Paul Collins - The Spell of Undoing

‘Hold!’ growled a voice.

The children skidded to a stop in front of four armed guards. ‘What we got here? A scurrying rat pack, no less!’ one of them said. ‘And fell right into our trap, they did.’

‘Behind me,’ Amelia said.

‘The skinny girl and the boy alive,’ said the leader. ‘Kill the others.’

Amelia blew into her hands and something not quite invisible sparkled like a gust of vapour, smothering the nearest guard. He coughed and buckled over.

Philmon snatched up the fallen man's sword and waved it uncertainly. ‘Stay back,’ he threatened, his voice almost breaking.

‘Take them!’ snarled the leader.

A guard smashed down on Philmon's sword, jarring his arm. The sword clattered to the floor but Tab leapt forward and snatched it up, raising its point just as the guard advanced, almost skewering him. He leapt back just in time, bellowing a curse as he tripped over his fallen comrade and slammed backwards into the wall. There was a nasty crunch as his head connected, and he dropped.

Meanwhile Amelia's shaking hands wove a quick spell and the third guard's face went suddenly blank, as though he didn't know where he was.

But now the first guard who had fallen was getting up. The leader shouldered past him, cried ‘Enough!’ and swung his sword. It sliced through the air an inch above Philmon's ducking head. Amelia, drained from her use of magic, slumped against the wall. Tab tried to block the leader's way, brandishing Philmon's sword, but she knew she was useless at fencing.

Someone blocked the light from the doorway. Tab's heart sank. Reinforcements had arrived.

‘Drop your weapons else I'll slay the lot of you,’ warned the leader, who had also seen the shadow.

Then a chair came crashing down on his head and he fell like a sack of wheat. The first guard, his head clearing, took to his feet, and bolted.

The man in the doorway stepped forward.

‘Fontagu?’ exclaimed Tab. She couldn't believe her eyes. ‘Wha – how -?’

‘Never mind all that,’ said Fontagu in a quavering voice. ‘Let us flee this horrible place!’ The Tolrushian sergeant groaned. Fontagu started. ‘He's not dead, is he?’

Amelia said, ‘Usually they don't groan when they're dead.’

‘Right,’ Fontagu mumbled.

‘Is this the Fontagu?’ Philmon asked, wonderingly. ‘The one you told us about?’

‘Yeah,’ said Tab, still amazed to see her friend.

‘I thought you said he was dead.’

‘I thought he was,’ Tab replied, dropping the sword and replacing it with a sturdy dagger.

Amelia looked at Fontagu through narrowed eyes. ‘He's about the same size as the one who guided the Tolrushians.’

‘I've just saved your wretched lives,’ said Fontagu petulantly. ‘And I've been a prisoner here too, you know.’ He glared at them.

‘You don't look as though you've been tortured to me,’ accused Amelia. This wasn't quite true. Fontagu did look thin and pale and his eyes were red-rimmed, but whether from poor treatment or crying, it was hard to tell. He was, however, wearing clean and rather expensive clothes.

‘Tortured!’ Fontagu cried theatrically. ‘Bound and gagged, half drowned, beaten to within an inch of my life, starved and driven mad with thirst -’

‘I think I saw that play,’ said Tab. Then she was struck by a sudden, rather unpleasant idea. She looked at Fontagu. ‘They captured you during the battle, didn't they? And you've been a prisoner ever since… ’

‘Oh, I could tell you tales of woe… ’ he began, but Tab cut him off.

‘That attack on Quentaris was a ruse to land a boarding party. They were really searching for you. You told them that I knew where the icefire was hidden. That's what happened, isn't it?’

Fontagu began to bluster. ‘Me? Well, really! Shame on you! You think I would hand over my only friend in Quentaris? What sort of man do you think I am?’

Tab said nothing. She continued to stare at him.

He broke down in a rush, falling to his knees and wailing, ‘Don't blame me, Tab. I couldn't help myself. They were going to poke out my eyes with a red-hot poker… I would never have acted again!’

Amelia and Philmon glared at him. Amelia snatched up a sword and looked as if she was going to run him through. ‘Because of you,’ she said, ‘Tolrush now has the magicians’ icefire gem and you nearly got Tab killed!’

Fontagu was weeping. Tab stepped between him and Amelia. There had been one brief flash of resentment when she had found out that Fontagu had betrayed her, but then she remembered her own torture, and Torby's, and how she had quickly caved in and told them where to find the icefire.

People like Kull Vladis always knew how to reveal the thing each person feared most, how to find their breaking point.

She stuck out her hand. Fontagu looked at it, not understanding at first, then he took it, still weeping, but with a kind of wonder.

‘I don't blame you, Fontagu,’ said Tab. She helped him to his feet. ‘But it's a pity about the icefire.’

Fontagu stared at her, then smote his forehead. ‘Oh, but it's not,’ he said.

Amelia muttered something darkly. Fontagu stepped around Tab, making sure she was between him and the more hot-tempered Amelia. He reached into his pocket and drew out the icefire in question.

Amelia and Philmon's mouths gaped. Tab stared. Torby eyed the gem with wonder.

‘How -?’ Tab began.

‘Well, I do have some skills you know… and the master magician does like to keep things in his pockets… ’

Amelia gaped. ‘You stole it again?’

Fontagu tried to look bashful, and failed.

‘Now we'd really better get out of here,’ said Amelia, ‘’cause they're going to come after us with everything they've got!’

Leading the way, Amelia hurried through several passageways, covered courtyards, and a long narrow lane. They came out into a square open to the sky. At the same time, a platoon of guards entered from the opposite side. Sighting their quarry, the guards charged, bellowing.

‘This way!’ shouted Philmon.

They fled up a stairwell to a tower that bordered the square. At the top, Tab slammed shut the stairwell door and drew the bolt. The door wouldn't hold for long, but it gave them breathing space.

‘Now what? We're trapped!’ said Tab. Fontagu wailed softly. Torby said nothing.

Amelia had rushed onto a large balcony. It was some eight storeys from the ground. ‘I'll have to try summoning the boat. We'll never get there with that lot on our heels.’

She closed her eyes and concentrated.

Tab could see sweat breaking out on her forehead. Summoning an object as large as a rowboat was no joke. Even some fully-fledged magicians couldn't manage something like that.

Just then, an impact nearly tore the door half off its hinges.

‘Hurry!’ hissed Philmon, darting looks back and forth between Amelia and the door. More pounding came. Bits of plaster fell from the wall around the door frame.

Tab hurried out to stand by Amelia's side, as if her presence might somehow help. Then she gasped. ‘What are they doing? Why are they just sitting there?’

Barely a mile away, cruising slowly under full sail, was Quentaris. ‘They don't know Tolrush is here,’ said Philmon. ‘Tolrush is cloaked. When we followed the raiding party, we couldn't figure where they were going. I mean, there was nothing there. Then suddenly we were here.’

‘You mean, this whole city's invisible?’ asked Tab.

‘And sort of soundproof, too,’ said Philmon. ‘It's like there's a bubble or something around it. So Quentaris doesn't even know we're here. They can't see us.’

Behind them, the pounding had intensified. Any second now and the door would crash in, and it would all be over. ‘I'm sorry I got you two into this,’ said Tab to Amelia and Philmon.