by Bill Hiatt
“What’s your point?”
“In the pyramid, Hafez’s traps ceased to function when I touched the staff. Perhaps if I touched it now, it would render the trap inside this Taliesin’s head inert, and you could then remove it more easily.”
Magnus nodded. “No harm in trying.” His voice wasn’t enthusiastic, but David reached out and touched the staff. White light blossomed from it and encompassed his hand as well as Magnus’s.
Magnus’s eyes widened. “It looks as if it worked. Amenirdis, are you seeing what I am?”
“The serpent coiled in other Tal’s head was asleep before, but it appears to be in what you would call a coma now.”
Magnus invoked the power of Apep to reverse the spell, and the serpent vanished. His lips curved up slightly into a tiny smile.
“Hey, what do you know? I cured Other Tal without giving in to my dark desire to murder him and take his place.”
“David had the idea and—” began Gordy.
“Let’s not quibble over who gets the credit,” said Sophia. “Perhaps the same approach would work on the trigger spells in the capstones.”
“Whatever David extracts from the staff seems to behave somewhat the way Shar’s sword does,” said Tal. “A strongly cast spell won’t just disintegrate, but it does become inactive. I don’t see why that wouldn’t work on any of Hafez’s spells.”
“Then let’s do it,” said Michael. “Once that’s done, we can go home.”
“Magnus probably needs more sleep,” said Tal.
“I’m good to go,” said Magnus. “Now that we know how to beat Hafez’s elaborate security, I’d rather get on with it.”
“I think we’ve had enough sleep to handle the fast portaling that will be needed,” said Viviane. I would suggest starting at Lost City Amusement Park. Since we were inside the pyramid and probably can’t portal to that location, we’ll need to portal to the closest spot we have been—Orcutt—and then fly there. From there, we can portal to just outside the top of the hotel, where we have been.”
“Can I come, too?” At first, I thought Khalid had said that, but the harsh tone made that difficult to believe. Looking in the direction the voice had come from, I saw Other Khalid sneering at us from the doorway and swinging the handcuffs he’d broken out of around in circles.
“And don’t threaten me with breaking something,” he said to Magnus. “We both know you’re just bluffing.”
“Khalid, why don’t you stay here with me?” asked Sophia. “We need to get to know each other.”
“Huh?”
“Well, I assume you’d want to know me before you decided whether or not you wanted to come live with me.”
Other Khalid’s mouth hung open, and he dropped the handcuffs on the floor.
“Uh, I feel like that time in high school when I fell asleep in English, and when I woke I had no idea what anybody was talking about,” said Gordy. “I’d missed the discussion of three whole chapters.”
“With everything else that’s been going on, I wasn’t thinking about what was going to happen to you after Hafez was defeated. I’m sorry,” said Tal.
Sophia laughed. “You’ve had enough on your mind to keep ten people busy, so there’s no need to feel sorry. It’s my nature to think ahead, though. As a seer, I don’t really have much choice—bits of possible futures are popping into my head on a pretty regular basis. Whatever happens, I won’t be going back to the pyramid where you found me.
“I never had the chance to be a mother to Tal.” She stroked Other Tal’s hair and looked at him wistfully. “I’m sure he’ll accept me into his life, but he doesn’t need that kind of mothering any more than you do. Khalid, on the other hand—”
“I don’t need to be babied,” said Khalid, but he spoke quietly, without a hint of his usual snarkiness.
“Of course not,” said Sophia. “You’re almost a grown man, but you have missed out on a few things it’s not too late for you to have. You don’t have to be a baby to need a mother.”
“He’s…likely to be a handful,” said Viviane.
“He would be for anyone who took him in,” said Sophia. “But in your world, the Khalid space is already taken, so to speak. You’d need to supply him with a different identity, and probably you’d need to find him a home far away from Santa Brígida. You’ve already got more than your share of people with suspicious resemblances to others—too many previously unheard-of cousins. Expecting people to swallow Khalid’s long-lost twin? You’d have a hard time pulling that off.
“Here, Khalid could keep his identity if he wanted. There may be an inheritance from Hafez.”
“Cha-ching,” said Khalid. A little smile was peeking out from behind his tough-guy exterior.
“But how are you going to explain disappearing for more than twenty years?” asked Tal. “And how are you going to explain having any connection with Khalid?”
“I’ve had a lot of time to think about what would happen if you were successful in defeating Hafez,” said Sophia. “Obviously, I can’t tell outsiders what actually took place, but a partial truth could serve the purpose. I believe Ceridwen intends to say she was abducted by Amen Hafez. She can point to the little dungeon beneath his Summerland house. It would be easy for me to piggyback on that story with Carrie Winn’s testimony to give the idea credibility. As far as Khalid is concerned, I can say he found out about me and rescued me.”
“You mean I’d get to be the hero?”
“We can’t very well say I was rescued by visitors from a parallel universe. As Hafez’s adopted son, it would be plausible for you to stumble upon information about me. We’d have to do some work on the details, but yes, you’d be a logical choice for hero.”
“But—” began Tal.
“I know my Tal well enough to be sure he’d accept me into his life even though he doesn’t remember me at all. And he’d be tickled at the idea of having a new little brother—”
“I’m not little,” said Khalid.
“A new younger brother. As for my husband, he still loves me. That much I have seen with crystal clarity. And he’ll make room in his heart for my rescuer.”
“We’ll be happy to help with the details later,” said Viviane. “However, we should probably ensure the final defeat of Hafez first.”
“You should have plenty of time,” said Sophia. “But you’re right, of course—the future isn’t set in stone.”
“Before we go, any advice about where in Orcutt to exit a portal?” asked Carla. “Last time security was all over us.”
“Start from my fake hotel room,” said Sophia. “Security never goes in there.”
Viviane opened a portal for us. We stepped through to Annwn and then into the suite Sophia had probably been in only once at most. As she had predicted, there was no reception committee.
“It’s a pity we can’t disarm the spell right above our heads first,” said Jimmie.
“Then we’d have no way to get to the amusement park one in time,” said Tal. “But yeah, it offends my sense of logistics, too.”
Tal and Stan took a minute to make sure the security system wasn’t going to give us any unpleasant surprises.
“How’re you holding up?” Lucas asked me.
It took me a second to understand the language. The sleep hadn’t helped me as much as I had hoped.
“I think I shall be glad when Hafez is at last defeated.”
“I was thinking more of how you personally are feeling.”
“I’m all right,” I said, though I wasn’t. Too much had changed in too short a time for me to have caught up with it yet.
Lucas put his arm around me. The movement was natural, as if he didn’t have to think about it. I would give anything to have Tal’s gift for mindreading. What was going on behind those deep brown eyes in which I could lose myself? They were warm and friendly—but did I see love there, or was I just fooling myself?
No, I was just imagining it. I had to be. No one could forgive and fall in l
ove so quickly. Perhaps someday.
Then reality slammed its cold, stony fist into my skull.
Even if we could defeat Hafez, all the others, including Lucas, would expect me to give up my body—her body—to Amy.
I knew I would have to atone for all the damage I had done. I hadn’t until this moment realized how high a price I would pay for repentance.
“Stan and I just killed the security system,” said Tal. “I can’t help but think Hafez’s staff must be watching fluctuations more closely, so let’s move across to Other Khalid’s room and launch from there. There’s no point cutting another hole in a window if we don’t have to.”
We moved quickly across the hall. Other Khalid’s roomy was chilly from the gaping hole Tal had carved in the window, but otherwise, the room seemed undisturbed. If security had come around to find out why Other Khalid hadn’t been seen for a while, they had left no trace.
Tal and Magnus checked to make sure we were invisible and inaudible to others and levitated the nonfliers out the window. I assisted by providing a good wind that would reduce the demands on them. We had only collaborated in this way a few times, but it felt natural now, as if I had been doing it my whole life.
The trip to the Lost City Amusement Park was uneventful. Vigilant as a hawk, I kept my eyes on everything that moved, but nothing threatening appeared, not even in the distance. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, assuming Hafez was still held captive. Nonetheless, uneasiness wrapped cold fingers around my heart. Could foiling Hafez’s plan really be so simple?
It was easy to spot the park, even from very far away. Its pyramids were the tallest structures for miles. Though I could tell they were not the real thing, they were impressively well-crafted. Hafez’s nostalgia for his long-lost home vibrated in every brick.
The part of the park closest to the dunes was an exhibition of Cecil B. DeMille’s lost city from his silent Ten Commandments. Separated slightly from that unearthed piece of history was the park itself, a tangle of rides through smiling sphinxes and roller coasters that plunged into the mouths of a giant, multiheaded serpent that parkgoers would never know was an homage to Apep.
Near the edge of the park farthest from the lost city exhibit was the top of the pyramid under which the seer’s labyrinth was hidden. Pyramids of similar size and shape dotted the park, but this one was unmistakable because of the magic surrounding it. The spell on the capstone was subtle. However, now that I knew what to look for, I could see the serpent coiled inside of it and feel the venomous intent. The spell had been in place long enough to develop some approximation of a mind of its own.
David and Magnus raised the staff, and its white glow engulfed them. The serpent in the capstone lapsed into a coma, and Magnus drew on Apep’s power to undo the spell.
“That was…easy,” said Shar. He sounded as skeptical as I felt. Hafez couldn’t have anticipated that King David would be able to draw such a blessing from the staff, but still I was disquieted. Only when the spell’s twin in Orcutt was undone would I feel truly at peace.
We had only a minute to undo that spell. Tal already had a portal open. We floated through right outside Other Khalid’s window and ascended rapidly past the glass-enclosed pool to the level of the capstone.
With its twin gone, the serpent within this one had its eyes open and filled with hatred. It was only seconds from triggering when Magnus and David plunged it into an endless slumber.
“Incoming!” yelled Khalid. Below us but approaching rapidly was a swarm of strange flying objects that Amy recognized as drones.
The drones should never have been able to get so close to us, but we had been watching for magic threats, not technological ones.
“Magnus, get that spell canceled!” yelled Tal. He strummed the harp, sending out waves of sound to knock the drones off course. There were too many for him to strike them all aside at once, though. Those still able to aim fired beams Amy thought were lasers.
I heard several cries of pain as the lasers struck. Our protection against magic would do nothing to stop such an assault, and only natural fliers like Khalid could dodge well up in the air. Even Lucas, fast as he was, was wounded.
One of the lasers struck David in the hand. He flinched reflexively, loosening his grip on the staff. The white light flickered.
The mouth of the serpent opened, revealing long, poisonous fangs.
Midair Collision
David gripped the staff so hard his small hand wound bled profusely. Again the serpent lapsed into unconsciousness, but I could feel the echo of its triumphant countdown still resonating in the air around the capstone. Only a few seconds remained if the serpent were to awaken again.
There were too many drones for Tal to slap them all aside easily, and they kept coming back. I helped him as best I could by aiming Amun’s wind at them and raising its intensity. Khalid and Eva shot at them with arrows, but the drones evaded their shots with surprising ease. Even drones caught in the wind or the vibrations of the lyre were not held rigidly in one spot, and they could shift enough to dodge.
Perhaps because they were closest to the capstone, Magnus and David kept getting hit. David’s bloody hands still gripped the staff, but they were shaking. Magnus was kept just enough off-balance prevent undoing the spell. I could feel him trying and failing.
“Can’t you hack them?” asked Shar.
“Not without Stan,” muttered Tal, strumming furiously. “And if Stan comes to the surface right now, we lose David.”
I tried shooting rays of Ra’s sunlight at the drones, but I had no better luck than the archers. Nor did Viviane with her watery blasts. The wielders of swords and daggers looked on, helpless. Their weapons were drawn, but the drones never got close enough. Lucas couldn’t maneuver well enough in midair for his capoeira skills to be much use.
Carla had worked her way over to Magnus and David. Putting one hand on each, she deadened their pain and healed them as fast as she could—but not quite fast enough to keep pace with the damage the drones were doing.
“This tech is way more sophisticated than I’ve ever heard of,” yelled Gordy.
Having seen that blowing the drones around wasn’t solving the problem, Tal strummed a different tune, and storm clouds appeared overhead. I felt the electricity right before the first lightning strike. He fried a couple of the drones that way. They weren’t fast enough to evade a lightning bolt, but there were many of them, and Tal couldn’t fill the air with enough lightning to take them out quickly without risking us. Some of them flew directly over us, making further electrical attacks even riskier.
Gordy eyed the drones suspiciously. “There’s got to be a live operator feeding them commands. They switch tactics too much for it to all be preprogrammed.”
“Yeah, but a live operator couldn’t see us,” said Shar. “Unless—are we dealing with someone else who has magic?”
“Let’s hope not,” said Viviane.
“Tal, let’s use all the force we have to push the drones toward the ground,” I yelled. “Maybe we can crash them.”
I felt his magic shift as new winds swirled from the lyre. I aligned my magic with his as best I could. Together, we sent a tornado-force wind tearing into the drones, forcing them down, shattering them against the pavement below.
The bulk of them were metal fragments on the ground, but the ones above Magnus and David were still drilling them with lasers.
“Downward, but at an angle!” yelled Tal. ‘Run them into the side of the hotel.” We scooped them up and threw them toward Hafez’s monument to tourism. One by one, they smacked against the building, and their broken parts rained to the ground.
Free at least of the constant barrage, Magnus banished the serpent spell in the capstone as easily as he had banished its twin.
Below us, I could feel the ambient magic dissipating. There would be no mass release of poison, no massacre of innocents.
Tal maneuvered us into Other Khalid’s room to give the healers a chance to men
d everyone’s wounds.
“Why didn’t Sophia warn us about the drones?” asked Shar.
“Seers don’t see everything,” said Tal. “My guess is Hafez came up with that idea himself. He certainly knows enough about magic to figure out that a technological defense of some kind would be an excellent additional precaution to keep his doomsday device safe. After all, someone would need magic to even know about those spells, and most people who know magic aren’t exactly technological geniuses.
“Stan, on our way out, let’s pick up some of those fragments to study. I’m curious about their capabilities. If the tech is as good as it seems, we might be able to adapt it to our own purposes.”
Stan chuckled. “Let’s focus on getting back home first.”
“Which should be pretty easy, right?” asked Gordy. “We have Hafez. We have the staff and someone to use it. We’ve prevented the Santa Maria Valley from being destroyed. What else is left?”
“There is the matter of my sword,” said Shar. “We should retrieve it before we go.”
“Which brings up the issue of who created the fake,” said Tal. “We still don’t know. We need to approach Awen cautiously, though Ceridwen’s had it locked down since Stan called her. Speaking of which, Stan, will you give her another call and let her know we’re on the way. We’ll fly so we can scan the area on the way in. There could be someone still lurking around, waiting for an opening.”
Just as Tal had suggested, we took a slow flight there, scanning as we went. Even as we got very close, there was no sign that anything was amiss.
“I’m not sensing Hafez at all,” said Tal as we neared Awen. “It may be that Ceridwen’s handcuffs interfere with identification from a distance, or it may be she is masking his presence in case any of his followers have magic.”
“Yeah, otherwise everything looks normal,” said Magnus. “I can sense Ceridwen, Creirwy, Morfran, and Nancy. None of them seem to be in any kind of distress, and the protections we set on the house are still operational, which means no one broke in.”