Marcus shrugged hard. "There's no bus service in Calgary at two in the morning and we can't call a cab because the cabbie will get suspicious since they don't generally drop teenagers off in Calgary's industrial block when the entire city is sound asleep."
Shit. I'd forgotten about that.
I turned to Betty and offered an awkward smile.
She snorted. "I have paws, and I doubt my long legs will reach the pedals… You get to drive your mother's car, but I'll make sure it gets us there in one piece."
"Just don't get a scratch on it or she'll kill me," I warned.
Betty let out an aristocratic sniff as she turned and headed up the stairs. I gave Marcus a hopeful smile and when his eyes met mine, I actually blushed a little bit.
Marcus held up both our backpacks for my inspection. "I've got the pyro in my bag and all your stuff including your father's grimoire is inside yours. I wish I could be of more use but–"
I grabbed my bag and said, "Marcus, look, I want you to know that I wouldn't have been able to come this far without you. Whatever happens, just know that you've been rock solid through all this. Let's head outside so I can call out Hudibras and get my mom back."
The three of us to headed outside to the shed. It seemed only fitting that I should call out Hudibras from the site of his first attack on me. I ran my finger along the twisted hinges that were the only thing remaining of the door. Betty and Marcus stood alongside the marble circle where my mom exorcised the spirit inside the teddy bear. It was time to do some serious magic.
I stepped into the circle and knelt down. I touched the smooth cold marble ring and drew on a small amount of my spirit and whispered, "Seek."
The ring hummed with magical energies as I pulled out a piece of chalk from my pants pocket and began writing my message to Hudibras using the Theban alphabet so there would be no mistake as to who the message was coming from. When I was done, I stood up and stretched out my arms and I searched for Hudibras' magical signature through the supercharged atmosphere. I intensified my focus, and closed my eyes tight. I sensed the familiar magical signatures of local practitioners whose energies brushed against my skin, and within seconds, I felt weightless as my spirit drifted through thick fields of magic, both good and malicious. To my surprise, the energies parted, as if sensing my purpose. Force of every description divided like an endless sea of curtains, each pulling back to make way for my will to seek out the now familiar pulse of Hudibras' own malicious intent.
I'd homed in on it now, an inky blot floating amid of a haze of spectral blues and reds; his magical signature stained the supernatural realm with an old simmering hatred for me, for all witches. It knew I was coming as it bubbled and frothed in my presence. I drew upon my message written and I hurled my own menacing, vengeful words into the middle of the boiling mass. It hit with amazing force, a geyser of dark magic spewed up, and I knew my message had been received when a cold emotionless voice rang out, "To your doom, witch. Tonight you will breathe your last."
The three of us hopped into Mom's car and I turned the key. The engine roared to life and I stared at the steering wheel for a moment as I tried to remember how to turn on the headlights.
"Okay," I said with a huff. "I can do this. Betty, where's the lights?"
Betty's poked her huge head between the front seats and said, "The lights are that little knob just above your left hand. Pull it toward you and then put the car in reverse. All you need to do is get it backed onto the street and slip it into drive, I can do the rest."
I nodded and rested my sweaty right palm on the shift knob and pulled it back until I saw that it was in reverse. The car shot backwards, tyres squealing as I swung the steering wheel hard to the right.
"Take your foot off the gas pedal!" Betty snapped. "Just pump the brake!"
I did as instructed and slowly navigated the car back out of our driveway and onto the street. I straightened the tyres and kept my foot on the brake pedal as I switched the car into drive.
Betty closed her brown eyes for half a second and whispered something completely incomprehensible. I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles were turning white.
"You can remove your hands from the wheel and take your foot off the brake," she said. "The car knows where it needs to go now. Might I suggest a veil so that either the police or Hudibras won't see us coming?"
I exhaled slowly and slipped my copper amulet into the recess of my Shadowcull's band. I closed my eyes and whispered words of magic, drawing the veil over the car like a crisp, clean sheet on a mattress. Within seconds we were rolling down my street and amazingly, Betty's magic ensured the car stayed within the speed limit.
Marcus fidgeted in the passenger seat next to me and I could tell he was frightened, so I placed a reassuring hand on his.
"Are you scared?" he whispered.
I tried to offer something resembling a hopeful smile and squeezed his hand. "Shitless," I replied. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't, Marcus. And you know what? If either of us weren't scared, they might as well ship us off to a padded room somewhere."
He nodded "Who do you think Hudibras is?"
I shrugged hard as the car whipped onto Deerfoot Trail and accelerated to sixty miles an hour. "We're about to find out."
"Yeah," he said. "Listen Julie, you look wicked hot in that Jedi outfit."
A big goofy grin washed over my face and I let out a huge belly laugh. "You wait until now to tell me that I'm hot?"
He snorted. "Can't help it. You're dead sexy."
"It's a Shadowcull's cloak," I said, half smiling. "Not quite as subtle as that of a Jedi Knight, but way more kickass."
Betty the dog let out a loud cough from the back seat. "Let's keep our heads in the game," she warned. "Julie, do you sense that Hudibras received your message?"
"Loud and clear," I said firmly. "Any thoughts on how we're going to take him out besides chucking bags of firecrackers at him?"
Marcus reached into his pack and pulled out an honest to goodness slingshot. I could have kissed him. "While you're peppering him with magic, I thought I could launch the bags at him with this. I've also got about two thousand ball bearings for good measure."
"Can you shoot that thing with accuracy?" I asked.
Marcus snorted again. "Puh-lease! Firing a slingshot is a matter of anticipating the trajectory, compensating for wind and applying the right amount of force – in short, science."
"Smart move, Marcus," I said. "When I give you the word, you fire the chaff and hopefully it will work. We'll bean him with ball bearings as a distraction."
We coasted onto the exit ramp leading to Glenmore Trail and I cracked open the window for a breath of fresh air. My stomach was doing backflips as the certainty of the deadly confrontation started hitting home. Everything up to this point spoke of menace and dark magic and sure, I'd successfully withstood two attacks from Hudibras, but I couldn't help but wonder if he had been holding back somehow. My instincts told me that everything about the two attacks was intended to kill me and that Hudibras was using the full measure of his power, but call me superstitious, if he was half as clever as I thought he'd be, I was certain Hudibras had a backup plan somewhere.
I just needed to be that much smarter and faster.
Mom's car was cruising along Shepard Road and I could see the billboard-sized sign advertising the Calgary Rugby Union less than a block away. I reached out with my magic to feel if Hudibras was nearby and felt nothing, so I assumed it was safe to pull into the parking lot. We came to an abrupt halt in the parking spot nearest the main gate and I let out a nervous breath.
I looked around the parking lot for any cars and all I could see were a few dozen squashed Tim Horton's coffee cups and a plastic bag rolling across the pavement in the breeze. I took another nervous breath and turned to Betty and Marcus.
"Okay listen, Hudibras may already be here and if he is, he's probably using a veil. Betty, can you sniff one out and let me know?"
The
big dog nodded once. "Yes I can, and if I detect one, we'll have to move very quickly to set up a defence."
"I'll draw magic circles all over that field," I said, patting the hip pocket of my black cargo pants. "I've got lots of chalk. Marcus, I want you to stick close to me when we hop out of the car because we're going to run like heck to the main gate."
"Right. I'm glue. Gotcha," Marcus said in a surprisingly firm voice.
I took a last look around the parking lot and opened the door. "Okay everyone," I said resolutely. "Let's do this."
Chapter 25
I tore across the parking lot and leaped over a concrete barrier fetching up under a huge arch that led to the main gate. Marcus was on my tail and Betty galloped like a clumsy gazelle, her thick black lips flapping in the breeze.
"So far so good," I whispered, as we ducked behind a stack of plastic trash cans. "Betty, can you sense a veil?"
The big dog was panting now, her huge pink tongue pulled back and forth in her giant mouth. She licked her chops. "Nothing that I can detect," she said between pants. "He's not here yet."
I poked my head around the trash cans and gazed through the chain link gate. There were two enormous stacks of red and blue bleachers alongside the field and I spotted a tractor hitched to a huge rolling grass cutter. I clenched my jaw and decided it was too obvious a target for Marcus to start launching the witch's chaff from, so the safest and most effective way to employ Marcus would be for him to constantly switch firing positions beneath the bleachers in hope it would provide some cover.
"Okay, this is where we part company," I said firmly. "I'm going to hex the lock and throw open the gate. As soon as I'm done, Betty and I will run into the center of the field and I'll set up a magic circle in case we need to fall back. Marcus, I want you to take the bags of witch's chaff and scoot underneath the bleachers. I'll signal you when I want you to start launching them and make certain you see where I draw the circle because if things go badly that's the Alamo, got it?"
Marcus threw his arms around me and squeezed. "Understood. Julie, be careful, okay?"
I hugged him back and gave him a gentle bonk on the forehead. "We can do this," I said softly. "You can do this, Marcus."
I stood up and pointed at the large padlock and whispered, "Hexus". There was a spray of fine sparks and the lock fell to the ground, dragging a length of chain with it. I gave a last glance of confirmation to Betty and Marcus and pushed the gate open with a tiny effort of magic. They swung wide, their squeaking hinges cutting through the silence of the night like a blade through flesh.
"Go!" I whispered, and Marcus took off like an Olympic sprinter. I gathered my focus into a tight ball and reached out, looking for even the tiniest trace of dark magic. The only thing I felt was the beating of my heart and warmth of Betty the dog next to me, so I scrambled ahead until I was in the center of the rugby field. I laid flat on the ground, kind of a dumb idea given that I had a one-thirty pound Great Dane standing next to me, but it was instinctive. I held my breath and listened only to hear Marcus scuttling between the long steel poles holding up the bleachers. If Hudibras was here, he had a hell of a veil.
"What do you think, Betty?" I whispered.
The big dog dropped onto its belly and stared straight at the gates. "I think you need to get that circle drawn as quickly as possible. I'll keep an eye out for the enemy."
"Good plan," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a thick rectangular stick of white chalk. I dropped my backpack beside Betty and ran about twenty feet behind her, then reached down and started tracing my circle onto the cool turf.
"Hurry!" Betty half-growled.
"I'm just about done!" I said, as I completed the irregular circle. I did a quick scan of the bleachers and then dove back onto grass next to Betty. We lay in silence, the darkness of the rugby field made it near impossible to see beyond the bleachers, impossible for someone other than a Shadowcull, that is.
I could still hear Marcus and I spotted his aura flickering away like a candle. I reached into my backpack and pulled out my father's grimoire along with the copper box and stuffed them both in my other cargo pocket as we waited patiently for Hudibras to arrive.
It was 2.57am and my gut told me that Hudibras would make his presence known at the top of the hour. Why? Because three in the morning is the time of most deaths and the time of most births, look it up if you don't believe me. It marks the end of the three-hour period known as the witching hour and it is thought the end of the witching hour is when witches are most vulnerable.
But I wasn't most witches.
I wore the cloak and copper band of a Shadowcull and my instincts – a Shadowcull's instincts – told me that all hell was going to break loose in less than three minutes.
I took a deep breath and drew my hood over my head, then I stood up in the center of the circle. "Get ready, Marcus!" I called. My voice bounced off the bleachers and filled the stadium. I pulled back the thin black sleeves of my sweater to reveal my Shadowcull's band on my left wrist and the quick magic cheat I'd scrawled on my right forearm in permanent ink. Betty stood beside me and tensed as she sniffed the air while I adopted a defensive position and drew into my spirit for the battle to come.
And come it did.
Every single light in the stadium lit up like a thousand welders' torches and I shielded my eyes against the glare. The ground trembled beneath me and suddenly an ear-splitting screech echoed through the stadium. Betty's lips drew back and she raised her haunches as she let out a guttural growl. She dug her claws into the turf and hunched down, her pointy ears flattened against her skull, her gleaming white set of teeth bared.
What happened next made my blood freeze. A swirl of dirt and debris drew up from the ground into a spinning pillar, quickly morphing into a whirlwind's funnel. Oh yeah, Hudibras announced his presence by calling up a tornado that sent the huge metal gates flying a hundred feet in the air. The garbage cans we'd been crouching behind only moments earlier shot across the field like they'd been launched from a battery of cannon crashing into the turf and sending clumps of sod flying in all directions.
The explosion of twisting and twirling debris was deafening and I covered my ears to block out the noise. The spinning cloud of wind and deadly projectiles tore the first set of bleachers from their concrete footings, battering the red and blue seats until they were nothing more than sheets of twisted metal. I glanced at Marcus who raced below the second set of bleachers. He opened his backpack and pulled out the first bag of witch's chaff and then crouched low and took aim with his sling shot.
"Fire!" I shouted, and Marcus sent the bag of chaff directly in the path of the funnel cloud. I grated my teeth together and snarled a hex at the bag which immediately exploded in a multi-coloured flare of light. A cloud of chaff-laced smoke was sucked into the lumbering vortex and it seemed to lose a small amount of momentum, so I threw a small binding spell at it and shouted for Marcus to launch another volley.
He fired again and I threw another hex at the bag of chaff. It exploded in another flare of light and I knew that I'd short-circuited Hudibras' spell. Now it was time to turn it back on him. I gathered together strands of white-hot magic, willing them together into a blast of energy that erupted from the tips of my outstretched fingers in four concentric rings of force. They buffeted the ground in front of the vortex sending, blasting through the alcove like a truck, smashing everything in its path. An enormous plume of thick brown dust blasted high into the air. Betty started barking like a rabid dog as I stretched out my hand to feel for Hudibras' location.
"He's on the move, Julie!" Betty howled. "Be on your guard!"
I hunched over to collect my breath. Repelling Hudibras' first attack had taken its toll, and I felt like someone had kicked me in the ribs and knocked the wind out of me.
The ground started shaking again as a flash of photonegative light exploded through the alcove. Giant clumps of turf and gravel flew out in a wide arc and shot across the field. I br
aced myself for impact as I drew upon the power of my copper band and threw up a shield that ignited the air with a wall of Theban. The dirt and debris shattered into a shower of soil, blanketing the grass with earth. I coughed hard and Betty sneezed sending out a spray of dog snot and drool.
So far, I'd withstood everything that Hudibras had thrown at me, but fatigue was setting in and I had to do something to gain the upper hand because Hudibras could keep on pummelling me until I was too exhausted to defend myself. I couldn't physically see Hudibras, but I sensed his presence and gauging from the direction of his attack, he was probably at the entrance to the alcove. I decided that rather than wasting my energy, I'd take an unconventional approach and draw him out.
I stepped outside the magic circle and motioned for Betty to stay put. I pulled back the hood and brought my hands to the side of my face and started shouting for all I was worth.
"'Has not this present Parliament
Poltergeeks Page 18
