The Protection of Ren Crown (57 page)

As it turned out, in a room full of rule breakers and delinquents, a
lot
of people had fantastic ideas for ways to cause mayhem, especially after Olivia assured them that if the campus were under attack and we implemented the plan, that full responsibility would fall on our shoulders, not theirs. After it became known that Olivia and I would be taking all judicial punishment, we had to rein in the bloodthirsty nature of their campus protection suggestions. But bloodthirsty, or not, we jotted down every single one.

“We will create five teams—Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon—and split personal and technical skills between the five.” Olivia kept charge of the meeting, moving it right along. “Olivia, Ren, William, Delia, Michael, and Nephthys on Alpha. Saf, Trick, Lifen, Bryant, Kita, and Dagfinn on Beta. On Gamma—”

I tuned Olivia partially out as she went down the long list of mages. My team, the Alpha team, was comprised of the people who knew most of my secrets, and who would protect that knowledge.

Everyone started talking and throwing out ideas.

“We can combine a number of our specialties and strengths and create some seriously wicked magic,” Patrick said.

I thought of the combat qualifier and how each of the individuals in Dare's group had competed against each other using their own specialties, but how their real power increased when they worked together as a unit, as they had when fighting the Bone Beast last term. That's what we needed to do. Create fighting teams for campus protection. Units that combined individual specialties to render maximum destruction.

“We should set up a separate communication network. Unattached to the Frequency Grid. Never know who is listening,” Dagfinn, a twenty-one year old paranoid communications mage and frequency hacker, said. “We don't want to be hammered by some sketchy ops group or one of those idiots who thinks they are fast tracking to the Department.”

“We can embed a communication link in something wearable. Keep all communications in the loop. Infinity scarves?” Lifen, a seamstress, nodded to herself, as if the decision was made, and turned to Delia. No one argued, and they started discussing construction, fashion, trickery, and destruction.

Destruction was definitely a strength of the people in this room.

I was never going to be the fiercest fighter. However, I could be a tricky one. I could use my strengths to get myself out of a situation and help friends who were in one.

Using my magic, Raphael could make the earth swallow people whole, and could force space to close around others. Such actions caused immediate backlashes, and Layer tremors that I didn't yet know how to avoid, but they were possibilities in my asset bag.

And all those around me right now could be
just
as tricky.

As the group argued, discussed, and manically suggested ideas and counter recommendations, for the first time since Dare left, I felt if it were attacked, that campus might be okay.

~*~

Constantine had rolled his eyes when I'd told him about Plan Fifty-two and how the team planned to disrupt, disable and neutralize any creature security breach if it occurred, until the combat mages could get back. He called us morons. Olivia hadn't even, at any point, tried to include him in the plan, and she had been against me telling him. But I nudged Constantine into participating anyway—a team of one, reporting directly to me on the Alpha communication loop.

Dare, on the other hand, was delighted about Plan Fifty-two. I briefed him on every aspect of it via hologram journal that night.

The magic in the journals echoed the feeling of his absolute satisfaction, and his words to the other combat mages in the library that first day back on campus resounded in the back of my mind.

Overlooked assets.

He had deliberately chosen me. He had wanted this group to form.

Olivia's previous warning came to mind—members of the Dare family
always
have a plan. The words echoed, along with the feeling that I was doing everything according to Alexander Dare's.

I waited until Olivia got into the shower, then lunged toward her desk. Everyone had a plan, and I had a contingency.

Fumbling quickly with the newest chip leech and the cocoon on her desk, I pressed the two magics in my creations together. Closing my eyes and concentrating, focusing and pushing, the magic from the chip seeped out and into the cocoon, making the cocoon glow forest green for a moment.

The chip was a leech, but the cocoon connected directly back to my magic. I had just leashed myself.

Tucking the empty chip back into my pocket, I hurried back to my side of the room and grabbed my tablet as Olivia emerged, already magically dressed for bed.

Trying not to blurt out what I'd done, I fiddled with my tablet and babbled to her about all the traps we had placed and the diabolical nature of some of the minds at our school.

So many plans—perceived and invisible—were in motion now, and it just remained to be seen who would be left standing in the end.

“Ren, stop fretting,” Olivia said as she tucked herself in.

I let my head hit my pillow and stared at the ceiling. “Are you sure about this? Fifty-two? It's a lot of work for one week,” I said.

“It is helping you.”

I chewed on my fingernail. “I don't want you to sacrifice your free time just to relieve my anxiety.”

Olivia didn't say anything for a moment, then I could feel her move magic along the wards that connected to me. “Ren, being your friend is never a sacrifice.”

I touched the wall, sending magic back. “Good night, Liv.”

Chapter Thirty-two: Appetizer to Destruction

Even though Dare was gone and the Troop was in charge, I wasn't free of squad work, and Emrys cornered me for rounds every day.

Dare despised and distrusted him more than he did the other Troop members, and I knew I should feel the same way. There was no doubt in my mind that Emrys was out to get me in some way—even if it was only to expose me as a feral or rare mage to campus at large. But the odd familiarity and occasional
comfort
that he exuded, messed with my mind and made me want to trust him.

As such, I tried to limit my time with him as much as possible. Fifteen more minutes with Emrys and his disorienting presence, then I could check in with the people with whom I really wanted to case campus.

Asafa, Patrick, Will, and I had been working together to create a hex that when activated would hit any “tagged” creature and suck them inside the nearest arch. Will had created a way to make the tag alert in a particular manner, and a few of the other plan members had contributed jinxes to zap anything registering as “tagged.” Campus was going to be littered with those spells by the end of the day. Hopefully, any beast terrorizing campus that got away from the Troop would just need to be tagged by us, and then be taken care of in a series of blasts—after being sucked from arch to arch.

Since I couldn't just suck creatures into papers around campus—not if I wanted to continue to breathe free air—this made a wonderful backup plan, in case we had another bone beast type of incident.

Bless Olivia, for saving my sanity with Plan Fifty-Two.

Emrys held out a companionable hand to my shoulder. “So, Ren—may I call you Ren?”

I gave him a quick nod and extricated myself from his touch, trying not to yawn. Doing rounds with Emrys exhausted me.

“How long have you been at Excelsine?”

It was a question he had asked before, in a different way. I repeated my cover story about transferring from Four Corners.

“I have quite a few friends on the faculty of Four Corners.”

“A lot of people do.” I showed a little bit of tooth with my smile.

As we checked the strength of the perimeter security, I concentrated on one ward in particular. The ward that sealed off the Eighteenth Circle from the Nineteenth—and all the levels below—was so depleted in strength, that its color was nearly transparent. I marked its location and sent a note through Justice Toad to Mbozi's most advanced warding class. Students in the class rotated as the on-call mage for campus wards, and whoever was on-call would have the Department-initiated ward back to full strength within the hour and would issue an administrative report on what had caused the problem so it could be patched going forward.

“I must say, that is a truly beautiful scarf you’re wearing again today, Ren.”

I smiled and touched the scarf automatically. It was beautifully made, and loaded with the communication spells Delia and Lifen had woven in with their quick and dexterous seamstress' hands the night before last. Looping us all together, when needed. A few of the more quirky members of the group had already been using them for small group tricks that wouldn't actually register as campus offenses.

“Thanks,” I said. “I'm helping out with a friend's fashion project this week.”

It was our standard line.

My smile fell as I looked at the ward again, and I frowned. It bothered me that it looked so fragile. I had checked it yesterday and it had been fine—and it should have been checked by at least three other patrols already today. I scrolled JT, looking through the checklist program that had been put into place just for this week. All previous Justice Squad patrols had checked it off as “normal.”

It was possible some magic spike from campus had interfered—or something from the resident and business levels below. My fingers were already itching to grab the administrative report the on-call mage would produce.

This wasn't a Red Alert problem. Not yet. The Administration Alarms hadn't sounded, and the other campus security measures hadn't kicked in like they would if someone breached the perimeter. The ward was still
working.
I shouldn't really be as bothered as I was feeling. In order for a threat to get in, someone would have to disable a number of other security measures
before
tearing through this one. Such events were highly unlikely.

Still, I sent another more urgent note to the on-call mage to take care of it posthaste.

“Look at you, taking security so seriously. So
devoted
,” Emrys said.

He sauntered next to me as I forced myself to move on to the next checkpoint. Emrys checked nothing, obviously not caring one whit about the safety of campus. Emrys had attended a different school—Dare had read his transcripts and given me the basics—so in addition to having zero professional concern, he also had no personal loyalty to campus. But unlike some of the other Troop members who still got turned around on campus and regularly took the wrong arches, Emrys always seemed to know where he was and where to go. Likely juiced with an Administration spell from one of the staffers he courted.

He even looked physically brighter than he had a minute ago—like he had ingested a sun spell that made him glow from the inside. I blinked and shook my head. He must have cloaked himself when the last crowd of students had walked by, then poorly removed the cloak. The Troop was so weird sometimes while trying to integrate into the student population. Everyone knew who they were. If they thought they were some secret fighting force, they were seriously bad at their job.

Which was exactly why the combat mages didn't want them here.

“So devoted to this mountain after such a short time,” he mused.

“It's a wonderful place,” I said sincerely. I loved school. It wasn't a secret. Maybe I could infuse some of my love for it into him.

“And working with Alexander Dare doesn't enter into your love of it, of course.”

“He's very dedicated to the defense of campus,” I said diplomatically.

“He is indeed.
So
dedicated.” There was an emphasis to the words. “One wonders from where such dedication springs.”

“I assume it springs from a desire to protect.”

“He does seem
so earnest
in that aim,” he said, odd leaf-green eyes focused on me. “It's almost enough to believe.”

“You want me to turn against my teammate,” I said, as I turned to examine the wards surrounding the one that formed the perimeter barrier. “You are baiting me, trying to get an emotional response.” I had one, but I wasn't going to let it show.

“I'd never think to do such a thing, Ren, never. You seem very...fond of him. I would never think to come between young love, however ill-advised it is.”

“You wield words like poison,” I said absently. I knew quite a few people with that skill, which made the tactic obvious. “You do it quite well, though.”

He laughed, a full-throated, delighted bark and squeezed my shoulder a second time, then put a hand on my wrist, over my cuff like he was trying to weirdly shake my hand. “Oh, I do like you.”

“I don't know why,” I said frankly, feeling tired again. Merely sharing
air
with Emrys was exhausting. I'd been energized before we'd begun our route. I disentangled myself from him.

He smiled at me as his fingers drew the last inch over my cuff and he stepped back. “Words are like weapons, like
magic.
They can cause untold pain. That you appreciate my attempt to drive a wedge between you and Mr. Dare just makes the game more exciting. You are quite a loyal soul, aren't you? What would it take to make you feel betrayed by him? What would Alexander Dare have to do?”

I took a step away from him and touched my leather bracelet that held Constantine's stamp underneath. There was a rune in the stamp that would give me a thirty second window to get away if I hit Emrys with it. “Listen, I realize you are just trying to do your job all nefariously and the like, but I'm not that interested in social politics and picking sides.”

“Everyone picks a side eventually, even if it's their own side. Neutrality ends in fiefdom and subjugation.”

“Sometimes neutrality ends in peace and happiness.”

“Tosh. The only time neutrality works is when the person or country with the biggest stick
allows
the other entity to have it.”

“That's pretty depressing. I'd like to think that people can work to better what they have instead of seeking to take what they do not from someone else.”

“You must sympathize with the Third Layer cretins, then.” His eyes sparked and his smile grew. “The whole struggle is fascinating, don't you think?”