WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG, human?” the dragon asked Rachel. She had both of her hands pushing against the cavern wall, the red glow emanating from her fingers lighting up the nearby gold. “ARE YOU UNABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS SIMPLE TASK?”
“I’ve… got it,” she groaned, then flashed Fort a look. He quickly ran over to her and leaned in close.
“So listen,” she whispered, sweat running down her face. “This might… be harder than… I thought. There’s… something in the rock… that eats any magic… that you send at it.”
Fort nodded, even though he had no idea what she was talking about. “But you just said you can handle it.”
She glared at him. “That was… so that thing didn’t… eat us. But I might… have an idea.”
She let go of the wall and turned back to the dragon. “Don’t worry!” she yelled, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “Should only be another minute at most!”
“IF IT IS MUCH LONGER, MY BRETHREN SHALL ARRIVE, AND I WILL BE FORCED TO TURN YOU ALL INTO DRACSI,” the dragon said, not sounding particularly bothered by that.
“She’s got it!” Fort shouted up, then leaned back in. “So, um, what’s the idea?”
She made a face. “Dr. Opps and Dr. Ambrose have had us… experimenting. You know, like you did against that Ketas Old One thing, made up that Cause Great Harm spell or whatever it was using the spell words you knew, and trying to say something else with them?”
“Yeah, Sebastian mentioned that,” Fort said.
In spite of the situation, she smiled. “He’s so bitter, he’s not working with us now. But forget him. One of the spells I found, it uses my magic missile spell… in a different way. It fills something with magic, instead of shooting it.”
“I get it!” Fort said, a bit too loudly. She shushed him, and he leaned back in. “So you’re going to feed whatever’s in the wall so much magic it can’t handle it all!”
“That’s what I’m going to try,” she said. “Unfortunately, last time I did this, I exploded the whole lab.” She took in another deep breath. “If Jia hadn’t been nearby, Dr. Opps and I wouldn’t be around anymore.”
Fort shook his head. “Then we come up with another way. I have a little tiny hammer that might break the rock, and—”
This made Rachel snort and begin to laugh. “Okay, thank you for that,” she said. “But seriously, you know how Cyrus… he said one of us would be lost?” She winced. “I think this is what I’m here to do.”
“What?!” Fort said. “No way. We’ll think of something else. I can’t let you—”
“I just wanted to tell you that I know why you did all of this,” she said, ignoring him. “And while you’re completely wrong and made terrible choices, I forgive you. Because I get it. If it’d been my mom or dad… well. I’d be right here too.”
“You’re not doing this!” Fort said, and grabbed for her arm to pull her away from the wall, but she just raised a hand and a gust of wind knocked him off his feet, sending him careening across the cavern floor. “No!” he shouted as he hit a pile of gold and came to a stop.
“Everyone stay back!” Rachel shouted, and turned back to the wall, her hands glowing much brighter now. “Jia, be ready!”
The red glow began flowing into the wall, only to disappear as fast as it arrived. Rachel groaned in pain, and the flow intensified, becoming too bright to look at.
“Rachel, stop this!” Fort shouted, pushing to his feet, but Gabriel grabbed him before he could go to her.
“She’s going to be okay!” Gabriel told him. “Just let her do it.”
“You don’t know that!” Fort shouted, trying to get free, but Gabriel just tightened his hold.
“I do know that,” his roommate said quietly. “I told you, I have a plan, and Cyrus confirmed it. She’s not going to be hurt!”
Rachel started to scream, and her whole body glowed with the same red light of Destruction magic. But now the light was slowly filling the wall as well, which bulged and pulsated grotesquely, like it might explode at any minute.
“Everyone get down!” she yelled, and Gabriel pushed Fort to the ground, covering them both with his shield. A blue glow lit up the side of the cavern suddenly, but it was quickly overwhelmed by another burst of red, and then the wall exploded.
Rock went flying everywhere, and Fort shouted Rachel’s name over and over, but no one responded. A stone larger than Gabriel struck his shield, only to bounce off, its protective magic saving them from being crushed. Dust cascaded into the cavern, dropping a cloud over everything that made it even harder to see.
“Rachel?!” Fort yelled, pushing out from under Gabriel as soon as things settled down. “Rachel!”
Through the dust, a blue light flickered, then solidified, and Jia walked Rachel out of the cloud in a bubble of Healing magic. Fort quickly ran to them, only to bounce right off the bubble, falling back to the ground.
Inside, he saw Rachel soundlessly laugh at this, even as she wiped tears from her eyes. Her mouth moved like she was saying something, but her words didn’t make it through the protective bubble. Jia waved a hand and the bubble popped, and Rachel’s laughter filled the cavern.
“Thank you for that,” she said to Fort. “Totally worth almost dying.”
“Um, you’re welcome,” Jia told her. “You’re lucky we didn’t all experiment with blowing things up.”
“A CORPOREAL SPHERE,” the dragon said, peering down through the cloud of dust at them. “I WOULD NOT HAVE THOUGHT A HUMAN COULD CAST SUCH A POWERFUL SPELL. NOTHING CAN PENETRATE SUCH A THING AS LONG AS THE SPELLCASTER LIVES.”
Jia’s eyes widened. “Seriously? I kinda just cast it randomly and thought it was a fun protective bubble.”
The dragon narrowed his eyes, and fire began to escape his mouth.
“I’m kidding!” Jia said quickly, putting her hands up to ward off any fire. “I mean, of course I take Corporeal magic too seriously to ever just experiment with it.” She flashed Fort a terrified look.
“THERE IS NO TIME TO WAIT,” the dragon said. “WHICHEVER OF YOU HUMANS HAVE STUDIED SPACE MAGIC, REMOVE US FROM THIS PLACE NOW, BEFORE MY BRETHREN ARRIVE.”
Fort nodded and stepped forward, peering into the cloud of dust. Beyond it, a hole as large as the dragon now opened in the middle of the cavern wall, and he stepped around some enormous rocks to better see what was on the other side.
They were on the shores of what looked like a lake, only it looked more like liquid silver than water. And the heat was so intense, he could feel it all the way from inside the cavern.
Tubes ran from the lake of molten metal in various directions, most likely as food for the Dracsi. Well, he could look when they arrived back in the den he’d first landed in.
“Everyone ready?” he asked, and opened a teleportation circle.
“Um, no, I almost just died,” Rachel said from behind him. “And great, you’re not even going to give me a minute. Ugh. Fine!” She strode past him and leaped through the portal, with Fort just a few steps behind.