ic Medieval Times

[Raveled]

Jay was perched comfortably on the peak of the house, watching the masses of people move below her. The trick, she had learned, wasn't so much to watch every single person as to watch the crowd, the flow of all those bodies moving with a purpose. Someone moving against the flow, someone agitated and unsure of themselves would stand out as much as, well, as a rock in a river.

Of course, sometimes you didn't find a rock so much as a bear. She didn't recognize the blue-and-gold figure -- Claremonter? Changed by everything this much? -- but the other one was obviously Daedalus. Her first instinct was that anyone Daedalus was attacking must be an enemy, but then she remembered the changed state of the world; who knew how the minds of the Freedom League had changed with things? Daedalus might think he was bashing a knight from a warring kingdom or defending the queen's honor!

Jay stood and put a hand on her bow, but didn't move from her perch. The last thing she wanted to do was to jump in front of one of Daedalus's blows, and in any case if she had to intervene she could do it just fine from this range. Of course it would be nice if she had her mask and could see things a bit closer...

Unbidden, her hand fell to a pocket in the cloak and pulled out a fanciful face-mask, blue feathers formed from silk and ribbon decorating the eyes and cheeks. She fitted it on her face easily and casually, and suddenly the fight was right in front of her. The archer started, but then forced herself to relax. Of course there would be some magical analogue for her mask in this world. It was just disconcerting to realize that her body knew things that her mind didn't -- or at least things she wouldn't let herself know.

[Avenger Assembled]

Erin and Trevor rode through the so-changed streets of Camelot City, through streets filled with fat burghers, scuttling urchins, farmers in town for the holiday, and other symptoms of a medieval city. It was cleaner than a 'real' city of the late 1400s might have been, but still nothing like a modern city on Earth-Prime. Well, except for the wizards, people in flying carpets, and others who might not have been too out of place in Erin's own Freedom City. They rode past the gates of what was clearly a strangely changed Hanover Zoo, now a massive park in which manticores and griffens were visible within huge iron-barred enclosures, and along a Wading Bridge covered in foot traffic, peddlars, alms-merchants, and a great horde of others heading for the city. After all, this was a special occasion! With the royal standard everywhere, the symbol of the House of Camelot everywhere, it was clear this was going to be a remarkable day in the city's history. 

 

Outside Freedom Hall, they found an obvious melee about to begin as the Brass Knight faced off against Hronos the time golem, a being neither of them knew very well. "It wounds me to my soul to strike three down," said Daedalus, wielding a massive xiphos that glowed with channeled arcane power, "but if the Devil is in you I will soon strike him out and have you whole and well again! These tricks and tales of some altered place will avail you nothing. Come, so that I may perform a surgery!" 

[Gizmo]

"Tis a poor physician who harms and calls it healing," a cold voice intoned from behind Daedalus, the armored man turning to face the rearing forelegs of a massive black stallion and the billowing black cloak of its rider. The Brass Knight might have been a well-established and well-loved champion but his skepticism regarding a bounty Erin had planned to claim some years earlier had made a poor impression on the young alchemist. "The Devil's lies are less to be feared than men who cannot listen and both less feared than I."

With a smooth flick of his wrist, Midnight sent something small flying from one of his bandoliers toward Daedalus. Something like a dagger hilt with a smooth oval in place of a blade, it stuck the knight's wrist and stuck securely to his armor. His double-edged blade wobbled briefly, pushed away by the projectile's presence, but its wielder held firm. "Hn. Lodestone less effective on brass than iron," Midnight noted more quietly to Erin, making mental note for next time.

[Electra]

"Just wait till you remember the future, you've got way better toys," Erin assured him, eyes on the fight shaping up. It was weird, she thought, that someone like Daedelus who had lived through the medieval period once as an inventor should be a wizard now, but that was a question she had no way of answering. It was pretty clear, though, that this Hronos knew something was up, so he was someone they'd better keep around to talk to. 

 

With the fluid grace of a circus performer, she rose to her feet on the back of the horse, calculating trajectory and thrust as she focused her attention on the glowing staff. He obviously had a very solid grip on the thing, but if they could get it away, she might not have to punch someone who was supposed to be a good guy. With one powerful leap, she flipped herself over Midnight, over the horse, over Hronos, and come up behind the Brass Knight. Resisting the urge to simply punch him like an everyday villain, Wander reached around his arm and grabbed hold of the staff, wrenching it away with a surprising amount of effort, then racing off. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, thank God, it's not just me and Blue Jay!" said Fast-Forward, genuinely delighted at the all-too-familiar banter from the teenager who had just laid the smackdown on Daedalus. "Listen, Iron Pants," Richard said to the time-warped Daedalus, "I'm pretty sure a Greek guy shouldn't go around talking about how ooh, it could be Satan, so you should sit down before you fall down, you know what I'm saying?" Sizing up the new arrivals, Richard wasn't at all surprised (given how his day was going) to realize he had no idea who either of them were. For that matter, Robot here might be Johnny Number Five for all I know. I need to start Googling things, or at least memorizing all the new faces. "Hey, you kids!" he said, waving before he zipped over to the horse and the intimidating-looking kid up there. "I'm Fast-Forward, aka Richard Cline. You from the right side of things?" 

 

Meanwhile, bereft of his sword, Daedalus was raising an armored hand to his lips and calling, "Ho, friends of the League! The usurpers have come, just as promised by the Queen! I will hold them long as I can!" Overhead, as he spoke, a glowing orb took shape, cleaving off into half-a-dozen slowly coalescing humanoid shapes flying in midair. Evidently the local version of teleporters just wasn't as fast as they were in the land of science, which would hopefully work to their advantage here! 

[Avenger Assembled]

With a quadruple flash of lightning, the League of Camelot landed in a square around Daedalus, faces at once alien and instantly recognizable to the heroes. The man in the silver-blue armor emblazoned with yellow streaks of lightning and carrying a sword that crackled with electrical power could be no one other than this world's Captain Thunder, now Sir Thunder and leader of the North American branch of the League of Camelot. He struck an imposing figure as he interposed himself between Daedalus and Wander, evidently recognizing her as the greater threat. "What is this madness?" 

 

The woman with the dual-headed flail like great bronze scales was clearly Lady Justice, once Lady Liberty herself, her eyeless helm a symbol of justice that strikes sure without recognizing distinction between man and woman, rich and poor. She whipped her flail around her head as she moved towards Fast-Forward and Midnight, her cold voice far indeed from the Beth Walton-Wright that Richard remembered. "Turning to sin again, Cline? Should I tan thy hide now, or leave your lady wife to do that for you?" 

A twin-dagger wielding Johnny Comet squared off against Hronos, not looking concerned at what twist of fate had put him in combat against the golem. "Machine you may be, but there's no devil I can't cut to pieces and send back to Hell," he predicted with a confident smirk on his goateed face. He danced from foot to foot, his leather armor not seeming to slow him down at all. 

 

And overhead, in a crown of gold and diamonds that sparkled with unnatural vigor, trailing a long purple and white ermine robe wrapped a little too carelessly around her body, was none other than the Queen of Camelot herself - Morgan Le Fay, instantly recognizable to a Crime League veteran like Richard Cline and Liberty League member like Wander - Medea! "We have them now!" she sneered, "leave no Devilspawn standing!"

[Raveled]

Blue Jay watched the struggle from her perch, growing more and more certain that the blue and gold robot was in the right and that this world's Daedalus was as deluded about these changes as anyone else. Then more figures entered the fight and her heart suddenly leapt into her throat. There was the Brave there and there was the Marksman! The actual man who had taken the shot that felled Omega! The archer felt overwhelmed for a moment -- would he remember? Would he think it weird if she just started talking about the fight without warning? At the very least, their entrance decided her. It would take a lot for her to fight against the people who felled Omega.

There was a flash of light and the rest of the Freedom League/Knights of Camelot were suddenly there, large as life and escorted by someone who seemed very quick to jump to conclusions. Jay considered her options; she didn't think wooden arrows would do much against these sorts of enemies, and she didn't want them to pinpoint her position so quickly, anyway. Of course if she still had her glue arrows...

Her hand fell to her quiver and pulled out an arrow with brown striping in the quill, nocking it and bringing her bow to half-draw before she realized it. Trusting her body, she drew and aimed in one swift, easy motion, aiming for the 'queen' while mentally lamenting that she couldn't get the entire group at once. To her surprise, the rope exploded into a hundred shimmering, nearly-invisible fibers, lashing at all the Knights and attempting to bind everyone!

[Electra]

Wander's attention was jerked skyward by the arrival of the other sort-of heroes, and held immediately by the floating sorceress. "Medea," she growled, her face going stormy. "Should've known she'd turn up." She looked to Trevor, jerking her head towards the villainess. The circumstances hadn't quite been the same in this universe, but she was quite sure that this Trevor would know how important it was to put Medea out of action before she could start in with the mind mojo. 

 

"I hate flying villains," Wander muttered, even as she held her sword aloft, keeping the glowy stick in her offhand. She leapt into the air easily enough, but Medea had been in the superfight business a long time. Taking advantage of the imbalance created by the staff, Medea ducked out of the way of Wander's blow, leaving the heroine to land on the rooftop across the street, even more angry than usual. 

[Vahnyu]

Things were rapidly getting out of hand, as Hronos could see. The sudden arrival of the rest of the League of Camelot didn't help any, as they all seemed intent on obstructing Hronos without giving him the benefit of the doubt. The other heroes, on the other hand, seemed at least more willing to jump to his defense. Taking note of distinguishing friend from foe, the Golem Hronos accessed the deepest reserves of his magic, many Phoenician, Egyptian, and Hebrew symbols appearing throughout his body, glowing with purple-coloured energy as they did. As this occured, Hronos addressed Blue Jay, Fast Forward, Wander, and Midnight. "You all have my gratitude for arriving to my help. Allow me to aid you in pacifying the heroes you know as the League of Camelot, before this situation draws unnecessary casualties." Magical Circles surrounded Hronos' body, as he extended his hands in two directions, keeping his palms wide open. Then, he unleashed the spell his body was chanting, with a blinding flash that covered the entire surrounding area.

 

The flash was over in an instant, creating binding magical circles that surrounded Sir Thunder, Daedalus, Lady Justice, Johnny Comet, and Morgan Le Fay. Though the later two managed to undo their bindings with little trouble, Sir Thunder, Daedalus, and Lady Justice found their shackles closing in on them too quickly for them to react, eventually robbing them of the ability to experience time. "This enchantment should hold their personal time frozen for the moment." Hronos explained to the other heroes.

[Gizmo]

Midnight regarded the opposing champions as they arrived with a slightly tilted chin and a moment's pause. "...the Queen." Watching Erin surge forward and attack the monarch without reservation, he let out a short, sharp breath and flicked their reigns in his gloved hands. "High treason, then." Galloping forth and deftly zig-zagging around the temporally frozen foes, he tossed a trio of plum sized glass globes into the air, where they burst directly in front of Le Fay's face with brilliant flashes of white light, blinding and discombobulating her. "Quickly," he urged the others fighting on their side, "before the entire city comes for our necks."

[Avenger Assembled]

Clock Queen slapped the Mars Bar right out of Richard's hand, then smacked him in the back of the head for good measure - with her speed, she could do both at the same time. "Damn it, Dickie, what did I tell you? Never, ever, ever take candy from Medea!" The villainous speedster frowned as Richard rubbed his head and wondered where he was supposed to get candy now! "I am going to have a _talk_ with that crazy Greek broad. Damn crazy garlic-eating psycho case..." 

 

"Goddamit, Medea, shouldn't Stratos be keeping you on a leash these days?" Fast-Forward couldn't reach her up there, but the Tome of Theurgy could, and he ran in circles at the feet of the blinded witch-queen at super-speed, his footsteps leaving behind a glowing sigil in the shape of an inverted L rolled over on its side. He flipped through the pages of Violet Pennyworth's book, chanting in a Latin and English mix so fast it could hardly be made out. "jasperandplantaingivemethyfuryofalchameththepowerofthelordofsummer!" And then suddenly lightning split the sky overhead, an impossibly reddish bolt that smashed into the already-blinded Medea who shrieked in surprise, her armored robes falling to the ground, leaving her only in a lady's gown high in the air, as Richard summoned another bolt of lightning. "That's for my family, you crazy witch! 

[Raveled]

Blue Jay watched the fight move forward. It wasn't long before most of the League was restrained and out of the fight. The archer considered her options, but once Fastforward's spell stripped Medea of her defenses Jay realized she had to take the shot while it was possible. She nocked, drew, loosed, and did it again in the space of a breath. A volley of blunt-headed arrows sang through the air, impacting heavily on 'the queen's' dress. "Come back down to reality," she whispered, glowing with pride at the thought that both the Brave and the Marksman had seen her skills.

[Avenger Assembled]

Unconscious, Medea fell from the sky, rebounding heavily off a small earth embankment at the edge of Camelot Hall's river. Pushing aside the niggling voice that was wondering just how angry Transept Rose would be about this, Fast-Forward zipped up around the fallen queen. "Listen, kids, we've got a lot of fight coming our way!" he said, standing over the unconscious witch-queen. The street around them was now in a wild frenzy; peasants and merchants fleeing in terror, guards organizing the evacuation, as everyone ran from the madmen who had just struck down the Queen and her personal guards. "Hey, Blue Jay, get down here!" he waved as he snapped open the book again, flipping frantically through the pages. "I've got, uh, a thing here with the Plee-ades? I think? that can get us all out of here. I feel the need for speed _before_ they come get us!" 

[Electra]

Wander leapt from the rooftop, landing with a quick bounce next to the unconscious villainess. "We can't go too far, all the answers we need have to be around here somewhere, if whoever's behind this is bothering to try and keep us away. Midnight Mano- um,Castle is isolated and defensible, we can go there and come up with some other plan. And we'll take her with us," she added, gesturing to Medea. "If a villain is playing at being a hero in a world where the heroes are still good guys, something's weird there. Maybe she can tell us something." 

 

As she watched the crowd, Wander deliberately put her sword away and curled her fists. She didn't have a lot of practice in nonlethal sword fighting, and it wouldn't be good to make a mistake. "Nice shooting, by the way," she told Blue Jay, then looked to Midnight. "And it's good to know you've still got your talent for flashbang grenades. Those'll come in handy." 

[Raveled]

The League was defeated and it seemed weird that it was reassuring to think that. Nevertheless, their 'queen' was also out of the sky and ready to be interrogated. In a few short bounds the archer was on the ground, expertly threading through the fleeing crowd to get near the rest of the heroes. She was practically giddy, her eyes shining and a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. She had just been complimented by Wander, and here she was standing next to the Marksman.

She took a deep breath and stepped up to the black-clad alchemist. "Hey... Hello," she said quietly. "I... Can we talk? Later?"

[Gizmo]

Midnight looked down from atop the great black charger, gaze boring into the young archer even though his face was inscrutable behind the scarf and plague doctor's mask. "Later," he agreed tersely, smoothly bringing the horse around. "Told I am not myself at present. I but follow milady's lead." He gave Wander a courtly half-bow from his seated position, a gesture apparently devoid of affectation or irony. Knowing full well Erin hardly needed to be riding to keep up, he extended a hand down to Blue Jay, offering to help her onto the back of the horse. "Pray your aim be true as John of Aberdeen, bow-woman. This was but prelude."

[Avenger Assembled]

At the news he was going into Midnight Manor's lower levels, Richard was for an instant five years old and remembering his mother's stern warnings about how Midnight would come and take him back to the Midnight Manor if he kept making noise when she was trying to sleep after spending the night drinking her special grownup drinks. He pushed past that childhood memory and focused on a more serious problem, even as he ran around the group at super-speed, his feet sketching a glowing pattern on the dirt that loosely matched the shape of the Big Dipper. "Kid, unless you know the, uh," he peeked down at the book he was flipping through at super-speed, "the astral location of Midnight Manor in the starry realms, we can't just phone home. I...hey, can you _show_ me where it is?" At Wander's assent, he took her hand and for an instant they seemed to disappear before the eyes of the others! 

 

It was an ominous disappearance, too, because Camelot Hall was disgorging heroes at a fantastic rate: flying knights were boiling up over the gates like a swarm of angry bees, while the gates themselves were opening to reveal armored figures on horseback! Seconds before battle in the now-nearly-deserted square could be joined, Fast-Forward and Wander reappeared in a zip from the opposite side of the square, running in among the others just as Richard was chanting "rockcrystalfennelmoonandmarssendupuntothestars!" 

 

And then suddenly, they were elsewhere - not inside Midnight Manor's lowest dungeon halls, but within the outer keep, the furthest one could run inside without taking time to unbar gates or open porticulli. Richard did his best not to think at all, trying to make sure he didn't attract the attention of the one being on Earth that still had a gateway into his mind.

[Gizmo]

As stars streaked downward to earth from the midday sky, Miss Byrd came running out from the stables with a massive two-handed battle axe at the ready. When the lights coalesced into humanoid forms, at least some of the familiar, she came up short, balancing the weighty weapon over one shoulder. "Guests, then, sirrah?" she asked Midnight, sounding a little disappointed she wouldn't have a chance to cave in a skull or two.

Midnight grunted an affirmative as he dismounted and helped Blue Jay follow suit, filing the particulars of the mystical teleportation for later when he had time to consider them in depth. Handing the reigns off to the red haired woman, he led the rest of the heroes to the trunk of an ancient tree, wider around then the Night Charger was tall at the head. Gripping a particular spot on its moss covered truck and pulling he revealed a cleverly hidden door and downward staircase that descended underground and out of sight.

A piece of tinder from one of Midnight's pouches lit a torch attached to the wall just around the first corner, casting the pitch black passageway in ominous, flickering shadows. Using the flame to light additional sconces along the way, he eventually brought the odd group to a massive subterranean cavern. Handing off the torch to Hronos, the young masked man pulled on a great length of chain. Metal clinked throughout the echoing cave along with the squeak of several objects slowly rotating. From some unseen source at the far end of the cavern a shaft of daylight bounced from one massive mirror to another as they aligned to illuminate the entire space well enough to operate.

In the dim light provided by the mirrors, the heroes could see table after table of glass beakers and tubes, strange liquids and unknown metals, weapons of a dozen far off cultures and a forge that would have made any professional blacksmith jealous. There were also a handful of iron cages and heavy shackles. "Put her there."

[Electra]

Wander nodded, dropping the unconscious villainess into the cage with a minimum of care. After the beating Medea had already taken, a few more bruises wouldn't even register, but it helped to make up for not being able to take her out in combat. Damned flying bad guys. She stepped out of the cage and pulled it shut behind her, then turned to look at the others. "All right, we probably don't have a huge amount of time before someone tracks us down, but we should probably take care of the introductions and talky bits. Except for Midnight, all of us here seem to be immune to whatever it is that's flipped our dimension or changed the timeline or whatever, so maybe if we can figure out why that is, we can start figuring out what's going on." 

 

She looked around, realized everyone was looking at her, and shrugged. "I'll start. I'm Wander, I'm mostly a hand-to-hand fighter, and I'm not from Earth-Prime, I'm from a dead dimension a few hops away down the universal block. Last time this happened to me was in high school, and it was a similar deal, everyone else got new lives but I was rejected or immune or something. This time I can feel this other life that's supposed to be mine, but I still remember Freedom City and how things are supposed to be. How about you guys?"

[Raveled]

Blue Jay peered around the huge room, taking in all the details. Irrationally, she had expected the lair of someone like the Brave and the Marksman to be immune from whatever had changed the world. the fact that it had changed with everything else was a little disheartening.

The archer straightened, gripping her bow. "I'm Blue Jay," she said. "I shoot arrows." It might not be a flashy power, but it had been effective against the League. "I... don't think I've ever been in something like this. But, um." She cleared her throat. "I was born in the Terminus. I don't know if that means... anything, here." She fell quiet again, though she kept sneaking looks at the transformed Midnight.

[Avenger Assembled]

Richard reminded himself that he was fifty years old and Midnight probably didn't take away villain kids and make them work in his secret midnight mist factory, whatever his mom used to tell him. Not even creepy medieval Midnight, probably. Aw, jeez, she blabbed to a local. That's gonna be a pain in the butt..."I'm Fast-Forward, I'm a speedster and I have...a few other assets," he added, tapping the book he'd stuck in his leotard's little belt once they were out of danger. "This isn't my first time crisis either," he said with a nod to Wander. "What with my powers, I guess you could say I'm faster than the speed of time itself." He thought for a minute, then added quickly, "Listen, I think you all should know that I have a permanent psychic link with a lady who is one of the most powerful psychics in the world, and she got medievalized just like all the other peasants out there. If I start doing anything weird, take me out fast before she can zero in." 

 

"All right, all right!" said Medea suddenly from her cage, sitting up and raising her hands. Between the savage beating, the lightning strikes, and the punches she'd taken, the alleged high queen of Camelot. "Enough about your Levite wife, Dickie," she sneered, before addressing the others. "You've got me in some alchemical anti-magic nonsense, and I'm not stupid. Go ahead and open the door, and I won't..." Suddenly, she threw back her head and laughed. "Bwa-haha-ha-ha! All right, seriously this time. Look at you people," she added, "you look like you're on the way to some page's funeral. Can't you just accept that we have a much better version of your precious Freedom City here and not worry so much? Look at you all! Nobles, jesters, warriors; practically gods! Did you know there are parts of this empire," she inquired, "where everyone is legally required to _bow_ because of what you can do? You could live like kings here, and be loved for it! Isn't that just delicious?"  

[Raveled]

Blue Jay turned towards the gloating Medea in all her finery, feeling her emotions swirl and surge suddenly. She clamped down on her expression though, moving towards the cage with a smooth, controlled gait. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and held it up for the sorceress to see, examining the length of treated wood. "Queen of archers," she deadpanned. "God of throwing pointy sticks. C'est une mauvaise blague. Could have at least given me a magic pet."

The archer locked her eyes on Medea's. "I don't want to be a god. I've seen them die, and it's not pretty. Now, I may not have been paying attention when the Terminus did it, but if you cannot fix what you have done I will dedicate the rest of my life to killing you. I will --" Her voice trailed off in a sudden squeak as her control cracked. Her entire body clenched as she tried to keep from breaking down in front of the villain, and she had to turn away and stalk off abruptly.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, you'll have to do better than that, girl!" sneered Medea, though her hesitation suggested her heart wasn't really in it. "For you see, thanks to my counterpart, the world is mine! All the knights of Camelot will happily ride out to rescue their beloved queen from the Satan-licked-" 

 

"Wait a second, your counterpart?" asked a suddenly deeply suspicious Fast-Forward. "So _not_ you?" 

 

"Indeed," offered the previously silent Hronos, its robotic voice deep and grave. "This being is not the center of the temporal alteration that has beset this world. I believe I have pinpointed the center of the anomaly - across the Atlantic Ocean at Castlesteads in Britain, a site known in this world as-" 

"Camlann! The site of Arthur's final victory over Mordred!" Richard snapped his fingers. "That makes sense. I can get all of us across the Atlantic pretty fast, especially if we cheat and do it the magic way. And then we can navigate around-" 

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a BOOM from above that vibrated the entire dungeon around them - and Midnight's speaking trumpet, the one that connected them to the surface, came to life with a shout from his trusty retainer. 

 

"My lord! Battle has come!" 

[Gizmo]

Listening in on the comparing of notes and the interrogation of the Queen, Midnight as least felt reassured that kidnapping the sovereign had been the correct course of action. The explosion and warning from Miss Byrd, on the other hand, confirmed that it had not been an easy one. "Make haste. Take the witch. I shall hold her dupes here as long as I am able. This manor is not without defenses." Walking around the table to Wander he explained in a slightly softer tone, "I remain as affected as the world at large. I would not be your liability but rather, as ever, your stalwart supporter." Hesitating for a split second, he pulled the scarf away from his mouth and slid the beaked mask up far enough to lean down and kiss her, lingering a beat past what could reasonably be called chaste, then another, until a second explosion rocked the subterranean base.

Stepping back and reaffixing his disguise, the black clad alchemist bowed to the motley group of heroes and retrieved a longsword and an additional bandolier of flasks from the wall, stopping to reply into the trumpet, "Then let battle be joined, Miss Byrd." With that he was off, back up the stairs they had descended upon.

[Electra]

Wander stifled her instinctive protest at Midnight's idea, forcing herself to consider the situation logically. Someone had to hold the line here, someone had to overcome whatever defenses waited at Camlaan. She had to go, and he was right to stay. The horrible leaden feeling in Erin's chest was not convinced, but she choked it back and went to him. Closing her eyes, she  wrapped her arms around Trevor and held him tight as they kissed, her arms just a careful inch shy of bruising. "Don't let them hurt you," she murmured into his ear before letting him go. "Buy us whatever time you can, then get away, get to ground. I'll see you when things are back to normal. I love you."

 

She stepped back and let him go, watching till he was up the stairs, then turned resolutely to the others. "There's a back way out, into the woods behind the stables. If you can't poof us out of here, we'll go that way."