by A. J. Ponder
His attempt to disappear didn’t quite work. He was still surrounded by magic users, but at least he wasn’t unconscious like Perrin.
“Please remove these trespassers, right now,” Bignose demanded. “This is private property.”
“Of course, sir,” the officers replied. “We just need to take these last two miscreants in hand. They have proved surprisingly difficult.”
“Danger,” said a tinny voice. “Illegal magical field levels detected. Evacuate the premises using protocol one. Danger, Illegal m...” The voice seemed to be coming from one of the officer’s uniforms.
Some of the GORMLESS officers started looking about in confusion. Their terse whispers got louder. “...the sword..” “...the car...” “...the magical field...” “...taniwha!”
Bignose and Nathaniel were now both loudly insisting the ‘zids should be arrested and the Guards should get off their property. Now.
“Keep calm,” a familiar officer stepped forward, her bun just as severe as ever. “This is a health and safety requirement. We need to evacu- “
She never finished.
Bignose, wand held high, charged. A spell crashed into the officer, lighting up the room like fireworks as it rebounded off her blue skin. Where she had been hit the blue skin faded to brown.
She and her companions pulled out shields and retaliated until the air was thick with light and smoke. Perrin ducked down as best she could, her hand still stuck fast to the key on the wall. Alec took her lead, pulling Molly to the ground.
“Wait!” Molly yelled, crawling over to where Perrin was caught just as Bignose pointed his wand straight at the young ‘zid.
Perrin closed her eyes.
“Molly!” Alec yelled. “Come back!”
But it was too late – Molly grabbed hold of Perrin and at that instant the spell hit them with a blinding flash.
They were gone.
HOT COALS AND TRAITORS
Dangling helpless, Perrin whimpered, her arm almost wrenched from its socket. Desperately she tried to use spells and then disbelief to free her hand from the key, but neither worked and all hope began to fade away. She suspected that too was part of the spell but it didn’t seem to matter.
Nor did the fighting. It felt so distant, as if she were seeing it all through heavy glass – the bright lights, the screams, the wizards falling. So that even when she saw the spell coming, even though she could see it was lethal, she hardly cared. Then Molly hit her, the world shifted – and she was free, the key safely in her hand.
Molly and Perrin cowered behind the cage. Spells screamed back and forth, loud and urgent. The Guards’ magical blue shielding flared and sizzled, the damage turning the blue shielding lighter and lighter, until brown, pink, grey and red smudges appeared as the skin below was scorched and burnt and bloodied.
A new group of Guards arrived. Perrin recognised the Chief amongst them. “Calm down and no one gets hurt,” the Chief yelled. “Blegneuse, steady up, we’re all on the same side here. No need for this misunder-”.
Blegneuse casually flicked a spell in his direction and the Chief fell in a burst of flame.
“No spells barred,” Lillz shouted, bun wisping, face blotchy-pale. She lifted her shield and the two sides clashed more furiously than ever.
Everybody seemed to have forgotten about Molly and Perrin, so Perrin pocketed the key, grabbed Molly’s hand and carefully began to inch along the wall to the door.
She glanced back to see the Siren was following them. The duplicitous creature wore a glamour of beauty over her normal guise and a much happier cat, fur all dry and puffed up with magic.
“Faster,” Perrin whispered to Molly.
Molly ran a few steps and stopped, her eyes round as the Siren’s rose pink lips smiled winningly.
“Darrrlings,” she drawled over the rasping purrs of Esmeralda ensconced on her shoulder.
“You’re so pretty,” Molly said, entranced. “Are you a fairy?
“A Fairy? Oh yes, I’m a Faye,” Milly the Siren purred. “Come closer so I can see you.”
“No,” Perrin said, but Molly ignored her.
“I want to look just like you,” Molly said, fascinated.
“Darrrling,” the Siren repeated, reaching out her hand. “I’m Milly, and who are you?”
“Molly,” Molly giggled.
Perrin tugged at Molly’s arm. But Molly, completely entranced, pulled her hand free and casually pushed Perrin away.
Alec looked at the empty space where Molly and Perrin had been before the spell had flashed. He looked hard past the bright spots in his vision, but he couldn’t see them.
“They’re gone,” he mumbled to himself, the loss hitting him in the stomach like a blow as he clutched the long unresponsive Ike.
“What? Ow!” Ike squeaked. “Alec, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’d get your sister away from that pesky Siren if I were you.”
“Molly! Perrin!” he yelled, as it dawned first that Ike was talking again, and second that Molly and Perrin must still be alive.
He spotted them and rushed over just in time to see Perrin flick a spell at the Siren, revealing a flash of warts and fish-scales.
Molly backed off.
“Cinders!” the Siren screeched, turning around to claw at Perrin.
Using the distraction, Alec took a firm grip on Molly’s hand while Perrin grabbed the other and they pushed towards the door, through a sudden onslaught of spells. The commotion had brought them far too much attention and now spells crackled and slid off him. He was not magic. He did not belong in such a world. And so they could not touch him.
“Not yet, perhaps,” Ike laughed, as if Alec had said something funny.
Alec thought of homework. Perfect. Then realised that in his attempt to dismiss magic he’d dropped the sword.
He turned back to pick it up again, the dragon skin warm and smooth and reassuringly familiar in his hand. A flash of heat hit him in the chest, sizzling at his clothes, and then more wizards thundered towards them. Hugely muscled and dressed in thumbprint robes and oversized moustaches, they had brought some kind of automatic loudspeaker device and were bellowing, “Thieves, surrender peacefully. Thieves, surrender-”
That was bad enough. Worse still, Mrs Bee was racing along before them with Bignose at her side. “They have the sword, stop them,” Bignose yelled.
“Run,” Perrin said, letting go of Molly’s hand and turning to face down Mrs Bee.
Alec tried but he couldn’t move. “Think of home,” he whispered to Molly, but no matter how hard he tried or how hard Molly screwed up her face they were stuck.
“Hand me that sword now,” Mrs Bee said.
Molly stared round-eyed at their nice friendly neighbour turned dangerous and her mouth dropped into an “o” of surprise.
Alec, not nearly so surprised, hid the sword behind his back.
“I wouldn’t if I were you. Hand it over,” Bignose said, arm outstretched. “Our good people at the museum need it back.”
Mrs Bee stopped. She looked at Bignose. “Yes, that’s right, but there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while,” she said, cracking him over the head with her handbag. “You’re a git.”
A cheer died in Alec’s throat as she grabbed his arm and plucked the sword from his limp fingers.
“Stand aside, Alec,” Mrs Bee said, raising the sword in front of her.
Alec shook his head and stood his ground. “I don’t want to hurt you, Mrs Bee,” he said, “but you must give me that sword back.”
Mrs Bee laughed. “Well, you’re brave, that’s good.”
Alec shook his head. He was on the stupid side of brave and he knew it, but he couldn’t help himself. “You can’t let them raise the taniwha. It’s crazy.”
“Yeah,” said Molly at his elbow.
“I never planned they should,” Mrs Bee said. “So thanks for this – you’ve done well, but I need to take it from here.”
Alec stayed exactly
where he was, blocking her way.
“I really am on your side. I know it might not seem that way right now, but come on.” She laughed as he shook his head again. “Back off, or your bravery will get you killed.”
Mrs Bee raised the sword. When the tip was at his face Alec stepped aside and Mrs Bee began to run. “Sorry, bit of a hurry,” she called over her shoulder as she belted off down the corridor – and then stopped, jerking, as she hit a force-field.
In one juddering, shaking motion, Mrs Bee managed to throw the sword to Alec – almost skewering him with it.
“Nasty,” Perrin muttered as Mrs Bee collapsed into a quivering heap. Alec tried not to look, focussing instead on grabbing the sword. He took Molly and Perrin by the hand, thought of home and pushed through the barrier.
“No!” Perrin screamed as they passed the force field, but she was still on her feet. They ran down the corridor and turned the corner, looking left and then right.
“Alec, do you see it?” Perrin asked.
And he did. A thin cord of braided light right in front of him. Which was good because surely that meant Te Keo was somewhere near. And somewhere near were also his father and the others he’d heard in his dream. They had to be rescued. He had to sever the cord that bound Te Keo and set them all free. He attacked the cord with the dragon-blade, but it cut so slowly, strands breaking away and reforming even as he hacked at it.
Footsteps clattered behind them and he could feel Molly and Perrin pulling him on. Hacking and running, hacking and running, and all the time the sound of fighting was closing in behind him. The wizards must also have found a way past the barrier.
A flash of gold caught his eye. “Te Keo!” he cried as the creature fluttered past his ear and swooped through a closed door. Without thinking, Alec waved his sword at what seemed to be an illusion – after all Te Keo had flown through it. Only the sword crashed into the heavy wood, his arm and shoulder reverberating in pain as the door exploded into splinters.
He had just time enough to close his eyes before the splinters hit. When the shower of pain stopped he looked back, wiping the blood from his face, every tiny sting hurting like crazy.
“Ow,” said Molly, raising her hand to her soft cheek marred by a tiny scratch.
“You’re okay,” Perrin said. Oblivious to her own scratches, she pulled a hankie out of her sack and carefully dabbed Molly’s face. “Let’s go.”
“But it smells yuck in there,” Molly said.
And that’s when the rotting stench hit Alec with the force of a brick wall. It hadn’t been nearly so strong in his dreams.
“Come on.” Alec stepped through the doorway. Cells lined the walls for as far as he could see. Tiny almost invisible strands of light fanned out from a central cord and pierced the darkness, each strand ending at a cell.
“What do we do now?” Perrin whispered.
“You’ve got to let everybody get out of here!” someone called. It was his father’s voice, almost unrecognisably scratchy and raw. “Please, let us go. Quickly.”
If only it was that easy. There were so many more doors. So many dungeons. And he could hear people closing in behind him and see Te Keo’s cord getting stronger with every passing moment.
“Dad, it’s me. Which one are you?”
“All of them,” came the reply, almost drowned by a ragged cheer. “The cells are all feeding magic to – ”
Alec couldn’t quite understand, but it didn’t matter. The people! They were what mattered. Somehow he had to rescue all of them.
He tried to hit the locks with the sword but they did not budge so easily as the door, and all he got was an aching shoulder. The other two didn’t seem to be doing any better. Perrin was waving her fingers to no effect and Molly was – somewhere.
“I can’t,” he whispered.
They were all trapped, and now he had run out of time – behind him he could hear Nathaniel’s and Bignose’s voices.
He turned and they were there, flanked by nearly a hundred wizards.
Perrin turned to face Nathaniel and Bignose. Nathaniel smiled at her, talking nonsense about Alec being some kind of evil mastermind.
Bignose joined in. “They are dirty Blinders, destroying national treasures...”
Perrin frowned. The words seemed so true. And Blinders were bad. Everyone knew that. She started nodding, just like all the other wizards in the room.
But she hadn’t been destroying national treasures, had she? It must be a lie. Yet the compulsion to believe was very strong.
Nathaniel wiggled his fingers, just a little, and pointed. “That boy is evil. His kind are evil and they will destroy us – that’s why we wizards must be strong. That’s why we must harness the power of the taniwha.”
She nodded, and almost made the mistake of looking into Nathaniel’s eyes, but then remembered the words of the little ghost.
“Bad men,” he’d whispered.
These were the bad men. And they were using forbidden magic to muddle her thinking. That’s why Nathaniel’s fingers had wobbled so slightly, and why everyone was being so gullible – even her, even Mrs Bee who was nodding away next to them.
“Look,” Nathaniel said. “Look what they’ve done to our fellow magicians.”
A hiss of anger went through the crowd.
Alec stared at Nathaniel blankly. “I am evil,” he said. “I did this.”
Molly nodded. “I’m blind,” she said. “I can’t help it, but it makes me evil.”
“And you?” Nathaniel said with a smile, looking right at Perrin.
She ducked her head. Somehow she needed to break their concentration. Break the spell. But she couldn’t think straight...which was exactly how she wanted these guys.
So she threw the only spell she could think of. Finding Ike. She was pretty good at it, having had plenty of practice earlier in the day, and it didn’t take much to figure out she needed to throw the oversize dose of “find” at Nathaniel. Bignose might be a megalomaniac, but he didn’t have this type of compulsive magic that would make people believe lies – or he would have used it on the hill instead of killing that wizard. Nathaniel was the real power here. She kept on with spell after spell, making sure he’d have no trouble finding Ike.
The ground moved, and Bignose laughed. “See the taniwha – it wakes!”
Nathaniel smiled. Then he itched his fingers. And itched them again.
“A new age dawns,” Bignose proclaimed, unaware that the wizards around him were shaking their heads and blinking.
Nathaniel looked at his hands strangely. He rubbed them together and then glared at Perrin. “You!” he said.
Too late. Officer Lillz had already marched over to him. “You’re under arrest,” she said to Bignose.
Mrs Bee was there too, with a little blue picture of herself and the letters, MOGGEI. She placed it under Nathaniel’s nose.
“My superiors at the Elite Intelligence unit want a word with you first.”
Bignose and Nathaniel took to their heels, but they did not get far. The mass of wizards at their heels overwhelmed them, and then the Guards, after much saluting to old Mrs Bee, took them away.
Which was good, only the world was shaking.
“The taniwha is still waking,” Perrin yelled.
Nobody heard. They were all too busy sorting who was who as they set to work trying to free the prisoners.
The golden cord still shimmered. It wove itself around the room, but Alec had finally come to his senses and was cutting into it. Strangely enough Te Keo was sitting on his shoulder. It almost seemed like the creature was squawking encouragement.
“Alec?” Perrin asked.
“I’m fine,” Alec said. “Get everybody out of here.”
Mrs Bee hesitated, her hand twitching as if she were about to grab for the sword; then she stopped. “You heard the boy,” she shouted. “Everybody out!”
But the prisoners were still in their cages, because no matter what the Guards or anyone else did the door
s would not open. The only way of getting people out was breaking the bars with more magic, which then pulsed into the cord with bright intensity. Alec was smashing at the cord. It frayed, but with all the magic feeding into it he’d never break it.
“Out,” Mrs Bee told Perrin as the world buckled and skeletons got up from the floor and danced.
Perrin looked at her. “But-”
“You’re no use here. The boy is doing well, but you need to go and look after Molly.”
“Don’t be silly,” Molly said. “I can rescue people too.” She raced off, dodging the dancing skeletons and leaving Perrin feeling less than useless as she effortlessly slid through bars as if they weren’t there.
And then Perrin remembered the key. She pulled it out of her pocket.
“Is it the right one?” Mrs Bee asked – so eagerly Perrin suddenly realised just how frightened the old witch had been.
“Hope so,” Perrin said and put it to a lock. The door opened, and the next and the next.
As each cell opened the strand to them dissolved and the power drained. Now Alec was making serious progress he noticed there was one cell near the back where the cord still seemed strong. The remaining strands formed and reformed around the lock.
“Alec,” croaked a grizzled man from inside the cage.
Alec stopped. “Dad! Is that you? Are you alright?” He looked terrible.
“I wouldn’t mind if you hurried a bit.”
“Oh. I’m trying to.” Alec swung at the cord with all his strength. It didn’t seem to make much difference. Not enough anyway.
“It is Dad!” he heard Molly say before she tried to run into the cage.
“No!” Dad yelled as she rebounded. “These bars are real.”
Molly started crying and rubbing her nose. A small trail of blood dripped down her chin.
Perrin rushed over before Alec could even stop swinging. “Don’t cry,” she said, patting Molly awkwardly on the shoulder.
“Molly sobbed. “I can’t get Dad out.”