As they ran toward the door, she saw Gerald grab a book from a case nearby. They could hear guards shouting outside getting closer to them by the moment.They got to the door, flung it open, saw a guard coming from the left and so ran to the right. The library was the other way, but they had to lose the guards before anything else.

Rather than running away, the four-legged scaled creature ran towards the guard, and jumped at them with claws scratching and jaws snapping. Its scales minimized the damage, but still it was battered away with the blunt of a sword. Regardless it had received its desired effect and the others were out of site.

Rinoa and the others were not far, and it did not take long for the houndlike creature to rejoin them. They doubled back and moved towards the library.

Gerald was hoping to find at least one member of the council in there, and he didn't know where to look if there was no one there. Based on the lack of people on the street he assumed that the whole city was under some sort of house arrest. He supposed he and the others could search house by house.

When they got close to the library they saw that it was now surrounded. They stayed out of sight, hiding behind the wall of a nearby building. Rinoa and her monsters sat on the ground while Gerald flipped through the book of beginner offensive spells, looking for anything that might help.

At last he turned to one page, smiled, and said “That just might work.”

“With but a gesture, the magician did summon and control a great and roaring inferno.” Once the incantation was said, Gerald held the book in one hand, with a finger inserted to mark his page, and held out his other hand, open palmed. About a foot in front of that palm, a small fire materialized in the air, crackling merrily. He stepped out from behind his cover, and with a wave of his hand , the small flame became a huge burning torrent, rushing toward the guards, who scattered and spread out to flank him.

Holding the book up before him with one hand, Gerald read again. “The earth did shake, and rumble, the very ground cracking beneath the feet of the magicians' enemies.” That one worked too well, and he dropped the book in the shake. The guards had an even worse time of it.

As one of the guards was brought down trying to advance with his foot caught in a crack that had opened in the earth and others dodged the fire still raging before Gerald's outstretched palm, the monsters with whom he had come attacked. It was a furious and quick battle, during which Rinoa was curled up on the ground, crying in fear.

The guards fought fiercely, and died messily, though not before taking one of the large identical creatures with them. It had died with two swords in its guts and their owner's throat in its mouth. Of the four guards that had been present, three were dead and the remaining large creature held the fourth. Gerald had shouted to keep them from killing her as well.

Gerald walked up to the place where the large creature held the man face down on the ground, and bent as if to speak to him. The man struggled with all four arms, but the creature held him tight.

“I've got a couple questions for you.” He looked at the creature holding him down. “Bring him. We have to go.” He spoke an incantation and opened a door to a secluded spot nearby he knew of.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Madgera Creshook

Madge spent her time in captivity speaking to the others and making plans. She spent the morning listening to the others each getting a visit from that snake Selosion. It seemed to her that she was being saved for last. That suited her just fine, though she could not help but wonder why.

It was nearing noon by the time she finally felt a presence before her door, But she was surprised to find Selosion was not alone. She brought her dog with her. Darius opened the door and stepped in, greeting her as if they were still old friends, with selosion coming in behind him.

They would never know, but they did not have her full attention. She was speaking to Silas at the same time, and hiding this conversation from Darius. It took no small amount of concentration, but she was well practiced in that. She greeted Darius in kind, and he never suspected a thing. Selosion did not greet her, leaving pleasantries to Darius

“Repeat aloud the words I tell you, Silas.” She did not allow herself the luxury of self-doubt. It would work because it must. “The door to Madgera's quarters ceased to be, and the room was closed to the world beyond its walls.” It was a spell she had written years ago to give herself privacy in her rooms at the library, but should work for any room designated as hers, even this one.

Silas did not understand this, but spoke the words as his friend bid him do, and the door simply dissolved, leaving four unbroken walls. She was pleased to feel Darius begin to panic before he reclaimed his calm.

“This will do you little good. We are still fully in control here.” It was the first time Selosion ever spoke to her directly, and the woman seemed to find it distasteful. Good, Madge thought, let her be uncomfortable. It was about to become much more so.

She had Silas speak another spell, and speak it he did. “The air burned the skin, and smoke flooded the room, acrid choking smoke.” Madgera grinned as she smelled the smoke. Darius came rushing toward her, but the smoke was in his eyes and it was making it hard to see.

She didn't have that problem, and her other senses let her know exactly where Darius and Selosion were in all of this. She rushed toward the ball of nervous energy that was Darius. She had always been faster than him in a fight. He tried to grab her by the arm, but she went low, sweeping his legs and putting him flat on his back.

She rounded on Selosion, but found the woman already rushing toward her just a moment after Darius hit the floor. On instinct Madge reacted, slipping within Selosion's guard, and taking her down with a quick throw, and another opponent hit the floor. She was sore, and would need to stretch later, but so far, she's still got it.

She rushed toward the edge of the room. and went Told Silas to speak the spell that would return the room to the way it had been, “And when the battle was won, the danger, the strife, and all else the battle had brought faded to memory.” Silas heard the words, and spoke them, and suddenly the smoke was cleared, and the door returned.

It, like all the spells she’d used, were ones she’d written personally. They were the only ones she knew for sure would still work. Selosion’s people would be burning books, and you couldn't cast a spell from a book of which all copies were destroyed.

She walked through the door and began moving to where her friends were by sensing the energy and moving toward it. The first she came to was Daedalus. From the outside, unlocking and opening the cell was simple. ”Time to go,” She said, and Daedalus jumped up to join her, leaving the room behind.

Both moved through the halls at a run, not bothering to see if Selosion was still following. One by one they found the others, but as they did this soon they found themselves pursued by armed guards, and heard Selosion in the distance behind them, shouting for their capture.

They raced down the halls of the building, looking desperately for an exit, but as they took another turn they saw not an exit but more guards coming from that direction as well. They were surrounded.

Madge saw no way out, not for her, but she did have one final notion. “Daedalus, take the child,” she said directly into the young man's mind. “Speak these words aloud and go. A doorway opened in space and time, a passage to the study of Madgera trueseer, keeper of the tomes. Speak these words, and go. Take from that place anything you need. All that I have written, its all there. Go! ”

Tears streamed down Daedalus' cheeks as he roared the words, and seized Zahria by the wrist, dragging her with him and he passed through the passage. One by one she urged the others through as the enemy drew nearer, until only she and Silas and Ayave were left. They would not be joining the others. The doorway closed behind Gedra, and the three of them faced the oncoming guards.

There was nothing else to do. The three of them stood down. The guards encircled them completely now, and Selosion came from behind these to stand before the three Scholars. “That was pointless, they can not save their city, and we will have them again before the day is done, sooner in all likelihood.”

They did not deny, did not rage against, but submitted quietly. They had done all they could for now, and all they could do now was hope it was enough.