Chapter 2 - The Race
Louisa Sophia and A Legion of Sisters
Louisa’s eyes darted to the records room and the half-opened window. It would be a close call to reach the dormitory before the headmistress, but now she needed to go on the trip to protect the Clan of the Dissipated from Gabrielle’s foul plans.
Louisa hurried into the records room and pulled the big notebook from its shelf. With two flips, she found the bookmark and ripped the page from its bindings. After folding the paper three times, she stuffed it down the neckline of her uniform. With the book returned to its former location, she locked the door and raced to the window.
Hurry, but think before you move.
She felt along the bottom of the frame and shoved it as high as possible. Clamping her hands on the building wall, she high-stepped onto the window sill. She angled her head and shoulders outside with both hands pressed into the inside wall to hold herself in place.
She pictured the jump in her mind. Hope I don’t tear my dress.
Louisa brought her hands forward, bunched her knees, and hopped across the meter of open air. Her stomach flipped, and she giggled at cheating death as her fingers and knees clamped onto the column.
She reached high and pulled herself up, then locked her legs back onto the stone to repeat the process. At the top, she glided along the flying buttress back to the tiled roof using only her hands.
After regaining her balance on the incline, Louisa fast-bear-crawled up the cold metal roof to the ridgeline on the Basilica’s cross-shaped roof. She hopped to her feet, then sprinted to the middle intersection. She turned toward the top of the crucifix and her emergency route.
The sixty-year-old headmistress had to go down three flights of stairs and walk to the far end of the school to reach the dormitory. If the other clan members had enacted their stall tactics, Louisa had a few minutes to get to the lavatory next to the vast sleeping hall.
Each time Louisa climbed the Basilica, she carried a long, black silk rope attached to a column inside a first-story classroom in the main building. On the first level of the church’s roof, she knotted the rope around the waist of a gargoyle with a long serpentine tongue.
At the top of the cross, Louisa angled to her right and stumble-ran down the slanted roof. With the edge approaching fast, she grabbed the statue’s hunched back and swung to a stop.
The thin black rope stretched from the gargoyle down to the last top window of the square A–shaped building. From there, Louisa would need to race the headmistress down the length of the school to the last classroom on that floor. The finish line lay a floor below inside the ground-floor lavatory.
She pulled on the rope to test the ties and picked up a long, two-inch-wide strap of greased leather with loops on each end. Louisa tossed the leather over the rope and grabbed both hand stirrups.
A candle appeared inside the large French window on the far side, and Virginie’s head popped outside. After several frantic one-armed waves, Pleasure, Virginie’s clan name, disappeared inside, leaving only a tiny glow as Louisa’s target.
I never get to enjoy this.
She took a deep breath through her nose and stepped back. Exhaling through pursed lips, she sprinted down the slanted buttress. A foot from the edge, she jumped. The rope dipped under her weight, and the leather whirred as the belt zipped down the line. Louisa tightened her biceps and tucked her legs, aiming for the opening.
Her feet crossed the threshold. She let go of one stirrup and dropped toward the floor at breakneck speed. When her toe tapped the ground, Louisa shoulder-rolled on the marble flooring, taking out the jolt as her uncle had taught her. She came to her feet and flew toward a plastered wall. Virginie wrapped her arms around Louisa’s waist, pulling her to a stop.
Pleasure’s eyes bulged. “It’s bad. You have to hurry.” She shoved Louisa toward the door. “I’ll take care of the rope.”
With a nod, Louisa tossed her friend the leather strap and ran into the hallway. The classroom at the far end sat a story above the lavatory. Eugénie, clan name Gaity, would have opened the lavatory window while the last clan member, Marie—Joy—would be intercepting the headmistress.
As Louisa raced toward the room, she forced her eyelids open and thought about yawning. Their delaying story required tears. With her eyes starting to water, she ran into the classroom and toward the open window. Louisa vaulted the window sill and twisted as she started to fall. She caught the lip with her fingers and glanced down at the ground-floor window.
With a slight push away from the wall, Louisa let go. She fell three meters. As she passed the arched molding, she grabbed the stone and kicked inward. Then she let go and flew through the window at an angle, feet first. She landed in the center of the huge lavatory.
If you haven’t yet read Louisa’s adventures in the Lamentations and Magic Series be sure to pick up Book 1 Ancient Civilizations.