Round and Round in a Magic Spell

[kitchen_maid]

By the time they reach the far side of the lake, there is no sign of Amy on the shore, save the boat she had crossed in, tied up to a dock that's the twin of the one they departed from.

There is, however, music coming from the castle in front of them, and it's easy enough to see through the windows of the brilliantly lit ballroom.

The path from the dock leads up to a grand, and apparently unguarded, doorway. Still, it's with a fair amount of caution that they make there way up the path and into the castle.

The door opens onto a small square room, lit by towering iron candelabras in the corners. Tapestries hang on either side of the door in the center of each wall. The door to the left is obviously the ballroom -- it stands ajar, and the host of clockwork guests and serving people move easily around, unconcerned about their observers (at least at the moment).

The door to the right conceals, improbably, a small storage cupboard, with brooms and mops and buckets. Parker, who has opened it, closes it again with a bit of a shrug.

That leaves the door straight ahead, which leads to a long, torch-lit hallway. "That way, I think," Scorpius says, nodding at it, after un-shrinking Sir Harold's book and consulting something in it.

"You go. We will keep Amy safe," X says, to Scorpius and Parker. There's a beat, and then she adds, "Yell if anything is trying to kill you."

"Oh, that's a given," Parker promises. And on that dreadfully encouraging note, they start down the corridor.

Bruce and X move into the ballroom. Around them, clockwork footmen and serving girls carry trays of glasses and plates, clockwork musicians play notably mechanical music, and clockwork noblemen congregate in corners and along the edges of the brilliantly candlelit room.

In the middle of the room, Amy is dancing with a clockwork figure, around and around and around.

Comments

[master_bruce]

'Yes!'

He would love to. Is she saying he can go?

But no. No, no, that would be wrong.

He goes for the neck on one. The tip of his sword twists off metal, and deflects into the centre of the thing's mechanism. It causes the head to wobble and then fall, disabling the creature and severely hampering the movement of the one next to it, as the head drops onto it's shoulder.

'Prefer to dance with you, though.'

[cutting_edgex23]

X looks more startled than Bruce has seen her for some time.

(Probably.)

That does not stop the flash of her claws through the chest of another prince, destroying several gears and causing its arms to flop around helplessly.

Then she removes the arms.

"When Amy is safe," she says, very seriously.

"Parker and Meg and Scorpius, too."

It's a promise.

[master_bruce]

He considers this as he jams the sword into the knee joint of another. It stumbles, and it looks like there might be a chain reaction thing about to start. Bruce grins, stops, and taps his foot.

'OK. It's a date.'

[cutting_edgex23]

X continues to look a little taken aback, but.

Well. It's Bruce. So --

"Okay."

She barely gets the word out before a loud, tolling chime echoes around the room. Immediately her body goes tense, poised to move in case a new threat is about to emerge.

Her first instinct is to look to Amy, but at the same time --

"Bruce?"

What if the chimes just make everything even more problematic?

[master_bruce]

His foot stops tapping. The grin slides from his face.

'Uh...'

He would remark on the strange feeling that runs through him, like something's draining away - but he points at the last semi-upright clockwork prince instead. As the chimes ring out, the thing stops trying to move and visibly winds down, slumping over slowly like its batteries ran dry.

'You think it's over?'

[cutting_edgex23]

"You have stopped humming," X offers, after a momentary hesitation.

"And the clockwork has stopped moving."

She flicks a swift look at Amy, holding there to make sure the Queen is not inclined to dance anymore, either.

"And Amy -- "

[kitchen_maid]

"Oh, good heavens."

Amy is definitely not dancing.

She's standing in the middle of the ballroom, looking around at the oodles -- no, swathes of broken clockwork figures that litter most of the floor.

She turns to face Bruce and X, dislodging a clockwork wheel that had come to rest against her skirt and now goes rolling across the ballroom.

Well.

She may have just come out from under a spell, she may be in the middle of a magical ballroom full of dismembered clockwork people, and she may be in her nightdress, but Amy is still the Queen of Ambergeldar.

"X. Bruce.

"I gather the day is ours?"

[master_bruce]

Bruce looks around at the mess, and gives the nearest clockwork prince a shove with his foot.

'I sure as hell-'

He gets cut off by another toll of the bell, a ringing chime that reverberates through the room, and makes the floor vibrate.



'...I think we should go.'

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yes," X agrees promptly, turning back the way they came before the echoes of the bell begin to fade.

"We should."

And if Bruce and X keep Amy between them on the way out --

It's only common sense.