Chapter 26: The Climb

  Ambrose rushed home without saying anything to anyone. He didn’t expect anyone to care if he was gone, and this was far more important than hanging out with his rivals. It was about ten at night, and with the party going, Rentan was still awake and serving the tournament tourists, but he pushed past them, uncaring of who he annoyed. Nothing was going to get in his way.

  He arrived home and slipped inside. Everything seemed to line up perfectly. It was a dark night, with possible rain clouds overhead. The headmaster would be busy giving a speech at the end of the party, buying him time. His mind raced a mile a minute, thinking of every angle he could as he gathered his [Skeleton Key], clothes better suited for climbing, and a cloth to wrap around his face to hide his identity.

  Then, with one last consideration, he removed a card from his deck to make room for the Wildcard. With a heavy heart, [Sleight of Blood] left for the moment. It was an effective card, but dangerous to its user.

  Ambrose went over his plan in his head one last time, double-checked the charges on his [Skeleton Key], and then opened his front door just as Jessica raised her hand to knock.

  “Oh,” she said, lowering her hand. “What happened? Why did you leave? What’s with the cloak?”

  Shit. This was the last thing he needed. It was because of her this was possible, and it would be painfully ironic if she was the reason it fell through.

  “I had a previous, more important appointment. I’m stealing a rare card,” he said in his best sarcastic voice. “Gotta stay hidden, you know?”

  “Oh come on, Ambrose,” she said. “You left without saying anything. What’s going on?”

  The worst part was that she really did care. The past couple of weeks had brought them even closer, and there were less barbs and more weird moments of sincerity and helping. He didn’t trust it, but he didn’t need to in order to use it.

  Ambrose slumped, eyes dropping to the ground. “I’ve got a lot on my mind, okay? I have a meeting with someone who might be willing to fund my next year of school, if I do a few things for them. It’s just not in a place where I want my face seen.”

  Jessica chewed on her lower lip. “You shouldn’t have to do that. You’ve been a good friend to me, and I refuse to let you go without proper help. I might not be in favor with my grandfather, but maybe I can talk to him tomorrow.”

  “What about tonight?” Ambrose asked. “If you can promise me a meeting tonight, I won’t go.”

  Now it was her turn to look disappointed. “He’s not here. He had something to take care of, and said he’ll be back by the morning. All I can promise you is tomorrow. Please Ambrose, take it, and don’t risk your future by going to someone shady.”

  Vanderborn wasn’t there. That meant the office would be wide open, and only Jessica might be able to stop him. But not if he threw her off. “Maybe…Look, let me go to this meeting, and I won’t promise anything, okay? Maybe I can use the Headmaster’s support as leverage, and vice versa. Just…give me tonight, and then we’ll talk about it.”

  She looked like she wanted to argue, but set her jaw and nodded. “Okay. But only if you promise you won’t take any deals tonight.”

  Ambrose smiled. “Cross my heart, and hope to die. Now, if you don’t mind…I’m going to go, and I’ll meet you back at Meli’s Place after, okay?”

  Jessica got out of his way. He stepped outside and locked the door behind him. With one last smile, as friendly as he could make it, he calmly walked away. He prayed that she didn’t follow, but knew better than to look over his shoulder to check.

  The sun had set by the time he arrived at the school. The floating garden loomed hundreds of feet above him, illuminated by the day’s dying light. It cast the garden in a bright orange glow, like a beacon calling to him.

  Ambrose licked his lips and looked around. Around the back of the campus like this, there wasn’t anyone visible, but that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t wander over in this direction. The night was dark, but it would make it harder for him to see as he climbed higher than he had in his life.

  It was now or never. He put his hands on the stone wall, took a deep breath, and scurried up.

  Every time he used his [Spider’s Ascent] card, it surprised him with the speed and ease in which he climbed. His weight didn’t drag him down at all, and it was like it took no grip at all to adhere to the cool stone. Ambrose’s hands moved almost on their own, one after the other, pulling him up while his feet steadied him and kept him from falling.

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  The first twenty feet passed in the blink of an eye, but then Ambrose had to stop to move sideways around a window and continue up. His heart thundered in his chest the further up he made it, and he nearly fell when he bonked his head on the halfway point.

  “Dammit,” he cursed. It made him see stars and nearly forced him to let go. It would’ve been fine, probably, but he didn’t want to use up any more of the [Cloud Cushion]’s limited fall time than he had to.

  Taking a deep breath, Ambrose climbed over the ledge and sat on it for a second, looking out over the rest of the campus and the town around it. Rentan Academy was built almost explicitly for Vanderborn’s use. It had come under attack twice and there had been a few attempts at stealing from the Headmaster, but none in recent memory.

  Ambrose liked to think the old man coasted on his reputation more than actual paranoia and preparations. Who else would be stupid enough to cross the country’s strongest wizard? He grinned and got moving again.

  Eventually, the school ended, and Ambrose reached the tower leading up to Vanderborn’s quarters. It was there that his arrogance and complacency bit him in the ass.

  One second he was reaching for his next handhold, the next a frighteningly strong gust of wind came at him from the side. His legs shot back, fluttering in the hurricane-like rush of frigid air, but the card held strong and kept him attached -- barely -- by his hands’ contact with the building.

  “SHIT,” Ambrose barked in surprise. The magic kept him there, but it felt tenuous, like he needed to get a better grip or else learn how to fly.

  The damned weather defense system. Jessica had mentioned it before, he’d just forgotten, and now he was extra grateful he didn’t try this before grabbing the [Cloud Cushion] card. The mental image of being blown off, only to splatter against the ground in seconds turned his blood to ice.

  It took all of his strength, but he pulled himself back to the wall, and his feet stuck to it. None of the rest of his body worked for the card, it had to be his hands or feet. Between the dark and air rushing his way, Ambrose could barely see. He clung to the side of the tower like a bug taking refuge from a storm.

  Briefly, he considered calling it quits and just letting go. All of this was silly, wasn’t it? It wasn’t like Molly was guaranteed to beat him. He could still win that Wildcard…He took a deep breath and pulled himself up a foot. And then another. He was too close to turn back now.

  It wasn’t even the promise of a powerful card so much as the promise of clarity. Whatever the magic turned that card into, it would give him a better direction. So many of him and his fellow third years had all-rounder decks based on their affinity. It wasn’t until fourth year that they became more personalized. This Wildcard was going to give him a leg up on the rest, and that would give him more choices.

  A bleak smile split his face as he clung as hard as he could and made his way up at a fraction of his former speed. The thought of showing up and surprising everyone with a new ace in the hole and learning something about himself spurred him on. The floating garden was only a hundred feet above him now.

  His excitement got in the way. The wind gusted harder as he reached upwards, and his grip faltered. In the blink of an eye, he went from climbing to being blown off the building.

  Panic scrambled his brains, but he activated [Cloud Cushion] just in time to slow down and not bounce off the roof of the school. His [Spider’s Ascent] kept him in place as the wind stopped, and his heart beat in double time.

  Again, he nearly quit, but the fear was welcome. The fear was clarifying. Ambrose didn’t fall and die, he just lost dozens of feet and almost soiled himself. After a few deep breaths, he got back to it, scampering up the tower again faster than before.

  The wind continued as it was, which meant this time he had the building between him and being launched off once more. Ambrose grinned and kept climbing, faster now, until he reached the top of the tower. The floating garden was on the other side, but now that he was up, it wasn’t as hard to move sideways against the wind, though the cold was starting to get to him.

  Reach, pull, stop, repeat. He did it until the trees of the garden were enough to shield him from the worst of it, stopping only when he was a foot above the outer lip of the garden walls.

  “Oh gods,” he said as he dropped and hit solid ground. The harsh winds stopped, as if they had never been there to begin with. His entire body shook with the cold, adrenaline making it so much worse. “Oh shit, I can’t believe that worked.”

  He took a minute to catch his breath. The garden was well-lit at night, showing he was alone…for now. Ambrose remembered something about the plants themselves being a defense system, and after forgetting about the weather, he wasn’t about to drop his guard.

  But after nearly five minutes of sitting there to catch his breath and warm up, nothing happened. Nothing came for him, or made a noise, or anything. Ambrose finally stood, and slinked over to the back door.

  Vanderborn’s office was dim, but not completely dark. A lantern hung on the other side of the double doors keeping him out. He breathed steadily and reached for the artifact that he’d had made just for this.

  The [Skeleton Key] appeared in his hand, looking less like a key and more like a weird metal hook. He ran it down the center of the doors and waited a second. There was a hum, and a clicking sound, then a notification in his head.

  [Skeleton Key: A magical, dubiously legal artifact used to open doors and break security wards. You have 4 uses left.]

  His breath caught in his throat. There had been eight charges on the key when it was first made. Which meant that either Vanderborn’s systems taxed it harder than it was made for, or he’d bypassed the lock and three different wards.

  Either way, the door swung open. Ambrose took a hesitant step forward, but nothing happened.

  His stomach did backflips, fluttering wildly as he realized he’d done it.

  He was in.