They Never Come Out of the Castle (Measureless Magic #1): Chapters 4-5

It's been a bit of a mad week over here, but now my house has only one leaky plumbing fixture instead of five. And the one that's leaking now wasn't one of the originals... Still, progress, yeah?

Let me know if I start slipping British phrases into my actual writing. It's one thing to type them out casually, but I've avoided them in actual speech and serious writing, so far, I hope. Been reading Player Manager and really enjoying it, but now my inner monologue is all "Get in!" and "Bin him off!" and "Top bins!" and "Gobby Manc!"

I've always had that problem when reading works with strong accents. I love them far too much. :)

Anyway, I'm not sure how interested any of you are in these little bits I sometimes add, but I've got chapters and everyone loves those, right?

Chapter 4

Why does Marynth Castle protect us? Why doesn’t it let anyone leave? Sadly, we have few firsthand accounts from the time the castle was first built to the time we lost access, and those sources don’t always agree.

• History of the Modern World, age 14 textbook

“Hey! Answer me!” This time Ravel’s shout was louder. He moved up to the bars, grabbing them to see if they could be pushed up or back, the way out re-opened. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was clear that Mira had known, and the woman’s immediate retreat was chilling.

Ravel’s shout drew attention in a way that the shutting bars and argument hadn’t. Some of the kids were drifting back over with anxious expressions. Not really frightened yet, but definitely alarmed and confused. 

Grandelion Puff opened her eyes. “Can’t you be quiet for three minutes?! Some of us are- Wait. What’s going on?”

She was on her feet in a flash, elbowing her way through the crowd and pushing Ravel aside to glare at the remaining guide. “Why are we locked in here? Is this some kind of training? What’s it for?”

The man didn’t meet her eyes, staring into the room impassively.

“Don’t ignore me!” Grandelion Puff stuck her arm through the bars, trying and failing to reach the man, who stood just out of reach.

As if he knew exactly how far to stand, Ravel thought.

“You’re supposed to be our guide, right? Explain!” Grandelion snapped, her voice imperious.

She might as well have been talking to a wall.

“Argh!” The girl half-yelled, half-growled, then scanned the room with narrowed eyes. 

Ravel felt certain she was looking for weapons: his only uncertainty was whether she planned to attack the man or the bars.

Honestly, as unhinged as she’d been since he’d seen her, he was glad to see it. Something was wrong here. He didn’t know what, but-

Screaming from the other side of the room distracted him, and he turned to see people backing away from a smooth metal column. Anna was one of the closest to it, and she dashed to Ravel, grabbing his arm. “It ate Barsh! It ate him, Ravel!”

Ravel started to ask what she meant when he saw it for himself.

A haze of blue surrounded one of the other girls, forcing everyone near her back. The girl’s mouth was partly open, and she was screaming, but she didn’t move. 

No, realized Ravel. She can’t move. Is it… hurting her?!

The ceiling unfolded around her. That was the only way Ravel could think of it, crisp metal squares following from crisp metal squares, spreading down and around until she was completely surrounded in a column covered in grid-like lines.

Ravel could see another column just like it behind Anna. 

That’s what she means, Ravel realized dimly. That isn’t the first person. It got someone else. 

His first instinct? Run. But… where? One column was in the center of the room, the other was against the far wall. There wasn’t anyplace safe, and the exit - his eyes slid back. Yeah, the exit was still barricaded. Grandelion had both hands on one of the higher-up bars and was slamming her foot into a lower one, but neither her kicks nor her pulls were doing anything more than making them vibrate. 

“There must be another way out!” Ravel shouted. “Where is it? We’ve got to find it!”

Another blue column enveloped a boy to Ravel’s right, shoving him off-balance in more ways than one. It was one thing to think that the room wasn’t safe, and another to be inches away from someone as they were frozen like a statue.

He forced himself to look away as the boy screamed.

There weren’t any other doors, at least no obvious ones, but the teenagers had rushed to the walls and the barred doorway, trying to find something that would budge.

No luck, Ravel realized. The ceiling? The floor? He dropped to his knees and began feeling at the floor tiles, trying to get his fingernails into barely-existent gaps.

The older man stared at them impassively through it all, even after one of the girls yanked off her boot and threw it at him. He just let the footwear hit his chest and fall to the ground.

Columns continued to descend, which was frightening enough, but the real panic began after the first column folded itself back up. It was like it had never been there, except that the guy it had surrounded was now gone. 

“Where is he?” Anna asked dumbly. She turned to shout at their expressionless watcher. “Where is he?! Is he okay?”

“It’s killing us! The room is killing us!” 

Ravel didn’t see who had shouted, but whoever it was gave voice to a shared fear. He was off his knees in an instant, joining a frantic press around the gate as teens screamed at the impassive guardian.

“Let us out!”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Please!”

“You’re a murderer! I’ll kill you!”

Someone’s fingernail tore Ravel’s cheek open as they tried to reach past him toward the gate. The press of bodies was immense, and when another blue column descended in the middle of the group, it knocked twenty people to the floor, Ravel included. 

As he scrambled to his feet, he saw the second column fold itself back up, and he was relieved to see a figure still upright inside. Maybe the room wasn’t killing everyone. Maybe they had a chance.

Then the column finished vanishing and the blue light released the girl… who crumpled bonelessly to the ground. Her eyes were wide open, her stare terrified and sightless.

Ravel froze. She’s not… she can’t be… she looks…

The girl from Urchin nursery he’d noticed on the bus earlier knelt beside the collapsed body, grabbing the girl’s wrist. The Urchin girl frowned, resting one hand on the other girl’s sternum and leaning down to put her cheek next to the girl’s face. She looked up at Ravel, and her eyes were wrong, wild. “Come help me check! I… I don’t think she’s breathing. I can’t find her pulse!”

Ravel moved toward her, but froze as a column of light enveloped him. He heard Anna scream “Ravel!”, but couldn’t turn to look. Metallic squares unfolded around him, blocking his vision of the Urchin girl’s terrified face, then continued toward the floor, cutting off the outside light. 

He felt pressure against his head and around his wrists, neck, and ankles: not painful, but uncomfortably tight, like he’d worn Niko’s clothes by mistake.

At least people weren’t screaming in pain, he thought dimly. Unless that’s still to come. 

The last glimmers of light from outside vanished, and there was a moment where everything was pitch black and silent. 

That didn’t last.

Ravel’s eyes and ears were suddenly assaulted. No: his nose, too! He could still feel that pressure all-over his body, but all his other senses had been hijacked. He heard all sorts of sounds: crashes, explosions, strange screeching, piercing whistles. Frequently, he thought he could hear human voices, but they weren’t speaking actual words, just gibberish. Maybe magic could warp more than just people and chickens, and had corrupted the very concept of words. Occasionally, there’d be a word or a phrase that made sense to him, but… did it really, or was he desperate for meaning?

He smelled things he’d never smelled before. Some of them he could make analogies for; there was a sweet smell that reminded him a little of chive blossoms, but was very, very different. Richer. Heavier?

Other things he couldn’t even find analogies for, smells that he couldn’t contextualize at all. 

All the time, scenes were flashing across his eyes, sometimes changing multiple times in a second, sometimes lingering. They flickered wildly, showing everything from individual people to strange machines to sprawling vistas.

 He thought he saw Marynth Castle in a few scenes, but it was hard to say if it really was. It was quite different, but the castle changed all the time, so maybe these were real scenes from the deep and distant past.

Maybe they were completely made up. A lot of what he was seeing looked fake. No fabric hangs like that! And there’s not a single building anywhere on the island that large, except the Castle itself. And that sky! All one color like that? Black?! Why?

Some of the scenes showed battle: people firing guns and magic at each other, bleeding and dying, buildings collapsing in multicolored explosions. 

The calmer scenes weren’t any less terrifying, in their own way. They were all unfamiliar, seemingly set in a different world, and Ravel couldn’t understand why he was watching any of it. Is… is this supposed to kill me? Did watching these scenes kill that girl? Am I supposed to be doing something? I need to get out of here!

Ravel ignored the sensory onslaught for a moment. He strained against the pressure around his body, trying to find a way to kick or twist his way free. It was hard to tell with his vision blocked by scenes of madness, but he didn’t think he’d succeeded. At all.

I can’t give up, though. This… this killed someone!

He threw his whole body into his struggle, doing his best to ignore the frightening, unreal scenes and ghoulish noises, until finally, suddenly, his restraints disappeared.

He stumbled forward several steps with a scream, thrashing wildly, before he noticed that he wasn’t hearing anything anymore. The scene wasn’t changing. It was weird-looking, but… stable.

The room was long and narrow. The walls were weirdly decorative, and not in the normal way. There were no murals or tapestries, but, bizarrely, the walls themselves were textured. Instead of a flat surface, it was sectioned into strange divisions, each part made of a different material.

The floor was weird as well. Instead of woven mats covering the whole floor or a rug in the middle of the floor, there were only rugs at the edges, and they seemed to be attached to the wall. It made no sense. 

To his left was the only way in or out: an imposing archway that led into pure darkness.

The room was littered with confused, upset teenagers. Ravel counted them, his heart sagging as he realized there were only two dozen.  There were more than sixty of us on the bus! 

But then, a nearby wall bulged and another screaming teen staggered out. 

Ravel took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Okay, right. I just got out. That boy just got out. And I was boxed up pretty early. I don’t know that everyone else is dead. Maybe they’re fine. 

Maybe.

Ravel scanned the crowd, looking for Anna. He didn’t see her, but… there! Sitting with his head on his knees against the far wall. That was Green Vest! From the bus! What was his name?

Ravel dashed across the room. “Kory, was it?”

“Koby.”

“Koby, sure. Whatever. What the hell is going on?!”

Chapter 5

What we do know is that Marynth Castle is critical to our survival. It holds Marynth Isle together, keeps back the worst of the magical storm, and defends itself - and thus, us, - against the most dangerous threats.

• History of the Modern World, age 14 textbook

Koby shrunk in on himself. “I don’t know.”

Ravel had never punched anyone in his life, but in that moment, he came close. “Don’t you dare lie! A girl just died, the rest of us are… I don’t know what’s happening to the rest of us, but you do. You know the people who locked us in here. You knew their names!”

“I don’t know! I don’t know what’s happening to us.”

A thump of stomping footsteps behind Ravel. “Say that one more time, I dare you!” Grandelion Puff. Of course. “You’re right, Threads. I heard him talking to them, too.”

“I don’t-” Koby started again, but stopped as Grandelion Puff came up next to Ravel, her hands clenched into fists. “I don’t know everything.”

An audience was building now, the entire room was drawn over. A few looked hopeful, everyone looked scared, but most also looked… angry. 

Koby shrank down even more.

Grandelion Puff leaned toward him, her voice low and dangerous. “Well, here’s what I know: I was supposed to be learning magic. The people who were supposed to teach it to me? They were all pretty friendly with you, right before they locked us all in a room. Now we’re castle-knows-where, a girl is probably dead, and you’re keeping secrets.”

“I’m not! They’re not… they didn’t…”

Ravel cut in. “Just tell us what you do know. You admitted you know something.”

“I… yeah.” Koby’s voice was small. “Yeah. Kind of. I’m not supposed to.”

“Those people. They knew you. Why? Start there,” Grandelion ordered.

“That was my cousin Miralene and my Uncle Bo. I… I don’t know them too well. Miralene grew up at a different nursery, but she’s come to visit a few times since graduating.”

“And she helps out with the magic training?”

Koby shrugged. “Yeah? I mean, tons of people do, but Uncle Bo is in charge of it all.”

“Why didn’t they think you should be here?” Ravel asked. “Where are we? Do you know what’s happened to us?”

The deluge of questions spilled out of Ravel. 

Koby had shrank back at the first question, but his eyebrows had furrowed at the second. By the third, he was staring at Ravel in disbelief. “Where are we? We’re in the castle. We’ve been trapped here.”

A crowd had gathered over the course of the interrogation, and Koby’s announcement set off a wave of disbelief and horror. The boy glanced around, shocked at the reaction. “I thought you all realized.”

Even Grandelion Puff looked scared for a moment, her eyes wide and white against her dark skin. Then her eyes narrowed, fear almost covered up by fury. “And you weren’t supposed to be here today.”

Koby looked down. “Yeah. My dad came to visit me yesterday. He told me not to get on the bus, that he’d have it come get me the next day and have me join the class late. I… I didn’t like it. Wouldn’t say yes. He got really mad and… well… he told me what might happen. He wasn’t supposed to. Made me promise not to get on the bus, promise not to tell anyone. Guess I’ve broken both those promises now.”

“Why’d they do this to us? What’s so bad about this group? Why did we deserve this?” Grandelion asked.

“Nothing,” Koby said. “Dad said they offer every group to the castle. It doesn’t take them too often, so… so I thought it would be okay.”

“That can’t be true,” Ravel said. “Whole graduation classes vanishing? We’d know. Wouldn’t we?”

Koby hesitated. “I didn’t ask. I know that a graduation group doesn’t stick together long. And there’s a new one every five days. Maybe it just isn’t that noticeable?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Grandelion said. “Here’s what does: we’re trapped, your family is responsible, and didn’t want you to be here. Are they going to get you out?”

“Out of the castle?” Koby’s laugh was broken, hysterical. “Get real. Did you just ask me if they could get people out of Marynth Castle? Out of the castle?”

Grandelion’s face tightened. “So, that’s a no, then?”

“No! Of course not! No one ever comes out of the Castle.” There was silence for a second as the girl stood over him, clearly furious. 

Koby’s eyes were brimming with tears, but he seemed to find some courage somewhere. He glared up, meeting Grandelion Puff’s eyes. “Gonna hit me?”

She frowned, and spoke with chilling calmness. “That’s not going to get me out of here, so… No.”

Ravel was certain she wouldn’t have hesitated to punch Koby if she thought it would help.

As the girl turned and walked away, Ravel followed. “Hey, uh-” he almost called her Grandelion Puff. She’d called him “Threads,” hadn’t she? So that ought to be fine. But he hesitated. 

He definitely didn’t want to be on her bad side.

“Hey, what’s your name?” he asked.

She stopped, glaring at him. “Raza.” 

It took Ravel a moment to realize that was her name, and not an insult. She really looked like she was about to rip him to shreds, but she had answered…“Right, uh, Raza. So… what are we going to do?”

“‘We?!” Ravel took a step back at her reaction. Then, she seemed to relent. “Well… You’re a little observant at least. Alright, maybe. I am going to wait for Stelen. You, uh, scout the area. Make sure there’s no hidden exits.”

“Stelen is a friend of yours?”

Raza paused. “More or less. He’s from my nursery, anyway, and he’s not here yet.”

Ravel looked around. “Anna’s from my nursery. She’s not here yet either. But… people are still coming through.”

“So we wait until that stops, then we find a way out of here. Maybe through that arch, maybe we take down a wall.”

“Take down a wall?” Ravel repeated, and hated how stupid he sounded. Why not? Why not take down a wall? Why not anything? Everything was insane. “Yeah. Sure. Wall. Okay.”

He got moving, running a hand over the wall. The top half was flat and smooth, a dull red paint that had faded in patches, many of them at hand-height. The bottom half was… weird. Raised and indented in decorative geometries. Some kind of art or sculpture, but extending around the whole room? All of it was made of an unfamiliar material in a light brown, marred by faint, irregular stripes. In many spots, the material had a slight shine to it, but in others, the shine had worn off, or was hidden under a layer of gray-brown grime. If there was a secret exit, it would be hidden somewhere in this strangeness.

Ravel glanced back. No Anna yet. Raza’s still watching for her friend. Wait… why am I working while she just stands there? 

Irritation made him pause, but he shook his head: better to keep moving. Stay focused. Even letting his mind wander for a second had gotten his heartbeat racing. 

He focused on his task, methodically running his hands over each part of the wall, looking for something that could be shifted or moved aside. He’d almost made it to the far corner when Anna was shoved out of an emerging column. He would have gone to her, but some guy he didn’t know - maybe the “Barsh” Anna had mentioned? - was by her side instantly, wrapping her in his arms before she could take a step. 

And then…

Nothing. 

No more columns.

Anna seemed to have been the last.

Ravel scanned the room. Ten over there. Twelve or fifteen laying down; it was hard to see exactly. A crowd of eight near the archway. A handful of groups of twos or threes holding each other. Five others combing the walls like him, looking for a way out. 

Forty-five to fifty people. Maybe fifty-five, if there were a few people hiding behind others that he couldn’t spot. But… even then, they’d probably lost at least ten.

Judging from Raza’s posture - standing stiff with her back to the archway, glaring at the wall - her friend hadn’t joined them.

Stelen, whoever he or she had been, was most likely a corpse now, growing cold and stiff in a room filled with nothing but other corpses.

Ravel turned back to his inspection of the wall. He wasn’t going to be the one to say that to Raza. Better to figure out what the weird protrusion was in the next section. It looked almost like a water faucet, but there was no sink. He pushed the handle, then jumped back as water gushed out, expecting it to splash onto the floor and onto his knees.

It didn’t. The water pooled in an invisible box at his feet, then slowly vanished, as if sucked away through an equally-invisible drain. 

Magic, Ravel realized. I’m not in the nurseries. Anything could do… anything. 

He took another step away from the wall, rubbing his hands on his pants to clear the sweat that had suddenly coated them. Checking out the walls didn’t seem so safe anymore, and he retreated. Raza fixed him with a glare as he drew near.

“I didn’t find anything. Well, I found, an, um, faucet.”

“No ways out? Where does the drain go? Can we pull it up?”

“There is no drain. Magic.”

“Oh,” said Raza. For all her fierceness, for all her determination to join the magical elite, she seemed taken aback. 

She doesn’t know this magic stuff either, Ravel realized. She’s been raised in a nursery, the same as all of us. She’s had a couple years of Magic Prep classes, and that’s it.

Raza frowned and pointed. “Most of the boxes came out of that wall. That might be the room we came from. Let’s take it down.”

“With what?” Ravel asked.

Raza started to reply, then stopped. She ran up and gave the wall a fierce kick, her body going almost horizontal as she stood on one leg.

There was no effect on the wall, but there was an effect on Raza. Her eyes widened and her jaw clenched. She brought her leg down, then hopped a little as she picked it back up. She stood awkwardly, not putting all her weight on her kicking leg. She glared around the room. “Right. Anyone got any weapons? Tools?”

Raza had gotten the attention of a lot of people. Even many of the people huddling and sobbing were watching her, and some of the people who’d been lying down, curled into balls, had sat up.

“Anything?” Raza tried again. “A screwdriver? A chisel?”

“I’ve got a razor blade, for shaving,” one boy offered. “But we’re not going to take down a wall with that.”

Raza looked thoughtful, then shook her head, frustrated. 

A flash of light disrupted the discussion. Strange text above the archway had started glowing. “C-A-C-C-R?” Ravel read, doubtfully. “What’s a cacker?”

“No,” came a soft voice. The Urchin girl again, the shaky one, the one who’d been looking for a pulse. She was still shaking, her arm moving jerkily as she raised it to point, but her voice, while quiet, was confident. “I’ve seen that kind of writing before, in some of the works in the archives. I think it says…. ‘Enter.’”