Cary sat for the second time at Butch’s table. No meal lay before them this time, no joyful laughter accompanied their discussion. This time, the people assembled there bore the air of a military regiment preparing themselves for battle.
The scene satisfied a small portion of the fury in Cary’s heart.
“You’ve fought this Samantha before?” Joshua kept his gaze lowered, as if deferring to the fact that Cary could tie him into a knot with her bare hands at the least provocation.
“Indeed. She captured me as well as a Chuhaister.” Cary shrugged with her palms up. “I escaped, but was unable to free him in the process.”
Joshua grimaced and rolled his shoulders. “The dwellers in the wood are supposed to be powerful and ancient. I’m… this means the wizards we face are powerful and well-equipped.”
“I know for a fact they are. The sorceress Samantha is a Chaos magician. Attacks against her suffer the curse of Chaos and I do not know how to bypass such potent protections.”
Papa Butch blew cigar smoke out of his nostrils. “If you could communicate with Emilia, or if we could free her without Samantha learning. You’d have a way to deal with Samantha.”
“What do you mean,” Cary nodded. “Her Consumption. Yes, that is a good point. But I do not believe Samantha will allow me to contact Emilia. And from the effect worming its way into my gut, I would say that Emilia no longer possesses control of her body.”
Papa Butch let out a soft whistle while Joshua and Betsy swore. The overlay of Armenian and American English might have amused Cary in different circumstances. As it was, it annoyed her and reminded her of how dire their situation really was.
“You said you knew where their base was?” Betsy looked lost among the magicians and demons. Cary felt pity for her, overshadowed as she was.
She spoke softly, keeping her voice even. “I knew where one of their bases was. But I very much doubt they will remain in the same location now. After all, I escaped from that place. It was very close to Mystical Wonders.”
Joshua snapped his fingers. “How close?”
Cary blinked and accessed Emilia’s memory for the units of measure. “About a quarter of a mile. A few blocks. Why?”
“My order didn’t come to the Mystical Wonders to investigate the store. We arrived there because we’ve been tracking anomalous magic in the area. Powerful magic.”
“Cynthia protects the store with really careful wards.” Betsy interjected and Cary nodded along with her.
“I know that now, our agent only stopped within because of his sense of irony. What were the chances a coven of dark witches lurked within such a gaudy, fake magic shop? Joshua shrugged. “And then Emilia’s power struck out against him when he made the mistake of touching her. We assumed he’d accidentally found our location, hiding in plain sight as it were.”
“You’re saying your order might help with this?” Impatient, Cary cut through Joshua’s subtext.
Papa Butch raised his hands. “Whether they do or not, I am not revealing my kin to them.”
“I would not allow such a breach, you have my blood oath.”Joshua shook his head. “But we could reveal the location and nature of Mystical Wonders without violating my word. And my group would be more than happy to pursue their quarry.” Joshua bit his lip and worked his jaw back and forth. But he didn’t speak further.
Irritation rose in Cary. “Speak, magus. What are you thinking?”
Motioning to Betsy, Cary, and Regina, Joshua said, “If we did involve my order, there is no chance we could hide your participation. They would… make demands of all of you.”
“What kind of demands?” Cary’s icy words cut off Papa Butch and the others before they could speak.
Joshua wilted under Cary’s regard. “They would wish to test you, determine your abilities, and depending on their extent, require you to attend training…”
Papa Butch laughed. “Excellent! Then Regina will be forced out of my home and into the real world! I accept those terms.”
“Dad!” Regina spoke up for the first time, her eyes flashing with frustration and no small amount of anger at her father.
Joshua held his hand up, the digits shaking as he mustered the courage to look Cary in the eye. “As to the demon, they would require a binding. Perhaps something more.”
“More as in?” Cary’s voice had not lost her edge. But, like Papa Buch, she did not see a true downside to Joshua’s group intervening.
The shaking had grown severe in Joshua, as if he truly feared Cary in that moment. It made her raise him slightly in her estimation. “They might demand retribution for the death of their agent.”
“Would I have the chance to state my case?”
“Indeed.”
“Then I accept the Cabal’s assistance in this.”
Joshua’s mouth dropped open, but the cheap reveal only brought a broad grin to Papa Butch’s face. He pointed at the Armenian magician and snickered. “You ain’t exactly subtle, friend.”
“How can they help?” Cary had no time for amusement.
“We do not know how to penetrate a Chaos magician’s personal aura, but we do know how to ward against the negative effects of interacting with them.”
“You mean I won’t keep slipping and hurting myself if I try to punch her in the throat?”
“Correct. And the Cabal possesses a number of useful items and skills we could make available to you, under the proper circumstances.” Joshua dropped his gaze, but he’d stopped shaking.
“What do we need to do to make that happen?”
“I only need access to a phone and permission to inform them of where to meet.”
Cary looked over at Papa Butch, who raised his hands. “Like I said, I don’t want the Cabal nosing around my business. Take him to a payphone or buy the luddite a cheap cell.” Papa Butch pointed at Regina. “In fact, Regina honey, go take care of that with Mr Joshua right now, please darlin?”
Regina grunted as she stood, but she didn’t argue with her dad. She did stop by Betsy, whisper in her ear, and hand her something before she grabbed Joshua’s shoulder and dragged him out of the room.
“What was that about?” Cary waited until the two had left the room before she directed her question to Papa Butch.
“The Loa don’t want my child directly involved in your shenanigans. Won’t return if she is, none of you. And frankly, I stand with the Loa.” Before Cary could ask him what he meant, he added. “But you two, you two are in this up to your necks. You’ll need a spot of help from me, more than I’ve given you.”
“What’s it gonna cost me, old man?” Cary’s nose detected Papa Butch’s intent as he leaned forward over the empty place setting.
“When they take Regina off to their school, you’re to protect her.” Before Cary could interject, Papa Butch raised his hands and added, “I know you aim to protect Emilia first. But I’m telling you flat out to add my daughter Regina and the untrained witch Betsy to your list. Otherwise, my help ends here.”
“Done. Is that really all you want?”
Papa Butch’s eyes twinkled. “Now that’s the question. And the answer is no. First, you promise me you’ll supplement her training when she lets you. Second, now is the time to let out the little secret you’ve been keeping about your magic.”
Cary squirmed, but she needed Papa Butch’s help and he’d already sent away the one person who was absolutely forbidden from learning this. Clever old man. “Fine. I agree to your terms in full, Papa Butch. By the Beginning and End, by the Boundary of All Things. I swear to protect your daughter Regina and her friend Betsy after only Emilia and my own life. I further swear to teach all three women when they permit. Finally, you both must swear upon the Boundary not to reveal my secret unless I grant you permission.”
Papa Butch knew the forms right away. “By the Beginning and End, by the Boundary of All Things, I will not share this secret with anyone, save by your leave or to protect those I love.”
Cary nodded and after a few prompts, Betsy swore the exact same oath as Papa Butch. After a breath, Cary said, “I can work no magic. Nor can I shift my form beyond the few paltry changes you’ve observed. I appear to be limited to human forms and the form of demonic Temptresses.”
Papa Butch nodded as if her answer made perfect sense to him, but Betsy opened her mouth in shock. “How? You know so much magic?”
“My memory is eidetic, flawless. And I have been trained by a master of the arts. As well, I have spent centuries staring over masters who had no idea what I was doing while they pored over tomes.” Cary shrugged and clarified something for both of them. “I do not care if you tell others about my memory or knowledge, those are not my secrets. Though I would mention that keeping that information to ourselves might help us all in the future.”
Betsy’s shock hadn’t worn off. “You can’t do any magic?”
“No, I believe my master sealed my powers. I could work magic, thousands of years ago. But not right now. Perhaps never again.” Cary made herself sound sanguine over the matter, but she was anything but. “Enough of my personal history and deal making. We have a companion to rescue.”
Papa Butch took their stolen automobile and “made arrangements” for it. Cary didn’t inquire as to the details because Papa Butch supplied two cars of his own. One of them was a hearse, a transport for the dead. The other was a small red two-doored vehicle with a canvas roof. Betsy giggled when she saw it. Papa Butch asked them to return both if possible, though Cary suspected that the Loa had Seen something about them and he would not receive them in their original condition. It gave her the sense that she would owe the old man more once this adventure was concluded, assuming she rescued Emilia intact.
Cary and Betsy rode in the hearse while Joshua followed in the “sports car.” Regina remained home with her father, working magic remotely to allow the others swift and safe travel to their destinations. That way Joshua did not need to ensorcel either car to avoid other drivers.
Supplied with a cellphone, Joshua stayed in contact with Betsy while Cary drove the massive hearse. Finding Emilia was a simple matter. Samantha had not shielded the girl from Cary, assuming she could do so in the first place. All involved in the planning agreed that this evinced the fact that Samantha laid a trap for them.
Cary did not care. Of course this was a trap. The only question in her mind was whether Samantha had harmed Emilia and how messily Cary would have to murder the foul sorceress for her crimes.
The tug in Cary’s Hara, her center, pulled her toward North Austin, beyond downtown and fully north of the city’s border toward Round Rock. According to Betsy, this was an opulent, conservative area. Exactly the kind of place a Chaos sorceress would prefer.
Concentrating on sensing Emilia’s presence, Cary ignored the other drivers on the road as she sped through the traffic on the main interstate. They swerved out of her way without knowing why they did so, diverted by Papa Butch and Regina’s remote spells.
Papa Butch had no weapons for Cary to wield, though he’d presented both Betsy and Joshua with bone necklaces, “for protection.” The aura about the talismans made Cary’s nose itch, as if there were more to them than Papa Butch implied. But she had no grounds upon which to challenge the old man’s assistance. Even if she’d had such grounds, she would have remained silent. Emilia’s survival was paramount. Joshua was certainly expendable but Cary doubted the old Voodoo priest or his Loa would let harm come to the girl.
With a jerk, Cary pulled the hearse to the left and cruised down into a narrow road. Up ahead, a series of squat buildings lurked. Some were as tall as five or more stories, Cary couldn’t see the bottom levels through the thick trees.
After relaying their course change to Joshua, Betsy set her phone aside. “We need to hide the cars, if we keep going we’ll hit security.”
Cary ground her teeth. “No mortal security system is going to stop me…”
“No, I mean sure. But we don’t want to go that route, if we ram through their gates and stuff, they’ll know we’re coming.”
“How do you know this?” Cary slowed at the teen’s direction.
Betsy shrugged and stared at her feet. “Mostly from TV, but it makes sense, please trust me!”
Cary found herself surprisingly trusting of the girl. She waited until the trees thinned out a measure and pulled her black land boat onto a gravel path. She hadn’t turned the headlights on in the first place, a needless inhibition to the demoness’s natural night vision. After a few hundred feet, she stopped the hearse and waited for Joshua to arrive.
Betsy started from the passenger seat and her eyes rolled up in the back of her head. For a moment, Cary tensed, ready to face off with the mystical threat in the form of Cynthia. Instead, Papa Butch’s words rumbled out of Betsy’s mouth. “Hey there demon-girl. Betsy needs to take a nap here. She’ll be your getaway driver.” Mechanically, as if invisible strings manipulated her hands, Betsy reached into her jeans pockets and produced a small vial of murky fluid. She upended the contents on herself and shook for a second. Papa Butch spoke again through her mouth. “Take the talisman from Betsy, she don’t need it until the sun sets again.” His voice became faint. “Potion’ll protect her till then, if you don’t make it out demoness, ’twas fun meetin’ ya…”
Betsy’s chest rattled and her head slumped over to the side. In a second, she was snoring. Cary delicately removed the necklace Papa Butch had given the girl and considered whether she really wanted the old Voodoo priests to have power over her in the moment. But she had already tied her ship to his, there was no turning back at this point.
With the necklace on, Cary stepped out of the hearse in time to find Joshua pulling up beside her. He motioned her over to the car and noted the talisman at her chest. “Papa Butch contacted you, then?”
Cary nodded. Joshua leaned across the passenger’s seat. “He told me to take you through the woods and into this place’s backend. His words.”
Cary didn’t get the joke, nor did she bother to investigate the meaning through Emilia’s memories. Joshua’s order had been busy heaping magical accoutrement over the man. He wore a pair of goggles with thick rims. Based on the fact he left his headlights off too, they let him see at night. Probably let him see magical auras without concentration. He’d exchanged his brown tweed overcoat for a black thin cloth duster that radiated magic more strongly than anything else the man wore, save for the rod at his belt. That rod warped light around it, gave Cary trouble with focusing on it to see the dimensions or shape. It wasn’t black, but rather gold and longer than Cary’s forearm. She couldn’t tell how thick the rod was or whether it was decorated as staring at the thing gave her a headache.
“You know the path to our destination?” Cary settled into the passenger’s seat and buckled her seatbelt at Joshua’s insistence and with his aid.
“No, but you do. Do you think you could point it out on this map?” He tapped a glass panel on the interior and it lit up.
After orienting herself to the map that appeared on the panel, Cary tapped a building lurking in between two others. “I believe she is there.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Okay, one moment…” Joshua manipulated the map, changing it from a simple line drawing to a complicated photo-realistic rendering of the overhead view. Cary felt the sudden need to investigate this age’s technological advancements. That and an overpowering urge to rush forward and leave the murmuring Armenian magician behind her.
Irritation overcame Cary’s sense. “Why are you helping me?”
Joshua’s eyes flicked to her with a hint of annoyance deep within. He blinked the exhibition away and replaced it with wariness. “Because there is a young woman in danger. You are partially to blame, sure. But then so am I and by extension, the people I represent. Our order is intent on helping young people with their power, not endangering or hurting them. Besides, Samantha and her coterie are a threat to everyone in the State, perhaps the continent.”
Cary nodded at him, appreciating Joshua’s presence of the first time. “Thank you, Joshua.”
He snorted. “You’re welcome, Cary. Now let’s go get your mortal servant.”
Before Cary could demand he explain himself, Joshua slammed on the gas pedal and the car shot forward as if propelled by a ballista. The rear wheels swayed back and forth as they fought for purchase on the gravel, finding it, the car surged head over the path.
Joshua drove with impressive precision, light from his goggles indicating that they activated a portion of a magical effect for his benefit. Trees and disturbed birds sailed by them as Joshua achieved a dangerous speed over the road. “Brace yourself. We’re about to hit the fence.”
Up ahead, Cary caught a brief glint of the moon on metal as the sports car jerked her forward against her belt. The steel fence whined at the treatment, but could not stop the little car’s momentum, only delay it.
Links of steel ripped and shredded as the fence bent over and provided a ramp for the car as it shot out onto the pavement. Joshua’s jaw had been set for their landing, but Cary bit her own lip. The brief pain reminded her that she’d entered battle. As such, she donned her physical armor: her stone body.
Joshua’s gaze flicked over to her as she changed and he nodded as if approving her choice. “We’re going to hit the first floor with a bang. Be ready.”
Cary nodded and watched the central building approach closer and closer. Parallax and the intensity of the tugging in her middle informed Cary that this was definitely the correct building. That was good because they were committed, and the little car crashed right into the first floor, through panes of glass almost as tall as the sports car was long.
Shimmering ripples of magical energy, like a field of heat rising in the sun stole over the car and tried to rip Cary out of her stone form. Beside her, Joshua’s goggles cracked as he rocketed back in his seat. For a stunned second, no one reacted to the explosive entrance, inside of the vehicle or out. Then, as if everyone in sight had taken a collective breath, they burst into motion.
Bullets tore into the front of the little red sports car, ripping what remained of the windshield out and driving heavy impacts into both Cary and Joshua. For her part, the bullets did nothing to her, but Cary paid careful attention to Joshua. The rounds struck his coat and ricochetted off, bounding into the rest of the car.
He rolled out of the driver’s seat and Cary roared forward and crawled through the torn windshield. Bullets hurled themselves into Cary’s body, but fell flat against the stone of her skin. Workers, noncombatants by the looks of them, fled from the room and into a stairwell. From the brief glimpse through the opened door, Cary could tell those stairs only led down. She ignored them, Emilia’s tug emanated from above.
After a few seconds of ineffective fire, the automatic weapons stopped their constant barking. Joshua must have been waiting for that opportunity, because he produced a small sack from within his coat and tossed the contents into the room. As they sailed through the air and glinted under the remaining fluorescent lights, Cary could see the tiny glass sphere expanding as if they moved in slow motion.
Joshua charged forward, pulling his coat closed around him as he kicked and punched his way through the security team. Unlike Cary, his style showed clear evidence of training. For her part, Cary was unskilled, though somewhat experienced. Her style, such as it was, amounted to bashing her foes with stony fists. None of her opponents had the chance to voice criticism as her attacks generally dropped them with one swing. The elegance Joshua displayed made Cary want to ask him for training, or at least pointers on how to improve. Not only was he graceful, but his economy of motion was worthy of comment.
After a few glittering seconds, Joshua and Cary stood alone in the foyer of the building as alarms began to blare around them. Joshua’s breathing had not even become strained as he turned to Cary. “Which way now?”
“Up. We need to find stairs that go up or an…” Emilia memory yielded up the word, “an elevator.” Cary glanced about and didn’t see the tiny spheres Joshua had thrown. The question as to their purpose rolled onto the tip of her tongue as various colored discs burst into being around her. Dozens of men, armed like Joshua, filed into the room as if they’d prepared for engagements just like this one.
One of them held a staff and a snub-nosed machine gun on a strap over his shoulder. “Joshua, we will secure the floor. Which way?”
Joshua nodded to Cary and said, “We’re going upstairs. Send five Adepts with me, Magus. Hold until we return with the kidnapped witch.”
The magus nodded curtly at Joshua and spared Cary only the briefest glance. Apparently stone women were not that uncommon or the magus had been warned ahead of time what to expect.
With spearhead of five more troops, Cary and Joshua shuffled through the short maze-like cubicles and hallways. Their progress took far longer than she expected, the sense of pulling held firm, despite the fact that they should have come a little closer after a minute of crouched jogging. Cary growled as she noticed an electric discharge from the side of her vision. She elbowed Joshua and pointed to the disturbance.
“Shit. Reyan, give me your goggles.” Joshua issued an order to the goggled magician closest to him, who removed them and revealed that he was no man, but a woman with short hair and lavender eyes.
Joshua adjusted the goggles and uttered a series of magical words as he stared at the walls. “We’re caught in a glamour. Warn the other teams and give me a minute to bring down the effect.”
“Yes, Magus.” Reyan nodded and held her hand to her ear as she relayed Joshua’s order. Until that moment, Cary hadn’t realized exactly how high Joshua’s position on this group was.
The minute passed and Joshua cursed as the halls and cubicles faded from view. Their group stood in a small room, no bigger than twenty feet by twenty, and they all faced a blank wall. At the sight of a fucking blank wall, Cary swore and dragged her claws across it.
Joshua tilted his head at her, but didn’t ask whatever question rose to his mind. Instead, he waved the whole group over to the door, checked both sides and filtered them out quickly. After only a few paces, Cary could tell that she was moving in relation to Emilia again.
They’d been trapped only a few feet from an elevator shaft. Joshua surprised Cary by pressing the button to call the carriage down. She started to ask, but he held up his hand. “We’re not taking the car up, we’re going a different route. But it’ll help to have the car here. Speaking of which…” Joshua waved his team to either side of the door. “You might want to move.”
Joshua tugged a small silver charm off of a bracelet Cary had not seen until that moment. When the door opened, he tossed the charm in blind and covered his ears. A black-clad sorcerer had taken a step out of the car when a massive explosion shook the floor and sent the man flying. When Cary stepped around the wall, the carnage inside of the elevator had slain everyone within. Clearly, none of them possessed Samantha’s Chaos magic.
Joshua waved to the other Cabal member, who took up defensive positions around the door while he hoisted Reyan up to the elevator’s ceiling. In the distance, Cary hear the report of further gunfire as well as the backwash of powerful magic going off. A panel at the top of the elevator car clicked and Reyan shimmied up onto the roof with Joshua’s assistance. Cary shifted back to her flesh form and accepted the foothold Joshua offered her.
Cary stood off to the side as Reyan affixed a small valve to the top of the elevator with a dial attached. It made an awful screech as she tapped it so, she spun the valve to the right. Another Adept pulled up to the top of the elevator as Reyan adjusted the valve and read from the dial. By the time Joshua jumped up to the ceiling and joined them, Reyan had gotten the valve to stop making noise.
“Grab something and be ready.” Her voice sounded a warning as Reyan waited for a three count and pressed a big red button on the dial. The roof they stood on lurched as the cable in the center began to spin. It picked up speed as the top of the elevator shot to the upper floor, gaining speed and momentum in the process.
When the dial screeched again, Reyan called out. “Barrier up ahead Magus!”
Joshua tossed his coat aside and produced the warped rod he’d held at his belt. A void-black disc of nothingness closed on their group while Joshua set himself, holing his rod aloft. His lips moved as if counting down the seconds until he pressed his finger into the top of the rod. The ray that burst forth from the rod matched the utter blackness of the void. Their combination emitted an incredible light which started as a tiny pinprick and expanded to encompass the entirety of the void portal. With a stomach churning lurch, they translated across time and space.
One of the adepts vomited as they stopped moving. The puddle of sickness shuddered a moment and started to move when Joshua tossed a vial of bright green fluid onto it. Sickening fumes rose from the combination, but the tentacles and eyes that had started to form atop the vomit stopped. Without missing a beat, Joshua rushed to the side of the man who’s thrown up and injected something into his neck.
“Mordicai is out for now. Sending him home.” Joshua tapped a blue button on the man’s lapel with his finger and it expanded around the coughing magician until it had covered him with a sky-blue film. With a sucking sound, he was pulled off the top of the elevator and their group had been reduced to six. “Engage your masks and if you feel ill, inject yourselves before you become infected.”
Cary would have asked about herself, but she knew the answer. Her demonic physiology probably made her immune. Just to be on the safe side, she reassumed her stone form. Joshua produced a crowbar and jammed it between a pair of sliding steel doors. With Reyan and Cary’s help, he pulled the doors open.
A copper rust reek greeted Cary’s nose as a pocked and semi-rotten hallway opened before them. Sniffing the air and concentrating on her gut, Cary knew that Emilia had been though this hall. She lay somewhere at the end of this path. “Emilia’s down there. Samantha too, probably.”
As if Cary had summoned her by using her name, Samantha’s voice reached them from further down the hall. “You came, demon. Just as I expected.”
Reyan looked at Joshua and tilted her head. Though Cary couldn’t see the woman’s mouth through the mask she wore, Cary guessed the woman had said, “demon?” as if surprised by this information. At least that meant Joshua had withheld the information from his fellows.
“Come on Samantha, you didn’t think I would lone wolf this, did you?” Cary answered Samantha’s taunt. They’d stepped into the Chaos sorceress’s domain. Though Cary couldn’t be certain, this felt like a demiplane, a bespoke dimension created by powerful magic users as bases, laboratories, or more. Oftentimes the magician held the distinct advantage in such locales.
Based on the silhouette of the adepts around her, they understood where they were as well as Cary. They were not doomed, but their chances of escaping this place had dropped.
“Phalanx people. She can reach through the walls.” Joshua’s voice rang out and ordered his people to assume their combat positions. He’d noticed the demoralizing effect their location had on the adepts and acted to counter it quickly. “She can pass through the surfaces here, even if we cannot.”
“Pooh, that sounds like a member of the Cabal.” Samantha sounded dangerously amused in the moment. Joshua refused to surrender initiative to her by answering. He just motioned the party forward, with Cary stepping into the point position. Unlike the mortals, she was very hard to kill.
The first attack came swiftly, a small cadre of black hooded minions fell amidst their group, sprinkled over them like salt over pork. Cary forgot to eat before they left. The adepts acquitted themselves with impressive skill, almost as gracefully as Joshua in their martial attacks. But one of the minions managed to stab an adept in the shoulder. At once, massive vines and creepers sprung from the wound along with fungus and other flora.
He screamed as his arm rotted off and his body began to shrivel. Reyan dispatched the minion with a blur of attacks that fended off his weapon while Joshua rushed to the injured man’s side. Unlike the sickened adept from earlier, this man died as his body gave up its substance to the ever-growing vegetation that erupted out of him.
Joshua skipped away as the vegetation began to grow fangs and barbs on its tendrils. He mumbled a few words and held his hands up in the form of a triangle. With that motions, a line of flame flowed out from the space between his fingers and seared the plants away. Another adept lent his magic to the task as the last of the minions fell.
“Oh good job! I’ve wondered if the Cabal’s reputation was just propaganda put out by your little agents.” Samantha taunted them some more. Joshua ignored her while he and the other adept made sure to clear the entirety of the expanding vegetation away. It was as if he knew the plants would only regrow and block their path if he didn’t do that.
“Why don’t you come out and face us yourself Samantha?” Cary guessed at a dozen answers to her question, but the main one was that she didn’t want to try and face off with five experienced fighters, even if Cary had started to feel like the dead weight.
“You were supposed to come alone, though it occurs to me that you might not have found our little message. I guess that makes sense. Oh well.” Samantha giggled like a little girl who’d discovered a surprise doll in her bed.
At that sound, the rusted iron surfaces around them began to rattle and shake. Joshua swore in Armenian as a set of red malevolent eyes appeared at the end of the hall, with licking flames burning in their centers. “Gorgon!”
The adepts didn’t need more warning than that. Reyan uttered a quick pair of words and shot away from the floor into the ceiling along with a second adept. The other two remaining adepts pressed themselves to the side of the walls as Joshua pulled out his rod and brandished it. After the first use, parts of the rod were starting to come into focus. That probably meant the rod could only be used a limited number of times before it needed to be recharged or failed entirely.
Cary tapped his shoulder and pointed to the Gorgon. Maybe she felt useless so far, but this was something she could deal with on her own, without letting harm befall the Cabal. Kicking her heels into the floor, Cary set herself to receive the Gorgon’s charge. If it got too close to the others and if their masks failed, they’d be turned into stone. Not so with Cary. Besides, she doubted the thing would expect her to weigh as much as she did. Or to be immune to its stone breath attack. Gorgons were notoriously unintelligent demons, with minds that functioned on the level of rank beasts.
When the Gorgon hit her, Cary didn’t take the charge head on. She snatched its horns out of the air, tracking them with her eyes and shoved the beast to the right. His incredible strength and mass warred against Cary’s own. Neither of them emerged wholly victorious, but that was fine with Cary. She didn’t require a total victory over the monster. She just needed to slow it.
Before it lost its momentum, the tip of one of its horns hit the metal wall and sparks showered from the contact. The Gorgon’s head twisted to the left and both it and Cary collapsed into a heap. The cloud of stone-inducing gas never left the beast’s throat, as if its head snapped the moment its horn snagged on the iron.
But in the meantime, Samantha launched her own attack at Cary. This time she appeared herself. A wicked, curved dagger lay in her hands that she stabbed at the various adepts with. None of their attacks caught her, but between her minions and Samantha’s own lunges, two more adepts lay dead on the iron floor.
Joshua tried to kick at her, but his foot caught on his coat. As if he’d expected that to happen, he hopped a foot to the right and brought his wand to bear. As the black rays flooded from it, the light in the room dimmed and the iron walls shifted to something like grey stone. The minions screamed as the light passed over them and they dissipated into little puffs of smoke.
The black light struck Samantha and she screamed. Though the darkness didn’t kill her, to Cary’s eyes, it stripped her of her magic. Rather than Samantha, Cary saw Emilia standing there, with her eyes rolled up in her head. Samantha stood next to the girl, hand on her shoulder as if she were delivering commands to Emilia while invisible. The black ray from Joshua’s rod didn’t care about Samantha’s invisibility, so it stripped it from her as the magic winked out and Emilia blinked. She looked around and screamed as she dropped the curved dagger she’d been wielding under Samantha’s control.
Cary had eyes only for Emilia at that point. She rose from the heap under the gorgon and reached for Emilia, but Samantha caught the dagger as it fell from Emilia’s hands. Cackling in triumph, Samantha drew the dagger back and eyed Cary. “This is revenge, demon bitch.”
She brought the dagger down and a bright white light flashed from around Joshua’s neck. For a moment, a dark figure appeared with a skull painted on his face. He shoved Joshua into the arc of the dagger’s path, which struck him through his coat into his back.
Emilia screamed in fear as Samantha jerked her back. Reyan shouted Joshua’s name as she grabbed his lapel. Both of them disappeared in a flash of blue before Samantha could raise her arm again.
Cary stood alone with Samantha and Emilia in the hallway now. The dead corpses of sorcerers and Cabal members lay strewn about the iron. Rage in her heart, Cary rose and aimed herself for Samantha.
The cowardly sorceress withdrew behind Emilia, whispering words of dark magic as she did. Her spell done, she held the dagger at Emilia’s throat. “Stop, demon!” Swaying forward, Cary brought herself to a full stop at the sight of the blade at Emilia’s neck. Emilia’s eyes had gone blank and Cary could feel the compulsion flowing through the girl through their connection. “Good. You do care about this little slip of mortal. It’s almost tragic, you know? She will bring about your death the same way you will bring about hers.” Cary growled at Samantha’s implied threat, but there was nothing she could do. “Take your flesh form or I will kill her. Do it now.” Complying with the sorceress’s demands grated against Cary’s soul. This was Elelele all over again. “I was going to claim you, take you as a pet the way I did with the stupid Ukranian dog. But now, now I think I would rather force your little servant to end her master.”
Samantha kept Emilia between Cary as she pointed to the ground. “Lay down there, now!” Cary bit her lip, but had no plays here, no way to stop Samantha from taking Emilia’s life away. As the Baron Ghede had predicted, Cary would exchange her life for Emilia’s. She only prayed to the infernal powers that Samantha released the girl. “I am dying to torture her, maybe while I wear your face, demon.” Samantha chanted a death spell over the dagger she held, it was a spell Cary recognized and the kind of working that would certainly end her if the dagger bit into a vital organ. She handed the dagger hilt first to Emilia and said, “do it, my slave. Kill her. Do it now!”
Emilia raised the dagger over her head, her eyes were not rolled into the back of her skull the way they’d been the first time she’d appeared. Cary’s analytical mind couldn’t help but guess that Samantha had used some martial spell to augment Emilia fighting ability. A grin appeared across Emilia’s face, which Cary thought wholly inappropriate, considering, and then Emilia brought the dagger down and around her side into Samantha’s chest.
Emilia didn’t give the sorceress a chance to speak another syllable, she jammed the blade into her over and over again, screaming as she did. As Samantha slid down, her eyes widened in shock, Emilia spat on her. “You didn’t specify who, you stupid bitch!”
The magic flared out of the dagger and out of Samantha’s corpse as it stayed her on the spot. Ironically dead by her own command, her Chaos magic didn’t rise to protect her in this case.
Emilia draped herself over Cary and wept. Cary patted her head, but quickly pulled her up. “We need to get out of this place. But it’s good to see you too.”
“Wait, you don’t understand, I didn’t mean those things I said, Samantha did something to me…” Emilia wept as she struggled to explain herself to Cary and stand.
Cary pulled her up as a shadow split from the iron wall with a howl. Once again, a dark figure bearing a painted skull mask appeared as the necklace around Cary’s neck flared to life. It spun Cary around as Oleg appeared from the wall. A white hot sting burned in her side as he drove something into her body.
Emilia screamed and cast her hand out at Oleg. A wall of shimmering force sprang into being as Oleg crashed against the iron wall. Cary tried to shrug the injury off and shift into her stone form, but something had gone wrong.
“No, no, no… Cary!” Darkness tried to steal Cary’s sight away from Emilia as she pulled a similarly curved blade out of Cary’s back. She couldn’t speak to warn Emilia against doing that. It didn’t matter in the moment.
It was time for Cary to lie down and rest. After nine thousand years, she’d earned it.