“It may have helped slightly. You were getting pretty stinky.” Gypcie deadpanned, then added, “Still, that answers that question. We know that for now at least, the lounge wards are still working.”
I finished brushing the last of the goo onto the floor and wiped my hands on my black leggings. “We should probably check to make sure nothing was trapped in here when the ward was brought up,” I said, reluctantly. I sure hoped there wasn’t anything, because I was not at all sure the inner wards worked the same in both directions. If we found something and it chased us, we were going to have to run back to the library to be safe. We couldn’t afford not to know.
Gypcie took point with her pistols out and eased up to the doorway into the back portion of the lounge, with me behind her in readiness. With a style that would make any S.W.A.T. team member proud, she directed her pistols right into the bulk of the room to ensure there were no surprises, and then left, checking the remainder of the room, including behind the door.
“It’s clear,” she said.
Relief flowed through my body. We’d had enough surprises in the last 30 minutes to last me for a while. While I was a chaos girl through and through, even I needed a little order and sanity on occasion.
I righted one of the over-stuffed red chairs that was laying on its back and pushed it toward the coffee table and out of the way. A freestanding water cooler was on its side, evidence of the speed with which the faculty emptied the lounge in the initial assault. I set it upright as well.
“So, what do we do?” Gypcie asked, the rat tat tat of the Council of Venice soldiers’ assault rifles still ringing with regularity from the other room.
I thought back to what we saw from the landing. While we had had a good view of the battle, we still didn’t have a plan. And the longer we were up there, the more likely it would be that other specters and creatures roaming the halls of the second floor might hear the noise and come to investigate.
“Let’s start trying to make a dent in the numbers from this side,” I said. “I’ll pull groups using evulsion, and you either shoot them or freeze them in place until I can get behind the ward.”
She agreed, and we both stepped outside of the safety of the Faculty Lounge ward into the main foyer again. I approached the main group with care, but the familiars either had their back to me, trying to see into the administration offices or were fighting with the soldiers at the door. Using my chaos focus, I quickly scanned the threads of probability and reached for the familiar nearest to us with my spell. Green and purple tracers flashed in the air, and the familiar came flying toward us. It landed with a thump in front of me, and two other familiars turned and ran our way.
“Now, Gypcie!”
We turned and ran back into the lounge and waited, with our defensive spells at the ready just in case. The pulled familiar got to its feet and charged us, with the other two approaching on its heels. Attempting to follow us into the lounge, they ran into the ward and disintegrated, leaving three anima charges in their wake.
We both cheered. Score one for the home team! Gypcie got out the W.A.N.D. and collected the charges, as the need to be able to recharge a ward was clear to us both.
By silent mutual agreement, we stepped outside the lounge door a second time. I positioned myself within 15 meters of the main group to account for the range of my evulsion spell. I found the nearest target and yanked. This time the pull attracted the attention of three other familiars. We ran back into the lounge, and within a couple of minutes, Gypcie was collecting charges again.
Our strategy was working, but it was a slow process and our impact small. We kept going for another few minutes, killing groups of three or four at a time. I wiped my forehead. This was tiring work, and the faculty lounge ward was going to need to be charged soon. The foyer was definitely not as full of crazed familiars as it had been, but the soldiers were not making progress at all, beyond keeping them at bay.
The rat tat tat stopped suddenly. After listening to the sound for the past 15 minutes straight, its absence was chilling. A bang…bang…bang started up.
“What is happening?” I shivered and rubbed my arms.
“They’ve switched to their handguns,” Gypcie explained. “The council soldiers must be running out of ammo. We’ve got to help them, but how do we get them over here and behind the faculty lounge ward without them shooting us too?”
“Too bad there isn’t a ward big enough to run all the familiars through,” I said. “Although rounding them all up would be a problem.”
Gypcie pursed her lips in thought. “We know they like to gather in small clusters and that gaining the attention of one, generally nets you the whole cluster. So, theoretically, if you could hit several groups, you might get at least a portion of the whole herd.”
“But where would I run them to?” I asked.
“That part is easy. Out the front gates of the campus.”
I peered at Gypcie, dumbfounded. Well of course. She definitely had a knack for this kind of planning. The front gates were designed to stop things from coming in, but they might work equally well for things going out. I could run with the herd at my heels through the central ward, and hopefully, enough of them could be enticed to follow me that it would make a dent in the size of the mob. If it didn’t stop them, I was in trouble, but I believed it would work.
“First things first,” Gypcie said. “We need to figure out how to get in contact with the Council of Venice soldiers, so they don’t shoot you, and so they know to make their way to the lounge.”
“The guy hanging back on the step is clearly in contact with someone,” I said. “Do you think they’re talking to Ms. Usher and Headmaster Montag?”
“That would definitely make sense if the Council of Venice is here to provide support. But, we can’t get back into the admin offices with the herd in front of the door either.”
I thought for a moment, and then inspiration dawned. “Get your phone out, Gypcie, and send Carter a tweet. I think her handle is @Innsmouth66.”
“That’s brilliant!” She quickly grabbed her phone from her pocket and tapped out a 140-character message.
“OK, here’s what I’ve got: ‘@Innsmouth66 Wedd/Gypcie here in Faculty Lounge. Have a plan to get the familiars outside but need you to tell CoV not to shoot at us.’”
“Perfect. Send it off.”
“Ugh. I’m going to have to charge my phone soon,” she said, hitting send on the message. “The battery is getting really low, even though I’m keeping it mostly in airplane mode.”
We waited for a response. I fidgeted and tapped my fingers on the door frame, then stopped myself. I could better use the time to plan how I was going to survive trying to pull the mobs to the front gate.
I visualized my strategy in my mind’s eye. I would get their attention with a simple turmoil chaos spell that I could repeat to confuse the familiars and distract their attention from the soldiers. Winds of change would make them angry as it whipped and whirled around them. I could also hit a few with my dread sigil and runic hexes if I were up for cutting myself again. Those would get their attention and cause a little harm, but what was I going to do once I had their attention? I would need to be impervious to harm for a bit, immutable. Luckily, I knew just such a spell, with two minor problems—its effect was exceedingly temporary, and I had never used it in combat before. Presuming I was successful in casting it, I would have 5 seconds from when I triggered it to get away from them. That meant I couldn’t allow myself to get boxed in by the herd.
“She just responded!” Gypcie squealed. “It says: ‘Copy that. Give me 5 minutes and wait for signal.’”
“OK,” I said nervously. “I hope we’ll be able to figure out what the signal is.”
Swallowing hard I got my chaos focus at the ready and stepped out of the lounge and walked up to the bottom of the north stairs. Second thoughts began to rush in. What was I doing? This was a little suicidal. I was going to run out in the middle of that mob and taun
t them to chase me. Was I mad? What if the wards at the gate didn’t work?
Bang…bang…bang. The soldiers fired their pistols and handguns slowly into the herd of familiars still remaining in the foyer, although they seemed now to be shooting for the familiars’ heads. I saw a few go down in the fray. The remaining familiars shrieked and flailed at the soldiers in return. The soldier kneeling at the right side of the doorway had blood covering his face and chest where one familiar had gotten too close now that the soldiers no longer had the ammunition to keep them at bay with suppressing fire.
I peered into the crowd, looking for our friends Igor and the Hexbound. They weren’t anywhere in sight, which was troublesome. Was this all a big distraction of some sort? But a distraction from what?
“Get ready,” Gypcie said from behind me. “We’re nearly at the five-minute mark.” She stepped up beside me, holding her wire poppet—the focus for her elemental magic. “I’ll do my best to cover you with flash freezes and chain lightning.”
“OK, but if things go south, make sure you head for cover back in the Faculty Lounge.” She looked at me gravely and nodded her head.
I focused on my bronze disk, setting my intention to move like the swirling triskele that covered its surface, then strapped the relic back on my back.
Ba-bam. Ba-bam. Ba-bam! That had to be the signal.
Gypcie and I strode forward toward the middle of the foyer.
“Eeeeyaw!” she yelled, and laid down a carpet of frost, catching the attention of the outer edge of the mob.
That was my cue. Excitement flooded my body and made me feel strong and powerful. I leaped forward and began a series of roundhouse kicks, moving like a mad top through the familiars whose feet were now temporarily frozen to the foyer floor. I aimed my kicks at heads and middles—wherever I could get a solid strike.
A series of electrical shocks danced around me singeing the familiars as I twirled, courtesy of Gypcie.
From up close it was easier to see the damage the Council of Venice soldiers had done to the familiars’ bodies. Purple-black blood covered the floor in spots like puddles of motor oil. Some bodies looked like horrid Swiss cheese—hole after hole peppering them. I kicked harder and swung my arms wildly, and created as many paradoxes as I possibly could under the group of monsters to distract, damage, and annoy them.
They started to react to my efforts. They surged closer to me, as their feet released from the frozen floor. They scratched and pinched me as they stumbled forward to attack, but I was too excited to feel much. They surrounded me from every direction. I felt a slam and a sharp pain in my back and tripped forward as I continued to spin. One of the familiars got off a solid punch at my jaw, and I winced. Still, I was holding my own, but I only had the attention of about 15 familiars by the looks of it. That wasn’t enough. I waded deeper among the compressed bodies kicking and punching. This was insane. I was trying to attack a crowd, and most of them couldn’t be bothered.
I counted the paradoxes as I switched to barrel kicks. Five…six…seven. Some of them healed me, some of them helped me avoid incoming damage, some of them increased my own damage, but once I generated the eighth, I’d have a chance to summon at least one Doppelganger from another dimension. If I did, there would be at least two Wedds attacking the herd—slightly less insane.
Slap. Ow. That hurt.
I started to get worn out from all the whirling, pinching and punching. The eighth paradox came and went without a Doppelganger, so I counted again…one…two…three. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it seemed like Gypcie was keeping up the barrage of chain lightning.
There was a shift in the energy and the crowd of familiars pressed in on me. Shit. This was it. They’ve finally really noticed, I thought, and now they’re getting mad. I felt a bite on the back of my neck, and something grabbed my bun and started to pull on the hair from my scalp.
“OW!” I shrieked aloud, and a chorus of familiars screamed along with me. I went down hard onto one knee, and the weight of ten familiars piled on top of me. I bled from the bite and from half a dozen scratches. The gouge on my nose started to gush blood again as well. My jaw throbbed. Familiars scratched and bit and hit me from every side. I lost my sense of direction. Blood dripped down my face and shirt. I felt light-headed and started to tremble. I was in way over my head and boxed in—precisely what shouldn’t have happened.
Determination filled me. This had to work. I couldn’t give up now.
With a grunt, I lurched to my feet, flung my arms wide, and screamed: “Get back!”
All of the blood that had been flowing down my face and neck lifted off my body and coalesced around me into a big wet red barrier. My pain muted and all sound stopped, except the thump of my heartbeat. From inside the membrane, I could see surprised expressions on the faces of the familiars who could no longer touch me through the barrier walls. Their expression mirrored my own. What fresh hell was this?
My heart raced, and I scrambled to take advantage of the reprieve.
In the silence of the bubble, I started to run toward the front door, loping and lurching through the crowd. I was ten feet from the entrance when the red membrane burst, sending spikes of blood out violently in every direction. The chattering and screaming became audible again, but I didn’t stop. Dodging bodies, I pushed my way out the front door, stumbled down the stairs, and sprinted for the front gates, my hair streaming out behind me.
I ran down the gravel path toward the break in the high brick walls, as familiars flooded out the door behind me. More joined them from the side paths, trying to cut me off.
The Council of Venice soldiers had retreated back behind the wards of the front gate. Seeing my approach, they lifted their pistols and began shooting at the heads of the familiars following close on my heels.
Out of the bushes at the side of the path, a Sparring Partner dove for my ankles in a flying tackle. I evaded it but skidded on a large pebble and fell, only feet from safety. My hands flew out to try to catch my body, but I landed hard, knocking the breath from my lungs. It hurt so badly, I couldn’t even draw a breath to scream.
This was it. I had no more tricks up my sleeve, and the familiar horde was nearly on top of me.
The Council of Venice soldier who had been talking on the walkie-talkie stepped out from behind the safety of the ward, planted his feet on either side of my body and triggered a temporary compact catastrophe shelter, raising his pistols to prepare to defend me. A round blue shield popped up instantly, and the nearest familiars bounced off of it.
Gulping for air, I scrambled out from underneath his legs and looked back at the scene. Dozens of familiars surrounded the two of us on the front entrance path. I was not in a suitable mindset to judge, but it looked like we had the entire group clustered around the shelter and only about 15 seconds left before it dropped.
Carter and Ms. Usher appeared at the top of the stairs with Gypcie hot on their heels. Ms. Usher ran forward down the stairs, then stopped, jumped up and twirled around mid-air, her hands on fire. A set of brilliant black wings sprouted from her back, and angelic bolts of lightning covered a nine-meter radius around the shelter. All the familiars trapped within the space disintegrated immediately with a hellish shriek, leaving a veritable halo of golden anima charges surrounding us.
My jaw dropped. So did the soldier’s beside me. We stayed frozen in stunned amazement as Ms. Usher continued up the walk toward me.
“That’ll be it fur most ay them,” she said with satisfaction, her brogue in full form. “That was a bauld move, yoong lady. We’ll be needin' tae collect th' charges quickly tae make use ay them.”
Gypcie and Carter ran down the steps to us, while the Council of Venice soldiers spread out and cleared the last of the straggling familiars in the area.
“That was very possibly the stupidest thing you’ve ever done,” Gypcie yelled as she hugged me fiercely. “What were you thinking?”
“What, what was that?” I stuttered, looking over Gypcie�
��s shoulder at Ms. Usher for an explanation.
“Oh, aye,” she said, “That’s mah ultimate ability. Ye’ll gie a body someday if ye jes dae yer math hamework.”
It took most of the rest of the morning to chase down the straggling familiars and “neutralize” them, as the Council of Venice soldiers called it. Such a benign word, but it was clear that leaving the familiars roaming the foyer was not a sustainable option now that we had the resources to eliminate the ones we could find. There would be others that straggled in, and the basement was still an issue, but as long as the door held, it could be dealt with in time.
The Council of Venice had moved into the Faculty Lounge as a base of operations in the meantime. They’d secured the back room and brought in some supplies. They even had an apothecary who could help out with minor pills and potions. Rumor was they had a port-o-john and a wash station as well, so I was planning to check that out as soon as possible.
Gypcie and I made our way back to the Administration Offices for the chance to tell our tale and hear further news about what was planned, although we still needed to collect the means to track and capture the wraith. But first, we intended to try to get a little more information out of the headmaster about just what or who this wraith was.
When we arrived, Headmaster Montag, Ms. Usher, and Carter were still crammed into the back corner of the offices. Carter was trying to talk them into allowing her to make a special mission into the basement—she was trying to get the thumbs up from Montag to take her brand of total destruction to clean out the remaining creatures there. Judging by the expressions on the administrators’ faces, she wasn’t having much luck.
“Yes?” Montag said as we approached.
It was hard not to be put off by that blasé greeting when we’d just about been familiar food a few minutes before.
“Can someone tell us what is going on?” I said crankily. Gypcie nudged me with her elbow. Admittedly, my approach was a little terse. “What? We’ve been out chasing around information about this wraith and getting chewed on by familiars, so forgive me if my tone is off.”
To Sir, with Love: An Unofficial Legend of The Secret World (Unofficial Legends of The Secret World Book 1) Page 7