Forest of Illusions (The Broken Prism)

by V. St. Clair

  The others nodded grimly in agreement.

  “Make sure you pack enough weapons for the rest of us,” Oliver grumbled, while Tess used a scripture to conjure a cloth backpack for Hayden.

  “I will,” he assured them, turning to look at everyone one last time. It seemed crazy and impossible, what they were about to attempt, but things were moving too quickly to give appropriate thought to it. If they didn’t act now they might lose their chance.

  Zane and Tess melted through the doorway and got a head start on them. Oliver waited in silence with Hayden for a minute or two before disappearing to the other side of the door. Hayden heard the loud noise of locks being smashed and ripped with magic, and then the door creaked open.

  “Hurry,” Oliver snapped. “That was loud enough to wake half the castle.”

  Hayden didn’t waste breath answering and instead followed him out of the room, keeping an eye out as they dashed towards the Pentagon before splitting up. He could already hear the sound of the Fias approaching from several different directions. Oliver went through the east door and Hayden raced towards the back entrance, ducking into an empty classroom just in time to watch a Fia race past.

  When he judged it safe again, he padded down the hallway and out the rear door of the castle, crossing over the smooth black stone where Conjury was taught just as he saw lights flickering on inside of the castle and heard an upswing in the noise from inside.

  They know I’m gone.

  He forced the doors to the Abnormal Magic cellar open and ran down the stairs as fast as he could in the dark, panting as he threw open the door to Laurren’s office and lit a lamp. He stuck the key into the concealed lock and felt the floor shift to reveal the contents of the magical cache, breathing a sigh of relief to find it still intact. He opened his bag and began shoving things into it as fast as possible: prisms of every color, powders and elixirs he barely knew the purpose of, writing vellum for scriptures, charms, and conjury chalk. He even threw some infused bandages in, forcing the bag closed when it was at capacity and pulling it onto his back. He shoved the key back into his pocket and sealed the floor, looking around the room for anything else he might need before extinguishing the lamp. The small Absorber caught his eye just as he was preparing to depart, still swirling with color like an oil slick.

  My magic is in that. If the Fias took this to the mages in Kargath, it would be able to tell them things about my magic…

  On a whim he grabbed the Absorber with one hand and hurried out of the room, taking the stairs up in twos and threes until he emerged onto the back lawns. He took about four steps to the right, intending to wrap around the east side of the castle until he got to the front lawns, when someone grabbed his wrist in a vice-like grip.

  Hayden whirled around and looked into Fia Valay’s eyes.

  “You’re not going anywhere, Frost,” the Fia assured him. “Now come back inside if you know what’s good for you.”

  “Let go of me!” Hayden tried to shove him away, but the Fia held on tightly and called out to his colleagues. One of them looked out of a second story window and shouted to the others, and Hayden knew he only had a minute before they outnumbered him.

  He twisted and struggled, but Valay continued to hold on, dragging him into the castle so that they were standing in the Prisms area, where Asher kept his office and classroom.

  “Let…go!” Hayden swung the Absorber at Valay’s head, and the Fia released him and ducked automatically, which was really lucky given what happened next.

  The Absorber missed Valay and slammed into the wall, where it exploded on impact. Magic erupted from the shattered glass in all directions, deafening and blinding them for a horrible moment, destroying an entire section of wall and blasting Hayden off of his feet.

  Before Valay had time to recover from the blast, Hayden scrambled back to his feet, made sure his limbs were still attached, and took off running around the exterior of the castle with his ears still ringing, sprinting towards the front lawns and relying on the cover of darkness to shelter him as he passed the main courtyard.

  He heard noises and looked back just in time to see Master Sark staring straight at him. Panicking, Hayden ducked behind a large plastic tube that was set out for the familiars to play in, as two more Fias hurried around the corner and confronted the Master of Powders.

  “Kirius, did you see him? Anders said he ran this way.”

  Hayden closed his eyes and waited to be ratted out, because Sark hated him more than anyone and would probably love to see him expelled and arrested. To his never-ending surprise, Master Sark took a calculated breath and said, “He hasn’t come this way. He’s probably hiding near the stables until the area is clear.”

  The three of them walked off without a backward glance, and Hayden continued as quietly as possible to the other side of the obstacle courses, where the others were waiting for him, still dwelling on the fact that Sark had definitely seen him and was letting him get away deliberately. Did he know that Oliver and the others were going with him, or did he just want Hayden gone? It was impossible to guess right now.

  “Took you long enough,” Oliver greeted him sourly when he arrived at their meeting spot.

  “It sounded like something exploded,” Tess looked him over as though checking for signs of injury. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I accidentally blew up Asher’s office with an Absorber while trying to get away from Valay,” he explained, motioning the others to follow him down the hill as the grass sloped away from the castle. “Didn’t anyone bring their familiars?” he asked as they crossed the boundaries of the school, the weather instantly becoming hotter and more humid.

  “There wasn’t a lot of time to get them,” Zane grumbled.

  “I looked for Mittens but couldn’t find him,” Tess said softly, sounding worried.

  “Slasher was gone as well,” Oliver frowned. “It would be useful to have one of them to guide us through the Forest, but I suppose they know how dangerous a place it is for them right now and aren’t eager to go.”

  “That’s a bummer, but I suppose there’s no going back to search for them.” Hayden sighed. “Come on, let’s keep going—put some distance between them and us while it’s still dark out.”

  They stopped running only when they reached a shaded alcove of trees surrounding a small pond a couple hours later. Sweaty and exhausted, Hayden sat down behind a large rock and leaned his back against it, splashing some water onto his face.

  “Uh, did anyone think to bring food or water for us while we’re traveling?” Zane asked tentatively, embarrassed by this gross oversight.

  They all shook their heads mutely, and Oliver rolled his eyes.

  “Great, we’ll be dead before we even leave Junir.”

  “Hey, genius, I don’t see you carrying any supplies we can use,” Zane snarled.

  “I’ve got chalk and scriptures,” Hayden said wearily, eager to put a stop to the bickering tonight. “If one of you can conjure some bottles then we can fill them in the pond.”

  “And hope we don’t all die of dysentery from untested water,” Oliver grumbled quietly.

  Hayden opened his bag and began doling out weapons, and even Oliver was less surly with his belt full of mastery-level powders, prisms, and wands. He used one of the wands to tap Hayden’s Binders, and they crumbled and fell away. Hayden felt the familiar rush of magic return to him, and breathed a sigh of relief as Zane used his chalk to conjure some canteens and fill them.

  “I feel guilty using such high-level chalk…like Master Reede is going to pop up from behind a bush and expel me for using materials I’m not cleared for,” he admitted, and Hayden chuckled at the thought.

  “Yeah, well, desperate times call for desperate measures,” he said. “Besides,” he added more grimly, “they have to be alive to expel us, so we’re probably safe.”

  Oliver frowned and said, “You think they’re all dead?”

  “I don’t see how they can be alive, if Cind
er has been overpowered in his magical stronghold and he’s a bazillion times stronger than them.” Hayden shrugged.

  “Then why are we going to check it out again?” Zane asked.

  “Because I have to know for sure. If there are any of them still alive, even if it’s just Cinder, I have to do my best to get them out of there before it’s too late. Cinder and Bonk might be the only family I really have left, and I can’t leave them to suffer.”

  It sounded lame as he said it, but the others simply nodded, and Oliver said, “Get some sleep. We’ll need to be up early to make sure we stay ahead of the search parties.”

  Hayden didn’t need to be told twice, slumping against the uncomfortable rock and drifting into an uneasy sleep.

  12

  Amvale

  The first thing Hayden noticed upon waking was that Bonk was perched on his shoulder, nibbling idly at some vegetation that was overhead.

  “Bonk?” He rubbed sleep from his eyes and winced as he massaged his sore back and neck. “How did you get here?”

  Now that he looked more closely, all of their familiars had arrived sometime during the early morning hours. Felix was curled up around Zane’s head like a furry hat, Mittens was pacing back and forth as though keeping a lookout, and Slasher was standing imperiously on top of Hayden’s rock, watching over Oliver while he slept.

  The others woke at the sound of his voice, mumbling complaints about their discomfort as they sat up and drank some water from their canteens. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, but Hayden knew it was time for them to get going.

  “Mittens!” Tess exclaimed brightly, and the cat leapt into her arms and allowed itself to be hugged. “They must have gotten together and followed us when we left.”

  “How did they find us all the way out here?” Zane eyed Felix appreciatively.

  “Familiars can track their masters almost anywhere,” Tess explained. “I just wasn’t sure if they were going to or not since we’re headed somewhere so dangerous, but I guess they are supposed to act in our best interest, and abandoning us is hardly helpful.”

  “Well it’s good to have you here with me.” Hayden patted Bonk on the head. “Especially since it’s Cinder I’m hoping to save, and I’ll need your help for sure.”

  Bonk nodded gravely, though he looked much more lively and like his typical self. Hayden guessed that he was glad to be doing something productive and it was giving him more energy.

  Even Oliver looked relieved to have Slasher back with him, stroking his sleek, scaly back with one hand and scowling as his stomach growled with hunger. Hayden guessed that Oliver hadn’t had to skip too many meals at the Trout estate.

  “We’d better head out, in case the Fias have already sent search parties after us,” Zane forced himself to his feet and drained his canteen, heading to the pond to refill it before they left. There was too much truth in his words to ignore, so the others followed suit without even discussing the possibility of breakfast.

  “Does anyone actually know how to get to the Forest of Illusions?” Tess asked after they’d been walking for an hour, shading her eyes from the rising sun.

  Oliver shrugged nonchalantly and said, “We need to head southwest until we get around the horn in Amvale, then we turn north again. If we have to do the entire journey on foot it’ll take weeks, so we’ve got a while before we need to worry about detailed directions.”

  With that grim prospect facing them they continued on through the heat of the day, avoiding major roads whenever possible and sticking near clusters of trees for shelter from the sunlight.

  “I’m starving and I’m pretty sure my entire head is sunburnt,” Zane grumbled during one of their few breaks, leaning against a tree and sipping at his water sparingly. They hadn’t passed another river or clean-looking body of water since they left school, and were trying to conserve their supply as well as possible despite the energy-sapping heat and humidity of high-summer.

  They’d sent the dragons out hunting for food hours ago, but as they had been crossing mostly through fields all day, there was little game to be had. Bonk occasionally found a vole or a groundhog, but became overexcited and gobbled his prey up without remembering to bring it back to them, with the result that Bonk was stuffed by the time they set up camp and the rest of them were ravenous.

  “Most worthless dragon ever,” Oliver grumbled mutinously as Bonk burped and coughed up a small bone. “From now on, Boink is banned from hunting for us, or we’ll starve to death while he gets fat.”

  “His name is Bonk,” Hayden scowled at his nemesis, who hadn’t become any friendlier once they’d spent an entire day walking in the blistering summer heat with no food and little water.

  Oliver shrugged off the correction and sat down on the ground, hunched over in fatigue. He looked like he’d aged twenty years, with new lines of fatigue creasing his face. They hadn’t been able to find any good clusters of trees for cover, so they had to settle for a low-spot in the valley they walked through, a natural dip in the terrain that made them hard to see unless someone else descended into the valley as well.

  “Can’t you just translocate yourself to a decent town and get us some supplies?” Zane eyed Oliver warily, watching the sky for signs of Slasher, who had not yet returned from his hunt.

  Oliver clenched his jaw and looked a little embarrassed when he admitted, “I can’t do a full, proper translocation yet. It only worked inside Mizzenwald because I was using pre-set wards to manage it; the Masters leave them drawn around the castle to help train mastery-level students before we’re allowed to learn to do it on our own.”

  “Great.” Zane rolled his eyes. “I’m nearly out of water and I’m getting parched.”

  “The sun is going down, so that should help a little,” Tess spoke up, sharing her water with Mittens and glancing up at the sky.

  “You know, we don’t make very good runaways,” Zane smirked humorlessly. “We didn’t think to pack anything useful—weapons notwithstanding.” He nodded to Hayden. “Oh sure, I remembered to bring plenty of underwear, but no food or water, nor a decent map.”

  “It’s not like we had a time to run down to the kitchens, explain why we needed food and water to go, and then pack it and leave,” Tess said in a placating voice, trying to soothe them all. “Besides, things will get better once we clear these fields. We’ll either find a town, or maybe some woods where I can bow-hunt.”

  Hayden nodded wearily. “That’s right, we just have to hold out for a little while longer,” he said, trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. This was, after all, his stupid idea in the first place.

  The atmosphere brightened slightly when Slasher returned to them with a dead rabbit clutched in his talons. Hayden was careful to keep Bonk away from it as the other dragon deposited it at his master’s feet and eyed them all imperiously, as though to say, What have you chumps caught today?

  “Great, now we just need to skin it and cook it.” Zane looked around at the others, clearly angling for volunteers.

  Hayden grimaced and said, “My mom always did the cooking at home, so I don’t really know how to dress a rabbit properly…”

  They turned in unison to Oliver, who gave them a haughty look and said, “Do you honestly think my family had me doing servant’s work?”

  Of course, Hayden mentally kicked himself, we’re going to starve to death because we’re all too stupid to properly prepare our own food…

  “I’ll do it, if someone has a knife,” Tess sighed, looking around at them all. Oliver handed her a fancy-looking dagger from his belt that must have been an heirloom of some sort, because it didn’t look like it had ever been used before for its intended purpose.

  “You know what you’re doing?” Zane asked tentatively, which earned him a scowl from Tess.

  “Of course I do—it’s just me and my dad at home. If you don’t pull your weight around my house, you don’t eat.” She stuck the knife into the rabbit and executed a series of quick strokes that someh
ow opened it up from one end to the other. “One of you start a fire,” she commanded, and Hayden hastened to obey, using a clear diamond prism so that he could control the intensity and contain the flames.

  Tess bent the creature’s legs back and they heard a series of sickening snaps as she pulled the meaty parts away from the skin, juices running down her hands. If it grossed her out, she didn’t show it, simply moving with mechanical precision until she’d removed all of the meat, which they dangled over the fire to cook on sticks. She gave most of the organs to their familiars, who ate them raw and then sniffed about for more.

  “Sorry, we only have the one rabbit,” she informed Mittens, pouring a bit of water from her canteen over her hands to wash the blood off of them before wiping them on her pants. They left a red-brown streak on the cloth.

  It took a while to cook, their stomachs growling all the while, but when they finally tore into it Hayden could swear it was the best thing he’d ever tasted, though probably only because he was so hungry. There wasn’t a lot of meat to split between four people, so they ultimately went to bed hungry, but no one complained about it since there was nothing to be done until morning.

  They didn’t have much luck on their second day of walking, and all of them ran out of water by the end of the day, wondering if the infernal fields around Mizzenwald would ever end. They tracked their direction by the sun’s progress through the sky, so Hayden was confident that they were at least headed south, but without food or water they all became surly and no one spoke much.

  On the third day they found a large copse of trees and shrubbery that looked promising, and hurried into it in search of water. Zane found some berries that he claimed were edible, and after eating a handful of them and not dying, the others were brave enough to try them as well. Zane conjured a bow and arrows for Tess after she spotted a deer, and she set off in pursuit of it after insisting that she would be fine and that the others would only scare away her prey if they came with her because they were such loud walkers.