Magic Under Glass (18 page)

29

We spent a little time forming a plan before Hollin went to fetch his sorcerer’s staff and Annalie disappeared into her bedroom. I sipped at a cup of coffee, hoping I really could play some useful part in our escape.

Annalie emerged like a devout member of some modest religion. Black leather gloves disappeared up her draping sleeves. Her hood covered her neck, her ears, and her thick, dark hair. Just her face peered out, with her long lashes and her strong nose. She gave me a small smile, and said, “Miss Rashten might be frightened off by my appearance alone.”

Over her face she drew a veil so thick I could no longer see her eyes, nor, I imagined, could she see mine.

She reached an arm out to me. “I put my trust in you, Nimira,” she said.

I took her hand.

We watched the clock, waiting for Hollin to return.

“It doesn’t take very long to walk to his bedroom,” Annalie said, fidgeting a little. “I hope he’s all right.”

I’m sure her heart pounded, as mine did. Even if Hollin was about to open that door any moment, I had no idea what was ahead. We didn’t know how much power Miss Rashten had, but I had a feeling sorcerer’s battles were not quite like the ones in plays. I hoped Annalie really knew what she was doing.

I was just about to open the door to the next chamber when we heard a shout.

“That’s Hollin!” Annalie tried to step forward, her outstretched arm seeking the wall, but I held her back.

“You’ll hurt yourself! Take my arm—it’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?”

Her fingers found my shoulders and gripped there. She gave me a little shove. “Go, then. We have to help him.”

I heard Rashten shouting now, and Hollin shouting over her. Something crashed. I heard Hollin yell, not the shout of spell-casting, but a cry of pain. I hurried forward, a few of Annalie’s orbs still following, and opened the door. I peered out with one eye, and ducked back in when I saw Miss Rashten at the end of the hall with a long white sorcerer’s staff. Her eye swept over me just before I pulled away.

“Did you see her?” Annalie whispered in my ear.

“Yes.”

Miss Rashten and Hollin kept crying out their incantations, all in that strange tongue of magic, where the words swept and rolled through the air like forces of nature in themselves.

Annalie whispered something under her breath, until a sound cut her off.

It sizzled, like a firework, and something streaked past my eyes, leaving blinding trails across my vision.

Lights.

Five lights swept into the room, not the gentle glowing lights that Annalie summoned, but lights that flashed and sparked. Instinctively, I stepped back, trodding on Annalie’s skirt, and she was forced to hurry behind me until she hit the sofa with a cry. I swatted a light with my hand and it stung like a bee.

“Ow!”

“What is it?” Annalie whirled in place. The lights made faint whizzing sounds as they darted around us, and I could see her trying to avoid the sound. While I ducked to avoid one of them, two of the remaining lights rushed to her, one burning a hole through her skirt while the other aimed for her face.

“Duck!” I cried.

I quickly snatched a pillow from the sofa and swatted the light from the air. It left a hole like a cigarette burn. I turned, trying to find the other one, only to feel it sting my back.

I hit my back with the pillow, but too late, of course—the thing had found its mark.

“They’re gone—for now,” I said, gasping.

“What were they?”

“Lights. They burned a hole in your dress, but not your petticoat, looks like. One was going for your face. They burn when they touch.” I glanced at the growing welt on my hand where I’d swatted the light away. “Try to summon your spirits.” No sooner had I spoken than a fresh round of the whizzing lights streaked into the room, and I had to rush forward to fend them off before they hit Annalie.

I realized I hadn’t heard Hollin in a while.

Miss Rashten called to us from the hall. “Are you keeping busy in there, girls? It’s just the two of you now.”

“Oh,
no,
” Annalie said. She looked ready to run forward again. One of the lights took the distraction to jab me right in the cheek, the worst one of all. Tears leaped to my eyes.

The room was dark again, except for the three dancing orbs that had followed Annalie from her bedroom. They circled around the ceiling, keeping the room illuminated for me.

I kept looking for any stray lights, but I knew no more would come just yet.
She
would come now. It must have been just a handful of seconds that we waited there, but time grew slow and horrible. My mouth feared to make a peep. The same horrible thrall must have held Annalie.

Miss Rashten entered the doorway. I half expected her to have changed, to bear some demon’s face, but she was the same wrinkled old woman, with the same old cap. My eyes traveled the length of her white staff, an elegant thing nearly as tall as she. It didn’t seem to suit her.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “But I warned you, Miss Nimira, didn’t I?”

She struck her staff against the ground, and another dozen of the lights burst forth from the tip and rose up like the sparks from a fire, to circle around the staff’s head. She gestured with the staff, and the lights flew to Annalie, swirling around her like a living net. Annalie’s orbs floated nearby, bunched together at a cautious distance, as if plotting a rescue. I wished it were so!

“Annalie, don’t move,” I said. “Her lights are all around you.”

“I knew you were all plotting some nonsense,” Rashten said. “Hollin’s down. Annalie, return to your room. Nimira, you come with me.”

I wished I knew what to do. We had planned for Hollin to distract Miss Rashten while Annalie summoned the spirits, but Miss Rashten had set her lights upon us almost from the start.

“I won’t go to my room,” Annalie said. “I’d rather you did kill me.”

“Ridiculous.” Miss Rashten touched my arm with the head of her staff. It burned, although not so much as her lights, and I managed not to react besides a tightening of muscles in my shoulders. “Come on,” she said. “Come on . . . good girl, Miss Nimira.”

Annalie had kept very still, hands at her sides. Miss Rashten’s lights lifted from around her, returning to the staff.

“You can move now, Annalie,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “Go back to your room; don’t worry about me.” I hoped Annalie would worry about me, and would do something, but I supposed my only chance of giving her time to summon the spirits was to deflect Miss Rashten’s attention from her.

“Where are you taking her?” Annalie demanded. Miss Rashten was herding me from the room with the staff pointed at my back like a pistol. Annalie’s fingers found the wall and she groped forward after us, her orbs following, staying near the ceiling.

“I’m sending her away,” Miss Rashten said slowly. Every word was ominous. I knew she wouldn’t just send me anywhere.

Annalie’s orbs drew closer to her, and she reached for my arm, but Miss Rashten struck her across the face with the staff and she reeled back. I stamped on Rashten’s foot and scrambled to find something I could use as a weapon, but the room was almost empty of adornment or function. Rashten had time to strike back, and strike she did. Her staff flared, releasing a force that knocked me against the wall. The pain came a moment later, filling my eyes with stars.

When my head cleared, Annalie had thrown back her veil and was trying to wrest the staff from Miss Rashten’s hands. She was cringing and squinting with pain from the light, but Rashten couldn’t seem to control her staff as long as Annalie had hold of it. If only I had something I could use as a weapon!

No sooner had I mustered this thought than I saw two hands appear in the door, holding a pistol between them.

Linza.

“Lift . . . your . . .
hands,
” she said to Miss Rashten, her voice shaking so much you could hardly understand her.

Miss Rashten turned sharply.
“What—?”

“I c-c-can fire this . . . p-pistol . . . faster than you can . . . do magic,” Linza managed. She was, admittedly, not a terribly intimidating figure, with her eyes wide as some funny jungle creature, and the pistol wobbling in her hands.

Miss Rashten made a little, incredulous laugh, and yanked the staff from Annalie’s surprised hands while Linza—

I
wasn’t afraid to act.

I grabbed the pistol from Linza’s hand, pointed it at Miss Rashten’s leg, and pulled the trigger before I had time to think twice about it.

The bullet only grazed her leg, but she shrieked with pain. Now my hands were shaking as blood spots appeared on her dress. Although the pain still must have been terrific, she regained her composure quickly and lifted her staff.

“You move and I’ll kill you,” I said, pointing the pistol at her heart, or thereabouts. The voice coming from my mouth didn’t sound like mine at all, but I let it go on. “If you try to hurt us again, I swear I’ll shoot.”

I held the pistol pointed at her, and she had the staff pointed at me, and someone had to make the first move.

I counted seconds in my head, fixing my eyes on her, afraid to blink.

Her lips crept into a smile. “You can’t do it, can you?”

Two of Annalie’s orbs drifted toward their mistress, I noticed from the corner of my eye, but I dared not take my attention off of Miss Rashten. If I could just keep her distracted long enough.

“I shot you already, didn’t I?” I said.

“Put down the gun,” she said. “You dare shoot me again, and this staff has enough power to take the whole lot of you with me.”

I felt the trigger, potent beneath my finger. I could pull it and end this. Her threat about the power in the staff could be a bluff.

She was right, though. I didn’t really want to deal death with my own hands.

Miss Rashten suddenly noticed the orbs fluttering around Annalie. Their number had increased noticeably, even brightening the room. “Hey now, what’s this?” She thrust the staff at Annalie, but Annalie did not even look at her. She was lowering her veil and the orbs gathered around her shoulders, protectively it seemed.

Miss Rashten moved to strike her with the staff, but then she stopped and peered at the ceiling, like she’d heard someone calling.

And then I heard it, too.
Rashten Rashten . . . cursed traitor . . .
fallen fallen . . .

“What is that?” she said, and for the first time, she sounded truly nervous.

“My friends,” Annalie said.

The room was beginning to fall into darkness. The light from the open hallway door was shrinking back.

Annalie faced Rashten. The orbs gathered behind her, casting soft illumination on the wall, while creating a silhouette out of her. Her shadow ran a path to Miss Rashten, who lifted her staff like she meant to strike, once she figured out what to strike
at
.

Two forms melted from Annalie’s shadow, taking on a certain smoky substance, with lanky arms and legs.

“She is the one you want,” Annalie said, now holding her arm out like a general leading her army. With jerking movements, the shadow beings slid toward Miss Rashten. They had come to help us, but I think I was nearly as scared of them as she was.

They gathered around her, linking arms of liquid black, melding into one form that held her tight between them. She made shuddering cries, like she couldn’t breathe.

The shadows had brought the frigid cold with them. I hurried to Annalie’s side. She held a hand out to me, and I took it. My fingers shivered, and she squeezed them. “Let’s go,” she whispered. “They will handle her.”

Miss Rashten thrust a hand out from the shadows. The darkness quickly pulled it back into its web. I saw only flashes of her cap or the hem of her skirt. The room had gone so dark. Linza was standing frozen with terror, and I grabbed her arm and pulled her from the room. She stumbled after me, while Annalie kept her arm about my waist.

Together, we left the room behind.

30

As Linza recovered her wits, she realized I was leading Annalie, and flanked her other side. Hand in hand, we picked up our pace. I felt a thrill of unity. We’d done it—Linza and Annalie and I together. I was so heady with adrenaline, I could have skipped down the stairs.

“Will they leave on their own?” I asked Annalie. “Or do you have to dismiss them?”

“They can depart without me,” she said.

We found Hollin slumped in the hall like a napping laborer. He came to at the sound of our footsteps and struggled to his feet just as we swarmed him. Annalie’s hands reached for his chest, his arm—whatever they found.

“Did she hurt you?” she asked.

“I’ll be all right. Bruised, I’m sure. What—what happened? You’re all right?” He put a hand to Annalie’s shoulder, and then even mine. He looked like he wanted to grab the both of us close.

“Yes,” Annalie said. “I think she is dead.”

“Thank God,” he breathed.

I said a silent prayer for Miss Rashten’s soul, although truth be told, I didn’t feel tremendously sorry.

“I’m sorry I was so useless,” Hollin said. “She caught me coming back from my bedroom.” He noticed the pistol in my hand. “How did you get my gun?”

“I did, sir,” Linza said. “I’m sorry. I knew you kept a pistol near your bed. I’d seen it when I cleaned—I’m sorry.” Her cheeks were flushed.

“Don’t be sorry,” Annalie said. “It was quick thinking.”

“You shall certainly have a raise,” Hollin said. “But now we must not waste any time. I’m going to make sure Miss Rashten is taken care of, and then we’ll make haste to New Sweeling.”

I had almost forgotten, in the rush of the moment, that besting Miss Rashten was only half the battle. Smollings still had Erris, and he might destroy him before we could save him.

We reached New Sweeling after nightfall. I half expected to find the city in an expectant hush, but of course it was just another night, with music spilling from taverns and nightclubs, gaslights illuminating urchins selling songsheets and matches, theatergoers in fur wraps and fine suits strolling to their carriages.

Our carriage slowed before a grand apartment of twelve or so stories,
The Aubrey
.

We walked up to the double doors. Their elegant stained glass panes depicted lilies and reeds, in the very latest style. Two narrow rows of clear windows framed the doors, and through them we saw the night watchman, sitting at the lobby desk.

Hollin tried the door, but it was locked. He knocked, and then poked his face in the clear windows. The night watchman came and stared at him for a moment.

“Let us in! I need to see Karstor Greinfern!”

The door opened. The night watchman looked somewhat flustered. “He’s not expecting anyone.”

“It’s Hollin Parry,” Hollin said, flashing his card. “I’m sure he’ll want to see me.”

The man still looked unsure, but he admitted us. After a brief call up to Karstor, we took the elevator to the topmost floor, where Karstor, clad in slippers and dressing gown, was already waiting for us.

“Hollin Parry?” His eyes darted between the three of us. “What’s going on? What is this?”

“A rescue mission,” Hollin said. “And . . . an apology.”