16 Loop 0, Part 16

“Davos hits me every morning until someone tells him to stop,” Kalin said. “He hits other students. He laughs as we all bleed onto the floor. Everyone laughs. No one does anything to stop him.” His hands shook. The black object began to pulse. “But I’m the danger?”

Kalin stood at the edge of the arena, his catalyst in one hand. In the other, he held something small and dark and round. It wasn’t a catalyst, but I didn’t like the look of it, either. His face had gone past anger into something worse, much worse. He wore the blank, hollow look of someone who knew they were going to die. Every eye was on him. Bain took one careful step toward the boy.

“Stand down, Mr. Tuffet. Things will only get worse if you persist.” Bain’s voice was tight. Not angry, exactly, but not pacifying, either. Kalin flinched at the name like he had been punched again.

“No!” His voice broke. “No more. All of you make me sick.”

He lifted the dark orb in one hand and crushed it in his fist as he shouted a spell, “[Eirkedross, the Devourer].”

Black and purple light crawled out of the crushed orb and down his arm. But there was something wrong with the spell. Usually, mana flowed in smooth, controlled waves. This moved in jagged streaks, like lightning trying to crawl through his veins.

Kalin’s mouth stretched into something almost like a smile, but it was broken with too many teeth. His tongue flicked out like a snake’s. I saw the veins standing out in his neck, pulsing black under his skin.

Kalin fell apart at the seams. Fire swallowed him from the inside out. It came out of him like the spell had found something buried under his ribs and torn it loose. The blast cracked across the arena, hot enough that the air bent around it, and pieces of what had been Kalin struck the marble in wet, burning streaks. Someone screamed and pandemonium broke loose. A lot of someones screamed. I should have looked away, but [Wideview] didn’t let me, and the fire kept growing.

Arms pulled themselves out of the flames, and then legs braced against the marble. Horns pushed through the burning mass, black and jagged and wrong. Wings tore out of the mass’s back in a spray of sparks and shadow, spreading wide enough to blot out the sun.

Oh. Oh, no. Kalin, what did you do?

The thing that had once been Kalin swept its tail through the nearest cluster of mages. They went flying into the stands like ragdolls. The tail kept going. It tore through the knot of aides still surrounding my uncle, scattering them across the arena floor. Through [Wideview], I saw Corwen thrown sideways by the impact. He hit the marble and didn’t get up. A chunk of debris the size of a chair landed where he’d been just before, and then a second piece came down on top of him, pinning his leg.

“Uncle!” I shouted.

I was over the railing before I remembered stairs existed. My shoes hit the lower wall, slipped, and caught again. I let out a breath and then I dropped the rest of the way to the arena floor. This proceded with all the grace of a sack of books tumbling off a bookshelf. My ankle screamed, but the foot was still attached. Good enough, right?

“What the hell, Laz?” Finn shouted behind me.

I turned just long enough to grab the front of his robe. He had climbed after me, because of course he had. Finn’s survival instincts were terrible whenever somebody else was in danger. Whenever I was in danger.

“My uncle’s hurt,” I said, already dragging him forward. “You’re a healer. Fix him.”

Finn dug his heels in so hard I almost lost my grip. “Are you insane? I’m not going near that thing.”

“Yes,” I said. “Probably. Come on.”

“Laz.”

“I’m not insane. My uncle had me tested.”

As absurd as it was, that stopped him. Finn looked past me toward Corwen’s body. Then to the dragon. Fear and duty were fighting it out behind his eyes. I could see the exact moment guilt tipped the scale.

“What’s your plan?” he asked.

Behind us, the dragon had found easier prey. I could hear the crunch of stone. I didn’t want to look, but I had no choice. The dragon had snatched one of Creed’s aides who had been pinned beneath a fallen beam. It grabbed the man in one bite, lifting him free.

“Get him standing. Let him figure it out.”

“That’s not a plan for the dragon.”

“I know.”

A roar shook the arena floor. Dust fell from what was left of the stands above us. God, why were there so many people still up there?

“Laz…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure out how to distract it. You help my uncle and figure out why everyone else is being a bunch of fucking cowards.”

Finn stared at me like I had announced I was going to seduce a hurricane.

While we were arguing, Sara reached the arena floor. Probably by the stairs. Because Sara still believed in things like structural integrity and not dying stupidly, even when there was a fucking dragon in front of us. Her wand was already out. She took in Corwen, the dragon, Finn, me, and the destroyed stands in less than a second. The dragon was busy chewing on one of Creed’s lackeys.

“Tell me you have a plan,” she said.

“I have a plan.”

Finn and Sara stared at me like I had grown a second head.

“I promise. I have a plan.”

“Don’t run straight at it,” she said.

“Just watch for the changes to my usual style. And try to keep up.”

And then I ran straight at it. Behind me, Sara swore.

I tried not to look at everything [Wideview] was throwing me. The bodies in the stands. The blood. The broken faculty platform. Bain retreating behind someone more important than him. Of course he’d be fine. Creed’s aides scattering in their expensive robes. And my uncle was of course the one who was unconscious. Because of all the times in the world for every fucking other person to be okay, my uncle would be the one who was hurt.

That was the only part that mattered to me.

The plan. I actually did have a plan. Such as it was. And it had exactly one step: Don’t die before Finn gets to my uncle.

But really, it was a loose adaptation of my plan from Monday. A shadow dragon, by principle, should react the same as shadow wolves. I mean, Kalin had cast both spells, after all. If I just threw some more mana into [Enlarge], I could make a [Light] spell large enough to hit a dragon. Right?

I pointed my wand at the dragon’s flank and cast [Light]. A white sphere streaked across the arena and struck the dragon in the ribs. It flared against the black surface of its body like a match head on a stone. The dragon didn’t acknowledge me at all.

[Enlarge]. I put double the mana into it. It swelled outward, tripling in size. And for a moment, I thought it was working. The dragon turned its head to look at the light. White radiance bloomed across the dragon’s scales. The shadow recoiled at the edges, wisps of black curling away from the light.

But the reaction lasted about two seconds before the dragon snorted. Then a gust of black smoke billowed out and the light faded. It dismissed me entirely. Its head swung back toward the wreckage of the stands, where easier meals were still trying to crawl free.

Shit.

I cast twice as many this time. [Light], [Enlarge], [Light], [Enlarge]. The second and third spheres hit the base of both wings and detonated into discs of blazing white light that lit the entire arena.

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People running in the stands shaded their eyes. God, why were there so many still up there? What were they doing? Never mind. Dumber than I was. For a heartbeat, the wings looked translucent, the shadows thinning enough that I could see the Crucible wall through them.

And then the dragon shuddered like a wet dog, and the light evaporated.

Fuck. There went Plan A. I needed help. I needed my uncle on his feet. He’d know what to do.

Sara finally decided to join me.