Conrad Edison and the Anchored World (Overworld Arcanum Book 2) (29 page)

Ambria shocked Lily on her first try, causing the other girl to drop her wand and shriek.

The professor called four more students and paired them off so two groups could go at a time. I practiced the simple shield while I watched. On the fourth round, Max and I were called out to face Harris and Baxter. I glanced at the professor and saw the tiniest smirk on her face.
She planned it this way.

I took a deep breath to ward off my nerves and squared off against Harris. The other boy didn't look quite so confident against me as Baxter did against Max, probably because of my display of magic earlier. He didn't know that was something Vic or Della had managed, not me. Before the teacher gave us the word to go, Harris flicked his wand.

He's cheating!

I traced the shield and cast it just in time to intercept Harris's spell.

"Excellent, young Edison." Esma smiled almost proudly at me. "Winning a battle of spells is mostly about surprise and keeping your opponent off balance.

Max howled and jumped back as Baxter zapped him twice in a row and the professor's smile faded. "It seems some of you have a long way to go."

A bell gonged in the distance and students scrambled for their belongings.

Professor Emoora put away her wand. "Practice your spells tonight, children. Tomorrow we will practice this again."

From the angry look Harris gave me, I knew he'd be ready for me the next time.

Chapter 25

History with Eleanor Beetle was next. The plump little teacher sat on a stool in the front and recited the lesson directly from the history textbook. I barely managed to stay awake when she began to list the founders of the Arcane Council in a monotone voice.

Max rested his head on his hand, eyelids drooping. Ambria nodded off. A thud jerked everyone awake. Max sat up rubbing his forehead where it had hit the desk.

Professor Beetle didn't even look up from her reading.

Max yawned mightily when we sat down for lunch. "I'd rather get zapped in Professor Emoora's class than sit through another snore-fest like that."

"Me too," Ambria said without hesitation. She leaned on the table and looked at me. "Was your shield spell the work of Vic and Della?"

"Yes." My stomach growled noisily as I took the lid off my lunch plate. "If it's anything like the
torsious
spell, I probably won't be able to repeat it."

"Multi-casting is high level stuff," Max confirmed. "By the time you learn that spell you should be able to think the words in your head."

"Yes, thinking is normally done in your head," Ambria said dryly. "I can't believe Grace gave Conrad cleaning duty."

"I can," I mumbled. "He hates me but loves Harris."

Ambria sighed. "He's a rather unpleasant man to begin with."

On that we could all agree.

Max buttered a slice of toast. "There's something we haven't talked about yet." He took a crunchy bite and wiped crumbs from his lips.

Ambria raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"

"The anchor stone." He motioned toward me with his toast. "Mirjana told us how the Glimmer Queen can keep her immortality, so maybe we should tell the queen."

Her forehead pinched. "You think we should tell her?"

Max shrugged and looked at me. "If we tell Naeve, then we'll have solved her problem and she won't help Conrad's parents."

I shoveled down a hunk of brisket and nodded. "Unless the queen was lying."

"Why would she lie?" Max said. "I think we should get this over and done with."

"I agree," Ambria said. "We should also tell her that Conrad's parents didn't plan to help her in the first place. Maybe the queen will help us capture them."

One last spoonful of potatoes and my plate was clean. My stomach made an appreciative noise, but I still felt hungry.

Ambria waved a hand in front of my face. "Well, Conrad, what do you think?"

"I think it's a fine idea." I pointed to her toast. "Are you going to eat that?"

She sighed and handed it to me. "Boys are always hungry."

Max stopped one of the server golems as it took his empty plate. "Can I have seconds?"

The golem didn't seem capable of speaking and walked away.

I ate the toast and thought about telling Naeve the answer to her ancient problem. "I wonder how hard it is to find pieces of the anchor stone."

Max looked hopefully at Ambria's remaining potatoes. "From what Mirjana said, it's not easy."

Ambria huffed and pushed her plate over to Max. "Maybe we should ask Evadora to find a few pieces that we can give to Naeve. I wouldn't want the queen to steal Conrad's pebble."

The thought hadn't occurred to me. "That's a good idea. Maybe we can go to the Glimmer and look for her."

Ambria leaned back in her chair and shook her head rapidly. "I don't want to go through the reflected world or any of that again."

Max paused midway through lifting potatoes to his mouth. "Let's wait for Evadora to come to us. The Glimmer scares me."

I thought back to our mirror counterparts chasing us and wondered if mine still waited on the other side. My reflection looked normal yesterday when I rescued Klave, so maybe I could sneak through again if necessary.

After lunch, we went to Elementary Potions taught by Professor Trask. Her classroom resembled a lab with stations instead of desks for the students and a long table at the front covered in glassware of all shapes and sizes. It reminded me of Percival's table in the healing ward. Cabinets lined the front wall, their shelves laden with jars and bottles of ingredients. Pickled lizards and small brains floated in two of the largest jars.

Ambria stared at them. "Eww. I hope she doesn't expect us to handle tiny brains."

"You handle yours pretty well," Max said with a grin.

Ambria swatted him on the arm.

We were the first to the room so we chose the middle table on the second row from the front. I held my breath as students filed inside and finally let out a sigh of relief when Baxter and Harris didn't appear.

"Four to a table," Trask said.

Students looked around and found tables that needed more partners, but avoided ours until every table had four but ours.

Professor Trask raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak when a straggler walked in. "Miss Crown, I expect you to be here on time."

Lily looked down. "Yes, Professor."

Trask pointed to our table. "Partner with them."

Lily's eyes bugged when she saw us. "But—"

"No buts, Miss Crown." Trask shooed the girl with her hands. "Go."

Keeping her eyes on the floor, Lily walked over to us and took a stool without saying a word.

"We don't bite," Ambria whispered.

"You lied to us," the other girl hissed back. "Besides, Harris is convinced he has to fight you to protect the world."

Max pshawed. "That prophecy is bollox."

Professor Trask's eyes locked onto him. "Mr. Tiberius, since you seem so eager to speak, perhaps you'll tell us the ingredients for a Juji potion."

Judging from the stunned look in Max's eyes, he didn't even know what a Juji potion was. During my studies in the ruined mansion, I'd read about the mixture and even made it once.

Max hemmed and hawed for a moment. "Um, water?"

Trask didn't appear amused.

Lily rolled her eyes and raised her hand. "Juji potion is an energy drink made of black nettles, a bee stinger, and crushed tube leaves."

"Excellent, Miss Crown." The professor narrowed her eyes at Max. "I suggest you read ahead in the textbook, Mr. Tiberius."

Max looked down at his hands. "Yes, Professor."

Trask turned back to the rest of the class. "The interesting thing about Juji potion is that none of the ingredients by themselves will give a person more energy." She turned to the shelf behind her, removing jars and setting them on her table while she spoke. "And yet, Juji potion will give a person a boost of energy with no negative side effects like caffeine or guarana." She set boiling flasks on the table next to the ingredients. "I want every table to send a representative up here to gather what they need to make a batch."

Lily jumped off her stool and went to the front before the rest of us had a chance to react. When she returned, she sorted the ingredients on the table and snatched the mortar and pestle.

"Do you plan to do it all by yourself?" Ambria asked.

The other girl looked up, brow pinched. "You can watch and learn."

"I learn better by doing." Ambria looked in the textbook and sprinkled the black nettles into the mortar. "Max, you crush them."

He took the pestle and pounded it on the nettles like a hammer.

Lily snatched the tool from him. "You're doing it wrong." She pressed the pestle on the nettles and twisted it. "Pound and twist."

Max groaned and held out his hand. "Fine, I'll do it your way."

The girl reluctantly handed it back to him.

After mixing the ingredients and boiling the concoction, we were left with a dark liquid with bits of leaves and nettles floating on top. Lily tried to strain it with a wire mesh, but couldn't get rid of the fine particles. I looked in the drawer on our table for something better, but didn't notice anything except sponge cloth. The image of Victus straining amber liquid through the soft yellow material flickered in my mind.

I didn't know if Vic meant to help me, or if it had just been a random thought.

I tucked the cloth into the mouth of a jar and poured our potion onto it.

Lily looked aghast. "What are you doing?"

"Straining it," I replied. By then the liquid began to trickle through to the other side.

Ambria narrowed her eyes at Lily. "I guess you don't know everything after all."

By the end of class, we had a flask filled with black liquid that smelled slightly of cinnamon. Professor Trask walked around and inspected the results, grimacing at another table's batch that was thick as oil, and stopping in astonishment to stare at the toxic green liquid another table managed to produce.

"You took green nettles, not black ones," Trask said, looking at the jars on the table at the front. "I even set the proper ingredients on the table."

Hutchinson pushed up his thick glasses. "I'm sorry, I don't know how I picked up the wrong one."

Professor Trask picked up our flask and swirled the ingredients. "Excellent." She held it up for the other students to see. "A rich frothy liquid with virtually no impurities floating on the top." She held up the jar we'd used to filter the ingredients. "You used a sponge cloth. How interesting."

"It was Conrad's idea," Lily said.

"They're usually used for cleaning up spills, not filtering," Trask said.

"The strainer wasn't fine enough," I said.

The professor set the flask on the table. "Good work."

I couldn't stop the smile spreading on my face and noticed Max and Ambria grinning back at me.

Lily, however, looked troubled. "You're smart, Conrad. I just hope you're not as evil as Harris thinks."

I wanted to assure her I wasn't but didn't think it would do much good. Max, Ambria, and I went to our last class, Elementary Enchantments. Rory and Gregory beat us to the classroom, but didn't try to block us from finding seats this time. The bell gonged shortly after we found desks, but Professor Sideon remained absent. As the minutes ticked by, the conversation in the room grew noisier.

Asha Fellini stepped into the classroom, her silky black hair tied back in a ponytail. "Tell me, where is Professor Sideon?" She spoke like a ruler to her subjects, a haughty edge to her voice. When no one could answer her question, she folded her arms. "Very well. Since I have no class this period, I will teach until he arrives."

Students groaned and just as quickly fell silent at a severe look from her.

Her gaze locked onto me. "What is an enchantment, Conrad Edison?"

An unpleasant chill shivered across my skin and my response froze in my throat. Her looks, her mannerisms, all reminded me of Delectra. It was as if my mother had disguised herself just enough that no one could guess her identity. Given that my parents were still officially considered dead, it wouldn't be hard to fool people.

An elbow nudged me. "Conrad?" Max whispered.

I flinched. "An enchantment is a spell placed on an object that temporarily or permanently changes its basic characteristics."

"Why are you looking at me that way?" the professor asked.

I shook my head to clear it. "Sorry, it's been a long day."

She walked over to my desk and looked down her nose at me. "An excuse will not save you in a magic duel."

That statement knocked me out of my stupor. "What does that have to do with enchantments?"

"Very little." Asha's robes swooshed as she spun around and went back to the front of the class. "What is the different between a charm and a curse?"

"A charm is a positive enchantment," Gregory said. "And a curse is a bad one."

Asha pursed her lips. "A simplistic explanation, but correct nonetheless."

Professor Sideon burst into the room, sweat glistening on his shaved head. "Thank you, Miss Fellini. I will take over from here."

"You would do well to notify another teacher when you're running late," Asha said in a no-nonsense tone.

Sideon bowed slightly. "Apologies, Professor Fellini. I am grateful you temporarily stepped in for me." If not for his trembling, high-pitched voice, he might have sounded more convincing.

Asha's forehead furrowed as if she didn't believe his sincerity, but nodded. "My pleasure." She looked directly at me on her way out of the classroom, some unknown emotion lurking behind her eyes. I shivered and looked away.

"Creepy," Max said in a low voice.

Ambria turned in her desk to face me. "If she's your mother, she's not hiding it well."

My next thought was asking Galfandor about this woman. "Don't they screen people before they hire them?"

"Of course they do," Max said. "There was a news story last year about a man who applied. He managed to fool the interviewer, but when they put the security charm on him, it melted away a disguise he was wearing and they found out he used to be one of Victus's henchmen."