34. Rat In A Maze #2
“Go!” Valor snapped, motioning at Quicksilver who’d turned to stare at the Dark Cathedral agents standing just inside the north corridor. He motioned sharply in the direction of Forsooth’s tower. “She might have another way out. We have to go, now!”
I saw Quicksilver’s jaw harden, right before he glanced at the Dark Cathedral mages and witches.
He stared at them, an instant too long, and one of them threw a fireball of magic in his direction.
He threw up a shield, moving impressively fast, then turned and followed Valor at a run, moving a lot faster than they had with me between them.
They sprinted for the northeast tower and I watched them go.
I couldn’t help wondering if I’d made a mistake.
The talisman clicked off right as I found a shadowy area to hide among a small copse of trees. I’d managed to disentangle myself from the crowd milling around the northern balcony and the back lawn less than a minute earlier.
I immediately cast a regular invisibility spell.
I didn’t try to leave the copse, and not only because I was blind.
Unlike what Alaric had done with the delicate magic he’d woven into the talisman, not only were ordinary invisibility spells buggy and blindness-inducing, they leaked wisps of the wearer’s magic.
An experienced Magical could potentially see me, particularly if they knew what and who they were looking for.
I could still see dark robed mages and witches on the northern balcony, casting magic over areas of the field.
I was still closer than I would have liked to Malcroix Manor.
It had taken longer to get out the door and down the stairs than I’d hoped, with everyone running in different directions and some stopping dead in the middle of the stairs to pull out sets of wings and shoulder them onto their backs, oblivious to how much of the stairway they blocked with their massive gold-boned and feathered appendages outstretched.
I’d been incredibly tempted to steal a set of those wings off some unsuspecting student, and not only because they blocked the way out for the rest of us. With Alaric’s talisman, I actually had some chance of finding my friends, and helping them get out.
In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Steal, that is.
Even so, it was that thought that convinced me to make for the Eyrie before trying to get back to Valarian.
Too many flashes of magic lit up the pathways between the mansion and the colleges.
I had no concrete knowledge of where Miranda, Jolie, Draken, and Luc had been when the first attack came, but they’d likely been back in their dormitory.
They might have gotten out on wings of their own, but as I’d seen multiple Magicals shot down by spells as they tried to escape, I had my doubts they would have risked it, not unless they figured out what was happening before most of the students.
Ordinary invisibility spells seemed to be useless against the anti-magic spells being cast in wide nets at the air and exits of the buildings.
Alaric’s talisman seemed immune to those spells so far.
I had to hope that continued to be the case.
The Eyrie had dozens of sets of wings inside the lower stairs, hanging on the walls, all different shapes and sizes, the entire way up to the top of the tower.
I’d also never known the Eyrie to be locked, even in the middle of the night.
If it wasn’t too picked clean, or too crowded, I could wait for a new cycle with the talisman, activate the invisibility charm once I had the wings on my back, and take off from the upper platform.
Then I’d go look for my friends.
If I couldn’t find them in five minutes, I’d wait out another minute, then make a speed run for the East Gate.
It wasn’t a great plan, but it was something.
I didn’t know the eastern part of Bonescastle at all. From what I’d read and heard from others, it was a completely different kind of place than the Bonescastle I knew to the west, and only really the same city by name, proximity to the academy, and the fact of its invisibility.
That said, they must still have mirrors.
If not, I’d read about a train that ran in and out of that side of the city.
For now, though, I had to wait.
I hunkered down at the base of the trees. I still heard the occasional screams and panicked shouts echoing from the north corridor, which unnerved me, in spite of myself. I couldn’t see, which made it worse, although I tried to look around me through the Aether.
I fought to think.
I couldn’t decide if I should risk trying to cross the field under the invisibility spell, using my view through the Aether to guide me.
Most of the action seemed to be happening in the mansion and the few colleges visible from the valley below the main buildings.
I hadn’t seen anyone casting anti-magic spells in my direction, but it still felt risky.
All it would take is one witch or wizard noticing the path I carved through the tall grass.
I decided to wait.
I used the minute to think about what to do next.
Did it make sense to go back to Valarian?
It was a lot louder now, and the sky kept lighting up with magical charges.
My friends were hopefully long gone by now, either making their way to one of the exits on foot, or beating their own wings as fast as they could towards one of the four gates.
The more I thought about it, the more likely this felt.
I was already too late.
The thought made my chest clench.
Maybe if I’d gone straight there, flying from my tower window straight to Valarian, I could have left with them before Dark Cathedral overran the mansion.
Everything in me told me that window had already closed.
I’d likely only be endangering them more if I tracked them down now, even if I managed to find them, and there was no guarantee I would.
Dark Cathedral would have magical feelers out, looking for me specifically, along with Forsooth and Alaric and whoever else.
Miranda and Draken hopefully wouldn’t be high on that list; they’d have a better chance without me.
Luc might be in more immediate danger, if only because of his research. Nyx could be targeted for helping Luc, but they’d still likely be better off without me.
I wished I could ask Bones.
Bones wasn’t anywhere I could feel, though.
Thinking about Bones brought that pain back to my head, making my chest tighten until I struggled to breathe.
Everything about our situation made me feel like a rat in an increasingly small maze.
The idea of running away, of finding myself in smaller and smaller dead ends, made me want to scream.
I couldn’t help my friends. I couldn’t count on Forsooth, or the Golden Sun.
I couldn’t count on the Praecuri, or even my cousin.
I couldn’t help Bones.
I couldn’t kill his father.
I could try to phase, but where would I even go?
As soon as the question hit my mind, an idea sparked, one that sounded positively insane on the surface, but made a perverse kind of sense, given everything going on here.
I could go to the Black Tower.
It had to be unusually empty right now.
Maybe I couldn’t save Bones, or stop his father, but I could find Archie and Varya, and maybe get them out. Bones might even help me, if I could figure out how to get him out of the collar, or at least how to deactivate it temporarily.
Saving Varya and my brother wouldn’t solve the problem of Bones and the magic that kept him tied to Dark Cathedral.
It wouldn’t stop Malefic from trying to destroy the human race, or take over the Magical one.
It wouldn’t keep Dark Cathedral from performing the ritual that would reunite the two worlds, and probably destroy both of them.
But it would be something.
It would be one small thing I could do. It would also be maybe one less thing Malefic could use against Bones. Of course, Malefic would probably punish Bones for what I’d done, especially if Bones helped me get them out of the castle.
I fought back and forth in my head, trying to decide.
Somewhere in that, the minute passed.