The Four Nations Tournament Read online

  The ninja appeared, her makeshift satchel hanging from her shoulder. She started to speak, but Conryu raised a finger to silence her. Outside magic wasn’t allowed on the Academy campus. He was betting that by having Kai bring the elf artifacts in via the borderland they wouldn’t set off the alarms.

  When two minutes passed and no teachers came running in to confiscate the items, he deemed his guess correct.

  “What were you going to say?” Conryu asked.

  “Only that I watched your display on the lakeshore this morning and found it most impressive.”

  “Thanks. In a real fight you rarely have time to build up power like that. Let’s get to work. I don’t suppose you have any research experience?”

  Kai bowed her head. “I’m sorry, Chosen. Our training was of a more martial nature.”

  “That’s okay. We’ll just have to muddle through the best we can. Let’s start with that ruby ring.”

  She dug it out and handed it to him. It was a pretty bauble for sure. Pure gold with a shining red gem in the center. Indecipherable runes crawled along the band.

  “You ever seen these markings before, pal?”

  Prime flew in closer. “It’s Elvish, but I’m not fluent in either reading or speaking the language. The only phrase I can make out is ‘prince of flame.’”

  “Well, that’s not ominous at all. Let’s see if we can find an Elvish-to-English dictionary. Kai, would you copy the runes in my notebook, please?”

  She nodded and sat at the table.

  Conryu and Prime made their way over to the catalogue. He went right to the E section and pulled out the drawer. The selection on elves was depressingly thin. Only six books with “elf” in the title and none of them covered translations.

  “I guess if they were easy to identify elf artifacts wouldn’t be so mysterious. You’re a book, which one do you think we should start with?”

  Prime grumbled in Infernal. “I’m a demon that happens to have the appearance of a book, not an actual book. That said, before my transformation it would be fair to say that I was as close to a scholar as demons got. I suppose we’d best start with the basics. I recommend Elves and Their Culture.”

  Conryu followed the card’s directions and found the book. It was two inches thick and covered with dust. Apparently elves weren’t an area of particular interest.

  He flipped to the first page and grimaced. Huge paragraphs and tiny print, great. If he had trouble falling asleep, this should solve his problem. He could either try to read it or have the pixie drop it on his head.

  “I don’t suppose you can just absorb this and tell me what it says?”

  “I’m sorry, Master. That ability is limited to the subject I was created to teach.”

  “So only books on dark magic?”

  Prime flexed his cover. “Even I can hold only so much information. A limiting principle was necessary.”

  Terrific. Hopefully the book would at least tell him something about the artifacts.

  Maria pushed the last of her lunch around her tray. She’d never seen Conryu so out of sorts. Did he really hate the idea of joining the team that much? If so, he should have just told her father outright that he wasn’t doing it. Right, and the sun should decide to rise in the west.

  She should have been mad at her father. He knew Conryu loved them like a second family and would do anything to help out. Being manipulated by someone you loved would put anyone out of sorts. Not to mention all the stress from helping the former witches find their families. No, she didn’t blame him for wanting a little time to himself.

  She should go talk to him, tell him she understood. The library was usually empty on Sunday, it would be a good place for them to talk.

  She looked up from her plate and found Crystal gone. Talk about distracted, Maria hadn’t even noticed her go. Oh, well.

  It didn’t take long to make the walk to the library. The silent rows of bookcases kind of gave her the creeps.

  “This is so boring.” Maria homed in on Conryu’s voice.

  “It’s a scholarly treatise, Master, not a novel. Perhaps it gets more interesting later.”

  “It certainly couldn’t get any less interesting.”

  She rounded a bookcase and found Conryu hunched over a book, his head held in both hands.

  “Hi.”

  He flinched and spun to face her. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “You seemed so upset when you left I thought we should talk.”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I was feeling a little down. It’s been a hectic year and a half and I’d hoped for a little relaxation.”

  “I know. If you really don’t want to participate, why don’t you just quit? Dad’ll understand.” She sat beside him and took his hands. “It’s not worth the headache if you’re going to be miserable.”

  He smiled. Not the cocky grin, but a genuine, almost sad smile.

  “I appreciate that, but I’ve committed now and I refuse to let my teammates down. The tournament probably won’t be anywhere near as bad as I expect. Who knows, I might have fun, except for dealing with the press of course.”

  “That’s the spirit.” She glanced at the book he was reading as well as the open notebook. A column of strange runes written in an unfamiliar hand covered most of the page. They looked vaguely familiar, like something she’d read in one of her mother’s books. “Is that Elvish?”

  “Yeah. There’s a mystery I need to solve. I should have asked you to help me in the first place, but I was afraid it might be dangerous.”

  Maria crinkled her brow as she frowned. What was he mucking about with now? “Well, I’m here. Why don’t you tell me all about it?”

  “Okay, if you’re sure. First, I need to introduce you to someone. Kai.”

  Who was Kai? Maria had never heard the name before. From out of nowhere a girl in all black appeared, the hilt of a sword jutting up from behind her shoulder. She looked like a ninja straight out of the movies.

  “Maria, meet Kai, my bodyguard. Apparently being marked by the Reaper gets you a ninja to watch your back. Kai saved me twice when I was helping the vampires.”

  The girl, Kai, bowed to Maria. “The Chosen speaks most highly of you. It’s an honor to meet you.”

  Maria stared, first at Kai then at Conryu. “Chosen?”

  “Chosen of Death. It’s my official title to Kai and her fellow ninjas. It’s a long story and doesn’t have anything to do with what I’m researching. See, I found a few interesting items in the Dragon Czar’s palace. Show her, Kai.”

  The ninja — god, even thinking it sounded insane — emptied a cloth container onto the table revealing fourteen glittering items. Maria blinked and tried to convince herself she was imagining things. When neither Kai nor the items vanished she shook her head.

  “Please tell me you didn’t bring magic items onto school grounds. That’s against the rules. The teachers will find them. Say, why aren’t they here now?”

  “Kai can travel through the border of Hell. It allowed her to bypass the wards, at least I assume that’s what happened. And these aren’t just magic items, they’re elf artifacts. I need to figure out what they do. Hence the research.”

  “Elf artifacts!”

  Conryu clamped a hand over her mouth. “Shh. This is a library.”

  She nodded and he let go. “Do you have any idea how dangerous those are?”

  “Some. Why do you think I didn’t want to leave them lying around where anyone could find them?”

  “You should give them to Dean Blane. She’ll know what to do.”

  “Right. She’ll turn them over to the Department and from there they’ll end up in Malice’s claws. Can you imagine that power-hungry woman with this many artifacts? I’ll take my chances figuring them out on my own, thanks all the same.”

  He had a point, but she hated to admit it. Maria stared at the artifacts. In a million years she’d never imagined having the chance to even be in the same room as that many of the rare items, much
less have a chance to research them. It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Besides, if he tried to do it himself it would take forever.

  “Alright, leave it to me. What do you know so far?”

  He grinned and grabbed a ring set with a red gem. “This is the one I started with. There’s a copy of the markings in my notebook. Prime recognized three words: prince of flame.”

  “Prince of flame most likely refers to an efreet. That’ll give me another angle to pursue.”

  “Great. I’m sure you’re more capable of doing research like this than I am. You can keep the notes we made.” Conryu gathered the artifacts up and turned to give them to Kai.

  “Leave the ring.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

  “How am I supposed to research the artifact without having it in possession? Don’t you trust me?”

  “I trust you completely, but keeping the artifacts out of the human realm as much as possible is way safer. If you have the ring on you, one of the teachers will sense it just as sure as anything. Any time you want to look at it just let me know and we’ll bring it out, but for now it’s better if Kai holds on to them.”

  She knew he had a point, but to possess an elf artifact of her own, even if it wasn’t really hers, would be incredible. It wasn’t fair that he had fourteen of them.

  “Fine. I’ll work on translating the notes. But if I figure out how to use it, I get to activate the ring.”

  “Deal.”

  The gymnasium was empty on Sundays so it made a perfect place for the team to hold their first practice. It also had enchantments to protect the building from errant spells, so that helped as well. When Conryu arrived, the bleachers had been pushed back, leaving a space about one hundred by one hundred and fifty feet for them to use. Seemed plenty big to Conryu, but he had no idea what the coach had in mind for their first day of training.

  Probably nothing too extreme. None of them had ever worked together unless you counted Conryu and Crystal building magical constructs and that wasn’t exactly combat. He’d expected to arrive last, but it looked like he made it first. The only other person in the room was Coach Chort. She wore a perpetual frown that matched her wrinkled robe. What would it take to get the woman to smile? He tried to imagine it and failed. Her face would likely shatter.

  “Mr. Koda,” Coach Chort said. “Nice to see you showing a bit of enthusiasm. I hadn’t expected you to arrive first.”

  He hadn’t intended to arrive first, but better to accept the compliment. “Thanks, Coach. What are we working on today?”

  “I’ll tell you when the others get here, that way I won’t have to repeat myself.”

  “Fair enough. What happened to last year’s coach?” Conryu didn’t know the woman’s name, but he knew it wasn’t this stern gargoyle.

  “What do you think? After three years finishing in last place, the Department fired her and hired me to whip you lot into shape. I guarantee we won’t be finishing last this year.”

  That was an overly bold prediction given that she had no idea what the others could do in a real fight. On the other hand, she probably couldn’t do her job if she lacked confidence.

  The light and fire wizards arrived in short order. He didn’t remember their names, that wasn’t a good sign. Crystal arrived next and he sighed in relief, finally someone that wasn’t a total stranger. The wind and water wizards arrived last. Of Heather there was no sign.

  No matter. Like she said, she was only there to get attention. Given her record as team captain, she didn’t have much to offer in the way of winning advice anyway.

  “Alright, everyone line up,” Coach Chort said.

  They stood shoulder to shoulder, with Conryu on the end beside Crystal. Their coach walked up and down the line inspecting them like they were soldiers newly arrived at boot camp. In a way maybe they were. Although having been mixed up in a real war, it was hard for him to take this competition too seriously.

  Coach Chort finally stopped and stood facing them, hands clasped behind her back. “Today we have our first training session. Since the tournament committee doesn’t give advanced notice as to which events will be held in any given year, we can’t know for sure what you’ll have to do. The only sure thing is that there will be one team casting event. They have it every year. So we’ll focus on that. You girls will make a multi-layered construct then Mr. Koda will try to break it. If you can create something powerful enough to withstand his breaking, you’ll be sure to win the competition.”

  The girls gathered in a circle and began casting. While they worked Prime flew down closer so only Conryu could hear what he said. “If those girls can create something that can withstand a Dispel like you used last week, I’ll never chase the pixie again.”

  “Don’t discount my teammates. They might surprise you.”

  Prime’s snort conveyed what he thought of that suggestion most eloquently.

  Fifteen minutes later a five-element dragon floated at the center of the circle. Coach Chort looked at Conryu. “Your turn. Take it easy though, okay? We don’t want to damage the school’s wards.”

  “Got it.” He raised his hand and pointed at the dragon. “Break!”

  A dark sphere streaked out, smashed into the construct, and blew it to pieces of glittering energy. To be on the safe side he’d used less than a third of his full power and that seemed excessive. Should he have held back more?

  From the glares the girls shot his way the answer appeared to be yes. On the other hand, if their opponents went full strength it might take them by surprise. Better to anger his teammates than give them false expectations.

  Coach Chort seemed to agree with him. “That was pathetic! Do it again and this time make it stronger. My niece could have shattered that dragon and she isn’t even dark aligned.”

  The girls grumbled but started again. Coach Chort waved him over. Conryu joined her and raised an eyebrow.

  “How close was that shot to your maximum?”

  “A simple breaking like that uses about half as much power as my standard Dispel. I divided it in half again just to be sure I didn’t break anything I didn’t intend to.”

  She shook her head. “At least we’re in good shape for the dark magic tests. Now I just need to get these others up to speed.”

  That was probably what passed for a compliment from the gruff coach. He’d take it, but if she planned to get the others up to his level, she had an impossible mission in front of her.

  4

  Practice Battle

  Conryu stood beside Crystal in the gym. The whole team had small packs in front of them. Why they had a day’s worth of clothes Conryu had no idea. Coach Chort paced up and down the line doing her drill sergeant impression. Heather hadn’t bothered to put in an appearance since the first day. Instead, she’d been on the road doing interviews to drum up interest in this year’s tournament. Word was she’d done a good job, not that they’d know since the school didn’t have any tvs.

  After a month of training, Conryu and his teammates were learning to work together. Or he should say the others were learning to work together. As the dark magic user, Conryu couldn’t combine his element with any of the others since all it did was cause their spells to fail. He spent most of his time using breaking to dispel the others’ magic as fast as they threw it at him.

  Play battles didn’t overly excite him, not after fighting for his life for real on multiple occasions. They also didn’t put him in danger of dying, so you had to take the good with the bad.

  Speaking of bad, Maria was still trying to figure out how the ruby ring worked. All she knew for sure was that the gem wasn’t a ruby. You’d think after all this time and making so little progress she’d be frustrated, but you’d be wrong. If anything the challenge made her even more excited about the project. It was a damn good thing she took over for him. Otherwise Conryu would have quit by now.

  “Listen up.” Coach Chort stopped pacing and faced them. “We’re leaving fo
r Central this morning for a two-day practice session. You’ll be taking on a team of Department wizards put together to mimic the power and abilities of the teams you’ll face in the tournament. I have no idea what events they plan to replicate so stay on your toes.”

  Leslie, the fire wizard, thrust her hand up. “What about our classes tomorrow?”

  “You’ve been excused. Notes on what you missed will be provided when we get back.”

  Karie, the water wizard, put her hand up. “Is Heather going to be joining us?” She had a serious crush on their stunning assistant coach, not that he blamed her.

  “She’s supposed to arrive on Monday, assuming she finishes her interviews.”

  Conryu didn’t bother raising his hand. “Who else will be there?”

  “Everyone that matters, including a select group of broadcast executives who want to see how good you are and if you’ll be a better draw than what we’ve been putting up the last few years. This practice run is a big deal, so don’t screw it up. Fall in behind me.” She turned on her heel and marched towards the door.

  Conryu glanced at Crystal. “Think she was in the army?”

  Crystal flashed a quick smile. “No doubt in my mind.”

  The group followed their coach down to the train platform. The last of the week’s groceries were being unloaded. In front of the supply car was a small passenger cabin. They wouldn’t have to sit on bags of onions this trip.

  Ten minutes later the train lurched into motion. Trees whizzed by as they raced toward Central. Conryu hadn’t been to the capital since last summer when he captured the Society spy. Would anyone try to kill him this visit? Probably not if a bunch of Department wizards were attending to watch their match. He leaned back into his lumpy seat and tried to relax. Security wasn’t his responsibility this time.

  Coach Chort sat in the front of the car and looked at them. “Remember your training and work together. As long as you do your best you have nothing to be ashamed of.”

  She stared at Conryu as she said that last bit as if he didn’t plan to give it his best. He might not be the most enthusiastic participant, but damned if he was going to hold back and let the team down.