Shadow's Blade, page 23
“We cast,” I said. “Non-lethal spells.”
“They’ve seen us, and they’ll tell their masters where we’ve been.”
“Then we’ll have to get far away from here. But we’re not killing them.”
“Fine,” she said, spitting the word. A crafting tickled the air around us, and the mountain lion recoiled, snarling, its ears laid flat. But it didn’t leave the trail.
I threw a spell at the coyotes, hitting them with the same magical two-by-four I used against the wolf outside the Casa del Oro Hotel. They reacted much the same way the puma did to Gracie’s casting. They didn’t like it, but they didn’t tuck their tails and run.
Gracie adjusted her grip on the Ruger. “Now what?”
I know where you are, Justis Fearsson. I cannot see you, but I see the woman and her children. I see my weres.
“Saorla,” I said. Her timing couldn’t have been worse. Or better, I suppose, depending on your point of view.
You will have to kill them. The weres will not leave you of their own accord. You must kill them to escape. And we both know that you will not do this.
“What about her?” Gracie asked.
The cougar advanced on us, its mouth open, its belly scraping the trail. The coyotes crept closer as well.
“She knows where we are.”
“I guess meeting your girlfriend wasn’t such a great idea.”
Billie glared. “Hey!”
“I don’t think they followed Billie. They were here already. They were turned last night by that spell. They just happened to follow her, and then I think they sensed . . . others of their kind. Weres can do that, right?”
She cursed again. Emmy and Zach shared a look; their mom was going to owe them some money after this was over.
“If they come any closer I’m firing. I don’t care—”
“Whether you kill them or merely wound them, they’ll shift back to human form. And then you’ll have assault charges to deal with, on top of everything else.”
An idea came to me. Three elements. The coyotes, the path they were on, and a magical cage surrounding them. I chanted the elements in my head, and released the magic on the third repetition. Gracie eyed me, as did Emmy, but I kept my focus on the coyotes. They took two more steps toward us before meeting the conjured enclosure and flinching back. They tried again, but couldn’t get past the invisible bars of my cage. They tried to go around the barrier, first one way and then the other, growing more frantic by the moment.
“What did you do?” Gracie asked.
“I put them in a cage.”
I cast again, trapping the cougar the same way.
“That’s not nice,” Emmy said. “Animals don’t like cages.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond. Pain flared in my head, as if someone had pierced my skull with a white hot poker. I think I groaned. I know I raised my hands to my head.
The weres are nothing. I demand that you give me the woman and her children. You owe me a boon! You cannot deny me what is rightfully mine!
“And you shall not.”
This last I heard, as I would any spoken word. I opened my eyes and found myself on my knees. Saorla stood beside the puma, stroking the cat’s massive head. I had a feeling she had done away with my conjured cage.
The necromancer looked just as I remembered her from our previous encounters. She wore a plain green dress of rough cotton, and a gray shawl, held in place by a silver clasp. Brown hair fell in soft waves to her shoulders, framing an oval face that was beautiful and disarming and utterly false. Her eyes were pale blue, like a hazed summer sky, and her lips were full, sensual. She was, I realized in that moment, very much like the moon: beautiful, remote, merciless. She watched me as I staggered to my feet, the smile on those lips conveying cruelty and amusement in equal measure.
“I’m guessing this is Saorla,” Gracie said, still gripping her pistol.
“So I am,” the necromancer said. “And you would be well advised to put away your weapon. Its bullets cannot harm me, and if you fire you might inadvertently hurt one of your children.”
To her credit, Gracie didn’t immediately lower the Ruger, but after a moment she did remove her finger from the trigger.
“She is lovely, Justis Fearsson. I see now why you have been reluctant to surrender her to me. Perhaps you thought to make her yours. A replacement for the other woman? Or a second lover? Are you so bold?”
Billie had moved closer to me, and now she bristled, her mouth opening. I touched the small of her back, trying to keep the movement as subtle as possible. When she glanced my way, I gave a small shake of my head, though I kept my eyes on Saorla.
Was it possible? The way the necromancer spoke it seemed she didn’t know Billie was here. Could it be that the concealment spell I had cast over such a great distance had worked so well?
Magic is an act of will.
I heard the words as if Namid had whispered them in my ear. He had said them to me a thousand times. But until that moment, I had never truly understood. And though I knew that I loved Billie, I hadn’t known how much. Until now.
“No, Saorla. I’ve kept her from you because you intend to hurt her, and her children, and I won’t allow that. And just because you don’t see Billie with me, that doesn’t mean she’s not in my heart all the time.”
Gracie stiffened, clearly understanding. Billie gaped at me, but I knew she would understand as well. It was the kids I was worried about.
“Come here, child,” Saorla said, speaking to Emmy.
Gracie grabbed hold of her daughter and pulled her close. “No way in hell,” she said, snarling much as the mountain lion had.
I thought Saorla would threaten her, or perhaps even attack with a spell. Instead, she said, “I give you my word that no harm will come to her, or to your son, or even to you. And I promise as well that wherever I take her, you will accompany us.” She smiled and nodded my way. “He has warned you against me, I know. And by taking that which is rightfully mine, you have given me cause to be angry. Yet still, I make this promise to you. I am not the creature of evil and hate he thinks me. I am very much like you. More powerful, of course, but I have borne children of my own. Long ago, yes, but as you would expect, such memories never fade.” Another smile crossed her lips, though only for an instant. “And even if all of this was not true, you cannot hope to stop me from doing as I please.” She squatted down, so that she was at eye level with Emmy. “Now, come here. Let me see you.”
Still, Gracie wouldn’t have let Emmy go if the girl hadn’t peeked up at her and said, “It’s all right, Mommy. She’s not going to hurt me.”
Gracie stared down at her and then turned my way. I nodded once, because I believed Saorla wouldn’t harm Emmy, and also because I was desperate for anything that would distract the necromancer, even if only for an instant. Gracie stared daggers at Saorla, but she released Emmy.
Emmy walked to where Saorla stood, slowing a few paces shy of her, though she appeared to be more frightened of the mountain lion than of the woman.
“It is all right, child,” Saorla said, scratching the cat behind one of its ears. “She is gentle if I command her to be so.”
Emmy took another step. “Can I pet her?”
“Of course you can.”
The girl closed the remaining distance, and after hesitating for a second, lifted her hand and patted the puma’s head, which was nearly as high as her own.
“You are a brave soul, I can tell. What is your name?”
“Emmy.”
Saorla frowned. “Emmy?”
“That’s short for Emelia.”
“I see.” Saorla scrutinized her, taking in her hair, her face. She took one of the girl’s hands in her own and examined it, back and palm. “You are very beautiful.”
“Thank you. So are you.”
Saorla clapped her hands together and laughed, high and unrestrained, completely unlike the hard, mocking laughter I had heard from her in the past. “What a charming child.” She looked past Emmy to Gracie. “I sense the power in her. You have as well, I’m sure. She requires proper training. She can be so much. Surely you understand this.”
“When the time comes,” Gracie said, “I’ll teach her what she needs to know.”
“You are neither powerful enough nor skilled enough to bring her to her full potential. She needs more than you can possibly give her.”
“Listen to what she has to say.”
Gracie rounded on me. “Are you—?”
I cast a quick look Billie’s way, just with my eyes.
“—kidding me?” she said, completing the question. But all the fire had gone out of her words. She knew what I wanted her to do.
“The difference between Saorla and her kind, and those of us who oppose them is that they’ll force you to do as they wish. We never will. So listen to her. Decide for yourself what’s best for you and the kids.”
“That is most wise of you, Justis Fearsson, despite your false characterization of me.”
Gracie took a step in Saorla’s direction, and so positioned herself in such a way as to block me, at least partially, from the necromancer’s view. “Would I be with you when you trained her?” She reached out a hand to her son, who walked to her and took hold of it. “And would you train Zach, too?”
I didn’t listen for Saorla’s response. I glanced at Billie who was watching me, her cheeks pale, determination in her emerald eyes. I wanted to send her back to her car, and tell her to drive as far from here as possible. But I knew she wouldn’t leave us, and I wasn’t sure that she could get by the mountain lion without drawing the animal’s attention. And that might well have been enough to break the spell that had rendered her invisible to Saorla.
She moved her hand deliberately, raising it so that I could see. She had out the key fob from her car, and her thumb rested on the red “panic” button that would set off her car horn.
Another smile passed between us.
CHAPTER 17
For all her power, Saorla was neither immortal nor immune to pain. She might have thought herself Namid’s equal, and certainly her powers rivaled those of the runemyste. But she was more vulnerable than he to attacks from ordinary weremystes. I knew this because on more than one occasion during our previous encounters, I’d managed to wound her. Bullets from the Glock, an ashtray I’d thrown at her head with a spell, a crafting that thrust a magical blade through her heart: I’d used all of these against her with varying degrees of success. I had even managed to use a transporting spell to get her away from Billie, though in order to make that work, I’d had to grab hold of the necromancer and transport myself with her. I didn’t expect she’d allow me to get that close to her again.
In fact, that was the problem with all of these assaults. Saorla was as canny as she was strong; I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that she remembered each of my attacks, and had already warded herself against them. Which meant I needed something new, a spell that would allow me to take advantage of the distraction Billie’s car alarm would provide, without harming Gracie and the kids, who remained uncomfortably close to Saorla and the werecat.
I considered another transporting spell. As long as I didn’t lunge for her or try to touch her in any way, she might not expect me to make the attempt. I could send her to the bluff where Billie and I had intended to meet. Or just beyond it. I liked the idea of sending her to a fall of a few hundred feet. If we got lucky the impact would kill her.
But transporting spells were tricky, and we were only going to get one chance at this. If the crafting failed, we were all screwed.
She would be warded against any direct attack spell, and even if she wasn’t, whatever I might try—fire, a blade, even a chasm in the ground that would swallow her—would put the kids at risk.
When at last I came up with a spell that might work under these circumstances, I almost laughed at the simplicity of it. Saorla would call it crude, and so might Namid; it would be one thing they could agree on. But I thought it would work, and I couldn’t imagine that she was warded against it.
I recited the elements in my head, and on the third go-round nodded to Billie.
She pressed the button. Her horn blared. Saorla straightened and spun, all in one elegant motion. And I released my spell.
I had thrown objects at her in the past. And ideally this time I would have transported her. So why not combine the two. Three elements: Saorla, the bluff where Billie and I watched our first sunset together, and a giant hand to throw her beyond that point.
The air around us sizzled. Saorla soared into the sky, flailing and screaming
“Bind the cat!” I shouted at Gracie, who was staring after the necromancer, her mouth hanging open.
I cast again, jailing the coyotes once more.
“The cat’s secure!”
“Back to the cars then! I’ve got Zach.”
Gracie grabbed Emmy by the hand. I swept Zach into my arms as I ran by. He let out a giggle. Again I thought that it must have been nice to be five years old.
Billie had thumbed the panic button again, to stop the horn. And in the relative quiet that followed, I heard the rhythmic thump of an approaching helicopter.
“Crap!”
Gracie looked back at me. “What—?” Her gaze shifted skyward; she’d heard it, too. “Damn it!”
Emmy scowled. “Quarter.”
“They know the truck,” I said. “And my warding is still on Billie’s car. It’ll be tight, but we leave the pickup here.”
“We need our things.”
“Right. Make it quick.”
The helicopter was still some distance off, but the chop of its rotors grew louder with each pounding beat of my heart. I followed Gracie to the truck and almost walked into her when she stopped and turned. Her scowl reminded me of Emmy.
“Out of my way.”
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Buying us time.”
I stepped away from her, watched as she closed her eyes and held a hand out, her wrist cocked much the way Fitzwater’s had been the other day when he attacked us. Magic purred in the ground beneath us and an instant later that distant helicopter engine coughed and sputtered. I still hadn’t spotted the chopper, and though I listened for an explosion or crash I heard neither.
“You might have killed them,” I said, “and we don’t know for certain who was in that helicopter.”
“I wasn’t going to wait to find out who it was, and if Fitzwater was in there I hope they’re dead.” She opened the door to my dad’s pickup.
“I don’t care if you kill Fitzwater, but there’s a pilot in that chopper, and maybe other guys.”
She wheeled, and before I knew it I had backed away from her. “I don’t give a damn! They were coming after us, and there’s only one road in and out of this place. I didn’t like those odds. I can live with killing a pilot who agrees to work for Fitzwater. You should feel the same way.”
I couldn’t bring myself to argue. I stood there while she grabbed her bag and the kids’ things from the pickup. When she was done, I retrieved my backpack and locked up the truck.
We climbed into the Honda, Billie behind the wheel, me in the passenger seat, Gracie and the kids in back. While Billie steered us toward the monument entrance, I scanned the sky, just in case they had found some way to overcome Gracie’s spell. I had to resist the urge to cast my dad’s glamour on Billie’s car again. The magic was still working. Another casting would be superfluous and, more to the point, might draw Saorla’s notice, or Fitzwater’s. I knew all of this. But sitting in the car doing nothing was almost more than I could bear.
“Is everyone all right?” I asked, looking back at Gracie and the kids.
Zach nodded, his thumb in his mouth, the stuffed animal tucked under his arm. Emmy appeared none the worse for wear, but her cheeks were flushed and she glowered my way.
“She wasn’t that mean,” she said, sounding sullen. “You didn’t have to hurt her.” It took me a moment to realize she was talking about Saorla.
“I’m sorry, Emmy, but I did. She seemed nice, I know. She’s charming and she’s pretty, and I think she genuinely liked you. But she doesn’t want what’s best for you, or for your mom and brother.”
“Do you?”
Gracie laid a hand on the girl’s leg. “Emmy—”
“It’s all right,” I said. I shifted my gaze back to Emmy. “Yes, I do. That’s why I’ve been helping you. Saorla and I are on opposite sides of what you might call a war, a magical one.”
Zach removed his thumb from his mouth. “A real war?”
“Yeah, a real war. People have died. Men and women who work for Saorla have killed. That silver-haired man in the helicopter—the one who chased us in the desert the other day—he works for her.”
I wanted to say more, but Saorla chose that moment to let herself back into my mind.
I grunted through the agony, was aware of Billie saying my name. But I could do nothing more than cradle my head in my hands. It felt as though the necromancer had poured gasoline into my skull and struck a match. Torment. The pain consumed me, blinded me, took away all other senses. I couldn’t say whether I screamed or writhed or begged someone to kill me and end the anguish. I wanted to do all of those things. I have no idea how she didn’t kill me with whatever magic she was using.
Apparently the thought had entered her mind, as well.
I ought to kill you for your effrontery. You dare to use such a spell against me? You deserve to die.
Then kill me, I thought back at her. I was incapable of speech, or I would have spoken the words aloud.
First you will deliver the woman and her children. Then you will die.
I’ve already told you I won’t.
Aye, so you have. Three times now you have refused me. You have broken our agreement. Namid’skemu can protect you no longer. You are mine to do with as I please. So is your father, and the woman. I could hear the relish in her voice, could picture the triumphant gleam in her eyes. You will suffer for what you have done. And in the end your defiance will be as meaningless as your promise, for I shall have the woman and her babes regardless. They will be part of a great army that will destroy the runemystes. You are powerless to prevent this. You always have been.
