Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
I woke up in the middle of the night parched beyond belief.
Fortunately, I had believed Professor Puddlemoan when he’d said I’d be dehydrated, and I had prepared by having a glass of water beside my bed.
Un fortunately, I had underestimated the quantity I would need to drink before I felt better.
Needless to say, I was relieved that we had a sink in our room. The toilet came in handy as well.
I wondered if everyone was having a similar three-in-the-morning experience.
It was eerie, being awake while everyone else was asleep. Even the dragons were snoring musically on either side of Lilia.
Having all three of us in our room was a nice change, even though Hazel had fallen asleep mid-sentence. She had been using her magic more often than the rest of us in her thesis; something to do with the growth cycle of plants under the effects of ambient magic. Without the ley lines, she had an excellent control group, but the blanket the teachers had built meant that there was just slightly more magic than what she required.
I hoped that we would be able to bring the ley lines back. I dreamed that we uncovered a beaver dam in the Philippines— not that I knew whether there were beavers there, but it was a dream! —and once we demolished it, magic exploded back into the proper channels.
If only it were that simple.
I tried unsuccessfully to get back to sleep, finally giving up and pulling open my grimoire. If I’d only stayed in Aiden’s room last night, at least I could find an interesting outlet for this insomnia.
I sighed, flipping the pages of the grimoire and finding nothing to occupy my mind. I finally gave up on trying and picked up a copy of the newest romance book from my favorite author. I rarely engaged in pleasure reading, typically there was always some class I had to read for, so when once couldn’t sleep but also couldn’t focus on schoolwork, one indulged.
I settled in, quickly getting lost in the magical fantasy world building of alphas, omegas, and aliens.
I moved through Qualitative Spellcraft like it was a dream. My magic pulled on my bones, making my already fatigued body feel heavier. The rest of the nexus class seemed to be having similar issues, and Professor Reynolds took pity on us, using the class time to repeat concepts we had learned earlier that semester.
After lunch, Aiden and I met Professor Akhtar at his office. He greeted us cheerfully, and I wanted to hate him a little bit.
“You’ll feel better once we get to Easter Island,” the professor said kindly. “I have a working theory, but we need to take the measurements first.”
I felt a little more energetic at the thought. “Great. When do we leave?”
“Now.” He locked his office and led us down to the basement, where the portal to Easter Island was located in a tapestry on the wall. He activated it, and waved us through.
The instant my feet hit the sand, I began to feel better. I didn’t need to activate the sight spell to know that the ley lines were present here.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think that the ocean had something to do with magical abilities,” Aiden said.
Professor Akhtar’s bushy eyebrows rose. “Who says it doesn’t?” He whistled tunelessly as he handed us each a circular device.
“I don’t remember you having these in Atlantis,” I said, examining the smooth bronze. The bright sunlight glinted off the device, reflecting into my eyes. I squinted and turned away, casting my shadow over them. “How do they work?”
“These make my job easier. In Atlantis, I had to take the measurements by hand. It was nearly impossible. Spread out please. About ten feet apart, yes, thank you.”
They made a lopsided triangle on the beach between the Easter Island heads.
“Hold the device by the chain at shoulder height. It shouldn’t take long.”
The bronze circle spun lazily in one direction and then the next. I couldn’t tell what it was doing beyond that, but I trusted Professor Akhtar.
The ocean was just beyond the men, a brilliant blue-green that made me want to splash about in it. I chuckled to myself. After being in the water for so long yesterday, I had thought I’d be sick of it. I’d certainly felt waterlogged enough when we’d returned.
“Slowly walk to the center of our triangle. We need to arrive at the exact same moment, or else we need to restart,” Professor Akhtar interrupted my musings.
Keeping an eye on each other, we took measured steps to meet in the middle.
“How do we know if it worked?” I asked from a couple paces away.
“You’ll know.”
I didn’t understand his amusement until we got closer. The medallions lifted of their own accord until they wrapped their chains around each other, the circles overlapping each other. When the last disc had fallen in place, a number appeared on the topmost one.
“Perfect,” Professor Akhtar said cheerfully. “Almost full magical potential! We can go home now.”
“But the math?” I asked.
“The math will take longer than we want to stay here,” he replied gently. “Aiden, are you prepared for a long night?”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
“That’s all any of us can do.”
We made our way back though the portal to the school.
I joined them in Professor Akhtar’s office at first. He made the hologram of the nexus points appear, marking down the magical energy over the Easter Island point. I saw that he had already written down the ones for us and Atlantis. Ours was so tiny it might as well have been zero. Atlantis was strong, but according to the professor, it was only seventy percent of its usual magnitude. I had so many questions, but the men bent over sheets of paper and started calculating, and I didn’t want to interrupt them. “I’ll be back with dinner,” I said.
“Thanks,” Aiden mumbled, distracted.
I thought I could have said that I’d be back with an elephant, and he would have responded the same way.
I didn’t want to go to Care of Magical Creatures with only half an hour left, so instead, I went to retrieve my grimoire from my room and headed to Aiden’s to keep Moonbeam company. I decided that I’d sleep there too. If Professor Akhtar thought Aiden would have a long night, there wasn’t a guarantee that he’d make it back to his room before classes tomorrow.
When I arrived at his room, I was greeted with the sight of Hazel curled up in the armchair Aiden had conjured out of one of the empty beds, Moonbeam batting at her toes.
“Hey roomie,” I said, sinking into the desk chair. “I thought you’d be in class.”
“We had a test and I finished early,” she said absentmindedly. She flipped the page of the book she was reading. “Mummy sent me this book about our family history, and I wanted to read it.”
“Anything interesting?”
“Apparently we immigrated from the Americas in the Dark Ages,” Hazel said. She looked up at me, her eyes flashing with amusement. “Want to guess why?”
“Because there were magic schools here?”
She shook her head. “Close. It’s related to magic.”
“Just tell me,” I begged.
“The ley lines vanished!”
I blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
Hazel nodded, laughing. “I said what I said. The ley lines in Chile had vanished, so my family left in search of answers. They made it here, where the lines were fine, and they settled down. They sent letters back home to ask if the lines had returned there, but they didn’t want to get back on a boat, so here we stayed.”
Hazel’s seasickness was always dramatic and immediate. I didn’t blame her ancestors, especially after crossing the Atlantic.
“Were the ley lines back? When was that?”
“It was around the year 600, and I didn’t see a reply.” Hazel frowned. “I don’t know if they lost contact entirely, but I had no idea that I had family, however distant, in Chile.”
“When I travel the world after graduating, I’ll go see if I can find their descendents,” I promised.
“Thank you.” Hazel beamed at me.
“How long did it take them to reach Ireland?” I asked. My fingers itched to pull the book closer, wanting to flip through it and find the answers for myself.
“Well over a year,” Hazel replied. “They said that they found a ley line in Northern America, which would be Canada now, that was weak. They followed it until they reached the big water, the Atlantic, and then they took boats. After many uncomfortable months, they reached land, Ireland, and swore they’d never set foot on the sea again. Fortunately, the ley lines in Ireland were strong enough for them to survive, so they stayed.”
“What do you mean, strong enough to survive?” I asked.
“We’re dryads, Siobhan,” Hazel said dryly. “Our life force is tied to ambient magic.”
“Are you okay?” I asked immediately.
“I’m weaker than I should be, but I’m fine. Being at the school helps, because of all the magic built into its walls. My family is struggling a bit. Mummy told me that one of the neighbors has been making them dinner every night. Papi hasn’t been able to go to work for more than half the day most days.” Hazel’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m worried about them.”
I left my chair and squeezed in beside her, wrapping my arms around her. “We’re going to figure this out,” I whispered. “Professor Akhtar and Aiden are working on the math right now. We should be able to pinpoint the location of the issue within a few days.”
“Really?” Hazel’s smile was watery. “I hope so.”
After giving her another squeeze, I moved back over to the desk and opened my grimoire.
But I couldn’t focus. I found myself tracing a crack in the paint on the wall with my eyes. The flipping pages of Hazel’s book was the only sound in the room.
Finally, I pushed back from the desk with a groan. “I can’t do this!” I exclaimed. “I hate feeling like I’m useless, and with Aiden helping Akhtar, I’m not needed. But being here, not knowing what’s going on, is even worse!”
Hazel grimaced. “I’m sorry.”
Moonbeam meowed softly and leapt onto my lap, kneading my thighs with soft paws.
“Thanks, darling girl,” I said, scratching behind the kitten’s ears. She started purring loudly and butted her head under my chin. “Have you grown again?” I asked her. “I go away for one day, and you grow, what, three inches?”
“Four,” Hazel said helpfully. “I helped Rhiannon measure her yesterday afternoon after class.”
“Slow down, baby,” I said, nuzzling our noses together. “If you get too big, we won’t be able to keep you here, and it’s way too dangerous out there for you right now.”
Moonbeam licked at her whiskers before starting to groom herself.
“Did Rhiannon say when she’ll get her wings?” I asked, almost dreading the answer.
Hazel shrugged. “She seems to think that she’ll get them within the next month or so. It depends on whether they come out based on magical or physical age. It’s not like we have a lot of references.”
“Stay tiny for a little longer,” I pleaded. “We’re working on the ley line problem, and hopefully, once that’s fixed, everyone will forget about manducares and you can find your way back to your family.”
“How?” Hazel asked. “Unless she’s got a genetic memory like monarch butterflies, how would she know where her family is?”
I resisted the urge to interrupt Moonbeam’s bath to cuddle her. “I don’t know. We could always house her at Grandfather’s until the summer, and then Aiden and I could take her to where we think she might have come from. We have some theories.”
Hazel nodded slowly. “And your grandfather would be okay with that?”
“He’s not the kind of person to believe in superstition, plus he loves discovering unique magic. Surely, that would include magical creatures?” I wasn’t one hundred percent certain, which was why we hadn’t contacted him immediately after finding out that the manducares were going to be hunted. Not that we could have managed to get her to the mainland without discovery.
I jumped to my feet, unceremoniously dumping Moonbeam onto the bed. “I can’t sit here and do nothing. I’ll be back to sleep here, darling,” I petted Moonbeam’s head, “but I need to see if I can help Aiden.”
“I’ll stay here until dinner,” Hazel said, settling into the chair until she was practically horizontal. “See you later.”
“Enjoy your family history.”
Hazel had already mentally disappeared into the book by the time I reached the door. I shook my head with a smile and closed the door behind me.
Classes were out now, and the hallway was filled with boys from my year. I didn’t know, or care to know, most of them, so I kept my head down as I headed for the stairs to the second floor.
I didn’t bother with a greeting when I entered the professor’s office. I hadn’t brought food, and the men were focused on their papers. There were more numbers on the hologram of the ley lines in the center of the room, so I walked around it, studying it.
The white-blue lines were mesmerizing, flickering slightly as they wrapped around the world. There were three layers; one in the air, one on land, and the last below the surface. We had visited Atlantis below the surface of water, but it, like both Easter Island and here, had been on the land layer.
I traced the lines with a golden thread of magic before peeling it off and flattening it against the wall. What I saw made my eyes open wide. “Ummm, Professor?” I said hesitantly, not looking away from my magic.
“Just a mo—” He cut himself off abruptly. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t know! I just wanted to see the ley lines in two dimensions!”
“Show me.” The professor snapped his fingers and my magical pattern transferred to a piece of paper.
I repeated the magic I had done, waited until Professor Akhtar approved it, and moved back over to the cleared wall. I pressed the three-dimensional world against it, starting with Antarctica, and kept going until the entire thread was against the wall.
Aiden joined us. “It’s the golden ratio,” he said.
“A spiral, like a seashell, or the galaxy,” I said in awe.
Professor Akhtar was tracing the line with a finger. “This explains why we’re seeing those anomalies, Aiden. Why Atlantis is worse off than Easter Island, and why we’re so drained up here on Northumberland Island. See, we’re way over here on one of the arms. Easter Island is in the center. We’re looking for a connection point closer to, but past, Atlantis…”
“There,” I said, pointing at a golden dot.
“Where is that?” Aiden asked. “We haven’t calculated it yet.”
“Siobhan, will you do the honors?” Professor Akhtar said with a twinkle in his eye.
I marked the spot and then peeled the magic off the wall and draped it back over the hologram.
“Australia?” Aiden asked, surprised. “What’s in the middle of Australia?”
“The desert,” I replied. “Lots of magical creatures, if I remember correctly. Generally, the ones that don’t like being around people.”
“You’ll find the largest population of phoenixes in Central Australia,” our professor put in. “I think we need to make another field trip. We need to prepare. We’ll go next Saturday. I want a complete work-up on what we’ll find there, animal, vegetable, and mineral, both magical and mundane. I’ll complete the magical density report and present it to Headmistress Blackthorn to get approval. Any questions?”
“No, sir,” Aiden said.
“Great. Go get dinner. I’ve got work to do,” he said in dismissal.