Colin Well: The Wizard

Chapter 10―Escaping

        A loud bang awoke Colin. He sat up off the floor. In the hearth, the fire had burned down to orange embers. He looked out the window into the early morning darkness. Marston was snoring loudly on the sofa, oblivious to the loud noise. Another bang shook the room, casting dust down from the ceiling. Colin watched beyond the windows as a bright orange light illuminated the night. Suddenly, there was a loud scream that pierced the quietness. Colin was on his feet in seconds.
        He looked down at Marston. Colin reached down and gently shook him awake. "Marston. Something bad is happening. You have to get up."
        "Wasswrong?" Marston mumbled sleepily.
        "There's screams and―" As if on que, a third bang shook Marston out of his drowsiness.
        "Where?" Marston sat up. Down below the floor they were on, a loud shriek set footsteps running around them. In seconds, Tod came running down the stairs and Eliza rushed out of one of the rooms.
        "What was that?" Tod asked.
        Colin shrugged. "I have no idea. We should go make sure everyone is alright." The children quickly grabbed their things and rushed out the door to the spiral staircase. Even though it was dark, and the stairs should have been on nighttime mode, they were whizzing fast on emergency mode. But Tod didn't actually know if they had the same modes as in the Wizard Tower―or if the staircase here had modes at all. The children held on as they were carried through the Tower. When the reached the bottom floor, they rushed across the cold room onto the normal stairs.
        Once they left the Tower, all around them was pandemonium. Servants of all ages―children to adults―were running around the main part of the Keep of Magyk. There were shouts and screams. Colin could here a distant sobbing, but he had no time to help. He had to find out what was causing this.
        As they rushed down the stairs, there was another boom, this time louder, and a lot closer. Finally, they reached the Entrance Hall. There were shouts of "Stay inside!" and "Don't go out there!" in every direction. But Colin disobeyed the screams of terror. Instead, he lead his friends to the golden doors. Tod placed her hands on the doors.
        "The Magyk has left. They're just ordinary doors," she said as she drew her hands away.
        "Let's go, then." Colin wrenched open the door on the right. Just as he was about to step outside, a small hand grabbed his. He stopped and looked back. The little girl with red hair that spilled the strawberry spread on Saara-Ra was looking up expectantly at him.
        "Can I go? I can't stay here," said the girl sadly.
        "Of course," said Colin, confused. "What's your name?"
        "Kloud. My name is Kloud Princeton."
        "Your name is Cloud? Like the things in the sky?" asked Marston, laughing.
        "No," Kloud said defensively. "Kloud. With a 'K'."
        "Okay, it doesn't matter what letter, we just need to know what's going on. Do you know?" Colin knelt down in front of Kloud.
        "It's Saara-Ra. She's set her dragon loose on the city."
        Colin stared at Kloud. "What? Are you sure?"
        "Yes. I saw it out my cell window. Then the guards came to get me, but I kicked them and ran away," explained Kloud. Eliza smiled. She liked Kloud.
        "Do you have family here?" Eliza asked.
        "Not anymore. They've all gone." Kloud said emptily.  Kloud's eyes began to we'll up with tears.
        "You can come with us, then. We can be your friends," Eliza confidently said, motioning to Colin, Marston, and Tod.
        Kloud nodded. Eliza grabbed her hand and turned to Colin. He smiled as he turned and walked out the door.
        Outside, there were more screams than Colin had ever heard. As they ran down the narrow cobblestone path, Colin looked up. Smoke was drifting up from an brightly lit city. But it wasn't illuminated by candle light. It was illuminated by Dragon Fyre.
        Suddenly, everything became extremely dark. Colin looked up and realized why. Flying over them was the huge bulk of a dragon. It beat it's wings and sent Colin's hair blowing every which way.
        It roared, sending the ground shaking. Colin watched in terrified awe as the dragon let out a huge stream of Fyre, it's flames leaping down onto buildings, sending them alight. The children began running as fast as they could. Colin was leading them to the Hub. Before he could get through the gate, out of the courtyard, a booming voice rang over all the screams.
        "Colin Well-Ra! You will stay were you are. The city is being rid of the impure. Soon, there will only be those of Magyk blood to serve us. Do not leave." The voice belonged to Saara-Ra. Her voice seemed to come from all around them. Every time Colin tried to focus on where it was coming from, it moved.
        "Run!" Colin yelled at his friends. He didn't want them to fall prey to Saara-Ra's hypnotizing voice. They began racing to the gate. A horizontal purple line of Magyk began running down the gate as they reached it.
        "Hurry! She's trying to Seal it!" Tod yelled. She shoved open the gate before the Seal was finished. After everyone was out, the Seal finished with a pop, keeping everyone who was in the Keep trapped. Colin turned to the street. Fear struck him as he realized he didn’t remember which way they had come from. He was too caught up in the thought of being related to Hotep-Ra earlier that day.
        He looked down the street. He didn't want to end up lost with the dragon flying around. But Colin panicked. He chose a side alley that wound down into the ground in a tunnel. As they ran down it, the roar of the dragon and the shouts of people echoed around them. The orange stone was easy to see in the dark and soon, Colin had run out of the tunnel.
        He stopped. They hadn't gone through a tunnel before. He continued running. As long as they were away from the dragon and Saara-Ra, anywhere was okay. They were now in a narrow, crooked street. Along it were only the backs of orange stone buildings. Some of the houses and shops were made from wood, but most of the ones that were made of wood were burning.
        At the end of the street, they came to a dead end. Above them, Saara-Ra's voice called, "You cannot hide!"
        Colin felt terrible. He had led his friends into a trap. He knew he shouldn't have trusted Saara-Ra in the first place. Just as Colin was about to admit how stupid he felt a muffled voice coming from a door on their left said, "Colin, this way. . ."
        Colin had no choice but to obey. The voice sounded vaguely familiar and trusting. As Colin walked through the door he tried to get a look at the man, but his face was shadowed by his hood. The children were in a dimly-lit hallway that led down a flight of steps. They walked down it into the light of a musty old room. The walls were peeling and the floor was unswept.
        "Colin. Eliza. I didn't think to see you again. Tod," the man said as he followed them into the room. He pulled back his hood. Colin stared.
        "Marwick?" Eliza gasped. "What are you doing here?"
        "I forgot to mention. I travel the Ancient Ways frequently." Marwick smiled. "I see you got yourselves into a bit of trouble."
        "You forgot to mention?" Colin asked, smiling too. "Of course you did." Marwick laughed.
        "There are a few other things I didn’t talk about either, but that's for another time." Marwick's smile vanished. "What are you doing here?" he asked worriedly.
        Colin saw in Marwick's eyes that he thought they had run away from the Castle so he explained the situation. "We haven't run away. We're trying to stop the reinforcements for the Knight. It's not running away if we're helping and we go back. Or at least I don't think it is."
        "Ah. I understand. I would have done the exact same thing, so don't worry. But I can help you." Marwick looked very serious. "The reinforcements aren't here. There's just that evil woman."
        "You mean the one that's part of Colin's family?" Eliza asked. Marwick looked confused. Eliza elaborated. "She's a relative of Hotep-Ra and so is Colin."
        "Oh. I didn't know that," said Marwick. "You should be proud, Colin."
        At that moment, Colin didn't know what he felt. He wasn't really paying attention to the conversation. He felt amazed that he was getting to travel the world, but scared of the reason why he was there. So all Colin did was nod.
        "If you guys can get away, I think that I can take care the dragon," said Marwick. This got Colin's attention.
        "What?" Colin and Tod said in unison. "By yourself?" added Eliza.
        "No, I have 'helpers' here in the city. Just leave it to us and you'll never hear from Saara-Ra again. If that's what you want," explained Marwick.
        "It is what I want. I think that woman is wretched. She was going to kill everyone who wasn't Magykal. She's a terrible person," said Colin harshly.
        "Then go. Take the tunnel back out to the main street. Follow it to the end, then there'll be another street. You should see the doors to the Hub. Go through those and then get away as fast as you can. Good luck on stopping the ambush. I have faith in you and everyone in the Castle is counting on you, remember that." With that, Marwick disappeared through a door on the other side of the room.
        Colin stood still in the room. Everything was happening so fast. But he knew he had to calm down. Remembering what Marwick had said, he took a deep breath in, then let it out. "Let's go."
        Getting back to the main street that ran to the Keep of Magyk was easy. Soon, the children were cautiously, but quickly, running down the street. It was easy not to be seen since there were so many other people from the city running around in terror. At the end of the street, they turned left and near the end of that path, they saw the huge golden and lapis doors that led to the Hub.
        As fast as they could, they ran to the doors. They opened as Colin ran up to them, allowing them to pass. Once inside, he looked at Tod. She already had out her PathFinder. Pushing away the fear that it was leading them somewhere bad, she held the object in her hand. It pointed to a Way on their right. Walking around the beautiful fountain, and into the archway, Colin sighed with relief as the silver bubble enveloped him at the Vanishing Point. He heard Kloud gasp with excitement behind him and smiled.
        Above the Hub, the sun had just began to rise on the green horizon. Time was ticking away.