Malicious Magic: An Urban Fantasy Adventure

by G. K. Lund

  Another scream, a human one, rose among the shrill unearthly ones; one of anger and frustration. Melleta must be furious not to see any more than we could, yet she could obviously hear the defeat of her creations, however temporary that defeat could be.

  A blast of raw power surged through the courtyard, an invisible force that hit me from behind. It knocked me into the air and I hit the ground so hard everything went black. Next thing I knew, my upper body was twisted over on my belly. I must have been trying to get up on instinct. My lungs burned from the sandy air I was desperately breathing in.

  “My dagger!” I gasped before realizing I still held on to it. A hand clamped down on my right calf and I cried out in shock. The momentary lapse of control forced sand into my mouth and I coughed and gasped. I tried to kick back, but the fetch had caught me now, another hand on my other leg. I squirmed and twisted, but only managed to roll onto my back again. The shadowy figure became more pronounced now, crawling over me, cold and hard hands clamping on to me. It was a dark-haired woman, but I didn’t know who she was when in control of the lifeless body back in the hall. The dead and pale face that stared at me now was void of all compassion and recognition of what she was doing. Only the moving mouth, trying to convey something, seemed to indicate there was more to the mindless actions happening right now.

  My mind was screaming at me to do something. Another darkened shape neared from my left. I shouldn’t have fallen, was all I could think, which was ridiculous considering Melleta’s magic. They would get me now.

  The fetch’s hand pressed down on my right hand and I couldn’t lift it no matter how much I tried. Kicking didn’t help either. I yanked my left arm out of her way and reached over to get hold of my dagger. Not connecting with my free hand, the fetch moved on toward my face.

  “No!” My voice rasped and felt choked already with the sand flying everywhere. I shifted the dagger from my right to my left hand and stabbed upward. The fetch jerked at the impact and screamed while moving sideways. I lost my grip on the dagger that was stuck in her abdomen and was too slow to grab it. A nearby fetch took hold of my shoulder and pulled me back. I twisted and got to my knees, but the chilly hands, male this time, dragged me sideways. I tried prying lose his grip with one hand and reached for the dagger with my other. I couldn’t even see it, only knew the direction and that it was close.

  “Stop it,” I almost whispered, some primal instinct trying desperately to stop what was happening. I knew what would come. Two almost synchronized screams rang through the courtyard. Loki could be far or close. He couldn’t locate me like this anyway. The clammy hand slid up my neck, almost searching like a blind person for my mouth and nose, twisting my head so I couldn’t see where my weapon had landed. Instead, the mask-like face of the fetch stared at me with no mercy in its eyes. This close, I recognized it. It was the spirit of Helios Dekel who fed this one. The dark eyes stared down at me, no recognition at all.

  Much like his father’s fetch had done earlier, the hand slid over the lower half of my face and shut off my air supply. I tore and pulled at his hand, my feet kicking at the ground. This couldn’t be it. I needed my dagger. This could not be how my return to Atlantis ended. I needed to make things right. How was ending up dead in this place going to do that? I would only end up in some cold grave with no one caring other than thinking it would be for the best. That was not life.

  I clawed at the fetch’s face to no avail. At least Helios had someone who cared for him. Someone who desperately wanted to save him and his father.

  Damyan.

  The thought of the thief had my oxygen-deprived brain try for one last thing. I stopped kicking, like my body knew how to prioritize when attempting to survive. The vials of Del’s potion were still in my pocket. But I hadn’t seen Dekel since we tried them on him outside Del’s shop. Helios was Damyan’s brother. They shared partial DNA too. If only I could try to—

  One of the small vials slipped out of my pocket and I raised my hand and crushed it into the fetch’s face. The spirit lurched back. I could see its mouth stop moving, frozen in a permanent ‘o’. Its hands slackened on my face. I reached inside the pocket and withdrew another vial. This time I hit the fetch’s neck. But it didn’t seem to matter. The potion hissed and smoked when in contact with the spirit. It let go enough for me to wriggle out of its grasp. I crawled like a mad-woman toward my dagger. A few meters and I could see it in the sandstorm that still blew around me. A new scream reverberated, telling me Loki was at least alive and kicking. I grabbed my trusted weapon and rolled around. Back on my knees, I lunged forward, ready to stab the fetch. It was twisting and flailing because of the potion, so I missed its ribs and caught its thigh instead. It didn’t matter. The dagger only needed to touch it, and the magic dissipated. The scream sobered me from the momentary lack of oxygen. I rolled on the ground, hoping to avoid any fetch I hadn’t seen near me. I got to my feet and bumped into something. I almost cried out in shock, thinking it was another fetch. Feeling it with my hand made me realize it was the broken fountain, it’s jagged and wet edge almost comforting under my fingers. With no shadows nearby, I dared to look back and realized that I could see the fountain. Not clearly, but I didn’t have to squint so hard. We had to be diminishing the fetches’ numbers. Melleta could not possibly re-summon them fast enough.

  As if she’d read my mind, another shout of frustration resounded. This time, I was ready. I jumped up on the fountain and perched awkwardly on top of it, the prancing horse now without its head and both front legs. The whole fountain shook due to Melleta’s shock wave both hitting and passing it. I heard something thump to the ground. Loki? I couldn’t tell. I jumped off the fountain and made quick use of my dagger, slicing at a couple more fetches. The sand was no longer whipping around. I could see the contours of the surrounding courtyard. Loki was indeed on the ground, on the other side of the courtyard, near the middle building, fighting desperately to keep a fetch from smothering the life out of him. I ran over, seeing no more threats now. Loki must have fought his way back toward Melleta. I recognized the fetch, though. It was Dekel. She must have brought his spirit back into the fetch while all this had been going on. I hurled several of Del’s vials toward the fetch, getting it off Loki. The scream of pain came before I was close enough to use my dagger on it.

  Loki sank back on the ground for a moment, trying to catch his breath. He raised his eyebrow at an unused vial in my hand. I didn’t have time to explain that it didn’t work on all the spirits because a scream of pure anger drew my attention.

  Melleta was standing by the door that led to the antechamber, her fists clenched at her sides while she stared at the now empty courtyard. I was pretty sure we must have stopped far more than fifteen spirits between us, making me believe she’d summoned them anew. The process had to be taxing though because she looked as worn out as I felt. She was visibly sweating and breathing hard, her hair in disarray. She’d thrown the yellow robe to the ground, only wearing a light-yellow skirt and shirt.

  Loki got to his feet beside me. The sight of us, still there, must have angered her more than anything, because she wasn’t done. She flung her arms out, casting some spell. The next thing I knew, Loki pulled me behind him, his green flames flying everywhere. I peered around him and realized Melleta was sending the fallen and upturned benches in the courtyard toward us. Loki’s magic could not be entirely fire, because, like inside with the door in the hall, his force stopped the benches’ trajectory, kind of like they were punched out of the air.

  The other thing, I noticed while this occurred, was the shadow sneaking up behind Melleta. I immediately withdrew my eyes, not wanting to draw her attention to the hooded figure behind her. Damyan had managed to get close, his dagger at the ready.

  One move, and he could stop her. I knew she was a danger, but I didn’t want her dead. Maybe he could subdue her…

  Of course, Melleta chose that exact moment to send the bench closest to her flying, which meant she turned her
head anyway. The same blast of power she’d sent across the courtyard now hit the thief so hard he flew into the wall behind them. His limp body fell to the ground with no attempt at bracing himself. She’d knocked him out on the first try. Loki sent a sphere of magic toward her, but she was paying attention. She simply leaned away from it and then sent a new surge of power with the flick of a hand. Before either of us could react, Loki and I were flung backward, much like Damyan. We had further to go, though, and by the time we hit the wall of the side building, we were still conscious at least.

  “Oh, I hate this,” I groaned. We’d landed in a heap, legs entangled.

  “Me too. She’s strong for a Kinswoman.” The irony of a Kin member using magic was not lost on him either. “Why is she so quiet?” he added. We got to our feet, bumping into each other and hurting all over. The sight that met us then told us exactly why she wasn’t running after us to finish the job. Over by the middle building, she was kneeling beside the knocked out Damyan. Her hands were on either side of his head, fingers splayed, though she wasn’t touching him. Not physically. The small bolts of lightning that emanated from her palms and into Damyan’s mind were.

  “That looks like what the fetch did when it possessed you,” I told Loki.

  “We need to end her,” was his response to that.

  “Stop her, you mean?”

  Loki only shook his head. “Oh, Chastity.” He tsked at me and stepped forward. I went with him. The fetch she was conjuring appeared above Damyan’s body when we approached.

  “You take him,” Loki said and handed me back my dagger before he drew his sword. “I’ll deal with her.”

  “Your magic isn’t enough.” Melleta was not an ex-god and clearly drew her powers from this realm.

  “No, but a sword might be in an inattentive moment.”

  “Listen,” I stopped him with a hand on his arm, content to let Melleta keep conjuring Damyan’s fetch to buy some time. “Instead of that plan we could—uh, oh no!” I’d glanced over at Melleta and Damyan again and now noticed movement from inside the door. Someone was in the antechamber.

  “What?” Loki asked and then saw it himself. Out of that door glided the same fetches we’d already stopped. They were back again and no worse for wear by the looks of them.

  Loki huffed at the sight. “Ah, skítr!”

  Chapter Fourteen

  At the sight of the returning fetches, my eyes swiveled toward the gate only to find that Melleta had locked it with her magic inhibitor. The glowing bands snaked back and forth between the large handles on each door. My daggers could take care of that, but it’d cost us a second, hell simply opening the heavy doors would cost us more time. Her lethal fetches might not be the fastest, but she was. We didn’t stand a chance trying to climb the walls either. Seemed buying time by letting her conjure poor Damyan’s fetch had given her the much-needed concentration she required to bring back the other fetches too. She really was powerful. Kerwyn had done a spectacular number on her mind to get her to hate herself so badly during her time with the Red Kin.

  I proffered the dagger Loki had returned, but he shook his head in response.

  “I told you. We need to end her.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. She is desperate and ready to kill you. Do you understand that?”

  “Yes, and if I could only—”

  “And I am caught in the crossfire. Which I do not like.”

  We both kept our eyes on the fetches as they filed out from the antechamber. Melleta arose and stood in front of them. I noticed the fetch of Damyan to the side of them, near his physical body. Surely, she must have noticed the essence of the Glory of Avalon? Del did. Yet I hadn’t seen Melleta take it from Damyan. Maybe she was content to know it was safe there for now.

  “I have an idea,” I told Loki and urged him to follow me toward the broken fountain in the middle of the courtyard. I still felt worn out and in pain from the last round with the fetches. I didn’t want a repeat. But that was not what Melleta had in mind either. Instead of sending them after us this time, she had them gather around her like a shield of spirits. Getting past them would be hard.

  “Oh, a plan?” Loki answered me, the mocking tone in his voice way too clear. “And what exactly does an Earthsider and former Kinswoman think is the best course of action with this magical conundrum?”

  I ignored that. “You’re kind of magicky, right?”

  “Magicky?” He sounded positively affronted at that.

  “You know what I mean.” I waved it off as inconsequential. “You may not be up to earth standards here, but you must have some know-how, am I right?”

  “Not up to my standards? That’s not the appropriate way to speak to a god—”

  “Ex-god.”

  Melleta wasn’t paying attention to our talking, but she was calling forth her powers again, the flaming orbs appearing in her hands.

  “Okay, whatever.” The god sounded like a surly teenager but urged me on with a flick of his hand.

  “Well, my friend Del told me—”

  “You have a friend?”

  “Not the time. Del told me the Glory of Avalon is a sheltering stone.”

  “Is it now?” Loki appeared more interested in Melleta, who took a step forward, amping up her magic. She raised her hands and let the two orbs join into a bigger, more powerful one.

  “Yeah. And they can protect against harmful magic, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s in one of Damyan’s pockets.” I indicated his unconscious body with a nod. “Can you do something with it?”

  Loki gave me a quick sideways glance while mulling it over. Thankfully, he didn’t require copious amounts of time. “Maybe.”

  “That’s very uplifting.” I took both daggers in one hand and dug the last vials of Del’s potion out of my pocket. “These will only work against Dekel and his sons.” I handed them all to Loki.

  “Very well.” He kept them at the ready in his free hand. “Attack from two sides,” he added, just loud enough for the approaching Melleta to hear. Then he veered off to the side, circling her, sword at the ready. To all intents and purposes, it seemed like we would try the two-front approach. The moment Loki was behind her though, I sprang forward, daggers ready. I landed close enough to the two fetches at the front, kept low, and slashed at their legs with the daggers. Their screams almost hid the shrill shriek of Damyan’s fetch when Loki hurled a vial at it. It vanished at the first attempt. Del’s potion really was powerful when aimed at the person whose blood was in it.

  Melleta noticed Loki and sent her giant orb flying toward him. If he hadn’t been expecting it, she would have hit, but he threw himself back at the last moment. The magic slammed into the door to the antechamber, incinerating the wood almost instantly. Two more fetches took the places of the ones I’d dispelled. Another one of them screamed from the other side of the wall surrounding Melleta. It was Loki, fooling her into thinking he was still planning to attack from that side.

  Next thing I glided past the fetches on her right side and stabbed one in the neck, ducking away before any of them could catch me in their steel grip. Melleta’s cry of anger mixed with the pained one of the fetch. I saw a flicker of her magic again and knew what was coming. I dared a glance at Loki, who’d left to search Damyan’s pockets. It didn’t take him long to find the gem, because he soon disappeared behind one column under the roof. I’d seen enough by now to know he wasn’t one to shy away from a fight, so I assumed he needed a moment to get the gem to work in our favor.

  I made a feint toward a female fetch, more to see what Melleta would do than anything. If I hadn’t done that, my face would have melted off. I jumped back and instinctively raised my daggers while the fiery magic surged straight for me, right past both sides of the head of one of the fetches. Like before, the intensity and heat of the force felt like a blow despite my daggers keeping it at bay. I was hard-pressed to hold it, especially now that Melleta’d learned something fro
m our last bout of this. The light was bright and right in my face and despite being slowly pressed backward, I could see the lower halves of the fetches as they and she came closer. Sooner, rather than later, they would get their cold hands on me. I forced myself to focus, remembering how I’d deflected her magic earlier. This was more than orbs of magic, but… I changed the angle somewhat and sent the magic right back at Melleta and a few of her fetches. She was quick though, conjuring a shield I couldn’t see. It diverted all of it toward the fetches on her left side. None of them were hurt or even bothered. Instead, all that force hit the side-building, breaking a large window and setting a fire in there.

  Thinking now would be an excellent time for Loki to figure things out, I dove once again, taking out the fetch closest to me. I hit the ground and rolled, forcing Melleta to change angles before she attacked again. The daggers still protected me though, even my hands despite the fire surely touching them. I felt nothing but a threatening heat I knew would kill me if I let go.

  “Melleta!” I shouted, desperate to get through to her, but she was so enraged and so afraid to be taken in for her crimes, she was beyond reasoning.

  I saw the fetches come closer again and knew I needed to free myself from the hold of her magic to dispose of it before it was too late. It took a great deal of effort, but I had to—

  A surge ran through the courtyard, almost like a soft breeze that cools you on a too-hot day. It was silent, yet so present. I felt the force against my hands and daggers vane and saw the fetches vanish right in front of me. For a moment I stood there with the crossed daggers raised in front of me. Then I noticed Melleta was also alone. I lowered the weapons.

  “Wow…” I uttered. Melleta turned and, well, glared I guessed since I couldn’t see her face. I could only see the smug smirk on Loki’s face where he now stood with the bright blue gem in one raised hand.

  “You were right,” he shouted across the courtyard at me. “It is a sheltering stone.”