by Shea, K. M.
Raven groaned as the cauldron sputtered and hissed next to her.
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
“Could we shut that off somehow?” Rocky grunted, nailing a decayor in the throat with a throwing dagger.
“No, not really,” Alison said for the director, who knelt and took out thirty decayors that were gathered around the grey shield.
“SYNASFEL,” the director shouted. “Now would be a good time to start doing your job!”
Raven coughed as the cauldron bubbled, its calls growing louder. The cauldron whispered as Raven rested her head against the cold support pillar. Tinker Bell sat on Raven’s shoulder. Her musical chimes sounded almost like words to Raven’s ears as the little fairy cried.
Double, double toil and trouble;
“It’s calling out to the magic abusers, I can feel it,” Mrs. Conners tightly said.
“Wishmore, can you cloak it?” Rocky asked.
“I can try,” Raven’s father said, pulling back from the front lines.
Cackles sounded from the inside of the frothing pot.
Fire burn and cauldron—
“SILENCE!” Raven shouted, her eyes snapping open long enough to set her dark gaze on the smoldering cauldron.
Instantly the cauldron went dormant, the fog and haze evaporating, the brew disappearing, the voices silenced.
Tinker Bell sunk lower on Raven’s neck.
Raven’s father stopped moving and stared at his daughter for a moment.
Behind him the grey protective shield started to crack like an egg shell as decayor after decayor slammed into it. Roland and Royce stabbed decayors through it with their swords, but even with their help thrown in the defenses wouldn’t hold for long.
“Wishmore, think you could help us out here?” Roland asked with a surprising amount of sarcasm.
Raven’s father wordlessly returned to the front lines. “Asher, Aron. Stop your fire magic. You’ll have to replace the defensive shield when it goes out. On my count, three, two, one!” he shouted.
The grey shield shattered, raining on the library staff members before burning away like dry ice.
The twins’ set up a fire wall the instant the shield went down, roasting the closest decayors with the ferocity of the flames.
“Keep going!” Kraken said in his smothering voice as he and Fox stepped out from one of the still standing aisles. “If you stop I shall kill you myself.”
Fox glared at Kraken’s back, his fist tightening in obvious anger.
The first decayor got through the fire by being catapulted over by its companions. It landed on Brannon with a splat and victoriously giggled.
As if egged on by their companion’s success, dozens of other decayors made the plunge through the deadly wall. Some of them made it through, most of them did not. Regardless, enough of them poured inside the defensive huddle to be a danger.
Rocky and Royce guarded the twins to keep up the fire, and Raven’s father and Roland whirled through the circle to help the other library staff members pick off the vermin.
Daire fell with a howl when one decayor planted a hand on his face, instantly blackening the skin.
Brannon toughed out an attack of three decayors, wrenching them off with his bare hands before tossing them to the floor. Blisters formed and popped on his fingers and palms.
Jeremiah kept the decayors back with his water magic, ruthlessly drowning them by shoving gobs of water into their mouths.
Alison stood with Mrs. Conners, whipping her acid magic at any decayor that stirred. The director was with them, still turning wave after wave of decayor into ash and dust.
No one noticed when a decayor scurried between Roland and Brannon, making a beeline for Raven and the cauldron.
It giggled, tripping over its feet twice in its glee as it rushed at Raven, arms extended.
Raven tried to call for help, but she could only muster a weak yelp that was eclipsed by the sounds of battle.
She tried to push herself upright, but immediately slouched back against the pillar when the world spun and pain exploded in the back of her head. “Help,” she whispered, the words slurred. “Help me.”
The decayor laughed, drawing close enough that a gob of spit fell from its mouth and landed on Raven’s shoes, turning the spot black.
Tinker Bell zoomed forward, attempting to ram the decayor in the face. It swatted at her, smacking her to the ground before turning its attention back to Raven.
The decayor reached for her, its long fingers about to wrap around her neck when it froze. Its white fish eyes widened, staring behind Raven. The decayor choked on its tongue and stumbled backwards, whining like an injured beast. It scrambled to its feet and ran back through the library staff. It scuttled through the twins’ firewall without hesitation, disappearing in the haze of flames and smoke. Its screams rang in the air, mixing with the rest of the blood curling shrieks and the metallic whispers of weapons.
Raven slowly moved her eyeballs to the corners of her eyes, too frightened and too sick to turn her body and look behind the pillar.
She could feel something standing behind her. It radiated power, making the air heavy like lead. Magic seeped off the being, and it breathed deeply, exhaling warm puffs of air.
“You could end this all, if you chose,” a voice as unfathomable as a canyon echoed in Raven’s mind.
Raven tried to reply several times. “C-can’t,” she finally said, blinking hard to focus on the scene in front of her.
Royce ran a decayor through as the twins strengthened the firewall. Director Eastgate grunted when a decayor jumped onto his back, but Alison peeled it off with acid covered hands.
“No, you can. You are merely too afraid, not of the right things of course. Are you afraid of yourself? Of your magic?”
Raven shuddered from raw power held in the voice.
“Or perhaps of your desire for authority. You could do amazing things, Animo Acroasis. You can defy the laws of magic.”
“No!” Raven said, weakly trying to raise a hand to her eyes.
“I see no reason to help you. You are not worthy of the calling placed on your life. You laze about and watch a place you have vowed to protect be violated. Your fear is a joke. You are not the champion this library thinks you to be.”
Raven closed her eyes and leaned against the pillar, shaking from fear. She could feel the library magic hovering just behind the shadows. It wasn’t beyond reach yet. “Help,” Raven whispered.
“I already gave you your answer: No.”
“Help,” Raven repeated in a breath.
“You are—Oh of course you would. Stupid human. One day you will break the library, and when you do, I will kill you,” the being’s threat echoed in Raven’s mind, but she barely heard it.
The pillar behind Raven grew warm as magic funneled into her. The library’s magic was like an ocean wave: Cold, shocking, and completely overwhelming. It poured through her body, washing away her pain and confusion. Raven’s eyes popped open, her view of the world was clear and unskewed.
She stood, her muscles protesting at first before the magic hit her again. Raven steadied herself, breathing deeply as she adjusted. She reached down and picked up the battered Tinker Bell.
“Tink, are you alright?” she asked.
The golden colored fairy nodded and replied in her chiming voice before fluffing up her wings. She flew out of Raven’s hand and motioned to the support pillar, which she disappeared behind moments later.
Raven watched her go before her eyes fell on the cauldron and she smiled.
“Hey! Kraken, Fox,” she shouted.
She was afraid they wouldn’t hear, but both magic abusers turned to face her.
“…How does she know our names?” Kraken said.
Raven struggled to pick up the cauldron. “This is what you want, right?”
“Raven, what are you doing?” Raven’s father shouted, freezing a decayor.
/> “Don’t give it to them you stupid, ignorant—ack!” Rocky shouted when Director Eastgate abruptly elbowed him in the back.
Kraken strolled up to the wall of fire, an oily smile on his face. “You’re going to give it to us, page turner? You’re the smart one of this lot?” he simpered.
“No, I just wanted the satisfaction of watching your face when I ruin your assignment,” Raven said before lifting the cauldron up in the air. “You are dismissed!” she shouted in her page turner voice before throwing the cauldron at the ground.
It cracked the marble floor on impact before shattering into a hundred pieces. The metal chunks burned away, gone in less than a moment.
“WHAT?” Kraken shouted. “That’s not possible! You can’t do that!”
“Oh, I think I just did. That Korbin of yours is going to be ticked,” Raven recklessly grinned.
During the demonstration, Fox slowly backed up, easing away from his supposed partner. He caught Raven’s gaze and smirked at her before he turned on his heels and disappeared into the labyrinth of broken bookshelves.
He knew what was coming, and he wasn’t going to stop it.
Director Eastgate stared at the cracked marble before turning to his nephew. “That will be coming out of your budget.”
“MY budget? Take it out of Rachel’s pay!” Daire shouted, the blackened skin on his face oozed as he smothered a decayor.
“Certainly not,” the director sniffed before taking out fifteen decayors.
Rocky coughed in the dust and ash. “Could someone explain what in the blazes is going on?”
“Dad,” Raven said, turning to face her father—who hit a decayor with a club of ice before stabbing it with a dagger.
“I know I’m a little slow on the uptake, but really? He’s your Dad?” Asher asked, not so much as blinking when a decayor shrieked while flying past him, acid dripping off its face.
Raven continued, “The information leak has to be Rocky, Roland, or Gram. There’s no other way anyone from the Errësi would know about today’s swap,” she said, pointing to Kraken.
The tall magic abuser ignored her words as he stood a safe distance away, looking around. “Where did Fox go?” he frowned.
“Yeah, that occurred to me as well,” Raven’s father replied before he abruptly turned around and whipped a dagger sharp, paper thin disc of ice at Roland.
Roland blocked the ice with his sword and leaped through the firewall to put some distance between himself and the rest of the library defenders. “How sad, here I was hoping to keep my cover for a while longer,” he said, his friendly smile still smeared across his lips.
Raven stared. “But… how? Why? I thought for sure it was Rocky!”
“I believe the page turner saying is ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’,” Rocky grunted, dispatching a decayor that got too close to the twins.
“Kraken, end this. The cauldron may be gone, but if anyone survives they’re going to squeal about me,” Roland said, his voice just as charming and inviting as ever as bookcases toppled, destroyed by the decayors that scuttled across them to reach Raven and her coworkers.
“I do not follow your orders,” Kraken said, looking at the ceiling.
“Right. That’s why you let Fox flee.”
Kraken turned around again, still looking for the missing magic abuser. “That cowardly traitor,” he snarled.
“Rachel, catch!” Asher shouted, looking away from his magic long enough to fish a book out of a pocket on his cargo pants and toss it to Raven.
Raven caught the battered paperback, The Return of the King, by J. R. R. Tolkien.
“Try the ride of the Rohirrim,” Aron said.
Raven frantically flipped through the book, she almost jumped when Kraken spoke.
“Forward, overwhelm them, you idiots! Take them all!” he shouted to his creatures.
The decayors pushed forward under his direction, all hesitation gone. They stormed the firewall and attacked the twins in numbers too great for Rocky and Royce to defend against.
The defensive wall flickered out when the twins were simultaneously jumped.
“To the twins!” Royce shouted, mowing over decayors with his sword.
“Can’t,” Jeremiah grunted, blasting several decayors back with water.
Director Eastgate was on his knees, his face slick with sweat, Alison stood by him, doing her best to protect him, but she too was overwhelmed.
Raven’s father growled when a decayor latched to his leg and made quick work of it with his daggers. Five more instantly appeared to replace it.
As Raven ripped at pages in the book, the library staff members and the black dogs were steadily over taken. Still, Raven couldn’t find the Ride of the Rohirrim. “Anything will do,” she muttered, turning a page. Her eyes landed on a particular passage, and Raven shook her head.
She had no doubt this particular army could easily defeat the decayors, but whether or not she would be able to control them was uncertain.
“Rachel, hurry,” Brandon pleaded, shaking the ground as Mrs. Conners screamed when a decayor placed a hand on the back of her doughy neck.
The canyon-like voice chuckled in the inner sanctuary of Raven’s mind. “Worthless indeed.”
Raven swallowed.
She had no choice.
She cleared her throat before speaking in her best page turner voice. “For in that gloom the Shadow Host seemed to grow stronger and more terrible to look upon. I saw some riding, some striding, yet all moving with the same great speed. Silent they were, but there was a gleam in their eyes,” Raven read.
She heard Rocky shout, and the sound of roaring fire, but she didn’t risk looking up. She skipped several paragraphs before starting again. “And suddenly the Shadow Host that had hung back at last came up like a grey tide, sweeping all away before it. Faint cries I heard, and the dim horns blowing, and the murmur as of countless far voices: it was like the echo of some forgotten battle in the Dark Years long ago. Pale swords were drawn; but I know not whether their blades would still bite, for the Dead needed no longer any weapon but fear. None would withstand them!” Raven said, screaming the last two sentences.
She hefted the book in the air before throwing it. It popped over the fire wall and landed several feet away from Kraken and Roland.
“Oh no,” Raven said in a dangerously soft voice. The air around her turned cool as her breath danced in wispy puffs with falling snowflakes. “It looks like you’re going to find out about me. Too bad, I guess I can’t leave any survivors,” she said as white flames began to shoot out of the book.
Kraken uneasily rolled his shoulders. “What is she talking about, Roc?”
“Nothing,” Roland snapped. “She’s trying to frighten you.”
Wind whipped through the library and the temperature fell.
“Behold, my army: The Oathbreakers, the Army of the Dead,” Raven said, tucking her hair behind her ear as a slight smile spread across her lips.
Out of the wind vaporous shapes began to form.
It started with a few skeletal men mounted on top of bony horses, pale banners streaming out behind them.
The temperature of the room continued to fall as the mounted knights began to multiply. They were not bothered by solid objects. All of them stood intermingled with the decayors, the horrible creatures running through the ghastly shapes as if they were smoke.
The ghosts multiplied, footmen adding to the mix. They held spears and swords, which gleamed in spite of being made by fog.
They were white, not like the dead fish gaze of the decayors, but milk white mixed with storm clouds.
The horses tossed their heads, sometimes revealing the bones of their skeletons through their foggy fur.
Although the soldiers opened their mouths in shouts, the army was quiet. It was as though they were shouting from a long distance away, and everyone in the library only heard the faintest echoes.
The fierce wind quieted down as the foggy army stretched acro
ss the library. The fully mobilized Oathbreaker army was immense, matching half the size of the decayors.
But numbers don’t matter when you’re already dead.
Raven inhaled, thinking. This was not Aslan’s army. The Oathbreakers weren’t heroic characters. Rather than listen to her, they might kill her and her father and her friends off with the decayors. She was taking an extreme risk.
Roland relaxed and actually laughed. “What, like an illusion from a book could cause us harm?”
“She was able to dismiss the cauldron. Are you sure she’s not a Double A?” Kraken said, uneasily twitching away from a mounted Oathbreaker knight.
“There hasn’t been a Double A in decades. This is nothing but a petty trick,” Roland said, swiping an axe through a horseman. Instead of swinging through, like the horse was an opaque picture, the axe disturbed some of the horse’s vaporous body. The horse’s ribcage was visible before the fog fur settled back over it. The dead rider leaned out of his saddle and smiled at Roland, the vaporous flesh of his face occasionally shifting so Roland could see his skull.
“They’re real,” Raven’s father breathed.
Raven finally spoke, trying to mask her uncertainty. “D-Drive the decayors from the library, but don’t let the magic abusers leave.”
The ghostly army hefted their weapons above their heads in a muffled scream.
The decayors shrieked, terrified. Aslan’s army had surprised them and made them afraid for their lives. The Army of the Dead had them wild with panic, fearful for their souls.
The horseman Roland had previously disturbed giddily stuck his hand through Roland’s head, vaporous bits of his arm floating in Roland’s open mouth.
Roland fell to the ground, clutching his throat as he gagged.
The ghost army swept through the library defenders first, obliterating any decayor that was near them.
Many of the decayors were already fleeing to their shadows. After cleaning the circle the Oathbreakers ran them down. The horses were able to charge straight up walls, attacking the decayors and the shadow that hemmed in the room. Everything was bathed in their luminous, wraithlike light.