Chapter 4
NEXT-LEVEL MAGIC
Capricorn and Scorpio surged forward to meet the agents, clearing the way. Conner and I pulled Kato inside the Monolith.
“It won’t hold. We need to keep moving.” Scorpio had closed the door and spelled it to stay closed, but he was right.
That wouldn’t keep the agents out for long.
A rapid fire of spells pounded on the closed door like hundreds of hammers.
“And even if it does hold, more agents are already on their way here.”
“Scorpio’s right,” Capricorn said. “We’re outnumbered, and we’re about to find ourselves surrounded.”
Conner leaned Kato against the wall. He made sure Kato was supported, then he turned to tell off his best friend. “What were you thinking, throwing yourself in front of that arrow! How could you be so reckless?”
Kato met his eyes, his mouth cracking a pained smile. “Rich words…coming from you.”
“You are not me. I thought we’d been over this already, Kato. I am the reckless, rebellious Knight. You are the perfect, boring, rule-abiding, snooze-fest Knight. Stop trying to steal my thunder.”
Kato tried to laugh, but he started coughing instead. He pressed a handkerchief to his lips, and it came back stained with drops of blood. Conner and I exchanged worried looks.
“Ok, Kato, I’m just going to…” Conner’s hand closed around the shaft of the arrow protruding from Kato’s side. He yanked it out.
Kato roared in pain.
“…pull out this arrow.” Conner showed him the arrow. “All done now.”
“That hurt,” Kato growled, his voice rough.
“I pulled an arrow out of you. Of course it hurt,” Conner said casually. “If you don’t like the pain, I suggest that the next time you decide to play hero, you avoid getting shot.”
Kato smiled at him. It was his hard smile, but he didn’t quite pull it off.
“He’s obviously in a lot of pain,” I said to Conner. “Can you do something about that?”
Conner took a step toward Kato. Kato’s eyes narrowed.
“Relax,” Conner said. “I’m just going to take a closer look at your wound.”
Kato didn’t relax, but he didn’t try to stop him either.
“The arrow went right through his armor,” Conner reported. “Cut cleanly through it. I can’t see the wound. And I need to see it in order to treat it. The armor has to go.” He met Kato’s eyes, grinning. “I knew your love of armor was going to get you into trouble one of these days.”
“Hilarious,” Kato bit out.
Conner winked at him. Kato waved his hand in front of the damaged armor piece. It disengaged from the rest and fell to the floor. Conner examined the wound. His expression was not encouraging.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“There was a nasty spell on that arrow. Look.”
I was almost afraid to, but I had to know. A web of ominous black lines stretched out from the wound in Kato’s side—and it was spreading.
“Agents are approaching. We need to get moving.” Scorpio stopped when he saw Kato’s wound. “You were hit by a paralyzing spell. You should take care of that. You won’t be very useful if you can’t move.”
Capricorn squeezed in front of him. “Don’t mind Scorpio. He’s not very good with people. Go in there.” She pointed at a closed door further down the hall. “There’s a med kit on the wall in that room. You’ll find an antidote to the paralyzing spell inside.”
Magic sizzled on Scorpio’s hands, fine, elegant threads of lightning.
He turned his hands, winding the threads tighter.
They coalesced into a hovering, glowing ball.
It looked like a miniature galaxy was spinning between his hands.
Scorpio hurled it at the pair of agents running toward us.
The threads of the glowing ball spread open like a net, binding the agents to the wall.
Whoa. This was some powerful, next-level magic.
Scorpio glanced over his shoulder at Conner and Kato. He kept the rest of his body facing the long hallway. “We will continue clearing a path to the roof. Meet up with us when you can fight again.”
Kato nodded. “Acknowledged.”
Conner helped him toward the room Capricorn had pointed out. I moved to follow them.
Scorpio caught my hand, holding me in place. “Where do you think you’re going?”
I glanced past him at Kato and Conner. “I thought…”
“You thought wrong. You are here to help us, not play nurse to a pair of Knights.”
“But—”
“Conner and Kato can take care of themselves, Savannah,” Capricorn said. “They don’t need you. We do.”
Scorpio took a moment to hit me with his hard stare, then he let go of me and hurried off to scout ahead. Capricorn nudged me forward.
“I still don’t get why Portia thinks I will make any difference here. I can’t possibly change anything.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Savannah.”
Capricorn and I followed Scorpio down the hall.
“Here’s the thing I really don’t get. You’re spirits,” I said. “You have so much magic. Why would you need my help?”
“The agents fighting us are also spirits, and there are a lot more of them than there are of us. We need all the help we can get.”
“I don’t have many spells. And the ones I do have aren’t very powerful.”
“You underestimate yourself, Savannah. You have more power than you know. The Paragons of Magic have chosen you.”
“You think I’ve been chosen?” I couldn’t help but laugh. It sounded so unreal.
“I know you were,” Capricorn replied. “The Paragons of Magic have chosen you, Savannah. How else do you think you can read their spellbook? I wish I could read it.”
“You can’t?”
“No.”
“But you’re a spirit!”
“Only the Paragons of Magic and their chosen ones can read that spellbook. You can read it, so they must have chosen you. They must have seen something very special in you.”
Portia had told me that.
“Portia, the Princess of Portals, is very wise,” Scorpio declared.
“How did you…”
“He has a bad habit of accidentally reading people’s minds.” Capricorn frowned at her partner.
He shrugged, then moved forward, putting more distance between him and us. It made me feel a little better, even though I was pretty sure he could still read my mind. Somehow, not seeing his face while he read my mind was better. Somewhat.
“What about the other Paragons?” I asked Capricorn. “Who are they?”
“The Princess of Portals, the Emperor of Elves, the Duchess of Dragons, the Angel of Alchemy, the Countess of Chaos, and the Prince of Paladins. I’ve met the Princess of Portals and the Duchess of Dragons, but not the others.
They are very secretive. They have to be.
The other greater spirits do not approve of their methods. ”
“Interfering in corporeal matters.” I frowned. “But the other spirits do that too. They created the Zodiac Order to police magic in the Many Realms. What is that if not interfering?”
Capricorn gave me a wry smile. “Yes, ironic, isn’t it?”
“The other spirits interfere. They just do it through their agents. But that still counts as interfering. The spirits are basically fighting over a technicality.”
“That’s how things always work, isn’t it? For humans and spirits alike.”
“Yes, I guess that’s true.”
Scorpio was far ahead of us, and he moved fast. We finally caught up with him at the end of the hall. He was standing on a raised circle with a small hole at its center. From its shape and material, it resembled a coin—if coins were over two meters in diameter and had a donut hole in the middle.
As soon as we were all standing on the metal donut, Scorpio gave his hand a smooth flick.
Symbols appeared on the odd apparatus. A moment later, it detached from the floor.
A perfectly-symmetrical hole appeared in the ceiling above us.
We hovered in place for a few seconds, a buoy bobbing in the ocean, then we shot up through the opening.
The floors flashed by at breakneck speed, but inside the circle I didn’t feel a thing.
A magic elevator. Imagine that.
In no time at all, the magic elevator reached the end of the line. It came to a smooth stop. The floor below us went opaque. We hovered for a moment, then set down on solid ground. The engravings went dark.
“We’ve reached the top,” Capricorn said. “That door is all that stands between us and the roof.”
Fog rolled down the hallway, and that’s when things got really weird. The ceiling and the floor switched places. I dropped. The chasm below had reopened, and I was falling toward it.
Two hands caught me. I looked up into Capricorn’s face. She was hanging from the ceiling like her feet were glued to it. Her hands gripped mine. An icy wind battered our bodies, trying to push us into the chasm. It howled and it pulled and it pounded.
I caught a flash of movement. Scorpio drawing his sword. He thrust the blade through the ceiling, and the ceiling shook. The world spun. Top and bottom switched places again. We were standing on the floor once more.
Capricorn saw my relief, but she wasn’t smiling. “Don’t celebrate just yet, Savannah.”
The floor quaked. Agents burst out of the ground, dozens of them, blocking our way.