Ch 25: Artifact

Saris found the Nazi intruders quickly—five men, almost at the Professor's house. Still traveling as smoke, Saris rose higher into the air, listening for the distinctive hum of the rings. He heard it coming from the last man in the march. And he sensed something else, unfamiliar, jarring, hidden in a long crate carried between two soldiers in the middle of the column.

Soaring down among them, he changed back to his Jinn shape and cast an explosion spell. The earth all around the Nazis erupted with a deafening boom. Soil shot into the air, raining down on the soldiers' heads. The men shouted and broke ranks, scrubbing at their eyes, blinded. Saris raced toward the last man before the ranks could reform around him.

Gunfire popped—rat-tat-tat. Saris flinched, remembering the pain of his gunshot wound, but the bullets pinged harmlessly off his skin. His target saw him as Saris closed in. The man's eyes went wide, and he gave a shout as Saris cast another explosion that blew him off his feet. Gunfire again, closer. Saris sent out a blast of heat in a circle around himself. Soldiers cowered back, shielding their faces. Saris tore open the man's overcoat. Leering, he snatched a pouch from an inside pocket. The humming told him the rest of the rings lay within. Saris closed his fist around the tiny pouch and swept away toward the Professor's house.

Men shouted behind him, and then he heard the sound of splintering wood. Saris looked back to find two of the soldiers prying at the crate with iron bars. He ignored them and rushed on. The Professor's house loomed into view. He saw Peter and Susan, astride a pair of horses. Toward them ran Edmund, stumbling, clutching something in his hand. Lucy and Leina and Salvia, too, all of them together. Saris cried a warning. The Nazis were too close, and coming too fast. They were not ready.

Edmund, nearest to him, looked up first. He jerked to a stop, white-faced and open-mouthed, staring past Saris with such a look of terror that Saris felt a chill.

Turning around, Saris saw the Nazis racing onto the Professor's grounds. At the head of the group was a tall man with a long spear of ice and steel. The man raised the spear, and Saris saw a blue-white glow at its tip. Edmund shouted something. Saris thought Wand! and prepared to countercast, then lost all sense of everything in a flash of light.

- # -

Edmund watched the wand blast hit Saris. Light flooded the lawn. The Jinn resisted for a split second, then slammed to the ground, stone-solid. Edmund's bones turned to water. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't think.

Her wand. Her wand. Oh, no, oh, no, oh-Aslan-how-did-that-get-here-NO!

A woman screamed behind him. People were running, shouting. Gunshots blasted the air apart. Shaking, sweating, Edmund remained with his eyes locked on Jadis's wand. "I broke it, I broke it, I broke it," he whispered.

"Edmund, what are you doing?" Peter's shout cut through his fog. His brother slammed into him, dragging a horse. He let the animal go and grabbed Edmund's arm.

Stupefied with horror, Edmund stumbled along with Peter, then remembered the leather wallet. He fumbled with it. "The rings," he gasped out. "We've got to get them all ... into the Wood ... out of England. Protect Mum ... Dad ... Digory—"

He saw the echo of his thoughts on Peter's face. "We have three pairs! Saris had the rest. It's no good!"

Flash. Peter's horse whinnied, reared up, and instantly froze into a statue.

Panic sliced through Edmund. He looked from the stone horse to his brother, pleading silently. She's back, she's back, she's got to be back, Peter, do something!

Another scream, this time full of rage. An arrow whizzed by them and sank into the arm of the man wielding the wand. He shouted in pain, and the wand dropped to the grass. Susan bulleted past on her horse with murder in her eyes.

"No, Susan!" Peter cried. "Salvia, the wand!"

The hawk shot toward it and snatched it up, struggling to lift it into the air. Nazis grappled at the bird. Salvia flapped wildly. Gunshots began again—Lucy, trying to clear Salvia's way. The remaining Nazis turned their rifles on Susan, missing only by chance. Susan's horse bucked, frantic to escape the fray. Susan lowered her bow and scrambled at something on her saddle. She raised it to her lips.

The blast of Susan's horn sounded across the lawn, and with it came a long, earsplitting roar that seemed to echo from far away.

The Nazis cringed and bunched together around their leader with fear in their eyes. Salvia rose out of the pack and lunged through the air toward Peter with the wand. Leina galloped toward Edmund, who grappled with the leather wallet. "Now, Peter," Edmund choked. He threw the pouch at his brother.

Peter seized it and ran to Lucy, then grabbed her arm. Salvia dropped the wand. Peter snatched it from the air and shoved it at Lucy. "To Edmund!"

They raced to Ed, who bolted for Susan as she fell from her rearing horse. He gripped her dress with one hand, and Leina's ruff with the other. "The leader!" he screamed with the last of his good breath. "Grab onto him!" From the corner of his eye, he saw Peter and Lucy running toward them. They had a split second to get this right before the Nazis broke apart. Less.

Susan gave a desperate cry and lunged toward the stone figure of Saris. "No! Susan, no!" Ed tried to shove her toward the soldiers. His grip slipped. He grappled for her dress, her arm, anything. His fingers closed around her wrist and, letting go of Leina, he leaped toward the Nazis with his other hand outstretched.

Peter slammed into his back, and there was another flash of light, then nothing.