by Phil Gabriel
I gave her my best “I’m sorry” shrug. Then held up a finger to have her stop talking as Frost came back on line.
“Mr. Freeman,” said Frost, “sorry about the misunderstanding. I will be happy to give you my Oath that all members of my pack, including myself, will not harm you in any way while in New York City.”
I felt strings of magic activate as the Oath took hold. I held my silence for a minute, waiting. When no further vow was made, I countered with, “Only me? That’s not gonna fly. I have my pack, too. See ya,” and hung up.
I sat back on the grass, closing my eyes and enjoying the sunshine.
The phone rang after another five minutes. This time, Frost’s voice had the composure of a smooth politician mitigating a minor misunderstanding. I wondered if Ms. Cappuccetto had performed another calming exercise for him. “Dr. Freeman,” he began, “I apologize for the misunderstanding. Of course, I will give you my Oath that neither I nor any member of my pack will offer you and your designated group harm in any manner while you are here in New York.”
“I accept your Oath,” I said, “and swear that neither I nor my group will harm you or your pack while in New York.” As the Oaths were completed, I felt the bindings tighten.
“Excellent,” said Frost. “So, we can expect you here by tomorrow? At 6:00 a.m.?” Still trying to force me to his schedule. Despite the Oath, he was still trying to order me around.
“Sorry,” I responded, “I’m still preparing my equipment. I’ll call you tomorrow to set up a convenient time.”
I could hear him gnashing his teeth and holding his breath, and Ms. Cappuccetto answered for him. “Please make it as soon as possible. Things are really intense at the office now.”
At that moment, both Akiko and I felt the attention of a powerful supernatural entity. It was stronger than before, more focused. Like the difference an ant feels between normal sunshine and the burning intensity of a magnifying glass.
“We’ll do our best to get there as soon as possible,” I responded, both to Frost and the onlooking entity, before hanging up.
“Let’s go,” I said to Akiko and Kitty-Sue. “There’s another stop we can’t put off much longer.”
“Where’s that?” asked Kitty-Sue.
“Liberty Island, to visit the Statue of Liberty,” I said. ”She’s expecting us first thing tomorrow morning.”
Twenty
The Spirit of Liberty
The next morning, we performed another meditation session in Central Park, followed by breakfast. Then we hopped in a taxi to the South Street Seaport, where we could walk to Battery Park. While Akiko sang along to the Russian tunes the driver was playing, Kitty-Sue went online and purchased tickets for the next ferry to Liberty Island. We managed to get on the 9:30 ferry.
Magically, Liberty Island is the confluence of the most powerful ley lines in North America. If not for the protection afforded by Jackie, magic users from all over the globe would travel there to charge up.
We followed the tour group that got off the ferry. The group appeared to grow indistinct and slowly fade away. We were being transferred to another plane. I hadn’t seen this effect since my battle with Jorōgumo. Kitty-Sue touched my arm to stop me as she said, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
We were abruptly face-to-face with Jackie. Her appearance hadn’t changed much since 1984, although she was wearing a modern skirt/blouse combo. Her blouse was a dark green, on top of another shade of green for her skirt. Looking from her to the statue that towered over us, I could see the same colors reflected in the patina on the metal. She had a classic French beauty: a long nose, strong chin, and flawless café au lait complexion. She greatly resembled the statue that loomed above us.
“Kitty-Sue, Akiko, I’d like you to meet Jackie,” I said, “an old friend of mine.”
“Enchanté,” said Akiko with a perfect French accent. How many languages had Elvis taught her? Kitty-Sue bowed, but not very low. Still some resentment there about an ex. I hate it when my supernatural girlfriends can’t get along.
“Honey,” said Jackie in a Brooklyn accent, “I appreciate the effort, but I don’t speak French anymore. Pleased to meetcha.”
Jackie looked at my bodyguard and ghost student with narrowed eyes, judging their capabilities, then nodded to herself.
“OK, then,” she said, “I invited you here”—looking at me— “because a meeting was requested by the witches’ coven. They asked me to guarantee neutral ground.”
“Yeah, well,” I said, “you can tell the witches to go shove broomsticks up their—” A glance from Jackie and my voice stopped. Try as I might, I couldn’t get another word out. I crossed my arms and glared at Jackie. Ex-girlfriend or not, I didn’t like being set up.
Akiko pursed her lips in thought, then raised her hands to cast a spell. She was drawing huge amounts of power from the ring.
Jackie’s eyes widened at the amount of magic Akiko was calling, and she held up her hands in a placating gesture. “The gag is only temporary. I swear,” she said. At my nod, Akiko lowered her hands and let the power subside.
Jackie said, “Let’s just get this meeting over with. Alicia!”
From a nearby building stepped a bulldog-looking woman in her fifties. Dyed blond hair to cover the gray, tailored pantsuit to cover the expanding rear, lips pursed in a perpetually angry expression—she was the picture of an angry bureaucrat. Clutched in her hand was a folded vellum document.
“This is Alicia,” said Jackie, “the prime of the New York Witches’ Coven. She asked for this meeting to discuss matters ‘of grave import’ with you, Scott.”
Alicia spoke first. “Scott Freeman, you are in New York in violation of the Magician Ban Treaty of 1929. Additionally, you have been designated a WMD by the coven, and I have been authorized to detain you.”
She tried to hand me the document, but I stepped back quickly. No way was I going to take anything from the hand of a witch. As she neared, I scanned her. Healthy, if slightly obese, she exuded the power of her coven. Twelve witches channeled all their power through this petty bureaucrat.
Several times, she tried to get me to take the document, and I slid away. Her mouth turned into a thin line in frustration, enhancing the fine network of wrinkles. Finally, Kitty-Sue stepped between us and held up her hand.
Alicia gazed at Kitty-Sue, trying to determine her true nature. However, Kitty-Sue’s glamour was perfect. She presented as a mundane, black-haired female in her mid-twenties.
“Out of my way,” said Alicia. “This is official coven business.”
“Not going to let you screw with my man, bitch,” said Kitty-Sue.
“If you knew how old he really was,” said Alicia, “you wouldn’t be so protective.”
I turned to Jackie and saw that she was whispering and giggling with Akiko. What did those two have to talk about? Akiko noted my gaze and pointed my way. Jackie finally noticed me, and I pointed to my mouth. Her damn gag spell was still in effect. With a wave of Jackie’s hand, the spell dissipated.
Frustrated in her efforts, Alicia finally just stood in place, holding out the document. Finally able to speak, I said, “WMD? Could you spell that for me?”
Ignoring my joke, Alicia responded, “WMD. A Weapon of Magical Destruction. Any magicians of level six or above is considered a WMD and must be contained.”
“Contained,” I mused. “Is that the new politically correct term for enslaved?”
“Contained,” repeated Alicia, “under the control of the witches’ coven.”
“And the witches’ coven is controlled by...?” I trailed off.
“I am the prime of the coven,” said Alicia, with a smug expression.
“You know what happened to the Memphis Coven back in the fifties?” I asked.
“Some type of psychic feedback killed them all,” said Alicia.
“Not quite,” I said. “I happened. They tried to bell this cat”—I pointed at myself— “by enslaving me. It kind of backfi
red on them.”
“Obviously, they were not as accomplished as our group,” said Alicia.
Challenges must be met. “You ready to try your luck?” Fight the prime of the most powerful coven in the world? On her home turf? Bet your ass I would. I’ll never be enslaved again.
Alicia’s lips compressed, and she appeared ready to attack me, but a small head-shake from Jackie stopped her.
“Luckily for you,” said Alicia, “Jackie won’t allow magical attacks here.”
“Or it’s lucky for you,” I responded.
“But we control all of New York,” said Alicia. “It’s only a matter of time.”
She stepped closer and lowered her voice. “However, we could see a way to let you leave. It has come to our attention that you possess an ancient Artifact of Power, a certain ring. Surrender the ring to the Council, and you may go free.” She gave a rictus of a smile that never reached her eyes, faker than a politician’s promise.
Ancient? If only she knew that I had crafted that ring; what would she do? She’d be all over me like the farmer’s wife was on the golden egg laying goose. With the same result.
In any case, the ring was now the home for Akiko’s spirit and not mine to give away.
“Your info is wrong,” I stated flatly. “I don’t have a ring-shaped Artifact of Power.” Literally true, but incomplete. No sense telling her about the collar hidden under Kitty-Sue’s glamour, or Princess Blade safely hidden in my satchel.
Fake smile fading, Alicia said, “Unfortunate. Still, you will find all the details of your judgment in these documents.” She tried once again to hand the sheets over to me.
“I’ll take those,” said Kitty-Sue, surprising us both. “I’m acting as Scott’s counselor here in New York.” She reached out quicker than the eye could follow to snatch the documents from Alicia’s hand. A small blade was revealed in Alicia’s grasp. That bitch had been trying to get a blood sample from me for a binding. Alicia quickly slid the knife into her pocket, her bland expression betraying nothing.
Kitsune magic flared over the documents in Kitty-Sue’s hand. She riffled the documents and said, “Doesn’t look like they’re booby-trapped, boss,” as she handed the documents over to me.
“What are you?” asked Alicia in surprise, both at her quickness and the flare of unknown magic.
“Someone you don’t want to fuck with,” said my irrepressible friend.
As I started to riffle through the papers with Akiko looking over my shoulder, I noticed Alicia beaming in triumph.
About to throw the papers in her smiling face, I became riveted to the third page. There was a design there, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, reminding me of the work of Van Gogh. It was printed in all five primary colors of the Pentachromat spectrum. A subtle trap, a spirit maze only visible to Pentachromats.
I could distantly hear Kitty-Sue say, “Boss? Are you OK?” She turned to Akiko to ask if this was normal for me. At the sight of Akiko also entranced by the image in my hands, Kitty-Sue did something I didn’t think was possible. She reached up and pulled Akiko’s glasses from her face. In an instant, she had realized that this was an optical trap only visible to magicians.
Akiko blinked several times before trying to gather magical energy. Her grasping hands missed the tendrils of magic, and she couldn’t seem to focus. With a gesture, Alicia called a spirit wind that blew her across the courtyard.
Kitty-Sue reached out to tear the pages from my hands, only to be pushed back by a hurricane-force wind that picked her up and threw her against the nearest building. A normal human would have shattered every bone in her body. Kitty-Sue landed on the side of the building, crouching on her feet and toes. Akiko’s spectral glasses dropped from her hand and landed on the ground and rolled over to the base of the wall. The wind continued pushing with tremendous force, keeping Kitty-Sue pinned against the wall, ten feet from the ground.
I could feel my mouth gaping open and a trickle of drool start to form. A few more minutes of staring at the image would melt my brain. A part of my spirit tried to tear away from the attraction to no avail. I was trapped.
Alicia reached over and grabbed my arm possessively. “Oh my,” she said, “so much youth and energy. We are going to have a wonderful time.”
Instead of trying to tear my gaze away from the mind maze trap, I concentrated fiercely on the image. There was a defect in the pattern, small areas that interrupted the flow of the image. I focused on only those tiny dots and resolved them into yellow spots of ink, invisible to the normal eye. Still frozen in place, I exulted internally. This vellum had been run through a laser printer, probably to lay down the patterns for the spell.
Since the ’80s, every color printer made has had its firmware modified to force every page to print nearly invisible yellow dots. The dots form a pattern that relates to the printer’s serial number. That’s so those fine folks at the NSA can keep track of exactly who is printing out those vile rumors that they spy on Americans. I had never been so happy to be spied upon.
Concentrating on the dots, the yellow dots, yellow like a flame, flame to burn the vellum, I sent a whisper of my precious magical energy to feed the yellow. The yellow dots started burning.
As the vellum burned, leaving a stench of burned skin in the air, the pattern broke and the spell shattered.
I jerked my arm away from Alicia, tossed the still-burning pages in her face, and snarled, “Alicia, why don’t you wrap these around the biggest dildo you own and shove them up your ass!”
The sudden change broke her concentration, and the hurricane wind died away, freeing Kitty-Sue and Akiko. Kitty-Sue landed on the ground, her glamour broken, fangs showing in a snarl. Knives appeared in her hands as she stared at Alicia with feral intensity. Akiko made her way back to her glasses, dropped to the ground in a crouch, and put them on. I felt a rumble from underground. Oh shit, Akiko was calling up Earth force through the ring. She could end up sinking Liberty Island in her rage. Breaking her geas would bring her true death, but she seemed determined.
Alicia stuttered, “How did you break that spell?”
“Bitch,” I said, “it was harder to quit Reddit than to break your shitty trap.” No sense in giving the conniving bitch more information that might improve her next trap.
Alicia said, “Creating that page killed our last magician.” She continued in a screech, “You owe me! Our magician died trying to trap you.” Typical witch—nothing was ever their fault, there was always a patsy around to take the blame.
Akiko and Kitty-Sue prepared to attack Alicia, only to be frozen in place by Jackie, who said, “No violence on my island.” Kitty-Sue’s body was covered in scintillating waves of kitsune magic as her forward motion stopped, then she started moving forward again at a crawling pace. The rumblings called up by Akiko faded away.
Alicia watched as Kitty-Sue fought to throw off the spell of the most powerful supernatural entity in the country, and was succeeding, then muttered to herself, “What is she?”
Kitty-Sue moved more and more quickly, straining to break the freeze spell. She had knives in her hands and was preparing a throw. Suddenly a huge shadow covered our group, and a metal wall, green from corrosion, slammed down between Kitty-Sue and Akiko and the group formed of Jackie, Alicia, and me. Tilting my head sideways, I could read the inscription on the wall. JULY IV MDCCLXXVI. Looking up, I saw a huge hand holding the wall in place. Looking even further up, I saw the face of a pissed-off Statue of Liberty.
“I SAID STOP!” shouted the huge figure in a voice that could command millions. I reluctantly drew my hand from inside my satchel, where I was gripping Princess. I was sure Princess would revel in Alicia’s blood. Hell, she might be powerful enough to nick Liberty’s gargantuan hand.
I thought momentarily of the god-killer bullet in my .45. That could cause more damage than Princess. Did I want to go that far? No, I was American through and through, I wouldn’t damage the Spirit of Liberty.
As I drew
my hand away and closed the satchel, Jackie breathed a sigh of relief.
Turning to face Alicia, Jackie said, “You tried to start a fight on my island. I should ban you and your coven.”
Waving away her words, Alicia responded with the acumen of a lawyer. “I certainly didn’t instigate the violence. I merely handed the magician some papers and those creatures attacked me. Luckily you were here to defend me.” Smoothing down her rumpled pantsuit, she continued, “The witches’ coven appreciates your assistance. Now if you would be so kind as to bind this magician, I can be on my way.”
Jackie noted that my hand was back on the flap of my satchel and gave the tiniest shake of her head in my direction. This time there was no magical compulsion, so I waited for her to speak.
“I’m not binding anyone,” said Jackie. “I represent justice, but also freedom. In this case, I prefer to err on the side of freedom.”
Looking at Alicia with narrowed eyes, silencing any objections, she said, “I am going to rescind the magician ban. No citizen of this country should be considered a second-class citizen.”
“You…you…you can’t do that!” stammered Alicia.
Behind us, the Statue of Liberty moved, lifting the tablet that had been walling off Akiko and Kitty-Sue. The hand and tablet moved until they were over Alicia, casting a shadow on her face as they blotted out the sun. It was like the world’s largest flyswatter, reminding Alicia of her rank in the supernatural world.
“Can’t I?” boomed the voice of Liberty.
Akiko and Kitty-Sue raced over to our position, Akiko with hands raised to cast thunderbolts and Kitty-Sue’s hands filled with blades. At my gesture, they held their attack.
Alicia glared at all of us. “You haven’t heard the last of this! You’re going to regret crossing the witches’ coven.” Under the gaze of our group, she backed up several feet before turning away.
“Alicia,” I called out as she trundled away. She turned with a sneer on her face. “You know how a magician always tells the truth?” At her reluctant nod, I continued, “The next time I see you will be the last time.” Her mouth tightened, and I could tell she was ready with a sharp retort. Akiko stepped up to my right and Kitty-Sue to my left, and they stared at her. Alicia looked up at the giant tablet, still held above her head, and turned away. Each step she took caused her to fade away, back to the mortal plane.