Beneath Charmbridge

As Alexandra shot upwards, some of the biting, stinging insects flew off of her as well, but that didn't rid her of all of them. She could barely think about what she was doing – it hurt so much, all over her body. She was still holding onto the wands; her broom, no longer being grasped by its handle and forced upwards, slowed and began tilting backwards, as if about to tumble back down to the ground, far below.

Alexandra curled and brought her knees up, and wrapped her legs around the broomstick. She transferred both wands into one hand, and grasped the handle with the other, which gave her enough control over the broom to roll herself back upright. She would have gasped in relief except she was afraid bugs would crawl into her open mouth. She could feel them biting her face.

She flinched, clenched the wands in a shaking hand, and stammered, “R-Rep-pello V-Vermis!”

It didn't work the first time. The second time, she managed to say it without stuttering, and the spray from her wand made all the bugs disperse. She heard a raucous caw. She opened her eyes – even that hurt, as her eyelids were now covered with bites and stings – and saw Charlie flying towards her. Something shiny was clutched in the raven's talons.

There was no time for her to think about that, as she heard yet another sound: a multitude of wings beating against the air. It was a sound she'd heard before. She looked up and saw a large, ominous black cloud descending on her.

“Fly, Charlie!” she cried, and dropped towards the sharp-edged cliffs below, aiming away from the Gift-Place.

She didn't accelerate to full speed, for fear of leaving Charlie behind. The swarm of bats followed, chittering and screeching, and for an interminable time, Alexandra was just hunched over her broom, constantly twisting her neck around to keep an eye on Charlie, always fearful that the bats would overtake them. Occasionally, she tossed fire from her wand, when they were too close, but there were too many bats to drive them all away so easily.

The witch and the raven zoomed along, now skimming just over the tops of the small mountains that rose up to meet them along their path, and it seemed as if a solid wave of bats continued to descend towards them, rippling along in their wake. As one mass of bats fell behind, their fellows directly overhead would be stirred into flight, and then pursuit, so though Charlie could fly faster than the bats, they were never quite able to get so far ahead that they weren't dragging more aerial pursuers after them.

But the mountains became smaller and smaller, until they were only hills, and Alexandra and Charlie flew lower and lower, until they reached a vast chalky swamp. It was an endless series of mud puddles, with occasional, relatively dry islands, and once again, there was very little living that Alexandra could see, other than some stunted, stick-like plants, and an awful-looking white film of algae that spread across many of the larger puddles.

When she realized that the bats had finally stopped chasing them – they were apparently too low now to attract their notice – she aimed for the nearest 'high ground,' and bounced and skidded to a painful stop in the dirt. She rolled over, and lay on her back, breathing heavily.

She was covered with blood and bruises. Her side burned fiercely where the elf had struck her with a stick. And she could now feel the hundreds of bites on her body, which were beginning to burn like fire as well. She moaned, and lacked the will to continue on.

Charlie landed next to her. Even the raven's wings dragged on the ground a little.

“Alexandra,” croaked Charlie, dropping the locket next to her head.

“Charlie,” she whispered. She reached a hand out, to touch the bird, and then closed her eyes, and her body shook with dry heaves. Everything hurt. She was tired. She was lost. And she'd left Maximilian behind. She wanted to go back for him, but she had no idea how to retrieve him from the Lands Beyond, even if she could face the Generous Ones again.

She lay there for some time, but it was the pain as much as anything else that forced her up again. Thrashing around with her skin on fire was almost as bad as when she'd been Crucioed. Her face was wet with tears that wouldn't stop, but she didn't notice as she sat up and took a meager inventory.

She had two wands, a broom, a locket, the clothes on her back, and Charlie.

She stuck Maximilian's wand into her pocket, and felt something else there, cold and smooth.

She took it out, and remembered Maximilian putting his arms around her, before he sent her away so she wouldn't see him sacrifice himself in her place. He had dropped the Lost Traveler's Compass into her pocket.

She let out a cry that was more of a choking sound, and the compass slipped through her fingers and fell to the ground. Charlie still sat on the ground next to her, watching her and making a low, soothing, cooing sound.

Alexandra pointed her wand at her face, and said, “Aguamenti.”

It hurt to force the word out; her throat was cracked and bloody as well. The water that sprayed across her face cleared her vision a little, which had become blurred by dried tears and blood and grit, but it did little to relieve the stinging. She began applying the few healing charms she'd learned, and was able to reduce the pain in her face a little. She finally dared look at her side, and saw that the fabric of her shirt had been burned away, and it was hard to tell what was charred cloth and what was skin. She cast a minor charm for burns, but she knew she really needed Burn-Healing Paste and a proper healing spell. They'd had Burn-Healing Paste, in Maximilian's pack. She forced herself not to think about that.

Her arms and legs, her neck and her face, and under her clothes, every other part of her, burned like a thousand bee-stings, but the angry red bumps rising on her skin looked more like gigantic mosquito bites. Almost every muscle in her body was twitching now, and she kept moving only because there was nothing she could do about the pain, and lying there wouldn't make it hurt any less. She kept choking out dry, rasping sobs.

She reached down to pick up the Lost Traveler's Compass, and wiped gray chalky mud off of it – the water from her Aguamenti spell had created a puddle. As she did, she noticed that where the mud caked on her fingers and the palm of her hand, the stinging subsided.

She rose shakily to her feet, swayed, and then staggered towards a large bubbling pool of gray sludge. It gave off a musty odor, but it wasn't really so terrible. She knelt and scooped up some of the mud in one hand, and experimentally smeared it across her forearm. It didn't make the pain go away entirely, but the soothing effect was immediate and noticeable. With slow, lethargic motions, she rolled up her sleeves and pants legs, and rubbed mud onto her arms and legs, then coated her face and neck as well. She lifted her shirt, and smeared some across her stomach.

Maybe I should just take a mud bath. For a moment, she gave the idea serious consideration. Then she caught sight of something moving in the soupy liquid – it scurried up onto a muddy little hillock that rose a few inches above the surface of the chalk-mud swamp, and then back into the water. Alexandra saw many, many segmented body parts, and even more legs. The thing was nearly as big around as her arm.

Maybe not, she thought.

She didn't know how long she stood there, before she finally turned back around. Her legs were still shaky as she walked back to her broom, and collapsed into a cross-legged position on the ground. The bites and stings were no longer so excruciating, but she still hurt all over.

“Charlie,” she croaked.

The raven looked up at her. She couldn't read any expression in Charlie's beady black eyes, but the bird's voice sound forlorn as it replied, “Alexandra.”

She picked up the locket, with a trembling hand. Charlie didn't even make a sound or snatch at it. Alexandra winced – even raising her arms hurt – and slipped the chain over her head.

Alexandra.

With a cold, numb feeling, she realized she was 'hearing' her father's voice again, as the locket settled around her neck.

She didn't answer at first. She sat where she was, and only stirred when she noticed a large centipede-like thing crawling out of the muck, a few feet away. She pointed her wand at it, and blasted it back into the water.

Alexandra! Are you in danger?

She laughed, making a choking sound that hurt her throat.

Alexandra, talk to me.

“Maximilian is gone,” she mumbled.

What do you mean?

“He went to the Lands Beyond,” she whispered.

Silence answered her back.

Alexandra rose to her feet. She looked at the Lost Traveler's Compass, and waited until its needle pointed steadily in one direction. That was the way they had come – she and Maximilian.

Do you have the means to return, Alexandra? her father asked. She couldn't sense any emotion in his voice, and had no idea what he was thinking.

“Yes.”

Come back.

“If you can talk to me, why can't you come and get me? Why didn't you talk to me before?”

There were many more questions bouncing around in her head, but she could barely form them, much less speak them aloud.

I could not reach you through the locket, until now. I only just felt the link return. I thought at first you had returned already from the Lands Below. His voice faltered a moment. I tried to Apparate to you, but I cannot. I don't understand –

“If I make it back, maybe you can figure it out.”

Alexandra –

“Can you do anything to help me get back?”

There was a pause, and then he replied: I have no means to reach you, or guide you, where you are.

“Then I think you should stop talking to me. I can't... can't think about too many things right now.”

She felt a flash of anger, and then her father's voice fell silent.

Alexandra picked up her broom and mounted it.

“Come on, Charlie,” she commanded, in a voice that kept cracking. “It's time to go.”

“Fly! Fly!” Charlie said. The raven fluttered up to land on the end of her broom.

She took off. She stayed close to the ground, keeping an eye overhead. She didn't fly too fast. Sometimes Charlie rode on her broom, balancing precariously with wings partially extended, and sometimes the raven flapped alongside her. She followed the needle of the Lost Traveler's Compass as the chalky swamp passed below them. She had no idea how far they had traveled to reach the domain of the Generous Ones, or how long it would take to get back by broom.

There were other things she knew she should think about, too – like food, and Lagaru, and Generous Ones, and underwater panthers. But she couldn't think about too many things, so she just concentrated on flying.

Alexandra didn't remember much of her flight back across the Lands Below. She saw muddy swamps, a landscape of cracked, broken fissures, a cold, glittering desert of fine, crushed sand, and a forest of trees no taller than her, with creatures she couldn't identify scampering among them. She passed over a huge lake – perhaps the same one she and Maximilian had reached after their skirmish with the Lagaru. She couldn't tell.

She didn't know how far she traveled. Perhaps it was only a few miles; perhaps it was a thousand. She knew the geography of this place was impossible, and there was no comparing how far she traveled by broom with how far she and Maximilian had hiked, or how far they had been transported by the bone flute. It was all she could do to stay on the broom and keep following the needle of the Lost Traveler's Compass.

She realized she was falling asleep on her broom when Charlie cawed a warning. Startled, she opened her eyes, and saw that her feet were almost scraping the ground. She pulled up just in time.

That wasn't the last time she nodded off while flying. Charlie pecked at her head when she began rising too high above the ground. She tried to stay awake, and considered stopping to rest, but without a tent, and unable even to cast the protective wards Maximilian knew, she wasn't sure Charlie would be able to wake her in time if the Lagaru or something worse came upon her.

It was not until she saw a rock cliff face that seemed to stretch from one end of the horizon to the other that anything looked familiar. The Lost Traveler's Compass guided her to a gaping opening at the bottom of that cliff – one of many.

Alexandra landed, and looked into the dark tunnel. Charlie landed on her shoulder.

She didn't think the Lost Traveler's Compass could tell them if the path back the way they'd come was now blocked. She remembered Maximilian trying to collapse the tunnel behind them as they'd fled from the underwater panthers. Each time she thought of Maximilian, icy fingers seemed to reach into her guts and jab and twist them, and each time, she took deep breaths and ignored the feeling, focusing on anything but that.

“We can take one of those other tunnels,” she suggested to Charlie, speaking in a soft, hushed tone. “They might lead to some other gateway out of the Lands Below.”

Charlie clucked, listening to her, but not offering any useful suggestions.

“Of course, maybe underwater panthers are waiting by all of them. Or something worse. Max...” Her words caught in her throat. “Max said all the entrances are probably guarded.”

“Maximilian,” Charlie warbled. Alexandra closed her eyes, squeezing them shut so tightly that it hurt, and then opened them again.

“The problem is,” she went on, her voice dropping to a hoarse whisper, “I don't even know if the tunnel is blocked. All those Deprimo spells...”

She wasn't really expecting Charlie to offer useful input. It just felt better to talk to her familiar. The raven bobbed its head, and looked around watchfully.

Underwater panthers probably had really good hearing, too, she thought, and smell. What were the chances that she could just crawl her way back through this tunnel, even assuming it wasn't blocked, and not find the occupants of the lair waiting for her?

Pretty nearly zero, she decided. She might as well just hurl herself down the tunnel on her broom. Either she'd make it or she wouldn't.

She looked at Charlie, who was looking back at her. For some reason, throwing herself into the jaws of death bothered her less than taking her familiar with her.

“We might die now, Charlie,” she said.

“Alexandra,” Charlie replied.

She kissed the top of the bird's head. Charlie cooed. Then she swallowed, and pulled up her shirt. “I've got to hold on to you, Charlie. We might have to go really fast.”

Charlie squawked and protested, as she tucked the raven under her shirt. She winced as she felt talons scratching the flesh of her stomach. Then Charlie's head peeked out from inside her collar, below her chin. Her shirt stretched over the bird, pressing it to her chest. Charlie's wings and tail feathers were now scraping against her, which hurt, but she doubted this was comfortable for Charlie either, and at least she'd gotten the bird's beak and claws away from her skin.

She first pointed her wand at Charlie, and said, “Silencio.” Next, she lit her wand with a Light Spell, and finally, she cast a second Silencing Charm on herself.

The underwater panthers at least would not be able to hear them coming, she thought. She sure wouldn't be hard to smell right now, but maybe on her broom, she could move faster than her scent.

It wasn't the best plan, but it was the only one she could come up with.

She mounted her broom again, and flew as quickly as she could, with the light from her wand showing her where the tunnel twisted and turned. Here and there she found piles of rubble, and holes blasted in the ceiling. Maximilian hadn't been too successful at blocking off the tunnel, though, and for that, she supposed she should be grateful. Only once did she actually have to land, and squeeze her way through a narrow gap where a Deprimo spell had apparently dislodged enough rocks to bring down half the tunnel, and left no room for flying. She put an arm over Charlie, still nestled beneath her shirt, to avoid crushing the bird against the side of the tunnel, and while her Silencing Charm drowned out the sound of her footsteps, she wasn't entirely sure that the rocks she dislodged and sent rolling wouldn't make noise, beyond the range of the spell.

Past that bottleneck, she jumped back onto her broom, and flew even faster, almost running into bends in the tunnel several times. Her initial plan had been to extinguish her wand just before she reached the lair of the underwater panthers. There were two problems with that plan, which in her hurt and exhausted state did not occur to her until it was much too late: she couldn't say, “Nox,” while she was Silenced, and there was no way she could recall their panicked escape well enough to guess when they were getting close to the large cavern that Maximilian had called an antechamber into the Lands Below.

She didn't even realize she'd emerged from the tunnel and was now flying in the panthers' lair until she saw that the light from her wand was no longer touching walls, floor, or ceiling. She was floating in what seemed like an immense dark void. That thought brought another dark void to mind, and she shuddered.

She almost flew into the water. She saw the light of her wand reflecting off the surface just in time, and stopped.

Then she was bathed in illumination from below – two brilliant orbs glowing more brightly than her wand. She was almost hypnotized by the lights, as they grew closer and brighter, and then with a silent scream, she shot upwards, just as a huge copper-colored head broke the surface, with jaws that opened wide enough to swallow Alexandra whole.

She ascended on her broom, and the enormous underwater panther came after her, leaping into the air and belching fire. More horrifying, even as she continued to climb, the panther kept rising into the air as well – just how high could this thing jump? For a few seconds, Alexandra thought she would be incinerated or eaten – and then the snarling, copper face of the enormous cat began falling away from her. Alexandra could smell its breath – it was foul, like rotting meat soaked in methane. Heat washed over her.

She could not see the ceiling above her. It was too dark, too high overhead. She kept climbing, and was surrounded by darkness again. Far below was a fiery flash and a roar, and she instinctively ducked her head, looking around for a swarm of bats, but none appeared. Darkness swallowed her, and she thought she might end up smashing herself against the ceiling, or maybe impaling herself on a stalactite.

And abruptly she came out of the darkness, and tried to brake, but not quickly enough. She twisted around, her back slammed into the stone ceiling, and she tumbled to the ground – which was the floor of a much smaller cave, only a few yards below. She put out her hands, dropping her wand, and she felt her wrist snap as she hit the clay floor of the cavern, but her outstretched arms probably saved Charlie from being crushed. She rolled over onto her back, gasping in pain.

She was back in the oval chamber, in the lowest basement beneath Charmbridge Academy, lying on the floor that was the gate to the Lands Below.

Charlie crawled out from under her shirt. She wanted to tell the raven to go, flee to safety, find someone – but even if she weren't Silenced, she couldn't form the words.

“Alexandra?”

Alexandra opened her eyes. Had she been unconscious? She supposed so. She was still in the oval cavern. There was light still coming from a wand – but not hers.

Abraham Thorn was kneeling next to her.

“How...?” she groaned, and he shook his head.

“Shh,” he murmured, and he began waving his wand around her. He wasn't even speaking any incantations, but the mud and filth caked onto her began to disappear, and the pain from her burns and bites and bruises faded. He took her wrist gently in one hand, and she flinched and bit her lip to keep from crying out. Then he touched it with his wand, and her wrist stopped hurting, too.

“You're going to need a Healer,” he said. “You've gotten yourself quite banged up. But this will do for now.”

He helped her sit up, and then stand.

“Charlie?” she mumbled, looking around. She shivered. It was cold, and she was still wearing only boots, pants, and shirt – all of which were now torn and singed. Her shirt was practically in tatters.

“Your raven is making a great deal of noise upstairs.” Her father gazed down at her. When she moved to dash down the tunnel leading to the stairs, he caught her. “If Charlie made it this far, I'm sure you don't need to worry.”

She looked at him in confusion, and then memories began flooding back into her head, and she remembered where she was, and what had just happened.

“Maximilian,” she choked.

“Yes. Maximilian is gone,” her father said gravely, his voice little more than a whisper. “I know this to be true now.” He knelt in front of her, holding her hands.

“He... he sacrificed himself. To save me.” She felt numb as she said the words.

Abraham Thorn looked solemn, almost expressionless, as he nodded.

“But you made it back,” he said. “How? How did you return from the Lands Below?”

“That's what you wanted, isn't it?”

He didn't react, but his mouth tightened slightly.

“A way to get to the Lands Below,” she continued. “Even if it meant losing one of your children.”

“Alexandra,” her father said, in a low voice. “I will mourn Maximilian until the end of my days. And I do not wish to leave you now – truly I do not – but the Auror Authority will already be aware of my presence here, and I must leave, quickly. Please, my child. Give me what you recovered, what Maximilian gave his life for. We will speak later –”

“Always 'later,'” she whispered. “Did you tell Max that, too?”

“Alexandra, there will be another time for you to heap blame and curses upon me.”

She pushed him away, and stepped back.

“Just how clueless were you, really, about what the Generous Ones wanted, about what you'd have to trade?” she demanded.

Her father rose to his feet, and his expression became a scowl. “Generous ones? I don't understand you.”

“Maybe you knew that someone had to die to get what you wanted,” she went on. “You're the one who knows so much about how terrible the Confederation is and how it makes deals –”

“Alexandra, you're making no sense!” he snapped.

“– and I was thinking, did you really expect me not to find out about Maximilian's real mission, and want to go with him? I am clever and resourceful, after all.”

He opened his mouth, looking angry, but Alexandra continued, her voice rising shrilly: “So maybe you knew you'd have to give up a child, but maybe it wasn't Max who was supposed to die, 'cause after all, you only had one son, but you did have an extra daughter you didn't need –”

“ALEXANDRA!” His voice thundered over hers. “You are being hysterical! I know you are overcome with grief, and after what you've just been through, I don't blame you for being irrational, but what you are implying is abominable!”

“Hysterical?” she screamed. “Irrational?” Her voice had become a shriek that even to her ears did indeed sound hysterical and irrational, but she could no longer control herself. She snatched the locket from around her neck. “This is abominable! This is what Max died for! This is what you wanted so much?”

Her father had a pained expression, but she didn't miss how his eyes immediately fixed on the locket – the token he had sent, with his daughter.

“You want to see hysterical and irrational?” she screamed. “I'll show you hysterical and irrational!”

She spun about and stepped towards the nearest cavern wall, with a mighty swing of her arm, raising it to smash the locket against the stone with all her strength.

But she didn't. Instead, she froze in place, with her arm above her head, and the locket swinging by its chain, winding and unwinding around her wrist, as Abraham Thorn walked over to her. Gently, he pried it from her Petrified fingers.

“My dear child,” he said. “I am sorry. I am so very sorry.”

She couldn't move, or say anything. She couldn't even tremble, though her rage was so great that it was a wonder she didn't smolder and ignite where she stood.

Her father knelt next to her. “I do love you, Alexandra,” he whispered. “I am sorry for the things I've had to do, and for the things I will have to do in the future, and I am sorry for this.”

He raised his wand to her temple, and Alexandra didn't remember anything after that.