by Bill Hiatt
Every second that passed meant more wolves pouring in. With Magnus and Alex injured, and the rest of us bound to collapse eventually from exhaustion and sheer horror, I saw how this was going to end. Atlante and Khalid could fly away, though I doubted Khalid would. Magnus seemed too badly injured to fly away himself. Those who could not escape would inevitably die.
Atlante, however, was not ready to give up yet. I heard an oddly metallic sound and glanced in its direction. A gate that looked like some kind of steel was rising up as if it was sprouting from the ground. Wolves kept jumping over it as long as they could, but eventually it grew too high for them.
Atlante had sealed us in, and now there was hope again—at least unless the wolves built themselves a battering ram, which by this point would not have surprised me one bit.
In about half an hour, we had finished off the wolves already inside, but most of us were in pretty bad shape. Magnus had deadened his hands but had no time to heal the disturbingly red burns all over them. He did hobble over to deaden Alex’s legs for him. The poor guy had somehow managed to stay standing on shattered legs during the battle, but he was pretty close to passing out. Under Magnus’s direction, Gordy and Carlos got Alex lying down, which at least would avoid further damage until he could be healed.
Gordy and Carlos had taken the physical brunt of the battle. Even a really strong guy can only swing a sword so many times before his arm feels as if it will fall off if he has to swing again, and they had passed that limit some time ago, yet somehow they had kept going. They were now trying to ignore the fact that they were pretty much covered in wolf blood. I was trying hard not to look at the great mounds of wolf body parts that lay all over the courtyard.
Tal, Khalid, and I had fared better physically, but I felt numb, and both Tal and Khalid had seen things nobody their age should have to see. Khalid at least was used to that. Poor young Tal was not. He made a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful effort not to cry. I hugged him again, then hugged Khalid. Not for the first time, I wished I had magic to wash away their pain.
Much as I hated to see Atlante walking around in Jimmie’s body, I had to admit he had saved us all. “How did you do that?” I asked as he readied himself to share energy with Magnus so that Magnus could heal.
He smiled weakly. “I used to build whole castles with magic. Once I thought of it, the gate was easy. My only regret is that I failed to think of it sooner.”
“You saved us anyway,” I said, giving him a little kiss on the cheek. That was a weird experience for me—kissing Jimmie’s body without him in it. It didn’t seem to bother Atlante, however.
Then I knelt next to Alex and said gently, “What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t, clearly,” he said, smiling a little crookedly.
“You know you can stop atoning for what you did while Ares had you turned inside out, don’t you?”
Alex squirmed a little. “That wasn’t what I was doing.”
“Really?” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, maybe a little,” he admitted.
“You’ve already saved the day more than once. Your slate has to be clean by now.”
“Amen,” added Gordy, rubbing at the blood caked on his face, without much result.
I kissed Alex on the cheek as I had Atlante. Yeah, he had almost gotten me killed a few months ago, but he had been so spectacularly caring and brave once he got his act together that I couldn’t hold on to what he had done wrong before.
“I got injured, too, you know,” said Magnus, feigning hurt feelings. For him I couldn’t let go of the past so easily. He was still evil, after all.
“I am grateful you helped save us,” I said. Then I looked at him more closely. He was in the process of healing his hands, but his attention seemed focused on me rather than on them.
I had seen a hurt expression on Tal’s face all too often in the last few months. Magnus had the same expression.
I couldn’t read minds, but my intuition told me he wasn’t acting.
Impulsively I walked over and kissed him on the cheek the same way I had the others. I could hear Gordy and Carlos making gagging noises in the background, but I ignored them. Surprisingly, so did Magnus.
“See, I’m growing on you,” he said in a voice that sounded more like Tal’s than usual.
I looked him straight in the eye. “You could grow on everyone if you acted more like Tal.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, sounding as if he actually didn’t know.
“Tal tries to make people feel better. You go out of your way to make people feel worse.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, “but right now I have to go off and finish plotting to kill someone.” That was obviously a little sarcastic cut about our earlier conversation, though he delivered it in an unemotional way.
“Well, in that case, I should go find some of those little boys that I have such a thing for,” I said, totally deadpan.
That was the closest thing to a friendly conversation I’d ever had with Magnus, and I walked away thinking I’d better not make a habit of it. I didn’t want to lead him on, and there was all the chance of a snowstorm in the Sahara that I’d ever feel romantically about him.
Tal was looking unusually glum, and I wondered if he was looking for a kiss, too.
“Tal, what’s wrong?” I asked.
He looked around the courtyard. “I feel so…useless.”
I patted him on the shoulder. “You’re not useless, Tal.”
He looked back at me. “I can’t cast spells, I can’t handle a sword well, and I don’t even know what’s going on most of the time.”
“You’ve done great things,” I pointed out.
“Which just makes it worse,” he said, tearing up a little. “It’s like—oh, I don’t know. It’s like being a genius and getting brain damage so you can’t do anything anymore. That’s how I feel.”
“I know what you’re going through must be hard, but it won’t be forever. Pretty soon Magnus and Atlante will get you back to normal.”
“You don’t know that! Maybe I’ll be like this forever.”
Yes, this was more than a maneuver to get a kiss.
“Don’t you see that you’re still a great human being?” I asked. “Tal, you tried to save me again. When you were twelve the first time, I knew I…liked you, but I had no idea you had so much courage.”
Khalid, who had been flying high enough to scout the area, landed abruptly.
“We’ve got trouble!” he announced frantically.
“What kind of trouble?” asked Atlante, his eyes narrowing.
“The wolves are stacking themselves up next to the walls. I think they intend to make big enough piles to allow other wolves to climb over and jump down into the courtyard.”
“That doesn’t seem likely to go well for them,” said Magnus, flexing his newly healed hands.
“That kind of a drop will break bones, but eventually there will be enough of a pile on this side to cushion the fall, allowing some of the wolves to come through intact,” observed Atlante, looking worriedly at the top of the wall.
“I could build a dome over the top of us,” he mumbled as if he were thinking out loud, “but I begin to think they are not the problem.”
“What is?” asked Carlos.
“Whatever force is behind them,” Atlante replied. “I can think of no natural reason for animals to behave as these wolves have. They act without any regard for their own safety—as if killing us is more important to them than their own lives.”
“What should we do?” asked Gordy.
“I would suggest returning to Alcina’s island at once. I cannot say for certain, but I believe someone is offended by our presence here. The wolves are one sign of that, but they may not be the only one.
“Magnus, please heal Alex as quickly as you can. I will make one last inspection of the tower library and pack anything that might prove useful. Khalid, keep watch. Everyone else, prepare to dep
art.”
Atlante was through the door to the tower almost before he could finish speaking. Magnus walked over quickly to where Alex was lying. Khalid took off again to keep an eye on the wolves. That left everyone else with nothing much to do for a few minutes.
“I wish we had some way to wash this blood off,” Carlos complained.
“We can wash it off in the ocean in just a few minutes,” said Gordy.
Lucas appeared to space out for a moment. Then he looked around suspiciously and said, “Someone’s coming!”
“Can you tell who?” asked Gordy. Magnus was occupied healing Alex’s legs, but the others all reached for their weapons, though I couldn’t help but notice they did so more haltingly than usual. They were not going to be ready for another battle so soon.
“Someone…like…like a king, I think, with a lot of magic power.”
“How soon?” asked Carlos.
“Within the next five minutes,” replied Lucas.
“Atlante!” Gordy yelled. “We’re about to be attacked!”
“I’m not sure the king will attack, but I don’t think he’s happy.” I wished Lucas could see more, but like all seers, he only got bits and pieces at best.
Atlante came running back into the courtyard, and Lucas explained quickly what was happening. Atlante pressed him for details, and Lucas described a tall figure crowned with silver and wearing a green robe, with a silver crescent glowing on the chest. The man in the vision was riding a deer, which seemed a little silly to me.
“Phul,” whispered Atlante, more shaken than he had been by the wolves.
“Who is Phul?” asked Gordy.
“I had never heard of him while I lived,” replied Atlante. “Later I learned he was one of the Olympick Spirits. It is claimed that Allah—or God, as you would say—placed one Olympick Spirit in each of the visible heavenly bodies to rule over specific aspects of life. That I do not believe, for the Qur’an says nothing like that.”
“Nor does the Bible,” said Magnus, walking over to us. “In our travels, however, we have seen evidence that God created beings like the faeries to serve a specific purpose, which they didn’t always live up to. Perhaps the Olympick Spirits are the same.”
“This Phul could be like a faerie king then?” asked Gordy, probably trying to gauge how strong an opponent he’d be.
“If we can trust the Arbatel, the grimoire in which they’re mentioned, the Olympick Spirits are second only to God Himself in power,” said Magnus. “I don’t trust it completely, though. I read Arbatel in one of my previous lives. It’s Renaissance magic, tied in with alchemy and astrology, and much of it may be coded or symbolic.”
“Where does that leave us?” asked Gordy impatiently.
“If Phul is doing God’s will, we have nothing to fear,” said Magnus.
“Well, for those of us who aren’t stealing someone else’s body,” said Carlos, an obvious dig at Magnus, though it looked as if it also unnerved Atlante. Magnus glanced in my direction, but he didn’t take the opportunity to strike back at Carlos.
“And if Phul is one of those who chose not to fulfill God’s purpose?” asked Lucas.
“He could still be friendly, like Gwynn ap Nudd or our Olympian allies—or he could be as hostile as Hecate or Nicneven. Either way, even if he’s trapped here the way the Olympians are sealed off in their own world, he could be quite powerful in this realm, easily as powerful as one of them, maybe even as an elder Olympian.”
“Let us then depart at once,” suggested Atlante.
“No one will depart until I give them leave to do so,” said a booming voice behind us. Turning, we saw Phul, just as in Lucas’s vision, including the deer. He had materialized in the courtyard without warning and was staring at us in a manner that did not look friendly. Though I couldn’t normally sense magic, I could feel his power humming in the air around us.
Magnus bowed, so we all followed his lead. Then he said, “Great Phul, I am in the midst of healing an injured friend. May I have your permission to finish?”
Phul looked in Alex’s direction. “First you must hear my words.”
I couldn’t help being annoyed that Magnus had stopped healing Alex to join the conversation in the first place, but at least Alex wasn’t in pain. He did look frustrated, though, probably because at this point he couldn’t even get up. From what Tal had told me in the past, I knew it took a while to get shattered bones pieced together properly before they could be fused back into their original forms.
“Why have you invaded this realm?” asked Phul, looking at each of us as if we had already been tried and found guilty.
“We meant no offense, oh great one,” said Atlante, bowing again. “We did not know what we did was wrong.”
Phul’s eyes widened in surprise. “You did not realize that the flaming barrier between the earth and the moon was there for a reason? How can such a thing be true?”
“Had Allah not willed that we reach the moon, why would he have given us the power to do so?” asked Atlante as respectfully as possible. “I know of at least one other mortal man who has come here.”
Phul hesitated but only for a moment. “Astolfo did come here, but by means God provided, and he passed the barrier with the help of one of God’s own apostles. Astolfo did not rip it apart as you did. Nor did he massacre so many of the moon’s inhabitants.” Phul gestured toward the mess of charred and chopped wolf fragments.
“Begging your pardon, great one, but the wolves attacked us, and we did but defend ourselves,” said Atlante. His tone was confident, but his eyes betrayed some fear.
“They attacked because of what you were doing here,” said Phul sternly. “You drew upon the power of the moon without my consent. You could have created a great imbalance, and much evil would have come from that.”
“When you say ‘could have,’ that suggests that we did not,” Atlante said, turning a little paler.
I noticed Magnus backing toward Alex. Was he that concerned about getting him healed—or had he decided a battle was coming and wanted Alex back on his feet? I hoped it was the former, but I knew I was kidding myself.
“Mere luck,” said Phul, dismissing Atlante’s defense with a wave. “You could have caused disaster.”
“We acted in ignorance, and our need was great,” said Atlante. “We sought to break a vile spell upon one of our friends. You can see that one spell remains to be broken,” he added, pointing to Tal.
Phul stared fiercely at Tal, who started to tremble. I gently took his hand, and he stopped.
The Olympick Spirit’s eyes widened. “I sense the work of Cronus. Surely that is not possible.”
“Cronus has escaped,” said Atlante. “We seek to restore the balance he and his allies are disrupting.”
“And yet there is imbalance within you,” said Phul, staring at Atlante as if his gaze was burning right through him. “You are dead, yet you occupy the living body of another. And where is that other’s soul?”
“It is within me,” said Magnus, walking back to Phul. “Both these conditions are temporary. We needed Atlante’s help, and he needed ours. The displaced soul will be returned to his own body as soon as we can.”
Phul’s eyes got even wider, reminding me of full moons. “You speak the truth when you say the displaced soul is within you, yet that is not the only unnatural thing you have done. Somehow there is yet another being, deep within you, whose body you have usurped.”
Only now did I notice Magnus had Alex’s scabbard—which meant Magnus also had the sword of chaos.
That was why he had crept back to Alex during the conversation!
Just at that moment, Magnus drew the sword, throbbing with power, and held it up for Phul to see. I knew he could probably use it the way he could use any magic sword, which meant he could blast Phul with it from a distance. Even if I hadn’t seen Atlante’s horrified expression, I would have known such a move would be bad—nuclear weapon kind of bad.
Phul had said nothing yet
, but his sternly impassive features were morphing into angry ones.
Acting mostly on instinct, I stepped between Magnus and Phul. Magnus, shocked, tried to reposition himself, but I kept moving, too.
“What are you doing?” he asked angrily.
“Sheathe the weapon,” commanded Atlante. “Now,” he added, looking as if he meant to attack if Magnus did not comply.
“Do as he says or face my immediate judgment,” demanded Phul. I didn’t have to be an expert on Olympick Spirits to imagine that the sentence in this case wasn’t going to be a hundred hours of community service.
Magnus reluctantly thrust the sword back into its scabbard.
“Why should I not at once set free the being you enslave and end your unnatural existence?” asked Phul.
“Because I do a lesser evil to avert a greater,” said Magnus, trying to sound humble and not completely succeeding. “The Olympian plane is already disrupted. You have seen clear evidence of that. We believe Annwn may be disrupted as well. It is only a matter of time until this plane is affected, if it hasn’t been already. Yes, I am in someone else’s body, but I am better able than he to restore the balance.”
“Yet that is not why you took the body in the first place, is it?” asked Phul, who I suspected already knew the answer.
“I have always understood the importance of the balance,” replied Magnus evasively.
“You lie,” insisted Phul, “and your possession of another must end now.”
“Wait!” I shouted. Phul looked at me, eyes full of amazement.
“Great one,” I said, imitating Atlante’s earlier bow as best I could, “has he not woven another’s soul into his spell in such a way that the soul will vanish if he does?”
Phul turned back to Magnus, looking at him as if he were an insect under a microscope. Phul stood as still as a statue, every ounce of concentration focused on Tal’s evil alter ego.
At last Phul spoke again. “The magic is unlike any I have ever seen. ’Tis true I cannot break it without risking the loss of the soul removed from the other body. I will have to hold this one prisoner while I study the problem.”