Stephan got the girls out the front door, Fran helping to pull Liz along, and ran along the drive to the gate where they slowed to a stop and looked back. Stephan had pulled his phone out of his pocket, but hesitated before he dialled anything.
The house looked quiet, serene, only the open front door said that something wasn’t right in there. Both girls were silently crying, but the reality hadn’t hit them yet, they were still in shock from what they had seen.
‘Will he be all right? Should we wait for him?’ Liz asked.
‘Yes, we’ll wait,’ Stephan said.
‘But will he be all right?’
‘I think so Liz, Ben can handle himself.’
The front lounge bay window exploded outwards as something big crashed through it and landed heavily on the ground. It was Ben, and he lay there in a heap, moving slowly.
Stephan stabbed 999 into the Mobile in his hand and hit Dial, he held it to his ear and heard the dial tone.
Liz had screamed and Fran yelped, and then there came the sound of a muffled whip crack and the killer appeared out of thin air, and stood over Ben. This feat of Magic brought Liz and Fran’s screams to an abrupt stop as they caught their breath.
‘Ben, run, get away Ben now,’ called Liz, Fran echoing her and urging Ben to get away from the killer.
The operator was on the other end of the line now, asking what the emergency was, but Stephan couldn’t speak, he was too engrossed in what was happening before him.
Ben turned onto his back, then looked over his shoulder at them, and then back up at the figure before him.
Stephan held his breath as he watched, willing Ben to get out of there so they could run from here and find help. But as he watched, he saw eerie black tentacles emerge from Ben’s own shadow and wrap around his arms and legs. Ben tried to move as the shadows took hold, but he was stuck fast.
The killer moved suddenly and with a speed that was uncanny. The knife swept the air in front of the killer in a huge arc, from left to right, and straight across Ben’s neck.
Ben was frozen in place for a moment where he had been half sat up, before his head lolled back, his neck opened up, and blood pored over his chest while arteries squirted in thick red pulses.
Liz screamed and went to run forward, but Stephan caught her round the waist and held onto her as she tried to pull away.
‘Urgh,’ said Fran loudly, shocked and horrified at what she was seeing, but she made no move to go to Ben, instead she helped Stephan hold back her sister.
‘Liz, no, stop it,’ Stephan said as he continued to hold her back. ‘You can’t help him now, we’ve got to go, come on.’
‘Hello, hello, what’s going on, how can we help,’ the operator called.
Stephan pulled her backwards slowly as Liz continued to try and run to her friend, until the killer looked up at them. Liz stopped trying to get out from Stephan’s grasp when she met the eyes of the psycho killer, and started to back up with them.
The phone Stephan held to his ear with his free hand suddenly fizzed and popped, and went dead, a small amount of smoke rose from the device as it died. Stephan cursed and dropped it back into his pocket.
The killer then took his first step towards them, and that was enough. They ran as one from the driveway entrance and along the street, the killer disappearing from sight behind the high wall that surrounded the front of Stephan’s house for a moment.
They ran in sheer panic for just a few meters before a car came screeching round a corner further up the road and onto the street. It was a people carrier and it was thrown round the corner at speed nearly tipping over, its tires wailing as it regained its grip and barrelled down the road towards them before its brakes were slammed on and it came to a lurching stop just meters away, mounting curb as it did so. Stephan and the girls came to a stop before it as the doors were flung open and several figures in dark clothing holding shot guns and swords jumped out and charged past them.
Watching them, they ran into Stephan’s driveway where the sounds of gun shots and fighting broke out.
‘Stephan Lockwood with Elizabeth and Francesca Fox I presume?’
The three of them turned as one to the final figure who had stepped from the van and was now addressing them. Tall and thin with black hair and swarthy skin, he wore dark clothing, and gave off an air of being in control.
‘Yes,’ Stephan answered the man.
‘I’m Vito de Luca, and if you want to survive this, I suggest you get in the car, now, we have to leave.’
The man had a strong Italian accent.
‘But, what about…’ Fran said, pointing back to the house and the men who were fighting there.
‘They can handle themselves, now please, quickly, we need to move,’ Vito said, gesturing at the car. He had missed Fran’s point, she had meant what about Ben, but she didn’t point it out.
Stephan looked at Fran and Liz, Fran nodded, she was still in control of herself, but Liz was a wreck and made no sign that she knew what was happening around her. Between himself and Fran, they manoeuvred Liz into the car and got in themselves, shutting the doors as Vito climbed into the front seat and gunned the engine.
The car wheel span around to face the way it had come and accelerated along the road, picking up speed quickly.
In the shadows of a house across the street, Angel looked on as the car accelerated and moved away from them with the Inquisitor and the three kids inside.
She then turned back to watch as Yasmin’s newest lap dog Nate dispatched the last of the Crusaders and stepped out onto the street in time to catch a glimpse of the car turn the corner further down the street. As she watched him, he suddenly Ported away, disappearing with a barely audible whip snap from this distance.
She then turned to the two Magi who stood next to her who had watched everything with her. The child Magus Cherub with an intelligence beyond her apparent years, and Uziel, another of Angel’s Coven. A tall imposing man in cark clothing with long black hair that hung over his long face, he had been following Vito while Cherub followed Stephan and now Angel’s suspicions had been proved correct, she’d been chasing two ends of the same mystery.
‘You did the right thing to call me.’ She said to them both. ‘Clean up that mess in the drive,’ she pointed at the carnage over the road, ‘but leave the inside as it is. Try to keep this from the authorities for a few days. I’m going to follow Vito and the Artefact.’
They both nodded to their master, before Angel disappeared, just as Nate had done moments before.
‘Vito, who are you? Are you the police or something?’ Fran asked.
‘No, I’m a priest, and your best hope for survival right now,’ he answered.
Fran looked at Stephan wide eyed at Vito’s answer, and Stephan didn’t need her to say anything to know what she was thinking. A priest? A priest who had gun toting bodyguards? This was insane.
‘And where are you taking us?’ Fran asked.
‘To a safe place, that’s all you need to know for the moment.’
‘How did you know our names?’ Stephan asked, ignoring Vito’s request to stop asking questions.
‘I was contacted by Ben’s parents, so I came as quickly as I could. Now please, let me concentrate on driving,’ Vito said as he threw the car round another corner, there was a church spire visible in the distance.
Ben’s parents made sense to Stephan, they were devout Catholics after all, but that was all that made sense to him. Gun toting clergy, moving shadows, Magic, his parents…
He cleared his head, if he thought too much about his parents he knew he would dissolve into a useless mess. He had to focus, the girls needed him right now, he had to be strong, if only for them.
‘It was Magic that the…the killer used, wasn’t it,’ Liz whispered, ‘real Magic.’ Her crying subsided now it seemed.
‘I think it was,’ Stephan said, just as quietly.
Fran just nodded, and a silence descended over them as they tried to comprehen
d what it was they had seen only moments, and a few streets ago.
I got a message today, she’s called a meeting, it seems the time has come, here we go…
- Royston’s diary
Mission
Paris
A short time later
Raven knocked once and entered, not waiting to be invited, he knew who was in here, but he wasn’t yet sure why he had been summoned to see them.
He stepped into Royston’s homey office. Royston sat behind his desk, Gentle Water sat in one of the chairs in front of Roystons desk while a third figure stood in the shadows in the far corner of the room to his left, behind the desk.
Royston rose from his chair and walked round the front of his desk to shake Raven’s hand.
‘Raven, how are you? Thanks for coming, we have a favour to ask of you,’ Royston said.
‘Of course, anything I can do to help,’ he replied.
Royston nodded and leant against the front of his desk as he addressed Raven, he gestured to a chair to the left of Gentle Water.
‘I’m not sure what you know about Horlack and the Tomb, what have we told you about so far?
‘Only how it all relates to young Amanda and her Epiphany.’
‘Okay, well, it was over a year ago now when a team of Archaeologists, under the direction of Yasmin, undertook a dig at the Tomb for her. Two things happened during that dig, the first was the discovery of an Artefact, the second was the release of Horlack from his imprisonment.’
‘And this is the same Horlack that attacked Amanda in New York?’ he said, glancing at the figure in the corner and at Gentle Water.
Gentle Water was nodding to Raven as he looked.
‘That’s right. Horlack was dealt with by our young Amanda during her Epiphany, but the Artefact went missing it seems. We suspect it was a thief who took it and sold it in a market in Cairo or somewhere. Regardless of this, it ended up in the hands of a Mortal family called the Lockwoods and is in the hands of the son, Stephan. Open up your mind to me Raven,’ Royston said. ‘I have the details you’ll need.’
Raven let his Aegis fall and felt the presence of Royston’s mind press into his and then there was a surge of information into his mind as Royston passed on the pertinent details, such as names and addresses. The flood of information lasted barely a second, and then Royston’s presence subsided. Raven brought up his Aegis once more, like a curtain he had briefly opened.
‘Thank you,’ Royston continued. ‘Now, the Artefact itself is a golden book that was held within a carved stone slab. Stephan and his friends are interested in the occult it seems and have been doing a little research, but they have attracted the attention of the Inquisition and the Nomads in so doing. We have now been reliably informed,’ Royston indicated the figure in the corner with his hand, ‘that the Nomads have made their move and have killed the children’s parents. The children and the Artefact are now in the hands of the Inquisition, specifically an Inquisitor named Vito de Luca. It’s crucial that we find them and bring them in safely.’
‘I take it that this is going to be my job?’ Raven asked.
‘Correct.’
‘And I also take it I have to do this alone?’
‘I’m afraid so, I’m sorry.’
‘Is there anything I should know about the Artefact?’
‘It’s main power is what the Nomads are after, as it can turn a Riven mortal into a Magus. I don’t need to tell you how dangerous this could be if the Nomads got hold of it. Also there’s a few Magical side effects you should know about. It generates a kind of Aegis that stops Teleportation close to it, the same energy field also stops anyone scrying on it.’
Raven nodded and slumped in his chair slightly, looking down at the carpet for a moment as he took everything in. He then turned to look at the figure in the shadows and said, ‘I take it you knew about all this already?’
‘Yes,’ she replied.
‘And you chose now to tell us?’
‘I could not tell you earlier as it would have jeopardized everything. I’m sorry.’
‘But these are children,’ Raven said, horrified.
‘It has to be this way, you know that better than most.’
Raven sat back into his chair and sighed. She was right, he did know that. He looked up at Royston. ‘So where do I begin?’
‘Stephan’s house,’ said Royston.
‘Then I shan’t waste any more time.’ Raven stood up and put on a fake smile, his lips a thin line.
‘Keep in touch Raven, let us know how things go,’ said Royston.
‘I will.’
‘Good luck,’ the figure said, her tone one of empathy.
Raven turned to the figure and gave her a conciliatory smile. Then he turned away and concentrated for a second. There was an audible crack as he Ported from the room.
‘I don’t like sending him out there alone,’ said Royston to the figure in the corner.
‘So how do you think I feel about it? I hate it as well, but this is the way it must be.’
‘I know, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.' He gave a sigh before addressing the figure once more. 'So, what’s next?’
‘Gentle Water needs to take our guest to Egypt and show her the tomb,’ the figure replied.
Gentle Water looked up, and nodded.
Raven appeared in the shadowy driveway of the Lockwoods house, looking up at the cream painted exterior of the building and opening up his mind to the ebb and flow of the local Essentia field.
The night was cool, but not cold, there had been several muggy nights in Paris and London recently, but tonight the temperature had dropped a touch, a little like Ravens mood. He didn’t like the sound of this mission, he just knew it wouldn’t be as straight forward as Royston had made it out to be.
There was a strange scent of death in the air, it was faint, but Raven’s enhanced sense of smell could pick it up, just. It must be coming from inside.
But there were other things of interest out here. The local Essentia field had been disturbed to quite a large extent. Someone had used Magic here very recently, and a lot of Magic too. The gravel on the drive way was heavily disturbed, it looked like a fight might have taken place here.
Well, there was one way to find out, so he concentrated and pushed his mind back through time to have a look at what had happened. He quickly picked up on the Magic that had been used here. He could see a little girl in a pretty dress stood in the driveway, walking up to the bodies of men dressed in black, dead on the floor. Each one disappeared as she approached it, Ported away by her own Magic along with the shot guns and Swords that lay with them.
The girl did a thorough job, even cleaning away the blood that had fallen here, but she left the gravel in its disturbed state. Raven watched her as she Magically fixed the smashed front window as well, she paused, smiled to herself, and Ported away.
Raven didn’t recognise the girl, but took a guess at her being Nomad. Looking back a little further, Raven saw someone he did recognise, Nate, Yasmin’s apprentice, fighting the Inquisitors the girl later cleared away. He killed them all easily before walking out onto the road and Porting away.
So Raven looked back a little earlier, but as he did so, his Magic faltered and he was unable to look into a time frame of a couple of minutes in the area of the house.
He could see before it, when the house sat silent and brooding, and he could see moments after it when, like a picture forming on a TV from static, he could see Nate walking away from a dying boy on the grass. That’s when the Inquisitors turned up and attacked Nate. Raven assumed it must be the Artefact, stopping him from viewing it through time.
Raven walked over and had a better look at the dying boy, and recognised him from the description that had been implanted into his mind by Royston, this was Ben Marshal. Nate had slashed Ben across the throat, right through to the spine, before leaving him there to gurgle and die.
Raven felt angry, and punched the grass, why did it have to be
kids. Ben looked about fourteen years old, far too young for this.
He stood up and took a breath, calming himself down with a long slow exhale. He needed to go into the house and find something dear to Stephan, something he could use to find him with.
With the use of an object that meant a lot to someone, he could use his Magic to draw a sympathetic link and locate him. It usually worked on Mortals without problem, but it rarely worked on Magi, their Aegis blocking the Magic from working.
Letting the vision of the past that he was walking through fade away, Raven turned to the front door and walked up to it. It opened without protest and he walked inside, closing the door behind him. Immediately once he stood inside, the rancid smell hit him full force, making him feel sick. He steeled himself and walked into the front room, following the smell to its source.
The scene had changed little since Stephan, Ben and the twins had seen it last, it just smelt worse now. Raven put his hand over his mouth and stepped more fully into the room, noting each parent as he went. Stephan’s parents, Bens parents and the Twins single mother were all here. He wondered what had happened to Ben’s siblings, if they knew or if they had been killed as well.
As he walked about the room, his foot kicked something laying on the floor, so he backed up and looked down. It was a hunk of rock, one of several chunks of sandstone that were laying upon the wood panelled floor. He crouched down and picked one up, realising it was the stone slab that the Golden book had been hiding within.
Raven focused himself and tried to see if there was much emotional attachment to this part of the Artefact, and after a second, he could see the aura of it and read its colours. It seemed that there was a strong emotional investment into these bits of sandstone by Stephan, enough that it could be used to find him, so Raven bagged the whole lot and left the room. He then headed upstairs and found Stephan’s room, which looked like it might have belonged to Indiana Jones crossed with Gandalf in their younger days.
Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling Page 36