by T S Paul
The Witches dragging me stopped just inside of what appeared to be a massive cave. “It’s almost time. We are going to cut your bonds. If you run, we will shock you. Are you going to run?”
Carefully I stood up. The wire binding my legs together bit into my skin causing a stinging sensation. My hands were tied in front of me but only loosely. Looking around, I could see very little. The cave was dark and had a peculiar odor about it. It almost smelled like freshly turned earth mixed with what the county dump smells like. I knew this from my days as part of the county commissioner's office. “What is this place?”
“We asked you a question. Are you going to run?” The second Witch asked me.
I shook my head resigned. “I won’t run. Now answer my question.”
“This is our sacred space. For thousands of years, the ancients used this place to worship their gods. The Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks all were here at one time. Every religion has some subterranean aspect to it. The most recent group to use this place were Christians. They stole it, like much of what they believe, from the those that followed Mithra. We acquired it the same year the Strega was born. If Set had a hand in it, I do not know. Only Ysabel knows that story.”
I could feel my eyes widen. “How old are you?”
“Silly girl.” Horatia Lucchese laughed. “If you had not broken with your mother, you might understand so much more than you already do. Witches with power age slowly. Very slowly. How old do you think your mother is? What did she tell you?”
“My mother? You know Marcella?”
Horatia shook her head in mirth. “The God chose well. Ignorance as well as power. Of course, we know who she is. She has opposed us in the World Council for almost two centuries! At every turn, she fought us to a standstill. Your mother is a queen in her own right.”
I stared at the dark Witch in horror. “Two hundred years? How old do we get?”
“At least four hundred. But you should know this. All Witch children are taught the basics, even ours. The world is far more interesting than you believe it to be.” Horatia motioned to the guards and the other Witch. “I am cutting your legs free. Walk with me.”
The Witch cut my legs free. I could feel the sudden rush of blood seconds before the room began to spin. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe they weren’t going to kill me. “What is your name?”
“My name?” The dark-haired Witch looked startled.
“You know mine. I should know yours. Do you even have one?”
“My name is Horatia Lucchese.”
“Lucchese? Why does that sound so familiar to me?” I rolled the name around inside my brain. The way it was pronounced reminded me of something.
Horatia rolled her eyes, and I would almost swear one of the two guards chuckled under his breath. “It was in a movie. One of those that you Americans love so much you play it over and over and over.”
I didn’t watch movies. But several of my husbands were huge collectors of such things. “Which one?”
Horatia sighed. “The man from Corleone. Not the original but the newer one.”
I could only nod. I had seen the original. Who in the states hadn’t? For me, it was as a favor to Harrison, and I gained several business insights from it. Men are very predictable about some things. Mattresses indeed. “I’ve only seen the first one.”
We were walking down a sloping path. Every so often I would stumble or almost trip over something lying on the path itself. It was too dark to see, but it felt like chunks of wood.
“I hate that movie. Our Queen, Ysabel, loves it. One of her nephews was the adviser on it. She forbade me from hexing the producers or director.” Horatia’s eyes flashed red.
I kept my mouth shut. Ahead of us, I could see something glittering. Faint flashes of light projected strange shadows on the walls. “Can I have some light?”
Horatia muttered a simple spell, and a ball of light bloomed overhead. I could see the what surrounded us and was fascinated by it. Bones covered the floor as far as the eye could see. Human skeletons were scattered across the floor. In some places, they were several feet deep. Literal mounds of the dead. At the center of the vast room was an altar. The massive object appeared to be carved from the rock of the cave. I could see faint tracings of letters or figures on its sides. Five stone pillars surrounded the altar with one in the middle.
“It is here that the ritual will commence. Hold still, we must prepare the room.” The two guards led me to just in front of the altar and tied me to the pillar. Struggling, I discovered they switched the rope for chains.
“I said I wouldn’t run. Why chain me up?” This whole thing worried me
Horatia spoke as she set up the altar. “It is for our safety as well as yours. Calm yourself. Your body isn’t fated to die this evening.”
Leaning against my prison, I relaxed. But why chain me?
<<< >>>
“My Queen, it is time.” Esta stood before the Queen’s quarters. She, like the rest of the coven, was wearing ritual gear. Tonight would be a night to remember.
The door swung open soundlessly. “Is everything prepared?”
Esta bowed her head before replying. “Yes. The altar and all five corners have been cleansed. All three bosses, along with their underbosses and leading capos, are present.”
“Good. Inform the guards and any soldiers presently topside that no one is to be allowed below after the ritual starts. I mean no one. Any interruption could be disastrous.” Ysabel appeared in the doorway. She wore a small diadem on her head.
The Strega controlled the Mafia completely. Ysabel and the other leaders of the cult were once the wives and mothers of what was known as the ‘Black Hand’ in Sicily. Originally they had banded together for protection. Women and children were often collateral damage in the many family wars. Natural Witches all, the women secretly plotted the takeover of their families.
Striking the first blow, Ysabel used a magical ritual to kill her husband and gain power. The power she needed to take and control the organizations. This thing of ‘ours’ became this thing of theirs. While families might appear to plot and fight for territory, they were all in the same organization.
“Is the spell prepared?” Ysabel pushed her way through the dons and capos crowding the stairs to the cave.
“Yes, my Queen.” Esta held up her hand in a stopping motion. “Make way for the Queen! Make way for the Queen.”
The men blocking the way jostled and pushed each other ignoring Esta’s voice.
Angry, Esta formed a blue ball of electricity in each of her hands. “Make way or be destroyed!”
Looking back at Ysabel she muttered, “stupid men.”
Ysabel smiled at her librarian’s turmoil. To her, they were but a nuisance. Pointing a finger at the first man blocking the door she said, “Die!”
<<< >>>
Hearing a tumultuous noise, I opened my eyes. The entire cavern looked to be filled with people! My last thought had been one of surprise. The Strega had removed my personal shields days before, so I was unprepared for the sleep spell cast by Horatia.
“Welcome one and all to our organization's greatest day. This ritual will require all of your Magick and will. Instructions have been given. Follow them or die.” Ysabel pulled off her ritual robe and stepped into the circle drawn onto the floor of the cave.
Horatia, Esta, and three other Witches also removed their robes. Like Ysabel, each wore only jewelry underneath. In my mother’s coven nudity is used to show that the participant is completely committed to the work and hold no other attachments before it. I wasn’t sure what it meant for these women.
“I call upon the guardians of the East, lords of Air and masters of flight…” Ysabel held a sword in her hand as she walked the outer edge of the circle. As she reached each point, she crossed swords with the Strega holding the point. I recognized elements that were universal with what I knew of workings. Mother had only taken me to one such working. As the blades crossed, the wom
an holding the point glowed faintly.
Completing the circle, Ysabel struck the ground with her sword. “The circle is closed. Let all within bask in power and let the ritual be successful.” The entire cavern said the words after her like a mantra. “May the ritual be successful.”
I could only watch as the Strega known as Esta began to draw sigils and runes on the ground within the circle. Each concentric circle meant something different. My knowledge of runes and alchemical symbolism was incomplete. But it kept repeating about something in the circle. Completing the circle’s symbols, Esta moved to the altar and took up a book.
Esta held the book out in front of her. Carefully she began to read the Book of Undying. “I call upon Aradia, mother goddess and queen of the world to aid her followers in this great work.” Esta then began to speak in a language long forgotten by man. Clutching the book in a death grip, she continued to read as she mixed up some sort of potion on the altar.
I could feel the power rising inside the circle. Concentrating, I tried to break through the mental bonds that someone had laid upon me. If I could just reach some of it, I would escape this place.
Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my side. Looking down I found Ysabel there. Her sword a fraction of an inch from killing me. “Stop it.”
With potion in hand, Esta started muttering again. Slowly, another circle began to form in the middle of the room. It, like the others, glowed. “With this potion, I call you forth…” She poured whatever was in her cup over my head.
“Eew. What the hell was that?”
Esta looked up from the book. “Silence the sacrifice.”
Smiling, Ysabel slipped a ball gag over my head and tightened it down around my mouth. I could still breathe, but talking was out.
“Lords of Hell and Masters of the Outer plains. Hear our cry and receive this soul.” Everyone in the cavern repeated the phrase.
It started at my feet. A tingling feeling that was like pins and needles magnified a thousand times. The feeling began to climb across my body until it reached my head. Screaming through a gag is pure torture if you can’t remove it. Then everything began to feel numb. Only the chains upon my body kept me upright. An evil laugh was the last thing on Earth that I heard as two glowing red eyes filled my vision for the last time.
<<< >>>
The chanting in the cavern slowed to a halt. Ysabel stared at Esta. “Did it work? Is it here?”
Esta set the book down on the altar. All the energy had been drained from her body. “I believe so, my Queen. The wards seem to still be up.”
Ysabel looked toward Camilla’s body. Still chained to the pillar it was hanging limply by the chains. “Is anyone in there?” She poked at the body.
“Stay outside the circle, Ysabel. I’m not sure what came through.”
Ysabel’s sharp eyes turned to the librarian. “Do you not know?”
“I can feel… Something. It may have been thrown into shock by the possession. Do you want me to release the main working?” Esta pointed towards the now sagging watchtowers.
“As long as the cage still holds, release them.”
Quickly, Esta walked the circle counterclockwise or widdershins. At each watchtower, she released the guardian. The witches were completely exhausted. Several lay on the ground gasping for air.
“Honoria, check if she still lives?” Ysabel directed.
Everyone watched as the Witch approached the middle pillar, the glowing circle still surrounding it. “If I touch her, the circle will break.”
“Then don’t touch her. Check the eyes. If they glow, we were successful.”
Honoria bent down and looked up at Camilla’s face. If she still lived, there would be some sign of it here. Two glowing red eyes stared back at her.
Chapter 10
Set was enjoying himself. To quote one of his favorite television shows, he loved it when a plan came together. Fooling Camilla Blackmore and stringing her along was child’s play. She was searching for meaning, and he was the one to give it to her.
The first part of the plan was to separate her from her family and their teachings. To do this, Set had become a student at her school. Carefully, he placed subliminal messages into conversations. Not as fun as whispering in people's ears like the old days, but still just as effective.
He murmured that she was the heir. She didn’t need her mother’s teaching. She was the golden child. All were things planned to feed and nurture her ego. Set further enhanced this by placing a book in an out-of-the-way location to give her even more ideas. The very ideas he wanted her to concentrate on. Heirs don’t need competition. She needed to be the one to eliminate her sister, not him. The Pact of Gods wouldn’t allow him to act directly against a mortal. He needed intermediaries.
Influence over mortals was so easy. A word here, an action there, and before you know it, there is a party on a boat in a lake. It wasn’t Set that put the drink in Henry’s hand. Henry crashed the boat of his own drunken free will. The God only paved the way for it to happen. A good kick in the pants was what Camilla needed to see that her power over the dead was there. That she, out of thousands of Witches, could do the impossible. Who cared that it was a death sentence? Certainly not him.
Phase two of the plan was for her to have closer ties to the Strega. They needed to see a potential recruit in her. Through their servants, the Missionaries of Death, the Strega could watch and carefully push her in the direction that he wanted. Kill your husband. Cheat a business partner. Steal from the city. Build an empire. All things are possible with Magick.
Phase three was getting her here. Into this cavern for this ritual. Everything that happened to her was part of his plan. Even the Strega played their part. They too were victims of Set. Patsies of the New World Order.
“You won’t get away with this Set.”
Set cut his eyes to the right. Sitting on one of the thrones was a small glowing figure. “You should leave Aeolus. Isn’t this place too much out of the way for someone such as you? No breeze down here.”
“You threaten the Pact. This abomination of yours is in direct violation of the agreement you signed with Zeus. They sent me as a warning.” The God of the Winds wasn’t actually sitting. He was floating a mere inch from the surface of the throne.
“Consider me warned. You go back to your masters and tell them they have no right to attempt to restrict me. None whatsoever! That bitch Athena has been meddling in the affairs of men since the pact was started. If anyone is in violation, it’s her. Make her follow the rules, and I will think about it.” Set’s eyes glowed a bright green as his face heated up.
Aeolus held up his hands. “Don’t kill the messenger! I just deliver their words.” With a flash of light, the god vanished.
“Pfft. Gods and their rules. I should never have agreed to any of it.” Set muttered to himself.
“Did you say something, my Lord?”
“No, Esta. I wasn’t speaking to you. Are you enjoying the show?” Set looked down at the Strega at his feet.
“Yes. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Ysabel and the others should never have killed my husband. I’ve waited two hundred years for this, My Lord.”
The God nodded. “Justice is served at last.” Outwardly he looked stern and commanding. Inside he was howling in delight.
“Esta! Help us!”
Both the God and his newest disciple looked up in the direction of the altar. Hundreds of Strega and mafioso lay dead and dying in the cavern. Demons of all shapes and sizes scampered here and there feasting on the dead.
“No. You are on your own.” Esta caressed the small book in her hands lovingly.
The ritual had succeeded. When Honoria bent down to check the sacrifice, Esta stepped out of the circle and left the room. She wasn’t there to see the Demon Lord that the Coven was trying to raise, turn out to be so much more than that. Honora was the first to die, followed by Ysabel. The ritual may have ended, but the inner circle remained open and active. Harborym was o
ne of the Dukes of Hell. Under his command, twenty-six of the legions of demons began to pour into the cavern.
“Why choose this body for me?” Harborym demanded of Set.
“It has Magick, and it has power. Demons are not enough to conquer. We learned that before. Remember? Shock troops and living soldiers are needed to fight the battles. Humans have bigger and stronger weapons to use against your kind. The abilities that you now control can overcome and defeat those that defy us.” Set smiled.
The Demon Duke remembered his last attempt to take control of the Earth and nodded. The weapons brought against the horde were powerful. He could remember the look on that corporal’s face when the Imp he expected to raise turned out to be a Duke. “Much better than before. Are we still following your plan?”
“The Pact of Gods is weakening. Odin, Loki, and Athena have been meddling with the affairs of mortals. Even now some of my brethren and their servants awaken. We must break the bonds of belief and take control before they are aware of our complete plans.” Set pointed out. “Allow your legions to feed and gain strength here and above. The human authorities must remain clueless for a little while longer. I have a singular task for you to set the stage and give us an alternate entry point.”
Harborym licked his lips and smiled. “Where am I going?”
“America. A city by the sea called Charleston, South Carolina.”
<<<>>>
It’s hard giving up everything that you know and dream about, but Autumn Fredericks did it. With the death of her mother and the alienation of the family, Autumn had finally had enough. She cleaned out her bank accounts, packed a bag, and moved. Why stay in a town that hated everything about her? It wasn’t her fault that her mother was who she was. The sins of the parents shouldn’t reflect upon the children. Using trust fund money left to her by several of her stepfathers, Autumn bought a lovely house in a hip growing part of Charleston. The city was part of a government revitalization plan and was becoming a tourist town. There was a new aquarium as well as shopping and museums to keep her interested. This might be the start of a new life.