Royal Institute of Magic: Elizabeth's Legacy (24 page)

“But you’re not going
to,” Natalie said, the resignation in her voice contrasting
with the admiring look she gave him. “Draven was right.”

Ben couldn’t bring himself
to get on the train, no matter the cost. He wouldn’t abandon
Charlie.

“What are you going to do?”
Natalie asked.

“I’m going to rescue
him.”

“Are you mad?”
Natalie asked, shock washing away her despair. “If you think
you have any chance of springing Charlie from the Wardens and making
off with him, you’re in fantasy land.”

Ben glanced at her, his face
serious. “What about your speech to trust each other? It works
both ways, you know.”

“It’s not a matter of
trust,” Natalie said through gritted teeth. She looked ready to
lay into him, but stopped and took a deep, calming breath. “You’re
right. I asked you to trust me, so I should do the same. I just hope
Charlie is up to escaping.”

Ben turned to her in surprise.
“What do you mean?”

“He was sobbing. He was
trying to hide it from me, but I could hear him. I think this is all
too much for him.”

Charlie was crying? Ben’s
eyes resumed their fruitless searching with greater urgency.

“You won’t see them,”
Natalie said. “Platform six is—“

A sudden noise came from the
gangway. Voices cried out in surprise and anger.

Ben saw movement. Rapid movement.

There was a flash of light and a
loud bang; more voices, these ones louder, edged with fear.

Charlie came belting down the
stairs like the devil himself was on his tail.

He was halfway down when four
Wardens appeared at the top, Spellshooters in hand. They hadn’t
Charlie’s low centre of gravity, but they made up for it with
long strides, taking three steps at a time, shouting at Charlie to
stop. They took aim, but Charlie seemed to sense it and he blended
into the stairs. A white bullet whizzed by the space where his head
had been.

Ben heard a thump and assumed it
was Charlie leaping the final few stairs onto the platform. A second
later Charlie released the shrouding spell and re-appeared, screaming
at the top of his voice for people to get out the way.

Natalie’s face was pale,
her hand covering her mouth. “I don’t believe it,”
she whispered.

Ben glanced again at the platform
board.

One minute.

“All aboard!” a voice
shouted.

The sound of doors shutting
filled the air.

Ben stepped forward, waving
encouragement. “Come on, Charlie, run!” he shouted.

Charlie was pumping his arms like
a man possessed. Ben could see the fear and exhilaration in his eyes.

“The train!” Natalie
cried.

The dragon roared, blowing smoke
and fire, signalling its departure. The Wardens were closing fast,
their Spellshooters trained on Charlie’s back. Ben knew with
sickening certainty Charlie wasn’t going to make it.

“Hold the door open,”
Ben shouted over the cacophony to Natalie.

He stepped forward, his hand
going to the pouch in his pocket. Natalie screamed at him, but he
ignored her. As soon as his fingers made contact with the pouch he
saw the spells in his mind’s eye. They seemed dull compared to
the vibrancy of those in Natalie’s Spellshooter, but it made
them easier to control. He focused on a white one and it came to his
fingers.

Ben threw the small pellet with
everything he had at the nearest Warden, hitting him full in the
chest. The spell ignited, creating a hammer blast of air that lifted
the Warden off his feet. He collided with the Warden behind him and
they both went down in a heap.

Ben’s elation was short
lived. A terrible creaking noise came from the carriage’s
wheels.

The train was departing.

“Ben, hurry!” Natalie
said. She was holding a door open, walking alongside the train. It
was moving down the track, slowly picking up speed.

From the corner of his eye Ben
saw a flash of red. He dived to the ground and a ball of flame sailed
over his head, singeing his hair. He was still cloaked by the shroud,
but throwing his own spells was giving away his position. Ben rose
smoothly and launched another pellet with venom. It hit the third
Warden on the arm and he clutched it in agony, halting his charge.

Ben released the shrouding spell
the moment Charlie reached him collapsing onto the platform in
exhaustion.

The final Warden, seeing Ben’s
sudden appearance, had stopped running. He was taking careful aim
with his Spellshooter.

Ben hauled Charlie to his feet
and turned back to the train. He let out a cry of despair. The train
was moving too fast and was about to enter the tunnel. There was no
way Charlie, already exhausted, could catch it. Natalie had gotten on
board, unable to keep pace from the outside. She was leaning out of
the open door, her Spellshooter aimed at the Warden behind them. She
was screaming something, but Ben couldn’t hear her over the
sound of the train.

Natalie fired.

The Warden fired.

Ben knew instantly that Natalie
had got her spell horribly wrong. It was heading right at them
instead of the Warden. Ben had no chance of dodging both spells, one
from either direction.

The Warden’s spell was a
glowing red boomerang that came soaring at him in an arc. Natalie’s
spell was a thin silvery rope, darting towards him like a snake.

A rope.

Ben grabbed Charlie by the waist
and dove into Natalie’s spell, narrowly avoiding the Warden’s
boomerang in the process.

The silver rope hit Ben in the
chest and looped around him. It yanked him so hard he fell and nearly
lost hold of Charlie. Ben flew forwards with such pace the platform
around him blurred.

They soared into the open door
and landed in a crumpled heap on top of each other inside the train.
The door closed behind them with a click and the train disappeared
into the tunnel.

“Ow, that’s my arm.”

“This is awkward, sorry,”
Ben said.

He untangled his limbs from
Charlie’s and sat down. They were getting odd looks from the
passengers, but thankfully the train was half empty.

Charlie clambered onto a seat
just as the conductor’s voice came echoing through the
carriage.

“Ladies and gentlemen,
please brace yourselves.”

The bar fastened to the back of
the seat in front slid forward until it pressed down gently on their
laps.

Charlie barely had time to grab
the bar before the train took off like a rocket. The wind whistled in
their ears and the carriage jumped as its wheels left the track. The
popping sound came just as the train grazed the top of the tunnel,
blocking out the wind and steadying their ride.

Once the train had settled down,
Ben and Natalie turned their attention to Charlie.

“I saw you sobbing,”
Natalie said slowly. She was staring at Charlie with a mixture of
confusion and disbelief.

“Ah, yes, my sobbing,”
Charlie said with a proud smile. “As Ben can testify from
school, drama class is one of the few artistic subjects I’m
good at.”

“He was excellent in
Great Expectations
last year,” Ben
said, nodding.

“But why put on such an
act?”

“Did you see the way the
guards stopped watching me?” Charlie said, his expression
turning serious. “Who is going to suspect a sobbing, fat little
boy of attempting an escape?”

Natalie shook her head; it wasn’t
sinking in.

“Brilliant,” Ben said
with a grin, giving Charlie a pat on the shoulder. “Utter
genius. So how did you escape?”

“It was all about timing. I
waited for the right moment when the fewest number of Wardens were
facing me. An old lady dropped her purse, distracting a couple of
them; that’s when I ran. I must have been twenty yards away
before anyone noticed.”

“And then what?”

“They wasted a few seconds
thinking I would stop if they ordered me to come back,” Charlie
said. “I turned round and threw one of the spells from my
pouch; it created a mist, which gave me a few more seconds. Then I
ran for my life.”

Natalie was curling a lock around
her finger, unable to take her eyes off Charlie. She was looking at
him as if she’d never seen him before.

Charlie seemed to relish the
attention; his cheeks were a rosy red and there was a smile on his
lips that wouldn’t go away. Ben’s good mood faded a
little as he stared into the blackness of the tunnel. “I don’t
think we’ll be too welcome back in the Institute.”

“We will be okay with
Wren,” Natalie said, a steely determination in her voice.

“But not without her,”
Charlie said.

Natalie didn’t argue.

Ben couldn’t help
marvelling again at the change in Natalie since she had guessed his
plan to find the wood elves. Just a few hours ago he thought her
dedication to the Institute unwavering; yet here she was escaping
with them. More importantly, she had trusted him despite his crazy
intention to rescue Charlie. Ben wouldn’t forget that.

The journey to Borgen was about
two hours, according to Natalie, so they tried to relax. Ben closed
his eyes, figuring it would be a good idea to rest while they could.

It seemed like minutes later when
he felt a nudge from Natalie. The train was ascending slowly towards
sunlight spilling in at the end of the tunnel. He felt a cold breeze
on his face, but his enchanted jacket absorbed the chill.

“Remember, be on your
guard,” Natalie said. “There are dark elves on patrol.
They have no reason to stop us—”

“Unless they have been told
to look out for Ben—”

“They won't have,”
Natalie said, giving Charlie a look.

“Charlie’s got a
point. Will the Institute try and re-capture me before Elessar works
out I’ve disappeared? Or will they let the dark elves loose on
me?”

“Either way, the next train
from Taecia doesn’t arrive for half an hour, which means we
have a bit of time before anyone here knows we escaped. So let’s
try not to worry about it,” Natalie said.

It took a second for Ben’s
eyes to adjust to the sunlight as they exited the tunnel. The air was
incredibly fresh and he took several deep breaths, soaking in their
new surroundings. Everything was made of timber, from the platforms
to the small gangway and even the houses beyond. Everything appeared
remarkably vibrant, as if the trees hadn’t died when they had
been turned into timber.

In the distance, Ben could make
out vast, rolling hills covered with pine trees. The station was
smaller than Taecia; Ben counted just four platforms, but the
structure was similar.

As they pulled into the station
Ben searched for any sign of the purple-uniformed dark elves. He
didn’t see any, but he did notice something just as striking.

“The Borgen natives are
half-elves,” Natalie said, seeing Ben and Charlie’s
looks.

They all had pointed ears and
flowing hair, but it was so subtle he only noticed it because of its
prevalence. With a hat on they could walk through London without a
second glance.

“Where are we going?”
Ben asked as the doors opened and they filed off the train. He
couldn’t help noticing how far away the forests were. Suddenly,
the food in their backpack seemed meagre.

“Follow me,” Natalie
said.

They walked up the gangway and
exited the station, spilling out into the town. The pavement was made
of wood inlaid with intricate patterns of flowers and leaves. The
road was also constructed from a darker wood, with planks so large he
could only wonder at the size of the trees they came from. There were
no cars but plenty of horse-drawn carriages. Quaint wooden cabins
lined the street, reminding Ben of his only ski holiday with his
parents.

“It’s not far from
here,” Natalie said as they started down the street.

“What isn’t far?”

“Taxis. They are the best
way to travel around.”

Ben and Charlie exchanged
glances. Given their limited budget it seemed like an expensive way
to get to the distant forests.

They hadn’t gone far when
Ben noticed an oddity amongst the residents. They seemed
pre-occupied, with a distant, troubled look on their faces.

“They’ve recently
been conquered. Their country is no longer their own. It must be hard
for them,” Natalie said.

Was that why Ben was feeling
uneasy? Was he just feeling their pain? No. It was something else. He
had felt on edge the moment they stepped off the train.

“Something isn’t
right,” Ben said. He spoke calmly, in contrast to the way he
was starting to feel.

“You’re being
paranoid. Everything is fine,” Natalie said.

Charlie, however, started
checking over his shoulder. “What should we do?” he
asked.

“Charlie, don’t let
Ben spook you.”

Charlie shook his head. “You
don’t understand. Ben has a Spiderman sixth sense that borders
on scary.”

Natalie wasn’t convinced,
but Ben did see her take one or two furtive glances behind as they
walked.

“How much further?”
Ben asked.

Natalie pulled a small book from
her jeans. “Not more than five minutes. We need to take the
second right.”

The streets were like grids with
regular perpendicular intersections. They came to their first such
junction and Ben stared down the street they crossed.

A unit of soldiers was being led
by a purple-cloaked dark elf.

Any chance of remaining
inconspicuous was ruined by Charlie, who gave such a start –
only a swift hand from Ben prevented him from stumbling.

“What on earth are they?”
Charlie said.

It was obvious he was referring
to the soldiers. They looked like huge, walking rats dressed in rags,
which partially concealed their fur. They held spears in their
claw-like hands and walked hunched forward. Their long noses were
constantly twitching as they sniffed the air.