by S T G Hill
The final words came out of her lips with a hard edge to them, and Ellie remembered well that fury that permeated the very air around them down at the memorial.
Ellie, you must choose. That memory of a voice echoed through her thoughts. The thing was, she had no idea what she was supposed to choose. Or how.
And it also made her think that Belt wasn’t the only one to shoulder the blame in all of this.
“I wanted to tell you everything,” Ellie said, “All this Omenborn stuff. Back at school, before the Trial. And after. I just… I just didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“I wish that you had. You know I would have helped any way that I could,” Arabella said, striving to and managing to control the hitches in her voice, barely. “You and Thorn did what you thought was right. But all that’s behind us now.”
Except Ellie didn’t feel like it was all behind them.
“I didn’t want the Gem to hurt those sorcerers. I tried to stop it,” Ellie remembered the way Arabella and the other two had looked at her when it happened.
“We’ll talk about it later. Now we just have to concentrate on getting out of London and back over—”
Before she could finish, the transphere shook.
Then it disappeared.
For a few terrible moments, Ellie entered freefall. The cold air at this altitude slapped her in the face and tore at her hair.
Her stomach hung someplace hundreds of feet above her.
And the glistening towers and twisting streets of London rushed upwards.
She opened her mouth and thought that she screamed, but couldn’t be certain since she could hear nothing but the roar of that air past her ears.
The pressure pushed at the back of her forehead like a baseball trying to get out.
Then the transphere reformed, all the noise and the cold suddenly cut off. Ellie pushed herself up onto her haunches and touched her cheeks. Her skin was chilly.
“What was that?” Ellie turned and looked at Arabella, who had both her hands held out, her face a mask of concentration as she tried to maintain her spell.
“We’re getting chased! We’re under attack!” Arabella said, “Hold on!”
Their transphere started zigzagging back and forth above the city, pulling hairpin turns and loops that left Ellie’s stomach tight even though the magic kept her from actually sensing the shifts in momentum.
Ellie glanced around the smooth transphere, “To what?”
Then she saw it. Another ball of light racing along right behind them. A hole opened in it and a sizzling ball of energy shot towards them.
“Arabella!”
“I see it!”
She saw it too late.
The ball connected and their transphere rippled around them. The tops of the buildings below looked close enough to touch.
Before they could recover, a pair of huge spectral eagles appeared, one of each side of them.
The glowing birds shrieked loud enough that Ellie clapped her hands to her ears.
Then the talons came. The birds attacked them, driving those sword-like talons right through their protective bubble.
Arabella gasped as though they had stabbed her instead. Sweat ran freely down her face. Her lips peeled back in an awful snarl. “I can’t hold it. We’re going down. Take my hand.”
Ellie lurched to her feet and grabbed Arabella’s outstretched fingers a heartbeat before their transphere nosedived.
Ellie had a moment to see some old building rushing up towards them. And what looked like a pair of massive cannons.
She also saw the shocked, upturned faces of pedestrians, including one little boy whose mother crouched behind him while he pointed up at them with wide wonder.
Then they crashed.
They hit the street just outside the gate, narrowly avoiding a black taxi. The transphere smacked a crater into the pavement and they bounced once, then twice.
Right over to the large steps of the building. People ran and screamed all around them. Others held their phones out to record.
“Ellie…” Arabella groaned, her fingers gripping Ellie’s weakly.
When Arabella collapsed, so did the transphere. It shattered like a fragile eggshell all around them, the noises of the city rushing in at them.
Arabella crouched low, her whole body heaving. Ellie crouched beside her.
“No,” Arabella said, “We have to go. We have to run. He’ll be here any second. He was right behind us.”
“Who?” Ellie put Arabella’s arm over her shoulders and grimaced while the taller woman put her weight across them.
At first Ellie thought Arabella meant Darius Belt. And when she realized that a heavy ball of ice formed in the pit of her stomach.
She looked around the courtyard. They’d bounced right up to that pair of huge guns, and a crowed had begun to form around them.
Then she looked up at the columned façade of the building itself. A confused security guard paused on the steps, speaking into a radio.
A sign nearby said, Welcome to the Imperial War Museum.
A gasp from the crowd interrupted her. She and Arabella turned in time to see a second transphere set down deftly on the pavement.
Its shell dissolved in a shimmer, revealing a sharp-faced figure Ellie and Arabella both knew.
The blue-robed man strode forward, the crowd parting around him.
“Arabella Thrace, Eleonora Ashwood, you’re coming with me,” said Sourcewell’s Channeler Prime, Farazon Shaffir.
Chapter 31
Arabella gave Ellie’s shoulder a squeeze and then limped forward. Shaffir kept his fingers splayed at his sides, ready to whip a spell at her.
“Farazon, you’re on the wrong side of this,” Arabella said.
Shaffir shook his head, “I know that you’re fond of the girl, Arabella, but you were there when Belt explained the entire situation to the Council. Give her to me and I’ll request lenience on your behalf.”
For a moment, he dropped his façade of decorum and leaned forward, true sympathy in his eyes, “Please, Arabella. Don’t make me do this.”
“No, Farazon. No one knows Belt’s true plan. No one but Belt. Everyone’s just a pawn to him. Everyone…” she took another hesitant step forward, “Farazon, Belt killed Aurelius.”
Master Shaffir frowned, and he shot a quick glance at Ellie. Then he shook his head. “No. I’ve seen the reconstruction myself. It’s just as Belt said: Thorn killed Magister Cassiodorian when Cassiodorian refused to help the Resistance rescue her.” Shaffir nodded towards Ellie.
“Move! Move along! Hey, you there!” the crowd around them began to part, and a trio of yellow-coated London Metropolitan police hurried towards them.
“Stay back!” Ellie shouted at them. She didn’t want them to get hurt.
Farazon Shaffir paid them nothing more than an annoyed glance, which he cast out over the rest of the crowd. For the first time, he seemed to notice all the cell phones pointed at them.
“Don’t hurt them!” Ellie said.
Arabella grabbed at her shoulder, but Ellie still put herself between Arabella and Shaffir.
“This is no business for nils,” he said. Then he clapped his hands together. The sound echoed out over sudden silence.
Everyone around them stood completely still. The lead cop, a round-faced man, had paused in mid-step with one admonishing finger raised towards them.
It was like Shaffir had just hit the pause button on life.
“Now, come with me and I will do my best,” Shaffir said.
As he did, he stretched his hand out towards Ellie. Sinuous bands of light ran from his fingers and wrapped around her. She gasped as they lifted her into the air and began to reel her in.
“No!” Arabella said. She rushed forward and chopped down at the spell, a blade of magic appearing along her hand.
It sliced clean through the glowing ropes, which recoiled, whipped back at Shaffir. He staggered and looked at Arabella, shocked at her disobedience.
“Run, Ellie!” Arabella gave her a shove.
Ellie started, but then she saw Shaffir. He recovered quickly and looked to closest of the pair of massive cannons in front of the building.
Ellie’s heart dropped just a moment before it happened. Shaffir snarled and made a wrenching motion towards the cannon.
The entire courtyard shook as the huge gun pulled free of its anchor and swung at Arabella.
Ellie didn’t think about what happened next, she just did it.
“No, Ellie!” Arabella said, her whole body glowing.
But she didn’t move quickly enough, and Ellie got between her and the incoming bludgeon.
A moment before it struck, Ellie felt it. The flare of power from the Gem, the pressure behind her forehead and between her eyes.
Ellie held her hands out and squeezed her eyes shut, certain she’d feel the bone-shattering impact any moment.
Instead, heat flared sudden and violent inside of her body, surrounding her.
When the barrel of the cannon struck, the heat emanating from it incinerated an Ellie-width length of it. The edges of the cut she made glowed white-hot, the old steel sizzling.
She started to smile: she’d been right. The Gem would protect her when her life was in genuine danger.
But then her smile faltered. It would protect only her, she realized.
The momentum that swung that huge barrel into play didn’t go anywhere, and though it had missed the two of them nothing would stop it from squashing all others in its path.
All those people, frozen in place.
“No!” Ellie reached out towards the two sections of the cannon, but nothing happened.
Then two balls of light came crashing to the ground. Matilda and Thorn rushed from them, both holding their hands out.
They each wrapped a section of the cannon in tendrils of light. But so much heavy steel couldn’t be stopped easily.
The pieces drifted forward against their magical restraints, pushing Matilda and Thorn backwards, the two young sorcerers grimacing at the effort as they leaned forward, the soles of their boots scraping against the pavement.
When the magic did stop the momentum of the cannons, they lowered them to the ground carefully.
Thorn made a jabbing motion with his hands formed blocks of asphalt around them to keep them from rolling.
Then they joined Arabella and formed a line between Ellie and Shaffir.
Farazon Shaffir snarled when he saw them, “How dare you show your face to me! I should avenge Cassiodorian here and now!”
Thorn held up his hands, “Master Shaffir, I don’t know what Belt’s told you. I didn’t kill Magister Cassiodorian. Cassiodorian was working with us, with the Resistance, against Belt.”
“Lies! I saw the recollection myself. I saw you choke the life out of him! Get down on your knees and be thankful I don’t pass judgment on you here and now,” Shaffir spat.
He brought his hands up and closed them into fists.
Some great force shoved down on Thorn’s shoulders. He stumbled. “I didn’t… kill… him…”
Ellie ran forward and dropped to her knees beside Thorn, whose whole body shuddered as some invisible weight continued crushing him beneath it.
“As for you three…” Shaffir held his hands palms up and closed his eyes. For a moment, nothing happened.
Then they heard it. A massive steel clatter from behind them, from the museum. Arabella, Matilda, and Ellie turned around to face the steps.
Suits of armor wielding swords and axes and maces marched down the stairs. Still more sharp-edged weapons floated along with them, hefted by invisible hands.
The visors of the helms peered out at them with empty blackness.
They all came to a sudden, thunderous stop. The silence of it all got to Ellie the most. Their perfect, statuesque stillness.
“Now, come quietly,” Shaffir said.
“There’s so many…” Matilda said.
Arabella stepped in front of them and held her hands out. Sheets of glowing magic spread from her palms, quickly surrounding them in a small, protective sphere.
“Farazon! We’ve known each other for years! Please, don’t do this,” Arabella said.
It was then that Ellie noticed Thorn. By this point the weight had pinned him against the pavement, but he somehow managed to poke one hand out. His breaths came quick and shallow, and that outstretched hand trembled, but it didn’t fall.
“The time for talking is past, Arabella. Now is the time to pay for what you and the others have done,” Shaffir said.
He held out a hand and began blasting Arabella’s protective shield with a rapid volley of energy that hissed and pattered off the barrier.
He didn’t notice how a big chunk of flagstone tore from its block and floated up behind him.
Thorn made a come here motion with his fingers and Ellie flinched.
Shaffir noticed her expression, but not in time to do anything. The chunk of flagstone slammed into the back of his head with a terrible hollow sound that Ellie felt in the middle of her chest.
Shaffir’s eyes rolled so that only the whites were visible. Then he collapsed as though boneless to the courtyard.
As soon as it happened, all of Shaffir’s spells broke. The crowds of people all reanimated. The empty suits of armor lost their enchantments.
The initial excited burble of conversation died when all those weapons and suits of armor fell down on the broad stairs of the museum, so loud that many instinctively reached up and covered their ears.
Thorn, freed from beneath that invisible, crushing weight, pushed himself up to his feet and in one smooth motion rushed over to Shaffir’s limp body.
He knelt beside him and held a hand out over his chest, the air between his palm and Shaffir’s robe wavering with magic.
“He’s alive!” The relief was palpable in Thorn’s voice.
“What happened?” someone nearby said.
People gawked at all the armor and weapons that were now so much clutter on the stairs. They goggled at the massive cannon, now in two halves, resting in their strange cradles on the ground.
And as they did, more and more of them turned to Ellie and her comrades. One of the cops stuck a whistle into his mouth and started blowing on it hard while the other two called for backup and shouted for order in the milling crowd.
Above them, several news helicopters began converging, their rotors slicing through the air with a steady whup-whup-whup noise.
“We have to go, all of us, now,” Arabella said. “Thorn, come on.”
She was exhausted, Ellie knew. Ellie could see it in the way Arabella’s shoulders rose and fell, see it in the dark circles beneath her eyes.
They all gathered together and called up another transphere.
People gasped. Dozens, maybe hundreds of phones pointed at them. The cops blew on their whistles harder and called for the sorcerers to surrender peacefully.
Then they blasted off into the air, turning the scene below into something like a satellite image.
“They’ll arrest Master Shaffir,” Ellie said.
Matilda snorted, “He’ll get himself out. Or Belt will. You should’ve finished the job, Thorn.”
Thorn rounded on her, “Never say anything like that to me again, got it?”
Matilda threw up her hands in mock surrender, “What? You know it was a mistake to let him live.”
Thorn jabbed an accusing finger at her, “No, it wasn’t. He was our teacher, Matilda! What is wrong with you?”
She slapped his finger aside, her amusement giving way to irritation, “Was. Now he’s just another Council lackey. Another of Belt’s cronies. Don’t be so sentimental: it’s going to get you killed!”
“You’re wrong,” Thorn said.
Then, before he could do anything, Matilda grabbed him and pulled him close. She kissed him hard. Ellie’s stomach tightened and she fought against her gag reflex.
“Gross! You two? Really?”
Ellie said. She’d had some suspicions. Caught Matilda and Thorn sharing glances, but that was all. “Does Sybil know?”
Thorn pulled back, his normally stony expression now a blushing mask. He scratched bashfully at the back of his head. Arabella spared them a long-suffering glance.
“She knows,” Thorn said.
Ellie made a disgusted noise. “Everything’s so different now! I mean, I can understand the war. That makes sense. But this? This is crazy! Pure insanity!”
“Shut up, abe,” Matilda said through a grin, one hand still hooked in the crook of Thorn’s elbow.
Then again, some things never change, Ellie thought.
Still, she was surprised that Sybil didn’t tell her about this. But then again, there were far more important things going on.
She looked down, peering through the translucent floor of the transphere at the sinuous silver ribbon of the Thames as they shot along it.
“So, where are we going anyway? Where’s this rendezvous?” She tried not to think about all those camera phones and all the videos and pictures getting spread across the internet as they spoke.
She tried not to think about what that would mean for the magical world.
Which had been getting along just fine before she came along.
Is there anything I don’t screw up?
“We have a safe place ready,” Arabella said, “And with any luck as soon as we clear London most of the Council pursuit will drop off so they can lick their wounds.”
Ellie turned her attention upwards, frowning when something caught her eye.
“Hey… wasn’t the sky blue just now?” Ellie’s heart began pumping icy water instead of blood.
What now?
The other three also looked. As they watched, the formerly blue sky filled with a seething, roiling mass of inky cloud that spread like a dirty blanket above them.
Thorn looked away first.
“It’s Belt!” he shouted.
Without warning, their transphere came to a sudden halt.
Chapter 32
Darius Belt hung in the air in front of them like some malignant phantasm. His gray robes shifted in the wind.