Lucky Rabbit

Wind whipped at Beeswick’s unwilling passengers, threatening to tear them loose and allow them to fall onto the city below. Pandy’s view was blocked by the Dragon’s body, so she had no idea how high up they were, but they weren’t hitting buildings, so the answer was probably ‘too high’.

Augustus shouted something, and the wind abruptly died down, though Pandy could still hear it roaring past just a few feet away. The chancellor managed to sit up and pull Pandy close, sheltering her with his body. “Cieris can protect us for a little while at least. Are you all right?”

Reminded, Pandy sent a heal his way, but in spite of the Skyril’s rough handling, he was at full health. She nodded her head, and Augustus gave a relieved sigh, then leaned to the side so he could peer below Professor Beeswick. Never before had that name seemed so inappropriate, even when the librarian so casually showed his predator’s smile.

“Wherever we’re going, it can’t be far,” Augustus said, releasing Pandy with one hand so he could remove his glasses and tuck them into his cache. “Elarion can’t leave Knightmere during the school year. He’s not even supposed to be off school grounds unless there’s an emergency that could potentially affect the entire city.”

Wait, who was telling a Dragon he couldn’t take a long weekend to go glamping? Was that why Professor Beeswick was here in this form? Pandy had been quietly ignoring a number of red flags regarding the Dragon and his role at the school because neither he nor Augustus seemed all that worried about it. Now she wondered if that had been a mistake. Not that she could do anything about it if Beeswick and the chancellor couldn’t, but maybe she should ask a few more questions anyway.

Augustus was thrown to the side as the Dragon banked sharply, letting out a deep roar that made Pandy’s bones vibrate. Several higher-pitched screeches answered him, and the Skyrils reappeared, this time latching onto Augustus and ignoring Pandy. Cieris’s wind shield broke, and Beeswick dove sharply down, leaving Augustus momentarily hovering in midair. It was to his credit that Augustus didn’t shriek like a terrified child, but Pandy’s sensitive hearing did pick up a definite gasp that might have preceded such a scream before the Skyrils’ wings snapped out and brought his tumble to a halt.

Pandy, on the other hand, was ripped from Augustus’s grasp when he stayed up and she continued on a sharp downward trajectory. Fortunately, she had a backup plan, and with a silent command, her own wings burst from her back, turning her fall into a Very Awkward glide. She wobbled, straightened, then wobbled again as she caught sight of what lay below her.

It was Avington House, but there could be no doubt that it was under siege. Fire licked at the rear of the house, where a scarred and furious horse kicked and bit at dark figures clad in skin-tight black clothes. The front door was hanging open, only one set of hinges even pretending to do their job. Inside, a whirlwind of black scythes sliced at more of the interlopers, and several bodies lay in the thicket that Pandy hadn’t yet had time to battle back from the yard.

Pandy’s wings folded against her body, sending her diving toward the tumult. She struck one of the figures battling the Apparition in her front room, and he staggered slightly, reaching up to pull away the four-pound ballistic bunny. Pandy deployed both Bite and Scratch, ignoring the System notifications as blood flew. She would worry about the fact that she might have just seriously injured a human being later, after she was certain that her horse, elementals, and houseguests were safe.

As the man she’d struck fell bonelessly to the ground – that was fine, it was fine – Pandy looked toward the Apparition. It was in its second form, with sharp tendrils darting out of its incorporeal form to stab and slice at its attackers. That meant it was below fifty percent health, which was Bad, and not only because Pandy had only just gotten Nyssa to full health. She was pretty sure this was the housekeeper, but even if it was Nox, if this was anything like Gacha Love, then he would drain Nyssa when he took enough damage.

<Cast Shifting Faces, Eurydice,> Pandy thought, feeling her body lengthen between one hop and the step that came after it. Not that Bunny couldn’t do damage, as she’d just proven, but Eurydice had knives. Those knives appeared in her hands as she thought, <Dual Wielding. Dance. Um, something with a lot of kicks.>

Dual Wielding successful.

Dance successful.

You have seventy-one more uses to reach level 17.

Style randomized. 

Jive selected. 

Her body jerked into motion, knives flickering out to stab and cut at a half a dozen masked people she recognized as Shadow Exchange agents because of their black bodysuits. Having used Ms. Wellington’s all of two times before it was destroyed, Pandy knew it muffled the noises they made and probably gave them a Dexterity buff, though the changes hadn’t actually shown up in her stats when she wore it.

Someone who very much did not have anything to muffle the sound of his impact hit the ground just behind her, and she took three quick steps to the side, giving a sharp kick that placed her foot in the groin of a black-clad assailant. He grunted and staggered but didn’t fall, though she felt something crack beneath her toe. They had protection in those outfits then, but not enough to entirely cancel out a kick from someone with Pandy’s Strength.

“Augustus?” she asked, hoping she was correctly interpreting the sounds coming from behind her.

“I’m here, Eurydice,” he said, already sounding a bit breathless. He’d been going pretty steadily for quite a while now, and he didn’t have the advantage of being dead. She sent him a Minor Heal, which hit for two points, probably from his rather rough landing. Another body stumbled forward, spouting blood, though she wasn’t sure if the wound had been dealt by the chancellor or the Apparition. The elemental had flung itself into the fray with renewed vigor when Pandy showed up, and three more of the assailants were down before Pandy could turn.

When she did, it was to find a rather bedraggled and blood-spattered Augustus standing beside an Apparition which was definitely soft around the edges. It had only one scythe-like tendril left, and was less than half the size she’d expected. Bodies lay in the rubble, but only one showed any sign of movement. Augustus crossed to that one and gave it a sharp rap on the temple with the non-pointy end of his sword, and it went still.

“Where is Eleanor?” Augustus asked, looking not at Pandy but the Apparition. It flickered, fading into the much-diminished shape of Nyssa. She was all in gray-scale again, her clothing little more than suggestions formed by the outline of her shape, and she hovered a good five inches from the floor.

“Ooooofficcceeeee,” she wailed, looking upward. Pandy followed her gaze. The office should be above and left of them, over the coat room and secret lab. Speaking of which…

Pandy moved toward the hall, remembering too late that Dance was still going. She did a swaying pirouette which very nearly ended with her falling through a hole in the wall. That hole definitely led into the Secret Lab, and she could see flashes of movement and hear crashing from the dim space within. She felt a pang, longing to know what was going on in there, but Eleanor needed her right now, and all that was in there was a corpse that had already been hanging around for at least a hundred and fifty years. Well, a corpse and her other Apparition, if she were to judge by the timbre of the howling, but she wasn’t nearly as worried about the elemental as she was about the little girl she’d promised to protect.

“This way,” she said, cancelling Dance so she could head straight toward the spiral staircase at the end of the hall. She suspected she’d have to cast it again, but Jive wasn’t exactly the damage-dealing powerhouse she’d been hoping for, though it did indeed seem to involve several different kicks.

Augustus followed her, but Nyssa hovered uncertainly. She was already in bad shape, so Pandy wasn’t going to ask her to do anything more. Ignoring the Apparition’s hesitation, Pandy took the stairs two at a time.

The first thing she did upon reaching the second floor of the house was to nearly fall out of a hole in the outer wall. This one used to be a window, but both the glass and the frame were missing, and all that remained was a charred mess. There was definitely a Fire elementalist around here somewhere, and Pandy wasn’t looking forward to running into them.

A shout came from below. Pandy caught a hint of movement from the corner of her eye and ducked back just in time to avoid being hit by a flying body. It landed half in and half out of the former window, legs trailing down the wall. Two flaming crescents were burned into its back. Pandy squeaked, but Augustus gave a grim smile. “Dire Steeds aren’t particularly powerful for Fire elementals, but they’re more than enough if you didn’t have a chance to prepare for them.”

“Soot?” Pandy asked, peering out to see the scarred old battle mount kicking the veritable poop out of several more Shadow Exchange minions. The ‘horse’s’ hooves left smoking holes wherever they struck, and Pandy mentally added a few thousand more gold to the repair bill. She’d have to replace the whole lawn. Oh, no! Maybe Eleanor could-

“Eleanor!”

But Augustus was already off down the hall, past Eleanor’s open bedroom door and to the office. Rather surprisingly, there was no one there, trying to beat it down, and when Pandy looked past the door to the atrium, she realized why. She couldn’t see clearly, but those were definitely body parts visible in the sunny space, and there was a bloody handprint on the door itself. It was too large to be Eleanor’s, but about the right size for Empress Glory.

When Augustus tried the doorknob, it didn’t even jiggle, but he stepped aside for Pandy, and she opened the door easily. She started to enter, but a grunt gave her just enough warning to duck out of the way of a positively enormous axe that probably weighed as much as the slender woman wielding it. The haft slipped from Glory’s blood-slick hands as it came down, and the wickedly sharp edge dug a solid inch into the polished hardwood floorboard.

“Goddess,” Glory gasped when she realized who it was. She had more blood on her arms and chest, but whatever injuries she might have taken, she still had enough fight left to glare at Augustus when she recognized him. “Took you long enough,” she said, swaying as she staggered over to lean against the wall.

One and a half Minor Heals later, she was looking much better, but Pandy was barely paying attention to the other woman anymore. Eleanor sat at the desk, her face white beneath the fake tan, a Very Thorny dog huddled protectively at her feet. Hazel laid in the girl’s arms, her yellow scales streaked with blood. For a terrible moment, Pandy thought the little elemental was dead, but when she tried to heal the Dragon, the spell bounced. None of that blood belonged to Hazel.

“Are you all right?” Pandy demanded, coming forward to pull out the chair so she could get a good look at the princess. Other than a few bloodstains on her sleeves that looked to have been transferred from Hazel, Eleanor looked fine. Physically at least.

The princess’s lip quivered, and she threw her arms around Pandy, holding on for all she was worth. Hazel was squashed between them, but when Pandy managed to look down, the Dragon actually didn’t seem unhappy about the situation. She had her eyes closed, looking tired but self-satisfied, much as she did when she produced a particularly vile batch of cookies.

“I don’t even think they’re after her,” Glory said from behind them, sounding baffled. “They brought a cart with some crates. I thought they were here for a delivery, but Soot went berserk the moment he smelled them. Dam-” She cast a glance at the sobbing princess, and changed her words to, “The horse’s hooves caught on fire. Your elementals tried to hold them off, but they kept popping out of the cart and the crates, and then Isidor just opened the door for them.”

Pandy stared at her, then looked around as if she might have missed the older boy. “What was Isidor doing here? Isn’t it a school day?” She looked at Augustus. “The other schools don’t have different holidays, do they?”

Augustus’s expression was grim. “No, but Daedalus is Isidor’s Master. If he said he needed Isidor to do something, the boy wouldn’t even question it.”

Wait, what? Pandy thought the blue-cloaked Knight of the Royal Eagle was Isidor’s Master. Sir Nicholas, wasn’t it? But now it was Daedalus? How many Masters did one boy need?

“But if Isidor let them in, why is the door broken and a hole in the wall?” Two, counting the one that led to the laboratory, which Pandy was growing increasingly concerned about. She knew how strong Nox was, but if Isidor was here – someone Pandy had claimed as a member of the family – what would the Apparition do?

“Isidor tried shutting them out after Soot started attacking them,” Glory said. “He only got here a few minutes before they did, and started knocking on the downstairs walls like he was a guard trying to find an underground gambling den. He looked… strained. That’s why I was so distracted when the cart showed up.”

“Oh,” Pandy said, but she was already moving. Gently, she separated herself from the princess, who had stopped crying but was still holding onto Pandy’s arm like it was a lifeline. Giving the girl an apologetic smile, Pandy crossed the room and pulled on a rabbit statue sitting on a shelf, tilting it forward. The bookshelf slid out of the way, revealing the stairs down to the lab.

Looking at Glory, she said, “Close the office door. Don’t open it for anyone. Close this as soon as we’re through, too.” She mimed pushing the statue back into place and Glory nodded, already yanking the hall door shut again. Eleanor sat in the chair once more, sniffing but brave, and nodded to Pandy and Augustus, looking very much like her mother. Pandy nodded back, then darted down the steps, with Augustus close behind her.

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