At least it was late at night, and I immediately withdrew into the shadows, attempting to regain my composure and my wits. This was hard to do because I was frantic to find Delph and Petra.
I peered around to see if anything unusual was happening in Greater True. I had just removed fifty of the servant class with one fell swoop. I had been sure that the town would be up in arms about this. But then as I thought about it, I realized that might not be the case. It was very late at night, and most if not all of their former masters would still be sound asleep and unaware of what had transpired. The first they might learn of it was when they awoke and realized no one was there to serve them their morning tea.
I wondered how my spell had manifested itself here. Had there been noise, incantation, lights? Had the former slaves been seen flying through the sky, if but for a moment? Had someone in one of the houses been up late, seen something suspicious and alerted the Maladons?
And why had Petra and Delph come here?
Suddenly in my head appeared another wand wire.
‘Train station. Same room. Hurry.’
I focused on the four walls of that room where we had slept while locating those whose magic had been stolen from them. I twice tapped my wand against my leg, muttered the spell and a moment later I was standing in the little room at the train station.
I looked frantically around for Delph and Petra, but they weren’t there.
However, I wasn’t alone.
Four Bowler Hats encircled me, their wands pointed directly at my chest.
I was so stunned I had no time to think, which was probably a good thing.
‘Embattlemento.’
Their four spells hit my shield, but my magic held. In fact, their spells rebounded off my conjured wall, causing them all to duck. I used this opportunity to tap my leg twice and say the incantation.
I was instantly on the street outside the train station.
I was frantic now. Delph and Petra had obviously been captured by the Maladons. They must have used her wand to communicate with me. I wondered if they had taken my grandfather’s ring from Petra. How had they even been captured? They couldn’t be seen behind its invisibility shield.
Next moment the four Maladons burst from the front of the train station and looked wildly around for me.
I scurried around a corner and then peeked back.
I performed my magnification spell and looked at them more closely.
I recognized two of them. My heart sank as four more joined them, appearing out of thin air, after no doubt having been summoned. I wondered if Endemen would make an appearance. Indeed, I was surprised that he wasn’t right in the middle of all this.
Under the magnification spell, I searched the fingers of all of the Maladons for the ring. I didn’t see it. I had been told that they had never learned how to make themselves invisible. They might not know the ring had such powers, or how to turn it around to engage the shield. Given time, though, they would probably discover its secret.
I looked nervously around, wondering how many more Maladons would appear to join the hunt for me. I had to find and save Petra and Delph.
Were they here? Had they already been taken to the castle? Were . . . were they already dead?
I looked down at my wand.
One wand against eight. Still, I had always been the underdog in every fight I’d ever had, including the Duelum back in Wormwood. I had won them all.
Everyone said I was special somehow. I guessed I was about to find out if that was really true.
When the Maladons had cast their spells, they had not used the Rigamorte curse, which my shield would not have stopped. They obviously didn’t want to kill me. They wanted to capture me alive. I was sure I knew why. They wanted to torture me to gain every bit of information they could.
That worked both ways, didn’t it?
I instinctively realized that when you’re outnumbered on the battlefield, you need to do one thing:
Divide and conquer.
I sent back-to-back spells sailing over their heads, each shooting off in a different direction. As soon as I’d done that, I used the Pass-pusay spell to disappear and then reappear behind them. Reacting to the spells, they split up, four and four. Still not good odds for me, but better than they had been.
They charged off in different directions. I followed one of the groups down the street and watched them turn a corner and hurry after the lingering lights of one of the spells I had cast.
I hurried on and caught up to them, keeping just far enough back so they couldn’t see me. I aimed my wand at the Bowler Hat bringing up the rear.
My Subservio spell hit him in the centre of the back.
I whispered my instructions to him. He pointed his wand at the Bowler Hats in front of him and cast spells knocking them out. The fourth one turned in time to blast the one I had under control, and he crumpled in a heap.
I took aim at the remaining Bowler Hat, and my Subservio spell hit him full in the chest. His face went slack and his wand hand dropped.
I hurried up to him, took his wand in my gloved hand and broke it in half. I did the same with the others’ wands.
I pointed my wand at the last Bowler Hat and said, ‘What are you called?’
‘Dullish,’ he said gruffly.
I said ‘Origante,’ expecting his hideous actual Maladon self to be revealed, but he looked the same. I was bewildered by this. I had thought all of the Maladons would be the same underneath.
‘OK, where are my friends, Dullish?’
He looked at me quizzically. I realized I had to be more specific.
‘The tall man and the young woman. Your lot used her wand to summon me here.’
He nodded. ‘They are at the headquarters of the Elite Guard on the other side of Greater True.’
‘They’re alive?’ I said sharply.
He nodded dumbly.
‘Where is her wand?’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Well, then, who would know?’
He looked down at one of his fallen comrades. ‘He has it.’
I performed the spell to erase any memory of this encounter from him and then knocked the bloke out.
I pointed my wand at the man he’d indicated. ‘Rejoinda Petra’s wand.’
It flew from his pocket and into my hand.
I thought for a moment and added, ‘Rejoinda anything else of Petra’s or Delph’s or mine.’
Nothing appeared.
I put the wand away in my cloak and turned just in time to ward off the first spell.
It bounced off my shield and exploded against the side of a building, leaving a gaping hole.
The other four Bowler Hats had appeared feet from me, no doubt having heard or somehow sensed the magical fight that had just occurred here.
Then the duel began in earnest.
I thought I had no chance. I well remembered the fight Petra and I had waged against a single Maladon. It had left us breathless, barely able to lift our wand arms, while our opponent appeared fresh and full of fight. We were lucky to have vanquished him.
Yet now, for some reason I could not fathom, my wand hand started to move in ways I had never envisioned, in ways I never thought myself capable of. I danced and parried, blocked spells, and sent off my own.
The longer I fought, the stronger and more confident I became.
‘Impacto. Embattlemento. Jagada. Paralycto. Embattlemento.’
I blasted one off his feet with an Engulfiado spell. Another fell to my Impairio incantation, and he started blindly firing off spells, sending his mates running and ducking.
The very air around us was boiling from all the magic cast.
I kept pounding away, saying spells and whipping my wand like it was a sword.
I charged forward, my gaze darting across the field of battle, calculating all options, tactics and strategies, my mind going full bore, my concentration total.
They fell back, and I could see the
panicked looks in their eyes. They had obviously not expected me to be able to hold my own against all of them.
I wasn’t done yet. If I’d learned one thing with the Maladons, it was that you had to finish the fight.
I shot a spell at the cobbles under them. An enormous hole opened up, and they fell screaming down into this abyss, their wands sailing out of their hands from the suddenness of the descent. I sent Impacto spells raining down into the hole, one after another. The spells thundered into their flailing forms and knocked them out.
Then I flicked my wand across the hole and it sealed up.
Not wasting another moment, I leaped into the air and sailed across the darkened sky with grim purpose.
I had never been to the Elite Guard’s headquarters. But I had a very good idea of how I would find it. A minute later I saw that I was right.
The huge flag with the five-pointed star and the two burning eyes was waving in the wind atop a tall building on the western edge of the town proper. I could see several lights blazing from within. I went into a dive and landed next to the rear entrance.
Now I needed something. No, I needed someone. And I knew exactly how to get him.
I made the familiar motion with my wand and I said, ‘Rejoinda Dullish.’
A few moments later I could see a black blob hurtling across the sky.
Dullish landed hard at my feet. I revived him after putting him back under the Subservio spell and then instructed him on what I wanted him to do.
I hid in the shadows as he approached the door.
He lifted his wand and the door opened, revealing a man in a black uniform.
He seemed surprised to see the Maladon. I used my magnification spell to see inside the doorway and to the room beyond.
It was only the one guard.
‘Dullish? We’ve got our pair here still. Did you get the one you were after?’ the guard asked.
My spell shot straight over Dullish’s shoulder and hit the bloke right in the face. He fell over backwards.
I stepped inside and looked down at his prostrate form.
‘No, actually he didn’t, you prat.’
I pushed Dullish ahead of me as I surveyed the set of stairs that led upward.
‘Where are the other guards?’ I asked Dullish.
‘Most are asleep in the barracks.’ He pointed upward.
‘And my friends?’
‘In the room in the middle of the hall where the barracks are.’
‘How many guards watching them?’
‘A dozen.’
Wonderful.
I could imagine their mortas firing into my body until I looked like a mass of holes and not much else.
Then I had a thought. ‘Dullish, where do they keep their mortas?’
‘Their what?’
‘Their, um, weapons?’
He pointed to the left at a doorway I hadn’t noticed before.
‘Their guns are in there.’
‘Stay right here.’
I used the Ingressio spell to open the door. Along the walls were racks and racks and shelves of guns.
I swept my wand across the room and said, ‘Interfero todos.’
The sounds of something hardening could be heard around the room.
I closed the door behind me and once more went over to Dullish.
‘Take me to my friends,’ I commanded.
We stealthily went up the stairs, turned right and passed a number of wooden doors. From within, I could hear the loud snores of sleeping men.
Dullish led me over to a large metal door. There was a small, barred window in the middle of it.
I stepped past Dullish and peered cautiously inside.
With a sigh of relief, I saw Delph and Petra tied up in a corner. Delph’s face was bruised and bloody and Petra was hunched over and grimacing in pain.
As Dullish had said, there were twelve uniformed men inside with them. They all carried mortas, or guns, rather.
But I carried something too.
My wand. And I wouldn’t trade it for a thousand of their awful weapons.
I blasted open the door.
The guards all turned, as I knew they would, towards the door.
They lifted their guns to fire.
I already had my wand pointed.
‘Engulfiado.’
The torrent of water exploding from my wand tip hit them with the force of a lightning spear.
They were lifted off their feet and blasted backwards against the wall, where they slammed into the stone and dropped to the floor, unconscious, their guns falling from their hands.
I leaped inside.
‘Vega Jane!’ exclaimed Delph.
‘How did you find us?’ asked Petra breathlessly.
‘Not now,’ I shot back.
I quickly untied them and led them out of the room. My spell had awoken the sleeping guards, as I knew it would.
We scrambled down the steps even as we heard doors slamming open. We reached the main floor and hurtled across its width to the door leading to the outside.
I heard someone scream, ‘Get your guns and blast them to Hel!’
We were outside the building and running down the street when I heard someone yell, ‘Fire!’
I turned to look back and saw forty guards with guns pointed right at us.
‘Look out!’ screamed Petra.
‘Don’t worry,’ I said.
All forty guards pulled their triggers.
And all forty guns blew up in their hands, their barrels magically obstructed by yours truly.
‘Wow,’ exclaimed Delph.
Wow indeed, I thought, a grin emerging on my face.
I tethered us together. We shot upward, levelled out and zipped onward.
We weren’t invisible, so I quickly tapped my leg twice and said the incantation.
The next moment we were staring at the front of Empyrean.
I turned on them and barked, ‘Why the Hel were you in Greater True? I told Petra she didn’t have to go. Then I find out you both went! You could have been killed!’
Delph wilted under my fierce gaze, but Petra stepped up and said, ‘It was my fault, Vega. I thought you didn’t want me to go because you thought I couldn’t handle the job. I wanted to prove that I could. So I decided to go. But I told Delph.’
‘And I told her unless she let me go along, I’d tell you and she wouldn’t be able to go a’tall.’
I looked between them, fury and relief competing for control of my emotions. Finally, the latter won out, no doubt aided by the guilt I was still feeling for nearly sending Petra to her death.
I gave them each a hug.
I said, ‘Well, thank goodness you’re all right. What happened back there?’
‘All Hel erupted, I guess, when you did whatever you did,’ said Delph. ‘I saw blokes soaring out of houses all over the place, and then they just disappeared. Good thing it was so late at night and nobody was out and about to see it ’cept us.’
‘I did a mass spell for all the people on the list. They’re here at Empyrean now.’
‘Eh, that’s wonderful news,’ said Delph.
‘But how did you get caught? You were invisible.’
‘Were being the right word for it,’ said Delph. ‘Your spell brought this huge wind across the town, like with the mighty Finn. Me and Pet got blown all over. Landed in a heap against a wall all dazed-like.’
Petra added, ‘The ring got jostled. It never fit me proper. It spun back around and there we were, visible. Before we could move a muscle, a bunch of Maladons were on us. They . . . they took the ring.’
So my fear had been realized. The Maladons had the ring.
‘That wasn’t all they took,’ said Delph. ‘Show her, Pet.’
‘No,’ Petra said fiercely.
‘Show me what?’ I said.
‘Petra, show her. She’s going to see at some point.’
Slowly Petra held out her hand.
I felt sickened.
&
nbsp; Not only was the ring gone; so was the finger on which she had worn it.
‘Thanks for coming to save us, Vega,’ said Petra.
I reached into my pocket, took out her wand and handed it to her.
‘How did you find it?’ she asked, looking delighted.
‘A bit of luck,’ I said dully.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘You’re a good friend, Vega. I know I can be quite the pain, but I also know you’re always looking out for me.’
A pang of guilt hit me and I inwardly winced. Petra wouldn’t be saying that if she had known of my original plan.
‘I couldn’t lose you. Either of you,’ I said. ‘We’re in this together.’
And that was truly how I felt.
‘Tried to fight ’em off, but I couldn’t,’ said Delph.
‘I saw what you did to that Maladon that took my finger,’ said Petra. ‘Picked him up and threw him into a wall.’
‘I’m surprised they didn’t kill you,’ I said.
Delph said, ‘They wanted to question us. They knew about you, Vega Jane. They used Petra’s wand to send you a message.’
‘I walked right into their trap.’
‘How’d you get away?’ asked Petra.
‘I fought my way out. There were eight Bowler Hats, but I managed to beat them.’
‘Blimey, eight of them!’ said Delph, while Petra looked shocked. Delph added, ‘Eh, Vega Jane, you’ve been hit.’
He pointed to my torn cloak and the blood soaking into it. I hadn’t even noticed.
‘It doesn’t hurt much, Delph.’ I eyed Petra’s bloody stump where her finger used to be. ‘In fact, it doesn’t hurt at all.’
35
A MOTLEY CREW
I led the way inside Empyrean.
Pillsbury was waiting for us.
‘Where is everyone?’ I asked.
‘They have been well fed and we have found rooms for all, Mistress Vega.’
‘That’s good. I wasn’t sure, as big as it is, whether Empyrean could hold fifty guests.’
Pillsbury said proudly, ‘Empyrean is a place that will grow to the size necessary for those who require accommodation within its walls.’
Pillsbury took his leave. I hurried upstairs to my room and came back down in a jiffy with the Adder Stone. I knew I couldn’t regrow Petra’s finger, but I could deal with the pain and bleeding.
Vega Jane and the Rebels’ Revolt Page 22