Note: Here we are folks! It just keeps coming! I really like writing this, so it's being updated like lightening

Big thanks to my regular reviewers: NCD, Rainbow Aquila, Sammy1257 and The Half Cast Mourne Posh Girl. You're keeping me on my toes guys!


Inferno

Four

The entire fourth year of Cackle's Academy, accompanied by the full quota of staff, stood in the courtyard as they watched the final second year student fly safely away from the towers into the night. They had managed to get everyone out with ten minutes to spare, and now they were all standing in silence, watching and waiting for Agatha's 'insurance' to take effect.

Mildred didn't really know what they were looking for. She guessed that it would be a spell of some sort, but she wasn't sure, and there was something else clawing at the back of her mind, something else in Agatha's words that had particularly struck her as she had listened, horror-struck, to her ultimatum. Something was wrong; something was missing, the logical progression of events was disrupted somewhere along the line. Agatha had made an agreement, she had gained truly satanic powers, and she had given Amelia two days to make her decision. Something about her course of action simply didn't add up, and Mildred couldn't work out what it was. She stayed staring at the tower with her classmates, but her eyes were unseeing. She only realised that the scene had changed when Maud's scared gasps by her side finally alerted her attention.

It was dark, pitch black, as if all the stars had gone out at once. The only light came from the meagre candles at the windows of the school, most burning dangerously low.

"This must be it," said Maud. "This must be her insurance. But what is it?"

"The Alchemist's Shield," said Miss Hardbroom. "An intensely powerful spell that conjures a protective field. It blocks magic, it blocks people, and I think it is now safe to say that it blocks light as well. In short, it creates a perfect, unbreakable cocoon for those within its protection."

"What about air?" asked Ruby, trembling. "Are we going to run out of air?"

A muted scream of terror ran around the gathered staff and pupils alike, the most passionate cry coming from Miss Bat.

"We're all going to die!" she shrieked. "We're going to run out of air! She's going to starve us out! She's going to..."

"Davina. Davina!"

There was silence once more under Miss Hardbroom's stern tones. She muttered an incantation and suddenly everyone found themselves wielding a candle. The flickering orange light cast strange shadows over the terrified faces, serving only to add to the unease.

"The Alchemist's Shield is meant first and foremost for keeping oneself and others alive in the heat of a pitched magical battle," the deputy headmistress continued, seemingly unperturbed by the eerie light or the interruption. "It would not be very effective in that aim if the witch it was protecting was slowly suffocating under it, would it? We have plenty of air, Ruby, Miss Bat, we are not going to die in such an ignominious fashion."

"I don't understand," said Jadu. "Why would Agatha want to protect us?"

"She isn't trying to protect us," said Mildred, and suddenly the puzzle in her mind began to piece itself together. "The Shield is impenetrable. This is her insurance – she wants to make certain that we don't try to get out. In effect, she's locked us in."

"I think Mildred has hit the nail on the head, so to speak," said Miss Cackle with a sigh. "We cannot get out, and nothing else can come in."She paused, still deep in contemplation, before seeming to come to herself and taking charge, the calm leader of the school. "Now, I see no point in standing out here in the dark. I highly doubt that anyone is going to be able to get back to sleep so I advise everyone to return inside where perhaps we can attempt to think rationally over cocoa and biscuits. Ladies, Mr Blossom," she added, turning to her staff, "perhaps you would like to get dressed now."

Dire as their situation obviously was, Mildred could not help but give a small giggle. Maud looked at her as if she had grown a second head, but she ignored it, having been completely oblivious to the fact that the teachers were still in their night attire whilst the school was creeping along towards its inevitable fate...

It hit then, the realisation of what was wrong with the situation; the one missing piece that didn't make sense suddenly revealed itself.

"Miss Cackle!" she called after her headmistress, barely daring to hope that she may just have found a way out, a way around the situation. Miss Cackle obediently stopped and turned back towards her head-girl, listening attentively. "It doesn't make sense, Agatha doing what she is. If she wants the school so much, and since she obviously has the power to take it by force, then why doesn't she? Why has she given you two days to make a decision which, in any case, she doesn't need? If she wants the school she can take it, and if she wants to drag us to Hell..." Mildred paused, the calm with which she had previously spoken slipping away rapidly as she caught up to Miss Cackle and walked alongside her. "Well, we know she can do that too."

"You're quite right, Mildred, it is a little odd why she should delay the unavoidable, especially since she is the one with the power, as you have rightly assumed."

"Well, I've had an idea."

By this time they were inside the school, and moving unconsciously towards the headmistress's office. It was not much lighter within the building than on the outside, and Mildred had to force herself to continue in coherent sentences, jumping at the shadows that should have been, after three and a half years at the school, familar.

"What if this is more than an ultimatum? What if it's a challenge?"

Miss Cackle paused.

"How do you mean, Mildred?"

"What if the inevitable outcome isn't quite so inevitable? What if there's a way around this? What if there's a third option, and Agatha is challenging us to find it? She's given us two days to try and get out of here, we just need to work out how."

"It's a good idea Mildred, I just don't see how it could work in theory – if Agatha knows that there is a third path, then why would she run the risk of us finding it?"

Mildred's shoulders sank. This had not featured in her plans. Miss Cackle placed a comforting hand on her arm.

"We'll see, Mildred, we'll see."

"Maybe she doesn't think we can find a way, maybe it's so obscure, she's so certain we won't find it, that she's given us the chance but she doesn't think we'll succeed."

Miss Cackle's sympathetic smile became an expression of wonder.

"I think you may just have a point there, Mildred. That sounds much more like Agatha – so arrogantly assured of her own victory... Quickly, get everyone into the library, there's no time to lose! We need to scour every book we can find, every possible scrap of information."

Mildred smiled, her first genuine smile since waking from the terrible nightmare that had been the catalyst to their awful circumstances, and ran off to gather the rest of her class from the kitchens and herd them into the library.

She was halfway down the stairs towards the dungeons when she heard an ear-splitting screech from the main entrance way. It sounded remarkably like Miss Bat. Mildred paused for a moment, and then began to run in the opposite direction, towards the source of the sound. She found the diminutive chanting teacher curled in a ball in the main entrance hall, sobbing hysterically.

"Miss Bat, whatever is the matter?" she said, helping her to her feet again.

"We're all going to die!" she wailed. "We're under attack!"

"It's ok Miss Bat, it's alright, we're going to find a way out, don't worry," Mildred turned to see her friends and classmates running up the steps from the kitchen, startled by the noise.

"No," shrieked Miss Bat. "The lights! There!"

Mildred looked, and ice flooded through her veins as she saw two pulsing balls of light, one white, one green, hovering by the doors, emitting showers of sparks and clashing sounds as they attempted to come towards the girls.

"What's happening?" asked Miss Hardbroom, arriving on the scene at the top of the main staircase, looking as formidable as she always did.

"It appears that something is trying to break through the Shield," said Miss Cackle, also alerted by Miss Bat's cry.

"It's Agatha!" screamed Miss Bat.

"Why would Agatha want to break through her own spell?" asked Ethel, taking a deep breath as she tried to rationalise the situation in her own head. "Surely if she wanted to get in she would just lift it?"

"That is quite true, Ethel," said Miss Hardbroom. "But if it is not Agatha, what in the world is it?" She raised her hands to cast a spell towards their aggressors, but Miss Cackle stopped her.

"Remember the last time, Constance," she warned darkly

"Wait," said Mildred. She had been watching the glowing orbs, observing the ways they moved. "What do those lights remind you of?"

She looked around for the support of the others, but they simply shook their heads, edging away from the latest frightening occurrence in the altogether terrifying night.

"The wizards' staffs!"

"Of course!" said Miss Cackle. "They've come to help, but now they can't get in!"

"Why have the wizards come to help?" asked Miss Hardbroom, her eyes narrowing.

"I sent the SOS signal out as soon as Agatha first appeared," said Miss Cackle. "In all the drama that followed it completely slipped my mind. I sent an emergency spell, which finds the nearest witch or wizard and alerts them. It must have found the wizards and brought them here."

Miss Cackle stepped forward.

"Chief Wizard? Mr Rowan-Webb?"

"They won't be able to hear you, Miss," said Ethel. "The Shield, won't it..."

"Miss Cackle?"

Faint and slightly muffled, the voice of Chief Wizard Hellibore seemed to come through the main doors.

"Chief Wizard! We are under an Alchemist's Shield, you can't come in."

"Well lift it then!" said the exasperated voice of Algernon Rowan-Webb.

"We can't lift it. We weren't the ones to cast it," sighed Miss Cackle.

"Unless..."

Miss Cackle turned to Miss Hardbroom, who hurried down the stairs.

"A person under a Shield may lift it for a few moments to allow others to come under its protection, even if they did not cast it. It is just... No, that is not important. Stand back."

Miss Hardbroom raised her casting fingers and began to murmur a spell.

There was a blinding flash and suddenly the doors flew open. The wizards appeared stunned by the light for a few moments before coming to their senses and hurrying into the main hall. Immediately Miss Hardbroom stopped her muttering, staggering backwards and leaning against the staircase.

"Constance?" asked Miss Bat nervously.

"When the Shield is lifted, the person who is lifting it must take the weight instead," she panted. "A Shield of this size, covering the entire castle... well, it is rather heavy."

"Miss Cackle," said the Chief Wizard, dusting himself down. "What brings you into this terrible situation, if I may ask what we are up against?"

Miss Cackle sighed, and Mildred could see the desperation in her face.

"Perhaps we would be better disposed to have this conversation in my office," she said. "I think you are going to appreciate sitting down for this tale..."


Note2: Is Millie's theory right? Will they be able to break through Agatha's Shield once and for all? Will the wizards be able to help? All will be revealed soon enough....

*Kimmeth points to the little green button saying 'review' and does puppydog eyes...*