The Wizards of Central Park West_Ultimate Urban Fantasy

by Arjay Lewis

  Another tremor under his feet, and Eddie looked up to see the sixth seal crumble and fall off the golden door.

  “We are running out of time,” Eddie croaked.

  “Time for what?” Cerise stood back as the waters appeared to boil from the movements of the demon. “What is it doing now?”

  Eddie looked to the churning water, where Abraxas was shifting shape once again to renew the attack.

  Eddie stared at Frisha, and noted the distance around the pool between them. He could run at her, but she’d strike him down before he got halfway there.

  She began to chant those odd words again, the mirror aloft and her eyes closed.

  How to stop her?

  Eddie gripped the stick in his hand, and the hat brought him to a specific recollection.

  The idea burst clear and clean into his brain. The staff was very well-balanced.

  “Get down,” Eddie said, and Cerise dropped behind one of the stone benches.

  He focused on Frisha, and carefully took aim. As his mind and his muscles recalled forgotten techniques, he cocked back his arm. His eye was on the mirror, as he ignored the pain in his leg, took two large steps, and propelled the wooden staff through the air.

  It had been more than twenty-three years since high school track when he last threw a javelin, but the skill was not completely forgotten. The stick rose gracefully, crested ten feet from him, and in a perfect arc, screamed back toward the floor.

  The look of astonishment on Frisha’s face could not be faked as the staff soared straight toward her. She stood frozen, unable to believe what she saw.

  The staff drove right into the mirror, and struck it with all of Eddie’s strength. There was a loud “crack,” louder than shattering glass, as the ancient polished stone fragmented to pieces in Frisha’s hands. The stored energy of the mirror was released as a thunderclap.

  Colored light streamed out of the shattered pieces: yellow, green, blue, red and white. Eddie’s staff also struck Frisha in the stomach and knocked her to the floor.

  The power sparkled, flared and red light flew about and surrounded Eddie. He felt as if he’d just had a big meal, a shower, and a massage.

  All at once, Eddie knew that since the night they restored Trefoil, he had not been in full possession of the power of his staff. Now, he felt the complete mastery of his abilities, as well as the full extent of his prowess.

  Abraxas leapt out of the churning water of the pool. He was now a great red bear, and his muzzle opened in amazement as he looked at Frisha, the broken mirror, and said, “Holy shit!”

  “Gee, and that was going to be my pet name for you,” Eddie gestured and his staff vaulted across the room back into his hand.

  “Maybe we can come to an understanding?” Abraxas suggested with a tentative bear grin.

  “Get thee behind me!” Eddie ordered. Effortlessly, a blast of fiery light shot forth from his staff like a charging bull, and the bear was thrown off his feet to the far end of the pool.

  Eddie ran as well as his injured leg would allow to the metal statue and held the staff over the increasing fire.

  The flames immediately died.

  Eddie touched the metal. It was warm, but not yet hot enough to burn. He moved to the front and took Rosita away from the statue, lowering her to the ground in his arms.

  She was covered in sweat, but didn’t appear injured.

  Cerise came up behind him. “Is she all right?”

  “Yeah.” Eddie transferred the small girl into his wife’s arms.

  There was a splash, and Eddie jumped up. On the bank of the pool was a creature from a bad dream. It had four heads that snarled and growled, and four bird wings on its back that waved and spread to make the creature look bigger. It roared menacingly, and crouched to leap.

  “Oh, will you just knock it off!” Eddie sent a burst of power from his staff and the creature was shot back into the pool as if from a cannon.

  Eddie turned back to his wife and his partner’s little girl.

  “Come on, Rosita,” Cerise said, as Eddie waved his staff over her face. “Wake up, it’s Auntie Cerise and Uncle Eddie.”

  The eyelids fluttered, and then opened. “Auntie Cewise?”

  “Yeah, honey,” Cerise cooed sweetly. “You all right?”

  “It’s hot,” Rosita whined.

  “It’s okay, honey, it’ll cool down soon,” Eddie reassured.

  “Wha’ happened to my ice cream?”

  “We’ll get you a new ice cream,” Cerise soothed. “Won’t we Eddie?”

  “Gallons. Can you sit up?”

  She sat up and looked around, her breath caught in her throat. “It’s tha’ bad lady!” she pointed with her small finger.

  Eddie looked up to see Frisha as she rose, her hair disheveled. She held her abdomen with one hand and leaned on her staff with the other.

  Eddie rolled in front of Rosita and fired a bolt of red light.

  “Ahh!” Frisha yelled, barely able to raise a defensive charm. The beam struck her and tossed her backward. She stumbled and fell into the pool with a resounding splash.

  “Wow!” Rosita said, her mouth open in astonishment.

  “Wow!” Cerise repeated.

  Eddie turned to his wife and indicated the only exit from the temple. “You see those stairs?”

  “Yes,” Cerise responded.

  “Run up them, don’t let anything stop you,” Eddie ordered.

  She nodded very seriously, and with the girl tightly in her arms, she kept low, and dashed off in a zigzag pattern past the many benches in the temple.

  Eddie stood up, his staff aloft, and walked slowly toward the pool as Frisha pulled herself out, burbled and spat.

  “It cannot be!” Frisha gurgled, as she dripped water everywhere. She looked like a drowned rat. She pulled herself upright with the help of her staff. “I should’ve seen this!”

  “You’re the one who helped Abraxas kill Riftstone,” Eddie circled her cautiously, as he removed the Hat of Remembrance and returned it to his belt. “Trefoil faked his attack, you two mixed a potion, injected it in his leg to mimic a snakebite, then you show up to tell that story. You did it so Marlowe wouldn’t take on Abraxas, and Trefoil could sneak the Smoking Mirror into the townhouse.”

  “It would have stolen the power of the Five then and there, and put ye all into the Dark Sleep,” Frisha stood unsteadily, “if not for ye.”

  “And Marlowe found nothing on Trefoil, because when he came downstairs, you hugged him. You simply took the mirror from him!”

  “You were all fooled,” Frisha raised her staff. “Who would suspect poor ol’ Frisha?”

  Eddie frowned, noticed that Frisha looked to his right. He glanced over his shoulder to the pool of water.

  As quiet as a whisper, a huge creature was rising from the water. It possessed ten horns on its head, which was shaped like the monster from Alien. It opened its maw to expose huge metal fangs that glinted darkly in the light from the brasiers.

  Eddie dove to his left, toward the still-warm statue, and spun around, which caused agony in his ankle. He raised his staff and a blast of red light extended from it, engulfing the creature in a sea of flame.

  The fire didn’t even slow it down, and it continued to rise out of the pool. It stood on the stone floor, at least fifteen feet tall.

  Three of the horns on its head fell off, a pair of little eyes sprang forth on stalks in place of two of the horns. Then the monster shook himself, and another stalk came out and lips formed. Eddie could see teeth inside the lips and a voice rang out.

  “Give me my sacrifice! It is my time!” it bellowed.

  “Oh, just give it up!” Eddie said, and with all his concentration, desire and intention, he let loose with the strongest flare of red light his staff had yet produced. It hit the creature and not only slammed it against the far wall, but several feet into the solid stone.

  Eddie moved fast, spun, and threw up a defensive charm as a bolt of light sent by Frisha
struck him.

  Eddie felt like a Mack truck ran into him, despite his defense. He crashed backward to the floor and his head spun. Even as he did, he turned his staff and fired a beam at Frisha.

  It struck the old woman before she could dodge it or put up a defense. She flipped backward head over heels.

  Eddie pulled himself up and looked back and forth at his adversaries. They both lay still. Eddie stumbled to Frisha, grabbed the woman’s staff from her hand and threw it to the base of the metal statue. He grabbed the collar of her robe and pulled her upright.

  “Oww! Police brutality,” she moaned.

  “You killed Yamasuto, you and Abraxas, right?”

  “Yes, yes, hurt me not, I’m an old woman,” Frisha held her hands up defensively.

  “But Cuccolo was your best work. You and Trefoil planned it together, got me in trouble, and almost killed. When that failed, the three of you attacked my house and stole my kid. Trefoil put the ‘Hand of Glory’ out front, while you took care of Marlowe,” Eddie pulled Frisha’s arms behind her back. “You didn’t kill us at my house or in the catacombs because you needed Marlowe and the Five to open the temple. But you finished off Trefoil because you knew that with the mirror, whoever took his place could be used.”

  “Yes, yes. Ow! Leave me be!” Frisha shrieked.

  “Where are the talismans?” Eddie demanded

  “I have them!” Frisha confessed.

  “My sacrifice is gone!” a voice wailed, and Eddie whirled around to face Abraxas in his demonic form once again.

  Eddie held his staff up. “You are under arrest!”

  Abraxas looked at him, puzzled. “You must be joking.”

  Drusilicus’ voice echoed in the chamber. “Mayhaps he is, but we are not.”

  All heads turned to the stairs, where stood Drusilicus, Ahbay, and Eugenia. They looked haggard, and their hair and robes were in disarray, but each bore a determined and angry face, their staffs at the ready.

  At the back of the group stood a singed and rather tattered Marlowe.

  “It canna’ be,” Frisha spoke in awe. “I destroyed you!”

  “Only stunned.” Marlowe held up a small medallion from around his neck. “I was wearing Caleb’s seal of Solomon. The energy of your blast activated it, and I was rendered invisible as well as unconscious.”

  “No!” Abraxas ran to the golden door which was only held closed by the one seal. He clawed at the wax, but it was solid as stone. “You cannot! Not again. It is my time!”

  Eugenia gestured with her staff and a beam of yellow light encircled the demon, who was pulled away from the door screaming in frustration.

  Ahbay followed suit with his green illumination. Drusilicus and Marlowe added theirs, as Abraxas struggled. He was lifted off the ground and into the air, encircled in beams of light.

  Eddie smiled at his friends despite his own pain, then added the final shaft of red light. The huge demon yelled curses and whined. Then, he began to shrink, smaller and smaller until he vanished completely, and a small piece of metal fell to the ground.

  Eddie held Frisha tight and leaned a bit to see what was left. All that remained of the giant demon was a small, gold amulet on the floor. He could almost make out a figure on it: part man, part snake, and part rooster.

  There was a rumbling sound as the stone floor shook under their feet.

  “The six seals are opened and evil rains down upon the world,” Marlowe said. “We must close this portal!”

  Sixty-Two

  Eddie hobbled for the stairway, and pulled Frisha along as the temple quaked around them. Benches fell over, braziers went out, and the huge metal statue careened on its side like a drunken man, which pinned Frisha’s staff to the floor.

  Frisha turned and yelled, “My staff, ye cannot leave it here!” She put her hand out to call the implement to her, but it only wobbled a bit under the heavy idol.

  “It is corrupted! Leave it so none shall bear it,” Marlowe said, his countenance aflame with anger. He placed a firm grip on Frisha’s arms. “Come up the stairs, ‘fore I change my mind and leave ye here as well.”

  “Thought I lost you,” Eddie said to Marlowe.

  “Not yet, good friend.”

  “Eddie, your leg,” Drusilicus said. “I should heal it.”

  “Just a sprain,” Eddie grimaced. “No time, just help me up the stairs.”

  He put his arm over Drusilicus’ shoulder and they climbed the steps as fast as they were able.

  Ahbay was the first to emerge from the adit and step onto Obelisk Terrace. He helped Eugenia up, and both of them aided Marlowe with Frisha, who seemed to have lost her will to fight.

  They walked out into a nightmare.

  Eddie looked up to see that the moon was now completely full, twice the size it should be, and dark red. The stars were blotted out and the lights in the park were dark.

  A great deal of yellow-orange light flickered all about them, and they could see clouds of smoke that hung low over the park.

  He peered over at the Great Lawn where the huge hole had opened, and flames shot forth, high into the sky. Ash and debris fell flaming onto the trees and walkways. The air stank of brimstone as hot wind whipped their faces.

  “It’s about time you got up here,” Bankrock said. “We are having a—if you’ll pardon the expression—hell of a time trying to keep things under control.”

  “Later, Bankrock,” Marlowe dismissed. “Quickly, we must finish what we started if we wish to renew the six seals.”

  A gunshot echoed in the darkness.

  “Rosita!” Eddie yelled. “Where’s Rosita?”

  “I’m here, Unca Eddie,” the little girl piped up as Cerise stepped out from behind the obelisk’s base with the child in her arms.

  Eddie hobbled to them and hugged them both.

  “Thank God you took care of my big, black man,” Cerise kissed him.

  “Eddie!” a voice said nearby.

  Eddie turned to see Luis leaning against the balustrade of the stairs.

  “Luis!” he responded as his large partner galumphed toward them.

  “My Rosita!”

  “Daddy!” Rosita whooped. Cerise carefully relaxed her grip as the child dove into her father’s arms. He picked her up as she squealed and laughed.

  “My precious one!” he hugged her as tears stabbed his eyes. “You okay, baby?”

  “I’m fine, Daddy,” Rosita burbled. “But things were real spooky!”

  “Yes, Rosita,” Luis kissed her head. ”I bet it was.”

  “What happened up here?” Eddie slipped his arm around his wife.

  Luis’s hair was being whipped to and fro by the wind, which was heavy with stench. “Four frickin’ flying horses came out of the ground and then a bunch of devils. I mean, y’know, like little red guys with horns and tails? They were followed by a big group of rotting corpses.”

  “I heard a shot.”

  “That’s Wilcox,” Luis recalled. “He arrived here with a whole SWAT team, with like the entire Urban Crime Task Force. They’re fightin’ it out with the devils. And look—we have a bunch of spectators.”

  He pointed to the top of Belvedere castle. Even with the low fog, Eddie could see the high tower. There, a group of people dressed mostly in black stood and watched. They all had very pale skin and eyes that glimmered in the darkness.

  “Who are they?” Eddie asked.

  “Vampires,” Bankrock hissed. “Believe me, if I had not sent the others into the park, they might have joined the fray against us already.”

  “Marlowe!” Eddie pointed at the castle.

  “Pay them no heed!” Marlowe said, in position at the north end of the obelisk. “We must complete the binding spell, or all is for naught.”

  A golf ball-sized chunk of ice struck the pavement near them.

  “Right,” Eddie turned back to Cerise. “Can you, Luis and Rosita, get under a tree?”

  “Unca Eddie stopped the bad lady!” Rosita announced.
>
  “Did he?” Luis smiled.

  “He sure did,” Cerise said, as she led father and daughter to the relative safety of a nearby magnolia tree.

  Hail the size of baseballs was now beginning to fall all around, striking the stone tiles with resounding thuds.

  Eddie grabbed Frisha, who looked shell-shocked, or possibly spell-shocked and pushed her to Bankrock. “Keep her out of the way.”

  “I’m a wizard, not a watchman,” Bankrock complained, but grabbed Frisha by the arm.

  “Eddie,” Ahbay spoke loudly, “We must close this portal—”

  Eddie ran to his place in the pentagram. Once again, the beams of light were quickly linked from staff to staff. It was much easier than the earlier attempt, as all of them now possessed their full strength. The energy from their staves made the obelisk glow many times brighter than earlier.

  Marlowe began to chant as thunder clapped.

  There was the whinny of horses, and Eddie saw four different-hued, winged stallions fly overhead. They each took a graceful turn, banked and flew down into the flaming pit.

  “Keep going!” Eddie encouraged.

  There was a moaning as the army of half-rotted corpses, some only skeletons, walked, crawled or stumbled back to different locations, and began to burrow into the earth to return to their ancient graves.

  Marlowe chanted louder and stronger.

  Small red figures ran toward the open hole, as the earth shook and moved. The pit began to shrink in size, the flames within it began to dissipate.

  Marlowe finished his incantation triumphantly.

  There was a terrible rending noise, as if the ground beneath them was about to fall asunder, then a bright light came from the opening in the Terrace. With one last shudder, the tiles rebuilt themselves and the sloping stairs were gone.

  Out on the Great Lawn the dirt sealed up and the grass was restored without even a misplaced blade.

  Each of the Five released their connection to the others, and the pentagram of light was gone.

  The wind faded, the stink dissipated, and the moon and stars shone their correct size and color overhead. There was a flicker, and all of the Central Park streetlights popped on.

  Frisha gave a cry. “My staff, I have lost my staff!”