The Chimera Jar: The Aegis of Merlin Book 3 Read online

  “Don’t break your concentration. I’ll open a portal then you order them through.”

  Terra moved a little ways away and chanted an unfamiliar spell. A black ring appeared and slowly filled in until it became a disk. The demons saw it and struggled harder.

  Conryu grit his teeth. “Be still!”

  The demons quieted again.

  “Okay, Conryu. Order them through.”

  He pictured the demons flying through the portal. “Go to Hell!”

  The demons plunged down out of the sky and vanished through the portal. The instant they vanished Terra spoke a word and the gate closed.

  Conryu fell to his knees, the mother of all headaches pounding behind his eyes.

  Terra stared for a moment as Conryu knelt and grasped his head. She knew enough about the academy curriculum to know they didn’t teach freshmen how to control demons. In fact she was fairly certain that was a third-year subject. He’d done it with nothing but sheer force of will and raw magical power. Absolutely stunning.

  Unfortunately for him, Conryu was now paying the price. Wizards used spells for a reason and one of them was to avoid a backlash from channeling too much unrefined energy. The fact that he used chaotic dark magic made it even worse. On the plus side they were all still alive because of him. If he hadn’t been here Terra doubted she’d have defeated both demons on her own.

  “You okay?”

  Conryu looked at her with bloodshot eyes. “Sure. You don’t have any aspirin, do you? I have a horrible headache.”

  “Sorry. If it’s any consolation it wouldn’t have helped anyway. Your headache is from magical backlash. Only time or proper application of light magic will make it go away.”

  “I don’t suppose you know how to apply it?”

  “Nope. All I know are the basics of light magic.” Terra shook her head. “We should have brought Shizuku. She’d have you fixed up in a blink.”

  “I’ll survive either way. If you don’t need me I’m going to sit in the car.”

  “No problem. I’ll collect the box and we’ll get out of here.”

  She headed for the culvert and Lin took a step to follow. Terra shook her head and mouthed, “Stay with him.”

  He turned back to help Conryu to his feet. The two of them started for the car and Terra put them out of her mind. Her spell didn’t reveal any lingering magic, but that didn’t mean she was in the clear. The moment she let her guard down was the moment she might die.

  At the mouth of the culvert she conjured a trio of flame orbs. She sent one to fly ahead of her and kept the others by her side. The walk to the rear of the culvert took only seconds. Where the fleshy mound had once sat there was nothing but a rotten, misshapen heap of stinking gobbets of flesh. Terra devoutly hoped the box wasn’t buried in the mess.

  She narrowed her eyes and looked closer. There wasn’t so much as a hint of magic to be found. As powerful as Conryu’s spell was it should still have spared the contents of the box. If she couldn’t detect anything…

  “No, no, no. Scream, winds from beyond, Gale Gust!” She conjured a focused blast of wind that sent gobbets of flesh flying everywhere. No box. “Damn it!”

  Somehow Mercia had moved it to a new hiding place. That begged the question of how she managed it and more to the point, how did she know she needed to.

  Terra left the culvert and stalked over to the car. Conryu was lying down in the back, his arm over his eyes.

  “Where is it?” Lin asked.

  “Gone.”

  “Gone? Where?”

  “Damned if I know. Let’s head to the next location. I need to check something.” She craned her neck to look in the back seat. “How you holding up?”

  Conryu lowered his arm. “I’m better, thanks. So did I half melt my brain for nothing?”

  “I wouldn’t say for nothing. We would have had to deal with that trap at some point, but we didn’t recover the box. It’s been relocated. For the life of me I can’t figure how she did it.”

  “Maybe she moved it through a dark portal. Mrs. Umbra’s had me and Prime working on that so if we’re separated I can call him to my side.”

  Terra nodded. “Maybe. The problem is the clues that led us to these hiding places made no mention of backups. I suspect Mercia didn’t tell her thugs. Wise move on her part.”

  Conryu sat up, groaned, and lay back down. “So what now? You need me to clear those other locations?”

  “Afraid so, but first I’m going to look and see if the box is still there and your Dispel triggered its disappearance or if it’s already gone. We might be able to work around the former, but if it’s the latter we’re screwed.”

  Conryu shuffled through the doors and down to the elevators. Midnight had come and gone and they’d finally made it back to the Department of Magic. He’d dispelled all the wards and traps, helped banish five more demons, and convinced Lin and Terra to buy him three slices of Giovanni’s pizza. That had easily been the highlight of the trip.

  Though Terra insisted the work he’d done was important and he might even believe it after ten hours’ sleep, right now it felt like he wasted the day. The whole point of this mission was to recover those stupid boxes and there’d been no sign of them. No one would even tell him why they were so important.

  Worse, at least for Conryu, if Terra and Lin somehow found them again he’d probably have to come back to repeat the process.

  “Jesus, Conryu, you look horrible.”

  He glanced up to find Mr. Kane standing beside the elevator. He had a key that appeared to be made out of crystal and the mate to Malice’s.

  “It’s been a long day. If I never see another flying demon it’ll be too soon.”

  Mr. Kane looked to Terra. “Boxes?”

  “No sign of them, Chief. Mercia must have known we were coming and relocated them.”

  Mr. Kane pressed his palms to his forehead and Conryu wasn’t sure if he wanted to scream or cry. “So we’re back to square one.”

  “Actually we’re in worse shape than before as we now have no clue where to resume our search.” Everyone turned to glare at Lin which made Conryu smile. It was always a nice feeling not to be the one in trouble.

  “I’m sure you guys will sort it all out. I either need to get back or find somewhere to sleep.” Conryu yawned for emphasis.

  “Right.” Mr. Kane pressed the call button. “You have classes tomorrow.”

  “Today. In about seven hours as a matter of fact. I may take a sick day.”

  “Don’t do that.” Mr. Kane stepped into the elevator and Conryu followed. They started down to the basement. “Anything out of the ordinary may attract unwanted attention.”

  “Me falling asleep in class would be out of the ordinary and if I had to cast a spell I might faint. I’ll just put it down to food poisoning or something.”

  They left the elevator and entered the portal chamber. Mr. Kane touched the edge of the circle with the crystal key and it turned black. “Do what you think best. And thanks again for your help.”

  Conryu took a step toward the portal then turned back. “Be sure they send a full set of tools with the engine. I’m going to have to tear it all the way down.”

  Mr. Kane gave him a thumbs up and he stepped into the portal.

  5

  Back at School

  Conryu staggered into his room around four in the morning. He couldn’t even remember the ride through Hell beyond Cerberus’s worried whining. Kelsie’s grandmother may have made some vague threat, but he was so tired he just ignored her. The train wasn’t ready when he arrived so he ended up sitting around by the warehouse for three hours. All in all he’d had better days.

  “At least you survived.” Prime flew over to his desk and settled in his usual spot.

  Considering how much he felt like a zombie, he wasn’t sure he had survived. He collapsed on the bed, not even bothering to undress. Some time later he was vaguely aware of Prime snarling at the pixie that came to fetch him to class u
ntil she fled. Conryu sent mental gratitude to the scholomantic and fell back asleep.

  When he woke up again it was an empty stomach that did it. He had no idea what time it was, though well after lunch seemed a fair guess. Conryu rolled out of bed, staggered into the bathroom and let the naiad wash his hair and back.

  Clean clothes combined with the shower had him feeling almost human again. The next order of business was hunting up something to eat. The thought had barely crossed his mind when someone knocked.

  When he opened the door he couldn’t say what pleased him more, seeing Maria waiting outside or the overstuffed sandwich she had in her hands. “Please say that’s for me.”

  “It’s for you. When you missed lunch I figured you’d be hungry.” Maria brushed past him and into his room. She looked around and shook her head. “What a mess.”

  “Give me a break. I had a busy day yesterday.”

  “Yeah, Dean Blane gave me the short version. How’d it go?”

  “Not as well as they hoped. You know I can’t say much here, right?”

  She nodded and handed him the sandwich, ham and cheese with extra mustard, just the way he liked it. Conryu took a bite and sighed. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”

  “It’s been a few days, but I’ll forgive you. The girls in your club were excited when I told them you’d gone to arrange an engine. You didn’t forget, did you?”

  “Nope. Should be here by the end of the week.”

  “Are you really going to try and make it run on nothing but magic?”

  “Sure, why not?” He polished off the sandwich and found himself looking for a drink.

  “Do you want all the reasons why not, or just the obvious ones?”

  “I don’t actually want any of them. I was just looking for a project to cheer Sonja up. Though the idea of a motorcycle with a magic engine sounds way cool.”

  Maria wiped a spot of mustard off his face. “Well it took you half the year, but you managed to incorporate mechanic work into your studies. I figured it would take longer.”

  He grinned. “What time is it?”

  “Around three. You slept through all your classes.”

  He shrugged. “Other than the one with Mrs. Umbra I could take or leave the rest.”

  “Not if you want to graduate.”

  She had him there.

  Twenty minutes after Maria left a pixie arrived with a rolled-up message. He read it while she waited. It was short and to the point. “My office, now.” Signed Mrs. Umbra. Conryu handed the note back to the pixie, grabbed Prime, and waved her out. “After you.”

  He followed the tiny elemental out of the dorm, across the snow-covered field to the main hall. Once they were inside he was surprised to head upstairs instead of to the basement. He’d assumed the head of dark magic would have her office downstairs.

  They left the classrooms and continued on past the administrative offices. Several secretaries stared at him as he passed by, but since he had the pixie guiding him they must have assumed he had permission to be there. After what felt like a half-mile hike they stopped in front of a black, rune-covered door. That was more like it. He almost didn’t want to knock.

  Luck was on his side and the door opened before he had to touch it. Beyond the door was a small office with a desk, chairs, and book-stuffed shelves. He restrained a sigh. Every time he expected to end up somewhere ominous it ended up being normal. All the weird shit seemed to happen when he least expected it.

  Mrs. Umbra sat behind her desk. She waved him over to one of the empty chairs and when he’d sat she said, “I heard all about it. How’s your head?”

  “Fine. I slept off the worst of the backlash. I don’t remember it hurting that much when I summoned Cerberus.”

  “You were barely conscious that time. It’s way worse when you’re aware of what’s happening.”

  “No kidding, but I survived, that’s what counts.”

  “How did you manage the other five demons without losing consciousness?”

  “Please don’t get mad.”

  The wrinkles in her forehead deepened. “Conryu?”

  “I had Prime teach me the domination spell.” He winced, but she didn’t blast him where he sat. “I know I’m not supposed to study anything without your permission, but it was an emergency.”

  “Did it give you any trouble?”

  “Not really. It was longer than the spells I’ve cast so far, but the increased power didn’t bother me. I had a little trouble with this twisty, flip thing you have to do with your off hand halfway through, but I figured it out after a couple practice runs. I’ll be honest, it doesn’t seem hard enough to be a third-year spell.”

  She shook her head. “That’s because you’re so much stronger than average. Domination requires you to channel ten times as much energy as Cloak of Darkness, for example. The spells aren’t the problem. The reason it’s a third-year spell is because it takes two years to build up enough capability with dark energy for most wizards to cast it and remain conscious.”

  “Oh. I have to say it was way easier than using willpower to control the demons. Once I hit them with it they went as docile as kittens. I wish I’d known it to begin with. Would have saved me one hell of a headache.”

  Mrs. Umbra groaned, opened her mouth like she was going to say something, then closed it again. After a moment she said, “I hear you met Malice Kincade.”

  “Don’t get me started on her. Why is it that so many people feel the need to include a threat when they first speak to me? And I told her she should be nicer to Kelsie.”

  Mrs. Umbra laughed and leaned back in her chair. When she’d wiped a tear from her eye she asked, “How’d she take it?”

  “Not seriously. I don’t think I convinced her, but I still had to say something.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You understand you can’t talk to anyone about what happened yesterday, right?”

  “Yeah, not that I really know all that much. Demons being summoned inside the city doesn’t seem like the sort of thing the Department would want getting around. I hate not being able to tell Maria though. It feels like I’m lying to her.”

  “I’m familiar with that experience. If it’s any consolation it’s not your fault you can’t tell her.”

  “It’s not, but thanks.”

  Conryu’s chat with Mrs. Umbra ended with her promising to teach him more advanced spells in such a tone that he broke out into a sweat. He went back to the dorm ready for another nap. At the bottom of the steps he found Kelsie standing outside his room.

  “Hey.”

  She jumped and spun to face him. “I thought you were inside.”

  “No, Mrs. Umbra wanted to talk with me. How are you?”

  “Worried about you. When you didn’t come to class this morning I figured you must have been sick.” She was kneading her hands and fidgeting.

  She really did seem concerned. He felt a little bad about worrying her, not that he’d had much choice. “It was a stomach bug, something I ate didn’t agree with me. I’m fine now. Would you like to come in?”

  He opened the door and she ducked inside. Kelsie sat on the edge of the bed. Conryu put Prime on the desk and plopped down in his chair. “So what did I miss?”

  “Not much. We practiced circle casting the whole time. Mrs. Lenore was going to start our fusion magic lessons, but she said tomorrow would be fine.”

  “Since I wasn’t there. Sorry.”

  “No, no, it’s okay. I’m just excited to give it a try. What did Mrs. Umbra want?”

  “Just to discuss what we are going to work on for the rest of the year. Boring stuff, really.” Yet another lie, but he didn’t have any choice.

  Kelsie’s hands trembled as she walked down the steps to dark magic. She’d gotten pretty good at working with her partner in the casting circle. Between them they’d managed to dispel the light, but not shatter the sphere. It was a beginning at least. Today she was supposed to start fusion training with Conryu. H
e was so strong the idea terrified her. Why did she even agree to work with him?

  Because he was her friend, maybe the only one she’d ever had. The evening before, when he’d invited her into his room, for a moment she’d feared her mother had been right and he was going to try something, but he couldn’t have been more polite.

  She blew out a sigh and reached for the classroom door. Part of her was annoyed that he didn’t try anything and another part knew she’d be furious if he did. What a screwed up way of thinking.

  Kelsie stepped inside and found she was the last one to arrive, even the perpetually late Mrs. Lenore had arrived ahead of her. Her cheeks burned when everyone turned to look at her. Conryu just grinned and pulled out the chair beside him for her. She rushed to sit down.

  “Okay, now that we’re all here,” Mrs. Lenore said. “We’re going to try something different. Some of you, I’ve noticed, seem to have the two-person circle casting down, so you’ll be trying three-person circles. Meg, you and Caitlin will continue as a pair. Conryu and Kelsie will try fusion casting.”

  Mrs. Lenore set about instructing the girls on a three-person circle. Kelsie tried to pay attention since she’d have to do it at some point as well, but she couldn’t get her mind off Conryu. He sat beside her with the most indifferent expression. He clearly couldn’t have cared less about circle casting. For him it must be like a tiger listening to a bunch of house cats receive instructions on hunting mice.

  Once the circles were going Mrs. Lenore motioned them over to the corner of the classroom. She set one of the glowing spheres on an empty table. “So the way this is supposed to work is, Kelsie, you stand behind Conryu and put your hand on the center of his back. When he casts the spell you’ll feel like something is pulling at you. You just need to relax and let your power flow so it melds with his. If this works the way it’s supposed to, you two should create a more powerful result than Conryu would on his own. Shall we give it a try?”

  Kelsie moved to stand behind him. She tried to dry the sweat off her hand, but it only lasted for a second. She put her palm on Conryu’s back.