Fire Fall (Old School Book 4)

by Jenny Schwartz

  The magic-blocking manacles had been a hindrance and an embarrassment. He’d been like a lamb to the slaughter in letting Andrew get the jump on him. He hadn’t anticipated a mundane guard. Even more noteworthy was a mundane guard with the knowledge and experience of a combat wizard.

  Andrew had been an interesting choice on Svenson’s part.

  What had it cost Andrew to activate the manacles charm on him, and why had he, knowing the price of using charms, wasted that sort of power on containing Seth? It would have been safer and easier for Andrew to render him unconscious or dead. What had the man wanted from him?

  What did Josh want?

  “Hands behind your head. Stand up slowly,” he directed Josh.

  “Of course. Absolutely. Anything you say.” Josh wobbled to his feet. He remained in the shadow of the cave entrance, making him difficult to see. This was his base. He knew the ground and he’d had time to prepare defenses.

  I could knock him out, too. But Josh was a hostage, as Vanessa had been. If Seth detected a threat, he’d act ruthlessly, but until then, there were other ways to ensure their safety until he determined just what game Josh was playing.

  Seth activated his null-space and pushed it out to encompass Josh and the entrance to the cave. Any magical traps were nullified.

  Josh’s head tilted, suggesting he’d sensed the change in the atmosphere and the failure of one or more of his magicks.

  “Stand up,” Seth said. Even without additional magic, Andrew would be out for a while. His injuries would see to that. Seth left him where he lay, walking past him and conscious of Vanessa following closely.

  “Who are you?” Josh asked.

  Seth waited a beat, curious if sympathy for Josh’s hostage situation would prompt an answer from Vanessa.

  There was only the faint shift of rocks beneath her boots. Good.

  “Let’s go inside.” He gestured for Josh to enter first.

  Without a glance at Andrew, the barrier wizard complied.

  Once inside, and with the lantern Josh switched on revealing the size and nature of the cavern, the choice of the cave as a base made a lot more sense. It was the size of a basketball court, narrowing toward the far end. The floor was roughly smooth and the walls, although jutting out in a couple of places, stretched up to a nine foot or more ceiling. The space seemed human-sized, neither overwhelming nor claustrophobic.

  Between them, Andrew and Josh had established efficient work and living zones. A stack of solar energy storage batteries suggested their electricity for the open laptop and the lantern came from the sun. Andrew must have calculated that solar panels wouldn’t attract attention from mundanes flying overhead, thanks to Josh’s look-away spell. There was also a camp stove, beds, two chairs, and an array of magical supplies and reference books stacked on and around a folding table. Add in a radio, food, clothes, and other essentials and the question was how had this all been brought here. By helicopter?

  Josh headed toward the table of magical supplies halfway down the cave. It also meant he moved further from the light cast by the lantern set on a tall rock near the entrance.

  “Josh,” Seth said in warning and watched the barrier wizard freeze.

  The man’s shoulders hunched and he turned slowly to look back at them. He was overweight, straining the shirt he wore, but his sweatpants sagged on the verge of falling down. “I was only going to get my gear. We can leave.” An unpleasant poor-me note threaded his voice.

  “Come back here,” Seth directed. He waited till Josh complied, then pointed at the floor. “Sit.”

  Josh pouted. There was no other word to describe the childish, silent protest. But the man sat. Not that he seemed to find it easy. He was clumsy and shifted restlessly on the floor, unable to either get comfortable or tolerate the discomfort. “I thought you were here to rescue me.”

  Seth resisted the urge to glance at Vanessa to check her response. Rescue was such an emotionally loaded term. “Perhaps,” he said to Josh.

  “I’m the victim, here.” Josh flicked light brown hair out of his eyes. Those eyes were wide open, either naturally or because he was trying to feign innocence. It seemed almost as if his emotional manipulations hadn’t advanced since childhood.

  It made Seth curious. “You left a message for your girlfriend claiming that you needed space from her.”

  “She didn’t believe me, though, did she? They made me write that note. He made me write it.” Josh pointed to the cave entrance, and presumably, to Andrew’s fallen body. When Seth didn’t turn to check the entrance, Josh changed the topic. “Karen’s looking after Faust, my cat, right?”

  “You know her best,” Seth said.

  “Karen wouldn’t abandon Faust.”

  “You did.” Vanessa surprisingly entered the conversation.

  “I was kidnapped,” Josh squeaked in protest.

  Vanessa walked to the cave wall and leaned against it. She stayed near Seth and at a prudent distance from Josh, but her scorn reached the barrier wizard. “You had one guard, and him without magic. You could have escaped.”

  “I couldn’t!” Josh flung his arms up. “They said that if I didn’t do what they wanted, they’d hurt Karen.”

  “ ‘They’ who?” Seth asked.

  “Svenson through his little mouthpiece, Andrew. Svenson tried to hire me. When I said no, he had me kidnapped.”

  “What is so important to Svenson? What does he have you working on?”

  “I’ll show you.” Josh tried to scramble up.

  Seth pressed him back down. “No.”

  The man gaped up at him. He seemed shocked at the slight physical intimidation.

  Which raised an interesting question. Andrew was self-centered and ruthless, yet by Josh’s response to being physically compelled to remain in place, Andrew had treated his so-called prisoner with kid gloves. It meshed with Andrew’s response under the interrogation spell: Josh called the shots in the cave and would until the barrier spell was proven. Then Andrew would kill him.

  Seth couldn’t run an interrogation spell on Josh while holding null-space and scanning for approaching threats. He had to rely on observation and instinct to judge Josh’s responses—for now.

  Was Josh the unwilling prisoner he claimed to be, or was he committed to the development of the barrier spell he was working on, and therefore, trying to play Seth now? “Why is this cave, in these mountains, your base?”

  “You’ll have to ask Andrew.”

  Seth nodded at the evasion. “So, back to the real question. What is the spell you’re working on?”

  “It’s a barrier spell.” Josh rocked on the floor. “It has to deny entry to magic users and mundanes, alike. It must also block mundane technology, mundane weapons.”

  “You’re talking about a shield spell. Such spells already exist,” Seth challenged.

  “Not like this one. Current shields require too much energy. Maintaining them comes at such a high cost that they can only be used as short term defenses. I’m working on a new approach that makes them more efficient and self-renewing. Plus, Svenson wants to lay the spell via a map rather than on physical ground.”

  By map? The impermeable barrier spells Seth knew of all locked around objects too small to be mapped. Shields enclosed a room or a house; occasionally, a person. And the concept of a self-renewing spell was problematic. Did Josh understand the implications of what he described? A typical barrier spell was cast by a wizard, and that wizard had to renew it. Wards against evil entering, on the other hand, could renew themselves via blood or earth energy. Had Josh somehow woven that ability into a shield spell? If he had, that was why Andrew could be tasked with killing Josh once the spell was proven. The wizard who cast this prototype shield spell wasn’t necessary for its continuance.

  “It’s a fascinating puzzle,” Josh said. His hands moved excitedly, grabbing at the air. “I’ve had to pull bits and pieces from existing spells, rewrite parts of them as they clash, and develop entirely new lines of
spellwork to form a cohesive whole.”

  Vanessa straightened from the wall, walking to Seth. “How close to completion are you?”

  How much of barrier magic did she understand?

  Josh moved his hands close together. “I am this close.”

  “We’ll have to destroy your work before we leave,” Seth said, just to observe Josh’s response.

  It was dramatic. The bumbling wizard surged to his feet without clumsiness or hesitation—and stopped dead at Seth’s head tilt and small, got-you smile.

  Josh retreated a pace. “I get invested in my work,” he tried to excuse himself.

  “Obviously,” Seth said. “But Svenson threatened your girlfriend. You can’t want him to benefit from your work.”

  “But to destroy it…I can keep it from him!”

  Vanessa snorted softly.

  Seth agreed with her. Josh didn’t have the skills to protect his spellwork. But Seth was worried about something more. His instincts said that it wasn’t simply pride in his work that had Josh unwilling to destroy the spell.

  What had Svenson promised Josh in exchange for the shield spell? Josh had mentioned the stick: the threat against Karen. But what was the carrot? It could be a very large and interesting carrot, since Svenson didn’t intend to pay it. Whatever he’d promised Josh, the truth was that death—delivered by Andrew—would be Josh’s reward for developing and proving the shield spell.

  There was nothing in Seth’s mission briefing that said he had to save an idiot from himself.

  “Sit there.” He pointed to the floor near the entrance.

  “What are you going to do? You can’t do this! I’m the victim here. You’re meant to save me!” Despite his protests, Josh sat.

  Vanessa stared at him. “Do you even know who we are?” She pointed at Seth. “Who he is?”

  “It doesn’t matter. You took out Andrew who’s tough. So I know you’re here to save me. But you have to save the spell, too,” he said passionately.

  “We’ll see.” Seth switched on a second lantern and studied the books open on the folding table and the notes scrawled in the pages of a large open notebook. Tiny crystals spilled between two books. He flicked back a couple of pages in the notebook, intrigued by a reference to test results on “Substance Y”. What did Josh have stored in the cave?

  He checked that Vanessa was beside him, not touching anything, and slowly reduced his null-space; alert to any spells activating in its absence.

  The cave remained quiet. No magical attacks eventuated. Josh had undoubtedly established barrier spells—whether at his own initiative or Andrew’s demand—but Seth and Vanessa were inside them. They were safe.

  Seth cut off the flow of his magic into broadcasting null-space.

  “I don’t understand enough magic to make sense of this.” Vanessa gestured at the mess on the table. “May I look around the cave? I won’t touch anything.”

  “Okay.” He glanced at Josh by the entrance. The barrier wizard remained seated, glaring at him for daring to examine his work. “Stay clear of Josh and Andrew.” Who ought to still be unconscious. In a few minutes, Seth would check. Although it wouldn’t really bother him if Andrew ran off. He could always be picked up later. The task would be a good one for a new Stag Agency recruit.

  Vanessa moved away slowly.

  He couldn’t guess what she expected to find, but recognized the restless curiosity that drove her. Vanessa liked answers. It was a trait they shared.

  Substance Y recurred often in Josh’s notes. He seemed convinced that it was essential to his shield spell, but at the same time, unsure of how it interacted with the other elements of the spell.

  Obsidian, Dead Sea water, clear crystal quartz exposed to sunlight, and myrrh were all common physical components of spells. But what was Substance Y? Could it be the reason for this remote cave base?

  It didn’t matter, for now. Seth closed the notebook. He’d take it with him. The other reference materials and spell supplies could remain. He and Vanessa needed food and sleep. He’d need to contain Andrew and Josh—

  “Seth!” Vanessa screamed.

  He’d lost sight of her, but her shout came from the back of the cave. He slammed out his null-space to deactivate whatever magic she might have triggered and ran to the shadows that hid her.

  Not shadows, he realized. The cave narrowed to the equivalent of a natural doorway before opening out again.

  Vanessa stood just inside the second cavern.

  “What is it?” he gripped her shoulders.

  “Something moved. We need a light. I thought I saw—”

  He pulled her with him out of the second cavern to grab a lantern. Although he could work within a null-space he created, its existence made it difficult to use even simple magics like creating light. He went to grab the lantern from the folding table.

  “Hell.” He released Vanessa. “Stay there.” Josh and Andrew had vanished from the cave entrance.

  Seth switched off the two lanterns. Now he wouldn’t be a clear target when he ducked out of the cave. He paused by the entrance, screwing up his eyes, trying to quicken their adjustment from light to darkness, and listening.

  There was a clunk and a clatter of rocks dislodged and footsteps, retreating.

  Retreating was good in one way: it suggested the absence of immediate attack. He opened his eyes. Less positively, if Josh and Andrew got too far away, he’d have to choose between retrieving them and Vanessa’s safety in the former lair of a wizard and ex-wizard. Seth was okay with Andrew running, but he had more questions for Josh.

  A dirt bike started up and Seth swore. He released null-space and readied a wind spell to knock over Andrew and Josh in their escape.

  “Yeee-eeeaiii-aaaiii!” The howl boomed and echoed from inside the cave—where he’d left Vanessa.

  A man-sized shadow bounded out, veering away from Seth and vanishing with eerie immediacy.

  He ignored it to run back into the cave, barely remembering to activate null-space to avoid whatever barrier Josh had set to keep people out. A new scent of fresh dirt hung on the air. The cave was dark.

  “Vanessa!”

  “I’m okay.” She switched on the lantern nearest the entrance.

  He covered the short distance between them in two strides and held her tight.

  “I’m okay,” she repeated. She placed her palm against his face. “That thing didn’t touch me. You can go after Josh.”

  “Forget Josh.”

  She smiled faintly. “You won’t say that an hour from now.”

  “I thought the cave was empty.” He’d left her at the mercy of an enemy. He’d trusted the interrogation spell too easily, believing that Andrew hadn’t lied and that the cave held only him and Josh. But somehow Andrew had evaded the spell. “I should have checked. The man ran, but if he’d—” He cut off the sentence. Vanessa didn’t need to hear that she could have been held hostage, again.

  “It wasn’t a man,” she said.

  His self-recrimination, plans and worry for her froze. “Pardon?”

  “I saw it in the second cavern. I was feeling my way back from there to here in the darkness and the thing stumbled out. Its fur brushed my arms. I smelled the raw earth smell of it. I heard it pant.”

  “It was a man,” he said. “It ran on two legs.”

  She shook her head. “It was a yeti. Josh and Andrew were holding a yeti prisoner.” As he struggled with the idea, Vanessa continued. “I couldn’t see much of it in the second cave. Just a greater darkness in the dark. But it wasn’t human.”

  “Substance Y,” he muttered. At her questioning look, he added, “Josh wrote about Substance Y in his notes.”

  “Yetis could be real,” Vanessa said. “I have a friend on Catalina Island who’s studying fantastical creatures. Naomi could tell us—”

  “Yetis are real,” he interrupted. “There’s a store in Kathmandu that claims to sell yeti bones.” He paced back to the folding table. What else have I missed? �
�I used null-space to keep us safe, to deactivate any magical traps Josh might have set. If he had the yeti imprisoned in the second cavern behind a barrier spell, the null-space released it.”

  She joined him. “When we left the second cavern, the yeti must have realized it could, too.” She looked around the cave and there was a haunted expression deepening the blue of her eyes. “I wonder if it came from these mountains or if it’s run away into a foreign land?”

  Like her, the yeti had been a hostage, scared, alone, desperate.

  Seth hugged her. “Even if it’s not from here, the wilderness will give it protection. At least it’s free.”

  He felt the breath she took, a determined inhale and slow exhale.

  “You’re right. Okay. So what do we do about Josh and Andrew? Are you going after them?”

  “I’m not leaving you alone.” It was barely conceivable, but they might circle around and return. He wouldn’t leave Vanessa vulnerable and any ward he set, a barrier wizard like Josh could eventually break. “You’re safest with me.”

  She leaned into him. “I don’t think I can hike much further, tonight.”

  “We’ll spend the night in the cave. We have food and water, even beds.”

  “And it’ll give you a chance to study Josh’s spellwork.” The thought seemed to cheer her.

  “You’re not a burden,” he said in answer to that unspoken yet obvious thought.

  “In this situation, I think I am. But if you’re not complaining, I’m going to concentrate on the fact that I’ve seen a yeti. That’s pretty cool.”

  He kissed her briefly. “You’re cool.”

  Her smile was rueful. “I’m trying.

  Vanessa lay on the camp bed nearest the folding table where Seth read through Josh’s notes. She’d shaken out the sleeping bag and that was as clean as the bedding was going to get. Given her own lack of cleanliness, she decided to accept it. However, when she got back to civilization, she was going for a spa day.

  Who knew I was such a girly-girl? Despite everything, she felt sleepily happy, and she knew that feeling centered on Seth. It was nice that each time she opened her heavy eyelids, he was there, looking serious and intent, and every so often, glancing at her. He was on guard.