Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

  “My tracking ability is useless here,” the blind man said, “unless just to point toward where the highest concentration of magic is. There are so many trails crisscrossing everything, it confuses tracking.”

  “Shouldn’t we go to where the magic is the strongest?” Urun asked. He spat. “Damn filthy creatures. I can taste the corruption they have brought from their foul world. It’s like manure in my mouth. The sooner we can destroy them, the better.”

  “Yes,” Aeden said. “Where the magic is the strongest. That’s where we’ll find the leader.”

  “This way, then,” Tere said, heading toward one of the two doors opposite the one they came in through.

  In the next chamber, they surprised a group of a dozen animaru. They were dispatched quickly, with none escaping to warn others. Aeden hoped it would continue this way, encountering only handfuls of the creatures. There was no telling how many were in the fortress, but he would just as soon not have to fight them all at once.

  So it went for the next two hours. As they made their way to the center spire—it looked like the magic was highest there, as they had figured—they encountered bunches of the creatures. Sometimes the groups were small, sometimes larger, but each time the humans defeated the monsters. Each of them received wounds, small scratches and slashes, but the only serious injury was when Raki had been surprised by seven animaru as he was skirting the edge of a battle and a door had swung open in front of him. The slashes he received would have been lifethreatening if it wasn’t for Urun Chinowa’s healing magic being close at hand. The boy had been made whole again, but the priest seemed more fatigued than Aeden liked.

  One particularly difficult battle ensued when the party inadvertently entered what had to be barracks. At least two hundred animaru lounged about, hiding from the daylight. Aeden had to tap his precious reserves of power to end the battle with his magic.

  When the humans went through a door that opened into a covered courtyard, they stopped. Tere Chizzit looked up through an opening in the roof. Aeden tracked where the blind man had turned his attention. The spire, much larger than it had seemed when outside the buildings they had gone through, dominated his view.

  “That’s strange,” Tere said. “I haven’t seen or heard of that design, separating the buildings from the main tower. I wonder why they did it that way.”

  “No matter,” Aeden said. “We’re here. Finally.”

  The familiar sound of crashing feet and claws on stone echoed in the covered walk. Aeden had expected it, but was sorry he had been correct.

  The largest group of animaru they had seen that day poured from one of the massive portals in the tower itself. Twisted black bodies boiled forth, some screeching and some yelling in their strange language. In the center, a tall animaru drew their eyes. It moved like a snake and was even covered in fine scales like a reptile. Aeden had no doubt this was the leader of the group.

  The animaru crashed upon them like a wave. Aeden had been focused on the leader, not preparing a spell, so he danced through the creatures with his swords spinning, dealing death and receiving the odd scratch here or there for his trouble. He made his way inexorably toward the leader, who was at the same time moving toward Aeden himself. They met in the middle of the chaos.

  The snake thing moved as quickly as a striking serpent. It had a short knife in each hand, shaped remarkably like fangs. Aeden thought it a good possibility that they contained some kind of poison. It was only fitting to complete the analogy. He told himself to avoid being struck by the weapons. He soon realized it was easier to say that than to accomplish it.

  Aeden spun to dodge a slash from one of the knives and narrowly avoided putting himself in the path of a pair of swiping claws from other animaru trying to get at him. He took a half step back, parried the snake’s other knife with the sword in his left hand, and jabbed the sword in his right into the eye of an animaru with a face disturbingly like a fox’s. As the fox creature fell, Aeden pulled his sword free and slashed behind him—without looking—to remove the tips of three fingers of a claw aimed at his neck.

  Bending his knees and dropping beneath another knife slash, Aeden turned a block with his sword into an awkward slash that nevertheless found its mark and tore out the throat of another black figure.

  The battle was too congested, too hectic, to be in it long without serious injury. Aeden started the choreography for a powerful spell, but each time his motions fell to pieces. It was too difficult to perform the complex gestures while fighting the snake and all the other animaru as well. After the third time starting—and failing—the spell, he felt like he might be in serious trouble.

  Suddenly, Fahtin materialized by his side, slashing with those long knives, face grim and determined. She had a shallow cut across the left side of her forehead, and blood trickled down her cheek. “I’ll try to give you a chance to work your spell,” she said as she batted a claw away and slashed its owner’s abdomen.

  Despite the help, Aeden still couldn’t find the opportunity to complete the powerful spell. With nothing else to do, he fell back on the simpler form, the clan magic he had learned when he was a boy. Without the complex movements, he should be able to work the magic.

  He did. The light emanating from him was not nearly as strong as it had been earlier, but it was enough to force the animaru closest to him back ten feet and daze some of the weaker creatures close by. It hardly moved the snake, but it gave Aeden some room to breathe.

  Fahtin had been joined by Aila, and the two of them covered Aeden’s flank as he fought the leader. The two women were a sight to behold, the taller and the shorter moving with the grace of skilled warriors, drawing in the animaru rushing forward after being pushed away by Aeden’s magic, dodging attacks and working as a team to distract and then deliver fatal blows to the monsters. He turned his full attention on the leader and attacked with a ferocious flurry that put the snake on full defense.

  Aeden batted away the feeble attempts at counterstrikes from the snake’s knives and pressed the attack. He spun, generating momentum his opponent was hard-pressed to block with the smaller weapons. Slash after slash, one sword after another, Aeden struck relentlessly. It would only be seconds until he was overrun again with the other monsters. He had to finish his foe quickly.

  A downward strike with his left sword forced the snake to block with both knives. As steel met steel, Aeden turned his wrist to angle the blade and trap the knives, pushing them down. As he did so, he rolled his right wrist, flicking the sword up with lightning speed, turning it to the perfect position for a thrust just above the trapped blades. His sword slid into the snake’s body, angled perfectly to go through the ribs and into the heart.

  Aeden wasn’t sure if the anatomy of the animaru resembled humans’, but as the snake’s eyes widened, the slits of nostrils on its scaly face flared, and then its body went slack, he figured that they shared at least one thing: the heart was in the same place and was still a vital organ. Strange how the part of a human body that pumped the fluid of life was important to creatures of death as well.

  Chapter 57

  Once the leader had been defeated, Aeden set about clearing the regular animaru troops. As he did, he saw Urun, hands and mouth moving, magic causing handfuls of creatures simply to drop unmoving to the ground around him. Tere, out of arrows, fought like a whirlwind with his long knives. Fahtin and Aila continued to cooperate and cover each other as they battled. Raki was a shadow, now visible, now disappeared. He struck from hiding, eliminating foe after foe and then retreating into the dark corners of the battlefield again.

  The party regrouped after finishing off the last of the animaru. After Urun healed the last of them, he sat down hard and rested his elbows on his knees.

  “Are you okay?” Fahtin asked the priest.

  “Yes, just a little tired. Between the combat and the healing, I’m drained.”

  Aeden was getting tired himself and wondered how many more battles they would have before even r
eaching whoever was in charge of this invasion.

  “Let’s go,” he said. “I’d like to finish this as soon as possible. No more healing unless it’s absolutely necessary, Urun.” The priest nodded and grunted as he came to his feet.

  There were more skirmishes as they ascended the tower, but not more than a few dozen animaru at a time. In the confines of hallways and rooms, Aeden didn’t have to use a lot of his magic. He almost felt guilty because one of his spells could do what minutes of combat could, and he could save his friends their efforts by using his stronger spells. The nagging feeling that he would need as much of his strength as possible for the final fight kept him from giving in to that feeling. They would all have to do their share. If he used his magic to save his friends’ energy, he might find himself unable to do what he needed at the crucial moment.

  As they neared the top of the tower, the creatures coming against them were fewer but also more skilled. For the first time, they met groups of animaru with weapons. Some even used magic. Aeden was glad Urun was with them to largely shield them from that. The one spell Aeden knew to create a shield was weak. He still hadn’t figured out the choreography for the enhanced spell yet.

  By the time they reached the chamber they had been looking for, each of them had blood dripping from one wound or another. Aeden had a gash just below his left eye and a larger cut on his right shoulder. It didn’t seriously affect his ability to move, but it was painful when he stretched the shoulder or moved his arm around too much.

  The staircases for the tower circled around the perimeter and could be entered by one of two openings in the wall, one opposite the other. As Aeden’s group wound their way up the structure, they crossed at a hallway that circled around the tower, doors punctuating the wall and allowing access to the inner rooms.

  On the level they sought—not the topmost floor, but close to it—there was no hallway circling the floor. Instead, a single set of double doors faced where the stairs emptied onto a landing. They pushed through and came to a series of small rooms. They looked like meeting rooms, not more than a dozen feet in any dimension and containing only a few chairs and tables. In two of the rooms, animaru looked up in surprise at their entry. It was the last expression their faces ever held.

  Aeden stood before a set of double doors unlike any they had seen. They were of dark wood, almost black, carved with the likeness of men and horses. The armor the men wore was strange, bulky and large. It made them look something like a wood stove, with helmets covering their entire head and face. How did they see to fight in that?

  He trailed his fingers along the reliefs. Even the wood was remarkable. The color was so dark and unusual, Aeden didn’t know if that was the wood itself or the effect of the age of the doors. He could feel this was what they had been working toward. Whatever stood on the other side of those doors was what he needed to face.

  Aeden looked at each of his friends. Their tired faces nonetheless showed their determination. He could see by the set of their jaws, their straight posture, the glint of light in their eyes, that they were ready to finish this thing, like he was. He nodded to them and pushed the right door open.

  The room was large enough that Aeden had to turn his head to scan it all. The familiar deteriorating tapestries sagged on the walls, though the ones here seemed finer than those in the other rooms and halls. A large table was off to the side, covered with what looked like maps. Where did animaru get maps? Did they even use such things? Five chairs were arranged around the table. All the furniture looked sturdier than those items in the rest of the fortress.

  Standing at the end of the room, near a pair of large windows, was a woman. Rather, it was a female animaru, though unlike any Aeden had seen before. She wore the barest of clothing, making him think that she was a user of magic and not a warrior of weapons, though her body was sleek and toned, muscles shifting under her skin as she moved her weight from one foot to another. Her skin was lighter than any of the creatures they had encountered so far, a light blue color. Her eyes, ovals of faintly glowing pale blue, looked right at him. In those eyes, he saw intelligence. She was physically impressive, but her cleverness made him all the warier.

  “Du sas Gneisprumay. Mos samus en fini.”

  “She seems to know who you are,” Tere Chizzit translated. “She gives you the title of ‘First Enemy’.”

  “Mei dein impero ei ti dinoblare,”the animaru said.

  “She says she must destroy you. Her god commands it,” Tere Chizzit translated. He had barely finished the sentence when the blue-skinned woman made a gesture that looked like a salute and rushed them with speed that was hard to believe.

  Aeden whipped his swords out and—by reflex more than conscious thought—he blocked two curved, scythe-like blades she had pulled from somewhere. As she did, she mouthed words in that strange language of hers and her entire body began to glow.

  “She’s using magic,” Urun said as he raised his own hands up to bring forth his own. A moment later, he was thrown back like a doll that had been picked up and tossed aside. He struck one of the walls hard. Or at least, the shield he had created did. His body never actually touched the stone, but the impact still appeared jarring. The priest shook his head and stumbled to his feet.

  Aeden was too busy dodging and deflecting those curved swords to pay much attention to how the others were doing, though. He had judged her unskilled in combat because she wore no protective clothing. That was a mistake. She was so skilled she didn’t need protective clothing.

  If he wasn’t so fatigued from fighting the better part of the day, Aeden thought he might have bested the animaru, but in the condition he was in, he struggled to keep up with the lightning-quick attacks she threw at him. And she did it while fighting the others to a standstill with her magic.

  He caught glimpses of the others spinning away, being forced back by her magic while she focused on trying to kill him. Aeden thought she tried to attack him with spells a couple of times, but Urun apparently shielded him to minimize the effects. It was clear she was much more skilled than Aeden in using her magic while fighting.

  A pair of arrows whizzed by Aeden, on course to puncture the animaru’s head. She moved her head slightly, just enough for one arrow to slip by without grazing her, and she did something to cause the other to veer off and ricochet off the wall behind her. It was clear that even together, they would need more than luck to bring her down.

  A knife flew through the air at Aeden’s foe at the same time Raki came out of the shadows just to the rear of the creature. A flick of the hand turned the knife around in midair and sent it turning end over end to embed itself in Fahtin’s leg. The Gypta screamed in pain and fell to a knee. Raki was lifted up by some invisible force and tossed back toward the window. They were two dozen floors up. A fall from that window would be fatal for sure.

  As Aeden watched the boy’s body travel through the air, a dark silhouette hurtled from the edge of his sight and intercepted Raki, bearing him to the floor with a grunt. Both Aila and the young Gypta boy skidded across the stone, ending in a tangle of arms and legs.

  The distraction was enough for Aeden to land a slash to the animaru’s forearm, cutting deeply enough that she dropped one of her own swords. She hissed and batted away his next attack with her remaining sword.

  Aeden kept the pressure up, his swords blurring as they struck over and over from all different angles. It was easier to manipulate his movements to follow the choreography he had made for his spells when only fighting one opponent, so he went through the gestures and gyrations of Dawn’s Warning, faster than he had ever done so before. As he pronounced the words, his foe let out a small gasp, as if she was surprised by it.

  He said the final word, coupled with the downward chopping motion that went with it. Light exploded out of him, catching up the blue woman and throwing her against the wall.

  When the light dimmed and Aeden could see again, he saw his enemy, standing straight, back against the wall, eyes af
ire like a pair of blue flames, staring at him in defiance.

  “I have her held,” Urun said. “I could only do it because you weakened her with your spell. I’m not sure how long I can hold her.”

  “I won’t need long,” Aeden said. He began to cast Dawn’s Warning again, going through each motion carefully and smoothly, clearly enunciating each word in the rhythm and cadence he had determined to be ideal. All the while, the animaru stared at him, occasionally testing the invisible bonds that held her.

  Aeden pronounced the second to the last word and moved into the last set of gestures, preparing to pour all his magic into one pinpoint attack that would utterly destroy the creature before him. A part of his mind marveled at her composure in the face of what she had to know was her own annihilation.

  “Wait!” Urun said. “Stop.”

  Aeden let the spell die, the last word of power dropping from his lips, unsaid. The Croagh looked over at the nature priest.

  “Why did you stop me?”

  “I…sensed something,” Urun said. “I was delving into her, trying to discover what I could about the dark magic they use.”

  “And?” Aeden asked, his lips pursed and fist clenching from the interruption.

  “And I detected the presence of another magic. One that’s different than her own. Magic from this world.”

  That caught Aeden’s attention. “What does that mean?”

  “I think she’s been affected by powerful magic from this world. Maybe powerful enough to control her actions. I think I can remove it, if you would like me to. It’s a form of life magic, which is why it could affect her, probably.”

  “I don’t see a need to—” Aeden started.

  “Aeden,” Tere Chizzit interrupted. “Maybe we can get some information from her. At the very least, we may be able to find out how many other animaru are out there, and where.”

  “Fine.”

  Urun closed his eyes for a moment, mouthing something Aeden could not hear. When he opened his eyes again, they drilled straight through the animaru, who met his stare with her own pale blue orbs.