Spellbound gc-2

by Larry Correia

  “I was the winner. You should see the other fellows.”

  “Nothing Jane can’t fix. Hurry up and get in.”

  Something hit the ground hard far behind them. Tree trunks cracked and mud came raining down. A demonic roar pierced them all to the soul and sent shivers down their spines. “Crow’s back!” Sullivan shouted.

  Toru hoisted the 1919 and immediately ran to the side. Sullivan unceremoniously tossed Carr into the boat, then turned back and unslung his BAR. He was about to order Dan and Heinrich to get the Coordinator out of here, but there wasn’t time. The demon was coming too quickly. Trees were being pushed over, and the noise of splintering trunks was closing too fast.

  Crow had Summoned something nasty this time.

  “Fan out!” Sullivan ordered. Toru was already out of sight. Dan, Ian, and Heinrich hurried down the shore. Sullivan tested his Power, felt it there, reliable and true, and got ready to face down the demon. They’d come too far to die now.

  From the noise, he was expecting something massive, but instead, it was only a normal-sized figure running through the trees. Yet, it was as if he was drawing a mass of smoke around him, and as he passed down the trail, the smoke was smashing the trees flat or tearing their roots right out of the ground like it massed the same as a herd of elephants.

  Crow stopped twenty feet away, appearing to be a normal man in a black suit, but he was surrounded by the seething cloud of evil smoke. It seemed to coalesce around him in a vague animal shape. “I’m back, Heavy,” he hissed, “and this time, I’m wearing the greatest demon of them all.”

  In the distance behind him, the void was growing larger. If the demon didn’t get them, then the black hole would.

  Oh, Francis! Faye found him lying on the grass behind the back of a truck on the Washington side of the river. He’d been shot several times and from the dead bodies, it was obvious who’d done it. Luckily, Pemberly Hammer and Whisper had gotten there first.

  Hammer had looked up long enough to say, “Tourniquet isn’t stopping the bleeding.”

  “We must get him to the hospital,” Whisper said. “Too bad I had to use our car to block the bridge.”

  “He needs a Healer or he’s dead.”

  “Healer’s on the other side of the river.”

  “Out of my way!” Faye shouted.

  “Faye?” Hammer asked. “Where-”

  She was glad that her friends had tried to save him, but everybody else was just too darned slow. Faye took Francis by the hand. It was cold. Her grey eyes could see well enough in the dark to tell that he was deathly pale. “Hang on, Francis. I’ve got you.”

  She didn’t know where the handsome Healer was, and Jane was clear on the other side. That was a heck of a long jump with carrying the weight of another person, and it would take a much larger burst of Power, but she was feeling especially feisty tonight and figured she could do it. She checked her Power and was excited to discover that it had grown since the night had begun. It was counterintuitive, but her magic was getting stronger again. She could probably get Francis over there in one hop, but the island was still a safer waypoint first. Faye subconsciously ran the math in her head in the time it took anybody else to blink. She studied her head map, only to realize there was only a hundred yards or so left of the island that wasn’t dangerously close to the sucking void, picked a spot, and Traveled.

  She and Francis appeared an inch above the ground and landed in the mud. It was better safe than sorry. To the north, the other knights were fighting something, and she recognized the human form of that no-good Crow. There was no time to help though. She’d come back for them once she saved Francis. Her head map picked out the spot on the west side of the river where Jane and Mr. Browning were, so she focused, looking for a safe spot, and… Clear.

  Jane Garrett was only ten feet away and had her back to where Faye landed. She was watching an incoming boat, filled with knights and bedraggled, scared prisoners. “Jane! Jane! I need you!”

  The Healer’s reactions were honed. When somebody called her name like that, she responded immediately. Grimnoir Healers were used to being needed in a real hurry. “Francis! Oh no…” Jane got on her knees and studied her angle of attack. “Three entrance holes. Two exits. Some fragmentation and multiple wound channels. Lung damage. Liver damage. Femoral artery is severed. Blood pressure dropping.” She put her hands on Francis’ chest. “Heart will stop in forty seconds.”

  “Fix him!” Faye cried.

  “Shhhh.” Jane closed her eyes and her hands began to glow. “I’ve got this.”

  “Don’t let him die, Jane. I love him,” Faye blurted out.

  Jane was exasperated. “Do I tell you how to teleport? No. I don’t think so. So go do whatever it is you do and quit fussing at me so I can concentrate.” The hole in Francis’ chest made a sizzling noise and he moaned.

  Faye stood up. Jane was right, and she was the very best Healer ever. There was nothing else she could do for Francis…

  Except punish the organization that had hurt him.

  Crow was pleased. This new body was amazing. He couldn’t believe that he’d waited so long to try it out. He’d been foolish to be so scared of the greatest of all Summoned. It hadn’t even taken much coaxing to bring it to Earth. It had been eager. No Summoner had ever dared call on it before. They’d been too frightened. Only Crow had the nerves to tame the fiercest beast that had ever existed on a very fearsome world.

  It hadn’t even fought him for control. He’d expected more of a struggle, but it had simply accepted his demand and let him take charge of its body. It had been surprisingly accommodating, and had gone obediently to the back of its mind. Crow could sense the savage brutality of the creature, but it was also cunning, it might not have understood humanity, but it understood that its master had a need for strategy and discretion.

  He was only allowing a tiny percentage of its true physical form to manifest, but even then, Crow had never felt so mighty. He forced it to look like his regular, chosen, human shape, but its abilities and strength were off the charts. It was sorely tempting to let the true form free, but he was afraid. Not of another embarrassment like what had happened in Oklahoma, but rather that once he started, he would not be able to stop. Crow didn’t know if he, or the demon, could handle that much freedom.

  In fact, he was far more worried about the growing darkness behind him than the Grimnoir in front of him. He did not understand what it was, but it was all-consuming. There was only death inside the darkness. He did not know if even the great one would be able to pull itself out of the darkness should it get too close.

  The Grimnoir attacked. They were powerful, but they were nothing compared to this form. The Heavy struck him with waves of crushing gravity, but he simply shrugged them off. Up became down and down became up, but the Greatest Summoned did not care, and it willed itself to stay connected to the ground. The Iron Guard hosed them down with bullets from a belt-fed machine gun, but it was like being pelted with handfuls of sand.

  They had a Mouth. He hurled words at Crow. The words were filled with magic, but they were feeble human words, and they made no sense. In fact, he was having a very hard time understanding any of the words the Grimnoir were saying. That gave Crow pause… Was the demon affecting him more than he’d thought? If it was, it was very subtle, and as Crow thought about that, the words began to make sense again and the garbled nonsense the Grimnoir were shouting turned back into English. That was better.

  I apologize, master. I was only trying to protect us.

  Don’t let it happen again. Crow thought that was interesting. He’d never had a Summoned that could communicate so clearly before. He should have been afraid, but instead he felt strangely relaxed. This form was very comforting.

  He tried to swat the Grimnoir, but even in his great form, they were annoyingly difficult to kill. The Heavy increased the mass of his body and withstood a blow that should have crushed him. Interesting, this Heavy also possessed some of the capab
ilities of a Massive. The creatures of this world are able to connect to more than one aspect of the Power… This is different than the home world. Perhaps, if we had been able to do such a thing, then the Predator would not have been able to consume us.

  Crow was confused. The memories were odd, filled with strange colors and unfamiliar smells, cluttered with overwhelming sadness, bitter regret, and an all-consuming desire for conquest. He forced the demon back down. I’m in charge here. Not you.

  The Fade was elusive. He disappeared as Crow tried to strike him down, but re-formed on the other side, and managed to make both of their forms indistinct. Crow’s pathetic human form sunk deep into the rock before the Fade leapt away. The Heavy began to congratulate the Fade, but Crow simply jerked his stuck limbs out of the ground, dragging the foreign matter with him.

  These enemies are robust. Some of them have bound more Power to their bodies. This world has advanced much in the ways of magic.

  A sword cleaved down through one arm, sending it spiraling away, then came back up quickly to remove the Summoned’s head. The head went bouncing off into the forest.

  Crow’s severed head laughed. He gathered up some of the excess essence of the mighty Summoned and reformed the body. The Brute seemed surprised when Crow simply grew a new head.

  This form is too clumsy. Set me free.

  No. Crow knew there was too much danger in that.

  Let me free and we will rule this world.

  It was tempting.

  A Traveler appeared. The demon recognized right away that this was the most dangerous of them all. Her personal magic was astounding, and her spirit was bound with a diagram of Power beyond anything ever created in the old world. Crow began to tell the demon what to do, but the demon shoved him aside. The human did not understand just how fearsome the Traveler really was. She was possibly his equal and obviously one of the rulers of this world.

  Free me or she will destroy us. I do not want to return to the cold place.

  She folded space, attacking over and over, moving from spot to spot quicker than their divided mind could follow. Crow fought the demon while the Traveler fought them both.

  Faye was Traveling like mad. Crow was much faster than before, and even though he looked like a man, he was moving with unbelievable quickness. It was like there were walls of force around his hands, and when he swung, great big patches of ground were torn apart. Whole trees were sent flying into the air. He’d strike, so she’d move and stab him. They kept on repeating the little dance, and Faye couldn’t figure out why he’d not managed to kill her yet. It was like he was distracted or something.

  The others had hit Crow with everything they had, and it hadn’t done a thing. The big sucking thing was getting closer. There was only about fifty yards of island left. They were shoving the boat into the river and trying to escape while Faye kept Crow occupied.

  Faye had fought demons before. She’d helped beat the Bull King by finding its Summoner and blowing his brains out. Only, how could she kill a Summoner when he was inside his own demon? They’d already killed him before, and he’d just come right back. That didn’t hardly seem fair. She needed to kill his real body once and for all. That way he’d never come back again. She needed to kill his body good and dead-for George and for everybody else this awful man had hurt.

  Ian sent his Summoned in on a suicide charge. Crow simply uppercut the creature. It flew a hundred yards through the air, plummeted down, and hit the river with a huge splash. Ian had been trying to help Fay, but he’d only gotten in the way. Ian cried out in pain as his Summoned was banished. Summoners definitely had a connection to their creatures-maybe Ian had helped in a different way: Crow had to have some kind of connection as well.

  Faye checked her head map and pushed it out further than she ever had before. Her Power was burning so hot, and she was Traveling so fast, that she could easily do both things at once. Where would Crow be? For all she knew he could be hundreds of miles away. Yet he was connected to the demon somehow. When they’d killed him before, his spirit had figured out how to get back home. He hadn’t gotten lost. So Faye reasoned that there had to be some sort of link between the two; she just had to figure out how to find it.

  When she’d brought Jake Sullivan back from the land where the dead went to dream, she’d followed his connection to the Power. Everybody had one, even the really faint ones that belonged to Normals from when the Power had tested them when they were young, but decided not to bond permanently. Her head map had spotted those before-she’d just had to adjust how she perceived the world. Would a Summoner’s trail be any different?

  Faye pushed her head map even harder. She didn’t need to see further, she needed to see finer… Faye was stunned as her head map showed her what she was really fighting. If Crow knew what he’d brought here, he was an even bigger fool than she’d thought. It was vast. This was no regular Summoned. This was one of their gods.

  She had to find the trail… Look beyond the terror of the monster. It had to be there somewhere. And sure enough, she found it. Through the noxious smoke were what looked like chains encircling the Summoned, and they pointed in a straight line to the east. Faye forced her map to follow the chains. Crow’s real body wasn’t very far away at all.

  Crow screamed when he realized what she was doing, but it was too late. She was already gone.

  Faye landed in the middle of a plain living room, still holding a Bowie knife that was dripping demon ink to burn black spots into the floor. The furniture was dusty. Dirty dishes sat rotting and forgotten in the sink. There were pictures on the wall. She recognized Crow in a few of them, only these were very old tintypes, and in some he was wearing an old-fashioned Army uniform. These had to be pictures of his father or something.

  The apartment was small and quiet. It smelled like decay. Her head map told her the only other living thing here was in the bedroom. Faye wiped her knife off on the tablecloth, put it back in the sheath, and drew her. 45. Alert for danger, she turned the knob, and let the door creak open.

  There was a shape in front of the window, sitting in a chair, staring off into space. Faye went to the lamp in the corner and turned it on. Crow’s back was to her, and it took Faye a moment to realize that he was sitting in a wheelchair.

  Reaching out, Faye took one handle of the wheelchair and pulled it so that he faced her. She gasped in surprise. Crow was ancient. His real body was all shriveled up. His head was more of a skull than anything, and his paper-thin skin barely hid big purple veins. From the tiny diameter of his legs beneath his flannel pajamas, he had not walked in a long time. He smelled bad, and his gooey eyes were staring off into space.

  Faye checked again. Sure enough, this was where the chains led. This was the mighty demon that she’d fought. This was the man who had killed or hurt her friends. His shirt was hanging open, and on his bony chest was carved an intricate spell. His ribs were slowly moving up and down as he breathed.

  Crow blinked. Some of his consciousness had returned. “Please.. Don’t.” He raised one palsied hand. “Please. I’m begging you.”

  “Why?” It was all she could ask.

  “I’m scared of dying.” He touched the spell on his chest. “I want to live.”

  She’d wondered how an Active could be so eager to enslave other Actives. Now she had her answer.

  Faye lifted the 1911 and shot him in the chest. Crow jerked and spasmodically grabbed onto the wheels of his chair. Then she shot him again and again. She shot him until the magazine was empty and the slide locked back. Faye slowly lowered the smoking gun. Crow was already so dry and dead inside that hardly any blood came out of the holes.

  Crow

  Chapter 21

  There comes a time in the life of every warrior when he must face a clearly superior foe. A proud warrior lives for such moments, for there is no shame in defeat and great glory in victory. I prefer to let such proud warriors lead the charge against these superior foes, and while that superior foe is distracted
, I use that to my advantage to destroy them. Honor is defined by the winner.

  — Baron Okubo Tokugawa, Chairman of the Imperial Council, My Story, 1922

  Mason Island

  They got the boat into the river in a hurry. Dan was yanking on the cord to get the motor started. Mason Island was almost completely gone.

  Crow was standing on the edge of the shore, screaming incoherently at volumes unachievable to human lungs. Faye was gone. The rest of them had gotten aboard, but it wasn’t going to do them much good. If Crow came after them, they’d be swimming, and Sullivan didn’t think that any of them would be outswimming the black hole. Even as he thought that, the blackness reached the river and water began to thunder into it as if it were a waterfall.

  He had no idea why Crow hadn’t gone after them. Faye had disappeared, and ever since then, Crow had just been twitching and yelling, but not chasing them. Whatever she was up to, it seemed to be working.

  Dan got the engine started, but with the water below them rushing into the darkness and the nearly hurricane force winds buffeting them, they’d be lucky if they didn’t capsize anyway. Already waves taller than the boat were tossing them about. Having always figured he’d end up shot to death, he’d never considered drowning a serious possibility. It just went to show that life could be full of surprises.

  Carr was holding on to the side of the boat for dear life. The Grimnoir were a little more stoic, until Ian threw up. Toru was just glaring at Sullivan with his arms folded. “When the Pathfinder destroys the world because you died badly on this fool’s errand, I hope you will be happy.”

  “Hey, you said your father wanted you to have that sword,” Sullivan shouted back over the wind, “so apparently we’re supposed to drown here.”

  “I said when you die badly. I am an excellent swimmer.”

  Whatever internal struggle that was keeping Crow stuck in one spot must have ended, because he started wading out into the river. As the smoke around him struck the water, it was blasted aside, and Crow walked after them.