by Terri Lane
***
Nessa clutched at Ra’s hand as they stood among the shadows. They seemed thicker than before. Nessa could hear voices, all around them, as if thousands of people were speaking at the same time. She frowned and looked around. She saw no one.
“What were you thinking?” Ra exploded in anger.
“I couldn’t take you,” she said. “You are needed on the other plane. I was going to come and return Charlie, and then face both the Necromancer and the demon.” Ra looked at her in surprise and laughed.
“On your own?” He shook his head. “Professor, you’re good. But not that good.”
“What do you mean?” She glared at him.
“You need us,” he said, raising his hand to her cheek. “Both of us.” He pulled her to him, kissing her on the lips. Her heart beat wildly as she kissed him back. “We love you.”
“And I you,” she said. “Both of you.” He nodded.
“So, this is the spirit plane?” He asked, looking around. “It’s quiet.” Nessa frowned. She heard so many voices around them, they had begun whispering in a frenzy as she and Ra had kissed.
“Don’t you hear them?” She asked Ra, looking at him.
“No,” he replied. “I hear no one. What do we do now?”
“The demon is in the material plane, with Charlie,” she said. Ra looked worried. “We have to get back.”
“How?” Ra asked.
“We reverse the incantation,” she said.
“I thought that was a weapon.”
“It was. A weapon against us,” Nessa explained. She glanced around as she thought. Someone was evanescing in the dark mist around them. “Dad.”
Her father smiled at her as he looked at her with his dark, empty sockets.
“What do we do?” She asked him, desperate for advice. As she asked him, though, she suddenly realized that her parents had been the ones to point her to the incantation on Charlie’s hand. Her father grinned and Nessa felt an overwhelming sense of doom.
“You stay here,” he said, beginning to laugh. All around them, the voices stopped as they all began to laugh. Nessa’s heart was pounding. She clasped Ra’s hand within her own. Ra began to run, pulling her along with him. But they had nowhere to go. All around them, it was just more of the same. Dark shadows, black mist, disembodied voices.
Ahead of them, they saw a bright light. They ran toward it. In the middle of the light, a figure sat, legs crossed, back to them. They both slowed as they approached.
“Charlie,” Ra gasped, out of breath. Charlie turned to them. He smiled.
“You found me,” he said. He studied their faces. “Don’t worry. It’s really me. The demon is in my body right now. We have to get back before he meets up with the Necromancer on the material plane. Not that that will be difficult for them.”
“What are you talking about?” Nessa asked.
“The Necromancer is mother,” Charlie said. “If the demon’s in my body, then they can declare you dead, and run the kingdom. That gives them access to an army and other various resources over the living. Also, my powers. Those could be… well, catastrophic.”
“How do we get back?” Nessa asked him.
“Take my hands,” Charlie said. “I think I can get us there by manipulating the fabrics. I don’t know if I can take my body back, though. That’s going to be a bit tricky. I’ve never fought a demon before, you know.”
“What do we do?” Ra asked.
“Nessa will have to fight mother,” he said. “She has the Phoenix Blade, so... yeah.” Nessa and Ra glanced at each other. “They think that we’re all stuck here. We do have the element of surprise on our side, though. You’ll need to shift as soon as we get back, Ra. You might have to fight the demon in my body. He’ll definitely shift as soon as you show up.” They all nodded.
“One thing, Ra,” Charlie said.
“Yes?”
“You might need to kill me,” he said.
“I can’t do it, brother,” Ra shook his head.
“You’ll have to,” Charlie stated firmly as he got to his feet. “It might be the only way to save the kingdom. You’re the one who needs to come out of this alive.” Ra stepped forward and hugged his brother. They slapped each other on the back. As they moved apart, Nessa stepped forward, kissing Charlie on the lips. He whispered in her ear.
“Love you, Ness,” he said.
“Love you, Charlie,” she responded, her voice breaking as she almost burst into tears. He smiled at her.
“You were right, by the way,” he said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. We are evenly matched,” he laughed. “We could destroy worlds if we wanted.”
“But we don’t,” Nessa said. He reached up and wiped a tear off of her face. He looked her in the eyes.
“No,” he agreed. “We’re both forces of good.” He smiled at her, then looked at Ra. “And Ra’s the King.” They all grinned at each other. Charlie exhaled.
“Ready?” he asked. Ra and Nessa nodded, both thinking about how much they were going to fight to save Charlie. They all clasped hands. The spirit plane faded away, and they found themselves in the throne room. Charlie’s body was sitting on the throne. His eyes were black orbs. But he suddenly fell forward as Charlie’s spirit entered his body again, fighting the demon for control. He snarled and began to convulse. Ra shifted into his dragon form, the sound of bones and sinew and skin snapping and stretching. Nessa found herself looking at a golden dragon, his flapping wings, hitting the massive chandelier with the sound of thousands of crystals clinking wildly.
Ra was breathtaking. He had a magnificent, noble head that was long, like a horse’s. His neck was long and articulate, and a line of sharp golden spines ran from the nape of his head all the way down his back, and along his long tail. His eyes were golden-red fires that looked down upon his mother, who was dressed as the necromancer in her black dress and Death’s Head mask. At her hip, she wore the sword in its sheath. She stood her ground, placing her hand on the hilt of the Phoenix Blade.
By the throne, Charlie’s body was at war with itself. He began to shift into dragon form, the shift as wild and uncontrolled as Charlie was. As he filled out into an identical golden dragon, he let loose a roar. It sounded both desperate and belligerent, articulating both of the presences at war within the large, golden body. Ra glanced at Nessa. She nodded toward Charlie, indicating that she would handle the Necromancer. Ra leapt toward his brother, who was the demon at the same time. When Charlie opened his large, fanged mouth, a cloud of thick black smoke came out. His eyes were still the black orbs of the demon. Ra landed on him, and the wall was knocked out into the hallway. Nessa strode toward the queen confidently. The queen smiled at her, unruffled and unthreatened. Nessa looked at the Death’s Head mask.
“You don’t frighten me, Ms. Kant,” the queen said.
“I imagine not,” Nessa agreed. She stood before the queen, hands clasped behind her back. She felt poised and confident, as though she were going into an academic debate.
“You may be a Necromancer, but you have no practice in the art of spirit magic,” the queen said. “You know nothing of it. It’s really a shame that it’s illegal. It would have been the one thing that could have saved you.”
“Doubtless,” Nessa responded. She smiled. The queen seemed taken aback.
“Are you prepared to head back to the spirit plane forever?” the queen said. In the background, the twin dragons were grappling with each other. Flames spouting from one’s mouth (Nessa guessed Demon-Charlie) lit the room a reddish orange.
“No,” Nessa replied, shaking her head. The queen laughed, pulling the Phoenix Blade from its sheath at her hip. As the blade came free, it lit on fire, green-gold flames licking the edge of the blade.
“Impressive,” Nessa commented lightly.
“It is the only weapon that can kill a dragon,” the queen said. “It is also the only weapon that can prevent a Necromancer from returning.”
“It
was you,” Nessa said.
“What was me?”
“In the 1880’s,” Nessa said, beginning to walk in a wide circle around the queen. “You just came back somehow.” The queen smiled.
“You’re very smart,” she said. “It’s a shame that you have to die.”
“Tell me how you did it,” Nessa prompted. “I’d love to know.”
“I took the queen’s body,” the Necromancer said. “Right after I killed the king and your parents. It was quite simple, really. I got them to come to the spirit plane. Then, once I’d killed them, I had the power to manifest here. I just needed a body. So, I took the most advantageous one.”
“That’s brilliant,” Nessa remarked. Flattery will get you anywhere. It seemed to be working with the Necromancer-Queen.
“Then, I waited until Charlie and his powers matured. He’s stronger than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. Belial was delighted of course,” the queen who was the Necromancer looked over at the fighting dragons. The walls around them were caving in. Nessa could see it out of the corner of her eye, but she dared not look. No distractions. Focus here was key.
“How did you get the blade?” She asked. The Necromancer laughed.
“Your father brought it to me,” she said. She paused, studying Nessa’s face. She grinned. Clearly, Nessa’s poker-face had evaporated. “Yes. Your parents are not the people that you thought them. They wanted to bring Necromancy back. They wanted to plant you at the university in a position of authority.”
“They were at the university…why?”
“They were adjuncts,” the queen said. “They were going to advocate an illegal magical practice. They had no chance. So, they brought me back.” Nessa wasn’t sure whether any of this was true or not. She just needed the Necromancer to let her close enough. “This time, for good.”
“But in the vision… they were fighting you,” Nessa said.
“They needed to stand with the King until he was dead,” she replied.
“You betrayed them, though.”
“Of course,” the Necromancer said. “Their powers helped me to take over the queen and stay on the material plane.” Nessa nodded. She just needed to get a few steps closer. She enacted a spell that caused the paper with the demon’s incantation to burn, turning it to ash in the palm of her hand. She was an adept, so she didn’t need to speak the spell aloud.
“How?” Nessa asked, circling closer. The Necromancer stepped away a little. She noticed, Nessa thought in frustration. Nessa stepped away, as well. She had to get the queen to let her guard down. Nessa was the one without the sword, after all.
“I stabbed them with the same blade they gave me,” she said smugly. Her eyes traveled the length of the flaming sword. This was it—her chance. Nessa lunged forward, and, bringing her hand to her lips, blew the ashes of the incantation onto the Necromancer. It hit the bared skin of her chin and neck. The skin crackled and began to bubble. The Necromancer raised her hand. She began to cough, black smoke coming from her mouth as she began to disintegrate. She dropped the Phoenix Blade with a clatter. Nessa lunged forward and grabbed it by the hilt. The Necromancer tried to get away, but the demon’s incantation was causing her to go into the spirit plane. Nessa now knew the way to keep her there, by the Necromancer’s own admission—she stabbed with the Phoenix Blade, hitting the Necromancer in the heart.
There was a jolt as the Necromancer was sent back into the spirit plane—this time, for good. Nessa took a deep breath. Her heart was pounding relentlessly. There was no time for pausing. Charlie and Ra needed her. She ran, Phoenix Blade blazing in her hand, toward the two dragons. The walls had caved, and yet the two fought on, large claws scrabbling at each other’s golden scales, causing sparks to flare up. Blood from both of them was splattered everywhere, steaming where it landed. Nessa paused. She didn’t know what to do.
“Ra!” She yelled. “Stand back!” Ra heard her. He leapt back from the other dragon. She recalled Charlie’s words from back on the spirit plane. He had thought that his brother would be the one to kill him. And yet—it would be her. She felt sick to do this. The dragon faced her down. As it did so, the black orbs changed—for a second, she was staring at Charlie. He nodded at her.
The demon’s black orbs returned. The chest thrummed as the dragon prepared to let forth a large bout of flames at her. She could feel the intense heat as it rose within him. She held up the blade, hurtling toward Charlie at a run. She watched as the blade plunged into Charlie’s golden chest. Hot blood sprayed at her, burning her skin. She pulled the blade out of his chest, its flames extinguished. The demon in Charlie roared in pain and dismay as the enormous golden body fell to the floor. The castle shook with the weight.
Ra was running past her, back in his human form. He was naked as he knelt down beside his brother, who was changing back into his human form. Nessa ran to Charlie’s other side. He was breathing heavily, in pain as he looked up at the both of them. His eyes were their normal deep, sparkling blue. He smiled up at them.
“You did it,” he said weakly. “You won, Nessa.” Nessa began to sob.
“You can’t die,” she said. “Not now.”
“It’ll be okay,” Charlie promised her. “You’re the Necromancer, baby. Just bring me back.” He closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath. She looked at Ra.
“Heal him,” she said.
“What?” He exclaimed. Tears were running down his face. But when he looked at her, his eyes were filled with sudden hope.
“I’ll go and get him. We have to work quickly,” she said. Ra nodded, beginning the incantation to heal the sword wound in Charlie’s chest. Meanwhile, Nessa let herself shift over, between planes. She let herself leave her body. She found herself in the dark mist, standing over Charlie’s body. Ra was completing the incantation, watching as the skin knit back together. She looked beside her, to find Charlie, walking away from her as he began his journey over to the spirit plane.
“Charlie!” She called out. “Wait!” He turned to look at her. He smiled in recognition.
“It’s time, Nessa,” he said. He turned to look. “Look at it. It’s beautiful.” Nessa glanced over in the direction that he was looking. There was a brilliant light that shone brightly. It felt warm. She could hear voices, speaking, calling out to Charlie. She grabbed his hand tightly, feeling her powers anchoring his spirit.
“Not yet, Charlie,” she said. “Come back.” She closed her eyes, feeling herself fall back into her own body. She was grasping Charlie’s hand, whispering, “Come back, Charlie, come back.” She opened her eyes. Charlie was looking up at her, grinning.
“You did it, Nessa,” he said. “I knew you could.” Ra was grinning at them both.
“Our first Court Necromancer,” he said.
“Agh, that sounds like Court Jester,” Nessa groaned. “No titles for me, thank you very much.”
“As you wish,” he replied, shrugging. She got the feeling that it was going to stick. She could see the princely determination in his eyes.
“You two can fight about this later,” Charlie said, closing his eyes. “I need to sleep some.” As Charlie drifted off, Nessa and Ra sat back on the marble floor and glanced around at the wreckage, some of which was still steaming. Nessa looked to her side, picking up the Phoenix Blade. The flames had stopped, but it shone with a dark light. She looked over at Ra, who was looking at it jealously.
“No,” she said. “This one’s mine. You go find your own.” They both laughed.
“Fine,” he shrugged. He raised his finger, pointing at her. “You have to come with me to recover it, though.” She raised her eyebrow.
“Oh?”
“Yes. I’ve read about it quite extensively, Professor,” he said. “It is supposedly kept in the crypt of a certain Dragon King, out in a certain jungle.” Nessa groaned.
“That crypt is cursed,” she said angrily. “I’m not going near it.”
“Oh, but you will, my dear,” he said, taking her hands i
n his. He looked deep into her eyes, then down at himself. “I mean, look this body. You want it, don’t you?” He smiled at her crookedly as he arched an eyebrow suggestively.
“Are you trying to bribe me with sex?” She asked, outraged. He looked away, then looked back at her again.
“Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not.” He got up off the floor, picking her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist. He leaned in, whispering in her ear. “Shall we, while my brother the prince sleeps?”
“Who is going to take care of him?” she asked. He smiled.
“We will, of course.” Ra set her down on her feet. He picked up his brother easily, carrying him off. Servants began to appear as they walked Charlie to his tower. They bowed before Ra in deference, all calling, “Long Live the King.” It had gotten around that the queen was gone.
Ra set Charlie down on his bed in the tower. Charlie’s breathing was soft and even. Nessa sat down on the edge of his bed. She pulled the comforter over him. She took his hand. She could feel his power. It was softened.
“He’s exhausted,” she commented.
“Yes,” Ra replied. “Being possessed tends to take quite a bit out of you.” She nodded. “Let’s let him sleep, dear.” She stood up, climbing into his arms.
“As you wish, my King,” she said. He carried her down the tower steps. He nudged open a door that was close by. Inside, the room was covered in red wallpaper—the bed had red silk sheets.
“In my mind,” Nessa said, frowning, “In my mind, this was where we were.”
“Oh?” Ra asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Charlie saw it.”
“Sometimes, he can add things to things,” Ra said sagely. Nessa leaned in, covering his lips with her own. It was like in the waltz—Ra lead. He placed her on the bed. As he lifted her shirt, he trailed kisses along her skin. It wasn’t like with Charlie, where the electricity of his power caused her skin to flush red, but it was different—his kisses caused her to go warm. She panted as his tongue circled her nipple. He pulled off her pants, her panties. He knelt down in between her legs, his tongue sliding into the slit of her vagina, teasing her clit, causing her to cry out. He looked up at her, grinning.
