Uzochi led the group onwards once Ash was done killing the snakes.
“Stay watchful,” he said, still going at a fast clip, but his eyes scanning the horizon for any more surprises. So it did not come as a shock when the earth shook beneath their feet and there was a sound like thunder, repeating with every footfall of whatever was coming.
“Oh he’s bringing out the big guns,” Jordan said, sounding equal parts excited and terrified. He reached out unconsciously, clutching at AX’s hand.
“There!” AX screamed, pointing his finger to the left behind a huge boulder that was currently shaking in response to whatever had put its foot down near it.
A giant black-veined foot stepped around the boulder. It was the infected they had seen on Planet Nine when attempting to rescue Zorica’s team. He looked bigger than he had then as if he was still growing.
Zorica stepped forward. “My turn,” she said.
She bent down, gathered some sand in her hands, and spat on it, shaping it into a replica of the infected Stits. All the while, the ground shook as the giant came towards them. Epone stepped in front of Zorica, hands raised, calling up all her infernal magic and throwing it at the Stits. Zorica got to her feet, murmuring curse words under her breath.
She turned to Epone. “Give me fire!” she cried, and Epone aimed an arc of flame at the voodoo doll in Zorica’s hands.
As the doll burned to ashes, so did its giant replica, maybe two steps away from them. Jordan sighed in relief and also admiration.
“That was awesome,” he said, patting Zorica on the shoulder.
“Yeah, that was worth the show,” AX agreed.
Zorica merely rolled her eyes. “Let’s go,” she said and followed Uzochi who was already making his way forward. The others fell in line behind her, adopting Uzochi’s fast pace, eyes all over the place, looking for the next threat.
They reached the end of the tundra and were confronted with the wall of fire.
“How did you get through this?” Ash asked, curiously.
“Jordan had this monster made of water manifest, we left as it was fighting the fire, and winning,” Uzochi said.
“Well then what are we waiting for?” Epone asked, her eyebrow raised at Jordan.
“I figured you might have some better ideas, being the Elementalist and all,” Jordan said to her.
Epone studied the wall of flame.
“It's not so much a real fire as the manifestation of Eshugurin the Wizard's evil. Probably that is why your water did not put it out immediately,” she said.
“So what can we do? What will work?” Jordan asked.
Epone turned to him with a smile. “It's why we're all here correct?” She reached out for his hand. “Let us combine our powers and see if we cannot overwhelm his.”
“Some of us have no destructive capabilities,” Uzochi felt the need to point out.
“Sometimes, destructive power is a hindrance rather than help. We need your ability to find truth, to see through the glamour of fire that he throws up to the core of his power,” Epone said to Jordan.
“We certainly need the protection of your healing capabilities, Ash,” Epone said turning to the Drueerd next. “Zorica, if you can, you should summon your imps, for we will surely need them for distraction.”
“What about me?” AX asked, stepping forward.
“Jordan is our ace in the hole. He is our true north. As soon as the wizard recognizes that, he will come for him and seek to destroy him. Your mission, AX, is to stand as a bulwark between Jordan and Eshugurin.”
AX gave a short curt nod. “Consider it done,” he said.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Going to War
“Join hands,” Epone said, and they did so. “Close your eyes.”
She began to chant, a repetitive incantation, soon joined by Zorica and then Uzochi. Ash mouthed along with the words, while Jordan and AX kept quiet, letting the humming that permeated the air around them relax them into a state of Zen.
Pretty soon, they began to feel the boundaries of their individual identity blurring; so that Jordan didn't know where he ended and AX began. More than that, he could feel a crowding in his mind as if all his teammates were stuffing themselves in there, making themselves comfortable. He opened his eyes.
“Do you feel that?” he whispered to AX who nodded his head slowly.
“We all feel it,” Epone said. “We have become one.”
Jordan felt the words in his head as well as heard the echo coming out of Epone’s mouth.
“This is so freaky,” he said, to hear the same words in his mind with the same echo.
“Now what?” Ash asked but not out loud; she simply allowed the words to reverberate in their collective minds.
“Jordan, I need you to coat yourself in a suit of ice,” Epone said. “And then you need to walk forward and let the fire come as close as you can let it without getting burned.”
AX opened his mouth to protest, but Epone got there before him. “He has to find the core, AX. If he does not find it, we might as well give up and go home now.”
“Then I go with him. I am his bodyguard right?” AX said.
Epone opened her mouth to say he did not have protective covering, but Jordan cut in. “I can make him a suit too,” he said, and Epone closed her mouth again and nodded her acquiescence.
Jordan closed his eyes, visualizing a suit made of 5-inch thick ice and glazed with heat-resistant gel on the outside. He traced AX’s muscular shape in his mind, molding the ice suit to fit it exactly. He made sure every single inch of AX was covered from head to toe.
“Now do yours,” AX said from behind the thick layer of ice covering his face. Jordan nodded, closing his eyes to mold his own suit. It was cold as hell, and so Jordan added an insulation layer between the ice and his skin, doing the same for AX.
“Better?” he asked in his mind.
“Much,” AX replied.
“Aww, look at them, so sweet,” Zorica teased.
“Shut up,” Jordan said.
“Children!” Epone cut in, before things could deteriorate further. “Focus!”
“Right, sorry,” Jordan said, straightening his spine. AX came to stand right next to him, as close as he could get in his suit.
“You ready?” he asked, and Jordan nodded. “Okay then, let’s go.”
They took one step, then another, the fire roaring louder, sounding angrier, and coming closer. They picked up the pace, stalking the flames, which seemed to know what they were about because, for every forward progression they made, the flames moved back.
“Do you think he’s luring us into a trap?” AX asked.
“I would not be surprised. I sense no subterfuge yet, just caution, wariness. He doesn’t know what to expect from us.”
“What can he expect from us?” AX asked.
“Nothing good I hope,” Jordan smirked, stepping up his pace. Suddenly, the fire roared and then it charged at them without warning. Jordan and AX stood their ground and let it come.
“Now!” Jordan said and plunged into the midst of the flames, honing in on a beacon only he could hear; a pulsing sound emanating from the lower east corner of the fire being. Just above the thing’s proverbial knee.
“There!” He pointed just as the flames engulfed them, trying to suffocate them. AX’s eyes glowed blue as he pulled Jordan backward towards safety. They ran back to the others and the flames chased after them.
Uzochi and Epone darted forward, putting up a wall of protection. The blaze slammed into the wall, spreading out, looking for a weakness, a way through.
“I know where it is.” Jordan breathed hard, getting rid of his ice suit and AX’s as well.
Uzochi stepped forward. “Where?”
“His core is just above where the knee of the creature is. It’s a burning red brand in a sea of oranges and yellows. I can feel exactly where it is, but it's difficult to describe.”
“You will lead me th
ere,” Uzochi said.
∞
They filled the rifles with pellets of ice that could be shot rapid-fire at the fire-being. Jordan was to take one as was AX and Epone. AX and Epone would provide covering fire to distract the fire-being so that Jordan and Uzochi - wearing ice suits again - could get close. Epone was also laying compressed ice shards in a perimeter around the manifestation of the wizard’s will to restrict its movements. Jaime lent his power to her spell so that the shards were bigger, colder and sharper than anything she’d ever managed before. Zorica called upon her imps who declined her summons.
“Eshugurin the Wizard is too powerful for usss,” they murmured in her head, cowering away in fear. “You should summon the greater demonssss.”
Zorica sighed in exasperation. “There is no time to lay libations or chant the proper incantations. We are in incumbent circumstances here guys,” she cajoled.
“Call Cain. Cain. Yes, Cain...he will come,” they echoed in her head.
Zorica closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew she had no choice. If the imps would not help, she needed to call in bigger guns. She reached out, drawing power from not only Jaime but every one of her teammates, building up her psychic strength, and then opened her mind up wide to make the call. The danger was, once her mind was this open, anything could get in, even Eshugurin the Wizard. Ash created a shield around her; it would not keep anything out but would act as an early warning system should the wrong demon take up her invitation.
“I call upon Cain, Father of Murder, First Born of Man, hear me oh lord, and answer my prayer.”
She said the execration three times and then dropped to the ground, slitting her wrist and letting the blood drop onto the fertile ground of Eshugurin the Wizard’s mind. There was a loud hoarse cry like a hawk in full hunting mode, and suddenly it was dark as a witch’s tit, not even the flames making a dent in the gloom.
“You called?” a voice said, right at Zorica’s ear, and she jumped.
“Cain?”
“Yes, that was my name. What can I do for you?”
“I need help to subdue Eshugurin the Wizard,” Zorica said.
“Nooooo,” a roar split the night, and there was a flash as lightning split the dark in two.
A loud explosion followed and, suddenly, there was light again, and the fire-being had grown twice as tall, smashing against the barrier Uzochi had put up with fury and rage. Zorica turned to see a giant of a man, dressed in animal skin, his hair falling like a curtain all the way down to his thighs, his black eyes glowing with unnatural light.
“It is good to see you again, old friend,” Cain said to the dark cloaked figure of the wizard, now standing a few steps behind his fire manifestation. The wizard said nothing in return. Cain turned to Zorica. “The only way to vanquish him is to destroy his soul,” he said.
Zorica nodded, pointing at Uzochi. “The Seer already told us so. But we cannot get near.”
Cain looked at the fire-being and laughed. “Such cheap tricks would stop ones such as you? I am disappointed.”
The fire-being grew ever taller.
“Tell us how to deal with it,” Zorica implored Cain.
The Father of Murder shrugged. “You have an Elementalist amongst you. They know what to do. I will go now and speak to my old friend; it has been a long while since I saw him.”
Cain made his slow way toward Eshugurin the Wizard as the team watched with narrowed eyes.
“Great. You brought a friend of his to the fight,” Jaime grumbled.
“How was I to know?” Zorica said with an irritated shrug. “Epone, about the fire-being, Cain seemed to think you have the right ideas.”
“Let’s do this then,” Epone said. Uzochi brought down the wall but the fire-being was only able to progress so far because of the ice shards.
“When I say go, we go,” Jordan told Uzochi who nodded his understanding.
Jordan gave AX a look. “Go,” he said, and they took off at a run, squeezing between two ice shards and heading straight for the fire-being.
It was then that AX saw the flaw in the plan.
“Uzochi won’t be able to grasp anything in his ice suit,” he said.
Epone opened her mouth and her throat clicked as she realized that Uzochi would have known that. She hoped that the Seer had a plan for how to circumvent this problem - one that didn’t involve putting himself in danger. But she had a feeling that this might be a kamikaze mission for the Seer.
“What if we thin the suit, and I enhance the strength of the ice using the captain’s gift to boost my magic? Will that help him?” Epone asked the team at large.
Zorica shook her head. “Too late now. Perhaps at the point of design, but look, they are already grappling with the fire-being.”
Everyone turned to watch the battle as Jordan and Uzochi feinted left and right, trying to avoid the blows being meted out with no mercy by the fire-being, slowly making their way to where they needed to be.
“Oh, saints,” AX said with a gasp as Uzochi leaped forward, diving right at the fire-being’s left leg and disappearing into a wall of fire.
The thing stopped trying to fight and the wizard turned, distracted from his conversation with Cain, toward the creature within which his soul resided. A loud echoing sound issued from him, sounding like denial, and then Uzochi reappeared, lurching backward out of the creature and falling, twitching to the ground, a glowing orb clutched in his burning hand.
Ash ran forward, falling to her knees next to him, hands held out already, glowing with blue light. Uzochi dropped the orb in her lap.
“Smash it,” he whispered and then went limp. Ash made a despairing sound, pouring even more blue healing power into him but he did not so much as twitch.
“Is he…?” AX asked.
“He’s dead,” Ash whispered, and she and AX seemed to hold a silent conversation before he shook his head slowly and she lowered her hands. “He’s dead,” she repeated. There was a strange quiet within the group, but they were startled out of it by the roar of rage emanating from the wizard.
“Smash the orb!” AX cried, and Ash reached down, picked it up and crushed it in her hand. The roar changed to a scream of despair and, before their eyes, the whole plane crumbled into nothing but darkness; the only illumination coming from the glowing blue of Ash’s hands and AX’s eyes.
“Luminate!” Zorica cried, and several tongues of fire appeared, floating in mid-air and lighting up the dead landscape. Cain had the wizard trapped in his arms.
“Congratulations on a job well done.” He grinned at Zorica. “Where shall I put him?”
“We need to get out of here,” Zorica said. She closed her eyes, calling to Jaime to break the circle.
The next thing they knew, they were back in their bodies and Cain stood nonchalantly by, still holding the wizard.
“Oh, that was fun,” he said with a grin. He pointed at their vessel with his chin. “Is that your ship?”
“Who is this?” Jaime asked. “And where is Uzochi?”
There was a loud silence.
Cain stepped forward. “You must be the captain. I am Cain, Father of Murder. And your Seer is dead.”
Jaime gasped, looking around at them all for confirmation. Zorica nodded her head very slightly, refusing to meet his eyes.
“What happened?” he asked.
“There is no time for that now Jaime, we must secure the prisoner and leave this place. The GF will be looking for us,” AX said.
Jaime reached down, and grasped Uzochi’s body, lifting it into his arms. Jordan rushed forward to help and, together, they led the way to the ship, where they laid Uzochi’s body in a cryochamber.
“Do you think he would have wanted us to take him home to his people?” Jaime asked AX.
“I think that he sacrificed his life for them, but they do not know that. I fear they might treat his body with disrespect,” AX said far more delicately than Jaime thoug
ht him capable of. He nodded his agreement.
“Then we will give him the farewell he deserves,” he said.
“Go, you need to take charge of the prisoner. I will stay with him,” AX said.
Jaime clapped AX on the back and left. His mind was churning with more questions than answers but he knew he had to get his team to safety before he could debrief them all.
Uzochi is dead! His mind could scarcely fathom it, even knowing how dangerous their jobs were.
He found the rest of the team in the hull of the ship, milling about just inside the doorway. Cain was hemmed in, in the midst of them, in such a way that he might not recognize that they were keeping him as much a prisoner as the wizard.
“Right, AX and Jordan, secure the prisoner in the hold. Zorica, you can deal with Cain. The rest of you, strap in, prepare for takeoff.”
AX and Jordan each gripped an arm and dragged the wizard off while Zorica turned to Cain.
“I thank you for your help and release you back into the depths of the abyss from which you came.”
Cain shook his head. “Oh no sister. I am free now, I will not return there for love or money.”
Zorica stared at him in disbelief. “Well I banish you, so you have to go.”
Cain took a seat at the table and strapped himself in. “You will need me when you question the wizard. My work is not done.”
Zorica sighed, looking around at Epone for some help. Epone merely shrugged at her. “It is what it is,” she said. Zorica walked to a chair, flopped down into it and strapped herself in. There was not much else she could do at this point.
“Where are we going? Anybody know?” she asked the room at large.
“Far away from Earth,” Ash said. “They will definitely be chasing us.”
Zorica gave her a sympathetic look. “We weren’t able to make a clean getaway, huh?”
Ash shook her head.
“But did you get the samples?”
Ash nodded slowly.
“At least that’s a start.”
Ash made a noncommittal sound.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Surprises
Jaime turned the ship for Alpha Centauri simply because it was on the outer reaches of their galaxy and would provide a suitable burial ground for Uzochi.
Mage Marine Misfits: Book 01 Page 23
