Tiny had gone back to the house, having nothing he could contribute, and Will and Janice now sat at a large table with Master Courtney, Professor Dulaney, and two of Courtney’s senior research fellows, David McCandish and Elizabeth Sundy.
Lord Courtney took charge of the meeting. “First, we must decide what spell effect will be central to the ritual. Naturally, it would be best to have a complete and balanced spell in advance, one we could work upward from, though I can’t think of anything currently known that could fit those requirements. Second, we need to decide where the epicenter will be so that we can plan the geometry and calculate the power and control requirements. It goes without saying that the physical design elements will have to be minimal since we have little time to work.”
Will had been thinking about it for some time already. “Have you looked at the works of Linus Ethelgren?”
Professor Dulaney coughed. “His Majesty has had us digging for information regarding him and other important figures from that era for days now. Unfortunately, it appears that someone has carefully removed every volume related to Ethelgren and his work.”
Slouching, Will reached under the table and activated the limnthal. When he straightened up, he held Battling the Darkness in his hand. “Do you think this might help?”
“Where did you get that?” demanded Mistress Sundy.
He and Janice glanced at one another, then he admitted the truth. “I stole it.”
“From the restricted section?” The senior researcher seemed incredulous.
He nodded, and Master Courtney intervened. “Elizabeth, let’s table those questions for now. It’s more important to stick to the matters at hand.”
Will opened the book and thumbed to the location of the spell he had been thinking about, then he pushed it across the table. “I’ve used this spell several times in the past few days. It kills vampires without hurting humans. It also passes through solid objects, so if it could be made larger, and extended in the vertical as well, so that it will pass through the sewers and hidden underground areas, it might do the trick.”
They studied the spell for several minutes, then David McCandish asked a pertinent question, “How long do we have to design this thing?”
Master Courtney looked pointedly at Will. Swallowing quickly, he hurried to answer, “Until tomorrow morning. If we don’t manage to do this and clear them out before then, the king plans to do something drastic.”
“Define drastic,” said Elizabeth.
“I can’t,” said Will. “But it’s safe to say there might not be a city here anymore.”
She frowned. “So, he’s planning a ritual of his own, but with less selectivity.”
Will shrugged. “I don’t know the specifics, but in my experience he rarely bluffs.”
David nodded. “It makes sense, according to a certain brutal logic, though the idea is horrific.”
Master Courtney had been busy sketching something out on a large sheet of paper. He pushed it over so that his two associates could examine it. “I’m thinking something roughly along these lines, but we’ll need to do the calculations carefully to sort out the specifics.”
The two other researchers glanced at one another, then Elizabeth pointed something out. “The tolerances are too tight. This looks like an imitation of some of the old historical rituals. We need to think in modern terms if this is to be doable.”
Alfred Courtney lifted his brows and sat back with an air of resignation. “Go ahead and do a rough estimate of how many sorcerers we will need to do it in ‘modern’ terms.”
Elizabeth and David both set to with pens and paper, muttering and drawing. In the end, after fifteen minutes of figuring and quarreling with each other, they had reached different conclusions. David spoke first. “It can’t be done.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “No, it can, but we need time to build a ring and significant control structure.”
David glared at her. “He just told us we don’t have the time for that.”
“But it is technically possible,” she remonstrated her colleague.
“Don’t be such a pedant!”
Master Courtney leaned in to stop the fight that was brewing. “We are going to do it and we will only rely on quick chalk markings and human participants. Pretend you’re making this thing according to the theoretical tolerances we’ve discussed in my research.”
“But that’s all speculative,” argued David. “We don’t really know how they did those things.”
“We will when we succeed,” said Lord Courtney. “Because we have here someone that can replicate what our forebears used to do routinely.” His eyes fell on Will.
“Surely you jest,” said David. “He’s just a student!”
Master Courtney ignored him. “We should get to work. It might take the rest of the day to work out the details.”
Janice and Will looked at each other, then she asked a question. “Should we leave? We don’t really know enough to help.”
Elizabeth gave her a stern glance. “Stay quiet and do as you’re told. There’s no better time than the present for you to learn a little.” She addressed the Head Researcher. “They might be handy doing some of the brute work.”
Will frowned. “Brute work?”
Master Courtney chuckled. “Figuring large products and quotients.”
“Oh,” said Janice. They wanted them to solve simple math problems while they dealt with the more complex results. “We can do that.”
In the end their contribution turned out to be mostly symbolic. All three of the researchers were blazingly fast when doing simple figures, the result of many long hours doing such rote work. They gave Will and Janice token problems now and then, but it was clear they weren’t really needed. For the most part they simply redid problems to make sure the others hadn’t made a mistake in their haste.
Watching them work was instructive, though. Janice and Will both learned a lot regarding how spell theory related to ritual theory, and how those principles were applied in a practical sense. Sadly, sunset was only two hours away when they finally were satisfied with the ritual they had planned out.
“This is the best we can do,” said Elizabeth with a sigh. “A hundred and seventy-two sorcerers will be required.” She dipped her head in Will’s direction. “And of course, our good luck charm over there. If he can’t perform the way you think, all of this is pointless.”
David nodded. “And it will have to be performed in the cathedral. The Church of the Holy Mother is the most central location in the city.”
That point had been made several times over during the afternoon. Any other location would require vastly more manpower because of the increase in area that would need to be covered. The cathedral marked the center of the city, which meant that the radius of the circle that contained the entire city would be smallest from that point, conserving power.
“The last question,” said Will, “is who will be involved in actually performing this thing?”
David glanced at the others. “You’ll need one of us to help organize everyone. Master Courtney is too old, not to mention important.” He glanced at Elizabeth.
She spoke before he could say anything else. “Don’t try to be heroic, David. You have children at home. I’m a spinster. It’s obvious I should go.”
“But…”
Elizabeth shook her head, and then Janice spoke up. “I’ll go as well.”
“You don’t have an elemental,” Will pointed out.
“Neither do you.”
“I don’t need one.”
“They’re handing them out to two hundred students. I’ll take one of those,” she replied quickly.
Will’s eyes grew round. “Even though you know how they’re made?”
Janice smiled. “At least I can guarantee mine will be freed after this is over. One fewer soul suffering, isn’t that a worthwhile goal?”
He hadn’t thought of it that way. “I can’t fault your logic,” he admitted. After that they split up, agreeing to meet at the main gate that led from Wurthaven in an hour. Will, Janice, and Tiny headed for Will’s home, but along the way they noticed a large increase in the number of people walking around, most of whom didn’t look like students.
“I wonder what that’s about?” said Janice, but Will hardly paid heed. His mind kept returning to Rob’s warning note. ‘We are merely decoys.’ What did he mean? Is there another threat?
At his home he found the Nerrow family appeared to be preparing for another pilgrimage to their old home to hole up for the evening. Laina and her father seemed to be in the midst of yet another argument, while Agnes and Tabitha looked on worriedly. The baron glared in Will’s direction when he approached. “Are you the one who put these foolish ideas into her head?”
Taken aback, Will wasn’t sure what to say. “Huh?”
“She wants to release her elementals! That sounds an awful lot like your nonsensical philosophy has infected my daughter’s mind to me,” accused Mark Nerrow.
“It’s slavery!” insisted Laina, her determination unwavering.
Will looked at his father. “I didn’t suggest anything, but I agree with her. Did she tell you why she believes that?”
“If she would talk reason, I would listen,” said the baron angrily. “As it is she—”
“The king used her graduation seal to command her to slit the throats of three men last night. She very nearly did it, too.” Laina’s eyes were panicked as she heard the words leave his lips.
“That’s impossible!”
“Selene nearly died trying to murder me when I interrupted her marriage to Count Spry,” added Will. “She fought the control so hard it nearly ripped her soul in two. That’s why she’s not here. She left to go somewhere the king couldn’t use her.” He had their full attention then. Silence reigned for a few seconds as everyone tried to process what he had said.
Will continued, “The graduation seal is just a false label for the slave end of a heart-stone enchantment. That’s how elementals are made, from the souls of dead wizards. That’s what will happen to you and Laina someday when you die, an eternity of slavery.”
“That can’t be true,” said Mark Nerrow, but his voice no longer carried the sound of unshakeable conviction.
“You’ll have to think about it later. Tonight, we’re off to perform a ritual to rid the city of this plague of undead,” he declared.
Agnes interjected herself then. “Is that why we’ve been told no one can leave the college grounds?”
That was news to them, and their faces said as much. Mark Nerrow spoke next. “The king is bringing the populace into the college. Within a few hours the entire city populace will be scattered across the campus, waiting out the night. It’s almost certain to be a disaster. No one is allowed out.”
“I thought you were getting ready to go out,” said Will.
Agnes nodded. “We were, but now we’re going back inside. Hopefully you don’t mind.”
He shook his head. “No, of course not.”
“I’ll be coming with you again,” declared Laina.
“Me too,” said Tabitha cheerfully.
Their mother reacted first. “Neither of you are going anywhere!”
Mark added, “I second that.”
“I’ll do as I please,” said Laina. “Tabitha, you’re too young.” Then she looked at her father. “You can’t stop me, but you might consider coming with us.”
The baron’s face turned red, and he stepped toward his daughter menacingly. Will moved at the same time. “I wouldn’t,” he cautioned. “We need a lot of sorcerers for this ritual, and if we don’t get it the king is going to do something drastic tomorrow.”
“You’d even risk your—” The baron stopped, then rephrased his words. “You’d even risk Laina on this?”
“I’d rather risk you,” said Will, his tone biting, “but she’s capable of making her own decisions and I’ll support them, whatever they are.”
The standoff lasted thirty seconds or more, and everyone grew tense watching the two men stare at one another, until at last Mark Nerrow asked, “How many do you need for this ritual?”
“Mark! You can’t be considering it! The king and his men will deal with this!” said Agnes sharply.
“A hundred and seventy-two sorcerers,” answered Will.
“I want to help too, Momma,” said Tabitha, tugging on her mother’s sleeve.
Agnes’ response was so sharp that for a moment Will feared she would backhand the fifteen-year-old. “You’ll stay here with me and that’s the end of it,” snapped Agnes, clearly overwrought.
In the end, after more bickering and a few tears, Mark and Laina Nerrow both joined them at the meeting place by the gate, though neither of them spoke much. Their party as a whole was noticeably devoid of chatter, and Will was grateful when he saw Elizabeth Sundy approaching. A long train of students followed her, the ones who had been chosen for the king’s service.
She was a tall, lean woman with hawkish features, and she had changed out of her robes and into something decidedly mannish, wearing long trousers and a brown linen jacket. She noticed him studying her and grinned suddenly. “My gardening clothes. They suit the occasion better.” The middle-aged woman stuck out one leg and wiggled her foot, highlighting the heavy leather boots she wore.
After that it was a matter of organizing themselves and getting through the gate. There was a small amount of confusion, but Elizabeth Sundy was able to explain their purpose to the Wurthaven guards. Outside the gate was a contingent of the king’s men, but they likewise stood aside once Will’s identity had been confirmed.
Ten minutes later they were in the main yard of the palace. Janice and the other student sorcerer candidates were led away to receive their elementals, while Will, Laina, Elizabeth, and Mark Nerrow were taken for a quick meeting with the king.