by Lucia Ashta
Nicholas surprised me by actually attempting to get us out of here. I’d half expected him to sulk in the corner while the rest of us worked until time ran out. But he stood alone, off to the side, his lips moving and a blue glow flashing across his hands. I hoped whatever he—or any of them!—was doing would get us out.
Maurisse was only one wizard—two if I counted the wicked Miranda, whom I supposed I should include. She’d proven herself plenty formidable in our last encounters.
But there were only two of them, opposing so many of us. Yet, Maurisse had trapped us with a spell so dark and so forbidden that none of us was prepared to deal with it.
So what? I came back from the dead. At least I was still hopeful!
Hopeful, yes. Focused, no. Agh. How much time had I wasted already while my mind wandered?
I turned to look for Nando, and discovered that he was right behind me. I startled because I hadn’t felt him there, which was... strange. My senses were off. Lots of things about me were starting to seem off, in fact.
But Nando met my gaze steadily. “I’m so grateful you’re here with me,” I said before even thinking. I didn’t regret the statement though; it was entirely true. Nando was always my defender. I just wished he hadn’t had to protect me quite so much lately. And for his sake, I wished he were better equipped to keep me safe now.
The expression he wore was one of torment. Everyone else in this dungeon was either attempting our escape, raging, or crying; he was doing none of those things. He alone hadn’t manifested any sort of magic. Mordecai’s runes had signaled him as an important recruit, but without the opportunity to train him, he remained untapped potential.
“I’m glad I’m here too,” he whispered back at me, though he wore all his thoughts plain on his face for me to read. I can do nothing to save you and it’s driving me crazy. I trained with the sword since I learned to walk, and it’s doing me no good. I don’t know what to do.
My heart thumped once, leading me to rub a hand across my chest to alleviate the discomfort.
“Are you all right?” he asked right away.
“Fine,” I said, though I suspected it was a lie. It had to be. There was nothing fine about this situation.
“I don’t know what to do to help,” Nando whispered, and I realized the admission pained him.
“I don’t either.” That was the truth.
But what could we do? Did I stand here and imagine us all outside the castle, whole and well? That seemed a stretch greater than I was willing to make, not with all that was at risk. It was more or less how I’d managed the few magical feats I’d accomplished, so I couldn’t dismiss the idea out of hand—even when it did seem entirely absurd. I was in the midst of some of the most amazing magicians of our time, and how would I contribute? By picturing us all outside without any clue as to what had to happen to get us there? Ridiculous.
Is it really ridiculous? A part of me wasn’t convinced it was, but I needed calm to even attempt the visualization, and I wasn’t in the space for calm.
“We’ll figure something out,” I told Nando, offering him all the false assurance I had.
“I know you will.”
“I said ‘we.’”
He stared at me without a word. He doubted he had anything to contribute, and I couldn’t stand that from my capable brother. He wasn’t to blame for not having learned a lick of magic since arriving at the academy. In fact, it was the fault of the Sorcerers for Magical Supremacy, of Maurisse, who headed them, and Miranda, on the rung immediately beneath him on the hierarchical ladder.
Time to make them pay. How? I still had no idea. “Come on.” I grabbed Nando’s hand and pulled, then sensed a set of eyes on me. Sir Lancelot. He didn’t have magic either, other than being a magical, talking owl, of course.
I pulled Nando toward Brave, whose shoulder Sir Lancelot continued to occupy. Once I reached Brave, and Gertrude at his side, I hesitated. Brave was concentrating, and I wasn’t sure the nebulous idea forming in my mind was worth bothering anyone about. I moved on to Gertrude.
Her amber eyes pierced me with curiosity; her eyebrows rose on her forehead slightly. She didn’t have magic that could help us now either, I remembered. Maybe she should come too.
Go where, Isa? Do what? I really wasn’t sure. I couldn’t decide if it was because Maurisse’s curse was affecting my focus, or if it was because I was clutching at straws—weak and flimsy straws that would disintegrate into nothing at the first concrete touch.
Enough. Focus! But on what? I was starting to feel like a confused child who wandered the streets, lost until someone led him back home.
A sudden sense of urgency settled into me—not because of the obvious, but because I was starting to feel that if I didn’t manage something soon, I’d lose all ability to concentrate and end up roaming this dark dungeon forever... or until I died.
I stopped examining my actions and allowed myself to act. I realized with a sudden certainty that what I was following was my intuition. Though it seemed like not quite enough given our circumstances, it was speaking to me loudly. And my intuition had been the one thing to serve me well before.
“Sir Lancelot and Gertrude, would you like to join us?”
Sir Lancelot arched his feathery brow, and Gertrude asked, “To do what?”
“I’m really not sure.”
Gertrude stared back at me for a long while, until she apparently determined that she had nothing to lose by following me off to do, well, whatever it was we’d do. I was figuring it out as I went, speaking and acting before I could think. Since my brain was one hot mess, I suspected it was the only way to stay ahead of the damage the curse was causing.
Without taking her eyes from me, Gertrude spoke to the owl. “Come on, Sir Lancelot, let’s go.” She extended her arm, offering him an invitation to hop from Brave’s shoulder to hers.
Sir Lancelot hesitated, but I had to give the owl credit: he didn’t hesitate for long. “What are we going to do?” he asked, even though I’d made it abundantly clear I really had no idea.
“Let’s find out,” I said, tugging Nando toward Mordecai and Grand Witch Giselle, the last two people in this dungeon I wanted to interrupt, mostly because I considered them the magicians with the greatest chance of getting us out.
I pulled to a stop next to them, with Nando, Gertrude, and Sir Lancelot hot on my heels. “Excuse me, Mordecai?” I said before I could examine my actions too closely.
He turned toward us, looking entirely surprised. The murmur of a spell died on his lips, and the orange glow his hands had emitted went along with it.
I worried he might be mad, but he surprised me. “What is it, Isa?” He sounded... curious. Grand Witch Giselle turned and shot me an annoyed look.
“My brain is doing funny stuff. I can barely hold on to ideas, nor understand where they’re coming from. But I have the feeling I need to ask you a couple of questions.” I was rambling, and my words sounded pathetic even to my own ears. But it didn’t seem I had the capacity to care anymore. My brain was glassy. It attempted to latch onto things as it scanned them, but my mental grip ranged from slippery to nonexistent.
Grand Witch Giselle didn’t scold me, nor did Mordecai. The witch turned to fully give me her attention. The wizard asked, “What questions do you have for me, Isa?”
“How come all of you are in the dungeon?” My tongue had started to feel thick, as if stung by a bee. I was struggling to string words together. Of course, it was entirely possible that my brain was the one struggling, and not my tongue. I couldn’t tell anymore.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’d thought Clara and... huh, I guess I forgot who else rode over on Humbert with her.”
“Gustave and Arianne,” Nando supplied.
“That’s right. How come they and Humbert and the firedrakes are trapped inside with all of you? I thought they were supposed to keep watch above... or something.” It took all my strength to stare at Mordecai’s wrinkled
face to make sure I didn’t miss his answer.
“It’s true, they weren’t supposed to enter the castle. But Maurisse cast an illusion that lured them all inside.”
“What kind of illusion?” Nando asked, sounding a thousand times more intelligent than I felt.
Grand Witch Giselle answered. “Apparently, Gustave, Arianne, and Clara heard us calling them for help. They charged downward, leading the firedrakes, and entered through the courtyard. Once they were inside the courtyard, Maurisse’s spell wouldn’t allow them to leave. There was no roof, but there was a wall of magic that prevented their escape.”
Mordecai said, “After that, it didn’t take them long to follow our supposed cries for help here, to the dungeons.”
“That sneaky rat,” Gertrude said ferociously.
Mordecai nodded sadly. “Indeed. He one-upped us.”
“Not for long,” I said, then was as shocked as everyone else that I was the one to have spoken the words.
“Oh?” Grand Witch Giselle asked. “Have you worked something out?”
“I’ll be honest with you, I have no idea what’s going on in my head right now.” It almost felt as if I were watching myself from outside of my body, as if things were happening beyond my control. My brain had ejected me from the driver’s seat.
If Grand Witch Giselle and Mordecai had been ordinary magicians, I imagine they would have sent me away with warnings not to disrupt them again. But they were extraordinary, with an understanding of magic and intuition that transcended my own.
“What’s your second question?” Grand Witch Giselle asked.
“Albacus. Where is he? Did you find him?”
From the way Mordecai’s face dropped, I guessed the answer before he spoke it. “No, I haven’t seen him. I don’t know where he is.”
“He’s here,” I said again, with that disembodied voice I barely recognized.
“You’re sure?”
“I am.” And my surety went further than what Mariana’s spirit had told me. It came from a place beyond rational thought. “And Nando, Gertrude, Sir Lancelot, and I are going to find him.”
“How?” Mordecai looked excited, despite the fact that I had already admitted I had no clue how I’d manage anything beyond foaming at the mouth and letting loose whatever words popped in there.
“Nando can see in the dark. Gertrude, in her cat form, will be able to as well. And Sir Lancelot has an owl’s sight.”
“And you?”
“I can see spirits. Now that I died and was one, I’ll be able to see him even if Maurisse cast some kind of magic to prevent it.” My free hand slapped against my mouth. Where was this coming from? I’d either gone totally stark raving mad or was accessing something I hadn’t been aware of before.
“Well.” Mordecai stared at me and puffed his chest out with hope. “Get on with it then. I’ve longed to see my brother since he first vanished.
Grand Witch Giselle dipped her head to us. “Best of luck to you all.” With that, she turned back around and continued enunciating whatever spell I’d interrupted.
Mordecai alone watched us walk away, toward the deep and terrifying darkness.
I noticed a cloud-like formation of glowing, sparking, electric magic encircling Clara before Nando, Gertrude, Sir Lancelot and I passed by her and then by the rest of the others.
We moved beyond the raging Humbert and the range of the few lit torches.
We stepped into the great unknown based solely on the urgings of my fevered mind. I was trying hard to ignore the dread that coalesced in an awkward lump in my throat when I heard Elwin through the fog of my disjointed thoughts.
Wait for me, he said, but I didn’t slow. He’d catch up.
Whatever madness I was leading us into wouldn’t wait. We were on borrowed time.
Chapter 3
Even though we hadn’t exactly been safe when we were grouped with the others, there was a certain artificial sense of safety in numbers that offered me comfort.
We’d left all that behind, and we hadn’t even walked that far.
Of all the people and creatures with me, I was the only one unable to see where to place my next step. I hadn’t thought to claim one of the torches, and I was well aware why. There was no plan involved, nothing beyond placing one step carefully in front of the other.
Besides, everyone else with me could see through the inkwell of darkness.
It had been my wild idea to venture farther into the dungeon, but Nando had to lead. I clutched at his hand like he was my salvation and did my best to keep up.
“Where do you think we’re going?” he asked.
“I really have no idea.”
“But you think Albacus is out here somewhere?” Gertrude asked from behind me.
“I know he is.” It didn’t much matter that I couldn’t figure out how exactly I knew, I was sure of it. My gut hummed like a guiding compass. I saw no better idea than to let it take control, especially when my mind was feeble. “What do you see up ahead?” I asked my brother, hoping we wouldn’t have to venture too far from the rest of the group.
“This walkway leads as far as I can make out.”
That definitely wasn’t the news I’d wanted to hear. No sooner had we left the others, walls had closed in on us, fueling my desperation to escape this place.
“It’s pretty long from what I can tell,” he added. “Are you sure you want us to keep going this way?”
No. “Yes. There’s no other direction we can go, right?”
“Other than heading up the ramp we came down on, or heading back to where we came from, no.”
“And we’re certain there was nowhere to go in the other direction, beyond where we just were?” And by we I of course didn’t really include myself. I’d already established I wasn’t certain of anything other than I had to try something... anything.
“This is it,” Nando confirmed and came to a stop. I leaned into him as he asked, “What’s the call? Do we keep going or turn back?”
He stared at me. Even in the dark I could feel his attention on my face.
I took in a deep breath and released it slowly. “I say we keep moving forward.”
“And the rest of you?”
I go where you go, Elwin said.
“I’ll help in whatever way I can,” Sir Lancelot said. “If that means heading into the pit of Hell itself, then so be it.”
Courageous words for such a small creature. I smiled both at Elwin and him, though neither would probably notice.
“And you?” Nando asked.
“I’m in,” Gertrude responded without hesitation. “There are plenty of them working on cracking the spell back there. Let’s see what lies ahead. It can’t hurt, right?” She laughed nervously, and the sound made me cringe.
We were all on edge.
“All right then. Let’s do it.” Nando faced forward again and resumed our progress.
My thoughts continued to attempt to pull me away from the here-and-now. I struggled to maintain my focus and follow Nando along a path I didn’t see.
We moved slowly, making the tunnel seem eternal. It narrowed and closed in on us more the farther into it we got, though I had no way of gauging whether this was true or simply my impression.
Everything down here was distorted: perception, thought, magic.
“There!” Nando said, startling me from wherever I’d gone as we trudged along. “I see a change in the lighting up ahead.”
“You mean in the degree of darkness,” I muttered.
“Yes, that.” He ignored my sarcasm. “It’s another room or something.”
“Oh, goodie. More dungeon.”
Nando tugged on my hand and barreled down the path. “Hey, slow down.”
“Please no. It’s already taken forever. We don’t have forever.”
I wouldn’t argue the point.
I ran after him, stumbled, but didn’t fall. He pulled me along behind him. “We’re almost there. Only a little bit more. You can do i
t, Isa.”
“Well of course I can.” I mean, just because I couldn’t see in the dark didn’t mean there was a thing wrong with my legs. But he was completely ignoring our usual banter. I had to wonder if the tone of my voice sounded different in my head, or if I managed to speak the words aloud at all.
I experienced a sudden pang of sympathy for patients of sanitariums. It must be horrible to be trapped in your own mind, unsure which version of reality is the authentic one, unable to hold onto the world others live in.
We have to hurry. The healthy sense of urgency I already experienced spiked. My mind felt so different than it usually did that I was losing reference points. If we didn’t make it out of here soon, I might never be the same. No one had said it, but I was sure there were some effects of dark magic from which a person never recovered.
I wouldn’t allow that to happen to me—or anyone else if I had anything to say about it.
Nando came to a sudden stop and I slammed into his back, twisting his arm and mine since I wouldn’t let go. “What is it?”
“We’re here.”
“Here where?”
“In another dark, dank, cavernous part of the dungeon,” Sir Lancelot said, his melancholy voice coming from a lower height than Gertrude’s shoulders. He must have decided to traverse the path on his own.
“This place is huge,” Nando said. “I think the dungeon must span the entire length of the castle.”
“It should,” the owl quipped. “Rumors are that Duke Maurisse’s prisons are always overflowing.”
“Except for now,” I said. It was a curious fact, really. “Why would Maurisse evacuate the prisons to cast the spell for us? Obviously he doesn’t care about his prisoners.”
“From the stench, I’d say he’d enjoy making them suffer. Some of his prisoners surely must have been magical. They would have suffered from the spell he’s enacted just as much as we have.”
“Are you suffering from the curse, Sir Lancelot?”
The owl didn’t answer right away, and I imaged him tilting his head this way and that as he did when he was considering an issue.