“Don’t worry, Laina. You survived the king; your father won’t be half as bad,” said Will.
She squeezed back. “You’d better get moving or you’ll get caught up in all this.” Taking a deep breath, she went inside. Janice and Blake came outside.
Tiny spoke first. “We had no idea she would show up last night.” He spoke as though he had done something wrong, which Will simply couldn’t understand.
“It’s all right, Tiny. I know you didn’t mean to ditch me and bring her along instead,” said Janice, then she glanced at Will. “What was that?”
“What?” he asked, feigning innocence.
She took his hand and squeezed. “That. What was that?”
“You could pretend to be a little less observant once in a while, you know,” suggested Will. “In fact, I should tell you my latest revelation about truth, trust, and lies.”
“Is this an attempt to distract me? That’s even more suspicious,” she observed.
“No, honestly, listen. Lies are clothes, and sometimes we wear them because the truth causes us to lose our…” He paused. “Wait, that’s not how I said it before. Truth is an invasion of privacy, but lies are clothes that we don’t want to see through because…”
“Because you might have to pee when you wake up?” said Janice pointedly. Tiny and Blake both snickered. “I don’t think philosophy is your forte, so just fess up.”
Tiny couldn’t take it any longer. “Last night Will was inside Laina and now they’re friends.”
Janice glanced at Tiny and slow-blinked. Then she put one finger against his lips. “You are not helping.”
Meanwhile Will was glaring at his friend. Tiny was generally well spoken, but for some reason he seemed to have lost his facility with words. While Janice’s eyes were elsewhere, Will mouthed, Don’t help me anymore, to Tiny. Off to one side, Blake continued to silently enjoy the show.
“Well?” asked Janice.
“What Tiny said wasn’t technically wrong, it just sounded wrong. I was possessed by Ethelgren’s relic and then I escaped, but there was nowhere for me to go…” The quick explanation took ten minutes, and at the end Janice was still asking more questions. “Listen, we need to find Professor Dulaney,” said Will. “I have a ritual to prepare, otherwise the king is going to raze the city tomorrow.”
Blake stepped up as they started to leave. “Um, should I come with you, sir?”
Will could hear the argument brewing in the house. Baron Nerrow’s voice was carrying well beyond the walls. He had no mercy for Blake, however. “Wait here. I may need the baron’s assistance when I get back later.”
The manservant’s face fell, but he turned back to the house. The rest of them walked toward the central part of the campus. “Does Dulaney have classes this morning?” asked Will.
“That shows how out-of-touch you are. Classes were canceled yesterday. Hundreds of people in the city are missing, and after last night that number is probably thousands. The entire city is on the verge of panic,” said Janice. “It doesn’t help that the king has closed the gates and is refusing to let anyone in or out of the city.”
Will couldn’t really blame them. “How will we find Professor Dulaney then?”
“I’m pretty sure there’s a lot going on at the main Administration building. At the very least there will be someone who can tell us where to go,” she responded.
They followed her suggestion, though as they walked Will noticed Tiny was acting strangely. “Why do you keep touching your lips like that?” he asked.
“I wasn’t,” declared Tiny as his arm swept out and nearly knocked Will to the ground. His face shaded to pink. “Sorry, I’m a little tense this morning.”
Will covered his smile. “We all are.” Just to be safe, he stood on the other side of Janice after that.
At the Administration building, they quickly learned that the chancellor had called an early meeting, but it had already ended. Dulaney would be found in his office within the General Class building next door. It was an office Will had been to many times in the past.
The door was open when they arrived, and the professor seemed to be in a rush, collecting books and papers and piling them on his desk. Will knocked on the door to catch his attention.
Professor Dulaney looked up with distracted eyes. “William.”
“I need your help, Professor.”
“This isn’t really a good time, William. The king has called on the school to cease educational activities and provide manpower for his new war effort.”
Will was stunned. “War effort? We haven’t declared a war.” Yet.
“We are to provide two hundred senior students, though I don’t think you need to worry about your name being put on the list, given your wife,” said Dulaney brusquely.
“Two hundred? That’s nearly—” His mind went blank.
Janice finished his thought for him. “—A third of the student body. What good will wizards do him in a war, though?”
“His Majesty plans to elevate them, this afternoon. Each will receive an elemental before being assigned to work with various parts of the military. I daresay it’s a great opportunity for most of them, assuming they aren’t killed.”
Will’s mind was running in other directions, though. How many Driven did he lose last night that he’s that desperate to create new sorcerers? He stared at Dulaney. “Sir, the reason I came is regarding a task that His Majesty has given me.”
That got the man’s attention. Dulaney put the books down and straightened up to look directly at him. “What task?”
Will explained it to him with as much detail as he could manage.
“You. You’re supposed to come up with a ritual large enough to purge the entire city?” The professor gaped at him as though he had grown an extra head. “Why would he even expect something like that from you?”
“We disagreed on some things.”
“And he’s punishing you by putting the fate of thousands in your inexperienced hands?” demanded the professor.
Will shook his head. “I pleaded with him for a delay. If we can’t come up with a better solution, His Majesty is ready to implement some rather drastic measures tomorrow.”
“How drastic?”
“Very drastic. I can’t say more than that, but it will be very bad for most of the city if we don’t find a better solution.”
Dulaney ran his hands through his hair. “This kind of thing isn’t done in a day. I’m not even sure we can create such a ritual. Modern rituals don’t compare to what was supposedly done in the past. The old designs claim to get far more from fewer people. We would need to design a complex circle and use a ley line to achieve something on a city-wide scale.”