“Blackwell has all the shadow creatures stirred up just by being here,” Chepi went on. “Between his presence, the warlock gathering his power and my sisters fighting him, the shadow spirits might be on the prowl even in daylight.”
“The internet sites and late-night talk shows will be crazy with reports of ghosts, UFOs and bigfoot coming out of the ‘Bridgewater Triangle’,” Cadell predicted, looking back at Evelyn from the front passenger seat.
“Bridgewater Triangle?” Evelyn asked.
Eve nodded. “The New England cousin of the Bermuda Triangle. Supposedly the local towns of Abington, Rehoboth and Freetown are at the points of the triangle, and the area within the triangle is supposedly a hangout for everything from ETs, to Sasquatch, to werewolves. A guy named Loren Coleman came up with the idea back in the seventies. I doubt he knew how right he was about the supernatural activity that the ley line convergence brings the area.”
“Wait a second,” Evelyn interrupted. “I’ve gotten my head around demons being real. Are UFOs, bigfoot and werewolves real too?”
“Werewolves are real,” Christian replied from his seat to her right. “I’m not sure about UFOS and bigfoot. If they are real, God hasn’t told the Blessed to kill any of them yet.”
The snow had subsided by the time Chepi pulled the Taurus to the side of Howard Street. A strong wind passed through the trees of the swamp and produced a moaning howl. The air seemed heavy and carried subtle, almost imperceptible sounds of hundreds of creatures, both natural and supernatural, as they either fled from the magical power being summoned or were agitated into frantic activity by that power. The magic-charged ley lines that come together on South Island were visible with Truesight and radiated a residual energy that made the skin tingle despite the biting cold.
“We’re on foot from here,” Chepi said, pointing toward the east as everyone piled out of the vehicles. “It’s going to be tough, but there are no roads to the island. The mud on the low ground will probably be frozen, but be careful where you step. It would be easy to step into a hole or fall through some ice into waist-deep water.”
Cai stepped out of the van’s driver’s seat and surveyed the tree-covered terrain that awaited the group once they left the road. “Blackwell has probably summoned a lot of the lower demons that live in the swamp and he’ll use them to slow us down. Something small and fast like goblins could play the hit-and-run game and really chew us up in those trees. Stay together. No one go running into the swamp by themselves. We stick together and watch one another’s backs. We keep moving and we get to the convergence. We’re here to stop Blackwell, not fight a bunch of lesser demons.” He turned to Chepi. “Lead the way. Make it as straight a line as possible.”
The Wampanoag mage drew an intricately-
engraved steel-headed tomahawk from her belt. It had a polished hardwood handle wrapped in leather and a spike opposite the blade. Next, she drew a long, finely-carved knife with a bone handle from its sheath with her other hand. Both were covered with pictographic symbols.
“Those runes don’t look the same,” Evelyn noted, holding up the rune-blade she carried.
“They’re not runes; they’re the language of my people.” Chepi explained.
“I thought that Native Americans had no written language,” Evelyn said.
“That’s what most whites were taught.” Chepi said. “But my people and a lot of the other tribes recorded our history in pictographs, like Egyptian hieroglyphics, on birch bark scrolls called Wiigwaasabak. The white settlers decided that pictographs didn’t really count as writing, and that made it easier to call the tribes savages and steal our land. There are still some original Wiigwaasabak scrolls in museums, but they won’t give them back to the tribes.”
She rolled up her left sleeve to bare her forearm. Symbols identical to those on her weapons were tattooed into her flesh. “My blades are linked to me through my flesh.”
“Like trueblades are linked through blood?” Evelyn postulated.
“More or less,” Chepi said; “except that they won’t kill spirit forms like trueblades do. Spirit forms inhabiting bodies killed by weapons like these are trapped within the weapons and then destroyed in a ceremony. I received my weapons and the marks that go with them when I was seven years old.”
“You got tattooed like that when you were only seven?” Evelyn asked, astonished.
“I was born to protect my people from the monsters in the swamp,” she said. “Being marked was part of my heritage. Like a Blessed embracing their Blessing.”
“Magic is an art as much as it is a science,” Eve said, stepping up beside Evelyn. “There’s always more than one way to do anything. There’s room to be creative.”
Chepi stepped away from the road and stalked toward the swamp. “The Pukwudgie will be out. With this much magic in the air, they’ll be running in packs and they’ll be worked into a frenzy. They’re small, but they’ll come at us in large groups. Cai’s right,” she affirmed. “Whatever you do, don’t chase them into the swamp. They’ll have some kind of trap waiting for you.”
“Stay together, no matter what,” Cai repeated. “God and the angels be with us.”
Chapter Thirteen
Frozen mud crunched under their feet. With each step, their feet sank inches into the thoroughly-damp earth beneath the layer of ice. Tangled underbrush made moving forward a slow, awkward process and the trees seemed to purposely surround the group like the bars of a claustrophobic wooden prison cell. Any trails that may have once cut through the swampy forest had either been naturally overgrown, barricaded by the Pukwudgie or magically erased. The air was charged with energy that made the group’s flesh tingle and crawl. Each frigid breath filled their lungs with magic-saturated air tinged with the weight of Blackwell’s evil presence. To the adrenaline heightened senses of the Selkirks and their friends, every sound became ominously threatening; every shadow became monstrous. Hockomock swamp had never been a friendly place for humans. Blackwell’s presence had turned it into a nightmare worthy of legend.
“We’ve landed on fucking Dagobah,” Josh complained, pulling his booted foot out of the soggy soil.
“Those aren’t little Yodas that are trailing us on both sides,” Cadell replied, noting the chattering clicks and skittering footfalls paralleling their march. “Whatever they are, they’re herding us, most likely into an ambush.”
“We’ll deal with that when it happens,” Cai said. “Just take things as they come and don’t let them draw you away from the group. Whatever happens, we can deal with it better if we’re together.”
“It’s the Pukwudgie,” Chepi announced. “You’re right. They’ll drive us into an ambush. There’ll be dozens of them,” she added. “When they attack, try to take one alive and give it to me. I can use a live one against the others.”
“They’re herding us away from the convergence,” Colm observed. “You can feel the energy getting a little weaker. Let’s break away from them now. We can kill the ones that are herding us.”
“You’d never get close to them,” Chepi countered. “They’d vanish into the swamp and hope that you chase them.”
“Just go with the flow,” Cai advised. “We want them to come to us.”
After a few minutes, the group came to a part of the forest where the small stream-fed pond had created an area where the foliage and underbrush were not as dense. The chattering call of the Pukwudgie continued, trying to move the Selkirks away from the convergence.
“Hold up,” Cai ordered as the group entered the open space. “Form a circle, back to back. We’ll fight them here. It’s open enough for us to see them coming, and we can watch one another’s backs.” His brothers obeyed. Evelyn and Josh followed their example. Chepi took a place with Eve in the circle’s center.
Sticks, stones and other debris began to fly from behind trees. A constant barrage of projectiles assailed the
Selkirks and their companions. “Stay put,” Cai ordered. “They’re trying t
o make us move! This is where we make our stand.” The barrage lasted for a few minutes, only managing to annoy the Selkirk party. When it stopped, hundreds of chattering voices and shuffling footfalls could be heard just beyond the Selkirks’ line of sight. Blurred forms darted from tree to tree and leapt from their branches. Finally, after several minutes, hundreds of red, glowing eyes appeared all around the Selkirks’ defensive circle.
“They’re getting ready to charge,” Cai said. “Defend your side of the circle. Don’t let them draw you out of position.”
Then the Pukwudgie charged one side of the circle. One of the gray-skinned, three-foot-tall creatures launched itself at Cadell’s face while two others attacked his legs. Clawed two-fingered hands shot toward his eyes while curved needle-like teeth tried to sink into the meat of his thighs. He lashed out with his right foot and smashed the heel of his boot into the chin of one his tiny attackers. It flew backward, rolling onto all fours, seemingly stunned. Cadell’s sword intercepted the Pukwudgie that had leaped at his face and sliced it in two, spraying both Cadell and Evelyn with the monster’s purplish blood. Cadell brought the hilt of his sword downward after his cut and smashed the skull of the third Pukwudgie as it attempted to wrap its jaws around his calf. The bone shattered and the brain beneath it was explosively exposed. More red eyes charged him, carried on tiny but frighteningly fast feet.
Beside Cadell, Evelyn cut a Pukwudgie’s belly open as it attempted to tackle her to the ground while two others tried to entangle themselves in her legs. One of the creatures had succeeded in clamping its jaws around her lower calf, but her high, thick leather boots kept its teeth from piercing her flesh. Her sword chopped into her third attacker’s skull and bisected its head down to its elongated nose. She stabbed the one that had latched onto her leg through its side with her rune-sword and pried it away from her limb. Pinning it to the ground with her sword, she twisted the blade sharply as she pulled it from the Pukwudgie’s body. With three rapid cuts, she cut the little beast into three pieces, spattering her lower legs with viscous purple blood.
Christian’s saber arched low, decapitating two Pukwudgie with a single swing. He backhanded a third assailant as it leapt toward his throat, propelling it headfirst into a tree. Next to Christian, a Pukwudgie had sunk its teeth into Colm’s left forearm and was being thrown back and forth as he fought two of its monstrous cohorts. He impaled one of his diminutive attackers on the point of his longsword as it flew at his neck and used the one attached to his forearm to fend off an assault from a third. He brought the Pukwudgie that had latched onto his arm in front of him as though it were a shield. Bitten by its cohort, the monster released its hold on Colm and launched an enraged attack on its comrade. The two Pukwudgie became a whirling blur of teeth and claws as they fought. No more attacks came from that side of the circle.
Behind Cadell, more chattering could be heard and there were more red eye-flashes. “Hold the circle,” Cai ordered “They’ll try to make us focus on one side of the circle so we turn our backs on some of them. Hold the circle.”
“Get me a live one if you can,” Chepi reminded the group.
The second charge came and the Pukwudgie continued their high-low attack pattern. Two of them attacked their larger enemy’s legs while one attacked the face and head. Callum caught one of the semi-demons while it was in mid-leap and slammed it into the ground as though he were spiking a football, shattering most of its bones. He kicked the second of his goblin-like foes in its chest and sent it into an uncontrolled arc over the frozen ground. His huge two-handed sword split the third of his attackers from skull to groin, leaving it in two pieces.
Cai skewered a Pukwudgie through the eye with his backsword. His blade then cut down the two others that were charging him in two precise motions. Josh had killed the first of the Pukwudgies that had lunged at his legs, but the other had slammed into his left leg just as a third of the little demons had thrown itself into his chest. He found himself flat on his back with the two creatures frantically trying to gouge him with teeth and claws. His left hand held one set of teeth away from his throat by shoving his palm into the monster’s snout while the right wedged the edge of his rune-blade in the other Pukwudgie’s mouth. Twisting his torso, he managed to gain enough leverage to throw one of the creatures away from him, where it was dispatched by Cai. Josh then arched his back off the ground and rolled his body from beneath the Pukwudgie, forcing his crazed enemy onto its back. Holding the furious demonoid to the ground with one hand, he struck it three times in the forehead with his sword’s pommel. He was covered with bleeding but superficial wounds.
“Here’s your live one!” he announced as he and Cai threw the now unconscious Pukwudgie at Chepi’s feet.
“They’re forming up for another charge,” Cadell announced. “There are more of them moving in on us,” he added. “Whatever you’re going to do, best get a move on. Fast is good!” he urged. More red eyes appeared around and in the trees.
“They were just testing us before. This time they’ll hit us in force.” Cai advised. “Hold the circle. Protect yourself and the people next to you.”
The unconscious Pukwudgie that Josh had provided had awakened and begun to squirm under Eve’s foot as she pinned the demon to the ground. Chepi brought the flat of her tomahawk down on its forehead, taking its consciousness away again. “Get ready,” Chepi told Eve. “But don’t kill it until I’m done with the ritual.” Eve gripped her Bowie knife and nodded.
The Pukwudgie came out of the trees on all sides of the Selkirks’ circle. They ran chimpanzee-like on all fours as they charged across the ground, chattering like crazed mice. In a frenzied bloodlust, the Pukwudgie were careless of their own lives. They were literally trampling one another in order to reach their prey. The Selkirks and their companions stood their ground, their swords forming a wall of steel for the demonic charge to break upon.
The ground quickly became soaked in blood as Pukwudgie were cut down by the dozen, only to be replaced by dozens more. The swords of the Blessed Warriors killed wave after wave of swamp-demons until a pile of Pukwudgie corpses formed at their feet. One of the demons would manage to claw or bite one of the beleaguered Blessed, only to be slain by one of that
Blessed’s comrades. The individual wounds each Pukwudgie caused were slight, but their cumulative effect soon became dangerous. There seemed to be no limit to the Pukwudgie’s numbers.
“Chepi!” Cai yelled, slicing open the belly of a Pukwudgie that tried to bring him down with a leaping tackle. “How soon?” he inquired, striking the head from another of the toddler-sized demons.
“She can’t answer,” Eve said from the relative
safety of the circle’s center. “She’s in a casting trance.”
“We can’t keep this up much longer,” Christian advised, gliding his saber across the throat of a charging Pukwudgie.
“We can’t rush her,” Eve responded.
Chepi chanted softly as the battle raged about her, her body swaying slightly to the rhythm of her chant. It was as though the air were becoming partially solid. The space around the Wampanoag mage became colder than the usual winter chill. A breeze arose, seeming to flow out of and around her body. As her chanting continued, it became louder and the air around her became cold. The breeze became a gale. Several more minutes passed before Chepi’s eyes opened. They were alight with a blue/white magical luminance.
Still chanting and in trance, she knelt beside Eve and the captured Pukwudgie. Taking care not to cut into the vital organs, she slit open the demon’s belly with her longknife. She plunged her hands into the wound as it gushed viscous, purple blood. She moved about inside the circle as the Selkirks, Josh and Evelyn continued to slaughter successive waves of Pukwudgie. She flung the blood from her hands over the heads of the circled warriors, splattering onto the attacking demons. When she had flung blood in all the cardinal directions, she raised her hands high above her head and looked at Eve with magically-illuminated eyes.
The swamp took on an eerie, ominous silence. Chepi collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath. An ethereal apparition of an elderly woman in traditional Wampanoag attire appeared near her, smiling proudly down at her. Chepi struggled to her feet. “Thank you, grandmother,” she said. The apparition smiled and extended her arms to take Chepi in what would have been an embrace had both participants been solid. Then she faded away.
Callum came to Chepi’s side. “Are you okay?” he asked, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.
She smiled at him. “Yes. Grandmother renewed my strength.”
“That’s grandma, huh?” Callum asked. “I remember you always talked about her with reverence and awe.”
Chepi’s smile became broader. “She was the matriarch of the tribe,” she replied. “I wouldn’t have been able to manage a spell as powerful as the one I just cast without her help.”
“What is her name?” Cai asked.
“Weetamoo,” Chepi replied.
Cai looked at each of his brothers in turn, then to Eve, Evelyn and Josh. The group came to a silent understanding. “Thank you, Weetamoo,” they all said. They were answered by a brief but distinctly warm breeze. “What was that spell anyway?” Colm asked.
“I linked the life force of the Pukwudgie we captured to life force of all them,” Chepi explained. “When Eve killed that one, they all died.”
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