(let's just say when Sierra comes back from House of Foryx the sun has set)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CHAPTER 8~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Una Brakket was hovering outside the window, with a malicious smile on her pinched face. Although she was about twenty-two stories above the ground, I could see a Shadow behind her. I was confused. Why wasn't the Shadow affecting her? Why was it just hugging her body as if it were her friend? That certainly did not happen when Marcia was Shadowed. She had not believed anything Septimus said and became more irritable by the second. And here Una Brakket was, completely unaffected by the Shadow looming over her. I mentally slapped myself. Una Brakket was a Darke woman. Of course the Shadow would come to love her. But why? Shadows were meant to torture and make its victim suffer, weren't they? I shook all thoughts from my mind. Una Brakket was here, and there was no doubt she had come for me. "Sierra," she said in a sugary-sweet voice that made me shiver. "Would you like to leave your friends? I'm sure you'd like to come with me." I was furious. She tortured my parents and had the nerve to come back? The nerve to look me in the eye? "No, I don't, you murderous fiend. And I'm sure your pinched brain can process what I'm saying. It's the size of a grasshopper, but even grasshoppers know when to buzz off, unlike you. Your nerve and guts will be the blame for your own demise." She shook her head, as if I didn't know what I was saying. "You don't. You really don't want to stay. Come with me." A spot of blue flashed across her eyes and it disappeared. I felt myself weakening. My friends didn't care for me, did they? They just yelled at me for something I wasn't responsible for. Why should I stay with them anyway? "Yes, come with me," she said, smiling. I stepped forward and reached my hand out. Someone suddenly grabbed me from behind and I came back to my senses. "Stupid witch," I heard Una mutter under her breath. "Said the Twilight Trawl would work." I ignored her and looked behind me to see all my friends lying on the floor, except for Rose. Her wiry arm was shaking as she held on to me. "Don't listen to her," she whispered as she collapsed. I suddenly became very scared. Una Brakket was powerful enough to Entrance me and weaken my friends to the point where they were unconscious. She had almost made me do her job of destroying me. I ran towards the doors to Marcia's rooms. They recognized me and swung open. I jumped onto the silver spiral stairs and set it on Emergency mode. They whizzed down like a bullet. All the Wizards on the other floors saw was a speck of green belonging to my tunic as the stairs sped on. I felt horribly dizzy when they came to a halt at the bottom but I didn't care. I had to get out of the Wizard Tower. My eyes laid on the broom cupboard and there they stayed. The Ice Tunnels. That was my escape. I raced toward the broom cupboard and slammed the door shut, when a horrible thought came over me. One was the fact that Una Brakket had the Flyte Charm. Where she got it from, I have no idea. The second was that she was inside the Wizard Tower. A Darke Wizard inside the Wizard Tower is not a particularly good match. I silently crept to the back of the cupboard and lifted up the trapdoor to the Ice Tunnels. It did not creak. I took a deep breath as if I was diving into a pool of water and jumped inside.
A burst of icy air hit me as I fell through the trapdoor. I landed on my feet, thankfully, but my ankles hurt terribly. I quickly Sealed the trapdoor and started walking. Immediately I slipped and fell. Thankfully, the Wizard Tower sled was tied to a conveniently placed ring in the wall. I untied the rope and climbed onto it. It was a beautiful thing. However, I had no time to think about its beauty. There was a Darke Wizard out to get me, she had an incredibly powerful and ancient Charm, and she was inside the Wizard Tower, possibly draining it of all its Magyk. I kicked the sled and it was off, going around bends and curves and taking twists and turns. There was one place I needed to go and that was Marcellus's house on Snake Slipway. I was climbing the ladder up to the trapdoor and told the sled to go back to the Wizard Tower, where it was before I rode it. Like a faithful dog, it left. As soon as I Saw the sled back in its place, I heard a Human Heartbeat. Una had discovered my escape route. I clambered up the ladder as fast as I could and Sealed it. One thing I loved about the Ice Tunnels was that it had lots of sled marks, thanks to Beetle. Though he was Chief Hermetic Scribe, he still acted as Inspection Clerk and rode about just for the fun of it. So, even if Una Brakket were to follow sled tracks, she would most definitely choose the wrong one to follow. Another thing I loved, not about the Ice Tunnels but about the Wizard Tower sled, was that it had this purple cloth thingy. If you rub it on the runners, the sled will run smoothly with no mistake nor bump nor halt. It would also make the sled tracks look old instead of fresh and new. So, again, if Una were to follow sled tracks, she wouldn't be able to find mine, for it would appear to be from a long time ago rather than a few minutes ago. I smiled. I outsmarted her.
I found out later that I indeed had not outsmarted her and that she knew all these little secrets. She found my track and followed it all the way to Marcellus. During that time, while she was slipping and sliding, I was shakily telling Marcellus what had happened over a cup of tea. It was delightfully warm after the chill of the Ice Tunnels. "I see," he said. "And I suppose she was Shadowed, was she?" I nodded. "That was Ellis Crackle, DomDaniel's first Apprentice. I suppose he is supplying her the Darke energy she needs to, er, kill you."
"Wouldn't he be jealous? That Una is the Apprentice and all that?"
"Aye, that would be something for him to know and us to figure out, wouldn't it? Though I believe that Ellis might be doing it to, at the end of it, double-cross her so he can have the power, or whatever she has that he desires."
"Like a Darke Apprenticeship?"
"DomDaniel's dead. He wouldn't be Apprenticed to anyone. Perhaps it's just a power struggle. Or, when he becomes Substantial enough, become a Darke Wizard and take over. It's all really foolish if you ask me." I agreed. I read plenty of stories on power struggles and crises, and it was all really silly to me. Who cares for power? You can have more interesting things to argue over, like the price of fish or something. I found myself relaxing a little. "But what about Septimus and Jenna and Beetle and Rose? What will happen to them?" Marcellus smiled, so I figured what will happen couldn't be none too bad. "They are just weak. They might wobble a bit, when they wake up, but-" I cut him off. "But they will most certainly wake up, won't they?"
"Of course, of course."
"So how long might they be asleep, or unconscious, or whatever they are?"
"Two hours to two days, maybe. Sometimes it might be three days, but that's not a lot, is it?" I shook my head. "Anyways, that Una has got a pebble for a brain. There is as little chance she will find you as there is a chance to create and destroy matter." I shook my head fondly. Marcellus was like a brother sometimes, but then again, we were distant relatives, so he might as well be.
Una was three-quarters of the way to Marcellus's house.
"Why do they want me anyway?" I asked. "Why do they want me dead?"
"Once you are dead, Una will take your power. With that power, she will rule the world or something like that. Nonsense dreams. She wouldn't be able to rule an ant."
Una was looking up the trapdoor. She smiled.
I had a vague feeling of a murkiness in the air, but pushed it away. I was beginning to trust what Marcellus said. She couldn't do anything, really, considering she lost my trail when I ran into the broom cupboard. I fully relaxed into the chair I was sitting in. For the first time since I ripped the flesh of those idiots at Gothyk Grotto, I was content. I felt… normal. Suddenly there was a tremendous crash from the kitchen and the next thing I saw was inevitable blackness.