Gift
Alexandra began walking in the woods each evening, practicing spells but also using her witch-senses and waiting for the return of her nemesis.
She was just within the perimeter of Charmbridge's magical wards the first time she felt something watching her. She stared through the trees into the dense tangle of forest undergrowth. Insect and bird noises filled the woods night and day now that spring was in full bloom, but she thought she heard something rustle in the bushes. It could have been anything, but she felt icy prickles on the back of her neck, and she knew.
–You're back, aren't you, you little monster?â€
She stepped closer to the invisible line that separated the safety of Charmbridge's grounds from the dark lure of the forest beyond, and held a hand out, wondering if the thing was eager with anticipation, if it was ready to spring - if it even had such feelings. Or if it was just watching and waiting with cold, deathly calm.
She could feel the magic of the wards. It was not precisely a physical sensation, but if she had to describe it, she would say it was like hot knife blades pressing against her skin, almost but not quite hard enough to cut her.
It was a very strong spell, and she didn't think she could dispel it even if she wanted to. It wouldn't be very good protection, after all, if a teenager could knock it down. But she thought she could reach through it, like slipping a hand carefully through a barrier of blades...
She drew her wand suddenly and set the bushes in front of her ablaze. She sent green spears of light and yellow bolts of lightning flashing through the trees, hurled rocks and bark and needles through the air, made the ground ripple, and uprooted bushes. In the smoke that lingered in front of her for minutes after her onslaught, there was silence. She had not seen anything scurrying across the ground. Nothing had fled from her magical assault.
You want me to believe you're not there, she thought.
She heard some older students who'd been out on the lawn coming her way, shouting excitedly after seeing the lightning and smoke, and she hastily snuffed the small fires she'd ignited and walked back toward the school. The upperclassmen slowed to a halt when they saw her emerging from the woods. She recognized a JROC senior, and he greeted her. None of the others said a thing to her, but they whispered to each other as she passed them by.
Alexandra continued her evening walks through the weeks of May. She didn't encourage her friends to come with her now, and as finals were approaching, most of them were preoccupied with studying. Alexandra spent most of her time studying too. Indeed, JROC and these evening excursions were the only times she wasn't in class or in the library, except to eat and sleep.
Sometimes, she took Nigel or Charlie with her, thinking that maybe her familiars might help her Patronus materialize. Nigel preferred coiling up in her pants pocket or the sleeve of her robe, but sometime she set the snake on the ground and tried to feel what he was feeling, taste the air the way he did, or make him slither in the direction she willed him to.
One evening she was engaged in doing this when she heard a pop and spun around with her wand out. Larry stood there with his usual amused, disdainful expression.
–I heard now you're setting the woods on fire,†he said. –Why can't you swallow tinctures or wand your skin like other mentally disturbed witches, instead of turning into a pyromaniac?â€
She made a crude suggestion about what he could do with himself instead of bothering her.
He just smirked. –Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?â€
The crack about her mother provoked her despite her determination not to let Larry get to her. Her wand sparked in her hand. Startled at the fury in her expression, Larry raised his own wand in defense. Then his eyes widened and he exclaimed, –Merlin!â€
–What?†Alexandra barely had time to wonder what he meant when something huge and scaly shot past her with a hiss. Larry Apparated away.
Alexandra gasped. –Nigel?â€
The enormous serpentine head turned in her direction, and a forked tongue flicked out and whipped the air in front of her face. The giant snake's cold, reptilian eyes met hers. She saw no familiarity or warmth there, and she became aware that at the moment, she was a conveniently-sized snack for her enlarged familiar.
Nigel hissed again, a loud, blood-chilling sound, and then shrank, and shrank, and shrank, until in seconds, he was back to his normal size.
Alexandra heard another pop. Larry had returned. He was breathing hard, trying to look resolute. His determination melted into confusion. –Where did the giant snake go?â€
Alexandra leaned over and picked Nigel up. Larry stared at the little brown snake dangling from her hand. –What the hell - an Engorgement Charm?â€
–Something like that.†She hadn't spontaneously performed magic like this in a long time. She showed teeth in a smug grin. –Are you afraid of snakes?â€
–No!†he snarled, then muttered something under his breath.
–Why did you come back?†she asked.
–If you were going to get eaten by a snake, I wanted to watch.†With a look of disgust, Larry Apparated away once more.
–I wonder if you could just swallow a baby mummy,†Alexandra said. Nigel's tongue flicked out, tasting the air, and she tucked the snake back into her sleeve.
The deep river valley that cut between the two ridges spread out in glorious shimmering green and silver before Alexandra. Green trees and bushes, a silver thread of river winding its way north to south, twisting like a giant snake. She didn't know where it started or ended, only that it marked the divide between the Muggle world and the wizarding one, and that freshmen were forbidden to fly this far from school.
She could feel the protections surrounding Charmbridge Academy slide away behind her. Charmbridge's grounds covered a large area, but the wards didn't extend all the way to the valley and the Invisible Bridge that crossed it.
She had checked her broom out of its locker. Ms. Shirtliffe would let her do that to practice broom drills. Alexandra had drilled for an hour, joined by William and a few of the younger JROC wands. William didn't ask questions, he just did it because she asked him to. The new wands did it because she and William told them to, and they were awed and terrified by Alexandra. Hazing of younger wands by older ones was practically a JROC tradition.
Now she was skipping lunch and hovering high in the air. Opposite her was the mountain with the Muggle highway cut around it. After checking for cars on the road and other Charmbridge students in sight and seeing only Charlie gliding overhead, Alexandra dropped, fast, to the valley floor.
Charlie dived after her, cawing, but Alexandra laughed, seized with a sudden impulse to see how close she could come to the ground without crashing into it. She plummeted far faster than was safe - Ms. Shirtliffe would take away her flying privileges and possibly bust her back a rank again if she saw her flying so recklessly - but as the ground rushed up at her, she felt no fear or concern. She braked the broom hard enough to make her insides squeeze together, and the hard, short bristles at the end of her Twister actually brushed dirt as she tilted it back, while her feet dangled inches from the ground. Charlie screamed at her.
Alexandra grinned at the raven, then floated along the base of the cliff on the Charmbridge side of the river. It was mostly reddish rock and relatively even, so when she found a rougher seam of red and white rocks jumbled together, she recognized what had once been an entrance to one of the tunnels leading into the cavern complex beneath Charmbridge Academy - the level below the sub-basements. Once, she had followed this very tunnel to the chamber where the gateway to the Lands Below was located.
As Dean Grimm had promised, the tunnel was sealed now.
Outside the protection of Charmbridge's wards, Alexandra sat on her broom and waited. After half an hour, she floated slowly back up to the top of the cliff and flew back and forth, eying bushes and small trees that grew along its edge. John Manuelito must have hidden there while summoning the murder of crows that attacked her in September. Somewhere in there, even now, her 'Nemesis' might be trailing her, though she could not feel anything watching her. She had half-hoped it would leap off the cliff to come after her, but apparently it would not be so easily lured into the open.
Alexandra continued flying around the valley, and even performed some aerobatic tricks, until she saw flashes of color below, accompanied by laughter carried on the wind. More students, older students, coming to picnic in the valley or perhaps find a make-out spot. Alexandra took a circular route back toward the school, keeping a long, green row of pine trees between herself and the other fliers
Her first reconnaissance had been successful. She hadn't just been looking for confirmation that the valley tunnel was sealed, but testing how closely she was watched, and whether even a brief excursion beyond the safety of Charmbridge's wards would draw an attack from the creature. Anna had not liked the idea, not at all, but she liked Alexandra's next step even less.
–I'm not saying I don't believe you,†Anna said nervously, while brushing her hair that night. –But David did have a point. You keep saying you can feel it, but you haven't seen it once.â€
Alexandra was lying on her back on her bed, hands behind her head, staring at the ceiling and trying to rouse Nigel with her thoughts. The snake remained complacently coiled around its magical warming rock. The crease of concentration between her eyebrows vanished, only to be replaced with a frown as she turned her head to regard Anna, who was sitting on her own bed in a nightgown. One of Anna's bare legs hung over the edge of her bed while the other was tucked beneath her. After brushing her hair, she was tying it up in preparation for sleep.
–So you don't not believe me, you just think maybe I'm imagining the whole thing,†Alexandra said.
Once, that would have been enough to make Anna look down, bite her lip, and either apologize or let the matter drop. Now, however, Anna finished pinning her hair and then put her hands in her lap. –I hate the idea of you risking getting in trouble for nothing. And this is big trouble you're risking.â€
–Which is worse: me getting in trouble again for breaking school rules, or an unstoppable undead monster hunting me wherever I go and possibly eating someone else?â€
Anna blanched. –If you told Ms. Grimm what you're up to -â€
–She'd say: 'I assure you, Miss Quick, you are perfectly safe so long as you stay within the boundaries of Charmbridge's protective wards, and do not fly off on solitary adventures.'â€
Alexandra's deadpan imitation of the Dean was quite good. Anna put a hand to her mouth to cover a giggle in spite of herself, and then her face turned serious again. –But if she believes there's something after you, you could have some of the teachers help you trap it.â€
–I've told her there's something after me!†Alexandra's impatience did make Anna look down now. –Anna, you know adults never believe anything until it's too late. Isn't that obvious by now?â€
Anna bit her lip.
–Anyway, I promise, I'm not going to try to fight it if it does appear. It can't fly and it can't cross the protective circle. I'll be on my broom, so all I have to do is fly past it back onto Charmbridge's grounds. And if it does appear when I'm on my broom, then I can shoot off some fireworks with my wand until someone shows up. Maybe with more witnesses, they'll believe me.â€
Anna nodded unhappily. Alexandra thought her plan was reasonable, but it was the final execution she had in mind that really worried Anna.
Alexandra didn't just take Charlie with her the next time she flew into the valley. She brought Nigel as well, tucked beneath her uniform jacket. It was a drizzly afternoon following JROC drill, and Alexandra was riding one of the school brooms this time, so she could not engage in the sort of maneuvers that were possible on her Twister. She flew gently, with Nigel squirming beneath her buttoned shirtfront.
She descended to settle on the ground in front of the sealed tunnel entrance and stepped off the broom. Charlie was circling the cliff high above. Alexandra might not be able to communicate her precise instructions to her other familiar, but Charlie knew what she wanted the raven to watch out for. She believed so, anyway.
She held her wand pointed in a straight line at the rocks in front of her, aligned with the dark tunnel beyond as she remembered it.
–Defodio!†she said, and a small chunk of rock was blasted free.
After several repetitions of the spell, there was a conical hollowed-out space carved into the rock, and Alexandra began trying to refine her technique, shaping and honing the pieces of rock gouged out by her spell. She wanted to drill a long, narrow hole, not try to blast away the rocks entirely, which would require an entirely different spell and a great deal more effort.
It took the better part of two hours before she heard the crunch of something giving way and saw a dark hole at the end of seven or eight feet of excavation. When she leaned into it, she felt cold air on her face.
I thought so. She pulled Nigel out. She waved her wand over the snake and said, –Luminos.†Nigel immediately began glowing.
–Don't worry, it won't hurt you,†Alexandra told the snake. She had tested the spell first on inanimate objects, then on insects, then on frogs, and finally on herself. She planned to demonstrate it during her SPAWN. She knew she wasn't the first to invent a Glow Charm, but considering how few students ever invented any new spells, she thought it should be worth an extra mark or two. Not nearly as much as the magic she couldn't demonstrate for her SPAWN...
The glowing snake slithered down the passage she had drilled through the rock and reached the black hole at the far end.
–Go on, Nigel,†she whispered encouragingly.
The snake disappeared. Alexandra thrust her wand into the bore-hole and cast an Amplification Charm on Nigel. The little dark hole became a brilliant pinpoint of light.
Two for two, she thought. She hadn't been sure her charm would work when she couldn't actually see Nigel. But he was her familiar, and apparently that sufficed.
She had, however, misjudged the effect of observing a very bright light shining inside an enclosed space through a small hole. When she tried to use one of the magical lenses she had borrowed from David, first she saw spots before her eyes, and then only a bright light as if the sun were shining inside that dark tunnel. When she cast Finite Incantatem to end the Amplification Charm, she saw only a dark hole again.
She sighed and put away the lens, thrust her wand into the bore-hole, and wiggled it to Levitate Nigel back up to the other end. It took some coaxing, and some unintended bumping of the snake repeatedly against the rocks, before Nigel came crawling back down the hole toward her. When the brown snake finally slithered into her hands once more, he was agitated and hissing.
She tried to comfort the snake, but Nigel was not like Charlie and did not respond to soft words or cuddling. All she could do was promise not to experiment with her familiars anymore. Anyway, she had proven what she wanted to: they had 'sealed' the tunnel by collapsing only the entrance.
She picked up small rocks and shoved them into the hole she'd drilled, then used hexes to blast them deeper and wedge them harder, until she had mostly concealed the evidence of her excavation.
After that, she returned to her room and waited for Anna. After fifteen minutes, Anna entered and shrugged off her outer robe, and only then suppressed a shiver, as if she'd been holding it in.
–Did it go all right?†Alexandra asked.
–He didn't try to abduct me again,†Anna said.
Alexandra smiled. –Mr. Journey is a ghost. He can't do anything to you.â€
–I know that.†Anna stood there, eyes fixed nowhere in particular. Alexandra waited. Finally Anna turned to her. –I'm pretty sure he didn't suspect I was distracting him. He spent a lot of time trying to justify himself and not-quite-begging for my forgiveness.â€
–Thank you, Anna.†Alexandra took her friend's hands. –I know being alone in the basement with Mr. Journey had to be scary.â€
–I'm more scared of what Dean Grimm will do to me if she figures out I was occupying Mr. Journey while you were out of bounds trying to get into the tunnels. Did you, by the way?â€
–I didn't actually get in, but I proved it's possible. I broke the seal on the tunnel I know about. Mr. Journey never acted like anything was up? No elves came and told him something was going on?â€
Anna shook her head. –So I guess that means you're going to proceed with your insane plan.â€
–Do you really think it's insane?â€
It was an honest question, and Anna knew it, from the way she bit her lip and paused before answering. –I think it's dangerous. And I remember what happened the last time I helped you do 'recon'.â€
–It is dangerous, Anna. So is going home to Larkin Mills with a nemesis-thing stalking me.â€
–Let me tell the others. If we all teamed up -â€
–No.†Alexandra's voice was curt and final. It sounded too much like her father's, and had a similar effect: Anna swallowed her objections and looked down. Alexandra softened her tone. –It's one thing to help me do magic. Putting yourselves in danger is totally different. You didn't fight that thing. Nobody is going to face it but me.†Alexandra squeezed Anna's hands. –I'm going to plan everything very carefully. I won't let anything go wrong.â€
The next day, there was no summons to the Dean's office. There had been no alarms, no spells to warn of tampering with the rocks far down in the valley or intruders in the tunnel. All year they had practiced with wards in Charms class, and learned about Alarm Spells and other magical triggers that could be invoked by a broken or crossed ward. Spells that would detect intruders, like Muggle security systems, were not easy to enchant and make persistent and unseen.
For the next two weeks, Alexandra spent time every evening down in the river valley, digging behind a thorny thicket of bushes splayed against the red rock twenty yards from the sealed tunnel. Maybe there was no alarm spell, but she thought simply digging away the entrance they already knew about was too obvious. So she used magic to dig another tunnel, a small one, just large enough for her to crawl through in a hurry, and she used a Glamour Charm to hide it, in the unlikely event that someone would look behind the thorny bushes.
Magic could tunnel through solid rock faster than a jackhammer, but Alexandra couldn't make rock simply melt away, and she couldn't spend too much time each evening. So she patiently excavated a little at a time, expecting to have a tunnel all the way to the larger one completed by the week before their final exams.
School work had been going well. In Mr. Grue's class, Alexandra was mixing a solvent capable of dissolving bones and teeth for her final project.
–This isn't the branch of potions-making that leads to memory alchemy,†Mr. Grue said. His tone was as gruff as always, but he actually seemed curious as to what Alexandra was up to.
Alexandra pointed to the American Potioneering Society's Expanded Table of Alchemical Works. –Solvents are one of the five essential categories of non-imbibables,†she said. –I need to brew solutions of up to the second degree from each category for a Journeyman Potioneering license, which is required to do research in -â€
–Don't recite alchemical charts and APS requirements to me!†Grue snapped. –I know them better than you know the back of your hand!â€
–Then why are you asking me why I'm working on something you know I'll need to learn?â€
Mr. Grue's large, hairy hands opened and closed as if they were squishing an imagined neck. Then he said, –When did you begin thinking ahead, Miss Quick?†He waved a hand to cut her off. –You won't even qualify for an Apprentice Potioneering license before you graduate.†He moved away.
I may not have a lot of time after I graduate, she thought, but she had more immediate plans for a bone-dissolving solvent.
On a warm evening at the end of May, her excavation down in the valley reached the tunnel. She widened the hole just enough for her to fit through without squeezing, and told Anna that night that she would be executing her plan that Sunday.
–You can't do it alone,†Anna said.
–I have to do it alone. No one but me can face my Nemesis.â€
–Let me watch with Jingwei,†Anna pleaded. –I promise not to interfere, except to run for help if something goes wrong.â€
Alexandra raised an eyebrow. –So if I'm getting my butt kicked by the baby mummy and it's trying to kill me, you won't put yourself in danger?â€
Anna swallowed. –I'll go get help.â€
–On your witch's honor?â€
Anna's voice was a whisper: –On my witch's honor.â€
Alexandra wondered if she would keep a similar promise. What if Maximilian had made her promise not to do anything at the Gift Place, instead of tricking her to send her away?
No, she thought, Max knew he was going to die, and I'm not planning to die. –Okay. You can come. But you'll need a broom to follow me.â€
–I can borrow David's.â€
–Fine.†Alexandra gave Anna a smile she hoped conveyed confidence. –I'm going to recon and practice tonight. You cover for me in the library. You can tell the 'Alexandra Committee' that I'm planning something, but only I get to tell them the plan, and only when I'm ready.â€
Over the past couple of weeks, while she'd been brewing her bone-dissolving solvent, she'd sneaked a bit of it out, a few drops at a time, and now she had a full flask of it. She kept it carefully wrapped and sealed in a box in her magical backpack, but she didn't take her pack with her that night when she sneaked outside, only her Seven-League Boots, which were helpful for moving around quickly when no one was watching.
She brought Charlie and Nigel with her. Until just before sundown, she tried to repeat the Engorgement spell she had cast spontaneously when Larry had surprised her. She could make the small brown snake swell to the size of a python now, which was something that would impress Mr. Hobbes for her SPAWN, but she wanted the gigantic snake that had frightened Larry, or better yet, the dragon-sized monster that Henry Tsotsie had created, and so far that seemed to be beyond her ability.
As the sun fell beneath the mountains to the east and twilight descended on Charmbridge and the surrounding woods, Alexandra picked Nigel up and tucked the snake into her sleeve. She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then stepped between two trees at the edge of the lawn. Another step took her deeper into the woods, beyond the sight of Charmbridge Academy. She walked to the very border of the protective charms, and searched the trees and bushes and undergrowth for her Nemesis.
–I know you're out there,†she said. She reached a hand out to touch the wards - or rather, to feel their presence. The wards that kept her safe, that kept the monster on the other side.
She was pretty sure they didn't extend into the tunnels beneath the school, where the Mors Mortis Society had gathered.
Charlie cawed a warning, then flapped away. Alexandra heard the wings of a pursuer beating the air, and drew her wand angrily.
–Get lost!†she yelled. She wasn't surprised that it was Larry once again, pausing as he stepped between two trees to tug at his cloak when it caught on a protruding branch.
–What are you up to out in the woods?†he asked.
–Why are you following me around and keeping tabs on what I do?â€
–Curiosity. Either you're sneaking around outside in the evening to make everyone think you're up to something, or you really are up to something.†Larry took a cigarette out of his pocket and waved the tip at her, a few inches from her wand. –Light?â€
–Incendere,†she said, and the entire cigarette ignited, flaring hot enough to burn his fingers before he dropped it.
He cursed and shook his hand in the air. –Bitch.â€
–I'll remember that,†she said coldly. –Now call your familiar back.â€
–Or what?†He took out another cigarette and lit it with his own wand. –That fat raven of yours needs more exercise, I see it lurking around out here all the time.†He brushed past Alexandra with an insouciant smirk.
–Charlie's not fat. You probably saw my father's raven,†she said.
He waggled his cigarette at her. –Not falling for that one.â€
Alexandra realized suddenly that Larry was walking very close to the edge of the protective wards. –Fine. You caught me doing my Dark Arts rituals. I'm going back inside. Charlie!†She walked several paces toward the school, then stopped when she saw that Larry wasn't moving.
–You're really eager to get rid of me,†he said.
–Duh. Like a zit.â€
He scratched his chin and looked around.
–No, seriously, would you just leave me alone?†she said. –I haven't bothered you all semester.â€
–You always bother me, Quick.†Larry wandered further from her, still peering about as if hoping to find evidence of actual Dark rituals.
–Go away!†she yelled, as he stepped across the invisible boundary marking Charmbridge's protective radius.
–Nothing's stopping you from going away,†he said, puffing on his cigarette. –Yet here you are, yelling at me. What are you trying to hide?†He turned back around and seemed to be taking immeasurable satisfaction in her helpless anger.
She clenched her teeth, torn between yelling again, this time to tell him he was in danger, and simply walking away. The creature was after her, not him, and it seemed to be very good at staying hidden from everyone else. At times she almost doubted herself that it was really out there.
Then she thought of Martha. –Larry, don't - come here.â€
–Don't come here?†He cocked his head.
–I mean come here! Come away from there. I'll tell you everything if you come with me.â€
–Hah. You are desperate. What are you hiding out here?†He turned his back on her and cast a Light Spell, holding his wand high.
–Larry!†She felt goosebumps, almost like a premonition, just before something sprang from the shadows and dragged him to the ground.
She tried to use a Repulsion Jinx to separate them, but Larry and the small skeletal figure were rolling in the leaves, Larry's cloak tangled around his limbs and the thing's skull. He struggled to point his wand at it when its beak slashed at his neck. He brought his chin down just in time to avoid getting his throat torn open, and instead a red gash opened like a second mouth just below his lips. He cried out and dropped his wand.
Alexandra thought of fire, frost, lightning, spines, wind, and scouring sand - all those things would harm Larry more than the mummified creature. A Deadweight Spell would pin it on top of him.
–Levicorpus,†she said, and the thing's shriveled feet rose into the air, but it clung to Larry with those tiny, inhumanly strong hands. Larry clutched at its beak with both hands, trying without success to keep its bony jaws together. Blood was pouring across his chin and neck. Alexandra cast three hexes in a row that would have felled a tree and probably slain a man. They struck the child-sized monster and tore it away from Larry, but it only flew a few yards. Already it was on its feet again. Its empty, fathomless eye sockets seemed to bore into her and Larry both. And Larry was on the other side of the protective wards.
–All right, then,†Alexandra said. She leaped forward, through the wards, and ran past Larry. –Come and get me!â€
The thing lurched after her immediately. She didn't have her broom, but she could outrun it in her Seven-League Boots, and she thought she could lead it through the woods to the cliff, and then -
There was a pop of Apparition, and Larry appeared between her and the monster. It ran into him and the two of them tumbled to the ground at Alexandra's feet, throwing leaves into the air.
–What are you doing?†Alexandra shouted.
The monster's mouth gaped wide. Larry tried to push its head away, and ended up grabbing its lower jaw. His fingers hooked around the hard bony edge where its lip would be if it had any flesh, and then its jaws snapped together with a clack.
Larry screamed and held up a hand which spurted blood from the severed stumps of his fingers.
–No!†Alexandra cried out as the monster's beak plunged into Larry's stomach. Then it leaped at her and she stepped backward so suddenly that her Seven-League Boots almost sent her careening into a tree. The lightless void in the depths of the creature's eye sockets remained fixed on her and its beak glistened with dark red blood.
Larry lay on the ground groaning. His eyes were white-rimmed and wide with shock. His hands clutched at his stomach, stained with even more blood. The monster was rushing at her. She had no hope of carrying Larry to safety, she couldn't Apparate with him, she didn't know how mortal his wound might be -
I need Ms. Grimm, she thought. I need the adults. I need them now.
She ran, firing red flares from her wand into the sky. The creature followed. She led it away from Larry, then abruptly veered left and dashed out of the trees and straight toward the far side of Charmbridge Academy's grounds, and the valley that lay beyond. As she went through the wards, she spoke her Name and an Invitation to her Nemesis.
She couldn't knock the invisible barrier down or undo it or move it, but she could pry open a gap and weaken it. And she hoped - prayed - that when she did, the Dean, Ms. Shirtliffe, the other teachers who helped maintain Charmbridge's magical defenses, would know and come Apparating.
In the dim twilight, the monster came running out of the woods and across the threshold of the magical wards, a shadowy abomination with an unnatural spider-like gait and the speed of a sprinting man.
Alexandra gauged the distance between herself and the thing pursuing her, and risked a glance over her shoulder. There were some other students out on the grass, and further away, the Quodpot team was practicing. She heard the detonation of one of their Quods. A few of them were looking in her direction, having seen the sparks from her wand.
This wasn't at all the way she'd planned it. It was supposed to be just her and her Nemesis with no one else around.
Alexandra raised her wand to slow the baby mummy down with a Deadweight Spell. Then a massive sound drowned out everything else.
With a furious explosion of sound and motion, the night itself seemed to come alive, and birds came pouring out of the darkling woods.
–Oh, shit,†Alexandra groaned.
The trees were all filled with screeching and cawing and the beating of wings, and a murderous tide of beaks and talons and feathers swept across the fields like darkness itself. Every crow in the woods came screaming at Alexandra.
The Nemesis was close enough that she could see the darkness where its eyes should be. She cast a lightning bolt at it. It struck the creature with a loud, crackling flash and sent it rolling backward through the trees like a smoking ball of burnt cloth and rubbish.
It only took a moment for it to rise and come charging at her again, with a furious black maelstrom of birds in its wake.
Alexandra took the most direct path she could see across the fields toward the river valley. She shot past the stunned students, yelling, –Run! Get help!â€
In her Seven-League Boots, she outdistanced the monster and the crows alike. The cacophony of the avian horde filled her ears even over the rushing of wind. The fates of Charlie and Larry worried her, but she couldn't turn back; she would just have to hope someone got to Larry quickly, that the adults could turn back the birds.
She had barely started breathing hard by the time she reached the cliff above her almost-finished tunnel entrance. She stared down at the hard red rocks, many hundreds of feet below, then checked over her shoulder.
The crows had stopped pursuing her. They were swarming across Charmbridge's lawn, and Alexandra gasped as she saw students running back to the school building in a panic, beset by birds.
–Oh no,†she breathed.
She couldn't see her Nemesis, then realized that by the time she did, it would be too close.
She had planned to have her broom and her Skyhook and her bone-dissolving solvent and all her other weapons with which to try to destroy the creature. Now she was cornered, and all she had left was her plan of last resort. And she knew only one way to beat the monster down the cliff.
She'd never practiced a Falling Charm from such a height - not on herself.
It worked for Trish, she thought, and she cast the Charm and jumped.
Magic, as Mr. Newton reminded them often, could not grant the power of flight. But falling a quarter of a mile in a gentle descent that became gentler the closer she got to the ground was such a thrilling experience, Alexandra had a moment to wonder why more wizards didn't do this just for the fun of it. She should try doing this from a broom, really high up!
The absurd, out-of-place thought came to an abrupt end as she landed hard. Her feet slammed into the ground and the shock traveled up her legs and body. She skidded and fell onto her side, scraping skin from her elbow to her wrist and almost hitting her head. If she'd landed at a slightly different angle or stiffened her legs just a fraction of a second too early, she would have broken an ankle or worse.
High above, she saw a bump at the top of the cliff which moved right over the edge and began scaling down the cliff like a giant beetle. The monster didn't jump - it just crawled down the vertical rock face at the same speed it ran. Alexandra thought about casting another barrage of spells at it, but realized that wouldn't hurt it and might just knock it off the cliff and bring it to the ground faster. Instead, she leaped to her feet and ran to the small tunnel she had been carving for the past couple of weeks. She threw herself down it, scrambling on hands and knees and ignoring the scraped skin, until she reached the remaining foot or so of rock.
No time for careful digging and worrying about detection now. She blasted away the rock with a violence that sent smoke and dust billowing around her. Some of it went up her nose and she struggled fiercely to keep from sneezing. A dark hole appeared before her and cold air blew against her face. Without looking back, she dived headfirst into the hole and squeezed herself through. Her robes caught on the shattered bits of rock and for a moment, she wasn't sure the opening was wide enough. Then she landed with a grunt on cold, hard stone. She cast a Light Spell, and saw a tunnel that looked very much like the one she had once traveled down to the chamber to the gate to the Lands Below.
She rose to her feet and took a few quick breaths. She heard something moving - skittering - down the tunnel through which she had just crawled.
She could have brought the smaller tunnel down, burying the creature. It was tempting.
But I already tried that. A burning hogan collapsed on the monster while it was pinned to the ground with a Deadweight Spell. Trapped in the center of an inferno that left nothing else behind - and it had gotten away.
Alexandra didn't need to run now. She covered half the length of the sealed tunnel in a few steps. It took her only seconds to reach a familiar juncture.
To her right was a large cavern with an unnatural clay floor: the gateway to the Lands Below. Directly in front of her, she would find a smaller chamber with a flat section of wall on which were painted old Indian figures of people and monsters, and with the right spells, the wall paintings would move aside, the stone would turn black, and a gateway to the Lands Beyond would open.
No, the chambers beneath Charmbridge Academy hadn't really been made inaccessible. She wondered if they could be made truly inaccessible.
She entered the cavern with the clay floor. She and Maximilian had passed through this cave on their journey to the Lands Below. Only she had returned. She'd passed through it a second time, pursuing Darla and Innocence. That time, she'd come back with the other two girls.
She reached into her pocket and took out the coin her father had given her. The Token. She hadn't been planning to try this unless everything else failed.
Something was coming down the tunnel. Something moving quickly on skeletal feet. Something skittering toward her.
The Nemesis came around the corner. It didn't pause the way a person or any other living creature would. It just kept coming, straight at her.
With the image of Larry staring at the stumps of his fingers burned into her brain, Alexandra brought her wand down in a forceful gesture and said, –Feordupois.â€
The creature slowed but didn't falter as it continued to advance on her. Even after Alexandra cast the Deadweight Spell five more times, the little monster's limbs twitched and its beak clacked open and shut. The great weight pinning it to the ground didn't seem to hurt or tire it. It could wait forever if it had to, but the spell would release its hold much sooner than that.
Alexandra knelt next to the thrashing creature. She flinched when its beak gouged the clay next to her foot, but she held the gold token in an upraised fist and stared directly into one of its dark, empty eye sockets.
She hadn't composed a rhyme for this. The only thing that mattered in Naming magic was the Names. Either they would work or they wouldn't. The other words weren't really important.
–By my Name, Troublesome,†she said, –I Name thee Nemesis, and rename thee - Gift!â€
She thrust her fist into its eye socket as if her arm were a snake, striking and withdrawing. She left the Token glittering inside its skull as she rose and, in stepping back, almost leaped into the wall behind her.
The clay at the center of the chamber turned smoky and dark, and then it was just smoke. For an instant, the stunted, withered thing that might once have been a child, or part of one, was flailing in the dark hazy air and glaring at her with all the hatefulness those empty black voids could contain.
–My Gift to the Generous Ones,†Alexandra said, with not a little spite, and the Nemesis plunged into the abyss. The intangible black smoke slowly stopped writhing, solidified, and became clay once more.
Alexandra sagged a little, as the adrenaline rush of the last few minutes subsided. Then she laughed. Maybe things hadn't quite gone according to plan - originally, she had conceived of several attempts to destroy the monster before resorting to her father's Token and a crude attempt at Naming magic to get rid of it - but all things considered, she'd gotten off pretty lightly. A few scrapes and bruises.
Her laughter faded. Damn it, why did Larry have to interfere? And the crows - where had they come from?
A mocking laugh echoed her own - a strange, wicked sound, familiar yet inhuman. Alexandra turned, as goosebumps crawled up her arms.
Before her on the floor of the cavern was a raven, watching her with small, black eyes.
It was a large raven. It was dirty and ragged and had the look of a creature that spent its time outdoors fighting other ravens, not sleeping comfortably indoors and eating owl treats.
–Who are you?†Alexandra asked, with growing dread.
The raven swelled in size. It raised its wings above its head, and its enormous black feathers shrank and melted away. Its beak became a nose as its eyes turned white. Its bent bird legs became the long legs of a man in brown rawhide pants. The feathers around the crown of its head lengthened and the quills became skinnier and skinnier until they were strands of long, black hair.
All this happened in the space of one breath, and John Manuelito stood before her. Alexandra raised her wand, but he was faster, catching her wrist in one hand as he swung his fist into her face.
Alexandra had been hit before, but she'd never been punched in the face by a grown man using all his might. The blow snapped her head back and bounced it against the stone wall behind her. Stunned and dizzy, she slid to the floor as her wand fell from her fingers.
John Manuelito loomed over her. She tried to stand, but her hands slipped and scraped against the rocks. John stepped on her thigh with a leather-clad foot and put his weight on it, pinning her to the ground as pain speared up and down her leg.
He stooped, casually, and picked up Alexandra's wand. She moaned. Her nose made gurgling sounds when she tried to breathe through it. John gripped the ends of her wand in both hands and snapped it over his knee. There was a greenish flash and wisps of black smoke curled out of its ends. He tossed the broken halves away.
Alexandra's lips moved. She tried to think of some magic she could wield: a rhyme, a Name, anything.
John laughed again, sounding no more human than when he'd been a raven. His fist drew back slowly and deliberately, then came crashing into her face a second time. Alexandra's consciousness dissolved in a red mist of shock and pain.