The Dark Ice Chronicles - The Magi

Chapter 8 - Into A Place Where Thoughts Can Bloom

“Good. Now, inside the testing facility, you will try to hit various targets using your powers and any weapons with which you can enhance your powers.” Elena opens a door to one side, revealing an enormous elevator. We step inside, and the elevator takes us down. “Fire arrows, Light blades, Ice swords, Dark guns. The works. Of course, there’s an even bigger selection than that. Those I mentioned are merely examples.”

“And if we win this test,” I ask, “you promise you’ll tell us why we were sent here?”

“Of course. But I cannot just tell you and then find out you’re not worthy to take on Aidan’s mission in his stead. I would hate to have to kill you all.” Elena cracks a mischievous smile that gives me the shivers.

“She’s kidding, right?” I ask Harris under my breath.

“Dude, I can’t tell either,” Harris says, his eyebrows rising in a wigged-out way.

The door opens again, and Elena leads the way into a plain metal-walled antechamber. On the other side is a door marked “TESTING FACILITY” in big bold letters, all caps-locked.

“One group at a time,” Elena says. “The rest can wait here.” She gestures to a row of chairs set up in the center of the room. “Who would like to go first?”

We look around, then Evan steps forward.

“Miss Michaelsen, excellent.” Elena smiles. “And your partner? Oh yes, Mr. Samson.” Kevin steps forward and follows Evan and Elena to the door. “Good luck,” Elena says, opening the door and following Evan and Kevin (I keep having to hide my giggles as I think about their rhyming names) inside.

Five minutes later, they come out, the two Ices looking a bit frazzled. “They passed with flying colors,” Elena announces. “Who’s next?”

Michelle goes in by herself, and she saunters out after three minutes, still holding the bow that Elena apparently issued to her. Elena holds out her hand, a stern look on her face, and Michelle surrenders the bow, looking disappointed.

“It was the best bow I’ve ever used,” Michelle says sadly as Adele and Rachel take their turn. “So light, and so not flammable. It’s so hard to find bows that don’t catch fire when I use ‘em.”

“Wonder what sort of weapons we’ll get to use,” I mutter to Harris.

“I’m hopin’ for some kind of sword,” Harris says. “I’ve always wanted to try a katana.”

“Cool.” I lean back and ponder what Elena has in mind for Harris and me to face. Some kind of mechanical evil warlocks, I wonder? Or maybe cardboard cutouts of demons, or aliens, or Hetty Lange.

Six minutes later, Adele and Rachel emerge, both giggly and buzzy from adrenaline. Adele has a lot of smudges on her face - or are those burns? She’s quick to say it’s just grime from the exploding oil barrels, which makes Evan look even more freaked as she tries to clean her sister’s face.

Harris and I look at each other with apprehension before going into the testing facility. Inside, Elena goes into a booth shielded by bulletproof glass, then presses a button on the desk in front of her so she can talk to us over the intercom.

“You may choose your weapons,” she says, pressing another button to open a hidden panel on the wall opposite the booth. “One each, and the room will configure itself to play to the strengths of your chosen weapons. Choose wisely, boys.”

We approach the wall of weapons, seeing all manner of guns and knives and swords and things I don’t even think there are words for in the English language yet. Harris, as he said earlier, goes for the katana. I take my time before choosing an interesting-looking device - a white metal staff with a hook at one end, like a shepherd’s crook. The staff draws out a bit of Dark power from my hands, causing black veins to start flowing around the surface.