I had been taught that the Knights’ swords were spelled. Although their spells weren’t as strong as the null-magic spell of a Hunter’s blade, they still could penetrate a weak shield, and eventually, beat down a strong shield. Theoretically, I had an advantage, but against that many opponents, it would be foolhardy to count on it.
“Officer Kincaid, isn’t there a law against carrying a weapon like that?” I asked.
That didn’t seem to concern the Knights, and three of them spread out and moved toward me.
“Just cover my back,” I muttered under my breath, too low for the Knights to hear. I held my sword in front of me in a two-handed grip like a katana. That gave me the choice of going to either my left or my right, depending on which opponent moved against me. If I had been alone, I would have gone on the attack, but I couldn’t leave Shawna defenseless.
On the other hand, if it had been me and two other Hunters on the other side, we would have moved already. The Knights were giving me far too much time to study them—how each of them held their swords, the positioning of their feet, their body language, and their facial expressions. I got the feeling that none of them wanted to be the first to jump in.
One of the guys in the back grew impatient and tossed a fireball at me. It lit up the night as it splashed across my shield.
“Thank you,” I muttered. I had been waiting for one of them to make the first aggressive move so that I could legitimately strike back. I hit the three guys closest to me with a burst of ley-line energy that rocked two of them back on their heels and knocked the third man off his feet. The pyromancer behind them launched another fireball at me, and I fired a ley missile at him, then two more at the men closest to me.
The fight had been rather quiet thus far, with only the whoosh of the fireballs for sound effects. Shawna’s pistol firing twice ensured the whole neighborhood took notice.
“Maybe someone will call the cops,” she calmly said in the aftermath of the noise echoing off the buildings around us.
“You are the cops,” I said as I stuck my sword in front of a bolt of lightning to deflect it.
“That’s true,” Shawna said, “but I get lonely. I want my brother and sister officers to come join in the fun. Can’t you cut off a head or two to even the odds?”
I used ley energy to push another fireball away from us. “Your boss gets so upset when I do that. Besides, they have swords, too.”
My opponents finally got their act together and coordinated a volley of fire, lightning, and wind, which pounded me and caused me to pull all the power I could from the ley line to strengthen my shield. Unfortunately, I couldn’t extend the shield to Shawna.
“Get the hell out of here,” I said to her. “Straight up would probably be best.” Without waiting for a reply, I dove forward and rolled. When my shield contacted the shield of the man in front of me, I pulled the ley magic he held into my shield even as I swung my sword.
His scream told me I had hit, but I didn’t spare him a glance, continuing to roll. A sword bounced off my shield as I came to my feet. One man to my left, two to my right. I whirled in a circle holding my sword with both hands. The man to my right front was slow, and I sliced him in half. The next man parried my blade, and I felt another sword glance off my shield.
One of the advantages I had with larger men was that it was more difficult for them to strike down at a far shorter opponent. I dropped into a squat, swinging at the legs of the man before me. He leaped backward, and I leaped to the side, watching a blade swing through the space I had just vacated. That man, the one who had been behind me, leaned a little off-balance, and I took advantage of him. My sword didn’t penetrate his shield, but I poured additional power into my hands and knocked him down.
My back was no longer to the wall, and I had switched positions with my attackers. Two of them were down. Shawna was nowhere in sight, and I allowed myself a short sigh of relief. Before the four men who were left could gather themselves to mount a new assault, I took off running.
I had seen Kung-Fu movies where a single fighter takes on thirty opponents and wins. Not very realistic when your opponents are mages who can shield themselves.
After covering about twenty-five yards, I allowed myself a quick glance over my shoulder. It didn’t appear that I was being followed. Then I heard sirens growing louder. Not trusting that the Knights would do the smart thing, I kept running until I reached the nightclub where my car was. There, I ducked down between parked cars, pulled a cloth out of my bag, and wiped the blood off my blade before sheathing it.
No sooner had I sheathed my sword than Shawna walked up.
“Thanks. I owe you one,” she said, handing me my dagger.
“Are you the one who called the cops?”
“Of course.”
“Then we’re even. Did they catch them?”
“One of them, plus the two you wounded.”
We walked back toward the scene. In addition to police cars, two ambulances contributed to the flashing colored lights. Two EMTs were in the process of loading one gurney into an ambulance. Other EMTs worked on another man, and Dan Bailey stood over a Knight sitting on the ground with hands bound behind his back and a black bag over his head.
Cindy Mackle met us, giving me an unhappy look, but then turning on Shawna.
“I thought I told you to go home.”
“And do what? Stare at the walls? Erin and I were on our way to her place to have a nice, quiet glass of wine,” Shawna responded.
“We were being good,” I said, “but they seemed to take issue with my choice of friends. Called me a demon lover.”
“I assume you were the one who cut off that guy’s leg,” she said. “I don’t think he’s going to make it. The guy with a big hole in his side probably will, though.”
I held out my empty hands, knowing she couldn’t see my sword. “That was my famous buzz saw spell.”
“Right. Get out of here. Both of you.”
Shawna got her car and followed me to my place, where we stood out on my balcony, watched the stars, and had that glass of wine. Vampires didn’t feel the cold, and I drew on the ley line to warm myself.
“Does this town ever settle down?” I asked. “Most exciting place I’ve ever been.”
“It was rather quiet here,” Shawna said, “until you showed up. What kind of karma do you have?”
I didn’t tell her.
“Who were those guys?” she asked. “Do you know?”
“Members of the Order of Knights Magica,” I said, and explained who they were. “Be glad they only wanted to behead you. They could have been armed with holy water.”
Shawna took a swallow of her wine. “Yeah, that would have been bad. This blouse is silk—dry clean only.”
Chapter 5
The man in a black suit who came through the pub’s door was a very strong mage. He took off his fedora and revealed iron-gray hair to match his neatly trimmed beard and gray eyes. Looking around the room, he finally rested his eyes on me and strode toward where I stood behind the bar.
“Slivovitz,” he said as he sat on a bar stool. His presence was almost overpowering. His eyes drilled into mine like a bird of prey’s, his long, hooked nose enforcing the allusion. A silver cross hung from a chain around his neck and lay on top of his blood-red tie.
I poured him a shot and set it down in front of him. “Five dollars.”
He tossed it off and pushed the glass toward me. Pulling a ten out of his pocket, he said, “Another.”
I took the money and poured him another shot.
“It is a dangerous world when you’re alone,” he said in Swiss German as he picked up his glass.
His words chilled me, and I wasn’t even tempted to give him a flippant answer. I had met many very dangerous men in my life, and I had no doubt he was as dangerous as they came. That he chose that language to deliver his warning showed that he believed I was a member of the Illuminati, whose language—Middle High German—was close to Swiss G
erman.
My mouth was so dry that I had difficulty answering him, but I managed to say in English, “I am not alone.”
A brief smile touched his eyes as I essentially admitted that I understood what he said. Sometimes I think I’m smart, and other times I prove I’m not. He leaned back in his chair and turned to survey the room, then swung back and fixed me with his cold eyes.
“Far more alone than you once were,” he said, still speaking Swiss German. “The world has changed, but more changes are coming. Be very careful about the path you choose.”
Jenny called to me from the end of the bar nearest the kitchen, and I went over to get her drink order. As I was pulling the beers for her, the mage finished his drink, put on his hat, and made his way toward the door. Before pushing through to the outside, he turned and looked me over once more.
“Who was that?” Jenny asked.
“I don’t know. Someone dangerous,” I answered. I tried to maintain outward calm, but the mage left me shaken. He wasn’t a Hunter, but I wasn’t sure exactly what he was. After the incident with the Knights, he left me very unsettled.
It was a night for unusual customers. The next one came through the door about an hour later. I noticed him because his magic signature when he passed through the ward was similar to that of Lizzy’s.
He was of medium height with white, silver, and ice-blue hair spilling down around his shoulders. He didn’t so much walk as glide toward me, his amber eyes fixed on my face. Although I had never seen him in that form before, there was no doubt I was looking at Oriel in his human form.
Taking the seat right in front of me, he said, “How’s the car running?”
I felt my lips form into a smile. “Runs great. Got it registered and insured. The sword is wonderful, too. It’s good to see you.”
“I’m glad. Do you have aquavit?”
“Yes.” I stood there, drinking him in. His face had an unearthly beauty, similar to Lizzy’s, but stronger and more masculine.
“May I have a glass? And a Murphy’s.”
“Oh. Yeah. Of course.” I shook myself out of whatever trance I had fallen into and searched out the bottle. I found it in the cooler where we kept white wine. Checking the notes Sam had for unusual spirits, I poured a shot in a tulip glass, then drew his beer.
“That will be twelve dollars,” I said.
He pushed a twenty across the bar. “May I see a menu?”
We weren’t very busy, so after I put in his order for an appetizer, I went back to talk to him.
“Feel like slumming?” I asked. “I haven’t seen you in here before.”
“I used to come here occasionally. I heard Sam hired a new bartender.” He winked at me. Then his expression grew serious. “How are you feeling?”
That surprised me. “Fine. Why do you ask?”
“I would think that the disturbance in the ley lines would affect you more than most mages.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know that I was affected more than anyone else. Sick as a dog and pretty shook up, but no lasting effects. At least, I don’t think so. It hit Lizzy hard. Any idea what caused it? I’ve never felt anything like it.”
“Shall we say that I’m glad I wasn’t bending over a hot forge when it hit. The magic carried by the ley lines is the lifeblood of the Fae. Lizzy and I weren’t affected as much as full-blood Fae.”
He took a deep breath, then a sip of his beer and a sip of aquavit. “How much do you know of arcane legend?”
“Some. Probably more than most people, but I’m not a scholar.”
“You’re familiar with the legends of the Fae, the Sidhe? The goddess Danu is the mother goddess, the keeper of the world.”
I nodded.
“Thousands of years ago, a Fae sorceress named Fuamnach decided to challenge Danu for supremacy. She fashioned an artifact to harness the magic of the ley lines and thus enhance her power. Standing in the Well of Magic—the point of origin of all magic, of the ley lines—she tied the lines into a ruby the size of her fist. Then she went forth and confronted Danu. In a battle that lasted five days and broke the world, Danu was victorious. Danu took the artifact—the Heart of the World—and buried it deep in the Well.”
One of the kitchen staff brought out his meal. He took a bite, a sip of his beer, and another sip of aquavit. I stood there waiting, and waiting. In that instant, I decided he might be the most infuriating man in the world.
“And?”
The expression on his face was grave. “My mother and some of the other Fae believe that someone has found the Heart and taken it from the Well.”
“Assuming the legend is true, who would have the power to do that?” I asked.
“That is the question, isn’t it? Rumors over the past century are that a group of mages believe the legend and have searched for the Heart.”
I wondered if those mages were connected with the Knights Magica. It seemed a strange coincidence that the ley lines screwed up at the same time Knights had come to Westport. I had lived almost twenty-four years without encountering a single member of that order, and suddenly they were everywhere I looked.
The order was formed in twelfth-century Venice, around the same time as the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. As with the better-known militant orders, they were religious in nature and charged with the mission to free the Holy Land from the Infidel. Unlike the other orders, their members were magic users.
Due to the religious creed at the core of their beliefs, they were always at odds with the Illuminati, who were founded later as a secular order, opposing superstition and religious influence over public life.
When I trained with the Hunters’ Guild, our masters portrayed the Knights Magica as a sort of bogeymen. The goals of the two orders were remarkably similar, but their outlook on the world was very different. Both wanted to implement a magiocracy, but one had a secular ideology whereas the other masked their ambitions in religious evangelism.
I wondered if the Knights were as corrupt and evil as the Illuminati had become.
“Well, that’s interesting,” I said. “Do the Fae have any idea what could be done if the Knights have managed to find that artifact?”
“None whatsoever. When do you get off tonight?”
“Two o’clock.”
“I think you should take me home with you.”
That was blunt. “Are you always so romantic?” I asked.
Oriel chuckled. “Not usually, but you inspire me.”
He reached across the bar and took my hand. Warm electricity flowed from him through my body and settled between my legs. With a gasp, I stepped back, pulling my hand away, and stared at him.
“Oh, well,” he said. “Another time, then. You will give in eventually.”
“You have quite an opinion of yourself.”
“I have quite an opinion of you,” he responded. “I won’t give up.”
I moved away from him to check on my other customers and discovered my legs felt shaky and weak. My face felt as though it was on fire, and that wasn’t near as hot as the rest of me.
By the time I finished refilling drinks and taking an order from a waitress, I turned to see him lay some bills on the bar, then get up to leave. When he reached the door, he turned back and smiled, then slipped out of the room.
Chapter 6
When I went for a run the following morning, I debated taking the sword with me. No one could see it, but running with it, even strapped tightly to my back, was awkward. After strapping it on and jogging in place, I decided that carrying it was a stupid idea. Instead, I took my long dagger.
It had snowed about an inch overnight—enough to almost shut Westport down because the streets were slicker than an ice rink. The air was crisp and clear, except over the water. Along the river and toward the ocean, the fog was impenetrable.
I ran on a path along the creek behind my house. It was three miles until the creek ran into the river, then I could either run the same distance home, or cross the
river and run another five miles to the university and take a combination of the train and a bus home.
Standing at the south end of the bridge, I debated briefly which route I should take. Other than a light dusting in December, and a couple of ice storms in January, all I had seen of winter in Westport was cold rain. The mountains all around us had been white for months, but below-freezing temperatures in the city were very rare.
I decided to go on to the university up in the foothills and see what it looked like. When I reached the campus, I was rewarded with snow covering the firs and hemlocks and looking almost like the forests surrounding the City of the Illuminati in northern Minnesota. The sidewalks were clear of snow, but the lawns and bushes were still white. As the fog burned away, the snow was starting to melt, but it was still early enough in the day to have that calm quiet that a new snowfall always brought.
Walking along near the architecture building, I watched students hurrying to their classes, and thought about how I was only six months away from joining them. Being in that area reminded me of my short-term boyfriend Lucas. He had seduced me around New Year, and convinced me that we were falling in love with each other. I knew nothing about love, so I was a pretty easy target.
Then the spring semester started, his fiancée returned to town, and they flew off together to an archeological dig in Costa Rica. Silly me. I should have known that I wasn’t the kind of girl men took home to meet their mothers.
A man in a dark suit strolling along caught my attention. I stepped off the sidewalk into the shelter of some bushes and watched him walk past. It was my dangerous-feeling, Swiss-German-speaking visitor at the bar. He was dressed in the same black suit he had worn on our previous meeting and carried a brown briefcase. I waited until he was well past me, then followed him.
He entered a building, and I broke into a trot to catch up with him. Once inside, I saw him ahead of me, walking down the hall. Halfway to the end, he turned into an open doorway. Cautiously approaching where I had seen him last, I peered around the corner and saw him standing at the front of the room. The briefcase was open on a table next to a lectern.
Well of Magic: An Urban Fantasy (Rosie O'Grady's Paranormal Bar and Grill Book 4) Page 4
