فصل 8

Chapter 8

CALL WANTED TO scream. He knew he should scream, but surprise and terror robbed him of breath. The shadow moved again, uncoiling against the uneven rock of the ceiling. As it slithered closer to the phosphorescent moss, Call’s panicked hope that it was just a trick of the light was dashed.

It was a huge air elemental, whip-fast and insubstantial in places. It looked like an enormous eel from the deepest part of the ocean — if eels had huge, tooth-filled mouths on either side of their long bodies. It moved sluggishly, like dank, humid air at the edge of a storm.

“Aaron,” he tried to yell, but his voice came out as a whisper too soft to be heard by anyone but the elemental. One of its heads pulled away from the ceiling with a wet, sucking sound and dangled down toward him. Its mouth opened, and Call could see that despite being formed of ephemeral air, the thing had teeth that seemed very real and very sharp. The skin around its mouth was pulled back so that its maw was in a perpetual rictus grin. It looked like it was going to bite him in half and then laugh about it. It had no eyes, just indentations in its head.

Miri, he thought. The knife Alastair had given him, the one made by his mother. It was on the nightstand, several feet behind him. Could the elemental see him? Call wasn’t sure. Slowly, slowly, he edged back on the bed. He stretched his body flat, lying down in a way that exposed his most vulnerable parts — his neck and stomach. The elemental moved toward him as if sniffing the air.

Call swallowed, reaching up over his head, reaching until his fingers brushed the edge of Miri’s hilt.

In the other room, Havoc began to bark.

The elemental sprang. A scream tore from Call’s lungs as he seized the blade and sat up, slashing blindly forward. The heavy weight of the creature knocked him back on his bed. Its open maw snapped at his face while the dagger embedded itself just under the creature’s jaw. He tried to push it back with the knife, but although the blade cut deeper into the elemental’s airy flesh, it squirmed closer.

He felt those horrible teeth against his skin and the sharp talons razoring at his clothes and slicing skin. He rolled off his bed, feeling the warmth of blood. It didn’t hurt yet, but he had a feeling it was going to.

If he survived.

The elemental whipped around, fast as a tornado, and dived for Call just as he leaped for the door. He could hear Havoc frantically barking on the other side, could hear Aaron’s sleepy, confused voice. “What’s going on? What’s wrong, boy?” Call yanked at the door. It didn’t open.

“Aaron!” Call shouted, finding his voice. “Aaron, there’s an elemental in here! Get the door open!” “Call?” Aaron sounded frantic. The doorknob jiggled and the door shook in its frame, but it didn’t budge.

“It’s covered in locking spells!” Aaron shouted. “Call, get out of the way! Back up!” Call didn’t need to be told twice. He flung himself away from the door and rolled against his wardrobe, yanking the front of it open as the elemental dived. It hit the wardrobe door, sending splinters of wood in all directions. Call just had time to leap away and scramble under the bed as it lunged for him again. He kept moving, coming out on the other side of the mattress. The elemental was a coiling mass above him. One of its heads jammed itself under the bed, but the other drew back, hissing, clearly about to strike.

Call held up Miri just as there was a soft explosion around the door. The elemental whipped toward it, its mouth opening in hideous surprise. Darkness was eating away at the edges of the door — but not just darkness.

Chaos.

Call felt the pull under his rib cage and realized what was happening. Aaron was using his chaos power, drawing on Call as a counterweight. Call held still as the door began to crumble in on itself.

It vanished, sucked away into the void. Aaron exploded into the room, wild-eyed. “Makar!” he yelled, his own hand still raised in summoning, black light burning around it. “You idiot, use your magic!” The elemental was whipping back and forth, clearly confused by Aaron’s sudden appearance. Call scrambled to his feet and reached out toward chaos. He felt the wild, roiling emptiness of the void open. Darkness spilled into the bedroom.

The air elemental gave a puffing screech and sailed toward the opening to the common room. It slashed Aaron’s shoulder as it went past, gliding toward Tamara’s room.

She opened the door just as it lunged for her throat.

Tamara dropped, rolling beneath it with more agility than Call would have in a thousand years. Havoc bounded toward her, snapping at the creature. The elemental pivoted in the air, horrible legs quivering, horrible jaws opening wide enough to swallow any of them whole.

Aaron added his power to Call’s. The chaos grew, tendrils of oily nothing snaking into the room. From the opening in the void, something emerged, smoke-colored and wearing the rough shape of a monstrously sleek cat with countless eyes.

A chaos elemental, springing into the room.

Call made a sound in his throat. Opening chaos was one thing — summoning a chaos elemental was another.

The air elemental spun around, sensing a new threat. It made a sound deep in its throat. Then it rushed at the chaos elemental at the same moment the chaos elemental went for it. They met in the air. The chaos elemental bit at the air elemental’s underside as the chaos elemental coiled around and around it, squeezing.

The door to their rooms opened and Master Rufus hurtled in, followed by Master Milagros.

“Call —” Rufus started to shout. Then he caught sight of the elementals coiling together in the air. For a moment, he looked almost fascinated. Then he swept his hand into the air and blew.

His breath became a shock wave that swept over the elementals. The whole room shook. Call fell to the floor as the air elemental shuddered and came apart into eddies that spiraled like miniature dust storms. The chaos elemental splashed against the wall, like spilled ink. It did not re-form.

“Wow,” Aaron said.

Call’s heart thudded dully. He pushed himself to his feet. Tamara, in a pair of blue pajamas — now torn at the knee — crossed the room to him, putting her hand on his arm. He had to forcibly stop himself from leaning against her the way he suddenly wanted to.

He looked down at his chest, at his torn shirt and the blood still welling there. The injuries weren’t deep, but they stung like bee stings.

Aaron was petting Havoc’s head, staring meditatively at the spot where the chaos elemental had been.

“We heard all the shouting,” Master Milagros said. “We didn’t think — how badly are you hurt?” “I’m okay,” Call said.

Master Rufus sighed, clearly rattled. They all were, but it was unnerving to see Master Rufus anything but perfectly composed. Call felt stupid. Master Rufus had told them not to investigate, but they’d done it anyway. And then Jasper had come up with a totally ridiculous plan. How had none of them realized that by making it clear where Call was going to be, it also made it clear that he wasn’t going to be in his room? Anyone wanting to break in knew exactly when to do it.

“Apprentices, let’s all sit down,” Master Rufus said. “You can tell me what happened. And then we can decide what to do next.” Master Milagros moved toward the hall door. “I am going to make sure no one else gets in or out of here,” she said. “Absolutely no one.” She sounded kind of paranoid. It was very reassuring to Call. He was feeling kind of paranoid, too.

He went to the couch with Tamara and Aaron. As soon as they sat down, Havoc jumped up on Call’s lap and started to lick his face. Tamara took point on explaining how they were all in the library, studying with Jasper, and then had come back to their rooms. She didn’t mention Call’s stunt in the Refectory, or their plan, for which he was grateful. He was feeling dumb and freaked out enough already.

Call explained how the thing had been in his room and how the door had been locked with a spell. When he started talking about it, he could feel his hands begin to shake and jammed them between his knees to hide the trembling from Master Rufus and his friends.

After hearing about the locking spell, Master Rufus went over to inspect what was left of the door. Since Aaron had pretty much disappeared the whole thing, there wasn’t a lot to see.

After a few minutes, Master Rufus sighed. “We’re going to have to bring a team of mages in here. And, in case something else has been tampered with, we’re going to move the three of you to another room. Permanently. I know it’s late, but I am going to need you to take whatever you had on you and bring only that. We will give you the rest of your things as soon as they’re confirmed as safe.” “Do we really need to do that?” Tamara asked.

Master Rufus gave her his most stern look. “We do.”

Aaron stood. “I’m ready to go, then, I guess. I didn’t change my clothes or anything. Neither did Call.” Tamara got her uniform out of her room and padded back into the common space, holding her boots in her hands. Call looked around, at the symbols on the walls, the glowing rocks, the giant fireplace. These rooms were theirs, comfortable, familiar. But he wasn’t sure that he could have gotten into bed and looked up at his ceiling without seeing that creature there. He shuddered. Right at the moment, he wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to sleep again.

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The room that Master Rufus took them to didn’t look too unlike their own. Call already knew that most of the student quarters were the same — two to five bedrooms grouped around common spaces where students could eat and work.

There were four bedrooms in the new space. They each took one, including Havoc, who flopped down next to the bed in his and went to sleep with his feet in the air. Call checked to make sure his wolf was fine, then came out into the common room to find Tamara and Aaron on the couch. Aaron had his sleeve rolled up, his arm stuck out. Tamara was looking critically at his forearm, where a big red splotch was visible.

“It’s like a burn, but not a burn,” she said. “Maybe some kind of reaction from being hit with all that chaos magic?” “But he’s a Makar,” Call objected. “Chaos magic shouldn’t hurt him. Why didn’t you show your arm to Master Rufus?” It didn’t look like a bad injury, but Call bet it was painful.

Aaron sighed. “Didn’t feel like dealing with it,” he said. “They’ll get more freaked out, restrict us further, but they don’t know what’s going on any more than I do. They’ll decide someone else needs to be guarding you twenty-four-seven, but nobody else is going to do as good a job as we will. Besides, it’s not like you made a big deal out of the fact you’re bleeding.” He pulled down his sleeve. “I’m going to take a shower,” he said. “I still feel kind of slimy from that thing touching me.” Tamara saluted tiredly as Aaron headed off toward the door that led down to the showering and bathing pools. “You okay?” she asked Call as Aaron left.

“I guess,” Call said. “I don’t really understand why we’re safer in this room.” “Because fewer people know we’re here,” Tamara said. The sentence was clipped, but she didn’t look angry at Call, just sort of tired. “Master Rufus must feel like there are very few people he can trust. Which means anyone could be the spy. Literally anyone.” “Anastasia …” Call began, but then the door opened and Master Rufus came in. His smooth dark face was expressionless, but Call had started to be able to read the tension in his teacher’s posture, the set of his shoulders. Master Rufus was very tense indeed.

“Call,” he said. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

Call glanced over at Tamara, who shrugged. “Anything you have to say, you can say in front of Tamara,” Call said.

Master Rufus was not amused. “Call, this isn’t a movie. Either you let me talk to you alone, or you’ll all be sorting sand for the next week.” Tamara snorted. “That’s my cue for bedtime.” She got up, her dark braids swinging, and waved good-night to Call as she disappeared into her bedroom.

Master Rufus didn’t sit down. He just leaned his bulky frame against the side of the table. “Callum,” he said. “We know that someone with access to complex magic is after you. But what we don’t know is — why aren’t they going after Aaron?” Call felt obscurely insulted. “I’m a Makar, too!”

A corner of Master Rufus’s mouth turned up, which didn’t make Call feel any better. “I suppose I might have put that differently. I don’t mean that you aren’t a valuable target, but it’s odd for someone to come after you exclusively, especially since Aaron has been a Makar longer. Why not attempt to kill you both?” “Maybe they are,” Call said. “I mean, Aaron was around during both attempts. Maybe the elemental would have gone after him once it had finished with me.” “And maybe the chandelier required a trigger before it fell and the assassin waited until Aaron was in the room … ?” “Exactly,” Call said, relieved that Master Rufus had come up with that on his own. He didn’t like the sound of assassin, though. The word slithered around in his head, hissing like a snake. Assassin was much worse than spy.

Master Rufus frowned. “Maybe. But I think that ever since you arrived at the Magisterium, you’ve been keeping secrets. First your father’s, now maybe one of your own. If you know who is targeting you or why you’re being targeted, tell me so I can better protect you.” Call tried not to goggle at Master Rufus. He doesn’t know about Captain Fishface, Call reminded himself. He’s just asking a question. Sweat started up on Call’s palms and under his arms anyway. He did his level best to keep his expression neutral; he wasn’t sure he succeeded.

“There’s nothing I’m not telling you,” Call said, lying as well as he knew how. “If someone is really trying to kill me instead of Aaron, I don’t know why.” “Whoever it was had a way to get into your room,” Master Rufus said. “No one should be able to do that, except for you three and myself. And yet there was only one elemental waiting — the one on your ceiling.” Call shuddered, but he didn’t say anything else. What could he say?

Master Rufus looked disappointed. “I wish that you believed you could trust me. I hope you understand how serious this all is.” Call thought of Aaron and his weird not-quite-a-burn. He thought of the elemental and its terrible eyes, staring down at him through the dark, its claws sinking into his skin. He thought of the year before and all the things they’d never told Master Rufus about their failed quest to bring back the Alkahest. If he’d been a better person, he would have confessed to Master Rufus then and there. But if he’d been a better person, maybe there would never have been a problem in the first place.

“I don’t know anything. I don’t have any secrets,” Call told Master Rufus. “I’m an open book.”