Conrad Edison and the Anchored World (Overworld Arcanum Book 2) (3 page)

"That was why they were murdered by a cowardly monster." He bared his teeth. "One day I'll also fight a great evil, but in my case, Foreseeance Five Triple Zero says that I'll win."

I was a bit confused by the name. "Is Five Triple Zero the same thing as five thousand?"

He didn't seem to hear my question, instead looking to the sky and proclaiming, "Once again shall the evil rise. The son of the fallen is the only hope for victory." His eyes turned back toward me. "So you see, I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. It would be hard for us to be friends."

Self-aggrandizing little twerp
, Vic said.

I decided to go. Just as I opened my mouth to excuse myself, he said something that froze my heart to ice.

"The Overlord killed my parents." His teeth clenched. "No one can understand that pain."

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered and backed away. "I have to get back to studying."

"But I'm just getting to the good parts," Harris said.

I turned around and headed for the house just as Max landed his broom in the front yard. His eyes locked onto the other boy. "Is that Harris Ashmore?"

"Yes." I walked around him, grabbed my book, and went inside.

Max came inside and closed the door. "Really? He's kind of a big deal."

"Yes, I got to hear all about it."

"Oh, then I suppose he mentioned, um…" He went silent for a moment. "Anyway, I'll bet it was kind of awkward when he found out who you are."

"I told him my last name is Edwards." I sank into a chair, weighed down by guilt. "My father killed his parents. I can't let anyone know my real last name, Max."

"Maybe we should talk to Galfandor about that." He shrugged. "I wish I could change my last name. Nobody ever wants to be my friend when they hear I'm a Tiberius."

"Perhaps because you smell funny," said a girlish voice from behind us. Ambria stepped into the den. "Why are you two moping in here when we need to study for the entrance exam?"

"Harris Ashmore." Max poked a thumb toward the window.

"Who?" Ambria looked outside. Harris had started playing with his rocket darts. "Is he a new friend?" Her tone sounded hopeful.

"No." I stood. "He explained to me why we couldn't be friends and then I realized why he was right."

"Conrad's dad killed his parents." Max's eyes brightened. "Isn't that unbelievable?"

Ambria grimaced. "Oh, it's awful, Conrad." She hugged me. "I'm sorry your parents were evil masterminds."

"Me too." I patted her on the back, glad that I had at least two true friends.

"Conrad and I were just talking about how nice it would be to change our last names so people wouldn't hate us." Max watched Harris spear a rocket dart into the bull’s-eye painted on a tree. "I wish I could be Harris's friend."

Ambria huffed. "We're all the friends you need, Max." She grabbed me by the hand and took Max by the wrist. "Now, let's get back to studying."

Max sighed as she dragged us toward the stairs. "Next up is spell casting. We can't exactly practice that in the house and all the gauntlet rooms at the university are full."

"Then we'll go outside." Ambria opened the door to the closet beneath the staircase and picked up our wands off the cot inside.

"I wonder why the family who used to live here left all this stuff behind." Max ducked inside the small space and grabbed an
Elementary Enchantments
textbook from a tall stack including
Elementary Potions
and
Elementary Magic
. He dropped onto the cot and looked inside the front cover. It read:
Property of the Underlord
.

"Looks like their child had big ambitions," Ambria said.

"You don't suppose he wanted to be like the Overlord, do you?" Max said, casting a curious glance at me.

My stomach knotted.
Why would any child want to be like my father?
I took the textbook from Max and dropped it on the floor. "Let's go practice."

"Touchy subject?" He stooped beneath the low sill and shut the door behind him.

I couldn't help that every time I thought of my mother, I flashed back to her holding a gleaming knife at my throat while my father watched with a smirk. A deep burn grew a little hotter every time I flashed back to that recent memory. I feared my parents so much it made me weak in the knees and made me hate them all the more.

I force my jaw to unclench. "I'd rather not think about them."

"I completely understand." Ambria squeezed my hand and glared at Max. "Bringing up Conrad's parents is terribly mean, Max. You should be ashamed."

"But the name Underlord was in that book," he protested. "Isn't it kind of strange?"

"Can we just practice?" I groaned. I wasn't in the mood for another one of their arguments.

Ambria huffed. "Shall we go outside and practice?"

I jabbed a finger straight up. "I think we should go up the cliff and practice in Colossus Stadium."

Ambria frowned. "Why can't we practice in the yard?"

"Because the boy whose parents were murdered by Delectra and Victus is out there." I shook my head. "I want to get out of here."

"Oh." She frowned and retrieved our flying brooms from the foyer. "Let's go."

Blue stepped up to the railing at the top of the stairs and looked down at us. "What's going on?"

"We're going to practice for the university entrance exam," Ambria said. "Want to come watch?"

Blue shook her head. "I'm going back to sleep." She vanished from view and a door clicked shut.

"What a sleepyhead," Max said. He grabbed his broom and we went into the back yard. Max's gaze wandered toward Harris's house, but the other boy was no longer playing darts. Now he sat on the back deck with a red-headed boy and a girl with curly brown hair.

The ginger looked up and saw us. A grin split his face and he nudged his companions. "Hey look," he shouted. "It's Cryberius Tiberius."

Max turned away and walked quickly to the street corner.

"Where you going, Cryberius?" the boy called.

Ambria growled and opened her mouth. I grabbed her arm and led her away before she engaged in a shouting match.

"Why'd you do that?" she said. "That boy needs to watch his mouth."

"Yes, but if you'll remember, we don't want to draw attention to us," I said. "We don't own the house we live in, and I don't want them knowing my last name."

She pursed her lips as if she wanted to argue, but sighed instead.

Max was already on his broom, a smile plastered on his face. "Ready?"

"Are you okay, Max?" Ambria patted his arm.

"I'm fine, geez." His broom rose higher. "Let's go."

We hopped on our brooms and levitated next to him.

Simply hovering on a broom made me feel immediately better. It made me feel free. "Race you to the top," I said to Max.

"Oh, no you don't!" Max called after.

I looked back and saw him gaining on me. Ambria, the least experienced of us, lagged far behind, an angry frown on her face. I had my mother—or at least her soul fragment—to thank for my piloting skills. My mother had once been a champion boom racer before she became a villain.

I crested the cliff's edge and continued to climb until I hovered above the trees. The crystal dome of the library sparkled in the distance, reflecting sunlight on the towering spires of Arcane University on the other side.

"First one to the stadium wins!" Max shouted as he sped past.

"Wait up!" Ambria called from below.

I zipped after Max. We dodged between trees and flashed over the Unicorn Garden. The walls of Colossus Stadium loomed a few hundred yards away. I lowered my head and hugged the broomstick for better aerodynamics. Slowly but surely, my broom gained on Max.

Our brooms were identical and we flew at top speed. I didn't think it was possible to catch him before we reached the stadium. My mother's experience took control and steered me directly behind Max. Suddenly, I began to overtake him rather quickly. Just before we reached the stadium, I flicked the broom handle to the right and pulled even with him. It would have been a tie, but my feet tapped the stirrups in an alternating pattern, causing my broom to waggle.

Max shouted in surprise as he lost ground and I crossed the finish line first.

I spun to a stop. A grin should have been on my lips. Instead, I felt somewhat disturbed.

"What was that move?" Max said.

"I don't know." I bit my lip. "It was something Della knows how to do. I don't know how it slowed you."

"Della?" he asked.

I tapped a finger to my temple. "That's what I call her soul fragment."

"Weird." He waved it away. "I think I know what happened." Despite his loss, Max looked happy. "You shifted your slipstream into mine and caused more air to drag on my broom." He put a hand on his chin. "It's brilliant. If I can learn how to do that, I could become an amazing broom racer."

"I wish I could explain it," I said. "For some reason, getting right behind you made me go faster." The answer flashed into my head.
Aerodynamic slipstream reduces friction.
The thought must have come from my father's soul fragment, because it sounded more scientific than magical.

Ambria coasted to a stop, an angry scowl clouding her face. "Why do you idiots always want to race?" She huffed. "You know I can't keep up. I nearly hit the trees at the top of the cliff."

"You should have seen what Conrad did." Max didn't seem the least bit fazed by Ambria's frustration. "I should've won, but he pulled off a brilliant move at the end."

"Do I look like I care?" Ambria's glare could have burned a tree to ash.

Max looked away from her and toward the stadium. "Uh, let's go inside and practice."

We flew over the walls and into the derelict structure. Colossus Stadium had once been a grand venue where giant golems built by students from Arcane University fought equally proportioned robots from Science Academy. It had been severely damaged during the Second Seraphim War about six years ago and never repaired.

Broken rocks littered the muddy field. Black scars marred the stands, and broken flag poles hung from their holders far above. Some parts of the fallen goliath golems were still recognizable. A giant head with a single crystal eye lay near the center of the field. A massive hand rested against a wall. A towering pair of roughly hewn feet stood upright, as if ripped off the goliath during battle.

We landed in a clearing near the giant head. Ambria took off a satchel and set up a stool with a candle. She paced off ten feet and dug her heel into the mud to mark the spot. She unrolled a scroll and read it aloud. "Using magic, light a candle from a distance of ten paces. Snuff the candle with magic afterward. Consider which spells are sufficient for the task."

"That's easy," Max scoffed. "
Ignitus
and
ventus
."

"Why do all spells end with 'us'," I asked. "Did someone make them up?"

"Supposedly, the words don't matter." Max withdrew his wand from a pocket. "After the war, they decided to standardize all the spells and used Ezzek Moore's original spell book to do it."

"Well, they all sound a bit ridiculous." Ambria regarded the candle. "Though, commanding a candle to simply burn sounds a bit boring." She took a deep breath, flicked the wand toward the candle, and said in a commanding voice, "
Ignitus
!"

The wick burst into flame.

Ambria hopped up and down, clapping her hands. "I did it!"

Max snorted. "I should hope so. I know you've been secretly practicing."

She gave him a stern look. "I know you've been practicing too."

"Yeah, because I didn't want to look bad." Max's admission was honest, if not a little smug.

I hadn't practiced at all.

"Well, can you put it out?" Max put his hands on his hips and looked at the burning candle.

"Of course." She turned, drew in a breath and flicked her wand at the candle. "
Ventus
," she whispered. The flame flickered fitfully and puffed away. Ambria flourished a hand toward the spot where she stood. "Your turn, Max."

Max cracked his knuckles, stretched his arms over his head and took the position.

Movement near golem head drew my attention. I saw a face with inhumanly large eyes vanish behind cover.
Who was that?
I heard Max loudly grunting as if he intended to lift one of the nearby boulders rather than light a candle. I knew it would be polite to watch him, but decided instead to investigate the person.

"Well, are you going to do something?" Ambria said.

Max groaned. "Be quiet for a minute. I'm mentally preparing myself."

I walked toward the golem head and peered around it. A foot disappeared around the boulder behind it. Jogging now, I jumped around the corner and saw a young girl's startled face. With long green hair and silvery skin, she didn't look like any kind of girl I'd seen before.

"Who are you?" I asked.

She danced back, huge eyes growing round. A glimmering dress floated around her body like sunlight sparkling on mist. She didn't answer, backing up, the fear on her face morphing to caution. Pointed ears poked through her long straight hair and I found myself staring rudely.

I pointed to my chest. "I'm Conrad."

Head tilted, she leaned forward. "Conrad." Her voice was delicate and musical. "Conrad," she said again, her strange accent rolling the "r".

I nodded encouragingly. "Yes, Conrad." I dared a step forward. "What's your name?"

She spoke haltingly, as if speaking a foreign language. "What's your name?"

"I already told you my name." I pointed to myself again. "My name is Conrad."

"Where did he go?" Ambria said just before bumping into my back.

The girl's eyes flared and she jumped back. She pointed at me and shouted, "Conrad!"

"Who and what in the world is that?" Ambria asked.

"What's going on over here?" Max barged onto the scene.

With that, the girl giggled, turned, and ran.

I chased after her.

"Who was that?" Max said.

Round the boulders we ran, dodging this way and that until we entered the clearing near the stadium's main gates. The girl ran with a prancing gait, almost like a deer and nearly as fast. She reached the gate and ducked through a large hole in the base.