Page 97 of Tricks for Free

“We don’t have much time,” I replied, and grabbed the first loop of visible rope. “Hold on, I’m getting you out of here.”

From behind us, the sound of a train whipping along the track made it clear how little time we actually had. Cylia closed her eyes.

“Wake me when we’re dead,” she said.

“No,” I snarled, and kept cutting. “No, and no, and no.” We were maybe thirty feet above the artificial lake, which I knew got deeper around the tracks, for the sake of the illusion. If we fell right, if we were lucky—

The rope gave way. I grabbed Cylia, flinging both of us away from the tracks, dropping like rocks into the dark below. Cylia shrieked. The Midsummer Night’s Scream passed by harmlessly overhead, a great rocketing mechanism of sound and steel and mayhem. And we were falling, and there was nothing I could do but close my eyes and let it happen.

The shock of hitting the water knocked my eyes right open. Cylia and I were driven below the surface, and my feet hit the bottom before I kicked and pushed us up again, sputtering and soaked, into the drier dark. Cylia clung to me. I clung to Cylia. Then, in relief and surprise, we started to laugh.

“We’re alive!” she shouted.

“Yes!”

“We didn’t die!”

“No!”

“We . . .” Cylia stopped. “Is this over?”

“No,” I said again, my own levity fading. “But it will be soon. Come on. Let’s find a maintenance door.”

Dripping, shaking, and exhausted, we made our way toward the edge of the lake, moving one step closer to safety. We had a long way yet to go.

When we emerged from the maintenance door in the side of the structure, we found ourselves faced with the usual nest of tangled landscaping and complicated design, intended to keep guests from stumbling over anything they shouldn’t. We climbed over it all, Cylia helping me when my skates made it difficult to balance, until we reached the fence to the queue area. After hopping that, it was a simple matter to head back to the front of the ride.

Sam was still there, standing on Emily’s shoulders, keeping her pinned down. Fern and Megan were behind him, looking warily at Colin and Joshua. I didn’t know why they hadn’t run away. I would have run, if one of my enemies had been planning to come back with reinforcements.

Maybe they had more loyalty in them than I’d expected. Maybe they had stayed for Emily.

“It’s not too late,” said Colin, his eyes clearly fixed on me. “I hurt you; now you’ve hurt me. With your power, and my skill, we could find a cleaner way to accomplish all our goals. You could help me truly realize Lowry’s dream.”

“Okay, one, if Lowry was a sorcerer, I don’t want to know,” I said. “Two, I am not working with you. And three, I don’t have any power to offer. I sold it for the chance to beat you.”

I’d sold it for so much more than that, but my little white lie was absolutely justified by the look of horror and disgust that crossed his face. “Impossible. No one would give up that kind of power.”

“I don’t know. Sailor Moon did, at least twice. I will diminish and go into the west, but not before I kick your ass.”

Colin sneered. “You’ll fail. You and your little collection of monsters can’t possibly—”

He froze. Literally. Both he and Joshua stopped where they were, not moving, not visibly breathing. I started to turn.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said Megan wearily. “Let me get my glasses back on.”

“Why did they let you keep those, instead of just blindfolding you?” asked Sam. He glanced at me and smiled, just a little. “Hey. Missed you.”

“Well, you know. Places to go, people to save.” I shrugged extravagantly. “I lived.”

“What did you mean about selling . . . ?”

“Later.” I offered what I hoped was an encouraging smile. “I’ll tell you later.”

Sam nodded. “I’ll make sure you do,” he said.

“How about you can the sweet moment and let me up?” demanded Emily. “You can’t keep me here forever.”

“No,” I said. “We can’t. But you’re probably going to wish we had.”