Chapter 26: Rescue

Infinity

The gunshot that I had heard the night we fled the city was the fatal shot that killed Asa's father. I was told that his mother was okay and was staying at the Pet's Café and we would be picking her up before we went to wait at the North Side of the bridge for Charlie and Asa. I was told that there was an old tunnel that lead out of the academy and Asa had been hidden deep within and the tunnel had been closed off so he couldn't escape. Salem had not even known about that tunnel. It was only accessible through the drama department basement and he had avoided that area like the plague because Manfred had once told him it was haunted. He also had a fear of being locked down there because it was only accessible via trap-door.

I had also been told that we would be helping Aunt Venetia's husband escape the city with is daughter. Arthur Shellhorn had two children, but his other had turned evil with Venetia's influence so he wanted to make the decision to take his daughter and run. I had been told that the boy was endowed and able to make stone creatures come to life.

The most disturbing thing that I had been told was that Manfred's face had been completely healed and he could talk again. Someone was as strong as I was and was able to heal people. They were not able heal them as well as I could, for Manfred still had a limp and a few other problems, but I was not the only one capable of healing people anymore. I wondered who this mystery healer was and I wondered what they had done to fix Manfred's face. I would have to ask Charlie about it when I saw him.

Salem and I had gotten out of the van and stared at the end of the bridge. I could see three figures emerging from it. "Hey, there they are." I nodded in their direction. I couldn't see them very well, but I could see a very tiny white light that couldn't have been anything other than Claerwyn.

"Something isn't right." Salem murmured. I thought he was acting weird until I heard something that sounded like thundering hooves in the distance. Across the bridge, I beheld the most awesome sight. On the back of a beautiful white mare sat a knight that looked like he had popped right out of a fairytale. He wore a beautiful red cloak that almost seemed to glow and carried a magnificent sword with a gold hilt. "What in the world? That's the Red King's cloak… I can hear Charlie's thoughts. He's terrified. He thinks this knight will kill him." Salem murmured. I wasn't scared for Charlie because the aura I got from this distant knight was a beautiful one. He had a pure and powerful heart.

Then, the feeling in the air shifted as I heard more thundering hooves. I couldn't believe my eyes as a stone horse came tearing through the bushes with a stone knight on its back. "Venetia's around here somewhere with that boy." I looked around but saw no one. I turned my direction back to the two knights. I wish I could have been closer to what was sure to be the most magnificent battle of the ages. I could hear the sound of lance hitting sword and the screams of the horses, but I couldn't make out other details. I was only able to follow the Red Knight because his sword and his cloak shined so brightly.

I was relieved when I heard the sound of crumbling stone. The Red Knight had defeated his adversary. "Come on." Salem tugged my hand to get me to go towards the bridge.

"Wait, I want to say goodbye to Asa before he leaves." I stayed rooted to my spot and patiently waited for a figure to cross the bridge. Asa Pike stood on two legs, proud and tall as he walked towards the van. He was soaked from head to toe and wearing old academy clothes, but he was still the same Asa from six weeks ago. He approached us calmly.

"Your mother is waiting for you in the van." Salem gave him a small smirk. "Good luck. I'll see you on the other side of the bridge, Fin." He clapped his hand on Asa's shoulder and walked away from us. He murmured something to Asa that I couldn't hear as he walked by and Asa nodded.

When Salem was out of earshot I asked him what had been said, and he laughed a bit. "He told me to remember my place, but he doesn't have to worry about me at all. I can't believe I'm finally getting away from this God Awful city." He seemed so happy and relieved. I wondered if he knew about his father, but I didn't want to be the one to tell him. "I would hug you, but I'm covered in mud and water. They tried to drown us down there."

"Oh, I don't care about that." I threw my arms around Asa and hugged him tight. "I'm going to miss you. Please come back someday if you remember me."

He wrapped his arms around me too. He was shivering and trembling under his coat. "I couldn't forget you even if I wanted to. I have faith that you'll throw those god awful Bloors out of power, and then I'll come back."

We released each other and Asa went to go his separate way. "Wait-" I reached out and grabbed his hand. He looked back at me with sad eyes. "I want to give you something."

The air between us glowed and his cold hand became warm in mine. I closed my eyes and hoped that I was strong enough to give him this final gift. I felt my energy drain from my body and go into Asa's. When I was done, I felt tired and weak. Everything faded out and became black.

My head was pounding and my body was sore when I regained consciousness the next morning. As I looked around, I saw that I was back in my private room at the academy. I could feel the hard mattress under my back. I reached over and turned on the light and was surprised to see that my school trunk was there with all of my clothes. I walked over to it and opened it, even more surprised to see a note from Maisie and another envelope laying on top of my neatly folded clothes. Your uncle drove these to the academy this morning for Cook to bring in. In the envelope is a postcard for you and Charlie. Bring Salem home with you this weekend. Love, Maisie. I smiled at Maisie's neat handwriting and quickly pulled on my clothes. I looked at the clock on my bedside stand and if I hurried, I wouldn't be late for breakfast. I hoped Salem would be there too. I tucked the envelope into my cape and ran out the door. I accidentally hit someone with my door when I opened it.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't understand why my door is the only one who opens outwards." I found myself saying as I closed the door to help whoever I had hit. Dorcas Loom sat in a fuming heap on the floor. "Hmph. On the other hand, I am not sorry." I chuckled at her and began to walk away.

"You think you're so great." Dorcas yelled after me. "I can do what you can do, Infinity Bone. You're not special anymore."

I turned around and looked at Dorcas as she pulled herself up. She must have been the one who fixed Manfred's face. This made be breathe a sigh of relief. She would be useless without her little bewitching tools and sewing needles and she could barely pick herself up off of the floor. I could hardly call her a worthy adversary. I laughed at her again and continued to walk away.

People stared when I walked towards the blue cafeteria for breakfast. I hadn't been there the week before, nor had I been there yesterday. I knew they were wondering why I had just showed up. I ignored their whispers and jumped into line behind Gabriel Silk. "Do I smell eggs? I don't think they've ever served eggs here, at least not since I've attended." I asked, making friendly conversation.

"Infinity? Where have you been?" Gabriel swung around to look at me. He had a big grin on his usually sad face. "You don't really have to tell me, but I sure am glad that you're back."

We made small conversation while getting our breakfast and headed over to the table that Charlie, Billy and Fidelio were already sitting at. Billy quickly got up to move so that I could sit next to Charlie. He hugged me as soon as he sat down. "Everyone was worried sick about you! Why did you run off like that?"

I felt guilty, but I was needed where I was at. "Naren came and got me." I admitted. "Salem got really sick again. His cancer came back and it was aggressive. When I got to him, the doctors all said that he only had a few weeks to live because it was right in his brain, a huge tumor causing too much pressure and he refused chemotherapy. So I healed him and I was asked to stay a bit." I fudged the truth a little. I couldn't tell Charlie what I knew. "It took a lot for me to heal him. That's why I must have passed out whenever I was trying to help Asa… How did I even get in here?"

"Me." Salem's voice was so loud, cheerful and sudden that I knocked over a glass of juice. "Jesus, you're clumsy. But it's probably for the best that you don't eat your whole breakfast. You're a lot heavier than you were when we met." He pinched my side and pulled up a chair to sit between Fidelio and Gabriel.

"What?" I frowned and looked down at myself. Salem was right. My clothes had gotten a lot more snug than they had been when I first started attending the academy.

"Oh, don't get self-conscious. It just means you're happier and eating better. I'm teasing you. Though I did just get over having cancer and that was a lot of work carrying-"

"Claerwyn got you back to your room." Charlie interrupted as he rolled his eyes. "There was no way that we would have been able to carry you up that rusty old ladder without someone falling to their deaths."

"…so your moth can teleport things? Color me impressed. You're definitely more powerful than I am, Charlie." I smiled at my brother and reached into my cape to pull out an envelope. "Maisie sent this with my things. We got a postcard from mom and dad. Do you want to open it? She must have put it in here so we could open it together."

Charlie nodded and took the envelope from my hands. When he opened it, he opened it letter side up. "Having a good time. Wish you were here. Love, mom and dad." He read out loud. When he flipped it over, there was a picture of a whale swimming with a school of glittery fish. I had gotten postcards like this all the time from my adopted father. It was a bittersweet memory.

I didn't want to think about it anymore so I changed the subject. "So what happened last night? I didn't get to hear about any of the details or the action. I swear I'm unconscious, enchanted or comatose every single time something interesting happens."

"Now that you mention it, that is pretty true." Gabriel snorted. "But what happened Charlie? I'm out of the loop too."

"It was amazing." Charlie said. He began to tell us about what had transpired the night before. He talked about climbing down into the pit that was in the drama department basement to an open cave-like area that Asa was kept in. When they got to where Asa was, he was a beast that had forgotten everything and Billy had spoken with him.

"I didn't think I could do it after what happened, but I managed to get my endowment back." Billy chimed in. I was confused and asked him what happened. "I had something called the "shriveling shroud" thrown on me. It nearly took away my endowment so I wouldn't be able to speak with Asa or any other animals."

"The Shriveling Shroud?" Salem looked over at me and then back at Billy. "Was it like a gray blanket?"

"Exactly that." Billy nodded his head. "Do you know of it?"

Salem nodded and looked over at me. Do you remember when you were kidnapped and trapped in my great grandfather's attic because he wanted to take your magic for himself? That blanket that he had thrown on you to hold you down was that Shriveling Shroud. Your Aunt Venetia and Dorcas made it together. Dorcas must have perfected it and made it stronger. "Infinity and I have seen it before, but please continue." Salem insisted.

Charlie continued to describe trying to talk Asa down and how Claerwen's light had been enough to turn Asa back into a human and how she was able to move the rock that was blocking out the part of the cavern that lead to the tunnel out of the academy. They were walking through the tunnel when it started to fill up with water. They would have drowned if it had not been for Tancred. He managed to stop Dagbert Endless before the water could make it over Billy's head. He talked about the fight between the Red Knight and the Stone Knight. And skipped ahead to the part where Claerwen had to somehow teleport my body back to the academy. Salem went back through the tunnel with Charlie and Billy. Things went smoothly until they got back into the drama department basement and tried to climb through the trap door. They realized it had been locked. Claerwen had been with me so they would have been trapped down there if it hadn't been for Lysander. He caught Manfred just as he had closed the padlock. With the power of his awesome ancestors, Lysander intimidated him into giving him the key and his ancestors locked him in a basket until the morning. Both Dagbert and Manfred had been traumatized.

"I'm probably going to lose my scholarship." I murmured. It seemed like a trivial thing to be upset about in the moment, but it was something that was important to me. "Dr. Bloor has been threatening to take my scholarship away and give it to Riley Burns. The only hold I had over him was telling him that because I had saved Manfred's life, I was able to reverse all of my magic and take it away. That it would kill him instantly. I'm afraid they'll call me on my bluff now."

Salem laughed loudly, and tugged on my arm. "I doubt he'll take it away. Come on. Let's go speak to my father. I highly doubt they've realized I'm back yet. No one was around when I came out of my room this morning."

I couldn't believe Salem was still his normal happy self, especially with everything that was going on. Although everyone was safe for now, I knew something terrible was going to happen soon. The other side was getting more powerful. They had a witch capable of bringing people from the past, they had Dagbert Endless with a particularly deadly endowment and Manfred with his new and developing endowment. I was dreading the trip to Dr. Bloor's study. I knew he would be beyond angry and would take his anger out on us. I was still weak from all of the energy I had given to Asa and Salem and didn't know if I could handle being screamed at and berated. But Salem was still unfazed. He truly believed that they wouldn't disown him no matter how unruly he got, that they would let his neutrality be a viable option. Even I was starting to get sick of his neutral stance. Things were going to get serious. He needed to pick a side. And if I felt that way, there's no doubt that the Bloors felt that way as well.

We stood at the big oak doors of the headmaster's study. I wondered if Salem would knock or if he would just walk in as if he had never left, as if he hadn't been gone for months. He chose the former and knocked. His normally confident smile faltered and I realized that he was just as scared and nervous as I was. "Go away." Dr. Bloor's loud voice commanded from the other side of the door. He sounded angry. No surprise there. Salem ignored him and opened the door anyway, where we caught Dr. Bloor in a very vulnerable position. He was sitting behind his desk, his shoulders sagging and his forehead propped up against his hands. His hair was disheveled and he was looking at a picture frame, one that I had never noticed before. Dr. Bloor jumped and bumped his desk, causing the frame fell face up. This cracked the glass in the process. From where I stood, I noticed that it was a Bloor family portrait before he threw the broken frame into his desk drawer. I wasn't able to study it long but I could see that Manfred and Salem were still toddlers and Mrs. Bloor was present.

I wondered if this was the life Dr. Bloor had wanted for himself. I didn't think Harold Bloor was inherently mean and cruel. I couldn't help but to think Bartholomew was to blame for how he turned out. Dr. Bloor had the same childhood I did. Two parents too busy with their own lives to focus on their child, but instead of leaving him to raise himself like my parents did to me, Ezekiel stepped in. Ezekiel, possibly the cruelest Bloor to ever live. Ezekiel, who had stepped in and had a hand in raising Manfred, but not Salem. I wondered if he wanted to have a normal family. I knew Manfred was too deep in dark magic to save, but I wondered if unendowed Harold would have a chance if he ever got away from this place. He may not have loved his wife, but I had no doubt that he still loved both of his sons and it was hard for him to see what they went though.

"I've been dreading this day for years." Dr. Bloor finally spoke. He sounded tired. He didn't seem to see me. His eyes were only on Salem who looked solemn and ready for whatever was going to happen. "You are my son and I will always love you. But you have to make a choice. You can't have us and Infinity. You can't be neutral anymore. I couldn't do it anymore, Paton Yewbeam couldn't do it anymore, and you can't do it forever either. Everyone else had to pick their allies and now it's your turn." I hadn't been expecting this to happen now. I had been expecting him to yell at us, at him for going missing for almost two months, at me for just existing.

"I understand." Salem held his head high. "My whole life, I thought that everything you did was wrong, but I could never bring myself to fully betray you or Manfred. Although we did not get along, I loved you both and still do. I, however, detest Ezekiel. I think he is a sadistic and cruel man and I refuse to ever fall under his influence like you did. I pick Infinity."

"I figured you would." Dr. Bloor said calmly. "I think you understand what that means. That you are no longer welcome under my roof but you may continue to be a student here until you graduate, which I will still let you do this year despite your two month disappearance. Your name will be struck from the Bloor family tree, you will inherit nothing, your portrait will be removed and you will no longer be considered my son. If you forfeit any information against us, Manfred will make sure that both Charlie and Infinity suffer." He gripped the edge of the desk. "I'm sorry, Salem." He lowered his voice. "I have to."

Salem turned away from him, his eyes wet with tears. "Goodbye, dad."

"Goodbye, son." Dr. Bloor's head drooped. I believed he was just as upset. I snuck out of the room with Salem once their conversation was over. I would have actually preferred him yelling at me to what had just happened. I felt awful. I wished our lives didn't have to be this way. Families fighting families. Why did we even have to be involved in any of this anymore? Wasn't it enough that we found my dad? Why couldn't we just put our heads down? Why couldn't we just run, leave this city and all of the awful things that happened in it? Most of the people involved were still young children who didn't need any of this to be happening in their life.

I wished my father was home so I could talk to him, or that I was at least home so I could talk to Uncle Paton. "Don't be selfish." Salem said finally, ripping me from my thoughts. "You used to know why we were doing this, why staying here was important. I had to erase your memory to protect you. And now I can't tell anyone what I know because they'll kill you. This is up to you and Charlie to figure out. And I'll help you along the way the best that I can."

"I'm tired of fighting." I said. "I don't want to risk my life anymore. If we leave this city, what does it matter that the Bloors have control of everything?"

"Are you stupid? This isn't even about the Bloor family anymore. They're bringing people from the past with hope of finding the means to bring back Borlath. If they bring back Borlath and manage to bring back the Count again, everyone is completely screwed. They'll enslave the unendowed and take over the hierarchy. The bad endowed will have power and the good endowed will be turned by Harken or anyone else with powers similar to his or mine. And the people that can't be influenced like Charlie or myself will be killed. And if you think we can run far enough that they won't find us, you're even more stupid. Would you really want to betray the Red King like that after all he's done for you? This isn't just about your family anymore. You're always thinking that I need to grow up, but maybe you're the one who needs to grow up." He shook his head and walked away from me, towards the living quarters of the Bloor Family. He was kicked out of them. He would have to live in the dorms like everyone else. He would need somewhere to live on the weekends.

I turned in the other direction and sighed. Salem was right. I was being selfish to think that this was all just about my father. Of course there was a reason he was meddling in all of this. I started to walk down the hall lost in my own thoughts. What was my father trying to remember? What did the box inlaid with mother of pearl contain that the Bloors were willing to kill for? What did I know that I couldn't remember?

I walked straight into someone and it took me by surprise. I looked up and saw Manfred. He definitely looked like someone who had been terrified by Lysander's spectral ancestors and was locked in a basket all night. And seeing me just made his mood worse. I tried to walk around him without saying a word but he grabbed me by my arm and flung me against the wall before I could react. He grabbed me by my throat and kept me pinned against the wall, his hands just hot enough that they warned me not to move. He had the advantage. He would kill me if I didn't listen to what he had to say. "Look at me." He snarled. I knew it was unwise but I had to obey. I looked up into the dancing coals of his eyes. The sparkle had returned. He was doing this to prove something, to show me that I didn't have power over him anymore. "Are you capable of undoing your healing magic?" He asked me.

"N-no." The answer forced itself out of my lips. "I have no power over your life."

"Do you know where the mother of pearl inlaid box is?"

"No." I said again. He was forcing me to tell the truth. He had me hypnotized but it felt different than it used to.

"Do you know what is in the box?"

"No."

"Have you ever known?"

"Yes…" This was the answer that would get Salem in trouble.

"Who told you?"

"S…" I was trying to fight answering him. I tried to break eye contact. He grabbed my throat harder. "Salem!" I yelled out, loud enough that he could hopefully hear me. I brought my hands up to grab onto his arms but he sent another shock of burning pain through his hands.

"Where is Salem?"

"He's here… In the academy." I could feel the tears running down my eyes. I was having a hard time breathing. I needed to get away.

"Where was he? Who was he with?"

It was important that I lie. I needed to gather all of my strength to lie to him. "Paton's father." I squeaked out, hoping this wouldn't get him in any trouble. At least if he asked me where he lived, it wouldn't be a lie if I told him I didn't know. And if he asked Charlie, Charlie would be able to mentally block him.

"YOU'RE LYING." He yelled, yanking me back from the wall and slamming me into it again. Salem wasn't coming. No one was coming. I was going to get even more hurt than I already was. I thrust myself to my right, causing him to lose his grip on me. It tore my shirt in the process. He tried to grab my cape but I had it tied loosely enough that with one pull of a string, I untied it.

I needed to defend myself. I contemplated using dark magic, but I remembered something Paton had told me. I focused all of my energy to my right hand, which was clenched into a fist. A beam of light shot from my clenched hand, and a dagger made of pure energy and light appeared in my hand. Paton had told me that practicing only good magic would pay off. I would be able to make my own weapons to protect myself. I brought it up and sliced Manfred's cheek. He let out a yelp of pain and pulled away from me. He charged at me again, knowing that I was in shock and that I wouldn't be able to react in time. I closed my eyes and heard a dull thud. The sound of a body crashing into a force field and onto the floor. I opened my eyes. A bubble of golden light surrounded me. My dagger was gone. And with my energy depleted, my force field began to flicker and was gone too.