Firedragon Rising (3 page)

They won’t get me.
She’d already killed more monsters than most of
the Triumvirate’s goons would see in a lifetime. And if they
attacked her, that made
them
monsters. She’d never lost to a monster before,
and she didn’t intend to start now.

With all the force of her rage, she kicked
the ball straight at the window behind which Everett was standing.
Then she hurled the knife after it. The blade shot through the
rubber sphere and hit the enchanted barrier right in front of
Everett’s face. The pierced, flattened ball remained suspended for
a moment, then dropped to the ground, revealing Everett’s shocked
expression.

Aurelia marched toward
him, smirking.
You’re messing with the
wrong Norm, dirtbag.
She didn’t even try
to play innocent. She wanted Everett and the government he
represented to know that she wasn’t afraid of them.

Everett’s expression darkened, sending a
chill through her, and without another word, he vanished in a burst
of gold light. If there’d been any doubt in his mind about her true
loyalties, she’d just erased them. Which meant he’d come after her
soon.

Whatever the risks,
whatever the dangers, she had to leave
tonight
, or she wouldn’t get another
chance.

LIGHT STREAKED THE EDGES
OF
Aurelia’s vision as she sped past the
enchanted lanterns hovering near the hallway’s gray, stone ceiling.
Each was made of swirly black metal and threw white light across
the otherwise dark corridor. It wasn’t late, but the sun had
already gone down, and only blackness pressed against the windows.
The lanterns reminded her of pretty cages trying to trap the
light.

Just like the Triumvirate was trying to trap
her.

She could feel Everett’s wrath crackling all
around her. In the walls, in the floor, in the very air she
breathed, suffocating her. He controlled the Academy, and he wanted
to control her … or destroy her.

She had to escape before he made his move.
But she needed Williams’ help.

She slowed to a walk as she drew closer to
the professor’s office, which was somewhere along this hallway.
Dragging her eyes across the doors, each of which had a copper name
stamped across its center, she searched for the one marked “Gideon
Williams.”

Suddenly a shuffling noise from behind
scraped her hearing, and she whirled, half expecting to find
Everett coming at her with a squad of other Sentinels, to arrest
her. But all she saw was a boy with sandy hair pushing a cart of
cleaning supplies.

Her muscles
loosened.
Just a Secondstringer here to
sweep the hallway.
As if to confirm her
guess, the boy unhooked a broom from his cart. He didn’t pose any
danger—he seemed too spaced out to even notice her presence—but the
office doors weren’t exactly soundproof, and she couldn’t
let
anyone
hear
what she was about to say to Williams.

She didn’t want to do anything that might
call attention to herself, though, and getting rid of the boy could
raise alarms if a supervisor came looking for him. Besides, he had
no reason to think she was up to anything. Students sought teachers
for extra help all the time.

She picked up her pace,
then came to a halt before Williams’ door—an ancient-looking thing
covered in as many scratches as carved swirls—and knocked. She had
no doubt the professor was inside; he spent more time at the
Academy than in his own home. Sometimes she wondered if he
even
had
a
home.

She certainly didn’t. The Academy housed
her, but it wasn’t a home; it was a prison.

The door swung open, and Williams’ cool
voice floated toward her. “Come in, Aurelia. I assume you’re hear
to discuss your paper for my class?”

She knew he was saying that for the benefit
of anyone who might be listening—and not just the Secondstringer
boy. The Academy was riddled with magical devices enchanted to keep
watch over its students. These objects were supposedly hidden in
the walls, and though she’d never actually seen one, she could feel
their presence, as if a thousand eyes were taking note of her every
movement.

“
Yup,” she said, playing
along as she crossed the threshold.

Williams was sitting at his desk, which was
wider than Aurelia was tall and overflowing with books. Crinkled
volumes in red, black, brown, and blue stuck out from high stacks
at jagged angles. Each spine was embellished in gilt letters, most
of which were chipping. A pile of paper teetered from the slight
breeze caused by her entrance. They were probably student
assignments, judging from the messy handwriting and explosion of
red comments on the top leaf.

The office wasn’t very big, and there was
hardly a spare inch. More books covered the shelves that ran from
the floor to the ceiling, occupying every bit of the walls. Only
the door broke their perimeter, as the office had no windows. A
single round lantern, which looked like someone had taken a copper
sphere and cut a pattern of vines into it, hovered above Williams’
head and cast a warm light. From his wooden chair, Williams looked
up, raised his wand, and gave it a slight flick. The books rustled
from the enchanted gust he summoned to close the door behind
Aurelia.

She crossed the space between the door and
the desk in two steps, then muttered, “There’s a Secondstringer
outside.”

Williams nodded, and waved
his wand again. “
Omnem sonum
devorat.
” His words were nearly lost in
the
whoosh
of
magic swirling from him, and silver mist filled the
office.

The silencer spell had become an
all-too-familiar piece of hocus-pocus over the past few months, and
Aurelia was glad Williams had cast it. The magic would swallow any
sound inside the office, which would in turn keep anyone from
hearing what she had to say. But it had a downside too. If someone
was trying to listen in, they’d notice the sudden silence and
realize that something was wrong. So she needed to be quick.

“
I’ve gotta leave
tonight.” She pressed her hands against the desk’s polished edge,
certain the professor would help her. He’d told her before that the
Rising needed as many recruits as it could get, and especially
trained fighters.
Well, they’re about to
get the Firedragon
. “Take me to the
rebels.”

“
I wish I could.”
Williams’ bushy gray brows, which always looked tilted to begin
with, formed an almost complete chevron as he raised them with
apology. “But it’s too dangerous. I know you heard what Everett
said. He’s watching you. Especially after what you did in the
training room.”

“
So goldlight me outta
here!” Aurelia’s voice rose with pent-up frustration. Enchanters
could use magic to travel anywhere in the world in the time it took
to snap your fingers. All he had to do was grab her shoulder and
use his abracadabra to get her out. The problem was that
goldlighting left an invisible trail others could follow, and
agents of the Triumvirate would be able to track Williams’ magic
back to the rebels. That was why she’d spent three months waiting
for the government-run school’s officials to relax their collective
gaze, which observed the teachers as well as the
students.

Knowing that Williams was about to give her
this same explanation again, she said, “I know you can’t take me to
the headquarters, but if you get me out of the city, I can make it
the rest of the way on my own. Just tell me where to go.”

Worry filled the professor’s eyes. “If I did
that, the Triumvirate would know. They’re hunting for rebel
sympathizers among the faculty too, and I can’t do anything
suspicious. It’s bad enough that I’m speaking to you with a
silencer spell in place. Even if I could goldlight you out of the
Capital, you know better than anyone how dangerous it is in the
wilderness. The supernatural dangers—”

“
Screw the supernaturals!”
She put her hands on her hips. “They’re not the problem—not for me.
Everett is.”

“
I understand,” Williams
said patiently. “And I can help you. If you let me, I can cast a
spell on you that will prevent anything Everett would use to
interrogate—”

“
No.” She shook her head.
“It’s too late for me to keep pretending. And I can’t risk Everett
finding me and locking me up. I’m leaving, with or without your
help. It’d be nice if you could point me in the right direction,
but even if you don’t, I’m going.”

If my mother could survive
in the middle of nowhere for months while penniless and pregnant, I
can sure as hell take care of myself.
A
mix of anger and sorrow swelled in her chest at the thought of the
hardships her mother must have endured to bring her life. The
feeling turned to hatred as she thought about the man who’d forced
Bridget Sun to run away in the first place—and the government he
controlled.

She glared at Williams, daring him to
challenge her conviction. “It’s the Rising’s loss if I can’t find
them.”

The professor sighed. “I can’t maintain this
silencer spell much longer without someone noticing, so I won’t
waste time arguing with you.”

“
You’ll tell me where the
Rising’s base is, then?”

“
No. If you’re caught, you
could compromise the entire rebellion.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he held
up a hand to stop her.

“
It’s not that I don’t
trust you.” He looked her in the eye. “I know you’d never
intentionally lead the Triumvirate to the Rising. But I won’t risk
this nation’s only hope for freedom. If the Triumvirate found our
headquarters, if they captured our leaders and forced them to name
every member, all would be lost. Every last one of us would be
rounded up and slaughtered.”

Aurelia gulped, realizing just how much was
at stake. The Rising wasn’t the first group that had wanted to
overthrow the Triumvirate, but they were by far the biggest and
most organized—and had the best chance at succeeding. Past attempts
at revolutions had been squashed like bugs. Angry people
brandishing homemade weapons weren’t enough to take down armies who
had magic.

But the Rising would be
different. The Triumvirate denied their existence, treated their
attacks as standalone incidents to keep people from realizing that
a larger revolution was brewing, but Williams had filled her in on
the truth over the past three months. The Rising had been plotting
since before Aurelia was born, slowly seeping into the cracks of
the Triumvirate’s establishment through sleeper agents like
Williams. When they finally struck, they could actually
win
. But one mistake
could destroy everything.

She wouldn’t be that mistake. So she watched
in silence as Williams pulled open his desk drawer, wondering if
she’d really have to run away without knowing where she was
going.

Trying to figure out what he was up to, she
eyed the crimson wand he aimed into the drawer and listened as he
whispered something under his breath. A stream of blue light shot
from the wand’s rounded tip, causing the drawers’ contents—a jumble
of pens and folders—to vanish. In their place sat a folded piece of
paper, plain and unremarkable. But it had to be important if
Williams had hidden it with a spell, and Aurelia inspected it
curiously.

He held it up. “This is a map to a place we
call the Way Station, which is about fifty miles outside the
Capital.” He spread the map out on his desk. “We use it as a safe
house and rendezvous point. It’s rarely occupied, so even if the
Triumvirate follows someone there, the risk to the Rising as a
whole is minimal. We keep it stocked with basic supplies at all
times. It’s surrounded by an enchanted barrier that will keep out
any creatures of the Underworld. I can vouch for the barrier’s
effectiveness; I put it in place myself. I’ll try to get a message
to the others tonight, telling them to meet you there. You can hide
at the Way Station until they arrive.”

“
Sounds good.” Aurelia was
glad that she wouldn’t have to run away blindly. And fifty miles
wasn’t too far, especially if she stole a motorbike. She had a key
to the garage, so that part would be relatively easy. Still,
though, she could pretty much count on someone following
her.

If the Triumvirate was watching her as
closely as she thought they were, they’d notice something like her
stealing a motorbike and riding out the front gates, hell bent on
escape.