Through slitted eyes she could see Samheed on a table next to her, still out cold. She was relieved to see him, and he appeared to be alive’his chest moved up and down. Lani turned her head to the other side, very slowly, toward the screaming, hoping she wasn’t drawing attention her way. But a second later something caught her eye and she stopped moving. Lying in still-damp clothes, she broke into a cold sweat and tried to contain a clammy shiver, for a man and a woman in gauzy white shirts stood next to her, their backs to her, blocking her view of her friend’s head.
They were bent over, focusing very hard on whatever horrible thing they were doing to Meghan. Lani swallowed hard, trying not to freak out and wondering what on earth she could possibly do to save Meghan and not make things worse.
There was no other sound except for Meghan’s sobs and cries. It was hard for Lani to concentrate. She looked over at Samheed again, his face so calm and serene, willing him to wake up. She begged and pleaded silently with anyone who might be able to hear the thoughts in her head, and prayed desperately for Samheed’s eyes to open so they could plan their imminent escape together. She wasn’t sure she could do this alone.
Lani’s heart raced. She’d have to startle them, then attack and disable them. And then somehow she and Meghan would have to drag Samheed out of here. Not impossible, she found herself thinking, and that thought calmed her. Unless, of course, Meghan was unable to move . . . but Lani couldn’t let herself consider that option.
Slowly she slid her hand up her thigh to the opening of her pants pocket. Meghan’s screams were growing hoarse now, and Lani turned her inner pleading toward Meghan to stay conscious, keep the white-shirted people occupied . . . and not die.
Lani wriggled her fingers into her wet pants pocket. There was nothing there. She tried the other pocket, but the only thing in there was the picture Alex had drawn and given to her. She bit her lip to keep the angry tears back. Someone had taken her spell components. Her heart pounded in her chest so loudly she was sure the people could hear it.
She lifted her head slightly to look around the room, knowing she shouldn’t be moving so much, but unable to control herself now’she was starting to panic. And there, on a table across the room, she saw them. A pile of scatterclips and other assorted components, well out of reach. Lani let her head rest back on the table and squeezed her eyes shut, telling herself to calm down, to just stay cool and think. But Meghan’s cries were totally unnerving her. Lani wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand it. She needed a plan now.
An instant later Meghan’s screams stopped; only the echo of them hung in the air for a second before fading. Lani tensed, her stomach clenching and churning. Had they killed her friend? With no more time to think, Lani pulled her knees up to her chin and kicked out at the man, striking him in the center of his back and knocking him off balance and to the floor. She leaped off the table and lunged for the components, managing only to knock them to the ground as the man grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her down.
Meghan, silent, struggled to her elbow. She kicked out weakly at the woman who had been holding her down on the table. Lani’s eyes widened’Meghan was alive! Lani grabbed a handful of scatterclips and sent them soaring through the air at the woman, who was now wrestling with Meghan. The scatterclips caught the woman’s clothing and dragged her several feet away from Meghan to the wall, pinning her there. A look of shock and frustration crossed over her face as she struggled and failed to release herself from their grasp.
And then the man was getting up and grabbing for Lani’s ankles again, trying to keep her from rising to her feet.
“Run, Meg! Get help!” she screamed, reaching blindly for components. “I’m coming!”
Meghan, dazed and no doubt in shock, staggered to the door obediently as Lani clawed at the dirt floor, trying to reach another scatterclip. “Go!” she yelled again, and Meghan, without looking back, disappeared from view.
The man yanked Lani by the ankles as Lani tried desperately to twist over to her stomach so she could see where the components were. “Sam, wake up!” Lani screamed. “Sam!” She wriggled one leg free from the man’s grasp and kicked him hard in the jaw, sending him reeling once again. He hit his head on the corner of a table and fell to the ground, conscious but dazed, on top of the components.
Lani jumped to her feet and made a quick assessment. She looked at the door, which stood open now. Meghan was gone. She looked at Samheed, who hadn’t moved. The woman was still stuck fast to the wall, she was sure of it.
The man was starting to struggle to his feet. There was no way Lani could risk going anywhere near him to grab another scatterclip. She scrambled to Samheed’s side and slapped his face, tugging at his arm and screaming his name. “Sam! Wake up!” she sobbed. “Please . . .”
She looked at the man, who was standing now, grabbing a rope from a drawer and coming toward her. And then she looked at Samheed, lying helpless. Nothing barred her way to the door. She could still run.
But she couldn’t leave him there.
She shoved her hands into her pockets once more in a desperate move to see if perhaps the strange captors had accidently missed one scatterclip or a bit of rubber in the fold of her pocket, but it was not to be. For the second time since they’d been captured, her fingers touched the picture Alex had drawn. But this time she drew in a sharp breath, and her eyes opened wide with the realization that there might indeed be one last hope. She gripped the drawing, her lips moving slightly as she mouthed the necessary word. Seek. With a fire-like blast, a ball of light burst from her pocket, not harming her in the least. It zigzagged to the doorway and disappeared.