Okay. You can do this.
I cracked my knuckles and placed my hands on the structure. My magic glow erupted faster than ever before. It poured out of me and into the apartment complex—infecting each brick, metal rod, and slab of plaster. I could feel my control taking hold of every part of the building until the entire thing was under my command.
I injected life and purpose into it like a cure.
The building followed my thoughts as easily as someone reading a script. With a monumental jerk, it tore itself from the street and ripped into a thousand different pieces that lifted into the air. A swarm of brick, metal, cement, carpet, and doors rose above me. I squeezed my fists tightly—concentrating—and the fragments clustered together in the sky until they formed five gigantic hummingbirds.
I opened my glowing fists and made a sweeping motion toward the castle like I was lobbing a ball. In response, the hummingbirds zoomed forward. I sped back across the street as I heard several huge crashes. Without pause I rounded the bend in the road, coming into plain view of the enemy to behold what I had done.
Three of the hummingbirds had smashed into the curtain wall of the castle while one had plowed into the other side of the bridge where Rampart’s troops had been positioned. The fifth bird was nowhere to be seen. I spotted a large pile of rubble in the moat and I assumed the bird had been knocked out of the sky by a cannonball. Four out of five was not bad.
No one fired at me for the moment. They were too distracted. My creations had taken out a large part of the castle’s defensive line. Yet, it was not enough. Rampart’s army was huge. They would recuperate soon. We needed more cover. And I knew just how to provide it. I scurried around the corner again.
“Everybody get ready!” I shouted to my allies.
I sprinted toward the hotel with two towers. This time I had a different idea. And with the way I was burning with power like the sun, completely unfazed strength-wise by the hummingbird feat, I knew it would work. I injected magic into the core of the hotel and willed it to rise and flip over. It obeyed. The towers stabbed into the ground like legs. Then the structure waited for more instructions as I dashed to the adjacent building. I pumped magic into it too. Sections of the structure ripped free and attached to the hotel’s sides, forming tentacle-like limbs of stone, brick, and iron. On my command, the living building began to move toward the castle. I walked behind it, holding out my hand and concentrating steadfastly.
The ground shook with every enormous step of my creation. It squashed whatever was in its way, barely fitting down the street. I proceeded behind the shield of the building monster and came around the bend with it into the view of the castle again. The creature was too big for the bridge. With a flick of my fingers, I sent it into the water. My structure jumped from the road and dropped into the moat beside the bridge. The water shot up like a geyser.
The building followed my will and waded through the water as it continued to march toward the castle. Rampart’s army began firing cannonballs and arrows at it, desperately trying to keep the creature back, but the thing was very sturdy and its reflexes moved as fast as mine did since I was the one giving life to it. Any shots it didn’t swat away at my command were absorbed without sustaining huge damage. When the building reached the other side of the moat, I commanded it to climb up and unleash its fury on the castle’s defenses full-on.
I glanced over my shoulder at our small army, which had gathered behind me. “Now!”
Horses, knights, and girls from the Gwenivere Brigade raced by me as I remained in position, holding my concentration. The castle’s defenses still managed to get some shots off as our army seiged the bridge, but my living building blocked a solid percent of the assault.
When our forces were halfway across the bridge, my legs began to shake. The feat was finally starting to affect me. I couldn’t hold this much power for much longer. As I’d ascertained earlier, the Aurora and the magic energy waves made my magic stronger, but they did nothing to change the limitations of my physical body. There was only so much I could do before this amount of power burned me up.
I sensed my veins searing as if fissures were trying to open in my skin. The threat of Magic Burn Out had never felt more real. Through squinted eyes I saw the first of our forces make it to the other side of the bridge. Then a powerful blast knocked me back.
I banged into the wall behind me, and in an instant my control over the living building was lost. All its parts came crashing down in a shower of rubble.
I dropped to the ground like a wounded firefly. My glow had been extinguished and pain seared through me. I didn’t know what had hit me, but I was suddenly enveloped in a new glow. It wasn’t my golden one; it was silver—the color of normal magic.
I looked up. In the distance, I spotted something else glowing, or rather someone else. Positioned on the balcony of the tallest turret, the silhouette of a woman radiated the same silvery essence that encased me.
Morgause.
I knew it instinctively, but my suspicions were confirmed when I began to float into the air. Rampart’s wicked grandmother had stopped me with a blast of her levitation magic.
Morgause lifted me a solid two hundred feet into the air and started to float me across the moat. As I struggled, I took in the full scope of the battle. My efforts had incapacitated the defenses of the castle and drastically weakened Rampart’s forces, but our army was still dramatically outnumbered. It was a good thing we were more skilled. Arthur, Gwenivere, and the others were at the main entrance to the castle. From my high vantage point, I saw a Gwenivere Brigade girl fire arrows armed with charges at the doors, which burst them open with an explosion. The battle surged into the castle. A lightning strike pointed out SJ’s location in the throng. She and Blue were fighting by the bridge.
Suddenly, I stopped moving forward. I looked ahead. Morgause gave me a little wave and then turned around to go back inside her tower. The silver glow around me vanished a second later and I began to free-fall.
Eeeep!
I screamed and flailed as I plummeted. I didn’t have the strength, focus, or time to channel my magic. The jagged mountain stone of the moat’s embankment drew closer. Then something collided into my side and clung onto me. I looked up. SJ had yanked me out of my drop. The force at which I’d been falling caused us to careen at an angle as she lowered us toward ground, but she remained in control. Until about forty feet from the ground that is, when SJ abruptly stopped floating. My eyes grew wide with horror. Her flying time was up at the worst possible moment and now we were both dropping to our deaths.
Thirty feet.
Twenty feet.
Ten feet.
Seconds before we smashed into the ground, a rush of wind brusquely swept beneath us, wrapping our bodies in its embrace.
Thank you, Morgan La Fay.
Radiating silver energy, the wonderful woman used her magic to carefully lower us. When we touched down a few dozen feet from the bridge, Morgan swiftly averted her focus and sent a mighty sweep of wind to blast away the last archers on the castle curtain wall.
As the final traces of wind dissipated, I threw my arms around SJ in a huge hug. “I will never understand how you’re always there right when I need you, but boy am I glad that you are.”
SJ smiled and shooed me away. “And I will never understand how you can live each day with so many people trying to kill you and not let it dampen your spirits. I cannot believe I was ever
jealous of you. I mean no disrespect, but I do not want your life.”
“Um, thank you?”
“Ladies, are you all right?” Morgan asked, coming over to us. “I am glad I stayed behind to finish up any pursuant enemies out here and make sure our forces made it inside okay.”
Finish up?
I glanced around. Sure enough, we were the last three people standing outside the castle. Rampart’s external defenses were gone and the entire battle had moved inside.
Wind—the normal kind, not the Morgan ki
nd—fluttered my hair as I turned to her. “We’re good thanks to you. Nice save.”
Morgan was breathing more heavily. Her face was pale and her arms quivered slightly. “Any time,” she replied. “Wielders of magic need to look out for each other.”
“Absolutely,” I said. “So, um . . . from one magical girl to another, maybe you should use a blade instead of a blast of wind for a while. I know Magic Exhaustion when I see it. The approach of the Aurora is making people with normal magic weaker. Even someone as powerful as you can’t escape that, and I don’t want to see you go down, especially in there.” I gestured at the castle.
Morgan took a deep breath and stood upright. I hoped I hadn’t insulted her; I was just being honest.
“You are right,” Morgan said—thankfully—taking a deep breath. “I will try not to use magic for a while and let it recoup. I may need my remaining power for something important.”
“I’ll do the same,” I replied. “My last effort really drained me.”
That was an understatement. While I felt powerful, and my recovery times were only getting shorter, the pain I felt on the tail end and immediately following my uses of magic was getting more intense. That combination was dangerous. Feeling fine now could tempt me into using more and more magic, but that meant greater and greater damage to myself when I did.
“Crisa, look.” SJ tapped me on the arm and pointed across the bridge where a red portal to Neverland was opening. Given our luck, I half expected a snake from the Temple of Malbona to pop out. But nothing did. It just swirled there in its glittering glory.
Huh. All right then.
“And on that note, come quick, girls,” Morgan said, hastening toward the castle. “Forget the portal. We’re needed inside. Arthur and Gwenivere have a long overdue appointment with Rampart, and my Aunt Morgause and I need to violently resolve our differences. With a bit of effort, we should be able to put a cap on this siege before the sun leaves the sky.”
Here’s hoping anyway.
I drew my wand.
Bring it.
he castle was in shambles.
Fighting had broken out in every room and corridor. We battled through the mayhem—SJ with her potions, me with my wand, and Morgan with a black sword—until we eventually arrived at a grand staircase. It was carpeted in plush navy and bordered by a speckled marble banister intertwined with steel flowers.
“This way,” Morgan said, ascending quickly and knocking an enemy knight over the railing. “Rampart will most likely be in the throne room. That’s where Arthur and Gwenivere will be headed.”
We climbed up the staircase but I stalled when I heard a familiar scream below. SJ stopped too. It may have seemed farfetched in all this noise, but our best friend group was super close and had been through enough battles together to recognize one another’s shouts. SJ and I looked at each other.
“Was that Blue?” she asked.
“I think so. Morgan!” I called. “Blue’s in trouble. Go on without us. We’ll meet you later.”
Morgan nodded and continued. SJ and I reversed down the stairs and hurried through a packed corridor toward where the shout had come from, ducking beneath swords and bobbing between duels.
As we ran, I noted something odd. I didn’t spot any castle staff—no servants or maids or courtiers. When my castle in Midveil had been attacked during the commons rebellion, plenty of staff had gotten caught in the crosshairs. Rampart hardly seemed like the type of merciful leader who would make sure the innocent were protected during a siege. So where were they?
SJ and I skidded around a corner and found ourselves facing the very ballroom where we’d attended a party a few days ago. Like then, it was packed, but instead of fancy headpieces and shimmering jewels, there were fierce knights and the glint of weapons cutting through enemies. I forced my eyes to partially glaze over as I tried to turn on that cold, mechanical feeling Blue had described earlier. If I let myself think about the gruesomeness of what was happening I would probably vomit. I’d fought a lot of monsters and enemies, but nothing had ever been like this. There was so much violence so closely compacted together. I was not desensitized enough to feel okay with that; nor did I ever want to be.
SJ and I searched for Blue in the battle. It was clearly going in Rampart’s favor; in this room his forces outnumbered ours five to one. Rays from the dying day poured through the arched stained-glass windows that composed the right wall of the room. Iron chandeliers above the cherry wood dance floor shook and swayed.
Finally I spotted Blue right as an assailant’s fist collided with her stomach. She fell against the window behind her, causing it to crack. My friend had a gash across her cheek and her current adversary was six feet tall, over two hundred pounds, and carrying a big sword.
SJ raised her slingshot, but three black-armored knights appeared in front of us and denied her the range she needed to fire. While my friend was brilliant and a skilled fighter in her own way, hand-to-hand combat was not her thing. Wand drawn, I leapt in to protect her.
The first guy was easy. I blocked his strike without even needing my weapon then punched him in the face, jabbed him in the sternum, and gave his jaw a good right hook before ramming my foot into his chest.
Spear.
I kicked the second attacker away from SJ before slamming my weapon into the neck of the first guy. With an overhead twist of my spear, I brought the staff down on the widow’s peak of the third man, then reversed it and knocked the knight off his feet with a leg hock.
I was about to jab my spear into the second attacker’s leg when a fourth knight surprised me from behind and grabbed the end of my staff. He used my momentum to tear the weapon from my hands and spin me to the side. I collided with the first knight, who seized my right arm as he kicked my lower leg. I fell flat to the ground and my assailant put his boot on my shoulder to keep me there.
From the floor, I could only watch as another knight caught SJ by the back of the neck like she was a kitten and threw her down too. She rolled to a stop a few feet away from me. I squirmed to get free, especially when two knights approached with swords drawn. The knight holding me down pressed me against the floor harder. The breath went out of me and I was trapped. A ringing sound echoed in my ears and fear throbbed through me as the swords got closer. I tried to focus my magic, but then—
CRASH!
The entire wall of stained-glass windows shattered inward. The next thing I knew, Rampart’s men inexplicably started acting as if someone were punching them. Shouts of panic seized up amongst the men. Random eruptions of blue smoke appeared here and there, blasting knights away.
Blue smoke . . .
Where have I seen that before?
The knight holding me down was roughly tossed to the side. The two knights who had been approaching SJ and me were knocked out by blasts of blue smoke. I flipped over and a half second later Merlin shimmered into existence.
Although I had mixed feelings about the guy, I was still impressed by his powers of invisibility.
His elegant maroon and gold robes looked bloody and beautiful in this light. The gold trimming in particular stood out, as it matched the golden aura around his now-visible body. All the potion sand pouches on Merlin’s utility belt were fully loaded. Like SJ’s portable potions; the sands were condensed enchantments and had been responsible for the blasts of smoke we’d seen—blue sand created condensed explosions.
In one hand, the wizard held his staff, which had a blade in the shape of a cylindrical drill at the top. He extended his other hand to me.
“Crisanta Knight. Not dead yet, I see.”
“You came!” I exclaimed. I glanced around at the unseen attackers that kept assaulting Rampart’s men. “Is this you?”
“Yes and no,” Merlin replied. “My Pure Magic, like yours, can be bent to meet all sorts of needs. But right now, I have help. Speaking of which . . .”
Blue was flying over the fight toward us, both arms extended over her head like someone was
carrying her. A second later, she landed next to me. Merlin snapped his fingers and a thick-torsoed twelve-year old (a kid I vaguely recognized from Peter’s camp in Neverland) appeared in the air.
“You came through that red portal that opened a few minutes ago, didn’t you?” I thought aloud. “You brought the Lost Boys and Girls here.”
“The old guy told us Arthur and Peter needed help, so we loaded up on fairy dust and came flying,” the kid replied on Merlin’s behalf. “Plus, he said we could kick a bunch of adult butt.” He pulled a mace from a sheath attached to his leg and looked at Merlin. “Can I go now?”
“Right, sorry. Back you go.” Merlin snapped his fingers and the kid vanished, returning to the fight under the wizard’s cloak of invisibility. A nearby enemy knight was suddenly smacked in the back by something unseen and landed flat on his stomach in front of me. Probably courtesy of the boy who’d just left us.
Blue looked a little disoriented. A bruise was forming on the side of her face and her knuckles were scratched up.
“Appreciate the save, Mr. Merlin,” she said. “Those are some sweet invisibility powers, and you seem to have a lot more swagger than Crisa described. But couldn’t you have gotten here a bit sooner? We really could’ve used the help.”
“Apologies. As Crisanta may have mentioned, I have been eluding the capture of antagonists all day. They want me for some nefarious purpose to do with the Aurora, though I don’t know what. That aside, while you may have only extended the battle invite to me yesterday, I thought I could be a lot more helpful if I brought reinforcements. So I procured a Hole Tracker off the black market, went to Neverland, then came back as soon as I could.”
“As reasonable an excuse as any,” SJ commented, drawing her slingshot. “Now enough talk. Let us end this.”
SJ had never been more inspiring or direct.
I grabbed my spear from where it’d been thrown by the knight. Blue and I dove into the closest brawl while Merlin and SJ unleashed their powerful potions and wreaked havoc on the enemy in a more explosive way. Blasts of colorful smoke dotted the battle as splashes of goo and spurts of ice decorated the scene. If someone had taken the roof off this place right now and watched from above, the room would’ve looked like an abstract work of art.
Crisanta Knight: The Lost King Page 12