'This is just a great tunnel, isn't it! Are you sure I found it?'
I said, 'Found it? I think you made it. How can you not remember? Two weeks ago you told me you had been having dreams about this secret panel every night for months. That was before the segment of memory they erased. How come you don't remember this?'
She shook her head. 'Memory works by association, not by chronological order. Maybe they just ordered me to forget my magic powers.'
I said, 'I have a theory that your powers are based on states of consciousness. That you enter types of awareness below dreams and above normal alpha wave states that other people cannot reach. If that is so, I do not see how they could have erased your consciousness. Your unconscious memories should be open to you, at some level. If you can reach that level. Do you see what I mean?'
'They could do it in two steps. First, change my na-ture so that all my memories were stored mechanically, then, physically invade the brain to interfere with the storage mechanism.'
Grendel and Fell. They had used a very similar combination of powers on me. It made my nape hairs stand up to hear her talk so calmly, and say aloud almost exactly what I had been thinking.
Vanity said, 'Which way was the dream coming from? I've reached a fork.'
'Left. Look for a peephole.'
8.
All three boys were awake when we reached their dormitory. Quentin and Colin were still pulling on clothes, staring at the main door leading into the dorm, obviously expecting us to appear there. Both of them jumped slightly when Vanity and I came out of a hatch in the wall. Quentin sat on the floor, his trousers around his ankles. Colin hopped and hopped, looking puzzled and annoyed.
'How'd you do that?' he demanded.
Vanity put her hands on her hips and tossed her head, her green eyes alight. 'Magic!' she said loftily.
Victor was over by the window, throwing a rope down. The bend went twice around the bedpost, and both ends trailed out the window. One end was a bowline with a loop, so we could lower ourselves down by letting out the other rope. The last man down could draw the rope out, and leave nothing but an open window to show the way we went.
I said, 'We may only have minutes. Please assume the alarm has already been given. No talking! Out the window, double-time. Dressed people first.'
I went first, and practically just let the rope slide through my fingers, regardless of the speed of my descent. Near the bottom, I made the Earth less attractive to me by spreading or spraying my bundle of world-lines outward at a sharp angle. For a moment, I was weightless. I put my feet on the ground, and weight returned with a jolt.
Victor, Vanity came next. Then Colin.
He said, 'So what is the plan, Dark Mistress?'
'North,' I said.
Quentin landed, yanked the rope down after him.
Quentin said, 'Are we each going to go to one boundary of the estate, and regroup at the Great Hall?'
I was surprised. 'How did you figure that out?'
Colin said, 'We saw the notes you wrote Victor. Quentin's tarot cards figured out the rest of it.'
I said, 'That's bad. If Quentin knows, Wren knows. You guys did not talk about this, did you? The wind can hear us; Daw can see through walls and around corners.'
Victor shook his head brusquely; Colin looked a little guilty. Quentin said, 'Your note said Boggin can listen along the wind. Colin and I talked. I thought indoors was safe. No wind.'
'It's my fault,' I said. 'I should have had Victor destroy those notes immediately.'
Victor said, 'You didn't tell me Miss Daw could see through walls.'
Another big mistake from Leader Amelia. Keep the troops informed of security risks. I tried to throw off a sense of rising despair. I said bravely, 'Spilt milk. Assume the enemy knows our plan. What are they doing?'
Victor said, 'You tell us. Only you remember seeing them in action.'
'Well, they must be taking their own sweet time getting here. Since Boggin can fly, I don't know what is keeping them.'
Victor said, 'Fear. They don't know what we can do, how much we remembered.'
Quentin said, 'They would not come for us here. Right now, we are five kids standing outside a dorm window. They're at the boundaries, waiting. The boundaries are where our power is.'
Colin said, 'Assume they moved the safe.'
I said, 'If our powers were working, they have to split us up to defeat us. They'd be posted around the boundaries.'
Colin said, 'But? Dark Mistress, our powers are not working.'
'They don't know that. I am afraid of splitting up. They can crush us singly.'
Colin said, 'Dark Mistress, hello? Hello? Earth to Amelia! If none of our super-duper powers are operating, they can crush us anyway, singly or as a group.'
I said, 'I want to see if I can turn Victor on.'
