by E M Graham
“Hugh,” I said, my hand reaching out to his arm. “Wait. Look over there, across the harbor.”
A huge fog bank, or was it low cloud cover? Whatever, it completely obscured the hill from the midpoint up and even the white oil tanks weren’t visible through its murk. Despite the hurricane force winds, that miasma was not stirring.
“The ley lines,” I said. “Don’t one of the ley lines end up there?”
“It’s a meridian,” he said. “From Portugal Cove through the temple to, yes, right there,”
“I know where it is, the ceremony,” I said excitedly. “I saw it earlier, a bowl shape just like the last one where that woman was killed. That’s what Seth meant when he accused me of spying over on the Southside Hills.”
Without questioning me further, he put the SUV back into gear and continued past the clearing, deep down into the city again, intent on the reaching the Southside Hills.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” he said grimly. “And... I’m afraid we won’t make it there before...”
I nodded. “But why don’t we astral travel or whatever you call it? We could be there in seconds.”
“We need our physical bodies present to effect any change, to intervene, even if they’re in Alt. It’s better this way,” he said. “Now, to the best of your knowledge, what’s the quickest way up to that spot?”
I quickly did the calculations of geography in my head. “Most people would take the trail by Fort Amherst,” I said. “And along the top of the barrens. But...”
“Yes?” We were crossing LeMarchant Road already and headed down Patrick Street. Once more, all the lights were in our favor.
“Behind Alice’s house, there’s a path that should lead up to Nan Hoskins’s berry patch,” I told him. “I’ve never been up it, but it’ll be a short cut and could save a lot of time. I don’t think the bowl is far from the fairy den. We’ll be coming up the back side, too, and Seth wouldn’t expect anyone from that direction.”
Hugh didn’t even look to see if traffic was coming from other directions as we raced through the green lights and over the bridge.
“I hope you’re right,” he said as he pulled up beneath the overpass and parked behind the huge concrete pillars across from Alice’s house. We alit from the vehicle and looked up the hill, but it was still shrouded in that unnatural mist.
“Shouldn’t we have others with us?” I asked, starting to get nervous as I looked into the blank thick wall of fog.
“As in?”
“Other witches? The dwarves?”
“Jon is already working with us,” he said. “And the dwarves won’t intervene in an interspecies dispute. It’s against the Convention.” He pulled the hood over his head and tightened the drawstrings so only his eyes, nose and mouth were visible.
Alice’s house was dark. Had they noticed she didn’t come home last night? We crossed the road against the wind. A real-estate sign torn from its moorings bounced and bobbed down the narrow road headed straight for Fort Amherst, the North Atlantic Ocean, and then perhaps on to Ireland if the gale held strength.
It was more sheltered by her house, yet as we could reach the back yard and the stone steps leading up to the hill we found our way blocked by a wall of cold air, solid yet invisible.
“It’s an old woman,” Hugh whispered.
I narrowed my eyes to allow a little Alt in, and there she was, as real and skinny as in the physical life she had left twenty years before. She looked in pain, as if forcing herself outside her familiar environment was costing her a lot.
“Nan Hoskins! What are you doing outside the house?”
“Never you mind my business! What are you up to, you and that witch? What have you done with my Alice?”
I quickly explained, and with that she turned her back and started up the steps.
“Follow me,” the old harridan said as she sneered. “You’ll never find the path through the berry patch, you’re not of my blood. I know the bowl, never went there in life as there’s no berries can grow down there, dirty with magic as it is, but I can lead you to it. The likes of you would never find it otherwise.”
“Nan,” I panted as we hurried to catch up with her. “Thank you!”
“It’s not for you, but for Alice,” she said and she spit a ghostly phlegm on the ground at our feet.
We were climbing steadily and entering the fog bank by now, and a colder, clammier environment I would never want to experience. Even Nan Hoskins was wheezing as the air itself clawed inside our lungs.
Finally after what seemed forever and a day, we broke through the fog to a perfectly still night. The moon glinted off the tops of the granite bedrock where it broke through the sparse covering of topsoil and bushes, and in the hollows the mist remained, curling around like a maleficent presence.
There was no wind up here. It was as deathly calm as the Sargasso Sea. Away in the near distance I could see a glow of a ring of firelight, the edges of the hollow where Seth and Sasha were fulfilling their deadly ceremony.
Nan Hoskins had been steadily diminishing during the whole climb, the further she got from her home, but I hadn’t noticed till now as the fog had been so thick.
She lifted up her hand and pointed. “Pray to God it’s not too late,” she whispered, then petered out altogether till she was just a cold spot on the barrens.
Hugh and I looked at each other.
“What’s the plan now?”
“Put on your camouflage,” he said. “And keep your mind open to instruction from me.”
I nodded.
“Oh, but keep it clamped down from anyone else.”
I started. How the hell was I going to do all three at once? That would be like juggling balls of fire, something would have to give.
“I trust you can do it,” he said. “After all, Alice’s life depends on it.”
22
WE CREPT UP AND LEANED over the lip, camouflage in place. I looked over at Hugh and could barely make out his shape against the backdrop of the dark bushes. He had been right to choose black as our clothing, for the lack of color helped the camouflage process by taking on the shades of our surroundings in the moonlight.
Down below us, the ceremony was going full tilt, lit by five pitch torches set equidistant around the bowl. The shadows of the hooded black figures leaped as if they were dancing in the flames which surrounded the altar of stone, a heavy piece of slate atop two boulders with Alice on top of that. She wasn’t bound by physical ropes, but sat up, her legs dangling as she watched the scene around her. The slackness on her usually bright face was the only outward sign that she had been drugged.
Seth was in front of her, chanting, while the others crowded behind him, echoing his words. His eyes were on hers, burning into her and she held his gaze. I could see the longing in her eyes, deep within, past the languor. No, Alice! I wanted to scream. I had been there where she was and I knew the lure, the lust for power that she was feeling. I knew what he was promising.
I felt Hugh look over to me.
Can you get inside her mind?
But Seth is right there next to her, I told him silently.
So do it without him feeling you.
It was alright for him to say that, being a fully trained witch and all, but I was just learning this stuff. Jesus. I had no option but to try. Seth had now turned his back to address his cohorts, so it was the perfect opportunity.
Alice, I whispered in my head as I stared at her. Alice.
I saw her perk up a little and cock her head, but her eyes were still hungrily on the witch.
Don’t react, I continued. Don’t let him know I’m here.
I felt the question in her mind.
I’ll explain it all afterwards, I said. But I need you to know that what you’re feeling, what he has put in you, it’s not real.
Her mind was drifting back to the power lust Seth had offered her.
He’s lying, I told her silently. He wants to kill you and take what power you ha
ve for his own. Like a vampire on your blood. Like the fairies with Benjy.
I could feel her mind fighting to get through the haze of drugs and magic at the mention of her brother.
Be careful, I said. Don’t let him see.
She became very still once again as Seth turned back towards her. He stopped and stood stock still as if sniffing the air, but she turned her gaze on him again and parted her lips, shifting her hips like an invitation.
Through the depths of his hood I could see the glint of his white teeth in the firelight. Seth raised one hand and a chain of blue light fizzed from it, just like the one which had chained me to him earlier in Alt. He drew his hand down her arm, letting the string of light trail. She flinched and cried out. I felt that pain too, that tingling warmth like a lightning embrace, and I could feel the longing grow within her again.
All the while his black French eyes burned into hers, mesmerizing her under his influence.
Alice, are you still there?
Yeah, I felt her say, but dimly. I was losing her.
He’s about to move in for the kill. She needs to be ready to throw herself aside, Hugh silently told me.
She’s just about paralysed from the concoction he gave her, I objected.
She has to! When I give the word.
I put Hugh’s message into her head, but she gave no indication she understood, or even agreed to do it. I was left with only a prayer in my heart.
The witches behind Seth increased the tempo of their chant. He stepped closer and whipped his hand across her face, not touching her physically but the blue stream flicked across her cheek.
She cried out again, louder this time, and a reddened scorch mark remained. The power surged in him, I could almost taste it from where I sat above them.
What is he doing to her? My anguished cry rang through my head.
“He’s invoking an ancient rite,” I heard him slowly whisper aloud. We had no need to speak only in our minds now for it was as if an unseen orchestra of strings sounded as the chanting of the witches rose in tempo and strength. It was the thrumming magic in the air all around and Seth turned to face them again like a conductor of a mystic choir, urging them on and further on. “It’s a blood ritual more ancient than the druids, banned long ago.”
Blood. It didn’t sound good.
“What’s going to happen?”
“He’s gathering her energy,” Hugh replied in a low voice, not taking his eyes off the scene below us. “When the blood is released and he bathes in it, he will have consumed her life energy for himself.”
“Stop him!” I said under my breath.
“Only Alice can stop this.” I barely heard Hugh’s voice. “He has burned a connection between them. With her permission, he can strip her of her energy. Her very life.”
“How can she give permission? Look at her, she’s not right in the head. She can no more give consent than her grandmother over at St. Pat’s could. Besides, I don’t think I’m getting through to her anymore.” I turned to him as I hissed these words. Only his eyes glinted in the firelight, the rest of Hugh had faded against the blackness of the night.
The chanting was soaring to a crescendo and Seth turned to face her again with his arms in the air. The lightning crackled between his hands, fingers taut as he strove to control it and his hood fell away from his head with the effort. His eyes were burning and sweat pouring from his brow and triumph lit his brow.
An acolyte reverently handed Seth a knife, the short sharp blade flashing in the firelight. He lifted his other arm high and I could see Alice’s rapt face in the glow of the magic in the air.
Now! Hugh said, once again silently.
But I didn’t pass the signal on to Alice because her mind was no longer present. I’d lost the tenuous connection with her, and Seth had totally filled her head with his own presence.
So I used Hugh’s words as a call to action for myself. I could see she wasn’t going to be able to stop the rite because she was far too gone. This wasn’t an act of bravery, it was pure panic.
Standing up, I let the camouflage fall away from me as I challenged Seth with my stare.
With one hand about to plunge the knife deep into Alice’s chest, he wavered and locked eyes with me.
In that instant, there was only a terrible anger in his gaze at the interruption of his ceremony, but then when he recognized me, the greed rose in his eyes, the greed for me, for my power.
This was the moment, I’d diverted his attention away from my friend, but now I had no idea what came next. I’d jumped off the deep end and was going to have to learn to swim with the sharks and would have to somehow use that greed against him. And I knew I would have to put on an act, pretend to throw my friend away in order to gain his trust.
The worst of it was, the bit I could hardly admit to myself, it wasn’t totally an act on my part, for I too hungered for the taste of power he had shown me in that field in Alt.
And the jealousy – where did that come from? The envy of my friend, knowing he’d chosen her when he could have chosen me – even if it was for death. I couldn’t look closely inside myself at that moment.
“I’m taking you up on your offer,” I said, looking down at him. I held my arms clenched tight to my side to stop myself trembling. I just wished I could trust that I knew what I was doing and yes, I was scared shitless, because I was juggling with knives here.
So I acted, and I was good at it if only because it wasn’t totally an act.
I could feel Hugh at my side, but ignored the spate of questions and orders coming from him.
The blue energy from Seth’s hand abated as he folded his fingers, as if he’d put the force on pause.
“Dara,” he said, a slow smile beginning on his face. It wasn’t a pleasant sight, and my stomach dropped right to my boots. His hood was back and he gave me the full power of his glamour and those black eyes.
I took a deep breath and plunged in. “I thought about what you offered me, back in the field,” I said, pretending a nonchalance I didn’t feel.
I didn’t know if it would work, I wasn’t even sure I knew what my plan was. I didn’t want to offer myself to Seth or become his partner, every atom in my being fought against it, but I could not let Alice be taken by him. The sight of that sharp dagger hovering over her chest, the knowledge of the pain which would be inflicted – I couldn’t allow it. I had to give her a fighting chance. For once I was acting selfless and thinking of another, but I didn’t have time to pat myself on the back.
And I couldn’t allow myself to even think about it in case Seth could smell those fears, even though I had my blocks up as far as I could. I scrambled down into the bowl as gracefully as I could. I couldn’t risk looking back at Hugh. Had he disappeared into his camouflage or had he taken himself elsewhere?
Seth glanced at Alice and then over to me. “Come join me.” He pointed the blade at Alice and smiled again. “Come claim your power.”
His words gripped me with horror, yet at the same time I was also conscious of a stiffening in the figure beside me. It was Sasha, it had to be, because although the hood covered her features, I could feel the force of her sisterly glare.
Seriously – did she really think I wanted her boyfriend?
The French witch lifted his hand and directed the chanting to resume until it again reached the crescendo he needed to ignite the dark magic in the air. He unleashed the blue light from his hand again, his eyes never wavering from mine the whole while.
I felt dizzy, like I was going to disappear into the depths of that burning stare.
“It works better with two witches,” Seth said softly, ignoring Sasha, though she pushed herself up to us. “One to wield the magic power, and the other...” He smiled again and handed the blade to me.
I stretched my mouth into a rictus of a smile, hoping it covered up the dread and shock within, even as I accepted the killing tool. Seth really thought I would shed the blood of my best friend for him, to augment his p
ersonal power? The arrogance of the man astounded me.
During this short exchange, all Seth’s attention had been taken from Alice and without the force of his mesmerization, she was starting to come to. I could feel a soft, Alice-sized movement in my mind. She was wondering if I was here to save her, as I stood above her with the knife in my hand.
I swallowed hard and shut her out of my head. I couldn’t afford to let Seth get a clue as to my hastily formed real intention, which was to disable or stab him before the power exchange could happen. It was either him or Alice.
Or me.
And at the same time I had to fight the dark that was rising inside myself, that dark lust for power and magic he had awakened in me. I wanted that yes, I wanted to be a full witch and exercise my magical abilities, but not this way, not through taking the life of my dear friend.
Yet it could be the easy path to all my dreams. I looked into Seth’s eyes and saw that what he was promising was true and within my grasp, an instant solution to all my woes. I could finally be a more powerful witch than my sister.
He lifted his hand higher and the followers upped their chanting, holding the ring of power all around us so that the magic in the air pulsed with a life of its own. I stood over my friend with the blade poised as she blearily rubbed her eyes and looked at me, puzzled. Just as the crescendo hit its peak, Seth brought his hands down sharply and shouted “Now, Dara!” and I plunged the blade.
But not at Alice. I swerved the trajectory to aim right at Seth’s heart and my aim was true but I did not connect with his heart.
At the last moment though my arm was pushed out of the way, pushed further out, it was Sasha, coming in at the last moment as if she had second thoughts about taking Alice’s life and wanted me to do in Seth. So he was spared, the blade only slicing only into his shoulder. I felt the sharpness cut him like butter, stopped only by the grating bone.
With Sasha’s unexpected action, the blue power which was dancing in his hands, primed and ready to absorb the magic of Alice’s blood, was also sent off course. Instead of pulsing to the point where Alice’s blood would spray from her heart, it was interrupted by the steel of the sword which sliced directly through its new path and like a mirror deflected the magic back to its source.