by Sam Cheever
But there was nowhere to go.
I was inside a vision. A vision that felt oh so very real. But which was still a vision.
Though the fire was hot, it didn’t seem to burn my skin.
Hmm.
I could either just stand there, immobilized by terror, or forge onward to see what I’d come to see. Since that wasn’t a tough decision, I started moving.
The fire wrapped around me, forming a tunnel that blazed with unnatural light and moved like a living thing. Sweat poured off me, drenching my clothes and making my thick brown hair cling to my face and neck. I shoved it away, scrubbing at the unrelenting moisture with the sleeve of my tee, and moved more quickly.
I wanted nothing so much as to reach the end of the fiery tunnel. Surely when the fire ended, the portal would end too.
But it seemed to go on forever. My steps slowed, my legs feeling as if lead weights had been strapped to them. My back screamed at me, and I realized I’d been walking half hunched over because the portal seemed to shrink as I walked. Pain made me straighten slightly, testing the result. To my surprise, the fire above my head rose to accommodate it.
Interesting.
I plodded onward and realized the sides were closing in on me, smoke filling up the available space.
I coughed until I felt as if my lungs would explode from the stress.
I prayed for clear air.
The smoke shifted away.
Hmm.
Did I have control over the portal? I’d expected fire and found myself in fire. I’d assumed smoke and smoke appeared. But those elements appeared to be malleable.
Was that possible?
I tested the theory by wishing for cold.
The flame disappeared on a blustery breeze, and ice formed beneath my feet. The walls of the portal that had been defined by flame were obscured by white as snow sifted downward in dense sheets.
I closed my eyes and let the cool air slide over me, refreshing and sweet. The coolness quickly dried the copious amounts of sweat coating my skin.
It was glorious.
But, within moments, I started to shiver, chilled to the bone. The light dusting of snow beneath my shoes was soon up to my knees, and I was struggling to move forward.
I thought of Spring and a fresh, flowery scent wafted over me. My sneakers sank into thick green grass and butterflies danced on the air around my head.
I laughed in delight. “Now that’s much better,” I murmured to myself.
On I trudged.
And on.
And on.
And…
Okay, it was getting ridiculous. “How long is this thing?” I yelled in frustration.
I had no idea how long I’d been in the vision, but it felt as if I’d wasted the better part of the day. I started to stress out over what might be going on back in Render. And Boyle! What if the baby woke up and I wasn’t there?
I needed to finish what I’d started and get back.
Suddenly the walls around me were gone. I found myself standing in the darkness, silence throbbing around me.
I spun in a circle and saw…nothing. No portal, no lights, no people.
Light filtered down on me, and I looked up. A dense bank of clouds released a full, silvery moon, allowing its light to paint the area around me. The gray bulk of bushes sat nearby. They were familiar despite the fact that the enormous flowers had closed into tight, tulip-shaped buds with the night. Their scent permeated the air, sweet and full.
Silvery light bathed a distant line of trees, massive trunks spearing into the sky, straight and unbending. Their arrowhead-shaped tops pierced the clouds.
I knew that place. I’d been there before.
Remembering the horrible lizard creature we’d battled on the street in front of Victoria, panic slipped through me. My gaze jerked toward the trees, and I spun around to view the entire area again, looking for the monster.
I didn’t see its massive form moving through the night, or smell its horrid, fishy scent. I relaxed slightly. But the memory made me realize I needed to get out of there.
I looked down at the medallion hanging around my neck and tugged it off. Bending down, I clawed through the grass, scraping the dirt until I’d made a narrow hole about six inches deep.
I dropped the medallion into the indentation I’d created and covered it again with the black soil, patting it down. Standing, I looked around for something to mark the spot. I found a small stick laying half under the bush and grabbed it.
It didn’t come free at first. I realized it was still attached. Bending the stick back and forth at the spot where it was still joined to the bush, I finally wrenched it loose.
I jabbed it into the soil where I’d buried the medallion.
I brushed dirt off my hands. “Now, I just need to find the portal entrance,” I mumbled softly.
The ground shook.
I went very still. Waiting. Listening.
Something snorted, loud and close.
I panicked, throwing my hands up and dragging on the available magic. The energy slammed into me, hitting me like a fist in my core. I stumbled backward as magic bit my skin, a thousand tiny stings of power.
The darkness shifted and something lumbered out of it, a nightmare of legs and claws and…eyes. With a thought, I imagined dual blades forming from the magic dancing at my fingertips. The blades shot into existence, eighteen inches long and shimmering with silvery power. A gleam of energy danced along each edge, promising pain.
The creature stared at me for a moment and then opened its enormous jaws, showing me several rows of conical teeth. My gaze was riveted on its terrible face, the deadly-looking teeth and the chaotic blinking of its many eyes. I got caught on that blinking, mesmerized by the hypnotic flicker of the black orbs.
The thing was almost on me before I realized it had moved.
Claws slashed past my face, an inch away, and I only had time to slice blindly at the thing and dive away.
Despite its size and the confusing number of its limbs, the monster moved fast.
Really fast.
By the time I’d rolled to my feet, it was on me again, and I barely got the knives up between us before its claws flashed past. A burning ache found the skin of my belly, and I knew it had scored a hit.
I swung one blade high and one low, slicing through its wide, scaly chest and across its face. The huge, spider-like creature howled in pain and outrage and rose onto four of its back legs, its front legs flailing the air in front of my face.
I moved fast, dancing close enough to perform crisscrossing slices to its exposed belly. The monster hit the ground, its enormous maw snapping toward the blades and missing my skin by a fraction of an inch…close enough for me to feel the heat of its breath.
It struggled to its feet as a soft glow eased into view just behind it.
The portal!
I tried to duck around the spider and was cut off by the slash of a razor-sharp claw. Blood welled through my jeans before I even felt the pain.
I swung the blade, slicing off the claw.
The monster responded with another strike, opening a fresh gash in the calf of my opposite leg.
I slashed again, severing another claw.
But the monster had too many legs. As quickly as I cut them off, another one joined the fight.
I dodged left and jumped right as it struck again, hoping to confuse it enough to allow me to get to the portal. But a hairy, muscular limb swept my legs out from under me and I fell, landing against the monster’s horrid blue body. The body was hard and shaped like a tick.
I gagged at the thought.
To my horror, the massive jaws were opening again. I was too close. I wouldn’t be able to get away in time.
I couldn’t let it score another hit. I was already losing too much blood. And that mouth would rip me apart in seconds.
I stabbed out in desperation, the blade carving easily through the thing’s oblong head, and it screamed again. The sound was h
orrible, filled with pain and manic rage.
I rolled off as the monster thrashed against the agony, flailing from one side to the other.
Climbing quickly to my feet, I dove into the portal and hit my knees in the thick grass there.
I took off running, not looking back. All I could do was pray the portal would close quickly enough to keep the spider-like thing from following.
26
I came out of the vision with a gasp, jerking upright in the chair. For a moment, the foresight clung to me, seeming so real I could still smell the putrid stench of the monster’s blood, and feel the wiry hairs of its tick-like body against my skin.
I shuddered violently from the memory.
My hand clasped the locket around my neck. It was hot to the touch, residual energy still churning inside it.
Good. I hadn’t been sure if the vision had used the physical locket or a magical replica to do its work.
Sucking air as if I’d run a marathon, I shoved myself out of the chair, desperate to put some distance between me and the vision. I looked around the shed, my gaze flying toward the spot where I’d left Boyle.
Still there. I nearly collapsed with relief. His little chest rose and fell in sleep, and my own breathing soothed under the sight.
Nicht wasn’t standing where I’d left him. That brought my pulse spiking back up. The only reason he would leave his spot was if there had been a threat.
Even as I had the thought, I felt an alien undercurrent on the air—unknown magic.
Someone was outside in the dark.
I hurried over and grabbed Boyle off the bed. He murmured something that was too soft to hear and burrowed into me with a soft sigh.
The warm weight of him against me was both reassuring and terrifying. I had to protect him at all costs.
But the silence beyond the shed door told me that whoever was out there was confident we would come to them. Whoever it was had cloaked themselves in shadow, waiting.
Nicht would find them, I told myself. He had to.
My heart still pounding as if I’d run a race, I looked desperately around, wishing Mitch had given himself a back door. But I knew why he hadn’t. Because, short of digging a tunnel, a back way out would do us no good. The building was too small. One person could easily keep watch on the entire thing from a single vantage point.
Son of a bunion!
The shadows around the door morphed and a long form eased through, silent as death.
I grabbed for latent magic before I realized who it was.
I sagged in relief. “Nicht,” I whispered. “Where have you been?”
The dog whined softly and spun, moving quickly to the door and peering out into a night that felt moist and was dark as pitch.
I became aware of the soft ping, ping, ping of raindrops hitting the roof. Good, Nicht could see perfectly in the dark. He’d guide us out of there. “Lead the way,” I told him as I walked up and rested a hand on his tall, furry back.
He moved through the crack in the door and I eased through behind him, rushing to lay my hand on his soft fur again as he picked up speed.
We were nearly to Della’s house when the night exploded around us.
Jagged golden light flared past me, so close I could smell the ends of my hair burning. Boyle jerked awake with a cry, his howl almost drowned out by Nicht’s enraged snarls and the shouts of the people boiling out of the night in our direction.
I didn’t hesitate, grabbing magic from the air and firing it at our attackers like bullets. I had no time to form blades. The raw energy bolts would have to do.
Boyle stopped crying as I dove behind a tree to give us some protection. “Up!” I told him. “Get high and stay there.” I threw his agile little form toward the trunk of the tree and flung energy toward two people who suddenly appeared behind me.
They went down, but one of them jumped back up almost immediately.
I ripped more energy from the air with one hand and threw it with the other. The night was thick with magic, bulging with it. And my pickings were varied and full.
I yanked it to me with a rabid kind of energy, frantic yet determined that the soldiers the Body was pelting us with would not win.
The man in front of me yanked a sword from the sheath on his back and slashed at me in a single, fluid movement. He danced away from my narrow energy bolts, so I fanned them into a shield and then yanked more power from the woman lying on the ground. Her body jerked as I ripped energy from it, arching off the ground at the force of my attack.
With a manic kind of focus, I twisted the energy into a coil that was as thick as my wrist and as long as my arm.
The man with the blade dodged sideways and lunged, the blade nicking me over my ribs.
Pain sent fire through me, a biting reminder that I couldn’t afford to lose.
I thickened my shield, wrapping it around me on three sides. I had the tree at my back and my energy padding me from the front and sides.
I had bought myself some time.
But not a lot. Because two more people had just melted from the dark.
There was a distant snarl and my already pounding heart sped. Nicht!
Two more people appeared before me.
“Give it up, Ms. Forester,” a deep, male voice said. “The Magistrate requires your presence.”
I was out of time. I needed to change my strategy from shielding and single weapon offense to something faster and more globally effective.
I knew just the thing.
My hands found the small box I’d shoved into my pocket. I worked the lid off with one finger. “So sorry. But my dance card’s full for tonight,” I told them. “In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s full for the distant future, as far as the eye can see.”
Three more people joined the crowd in front of me. All of them had magic dancing around them or weapons in their hands.
My stomach twisted.
I licked a finger and stabbed it into a baggie, dropped that baggie and jammed my finger into the second bag. “Please give the Magistrate my regrets.”
I yanked power into my hand. As wild energy flared brightly over the dirt and ash covered finger, I took a deep breath, dropped my shield, and stabbed the finger against Gram’s locket.
Energy boiled toward me from the night. I closed my eyes, praying my magic would be in time and felt the night turn white and explode around me.
Power punched me, shoving me back against the rough bark of the tree. The air was so thick with it that breathing was like trying to suck molasses through my airways. I coughed, choking on the residual fog, and dropped to my knees.
Then I remembered Nicht and forced myself to stand. I tried to see through the smoky air but couldn’t.
Nothing moved through the fog. Nobody came for me, so I guessed my little death bomb had worked. I stumbled around the tree and found a nightmare waiting.
Boyle had climbed down from the tree. Apparently, in concern for Nicht. The big dog was badly wounded, his sides heaving and smoke rising from several spots in his fur. He was on his feet between Boyle and a crowd of what looked like a dozen Body soldiers, each dressed in the form-fitting black suits that I knew were like magical chainmail, impervious to fire, magic, bullets and blades. They wore long cloaks with blood-red lining, and those who had light-colored hair covered them in close-fitting caps that looked as if they were made from the same stuff as their suits.
They all but melted into the night. Only their paler faces showed through the darkness.
Every soldier had a weapon in one hand and magic roiling around their clenched fists.
Boyle turned to me when I stepped around the tree, his round eyes filled with fear. “Glynnie?”
I moved slowly toward him. “It will be okay, sweet boy.”
“Call off your hound,” a tall woman with straight black hair that reached past her broad shoulders demanded.
“What do you want?”
The woman, who stood at the apex of a wide vee formation
, smiled unkindly. “You and the gargoyle need to come with us, Ms. Forester.”
“Why?” I asked, fighting to stay calm. Approaching with slow, hesitant steps, I stumbled slightly, trying to give the impression of weakness. The ploy worked because none of the soldiers tried to stop me.
“The Magistrate will explain everything,” the woman said, “Now call off the hound. You can’t win this battle. You’re badly outnumbered.”
I reached Boyle and took his hand. “I’m not calling him off until you tell me what you want.”
The woman frowned, pursing perfectly shaped lips. “It’s a shame to kill such a fine specimen of a hellhound.” Even as she said the words, the energy roiling around her fist grew.
I tensed, my mind churning. I glanced toward Della’s home, only about twenty feet away.
I wondered…
“Ms. Forester?”
I swayed, stumbling sideways. “I’m not feeling very well…” I let myself fall to my knees and tugged Boyle down with me. “Just give me a minute.”
Placing my palm on the ground, I shoved sensing energy into it, reaching for the magic-saturated earth beneath Della’s home. It had responded to me before. Maybe I could call to it again.
The woman sighed. “Your theatrics aren’t helping, Ms. Forester.”
A ribbon of sleeping energy stirred at my touch, reaching for me, but it was just a thread. It wouldn’t be enough. I needed more magic density. I kept reaching for it, my vision blurring as I extended myself into the distant, foreign magic.
“Ms. Forester?”
The Earth tugged against my hand, insistent and eager. I shoved seeking energy through it, looking for a specific power signature. My questing senses slipped through the cool energy of normal Earth magic and emerged into a heated pool of intense power.
Bingo!
I glanced up at the woman, nodding. “I know. I’ll call him off.” I looked at Nicht. He’d been standing perfectly still the entire time, his wary gaze never leaving the soldiers in front of him. The barest growl throbbed at the base of his throat, only discernible by the faint vibration in his big body. “Nicht?”
The big hound whined softly. I fixed him with a stare, wishing I could send a mental message to him. “It’s okay, boy. Come here.”