To Break a Curse

Chapter 16

'It will take two days to make,' Gaius scanned the instructions in the book.

After a few hours of searching, Will had found the tracking spell they needed in order to find out where Rose and Oliver had been taken.

'That long?' Will groaned.

'It'll be fine,' Storm reassured him, quickly reading over the instructions herself. 'It looks like if we make this potion, then Merlin or anyone with magic will be able to look into it and see map co-ordinates of where they are.'

'Map co-ordinates?' asked Will disbelievingly. 'I thought the Ancient Greeks invented those?'

'Dunno where they got that impression from,' Torrent shrugged.

Merlin arrived, out of breath, 'you found the spell?'

They explained everything to him, and then he said, 'so, once we know where they are, what happens then?'

'Well, we... erm...I suppose...' Torrent faltered.

Will rolled his eyes, 'so none of us has a plan?'

'I don't see you coming up with one either!' snapped Storm in Torrent's defence.

'Just calm down,' said Gaius. 'You've got two days to think of something.'

***

'I spy with my little eye... something beginning with "S".'

'Street,' said Rose wearily. They had been locked in the attic for a day and night now and their last resort to stop themselves going mad from boredom had been to play 'I Spy'.

'Full marks. Your turn,' Oliver laughed when he saw Rose's expression. She gave in and giggled.

'Right,' she said. 'Game on.' She searched the street below, finding a suitable object. She glanced up to find Oliver gazing at her. 'What?'

'It's just...' he trailed off and grinned. 'Can I kiss you again?'

***

Will walked towards Gaius' chambers the next morning and paused when he heard raised voices coming from within.

'How can you not be sure?' Storm's voice demanded.

'There are various complex steps that mean the potion could go wrong if not done properly,' Gaius' voice explained patiently.

Will opened the door, 'what's going on?'

Gaius and Storm were standing over the cauldron that the potion was being made in, Merlin was sat at the table frowning and Torrent and Tom were looking at the instructions for the potion together.

'Can you make the potion?' Will felt sick; this was their one chance of finding Rose and Oliver.

'It is rather more complex than previously thought,' said Gaius carefully.

'Will you be able to make it?' Will's heart began to thud.

When Gaius was silent, Will sat down heavily at the table with Merlin, his head in his hands.

Then he had a brainwave. He turned to Storm.

'You can make it! You made that potion to heal Oliver after the attack and that worked almost overnight,' Will turned to Gaius. 'Even you were impressed,' Will knew he was beginning to sound desperate.

Gaius pursed his lips and then nodded, 'very well, Storm, you may take over the production of this potion.'

Storm went pale, 'I-I couldn't!' she stuttered.

'Course you can!' said Torrent encouragingly.

Storm took a deep breath, 'alright, where did you get to?'

***

Both Rose and Oliver turned as the door to the attic was unlocked. Morgana le Fey swept in.

'You can go,' she said shortly.

'W-what?' stammered Rose in shock.

'Thomas obviously isn't coming for you; he's had long enough so you are both useless to me now,' she said.

'Hang on,' said Oliver. 'What do you mean he isn't coming?'

'Just that,' Morgana le Fey raised her eyebrows. 'I know the spell that he would need to track and find you and he should have been here by yesterday at least. So, I repeat, you can go.'

'You can't just chuck us out,' exclaimed Rose. 'We've got nowhere to go!'

'That is of no importance to me,' Morgana le Fey ushered them out of the room and to the front door. She pushed them out onto the street and slammed the door in their faces.

'Oh no,' Oliver shut his eyes in despair.

Rose looked around. They were in the street they had been able to see from their window with the market stalls selling all sorts of things from cloth to food. Rose glanced at the date on a copy of the London Chronicle that was lying in the gutter. 23rd October 1837. No one was paying them any attention in the evening bustle to get home before it got dark.

Before it got dark.

In London.

In the 1800s.

Oh, no.

Rose turned to Oliver, 'we need to move. We don't want to be stuck on the streets of London after dark, especially in the 1800s.'

Oliver gritted his teeth and nodded, 'yeah, but do you know the way out?'

Rose opened her mouth and shut it again. She walked over to a stall holder who was packing away her wares for the day.

'Excuse me, but do you know which is the quickest way out of London from here?'

The stall holder looked her up and down, Oliver saw that the clothes they were in were much cleaner than the ones most of the other stall holders were wearing, but, he was glad to see, they didn't stick out too much in terms of different periods of history.

The stall holder sniffed and said, 'follow this street 'till you reach the house at the sign of the swan an' then take the first right an' you should see the main gate just ahead of you.'

'Thank you,' said Rose, immensely glad they weren't that far from the edge of London.

Oliver smiled his thanks and began to walk with Rose up the street. After a few steps, he noticed Rose was breathing oddly and looking at everything with wide eyes.

'You alright?' he reached for her hand.

Rose let out a breathy laugh, 'I just don't like London, it's too big and there's too much of it...' she half expected Oliver to laugh, which he did, but he also gave her hand a squeeze at the same time.

'We're not far from the gates now, you muppet,' he said affectionately.

Once they were outside the gates of London, they stopped and looked at each other.

'What now?' asked Oliver.

Rose bit her lip, thinking hard. 'So-o, if what Morgana le Fey said was right, there's obviously a problem with Tom and the others coming to find us...'

'Maybe if we went back to the stone circle, it would be easier for him?' suggested Oliver.

Rose nodded, 'yes, it's getting dark now, so if we find a place to sleep tonight we can make a start in the morning. People in books always seem to find a cart driver who's going their direction, so I don't see why we shouldn't be able to. We should be able to hitchhike most of the way.'

'It will take days, though,' Oliver said.

Rose grimaced, 'well, I don't think there's any other way of doing it.' 

***

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