The intent was the most important part of any spell.
“Are you almost done?” Victoria called out impatiently.
If the spell exploded on them, Elizabeth was going to duct tape Victoria’s mouth shut next time.
She could see the type of teacher Victoria would be for their magic instruction. She’d hand them enough rope to hang themselves with and then give it a little yank, just before they got a noose around their necks.
Victoria would be merciless, and she would not be providing the manual to Magic for Idiots, expecting them to earn their knowledge the hard way.
The spell dimmed as it was absorbed into the portal, the chalk turning a grey that blended in with the dusty floor, but Elizabeth knew it was active.
Her chi tugged in her chest as the others approached and, better yet, she felt their magic signatures as they crossed into the portal’s boundary.
She didn’t need to use her lightning. It was the spell doing exactly as Kim promised.
“Done,” Elizabeth said, standing up with a groan. Her back felt ancient.
She dusted off her dress, stepping in front of the glyphs and hiding them under its frilly cover.
“It’s old, but still functioning just fine. We’ll need to travel through it to see if there is a problem during the trip.”
“You’re sure it’s working?” Victor asked.
“Absolutely.”
She had no idea. She hoped to hell it did because she didn’t know how to get out of inter-dimensional space if they got stuck.
“I know something about portal dynamics. If you want, I could check it over,” Victoria offered.
Of course, Victoria was an astrophysics expert.
Elizabeth hoped her chalk scribbles were illegible, now that the spell had been cast.
Abusing Victoria’s sense of responsibility, she said, “Sure. Although, I’m not sure how long that will take, and we’re supposed to meet my mother for a late lunch.”
“If you say it’s okay, then it must be,” Victoria said. “You’re the expert.”
It was a good thing Elizabeth was already in hell because a liar like her was doomed to end up here.
“Since we don’t know what is causing the portal problems and this side seems okay, it would be safest to travel shielded,” Elizabeth suggested.
There was no way her sister was going into a strange portal without the blue wrapped around her.
She felt protective of Victor and Victoria as well, tempted to tell them more of the truth.
Jill cleared her throat and Elizabeth fought the impulse.
It burned more magic to enter shielded, the portal sucking off anything not kept tucked into chi, even during the briefest transports, but it would ensure they would be ready for any surprises.
A portal transport let simple weapons be transferred as well, which made the price worth it.
Victor and Jill shielded blue and Victoria green without complaint.
A gust of wind sent the shields of all the others flickering as Elizabeth set her own air-shield and touched the portal’s outer layer.
Cold wrapped around her hand, in stark contrast to the hot air surrounding the portal.
Victor must have sensed her hesitation.
“Weapons drawn, witches,” he ordered.
All of them complied.
Letting the cold swallow her, Elizabeth took the first step she couldn’t take back.
The others followed, submerged into the dark pool of inter-dimensional magic, after her.
The blackness was infinite and absolute as space, with the only stars provided by the other portals connected to this one.
A real portal witch may be able to affect the inter-dimensional magic to change her destination or even to allow her to transport something more than basic possessions.
Elizabeth fought just to hold onto the magic in her chi as the portal greedily ripped her air shield.
The freefall drop as the portal opened made Elizabeth grateful that Victor had a protective streak a mile wide.
She halted her fall and then caught the others with her air as they each popped out of the portal, carved out of a sheer rock wall, a good forty feet high.
The burn on her magic from halting the four of them was familiar as it was dreaded.
She let them fall again, halt, fall a little more, halt.
They fell about a dozen feet at the end, when her magic ran out, but the descent was slowed enough she didn’t think anybody broke anything serious. She hoped nobody stabbed themselves on landing.
“Flower fairy, your flying needs some work.”
Victoria’s mouth was working just fine.
“Jill?”
“This is not the right door, Wicked.”
“I know, we should have picked number three. Seriously, though, are you okay?”
“I landed on top of Vic, kind of.”
Victor ordered Jill to put her shield up again, covering her with his blue fire until she complied.
Victoria had never dropped her green.
“We have a problem,” Elizabeth said. They had multiple problems, but she may as well state the most obvious one, first. “The portal back is not easily reachable.”
“We’re still in Maeren, I think,” Jill said.
The magic in the air was too heavy for the human dimension.
“That’s the second problem, Glinda.”
“Something is coming,” said Victor.
He shifted Jill on his lap, so his swords were accessible at his side. The daggers, he had floating beside him already.
“That’s another problem.”
“If we fix problem number one and go back through the portal, then the other problems won’t matter,” Victoria said.
She was already standing up, dusting off her clothes from the fall and their trip through the tunnel.
“Do you think you could deal with problem number one and find a way back up to the portal by yourselves?” Elizabeth asked.
She was using her lightning to hide problem number three, and that problem was getting ready to walk right through her illusion.
This also led to problem number four: how to hide her lightning when it was all she had left and they were under attack?
“Wicked, your eyes are glowing.”
“You’re the one with flying power, Liz. I kinda think we need you to solve problem one,” Victoria said.
“The far wall isn’t solid,” Elizabeth privately warned Jill.“I used illusion. There are at least half a dozen angry elementals trying to figure out where the door went suddenly, maybe more. Their minds are strange. Can you hold a magic circle if the twins help you draw it out?”
“Vampires? Witches?” Jill’s heartbeat sped up. “Demons?”
She didn’t want Jill to panic, once she heard what Elizabeth really suspected was on the other side of her illusion.
She looked away from Jill and answered Victoria instead.
“The rough landing was because I’m outta gas. Air isn’t going to get us back up there soon enough.”
She needed the others to agree to get into a protective circle with Jill and without her.
Lightning wouldn’t go through Jill’s blue, without destroying it. It meant Elizabeth had to stay outside of any protective circles.
They were so outnumbered, Elizabeth’s magic was the only reasonable offensive choice.
“What do you want me to do? Who are they? What are they? What direction? How many?” Definite signs of panic entered Jill’s thoughts as they raced one after another.
“You have your sword. They’re not quite like us, but also, definitely, not human. I am having trouble inserting the illusion. It’s like they have a sense I’m not accounting for and it’s given dissonance already.”
“Okay, I’ll get them in a circle, but you have to get in, too. I can shield all of us.”
“There isn’t time to argue. Crap, the illusion wall I am making is shimmering.”
“We could create
a water staircase,” Victor suggested, unaware they had a minute or less.
“Excellent idea,” Elizabeth replied. “How about Victoria draws a magic circle and Jill will set it to keep us safe, while you build the staircase.”
“Why a circle? The staircase will only take a minute,” Victoria said.
“Safe from what danger?” Victor asked, stepping in front of Jill.
He looked in the direction of the illusion wall Elizabeth was focused upon keeping up.
“Wicked, you have to tell them!”
“Now!” Elizabeth shouted, walking closer to the shimmering wall. “Jill set the circle without drawing it. Think of it as a large shield. Keep me out of it, so I can use my magic. You can explain everything to the twins.”
The illusion wall cracked. Smoke trickled through, thick and black, quickly followed by bright, hot flame, as the wall cracked further.
Well, there was no denying it now. Dragons were trying to burn her wall down.
She would think of them like demons with long, scaly tails.
“No,” Jill refused.
Her sister’s heart was racing to try to keep up with her thoughts but still, Jill wouldn’t run and hide, her mind made up to make a stand.
Her sister chose a really stupid time to get brave.
“Get in a circle,” Victor said, backing her up. Guess his eyes worked. “Victoria, get them out of here,” he ordered his twin, pulling his sword from its sheath.
Elizabeth didn’t respond, fighting vertiginous nausea as the wall wavered under the intense heat she was shielding. It made her illusion look like it was a mirage in the desert.
Chalk would make her lightning shield stronger, if she drew the boundary, but even the strongest circle couldn’t last forever under this dragon fire.
It would be like putting themselves in a pot to stew, if she let Victor lock her up in a circle. She needed the freedom to move and direct her attacks.
“My circle won’t be worth crap for more than a few minutes,” Victoria admitted, although she started drawing. “The spell, yesterday, burned a lot of power, and Liz destroyed my water barrier, so I couldn’t resorb it.”
That had been a mistake that came back to exact its price.
The wall was only going to last seconds more. Fire was eating at Elizabeth’s magic at an incredible rate. The elementals on the other side all had to be firing flame at her at once to bring her illusion down so quickly.
“It’s too late. Jill, we are discussing this with Mom later,” Elizabeth said, pulling out her trump card.
“Whatever,” said Jill, still not budging.
Oh, yes, they were siblings.
“Lock and load,” Elizabeth said, taking the lead as she faced the rapidly deteriorating wall.
They were outnumbered. Only time would tell if they were outclassed in magic as well.
Victor was on her right side with his sword and floating daggers.
Jill was just behind him and putting on her black armour, letting it coat the twin short swords that Victor had gotten her from the practice room.
Victoria had abandoned drawing the circle to stand in line, with a wicked grin and daggers to match, waiting to her left.
Dragon roars echoed against the real cavernous walls.
“I can circle you all,” Victor offered one last time. “It will go down as soon as I do, however, and then, you would be on your own.”
“No circles,” Elizabeth said. “We still want to retreat as soon as possible.”
Elizabeth connected all their minds.
“We haven’t exited back through the library yet, so I consider Victor under oath to keep what happens here secret. Victoria should try to build the staircase ASAP because there are at least six dragons on the other side of that fake wall.”
The last thought she sent privately to her sister.
“Jill, don’t be nice.”
The Power of a Quiet Mind
The illusion wall and Elizabeth’s lightning shield, which it hid, came down as the thoughts from the twins exploded.
She ignored them, dropping her mental connection, as per habit, and hit the first dragon through the wall with a bolt of lightning.
Brute force was good at making a statement.
The dragon minds may be difficult to grasp, but they reacted to lightning as expected. A green, scaled monster as big as a Mack truck hit the floor in convulsions, Elizabeth’s lightning dancing over its body.
The rest of the dragons halted when their eager friend got electrocuted.
Victoria gasped.
Victor softly cursed.
“Fog,” Elizabeth suggested to the twins.
Victoria obliged, while Victor prowled forward, not waiting for the dragons to regroup.
“These witches are under my protection,” he said, levelling his sword to point at the scariest looking one of the bunch.
Red eyes and a forked tongue made the big, black dragon appear demonic, but it was the cold way he stepped on his unconscious buddy that made Elizabeth want to take a step back.
His eyes reminded Elizabeth of their uncle, when the dragon looked at Jill and her powerful black armour.
It wanted to eat her strength and make the power its own.
Victor's body was swallowed up by green flames as the black dragon roared challenge to the only male in his way.
Elizabeth wanted to hit the black dragon with lightning, too. There were at least four more dragons, however, and each bolt sucked a lot of power.
Victor was blue-level. He had to be able to shield the dragon’s flames.
Jill ran straight at the fire-breathing dragon, screaming like she was possessed by a wild thing.
Green flames parted around her black armour as she fearlessly cut through the fire to get to Victor. It was as if her sister hadn’t had a moment of panic, a moment ago, charging in like a seasoned soldier.
Jill had the right idea. This wasn’t the time to wait for their turns.
This was a gang fight. They had to go all out, batshit crazy, if they wanted to account for their disadvantages.
None of them were complete novices at fighting.
She couldn’t waste her lightning until their numbers were better, but Elizabeth was used to fighting with minimal magic.
Slaying was speed and sleight of hand, half as much as it was brute force. Her magic was based on making the other guy believe what she wanted.
She didn’t need to rely on power to show these dragons her strength.
Grabbing her daggers by their special hilts, she stalked forward.
Jill’s body flew through the air, probably boosted from Victor as she dove, swords out, for their fire-breathing challenger.
Her sister landed on the top of its massive head and slid down the back of its neck, her swords pointed down to slice on either side of her. The swords sparked, as if grinding metal on rock.
Shielded? The dragon was wearing black armour like Jill’s own and he was still able to spit green fire at Victor!
Elizabeth let lightning trickle out of her hands to dance on her daggers. The electricity made her hair lift off her shoulders as she let the power slip out purposefully.
The dragons didn’t know how much her magic tank held, but they eyed her with trepidation after she’d fried their buddy.
Fear was as good a weapon as a stake, in the right spot.
A red dragon was the closest to her.
She grabbed his mind with ravenous anger, gobbling the conscious thoughts of ‘fight or flight’ and sinking her teeth into his subconscious.
He was the lowest rank of dragon facing them, weak and cowardly, needing to taste the blue witch’s blood, so hungry and starved by his dominant brothers, a vulture that would make do with the scraps.
He would respond to fear nicely.
She tied the illusion to her own body this time, trying to cement it in the red dragon’s mind, better than her wall had stood.
There had to be some sort of animal sense i
nterfering with her magic.
The image of the black dragon shimmered over Elizabeth’s body and then solidified as Red saw her coming.
His fearful belief that she was the black dragon made the illusion real to him.
Feeding his fear further, she thought in his mind of how angry the black dragon was at him for daring to look at his prey with presumptuous hunger, how he was going to turn that green fire onto Red’s vulnerable hide.
She increased the illusion of the fog already made by the twins to hide all the other combatants in the cave, including the real black dragon, narrowing Red’s focus to just the dominant, deadly threat challenging him.
Two of the remaining dragons made their way towards Victoria, dividing Elizabeth’s attention.
Victoria had thickened her mist until it enveloped her and the approaching dragons, water dripping from their shiny scales.
It was awfully stupid of them to face a water witch, covered in dew.
Focusing harder on her black dragon illusion, Elizabeth walked away from it, untying it from her chi as it felt strong enough on its own.
The illusion still prowled forward as she put thoughts of it snapping Red’s neck between its big teeth in the cowardly dragon’s head.
Jill got thrown off the real black dragon. She landed on her feet, impressive from the speed she’d been thrown and avoiding Black’s wing as he tried to take to the air.
Black flapped massive, leathery appendages that were a weapon on their own.
Victor had both of his swords out as well, although he held them much differently than Jill, one large and the other smaller.
He slashed down with the larger one to slice into bone and wing, halting Black’s escape.
More green flame met with his attack, hitting Jill, but she was still shielding.
Black was as tough as he looked, holding off the two of them like they were children wielding wooden practice swords and he was their master. The last hit he took to the wing was the only wound that mattered.
Elizabeth wondered how Victor got through the dragon’s shield, then she saw the red trailing from Victor's hand.
He’d used a blood spell to penetrate the black.
It was foolish and brilliant at the same time, and whichever it ended up being would depend on if they got out of this alive.
Every Witch Demon but Mine (Maeren Series Book 1) Page 39