Snake Charmer

10 - Roseus

There's no way of hiding it now.

She saw my realisation, she saw me tell the Circle. It's over already, before it's even started.

"One woman," I tell them, my voice low. "Can't find a partner. She knows I've seen her but something's stopping her from coming straight over."

The woman remains sat at the bar, scanning the room repeatedly with frantic eyes, working out some route to get to us.

"There's another exit, to the back of the bar," Kat offers. We stare at her in surprise. "What? I always look for an escape route."

Cowardly, but effective. We flee the table and follow Kat's lead to this hidden exit, with Judah and I taking up the rear of the group. They have magic, but don't seem to possess much street smarts between them. I look over my shoulder - the woman is gone.

The bar has crowded, picking up at an oddly fast rate as more and more punters flow through the door. I've lost her plain black hood in the masses, practically everyone in this building is wearing black.

We push through the gathering bodies, losing sight of the exit sign.

"Which way?" I call.

"Just keep moving forward," Max grunts back.

Impossibly, the bodies multiply before us, until the narrow corridors of the tavern seem to swell with the capacity. The crowd flows through the corridor like a river of kicking limbs, and we are swept with the currents. I spin my neck to look for Judah, but I don't recognise a face in the sea threatening to drown me. I can do nothing but cease fighting against the tide and let it drag me until I spot a gap of space to the side of the bar. I duck into it and continue my search for Judah or the witches.

I catch sight of tightly curled hair bobbing along, a little ahead of where I am. Sage?

Back into the crowd I go, but this time, I move with purpose. The jabbing limbs are much easier to avoid when I have my sights set on a spot in the crowd. I duck, weave, and crawl my way through, deciding quickly that lower feels safer. I resurface to bob on the surface, looking again for Sage.

She's closer, but still a fairly large distance in a crowd this dense. Ducking and rolling is the only way I can make it through the throng.

It's an ambush! Mirelle yells. You need to get out of there!

"Trying my best," I grunt.

Find Max.

There's no way I'm going to be able to pick out the back of Max's short black hair in a sea of heads that look almost exactly the same. I figure grabbing Sage is my next best bet.

I push forward again, this time forcing my way through the resisting bodies. The narrow hallway feels humid with the clammy sweat of a thousand people, causing the putrid odour to smother me. I try not to breathe it in, but the exertion of this real-life assault course has me panting.

Finally, I'm in line with Sage. I stretch my arm towards her but I can't quite reach her by myself. So, I propel forward, scrambling at shoulders 'til I'm almost crowdsurfing my way over to her. Disgruntled hands lift me and pass me on swiftly to their neighbours. As I reach Sage, I can't stop the momentum of the wave, so I hold her arm in a vicelike grip and yank myself down onto ground level.

Sage turns to find the source of the grabbing. She looks me over with an expression of surprise and annoyance. I glance around her. She's on her own.

"Where are the others?" I shout.

"I don't know, I lost them when the surge hit."

"Let's just keep going, find an exit."

She nods in agreement and we push forward once again. Two bodies prove even more effective than one, and together we push enough of the crowd aside to keep a steady pace. Whilst Sage focuses on splitting the crowd, I train my eyes on the walls, searching for some side-door or smaller corridor for us to slip into.