Chapter 28: In Which Cala Makes a Stand

The art of magical movement is as vast as man's imagination. A magician could move through shadows, he could move through light, through sound, through air, through glass, through fire, with the power of a reflection or the moisture in the air. The methods are as various as the people who use them, and each magician eventually finds the way that suits him best.

Sometimes the mode of travel is decided by its purpose. Some ways are more efficient than others, some are faster, some are more impressive while others are silent. And some are utterly surprising.

And the element of surprise was what they needed most. It would be difficult to surprise, now that Marning had shielded them from the scrying eyes of Quintoxe or any other magician he might be in league with. Any half-trained magician would know to watch closely every mode of travel and keep them booby-trapped.

But then, their plan could work. It had been Rat's idea and the reason that it could work was that it didn't really involve magical travel. "He's seen me as a rat though," the boy said.

"He wouldn't be able to guess the extent of it," Marning said with confidence. "It's beyond any magician's wildest dreams."

Rat seemed doubtful as he buttoned up the collar of his shirt. It was cold outside, but they would do this dressed lightly. They each wore simple black breeches and a black shirt. Marning had arranged for soft leather boots meant for moving silently – they would need nothing else beside.

He looked at the boy thoughtfully and for the millionth time asked himself if he was doing the right thing. Did life's twists and turns force him to abandon sound judgment? It was necessary work; he was obliged to act before Rat was acted upon. But was this taking it too far, for the sake of gaining this boy's trust?

It was dangerous. Life and death hung upon a thread. But then, it had to be done, and it couldn't be done without Rat.

"I'm ready," the boy said in a low voice, as if he were trying to sound older than he was.

"Good." Marning nodded solemnly. "Then lead the way."

Rat didn't hesitate; he did not give the room a second glance. It was as if the idea of fear did not even cross his mind. "I'll take us to somewhere near enough. From there we can find a way in," he said as he struck a match and lit an oversized candle. Strange shadows danced across the walls, twirling and twisting as the flame flickered and grew. They both watched as the wax began to melt in a small circle at the base of the wick. The flame continued growing, wider and taller, until it burned well over their heads.

Rat diverted his gaze from the fire and met Marning's. The Grand Master nodded once in approval. The boy hesitated this time, his lips moving as he went over Marning's instructions. Then his hand shot out right into the flame, slicing the fire in half. A gate opened. He drew his hand back, closed his eyes in concentration before he lunged forward and melted into the flame, sucked in by the gate he had opened.

Marning watched as the boy's liquid reflection turned and turned within the puddle of wax at the base of the flame, before he himself followed. A flame gate was a fail-safe way to travel. It was impossible to place traps along this path, unless the one who wished to place traps had encountered the candle upon which the flame burned.

For a moment there was that feeling of being as smooth and hot as molten wax. For a moment there was no beating heart or rushing blood. For a moment everything was golden, everything flowed, stretched and burned. Then the cold, hard night took form all around them. They stood in their stiff shirts in the moonless street, their breaths forming clouds of steam as they shivered. Rat's form was nothing but a deeper darkness in the dark. Marning wondered where they were. He had grown up in the city, and while he certainly did not know it as well as Rat did – it had changed so much in the last sixty years – he still knew quite a large portion of its alleys and streets.

His eyes became accustomed to the night and he saw the strange shape of the building nearby or more importantly, its chimneys. "Glass Town?" he asked.

Rat nodded.

"Let's go on," Marning said. He placed his hand on Rat's shoulder and concentrated for a moment. The darkness crowded all around them, becoming thicker and heavier, pressing at their bodies from every direction. Slowly and surely, they began changing shape, collapsing in on themselves – shrinking.

Finally they stood upon one cobblestone each. Marning was no more than ten inches tall while Rat was a little more than half that size. The Grand Master expelled some of the sticky darkness around them, though half of it he left in case they would need to make their arms or legs longer.

Rat lifted his head, as if he were either smelling the air, or listening. "Over here," he said, leading the way toward the gutter at the side of the street. He leapt from cobblestone to cobblestone, lightly skipping over the gaps between the stones. Marning could not move as quickly or as swiftly, though he kept up by making his legs slightly longer and more flexible, moving with a spider's agility.

They reached the gutter, a deep gorge in the city landscape. The sound of flowing rainwater roared in their ears while Rat paused and crouched down, searching for the entrance. "There," he said pointing toward the opposite bank of the gutter, where two stones sat at an odd angle with each other, creating a gap – an entrance.

Marning nodded, they had to cross. Luckily, the air was cold enough for that to be a simple task – if not a little slippery. While some magicians preferred flying, the art of flight was not as easy as it looked; it required much practice in all forms of weather. There were dozens of stories of unpracticed magicians who attempted flying and were caught by a stray wind that took them on a wild adventure. This was neither the place nor the time to attempt such unpredictable feats.

The Grand Master bent down and touched the floor with his finger. From his touch, ice bloomed. At first, it snaked out in one string until it met the entrance to the tunnel on the other side of the gutter, then it began to slowly thicken and spread out to the sides. If it weren't for the mist that blew about the ice, the bridge would have been completely invisible in the moonless night.

When the bridge was complete and as strong as he could make it, Marning straightened up and took the first step. "Be careful not to slip," he cautioned Rat like a worried father.

At first the bridge felt firm under his feet, he took one steady step after the other. Halfway across the gutter, however, the ice began melting. The night was cold, but not quite cold enough for ice. Marning took one more step, and suddenly he found himself falling, his backside hitting the hard ice in a way that made his bones grind together. Rat, who had quietly been following behind, cried out. Marning felt the boy's magic react – almost instinctively, and suddenly the bridge changed, turning into something less substantial. It flowed; the water that melted off the ice staying up in the air instead of dripping down. They were moving with the gentle flow of the cold bridge, until Marning felt his body ease onto the hard stone of the entrance to the tunnel. Only then did Rat help him to his feet. "Aren't you a little too old for this?" he asked, sounding both joking and not.

"I might be," The Grand Master replied in an equally ambiguous tone.

Rat shrugged in his usual way. "Make your arms longer like I did," he said, and Marning briefly wondered where this boy found the nerve to address an adult that way. "It's best to move on all fours in here."

Marning lengthened his arms and shortened his legs. Rat began leading the way down the tunnel and into pitch darkness. Quite soon the Grand Master understood why he needed his hands to navigate the tunnel, beside the tunnel being too narrow to stand upright. In the dark, his hands were his only informants of what lay ahead, they and the sound of Rat's voice telling him of where the tunnel forked or where it went sharply upward or downward.

At first they met no other living creature in the darkness, but then all of a sudden they were surrounded by the chirping sounds of rats. The boy paused and seemed to reply; the rats stopped chirping and everything was silent, yet it seemed as if a conversation was occurring. Marning's human ears could not pick up any sound, though as he strained his Wielder hearing, he could hear the rise and fall of voices – many voices, among them was Rat's voice.

Finally the boy spoke in human language. "They'll lead us there," he said, "but you'd better keep close to me. They don't trust you because you're human." Marning smirked at this, did the rats truly believe that Rat wasn't?

And on they went. This part of the journey through the tunnel was the same as the first. The only difference was that they were surrounded on all sides by rats chirping and squeaking as they passed.

"We're here," Rat said. "They're sleeping on the top floor. We're in Dillarby."

"Dillarby?" Dillarby was one of the better neighbourhoods in the city; the houses were old but well-built and the owners were either wealthy merchants or nobility from the countryside who occasionally came to stay in the capital.

The King also owned some houses here where he lodged guests who were not distinguished enough to stay at the palace.

"The rats will get them to come downstairs and then we can appear," Rat said. They had arrived near an exit. Finally the air and light seemed to change a little. Marning concentrated his thoughts on concealing their presence, shading them carefully until they blended into their surroundings. Now Quintoxe would not be able to know they were there even if he tried to sense them.

Exactly then, a great crash exploded through the silence; something inside the house shattered to pieces. Then there was the loud squeaking of rats. The darkness was disturbed by candlelight, and sets of feet came creaking down the wooden stairwell.

"It's only rats," said a deep drawling voice that probably belonged to Gorn.

A different light shone, not candlelight, but white magic-light – a sign that Quintoxe was nervous if he was willing to use such a spell for so trivial a matter. "Damn rats," said Quintoxe's familiar voice. There was the trickling sound of shards of glass being shifted about. "Look at this mess, they cost me my looking-glass."

A yawn, "I'm going back to bed," said Gorn.

"Of course you would." Quintoxe always had that sarcastic tone. "Not a worry in your empty skull." He sighed unconvincingly. "Very well, I'll take care of the glass and the rats in the morning."

The sound of feet walking, they were about to head back upstairs – now was his chance. Marning left the tunnel and grew in an instant to his normal size, the darkness he used for the spell spreading across the room in a wave. Quintoxe turned.

Instantly the Grand Master cut through the other magician's boundaries and gripped him by his throat, pushing him back across the room until his back was pinned to the wall.

"Hello Orgette." Marning crossed his arms over his chest. It was satisfying to see the stunned expression on the other magician's face as he asked himself what he had done wrong, how despite all the precautions he had taken the Grand Master was standing before him. "Won't we have a little chat?" asked Marning.

"Why of course, Grand Master," the magician growled. "You seem to leave me very little choice in the matter."

"That, my friend, is how the matter of choices works," Marning said with a grin, "The more wrong choices you make, the fewer choices you will be left with in the end."

"I will be sure to reflect over that."

"And you will have plenty of time to." The Grand Master moved his eyebrows, he could feel how Quintoxe was trying to overcome his spell, but there was no way he could. Nevertheless, Marning took the ring from his pocket and led it across the room in Quintoxe's direction It hovered through the air, slipping onto the other magician's finger – where it pulled out its teeth and bit into his skin. The other man cried out in pain — and in despair, for a ring of Lynn was a charm of bad fate. It turned any spell a magician performed against him, it was worse than taking away one's magic – it made magic a dangerous thing to use.

Something moved on Marning's left, and he turned his head just in time to see Gorn lift a heavy metal bar into the air, swinging it toward the Grand Master's head.

But something stopped him before Marning could. The man froze like a statue, looming over the Grand Master with his arms by his ears. Marning turned his head to see the boy walking toward them. There was a strange expression on his face, a burning rage that turned fear into hatred. As he came closer, the bar dislodged itself from Gorn's fingers and rose a few inches into the air – and then came down in full force.

"Rat, don't!" Marning shouted, but the first blow hit and with it the large man unfroze, crying out in pain. The momentum of the first blow brought about a second one, knocking Gorn to the floor, then another and another. "Stop! Stop it!" the Grand Master yelled over Gorn's cries, but the boy's wide brown eyes showed no sign of listening. The bar continued to hit the man, even when his body lay prone and motionless on the floor, even when dark blood – black as night in the dim light – puddled across the floor, it went on and on.

Only when there was a sound from the other side of the room did the bar fall to the floor by the body with a clatter.

Quintoxe was escaping. He had managed to release himself from Marning's hold, despite the ring of Lynn, and was opening his Line of Flight – of course he would have planted an escape route in case this happened. But the Grand Master seized him then, and would have properly put him to sleep, if a little figure did not plant itself right between them with its arms outstretched.

It was a girl, only a few years older than Rat, who stood before the Grand Master. "Move child," he said, irritated. Her eyes darted to the body on the floor, and then to Rat's lone form standing over it. Their eyes met.

"No!" she cried, "I-I won't let you. He's had it hard, that's why he's done it. But he's too proud to explain."

"Move," Marning said, this time, threateningly. She bit her trembling lips but stayed put anyway. The Grand Master tried to move her by magic.

But then discovered that she had her own shields protecting her. "I-I won't let you pass!" she cried. She turned to look at Rat. "The King made him do it, he had no choice!" she yelled. "But he didn't kill any girls, if he was around, he wouldn't let them kill the little girls." Tears ran down her cheeks. "If I'd known you'd come back, I'd never have helped you."

Rat leapt over Gorn's body, he stood right in front of the girl. For a moment Marning wondered if he needed to protect this girl from Rat. "Liar!" the boy yelled right into her face. "You filthy liar! They killed my sister on the same day they captured me."

She seemed braver looking into the eyes of someone her size. "Did you see it happen?" she asked in a whisper.

Rat said nothing at first, then he gasped and shoved her aside, sending her crashing to the floor. He rushed forward just as the gate of Quintoxe's Line of Flight narrowed into a dot in the air, disappearing before he could capture it.

Marning watched Rat's back in thoughtful contemplation, the only sounds in the room were the sobs of the girl on the floor. He had never expected the boy's anger to be so absolute and terrifying. Had he loved his street friends so strongly that the drive for revenge corrupted his soul even in his young age? He could not help but hope that the path of Wielding would bank that dangerous fire, even just a little.

The Grand Master crouched down by the girl. She was not hurt, only startled. "What's your name, girl?" he asked, his voice wasn't soft, but neither was it harsh.

"Cala," she whispered.

"Do you have anywhere else to stay?"

She did not look up, she merely shook her head.

"Can you work? Cook? Clean? Launder?"

She hesitated, then nodded in reply.

"There's work for you at the palace that can be arranged if you will kindly come with us." Marning looked up at Rat's still back and frowned as he rose to his feet. "We will be leaving now."

He rubbed his head as he looked down at the body on the floor – what a terrible mess – he thought. It had all gone wrong, but not in the way he had feared, Rat's body was whole, his health was intact, he was alive and unhurt – but what of his soul?

As if it had never happened, they never spoke of that night. Quintoxe was never seen again in Auranora and no one searched for a man named Gorn. Though one thing truly changed after that night, Marning came to realise it in the days that followed. Something had shifted within Rat, like a great slab had been removed from his heart, and finally he seemed capable of trusting the Grand Master.

A/N - We have reached the end of Part I of Rat! What do you think? Reading back on this scene after not touching the book for several years made my stomach turn. A ten year old boy brutally killing a grown man. Even if Gorn was trying to kill him in the first place, it's no simple thing to see, nor will the stain that such a thing leaves on his soul be easy to remove. It's suggested here that Fizz is actually alive, but where is she? Will that break Rat's wish for revenge? What are your opinions of Cala and what she said about Quintoxe?

Anyway, will post the first chapter in Part II on Friday! Don't forget to vote and share your thoughts i the comments! <3