“Tell me something I don’t know,” I said. “So what happens if a demonic spirit stays in the phylactery but doesn’t make a body at all?”
“Well, the phylactery risks shattering to start,” Albert replied. “It’s also a tremendous risk to the spirit. If the phylactery shatters, the spirit may be sent Above or Below, or it could be disintegrated. The other possibility is that it could create a soul vortex.”
Herb went white. “Those are real?”
Albert’s nod was grave.
“I’m sorry, a what?” I asked.
“You know what a black hole is?” Herb asked, and continued when I nodded. “Well think of this as a black hole that swallows souls whole so they never get to their rest. The power of the being dictates the size of the vortex.”
Albert was nodding. “Back in 1959, there was a group of hikers who all died mysteriously on Russia’s Dyatlov Pass. The people were found with internal injuries and broken bones, but no marks on their skin. That’s the sort of trauma you find when someone’s had their soul forcibly sucked out of them.” He shook his head. “That was a terrible incident. There had been a necromancer living in the wilderness who’d been absorbing souls of the people he found, gaining their knowledge and skills while using their souls for fuel. But he underestimated the strain the absorption process would put on his phylactery, and one day it detonated. The soul vortex doesn’t last for long, maybe a minute or two, tops, but it can suck out all the human souls in an area like that.” Albert snapped his fingers.
“How big of an area?” Gears asked.
Albert sucked his teeth. “It would depend on the power of the being. That particular necromancer was strong, but there wasn’t much human life in the area. Figure a mile, maybe two.”
“But for someone like Croatoan,” Herb said, “who is a literal denizen of the Pit, you’re looking at a vortex that could easily absorb all human life in the Western Hemisphere. Maybe even more.”
“So how is it that the phylactery hasn’t just shattered under the strain of that?” I asked. “From what you’re saying, just holding his spirit should overpower this thing completely.”
“If the demon is suppressing his powers, only letting out a trickle at a time,” Albert said, “then it’s possible he’d be able to make it work. It would be like trying to walk across the surface of a frozen pond, though. You know what I mean, when you hear the ice cracking under every step you take, knowing that if you make one wrong move, things will end very badly.”
“So we can’t overpower his phylactery without risking killing a huge chunk of life on Earth,” I said. “Is there a way to safely eject a spirit from it?”
“It’s possible,” Herb said, “but unless you happen to have another spirit ready to take the phylactery over right away, there’s nothing to stop the ejectee from just popping back in. Unless you destroyed the phylactery at the moment of ejection, I suppose.”
“Now that sounds promising,” Gears said as blasters popped from Billy’s wrists. “Just give me a shot.”
Albert shook his head. “That particular phylactery was extraordinarily strong. Its physical components are just ceramic and diamond dust, but it is shielded with some strong defensive magic. It can’t be destroyed by conventional weapons.” He considered Billy’s blasters. “Or even unconventional ones such as those.”
“We don’t need to destroy it,” I said. “If we can eject Croatoan from the phylactery, I can absorb his spirit with this.” I held up the soul crystal. “Then I can take him back to the Pit. Albert, do you have a way to eject Croatoan?”
The undead shopkeeper rubbed his chin. “I believe I might. Come.” He gestured for us to follow him into the back. The back room had been tidied up since the last time I was here, back when Kristin and I had fought the Black Flash. The broken shelves had been replaced, their contents somewhat neatly arranged, and the contraption Albert had used as a containment field was nowhere to be seen.
“What you need is a magical suppression device,” Albert said, as he walked through the rows of shelves. Every few feet, he would stop and paw through the trinkets on a shelf. “One that’s keyed to necromantic energy.”
“You have something like that?” Herb asked. “Those sorts of things are hard to come by, and phylacteries have wards against interference.”
“Sadly, my boy, I do not have something like that readily available. However, I do know how to make them, and I am intimately familiar with the sorts of protections that particular phylactery possesses. Ah, here we are.” He picked up a bit of bone that was about the size of a toothbrush. “Now, for the enchantments. Herbert, I will need your help with this bit.”
For the next half an hour, the necromancers wove complex eldritch characters in the air, which etched themselves into the bit of bone and then vanished from the bone’s surface. As they worked, Gears and Jeal played Magic: The Gathering in a corner of the shop. Petra and I walked along the aisles, pausing occasionally to look at some trinket or knick-knack.
“When this is over,” Petra said, taking my hand in hers, “I want to go somewhere. With you. Just the two of us.”
“Anyplace in particular?”
“Nowhere I’ve done a shoot at. Nowhere anyone else would think to look for us. Someplace away from gods and demons and everyone else. Someplace where we can be away from the rest of the world. Not someplace touristy, and not your place on Olympus.”
I thought for a moment. “How about the Andes Mountains?”
Petra considered, and then gave me a sly smile. “Are you planning to look for the Temple of Coragem?”
“Not sure,” I shrugged. “That was the first place that popped into my head. But from what I’ve seen in National Geographic, the Andes are beautiful, none of our friends or enemies hangs out there, and hey, if we happen to come across the ancient temple where Rex Arkwright found the amulet that turned him into Commander Courageous, why not?”
She kissed me on the forehead. “You’ve got yourself a date.”
There was a flash of light to our right, and we turned to see the necromancers wiping sweat from their brows. “And there we are,” Albert said, handing me the bone. “Get up close to the demon’s phylactery and break this bone in half. You’ll have to be right on top of him when his spirit is released. If you’re more than, say, two or three feet away, it won’t work.”
“That’s forcing us to get pretty close,” Gears said.
“We could have made the trigger area bigger,” Herb said, “but it would’ve taken a lot longer. We’re on the clock, here.”
I glanced at the clock on the wall. I’d been trying not to fidget as we’d been waiting, telling myself that taking the time now would make it easier for us to catch Croatoan later, but Herb’s words hit me, and suddenly, I had to be moving. “All right, so we just get up close to the phylactery with this and break it?”
Albert nodded. “It will suppress all the necromantic energy around you and him. It should cause the phylactery to eject Croatoan, and it will drop the protective charms on the phylactery itself.”
“And then I absorb his spirit with the soul crystal, drop him off in Hell, and we can get back to finding Megan. How long will the wards be down?” I asked.
“Ten, perhaps fifteen seconds.”
“That’s not much time,” Gears said.
“It’ll be more than enough,” I said. “Time is something I know how to work with.” I pocketed the bone and looked at the necromancers. “Thank you,” I said.
“Thank you,” Albert replied, “for bringing Herbert back.” He paused. “Agent Corinthos, I just wanted to say how sorry I am about Agent Tanis’s passing. She was a wonderful person, and I consider myself lucky for having known her. I would have liked to attend the ceremony…” He trailed off.
“But you were under house arrest at the
time. I understand, Albert. I think Kristin would, too, and she’d appreciate the sentiment.”
“I hope so,” he said. “And I hope her spirit is resting peacefully Above. Lord knows she earned it.”
I nodded. I’d been doing my best not to think about Kristin’s or Galahad’s deaths. The loss of them was still too raw to think about. I knew I still hadn’t grieved fully for either one of them, but I literally didn’t have time for distractions right now. “Okay, gang, next step is to find Croatoan. Can we get some tracking spells and—” I cut off as my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number and tapped the screen to send it to voice mail. “Right. Tracking spells and maybe—” It rang again. Same number. I answered it this time.
“Vincent,” Kristin’s voice came through the line. “I need help.”
Chapter 11
“Kristin?” I asked, dumbfounded. My brain refused to work. Luckily, my friends still had their wits about them. Petra calmly took the phone from my numb fingers and pressed the speaker button.
“I need help,” Kristin’s voice repeated.
“Where are you?” I heard myself ask.
“Devil’s Altar,” she replied.
“Kristin, how?”
Croatoan’s voice came over the line. “Why, I brought her back, of course, Corinthos. Summoning up her shade was child’s play, and Xavier always said that Agent Kristin Tanis was the only one in the Boston office worth her salt. So I thought she’d make an effective tool. And then it occurred to me that a little reunion might be fun for you all. So I killed a hiker out here and used her phone to call you. Kristin remembered your number, of course.”
I called up all the extradimensional energy I could muster. I’d been to Devil’s Altar once before, and a Glimpse brought up a clear picture of the place in my mind. But the portal wouldn’t form.
“One thing to mention, Corinthos, is that this area is warded against extradimensional travel. So you can’t portal here. But don’t worry, we’ll wait for you.”
And with that, the line went dead.
“This is a trap,” Petra said.
“Yes, yes it is,” I said, running my hand through my hair.
“We also don’t know if he’s telling the truth,” Petra said. “Croatoan may be able to mimic people’s voices.”
“Albert, Herb, any chance you guys can verify this?”
“That’s simple enough,” Albert said. “But I’m spent after crafting that bone. Herbert?”
The pudgy necromancer nodded and began chanting under his breath. “Herbert is scanning for spiritual tethers,” Albert explained. “He can sense when souls have been recalled to our world. They stand out as spikes of red light in the spiritual spectrum.”
“How will he know if he finds the right one?”
“Each tether contains a feeling of the person who’s bound. It’s not like reading a fact sheet about them, but it is enough to get a sense of the person and their nature. And tethered souls are pretty rare; so if Herbert senses any, there’s a good chance it will be Agent Tanis.”
“So if he finds her tether, can he cut it? Send Kristin back?” Gears asked.
Albert shook his head violently. “No. If he did that, it would destroy the soul who was tethered.”
“Found her,” Herb said. “She’s tethered.”
“Well, I can’t let her stay that way,” I said. “We’ve got to get out to Devil’s Altar.”
“I’m looking at Google Maps right now,” Gears said, “and Devil’s Altar is over sixty miles away from Dana. How could Croatoan get out there that fast?”
“Now that’s an interesting question,” I said, looking to the necromancers. “How fast can a wight move?”
“About the same as a human,” Herb said. “They’ve got better reflexes, but they don’t have the speed of a vampire.”
“Did that phylactery have any other powers, Albert?” I asked. “Like could it let you teleport or fly or anything like that?”
“No,” Albert said. “But there are other undead who can teleport short distances. It’s possible he found one of those. Or he created one.”
“He just killed a hiker and took her phone to call me. I’ve only seen Croatoan raise wights before, but Hades told me Croatoan could raise much more powerful undead.” I thought back to my Glimpse, where it looked like Croatoan had raised another undead just before he vanished. Maybe he’d been able to make one that could teleport? But then why not start out with a teleporter? I ran a hand over my face. “Man, today just keeps getting better and better.”
Petra rested her hand on my shoulder. “Take a breath,” she whispered. “Clear your mind and think.”
I relaxed at Petra’s touch, closed my eyes, and took a breath. “Okay,” I said. I tried to clear my mind. What would Commander Courageous do? Well, the first thing he’d do was plan. And he’d start by reviewing whatever he knew about whatever dangerous location he was about to enter. I used my Glimpse to pull up a document I’d read years ago about Devil’s Altar. “Devil’s Altar was a religious site of the Algonquin people, and legends say that some pretty nasty sacrifices were performed there. Over time, mages and the like began using the altar for their own sacrifices, which only added to the place’s power level. Natural wards are out there, and now, it seems there are wards against gateways, too. Which makes sense. You wouldn’t want to get interrupted in the middle of a sacrifice.”
“But Croatoan isn’t sacrificing anyone that we know of,” Petra said. “If he’s already got Kristin’s spirit, why go there?”
“A place of power tied to death like that could act as a sort of bolstering feature,” Albert said, tapping his lips. “It would allow Croatoan to use more power without risk of breaking the phylactery.”
“So, in theory, he could be raising an undead army right now,” I said.
Albert rubbed his chin. “It’s possible, but probably not. Raising an undead takes a good chunk of power. And then you need to maintain control over them. A place of power is great, but it’s stationary and small. From what you’re saying, it’s the rock itself that’s got the magic. That means if he goes too far from that rock, and we’re talking yards and not miles, then anything he’s raised will just collapse.”
“All right, here’s the plan,” I said. “We portal to the closest spot I can reach and go meet Croatoan. I’ll keep him talking, and while I’m doing that, Jeal, you turn invisible and sneak up on him. Break this” — I passed her the bone Albert and Herb had enchanted — “and then get out of the way. I’ll use the soul crystal to capture Croatoan, and we’ll get out of Dodge.”
“That’s it?” Herb asked. “That feels too simple.”
“The best plans are the simplest ones,” I said. “Complicated plans always end badly. Think about what happened with Megan and the Keepers. I came up with an unnecessarily complicated plan that ended badly.”
Herb frowned at me. “What are you talking about? When we went into that pocket dimension, you didn’t have a plan at all. You were winging the entire thing.”
Right. I’d forgotten Herb didn’t know all the details that led me to make that stupid bargain with the Keepers. Right now, it was too complicated to explain how the Urisk’s faith had been scrambling my thoughts, keeping me from thinking clearly. “My point is, we keep this simple, because simple is easier to adapt. I am totally open to better ideas if you’ve got them.” I looked hopefully at my companions. Unfortunately, none of them had anything better. I looked at my watch. Tick tock.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s get to Devil’s Altar.”
We made a few stops to grab boots and heavy jackets for everyone, and I was able to create a portal that got us to within about a mile of the site. We came out in a thick forest that was blanketed with snow. In Boston, we hadn’t gotten much snow this winter. Out here, we we
re practically touching the New York border, and this area had received a lot more of the white stuff. It came up to my knees in places, so Petra and Billy took the lead, crunching down a path for us. Jeal, in dragon form and already invisible, ghosted from treetop to treetop somewhere above us. I nearly jumped out of my skin when she spoke from the top of a rock we were approaching.
“Lord Corinthos,” she whispered. “I have scouted ahead. There are four undead standing around a large stone just over the next hill. They are all facing this direction, as if expecting you.”
“Well, it’s not like we’re being overly stealthy here, Jeal,” I said. “But thanks for the warning. Did you see Kristin?”
“There is a specter that is lashed to the rock,” she said. “I could not tell her condition.”
Kristin’s ghost was tied up? How did that even work? Well, I wasn’t going to stand for it, either way. First chance I got, I’d Open Kristin’s bindings, and hopefully, her spirit would return to its rest. “All right, Jeal. Stay invisible. When I tell you, you get in position to break the enchanted bone behind Croatoan. Give a quick spark as a signal to let me know you’re ready. Then we can capture Croatoan and put this day behind us.”
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