The Ferryman (The Guardians Series 1 Book 2)

by Wendy Saunders

  ‘A net that size?’ Olivia shook her head, ‘even between us we don’t have that kind of power.’

  ‘As I said it’s only temporary,’ he told her. ‘We’re going to borrow the power.’

  ‘You’re going to call the corners,’ she whispered. ‘That’s why you needed more people.’

  ‘Yes,’ he replied his eyes locked on hers, ‘we don’t have a coven at our disposal so we’re going to have to make do with what we’ve got. It’s been a while and whilst they’re not as powerful as I’d like and will be a bit rusty, Jake and Louisa have the gift, they’ll do.’

  ‘No,’ Olivia shook her head, ‘we only need four, that’s you, me, Davis and Danae. You can’t put them in danger like this. The second those creatures figure out what we are trying to do they’ll try to stop us.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ Jake frowned, ‘does anyone else have a clue what they’re going on about?’

  ‘Shut up Jake,’ both Olivia and her father replied.

  ‘We need them,’ Charles answered firmly. ‘There’s eight of us, four teams of two, one to call the corner and one to protect the other.’

  ‘Is math not your strong suit?’ Olivia snapped, ‘there’s ten of us.’

  ‘You and Theo have to go to The Boatman; you have to retrieve Charon.’

  ‘Why us?’ she frowned.

  ‘Because your mother gave you protection. She made sure Nathaniel can’t harm you and I’m willing to bet that she won’t either. I’ll get to you as soon as I can, but we have to stop the creatures coming through the doorway. Once they get through and scatter I doubt even Charon will be able to stop them. Spirits are one thing but these are creatures of the underworld, they are beyond his power. We have to hold them, you have to get Charon and bring him to the lake.’

  She sighed knowing he was right. Nathaniel couldn’t harm her and as a West she was one of the only people who actually stood a chance against him, but there was one thing she wasn’t going to agree to.

  ‘Fine I’ll go but Theo stays with you.’

  ‘WHAT?’ Theo stood abruptly. ‘No way. There is no way I am letting you go after Nathaniel alone, forget it.’

  ‘You don’t have any protection from him,’ she hissed, ‘he can’t hurt me but he can hurt you.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ he replied, you are not going without me.’

  ‘Theo,’ she sighed tiredly, aware that everyone was staring at them. ‘Can we talk about this later?’

  ‘You can talk all you want,’ he replied stubbornly. ‘You’re still not going up to that hotel alone. Wherever you go, I go and that’s not negotiable.’

  ‘I may just like him after all,’ Charles murmured.

  Olivia threw him a dangerous look.

  ‘Get angry all you like Olivia,’ her father told her, ‘but the man’s right. You’re not going alone and we simply don’t have time to argue about it. We have about seven hours until sunset and we still have to teach them how to call the corners.’

  ‘Fine,’ she grated through clenched teeth. She stood and faced the rest of the room, taking a deep breath.

  ‘Alright here’s the deal people. As you may have gathered from all of that, we are going to cast a kind of supernatural net over the lake to stop anything from escaping. That kind of spell work requires a great deal of power, even an entire coven of witches would struggle to call forth that kind of power so we are going to call the corners. This is a ritual to call the four watchtowers of the North, South, East and West. Each watchtower is ruled by an element, fire, air, earth and water and each tower is protected by a guardian. We are going to call to each of them and entreat them to lend us enough power to cast the net.’

  ‘What? like when the fairy godmother in Cinderella borrows magic for her to go to the ball but it must be returned at midnight?’ Veronica frowned.

  ‘Actually that’s a pretty accurate analogy,’ Olivia nodded, ‘except we have until sunrise, after that we’re pretty much screwed.’

  ‘So am I to understand that you need Louisa and I to call a corner?’

  ‘Each,’ Charles replied, ‘we’ll need you to call a corner each. Danae and Davis have to stay together because they are going to call the corner where there is the heaviest concentration of creatures, Davis will call a corner and Danae will protect him, because she is trained for this. You have to understand the second they figure out what we’re doing they’ll try to stop us. So each one of us calling a corner will have a partner to watch our backs. Louisa and Jake, we’ll put you on the furthest side of the lake where there will be the fewest concentration of creatures but I am not going to lie to you, there will be considerable risk involved.’

  Tommy stood up abruptly.

  ‘Okay, you’ve all had your fun now, but really this has gone far enough. It’s been very amusing but listen to yourselves, you’re crazy. This shit doesn’t exist.’

  ‘Tommy sit down,’ Charles spoke calmly.

  Tommy sat down as abruptly as he’d stood, his eyes widened in surprise as if he was not quite sure what had happened. He opened his mouth to speak again.

  ‘Be quiet Tommy,’ Charles told him and Tommy shut his mouth.

  ‘What the hell?’ Jake frowned, ‘how did you do that?’

  ‘Simple power of suggestion,’ Charles shrugged. ‘It doesn’t work on everyone and I really don’t like to use it much. I’m generally against anything that interferes with anyone’s free will.’

  He turned to Tommy apologetically, ‘I truly am sorry Tommy but like I told Olivia we really don’t have time to argue about this.’

  ‘It’s not permanent is it?’ Louisa asked, looking at her husband worriedly.

  ‘No,’ Charles answered, ‘it’ll wear off soon enough.’

  ‘Anyway,’ Olivia continued, ‘I don’t want any of you to feel pressured. You can walk away right now if you want to. This has to be your choice.’

  She glanced at them in turn as they nodded their silent consent, all except Tommy who was glaring furiously at them. She wasn’t too concerned though. Louisa had agreed to go and whether Tommy believed or not, as a fully trained soldier there was no way he would let his wife go into the woods on her own, without him protecting her.

  ‘Okay Davis,’ she turned to her uncle. ‘Why don’t you go and get the supplies you brought and we’ll start working out the details.’

  He nodded and disappeared into the kitchen re-emerging moments later carrying the box and one bag slung over each shoulder.

  ‘For the sake of time we’re going to split you guys up,’ Davis told them as he unzipped one of the bags and began to pull out several shotguns and boxes of cartridges. Jake and Louisa you go with Charles so you can start learning the spell, the rest of you, you’re with me.’

  ‘Oh my,’ Veronica’s eyes widened as she picked up a crossbow.

  ‘Welcome to our world,’ Davis grinned.

  Chapter 22

  ‘Okay,’ Charles began as he unpacked items from the box, ‘so Jake, you are going to be positioned at the northern most point of the Lake. You will be calling Uriel, Guardian of Earth.’

  He handed him several thick stumpy green candles and a glass bell jar filled with dark damp earth. When Jake curiously unscrewed the top and sniffed, his nostrils were filled with a rich peaty smell.

  ‘Do you know how to cast a circle?’ Charles asked?

  ‘Nope,’ Jake replied, and as Charles turned to Louisa she shook her head too.

  ‘If we pull this off it will be a miracle’ he muttered, shaking his head. ‘Okay listen, the spell we are going to be working with is partly traditional and partly tailor made as I seriously doubt anyone has been in this position before. Each of you need to cast a basic circle and once that is done you are going to summon the Guardians, which is unusual I admit. Normally they would just be called upon to watch over and protect the circle and the magic you are conjuring, however we are going to be entreating them to actually let us borrow more
power. So Jake, for God’s sake be respectful.’

  ‘You know me,’ he grinned.

  ‘That’s what worries me,’ Charles grimaced. ‘Just try not to offend them, we need their help. Once we’ve summoned the Guardians and if they agree to help…...’

  ‘Wait a minute they have to agree to help?’ Jake interrupted. ‘What if they say no?’

  ‘You’d better pray to whatever God you believe in that they don’t, otherwise we’re in serious trouble’ Charles replied. ‘If they agree to help’ he continued, ‘then we will move on to the main body of the spell to cast the net, which is what you’ll need these for.’

  He pulled out two big ball shapes, wrapped in heavy burlap and tied tightly with twine, each vaguely resembling the root ball of a large plant. When Jake picked one up it felt gross; squelchy and damp and smelled like road kill.

  ‘Er… what the hell is in that?’ he asked.

  Charles shrugged ‘herbs, bird bones, graveyard dirt and some other things you really don’t want to know about.’

  ‘What are they for?’ Louisa asked.

  ‘They need to be buried in the ground at the centre of your circle; these are the most important part of the spell. This is what is going to form the net to trap the creatures.’

  ‘Okay’ she nodded, ‘so where am I going to be?’

  ‘West’ Charles replied. ‘You’ll be on the West bank of the lake and you’ll be calling to Gabriel, the Guardian of water. It’s very important you get as close to the lake as possible, but the bags have to be buried in soil not sand.’

  ‘Gabriel?’ Louisa frowned, ‘and Jake will be calling to Uriel? Who are the other two?’

  ‘Davis will be calling to the East, to Raphael the Guardian of the air and I will be on the South bank calling to Michael the Guardian of fire.’

  ‘Michael and Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel, but they are the names of the archangels,’ Louisa replied in confusion.

  Charles’s mouth curved in amusement. ‘Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Paganism, it’s all just semantics. Magic all comes from the same place; you’ll find they cross over more often than you think. We as humans seem to want to segregate everything, put it in its proper place. If you believe in one you can’t believe in the others, but the truth is they are more closely tied than you can imagine. Nothing is ever black and white, everything in this world and every other, are just varying shades of grey.’

  ‘Somehow that makes me feel a little better’ Louisa replied, ‘like we’re not so alone in the world.’

  ‘Existence is a bigger place than you can possibly imagine Louisa,’ Charles told her gently, ‘you just need to open your eyes and look.’

  ‘So what else do we need?’ Jake asked.

  Charles resumed searching through the box and handed Louisa five short stumpy blue candles, similar to Jake’s green ones. He also had a glass bell jar for her, this one containing slightly cloudy water.

  ‘What’s this?’ she asked.

  ‘Sea water’ he answered absently as he also handed them both a carton of salt and five fat white candles. ‘You’re going to need an Athame each too’ he murmured thoughtfully.

  ‘What’s an Athame?’

  ‘It’s a ceremonial knife.’

  ‘Will this do?’ Jake asked as he pulled from his belt the dagger Olivia had created for him.

  ‘Where did you get this?’ Charles took a sharp intake of breath as he took the blade in his hands, turning it over to examine it. He could feel the intense power thrumming through the blue black blade. The strange lettering glowed lightly with a muted blue light and waves of a vast ancient power emanated from it.

  ‘Olivia made them for us when we were going up against Nathaniel.’

  ‘Them?’

  ‘She made two; I have one and Theo has the other.’

  ‘And she created them?’

  ‘Sort of’ Jake frowned, trying to find a way to explain. ‘They were originally just ordinary hunting knives I got from the local store, she altered them with a kind of blue and black fire.’

  Charles’s head snapped up from his inspection of the blade and he looked at Jake intently.

  ‘Blue fire? Edged in black?’ he wanted exact clarification.

  ‘Yeah that’s the stuff, Olivia says it’s called Hell Fire. You should see her pull a bow and arrow out of thin air and made entirely from Hell fire, it’s really cool. She took out like eight Hell Hounds with that thing.’

  ‘Olivia can conjure Hell Fire?’ he repeated slowly as he turned a puzzled gaze on his daughter, across the room talking to Danae.

  ‘Sure she can’ Jake replied, a bit confused at Charles’s reaction. ‘I’m sure it’s not a big deal, she can call up Spirit fire too now. You know, the silver stuff.’

  ‘What?’ Charles turned his penetrating gaze back to Jake, making him squirm uncomfortably.

  ‘Look maybe you should talk to Olivia about this.’

  ‘Maybe I should,’ he replied thoughtfully. ‘Alright this knife will be fine; I have one that Louisa can use.’

  He shook his head and sighed, ‘so, let’s start with how to cast a circle.’

  ‘As we don’t know what kind of creatures you are likely to encounter’ Davis told them, ‘it’s really difficult to know which weapons will be most effective. There isn’t really a ‘one size fits all’. Some creatures are susceptible to lead, others to silver. Some can be harmed with something as simple as salt. So we’ve come up with some weapons which will be effective against most creatures but not all. Your job is to keep them off the others long enough for them to cast the circle and complete the spell. Once that’s done you should be safe within the circle, just don’t step out of it.’

  ‘Okay we’re going to start with something fairly basic, Danae stepped forward holding a shotgun. ‘Obviously Tommy and Mac are able to shoot, what about you princess?’

  ‘I can shoot,’ Veronica replied dryly.

  ‘I’m not talking about BB guns at a carnival.’

  ‘Neither am I,’ she replied coolly. ‘I can shoot most guns but I’m most comfortable with a .45 or a 9mm.’

  Mac raised his brows in surprise at her admission.

  ‘I also know my way around a shotgun but I don’t see how they’re going to help much if I’ve got a Hell Hound coming at me. I don’t think he’s going to be deterred by a bit of buckshot.’

  Danae smiled and picked up one of the boxes of cartridges. Opening it up she pulled one out.

  ‘Usually I would agree but this is something a little special Davis and I have cooked up.’ She broke it open and poured the contents into her palm. Instead of your usual steel or bismuth we’ve filled them with a mixture of lead, silver and salt. It probably won’t kill or even seriously wound anything you come up against, but it should slow them down some.’

  ‘Now these are tactical shotguns rather than hunting shotguns. May sound flashy but it really isn’t all that different from your standard 12 gauge,’ Davis told them, ‘except it looks cooler.’

  ‘You’re such a child,’ Danae sighed shaking her head, ‘the reason we chose these is simple because it holds more rounds. In the situation you’re going to be in, your life and that of your wingman, or woman, is going to depend on how long your ammo lasts and how quickly you can reload. This is what we’re going to be practicing in a moment. I’m not too worried about your aim, something tells me you’re going to have plenty of close range targets. Aim for the face or the legs, try to disable them in any way you can. Remember your main objective is to buy time, once you’re within the completed circle you’ll be safe.’

  Veronica swallowed convulsively, suddenly feeling a bit nauseous.

  ‘In addition we have a selection of hand guns. There are regular bullets and we also have some silver bullets too, but please go easy on them as they’re real hard to come by. There are the crossbows and you’ll each have a knife, but you better pray they don’t get that cl
ose.’

  ‘Great,’ Veronica murmured.

  Danae glanced down at her watch.

  ‘Okay time’s getting on so we need to step it up a little. Who knows how to use a crossbow?’

  Olivia frowned as she studied the map in front of her. As a shadow fell over it she looked up and saw Theo.

  ‘We can drive as far as here,’ she pointed to a section on the map. ‘From there we’ll be on foot but as the lake is frozen solid it should be safe enough to walk on, so we can skirt around this section of the woods and head straight for the private beach below the cliff face. Hopefully the stairs are still intact but it depends what they were made from.’

  ‘If they are anything like my dream they are actually carved out of the rock itself, but the guardrail is metal so it may be in pretty poor condition after all this time.’

  Olivia nodded.

  ‘The next problem is what do we do once we get there. I managed to download the blueprints for the building from the internet, but to be honest they could be holed up in any of the rooms. We’re literally going to have to search room by room.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ Theo frowned. I know Nathaniel, remember I spent a fair bit of time with him in Salem. He has very specific tastes and he doesn’t like being closed in. That rules out all of the smaller private bedrooms and suites. He’s probably been amusing himself by torturing Charon so he’d want a nice big open space to work in, probably with a view out over the lake so he could watch the doorway.’

  ‘Okay,’ Olivia switched to her laptop and brought up the blueprints for the hotel. ‘The back of the hotel overlooks the lake so that rules out the dining room and the grand foyer. At the back, facing out to the lake, we have the ballroom and the swimming pool and Turkish baths.’

  ‘We’ll start with those three first,’ Theo nodded.

  ‘Of course if we actually manage to find them how do we deal with Nathaniel and my mom?’ Olivia frowned. ‘I suppose it’s too much to hope for that we can just sneak in, find Charon and sneak back out.’

  ‘I don’t think our luck’s that good,’ Theo murmured. ‘The chances are we’re going to run into one of them if not both.’