by Donna Grant
Instead, she raced after Elle.
He lunged with his sword and slashed at the harpy’s arm. A thin line of blood appeared, but she continued after Elle, unthwarted.
“Fight me,” he bellowed to the retreating harpy.
“I’ll fight you.”
Roderick inhaled deeply before he spun around to confront the third harpy. “I wondered where you had been hiding.”
She smiled, her beautiful face clashing with the horror of her body. “My sisters were having fun. I was content to sit and watch. Until you came along. ‘Tis been awhile since a warrior has been worthy enough to challenge us.”
Roderick swung his flail around him. “Never let it be said I kept you waiting.”
She laughed just before she extended her wings and lunged at him. Luckily, Roderick anticipated her move and rolled to the right to avoid her. He came up on his feet and swung the flail at her. It bounced against her iron wings, clanging loudly.
He heard a scream behind him, thankful it wasn’t Elle, but her friend instead. His mind focused back on the battle as the harpy turned to him.
“Very good.” She eyed him thoroughly. “Mortal you are not.”
He smiled, ready for the fight. “I am not.”
“Ah, but even immortals can be killed.”
A cold chill raced down his spine. “Everything can be killed. Including you.”
She laughed, her black hair blowing in the wind. “Aye, even I can be killed. But do you know how?”
“Do not mock me, creature.”
“I have a name,” she screeched. “’Tis Kaleno.”
* * * *
Elle heard the flap of wings behind her and knew Roderick hadn’t gotten the harpy’s attention. She raced along the rooftop as fast as her legs would carry her, but it wasn’t fast enough.
A jerk on her hair brought her to a sudden, and painful, halt.
“Why run when you know you will die?” the harpy asked.
Elle turned and glared at the offensive creature. “Why stay when you know the Shields will kill you?”
The harpy laughed. “Too bad you are mortal. You would make an excellent A KIND OF MAGIC
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harpy.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Elle saw the dark-headed harpy and Roderick circling each other as they talked. She couldn’t imagine what they could be discussing, but she had problems of her own.
She had to somehow get away from this harpy without help from Roderick or Val, who was trying to get the other harpy to release Jennifer.
“Enough,” a voice boomed around them.
Ellen watched as Alex walked onto the roof, the necklace in hand.
“Alex, help me,” Jennifer pleaded.
But Elle knew he would offer Jennifer no aide. Elle briefly closed her eyes and silently cried at not realizing just what Alex had been.
When Elle opened her eyes, she saw the harpy holding Jennifer also had a hold of Val. The other harpy with Roderick still circled him.
“Ah, Elle,” Alex said as he moved toward her. “What are you doing with the Shields?”
“You know of them?”
He laughed, his once handsome face now ugly to her. “I know much more than you realize. Now answer me. What are you doing with them?”
Nothing on this earth could make her tell him just who she was. She continued to glare at him. “I’m a woman who is here to help a friend.”
Alex moved around her, and it was everything Elle could do to keep still. When he stood in front of her again, the harpy at his back, he leaned close to her. “You’re the one, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know, if Jennifer hadn’t taken the necklace from me, none of this would have happened. But, she saw it hidden in my drawer and thought to give it to you without asking me.”
Apprehension shivered down Elle’s body. She looked at Jennifer to see her friend’s face streaked with tears as she clawed at the hand that grasped her throat.
“It was quite by accident that Jennifer discovered just what the necklace was by eavesdropping on a conversation,” Alex continued. “I suppose this is when she thought to steal it from you.”
“Now that you have it back, there’s no need to kill her.”
Alex laughed and reached out to touch her face, but Elle jerked away from him.
“The harpies will kill everything in this city,” he said with a sneer.
“Then why haven’t they?”
“I haven’t told them to.”
“What’s keeping you?” She didn’t know what was wrong with her. It wasn’t like her to play devil’s advocate.
Alex moved closer to her and ran his hand down her arm. “Where is it?”
“What?” she asked. “You have the necklace.”
“Where’s the mark?” he asked, his voice growing louder.
Elle’s blood went cold. Every fiber of her being wanted to turn towards Roderick, but she knew to do that would give away just what she was.
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“I don’t have a mark.” She prayed he didn’t hear the break in her voice.
For several minutes he simply stared at Elle before he turned his back on her.
“Kill them.”
In a mere heartbeat, the harpies turned into vicious killing machines. Elle saw the fist coming at her face, but try as she might, she couldn’t duck it.
The blow sent her flying backwards. She scrambled to her feet and raced away from the harpy.
“Elle!”
She turned in time to see the harpy release Jennifer, and her friend fall to her death.
“No,” Elle cried as she rushed to the side of the building to see Jennifer already at the bottom. Dead.
“’Tis just you and me, little one,” the harpy said.
Elle turned to face her executioner, rage simmering just below the surface. “You might kill us, but more Shields will come for you.”
“We’re counting on it,” she said as her arms snaked out and took hold of her.
Elle fought, but it was useless. The harpies had the strength of Hercules, and she was just a mere mortal woman. Her eyes found Val who fought valiantly with his halberd. Roderick and the other harpy were locked in battle perilously close to the edge of the roof.
How she wanted to help them, and she realized the only way for that to happen was not to cry out and divert their attention.
She looked into the black eyes of the harpy. “You will be defeated.”
* * * *
Roderick saw Elle in the same position her friend had been in moments before, and he knew he had precious moments to rescue her.
He kicked out his legs and connected with Kaleno’s, sending her to the ground with a hard thud. Without a second glance at the harpy, he rushed toward Elle.
Just as he reached Elle, the harpy opened her wings which knocked him in the face. He stumbled backwards from the blow but was determined to get to Elle. As he started towards the harpy again, he heard something behind him. He turned to find Kaleno flying towards him and the only thing he could do was brace himself.
Her claws caught him in the chest and threw him over the side of the building.
* * * *
“Roderick,” Elle screamed as he fell. Tears blinded her as she kicked and punched the harpy that held her.
Through her tears, she saw the harpy that had thrown Roderick over the side of the building advance on Val and the harpy he battled.
“Look out, Val,” she screamed in a last ditch effort to save him. To her relief, Val turned and saw the second harpy in time.
“Time to die, little one,” the harpy said just before she released Elle.
The scream died in Elle’s throat as she began to fall.
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Chapter Fourteen
Roderick saw Elle f
alling towards him and reached out in time to grab hold of her arm. She came to a halt, jerking his already dislocated shoulder painfully.
“I’ve got you,” he said as she looked up at him.
“Don’t let go.”
She was hysterical, not that he could blame her. He’d had a moment of panic himself as he went over the side of the building, but training and instinct had taken over, which is how he had managed to grab hold of the ledge.
“Elle, listen close. I need you to climb up me and get a hold on the ledge.”
He knew she wanted to say nay, but she nodded through her tears and took hold of his leg with her other hand.
Just as he was about to release the arm he held so she could continue her climb, he heard it. The harpy’s scream.
He raised his gaze and saw the harpy coming at them.
“Hang on,” he warned just before the harpy slashed at Elle with her talons.
Elle screamed through the pain but managed to keep her grip on him despite the tugging the harpy had done.
“Climb,” Roderick yelled as she watched the harpy circle back around.
“Roderick,”
Val
hollered.
He looked up in time to see Val and Alex wrestling, the necklace about to fall from Alex’s hand. With one massive punch, Val knocked Alex’s head back, sending the vile man unconscious. Despite Val trying to reach the necklace, it fell from Alex’s hand to land about twenty feet above Roderick.
Roderick realized too late that if Val and Alex were fighting, that meant all three harpies were….
Elle’s hand was torn from his grasp as the harpies pulled at her. Knowing he had only one chance to save her, he let go and fell after her. As she flailed through the air, he lengthened himself and caught up with her.
“Think Stone Crest, England 1123,” he yelled in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her. “Hurry, Elle. Say it with me.”
Elle could barely think much less hear Roderick, but somehow his words got through. “Stone Crest, England 1123. Stone Crest, England 1123,” she repeated time and again.
Suddenly, the fading light of Houston was replaced by pitch black as the air began to swirl around her. Though they still fell, Roderick held onto her and she him.
A sound similar to a vacuum surrounded her just before she was jerked backward, and no matter how she tried to hold onto Roderick, he slipped out of her arms. She screamed out his name, praying he might somehow hear her. Her eyes strained to find some glimpse of him through the blackness when light suddenly surrounded her. It was A KIND OF MAGIC
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so blinding, Elle had no other choice but to close her eyes or go blind.
Abruptly the vacuum sound was gone, yet Elle still fell for a moment before she landed with a bone jarring thud, her breath rushing from her body.
For several minutes she didn’t move as she willed her lungs to take in air.
Finally, she was able to take a deep breath. Her head pounded fiercely, and her entire body felt as if she had been trampled. She opened her eyes only to find she couldn’t see anything, and she was freezing.
It was then she knew. She was in Hell.
She thought she had lived a decent life. No, she didn’t attend church every Sunday, but she did go. She abided by the Ten Commandments and was a very giving person.
Slowly she sat up and felt the rocks and snow beneath her. She used her hands to feel around her before she got up the nerve to try to stand. Her ears strained for any sounds of people or animals, but only silence filled the void.
When she got to her feet, she discovered her shoes gone and her feet becoming numb in the snow. It wasn’t until she tried to walk that she discovered she had sprained her ankle.
“I’m in a Hell that is freezing instead of hot, blind with a sprained ankle,” she mumbled to herself as her head continued to thump with an atrocious headache that put migraines to shame.
* * * *
Roderick came awake to the sounds of his name being shouted.
“Over here,” he croaked out. He tried to lift his arm only to remember too late that it was the same shoulder he had dislocated. He cursed and rolled onto his side, the snow crunching beneath footsteps that hurried toward him.
“Roderick,” Val said as he kneeled beside him. “Are you hurt?”
“Just my shoulder.”
“Gabriel can mend you,” he said as he helped Roderick to his feet.
“Where is Elle?” Roderick asked as he looked around the field, then to his friend.
“I don’t know. I found you first and just assumed she would be with you.”
“I tried to hold onto her, but she was jerked out of my arms. We need to find her.”
Val nodded, and they set off in search of her. But the longer it took them to find her, the more worried Roderick became.
“Maybe I should return to the castle and get the Shields.”
Roderick shook his head. “We don’t know how much time has elapsed, Val. For all we know, Hugh and the others are already gone.”
Val nodded and pointed to something moving in the shadows of the woods. “We might want to take a look there.”
Roderick followed him as they ran towards the trees. He nearly walked past her.
He wasn’t sure what stopped him and made him look to his left, but there Elle sat huddled against a tree with her head resting on her arms.
“Elle?”
She raised her head and blinked her eyes several times. “Roderick? Is that you?”
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He walked to her and knelt beside her and brushed the hair from her face. It was then he saw the nasty bruise on her face. “Are you all right?”
She shook her head. “I hurt all over, and my ankle is sprained. I thought I had gone blind, but I’m beginning to see a few things now.”
“It was the light. I didn’t have time to warn you to close your eyes.”
“At least I’m not dead,” she mumbled.
“I’ll go see who is at the castle,” Val said as he hurried away.
“Castle?” Elle repeated, her voice holding a note of panic.
Roderick took a deep breath as he sat beside her and pulled her into his arms to warm her, careful of her wound on her side from the harpies. “Do you remember what I said to you as we fell?”
“Vaguely,” she murmured as she settled against him. “Something about Stone Crest.”
“I sent us back in time, Elle. To the time I last was, where the other Shields were.”
She stilled, and he worried that this might be too much for her to take in. Then she exhaled loudly. “Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me.”
Despite their dire situation, he smiled.
“Shouldn’t we call Aimery?”
“Not unless we really need him. If Val discovers the Shields have already left Stone Crest, then aye, we will call him.”
“Like to do things yourself, huh?” she asked, her teeth chattering.
“You could say that.”
They rested as they waited for Val to return. Roderick leaned his head against the tall pine and tried his best to keep Elle warm. He didn’t want to think about how good it felt to hold Elle in his arms, or how eagerly she had melted against him when his arm had gone around her. He needed to think of only killing creatures and destroying blue stones so he could save Thales. Maybe then his family could allow him back home. But he couldn’t help but feel her soft breast press against his arm, nor could he ignore the blood now pooling in his rod.
A falcon whistled from the trees ahead of him, and Roderick raised his hand to let Val know all was fine. Val rose from the bushes and hurried to them.
“Hugh is bringing horses.”
Relief poured through Roderick. He had hoped Hugh and the others would still be here. “What creature do they hunt?”
“Look around you,” Val said. “Does it look like it did when
we first arrived here?”
Roderick looked around him. “It does look a little different. Why?”
“If you ask me, the creature is gone.”
“Then why is Hugh still here?”
“Maybe he wanted to stay,” Elle said as she straightened from Roderick’s chest.
Roderick and Val exchanged glances as the sound of horses approaching reached them. There wasn’t time for them to discuss it further as Hugh rode up with two horses.
