A Questionable Quest

Chapter 21... in which I lose a necklace and nothing important happens

By the time we reached the wizards' tower -- which was somewhere around several hours later -- I'd tried to escape four times, been spelled unconscious six times, and sufficiently both of my daggers.

What's more, I had nothing to show for it but a few well-placed bruises and a drowsy disposition.

And you lost your necklace, the voice in my head nagged.

Right. I'd nearly forgotten about that bit.

The necklace had dislodged itself when I tried to escape the first time, and fallen off my neck when I was knocked unconscious. Not that it mattered. Van was probably still travelling through the forest. By the time he discovered I was gone, and made the connection to where I had gone, it would be nearly a day later.

Maybe longer.

I groaned softly. That last stretch of unconsciousness had knocked me out for nearly an hour. My brain still struggled to rid itself of the resulting fog, and I'd exhausted all of my escape plans.

No matter how well-thought-out they may have been, I was trying to escape one master wizard and one not-so-master wizard who I suspected was a lot smarter than he let on.

He also didn't want to kidnap me. Felix, I mean.

I could tell, from the slightly apologetic tint to his gaze whenever he looked over at me. And once, when I was just waking up earlier, I'd heard him trying to convince Avvenor to let me go. Avvenor hadn't listened.

After several escape attempts, however, I'd learned something very interesting... Felix really could only do one spell. He could move things where he wanted them to go, and that was about it.

I'd tried to use that to my advantage. He'd been nodding off in the wagon beside me, and I'd worked my bindings loose. Then, after trying to jump out of the wagon, Dero in my arms, he'd pulled me back by my boots -- magically, of course.

And when his back was turned this other time, I'd tried to blow fire at him. His coat caught fire, but then he just moved the bucket of water onto the flames. They smothered out. (I'd made it several yards into the forest before Avvenor appeared in front of me, and knocked me out. Again.)

"Get out." I looked up. It was Avvenor, staring at me from the back of the wagon. "Felix," he ordered.

Felix took hold of my arm, and lifted the bag with Dero in it. The bag was now tied tightly shut at the top, as Dero had nearly snapped his hand off when they tried to stuff the dragon into it.

I eyed the bag carefully. My spellkit was in the front bag. All I needed was a small pinch of ground wisp's tears to cast that wayfinding spell... It was a last resort, but I was quite certain being kidnapped by an evil wizard and his not-so-evil henchman might qualify as a last resort sort of situation.

Felix caught my (now-indigo) gaze, and handed the pack to Avvenor.

I scowled. "You're really making this as hard as possible for me, aren't you?" I murmured, for Felix's ears only.

He lifted a lazy shoulder. "It's my life's purpose." Then I was being pushed into a dark stairwell.

It was the same stairwell Van and I had climbed up less than a day earlier. Right now, though, it looked like a completely different stairwell.

(At least, it looked as different as two spiralling stone staircases could look. Which, arguably, was not very much.)

I didn't quite like the feeling of climbing the steep staircase with my arms tied behind my back. Of course, nothing about being kidnapped was ever that fun. But this moment, I already knew, would definitely stand out as one of my worst. I felt like at any second, I could fall backwards and, unable to catch myself, go plummeting to the ground.