Airships, Crypts & Chocolate Chips
Page 21
I let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, you’re not my favorite person either.” I bit my still trembling lips.
A groan sounded from behind me. I whirled, then another went up further away, and another.
“The horde’s waking up,” Iggy screeched.
As I turned back, I felt a rough, icy-cold hand wrap around my throat and squeeze.
“Eck.” I choked and slid my eyes to the left.
Pritney’s eyes burned with hate as she tightened her grip around my neck. She scrunched up her face and bit her lip with effort, causing it to bleed more.
“Ig—” I managed to squeak out. I clawed at her fingers.
My little flame flashed brighter. I felt the heat under my chin and suddenly Pritney yelped and released her grip.
“Hah.” Iggy folded his tiny arms. “Too hot to handle?”
I raised my brows as I massaged my throat with my free hand. “Really?”
Iggy cackled.
Nate swayed in place and blinked his dark eyes rapidly while Pritney continued to glare at me. She cradled her burned hand against her bony chest.
I held up my free palm. “Horace sent us to break you out of here. We’re here to help.” I sniffed. “Against our will and better judgment, but we’re here.”
Pritney’s ribs heaved as her eyes slid around the room. Nate leaned against her shoulder, unsteady on his feet, and she roughly shrugged him off. The horde, as Iggy had called the cadaverous prisoners that surrounded us, moaned and wailed. Those nearest us took shaky, stuttering steps.
“This is bad.” I shook my head. “You see? Everyone’s waking up. We’re here to help. We good?” I kept my eyes on Pritney as I fished around in my purse for the round compact mirror.
Her eyes widened and before I could react she lunged at me. I shut my eyes and braced for the attack.
A shriek sounded behind me. I peeled my eyes open and turned. Pritney straddled the grinning woman from earlier who’d grabbed my wrist. She must’ve followed us all the way back here. Pritney grabbed her head in her hands, even as the woman scratched her arms and snapped her few teeth, trying to bite her. Pritney slammed the woman’s head back into the concrete floor and a pool of red blood seeped into her matted hair. I gasped and recoiled, but there was nowhere to go. Everywhere I looked skeletal figures towered above me.
“This is a reefing nightmare.” Iggy nibbled at his flame fingers.
Pritney rolled to the side, off the bleeding woman, and sat with her shoulders heaving, to catch her breath.
My fingers clasped around the compact and I pulled it out of the purse. I flared my nostrils and huffed. “Come on, Imogen.” My hands trembled so badly I hardly trusted myself to even hold it, much less enlarge it with the steady gentleness required so as not to break the glass.
“Coming!”
I looked up to see Yann’s red buzz cut poking out above the heads of the crowd. He waved and I nodded back. Perfect timing. I couldn’t believe we’d made it this far. I closed my eyes and formed a round O with my lips. I blew out a shaky breath. We’d gotten in, found our targets, and now all I had to do was expand the mirror so we could escape through the portal. Ice flooded my stomach. Just a simple little spell I hadn’t managed to get right once in all our practicing yesterday under calm circumstances surrounded by friends. Now I had the magical energy of a dozen other people bouncing around inside me alongside my own jittery nerves, and was surrounded by a skeletal horde of terrifying criminals. I pressed my eyes shut tight. Piece of cake.
I sought out my energy from the humming gray lights far overhead and tried to shut out the eerie moans and wails of the suffering men and women around me. Focus focus focus. I found the mirror in my mind and started to coax it larger and larger and—
Weeeooooo. Weeeeeooooo. Weeeeoooo.
My eyes flew open as a deafening alarm sounded overhead. I winced and pressed my free hand to my ear as Yann, Wiley, and a much steadier-looking Annie joined us. Pritney crawled to her knees.
“What’s? Happening?” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
Wiley shook his head.
“Open! The! Portal!” Annie jerked her head at the mirror in my hand, her hands pressed tight over her ears.
Weeeeooooo. Weeeooooo. Weeeeeoooo.
The unnerving alarm drove spikes into my brain. But I could do this. I had to. I handed the mirror to Yann to hold since my hands trembled so badly, then focused on it. I closed my eyes and pulled from the lights again—or tried to. Nothing happened. I couldn’t even sense them.
My eyes flew open. “I can’t!” I turned my palms over and shook my head at them.
Yann’s lip trembled and Annie shook her head.
Wiley flared his nostrils, held his wand aloft and—nothing happened.
We leaned our heads together as the prisoners around us wailed, their hands held over their ears. Wiley shouted to be heard. “They deployed the anti-magic spell Horace told us about!”
My eyes widened. “It works on me too?!”
“Apparently!” Wiley’s face fell.
“He said they couldn’t keep it going for long though, right?” Annie’s blue eyes pleaded for someone to give her some hope.
Yann gulped. “Long enough for them to find us, though, I tink!”
“We’re all gonna die!” Iggy wailed.
My heart raced in my chest.
Weeeooooo. Weeeeooooo. Weeeeoooo.
22
The Mirror
“Yeeeek!”
I glanced down toward where the screech had sounded from.
Pritney gritted her teeth and latched her bony hand onto the shift of a nearby prisoner. She dragged herself up to her feet by his sack-like garment and in the process knocked him off balance. He tumbled sideways and took a few other people down with him. Pritney staggered in her bare feet and panted.
She cleared her throat, a grating noise. Her voice came out hoarse. “What did you idiots do?” She jabbed a broken fingernail at me. “You ruin everything!”
The nerve. I gritted my teeth. “Oh, sorry. Maybe we should just leave you here to rot!”
I felt an icy hand on my shoulder and whirled around.
Nate winked a bloodshot eye at me. “Imogen.” I could barely hear his raspy voice over the blaring of the alarm. “Hey. You look good.”
I recoiled.
Iggy widened his eyes at Nate. “You don’t!”
“Seriously? Do you only ever have one thing on your mind?” Pritney growled.
Her eyes darted left and right. She hissed when one of the increasingly active prisoners shouldered her. “Someone explain what’s happening?”
Annie glared at Pritney. “I always knew you were a snake.” She huffed. “And you are a terrible baker.”
That’s right. They’d worked together in the bakery where Pritney had killed Nan, the old head baker. I’d forgotten they knew each other.
We huddled closer together as the prisoners grew more agitated and bumped into us from all angles.
I gulped. “We’re supposed to escape through this mirror.”
Yann lifted the compact. He lurched forward as a screaming prisoner stumbled into him. My stomach clenched as he fumbled with it, but managed to catch it.
Pritney’s face darkened and she grumbled to herself.
“But we can’t, because they’ve dropped a no-magic emergency spell on the whole prison!” I cupped my free hand to my mouth and shouted.
Weeeeoooooo. The siren screamed all around us.
Pritney shook her head and curled her chapped lip. “Is there anything you can do right?”
Nate leaned close and I leaned back from his horrid breath. “Don’t worry, it’s not personal. She’s like this to me, too.”
Charming.
“We need to get out of this room!” Pritney shouted. “The guards will be swarming here any second. I’m shocked they’re not already here!”
“How?” Annie rose on tip toe and looked over the crowd. “How do we get out?”
“There’s no way we’ll get through here—not without magic.” Wiley dragged a hand through his hair.
If only we could get the mirror to expand. Horace had said he’d wait to activate the portal, so that if they looked at it during the security check, it would only look like a regular mirror. How much longer would he keep the portal open?
I snapped my fingers. “The portal! It’s open!”
Pritney rolled her eyes. “And, genius?”
Iggy shook his head at Pritney. “Is this what I sound like?”
I carefully took the mirror from Yann and flipped it open. Where the reflection should be, a swirling green light moved across the mirror’s surface. “We can’t do magic inside the prison. But maybe….” I curled my hand sideways to make it narrower and stuck a few fingers through the portal mirror. “Maybe someone, or part of someone, on the other side, can!”
Annie winked at me. “You brilliant girl!”
We closed ranks tighter, and Nate, Yann, Wiley, Annie, and Pritney linked arms around me to shield me from the jostling. I frowned as I looked around. “It’s like a mosh pit in here.” Weeeeooooo. Even the siren noise could pass for music at some concerts.
“Yeah. Totally. If a mosh is a pit full of murderous, violent zombies.” Iggy burned brighter. “Hurry.”
“Right.” I closed my eyes, my heart pounding and my nerves jumping with adrenaline. I tried to drown out everything that was happening around me, and to instead focus on what I felt through my fingertips on the other side of the portal. The other portal mirror sat aboard the airship we’d flown over on. I sensed rich, shining wood paneling and pulled energy from it. I kept my eyes closed, but shouted, “It’s working!” I drew energy bit by bit through my fingertips. It took a lot longer than when I could pull magical energy with my whole body, but if we could hold out long enough, it would work. I could expand the mirror from the other side.
“Snakes!”
“What’s he doing here?”
“Yes!”
Cries from the others broke my concentration and I opened my eyes. I blinked and looked around.
Pritney had her back to me and waved. “Horace! Horace!”
It couldn’t be. I looked past her and spotted my brother up on the balcony. “What?”
“He was supposed to stay on the ship.” Annie shook her head.
Horace flashed a bright smile and waved, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Weeeeoooooo. Weeeoooooo.
Wiley tugged at his hair. “Didn’t he hear the alarm? Why would he rush in?”
Pritney clasped her hands together and looked longingly at my brother, her face suddenly softer. “He probably knew you morons would never succeed and is coming to save me himself.”
Annie folded her arms and snorted. “Then who’s he looking for?”
Good point. Horace had cast the finding spell. A glowing orb of light appeared before him and then dipped low over the heads of the churning prisoners. He gripped the balcony and leaned forward, his pale eyes focused as he tracked it. He then sprinted down the staircase. My brother knocked a prisoner over the edge into the crowd on his way down. I gasped. It hadn’t been too, too high. Maybe they’d be okay?
Annie turned to me. “Go ahead, dear, keep working on the mirror.”
“We’ll keep you protected.” Nate winked.
I rolled my eyes at his shamelessness, but did as Annie said. Horace or no Horace, we still needed a way out. I slid my hand back through the portal mirror and sip by sip pulled energy to me. I then funneled it into the mirror. Weirdly, this was almost better. I wasn’t as worried about enlarging the mirror too quickly and shattering it since my feed of magic was so slow. I bit my lip. Grow, mirror, grow. I only hoped I’d be able to do it before the guards swarmed the room. As the mirror lengthened it became too heavy to hold in my palm.
I kept my eyes closed and the magic flowing. “A little help?”
The mirror steadied and the weight lifted from my palm as my friends took hold of it. Still, I focused on growing it bigger and bigger.
“You’re almost there, dear.”
Wiley’s voice came next. “It’s tall enough, think wider.”
I gulped and nodded that I’d heard. Wider, wider. A thin stream of magic flowed into my fingertips and through me to the mirror.
A shrill screech made me jump. I looked wildly around for the murder victim or wounded animal. I blinked at Pritney, who’d let go of Nate’s and Annie’s hands to clap and bounce on her toes. “Horace!”
I scowled at her. “I thought someone had died.”
She ignored me and shoved past Annie and Wiley to throw her arms around my brother’s neck. He stiffened.
“Pritney.”
She pulled back and batted her red eyes at him. “You came for me.”
“And me!” Nate chimed in.
Horace nodded at him, while Pritney spun and sneered at Nate. “I’m sure you were an afterthought.”
“Who’s dat?” Yann pointed at the thin, shriveled old man in glasses that swayed on his feet behind Horace. My brother’s fist gripped the front of the man’s tunic and kept him upright.
Horace skirted past Pritney, dragging the man behind him. He paused in the center of the circle and looked from me to the mirror and back to me again. He grinned. “Clever way around the no-magic spell.”
I smiled. “Thanks.” I frowned. “Wait. Seriously, who is that guy and what are you doing here?”
Horace gave a lazy blink. “I’ve got this.”
“Oh.” I backed away as Horace slid his foot through the full length, but quite narrow mirror.
It widened rapidly as he used the same technique I had. I sighed with relief, glad to have a break. My shoulders slumped with exhaustion.
“This.” Horace lifted his fist and the man rose with it, just his toes on the ground. Horace set him back down and the man’s head lolled against his chest. “This is Gunter Braun. Everyone meet Gunter. Gunter, everyone.”
I frowned at the man with the glasses. He looked kind of familiar….
“Okay. Why do you have him and why are you here? This wasn’t the plan.” Wiley folded his arms.
The mirror had nearly expanded wide enough to allow my brother to fit all the way through.
“Didn’t you hear the alarm?” I pointed up.
The siren continued to blare down on us. Would I ever get my hearing back?
Horace’s full lips smirked.
Wiley gasped. “You set the alarm off. Didn’t you?”
Horace lifted one shoulder. He pulled his shirt up and flashed the prison brand they’d marked him with on his side. “I told you I’d set off the alarm if I stepped foot in the prison.”
Pritney bit her lip as she ogled his bare skin. “Oh yeah.”
Wiley dragged his hands down his face. “Then why did you?”
“It’s big enough.” Annie gestured at the mirror. Horace still had one foot through to the other side.
I nodded. “It’s getting crazy in here and the guards are gonna rush in, any second.”
“I took out the squad that was headed here. So there’s a little extra time.” Horace blinked, the smirk still on his face.
I waved my hands toward the mirror. “Great. But we can chitchat later. Let’s go.”
Horace winced, though his eyes twinkled with mirth. “About that….” In the blink of an eye he stepped through the mirror and tugged the half-dead Gunter through behind him. Pritney lunged forward to follow, but the mirror shattered in her face.
23
The Great Escape
Shards of the mirror fell to the floor.
“No!” Pritney shrieked.
My heart sank. I knew how she felt.
She jumped back as the
frame tipped over and clattered to the floor, further shattering the pieces.
“Ur.” Nate scratched the back of his neck. “He probably didn’t see you there, Prit.”
She whipped her head around, her lips curled back from her teeth. “He saw me.” Her wild eyes searched the broken pieces. “He—he probably knocked the mirror over from the other side accidentally.” She nodded to herself. “He probably feels terrible and is whipping up some new plan to save us right now.” She jabbed a finger at Nate. “And I’ve told you. Don’t call me Prit.”
I clenched my hands into fists and dug my nails into my palms. “He betrayed you!” My chest heaved. “Like he betrayed all of us. We’re screwed!”
“Ohh. That—” Wiley let loose a string of profanities under his breath that were lost in the maddening scream of the alarm.
“We’re all gonna die!” Iggy screamed.
“You already said that one!” I yelled back.
“I’m not going down without a fight.” Annie’s face darkened. “I need to survive so I can kill that sea scum.”
“Over my dead body!” Pritney got in her face.
“That can be arranged!” Annie puffed up her chest.
“I love a good cat fight. Very sexy.” Nate held up his hands as the women rounded on him. He blinked, his face earnest. “But we should get out of here.”
Oh, simple, simple Nate. “How?” I demanded.
Weeeooooo. Weeeooooo.
“The only way out, genius.” Pritney pointed at the stairs. Prisoners crawled over each other, grabbing each other’s ankles and hair to escape. Someone shouldered me from behind as they stumbled toward the exit. Ow. I frowned at churning mass of bodies stumbling up the stairs. How would we push through them?
Suddenly the alarm cut out. We all stared wide-eyed at each other. My ears rang.
“Does that mean magic’s back?” My own voice sounded muffled to me.
Wiley pointed his wand at something just beyond my shoulder and a blast of light emitted from it. I whirled. The man’s outstretched hands had nearly reached my throat. I screamed as he crumpled to the floor, hit by Wiley’s spell.