A Rational Magic || ONC2022

Twenty-Eight || Escape

Ash won't talk to the rest of us for the rest of the day. As if it was my fault Blake was one of the two people willing to give themselves up to MALIS... or Emily's fault, or Mercury's.

It's most ridiculous that he'd blame Mercury, honestly. The older boy was asleep the whole time.

And really, it's just bad luck that Blake lost to Matilda.

Still, we don't need Ash talking to carry out the plan.

We do kinda need Blake, though.

By the time sunset would be happening above us, he's not actually returned.

"Probably don't want to mix magic with 'mundane'," Matilda says darkly when Emily brings this same point up. Somehow, I don't think that's something she came up with.

"So now what?"

"Well..." I don't think it's so strictly necessary that it's worth making this even worse for these three in front of me, but it did seem to make the spell stronger when Gosling and Andires performed it together...

We need all the strength we can get.

Which, of course, is why we're using seven year olds.

"What if...?" Mercury started, and then obviously thought better of it. "No, no, that wouldn't be it. That's definitely not it."

I have a horrible feeling I know what he means, but I don't acknowledge this at all. To anyone else's knowledge, at least.

Ash blanches anyway.

I imagine torture would be kinda useless. If Blake's mute by choice, I think he'd probably still be able to scream, but if not... what are you doing it for? Not information, not some kind of twisted 'pleasure', and what other reason is there for MALIS to do such a thing?

Besides, they've done enough.

And why would they need information from Blake anyway? The only person with anything useful to them — in their eyes — is me. They don't know that we have a plan.

Unless...

That's ridiculous.

We sit in silence for almost an hour, with me flicking through the spellbook one final time to make sure I have the spells we're likely to need memorised just before Mercury stands up with a sigh.

"We'd better get on with this, then. D'you have a way to work out where Blake is?"

"Do we have time for me to look?"

"Lani—"

"Let's just get on with the plan we came up with, okay?" I groaned, closing the book and slipping it back into my bag. "We're going to save Blake, Ash, but it's going to be a little more difficult than anticipated."

"Whatever."

Mercury bit his lip, giving me a nervous look.

We crept down the stairs in a decent-enough single-file line, all things considered. I was in the lead, since I was meant to unlock the door, with Mercury at the back... as if someone was going to attack us from behind.

I mean, come on. We came out of an empty room at the top of a tower, where would these would-be attackers come from?

Before I reached the bottom step, though, something clicked in the lock. Matilda stumbled into me when she didn't notice that I'd stopped moving, almost sending us both tumbling down the final few stairs.

"Damn it," Mercury hissed from above us. "Em, Ash, back up a bit. Tilly—"

The door slammed open before Matilda could move — before either of us could move. Behind it, four of the men who'd brought them all here.

I didn't recognise any of them immediately.

"What's this, then?" one asked, taking a step over the threshold and blocking our only real escape route. "An escape attempt?"

"Perhaps," I forced out, trying to think. How do you take on four people at once? Especially when said people are all adults and you're a pre-teen girl?

Well, the answer is, you don't.

But, like, if you have to...

"Lani, for god's sake, move!"

Time to hope for the best.

"Confusid quaedim."

Look. I wasn't crazy enough to expect no resistance whatsoever. I just didn't... really think we'd get it this quickly.

Pink spikes seemed to go straight through him, almost making me scream. But he seemed unharmed, if you didn't count the dazed look on his face.

"Could you let us past, please?"

Without a word, he backed away, leaving our path out of the tower free. And without a sound, the five of us took our chance.

"What was that?" a different man demanded.

"Oh, nothing." I grinned at him, as if that was going to help my case with him.

"You little wretch, I'll—!"

"Delarello!" I shouted first, praying I'd remembered the word right. It didn't seem particularly intuitive, all things considered, but I supposed it worked in its own way.

He tried to speak, to shout a spell of his own, and found himself unable to.

In the split second it took his two companions — at least the two who were actually on his side — to realise what had happened, we had made a break for it. This time, Mercury took the job of leader, and he proved that he did actually know his way around Mallory's castle better than I did.

Somehow.

I think Emily managed to catch one of our two pursuers out by shouting some random word she'd literally made up at one point and scaring him away, because when our good luck decided it wanted to take a break, it was to face one man.

"Felinuro!"

Matilda dodged the blast easily, throwing herself to the side with a cry of shock. Our attacker scowled, holding up his hand to try again.

"You guys run, I can handle this!"

"No way!" I don't know who spoke, but I can say with confidence that it wasn't Mercury. "We're not leaving you!"

"Grisembra tranquia."

I whirled round to see what he'd come up with this time, but discovered that he just wasn't there.

Mercury sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. "Thank god for that, I guess."

"Something's wrong," Ash announced. Then his eyes widened, and he shouted, "Lani, look out!"

His warning was not fast enough.

The man seemed to come out of nowhere, pulling me to the ground with a horrifying ease. My head struck the stone hard, and the world went blurry.

Maybe this is how Anya feels without her glasses.

But that thought couldn't quite get my attention away from the fact that the man was holding me down by my throat, pressing against it with way too much force. His free hand was probably making its way towards my wrist, but I panicked when it reached my waist.

I couldn't speak.

And I couldn't get away.

I closed my eyes in an attempt to block the terrified cries of Emily and Matilda, the swearing from Mercury, the sound of footsteps...

Wait.

"Interastilla, Milstone."

As quickly as the man had tackled me, he was forced away. I struggled to move for a little too long, apparently, as whoever had just saved me sighed exasperatedly.

"You lot should really get moving. Go on, I'll hold him off you all. Tenefumis!"

As the corridor filled with smoke, we ran for it — with a too-small hand pulling me along.