Alexandra's eyes burned as she walked over to the fallen Inquisitors. Her face was hot, but her heart was cold with rage. The acrid smell of smoke still filling Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall stung her eyes and nose.
Diana Grimm caught her arm as she pointed her wand at Hatheby.
"What are you doing?" her aunt asked.
They both seemed to realize in that moment that they stood eye to eye. Alexandra was conscious of tears running down her face, but she didn't care.
"I'm going to make sure they never kill another child," she said through clenched teeth.
Diana Grimm, the cold, implacable one, shook her head.
"You don't want to do this," she said. "You're not a murderer, Alexandra."
Alexandra smiled. "Is that what you're trying to save me from, Aunt Diana?" she asked softly. "You're too late."
Her aunt let go of Alexandra's arm.
"Do you want revenge, or do you want to help your friend?" she asked.
David, Forbearance, Sonja, and Carol were all kneeling around Constance. David was calling her name in a voice cracking with desperation. Forbearance wailed. Sonja was trying to cast first aid charms, while Carol just looked wide-eyed and horrified.
"Why not both?" Alexandra asked.
Diana Grimm's gray eyes became hard and stony. "Do as you will." She walked over to the other teenagers.
Alexandra looked down at the three Special Inquisitors. Hatheby was her father's age. The other man was much younger, and the woman somewhere in-between. There were burn marks on their faces. Hatheby's lips were split and one hand had caught a hex that had curled his fingers in on themselves. Blood trickled out of the woman's nose.
Wasn't this the same as when she'd killed the Gaunt Man? Or the Governor-General? Alexandra wasn't sure. She looked at her friends, and Diana, none of whom were paying any attention to her. Did her aunt really not care if she murdered her former fellow Inquisitors in cold blood?
Drucilla's words came back to her. Was this a test, or was her aunt morally compromising her again?
No one is damned except by their own choices.
She pointed her wand at Hatheby again and said, "Obliviate!"
She did the same to the other two. When she was done, she walked away from the Special Inquisitors, and looked down at Constance. The gash in her chest seemed impossibly deep. There was so much blood. Diana murmured, "Vulnera Sanentur" in a sing-song chant as she traced her wand over the wound.
David looked up at her. Alexandra thought he might shout accusations, but instead his eyes just filled with tears. Alexandra knelt next to him and put her arms around him. He held onto her, while Forbearance rocked back and forth, murmuring some Ozarker rhyme as she held Constance's hand. Sonja's eyes too were filled with tears, but she was paying close attention as Diana tried to stop Constance's bleeding. Carol continued to sit quietly where she'd fallen when the fight first broke out.
At last Diana said, "She is no longer bleeding to death. But I cannot put her insides back together. We need a proper Healer, and she cannot be moved."
"We… we'uns hafter ev-va-vacuate the school," Forbearance stammered.
"Alex," David said. "You can ask your dad to wait. He ain't gonna attack right now, right? He can hold off a little."
"I don't know if I can promise that," Alexandra said. "All of you need to get out of here."
"I hain't leavin' Connie," Forbearance whispered.
"Me neither," David said. "I'll face the Thorn Circle by myself if I have to."
Alexandra sighed. She almost wished it were the Thorn Circle David would have to face.
"A Healer may be able to move her," Diana said.
"We should find Mrs. Murphy," Alexandra said. She looked at her grief-stricken friends and Constance, whose eyes were closed and whose face was as pale as death. "I'll go."
She left them behind. Her aunt walked with her.
As they stepped around the fallen Inquisitors, Diana said, "You Obliviated them."
"You didn't stop me."
"I would think—"
"Don't think because you knew my mother, you know me," Alexandra said. "You don't know me, Aunt Diana. You never did. And you don't get to judge me. They should be grateful. No one who's still serving the Confederation deserves mercy."
Diana fell silent.
As they walked, Alexandra became aware that Charlie was hiding in the trees outside, from something large and terrifying in the sky. What now? She reassured Charlie that she was all right, and told the raven to stay hidden.
"Thank you, though," she said to her aunt as they exited DDKT hall. "Nice timing, again. How did you know I'd be here?"
"I didn't. I was here already. I knew you or your father would show up eventually. Just like Hatheby's squad did."
They emerged into the central annex in front of the main doors. It was chaos. Students were supposed to be filing out, but instead, most of the student body was crammed into the enormous circular front hall. Even the stairs from the upstairs dormitories were packed with students. It was so crowded and noisy, hardly anyone noticed Alexandra.
"Diana!" bellowed a deep, unpleasant voice. Alexandra and Diana both looked over the heads of a cluster of sixth-graders to see Mr. Grue pushing his way forcefully through the students. Those who didn't scatter yelped indignantly as he shoved them into the kids crowded around them. His eyes smoldered with anger as they fixed on Alexandra.
"Hello, Glaucus," Diana said. "Why is nobody exiting?"
"Dragons," Mr. Grue said.
"What?" Alexandra and Diana said together.
"The remains of the Confederation Air Force," Grue said. "They landed outside. Their officers are arguing with Lilith now, telling her to keep the students inside."
"That's… that's crazy," Alexandra said.
"Apparently they think the students will be safer inside than outside. This may be true, with MACUSA and Confederation Regiments both approaching." Grue glowered at Alexandra. "Your father may not even have to do anything to destroy the school."
Alexandra said nothing.
He turned back to Diana. "I tried to keep the other Inquisitors distracted, but apparently someone tipped them off to Miss Quick's presence."
"Isn't there a fourth one?" Alexandra asked. "A Miss Parker?"
Mr. Grue smirked.
"That was me," Diana said. "Buford always was sloppy."
"Oh." Another time, Alexandra would have appreciated their subterfuge. "Mr. Grue, Constance Pritchard is badly hurt. The Special Inquisitors almost killed her."
"Because she was with you," Grue said.
"Yes, because she was with me. It's all my fault and I'm every terrible thing you ever said about me. You were right about everything. Do you have any healing potions? And where's Mrs. Murphy?"
"I'll summon her. Where is Miss Pritchard?"
"In Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall."
Grue shoved away from them both, plowing his way through the crowd of students, heading towards DDKT.
"Thanks," Alexandra said to his retreating back. And muttered, "Asshole."
"I HEARD THAT!" Grue bellowed.
"I need to find Lilith," Diana said. "Try not to cause any more calamity." Much more gracefully than Mr. Grue, she began slipping through the throngs of students.
You have no idea, Alexandra thought. But she was searching the crowd herself, and finally spotted who she was looking for.
"Innocence!" she yelled.
Innocence was standing with William Killmond, carrying a little bucket with air holes in it which contained her toad familiar. William stood nervously in front of one of the dorm entrances which its occupants had already evacuated and some were now trying to return to. He looked rather sharp in his JROC uniform, but he was sweating as he faced twenty younger students demanding to be allowed back to their rooms.
Those students all backed away when Alexandra approached.
"Alexandra!" Innocence said. Her delighted expression faded when she saw the look on Alexandra's face. "Alex… do you know somethin' 'bout these Confederation blackguards holdin' us hostage?"
"Innocence," Alexandra said softly, "you should come with me."
"I'm helpin' William keep everyone orderly," Innocence said.
William's eyes rolled slightly upwards.
"Constance is hurt," Alexandra said. "She's hurt bad."
Innocence's face drained of color. William's mouth dropped open.
"Come on," Alexandra said. "I'll take you to her." She took Innocence by the hand, and patted William on the shoulder with her other hand. "Keep doing what you're doing, William. They'll need you soon enough." She gave him a meaningful look. "They'll all need you."
Pale, he swallowed and nodded.
Innocence wailed and fell into Forbearance's arms when they returned to Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall. Mrs. Murphy, the red-haired Charmbridge Academy nurse, was kneeling next to Constance. Mr. Grue squatted opposite her, holding a glass container full of an orange concoction in each hand. Whatever they were doing, they had not moved Constance from where she lay on the floor, though someone had made the puddle of blood vanish.
David stood a few feet away, watching, with his arms wrapped around himself. Sonja and Carol stood next to him.
Alexandra walked over to David and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Magic's supposed to be able to cure anything," David said.
Not anything, Alexandra thought. "I'm sure they'll make her better," she said.
She wished Livia were here. She knew Mrs. Murphy was good, but surely Livia was the best.
Forbearance and Innocence watched tearfully as Mrs. Murphy peeled back layers of clothing and Mr. Grue poured some of the orange stuff into the raw, red chasm in Constance's flesh.
Alexandra remembered Hela lying dying in the snow, her body smashed and bloody. Constance looked as bad. She forced herself not to look away. She didn't want her friends to think she thought Constance had no chance.
Mrs. Murphy said, "We need to move her to the infirmary."
"She needs to be prepared for evacuation, if we are to believe the Thorn Circle's herald," Mr. Grue said. Beneath his bushy eyebrows, his eyes shifted in Alexandra's direction. She gave him a flat stare in return.
"I can prepare her there for evacuation," Mrs. Murphy said. She waved her wand, which made a whistling sound. Immediately, three elves appeared with a pop. Alexandra didn't recognize any of them. They all regarded Constance with wide, horrified eyes.
"Laney, Lalu, Mixelpot, Miss Pritchard needs to be floated to the infirmary," Mrs. Murphy said. "Without stirring a hair on her head. Can you do that?"
The three elves nodded.
"Not a hair," said Laney.
"Like a mouse feather," said Lalu.
Alexandra didn't know what a mouse feather was, but they all watched as Mrs. Murphy cast another spell on Constance, and then the three elves raised their hands together, and Constance levitated off the ground. Forbearance clung to Innocence and bit her lip, with tears running down her face.
Mr. Grue turned away, tucking his flasks back into his robes.
"Are you just leaving her?" David demanded.
"I can do nothing more for her," Grue said gruffly. "And Miss Quick has left other casualties for me to clean up." He stalked past them towards the three Inquisitors still lying unconscious at the end of the hallway.
"We'uns'll go with her," Forbearance said. She and Innocence walked hand in hand after their sister.
David said, "Me too." He glanced at Alexandra. "Grue's an asshole. This wasn't your fault."
"I HEARD THAT!" Grue bellowed from the end of the corridor.
Alexandra gave David a small smile. It was nice of him to say that, though she didn't believe it and wasn't sure he did either. To Carol and Sonja she said, "You two should join the rest of the students. It won't help Constance for everyone to stay behind with her."
Carol was clearly anxious to flee. Sonja brushed hair away, where tears had made it stick to her face. "What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I'm going to talk to some elves," Alexandra said. "And see if I can do anything to get everyone out of here."
Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall had main exits at both ends. One led to the front of the school. In the other direction, where Constance had been taken, the hallway led to more corridors that circled around the school. Alexandra supposed the elves would use one of their hidden elevators to take Constance down to the infirmary. But there were other exits; doors that were usually locked, and narrow stairwells to the floors above and below, for students who knew where they were going. In her years at Charmbridge, Alexandra had learned many secret shortcuts through the school, though she doubted anyone but the elves knew them all.
She encountered no one but a pair of Clockworks mopping an empty hallway on her way down to the basements. She considered wrecking the golems just for spite, but she didn't have time to waste, so she left them doing their pointless chores.
In the upper basement level—the only one the students were supposed to know about—it was dark. Alexandra wondered if Sofia the hag had taken over what had long ago been Mr. Journey's office. Could hags see in the dark? For that matter, Alexandra hadn't seen Sofia upstairs…
"Lumos!" she said, as she imagined gnarled green hands with long black nails reaching for her neck. But the Light Spell showed she was alone in the basement corridor.
She barely needed her Witch's Sight to see the cracks here, pulsing brightly beneath her feet. They touched the air and the stones and the concrete floors, even up here, but it was much further down where they intersected at the heart of Charmbridge Academy.
Alexandra allowed herself to be touched by the magic of the World Away, weak as it was, with the cracks still closed, and said, "Em."
For a few moments, nothing happened. Then an old elf in a ragged dress that looked stitched together from dishrags appeared directly in front of Alexandra with a pop. She glared at Alexandra.
"No rhymes for Em? No pleading, no verses for Em? No little workings to summon Em? Miss Quick merely speaks Em's name and expects her to come?"
"I spoke your name, knowing you'd hear," Alexandra said. "But I didn't summon you, did I? No bindings, no oaths…" She held out her hands. "No obols."
Em twitched.
"You came of your own free will," Alexandra said.
Em twitched again.
"Miss is not a student anymore," she said.
"No," Alexandra said. "Are you still angry about how I used you to send me to the Lands Below? Do you want to do something to me?"
Em sighed and her long ears drooped. "What does Miss want?" She sounded more exasperated than upset.
"I think," Alexandra said, "that I've finally figured out the Compact. Part of it."
Em's eyes widened. Her ears rose again.
"Who exactly do Charmbridge elves belong to?" Alexandra asked. "You aren't owned by Ms. Grimm or the deans. You didn't belong to Mr. Journey or any of the other groundskeepers."
"What are you doing, Starshine?" asked a familiar voice. Alexandra had been expecting Journey's ghost to show up. She didn't even turn in his direction, just held up a hand. "Quiet. I'm talking to Em."
Em, whose head had immediately swiveled in the direction of the former groundskeeper's ghost, snapped back in Alexandra's direction, and her eyes narrowed. "Miss is very rude to Mr. Journey."
Alexandra went on as if the interruption had not happened. "Nobody owns you. You belong to a place, not a person. Isn't that right?"
"Why is Miss talking about this?"
"Maybe you don't even know yourself how the Compact was formed," Alexandra said. "I mean, it's probably not one single Compact, right? Or maybe the original one, way back when, established how you could be bound to places—"
"What does Miss want?" Em demanded, sounding angry, and as assertive as Alexandra had ever seen an elf.
"I want to set you free," Alexandra said.
Em moaned, and a shudder ran through her body.
"These cracks in the world," Alexandra said, and she pulled on one, just a little, until the basement corridor turned dark and indigo, with only Alexandra's wand and Mr. Journey casting light, both of them suddenly shining brilliant blue-white in an ultraviolet world. Then Alexandra stopped, and the light returned to normal, and Em and Mr. Journey both gaped at her. "These cracks in the world were open once, and the Confederation closed them, just like they closed off the gate to the Lands Below, and they built Charmbridge Academy on top of it, and you elves, somehow you're bound to a place when it's built. Maybe you came from the World Away originally?"
"Miss speaks of things she doesn't understand. Even elves cannot explain all these things," Em said.
"Maybe you can't. But what happens when the cracks are opened and the seals are broken? What happens if Charmbridge Academy is destroyed?"
"Destroyed?" Mr. Journey exclaimed.
Em shook her head rapidly. "Miss says mad things."
"No," Alexandra said. "I'm telling you what's going to happen. Abraham Thorn has ordered that Charmbridge Academy be destroyed, and it's going to happen. Everything I just described is going to happen. When it does, I want to make sure all of you elves get away. Not stay and die, like the elves at other places the Thorn Circle has destroyed."
Em's eyes watered. "What will Charmbridge elves do, without Charmbridge?"
"I don't know. And I'm sorry." Alexandra turned to Mr. Journey. "I don't know what will happen to you either. And I'm sorry about that too."
"You have more than that to be sorry for, Starshine," Mr. Journey said, and suddenly his ghostly countenance was spooky and haunted in the manner of the angry ghost of Pasquale Mercurio, a mask of undeath that bore none of Ben Journey's winking, good-natured dissembling. Like a skin peeling back, to expose the cowardly murderer that had always hidden behind the twinkle in his eyes when he was alive.
Alexandra pointed her wand at him. "Don't make me Banish you."
He looked his old ghostly self again, so quickly Alexandra might have believed she'd imagined it, if she didn't know better. Now he just looked sad. "It wasn't a threat, Starshine. You've done things that have consequences in the Lands Beyond."
More ghostly riddles. Alexandra badly wanted to interrogate him, and didn't have the time.
She turned back to Em, who had stood frozen in place at the confrontation between Alexandra and Mr. Journey.
"I need you to tell all the other elves," Alexandra said. "But I also need your help."
"Our help?" Em squeaked, at once terrified and indignant.
"It's not just you I want to get out of here. It's you and everyone else. The students, the teachers… even Sofia, if she's still around."
"She's around," Journey said.
"Elveses is not keeping nobody from leaving," Em said.
"No, right now the Confederation Air Force and the ROC is," Alexandra said. "I'm going to open a crack in the world for everyone to escape through."
"You must have nurgles in your noggin," Mr. Journey said. "You may have survived a trip to the Lands Below, and to the Lands Beyond—"
"I've survived several trips to the Lands Below and the Lands Beyond," Alexandra said.
"—but you can't just open the Great Veil like that."
"Now you're the one who doesn't know what he's talking about. I can, and I will." Alexandra turned her attention back to Em. "But you elves, you have magic of your own. I think it's tied to this place? You're right, I don't really understand. But I need your help. I need all the elves' help. For the students. For Charmbridge. For yourselves. I'll do it with or without you, but I could really use your help. Please."
Em appeared to be in a state of shock. Finally, she said, "Em will speak to the other elveses. When does this thing happen?"
"Soon," Alexandra said. "Very soon. You'll know when the cracks start opening."
Em gulped and disappeared with a pop.
"You said you," Mr. Journey said.
Alexandra turned warily to the ghost. "What?"
He wasn't quite the frightful specter he'd been a moment ago, but his smile was gone. "You said you're going to open the cracks in the world. You're going to break the seal over the Lands Below. You're the one who's going to destroy Charmbridge Academy. Isn't that right, Starshine? The Thorn Circle's not coming. Abraham sent you."
"Yes," Alexandra said. "I think there was some kind of a prophecy. Maybe you heard about it?"
The ghost turned paler and ghostlier. "Merlin, what are you?"
"See you around, Mr. Journey," Alexandra said.
She didn't know if she would, but she left him behind as she hurried back up the stairs from the basement.
Alexandra returned to the main floor, where students were overflowing the front entrance hall. Most of them gave her a wide berth, but a handful, led by Cleopatra Dupree, came over to her as if hoping for protection, or that she'd tell them what was going on.
"Cleo," Alexandra said. "Is the ROC still not letting anyone leave?"
"Dunno," Cleo said. "But Dean Grimm and Ms. Shirtliffe came back inside after talking to them and looked pissed!"
Dean Grimm and Ms. Shirtliffe were conferring with the assistant deans near the front entrance. Other teachers, along with the JROC, were trying to keep the mass of students in place and orderly, but tension and voices were rising. They clearly couldn't leave the entire student body standing around neither able to leave nor return to their rooms.
Alexandra made her way through the crowd. Now and then she said, "Excuse me," in a sharp tone to part a cluster of students before her, but mostly they saw her coming and made way for her. The looks she received ran the gamut of awe, fear, and anger. She had often thought of herself as an outcast, though she had to admit that she had probably exaggerated this in her own mind when she was younger. But now she was genuinely feared, even hated. An Enemy of the Confederation, like her father.
And yet some, like Cleo and William and Sonja, watched her hopefully, as if she would save them all.
"Dean Grimm," she said, when she reached the adults. They all turned towards her with wary expressions.
"Miss Quick," said the Dean.
"Please tell me what's happening," Alexandra said. "Are the Deathie—the Regimental Officers really not letting anyone leave?"
The Dean's voice was flat. "They say that with an imminent battle against MACUSA forces, the students will be safer staying sheltered indoors."
"You explained the part about the Thorn Circle coming, right?"
"Yes, I explained that!" the Dean snapped. Seeing her icy demeanor slip alarmed Alexandra more than most things could.
"Tell her everything, Lilith," Ms. Shirtliffe said.
Dean Grimm sighed. "Mr. Grue turned over the Special Inquisitors you… incapacitated. The Mage-Colonel in charge demanded I hand you over to them as well, or failing that, allow them to enter the school."
Alexandra tried to read her aunt's expression. "And you refused?"
"Yes. One student has almost been killed already."
"If they did have me, would they let the rest of you leave?"
Dean Grimm's gaze didn't waver, but the others exchanged looks.
"The Mage-Colonel did not say so," the Dean said. "But I think he fears either this is a trick to help you escape, or the Thorn Circle is here already and holding the students hostage."
"What keeps them from coming after me anyway?"
"They're reluctant to assault a school. They don't actually want children hurt."
"Not children of the Elect, anyway," Alexandra said.
Her aunt regarded her coolly, but Ms. Shirtliffe said, "Regardless, we refused. We're not going to hand you over."
"WHY NOT?" screamed a voice from behind Alexandra. She turned to face Adela Iturbide and several other seniors. Adela pointed at Alexandra. "She's the reason we're all in danger! Why does she even get to be here? This is all her fault! Hers, and yours, Dean Grimm, for letting her get away with everything! Turn her over and we can all leave!"
"Miss Iturbide, eavesdropping is a terrible habit, as is intruding into discussions you are not a part of," Dean Grimm said. "We will make the best decisions for the safety of the students, and your hysterical shrieking is not helpful to anyone. Be silent."
Adela's voice suddenly died. She clapped a hand over her mouth and her eyes went wide and angry.
"I won't hand myself over to the Confederation," Alexandra said. "But I do think I can get everyone out of here."
Dean Grimm raised an eyebrow. The reaction of Ms. Shirtliffe and the other deans was less restrained: incredulity, skepticism, even hostility, as if they thought she were planning a trick. In a way, she was.
"How?" the Dean asked.
Alexandra took a deep breath. "You're going to have to trust me."
Her aunt smiled and shook her head. "You ask for so much, child. As if you have ever done anything to earn my trust."
"Well, that makes us even," Alexandra said, and was rewarded with the slightest twitch at the corner of the Dean's mouth. "What if I told you that there are cracks in the world, and a World Away? And that I can open one of those cracks and let everyone escape by walking through it?"
"That sounds like a fanciful fairy tale," said Dean Black.
"I would ask how you are able to do such a thing," Dean Grimm said.
"It's a long story. We don't have time," Alexandra said. "But there are a lot of those cracks—in fact, I've counted seven—running right through Charmbridge Academy. One leads directly to the Invisible Bridge. I doubt that's a coincidence. I think I can open it long enough for everyone to walk through, right past the ROC and their dragons."
"Impossible," Dean Price said.
"Not impossible," Ms. Shirtliffe said. "But extremely unlikely, especially for a teenager who hasn't had nearly enough time to study that much magical theory and portal and apparition magic."
"You know how good I am at unlikely things," Alexandra said.
"This isn't about how vainglorious and like your father you are, Quick," Shirtliffe said.
"No, it isn't! I'm offering a way to get everyone out of here! Even her!" Alexandra turned and pointed at Adela, who shrank away from her. She turned back to the deans and Ms. Shirtliffe. "You can't stay here. You have to go. Please believe me. Just once, believe me. And trust what I say."
They all stared at her. Then Dean Grimm said, "How exactly do you propose to… open this crack in the world?"
"With some help." Alexandra turned around and stepped towards Adela, who backed away from her, almost falling into her friends behind her. Alexandra kept walking until she was in the middle of the tiled rotunda, surrounded by students whose voices slowly dropped to whispers as they stood around her in a circle.
"Miss Quick," Dean Grimm said. "You cannot just—"
"Em?" Alexandra called. "Bran? Poe? All of you. Please, if you're listening, I really need you guys now."
Em appeared in front of Alexandra with a pop. She lowered her head and hunched her shoulders when she realized she was surrounded by the entire Charmbridge student body and most of its staff.
More elves appeared, popping into sight and likewise cringing at being the center of attention. In all of Alexandra's years at Charmbridge, the elves had been mostly unseen, and she knew some students never interacted with them at all. Now her friends Bran and Poe, the library elves, appeared along with Mr. Remy and the other kitchen elves, and many more Alexandra had never even seen… there were dozens of them, more elves than she ever thought occupied Charmbridge. From the gasps of the students, it was more elves than any of them had ever seen in one place as well.
Alexandra cast an Amplification Charm and spoke into her wand as if it were a microphone. "Listen to me. There isn't a lot of time. You all have to evacuate the school, and since the ROC isn't letting anyone leave, we have to do it magically. The elves are going to help me open a… portal, like a giant Floo network, kind of. And you're all going to walk through it. The elves will make sure you get across, and arrive at the Invisible Bridge. Cross the bridge, and from there, the faculty will get you all home safely."
She had no idea what provisions the faculty might make to do that. She doubted the magical Charmbridge bus driven by Mrs. Grundy could carry everyone. She could see the teachers were all as skeptical and baffled as the students, and almost as frightened. But putting everyone on the other side of the Invisible Bridge was better than here.
From above, through Charmbridge's three floors, they heard a draconic roar. Panicky sounds rose like a chorus, echoing in the great room.
"Please tell them, Dean Grimm," Alexandra said.
Dean Grimm looked down at the assembled elves, who avoided her gaze as if they feared anyone it rested on might wither away. She looked around the hall, where voices fell silent as everyone watched her. William was still standing at his post, wiping sweat from his brow. Mr. Grue was near the entrance, arms folded, eyes brooding beneath his heavy brows, and next to him stood Sofia. Mrs. Minder the librarian had somehow stacked an impossibly large number of books onto a trolley which she'd pushed ahead of her to the edge of the front hall. Mr. Newton had emerged from the hallway leading to his own classroom, with his cat Fafnir in his arms. Fafnir was staring up at the ceiling, tail swishing, as another dragon's roar echoed through the trees outside.
Dean Grimm spoke. "As Miss Quick says. We need to leave. Follow the instructions of Ms. Shirtliffe's cadets and file out in an orderly fashion. This is not the sort of evacuation we had planned, but I assure you I will be the last one out of Charmbridge."
Alexandra nodded. "Okay. Get ready." She was speaking to the elves, and everyone else, as she reached for one of the cracks running through Charmbridge Academy, the one that ran directly to the Invisible Bridge.
Students screamed as a midnight black tear in space opened up directly in front of Alexandra. The elves scuttled away from it as it yawned wider and wider. The crack in the world spread, showing starlight and moonlight within. The deans standing on the stairs scattered before the widening crack. It kept expanding and extending until it reached through the far wall and disappeared into starry blackness. Alexandra could not make out much of what sort of World Away she had opened, only that it was dark and cool.
Everyone looked terrified. Some had hands over their mouths, others held their friends' hands. Some of the older students had their wands raised, as if they could protect themselves from a threat they didn't understand. Here and there, couples clung to each other.
Bran and Poe said, "We will take the first students through."
Alexandra looked around. Then Cleo stepped forward. She grabbed her roommate and dragged her along. "We'll go first!" Her roommate, a plump girl with curly copper hair and glasses, looked as if she might bolt. Cleo tightened her grip on the other girl's wrist. "Stop being a baby, Marcie."
Bran and Poe took the girls' hands and walked with them into the crack. Everyone heard Cleo say: "My gosh, it's full of stars!" and then her voice echoed and faded.
"Keep moving!" Ms. Shirtliffe said, and the imperiousness in her tone prompted the JROC cadets to begin nudging students forward in the lines they'd been forming.
Elves took students into the crack in the world, one by one, two by two. At first the procession moved slowly. When Bran and Poe returned, everyone saw that it wasn't a one-way journey to oblivion. The apprehension turned to anxiety as instead of shrinking away from the yawning chasm, panicking students started pressing forward. Especially after a booming sound from outside shook the entire building, followed by the screech of an enormous beast.
Charlie? Alexandra thought.
Through Charlie's eyes, she saw fire and smoke in the sky.
Stay there, Charlie, she thought. Don't be brave, don't be clever. Just stay. She scanned the crowd and shouted, "Sonja!"
Sonja, hanging back with the other juniors, started. Alexandra gestured at her to move ahead of the younger students in front of her. "You're next."
Sonja shook her head. "I can wait—"
"For Constance and Forbearance," Alexandra said. "Go." And to the nearest elves, she said, "Take her. Along with Carol."
Carol was less reluctant than Sonja to cut in line. The JROC cadets who were keeping the lines moving were puzzled and displeased, but nobody argued with her. Sonja walked forward with Carol, gave Alexandra a sad smile, and then disappeared into the World Away with Carol and their elf escorts.
The students kept moving. There were so many of them, and Alexandra could only trust they'd be safe on the other side, that they were making their way across the Invisible Bridge and to safety. Keeping the crack in the world open required enough of her concentration that she didn't notice Ms. Shirtliffe had approached her until the teacher was standing next to her.
"You are so talented," she said. "I really want to talk to you about this later."
"I'm sure you do," Alexandra said. "Where's Dean Grimm?" Most of the deans had disappeared.
"Gone to get Galen," Ms. Shirliffe said. "And Miss Marmsley. The deans are going to try to salvage as many portraits as they can. Miss Gambola and Mr. Bludgeleg are freeing the familiars and the beasts in the stables to at least give them a chance."
"What about Constance?" Alexandra asked.
"Mrs. Murphy is bringing her up now. Is there anything you haven't told us, Alexandra?"
"Lots of things. Worry about the students, Ms. Shirtliffe, not me."
The students continued walking into the midnight-dark crack. A few screamed, and several were visibly fighting panic. Now and then someone had to be grabbed by a JROC cadet or in one case, frozen by his roommate with a Body-Bind Spell and carried through. It had become an almost-orderly procession, with the younger students leaving first and the older ones gathering at the back. Now and then teachers would step through at the tail end of a class, at Ms. Shirtliffe's instructions, ensuring there would be enough adults to keep things under control on the other side. Hopefully. Mr. Grue and Sofia stepped through after the last of the tenth-graders, both glaring at Alexandra.
The students who were about to pass through stepped aside, parted by a procession led by Mrs. Murphy tensely saying, "Make way—make way, please."
Constance lay on a floating stretcher. The parts of her that were visible were wrapped in white bandages; someone had even wrapped bandages around her head to cover her hair, so she looked rather like a mummy. The three elves who'd accompanied Mrs. Murphy to the infirmary now walked alongside her stretcher, and made imperious gestures to move students out of their way.
Walking next to her was Innocence, holding Constance's hand and sobbing. Forbearance had a hand on Innocence's shoulder. David was walking on Constance's other side, never taking his eyes off her face.
Mrs. Murphy looked into the crack in the world, and shuddered. "Merlin and Medb." She turned to Alexandra. "You're sure this is safe? For Miss Pritchard?"
Alexandra's tongue was dry as she ran it over her lips. "It's safer than staying here." She walked over to Constance, and felt some warmth return to her heart when she saw Constance's eyes were open.
"Alex," Constance said, weakly. "If'n I don't see you 'gain—"
"You hush that curst blather!" Innocence exclaimed, red-faced. Angry tears flew from her eyes. "You're gonna be fine! Don't you… don't you dare…" She looked desperately at Alexandra.
Constance closed her eyes.
"Constance Gwendolen Pritchard," said Forbearance. "You will not leave us! I will not stay in a world without you. Do you hear me? I will not!"
"Don't die, Connie," Innocence said. "I swear by my hair and my thumbs, I will be so good, I'll be the most biddable gal you ever did see…"
"Innocence Catharine," whispered Constance. "You hush."
"Guys," Alexandra said, forcing words through the lump in her throat. "Go. Take care of her. All of you. I will see you again, Constance." If it was a lie, it wasn't one that could hurt her.
David nodded. And then they all stepped into the crack in the world, escorted by Lalu, Laney, and Mixelpot. Alexandra watched them disappear into the darkness, and then watched as more students followed them, on and on. Mr. Newton went, carrying Fafnir. Mrs. Minder pushed her trolley of books, escorted by Bran and Poe. Mrs. Verde and Ms. Grinder, Dean Black carrying an armful of portraits. The one on top glared at Alexandra, his painted eyes following her as he disappeared with Dean Black into the World Away.
Alexandra's eyes narrowed and she reached out to grab one of the last of the passing seniors.
Adela resisted, and her friends paused. Alexandra said to the elves with them, "I'll take Adela myself. Go!" The last word was a command, and though she didn't really have the power to command them, the elves obeyed, taking Adela's friends into the World Away, leaving Alexandra holding onto Adela's upper arm with a tight grip.
Adela's eyes were wide, but no sound came out of her mouth.
"Silencing Charm still got your tongue?" Alexandra asked. "Good." She looked quickly around and said, "Confundus!"
Adela's eyes glazed over and she stopped struggling.
"Just stay put," Alexandra said.
The last of the seniors looked at Alexandra and Adela standing together a few feet from the opening of the crack, but no one commented, and at last, only Dean Grimm remained, holding Galen in her arms.
"What about Miss Marmsley?" Alexandra asked.
"She won't leave." The Dean shrugged, but Alexandra thought she had never seen her aunt so helpless and defeated than with that small gesture. "We had many discussions about this, but she remains permanently anchored to Charmbridge. She will not change her mind."
Alexandra nodded, not sure how she felt about this. "You can't actually be the last one out. I have to close the crack behind me."
"Why is Miss Iturbide with you?" the Dean asked.
"We're going to have a talk," Alexandra said.
"I think not," the Dean said. "Whatever you're up to—"
Alexandra opened another crack in the world, splitting the now-empty front hall crossways with a burst of white light, accompanied by a wave of crimson flower petals shaped like scimitars filling the air.
"Em, Mr. Remy! Get Dean Grimm out of here!" Alexandra shouted in a panicked voice. "Tell the others not to come back through—I'm closing the way to the World Away!"
Em and Mr. Remy, the two elves waiting to take the last traveler through the World Away, squeaked in dismay and grabbed Dean Grimm's skirt, and before the Dean could shake them off or order them to release her, they were gone.
Alexandra let the crack she'd opened close, leaving behind piles of pretty, blood-colored flower petals. The smell was sweet but not quite floral.
Adela's eyes were gaining focus again. She backed away, looking wildly around.
"It's just you and me, Adela," Alexandra said.
"What… where has everyone else gone?" Adela asked.
"To a World Away," Alexandra said. "Same place I'm taking you."
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Adela said.
"Then you can stay here and die," Alexandra said.
Adela's eyes were wide. "Fine. Let's go."
"Not quite yet. I'd like to talk about the Special Inquisitors."
Adela's eyes widened just a little bit more. "What… what about them?"
"Funny how they showed up almost immediately after I arrived. Almost as if someone called them. Just like last time!" Alexandra's voice rose and became harder. "You knew it was me, didn't you? When Ms. Shirtliffe came in with a raven on her shoulder, you figured out who she was bringing to the Dean's office, because you're dumb but you're not stupid, and you couldn't wait to run off and call your buddies at the Office of Special Inquisitions… just like a snitch."
Adela blinked rapidly. Alexandra had seen that look before, a mind spinning, choosing between denial or defiance.
Adela chose the latter. "You and your father… you started this war, and the Inquisitors said if you came to Charmbridge again, it would be to destroy it. They were right!"
"Yeah, they were. You know what, I changed my mind. I'm not going to take you to the World Away."
Adela's brow furrowed. "You're not?"
"No." Adela turned ashen as Alexandra pointed her wand at her. "Draw your wand. I know how important tradition is to you, Adela. So we'll do this Code Duello, the way you Colonials like it."
Adela stood paralyzed. She stammered, "This… this isn't fair…"
"What's not fair about it? You're a year older than me, you used to be a member of the Dueling Club. It's not like, oh, Special Inquisitors ambushing me and my friends! They almost killed Constance!"
Adela blinked away tears. "That's not my fault! I didn't mean for that to happen!"
"Oh, well, if you didn't mean for it to happen, then that's all right. I guess you only meant for me to be killed." Alexandra swirled the tip of her wand in a circle, trailing hot sparks. "Draw. Your. Wand."
Adela took a deep breath, clenched her fists at her sides, and said, "No. You are the Enemy's daughter. I don't know the Dark Arts you do. I'm not going to be sport for you, or let you pretend this was a fair fight."
Alexandra sneered. "I don't need Dark Arts to kill you, bitch."
"Then do as you will." Adela closed her eyes.
Alexandra seethed as Adela stood there trembling. She thought about the green flash in the woods of Larkin Mills, and the blood sprayed across Mrs. Wilborough's living room, and Governor-General Hucksteen's lifeless corpse, and all the other bodies she'd seen since the start of the war. And how Adela had followed her the first time just to beg her not to kill Larry… well, that and to delay her so the Special Inquisitors could catch her.
Alexandra walked over to Adela and grabbed her arm again. The other girl gasped in terror.
"I'm not going to kill you," Alexandra said.
Adela opened her eyes. "You're not?" Her eyes filled with tears, and for a moment, all Alexandra could see was a terrified teenage girl not unlike herself.
"No. I'm going to take you to the Invisible Bridge where you can join the others and go home. Aren't you lucky?"
Adela's eyes were as wide as before. Desperate, hopeful, fearful, and disbelieving. She was speechless, as if waiting for Alexandra to tell her it was just a cruel prank.
Alexandra raised her wand. "That doesn't mean I'm not going to make sure you remember what you did."
Adela screamed as Alexandra cast the first incantation.
Alexandra and Adela emerged from the World Away before a crowd waiting to cross the Invisible Bridge. The crack in the world closed behind them, the midnight-black seam disappearing like a tear that had been patched.
The Invisible Bridge had become a bottleneck. Only a fraction of the students had made their way across it. The bridge wasn't wide enough to allow more than a single-file line, and there were always kids who had trouble crossing it. While students massed in a crowd that even the faculty and Ms. Shirtliffe's JROC cadets couldn't form into lines, the elves were gathered into a little group of their own.
Alongside the students trickling across the bridge, older students and teachers with brooms were ferrying a handful at a time. On the far side, those who had made it across waved and called to their friends, urging them on.
"Alexandra!" William came running over to her. He stopped as Adela lifted her tear-streaked face from her hands to look around, blinking. William stared at her forehead, where scarlet letters glowed even in daylight, spelling out the word "SNITCH."
Alexandra shoved Adela away from her, and turned to look back in the direction of Charmbridge.
The sky was full of dragons, hippogriffs, and wizards on brooms, casting spells and curses that flashed and sizzled and made booming sounds as loud as the dragons' roars.
"Those are MACUSA wizards on the brooms," William said. "The rest of the MACUSA Regiment got lost, 'cause of Charmbridge's magic, Witch-Colonel Shirtliffe says."
"She's just Ms. Shirtliffe now, William. Why are you guys still wearing a Confederation uniform, anyway?"
"They're not Confederation uniforms. They're Charmbridge JROC uniforms. Some of us are going to fight with MACUSA."
"What? Are you crazy? You're too young, William. You're all too young."
"You're not even a senior," William said, "and you've been—"
"I've been killing people, William. I've been watching people die."
Hearing the distant roar of a dragon, and seeing figures tumbling out of the sky, just like at Mahomachi and BMI, Alexandra shuddered. She called Charlie to her. She could feel Charlie's eagerness to get out of the woods and rejoin her.
Turning her attention back to the bridge, Alexandra saw Innocence herding younger students onto it.
"Why is Innocence on this side?" Alexandra demanded. "She should be with her sisters! Didn't they take Constance across yet?"
"Yeah," William said. "But Innocence stayed, said she was gonna be responsible and help everyone else." He was clearly not happy about this. "So did David." He pointed to where David stood, talking to some of the elves and nodding at the far side of the valley. David saw her, held a hand up to the elves, and ran over to her. He passed Adela on the way. Adela turned her face away.
"You should be with Constance," Alexandra said, when David joined her and William.
David's face was grim. "You should stop telling other people where they ought to be. I can't help Constance right now and I ain't running away." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Did you mark up Adela's face?"
"Not just her face," Alexandra said darkly.
David let this go with an uneasy shake of his head. "The elves say they can't leave Charmbridge's grounds. Can't or won't—it ain't exactly clear. Funny how they never give you a straight answer, almost like they can't? Or they're just so damn conditioned to think this is how it ought to be."
Alexandra's attention drifted back to the Invisible Bridge. Ms. Shirtliffe was still on the Charmbridge side of the valley, directing older JROC cadets. So was Dean Price and Miss Gambola and Mr. Bludgeleg. Alexandra couldn't see Dean Grimm. She wondered where Diana Grimm had gone.
"Sorry, am I boring you? I know we're only talking about elves," David said.
Alexandra snapped her attention back to him. She almost snapped something else, and remembered he'd just watched Constance almost die. "What do you want me to do about it?" she asked.
"They're afraid of Charmbridge being destroyed," he said. "Apparently if the Thorn Circle does what they're threatening to do, they'll be homeless."
"Charmbridge is going to be destroyed," Alexandra said. "And I was talking to elves before you ever did. I still don't know how to help them."
There was a commotion on the Invisible Bridge. Someone was coming across it, pushing past the students trying to cross in the opposite direction. They turned to stare at the cloaked and hooded figure carrying a broom, and a few even cheered.
"Anna?" Alexandra said, seeing a glimpse of long black hair beneath the red hood.
"Anna!" said Charlie, landing on Alexandra's shoulder.
A teacher and an older JROC student landed next to Anna after flying across the valley on their brooms. Anna spoke to them briefly, then pointed at Alexandra and hurried over to her. Ms. Shirtliffe broke away from her cadets and followed.
Anna stopped a few feet from Alexandra and William and David and smiled. "You came. I was hoping you would. Is the Thorn Circle finally going to help us?"
Anna thought she had come to help defend the school, Alexandra realized.
"Why are you here?" she asked. "And why did you cross the Invisible Bridge when you have a broom?"
"My father and I came with the First MACUSA Regiment," Anna said. "We crossed the valley and intended to beat the Confederation to Charmbridge, but Charmbridge isn't just Unplottable—we literally got lost looking for it. That's when I realized why students always cross the Invisible Bridge."
"Because not everyone has brooms?" David said.
Anna shook her head. "That's just part of it. I figured it out—it makes sense if you think geomantically. If you try to approach Charmbridge directly, it's almost impossible to find. So I flew back across the valley and then came to the Invisible Bridge, and now that I'm here I'm properly oriented, and I can summon everyone else." She raised her wand high.
"Chu," said Ms. Shirtliffe, coming behind her. "Wait a minute—"
Anna cast a spell that sent fiery streaks flying from the end of her wand high into the air, in a spectacular pyrotechnic display. Her spell exploded into shapes like coiled dragons, fiery multicolored roosters, and Chinese characters, lighting up the sky even in the bright daylight.
"MACUSA Regiments will be here soon, Ms. Shirtliffe," Anna said. She grinned fiercely. "We're going to drive the Confederation out of this valley and out of Central Territory."
"Splendid," Ms. Shirtliffe said. "In the meantime, you drew the ROC's attention here."
Anna turned around. From the direction of Charmbridge, a dragon with a helmeted rider was skimming over the treetops toward them. A row of Regimental Officers Apparated to the edge of the trees, next to the path that led to Charmbridge. Barely a hundred yards away, they gestured excitedly at the mob of Charmbridge students and staff gathered around the Invisible Bridge.
"I don't suppose you can tell your comrades to just stay away?" Alexandra asked. "Since they don't actually want to hurt children."
"That depends on whether they saw you," Shirtliffe said.
More blue-uniformed troops Apparated into sight to join the first group. A volley of spells came hissing through the air at them.
Ms. Shirtliffe, William, and Alexandra all cast Shield Spells. David threw a hex back, before Ms. Shirtliffe snapped at him to stop.
"YOU ARE HARBORING ENEMIES OF THE CONFEDERATION!" boomed the magically-amplified voice of one of the officers, echoing through the trees and all the way to the valley. "SURRENDER ALEXANDRA QUICK AND ANN CHU!"
"Ann?" exclaimed Anna. "How do they not even know my name?" She began making intricate gestures with her wand, muttering in Chinese.
"At least they know who you are," David said.
William cast a countercurse to stop one of the curses thrown by the Regimental officers. The nearest students shrieked and ran away.
"Listen to me," Shirtliffe said. "Here's how it is. If you three stay here, you will endanger everyone else. There are children who can barely cast a single charm who haven't even made it across the bridge yet."
"You don't mean they should surrender, ma'am?" asked William.
"She means we should leave," Alexandra said. "She's not wrong. But it might be too late—will they really just let everyone go if Anna and David and I disappear, Ms. Shirtliffe?"
The dragon with its rider swept overhead. Nobody cast any spells at it, and the dragon spit no fire, but growled in a way that sent the already frantic students scrambling for the bridge in a panic that just jammed it more thoroughly. The beast flapped its wings, soared up into the air, in plain view of anyone driving on the highway on the Muggle side of the valley, and lazily circled about. Its rider surveyed the retreating students with his face obscured by a leather helmet and dark goggles.
"HOLD YOUR HEXES! YOU ARE ATTACKING CHILDREN!" Ms. Shirtliffe said, amplifying her own voice with the same charm the Regimental officer had used.
Anna completed her spell. The ground around the Regimental Officers seethed and squirmed. Then the officers began screaming and casting flames and smoke from their wands, as a chittering, glistening tide of black and red and yellow rose up and engulfed them.
"Nice," Alexandra said, as beetles and centipedes swarmed over the uniformed wizards.
A screeching sound made everyone including the officers stagger, holding their hands to their ears. It tore across the space between ROC wizards and Charmbridge students. Students cried and whimpered and Alexandra, feeling like a spike had been driven through her head, saw some of the kids stumbling dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. Then the sound abruptly ceased, and when she lifted her head, the ground around the officers was a carpet of dead bugs.
From behind, Ms. Shirtliffe cast a spell that knocked all four teenagers off their feet and pushed them to the ground, just before the dragon shot over their heads, low enough that its claws nearly raked the ground. It rose above the trees.
"Is this what you want?" Ms. Shirtliffe asked. "Get out of here!"
A sudden wind blew from the north. It tossed the treetops along the top of the valley, and whipped the grass and bushes closer to the ground, until it had almost reached the Invisible Bridge, and then a shimmering silver haze appeared stretching along one side of the path leading from the bridge to the trees where the ROC wizards were forming up, growing in number as more officers Apparated from the direction of Charmbridge.
The haze, like a heat-mirage, solidified, and suddenly there were rows of men and women in red and blue uniforms, mixed with wizards in white and red cloaks, a platoon of men wearing armor of scaled metal ringlets, and a dozen women in white Japanese robes, with long, loose hair, holding fans and curved knives. One of these was Maeko Minemata, who didn't glance in Alexandra's direction but leveled her fan at the ROC officers. The other women did likewise, and a gust of wind roared into the trees, strong enough that it lifted some of the Confederation officers off their feet. The bodies of the insects Anna had summoned earlier swirled and filled the air in a dense cloud of mottled red and yellow, along with leaves and dirt and gravel.
"I have to go," Anna said. "My father expects me by his side." Her hair streamed away from her face like a black banner in the howling wind. "Join us," she said in a quieter voice.
"I can't," Alexandra said. "My father expects me too." It wasn't entirely an untruth. "You've become so brave, and bad-ass. I'm proud of you, Anna."
Anna gave Alexandra a brief, fierce hug. "See you after this is all over."
She held her broom out at arm's length, where it floated in the air. She slid onto it sideways, rather than straddling it, and lifted off in an elegant, courtly pose. As she flew in the direction of the newly-arrived MACUSA Regiment, hexes and curses flew at her, but were stopped by counterspells cast by the MACUSA wizards. High above, two dragons now circled over the woods.
William deflected another stray curse with a Shield Spell, but the ROC's attention was now mostly focused on the MACUSA wizards. Mounted hippogriffs came shrieking down from the sky, with their uniformed riders raining hexes on the MACUSA.
Lightning and flying daggers, boiling purple clouds that left sizzling droplets on the ground as they passed, green balls of fire, spells that exploded into fiery animal shapes like those conjured by Anna's pyrotechnic charm, volleys of crackling spells in red and gold, all crossed the air between the MACUSA and the ROC.
"The ROC isn't going anywhere now," Alexandra said. "You guys need to get across the bridge."
"I ain't running," David said.
Ms. Shirtliffe gave them an angry look that once would have spelled detention or many laps on a broom. It was remarkable how much less fearsome it was now. "I will hold you responsible for anyone who doesn't make it," she said. "Come on, Killmond."
"No, ma'am," William said. "I'm going to join the MACUSA."
"Like Hades you are! Don't make me put a Body-Bind Curse on you and carry you across the bridge, because I will."
There was a stir in the air, and more Majokai appeared, standing in rows behind the armored front ranks of MACUSA wizards and the fan-wielding witches. The newest arrivals looked like the drummers who had helped turn back the sea at Mahomachi. No sooner did they appear than those with smaller drums began beating a sharp, warlike staccato. The air began to thrum.
Ms. Shirtliffe grabbed William by the collar and dragged him towards the Invisible Bridge. She only had a few inches on him and he probably outweighed her, but he didn't resist. Alexandra was relieved. She said to David, "You should go with. I know you don't want to listen to my shoulds, but you'll do more good helping the students—and Constance—than being just one more wand here."
"Like you and Anna," he said.
"Dammit, David. You don't have to prove anything. Hela was an idiot."
"Idiot," repeated Charlie.
Alexandra pulled her shirt off her shoulder, tearing it in the process, and made Charlie return to her skin.
The two dragons abruptly dropped out of the sky in a dive that Alexandra thought at first was aimed at the MACUSA troops. But they weren't. They were coming towards her. Flames spilled from their mouths. Alexandra watched with horror, wondering if she could do anything to stop them, or protect the fleeing students, or if stepping beyond the horizon with her Seven-League Boots would make them break off their attack or only leave everyone else to burn.
Beside her, David was throwing Fireproofing Charms. Alexandra wasn't sure if she knew any spells that would do more than annoy a dragon. She pointed her wand and said, "Barak!" She aimed the lightning bolt at the nearest dragon's face, but lightning bolts never went precisely where directed, and instead it lashed the beast's hide. It flickered around the rider as well, but it didn't seem to do anything. She heard David still casting charms, but couldn't pay attention to him and the dragon both.
The thrumming in the air became more violent. The Majokai drummers had raised a larger drum and two men were beating it in perfect synchronization with their wands, which made the pounding sounds of much larger sticks. Alexandra shouted "Protego Totalus!" trying to shield herself and David as the dragon she'd struck with lightning came roaring towards them, mouth agape and flames billowing before it.
Suddenly the air was full of metal.
A rain of steel fell from the sky, conjured by the Majokai drummers. The Confederation wizards on brooms plummeted to the ground in a red mist. Hippogriffs screamed in agony as blades stabbed through their hides and sliced their wings as easily as they stabbed their riders. The storm of metal became a storm of blades and blood and bodies, spinning out of the sky and trailing long arcs of blood behind them.
The dragons, too, screamed in pain, and the one that had been diving at Alexandra veered away, with a score of blades embedded in its hide and perforating its wings. The fiery breath that would likely have blasted right through her Shield Spell instead washed over her, mostly deflected by her spell and leaving a long burning trail through the grass and bushes away from the Invisible Bridge, while the dragon tried to escape the storm of metal. Its rider sagged bonelessly in the saddle, gushing blood.
Alexandra smelled something burning, and grabbed a clump of her hair. The ends were smoking, and one strand glowed at the tip. She grimaced and sprayed herself with a jet of water. Her bare shoulder, where she'd ripped her shirt away, felt hot and blistered.
The other dragon had turned upward, beating its wings mightily to climb out of the deadly metal rain even as shards sliced its wings and scored its hide. Its rider was trying to protect himself with a Shield Spell, but he was bleeding profusely, with a shard of metal through his arm and another embedded in his back.
The scene before her was carnage, dead and dying men and women and hippogriffs thrashing on the ground and soaking it with blood. She turned to David.
He'd been trying to protect the elves, she realized. The elves had not moved. Even as Innocence, William, Ms. Shirtliffe, Mr. Bludgeleg, and the last of the JROC cadets fled, the elves remain fixed where they stood, watching the end of their world and possibly their imminent deaths and not doing anything.
"Your Freeze-Flame Charms wouldn't have stopped dragon fire," she told David. She said it without scorn or judgment; she was too past that, and his expression was pained enough already.
He blinked at her, and said hoarsely, "More coming."
There were. More dragons, more hippogriffs, and more Confederation troops were Apparating out of the woods. It wasn't clear whether they could distinguish between the MACUSA troops and the fleeing Charmbridge students, or whether they would, but it was clear that the MACUSA Regiment was in danger of being overwhelmed. They hadn't counted on fighting an entire Confederation Regiment and the Confederation Air Force as well.
Alexandra wasn't here to fight the Confederation. She had one task. But she could unleash more than one kind of destruction.
"Did you really mean all that stuff you used to preach about ASPEW, and wanting to free the elves?" she asked.
David blinked again. "What? Of course I meant it!"
"I'm about to destroy Charmbridge," Alexandra said.
"Say what?" David's exclamation was almost drowned out by curses colliding with Shield Spells. The front ranks of MACUSA wizards were being felled by the Confederation's deadly onslaught. Fiery liquid meteors like something hurled by ancient Greek catapults arced overhead and splashed into the Majokai's midst, with terrible effect. The metal storm had ceased, but the MACUSA troops were tearing earth and trees apart around the Confederation wizards—earth, trees, and people.
Alexandra pointed at the cowering elves. "They're about to be freed, whether they like it or not. They don't know what freedom is. Everyone on the other side of the valley is going to need help, and so are they. So you want to be the Malcolm X of elves?"
David scowled. "Not funny."
"You need to lead them across the valley. They got left behind." Alexandra didn't know if the deans and teachers had meant to come back for the elves, before the ROC showed up, or if they had simply been abandoned for the sake of the students, or if they had refused to cross the bridge themselves. It didn't matter now. "Make them save themselves. Get them to help even without a Compact. You're about to see what freedom looks like for elves. So do something about it." She turned away from him. "Good-bye, David."
There was so much smoke and haze—some of it magical, some of it from burning vegetation and clothing, some of it a fine mist of metal dust and blood—that the two opposing wizard armies probably couldn't see each other much better than they could see the retreating students and staff on the other side of the valley. Or Alexandra and the others still on this side of the Invisible Bridge, which was surely why she hadn't been singled out again.
The Confederation Regiment before her was much larger than the small one Ms. Shirtliffe had led back in Larkin Mills. And she had never imagined there could be so many dragons in one place. She feared for Anna, and David, and everyone else.
She took one last look over her shoulder.
David and the elves were the only ones still on this side of the valley. The last of the Charmbridge refugees were on the Invisible Bridge. William and Innocence and three JROC cadets were hurrying across it, with Ms. Shirtliffe bringing up the rear. Spells whizzed past them, aimed or not, so many that they filled the air, too many to deflect.
Innocence turned and called to David. David shouted at her, while the elves huddled around him. A spell from the ROC carved a burning furrow in the ground between them and the bridge.
Innocence pointed her wand back at the ROC. Though she was fifty yards away, Alexandra saw her face clearly, anger and defiance and just a bit of the brat who had once stuck her tongue out at her sisters, and the Rashes, and David and Angelique. Alexandra saw William turn, his face rippling with fear. He reached out for her. Ms. Shirtliffe yelled something and batted a glowing ribbon of magic out of the air, as she had deflected many other curses flying at them.
She didn't deflect the white flicker that struck Innocence like a flash of light from a camera. At first it seemed to have been nothing—perhaps a stray spark, a splash of magic from some other spell that had bounced against a Shield Spell or the Invisible Bridge.
Innocence froze in place. William grabbed her arm, and it crumbled in his grip. Innocence remained motionless, crystallized into a perfect white statue as William looked with horror at the grains of salt spilling from his hand. Then a gust of wind swept across the bridge, and Innocence began to blow away.
Her bright white bonnet, her sparkling white face, her perfect white shoulders, her glittering white dress. From head to toe, she disintegrated and streamed out over the valley. Even over the wind and the clash of magical forces around them and the roaring of dragons, Alexandra heard a scream from the other side of the bridge, someone screaming Innocence's name. But Innocence was gone, carried away by the wind.