Knights Magica: An Urban Fantasy (Rosie O'Grady's Paranormal Bar and Grill Book 5)

by BR Kingsolver

  As I got ready for bed, I smiled. Muller hadn’t gotten what he wanted, but I was pretty sure he was hooked and would try again. It was too bad I wouldn’t be able to play with him again for two weeks. Perhaps Karl could do something about that.

  Chapter 20

  I had one more day of leave, but I wanted to avoid both Muller and my drunken, horny admirers. I used the computer in the hotel’s business room to do some research and discovered the perfect way to spend my last day. Alone.

  Although officially Knights were supposed to have special travel permits to leave their Salisbury stronghold, I knew that security was lax, and they checked only those in uniform. In the morning, I put on my civilian clothes, packed my duffel, and hiked down to the railway station. The express train was a little more expensive but worth it. I bought a ticket and was in Bath in less than ninety minutes.

  Armed with a tourist brochure I scored at the train station, I first hit the hot springs that the Celts and the Romans had made famous, and soaked for two hours of absolute bliss. Alone. Lunch, then a tour of the town’s gardens took me back to the train station. I changed clothes in the ladies’ room and grabbed the train back to Salisbury. My uniform and identification got me through security. I ate dinner at the pub next door to the station, and the bus took me back to my barracks. It was the best day I could remember.

  Back in reality, I got up the following morning and led my circle in strengthening the wards around the Heart.

  But three days later, when our rotation came around again, Scarpa knocked on my door earlier than my usual waking time.

  “There is a change this morning. Dress quickly.”

  I did as she said and emerged from my room to find her waiting for me along with the sergeants in charge of the other three circles. “Come.”

  She led us outside and set out toward Stonehenge. “Your circle will not participate in today’s ritual,” she told me. “The infidels have launched a major counterattack in Eastern Europe, and we must use the power of the stone to fend off their impertinence.”

  I reached out for the ley line, and it felt normal. Then I realized that I was going to see how the Knights used the Heart to corrupt the world’s magic. Karl and the Fae had come through and triggered the event we hoped for.

  As we left the compound, Standard-Bearer Dal Corso joined us, and we had to quicken our pace to keep up with her long strides.

  I was used to seeing only two sleepy guards at the entrance to the underground factories and the chapel where the Heart was kept. But that morning there was a crowd, and all of the witches waiting for us were at least chevalier rank. No mages were present.

  We descended inside, and Dal Corso led the way to the chamber with the Heart. Waiting for us there were two Chaplains, who were also witches, and a young woman—more a girl—dressed in a diaphanous white gown. Her sandy-blonde hair hung to her waist, and her head was crowned by a ring of spring flowers. As I drew closer, I saw that her face was expressionless, and her eyes were completely blank. She stared sightlessly ahead.

  I could say that made me uneasy, but I’d be lying. It completely freaked me out. I knew from The History of the Illuminati that Master Benedict and others of the Illuminati’s ruling elite had extended their lives unnaturally using blood magic. It was one of the charges the Knights Magica had made against the Illuminati for centuries.

  Ever since the Knights made their play for supremacy, I had wondered if they lived up to their professed religious ideals. The ruthlessness with which they suppressed their enemies in the Church had made me cynical. Their treatment of me when I was captured crushed the rest of my hopes. But I had not gone as far as suspecting them of taking the final, horrifying step into evil. And in that place, I was powerless to stop what they were about to do.

  Dal Corso set tall candle holders around the altar, then Scarpa came behind her and set thick, roughly made candles on them. One of the chaplains poured a line of salt connecting the candle pillars, and the other chaplain poured another circle of salt about fifteen feet farther out.

  I hadn’t been told what to do, so I stood with the other sergeants and watched. The rest of the witches—the officers—entered the outer circle and joined hands. There were thirteen of them, with Scarpa at the point.

  Dal Corso took the girl by the hand and led her to the altar, then lit the candles. One of the chaplains stepped forward and blessed the girl, then stepped back out of the circles. The standard-bearer laid a bouquet of flowers on the altar to either side of the Heart and walked around the inside of the inner circle, sketching a rune at each of the cardinal points.

  Returning to the girl’s side, Dal Corso, a knife in one hand, began to chant. Scarpa, at the focus of the witches’ circle chanted in counter point. I could feel the magic they were drawing begin to fill the room, and I braced myself.

  Abruptly, Dal Corso grabbed the girl by the hair. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw. The ley line boiled, and the stench of rotting meat filled the chamber.

  After a few minutes, I heard the rustling of clothing and scuffling of feet. I opened my eyes and saw the girl’s body slumped in front of the altar. The altar and the Heart were drenched in blood. After another round of chanting, the candles were blown out and the circles were broken by scuffing the salt. As far as I could tell, no one else in the room seemed to notice the corruption of the ley line, but I was the only mage present.

  All of the officers, including the chaplains, Scarpa, and Dal Corso, left. The sergeants that I stood with made no move to go, only watching the others. When we were alone, one of them touched me on the shoulder and motioned for me to follow him.

  From a long, ornate box sitting on the floor against one wall, they pulled out a length of white silk cloth and several cords of gold-colored silk. We laid the cloth on the floor, then picked up the girl’s body and put it in the middle. We rolled her up and tied the bundle with the cords.

  Next, we pulled out a long, wide wooden plank and set the body on it. I discovered the plank had four handles on its sides. We picked it up and carried it down the long hall to the exit at Stonehenge.

  Awaiting us was a white hearse. We loaded the plank with the body into it, then got in and drove to the Salisbury cemetery. A priest waited by an open grave. We lowered the girl’s body into it, he said a few words, and then we used the shovels present to fill in the grave. When we finished, we left the hearse, got into one of the Knights’ iconic black SUVs, and drove back to our barracks. During the whole macabre morning, not a one of us said a word.

  Scarpa intercepted me on the way back to my room. “Are you all right?”

  I tried to give her a puzzled look. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  She peered closely at me. “That ceremony is rather unusual. I wouldn’t think you’d seen anything like it before.”

  “No, I haven’t. What was the purpose?”

  “To disrupt the ley lines and weaken mages who are our enemies.”

  I wanted to slit her throat, but instead, I scraped together a heaping dose of false enthusiasm. “Incredible! I’ve never felt such power before. Does it take a lot of study to advance that far?”

  “It does take dedication and study.”

  “Is that the type of magic you’re going to teach me?”

  “If you’re interested, you could be initiated into the advanced magics.” She seemed to study me, then said, “Come with me.”

  We walked toward her quarters. “You and your team, all the circles, have been granted leave for the next seven days. At that time, report to the cathedral. Depending on what you’re told then, you may be ordered back here, or your leave may be extended. The wards won’t need to be renewed until the situation outside has stabilized.”

  “Is that how long the spell lasts? Seven days?”

  She shook her head. “It will last until a purification ritual is performed. The blood must be washed away.”

  We entered her quarters, which were about four times as large as mine. She pul
led a small book from a shelf and handed it to me. “Study this while you’re gone, and we’ll discuss it when you get back.”

  I opened it and saw it was a handwritten book of spells. A glance at a couple of them told me it was a book of blood magic written in Italian.

  “There is a general purification spell that’s used to clean up after all of that type of work,” Scarpa said, reaching over and leafing through until she found the right page. “Yes, that one. Take care of this, and bring it back to me. And don’t show it to anyone else.”

  “No, Ma’am. I’ll keep it close.” I unbuttoned my tunic and shoved the book inside under my breast. “Chevalier, why weren’t there any mages at the chamber? Can’t they do that kind of magic?”

  “Even with the protection of those rubies,” she said, motioning to the inset on my sword hilt, “the disruption in the ley lines would be too much for them. No mage will be able to get within three hundred meters of the gem until we remove the spell. Now, pack and get out of here. Such uses of power are tiring, and I must rest.”

  It took a bit of wrangling and flirting with the front desk clerk, but I managed to get a corner room next to the back stairwell. The catch was that it was on the fifth floor and not the second as I had hoped.

  After changing into civilian clothes and putting on makeup, I hung my two best Knights’ uniforms in the closet, left a change of underwear in the bureau, repacked my duffel, and went down the back staircase. A taxi took me to the train station, and I checked into the hotel next door using a different name. Again, I got a corner room, on the third floor that time. The windows on one side faced north to Sarum across the fields. The other side overlooked the train station.

  I spent the next hour casting the spells to create a mage box. Once finished, I stashed my Hunter’s main gauche, a couple of passports, some cash, and a change of clothing in it. Then I cast the spell that hid it.

  I was in full Hunter mode, operating alone and covering my own back. I hadn’t accomplished my primary objective yet, but I had finished my research. With six days to go, I knew the security setup and where my target was.

  There was a phone box at the train station, and I called Karl at four-thirty in the afternoon. I didn’t identify myself, simply said, “I think you should pick me up at the train station. Make dinner reservations somewhere discrete out of town for this evening.”

  I waited for him inside the station until he pulled up outside, then I went out and got in the front seat. He headed out of town to the north, and once we decided we weren’t being followed, he took a road going west.

  “Hiding out?” he asked.

  “Going a bit incognito.” I pulled Scarpa’s grimoire from my purse and waved it at him. “This contains the blood magic spell they are using to disrupt the ley lines. It also contains the purification spell that returns things to normal.”

  “Holy…how long until they figure out it’s gone?”

  “We have at least six days. I’m on a week’s leave. And I didn’t steal it; they gave it to me to study.” I dropped the book back in my purse. “I hope the place you booked for dinner has a good bar. I watched my first blood-magic sacrifice this morning, and I really need to get drunk.”

  He glanced at me, “You’re kidding.”

  “Wish I was. That’s how they’re corrupting the ley lines. They perform a ritual where they cut a girl’s throat and bathe the artifact in her blood. I felt the ley line go crazy immediately.”

  “Well, I knew that the ley lines got screwed up. The Fae added a bunch of mages to their forces in Europe. It seems to have gotten the Knights’ attention.”

  “Yeah. I was told that, ‘The infidels have launched a major offensive in Eastern Europe, and we must use the power of the stone to fend off their impertinence.’”

  “Infidels? Impertinence?”

  “You might have noticed that there are some pretty radical fanatics among the Knights. If I didn’t know that already, they really impressed it on me today.”

  Chapter 21

  I ordered a double scotch, neat, and Karl ordered a bottle of wine. The menu was a little pretentious, but I wanted something fancy. Hell, the Fae were paying the bills. Grilled scallops for an appetizer, lobster thermidor, scalloped potatoes, and broccoli with hollandaise sounded good.

  “Be sure to bring out the dessert cart,” I told the waiter.

  Karl laughed. “Have they been starving you?”

  “No, but the fare is pretty plain, and every place I’ve tried in Salisbury is pub grub.”

  He nodded. “Most of the fine dining is like this—a hotel or a castle or something outside of town.”

  He had shed his Knights’ tunic and clerical collar in the car and donned a sports coat. I was wearing a blouse and a skirt for the first time since Washington, and I felt kinda girly.

  “Do you read Italian?” I asked as I took the first appreciative sip of my scotch.

  “Poorly. Is that what the grimoire is written in?”

  “Yeah. The woman who gave it to me is Venetian, so it might not even be standard Italian. I’m going to need some of Oriel’s time.”

  “Languages are a Fae gift.”

  “Definitely. Languages and illusions seem to be part of the standard package. He understands me even when I speak an unusual dialect.”

  “Does cleaning the Heart require a blood ritual?” he asked.

  “I don’t think so. I glanced at the spell, and the main ingredient seems to be holy water.”

  Karl snorted. “We have an abundance of that. So, what’s the plan?”

  While we ate, I outlined my ideas. Unfortunately, if Scarpa was correct, I wasn’t going to get any help from my team in pulling off the actual heist. Oriel was half-witch, but the Fae were affected worse than mages by the corrupt ley lines.

  “I’ve really accomplished everything I can as Sergeant O’Grady, member of the witchy defenders of Stonehenge,” I said. “Ideally, a transfer to serve with Under-Marshal Muller could get me more access with less scrutiny.”

  Karl cocked his head. “And what makes you think Muller would give you a job?”

  “Oh, he wants me around more. Unfortunately, where he wants me is in his bed.” I shrugged and took a sip of wine. The plate in front of me was very, very empty. “Time for dessert.”

  He signaled for the waiter, then said, “There has to be another way. I don’t feel comfortable asking you to do that.”

  I shrugged. “Oh, you don’t have to ask me. If I do it, it will be my choice because I can’t figure a better way of getting what I need. Taking the Heart away from a cabal of blood mages is a lot more important than my personal distaste of whoring.”

  “I think you underestimate your boyfriend and his mates.”

  “Oriel? He thinks humans’ obsession with monogamy and fidelity are amusing. Sex is just a game to the Fae.”

  “No, I mean his talents.”

  “I don’t understand what you mean. He can’t cast a glamour on me, and besides, what good would that do? Whether I screw Muller wearing my own face or someone else’s, the result is the same.”

  “I don’t know if Oriel, being only half-Fae, can cast the kind of illusion I have in mind, but I know some full-Fae can.” Langermann grinned at me. “If I’m right, you might be able to screw Muller without ever taking your pants off, or at least he’ll think you did.”

  Karl called Oriel, who suggested we meet him at a pub on the east edge of Salisbury. When we walked in, the first thing I noticed was a ward on the door, and the second thing was the absence of Knights’ uniforms. Oriel, in civilian dress, sat in a booth near the back by himself.

  “Selective about their clientele?” I asked as we crossed the room to our seats.

  “Very. A Fae owns the place.”

  Oriel had already ordered a bottle of golden-colored wine and three glasses. He poured, and I brought him up to date. When I handed him Scarpa’s little book, he opened it and flipped through the pages.

  “Oh, yes, I
can read this. Not really bedtime reading, though. It might induce some rather unpleasant dreams.”

  I pointed to the spell to reverse the effect of blood on the Heart. “Can we do this one?”

  He took his time reading it, occasionally sipping at his wine.

  “I don’t see anything difficult about it. I think you should be able to cast it by yourself.”

  That was the best news I’d heard all day. “Great. The only problem is how to get me in there by myself.”

  Karl explained my plan to get me reassigned to Muller and use that connection to get inside the barrows where the Heart was kept.

  “That will take a couple of charms. Hang on,” Oriel said. He walked over to the bar and spoke with the bartender. A few minutes later, he came back.

  “You don’t have any duties or anyplace you have to be?” he asked. “No one to report to or who expects you tomorrow?”

  “Nope. I’m on leave.”

  “I have duties in the morning, but meet me here for lunch, and we’ll go see a charmsmith. I think she can fix us up with what we need.”

  Oriel had to be back at the cathedral for prayers, so Karl dropped me off at the hotel where I was registered as a Knight. After he pulled away, I melted into the shadows and made my way to the other hotel.

  I probably didn’t need to be so secretive, but I hadn’t told either Karl or Oriel about my second residence. Having a secret hiding place that I could escape to was a throwback to my Hunter days, and I felt a little more secure that way.

  I made it up to my room without anyone seeing me, took a long, hot bath, and went to bed. Unfortunately, I found that Oriel was probably right about the book. That poor girl’s face haunted me, and I had trouble falling asleep.

  I had a phone number Muller had given me, but I thought calling him was a little too aggressive. I stole into my hotel room downtown and changed into my Knight’s uniform, then went over to the cathedral.