I willed my wand to become what it had been when I had first acquired it.
The Elemental.
It grew into a spear taller than me that was the color of gold.
I hurled it at the man as he prepared another spell to cast.
The Elemental struck him full in the chest, lifting him off his feet and sending him sailing against the far wall.
He hit the stone with a heavy thud, and I thought I heard his skull crack. Two of the glass bottles were dislodged and fell on top of him, but the glass didn’t break.
The Elemental automatically returned to my hand as the man slid to the floor, blood flowing from the back of his head.
His wand had fallen from his hand and rolled across the floor.
I stooped and picked it up.
It was made of wood that was so blackened it looked as though it had at some point been set afire.
I slipped it into my pocket and turned my attention to the poor people in the looking glasses.
“Hello?” I said quietly. “Can you tell me who you are?”
To my surprise, none of them looked at me.
“Hello, I want to help you. How did you get here?”
I edged closer to the glasses. “Hello, can you hear me?”
Then I realized I was invisible.
I turned my ring the right way round and my invisibility vanished. I edged closer still.
As I did so, one man slammed himself against the glass, scratching and clawing at the surface in an attempt to escape.
I watched in horror as he slumped down and curled into a ball, his body shaking.
I backed away and looked down at the glass bottle under him. It was over half full with the dust.
I glanced at the looking glass that held the young girl.
She turned her face to me, and with a stab of horror I saw that her eyes were nearly blank. She groped blindly around, and then suddenly struck the glass with her fist before slumping to the floor.
I looked at the woman in the glass beside her. Her mother. And her eyes were completely blank.
I looked down at the bottle underneath her looking glass. It was very nearly full.
And I realized with a shudder that she was very nearly gone.
I gripped my Elemental, wondering whether I should throw it at the looking glasses in an attempt to free these people. But then how would we get out of here? Would my invisibility cover work for them all? Could I take them back with me to Empyrean? Did I dare put everyone at my ancestral home in danger that way?
But how could I leave these people? My heart was breaking right in two. If I left them, they would end up as slaves to those gits back in Greater True, for now I realized that was what they were. And it was here that they were made slaves.
I hoisted the Elemental and took a deep breath.
“Oi! Who the blazes are you?”
I looked around to see the short, brutish man I’d slipped past earlier, now standing there staring dead at me with his one eye.
He raised his wand and fired a spell at me.
I instinctively deflected it with my Elemental. The spell sailed toward one wall and blasted a hole two feet deep in the stone.
Without wasting a moment, I hurled the Elemental right at him, willing the spear to do my bidding.
It hit him with such force that he simply vanished into nothing, which was what I intended.
The Elemental banked to the left and returned to me.
I looked at the burned hole in the floor where the man had been. I had just killed a Maladon.
I panicked. What did I do now? Where could I go?
I looked at the people in the glass and my heart sank. I couldn’t save them. I … I would have to leave them.
I didn’t know why I did it, but I raced over and picked up the bottle of dust underneath the mother’s looking glass. There were lines of empty glass bottles and a basket of corks on a table set against one wall. I grabbed a cork and stoppered the bottle. Then I placed it in my pocket. I reversed my ring and turned invisible once more.
I ran to the door, eased it open and saw that the hall was clear.
I slipped out and ran down the passageway in the opposite direction from which I’d come.
I turned the corner and had to slam myself against the wall as a half dozen cloaked Maladons raced past me, wands raised and ready.
I waited for them to be well out of sight before I hurried off.
I had to get out of here, but I still wanted to locate Endemen. I desperately wanted to know who had “summoned” him here.
I ran headlong down the corridor, turned the corner and stopped dead.
The garm was only twenty feet from me. But I had never seen a garm like this before. Like the others of its breed, it had four huge legs, armored skin, a mouth that breathed fire, and blood that ran perpetually down its massive chest.
Yet there was one significant difference.
This garm was tethered to a huge leash made of chain links and was being led down the corridor by an enormous man.
The garm’s snout was close to the cobbles and it was sniffing.
This was not good. Garms could pick up a scent from miles away. I suspected they had figured out I was invisible and were taking no chances in tracking me down.
I turned and hurtled the other way.
But rushing footsteps were coming from that direction too.
I passed many doors as I raced down this corridor and that corridor. Then, just up ahead, I heard a roar of a garm. I looked back to where I could see the other garm coming on fast.
I was trapped!
I pushed open the door closest to me, leapt inside and bolted it behind me.
I put my back against the wall and caught my breath. I knew I was in serious jeopardy of being captured. And I had no doubt what they would do to me if they did catch me: They would place the Subservio spell on me to make me tell them all I knew. And then they would force me to show them where Empyrean was and then they would kill everyone there before finishing me off.
I moved away from the door, hoping that somehow the garm would not be able to smell me in here.
Too late. Something smashed into the door. And I heard the growls and insanely terrifying screams of the garm on my scent.
It would be in here in an instant, and invisible or not, the garm would find me. And that would be the end of Vega Jane.
Then I had a brilliant idea. I tapped my right leg with my wand and said, “Pass-pusay.”
Absolutely nothing happened. I was still rooted to the spot. There had to be something here that blocked one from leaving that way. So now what the Hel did I do?
I looked at the Elemental, still fully formed in my hand. Then I looked at the opposite wall.
I had never attempted what I was about to try. I had never even thought of attempting it. But I really didn’t have any other option.
I gripped the Elemental tightly, willing it to do what I wanted it to. I thought back to what Alice had told me on that battlefield long ago when she had given me the Elemental.
When you have no other friends, it will be there for you.
The garm hit the door with another blow and this time it toppled inward. The beast and the man leading it burst into the room.
It was now or never.
I threw the Elemental directly at the far wall.
But this time I didn’t let go!
I was lifted off my feet and the tip of the Elemental slammed into the wall, dissolved the stone and, together, we hurtled through the fresh opening.
We were in another room and we smashed through another wall, and passed into another chamber. Things were happening in each of these places, and I had glimpses of hideous goings-on, lunacy, insanity, the most despicable, disgusting events one could imagine.
We hit and exploded through one more wall and I felt my heels hit the floor.
The room we had just landed in was truly enormous. I couldn’t see how there could be a larger one even in a bui
lding as gargantuan as this.
I could barely see the ceiling, which was made of glass. There were colorful banners covering the walls. They all held the symbol I had seen earlier. The five-pointed star with the terrifying pair of eyes.
And then my gaze alighted on what looked very much like a throne. It was huge and made of what appeared to be solid gold with a curved armrest that I could see featured the actual heads of foul creatures. It had a high back emblazoned with the same awful star symbol.
Then I focused on the man sitting on it.
He was shrouded all in red, including the hood covering his head. His hands poked out from the sleeves and they were unnaturally elongated, curved and so burned-looking I wondered how he could be alive.
And standing in front of him, in his own long robes, was Endemen.
My entrance had not been quiet.
Both of them turned to look in my direction. And though I was still invisible, they well knew, by the destruction that had unfolded, that someone was there.
Endemen had his wand out and pointed it toward me.
But the creature on the throne simply waved his hand, and I felt the very air around me begin to harden.
I couldn’t move.
And something else happened.
In my head came a voice.
Go now. Go now or you are lost.
I pointed the Elemental up and, like a fired morta, I soared up, up until I smashed right through the ceiling, sending huge chunks of glass plummeting.
Next instant, I was out into the open air.
I was free!
But then, as I looked back, I realized I was very much mistaken.
THE CHASE WAS ON.
I kept the Elemental at full size and clutched in my hand. I lay prone in the air, willing Destin to fly faster than it ever had before.
As I looked back, I saw no fewer than six Maladons soaring after me, led by the lethal Endemen.
I knew they couldn’t see me. But I wondered if they could somehow still follow me.
I pointed my head down and zoomed toward the ground.
They instantly followed.
How were they doing this?
Now spells were blasting my way.
I rolled and dove and then shot upward, dodging them all.
I straightened out as a new volley of spells hurtled my way.
I couldn’t keep this up, I knew. One of their spells was going to find its mark.
Okay, I thought, two can play at this game.
My wand was my Elemental and vice versa. Well, why couldn’t it be both at the same time?
I attached a magical tether to the Elemental, using the Elemental as a wand. That would ensure it would remain invisible once it left my hand.
I flipped onto my back, avoiding a series of spells, drew back my arm and told the Elemental what to do.
I hurled it directly at the Maladons. It blasted forward like a runaway train. They were heading right for it though they couldn’t see it.
When it was ten feet from them, I muttered, “Impacto.”
A white light blasted from the Elemental and smashed into the Maladons.
Four of them were knocked heels over arse and were flung out of the sky. I saw them fall for a long time until they hit the dirt with enormous thuds.
The Elemental turned and flew back to my hand.
Endemen and two of the Maladons had managed to somehow avoid my spell. They were still chasing me, but I saw Endemen whip his wand in front of him.
I instantly knew that he had cast a shield spell to protect from another such attack.
I turned and flew as fast as I could. But still they were coming after me.
What the bloody Hel? How were they doing this? I was invisible!
Then it struck me. The wand!
I groped in my pocket and pulled out the wand I’d taken from the man I’d blasted to nothing. I broke it in half and dropped it.
The pieces fell to the ground even as I swooped upward.
I looked back.
Sure enough, Endemen and his group were still heading downward.
They touched down, and I saw Endemen pick up the broken pieces of the wand and look around.
Then he looked up and screamed the bloodiest scream I’d ever heard. Even the shriek of the jabbits had never inspired such terror in me. I shuddered and very nearly fell out of the air.
But I recovered and urged Destin onward.
When Endemen and his men were out of sight, I took out my wand, tapped my leg and said, “Pass-pusay.”
I had one destination in mind.
A moment later my feet hit something solid. I staggered a bit and then stood upright.
I was on the doorstep of Empyrean.
I turned my ring around and waved my wand; the door opened and I passed quickly through.
With another wave of my wand, the door shut and bolted.
The next instant something lifted me into the air. So on edge was I that I was prepared to blast it with my wand. Fortunately, before I did so, I saw that, to my relief, it was Delph.
“Vega Jane!” he shouted in my ear, nearly deafening me. “You’re alive.”
“Blimey,” I said. “I’m right next to you, Delph. And I could hear fine until you screamed in my ear.”
But I smiled and hugged him back.
Around his feet danced Harry Two, barking his head off.
Over Delph’s shoulder I was stunned to see what looked like most of the staff of Empyrean lined up watching me, Pillsbury and Mrs. Jolly standing at the head of them. There was an assortment of floor lamps, coatracks, the rake, the wheelbarrow and two marble statues, one of a man in chain mail and the other of a sinewy horse.
On the wall I saw the portrait of a queenly looking woman, and in another painting a cow pictured in a field staring anxiously at us and then whispering to each other.
Pillsbury, his armor squeaking slightly, lurched forward and patted me gently on the shoulder as Delph finally set me down on the floor. Harry Two rubbed against my leg and I automatically scratched at his lone ear.
“ ’Tis good to see you, Mistress Vega,” Pillsbury said. “Master Delph told us that you were off to … We thought, well, we thought perhaps …” He was unable to continue, so I finished for him.
“Me too, Pillsbury. But I’m back, safe and sound.”
I looked around but didn’t see Petra. I asked Delph where she was.
“In her room,” he said quickly. He wouldn’t meet my eye.
“I have lots to tell you,” I said, letting the issue of Petra pass for now.
“And I want to hear all of it,” he replied. “Every little detail.”
Mrs. Jolly stepped forward. “I’m sure you’re famished. Shall I prepare a meal?”
“That would be wonderful, Mrs. Jolly, thanks.”
I went to my room, took off my dirty garments, cleaned up, put on fresh clothes and headed back downstairs.
Delph was already waiting for me in the kitchen. While we ate, I told him all that had happened to me.
“You done all that?” he said incredulously as I finished. “In just the time you’ve been gone?”
I nodded, for the first time realizing just how much I had been through.
“This bloke under the cloak. The one Endemen was summoned by? Did you get a look at him?”
I shook my head. “But he was very powerful, Delph. I felt the entire air around me hardening. Another moment and I don’t think I could have escaped.”
Delph rubbed his jaw and thought about this. I could almost see the gears in his head whirring as I sipped my tea.
“Show me the bottle.”
I had placed the bottle of sparkling dust in my pocket when I’d changed clothes. I pulled it out for Delph to see.
He took the bottle from me and held it up to the light.
“So maybe what’s in there, Vega Jane, is them. Them on the inside, I mean.”
I stared at the bottle in horror. This was them?
&n
bsp; “Delph, the man taking it from them told one of them he was going to become an Ordinary.”
“That must be what they call nonmagical folks. Ordinary. How very kind of them.” His look was one of unbridled disgust. “The Maladons are vile, Vega Jane. I’d take an army of jabbits after me over one of them blokes.”
“But how would the Maladons know these people were magical to begin with?” I asked.
“I dunno exactly. The ones off the train in True, they just messed with their minds, making ’em happy with their lot in life. But these poor blokes at the castle were having a lot more done to ’em. A lot more!”
He rose and said, “Be back in a mo’.”
A minute later he returned carrying a large book. He set it down in front of me.
“While you were gone, I found this in the library, behind a panel.”
“How’d you find the panel?”
“It was an accident. Hit it with my elbow.”
I looked down at the book. It had no title.
“Turn to page two twenty-four,” said Delph a bit ominously.
I flipped to the page. It was a chapter heading.
“Incada Masacarro?”
“It’s a spell. A wicked one, and it looks mighty tricky to manage. It tells how you can remove the magical powers of another. It’s done through a series of torture incantations. It leaves the person with nothing inside.”
I turned the pages of the chapter and saw the drawings there. Disgusting drawings. But I knew Delph was right, because what I saw there matched what I had seen back at that room in the castle.
“This is horrible, Delph. So what happens to the person after this is done to them?”
“That’s the other awful part. Since there’s nothing there, they can be filled up with anything you want. Make ’em slaves for life. That part’s at the end.”
I read this section and drew a quick breath. “Delph, when I was in Greater True, I saw a man following behind other people. He was dressed very formally, but he was clearly there only to do his master’s bidding. He was treated foully but never complained. And his eyes were blank, like the people in the looking glasses back at the castle.”
He nodded, his gaze on the page I was reading.
“I think you saw the result of a full bottle taken, then, Vega Jane,” he said grimly. “A sorcerer or sorceress turned into an Ordinary and then enslaved.”
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