The East Gate (Dawnbringer, Book 2)

by Elon Vidal

  “He can’t see me,” Maggie reminded her.

  “He doesn’t need to, but you can keep an eye on him.”

  Maggie was gone in an instant and Dawn chanced a quick look behind her pillar to see if there was any way of making a run to where Damon was.

  “Dawn, I need help!” Damon called out, and she looked at her hands helplessly.

  It was like being given a brand-new gadget that you didn’t know how to use, and she shook her hands in the hopes that the light would do something.

  “Dawn!”

  It was now or never, she thought. “Over here!” she shouted as she got out from behind the pillar, exposing herself.

  A loud screeching noise filled the place as several of the wraiths headed for her. Dawn ran forward, trying to find somewhere she could take cover. Besides the pillars and tumbled stones there was nothing else, and she certainly wasn’t going to chance crawling into an opened niche. She dashed behind as a wraith brushed past her and hurt her arm. She clenched her jaw and tried to take a deep breath through her nose to suppress the pain.

  For a second it seemed as if she had lost the creatures that flew past her. But the horde stopped suddenly and turned around, heading straight for her.

  “Damon!” she screamed as she started to run.

  She managed to duck behind another pillar, her eyes widening when she saw Damon on the floor. The horde caught up with her again, this time not giving her any chance to run by surrounding her. Two of the wraiths screeched and came at her in full speed, their intention clear and frightening.

  Dawn closed her eyes with her hands in front of her, accepting whatever was to come. They had all fought a good fight, but there was nothing they could do anymore. The wraiths were just too many, and the only person with magic was now slumped on the ground. He had overexerted himself in his attempt to fight alone and no sun to draw energy from. It didn't help that it was night or that they were underground. Dawn suspected that he had even used some moon magic to last as long as he had, not that the Wiccan practice didn't have limits.

  She screamed as the wraiths swarmed. Everything went pitch black. The wraiths tore at her clothes and arm, and a burning pain covered her whole body. She was about to get her own grave in this crypt. That was her last thought before the warmth in her arms and hands intensified, and then she was suddenly pushed back by a strong force, and crashed into the wall behind her. She moaned in pain as she opened her eyes, but the wraiths were gone. Gone! All that was left was a large pile of ash on the ground.

  "That's not possible," Fisher said as he appeared behind the pile.

  He looked at her with wide eyes for a second, then raised his hand over the pile. He cursed when nothing happened, then looked back at Dawn.

  "What are you?" he asked, then tilted his head to the side as if trying to figure her out.

  Yeah, like she knew the answer to that question. It didn’t dawn on her until a moment later that the wraiths weren’t just gone, but she’d somehow destroyed them. Or at least Fisher seemed to think that she had. Was that even possible? She didn’t have magic, just a strange, useless light in her hands. Fisher didn’t give her any time to think deeper on the matter.

  "Ahhh!" she screamed when an acute pain filled her abdomen.

  She looked down and saw the blood staining her shirt.

  "It's just a little test scratch,” he said, “I thought for a second there you might be an old friend of mine."

  She had no idea what he was talking about. As curious as she usually was about what was going on with her, right now she was more concerned with how her friends were fairing.

  “I’d rather bleed to death than listen to you.”

  “What kind of magic was that?”

  “Why? So you can steal it too?”

  Fisher tilted his head to the side again. The light had dimmed now, and Dawn wondered if she had to recharge too like every other magical creature who used light magic. There was no manual for the energy inside her that seemed to appear and disappear at will. And she could only pray that Fisher didn’t get any ideas that involved draining her of it.

  “Does your precious Council know about this?” he asked, ignoring her little jab. “Hmm, I doubt it. They wouldn’t let you run around alone now would they? They do like their control over their subjects.”

  “Are we getting somewhere with this?”

  Fisher raised his hand and a tendril of smoke left his fingers and approached Dawn, making her draw back. It wound itself around her neck when she stopped, tightening when she tried to move away.

  “I have no magic,” she said, trying to get away from his hold.

  “I believe you, but you are not just a Halfling, are you?” he said.

  Dawn tried to think of a way to keep Fisher distracted while she came up with a way to get out of this. She had to keep him yapping in the hopes of finding a weak spot.

  “Would it change anything if I were anything other than what you think I am?” she asked.

  “Why are you here?” he asked. “Were you looking for me?”

  “You stole my friend’s magic. Of course we were looking for you!”

  “And how did you know that I would be here?”

  “Not many places for evil jerks to be hanging around.”

  Fisher raised his hand and two wraiths appeared on either side of him. "Let's finish this, shall we? You and your friends have cost me precious time already."

  Dawn leaned against the wall behind her, using one hand to put pressure on her wound. She needed another miracle or else she wasn’t leaving this crypt alive. But she was too exhausted to even think of magic right now. A thought of having pushed her friends into this mess did shore up. Perhaps she shouldn’t’ve thought they were playing child games and to be honest, the thrill for adventure was far more appealing than the dull responsibility of following protocols and staying under guard observation. Her family came to mind. Would she seem them again?

  “Is now a good time to show up?” Maggie said as she appeared beside her.

  Dawn wanted to nod but she wasn’t sure how Maggie could help in this situation. It felt comforting to have someone by her side, though, even if she might be joining that someone on the other side soon.

  “I’ve brought some company,” Maggie grinned, and before Dawn could ask what she meant by that, several spirits appeared on either side of them, and some behind Fisher. Some had human form, others were different magic folk. All appeared ghostly and translucent, much like Maggie.

  Dawn gasped; she had never seen so many spirits in one place before. She was so used to just seeing Maggie that at times she forgot she had that power.

  “Now let’s see what damage we can do,” Maggie said with a wink before turning to meet the wraiths head on.

  Dawn stumbled backwards along the wall as the spirits ran past her, halting the wraiths' attack. Their auras pierced into the shadows and blasted them from the inside. She winced as the wraiths screeched a loud sound that resembled nails being dragged across a board. The army of ghosts surrounded the shadows and they proceeded to fight.

  "Necromancy magic!" Fisher growled, throwing a black ball of energy straight into Dawn's chest.

  She coughed and almost doubled over in pain. Her insides burned, or so it felt, and she could barely breathe. Fisher sent another wave of energy her way and knocked her off her feet. She tasted blood and spit to the side, wiping her mouth as she looked up at Fisher in anger.

  "Tired of fighting people your own size?" she asked, wincing when her chest protested the movement.

  "Oh, I would say we are at par here," Fisher said with venom.

  The noise the ghosts and wraiths were making behind them was unsettling. Growls and screeches filled the cavernous space, haunting howls from the underworld. Dawn had to focus on the man trying to kill her right now. She was sure she had several broken ribs and couldn’t move much. The true definition of being caught between a rock and a hard place. Her entire chest felt like someone was run
ning it over with a truck, and she groaned in pain as she coughed, and blood pooled in her mouth.

  "Dawn," Damon croaked somewhere close to her.

  She couldn't turn around to look, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to. All she wanted right now was to close her eyes and drift off. Maybe nap for a few minutes or die for a whole lot more. Anything to take the pain away, anything to feel like she was an actual person again. Because right now she felt like pieces of Lego scattered all over the place and feeling the pain of stepping onto Lego scattered all over the place.

  She screamed when she was suddenly lifted off the ground and thrown back down. Fisher used his magic to toss Dawn like a salad. When the pain became too much, her hands began to glow. The light within her took over. She felt outside of herself, yet realized she was empowered. She was furious too; this prick wasn’t going to seal her. Frustrated with pain, she cried out as a blast of light burst forth, clearing everything in its path. When the light subsided, the crypt was quiet and there was no wraith to be seen in sight, nor their puppet master. Dawn finally breathed and gave in to letting her body rest for a second.

  FIFTEEN

  "There she is," Damon said as he patted her cheek gently. The shock from Dawn’s light blast still reverberated throughout the crypt walls. Traces of shadow silhouettes were imprinted on the ground as a reminder of bygone wraiths.

  Dawn blinked slowly and tried to remember where she was and what was going on.

  "You had us worried for a second there," he continued.

  "Help me up," she said, and he helped her sit up.

  "Hey," Elijah said with a small smile. He looked unharmed except for a few scratches on his face that a little magic could fix.

  "How are you feeling?" she asked. She gestured to sit up and groaned when her own pain came back in full force.

  "Take it easy, you are hurt pretty badly," Elijah said, making her look down to assess the damage.

  Her clothes were dirty and bloody, which made her look ten times worse than she felt. And that was saying much since she already felt like she was at the far end of the pain meter.

  "Fisher?" she asked.

  "Gone. You weren't really playing, were you?" Damon chuckled. "You went nuclear and pretty much took out everything in the crypt."

  "Almost everything," Maggie said as she appeared.

  Dawn managed a small smile at seeing her old friend and gestured for Elijah to help her stand.

  "Are you okay? What happened to the other ghosts?" she asked.

  "They are fine, just a bit wary of you. So, they will sit out this reunion if that's alright," Maggie said with a chuckle.

  "Fair enough." Dawn looked at her hands which looked pretty normal now. She could still not figure out what force had emerged within her. She certainly couldn’t summon it at will, or at least that’s what she thought. It had come at a crucial moment, and for that she felt relief. In the face of none other than wraiths. She had seen enough of them for many lifetimes, with their shrieks and their menacing features.

  And how about Maggie and her spirit crew? Had it not been for them, Dawn had to recognize she was very close to giving in to Fisher. Where was Fisher by the way? She looked around but all she could see was the two warlocks and her ghost friend.

  "We still have to find what we came here for," Elijah reminded her. "Before anything else decides to come out and attack us. I doubt either of you have it in you for another round."

  "He's right. We all need to rest, and Dawn needs medical attention," Damon replied. "We need to figure out what might signal a centerpiece of old magic that can help with Pandora’s second trial. Perhaps some artifact or some weird combination of symbols, or maybe an inscription of sorts could work,” Damon suggested. “Did Fisher say anything that might give us an idea of what we are looking for?”

  Dawn shook her head. “No he was busy trying to put my insides, outside.” Fisher had not given her any clue, which meant they were back where they had started. Minus any magic to use of course, which probably meant it would be more difficult now.

  Maggie giggled and Dawn turned to glare at her.

  “What?” she asked, blinking innocently. “It’s a funny thought.”

  Only a dead person would find humor in death, Dawn thought.

  “Eureka!” Maggie shouted, then started jumping up and down.

  “What?” Dawn asked, hoping Maggie really had something valuable to add.

  “Perhaps a curse. Something that stands out as being different, yet blends in,” Maggie said as she disappeared and appeared next to Damon, making doll eyes at him despite how filthy he now looked. “Perhaps what you could look for is a spell of some kind, those are usually easy to see, right?”

  Dawn rolled her own eyes and limped to where Damon stood, checking out the grave’s inscription. “If you can read the language I suppose. But that could be any grave in here. The time it would take us to translate everything written on every grave is impossible to know.”

  “What are you talking about?” Damon asked.

  Dawn repeated what Maggie had said and he nodded thoughtfully.

  “Actually, that might work. Most of these graves clearly have names and dates. A spell would stand out, even though most of the graves have symbols on them.”

  "Maggie? Do you think the ghosts here can help look for it?"

  Maggie nodded, "I think so. If they know what to look for."

  Dawn repeated what they had talked about out earlier when they had arrived, then added that they probably needed to check out some of the oldest graves in here too. Maggie disappeared and Dawn turned to the guys and updated them.

  “So, you can conjure an army of ghosts now?” Elijah said with something in his tone that Dawn couldn’t quite decipher.

  “Well, technically it was Maggie’s idea,” she replied hesitantly.

  Elijah only nodded, then looked away. Dawn looked at Damon and he gave her a subtle shake of the head. Dawn realized he could be moody. Was it that he was frustrated by not being able to be of more help? Was he missing his innate power that he felt awkward having to learn how to interact with the world from scratch, without being able to summon plates out of thin air or portal himself elsewhere? In any case, his mood wasn’t helping, but she wasn’t going to get all condescending on him now.

  "Found something! Over here!" Maggie called out, and Dawn immediately told the guys.

  Led by the ghost and following Dawn’s queues, they ascended the staircase out of the crypt back onto the church’s chancel and made their way to the epistle. They stopped in front of a fairly new grave according to the dates.

  "Maybe I might have been off with the whole oldest grave thing, that would have been too easy anyway," Dawn said.

  Damon stepped forward and ran his hands over the stone. "Well, this is definitely not Greek."

  The inscription was not too long, but the symbols looked like something they might be looking for.

  "What different about this one?" she asked Maggie.

  "There's no body inside," the ghost replied.

  "Damon, can you read what it says?" Elijah asked.

  "I am trying. I can only make out a few symbols, but I think you were right Dawn, this must be a spell of some kind."

  The specific word that Maggie had used had been curse, and Dawn didn't really want to think about that right now. Maybe they could take down the inscription and decipher it at home? Another trip to this crypt was not something that she wanted to do. If Fisher somehow found out that they didn't have the right artifact, they had no way of stopping him from returning and getting it before them.

  "You see the symbol that looks like a lopsided infinity sign? I think it's a binding spell but used in dark magic."

  "Great, so that can't be good," Elijah muttered.

  "Blood and magic," Damon continued, tracing his fingers over the symbols. "There's a symbol for a key of some sort but I can't make out what it all means together. I'm sorry."

  "The djinn said this wa
s a trial, right? So maybe it’s a puzzle or a test."

  "But in order to solve a puzzle we have to know what it says," Dawn sighed.

  "Ouch!" Damon exclaimed suddenly, removing his hand from the stone and looking at it as if he had been burnt.

  "What happened?" Elijah asked.

  Damon looked at his palm and frowned, "Something pricked me."

  They all looked at the smooth stone, and Dawn wondered how that had happened. A single, spherical drop of Damon’s blood hovered atop the tombstone, just where he had placed his hand. The droplet then increased in volume, as if more had been poured, and crimson liquid flowed to fill the symbols. They all took a step back from the grave and as quickly as the blood had spread, it vanished. Everyone watched in silence for a minute and when nothing else happened, they looked at each other.

  "What was that?" Maggie asked.

  Dawn shook her head. "I have no idea."

  "I think we must have done something though, look," Maggie said as she pointed at the symbols.

  "Umm guys," Dawn said, taking a step closer. "I think the symbols are fading."

  Something compelled Dawn to touch the stone. Before she could think about why she wanted to do it, she placed her palm against the stone, as if she was drawn to something inside. Her fingers began to glow as she did too.

  "Dawn, what are you doing?" Elijah asked, sounding panicked.