by Linda McNabb
The night-shadows, sensing that the threat to Caden had passed, were no longer growling at Kranos but had not broken their protective circle around the boy. Rem and Kranos sat silently watching as the news of what was happening rippled through the crowd. Panic set in instantly as thousands of people ran in every direction at the same time. Rem tried to feel sympathy for them. She knew it was likely to be the end of her people but she felt nothing, just an overwhelming numbness at the impending loss of one small innocent child.
Chapter Twelve - Into the Fire
There hadn’t been enough room to lay down and sleep on the boat but most of them hadn’t been able to sleep anyway. Seth yawned as the sun crept into the sky as if it were any other morning.
The dragons had found perches on the steep cliff wall and seemed in no hurry to greet the day.
‘They have a belly full of fish,’ Eagan commented. ‘I heard them fishing well into the night.’
The mention of food made Seth feel a little unwell. Food was the last thing he wanted right now. He was almost used to the gentle rocking of the boat as the sea ran up against the cliffs and rolled back again but he would be glad to be back on solid ground.
‘What’s the plan?’ Marcel asked as they all stretched and gathered in the centre of the deck.
‘We grab Caden and sail back as fast as possible,’ Waide replied with a shrug.
‘Grab him? How?’ Marcel looked stunned at the lack of detail.
They all looked at each other with a slightly blank expression.
‘We fly in and snatch him?’ Seth was the first to make a suggestion.
‘And we’ll be seen by thousands of powerful wizards,’ Ryker replied.
‘And your suggestion is?’ Seth asked.
‘We transport him out here with magic.’ Ryker looked pleased with himself.
‘Which, again, will be noticed by the wizards,’ Eagan said. ‘Whatever we do it will have to be without any magic use.’
‘So why was I dragged along?’ Ryker snapped. ‘You insisted that my magic was vital to the success of this rescue.’
‘And it will be if we’re spotted,’ Eagan assured him. ‘But I’d rather we weren’t.’
‘I’ll go and fetch him,’ Marcel suggested. ‘I know my way around, even if it has been fifty years. I know how to blend in.’
‘Perhaps if we put a bit of each of those plans together,’ Eagan suggested. His face was set in a stern, thoughtful expression and he paused for a few seconds. ‘If the dragons would take us to the edge of the city, then Marcel leads the way and we retrieve the boy. Then, at the last minute, we use magic to take us, and the boat, back to the edge of The Gap and slip through before they have time to react.’
A silence followed with a general nodding of heads.
‘I will help,’ StarFire put his head over the side of the boat and it tipped sideways, forcing them all to go to the other side to balance it out. ‘But you have an hour until I go in search of Rem and I will not be sneaking in. As soon as you have the boy I will fetch Rem.’
‘We will bring her out with us if we can,’ Seth assured the dragon. He had no idea if Rem would be happy to see them, or even want to leave, but they had to try even though it would make their rescue even more complicated.
They hadn’t brought any food with them so there was no need to wait for breakfast and they were soon aloft and flying vertically up the cliff face. The boat sank beneath them at an alarming rate then the dragons dove into the nearest trees and landed noisily.
‘The city stretches almost to the edge of the land,’ MoonFlame said. ‘There is nobody in the city.’
‘Nobody?’ Marcel asked, slipping off StarFire’s back along with Waide. The white dragon had once again refused to carry Eagan or Ryker. ‘Where are they all?’
The houses were just visible through the small stand of trees that ran along the edge of the island and sure enough, Seth couldn’t hear any of the normal noises of an early morning in a town, village or city.
‘I sense them all up at the top of the island,’ MoonFlame replied. ‘With the boy.’
‘Well, that’s where we’re going then,’ Waide said, ready to march out into the city.
‘I know a shortcut to get up there,’ Marcel said as he grabbed Waide’s shirt. ‘Only two people knew about it when I was here.’
Seth let Marcel lead the way, and he followed with Waide close beside him and lastly the two apprentices. The old man led them through several back streets and paused a few times to get his bearings.
‘The house have changed a lot here. They were never fancy, like the ones up top, but they weren’t little shacks like these.’
‘When a wizard is low on magic, a real wizard, he can pull magic back from objects it is stored in. Like houses. And when it’s gone from the object the object vanishes. I read it in my spell book, but it’s not something I can do,’ Darius commented. ‘It might be a good sign. Their magic may be weak if they’ve destroyed their buildings to recover the magic.’
Seth could only hope that was the case, but with Caden around they wouldn’t be weak for long.
Marcel finally managed to work out the changed layout of the city and they hurried along with their footsteps echoing in the deserted streets.
‘So what do you think they’re all doing gathered together in one place so early in the morning?’ Neras asked as he floated in and out of several windows to check if the houses were actually empty.
Seth didn’t reply, there was no need. He was sure everyone was thinking the same thing.
‘I’d say they’re about to destroy everyone but them,’ Oran muttered sourly. ‘And we’re the only hope of saving millions of people? I don’t fancy our chances.’
‘Enough of the negative talk. Enough talk completely. We have no idea if these wizards will be able to sense, see or hear us.’ Darius snapped at Oran.
The three wizards looked at each other and within a heartbeat all three had vanished into their staffs and were completely silent.
Marcel stopped next to the steep bank that marked the end of the lower city. Far above them, too far to climb, was the upper city.
‘Now what? Did we take a wrong turn?’ Seth asked as he looked around for a set of steps or a ladder that might be the shortcut.
‘Not at all, we’re in exactly the right place,’ Marcel said. He brushed dirt off a low brick wall that ended about a foot above their heads. He inspected several bricks before selecting one then dug his fingers around one side then pulled it forward sharply.
Seth wasn’t the only one surprised to see a door open in the wall. It wasn’t very tall, but Marcel ducked inside immediately.
‘Hurry up, it only stays open for a few seconds,’ he called from inside.
Eagan and Ryker stooped to get in and Waide and Seth only just made it into the cramped, dark space before the door slammed shut behind them.
‘And we’re in here because…?’ Ryker asked as they stood squashed together breathing in very old musty dirt instead of air.
The door popped open again and Marcel gave Seth a shove. He stepped out, wondering what had gone wrong. Was it some sort of a joke on the old man’s part? As his eyes adjusted to the light again he stared. They weren’t at the bottom of the steep bank any longer, they were at the top, and he had just stepped out of the side of a tree! The others followed quickly and the tree door slammed shut instantly.
‘I wasn’t sure that would still work after all these years,’ Marcel said with a sigh of relief.
‘And why would you have been using it back when you were here?’ Eagan enquired.
‘Ah, my lady love lived up here, and she put it there so that we could see each other without anyone knowing,’ Marcel said with a wink and a grin. ‘It only opens for the two of us.’
Their attention was drawn from any thoughts of trees or lady loves as a chant drifted on the wind from across the island. In the distance Seth could see that this was where the inhabitants of the island were gather
ed. They were all facing several dozen people who stood on a raised walkway and everyone was linking arms, even those on the walkway were stooping down to join together.
One man rose from the middle of the hands and it was he who looked to be leading the chanting. There were only two people who didn’t look to be part of the crowd and they were hurrying towards the forest. They wore brown cloaks but Seth knew instantly that the tallest one was Rem. It was something about the way she held herself as she ran, dragging the other person with her. He wondered who it was as it was too tall to be Caden.
‘There’s Rem!’ Seth said as he urgently pointed in her direction.
‘And she is being followed,’ Waide added.
Seth watched the three men racing after her and saw that she was trapped. ‘We have to go and help her.’
He didn’t wait for agreement from the others as he didn’t care if they were coming or not. He had barely taken two steps when Rem and her companion were surrounded by a blur of blackness.
‘Is it a spell of some sort?’ Marcel asked as he caught up to Seth. Seth hadn’t even realised he had stopped running as he strained to see Rem amongst the darkness.
‘They’re night-shadows,’ Darius said dryly. ‘Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.’
‘I forgot they would be here,’ Oran added and he sounded very unimpressed.
Seth took off at a run again and drew his sword. He knew he stood no chance against so many night-shadows but there was no way he was going to just stand by and watch Rem be attacked. He yelled silently for MoonFlame as he ran and he heard her response in his head.
‘Coming!’
He could only watch the scene ahead of him as another figure hurried from the crowd and vanished into the black mass of cats. Were they rescuing her or harming her? A few seconds later the men around the outside of the cats headed back to the crowd at a sprint, almost as fast as Seth was running. The ground dipped away a little and he lost sight of the cats.
‘For goodness sake, Uncle. Use your magic!’
Seth could hear Neras yelling at Oran and he frowned. Why hadn’t Darius and Oran used magic to stop the attack on Rem? They could have done something surely?
‘Try not to draw life if you can,’ he heard Neras say gently from where the boy floated along beside him. Seth frowned. What was the wizard on about? He ignored Neras and kept running.
‘Rem!’ he yelled as he came over a slight rise and saw a mass of coloured lights starting to spread in the sky. They streaked up from the buildings, from the people, from everything and swirled in twisting and pulsing patterns.
Seth braced himself to fend off the onslaught of the night-shadows but as the cats turned and saw him coming they withdrew and formed a path through their midst. If they weren’t attacking Rem and didn’t want to attack him, then what were the cats doing here, all crowded together?
Up ahead he could see Rem, Kranos and a third person laying on the ground, with Rem supporting their head.
Rem looked up as he yelled her name a second time. Seth could see that Rem’s eyes were wide with panic and they hadn’t settled any for recognising him. She obviously didn’t see him as being able to save her.
Seth stopped short of the three of them and lowered his sword. It didn’t appear that there was anyone to fight.
He felt someone push past him and Waide strode straight up to Rem.
‘Where’s my brother? Why did you take him?’ Waide demanded and bypassed any niceties of a reunion.
‘I…’ Rem looked even more distressed.
Seth felt sorry for Rem and went to pull Waide back a little but the youth shook him off.
‘I didn’t mean to take him,’ Rem said and she took a deep breath. ‘I thought I was taking the copy. I was trying to fool them into leaving.’
‘But you went with them,’ Seth pointed out.
‘We don’t have time for all this!’ Rem was angry now and back to the Rem that Seth knew so well. It was comforting to see her back to herself even if she was glaring at him. ‘They’re undoing the banishment spell and if I don’t get Caden away from here they’ll draw even more magic through him. I don’t know if he can survive it.’
‘Caden?’ Waide asked. He threw back the Caden’s hood and stared at the boy who, although he looked like Caden in some ways, was almost a teenager.
‘I have to go and try to stop the spell,’ Kranos said. ‘I don’t think I can, but I have to try.’
Rem just nodded.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know what it would do to the boy,’ Kranos said with a deep sigh.
‘You did this?’ Waide asked and his voice rose along with his anger again.
‘Not now, Waide,’ Seth said and put his hand on the boy’s arm. Kranos hurried off towards the crowd.
By this time the two apprentices had also caught up and Marcel was just a few paces behind them.
‘Why didn’t you help with your magic?’ Seth asked as Eagan leaned on his staff to suck in some deep breaths. He tried to keep any accusing tone out of his voice but it was hard. If he’d had access to magic he would have been over here in a second, not the five minutes it had taken to run there.
‘We can’t,’ Darius replied for Eagan. ‘The spell the wizards of Deek have cast is trying to draw on our magic. If we let it start to flow through our apprentices it would all be sucked away in seconds.’
‘Do you see those lights?’ Oran added, and pointed to the swirling beautiful colours in the sky ‘That’s magic being used up by the spell. It’s drawing it from wherever it can.’
Seth looked at Oran and saw a small shimmer of colour rising up above Ryker and heading to the sky.
‘Even just being bonded to our apprentice is allowing some magic to leak out. It will get harder and harder to stop it.’
‘We need to get away from here fast.’
‘We need to go,’ Seth said out loud as not everyone would have heard the wizards. He glanced around the colourful sky and wondered where MoonFlame and StarFire were. As his gaze came back to the ground again he saw patches of brown grass dotted away to the trees where they had arrived in the upper city.
He looked down at his feet and saw the grass beneath was so brown it was almost black. He pulled in his anger and worry as much as he could and took several long slow breaths. Now was not the time to be harming anyone with his gift.
‘Felise arranged a boat…’ Rem tried to stand up but she was unable to pull Caden up. Waide was attempting to take the boy but Rem refused to let him go.
‘Felise?’ Marcel asked in a shocked tone.
‘My grandmother.’ Rem looked even more angry. ‘At least she cares about getting Caden off this island!’
Marcel looked over at the crowd that was rushing about in all directions. Here and there people were falling over unconscious.
‘I have to go and find her,’ Marcel said, already striding off towards the wizards without any further explanation.
‘It is too late to run,’ a voice said from above and Seth looked up to see MoonFlame and StarFire circling to land.
The night-shadows had backed off a little as Seth and his companions arrived but they reacted very differently to the dragons. They jumped and snapped, then snarled and howled as they tried to get at the dragons. MoonFlame and StarFire stayed just out of reach.
Rem reached out to put her hand on the neck of one of the cats. Before Seth could even attempt to stop her she had brought the snarling cat’s head around to face her.
‘They are my friends. They will not harm you. Tell your kin to let them land and they will take Caden to safety.’
Seth was speechless as within seconds the cats backed down and although they growled they allowed the dragons to land next to Rem.
‘We can’t leave the island,’ MoonFlame said as she landed and tucked her wings back, well away from any stray claws that might reach for them. ‘The air around it is cut off from the rest of the water now. We had trouble getting through it and there is no chance of
getting out to sea again until the spell is either broken or complete.’
‘How far can you take us?’ Seth asked.
‘To the edge of the land, no further,’ StarFire replied. He had ignored the night-shadows as soon as he landed and he was staring at Rem with a fierce expression. ‘You left me.’
Rem stared back at him and then hung her head. ‘I found a family I didn’t know I had. I had only a moment to make a decision and I didn’t want to lose them.’
‘I am your family too. You should not have left!’ StarFire bellowed at Rem and turned his huge head so that it was inches from her face.
‘Yell at me later, StarFire. Just get us out of here. Now!’
The white dragon turned his head and snorted a single blast of flame that scorched the ground in front of him.
MoonFlame nudged at Seth. ‘We need to take the boy as far from this spell as we can.’
Everyone scrambled onto the dragon’s backs and it was just a few wingbeats later that they were descending to the sandy beach next to where boats had been moored a short time ago. There was no sign of the boats and the water heaved and sloshed as if someone were shaking the island from side to side.
‘We will go and see if there is a way off the island,’ MoonFlame said as both dragons took off again. They flew off in different directions before anyone could argue.
‘Now what do we do?’ Ryker asked.
Seth noticed that the stream of coloured light above Ryker was getting darker, and Oran was scowling deeply.
‘At this rate I’ll have no magic in a matter of minutes.’
‘And we still need to heal Caden,’ Waide reminded them. He was cradling his little brother, who was almost as big as him, at the edge of the sand.
‘Well I don’t have enough,’ Oran said sourly.
‘Nor I,’ Darius added with a sigh.
‘I wish I could help,’ Neras said.
‘I wish you could help too!’ Seth said. He could feel his fear rising again and he struggled to push it away before it started destroying things around him.
‘Seth! Stop!’
