Others in the surprise-attack group followed to back up the leaders, firing spells as they went.

Fifer didn’t see Frieda Stubbs, but one of Frieda’s top dissenters was surprisingly quick to react. “There they are!” she shouted. “On the stairs! Get them!” She fired freeze spells, and the rest began doing the same, some of them rushing all together to barricade the bottom of the stairs so Aaron’s group couldn’t advance. Florence had taught them well.

Aaron and Fifer dodged the first round and fired more spells as they pressed forward, using the parts of the railings that still stood as cover. But Frieda’s people swarmed the main floor around the stairs, finding the open spaces and taking aim. Right behind Fifer, Carina was hit by a freeze spell, and she fell into Aaron, knocking him off balance. Then Samheed and Sean were hit, and they tumbled down a few steps. Fifer darted and scrambled to release the spells so her teammates could continue fighting, but as soon as she released them, they were struck by more. Then she was hit by scatterclips and went flying back, stacking Carina and Ms. Octavia behind her, all three sailing to the balcony and sticking to the wall between the girls’ and boys’ hallways. Seth quickly ran up and released them; then he, Fifer, and Carina charged down the stairs again, firing spells as they went.

Ms. Octavia descended a few steps but preferred to stay near the top of the staircase so that she could employ all eight of her tentacles in various directions. Two or three tentacles she used to power herself forward and dodge the flying components. With the rest she sent clay shackles and various confusion spells down the stairs on both sides.

More dissenters came together at the bottom of the staircase, making an impenetrable mass. Soon they began to climb, forcing Aaron and Fifer to retreat in order to find new cover in the curve of the bannisters. Other dissenters emerged from the various classrooms on the main floor and forced the attacking party to retreat up the steps even more.

Just as Fifer was about to call her people to retreat and escape back down the secret hallway to the jungle, a group of dissenters, with Frieda Stubbs among them, flowed out from the second-floor living quarters onto the balcony. They blockaded the top of the steps, trapping the attackers on the stairs.

To Fifer’s chagrin, she and her team were stuck in the kind of trap Florence had warned them about time and again. But this was the first time they’d actually fought against people who were also trained by her. All they could do was fight their way out of it. Spell components filled the air like a bizarre and colorful blizzard. People and statues dropped left and right. The scramble to release the spells was equally dangerous as fighting, for taking one’s eyes off their foes, even for a split second, could mean death if a dissenter chose to use a lethal spell. Fifer knew Frieda could try to put an end to her or Aaron at any second.