Dawn was breaking above the horizon in the distance but a dark cloud hung over the town, spewing little dashes of raindrops. Not enough to soak past clothes, but enough you could feel them land occasionally on your head.

  An open slit in the brick walls of the castle created my entrance on the ground floor. I seized the moment of quiet and stole inside, landing in a room with stored meat and vegetables. The larder.

  Just like we’d planned, I kept to the shadows and made my way to the trial room.

  I scuttled down wonky stone staircases and passages lined with simple decoration, maybe the odd painting or ornament of gold, nothing extravagant except perhaps the floral mural, before reaching what I knew to be the last stretch of hallway leading to the trial room thanks to studying the floorplans yesterday.

  Servants gossiped around the corner, bringing game to the larder I’d just come from no doubt, and I dove behind a pillar to avoid them.

  They passed, pausing for a second, taking in the painting opposite after setting their dead birds on a windowsill. It was a large, imposing thing, with a stern man standing tall and proud as if he owned the world, similar to some of the stills at the Estate.

  It made me laugh. Why did powerful people go to such pains to convince everyone they were? More importantly, why did people fall for it? Did they not see the childish posturing for what it was? Anyway, it wasn’t for me to decide. I was just passing through. And had a mission to focus on. I mean, priorities, Ayla, am I right?

  “The light catches it perfectly, don’t you think?”

  Ok, I know this was like the least important thing going on right now, but the maid was dead wrong. They totally should’ve moved it a few inches to the left, but whatever. Not my place. Not important.

  “Yes definitely, it makes the master look most impressive.”

  I mean come on! That was the man holding my friend prisoner she was talking about.

  The two women continued on their way, and I checked the coast was clear, listening out for more voices or footsteps, but none came.

  I came out from my hiding space, and skulked to the end of the hallway, almost passing the corner until–

  “I forgot me pheasant on the windowsill! Won’t be a moment.”

  I dashed to get around the corner but it was too far, and too late.

  The servant’s eyes passed by me at first, but she soon did a double-take, her face scrunching into a frown.

  “Don’t think I’ve seen you before. What’s your business here, girl?”

  “I um... I’m here to observe the trial?”

  “Is that a question or a statement?”

  “Statement. Definitely statement. If you could point the direction, I’ll be skedaddling on my way.”

  She took in my hair and attire. Appropriate for the era, I was told by the Lion Legion member who gave it to me. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to pass inspection.

  “I don’t like the looks of you,” she said quite bluntly.

  That made two of us.

  I put my hands up.

  “Really, I’m honestly just trying to watch the trial, there’s no need to worry yourself. If you could just keep quiet about this…”

  “If you’re meant to be here, why do I need to keep quiet about it?”

  Ok, I asked for that. Idiot.

  “No reason.”

  “I know a liar when I see one.” Her eyes flickered with wild excitement. “Are you here to rescue the witch?”

  Smart lady. I racked my brains. What could keep her quiet?

  “Hypothetically, if I was, there’d be a coin in it for your silence.”

  “Now you’re talking. How much?”

  I took a gold piece out of my pockets and checked. No value written on it.

  “I don’t know, however much this is worth. Is that enough?”

  Her eyes widened.

  “It’ll do nicely.”

  She accepted it quickly, I’d probably given her a year’s worth of wages or something.

  We shared a secret nod. A voice called from beyond the opposite end of the corridor.

  “Mary, are you coming or –”

  My breath hitched but to my relief she replied, “Yes, yes, on my way. Good lord, such an impatient girl.” She gave me a wink. “I would’ve kept your secret for free. Master deserves what’s coming to him.”

  She disappeared down the opposite end of the hall, turning a corner.

  “Who were you talking to?”

  “No one, I was talking to meself.”

  Their voices faded into silence and I set off again, creeping those last few feet towards the heavy medieval door.

  I creaked it open, and slunk behind a row of benches on a side balcony that overlooked the middle of the large room with a table diagonally to my right where the judge would pass his ill-judgement.

  Not a soul sat in the room yet but I hid behind a pillar before that changed. Thank god whoever designed this place had enough of a crumb of good taste to give me some decent hiding spots.

  Soon enough the doors burst open and townsfolk poured in to take their seats, sharks eager for blood.

  “All rise for the Mayor of Bideford Thomas Gist and Alderman John Davie who will be presiding today’s trial.”

  The mayor, and I guessed also judge, stormed in, recognisable by the curly white wig he wore, followed closely by other men who took their place by his side at the big, polished table.

  Guards entered in formation, with a dishevelled Rolene at the centre, and they pushed her in front of the judge. Her eyes were sunken and she had a small cut on her chin. It was time to get her out of here.

  “Be seated,” he ordered, and all the townsfolk took their places. “I declare the trial of Miss Off open.”

  If ‘Off’ was the last name she gave, I cringed at the first name she might’ve given.

  “You are hereby accused of the crimes of witchcraft and sorcery as stated by the 1604 Witchcraft Act. How do you plead?”

  “Does it matter?” she scoffed.

  “The Court requires your plea.”

  “Not guilty, then.”

  The judge continued with the trial, bringing forth witnesses who claimed to have seen her using magic, one woman even suggesting she turned into a cat and bit her. Then the stern woman who always seemed to follow the witch-hunter around came forward.

  “Isabella Manning, please state your account.”

  “I’m a God-fearing woman, and I have lots of children, yet this woman who’s of child-bearing age has admitted to a lack of children. The only possible explanation is that she consorts with Satan.”

  Naturally.

  But the judge-mayor took this in slowly, eyes focusing on Isabella in a stare that removed any remaining heat from the room, and made the torches somehow burn less bright.

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  “How came you with so many offspring, Isabella?”

  She was taken aback.

  “Excuse me?”

  “If I recall, you struggled to conceive for quite some time then suddenly had some eight, one straight after the other. I never thought much of it but now I realise it was very peculiar.”

  “Is it relevant?”

  “The Court is curious.”

  The woman stumbled on her words.

  “I’m blessed, I-I suppose. Or it was just luck.”

  “Or it is you.” The judge-mayor pointed a bony finger at her. “Who have made dealings with the Devil.”

  “Of course not –”

  “Now I wonder whether this town knows you at all.”

  “That’s right, I’ve seen her cast the evil eye, I have!” a member of the board cried out.

  “She’s been leading us astray to get the attention away from her!” cried another.

  “Did she not argue with Rephilius, and but a week later all his cattle perish from a mysterious illness?”

  More townsfolk threw accusations and the woman named Isabella cowered.

  “No! It’s the other woman, she’s the witch. Not me, good God it’s not me!”

  “Isabella, I like to believe you’re innocent, but we have to be sure in serious matters such as these. Arrest her.”

  The woman ran to the witch-finder general and begged on her knees with tears in her eyes.

  “Mathew, they’ll kill me, you know they will. You can’t do this, please.”

  “If you are innocent then you will be sacrificing yourself for a good cause. If not, then you’ll be where you belong. Therefore be at peace and have no fear, the Lord will save your soul,” he said as if it was at all reassuring.

  “No!” she screamed as she was led away by guards, her cries so strangled in fear it was hard not to feel sorry for her.

  The townsfolk murmured amongst themselves, caution in the air, knowing anyone of them could accuse the other. Meanwhile two familiar-looking guards nodded to each other. One with almost-black hair and one blond.

  The blond haired guard scratched the back of his neck, then placed a finger on his nose. The signal.

  I drew the old-fashioned gun Briar had thrust in my hands not an hour earlier. Strange, to hold a machine requiring bullets to harm, but I suppose that’s all the Lion Legion was willing to trust me with.

  I fired my first shot.

  It landed just shy of the judge’s head, blasting a significant hole in the wall not too far from where I was aiming, and the room was thrown into chaos.

  Screams filled the air, people ducked behind benches and clambered under their seats. A couple of people got on their knees and started praying.

  The secret members of the Lion Legion started fighting the people that surrounded Rolene, one head-butting a man right in the nose.

  He cried out, blood already gushing down his face.

  I fired a couple more shots from my place in the wings, aiming for legs and arms and hitting my targets well enough for someone without practice.

  Elian and Briar reached for Rolene, firing at anyone that got in their way, and helped her run for the exit.

  I slid down one of the wooden beams holding up the jury viewing area, and as soon as I landed on both feet, one of the braver townspeople came rushing toward me. I shot him in the knee and he crumbled.

  An arm came swinging for my head out of nowhere, and pain seared right into the back of my brain, the momentum knocking me to the floor. It took a second but I shook it off and got back up, dodging the next swing now that I knew what was coming.

  My attacker launched his whole body at me, but I was small and managed to squeeze past him, running for the exit after the others.

  Another townsperson, another shot from the gun, another person incapacitated.

  Elian was clearing a path for Rolene, and Briar was at her back.

  “Ayla,” she demanded, “Give me your gun.”

  I shrugged.

  “Sure.”

  I fired another bullet and tossed it in her direction. The hot muzzle sizzled in her hand and it clattered to the floor.

  “Ow!” she yelled.

  “I know I’m hot, but so much it burns?” Briar joked.

  “It was the gun you idiot!”

  Something told me Rolene was very much near her breaking point, and I dreaded to think what her jailers did to get her so close to reaching it.

  “Maybe now’s not the time Briar,” said Elian. He turned to me. “Old guns get hot when you fire them, don’t grab it by the muzzle.”

  “That was my fault.” I put my hand up. “I tossed it at you, I’m so sorry. I’m more of a lover than a fighter.”

  “I’m surrounded by idiots,” she lamented.

  “Maybe, but idiots that saved you from being hung.” I held two thumbs up.

  “On your left, look out!” cried Rolene, and I turned to see another person charging toward me.

  I ducked my head as she raised her gun and fired and he dropped to the floor, not particularly alive.

  “Thank you, now let’s call it even.” She blew the smoking muzzle.

  “That. Was. Impressive,” I said.

  We almost reached the door, a wall of townspeople guarding the exit.

  Elian and Briar took down about five each in seconds. They sank to the floor one by one, writhing in bullet pain. But there were still too many to fight all on our own.

  The big double doors they were guarding burst open as Daniella appeared with a small number of Lion Legion members, knocking them out from behind, taking down ten people while only needing three shots from her gun.

  They fell like dominoes one on top of the other as she stood victorious over their unconscious bodies.

  The man on top of the pile stirred, coughing up blood, but Daniella dragged him by the collar of his shirt and hurled him against the wall, making sure he didn’t rise again.

  On the other side of the room a man lunged for Elian with a sword while he was distracted by the display.

  I swiped the gun from Rolene’s hands and shot him.

  Elian turned around just as he crumpled on the ground, raising an eyebrow.

  “Is this you being a lover?”

  “You’re welcome!” I cried.

  No one else made a move toward us, and Daniella held her arm out toward the exit.

  “Let’s move it people!”

  We filed out, Rolene first, then Elian and the rest of the Lion Legion members, leaving only me and Briar to witness a woman crawl out from beneath a bench and dash at Daniella with a knife while her back was turned.

  “Look out!” I shouted, just in time for Daniella to turn around.

  The surprise delayed her by a crucial second, the knife slicing her arm as Daniella dodged the attack, then swiped the knife out of the woman’s hand with clearly trained skill. She threw the woman on the ground, spitting at her feet.

  “It’s cowardly to attack someone when their back is turned.”

  The cut in her arm dropped red pearls of blood, which she wiped away without so much as flinching. It would leave quite the scar, but she didn’t seem bothered about that. I supposed it would join the little nicks already scabbed over on her face.

  Briar ran towards her, fiercely observing the wound.

  “You should return to base and get that patched up,” he observed, concern laced through his voice, but Daniella shrugged him off.

  “No, we finish the mission first. Get the participants back to the Estate, forge the documents for the escaped witches and then, and only then, will I return.”

  Briar didn’t back down.

  “You can’t fight in this state. Go home and heal, I’ll take care of the mission.”

  Daniella shot him a gorgon’s stare, freezing him to stone.

  “Does anyone agree with Briar?” she asked cooly, not breaking eye contact. “Does anyone think I should abandon this mission?”

  Everyone kept quiet.

  “Then it’s settled.”

  She ripped a piece of cloth from her shirtsleeve and tied it round the wound, marching towards the castle’s exit as the makeshift bandage started staining red.

  Outside the castle, the hills stretched out of the town, a dark green forest growing on their surface like mould, the wind blowing as loud as screams, a grim reminder of the gruesome end that countless innocent people had been forced to endure.

  This part of the world, this time in Earth’s history, was a place of death, of decay. And I never wanted to come here again.

  Elian must’ve been thinking the same, because he too was gazing out toward the forest with disgust. The forest he still believed his best friend had died in.

  “Hey,” I said as he tore his gaze away.

  “Hell can’t be much worse than this,” he sighed, “If that’s where Niva is, I pray for her.”

  I placed a hand on his shoulder, about to offer some probably unhelpful words in an attempt to comfort, something along the lines of ‘if Niva ever ended up in hell she’d be running the place in no time’ when Daniella snapped into action a few feet ahead of us with a clap that could rival thunder.

  “Lion Legion listen up! The portal for the project participants to return to the Estate will be opening shortly, so I’m going to need the space-time squad to get them to where and when the portal will open. It appears another group got separated so make sure you find them and do the same. The recovery team should already be on their way to clear up the mess we made before any more townspeople come along. Let’s go, go, go!”

  Briar placed his hands on his hips, eyeing the group of people around him that included Rolene, Elian and I.

  “Ladies and gents it’s your lucky day, I need everyone to grab onto me please. We’re getting out of here.”

  He flashed the black electronic watch on his wrist while we did as he asked, letting him input the correct space-time coordinates and tapping the watch face to activate them.

  A blue light similar to the one from the time-machine wrapped around us, taking us back to the place where we’d started the challenge. I swallowed at the familiar crossroad, where our group had been divided in two.

  Briar winked as we let go.

  “Be back soon.”

  And he was gone again in a flash.

  Not a second later he returned with a couple of other people hanging off him. It went like this for a short while, Briar disappearing then returning with some newly rescued poor soul, and was a relatively happy reunion until Briar came back empty-handed.

  His head weighed heavy on his shoulders this time, his hair dishevelled and black circles hanging under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in days. If he was time-travelling, he might not have.

  “We couldn’t find the other group,” he stated, the words appearing to taste sour in his mouth as he pulled a face. It was shame, I realised, making his face like that.

  “The whole other group? All thirty of them?” I asked, refusing to believe it, but his eyes filled with pity, and that was enough of a confirmation.

  I hated pity, it always meant something bad had happened.

  “I’m sorry,” was all he said, and walked off to relay the news to the other members of the Lion Legion who were popping up around us in flashes of blue light.

  There were only nine people left on the project now. Forty one people hadn’t made it. Ten of them were being converted into who-knew-what in the primary labs, and thirty might be on their way. And then there were the rest of us, who’d somehow made it through this whole ordeal with our lives. The end seemed so close now. Just one more hellhole to visit, one more time risking our lives for the Estate’s entertainment and we’d be free. Seeing our faces though, it was difficult to determine how much more we could take. Everyone’s heads hung low with defeat.

  I wouldn’t bend though, wouldn’t break. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t. If we wanted to honour the people we’d lost, none of us could. We had to get through this and honour their memory.

  Rolene gathered all of the participants.

  “We lost the other group. But you know what this means? We’re the survivors. We’re going to go back to the Estate, and let them know they can’t touch us. We’re here to stay. And we’re staying strong.”

  As if the Estate heard her words, blue mist started to form like a fog, tendrils wrapping around each of our limbs.

  Elian came towards me, stepping out of the mist’s fragile reach.

  “My father might have something to say about it if I went back with you. Besides, there’s something I need to do first.”

  I stepped forward, taking his hands in mine.

  “The pain you’re feeling isn’t going to last forever. I’ll see you on the other side.”

  “On the other side.” He echoed, holding up his watch.

  I joined the noticeably shorter queue, waiting my turn, and when it came, gave Elian another two-fingered salute as I stepped into the spiralling blue concentration of energy that lifted me away from the hellscape of the witch trial era, and into the hellscape of the Estate.