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.A quick glance revealed that there were no less than five Orcs, all heavily armed.She considered casting the Mimic illusion for the second time, but she doubted they would be fooled again.Of course, they might have released the Mimic from the zoo and left it to dine on unwary Orcs and escaping students.Instead, she pushed herself into the shadows.There, she created an illusion of herself running around the corner and skidding to a halt when she saw the Orcs.The Orcs howled and gave chase, clearly thinking of the rewards Shadye would bestow on those who took living captives.Emily watched them go, then stepped around the corner, only to see a short Goblin-like creature standing there.It hissed at her in a language Emily didn’t recognize.“Sorry,” Emily muttered, as it advanced towards her with a sword in one hand and a pair of manacles in the other.She hit the creature with a kinetic spell and threw it down the corridor into the wall at terrifying speed, smashing it to paste.Days ago–it felt like years–doing that would have bothered her.Now it was just a way to get through to the nexus itself.Behind her, there was an angry roar as the Orcs realized that they’d been tricked.They charged back towards the door.Emily had to smile; Shadye wasn’t too likely to forgive anyone who messed up, particularly a subhuman Orc.He was unlikely to honor whatever promises he’d made to them.And they were mad enough to kill her rather than try to take her alive.Desperately, she improvised a spell, scooping up air and cramming it into a very tiny space.The Orcs didn’t notice as they advanced, right up until the moment Emily took cover and released the spell, allowing the compressed air to flash out with the force of a small explosion.There was a massive thunderclap, loud enough to damage her ears even though she’d jammed her hands over them.When she looked back the Orcs all lay on the ground, groaning in pain.Their oversized ears would have been damaged by the sound even if they hadn’t been knocked down by the sonic boom.Bracing herself, Emily pressed her hand against the doorway and tried to open it.A series of powerful charms guarded the room, each one capable of killing anyone who wanted to gain access without the Grandmaster’s permission.It was too late to withdraw, so Emily plunged her mind into the charms and worked rapidly to untangle them before they could kill her.The irony struck her as she finished unlocking the final charm.If Shadye hadn’t controlled her before, it might have been easier to reach the nexus.The Grandmaster wouldn’t have tried to secure it against her specifically.The door clicked open and Emily stepped through, bracing herself for more surprises.It was unlikely that anyone as careful as the Grandmaster would rely on only one line of defense.But she had no choice.There might just be a way to win, but she would need power to use it.And the only source of power was the nexus.Chapter Forty-SevenTHE NEXUS ROSE UP IN FRONT of her as she stepped into the room.Instantly, she felt small–and terrified.There was power all around her, spinning upwards into the school and downwards back into the ley lines, enough power to turn someone into a god.The chamber seemed impossibly vast, like a giant cathedral that reached all the way to heaven.She heard a sound like the beating of a giant heart, the sound of power spinning through the ley lines and echoing all around her.And it reminded her of where Shadye had taken her, the day she’d entered his world.He’d planned to sacrifice her to serve his goals.Maybe Void made a mistake, she thought as she looked over at the towering crystal pillars that seemed to rise up into infinity.If he had killed me, the Harrowing would have known that I was no Child of Destiny and turned on him.Shadye was saved by Void and he doesn’t even know it!The thought provided no consolation.She stepped over to the nearest pillar, wondering if she was out of her mind.If tapping the relatively small amount of mana in a magician’s body was enough to drive someone insane, who knew what would happen if she tapped into the vast wellspring of power right in front of her? The whole idea of using charmed crystals to control and direct the flow was to prevent someone from having to tap the power directly.It was easy to imagine all the ways it might go wrong.I could blow the ley lines, she thought as she studied the pillar.Even holding her hand near the structure, she felt the power coursing through it.The school would be destroyed.She shuddered.Apart from her, no one in this world had the background to imagine what might happen next.Dragon’s Den, ten miles away, might be shattered by the explosion; it would certainly be exposed to hordes of necromancers as they poured through the new pass through the mountains.And that was assuming a relatively small blast.What would happen if the blast was powerful enough to blow the world apart?Sergeant Harkin had trusted her.He’d given his life to ensure that she had a chance to escape, to meet a destiny she wasn’t sure she had.A Child of Destiny should know exactly what to do at any given moment, according to the books, but Emily found herself utterly uncertain of the best course of action.Should she risk merging her mind with the power, knowing that the merest touch might shatter her mind? Or should she try to destabilize it, risking the destruction of everything for miles around? Or should she gamble and hope that her original plan worked?Bracing herself as best she could, she pressed her fingers against the crystal.Instantly, she felt the power growing stronger, as though it were already coursing through her body.She pulled away hastily, too late to stop some of it from taking root in her mind.Even after she broke contact, she still felt the school all around her.The Doctor’s TARDIS was nowhere near as complicated as the interior structure of Whitehall.She sensed Shadye as he made his unhurried way down to the nexus, and the Grandmaster, as he held the remaining students and tutors safe in a sealed section of the school.All around the latter, there were hundreds of interlocking dimensions, all piled up on top of one another.Unsure of what she was looking at, she pulled away as she sensed Shadye’s sudden alarm.He knew what she’d done - and was coming to stop her.Not that he has much choice, the tactical part of her mind insisted.Given time, I could turn the school against him.He has to stop me now.Or flee.She pulled her mind back to herself and started to concentrate.The power she’d drawn from the ley lines wouldn’t match Shadye’s power–she doubted she could, unless she was willing to court madness– but it would be enough to keep him busy until she could get him into the right place.At least it would be easier here, in the nexus, than outside in the school itself
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