Dark Vengeance

by Diana G. Gallagher

  “How can you say that, Leo?” Piper bawled. She pulled a tissue from the box on the floor, one of several they had placed around the house for her convenience.

  “The next emotion might have been anger,” Leo explained.

  “Which packs a bigger wallop than blubbering,” Paige said. “Much handier in a fight, even if we are going in unarmed for all practical purposes.”

  “At least I’ve still got half my power.” Piper blew her nose and tossed the wadded tissue into a wastebasket. On impulse, she tried to freeze it. As expected, the damp paper stalled in midair for a few seconds, then fluttered to the floor.

  On the off chance she had undergone a miraculous cure in her sleep, Paige tried to orb the tissue into the basket. She succeeded, but the paper turned into confetti in the process.

  “Where are your powers again?” Phoebe asked.

  “Mine are in Karen’s flute,” Piper said.

  “Kevin’s cane.” Paige frowned when Phoebe began to type furiously again. She was curious, but if she interrupted, Phoebe’s thought might be lost forever. “What about the Ks’ powers, Leo? Any clue there?”

  Leo nodded, but his expression was grim. “As we suspected, Karen can inflict her will on any being with a mind, Kevin can alter physical properties of people and things, and Kate controls storm elements.”

  “We are so doomed.” Piper dropped her face into her hands for a moment and inhaled deeply. She looked up suddenly. “Aren’t we?”

  “Doomed?” Leo shook his head. “No. The battle will take place, but the outcome is not pre-ordained. That’s why Shen’arch arranged the rematch: to give the Dor’chacht a chance to change destiny.”

  “Theirs and ours.” Paige pedaled faster, then slammed on the brakes. “Since when do we go down without a fight?”

  “Since never.” Phoebe hit “save.”

  Piper’s misty eyes held an essence of resolve as she turned to address Paige. “I would love nothing better than beating the pants off this ancient evil trio, but the odds aren’t exactly in our favor.”

  “Don’t underestimate yourselves.” Leo twined his fingers with Piper’s and squeezed. “You’re the Charmed Ones. You can do anything you set your minds to, even if you are the underdog in this fight.”

  “The underdog always wins in the movies.” When all eyes turned to stare at her, Phoebe repeated, “Always.”

  “Yes,” Piper said impatiently, “but this is real life, not a—”

  “Wait.” Paige held up a hand. “She may be onto something. Why does the underdog always win in the movies?”

  “Because they never give up, not even when the odds are hopelessly stacked against them.” Phoebe’s enthusiasm was contagious.

  “And they make the most of whatever they have,” Paige added. “We’ve been operating on the glass-half-empty principle instead of the other way around.”

  “Meaning?” Piper frowned.

  “I’ve still got twenty-five percent of my orb ability.” Paige held up her hand. “It’s not as explosive as a blaster, but the results are the same.”

  Piper nodded as the point struck home. “Half a freeze power is better than no freeze power.”

  Paige agreed. “Not to mention half a blow-things-up power.”

  “Especially since Kevin, Karen, and Kate are overconfident,” Leo said. “They may actually believe that they’re invincible.”

  “I’ve got a knack for writing spells, right?” Phoebe’s gaze hardened with determination as she pulled her memo pad and pen from her pocket. “And I’ve got an idea.”

  Phoebe obviously wanted to contribute, and Paige didn’t have the heart to tell her again that no Power of Three spell would vanquish the Dor’chacht’s warriors of darkness. However, it couldn’t hurt to mention that the movie analogy had changed their perspective for the better. “You probably just gave us a fighting chance we didn’t know we had, Phoebe.”

  “I did?” Phoebe smiled uncertainly. “How?”

  “By reminding us that we’re the Charmed Ones,” Piper said, smiling. “And we always fight back.”

  Chapter

  10

  Phoebe grabbed another handful of popcorn from the bowl on the coffee table. A reference on her laptop screen mentioned an automatic transport to a place called the Valley of Ages. Under it she had typed a question: “Similar to Halloween portal to 1670?”

  “Are we ready?” Paige asked.

  “As ready as we can be, I guess.” Piper closed the dusty book Leo had found somewhere in Europe and handed it back to him. She looked at the other tomes scattered around the living room floor and threw up her hands. “This didn’t do us a whole lot of good.”

  “I’ll say.” Paige sighed. “Apparently, once the evil Ks’ essences were whisked into the future by Shen’arch, they were completely off the magical radar. Could there possibly be a reason we’re going into battle without knowing anything except their names and their powers?”

  “What we don’t know can’t hurt us?” Phoebe suggested.

  “I wish.” Piper dropped her hands into her lap. Her lower lip quivered as her gaze swept over the array of useless research materials. “I don’t know what to look for next.”

  “I’ll have to get these back soon anyway.” Leo glanced at the time. “It’s almost dawn in that part of the world.”

  Phoebe eyed the stack of ancient scrolls, books, and manuscripts Leo had “borrowed” from museums and universities around the globe. Apparently, as long as he returned them, his Higher Power bosses didn’t consider it stealing.

  “And it’s almost midnight here,” Paige said. “I hope Stanley made it back to the shelter.”

  “Who’s Stanley?” Phoebe washed the popcorn down with a swallow of soda and set the can on the coffee table. She glanced at the short list displayed on her laptop screen and checked her pocket for the memo pad. The notes encapsulated everything she needed to know to survive the night.

  “A nice old man who is depending on me to take care of him.” Paige smiled sadly. “If I’ve done my job right, he’ll have a permanent home at Hawthorne Hill and won’t be dependent on the shelter much longer.”

  “You haven’t heard back on his application yet?” Leo asked.

  “No, but it’s only been a few days.” Paige rolled up a scroll and handed it back to Leo.

  “Anything?” In spite of the tears that continuously rolled down her face, Piper cast a hopeful glance at Paige.

  “Not much.” Paige stifled a yawn. “The only reference I found about disputes between ancient clans mentions ‘reversal,’ but that’s all.”

  “We already know the Dor’chacht want to reverse how things turned out three thousand years ago.” Piper stood up and rubbed her arms. “We just don’t know how to stop them from doing it.”

  Responding to a nagging thought she couldn’t grasp, Phoebe took the small spiral pad out of her pocket.

  “Then we’d better hope for some instant inspiration, because it’s almost time.” Paige pointed at the clock.

  “Come on, Piper”—Piper gently knocked her fist against her forehead—“think!”

  “Hoping to knock some sense into yourself?” Paige asked.

  “Maybe,” Piper said. “What goes into a Dor’chacht artifact must have a way out again, right?”

  “I’ve got a spell that reverses a flute.” Phoebe held up the memo pad. “Can we use that?”

  As Piper started to answer, the living-room walls convulsed and began to fade.

  Phoebe stuffed the notebook back into her pocket and jumped up from the sofa. She reached for Piper, but her sister was whisked into a swirling vortex by a powerful, invisible force.

  “Leo!” Piper’s voice echoed, as though she were falling to the bottom of a deep well.

  “Uh-oh.” Paige’s eyes widened as she was dragged into the maw.

  “Paige! Piper!” Phoebe cried out as she was pulled into the swirling cloud of black mist.

  Phoebe’s stomach heaved with waves of
nausea. Hurling through a seemingly endless tunnel of shifting shadows split by tendrils of electric light, she closed her eyes and tried not to panic. An old memory that was still intact surfaced to stabilize her.

  She was a Charmed One, one of the three most powerful witches in the world. She had faced worse things than the terrifying forces that held her now.

  That thought was swept from her mind as the vortex spit her onto a gray plain dotted with tall, stone buttes and leafless, skeletal trees. Dim light from a full moon cast an eerie, greenish glow on the macabre landscape, and red lightning pierced a bruised, purple sky.

  Phoebe scrambled to her feet and brushed off her jeans, wondering if she had just landed in Hell.

  • • •

  Paige landed on her hands and knees. Sharp stones cut into her palms, and her head swam with waves of dizziness. Disoriented by the turbulent journey, she crawled behind a nearby boulder to compose herself. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the twilight that shrouded the bleak terrain.

  Twenty feet to Paige’s left, Phoebe stood up. Just beyond her, Piper struggled to rise, clutching one arm she must have injured when she was ejected into the Valley of Ages.

  The name of this ancient battleground is certainly appropriate, Paige thought with a quick glance around. The desolate terrain looked as though it had been eroded over many millennia. Forbidding and lifeless, the stage mirrored her mood.

  In spite of the brave facade she had tried to maintain, Paige felt helpless and vulnerable because her power had been compromised. Considering Shen’arch’s ability to mold the elements, time, and space to his magical will, the Dor’chacht warriors of darkness would be formidable opponents even if the Charmed Ones had all their abilities.

  “Which we don’t,” Paige muttered. She leaned back against the rough stone and let her eyes droop closed. The exhaustion that had plagued her since Kevin had first touched her with his cane weighed heavier now. Fatigue mingled with utter despair to make surrender seem like the only reasonable course of action.

  “If I wasn’t a super witch with a family reputation and honor to defend.” Paige’s eyes snapped open. Willing away the weakness that had seeped into her muscles, she stood up to join her sisters. Together they would face whatever horrors the evil Ks threw at them.

  However, Paige thought when the Dor’chacht champions stepped from a portal of churning black ether, I didn’t expect this horror.

  “Who the hell is that?” Piper edged closer to Phoebe.

  “The senior citizen or the gruesome three-some?” Phoebe asked.

  “Stanley!” Paige groaned, her gaze fastened on the bewildered old man and his Dor’chacht escort.

  Stanley was in his stocking feet, with his shirttail flapping over wrinkled trousers. It looked like the warriors of darkness had pulled him from a sound sleep in his cot at the shelter. The old man backed away from his abductors with an expression of undiluted terror.

  The only resemblance the three warriors bore to Kevin, Karen, and Kate was the color of their blond hair and blue eyes. During the transition from twenty-first-century San Francisco to the ageless battlefield, they had been cast back into their original forms. Designer jeans, boutique tops, and polished boots had been traded for animal furs, coarse tunics, metal armor, and leather that stank of sweat and blood.

  Paige immediately understood the significance of Stanley’s presence. “They brought an innocent to distract us, because they know we have to protect him even if it means endangering ourselves.”

  “Stealing our powers wasn’t enough?” Piper asked sarcastically. “That’s rather interesting, don’t you think?”

  Paige definitely thought so. Had the Halliwell ancestors in the Sol’agath clan been so powerful that the Dor’chacht feared them even though they had been stripped of their magic? That question was probably important, but saving Stanley was the priority.

  “Kevin knows how much I care about that old man.” Paige focused on Stanley and his barbarian captors, trying to quell a surge of guilt. Anything that undermined her confidence and inner strengths was a lethal threat. “I told Kevin all about my interest in Stanley the first night we worked together at the shelter.”

  “This pathetic excuse for a man is only one of your weaknesses, Paige,” Kevin snarled, and shoved Stanley.

  The old man stumbled and fell to the ground. He covered his head with his arms, cowering from the monstrous magician Kevin had become.

  “Is picking on an old man supposed to impress us?” Phoebe placed her hands on her hips. “Because I’ve got news: It doesn’t.”

  Considering that Phoebe couldn’t remember what was happening or why, Paige was impressed with her feisty attitude.

  “You will pay for your insolence, Sol’agath witch.” The woman on Kevin’s right spoke. Her lip curled to reveal broken, blackened teeth.

  Paige recognized Karen by the flute attached to her belt with leather thongs. A tangled mat of hair was held in place by a furred headband adorned with stone and wooden beads. Clusters of beads also hung from thongs that decorated her shield and wrapped around knee-high, furred boots.

  “Not if winning smiles count,” Piper said.

  “How dare you insult me!” Karen lunged.

  Kevin’s arm whipped out to block her. “Patience, Sh’tara.”

  “We’ve been patient long enough!” Kate stood on Kevin’s left. Vines and snakeskins were entwined in braided hair that fell past her waist.

  Kevin held a sword and a silver-tipped staff, which Paige assumed was the ancient version of his cane. He raised both over his head. “I, Tov’reh, pledge my life, my blood, and my power to vengeance for the Dor’chacht!”

  Paige shivered when his cold stare caught her gaze. Although her voice shook when she spoke and her confidence had been rattled, her dedication to duty was steadfast. If she could distract Kevin, maybe she could get Stanley safely out of the line of fire.

  “That’s a little melodramatic, isn’t it, Kevin or Tov’reh or whatever your name is?” Paige cocked her head, deliberately exaggerating the insolence that had infuriated Karen/Sh’tara. Angry people, and hopefully sorcerers, often acted impulsively, which led to miscalculation and mistakes.

  “You dare mock me?” Seething with hatred, Kevin drew his sword back.

  Paige defiantly stood her ground.

  “I am Ce’kahn, and I command the storm!” The impatient and self-centered Kate intruded on Kevin’s moment. The bracelet clamped to her forearm gleamed as she thrust her fist at the sky. Her powerful voice rang through the valley as she lowered her arm to place the engraved design against her forehead. “Guh-sheen toh dak!”

  “Oh, boy,” Phoebe murmured.

  Piper instinctively raised her hands to prevent Kate from unleashing her powers. The movements of the three Dor’chacht warriors and Stanley were slowed, not frozen.

  Kevin’s sword slowly descended toward the old man groveling in the dirt before him.

  A few seconds was all the time Paige needed. She sprang forward and grabbed Stanley’s hand, freeing him from the effects of Piper’s slow motion magic. “It’s Paige, Mr. Addison. Come with me. Right now.”

  Stanley’s eyes were wide with fear as he peeked from under his arm. His sudden smile was full of relief when he recognized Paige. “Hi, Paige. I’m having a really bad dream.”

  “Yes, I know.” Paige smiled back, tugging the old man to his feet while she watched Kate from the corner of her eye. “Just do what I say, Mr. Addison, and everything will be fine.”

  “Okay.” Stanley clung to Paige’s hand and didn’t look back as he shuffled after her.

  When the slow-mo effect wore off, Kevin shook his sword and roared, railing against the indignity of being thwarted by Piper’s partial power. But soon, Paige knew, his anger would be reinforced by his avenging magic. Everyone in and associated with the Sol’agath clan would pay for depriving him of the destiny he believed was his.

  Paige glanced over her shoulder as she deposited
Stanley behind the same boulder she had used as a shield.

  Kate’s bracelet glowed crimson and released a red bolt of crackling power, which spread into an enveloping web of pure magical energy. The fiery mesh encased Ce’kahn, flashed, and then dimmed to nothing as the sorceress absorbed her power.

  “Stay here until I get back, Mr. Addison,” Paige said. “No matter what happens, keep your head down, okay?”

  Stanley nodded, then frowned. “What if I wake up?”

  “Then you’ll be safe and sound.” Paige gave him another reassuring smile before she turned away.

  Thunder boomed, and Paige’s heart pounded heavily against her ribs. The elemental power of the Dor’chacht sorceress, Ce’kahn, was strikingly similar to the power she had possessed in the past as the evil Enchantress. If Leo was right, she would have those abilities again, just not yet.

  Which is way too bad, Paige thought. A well-placed earthquake would solve their current problem in a hurry. Instead she’d have to reply on one-quarter orb power and her wits to defeat the enemy.

  “Guh-sheen toh dak!” Karen repeated the phrase Kate had used to reverse the spell holding the Dor’chacht’s powers in their artifacts. She dropped her shield and raised her flute to her mouth, but she did not play. She inhaled the crackling bursts of crimson magic, taking back the power she had relinquished long ago.

  Standing on the floor of a bewitched valley with three savage practitioners of the ancient black arts, Paige could no longer think of Kevin, Kate, and Karen by their twenty-first-century names. As each one’s power was restored, they became Tov’reh, Ce’kahn, and Sh’tara.

  Ce’kahn moved her finger in a zigzag pattern, whipping up a spastic wind to plague the three Charmed witches.

  “Now what?” Piper used both hands to keep her windblown hair off her face. A purple bruise blossomed on the arm she had hurt when she had fallen out of the transport tunnel.

  Phoebe shrugged. “Darned if I know.”

  “If we don’t do something quick,” Piper went on, “it’ll be too late to do anything.”

  “There’s something we’re missing,” Paige shouted back as Tov’reh raised his staff. “It’s right on the tip of my mind, but I just can’t seem to grasp it.”