So why don't u come join us?

Maybe soon. Have some things to do first.

Like what?

Can't say.

I know thats trouble. We could use u Alex. Even MrChu admitted having u next to him & Anna would rally some of the wizards who still think ur old man is just about tearin shit down

He kind of is…

GC is actually reaching out to the Majokai. They still tryin to stay neutral, even tho the C is demanding they join the Regiments. If u could get ur old man to talk to em or if u did

Why u think the Majokai r gonna listen to me?

ur the Enemy's daughter, the Girl Who Came Back & u revealed the Deathly Regiment. Half the country heard u on WWW. u gotta rep, ur a symbol. Just accept it Alex

…

wtf u have to do in LM thats so important? u know Anna wants to see u worse n I do

I spoke to her this morning, for a little while.
David, is she ok?

we at war, Alex. we fightin a war

… r u ok?

we need u. Anna needs u

I know

Torvald misses u too

Give him a kiss for me.

I don't think so

Hex him for me.

u hex him ur own damn self when u come to Cali

The scroll in the wax-sealed leather tube that had been delivered to the Pruett School was a binding contract, signed in blood by Brigitte Jumeau. It was written in dense legalese with baroque calligraphy, but Alexandra could parse the meaning well enough—if she brought Marcelius Viner to the Chief Justicar, surrendered to her of her own free will, and submitted to imprisonment, she would be exchanged for Drucilla White, with all charges against the latter dropped.

Straightforward, but unsparing. No sentence was specified—Alexandra was, as far as she could tell, consigning herself to imprisonment for life, or until such time as the Governor-General might decide to free her. Which would be never.

She believed her father when he said she was on her own. If he hadn't freed Lucilla and Drucilla, he wouldn't come break her out.

Alexandra spent hours studying the scroll, looking for loopholes or tricks. It was magically binding. Alexandra assumed the Chief Justicar had the authority to make such an arrangement—it would fall upon her as a broken oath if she didn't.

Rolled up with the contract was a note, in less ornate handwriting that was not the color of blood.

"Summon my effigy to ride with you and Marcelius through the Floo," it said. "Go to Maison d'Jumeau. Do not attempt it without using the needle first."

All Alexandra had to do was free Marcelius. And then, get to Louisiana with him.

And after that, escape from The Castle, with Lucilla.

She went to the store the next morning. Claudia and Archie had arranged to have their vehicles sold, or she would have been tempted to drive. Instead, she Apparated to the grocery store's loading docks, in the back lot where she had ridden her bike as a kid. She was pleased that she seemed able to Apparate around town without difficulty now, at least.

She knew when she reached the checkout line that people had recognized her. Even the cashier, a girl in her early twenties, was staring at her. Alexandra had gotten used to a certain amount of notoriety in the wizarding world, but not among Muggles. At least here in Larkin Mills, she was no longer just that girl sometimes seen around town on her bicycle with Brian. She was—

"Witch!" screamed a woman in a green dress. Alexandra stared at her, and realized she'd been one of the Vacation Bible School teachers at Larkin Mills Baptist Church, several years ago.

That had really been one of Claudia's worst ideas.

A man with a leather jacket and a goatee was pointing his camera phone at her.

"Stop that!" Alexandra said, turning her face away. She handed the cashier money and tried to keep her back to the gawking spectators.

The Bible School teacher continued to shout: "She's a witch! We've seen it on ! Witches have been infiltrating our communities for ages, and she's been living among us with her witch mother for years! She was even at our church school! You know she's that girl who unleashed the Beast in New York! Why are you all just standing around?"

Alexandra looked up sharply. There were half a dozen other people here this morning.

"Shouldn't you be in school, young lady?" asked an older man in line behind her.

"She should be in prison!" said the shouting woman.

Alexandra drew her wand. A collective gasp went through the store.

Alexandra made a gesture that swept across the customers, including two other people who were pointing their phones at her. They all jumped as their phones flashed and made strange noises. The lights flickered and the screen on the checkout register went blank.

"I said stop taking pictures of me." Alexandra looked at the church lady. "Prison, huh? I thought you're not supposed to suffer a witch to live." She twirled her wand menacingly.

The woman turned white.

"Witches are the least of your worries," Alexandra said. "You have no idea."

They all gaped at her. Alexandra picked up her bag of groceries, walked out of the store, and took three steps home in her Seven-League Boots.

There was a black car in front of her house. Alexandra almost dropped her groceries, but instead, ran to her front door in a blur. This seemed to catch the men in the car off-guard. There were two of them, wearing dark suits. They jumped out before she got the front door closed behind her.

The doorbell rang a moment later. Alexandra considered ignoring it, but they knew she was here. The man on the other side began thumping on the door. "Miss Quick. I'm Agent Trampier. Please open the door, we'd like to speak to you."

Alexandra looked through the peephole. The two men were standing there, hands at their sides.

She opened the door.

"May we come in?" asked Agent Trampier. He was a slightly older white man with thinning hair. His partner was a broad-shouldered black man with a large jaw and a tight crew cut. Both wore sunglasses.

"No," Alexandra said. "What do you want?"

Trampier sighed. "We'd really like to talk to you."

"So talk."

"Inside?"

"No," Alexandra repeated. "You can't come in unless I give you permission."

"Oh, you think you know that from watching TV?" said the bigger fed. "Why are we letting this kid tell us what's what?" He pushed past his partner and tried to walk through the doorway. He stopped when his face squashed against an invisible force across the boundary.

"Not TV," Alexandra said. "Magic."

She had her wand out now. The two of them looked at it, and for a moment, she thought the bigger man might draw his gun. Then Agent Trampier said, "Are you aware that your identity as a, er, magical person, has become semi-public knowledge, Miss Quick?"

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out when they screamed 'witch' at me in the grocery store," Alexandra said.

The two feds looked at each other. Trampier said, "Your father has been… less communicative recently."

"Really," Alexandra said.

"Kid, do you know a storm wiped out the entire town of Pocinsah, in the Missouri panhandle?" said the black agent. "An unnatural storm. Supposedly it was directed at a wizarding community, but there are at least 400 people dead as well."

When Alexandra gave him a long stare, Agent Trampier cleared his throat. "Agent Irwin didn't mean to imply that wizards aren't people. His point, Miss Quick, is that your wizard war is increasingly touching No-Maj lives as well, and your father, who in the past has worked with us to try to avoid these incidents, no longer appears to be showing such restraint."

"And what about your buddies in the Confederation?" Alexandra asked. "Are they showing restraint and working with you?"

Agent Irwin had raised his hand and was pushing against the invisible barrier. Agent Trampier said, "Your sister, Livia, has also stopped meeting with us."

"Is Livia all right?" Alexandra asked quickly.

"As far as we know, considering we can't find her safehouse thanks to your… enhanced camouflage techniques," Agent Trampier said.

"Magic," Alexandra said. "It's called magic."

"Bullshit," muttered Agent Irwin, leaning his weight against the barrier.

"Right, it's bullshit that you can't enter the house," Alexandra said. "That dragon in New York City? It was bullshit too. Pocinsah? Bullshit."

"Magic," Agent Trampier said. "Magic is being used against us, and we need your help. At very high levels of the government, there is, shall we say, a great sense of urgency and a need for more contacts in the wizarding community."

Over Agent Trampier's shoulder, Alexandra saw Mrs. Wilborough's front curtains part. She focused on the fed again.

"I wish I could help you, Agent Trampier, but me and my father aren't really speaking at the moment."

"What about you? We understand you are a voice in the wizarding community."

"Me?" Alexandra said in surprise. Did they actually know about her wizard wireless broadcasts?

"Come with us. Let us introduce you to some of our higher-ups, and a few… well, we do have other assets in the magical community."

For a moment, Alexandra was curious. Were there Muggle-borns working with the No-Maj government? Maybe even other Beings? "Would I get to meet the President?"

Trampier and Irwin shared another look. "We might be able to arrange for you to speak to him," Trampier said slowly. "I can't make promises, but…"

"Cool," Alexandra said. "But no thanks. I mean, look, I think you should try talking to Geming Chu, in California. If I get out there, I'll see what I can do. But I'm kind of busy right now. I have other plans."

"Busy?" said Agent Irwin, in disbelief. "Other plans?"

"You realize you are an unemancipated minor?" said Agent Trampier. "We're aware your mother and stepfather have abandoned you to move to Europe. It's not even legal for you to be here by yourself and not attending school…"

"Yeah, you don't know half as much as you think you do," Alexandra said. "But I'll tell you what, you try and haul me off to juvie, or social services, or whatever, and see how cooperative me or my father are. That's really not going to work," she added, as Agent Irwin pressed his shoulder against the air, as if trying to crash through the barrier in slow motion.

The two federal agents stared at her in exasperation. "Don't you care about what's happening out there?" asked Agent Trampier.

"I do," Alexandra said. "I just don't think talking to the President is going to fix it. Now please leave."

She closed the door in their faces. She waited to see if they would bang on it again or shout threats at her. She cast an Eavesdropping Spell to hear them murmuring to each other about what they were going to tell someone named Todd, and whether they should try the CPS angle or if it was time to use the "Gould Option." Agent Irwin seemed the more disgruntled of the two—he called Alexandra a "little punk-ass princess" and her father a "Wannabe Mussolini." But eventually they walked back to their car and drove away, while discussing the surveillance they would keep on her house, the phone tap, and the logs and tower dumps they were pulling from her cell phone.

"Huh," Alexandra said.

The house phone rang a moment later. Alexandra picked it up and said, "Hello, Mrs. Wilborough."

"The feds didn't drag you away," said Mrs. Wilborough.

"Obviously not. They just wanted to talk. They offered to introduce me to the President."

"Really?"

"Kind of. Mrs. Wilborough, this is very important—I really need to know as soon as you see my father's hand on your clock going into 'danger' or worse."

"I don't watch it around the clock."

"Well, you know, if you should happen to notice."

"What is he up to?" Mrs. Wilborough asked.

"If I knew, I couldn't tell you," Alexandra said.

"Hmph. What are you up to?"

"Same. I'll talk to you later. I have to cast more spells to keep intruders away and prevent eavesdropping and stuff. Have a nice day, Agent Trampier."

"Who?" asked Mrs. Wilborough, before Alexandra hung up.

Agent Trampier and Agent Rafferty were both quite persistent, texting her with demands that she return the calls she'd let sit in her voice mail. They hadn't quite gotten to threatening to arrest her, but they hinted at it, reminding her repeatedly of her legal status and the ease with which they could get a warrant for her house. Alexandra sent Charlie out over the neighborhood. She knew Trampier and Irwin were somewhere in Larkin Mills, probably staying at one of its handful of motels off the highway.

She exchanged texts and occasional phone calls with Brian. He was in Ann Arbor with his mother, while his father secured a temporary residence in Larkin Mills.

I hate it. Mom's either yelling or crying. Grandma is just depressed. Want to come back to Larkin Mills even if I don't like my dad that much either. Miss you too.

He was following the wizard war on the Internet—as much as he could. It was still not openly discussed, or even admitted to by the No-Maj government, but Alexandra was disturbed by how much he was able to learn now.

"Maybe most people still think it's all cult nonsense or conspiracy theories," Brian said, in a phone conversation the next day, "but there's more and more videos being uploaded, and some of the people who post a lot, I think are wizards. There's supposedly a cultural exchange program for Muggles to learn about wizards in Sedona. Or there was, until the Confederation shut it down."

"Better if you just stay away from anything magical," Alexandra said.

"Including witches?"

After an awkward silence, Alexandra said, "Well, you haven't met any other witches, have you?"

"Not yet. But since you won't introduce me to your father, I'm trying to find out if the wizards fighting the Confederation do have a use for No-Majes."

"What? Brian, anyone who finds a 'use' for M-No Majes is someone you should stay away from!"

"I'm not stupid, Alex. But don't tell me I'm useless just because I don't have a wand."

Her voice rose, as frustration turned her words into angry ones. "For years you insisted magic wasn't real and you didn't want to hear about it, and now—"

"Now my sister is dead." Brian's tone was flat and hard even across the cell towers relaying his voice all the way from Michigan. "Thanks to magic."

Alexandra realized she was losing him. Her inability to talk sense into Brian was aggravating to her, but arguing with him was only pushing him away.

When they hung up, Alexandra wasn't sure what terms they were on. Brian had become obsessed and angry, and she couldn't talk him out of digging deeper into the wizard war. She wasn't sure she had a right to try, but the same feeling of dread she'd felt when Lucilla and Drucilla disappeared, when she learned David had gone to join Anna in California, when her father told her his plans for Charmbridge, and when she told Julia the price of their protection, closed its fingers even more tightly around her heart. Everyone she loved was in danger, and she couldn't save them all. Maybe she couldn't save anyone.

She spent the next two days inside her house. She spoke to Claudia, but warned her that the feds were tapping their phone calls, which only made Claudia more upset, and they had another argument in which Claudia offered various useless suggestions for hiding from the war. When they hung up, Alexandra wondered if Claudia felt like she had after talking to Brian.

Alexandra studied from her magical books, and made copies of the maps she'd drawn outlining all the places in the country where cracks ran through the world, and those places where the World Away was closest. And she listened to her wizard wireless set.

According to the Confederation News Network, the Confederation was trying to restore order and unity in California, while former Congressman Geming Chu had joined the Enemy of the Confederation.

"…long known as a disruptive voice in the Confederation Congress, Chu's isolationist and supremacist position has now confirmed the worst fears of New Colonials and Old Colonials alike, as he seeks to undermine the cultural harmony of the Confederation and its traditions…"

"Even Archibald Mudd would be ashamed to spout that much fake news!" she shouted at her WW set. But as the CNN went on to describe near-anarchy in Louisiana, Florida, and Dixie, New England's disputes with neighboring Territories, and uprisings and terrorist attacks from Yukon to Texarkana, Alexandra noted they had stopped pretending that nobody was seceding or that there wasn't a war on.

"Breaking!" said the CNN announcer. "We've just received word that the Enemy has been seen in Texarkana, and there are unconfirmed rumors that a major gathering near Comanche is being met by the Texarkana Rangers—" There was a brief silence. The announcer spoke again. "We apologize, apparently that was misinformation forwarded by an over-eager field reporter. Rumors of the Enemy in Texarkana are unfounded, repeat, unfounded—"

The announcer sounded abashed and a little frantic. At that moment, Alexandra's house phone rang. She turned down the WW set and picked up the receiver.

"Your father is in Deadly Peril," said Mrs. Wilborough. For once, there was nothing snide or bantering in her tone. "What's happening?"

"What I've been waiting for," Alexandra said.

She put on her Seven-League Boots. Then she Apparated to Old Larkin Pond.

She was prepared to scare away anyone who was lingering around the pond this evening, but it was a cold, damp October night, and no one wanted to sit in the drizzle. She could see headlights in the gloom across the field, and hear car motors from the Interstate.

She reached into her pocket, withdrew the obols her father had given her and Hela, and held them clenched in one hand while she opened a crack in the world with her hickory wand. Not a crack to the World Away—she did as her father had taught her, and opened a crack to the Lands Below.

It yawned dark and cold before her. Alexandra stepped into the darkness, holding the obols, and descended.

The Thorn Circle's encampment in the Lands Below had become a keep, surrounded by high walls raised from inhospitable underworld stone and shaped by magic. Alexandra didn't think her father had deliberately turned it into something so sinister and evil-looking, but as she emerged from the damp, dripping chasm that opened into endless fields of dark rock and sickly yellow sand, sharp spires with slitted eye-like window gaps rose before her like something out of a dark fantasy. She was awed by what her father and his recruits had done in just a few months.

Something whizzed past her head, and Alexandra immediately cast a Shield Spell. Stone-tipped arrows rained down on her, bouncing off her spell. Running around on the stretch of broken reddish-black rock between her and the keep was a horde of small furry creatures, dressed in scraps of clothing, skins, and leathers, and carrying stone-headed spears, tomahawks, and short bows that looked like toys but were assuredly not. The nearest ones were rushing at her, waving their small spears and axes. They looked like long-eared humanoid rabbits. They might have been cute, if not for their rows of sharp teeth and feral expressions.

"Lagaru," Alexandra said. "I remember you." They were half her size, but there were so many of them, all with weapons.

She didn't want to fight her way through them, so she tried to Apparate into the keep. Her wand twisted in her hand, and Alexandra felt her body twist as well. She didn't think she'd failed to cast the Apparate spell correctly—she wasn't splinched. She'd been blocked. The Thorn Circle had cast Anti-Apparition wards since her last visit.

"Fight it is," she sighed, and with an incantation and a sweep of her arm, she conjured a wall of fire between herself and the Lagaru. It stopped the charge of the nearest ones, and she pointed her yew wand and unleashed a massive swarm of buzzing green hornets. The yew wand was, for once, very cooperative. Alexandra dashed through the way that had parted before her, with arrows and blowgun darts still whizzing through the air in her wake, up to the gate of the keep. She looked over her shoulder. The Lagaru who weren't fleeing from hornets had been startled by her instant leap across the distance to the keep.

She banged on the door. "Hey! Open up!" She tried casting an Alohomora spell, but the door remained shut and barred.

Two eyes appeared in the door, as if they were a part of it. They narrowed and stared down at her. "Who're you?" The voice was male.

"Alexandra Quick. Abraham Thorn's daughter. Let me in," she said, trying to sound imperious and not anxious. A troop of Lagaru was bounding towards her.

"What's the watch word?" said the voice.

"Watch word? You have a watch word, for what, people taking strolls out here? You've got to the count of three, and then I huff and puff and blow your door down." She threw a Slippery Jinx on the ground and Lagaru began tripping, tumbling, and sliding over a rocky surface that was suddenly slicker than ice.

The eyes seemed to scrutinize her again, and then the door opened. Rather surprised it had been so easy, she stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind her.

She was confronted by Oren.

"What the hell, you know who I am!" she said to the bearded old man who had once been her neighbor in an adjoining cell on Eerie Island.

"How was I supposed to know you're really Abraham's daughter? Creatures out there can take human form," said Oren. He was holding a wand up as if it were a candlestick. He apparently thought this was threatening. Alexandra wondered if he even remembered how to use it.

"So, you let me in, thinking I might be a creature from the Lands Below taking human form. I mean, I hope no actual creatures pretending to be human show up and knock on the door."

Oren frowned. "You sounded real."

"I feel like maybe I should talk to my father about his security measures," Alexandra said. "Another time. Thanks for letting me in."

Oren nodded, missing the sarcasm in her voice. "I don't usually guard the door, but almost everyone else is gone."

"Attacking Texarkana."

Oren coughed. "That's secret. Highly classified."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Alexandra looked over his shoulder at the black rows of Doomguards still standing motionless where they'd been the last time she was here. "Still haven't been able to reactivate them?"

"Your father says we need a goblin who knows how they were enchanted, or else it could take years to reenchant them," Oren said. "Why are you here?"

"Just came to collect a few things." She turned and marched toward the stairs Medea had walked up with Philomena.

"Collect a few things?" Oren followed after her. "Do you mean from the treasury? Did your father give you permission to pilfer our gold?"

"Pilfer…?" Alexandra turned to look at him, then shook her head. She called out, "Quimley?"

Quimley appeared with a pop. "Alexandra Quick," he said. Alexandra could not tell whether he was happy to see her or not.

"Quimley, can you show me where the children are sleeping?" Alexandra asked.

Quimley's eyes grew wider. Oren said, "Children? Do you mean the prisoners of war?"

"Yeah, them," Alexandra said.

"Why does Alexandra Quick wish to see the children?" asked Quimley, wringing his hands.

"I'm on a mission," Alexandra said. "I'm doing my father's bidding."

"He didn't mention this," said Oren. "He did not tell us to expect you at all. In fact, he has been quite wroth for the last few days at the mere mention of your name."

"Yeah, he persuaded me to do this," Alexandra said. "I guess you could say I had to seriously reevaluate my priorities."

"Oh. Well." Oren sounded doubtful.

Quimley was still looking at her with an inscrutable expression. Then he said, "As Alexandra Quick wishes… please follow." He turned and walked to the stairs. Oren looked as if he were considering following them.

"You'd better guard the door," she said. "Wouldn't want anyone sneaking in, up to no good."

"Indeed," said Oren. He gave her a look that for a moment made her wonder whether he was less gullible than he seemed, but then he turned and walked back across the large "courtyard" at the foot of the stairs.

Alexandra hurried after Quimley. "We can just go up the stairs without triggering any traps or alarms?" She started casting spells to detect these, but Quimley shook his head.

"Stay with Quimley and Abraham Thorn's daughter will be safe," he said.

At the top of the stairs was a long corridor, carved in stone like all the other walls and rooms and stairs here, and at the end of it was a pair of elves playing a game with wooden paddles and a ball attached to a string. They dropped the paddles as Quimley approached.

"The children is well?" asked Quimley.

"Yes, Quimley," one elf squeaked. Her voice was high, but Alexandra thought she looked young, inasmuch as she could guess the ages of elves. She wore a frayed doll-sized dress, but over it was a hand-sewn black tunic with a golden circle of thorns stitched on the chest. The other elf, much bigger and with a jutting forehead and an extremely large jaw, grunted. He was wearing an assortment of scraps, bits of leather, and tied-on pieces of metal that rattled as he moved. He had fashioned a ring of wire and scrap metal with little protruding spikes, resembling his companion's stitched thorn circle, that dangled from his neck.

"This is Alexandra Quick, one of the daughters of Abraham Thorn," Quimley said.

The two elves stood up straighter.

"Hi," Alexandra said. "Nice to meet you."

They nodded but did not, Alexandra noticed, introduce themselves.

"Alexandra Quick wants to see the children," Quimley whispered.

The two elves looked at each other, back at Quimley, and then at Alexandra. Then the smaller elf held up her left hand, and the larger elf held up his right, and together they snapped their fingers. The door behind them opened.

Quimley walked through the door. Alexandra followed. "Thank you," she said.

The room was almost dark. Glowing spheres floated near the ceiling, bathing eleven sleeping children in cold blue light. Alexandra walked past the biers on which they lay. They had been placed upon cushions and covered with soft blankets, but they were as still as corpses. Alexandra saw no chests rising and falling, no eyelids fluttering. None of them made a sound in their sleep.

"Have any of them woken since they were brought here?" she asked.

"No, Alexandra Quick," said Quimley. "Nothing disturbs them." He grew alarmed when Alexandra began gesturing with her wand over one of the youngest children. "What are you doing?"

"Just making sure they're actually alive," Alexandra said, not entirely truthfully. "Homenum Revelio."

The Revealing charm confirmed eleven living human beings in the room with her. It did not detect Quimley. She made a mental note of this, and whispered a few more incantations, while Quimley watched with a furrowed brow.

"Yeah," she muttered. "Something like a Hundred-Year Draught. It's not a curse, or something else hard to reverse." She supposed Medea and her father would want to be able to revive them quickly, if needed.

She reached into her pocket for the two tokens she'd retrieved from the shore of the Great Lake.

"What… is Alexandra Quick doing?" Quimley asked as he saw the coins.

"I can bring myself out of here," Alexandra said. "But I need these to take them. I mean, I could ask you and your friends to help…" Quimley's eyes went wide. "But then you'd be acting against my father's wishes. I don't want to ask you to do that. So I'm only going to ask that you not get in my way."

"What is Alexandra Quick going to do?" Quimley asked again, sounding more anxious.

She looked down at the child she'd cast her charms of detection and revelation on. He was a handsome young boy with dark skin and curly black hair. He looked as if he were taking a nap after a hard day of play.

She could carry him, but definitely not two kids. She could only choose one other. She walked over to a thin, older girl with dark, curly hair. Under the blue light of the overhead globes, Philomena Pepper's skin was even sallower, and she appeared to be wearing the same robes Medea had brought her in.

"Oh, Daughter of Thorn, what are you doing?" Quimley repeated, putting his fingers to his lips.

Alexandra waved her wand widdershins over Philomena, and cast a counterspell, a Rejuvenenation Charm, and finally, an Awakening Charm. Philomena gasped, and just as her eyes and mouth opened, Alexandra conjured a blindfold and snaked it around her eyes. She put a hand over Philomena's mouth before the girl could say anything, and leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"Shh. Don't talk. Just listen. If you want to leave this place, you're going to do exactly what I say, and nothing that I don't. Do you understand? Or I can put you back to sleep for a hundred years."

Philomena shuddered. A whimpering sound started, deep in the back of her throat, but Alexandra kept her hand clamped tightly over her mouth, and after a moment, the other girl nodded. A single tear trickled out from beneath her blindfold and trailed down her cheek.

"Have you ever heard of an Orpheus Journey?" Alexandra whispered.

Philomena shook her head.

"It's a test," Alexandra said. "If you pass, you get to leave the underworld. If you fail… there are no second chances."

Philomena shivered.

"If you scream or cry or say a word, if you speak, if you talk to anyone or answer any questions, I will leave you here. No matter what you hear, you ignore it. You be silent and listen to my footsteps so you can follow me. You don't take off your blindfold, you don't make a sound, you just follow me, quiet as a mouse, and do nothing else, and maybe you'll get to see your parents again. Disobey me, and you never will. Do you understand?"

Philomena swallowed hard, and slowly nodded her head.

Alexandra rose and took Philomena's hand, pulling her to her feet. The blanket fell off her, and the girl stood there in her nightrobes, trembling.

Quimley was shaking his head slowly and moaning. Alexandra walked over to Marcelius Viner and lifted him. He remained slumbering. He was heavier than he looked, and Alexandra didn't fancy carrying him for a long hike, but a Featherweight Charm made him much lighter.

"It's all right, Quimley," Alexandra said softly. "You don't really like leaving them here, do you? I'd take them all back, if I could."

"Abraham Thorn will not like this," Quimley rasped.

Philomena made a soft sound. Alexandra looked at her, but after a momentary start, the girl was standing still again, still shivering, but afraid even to cross her arms over herself.

Alexandra looked back at Quimley. "No, he won't. But it's on me, not you. Will you tell the two outside to let us through, please?"

Quimley gulped, then nodded. He walked to the door and opened it. Alexandra heard the elves speaking to one another in high-pitched whispers.

She turned to Philomena, and said, "Follow me."

Philomena followed her. They walked past the three elves, who all stared at her, but didn't make a move to stop them.

"Thank you, Quimley," Alexandra said.

At the top of the stairs, she said, "Put your hand on my shoulder and mind your step." Philomena obeyed. Her hand was thin and bony, but once they started descending the stairs, she gripped Alexandra's shoulder so tightly Alexandra almost told her to ease up. Instead, she bore it until they reached the bottom, and crossed the great chamber between the front door and the hall where the Doomguards stood.

Oren hustled over to them, looking aghast. "What… what in Merlin's name are you doing?" he demanded.

"Taking a couple of prisoners out of here," Alexandra said. She still held the feather-light Marcelius in her arms, but with one hand, she gestured with her wand. "Stand aside. You're not going to stop me, and you don't want to try. So just tell my father when he returns that you didn't want to threaten his daughter, and also that I'd have cursed you inside out."

Oren's mouth hung agape, then he looked at the front door. "The Lagaru," he said.

"I can handle them," Alexandra said. "I was surprised by them before. Now I'm ready."

Oren shook his head as he opened the door. Alexandra said to Philomena, "Follow me."

For a moment, Philomena hesitated, as the cool, dry air blew against her and the dim reddish-yellow light of the Lands Below fell on her blindfold. Then she stepped forward, following after Alexandra, and they walked outside.

The nearest Lagaru were hopping about not far away, but they saw the three humans immediately. Alexandra said, "Protego Totalus!" and cast a Shield Charm around the three of them. Then she inscribed a circle in the air overhead, and said, "Flamme Mobiliam!"

A ring of fire ignited on the ground, burning where there was nothing to burn. It whooshed up to waist-height, about the height of one of the Lagaru. It moved as Alexandra moved, and she began walking, slowly, with Philomena stepping carefully after her, sometimes almost stumbling, but saying nothing, even when she heard rocks and spears and darts clattering to the ground after being deflected by Alexandra's Shield Charm.

The Lagaru made screaming sounds that were eerie and unnerving as they danced around trying to bypass the ring of fire. Alexandra filled the air with hissing black needles, sheets of ice, and buzzing hornets that scattered the Lagaru. Now and then, a braver one would run through the flames, and singed, brandish a sharpened spear or a stone axe. Alexandra sent each one tumbling back through the flames, none too gently, bouncing them head over fluffy bunny tail across the rocks.

She moved slowly, but with a fierceness of purpose and the unaccustomed freedom to do as she pleased without holding back, and though she could have done worse, fewer and fewer of the savage rabbit-people tried their luck. They contented themselves with hopping around and screeching what she supposed were curses, far enough away to flee when she sent more hexes flying at them. Philomena flinched and once nearly tripped and fell, made a strangling choking sound to hold back a cry of panic, but recovered and continued following. All the while, Marcelius continued to sleep in Alexandra's arms.

Eventually, they reached the crack in the rocks that was also a crack in the world—this world, and the world above.

Alexandra grunted as she shifted Marcelius's weight so she was cradling him with one arm—something she wouldn't have been able to do if not for the Featherweight Charm. She pressed one of the coins into the little boy's hand and closed his fingers around it. She said to Philomena, "Take my hand." She grabbed the hand the girl extended in front of her, pressed the other coin into her palm, and pulled her through the crack, back to the world above.

Philomena stumbled when they arrived, falling into the mud at the edge of Old Larkin Pond with a wet splat. Alexandra said nothing as the other girl lay there, shivering in cold and terror, not sure what would happen next.

Time had passed more quickly in the world above — the sun had risen. Alexandra gently laid Marcelius down in the grass, yards from the pond, where it was dry. Then she walked over to Philomena and squatted next to her.

"Sit up," she commanded.

Philomena dragged herself to a sitting position, covered with mud. Her trembling was violent now.

Alexandra reached out and pulled off her blindfold. Philomena blinked rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight. She looked right and left in terror, trying to orient herself. Then she returned her gaze to Alexandra, who was still squatting next to her, green eyes fixed on the other girl's. Alexandra held her wand loosely in one hand.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked.

Philomena stared back at her, too afraid to speak.

"You can speak now," Alexandra said, softly but not kindly.

Philomena swallowed hard, and nodded.

Alexandra stared at her for another moment, studying her.

"Were you scared?" she asked. "When they came for you? When my father brought you to the Lands Below, were you frightened?"

Philomena nodded again. Her eyes began overflowing with tears, and her face crumpled. She looked as if only sheer terror was keeping back her sobs.

Alexandra said, "I'll bet you didn't know what was happening… you didn't know who these people were who'd abducted you from your home and were taking you to some terrible place, to an unknown fate. Maybe you thought, what did I do to deserve this? Why me? It must have been terrifying."

Philomena nodded again, much more vigorously. She finally let the sobs burst forth. Her face turned red, and she choked.

Alexandra waited until Philomena's breathing had steadied a bit, then asked, "Have you heard of the Deathly Regiment?"

Philomena's expression was full of fear and pleading, but Alexandra's gaze continued to bore into her, until finally she nodded again, and managed to stammer, "Y… yes."

"Of course you have. Everyone has. Now." Alexandra flexed her wrist a little, letting her wand tip wiggle up and down. "Your grandfather is the Governor of New England, right? He knew about it before. Maybe your parents did too." Her eyes narrowed. "Your grandfather had my sisters imprisoned someplace even worse than where you were, you know."

What little color remained drained from Philomena's face. "P… please…" she whispered.

"Shh," Alexandra said. Philomena closed her mouth.

"I'll bet you've had a pretty good life until now, haven't you?" Alexandra said. "Enjoyed your privileges, as one of the Elect?"

Wide-eyed, Philomena clearly wasn't sure whether she was supposed to answer or not.

"All that time, Muggle children were being sacrificed, to ensure that life for you. Children who were carried off, just like you were, taken from safe homes and parents who loved them, by strangers in the night. Wizards. Some of them working for your grandfather. They didn't understand what was happening to them or why. Just like you. Every night. They were sent to the Lands Below, just like you. Except none of them came back."

Philomena flinched. Her shoulders shook. Her face was red, wet, and miserable.

"They just disappeared. They were sacrificed. For you. For us. I want you to think about how terrified you were, not knowing if you'd ever go home again. Think about all those children who went through what you did. That was the price of your protection. The price paid for the safe little world you've lived in until now. When you go home, I don't expect you're going to join the war against the Confederation, but you'd better remember why it's being fought. You remember why all this happened."

Philomena began rocking back and forth. "I don't… I don't… I didn't…" she gasped.

"Shh," said Alexandra. "It's all right. See, you're going to go home. Aren't you lucky?" She slid a card out of her pocket and handed it to the other girl. "Here. Take this. Stop blubbering and take it!"

Philomena took the card with a trembling hand.

"That seal there, when you rub your thumb over it, it will summon a woman named Diana Grimm," Alexandra said. "Diana will take care of you. She'll see that you get home."

Alexandra rose to her feet and walked over to where Marcelius still lay sleeping. She gathered the boy up in her arms, and then, after one more glance over her shoulder at Philomena Pepper, who still sat in the mud by the pond, staring at her in shock, she Apparated to her house.

She laid Marcelius on the couch while she went upstairs to pack her Seven-League Boots and her hickory wand away with all her other magical items. She brought her pack downstairs, used her yew wand to push furniture and carpets aside, and cast a Tunneling Charm in the floor of the living room, until there was a hole deeper than she was tall. She dropped the pack into it, and then used the yew wand to fill in the hole again. It managed to do this, but the Repairing Charms she cast on the floor were less successful. The floor would definitely need to be properly repaired, but she hardly cared about that right now. She dragged the carpet back over it, went back upstairs, and put the yew wand in a case, which she put in a trunk, along with her cell phone. She then put the trunk in the crawlspace above her room, using a stepladder she dragged up from the kitchen.

After putting the stepladder away, she was tired. She sat on the couch and looked down at the sleeping boy.

The house phone rang. She let it ring until it stopped.

She rolled up her sleeve and exposed Nigel, and let the snake come alive. It twined around her wrist, and its tongue flicked in Marcelius's direction. Had the boy been capable of stirring, even a little, she would have been wary, but Nigel had no inclination to bite an inert, sleeping form. She really only wanted to reaffirm her connection to her familiar, as uncertain as it was. She ran her fingertips over the snake's length, and then turned him once more into a tattoo. Then she freed Charlie.

"Troublesome! Troublesome!" Charlie said immediately.

"Yeah," Alexandra said, lifting the raven off her shoulder. Charlie sat docilely in her hands.

"Pretty bird," Alexandra said. "My pretty bird. Where I'm going, I might not be able to get out, so I won't take you with me."

"Never!" said Charlie.

"Nigel doesn't really have an opinion," Alexandra went on, "but I can't exactly let him go free. So for better or for worse, he's coming with me. But you, my pretty bird, you should have a chance to fly free. Find a nice raven mate and hatch little ravens, and live a life you can't have with me."

"Never! Never!" said Charlie.

Alexandra closed her eyes. She could feel the raven's insistence, something almost like anger.

There was that damn phone again. She flipped it off, since she no longer had her wand to silence it. Eventually, it stopped ringing.

"Charlie," said Charlie. "Alexandra."

"Come with me one last time then, Charlie," she said at last. "If my plan does work, I'll need you afterwards."

"Clever girl," said Charlie.

"We'll see." Alexandra pulled her shirt off her shoulder so Charlie could hop back onto it, and then the raven sank into her skin once more, a lifelike blue-black tattoo.

She walked over to the sink and filled it with water. She withdrew Brigitte Jumeau's needle from her pocket and pricked her finger, rather more forcefully than she'd intended. Blood trickled out as she grimaced. It swirled in the water, twisted and bubbled, and then a moment later, the horrible little homunculus rose out of the sink.

"You… call me… have you… done as promised?" it asked.

Alexandra held her hand out. "I'll show you."

The homunculus looked around, as if trying to make sense of the Muggle kitchen, then stepped onto Alexandra's hand. It was a sensation like having a slug crawl across her skin, but Alexandra didn't flinch. The thing was almost weightless as she walked into the living room.

"Marcelius!" said Jumeau's homunculus in a burbling voice. "Why… does he… not move?"

"A sleep spell," Alexandra said. "No big deal."

The blood-and-water creature swiveled its head to regard her with glistening, impenetrable eyes. "Bring… him… to… me."

"And if I do?" Alexandra held up the contract. "You can really do as you promised?"

"If… you did not … believe… I could… you would not be here… nor would… Marcelius," said Jumeau's homunculus. "Do not… play games… it is… too late… for doubts. Decide."

Alexandra set the homunculus on her left shoulder, opposite the shoulder where Charlie was tattooed. She picked up Marcelius again. Without the Feather-Weight Charm, he was much heavier, especially after all the lifting and moving she'd done. She walked over to the fireplace, where she had set the canister of Floo Powder she'd taken from the Pruett School. Awkwardly, holding Marcelius in her arms and balancing Jumeau's gruesome little homunculus on her shoulder while unscrewing the lid, she opened the canister and scooped out a handful of green powder.

"Yessss…" said the homunculus.

Alexandra threw the powder into the fireplace and said, "Maison d'Jumeau!"

The powder flashed, the fireplace filled with green smoke, and Alexandra, holding the boy in her arms, stepped into the billowing cloud and was sucked into the Floo.