The Order of Merlin, page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Information
CONTENTS
The Order of Merlin
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Interlude One
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Interlude Two
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Interlude Three
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Hundred Halls Background Information
Special Thanks
The Hundred Halls Universe
Also by Thomas K. Carpenter
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Order of Merlin
Book One in The Order of Merlin
By
Thomas K. Carpenter
Copyright Information
The Order of Merlin
Book One in The Order of Merlin
A Hundred Halls Universe Series
Copyright © 2022 by Thomas K. Carpenter
Published by Black Moon Books
www.blackmoonbooks.com
Cover Design Copyright © 2022 by Ravven.com
Discover other titles by this author at:
www.thomaskcarpenter.com
This is a novel work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictional.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or with written permission of the publisher. Inquires may be addressed via email at thomaskcarpenter@gmail.com
CONTENTS
The Order of Merlin
About the Author
Special Thanks
Hundred Halls Background
Hundred Halls Books
Other Works
Copyright
Start Reading Now
The Order of Merlin
Arcanium loves books
Coterie adores power
Assassins will kill you
Stone Singers has a stone flower
Animalians is a zoo
Alchemists, you'll devour
Tinkers loves gadgets
Protectors makes you cower
Aura Healers wants to fix you
Blue Flame has a tower
Dramatics loves the spectacle
Oculus has grown sour
One Hundred Halls
Each with their own magic
The Patrons protect
Because faez madness is tragic
In the city of sorcery
Invictus is the Head
His students are many
But the foolish end up dead
A Children's Rhyme
Chapter One
The ambush was going to be a strategic masterpiece or a complete train wreck. Beckett Dreadmarsh didn't know which. As stated by the eternally wise Professor Kingsley at Coterie of Mages, using magic in the heat of battle was like a frog trying to balance on a razor blade; sometimes the little green amphibian managed the dangerous feat like a tightrope walker, and other times the poor frog slipped and had his balls sliced right off.
Becks checked his watch. Another twenty minutes. He clicked the walkie-talkie.
"Everything in place?"
Two replies crackled through the plastic speaker in quick succession.
"Good as gold."
"Finger on the trigger, here." Then a moment later, "Signs?"
"I'll let you know when I see them. Becks out."
He let the walkie-talkie drop to his side. The cheap plastic communicators made him feel like he was playing a game and not planning a deadly ambush, but he hadn't wanted to use more magic than necessary. Hiding the enchantments for the trap had been his biggest worry. The targets might be some of the best mages to graduate from the Hundred Halls in the last fifty years, and as far as he understood, they'd survived some pretty heinous stuff during their time in school. Caution was warranted.
The roof of the refurbished warehouse in the eleventh ward had a good sight line of the two cross streets. The area had seen something of a revival in the last five years. Becks could see a silver-and-black Rolls Royce Archmage and a cherry red Maserati Fireball sitting in front of Lilith's, a trendy restaurant that served delicacies from other realms. Becks had heard the speckled locanath was a culinary delight. There were a few other restaurants, high-end shops, and late-night dance clubs that wouldn't open until after midnight. He would have preferred to set the ambush in an area that was completely uninhabited, but none of the buildings he'd scouted had the reinforced walls or mage-hardened floors necessary. The warehouse was normally a logistical transfer point for alchemical elixirs with dangerous natures: exothermic, pathogen carrying, or organically transformational. The features of the warehouse that helped protect the surrounding area from leaks would also mute the noise from the ambush.
Becks turned his head to the west. The sun was due to set soon. A low bank of clouds had been blocking it, but the orange-red glow burst through the gap, reflecting off the windows in the area, making them look like burning embers or demon eyes.
A strange light at the center of the city had Becks looking to the northeast. The city of Invictus was a huge metropolis of three million people living in thirteen wards. At the center was an enormous tower called the Spire that was twice as tall as any other building in the world. It was the administrative center for the Hundred Halls, as well as the home of the school's head patron, Invictus, for whom the city was named. The lower two-thirds of the windows on the Spire reflected the setting sun, while the upper third, was jet-black. Moments before, the upper section had been pulsing with an eldritch light that his mind thought was a deep blue, but he'd read that everyone saw the colors differently. The strange lights had been going on for the last year, a couple times a week, sometimes twice in the same day. No one knew why the lights were happening, or for what purpose. The head patron had always been an enigmatic figure, even more so after his long absence, and those unknowable lights reflected his personality.
Most thought he was performing experiments based on what he'd learned while he was "missing." Becks thought Invictus was purely a showman who liked to keep people guessing, reminding them why he was the most famous person in the world, making them believe he was important. The whole thing smacked of bullshit. Invictus had probably been in one of the other realms, drinking their version of mai tais and having sex with the locals, while the various halls of his school had turned on each other, making them more vulnerable to outside threats. Some in Becks' circle even thought Invictus might be behind the infernal warnings they'd been receiving, but even he wasn't so sure of that level of corruption. The more likely explanation was that Invictus was an old man who'd grown tired of running his school and had only come back when the complaints of the patrons had grown too loud.
Becks pulled a tiny stone no bigger than a diamond from his pocket. The angled milky surface looked like condensed smoke. No one knew what it was or why it'd come out of Byron's mouth during the ritual, only that the words that had followed had struck fear in everyone at the ceremony. He squeezed his fist around the stone. If they were successful in the ambush, the threat that had been revealed during the Convergence might be safely squelched before it could grow from embers to flame.
The sun slipped behind the clouds, and the blinding orange-red reflections on the windows turned black like obsidian. A dark blue Toyota Charmer turned the corner with its lights on. Becks' heart jumped in his chest. They were here.
"Target acquired," he said into the walkie-talkie before jogging away from the edge. He threw the device onto the roof before heading to the stairs that would take him to the main floor of the warehouse. Becks rubbed his sweaty hands on his pants, reminding himself that the two women about to enter the warehouse were going to cause—whether knowingly or unknowingly—the destruction of the city and possibly their entire world from an infernal invasion. As head of Chroma and Key, and in a way all the secret societies, it was his charge to protect the Hundred Halls from this threat. If he didn't stand up, then no one would. Becks just wished it hadn't happened on his watch.
The smooth floor of the empty warehouse echoed his footsteps. Becks found his mark at the halfway point and checked to make sure the bracelet was clasped around his wrist. If everything went as planned, he'd be safe as long as he stayed on that mark, then once the initial barrage was over, the bracelet would allow him to retreat to the back rooms, where they could be finished off from a safe location. Assuming they weren't dead already, but given their reputations, Becks wasn't going to take them lightly.
He inhaled deeply through his nose. It smelled like cleaning chemicals. No sign of faez—the raw stuff of magic—that would give away the ambush. Nothing that suggested the entire area was blanketed in wards and enchantments, ready to trigger at the right moment.
He knocked his dark brown hair out of his face and prepared the kind of smile that had always charmed his professors and dates, letting them know that he was just a regular guy. Not a member of the famous Dreadmarsh family. Nor the mage that had scored highest on the Merlins in the last thirty years, earning him a spot in Coterie of Mages, the only school that mattered in the Hundred Halls.
Smile, dammit, he told himself. You're only here to kill them and save the world.
Chapter Two
Aurelia "Aurie" Silverthorne turned the corner in her Toyota Charmer, heading into the eleventh ward at the moment her sister, Pythia, let out a chainsaw snore. She glanced over to see her curled in her seat, mouth open and tongue hanging out, hair shorn except for a pointed ridge in front. The position reminded Aurie of when they were kids, traveling with their parents, usually to take their mother to the airport for a research trip. Back when she was alive. When they both were.
There'd been a time when she wanted the pain of missing her parents to go away. She'd thought that grief was something to be choked down like a bitter drink, washed away into the rivers of the past, but now she wore it as a mantle of legacy. As long as she carried on their name, and their positions within the Order, they were never truly dead.
"Pi," she said, pushing her sister's shoulder. "Wake up. We're almost here."
"The ten marks the eye of the hurricane," said Pi in a voice that was not her own.
Aurie punched her sister in the shoulder as they passed the Enochian district. She could see the huge dragon statue at the center of the square. If they'd had more time, she might have stopped for a trip down memory lane, but she didn't want to make them late for their meeting with the head of Chroma and Key.
"Pi, wake up." Seeing that her sister was deep in slumber, she added, "Invictus wants you in the Eternal City, pronto."
"What?" asked Pi, startling awake, hands in fists as if she were going to throw punches. "Tell that bastard I'm all out of shits to give." Her sister wrinkled her forehead as she checked her surroundings. "Oh, that was cruel. I thought I was back at his place."
Aurie turned the wheel, heading into the newer area of the eleventh ward.
"You were talking in your sleep again."
Pi knuckled away the sleep in the corner of her eyes, yawning as she said, "Which one?"
"Don't know," said Aurie, lifting a single shoulder, "sounded like mumbo jumbo. The ten marks the eye of the hurricane."
Pi slapped her own cheeks lightly. "Doesn't ring a bell." She pressed her face to the window. "Where in the realms are we? None of this looks familiar."
"Eleventh ward. It's seen some changes, I guess."
"A Juju Juice? You've got to be kidding me. There's no soul left here. This place has clearly gone to shit. Look at that Maserati over there, probably a bunch of stick-up-the-butt Coterie bought up the cheap real estate and drove up the prices." Pi threw herself back into her seat. "This is all your fault, you know."
"You were a member of Coterie," said Aurie as she pulled into an empty spot further up the street, across from a restaurant called Lilith's. A waiter with a white towel over his arm was pouring wine for a couple by the window.
Pi tapped on her temple. "Still am."
"You know what I mean."
They climbed out of the sedan. A chill wind breezed through the area, leaving Aurie rubbing her arms. It'd been a warm February day, but now that the sun had gone down, it was cold.
Halfway up the block, almost to the warehouse, Pi paused. "Do you see that?"
"An empty street that hasn't yet been gentrified?"
"No," said Pi, hands on her hips. Her sister wore a Garbage Kings T-shirt with the sleeves cut off and shredded black jeans. She looked like she was headed to a punk show. "We're near the twelfth. I can see the old warehouse from here."
Aurie stretched her neck. An abandoned building covered in ivy with the upper windows knocked out stood at the end of the street. Six years ago her sister had summoned a demon to earn a sponsorship into Coterie of Mages, a task they'd later learned had been given under false pretenses. The demon Pazuzu had nearly escaped and would have caused havoc in the city.
"Any regrets?"
"You're kidding, right?" asked Pi as she rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's get this over with. Old Iron Balls needs me to renew the realm barrier when we get back."
Aurie let a smile get caught in her teeth. "You know he hates when you call him that."
"If I don't, then he reverts to that pompous know-it-all that no one can stand. It's hard enough to take when he barks at us like children and expects us to scurry off, scraping and bowing along the way."
"He has a dozen centuries on us," said Aurie. "Or more. But I understand what you mean. Sometimes I regret freeing him from his stasis."
Pi paused in the middle of the street as a car approached with its lights on. She slapped both hands on her cheeks in faux surprise. "The great and eminently perfect Aurelia Maximus Silverthorne regrets being a hero? You're crumbling my fabric of reality over here."
The vehicle stopped a few feet from Pi and honked. She turned and gave them double fingers before slapping the hood and continuing on to the sidewalk.
"Dooset daram."
Pi stuck her tongue out playfully. "Now who is this we're meeting again and why? I know, I know. I fell asleep when you were explaining earlier, but I haven't slept in three days."
"You hardly ever sleep."
"I know, but three days is a bit much even for me. The gang in my head wouldn't shut up about the trip to Caer Corsydd. You'd think they'd never been to a fae realm, even a backwater one like that."
Aurie smiled. In the nearly two years since they'd freed Invictus from his failed trip into the demonic realm, the head patron had been sending them to the other realms for information that might help them prevent an invasion. He told them he was too busy with his research to take the trip himself, but Aurie suspected it was because he'd alienated a lot of people over the centuries. Appearing as his representative often came with a lot of baggage, and more than once being greeted with weapons drawn.
"Beckett Dreadmarsh. Fifth year Coterie of Mages, and head of Chroma and Key, the secret society charged with protecting the realms from demons. We're talking to him because the societies do some ceremony every so often, but something happened and they did one early, resulting in some weird shit. Old Iron Balls thinks it might be important."
"Secret societies? Why weren't we invited to join one?" asked Pi.
Aurie didn't bother answering. Their time had been rife with intrigue between the original Halls. Those battles for control of the school were over now that Invictus had returned, but lingering suspicions remained. Aurie opened the door for her sister.
"Weird place for a meeting," muttered Pi as she eyed their surroundings.
"Didn't want anyone to know we were here," said Aurie.
"Still..."
"Yeah, stay on your toes."
The interior of the warehouse was entirely empty except for the occasional steel girder holding up the high roof. Faint runes could be seen on the smooth concrete slab walls. The enchantments appeared to be for a loss of containment of the dangerous chemicals and elixirs normally stored in the warehouse, but given the lack of materials, the runes weren't a current danger.
Aurie spotted Beckett near the center with his hands behind his back. He looked like every member of Coterie she'd met in the past, like he should have been lounging on a yacht with a drink in his hand, musing about the ups and downs of the stock market.
