Libriohexer (Wolfman Warlock Book 2) - Chapter Twenty-Five

<Infernal feces but that was close!> Bill swore in Sam’s head as he skidded through the door, panting from the effort.

Dizzy had already made it into the hallway and slammed the doors shut the second Sam was past the threshold. Sam took a quick look around, frantically searching for Finn. Kia, Arrow, and Sphinx were all goners, but he felt weight lift off his chest when he saw that Finn had made it out in one piece. And, after seeing what had happened to Kai, being in one piece was an enormous victory. Dizzy looked deeply shaken but simultaneously relieved… at least until the doors started rattling, as though something were trying to pull them open from the other side.

Eyes wide, Dizzy spun and grabbed ahold of an iron door ring.

The doors shook more ferociously, but she held the ring fast in a white knuckled grip.

“This thing wants out,” she said through gritted teeth. “And I’m not going to be able to hold these doors for long. Sam, I think it’s time we trigger the escape plan.”

“Right, right,” he said, shaking his head.

The escape plan. Just because they’d made it out of the chamber of certain death didn’t mean they were in the clear—they still had a whole College to navigate. He reached into his flask and pulled out a single sheet of paper. It was a rather plain and unremarkable thing, but in Sam’s hands, with his unique abilities, that single sheet of paper was a WMD, a Weapon of Magical Destruction. That single sheet was twined to a sheet of paper tucked away in a book bomb in the janitor’s closet near the junior faculty lounge. Whatever he wrote on this sheet would appear on that.

That sheet, in turn, was twined to a sheet located in a book bomb in an annex classroom. And that sheet was twined to a bomb located in supply closet housing novice gear. On and on and on it went—one enormous daisy chain of books, fifty strong, all twined together. All tied to the sheet of paper in Sam’s hand. Anything he wrote on it, would appear simultaneously in every volume strategically scattered throughout the College. Creating such a long chain of spelled papers was incredible dangerous and wildly irresponsible—transcription errors increased fivefold with every duplication. Any spell he wrote was not only certain to fail, but certain to explode.

Terrible under any circumstances, other than this one of course. There was no way he could set off all those planted bookbombs at once, not using command phrases and not over such a vast distance. But with Transcription Twining he could do the impossible. Or kill himself. He had a relatively massive mana pool, and though Bill assured him that he could survive this spell, Sam had the gut feeling that any little thing could drain his core into oblivion and then eat through his health like a ravenous wolf. But sometimes you just had to throw the dice.

The doors rattled again, this time more forcefully, and the wood groaned from the strain.

“Come on, Sam!” Dizzy barked, sweat rolling down her face.

Sam licked his lips drew a quill and then copied the most basic spell he could—an easy spell he’d practiced a thousand times. Ice Orb. He drew the first loop, imbuing the lines with mana, and his hand flowed through the motion. But right before he got to the end, he whispered a silent prayer and pulled a line short, raising his quill and breaking the spell form short. The effect was instantaneous. The scroll erupted with a flash of blue, slamming Sam against the wall as hoarfrost spread across the ground and climbed over his robes. The cold was terrible, but the damage was minimal. Bill had picked the spell, knowing that of all Sam’s spells it was the one he was most likely survive.

But that wasn’t the only effect. Even in the bowels of the College, Sam could feel the rumble of explosions rippling through the grounds. Every single twined paper had likewise blown, triggering not only the bookbombs themselves, but activating the myriad of spell scrolls tucked away in the pages. Even half freezing to death, Sam couldn’t help but smile. It had worked. Unfortunately, his joy was short lived.

The pain that hit him next was a thousand times worse than the exploded Ice Orb spell scroll. A roaring filled his chest cavity as his core emptied in a rush—rudely ripped out to fuel the small army of failed Ice Orb spells. He couldn’t stop the scream that tore its way from his throat. This was worse than anything he’d experienced before. He clutched his chest, as though trying to physically prevent his core from being ripped from his body. In a matter of seconds his mana was gone and stars swam across his vision. Next his health started to drop like a stone.

So much for Bill’s math.

Several pop ups flashed across his eyes. Skill Increased: Book Maker’s Book Bomb (Beginner IV)… Skill Increased: Spell Alchemy (Novice III)... Transcription Twining (Beginner V)…

Transcription Twining had increased to Beginner Level Five? That seemed excessive, but the thought felt like it belonged to someone else. Sam was sure that was important, but he couldn’t quite seem to remember why. To his right, the doors to the Reliquary of Trustees rattled ferociously. Dizzy shouted but the words were all jumbled together. For some reason, Finn was by his side, but black was creeping in around the edges and Sam was sure that this was the end. But then, miracle of miracles, the pain abruptly ceased, and his rapidly dwindling health stabilized.

He was low. Fifteen of one-hundred and fifty.

“Drink this, old boy,” Finn was saying from a great distance. His friend thrust an odd vial full of red liquid into Sam’s shaky hand. But Sam’s head was so fuzzy, everything felt so far away and detached.

<Snap out of it, Legs!> Bill billowed in his head. <You gotta drink the potion.>

<Potion? Why?> He asked, genuinely confused.

<Because you just got your brain and soul suck out through a bendy straw. Listen, it’ll make all the bad feelings go bye-bye. That’s all you need to know.>

“Okay,” Sam mumbled, taking the vial from Finn and throwing it down in a single long gulp. The potion hit like a haymaker. His health bar rocketed up to seventy-five percent and the haze clouding his thoughts cleared at once. He blinked and quickly gained his feet. He’d done it. He’d survived.

“You need to go now!” Dizzy yelled at them over one shoulder, her face beet red from the strain of holding the doors.

“What about you?” Sam asked.

She grunted and shook her head. “If I let go for a second, these doors are gone and that thing is going to kill us all. I can by you another two minutes…” She faltered. “Just… just make sure it’s worth it. Make sure Finn gets out of here alive. That thing will tear me apart, but I’ll be back in twelve hours tops. He won’t. It’s up to you Sam.”

“I promise,” he said solemnly. “I’ll get us clear.”

Sam took one last look at Dizzy, now wholly consumed with holding the doors shut, then turned and took off at a run. The health potion had taken care of the damage, but his mana reserve was recovering at a snail’s pace. Thanks to the generosity of the College, though, Sam had a ready supply of Mana Potions, all lifted from the Journeymen’s quarters. He popped a cork on a glass vial and downed that one as they moved, feeling power and energy surge back into his center. The vial didn’t top him off, but it brought him back up to two-hundred Mana and left him feeling human again.

He slipped the empty vial back into his flask—waste not, want not—then ushered his soul surviving teammate up the corkscrew staircase and back into the upper Colleg. Sam made it about three paces into the connecting annex hallway when the entire world erupted with noise and power and motion. Stones groaned, the floor rattled the teeth in Sam’s head and a wash of Mana flooded through the hallway. Sam dropped to a knee staring around, trying to discover the source of the explosion. He’d already set off all his bookbombs, so it couldn’t be that, and even all of them going off at once couldn’t possibly release so much mana.

“What in the divine was that?” Finn asked as the rumbling finally subsided.

“Was that… Was that us?” Sam asked right on his heels.

“Phft. Not on your life,” Bill replied, with more than a little awe filling his voice. “I honestly have no idea what that was—and I know what almost everything is. It was big, though, that much I can tell you. Bigger than anything I can even begin to imagine… Whatever the heck it was is going to change the fate of Ardania. Nothing will ever be the same. And honestly, I don’t feel like sticking around to find out how the world just shifted.”

The annex was still abandoned, but that all changed by the time they rushed through an archway and into one of the central hubs that connected several of the main corridors. Sam just had to stop and look around at the throng of people milling around and the madness sweeping through the halls like a plague. There were guards everywhere, but they seemed just as frazzled and confused as Sam felt. Some were running around, screaming about fires and magic out of control all around the College. That bit had to be Sam’s handiwork, but just as many were just… Well, standing there, looking completely lost.

Watching the mages was even more bewildering.

About a third of them were openly weeping and sobbing uncontrollably. Another rough third looked like they’d just seen death in the flesh—those were mostly muttering about the destruction of the College. Grumbling that nothing would ever be the same again, almost verbatim what Bill had said.

“How will we survive this,” a long graybeard whispered to a mage in opulent red robes. “The Accords are everything. They are the foundation and cornerstone of our people.”

“It will be lawless and anarchy,” the other replied. “At least for a time.”

“But anarchy creates a void,” a third said, “and that void will be filled by those willing to do what must be done…”

Sam lost the thread of the conversation as he pushed and shoved his way through the press of bodies with Finn in tow—trying to get to the next archway. Clearly, something had happened to the Accords, though what he didn’t know. Was it possible that killing so many of the Trustees had somehow weakened the Accords? Bill had said the Trustees were responsible for maintaining the College’s magical infrastructure. Still, that seemed unlikely. And this level of destruction was well beyond what Sam’s bookbombs could account for, which meant some other external, catastrophic event had occurred. Maybe something to do with the trial?

Sam just wasn’t sure. But if it was some sort of catastrophic event, that didn’t explain the last third of the mages.

They weren’t weeping or grumbling. They were celebrating. There were hugs and more tears, but those were clearly from joy.

“This is bloody madness,” Finn whispered in his ear. “Just what in the world happened while we were down in the Repository?”

“That can’t hide something this big for long,” Bill said. “We’ll find out soon enough, but now ain’t the time for it. We need to stay focused. If we play our cards right, I think we might just be able to get out of here in one piece after all. But not if we keep standing around here until we finally do bump into someone we know. Take that archway on the right—the one with the inverted triangle and the three squiggly lines.”

Moving as quickly as the congested hallways would allow for, they wove through the corridors, keeping their heads down and doing their best to look like they were moving with a purpose. Not escaping, but important mages who had places to be. But it was hardly necessary, the weeping and rejoicing were in full swing and no one seemed to have any care for two random mages wandering through a College packed to the gills with mages of every shape, size, and rank. The guards were the only ones that seemed to be keeping it together and those were busy putting out the numerous fires Sam had started.

Either that or investigating whatever had happened during the trial.

They were nearly in the clear when Sam rounded a corner and slammed face first into a wall of a man wearing the colors of a Guard Sergeant. Sam bounced off as though he run into a literal wall and found himself sprawled out on the ground. He shook his head and looked up… Right at the worst possible person in the entire College. A burly man decked out in silver-edged plate mail named Geffery the Red. And not two paces behind ol’ Geffery was the second worst person he could’ve run into—besides the Arch Mage himself—Geffery’s partner, Karren the Blade. She was lean as a hungry wolf and carried a finger-slim rapier at her hip.

“Good heavens, so sorry about that Senior Mage,” Geffery stammered, the color draining from his face. “What with all the chaos, and the crowding… Well, I should’ve been more careful,” he offered apologetically. Apologetic was the right tone to take with an unhappy senior mage. Knocking one flat on their backs in the middle of a crowded hallway was a good way to end up on sewer detail for the next year.

Which is precisely where Sam and Finn had first met Geffery and Karren. They’d been the guards who’d accompanied a cohort of young mages down into the sewers to clear out the jellies that built up over time. They were also the same two guards that Sam had ambushed the last time he’d infiltrated the college—knocking them unconscious, stealing their tabards, and leaving them bound and gagged down in the muck below the College. If there was anyone who could ID Sam and Finn, it was these two, and they had a grudge to settle.

“It’s no bother,” Sam said, keeping his head down. “Mistakes happen, especially with so much confusion.”

“Let me help you up,” Geffery said, extending a rough-calloused hand.

“No, I’m fine. Just fine,” Sam said, keeping his face cloaked by the heavy cowl.

“I insist, Senior Mage,” Geffery said, grabbing Sam by the arm and hauling him to his feet with ease. The guard was huge and deceptively strong. Sam’s cowl fell away from his face and in that instant, he knew their luck had run out. Recognition flashed through Geffery’s eyes and a scowl pulled down the corners of his lips. “You,” he growled. “Of course you’re here. I bet you’re behind this, aren’t you? Intruders! To arms, to arms!” Sam heard the rasp of metal against leather—the sound of weapons leaving their scabbards. “We have Rogue Mages!” Geffery bellowed, even louder than before. “Seize them!”

Geffery lunged, but Sam was already dancing away. He wheeled around, gave Finn a push in the opposite direction, and took off at a dead sprint. Geffery and Karren were trailing behind them, and a few other guards were glancing around in confusion. Normally, Sam and Finn never would’ve stood a chance in a foot race against the pair of guards, but these weren’t typical conditions. The congestion in the hallways, made it much harder for the two bulkier, armored guards to slip through the crowd—not to mention they couldn’t just bowl over the mages in their way.

Knocking the wrong mage over, even if it was in the pursuit of Rogue Mages, could have serious repercussions. Docked pay. Loss of rank. Even time in the Sanctuary of Solitude for a grave enough offense. Sam and Finn had nothing to lose, though, so they gladly shouldered aside their stuffy, robe-wearing counterparts—leaving behind squawks of anger and indignation in their wake. Bill guided them through a series of complicated and simultaneously convoluted twists, turns, and switchbacks, hoping to shake the pair of guards in the labyrinth of spatial corridors, but Geffery and Karren weren’t giving up without a fight.

They weren’t gaining ground, but neither could Sam, Finn, and Bill seem to lose the pair. Worse, a few more College guards had joined the pursuit.

<Do you want the good news or bad news,> Bill said, as they rounded another turn.

<Good news,> Sam replied mentally.

<Well, we’re almost out of the College.>

<That’s great. What’s the bad news?>

<I’m out of turns and we still have to make it through the courtyard. No way to lose them. Our only hope is they won’t follow us out into the city…>

“Let’s just hope they haven’t closed the portcullis,” Sam muttered under his breath.

They tore around a final corner and shouldered their way through a set of massive double doors that let out onto the western courtyard. There were more mages milling around on the cobblestones, most of them clumped together in small groups, talking in muted whispers. The great steel portcullis was up, but standing directly in front of the archway that lead beneath the outer wall of the College was a platoon of Guards—not College Guards, but elite Royal Guards that worked for the crown.

“Stick a fork in us,” Finn said, “our goose is bloody-well cooked, old boy.”

“Stop them!” Geffery boomed, charging into the courtyard, Karren the blade only a handful of paces behind him. “Guards. Stop those two mages! Rogues! They are Rogue Mages.”

A stony-faced guard in chain mail, responded at once. He pulled free a hand and a half sword from a scabbard at his hip and barked a serious of orders. His platoon fanned out in a half arc, blocking off the exit completely, before interlocking their square tower shields and lowering wicked looking spears. A moment later there was a *clank* as huge gears lurched into life and the portcullis dropped, effectively sealing Sam and Finn in the courtyard—trapped between the onrushing Geffery and the royal guards.

<It was nice knowing you, boys,> Bill said. <I’m sure they’ll lock me up for another hundred years.>

Sam ignored the book. There had to be a way out of this. Had to.

They hadn’t made it this far to die, in this courtyard, just a hundred feet from freedom. He had two Rorschach spells ready to deploy. Maybe he could use both and then attempt to fly over the walls with his Quills Wings, while carrying Finn. Except that won’t work. He might be able to carry Finn, but Rorschach only worked on anyone who had a lower intelligence level than Sam. It would probably distract the guards, but there were fifty mages in the courtyard, at least a few of whom wouldn’t be affected by the spell.

Trying to fly away would make them an easy target, and all it would take was one fireball to kill them both.

Sam felt his stomach sink as he realized there really was no clever way out of this one. They’d taken an enormous gamble and lost. Now the bill was coming due, and Finn would be the one to pay the ultimate price.

“Hold!” The city guard commander bellowed. “What in the pit is going on here exactly, eh?”

“Take them into custody,” Geffery said to Karren over one shoulder. He turned to the city guard commander. “There’s been an incident at the College,” he said. “Some sort of explosion. Or a serious of explosions. Possibly even an assassination attempt against the Arch-Mage if some of the rumors floating around are to be believed. It’s hard to say exactly—the College Guard is still trying to sort all the details. But these two”—he waved at Sam and Finn with his free hand—“are definitely involved somehow. Rogue Mages, the both of them.”

“Rogue Mages?” The city guard commander said, a question in his voice. He squinted, a frown forming on his face. “You’re not making any sense, man. I’m looking right at the pair of them. I don’t see a Rogue Mage tag.”

“What?” Geffery spit. “But of course they are. I would know those two anywhere. They are Rogue Mages. Traitors to the College and to the Crown, and likely behind whatever is happening inside these halls.

“You’re barking mad,” the guard commander shot back. “They can’t be bloody Traitors. They don’t have bloody tags!” He was no longer looking at Sam and Finn, but rather staring daggers at Geffery.

“I think I can clear this up,” Finn said, sauntering forward with a smug look plastered across his face. “Obviously, the stress of this situation has impaired good sir Geffery’s judgement. Or perhaps he thinks we are someone other than ourselves—mistaken identity does happen. We tried to explain the situation, but he attacked us. My compatriot and I tried to flee instead of engaging him because we didn’t want to hurt a loyal College guard, just trying to execute his duties. But I can quite assure you, we are no traitors. Surely if we were Rogue Mages, it would say so, no? It is my understanding that it is impossible to fool the Deep Scan ability of the city guards, isn’t that right commander.”

Sam had no idea what was going on, but he was smart enough not to look this gift horse in the mouth. He kept his trap shut and silently prayed that Finn knew what in the heck he was doing.

“Exactly right,” the commander replied with a grim nod. “There are certain counter measures and classes that can fool many guards, but Deep Scan never lies. It sees the world how it really is and tells us the truth of the matter. The fact is,” he said, this time to Geffery and Karren, “these two do not have Rogue Mage tags. As far as I can tell there is no bounty on their heads. The pair of yow are simply mistaken.”

“Just as I tried to tell them,” Finn said, sounding apologetic. “As for our standing in the College, I can vouch for myself and my compatriot here. I am Lord Finneas Laustsen of House Laustsen, and this fine fellow”—he waved at Sam—“is a powerful natural born mage in his own right.  Now, instead of wasting time with us, why don’t you go investigate what the actual problem is, yes? And, if you would be so kind, please take Sir Geffery and his partner there with you. I have tried to be of good spirits about the whole affair, considering the circumstances, but my patience is wearing thin. If we are not allowed to continue on our way, I may become irritated and speak to your Company Commander about needlessly harassing a noble.”

“Of course, m’Lord,” the guard commander stammered. “Of course. Break ranks,” he called over one shoulder, “and Hitchens, get that sally gate open immediately. These two men need to be about Kingdom business.”

In a matter of seconds, the city guards had formed up and were marching toward the College, whisking Geffery and Karren away with them. Geffery looked positively thunderstruck as he was hauled away.

“This isn’t over,” he called. “I know it was you! I don’t know how you pulled this off, but I know! I’ll find you two yet!”

“Apologies for him, m’Lords,” the guard commander said, quickly ushering Sam and Finn through a smaller wooden sally gate. “Some men, they crack under the pressure. We’ll get to the bottom of this, you have my word.”

The commander gave them one final tight smile and a small wave, before heading back into the courtyard. The sally door slammed shut behind them. They were free. Outside of the College and in the city, and there wasn’t a guard in sight.

“Does someone want to explain what blackmagic hoodoo just happened?” Bill said softly as they quickly hoofed it toward Cheapside.

“Check your notifications,” Finn said softly.

<Yeah, yeah, just give me a sec,> Bill sent. Then, after a moment, “No way,” he said out loud. “There gone. The Accords, they’ve been dissolved. That... It shouldn’t be possible, but there it is, clear as day. The three of us were Rogue Mages under the Accords, but no Accords means no charges. We just got a massive get out of jail free card. I’m sure it’s a loophole that someone will eventually fix, but until they do… We have total amnesty, boys.”

“How long do you think that’ll last?” Sam asked.

“Long enough for us to get clear of the city and that’s all that really matters.”

Sam still wasn’t sure what exactly had unfolded, but at the moment he honestly didn’t care. It felt like Christmas morning.