A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,69

pirate guards who were starting to leap down from the hill into the dungeons. More dirt and rubble clouded Agatha’s ball, obscuring her view. She could see Laithan repelling guards with stun spells, but his glow wasn’t strong enough to stop them. A pirate charged forward and tackled him, wrestling the muscly first year into a headlock, blocking Agatha’s sightline completely.

Meanwhile, the bubble inside her crystal had faded two shades lighter. She could hardly see anything anymore, her connection about to break.

Hort’s roars echoed down the hall, along with the sound of crashing metal. Disconnected voices rose in the chaos—

“This way!” Tedros yelled.

“Nicola, look behind you!” shouted Professor Dovey.

“Get off me, you brute!” Kiko screamed.

The cry of shrieking stymphs drowned them out.

More debris exploded through the dungeons, flooding Agatha’s crystal. The crystal glitched again and the dust morphed to silver shimmer, slowly re-forming the phantom mask. . . .

“I can’t see them anymore,” Agatha gasped.

“The stymphs came too late,” Princess Uma said, ashen. “They won’t get everyone out.”

“They have to,” Agatha panicked. “If we leave anyone behind, Rhian will kill them!”

“WE NEED TO GO NOW!” Castor blasted, lurching for the doors. “WE HAVE TO HELP THEM—”

“You’ll never get there in time,” Yuba said.

Castor stopped in his tracks.

The library went quiet, students and teachers alike.

Agatha took a deep breath and looked up at her army.

“Maybe we won’t get to them,” she said. “But I know someone who will.”

Professor Anemone read her face. “You’re overestimating her goodness, Agatha. She’ll save herself, no matter what it costs. It doesn’t matter who’s still left. She’ll be on the first stymph to school.”

Agatha didn’t listen. She’d learned her lesson too many times: friendship can’t be explained. Not a friendship like hers. Some bonds are too deep for others to ever understand.

She looked back at the crystal as the silver phantom inside prowled towards her, fading quickly, with just enough power for one last wish. . . .

“Show me Sophie,” Agatha commanded.

BACK ON THE rooftop, Agatha leaned against the leafy sculpture of King Arthur, still thinking about his son.

He wouldn’t be one of those left behind.

He’d find a way back to her.

Like she always found a way back to him.

Someone’s voice ripped her from her trance: “They’re here!”

Agatha leapt out from behind the hedge, her eyes on the sky.

Stymphs soared towards the school from the Woods, smoothly penetrating Manley’s green fog, as their young riders began to come into view against the red-hot sunset.

First years burst through the roof door behind Agatha, cheering their return, the teachers joining in. “THEY’RE SAVED!” “WE WON!” “LONG LIVE TEDROS!” “LONG LIVE THE SCHOOL!”

Agatha was too busy counting the stymphs’ riders—

Hester . . . Anadil . . . Dot . . .

Beatrix . . . Reena . . . Kiko . . .

Bodhi . . . Laithan . . . Devan . . .

More bony birds tore through the fog, more riders on their backs.

Ten . . . eleven . . . twelve, Agatha counted, as her army’s cheers amplified.

Two more stymphs, two riders on each.

Fifteen . . .

Sixteen . . .

The birds stopped coming.

Agatha waited, as the first wave of stymphs landed on the Great Lawn below, Hester and Dot dismounting, helping Anadil, who was soaked in blood.

Instantly, teachers and students rushed back into the castle and down onto the lawn to help her, along with others landing nearby: Bert . . . Beckett . . . Laralisa . . .

Agatha stayed on the roof, searching the fog for more stymphs.

The sky stayed clear.

Seven short.

They were seven people short.

Seven who only Sophie could save now.

Agatha welled with tears, realizing who’d been left behind—

CRACK!

The sound ricocheted across the school grounds like a stone through glass.

Agatha looked out and saw Professor Manley screaming violently at her from the School Master’s window . . . students and teachers fleeing into the castle from the lawn . . . wolves covered in blood at the North Gate. . . .

Agatha raised her eyes to a hole in the green shield . . . to the steel and boots coming through. . . .

She backed up and started running.

No time to mourn the missing.

Not now.

Because while she was breaking into Rhian’s castle . . .

Rhian’s men had broken into hers.

12

TEDROS

Lucky Seven

Beneath the cold, murky water, Tedros finally felt clean.

He let his arms and legs splay out, floating like seaweed beneath the algae-green surface. The biting chill numbed his sore muscles and froze out his thoughts. As long as he stayed underwater, he didn’t have