Volinette's Song (20 page)

Volinette led the apprentices, Baris, and the journeymen across the room to where the Inquisitors were standing. Adamon and Olin turned to face them with their weapons drawn. The bore of Adamon’s hand cannon seemed enormous so close up. Olin’s staff wasn’t as impressive, but she was glad he was armed as well.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted as she stopped just short of the pair of
Inquisitors. “We couldn’t stay up on the third floor any longer. There were too many dead demons and no one else up there.”

“You did the right thing, Volinette,” Olin said. “The other Masters have cleared and secured the admin building. We’ll get all of you over there. It’ll be much safer
, and you won’t have to fight.”

“We’ve already been doing that,” Baris snorted with something near his normal lack of tact.

“No doubt,” Adamon said drily. “I trust this also explains why you’re holding something that should be on my desk?”

“We can discuss that later,” Olin said quickly. “For now, let’s get them to the admin building.”

Adamon looked at Baris until the young man lowered his head. Then the Inquisitor shrugged and led the way out of the tower.

Chapter Twenty

Volinette had thought she’d seen chaos in the tower during the first wave of attacks. She’d been wrong. The wholesale evacuation of the tower had caused a commotion unlike anything she’d ever seen. Everyone who had been able to move on their own and some who had to be carried
, had been relocated to the administration building on the far side of the Academy grounds. Though ample room for offices and archives, the choice of locale left much to be desired as a storehouse for all the living people within the barricade.

As Masters worked to close demonic portals and move
d people into the safety of the admin building, things got very cramped. Volinette and Baris kept moving into offices further and further away from the main entrance, trying to escape the crowd that seemed to grow by the minute and showed no signs of stopping. Volinette had never fully appreciated how many people lived and worked within the Academy. She did now. Adamon said that this wasn’t even half the number of people who would eventually be crammed inside, and Volinette wasn’t sure she wanted to see that.

Olin found them sitting on a desk in one of the unused offices. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He flopped into a chair and leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling with bloodshot eyes. The
Inquisitor didn’t say anything, and they weren’t inclined to interfere with his moment of respite. Besides, they knew how he felt. They’d all been fighting for hours. Volinette felt as if she’d been picked up and twisted until everything that defined who she was had been rung out. She existed, and that was as much as she could muster.

“You two certainly know how to ferret out the quiet spots, don’t you?” Olin asked, wearily raising his head.

“I needed somewhere that I could hear myself think,” Volinette said with a shrug. “I’ve never been particularly bothered by crowds. I mean, I sang in front of thousands of people, but this is different.”

Olin nodded.

“Different when you’re down amongst the huddled masses.”

Volinette peered at him, wondering if he realized how much his words stung. He must have seen the look in her eyes, because he raised his hands in entreaty, shaking his head.

“That’s not what I meant, Volinette. I’m sorry. I meant no offense. I just meant that it’s different when you have bodies pressing in on you on every side.”

“Especially when some of them are none too fresh,” Baris said, waving his hand in front of his nose. “You always hear people talking about the stink of fear. Phaugh. I know what they mean now.”

“They’ve got good reason to be afraid, Apprentice Jendrek.” Olin looked through the wall, toward the main entrance of the building. “Word is spreading that we sealed off the Academy grounds and that decision isn’t proving to be a popular one. Maera will have a lot of explaining to do if we all come out of this alive. At least we saved the city. That’s something. Can you imagine those things rampaging around Blackbeach?”

Silence settled over them. Pain and exhaustion were taking their toll. Volinette almost felt as if it would be worth it to turn the tower over to the demons if it meant that she could curl up in a ball and get a couple solid hours of sleep. The thought of curling up put her in mind of the old man in the
Inquisitors’ dungeon, which in turn led her thoughts to Janessa in the half shadows of her cell.

“What’s going to happen to Janessa?” she asked suddenly.

Olin scrubbed his face, refusing to meet her eye to eye. He waited a long moment, as if hoping that she might retract the question. When he finally looked at her, he heaved a sigh and shrugged.

“I don’t know. There are some
Inquisitors sweeping the tower, but reported back that there were too many portals to close. It seems like for every portal we close, two more open. The small ones aren’t too bad. The big ones, like the one in the tower, require a considerable amount of power to close, and we’re running thin on both Masters and stamina.”

“Then my question remains, what’s going to happen to Janessa?”

“She’ll probably die there.”

“Good riddance,” Baris said. Volinette rounded on him.

“That’s not right, Baris. She was supposed to go before the High Council of Masters. They might have granted her appeal. We can’t just leave her there to die. What if it were one of us?”

“We wouldn’t be down there,” he returned, just as heatedly. “Need I remind you that Janessa’s friends are the ones who did this in the first place? If it weren’t for her taking something that didn’t belong to her, people wouldn’t be dying.”

“You can’t believe that she told Nixi, Halsie, and Syble to summon demons on purpose.”

“I don’t know what to believe, but I’m not about to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

“Did they?” she demanded of Olin. “Did you find them, or the Prism?”

Olin shook his head again.

“No. Adamon and I got as near to the girls’ dormitory as we could, but we weren’t close enough to either find the girls or locate the Prism.”

“Do you think they did this intentionally?”

“What difference does it make?” Baris asked, and Volinette held up a hand to shush him.

“It makes a huge difference, Baris. Olin, do you think they did this intentionally?”

“No…and for what it’s worth, which is precious little at the moment, Adamon doesn’t either. He may be a first rate pain in the ass and about as social as an angry hornet, but he is very good at what he does. He didn’t get to be Grand Inquisitor by being everyone’s friend. He got there by doing the jobs that no one else wanted to do. Or couldn’t do, for that matter.”

“So if Adamon doesn’t think they did it intentionally, doesn’t it stand to reason that they shouldn’t just be left to die? We’re better than that.”

“There’s a fine line between a live hero and a dead lunatic, Volinette.” Olin pinned her with his gaze. “The tower is infested with portals to the Deep Void that are still spewing demons into our realm. We barely made it out the first time. Going back now would be suicide.”

“So the tower is lost? We’re going to, what, let the demons take up residence while we cower in this building?”

Olin shot to his feet, his face suffused with rage.

“Good men are dying out there, Volinette! We’re doing the best we can to save as many people as we can. You weren’t there! You don’t know…”

He trailed off, realizing what he’d said. He closed his mouth with a snap and sank back into the chair.

“I
was
there, Olin,” she said softly. “I do know. I know that many of us are dying to those things. I also know that some of those who survive will never be the same. The bodies of the demons we killed on the third floor of the tower were waist high around the storeroom. If it’s that bad everywhere, we may have already lost…and if we lose here, Blackbeach will fall. Once Blackbeach falls…”

“Then the rest of the Imperium,” Olin finished for her. “You’ve thought it through, I grant you that. But there are only so many Masters who can fight. The apprentices don’t have the power or the stamina to make a difference in a fight. They just haven’t built up enough magic…muscle, for lack of a better term. We’re spread thin. Until we find the
Prism, wherever it is, we stand a very real chance of losing this fight. With the Prism, we can reverse the magic and close all the portals at once. Without it, we’re fighting uphill.”

Olin sighed and silence overtook them once again. Volinette didn’t like Olin’s answer, but she had to admit that it made sense. After all, how long had it taken for the
Inquisitors to reach them in the tower? Even after they’d arrived, it had taken Volinette’s initiative to get them all down from the third floor. Who knew how long it would have taken for them to get around to checking on the students huddled in the converted storeroom.

The tense silence hung over them like a storm cloud until Olin got to his feet with a groan.

“We’re doing the best we can,” he said, his voice rough with exhaustion. “If we can get to Janessa, I promise we’ll try.”

“I don’t even know why they’d try,” Baris said after he’d left the room. He shrank back under the look Volinette gave him. “Well, I don’t. I think we’d all be better off if we just left her down there.”

“If you can leave someone to die just because they were mean to you…to us…then you’re not who I thought you were, Baris. I can’t just let her die. I won’t. She’s been a world class bitch to me. You’re right…but she doesn’t deserve to die for it.”

“Alright, alright.” Baris held up his hands in surrender. “It probably doesn’t matter anyway. By the time the Masters find the
Prism, it might be too late for her.”

“Which is why we’re going to go get her.”

“Okay, that…Wait, what?”

“We’re going to get Janessa from the
Inquisitors’ dungeon. Olin just said they’re not going to make it a priority, so it’s up to us.”

“Volinette…it’s great that you want to help people. It really is. But I think this is a bad idea. We could die out there. I don’t want to die…and I really don’t want to die for Janessa. She may not deserve to die either, but she doesn’t deserve us dying to save her.”

“Do what you need to do, Baris. I’m doing this with you or without you. I could really use your help, but if you feel that strongly about it, I understand. I won’t ask you to go with me.”

“Damn it!” Baris pounded balled fists against his thighs. “Fine, I’ll go with you, but if we die, I swear I’ll never forgive you.”

“Deal.”

“So how are we going to do this?”

“I’m not sure yet.” She paused, giving him a half smile. “I was hoping that you’d know some secret way out of here.”

Baris snorted.

“We don’t need a secret way out. Half the first floor offices have windows. We can let ourselves out. It’s going to be getting back in that’s the trick.”

“Well, that part we can worry about when we get there.”

“Yeah,” Baris agreed, his tone grave. “We might be dead long before we need to worry about that.”

“Think positive, Baris.”

“I am. I’m positive we’re going to die.”

“Baris!”

“Alright!”

“Can I borrow your cube again?” Volinette asked. Baris’s trinket had become invaluable for checking things out before they stumbled across them all unwitting.

“Sure, but it’s looking kind of gray. Might not hold out much longer.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew the cube. When he handed it to her, she noticed what he meant. Where the cube had been nearly clear when she’d first seen it, it had progressed through a muddled translucence and was now a dingy gray.

Clasping the cube in her hands, she closed her eyes and spoke the words of power. Volinette thought she felt…something, but then it was gone. Opening her eyes, she looked at the cube, or rather, what was left of it. It had crumbled into dull, waxy shards. She opened her hands and showed it to Baris.

“Yep. So much for that, then.”

“You’re not upset?”

“Nah. My dad can make me another one. He was top of his class in the School of Enchantment. He was a bit disappointed when I opted for sorcery…but I like blowing things up.”

“You’ll probably get your chance. Okay then, let’s figure out how we’re going to get to the tower.”

It took them some time to find a window that was on the tower facing side of the building and wasn’t directly in the line of sight of the Masters who were guarding all of the entrances. As Baris had suspected, getting out of the admin building wasn’t a problem. They dropped from the window onto the soft earth below. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Volinette had a flash of doubt. What if Baris was right? What if she was leading them into their own slaughter?

There was still a chance to go back. If they went to the main entrance of the admin building, they could slip inside as more people came to seek refuge from the demons. No one would probably notice. Still, doing that meant leaving Janessa at the mercy of the demons running rampant through the tower, and that was just something she couldn’t allow. Deep inside, a little voice told her that there was another reason Janessa was so
important. She’d been the one to take the Prism. She’d know where to start looking for it. She might even be able to feel its echo.

“Alright,” she whispered. “Let’s go.”

The Academy grounds between the admin building and the Great Tower were, thankfully, lush with plants and trees. They moved from one bit of cover to the next. Hiding behind a bush here and a thick tree trunk there. Between them, Baris and Volinette pointed out hazards to each other. Once Baris pulled her back just before a towering demon, slithering on a single monopod, crossed in front of them. Another time, Volinette dragged Baris down behind a tree as a pair of Masters she didn’t know cut through the wooded grounds on patrol.

Although it took them a long time to get there, they reached the tower entrance without further incident. Volinette slipped into
sphere sight and peered inside. There were no shadows that would indicate lurking demons, no bright sparks that would be Masters seeking to drive the demons from the tower. It seemed to be abandoned. She motioned to Baris and they walked inside.