I was cursing my ability to control the strength of my magical power again. Not that it was too strong at the moment. It was just right for destroying carriages. Unfortunately, at this strength, I had even less control than I did when it was weaker. Instead of hitting one of the other carriages, I had hit my own. Which was heading right back to the river from who knows how high.

This inability to control was why I had not used the attack earlier. The presence of the two men in the carriage had changed my mind. Since they were here, it meant that they had gotten past Helnion, which meant that she was probably not on the roof anymore or worse. So I had used my magic knowing the risk, and I now found myself in a carriage about to hit the water. I just hoped it would land on one of the other carriages.

***

Helnion's jaw dropped. She had never seen a jet of water that big before. Yet somehow she knew that was not Salis' full potential. Salis was stronger than her father and that was saying something.

The carriage had flown about as high into the air as the dorms were tall and was now coming down. It would land right on one if not both of the carriages behind them.

It hit them both.

Helnion turned back to the carriage she was on, threw the door open, revealing the driver.

Using the last of her magical energy, she summoned one last pillar of water and shot it inside, blowing the driver out of the door opposite of her.

There was little time to get to the controls. She rushed into the carriage and took the man's place.

Helnion needed to get back to Salis. Now that she had control of this carriage and there was only one other unharmed carriage they just might get away for good this time.

***

I had taken the landing well. I had been expecting to land on water but had instead landed on not one but two of the pursuing carriages, which were still moving somehow. What luck. It was also lucky that I had avoided any injuries.

I had drawn my sword. Now that I didn't have to pilot the carriage anymore, I could concentrate on the two men in the carriage. Unlike I had hoped, the crash hadn’t affected them. They were both standing on the opposite side of the carriage.

None of us moved.

Why? There was a huge crack running through the center of the carriage and I could see through it in what used to be the roof, now wall. This carriage would split in half and from the cracking noises I could hear, it would do it soon. Why do I care… I think I would rather take my chances in the river than with these guys.

I sheathed my sword. The men visibly relaxed. They assumed I had finally given up, which I hadn't. My bag, poleaxe, and crossbow just happened to be laying by them and it would be easier to get close to them if my sword was sheathed and they were off guard.

I held up my hands and walked towards them. I carefully stepped over the crack and stopped. When the man closest to me reached for me I dropped to my knees hard, and ignoring the pain from my scraped knees, jumped forward and grabbed my bag and rolled towards where my crossbow and poleaxe were. I didn't make it. One man stepped between me and the items.

I hadn't expected to make it. There were two men between them and me and it wasn't the biggest carriage. I was just happy to have gotten my bag.

The men reached down to me. One grabbed my arm, and the other reached for my sword and bag.

It was too late. By landing on my knees hard earlier and jumping right off the crack I had aggravated the already unstable carriage, and it was now visibly splitting.

I bit the hand of the man that had grabbed my shoulder and kicked at the other. The man that what holding me did not let go, but the other had lost his balance and had fallen when his leg went through one of the now many holes in the floor. He soon broke through and fell into the water.

The remaining man jerked me to my feet. He did not seem concerned that I had his friend was gone. Since the door was now on the roof, we couldn't get out that way.

It didn't matter. The carriage jerk violently as it started to bend in the middle. Using the momentum from the movement I fell from the man's grip towards my beloved weapons and grabbed them before the carriage finally split completely in half.

Miraculously we were not in the water yet. We had somehow become lodged between the two carriages. There still wasn't much time until the two pieces would fall in the water as the weight of the carriages was pushing the other two carriages below apart. I knew that if I fell into the water it would be over and I could no longer try to escape. I had to keep going. There was not much farther to go until we reached Herth.

There was only one thing I could do. That was to get on board one carriage below. It would be tough. I could see one carriage below me through the gaping hole in front of me. My half of the carriage was lower and at a steeper angle than the other half, probably because the man and I were weighing it down. While this made it easier to jump below to one carriage, there was only enough space for me to crawl through and I wouldn't be able to jump off easily.

The only solution I could think of would to be use magic. A good wind spell might give me a boost or maybe I could attempt a levitation spell. It would be risky as my magic power output was so high at the moment that I would probably be pushed a lot harder than my bones would like. I had to risk it.

The remaining man grabbed my arm, “Stop struggling, child. We want you alive, not dead.” His voice devoid of emotion.

I had no reason to stop struggling and my silence was my reply.

I felt his magical energy flow into my arm. I had experienced this before. He was using a sleeping magic on me. It wouldn't work. Using my hours of mental training I had with Pie Can, I pushed his magic back and forced it into his body. I lacked the magic control to use magic like mind reading and sleep inducement, but if someone tried to use them on me, I could hijack the link and sometimes force it back on them if they were weak-minded or unprepared. I didn't even need a high output to do this, but it made it faster if I did.

With the man now asleep I could finally get off of the soon to be sinking carriage. I couldn't risk him waking back up and it would help to have more room so I shoved him through the split between the two pieces of the carriage, and off he rolled.

I was now ready to jump. The distance had increased to the carriage I would jump to. I would need to use wind or levitation magic to get there now. I just hoped my magic power output had decreased since I last used it and not gone higher. I just had to do it and aimed at the biggest window. I jumped, pushing myself off with a burst of wind.

***

Helnion needed to hurry. Their carriage was now on top of two of the other carriages. The two carriages that their carriage had landed on had placed themselves underneath to catch it. She did not understand why they would do that, but it worked for her.

She jerked her carriage quickly to the side. There were now other things for her to worry about. She could see small fishing boats and a few cargo ships in the water now. She was lucky to have not hit one yet and was surprised that the others had not hit one either. This was why she needed to hurry. She needed to get Salis off of those broken carriages and safely to Herth.

There was a loud crash behind her. She tried to look back through the hole she had made where she could see the carriages but had to look back forward quickly because she had veered right when she had turned. At the moment she had gotten to see, she saw the two pieces of their carriage fall into the water. Was Salis still inside when it fell?

There was another boat ahead of them. She would easily avoid it. She wished that one other wouldn't be so lucky. And then she got an idea. If they wouldn't hit one boat themselves, she would make them.

She soon was side by side with the last untouched carriage. Salis would not be inside of this one so it was a great choice. This carriage would soon meet a boat.

Soon enough one came. She had seen it in the distance earlier and had positioned herself where she thought she could best shove the other carriage into it.

The other carriage moved to the side a little to avoid the boat. Helnion pushed it right back, nearly splitting her carriage in two and almost hitting the boat with the other carriage. Helnion wished she could have seen it from the outside.

She had hit the other carriage hard. Her carriage was now barely holding itself above the water and she had trouble steering it to the left.

Now was not the time to worry about her ride. She needed to get to Salis.

She soon forgot about her ride because she saw Salis.

It was easy to see inside all the carriages now. The two that had caught their original carriage had large holes in their roofs where it had landed. Salis was in the carriage that was now in the middle and she was unconscious. Considering the Salis like hole where a window should have been and a large crack on the opposite wall just above her she could guess what happened.

There was no way she could get around the middle carriage and try to take out the one on the other side, in fact, she was losing speed and soon would not even get on to the carriage Salis was on.

Helnion abandoned her carriage. She barely jumped off of it in time before it hit the water, spraying her with water.

She needed to take control of this next carriage. She did not know what to do. Her magic was low and she did not have a weapon. She would have to get Salis' help. She would know what to do, she always did.

The carriage shifted. They were now heading for the shore. Now that Salis was on a carriage they controlled they were now probably going to head back to wherever they had come from.

Helnion reached Salis. The man driving had ignored her and let her get to Salis. Salis did not look good. Her head was bleeding and some other places. She was not awake and would not wake up when Helnion shook her. Helnion was on her own.

To her surprise, all of Salis' belongings were next to her. She had somehow held onto all of them. Salis had always been possessive like that.

Helnion pulled off the now battered crossbow that Salis still had slung over her shoulder. The bolts were in the bag that was laying near her.

She loaded the crossbow. There was no way she would miss, and unless the driver used a magic barrier, she would kill him.

The man raised a wind shield at the last moment, but the crossbow bolt easily passed through it, killing him.

“Worst assassins ever,” She said to herself as she pushed the dead body out of the way and took control of the carriage before it could hit whatever was below them.

They were still over the water. She did not know if it was good news or bad, but she felt safer over it. It would also hurt less if she fell into the water and not land.

She turned the carriage back towards the center of the river. It wouldn't be far until they made it to Herth. They would be safe there.

Then she noticed the forest ahead. The one she should only see if they had passed Herth. They were heading straight into Usui's Playground. This was not good.

The carriage shook violently. The driver of the other carriage had rammed into them and was upon her before the shock had left her. The driver was strangling her. She would die.

“Salis,” She said with a barely audible noise and reached out for her.

And then they hit the river.