“How can I stop her?”
“There’s only one thing that can stop her. You know what that is.”
Emma put a hand to her chest. “My heart.”
“That’s the only thing that can destroy her.”
“But it didn’t destroy her last time.”
“That’s because she wasn’t at full strength yet.”
“I don’t understand.”
He stopped beside a stool taller than he was. “Think of her like a bomb. The more TNT you put in there, the bigger the explosion. Now that she’s gorged on so many hearts to reach her full strength, she’s the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. When she goes, she’ll be incinerated.”
“What about me? Or the rest of the city?”
“Don’t be so literal, young lady. It’s not going to be an actual explosion. I speak figuratively. What will happen is more akin to the fallout of a nuclear device, only in this case it will be magical radiation that will spread throughout the city. It should be harmless for the Reds.”
“What about everyone else? Are people going to turn into toads and such?”
“There’s no way to be certain about it since it hasn’t happened, but I suspect that it shouldn’t inconvenience anyone much. Your witch friends might find their powers a bit dampened for a little while.”
He took her arm and a set of huge double-doors yawned open when he waved his hands. “Right this way.”
Through the doors she found a workshop that would drive Tim Cooper mad with ecstasy. It was as long as two football fields with rows of tools along one wall that featured everything from wooden mallets to the latest computerized gear. All manner of presses and grinders and other machines were scattered about, enough to equip an entire auto factory. But there was only one man in the room.
As she stared up at him, Emma understood why everything had looked as if it were designed for a giant—because it was. A man at least ten feet tall worked at an anvil nearly as big; he banged away with a hammer that could easily squash Emma like a bug. Merlin waited until the giant had stopped hammering to call out to him; the wizard had to exaggerate his voice to be heard.
“You don’t have to shout,” the giant rumbled. He turned around and Emma gasped. Though his skin was paler and his coarse beard sandy, his face—especially his eyes—were very much like Tim Cooper.
Merlin dragged her by the arm towards the anvil; she followed along and felt queasy as she wondered if this was a dream. Maybe she really had died in the lava and this was all some kind of bizarre hallucination. That certainly wouldn’t be the first time. “Heph, this is Dr. Emma Earl. She’s our latest Scarlet Knight.”
Heph did not offer to shake her hand; he glared down at her just like a storybook giant about to eat someone. “You’re the one who lost it. Do you have any idea how long I worked to perfect that suit? Seven hundred years I worked on getting the kinks out of it.”
“I’m sorry,” Emma said. Her eyes took in the anvil and then the giant. “Heph? Does that stand for Hephaestus?”
“Impressive,” Heph said. “Did you read that off a placemat at a Greek restaurant?”
“Don’t mind him,” Merlin whispered into her ear. “His wife left him two millennia ago. He used to be rather pleasant.”
“You mean Aphrodite?”
Heph sent Emma diving to the floor as he hurled his hammer across the room to shatter one wall of his workshop. “Don’t ever speak the whore’s name!” he roared.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know.”
Heph snorted at this. “Why don’t you bring me someone worthy of my labors? Isis will crush this feeble mouse. No amount of armor can manufacture courage.”
Emma scrambled to her feet and reached for the nearest handy object, a nail longer than Pepe. She held the pointed end up and then took a step forward. Ancient god or not, four feet taller than her or not, she couldn’t let him talk to her like that. “I don’t need armor to have courage,” she said. “I’ve beaten Isis before and I can do it again.”
Heph laughed, the sound like a bass drum. “Perhaps you aren’t as puny as I thought.”
“Don’t you forget it, buster.”
Merlin patted Emma on the shoulder. “Now that you two are getting along so well, I’ll leave you alone to work.”
“Work? On what?”
“A new suit of armor of course. Heph has made every Scarlet Knight’s armor in the Order’s history. In this case I thought it might be best if it were more customized.”
“Just as long as she doesn’t ask me to paint it pink or put flowers on it.”
“No, but I might have some ideas,” Emma said. She crawled onto a stool in front of Heph’s worktable and then pulled out a sheet of paper big enough to be a schooner’s sail. She turned to Merlin. “I don’t suppose you could shrink a pencil down for me?”
“Of course, young lady.” The pencil beside her shrunk down enough that she could fit it into her hand. Then she set to work.
***
Time had no meaning in Heph’s workshop—he didn’t even own a clock or watch—so Emma had no idea how long they worked on the armor. Most of her work concerned the design stage, though later she served as Heph’s go-fer, to fetch him tools, food, and water. The latter was always in need, especially for her, since the workshop was hotter than a sauna. Heph didn’t mind this as much, but then he was far more used to working inside a volcano.
The reason for the workshop’s location became obvious once they set to actually manufacture the armor. The lava provided more than enough heat to smelt the lumps of metal so Heph could pound them into shape with his hammer. He then cooled them in a vat of water the size of a swimming pool.
When she had designed her new armor, Emma’s primary concerns were to make something that would be portable and yet still provide adequate protection. The biggest problem with the armor was that it was a suit of armor; at her best she still needed a minute to suit up. It was a far cry from simply being able to tear open her shirt like Clark Kent. What she really needed was to be able to say a magic word and have it appear on her body like Captain Marvel.
“You’d have to talk to Merlin about that,” Heph said. “I just build the suit. He’s in charge of all the magical add-ons.”
She brought this up to Merlin later when he came in to check on them. “I’m sure we could do that. Maybe you could use a code word like ‘Shazam!’”
“Or mekka lekka weep ninibaum?”
“Good point.” He scratched his beard. “I suppose I could encode something in the traveling spell so you wouldn’t have to waste time putting on the armor.”
“Thanks. The other problem is with the cape.”
“You don’t like the cape?”
“I told you five hundred years ago the cape was stupid,” Heph grumbled.
“I don’t mind the cape itself. It’s just that invisibility isn’t all that helpful anymore. I’m sure five hundred years ago it was great, but now with cameras and night vision goggles and so forth, it’s not all that useful.”
“I think I have a cloak of invisibility in the cabin I could modify to do the job. Anything else on your wish list while I’m here?”
“The gloves. The lock opening feature isn’t all that helpful anymore either with laser locks and such. I was thinking that maybe the gloves could emit an electrical shock that would disable any laser locks.”
“My goodness. I suppose next you’ll want to be able to fly too.”
“Well—”
“I’m afraid not, my dear.”
“You can’t do that?”
“Of course I can. But I won’t. Most humans have a difficult enough time running and jumping without being able to fly. You’d probably wind up splattering yourself on a wall or colliding with a jetliner.”
“But—”
“I’m sorry. Now what’s next? Heat vision? X-ray vision?”
“Just night and thermal if you could. If not I can do some modifications when I get back.”
Heph
snorted at this. “Modifications. All of you think you can improve on my work. A bunch of ingrates.”
“Sylvia installed dragonsbane lenses in the visor. I don’t suppose you have any of that lying around? Just in case.”
“I can do better than mere dragonsbane,” Heph said.
“Well, then I guess that’s it. You’re sure I can’t fly?”
“Trust me, it’s for the best,” Merlin said. “It’ll be a lot less dangerous for you—and everyone else.”
Once Merlin had gone, Emma and Heph resumed work. Gradually the armor began to take shape. Emma tried on each piece after it cooled. “Don’t worry about the size,” Heph said. “It’ll adjust to fit.”
“I know.” One of her main additions were the flaring shoulder pads to give her more protection in that area; she still bore the scar from the first Black Dragoon on her left shoulder. She also took special pride in redesigning the helmet; she eliminated the old horsehair plume. Instead, she added swan-like wings on either side of the helmet as a sort of tribute to her mother, who had often compared her gangly daughter to the ugly duckling that would one day become a swan.
The last item wasn’t the armor itself but the new Sword of Justice. Here she and Heph got into an argument. “I don’t see why you can’t just use a good old short sword. Worked well enough back in the old days.”
“That’s not very aerodynamic. What happens when I have to throw it?”
“You toss it like a dart, not like a boomerang.”
“I liked the old Sword of Justice. It was…elegant. I’d like to keep it as much the same as possible if that’s all right with you.”
“Fine. Maybe the next one will be more appreciative of the old ways.”
Over however long they’d worked on the armor, Heph’s attitude towards Emma had not really changed. He still thought of her as a nuisance. That she was a woman only added to his irritation. “It’s your hair,” Merlin said while she got food out of the kitchen, which made her feel like a giant mouse. “His wife had red hair.”
“It’s not really red anymore.”
“It is at the roots. That’s all he needs.”
“I could always change it. If that would help.”
“It wouldn’t. He’d just find some other reason to compare you to her.”
Emma nodded at this; she knew how hard it was to get over a broken heart. She looked back towards the workshop and heard Heph pound away at a piece of metal. “So what happened to his wife? Where did she go?”
“I’m not rightly sure. After that unpleasant business with Ares, I think she went off to write her tell-all book or some such nonsense.”
“So besides Heph and Isis, how many other gods and goddesses are still around?”
“Most of them got bored with this planet. They went to find new ones to play with. A few of the less adventurous ones like Heph stayed behind. Then of course there’s Isis. The Egyptian gods were always so much more narcissistic than the others. She can’t stand the thought she might not be the most revered or most beautiful or any of that.”
“What about you?”
“I’m not a god. Not even a demigod.”
“Just a humble wizard?”
“Not always humble, but yes.”
“Where did your power come from then?”
He tapped his chest. “From there. Just like yours. That’s the real magic of the Scarlet Knight. It always has been. Remember that when you face her.”
Emma looked down sadly at the floor. “What about when my heart tells me saving Louise is more important than defeating Isis?”
“Then you remember that she’s your daughter. Nothing Isis can do to her can ever change that.” He pointed to Emma’s chest. “She has your heart. Remember that and you’ll know what to do when the time comes.”
“Thanks.” She pulled a loaf of bread as long as her arm onto a tray. “I’d better get back and see how Heph is doing.”
“Of course.”
Emma took a step and then stopped. “Do you mind if I ask you a question about him?”
“Go ahead, young lady.”
“It’s just that he looks so much like my friend Tim. And they’re both so good at working with metal and machines and such. It got me thinking—”
“They’re related, yes.”
“You mean Tim is a demigod?”
“Of course not. But you’ve studied mythology. You know that back in those days gods used to come down and mate with mortals all the time. Some of those demigods had children and they had children and so forth. There’s no way to know exactly how many generations removed your friend is, but there’s some of Heph’s blood in him.” He smiled at her. “Just like you have the blood of Athena in your veins.”
“The goddess of wisdom.”
“Exactly.”
“But it’s not much by now, is it?”
“Just a drop is all you need.”
“Does everyone have some?”
“Unlikely, though it’s hard to tell in ordinary people. In the extraordinary ones it’s easy.”
“I’m not extraordinary.”
“Of course you are.” He waved his hand. “Look where you are. You think an ordinary person could be here?”
Emma thought about her conversation with Dr. Reed in the car. “You never know who’s extraordinary until they’re called upon.”
“Yes, and right now you’re the one hearing the call.”
“Thanks.” She nodded and then went back to Heph’s workshop to work on the armor that would help her save Louise and everyone else.
Chapter 32
Emma took a few practice swings of the new Sword of Justice, to acclimate herself with the weapon’s weight and feel. The new sword felt a bit lighter, mostly because she had compromised with Heph and allowed him to make it a few inches shorter. He’d taken a little of the curve out of the blade as well so that it looked distinctly more European in design.
Though she preferred the old Sword of Justice, she had to admit this was still a fine weapon. Heph had really outdid himself on the hilt and pommel; he had fashioned the pommel in the shape of a swan’s head; its neck curved around the hilt, into a pair of wings to match those on the helmet. He had grumbled about a swan being too “girly,” but he finally gave in. “We’ll just have to change it for the next one.”
The final test of the sword took place outside the workshop. Heph dropped a boulder six feet in diameter in front of her. “If it can cut through that without breaking then it should be fine,” he said.
She took a deep breath and then raised the sword. The silver blade slashed through the rock as if it were made of butter. The perfectly cleaved halves fell to either side while the Sword of Justice remained intact. “I think this will do,” she said. She jammed the sword into its new black-and-silver sheath.
She, Merlin, and Heph had collectively decided to change the armor’s color scheme from red and gold to red and silver. The reason wasn’t artistic so much as practical. The invisibility cloak Merlin had dug up was a shimmery silver, the otherworldly fabric unable to be dyed. It was easier to color the rest of the armor to go along with it.
The sword was the last part of the armor to undergo testing. Some features like the cape’s invisibility to cameras or the gloves’s ability to disable laser locks couldn’t be tested at Heph’s house or anywhere on the astral plane; she would have to give these a baptism of fire and hope for the best. The rest of the features worked just the way she remembered, though it seemed like so long since she’d worn the armor that she needed a few minutes to remember how everything worked. It was just as well Marlin wasn’t there to make fun of her when she tried to jump and fell on her face or got stuck on Heph’s ceiling, unable to get the gloves to let go.
The absolute last feature to test was the traveling spell. She stared at Merlin after he gave her the magic words. “Can’t we make it something that sounds less—goofy?” she asked.
“It can’t be ordinary words or else you might accide
ntally use it in conversation. That might be quite embarrassing at a dinner party if you say, ‘Pass the peas, please’ and suddenly change into the Scarlet Knight, don’t you think?”
“But still—”
“This is the language of magic. Just say the words.”
Emma’s cheeks turned red as she said, “Oh een ih annarg peew hab.” One moment she was clad in a white tunic and black leggings Merlin had shrunk down for her from Heph’s closet and the next she was surrounded by the red armor. There was just one problem: it was backwards! Emma stiffly flailed around to try to get the helmet off. She fell on her face again, where she lay until Heph helped her up and took off the armor for her. “What happened?”
Merlin frowned for a moment and then snapped his fingers. “I copied the words backwards. Try reading it forwards this time.”
Emma got to her feet and then took a deep breath. “Bah weep granna hi nee ho,” she said. She felt even more ridiculous to say such nonsense. This time the armor went on the right way. She flipped open the visor and smiled at Merlin and Heph. “Well, I think we’re ready,” she said.
“In that case, I think it’s time for you to go,” Merlin said. “Your ride awaits out front.”
She leaned forward to hug Merlin, careful so that the armor didn’t bruise him. “Thank you for everything—especially for Jim.”
“I offered him the choice of going on to the afterlife, but he said he wanted to stay and wait for you and Louise so you could all go on together.”
“I just hope he has to wait a while,” she said. “I don’t suppose you can look into the future and tell me?”
“The future is always shifting. Just do what you can in the present.”
“That’s what I thought.” She turned to Heph, who loomed over her. She held out her much smaller hand for him to envelop in his. “And thank you for all your help.”
“If you really want to thank me, try not to destroy that armor too quickly. I’m not going to build you another one.”
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 173