Phineas hid the car, driving it into a thick stand of bushes, where it wouldn’t be seen from the road. He led Kuro through the fields to a crumbling shed. He pushed Kuro through the doorway, and Kuro tripped out into a maintenance closet in the Blandlands.
Kuro felt foolish for being surprised. Detritus Lane had many such gateways. He should have known that similar openings would exist along other fairy roads. Kuro didn’t know how Phineas had come to learn of this particular exit, but he could guess at why they had used it. If the Hounds were somehow following them, they would have a much harder time keeping their trail through the Blandlands.
Phineas pushed Kuro out of the closet into a busy bus terminal. The signs told Kuro that they were in the city of Vancouver. He had been there before, but not this part of town. Detritus never let out anywhere so clean.
His master’s discomfort at being outside the veil was obvious. While the Hounds would not be able to follow him here by any magical means, he too was all but powerless. He kept a firm hand on Kuro as they walked through the streets. Kuro could feel tension building in Phineas’s grip as they moved, and he looked with suspicion at everyone they passed.
The quality of the buildings and the cleanliness of the streets waned as they marched on, until they finally pushed past a couple of homeless people begging on the streets and into a familiar public washroom badly in need of repair. Kuro knew the place. The stall on the end led to Detritus. Kuro suspected that Phineas had learned this passage from watching Kuro through his familiar, back when he had been sober enough to bother with such things.
They walked in through the stall and out through a gap between buildings in Detritus. Kuro found his bearings and led Phineas down the cobbled street to where Kuro had stashed his master’s belongings. Dark eyes stared out at them from darker shadows as they passed. Phineas sneered at the filth in the streets and the uncouth people. It seemed he had become too good for such things during his time away.
Kuro found the drainpipe that led to the cistern in which he had stowed the items, squeezed inside, and started to worm his way along. He was surprised to find that it was a tighter fit than he remembered. He had grown some over the year at Avalon, in both length and girth. He reached the fork in pipes and took the third, unseen path, slid down the slimy incline, and felt around in the darkness. He found the collection just as he had left it: hanging from a valve in Phineas’s old leather satchel. He checked the contents, and all seemed to be there: the journal, the equipment, and the box with the whispering seashell.
He hauled himself and both of his bags back out of the hole and emerged filthy and panting. He didn’t even have a chance to brush himself off before Phineas had grabbed his satchel and started rooting through it. He pulled the notebook out and leafed through it quickly, then pulled out the seashell and put it to his ear.
While Phineas was distracted with inspecting his lost belongings, Welk, one of the lutin from the lodge, appeared in front of Kuro. If Kuro hadn’t been ordered to silence, he would have shouted in surprise. The lutin handed over an essay that Kuro had submitted to Ms. Crawley, winked, and vanished. Scrawled in large red letters across the front were the words “We’re coming.” Kuro, confused, shoved the paper in his satchel, hoping Phineas wouldn’t see.
“What was that?” demanded Phineas, hearing the flap of Kuro’s bag close. “Tell me.”
“A lutin delivered some post to me,” said Kuro, unable to lie to his master.
Phineas briefly scanned the lane for threats before grabbing Kuro and rushing for a Blandlands exit.
Kuro caught sight of Welk’s wide lutin eyes appearing and disappearing in the shadows between buildings as they ran along the lane.
When they reached the exit back to the washroom in Vancouver, Phineas paused to check for observers. He caught sight of a barn owl, perched on a nearby building, observing them with interest.
He recognized the danger and turned to grab Kuro, but in that moment, the quiet of Detritus Lane was split by the crackle of electricity. A cage of lightning appeared around Phineas as Ms. Crawley stepped from the shadows between buildings and put herself between him and Kuro. Across the alley, Principal McCutcheon lighted gently on the ground, having apparently leapt from high above. She drew an amber wand, which she charged, ready to unleash a storm of lightning should Phineas try to do anything foolish.
Kuro looked up to see where she had come from and saw Charlie, cackling victoriously, on a magic carpet with Sabine. Charlie had a dowsing rod balanced on her finger which pointed directly at Kuro.
“How?” demanded Phineas, furious when he saw Charlie alive and well.
Ms. Crawley answered. “Did you really think that Kuro would murder someone? He merely paralyzed Charlotte and hid her outside the veil.”
“Why you little—” Phineas started to say, but Ms. McCutcheon waved her wand threateningly.
“Manners please,” she said condescendingly. “There are children present.”
“How did you find me so quickly?” growled Phineas.
This time Ms. McCutcheon answered. “Your kidnappee helped to develop a system by which the lutin of Avalon can find a student quite easily. Also, Kuro has slightly sticky fingers,” she said with a hint of approval. “He seems to have stolen something precious from Charlotte when he was hiding her in the Blandlands.”
Kuro pulled Charlie’s locket out of his pocket and let it dangle on its chain. He felt compelled to explain, “I was just keeping it safe for her, actually. I’m not allowed to steal.”
“How did you find her? Where did you even get a boat? You should have been trapped on the island,” Phineas grumbled.
“Do you honestly believe that we don’t monitor the Blandlands side of Avalon?” asked the principal, insulted at his insinuations. “Or that we don’t have a means of leaving the island without a ferry? What sort of establishment do you take us for?”
“An embarrassment to magical practice everywhere,” replied Phineas coldly.
Ms. Crawley reclaimed the conversation. “Would you care to tell us who you are and why you have kidnapped one of our students?”
“Why, of course.” Phineas’s initial fury was quickly being replaced with a calm and calculated anger. Slowly he removed his bright blue bowler hat and let it fall to the ground.
“Phineas Hearn!” exclaimed Ms. Crawley in shock and fury. “You monster, I should kill you where you stand.”
“Manners, Beatrice,” he said, smiling maliciously. “There are children present.”
Ms. Crawley looked ready to act on her threat. “You enslaved my mind and then stole two years of my memories when you were done with me. Two years of my life, and I have no idea what terrible things you made me do.”
Kuro looked between the two. This explained what Ms. Crawley had meant about having had similar experiences to him.
Phineas was far too calm for his situation. Something wasn’t right. “Dear Beatrice. I never enslaved you. I never had you under any sort of spell. You assisted me of your own free will. I just kept your memories when we were finished to protect you.”
“Liar!” shouted Ms. Crawley.
“Am I?” He retrieved the seashell from his bag and crushed it in his hand. Whispering silver threads flowed from its remains toward Ms. Crawley and wove themselves through her eyes and nose. Her jaw went slack as the stolen memories returned to her all at once, and the lightning cage she had conjured faded.
“You can stop whatever it is you think you are doing right now, Phin.” Ms. McCutcheon’s commanding voice.
Phineas turned to face the principal. “Oh my, you remember me.” His voice was dripping with arrogance. “I’m flattered, but I must refuse. You see, I have the advantage. It’s three against one, and I have two hostages.”
“What in the world are you talking about? Stand down,” ordered Ms. McCutcheon.
“Sabine, please come down here!” shouted Phineas. “And Beatrice, would you kindly ke
ep hold of my disloyal servant.”
Ms. Crawley turned on Kuro and grabbed him firmly. She dragged him in front of her to face Ms. McCutcheon and conjured a blade in her hand to hold against his throat.
Sabine on the carpet was wrestling to keep Charlie under control as they wafted slowly downward.
“You see,” said Phineas casually, “Ms. El-Assar is currently under my control, and my young assistant Beatrice has always been on my side; she just didn’t remember. Isn’t that right, Beatrice?”
“So it seems,” replied Ms. Crawley.
“Drop your wand,” Phineas ordered.
Ms. McCutcheon looked between the two women she had brought as allies. Slowly she lowered her amber wand and let it clatter to the ground, the electric charge it had stored releasing harmlessly into the pavement. “Just don’t hurt the children,” she pleaded.
“Oh, what a lovely day,” gloated Phineas. “I’ve my research and assistant restored and a principal of Avalon on bended knee before me.”
Phineas leaned on his walking stick and continued to gloat, but Kuro had a hard time listening because someone else was speaking to him. Ms. Crawley’s voice echoed around his head as she spoke directly into his mind. “I need you to trust me. I’m going to do something. The moment I move, I need you to grab Charlie and run. Nod if you understand.”
Kuro didn’t understand much of what was going on, but he understood the instructions. He nodded, and the whispering continued. “Three . . . two . . . one . . . go!”
Kuro burst forward with every bit of magic he could muster. A jet of blue light shot over his shoulder from Ms. Crawley toward Sabine. Sabine reacted quickly to block the spell, but it hadn’t been aimed at her. The magic carpet unravelled beneath her.
She and Charlie started to fall, but Kuro was quick enough to get under them. He tried to catch them the same way Charlie had caught him and Evelyn months earlier, with an explosively predictable result. The air burst, flattening Kuro against the ground, and throwing Charlie and Sabine in opposite directions.
Kuro peeled himself off the pavement and prepared to flee, but Phineas barked an order at him: “Get back here.”
Unable to disobey, Kuro spun on his heels and shot back toward Phineas, but he ran straight past. He had to follow orders, but he only had to do what he was told, nothing more. He flew past his master and dashed down the street toward where Charlie had landed.
She had barely managed to untangle her limbs and right herself when Kuro grabbed her wrist and began dragging her away from the battle that was erupting behind them. Before he could really get his feet moving, Phineas managed to spit out another order between his spells.
“Stop!” shouted Phineas.
Kuro’s muscles seized, and it was Charlie’s turn to pull. She yanked on his arm and shouted for him to move, but she wasn’t strong enough to move both of them at any speed. Kuro could hear the cracks of lightning and feel the waves of heat behind him as Sabine and Phineas traded evocations with Ms. Crawley and Ms. McCutcheon. He could also see wisps of glowing smoke knotting themselves together a few feet from them.
Sabine and Phineas were summoning their familiars in moments between hurling balls of fire. The shape of Phineas’s crow formed quickly, but Sabine’s was taking longer due to its size.
It quickly became clear why she had refused to do so back in their small meeting room in Avalon. It was huge. It had hide like armour plating, legs like tree trunks, and a horn on its nose nearly as big as Kuro. “A rhinoceros!” shouted Charlie in momentary delight, before the giant creature turned its attention to them and started to move their way. It was still just the smoky impression of the beast, but it was rapidly condensing into something very solid and very dangerous.
Kuro felt Charlie’s grip on him slip as she started to back away. He knew that he needed to find a gap in his orders, but it was hard to think when a giant was stomping toward him. He had to stop.
He had stopped.
He hadn’t been told for how long, though. That was good enough reasoning for his feet, at least. They started running again before the rest of his mind had caught up.
His movement spurred Charlie to do the same. She turned and ran, fighting to keep pace with Kuro. Her legs were a tornado of motion, and her upper body was nearly still. Kuro couldn’t tell how much she was running and how much she was just pulling herself forward with magic, but she was clearly pushing herself. Her face was twisted in pain at the effort.
The rhinoceros gave chase. Even as it grew skin and bones and became a solid creature, it remained incredibly fast. Despite its enormous mass, it was gaining on them.
Kuro could feel the wind gathering behind him to push him still faster, but if he let it, Charlie would be left behind. He begged the wind that had saved him so many times to share, to spread wide and carry them both, but it was no use. They needed another way out.
Kuro looked to the roofs, his usual means of escape, but Charlie couldn’t jump like he could, and Phineas’s crow was above them, following their path and guarding any attempt to climb.
They were approaching a narrow side street. A sharp turn down an alley too small for the monster might work. Kuro grabbed Charlie and shouted to turn. They shot sideways into the passage between a rotting cabin and abandoned coffee shop.
He was right in guessing that the rhino couldn’t turn quickly or fit easily; however, it did not appear to care about those inconveniences. It cut the corner, smashing through the glass walls of the coffee shop and tearing open the side of the cabin to get to the children.
Without the walls to contain it, all the extra space that was folded up inside the buildings came spilling out. A flood of wood and glass, stairs and sofas, poured from the gash. It slowed the beast but did not stop it.
They zigged and zagged through back alleys while the rhinoceros tore up buildings in their wake. If ever they were close to evading the monster, Phineas’s crow would screech out to guide the rhino to them.
While Kuro guided their flight, Charlie did her best to fight off their pursuers. She picked up pieces of loose debris with her magic and hurled them at the familiars. She couldn’t lift anything large while also concentrating on running, certainly nothing that would dissuade a rhinoceros, but the sticks and stones she could hurl helped to keep the crow at a safe distance.
“We need a Blandlands exit!” shouted Kuro.
“I can’t move out there!” replied Charlie.
“Not for us!” Kuro changed direction, bringing them back closer to Detritus Lane proper.
He scanned the lane for familiar passages. They were nearing the back end of the lane, far from Bytown and near Kuro’s church. His best option was a closet in a nearby rotting bookstore. He pulled Charlie forward with new purpose, even as the crow betrayed their location and the rhinoceros charged out into the street.
“In there” was all Kuro could sputter out as he ran them toward the front of a derelict shop.
Kuro had a moment of fear that they’d be crushed between the rhino and the wall before they could get in, but the door flew open on its own. Charlie stumbled from the effort of splitting her attention, but Kuro caught her well enough to direct their tumbling collapse into the store.
He pulled her up and helped her stumble to the back of the store, where a large crooked cabinet stood with one door hanging half open on broken hinges. He could feel the pounding feet of the rhino at full charge through the floor.
Kuro turned with his back to the cabinet and held Charlie’s hand as the rhino crashed through the front window of the store and barreled toward them. It reared its head, ready to sweep at the children with its massive horn.
Kuro let go of Charlie and tossed her locket into the air between them. He tried to hold it there with his mind and failed explosively. The burst of air sent Kuro one way and Charlie the other. The locket flew high, and the doors of the cabinet burst inward. As powerful as the blast was, it did little to slow a charging
rhinoceros, which crashed headlong through the closet and out into a grimy public washroom in the Blandlands.
They could hear screams and panic filter through the veil as the Blandlanders reacted to a full-sized rhinoceros emerging from a toilet stall at high speed before dissolving into luminous smoke.
The remains of the rhino streamed past the children, returning to Sabine. Kuro hoped that the infusion of memories from her familiar would distract her as it had Vice Principal Flint, giving Ms. Crawley and Ms. McCutcheon an advantage. Regardless of how the fight was going, in moments Sabine would know their location. With all their backtracking through the side alleys, they weren’t as far from where they started as Kuro would have liked.
Kuro’s legs were heavy from running, and his chest complained for more air than he could give it, but he managed to stumble over to Charlie, reclaiming the locket from the splintered wood, shattered glass, and shredded books that littered the floor.
She was in worse shape than Kuro. She could barely move one limb at a time and was fighting to stifle a nosebleed. “We need to go,” Kuro said, pressing her locket into her hand.
“I don’t think I can,” replied Charlie, who struggled to even get the locket into a pocket.
Kuro could hear the crow outside calling, betraying their position. How long until the rhino returned, or a victorious Phineas appeared?
“I’ll carry you,” said Kuro. “Get in my bag.”
Charlie looked for a moment as though she would argue, as if she wouldn’t suffer the indignity of being carried in a satchel. When she failed to get both her legs to obey her at the same time, however, she conceded and flopped gracelessly into the bag.
Kuro ran from the devastated bookshop at speed. He considered hiding, but Phineas’s crow was watching. Fleeing to the Blandlands was a good option, but he had no idea what would happen to Charlie in his bag if he did. If he was going to do that, then he had to put her somewhere safe before he did. He could think of only one safe place left in Detritus.
His feet carried him to his church before he had even finished forming his plan. It was just as he had left it: burned out and gutted, with the spirits of several parishioners waiting for a sermon in their scorched pews.
Volume 1: Pickpocketing Page 28
