Chapter 29

Agmar stood beside him, his jaw clenched and veins showing in his neck as he concentrated. Water moved everwhere around them, being thrown against the ships and moving over the crowd in long funnels to go and douse the buildings that had caught fire. Avern saw that he was manipulating at least two water columns at any given time, between the docks and the town. He could swear that the water level at the shorline was a good three feet lower than it normally was at it's lowest point in the day.

Suddenly Agmar sputtered and slumped to the ground in a heap. Water splashed back down against the docks near them as one of the columns collapsed. He knelt down, concerned, as the wizard swore harshly enough to make even a couple of the sailors nearby cough in surprise.

"What's wrong now? What's happened?" He held back from shaking the man. There were times he just wanted to hit him for all the information the wizard held back from saying. When Agmar looked up at him, however, Avern saw that his eyes were filled with desperation and despair. He's doing more than we can see right now. I have to remember that. The man is doing all he can, but he is just one man.

"Something..." Agmar closed his eyes for a moment. "We are nearing the peak. Objects are attacking the people. Lynna's unconscious. Stott is wounded. I know other minds, I need to see more... Maragret... oh Gods help us!" He looked up at Avern with wide eyes filled with horror. "We bound them all! The children! The rope is tightening around them!"

It took Avern a moment to register anything beyond hearing that his daughter was unconscious.

"Lynna!" he turned to run back towards the Surf and Sleep, heedless of anything but his daughter being hurt. He found himself held back as Agmar was suddenly standing again, his hand firmly holding onto Avern's arm.

"I have no eyes at the schoolhouse, Avern. I need you there instead. I will go to Lynna and send word to Syred. You there!" Still holding onto Avern, Agmar turned and pointed to one of the nearby townsfolk. "You know the warehouse we have people in?" The man nodded. "Take three men with you. Get there and untie everyone! The rope is trying to kill them! Go NOW!"

Agmar turned back to Avern as the realization was dawning over him. By the Gods! We bound all the children in town with rope! What have we done!

"Avern, there is more than just your own child at stake right now. Go the schoolhouse. I may send you messages in your mind, be prepared for that. Untie them all, Avern!" He gave Avern a push and closed his eyes for a moment, his mouth moving as if he were talking to someone Avern couldn't see. Avern turned and chose three people randomly from the crowd.

"You three! Go with him to the warehouse," he said, directing them at the man Agmar had picked out of the crowd. He then picked out another three. "You three, with me!" He started walking backwards, making sure that the ones he had chosen were following him. It concerned him that Agmar didn't seem to be making any effort to head to the Surf and Sleep yet. He had opened his eyes, but wasn't making any move to walk, much less run to help Lynna.

"Agmar...?" he stopped walking and began to address the wizard when suddenly the man threw his head back with a look of someone in terrible pain. There was a feeling of electricity in the air, and then suddenly Agmar vanished. Everyone in the crowd stood there for a moment, sharing looks of astonishment.

I am at the inn now Avern. Agmar's voice flooded through Avern's mind as if the man was standing next to him in a quiet room. Get to the schoolhouse, please! The inn was farther to reach, but you can still get to the schoolhouse in time to help them if you hurry!

"He's at the inn," he told the onlookers. "We have to get to the schoolhouse! Let's move!" He turned and ran, hardly noticing the fire that was still spreading across sections of the town as he passed them. He ignored the the cramping pain that started up in his side as he pushed his feet to go faster. He started hearing the loud shrill voices of people screaming before he even came into sight of the schoolhouse.

He had never seen such chaos and confusion before. Forks and small knives were flying everywhere. A fire was spreading through the back. People ran and screamed.

He tried to get their attention, but was too short of breath from running. There were people trying to untie the children, even while being attacked from behind by flying objects. Chairs were walking around by themselves and he saw a table rear up like a horse and start kicking someone. He blinked at the impossibility of it while he caught his breath.

He rushed over to the children. They were all off to one side of the room, lined up neatly. He joined in trying to untie the children. The ropes were like snakes coiling and uncoiling, even in his hands. He helped another man and got a child free. She sat there for a moment panting and just breathing.

Like some parlor magician's trick one end of the rope sailed up into the air, wrapping around a ceiling beam. The other end wrapped itself around the man next to Avern and lifted him into the air. Avern tried to grab the man's ankles as he was pulled out of reach, but he was too late. The man's legs kicked just out of reach. Avern didn't know what to do. The man grabbed at the rope with one hand and pointed to the kids with the other.

Avern turned back and pried at the rope at another child. A woman handed him a knife before using one herself to start cutting at the ropes. They were not very thick and were not hard to cut. Avern followed her lead.

At first it worked, and cut lengths of rope lay on the floor after several children had been freed. The freed children mostly ran out of the schoolhouse. But then there were simply more ropes to fight against. Agmar howled in frustration.

He turned and worked his way down the line of children, trying to cut rope into small enough segments that it couldn't wrap around anything vital anymore. He couldn't be thorough enough, however, if he wanted to free them all. By the time he reached the last one, he was the only person who was still trying to free them, the others having either fled or encountered other problems that prevented them from helping. He looked down at the girl, who looked to be about ten years of age, and saw that the rope that had bound her hands had already untied itself and wrapped around her neck. She was trying to pull it away, but her face was already starting to turn a bluish tint as she gasped for air. Her feet were still bound together, and she banged her heels against the floor desperately.

He rolled her over and slipped the knife in under the rope at the back of her neck, relieved to hear her taking great gasping breaths as he cut the rope away. He turned her back over and pulled the remaining tangle of rope off of her and flung it as far as he could before turning to cut through the rope at her feet. Suddenly something smashed against his back sending him flat against the floor with all the air rushing out of him. The knife flew out of his hands and clattered across the floor. Not far from him, something crashed against the floor loudly. Once he'd gotten air in his lungs again, he turned and saw that the ceiling was covered with a wisp-like layer of golden flames. Certain areas seemed to burn faster than others, and Avern saw timbers being burnt at either end, while still untouched at the centers of the thick wooden beams. The man who'd been pulled into the air swung lifelessly from the rope around his neck before the rope burned through and he fell to the floor in a heap.

Avern turned and looked for the knife, to find it dancing midair and pointed at him. He managed to dodge its first attack, and turned and grabbed the girl up in his arms.

"Hold onto me! We've got to get out of here!" he yelled to her. Her eyes were filled with terror, and she didn't answer him but wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head in his chest. He got to his feet as the knife stabbed him in the back, hitting bone in his shoulderblade that prevented it from doing any serious damage. He gritted his teeth and ran for the door. The muscles tore around the knife blade as it began cutting a line down his back on one side. He roared in pain, trying to run out from under the knife as much as trying to get to the door.

There was movement in front of him as he reached the doorway, and his feet were pulled out from beneath him, each with a rope wound around it. He flung the girl forward, out of the building, and saw her sit up in the grass outside before the ropes dragged him backwards on his stomach. He clawed at the floor with his fingernails, trying to stop himself.

All at once, the rope let go, and he stopped moving. The knife had carved back upwards, and he managed to bring his hand around and yank it away from his back, cutting his fingers some in the process. He took it by the handle and slammed it blade-first into the floor beneath him, embedding it into the floor halfway to the hilt.

He got to his knees, focused on the doorway, with plans to try and run for it. A timber fell nearby as he got to his feet, and the building shook with the impact. A man screamed at the back of the room as he ran from further in, his clothing and hair in flames. Avern ran. He clenched his teeth together, trying to ignore the pain tearing across his back and set his eyes on the doorway ahead of him.

He came close enough to recognize some of the faces of the people outside before a rug pulled out from beneath him as he ran over it. He fell to the floor with a cry of pain and then screamed as a timber fell across his back, the weight of it bearing down on his hips and pinning him to the ground.

Avern saw two men run back in. They had to dodge flame at the doorway to do so. The fire was quickly moving to trap everyone in, but was advancing slowly other than that. He heard another timber fall somewhere he could not see.

"I can't feel my legs," he managed to say. Will Agmar be able to heal that?

The two men looked down at him, looked at each other, and tried to move the timber. They could shift it a little, but they could not lift it. One took out a short sword at at his hip and swung at the timber. Even unable to see the spot the man was working at Avern could tell the little blade could not possibly do enough in time.

"Go, leave me."

"No, mister," the other one said, "one of those girls you saved was mine. If we can save you, we will. Lu, grab that timber over there, maybe we can use it as a lever."

The man with the sword came back into Avern's view with a six-foot-long timber. The two men used it to shift the beam off his hips. Avern started pulling himself forward with his arms when more of the ceiling collapsed.

The improvised lever broke and the two men fell to the ground. Avern heard a crunching sound that part of him knew had to be bones in his legs being crushed. It scared him that he could not feel it.

The men picked themselves up off the floor. They were starting to choke from the smoke now. Avern could feel the heat of flames on the piece of fallen ceiling. "We're out of time, get out."

Lu cursed and hacked with his sword again, having no more effect than before.

"No, Lu, that won't work fast enough," the other one said. "Mister," he said to Avern, "we're going to get you out of here. You're going to live. Please forgive me." The man pointed to something. "There, Lu. Cut there."

"Mark? Are you sure?" Lu looked at the other man, who was yanking his belt off his pants. He bent down and appeared to be strapping his belt around a part of Avern's right leg.

"Oh, Gods!" Avern suddenly realized what they were going to have to do to get him out. His whole chest seemed to suddenly tighten on him and he felt as if he couldn't breathe.

"Give it to me." Mark took the sword from Lu's hands. "If we don't, he'll die for sure."

Avern watched in horror as the man steeled himself and then swung the sword down towards Avern's legs. He didn't feel the impact, but he screamed nonetheless. It took Mark three swings before Lu dragged Avern free of the timber. As they lifted him up and ran for the door, timbers crashing around them and kicking up white-hot ash, Avern couldn't help but look at the rest of his leg, trapped beneath the burning timber with blood still coming out of the severed end of it. He squirmed in their arms to see downward, a part of himself unwilling to accept the truth, but confirming that his leg was gone from just above the knee. His other leg was still there but gashed and beaten. Avern thought he saw bone protruding through the skin in one spot.

The men made their way back out of the building, tripping and stumbling as flaming objects flew at them from all directions. He could tell they were talking to each other and him, but he couldn't hear what they were saying anymore over the screaming in his ears. As they put him down on the grass outside, something inside him seemed to snap and excruciating pain washed over him, and his body began to convulse. He screamed and screamed until unconsciousness came and blanketed over him with darkness.