As the SUV pulled out of the valley, Mary looked across the wreckage that had once been beautiful school grounds. As far as the eye could see, trees were down, some burning. The grass had been blasted from the soil, mostly in long, flat strips where the sod had pulled back. The various bits of equipment were just… gone.
The school itself still stood, but much of the brick and stone veneer had been blasted away. Concrete, cinder block and rebar showed through. Metal shutters covered the windows, even over the great stained-glass window above the entrance. Shutters covered the doors themselves. They were painted, but Mary would be surprised if they were less than steel.
The ride of the SUV changed, became smoother. Mary looked down, surprised, and realized they’d reached the road. A few wrecks lay scattered across the road further down the street, but nothing between them and the school. As they closed, Mary saw something in the air above the school. Almost a heat haze; completely explicable by the devastation in the area, but if the school were on fire, they’d see flames.
“Is the gate still open?”
The SUV swerved for a moment then came back under control. Gwen replied, her voice a bit abashed. “The big gate was disrupted, but there are three more inside the building. Small ones.”
“Can you do anything about them from here?”
Gwen’s keyboard rattled. Her voice, when she replied, held notes of barely held back strain, “There’s a lot of residue from… when the gate went down. I’ve tapped some of that to pin the gates in place and hold them closed, but it won’t last forever.”
Suddenly, the fatigue of the past year caught up with Mary. The battles, the worry, the secrets: all of them welled up and threatened to overwhelm her. “How do we close them? Permanently.”
Gwen’s voice had a new note layered over the strain. It sounded almost like pride, although Mary had no idea why she would be feeling that now. “We go through and stop whoever is opening them.”
“Right. I guess we go in then.”
“Lane? Be a dear and open the door?”
Lane’s reply, distracted, was a simple, “Pull us closer.”
The SUV shifted back into motion. When they were less than a football field away, Lane spoke again. “Turn us sideways. Mary, you want to try talking to them?”
“I’m not a cop, Lane.”
“Right. Game face on, then.” Lane suited actions to words and dropped her welding mask in place.
Mary reached up and pulled the helm back over her head. When she did, she felt the new geas wash over her once more. It filled her, enveloped her, supported her, and empowered her. With a voice of crystal and trumpets she ordered the Green Knight. “Open the gates.”
Within her armored shell, after the earlier explosion, the launch was almost anticlimactic. When the missile hit, however, she was reminded that she had been sheltered from the bulk of the last explosion. The bulk of the blast was directed through the door, but the force of the backblast still rocked the SUV.
When the smoke cleared, a gaping hole yawned where the doors had been. Mary could see into the foyer of the school, with barricades emplaced in the hallways leading off from the entryway. As she examined the opening, gnats began to slap at her cuirass.
“Yo! Gwen! We’re not all bulletproof like Mary. Can you do something about that?”
“Working.” The distraction in Gwen’s voice plain to hear now, like she was holding a completely different conversation. Her keyboard rattled once more, and a recorded voice muttered an arcane phrase too rapidly to discern the words. “Done. Until I let go, modern explosives don’t work in the vicinity of the school.”
A moment after Gwen made her pronouncement, figures boiled out of the school. They came not only from the gaping hole at the front, but from side doors that swung open as Mary watched. She braced herself, but the figures didn’t charge. Instead, they formed up in a loose formation in front of the main doors. They filled more than half the space; the forward edge of their formation less than a hundred feet away.
She took a moment to study them through her shield. Few of them were human. All of those were possessed. The others were conjured spirits. Demons. They mimicked the possessed humans, choosing to appear as husky men in full body armor, including helmets with darkened faceplates. The Sword of Light would be unable to blind them.
“What the hell are they waiting for?”
“Me to get tired. Lane, clear me a path to the elevators please?”
Lane launched herself from the SUV before Mary really registered the words. Before Mary could do more than shout incoherently in surprise, Lane engaged the guards. Mary’s jaw went slack, her whole body slumped in shock as she watched a bow wave of bodies fly away from Lane’s path. She moved like a brutally choreographed ballet; mesmerizing. After a moment Gwen, voice soft with reproach, broke her fugue.
“When you needed him, the child of the lake broke a rogue Legion at Camlann. Shattered it beyond hope of reformation. Unarmored. Unarmed, except a club. Because you’d forbidden him armor and weapons. Did you expect less here, now?”
Mary’s sense of self slipped. Time stood still; three bodies frozen in midair. She reached for the sword at her hip with her right hand, confused when it wasn’t there. Her left hand groped at her shoulder, searching for a missing hilt.
“No.” Mary had let herself be manipulated too many times. The geas was the last thing she would allow. She was Artemis Mary Drake, no one else, no matter who thought otherwise.
“Yeah, well. Are you going to help her, or just stand there?”
The acerbic tone of Gwen’s voice snapped Mary out of her fugue once more. With a self-deprecating smile, she leaned on the power of the Knight, the power of her geas, and leapt into the fray. She targeted the humans in the group; one touch of the Sword of Light and they collapsed to the ground, puppets with their strings cut. She wasn’t fast enough. She could still see the light of life being snuffed from the humans in the crowd as they crowded toward Lane like moths to a whirling steel flame.
“Lane, you’re killing them!”
“That’s the idea.”
“They’re not all demons!”
“That matters why?”
“You can’t kill them!”
Lane snorted, “Doing pretty good at it now. Too slow by half though.”
“Stop it!”
“Gimme another way.”
“My sword!”
For a moment, Mary was certain Lane hadn’t heard, or just ignored her. Then the first body sailed her way, thrown by Lane. Reacting without thought, Mary brought up her shield and sword. The body impacted, glancing against the flat of the Sword of Light as it did so, and dissolved into a flash of light.
After that first, a steady stream of figures flew at her, flashing into incandescence as they struck her sword. After an endless minute or so, one didn’t dissolve. Instead, it slammed into her, falling to the ground bonelessly when it bounced off her shield. Leaping from opening to opening, she saw Lane was slowly being overwhelmed now that she was holding back. A moment later, Lane’s voice called out from a short pile of bodies that subsequently exploded outward, leaving her momentarily clear.
“Too slow. Give me the sword!”
“It will only come to my hand.”
“Get down here.”
Mary didn’t think twice; she leapt into the space Lane cleared. As she landed, Lane’s hand wrapped around her wrist, steel drove into concrete, and Lane’s other arm went about her waist. Over her shoulder, Lane’s breathing echoed in her helmet, deep and even. She couldn’t feel anything through her armor, but Lane’s held her, stable and supporting. Lane’s whisper brushed across her ear, “Let me lead,” and Mary let herself go loose, reacting to Lane’s movements, going where she was led.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Her body directed by Lane, Mary’s thoughts drifted as they danced. She watched as blue body armored figures blurred past her, the Sword of Light slashing through them without pause. Dust and pyrotechnics filled the air. As she spun, she saw their path picked out in the patterns in the dust; where they passed only limp bodies and whirling particulates remained.
Mary smiled. For nearly half a year, she had been unable to dance without her gut clenching. If it did so at all now, Mary knew it was the exhilaration of being pushed beyond her physical limits doing something she loved. She spun, she twirled, she leapt in unison with her partner. Crystal and trumpets sang as she laughed out loud. She realized that for the first time in her memory, she had a dance partner she could lean on without worrying about straining them. She’d been too big to be a ballerina for years. She laughed again as she realized she was rediscovering the joy of dancing on a field of battle surrounded by demons.
Then, quite suddenly, she wasn’t. Lane no longer danced. No more demons remained on the field. The sound of laughter died out, replaced by the approaching whir of an electric motor. Still buoyed by the rush of the dance, she turned to see Gwen weaving her way around the few still forms that cluttered portions of the walkway. Her back straight, her eyes distant, she concentrated on something within the school. After a quick glance to confirm there were no obstacles to Gwen’s approach, and another quick glance back at Gwen just because, Mary turned to Lane.
Lane scanned the surrounding area. Her crowbar hung loose in her hand; she’d retrieved it in the short time Mary studied Gwen. She bounced on her toes; her welding mask lifted to show a slight, satisfied grin. The grin of a workman surveying a job well done, the grin of an artist satisfied with her performance. Motivated by impulse, Mary ran her hand across her faceplate, dispelling her helm once more. The feel of the breeze across her face more than compensated for the faint sulfur smell of the dissipating demons.
Gwen rolled up and looked down at the ragged remains of the doors. Her expression, while still distracted, gained a hint of impish glee. Her voice tinged with disapproval spoilt by the laughter lurking beneath the surface, she spoke, “Lane, I thought I asked you to clear me a path?”
Lane laughed aloud, the sound rich and full. Still chuckling, she walked to the back of Gwen’s chair, grabbed the handles, and pushed. Gwen’s passage wasn’t smooth by any stretch of the imagination, but in seconds she was inside the building and onto relatively clear floor. Mary followed, musing for a moment about how the three of them had become so savage so quickly. It was like none of them had ever fit in well with civilization, and the bonds of it melted away moment by moment.
Still, it wasn’t another geas or anything external to them at all. She stifled a sigh, smiled wryly at her own pensiveness, and walked to join Lane and Gwen by the elevators.
***
“Lane? Gwen?”
Gwen responded immediately, “If we’re not, you’re outnumbered.” Lane just looked at her, quietly attentive.
Mary took a deep breath, girding herself for what she had to say, “I have something to tell you.”
“You’re secretly a superhero?”
“No. I mean, sort of, but that’s not it.”
“You aren’t sure we’re going to graduate from MVB?”
“Well, I think graduation might get delayed, but that’s…”
“You’re gay?”
Mary huffed, stifling her annoyance at Gwen’s levity, “Look, I’m trying to tell you something serious.”
“Being gay isn’t serious? Well, that’s a relief. Ooh! Ooh! I know! You can’t believe it’s not butter?”
“GWEN!”
“Okay, okay, I’ll be good. What did you want to tell us that’s so important?”
“I’m sorry.”
Gwen and Lane just stared at her as confusion filtered into both of their faces. Mary stifled a frustrated sigh. Taking a deep breath, she tried again.
“I haven’t been a good friend to either of you. When I got… this,” she waved a hand over her armor and shield, “instead of telling you, I cut you both out of my life.”
Gwen’s voice was quiet, comforting, “It’s ok, Mary. It was a lot to take in.”
Lane was even less impressed, replying with a simple, “Yeah. Don’t worry about it.”
“NO. You don’t understand. When I was armored… When I was the Queen’s Knight.”
Lane interrupted her, “You weren’t.”
“OKAY! I get it Lane. I wasn’t. Whatever. When I was in the armor, I thought you guys were my enemies. I was almost ready to kill you both. I kept secrets from you, I abandoned you, and I almost… I would have…”
Gwen’s voice quieted to a whisper. “You don’t have to say this.”
“I do. I almost hurt you. I could never forgive myself if I did that. I understand if you can’t forgive me. I’m not sure I could forgive me. But I’m sorry. Whatever we’re going into, I want to go into it knowing you know how I feel.”
Gwen stared at her, the oddest look on her face. Lane, impassive, set the tip of her crowbar on the ground and leaned on it, waiting for Gwen. Gwen kept staring at Mary, that odd look never leaving. She glanced at her laptop, glanced at the elevator doors, returned her gaze to Mary. After a few moments, she spoke.
“Speaking of what we’re about to get into, I’ve found the…”
“Gwen, I…” Mary cut herself off as Gwen’s hand lifted imperiously, palm toward Mary.
“I’ve found the gates. When I locked and stabilized them, they bound themselves, grounded themselves, into physical embodiments.” She waved at the three elevators.
“Gwen, please…”
Gwen’s hand came up again, one finger upraised. Mary bit her lip. She wasn’t suited to the role of supplicant, but if this was how Gwen wished to treat her, she knew she deserved no less.
“There are three gates. If I go through one, the other two will open within a matter of minutes. If I wait here while you two go through one… They’ll probably figure that out and find a way to hit me here while you two are away. Besides, I’m not sure how long I can hold out. They’re not really pushing now. They’re just waiting for me to tire out on my own.” Gwen’s voice once more drifted into the distraction from earlier, her hand drifting back down to her keyboard.
“Gwen?”
Gwen’s attention snapped back to Mary. Her eyes blazed, at odds with the positively wicked grin on her lips, but perfectly suited to her commanding tone. “Mary, I will be with you in just a moment. Each of us will have to go through a gate and destroy whatever or whoever is on the far side. I don’t see any other option. Now, your thoughts on that plan, Mary?”
Mary’s world fell to pieces. She apologized, and the one person she’d most hoped would forgive her hadn’t even acknowledged it. After an endless moment of anguish, she squared her shoulders. If what she had done was so horrible it couldn’t be forgiven, that was even more reason she had to make up for it.
Her response to Gwen’s question bubbled up from her earlier thoughts of how savage they’d become, “Does it seem odd to either of you that we’re not waiting for the cops, or the army, or some legitimate authority here?”
“Mary, by the time they arrived, I would be exhausted and each of these three gates would be spewing out hordes of God-knows-what. You two might be able to stem the tide, but that supposes those responsible would leave the gates here in the first place, rather than moving them to, say, Times Square. Now, do you have any serious objections to the plan?”
Mary sighed, wishing she could find some objection, but her treacherous mind had already assimilated and processed what Gwen told her. “You’re sure you can’t hold out here?”
“Reasonably certain.”
“And you’re sure you can handle one of the gates?”
“If I get the right one, yeah.”
“Can we recon them?”
“Not without giving away the element of surprise. We might not have that anyway. I’ll also have to drop my lock on the gates to let us through. So… no.”
Mary sighed, frustrated at the lack of options, “How will you know which one is the ‘right’ one?”
“Same way I know there is a ‘right’ one. Magic.”
Mary considered only a moment longer, then shrugged. “I don’t see any problems then. You’re the boss.”
“No, not really. Lane?”
Lane’s question was a simple, “You think it will work?”
“I think it’s better than anything else we could try.”
“Good enough for me, then.”
“So. We each take a gate. Mary, you take that one,” Gwen pointed to the right-hand elevator doors, “Lane, you take that one,” she pointed to the left, “and I’ll take the one in the middle. Are we clear?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now, two more things. First…” Gwen dug into her skirts and came out holding a wisp of crimson silk. She rolled over to Lane. “Kneel down here.” Lane knelt, and Gwen wrapped the silk around her arm. As she tied it off, she spoke, “A Lady’s Knight should always carry her favor into battle. While you carry this, you fight for me, and I will never be far from you. Fight well for me, Knight.”
Lane smiled easily, confidently. After seeing her in the yard, Mary understood why. “You got it, Gwen.”
Gwen nodded, smiling, “Wait a moment, if you would, Lane.”
Without another look at Lane, Gwen turned and rolled toward Mary. Much as she had with Lane, she rolled right up to her. Unlike with Lane, she didn’t ask her to kneel. Instead, she looked up at her with something like fury in her eyes. Mary could understand fury but couldn’t understand the wicked grin that kept playing over Gwen’s lips.
“Artemis Mary Drake, time after time you have done the same thing. You have damned me for the appearance of my actions more often than I think you remember. Each time it hurt me.”
Mary could barely hear her own voice, but she forced the words out. “I know.”
“Do you know what hurt worst of all?”
“That I didn’t trust you?”
“No. That hurt, but that wasn’t the worst.” Gwen reached out, grabbing at Mary’s elbow. With Mary for leverage, she pulled herself upright on her chair’s footrests. Even standing on that small elevation, she was still at least six inches shorter than Mary. Mary stared down, captivated by eyes of flashing jade fire. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gwen’s hand move. Something warm and wispy wrapped around the back of her neck and fluttered around to hang down her front, but nothing mattered except the anger in those eyes.
Gwen’s hands gripped the ends of her scarf and pulled it taut. “The worst part was you never realizing that I have always and will always forgive you anything. Everything I did, no matter how unwise or how much it hurt us, I did for you. There has never been anyone else for me. I love you.” With that, Gwen pulled her down, pulled herself up, pulled their lips together. Without thinking Mary responded, losing herself for a moment in lips of silk and cinnamon.
Then Gwen dropped back to her chair, leaving her scarf behind. Without another word, she spun the chair and rolled toward the center elevator door. The doors opened for her, and she rolled through, leaving Mary standing stunned in the hall.
As the doors closed, Lane stepped over to within an arm’s reach. She clapped a hand down on Mary’s shoulder, and even with the supernatural strength granted her by armor and geas, Mary’s knees buckled. Lane’s grin was positively sophomoric. “Yeah, doofus. What she said, only without the kissing bits.” Lane pulled her into a fierce hug. She released her, stepped back. “Fight well, sister.” She turned, stepped through the left-hand door, and was gone.
Mary stood there while her heart stopped racing, her lips stopped tingling, her eyes stopped watering. She waited a tick longer, but quickly realized that the idiot grin on her face wouldn’t go away any more than the bone deep regret of paths not taken.
Thinking of paths reminded her of what she should be doing. She took a last look around at the ruins of the school. The damage was so extensive that if they succeeded, Ms. Williams still might not rebuild. Even if she did, even if they survived, Mary didn’t think she’d be coming back here. She reached up and brought her helm back into being. With a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and turned to face the doorway out of reality…