The Golden Tower (Magisterium #5)(27)

“I see,” Ravan said. “I can tell you now, I have never heard of a Devoured of chaos before. A Devoured is killed the way elementals are killed — they are destroyed by their opposing element. I could be killed by a Devoured of water, or by an enormous amount of water magic, my fire put out forever.” She sounded as if she were full of dread. “But chaos …”

“The opposite of chaos is the soul,” said Call. “There’s no such thing as a Devoured of the soul.”

“There cannot be,” said Ravan. “A person cannot be Devoured by their own soul. It would be like being murdered by life.”

“Well, what are we supposed to do, then?” said Gwenda. “We can’t send souls at him.”

“I don’t know,” said Ravan. “I would help you if I could.”

Tamara looked bitterly disappointed. “If you hear any other elementals or Devoured speaking about a way to get rid of Alex, please, please tell me.”

“I will, little sister. Stay safe. If you need me, I will come again.” And with that, Ravan burst up into a tornado of flame, whirling in the air and then dispersing into sparks as though she’d never been there.

The four of them who remained sat in silence, their hope dashed. Call’s mind raced — surely there had to be some other option, some other idea, someone else they could ask. Havoc barked when one of the sparks drifted too close to his fur. Call thought even he sounded depressed.

In the distance, a howl echoed through the woods.

“What’s that?” Jasper said, sitting up straight.

“It’s probably one of the Chaos-ridden wolves …” Gwenda said, letting the sentence trail off. From the beginning of their time at the Magisterium, the woods had been full of Chaos-ridden creatures. The Order of Disorder had even moved to study them. Then the Assembly had rounded them up, and even though Call had rescued them from that fate, they weren’t in the woods anymore.

“Maybe they came back,” said Tamara, hopping down from the rock and walking to the edge of the woods.

Another howl came, this one much closer. Then, from the opposite direction, one of the wolves slunk into view. It was a dark shape, like it had been cut out from paper, with nothingness occupying where it should have been. The fur on Havoc’s back lifted. These weren’t Chaos-ridden wolves, at least not anymore. These had come back from the void with Alex and now they were chaos elementals, far more powerful and far more terrifying.

Fire ignited at the center of Tamara’s palm, a ball of it that grew as she stood. Havoc bared his teeth and ran toward the beasts.

“No!” Call shouted, racing after his wolf and then stumbling. He fell painfully onto his knees as Gwenda leaped to stand beside Tamara, raising her hands. Little jagged pieces of iron and nickel began to rip their way out of the earth as Gwenda summoned metal, then flew toward the chaos creatures that were coming out of the woods from every direction.

A few howled and fell back, the metal tearing holes in their smokelike bodies. Call could see through their wounds into the woods beyond.

“Stand back-to-back,” Jasper shouted.

Call pushed himself to his feet, ready to send these elementals back into chaos. But they’d crept too close to Tamara for him to be sure that opening a portal wouldn’t pull her through the way it had Master Rockmaple.

Havoc had made it to Tamara and was standing between her and the chaos creatures, growling.

We’ve got to do something, said Aaron, which was not particularly encouraging.

Call sent out a bolt of chaos energy, targeted toward one of the wolves closing in on them. It disappeared, dispersed by nothing into nothing.

Two of the wolves rushed toward Gwenda from opposite directions at once and she pulled up metal to send at one of them. It struck the creature in the throat, sending it flying back. Jasper threw himself in front of the other wolf, creating an enormous snap of wind, one that broke the branches of trees behind the wolf and sent it flying against a rock.

Tamara sent fire at the wolves near her, but more gathered around. Call started to panic, shooting bolts of chaos toward the wolves. Gwenda was still flinging metal, and there were deep holes in the ground all around her, but she was starting to look desperate. She’d run out of metal eventually, Call knew. Both Tamara and Jasper were tight-faced with exhaustion.

There were too many of them, too close to Tamara, Gwenda, and Havoc. There was no way he could send them all to the void in time. One lunged for Tamara’s throat, teeth snapping against her skin.

The memories, he thought in a panic. If he had Constantine’s memories, he would know what to do. Constantine was the Enemy of Death. He could have handled this situation.

Call took a deep breath. Aaron —

Are you sure? Aaron wanted to know.

“Unlock them,” Call said. “Do it.”

All right.

It felt as if something inside Call’s head was tearing. He dropped to his knees, clutching at his temples. Havoc ran to him, putting his paw on Call’s arm; Call ducked his head, aware that fire and metal were flying all around him. His leg sent stabbing pains through him, matched by the pressure and pain in his head.

Aaron, he said. Aaron, whatever you’re doing, I don’t think I can —

The block in his mind crashed open like a gate, flooding his brain with images. He was aware of Havoc making a terrible noise, a sort of wailing bark as he leaped away from Call, cowering.