by Deena Remiel
Emma raised her voice, asserting herself for the first time as a member of the team. “Before we go scattering ourselves about this place, remember, we can follow her thread. Hannah will lead us to her and Agremon. We have to have faith.”
“Her connections have been inconsistent, but she’s right,” Michael said. “Let’s just take a second here to sit and concentrate on Hannah’s signature. If she’s been able to send out intermittent messages, we may be able to follow them like cookies crumbs. So where is she? Concentrate, everyone.”
It was tough going there for a little while. Agremon was very talented with location spells, shields, and diversions. With Michael’s help they all reconnected with her thread. As choppy as it was, they were able to get a pretty good read on where the two of them were and that she was well. Hannah was back in the abandoned mine, but in a much deeper section than before, Agremon’s lair perhaps. And even that was tentative. They all knew that Agremon could flash in and out of places now and could very well be gone from the mine and turn up halfway around the world before they even took one step.
Nathanael sat on a cot, polishing his sword. “We have to get that knife before he does. After the prayer service is done, when Namirha leaves the stage and everyone is busy leaving, I’ll grab it.”
“Perfect, Nathanael. Go now, the service is almost over.” Kemuel gave him an extra sheath to carry. “The rest of us will start readying our weapons and making a strong connection to our troops.” He turned and addressed Emma. “When the battle begins in earnest we communicate with only our minds. It’s most effective that way.”
Emma nodded her understanding. She got up and walked to the tent’s opening.
“Where are you going?” Michael asked.
“I’m just going back to our tent for a minute. I need to check on a couple of things.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No, no, it’s all right,” she answered brightly. “You stay here and do what you Brethren do. I’ll be fine, honest.” She leaned into Michael and gave him a light kiss before leaving.
“Uh, Michael,” Kemuel prodded. “She’ll be back when she’s back. Staring at the door isn’t going to bring her here any sooner. Now come on, link up with us.” Michael turned to the business at hand and linked up with the others.
***
As she stealthily made her way to the Prayer Tent, Emma prayed that she hadn’t completely lost her mind. But her decision to go it alone at this point was fueled by her need to save her daughter by any means necessary. She could not turn away from her mission nor let anyone know or they’d have stopped her for sure, especially Michael. Oh, if she made it through this, he was going to kill her! She’d gladly deal with that later. She was about to turn master and disciple against each other to save her daughter. And may they wipe each other off the face of the earth and leave us alone, she thought.
She snuck in the back of the Prayer Tent, not wanting to be seen by Nathanael. She slunk down in a seat and waited for the service to end, occupying herself with looking around. They had indeed done an excellent job of ridding the place of people. Where the first prayer service had standing room only, this one was a quarter filled at best.
Namirha appeared quite agitated and annoyed on stage. She looked past him, at the pentagram hanging down, and then at the space where the knife should have been. Damn it all! Agremon got to it before Nathanael!
As followers left the tent and Namirha made his way out of the side door, she darted out and ran around to the side where she would hopefully run into him heading back to his tent. This had to work. There was one hour left before Agremon would sacrifice Hannah!
Emma saw him. He was a hunched over mass of ashen skin and bones, with a face that reminded her of the frightening wooden African tribal masks she’d seen in a museum. A frail old man, to the untrained eye, maybe. But behind the sunken eyes glimmered pure evil, through and through. He was leaning on a man in a robe as they walked back to his tent. “Mr. Namirha! Mr. Namirha, I must speak with you! It’s a matter most urgent! Mr. Namirha!”
At first, he frowned at her. He’s probably shocked at my audacity. Good. But then his look morphed before her eyes, the frown disappearing in favor of a sickeningly sweet smile.
“An urgent matter, you say, Miss…?”
She paused. Should she divulge who she was right then? Would it jeopardize her plan? She had no choice but to offer her name and replied, “My name is Livingston. And yes, it is a very urgent matter. May I speak with you privately in your tent?” Breathe, Emma, just breathe.
“Ms. Livingston? That name is so familiar to me. I meet so many people; I bet I’ve heard your name at a prayer service somewhere. Please, your urgent matter should be shared sitting down in my tent. Come and we’ll talk,” Namirha coaxed politely. If he knew who she was, he didn’t let on. But Emma wasn’t foolish enough not to suspect he’d known exactly who she was.
He offered her a chair and his robed helper eased him into a chair at his desk. He dismissed him and turned his attention to her. “So, let’s hear about this urgent matter, Ms. Livingston. I must say you’ve got me intrigued.”
“Well, you see, I’ve come across information regarding a betrayal by one of your people,” she began.
“A betrayal? How fascinating!” Namirha replied with the utmost interest. “Do go on.”
“Well, you see, Agremon has taken the girl.” Emma paused, looking for any reaction. She saw the slightest twitch of an eyebrow. “And that’s not all,” she pushed on. “He plans on sacrificing her to get her powers, tonight.”
“Why, whatever are you talking about Ms. Livingston? What girl, sacrifice, powers? Surely you can’t be serious. I run a very clean religious organization here,” Namirha sniffed smugly. “You, however, are sounding quite mad.”
“Please, Mr. Namirha, we don’t have time to play coy, so give up your charade. You know who I really am, as I know who you really are.” Namirha’s smile faded to a hard glare. “You took my daughter from me, and now Agremon’s taken her from you. If you’re smart, you’ll realize that doesn’t bode well for your plans. As for me, being Hannah’s mother, neither scenario appeals to me in the least, but I would certainly choose having Hannah with you over Agremon any day of the week. He’s a loose cannon and wants to murder my child.”
She leaned back in her seat and folded her hands on her lap, feeling more confident with each breath she took. “I know you need my daughter. I know you need her power, and it comes from her blood. But one doesn’t have to murder to achieve that. I will only allow you to have as much as is absolutely necessary of her blood if you get her away from Agremon, tonight, within the hour. And you get the added benefit of dealing with Agremon’s betrayal. I want from you the promise of getting my daughter back alive and safe from this point on.”
“You know who I am? And you still dare to strike a bargain?” he scoffed with raw arrogance. “Your love for your daughter is touching, to say the least, Ms. Livingston. But I don’t think you realize the magnitude of what you’re offering and its consequences. You think you’ve got it all wrapped up neat and tidy, but I assure you, there is so much more to this than your daughter’s life. She, my dear, is the catalyst for a major shift in world domination.”
“She’ll be nothing to you if you don’t get her away from Agremon. I think I’ve offered you a very good deal. I just want my daughter back.”
“And where are your Brethren friends?”
Emma flinched. Damn it! Poker is so not my game.
“Oh yes, I know they’re here. Very well-shielded, I do give them points for that, but remember who you’re dealing with here. Where do they fit into your simple plan?” Namirha stood and began circling her, making her feel as if she were his prey. Her confidence was being tested, but her heart remained steady, her breath calm. She refused to yield.
“They know nothing of this. I chose to come on my own as an act of good faith to you. Whatever it is you have against The Brethren, or they
against you, I want no part of it. I simply want my daughter. Time is wasting, Namirha, what do you say? Do we have a deal?” Emma stood her ground against his ever predatory strides.
“You’ve devised a foolproof bargain, my dear; one that assures your daughter’s safety when our deal is done. The only thing you didn’t bargain for was yours as well. So, rest assured, your daughter will be safe, but you will have given your life in her stead. Now do we still have a deal, Ms. Livingston?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Of course, we have a deal,” Emma responded without a moment’s hesitation. There was never any doubt she’d put Hannah’s life before hers. She hoped Michael would be able to forgive her at some point during his immortal life. She knew better than to expect it while she was alive. “So, now what? Do you know where Agremon could have taken her?” She wasn’t about to give up the fact that she’d already known their last position or had powers of her own. It could very well be the only thing to come in handy when the two evils faced off.
“If he’s got her, then he’s taken her to the mountaintop altar. I had it erected as soon as I found this area. We’ll go there now.” Emma started to walk out of the tent. “Uh no, Ms. Livingston. We’ll go my way. It’s quicker.” He grabbed her by the arms. “Hang on tight. It’ll only take a moment.”
Emma thought her body had been completely torn apart, disintegrated and reintegrated within a span of five seconds. Within those five seconds, however, she felt absolutely nothing, no pain, no fear, no joy, no existence. When she realized they had actually traveled to the top of one of the peaks in the mountain range, she came undone. She screamed and her hands did a quick check to make sure all body parts were where they were supposed to be. “Heaven, help me!” she blurted out with relief.
“It’s a little too late for that, Ms. Livingston. But let me assure you, you are quite all right. All of your body parts are where they should be. In fact, they are put together quite nicely.”
“Ugh!” Emma groaned, disgusted. It was bad enough that his crusty hands had held her through the flashing. “Don’t even start, Namirha, I didn’t bargain for that! Let’s just find my daughter, shall we?”
“Pity, we could actually make a grand family, the three of us,” he mused aloud. “I could rule the world, and the two of you could sit around and watch me.”
Ignoring him at this point, Emma walked away towards what looked like a clearing. She recognized that they were on flattened ground, but all around her were edges that dropped off to oblivion. Great! No easy way up or down.
She hadn’t needed to worry about getting there, but leaving there was another matter entirely. She was counting on Namirha to castrate Agremon and get her and Hannah out of there. If he couldn’t, they were stuck without an exit plan. Who goes into something like this without an exit plan?
The further she walked into the clearing, the more she noticed the elaborate setup Namirha had constructed for the blood ritual. There was a circular formation of stone statues stretching at least twenty feet into the air. It was one thing to be in the midst of ancient stone statues as in Rome or Greece, or even Easter Island, and something completely different when she saw what stood before her.
Grotesque, monstrous, misshapen figures of all manner of beasts glared down upon her. She coughed and wheezed and fell to her knees, not able to get enough air into her lungs. Namirha shuffled over to her nonchalantly and waved his hand over her back. She immediately felt better and stood up. She knew better than to thank him. That would be admitting that she now owed him something, and since she’d already bargained away her life, she figured that was plenty already.
“You and Agremon! You both have a keen sense of the macabre, don’t you,” Emma balked. Namirha smirked.
“It’s not all horror. Take a look in the center of the ring. See the beauty that was carved into a plain slab of stone?” A striking likeness of Hannah’s face was carved into each side. “Only the best for our little one, who will lie upon it and give her powerful energy to me. Then I will be able to take my rightful place as ruler of this world for eternity!”
“Easy there, bucko, you don’t get to do shit until you get her back. So where is she?” Emma demanded.
“We’ll have to wait for Agremon to appear, naturally. He will, too. There’s no doubt about that. He knows this is the only place she can be sacrificed, ritually, of course.” Emma raised her brow dubiously, but accepted his response. “Let’s move off to the side so when he does appear he doesn’t go flashing off immediately should he see us.”
God, but she hated waiting, and she hated Namirha with every fiber of her being. She prayed silently that Agremon would indeed bring Hannah here.
“Can’t you keep him here when he does appear? I mean what’s the point of being here if you can’t trap him and finish him off?” Emma was getting more and more unsettled with this lamebrain scheme of hers.
“Don’t worry so, Ms. Livingston. Yes, I can trap him here. And I can do worse, and shall. A bargain is a bargain. I keep my bargains. Now hush and let me concentrate on detecting his threaded signature.”
Emma obeyed, as she secretly tried to relocate Hannah’s thread herself. She had lost it when they flashed to the ritual site. She detected something faint. It could be her. It was easier to grab the thread when Michael was with her. There was something to be said for the Trinity. As she focused harder on the wisp of a thread, she could tell they weren’t in the abandoned mine anymore.
The thread’s energy signature was increasing, and suddenly, she felt Hannah as close as a breath away. Emma gasped and brought her hands up to her mouth to silence herself as well as to keep from reaching out to her daughter. Hannah and Agremon were here! It was then that she recognized another fatal flaw to her idiotic plan. The Brethren wouldn’t be far behind.
***
“Don’t you think Emma should have been back by now?” Raphael was a little miffed. “I mean, what could possibly be taking her this long?”
“I don’t know and I don’t like it. Not one bit. I’d better go see what she—”
“Hey, the knife’s gone!” Nathanael swept into the tent like a tornado. “Agremon must have gotten there before the prayer service began.”
“Damn it all!” Kemuel’s frustration finally bubbled over and he slammed his water bottle to the ground. “He evades us at every turn. He plays us like we’re fools. And we are fools unless we can gain some solid footing here. Damn it all.”
“Well, there’s only one thing left to do,” Gabriel said, closing his laptop. “Let’s go get Hannah. We know where she is, and we don’t have much time.”
“I’ll go see what’s keeping Emma,” Michael said. “Be right back.” He hadn’t been able to sense Emma’s thread for a while now. It was possible to shield one’s threaded signature if you wanted privacy. He hadn’t thought much of it at first. And he had to admit, it could get pretty disconcerting to have someone’s thoughts as well as your own active in one’s mind. But now, he had an uneasy notion walking towards their tent. He entered only to find it empty. “Emma?” he called out anyway. “Emma! Damn it!”
He ran back to the warrior’s tent. “She’s gone!”
“What the hell do you mean she’s gone?” Raphael asked. He stood up and confronted Michael. “Gone where?"
“I don’t know, Raph, she’s just gone.” Michael’s arms fell to his sides. Confusion struck him. Where could she be? “We’ve got to find her, now."
Cassiel tossed a few almonds in his mouth and stood up as well. “Can’t you feel her thread? I thought you were connected and all with that Trinity thing, you have going on. What gives?”
“Yeah, well she shut me out. That’s what gives,” Michael snapped. “Her powers are growing.”
“Oh that’s not good, brother. Agremon’s gone, Hannah’s gone, and now Emma’s gone. You don’t think, I mean, could she be that stupid? Do you think she went after them?”
“She’s not stupid, Cass! She’s a mother
who’s desperate to save her child. Wouldn’t you try something, anything to get her back?” Michael’s appeal fell like a lead ball. “All right, so she’s stupid and desperate. God willing, she isn’t fool enough to get herself killed.”
Kemuel stepped up to Michael, putting a hand on his shoulder. “All right, everyone, we’re moving out. We know at least where Hannah is, up on that mesa north of the big peak. Who knows, Emma could be with her. Warriors, call up the troops. Have them ready for combat. Let’s go!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
From what Emma could see from her vantage point, Agremon had tied Hannah’s hands behind her back. When she shifted a bit to get a better look, she found that Agremon had also attached a collar around her neck and a leash attached to that. He was pulling her like a dog towards the stone slab altar. She couldn’t stop her impulses to run to her daughter, but Namirha’s strong hold settled her back in her spot, silently conveying he had it all under control.
“Well, well, well, what have we here? You’re starting the party without me?��� Namirha quickly waved his hand to secure Agremon to the very spot where he stood. For all his efforts, Agremon could not pick up his feet, and his arms were sealed to his sides. “Don’t you know how rude that is? In fact this party’s not supposed to happen until Thursday, isn’t that right, Hannah? Your birthday is on Thursday. You must have gotten your dates wrong, Agremon. Tell me you got the dates wrong, and I shall not punish you too severely.”
Agremon roared and shook with rage. “Father, I’m so glad you’re here!” Hannah cried out. “I knew you wouldn’t let him hurt me, I just knew you wouldn’t!” She ran to Namirha, leash dragging on the ground but stopped short.
