by Sara DeHaven
Finally, Varga and Franchesca started heading towards the cars. Bree raised her binoculars again. The deep teal blue of Franchesca's gown was visible under the lights, and her hair was up in some kind of elaborate bun. She looked gorgeous, Bree thought sourly. Varga was dressed in a tux.
She turned her sights towards the conservatory, swept the binoculars back and forth along the sidewalk in front of where the cars were parked. There, finally, movement in the trees near the conservatory. Bree tried to pull her energy in even closer to her body, though she was pretty sure she'd retracted it as far as humanly possible. She'd waited until she thought Daniel would be done sweeping the park and was holed up in the thicker trees near the conservatory before sneaking up to her post. Thus far, it appeared he hadn't spotted her.
Daniel walked toward Varga and Franchesca, moving confidently, not hurrying. Bree scanned back toward Varga and Franchesca and spotted the moment Franchesca saw Daniel. Her back stiffened, and she raised her chin at a haughty angle. Marton looked at Franchesca, then followed her gaze to Daniel. Bree couldn't see any reaction at all from Varga. Both he and Franchesca were in profile, and it made it harder for her to read their expressions.
Daniel came up to them and started talking. Franchesca spoke first in response, but Daniel didn't look at her. His eyes were glued to Varga, who was shaking his head. Daniel spoke again, and pointed off behind him, in the direction of the spot Bree had guessed he would set the duel. Franchesca said something to Daniel again, and his glance flicked toward her, then back to Varga. He spoke again and Varga gave a little nod. All three of them headed towards the conservatory.
Bree waited, almost breathless with the tension that had spiked when she first spotted Daniel. She didn't want to lose sight of him and the others but had to take care to stay out of the range of Daniel's Reader sense. She hoped to follow slow enough to arrive after the duel started so Daniel's attention would be taken up with the duel, but not so late that she couldn't offer any help if needed.
She forced herself to wait for several minutes after they had disappeared under the trees, then moved to follow. Her worries multiplied until they became an incomprehensible blur of anguish. What if Daniel was already dead by the time she got to there? What if Daniel perceived her and she distracted him in some fatal fashion? What if the whole park was swimming with Keltoi? She was tempted to call Gelsenim, longed for the boost in confidence he would give her, but she resisted the impulse. It was too soon.
She headed into the trees at the edge of the meadow behind the big donut-shaped sculpture that faced out over the beautiful nighttime view of downtown. Her eyes strained for any sign of movement ahead, and listened for any sound ahead or behind. She couldn't hear anything. Not that she expected to hear the duel. There would be a sound stop spell up to avoid attracting the attention of any normals. Her nerves started to seriously fray. What if she stumbled straight onto Leander, or some group of Keltoi Varga had put in place in advance?
But none of that happened. As she finally got all the way around the west side of the meadow and was coming up on what she thought was the dueling spot, Bree allowed the merest trickle of Reader sense to advance ahead. She imagined a thread-thin tendril ghosting forward, alert to the smallest sign of magical energy. And she found it. She moved forward even more cautiously, hoping to get close enough to see but not be seen. She had to strain to keep her Reader sense narrowed to a tiny filament of awareness.
There was a sudden surge in energy, and it raced into her awareness like a small, razor-sharp zap of electricity. It was starting. She started to sprint, then slowed down again. She had to keep her head. As she moved forward into a thicker stand of trees and shrubs, she felt a sudden urge to stop and turn around. It was so late, and she was so incredibly tired. It was past time to head home and get to bed.
She shook her head, hard. She'd been expecting this kind of ward, designed to turn normals away from the dueling site. She forced her way forward, and after a few yards, the sensation vanished. There was a gap in the trees ahead, and now she could see movement. She crept closer, in under the low slung branches of a cedar tree, which hung almost all the way to the ground, creating a little cave. She winced as she brushed against a branch, causing it to rustle. She froze, then inched closer to the gap and peered through the tree branches. And there they were, there was Daniel, still alive. She wasn't too late.
Marton Varga was across from him, staggering as he gestured toward the ground, then flung his arm up in a sharp motion. The ground beneath Daniel heaved up, throwing him off balance. It settled back with a low concussion Bree could feel in her feet. She looked around quickly for Franchesca, and for signs of anyone else. Franchesca was across from her and to her right, looking on avidly. She seemed to be glancing back and forth between Daniel and Varga equally. Bree wanted to open her Demonsense, cast it out to see if Franchesca was possessed, but she didn't dare, Franchesca might feel it.
Varga advanced on Daniel, but Daniel had regained his balance, and he flicked the fingers of his left hand against the palm of his right, if he were dislodging a bothersome bug. Varga flew up into the air and onto his back, ten feet away. The warding circle around them wavered, then broke, and suddenly Bree could hear.
"I told you he would be difficult to put down, but you wouldn't believe me," Franchesca was saying snidely. Bree couldn't tell who she was saying it to, because neither man replied. Varga swept a hand from his shoulder and out toward Daniel, who made a warding gesture, palm out. Daniel was pushed back several steps as he absorbed the force of Marton's spell. Bree had never seen so much telekinetic energy thrown around before, and it was all happening so fast.
Daniel was in a defensive posture long enough to allow Varga to regain his feet and cast again. He made a snapping motion with his hand, as if he were cracking a whip, and Bree heard a grunt of pain escape Daniel. It took her a moment in the dim light to see the dark line of blood across Daniel's right palm. Somehow, Varga had managed to hurt Daniel, to cut his skin, at a distance, strongly enough to get past Daniel's defenses.
Before she could register shock at the level of skill that implied, Daniel was casting back. Varga grimaced and put a hand to his throat, as if his breath was cut off. Daniel pressed forward several steps, clenching his bleeding hand into a fist, a look of intense concentration on his face. Bree had a minute then to wonder why Daniel hadn't just bound Varga. Maybe he had tried before she got there, maybe Varga had a way to defend against it. And clearly, Varga hadn't managed to bind Daniel either.
She abruptly remembered that she was supposed to be sparing most of her attention for Franchesca, and for scanning for other Keltoi. Franchesca was merely standing there, lips parted, eyes locked on Daniel now. Bree sent her Reader sense carefully out, scanning first the immediate vicinity, then casting a wider net. She kept sneaking glances at Daniel as she did so, hoping he wouldn't sense her working. He didn't appear to. She was just about to give it up, satisfied that no one was nearby, when she felt just a hint of energy, away to the south.
She narrowed her focus in that direction, and she had it. Someone was approaching. Someone powered.
Keeping half an eye on Franchesca, half an eye on the duel before her, she extended her Reader sense again. And this time she got five power signatures, the first, stronger one she'd initially felt, and four more. She had to repress the words Oh shit! which leaped immediately to her lips. Hurry, Daniel, she thought urgently, please hurry.
Leander was still fuming as he stalked towards the spot in the park Marton had thought Thorvaldson was most likely to choose for the duel. Bree had completely fooled him. He hadn't thought she was harboring that level of suspicion of him. Every bit of his Reader sense had told him Bree trusted him. She'd told him her secrets, and Thorvaldson's. He thought of that last, gentle kiss, and ground his teeth. It didn't mean anything, none of it meant anything.
There were only three cars left in the parking lot across from the museum. He'd been held up for almost two
hours in a traffic jam caused by an accident coming back from Everett, and that was after it took an hour to get up there. He could just imagine how Marton would respond if he found out how readily Leander had been duped. He'd been so sure he was the one in control, so certain he had Bree doing exactly what he wanted. He had to find her before she had a chance to interfere in the duel. Marton had plans, and it would be on Leander's head if Bree fucked it all up.
He knew her energy signature, and he brought up his Reader sense and started scanning once he thought she might be in range. He felt the outer ward on the dueling ground before he located any sense of her. The desire to throw in the towel on the whole thing came over him. He had some money stashed away in case he ever had to go on the run, and visions of the beach in Rio came to him, beautiful women in colorful bikinis as far as the eye could see. But it wasn't enough, he didn't have nearly enough to keep him from having to find some kind of job to support himself. Oh, doubtless he could come up with something, but the plan was to put enough away, and invest enough that he could leave on his own terms. No, he had to see this through, this job and quite a few more, before he could make the break from Marton.
With an effort, he pushed through the deflection ward, and in only a few more yards, he could feel magic in the air. There was Marton's signature, and Thorvaldson's, both flaring hotter the closer Leander got. And there, Franchesca's, seething with black passion and the avid attention of a vulture waiting to feast on the remains of battle.
And there was Bree, just on the farthest edge of awareness, that sense of tender spring leaves, and coral light, and silver. He stopped and closed his eyes, pulse flaring and surging. He opened wider and located her, about twenty yards away, up under a tree on the eastern edge of the small clearing where the duel was being fought.
As quietly as he knew how, he walked wide around the stand of trees until he was coming up behind Bree. He could just register her shape in the darker shadows under a huge cedar tree whose lower branches swept nearly down to the ground. He stopped and held very still, energy pulled in, waiting for any sign that Bree had spotted him. She shouldn't be able to read his energy signature if she wasn’t specifically looking for it, but she could see him if he wasn't careful. When she didn't turn toward him, he crept carefully closer. He'd gotten as far as the edge of the tree branches when he saw her head snap to the left, as if she'd heard or sensed something.
Leander pulled up his Reader sense, and swept it out in the direction Bree was facing. Soon enough, he sensed what she had. A group of powered moving toward them. It had to be Scanlon and his crew. Marton wasn't going to be happy with that. He hadn't wanted witnesses to the duel in case he had to cheat to take Thorvaldson. Maybe Thorvaldson had given out the location to Scanlon to keep things honest. Or maybe Scanlon had been keeping tabs on either Marton or Thorvaldson. Should he try to head off the Keltoi or keep an eye on Bree?
His lips pressed into a pained grimace as he made up his mind. He already knew the best use to make of Bree in this situation, and he'd better stick to his original plan.
The combatants were both half hunched over injuries now, Daniel clutching his waist where he'd been knifed last year, Varga with one hand against the side of his head, which was bleeding. There was a tree branch on the ground. Apparently, one of them had brought it down in an attack on the other, Bree wasn't sure if it had been Daniel or Varga, everything was moving too fast. And now more branches started raining down as both Daniel and Varga sought advantage with the new weapon.
Varga looked deadly cold and calculating. He'd taken his suit jacket off and the white shirt underneath was spattered with blood from his head wound. Daniel was in his jeans and his black leather jacket, angular face illuminated by the blue light of a shield he had raised above his head. It was effectively warding off tree branches, but he couldn't cast through it. She saw him flinch with effort as a particularly big tree limb came down nearly on top of the shield.
Franchesca was still frozen in place at the south edge of the clearing. Her fists were clenched at her sides, but Bree didn't see her lips moving or any other sign that she was doing any casting. She must be under firm orders from Varga not to interfere, at least at this point. Varga must value being able to say he beat Daniel fairly, but Bree didn't trust that Franchesca would hold back if it really became clear Daniel might kill Varga. And there, moving closer, those powered she'd sensed earlier. They had slowed, and even as she narrowed in on their energy signature, they stopped, likely at the edge of the deflection ward. She decided it was best to stay where she was. If the powered were Keltoi, which seemed almost certain, they might just be here to observe, whereas Franchesca could intervene at any moment.
Her attention shifted back to the duel, and it looked to her like Daniel was on the defensive. He seemed to have lost the upper hand somehow. Varga had moved several paces closer to Daniel, and he made a pulling gesture with his hands, tugging down the tree branches, one after another. Daniel was partially crouched down, bending under the weight of the shield as if he might not be able to hold it for much longer.
Just when Bree opened her mouth to call Gelsenim in preparation for doing something to help him, Daniel moved rapidly in a circle to his left, arms extended, whirling like a discus thrower. The blue shield tilted and moved with him, and a thin tree branch three feet long, sharp at the end where it had broken off, was deflected by the shield and flung through the air, straight at Varga.
Too late, Varga lifted his hands to shield. The branch hit him, penetrating his abdomen on his left side, near his hip. He fell back onto the ground with the force of it, the limb sticking gruesomely out of his flesh, though it looked like it hadn't gone through him. The last of the branches Varga had called against Daniel crashed harmlessly to the ground, and Daniel lowered his shield. His face was grim as he advanced on Varga. He raised both hands, clenched them into fists, and his lips began to move in a spell.
"No!" Franchesca shrieked, just as Varga shouted, "Felakim, I call you! Felakim, I command you to possess me, now!"
Orange mist poured into the clearing just in front of Varga, between him and Daniel. Daniel had to take a step back to avoid it. Before it could take shape, it shot straight into Varga. Bree's Demonsense clamored to life, and she got a strong hit of nausea. The demon Varga had called was a big one.
Varga pulled the tree branch out of himself with a growl, eyes orange-lit with demon possession. Before he could say anything, Daniel stepped toward him again. His voice wasn't raised, and Bree had to strain to hear him. "Marton Varga, I bind you to my will," he intoned, his voice low but fierce.
"You can't bind me," Varga snarled. Bree couldn't get a clear sense if it was Varga or the demon talking. Now that the demon was inside Varga, it's energy seemed dampened somehow. Perhaps it had brought the new hiding ability online. But why would the demon do that? It was no secret that it had possessed Varga.
Daniel ignored him and tried again. "I bind you to my will." Bree felt the dark Binder energy lash out, but Varga made a gesture with his right hand, and a green shield flashed into place briefly. Just as quickly, it vanished, and Varga cast. Daniel froze in place, lips parted, hands still extended in clenched fists. Bree instinctively took a step forward, and felt someone grab her arm. She instinctively tried to pull away even as she spun to look behind her to see who it was.
It was Leander. She glared at him, and he frowned back, shaking his head. Let me go! she mouthed at him.
No, he mouthed back, then said something she couldn't quite make out. She jerked her arm against his grip, but she could get no purchase against his greater strength. She glanced back toward the duel, frantic to see if Daniel was safe. She nearly sagged in relief when she saw Daniel had somehow gotten free of the freeze spell. Varga was on his feet again, hand pressed against his side, blood seeping out from under it and across the front of his pants. He was bleeding badly, but the demon was making him strong enough to stand. He wouldn't be able to stay on his feet long if the bra
nch had hit one of his organs. She couldn't tell how badly he was hurt.
Daniel cast toward Varga, and Varga winced, clutching harder at his injury. Bree wasn't sure what the spell was, but clearly it’d hurt him.
She spun her Reader sense out again for the approaching powered and felt them almost immediately. They were closer now.
She moved towards Leander until she was close enough to whisper in his ear. "God damn it Leander, let me go!" she hissed.
"I'm not letting you get in the middle of that," he whispered back fiercely. "You're going to get yourself killed."
Bree pulled back a little until she could look up into his face, searching for some sign as to his intentions. His looked stiff with tension, but that was all she could make out. Fine, she'd just have to assume the worst. She prepared a freeze spell in her mind, but before she could cast, she felt a ward surge up around Leander. It made his grip on her slippery, and she pulled away, hard. But there was nowhere to run. In every direction except directly behind her, the cover was much thinner and she'd be seen if she moved. And behind her was away from the duel.
Bree wrenched her attention back to the fight just in time to see a flare of demonic fire shoot out towards Daniel. Daniel raised a shield, but only a small one, just enough to deflect most of the flame. Some escaped around the side of the shield and just missed his face. The smell of sulphur and singed hair was in the air. Daniel was clearly tiring or he would have cast a larger shield.
Bree felt like her whole body was made up of tension wires. Every part of her wanted to go forward, to help Daniel, but it seemed that at the same time, every part of her was afraid to. The level of casting she was witnessing was far beyond anything she had accomplished, even with Gelsenim on board. And if she entered the fray, she could be a fatal distraction for Daniel. This was the weakness in her plan of being Daniel's back-up. So far, everything had moved so quickly that she couldn't even be certain when Daniel's life was at risk, and she knew she shouldn't intervene unless that was so.
