“Told you,” the guard said. “You got to have a pass.”
Lemon peered up at the underside of the island and gave an annoyed huff. “Well, where do I get one of those?”
“Uh, from the conference, I think.”
“But I can’t get up there!”
“Yeah.” The guard scratched his head and traded glances with his friends. “I’m not sure.”
She didn’t remember Hogarth having any sort of pass, and he went to the conference every year. Maybe they were for the non-wizards who also attended. No doubt all the wizards would just use their magic to get up there. Lemon didn’t have any sort of spell that would let her travel on a beam of light.
But she did have a spell that would let her fly. Kind of.
“Okay, thanks for letting me try. I think I’ve got it figured out now. Bye!”
As she rushed off, one of the guards behind her said, “Should we do something about that?”
“Nah, our job is to guard this spot. If she gets up there some other way, that’s not our fault.”
Bon joined her as she walked away from the light. “Didn’t work, huh?”
“No. You need some kind of magic pass to go up that way. I’ve got another idea though.”
They walked down Gold Hill, easily avoiding the mean old man who smelled like dirt when he spotted them again, and hurried away from the pillar of light. While they walked, Lemon explained her plan. “So it’s kind of high, but I think I can levitate all the way up there. We just need to go to the edge and I’ll go up over the side.”
“Are you sure?” Bon asked, shooting the island an uncertain glance. “That’s a bit more than ‘kind of high.’”
“I’ve never tried,” Lemon admitted. The island was much higher than that cliff she’d gone up, much higher than Hogarth’s tower, and weirdly, the thought of ascending through open, empty air was somehow scarier than going up the side of a building or a cliff.
But Hogarth was up there. He needed his potion, and it was Lemon’s job to bring it to him. If this was what she needed to do, she was going to do it. It probably wouldn’t be that bad anyway. She’d just close her eyes and it would be over in no time.
They came to a spot where they were out from the island’s shadow, and the two of them eyed up the edge. “I think a few more blocks that way,” Bon said.
It took a few attempts before they agreed that they had found the right spot, which happened to be next to a well in a square surrounded by squat houses. “Last chance to change your mind,” Bon said.
Lemon considered that for a moment. It wasn’t dangerous, as far as she could tell. It was just going straight up, using her rope to drag herself forward, and landing on the island. Sure, it was high, but that just meant a bit more travel time. She’d be fine. Her biggest concern was making sure she’d lined herself up right with the edge of the island. She was actually kind of trusting Bon with that. Humans had better eyes for long distances than dogs did.
“I’m going to do it. Thanks for the help.”
“I should be thanking you. You saved my butt from those guys. I guess I should be getting home now. My parents are probably wondering where I’m at, and I need to tell them what happened.”
“Good luck! When I get up there, I’ll see if I can get Hogarth to get a pass for you to come visit.”
“That would be amazing! It’s got to be incredible up there. So many wizards… so much magic.”
Lemon loved Hogarth dearly, but amazing and incredible were not the first words that came to mind when she considered her master. ‘Goofy’ was a good word to describe him. ‘Absentminded.’ She’d met a lot of wizards, and Hogarth was one-of-a-kind. That was probably for the best. Who else would have taken in a glowing puppy without a second’s hesitation? He’d even done it over Midnight’s objections.
Lemon’s tail started wagging on its own.
“Bye!” she said. Then she focused on her feather charm, looked up, and started rising into the air. Shouts of surprise came from below her, but she was well past anyone’s reach before they could think to do anything about it. Lemon’s legs kicked reflexively, not that it did anything to help her fly up faster, and her tail blurred back and forth.
About half way up, she knew she’d misjudged her position. The bottom curve of the island was right overhead, and she needed to be farther to her left. And they’d been so careful about lining it up, too. Still, it was going to be close, and maybe she could make it work. She rose higher and higher, and as she got closer, she noticed the island actually shifting a bit.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
It wasn’t much, just a single length of her snout to her tail, back and forth, and actually that was a good thing. Her aim hadn’t been that far off; the target had just moved! All Lemon had to do was wait for it to move out of her way, rise up a little bit higher, and then wait for it to come back under her feet. It was going to be even easier than she’d expected.
Of course, she was getting pretty tired, and she wasn’t quite there yet. It only occurred to her right then that if she lost the magic this high up before she actually made it onto the island, that things could be… bad. Well, there was an easy solution there. She just wouldn’t let the levitation spell go.
Her tail maybe wasn’t wagging quite as fast anymore. There was a low whine coming from somewhere, but it definitely wasn’t Lemon. Nope. It must have been the wind.
The island grew huge in her sight, so big that it blocked out half the sky above her. In another minute, her nose was touching the earth and she was scrambling to claw her way over to the lip of the island so that she could get on top of it. It swayed gently, which sometimes helped and sometimes made it worse, and eventually she managed to float over top and get all four paws back on solid ground.
“Whew! That was exhausting.”
She was standing near some sort of pole with a purple triangular pennant on top and a rope tied to it. The rope led to another pole, and another one, and another one. As far as she could see, it circled around the island, but it wasn’t really a fence or anything. She could walk right under it, after all. She could see some buildings all huddled together on the far end of the island, so she started off that way.
Lemon made it precisely four steps past the rope line when she felt the magic ripple through the air. It was a familiar sensation, one she’d felt many times in Hogarth’s tower. He liked to set up wards to ensure his workshop wasn’t disturbed when he left potions simmering or needed something to age undisturbed. As his Chief Research Assistant, Lemon sometimes had to step over the wards, which would be fine, except that Hogarth didn’t always remember to key her in.
That was what the sensation felt like, and nothing good ever happened when she stepped over a ward that she wasn’t keyed into. At best, there would be loud noises that definitely didn’t scare her so bad she peed on the floor under a table in the workshop one time. Other options were less pleasant. Wizards took their security very seriously.
The best thing to do was make it to the buildings. Then she could find Hogarth and he’d straighten everything out. Lemon scrambled towards the far side of the island as the alarms started going off. These ones included colorful lights too. Lemon yiped and scampered away from the explosion of noise and lights behind her.
That was when the streamers of fire started pouring down. Lemon ran faster.
They rained down around Lemon, many, many more than she could count, in every direction. Lemon panicked and ran, screaming the whole way as scorching lines of fire flashed through the air. When she found whichever wizard had invented this ward, she was going to bite him right on the butt.
Lemon cleared the zone of fire raining down from the sky and slowed down. Somehow, she’d avoided singeing her fur, but that had been the scariest thing to happen to her since she left the tower! Thankfully, it had only lasted a few seconds and she’d- wait, what was that grinding sound?
Lemon looked around curiously, but there was nothing to be seen, not including the grass fires behind her. But she could clearly hear the sound, and that couldn’t be good. The smell of freshly churned dirt filled her nose, and a moment later she saw the ground shaking in front of her. It moved forward like a wave, and the grass humped upwards under her feet.
She was tossed into the air, up and backwards over the grass fires and towards the edge of the island. It was a good thing she still had her levitation charm, but that wasn’t going to stop her momentum. If she didn’t do anything, she’d end up out in the open air, with nowhere to go but back down into the city.
The rope snaked out of her bag and she looped it over one of the poles. With her teeth clamped down firmly on its length, she was able to stop herself from going over the edge and pull herself back to safety. With her paws back on solid ground, she glared at the buildings on the other side. Those wards were completely uncalled for.
They weren’t going to stop her, though. She just needed to hurry through them before they reset. Lemon ran forward, made it a few steps, and promptly realized that they had already reset. The fire was every bit as scary the second time, but she ran even faster and left it behind.
When the wave of earth rolled forward to catch her, Lemon jumped high and used her feather charm to float over it. The magic passed by harmlessly beneath her, and she landed in a run. There was still plenty of ground left to cover, but hopefully the wards were only circling the outside edges of the island.
A wave of thunder crashed against her, causing her to stumble when she missed a step, and making everything around her spin crazily. Lemon shook her head, sending her ears flopping around it, and got back to her feet. “This is crazy. Why did they ward the island like this?”
Whatever the reason, there must have just been too much space to create a solid barrier, so the wizards had gone with traps. While she had a healthy respect for the powers wizards wielded, she wasn’t particularly impressed by these traps. They weren’t going to be enough to stop her.
She started forward again, and pillars of burning light burst up from the ground around her. Deftly, Lemon wove her way through them, even when they started moving around in some sort of complicated pattern she couldn’t quite figure out. She relied on sheer reflexes to dart through the gaps in their formation, though sometimes that meant having to go sideways or backwards. The grass was blackened anywhere the light passed over, seared and smoking. She wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to her.
Then the sky darkened, and Lemon looked up to see a giant, flat slab of stone skipping through the air in her direction. It was far, far too wide to dodge, and moving so fast that it would be on her in seconds. Each time it hit the ground, it tore a huge chunk of earth away and rose back into the air. Maybe, if she ran fast enough towards it, it would fly over her head and land behind her.
Lemon ran for all she was worth, but she knew she wasn’t going to make it. The stone was going to hit her head on. There was only one way to save herself, and she hated that she’d have to do it.