Shadow Hunted

by L. A. Johnson

  The tail of the snake whipped around and knocked the gun out of Zack’s hand. “Moment of truth, Zack,” Ian’s voice said from the other end of the snake.

  The snake was several feet around, and it was long, stretching out most of the length of the giant room. Soon it coiled everywhere, catching Lydia’s feet and sending her crashing to the floor. Her sword clattered to the ground. She crawled over the snake’s body to get to it, but as soon as she looked up, she saw the snake’s head full of awful teeth. Enormous, smiling, sharp, awful teeth.

  “C’mon, Ian, let’s talk about this,” Lydia said. “You’re right, we had no idea how weird you really were.”

  “And now, Lydia, it’s time to die,” the snake hissed at her. “I’ve researched the two of you, and what makes this the perfect ending is that nobody in this city is really going to even miss you two.”

  “Now that’s just hurtful,” Lydia said. All she could see in the entirety of her mind’s eye was that giant snake head hovering six feet over her and several feet back. The snake head backed up even more as it coiled to strike. Lydia closed her eyes, concentrated on that stupid slithering maniac, and let loose a combination of terror and insecurity. The second emotion snuck in there, spurred by the snake’s remark about not having a lot of support in the community. As soon as she released her magic at the giant snake head in her mind’s eye, she opened her real ones.

  There was a giant, gaping hole in the snake’s face. It thrashed and screamed and retreated to the end of the great room.

  “What the hell was that?” Zack asked, looking at Lydia with a new sense of awe. “Did the sprite teach you that?”

  “Sort of,” Lydia said. The sprite didn’t mention something she was starting to suspect, though. That the emotions in question would be a lot more powerful if they were authentic at the moment of the spell. Good to know.

  The snake was still spinning and cursing at the far end of the room when Lydia got an idea. “Zack, you said the cops were coming in soon, right?”

  “Oh yeah, any minute now. I’m sure. We’re doomed.”

  Lydia ran back toward the entrance. “What if we run out while the cops are running in? He said the magic would let people in but not out, what if we sneak out while it’s open?”

  “I don’t know how magic works, but that sounds great to me.” He joined Lydia poised at the entrance. Soon they heard footsteps, and they could hear voices on the other side of the entrance.

  “Oh yeah,” Lydia called. “Bye, Ian. I can’t say it’s been fun.”

  There was more snake laughter, only this time it sounded ragged.

  “What now?” Lydia asked, putting her sword away.

  “There’s a surprise for you two. Something Algorath worked into the spell.”

  The voice belonged to human Ian, he must have transformed back. Something told Lydia he would not die from his injuries, which was a real shame. It didn’t matter now, though; they were in a hurry.

  “Oh, hang on,” Zack said. He pulled an old police t-shirt out of his pocket. “Put this on. And take your hair out of the ponytail.”

  Lydia put on the shirt. “You keep old police shirts in your pocket?” By the look on Zack’s face, she could tell that it wasn’t the best disguise ever, but it would have to do for now. At least for a minute or two.

  Then the first group of police officers breached the doorway, made their way inside, and then stopped to look around in awe for a moment. By the time they located Lydia as the crazy girl with the sword, she was running out of the building at the same time the bulk of them were coming in.

  It worked. Lydia and Zack went running right out of the building, through the magical perimeter, and out into the dark city streets.

  Twenty

  “What? No!” Lydia shouted, looking around at the darkness and the streetlights. She looked at her watch. “We had hours before it got dark. We were only in there a few minutes.”

  “Keep your voice down,” Zack said. “They’re already on the lookout for the crazy screaming lady with the sword.”

  “How could this happen?” Lydia asked.

  “That must be the surprise Ian was talking about,” Zack said, flashing his badge to the cops that the two of them literally ran into on their way out. “Either way, it’s time for us to go.” He pulled her away toward where her car was parked. The two of them got in.

  “No!” Lydia screamed and hit the steering wheel repeatedly. “That’s game over. That cheater. What am I going to do now?”

  Zack inhaled. “Okay, we survived the nerd snake. And yes, it’s dark.” His voice trailed off into silence.

  Lydia waited for him to finish his thought, but he didn’t. “I’m waiting for the but, Zack.”

  “Aren’t we all.”

  Lydia turned to face him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “it was right there, you set it up for me. And you know I don’t know what I’m doing with all of this magic stuff, Lydia. I’ve been a good sport and all, but I’m not fully up to speed. I don’t know what to tell you. Just how bad is this weird moon thing, anyway?”

  “Wyrm Moon! Zack. And you’re a genius.” Lydia pulled out her phone.

  “Wait, how am I a genius? And what are you looking up on your phone?”

  “Weather app,” Lydia answered.

  Zack grimaced. “Weather app? Did you get a head injury in there, Lydia?”

  “What time is it?” Lydia asked.

  “Seven forty-five,” Zack answered. “Why?”

  “The Wyrm Moon. Algorath needs it to perform his spell! It’ll make him really powerful or something, remember? He won’t have enough magic until it comes up. And according to this weather app, it doesn’t come up until eight. We can still make it.”

  “Wait,” Zack said, panic in his eyes. “You said the sprite person said to never, ever go into that forest at night.”

  “That’s true,” Lydia said, stomping on the gas.

  “You also said if we had to go into that forest after dark, that there would be lots of things in there worse than Algorath.”

  “Also true,” Lydia said while she ran a red light. “You have excellent points. I’ll stop at one of these red lights and let you out. You don’t deserve this.” It hit Lydia that she was saying goodbye to the person who had helped her the most. For a moment, she choked down emotions in order to steady her voice. She took a few deep breaths as she sped along in between intersections. “Hey, Zack. I wanted to say thanks. For everything. I mean it. It’s not very often that I find somebody I can rely on, and, um. The last few days have meant a lot to me. I mean, I can’t say it’s been fun, exactly.”

  “Red light!” Zack yelled.

  He was right. Lydia stomped on the break. She turned and pretended to look out of the driver’s side window to brush away an unexpected tear. “Anyway, no hard feelings. I don’t blame you for wanting to live.”

  “Green light!” Zack yelled.

  Lydia turned to him, wondering what was going on. He was smirking. He was actually smirking at her. “What the hell, Zack? I thought you wanted to get out.”

  “No way. I never said that. You did,” he said, “and you can’t get rid of me that easily. Or at all, really. I just wanted to take the time to work on your driving skills.”

  Lydia slapped him playfully and stomped on the gas. They were still five minutes away from the forest, and the two of them spent it laughing. They let out all the pent-up emotions of the day. The release felt wonderful, but there was also a sense of dread hanging over them that lasted until the car pulled up into the dirt parking lot.

  The two of them got out of the car. It was a beautiful night. Right now, it was dark and quiet. The warmth of the afternoon had chilled and there was a slight breeze playing through the trees.

  Lydia took a few steps forward toward the forest and stopped, just before the faint blue line that Kaylee had shown her. “Look, Zack. Can you see this blue line?”

  “Whoa,” Zack said. “Has that always be
en there?”

  “I don’t know. Kaylee only showed it to me today. On this side of the line, you’re safe from the tree goblins in the forest.” She stepped over the line. “On this side, everyone is fair game. I’ll do my best to protect you, but if you choose to come with me, I don’t know what’s waiting for us inside that tree line.”

  Zack nodded and pulled out his gun.

  Lydia gave him a look.

  “I know, I know,” he said. “It probably won’t help anyway, but it makes me feel better. Um, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your plan here? Is it me and you, charging in there against Algorath and his biter buddy and a bunch of monsters? Don’t get me wrong, what you did to that snake was awesome. I’m just wondering if there’s more to the plan.”

  Lydia shook her head. “I’m sorry. We’re out of time. We’re all we’ve got.”

  Then a bright light appeared between Lydia and Zack.

  “Don’t forget about me,” Kaylee said.

  Zack backed up a few steps.

  “Zack, meet Kaylee,” Lydia said. “Kaylee, I thought you said you’d never go in there at night.”

  “It’s my forest,” she said defiantly. “If you’re going to fight for it, then so am I.”

  “Don’t forget about me.” Drat materialized right next to Lydia.

  “Drat!”

  “This new evil mage is severely cramping my style. He’s going down,” Drat said.

  There was a tense moment when Kaylee and Drat recognized each other. They rushed at each other and Lydia got in between.

  “Guys, can we work this out later?” The moment Lydia got the words out, the full Wyrm Moon popped up over the trees, making them all ooh and aah. Lydia looked over her team. “Okay, people. Thanks so much for coming. It’s go-time.”

  Twenty-One

  Everybody in Lydia’s group stood there looking at the gorgeous moon over the trees. “I said it’s go-time, people,” she repeated. Still nothing. “Fine, I’ll go first.” She led the group quietly into the woods. As Lydia stepped past the first tree into the darkness, she held her breath. Then she was through and heading deeper into the forest. That’s when she realized she didn’t know where she was going.

  “Kaylee?” she whispered. The sprite flitted up next to her face. “Oh good. Hey Kaylee, I hope you have some idea of where in these woods that kind of ceremony would take place. I assumed that there would be a big group making a racket and we could follow the noise. Or light. Or a fire or something.” She thought about it. “Or frankly that we would have been attacked by tree goblins by now.”

  “There’s only one place big enough to hold that ceremony,” Kaylee whispered back. She flew behind Lydia and grabbed hold of her shoulders, turning her. “There. Now just keep moving forward and you won’t be able to miss it.”

  The team, Lydia first, continued to creep forward into the dark forest. They weren’t a particularly quiet team, either. In the darkness, it was impossible not to step on branches and twigs. It didn’t matter how many times she shushed them, the loud snapping sounds continued as they rumbled forward more or less in formation until they finally saw a clearing in the distance.

  Okay, thought Lydia. Now this is exactly what I had pictured in my head. There was a giant, roaring bonfire at the center of the clearing. Algorath stood off to one side in a red robe that washed out his ginger hair. At least twenty tree goblins were scattered around. Algorath’s horrible assistant Brad, the one with all the teeth, was there too.

  Now that she was seeing what she was up against, Lydia was worried. She backed up a little to talk to her group. “Okay, guys, I know it doesn’t look good, but we can do this. I believe in us.”

  Several of the people in her group gasped suddenly. She squinted at them in the darkness, trying to figure out what was going on. They were looking behind her and up. She wheeled around and there was the golem. Lydia felt a twinge of excitement. “Golem! You’re here!”

  The golem nodded.

  “How did you know to come here, at this exact spot in the forest, right now?” Lydia asked, trying to keep her voice down even though she was excited.

  “You were in danger. I came to check on you.”

  Lydia thought about it. “Wait a minute, if you came to check on me because I’m in danger, then where were you a little while ago when I was nearly killed by a scary-ass yuppy snake? Or the soul sucker? Or the wraiths?”

  “Or the biker vampires.” Zack chimed in.

  “Yeah,” Lydia said.

  “I was in the bath,” the golem answered. “I have a life you know.”

  That’s when Kaylee jumped in. “Lydia, the golem is more like a courtesy than an obligation. The nicer you are, the more likely it is to be protective of you. It’s not what you’d call a genie in a bottle. It’s more like a generally friendly talisman. Once you piss it off, though, it’s game over.”

  “Fair enough, I’m sorry.” Lydia said. “Thanks for coming. I’m glad you’re here, golem. I mean, I feel better. Don’t you guys feel a little better with the golem here?”

  There was a lot of nodding. “Okay.” Lydia turned back to look at the bad guys who were gathered in the clearing. “I guess we’re as ready as we’re going to be.”

  She took another minute to worry about the tree goblins, holding her sword, already in flames, at the ready. Then, her decision made and her team in place, she decided she wasn’t going to tiptoe into it. She screamed a battle yell as she ran out of the woods and into the clearing.

  Lydia could pinpoint the moment she knew she was in trouble. It was when Algorath looked up from what he was doing and gave her a cruel smile and a nod. And then it was on. Tree goblins were attacking from every angle.

  If the Shadow Slayer mythology was to be believed, and she had the dark magic backing her up on this one, then her sword would work on them. Tree stump sized hands came thumping down on the earth, missing her head by inches. She leaped to the side and slashed at what she could reach- the creature’s legs. The sword cut right through the legs of the tree goblin. It howled as it hit the ground, but others quickly surrounded her.

  She glanced in front of her, closed her eyes, and hit the nearest tree goblins with some hope and fear. That made a loud crackling noise as the magic hit the creatures and knocked them backward. In fact, it knocked over at least half a dozen. That left a clear trail for her to get to Algorath.

  She darted in his direction, looking around to see how her little team was doing. Zack was fighting Brad, the tooth fairy, and Kaylee was doing her best at slowing some tree goblins down with her magic. The golem smashed a tree goblin who wasn’t paying attention. So far, so good.

  Algorath did a slow clap at her. “That’s impressive magic considering you haven’t had it that long. You could have been great, you know. It’s too bad it has to end this way.”

  “Are you surrendering?” Lydia asked as she slashed at him with her sword, but he darted away easily. He was much faster than he looked. And now he was on the other side of the fire. A strange move. Was she supposed to just chase him around the giant flame all night? The bonfire was shooting flames at least ten feet into the air. The minute she lost sight of Algorath on the other side of the flames, she worried. He had her beat as far as magical experience and he also had home court advantage here. Plus, he had a bunch of tree goblins. He had been ahead of them every step of the way. Why was he running? “Why are you hiding, asshole?” She stopped for a moment to think. That ended up being a mistake. The soul sucker came out of the bonfire and went straight for her. “Cheater!” Lydia screamed. “Like we’re not already outnumbered.”

  The good thing about this encounter was she already had her sword out. It was fast, but this time she was able to jump out of the way and bring her sword down straight through the middle of it. It may have been quiet when sneaking up on prey during its short magical life, but it went down in flames and making a loud buzzing noise.

  “No!” Algorath yelled from somewhere on the other
side of the fire. Suddenly, Lydia’s sword was ripped from her hand and flew into the fire.

  “No! What the…” She felt naked without that sword. And now that she was surrounded by things and people that were trying to kill her, it was gone. And the worst part was that the sword had worked so well on the tree goblins and the soul sucker. She was the Shadow Slayer. For the moment, anyway. She looked around, but still didn’t see Algorath. Where was he? And how had he been able to take her sword away without even looking at her?

  Algorath came around the fire now and into full view, a gloating look on his face. He gave a hand signal and tree goblins surrounded her and hemmed her in. They didn’t attack yet, though. The only thing she knew for sure was that she wasn’t going anywhere. And neither was her team. The tree goblins had control of all of her team now. They were suspended in midair by grasping, bark covered hands seven feet off of the ground.

  “Hey, Algorath,” Lydia said. “How did you do that? Take my sword away from behind the fire? And why are these tree goblins obeying you? You’re good, but you’re not that good.”

  “I know how he did it,” Kaylee shouted. “Look!” She pointed straight up in the sky, where the Wyrm Moon shone down on them, casting harsh shadows.

  Algorath nodded. “She’s right. I love this moon. It gives me super magic. And now I will use it to take your power away. I hope you had fun being a Shadow Slayer, because you’re done. And I’m going to keep that little sword of yours as a souvenir. And because the tree goblins are hella scared of it.”

  Lydia squinted at him. “When did you turn into a trendy millennial instead of a throwback viking? If I were you, I’d reconsider. You don’t have a millennial wardrobe.”

  “Oh, Hella existed long before your idiot millennials,” Algorath spat. “But I’ve been recruiting, and those are the people I’m stuck with. It’s part of the curse of living a long time. But hey, enough of my problems, it’s time for you and your friends to die.” He threw a handful of herbs into the bonfire.