Feeding Frenzy: Curse of the Necromancer (Loon Lake Magic Book 1)

by Maaja Wentz

  They marched to the cinder-covered mound where the Ash Tree once stood for three hundred years. Green shoots poked up through the still-glowing leaf litter, burning on the surface. Underneath, the grass grew unharmed, right where she had poured the most gasoline. Someone had cast a powerful ward here.

  From deeper in the blackened cemetery, a pair of firefighters arrived with shovels.

  “Start digging,” the farmer told Tonya.

  “Digging?”

  “Or else I start chopping.” He swung his axe toward Lynette’s limp body which was slung over an ambulance attendant’s shoulder.

  Tonya exchanged glances with Drake as they started digging a pit. Everything was her fault. She should have guessed her friends would break out of the shop and come for her. She decided to obey her captors, at least until she could find an escape.

  Using her weight to stand on the shovel, Tonya wasn’t moving much dirt, and featherweight Priya practically bounced off the hard clay. After fifteen minutes of minimal progress, the farmer kicked Priya with his boot. “Dig faster. Next time I hit you, it’ll be with the axe.”

  It took time, but they chipped through surface clay to the softer dirt below. It hurt Tonya to watch Priya scan the blackened trees, fruitlessly searching for a sign of rescue.

  “It’s not your fault,” said Drake.

  “It is.” His kindness stung.

  “Hey, lovebirds. Back to work!” The farmer held his axe over Lynette who lay limp on the ground.

  “How do we know she isn’t dead?” Priya stood tall, hands on hips.

  “I can cut her, to see if she still bleeds.” The farmer flashed his teeth. “She’s not helping dig anyway.”

  “When they find us buried in a pit,” said Tonya, “the police will know we didn’t die accidentally.”

  “Back to work or I whack Blondie.”

  The pit grew slowly. Tonya guessed it took about half an hour to dig down to knee depth. How much deeper would they have to go?

  “Enough digging. Everybody into the pool!” He laughed.

  He picked up Lynette and threw her into the hole like a sack of cement.

  “In you go. Chop, chop!” He waved his axe at Priya who jumped away from the hole and ran for it. One of the attendants caught her and carried her back, kicking and screaming. Meanwhile, Drake stepped into the pit. He picked up Lynette’s unconscious body and stood facing the farmer.

  Tonya took her shovel and ran at the farmer, aiming a blow at the side of his head. In midflight, he caught it by the shaft and wrenched it out of Tonya’s hands.

  “Do you see what I have to put up with?” the farmer addressed the sky. “A little help please.”

  Tonya’s stomach dropped. Interior commotion drowned out her thoughts. Here was fear, grief, lust. Images of Pompeii welled up inside her, this time revealing their source in Professor Rudolph’s memories. Were the thoughts of these firefighters and ambulance attendants crowding into her head too? Maybe. All were controlled by the Entity, or was that Waldock?

  Confusion overwhelmed her. She lost her balance on the lip of the pit and the farmer pushed her in.

  Waldock was winning, again. His onslaught confused her mind and kaleidoscope vision blinded her. Outnumbered, blind, and soon to be buried alive, she still refused to give in.

  Tonya reached out with her thoughts, frantically searching for a way to escape, or expel the Entity. Energy thrummed through the earth. The Three-Century Ash had not been the source of power, but its conduit. Hurting from her burns and full of need, she drew strength through the untouched roots of the Ash and other trees. Along woody pathways, twisting and turning under the forest floor, reaching ever outward, she gathered strength from the ancient forces in the ground. Hundreds of her ancestors had fed this earth, as if waiting for the day she would claim her heritage. Already she felt better for tapping into their energies. Better, but also guilty. Mixed in with the life magic of plants, the soil harbored death magic. Forbidden magic had turned her aunt’s hair white and driven a wedge between her and Mom. Would her parents reject Tonya too?

  She stopped, switching to drawing life magic from the rare plants remaining in the area. It was weaker, but it would have to suffice.

  With power trickling in, Tonya took a deep breath and focused her thoughts. Priya, Tonya, and Lynette lay in the pit as the farmer and ambulance attendants forced Drake to shovel dirt over them. Tonya rolled closer to Lynette. As long as she was unconscious, they couldn’t fight or run. She took Lynette’s hands into hers. Using all her concentration, she channeled the life magic she had gathered into Lynette.

  With a start, Lynette opened her eyes and sat up. “What time?”

  “Shhh. Lie back down and pretend you’re still asleep. These guys are trying to bury us. If we attack, do you think you can run?”

  “I feel great.” She smiled.

  “Don’t move till I say, then run with us.”

  Tonya whispered to Priya. “Lynette’s ready to run. Time to fight.”

  “Or run.” Priya cut her eyes over to the side of the pit where enough dirt had caved in to make it shallow.

  Tonya whispered, “Go!”

  They ran for the shallow end and leaped out of the pit.

  The farmer and his minions came after them, the farmer brandishing an axe and a shovel. Tonya and the others scattered so each hid behind a different tree, Drake with a shovel.

  The farmer advanced carefully, axe in hand. “Come here Blondie. You can’t have run very far.”

  To Tonya’s right, Lynette trembled behind a burnt tree. The farmer was coming straight for her. Tonya readied herself.

  As the farmer closed in, Tonya stepped out and grabbed his axe. The farmer shrugged her off and kept going after Lynette.

  Drake stepped from behind another tree and clocked him from behind. “Here!” He tossed the fallen farmer’s shovel to Priya who caught it, then guided Lynette toward the road.

  Only one firefighter still had a shovel. Another stooped down to a gravestone which had been split by the heat of the fire. He picked up a baseball-sized hunk of granite and pitched it at Tonya’s head. The others joined in, pelting them with stones, while the farmer came after them with his axe.

  “Run!” said Tonya.

  They raced away, zigzagging to avoid chunks of flying granite.

  She might have gotten away, if it weren’t for sudden fatigue. Despite the adrenaline and the shovel-wielding firefighter, her legs simply wouldn’t move. She leaned against a tree hyperventilating, as if she had run for hours.

  “Ow!” Smoke rose from the pocket of her jeans where the leaf pendant was heating up. She pulled it out, scorching her blistered hand, so she flung it in her coat pocket. What was going on?

  Tonya watched her friends rain down shovel blows on the ambulance attendants. She yearned to help them, but when she took a step, her leg turned to rubber.

  “No!” Full of energy only minutes before, she felt her eyes closing as she fell sideways.

  TONYA AWOKE. HAD MINUTES passed or hours? The woods around her were quiet, except for the crackling of fire in the distance. Passed-out firefighters littered the ground, but she couldn’t hear voices. Had her friends left her for dead?

  Feel me rise!

  The exclamation thundered in her head.

  She gagged as if something coiled deep inside her were expanding up and out of her throat. Her breath came fast and shallow and she swallowed acid reflux. The Entity was here.

  A crack split the Earth beside Tonya, tumbling dirt and trees deep into the ground. She backed away as the widening crack tilted charred trees and tombstones left and right, like a comb parting hair. The rift shook the cemetery as the fire went out with a whoosh.

  Tonya had no time to wonder at this miracle because a giant head and hands emerged from the crack in the earth, followed by shoulders, and a massive back.

  “What the hell is that?”

  Tonya turned at the sound of Drake’s voice. She could see him lo
oking out the window of a mausoleum with the girls crowding in behind him. Tonya strode over to join them.

  From inside the mausoleum, Tonya could examine the Entity from behind. It was composed of dirty bones and flesh, entangled with roots from the gravedigger fungus. Its shoulders were broad, its arms, massive, each ending in a giant hand with too many fingers.

  It stepped out of the hole, rising to fifteen feet, more than tall enough to see down into the mausoleum where they were hiding. It turned as if it sensed her presence and shot Tonya a grin that made its hundreds of teeth look baby-sized. The effect was comical until she realized they were human teeth. Waldock had raised a colossus made of rotting bodies, intelligent fungus, and dirt.

  Her friends peeped out the mausoleum door, unaware they had been spotted.

  “Run!” said Tonya, but Drake picked up a shovel and ran out to meet the creature. He started hacking at the giant’s shins, dislodging clods of dirt. The giant stood arms akimbo, grinning at Drake as each clod of earth he chipped off, immediately flew back into place.

  Blowing Tonya a kiss, and obscenely waggling his tongue made of many tongues, the giant picked Drake up with both hands, shook him until he let go the shovel, then dropped him to the dust. He lifted a reeking foot to crush him.

  “Wait!” Tonya cried.

  The giant turned to face Tonya. Priya, who had been edging around him, ran up the giant’s leg from behind, launching her shovel at his butt. She dug a foothold to clamber higher, then started taking mighty shovel swings at his back.

  The colossus turned to see who was attacking him but Priya clung on, swinging around with him.

  Drake dashed free as the giant turned on Priya, picking her off his back and throwing her against a tree.

  Priya landed with a crunch that made Tonya shudder.

  Well, aren’t you going to attack too? The voice was in Tonya’s head.

  “Why? You’d probably make me kill myself with an axe.”

  “Good idea.” The colossus left Priya and Drake and advanced on Tonya who tried to reach out to it with her mind as she had reached underground to the roots, but she was completely exhausted, barely able to move her own body. She closed her eyes and reached out, seeking green life energy with her mind. The giant was almost on top of the mausoleum when her mind connected with the Entity. The reverse polarity knocked her back like a lightning strike

  Its energy was negative. It felt dead, cold, a black hole that sucked the warmth and light out of her. She sank toward unconsciousness on the cold, stone floor.

  With all her strength she whispered, “Get me out of here.”

  “What’s wrong?” Priya’s voice from outside echoed, like it was underwater.

  “There’s something else in here, something worse than that creature. Help me out?”

  Priya grabbed Tonya by the shoulders and hauled her out of the mausoleum. Tonya stumbled, unable to see anything but the gaping black pit in her mind’s eye, sucking her down like quicksand.

  Priya slowed. “Shouldn’t we stand and fight?”

  Outside again, Tonya’s vision cleared. “You can’t kill something that’s already dead.”

  “Oh yeah?” Drake and Lynette came beside her, wielding shovels. “Haven’t you seen a zombie movie?”

  With a yell, Drake ran forward, attacking the creature’s gut with his shovel. Priya pitched rocks at its head.

  Lynette looked at Tonya, sitting on the ground. “Aren’t you going to do something?”

  Tonya tried to stand but her head was woozy. “I wish I could. You?”

  Lynette took a shovel in hand. “I’ll stay here and guard you.”

  Over her shoulder, Tonya saw the colossus stamp his feet, shaking the ground and sending Priya and Drake stumbling. He lifted a foot over Priya. At the last moment, before he could crush her, Priya put her shovel up.

  The creature split its own foot open on the shovel. Roaring, it stood on the other foot, scowling a Priya. Next, it bent over to tear a tombstone from the ground and fling it at her.

  Priya dodged and ran.

  Drake circled back to the mausoleum. “We can’t outrun it and we can’t kill it with our shovels.”

  Lynette backed deeper into the building.

  Priya was running but she wasn’t fast enough. The creature grabbed her shirttail, laughing as she struggled to get away.

  Tonya’s anger flamed. She ran out and pitched a rock at the Entity.

  It didn’t even notice, so intent was it on toying with Priya. Was there no way to save her friend?

  She hung her head, which was when she spotted the sewer grate. At the low point of the cemetery, in the middle of the road, lay the entrance to the storm drains. If they could get inside, the colossus would be too large to follow.

  “Drake, Lynette,” she whispered, “give me a hand.” She picked up another rock, pretending she wanted to throw it at the creature. She edged up until she was standing behind the sewer grate and pointed to it with her foot.

  “C’mon Priya! We’ve almost got you.” Tonya’s rock missed the Entity, but Drake pegged the creature in the eye, startling it long enough for Priya to wriggle free.

  As Priya ran toward them, Tonya, Drake, and Lynette heaved up on the sewer lid. The rusted metal disk didn’t budge.

  “Is it screwed down?” asked Tonya.

  “Give it a twist,” said Drake. “It’s probably rusted shut.”

  They jiggled it, rocked it, then finally turned it. With a screech, it lifted off, sending them stumbling back. It clattered to the ground.

  “Ladies first.” Lynette raced down the hole, and slid the lid closed behind her.

  “Hey!” Tonya tried to lift it, but it was too heavy.

  Priya was almost on top of them now, with the Entity right behind. Together, Tonya and Drake pried at the lid. It started to lift until Lynette grabbed on from underneath and hung off it by her hands.

  The Entity got down on its knees. Was It getting tired, or could he see they were trapped and wanted to draw out the moment like a cat playing with a mouse?

  “What’s wrong with you, Lynette?” Priya strained to lift the cover.

  “Don’t be scared,” said Drake. “You have to let go. There should be a ladder for you to stand on.”

  “Sorry. Not sorry!” Lynette started to giggle.

  “Please!” Priya tugged at the lid. “Let go so we can get in the drain, otherwise that thing will get us.”

  That’s the idea. Lynette’s voice reverberated in Tonya’s head.

  Not Lynette too! Was there any mind the Entity couldn’t infiltrate? When Tonya couldn’t protect her own roommate, how did Aunt Helen expect her to save the town?

  Instinctively, she looked up into the trees to regain her calm. Their great size and cheerful foliage usually made her problems feel smaller, but the nearby trees were burned, including the majestic oak overhanging the road.

  What a way to go. The last sight she would ever see would be those heavy branches, dying and sure to come down in the next storm.

  The Entity reached to snatch Priya which gave Tonya an idea. Just as she had killed a branch to demonstrate magic, she drew what life remained out of the oak branch overhanging the Entity’s head. Tonya grabbed Drake and pushed him a bit closer.

  “Hey! What are you doing?”

  The Entity pinned Priya down with one multi-handed hand then reached forward to grab Drake.

  Bingo!

  In a burst, Tonya drew the dregs of life from the crook of the tree, sending the enormous branch crashing onto the creature’s head. The creature collapsed and didn’t get up. Drake ran over to lift its hand off Priya who stumbled free. “Is it dead?”

  “I’ll make sure.” Drake took a shovel and brought it down on the fallen giant’s neck, over and over, sundering the bones holding it together.

  When the Entity’s head rolled down the road, Tonya lay on the grass and closed her eyes. Draining life energy from the branch had exhausted her.

  “Wha
t about Lynette?” asked Priya.

  Tonya opened her eyes. “Don’t go after her.”

  “But . . .”

  “Waldock controls her mind. If you see her again, be careful.”

  “We can’t just abandon her.” Drake eyed the sewer cover.

  “Until we stop Waldock, we can’t restore Lynette’s mind.” Or mine, thought Tonya. “Let’s find the car.”

  BEST FRENEMIES

  Relieved the Entity was dead, Priya drove away from the cemetery and headed north until she saw a fire truck parked across the road ahead.

  “What now?” Tonya asked, from the passenger seat.

  “Hold on guys.” Priya screeched the tires in a fast U-turn and set off in the opposite direction, but soon spied a second roadblock. To their left, the cemetery fire had left the area littered with charred stumps, fallen trees, and ash. To the right, corn fields and pastureland beckoned to the west. Priya wanted to reach the southbound highway west of town, the fastest route to Toronto from Loon Lake.

  The little road west Priya found only took them a few miles until it too ended in a roadblock. There was literally nowhere else to go but back to the shop outside the cemetery, or east to the quarantined campus.

  Priya turned south into a farmer’s gravel laneway.

  “What are you doing?” asked Drake.

  “Trust me.”

  The laneway ran out, but instead of stopping, she took a bumpy overland route east that would pass below campus.

  “This thing’s pretty good off-roading.” Drake was in the backseat.

  “Yeah, it loves the bang, bang, thump on its undercarriage.” Priya caressed the dashboard. “Sorry Baby.”

  “The important thing is, we’re still alive,” said Tonya.

  “Where did that thing come from? Why did it want to kill people?” Priya kept her eyes on the field, alert to any hazard. It wouldn’t take much to stop her little car.

  “It’s because of my aunt, and we’re not out of danger yet.”

  “Can’t anyone help us?” asked Drake. “What about your aunt’s friends?”