The Golden Lily

A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I screamed.

"Easy there, Sage. I'm no gun-toting crazy guy. Crazy, yes. But not the rest." I stared in disbelief, not that I could really make out much of the tall, dark figure standing over me. "Adrian?" The height was right, as was the build. As I stared, I became more and more certain. His hands steadied my shaking. I was so glad to see a friendly face - to see him - that I nearly sank into his arms in relief. "It is you. How'd you find me?"

"You're the only human out here with a yellow and purple aura," he said. "Makes you easy to spot."

"No, I mean, how'd you find me here? At the compound?"

"I followed the others. They told me not to, but... well." In the faint moonlight I could barely see his shrug. "I don't follow directions well. When Castile came out with Sonya and started babbling about how you'd gone out some random door, I thought I'd take a quick walk around.

I don't think I was supposed to do that either, but the guardians were kind of busy."

"You are crazy," I snapped, despite how happy I was to know I hadn't been abandoned in this miserable place. "The Warriors are so mad that they'd probably kill a Moroi on sight if they saw you."

He tugged my hand forward. Even through his banter, there'd been a hard tone to his words. He was fully aware of the danger we faced. "Then we'd better get out of here." Adrian led me back in the direction I'd come, then went around the opposite side of the building. I didn't see the freeway lights yet, but he soon turned and began running toward the property's far edge, away from the building. I ran alongside him, still holding his hand.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The guardians assembled near the back side of the compound, so they wouldn't be spotted.

That part of the fence has been deactivated - if you can climb it."

"Of course I can climb it. I'm practically a prodigy in PE," I pointed out. "The question is, can you, Mr. Smoker?"

The fence began to come into focus as we approached, mostly because its shape blocked some of the stars. "That's the section. Behind the scraggly bush," Adrian said. I couldn't see any bush but trusted in his eyes. "Go a little ways past that, and there's this country highway that the guardians used as a staging point. I'm parked there." We came to a halt in front of the fence, both of us a little breathless. I peered upward.

"You're sure it's still off?"

"It was when we came in," said Adrian, but I could hear a little uncertainty in his voice.

"You think those guys would have gotten their act together enough to fix it already?"

"No," I admitted. "But I'd still like to know for sure. I mean, most commercial electric fences won't significantly hurt someone, but we should know." He glanced around. "Can we throw a stick at it?"

"Wood doesn't conduct." I rifled through my purse and found what I wanted: a metal pen with a foam grip. "Hopefully, the foam on this will block the worst of it if the fence really is hot." Trying not to grimace, I reached out and touched the pen's barrel to the fence, half-expecting some intense charge to send me flying backward. Nothing happened. I slowly ran the pen along the fence, since most electric ones had an intermittent pulse. Sustained contact would be needed. "Looks clean," I said, exhaling in relief and turning to Adrian. "I guess we're good to - ahh!"

A bright light shone in my eyes, blinding me and killing whatever night vision I'd gained out here. I heard Adrian cry out in surprise as well.

"It's the girl!" a male voice exclaimed. "And... and one of them!" The flashlight was moved out of my face, and although spots still danced in my vision, I could make out two hulking figures rapidly approaching. Were they armed? My mind raced.

Whether they were or not, they were still an obvious threat since Warriors apparently liked to practice bashing each other in their free time, and Adrian and I didn't.

"Don't move," said one of them. A blade shone in the gleam of the lowered flashlight. Not as bad as a gun, but not great either. "You're both coming with us, back inside."

"Slowly," added the other. "Don't try any tricks."

Unfortunately for them, I still had a few up my sleeve. Quickly I put the pen back in my purse and grabbed another souvenir from Ms. Terwilliger's homework: a thin, round wooden bracelet. Before either Warrior could do anything, I snapped the wooden circle into four pieces and tossed them on the ground, calling out another Latin incantation. Again, I felt the rush of power and its exultation. The men cried out - I'd cast a disorientation spell, one that messed with equilibrium and made vision blurry and surreal. It worked a lot like the blindness spell, affecting those around me.

I lunged forward and pushed one of our assailants down. He fell easily, too incapacitated by the spell to resist. The other guy was so distraught that he'd dropped the flashlight and was practically on the ground already as his attempts at balance failed. Nonetheless, I gave him a good kick to the chest to make sure he stayed down and grabbed his flashlight in the process. I didn't necessarily need it with Adrian's night vision, but these two would now be helpless in the dark when the spell wore off.

"Sage! What the hell did you do to me?"

Turning, I saw Adrian clinging to the fence, using it to hold himself up. In my eagerness to stop the Warriors, I'd forgotten the spell affected everyone near me.

"Oh," I said. "Sorry."

"Sorry? My legs don't work!"

"It's your inner ear, actually. Come on. Grab the fence and climb. One hand in front of the other."

I caught hold as well and urged him up. It wasn't the most difficult fence to climb - it wasn't electrified or barbed - and having it for support negated some of Adrian's disorientation. Nonetheless, it was still slow going as we made it toward the top. This spell lasted a little longer than the blindness one, but I was painfully aware that as soon as Adrian was free from it, the Warriors would be too.

Against all odds, we made it to the top of the fence. Getting over to the other side was much more difficult, and I had to do a fair amount of acrobatics to help Adrian make the transition while keeping myself steady. Finally, I wrangled him into the correct position to climb down.

"Good," I said. "Now just reverse what you did before, one hand down in front of the - " Something slipped, either his hand or foot, and Adrian plummeted to the ground. It wasn't that long of a drop, and his height helped a little - not that he was in any shape to actually use his legs and land on his feet. I winced.