by Zandria West
‘People love you,’ I say. ‘They revere you. They look to you for protection. Isn’t that enough?’
‘But of course not!’ she cries. ‘People mean nothing to me. They cannot even see me. But he… he saw me.’
‘I can see you,’ I say quickly, frowning. ‘I’m people.’
‘No, you’re not. Not anymore. The magic coursing through you, the ancient enchantment working in your veins, the presence of the Dark God, it all has changed you. You’re not human anymore, Lana. Though I do not know what you are…’
‘The Dark God caused chaos and destruction when he was in this world. He wanted all the power for himself. He tried to take it…’
Izushi sighs again, as though enjoying a happy reminiscence.
‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘My purpose is to protect humankind. From the demons, from the Dark God. From you, if I have to,’ I say. ‘Even if it means giving up what I love most.’
I see her eyes sharpen as she turns to me. ‘You would do that?’ she asks. ‘Give up your men to keep the human world safe?’
‘I would. Though I’m… I’m not sure if it will work.’
She runs a finger over her chin. ‘Oh, it will work, without a doubt. You are the union of worlds, the meeting point of Dark and Light. That creates an incredible amount of energy, I can tell you that from personal experience,’ she says, giving me a sly smile.
A jolt of shock moves through me. This is the answer I was seeking. Not in the form I wanted or imagined, and not because Izushi wants to help. But she’s told me what I needed to know. Now all I need is to get back to my men. This walk was only to clear my mind, to try to decide what to do. Now I know what must be done. I don’t want to waste the little time remaining. The night is passing. The moon has risen high in the sky.
‘Please,’ I say. ‘Let me go to them. This is our last night. Tomorrow I have to remake the Barrier spell, and after that –’
Izushi smiled, not a kind smile, but a smile of petty vengeance.
‘Oh, I think not. You will do what you need tomorrow, it is not my place to interfere where the Dark God has made a bargain, but for tonight I will keep you here. You can learn what it feels like to be lonely, for those you care about to think you have abandoned them. You will learn how it feels not to say goodbye. Of course, if you’d offered to help me as I’d asked…’
I shake my head. If I’m certain of nothing else, I know that the Dark God must not be permitted to return. His power is too great and too destructive.
‘Well then, enjoy your solitude, child. And whatever you do in my name tomorrow, make it spectacular! For a weak mortal such as yourself to think you can stand against a god… I feel certain that soon I shall be back in the arms of my beloved.’
There’s a sudden brilliant flash of blue, a swirl of sparks that rise to the sky and dance there, making the darkness shine and shimmer as though with a new constellation of stars.
I try to stand, but it feels like a powerful force is rooting me to the spot. I can’t move my legs. I try to cry out, but I can’t make a sound. I try to reach through the Binding, to reach for my men, but it’s as though my magic is blocked.
As the realisation claims me, it is so horrifying I feel physically ill. I’m trapped and alone. There’s nothing I can do. There’s no way to fight the Goddess’s power.
25
GABRIEL
I cannot believe the day has come – the final day. The day of reckoning. When the sun rises, Lana will perform the Barrier spell that is her birthright. And beyond that, I cannot see or know.
All of us are trying to deal with this night in different ways. Reuben is sharpening his blades. Grayson is pacing and muttering. Alex is lying on the bed in what appears to be a vampiric torpor, but which I can feel through the Binding is in fact a state of deep terror at what may be ahead. And I, I am reading through the ancient text that my mother left me, going back again to the fragments of spells that I think Lana will weave together tomorrow to recreate the most powerful enchantment ever cast by human or demon alike.
For now, Lana is with her mother. I hope that Graciela is doing all she can to help her to prepare for what is coming. My greatest fear, and the one I have not spoken of to anybody, is that Lana will be unable to do what is required. Not the spell, but the Sacrifice. I know Lana’s heart rebels against it. She does not want to harm a single other person, and though she understands that great magic requires great power and all power requires at its source a sacrifice, I am not certain that she really feels the truth of that in her bones. I am scared that she will hesitate and that the allotted moment when the Circle is to join with her and add their power to hers will pass.
‘What will we do afterwards?’ Alex asks, his eyes blinking suddenly open. I turn to him.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, once this is all done. The Barrier restored. Demons confined to their own realm. Success, hurray. Lana won’t need our protection any longer.’
‘I –’ In all honesty, I had not thought that far ahead.
‘We allow her to return to her human life,’ Grayson’s voice is like the point of a knife at my throat.
‘No,’ Alex says. ‘That can’t be right. We can’t just walk away…’
‘Would it be fair to do otherwise?’ Grayson asks. ‘She’s only with us because Gabriel bound her to us. The enchantment she was born to has taken so much from her, twisted her destiny. Don’t you think she deserves a chance to discover what her future could be, not as the Key but as Lana?’
‘Fucking angels,’ Alex murmurs. ‘I suppose you’re going to tell me that doing anything else would be a sinful act of selfishness?’
Grayson shook his head. ‘I want her as much as you do, Alex. I just think she deserves a real, human life.’
‘No,’ Reuben says sharply, looking up from the large hunting knife he’s polishing vigorously although it’s already shining as brightly as the moon. ‘We’re pack now. The five of us. We’ve shared blood. That means loyalty. That means staying together, always.’
‘Well Gabe, what do you think?’ Alex asks, turning to me expectantly.
‘I…’ I pause for a moment, uncertain. There’s a sudden banging on the door and then it flings open.
‘Have you seen her?’ Graciela stands in the doorway looking worried – the most worried I’ve ever seen her. A cold fear takes seed inside me.
‘Who?’ I ask.
‘Lana,’ Graciela says. ‘I hoped she was here with you. We were talking and we argued, and now I think… I think she’s gone.’
‘What did you argue about?’ I ask, narrowing my eyes at the witch. I must try to control the protective rage that is surging like electricity through my body.
‘That is not important right now. But we need to find her. If she’s left the protection of the house on this night of all nights…’
‘I did not feel her go,’ I say slowly.
The protection spell Graciela and I had woven was so powerful even a mosquito would not be able to pass through it if there was a chance it might bite Lana. Between that and the Binding, I am certain I would have felt her leave. But then, I would have expected to have felt the emotional upheaval of Lana’s fight with her mother through the Binding too.
‘She’s been hiding things,’ Alex says. ‘Blocking her thoughts from me. I used to be able to read everything she felt and thought. But since she’s been training so hard, preparing to cast the Barrier spell, her power’s been growing. She’s keeping things back…’
I turn on him, my fear for Lana’s safety turning instantly to fury. ‘And you did not think to share that information with me?’
Alex shrugged. ‘I told Lana that she could talk to me about whatever it was when she was ready. I trust her, Gabe. What’s love without trust?’
I close my eyes and reach through the Binding, trying to locate Lana. There’s no sense of damage, no stretching or tearing, just a kind of fuzziness around her. I cannot find her. I know she’s th
ere, and if I had to guess I’d say that she was safe, for now at least. But where?
My magic, which has always guided me true, has no idea.
‘Gabe?’ Alex asks. As I open my eyes again, I sense the tension in the room strung so tightly that the hairs on my arms stand on end.
‘I don’t know,’ I have to admit. ‘I don’t know where she is.’
‘We must find her,’ Reuben says, leaping to his feet and beginning the fairly lengthy process of re-inserting all of his many blades into their correct scabbards.
‘Where do you think she went?’ I turn to Graciela.
She raises her hands in a gesture of uncertainty. ‘I don’t know. Away. Away from this house. Up the mountain, I’d guess. She wanted space, time alone to think.’
I hold Graciela for a long moment with a hard gaze. I cannot force her to tell me what they were arguing about, not now at any rate, but I can sure as hell make certain she understands that if her words pushed Lana away from us and into danger, there will be consequences.
‘Alright,’ I say, determination hardening within me. We must find her, and quickly. ‘We will make a coordinated search. Alex, you take the path that leads back to the waterfall, to the Jaws of Death, in case she’s found her way back there. Reuben, you climb the mountain path, scent her if you can. Grayson, it is unlikely she’s there, but search the vicinity of the village and the caverns. Graciela and I will check the area closer to the house. Let us hope she has not strayed far.’
A moment later, I spot a movement behind Graciela in the doorway. My heart leaps, thinking it might be Lana, back safely already, then falls again when I spot her twin brother Jamie.
‘What’s happening?’ he yawns.
‘Lana’s missing,’ I say shortly. ‘We are about to begin a search for her.’
He frowns. ‘Can I help?’ he asks.
I feel Reuben bristling behind me.
‘Best if you stay here in case she returns,’ Graciela says smoothly. ‘And if she does, keep her here. Whatever it takes, you understand?’
Jamie raises an eyebrow and for a second his expression is so familiar, so much like a look that Lana would give, that it almost fells me. ‘Like I’ve ever been able to get Lana to do a single thing she didn’t want to do…’ he mutters.
‘I hope we will not be long,’ I say. ‘All of you, good luck. And be careful.’
Dread takes me. To be splitting up, all going separately into the danger of the surrounding forest so close to the time when the Barrier is meant to be remade, seems foolishness beyond measure. But the thought of doing otherwise – of leaving Lana to suffer whatever peril might await her alone – is inconceivable. There is no choice.
An atmosphere of sombre silence takes us as we file from the house. I watch as Alex, Reuben and Grayson each flinch as they cross through the penumbra of powerful magic that has been protecting the perimeter. The night is already growing dark. I think of Lana alone in the forest, and a shudder of horror moves through me. I pause for a moment, close my eyes, and reach again for the magical connection that joins us. I sense her, but so faintly.
As I watch, Reuben begins his loping run up the mountain. Alex vanishes in a blur of vampire speed towards the falls. Grayson gives me a long, grim look before he turns and begins to make his way down to the village. I meet Graciela’s eye. We’re alone now, for a moment at least.
‘Is there anything else you’d like to tell me about the events preceding Lana’s sudden departure?’ I ask.
She shakes her head. ‘Not now, Gabriel. I’m sorry. Please, just help me find her.’
26
GRAYSON
The first I realise anything is wrong is when I get close to the village. There’s no sound. Usually you hear people talking, laughing, calling to one another, children playing. The silence is uncanny. I walk through the outskirts and see nobody. Night is falling. Children would be in bed by now, and the villagers might have retired to their homes, but still – there’s always somebody, some sign of activity in a place like this. Then I notice the lights are all out. For the first time since we’ve been here, the whole little township lies in darkness. Unease grips me.
I head for the centre of the village, the spot near the great tree where Graciela took Lana to make her appearance. All is still and silent around me, but my senses are telling me I’m not alone. I hear a noise and turn to see what’s causing it when suddenly the ground seems to give way, the world closes in around me and a moment later I’m tipped upside down and everything is moving swiftly one way and then another. It’s a trap, I realise. I’ve stepped into a trap.
I scrabble, trying desperately to release myself from the bindings around me, but the thick, heavy netting that’s suspending me is too strong to break free of. I hear voices calling, and sharp whistles which I take to be signals of some kind made by my captors, then the swinging slows as I’m lowered to the ground. A moment later I’m surrounded by villagers, their faces pictures of contrition and horror.
‘Forgive us, emissary of Izsushi. We did not know it was possible to catch one such as you. Forgive us, please, we did not mean to hurt you…’ An old man with a shock of white hair that stands out from around his head is clasping his hands in front of himself and bowing low.
‘I’m alright,’ I say gruffly, sitting up and brushing myself off as two of the younger men struggle to unknot the ropes that hold me.
‘The signal came this evening,’ the man explained, passing me a bottle to drink from, and brushing the dust from my clothes with exaggerated care. ‘The demons are coming. We have been working on our defences for months.’
‘Demons…?’ I say, the horror of understanding finally settling on me.
‘The Barrier has finally fallen,’ he says, nodding. ‘We have prayed for Izushi to protect us. And then you came, in answer to our prayers, but we caught you in the trap… Is she close?’ he asks, giving me a look of longing. ‘Does she know of our plight?’
The guilt washes over me in a wave. I want to fall to my knees, to pray for forgiveness, but what would be the point? I know already that what we are about to do to these people is unforgiveable. I should be cast into the depths of hell for all eternity for betraying their trust.
‘She knows,’ I say. ‘She is coming. She will be here soon.’ I feel sick as I say it.
‘The elderly and the children are hidden in the caverns,’ the man tells me. ‘Near the place where you appeared. The painting of Izushi is there. We hoped it would offer them some protection. They are very frightened.’
‘How close are the demons? And how many are there?’ I ask.
‘We do not know. There was no time. Communications are down.’
Then an even greater terror strikes me – what if the demons have her already? They know exactly who and what Lana is. They know she is the Key. Then I try to steady myself. If she were dead or in immediate peril, I would feel it, I am certain.
‘What weapons do you have?’ I ask.
The white-haired man exchanges a questioning look with another man, who is younger, heavily built with long dark hair that hangs loose over his shoulders. The younger man nods his approval. He’s the real leader, I think.
‘Come,’ the older man says. I follow him to a small, circular hut where an array of weapons is laid out, and a group of both men and women are equipping themselves in tense silence.
‘Grayson? What are you doing here?’
It is Irena. To be honest, Irena has looked as though she were ready to do battle with a horde of demons from the moment I met her. Today she has her hair pulled back, she wears long khaki pants and a dark blue singlet. Reuben would approve of the half dozen knives that are strapped to her waist and thigh, though I’d place more faith in the semi-automatic weapon hanging at her side.
‘I have come to help, on behalf of Izushi,’ I say.
Irena gives me a dubious look and I wonder how much of our plan she has knowledge of. Under Graciela’s instruction, she helped prepare Lana
for her appearance before the villagers. Irena made Lana look as a goddess should. Does she also know that the village is the Sacrifice, their combined life-force intended to power the Barrier spell? Are these her people, her family? I realise I do not even know.
I turn away from her and back to the man who I take to be the leader.
‘Let me give you some advice. I have fought demons before. Once they see you, it’s too late,’ I say. ‘The demons they send in their advance forces are fast and deadly. You must wait in hiding and aim for their weak spots, although there are but few of those. The eyes and a point at the base of the throat are the places at which you may most easily cause them fatal damage. Enchanted steel works best, but ordinary steel will do if wielded with enough skill and power. A bullet to the chest will barely slow one of these troops down. You must wait for the right moment, and when you strike, be precise. It is the opposite of how they will fight,’ I finish grimly, for I have seen their combat style often enough. They will attack wildly, striking at any likely target. Precision doesn’t matter to them; even a glancing blow from a demon attacker will usually be enough to disable or decapitate a human opponent.
‘Will you fight with us, Angel? Will you stand by our side and defend our village?’ the old man asks, his eyes glowing with a mix of terror and determination.
A longing takes me, deeper than almost any I have felt before. It is a longing to do right, after so many years of doing wrong. I am an Angel, and that means my inner nature is to stand as a defender and protector of those who are weaker than me. I want nothing more than to stay here, to wield what crude weaponry is available, to stand by their side and fight, but I cannot. My duty now is to find Lana. My loyalty is to her, though as I look these people in the eye, I begin to understand what the path before her will cost – not only her, but all of us.
‘I cannot stay, though I want to. I have another, urgent task, on behalf of the Goddess. But I will return and bring help if I can.’
I know the old man is disappointed, but he does his best not to show it. He bows his head graciously.