In which the battle ends

Chapter 9 of The Time-Teller

Chapter 9
In which the battle ends

The next day, as Megan had suspected, she was pummeled with questions. How had she done it? Why had she done it? Where had she learned it? and Megan’s personal favorite, was she a powerful wizard in disguise? She didn’t answer any of these but merely shrugged and raised her eyebrows until they all went away.
It wasn’t until that afternoon that Pyralis came back to the room. He seemed to be in a hurry and was talking to himself at a rapid pace.

“Megan,” he said as he approached her. “I’m going to need your help.”

“My help?” Megan asked, taken-aback.

“Yes,” Pyralis replied. “I know exactly what to do for Labelle castle, but the spell requires two wizards.”

“I’m not a…” Megan began before Pyralis interrupted.

“Perhaps not, but you obviously possess magical abilities, and it is worth the try. Gethin will not be expecting it. He knows I am here, so he will be expecting some form of magical advance. I will fool him into thinking I am using a very powerful spell, which one wizard alone would be able to perform. He will not be expecting a two-person spell.”

“What!” Megan half-shouted. “I don’t know the slightest thing about magic or whatnot, and you’re asking me to do some complex mumbo jumbo?”

“Precisely,” Pyralis drawled calmly. Megan rolled her eyes.

***

How had no one seen her? Gethin paced back and forth. All he knew was that a woman with brown hair had dragged Pyralis into the tunnel before it collapsed on some of his more experienced men. He was not pleased, and his men had paid for it.

He would have finally defeated Pyralis, but a woman had gotten in the way of his victory.

“This is the second time,” he muttered to himself and swore silently.

“Master,” a meek voice came through the curtain.

“What?” Gethin shouted, annoyed.

“Master, what about the stone?” This comment brought Gethin’s rage to a boil, and the poor man standing outside his tent went crashing into the stone walls of the castle. Gethin didn’t care whether he had killed him or not. No one would question his methods and strategies, especially those that had become more difficult recently. He needed room to think about what his next move would be.  He knew he could take this castle as easily as picking up a cracked shell on the beach, but he would make them suffer. He would make them realize that there was no hope before laying the final blow. Pyralis was with them now, so he needed to increase his offense by at least double, but he had plenty of men to spare, and his army was growing.

***

“Alright,” Pyralis looked around the small, windowless room. It was circular in shape and had once been the hiding place of many members of the royal family in earlier wars. Now, however, it was the perfect location to practice with Megan without any chance of his magic escaping through the walls. “We don’t have much time, so you’re going to have to work hard.” Megan did not like being told what to do by Pyralis, but she knew that if she wasn’t doing something, the dam she had built in her mind to block out thoughts of her parents would burst. She did not want to risk the painful crying and aches that had overpowered her before. All she wanted was revenge and safety from the grief that tore at her mind like starving wolves.

“What do I have to do?” Megan asked.

“Hold this,” Pyralis said pulling a baseball-sized green sphere from somewhere inside his cloak.

“Is that all?” Megan asked, both surprised and relieved.

“Yes and no,” Pyralis said, and his half smile made the scar on his face look ten times worse. Megan gave him a look, which he luckily could not see. Then, she took the green object and was surprised at how strange it felt, like glass mixed with silk and clouds. Inside the strange sphere, she noticed that the green seemed to be shifting around, into and out of other colors of green in a strangely beautiful dance.

“Now,” Pyralis said, holding his hand about an inch above the sphere. “Hold it loosely. Give it room.” Megan obeyed, loosening her grip on the strange object. Pyralis blew softly on the hand, held above the sphere. Then, he began to mumble incoherently. Megan felt the tips of her fingers begin to tingle.  Then, a strange red mist seemed to come from both her fingertips and Pyralis’. It slipped right through the sphere’s exterior and into the green, misty inside. The green colors stopped dancing beautifully and began to move around more quickly like people running from the fires of a volcano, knowing that they have no hope for survival. Megan’s vision began to blur and she became overwhelmed with exhaustion.

“Megan, wake up.” She opened her eyes and blinked twice. There was something soft under her head, but she was still lying on the stone floor of the room she and Pyralis had been in before. Pyralis was sitting above her holding a bottle of something clear and bubbly. Megan’s head ached terribly.

“What happened,” her voice came out a groggy whisper.

“You fell unconscious,” Pyralis said. “You lasted longer than I thought you would on your first try. You need a lot more practice. If you do that when we are actually performing the spell, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep it up.”

“How am I supposed to stay awake if I don’t even know what’s going on?” Megan sat up painfully. Pyralis shrugged.

“You’ll learn.”

Megan didn’t remember how many times she’d woken up on the floor during the next few hours, but when Pyralis finally let her leave, she was sore and tired. She did not even check to see how light it was or what time it was. She fell asleep almost immediately after she entered the women’s sleeping quarters.

Megan looked around in her dream. The blue-green fire was coming closer and closer. She was trapped, once again, by the wooden cage. She screamed and screamed, coughing and choking on the smoke, but no one came.

“Dilana!”

“Megan, open your eyes,” the voice seemed to come from far away, in another time, another place. “Megan, wake up.” Megan opened her eyes slowly. The smoke was gone, but she felt sore all over from hitting the ground so many times the day before. A nurse was standing above her.

“What?” Megan asked tiredly.

“Pyralis insists that you wake up early to practice something or other.” Megan moved her feet over the side of the bed and stood up shakily. She dressed herself in some of the clothing that the nurses were kind enough to let her borrow. Slowly, she followed the nurse to the same room she and Pyralis had been working (if you can call it that) in before. Pyralis was standing in the center of the room, holding the familiar green object in his hands.

“Megan?” he said. The nurse left and closed the door behind her. “We still have much to do.” Megan sighed. She did not like the idea of falling on the floor again and again and again.

“Are we doing the same thing?” Megan asked, not really expecting the answer to be ‘no.’

“More or less,” Pyralis replied. “I believe we will be doing the same thing for about a week, and then, perhaps you will be ready for the more difficult preparations.”

“More difficult,” Megan sighed tiredly to herself. Pyralis held out the sphere and Megan took it in her hands as she had done so many times yesterday.

After she had woken up several times to Pyralis and the bubbly liquid, Megan managed to stay awake for almost a minute at a time. Her body no longer ached because Pyralis had gotten into the habit of catching her before she hit the ground.

“How many times have we done this?” Megan asked as Pyralis, once again, placed his hand an inch above the sphere.

“Not nearly enough,” he said. “For the spell to work properly, you must stay awake for 5 minutes at the very least.” Megan rolled her eyes in annoyance.

CRASH! The entire room shook, and a portion of the ceiling fell in front of the door. CRASH! More of the ceiling fell in and both Megan and Pyralis were showered with small stones and dust.

“Quickly,” Pyralis drawled as he walked slowly toward the door. The debris in front of the door moved out of his way as he walked by. Megan dashed passed him before the entire room collapsed. The whole castle was shaking, and shouts came at them from all sides.

“I suppose now would be the time to put our practicing to good use.” Pyralis pulled Megan out of the way of a large stone falling off the wall. “Come.” Megan followed Pyralis down the crumbling corridors and up many winding staircases and passageways. Finally, when they reached the top of a high watchtower, Pyralis stopped. The tower seemed to sway back and forth with every crash. Megan looked out and saw immediately what was causing the castle to shake and fall apart. The whole army outside the castle were loading up catapults and hurling huge stones at the castle walls while others shot arrows over them. The army outside was definitely trying now.

“Megan,” Pyralis drew Megan’s attention away. “You have to stay awake. Do you understand me?”

“What?” Megan half shouted. “I can’t. I tried and tried and now the whole army out there is attacking.”

“I know,” Pyralis said. “We have to do it now before the whole castle collapses in on itself and hundreds die.” Pyralis held out the green sphere to Megan. Megan took a deep breath, and Pyralis began mumbling as he had done so many times before. This time the red stream from both Megan and Pyralis seemed to move faster, and Megan found it even more difficult to stay awake. She forced her eyes open again and again. The hypnotic chaos inside the sphere seemed to pull her toward sleep. Her whole body tingled with exhaustion, and she felt as if she had been running for a very long time. Her vision became blurry. Five minutes, she thought. She felt dizzy. The world was spinning around her. She could feel the wind, the magic. All her senses seemed to be mixed up with each other. She felt sick, and she swayed slightly, then fell.

Megan looked around the now familiar layout of her dream. The green-blue flames swept around the room. The small door hung limply in its smoky surroundings. He was waiting for her. She couldn’t come. The cage and the fire kept her in.

“Who?” Megan breathed. “Who is waiting?” The scene dissolved around her, and she opened her eyes.