Chapter 3

Ethan was woken by the slow rock of the carriage. He wondered when they would arrive. Often his family would go on long trips to their summer house. He smelt the familiar smell of pine trees just outside their mansion home. The smell of iron and the faint sound of birds singing the day away. Wait iron? Why could he smell iron? Finally he realised the icy coldness of iron bars on his face. He opened his eyes. He was in an iron cage. Not in his family's carriage but in a carriage with other iron cages full of children like him. They were all chained up inside their small cages and so was he.

Their carriage was open to the woods around them. Pine trees lined the dirt path, making steady progress through the woods. He could make out around five riders on horseback around the carriage. Protecting their cargo, slaves. He was tied up like a common slave! He couldn’t believe it! Why was he here? Then it came back to him. His brother, his father, the assassins in the house.

Dread filled him as he realised he didn’t know what happened to his mother and his brother. Were they okay? Did his brother also get captured? He sat up now and looked around at the other cages in the carriage. There were 6 cages in total including his. There was a large hulking boy on one side who was scrunched up in the small cage and on the other side a boy around his own size with bright blonde hair. The boy caught his eye and instantly frowned at him. He averted his eyes quickly. His brother didn’t seem to be here with him. He knew now that he was alone, it was a relief but it hurt not knowing what happened to his loved ones. He had to find out if they were okay. He had to get out of here and find his way back. They weren’t too far from the house at the moment. Who knows what was going to happen to him once they reached their final destination. He took a look at the lock on his cage. It was a hard iron lock with bits of rust on it. It looked super old. He wondered if his own fire magic would burn it off. Except once he was out, how was he to get past the guards? He shook his head, he’ll just work out how to get out first. He got up on his knees and stuck both of his hands outside of the cage with the lock in between them. Maybe he’ll just make the fireball on the lock. He worked to calm his mind, dispersing his fear and his nerves.

“What are you doing?” A voice came. He jumped a mile high and hit his head on the roof of the cage. He cried in pain as he looked around for whoever spoke to him. The boy with blonde hair was staring at him now.

“I asked you a question,” he demanded arrogantly as they made eye contact.

“What do you care what I’m doing?” Ethan answered with the same attitude. Who was this guy? Was he a noble like him?

“I care cause you’re going to get us all beat up. What one person does, the rest of us suffer too, you fool.” Ethan cringed, was that really going to happen?

“Not if I actually break myself out of here though right? I can get you out next too.” He tried hopefully. The boy scoffed.

“Don’t even bother, they would be wailing into you as soon as you got out of the cage. I don’t care what magic you wield. You’re like the same age as me right?” He gave a crooked smile. Ethan shook his head in frustration.

“I don’t care what you do, I’m getting out of here!” He put his hands back out.

“If you even try, I’ll start screaming. I’ll warn them all!”

“Why would you do that?”

“‘Cause I don’t wanna get beaten up. I already got beaten because of that big oaf next to you. I don’t want it to happen again so put your hands back in,” he warned sternly. Ethan looked at the bigger boy. He noticed the black eye and the dark bruises on his wrists and arms.

“Do you even want to escape? Have you become a coward just because of one little beating? You know there’s probably thousands more beatings to come if you stay here. I don’t care, I’m going to do it even if you scream,” he announced defiantly to the blonde boy.

“Fine, your funeral.” Ethan cleared his head and tapped into the ball of magic inside of him once again. Images of his brother popped up into his head, the burn across his face, his cries as the fire burned his body as he rolled around on the grass. He let out a grunt and the fire didn’t come. He needed to calm his mind. He needed to get past his fears. He needed to be in control.

He touched the ball of magic again with more force. That was when he felt the fire burn through his body. It seemed faster this time. This time he kept his eyes open and he watched as the fireball appeared in between his hands right beside the lock. He felt elated, he did it! It started small, the size of a small bird and sputtered in his hand. He put it straight onto the edge of the lock. Surprisingly the boy didn’t make a single sound, he kept silent as he watched Ethan do his work. The ball started to get bigger now. Ethan felt a bit of panic. What if he threw it like last time? What if he burned this boy he just met and the whole carriage caught on fire? It seemed as though it was working on the lock though. It had started to glow red from the heat.

“Is this your first time casting magic?” The boy asked suddenly. Ethan glanced up and nodded slightly then looked back down. “Ah, that’s why it’s getting bigger. Beginners never know how to control their magic. Do you know how to stop it?”

“No,” Ethan strained out the words. The boy sighed. Ethan swore he was going to thump this boy on the back of his head. He had to concentrate on the stream of magic otherwise he would fling it like last time with his brother.

“Okay, to make it stop growing you need to decrease the flow of magic you have streaming into the fire magic. Find that stream and slowly close the valve as though it comes through a tiny hold instead. Like turning down the water on a tap in the sink.” Surprisingly this boy was going to help him instead of screaming. He felt inside of him again to the stream between the magic inside him connected to his hands. It didn’t feel weird at all, it felt like an extension of himself, like another limb. He went to the source of the stream and felt around the entrance. He imagined a gate that was slowly closing, leaving open only the slightest crack for the magic to stream through. He opened his eyes again and the ball of fire was considerably smaller now. He looked up at the boy and he nodded in approval. Then he started on the lock again.

The top of the lock burned bright red now. You wouldn’t want to touch it, lest your finger be burned straight through. The heat from the now smaller ball of fire was just about the same intensity as the bigger one. Just concentrated and on a smaller scale. Finally the lock started melting.

“I don’t know what you’re going to do once you're out of your cage. I’ll leave it up to you to decide,” the boy arrogantly stated. Of course Ethan knew he was right but he didn’t want to just sit around and wait for something to happen.

There was a thud, the lock had fallen to the floor. Ethan looked around, seeing if anyone had heard the lock hit the ground. No one had moved, there were no shouts of warning. Slowly he pushed the door and it swung open silently on its hinges. He crawled out of the cage and went up to the boy’s cage.

“I don’t need saving, I want to watch the show first. You’ll learn how futile it is to escape right now.”

“Hey, can you take me?” came a small voice in front of him. Another boy half the size of him was looking up through his cage. Ethan shrugged and lit up his fireball once again. It was easier to light it this time. Similar to when you wipe the sleep out of your eyes when you wake up in the morning. The fire started to turn his lock red. The boy was short but he seemed to have the bluest most intelligent eyes Ethan had ever seen.

“My name's Leo,” he said in a small voice. He had his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms crossed over in front of him.

“Ethan,” he replied.

“Hey! What are you doing outta there!” Growled one of the guards. His heart fell and he stood up. The whole troop was staring at him now. One of them had a huge grin on his face. “Looks like we've got a runner, boys,” he said