as Sergeant Tower. In spite of his name, he wasn’t that tall. In fact, he looked pretty average in almost every way, if extra muscular.
The only thing that made Sergeant Tower stand out was that he actually smiled at the students when they all entered, and it genuinely seemed authentic, like he was happy to see them. For the Oppenheimer School, that was definitely not average.
Several broomless sticks lined the wall with the door, enough for every student. Not that he was shocked, but again Fort didn’t see any of his friends, or even Sebastian this time. A few of the other students in the class were completely new faces, so were probably first-timers in Destruction. The rest he recognized from Healing class earlier.
Fort grabbed a stick, not entirely sure what the point was, but glad that at least without the head of the broom, they wouldn’t be sent out to clean the facility. Who knew with this new, strange Oppenheimer School.
Sergeant Tower organized them into two rows, with enough space in between each student so that they wouldn’t accidentally whack one another with their stick. Once he was satisfied, he moved to stand in front of them.
“It’s been decided by those much higher in the chain of command than me that you kids should know how to defend yourselves,” Tower said, smiling again. “While I’m all in favor of that, I’m not sure how using a weapon will do what magic can’t. But maybe you’ll all prove me wrong. Let’s find out together, shall we? I’ll be training you once a day in the use of what we call a ‘bo staff.’ ” He twirled one of the broomsticks around in his hand. “A bo is a great place to start, as it’s a well-rounded weapon for both offense and defense.”
Fort looked down at the wooden stick in his hand. A bo staff? That at least explained his confusion with archery, but this was the weapon they were going to be trained on? At least he wouldn’t have to deal with the Destruction students shooting each other with it, but it did seem sort of… lame.
“Now, I know what you’re thinking,” Sergeant Tower said, pacing in front of them, his own broomstick held easily at his side. “This isn’t the fanciest of weapons, for sure. What good is it going to do against a heavily armed intruder?”
“I’m not sure what it’d do against my grandma,” one of the kids Fort didn’t recognize said, and a few of the boys around him laughed.
Sergeant Tower beamed. “Great, we have a volunteer! Come on up here, Jaworski. You’re going to help me illustrate how a staff like this can be your best friend.”
The boy named Jaworski suddenly looked a lot less sure of himself, but he moved to the front to stand before Sergeant Tower, who raised his staff diagonally in front of him, planting his feet. Jaworski matched their teacher’s stance, and Sergeant Tower nodded supportively. “You’re a quick study, Jaworski, great job! Everyone take a look at how he’s got his feet shoulder width apart, better to keep a firm stance. And holding the staff like that, he’s ready in case I go high or low. Nice one!”
“So are we done, then?” Jaworski said, flashing what was probably supposed to be a smug look to his friends.
“Ah, not quite yet,” Sergeant Tower said, then moved faster than Fort could even see. His staff struck out like a snake, spinning Jaworski’s staff into the air with one end before sweeping the boy’s feet out from under him with the other.
As the boy slammed into the floor, Tower spun his staff straight at Jaworski’s face, freezing it just inches from the boy’s nose, all in one smooth movement. “Lesson one,” the sergeant said. “Never take your eyes off your opponent!”
Jaworski stared up at the staff in terror, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Tower grinned, then reached down and yanked the boy to his feet, hard enough to send him flying for a moment. “Still, a good first attempt! Now, after you’re fully trained, each of you will be given your own staff, and it won’t be wood. Yours will be formed of segmented steel, which will obviously be heavier, but—”
“Steel?!” one of Jaworski’s friends said. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Only for your opponents, when I’m done teaching you,” Tower told him. “And I’m glad to see we’ve got another volunteer for the next lesson too! Thanks, Johnson.”
Johnson groaned. “You’re welcome.”
“Now, as I was saying,” Tower said, twirling his staff around absently. “We’ll start with wooden staffs to get the techniques down, then switch to your school-provided segmented-steel staffs. Not only will the weight add force to your attacks and defense, but each segment will hold its own magic spell, I’m told. You’ll be adding those spells to your staff as you go, so none of them will be unfamiliar.”
Fort’s eyes widened. They were making their own magical staffs? Okay, that was kind of awesome. Suddenly this whole weapons practice thing made a lot more sense. Not only did it give them something to defend themselves with, but it also gave them an easy way to train on making magical items for the military, too.
“We’re going to start with simple defense strategies,” Sergeant Tower said as he knocked Johnson’s staff out of his hands, leaving the boy standing there awkwardly. “Disarming will be the most important thing I can teach you here, as that will give you time to escape a more powerful opponent, especially if they have a firearm. Keep in mind you’re only learning this to keep yourself safe, not to hurt anyone. Any attacks I teach you will only be used as a last resort. Does everyone understand?”
No one said a word.
Sergeant Tower laughed. “That’s okay, you’re
not volunteering if you answer my questions.” He launched his staff out and swept Johnson’s feet out from under him just like he’d done to Jaworski. “Now let me repeat myself: Does everyone understand?”
“Yes, Sergeant Tower,” they all said, almost in unison.
“Good!” Tower said, grinning. “We’re all going to get along great, then. Now everyone find a partner, and let’s start disarming.”
- TWENTY-ONE -
AN HOUR LATER, FORT’S WHOLE body ached from head to toe. Training with the wooden staffs had not only been harder than it looked, but the girl he’d partnered up with, Jocelyn, had slammed him in the shins multiple times, trying to sweep his legs. Each new hit was a lesson in pain, and Jocelyn hadn’t seemed very sorry, considering she laughed every time.
Now at least he had some free time before dinner, which he was probably meant to use tutoring Gabriel. But following Colonel Charles’s orders was the last thing on his mind right now. What he needed to do was master teleportation so he could move on to the next Summoning spell as quickly as possible. That had to be a spell to open a portal… if it wasn’t, he didn’t know if he’d be able to last a second week, the way things were going. Certainly Agent Cole might have locked him up by then, the way all her agents in suits seemed to be everywhere now.
Since they hadn’t had weapons training together, Fort avoided going back to his room, where he figured Gabriel would be. Not that he disliked the boy… in fact, Gabriel was growing on him. But he didn’t want to come up with an excuse to cover where he was going and why he’d be gone for a couple of hours.
Still, with all the guards and agents watching him, not to mention cameras everywhere, finding a place to practice was almost impossible. That left him only one option.
Fort pushed the door open to the boys’ restroom and made a face. Someone clearly had issues with the cafeteria food, based on the smell. But the bathroom looked empty, at least, and all the stall doors stood open. And that was all he needed, enough privacy to retrieve the book of Summoning, then open a teleportation circle to somewhere he could practice in peace.
