The Spell Realm (The Sorcery Code #2)(66)
Picking up the droplet that had formed as a result, Barson immediately placed it under his tongue.
*
Kira wanted to be brave. She wanted to impress Dara’s powerful brother.
No. She stopped herself from thinking about Barson, realizing that the Life Capture would make her thoughts known. Trying to focus, she looked around the room where she’d just appeared. There were at least thirty sorcerers gathered inside the Council Hall. They were clustered on the far side of the room, away from the giant doors.
“Come join us, quickly,” said a voice she vaguely recognized as belonging to Pierre, one of the more senior apprentices. “We need the center of the room clear, so people can teleport in safely. And send a Contact message to anyone you trust. We need everyone to gather here as quickly as they can. It looks like the Guard faked their deaths and turned on us. They’re slaughtering people left and right, and I don’t know how long the doors will keep them out.”
Kira nodded, pretending to go along with the instructions. Clearly Pierre and the rest didn’t realize that Barson had help from sorcerers. They assumed anyone who was able to get into the locked room was on their side.
As she walked across the large hall, she saw more people teleporting in. Approaching one of the sorcerers, she started to ask him a question when she felt that strange sensation that precedes teleportation. She was being brought out, she realized, and in the next moment she was facing Barson again, her heart beating faster in her chest. Her finger was still bleeding from before, and she pressed the wound against the Sphere . . .
*
“You did well, Kira,” Barson said, trying to suppress a smile. He apparently had an admirer among his allies. “I have all the information I need. Dara, prepare to get us in and block the room from teleportation. Keep in mind, we need to appear as close to the middle as possible, since there is an empty space there.”
While Dara worked on the spell, he walked over to his soldiers. Given the number of sorcerers inside, he decided to split up his men. The majority of them would go into the Hall, while the rest would guard the doors to the chamber, in case any sorcerers tried to escape on foot.
Now that he had a moment to think, Barson realized how desperate the people in that room were. In their panic, they acted like chickens with their heads cut off, instead of thinking strategically. Ringing the gong might’ve alerted others of the danger, but it also pinpointed their location to Barson—and their choice of a gathering spot was even worse. They should’ve run—or teleported themselves—outside, instead of barricading themselves indoors, where they couldn’t utilize their most destructive spells without also killing themselves. Their inability to think like warriors was to his advantage.
When Dara’s spells were ready, Barson addressed his troops.
“Soldiers, you know I don’t give fancy speeches,” he said calmly, “but on this occasion, some words need to be said. We are at a crossroads now. If we succeed—and I have no doubt that we will—this day will forever be remembered as the start of a new era. Each and every single one of you will be written about in history books. Today we are about to change the world.” He paused, looking at them. “Are you ready?”
An approving roar was his response. Studying their faces, Barson could see that his soldiers were just as hungry for this as he was. They all longed for victory, and each could already see it, taste it.
“Remember your training and utilize their weaknesses,” he said when the roar died down. “Every sorcerer in that room must die.”
Chapter 49: Gala
So this was the Spell Realm, Gala thought. This time, unlike right after her birth, she would get more than a brief glimmer of it with her conscious mind.
Everything was achingly familiar and extremely strange at the same time. Gala realized with surprise that the dreams she couldn’t remember before were of this place. Only even her dreams did not prepare her for what it was really like. If anything prepared her for this, it had to be those moments when she was born—moments she had not remembered until now.
Just as when she had woken up to self-awareness here for the first time, she was not in possession of her familiar body—the body that she’d grown used to, the body that Blaise found attractive. No, here she was something she could best understand as a pure mind. The feeling, if it could be called that, was that of flying or floating in water. Only this was infinitely more serene and peaceful.
She knew she should be petrified at having no body, but she took it in stride. Having a body was meaningless in a place where none of her human senses worked. Existence was of a different sort here. Of a kind she was just beginning to understand.
Though Gala didn’t have the now-familiar human senses, she still felt. It was as though her mind was connected with the fabric of the Spell Realm itself—as though the Spell Realm was permeated with sensory organs, and she was somehow able to access them.
She still felt some of the emotions she’d experienced before. Anger at Augusta. Sadness at her own loss of control in the battle with the Council. And, overwhelmingly, she felt love and longing for Blaise.
She tried to not let the emotions confuse her. It would be easy to get confused in this place. Instead, Gala focused on her surroundings.
When she analyzed them, she understood more. There were colors and chaotic patterns that appeared here from time to time. These colorful displays were spells from the Physical Realm, she decided, not knowing where the certainty came from. Perhaps like knows its like, she reflected. Now that she thought about it, Gala realized that she herself was a pattern of lights and connections. Her pattern was much more complex than any she saw—and much more structured—but she could still see the kinship. I am a spell that learned how to think, Gala thought with amazement.