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I glanced around the space, forcing down my own nerves as I saw the discouraged faces all around me.

“Come on, team. We’ve dealt with being muted our whole lives. We got this. Think hard about where the last number could be. Have we been checking the stalagmites themselves?”

“Yes,” said one very annoyed Marina. “Assuming that’s even what we need.”

“Even if we can find the last spot, we still don’t know what they do,” Ross muttered.

I clenched a fist. “We need to rally here, guys. We can figure this out. It’s the draining that’s making us so miserable, and we can rest once we’re out of here.

Now brainstorm. Is there anywhere we haven’t been?

Let’s go through the whole room methodically again, maybe we missed something last time. ”

“Maybe there’s some kind of trick to it?” Fable suggested.

I nodded, “Brainstorm on that, but let’s take another pass at the same time.”

“Hurry,” Caterina said. “Ellie’s almost out cold.”

“The spell will drain her,” Phyllis said, “Then move to another of us until we are all out cold.”

Crap.

I had only taken a few steps when Ross caught me on the arm, his previously dark expression lit up. “The wall-walking spell Doyen Moreno taught us last week,” he blurted.

“Right!” I shouted, pulling quickly away from him. “We need to check the walls and ceiling,” I called.

We each spun a rune – literal walking fingers pointed at our legs – then dashed up the walls with newfound vigor, and it didn’t take long before I found the number.

It was positioned directly above the chandelier itself, where it connected to the ceiling, which was, counter-intuitively, beneath my feet.

“Got it,” I called out, glancing down at the others, and was suddenly struck with a strange sense of awe.

The walls were covered in a brilliant display of color, dozens of tiny orbs shone all around from the Swiss-cheesy stalagmites, shimmering beautifully in the light of the slowly spinning chandelier.

I ignored the others as I stared at it a moment longer, and realized, with a start, that a few of the lights on the walls weren’t just orbs.

They were runes . Archaic ones I’d never seen, but runes, nonetheless.

My hand went quickly to my pocket, and I tore Typhon’s gift free from it, bringing the yellow glass to my eye, and I was suddenly able to read them.

It was a strange sensation, as if their meaning and how to use them was being transmitted directly and instantaneously to my brain.

I kicked off from the ceiling, releasing the wall-walking spell and casting one to cushion my fall in a single flourish.

“I figured out what to do with them. They each represent a piece of the rune we need in order to open the door. Now for the two and the twelve,” I said.

The other two went just as easily, and I clapped Ross on the shoulder on my way over to the door. “Good work.”

I swung my fingers in lengthy strokes, feeling the power from the magic as I drew the rune triumphantly onto the door.

It disappeared into mist rather than opening, revealing a golden pedestal that shone in the sunlight coming from the stairway behind it.

As soon as it opened, the draining spell eased off.

A shimmering, sleeveless coat sat atop the pedestal, draped over a stone replica of a human torso. I held out my arm, probing warily at it, and Ellie popped up next to Caterina.

“Is that a ward-vest?” she marveled, her voice a whisper.

“A what?” I asked, cocking my head.

“The Runecoats wear them for their toughest jobs,” Phyllis explained. “The wards woven into it absorb attacks made against the wearer.”

Ellie nodded eagerly. “They eat a certain amount of magic before being destroyed, and it takes a team of experts months to weave each one. Incredibly valuable.”

I nodded slowly, glancing toward Phyllis. “Sounds like the perfect thing to protect our flag,” I said.

Phyllis opened her mouth to answer, but a reptilian screech pierced the air, coming from the cavern behind us, and I snatched the vest from the pedestal. “Fable, block the door with me,” I called, waving everyone else up the stairs.

I panted as we wove a series of barriers, then darted up the stairs behind the others.

Whatever it was coming from behind us, it’d be bad to fight it in our current state, drained of magic as we were.

The stairway opened into a rustic-looking town, and Gary slammed the cellar door shut behind us as we emerged, then began to tie it off with a piece of magically imbued rope from his bag.

“That should hold back whatever that was,” Phyllis said, “but we should get a bit further away before finding somewhere to rest.”

Before long, we circled around a well in the middle of town and spent the next hour eating and recovering from our draining time at the cave.

“So, what’s the plan?” Fable asked, sipping from one of the water canteens making the rounds between our group.

“The longer we can rest before fighting the better,” Phyllis answered. “Worst case is that we run into other teams while drained of magic like this.”

I nodded, sending a probe of magic outward.

We’d recovered a fair bit of energy in our short break, and the spell wasn’t particularly draining, but we were taking turns on watch, nonetheless.

If Draconell or Kirinash or any of the other teams came within a few hundred feet or used magic from a few thousand, we’d know.

“We should be prepared to fight them by tomorrow – I can’t imagine we’d be able to avoid them any longer than that.

Any ideas for how we should approach things? ”

The question had been directed at Phyllis, but Ross was the one who answered first.

“I used to play capture the flag when I was a kid, and we would always leave a few people around the flag as defenders, usually the slower runners, and send the others out on attack.”

I nodded slowly, “I doubt running speed matters much for this, but we can definitely play to our strengths. Who is confident in their warding spells?” Gary and Ellie raised their hands.

I nodded. “You two can be our defenders, then. You can support us from the back and make sure they can’t capture Phyllis.

” I was confident enough in my warding, too, but the prospect of capturing Typhon or Nikita was too enticing to turn down.

“The rest of us will be on the attack.” We’d each been given a set of magical handcuffs, which served as a win condition if we managed to get them onto the wrist of the enemy team’s “flag”.

“Now let’s talk about the weapons we brought.

Maybe that’ll give us some idea for our plan of attack,” I said.

“Can you pass that canteen?” Caterina asked.

I turned to do so, but a flicker of light caught my eye, coming from the roof of a barn a dozen feet to our left.

“Get down!” I hissed.

Six members of House Draconell were staring down at us, all drawing a series of runes to create a single, terrible, spell. Not unlike how me, Gary, Ross, Marina, and Caterina had woven that single spell in the hall, deflecting Mortan’s fire.

The difference? Our spell had come together smooth and fast, as if we’d been working together for years. Theirs was slow enough that I could see it coming and prep.

A little.

The fireball about to shoot toward us was like nothing I’d ever seen. The warmth drained my lips and eyes of moisture before the spell had even begun to move, and it was blindingly bright. Pulling my eyes into a thin squint, I leapt to my feet.

I searched deep within myself for the right rune to create a ward that could counter something like this. My mind raced with a dozen thoughts at once. How had they snuck up on us? How many of us would be hit by the attack? Were things really going to end this quickly for us?

Fable, who was closest to the barn, flailed wildly in a futile attempt to block it, and I came back to my senses in a rush. My eyes flitted to the ward-vest on Phyllis.

“The vest!” I yelled at her as I ran in her direction. She tossed it to me as I ran by, and I caught it in one hand.

Bingo.

I sprinted forward, vest in my left hand, as I drew up a rune to increase my speed. I had to make it to Fable in time.

Here goes nothing.

I raised the vest in front of myself like a shield and slammed my eyes shut. The smell of burning hair filled my nostrils and the vest dissolved in my hands, heat washing over me like a wave. I gasped, dropping to my knees, and opened my eyes back up, fully expecting to have been killed.

But I wasn’t dead. Pain shot through my hands and arms, and my clothes were singed but here I was, watching as House Draconell leapt from the barn’s roof, charging directly at us.

“Protect Harlow!” Phyllis shouted from behind me, barely audible over the horrible thrumming of my heartbeat.

I forced myself to my feet a few moments later, taking deep breaths in an attempt to center myself. “Be careful from the flanks,” I croaked. “Don’t forget your positions.”

The battle exploded into action as spells crashed into our barriers, and I forced myself to the front lines, standing side by side with Fable.

My fingers were singed, but I could still cast runes.

Typhon stood in the back, behind his team, and he spared me a quick glance between shouted orders to his students. The bond between us flared with concern, worry, and a fair bit of anger. I got the feeling he didn’t like how the Draconells were playing the game.

“On the right!” Phyllis shouted from behind.

I moved to draw a rune, but a warding from Gary buzzed into existence, blocking a lightning bolt before I could react. Blocking out the connection to the bond, so I could focus on keeping my team together. We could not lose Phyllis.

“Leave them, get Moreno,” Fable called, dashing forward.