Infinite Regress (45 page)

We have problems now
, Emily thought.

She mulled over his words as the professors turned to the nearest crystalline column, running through the spells they planned to use. Lombardi had a point, she had to admit; it
would
be pretty dangerous if Whitehall’s defenses rested solely on one man. The Grandmaster’s deputy would probably have
some
degree of access to the wards, even if he couldn’t override the Grandmaster’s will. And yet, there was no logical reason why
she
would have that kind of access. She had been a student, one of many; a first-year student. There was no way she should have been on the list of authorized users.

Unless everyone is on the list
, she thought.
And those above me were unable or unwilling to get to the nexus chamber.

“The spellware is prepared,” Professor Lombardi said. “Emily, Caleb, stand near the door. If something goes wrong, I want you both to turn and run.”

“Yes, sir,” Caleb said.

They exchanged glances as they walked to the door, while the charms professors surrounded the crystalline column and Professor Locke watched from the wall. There was no way they could escape a surge of wild magic, not if the spells governing the nexus point failed; they’d be overwhelmed long before they realized that something had gone badly wrong. The wild magic would move faster than thought, faster—perhaps—than light itself.

All those horrific stories
, she thought, as she clutched Caleb’s hand.
There might be some truth in them after all
.

“Stay behind me,” Caleb muttered. He squeezed her hand, gently. “And don’t hesitate to leave me behind.”

Emily shrugged. It was nice of Caleb to want to put his body between her and harm, but she knew better than to think it was anything more than a gesture. A surge of wild magic would strike her microseconds after it struck Caleb, killing or warping them both. He might as well have tried to block a firestorm. But she loved him for being protective.

“Concentrate on the spellware,” Professor Lombardi said. He glanced at Emily. “Can you follow what we’re doing from over there?”

“Barely,” Emily said. The spells glimmered in front of her, but she stood too far away to make out the details. “We could come a little closer.”

She scowled, inwardly. She had her doubts about all
three
tutors attempting to cast the spell in unison, although they
were
far more experienced than she was. The rituals had become a little easier, as Gordian had promised, during the second and third times her class had tried to use them. No doubt the tutors were
used
to casting ritual spells. They would know each other’s strengths and weaknesses very well.

“Stay where you are,” Lombardi ordered. “I want you ready to run.”

Emily felt her scowl deepen as the professor turned back to his work. He couldn’t be as confident as he sounded, then. She wanted to argue, to insist that they did more work, but she knew they wouldn’t listen. They simply didn’t have
time
to analyze every last thread of spellwork running through the network. They’d be running out of food within the next couple of weeks.

“Focus,” Lombardi ordered. “We commence... now.”

Emily leaned forward, fascinated despite herself, as the ritual began. The three professors linked hands, their magic thrumming on the air as they cast the spell, each one putting forward and maintaining a small part of the combined whole. It was fantastically complex, far more difficult than anything she’d seen before, let alone managed to do in class. And yet they made it look
easy
. She felt a flicker of envy, mixed with an odd flurry of regret. It was unlikely she would ever be able to trust someone so deeply, so completely, to allow her to cast such a spell with them. A single mistake would be enough to do real and lasting harm.

“They’re good,” Caleb muttered. “Very good.”

His grip tightened as he watched them. Emily couldn’t tear her eyes away as the spell glimmered in the air, then slowly wafted towards the column. Professor Lombardi was treating it like crafting a ward, altering the spell within the hearthstone. Perhaps he was right... and yet, she couldn’t quite get the sense that he’d made a terrible mistake out of her mind.

“Now,” Professor Lombardi said.

The spell wafted forward and touched the crystalline column. Emily braced herself as it passed
though
the crystal, but nothing happened. She relaxed, just for a second... and then the building shook, violently. The crystalline light turned an ominous red for a long moment, then dimmed before slowly returning to normal. She heard something behind her and turned, just in time to see the corridor lights flicker and die. The absolute darkness chilled her to the bone.

“Get it back,” Professor Lombardi said. “Get...”

Another quiver ran through the chamber, followed by a wave of magic that threw the professors away from the column. Emily barely had a second to realize what had happened before it slammed into Caleb, picking him up and throwing him into Emily, knocking them both to the ground. She almost panicked as he landed on top of her, pushing hard to get him off her before anything could happen. The ground shuddered, one final time—she heard something crashing in the distance—and then lay still. Emily had to force herself to stand up.

“Caleb,” she said. Her legs felt unstable. “Caleb?”

She bent over his unmoving form. He’d been stunned, she realized; rendered comatose by the spell. It had to be a defense system, she decided, as she cast a basic counterspell. The spellware had interpreted Professor Lombardi’s hacking as an attack and responded with force, enough force to stun all of the professors. Caleb moaned, but otherwise showed no response to the spell. She had to try four more times before he finally jerked awake, eyes wide with horror and shock.

“You shielded me,” Emily said, as he sat upright. “If you hadn’t been there...”

She kissed him, feeling a flood of relief and gratitude that surprised her in its intensity. If Caleb hadn’t been there, she would have been stunned too... and who knew what would have happened then? How long would it have been before Gordian sent someone down into the tunnels to look for them? She kissed him again, then helped him to his feet and turned to check the tutors. They were all stunned, despite their protections. The sheer level of raw power behind the spell was staggering.

“The counterspell seems to need repeated tries to work,” Caleb said, bending over Professor Locke and casting the spell again. “It’s as if they were hit several times with the same spell.”

“Odd,” Emily said. “Turning someone into a frog time and time again doesn’t make it any harder to use the counterspell.”

She frowned at the thought. Turning someone into a frog—and then turning them into a frog
again
, without bothering to change them back—was pointless. Layering stunning spells over a helpless victim should be equally pointless. Maybe it was just a side-effect of an overpowered spell... or perhaps she was missing something. Professor Lombardi might be able to understand it, after he recovered from the spell. She woke him, then dug out the water from her knapsack. They all needed a drink.

“The spell went wrong,” Lombardi said, as he took a long swig. “And I don’t know why.”

“Then we’d better find out,” Professor Ronald said, curtly.

“You meddled in the secrets of the ancients,” Professor Locke said. “
That’s
why it reacted so badly to your touch.”

“Your spell wasn’t tuned to fit into the pocket dimension,” Emily guessed.

“Maybe,” Professor Lombardi said. He rose. “We’d better get back to the surface and report to the Grandmaster.”

N
OT ENTIRELY TO
E
MILY’S SURPRISE, GETTING
back to the surface was an immensely difficult task. The corridors had not only been plunged into darkness, they’d been rearranged; all the maps they’d drawn, in the months since they’d started exploring the tunnels, were completely useless. And, just to make matters worse, the wards seemed to be randomly attacking their light globes, snuffing some of them out with casual ease while leaving the others strictly alone. By the time they reached the gates and made their way up to the castle, none of them were in any fit state for a conversation.

“Everything’s changed up here,” Sergeant Miles said. He was waiting at the gates, his face illuminated by a non-magical lantern. “The entire school has gone dark.”

Emily shivered. It was bitterly cold, far too cold to be natural. The combination of five light globes and the lantern drove the shadows back, but they refused to stay beaten for long. They swarmed around the pools of light like living things, watching and waiting for the chance to swallow up the handful of surviving humans. She eyed them nervously, keeping one hand ready to cast a spell while holding Caleb’s hand with the other, knowing the darkness itself wasn’t the problem. The real concern was what lurked
in
the darkness.

“There are spells to let us see in the dark,” she said, trying not to think about the possibilities of freezing to death. The cold might get them long before they ran out of food. “Can’t we use them?”

“They seem to be unreliable,” Sergeant Miles said. “I’ve tried to cast one twice and neither spell worked.”

“The wards have gone rogue,” Professor Lombardi said. He sounded deeply concerned. “If they’re attacking spellwork at random, they might start working away at the spells holding everything in place.”

“I saw something similar at Mountaintop,” Emily added. “They keyed their wards to make it impossible to see in the dark.”

“And our wards seemed to have developed the same trait,” Sergeant Miles said. He turned, motioning for them to follow him. “I don’t like this.”

Anything could be out there
, she thought, as Sergeant Miles led them back to the Great Hall, gathering up a handful of students on the way.
Who knows what’s sharing the darkness with us?

She shuddered at the thought, gritting her teeth as they stepped into the hall. A number of students were already there, constantly casting and recasting light spells, but others were missing. There was no sign of Cabiria, the Gorgon, Cirroc, Lillian, Jasmine, or Melissa. Frieda sat against the stone wall, her eyes wide with fear. Emily winced in sympathy, then headed over to the younger girl. The flickering darkness had to be bringing back memories of Mountaintop for her.

“I was in the charms classroom,” Frieda muttered, as Emily sat down next to her. “The doors just vanished, then reappeared in a different place.”

Emily nodded. If everything had changed, again, it was not going to be easy for the remaining students to find their way to the Great Hall.
Nothing
would be where it had been, barely an hour ago. They’d traced safe routes from bedrooms to classrooms and back again, but those could no longer be trusted. Some of the remaining first-year students had to be scared out of their minds.

She glanced around the room as several new students entered, but she didn’t see Lillian or Jasmine. Adana and Julia were playing cards with several other students in their year, while Dulcet and Tiega seemed to be reading. But it was clear, by the way they were hunched over their textbooks, that they were scared. Emily sighed, intending to stand and take the two girls into her care. But Gordian strode into the room and cleared his throat for attention before she could rise.

“The school has changed again,” he said, curtly. “A number of students and staff remain missing. However, it is
possible
that the doors can now be located. Therefore, you will be paired up into search parties and distributed through the school. Should you encounter any of your fellow students, you will direct them back towards the Great Hall; should you discover the doors, one of you is to make an immediate escape while the other is to return to the Great Hall to alert the staff. Sergeant Miles will brief you on search procedures and distribute the remaining supplies.”

Emily glanced at Caleb, then nodded at Frieda, indicating she would prefer to be paired with the younger girl. Caleb nodded back in understanding. As an older student, he would probably be paired with someone younger too, although the First Years were being left in the Great Hall to wait for their fellows. Sergeant Miles passed her a bottle of water and a couple of sheets of paper, reminding her to make notations about how the corridors had changed and where the classrooms were now located. Emily privately suspected it was a waste of time, but she didn’t bother to argue. If nothing else, it would keep the students occupied.

“I’ll be talking to you later,” Gordian said, as she led Frieda towards the exit. “Once you return, leave your friend here and report to me.”

“Yes, sir,” Emily said.

Whitehall looked different as they left the Great Hall and edged slowly down the corridor, disturbing flickers of movement constantly visible from the corner of her eyes. The shadows were definitely moving, changing position whenever she wasn’t looking; the suits of armor lining the hallway took on nasty appearances, even though she would have been hard-pressed to say what had actually changed. She found herself glancing from side to side constantly, convinced she was being watched by unseen eyes. Frieda, walking beside her, didn’t seem to feel any better.

“All the angles are slightly wrong,” Frieda said, quietly. “
Look
at them.”

Emily nodded. Frieda was right. The corridor looked as if it had been taken apart, then put back together by a slightly-different set of plans. And yet, whenever she looked directly at one of the altered angles, it seemed normal. It was just everything else that was wrong.

The school is partly built out of raw magic
, she thought. It would be a staggering feat—conjuring even a tiny item out of raw magic, and nothing else, was incredibly difficult—but Lord Whitehall
had
had access to a nexus point.
And now the spellware holding it together is beginning to fade
.