Magic University Book One: The Siren and the Sword (17 page)

After that, Kyle began researching how to detect a siren. After all, if he could prove Monica
wasn’t
one, that would make it easier on everyone. And he couldn’t really go after the dean, could he? He felt like he had to
do
something. He was registered to take a magical biology class the following semester and had no trouble getting access to those books as “preparation.” He should have been studying for his upcoming exams, which were only two weeks away, but every trip to the library produced as much research about sirens as it did on poets and soothsaying and alchemy.

He devoured information, much of which he couldn’t really quite digest without learning more, but he eventually did work out a few things. Like that sirens and sphinxes were related, and that there was a kind of charm or amulet that could be made that would make a sphinx tell the truth. If what Kyle read was true, it would work on any “mantic creature,” sirens included.

But making it would be no small feat. It required alchemical preparation beyond what he’d done in his class, a ritual aspect he knew nothing about, and had to be completed at the correct phase of the moon. Final exams had to come first. He was going to be staying on campus during the January break; he’d have to come up with a way to make the amulet then.

* * * *

Kyle took to studying by Alex’s bedside at Faiella House. He knew Alex’s suitemates were making visits but he didn’t get the impression any of them stayed long. Everyone was getting stressed over exams. Kyle kept thinking Alex would have been the one to keep everyone loose, make sure everyone had at least a little fun and didn’t crack under the pressure, but unfortunately that wouldn’t be happening this time around.

“Okay,” he said to the unconscious form next to him, the night before his Alchemy exam, “you’re really not pulling your weight here, dude. I could use some help with this business about Five Element Theory. How is wood an element? I still don’t get that.”

Nothing but silence from Alex’s quarter, of course.

Kyle closed his notebook. “You’re supposed to be helping me with this, you know. Because I could ask Jess, but I’m tired of feeling inferior to her all the time. How am I supposed to get her to see me as ‘the one’ if she thinks of me as a remedial case? Dammit, Alex, you’re supposed to be here.” He nudged Alex on the shoulder, speaking softly, but no less frustrated-sounding for his lack of volume. “I don’t want to be the only one going into Principles of Applied Enchantment
who can’t conjure anything. That’s your area, right? Enchantment? Come on, Alex, wake up and teach me to conjure. I know it’s cheesy, but...come on. Frost does it like it’s no more effort than scratching his nose.”

Still no answer, but it was like now that Kyle had started talking, he couldn’t stop. “What is up with that, anyway? Is that why he looks so washed out all the time, squandering his magic on shit like that? Or was he always such a wan little waif? I swear, that’s the only reason he’s as high in the pecking order as he is. Showing off his magic whenever he gets a chance.

“Not that I actually give a flying fig about where I am in the Gladius pecking order. But it’d be nice to be able to at least feel like I belong on the same level with Jess and you. Did I tell you I got the go-ahead for this masque thing? Here’s the funny part. I had to go and recruit people to be on the committee, right? So I went around and Caitlyn Speyer decided she wanted to make sure it happened, and she ended up recruiting a bunch of other girls, none of whom trusts me not to fuck things up, so...basically I don’t have to do anything now. Technically I’m in charge but we’ve had one committee meeting, I said two words, Caitlyn said the rest, and it’s clear they aren’t going to let me do anything except be a figurehead.

“Which is kind of good since it frees me up to work on my plan to start courting Jess. If there’s one thing the Gladius House library is good for, it’s books on manners and customs. I know I can’t just...get down on one knee and ask her to marry me. I know I’ll just get laughed out of the hall if I try that. But I could give her one of the traditional courting tokens, you know? Show her I’m serious. And serious that I want her to give me a real chance. Oh, what am I saying? It’s either going to work or not. She’s either going to suddenly realize I’m her dream come true after all, or it’s all going to crash and burn worse than the Hindenburg.”

He looked up at the darkness outside the window. He needed to go soon. “All right, then, who should I get to show me how to conjure? I sure as hell am not asking Frost. Oh, wait, didn’t Marigold say she was good at it? Maybe I’ll ask her. Yeah, that’s a good idea.” He stood up and put his notebook into his bag. “See you tomorrow.”

The Scipionis dining hall was quieter than usual when he got there. Between students skipping the meal to study and those there who had books or notes in their hands, and the general atmosphere hanging over the place, Kyle felt almost like he hadn’t left Alex’s side.

Kate and Marigold came in just as he was toying with his dessert, trying to decide if he really wanted to eat it. He waved to them and they waved back so he was hopeful they’d come sit with him once they were done getting their food.

He wondered about the fact that they were always together. He hadn’t really seen anything at all to indicate they were anything but friends and roommates, had he? He tried to remember, but maybe he just hadn’t been paying attention. No, he was pretty sure they were just friends.

They did come to sit with him. “It’s so quiet in here,” he said, as they took seats across the table from each other.

“Is it not like this over at Gladius House?” Kate asked, as she dipped her bread into her soup.

“Well, everyone feels the pressure to do well, but we don’t turn the dining room into a library,” Kyle said. Gladius’s dining hall tended to be pretty sedate, with everyone adhering to manners, but that included not reading at the table and keeping up polite conversation.

Marigold chuckled. “It won’t last. As people’s exams end, it’ll get lively again. Well, except that it will start to empty out as people leave for break. Are you going home for break?”

“No, I got permission to stay here and work on some stuff. I’m still really behind on a lot of things I think I’ll need to have down before then.” All of which was true, though in Kyle’s mind he pictured the amulet he wanted to make.

“Oooh, what are you taking? Do we have any classes together?” Kate asked.

“Well, I got recommended to Master Lester’s Poetry and Prophecy class...”

“Awesome! I think I’m actually getting to TA that one!”

“Really? Cool. Then I’ve got a magical biology seminar. I’m in Principles of Applied Enchantment, and I’m going to take a higher-level poetry writing course.”

Marigold took a bite of her salad, then tried to answer, discovered she had too much in her mouth for that, and covered it with a snort. When she could speak again she went on. “I almost signed up for poetry, but Kate convinced me to take Bell’s ritual arts seminar with her.”

“He’s scary!” Kate protested. “I wasn’t going to do it alone.”

“You wouldn’t have been alone, silly. There’s twenty people in the class.”

“You know what I mean.”

Kyle listened to them bicker back and forth good-naturedly for a while. When it got quiet again, though, he put his hands on the table. “So which one of you wants to teach me to conjure?”

They looked back and forth between them. “You can’t conjure?” Kate blurted out.

Kyle tried not to look wounded. “I’ve never tried.”

“Really?” They looked at each other again. Kate said, “Wow. The second I heard it was possible I went back to my room and started trying it.”

Marigold leaned forward with interest. “I haven’t heard this story. What’s the first thing you conjured?”

“Money, what else?” Kate grinned. “I was about thirteen at the time. I conjured a five-dollar bill. And I immediately went out and spent it on comic books. Well, after a nap, that is. I never found out if the money disappeared later or what. It wasn’t until later I learned that conjured things can fade away again. I hope I didn’t get some cashier in big trouble.”

“Wow, you just got a five-dollar bill like that? I had to start with pennies and work my way up. And I had to start with one in my hand and make more of it. That is so much easier.” She gave Kyle a sly look, then took a five-grain roll off Kate’s tray, held it in her hand, said “Presto!” and there were two.

“Hey, make sure you give me back the real one!”

“Silly. I’m sure I did it right. If you eat it before it disappears you should be fine.” She handed one back, then turned to Kyle. “That one works best with bread and with fish, for some reason.”

“Because fish are less evolutionarily evolved than mammals,” Kate said.

“Evolutionarily evolved?” Marigold said with a snigger.

“You know what I mean.”

Kyle got up and came back with a slice of bread. He held it in his hand. “Okay, so what do I do?”

Marigold frowned slightly, a crease between her eyebrows. “Do you have an exam tomorrow? Because the first time can sometimes really wipe you out...”

“Oh. Um, yeah. Poetry Analysis,” Kyle said. “It’s an essay one, too, so I kind of have to be awake for it.”

“Then you really ought to wait.”

“Okay, I’ll wait. But what do I do?”

The two of them shared another look. This time Kate spoke. “You just kind of...make it happen.”

“Yeah,” Marigold agreed.

“I don’t have to say anything, or wave it around or what have you?”

Kate took a bite of her roll. “Well, you could. You could increase the power of the spell with a preparatory ritual, and maybe enhance the effect with alchemical boosting, and you might find a word of power that helps you tap your own energy. There are lots and lots of ways to gather your power. But the basic action is still the same. You still have to just...do it.”

Marigold sighed and got up from the table. When she came back, she had packed a bunch of things in a to-go box the staff had put out for the students who were taking their meals with them to their labs or to study more. “Here. Take this. Because I
know
the second you get back to your room, you’re going to try it. Just make sure you’ve set your alarm first, so you’re not late for your exam.”

“Oh, it’s not until two in the afternoon,” Kyle said.

Marigold gave him a look. “Like I said. Make sure you’ve set your alarm first.”

* * * *

Kyle went back to his room with the box of food and a head full of thoughts. After staring at the penny in the palm of his hand for a long time, then switching it to the other side and trying again until his eyes began to hurt because he wasn’t blinking, he gave up and wrote a poem.

Alchemists saw in ancient times

Lead and gold are nearly twins

But the secret they could not divine

Was in the heart, not in the mind

There is a lock deep inside

And a key too small to be seen

But lead to gold I will provide

And like to love, your heart will glean.

He crossed out “provide” and “glean” ten times over and wrote them in again each time as he failed to find better substitutions.

Teen love poetry is always awful,
he reminded himself.
Just get it out of your system and forget it.

But he didn’t forget it. The next day, during the poetry analysis exam he kept coming back to it in his head. This idea of the alchemy of emotions, and there being a fine line between like and love, and loving as friends and loving as something more. And the fact that he couldn’t seem to achieve either transformation just with the power of his will.

He was pretty sure his essays came out okay even though his mind was only half on them, and he was still in a bit of a fog, thinking about the poem and the ideas he was trying to untangle with it, when he nearly ran into Jess on the steps of Robinson Hall.

“Jess, what are you doing here?”

“I figured I’d meet you and we could go grab dinner together,” she said.

“Sure.” They began walking toward Scipionis House.

“Actually,” she began, after they had gone a few steps, “I was thinking maybe we ought to treat ourselves to dinner out somewhere.”

“Oh?” He knew that meant a date. With Jess, “dinner out” always meant “dessert,” too. “Is Monica gone already?”

“She’s actually staying through the break, but she’s out tonight,” Jess said, but her voice was more somber and
serious than he would have expected for such an announcement, but he understood when she went on. “Kyle...I...I’ve decided to leave tomorrow instead of waiting until Sunday.”

“Oh.” He was staying through the holiday, but she was going home. “Tomorrow is...tomorrow. Soon, I mean.”

“I know. I’m sorry. My aunt Maria’s only coming for a few days, and my mother needs help getting ready for everyone, and...I changed my ticket already.” She bit her lip. “Are you mad?”

Kyle stopped in his tracks. He put his hands on her shoulders gently. “I’m not angry.”