The Serpent Waits

by Bill Hiatt

  Tal looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. “How did you intend to atone?”

  “You’re not taking this seriously?” said Magnus. His face was so twisted with anger that I had no trouble picturing him as an evil twin. “She’d say anything to get out of that cell.”

  “I think her story is…improbable—but what if it’s true? She could be useful to us. She’s a formidable spellcaster.”

  “Which would make it all the easier to stab us in the back,” said Shar.

  “Well, how would you have atoned?” asked Tal. Magnus looked as if he wanted to put his fist right through Tal’s skull.

  Such divisions could easily be exploited.

  There it was again, an out-of-place voice in my head. Was it Amenirdis—or was I just going crazy?

  “I created and funded an organization to provide plastic surgery procedures to low-income patients, particularly people who’d been severely disfigured.” Winn’s voice was steadier, but her frantic eyes revealed her desperation.

  “Stan, anything about that in the Carrie Winn bio?” asked Tal.

  Stan’s fingers raced across his cell phone. “Yeah, shortly before her disappearance, she started an organization called The Look of Hope. It still exists, as does the trust fund Winn set up in 1997.

  “Now you know I am speaking the truth!”

  “It’s a trick!” Magnus’s voice was loud enough to echo down the corridor.

  “I’m checking, but if it’s a trick, it’s a very well-conceived one,” said Stan. “There’s a lot of evidence on the internet—too much to have been manufactured quickly.”

  “For it to be a trick, someone would have had to know we were coming—and that we were going to end up in this room,” said Stan. “I’m not saying we should accept her word uncritically,” he added in response to Magnus’s disapproving glare. “But you have to admit setting something like this up in advance would have required a tremendous amount of future information. We all know seers get information in little bits and pieces, if at all. We know Hafez has one, but one good enough to chart our every move days in advance?”

  “Impossible,” said Viviane. “The future isn’t fixed. The most a seer could foresee is a possible future.”

  Magnus didn’t reply, but, even though I was no longer mentally networked to him, I could feel his anger, tangible as hot stone.

  “I don’t see how Ceridwen could have set all this up in advance,” said Shar. “Still, releasing her would be a big risk. She had one charitable impulse twenty-one years ago. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t changed her mind since.”

  “You can bind me,” Ceridwen said loudly. “You can bind me by oath, reinforced with a tynged. I’ll swear to whatever you want me to.”

  “We just don’t have the time.” This time Magnus spoke more quietly, but no less intensely. “It would take hours to craft an oath with no loopholes.”

  “We have to take a risk either way,” said Alex. “I wasn’t with you guys when you fought Ceridwen, but I’ve heard the stories. She’s powerful. She knows this world. She may still have assets. Sure, she could find some obscure loophole to betray us. Or she could enable us to succeed in getting the staff and getting back home.

  “Do we have to take a chance? Yeah—but Tal took a chance with me, with Umbra—and with you, Magnus. I say we work out the best oath we can in the next few minutes, and if she swears to it, I say we let her out.”

  Magnus looked like skepticism incarnate, but everyone else nodded their approval. He turned his back on the group, and I could see the tightness of his neck muscles. I was sure he was about to erupt like a volcano, but he didn’t. Nor did he turn back toward them. He knew he was beaten—but he wasn’t going to take his defeat gracefully.

  Tal, Stan, and Viviane put their heads together to work out an oath as ironclad as they could manage on short notice. The others kept an eye on Ceridwen, though their glances looked more curious than vigilant. Only Magnus kept himself turned away from her—and from everyone else. Despite how intimidating his anger was, I was drawn to him. I found myself walking in his direction, though I couldn’t really explain why.

  When I walked around to face him, I was rewarded with a scowl. “I’d like to be alone,” he said with the same quiet intensity.

  “I don’t want to bother you. I’m just trying to understand—”

  “Ask Khalid. He’ll be happy to babble at you for hours.”

  I should have excused myself and walked away. I wasn’t a reporter right now. I had no reason to prod him for answers. Something froze my feet in place.

  “I’m asking you,” I said, more to cover the fact that I was still standing there than anything else.

  “Well, I suppose you’re one of us now—lucky you! Want to find out what kind of dysfunctional family has just adopted you?”

  “It doesn’t seem that dysfunctional to me. All families have disagreements.”

  “It’s more than that,” he said. His spoke just above a whisper, but every syllable vibrated with his anger. “How’d you like to be in a group that doesn’t trust you, that never listens to you? Boy Scout and I argue frequently—but somehow, I never win. In their eyes, he can do no wrong. While I…I’ll always be an inferior copy of him as far as they’re concerned. I know Lucas and Khalid told you about the whole Dark Me thing. I’ll always be Dark Me. I’m surprised Tal didn’t have Prometheus brand it on my forehead.”

  I found myself holding my breath, waiting for him to explode. Instead, he walked away from me—as far away as he could get without moving toward the others. My feet wanted to follow him, but this time my head overruled them. Trying to continue the conversation would have been like poking my fingers into open wounds.

  I was still focused on him, though—so much so that I almost ran right into Eva.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

  Eva smiled. “Don’t worry about it. There’s a lot going on, and it’s especially tough on you—since you’re new, I mean.”

  This was almost the only time I’d seen her without Jimmie’s arms around her. The questions I wanted to ask her weren’t polite ones, but the urge to ask them was suddenly irresistible.

  “I think it’s especially tough on you, too,” I said, tipping my head in Magnus’s direction.

  “You know about Magnus? And…about me?”

  “I really should apologize. Before I knew any of you, I did a lot of research, enough to figure out that your history is…complicated. Lucas and Khalid filled me in on how…unusual Magnus and Michael are.”

  Eva chuckled, but her eyes looked more resigned to bearing a burden than tickled by what I’d said. “Complicated and unusual pretty much sum up my whole life for the last six years.” She glanced over at Magnus. “He’s not always like this, you know. He’s been making an effort to do better. Recently, though, I’ve seen him backslide. He responds to me more than anyone else, but only when he has hope that I’ll give him…the one thing I can’t.”

  “Sex?” I asked, regretting my bluntness the moment the word left my mouth.

  “Even Magnus is never that simple. Oh, he wants sex, all right, but he isn’t that particular about where he gets it. You’ll recall he suggested you stay with him—at a point when you had just met him. Not that you aren’t beautiful. I just meant—”

  “It’s OK,” I said. “I know what you meant.”

  “Sometimes, I wish sex were all he wanted. No, what he really wants from me is love.”

  “Is he even capable of loving someone?” I asked as quietly as I could.

  “It would almost be easier if he couldn’t. His love is tinged with selfishness and lots of baggage—but yes, it’s real love. Every day I’m around him, I have to deal with the silent accusation in his eyes. And the constant bickering with Jimmie…sometimes, it makes me wish I could just run away from it all. But that I never can. I couldn’t leave without Jimmie, and he won’t leave as long as the group needs his special ability. He wouldn’t forgive himself if
someone got hurt that he might have been able to protect. And of course, there are all the enemies to consider.”

  “Enemies?”

  “Tal and the others have foiled many evil schemes over the past six years, not just Ceridwen’s. Every victory brings with it a new group that wants revenge against him—against us. Jimmie and I by ourselves would be a tempting target.”

  She looked over at Tal. “He’d give us what protection he could. But if he and the others are going to have to hover over us all the time, we might as well be pulling our weight, if you see what I mean. Any of us are free to go—but we’d never be able to wander too far.”

  I must have looked uneasy. “I’m sorry,” said Eva. “I’m not trying to scare you or make you unhappy. I wouldn’t trade my life for an ordinary one. I’ve been able to do more good than I ever could have ordinarily. It’s just that…” Her voice trailed off as she looked back at Tal.

  “The past is always getting shoved in your face.”

  “Not that he means to,” said Eva, still focused on Tal. “Unlike Magnus, he never puts any kind of pressure on me, never even hints what his feelings are, but I know. He hasn’t stopped loving me. There are times when I think he never will.”

  “Then that’s his problem,” I said gently. “You can’t carry the past around for the rest of your life, even if he does.”

  “It’s just hard—seeing him every day and knowing. And the thing is, except for Jimmie, Magnus, and perhaps Dan, Jimmie’s brother, everybody thinks I belong with Tal. I sometimes feel as if I’m letting everyone down by not being with him, you know? Like I’m spitting in destiny’s face or something.

  “I think I could bear that more easily if I could help out more, but so often I feel helpless.”

  I was getting very familiar with that feeling myself. “I’ve seen you with that bow. You can hold your own in combat.”

  Eva gave me the ghost of a smile. “The bow does most of the work, and ironically it was originally a gift from Artemis to Carla.” Eva glanced over her shoulder. “To be honest, I think Carla passed it on to me because she felt sorry for me. Everyone else is a trained fighter, has magic, or both. I wanted to help but didn’t have the means. I’m grateful for the bow, but it’s also a reminder of all the things I can’t do, of how different I am from everybody else.”

  Eva must really have needed to get all those feelings off her chest, but I felt guilty for starting the conversation. I wanted to say something reassuring, but how could I? Eva’s experiences were so different from mine, at least until recently, that I had nothing but platitudes to offer.

  “All right,” said Tal. “I think we have an oath that will work.” He looked at Ceridwen. “You will swear to do no harm to any of us, to our counterparts in this world, or to any innocent person. You will help us defeat Hafez, gain his staff, and, if it is within your power, ensure we know how to use it. Once that is done, you will return to your Carrie Winn identity and make what provisions for charity you wish. Then you will return to Annwn and never visit the mortal world again.”

  Ceridwen’s eyes widened. “I will agree to all points but the last.”

  “And there it is,” said Magnus. “The continuing search for a loophole.”

  “I wish no loophole—but I have no life in Annwn any longer. The Welsh faeries will not take me back now. I will have traded one cell for another.”

  “You cannot expect us to leave you to do whatever you wish among the humans,” said Viviane. “Your life is long, and we will not be responsible for the harm that you might do in the future.”

  “Then make the prohibition to do no harm permanent. There is much good I could do as Carrie Winn. Will not a pledge to never harm an innocent satisfy you?”

  “A loophole the size of the Grand Canyon,” said Magnus. “It could be argued that no human is completely innocent.”

  “Well said!” Tal looked over at Magnus, who looked away.

  Tal turned back to Ceridwen. “Swear to do no harm to any human except in self-defense or the defense of another—will that satisfy you?”

  “You’re going to do it anyway, regardless of what I say,” said Magnus, still facing the wall.

  “To that, I am willing to swear,” said Ceridwen. “To that and all that you proposed before except my exile.”

  “Then all that remains is for you to swear the oath and help me to set the tynged.” Once that is done, we’ll get you out of that cell as quickly as we can.

  “The oath I can swear at once, but the tynged will have to wait until I am released,” said Ceridwen. “My chains prevent me from using magic, so I cannot bind myself with it until I am free.”

  “Do I even need to say it?” asked Magnus.

  “Ceridwen in our world had magic-prohibiting manacles,” said Tal. “There’s no reason this world couldn’t have something similar.” He touched one of the links. “And these feel exactly like the ones back home.”

  “Anyway, Ceridwen can’t overcome all of us,” said Gordy. “She tried in 2012—before we had Alex, Jimmie, Umbra, Michael, Nancy, Amy—or you. She had an army of shapeshifters besides—and we still beat her. Are you honestly suggesting that she can take down all of us by herself?”

  “I’m suggesting she may not be alone. For all we know, she’s working with Hafez—and we have no clue what he can do with that staff.”

  “Fair enough,” said Tal. Only the faintest nervous tick in one of his eyelids betrayed his impatience with Magnus. “Let those of us who can scan the area for magic. If Hafez is lurking somewhere nearby, it’s not likely that he can hide from all of us.”

  The air around me felt odd, as if I could feel their magic flowing through it, reaching out all around us for the slightest hint of magic. I also felt invisible eyes upon me, but only for a moment. Whatever spells they were using checked me and moved on.

  “Anything?” asked Tal.

  “Just the pervasive magic in the walls,” said Carla. “I’m not feeling any other power source.”

  “But we did before,” said Magnus. “There was an enormous one down here somewhere—we presumed it was the staff. Where did it go, I wonder?” His tone was less angry, but the scathing sarcasm was hard to miss.

  “He has a point,” said Stan.

  “Yeah—on his tongue,” said Gordy.

  “No, I’m being serious,” said Stan. “If Hafez isn’t here, what was that power surge our sorcerers felt? It couldn’t have had to do with Ceridwen because of the way she’s chained. If it was the staff, it presumably didn’t move away all by itself.”

  “The surge could have been a trap to lure us down here,” said Shar. “In which case, Ceridwen could be part of a trap. Do we even know this is the real Ceridwen?”

  “Who else would I be?” asked Ceridwen. She sounded frightened. I couldn’t see her from where she was standing, so I couldn’t tell whether she looked as frightened as she sounded.

  “The same magic in the chains that prevents her from spellcasting prevents me from reading her,” said Tal.

  “Convenient,” muttered Magnus.

  Jimmie staggered as if someone had hit him from behind. “Ghosts!” he gasped. “They’re attacking!”

  “I can help!” said Ceridwen. Her words sounded more like a plea than an offer of aid, but they were nearly lost in the commotion.

  “Viviane, channel more power to Jimmie. Magnus, you and I need to ghost-proof this room.”

  Already cold, the room had dropped several degrees in the few seconds since the first attack on Jimmie. At the rate it was going, I’d be able to see my own breath in no time. I was already seeing little wisps of vapor flashing across my eyes. Those weren’t caused by the escalating chill, though. Looking more closely, I realized they were small visual manifestations of the ghosts. As they struggled their way toward full visibility, those wisps became limbs and faces that looked disconcertingly solid.

  Shar swung his blade through a flailing ghost arm, and it vanished in an emerald flash. He dissolved se
veral more in rapid succession. Stan, with David in control, let other ghosts taste the white blessing of his blade.

  At the same time, Magnus played the Lyre of Orpheus, and he and Tal both sang. Their music was as beautiful as before, but the tempo was much faster, and this time the power didn’t build gradually. I could feel it surging all around me like the Nile swelled by flooding. The ghosts squirmed helplessly as the music washed them away.

  The walls began to glow as if the magic were insulating the chamber against ghosts. Jimmie looked calmer and more alert—a good sign that the worst was over.

  But then the stone walls groaned as if the surrounding soil was pressing in on them. The floor shook, knocking most of us off our feet and bringing the music to a jangling end as the lyre hit the floor. Only Shar and Alex managed to brace themselves well enough to stay upright.

  “What’s happening?” yelled Khalid. He drifted up from the floor to escape the earth tremors, his black hair filled with dust shaken down from the ceiling.

  Magnus levitated the lyre to him, rose into the air with Khalid, and started playing again. The ceiling was webbed with dangerous-looking cracks.

  Tal followed Magnus’s lead, and the two of them poured out magic to hold the walls together and ward off the quake as they had warded off the ghosts. From the strained looks on their faces, the opposing power was not so easily pacified.

  Carla, also off the ground, opened a portal back to Orcutt, the only place in this world she could have accessed. Before anyone could step through the silver swirl, two armed security guards popped through from Orcutt. They already had their guns out, but before they could adjust to the turmoil in the chamber and take aim, Lucas did a handstand and kicked one of them in the head. Michael tackled the other and held on long enough for one of Khalid’s arrows to strike him in the shoulder. That gave Michael time to land a couple of punches, and the guard was unconscious.