Skunk Man Swamp

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Skunk Man Swamp Page 22

by P. D. Workman


  Even when Corvin was at his most powerful, he had needed the help of Reg and the others in order to defeat an immortal. And then it had been a close thing. One wizard who couldn’t even remember having powers couldn’t be a threat to Harrison.

  “You should not get in the way of things you know nothing about,” Harrison said sternly.

  Which was precisely what Reg had been doing ever since she had moved to Black Sands. How was she supposed to learn anything if she didn’t get her hands dirty? No one was going to be able to teach her all of the things she should have learned as a little girl if there had been other practitioners to guide her. She had to explore and find them out for herself.

  “She hasn’t done anything wrong,” Damon argued. “We’re just trying to help someone out.”

  There was a low growl from Starlight. Reg turned and looked at him, surprised. Starlight was looking at Wilson. Wilson had done nothing but take a sip of his tea. He lowered his teacup to look at Starlight, then took another sip. He grimaced, and his eyes went to the tea service Reg had placed on the coffee table. Honey. He definitely needed honey for the sour concoction. Reg moved closer to get the honey and hand it to him, but she was stopped as if by a force-field. Still grimacing, Wilson made himself take a few more sips.

  Reg swallowed. Damon leaned forward, watching eagerly. Reg looked at Harrison. He just stood there looking at her, not explaining what she had done wrong.

  “What?” Reg demanded. “I’m just trying to restore his memories. You might think it’s hilarious to take away someone’s powers, their memories, their whole life, but it isn’t. It’s wrong.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “How do I know what?”

  “How do you know that it is wrong?”

  “Because taking all of that away from someone is wrong,” Reg insisted. She couldn’t think of how to explain to him how devastating it was to a human being to lose everything that he had. To lose his self, not just possessions.

  Wilson put his cup down on the tea tray. It was empty other than a little liquid and the dregs. Reg was not close enough to read the leaves properly, but when she glanced at them from that distance, she had an immediate sinking feeling. Something was very wrong. She felt like the sun had gone behind a cloud. Like twilight was descending upon them in the middle of the day. All of the light gradually going out of the room.

  Wilson gave her a smile that was unlike any she had previously seen on the Canadian’s face. Not the vague, affable smile of the retiree tourist. Not a friendly smile directed at someone who had helped him out.

  Instead, it was knowing. Cunning. Almost predatory. Reg looked at Damon, her eyes wide, looking for his direction.

  But Damon didn’t seem to have figured out yet that Harrison was right; Reg had made the wrong decision.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  What did I do?” Reg asked Harrison. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

  “Everything was fine as long as he did not remember,” Harrison told her. “He was… muzzled. But now… we will have to deal with him.”

  Damon looked from Damon to Harrison. “What do you mean, muzzled?” he demanded.

  “The immortals are the ones who should be muzzled,” Wilson growled. “How is it we are still allowing them to control our lives? We’re not pre-industrial Greek shepherds! We have technology, magic, and overwhelming numbers. Why should they have any say over us?”

  Reg had to admit feeling much the same way about the immortals. Especially when she and the others had vanquished the Witch Doctor, another of the immortals. Humans far outnumbered the immortals and could overwhelm them. There seemed to only be a handful of immortals still in existence. For all she knew, Weston and Harrison could be the only ones remaining. But they took it upon themselves to try to control the lives of the mortals they had contact with. Interfering with the lives of Reg and her mother. Taking away Wilson’s memory because of whatever slight they had perceived.

  But Wilson clearly didn’t mean this to be just an airing of grievances. He intended to take action. Reg couldn’t get any closer to him due to the shield around him. How strong was he? As strong as Damon and the people in charge of the Spring Games had thought? Strong enough to take out an immortal or two?

  “Not in here,” Reg said. “I don’t want any violence in my house.”

  Wilson sneered at her. “You don’t want any violence? All of this is your doing. I’m only here and free because of you.”

  “I didn’t do that so that you could hurt anyone. I did it because I thought you deserved to have your life back. Your memories. I didn’t do it because I wanted you to… do whatever it is you are thinking of to the immortals.”

  “Then you should have asked more questions and not been such a stupid little girl. Wandering around in the Everglades, interfering with everyone’s lives. You shouldn’t have done it if you didn’t know what you were doing.”

  Reg nodded slightly. She could see that now. She had trusted Damon, had believed that he and the organizers of the Spring Games knew what they were talking about. She’d thought that an old man wandering around the Everglades needed to be rescued. She hadn’t asked for the proof. She didn’t have any idea when she started out that the missing wizard had been gone for fifty years.

  She had trusted the vision that Damon had put in her head. She had assumed that it was an accident or illness that had made Wilson lose his memory. When she found out that Weston and Harrison had been involved, she had assumed that they had gone too far and had just been interfering in human affairs without regard to the lives they would affect.

  Wilson got up off the couch. He didn’t shuffle like an older man now. He stood much taller than she expected and had strength and alertness in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. Ignoring Reg and Damon, he walked toward Harrison. Harrison didn’t look cowed. He made no move to protect himself.

  Damon moved as to get up off of the couch, but stopped, looking confused and concerned.

  “I may have lost fifty years,” Wilson said, “but that’s nothing compared to what you are going to lose. How do you measure the amount of time an immortal loses when he is destroyed?”

  “No,” Reg protested. “He’s not the one who took your memory away. That was Weston. Harrison was just a bystander.”

  Wilson rolled his eyes at her. “A bystander?” he laughed. “So this one has seduced you, has he? He took a shine to you, and now you’ll believe whatever he tells you. You’ll wait on him hand and foot like the Nubian mistresses he’s had in the past.”

  “No. I just… he helped to protect me. And I know he’s not the one…”

  “You don’t know anything. You weren’t there. Ask this one whether he had anything to do with it or not. He’ll tell you the truth. These ones don’t care who knows the atrocities they have performed.”

  Reg looked at Harrison, but she didn’t ask him. She didn’t want to know the answer.

  Wilson took another step toward Harrison. There was a streak of light and a boom. Reg blinked. Starlight had somehow put himself between Harrison and the wizard.

  “Star…” Reg’s voice failed. She didn’t want anything to happen to her familiar. He was powerful, she knew, but strong enough to fight a wizard like Wilson? Reg edged closer to Starlight and Harrison. She had no clue what she was going to do, but the three of them had to be able to stop Wilson. He couldn’t fight an immortal, a being like Starlight, and Reg all at the same time. As when they had fought the witch doctor, he wouldn’t be able to watch all fronts at the same time. He wouldn’t be able to battle all of them effectively.

  “Don’t come any closer,” Reg told Wilson, making her voice as hard and inflexible as possible. “This is my home and Harrison won’t come to any harm in it.”

  Harrison made a vague gesture toward Starlight, and a tall man in armor stood there instead of the cat. Harrison’s eyes flashed toward Reg, and she felt Weston’s protective spell drop away.

  He scrambled to re-e
stablish the barrier. Reg fought back with one of her own, putting it around Harrison and Starlight, but they both shook it off.

  “No, Reg,” Harrison raised his hand to signal to her. “Leave us free to act. No fetters.”

  “I didn’t—I wanted to protect you.”

  “No.” Harrison gazed at Wilson. “You thought Weston’s waters of Lethe a punishment? They were a gift. For fifty of your mortal years, you have had happiness, unadulterated by greed or vice. Contented to go from one place of beauty to another and enjoy all that the river lands had to offer. Do you think you will be rewarded for your brashness again?”

  “See here—” Damon started, and was silenced by a flick of Harrison’s hand.

  “I don’t want your kind of happiness,” Wilson snarled, “I want the kind that I make for myself.”

  “You will never achieve that.”

  “I can if you and your kind will stay out of my way,” Wilson growled.

  “No. Humans who are full of avarice always want what they cannot have. They are never happy with…” Harrison’s eyes stared into the distance, “…chocolate cake.”

  There was an iced cake on the counter that hadn’t been there before. Harrison jabbed a finger into it and licked off the cake and frosting. “You can never achieve this.”

  “I don’t want a cake,” Wilson snapped. “I can go to the grocery store or bakery any time I please to get a cake.”

  “It’s no different from anything else,” Harrison said reasonably. “Money. Gems. Power.” Gold coins and gems covered the counters, surrounding the cake. Reg saw a crown and a scepter among them. Harrison went through her drawers and found a salad-serving fork. He used it to scoop out a large amount of cake, which he tried, but failed, to cram into his mouth. He stood there, wiping crumbs and frosting off of his face. “Corporeal things. You will never succeed in getting them all, so you will always want more. And a state of want is the opposite of happiness.”

  Wilson raised his hand as if to strike, irritated and impatient with Harrison’s declarations. “Enough of your dramatics,” he insisted. “We didn’t meet here for a philosophical discussion. You know that I am just as powerful as you, and I will not abide you interfering in human lives anymore.” He waved his hand and Harrison appeared to take a body blow. Harrison flinched and pulled back, but his expression didn’t change. The soldier who stood where Starlight had been struck out quickly, his arm curved slightly and head cocked to the side like a cat playing with a mouse. Wilson took a shocked step back and his eyes flew to the soldier.

  “Who are you?”

  Reg knew the answer to that but didn’t bother to answer.

  If Harrison didn’t want a protective envelope around himself or Starlight, then maybe the opposite would be helpful. Reg tried instead to wrap one around Wilson.

  He didn’t seem aware of what she was doing at first. He flicked a couple more blows at Harrison, who didn’t fight back, and Wilson was, in turn, a plaything in the soldier’s paws—or hands.

  Becoming aware of her efforts, Wilson turned suddenly to Reg in a fury. “You interfere again! Why would you do this? It is not your fight! I was going to leave you alone because you reawakened me. But for that stupidity—”

  Reg held firm to the protective spell. She was glad that she’d decided to stay home the night before and get a good sleep before giving Wilson the bay leaves. If she’d done it the night before while she was still tired, who knew how long she would be able to maintain the protective spell. But feeling fresh and strong, she felt confident she could keep the little pocket around Wilson secure.

  Until he really started to push back. The attacks he’d made against Harrison and the soldier had only been experimental, tests against their power to see if they would react and how much power he had after having been dormant for fifty years.

  Did not using his magic for fifty years mean that he would be stronger because it had built up over that time, or weaker like an atrophied muscle or lost habit?

  She didn’t know how strong he had been before Weston had taken away his memories, but she guessed that the answer was that he had not lost in power during the time he had been held in the Everglades. Trying to keep him inside the protective barrier was as hard as trying to keep Harrison there would have been. She could tell that her spell was not going to hold for long.

  “Harrison…”

  He watched her curiously. Reg thought he was more interested in seeing her growth and development than he was in controlling Wilson.

  “I can’t hold him. I thought I could, but he’s very strong.”

  Harrison nodded. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a stronger human.”

  Reg cursed under her breath. How was she going to hold him? Or to convince Harrison to do something about him? Harrison always seemed more interested in food and human culture than he was in protecting the world from powerful beings. She looked at Damon, but he appeared to be immobilized, either by his own shock at what was going on or Harrison’s magic.

  “Listen,” she told Harrison. “You need to stop him. If I let him go, he might kill all of us. Maybe not you, but me and Damon and Starlight.”

  Harrison frowned at that. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I don’t know. What can you do to stop him?”

  Harrison took a couple of steps closer to Wilson, studying him. Wilson was unable to move from the place Reg had trapped him. He pressed against the spell with his own magic. Strong natural magic that made her wonder whether he had immortals in his bloodlines, or if he were able to steal the powers of others as Corvin did.

  “The easiest way would be to kill him,” Harrison suggested. “Humans are very frail. A stopped heart or cutting or blocking the flow of blood…”

  “I don’t want you to kill him; I just want you to stop him. Make him forget again. We’ll put him somewhere he can’t be found this time.”

  “That was what we thought the last time. If you can’t lose him forever in the Everglades, then where could you lose him?”

  “I don’t know. Under the ocean?”

  “You said not to kill him. Humans need air to survive. Just a little bit of water in the lungs and they expire.” He chuckled. “Instead of respiring. You get it?”

  “Harrison!”

  “I don’t have the waters of Lethe. And perhaps that was not the best way to keep him out of our way. Sooner or later, someone was bound to help him. Or he would help himself just by chance.”

  “Can’t you take away his powers?”

  “Some of them. But other power exists… simply as part of the organism. Without it, the organism ceases to exist.” Harrison studied Wilson like a bug under a microscope.

  “Well, take some of it away; he’s tiring me out.”

  Wilson’s struggles became considerably less. His face turned a shade redder, and he scowled at Reg. “I will regain what I have lost! You can’t take my power away.”

  It was too bad Corvin wasn’t there, Reg thought fleetingly. He would have been happy to drain Wilson’s power. But then, she didn’t want Corvin getting any stronger either. Was it true that power always corrupted? Or did it only corrupt those who were susceptible, who gave in to its pull?

  Reg had some ability to pull from others’ powers as well. She had been strengthened by Corvin several times and, when desperate, had drawn the energy from a crowd. She concentrated on Wilson, feeling his power pulsing beneath the surface. She experimented whether she could bleed it off using the shield she already had around him. There was a damping effect, his power dimming and the shield strengthening. That was a good idea. The more he pushed, the stronger the shield around him grew.

  The soldier paced, his eyes on the quarry. Harrison watched, his face impassive, absentmindedly sucking icing off of his fingers.

  There was a surge in strength from Wilson and a corresponding strengthening of the shield. Wilson’s body sagged suddenly, and the sudden cessation of his fighting back against the protective shield made Reg
jolt in surprise, just like if she’d been pushing him physically and then he suddenly stepped out of the way. She nearly let the shield go, surprised and immediately worried that she had gone too far. Harrison had said that he could only take so much strength from Wilson before his body would fail.

  Of course that was true. Reg knew that her physical stamina and her powers were inextricably intertwined, with her physical condition affecting her ability to access her powers, and her powers sapping her physical strength.

  She moved closer to Wilson. Had she taken too much? Had she told Harrison not to kill him and then gone ahead and done it herself?

  “Are you okay?”

  She tried to read Wilson’s suddenly ashen face, stepping closer again. She could feel Starlight’s warning, feel him cautioning her and pulling her back. He had seen this behavior in prey before. A sudden freezing or stillness, feigning injury and death, followed by bolting or a renewed attack.

  Reg kept the shield in place as she got closer, trying to evaluate Wilson’s condition. What he’d said was true. She just kept playing with her powers without really knowing what she was capable of. Experimenting on the world around her. Maybe gaining in strength herself at the expense of others. Not just power-hungry wizards like Wilson, but those who might be innocent bystanders too. She had no intention of hurting anyone else, but she’d learned early in life to take what she needed to survive, putting her own needs ahead of anyone else’s.

  Wilson glared at her, but he looked a lot more like the man she had found in the Everglades. Less like the powerful wizard who had threatened to destroy them all. His shoulders were slightly hunched, his head down.

  “You can’t do this. Sooner or later, you have to let me go.”

  That was true. She couldn’t keep him in a bubble forever.

  “Promise you won’t do anything to hurt any of us.”

  His eyes glittered. “I won’t hurt you.”

  She didn’t believe him. And even if she did, he hadn’t said he wouldn’t hurt any of them, only that he wouldn’t hurt Reg.

 

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