by Jay Barnson
Jenny began pacing. “Is this sorceress stronger than Evelyn?”
Annabelle nodded. “Much. The stories I hear say it took a bunch of wizards working together to imprison her, and they didn’t all survive the attempt.”
“Why didn’t they just kill her?” Jack asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Annabelle said.
“What about those wizards?” Jenny asked. “Can we warn them?”
Annabelle shrugged. “I don’t know. I assume they’ve got someone watching over her prison up in Morgantown. I’ll need to see if I can beat Evelyn there.”
Jessabelle folded her arms and frowned. Jenny and Sean looked at each other. Jack said, “You know, there might could be another way we could stop her for good this time.”
Everyone turned to him. Even Annabelle looked hungry for a better idea. She said evenly, “Alright, let’s hear you out, Jack.”
Jack glanced at Jenny. “You ain’t bled me dry yet.”
Jenny awoke to Sean’s gentle shaking, sprawled under a canopy of trees and a glowing pre-dawn sky. For the briefest moment she couldn’t remember where she was, or what she was doing. She forgot that she was no longer in Chicago and was now, technically, an orphan. As reality reasserted itself, she braced for a crushing despair that never arrived. The hole in her heart for her parents was there, still aching and raw. The fear of Evelyn and the monsters of this world returned. But so did the knowledge she was part of a family of three women of three different generations. She had friends who had literally risked their lives for her. This was what ‘home’ felt like. She was ready to fight tooth and claw for it.
“Jessabelle’s back,” Sean said. “She says Evelyn and the giants are on their way. We’ve buried your charms along the trail about a quarter of a mile down.”
Jenny sat up, now fully alert. “How soon will they be here?”
“By sunrise.” He looked up at the sky. “Annie says in about fifteen minutes. She wanted you to get every ounce of sleep that you could.”
“You call her Annie now?”
Sean grinned. “She told me to call her either Grandma or Annie. I didn’t feel comfortable calling her Grandma.”
Grandma. Jenny smiled. She was still getting used to the idea, but she liked the sound of it. “I feel like I’ve been asleep more than I’ve been awake the last couple of days.”
“Annie says you’ll develop endurance over time, and that there are a lot of tricks to make it easier. Using more physical ingredients and special items, for example.”
“I wish one of these witches would publish a how-to book with complete instructions.”
“Once you figure it out, you can write one.”
Jenny found herself on a mat, covered by a blanket, but didn’t remember them being there when she fell asleep. When did she fall asleep, anyway? She’d been making charms with Grandma Annabelle, and that was all she could remember. “Where did these come from?”
“Annie’s, of course. Jack wanted to go back ‘Round the Bend and pick up more supplies from Hattie’s house, but we didn’t know how much time we had. Not enough, of course. He’s with Annie now. She said that since he doesn’t really need a curse-protection charm, she was cooking up something special for him.”
Jenny stood up and folded the blanket. It seemed like the thing to do. Plan for using it again. “How many giants does Evelyn have?”
“Better than we’d feared.”
“How many?”
“Six. If we’re lucky, all six will turn against her as they cross your charms. They’ll squish her into a stain on the ground, and turn back home without us having to do a thing.”
Jenny exhaled. “Yeah. And how often have we been that lucky?”
He grinned. “Every time. We keep surviving.”
Jenny shrugged. “Okay, fair enough.” She recalled the sick feeling she’d felt when she’d seen Evelyn struck by the ogre, and wasn’t looking forward to seeing that happen again. However, Evelyn had tried to kill her friends and family. Jenny wouldn’t give her another opportunity. “Where are we setting up?”
Sean took her to a copse of trees overlooking the trail. A bow and quiver of arrows sat ready on the ground. Sean picked up the bow. Jenny raised her eyebrow. Sean shrugged. “I was a Boy Scout for a couple of years. I even got a merit badge in archery. Besides, giants are big targets.”
“It’s Grandma’s bow?”
“Yup. Giants aren’t the only ones who hunt around here. Are you wearing the charms?”
Jenny nodded, holding out the little pouches on leather cords she and Grandma Annabelle had made during the night.
“I guess we’re as ready as we’re going to get, then.”
They waited for several minutes in silence. Even the insects were still in the dawn glow. The rays of sunlight hadn’t topped the mountains yet, but what she could see of the pristine peaks in the lightening sky was breathtaking.
Sean slowly pointed into the woods. Jenny scanned the distance until she spotted the hulking, darker shadows moving in the shadows along the trail. Moments later, they took form as the first direct rays of sun gushed over the mountain top and pierced the canopy.
The giants took deliberately short steps. Four held clubs of various designs. One held a bow and wore a quiver of arrows. The smallest of the giants carried a blade that seemed too delicate for its hand. Evelyn marched in the middle of them, taking huge strides in comparison to her companions. Her head didn’t even come up to the waist of the shortest giant.
Sean tensed. Jenny watched intently. Evelyn and the giants drew closer.
“It didn’t work,” Sean whispered. “They just passed the second charm. We must have done something wrong.”
Jenny froze, thinking. She was certain the charms had been made right. As realization dawned, she shook her head. “No, we didn’t do anything wrong. Evelyn doesn’t control the giants. She persuaded them. They’ve come willingly.”
Sean swore. “We’re screwed.”
Jenny did the math. They could run for the path, and return to Maple Bend. Evelyn would undoubtedly pursue them, with giants in tow, and a lot of other people might be killed. They could stand and fight, and probably be killed. Or they could surrender. There weren’t a lot of other options. The group was separated, and there was no time to reach a mutual decision. Surrender was the only way her whole family would survive.
Sean looked at her, or past her, appearing to be doing similar calculations. He reached a different conclusion. “Get ready to run,” he whispered, as he drew the arrow back.
“What are you doing?”
“Probably nothing. She’ll be protected again.”
“Don’t!” She whispered, afraid to say it any more forcefully for fear of Evelyn hearing.
Sean ignored her. He let his arrow fly.
The arrow struck the witch and snapped in two. Evelyn looked down at the broken shaft in stunned surprise, then looked up the hill in their general direction. “Get them!” she shrieked as Sean nocked another arrow.
“Run!” Sean shouted.
Jenny didn’t. She was already casting her protective spell on him. Would it double up with the charm he wore? She didn’t care. He was about to die, otherwise.
Evelyn dodged behind the giants, preventing Sean from getting a clear shot. The giants raised their weapons and pushed forward. Sean raised his aim and let another arrow fly. It buried itself in the cheek of one of the giants, who didn’t seem to notice.
“RUN!” Sean yelled. Jenny ignored him. The giants knew where they were, and she wasn’t sure whether the giants or the spell would land first, but she wouldn’t stop until he was protected, even if it wouldn’t stop a single hit.
A black blur flew at Evelyn. She shrieked again. “Tarbos! Klot! Come back! Kill this cat!”
The giants, far from disciplined troops, hesitated to sort out her commands. Two of the giants, both armed with clubs, turned back. The others resumed their advance.
Jenny finished t
he spell. The protection snapped down on Sean, and it was Jenny’s turn to yell, “RUN!”
Not that it would do any good. They couldn’t outrun giants.
Jenny lost track of Sean as they fled. She dove between two thick trees as a giant crashed closer. The giant slowed to dodge around the trees, but the momentum she gained was offset once the giant resumed its ground eating pace. Someone called out, but Jenny couldn’t understand what they were saying. Nor did she care. She grabbed a sapling to help her change direction and made for another clump of trees.
The sapling and tree branches exploded behind her as the giant’s club tore through the air closely enough for her to feel the wind on her back. She jumped through the trees. The giant stepped to one side to head her off. Jenny dodged in a different direction, using the trees as shields to spoil the giant’s ability to swing the club.
The giant anticipated the move, and leaped to block her in. It raised its club. Jenny dodged into some brush, but the scraggly bushes provided no protection from the weapon.
“She ran that way, down the hill!” Grandma Annabelle’s voice rang out, making the giant hesitate. “Go get her, quick!”
The giant bolted away, down the hill, bellowing as he charged after his invisible prize.
Annabelle squatted, half-concealed in the thick summer brush, twenty yards away. “Twice in as many days,” she said. “Head on downhill. Jack’s going to need your help once Evelyn figures out what’s what.”
“What? Where?”
“Down by the trail. Keep your head down.”
An arrow streaked into Annabelle, but ricocheted off into the bushes. “Run!” she called. “I’ll be fine, you won’t! Run!”
Jenny hesitated, readying an argument, but Annabelle was already casting an unfamiliar spell. Jenny half-slid down the slope toward the trail. Giants crashed and bellowed all around her, but she couldn’t see them. In spite of their incredible size, the thick forest concealed them.
Jenny prayed it would do the same for her friends.
Running with a bow and a quiver full of arrows wasn’t as easy as it looked in the movies. Even with the arrows secured in Annabelle’s custom quiver, the quiver itself bounced and jostled, and caught on branches and leaves as Sean fled for dear life from two giants chasing him. The bow was even worse. Since he couldn’t get rid of the quiver without stopping, he kept the bow, too. He brushed past the trees as he ran, because even the giants couldn’t just plow through them. He crashed through a thick mesh of greenery, bow held in front of him with both hands to clear the way, only to emerge at the edge of a shallow ravine. Not about to change direction, Sean plunged down, sliding half the way. The muddy streambed at the bottom made him stumble, but it gave the giant even more trouble. The giant slipped and landed with a squish of mud and decaying plants only a few feet behind Sean.
Sean chanced a look behind him. The giant was already picking himself up, and retrieving the oversized dagger it had been carrying. Sean couldn’t tell where the other giant had gone.
A thick wall of weeds and small trees lined either side of the streambed. It was too narrow even for a human-sized man to navigate easily, but Sean was out of options. He plunged forward again, hoping it would slow the giant more than himself.
“Cut it off on the other side,” the giant behind him yelled, far too close for comfort. Sean again chanced a look behind him, just in time to see the massive form leaping at him with the blade. There was nothing Sean could do but to turn away and tense up.
A flash of blue light deflected the blade, but the blow sent him sprawling, and the blade flying out of the giant’s grasp and into the weeds. The giant was tangled even worse, face down in the mud.
Sean picked himself up and checked his shoulder. It hurt, but by rights he should have been impaled in the mud. Jenny’s spell had protected him again. With the amount of pain penetrating his adrenaline rush, it probably wouldn’t give him many more chances. Before the giant could get free, Sean retrieved the bow and pushed forward. A few feet away, the hilt of the giant’s blade stuck out of tall grasses. Sean grabbed it as he ran past, thinking he could use it as a machete. The grip was human-sized, which explained why the giant had difficulty holding onto it. It really was more of a short sword, like a cutlass or a sharp-tipped machete.
Twenty feet away, the grass thinned out below an overhanging tree. As Sean reached the tree, the second giant appeared and sprang toward him, club raised. The tree’s branches entangled the club, but the giant wasted no time stooping down and pushing himself forward, hand extended. The giant caught hold of Sean’s bow and pulled. Sean released the bow and lunged with the blade. The crouched giant’s head wasn’t much higher than Sean’s eye level. The sword caught in the giant’s eye socket, a target nearly large as Sean’s fist. The giant howled and pulled back, dropping the bow and nearly pulling the sword out of Sean’s hand.
Sean grabbed Annabelle’s bow and raced past the giant, who rolled on the slope with both bloody hands mashed against his pierced eye.
A minute later, panting and wheezing, Sean had lost the giants, but he’d also lost his way. He had no idea how to find the others, or even which way led to the crossroads.
Jack watched in horror as the giants gave chase first to Sean and Jenny, and then to Jessabelle. Jessabelle, at least, could outrun the giants. Probably. It was all he could do to avoid rushing in and getting himself killed trying to protect the cat. Jessabelle’s claws tore at the invisible barrier protecting the witch, and Evelyn fought back uselessly, her expression filled with fear. As the giants approached, Jessabelle sprang free and launched herself back into the woods. For the briefest of moments Jack hoped one of the giants would accidentally brain Evelyn as they stumbled after the fleeing panther.
For a moment, Evelyn was alone.
“Go!” Annabelle whispered. “Jenny and Sean need my help.” Annabelle sprang up the hill with surprising speed and silence. Jack doubted he could have done better.
Evelyn crouched behind some trees and began casting. It was likely the spell to make her unnoticeable. He had to interrupt it. He took a deep breath, and broke from his hiding place, walking toward her, reciting the words of an old folk song without singing them. He made sure they were loud enough for Evelyn to hear.
What do you will Evelyn, my son?
Ten thousand weights of burning brimstone to burn her bones brown
For she was the cause of my lying down.
Jack’s voice was strange in his ears. Evelyn paid attention. She stopped in mid-spell and stood to face him. She made a defensive gesture with both hands and started a new incantation in Spanish.
Thanks to the disguise charm he carried in his pocket, Evelyn saw and heard Jenny, not Jack. Jack repeated the song out loud, staring at Evelyn as he did so. She recited the incantation that had put Sean and Annabelle to sleep. Jack braced himself, and felt the waves of exhaustion flow over him. Already tired and in need of more sleep, he stumbled and interrupted his recitation to avoid doing a face-plant into the dirt. Even more than the night before, he fought against dimming consciousness. The sensation of falling as he staggered forward jolted him back into wakefulness. What was he singing? What was he doing?
He had to speak the songs again. Not sing. Evelyn was from California, not West Virginia, and probably didn’t know the lyrics to the old Appalachian songs. Not that Jack really did, either, but he remembered bits and pieces from what his grandmother had taught him. However, the tunes were often more recognizable. As far as she knew, Jack was reciting a spell. The disguise charm would make Evelyn think he was Jenny, at least for a few more precious seconds.
Come down, come down, Evelyn
And come on down with me
There is a place provided in Hell
For wicked women like thee
Evelyn’s eyes grew wide, and she hurled another incantation at him. And another. Then another. At one moment Jack felt like he was burning with a fever, and then like he was being bitten by a thousand
tiny insects. He focused on the song lyrics, repeating them twice in spite of his discomfort. One of Evelyn’s spells made him cough and choke, but he kept at it, switching back to the verse from the previous song. His stomach felt like it was on fire, his knees threatened to buckle, and his breathing grew labored. He hoped she didn’t hear him wheezing between every breath.
The magic of the disguise faded. His voice returned to normal, or as normal as it could be with his throat feeling like he’d gargled with battery acid. Evelyn, now sweating, swore loudly. “How did you…?” she started.
Jack pulled the bottom of the baseball bat free from the rope loop on his belt. His hands were clammy and his fingers felt swollen. He gripped the bat’s handle less casually than he intended, but he strode forward with all the confidence he could fake, in spite of the pain in his every joint and his uncertainty that he had the strength to swing the bat.
Evelyn looked him over, and then bolted off into the woods.
Jack began to give chase, but in two steps collapsed. Lyin’ Jack had finally told the whopper of his life, and it might kill him. The plan was to force Evelyn to expend the bulk of her energy against him, leaving her with little or nothing left to attack the others. Hours ago, it had sounded like a brilliant plan. He’d insisted on doing it over Annabelle’s words of caution.
Now he knew pain on levels he’d never imagined possible. He made an effort to stand, but neither his muscles nor his knees could support him. Leaving the bat on the ground, he crawled down the trail. The world spun, and his breath grew more ragged each time he inhaled. After twenty feet, his hands no longer worked right. His cartoonishly swollen fingers wouldn’t unclench, and every touch of rock and root along the trail burned like he was on fire. At any moment, he felt a loose twig would rupture his fat hands like popping balloons. His face felt no better.
His forearms were only marginally better. The pain flowed down from his extremities into the rest of his body. He pushed forearm over forearm, dragging his legs when his knees wouldn’t work. His feet felt like they were being crushed by his shoes.