But I was still shaky and felt like I could barely put one foot in front of the other. Besides, he was offering help in finding Lilly, and as much as she could take care of herself, I was terrified of what the Bone Lord was doing to her.
“Come on,” I said.
#
“This is… disturbing,” Raven said.
We stood in my basement, surrounded by the small houses that the pixies had made for themselves. My translator was in hand and I was waiting for Petal. She was young, for their kind, but she was also the one who was usually the go-between.
She zoomed out from a house and crashed into my leg, throwing her arms around it and squeezing. All six inches of her held on tight and she squealed in delight. Then she let go and gave Raven the once-over.
“Who sour-face man? And where is pretty-pretty lady?”
Pretty-pretty lady was always Lilly, and any other time I would have laughed at her name for Raven. But right now, I didn’t feel much like it.
“Pretty-pretty lady need help,” I said, through the translator. “I need you to listen.”
I told her, and the others who gathered around, what happened. They were incredulous at first. Lilly once held off an Elder Being, a Fomorii named Fogwell who was holding them captive, so in their minds there was no one more powerful than her.
“I need you to spread out, everywhere across the city,” I told them. “Find her, but don’t confront the Bone Lord. Then find me and tell me where they are. I’ll get her back.”
Several little popping noises occurred as one after the other the Brownies disappeared. Soon, it was only Raven and I standing in the basement.
“Brownies?” he said. “You’re harboring Brownies?”
“Yep. And I’d do it again, too.”
He studied the tiny houses scattered around the basement. “I should say I’m not surprised, but even for you, Grandfather, this is…”
“Look,” I snarled, rounding on him, “I don’t have time for this. Lilly is out there somewhere. Are you going to help or not? If you are, stop whining and let’s go. If you’re not, get out of my way.”
His eyes narrowed for a minute and I could see the retort coming. But then he dropped his gaze. “Of course,” he said. “Let’s go.”
For a moment, I felt a little bad. But I really didn’t have time for our normal banter right now.
“Alright then. Our next stop is Father Magnus.”
His one eyebrow rose, a neat trick that I always wished I could do. “Magnus? Why?”
“The Bone Lord, and anything else from the Pit, is evil, right? You were there and saw what Magnus did at our wedding. Who better to confront it?”
Raven nodded. “Right. Good idea.”
As we walked from my house to the Temple of the Good God, occasional Brownies would appear nearby. They’d zip over to me, chatter away in their high-pitched, rapid voices and pop out of sight again. Each time, I’d hold the translator that Lilly got from the Watch to my ear.
“What are they saying?” Raven asked.
“They haven’t found her yet. They have found a lot of spots of ‘icky magic’, whatever that means, but not in any pattern they can follow. They’ll keep searching though.”
“And our plan?”
“Our plan is to get Father Magnus. By then, hopefully, the Brownies will have located the Bone Lord. We’ll all go there, and while Magnus keeps him busy, I’ll shoot him again. As many times as I have to.”
“And you think that will do it? That the gun can kill him?”
“Who knows? If not, it should keep him busy and Magnus can do it. I don’t care, as long as he goes down and I get Lilly back.”
“And my part in this?”
“When we find them, and the fireworks start, you get in and get to her. Free her, wake her, drag her out of there, whatever you need to do. Waking would be best. She’ll be pissed and then I don’t think I’d want to be the Bone Lord.”
Some of that was whistling in the dark. The Bone Lord already showed that Lilly, and any other necromancers, were no match for him. But Magnus. That was a whole different matter.
We found Father Magnus outside of his temple, looking into the night sky with a frown on his usually peaceful face.
“Hello, Duke. Raven,” he said as we approached.
“Father,” I replied. “What are you doing out here?”
“There’s something. Something wrong. I don’t know what it is, but…” He trailed off, his eyes still scanning the sky.
“I do,” I said. “Can we go inside?”
We sat in the long benches that took up the bulk of the interior space and I told Magnus about the events of the last night. He shuddered when I told him of the rise of the Bone Lord.
“Ah,” he said. “That would be why the sun hasn’t dawned over the city yet. A fiend from the Pit is loose.”
“I’m afraid so, and I need your help to get Lilly back.”
He listened, the very picture of calmness, while I told him that part of it. When I was done he stood and the three of us left the temple.
“Where to?” Raven asked.
I hesitated. In truth, I hoped that the Brownies would have located them by now. But since they hadn’t, my next thought was to go to the witches, and ask Minerva if they could join in. I wasn’t sure how Magnus would feel about that, but it didn’t matter. Regardless of the amount of respect and admiration I had for Father Magnus, I didn’t really care about that right now. If the witches could help locate Lilly, then it was to the witches I would go.
I was opening my mouth to say so when there was a quiet popping sound, and a Brownie appeared in front of us.
I glanced at Father Magnus, but he only smiled and held out his hand. The Brownie lighted on it as if they were old friends and chattered away.
“I see,” Magnus said, before the words even made through the translator. “Did you get that?” he asked me.
“They found her.” Somehow, I wasn’t surprised that Magnus not only didn’t show any surprise or discomfort around the Brownie, but that he could understand them as well. The man was a marvel.
“Let’s go,” Raven said.
The Brownie that stood on Magnus’s hand continued to chatter as we hurried through the streets. Magnus listened carefully, a frown appearing on his face.
“Duke,” he said after a minute, “wait a moment.”
“What?” I didn’t want to wait, not even for him, so I said it still walking, forcing him to hurry to keep up.
“Duke.”
There was something in his voice. Something that made me stop.
“What?” I said again.
“There’s something wrong. Mushroom says that the pretty-pretty lady is gone. That instead there’s a scary lady in her place.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I kept my voice calm, trying to ignore the cold tendrils of ice that were wrapping around my spine.
“I don’t know. We need to be ready for anything, that’s all.”
“We have a plan. I shoot the Bone Lord, you slap him down, and Raven gets Lilly away. Easy.”
“Sure. And we’ll do that. Only…”
“Only what?” My voice took on an edge it never had around Magnus before.
“We just need to be ready, that’s all.”
“Fine. I’m ready. Are you?”
I didn’t wait for an answer, but I heard both he and Raven following behind.
In the distance, I could see the castle up on its hill. It was usually gleaming in the sun, however they managed that, but now it was only another building, a little taller and grander than the others, but half obscured in the gloom that covered everything.
“Where are you?” I wanted to scream at it. “What are you doing while a Lord of the Pit threatens your city? Hiding?”
As if in answer, a sheet of flame erupted from the ground, reaching high into the sky. It ran across the road leading to the hill, which was the only way up there, a defensive precaution I was sure. No
w, even if someone up there decided to get off their asses and help, they were blocked by an inferno.
“There?” I asked.
Magnus nodded. “There.”
We watched the curtain of flame, easily forty feet high, burn. It was getting bigger, too. Slowly extending from one side, stretching further into the neighborhoods that bordered that road.
“Come on,” I said, and began running.
#
I immediately saw what the Brownie, Mushroom, meant. Lilly walked along slowly, her face turned to the wall of fire she was creating. But it wasn’t Lilly, not really.
Her robes were no longer the bright red they once were. Now, they were a much deeper hue, the color of old blood, with streaks of black through them. And her face, while still the beautiful face that I fell in love with, was twisted into an expression of glee, her eyes wide as she watched her spell burn everything it touched.
None of the usual signs of her using magic were present. Her hair lay still, her eyes were her normal color and there were no sparks from her fingers. And she was showing no apparent effort in creating this wall of fire. Like it was easiest thing in the world for her to do.
We approached slowly. I heard some high-pitched chattering and saw Brownies perched on window sills, lamp posts and building signs, watching.
“Lilly!” I needed to shout to be heard above the roar of the flames.
She glanced over, no recognition in her eyes, then turned her attention back to what she was doing.
“Lilly!” I said it again, and reached out, touching her shoulder.
She growled a word in the language of the Pit, and I flew away from her. Not as forcefully as when the Bone Lord did it, but enough to send me sprawling. Raven helped me up.
Lilly ignored me again, slowly walking down the street, extending the fiery curtain. The parts that she had already thrown up were burning fiercely, even after having consumed any possible fuel source. The heat was getting intense, and it didn’t bother her in the least.
“Magnus,” I cried, limping over to him. “What is it? What’s got her?”
He hadn’t done anything yet. Instead, he stood calmly, his hands folded in front of him and studied Lilly. Now, he turned to me, his face drawn down in a grimace.
“The Pit has her.”
“Can you get her away?”
He sighed and looked back at Lilly. “I don’t know. She’s using a lot of power, more than any one person can. It’s not really her, it’s the Pit. Even if I can pull her away, when that power leaves, it might take more with it.”
“Meaning?”
“Her life. It might be tied to the power of the Pit now. Remove the power, and her life goes along.”
I stared at him for a moment, then turned back to Lilly, watching her move further away, ignoring us entirely.
“No.” I refused to believe it. Magnus knew what he was talking about, from experience, I was sure. There were times the essence of the Good God filled him, but he was fine. “There’s got to be a way to save her. How does it work for you?”
“I’m a willing servant. When the Good God blesses me with his presence, he is welcomed, and I willingly give myself over. When the work is done, the Good God withdraws, leaving me with only peace.”
“So, if we get the Pit to withdraw on its own from Lilly, she’ll be alright?”
“Possibly. But I don’t know how to do that.”
“Umm, guys? You might want to see this,” Raven said.
The Brownies all gathered together. They flew to the far end of the curtain of fire, to the first place that Lilly had created it, formed a line and began to sing. They let loose with all the power of their tiny voices, and there wasn’t much that could stand against them.
The wall of fire could. A tongue of flame shot out, flicking against one of the Brownies. There was a horrible scream, and the Brownie dropped from the sky, his skin blackened and cracked, smoke rising from him.
The others screamed as well and dove down toward him. It was pitiful to hear their cries and sobs as they surrounded their lost loved one.
We ran over, Magnus bowing his head and praying quietly.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, gathering Petal to me. “It’s okay. You’ve done enough. Gather up your people and go home.”
“Want to help pretty-pretty lady,” she sniffed.
“I know. And you have. We found her because of you. Now we’ll take care of it. I’ll bring her home, I promise.”
Petal nodded sadly and flew over to her family. They gathered up the body and disappeared, popping back out of existence. Magnus walked back, patted me on the shoulder and went to follow Lilly. “Maybe I can figure out a way to shield her from the worst of it,” he said.
I nodded, and when I looked back around, Raven was studying the wall of fire.
“What are you doing?”
“What’s making it do this?” he asked.
“Do what?”
“Burn with nothing to keep it going. Defend itself like that.”
“Magic,” I answered. As far as I was concerned, almost any weirdness could be explained by magic. After all my time with Lilly, I still hated the stuff.
“Right. But what kind?”
“According to Magnus, magic from the Pit.”
“Exactly. Now, think further.”
“I don’t have times for games, Raven!”
He turned to me. “I’m not trying to play any. I don’t like you, Grandfather, that’s no secret. And you don’t like me. But this isn’t about you. Put your ego aside and think! If this is magic from the Pit, it’s like nothing we’ve seen before.”
While his words stung, they were true. I tried to do what he was saying, but I wasn’t following. I understood what he was doing now. He wasn’t playing games with me, he was thinking out loud, using me to bounce his owns ideas off of.
“It’s always like nothing we’ve seen before,” I groused. “Every time some disgruntled ass has a bone to pick with the city, it’s something new.”
“No,” he replied, “it’s not. Not really. It’s something that has been seen before, even if it’s rare, or hasn’t been in ages. But this…this is truly new. Why haven’t we seen more of it? Why don’t the necromancers or wizards, or anyone else use it all the time? Look at her! She’s throwing up that wall like it’s nothing and blasted you away without missing a beat. Why doesn’t every magic user tap into that kind of power?”
“The Bone Lord,” I said slowly. “She changed when the Bone Lord took her. He’s doing this.”
Raven nodded. “Yeah. But him too. Think how easily he went through all of us when he first showed up. Even your gun only made him take some other form.”
“He was already that strong when he came out,” I said. “So, whatever gives him his power…”
“The Pit,” Raven said. “His power, and Lilly’s, comes from the Pit. If we can close it…”
“But what about what Magnus said? If the power is suddenly pulled out of Lilly, it will probably take her life with it.”
“If it’s pulled out, yeah. But if it’s cut off? What then?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Magnus will. Let’s go ask him.”
We ran to where Magnus was walking, concentrating on Lilly. We slowed down to walk with him, one on either side, and told him what we had been discussing.
“Interesting. Very.” He rubbed his chin. “I don’t know what cutting her off from the source of power would do. But it might not matter. I might have thought of a way to help her.”
“Really! That’s fantastic!” I was thrilled. The woman walking along, burning homes and business to create a wall of fire that was getting longer by the second was the woman I loved, and at the same time, someone who was strange to me. I wanted her, the real her, back.
“Don’t get too excited yet. If I can help to refill her as the power of the Pit drains out of her, it should sustain her. If the Good God wills it so.”
“Then
do that!”
“It’s not that easy, Duke. I wish it was. I have no way to drain that power. That we still need to figure out.”
“Closing the Pit?”
“Possibly, but slowly. Again, we need to figure out how to do that.”
I turned my head and watched Lilly continue her task. At the moment, I was blank. But I was going to get her back.
THE WOUND IN THE WORLD
I walked next to Lilly, trying to talk to her, to reach the real Lilly buried inside. It did no good. I spoke loudly, making sure that she could hear me over the roar of the flames. Several times, I needed to step further away, to get out of the intense heat, but when I did, I shouted louder.
I reminded her of things we had done together. Of our first date, our encounter with the lich, and how we rescued Petal, not caring who else heard me. I spoke of her family, and the adventure when her sister got married. Anything to try to bring her back.
Even telling her how much I loved her did nothing. None of it mattered at all.
Twice more I tried to touch her, and twice more she threw me away with a word. The second time I could hardly stand and felt like there might be something broken inside.
“You’re a slow learner,” Raven said, not unkindly, as he helped me up.
“What else can I do?” I answered. “I can’t leave her here like this.”
“No, but this isn’t working. Look how long the wall is. If she keeps going, she’s going to enclose the whole city. Then what?”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to. Then, no one in or out, and the Bone Lord would have his way. Not that I saw anything that could stop him now.
Father Magnus walked back to us, a picture of concentration.
“I might have an idea for how to turn this off,” he said. “Let me go find out. I’ll be back shortly.”
I nodded, too winded and sore to say much of anything.
Magnus stepped to me, put his hands on my shoulders and closed his eyes. Even here, in the middle of what was slowly becoming an extension of the Pit, an inner peace filled him, and by extension, me. Whatever was hurting inside stopped, and even where my skin was red and tender from being near the fire was healed.
Duke Grandfather- The Whole Story Page 89