by Mark Taylor
Excalibur launched herself into the air to face Sebastian, flinging a single fireball into the Golem as she went. Above the tree line she saw Sebastian turn in the air, floating, his arms spread wide. “Come, Cali. Be with us. Don’t make me destroy you.”
“It’d take a fine chance.” She flung a ball at him, but he dodged it with ease.
He shook his head. “What chance do you think you stand? I have many, many friends that are coming. You and your little friend do not stand a…hope in Hell.”
Excalibur flicked her body around to the right, growing fireballs as she did, and flung them at him as hard as she could. Her arms ached with the effort.
Again he floated out of the way with ease.
Then he was behind her, for just a second, gently touching her cheek before retreating. “You remind me of your mother.”
“In that I hate you too? Probably.”
He was behind her again, this time his hands on her shoulders. “What do you think you can achieve by fighting me?” He turned her gently in the air until they faced each other.
“Redemption.” She flicked small fireballs into her palms and punched them into his chest. Too close to move, they struck him hard and forced him back – releasing his hold on her shoulders. She brought forth two more and matched his retreat move for move. Inch for inch. She punched them into him again, this time lower, into his midsection. He tried again to retreat, but Excalibur hit him again and again. He panicked. Raised his arms to his face. She let him get slightly further and raised larger fireballs, throwing them at him wildly.
He turned.
Flew.
Fled.
Excalibur dropped back into the trees, landing behind two mongers heading toward Lady. “Hey!” she screamed, dropping them with more fire as they turned.
“I thought I was supposed to be helping you?” Lady called over a sonic boom clapped at the Golem.
“Sorry, I left you with the mess.” Excalibur jumped, flew, to the Golem as it tumbled back. She landed straddling it shoulders, and plunged a full size fireball into its wailing face. It looked confused. Fearful.
She almost felt sorry for the stupid monster.
Almost.
She raised her other hand and punched another ball into the side of its head. Then another to the face. Back and forth twice more. Then she leapt from it, releasing its hands to rise up and cover itself, flesh burning, torment coming in each of its screams.
Excalibur landed on the ground next to Lady. “I think we should leave.”
Four more mongers came from the trees, the Golem started to regain composure. Vampyr started to circle.
“You think?”
Excalibur nodded.
And they were gone, leaving nothing but a wisp.
***
“We can’t do that when Mary arrives,” Lady said as Excalibur circled the table and placed two glasses of clear liquid on it. The bar was mostly empty.
“That’s why we need a plan.”
“I take it you have this plan?” She took a sip of the vodka.
“Of course not.” Excalibur flared her nostrils. “They don’t sell chicken here, so I ordered ribs.”
“I asked for a salad.”
Excalibur shrugged. “So we assume that the Golem will be there again?”
Lady nodded. “And now they know we’re here, I expect to have some of the mongers to deal with as well.” She raised her eyebrows as she took a second sip. “And vampyr.”
“Most likely. I didn’t see it going that way, you know.”
“No.”
A server approached carrying two plates of ribs. “Ladies,” he said as he placed the plates on the table. “Anything else?”
Excalibur shook her head and admired his rear as he walked away.
“Can we focus?” Lady snapped at her.
Excalibur picked up a rib and turned back her attention. “Well, they don’t know if Mary is here with us. We could use that.” She pulled a hunk of meat from the bone. “Hm. Bit sweet,” she said, absently.
“So what are you thinking? We distract and Mary goes in? She’ll love that.”
“No chance. I’m going in. There’s no need for you two to risk your necks.”
“I think you’ll find a couple of sisters that will disagree with you on that.” Lady grinned.
Excalibur looked to the side and back. “Fine. But then we all need to go in.”
“Okay, but say we get in. How do we find Purgatory?”
“I was hoping that I could use some of my charm.”
“You’re going to flirt your way to Purgatory?”
Excalibur frowned. “You doubt?”
Lady laughed. “Fine. You have it your way, just don’t forget that the three of us will be stuck in there if you fail. But that means getting in without a fight. Otherwise your charm will get us nowhere.”
“I know. But don’t forget who we are. Our charms can make more things happen than just getting what I want.” She wrinkled her nose.
Lady crossed her arms and shook her head. “What are you getting us into now?”
“Look.” Excalibur got up and went over to the notice board of the low rent restaurant on the I-20, and pulled something off. She returned to the table and handed it to Lady.
“Gross,” she said, wiping rib sauce from the paper. “League Talent Scouts Night?” She glanced down the flier. “So? Tomorrow night they’ve got some thing on at the stadium. What does that have to do with us?”
“You don’t know much about ball, do you?”
“Why would I?”
“Scouts at a bum-hick training stadium in the middle of Bum-Hick Nowhere is a big deal.”
Lady shook her head.
“People, Sis. It means people. Lots and lots of lovely, manipulatable, people.”
“Malleable.” Lady took her first bite of rib. “Yes,” she said. “Sweet.”
IV
Mary had only parked up and left the car outside the motel thirty minutes previous, and now she was back in it. It was late, dark, and she was tired. “Manipulatable is not a word.”
“Shush. We’ll get the car as close as we can to the training stadium. You’ll need it to get out, and I don’t know what state Dina will be in when we pull her from this mess.” Excalibur hung over the passenger seat looking at Mary in the back as Lady drove.
“Can’t we park in the stadium parking lot?”
“Too many people. Part of the plan.”
Mary thought that the fact they had a plan was good. “Okay. So we park outside the venue. Then what?”
“We’re here.” Lady slowed the car. The traffic was stationary coming up to the stadium. She pulled the car around the line to the lot and u-turned to the other side of the street, drawing to a stop by the sidewalk. “Close enough?”
Excalibur looked out of the window to the stadium and the copse next to it. “Should be fine.”
“And now?” Mary asked.
“We’re bringing a crowd.” She turned back to Mary. “You remember how you used your powers to get people to do what you wanted. I remember you mentioning a young man named Ethan. He was good, yes? When you manipulated him? Well. We’re manipulating.”
Excalibur slipped around the side of the car and darted into the crowd, Lady took a position nearer the gate, and Mary followed a distance behind Excalibur.
Excalibur picked out a man walking on his own, staring down at his cell. She placed her hand gently on his shoulder and his back straightened. He stopped and looked at her. Their eyes met and the man nodded. He started to amble, his purpose gone. He put the cell in his pocket as he looked around absently. She moved to the next.
Mary focused on two women walking together.
“He’s fine,” said Verity. “Playing tonight. You know.” She stopped, turning back to her friend whose pace had slowed. “What’s up?”
The other woman didn’t answer. She stopped walking altogether and stared vacantly at nothing.
“Jen?” V
erity walked back to the other woman, but as she reached her she slowed. Stopped. And stared vacantly at nothing, too.
Mary looked over to Excalibur and the two exchanged a smile, but not a pleasant one. Mary rubbed her temple as she started on the next one. A man, woman, and child.
Lady picked her target. Six young men. They walked in a pack. The leader – alpha – slightly ahead of them. She slipped in behind them and followed their pace. Closing her eyes she saw herself above them. She could see herself behind them. The ethereal her whispered quietly into the ear of the alpha. “You will follow me to the end. The end of the earth. The end of time. And those will follow you. Follow your heart. Follow your Lady.”
He stopped walking and the crew that followed stumbled over each other. “Come on,” he said to them. With a confused look, they followed him towards the copse. Within three steps Lady had taken three of them. Within six, the final two.
Excalibur had taken twelve. Mary, six. Before Lady’s first had reached the gate, she had taken another fifteen.
Alpha opened the gate, and the horde started in. Mary, was the first to duck in around the gate, and hid from the copse behind the crowd, then Excalibur, and then Lady. “Come,” she whispered, leading the horde, while still gaining others on the other side of the fence.
“How is she doing that?” Mary asked. “These six are pretty much killing me.”
“Lady has a strong mind.” Excalibur followed Lady’s suit, half crouching as the crowd moved ever forward. And still those Lady called came.
Excalibur watched the trees. The vampyr were in them, hiding. She could feel their confusion. The mongers circled overhead, out of sight.
“The Golem.” Lady pointed to the beast, circling the portal.
“What the hell is that?” asked Mary.
“We have to protect the people,” continued Lady.
“I know,” Excalibur hissed. The crowd started to circle the beast, widely at first – well from harm’s reach.
“I can hear something,” whispered Mary. “What is that?”
Lady looked around. “Damn. Someone’s noticed we’re in here.”
Mary squinted around. “The Devil?”
“No,” Lady answered. “Worse.” She pointed. “Stadium security.”
Two men with flashlights were at the gates. “What’s going on?” one screamed at the crowd.
“We must move quickly.” Excalibur moved the crowd closer to the Golem. It was confused. They swayed, their very motion disorienting the beast.
Soon the Golem was inside the circle, by the portal not.
The security guards were almost on the crowd.
“Now,” Excalibur grabbed Lady’s hand, and the three of them darted into the portal.
Down to Hell.
***
“What’ll happen up there?” Mary asked.
“The crowd will disperse, everyone will be a bit confused. The guardians of the portal will be suspicious, but damn, I half expect Him to already suspect – if he doesn’t know – that was a decoy. Let’s go.”
The three of them turned down the first corridor, and then the next. Mary hurried along at the rear, her fingers sliding along the dark wood paneled wall. “This isn’t what I was expecting.”
“Thought it would all be brimstone and sulfur, huh?” Lady teased.
“Well, yes.”
Excalibur stopped them outside a door.
“This it?” asked Lady.
“I don’t know.”
“You mean, there could be anything behind there?”
“Yep.”
“So you’re just…gonna guess at doors.”
“What would you have me do?” She wrapped her fingers around the doorknob.
“Don’t…do that.” Excalibur turned to Sebastian, standing at the corner of the next turn. “You don’t want to know what the daughter of Hecate would do to three lost travelers like yourselves.”
Excalibur let go of the door. “So where is he?”
“He is preoccupied at the moment. I have slipped his thoughts. I am alone.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t already turned me in.”
“Cali, I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Too little…”
“I can help you. But we must be quick. If he realizes that I am not in his thoughts he will take me back, and I will not be able to stop him. You have come for your other, yes?”
“How do you know about Dina?”
“There has been much…excited gossip, no?”
“Hm.” She turned back to Lady and Mary. “What say you?”
“I’m with him,” Lady said. “We’re not dead yet.”
Mary nodded.
“Fine, Sebastian,” she said, enjoying his cringe. “Show us.”
“Come.” The three of them followed Sebastian. He moved swiftly without looking back, darting from one corridor to the next. He stopped. Resting his back against a wall he glanced around quickly, the movement nothing more than a flinch. “Wait,” he whispered. There were voices around the corner.
“What?” Excalibur asked.
“Two of our brethren – they were outside. They suspect.” Sebastian turned the corner to meet the brethren, waving Excalibur back. “So,” he said, to the other vampyr. “What is this?”
“We were concerned that what happened outside was a trick of some sort.”
“Worry not, Vandalm. I have been patrolling the corridors with the same suspicion. There is no one here.”
Excalibur looked silently at Lady, who shrugged.
After a few more words, the vampyr were satisfied and Sebastian returned to the coven. “They have gone. We must move.” He led them again, quicker now, so much so that Lady and Mary struggled to keep pace. He finally rested at a door. “Through here,” he said. “But you must beware of Purgatory. It will play with you. It will hurt you if you let it. You have to believe in one another, and don’t let go of your minds. Now go. Before I cannot help myself anymore.” He pushed the door open, revealing the grey beyond.
Excalibur nodded to him. “Thank you.”
“I will not betray you out of choice. Run.”
The three witches hurried through the door. The cold of Purgatory bit at them.
***
Excalibur immediately left the ground. “I didn’t expect it to be cold.”
“It’s so…dull.”
Trees and woodland were set far in the distance, and between it and them, dull gray fields.
“Right.” Excalibur spun in the air. “I’ll go forward, you two split up. We find her and meet back here.”
“Sebastian said it would play with our minds. I think we should stick together,” Lady said.
“I don’t care what he said.” Excalibur turned again. “Let’s find her and get out of here.” She flew forward, away from the other two without looking back. She scoured the distance, looking for signs of Dina.
Even as she flew she could feel no air on her face. Everything felt stagnant. She soared towards the tree line hard, knowing that was most likely where Dina would secrete herself.
But the harder she flew, the further away the trees appeared.
Stopping, she glanced back to where the door was. Should have been. It was gone. “Damn,” she muttered under her breath. “Lady?” she called. Her words lost in the dull. “Right.” She started forward again, pushing hard, her speed increasing.
Above her, clouds started to form. The blackest she had ever witnessed. A low rumble of thunder grew, a crescendo of noise from the sky, followed by a bolt of bright white lightning, missing her by feet. She dropped to the ground, running. She could see a figure in the distance. She ran as rain started to fall and another bolt of lightning crashed down to her left.
She slowed as she realized there was more than one figure in front of her. Two, three, more?
Another bolt cracked down behind her. She darted away just before another bolt struck in front of her. It was driving her towards the figures.
/> She stopped.
Waited.
While she stared at the figures, the lightning didn’t come again.
And then she saw them. She saw them fly.
The figures left the ground, but she could tell they weren’t mongers.
Dots of rain landed upon her. It was getting harder, coming in torrents. Excalibur flicked her hair from her face.
“Bring it.”
She leapt into the air, and charged the oncoming vampyr. As she got a little closer she could see – there were six of them. All of them were in the air. They spread out and came hard and fast.
They started to circle. Trying to draw her into them. Surround her.
The rain fell hard, crackling as it was consumed by the fire that began to glow in Excalibur’s hands. She kept her hands low, to her side, tucked around her back, shielding the fireballs from the rain and from the keen eyes of the vampyr.
When she was close enough, she flung the first, her hand swinging out, crossing her chest, straight at the vampyr on her left, the one most circled around her. Then she did the same with the other hand, to the one on the right.
The one on the left dodged downwards, landing on the grass and immediately springing back into the air. The one on the right wasn’t so lucky. Distracted by the first’s acrobatics, the fireball hit the female vampyr squarely in the chest, knocking her from the air to the ground. The rest of the pack howled in anger. Excalibur dropped down, landing, and darted to the left, below the circling pack.
Up again. Spinning around.
Another fireball was already leaving her hand and plowing into the one that had dodged her previous attempt. He too dropped to the ground.
Another howl.
While the pack was disoriented, Excalibur flew hard at the next in line, fire in hands, she balled her fingers, and punched, blow after blow to the head of the creature, knocking it away.
She turned. Fled. She needed time to build new fire.
Glancing back she saw them in pursuit. Four remained. One was further back. Hurt by her barrage of punches.
Lightning crashed to the ground in front of her. Excalibur turned ninety degrees, still moving as fast as she could. The change of direction lost her some of her lead, though. They were close. On her. She threw her left foot out, catching a lucky clip on the leader. She threw a new fireball at him. But they were too close.