Before Emma could reply, a swarm of pigeons descended from the sky. Like kamikaze bombers in World War II, they dove right at Emma. She ducked under the first one, but the rest adjusted their course. One after another the birds slammed into her. They didn’t do any damage, but that wasn’t the point.
The point was to provide a distraction for the Watchmaker to get to his feet. He punched Emma in the midsection, which sent her through a park bench. She tried to get to her feet, but a flock of sparrows swarmed her. “Some of my friends are not the strongest physically, but they are still quite versatile,” the Watchmaker said. “Especially when they are provoked.”
He raked his claws across her midsection. The claws tore through the armor, into Emma’s flesh. She let out a scream and then dropped to her knees. The Watchmaker kicked her in the side. She collapsed onto the ground. As she lay there and coughed up a wad of blood, she heard the cape tear away from her armor. “No disappearing this time, my dear,” the Watchmaker said. “I should kill you now, but then you wouldn’t get to witness the true measure of your defeat. Don’t worry, it won’t be long in coming. The gateway is nearly open.”
He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her towards the pond. At the moment she was as weak as when she’d been an old woman. She tried to call for the Sword of Justice, but one of his fellow demons stood on the blade to keep it pinned down. For the moment she could do nothing but let the Watchmaker drag her back to the pond.
The black slab had risen out of the ground, into the air. Marie continued to stare at it with her eye. Though she couldn’t see anything, Emma knew the eye controlled the slab. The Watchmaker left Emma in the mud at the edge of the pond so she could watch as Marie tilted the slab onto one end.
The slab completed its journey when it embedded one end into the mud. It now sat there like a door—a gate. A fiery pentagram flared to life on the stone. The fiery glow became brighter and brighter, until Emma had to close her eyes.
She heard a roar that shook the ground around her. She opened her eyes and saw the entire slab glowed now. Inside of it appeared a hideous monster, like a giant hookworm only with a half-dozen eyestalks atop it. The hookworm opened a mouth full of sharp teeth as it roared again. It surged forward to slither through the gateway.
“Now the age of demons begins,” the Watchmaker said and began to laugh.
***
Marie collapsed onto the ground beside Emma. She didn’t care at this point if she sat in the mud. Her entire body felt as if it were filled with concrete. Never before had she used her special eye for that much or for that long.
As she panted on the ground, the giant worm continued to ooze through the gateway. Marie shivered at the sight of it. She tried not to think about the sort of creatures that would come after it. They would surely be the stuff of nightmares. Yet if she could believe what the Watchmaker said, they were her brethren. She was one of them, just another demon, albeit a very special one.
“Do you realize what you’ve done, Marie?” Emma whispered.
“I don’t care.”
“I know that’s not true. He’s tricked you, Marie. He’s manipulated you every step of the way to do this for him.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What about Veronica? What’s going to happen to her now?”
“She’ll be safe with me.”
“For how long? Now that you’ve opened his gateway, the Watchmaker won’t need you. He’ll kill you and then Veronica.”
“He wouldn’t do that.” She turned to Emma, who lay in the mud; her blood seeped into the dirt. “He’s my father. He created me.”
“He used you.” Emma paused to cough up more blood. “If he was really your father, then where’s he been all these years?”
“That’s not important.”
“Marie, you can still stop this. You can close the gateway—”
“No! Not unless you give Veronica back.”
There was a flash of light. Marie blinked away blobs of purple and green to find a woman with dark red hair beside Emma. Marie remembered the young woman as the pizza delivery girl who had tried to kidnap Veronica. The witch.
The witch put up her hands. “I’m not here to kill you, kid. It wouldn’t do much good at this point anyway. I have a message for you.”
“What message?”
“Veronica is dying. Whatever you did to her, it didn’t take. My sister says the kid doesn’t have long.”
“You’re lying! She was fine when you took her from me.”
“If you don’t believe Sylvia, then use your eye. Look inside her,” Emma said.
“Go ahead,” the witch said. “Use that eye on me again.”
Marie nodded. She took a few deep breaths to help calm herself down. Then she trained the eye on Sylvia. She focused on the woman’s most recent memories. She saw an older woman, a grandmotherly woman with pretty blue eyes. A conversation played out before Marie. The old woman repeated what Sylvia had said, that the changes Marie had worked with her eye had worn off. Veronica probably didn’t have much time left.
“No! She can’t die now. She can’t!”
Marie leaped to her feet. She began to climb out of the pond. A clawed hand pressed down on her shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?” the Watchmaker asked.
“I have to go. Veronica’s dying.”
“You can’t leave now. You have to remain here to make sure the gateway stays open.”
“She’s going to die. I have to save her.”
The Watchmaker tightened his grasp on her shoulder; his claws dug into her flesh. She whimpered in pain. “Then let the little bitch die. I have waited millennia for this moment and I will not have it ruined because of a pathetic toddler.”
“She’s not a pathetic toddler. She’s my friend!”
“Soon you can have all the friends you want. You can fill this city full of Veronica’s if you desire. But for now you will remain here.”
“No!” She tried to shake the Watchmaker off, but she couldn’t.
A ball of white light smacked into the Watchmaker’s side. He tumbled to the ground; Marie fell along with him. An old Asian woman appeared beside him. Her hand shimmered with fire. “Release the girl.”
The Watchmaker did as he was told. His claws pulled out of Marie. She rolled away from him and moaned from the pain. The Asian woman looked over at Emma. “Call for your sword. It is safe now.”
The Sword of Justice tumbled through the air. It ended up in Emma’s hand. With Sylvia’s help, Emma got to her feet. She limped over to Marie. “It’s over now, Marie. Close the gateway and then we can go find Veronica.”
“No!” the Watchmaker roared. Faster than Marie thought possible, he got to his feet. He batted the Sword of Justice from Emma’s hand. She ducked beneath his clumsy left hook and then grabbed the stumps of his wings. With the strength of the armor, she was able to hurl him towards the gateway.
He didn’t make it through the gateway. The giant hookworm opened its mouth. It devoured the Watchmaker in one swallow. Marie heard the Watchmaker scream from inside the beast for a few moments. Then there was nothing. He was gone.
The Asian woman helped Marie up. She looked Marie in the eye. “It is time for you to put childish things away. You must take responsibility for your actions. Only you can end this horror.”
Marie wanted to argue, but she needed only to look at the awful worm that had nearly made it through the gateway to know the woman was right. She was responsible for this. She was the only one who could make it right.
“I don’t think I can close the door with that thing in the way,” she said.
“We’ll take care of it,” Sylvia said. She and the Asian woman turned to the worm. Fireballs leaped from their hands to pound the creature’s sides. It roared at them, but they were too far away for it to do anything.
With the worm distracted, Emma brought the Sword of Justice to bear on the creature. The sword passed from one side of the monster to the other with litt
le difficulty. The worm roared. It was still alive, even though it was nearly cleaved in two. As another round of fireballs pummeled it, the Sword of Justice came back around to finish the job. The creature let out one last roar and then its forward half collapsed to the ground.
As Marie turned to the gateway, she heard more cries of rage behind her. Emma put a hand on her shoulder and smiled a little. “We’ll hold them off. You just close this door.”
Marie focused as hard as she could on the gateway to close it before another awful monster tried to get through. Behind her, she heard the sounds of combat. She didn’t dare turn around to get a look.
The head of a demon landed at her feet, but she forced herself to stay in place. The glow from the gateway had faded. After another minute the pentagram faded away. As it did, she thought she heard a scream of rage from the other side.
Once she’d set the slab back into the ground beneath the pond, she turned to find Emma and the witches surrounded by demons. Even without their leader and without reinforcements, they intended to keep the fight alive. Sylvia stepped back to take Marie’s hand. “It’s time to go, kid.”
In a flash they were gone.
Chapter 30
Marie found herself in a parlor that would have looked at home in Veronica’s time. An old woman sat on a sofa. She motioned to a tray of tea on a table in front of her. “Would you care for some tea, dear?”
“Where’s Veronica?”
“She’s upstairs. She’s resting.”
“I want to see her.”
“I’m sure you do. But let’s have some tea first.”
“I don’t want any tea. I want Veronica.”
The old woman clucked her tongue. “You needn’t act like a child, dear. There’s plenty of time to see her. I just thought we could talk like two civilized people.”
Marie brushed the hair back from her special eye. She trained it on the old woman. Like Sylvia and the Asian woman, she was a witch. Agnes Chiostro. She was Sylvia’s sister, but she still kept her husband’s name. “Your husband’s been dead for over a century, but you still miss him.”
“I do, dear. Very much. I miss my sons and granddaughters too. Would you care to discuss them?”
“No.”
“Perhaps you’d like to talk about my mother. I tried everything I could to save her. Just as I’ve tried everything I can to save Veronica.” Mrs. Chiostro took a sip of tea. She motioned to the spot next to her on the sofa. “Please, sit down.”
Marie could see her eye wouldn’t have any effect. Mrs. Chiostro was too in tune with her feelings for that. She didn’t have the sensitive spots her sister, Emma, and others had. With a sigh, Marie sat on the couch. She took a cup of tea. She sniffed at it.
“You know I didn’t poison it. You looked inside me already.”
“The nuns at the orphanage used to drink tea like this.”
“They didn’t share it with you, did they?”
“No. We drank water most of the time.”
“I’m sure it was an awful place. You poor girl. You’ve been so alone in the world. First not to have any parents and then that eye of yours. It must have been terribly difficult for you to ever feel at home anywhere.”
“I know what you’re trying to do.”
“What’s that, dear?”
“You’re trying to tell me that I’ve clung to Veronica because of the orphanage and my eye.”
“It’s true, isn’t it?”
“No,” Marie said, but even she didn’t believe that. She looked into her cup of tea. “She’s my only friend. She understands me.”
“I’m sure she does, but that doesn’t give you the right to abduct her and keep her here against her will.”
“She just needs time to adjust. Eventually she’ll realize she’s better off here.”
“For that you’d make the girl an orphan?”
“I’m not. She still has me.”
“But you’re not her mother. You’re her friend. There’s a difference, especially to her. She loves her mother and father very much. She wants to go home to them. You know this.”
“I don’t care. She has to stay here, where she’s safe.”
“Safe? I don’t think the girl’s been safe here for a single minute so far.”
“That’s because you tried to steal her back. And then Emma came along and the Watchmaker. If everyone would leave us alone, things would be fine.”
“Perhaps.” Mrs. Chiostro took another sip of her tea. “She’s a lovely girl. I understand why you care about her so much.”
“Then why don’t you want me to save her? Why do want me to send her back?”
“It’s where she belongs. Not only is she unhappy here, but that fever keeps coming back. That’s why you used that eye of yours on her, isn’t it? You made her younger.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“It worked for a time, but it didn’t take. She’s back the way she was.” The witch took Marie by the arm before Marie could get up to rush to Veronica’s side. “Please, we need to talk about this. You can go up there and use that eye again, but it still won’t work. Even if it did, what would you do? Would you keep her as a toddler forever? Would you really torture the girl that way?”
“It’ll work this time. I’ll change her back and then we’ll go away. We’ll find a place where no one can bother us. Then we’ll be happy.”
“I’m sure you believe that, but it’s not true. Some things are just meant to happen. Veronica is meant to die of that fever. She can either do it here or back in her time, with the people she loves.”
“That’s not true!”
“I know how you feel, dear. You’ve looked inside me, so you know. I’ve lost a great many people: my mother, my sister, my husband, my sons, and my grandchildren. That’s on top of a number of friends and my fellow witches. It’s never easy to lose someone, especially someone you love.”
“I don’t have to lose her.”
“I could have saved my husband, sons, and grandchildren. I had the power to keep them young and healthy forever.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because it wouldn’t be right. Living this long is more of a curse than a gift. You see everyone and everything you care about destroyed.” Mrs. Chiostro set her cup of tea aside. “I shouldn’t wish that for my worst enemy. So I let them go. Someday I’ll see them again. Not even witches live forever.”
“I don’t want to wait that long to see Veronica again. I want her to stay here.”
“Very well. Let’s go upstairs then. You can ask Veronica what she wants.”
“She can’t make that decision. She’s too young to understand.”
“Oh, I see. You know what’s best for her now?”
“Yes!”
Mrs. Chiostro shook her head. “Perhaps you really are one of those demons. But from what Emma told me, I thought you were a good girl. You just needed a chance to prove yourself.”
“There’s nothing good about letting her die.”
“No matter what you have to do to keep her alive?”
“That’s right.” Marie stomped up the stairs. Since she’d looked inside Mrs. Chiostro, she knew where Veronica was. She opened the door to the guest bedroom and found Veronica on the bed.
As the witch had said, Veronica had gotten older again and the fever had returned. The little girl shivered beneath her blankets while her face was covered in sweat. Marie knelt down beside her and took her hand.
Veronica’s eyes blinked open. “Marie?”
“I’m here, sweetheart. I’m going to make you better now.”
“Are you going to make me little again?”
“I might, but I’ll try not to.”
“I don’t want to be little again. I want to go home.” She paused to cough; her entire body shook as she did so. She collapsed back onto the bed. “I want Mama and Papa.”
“We can’t go home yet. Not until you’re better.”
“Please? I promise I won�
�t make them sick.”
Marie smiled and then tousled the girl’s sweaty hair. “I’m sure you wouldn’t do that.”
“Then why can’t I go?”
“It’s complicated, sweetie. Now, you just rest—”
Veronica coughed again. Marie patted her on the back until she calmed down again. The little girl whimpered and then said, “Marie?”
“I’m here.”
“I can see the angels. They’re so pretty.”
“Don’t go to them yet, Veronica. Please. Don’t leave me.”
She focused her special eye on Veronica. As before she burrowed through the memories, to focus on the girl’s cells. She could see the black ones that represented the sick ones. There were so many of them. Marie had her work cut out for her this time. She focused on them; she focused to turn those cells healthy again. Nothing happened. No matter how hard she tried, the cells stayed the same.
“No! This has to work. It has to.”
“Marie?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“I can see Mama and Papa. They’re with the angels.”
“Veronica, no. Don’t go. Not yet. Please?”
But it was too late.
***
For a moment Marie held Veronica’s hand and sobbed with her head against the little girl’s chest. Once she was certain Veronica was really dead, she lifted her head to scream, “No! It’s not fair!”
“I’m sorry, dear,” Mrs. Chiostro said.
“It’s not over yet,” Marie said.
She focused her eye on Veronica. As before, her eyes began to burn as she burrowed into Veronica’s cells. Yet still the little girl didn’t come back to life. She felt Mrs. Chiostro touch her shoulder, but she shook the old woman away.
Marie focused even harder. She looked through the cells, deeper inside Veronica. Then something strange happened: she seemed to be looking down from the ceiling. It was like an out-of-body-experience. At first nothing happened, but then she noticed Mrs. Chiostro’s hand touch her shoulder again only to drift back on its own.
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Call Page 52