by Jack J. Lee
It didn’t take Tim long to start an IV for me and hang a glucose drip. I read the spell out loud. My spell bar told me it’d use up eighty percent of my soul. “Akeitso-may.” I immediately grew lightheaded. I was glad I was already sitting down. I let myself slide down onto my side.
I was alone when I woke up. It was a little before 11 AM. The IV was a godsend. This time I didn’t feel hung over. I pulled the needle out of my arm. I could hear the others down stairs. It was the first time I’d been down here in two days. Tim, Aidan, and Drew were casting spells on the Jotunn’s manacles.
“What are you guys doing?”
Drew answered, “Ah, Victor, you’re awake; good. We’re casting extra protection spells on the Jotunn’s bindings.” He pointed to the Jotunn’s healed face. “It doesn’t hurt to be safe.”
Since I’d last see the Jotunn, he’d become much thinner. A thought crossed my mind. “Tim, did you ever consider putting an IV into the troll—to see if it’d heal faster? I’d like to question him as soon as possible.”
He gave a quick nod, “Whenever I put a needle into him, his body rejected it and pushed it out within seconds. I tried duct taping the needle in place but his body scarred around it and sealed it off. For the last twenty-four hours since he healed enough to have a functional mouth, I’ve jury rigged an adult sized baby bottle and I’ve been feeding him Ensure. He’s never really been conscious, but he’s aware enough to suck on the bottle. He’s emptied two.”
“How long until he becomes conscious?”
Aidan answered, “I’d say soon, but we can’t be sure when. I’ve never had a Jotunn prisoner before—much less one so severely wounded. I’ve called other Oath Brothers to see if any of my old friends and acquaintances had any knowledge of how the Jotunn healed. None of them were able to help.”
“Will he be fully recovered when he wakes? Will he still have a mind?”
Aidan shrugged. “The interaction between the brain and the soul is complex. If he was healing by magic, my answer would be yes. Our souls contain our memories. He’s healing his head the same way some lizards regenerate or regrow their tails. I have no idea if he’ll still have his memories.”
I really wanted to question our prisoner. “How about I heal him now? Will that guarantee that he’ll have his mind?”
My armorer again shrugged.
I checked the cost to my soul—it wasn’t much, then I stared at the Jotunn using my new DNA sense and willed myself to see his genetic potential. Slowly a translucent image appeared superimposed over his actual body, and I could look inside the Jotunn. I wanted to see his brain. Both his real skull and scalp and his ideal image’s skull and scalp became transparent. The two images of his brain were identical. I examined the rest of his body. Because of his weight loss, the ideal image had more body fat and muscle mass than his corporeal body, but there were no other differences. “The Jotunn is completely healed. He’s just sleeping right now. Aidan, Tim, why didn’t you guys know that?”
Tim answered, “Vic, we’re armorers, not healers. Gaining the ability to read auras or read DNA has never been a high priority for either of us. Also, we don’t have the magical strength to cast this spell on ourselves; it’d have to be cast on us by someone much more powerful.” He thought for a second and then shrugged. “Paul Swenson could have done it. He…we never thought it was necessary.”
I walked up to the Jotunn and grabbed him by a huge bat-like ear and squeezed. The troll’s eyes opened and he screamed. He fought against his manacles. I could hear the wood his manacles were bolted to strain and creak, but his bindings held. I didn’t see any blood. Tim and Aidan had designed the restraints so the platinum wires didn’t come into play unless he actually broke his manacles.
The Jotunn’s screams turned into cries. Tears ran down his face until Tim stuck the bottle of Ensure in his mouth. The Jotunn began to suck and then began to make cooing noises.
I asked myself if a proud Jotunn warrior would ever willingly pretend to be an infant to fool his enemies—yeah right. “Dammit!”
Aidan decided to state the obvious, “It appears the Jotunn’s brain has healed but that he’s retained none of his memories. He has the mind of a newborn. This is fascinating, absolutely fascinating!”
I couldn’t stand the sight of the troll. I waved over at Drew. “I’m going upstairs. Come on up and I’ll heal you.” We went back into the kitchen. I considered calling Tim up to put another IV into me. I shouldn’t have pulled out the IV from before. The hell with it; I’d just eat more. I could live with a little headache.
I had Drew stand a couple feet away from me as I studied his ideal image. I examined his lower spine. I’d spent most of my free time during last twenty years studying things that interested me. One of them was anatomy. It’s a lot easier to hurt someone if you know what’s where under the skin.
Compared to his ideal image, his four lower lumbar discs were severely degenerated. His vertebrae were much closer together than they should be. He had a similar problem with his knees, the cartilage in the weight bearing surfaces of both knees were thinned down to almost nothing.
“I-ay ant-way is-thay ealing-hay ell-spay o-tay ake-tay effect-ay owly-slay o-tay use-ay e-thay east-lay amount-ay of-ay oul-say energy-ay. I-ay ant-way e-thay our-fay amaged-day ushions-cay of-ay artilage-cay o-tay ook-lay ike-lay ew’s-dray ideal-ay image-ay. I-ay ant-way e-thay artilage-cay of-ay is-hay ees-knay o-tay ook-lay ike-lay is-hay ideal-ay image-ay.”
My soul bar told me the spell would take over half of my remaining soul energy. I grabbed both boxes of Pop Tarts and sat down at the table. “Akeitso-may.”
Immediately, I began eating. I didn’t care if they were Strawberry or Frosted Cinnamon. A minute passed and Drew started to pace. Five minutes passed. Drew had enough and snapped. “What the hell! I don’t feel any different!”
“Wait for it. I delayed the onset of the healing spell to decrease the energy cost.”
“You son-of-a-bitch, thanks for telling me! By how long?”
“I left it open ended to decrease the energy cost as much as possible.”
“Fuck! In that case, I’m hungry, too.” Drew sat down and grabbed a couple Pop Tarts.
We finished off the two boxes of high fructose corn syrup laden pastries, and then poured ourselves bowls of Captain Crunch cereal. The only sound in the kitchen was steady munching and spoons clinking against the bowls. Drew was just about finished with his second bowl when he grunted and said, “Now isn’t that something? I think the spell’s starting to work.” He smiled and sighed, and leaned back in his chair with a look of ecstasy on his face. “I never thought I’d say it, but I’ve found something better than sex. I’m going to need to learn how to heal myself.”
There was too much sharing. I was glad to help Drew out, but the thought that I had something to do with that look on Drew’s face just didn’t sit well. We were close; I never wanted to be this close. I left him to be happy on his own and went back into my room and got on my bed. When I got healed, I just noticed the absence of pain; it hadn’t been particularly pleasurable. I guess I hadn’t been in chronic or continuous pain for as long as he had.
It was a quarter past one when I woke up. I listened for Mina. She wasn’t home. Neither was her brother or sister. Drew was outside by the shed. Aidan and Tim were still down in basement. I called Mina’s cell phone. She didn’t answer. The uneasy feeling I had earlier today burst into outright fear.
“Azam-shay. Harley!” I ran outside and jumped on my waiting mount. On the way to the range, I didn’t pay attention to how fast I was going; I just had to get there NOW. I weaved in and out of traffic on the way to the range. I had just pulled onto Gun Club Road when I saw Andi’s Mini. It was on the side of the road. The front end of it was smashed back to the ‘A’ pillar. Next to it was a Chevy Suburban; from the damage to its front end, it was clear there had been a head on collision. I didn’t see any of the Swensons.
I sent my helmet to storage and ran
to a skinny guy in his early twenties, about my height, who was gesturing angrily at a cop. He shouted, “You need to find that blond bitch who carjacked me!”
“Hey! Excuse me! My fiancée and her sister and brother were in that Mini. Can you tell me what happened to them?”
The guy calmed down immediately. I could see he had bad news. “Dude, I saw the whole thing. Some giant crazy blonde bitch drove that Suburban head-on into your fiancé’s car. I stopped by to help and she tore my car keys right out of my hand. She was like the Terminator, man, because when I went after her she threw me around like I was nothing. She ripped the roof back on the Mini with her bare hands, dragged a woman out of the back, and peeled out of here.”
“What kind of car is it?
“My car’s a silver 2009 Subaru WRX sedan.”
“Do you have a GPS tracking service in your car?”
He waved his arms in frustration. “This is Salt Lake City, man. Who expects to be car jacked in Salt Lake City? Oh man, I have to tell people I’ve been jacked by a chick. She didn’t even have a gun!”
“What happened to the other people in the Mini?”
The cop laid a sympathetic hand on my arm. “The ambulance took a young man and a teenage girl to the University of Utah Hospital just a few minutes ago.” His expression told me they were badly hurt.
“When did this happen?”
The young guy spoke, “Less than an hour ago. And Dude, I’m sorry but I think your fiancée was injured in the accident. She was in the back seat and she didn’t look as messed up as the others, but she still didn’t look good. The other two looked really bad; there was blood everywhere”
“Thanks for trying to help. I owe you.”
I turned away and took a minute to think. Signe might be okay with having sons without balls, but I doubted the rest of her warband would be willing to lose theirs. They needed to stay at least a hundred miles away from Salt Lake City. She had to be on her way to meet them. We’d left the Jotunn in Boise.
The Jotunn could shapeshift and fly as birds, but I’d seen them on motorcycles and Signe had stolen a car. They preferred to use motor transport. There were two ways by road to get here from Boise, I-84 to I-15 coming from the north or I-84 to SR-93 to I-80 coming from the west. If I was a barbarian warrior with a kidnapped hostage, would I take the direct route using just interstate highways or a scenic meandering path that included spending hours on a state highway? Who the fuck was I kidding? I had no idea where Signe had taken Mina, but I had to start somewhere. I called Drew.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s me. Do you know who Signe is?”
“Tim and Aidan told me about her. She’s the leader of the Jotunn.”
“She set up a head-on collision with Andi’s Mini. She’s kidnapped Mina. Ben and Andi are at the University of Utah Hospital. I don’t know how bad they’re hurt but they were in the front seats and that end of the Mini is completely crushed. Tell Aidan to go to the hospital to check on them, but before he goes ask him for the Etch A Sketch; he’ll explain to you how to use it. You and Tim load up your minivan. Do you have a police radio?”
“Yeah.”
“Good, keep it turned on. The police are looking for Signe. Meet me at the gas station at the northern boundary of Salt Lake City on I-15; Tim will know where it is. Move it! She has over an hour on us.”
A giant blonde female carjacking kidnapper was going to attract reporters. I left before the news crews came. As I headed up north on the highway, I thought about what I should have done. I should have forced Mina to stay at home. Maybe I should have waited until the evening to heal Drew. My mind spun in more circles until I hit the end of my territory. I instantly lost my freewill and conscious control of my body. I watched myself pull off the first Bountiful exit.
I regained control of my body when I got off the highway. I pulled into the gas station where we’d stopped before and called Father Mallory. He picked up on the third ring. “Hello.”
“It’s Victor Paladin.”
His voice became cautious. “Yes.”
“Signe Ericsdottir, the Jotunn leader just kidnapped my fiancé. They’re in a stolen silver 2009 Subaru WRX sedan and I suspect they’re headed north. The Salt Lake City Police have an APB out on her vehicle. Do you have a way to monitor police communications?”
Mallory thought for a few seconds before he answered. I knew he wanted to tell me to take a flying fuck, but he answered, “Yes.” I guess in the end he was either a good guy or he was worried what I’d do to him and his if he said no.
I would have destroyed him if he had given me the wrong answer, but I was grateful when he said yes. I let it show in my voice, “Great, I’d like you to keep an ear on the police radio and to also have someone checking on all the news outlets to see if there’s any information on Signe. I really appreciate the help.” I gave him Drew’s cell phone number and told him to keep Drew updated.
It took eighteen minutes and fourteen seconds for Drew and Tim to pull up to the gas station where I was pacing. I jumped in the van as soon as they stopped. “Tim, did you explain to Drew how the sleep spell works?”
“Yes.”
“Has the Etch A Sketch been modified to look for thirteen rather than nineteen Jotunn?”
Drew answered, “Yeah and he also set it up to look for Mina. If she’s within fifty miles, she’ll show up. That’s what took us so long.”
As I went into the back row and buckled on my seat belt I told Drew, “Head north. Except for Signe, none of the Jotunn are going to be within a hundred miles of Salt Lake City.”
“What gear did you bring?”
Tim ticked off a list, “We brought two M24s, the M85, and the two LAW rockets. We have six thermite 300 Win Mag Rounds, two hundred regular 300 Win Mag Rounds, and five hundred 50 BMG rounds linked one-in-five tracer. The Swensons took all of our shotguns, but we brought 300 Jotunn killing shotgun rounds so you could use them in Sanguinis.”
He then twisted in his seat to face me. “Also, Master Aidan initially designed the Etch A Sketch to look for groups of heartbeats. He’s since modified it to also look for breath sounds and the weak electromagnetic field put out by all living fauna. I’ve been working with Master Aidan for close to eighty years and he still amazes me. The orientation, size, and location of the electromagnetic field can distinguish between quadrupeds, bipeds, and birds in flight. He’s set it to look for groups of twelve to thirteen bipeds that are at least six feet tall.
“He used several of Mina’s belongings and the principle of contagion to make the Etch A Sketch detect her location. He’s used the bikes we brought from Idaho and our jolly green infant to sensitize it to the Jotunn, but they may have counter-spells that block this kind of contagion based location spell.”
We rode in silence until we were a few miles from the northern border of Salt Lake City. I told Drew, “Wake me up at the ninety-eight mile mark.” I put myself to sleep.
I woke up to agonizing pain. I was being burned alive. I opened my eyes expecting to be trapped in twisted, burning wreckage. There weren’t any flames and the van was fine. I could hear Tim screaming in the front passenger seat. He was writhing in pain too.
The only thing that mattered was finding Mina. I could handle this. Pain is just weakness leaving the body. I forced my body still and took a deep breath through my nose. I knew if I unclenched my teeth, I’d start screaming too. I needed to find out what was going on.
Tim gasped between shrieks, “Drew, please turn around, turn around, TURN AROUND!”
The pain was making it too hard to think. It was taking everything I had to just stay still. I was no good to Mina this way. Tim was right. We had to turn around.
Drew swerved our minivan into the center median of the highway and made a U-turn. We were just a few hundred feet from the Salt Lake City border. As soon as we crossed the border, the excruciating pain went away. When Tim stopped crying, Drew pulled off to the side of the highway. He asked, “What the HELL is
this shit?”
“Michael and Samael decided they didn’t like paladins and Oath Brothers being able to leave their sandboxes.” It was B. He was sitting next to me. “Heaven usually takes forever to change a standing policy, but when you got major players like Michael and Samael pushing, things can move fast. They got rid of the sleep spell loophole a few hours after you left Boise. Vic, I just found out.”
The rear passenger door slid open. Drew caught my eye. “Out. Now. Vic, we’re wasting time. You, Tim, and Mr. Pretty get out now, go, go, GO!”
My mind was moving in slow motion. I couldn’t think—nothing registered. I had to run his words a couple times in my head before I understood. I stumbled out of the van. “Drew.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll find her, Vic.”
Powerless, I watched Drew driving north, just like I’d watched Mina, Andi, and Ben drive away from the house earlier today. I don’t know how long Tim and I stood there, but eventually I realized B was still standing there next to me.
When I turned to face him, I didn’t see the cocky asshole I despised. As I stared at his face, I saw something I never expected to see: sorrow. There was no other emotion—no rage, glee, anger, or sarcasm. His voice was low as he said, “I’m sorry, Vic.” There was no hope or reassurance in his eyes—only sadness. I looked up to the sky and I screamed. It was worse than when I thought I was being burned, worse than any agony I’d felt before. I screamed and I screamed again.
Chapter 29: Waiting for the Word
I could feel the air push against me each time a car passed. I was kneeling on the edge of the hard surface of I-15. The last thing I remembered was screaming after B told me he was sorry. I had no idea how long I’d been there, but it had been long enough for the tears on my face to dry. My throat was scratchy and raw. It figured, I’d been screaming as loud as I could.