A Witch's Trial (Witch's Path Series: Book 3)

by N. E. Conneely

  "Can you find Officer Brown? He's the one who called me," I said.

  "Done." Wells hurried off, leaving me to contemplate the mess.

  Generally speaking, small nuisance creatures fell to Animal Control. If this had been one or two rather than a streetful, that's who they would've called. It wasn't the worst idea for the current issue. Even though they didn't have the capacity to hold all the gremlins, it would get some of them off the street.

  With Animal Control as a small-scale solution, I tried to figure out the big picture, but it didn't make sense to me. Gremlins were solitary creatures and wouldn't band together without direction. Gremory had to be behind this, but of all the things to do with an army of gremlins, why attack a jail? So far there had been some logic, even if it was twisted and abstract, to everything Gremory had done.

  Wells jogged over. "Brown is working inside the jail. They're dealing with gremlins who snuck in when a patrol car came in for a drop-off."

  "Do they need me?" I almost didn't ask. There were enough problems out here that we didn't need to spend time getting me in and out of the jail.

  "He didn't ask for help."

  I nodded. "Can you get Animal Control out here? It may not fix the problem, but they can't hurt."

  "Done. Anything else?"

  "Not yet."

  "Let me know when you have a plan. I'll be back in a few minutes."

  Wells was on the phone and winding his way through the officers before I had a chance to respond. I don't know how he did it, but in seconds the disorganized group of police was focused on him.

  Turning away from them, I refocused on my situation. Stretched before me was a tenth of a mile of two-lane road packed with problems. In the distance, the top of the fence wobbled. If I was going to keep them outside the jail, I was running out of time.

  I let tendrils of power snake out from me, exploring the land, gremlins, and even the jail for spells. It wasn't easy to search for subtle spells using such a light touch, but if the demon had a nasty trick planned for me, I wanted to be able to pull back in a hurry.

  With a heavy sigh, I tugged the power back into myself, disappointed with my findings. There was a buzzing energy moving among the gremlins, and I couldn't tell if they were doing it or if it was the result of magic. Either way, it was outside my experience.

  I took a few steps forward and glanced over my shoulder. The police didn't seem to be paying me any attention. A few more steps, and I was inches from the last gremlin. It stood there, oblivious to my presence, leaning on the gremlin in front of it.

  Wand ready, I brushed it with my shoe. It swung around, bared its pointy teeth, and hissed. I took a step back, and it turned back to the group, resuming its leaning. There went my hope that I'd missed an illusion spell.

  "Michelle, what are you doing?" Wells shouted.

  "My job," I yelled as I turned my back to the gremlins and returned to the police line.

  All six of his fingers tapped against his leg. "Take one of us with you next time. Everyone, this is Michelle Oaks, our witch. Michelle, I think you remember Gudger. Please meet Lopez and Hill."

  They nodded at me, and I nodded back. Gudger was a familiar face. He was a werebear who'd been on the scene to mop up after Amber was recovered. Lopez and Hill looked to be human, but so did Wells at first blush.

  "What did you find?" Wells asked.

  "Nothing particularly useful. There's an odd energy around them. It's not something I've seen before. The one I poked didn't like being touched, but it wasn't aggressive. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it's what I know." Now that I'd shared, I could use some information flowing in my direction.

  Wells nodded. "At this point, we've redistributed the on-duty officers and called other departments for assistance. Several animal control units are on their way. It's going to be twenty minutes before the first of them arrive."

  I doubted animal control units would be enough considering the numbers we were facing, even though gremlins could be contained without too much difficulty since they didn't have enough power to magic their way out of captivity. Capturing them was a different story. They were mean, vicious, fast, and small.

  "What can you do to help?" Hill asked.

  Turning to look him in the eyes, I answered. "It depends on what you want. I might be able to contain or disable most of them, but I won't be able to do much else at that point. Not to mention, that doesn't get them out of here, which is what we really need." Refocusing my gaze, I looked at all of them. "If you can think of something you want me to do, speak up."

  "Reinforce the gate and fence," Wells said. "We can't afford to have any more of them in the jail."

  "Then I need to get to the gate." I could do some work from this distance, but the spell I knew required me to be in contact with the item. Not to mention, I needed to get closer to see the extent of the damage I would be countering. From this distance I could tell the gate and adjacent fencing were at an angle and bowing under the weight of the gremlins.

  "I'm going with you for your protection," Wells said.

  I nodded. "Ready when you are."

  Wells looked at the men. "Gudger is in charge while I'm gone."

  They nodded and the two of us started down the road. A few feet from the gremlins, I followed Wells over the curb and started walking on the grassy shoulder. Wells was walking ahead of me, eyes scanning and a hand on his gun.

  As before, the gremlins ignored us. Frankly, it was uncanny to walk past a knee-high threat that was oblivious to your presence. Not that I wanted them to notice me. One or two gremlins weren't an issue, but I didn't want hundreds of them attacking me.

  The entire situation made me twitchy. Gremlins were known for sneaking around, messing up cars, tractors, laundry, or dinner. Nothing I'd heard mentioned them acting in large groups and being completely silent. Any communication was inaudible to humans, shifters, and witches.

  The number of gremlins was compounding the problem. There were plenty of things I could do, but few of those would work on this many gremlins. Even if I did neutralize them, I'd have to stay to monitor the spells until we figured out what to do with them, and that could take a while.

  We reached the gate without incident or speech, but I guess there wasn't much to say. I carefully made my way over to the curb, standing inches from the rather flat gremlins in the front of the line. If I was careful, I could lean over them enough to work on the gate.

  "I'll keep watch." Wells stood beside me, though I wasn't sure what he would do if the gremlins became violent. We'd be overwhelmed in seconds.

  Taking a deep breath, I settled down. I used the tip of my wand to inscribe runes for strength, endurance, and resilience into the gate. I blew out a breath, gathered my power, and spoke the remaining runes, feeding power into the spell. A first there wasn't a change, but then the gate straightened, pushing the gremlins back. The metal swelled, and if you looked closely, the air along the fence had a faint shimmer.

  "Done. I'm going to help the fence out too." He nodded, but I was already doing a weaker form of the spell on the fence. The idea was the same, but on a much smaller scale. Basically, it gave the fence a boost, corrected weak spots or minor damage. It wasn't much, but it was what I could manage for the entire length of the fence while still keeping plenty of power in reserve.

  When I cut myself off from the spell, my vision narrowed and clouded. The light-headed moment passed, and I pushed away from the fence. It had taken more effort than I'd expected to strengthen the fence, but it was worth it to keep gremlins out of the jail.

  "Unless there's something else I need to do here, I'm ready to go," I said.

  "Let's stay for a minute, see what's going on," Wells suggested.

  We stood there and watched a lot of nothing. The gremlins, both at the gate and along other portions of the fence, continued their attack as the police on both sides of the fence kept a close eye on them.

  The minutes ticked by until two trucks backing up the ro
ad caught my eye. "Wells, what are those?"

  He shaded his eyes with one hand. "Animal Control. Let's go."

  The return trip was as uneventful and creepy as the walk to the fence had been. The hairs on my arms were standing on end, as were the ones on the back of my neck. This was wrong, and nothing like typical gremlin behavior, though I had to wonder if anyone knew what gremlins would do when supported by a true evil, like a demon.

  Back at the road, Wells led me over to the new arrivals and made the introductions. "Ladies, this is Michelle Oaks, witch. Michelle, please meet Officers Stallings and Shalatar."

  "Nice to meet you," I said. Stallings was some type of fey, tall and slender, with green hair and brown skin. Shalatar was short for an elf, about five and a half feet tall, had the face of a middle-aged woman, and a slight belly. Under different circumstances, I'd be curious about her build since I hadn't seen many portly elves.

  "Good to meet you too. Westmoreland speaks highly of you. Now, from what we were told, you want help removing these vermin?" Stallings said.

  "Yes. I know you won't have the capacity for all of them, but I thought we could get a few out of here." I sighed. "I know that sounds stupid, but I don't have a better idea."

  Shalatar smiled. "It's hardly a stupid idea. The scale is rather daunting, however."

  Stallings picked up where Shalatar left off. "Additionally, this is abnormal behavior for gremlins. I've never seen it before."

  She sent Shalatar a questioning look. Shalatar shook her head: no; she hadn't seen it either.

  "It seems odd to me too. There's an energy about the gremlins, but I can't tell if it's a spell or something they're doing. They don't react to people being nearby. When I touched one, it did turn away from the group and hiss at me, but it immediately turned back to the group." Every word made me feel less than useful. In the time I'd been here, I'd learned very little about them and didn't have a way of neutralizing the mass of gremlins in front of us, never mind the ones elsewhere.

  "Hmm, odd behavior for a gremlin. Well, let's see how many we can collect. Do you have gloves?" Stallings asked.

  "Not with me. My kit didn't make it out here."

  "I think I have an extra pair that will fit you."

  "Thanks." Strange gloves, especially the thick ones used by Animal Control, would make handling my wand difficult, so I opted to stow it in my wrist sheath.

  Stallings went around to the passenger side of the truck and scrounged around inside for a moment before coming back and handing me a set of heavy leather gloves. "See if these fit."

  Starting with my left hand, I pulled the gloves on and wiggled my fingers to get them in the correct places. Clenching my hands, I was happy the gloves flexed easily. If anything, they were a hair on the large side for my hand, but that was better than being too small.

  "These will work. Thank you."

  Stallings smiled at me as she opened the back of the truck and slid three cages onto the ground. After closing the back doors, she went to the front of the truck and came back with a sword strapped to her back. At the next truck, Shalatar had dropped four cages on the ground and was attaching two large daggers to her belt. Given the options, I had to say I had more faith in the sword. It was hard to make trouble when you were in pieces.

  "Do you have an exact plan?" Shalatar asked.

  "I'm sure you ladies know more about gremlins than I do. I'll follow your lead." Honestly, I didn't want any more responsibility in this mess than I'd already gotten. This was way outside my experience and abilities.

  Stallings studied the herd of gremlins and shrugged. "Given the look of things, I'd walk over and start stuffing them in cages."

  Shalatar nodded.

  "Ok, works for me," I said.

  Shalatar handed me a small cage before taking a larger one. Stallings picked up a biggish cage, and we were ready to capture some gremlins. The three of us walked up behind the pack of gremlins, set down the cages, and looked at one another. The two of them nodded at each other and grabbed a gremlin.

  I stood there, mouth agape, as Stallings gripped a gremlin by the neck with one hand and opened the cage with her other hand. The gremlin was in the cage before it knew it'd been separated from the group.

  Shalatar was equally efficient, though she took a different approach. She opened the cage and kept the door from swinging shut with one foot while she snatched a gremlin in each hand and shoved them into the open cage. It was closed and locked by the time they started to hiss and fight.

  The rest of the gremlins were still leaning against the gremlins in front of them, completely uncaring of the fate of their friends. Their apathy was the only thing that gave me the courage to go grab one. I decided to split the difference in the officers' approaches and held the cage open with one foot as I wrapped both of my hands around a gremlin and swung it into the cage as quickly as I could.

  I wasn't as fast as the ladies, and mine started hissing, wiggling, and clawing at me halfway to the cage. The gloves protected me from its sharp nails, and I had it in the cage before it could do real damage. With my first one dealt with, I breathed a sigh of relief and tried not to think about the remaining gremlins. A quick look to either side verified my suspicions. Stallings had four and Shalatar had six in the cages.

  We filled the set of cages without incident. The gremlins didn't care if their fellows were snatched and continued leaning into the group as if nothing were going on behind them. Coming back, we each carried two cages. Once they were filled, we would be out of cages and have to find a new plan for containing these beasties.

  The three of us set up our cages, and I reached for a gremlin. The entire back row turned around and hissed at me before resuming their previous stance. I froze, hands outstretched and one foot holding open the cage door. When the gremlins didn't offer any violence, I relaxed and took a few steps back. Stallings and Shalatar joined me several feet away from the gremlins.

  It took a few tries, but I did get my mouth closed. Clearing my throat, I said, "That's new."

  "What changed?" Stallings asked.

  "What? I'm confused."

  "You said that was new, which I'm understanding to mean that was not behavior you had witnessed previously. It certainly differed from what I've seen since my arrival. With that in mind, what changed between last time we placed them in cages and now?"

  I tore my eyes away from the mass of gremlins in front of us and focused on the rest of the area. The herd on the road was continuing to lean against the gate, which seemed to be holding thanks to the magical enhancements. Around the rest of the fence, small packs of gremlins had abandoned their attempts to break into the jail and were slowly marching in this direction.

  "I don't know what changed, but we have more problems headed this way." I pointed to a particularly large group making its way along the fence. It would be nice if luck would join my side and groups of gremlins would start falling over dead.

  Shalatar sighed. "We are not set up to manage nuisance creatures on this scale."

  "Understandable," I said. It's not often that gremlins, or most magical critters, were found in groups this large. Even the most group-oriented ones were seldom seen in packs larger than thirty individuals. "Do we have a plan?"

  "Finish filling the cages we have and hope help arrives before things get worse," Shalatar offered.

  Stallings frowned and shrugged without offering any suggestions. "Might as well."

  Squaring my shoulders, I marched up to the mass of gremlins, toed open a cage, and adjusted my gloves. Taking a deep breath, I lunged forward and got my hand on one of them. I was leaning back to stuff the squirming body into the cage when it stopped moving. Before it could resume its hissing and clawing, I shoved it in the cage and locked the door.

  Swinging around, I jerked to a halt. All the gremlins had turned around and were looking at us. On each side of me, Stallings and Shalatar were focused on the wall of gremlins. They seemed to have forgotten about the pudgy gremlins in
their hands.

  The gremlin in front of me smiled, an expression that was unnatural and repugnant on its lumpy, disproportionate face. One by one, the gremlins around him broke into crooked smiles.

  This was not a good sign.

  "Michelle, it's so nice to meet you," the gremlin in front of me said.

  Behind him, the rest of the gremlins intoned, "Nice to meet you."

  I stood there, mouth agape, and tried to figure out what I should say.

  The gremlin didn't have a problem choosing his next words. "Be sure to keep your family safe. It would be terrible if anything happened to them."

  "It could happen to them," the rest of the crowd echoed.

  My arms prickled and my vision clouded. This wasn't about getting a prisoner or attacking the police station. It was about me and mine. Gremory wasn't going to get my family.

  "You can't have them," I told the gremlins.

  "We will have you. Then we will get them." All the gremlins spoke at once in a flat tone that vibrated with their voices, which weren't perfectly in sync. "We will bring you to Gremory."

  "I'll believe that when it happens. It would take more than a horde of gremlins best a witch." I didn't entirely believe my words. If I'd been alone, this many gremlins might have done it, but with a fey, an elf, and shifters, the odds were in my favor.

  "We will bring you to Gremory," the crowd repeated in an eerie voice.

  As the three of us faced off against hundreds of them, I tried to figure out my next move. We didn't have a way to neutralize or contain this many gremlins, and there was a limit to what I could do magically.

  I never got a chance to voice any of these thoughts, because at that moment, the gremlins attacked. The ones Stallings and Shalatar were holding went from limp to violent—hissing, scratching, biting, and kicking with all their might.

  I was awash with stout bodies. They launched themselves at me, digging claws into my legs and slashing and tearing at any available body part. One of them flew at my face, and I knocked it aside with my arm. When my face was, at least temporarily, out of danger, I kicked, thrashed, and yanked gremlins off every part of me, losing bits of skin in the process.