The Rise of Ren Crown (7 page)

Other mutters joined ours. “I'm fine taking the hit to my reserves. What magic am I going to do anyway while Lou is down? And this will just add a tiny shred of magic to the community fabric anyway.”

“A lot of threads equal a shirt,” someone said in a too-reasonable tone.

“Yeah, well we don't need another shirt tonight,” came the angry reply. “I'm skipping.”

“Stop being a shivit,” another said bitterly. “They won't let you skip. Just do it, and stop complaining, so the rest of us can get back to normal.”

“Complaining?” The girl who had angrily spoken had a wild look in her eyes, the skin of her face sheet white. “Shinsara is
dead
. I'm not replacing her like a
sock
.”

“It's not like that. The Community Magic needs all of us to—”

“Shove your magic!” The girl wildly detached herself from the line, her motions jerky and uncontrolled as she blindly hit out at the hands reaching out to help her. “I won't! Let me
go
. I won't—”

A bolt of soiled green magic hit her and she fell, only barely caught by the hands she had been fending off.

People were shouting about accommodations and being responsible for the health of their room if their energy dipped below thirty-percent capacity, and if
that
happened, only at
that
time would they accept automatic reassignment.

I gripped Olivia's scarf in my hand.

The line was still moving, even with the arguments. And as I neared the front of the line, the gazes of the Department mages who were scanning students landed on me, almost as one.

One said something to a campus official who was standing by. The official frowned, then nodded. He motioned toward one of the other campus mages. The mage padded over, listened, and nodded. He held a hand out to the arch.

The student at the front of the line—three people in front of me—went through, pushing into the crowd on the Top Track through the image. The others filed through.

I stepped forward and a Department mage put his hand out. “Wait.”

I recognized his shock of white hair and purple-lensed eyes. Kaine's minion, Tarei.

The mage with his hand extended toward the arch, touched the arch and spun honey-colored magic at its edge. “Section capacity reached. Switching the port exit in 3, 2, 1, ready.”

The image inside of the arch rotated—the vast expanse of the mountain and the vista tilted in view as the landscaped whirled. It finally stopped, and a different section of the Top Track of the Magiaduct was pictured on the other side. An empty section of Top Track. A little too empty.

“Proceed.”

Tarei's purple-lensed eyes mocked me. Daring me not to go through. I stood woodenly and looked through the image of the arch.

Capacity on the previous section of Top Track reached or not, they had decided to change the exit point to the arch upon seeing me. If it took me elsewhere than the Magiaduct, or if someone was waiting on the other side...well, that is where I would make my last stand.

“Pardon me, miss,” someone said behind me.

I glanced back to see a faintly familiar face. I didn't know him, but there was the faintest flicker of recognition pushing at the edges of my consciousness.

He strode past me and through the arch before anyone could say anything. A second person pushed past me and hurried after him. Tarei whipped out a hand in which he held a spiked device.

“Now see here—” the campus official said apprehensively, stepping forward with his hand extended to stop whatever Tarei was going to do with the device.

The two boys appeared on what
seemed
to be the Top Track of the Magiaduct. The first one nodded to me in confirmation. With the way the arches worked, he appeared less than ten feet from me, when in actuality, he was hundreds of physical yards away.

“There's a bit of an energy rush when you are one of the first ones through,” the boy called back with a forced smile, his eyes focused on me while decidedly not looking in the direction of Kaine's minion. “Thanks for letting me go first.”

He was sweating profusely and abruptly—anxious moisture gathering along his hairline as if he'd been bespelled with something that he was trying to combat internally.

I looked over at the officials. Tarei's white knuckles were wrapped around the spiked device, and he was gritting his teeth as he argued in low tones with the campus official. I jolted forward and nearly dove through the arch, not allowing Tarei any time to use further trickery.

The section of the Top Track on which I emerged was nearly empty, save for the two boys. The other mages whose heads suddenly appeared at the stairs leading up to our section disappeared before I could identify them.

Turning around I met gazes with Kaine's minion. His eyes glittered and he turned abruptly on his heel, striding away from the arch. I could see one of the other officials running after him.

Although I was trapped in the Magiaduct now, for a moment I felt stupid relief wash through me.

Special dispensation had to be obtained for anyone other than a student to enter the Magiaduct, and only those already associated with campus could currently obtain it. Using the thick soup of crisscrossing communications on Top Circle, I'd heard the officials arguing about it along with everyone else in line.

I followed closely behind the boys, trying to orient myself with the mountain landscape splayed below and around me to figure out where exactly I was on the dormitory building.

I could see magic glittering around the first boy, but the second one was clear of such magic. The first shuddered, then the magic broke like a crystalline cage of frost, falling to the ground.

I didn't know what had been in the magic that had encased him, but it had been intended for me.

I caught up to him and touched his arm. He turned toward me.

“Thank you,” I said, somewhat fervently, wishing I could relieve whatever pain had been done to him.

“No,
thank you.”
He smiled at me, then limped ahead to join his friend.

I watched him for a long moment, before beginning the long walk to my dorm. The previous exit would have taken me far closer to Dorm Twenty-five.

Further down, campus officials were spread out on the edges of the Top Track, coordinating more port points for groups of students to come through en masse. It had been smart of them to port us up here. If they wanted us contained in the superstructure, they couldn't very well dump us on the grass outside, nor could they create bottlenecks in the common areas of the dorms.

Students started to drift toward the staircases and disappear inside the superstructure. Many of them looked emotionally spent.

As I neared a large group of mages, an older boy opened his arms slowly, magic pulling between his hands. He nodded at unseen individuals. At unseen frequency tidings. His expression was sober and determined. He started speaking aloud, voice magnified by whatever magic he held.

“Everyone, please. All emergency protocols have been activated. Samson, put out an emergency notification.”

A boy near him nodded, and the first boy continued his speech,

“Steady, everyone. Mages are available,
at this moment
, for comfort, counseling, discussion, basic healing, and activity. Mages at the Visiting Center will be ported here in an hour. If you are still missing a friend, please check the sheets for health and welfare status.”

I wondered cynically how many girls were checking on Constantine's status and exclaiming in dismay.

“Over the next few hours, the dorm common rooms will hold discussion sessions. Attending one is mandatory. After the mandatory session, a channel will be available for those who may want to sit in on discussions, but not leave their rooms. For those needing to talk or problem solve, many groups are scheduling meetings to discuss events or devise solutions for the future. The Young Politicos Club will be debating...everything to do with this. The Rational Engineers' Club indicated their intention to meet and discuss ways to dismantle or stop the construction of Origin Domes in the future and figure out what went wrong with the Administration Magic.”

He nodded to the group, then nodded again at someone speaking in his head. “Yes. Yes. Alternately, there will be at least three group activities tonight in every dorm quadrant for those who cannot think or talk about the events any further. The rec center in Dorm Thirty is already setting up for sports activities.”

He shook his head again at someone mentally. “No, Lorraine is leading, not Jaxon.”

His lips tightened for a moment before he took a breath. “He lost his roommate and best friend. He's on the immediate attention list—we'll have someone to him in the next hour. The rec center in Dorm Thirty-three is setting up for parlor, board, and card games later tonight. Magical Meditation will be available on Top Track. An all-around meeting to discuss logistics and scheduling for the next few days will take place in the open space in Dorm Twelve in ten minutes. Ronnie is bringing the updated emergency procedures document. People, it’s time to execute recovery plans. Campus is counting on it. See everyone in ten.”

The students who had been whispering to each other in line and vibrating with anxious energy during announcements were the ones leading the charge on the Magiaduct. They had looked over their fellow students and simply thought,
How can I help?

I noticed a bright blonde head weaving between students. My hands twitched, their deadened nerve endings trying to reach and form a connection to the magic blazing from her.

The girl I had healed.

Recognition hit twice, then realization. There was a familial relationship between the boy who had preceded me through the arch—the one who had deliberately taken the hit intended for me and the girl I had saved on the battlefield. Siblings or cousins.

She hurried onward, with a visible energy aura blazing around her like a beacon, toward Dorm Twelve. My hand covered my mouth shakily. At least my magic would help someone to somehow, piece the campus population back together. It didn't alleviate the crushing guilt and shame, but it made my determination stronger.

I started moving again, my steps a little shaky.

Will, Mike, Delia, Trick, Saf, Dagfinn, and Lifen were somewhere in the Visiting Center with thousands of others. Their parents, like all parents in the Second Layer, had to be absolutely mad with terror.

I'd seen it on the adults' faces, in the projections that Godfrey had displayed on the battlefield.

I was so tired of seeing terror.

I made it back to my dorm room, drawing only a minimum amount of attention—people were too concerned with getting somewhere themselves. Once they weren't concerned with that, though...

Shutting the door behind me, I leaned heavily against it. The silence was overwhelming.

I stared blankly at the walls of our room.

Though extremely active in her legal communities, Olivia had usually been
here
when I arrived home. Elegantly hunched over a giant tome or drafting a statement to take down a worthy opponent.

I ran my fingers along her desk and swallowed. Her scarf felt heavy in my hand.

It had only been three
hours
. Three hours since I had first initiated the Red Alert. It felt like three days—every minute experienced in frame-by-frame high definition.

Meeting with our Dorm Guide—whoever that was—in order to assess my mental health and stability to last through the night, was the last thing I wanted to do.

I lifted the scarf to my mouth.

“Olivia?” I whispered into the threads. A cool fleeting touch whispered back against my skin. A desire more than an actual sense.

Magic twisted within me, the corrupted channels letting nothing out.

I closed my eyes, clenching them. I couldn't pull Olivia out of the threads. I could only lament.

Too close. Too close to Christian.

I had to get my magic back. I had to get off campus. I had to rescue Olivia.

The scarf suddenly wrapped around my hand and squeezed so tightly that I would have dropped it, if it hadn't been strangling in the intensity of its hold on me. A silken constrictor.

I stared at it, then jerked forward. The silencing spell. I gripped the scarves and rubbed a shaking hand against my chest. Did I have enough magic left to do it? What if I messed up something and the locator to Olivia that I had captured in the threads was altered or ruined?

A sudden
whoosh
of sound blasted from the vents. Tipping my head back, I could see the hazy white magic puffing out like unfurling steam.

I clutched Olivia's scarf tighter.

I shied away from the first touch of magic, and willed myself to relax at the second. Calm quickly overtook my limbs.

I remembered Will's quip about Mike keeping track of the level at which we were being doused with calming magic. That it said a lot about the Administration's emotional state.

This level had to signify that they were very concerned.

I let the pumping spell calm me, just a little, before I touched the wall at my side. Although magic wasn't pumping through me, I could still affect spells that were already in place. I didn't need to fit a key into a lock. I could just turn the dial. Left two turns, right two turns, left.

I smiled without humor and dialed back the calming spell. But unlike weeks ago, I couldn't turn it off completely.

I'd have to ask one of the others what I was doing wrong, but at least the motions had given me enough hope to try affecting the silencing spell in the scarves. Closing my eyes, I focused on the spells in place—pinching the one in my scarf that visually connected to my mouth, then rippling it through the control scarf.

It
should
stop anyone from talking about Plan Fifty-two with anyone outside of the plan, or communicating in any other way. The mouth visual was just what the spell showed me, tailored to how I saw the idea of it at present. I loved magic.

But I couldn't use it incorrectly again.

I shut my eyes.

Chapter Five: Explanations and Confessions