Another group of four clustered patiently on the other side of the passage: Oak, Ivy, and the twins Steel and Flint. They were new to Horngate. Alexander and Max had helped save them from a trio of ice witches—or something like that. The witches had been beyond deadly and had almost entirely destroyed a covenstead—sterilizing it so that nothing could ever live there again. The witches Judith and Gregory had come from there, as had these four Blades and three Sunspears.
Their coven had been peaceful, which meant that they knew precious little about fighting. Since their arrival, Alexander, Thor, Tyler, and Niko had been drilling them steadily. The fact that they’d already been through hell meant that none of them broke easily. Alexander trusted them.
That left Tyler and Thor. Tyler was pacing up and down, pinwheeling his knives in each hand. Thor slouched with one shoulder against the door, one booted foot crossed over the other, his battered straw cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes. His stance did not fool Alexander. He was tense, ready, and deadly as a panther.
There were only a few more minutes before the sun vanished and they could go outside. Alexander cleared his throat loudly to get their attention. They all turned to face him. Thor pushed his hat back with one finger.
“First, for those of you who have not yet heard, Max was here for a short time today. She left to continue her business with Scooter, but she is not dead. She plans to return to us shortly.” There were looks of shock and relief. Max anchored them all in profound ways. “I would really like her to have a home to come back to. The odds are against us; I will not lie. But we do have a plan, and it is just possible that it could work.
“Your job is to protect the witches and, most of all, Giselle. We are going to be the front line between the Fury and the coven. Hopefully she will be stopped before she comes through us, but if not, then we fight so that she uses up her energy. We will try to weaken her so that when she gets to the witches, they have a chance to stop her. Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Oak said. “Do we get hazard pay?”
“Only you if you don’t die,” Tyler said. “And I’m thinking of killing you myself.”
“Aw, now you’ve hurt my feelings,” Oak said with a puppy-dog expression.
“I’ll hurt more than that,” Tyler said. “But don’t worry. If you die, we’ll throw you a grand funeral with lots of whiskey and a couple of strippers. We’ll hardly miss you.”
The group of Blades chuckled, and it broke the tension.
The sun slipped down to the point where the Blades could be safely outside. The feeling rippled through Alexander. “Get going,” he said. “Niko, make sure everyone is set up. Tyler and Thor, let’s go get Alton.”
Lise, Tutresiel, and Xaphan were waiting outside Alton’s prison when the three Blades arrived.
“Keep him wrapped in the witch chain,” Alexander warned as Lise opened the cell.
Alexander broke the containment circle with the knife Giselle had given him for that purpose. Magic roared up in a sheet of fire and then curled away to nothing. Within, Alton lay on the floor, watching his captors with cold golden eyes. He reminded Alexander of a cobra.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“It isn’t so much what we want,” Lise said. “It’s what Cora wants. You remember her. Your daughter? A pretty little girl, only fourteen years old? Her hair was the color of honey. She was smart and funny and brave, and you killed her so you could have more power. Well, guess what? She’s back, and she wants to see you. Personally, I can’t fucking wait for the reunion.”
The Sunspear yanked Alton to his feet. He spat at her, and she slapped the side of his head. Alton fell to the ground like a tree and lay gasping. “You bitch. I will make you pay for that.”
Lise jerked him up again, holding him by his collar. “Bring it on, you dickless wonder.”
She dragged him out of the cell and passed him to Thor and Niko, who gripped him under the arms. Xaphan and Tutresiel took up positions behind. Tutresiel’s sword gleamed like a small star.
“Did you eat?” Alexander asked Lise, falling in beside her as they led the way back to the main entrance. Beyul nosed between them.
She nodded. “Magpie sent me enough to feed the entire coven for a week,” she said.
“Good. You are going to need all your strength to try to talk Cora down.”
She stopped and stared. “I’m going to what?”
He motioned her to keep going and explained their plan to her. “We want you to be the one to try to reach her, since you knew her pretty well. You will be in a circle just outside of the one containing Alton. That alone will be dangerous, since the power she expends could burn right through it and you both. But if it does not, then you will try to remind her of who she was and who we are. Help her find herself. She will be insane with rage and betrayal, with the change and with all the voices she will be hearing. Not just voices—she will feel their pain, too. She will need to stop it; it is her nature. But we hope you can get her to see us and to control her destruction.”
“Oh, goody, a suicide mission.” Lise scraped her fingers through her burnished hair, her brow pinched as she thought. “What if she doesn’t listen to me? What if I can’t do it?”
“Then she tries to break out of the next circles, and the rest of us try to weaken her enough to keep the damage to Horngate at a minimum.”
“This is a crappy plan,” she pointed out.
“Yes, it is,” Alexander agreed. “But it is the best one we could come up with. Feel free to suggest improvements.”
“Don’t die?”
“I will take it under advisement. Feel free not to die yourself.” He glanced over his shoulder. “That goes for the rest of you, too. Except, of course, for the child killer. He can die painfully.”
The angels flew Alton and Lise to the ravine where everyone waited. The three Blades made their way on foot.
When they got there, they stopped on the ridge. The Memory still perched on her stone vantage point, the pack of Beyul’s enormous black cousins wandering through the gathered witches and Spears, snuffling and nosing. They crossed the spell circles as if the spells were not there.
In the center of it all was Alton’s original circle containing the rising Fury. Thick black smoke boiled inside, and the air sizzled with magic. Alexander’s hair prickled over his body, and his Prime surged. His new ghostly vision strengthened suddenly, and the world changed into an odd combination of hard reality and shimmering spirit.
The Memory was like a sliver of jade, and it hurt to look at her. Like Beyul, the other Grims evoked an ancient flow of water. Giselle’s green and Holt’s tiger-eye brown glittered with power. Valery was a shifting palette of green and black. He had not noticed that before. Mostly, he remembered her smell: ancient, solid, and free. Even now, the smell teased from the skein of the others and hooked into his heart.
She and Holt were off to the side, working together. Neither looked damaged, so their day had gone politely, at least. Alexander hoped it had also gone productively.
They had built a reinforcing circle around Alton’s original and another one made of salt, herbs, crushed stones, and metals surrounded that one, with about ten feet in between. That’s where Alton would go. The next circle was made of the same materials. Lise would go there, along with the angels. The last circle was actually three layers. The inner one was pure sulfur. Written in the yellow powder was a chain of hex marks. Next was a complex mix of nettle, knot grass, nightshade, thistle, wolfsbane, myrrh, cedar shavings, and wormwood.
Behind it was a wall of metal. It was made of train rails, bits of barbed wire, car and truck doors and hoods, and whatever spare bits of metal anybody could collect, from tools to tire rims, a watering trough, horseshoes, some rusted chains, and some fenceposts that looked like they’d been newly pulled out of the ground. Fairy creatures hated cold iron, and steel was made of mostly iron. Over the centuries since humanity had spread across the earth, their sensitivity had gone down, but it
still hurt them. Whether it would hurt a Fury or not was debatable. But it was worth a try.
The Sunspears and Shadowblades had gathered behind that line, with the witches behind them. If the Fury broke through, the Spears and Blades would do everything in their power to slow her down and give the witches a chance to deploy a defense. Alexander was hoping it would not come to that. Holt and Valery would be among them, which boosted the witches’ power considerably. But even if that was enough, a lot of people were going to die.
He drew a breath and let it out before looking at Thor and Tyler. “Are you ready?”
“It’s a good day to die,” Tyler said, and then smiled at Alexander’s scowl. “Something Crazy Horse was supposed to have said.”
“Right before he died?” Thor asked.
Tyler shrugged. “He won a lot before that happened. Just like we will today.”
He reached out and shook Thor’s hand and then Alexander’s. “See you on the other side.” With that, he descended into the ravine.
Thor adjusted his hat and spat on the ground, then also shook Alexander’s hand. “Been a pleasure,” he said.
“It is not over yet.”
“This ain’t my first rodeo,” Thor said admonishingly. “Brother, the one thing we didn’t talk about was who is going to break that circle to release the Fury. Ain’t one of us who don’t know you’re fixin’ to do it, which puts you dead in the crosshairs. It’s a suicide mission.” His Texas drawl had broadened, revealing his tension more than anything else.
“I do not plan to die,” Alexander said, knowing his friend was right.
“Do any of us?” Thor asked with a rakish grin. He touched the brim of his hat in a two-fingered salute. “See you on the other side,” he said, and followed Tyler.
Alexander looked over the valley once more. There was nothing more to be done except to get on with it. He looked up at the night sky. The moon was down, and the stars sparkled, almost close enough to touch. For a fleeting moment, he thought of Max. He had not left her a note. If she came back for help, there was a good chance he was not going to be there to give it. His stomach twisted, and he looked away, his body going taut. He pushed away all thought of her and started down the hill. Time was wasting, and every second the Sunspears were exposed to the night, they weakened.
He went to Holt and Valery first. “How did it go?”
The mage was practically giddy with excitement. “It went perfectly. I don’t know if it’s strong enough to hold that much power, but if anything can, this is it.”
Valery nodded. She looked as happy as Holt did, but there was a shadow of sadness in her eyes. She was already looking toward the end of this mess, when she would leave him. This working together had been bittersweet.
Alexander reached out and squeezed her hand in silent sympathy. Holt scowled at their affection. “Come on. We’ve set it in place over here.”
It was much bigger than Alexander had anticipated. He had imagined something the size of a peach or even a grapefruit. The matte-black marble was the size of a small car. It sat on a ring of silver within the circle where Alton was but on the opposite side of the column of smoke.
“You are putting it inside with Alton?” Alexander asked doubtfully. “If he breaks his bindings, will he be able to tap into that magic?”
“It’s a risk,” Valery admitted. “But we’re betting that the Fury isn’t going to give him the chance. This way, we can drain away some of her power while she’s distracted with him. It will continue to draw as long as any binding circles remain in place. The longer it draws, the weaker she gets, and the better the chance of everyone staying alive.”
“What if she breaks it?”
Holt smiled. “That’s the beauty of it. It looks and feels like polished obsidian, but it’s not. It’s a spell matrix. The combination of our magics lets us create something extremely durable. As soon as the last circle breaks, it stops drawing, so it won’t sap power from any of our witches.”
“It won’t weaken the spell circles?”
“No. We took care of that.”
Alexander put his arm around Valery and pulled her tight. “You did well. Thank you.” He looked at the sour-faced Holt. “You, too.”
The mage kept his gaze locked on Valery. “Keep your thanks. I didn’t do it for you.”
Valery stiffened, looking back at Holt. “Don’t,” she said. “We got along for the day. Don’t ruin it.”
“Then don’t run away again. Dammit, as soon as this is over, you’ll be gone. Doesn’t today show you how good we are together?”
She pulled away from Alexander and crossed her arms. “Sure. We make great magic together. That was the whole point from the beginning, wasn’t it? You wanted someone who’d increase your power, and you didn’t care who it was.”
Holt went white. “I loved you. I still love you,” he said, the words like bullets.
“Maybe. As much as you know how to love. But I want more. I want a man who loves me more than anything else in this world or the next. And that isn’t you. I’m lucky if I come in a distant second after your ambition. At least I loved you enough to take those stupid tablets so you could stop trying to kill yourself with them. If I hadn’t, you’d be nothing more than a memory right now.”
Her words were equally furious as her hurt and anger poured out of her. Alexander ached for her. He even sympathized with Holt, who had a desperate look on his face that Alexander found all too familiar. It was the expression of a man who was about to lose the thing he held most precious in all the world, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
“You’re wrong,” Holt rasped. “I want those tablets back because they make you a target. I can’t protect you if you have them. Valery—I’m telling you the truth.”
She stepped back, her face shuttering. “Trouble is, your version of the truth isn’t always accurate. Most of the time, it isn’t even close. But that’s old news, and this is water under the bridge. Let’s get this done before the Fury breaks free.”
Holt stared, his jaw knotting. Then his head jerked in a nod. “We’re not done with this,” he said to her back as she turned away. “We’ll never be done.”
She stopped, then walked on.
Alexander went around to check on Alton. The witch had been staked out spread-eagle. The witch chain lay across his legs, but he was helpless to kick it away. He stared in terror at the column of smoke.
Alexander crouched beside him. “Do you believe your daughter has come back now?” he asked.
“You can’t do this to me. I can help you. I’m powerful. You should use me. I swear, I’ll be loyal. I’ll swear whatever you want. You can bind me however you want.”
“I don’t want a bastard like you,” Giselle said, coming up to stand beside Alexander. “Besides, Cora deserves a chance to talk to you about what you did to her. Don’t you think?”
She put a hand on Alexander’s shoulder and drew him away with her. “Is it true? Max was here?”
He nodded. She had been deep in meditation until near sundown, and he had not had a chance to tell her.
She pressed her palms over her eyes. A moment later, she dropped them. “What did she say?”
“I will tell you when this is over,” he said. “We should get on with it before the Fury breaks free.”
“Right.” She looked out over the ravine. “Take your places. We’ll start closing the circles in a moment.”
Alexander looked at her and then slid the sheath containing her silver knife from her belt.
She glared at him, trying to snatch it as he backed away. “What are you doing?”
“Taking up my position,” he said as he headed to the inner circle.
“No. That’s not your job,” she said.
“Somebody has to do it. Who else is there?”
She opened her mouth, then clamped it shut. There was no one else, and both of them knew it.
He could see that she was thinking of Max. He was, too. But it made no
difference. As soon as he had realized that someone had to go in and break the circle and that there would be no escape, he had known he had to do it.
“Maybe now you will believe that I am committed to this covenstead,” he said. “Just like Max and all the rest of the Spears and Blades. They serve because they want to, not out of compulsion. That is why Max will come back to you. You should remember that.”
She said nothing else as she closed the circle. Valery watched Alexander inside, eyes wide. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
His mouth twisted in a semblance of a smile. “Try to stay out of trouble. I love you.”
She started forward, and Holt grabbed her. “Let me go,” she hissed, struggling violently. “Alexander, get out of there. No! You can’t do this!”
Alexander shook his head. “There is no one else.” He watched as her chest began to jerk with wrenching grief. Holt pulled her close, pressing his lips to her hair and murmuring. Alexander turned away, his own chest tight.
Giselle took a knife from Niko and sliced her hand, dribbling blood around the circle and chanting. When she returned to where she started, the circle flared white. The light was so dense that Alexander could not see through it.
He waited as the other circles were closed. A few feet away, Alton wept and begged for release. Alexander’s lip curled.
“Did your daughter beg when you cut into her?” he asked softly. “Stop your sniveling. You made the poison, now you can eat it.”
“She wanted it,” Alton argued. “She said she wanted to do whatever I needed. She said she was proud to help me!”
Shadow City Page 22
