The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword) (27 page)

Panic
hits in waves when the stone city from Gran’s journal comes into view. We’re so close and I have nothing planned. Worse, I don’t see any sign of the dragon. Where could it be?

No one questions us or gives us a second glance as we roll into the city and stop in front next to a couple of tro
ughs full of water and grain for the horses.

Farah leaps out of the cart, startles a couple of
animals already tied to posts, and starts gulping up the water before Paul’s horses have a chance. 

I’d considered putting an illusion on her until I remembered, oh yeah, I used up all of my dust already. At least no one here seemed to be freaking out like they would be in a city in my world.
Still, no one is particularly happy to see a chimera running around, and they keep eying the three of us to figure out who is controlling her.

“You mind watching after
Nyx while I’m gone?”

I pat the straw together to give
Nyx some shelter. I don’t know what the wizards would do if they saw him, maybe nothing, but I don’t want to take the chance. I’d leave Farah too, but I know there’s no way I could make her stay.

Paul doesn’t answer since he’s too busy helping Rose out of the cart.
 

“Is there no way I can convince you not to go?” He keeps hold of Rose’s hand long after she tries to pull away. “Or perhaps I could go with you.”

I cough to hide my laughter at the face Rose is making. She notices and tries to signal for my help, but I pretend to be too fixated on Nyx to notice.

Paul doesn’t see Rose’s gestures or he doesn’t care. While continuing to hold her hand, he places his other hand on her chin to force her to look at him.

“I can protect you.”

“I’ll be fine.”

When he continues to force her to stare at him for an uncomfortable amount of time, it stops being funny and starts being awkward.

“Paul.” I say loud enough I know he won’t be able to ignore me. “
Nyx? Will you watch him? Feed him regularly, and give him something to drink. But most of all, keep him out of sight.”

His shoulders slump and he lets go of Rose. She flashes me a scowl as though to say
‘finally.’

“Your creature will be fine,” he says without taking his eyes off Rose. “I hope
Aldric appreciates the risks you’re taking for him.”

Rose’s jaw tightens and her voice is tense as she says, “He does. Good bye Paul.”

She stomps away, appearing to be mad enough to punch the next person who tries to talk to her. I give her space before jumping from the cart.

“Smooth,” I say to Paul as I leave. “Next time why not tell her she looks fat. You’d probably insult her less.”

I whistle to Farah and she pulls her heads out of the water to lope after me, leaving huge drops behind her.

It doesn’t take long to catch up with
Rose, though I wish she’d slow down. The sooner we’re at the University, the sooner I’ll be forced to follow through on Rilla’s orders.

I grab Rose’s arm
when the University comes into view and stop her from going any further.

“We need to
come up with a plan,” I say. “We can’t go blundering in and hope to find out anything without a plan of attack.

She takes the time to examine the gate guarded by two wizards and the rest of the building’s exterior. Her jaw sets in a stubborn manner, making me think she might have a good idea.

“We should split up,” she says. “It’ll be easier to cover more ground, and besides, no one will perceive us as a threat if we’re alone.”

She might have
a plan, but it’s definitely not a good one.

“It may be easier, but it’s not safer.”

Rose dips down to adjust the knives she has hidden in her boots. “It’ll be fine. Unless you’re afraid?”

“What? No.” The words tumble out of my mouth though at this moment I’m so scared, I’m trembling. We’re walking into a building full to the brim of wizards. The enemy. And I have a spell on me to
force me to give them one of the world’s biggest secrets. What’s there to be nervous about? “I’m worried about you. Farah will have my back, but who’ll have yours?”

“Like I said, they won’t see me as a threat.” She adjusts her dress to show more cleavage and lets her hair down to curl around her shoulders. “I’
ll be a harmless girl asking about Aldric. And don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye out for your little blue bag as well.”

Before I have a chance to think of a strong enough argument
against the plan, she starts walking toward the guarded gate.

“Wait a few minutes before following,” she says over her shoulder. “We don’t want them to connect the two of us.”

If she knew what I am supposed to do the moment I walk into the University, she wouldn’t be so eager to leave me alone. Unfortunately, I can’t say a thing. At least the headache isn’t as bad as usual. Probably because I’m so close to fulfilling the spell’s requirements.

Rose easily
moves past the guards. They don’t even question her, though they definitely take a good long look at her from every angle. I shouldn’t be surprised. This is a building full of males which makes someone like Rose a novelty. The guards are easily won over by her nice hair and the amount of skin she’s showing.

I run my hand through my short, spiky locks and sigh. As easy as
my hair is to deal with at this length, it might be time to grow it out. It’s hard to pretend to be innocent when you look as badass as me.

After what I deem to be long enough, I call Farah
over and bend to scratch all of her ears in turn.

“Stay close, you hear?” I wiggle my finger at her so she knows I mean business. “No w
andering off. Who knows what these jerks will do with you if they see you running around on your own.”

It’s hard to know for sure, but it seems like she understands me. Whether or not she’ll follow my orders is another thing entirely.

When my headache worsens, I realize I’m stalling. I take a deep breath to calm myself before setting my expression to a steely gaze and walking with all of the confidence in the world toward the gates.

The two
guards step in front of me the moment I come close. The poles of their long glaives cross and the curved blade at the top catches the sun’s light and shines. What the hell? Rose walks by with no problem, but I warrant all of their attention as though I’m the most dangerous person in the world.

Actually, I’m flattered.

“What business do you have here?” The taller one shoves his glaive in my direction to emphasis each word.

Farah doesn’t take well to this and starts a low
, whining growl. I’m not sure how they could have missed her before, what with her being nearly the size of a small horse, but it’s only after she growls they pay any attention to her.

“A chimera?” The guard’s eyes widening in fear for only a moment before they narrow on me. “No witch can control something so strong. Whose minion do you travel with and why do you have it?”

My heart starts beating harder. Damn it. I can’t exactly tell them how I came about meeting Farah, especially the part where I locked her previous owner inside my old cell phone. Wizards all think of each other as brothers. Even if they never knew Borin, they’d be unhappy with me, and I’m sure they’d show it with a glaive through the throat.

“Farah.” I growl at her to avoid the subject of for a little longer. “Behave.”

“Farah?” A thin guard with a short, graying beard relaxes his grip on the glaive. I take it as a good sign. “This is Borin’s pet?”

Another guard recognizes the name and his eyes flick back and forth between Farah and me. “Aren’t those two supposed to be inseparable?” he says. “What’s the beast doing here with
her
?”

Of course no one knows what happened to
Borin. It all happened in another world, and there had been no one left to tell the story after we took out Stewart.

I place a hand on my hip to show I’m bored with this conversation and tell them, “
Borin sent me.” The guards want more, so I have to think fast. Why would he send someone here and not come himself? Unless his mission isn’t done. “I have an update on his progress. I’m supposed to deliver it to Headmaster Victor.”

“You can give the update to me,” the tall guard says. “I’ll deliver it to Victor.
”

Having him argue with me only makes it easier to adopt a stubborn expression. “I’m to deliver the message directly.”

The bearded man leans against his glaive while his hand strokes his facial hair. “It’s about time Borin sent word. He’s well past overdue.”

“You’re not suggesting we should let her pas
s.” The tall guard looms over the bearded one as though trying to intimidate him, but beardy doesn’t seem to notice.

“I’m not suggesting anything,” he says. “She clearly is in her right to enter the University, and we have no reason to stop her.”

“She’s a witch,” the tall one says. “That’s all the reason we need.”

Beardy doesn’t bother arguing any more, and it’s clear the tall one expects to follow the older man’s lead.
After a glaring match between the tall one and myself, he finally steps away, but not before saying, “I’ll be watching you.”

As I saunter past, the bearded one winks and smiles. “Good luck, darling,” he says. “You’ll need it in this place.”

The friendliness of the bearded guy is confusing to say the least. I can understand the fear and distrust from the other one. After all, I feel the same towards them. But to have someone working for wizards wish me luck? Well, I have to assume the world’s about the end.

I finger the scroll
Rilla gave me. With the way things are going right now, the end of the world might be imminent.

Almost the minute I walk through the doors into the main building of the University, a loud church bell starts going crazy, blasting my ears. It lasts only a few seconds, but the chaos it causes is incredible. Out of every door in the corridor come ten to fifteen boys, anywhere between five and eighteen years of age. They
barely notice me as they run around, rough housing, shouting and generally being extremely loud.

Farah leans against me and growls any time one
is too close, but they don’t seem bothered by her. They only glance at her and then give her some space before carrying on with whatever they’d been doing.

I weave my way through the packs of boys
while dodging a few stray fists and learning some of the most fascinating new swears words. I’ll have to test some of those out later.

Eventually I make it past the worst of the crowd a
nd to an area where the ceiling reaches up three or four stories. It’s impressive, though there’s nothing here other than a few pillars holding up the ceiling, decorations of snakes eating their own tails and other strange animals carved into the stone.

What’s
weirder about the space is the lack of people in it. With all the open area, you’d think the boys would be using every inch for games and other childish behavior. I know when I was a kid, I’d never let a place like this go to waste.

My neck starts to ach
e from stretching it for a better view of the ceiling. I don’t know why, but I feel like there’s something important I’m trying to see just beyond the shadows of the rafters.

Farah’s whine brings my attention back to what’s directly around me.

“You’re right. I can’t put it off. I have to find the headmaster.”

I lean over to pet her, but my hand only touches fur for a second before
she’s gone. Without any warning, Farah takes off at full speed. She doesn’t seem to care where she’s going so long as it’s not here. I follow, but she’s too fast, and in a matter of seconds she’s squeezed past a surprised kid and into a room protected by a huge wooden door.

The kid glances at me and then scurries away to join the others further down the corridor. He’s probably going to tell all of his friends how I lost control over my chimera and then the guards will come and kick us both out. What’s wrong with her anyway?

I don’t make it more than three feet closer to the door before a disembodied voice says, “Don’t.” 

I spin to face the wizard, expecting I’ll have to do some
quick thinking to avoid a fight. But when I turn, no one’s behind me. I spin in a full circle, inspecting every inch of the hallway I can see. Nothing.

But that’s not possible. I heard someone speak. There has to be so
meone around here. Unless of course it was magic. But a magic voice? It seems pointless.

A shuffling sound draws my attention back up to the rafters. At first I still can’t make out anything in the shadows, but then a pair of bare feet appear, followed by the legs and body of a person as they drop to the floor in front of me.

He should have broken his legs. Or his spine or head. Something. He definitely should not have hit the floor without making a sound and casually stuck his hands into his pants pockets while taking a few relaxed steps around me. There’s no question. He has to be a wizard, but definitely a young one. I’d have guessed late teens, though why he’s here when he’s obviously already stolen a sorceress’s magic is beyond me.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he says.

He leans toward me and slowly takes a hand out of his pocket. With one finger he pokes my cheek and then pulls away before I can react. Not that I’d know how to. How am I supposed to deal with something so weird?

“Yo
u’re a girl, right?” he asks. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell.”

Definitely time to grow out the hair.

“Yeah,” I say. “I’m a girl. And what are you supposed to be?”

I cross my arms
as I examine him. He’s probably over six feet tall, with a slim, wiry build. His pants are short and are meant to be worn with boots though he has none. He has on a well fitting, though ordinary, off white shirt and his only distinguishing feature is his shaggy green hair which matches his eyes perfectly. Still, there’s something about him that makes it impossible for me to turn away.

“
Isn’t it obvious?” He runs his hand through his hair, tugging at the end for a better look at it, not that it’s long enough for him to see anything more than the ends. “It’s the hair isn’t it? I’ve wanted to cut it, but I have no idea what will happen if I do.”

My pounding head reminds me I’ve wasted enough time already. I need to find Farah and keep moving. But as I head toward the door Farah escaped through, something odd happens. One second
the guy’s behind me, and the next, he’s an inch from my face.

“Didn’t I tell you not to go in there?” he asks.

He’s so close I can smell his breath. Fresh fried bacon. Not like he ate some, but like it’s being cooked in his mouth as he speaks. How can anyone’s breath smell so mouth watering?

“How did you...?” I glance back to where he had been standing and then to him again. Definitely magic and well beyond anything Gran ever showed me. And I thought wizards were supposed to be frug
al with their magic since it’s so hard for them to steal. “It doesn’t matter. I need to go in there. My... Farah is in there.”

“You mean your chimera?”
 

He must have been watching us. “Yes. My chimera. She might be in trouble, so I have to find her.”

“In trouble?” He leans back and laughs, the action causing his entire body to shake. “You’re serious?” I give him a look to tell him I am. “You’re a human. You don’t care about your pets.”

Human? As if he isn’t. Besides, I don’t know what people are like in this world, but if he’d ever gone on the internet he’d know people are obsessed with their pets.

“She’s important to me.”

Ugh. The headache is only getting worse, but although I don’t feel particularly threatened by the guy, I can’t bring myself to simply walk around him and continue on my way.

He sticks his face into mine and I swear he actually sniffs my neck. When he pulls away from me, he looks even more perplexed than I feel.

“And yet,
” he says, “I believe you actually do care.”

I’
m not sure if his knowing how attached I am to Farah is a good thing or not. Generally I’d say not since when it comes to wizards, they’ll use any weakness they can find against you. But for whatever reason, I don’t think this guy’s like most wizards. I don’t know why, but I actually kind of trust him. Maybe it’s the hair, or the slightly eccentric attitude, but he seems like an all right guy. And cute in a baby face kind of way.

Still, I don’t have time to hang out.

“Thanks for the chat,” I say. “It was... interesting. See you around.”

Although he doesn’t physically make an attempt to stop me as I
move past him and head toward the door, he definitely doesn’t approve of it either.

“You can’t go in there.” His tone is a mix between a warning and a plea.
“Don’t make me hurt you.”

I don’t like to be told what to do at the best of times, but
the amount I’ve been threatened in the past two days has brought me to a breaking point. I spin, ready to spit out a bunch of insults and my own threats, but the moment our eyes lock, I lose every thought in my head. He looks so sad with his shoulders slumped in defeat and those eyes. How does he make them so large, like a lost puppy? He’s not at all the bullying wizard I’d been readying myself to go up against.

All I manage to say to him is
, “Who are you?”

It seems to be the right thing to say. His mood improves instantly as a smile takes over his entire face.
 

“You don’t know?” He leans against one of the posts, his hands in his pockets. The picture of innocence. “I suppose that
helps explain the lack of fear.”

I can’t help but laugh. Although I’m sure he
has the power of a wizard, nothing about him feels dangerous. He’s too relaxed and his grin is too playful. 

“I don’t scare easily.”

He shrugs and seems pleased with my response. “Fair enough.” 

He kicks away from the wall and leans into me, bringing his face incredibly close to mine once again. Anyone else, I’d be pulling away and demanding he give me my space, but with him, I feel like moving would be like losing a challenge of some kind. Besides, it’s fun being so close to him. His face seems to morph
into something rougher and much older for a second as my eyes adjust to the proximity. 

“But if you knew who I am,
” he says, “you’d know I’m not jesting when I tell you not to go through that door.”

“I don’t doubt you’re serious.” I know I shouldn’t be goading him, but I can’t help it. It’s like he’s begging me to tease him. “I’m simply not scared of a boy who doesn’t wear boots.”

He looks down at his feet and wiggles his toes as though to see what I’m talking about. As he does I step away and make it all of the way to the threshold before he stops me again. This time I’m sure he must use magic as he materializes in the doorway, stretched out to block the space.

“Please don’t,” he says. “You have no idea how hard it is to find someone who will actually converse with me in this place. I’d hate to have to kill you.”

“I don’t see how it could be so difficult for you,” I say. “You’re such a charming person. Now let me through.”

I give him a shove, thinking his precarious position will force him to move to catch his balance, but I might as well have pushed a stone wall.

“Why this room?” His face brightens with an idea. “How about I show you around? I can take you to areas of the building where you actually are allowed.”

I
peek around him and see a few shelves of books. It looks like the room might be a library of some kind, but I don’t see Farah anywhere.

“Farah’s in there,” I say. “I need to find her.”

“She’ll be fine.” He places an unforgiving hand on my shoulder and forces me to turn around. How can someone so wiry be so strong? “Trust me. Besides, I can show you areas no other human has gone for over a century. Aren’t you at all curious?”

Of course I am. Whoever this guy is, he knows exactly what buttons to press with me. But I shouldn’t leave Farah. She’ll probably be fine, but what if I’m wrong and she needs my help?

“And if I make a break for it into the room?” I ask.

He doesn’t hesitate. “I’ll be
forced to kill you.”

“What’s in there that’s so important?”

For a moment I’m sure he’s not going to tell me and then he sighs. “There are books on magic no outsider has seen in over fifty years. Believe me, you are not the first to try to enter the room. However, you have a chance to be the first to survive the attempt. Come with me now.”

The problem is, between the
strength of his grip on my shoulder and the magic he’s casually thrown around already, I’d be a fool not to believe him. As much as I hate the idea of leaving Farah behind, I can’t think of any alternative.

“All right.” I sigh. “Lead on.”