by Ann Macela
“How many large pieces and which exactly?” Johanna said. Her face was pale, and Saxt put his hand on hers if she needed the comfort.
“Nine,” Martinez stated. “The largest, the one-inch cube, four of the three-quarter-inch eight-sided, and four of the half-inch four-sided. Twelve of the irregular pieces smaller than half an inch. The shelving pattern of those they choose was interesting. The big cube was in the middle, and the smaller ones around it.”
“The cube was the center of the remnant from the battle with Irenee and Jim Tylan,” Johanna told Saxt. “It didn’t shatter when Jim shot the stone. Since it’s six-sided and therefore a hexahedron, Jim started calling it “the Hex,” and the name stuck. The Hex still burns with a black flame. A couple of months ago, I was in the room when some of the experts were examining it out of its box. I could feel the evil reaching out from their high-level pentagon, searching for a weakness in me.”
“Some of our scholars,” Clyde added, “are researching the best and safest way to destroy the heart of such an ancient and powerful item. I believe the growing consensus is to use every Sword and Defender available and expect a prolonged fight. Having the new method may help, of course.”
“So,” Miriam stated, “by these choices, it appears the thieves are going to try to merge the fragments, keep them together to let the pieces solidify into one. Reconstitute the Cataclysm Stone.”
“Probably,” Thalberg agreed. “They chose the stones shelved in close proximity to the Hex, and if any have an affinity for each other, it would be these. The lead boxes can only block so much energy.”
“To my knowledge,” Miriam said, “we don’t have reliable research on the merging of evil item pieces. It doesn’t appear to happen overnight.”
“Correct,” the Vault Keeper said. “I’ve only seen very minor items merge, and it took months. We Keepers have always wondered about the most powerful items and their ability to communicate and merge with each other, of course. As I understand it, the Cataclysm Stone was once a large multi-faceted crystal that had been split into two by forces unknown. We don’t know if a merging of those pieces was ever attempted.”
“When we battled the smaller remnant, it seemed to be receiving help from the larger,” Johanna added.
“The real question is not the thieves’ purpose or the items’ merging ability,” Saxt interrupted, “but who did this? Who wants an evil item so badly that they go to this extreme, and what do they intend to use it for? Was it definitely Phil Bellman? He or they deliberately left evidence of the theft. They didn’t mean it to be a secret. If they try to use the items, our sensitive practitioners will pick up on it immediately.”
“Maybe,” Johanna stated. “Some of the sensitives thought the Stone may have had masking abilities. They discovered it only when one of the wielders used his section outside of its hiding place.”
Before anyone could speak, the door opened with a bang, and Charles and Estelle Ogden barged into the room. Charles shouted, “You have to help us. Bellman has kidnapped Chuck, and there’s no telling what he’ll do with him.”
“I believe we have our answers.” Miriam said. She did not look particularly pleased.
When the Ogdens calmed down enough to speak coherently, the story was simple. Phil Bellman had called them to say he had their son and they should do what he told them—which was to come here, find Saxt and Johanna at the HeatherRidge, and wait for his call.
“How’d he know where we were?” Johanna asked.
“Probably one of his buddies was here,” Pat said. “I think I saw Mort earlier. He was in the garage when we came in.”
“Bellman’s gone crazy,” Jake declared.
“He’s after the both of you,” Miriam stated. “You defeated him in that duel, and he wants revenge. He’s going to try to use the items against you.”
“So, we sit here and wait? Unacceptable. Where would Bellman be?” Saxt asked.
The restaurant hostess knocked and entered. “Mr. Falkner, Mr. Bellman is on the phone for you and is extremely insistent that we interrupt your meeting.”
“And here’s our next answer,” he stated with disgust.
She brought the phone from the serving credenza against the wall to the table. “Line three. If you want to use the speaker, press this button.”
“Thank you.” Saxt pulled the phone closer. He glanced up at everyone around the table. “Let’s hear what our thief and kidnapper has to say. I’ll put him on speaker.”
“Watch out,” Johanna said. “Phil tends to yell when he’s angry. He uses noise and foul language to throw his opponent off balance. He’s most dangerous, however, when he’s calm, because he’s really thinking then, not simply reacting. You can’t reason with him. He refuses to consider any side except his own.”
Saxt nodded and hit the two phone buttons. “Falkner.”
“Ah, Falkner, it’s good of you to take my call.”
The voice coming out of the speaker was silky, smooth, and thoroughly evil. Saxt’s center began to growl.
“What do you want, Bellman?” he asked in a bored tone.
“Oh, high and mighty chairman of Swords, you know what I want. I want Johanna. And I’ll have her. First, I want you both to come to my house to discuss the matter of poor little Chuck Ogden. The boy has been a real disappointment to me. Here I thought he’d be my perfect apprentice, and he’s nothing but a sniveling coward. Totally unworthy of my attention. So, I want to return the whining little snot, but to you and Johanna alone. We’ll trade her for him. How about that?”
“We’ll be there in a little while,” Saxt answered. He didn’t know where Bellman lived, so he’d try to buy some time to assemble more Defenders and Swords. “Say, about an hour or two?”
“Falkner, don’t be an idiot,” Bellman sneered. “You and Johanna get in your car and come right now. Drive around to the rear of my house and come in the stone building down by the pond. You have twenty minutes. For every minute over, I’ll see how the Cataclysm Stone likes a young Sword to chew on. Your twenty minutes start now!”
When the dial tone sounded through the speaker, everybody began to speak at once.
Saxt punched the button to disconnect, stood, and held out his arms. “People!”
They all stopped telling each other what to do, and the silence gave Saxt the chance to take over. “Clyde, Dorothy, Pat, Charles, come with Johanna and me to Phil’s. Do you have your robes? No? If you can’t grab one off of somebody on the way to the car, we’ll do without. Jake, Miriam, you gather every Defender and Sword you can find and send them to Bellman’s. We’ll face him down until you bring reinforcements. Charles, we’ll help your son, no matter what. Everybody understand that? Anything to add, Miriam?”
“No. Go.” The Defender Council head pulled out her cell phone, and Jake organized the spouses.
“I’ll send security a couple of minutes after you,” Allenby said. “And a medical team.”
Saxt nodded. “Clyde, you take the other three in your car, and follow us. We’ll go over tactics in the car on the phone. Let’s go, people.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
After giving Saxt directions to Phil’s, Johanna established communication by cell phone with Dorothy as the two cars pulled away from the HeatherRidge. The sun was shining, for a change, and it was a beautiful day—too pretty to be on such an mission.
“What’s Bellman’s place like?” Saxt asked.
Johanna rubbed her forehead while she pictured the property the last time she’d seen it. “I was only there once, in high school, when his parents threw him a graduation party. I think his folks retired down south. Anyway, neither they nor his two sisters live around here now. The property was originally the grandparents’ farm, and the farmhouse was still standing at the time of the party. I heard the family sold most of the land to developers, but Phil kept some of it and built a mansion for himself. I’ve never seen the house.”
“Bellman said to come to a stone building. Did
n’t Chuck talk about a practice room for spells?”
“Yes, he did. If Phil’s been practicing with his buddies or playing teacher to Chuck, it hasn’t been at the center.” Johanna sighed. “Knowing Phil, this ‘practice room’ will probably be grandiose. I only hope he’s incorporated some safeguards into whatever he built. If we do battle him—and I think he’s going to leave us no alternative—watch out in case the structure starts to crumble.”
“I expect a big fight, too,” Saxt said grimly. “Let’s talk tactics. Hold the phone where I can speak into it.”
She clicked the speaker button. “Dorothy, are you there?”
“Yes, and we’re on speaker,” Dorothy answered.
“Okay, here’s my plan,” Saxt stated. “Bellman wants a confrontation, and we’ll give it to him. We all go in together. On my signal, cast a strong pentagon—preferably as soon as possible. Point the fortress at Bellman, and you four line up along the back three walls. Johanna and I will then have a clear shot through the point and the two front panels.
“Get the ring spinning quickly also. We want to be ready for whatever Bellman throws at us. Johanna and I are going to be standing on the outside of the ring, on either side of the point facing Phil. Expect us to pull power from the outside, not the ring’s inside. Okay so far?”
“Yes,” Dorothy said.
“What about Chuck?” his father asked.
“Charles, our first objective is to bring Chuck inside our pentagon, if he’s in the room. If he’s not, we’re not going looking for him until we neutralize Bellman.”
Johanna clearly heard the worry in Charles’s voice when he answered, “I understand. Remove the threat first.”
“I’d love to take Bellman out quickly, but there are too many variables here,” Saxt continued. “We have no idea how he’s going to use the items he stole—outside of the obvious. We’ll be up against a piece of the Cataclysm Stone and won’t know its strength until we fight it. That’s not going to be easy. Clyde, you’ll be with Johanna and me for the first strike, and if we don’t knock him out right away, you concentrate on producing power in the ring. After that, we’ll call for your blade power when we need it. Remember, help is coming with Jake and Miriam.”
“Sounds good,” Clyde’s voice came through the speaker. “Phil said ‘the Cataclysm Stone’ as if it was one item. I think we can assume the pieces have not combined into one crystal this quickly. We may have a slight advantage if we’re really casting only against the Hex.”
“I think we’re also about to find out if the pieces can combine their energy for an attack without a physical merging,” Johanna interjected. “Take nothing for granted. Phil is very sneaky. We should shoot first.”
“Damn right,” Saxt declared. “You, Clyde, and I will hit him as soon as it’s clear he’s not going to give up voluntarily and we know where the Hex is. I’ll throw a lightning bolt at his feet. Clyde, you hit him with the biggest puff of wind you have, and between the two of us, we’ll try to knock him off his feet. Johanna, you aim a beam at the Hex if it’s visible. If it’s not, throw it right at his center.”
“Good,” Clyde agreed. “If we can neutralize him before he casts a pentagon, all the better.”
“If he does manage to raise a fortress,” Saxt went on, “Johanna and I will conjure the sword we were telling you about. Our objective is to cut through his walls and bring down his structure. Loss of his protection might incapacitate him like it did yesterday, and that gives us a clear shot.”
“The larger Stone was actually attacking in the battle with Irenee and Jim,” Johanna said. “The Hex is still burning with that black flame. It has to be pure concentrated evil.”
“I guess we’re going to find out what the damned cube can shoot,” Saxt said. He pointed to an entrance coming up on the right. Two gray stone pillars supported a large, open, wrought iron gate. “Is this it?”
“Yes.” The road led through a thick stand of pine trees and holly bushes that screened the property. As they drove around a grove on a small hill, the house came into view. All Johanna could do was shake her head in disbelief and say, “My goodness. What a monstrosity.”
It truly was the ugliest house she’d ever seen. No, make that ugliest building of any type. A weird mix of English great house, French chateau, German castle, and Halloween fright house loomed over the landscape. A two-story wing sprawled on one side of the massive front doors, and a three-story block sat on the other.
No gracefulness of proportion, no whimsy of decoration, no elegance of design encouraged a visitor to do anything except run, screaming. Even the bright, sunny day and the thick blanket of glistening snow didn’t dispel the atmosphere of gloom about the entire bleak, brooding place. The dark gray granite walls swallowed the sunlight, even the windows didn’t reflect any light, and the bare winter branches on trees and shrubs appeared not dormant, but dead.
“I’ll bet he built it specially for you,” Saxt said, “which only proves he’s crazy.”
She shivered in revulsion. “That road on the left leads to the rear.”
Saxt followed the snow-plowed road, which wound down a steep hill to a terraced asphalt parking area overlooking a large pond. A building rose on their right.
Saxt and Clyde parked in front of the structure. Everybody climbed out of the cars and studied the construction.
Built of the same dark gray stone as the main house, the rectangular structure seemed to grow out of the cliff behind it. Johanna couldn’t see the roof because a crenellated battlement like a castle’s ran around the upper edge. The only visible entrance faced them—a massive, dark-wood double door with black wrought-iron hinges and handles. The jagged pointed hinges and the two small ventilation openings high above the doors, combined with the crenellation and cliff, made the building into a horror-movie house waiting to chomp on and swallow a victim.
“This place is larger and deeper than it looks,” Pat said and pointed to a sloping ground of white rocks that led down the hill to the pond on the other side of the parking area. “See the drainage here and the outlet for the pump that keeps water out of the building, how far down the hill it is? Speaking as a plumber, this is a nice piece of work. It also tells me that a lot of the building has to be underground. Look at that foundation. It goes right into the hill. Short of blowing the roof off, I bet he could do whatever he wanted to in there, and the neighbors wouldn’t hear it.”
Johanna and Saxt had their robes with them from practice, Clyde’s was in his trunk, and everybody else had managed to grab one from someone or somewhere. They quickly donned the garments and left their coats in the cars.
“By the way,” Clyde said, “those big iron gates at the front closed behind us.”
“Miriam and Jake can get through them. We can’t worry about that now. Let’s go in.” Saxt took Johanna’s left hand in his right and approached the doors.
She grabbed one handle and he the other, and they pulled them open with no effort. What appeared to be a balcony with an iron railing lay before them. A great black space loomed beyond the railing.
“Get in quickly,” Saxt ordered quietly. “Stay by the door until your eyes adjust.”
With a soft whoosh, the doors swung shut behind them. Pat tested one of them—it was not locked.
Johanna waited with the others for her eyes to grow used to the dimness. What she saw after her eyes adjusted was not encouraging. Illuminated only by torches and candles on the walls, a window-less, cavern-like interior space fell away below the balcony. The air smelled slightly of candlewax, burnt wood, and … like an animal had died somewhere inside.
Phil had built quite a practice room. It was about as big as a large basketball court, maybe one hundred by eighty feet, and the walls, ceiling, and floors were stone throughout. A stair to their left gave access to the lower level, at least thirty feet below the balcony. The ceiling was probably fifteen feet up from where they stood.
Except for the torches and candles, no decora
tions or lamps enlivened the décor, although she thought she could see holes in the ceiling that might be recessed lights. The room wasn’t particularly cold—her robe would keep her warm under any circumstances—but she shivered nonetheless. The entire space reeked of doom and gloom. And menace.
Pat had been correct. Phil could throw as many fireballs and lightning bolts as he liked here, and nobody would be the wiser.
The room below held neither person nor object. At the other end on the ground level sat two closed doors—more wrought iron “toothy” hinges—with no indication of what lay behind them. Phil must have dug rooms right into the cliff.
Saxt let go of her hand to walk to the railing and look over. When he returned, he said, “There’s a door below, possibly a space for storage or machinery underneath this balcony. Let’s go down. Everybody, stay alert.”
Johanna walked beside him down the stairs, and the others followed closely. At the bottom they spread out an arm’s length apart, with her, Saxt, and Clyde in the front row. After Pat checked the door under the balcony and pronounced it locked, they slowly advanced about twenty feet into the open space.
Johanna’s shoes scraped against rough edges of indentations under her feet. The floor was etched with pentagon shapes of varying sizes.
“Don’t set the fortress in his grooves,” Dorothy warned. “We don’t know what kind of enchantments he’s been playing with.”
Working magic in a rectangular space felt strange to Johanna, accustomed as she was to oval arenas and pentagonal rooms. The place definitely had an “arena feel” to it, like its owner had already used it for battle. She could see no protective spells or even their residue on the walls. Phil was practicing Sword spells without protection. Typical. He was lucky he hadn’t killed someone.