of him, but I did find a Linus Ethelgren, who lived before the Terabinian War for Independence.”
“Do they have a history or biography about him?”
“There was a biography, but it wasn’t on the shelf when I looked for it. I even asked at the desk, and it appears the book was lost or stolen decades ago. They just forgot to remove it from the catalog.”
“So someone’s trying to hide information about a historical vampire hunter?” asked Will, fascinated.
“Someone decades ago,” corrected Janice. “It could be anyone.”
“A vast vampire conspiracy,” whispered Tiny.
Will shot him a dark look. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is interesting, but it doesn’t really help us.”
Janice licked her lips. “I’m not finished. I couldn’t shake the thought that the name sounded familiar to me, and today while I was in class, wondering why you didn’t show up, it came to me.” She turned the journal around and shoved it across to him.
Will scanned the page. It appeared to be her notes from Foundations in Artifice. “What am I looking for?”
“Remember when you asked about relics in class not long ago?”
He nodded.
“It was in my notes from a few weeks ago. See the list there?”
There was a list of notable relics on the page. Will’s eyes went through it rapidly, and there on the page, third from the top, was what Janice had found. “Ethelgren’s Exhortation,” he mumbled. “He created a relic?”
Her head bobbed, “Not only that, but it’s here, at Wurthaven.”
His brows went up. “Really?”
“There’s a collection of ancient relics at the Artifice building, but guess what…”
“What?”
“This one isn’t in the display cases. They keep it in secure storage down in the basement.”
That didn’t make much sense. From what he had learned, no one could use ancient relics, since their enchantments were either tailor-made for the owner or (as he believed) modern wizards simply didn’t have the necessary ability to adapt their turyn for them. Either way, no one would have wanted to steal it. “Is it made of gold or something?” he asked.
“From what I heard, no,” answered Janice. “It’s a long rod made of iron with silver runes inlaid in it. Valuable, sure, but not enough to warrant stealing.”
Will rubbed his chin. “How did you find all this out so quickly?”
“Drake Barstowe told me about it.”
“Who is he?” asked Will. Tiny had remained silent during their conversation, but Will could see him watching intently. His eyes never left Janice’s features as she talked.
Janice smiled. “He’s a fourth year who is specializing in artifice, but he’s been after me for a date for months, so he was more than happy to talk.” She glanced at Tiny for a moment, then added, “I didn’t promise him anything, though. He knows I’m not interested.”
Was that for my benefit or someone else’s? Will wondered. He pushed that aside and focused on the matter at hand. “This is all interesting, but no one knows how to use the relic and we don’t know whether it has any useful properties for this situation anyway.”
Janice deflated slightly. “I’ll keep looking into it, and anything else that might be useful. It’s the least I can do.”
“I do need a favor,” said Will, which was true, though in part he simply wanted to give her something to do that would be more useful.
“Sure.”
“I need some materials for potions, and I don’t know if I have time to go to the Alchemy building. I’ll make a list if you wouldn’t mind going for me. Usually I talk to Professor Karlovic directly.”
“I can do that. What do you need?” she replied confidently.
“Come upstairs and I’ll make a list for you. I have the references in my room.” He rose and started to move, followed by Janice, but he stopped before he reached the door. Glancing back, he saw Tiny staring at him with an intense expression. It took him a moment to realize what was wrong, and when he did it caused him to