bedeviled & beyond 07 - beset & bewildered

by Sam Cheever

  As we approached, the court rose up in a cloud of buzzing wings and fairy dust with swords drawn. The three inch tall fairy at the front of the court slouched arrogantly against his sword, his wings flapping so quickly they were a blur on the air. His tiny face was a mask of arrogance. He tossed his head as we approached, flinging a thick mop of bright red hair away from his face, and lifted his sword. “Stop. We have not given you permission to approach.”

  Caninra growled low in her slender throat and the fairies became more agitated. Their leader slid a haughty gaze over her. “Who let the dogs in?”

  The growl got louder as the herd of fairies tittered, the sound like a thousand bugs rubbing their wings together.

  I stepped up to Caninra, placing a restraining hand on her arm. She shook me off with a glare.

  “Who am I addressing?” I asked their leader

  The man-shaped bug’s chin rose another notch. “I do not gift you with my name, halfling.”

  Slayer’s hand fell to the hilt of his sword. “We wish no trouble with the fairies. But we took refuge in this forest first. You’re the ones who are intruding on us,” he told them very reasonably. “We have no choice but to assume you are enemies.”

  Laughter rippled through the herd again.

  I slid Slayer a look, dipping into our shared mental channel. They’re way too cocky. They must have someone really powerful in their corner.

  Slayer inclined his chin and turned back to the lead insect. “Does your king know you’re here?”

  The flame-haired leader dropped an inch on the air, his arrogance slipping just enough to be noticeable.

  We had our answer.

  “Maybe we should tell him,” I suggested. “I’m sure King Aelfric will be happy to come fetch you back before you break the imperatives of the Primordial Forest.”

  A soft buzzing ensued in the court and Red had his tiny little hands full getting his court to quiet again. Once he’d gotten them under control, he turned back to us with a smug smile. “Aelfric cannot stop what has begun. He is of yesterday. We are the fairies of today.”

  “So you admit you’ve gone rogue?” Slayer asked.

  Red glared smugly at my sexy Slayer. “We have taken back our history, halfling. Fairies were never meant to be of the light. We suppressed our darker natures millennia ago and have suffered for it.”

  “Yet you are not averse to using what’s left of your light to break core magic law, are you?” Caninra asked him in a husky, growly tone of voice.

  The fairy lifted a few inches on the air, his hand tightening over the hilt of his sword. He looked for a moment like he might take offense to her accusation, but then he laughed. My stomach twisted at the sight of his open-mouthed smile. His teeth were small and jagged, deadly sharp. I felt Slayer stiffen beside me and realized he’d seen the same thing.

  The light fairies I’d encountered in the past hadn’t sported such teeth. There was definitely dark magic at play.

  “Only a stupid creature would overlook his strengths in the pursuit of power.” Red flashed forward, stopping several feet closer to Caninra. She blinked in surprise at his self-confidence and tried to grab him out of the air. He danced easily away with a laugh that was echoed in the court.

  Slayer’s expression seemed to verify what I was thinking. Whatever their purpose for being there, the fairies obviously meant us harm. And we couldn’t let them stay. He drew his sword and I pulled magic from my core. In a flash, Caninra’s shape rippled and she leapt forward in her Hellhound form, fire flaring from between jaws that had opened in an enraged roar.

  True to his boast that he wasn’t stupid, Red shot skyward, his sword flashing. He whistled, a high-pitched sound that pierced my eardrums like a blade, and the herd of fairies surged in our direction, their tiny faces dark with rage.

  I felt the first touch of fairy string on my arm and spun to slice it off. I knew from experience that if they could get enough of the nasty stuff wrapped around me I’d have trouble getting free. Even as I cut the first strand, several more found my limbs and pulled taut, slicing into my skin.

  As we’d gotten used to doing on the job, Slayer and I went back to back and circled, using blade and magic to keep the nasty bugs at bay.

  Pain seared my left shoulder and I yelped, reaching up to swat the female fairy away, she flew backward, my blood dripping down her chin and coating her scary looking teeth.

  I didn’t have time to examine my wound because Slayer and I were suddenly inundated with fairies. The nasty little things shot toward us, wrapping their shimmering string around any part of our bodies they could reach and then dodging away before we could retaliate.

  Several more fairies landed on my legs, sinking their horrible teeth into my flesh. I reached down without thinking and zapped one of them with a power arrow, screaming in pain as I shot myself in the calf.

  Slayer half turned, his blade still flashing through the night. “Are you okay?”

  “Don’t...” I ducked a yellow-haired female wielding a blood covered blade and then swung my arm and zapped her as she flew past. Her scream of pain disintegrated along with her nasty little bug body. “...worry about me. Just keep fighting. There are more of these than I thought.”

  Several strands of fairy string found my wrist and my arm flew skyward, smacking Slayer in the back of the head.

  “Ouch! Hey!”

  “Sorry!” I wrenched my arm downward, whiplashing the fairies on the other end into the dirt. As they scrambled to get back up I sent energy into them with a little more enthusiasm than I probably needed, smiling meanly as they disintegrated into fairy dust.

  I sneezed as the dust filled my sinuses.

  Caninra yelped and I turned to see how she fared.

  She was covered, head to toe with bugs. They were biting her and several flew around her legs, binding them with fairy string. She was in trouble.

  “I’m going to help her,” I yelled over my shoulder to Slayer. “Hold the fort.”

  “My pleasure.” He spun with his blade and dissected a line of fairies, spraying us with sparkling dust as they died.

  His hand came up and energy spun over his palm. I didn’t wait to see how he would use it. I threw myself into the air and rolled, shooting energy in a coil of power that the fairies couldn’t quite manage to avoid. When I landed, I knelt beside Caninra and sliced her legs free, then jumped back as she reared up with a roar and spun around, roasting the fairies that had been coating her as they lifted off her broad back.

  I stepped backward, out of the line of her fire, and came up against something tall, dark and deadly.

  Unfortunately it wasn’t Slayer.

  The curved blade of the ghoul’s scythe slipped around my throat and a grave-like scent washed over me.

  Lifting a terrified gaze, I found myself looking into Morta’s ugly face.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  A Reluctant Apprentice

  A Necromancer’s smorgasbord is no place to be,

  Especially when the monster thinks you’d make a tasty main course.

  Morta smiled and the contents of my colon liquefied. “We meet again, my dear. And again your friends have deserted you.”

  I did a quick scan of the area and saw that she was right. I was alone...except for the ghoul holding me captive and Morta. Fear set my pulse to pounding. What had the Necromancer done to them? “I assume you had something to do with that.”

  Her smile widened. “Perhaps.”

  A harsh buzzing whizzed past my ear and I swatted at it without thinking. The red-haired fairy just barely dodged out of the way. He hovered on the air in front of Morta, glaring at me. “My liege, the others are nearly here.”

  Morta inclined her chin, turning a speculative gaze to me. “Then I guess we best get going.”

  The world thinned, tightening around me, and I opened my mouth to scream a warning to Astra and the others, but I never got the chance. I slammed into the shift with the scream still throbbing in my throa
t, my mind roiling.

  I couldn’t go back to that icy cavern that smelled of death. I couldn’t suffer through another round of night visions. I’d kill myself before I allowed that to happen.

  In that moment I made a decision. As soon as my feet hit the ground I’d fling myself forward onto the ghoul’s scythe.

  My pulse pounded in my ears as the shift stretched around me. But even as my body reacted with fear at the thought of dying, a sense of peace blossomed in my chest. My death would take away Slayer’s need to save me and remove Torre’s link to our ill-fated mark forever.

  Astra would mourn. But in the end she’d be safer too.

  I readied my mind to do what needed to be done. But when my feet touched the ground again, it wasn’t icy rock. Instead, the surface under my feet was soft and green, the air clean and sweet with the scent of flowers.

  My sister’s name tore free of my throat and disrupted the quiet darkness where we’d landed.

  The bony hand on my shoulder tightened as I stumbled forward and the blade dropped away.

  Blinking in surprise, I looked around at the wide, green expanse of an ancient cemetery, one that even had tombstones on some of the older graves.

  A sick feeling tumbled in my belly. Morta hadn’t taken me back to the frozen environs. She’d brought be back to an unsuspecting Earth.

  Unleashing the most powerful necromancer in all the dimensions on the human population? Yeah, that wouldn’t end badly.

  I swung my gaze to Morta, finding her studying me carefully through her strange eyes. “Yes, halfling. I have brought you home.”

  If only. “You don’t belong in this dimension, Necromancer.”

  She glanced around. “It’s true I haven’t been here for a thousand years or more.” Morta frowned. “It has changed considerably hasn’t it?”

  The ghoul behind me shifted slightly, its robes making a soft swishing sound that was echoed by a soft, warm breeze.

  The hairs on my neck stood at attention and I wondered if it was because I had a rancid dead guy with a scythe standing behind me. That would certainly make sense.

  But then I caught something out of the corner of my eye and I realized the cold feeling might have more to do with the hundreds of spectral shapes rising from their graves, than the single monster standing directly behind me.

  I looked at Morta and her eyes were closed, arms outstretched, as if she were calling them.

  Energy sparked on the air near some of the spooks. It was black, edged in blue like the energy I’d consumed in my night visions. I considered again that the visions might not have been as fictional as I’d assumed.

  “Why did you bring me here?” I asked her.

  Morta’s eyes flashed open and I gasped. They swirled black and blue like the energy dancing on the air. She was sucking the spirits in the cemetery dry.

  I couldn’t let her consume all of the death energy in that place. She was already too powerful to handle. I had to distract her.

  Picking a spot in the cemetery, I sent myself into a shift. Unfortunately, when I landed I was still looking at Morta. But I was happy to see she was no longer eating energy. She wore a smug smile. “You cannot outrun me, my lovely. I have been inside your mind. I have seen everything you are capable of and what you are not. I know more about you than you do, I’m afraid.”

  I doubted that. She could only know the parts of me that I was already aware of. I was growing in my powers every day. I hadn’t found the outer limits of my magic yet. So there were things she couldn’t have read it in my mind. I’d just have to make some discoveries of my own. “Tell me why we’re here.”

  Morta opened her arms and glanced around. “Over the centuries, this place has called to me...this dimension. Its inhabitants are so deliciously violent. They have created such powerful and angry death magic.” She gave me a little pout that was just too creepy to stand. I grimaced. “It’s a necromancer’s smorgasbord. Unfortunately, until you came to me it was out of my reach.”

  I really didn’t like the sound of that. “What do I have to do with it?”

  Morta laughed. “Why, my lovely, you brought me here of course. And you gave me something else, something I never thought I’d have.”

  I crossed my arms, glaring at her. I refused to ask.

  Finally Morta shifted closer, trailing a long, bony finger along my jaw. I flinched away. “I’ve always wanted an apprentice.”

  My eyes went wide. “Oh hell no!”

  “Oh hell yes!” Morta laughed. “You are perfect. You have no idea what you’re capable of. Between us we can raze this pathetic dimension, consuming every bit of its death energy and then making our own.” She closed her eyes, looking positively orgasmic. “The fear we can create...it makes me dizzy with pleasure.” Morta lowered her head and encircled my throat with her hand. “Fear tastes so delicious, my lovely.” Quick as a snake a long, black tongue snapped out from between her lips and slid along my cheek.

  “Eeewww!” I shrieked, jumping away.

  Morta’s laughter filled the cemetery. “We’ll have so much fun together, you and I.”

  Static filled my head and I tensed, readying myself for debilitating pain.

  Darma?

  Agony shifted through my mind and fell away. I breathed a sigh of relief but didn’t quite relax. The pain could still come. Despite that, I would gladly risk it to know that Astra and Slayer were all right. Where are you?

  In the forest. Where are you?

  On the human plane. I hesitated, almost afraid to ask. Is Slayer...

  He’s here with us. He said everything went black and then you were gone. He’ll be happy to hear you’re all right.

  I knew how he felt. For now. We need to give this whackjob a serious smackdown, Astra. Morta wants me to be her apprentice.

  Silence throbbed through our mental connection and then Astra laughed. Frunk m...

  Agony shattered my head. I covered my ears and screamed as I fell to my knees. The feeling of blades slicing through my brain didn’t lessen as I curled into a fetal position and screamed until I had no breath left to scream.

  The pain finally eased as footsteps swished across the grass toward me. Morta nudged me with her toe. “You will not communicate with your sister. From here on out you will communicate only with me.”

  I forced my eyes open, sitting up as blood ran from my ears. “You did that to me?”

  “I have been watching you for some time, my lovely. You should be honored to have been handpicked by one such as me.” Morta cocked her head. “Your sister is also a strong necromancer. I considered her of course, but she doesn’t have the discipline that you do. And her magic is much too light.”

  I couldn’t help it, I had to snort out a laugh at that one. “Astra’s too light?” Warm blood ran from my nose and I scraped the back of my hand over it. “That’s a good one.” Then I realized what her statement was actually saying about me and I frowned.

  High overhead, a silver arrow of light flashed across the sky. A shooting star. The wondrous sight brought me back to the problem at hand. “Look, Morta, I’m not going to be your apprentice, and I can’t let you stay here on Earth and torture the humans. So how are we going to do this? Do you want to flip a coin? Rock, paper scissors?” I grinned. “Maybe a bracing match of arm wrestling?”

  Morta eyed me like I’d lost my mind. I think maybe I had. Everything I’d been dealing with over the past several days was starting to get to me. It was making me reckless and flip. Suddenly I didn’t care. I lifted a hand and slammed Morta in the chest with a wide ribbon of pure, black energy. She disappeared in a cloud of charcoal dust and I stood there, shocked. Surely I hadn’t...

  Cold, bony fingers wrapped around my throat from behind and started to squeeze. The skin against mine was slimy and smelled of rot. I grabbed for my power and tried to pull it forward, only to find it blocked again, as it had been in Morta’s castle.

  The air around me was suddenly frigid. The grass beneath my feet
was covered in frost. The flowers on a nearby grave turned opaque from the cold and wilted before my very eyes.

  The ghosts that had risen upon Morta’s arrival turned as one, stalking toward me like male and female shaped clouds with empty eyes. Lips spread wide in a death scream, they came together into a single, horrifying mass and moved in my direction. A few stretched bony claws in front of them, clearly intending to use them against me.

  Panic trickled ice down my spine.

  Morta lifted me off the ground and I frantically kicked out, my legs wildly flailing on the frosty air. Knowing my puny kicks wouldn’t so much as bruise her, I was operating in sheer, mindless panic mode. Clutching the slimy hands at my throat, I struggled to pull air into my lungs. It was no use. Morta had me in a death grip and she wasn’t letting go unless she wanted to. I had only one option.

  I would need to step outside my comfort zone. Waaaaaayyy outside.

  I forced myself to stop fighting and closed my eyes. Fighting to keep my thoughts on what I needed to do, I pushed panic and agony aside and let myself open to the energy swirling all around me. The first touch of that power was so oily I barely kept from recoiling, shutting down. The cold, black stuff oozed into me, leaching into my cells and dripping along my nerve endings. I shuddered, hard, and let the magic expand into my core. It hit the silvery light I’d nurtured there and exploded, sending a sensation like shards of glass ripping through me.

  Morta released my neck and I fell to the ice-coated grass, rolling to my back and greedily sucking air.

  The necromancer stood over me, her robes spinning on a magic-induced wind. The mask of cold beauty was long gone, and in its place was the rotting corpse that was the truth of the creature’s existence. I realized that even her demonic form had been a lie. In the moldering mask of her true face, Morta’s gaze was empty, filled with the barrenness of her intrinsic makeup. Death. Desolation. The termination of everything.

  I told myself as I nurtured that horrible magic in my breast, that I’d make sure she finally met the end she so richly deserved. Despite the fact that I had no idea if I’d be able to pull it off.