54
Jin’s shrieks reached Fergus’ ears as he made it to the door to the Core Chamber.
“It’s shut!” Fergus whirled to Fulka. “You said it was open!”
“It was! But I also said the Tinkers were working on it!”
“Damn it!” He gulped as Jin’s shriek was violently cut off. “Jin…”
“The card!” Fulka blurted, patting Fergus’ pocket. “Try it.”
“Shit. I forgot that.” Flushing with embarrassment, he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out the card before shoving it into the slot by the door. “It’s just…”
“I know.” She put a hand on his shoulder as the heavy mechanism within the walls started clunking. “But Jin believed in you, Fergus. And I… I believe in you, too. I…”
Fergus blinked at her.
He leaned forward. His heart pounded in his chest, their lips getting closer.
“Ugh. Gross.” A voice cut through the moment, and Fargus scrambled to press his back to the wall.
He lifted his hand and flicked an icy shard to where the sound had come from.
“It’s her.” He scowled. “That sneaky bitch.”
But Fulka had dropped into a crouch, rifle at her shoulder. She squeezed off a round which blasted into the wall and spat chips. One clearly ricocheted off Tania’s hidden form.
“Hey!” Tania complained. “You tore my skirt, ya fluky flap!”
Fulka jerked the cartridge free and slapped in another to quickly blast another round to where she thought Tania might be.
The door started to grate open.
Then another mana bolt ripped into the stone above Fulka’s head.
“Eep!” She ducked down with a panicked squeal.
“Fulka!” Fergus roared, desperately flinging ice shards. First to where Milo was positioned at the end of the corridor. And then to where Fulka had been aiming before.
The shards smashed into walls, the ice clinging to the granite.
It’d take a while for it to melt.
“Don’t worry,” Fulka snarled as she switched cartridges. “I’ve got it.”
She aimed for the corner where Miles was hiding.
Waited.
Sucked a breath.
Then, as she saw movement, she pulled the trigger. The bolt cracked into the corner near Fergus’ knee as he started to whirl around the corner. His own rifle raised.
The bolt made him flinch, pushing him back.
“Look out!” Fulka cried suddenly, snatching Fergus and pulling him down as three darts pinged out of the shadows. Each smacked against the opening doors where Fergus’ chest had been.
Fergus gulped as he saw the dark tips of the steel needles. “Poison?”
“We’re playing for keeps, buster,” Tania crowed from the shadows. “Better put your wand down.”
“Fulka?” Fergus tossed a few shards towards Tania’s location.
“Yes?”
“Grab the key. We’re going in.”
Fulka nodded, flinging herself at the slot and pulling out the card.
Just as the door finally opened enough to slip through.
Taking her hand, Fergus grunted as he pulled her inside. “Run! But don’t step on the traps!”
“I’m trying,” she panted. She was shorter than he was, so struggled to keep up.
Fergus gripped her hand, though, refusing to let go.
“We’re nearly there!” he shouted. “When I get the Primal Core, I can finish them off. We just need to get the core!”
“Fergus!” Fulka gasped. “Wards! They’re still active here!”
“I know,” he said, yanking her to a halt. He glanced over his shoulder. Then he lifted his hand. The doors were already beginning to close. He threw shards at the closing gap. Over and over. He didn’t care about his mana now.
If he could keep them out, he’d have the time he needed. The time to disable the wards. To get to the core.
And then power.
Unlimited power would be in his hands.
A bolt of mana shot from the other side, aimed at Fergus’ chest. He was able to dodge aside and kept throwing shards. Fulka went through a half-dozen cartridges with him.
Finally, the doors slammed shut, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Done,” he rasped. “We’re in.”
“What about the wards?”
“I can undo them. It should be easy. Dad told me how it’s done.”
Fulka crouched with her rifle aimed at the door. “I only have a couple of cartridges left.”
“Then you’ll need to use your magic,” he said.
“Sure.” She nodded. “I’m not very good at it, though. I don’t know how long I could keep them back.”
“You’re a level four,” he reminded her. “You’ll be fine.”
“But Tania’s a level nine.”
Fergus dropped beside her. He put a hand on her shoulder and stared deep into her eyes. “Trust yourself. I trust you.”
The door suddenly trembled as though something big had hit it.
They both looked at each other.
“What was that?” Fulka asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I don’t think we have much time.”
“Do you think it’s the headmaster?”
“I hope not.” He turned to the wards. “But if it is, I’ll deal with him when I have the core.”
“Is it really that powerful?”
“You’ll see.”
She watched him as he set to work. He knelt beside the first ward and began teasing the edges of it with a steady stream of mana. Not an easy skill to have. Tinkers could do it. But they’d trained for years.
Just like Fergus had.
His father had made him learn. Whipped him when he failed.
He wondered what his father would think of him now. When Fergus brought him the Primal Core, would his father be pleased?
“He’d better be,” the young man muttered, peeling the ward away and moving to the next.
“Wow!” Fulka took a deep breath. “That’s amazing!”
He flushed, feeling a warm glow in his heart. When this was over, he was going to tell her how he felt about her. He was sure she felt the same.
Another thud from the door made her snap her gaze away.
Licking her lips, she lifted the rifle higher.
As behind her, he peeled up another ward. It crackled as it came loose.
“Channeling raw mana’s not hard,” he said. “You could do it, too. It takes a year or so to really get good at it, though.”
“It sounds like arcanomancy,” she called back over her shoulder.
“It sort of is,” he said. “But not as wasteful. I don’t just blast mana out. I have to focus it. Most arcanomancers can’t do that.”
He peeled another ward.
There were only a few left.
And one which guarded the core itself.
He lifted his gaze to the plinth. The core floated above it. It was held there by a constant flow of magical energy which both protected it and contained it. Stopping any mage from touching it without first disabling the ward.
Breathless, he dropped down to the next ward.
He was so close!
Soon, all that power would be in his hand. He could force them to understand. Force them all to see the truth!
And if they didn’t?
Then he’d take the core to his father. He knew that would be the best option. Then his father would deal with the wretched old fools of the Mage Court.
Everything was going to be fine.
Just a few more wards.
Finally, he stood in front of the plinth. His gaze was drawn constantly to the first-sized red gem embedded in a slab of thick dwarven bronze. The promise of nearly limitless mana was right there.
He lifted his eyes to the staff on the wall behind it. He’d need to slot the core into it to use it.
Suddenly, the sound of grating stone made him panic.
“Fulka?”
“They’re coming through!”
“How?”
“I don’t know! maybe they broke into the mechanism?” She pulled back, positioning herself by the corner, aiming down the narrow corridor. “I’ll try to keep them back.”
He nodded.
But he remembered Jin. He wanted to rush to her side. To stand with her. But he needed to get the last ward undone so he could deal with them. Deal with the normie first. Then everyone else!
“Don’t…” He swallowed hard. “Don’t die.”
She smiled back at him.
She had a pretty smile, he thought.
“I won’t.”
Then the doors opened. And a blast of mana blew through the gap to punch into a pipe above her. The pipe exploded with a sharp crack, sending steam billowing down. Hot steam.
The pipes were used to heat the Academy.
And now they were boiling her alive.
Fulka shrieked.
“Fulka!”
She rolled out of the steam, her face pink. “Don’t worry,” she moaned. “Just get the core!”
She was hurt. He could tell.
But she was also right.
Snarling, he turned back to the rune and started peeling, pulling it off the ground in front of the plinth. His mind filled with thoughts of peeling the skin from Milo’s back. From hearing him scream the way Fulka had screamed.
“I’ll kill you,” he chanted. “I’ll fucking kill you!”
He heard Fulka’s rifle bark.
And Milo’s answered.
But he was close now.
So close.
“Fergus! Hurry!”
The ward clung to the granite. It was the hardest ward he’d ever tried to lift. But he could do it. Despite his father’s sneered derision in his ears, he knew he could do it.
Maybe even because of it.
With one last roar, he pulled the ward up with a snap. The backlash was immediate. Lightning discharged in all directions, punching into the walls. But it missed him.
“Rip it up, Fergus?” Milo asked casually from behind.
Fergus turned.
Tania was standing with Fulka in her arms. A blade pressed tight to her throat. A funny blade, though. It seemed to not be a knife, but a sharp length emerging directly from the middle of her palm.
But that was… impossible.
Beside her, Milo stood with his rifle at his side. He was squeezing something. A small square. Which he slid into a little black sphere. The sphere looked a bit like the globes of stone Fulka made.
Was Milo a geomancer?
Smiling, Milo screwed the top shut on the sphere and pressed a small stud on top.
He tossed it to Fergus.
“Here. Catch.”
Then it exploded.