The Protection of Ren Crown (61 page)

Constantine was... Well, Constantine was a lot of things, but putting himself on the line as a scout was out of character.

He winked at me over his shoulder, then threw powder into the water. The Blarjack recoiled and dove away. Constantine stepped on the speckled black water, and his coat flared out as he was sucked inside the natural port. The black water sealed over the top of him.

“Ren,” Olivia snapped. “Pay attention.”

Rocked and conflicted, I tore my gaze away from the empty space where Constantine had stood. “Sorry.”

“Dagfinn?”

“They have six of the eight communications already open, live, and frozen—two Department heads, the three Council members of the Alliance, one ambassador. Waiting on one more Department head, and the eighth comm is a frequency to Roald Bailey's office.”

Bellacia's dad—the head of the major news networks.

“Based on the connection time of the others, we have three minutes max until the last two are up,” Dagfinn said.

“Five hundred and eleven foreign signatures detected on all non-Midlands levels,” Saf said, magic curling like swarming fireflies in the afternoon air as he populated the mountain hologram with each relevant dot.

“Fine, we have three minutes, five hundred plus professional combatants, and eighteen of us,” Olivia said.

Someone in the back whispered that we were all going to die.

“Which means we must be
smart
,” Olivia said briskly. “Best case scenario is that Vincent Godfrey performs another long-winded, tedious speech and we free everyone while he is windbagging.”

“We should get the teachers out first,” someone said. “And the staff, so they can reactivate the Administrative Magic.”

“No,” Olivia said harshly. “
Think.
What will Godfrey do if the Administration Building is freed, defenses go back up, and the teachers come streaking down the mountain? Or, if whatever forces are fighting at the bottom of the mountain make it through? What does an animal do when you corner him next to the self-destruct button?”

“They'll kill everyone at the battle fields,” I said numbly. I thought of Raphael. “Probably blow the dome completely hoping to take down the mountain. The perfect statement.”

More than one person winced. It was hard to concentrate on the flurry of the others' responses over the beat of my throbbing pulse.

Olivia nodded sharply. “The dome around the stands at the battle fields must be dealt with first, then the Administration Building, then the Magiaduct. We have only one thing on our side—the element of surprise.”

“They are Origin Domes, Price,” someone said. “What do you want us to
do
to them?”

“They are made of magic,” Olivia said briskly, undaunted. “And we are all criminally exceptional magic users. Figure it out.”

Saf looked up from what he was doing and the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkled in pleasure.

“Beta Team, you are on the Administration Building,” Olivia said. “Figure out the dome's magic without triggering it. Use whatever is needed to free the professors and staff
after
we get the students at the battle fields released. Once the field dome goes down...it's going to be a bloodbath. I have no idea how they got the Administration Building and the Administration Magic locked down so completely, but freeing the adults as soon as possible after that is our absolute best bet for campus to survive.”

For
most
of our classmates to survive.

No one said that, but Beta Team nodded grimly.

Minus Bryant, Beta was in full force as a result of the call I had made preceding my visit to Marsgrove. And Alpha was in full force due to the personal alarm sent through my scarf when I had been with Marsgrove.

Both teams had been mobilizing on the grounds when the domes had been raised. Unfortunately, most of the Delta, Gamma, and Epsilon members were trapped under the domes with the rest of the student body. The six with us were the only ones free.

“Remaining members of Delta, Gamma, and Epsilon, go to the dorms. Same procedure there. Figure out the magic to free our classmates after the battle field dome is taken care of. Round up stragglers to help.” She pointed at the twenty or so mages who had gathered around us while we'd been speaking—students who had been walking the grounds or in other buildings when the domes had gone up, and who were now desperately looking for information. “Take them with you and get them to gather others. Form chant circles. If you see soldiers, hide and spring the traps we spread.”

Olivia pointed at her scarf. “We have people on the inside who can hear this and they are already working on their ends. The Justice Squad got the warning before their communications were suppressed, and most of them are not stupid, so they should be working on a plan from the inside. Look for areas in the domes that can be weakened by striking from both sides. Our people will figure out their part.”

Everyone nodded.

“Alpha Team deals with him.” She pointed at the hologram of Godfrey. “Ren?”

I nodded, flexing my fingers. They were only trembling a little now. “Ready.”

“The third Department head is online,” Dagfinn announced. “Just waiting for Bailey now. His secretary is in tears trying to explain how even though Bailey always answers his frequency immediately, that right now he is in a non-magic zone, but will be out in two minutes.”

“Roald Bailey is never without a frequency connection.” Olivia smiled unpleasantly. “He should have been the
first
to answer. He's stalling, which means Bellacia got a communication through before the domes went up. She was monitoring us, or more likely, Ren. Something good came of her incessant snooping for once.”

“Price, eight units are splitting off from the main force and are heading up campus in a compass sweep,” Dagfinn said. “They noticed our magic use. They are planning to put down all pockets of resistance that they find. They are using a copy of an Administrative spell to locate students in groups.”

Everyone exchanged grim looks.

“Use the scarves,” Olivia said. “Keep slightly scattered. We have two minutes to get in place. Everyone knows what to do.” Everyone nodded, packed up their things, and those kneeling on the ground stood. “Update any students or faculty you find. Hide and be smart. Three students won't attract attention. Seven might. Go!”

Everyone except for Alpha Team, Saf, and Trick, sprinted away.

Olivia turned to me. “Ready?”

“Yes.” I held out my hand and Olivia grasped it. She pulled out a cord and started to wrap it awkwardly around our hands.

It seemed almost ludicrous that we were doing this, but Contract Magic didn't care about emergencies and contingencies. The magic would make sure that we held up our end of the bargain now that Plan Fifty-two had been implemented. And it was better that we took a moment to control this now rather than let magic enact punishment at an inopportune time—like ten minutes from now when we were fighting for our lives.

Trick stepped forward and held out a hand for the cord.

Olivia looked at him sharply. “The magic will count you in our culpability.”

“You'll never hear an O'Leary spin a finer tale then the one I will spin after this. You need a witness and we need to hurry.”

“You don't have to—”

“I'm
pleased
to do it, Your Majesty,” Trick said. He made a grabby hand motion for it, but waited for permission to touch the rope.

“I—”

Saf touched Olivia's shoulder. “He'll get it done.”

Olivia's lips pinched, but she nodded and handed Patrick the cord that we had “borrowed” from the Law Department during a routine community service “cleaning” of the office building two days before. Patrick wrapped it quickly around our hands, then began reciting the words that would activate the binding in the scarves. All of the punishments and havoc that would be wreaked today by anyone wearing a scarf would be assigned to Olivia and me. It was part of the promise we had made in the contract signed by everyone participating in Plan Fifty-two.

“Olivia,” Asafa said, “What was the code for the implementation spell again?”

When Olivia looked at Asafa, Patrick's gaze slid to me. I nodded. His thumb slid along the cord, gripping it far more in my direction instead of at the midway point between Olivia and me that she had planned. It was an 80/20 accountability imbalance now to me.

I would be getting expelled today.

Patrick quickly finished the binding while Olivia's attention was on Asafa, then slid the cord smoothly free of our hands. “All done.”

If Justice Toad could, he would have given a loud series of four croaks, registering the illegal use of the cord. Level Four Offense. I had looked it up when we'd decided on this plan. Using the cord had automatically earned me a trip to Provost Johnson's office and the review board.

I looked at the Administration Building. I wished the trip was possible right now.

Olivia looked at her hand strangely. If she had even a fraction of a minute to think about it, she would know what I had done. She didn't have that minute. “Okay, good. Thank you, Patrick. Now, go destroy.”

Be safe.

“We will be very, very bad, Your Majesty,” Patrick said with a wink. “Promise.”

He gave a little bow, Asafa nodded to both of us, and the two of them strode quickly to join their Beta teammates who had already started casting diagnostics on the Administration Building from the shadows of a nearby structure.

Neph rejoined us. “The flags are all set. The community was split between Dorm Thirty-six and the battle field stands for crowd control purposes when the bubbles were erected. When they are freed, they will be called here en masse.”

I wondered what the muses would then do.

Olivia gave her a swift nod, then looked at me. “Ready?”

“Ready.” My heart clenched as I looked around the group.

Olivia turned to Delia. “I know you can get us to Eighteen in less than a minute without using any arches.”

Delia and Olivia exchanged a long, charged look.

“You are going to trust me to be on your side, Price?”

“You are on this team. I put you on this team,” Olivia said curtly. “What do you think?”

Delia stared at her for a moment longer, then gave a curt nod. She turned, waved her hands in opposing figure eights, and flicked her fingers toward the Blarjack. It made a bleating noise and fell sideways. I patted Justice Toad through my bag. When the Administrative Magic caught back up, that would be another croak.

Traveling through the Blarjack swamp for the second time was only a tenth as traumatizing as the first time had been. The tree roots shot us out onto the Sixth Circle and we jogged into the flipping petals of the perisim trees. They enveloped us and spun us onto the Fifteenth Circle.

A pinch on my skin made me pull up my sleeve. Constantine’s familiar black script appeared along my forearm.
Perimeter ward will be eaten through in twenty-five minutes
.

“Constantine will have the perimeter ward down in twenty-five,” I said. I decided against mentioning how. People sometimes got a little weirded out by what his chemical concoctions could do.

I touched the skin beneath his writing and thought back at him—
We need you at the Administration Building. With the leash
.

Everything was happening far too quickly. If only I could have thought things through before he'd taken the scarf and left. Constantine could take down the Administration dome using me while I was on the Seventeenth Circle.

The words—
Deliciously
tempting, maybe later. Busy now—
came back.

Constantine!

There was a caress against my skin, then his words disappeared. His threads still pulsed with healthy life, though, so he hadn't died.

“If we can stall things until the perimeter ward goes down, maybe...?” Mike said, echoing many thoughts—maybe we could all be saved.

My scarf shivered against my skin.

“Price, everyone,” the voice of Kita, one of the members of Beta Team, sounded in my head via the scarf's enchantment. “Dagfinn says Roald Bailey just answered the call, so all initial parties have been contacted. But they've initiated a general call as well—and it looks like it's a hijack feed for the entire Second Layer.”

Godfrey was planning a show. That wasn't good news.

“Concerning our assignment,” Kita continued. “Students started skulking around the Administration Building. And not in the 'we are attempting to free anyone' type of way. More in the 'secure the building' sort.”

A visual of the referenced students seeped through the scarves and showed wispy images of each person in my mind's eye.

“Three of those are students I've seen Emrys speak to,” I said. I took a deep breath and pulled the visual memory of all the students I had seen him with and sent the images back through the scarves. “These are all the students I've seen him with. Watch for any of them. You can't let them alert anyone down here.”

“We'll take care of it,” said Asafa grimly.

I wiped a shaky hand along my forehead. There were so many things that could go wrong. So many intangibles over which we had no control.

Delia couldn't quite hide her apprehension and fear as she led us to a large stump. She paused, then vaulted up and disappeared inside. The rest of us followed.

When we emerged in a small silver, gold, and rose-colored grove east of the battle field on the Seventeenth Circle, I turned to her and whispered, “You made that trickster map you gave me my first day on campus, didn't you?”

“I come from a long line of nature, fiber, and timber mages.” She gave me a shaky wink, and squeezed my wrist, but then looked at the men—the terrorists—in the distance, pacing in front of the dome. Her expression was torn. She looked at me, then Olivia, who was watching us. “I do have sympathies and connection to the restoration movement,” Delia said to her. “But not for this. This is not the way. And this is my home too. I
will
defend it.”

She turned and touched the ground with Neph, coaxing the trees into hiding us.

“Alpha is in position,” Olivia whispered through her scarf. “Video feed activated.”