Knight of the Black Rose (52 page)

"We said that we would, so we're here," Will said slightly annoyed as he remembered when they had first met and that Travis had thought that he was a girl, it wasn't really the time to bring it up, but it really did annoy him.

"So which side do you want this?" Lucy asked as she pulled the large bottle out of her bag, which fell limply to her side now that it was empty.

"On this side of the room," Reed told her. "We'll block these corridors so it has to come from one of those,"

Lucy nodded as she walked over to the other side of the chamber as she opened the bottle, and then started to pour it out in a design on the floor covering both the entrances and part of the middle area.

"Will can call it, considering that it's already attacked you." Liam told him. "And then when you hear it approaching step back out of reach and we'll do the same,"

"How're we supposed to put it in the book when we don't have a book?" Troy asked, hoping that they had a better answer than what they had come up with.

"It should come at the same time that the Knight is called," Travis told him as though this was obvious.

They paired off covering the corridors on their side, Liam and Alex stood before the first, then Travis and Lucy in the centre where Will would join them after he had called forth the Knight, which left Reed and Troy covering the last corridor; the corridor facing them free so that the Knight could enter.

Will stood in the centre, on the potion that Lucy had decorated the floor with holding the piece of paper with the summoning spell on it, he knew that they were all ready with their wands in hand, and were just waiting for him to say the words, but he was scared to death at the thought of this going horribly wrong and ending up with no powers at all, or of course worse, he could end up dead.

Will took several deep breaths, knowing that he had to do this. "Ce rus u, ce rus u. Shojus wuros, da vace wur croms. Ce rus u, ce rus u. Shojos wiros, da vace wur croms."

"Direct," Lucy whispered behind him.

They all just stood there waiting for something, but for several minutes nothing happened, Will was even going to say it again when the lights began to dim all around them, until they flickered out completely. Liam lit his wand lighting the space that they were stood in.

"Turn it off," Lucy told him quickly.

"What, why?" Liam asked confused.

"Power...we need it focused not confused wondering who to go after first," Lucy told him, and he seemed to get the idea as he turned it off and they all fell back into darkness.

A chill ran through the air as did a magical wave of energy. Torches suddenly appeared on the walls either side of them illuminating the space, but the walls were different; they were stone as was the floor. The two corridors before Will began to close in on themselves, making him step back towards his friends, not really wanting to be out in the middle of the space by himself anymore. The two corridor's seemed to collapse into each other, then began to open once more into a large archway that led down one main corridor.

They all kind of stood frozen to the spot, whatever they had imagined happening, this wasn't it. There was no going back when they heard it, metal against stone, the Knights footfalls echoing off of the walls as it made its way down the corridor towards them; they all looked at each to make sure that they weren't the only ones still stood there and then turned back and waited.

The Knights foot steps echoed down the corridor as it got closer to their chamber, a chamber that no longer looked the same as though they had been transported somewhere else, instead of bring the Knight to them the Knight had brought them to him.

They nervously waited with their wands ready as it approached, its large silhouette already encompassing the archway as it came into sight. The black armour was suited over what appeared to be a man over almost seven foot, taking over the whole of the space; he stopped just before entering the chambering holding the book in his arms.

"Cul'lam!" Travis shouted but nothing happened, the book stayed where it was. "We need to get that book,"

"Can't we still do it, even if it's holding it?" Lucy asked, not really wanting to get any closer to that thing, considering all she could feel was a void, emptiness.

"There's...something wrong..." Will struggled to say.

"What do you mean, there's something wrong?" Travis asked worriedly, as Will struggled not to take a step forward. "What the hell are you doing?"

Lucy grabbed his arm to try to pull him back, but he had already taken another step. "Will...you shouldn't get any closer,"

"Don't you think I know that?" Will told her. "It's doing something...I feel as though I'm being pulled..."

"This so isn't good," Travis said as he tried to help keep Will from getting any closer.

The chamber suddenly shimmered, a wave shot out from the Knight swiping across and knocking Travis and Lucy back against the stone wall, Troy rushed over to Lucy's side to make sure that she was alright, but she just seemed as though she was a little dazed. Liam pulled Travis to his feet with Alex at his side as he watched Will walk into the centre of the chamber and then just stopped.

"You need to go and get the teachers." Travis told Alex; he nodded and then ran off down the corridor.

Troy helped Lucy to her feet as they watched Will, not sure how close they should get considering the Knight seemed to have control of him. They watched as the band holding his hair together burst and his braid undid itself, so that his hair flowed freely down his back. His clothes began to change next, rearranging themselves and changing colour, until he was no longer wearing jeans and sweatshirt, but a long cream and white grown.

"That thing has just turned him into a girl," Troy said in disbelief. "I didn't even know that was possible,"

"Why the hell would it do that?" Liam said completely confused.

Alex ran down corridor, knowing that he had to find a teacher, his friends were in danger but he had no idea where he was really going or who he should be going for; he briefly remembered being told that they were practically in the teachers block, then why couldn't he find any.

"It's strange, that's all I'm saying,"

Alex heard a man's voice up ahead, so he pushed ahead and rounded the corner running head long into Professor Domnus, and knocking himself back, stumbling.

"You do know that there's no running in the corridors?" Domnus said.

"Are you sure that it's the same ingredients?" Hunter asked Loring just behind him.

"It's...here...the...Knight..." Alex struggled to say in-between taking deep breaths.

"Excuse me?" Domnus said slightly alarmed.

"Will...it...was trying to control him..." Alex told them.

Validus pulled him to his feet and turned him back towards the direction that he had just come from. "Show us,"

"Help me!" a girl screamed in pain, making the whole building shake.

"What the hell," Alex said looking around panicked.

"Amelia," Domnus breathed and then ran ahead.

"What? Shit, wait!" Hunter shouted after him as he and the others took off after him back down the corridor that Alex had just come from.

"It couldn't have been her...she isn't here, we would have known about it," Validus told Domnus.

"It had Will...Lucy was the only girl up there," Alex told them.

"Lucy Shepherd?" Domnus asked a little surprised.

"Did you...summon it?" Loring asked taking deep breaths so that he could speak and run at the same time.

"And how would they know how to do that?" Validus asked.

"She did a different potion...one where she wouldn't have to kill all those animals," Alex told them.

"That's incredible," Loring said impressed, as they rounded the corner, and the cold air hit them like a wave that was expanding outwards.

"Be impressed later...now we need to stop them," Hunter told him annoyed, that they would take this into their own hands when they knew just how dangerous it was.

Domnus ahead of the group suddenly pulled a long sword off of his belt that had been magically concealed, Validus quickly followed suite before they ran into the stone chamber; the Knight was approaching Will now in the form of a young woman making them all stop in their tracks.

"I thought you said it was Will?" Hunter said confused.

"Sir...it turned him," Lucy shouted, making them all look at her and then back at Will who was now transformed in a woman.

"This hasn't been reported before," Hunter said as he and Loring moved over towards Lucy and the others with their wands ready, but it appeared as though the Knight was still focused on Will, as black veins shot up out of the stone ground and began wrapping themselves around him.

Domnus and Validus both looked at each other briefly before they charged forward and tried to hack away at the veins but their swords couldn't cut through them, instead the veins fought back and they had to be careful not to get caught in them, or to let any of them touch, but also to make sure that they didn't stretch out close enough to the others.

"They had time to grab swords?" Troy whispered as he watched them try to cut the veins away.

"We had a binding spell," Lucy told them.

"What?" Hunter said distractedly, and then held out his hand. "Give it to me,"

Liam looked at the paper in his hand, before he handed it over, hoping that it actually worked now considering that nothing else seemed to have so far.

Will was only partly aware of what had been going on back at the chamber before he had blacked out, he had seen the teachers arrive and hoped that they would be able to save him. He still couldn't move properly as he stood before the Knight, but he felt different; as though he was no longer completely in his own body, but he knew that it had changed somehow, he just couldn't figure out why.

He was still in the same chamber but could no longer hear or see the others, the book was no longer in the Knights arms, bit it was reaching out to him, or rather the person that he had changed into, the girl or woman, he didn't know which and all he cared about was that he hoped that it was permanent.

The Knight reached out to him, making him want to take a step back but he couldn't move his feet. He tried to think of something, anything that would help him; a spell or even something about the Knight himself that they had learnt, but he was just coming up blank. He was a knight, supposed to protect the family that he was charged with; the woman was promised to someone else, which was why all of this began.

Will looked down at himself, wondering if he was her, the one woman that he was supposed to protect; it couldn't be that simple. If it was, it annoyed him, that the Knight would chose him considering that he was actually a guy. Will considered his options, wondering if he should just play along and hope that it got him out of this, giving those on the outside time to seal it away in the book; well it wasn't as though things could really get worse.

Will took a deep breath to ready him self for whatever was going to happen, not that he had a clue what was going to happen, or even if he wanted it to happen. The Knight stepped closer, his hand reaching out to him, then Will stepped towards it hoping that he really was doing the right thing. As soon as Will took that step towards the Knight it froze and then it seemed to relax as though all the tension just drained out of it. Slowly the chamber that they were stood in brighten, the stone was no longer dark and windows appeared letting in the bright sun of the outside, even the armour began to change, moving up from its feet. Black flaked off, revealed the silver polish beneath, moving up until the whole of the Knight was returned and the black had dissolved and blown out of the windows around the chamber.

Will was kind of startled by the sudden change, but took it as a good sign, perhaps all the Knight wanted was the forgiveness of the one that he had tried to protect all those years ago and couldn't. He stepped closer still, not thinking about the fact that he was in a woman’s body for now, hoping that if this went right he would return to normal. He opened his arms looking up at the Knight, who dropped his arm and then fell to his knee's the armour disappearing completely, revealing a handsome man in his late twenties, with dark hair tied back and wearing old fashion noble clothes.

"My Lady, please forgive me; I failed you," the Knight said with his head lowered.

Will didn't like being called 'My Lady', he just had to keep reminding himself that he was playing a part here, and if he did it right then he would get rid of the Knight once and for all; he just wasn't completely sure what to say to it.

"You did not fail me," Will told him, hoping that there weren't some sort of special wording that he was supposed to use. "They betrayed us all, and made you do terrible things. But it's alright now..." Will reached out for the Knight to look at him, and slowly he did, and raised to his feet also. "It's all over now, won't you come home?"