by Lucia Ashta
“Her transformation ability is truly extraordinary,” Madame Pimlish said from the other end of the parlor. Her voice was heavy with awe, something I didn’t think I’d ever hear from the teacher filled with a sense of her own importance.
But none of us paid her or Gertrude much mind. Clara, Simon, Angelica, and Sir Lancelot stared at me, not at the cat with the amber eyes.
“You know the longer we take to get over there, the greater the chance that something bad could happen,” Angelica said, and that was it. I wouldn’t let them down.
I nodded, closed my eyes, and breathed. I pushed away the panic that I’d muck this up, or that I’d end up dead for trying. Or that by the time we arrived there it’d have been too late. None of that would help. I breathed again, cracked my neck to the side Sir Lancelot didn’t occupy, and went in.
I began to picture the dungeon in my mind, whether it was my memories or my imagination, I wasn’t sure, when I realized something and popped my eyes back open.
“What is it?” Clara and Angelica asked at the same time.
“I realized that I don’t actually know where the dungeon is. Maurisse portaled us there. I never actually saw where the place is. I don’t even know what the dungeon is attached to, if it’s a house, another castle, no clue.”
“Oh,” Simon said. “That’s a problem.”
I nodded at him. “And a big one. How am I supposed to portal us somewhere I can’t identify?”
No one had an answer for that, not even Sir Lancelot.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Madame Pimlish, when we were trying to rescue Wizard Meedles and his hounds from Miranda, you wanted to use me as a reference point to portal because you hadn’t actually registered the location yourself. Can we do that now?”
“It should be possible,” she said, dragging the words out as she began moving toward us. “Assuming that you can latch onto the impression any of these other children have of the space, because it might be too difficult to latch onto your own impressions. That might be confusing for a novice such as yourself and…”
Madame Pimlish paused, looking at all of us in turn. “What is it?”
I hadn’t figured out what it was yet, but the others clearly had, because Clara, Angelica, and Simon were nearly glaring at her, and the two girls had their hands on their hips as they faced her.
“You can portal,” Clara said.
Angelica asked Clara, “Can she portal as well as Isa?”
“Better. No offense, Isa.”
“None taken.” How could I take offense at that? Madame Pimlish was the one who was supposed to be a master teacher, not me.
Clara continued. “Prudence can portal without using her imagination. She can create one quickly with a portaling spell.”
“Then what are you waiting for, woman?” Angelica said.
Madame Pimlish bristled, but Angelica didn’t appear to care, not even a sliver of a bit.
“Well?” Angelica pressed.
“Well,” Madame Pimlish said, nostrils flaring and making her look far too much like her favorite piggish transformation. “I’m not sure that it would be wise for me to create a portal under the circumstances. I’d have to hold it open, and the best way to do that is to travel through the portal oneself.”
“And?” Simon said. “What’s the problem with that?”
“You missed it, Si,” Angelica said. “Before you popped over here, she said she wouldn’t go save the others.”
“She did?” Simon looked appropriately horrified. “But... why wouldn’t she want to save them?”
“Because she’s a—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, young lady.” Madame Pimlish rounded on Angelica.
I was in the middle of wondering if the transformations teacher was going to strike her, when Sir Lancelot flew from my shoulder suddenly, startling me.
“What is it, Sir Lancelot?” Clara asked, rushing across the parlor in his wake.
“I thought so,” the owl said to himself as soon as he landed back on the windowsill. “Lady Clara, that buffoon of a dragon is on his way!”
Even in his enthusiasm, Sir Lancelot didn’t forget to insult the dragon he was convinced had it out for him. I smiled despite the gravity of the circumstances. At least Humbert was coming, and that was something.
“What about the others?” Clara asked. “The firedrakes, are they coming too?”
I’d made it to the window, but I couldn’t make out a single sign of our friends anywhere. The moon was half full, but it was tucked behind a mass of clouds. All I could make out was dark and darker.
“Yes, Lady Clara! Yes they are. I count one, two, three.” The owl continued to mumble. “I count fourteen of them.” The owl beamed, and it was then that I could tell that he liked all the creatures, probably even the scarlet dragon, who reveled in messing with him. “Sylvia and Mathieu fly alongside Humbert, in the front. Oh, and Lady Isa, I see Elwin too.”
“Elwin is there?” I pressed my nose to the window, but only managed to fog it up. “Where?”
“There.” Sir Lancelot pointed at the dark night with a wing.
“I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it.”
“That would indeed be wise, Lady Isa. My eyes are designed to spot things moving in the night.”
It was so easy to forget that Sir Lancelot was actually a predatory bird....
“That means that Walt must be arriving too,” Gertrude said from behind me, making me jump. She chuckled.
“How do you do that?” I said. “You were a cat a second ago.”
She shrugged, and a shadow descended across her face before she quickly whisked it away. “It’s the only good thing to come of my time as Count Washur’s prisoner wife.”
Yeah, there was nothing I could really say to make any of that better, so I wrapped an arm around her waist and squeezed.
Used to touching my brother whenever he needed comfort, I hadn’t thought before doing the same with Gertrude. She stiffened for a moment. But when I was about to pull my arm away, she leaned into me and whispered, “Thanks.”
That was my first indication that the taciturn Gertrude and I would become fast friends... just as soon as the current crises were averted.
“So what do we do now?” I asked, my arm still around Gertrude. “Do we wait for them to arrive, or does Madame Pimlish open the portal?”
“We definitely should wait,” the transformations teacher said far too quickly. Angelica whipped a fierce glare at her that she pretended not to notice, though I was sure she did. The strawberry blonde wasn’t doing anything to hide her impressions about her.
Madame Pimlish hurried on, trying to make a case for herself, even though we’d all judged her a coward already. “Mordecai will be on Humbert. He’s an expert at all things concerning magic. He’ll know what to do better than I.”
That was probably the only time Madame Pimlish would argue that she was lesser than another magician.
Clara said, “Grand-mère and Great Uncle Gustave might also have some good ideas about how to dispatch with so many goblins at once. They are experts at magical creatures, after all, and even though the goblins aren’t friendly ones, they might still hold some sway over them.”
“See!” Madame Pimlish’s piggish face smiled in triumph. “We need to wait.”
Angelica growled at the teacher, and Simon took her hand, to calm her, I presumed, though I totally understood why she’d resent Madame Pimlish.
“Oh my,” Sir Lancelot said. “Nicholas and the horses are arriving as well.”
“Where?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“There.” Again he pointed with a wing, and again all I could make out was darkness.
“Is Trixie with him?”
“The white mare?”
“Yes.” I peered below, seeking out the horse to whom I owed my thanks.
“Hmmm,” he said, “I don’t see her.”
I clenched my teeth, and Gertrude wrapped
an arm around my waist as well.
“Oh no, wait. I do see her. She’s there.”
I sighed in relief.
“And Nicholas?” Angelica asked. “Does he look all right?”
I felt a pang of guilt for asking about the mare before their brother, but then reminded myself that Trixie had been far kinder to me than Nicholas ever had, and that it was all right to value animals highly, no matter what society in general and people like Uncle said about their worth.
“Lord Nicholas is fine,” the owl confirmed.
“So now we wait to see how Walt’s doing,” Clara said.
My heart sank. I hadn’t let myself think about Walt too much since they air lifted him out of the castle’s shadow.
I didn’t think I could bear the wait, both from above and from those battling the goblins. My heart beat all the way up in my throat. I swallowed thickly.
“It will be all right,” Gertrude whispered to me. “You’ll see.”
But of course she couldn’t be sure of that, and her own eyes jumped around as much as mine. None of us would be able to settle until every single member of the academy was returned, safe and sound. We’d already lost Priscilla. We couldn’t afford a single other loss.
Isa!
I jumped.
“What is it?” Gertrude asked right away, and all but Sir Lancelot’s eyes zeroed in on me.
“It’s Elwin,” I said. “He’s talking to me.”
Clara’s face lit up. “Then what are you doing talking to us? Talk back to him! Find out what’s going on.”
“Right.” I nodded. With so many sets of eyes on me, I closed my eyes to make communication easier. Elwin? I projected to him through my mind.
His response arrived immediately. My knees went wobbly in relief.
“Come on. Let’s sit you down,” Gertrude said, already leading me back to the armchair. “You can barely stand.”
“Don’t distract her,” Clara said.
“She can’t talk to Elwin if she’s falling down, now can she?” Gertrude settled me in the chair, surprising me with her thoughtfulness. “Now, close your eyes and get to it. No more wasting time.” Annnd taciturn Gertrude was back.
She was also correct. I closed my eyes again and reached for the indigo firedrake, who owed me a life debt, and whom I didn’t want to ever do without.
Elwin, how are you? How’s Walt? How are the others?
Nerves prickled at the base of my neck as I waited for his response... and waited some more.
“Why’s it taking so long?” Gertrude asked the others in the parlor, and I worked to push away their voices as the responses began to arrive. I couldn’t afford any distractions.
Elwin was flying. I had no idea how much concentration that required of him. I had to ensure that I was an open channel for his communications, which I hoped would arrive soon....
But they didn’t. I waited so long that certainly he and Humbert must be nearing the manor. How far did an owl’s sight reach? I really had no idea, but it couldn’t be more than a few miles, right? And Humbert’s wingspan was huge.
Then Elwin spoke into my mind, bringing all ponderings to an immediate halt. The war is at an end, he said, and my heart thumped once.
What do you mean? How’s Walt?
Only those who wish to fight will do so now. The time of forced hands is over.
That’s good, though I didn’t entirely understand what he meant. Was he referring to Maurisse being dead? Not even crises forced Elwin to speak bluntly. And Walt?
He lives. We are to arrive soon.
And that was it, I could tell. I’d have to wait to understand the rest and to see how Walt fared.
I opened my eyes to discover the two sets of siblings staring right at me. “Well?” Gertrude said.
“Elwin says the war is over.”
“What does that mean exactly?”
I shrugged. “He also said they’d arrive soon, so I guess we wait and find out.”
“And Walt?” Clara asked.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “He said he lives.”
“That’s it?”
I nodded. “That’s it.”
After that, no one said anything. That Walt was alive was obviously good news, but there were a great many degrees of “alive,” and not all of them were nice.
We shared that understanding through guarded looks, and all prepared to wait. I slumped into the armchair, hoping to gather the strength to face whatever else this night delivered.
Chapter 9
A loud thump on the roof had me scrambling to my feet in a rush to follow the others as they exited the parlor.
“I’ll remain behind to keep watch,” the owl called after us.
“Good idea, Sir Lancelot,” Clara called over her shoulder, but didn’t slow down.
“I’ll stay too,” Madame Pimlish said, though I wasn’t sure why she bothered. She didn’t give a reason, and she had to have realized that none of us cared what she did. If she wasn’t willing to help, then she was only in the way.
I was the last to race up the stairs, but I was fast on Angelica’s heels, who ran next to Simon. We thumped across the risers as Gertrude and Clara led the way. But though we sounded like a herd of animals, we were nowhere near as loud as the sounds reaching us from above.
The entire structure of the manor creaked and groaned in complaint at the weight that was settling upon it.
Clara whipped along hallways and bounded up stairs. Once more I was thankful that I was in my riding outfit and free of the constraining dresses I usually wore. I would have surely fallen on my face moving at this speed.
Gertrude edged past Clara and slammed open the door that led to the roof. She didn’t bother holding it, but we were immediately behind her.
Just then, the thick clouds parted from the moon and shed silver light onto the scene.
My heart thumped wildly, more from the scene than the running. The large scarlet dragon was indeed there, as were a great number of firedrakes. But I couldn’t yet tell if everyone was safe or not. Their expressions were somber, for a dragon and firedrakes at least.
I did a quick search for Elwin and spotted him landing. I started to run to check on him but hesitated. The others were racing toward Humbert and the passengers who rode on his back... the passengers who’d offer much clearer explanations than my enigmatic firedrake friend.
I’ll be right there to see you, I offered lamely to Elwin, hoping it’d be enough and his feelings wouldn’t be hurt. I had no idea how sensitive firedrakes were, and I hoped I was making the right decision.
But I simply had to find out how everyone was as quickly as possible—and by that I especially meant Walt. I cast a final regretful glance at the indigo firedrake, whose scales looked a silver-gray under the moonlight, and caught up with the others.
I edged next to Angelica and Simon and craned my neck upward.
Humbert had bent his head, and Clara stared into one red, slitted eye while she rubbed his snout. I fully realized that Humbert was friendly, and that Clara and he had a connection, but I still couldn’t help but be nervous for her. He had so many teeth, claws, and sharp edges!
He snorted then, and I jumped, feeling the heat across my flesh even though it hadn’t been an aggressive gesture, more like the snort of a tired horse.
“What can we do to help?” Gertrude, whose head didn’t quite reach Humbert’s underbelly, called up to his riders.
“Oh, hello ma chérie.” Arianne’s head peered over the side of the dragon’s muscled back. She sounded as exhausted as I felt. “Nothing now, merci. Just move out of the way. Mordecai is about to lower Walt to the roof.”
“He’d better be all right, for goodness’ sake,” I mumbled to myself. Angelica and Simon obviously heard me though. The boy offered me an empathetic smile, and Angelica squeezed my hand quickly before releasing it.
Neither one bothered to offer me empty platitudes. We’d find out how Walt was faring soon enough.
With glassy eyes, I followed Walt’s progress as his body first became visible above Humbert’s back. Walt was unmoving as Mordecai floated him a couple of feet above the dragon. Marie’s head popped up next to her brother. I tried to take some cues from her expression, but I found nothing good there. Her face was tired, harried, and anguished, her hair and clothing, in complete disarray. The blonde, usually fast to smile, wasn’t even making eye contact with any of us on the ground. Not good, not good at all.
I caught sight of Mordecai, his arms outstretched toward Walt. Mordecai traced the path he wanted Walt to follow. Walt’s arms hung limply past his sides, but his legs were as rigid as his torso, I assumed because Mordecai was maintaining the posture to prevent further damage to his leg.
It might have only been ten feet to the dragon’s back, but it seemed as if it took forever for Walt to reach the ground. But finally, he did, and Mordecai set him down with more gentleness than I thought the old wizard had in him.
Simon, Angelica, and Gertrude moved to join his side, and from the corner of my eye I noticed Marie vying to get down from Humbert to check on her brother. But I moved faster.
I ran to his side and skidded onto my knees, examining his entire body with frantic eyes.
His injured leg was straight and appeared to lay at the right angle. His hair was a mess, but no longer plastered to his forehead with sweat. His coloring seemed pale, but not alarmingly so.
I took his hand and discovered it chilled. All right, so no more fever. But that wasn’t always a good thing. The fever was the body’s sign that it fought infection. If his body no longer fought....
I needed to see his eyes, to stare into that hazel as rich and varied as spring fields; they’d tell me how he was. I’d be able to see whether he was lucid or lost to pain, or worse, clinging on to the last vestiges of life.
Open your eyes, Walt, I thought, but I didn’t dare speak to him. I didn’t want to wake him if he was healing. I didn’t want to bother him, but I needed to know. And right then.
A frantic panic had begun to pulse through my veins, informing me of how important he’d become to me. When? I wasn’t entirely sure, but somewhere along the line of the bumpy ride that had been my time at the academy, Walt had become someone I wanted to become close to, someone I wanted to share with. What exactly, I wasn’t sure, but I did know I wanted to share things with him I’d never wanted to share with anyone else.