Victories

by Mercedes Lackey

  “Come on—come on!” Dylan rode toward them. “Hurry! They’ll be after us in a minute!”

  “Addie! Go with Dylan! Show everyone where to go!” Spirit cried.

  Addie nodded briefly. Dylan reached down to her, and Addie swung herself up behind him. Dylan galloped off after the riders who’d already fled. The other four ran on toward the stables.

  “They’ll just run us down,” Loch said as he ran. “Breakthrough. They’ve still got cars and trucks.”

  “No,” Burke said. “They’d have to take the trucks right through Radial. They won’t risk them being seen.”

  Spirit only hoped Burke was right.

  “Maybe I can give them something else to think about,” Kelly said determinedly. “All our guys are out of there, right?”

  “I hope so,” Spirit said fervently. Most of the other kids—and the horses—were already gone, but Gareth and Noah were in the paddock with four horses—saddled but without riders. They were obviously waiting for them.

  “Okay then,” Kelly said. She stopped, and turned back to face the building. “I never liked this place anyway,” she said.

  For a long moment nothing happened. Then there was the sound of shattering glass, the roar of an inferno, and smoke began to belch out of the third floor windows.

  Spirit hoped the Tree was going to go up in the flames, but she was afraid that was too much to hope for. She followed the others toward the paddock.

  Noah swung up behind Gareth, and Spirit and Loch took the second horse. Burke rode alone. He led the last of the horses, and Kelly grabbed it and vaulted into the saddle as they rode past her. By now the upper stories of the building were burning brightly.

  “Won’t last long,” Kelly said in disappointment. “Or do much damage. Half of Breakthrough has Water Gifts. But it should slow them down a little.”

  Then there was no more time for talk. Only for escape. It was a hellride to match the worst of the Endurance Rides. The horses took the main drive at a wild gallop. Spirit heard bullets spang off Burke’s Shield, but mostly she concentrated on not falling off the horse.

  Lachlan Spears had always been one of the better riders of their little group, but now he rode as if he could sense every move his horse would make before it made it. The most graceful man a-horse, Spirit thought distractedly.

  Ahead of them—in what used to be the outskirts of Radial—Spirit could see the rest of the horses and riders. Everyone was strung out in a long ragged line—the better animals and riders in the lead, the others straggling behind. Gareth had saved them some of the best horses available, so Spirit and the others with her quickly overtook the stragglers.

  If the range of the Command and Control Gifts had been any larger, Oakhurst’s fleeing refugees would have been in more trouble than they were right now, but by the time Mordred and his minions realized what they were doing, their horses were too far away for the Shadow Knights to affect.

  The sky was black with the oncoming storm summoned either by Oakhurst students or Breakthrough mages. Spirit could see lightning striking in the distance, somewhere on the other side of what was left of Radial. She hoped some of it was hitting The Fortress. The horses, not galloping now so much as bolting uncontrollably, charged through the emptiness that had been a town two weeks ago, and then across fields full of bespelled townsfolk. The people scattered as the horses thundered past.

  Is this too easy? Spirit wondered desperately. Are they just setting a trap?

  She hoped with all her heart that it wasn’t, that they weren’t, that the element of surprise in their attack on Oakhurst had been enough to confuse Breakthrough, Mordred, and the Shadow Knights. Mordred knew he couldn’t let them escape, but he might be counting on being able to track them on horseback, and Spirit knew there had to be more horses at The Fortress. Maybe he wasn’t striking them down now because he figured he could find them the old-fashioned way.

  Now Spirit could see riderless horses. Some were bolting in panic, others were galloping along beside the other horses. She didn’t see anybody on foot or on the ground, so the riderless horses had to mean the first of the refugees had reached the van.

  How are we going to fit everyone inside? Spirit thought in sudden horror. There are dozens of us, and the van won’t hold more than twenty at most. We can’t leave anyone behind.…

  There were still a dozen riders behind her and Burke when Burke reined in at the foot of the hill. Burke leaped from the saddle and began running up the slope. Addie must already be at the van. Spirit staggered as her feet touched the ground. Loch grabbed her to steady her, and began dragging her up the hill. She pulled away to look back in the direction of the town as Kelly passed her. There were horses galloping out of the front gates of The Fortress. Their leader carried a banner with the Breakthrough logo on it, and dogs ran beside them. It was all like something out of an old movie—or a historical novel.

  Or a nightmare.

  She turned and followed Loch and Kelly up the hill.

  “—stupid idiotic fool!”

  The first thing she heard was Addie’s voice raised in fury.

  “Why should I think you were coming back?” That was Brett. Whining. The sound of his voice set Spirit’s teeth on edge. “Besides, it didn’t work.”

  Spirit reached the van. The driver side window was smashed out, and the hood was sprung. Clearly Brett Weber had tried to hotwire the black van. Just as clearly, it hadn’t worked.

  “And you think not managing to run out on us with our only transportation is a point in your favor?” Loch snapped. “I should—”

  “Well, you were going to ditch some of us anyway, because this thing won’t take all of us,” Brett whined. “So I figure I didn’t have anything to lose. Now we’re all in the same boat,” he finished in a gloating tone.

  “Get out of my way!” Addie snapped. She shoved past Brett with more energy than the motion required. Spirit saw him stagger.

  “Nobody’s being left behind,” Spirit said firmly. Brett’s rash remark was having an effect; the Oakhurst students gathered behind her were looking worried. “Van,” she said, picking someone at random. “Do you know who was in lockdown from the girls’ side? Is everyone here?”

  Her question had the desired effect. The Oakhurst kids had a good idea of who’d been recruited and who hadn’t. “Everybody who was in lockdown from our wing is here,” Vanessa answered. “I don’t know about the boys.”

  Before Spirit could find someone to ask about the boys, Burke came back from the edge of the wood.

  “Eight more on the way,” he said. “That’s everyone in sight.”

  Suddenly Spirit heard the engine of the van roar into life. Black smoke curled from under the sprung hood, and more broken glass jingled free of the shattered side window. Then suddenly its outline shimmered, and as Spirit watched, the van changed its shape, growing into the familiar form of a big yellow school bus.

  “It isn’t an illusion!” Addie called out the window. “It’s real! Everybody get on board!”

  Loch jumped aboard immediately, and that was all the Oakhurst kids needed to see in order to take this new weirdness in stride. They followed Loch aboard the bus immediately. The four kids from Radial stood and stared as the Oakhurst kids climbed aboard, then Brett moved into the line, and the others followed. Spirit hung back, making sure there wasn’t any pushing or fights—she saw Brett get the idea of pushing to the front of the line, and abandon it after he got a good look at the muscles on the Oakhurst boys—and girls.

  As soon as Spirit was sure he wouldn’t change his mind—or make some other kind of trouble—she went to help Burke bring the last of the students up the hill. In the distance, she could see that the mounted Shadow Knights were getting a lot closer.

  “Come on,” she said, grabbing the nearest girl’s arm.

  It was Kylee, and as Spirit touched her, she felt the tingle of magic. Kylee was another Reincarnate: Spirit could awaken Kylee’s Reincarnate self with a single word. D
o I have the right? she thought distractedly. This is a heck of a time to be worrying about that!

  Spirit and Burke were the last ones onto the bus. Every seat was filled, and some people were sitting in the aisle. Addie yanked the door shut and the bus started moving—slowly, ponderously—up the hill. There was a farm road at the top of the hill, Spirit remembered. Just a dirt track, but it joined the feeder road that led to the Interstate.

  As soon as she reached the road Addie floored the accelerator. The bus slid, shimmied, and lurched. It had started raining while they were still under the trees, and the windshield wipers slapped heavily against the windshield while sprays of mud blurred the windows. Spirit clung to the back of the driver’s seat and tried to use the rearview mirror to check for pursuit. She didn’t see anything, but then, she couldn’t see much at all. Horses don’t like to be out in heavy rain, she told herself, something she knew from her Endurance Riding classes. Horses liked to be dry, and warm, and home in their nice comfy stalls when the weather was bad, and even if their riders didn’t, dealing with cranky horses would slow them down.

  “Can’t this go any faster?” Juliette Weber demanded.

  “It’s a magic school bus, not a Sherman Tank,” Addie answered tartly.

  Suddenly the entire bus lurched violently as Addie made a sharp right turn. Several people screamed as they slid out of their seats and onto the floor. Spirit got a blurred glimpse through a mud-smeared window of an official-looking sign saying “Do Not Enter,” and suddenly they were on the Interstate.

  “Hang on!” Addie shouted, gunning the engine.

  Spirit saw the flash of headlights coming straight toward them. We’re on the wrong side! she thought in panic. Then Addie was across the divider and back onto the road, the bus fishtailing as she fought to get it going in the right direction.

  “I guess there isn’t anything I need to teach you about defensive driving,” Loch said into the momentary silence.

  SIX

  It was several long hours on the road before they reached the missile silo once more. Long enough for Spirit to tell everyone the whole story about Oakhurst: that Doctor Ambrosius was really the evil sorcerer Mordred, that he’d orphaned everyone who had magic, that he intended to start a war so he could rule the world.

  It sounded more ridiculous each time she said it, but nobody laughed. After spending the last two weeks locked in their rooms, the Oakhurst kids might not believe the whole story she was telling them, but they certainly believed something horrible was going on. Some of them had still been wearing their class rings when they’d fled the school, but Spirit had made sure everyone threw them away while they were still on the bus. And even the four kids from Radial, to whom all the talk about sorcery and wizard wars was new and unbelievable, didn’t scoff. Having woken up to see their town turned into a medieval village seemingly overnight, the Townies knew better than to say anything was impossible.

  After the round of obvious questions (why didn’t they go to the police or the FBI or the government?) everybody settled down to a weary silence. Fortunately, Addie’s Cauldron-magic was able to feed them along the way, and between Loch and Addie, they managed to find a much shorter route than the original one QUERCUS had given Spirit. But Spirit still had plenty of time to worry about the next thing. What were they going to do when they got to the silo? Maybe Addie could work her Cauldron-magic to keep all of them fed, but where were they all going to sleep? How was she going to convince everyone not to just go running off to find the nearest phone?

  The only part Spirit had left out of her explanation had been the stuff about the Reincarnates. She was the only one who could awaken the memories of the Grail Knights (unless Addie, Burke, or Loch could do it too, but somehow she didn’t think they could), and she still couldn’t decide how she felt about that, especially after watching Dylan’s reaction to being Awakened.

  Dylan was sitting halfway to the back of the bus, pale and silent, just as he’d been ever since he’d rejoined them. She was more relieved by his silence than she wanted to admit to herself. She didn’t want Dylan telling everyone he was really Gareth Beaumains, and they were all spear-carriers in an Arthurian Myth.

  Although Loch’s the only one with an actual spear.…

  The reason Dylan was following her lead, Spirit suspected, was because he recognized her, Burke, and Loch. Gareth Beaumains had been a knight of the Round Table. That wouldn’t work for everyone, because she knew from hearing about the Shadow Knight Reincarnates that not all of them had been from Arthur’s Court—or even on Arthur’s side. But despite the additional problems that came with adding three-dozen refugees—and possible Reincarnates—to the people she had to watch over, Spirit couldn’t really regret having done it.

  If she’d waited any longer, she wasn’t sure there would have been anyone left to rescue.

  When they finally reached the abandoned missile field, Spirit received her first good surprise of the day. There was a familiar figure standing beside the shack that led down into the control silo.

  “Vivian!” she cried, as Addie brought the bus to a halt.

  Spirit pushed her way out the doors before Addie got them completely open. She ran to Vivian and hugged her very hard. “You came back!”

  “I … So I did, my lady,” Vivian said awkwardly.

  It didn’t take much for Spirit to understand the source of her unease. She might be Vivian, but she was also the Reincarnate Nimue. Mordred’s pawn, jailer of The Merlin. And now, she knew that Spirit—Guinevere—knew it.

  “That was a long time ago,” Spirit said, answering the unspoken words. “And you have more than redeemed yourself. But I’m so glad to see you—I thought you’d left forever!”

  “I was lucky enough to return. And not alone.” Vivian gestured behind her, where a familiar figure was coming out from behind the building.

  “Elizabeth!” Spirit said in joyful disbelief. Of all the people who had vanished, Elizabeth was the one Spirit had figured was most certainly gone forever. “I thought you were dead!”

  “I would have been,” Elizabeth Walker said, smiling wearily. “But the Shadow Knights wanted information I did not have, and were careful to preserve me in hopes of gaining it. They thought I must know where The Merlin hid, because I had regained my Reincarnate memories.”

  Spirit glanced around quickly. Everyone was getting off the bus now, looking around and asking Addie, Loch, and Burke where they were and what was going on. “I’ve told them almost everything,” she said quickly. “But I haven’t told them that part.”

  “But you must!” Elizabeth said instantly. “Even I can see that many of them are Reincarnates, though I know not of whom, for the magic lies heavy upon them. They deserve to know.”

  “They deserve a little peace,” Spirit said, more sharply than she meant to. “What use is a headful of ancient history?”

  Elizabeth might have said something more, but everyone was coming off the bus now, and Vivian had moved to greet them.

  “Hi, everyone. My name is Vivian.” Vivian, to Spirit’s relief, was taking immediate charge of the mob of rescuees, just as she had of the four of them not so long ago. “And believe it or not, I’m an actual Oakhurst alumni. It’s great to see you all, and fortunately I knew you were coming.”

  How? Spirit mouthed at Elizabeth.

  Scrying Gift, Elizabeth mouthed back. Vivian was a Water Witch, but Elizabeth—Iseult—had the Gift of Prophecy. Scrying.

  “The accommodations aren’t great, but they’re better than Oakhurst—well, I mean the concentration camp that Oakhurst turned into,” Vivian went on. “Come on and we’ll get everyone settled. After that, I’ll take questions.”

  Oh, good one, Vivian. Remind them what they escaped. That’s smart, Spirit thought admiringly.

  “Hey, uh, Vivian?” It was Troy Lang. He raised his hand to get her attention. Spirit hadn’t seen Troy when she’d busted the boys out of prison; he must have been somewhere else in the building. “Spiri
t told us Doc A is really a crazy terrorist. Why don’t we just go to the police instead of hiding here?”

  Spirit saw Vivian sigh just a little. “As I’m sure Spirit said the last time you asked that question, the second thing that would happen would be that Mordred would wipe their memories, the way he’s been wiping the memories of the people of Radial for years. And the first thing would be that he’d find us, and … Well, just think about what he’s been doing to you so far, and imagine what he’ll do to you if he catches you now. Come on. There isn’t a lot of light left, and we’re going to need it.”

  She gestured, and walked off. Troy and a few of the other boys followed. Spirit looked at Burke, her expression puzzled.

  “Come on, come on,” Burke said, smiling at her encouragingly. “I think I know what she’s got in mind.”

  What Vivian had in mind was tents. When Spirit followed Burke around the back of the shack, she saw a huge half-ton truck painted Army green (she wondered if Vivian had stolen it; anything seemed possible). The entire back was filled with camping equipment. Soon Vivian had everyone hard at work putting up a tent city, unpacking sleeping bags, and inflating air mattresses.

  “They’re doing pretty well, for all the shocks they’ve gotten,” Burke said to Spirit when they had a moment of privacy.

  “Yes,” she answered. “But I wish.… Burke, we didn’t really do anything at Oakhurst except warn Mordred that we’re still out here. While the Tree is intact, he’s as powerful as ever.”

  “I know,” Burke said quietly. “But it would be a lot harder to destroy the Tree if we were all dead.”

  The statement startled Spirit into a rueful laugh. “I guess you’re right. Come on. Let’s go see what we can do to help everyone settle in.”