Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Legends
Page 23
The rest of the items he left in the backpack for later use, swinging it onto his back and clipping its various straps. He looked slightly less like a butler, covered in gear as he was. But as she had learned well in recent days, looks weren’t everything.
“You ready, Kip?” Lily whispered.
The feline looked out at the fog with great distaste, but twitched his tail in acknowledgment. At least it wasn’t raining.
Lily went to the entrance of the cave and called softly into the enveloping fog “Yuki?”
The fox appeared moments later, almost completely invisible as his silver fur blended into the grey fog. “Is everyone prepared?”
“Yes. Time to go. Is the coast clear?”
“As clear as I can determine.”
Lily nodded, understanding his annoyance at the fog. It might be providing valuable cover for their movements, but it still made everything more difficult. The key was that they had Yuki. Lily honestly had no idea how they would manage without him. Though he firmly refused to fight—his kind did not fight humans, he insisted—he would serve as lookout and messenger, enabling them to stay in contact completely undetected. Lily wished she’d had more time to plan and prepare. If so, she might have been able to fabricate a communications system using conveyance spells. Or just bought headsets and used mundane technology. But both methods would require speech, which could be overheard. Yuki had the advantage over both.
With Yuki and Sir Kipling leading the way—they’d called a temporary truce in order to focus on the mission—Lily and Hawkins set out for the cliff, leaving Sebastian and Cyril to crouch in the cave. Lily looked back after a bare handful of steps, eyes seeking out Sebastian’s worried face. Their eyes met for a moment, then the air currents shifted and he disappeared, swallowed by the fog.
Worried about visibility, they moved slowly, and Lily fretted about their progress. If they didn’t hurry and things took too long down in the cave, they might be trapped by the rising tide. In theory, she could cast a portal to the Basement back in Atlanta. All she needed was a flat surface—she had all her supplies safely tucked away in a small backpack that Hawkins had gotten her, since her leather handbag would not have survived the trip. But the problem was distance. She had no idea if the spell would be strong enough to reach all the way from England, not having discussed distance parameters with Madam Barrington and having no way to check now. Hoping it wouldn’t come to that, she concentrated on the path in front of her.
As soon as the ground started to slope down, they halted so Hawkins could use his length of rope to tie them securely together. It was an old mountain-climbing trick, a way for each of the climbers to help anchor their fellow should the other slip. Once they were ready, they started down. Thankfully, the fog hadn’t affected Lily’s aluminum “breadcrumb” trail, and she could sense where to put her feet even through the dense fog. Out here on the cliff face there was a breeze. It wasn’t strong enough to blow the fog away, only make it swirl in disorienting eddies around them.
Yuki went first, then Sir Kipling, then Lily, and lastly Hawkins. Everything went smoothly—if slowly—until they were about halfway down. At this point there was a tricky spot where you had to bridge a gap from one rock to another. It wasn’t so far that Lily had to jump, but she did have to let go of the steadying cliff face for her legs to reach. Bracing herself and carefully judging the distance, she stepped over the gap. Foot safely planted on the other side, she shifted her weight to get all the way over.
That’s when it happened.
Her foot must have landed too close to the edge of the ledge, because the rock and dirt under it gave way and she tumbled down into the darkness, hands grabbing uselessly for anything to catch herself. Her scream was cut off abruptly as the rope went taut around her waist and she slammed into the rock face, all breath smashed from her body. For a second or two she simply hung there, dazed. But the frantic meows of Sir Kipling brought her around.
“Lily? Lily! Are you okay?”
Thank heavens Hawkins had braced himself before she’d taken that fatal step, preparing for just such an eventuality. Had he not been prepared, they would have both tumbled down onto the sharp rocks far below. Such a fall would have broken them to bloody pieces.
With the rope pulled taut around her chest by her dangling weight, she could barely wheeze, much less breathe. Scrabbling at the rock face, she searched desperately for a hand- or foothold to take the pressure off her chest.
First, her no-slip gloves found purchase, gripping a bit of rock that jutted out by her face. Then her booted toes found bits of cliff as well, one giving way under her weight but the other holding firm. Finally able to breathe, Lily took a few moments to regain her strength and calm her quivering limbs as the adrenaline pumped through her.
“Miss Singer? Are you alright?” Hawkins called quietly from above, conscious of their vulnerable position.
“Yes,” she gasped. “Just—give me a minute—to get my breath back.”
After a short while, between her pushing from below and Hawkins pulling from above, she managed to regain the ledge. Shaken, but undeterred, she rejected Hawkins’s suggestion that they sit and rest for a while, knowing that time was running out.
Taking extreme care, she tackled the gap again, this time making it safely across, and bracing herself securely in a cleft of rock as Hawkins made his own way across. Mercifully, they had no more mishaps the rest of the way down. By the time they reached the bottom, it was 4:20 and the cave entrance was nearly dry.
Lily sent Yuki back up the cliff to pass word of their safe descent and stand watch for Sebastian and Cyril. Then she set Sir Kipling to keep an eye on the entrance while she hurried to untie the rope from around her waist. She let Hawkins worry about coiling and stowing it as she headed toward the crack. Though in a hurry, she wasn’t so rushed as to forget to look carefully for signs of ambush. She could have guessed wrong about what John Faust would do. He might be waiting for her right now, ready to attack and force her to reveal the secret of Morgan’s tomb. But, as she put away her headlamp and got out her light orb—which did a much better job of illuminating the cave—she saw no sign of any living thing. Neither did she see any fresh footprints in the sand, which at least meant no one had been there since the last high tide five hours ago.
There might have not been anything alive waiting for them, but there were plenty of other things. Conveyance spells to be exact. Lily ignored them all as if they weren’t even there. John Faust needed to think he could track and predict her every move. He needed to think he had the upper hand. In fact, he did have the upper hand, with two skilled wizards and a hand-to-hand fighter against their motley crew. But Lily had initiative on her side, as well as powerful allies and a few surprises tucked away. As far as she knew, even if John Faust planned for Sebastian’s pixie friends to show up, he had no way of guessing Thiriel’s involvement. She was their trump card. Even if the fae queen refused to stay and fight with them, her presence turned their mission from absolute suicide to merely possible suicide.
Having reached the warded crack they’d squeezed through before, Lily began an urgent search. This was the last piece of the puzzle, the one thing she’d been unsure of. If she couldn’t find it…but no, her vision did not let her down. Because she was looking for it, she finally managed to find the small spot, barely the size of silver dollar, that shimmered with fae glamour, slightly apart from the hidden crack. Probing with her fingers, she could feel the smooth disk shape set into the stone that was invisible to the naked eye, even hers, owing to the double cloaking glamour. Noticing the slight resistance she felt when touching the seal, she smiled, theory confirmed.
Lily held out her hand to Hawkins, who rummaged in his backpack, withdrawing a large iron nail about four inches long. She examined it skeptically, unsure it would be hefty enough for what she needed. Looking questioningly at Hawkins, he gave the tiniest shrug as if to say, “It was the best I could find.” Lily couldn’t blame him. No
t many things these days were made out of wrought iron. This nail looked to be quite old and had probably been taken from some antique wagon or house.
Grateful she had gloves to protect her from the iron, she gripped the nail firmly in one hand and reminded herself where the seal was. Then she raised her arm and brought it down with all her might to stab at the disk. The wrought iron—magically inert—passed through the barrier-field around the seal and struck the disk full force.
With a snap, the nail broke.
The seal did not.
Stymied, Lily stood for a moment, fighting down a sudden panic. She could still do this. She had to. What were her other options? Why had she not made a plan B? Touching the seal again, she could feel a tiny dip in it, as if the nail had but chipped away a minuscule portion, but not enough to break the spell. Looking at the two halves of the nail, she doubted she could do anything useful with them, even if she used a rock like a hammer.
At a touch on her shoulder, she looked at Hawkins, who was making subtle motions with his hands. It took her a moment, but she finally figured out he wanted to tell her something, but wasn’t sure if he should, knowing John Faust was watching them.
Sighing—this was not going the way she’d hoped—Lily tapped into her ward bracelet and used it to cast a temporary circle around them, raising it into a bubble above their heads. The shield was modified to block light and sound, which meant it appeared from the outside as an opaque dome, and would have been dark from the inside were it not for Lily’s floating light orb. Casting this shield would tip off John Faust that they knew he was watching. But then, he’d probably guessed anyway, assuming he was smart enough not to underestimate Lily and her companions. They lost a slight advantage, but the sacrifice had to be made.
“What is it?” Lily asked, nodding to Hawkins encouragingly to let him know it was safe to talk
“I take it you need something made of iron to break a warded object?”
“Yes. There is a small seal imbedded in the rock. It’s protected by a barrier-field ward that absorbs kinetic energy, preventing anything from striking it with enough force to break it. Except that iron is magically inert. It dampens and repels magic, so the ward can’t affect it. But it looks like even without the ward, the seal was stronger than the nail.”
“I believe I have a solution.”
“You do?” Lily brightened.
“Yes, however…” he paused, hesitating. “It will necessarily put me at your mercy, Miss Singer.”
“My mercy? I don’t understand.”
Unsnapping the backpack’s chest strap, he reached inside his trench coat and pulled out something short and stubby. It took her a moment to recognize it as a shotgun. She knew what guns looked like, even if she refused to shoot one herself. Her stepfather and oldest brother Dru both enjoyed hunting, and the family owned several guns. What threw her off was the size: it was incredibly stubby, as if both the barrel and stock had been shortened, thus enabling the manservant to secrete the gun inside his coat.
Looking at it nervously, she hazarded a guess. “I don’t know much about guns, but I suspect that one isn’t legal?”
Hawkins nodded, turning the gun to tuck it comfortably in the crook of his arm like a country squire off to a duck hunt. “I have a shotgun permit, but with the modifications this one is shorter than the legal limit. Were you to mention this to anyone, I could be arrested and face heavy fines as well as jail time.”
Lily’s insides squirmed. She did not like guns, not the least because she disliked harming living things in general. But guns, in particular, were just so…messy. So indiscriminately destructive. She fervently hoped to subdue her adversaries without permanent harm, and guns had only one purpose: lethal force. She did not like the idea of Hawkins bringing one into this situation. And that wasn’t even considering the absurdity of bringing a gun to a wizard’s fight. Most personal wards included the same spell that protected the seal: a field that absorbed kinetic energy, defeating things moving at speed such as bullets, arrows, thrown objects, or even punches in some cases. In addition, any wizard worth his magic could cast a temporary shield that would stop physical objects. She’d used one herself, in fact, to prevent Percy the poltergeist from clubbing Sebastian over the head at the Clay Museum. Wizards could be caught off guard of course, but still, it was the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gunfight.
“I have no intention of telling a soul,” she finally said, wanting to put the manservant’s mind at ease. “However, I don’t see how it will help us. Only iron can pierce the ward, and I believe bullets are made out of lead, are they not?”
Hawkins nodded. “Normally. But I…have connections, shall we say. I have been able to acquire shotgun shells packed with iron buckshot, not lead. It should make quick work of that seal of yours.”
Lily felt her blood run cold. There existed a gun that could shoot through wards? That was a terrifying prospect. If word got out, no wizard would be safe. “Hawkins,” she said in a hushed voice, as if the wall inside their shield dome had ears, “do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You could kill a wizard!”
“Precisely,” he said, seeming unfazed. “Though it is not quite as effective as you are imagining. Though not a wizard myself, I do understand some of the subtle differences between spells, having to concern myself with the safety of my employer. An iron object can pass through passive wards where the spell must act on the object to be blocked, as we saw with the nail. However, remember that active shields which block all physical objects do not affect the objects themselves, simply form a wall off which things are repelled.”
“Oh,” Lily said, suddenly understanding. It was a small comfort, however, as shield spells had to be actively maintained and took much more energy and concentration than passive wards. You’d almost have to anticipate the gun firing to put up a shield in time to stop the bullet. She eyed Hawkins, torn between her instinct for survival and the desperate hope she clung to that, somehow, they could all get out of this alive, friend and foe alike.
“John Faust would kill us all in the blink of an eye if it served his purpose,” Hawkins said quietly, guessing the reason for her reluctance.
“I know,” she admitted in a pained whisper, squeezing her eyes shut. The motion dislodged a tear, which rolled slowly down one cheek. Sniffing, she swiped angrily at it with a damp sleeve, hating the position her father had put her in. Hurting her was one thing, but forcing her to hurt other people to protect herself and those she loved? That was ten times worse. As much as she hated to admit it, they needed Hawkins’s shotgun. They needed every single advantage, no matter how tiny, to get out of this situation alive. She’d expected Hawkins to have a way to defend himself, but had imagined it to be some sort of artifact given to him by his employer, not a mundane gun. As if killing with magic was somehow easier to stomach than killing with cold steel. Or iron in this case.
“Do it.” Lily spoke through gritted teeth, pointing at the spot on the wall. She hated her father. Hated his greed, his twisted ideals, his selfishness. She didn’t want to hate anyone, but at that moment, her hatred blazed so strongly she might have grabbed the gun and shot the man herself if his gloating face had appeared before her. The emotion frightened her.
“Plug your ears, Miss. This will be loud.”
Lily dutifully stuck her fingers in her ears as Hawkins pushed her behind him and moved them both to the side, aiming carefully at the spot.
“I will have to shoot at an angle to keep the buckshot from ricocheting back at us. But it should be enough to break the seal. Ready?”
Nodding, she squeezed her eyes shut. She felt Hawkins jerk with the recoil and heard the bang as loudly as if her fingers hadn’t even been in her ears. The concussion, contained within the sound barrier, had bounced and rebounded on itself, amplifying the sound. Lily shook her head, dazed and wondering if it had worked. She half expected some great rumble or noise or…something when the seal was broken. But there was only silence.
“Well…I don’t think Morgan anticipated guns when she created that seal.” Lily commented unnecessarily.
Hawkins carefully reloaded the shotgun, then opened his coat and slid it back into its holster. “Indeed. Should we be moving? I understood that time was of the essence.”
Jolted back to cold reality, Lily’s adrenaline shot up and her breath quickened. Of course. This was it. With the seal broken, the way was clear to locating Morgan’s body, and Lily had to make sure they found it with enough time to enact their plan before John Faust arrived.
Dropping the shield she’d been maintaining, she hurried to squeeze through the crack, calling softly for Sir Kipling to join them. He raced over, hopping through to be followed by Hawkins.
“Glorious leader. I have detected movement near the cliff face. I hesitate to get too close, but I can tell it is three people. I believe they are headed down to the cavern. Sebastian has told me to assure you he and the fox-hating man are in good health. As agreed, they will wait five minutes, then follow.”
Momentarily distracted by the mental contact, she felt some of her tension ease, though it was odd to be relieved that her enemies were closing in. At least it confirmed her predictions about how John Faust would react, and Sebastian and Cyril were in place to follow and attack from behind when the time was right.