His people, once given a way to help, overwhelmed him and Ursa with their magic.
Ursa spun the spell rapidly through the tower. She raced through every stone, all the way to the top.
She reached the top just in time. The last of the net they’d fashioned earlier faded away. Amadou held his breath as the spell shone from the tower.
The full weight of it hit them. Ursa skidded forward. He kept her hand in a death grip. Thisbe and Khalil were pulled forward as well. And Isis and Obiad were in chaos as they were flung about in the top rooms of the tower. Amadou closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Ursa's body.
~*~
The tower shuddered downward. Unstoppably, but slowly, as the sorcerers forced it under control.
Then suddenly, they lost contact with Obiad and Isis. Ursa gasped in surprise. Her eyes flew open. The tower slipped from their grip and crashed the last few yards onto the ground.
The impact threw her and Amadou off their feet. A cloud of dust roiled over them and Amadou drew his body over hers.
They jumped to their feet as quickly as possible, but could not do anything while the dust obscured all.
Her first thought was of the people inside the tower. How would they evacuate everyone? Should the sorcerers hold the form of the tower, or use their powers to identify where people were trapped? If—
"Ursa." Amadou's voice was ragged and torn from shouting. He coughed on dust. "Ursa, the demon."
It was forming. Out of sand and lightning, out of wind and chaos, something was taking form.
Every spell, every enchantment fell clean out of her head. For the first time in a long time, she had no idea what to do.
~*~
Amadou was spent. His bones felt wrung out from using so much power. He could not even call out to Isis and Obiad. Were they alive? And his entire family, all housed a few floors below.
All he wanted was to lie down, but the shape of the demon was collecting. Magic thickened around it, sparking in the air. One unbelievable thing after the next. Carnate would be torn about by this whirlwind of malice, and the Hji could stroll in as they pleased after.
The demon turned eyes of fire toward the two sorcerers. At its red center, a storm of a heart. Amadou had not felt so small in a long time. He drew Ursa back into his arms.
Then the well of magic pulled. The dense air lightened for a moment. The creature of pulsing sand turned back to the wreck of the tower.
“There!” Ursa pointed.
The white robes of a priestess emerged from a wreckage of stone that had once been the base of the tower.
Amadou gasped. “En Heduanna!”
The High Priestess climbed over the demolished wall, never ceasing her chant. She was covered in the dust from the collapse. Two younger priestesses followed her. Blood and dust stained their robes. They fell into formation behind En Heduanna.
The high priestess walked straight into the sandstorm. The demon scrambled back as the presence of the priestesses stilled the sand and dispersed the thickening, dense magic. It blasted smoke and sand and magic at the trio. Without missing a beat, the younger priestesses folded over En Heduanna. Their robes shielded her. And still, En Heduanna’s chant sliced into the essence of the being.
The demon drew inward as the chant pushed forward. It coiled together, and burst upward.
Ursa and Amadou could do nothing but watch as the demon fled into the morning sky.
En Heduanna rose from where she’d knelt, and stared at the sorcerers from across the carnage.
Philippa & Gawin
Gawin smoked a cigarillo. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d smoked. First of all, it was possible to buy smokes of all kinds, but the quality had taken a dip. He wasn’t even sure what was in this one.
The night air was dry and cool. He’d been staring into space as darkness fell around him. He was in his own rooms, sitting on the windowsill, a leg over each side. Beyond the crush of buildings, the tower watched over all.
He should be asleep. Tomorrow, he would raid the base of the Arrowheads’ enemy, Demon’s Breath. Renat had said it had all been a mistake, that Moon had not betrayed them. Tomorrow, Renat would go to find Moon, and Gawin would lead the assault on the Demon’s Breath’s unguarded headquarters.
Smoking helped him process the whirlwind of thoughts. He’d often done this in the early years, when they had had more battles. It had been a while. And yet, he’d jumped back in.
This is why Philippa can't be with you. You thought you were becoming more respectable, and yet here you are, back at war.
He was avoiding that, too. He'd have to go over there. He and Renat had gone to see Xavier, but Philippa hadn't been home. Well, and he'd ducked his head and followed Renat out without looking for her.
And now everything had changed again, and Moon was not the enemy they'd thought she was.
And Gawin had gotten through it without Philippa. He hadn't had a moment to see her, despite wanting to pour out his troubles to her. He'd weathered this, he'd found his center. He'd even connected more with Renat.
Gawin stubbed out the cigarillo. He was ready.
~*~
The lights were on on the ground floor of Xavier's manor. As usual, Gawin went in through the back. The servants had retired for the night, and the footman let him in in his shirtsleeves.
"Sorry, Bir. Thanks."
The man grunted as Gawin slipped by and up the stairs.
Her room was dark, but the light shone under her office door. Gawin knocked and entered without waiting. Too much risk Xavier would catch him in the hallway.
Philippa lifted her head from where she'd been bent over her desk.
"Gawin! Where have you been? I even sent a runner to the Arrowheads; I was worried."
Gawin leaned against the closed door. He had fond memories in this office. That was a hard part of breaking up that he'd forgotten about. You left a pattern of your life. He was losing a rhythm he'd been in. Should he really be breaking things off now? Alveas was coming. They'd planned to go to the festival together...
"We had trouble."
"What happened?" She turned in her chair. Tonight she wore a simple bodice and skirt, made of a light linen. The bodice was less structured than she wore in public. The whole outfit was dyed a light purple. Her hair was loose and swept to the side, and her feet bare.
Gawin sighed and closed his eyes to stop looking at her. "Ah...Moon got into trouble with Loviva Shayu. But we got a lead said the Demon's Breath is going to ambush the guard tomorrow morning. Renat is taking half the crew to ambush Loviva's ambush, and I'm going to raid the Demon's Breath headquarters while it's unguarded."
"Are you sure it will be unguarded? Did you say it's a walled manor? You may want to send a scout in first. I'd bring that pair of daggers you have. They'll keep a cat or too back and they're fast enough for dangerous close-range fighting...Why are you laughing?"
He couldn't stop. Gawin wiped a hand over his face to get the smile off it. "Any other lover would have been worried for my safety, not planning the assault."
"Moon and Renat plan together all the time, don't they? You're talking to the daughter of an accomplished businessman."
"I'm never going to find another like you, that's true."
Philippa rose from her chair. "What are you talking about?"
The humor left him, and now he was cold. "I saw you with him."
"Who? Oh—" She realized what he meant and stopped by her chair.
"I saw you, and I realized how stupid I'd been. I thought you and I were trapped by circumstance. Turns out, you love him! We aren't in this situation because of Xavier or some expectations. You just like him, and you couldn't decently and directly break things off with me."
"Gawin, no, it's—" Her perfect face looked pained, thank the tower. At least he finally wasn't the only one in pain. "I just, I... I love both of you."
Gawin rolled his eyes. "Were you sleeping with him, too?"
"No." Philipp
a put up her hands. "I mean, just once."
That stung. Gawin flinched.
"It was at our formal engagement party."
He did not want to know the answer, but he asked anyway: "What is a formal engagement?"
"When our families presented us to each other, officially. We negotiated the marriage contract."
Each word was a twist of the knife. "And why wasn't I invited to such an important event?" he asked with poisonous sarcasm.
"I'm so sorry, Gawin. I was going to tell you." She took a step toward him, and when he didn't move she crossed the distance herself. Putting her hands on his chest, she sought his eyes. "I really, truly was, Gawin. I knew we could not go on like we had been, I swear. I love you."
Gawin responded with a shrug. Never meeting her eyes, he pushed her hands off his chest.
"I'm tired of waiting for you to choose."
"Gawin, don't go—"
But he turned his back on her and left the office.
~*~
He didn't sleep a wink. In the pre-dawn dark, he met the crew at the Arrowhead base after staring at the ceiling all night. He checked the twin daggers strapped to his waist, then signaled to his half of the crew.
They made it to Loviva's base. A quick scout revealed the area to be deadly quiet. They subdued the gate guard and busted the door open.
Millie slipped inside, and for a few tense minutes they waited for her signal.
Millie reappeared at the gate. "Renat was right. The whole crew is gone. Just a few guards. No magic charms to speak of."
"Let's go," Gawin ordered.
The crew shifted form and loped into the gardens of the manor. Gawin and Talia finished stuffing the unconscious body of the gate guard behind a shrub. Talia followed the pack. Gawin took another cautious look around, then shut the gate.
His crew was already engaged in battle. They outnumbered the guards left at the base at least two to one. In short order, the Demon's Breath had been overtaken.
A few of them stayed with the prisoners. Gawin had plans for them later.
The rest of them spread out. They searched the manor from top to bottom, dragging out anything that looked remotely valuable.
The only magic they encountered was on a desk in a lavish room on the third floor. A balcony overlooked the gardens.
"Must be Loviva's, you think?" asked one of his people.
Gawin shifted to human form and tugged at the drawers. Not in smoke or cat form, he couldn't feel the magic as well, but it was clear the drawers were locked tighter than any human could fight.
"Warn the others to get out of the way," he ordered Millie. Then he grinned at those remaining in the office. "Help me get this over the railing."
Sending the desk over the edge of the balcony was deeply satisfying. The wooden desk shattered on the marble patio. The crewmembers waiting below snatched up the papers and anything else that had been freed when the desk had met its end.
They hauled their plunder back to the Arrowhead base in rounds, until finally Gawin was satisfied they'd stripped the place bare.
The sky was lightening as he said, "All right, Arrows! Destroy anything left."
The crew did so with glee. They shifted and used their claws to tear down topiary and smash bowls and overturn mattresses.
Last but not least, they dragged their captives into a main street far from the manor. They trussed them together and hung their capes, marked with the Demon's Breath sign, in a defeated flag above their heads.
After that there was no distraction for Gawin. They had done their job, supremely well in fact. He could not go to Renat, because they had to hold the manor. And so, he fidgeted. Should Renat be back by now? Had there been trouble finding Moon?
A crash shook the city. Gawin crouched. Outside the manor walls, people yelled in alarm.
"An earthquake?" Millie shouted over the sudden din.
"An attack?" someone else asked at the same time.
"The tower!" shouted Talia. She was positioned on the roof. From their view on the ground, they had no idea what she was talking about.
Gawin led the pack in a race up to the roof of the manor. He gasped at what he saw.
~*~
Philippa had not slept all night. She tossed in bed, alternately crying and raging against Gawin. If only he'd let her explain! If only she'd said something better, or sooner, or...
Sighing, Philippa got out of bed. She dressed in the dark with quick hands. Then she crept out of her quiet house.
Niksa lived at a private apartment mere blocks away. She had never been there, but he had pointed the place out, once.
She let herself into the building and climbed the stairs to his door on the third floor. Hoping he wasn't a deep sleeper, she knocked at his door.
Niksa answered promptly, startling her.
"Oh Great Eye,” she exclaimed, “are you a morning person?"
He gave her the shy grin that had won her the first time they'd met. "I like the quiet. I write best then."
"I'm not sure I can marry someone with such a grievous flaw," she said.
Niksa laughed. "Come in, come in. What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Philippa settled into a chair near a window in a cozy sitting room. His small writing desk was across the way. An unlit fireplace took up one wall. Out the window, she had a sweeping view of a Carnate not yet awakened from sleep.
"Gawin broke things off with me."
& Niksa
“Are you well?” Niksa reached down to take her hand.
Philippa, normally hale with a rosy blush on her dark skin, looked pale.
“He saw us together. I told him…we are formally engaged. It was a shock for him. He confronted me,” she said.
“Let me get you some water.”
She turned her face to the window, so a breeze might cool her. Niksa placed a glass of water in her hand and knelt by the chair.
“It didn’t go well,” he guessed.
She sighed heavily. It was a shame to see her like this. Philippa was normally quick-witted and gregarious, and she wasn’t one to have her heart easily broken. She gave her heart and attention easily but fully, and Gawin had loved her back, or so he claimed.
“I barely got a word in.”
Niksa had never been in love with two people at the same time, so he did not try to offer her advice. Especially since he was the other person. He knew how deeply she cared for Gawin, and she had not wanted to hurt him. She had specifically put boundaries on her relationship with Niksa for just that reason. Though both men knew about each other, her relationship with Gawin was older, and she’d wanted to go at Gawin’s pace.
They hadn’t even had sex, not until the engagement had become official amongst their families. Not that he’d needed the slow pace. From their first meeting it had been clear they were a match for each other. Barely twenty minutes into the elaborate ceremony with the matchmaker and their families, and Xavier had already been smiling contentedly across the table at Niksa’s aunt and uncle, his guardians. Niksa hadn’t even been embarrassed by it. He was shy, and Philippa made him comfortable.
The formal engagement party had taken place six months after that. They had balanced the customs of each other’s families: Niksa was Carnate through and through, but Xavier still held to a mix of the traditions of his tribe, and underworld habits.
They had been allowed the shared sip, when the engaged couple is finally left alone for the space of a shared glass of whisky. Xavier had procured this lavish beverage despite the siege, and Niksa and Philippa had sat in the downstairs sitting room. She had been resplendent in her fully-red outfit, while he wore cream and gold with red accents, as a nod to her. She’d settled in the wingback by the low fire, and he across from her on the sofa.
Before long, though, the whisky glass had been abandoned as they gripped each other, kissing frantically.
“Hurry,” she’d whispered. She’d straddled him on the sofa, tugging at his trousers.
They returned to their respective seats with broad smiles. A few minutes later, Xavier knocked and called for them to rejoin the party.
~*~
Speaking gently, Niksa said, "You knew this might happen."
Philippa gazed out the window. "I had hoped...I don't know. I had hoped he would see the depth of my love for him. And I—did you hear that?"
A sound had echoed in the dawn air.
"The Hji?" Niksa asked. This window face north to the tower, so they could not see if anything was happening at the south gate.
"Look!"
Philippa shot to her feet. The water glass splashed on the rug. They rushed to the window. In the distance, the tower swayed, and fell.
"No!" cried Philippa, though there was nothing they could do but watch. They could not see the tower hit the ground, but the force of it spread throughout the city and shook them.
Niksa and Philippa barely had a minute to share a look of horror when something rose from the place where the tower should have been.
Something in the formless smoke shape of a djinn made shot through the air. Its gold form was visible for only a minute, and then it arced through the sky. The djinn hit the Great Dome, the magical shield protecting Carnate. The Dome shattered under the force of the thing's power, and tumbled down in shards and wisps of glittering magic, visible only by the rainbow shimmer, beautiful as bubbles in a bath house.
"Great Eye," said Niksa.
He and Philippa clung to each other in fear.
About the Author
Cecelia Isaac is a Minnesota-based fantasy author. Her books include urban fantasy series St. Paul Grimoire, fantasy romance series A Djinn Romance, and a standalone high fantasy novel Turquoiseblood.
She is also the co-founder of F-BOM, a bimonthly book subscription box featuring indie women authors of science fiction and fantasy.
Stay in touch with Cecelia to hear about new releases! Find her at CeceliaIsaac.com, or on Twitter as @CeceliaIsaac.
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