The air around them rippled, tore, then the scene reformed. Again Gloria arranged the loading of the car. This time young Karl ranted and complained about the abuse the leather seats were taking from the girls’ shoes and refused to consider driving them anywhere. While Karl argued with Gloria, Jimmy ducked around to the other side of the car and climbed in, keeping his head low and working his way across to the driver’s seat. Suddenly Gloria reached out, snatching the keys from Karl’s hand. She tossed them to the waiting Jimmy. When the key turned in the ignition Karl threw his beer can away cursing loudly and tried to grab the car door.
Laughing, Jimmy slammed the car into motion, and with a deep grinding from the gearbox, drove off. Karl ran beside the car shouting, clutching vainly at the slick metal. Gloria followed, dragging Karl back.
“Wait,” commanded Karl. “Freeze it. Stop!”
Karl froze on the side of the road only inches away from his younger self.
“What?” asked Amber.
“What is Gloria shouting?”
The scene advanced a few more feet. Amber and Karl stood beside Gloria listening intently.
“Flip it?” muttered Karl.
“Sounds like it to me. What does she mean?”
“No idea,” Karl faced the car again, “Let it run and we’ll see.”
The young Karl leapt to one side as Jimmy turned the steering wheel sharply again and again. Jimmy deliberately bounced the tires once, twice, three times against the curb. Gloria bounced up and down on the sidewalk shrieking excitedly.
“What is he doing?” shouted Amber.
“My God! He’s trying to flip the car. Like in the movies. To drive the car on two wheels.”
“That’s insane,” Amber cried. “That’s not how it’s done. And there are girls in the back!”
Beside her the young Gloria continued to scream her chant, “Flip it! Flip it!”
Amber watched the car speed down the road, Jimmy yanking on the steering wheel. The front wheels caught on a section of higher pavement, lifting the car, throwing it over. The girls tumbled, flew, limbs flailing.
And so did Jimmy, crashing to the ground, his body broken.
On the sidewalk both Karls screamed. Gloria ran toward her Karl, her hand raised. She called out words of summoning, drawing in the energy of the girls’ deaths. Shrieking more unintelligible words Gloria thrust her fist deep into young Karl’s stomach. As he doubled over in pain, she slapped her other hand hard against his forehead calling down more power, driving her will deep into his body.
“Hold!” cried Amber, freezing the scene. Grabbing the elder Karl by the shoulders, she spun him around, “Look at this. At her! It isn’t your fault. Gloria did this. Gloria caused this. She killed four people just to make you feel guilty!”
Karl continued to shriek, his hands fisted hard against his own stomach.
“See it!” commanded Amber, dragging his head up by the hair. “Open your eyes. See it clearly. See the truth! Look at what she did. Gloria killed! Murdered!”
Karl’s hands clawed at his chest; his eyes were open, staring.
Amber called the waiting spell energy to one hand and thrust hard into Karl’s abdomen, raking her other hand hard over his forehead. As her hands came away they were encased in a writhing mass of black threads, frantically thrusting into her skin. Trying to dig their way into her flesh.
And her spirit.
Chapter Eighteen
Karl staggered as he was relieved of the great weight. He gasped as he saw the threads in Amber’s hands growing, expanding. Spreading. The thick mass entangled about Amber’s limbs. Climbing over her head. Binding about her chest. He plunged his hands into the mass trying to pull them away from her, but his hands passed through the threads, untouched and untouchable.
“Amber!”
Amber stood quietly within the twisting mass. Eyes shut. Tears running down her face. Concentrating.
The power she needed waited only a thought away. She reached out. The coven’s strength poured into her, strengthening her shields, protecting her hands. Glowing and growing power flowed over her body, encasing the new threads. Each individual fiber covered and held within a magical sheath.
“Amber! For God’s sake, Amber, give them back. They’re too much for you.”
Amber seemed to relax, muscle by muscle. Her eyelids fluttered. And she opened her eyes. The rich blue had fled. Her eyes were a deep flat black.
The dreamscape faded and Karl found himself wrestling with Sandy and Kokopeli.
“Where’s Amber? What happened?”
Sandy pointed down. Beside the blanket lay Amber, one hand raised stiffly into the air. Lady Fuzzy Bunny Slippers was arranging another blanket over her legs.
Amber blinked and smiled up at them. “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself,” Karl dropped to his knees beside her. His heart twisted and started beating again. Here in the real world her eyes were still a comforting blue, but they were shadowed with pain and fatigue. He tried to pull her into his arms, but her stiff body was too heavy for him to move. “Oh, Amber,” he groaned, “What the hell did you do?”
“What I promised,” Amber’s voice was a faint echo of its usual cheerful tone. She paused between words struggling to force air into her lungs. “I took the threads out of you in a way that left you alive. I had to wait for you to reject the hook. Gloria used guilt to bury a link to the web in your mind and heart. You’re free. I knew what would happen. We didn’t destroy the web, so it transferred to me. I just didn’t expect it to be so heavy.”
“Dammit, Amber. Now you’re their victim. I didn’t want that. God. Please tell me you’re okay.”
“I was already caught. Nothing new there.”
“Let me help you up.”
He shoved his hands under her shoulders and heaved, but couldn’t shift her an inch.
“No. I can’t move yet. It’s too heavy,” her lips barely moved as she spoke. “It would be easier to stay right here,” she glanced at Sandy. “What time is it?”
Several coven members moved within the circle, building up the fire, encouraging it to burn brighter on the side nearest Amber. Karl lay down beside Amber and pulled her close.
“About four-thirty.” Sandy’s face shone palely in the flickering firelight.
“Good,” said Amber. “Tell everyone to rest a little. We have a little time before the main event. Keep the sacred space intact, but take turns maintaining it.”
“Okay,” said Sandy.
“Not ‘Okay.’” Karl glared around the circle. “Amber’s got the whole web weighing on her. We have to get it off.”
“We will,” said Sandy, “or rather, she will. Just not yet.”
“Not yet?”
Amber nodded fractionally. “I don’t know how the spell was cast. None of us do. These guys discussed it all day while we were asleep. They can’t see it. No one who isn’t part of the web can sense it. It wasn’t possible to work out what she did and that means we don’t know how to unmake it. We have to have the caster, Gloria herself, to unmake it, if we can. Or break it. Either way we need her to be present. To confront her. So we wait until the usual five sixteen event and deal with it then. The coven is all set up to make sure I don’t lack for power.”
“You have got to be joking! I wouldn’t have let you start this if …”
“I know. Hey, at least I’m being honest. I could’ve pretended that I told you all about it, we had a fight, and you eventually agreed that this was the only way. Then your forget spell kicked in and you forgot. I confess; I kept this from you.”
Karl swore for a few minutes then leaned over to kiss her.
“I love you, you idiot,” he said. “You can’t go around doing dangerous things to yourself without my permission. It isn’t allowed.”
Amber’s laugh was a faint whisper of sound, but it echoed in the silent circle.
“Who made up that rule?”
“I did,” Karl arranged the blanket closer around
Amber’s stiff body, “just now. You do that one more time and I’ll … find some way to make you regret it.”
“I’ll remember that in future.”
Karl kissed her again.
“I’ll make sure you do.”
Kokopelli sat cross legged beside them and pulled a small drum out of its carrying case. He started a slow, heavy beat. Sandy passed around the circle, touching several of the witches on the shoulder. They nodded and followed her out of the circle. The remaining witches started a soft chant, soothing as a lullaby.
“We just wait?”
“It’s not as if we can send a message to Gloria asking her to drop in a little earlier today.”
“Well, maybe not.” Karl tried to ignore the unnatural stiffness of Amber’s body. He brushed a strand of hair off her face. “So when she comes we go to the wolf dream and I kick their butts while you throw magic at them.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, ‘No’?”
Amber refused to meet his eyes. “The spell binding you to the dream is broken. I’ll be pulled into the dreamscape, not you.”
His hands tightened on her shoulders.
“The hell you say. I won’t have you fighting her without me. This is my fight. She did this to me.”
“Don’t be so selfish. It’s not your style. She did this to a lot of people. Possibly thousands.” Amber drew in a deep breath, “I’m sorry, Karl, but it has become my fight. She’s a witch and a witch has to face her. If it helps, I wish you could be with me.”
“That doesn’t help. I’m sick and tired of being useless. I’ve been nothing but a victim and I want my chance to get …”
“Revenge?” Amber interrupted. “No, and you weren’t useless when you kicked their butts.”
“It wasn’t enough.”
“You’ll know better next time. Kick harder when you have the chance.”
Karl grunted and pulled her closer, trying to warm her chilled body with his.
“Hey, you two, can we talk to you?”
Sandy and Thalia knelt beside them.
“What’s up?”
Sandy raised an eyebrow at Thalia who grimaced as she accepted her role as spokesperson.
“Sandy and I have been looking at Karl since the trance ended. Have you any idea what he looks like?”
Amber tilted her head and gazed up at Karl.
“I take it ‘cute’ isn’t the answer you’re looking for.”
Both ladies laughed.
“More than that,” said Sandy. “He’s pretty, but that’s not the point. If you don’t have any use for him we’d like to have him join our coven.”
Karl’s head snapped round.
“You what?”
Sandy put a soft hand on his sleeve.
“No threat, Karl. Only if you want to. But you’d be a real asset to our group. You’re a true focus. Our spells would work so much better if we could run them through you.”
“Through him?”
“Through me? Dammit. That was what Gloria called me,” said Karl. “She called me her true focus. I thought that meant she was focused on me. A girlfriend thing.”
Amber blinked rapidly.
“Dammit. I can’t see right now. The web’s stopping me.”
“What’s going on?” demanded Karl.
“Relax, Karl,” said Amber. “No one’s going to force you to do magic.”
“Of course,” said Thalia, “nothing is required of you; we just wanted to tell you that you have a rare talent. You can channel power. Most witches do, just for a little while. We do it every time we do a spell, but very few people can focus it tightly and make it stronger just by passing it through their minds. It’s like the difference between a flashlight and a laser beam. I can turn power onto a spell, get lots of people to do a working with me, but you, you’d be like putting the spell on top of a Saturn Five rocket and blasting it up.”
“You’re showing your age,” whispered Sandy and they both giggled.
“Amazing,” said Amber, trying to twist around and face Karl. “Gloria saw that in you. And when you wouldn’t cooperate she devised a way to kidnap your natural abilities. Every time she raised energy by taking life force from others you focused it, and you took the karmic and magical burden. If you hadn’t been so strong you never would have survived. Without knowing it you drew strength from the world and it sustained you. That’s why all the threads came together near you. Why you had to be in the dreamscape.”
“I’m magical?” Karl shook his head. “No. I’d have known.”
“How?” Her familiar grin passed slowly over her face. “There was no one in your family to tell you. Nothing in your education to warn you what to look for. Which classes in school lecture you on magic … sports, health? Now that I’d pay to see. The coach sitting the boys down and saying ‘in addition to using antiperspirant, condoms, and bathing daily, how many of you find that if you really, really want something, it happens?’ How would you know what was magic and what was a weird coincidence?”
“The reason we brought this up, in addition to the fact that you need to know so you can start training and get your own protections, is that we’d like to include you in the energy raising spell.”
Karl focused on Amber.
“That’s what you said you needed from the coven. Power.”
“Right.”
“Then I’m in. If this helps you beat Gloria into mulch then I’m in.”
“Sandy,” called Amber. “You have to teach Karl how to do it properly. He’s been hurt because he’s had no training at all.”
“Got it.”
The coveners standing outside the circle stirred, shouted a warning. Blankets were clutched around shoulders. A lone watcher sprinted across the field from the parking area.
“Car coming!”
A witch jumped forward with a blanket, and several people rushed to help her hold it up to shield the light of the fire from reaching the road.
They waited breathlessly as the distant car skidded to a stop and car doors opened and slammed shut. Several footsteps crunched on the gravel parking lot.
Sandy and Thalia walked into the darkness to greet the new arrivals. After a few minutes of whispered conversation they returned, smiling.
“Visitors for Amber,” Sandy announced.
Karl sat up, shielding Amber’s still body from view. The newcomer came to the edge of the circle and scowled at him.
“I let you take our Amber on a day trip and this is what you do to her?” cried Smoke. “Just wait until I get you alone, lad. I’ll rip your bloody knees out.”
“Good to see you, too, Smoke.” Karl shifted to one side so that Amber could see her cousin.
“Hey, Smoke, Lightning. Wow, Smoke, you got into a car with Lightning again? Do you want to live to see two hundred?”
“When we couldn’t get you to answer the phone or any emails we decided to drive down,” said Smoke. “I checked the website for possible contacts. Fortunately Sarah’s husband was home to give us directions.”
“We had a run-in with the police,” said Amber. “They took my phone, computer, everything.”
“And of course, there are no other phones in the United States that you can use,” Smoke sneered folding his arms across his chest.
“Oh, come on in,” Karl stood stiffly. “Amber can’t move for some reason. You can …”
“Nah, lad,” Smoke shook his head slowly. “I came down because I thought our Amber could use a little extra help.”
Smoke waved at one of the small figures standing behind him.
“Missy, my great uncle’s second daughter. She’s the one that cast the circle the night that Amber collapsed. She’s going to donate her magic to Amber.”
“No. I won’t accept it,” Amber turned her head, her teeth clenched against the pain of movement, “Missy can stand with the others in the circle to raise energy, but I won’t take her magic from her. I … I don’t think it’s right.”
�
��Amber, it’s our custom.”
“Right now, Smoke, I can’t see the difference between what Gloria was doing and what you’re suggesting,” Seeing his blank look Amber sighed. “Karl will explain. I have to concentrate. Rest. It will be time soon. I should sleep if I can. The dreamscape doesn’t come if you’re not asleep.”
Karl brushed his lips over her cold forehead and climbed slowly to his feet. Sandy and Thalia accompanied him to the edge of the circle and created a small opening for him to exit. Amber closed her eyes and let her mind drift. The witches and Smoke would take care of Karl. He was safe. Finally free. Despite all her worries the hook had come free of his spirit without a serious wound. Karl would heal. His strength, vitality would return in time. With luck, a little exercise, and good food, his life would be of normal length.
The air was cool, but Amber did not feel it. The web was wrapped round her like a cocoon. Personally Amber would rather be mobile, free, and cold than to have its protection. It was late. Amber did not want to remind anyone of the passing time. She was confident Sandy would restart the chants at the right moment. With a soft sigh she drifted off to sleep.
* * * * *
The sky above her was a vivid burning orange. Amber shifted on the rocky ground trying to find a more comfortable position. There was one particularly sharp rock digging into her right hip. She rolled to her front and dragged her arms forward under her chest. Sweat ran across her forehead, drying rapidly as she pushed herself up to her knees. The center of the web still encased her hands, writhing and twisting within its sheath. The rest of the bonds seemed to have vanished. Amber cradled her hands to her naked chest and remained kneeling. Waiting.
The wolves appeared along the skyline, one by one. Amber kept her head bowed. There were more wolves tonight. More than she had thought possible. Twenty, thirty of them. They clustered around, moving uncertainly across the rocky ground. She was right. They had planned some sort of revenge against Karl tonight.
Predictable.
Disappointing.
The change of prey obviously confused them. Her appearance before had not bothered them. Whatever explanation Gloria had given did not leave room for a repeat. In the mass of fur Amber could not see Gloria yet. Possibly Gloria was still unaware anything had happened to her spell. She was expecting to see Karl. To punish Karl.
First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association) Page 37