Mountain Echoes wp-8

by C. E. Murphy

  “If they pose no threat—”

  “Captain.”

  Montenegro actually shut up, sucked her cheeks in, then nodded. She was right, of course. If they posed no threat nothing bad should happen to them. There wasn’t a genocide in history that supported that theory, though, and the Cherokee had already been down that road. The people in this valley weren’t going down it again.

  “So if you don’t surrender, they’re likely to fight, Captain, and if a massacre breaks out, it’s going to be your name that goes down in infamy. That’s the first reason you should surrender.”

  “And the second?”

  “Is that if a massacre happens it’s going to be because some bad magic has peaked. I really can’t afford to babysit you while I go stop it, so I need you to surrender and be on your best behavior under Cherokee watch.”

  “Who’s going to make sure they’re on their best behavior?”

  “I am.”

  I just about jumped out of my skin and whipped around with pointed irritation. Sheriff Lester Lee came out of the woods with a sigh. “Sorry, Jo. I should’ve let you know I was here before. I followed Danny out.”

  Still irritated at being surprised, I snapped, “And you didn’t stop him from shooting at us?”

  “Some of us can’t see in the dark, Joanne. I didn’t know he was that close, much less shooting, until he fired. Everybody’s okay?”

  “Yeah, but that’s not the point!”

  “I think it is, Walker.”

  I made a face at Morrison, but he was probably right, so I let it go and turned back to Montenegro. “This is Cherokee town Sheriff Lester Lee. He’ll, er, accept your surrender and make sure you remain safe.”

  “Just one problem, Ms. Walker. How am I going to explain to my superiors how you took down a military helicopter?”

  “Oh.” I looked at the undamaged chopper, then at Danny. “You stopped to provide humanitarian aid?”

  “To the guy who was shooting at us?”

  “He wasn’t shootiasnary heling at you,” I said blandly. “He was deer hunting.”

  “At night?”

  “It’s all been a terrible mistake.” I kept the look of blank neutrality until Montenegro let go another one of her big laughs.

  “I guess it has been. Remind me again why the hell I surrendered?”

  “Because it was clear to you that no one here wanted to be involved in a firefight, but that they were in fear of their lives. In the name of peace between nations, you relinquished your arms and offered humanitarian aid. You’ll probably get a medal.”

  “I don’t want a medal. I want a flying purple car.” Montenegro lifted her voice a little. “Put down your weapons, men. We’re here for humanitarian purposes, not to call down trouble. Come on out unarmed.”

  I thought they were actually going to do it, until Aidan and about three dozen wights burst out of the ground below us.

  *

  I hadn’t felt them coming. I didn’t know if I should have felt them coming, but I hadn’t, and we all went flying as a result. Morrison, Dad, the chopper, half a dozen military guys, me, we all got flung into the air and came down in a rain harder than the bullets. The chopper crumpled when it landed, its scream of metal briefly drowning out the screams of the men it smashed.

  The wind knocked out of me and I saw stars. No, not stars, after all: I saw wights, white against the dark night. They soared and pounced, driving burning fingertips against the foreheads of trapped bodies. Three of Montenegro’s men were dead before the chopper stopped screaming. First casualties of the Second Indian Wars, I thought, and staggered to my feet.

  One of Montenegro’s men lifted his weapon and, with the same calm Morrison had shown a few days earlier, started methodically shooting wights. They went down easily with a bullet to the brain, but there were a lot of them and more kept popping free of the earth. I threw shields up left right and center, trying to keep the wights away from everybody on my side of the fight, and swore violently when one of the damned things laid both hands on a shield and sucked it into nothingness. Its cadaverous form filled out some, and power flooded from it toward Aidan, who soared thirty feet off the ground, spinning around in exultation.

  The military guy with the gun, being no fool, looked upward when I did and trained his weapon on the boy in the sky.

  I honestly didn’t know which of us hit the soldier first, me or Ada. She flung herself at him bodily and I punched a wall of air at him. He slammed back and forth like he’d been caught in a two-way tackle, and crashed to the ground. Ada sat on his chest, beating the hell out of him as she shrieked about keeping her son safe. I knew I should stop for her own sake if nothing else, but a wight burst out of the ground in front of me and I discovered once again how completely helpless I was against a thing that fed on my energy shields.

  Shields. God in Heaven, but I was dim sometimes. My magic sword was useless, but it wasn’t the only weapon in my repertoire. The wight reached for me with a sizzling fingertip, and I lopped it off with the edge of a small, round, sharpened shield.

  Copper, embedded with gold and purple. It was born of the Purple Heart medal Gary had won in the Korean War and had given to me as a protective amulet, and of the copper bracelet my father had given me when I was a teenager. It waeenall, rounsn’t magic like the sword. It hadn’t been forged by an elf king out of silver taken from his arm of living silver. It was a stronger and simpler magic than that: made of gifts from the heart and meant to protect a loved one.

  I grabbed one side and swung it, Captain America style. The razored edge sliced through the wight’s throat, and my second blow knocked its head off. I lifted the shield in both hands and brought it down, vivisecting the head, and turned away confident that being split in half was as effective as a bullet to the brain.

  The military guy had gotten the upper hand with Ada, but had a look of intense frustration as he held her off. He obviously didn’t want to hurt her, and her shrieks about Aidan being her son explained why she’d attacked him. On the other hand, Aidan was clearly a source of trouble, and military training said to take down the troublemakers. If it weren’t for the fear of leaving Ada totally vulnerable to attack, I might have tried knocking her out with magic just to remove her captor’s quandary. On the other hand, that would probably leave Aidan open to attack, too, which also was an undesirable scenario.

  The whole forest was alight with undesirable scenarios, really. Morrison, Sara and Les were back-to-back-to-back, shooting wights from a three-point defensive position. The surviving military guys were, too, all of them concentrating on the ground game instead of looking skyward. Dad appeared to be scrambling around dead people in a panic.

  Captain Montenegro was one of them.

  *

  I stared uncomprehendingly at her body for a few seconds. I’d just met her. She’d been so alive and so smart, so glad to embrace the world opening up in front of her, and it had killed her within minutes. There was a scar on her forehead, an ash mark left by one of the wights. She had to be burned before dawn, or she would rise as one of them.

  Right then I hated magic. Hated it straight to the bottom of my soul, with a blind rage that went beyond comprehension. Right then I wanted to wipe all the magic out of the world, just so shit like this didn’t happen. I had gotten so many people killed. Marie d’Acanto. Colin Johannsen. Caroline Holliday. My mother. Captain Sandra Montenegro. And nothing I did seemed to stop it, no matter how hard I tried. People kept dying, dying because magic interfered with their lives. Because I had interfered with their lives. And I was supposed to be the good guy.

  Calm locked into the depths of my fury and said, You could do it, you know. You could take the magic away. The Sight flared up, stronger than usual, and highlighted the animistic power in everything. The purpose in existence, the continuation from then to now, the strength of magic that flowed through everything. It was a vast continuous net running through the whole world, and I was good with nets. My hands clawed,
gathering up those threads, ready to yank them all out and twist them dry. Power roared into me, reigniting the deep magic that I’d burned out with the flying car stunt. I wanted to finish it. I wanted people to stop dying. I wanted to stop being responsible. All I had to do was give one impossibly hard yank. I was faintly aware it would probably kill me, but at least everything else would be done too.

  Morrison glanced my way, his eyes still bright gold with the Sight I’d set on him earlier. He didn’t hesitate, just stepped away from Les and Sara, letting them close ranks as he left the firefight and came to me.

  The threads of life and light that nd epped awayI held ran through him, too. Tugged at him when I yanked on them, like I was pulling him toward me. His aura jounced when I did that, slipping a little free of his body. He stumbled, then straightened and kept coming. Even through rage and frustration, I didn’t like to see him stumble, so I didn’t pull again. Not yet, anyway.

  When he reached me, he put both hands against my face and whispered, “Let it go, Joanie. Let it go. This is Kolona Ayeliski, not you. This is Raven Mocker, trying to turn you like he’s doing to Aidan. I can See it, Walker. Listen to me, and let it go.”

  Then he kissed me, and my rage turned into tears.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  They didn’t last. We didn’t have time for them to last, but they were hot and fierce enough to make me let go of the terrible magic I was holding, to release the dangerous temptation I’d been about to give in to. The net faded, but the supercharge remained: I’d filled up again and had enough power to wield, though I had no idea how long it might last.

  The gold faded from Morrison’s eyes and he kissed me again, then put an arm around my shoulder and pressed his lips against my forehead. “I know it’s not all right, Walker. I know it’s not okay, but it’s the hand we’re dealt. Stop the wights. Save Aidan. Show Montenegro’s spirit that you were worth fighting for.”

  “The tribe is coming.” I sounded wrung out. “I felt them in the magic. They’ve left the caves and they’re on the way here. They’re going to end this. They’re going to start a war.”

  “We won’t let them.” Morrison, in turn, sounded confident, even though I had no clue how he could possibly stop an armed, magic-maddened mob of hundreds.

  Instead of asking, I said, “Okay,” because I didn’t have the heart to be told he didn’t know how to do it, either. I tried to pull myself together, looking beyond Morrison at the fight.

  It was all going to hell. Les and Sara had run out of bullets and picked up sticks, which at least let them keep the wights more than an arm’s length away. The military survivor had given up and presumably clobbered Ada, and was now standing over her limp form, shooting anything that came near them. Dad, bizarrely, was standing several yards away looking serene. I had no idea what his deal was, and didn’t care enough to find out. And Aidan, who had never hit the earth again after bursting out of it, was still hovering about forty feet above the ground, body arched in an exultation of power.

  The good news was there were only about a dozen wights left. The bad news was they were abandoning the fight and rising toward Aidan, spinning counterclockwise around him. I didn’t need the Sight to know that couldn’t be a good sign. The military guy sighted carefully and shot at one of them.

  The bullet spanged off it just like Danny’s had done off the helicopter. I Saw a hint of its trajectory as it was deflected into a tree, and watched a puff of splinters explode out as it hit. “Cease fire, soldier.”

  I felt very professional, or something, when he did, although his expression was highly dubious: Who was I to be giving orders, especially with his commander dead? I pointed at the drifting splinters. “That one bounced into a tree. If we’re unlucky, another one might hit one of us. Cease fire unless they attack us again.” I no longer sounded wrung out. I sounded preternaturally calm, which kind of worr theee. ied me. It did not, however, worry the military guy, who looked somewhat reassured and stopped shooting wights. If only I had somebody being calm and telling me what to do.

  But I didn’t, so I pulled it together and barked, “Dad, report!” Apparently having military people around gave me a brand-new vocabulary. Who knew?

  Dad said, “Just another minute, Joanne,” like we had all the time in the world. I motioned Morrison back into formation with Sara and Les, the three of them shifting to make a protective circle around Danny, who at least had the grace to shut up during all of this. I was amazed none of the wights had gotten him, but it seemed likely he was more use alive and pouring out hate and loathing that they could scoop up and refashion into power for the Executioner.

  Because it’d taken me a while, but I was finally cluing in: Aidan was by all intents and purposes missing, at this point. He had been since our little jaunt through time, and maybe since before that. The thing in the sky was shaped like Aidan, but it had very little in common with him except an ability to wield great power. Never mind the wights, the oncoming mob, the explanations to the CDC and the military: if we couldn’t reach that spark I’d gotten a heartbeat-long glimpse of, we were going to lose the boy. The rest of it mattered, but still somehow paled in comparison. “If I could just get my hands on him…”

  “Use a net.”

  Turned out I had a calm voice telling me what to do, after all. I shot Morrison a startled look and he lifted his eyebrows at me like “you would have thought of it eventually,” which was perhaps more credit than I deserved. I gathered power and flung it at the kid in the sky just as my Dad said, “Joanne, wait—!” a moment too late.

  Aidan spun, caught my net in both hands, and whomped me all over the forest with it.

  Trees splintered. Earth flew. I yowled. Power went schlucking out of me, my net exactly the right conduit to feed Aidan and his groupies even more magic. I let go of it, which had the effect of stopping the power flow, but also meant Aidan lost control of me as he swung me from one side of the gathering to the other. I was on an upward swing, too, and pinwheeled a genuinely astonishing distance across the sky before crashing violently into tree tops, branches, trunks and eventually roots.

  I lay there wheezing for a little while, afraid to even check and see if anything was broken. It shouldn’t be: I was still shielded on a personal, physical level, but being bashed all over a forest still hurt. Perhaps it was my magic’s way of keeping me humble. It wouldn’t let me get battered into bits, but it was happy to let me know, by way of pain receptors, just how much more damage it was sparing me from.

  Somewhere south of my feet, quite a considerable distance south, actually, a power circle sprang to life. That, no doubt, was what my father had been working on. That, no doubt, was what I should have waited on before trying to drag Aidan out of the sky. That, no doubt, would have been nice to know before I went all cowboy and got my ass handed to me. I sat up gingerly, whimpering as not-quite-broken bones settled back into place. Twigs poked me in impolite places and I brushed them away once I’d staggered to my feet. A deep breath and a cautious flex of magic washed the worst of the bruising away, but it refused to all fade. Teaching me a lesson, though I wasn’t sure what the lesson was. Maybe look before you leap, though I despaired of ever learning that one.

  Since I wasn’t e I wasngoing to learn it anyway, I broke into a clumsy lope and headed back for the gang. It took longer than I expected—Aidan had thrown me a long way—and when I got there, I decided the positive way to look at things was to focus on the fact that Dad’s power circle was holding the wights and Aidan in place, not letting them spread beyond a relatively small circumference in the forest.

  The negative viewpoint was that the entire top of the power circle had become a whirling black vortex that looked like a portal to another world.

  *

  Aidan was chanting. I couldn’t hear the words clearly enough to even assign a language, but it didn’t really matter. Where chanting and vortexes—vortecii? vortices?—vortexes, I decided firmly. Where chanting and vortexes occur together,
bad things happen. I nudged the power circle, asking to be let in, though I wasn’t certain I wouldn’t be better off on the outside. Dad gave me a wild-eyed look that suggested he was in over his head, and I decided he was better off with me inside, even if I wasn’t. I slipped through, and Aidan’s shouting became clearer.

  He was calling out in Cherokee, telling the story of the great things he and the wights had done, and inviting Raven Mocker to come enjoy the spoils of war. Not just inviting him, but laying down a path built on the pain and souls of the dead for him to enter on. The vortex strained at the edges of Dad’s power circle, and Dad gave me another frantic look.

  I tried very hard not to look frantic back at him. I’d dealt with a portal-opening coven once. In fact, to my eternal embarrassment, I’d helped them open it. None of us, however, had been flying through the air at the time, and none of us, not even me, had been fighting at Aidan’s weight. A net was obviously not the way to take him down. The military guy with the gun had it trained on Aidan, but was looking at me, and clearly didn’t expect to be told to shoot. Even if I’d told him to, bullets were not going to make a difference at this particular stage of the fight. The only thing—the only thing—I could think to do was cut off their power somehow, and so far I was batting a thousand at not managing to do that. Trying to do so with magic only fed them more. Trying to do so without magic still gave them ordinary human lives to feed on. I muttered, “C’mon, Jo. C’mon. Be clever,” as I stared up at the whirling black pit of power.

  Experience suggested that throwing a willing—and innocent, but I was going to overlook that requirement for the moment—soul into chasms of doom was one way to destroy them. Experience did not, however, suggest what to do if the chasm of doom in question was sixty feet overhead instead of conveniently at ground level. I could maybe just barely defy the laws of physics a second time in a day and throw myself skyward, but the thought had no conviction, and without conviction it wouldn’t work. Dad shouted my name, but I waved him off, still staring upward.