Witching You Wouldn't Go

by Constance Barker

  “Do all wizards consider these sorts of details need-to-know?” Bailey wondered out loud. “Why is it none of you ever seem capable of giving all the critical information at the beginning?”

  She didn’t get a satisfactory answer before Gideon parked, and they approached the imposing building with little enough trouble. They weren’t actually the only people here, it turned out. In addition to a few police officers wandering the street in front of the building, there were actually seven or eight tourists as well, come to see the building lit at night, bathed in an orange glow that sent elongated shadows crawling up to the roof. It was a lopsided sort of building, which Gideon wasn’t shy about explaining as the result of two stages of building in the fifteenth century, and then renovations some three hundred years later after an attack by the French. “It really is remarkable that it’s lasted this long,” he finished, “given the history of the region and having been almost burned down before.”

  “Lucky,” Avery said.

  Gideon shook his head, “On the contrary. I believe it’s entirely possible that some magic in the cornerstone may actually have saved the building, in the same way that the monolith at Stonehenge was similarly unsunk; though several of the other stones had fallen or sunk into the ground over the ages.”

  “You think Medea meant them to be found, and ensured that they would be,” Bailey said.

  “By the right person,” Gideon said, nodding. He glanced at her again with that look—interest and something else. “A descendant, for instance.”

  Bailey kept her face neutral, and shrugged. “Let’s hope it was less specific than that.”

  “Indeed,” Gideon said.

  They passed by most of the police officers unmolested; no one seemed particularly concerned about a group of apparent tourists getting a better look at the place, but that was liable to change when they had to get close and potentially dig a little bit. This time, the wizards assumed that it would be up to Bailey to find the stone, and didn’t bother with scanning the structure for magic. Bailey took a moment to center herself when they reached the corner that Gideon seemed sure the stone was located, and gradually opened her magical senses. It was easier this time—since Stonehenge, she’d apparently recovered more of her magic than she realized.

  It became obvious quickly where the stone was, once she felt the gentle thrum of power resonating through the ground, and she followed that feeling to a spot just a few yards from the back corner of the building. “It’s here,” she said.

  “You two see if you can find the marking,” Gideon told Avery and Aiden, “I’ll keep us covered.”

  Whatever magic Gideon worked, it didn’t seem to affect them; but at least one patrolman passed by them unconcerned with their apparent vandalism as both Avery and Aiden worked to remove soil and gravel from the side of the massive flagstone. As before, Bailey felt a specific locus of magic, invisible to the naked eye but emanating a gentle warmth under her hand as she searched the exposed stone for it.

  “Hold on,” Gideon whispered as Bailey reached for the slight indentation of an ancient carving.

  She paused, “What?”

  “Do you feel that?”

  Aiden and Avery both looked around the area, so Bailey stood back up as well and looked both with her eyes and with her magic. Almost immediately, her stomach lurched—and at that same moment, the lights around the Town Hall began to go out, along with the street lamps. In this distance, there were people shouting, and then the air grew colder by several degrees. Something stirred in the darkness, as if a patch of ground had come alive and begun to heave itself up.

  All four of them froze. Gideon took a step back and to the side—in front of Bailey. “Stay behind me,” he whispered.

  “Behind us,” Aiden said. He and Avery both took up positions to either side of Gideon.

  A dry, raspy voice broke the sudden quiet that the pitch black had created. “You will not have the Throne.”

  The sound drew Bailey’s attention to the rough outline of something or someone standing several yards away from them. No... three someone’s. There was a metallic sound, like metal scraping against something rough, and Bailey’s heart leapt into her throat. All three wizards brandished wands, and Bailey swallowed hard as the words to the few defensive spells she knew began to run through her thoughts.

  With no more preamble than that, the figures attacked.

  Chapter 11

  All three wizards raised their wands the moment the three figures began to move. Blades flashed in the light of spells that sprang to life and lashed out from Avery and Gideon’s wands, while Aiden stepped back quickly, muttering something that produced a glowing half sphere of luminescence in front of him and Bailey both. “Stay behind me,” he whispered, and urged her to back up against the wall of the building with him.

  The cloaked attackers moved like liquid, easily dodging a lance of violet light from Aiden’s wand, and a crackling bolt of lightning from Gideon’s outstretched palm. Aiden spat something, and then leapt back as a blade slashed near his belly, his wand flickering too fast to track. The shadow figure dropped flat to the ground, struggling to get up.

  Gideon had a similar encounter, but while his wand flicked out some complex spell, his free hand contorted into a number of lightning fast gestures. From the wand came a thick mist that flowed toward the ground and reached out with tendrils to grasp at one assailant, while from his hand a violent swarm of particles gushed toward the third. Each of the black figures retreated several paces back and then... vanished.

  The two wizards took slow steps back, both of them looking at the ground, at the corner of the building, and even up on the walls.

  “They aren’t human,” Aiden muttered.

  “They may once have been,” Gideon replied, his voice tight.

  “Any idea who they are?” Bailey asked. She reached for Aiden, but Avery caught her hand just short of the shield he’d erected and shook his head slowly. “Aiden, are you okay?”

  “He didn’t get me,” Aiden assured her.

  Gideon glanced back at them. “Adjust your shield to account for phase shifted attacks.”

  “Already done,” Aiden said, no trace of smugness in his voice. “Full spread. Do you know who they are or not?”

  “Several possibilities,” Gideon sighed. “I haven’t made many friends. And...”

  “And?” Bailey pressed.

  Gideon cleared his throat. “I didn’t know if the rumors were credible. But... there are stories about guardians. Protectors of the Throne and the Path. These may be them.”

  “Why would you keep that from us?” Bailey snapped. “That’s a critical detail, Gideon!”

  “I didn’t want to alarm anyone,” Gideon said.

  “Incoming,” Aiden barked. He pointed up.

  Bailey snapped her head up and had to turn to see three living oils of what looked like thick black smoke crawling down along the wall of the town hall, only visible from the faint glow Aiden and Gideon’s wands, headed straight for her behind Avery’s shield.

  The moment that Gideon and Aiden raised wands, two of the coils broke off, lancing at them faster than either wizard could cast. Bailey screamed a warning, as if it would help, but each gout of darkness took one of the wizards full in the chest and drove them back like a furious wind.

  Avery grabbed Bailey and nearly shouted his spell in her ear as he dragged her away from the wall, and his shield flashed around them in a new shape, something angular and sharp. The darkness flowed over it and violet sparks nearly blinded her as they stumbled away. Some sound came from the darkness, an inhuman screech of frustration, and the darkness recoiled from them. Almost immediately, another screech sounded from behind them as another coil struck the shield from behind, and then from the side.

  “Any ideas?” Avery asked. “I can’t hold this for much longer.”

  “Can you see Aiden or Gideon?” She asked, looking for them herself.

  “Not with the light like it is,�
� Avery grunted. He had to close his eyes tight in concentration, and she could see glittering sweat on his forehead.

  Bailey licked her lips, and closed her eyes as well, trusting Avery to give her time to focus. She didn’t have anything as violent at her disposal as the wizards did, but surely she had something she could call upon. Think, think, think...

  She reached for her magic, and through it grasped at the magic resonating in the broad stone beneath the Town Hall. It wasn’t much, especially if she used it all up in one go, but it was there and available to her. Snippets of old Latin, ancient Greek, dynastic Egyptian and even Chinese flitted through her mind but she couldn’t seem to think of a spell she’d committed to memory that did anything more than light candles, bind minor nature spirits, or...

  Bailey blinked as she opened her eyes and began to rifle through her pockets. “Keep it up just a few more minutes,” she told Avery.

  Rather than answering, he just closed his eyes tighter and spread the fingers of one hand, holding his wand horizontally in front of him as he dug his feet into the ground.

  From various pockets she drew out small bundles of leaves and roots, a fingertip sized vial of sulphur, a similarly sized vial of rain water, and a small hunk of crystal that had been struck by lightning some time ago. It barely hummed with contained power now, but she didn’t need much. She knelt, and piled the ingredients on the ground, and then swallowed to try and keep her voice from drying up as she chanted over them. Halfway through the spell she had to start over.

  “Quickly,” Avery said, his voice strained with the effort of maintaining the spell.

  Where were Aiden and Gideon? She pushed the worry away when it tried to interrupt her, and focused on the words, and on the magic that she poured into them, her hands hovering over the small pile. The last phrase left her lips, and she followed it immediately with the simple fire charm Aria had taught her just days after she began her training. The sulphur caught, a sudden acrid smell filling the space around them, followed by a gout of white smoke as the reagents burned. The crystal atop the pile of burning plant matter caught as well, and arcs of quiet blue electricity threaded through the growing cloud.

  “Drop the shield!” She shouted.

  “What?” He barked back at her.

  “Drop it! Trust me!”

  Avery crouched down near her, and swept his wand out sideways as he said a single unintelligible word. The flashing sparks of the shield vanished instantly, and darkness closed around them in a rush of wind.

  White smoke met black smoke, and blue lightning arced from the tiny storm cloud into the black ones, and Bailey trembled as she fed the spell every scrap of power she could collect. The three clouds convulsed as a quiet boom of thunder shook them, leaving Bailey’s ears ringing, but there were three soft thumps around them, and then everything was quiet except for the high pitched whine in her ears.

  She was up immediately, and her head swam so that she nearly toppled sideways. Avery caught her, his wand held out defensively as they surveyed the scene.

  Aiden and Gideon both groaned, and pushed themselves slowly to their feet, liquid black hanging from their chests and wrists but quickly beginning to dissipate into thin, heavy smoke that poured off of them and into the ground, evaporating.

  Around Bailey and Avery, three black clad bodies laid on the earth, two of them barely beginning to stir. With a contemptuous flick of his wand, Gideon spoke a spell, and there was a soft thump of air that flattened all three figures against the ground. One of them groaned.

  “How did you know?” Avery asked Bailey. “That the lightning would conduct out of the storm spell and into them?”

  She shook her head and winced up at him. “I... didn’t? I just hoped.”

  He blew out a long breath. “Uh... that was risky. What if it hadn’t worked?”

  “I wouldn’t have had to worry about having this conversation,” Bailey said. She looked at Aiden as he and Gideon approached. “Are you both okay?”

  “Some kind of binding,” Aiden said. “Nothing deadly. I don’t think they were after us.”

  “Agreed,” Gideon said. “Let’s find out who they were after, shall we?” He knelt by one of the three bodies and reached for it.

  It moved fast—whatever force Gideon exerted to keep it held in place barely restrained it as the figure twisted and lunged away from Gideon, toward the nearest target. Avery had enough time to yelp in surprise.

  She didn’t think it through, and didn’t have a plan; Bailey just moved, diving toward Avery with a sudden burst of adrenaline induced panic for his safety, intent on getting him out of harm’s way. Something bit her arm as she charged, and then she and Avery were toppling to the ground together.

  As they scrambled to separate themselves, Aiden and Gideon both snapped wands toward the black robed beings, but stopped.

  No, they hadn’t stopped. They had frozen. So had Avery. Bailey tugged at her friend’s arm, but he had become immovable. There was a rustling sound behind her, and she whirled to face the three figures as they stood slowly.

  There was no way she could pull off a spell before they could attack. All she had left was her native gift and she didn’t even know how to use it offensively in a situation like this—much less if she could reach their minds. She opened her mind up and reached out, mustering the closest thing to a psychic attack she could think of... and found nothing.

  They weren’t there.

  They also weren’t attacking.

  The three figures stood in a rough triangle, and a single voice issued from within the darkness of three hooded heads. “Blood of Medea, we see you. But thou art not yet the Queen. Seek thee thy trial of Wisdom in the place of ancient sorrows, but know thou this—Courage and Wisdom will avail thee nothing, if thou wilt not render unto thy task what is owed.” They began to dissolve.

  Bailey reached out as if she could somehow hold them together, keep them substantial. “Wait! What does that mean? What is owed? I need to know more...”

  But they were gone.

  Aiden, Avery, and Gideon all moved at once, each of them whipping heads one way and the other looking for the attackers.

  “You two,” Gideon said sharply, “get behind us, I’ll—”

  “It’s over,” Bailey said. “They’re gone.”

  “You’re certain?” Aiden asked.

  “Yeah,” Bailey sighed. She related the cryptic warning they’d given her, and shook her head slowly as she gathered up the crystal from the small pile of ashes it now laid on.

  “So,” Gideon mused, “it was a test?”

  “I guess so,” Bailey said. “The next one is a test of wisdom? So, this one must have been... I don’t know, something else.”

  “Courage,” Avery said quietly. “It was a test of courage. First, you had me drop my shield and let them come at us not knowing if your plan was going to work. Then you very nearly took a knife for me.” He smiled, and hugged her. She let him, and then put her arms around him as well. “They could have just asked me. I’d have told them how courageous you are.”

  “Well,” Gideon said, smiling. “I’d say that’s progress then! Well done, lass.”

  Bailey frowned, and let Avery go as she turned to face Gideon. She jabbed a finger at him. “Oh, no. No more of your jolly banter or whatever it is you’re trying—this might have been part of the Path, but you said there were others that might be after us. You owe us answers, Gideon. I’m not taking another step with you until we get them.”

  “Come now, Bailey,” Gideon chuckled, “you can’t possibly mean that. Now that you’re on the path, you can’t step off it. I assure you—”

  “I don’t want assurances,” Bailey said. She glanced at Aiden, who at first cast his eyes down at the ground, but then sighed and stepped toward her, turning to face Gideon with her. Avery did as well.

  Gideon’s jaw twitched, and he met each of their gazes, one after the other, before he finally looked away, eyes closing briefly. “Aye,” he sighed
. “As you wish. But not here. Let’s find some place to recover for the night. It’ll be a long talk and an even longer drive tomorrow.”

  Bailey didn’t budge when he started to walk away, and neither did Aiden or Avery.

  Gideon turned to regard them all impatiently. “Come now, we can’t have this discussion here. There may be someone after us all, remember? Would you like to know who, or not?”

  “If you lie to us,” Bailey said, “we’ll continue this path on our own.” She glanced at Aiden and Avery both.

  Each of them nodded agreement.

  Gideon sighed, and bobbed his head once. “You have my word. Now come; it’s very cold, and I’d rather we have this discussion in the presence of a warm fire.”

  Neither of her friends moved until Bailey did, and she was grateful for it. Aiden rubbed her back when Gideon turned away from them again, and kissed her cheek. She took it without complaint, and desperately wanted it to make her feel better but at the moment all she could think about was what Gideon was hiding from them, and what the consequences of knowing would be.

  Chapter 12

  Seamus frowned through the window of his patrol car as he watched Piper Spencer return to town, this time driving, passing the bakery and heading further down Main street. “Where do you think she’s going?”

  Finn leaned to get a better look and then shook his head. “Don’t know. Out to the Caves?”

  “Alone?” Seamus asked. So far, he’d occasionally seen one of the bakery ladies going down to the Caves, and for a few days he’d seen Bailey, Avery, and Aiden all going down together for hours at a time. He hadn’t seen Piper going down there yet. “Seems doubtful.”

  “Maybe she’s going shopping over at Milton’s,” Finn offered, but he didn’t sound very convincing, or convinced.

  “She gets groceries on Monday,” Seamus muttered.