Gremlin Night

by Dale Ivan Smith

  Riley crouched down at the far side of the hall, next to a fire extinguisher in a glass case. Dara crept along the near wall, heading toward the grand ballroom where the sound of screams and maniacal hee-hee’s echoed . I glanced back behind us. The hall ran past more doors, no doubt conference rooms, and then a bank of elevators.

  The grand ballroom’s doors flung open, and an older man in a tuxedo ran out, screaming, pursued by a pair of flying monkeys straight out of the Wizard of Oz.

  The monkeys grabbed him under each arm and lifted him into the air, his legs still pumping away.

  “Petrify!” Dara snapped her wand and a cone of force smacked into the nearest flying monkey, knocking off his little fez. The flying monkey stiffened and fell to the carpeted floor with a loud thump! The other monkey let go of the man, who fell heavily to the floor.

  “Banish!” Riley said in Russian, pointing his silver rod at the other flying monkey. The monkey did a barrel roll away from us, but couldn’t escape the laser-like gold beam shooting from Riley’s artifact. It turned to black smoke.

  More people ran from the ballroom, two women in slinky little black dresses and a bald guy in a tuxedo. The floor shook from something huge following after them.

  “Hee-hee,” a deep bass voice boomed. The women’s dress straps sprang off and they tripped in the suddenly descending fabric, sprawling out on the floor in their expensive bras and panties. The man’s pants burst and he also tripped and fell.

  A troll-sized gremlin burst through the doors, lumbering into the hallway. It stepped on the frozen flying monkey. There was a purple flash and a loud pop, and black vapor rose around the mega-gremlin’s giant foot.

  “Petrify!” Dara and Riley both shouted in unison, in Swahili, and loosed twin versions of the spell at the mega-gremlin. The spells ricocheted off the gremlin. One beam struck the fire extinguisher in its glass case next to Riley. It exploded in a white cloud, covering Riley with fire retardant. He staggered, covered in white foam, his eyes squeezed shut. His silver rod thumped on the foam-spattered carpet.

  The mega-gremlin’s roar shook the room. Dara lay on the floor, immobilized from the sound. An avalanche of ceiling panels crashed around her, thudding into the carpet. The mega-gremlin roared in triumph, lumbering past the fallen people and out of our line of sight. Heading toward the mezzanine. Screams erupted from that direction. Guess not all the partygoers hadn’t been confined to the grand ballroom.

  “We’ve got to get in the game,” I shouted to Tully, “before the game gets us.”

  Riley wiped foam from his eyes and helped Dara up. “Get that thing,” Dara told us, nodding in the direction the mega gremlin had gone. I wanted to argue, but she was right. She and Riley were invokers and had the best chance of taking down Rudy Gott, even though I wanted the privilege so very much. That creep had a lot to answer for, and I’d have loved to be the one to make him answer.

  “Come on, big, guy,” I said to Tully, “let’s go take down the really big guy.”

  I jogged after mega-gremlin. As we passed the entrance to the grand ballroom, I caught a glimpse of the inside—pure pandemonium. A thick miasma of purple-blue mana filled the room. Gremlins hung from the huge crystal chandeliers, with ball-goers cowering beneath round banquet tables or behind chairs. Brilliant silver flashes came from direction of the stage. I heard musical instruments playing crazily on their own, a drum set bashing away, and a pair of electric guitars screeching. My heart lurched at the scene. I wanted to dash into the ballroom and save the day.

  Then we were past, running after something we should have been running away from.

  The mega-gremlin.

  Tully caught up with me as we reached the mezzanine. Stone cherubs spouted water into the basin of a fountain in front of the escalators. White tile gleamed.

  The grand-daddy of all gremlins roared laughter at a crowd of people in fancy dress, who had tried to flee down the escalator, only it wasn’t going just down. It was going up and down. The up escalator vibrated and shook. Two men had tried running down it and now lay partway down. A dozen people tumbled back and forth on the down escalator. The rest of the crowd flattened themselves on the mezzanine tile.

  The stink of burnt electrical wiring filled the air.

  I’m afraid, the shadow slug, riding my hip, said in my mind. I’d almost forgotten it was there.

  Me, too, I thought back at it. But that’s not stopping me.

  So much delicious mana, the mana snake said, voice a purr in my mind. If I wasn’t about to tackle a mega-gremlin in the middle of a hotel filled with screaming people and a showdown with a creepy wizard going on just a few dozen yards behind me, I’d be freaking out at the voices in my head, but those voices were almost comforting at this point.

  I began chanting an obedience spell, in Swedish, bobbing and weaving with my wand like a conductor’s baton, building up the power of the casting. Tully had his own wand out, and was casting a reveal, in English. The lines of magic emanating from mega-gremlin popped into view. Not gold or silver, but jagged prismatic shapes, like migraine fortresses. It hurt to look at them. But that was the way to get at the gremlin, so I looked at them, in order to put the spell on the granddaddy of all gremlins.

  If it let me.

  I shifted my stance. The tile suddenly felt as slick as ice. My foot slipped and I fell, pain spiking through my hip.

  Ow! The shadow slug wailed.

  I kept muttering the spell, rolling on to my back. Tully sidestepped over to me, still chanting his spell, knelt down, reaching out with his free hand. His foot slipped and he fell forwards. His spell terminated with a flash that left stars in my eyes.

  I blinked, narrowed my eyes and put more mana into the spell.

  Let me help! the mana snake said. I ignored it. I had no idea what that would lead to, and besides, I had this.

  Loud clicks suddenly sounded from the ceiling, and water sprayed down. I had to close my eyes. I lost the thread of the spell, and it went “pop!”

  “Hee-hee,” boomed the mega-gremlin.

  I scrambled up, but slipped on the wet tile. Curses.

  Tully had managed to lever himself up. He held up a big silver medallion on a chain. A ward artifact.

  “Dara gave you one of those? How do you rate that?” I asked.

  He ignored me. The contours of a magical shield sprung up between us and mega-gremlin.

  The giant roared his disapproval and lumbered at us. He slashed the air with a massive outstretched hand. The cherub statues in the water fountain suddenly swiveled and the water dribbling from their mouths sprayed with the force of a fire hose, knocking Tully over, but he didn’t lose the medallion.

  Mega-gremlin hit the shield with the force of a freight train, and bounced off it.

  The troll-sized manifestation slammed backwards into the fountain. Marble crumpled like cardboard, and water erupted around it.

  Now was my chance.

  My mouth was dry, and I wet my lips. I held my wand tightly in my left hand, felt it buck from the chaos magic.

  “Ti amo alla mia volontà,” I chanted in Italian. I yoke thee to my will.

  The spell looped in a flowing golden chain from the tip of my wand, and around the huge waist of the manifestation.

  I repeated the command. I suddenly tasted rotten fruit, and fought against gagging. It’s just the chaos magic, I reminded myself.

  My wand started to slide from my fingers. I tightened my grip. Sweat dripped down into my eyes.

  The mega-gremlin roared again. The mezzanine swayed. Could its chaos magic cause a structural failure? I pushed the thought away.

  I funneled more mana into my spell. The mega-gremlin stiffened, then a stream of water sprayed me full in the face. I sputtered, blinking and lost the spell.

  “Hee-hee!” the manifestation boomed. Behind it, the escalators whirred and ground faster, followed by more screams. I flinched at the noise.

  Something made a loud zap nearby, and then the floor shook. Bli
nking through the water, I glimpsed Tully, fist forward, ring shining with silver light. Tully had slammed gremlin granddaddy with a force spell from his ring. I blinked through the sprays from the ceiling and the cherubs off to my left.

  I needed to see better. But the chaos and water made it so hard.

  Then it hit me. I had a second pair of eyes available to me.

  Shady. The manifestation’s sight, that could aid me.

  I need your vision, little guy, I told the shadow slug. Which meant I needed to link to it.

  Okay, it said in a small voice. This would be a touch spell. I put my hand on my hip.

  “Link to me,” I said, casting in English.

  The shadow slug trembled. I closed my eyes. The world shifted and suddenly I saw what it saw, a distorted fish eye-lens view of things, with mana flowing around. Not the sharp view Tully could give me, but it was better than not being able to see it all.

  Then I had an idea. “Float behind it,” I told Shady. “Please. That will help.”

  My view moved, as the shadow slug floated past the momentarily stunned mega-gremlin. I urged Shady to float up until it hovered behind the massive pointed head. I needed more mana to make this work.

  At your service, the mana snake said.

  “Fine,” I whispered. “Help away.”

  Thank you.

  Why was it thanking me?

  Every atom of my being suddenly burned with hunger for mana, and I felt myself opening up, mana pouring in. So much mana, like a dam bursting, mana cascading into me.

  I shook from the force of it. I thought I heard Tully shout my name, but it disappeared in the torrent of sensation that overcame me.

  I reached through Shady and into the giant of a gremlin, where the chaos magic hissed and sparked like wild power lines. I directed the magic forward, took control of chaos.

  “Get Rudy Gott,” I said.

  The mega-gremlin took off at a thundering run, and I sprinted to follow. The escalators fell silent, and the spraying ceased. The gremlin’s magic was mine, for the moment. The mana snake funneled mana through me at a ferocious rate. I wasn’t sure how long it could do that, or I could take it.

  “Marquez!” Tully shouted behind me.

  “Not stopping,” I shouted back, over my shoulder. “Try and keep up!”

  We reached the ballroom. The air was clear of mana. Partygoers cowered on the floor, a hundred or more. Riley lay near the stage, smoke rising from his suit. Dara crouched on one knee. She wore blue wrap-arounds—magic goggles with sapphire lenses. It was an artifact, like all magic items. I gasped. The edges of it were on fire.

  Her wand was blackened.

  On the stage, Rudy Gott stood gloating, grasping his serpent staff, which blazed with silver fire. Gremlins stood like statues before the stage, spewing the migraine fortress like stars and crescents of chaos magic.

  The staff harvested the chaos magic. Gott casually flung bolts of energy at Dara, who deflected with her wand, but her arm shook and even from here, I could see she was exhausted.

  Beside Gott stood the outlines of a drop-dead gorgeous woman. Her blonde hair gleamed like gold, and her high breasts and hips would have launched a thousand ships.

  Fire or no fire, Dara’s artifact goggles must have shown her the mega-gremlin lumbering into the room, and me right behind it.

  “It’s nearly day!” she shouted.

  Dawn wasn’t just a visual shift. It was a magical one, too. The amount of energy pouring into Gott’s staff was incredible, enough to spawn a host of dragons. It would explode across the diurnal boundary.

  I had to stop it. I twirled the wand in my right hand and sent the mega-gremlin crashing toward the stage, chaos energy roiling inside it.

  Gott saw me. “You’re just in time to see my glory.” He smiled at the super-nymph glowing like a sun beside him. Her full lips curved back in a lascivious smile and I began to feel the stirrings of lust in me. Curse it. I saw Tully run up alongside me, and suddenly I wanted him.

  Focus, I ordered myself. I wobbled on my feet. My muscles ached, and my body wanted to crumple to the floor and curl up in a ball of exhaustion. Somehow, I managed to stay on my feet. Lust, fear, desire all whirled inside me. I gritted my teeth. I would not give in.

  The mega-gremlin lumbered toward the stage. Fear flashed across Gott’s face.

  He leveled his staff at the mega-gremlin and loosed a blast of raw silver energy at it. I could see through the mega-gremlin now; a huge round hole had opened up in its chest and back. Chaos magic poured from it, toward Gott’s staff. It still moved forward, but in slow motion now. I staggered from the blow, feeling it through the binding spell that linked the mega-gremlin to me. Exhaustion pulled at me, and I struggled to keep fueling the spell with mana, but there was so little nearby now for me to funnel into the spell.

  I had one option left to restore me, and give me enough mana to fuel my magic. I reached into my biker jacket and grabbed at the blood amulet.

  No! The mana snake shouted in my mind. Do not do that.

  Use me instead, it sang. I thirst to eat chaos.

  It thrashed in my stomach. Chaos, I long to eat chaos! It sang.

  How? I asked it.

  Bind me, to open up to me, it sang.

  “I can’t,” I muttered.

  You can. You must.

  But how? The mana snake was inside me. Part of me.

  It hit me then. Cast the spell on myself.

  Just when I thought this night couldn’t get any crazier.

  “I link thee within me to me, in magic, as we are in body.” I whispered the link binding spell, hand pressed against my stomach. My skin grew warm, then hot, sweat soaking me.

  Strange odors suddenly filled me. Spices like curry, chilis, rich loamy scents of earth and cocoa, all of these warred for my nose’s attention. Candy.

  The chaos magic—I smelled it.

  Open your mouth and drink it in, the mana snake said.

  I opened my mouth and the chaos magic wafted in. My wand slipped from my fingers and landed on the carpet. I slipped and fell to one knee.

  I feast! The mana snake exulted.

  Mana surged inside me, like a million volts.

  I poured it into the mega-gremlin, willing it to heal, and grow stronger.

  “Stop!” Gott screamed. He shot searing bolts of magical energy at the mega-gremlin.

  But the mega-gremlin shrugged them off.

  Gott began chanting a spell, some sort of ward against magic.

  A counter spell would take time, time I didn’t have. The mega-gremlin loomed over Gott, a troll-sized gremlin. Trolls were strong as the bones of the earth.

  I grinned, and punched the air with my fist.

  The mega-gremlin swung its enormous fist in a murderous right cross at Gott’s jaw. A crack like a gunshot, and Gott flew backwards, thudding against the wall, and sliding down to the floor, unconscious. His staff lay beside him, glowing brightly.

  The supernatural gazed at me. I braced myself for another wave of lust. She opened her arms.

  Here it comes, I thought.

  I can feast no more, the mana snake said inside me.

  “Not now, you have to.”

  Too much chaos magic. It went silent.

  “The moment is at hand, the sacrifice will be made,” the nymph sang, her voice ringing like an angel’s trumpet over the cacophony of noise in the ballroom. She walked backwards toward the unconscious Rudy Gott, sprawled out on the hotel carpet.

  “Not so fast, lady.” I sent the mega-gremlin charging toward her.

  “The sacrifice must be made,” she answered, and pulled herself up against his staff, twining her legs around it and him. “We perish together for her.”

  A sound like a collapsing metal tower crashing down filled the air. I clutched at my ears. The mega gremlin froze, impossibly, in mid-stride, beside the gremlins standing stock-still like statues on the stage.

  The gremlins and the mega-gremlin began wobbling. Crack
s ripped across their skins, revealing roiling chaos magic. The supernaturals dissolved into a writhing cloud, which shot into the super-nymph and Gott’s body. His staff suddenly burst to life. The last thing I saw before blindness hit me was the serpent unfolding bat-wings and heading skyward, burning prismatic colors. Tully grunted, then pain washed over me. The world went black.

  For a long moment I stood there, blinded, then fell into the abyss of unconsciousness.

  Dara held a vial under my nose. “About time you woke up.”

  I pushed myself up. “There ought to be a rule against being knocked out twice in one night.”

  “Still not amusing,” Dara said.

  The ballroom looked like a hurricane had raged there. Shattered Christmas decorations were strewn across the carpet, and food spattered the wall. Ceiling lights swung from electrical wires, or lay broken on the floor. The partygoers were gone.

  “Already managed?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “Alpha team, with some help from your R.U.N.E. associates, has taken things in hand. Your burners are cleaning everyone who attended the ball and a cover story has been given to the Portland embed.

  Sims was going to be thrilled to have deal with whatever story they came up with.

  The stage was empty, bare of anything.

  “Gott’s staff turned into a serpent,” I said, sounding like an idiot to myself.

  But Dara didn’t sneer. “It did.”

  “What happened?”

  “Good question,” she asked. “I'd like to know the answer to that.”

  Then I saw Tully off to one side, speaking with one of Farlance’s suits, which, come to think of it, looked lot like Dara’s A.S.A. version. Maybe we should go with something other than black.

  There was no sign of Director Farlance. Tully met my gaze, disapproval in his eyes, and turned back to the suit.

  I wanted to shout, but I didn’t use blood magic! Not at the end, anyway. He must have suspected.