Conrad Edison and the Anchored World (Overworld Arcanum Book 2) (19 page)

After they climbed on their brooms and flew away, I stood staring at the sky for a long moment, wondering if a realm existed where Cora might still be alive. Was there an afterlife, or was her beautiful soul lost forever?

I imagined a wise old woman sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles working furiously. After a time, she would hold up a shimmering new soul she'd just completed. "Oh, this one is the loveliest I've made in a while," she'd say. "It will be special."

Beautiful, special souls shouldn't be wasted on oblivion.

"Please still be out there, Mum." It felt like a prayer. I didn't believe in gods, but I believed in Cora. She had taken me, this lifeless lump of clay, and molded it into something better despite all the evils in my life that had tried to twist me into something bad. I would never want to disappoint her.

I dearly cared for my friends and valued their advice, but at times like this, I wished there was someone older and wiser I could turn to for advice. The only person who came close to fitting that role was Galfandor, only because he already knew all there was to know about me. There was one other place he might be if he wasn't at the school. I ran a hand down the polished wood handle of my broom until it found the grooves of the etched symbols enchanted with the flight spells.

The broom hovered in place with a simple twist. I climbed onboard and directed it up the hill toward Moore Manor where the headmaster lived. The shout and clang of people doing noisy work echoed from somewhere ahead. The road curved around a section of forest to my right that concealed the estate of Moore Manor. An unpleasant smell bit my nose just before a work crew came into sight.

Burly men beat the old worn road with sledgehammers, tearing loose cobblestones while another group stood around a large barrel filled with steaming pitch. I realized that was the source of the foul smell. No one paused in their work to watch me flit past and take a right down the gravel road toward the mansion.

A flutter of white caught the corner of my eye. I spotted people in white robes kneeling and chanting on earth blackened by demonic symbols once used in an attack on the mansion. Slowing to watch them, I wondered if they were healing the earth. Another group on the other side of the road tended to the large demon-summoning rune there as well.

I came to a stop in front of a marble statue of Ezzek Moore. The robed sculpture looked to the stars, his hand raised as if trying to pluck a heavenly body from its perch. A tablet at the bottom read:

Here lie the ashes of one man who lived many lives: Moses, father of the Arcanes, Ezzek Moore, founder of Arcane University, and Jeremiah Conroy protector of Eden. Despite the demon-ravaged earth, life once again sprouted here in the spot he died. May he be remembered so long as Eden lives.

A perfect circle of white lilies and grass grew around a small sapling that had grown considerably since the last time I'd seen it. I knew from studying that Ezzek Moore would be a large part of my history class. I looked forward to learning more about him.

"Hmm, yes," said a soft voice from my side.

I flinched and tumbled off my broom.

Galfandor looked down at me, amusement dancing in his bright blue eyes. "Apologies, young Edison." He reached down a hand and tugged me to my feet.

I finally recovered from the surprise. "I didn't know you were there."

"You stood here for quite some time." The headmaster stroked his beard. "Oh, there's no shame in it, of course. I find myself contemplating the man behind the statue."

"Did you know him?" I asked.

Galfandor made a thoughtful noise and changed the subject. "So, young man, what brings you out here?"

I looked around at the people in the woods. "Well, it's top secret."

"Come inside then." He headed toward the house. The large wooden door swung silently open at a touch, and closed just as quietly behind me.

It was no wonder the old man had been able to sneak up on me. I suspected he enjoyed it. Rather than lead me to his sitting room, Galfandor walked up the stairs just past the foyer and turned right at the top. The bubble of boiling liquid accompanied by the hiss of said liquid hitting fire reached my ears before I followed Galfandor into a room with a flickering orange glow. A large black iron kettle hung over a large stone hearth in the center of the room. The chimney in the ceiling funneled red smoke up and away, but it hadn't done anything to keep the foul odor from the room. It smelled like rotting broccoli and cow manure.

Despite the stink, I thought he might be preparing supper, but a quick look at the strange contents inside the kettle told me otherwise. "What is this?"

He chuckled. "An attempt at divination in the old ways." The headmaster took a large wooden spoon and stirred the concoction. "It's going rather poorly, I'm afraid."

Something shaped like a lizard bobbed to the top. I shuddered and backed away. "How is it supposed to work?"

Galfandor stared into the bubbling liquid. Water spattered over the edge and hissed angrily down the side of the kettle until it steamed away. "The ingredients that boil to the top are supposed to indicate something about the future, but I believe I misread them."

"What did they say?"

He picked up a piece of parchment from a nearby table and showed it to me. The neatly quilled ink said,
From starlight, danger.
"Unless the stars fall, I can't fathom what danger it means."

My stomach went tight with apprehension. "I think I know what it means."

Galfandor raised an eyebrow. "Another whisper from your parents' souls?"

"We went through the rift to the other world," I said quickly.

His eyes flashed surprise. With a flick of his wand, he snuffed the fire beneath the kettle and motioned me to follow him. We settled in the sitting room downstairs, a steaming pot of Earl Grey tea on the table between us. I took mine with a little milk and savored the strong flavor.

Galfandor dribbled milk into his tea. "I'm ready for your account, young Conrad."

I took a moment to rewind my memories back to the best starting place. Cora's face intruded when I closed my eyes, so I left them open and started with the green pebble. "Evadora wanted me to retrieve this pebble." I showed it to him.

The headmaster took it in his hand and rubbed it. "I sense great power and gravity in such a small package." He weighed the stone in his hand. "It's incredibly dense."

Letters and numbers from complex equations flashed through my mind.
Denser even than osmium
, my father said. I'd noticed the weight, but had been too preoccupied to analyze it. "Somehow, it enables me to travel through water into a place Evadora calls the reflected world."

At this, Galfandor nearly dropped his tea. With a trembling hand, he set his teacup back on the platter. "You have been there, I take it?"

I nodded. "Evadora told us to be careful so our reflections didn't catch us."

"There are places we were never meant to visit, Conrad." His voice was sterner than usual. "This stone bends the natural order. Using it in such a manner could completely break the foundation and invite chaos."

For a moment, fear tightened its grip on my heart when I considered he might not return Cora's legacy to me. Galfandor regarded it for a while longer, then set it in the center of the table.

I reached out and took it. "Does this mean you trust I won't break the world?"

He shrugged head. "I simply want you to be aware of the implications."

"What do you know about the reflected world?" I asked.

"Enough to know how dangerous it is." Galfandor flicked his hand to the side. "Continue your story, please."

I didn't want to continue. I wanted him to tell me what he knew about the world where my frightening reflection roamed free. For example, when I jumped into the water, why wasn't my reflection already there? How did it know I was there in the first place? But the firm resolve in Galfandor's eyes stopped me from peppering him with questions. I briefly considered trading him for information, but I was the one who'd come to him for advice and possibly comfort, not the other way around.

I shared the story with him. My chest constricted with pain when I told him the Glimmer Queen's relationship to Cora. Somehow, I managed to push through without crying. Half an hour later, I'd laid out everything for him, including how mine and Max's reflections had chased us. I felt it offered me some wiggle room to ask him about that strange place. "What would have happened if our reflections caught us?"

The headmaster picked up the teapot and poured himself another cup. He poured in a bit of milk, stirred, and took a sip. His blue eyes settled on me for what seemed like a long time, though it might have only been a second. I almost looked away, but it felt too much like the times I'd faced the old bull at the Goodleigh's farm. Sometimes, you had to stare down the beast or you'd get trampled.

I didn't want Galfandor trampling on my right to receive answers.

He set the cup on the platter. "The reflections have no souls, Conrad. They are, in a sense, not real at all."

"They seemed real when they were running at me," I said. "They looked evil."

"What you saw was their emptiness," the headmaster replied. "They lust after one thing, and that is to be real." He stood up abruptly and paced away from the table. "Unless you plan on giving up your soul, Conrad, do not let your reflection touch you."

I flinched at the suddenness of his departure. "Yes, sir."

Galfandor stopped in the doorway. "As for the Glimmer Queen and your parents, I believe you're right." He turned to face me. "If the Glimmer folk, in all these millennia, have been unable to cure their dispassion while retaining immortality, I doubt your parents will discover the solution."

His affirmation gave me more comfort than I wanted to admit. I was just a boy who barely knew magic. My parents were probably too powerful for even someone like Galfandor to fight. What hope would I have against them?

The old man smiled reassuringly. "Besides, I am quite confident your parents aren't truly looking for their help at all—at least not in the way they've led the queen to believe."

My face screwed up with confusion. "But I heard them talking to Serena about it."

"Yes, but what you overheard could be interpreted many ways." He leaned against the doorframe. "Turn it around in your head, Conrad."

"Turn what around?" I imagined an army of Glimmer people marching through the rift and invading Queens Gate. I reversed the process, picturing my parents leading an army to invade the Glimmer. It didn't make sense. Why would they want to conquer such a dreary world? "You think my parents want to rule the Glimmer?"

"The Glimmer Queen told you herself that her people were mortal before the Sirens anchored the realms." He folded his arms across his chest and waited.

I took his silence as another chance to solve this riddle. The Glimmer folk were mortal, then the Sirens gave them immortality as payment for shattering their world.

Gave them immortality.

I thought back to what Delectra had said.
They will pave the way to our eternal rule.

Suddenly, I knew what my parents really wanted.

Chapter 16

I blurted the answer. "My parents don't want the Glimmer Queen's army. They want her immortality."

Galfandor's grin widened. "Precisely."

"But how?" I held up the stone. "Queen Naeve thought this piece of the anchor stone might be the answer, but Cora still died."

He held up a finger. "An excellent question." The old man stepped outside the sitting room. "I am curious how your parents found out about the Glimmer. Only one other person has ever written about it."

I followed him into the hallway. "Who?"

"Ezzek Moore, of course." Galfandor stroked his beard. "When Evadora said the old man put the crack in the world, I believe she referred to him." His eyes narrowed as if trying to see into the past.

"What did he write about the Glimmer?" I asked.

"In one of the letters Ezzek wrote to his close friend, Alexander Tiberius, Ezzek made a passing mention to the Glimmer—more of a clue, really." Galfandor walked away without another word, and I hurried to catch up. We entered a tall room that stretched several stories high. Bookshelves lined every square inch of wall. The scent of leather and paper mingled pleasantly with that of old wood.

He went directly to a free-standing shelf in the center of the room, hefted a thick black book from it, and laid it out on a sturdy oak table. The headmaster flipped open the book to reveal yellowed parchments covered in quilled ink. Thick red thread bound them together. Galfandor screwed up his lips. "Now which letter was that?" he murmured to himself. A few moments and several pages later, he proclaimed, "Aha," and pointed to a page. He flipped it around to me.

I tell you there is no other explanation but that the realms were once one. I have found the glimmering anchor holding them together and realized its secret must never be revealed. Only a madman would tempt fate with that sort of power.

The letter changed subjects completely in the next paragraph. "Ezzek found the Glimmer and decided it was dangerous for anyone else to know about." I frowned. "If it was supposed to be a secret, how did you get his letter?"

"The ruins of the first mansion held many secrets," Galfandor said. "Before I decided to rebuild, I took the time to search the remains and found this book of letters stored in an underground vault. Alexander Tiberius and other members of the original Arcane Council stored records here before they moved into their own abodes."

I puzzled over Ezzek's words. "I guess he thought the power of immortality was dangerous."

"I'm certain there's far more to it than that," Galfandor said. "For now, Conrad, I believe you can rest easy. There will be no invasion by the Glimmer Queen. If anything, your parents will be far too busy discovering the path to immortality to bother with us."

"But if they gain immortality, won't they be unstoppable?"