Volinette's Song (8 page)

Volinette reached into her pocket, feeling the weight of the few
Crowns she had there. The coins didn’t amount to a fortune, but she’d earned enough doing odd jobs around the Academy for Master Casto that she was far from destitute. She could stop in an inn, tavern, or halfway house and get a good hot meal and something to drink if she so desired.

There was a narrow alcove in the wall that surrounded the Academy. She slipped into that alcove now, watching the bustle of people as they hurried on their duties around the city. She gnawed on her lower lip, trying to decide what she wanted to do. Curfew was the only thing that would drive her back to the dormitory. She’d have several hours before she had to deal with the other girls again. If she w
ere lucky, maybe she could even make it to her room before the others noticed she was back.

Her hand went to the coins in her pocket again. She and Baris had just eaten, so a meal wasn’t appealing in the slightest. Her best bet, as it often was, would probably just be spending the afternoon in the Great Library. It had never done her wrong before, and burying her thoughts in the stories and glories of the past was just the thing that might ease her nerves.

With a destination and a plan in mind, Volinette slipped from the alcove and set out for the huge stone building that housed an entire wealth of knowledge amassed by Quintessentialists since the Imperium had been founded.

Chapter
Eight

When Volinette stepped out of the Great Library and onto the wide avenue that ran through Blackbeach, the streets were mostly deserted. The respectable folk of the city had retreated behind closed doors, leaving those few who were still out and about to wander at their peril. She wasn’t sure how she’d lost track of the time, but it was the first time Volinette had been out past curfew
. Her heart thundered against her ribs as she made her way back to the Academy. She dared not run, lest she attract too much attention, but she walked as fast as she could.

As she approached the entrance to the Academy grounds nearest to the dormitory, her heart sank. The heavy obsidian gates that separated the schools of magic from the rest of Blackbeach were closed. She could feel the guarding magic dancing along the glass bars as she approached. Volinette swallowed hard. Without the right spell or ritual, there was no way she was going to be able to get into the Academy until morning.

“Who goes there?”

Never before had Volinette been so happy to hear such a gruff voice. The guard that peered at her from the other side of the gate was a stocky man, w
earing thick leather armor inset with obsidian details. He carried a heavy wooden staff that he could, she had no doubt, employ with deadly efficiency.

“My name is Volinette, Sir. I’m an Acolyte in the School of Sorcery.”

“You’re out after curfew, Acolyte. I’m not supposed to open the gate for anyone, for any reason.”

“Please! This is only the first time I’ve missed curfew. Surely you missed curfew once or twice when you were being trained?”

There was a bark of laughter from beyond the gate, behind the wall where Volinette couldn’t see. The guard glanced over his shoulder toward the sound and made a sour face.

“Quiet, you.” He looked back at Volinette, his eyes scanning her from head to foot. “I guess I can make an exception this once.”

He raised a hand and spoke a series of guttural words. The gates pulsed with a faint white glow, then retracted into the wall without making a sound. Volinette had squeezed through them before they were all the way open. She turned to the guard and bowed from the waist.

“Thank you! Thank you so much.”

She heard another bark of laughter and looked up to see a man as thin and willowy as the other guard was stocky, leaning against the wall of the guard hut just inside the gate. He laid a finger aside of his nose and gave Volinette a conspiratorial nod.

The stock guard wagged a finger at her.

“Just remember that this was just this once. If you get caught outside after curfew again and I’m on duty, you’re going to spend the night on the cobbles outside the gate. Understand?”

“Oh, yes
, Sir. Thank you very much.”

Volinette bowed again and hurried down the cobblestone path that led to the dormitory. Every step of the way, she thanked her good fortune that the house-mother for the girls
’ quarters was a notoriously heavy sleeper. She should be able to slip inside and get to her room without anyone else being the wiser.

She eased the dormitory door open, careful to
slide it past the spot where it stuck and squealed in protest if moved with too much force. She flattened her stomach against the door, squeezing between it and the frame in as little space as she could manage. Once she was inside, she closed the door with as much care as she’d opened it. She pressed her back against the door and closed her eyes, finally able to take a full breath for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

“Well, well, well, what
do
we have here?”

Volinette’s eyes snapped open, though she didn’t need them to know who was standing between her and her room. Sure enough, Janessa was standing there, along with Syble, Halsie, and Nixi. Any hope Volinette had of reaching her room without anyone else knowing she had broken curfew evaporated like breath on a winter morning.

“I can explain—” Volinette stammered, but Janessa and the others just laughed.

“You don’t need to explain anything to
us
,” Janessa said with a wave of her hand. “
We
sneak out after hours all the time. We’re just a little, well, impressed that the perfect Acolyte, Volinette Terris, would be caught out after hours.”

“You’re impressed?”

“Of course,” Janessa laughed. “We didn’t know you had it in you, did we girls?” She waited just a moment for a murmur of assent from the others and then continued, “What were you doing out so late?”

“I was in the Great Library and lost track of time.”

“Oh.” Janessa’s disappointment was palpable. “Well, I guess to each their own. We were just on our way out. You should come with us.”

“Really?” Volinette’s head spun. The change in Janessa’s attitude was simply too extreme to credit, yet the others, whom she expected to protest, were nodding their heads with enthusiasm. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt, just this once…and it would be nice to be included for a change. She’d spent so many nights alone in her room that the prospect of going out and getting into a little innocent mischief was very appealing.

“Yes, it’s going to be a lot of fun.” Janessa lowered her voice to the barest whisper and made a show of glancing around to ensure they were alone, even though the five of them were the only people in the narrow entrance hall to the dormitory. “We’re going to the Hall of Wonders.”

Volinette’s heart skipped a beat. She’d dream
t of seeing the Hall of Wonders since she’d been a little girl. The Hall was where some of the most impressive magical artifacts in the Imperium were displayed. It was normally off-limits, only opened a few times a year for visiting dignitaries or study by exceptional students.

“Oh, I don’t know.”

“Come on,” Syble said in her sing-song voice. “Don’t you want to see? We’ve been there dozens of times. It’s dead simple to get in and out. No one ever knows.”

“It really isn’t a problem,” Janessa agreed. “Unless, of course, you’re too scared to come.”

“I’m not scared,” Volinette protested. “I’m just, well…”

Janessa laughed and shook her head.

“She’s too scared. Come on, girls.”

Janessa stepped around Volinette and the trio followed, shaking their heads in much the same way as their leader. They eased the door open
, and Volinette watched them disappear into the night.

Indecision gripped her. On one hand, she was terrified of
being caught in the Hall of Wonders. She wondered what they did to students who they caught in restricted areas. Even so, she couldn’t possibly be the first Acolyte to sneak into somewhere she shouldn’t be. Syble said it was easy to get in and out. If they’d been in the Hall that many times, surely one more wouldn’t hurt.

“Hey, wait for me,” Volinette called quietly, stepping past the door and closing it behind her.

The four other girls were standing on the cobblestone path, as if they’d been waiting for her. Janessa grinned.

“I figured you wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation. Come on!”

As they wandered down abandoned paths to the tall stone building that housed the Hall of Wonders, Volinette experienced a combination of feelings she’d never felt before. Her heart thundered against her ribs and her palms were slick with a sheen of sweat, but she felt more aware and alive than she’d ever felt in her life.

There were times
when living at home that she’d snuck off into the woods to practice her magic. Forbidden as that was, it never filled her with the sense of danger and intrigue that she felt right now, sneaking along outside the edge of the building with Janessa and the other girls. They moved at a snail’s pace, their backs pressed up against the cold stone wall.

They walked for what seemed to Volinette like hours before Janessa held out a hand and indicated for the rest of them to stop. Janessa spoke words of power, a cantrip of opening that Volinette and the others had practiced in class. To Volinette’s amazement, a large stone slid out of the wall, opening a passage just big enough for the girls to squeeze through as long as they went one at a time.

Syble was the first in, followed by Nixie and Halsie. Volinette paused on the threshold, her nervous eyes darting between the pitch black opening and Janessa, who concentrated on keeping the entrance open.

“Go on,” Janessa commanded, her voice made distant by her split attention between the physical and ethereal realms. “I can’t hold this forever.”

Well,
Volinette thought,
in for a fraction, in for a Crown. I’ve come this far, might as well see it through.

Volinette boosted herself into the hole, wiggl
ed through the narrow space and dropped down to the cool stone floor on the other side. Janessa followed, nearly landing on Volinette as she dropped. Janessa whispered a few words and the wall sealed itself from the outside.

One of the other girls invoked a will-o-wisp, its pale white light illuminating what looked like a storeroom as far as Volinette could tell. There were crates piled up in the corners of the room and pieces of furniture scattered around like a child’s jack-straws. A thick layer of dust coated the room, except for a narrow path between where they stood now and the door
at the far wall. If nothing else, the girls’ boast that they’d done this many times seemed to be an honest one.

In a perverse way, Volinette was comforted by that disturbance in the dust. If Janessa hadn’t lied about that, perhaps the change in her attitude was something Volinette could count on. Growing up in the Terris family had left precious little time for making friends or nurturing friendships. Hours were spent in study and training
, and those that weren’t spent on instruction were spent on chores or tours. Volinette could count on one hand the number of friends she’d been able to maintain over the years, and Baris was the only one she had any contact with now. Having some girlfriends would be a welcome distraction from the stress of their studies.

Thinking of Baris gave her stomach a guilty lurch. When he found out that she’d seen the Hall of Wonders and hadn’t brought him along, he was going to be furious with her. Especially after he’d spent so much time keeping her entertained when she didn’t want to go back to the dormitory in fear of Janessa and the others being there.

She shook her head, trying to dispel the nagging feeling. He’d just have to get over it. She wasn’t going to jeopardize her newfound kinship with her peers to make sure that he got a look at the treasures on display. Besides, Volinette knew where the secret stone was now. She was sure she could open the secret passage into the building and get Baris in on their own. She’d make sure he got a chance to see everything too.

Janessa was crouched by the door on the far wall, her ear pressed against it. The others stood still as statues, and Volinette did her best to do the same. She
felt as if she were still fidgeting, even though she was trying to stand still. The excitement was overwhelming.

“Okay,” Janessa whispered. “The corridor is empty. Let’s go.”

She eased the door open, revealing a passage lit with flickering yellow light. As the girls passed through the door and into the corridor, Volinette realized that the quality of the light was from the oil lamps that hung on lengths of chain that extended down the corridor. These weren’t magic lanterns, they were filled with real oil and burned with a real flame. She was so consumed with wondering who would tend the lanterns in the hall that she didn’t realize that Janessa and the others had gone off without her.

Volinette walked as fast as she could without making any noise. She caught up with Nixi, who was the last of the other girls, in short order. Nixi glanced at her over her shoulder
, and Volinette thought she saw something there, an expression of disgust. The look was so fleeting and so soon replaced by a grin that she thought she must have been mistaken. She put it out of her mind and followed Nixi and the others down the corridor.

They arrived in front of a massive door, the likes of which Volinette had never seen. It was easily ten feet across and looked as if several trees had been uprooted, cut to size, and banded together with thick ribbons of obsidian. It sat in a massive obsidian frame, into which had been incised the sigils of every great
Order in the Imperium. These icons glowed with subdued light, and Volinette could feel the power emanating from them, washing over her in waves.

“Isn’t it great?” Janessa whispered in her ear, a wide grin across her face.

Volinette nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Janessa said.

The older girl extended a hand and closed her eyes. Words of a spell that Volinette had never heard tumbled from her lips. The icons in the doorframe grew brighter, pulsing more quickly in response to the spell being cast in their presence. After a moment, Janessa fell silent and opened her eyes.

For a moment, Volinette thought that whatever spell Janessa had been attempting had failed. As they stood in the corridor outside the impressive door, nothing happened. Volinette wanted to ask what they were waiting for, but didn’t want to appear the fool, so she waited along with the others.