Conrad Edison and the Anchored World (Overworld Arcanum Book 2) (28 page)

Max and I met Ambria for breakfast then went to our first class, Elementary Magic, taught by our warden, Gideon Grace. Like most classrooms, dark hardwood floors and gray wood-paneled walls made the large space look dim. Bookshelves lined the left wall and thirty wooden desks occupied the center of the room, leaving plenty of unused space.

People turned noisily in their desks and stared when we entered the room. Harris, Lily, and Baxter stopped talking and glared at us.

I stiffened to stop from trembling and made my way toward three empty desks across the room from my new archenemy. Rory and Gregory dashed in front of me and took two of the desks.

"Oh, I'm sorry, these are taken." Rory smirked.

Max groaned and turned toward other empty desks. "Let's take these—" before he could finish the sentence, a third boy tossed his coat over one desk and sat in the other.

"Taken." He grinned.

I caught a smug smile from Harris.

Ambria dropped quickly into a desk, but when I tried to take the one next to it, someone else hopped in my way.

My hands trembled with anger. "Get out of my way."

"Yeah, or what?" said the boy.

I noticed the boy had left his backpack next to his original desk in his haste to get in my way. I walked over to his backpack. "Oh, what do we have here?"

"Leave my stuff alone!" He ran over and grabbed his book bag, giving Max a chance to slide into the vacated seat.

Harris and Baxter strode across the room to me, chests puffed out, noses high, and stood between me and the boy with the backpack.

"Leave him alone or I'll report you," Harris said.

I was sick of these stupid games. "Who told you my last name?"

Baxter laughed. "He doesn't even know."

"Maybe you need better friends." Harris bared his teeth in a grin.

I glanced back at Ambria and Max.
It couldn't have been one of them.

Harris shoved me and got in my face. My sore muscles protested and I nearly tripped over the desk behind me.

"I know what the prophecy means," he hissed. "It means I'm supposed to stop you." He leaned even closer. "Maybe I can't do anything now, but the minute you break the law, I will kill you."

Baxter smacked a fist into his palm. "Yeah, with magic."

I wasn't in the mood to argue, and Professor Grace would be here at any moment and take Harris's side. I backed off and shrugged as if I didn't care what he said, though it felt like he'd stabbed me in the stomach with a knife. "Do what you have to do, Harris."

He feinted toward my face with his fist. "Count on it."

I flinched and felt angry with myself for it. Did everyone expect me to follow the path of darkness taken by my parents? I was far too young to embark on world domination.

Max took his feet off a desk next to him and I finally sat down.

Professor Grace strode quickly into the room and to the front. "Take out your wands and make the tips glow."

His command caught everyone off guard, and there was a scramble through backpacks and pockets for wands. I took out mine, flicked it through the pattern, and said, "
Illumus
."

Mine was the first wand to glow. Lily succeeded next, and most of the others followed quickly. Ambria, however, seemed flustered and couldn't get the pattern quite right. I leaned over to help, but Grace called out, "Time's up! Hold up your wands." His gaze locked on Ambria's unlit wand. "Fail." He pointed to another student without a glow on her wand. "Fail." He pointed out three more. "Fail, fail, fail."

Grace took a quill and scratched on a parchment while talked. "Next time, I expect you to be better prepared."

Ambria's eyes welled with tears. "Was that a test score?"

Grace glared at her. "Ask permission before you speak, girl."

Her lips trembled and her eyes widened with hurt. "May I—"

"No." Grace finished writing and stood. "Harris Ashmore, list every spell you can cast on command."

"
Illumus
,
ignitus
,
ventus
,
repellato
, and"—he paused for effect and looked around—"
hadouken
."

Students gasped, as if he'd just made a rather bold claim.

Max grabbed my arm. "There's no way he can perform
hadouken
."

I was still confused. "What does that mean?"

"It's a fireball spell used by Justin Slade." He formed a large ball with his hands. "It was super powerful."

"Impressive." Grace smiled proudly, as if Harris was his own son. "This is not the place, but I expect you to demonstrate
hadouken
for us in the near future."

"My pleasure, professor."

Grace looked around the room. "Does anyone else know any spells not mentioned by Ashmore?"

I almost raised my hand to mention
torsious
, but since I hadn't been able to reproduce it, kept my hand down.

"Hmm, I thought not." Grace went to the chalkboard and drew several diagrams on it. "Can anyone identify these wand patterns?"

I raised my hand. The professor looked right at me then turned and pointed to Lily. "Yes?"

She recited them without pause. "
Ventus
,
ignitus
, and
levator
."

"Can you perform
levator
?" he asked.

Lily shook her head. "Not yet, but I'm working on it."

Grace took out a wand and pointed it toward a piece of parchment on his desk. He flicked his wand. "
Levator
." The paper floated gently into the air. The professor looped his wand and the paper followed with a loop of its own, repeating whatever he did with the wand.

"Since you should have already mastered the spells from the entrance exam, we will work on levitation today." Grace tucked his wand behind his back and paced in front of the room. "First, I'll review the basics in case anyone has forgotten." He held up the wand. "What is this at its most basic level?"

Several students raised their hands.

"Yes?" Grace pointed to a girl.

"A wand."

The professor sighed. "No." every hand went back down except for mine. He stared at me for a moment and finally said, "Yes, Edison?"

"A focus," I replied. "Just like a staff is a focus."

His lip curled into a sneer. "Yes. Can anyone tell me why staffs are sometimes used instead of wands?"

Ambria raised her hand.

Grace ignored her and pointed to a boy with thick glasses in the front row. "Hutchinson."

"Staffs can focus more power," the boy replied.

"Correct. And as we well know, some people believe in nothing but power." His gaze hesitated on me for a second after making the comment and I wondered if it was supposed to be a statement about my parents.

I felt someone else watching me and caught Harris's glare from across the room. I thought back to his comment about needing better friends and suddenly I knew who'd told him my last name.

Blue.

The day of the argument, Ambria had seen her go next door to Harris's. She must have been so angry with me she told him everything. I expected to be furious with her, but felt disappointment instead. I'd yelled at Blue when she'd been nothing but nice to me. She still shouldn't have betrayed our trust, but then again, we hardly knew her. Maybe we shouldn't have trusted her in the first place.

A part of me was happy my secret was out. At least I didn't have to worry about hiding it anymore.

"Well, Edison?"

I blinked away my thoughts and saw Grace and the rest of the class looking at me. I tried to remember what the professor had been talking about, but couldn't recall a single thing he'd said for the past few minutes. "Sorry, what was the question again?"

"The runes," Max hissed. "Say it's the runes."

Before I could answer Grace strode across the room and leaned over my desk. "Report to the common room for cleaning duties after dinner tonight."

"Cleaning duties?"

Laughter echoed around the room. I glanced at Ambria and Max. They looked down at their desks. My face grew hot, but I forced my head to stay up. "Yes, sir."

"Paying attention in my class isn't optional, Edison." Grace straightened. "Who else knows the answer?"

Lily's hand shot up. "The runes."

Max palmed his face.

When the class finally ended, Max, Ambria and I quickly left the room and went down the hall to the Magical Defense classroom. Esma Emoora was already inside and smiled brightly at us. "Hello, Conrad."

"Hello, Professor." I tilted my head in greeting then walked toward the back of the room with my friends.

"Please sit in the front," Esma said. "Only dullards hide in the back row."

Ambria's mouth dropped open, but she turned around and we took the first three desks on the right side of the room. Harris and Baxter entered next, casting dirty looks at us when they walked past. Lily followed close behind and smiled at me briefly before flattening her lips and looking serious. I couldn't tell if her smile was genuine or sarcastic.

"Edison's got maid duties," Baxter taunted.

Harris sneered. "Yeah, better wear an apron."

I ignored them and pretended to talk to Max.

The professor looked from Harris to me, but said nothing. After the last students trailed inside, she stepped to the front of the classroom. "What is magical defense?"

Lily's hand went up. "The ability to protect yourself from harmful magic."

Esma flicked a wand from beneath her robes and aimed it at Lily. "Pop. You're dead."

The girl shrank back, her face pale. "I-I didn't know you were going to do that."

"Precisely, little one." The professor's smile suddenly seemed quite sinister. "The most common defense against spells is a shield." She spun on her heel and aimed the wand at Harris. Light burst from the tip of the wand and zapped him on the nose. "You're dead too."

Harris yelped and fell out of his desk, but seemed otherwise unharmed. Tension filled the room, and everyone had a slightly crazed look in their eyes, probably wondering if they'd be next.

Esma pivoted on her heel and spun our way. Before I knew what was happening, my wand was in my hand. I drew a complex pattern like a cursive S and with each flick of my wand shouted, "
Soros, quoros, eva equas
!" The air in front of me flickered. The professor's attack crackled past my shield and zapped poor Hutchinson who yelped like a hurt puppy.

"Excellent!" Professor Emoora clapped her hands and walked over to my shimmering shield. "This is how you defend yourselves."

"You stung me!" Harris rubbed the end of his nose. "You're not supposed to hurt students."

Esma's lips flattened. "Are you saying a tiny shock of static electricity hurt, little boy?"

Harris stiffened, suddenly aware that his manliness was being called into question. "No, Professor. But we haven't learned shields yet."

Without looking at me, her arm rotated to point at the shield. "Mr. Edison has."

Except I hadn't learned it. Like
torsious
, it was one of those spells I'd never studied.

Lily stared wide-eyed at the shimmer in the air and then at me. I couldn't tell if she thought it was wonderful or terrible. The shield spell finally burned through its aether charge and vanished with a ripple.

Harris's jaw tightened. "If Edison can learn it, so can I."

"We're not supposed to learn that spell until our third year of Magical Defense," Lily said. "It's a multi-cast spell because the shield is formed in layers."

Esma nodded approvingly. "Very observant, Miss Crown. What is the shield we'll learn?"

"
Soros
, the first layer of the Squee shield," she said, "named for the words used to evoke it."

"Precisely, and that is what we'll practice today." Esma frowned and looked around. "This layout will not do. Students, move your desks to form a circle."

There was a brief pause followed by a flurry of movement and the loud scrape of desk legs across the wooden floor. Students bumped into each other and snarled traffic as they all tried to move their desks to the side of the room with Harris Ashmore. My side of the circle consisted of Ambria, Max, Hutchinson, and me.

Esma stared blankly at the students trying to fit in on the overly crowded left side of the room. Finally, she stepped in front of them and waved her wand threateningly. "Other side of the room, please."

Eyes bugging for fear she'd zap them, the students quickly complied until the center of the room was clear and my side of the room was nearly as full as the other. Esma walked into the middle of the desks and smiled sweetly. "Miss Rax and Miss Crown, please come to the center."

Ambria gulped and did as instructed. Lily practically skipped forward.

"I will teach you both this rather simple electricity spell." She pointed her wand forward. "Up, down, quickly side-to-side thrice, and Zzt." A spark of static fizzled through the air. Several students leapt back even though they were in no danger of being hit. A smirk lit Esma's face. "Now, you try it."

Lily got the spell on her first try. It took Ambria three tries to finally summon the sparks.

"Now, you'll learn
soros
, the simplest shield spell." Esma traced a circle with the tip of her wand. "
Soros
." A shield several feet in diameter rippled in the air and vanished a few seconds later.

Ambria screwed up her face in concentration and followed the professor's lead. A sheet of translucent air the size of a dinner plate solidified in front of her. Lily made a slightly larger shield and smiled smugly at Ambria.

"Very good." Esma looked around at everyone. "For the rest of class, we'll take turns casting and shielding."

Nervous gulps echoed.

"Miss Rax, you will shield first." The professor backed away and held up her wand then swung it down in an arc. "Go."

Both girls shouted the words to their spells, but nothing happened. Ambria finally got a shield up on her third try, but it faded away by the time Lily finally zapped her with static. Esma seemed awfully amused. "Now switch."