by D J DuMont
They would go at top speed at first, not worrying about their invisibility shields. Once they had a little bit of distance between themselves and the Dark Sparks, they would slow so they could once again use their shields. If worst came to worst, they would stand their ground and fight. Locke assured the whole group that they had what it took to stand up against the Dark Sparks on their own. After all, they’d done it before. Last year, when their practice mission had suddenly turned serious and the Dark Sparks had attacked, Willow and her friends had held their own against them. But Willow wasn’t so sure that they could do it again. If they had no choice but to fight, though, they would fight.
Willow’s problem right now was that she had no idea whether there had been enough time for the other three students to get to the spot where all of the Dark Sparks were gathered. The blue light had been much closer when Willow and her friends first took off from the dragon stables. Had her friends seen that the blue light was here now? Had they had time to fly over? Was everyone in position and ready to take pictures? Willow had no way of knowing the answers to any of these questions. She was afraid to start taking pictures and then realize that she was the only one here. If it came down to a fight, she definitely did not want to be alone.
But even if it meant she had to fight alone, she knew she had to go through with the plan. Even if she was the only one here, she had to get the pictures. And she could wait no longer. Every second that passed was a second closer to when the Dark Sparks would decide to give up and leave. Willow had this one shot. She could not miss her opportunity.
And so, she took a deep breath and gripped the camera tightly. Then, with a flick of her foot, Willow had Cayenne fly a little higher so she could see into the middle of the guards’ circle better. Willow held her breath, afraid that somehow her movement would be noticed by the guards. But they continued to scan the horizon with bored eyes. Willow’s invisibility shield was doing its job well.
It was still hard to see into the circle, because there were so many people in it. But Willow could see enough. Stein was definitely there. He was wearing a dark cloak that obscured much of his face and body, but it didn’t matter. Willow could tell from his giant size, and even from the erratic, angry way he moved his body, that it was him. He held what appeared to be the same gun that Willow had seen him holding the day the Dragon Heart Agents had been escorting her from the airport. Tonight, he was shooting the gun at regular intervals. Every few seconds, a bright blue flash of light would come from the gun, and he would pause to look at the magic shield. The shield was full of cracks where he shot at it, but it didn’t break. Anjali’s spellwork was impressive. She crafted the best protective shields one could ask for.
But Willow wasn’t here to admire Anjali’s shield. She was here to prove that Stein was the one trying to destroy it. And so, she lifted her camera high, took aim, and clicked the shutter. The next few moments seemed to go by in slow motion. She took several more pictures in rapid succession and then hit the video button, hoping to at least get video proof that Stein had been there. To her great relief, more camera flashes started going off all around her. It looked like all of the other Dragon Heart students had made it to this spot as well. They were all in it together.
And they were in for a wild ride.
As soon as the flashes started going off, the guards started looking wildly around. They shouted at each other and started shooting at random into the air. Willow had a protective shield up that easily deflected ordinary bullets, so she was fine. But she knew that it was only a matter of seconds until Stein turned his magic gun on her and her fellow students.
“Let’s go!” Willow shouted. At the sound of her voice, the guards all turned in her direction and started shooting. But even if Willow hadn’t had a protective shield up, they would have been too late. By the time they fired shots, she was already beginning to speed through the sky, and had moved from the spot she’d been in moments before. Cayenne flapped her giant wings as fast as she could, and Willow felt a fresh rush of adrenaline as she realized she was getting away from Stein. Now she just had to go fast enough that they lost her trail, and she was all but done with this mission. She’d contact Anjali, ask to be let back into campus, and explain everything.
As Cayenne picked up even more speed, Willow turned around to look behind her. She raised her magic ring, ready to fight off any Dark Sparks who tried to attack her or her friends. She was happy to see that all three of her friends were close behind her. In fact, Locke flew Yarrow so fast that soon that dragon was neck to neck with Willow’s. Only a few seconds behind them flew Cara and Nutmeg, and Sylvie and Saffron.
Sylvie and Cara were both launching magic attacks at the Dark Sparks guards chasing after the group. The attacks were quite effective, but there were a lot of guards to deal with. Willow was ready to attack as well, but she didn’t cast any spells yet. She was too far ahead of the guards, and she didn’t want Cara and Sylvie to get caught up in the crossfire.
Besides, the guards seemed to be slowly falling behind. As the dragons continued to fly as fast as they could, and the guards got tangled up in each other’s jetpacks amidst the chaos, the Dragon Heart students pulled ahead of them. Willow could hardly believe it as she watched, but it looked like soon they would be home free.
She was starting to finally relax a bit when Stein suddenly appeared. Willow cringed when she saw his twisted, scowling face lit up by a long flash of lightning. She cringed further when she saw him lifting his magic gun. She knew that the protective shields Cara and Sylvie had up would not be enough to protect them from the strength of that gun.
“Dodge his shots, guys! Dodge his shots!” she yelled back at them. But her voice was lost in the wind. And then, to her horror, Willow saw Stein speed up, get right behind Cara, and raise his magic gun at her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Cara!” Willow screamed. But it was too late. Stein was too close, and his movements were too quick. Before Willow’s voice had even died in her throat, Stein had pulled the trigger.
Amazingly Cara realized what was happening and tried to react. Usually, when faced with such serious danger, Cara would have completely frozen in fear. Tonight, however, she took action, and did her best to dodge the shot.
But she wasn’t quite fast enough.
As Nutmeg dove downward at Cara’s command, the edge of the blast of blue light caught the dragon’s wing.
“No!” Willow screamed, remembering how horribly Stein had wounded some of the dragons on the flight home from the airport. Nutmeg roared in pain and started tumbling downward through the sky. Cayenne roared in distress, and all around her Willow could hear the other dragons roaring, too. But the worst part about the scene unfolding in front of them was that Cara abruptly lost her grip on Nutmeg as the dragon violently lurched toward the ground. Willow’s stomach turned as she saw Cara start to hurtle downward, freefalling with no way to stop herself.
“Cayenne! Go to her!” Willow yelled. Cayenne did as she was told, diving at full speed toward Cara. Willow wasn’t sure if they could make it, but they had to try. She didn’t want to think about the possibility of seeing one of her fellow Dragon Heart students falling to her death. Willow urged Cayenne on, but could soon tell that it was hopeless. There was no way to catch her. Tears filled Willow’s eyes, mixing with the rainwater that had once again begun to fall. Willow desperately tried to think of some sort of spell that would stop Cara’s fall, but even that seemed hopeless. Cara was too far away for any spells Willow cast to be effective on her.
“Cara!” Willow cried, as though the sound of her voice could catch Cara and save her. And then, just when Willow had started to turn away, unable to watch any further, Cara’s fall stopped abruptly.
“What the…” Willow said, not understanding what she was seeing. Cara had fallen against some sort of hard surface in midair, and almost looked like she’d bounced.
“It’s the magic shield!” Locke called out as he flew up on Yarrow. �
�It’s repelling her because it doesn’t recognize her as authorized to enter the Dragon Heart campus.”
“She bounced,” Willow said in awe.
“Yeah,” Locke shouted. “That magic shield saved her life. It wasn’t intended to be a safety net for people falling out of the sky, but I guess it’s a nice side effect.”
“Let’s go get her,” Sylvie said as she rode up. “It looks like she’s just sitting on the magic shield. I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Me either,” Willow said, already giving Cayenne a nudge to fly downward toward Cara. There was no sign of Nutmeg anywhere, so someone would have to give Cara a ride back to the Dragon Heart campus. Willow hoped Nutmeg was okay. She wondered if the dragon had been able to get through the magic shield and get back to campus. Anjali might have included the dragons on the list of creatures allowed to reenter through the shield after exiting.
As Willow approached Cara, she also realized with a start that there was no sign of the Dark Sparks. This struck Willow as odd. Why had they suddenly disappeared after nearly killing Cara?
A sharp, whizzing sound passed by Willow’s ear, and she suddenly had her answer to where the Dark Sparks had gone. Willow wasn’t sure what had kept them away for a few moments—although if she had to guess she would have bet that Locke had cast some sort of restraining spell. He was good at those.
If there had been a spell, though, they’d broken through it at this point. To Willow’s horror, she saw several of the Dark Sparks, including Stein, flying down to hover just above where Cara was.
“No!” she screamed, and started trying to fly toward Cara even faster. But it was too late. Willow had gotten too comfortable, and had been flying too slowly. And now, the Dark Sparks had reached Cara first. Willow looked on helplessly as Stein circled his arm around Cara’s body and yanked her up with him. He started flying away a bit erratically. It couldn’t have been easy to hold both Cara and his magic gun, but Stein was doing it. His evil laughter filled the air, and his crew of Dark Sparks fell into formation behind him.
Willow sat on Cayenne’s back in confusion for a few seconds. Everything had happened so quickly that she’d barely had time to process it. Cara had almost died, but had miraculously been saved by the magic shield. And now, she was being kidnapped by Stein.
The word “kidnapped” hit Willow’s heart like a ton of bricks. If Stein managed to get away with Cara, he was probably going to torture her and try to use her for magic capture. And Cara wasn’t nearly as brave or strong as Willow’s father. She would surely crumble under the pressure of trying to stand up to Stein. Willow’s heart sank further as she realized that she had been the one to suggest this whole mission. If Cara was kidnapped, she was responsible. She could not let this happen.
“After them!” Willow shouted, and started urging Cayenne to fly in the direction Stein and the Dark Sparks had gone. She didn’t know whether Locke and Sylvie would follow her. She wouldn’t have blamed them if they didn’t. Chasing down a group that large, one of whom had a powerful magic gun, was going to be dangerous. But Willow wasn’t leaving Cara alone.
Willow shouldn’t have doubted her fellow students, though. Moments later, she saw Locke and Sylvie fly up beside her on their dragons. “Those guys are gonna pay for this!” Locke yelled. Sylvie said nothing, but she had a determined look as she zoomed through the air on Saffron’s back.
Willow gave Cayenne free reign to fly as she would. The dragon knew Willow wanted to catch up with Cara, and flew as fast as she could to make that happen.
It wasn’t easy. The Dark Sparks were flying even faster than before. They seemed to be inspired by the fact that they had captured a Dragon Heart Agent, and were actually gaining some distance on the Dragon Heart students. Willow tried not to panic as she watched Cara get further and further away from them.
“We have to go faster!” Locke yelled. Willow knew he was right. But how could they go any faster than they already were? The dragons were pushing themselves to the limit. Rain was whipping at Willow’s face so sharply that it felt like little stings every time a drop hit her face. Willow leaned down low, both to avoid the rain as much as possible and to try to make it easier for Cayenne to fly.
“Faster, girl, faster!” Willow shouted to her dragon. “We can’t let them get away.” But Cayenne was already going as fast as she could.
“We have to attack now,” Locke yelled. “We’re almost out of range.”
“But we can’t be precise enough from this far back,” Willow yelled in answer. “We might accidentally hit Cara!”
“We have to take the chance, and hope that she’s able to put up a protective shield around herself. It’s now or never. If we get out of range, she’ll be lost forever. Like your dad.”
Willow winced. Locke was right. If Cara was lost tonight, they might never get her back. Better to do their best to stop Stein while they still could.
“Alright then. Let’s do this,” Willow shouted, then raised her magic ring and cried out “Flamma!”
Beside her, she heard Locke and Sylvie yelling as well, “Flamma! Flamma!”
Laser-like beams of bright purple light shot out of their rings. A few seconds later, those beams made contact with some of the Dark Sparks, and howls of pain were heard.
“Again!” Locke yelled. And again, the three of them launched magic attacks in the direction of the Dark Sparks. The attacks they were launching weren’t all that sophisticated. As second year students, they hadn’t learned most of the advanced attack spells yet. Those were saved for the third and fourth years of magical education. But because the Dark Sparks weren’t wizards, and couldn’t put up protective magical shields, the simple attacks were still very effective. Howls of pain rang through the air, and the Dark Sparks started slowing down.
“It’s working!” Sylvie cried out. “We’re gaining on them!”
As the three Dragon Heart students got closer, they were able to aim their attacks even better. The whole group of Dark Sparks was in complete chaos now, and most of them had either been taken out by the magic attacks, or were deserting Stein and flying in the opposite direction of him.
But Stein himself was the biggest problem. He still had a tight grip on Cara, and it was clear he was not going to let her go easily. Now that he had another wizard in his possession, he did not want to let her go. Stein didn’t try to attack his pursuers with his magic gun. Instead, he flew as fast as he could away from them. The other Dark Sparks had all been taken care of or had fled, but Stein didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t even look back at them as he jetted further and further through the night sky, staying out of range of the students’ attacks.
Willow had no idea where they were anymore, or where they were going. They were zooming south over the Maine wilderness, but to where? There was nothing out here for hundreds of miles, and Stein’s jet pack couldn’t hold that much fuel, could it? He was going to have to land eventually.
All Willow, Locke, and Sylvie could do was follow. They were well past the Dragon Heart campus limits right now, and still they flew. On and on they went, until dawn started to break. Willow didn’t know what to do, except to make sure she kept Cara in her sight. Locke seemed at a loss, too. Whenever Willow glanced over at him, he had a pale, worried look on his face. Sylvie looked terrified. How long would they have to keep this up? And would it matter in the end, or was Cara as good as lost already?
Willow could feel exhaustion setting in, but she forced herself to sit upright and stay awake. The sky continued to lighten, and Willow realized that all of them would definitely be missing their morning classes. That was going to be the first clue to Anjali that the whole group was missing, and she was not going to be happy. But despite her fear of Anjali’s anger, Willow wished that Anjali would discover that everyone was missing sooner rather than later. If Anjali could get someone to help them, maybe Cara would not be lost forever. Of course, by the time Anjali realized what was going on and sent a search party to find them, it w
ould be too late. Stein would probably have reached whatever destination he had in mind. He must be heading somewhere that he could hide out with Cara, or where he had backup Dark Sparks who would help him. Whatever the case, Willow had a feeling that the further they flew, the lower their chances of recovering Cara.
And still, they flew. While there was any shred of hope left, they had to try.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Willow had been flying along uneventfully for so long that it took her completely by surprise when Stein suddenly reared to a stop and turned around with his magic gun pointed right at them. He held Cara in front of him like a shield, and his face twisted up into an ugly scowl. Willow wondered if he was ever not scowling, or if his face was permanently stuck that way.
She was so tired that it took her a minute to understand what was going on. Thankfully, Cayenne was still very much alert, and her reflexes were quick. Stein pulled the trigger on his magic gun, and the blue light shot out of it straight toward where Cayenne had been seconds before. But Cayenne had seen the attack coming, and dove down at top speed. The attack missed completely, although Willow felt her heart pounding in her chest almost as if she’d been struck.
Stein roared in anger, and launched another stream of blue light from his gun, this time in Locke’s direction. Locke’s dragon, Yarrow, had even more time to prepare for the attack than Cayenne had had. Yarrow deftly dodged the blue light, flying upward.
Stein cursed and pointed the gun upward to try to hit Locke. But this time, when Stein pulled the trigger, only a weak stream of light came out. Roaring in anger, Stein swung the gun so it pointed at Sylvie. He pulled the trigger again, but only a weak puff of blue came out.
