Chapter 9: Shutdown
Destiny
"Well that was tons of fun."
I let the realtor's door shut behind me and walked over to the fountain, my hair dripping down my back. I reached back and pulled my soaked blonde hair loose from my braid, leaning over the fountain to begin wringing it out. Bianca just laughed and came to stand beside me, leaning forward so her hair fell completely over her face and beginning to wring it out as well.
"For the record," I snapped playfully, "I am not a big fan of getting wet while clothed."
It was Thursday afternoon, during free period. Bianca'd caught me during Life this morning and invited me to come house-hunting (which she called 'island-hunting') with her during free period. She'd told me that she was getting a little bored with her island and wanted to look for a new one, and thought that a friend's opinion would help her decide if she couldn't.
So we'd gone shopping after eating a fast lunch, and the first house Bianca decided to look at was one called 'Sunken Palace'. Which was, true to its name, underneath a humongous lake all contained on a floating mountainous rock.
"Well, Destiny dear," Bianca began, tossing her hair back over her head and finger-combing it. "You're the one who popped your own air bubble and then decided to pop mine when I started laughing."
"And you, Bianca darling," I shot back, switching from one wrung-out lock of hair to another handful, "are the one who actually likes the sound of an underwater house." I tossed my head back and finger-combed my hair, leaving it down now that it laid flat and out of my way. "Who in their right mind wants an underwater house?"
"Me," Bianca answered, reaching into her bag and pulling out a small wooden comb. She started dragging it through my hair while talking. "And I am in my right mind, just so you know."
"B," I began as she braided my hair like I'd had it before. I'd known this girl for less than a week now, and here we were taking shots at each other and messing with each other's hair like we'd known each other since the day we were born. "The house is waterlogged. There are veritable rivers flowing through it and the lower rooms are flooded. You seriously, seriously want a house like that?"
"There are still tons of houses to check out. And since you have never gone island-hunting, we're going to explore them all just for fun. And then we'll decide which one I like."
"Fiiiine," I sighed, standing up and turning to her, holding out my hand for the comb. She set it in my hand and I brushed out her hair as well, though there wasn't much to brush out since she'd already finger-combed it. "Thank you, again, for drying us off with that Fire spell. Unfortunate that it doesn't work on hair though…"
I tossed the comb back into her bag and looked around for the nearest sundial or clock, seeing that it was only one fifteen.
"We've still got fifteen minutes before our next class," I said, turning back to the gray-eyed girl. "What do you want to do now?"
"Mmmm, I dunno," Bianca tapped her chin and looked off into the distance, deep in thought. "Don't you have to tutor Sarah for Life class?"
"Nah," I replied. "She was impressed that I almost beat her, even though I told her ten billion times that you helped me, and said that I didn't have to if I didn't want to. I'm still helping her out though, at night after dinnertime."
I couldn't offer my roommate much since it'd only been a couple of weeks, but after she pulled out a science textbook and told me that Professor Wu also taught science and chemistry, and that she wasn't too great at that either, I'd been more than glad to help her out. Science was my second favorite subject back home, anyway.
"Okay. Hmmm, I don't know what to spend the next fifteen minutes on then…"
"Shopping?" I offered. "Library? Are there any movies or plays or concerts or something going on that we can catch fifteen minutes of?"
"Movies?" Bianca asked, raising her head. "What are movies?"
So that was different in the Spiral too. Probably no television or radio either. Yet.
"Eh, something I had back home. Nothing too important."
"Alright. The Fire Elves on Firecat Alley put on plays though. But it'd take us fifteen minutes to get to the theater, so there'd be no point in going down there."
"Okay…window-shopping sound good?"
"Yep!"
We walked and chatted, spending lots of time examining the various wares the shops had. We'd just decided that now was the time to get back to Ravenwood before our next class before a sudden scream silenced all the steady chatter of the crowds in the Shopping District.
Bianca and I glanced at each other, eyes wide, before we turned around, looking for the source of the scream. The crowd had turned as well, and when the scream came again, I realized it was coming from the Commons.
"Come on," I said, drawing my wand at the sound and beginning to elbow my way through the crowds, towards the tunnel. I had to see what was going on, and try to help if I could. Bianca was at my heels, drawing her wooden wand embedded with jades and slipping her spell deck into her other hand.
The crowds parted as they saw our wands (apparently not everyone was capable of wizardry, so the wizards were comparable to SWAT teams or something) and Bianca and I raced down the tunnel, towards the Commons. When we emerged on the other side and took a few steps forward so we were past the buildings, we were nearly bowled over by two screaming girls. I held my hands out to stop one and braced myself, accidentally pushing her to the ground, and helped her up while Bianca caught the other girl in a bear hug.
"What's going on?" I snapped at the girl. Her eyes were wild, her dark blue hat barely held in place by the hairpins she used to keep it on her head. She looked young, maybe twelve or thirteen, and was clutching a wand with a crystal at the end in her hand.
"What's going on?" I repeated. The girl pointed behind her, swiveling her head, and screeched as a black, purple, and pink mass flew straight into the four of us. The two girls screamed again as they fell, and Bianca and I quickly shot to our feet and stood in front of them.
There were five dark fairies hovering before us, all holding small needle-like swords in their tiny hands.
"What?" Bianca said with a note of confusion in her voice. "The dark fairies shouldn't be here, they never come out into Commons…they shouldn't be able to get past the shield between Unicorn Way and the Arena square."
The fairies started chattering in some language, and before I could open my mouth to ask Bianca how strong that shield was, the fairies touched their swords together. A purple and black mass floated from each of their swords to form one large mass, and when the fairies whipped their swords away, the blast flew forward. Straight at me and Bianca.
"Run!" I yelled at the two girls before the blast bowled us backwards. We flew across the Commons Lake and at the buildings on the other side, and I instinctively tensed up.
I was stopped by a stone wall, my head smacking against it, and I fell forward on my hands and knees, holding one hand to the back of my head. Bianca had flown a little farther, straight into the waterfall that hid the door to Nightshade, and when she emerged she was soaking wet again, just like before. And she didn't look too happy about that. I pushed myself to my feet, still holding my head, and waited for Bianca, the Master Theurgist in this situation, to take the lead.
Bianca opened her mouth and hissed something that sounded a lot like the mysterious incantation language, and she raised her wand, drawing the yellow eye rune for Myth. She slashed through it, and immediately a Cyclops appeared, standing in the middle of the lake. It lifted its head, looking around, and when it saw the dark fairies it ran through the water, lifting its hammer high. When it began to swing the hammer downwards, the fairies chattered again and scattered, except for one that was promptly smashed by the giant's stone weapon. One down, four to go.
I still hadn't gotten the technicalities for how an informal battle worked yet (assuming that the battle with the draconians and duels were 'formal' battles), but I followed Bianca's lead. I drew the cloud and lightning rune for Storm, said the incantation for the Thunder Snake, and imagined it appearing underneath the fairy hovering a little ways down the street. I slashed the rune and the snake appeared just where I'd envisioned it, coiled itself, and shot a lightning strike from its mouth up at the fairy. The poor thing shrieked before the lightning connected. For a moment she looked like a cartoon character getting zapped, tiny arms and legs stretched out wide with an electric arc zipping through and around her, before she disintegrated. The snake laid its head on top of its coils, closed its eyes, and appeared to go to sleep.
"Bianca, what do we do now?" I yelled over as the Theurgist moved to a better attack position on top of the stone bridge and slid her card box out of her bag.
"Keep a focus on the spell, say the incantation or throw the card, draw the rune, and try not to get hurt!" she yelled back, this time drawing a Fire rune and throwing a card at her target across the lake. The card stopped spinning once it was on dry land, and when Bianca slashed her wand through the rune, it yielded forth her Helephant.
The elephant trumpeted and raised its fiery sword, slashing it downwards towards a fairy that was trying to escape the yelling Cyclops on her tail. The fairy spun and her eyes went wide just as the sword connected, and she went up in flames. Unfortunately, the Helephant's sword also slashed the Cyclops across the abdomen, and the Cyclops disappeared in a bright yellow light after dramatically falling to its knees.
"Two more?" Bianca yelled back. I counted backwards and nodded, turning side to side to look for the missing two fairies. Suddenly they flew chattering down the street, and a loud and angry voice yelled something and a bright blue flash flew at one. Immediately one of the fairy's boots was encased in ice, and she fell forward. The other fairy spun and shrieked something in her high voice, raising her sword. I could see that purple and black mass beginning to form again at the tip of it.
Bianca immediately rushed forward and threw herself bodily at this fairy, throwing it and herself into the lake. I darted after her, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the lake just as she threw a blast of greenish-gold light at it. The fairy exploded like all the others had a few days ago when I met Alex, leaving shreds of clothes and a small needle-like sword floating atop the lake.
The last fairy was busy trying to pull her boot free of the glacier that encased it, but her attempts to get free were ended as a bright blue blast flew at her, exploding her just like Bianca had with her last fairy.
"Is that all of them?" Bianca asked, glancing at me. I nodded, before I caught a flash of red on her hand.
"Looks like that last one got you," I noted, pointing at the small cut. Bianca nodded and raised her hand to her face to check it out, and, seeing it was comparable to only a small paper cut or cat scratch, rinsed her hand in the lake and stood up again.
"How do we get rid of our friends over there?" I asked, gesturing at her Helephant and my Thunder Snake.
"Oh, you just slash through them or dismiss them like so." Bianca raised her wand and drew the Spiral rune I'd seen Diego using the other day. Immediately her Helephant disappeared, and I copied her, my Thunder Snake disappearing as soon as I'd drawn the new rune.
"You two okay?" Alex called, running down the street, stowing his frozen wood wand back in his belt. So he'd been our friend with the Ice blast.
"Yep," we both said at the same time.
"Remind me to research battles later on," I told him as Bianca looked around the Commons.
"Guys, where is everyone?" she then asked, waving her hand around. I cocked an eyebrow and looked around, just realizing that Alex, Bianca, and I were the only ones in the common area. The two girls were gone.
Alex copied my looking around and turned back to us, saying, "Yeah, where is everyone? Even if there were only a few fairies, the entire student body should be up in arms taking care of them."
"No idea," Bianca said. Just then I heard the shouting, and the screaming, and the crying.
"Do you guys hear that?" I asked, looking around, tilting my head, trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from.
"Yeah, it sounds like it's coming from the Unicorn Way tunnel…"
The three of us jogged across the bridge and around the corner to find a huge crowd of people standing in front of the Unicorn Way tunnel. A battalion of guards, all carrying spears and wearing red tunics with the Wizard City emblem on the front, stood in tight formation. They were holding the crowd back, away from the tunnel entrance.
"What's going on here?" Alex hissed, scanning the crowd and trying to see past them all to the tunnel entrance. I stood up on my tiptoes and scanned the crowd, before I saw my roommate's brown and blonde streaked head.
"Sarah's over here, maybe she'll know." I began elbowing my way through the crowd, my two other friends following me, and clapped a hand over Sarah's shoulder. She spun with a jump, a hand reaching for the wand in her belt, before she saw it was me and relaxed, cocking a hip and folding her arms.
"Sarah, what's going on?" Bianca came up behind me and stood on her tiptoes, trying to see past the crowd as well.
"Apparently there's another wave of dark fairies and skeletons and ghosts," Sarah answered. "They're trying to get into the Commons. A few fairies got through, but it sounds like you guys got them. I think the guards are working on pushing the wave back and getting everyone on the street here to safety now."
"You sure?" Alex called. I turned and saw that the boy had shimmied his way up the side of a building and was perched on the roof so that he had a good vantage point. I'd almost forgotten that he was a talented acrobat. "Because it looks like they're shoving people back through the tunnel."
"Wait, what?!" the three of us immediately shrieked. I turned and elbowed my way through the crowd again until I was at the front of the group. The guards were forming a human chain across the front of the Commons crowd to keep us back, so I ducked so I could see under their thick arms.
Sure enough, I saw a guard shove a woman back through the tunnel, where she was passed through another group of guards until she was on the other side, standing with another huge crowd in the square in front of the Arena doors. There was another human chain of guards holding this rowdier group back, and it looked like they were indeed trying to keep people inside Unicorn Way. Inside the street, I could see a huge group of ghostly blue figures floating over the unicorn statue in the middle of the small park, spinning and looping and occasionally throwing themselves at an invisible wall. The shield.
"Whoa." Bianca and Sarah had come up behind me and were ducking to see as well, and when Alex joined us he knowingly told us, "The shield's not going to last much longer…"
"How many people are in there?" I asked, scanning the crowd on the other side. Bianca held out one hand and counted in her head, before she answered, "Maybe two hundred? Give or take another hundred?"
"Wait, Diego's in there too!" Sarah shrieked, standing up straight. Sure enough, I could see the black unicorn standing protectively in front of two wizard girls on the other side of the tunnel.
A guard wearing a purple sash over the red tunic suddenly yelled something that I couldn't make out, and the human chain in Unicorn Way broke away. The guards began swinging their spears in wide arcs as the crowd surged forward towards the tunnel, and backed towards the tunnel themselves.
When all the guards were through, spears still pointed outwards at the crowd, the head guard shouted, "Close the first gate!"
The message was repeated down the line of guards, and then another one was relayed back. "Closing the first gate!"
A spiked iron gate (a portcullis, I recalled) started to slowly close over the tunnel entrance on the other side, and the four of us gasped as we realized what was happening.
"They're leaving all those people inside," Bianca spoke out loud. At that moment, I decided that I wasn't going to stand for this. I wasn't one to stand for unfairness and cruelty and corruption, but back home I was always too far away from the source of it to help or stop it. But now I was right there, and I wasn't going to let any of that continue on or win this time. I darted forward, under the guard's arms, and grabbed the head guard's arm, letting my thoughts spill out of me.
"You can't do this! There are hundreds of ghosts and monsters inside there and you're leaving all those people to them!" I shouted, throwing glances down the tunnel. The first portcullis was almost to the ground.
The guard looked down at me with malice bright in his eyes and shook his arm, as if he was trying to shake off a bug. I locked my hands in place and braced my feet, shouting again, "There are innocent people in there! They haven't done a thing to deserve this! You can't just leave them to the monsters!"
"Get down, little girl," the guard hissed at me.
Bam! A huge wooden gate slammed shut behind the portcullis, completely blocking off our view to the street and the people inside.
The guards inside the tunnel backed away a little, and the guard I was hanging on to shouted, "Close the second gate!"
"Closing the second gate!"
Another portcullis slowly dropped, and I realized what these gates were for: they were creating compartments in the tunnel that evil creatures–or people–would have to fight through to get to the Commons.
A flash of green and red and yellow flitted past us, and I saw Bianca weaving past guards towards the end of the tunnel. She dropped and slid under the dropping portcullis like a baseball player sliding into home, and grabbed two circular handles on the wooden door, trying to pull it open.
"What the–Get that girl out of there!" the head guard shouted angrily. While he was distracted with Bianca, I turned to the other guards, still hanging on to the head one's arm, and shrieked, "You are tasked with protecting this city, and the people inside! If you leave those people to the evil creatures inside, you're failing that task!"
"Yeah!" Alex ducked under the human chain like Bianca and I had, and deftly jumped away as one of the guards tried to grab him. He spun on the human chain, alternating between talking to them and yelling at the ones in the tunnel, and said, "I've known some of you for all my life! You're good people, I know, but if you leave all those people in there, you're no better than the creatures we strive to fight!"
Bam! The next portcullis hit the ground and another heavy wooden gate closed over it. I flung a glance down the tunnel and saw that the one of the guards was holding Bianca in his grasp, trying to pass her to the next guard. But she was kicking and flailing, and when she kicked the next guard in the face and swung her fist at the other one's nose, they dropped her. She raced to the second gate and tried to pull it open again, even as the head guard ordered that they "Close the third gate!"
A third portcullis began closing, this one just a bit farther down from the second gate. The other guards vacated this compartment while one remained inside, trying to wrench a stronger-than-she-looked-Bianca away from the second wooden gate. All through this, Alex and I continued to talk and yell, trying to persuade the guards to stop and try to save people instead of leaving them for dead.
"Someone make these kids be quiet!" the head guard yelled at his subordinates. "Get this one off of m–Oh for crying out loud!"
An orange and red blur flew past me and ducked under the third portcullis, her sleeve catching and tearing on the spiked end. Sarah skidded to a stop at Bianca's side and helped her pull at the handles as well.
I took this newest distraction to pull the guard's ear down to my mouth and hiss, with the tone I got when I was especially ticked, "There are children inside that street. If they're dead when you open those gates again, you are responsible for the deaths of children."
Alex was still speaking to the human chain and the guards in the tunnel, and it looked like he'd also whipped the crowd into a frenzy. They were yelling at the guards, calling them a few choice names. I could make out 'coward' and 'murderer' among them, and I wondered if this wasn't the first time that the guards had done something like this.
"That's enough!" the head guard roared right as I took the crowd's words and hissed them into his ear, making sure to mention the children again. Cheap shot, maybe, a bit cruel, yes, but I was angry and starting to see red, and if it could save the people inside Unicorn Way, then I was all for it.
The guard threw me off of him and I hit the ground, right as a pair of guards pulled Sarah and Bianca kicking and screaming out of the tunnel. Another one grabbed Alex, and the third gate closed with a Bam!
"Close the last gate!" the head guard shouted before turning to the four of us. Another guard hauled me to my feet, and I yanked my arms away and stood defiantly with my friends. The last gate began to lower hurriedly, and when the portcullis had dropped large silver doors slid from the stone walls on either side to cover it. That was four gates, three compartments, and a few hundred people left on the other side, at the mercy of the evil creatures on Unicorn Way.
The head guard turned to the four of us and hissed, "You children should be ashamed of yourselves. I am older and smarter and wiser than you, and I make the decisions on how to protect this city! You should be thanking me! Now those monsters won't ever get through and rip any of you apart!"
He turned to the crowd and projected his voice, calling, "If you go to Ravenwood, go to your next class immediately! The rest of you, go back to work! We will detain and charge any dissenters!"
The crowd dispersed, some grumbling, a few stragglers calling the guards murderers and cowards again (they all scattered before the guards could detain them) and the head guard turned back to the four of us. I glanced side to side at my friends to see how they were doing. They defiantly held their heads high, not at all ashamed like this man said we should be.
"If any of you step another toe out of line, I will be having a talk with Headmaster Ambrose, and I will make sure that you are punished. Understood?"
The silver doors slid together with a mighty Clang! and the street was sealed off.
Oh, I understood. But that didn't necessarily mean that I cared.
Bianca
I picked dejectedly at my steak that night at dinner, leaning my chin on one hand. Next to me, Destiny was taking her nearly palpable anger out on her steak, sawing at it. Across from me, Sarah was staring down at her food, her hands mussing up her hair. Alex was in the boy's dining hall, but I was sure that he was experiencing similar sadness, anger, or guilt. Or maybe all three at once.
"They left hundreds of people to die—" Destiny hissed, sawing off a stray piece of fat and pushing it to the other side of her plate. "Completely disregarded what they're meant to do and shut all those people inside a dangerous street—" She speared a tiny cube of meat and began eating it, still working on sawing the rest of the pieces into cubes while she chewed.
All around me, I could hear people gossiping about what had happened this afternoon, and I could hear sad and angry statements being tossed about.
"My roommate was in there dueling her sister!"
"Diego was inside!"
"There are a tons of people on that street, and probably more monsters than there are humans. They'll all be dead by midnight."
"Did you hear about the four kids who tried to stop the guards?"
"Yeah, a couple of them went into the tunnel and tried to pull open the doors…The other two were yelling at the guards…"
Everyone was talking about it, and everyone already knew where they stood in this situation. When I'd first sat down after getting my food, I'd heard a voice that I knew was Rachel's say imperiously, "Well, I for one am glad that the street is shut off. All those monsters pose a danger to us wizards and Ravenwood—"
Needless to say, I immediately moved to a table near the back of the room.
I pushed a pea around my plate with my fork, not feeling at all hungry. I'd tried to pull open the gate. I'd tried so hard. I was stronger than I looked, but apparently I wasn't strong enough to pull open huge wooden doors by myself. I couldn't even budge them. I'd failed all the people on Unicorn Way. Those families, those children, those wizards, Diego…
"Ugh!" Sarah slammed her hands down and sighed heavily. "I should've burned it. I should've burned that door down and melted the portcullis and I should've been able to do it I should've been able to help I should've been able to h—"
"Sarah," Destiny said, her angry mumbling giving way to gentle consoling. "It's okay."
"And besides," I put in, finally forcing myself to spear a piece of steak on my fork. I had to eat something, after all. "If you had cast a Fire spell in that small space, it would've just funneled the fire back out of the tunnel and into the Commons, and we'd all be in a worse place."
Sarah raised her head and stared at me, a glint in her eyes and a word on the tip of her tongue, but she dropped it and stared down at her plate again. I took a bite of steak off of my fork and found that it tasted dry and dull on my tongue. But I forced myself to swallow it anyway and rested the fork on my plate again.
Destiny had finished her food already (I could see angry scratches all over the plate from her steak knife), and now she sat with her hands on either side of her head, staring off into the distance, obviously thinking hard about something. Every few moments her arms would shake and she'd grit her teeth, and then she'd relax again.
"Wizards!"
I raised my head to see Professor Wu, Professor Greyrose, and Professor Falmea drifting into the room. Someone went into the back and brought out a stool for Professor Greyrose to perch on, her being a fairy and all, and sat back down again. Destiny dropped her hands and focused her attention on the professors, and Sarah swiveled on the bench to listen as well.
"We, unfortunately, do not come bearing good news," Professor Falmea stated in her clipped tone. I flinched, waiting for a death report, or something along that line.
"There has been a sudden influx of evil creatures on all the streets in Wizard City," Professor Wu announced. She held up her hooves for silence as worried mumbling echoed around the room, and she continued, "Some of our friends have turned on us. The Fire Elves on Firecat Alley attempted to burn one of our wizards alive. The Cyclopes and Trolls on Cyclops Lane chased a few of our guards out of their street. Even the undead and haunted from the Dark and Haunted Caves have flooded the streets and attacked our people as well."
The mumbling began again, and I found my mouth dropping open. These creatures…they were good. Along with allowing us to summon them to help us in battle, they provided several jobs in the City. The Fire Elves put on plays and helped to set and monitor controlled fires. The Cyclopes and Trolls were exceptional builders when it came down to it, and helped to haul and replace stone and masonry where it was needed. The undead, despite what you'd think, kept up the cemetery and were the City's morticians, pathologists, and detectives. None of these creatures had a reason to turn on us. There was equality and peace between us and them, but now…
What was going on in my City?
"For your own protection, dears," Professor Greyrose called, hovering over her stool. "We must insist that you all stay within Ravenwood, the Commons, the Shopping District, and Olde Town." A shout rose up as everyone immediately began protesting. I stayed silent, even as Sarah stood up and joined the people. Destiny looked like she had tuned everything out, returning to her same position from before.
So now we were confined to only four areas of the City. No going to see a play on Firecat Alley, no going to help the Cyclopes with their new building project, and no—well, most everyone stayed away from the undead despite everything…
"We will begin to speak with these creatures and fight back if the need arises. However, though we have already had to destroy a few creatures that got through our defenses, they were immediately replaced, and it may take some time before these streets are safe again."
Immediately Destiny's eyes snapped towards the teachers (so she was paying attention), and she stood up, raising her arm high. Professor Wu noticed and called across the space, "Yes, Miss Starshard?"
Destiny licked her lips and swallowed, and asked in a clear, loud voice, "What about the people on the other streets? Will they be abandoned like we abandoned those on in Unicorn Way?"
The mumbling began again as Destiny waited for an answer, and Professor Falmea raised her arms for silence. Professor Wu stepped forward and answered the question, in her calm, kind voice.
"No, we will not abandon the people on the other streets. The decision to close down Unicorn Way with people inside was not run through the proper channels, but it is too late to reopen it without taking precautions first. The street is crawling with evil creatures, and…" She trailed off, and I knew that she meant to add something along the lines of, "Even then, we are not sure that the people inside will have survived a direct attack from the evil creatures."
"This is insane, this is insane, this is insane," Sarah muttered, running her hands through her hair as Professor Wu continued to speak.
"However, if worse comes to worst and we are not able to come to an understanding with the various creatures, we may have to close down these streets…and leave people inside."
People began shouting again at that last part. Instead of leading the charge like she had this afternoon, Destiny sat back down and resumed her thousand-yard deep-in-thought stare.
"This is not up for discussion," Professor Falmea took control over the room again. "You have five hours until curfew, and if any of you are missing at that time, or are caught outside of your boundaries, you will be punished accordingly. Good evening."
The three professors turned and walked out of the dining hall, and immediately the room burst into chatter again. Destiny was still staring, Sarah was still mussing up her hair, and I pushed my plate away from me, not able to eat anymore.
This entire city was going to the dogs. First the guards had left hundreds of people to die in Unicorn way, then our friends had turned on us, and now we were confined to a small area of the city. This was insane. And I didn't like it at all.
Beside me, Destiny slowly stood up. She picked up her empty plate and downed her glass of water in two long gulps, and sighed.
Braid flipping, she turned to the two of us girls.
"Bianca," she said in a calm voice. But it wasn't a happy calm, no: there was an edge to it, a hard, serrated edge, and I immediately knew that when Destiny was beyond ticked, she got this sharp-calm tone to her voice.
"If you don't mind, would you please go ask Alex if he'd meet me in the square in front of the library? Tell him to bring his card deck, and his wand, and as many treasure cards as he can fit in his box. If you two ladies would do the same, that would be excellent. I'll be at the library, on the front steps. Good evening."
Destiny crouched, swung her bag over her shoulder, and slipped her wand into her purple-colored belt. Then she turned, carrying her empty plate and glass with her, and walked away. Sarah and I watched her stop and put her dishes in the bin to wash and then leave.
I turned to the Pyromancer and asked, "Was that weird to you too, or was it just me?"
"Nope, that was definitely weird," Sarah answered. "Now the question is: do we do what she asked, or do we n—What are you doing?"
I stood, dumping my food onto Sarah's plate, and swung my bag over my shoulder. I turned to the wall and drew the spell coordinates to my island, and a door appeared on the wall. I turned around to see Sarah half-sitting, half-standing, and answered, "Look, I've only known Destiny Starshard for a week, but already, if she asks me to do something, I'm going to trust her and do it. Go get the stuff she asked for, I'll grab Alex, and we'll meet you guys at the library."
I opened my door handle without looking and walked straight onto my island, letting the door drift closed behind me. I dropped my bag there by the door back to the Commons then and made a beeline for the teleporter up to my house. I had that entire chest of treasure cards in my room, and I knew that, for whatever it was Destiny was planning, I was going to need as many as I could carry.
Destiny
I sat on the steps of the library, furiously writing in my notebook and looking up every few moments. The others should be here soon, and when they got here I had to be ready.
My heart was beating crazily and the sensible part of my brain kept screaming, "You are insane!", but I ignored both warnings. I had a plan, and I was going to go through with it even if my friends yelled the same three words at me.
I looked back down at my notebook, which was propped open over a book on battles. Sure enough, there was a difference between formal and informal battles: formal battles were duels and one-on-one things, or confined space battles, and informal battles was when you fought an entire group or just cast spells without the dueling field appearing. There weren't any pips or turns in informal battles: you just had to know your own limits and had to be fast enough to defeat your enemy before they defeated you.
Hopefully I could be fast enough.
I heard footsteps and closed my book, slipping it into my bigger-on-the-inside bag and closing the flap. I left my notebook out, slipped my pencil behind my ear, and stood up as I saw Bianca and Alex approaching. Bianca had not one but two card boxes in her hands, and I grinned as I saw that my friend had taken my request to heart.
"Wait a sec, wait for me!"
Sarah raced in from the opposite street, dropping her bag at the foot of the library steps and setting her hands on her hips. She had changed, looked like, to something a little more formfitting.
"Alright, Destiny," Alex said, setting his bag down at his feet and folding his arms. "Why did you call us here, and what are you planning?"
I turned slightly, looking past the library to the silver door that sealed off the Unicorn Way tunnel. There were two guards standing on either side of it, looking tired and bored.
"Oh Bartebly," Sarah sighed. "She's looking at the tunnel. Destiny, dear, please please please tell me that you aren't planning what I think you're planning."
"Well, Sarah old buddy old pal," I answered playfully, trotting down the steps. "You changed into something more formfitting than your usual clothes, so I'm guessing that you have at least an idea of what I want to do and prepared accordingly."
The taller, older girl glared down at me but sighed, kicking open her bag to reveal two card boxes, like Bianca. Alex did the same, revealing two boxes as well. So my friends did have an idea.
"Alright, Destiny, tell us what you're planning," Bianca finally said, stepping forward and dropping her bag at my feet.
I grinned, then sighed, then took a deep breath. Alright, no going back now. I'd made a promise to myself, that I'd go through with this even if my friends didn't agree, and if they didn't I had to live up to that promise.
"I want to get into Unicorn Way and get all of those poor people—or at least the ones left alive, if that applies—out of the street to safety."
"Yep, I was right," Sarah sighed, leaning back on her heels and crossing her arms. But she wasn't immediately telling me off. The other two were silent, and for a few moments we all stood staring at each other.
Alex stepped forward and held out his hands, and I handed him my notebook, flipping it open to the plan that I'd been mentally planning out for the last hour or so. Alex's eyes roved the page, and it was silent between the four of us as he examined my ideas.
In the week that I'd known Alex, I'd realized that he was a very, very smart boy. Whether it came to magic or incantations or lore or just schoolwork in general, Alex was a walking, talking encyclopedia and strategist. He knew what he was talking about, and right now, he knew whether this would work or not.
"This is pretty solid," Alex said then, slamming the notebook shut and handing it back to me. "If we can stick to it and make it past the guards, I'm in."
My face broke into a smile, and I turned towards the other two girls. Bianca was sitting on the sidewalk, digging through her card deck and rearranging it. She looked up, stood, and smiled. "I'm in too. We can't just leave those people there, and even if they're all d-dead…" Her voice cracked and she took a deep breath, "At least we'll be able to avenge them."
"Right, let me see it," Sarah stepped forward, and I handed my book to her. She read through the plan (divided into sections based on what each person would be responsible for) and the few diagrams I'd made, and then handed it back to me as well. "I'm in too. But one amendment, if you would…"
"Yes?"
"Even if the people are alive and there's no avenging to do, we try to destroy as many evil creatures as we can. The ghosts, the fairies, the skeletons…we take them down too."
I'd toyed with this idea, but I hadn't wanted to add it until I'd read up on battles. But now that I had and I understood how it'd work, I was more than happy to make this amendment.
"Done," I answered.
"Alright then," I handed my notebook to Bianca, the only person who hadn't seen it yet, and began to speak, outlining the operation. I had the regular plan and a parallel contingency plan (in case something else changed) to get through the gates and reinforce them again when were inside, and figured that I'd go from there or consult my friends on the matter if they agreed to come.
"Tonight, after the teachers come through to check that we're in bed at curfew, we sneak out. Bianca and Alex, you distract the guards and get them away from the tunnel, get them to stay wherever they are, and then come back to the gates. Alex, where are the mechanisms for all the doors and portcullises?" I turned to the smartest boy in the group, knowing that he would know the answer to that.
"They're inside the walls, in the guard towers. The guards are only in there during the day, but we still wouldn't be able to sneak up there. But you have apparently planned for that." Alex added this last part with a grin. I nodded and turned to my roommate.
"Sarah, you said you could burn through the doors and melt the metal? Can you do it without causing it to all funnel out and cause a huge fire?"
"Yep. But…you guys should probably stand back when I do it, just in case."
"Got it. So Alex and Bianca distract the guards, and Sarah and I will work on the gates. Sarah, we need to keep the last set of gates, or at least the portcullis, so we can close them again and leave the rest of the City at least somewhat protected. Bianca, you're the most powerful out of all of us, so you lead the charge. Clear us a path through so we can get inside, regroup, and close the last gate and reinforce it so the creatures can't get through." Bianca nodded, closing my notebook and handing it back again.
"If everyone's smart, and at least someone should be," Alex noted, "Everyone inside should've made a run for the Hedge Maze at the end of the street. Lady Oriel, the seraph caretaker of the fairies, has enough power that the creatures can't come inside. The Hedge Maze should be a safe zone. So if we can get there, and other people have made it there, then we can regroup and figure out how to get them out. Lady Oriel might already have been thinking about how to do it, so we'll talk to her and figure it out."
"Our priorities are the people," I continued. "We make sure that they're safe first, and then fight. If they're all in there, we leave them in the Hedge Maze with Lady Oriel and then take out as many creatures as we can. We could split up or stick together, what do you guys want to do?"
"We should split up, two people near the Hedge Maze, two near the Arena, so we can try to clear it from the outside in," Sarah spoke up. "I'll stick with Alex and we'll take the front; we can run back on the rooftops. No offense, Destiny, but you're still a Novice, so you should partner up with Bianca."
"None taken. Is that alright with you, B?"
"Yep," Bianca answered, crossing her arms. "But you do know, Destiny, that this won't be like an Arena duel. We could actually get hurt."
"Oh, I know. I thought long and hard about that, and I really don't care. It's better for one person to get hurt and a few hundred others to remain unscathed. Right?"
"Right," my three friends repeated. Sarah stepped forward and added, "And we'll have healing spells, and shields, so we should be fine."
"Okay." I knelt and slung my bag over my shoulder again, and my friends copied me. I looked around at my three friends and smiled, realizing that they could have easily walked away when I first told them what I wanted to do. But they were all still here, ready to go.
"Then tonight," I said. "We are going to liberate Unicorn Way."
Look at that, it took me just a week to write this! (I thought it was going to be done on Thursday because I got a burst of creativity, but oh well.)
I'm going to camp this Friday through Sunday, so chapter ten might not be uploaded on Sunday like I want. It still might be, but don't hold me up to that. At the latest (if that applies), chapter ten will be up on Tuesday.
Alex Raventhorn is the property of Starlight in the Sky.
Bianca Glassheart is the property of Velvet Masquerade.
Sarah Bluesong is the property of Bluepatch (now ).
Destiny Starshard and Sibyl Nightpool (last name courtesy of Jessica RavenGlade) are the property of yours truly.
Thank you for reading and review!