"Are you in control, Slade?" Amak asked, approaching as Gabriella worked.
"I almost got us all killed," I said, not looking up. "I was so blinded by the power of this place, I didn't think anything could get in my way. I was wrong. Adajania could have killed us all."
"What are you going to do, now?" Amak asked. "Best I can tell, you and Queen Burps-A-Lot could run this place."
"Hey! No making fun," Maggie interrupted, having shifted back to her human form. "You try eating a twelve-hundred-year-old crone and tell me it doesn't give you indigestion."
"How did you shift into a dragon, Maggie?" I asked. "I thought a reindeer was stretching things."
"That's your question?" Maggie asked. "How about ‘why didn't the twelve-hundred-year-old hag rip out your guts after you swallowed her?’"
I nodded. "Sure. That's on the list."
"You're so self-centered. Think, little brother. You're not the only spawn of Adajania. I have pretty much infinite transformations here. If I wanted to turn into an effing blue whale, I could. I don't even use energy." To demonstrate, Maggie shifted in quick succession from human, to panther, vizsla, hawk, owl, mouse and finally back to human form. "I could do that all day."
"What's going on with Mom?" I asked. Mom hadn't moved, but sat quietly, still on her knees, staring at the ground.
Maggie smacked the palm of her hand into her face. "I don't know! Maybe she feels guilty for sleeping with her boss and making little baby half-demons and getting them killed - or nearly killed. You know … depending on who we're talking about."
"That doesn't make sense. Adajania was female," I said, plainly.
"We don't know what Adajania was," Maggie said. "But, for the half of the room who weren't listening, Adajania impregnated Mom with her seed. Her little demon-swimmers embedded themselves in the cell wall of Mom's egg and mitosis did its job. I know you had biology class, Felix, because you sat right behind that Beth Hootensworth. Remember all that time you spent learning to unfasten her bra with your telekinesis?"
"How'd you know about that?" I asked.
"Dumbass. I sat on a light pole in the playground for the entire damn winter, keeping an eye on you."
"Send us," Joe interrupted. He carried the body of a dead wolf in his arms. Squirrel stood behind him carrying a second.
I stood, with Amak's help, and retrieved the Key from where I'd dropped it.
"We good?" I asked.
"There isn't anything good about this, Slade. You delivered the bitch who killed mine, so we have no quarrel. Such is the law of the pack."
I held Joe’s eyes for a moment. He was barely holding his pain and anger in check. “Safe travels, Joe.” I rested my hand on his shoulder and sent him back to Leoville. I approached Squirrel. For all his toughness, in that moment, his eyes only held sorrow. “I’m sorry for the loss of your packmates, Kyle.”
He made no attempt to talk; his eyes glassy with tears. He clasped my arm with his large hand and gave a tight nod. Mercifully, I sent him back. I worked my way through the rest of the pack, thanking them individually.
When I was done, I looked for and finally found Goodap, who stood with his clan on the platform that looked over the valley below. The ogres had stacked their fallen into a grisly pile at the edge. “Wizard burn,” Goodap said as I approached.
“Ogres don’t burn,” I argued.
“Not ogres now,” he said. The rest of the clan had formed a half circle behind me and were singing a quiet sad song of farewell with their deep voices. It was hard not to be affected by their mourning.
“Adoloret.” Something about standing amongst the noble giants and feeling their loss helped me to divest myself of the remaining energy of Kaelstan. I turned away to allow them to grieve in peace. I found it hard to walk, but refused to distract anyone with my weakness.
Maggie and Gabriella had worked their way over and stood talking with Mom and Missy. I scanned the area and found Amak and Flick piling the bodies of the dead demon-kind next to the demon sisters. They were joined by another ten wounded demon-kind. My mind was boggled with the responsibilities I’d inherited in this one, single action.
Mom refused to look up as I approached and I pulled her into a hug. For several moments, she clung to me, desperately. Her thick black hair still smelled just as I remembered it from the broken memories of my youth. “I’m so sorry,” she cried softly.
Finally, we pulled apart and I turned my attention to Missy. “Are you okay?” I asked. She didn’t answer, but continued to look at the ground.
“She survives,” Mom said, unexpectedly coming to the young witch’s defense.
“What happens when demons overrun this palace?” I asked.
“You’re not taking it for your own?” Mom asked, shocked.
Gabriella stepped to my side, wrapped her arm behind mine and grabbed my hand. A small amount of energy transferred between us as she worked to support me.
“Twice, I have taken on the mantle of my demon heritage,” I said. “It has led only to death, destruction and sadness. Why would I claim anything here? It is against everything my mother… Judy taught me.”
Mom looked down as I mentioned Judy. I didn’t want to be cruel, but the woman who raised me was my mother. The woman who stood before me was my flesh and blood. I had plenty of room to love her, but I would not dishonor Judy’s role in my life.
“You have a place here,” Mom said. “Your sisters have a place here. We can rule from Arlcliff as we were meant to.”
At her mention of sisters, I looked to Missy.
“It isn’t that hard to understand,” Missy explained. “Adajania impregnated my mother - your mother. My father was tricked into believing we were his children and his duty to raise, until we were of age. It was supposed to be the same for you, Felix. At least your dad wasn’t an abusive drunk.”
I reached for Mom’s hand. “We can do better than this. Come back with me to where life is celebrated. There is only death and suffering here.”
“Without Adajania, we are powerful, Felix. Don’t you feel it?” she asked. “Sevena has unlimited power, as do you.” I hadn’t heard anyone use Maggie’s real name for quite some time. It took me a second to connect the dots.
“Maggie?” I asked. “Are you staying?”
“On the fence. I’d like to see what you decide,” she responded.
“I can’t stay, Maggie. I can’t be that person. I would have to trade power for my ability to love. How could I make that trade?”
Unexpectedly, her hand darted out and mussed my hair. “That’s my boy.”
“The Key,” Mom said pointedly, holding out her hand. “It’s important, otherwise we have no way of traveling between the planes.”
“I can’t do that, Mom,” I said. “You need to choose your world.”
“Would you make me choose between my children?”
“Demons on earth are too powerful,” I said. “The Key is too dangerous. Come home with us.”
She shook her head. “I will not fight you on this today. Promise me, you’ll visit when things have quieted.”
“I’ll try,” I said.
“You need to give the palace to me,” she said. “There are items within that need looking after. Missy and I will protect them.”
Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of the steam car chugging through the main gate. Apparently, Amak and Flick gone run back for it.
“Do you have any more seeds of the great tree of Gaeland?” I asked.
“One,” Mom said. “I would trade it for the Key.”
I smiled. “How about you trade it for a palace?”
She smiled and nodded. I sensed no small amount of pride on her part. “A deal well struck.” She gestured and murmured something I couldn’t make out. In her hands a light blue silk bag appeared which she handed to me.
I accepted it and walked over to the group of ogres. Goodap turned from the group as I approached. “What wizard want?”
“Good
ap, you must all join hands. I will send you to Gaeland now,” I said.
“Wizard price high. Goodap sad and happy.”
I had no answer, so I waited for the ogres to join hands and then shook the acorn from the bag and dropped it into Goodap’s outstretched hand. The scent of pine forest and mountain air washed over us and they disappeared.
“Flick, what about you? You’re a free darkling. I can place you on the road if you’d like. I suspect Cook and Laundry would have you.”
“I would stay with Felix Slade if he would have me.”
“I say we load up, then. Maggie, in or out?”
Maggie transformed into a brindle coated mastiff and jumped into the back seat of the car.
“Mom, Missy, are you sure you won’t come back with us?” I asked.
“The palace, Felix,” Mom pushed.
I waited as Lace, Flick, Gabriella and Amak all loaded into the steam powered vehicle. It was a tight fit, but we weren’t going that far.
“Safe travels, brother mine,” Missy said, giving me an awkward hug.
Tears ran down Mom’s face as she opened her arms to me. “No matter what happens, Felix, I love you. Never forget that,” she whispered as we embraced for what I believed would be our last time.
“I hereby transfer ownership of Castle Arlcliff to Atronia Baltazoss,” I said. “I love you, Mom.” I reached into my pants pocket to retrieve the Key and was surprised not to find it.
“Be safe, brother,” Missy said and laid her hand on the car.
Without ceremony, the vehicle and all within it were suddenly transported back to my property in Leotown. It was as if the car hadn’t moved from where we’d left, right next to the greenhouse.
“That little shit took the Key,” I said.
“Where did you come from?” The voice belonged to Lieutenant Dukats as she rounded the corner of the greenhouse accompanied by Dana Anderson. “And don’t you think you should put a shirt on?”
We all piled out of the steam-powered vehicle. Gabriella stood protectively in front of Flick to shield him from Dukats.
“Shirt got caught in the machinery,” I said, improvising. “I was just showing the car to my friends.”
“Woof, woof.” Maggie barked.
Dukats pursed her lips in disbelief. “Whatever. We were hoping to find you out here,” she said, looking at the group with more than a little confusion. She plowed on. “Agent Anderson and I have inserted ourselves into the fire marshal’s investigation. We were able to present strong evidence that Lon Fagin burned your home and are closing the case, as he is recently deceased.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Where’s the demon, Felix?” Anderson asked.
“Gester is gone,” I said. “As is the woman who set him free.”
“Define gone,” Anderson said. “Jardeep is convinced you’re hiding him.”
“Pass along to Jardeep that neither Phezore Gesteriph Feoro nor Shahbanu Narin Adajania inhabit any mortal or non-mortal plane,” I said. “He can take as proof my free use of their full names. I assume this conversation is being recorded. Now, I’m getting cold. Is there anything else?”
“Not really,” Lieutenant Dukats said. “I just figured you’d want to know about your place so you can get to work on rebuilding.”
“Thanks.”
I snuggled inside the thick quilt and stared into the fire. It had been a few weeks since we’d returned. The Veiled Circle Coven, which consisted solely of the Katty sisters and their three daughters, had joined with Gabriella, Lace and Clarita to once again perform a blessing ritual on my land.
“I think they just like to get naked and drunk,” Maggie said. She’d been spending more time in human form lately teaching Flick how to act more human, especially now that he had a charm that allowed him to pass for human.
“Not only naked and drunk.” Gabriella gracefully swirled in front of us. She’d given herself fully to the ritual and danced, uninhibited by her clothing. It was hard for me to take my eyes off her as she was the most beautiful woman both within and without. “Dance with me, Felix.”
I allowed her to pull me to my feet. The late-teen Katty cousins giggled and weaved their way around us. I knew it made me the provincial type, but I appreciated that the younger women wore body stockings. I only had a heart for Gabriella, but I found the naked female form, whether aged and pleasantly rounded or young and firm, intriguing and distracting.
“Fagin’s blight is dissipating,” I said, holding her narrow waist. The ritual would do much to free the land from the damage Fagin had poured out on it. The magic was like all things of the earth, however. It would require nurturing and time to fully restore.
“I feel at peace,” Gabriella said, gently guiding me so that my attempt at dancing matched her own. I found it exhilarating when I was able to step in time with the witch’s ritual magic and a small breath of their collective being washed over me.
“Does my trust require me to rebuild here?” I asked.
“No, but why wouldn’t you?” Gabriella asked, separating from me as the curvy Willow Katty slid in next to me. My heart quickened at the older woman’s touch. She lightly kissed my cheek and moved away. I’d learned that physical affection during a ritual wasn’t required, but was a personal blessing, given freely by participants. I was sure Willow knew exactly the effect she had on me.
Gabriella smiled broadly, sharing in the loving torture of the older woman. She knew I would remain faithful and that Willow’s expressions of love were often presented with sexual overtures. Willow was, after all, a witch dedicated to fertility.
“What if we just kept the greenhouse and a picnic shelter. We could open up the grounds to the other covens in town,” I said.
“That’s a sweet gesture. You’d have to clear it with Veiled Circle,” she said, since technically my land was in the Katty Sisters’ territory. “Where would you live?”
“What if we bought an old house together. We could get something in your coven’s territory.”
“Partners?”
“I’d like that more than anything.”
“I know this beautiful old mansion,” Gabriella said, holding both of my hands and spinning around with me slowly.
“I’m intrigued.”
She grinned conspiratorially. “Rumor is, it’s haunted.”
But of course, that’s another story entirely.
About the Author
Jamie McFarlane is happily married, the father of three and lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. He spends his days engaged in a hi-tech career and his nights and weekends writing works of fiction.
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Acknowledgments
To Diane Greenwood Muir for excellence in editing and fine word-smithery. My wife, Janet, for carefully and kindly pointing out my poor grammatical habits. I cannot imagine working through these projects without you both.
To my beta readers: Carol Greenwood, Linda Baker, Kelli Whyte, Nancy Higgins Quist and Carol Sutton for wonderful and thoughtful suggestions. It is a joy to work with this intelligent and considerate group of people.
ALSO BY JAMIE MCFARLANE
Privateer Tales Series
1. Rookie Privateer
2. Fool Me Once
3. Parley
4. Big Pete
5. Smuggler’s Dilemma
6. Cutpurse
7. Out of the Tank
8. Buccaneers
9. A Matter of Honor
&n
bsp; 10. Give No Quarter
11. Blockade Runner
Witchy World
1. Wizard in a Witchy World
2. Wicked Folk: An Urban Wizard’s Tale
3. Wizard Unleashed
Guardians of Gaeland
1. Lesser Prince
Wizard Unleashed Page 28