Fire Summoning (The Sentinels Book 2)

by David J Normoyle

  Katie hissed at me, then turned and fled. Though she ran toward the door that led to the solitary cells, I doubted she was returning to her cell. I didn’t want to chase her, I didn’t have the energy, but I couldn’t let her roam the corridors of the orphanage unchecked. I started forward.

  Katie skidded to a stop just inside the doorway, took a step back, then rose in the air, shuddering. I paused mid-step, unable to figure out what was happening. Then Sash appeared, her double bladed staff in hand, and I was able to see that one end of the staff was embedded in Katie.

  Sash jerked the staff, lifting Katie higher off the ground. Katie’s hands clawed forward, and mewling sounds trickled from her mouth. Blood flowed down the length of Sash’s staff and dripped to the ground.

  Sash wrenched her staff back from Katie’s body, and the girl crumpled to the floor.

  “What have you done?” Florence dropped the plasma cutter and ran across, kneeling at Katie’s body.

  “You killed her,” I said, surprised.

  Sash looked beyond me at the bodies of Jonesy and Zara. “I’m not the only one to have killed a shade today.”

  I let my fireswords disappear. “Yes, but—”

  “She was just a girl.” Florence stood, her hand red with the girl’s blood, and confronted Sash. “And you murdered her.”

  “I had no choice,” Sash said. “She was dangerous.”

  Sash still hadn’t let her staff disappear, I noticed. I ran over to put myself between Florence and Sash.

  “Is there a fire extinguisher anywhere in the orphanage?” I asked Florence. Several of the wooden crates still spat flames and smoke coiled below the ceiling.

  “Are you okay with this?” Florence gestured at Katie’s body.

  “It’s true she was out of control.” I hadn’t figured out what I thought about what Sash had done. Heff liked to stand up for shades, but even he didn’t think anything could be done about Katie. And Alex was in a bad way after being locked in a room with her. If Katie had escaped, would she have killed others?

  “It wasn’t the girl’s fault.” Florence scowled at Sash. “I never should have allowed them to be locked up in those cells. They are just children.”

  Jo ran across to Alex. I turned to watch as Jo reached up to touch Alex’s arm, then let her hand fall when Alex flinched away. She knelt down at his side and whispered in his ear.

  Florence held out her arm toward me. “Your jacket, give it to me.”

  “My...”

  “Come on, hurry up.”

  My jacket was close to falling apart in my hands as I took it off. If the fall off the bridge hadn’t finished it off, then the close attentions of the plasma cutter certainly had.

  Florence took the jacket from me. “I’ll help Jo take Alex out of here, then get your fire extinguisher.” She scowled at Sash. “Make sure she doesn’t killed anyone while I’m gone.”

  Florence joined Jo at Alex’s side and between the two of them, they persuaded him to stand. Florence draped my jacket over Alex’s shoulders, and they guided him out. Alex kept his gaze downward and walked with a slow lurch.

  Sash nodded at the bodies of Zara and Jonesy. “You didn’t use your magic even when attacked by several shades together.”

  “Being locked in a titanium cage helped me to resist the worse of it.” I held up my hands to show my scarred and blistered palms. “Otherwise, you might be here to kill me right now.”

  Sash made a face at the blisters. “Nasty.”

  “I wouldn’t have been able to grip real swords.” I curled my fingers and summoned the fireswords and let them disappear again. “Ironic that my burned hands can hold fire better than anything else.”

  “You’re pretty tough,” Sash said. “You’d have gripped real swords if necessary, I’m sure.”

  “Perhaps.” I lifted my T-shirt and examined the gash on my side. A red raised scar looked ugly but I didn’t feel any pain. “The good thing about burning metal is it sears the wound closed.” I let my T-shirt fall back into place. “At least all this is over for now.”

  Sash moved to stand over the bodies of Jonesy and Zara. “It’s over? Have you figured out who the rogue sentinel is?”

  It’s not over. This definitely isn’t over, Jerome thought.

  I ignored Jerome. “It’s not a sentinel at all. Jo figured it out. Ever heard of a fire summoning crystal?”

  She shook her head. “What is that?”

  “It creates a rift that allows fire elementals to cross over from Brimstone. No sentinel required. Wells found it in South America.”

  “Do you have it?” Sash asked.

  Nothing bothering you at all, Jerome asked. Absolutely sure it’s over?

  What do you want me to say, I asked Jerome. Are you working on a punchline of some joke?

  No joke. But don’t mind me. What do I know?

  I didn’t want to listen to him, but Jerome was right. Something was niggling in the back of my mind.

  I held out the yellow crystal in my hand, showing it to Sash. “It doesn’t look like much now, but I’ve seen it in action. In the wrong hands, this is worse than a rogue sentinel. At least a sentinel has to fear the elementals will possess him.”

  “Hand it over,” Sash said.

  Suddenly my mouth felt dry. My fingers closed around the crystal. “What do you want with it?”

  “I have to give it to the order. Walker will want to see it.”

  “What will he do with it?”

  “He’ll want to study it, then most likely destroy it.”

  “I think it’s best to destroy it now. Let me take care of it.”

  “You don’t get to make decisions like that.” Sash’s voice contained a grit that I hadn’t heard before, even when she was promising to kill me. Her staff was still in her hands; she hadn’t made it disappear.

  I took a step back. It wasn’t just Sash’s voice that seemed different, it was her whole demeanor. She had never exactly been cheery or jolly, but I had never sensed this level of menace from her. Then I realized exactly what had been niggling at the back of my mind.

  Beelzebub. Jerome hadn’t been joking. It wasn’t over.

  Chapter 27

  Thursday 19:45

  “I’m not kidding around, Rune,” Sash said. “Hand it over.”

  I put the crystal in my pocket. “I was shocked when you killed Katie,” I said. My voice was conversational, but blood pounded in my ears. “You know why?”

  For every step back I took, Sash took one forward. “Because you think everyone is as weak as you are?”

  “I thought mercy stayed your hand when you didn’t finish Heff when you had the chance. But you showed no mercy for Katie.” I remembered something that I had forgotten in all the chaos. The scream just after Heff had fled. “And Katie isn’t the only person you killed today, is it?”

  “I ran into Wells in the corridors back there,” Sash said.

  “And you knew what he had done because...” Suddenly everything became clear. She had been working with Heff all along. It was she who had told him about the prison, let him know about the truck. I replayed events in my mind, everything taking on a different aspect. When I had shouted out a warning to her on top of the truck, Heff had been about to join her, not attack her. And she had been inside the back of the truck at the end because she had been checking for the titanium. “What was that about in front of City Hall when you stopped Heff from killing the mayor?” I asked. “Just a publicity stunt?”

  Sash nodded. “Pretty much. Heff wanted to get more attention for his society, not allow the politicians and media to be the only side presented. And if Heff actually killed the mayor, it would have brought too much attention down on us. The last thing we needed was Walker himself coming here.”

  And Sash must have told Heff that Alex had outsmarted them, leading to Heff capturing Alex here in Gorlam’s. “I see,” I said, wishing I didn’t.

  Sash struck out at me, her staff flashing. A swift step back took
me out of her range. I had been ready for the attack, but still it hurt more than I expected. “You intend to kill me?”

  “If you give me the crystal, it mightn’t come to that.”

  “Did you feel nothing for me?”

  “You are cute, I can’t deny that. And your ham-handed way of showing affection was endearing in a puppy dog way. I like you. But I didn’t lose sight of what was important. You can’t pretend I didn’t warn you.”

  “I thought you were joking, that you’d never harm me once we got to know each other.”

  “I can’t be blamed for your willful blindness.” Her staff whistled through the air, swinging for my torso. This time I summoned my left firesword, blocking it. With a flick of her wrists, she rotated the staff, bringing the other side crashing down toward my head. I summoned the right firesword and crossed them over my forehead, blocking her strike.

  “I was falling in love with you,” I said.

  “No, you weren’t. You simply lusted after me. What do you really know about me? Nothing. You saw something you liked and filled in the blanks to turn your impression of who I was into something palatable to you, ignoring anything that warned you I wasn’t who you wanted me to me.”

  Was that true? I shoved outward with my crossed swords, forcing Sash away from me, then stepped backward, giving myself breathing room. “What about the sentinel order?” I asked her. “What about Walker?”

  Sash’s lips curled upward, but it wasn’t a smile. “Walker is a vile monster.”

  A whisper of hope flared within me. Maybe we were on the same side. “That’s why you asked me what I thought of Walker and the order,” I said. “You wanted to know if we could work together. Maybe we can. I don’t want to be your enemy.”

  “Then don’t. Give me the crystal and we can go our separate ways.”

  I made my fireswords disappear. “Let’s put the weapons away and talk.”

  She swept her staff low and long at my legs. I somersaulted backward, landing on a crate. She charged after me, swiping at me from the left and the right, using the full length of her staff. I leaped away, jumping over the burning crate, onto a larger group of crates.

  Sash followed, then stuck the point of her staff into one of the crates, using it to vault over my head. I ducked low, then watched her land on one of the rafters. The smoke had thickened enough that I could only make out her outline as she walked along the top of one of the rafters.

  “I don’t understand.” I kept my gaze aimed upward, watching her flicker in and out of view through the smoke. “Yarley and Heff wanted me to switch allegiance. And you must know how desperately I want to be on your side. Why don’t you talk to me? Persuade me. Make me understand why I should help Heff and you rather than Walker. Please!”

  “You could give the crystal to me at any time,” Sash said from the rafters. “But you aren’t going to, are you?”

  “I can’t let Heff have it.” I had seen Jo be possessed, had seen the effects of the elementals on Katie, Dennis, and Ally. And I had been within moments of seeing the crystal allow Heff to summon an elemental that would have possessed Alex.

  “Hence you can’t let me have it,” Sash said. “While you have been falling in love with a mirage of your own creation, I have looked into your heart, Rune Russell, and learned what you are like. And you are too soft-hearted to do what needs to be done.”

  “You said I was tough,” I objected.

  “Tough and hard are too completely separate things.” Smoke began to swirl around Sash. A shape emerged out of the whirlwind and dived down toward me—a smoke monster with a head like that of a dragon and no body.

  I sprung away from it, grabbed the edge of one crate and let myself fall to the ground. I landed on my feet in a narrow row between two stacks of crates. I sensed the rift through to Brimstone that Sash’s use of magic had created. “I thought you said it was dangerous for any sentinel to use their magic!” I shouted, my voice echoing slightly.

  “Rogues can afford risk when necessary.” Sash’s voice seemed to come from far away.

  The rift she created was small and contained, nothing like the time in Yarley’s bar when I had used magic. Perhaps she was able to control her magic enough that the danger was minimal. “Ironic that I went looking for a rogue sentinel where there was none, with a rogue by my side the whole time. What will Walker say?” I walked deeper into the row between two crates, rapidly twisting my head one way then the others, trying to look in all directions at once.

  “Maybe Walker won’t find out, depending on how this goes,” Sash said.

  I no longer wondered if she was joking when she talked of killing me. “You called him vile earlier. What do you have against him?”

  “You know how bones were poking out of me when I fell from the bridge and you didn’t understand how I managed so well?”

  “Yes.”

  “That was nothing compared to being in Walker’s presence and not letting him know how much I hated him.”

  “Why?”

  “I told you I was in love once. Lowell was a tiger shifter who didn’t care about shades and sentinels. Yarley tried to persuade Lowell that shades banding together was the only way they’d be safe, but Lowell just wanted to be left peace to live his life, to love and be loved. Turned out Yarley was right because Walker found Lowell and had him executed. When Walker discovered I was a sentinel, he thought he had rescued me.” She snorted. “I let him think that.”

  She suddenly jumped down toward my head, her staff out in front of her. I went into a roll, then summoned my fireswords, holding them out in front of me. She glanced over my head, and I half-turned. Enough to see the giant smoke head coming for me from behind.

  I dashed vertically upward, leaping from the crates on the left hand side to the right hand, and back. When I reached the top, I swiveled and struck out at the smoke head with my firesword. A section of the head separated, then faded away, but the rest of it kept coming. I backed away, swinging at it as fast as I could. I had to cut it into a dozen pieces before it finally stopped coming, and by then Sash was upon me herself, the staff whirling in her hands, the sharp blades whistling close and just missing as I dodged and blocked.

  I counterattacked, forcing her back, giving myself enough space to jump off the crates and back to the ground. I spotted a face in a doorway, and I dashed in that direction, wanting to tell Florence or whoever it was to stay away. The face disappeared before I had a chance to give a warning, but not before I recognized the person. It had been Doctor Kressan.

  “Are you going to keep fleeing me?” Sash stood on the highest crate looking down upon me.

  I felt a squeeze on my heart. “You are beautiful,” I told her because it was true.

  She gave a familiar head-shake. “Still the same old Rune. I ask again, are you just going to keep running from me?”

  “I’m not scared of you,” I said.

  Sash raised a fist and thin tendrils of smoke rose around me, clogging the air like fog.

  She’s right, Jerome thought at me. You have to stop running. You can’t hold back anymore.

  Beelzebub, I’m bloody holding back nothing. Sweat is pouring from my eyeballs.

  You haven’t tried to kill her.

  I’m... I couldn’t deny it. I can’t kill her. Could I?

  Remember, this is bigger than you and her. If Heff gets the crystal, you know he’ll use it. He may return to finish the job on Alex. No one will be safe from being turned into a shade. You have chosen your side, you need to back that up. Or die.

  Bring back jokey Jerome, I thought.

  Here’s a joke. You have a third choice other than killing Sash or dying.

  The smoke thickened around me. I waved my fireswords before me, using them for the light they provided.

  “After Lowell was murdered, I went looking for the man who had warned us what would happen,” Sash said. “But Yarley was dead before I got to him. Another shade killed by a sentinel.”

  “I had n
o choice,” I said.

  “It didn’t matter. I met Heff, and he introduced me to many other shades and others who will be part of the new revolution. A new world is coming. The days of the sentinels are over. It’s time for the shades.

  “You aren’t a shade though.”

  “We aren’t as regimented as Walker and the order. Uro welcomes sentinels and humans as allies.”

  “I keep hearing about this Uro, but I still don’t know who or what he is.”

  “The time will come when the whole world knows him. For now, only his true disciples need to know him.”

  “The true disciples will be rewarded, is that what he promised?” I asked. “You’ll take their place at their master’s right hand when he rules over a world of ash?” The smoke shifted and I swiveled in that direction, jumping forward to dispel the darkness with the fireswords.

  “We will build a better world,” she said.

  “Will you be able to live with yourself in this new world?” I shouted out. “When you need to deceive all those around you to create it. Hurt all those who would call you a friend.”

  The rift to Brimstone was widening, becoming ever more dangerous. Something cold and slimy touched my hip, and I looked down. A tendril of smoke had pulled the summoning crystal from my pocket. I cut through the tendril and the crystal bounced onto the ground.

  I charged blindly in the direction the tendril had come from, swinging before me. At first I cut through nothing but fog, then Sash’s outline materialized in the gloom, though I couldn’t see her clearly enough to make out her features. I attacked the shadow in the smoke, my fireswords moving so fast that the air in front of me became a solid blur of flame. Sash blocked and retreated, moving almost as fast.

  Almost.

  My left firesword cut downward and into the junction of shoulder and neck, carving through flesh. I stilled. The smoke disappeared, and it was no longer a shadowy outline standing in front of me. A look of surprise had frozen into Sash’s features. Blood spurted out from her neck.