A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,98

arrow fly—

It hits the executioner in the eye, who falls instantly, dropping his axe, missing Tedros’ head by an inch.

Another arrow flies, stabbing the pirate holding me, spilling his blood onto my dress.

Time returns to full throttle.

From inside the sack comes an army—Agatha, Hort, Anadil, Hester, Dot, and more—who dive-bomb the pirates holding the captives onstage. All are armed for battle, like warrior angels, except Agatha, who has nothing but my old bag, the outline of my heavy crystal visible through the fabric. Within seconds, they subdue the pirates and sever their friends’ binds, setting Nicola, Willam, Bogden, Aja, and Valentina free.

Meanwhile, Sophie’s already hiking her dress and fleeing the stage into the frantic crowd, as if this is everyone else’s battle but hers. I try to track her, but now I see the pirate Thiago lunging towards Tedros, who’s still bound to the chopping block—

Agatha is on the pirate with a panther’s speed, swinging the bag with my crystal ball like a mace and crushing Thiago in the ribs. Gasping, he kicks her in the chest, knocking her off the stage. Thiago collapses to his knees, reaches for his sword, and with his last dregs of strength, raises it above Tedros’ spine, the prince still flailing against the block.

“TEDROS!” Agatha cries, too far to get to him—

Two pale hands grab Thiago from behind and break his neck with one twist.

Guinevere tosses his body aside. Then she seizes his sword, tears the scim off her lips and hacks it to shreds, crushing the remnants with her shoe. While she cuts Tedros loose with the goo-covered sword, she sees Agatha and her son gaping.

“I’m a knight’s wife,” she says.

Tedros grins at her, then spots Rhian in the grass, still thrashing at Hester’s demon on his face. As his mother knifes into his binds, Tedros pins his eyes on the king, his face hardening, his muscles tensing, like a caged lion about to be unleashed. But now Tedros sees Agatha climbing to her feet, her eyes on Rhian too. The instant Tedros is free, he leaps off the stage, seizes his princess, and presses his lips hard against hers, before looking her in the eyes—

“Run. Somewhere safe. Understood?”

“Is that an order?” she says.

“You bet it is.”

“Good, because I never listen to those.”

Agatha’s already sprinting towards Rhian, but my bag on her arm slows her down. Tedros cuts in front of her—

“He’s mine!”

He flying-tackles the king, rips Hester’s demon off him, and punches Rhian in the face. Reeling, Rhian goes for his sword but Agatha swipes it off his belt and flings it down the hill while Tedros keeps smashing the king’s head into the ground.

I shake off my daze and realize my hands are still roped behind my back, preventing me from doing magic. Even so, we’re on our way to victory, with Rhian’s thugs outnumbered. I scan the stage around me—

Robin targets pirates’ hands with arrows and the Sheriff wrangles their bodies into his enchanted sack. Nicola, meanwhile, conjures a storm cloud over Wesley’s head, which zaps him with lightning, before Hort cuffs him with the rusted collar that leashed Tedros. A pirate comes barreling at Hester, swinging the axe; Hester levitates him into the air, while Anadil levitates the chopping block, before the two witches magically smash the block and pirate together (Dot turns the axe to chocolate). Kiko mogrifies into a skunk, sprays Beeba in the eyes, who writhes right into Beatrix and Reena’s rope. Ravan and Mona hold up a wooden plank they’ve stripped off the stage, while Valentina climbs it like a tree and shoots spells at pirates from overhead. Even Willam and Bogden have somehow bagged a rogue of their own.

But I don’t see Sophie fighting for us.

I don’t see Sophie at all.

For a moment, I find myself wondering whether what Rhian said was true . . . whether she sold Tedros out to save her own skin . . . whether she switched sides after all. . . .

“Watch out!” Aja cries.

I wheel around and see bodies rushing the stage—leaders of the Woods, the strongest and most able, along with more guards from the castle and Camelot’s gates—who launch into battle in defense of Rhian. If they needed proof the school is a menace, its students terrorists, we’ve given it to them. The Ice Giant of Frostplains sweeps Agatha and Tedros into his ice-blue fists and catapults them at the stage, knocking Robin and the Sheriff down like bowling pins. Beneath the giant, Rhian struggles