by David Moody
“Not to the thousands of people about to be eaten.”
“Madeline.”
“I hate that name.”
“Maddie, your power appears to be the ability to manipulate and augment that of others. It is an incredible talent, a rare one, wielded by very few powerful mages. The limitation (because there always limitations), is that you cannot produce your own. You cannot draw mana from around you and wield it at your will—you are dependent on what others can supply. My limitation is exhaustion. Using my power takes a toll on the body, pulling that energy in, drawing it from all around me and redirecting it, requires every ounce of energy I posses. I will use what little I have left to get us safely back, but as for anything else, I simply do not possess the strength. I would be like a horse ridden too hard for far too long.”
“Your heart would burst?”
“Something like that.”
“Then let’s get back. Maybe Sam and Thistle can do something.” She grunted as she attempted to pull him up, but he was fast asleep; apparently just explaining his exhaustion had put him over the edge. “Shit, shit, shit.” The monsters were everywhere and one was coming headlong for them. She smacked Kalandar a couple of times, but he didn’t so much as stir. She moved, so he was between her and the incoming beast. She figured he’d have a much better chance of surviving, and if things got bad, she might be able to escape while they were feeding. It occurred to her what a crappy thought that was, but in reality, what did she owe Kalandar? And anyway, he’d brought this whole thing on. Maddie got down in a crouch as she braced for impact. Kalandar sighed and rolled over, his ass facing the giant tick. Maddie figured the demon was in for a very rude awakening. She squinted as it got closer; she wanted to turn away or close her eyes, but when it was time to go, she wouldn’t be able to waste a second. The bogalite’s eyes were locked on the duo, its mouth open and drooling in preparation for the feast laid out before it.
“Ahhhh!” Maddie screamed as it charged perilously close. She wasn’t even sure what she saw then; it seemed to be happening in a simultaneously hi-speed, slow-motion effect. The mouth parts were the first to split and crack as they hit something that had been invisible, but now had smears of dark black embedded into the surface. The mouth was forced down into the body, and this just as its eyes burst along the surface. The milky eye gel dripped and mixed in with the rest to create a morbid abstract painting as it rolled slowly down the surface.
“What the fuck?!” Maddie yelled out as the force of the hit pushed herself, Kalandar, and the field a couple of feet backward.
“I am attempting to sleep. If you don’t keep quiet, I will pull your lungs out through your back.”
“Like the Vikings?”
“They thought me an elf, a Dokkalfar, to be specific. Who do you think gave them the idea? Now, if you could be so kind as to shut up, it may keep me from finding other ways to regain my strength.” He had one eye open and locked onto her stare until he was certain she understood him clearly.
She started waving her arms around, convinced that Thistle and Sam would be watching her on the monitors. She wasn’t sure what they would do or even what they could do, but she couldn’t just stay here and watch as helpless people were butchered. She could already hear the distant screams of the damned.
“Oh, and do not leave the sphere I have created; you will not be able to re-enter.” He had hardly finished the words before he was snoring so loudly it was echoing within the protective chamber.
“Think, Maddie, there has to be something you can do,” she whispered. A thought took hold in a tucked-away dark corner of her mind. “That’s right…this ball is made of magic; I can do shit with magic.” A grin spread across her lips, then quickly faded. “But what do I do with it? Okay, the bug moved it, I should be able to do the same.” She placed her hands close to where she figured the edge was, careful not to push through. If Kalandar was right and her hands went outside the sphere…she shuddered. She couldn’t imagine a more enticing appetizer for a meat-eater than her outstretched arms. She concentrated on what she was doing and pushed hard, slightly embarrassed when her actions produced an unwanted outcome.
Kalandar sat up. “Hades is here! We’ve been discovered!”
“What?”
“Sulfur—do you not smell it? When agents of the underworld make their way through worlds, there is a telltale odor.”
“That may or may not have been me.”
“What? Why would you summon them!?” Kalandar was moving his great head around, looking for the new threat. “If I am seen here with you, I will have to eat you. They must not suspect I am doing anything not on the down and down.”
“Just like that?”
“As I said, what is happening is greater than individuals. You would be an unfortunate sacrifice, but one that would need to be made.”
“No one else is here, and I did not summon the underworld.”
“Are you sure? That smell has tanned the insides of my nostrils.”
“This is ridiculous…just go back to sleep. I have work to do.”
He eyed her for a moment. “Perhaps tonight for dinner, you should eat a meal of greens.”
Maddie turned the color of her hair. Somehow she’d become embarrassed, something she didn’t think she’d could feel in front of her present company. He grunted and, as he lay his head back down, he placed a hand over his nose.
“It wasn’t that bad,” she muttered.
“Not that bad? Angels in heaven are praying, believing the end has come.”
Maddie turned back to what she’d been attempting to do. “You can kiss my ass.”
“Believe me, if I have to eat you, that will be the very last thing…” he trailed off into a snore.
“Gotta get back to the hotel.” Maddie felt a grim determination as the front line of the stampeding monsters caught up to the trailing people. Bloody slaughter did not even begin to accurately describe the carnage. Broken bodies were being flung into the air. Some were torn apart, others fell hard to the ground and were trampled underfoot, whether from those fleeing or those pursuing, which mattered little to those dying. “Come on.” She pushed outward with her hands, the ball shifted, as did Kalandar, though he said nothing. “I can do this.” She pushed and stepped forward. Though she couldn’t see it, she intrinsically knew that the ball was spinning. She’d never been in one of the human-sized beach balls, but she’d seen videos of them, and that was what she was desperately trying to emulate as she pushed and walked. She was fearful she was going to step entirely out of the sphere or somehow leave Kalandar behind, but whatever magic he had created, he was tethered to it. As the ball moved, so did he.
“At this pace, there will be nothing left.” She gritted her teeth before realizing she needed to make an adjustment. The footing of the ball was two feet into the ground, the drag of the dirt making it more difficult to move. She pushed upward, even going so far as to stand on her tiptoes, not sure if it was necessary. The next time she pushed forward, it was considerably easier. It was similar to the training she had endured before leaving Earth. She had been in a deep wading pool with an expanding band tied to her waist, and she’d had to run against the ever tensing band. “A little higher.” She was careful to make sure she didn’t lift the ball so high as to have her feet sticking out like Fred Flintstone making his car go. She’d seen a few of the old cartoons as a child, before the wars had got completely out of hand and any chance at returning to a semblance of normality had vacated the planet.
The ball, as she’d come to think of it, moved much easier, not much harder than if she were out for an uphill run. She’d stayed in shape during her time on the moon, but exercising on a treadmill was not quite the same thing, as she began to get up to speed.
“Shit, a bogger.” She was watching as a monster had peeled off from the main group and decided that she and Kalandar might make a nice meal. “Okay, okay, think, Maddie! I can manipulate, I can take an intangible thing and make it do other intangible things…
Yeah, that’s actually helpful.” She’d come up with an idea; she hoped it would work. She kept a steady course for the hotel as the bogalite was coming in hot from the side. Her feet were pointing one way, but she was all eyes for the monster. It hit, and she was pushed hard to the side. The entire personal habitat was sent off-course by the impact. As she regained her feet, she saw that the bogalite had fallen over onto its back, its legs straight up in the air.
“Huh! Big bad bogger’s not a fan of a little electricity are you!” Maddie shouted. She quieted her celebration as Kalandar mumbled something. She gave the thing the middle finger just as another idea came to mind. It was going to take so long to get to the hotel, and then more time for them to come to an agreement to do something, and that was if they even figured that they could do something, and then even more time to implement the plan. “Screw it, I’m already here.” The bogalites had slowed as they had run headlong into people. Those trailing were doing their best to get to the front where the action and food was, but had not yet succeeded. This was going to be Maddie’s point of attack. She was at an angle to the line as she struck, bowling through one, then another. She was deflected further in, but she didn’t care. She was killing each one as effectively as a boot on a scurrying cockroach. “Fuck the Bleed! I’m Maddie the Electrocutioner! Come and get it assholes!”
She’d killed dozens and still there were hundreds. Finally the exertion was beginning to take its toll. As she tired, so did the intensity of the electrical charge. Her breathing was labored, and she was convinced that swimming in a pool entirely consisting of sweat would not have made her so drenched. The multiple strikes had also slowed her down considerably; she was hardly moving, and now she and Kalandar were basically in a small fishbowl at a seafood restaurant where the hungry diners got to personally select their entree before it was prepared fresh. Maddie had her hands on her knees and was hunched over. Her head was up as she watched the bogalites hopping all around, some smacking into the side, others jumping on top as they pounced. The ball would have been sent skittering away if not for the press of so many monsters.
“What have you done?” She didn’t know when Kalandar had awakened nor when he’d stood. He was glancing about, as was she.
“I was trying to make a difference.”
“How’s that working out?”
“Good…for about a minute.”
“Hmm, what did you say your last name was? The person I knew also had a bad habit of leaping before looking. Generally, with the same results.”
“Do something!”
“Is that bogalite genitalia?” Kalandar was looking up. “How do you suppose they use that?”
“I don’t care, and I don’t want to know!” Maddie was afraid the sheer press of the monsters would shatter the bubble. She’d never liked crowds—tolerated them as the need had arisen—but this was a wholly different animal. “Can you get us out of here?” Maddie was dancing on the balls of her feet, doing her best to suppress the panic that was beginning to well up.
“I have some of my power restored, but anything I do will necessitate me undoing the only thing keeping us from finding out exactly how that is used.” He was pointing up at the very thing Maddie had no intention of looking at.
“What if I…”
“I want to stop you there. Yes, we both know you can manipulate power. What you don’t know is that you siphon power from the source to do so. This sphere is perhaps half as strong as when I originally conjured it.”
“Is that strong enough?”
“I suppose it is for now, but do we want to test it any further?”
“People are dying. We can’t do nothing!” Maddie was frustrated.
“What is gained by our deaths? It does not matter if Gregg Hampden of White Plains, New York, twenty-seven of your Earth years and father to three children (one of which he knows nothing about) dies.”
“That a real person?”
“He was, until a few seconds ago. See? You didn’t even notice.”
“Giving them names makes it worse!”
“I didn’t name him; Joan and Desmond Hampden named him.”
“Shut up!”
“I don’t know what it will take for you to understand, Maddie. These deaths, while unfortunate, are inconsequential. Every single one of you will eventually die regardless of our action or non-action. Not only have you foolishly endangered your life too soon, but mine as well. I understand the risks I take, but they are my decisions. You have forced us into a foolhardy position and greatly reduced our chances of success. It is possible I could fight my way through; can you say the same?”
Maddie sat on the fence over whether she was ashamed for her maneuver or angry at Kalandar for calling her out about helping. Instead, she said nothing. There was nothing she could say. The bogalites batted and moved the sphere; Maddie felt like a tiny mouse trapped under an old peanut butter jar surrounded by starving alleycats.
“Umm, Kalandar, is the bottom as strong as the rest?” She was pretty sure it was, but not enough to risk not asking the question. “They’re burrowing. I’ve seen this before; they’re going to come up underneath.”
Kalandar reached over and pulled her in tight to his chest just as the bottom hopped up a few inches.
“You’re going to crush me!” Maddie was pressed as if she were Kalandar’s favorite stuffed animal and his parents were fighting.
“This is preferable to the alternative.”
“Are you sure about that?” This was followed immediately by another thump.
“If we are moved suddenly and far enough, you will be outside.”
“What? Won’t you as well?”
“It is my magic; it is going nowhere without me.”
The next jolt made the two bogalites on top fall off, and before they could clamor back up, another hit sent the ball into the air some ten feet. Maddie instinctively clung to the demon; any reservations she’d had about the close proximity were quickly dismissed when she saw the alternative. Kalandar got into a fetal position, wrapping his considerable body around Maddie, making sure no part of her was not encased within his own. As they came down, the collision snapped three of the legs of the bogalite that cushioned their landing. The shriek was ear-splitting. Maddie wanted to cover her ears but did not dare to let go.
“Make it stop,” she begged.
They were saved from further auditory nightmares when a bogalite burst through the ground and into the sphere. There was a crunching sound, much like that of a dinosaur egg being cracked; Maddie hoped it was the tick’s head, but Kalandar knew it wasn’t. He watched as a spider web-thin crack appeared, looking as if it were hovering in the air.
“That’s not good,” he spoke as he watched tiny veins spread away from the initial starburst.
“What’s not good?”
“Hold on tight. I need to let go so that I can make another sphere.”
“Do you have the power reserves to do that?”
“I feel as if I may…in any case, it is approaching the point where I do not have a choice.”
“Can’t you just strengthen the one we got?”
“Doesn’t quite work like that. There will be a moment where we are completely exposed.”
“Are you serious?”
“I can only have one field in existence at the same time…at least on the same plane.”
“Can you get us to another plane?”
“I can get me to another plane.”
Maddie quickly understood what that meant. If he left her now, she was dead, a plain simple fact punctuated by a copious amount of her blood.
“Would you?” She meant would he leave her. Yes, she had got them into this particular mess, but that didn’t mean she wanted to make restitution by dying.
“I will save you if I can.”
Again what he didn’t say was implied: he wasn’t going to sacrifice himself for her. They were being batted around on the tops of bogalites, like a beach ball at a rock concert. Maddie
watched as the crack spread. She knew if her traveling partner was going to do something, it needed to be done quickly. They were moved around so much that they weren’t near any particular bogalite for that long, but like a toddler that immediately heads for the most dangerous thing in the room, the creatures seemed to know that the shell protecting the duo was failing, and they would invariably attack that spot. Maddie wondered if the crack was sufficient enough that their scent was leaking through.
Kalandar’s eyes were closed. “Ah, it would appear that your friends are aware of our plight,” he mumbled.
22
THE MOON
“What are they doing?” Sam asked as she watched Kalandar and Maddie approach the wall.
“Idiots are tearing it down,” Sandra sneered as the wall began to collapse in on itself.
“I don’t think they’re going to make it.” Thistle had her hand over her mouth.
“Would that be the worst thing?” Sandra asked. “One’s a demon and the other is a giant creature of the underworld; how much worse off would we be?”
“My mother left when I was very young to fight in a war; it’s too bad yours didn’t go with her.”
“Not so long ago, that would have made me mad…not so much anymore.” Sam made sure she was looking at her mother as she answered Thistle.
“Before you get all high and mighty in your opinion of Maddie, what do you think is going to happen to all those people once those monsters get through?” Sandra asked.
Sam was tight-lipped. She’d heard the term “a necessary evil,” but until now, she’d never had a reason to know how it was applied.
“There was no choice; don’t make this worse than it has to be,” Thistle told her.
Sandra looked her up and down. “What do you know? You’re hardly above a peasant.”
“Mother!”
“Look at her. Looks like she got her clothes at a farmers market.”
“What is wrong with you?”
The room swayed as the aftershock of the downed wall reached them; as of yet, they had not been able to see any sign of Kalandar or Maddie, the dust was too thick. Sam and Thistle waited impatiently for either to appear and show that they were all right. Sandra was walking around the room, looking for something that would give her an advantage when, and if, the time came it was needed.
