by Lyn Brittan
Chapter Sixteen
Fanchon Marie tried helplessly to hold Luca, but as before, could do nothing more than a dry sob over his unconscious body. Metal? No problem, but touching the man who controlled it? How long until she could do that again? She needed to get him out of here. Breznik clearly knew their exact location and would continue to send attackers.
Though running only on fuel and guts, Fanchon Marie placed what she hoped to be an effective cloaking spell over their own vessel. It wouldn’t hold. The ship was simply too big, and she was too weak. Carefully, she maneuvered their boat around the burning wreck and directed it into one of the many watery offshoots of the river. It wouldn’t be enough to protect them from well-trained supernatural eyes, but at least it would give them some shelter from any more humans Breznik decided to send out.
It took Luca several hours to recover, during that time, Fanchon Marie was lucky enough to avoid detection and further attacks. She had a few close calls. Twice, spirits drifted towards the edge of her protective circle, perhaps sensing something, but unable to see them inside. A little dollop of hope took root in her chest. Maybe this thing would be over soon than they expected – one way or another.
Luca’s murmuring signaled his returning strength. She tried to touch him, but as before, anything organic passed right though her. His eyes fluttered open in time to see her pull back her hand. His look said it all. Like her, the only thing he wanted in that moment was to have some sort of real contact, something beyond words. A touch, a hug, a hand to hold.
“It will all work out, Fanchon Marie.”
She could hear the doubt in his voice. She knew he said it for himself, as much as for her. The truth was they had no idea how much time they’d have left together. She’d expelled a mountain of energy in the fight, and her days were shorter than they would have been under normal...well...normal soul escaping circumstances.
With smiles the only thing they could share, Fanchon Marie watched him dig up some crawfish to eat. Raw. Nothing tasty but he needed the protein if he was to keep fighting for her.
They’d all fought for her. Gregorio, Callie, and even Sean and the rest were somewhere struggling for her return or hurting because of it. She’d be damned if she’d let them sacrifice all that for nothing.
“Damn straight it will.”
She’d prove it in the new few minutes. Something came from the heart of the bayou – an evil.
“Luca, it’s Marguerite. I think she’s on the move and heading towards us. We don’t have much time.”
“How many are with her? Living or whatever?”
Fanchon Marie crossed her arms and tapped pearlescent fingers. “I can’t really tell. It’s strange, Luca. It feels like so many.” She sighed in confusion. “It’s just her. I don’t get it.”
It was only when Marguerite’s form appeared on the horizon that full knowledge of the situation took shape. Marguerite hadn’t been in the room at the moment of Fanchon Marie’s separation. And when she first arrived to Luca on the boat, Marguerite had escaped seconds before. In fact, this was the first time Fanchon Marie got to view Marguerite though her new eyes. Fanchon Marie smiled and dipped her head so that the approaching form couldn’t see.
Fanchon Marie knew her secret.
Fanchon Marie knew how to defeat them.
Yet Fanchon Marie couldn’t say a word. The bitch was within earshot. And the bitch was gonna go down. Today...as soon as she could freely speak to Luca. She “touched” him with her cold essence and made a face. He made no indications that he understood. Marguerite was here.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the happy couple.” Craziness or sarcasm? She didn’t offer time to reflect. “I trust the honeymoon has been memorable so far? Not too stressful, I hope.”
Luca popped open his mouth, but Marguerite shushed him to silence. “I’m only here to help. Please, don’t be so cross with me.” If Fanchon Marie had a body, she’d suffocate on the saccharine.
“You see,” Marguerite said, “I haven’t come alone. I’ve come with an offer – a way to end all this. Breznik is willing to offer an exchange, his life for your body.”
Hah! She was crazy if she thought Luca—
“I agree.”
Wait. What? “No, Luca!”
“I agree to your terms.” He continued as if she hadn’t spoken at all. Luca shifted his position to stand closer to Fanchon Marie. “However, before any exchange is completed, I will need proof that her body is well.”
“Yes, of course. We’d figured as much, though it wounds that you can’t take us at our word. You may not agree with our methods, but we are people of honor,” Marguerite said.
“Whatever.” Luca nodded. “I want the body delivered to my home or at least neutral territory where my men will be stationed. I need assurances that you do not intend kill her as soon as her soul returns.” Luca turned away in a clear as glass dismissal. “Tell your master my terms. We will await your return.”
The entity lurched away, but not before its face scrunched up at the term “master.” With a huff, she pivoted in the sky leaving Luca alone with Fanchon Marie. “Why?” she asked him. “Why give up your life?”
“Cara mia, haven’t you figured out that I am completely in love you? How much longer will it take to get through your skull?” She had, sort of. Loving something new and loving something enough to give up your life were two entirely different things. Maybe she had to hear it. Who knows, but damn it felt good to be loved. If her hunch was right, she’d spend a lifetime loving him right back.
“You don’t have to do this, Luca.”
“Honey, the proper response to someone abandoning his life in favor for your own is I love you, too.”
“I love you, too, but I meant what I said. You don’t have to do this. There’s another way. Well,” she rushed out, “I mean, I think there is.”
A little light of hope turned his face. “I am not very much in favor of death, Cara, so come out with it.”
“It’s Marguerite. She’s able to hold on to some of the spirits. It’s as if they are attached to her. If we can somehow remove them, then maybe—”
“She’s the key,” Luca said, punching the air. “She is the nutting conduit! No wonder Breznik could raise so many without loss of all his strength. He only needed to raise one.”
“The right one. One crazy enough in life to be a fervent partner in death. The man’s insane and powerful. A damned lunatic.”
“That’s the problem. He’s a brilliant damned lunatic. Who the fuck knows what he means to do next? What we can do is relieve him of his ammo: Marguerite. We cut her off. We can move against Breznik without him able to see us coming. We’ll take another few moments, an hour at most to replenish ourselves. We are about to crack open the proverbial can of whip ass.”
****
They rested long enough for the new sun to rise in the sky. Sometime in the night, the ship broke free of his bindings, drifting them a bit off course. In the absence of a moon, all he could do last night was to reset the anchor. Once his body stopped tingling, he would see if he could find his way back.
Luca felt the powerful sphere bathe his skin, and watched its power cascade around him. He prayed for one, one millionth of its strength. Today, one way or another, his life would be decided. Either he would be with Fanchon Marie in life or, if things went completely in the shitter, then at least in the Prio Tem.
He focused on that a moment, the afterlife. Never really something the Roma looked forward to. Less of a reward and more a punishment, but with Fanchon Marie, he would learn to manage. Luca dared to steal a moment’s glance right into the sun. Would this be his last chance to see it rise?
Or maybe he could pull her with him. If her plan didn’t work, could he really be unselfish enough to wait for her alone on this side of life. Both living or both dead.
“Damn you, Breznik.” He shouldn’t have to worry about the Prio Tem. What he wanted was this life. This sunrise and future ones. With her.
Touching her, loving her, having a glass of wine at night and a morning espresso with her. His hopes became his armor. Luca girded himself with images of their unborn child in her arms and of strolls down the streets they would rule together. As for his final vision? He saw them going to the Prio Tem together, old and wizened, with faces gnarled and wrinkled from too much laughter and smiles. Later, not now. This was their time to live.
Luca opened his eyes to see the rays of the sun play on the morning dew. Droplets of water shivered and twisted on the plants, the reflections of light mesmerizing Luca.
A lot.
He craned his neck towards the shoreline. Could it be? Luca leaned over the edge of the boat, to get as close as he could to the vegetation without falling over.
Wonder colored Fanchon Marie’s voice. “You feel it, too? What is it?”
“There are nodes of magic here. Old and powerful magic that I can feel, but not access. Earth magic. Like mine, but I can’t use it.”
“How old exactly?”
Luca looked at her with clenched jaw and strained expectancy. “Half a millennium or more. Why? Why does this matter?”
“It’s everything. Land is power right? And we’re united now.”
“So.”
“So, no one ran these lands half a millennium ago but my mother’s ancestors, the Bayougoulas and the Houmas. The two tribes hadn’t yet been pushed out by the European settlers. As long as no one else has claimed this small patch of swamp....” Fanchon Marie’s words drifted off as she closed her eyes. “It’s mine. My magic.” She changed color again, as quickly as a jellyfish that bobbed on the water. “That’s impossible.”
“Improbable, but not impossible,” he said.
“Let me try something. Just hold on.” He’d been so caught up in her that he hadn’t noticed the little thing growing in the pit of his stomach. A small kernel of something took root and the pain it caused made it impossible for Luca to push it aside. “Fanchon Marie! What the hell?”
The pain stopped as her yips started.
“I can’t take any power from you, Luca, but I can sure as hell transfer it. Just like Marguerite. Hah!”
Well, slightly different. A little less evil. He let it go. “It’ll give us an extra boost but not much. The nodes are stronger here, but get weaker further out,” she said, pointing to a nearby tree. No surprise there. Contracts, treaties, titles, bills of sale, and squatters rights in the back country often meant that policies of land ownership were best sided to the person with the most will to take it. This land out here was essentially worthless to most people. If shady contracts, done by long dead shoddy surveyors left a few feet of unclaimed range, fine by him.
She soaked it all in the, the blood of her ancestors: Indians and perhaps runaway slaves who lived and died her, poured latent energy into her.
“Fanchon Marie, I need you to summon Marguerite now. We’ll agree to an exchange and then—”
“Zap the bitch.”
That’s my girl. “Yes, but not immediately. We do that, and Breznik will have too much of a head start. If even one of her spirits is around him, well, I think he would notice its sudden absence. Just wait for my signal.”
All powered up, so to speak, Fanchon Marie drifted high above the boat to issue a peace splintering wail. Not too long after, Marguerite arrived in a burst of smoke. Ever the drama queen.
“Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.”
“You give yourself too much credit,” Luca drawled out. “We agree to the exchange. Try to hold in your delight.”
An impossibility. The woman’s eyes flashed a dangerous green as she flittered around the rickety vessel. “Ahh, love. It is without question my favorite weakness.”
Woman, you have no idea.
Luca turned the boat to follow Marguerite. He hated the feel of the weakening power nodes as he pulled away, but wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. In circumstances like these, you take what you can get. Fanchon Marie must have sensed his concern. A gentle pulse was sent in his direction – not enough to do anything other than silently scream. “I’m here!”
Moments later a small, stilted home came into view. Its yellow wooden siding offered glorious juxtaposition to the dark magic happening inside. The planks from the pier to the door creaked under Luca’s weight, though he couldn’t tell if it was in warning or complaint. They passed a series of canisters. Gas containers for the boats, perhaps? Luca darted his eyes towards his wife. Her look matched his.
“That’s close enough.”
Breznik. The bearded man stood guard over the home, flanked by soldiers in various degrees of life. Equal opportunity employer. “You know, we’ve had to deal with your people all day? In the cities, in the swamps. It’s heartening to see the love a people have for their Rom Baro. You father and brothers especially. I’ll enjoy making them belong to me.”
He had no idea of he was telling the truth or just trying to get a rise out of him, but Luca could not allow himself to lose control. One catastrophe at a time. “We need to see the body Breznik. No body, no deal.”
“Don’t dictate to me. We’ll do this on my terms. You two get over there and cuff him! Use the plastic ties. We wouldn’t want our dear alchemist to try any more tricks.”
Oh, but the alchemist already had. Without a backward glance, Luca twisted the valves of the gas canisters. Fanchon Marie’s eyes were forward looking too, scanning every sector of the room for her body. “You moved it. Where is it? Show me!”
Breznik nodded to a tied up and blood soaked bundle under the table. “You’ll forgive me. In my anger at your escape, I may have mussed up your face and broken a rib or two. Boys, unwrap her.”
The cords in Luca’s neck tightened as they unfurled the rug that held his wife’s body and dumped its contents unceremoniously in a heap. Only the wall stopped the body from its continued momentum propelled rolling. He smothered any thoughts of killing Breznik. He’d never die. No, Luca intended to keep him alive and in constant pain for many years.
The orb that was his wife threw her power into Breznik. All that power would have consumed any human instantaneously. If the person really existed. This Breznik did not.
The Convexer, the real Breznik, appeared in the doorway. “My apologies, Beluni.” He removed his wide brimmed farmer’s hat to bow deeply. “But, what are a few ribs between friends?”
Then all sorts of hell broke loose.
Fanchon Marie flashed a fiery orange, and he saw her push her energy, not into Breznik, but into Marguerite as planned. It wasn’t enough.
“Get them!” Breznik screamed.
“Now, Fanchon Marie!” A tidal wave of energy slammed into Luca with enough force to throw in into the wall. He grinned. The source was Fanchon Marie. Luca poured all the additional power on Marguerite. The creature shrieked in pain before it exploded into miniscule pieces. In the next seconds, their fighting force was halved as the undead creatures and spirits once under Morlena command, disappeared into nothingness.
Luca braced for an attack as he felt someone rush up behind him. When it didn’t come, he turned his neck to see a very human and fleshy Fanchon Marie standing back to back with him, throwing out hexes to the last Morlena Roma in rapid succession.
Luca made a run for Breznik. The coward had already made it out the door and stood on the edge of the pier readying to jump into the boat. Once inside he shot wildly from its stern. A stray bullet landed on an open gas container and set off a small detonation that knocked both men down where they stood.
They recovered within seconds of each other. Luca raised his own gun, but an all too happy Breznik held up a bejeweled hand.
“Why the smile, Morlena? You are about to pay for your sins.”
“I still have something of yours,” Breznik said in a high, sing-song voice.
Fanchon Marie slid her hand into his. “He has all he needs.”
“Oh, well then there’s no point to keep young Gregorio alive.”
Damn!
“What do you want, Breznik?”
“You know exactly what I want,” he said, punctuating each word with a first pounded into the boat’s guardrail. “And you will meet with me to discuss the terms of you turning over the city to me. Is he worth a city to you? Worth a bended knee? Think about it and meet me—”
“Any reason I shouldn’t just kill you right now? From the looks of it, I have the upper hand.”
“Do you? You think I hadn’t planned for your youthful impatience? Listen closely, boy. If you don’t show up at my home in Baton Rouge, they will kill your Gregorio. If you show up with an army, they will also kill your Gregorio. You have up to forty-eight hours to make up your mind. Let’s be honest though, from where I stand, your options are rather limited.”
Breznik sped away in his powerboat while Luca’s Fanchon Marie, real, whole, human, and soul attached, melted in his arms. “I’ve needed to do this since you were taken from me.” Luca dipped his head to place feathery kisses along every inch of her face. “How are you? Is there very much pain?” She looked to be in misery. “Did they...did they hurt you anywhere else?” Luca’s hands curled into fists at the thought of it.
“No, love, not that. Just chest, my sides, my face. They’ll heal. But emotionally? Let’s just say that it’s an odd feeling to see your body bundled up in a heap on the ground below you. I don’t advise it anytime soon.”
Luca tried to kiss every physical bruise away. The others, he knew, would take some time. “Nothing will ever happen to you again.”
“You can’t promise that, Luca.”
The hell he couldn’t.
“But,” she continued, “at least I know that you’ll always be there to save me.”
Chapter Seventeen
He led Fanchon Marie back into Breznik’s boat house hoping to find some clues, maps, notes, anything that would help them out. They found little and nothing of importance. A few scraps of torn paper with scribbled hexes, a box of tools for curses, and a small bag of random jewels and buttons. More than likely they came from the recently reanimated bodies. Luca let them fall.