Oriel slipped in beside me sometime during the night, but he was sound asleep when my alarm rang, and I had to get up to go to the conference, so we didn’t get a chance to talk.
Mid-morning, the ley lines went crazy. I was in one of the smaller meeting rooms listening to a mage from Los Angeles talk about the disruption of the ley lines. It was immediately obvious who was a mage and who was a witch. But the wards cast around the building using the Knights’ rubies held.
Those who didn’t have their own rubies were essentially trapped inside the building, so the lines for dinner were even worse than the previous evening.
Since all of the mages in our party had a ruby, we left the chaos and drove up to Georgetown for dinner at a fancy restaurant overlooking the Potomac.
We parked under the freeway a couple of blocks from the restaurant. On the way back to our cars, we were confronted by Knights. Considering the size of their force, I suspected we had been followed from the conference.
But since none of us were affected by the ongoing churning in the ley lines, I wondered who they thought we were. Maybe they thought we were all witches.
The mages in our party all cast our personal shields. Ian, Michaela, and I drew our swords. A four-foot sword of flame sprouted from Josh’s hand. Then twenty doppelgangers of our party suddenly appeared. I glanced to my right and saw three Jolenes standing beside me. It was a little more unnerving to see two of me standing next to me. I had never seen Kevin cast his illusions, but I had seen such tactics when I trained with the Hunters’ Guild.
“May we help you?” the three Frankies asked in unison. The quality of the illusion impressed me—audio as well as visual.
“Michaela, Jolene, James, to the center,” Langermann said softly to the witches—the three members of our group who couldn’t shield.
Josh held his flaming sword straight up, and a fountain of fire poured out of it, lighting the scene for everyone within sight.
And there were a lot of people out on the street. Some of them were smart and hurried away, but most of the passersby stopped to gawk. Seeing magic on TV was quite a bit different from having a demonstration live and in person. I wondered how many of them understood what was happening, or how dangerous the situation was.
The Knights hesitated, several of them shuffling their feet and looking back and forth at each other waiting for someone to make a decision. It was obvious that they hadn’t expected our reactions. No one seemed inclined to answer Frankie.
Finally, one of them said, “Show us your registrations.”
“What registrations?” Langermann asked.
“The law requires all magic users to register.”
“Are you with the Paranormal Affairs Department?” Frankie asked. “I don’t recall any requirement that magic users have to show their documents to random people on the street. And besides, what makes you think we’re magic users?”
I heard a titter of laughter from some of the onlookers. Perhaps Josh’s pyrometric display tipped them off.
Although Congress had passed a law requiring magic users to register with the government, there weren’t any penalties for not registering. The law specified fines, but the new government department hadn’t published any regulations or fine schedules. They had yet to even define what magic or magic users were.
“Go back to Europe!” someone across the street shouted. I assumed he was yelling at the Knights. I certainly didn’t look European.
In the distance, I heard sirens. After a brief discussion between themselves, the Knights began retreating. Josh extinguished his sword, and the doppelgangers disappeared. By the time three police cars showed up, the Knights had melted away into the darkness.
Our party also broke into smaller groups and merged into the crowd. Although people got out of our way, very shortly we were indistinguishable from everyone else. When we all got to the cars, we loaded up and drove away.
Chapter 10
“Erin, wake up!”
A note of urgency in Oriel’s voice brought me instantly awake. “What’s going on?”
“An assault force of about a thousand Knights is attacking the hotel where your conference is being held.”
“When? What time is it?”
“The attack started shortly after midnight. It’s one o’clock now.”
I grabbed my phone and called Frankie. It rang six times before she answered it.
“Yes?”
“Frankie, the Fae sent word that the conference hotel is being attacked by a large force of Knights.”
Silence, then, “Shit. Notify the others. My room in fifteen minutes.”
I pulled my Hunter’s uniform out of my suitcase and dialed McGregor. After giving him a quick briefing, I called Trevor and asked him to alert the others.
My mind raced. The hotel itself was warded, and once the occupants organized, they probably could hold off the assault. But the timing was all in the Knights’ favor. I had noticed the second morning of the conference that a lot of the attendees showed up late and looked a bit worse for wear. A lot of partying had gone on the night before. Since I assumed the Knights had spies inside the conference, they would know that, too.
Besides me, McGregor and Langermann were the only people fully dressed, armed, and ready to fight. Even though Ian had trained seven decades before I did, the Hunters’ training regimen hadn’t changed much in centuries. Langermann’s long military service also had taught him to be ready to deploy on an instant’s notice.
“I’ve tried calling several people at the conference hotel,” Frankie said, “but I can’t raise anyone.”
“My contacts don’t use electronic communications,” Oriel replied. “The Knights moved a force estimated to be a thousand fighters into position and launched their attack right after midnight. Three full circles of the Knights’ witches triangulated the property and cast a spell that blocks any communications, both into and out of the resort. The Fae have been watching the place since before the conference started, and they contacted me when the Knights moved in.”
Langermann paced back and forth. “Our group could put a half-circle together, but seven mages hitting the attacking force from behind wouldn’t make much difference against a thousand Knights.”
“So, what can we do?” Frankie asked.
I stood at the window, looking out. It seemed like there were a lot of people on the street for that time of night. “I think Ian, Oriel, and I should go out there,” I answered. “We can try and disrupt things a little, maybe break those witch circles. At the very least, we can let you know what’s going on. Our cell phones should operate from outside the spelled area.”
“I’ll go with you,” Langermann said.
I shook my head. “I think you’ll be of more use here. We aren’t the only delegation staying in Washington. In fact, I know there are at least two more delegations staying at this hotel. We don’t know if they’ll try to attack here as well.” I turned to Frankie. “Can you get hold of your FBI buddy and let him know what’s going on? I would think the government should know about this.”
She nodded. “If there’s a full-scale mage battle going on out there, I doubt it’s very quiet. I’m sure that after Munich, governments should have some kind of plans for dealing with this sort of thing.”
“They do,” Langermann said. “My contacts in the military tell me that they have been recruiting mages and witches in response to the Knights’ threat. They’ve set up some super-secret, fast-response units backed by air power.”
I had never thought too hard about the ward Oriel cast around his vehicles when he was driving. I knew it was protected from magical attacks, such as fireballs and lightning, but I was surprised that we didn’t even feel a bump when he ran over the two Knights who jumped out in front of us as we roared out of the parking garage in the borrowed SUV.
We hit the 395 southbound, and Oriel pushed the big car up to a hundred. A couple of minutes later, we passed a Virginia state-cop car like it was sta
nding still, and the cop didn’t even blink.
“Does he always drive like this?” Ian asked.
“Pretty much,” I answered. “He doesn’t have a lot of respect for human traffic laws.”
“Irrelevant,” Oriel said as he skidded onto the shoulder to pass a car and then pulled back into the traffic lane.
It had taken our group more than an hour and a half to reach the resort from our hotel each morning, but barely forty minutes after we ran over the Knights, Oriel slowed, turned off his lights, pulled into a side road, and parked in a copse of trees a couple of hundred yards farther along. Three shadowy figures stepped out to meet us.
The top of the woman’s head barely reached my shoulder. Cherry-red hair hung in a thick braid past her butt, and her eyes were huge in her face. The men were well over six feet. One had horns like a goat, a mustache and a pointed goatee. His feet were cloven hooves, and his shanks were covered in fur. The other man looked as though he had dreadlocks, but they moved in a way that had no relation to the slight breeze, and his skin resembled smooth bark.
McGregor hesitated. “Unseelie.”
“Yes,” Oriel said, morphing into his own Unseelie form, “the men are, but they’re on our side. Moira is of the Summer Court.”
Past the trees, I could see multi-colored flashes of light, and there was an almost constant rumble of distant thunder.
The woman inspected us, then turned and walked away. The guy with Medusa hair followed her, and the other man stepped aside to let us pass. I fell in line, with my companions behind me.
Our path took us through a large pasture with a stately plantation house standing at one end. We crossed a horse fence and skirted a cluster of stables. A helicopter passed high overhead, heading in the direction of the flashing lights.
The helicopter was almost out of sight beyond the trees ahead of us when it was struck by lightning from the ground. Then a fireball the size of the copter enveloped it. The aircraft exploded, and flaming debris fell from the sky.
Our guide took a sharp right turn onto a game trail through the trees and brush, and we paralleled the lights for a while. After walking for twenty minutes, we reached the fence around the resort’s property. The back of the hotel faced us about a hundred yards away, with the swimming pool between us and the building. The stables were to our left. I couldn’t see the parking lot on the right, but I could see flames and assumed the vehicles parked there were a lost cause. There was movement on the hotel’s roof.
The Fae woman spoke for the first time, her voice a musical joy on my ears. “The defenders form circles on the roof and send magic against the Knights. About every half hour, a new group emerges from below and forms a new circle, and the mages they relieve go back below. So far, the wards are holding and the Knights haven’t been able to approach the building.
I nodded. “They probably have circles of witches inside reinforcing the wards while those on the roof are mages.”
“So we surmised. Our people have been attacking the Knights from behind, but we’ve mostly been just a distraction.”
McGregor spoke up. “We thought that if we could find the circles casting the interference spells, we might be able to break them.”
“A good plan,” she said. “Come.”
She led us along the fence for another fifty yards, then turned back into the woods. We reached a small clearing, and peering out from the trees, we saw a circle of black-clad people holding hands. Outside their circle, another dozen Knights stood guard, facing outward with drawn swords.
“The guards around the circle are mages,” the woman said. “We can’t cast shields as you can, so it’s too dangerous for us to get close. If you can break that outer ring of mages so we can reach the witches in the circle, then that would accomplish what you hope.”
I turned to face her, making sure I had her attention. “I’m half witch, and I could stand in that circle. Don’t assume none of those witches can shield.”
She let that sink in, nodded, and looked up at her companions. “Good advice.”
McGregor reached out, grabbed the shoulder of my jacket, and roughly pulled me to him. Holding me by his side, he studied the group in the clearing for a couple of minutes.
“Okay,” he said in my ear, “this is how we’re going to tackle this. You take the first man on the left, and I’ll take the one on the right. Then you pivot left, and I’ll take the guy behind you. Understand?” One man faced us almost directly, and we would first attack the men on his flanks.
“Yes, sir.” He was far older and more experienced than I was, and I automatically fell into following his lead.
“We’ll use the shadows to get close,” he continued. “When you’re ready, hit your target with an energy blast and then spring. No heroics. Fight smart. If you get in a bad situation, pour all your energy into your shield and get the hell out. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t get cocky. Fight them the same way you would if they were Hunters.”
“Yes, sir.”
McGregor nodded, and we drew our swords. Oriel pulled out his two spelled long knives, and the three Fae drew the swords they were carrying. I noted that all three were Knights’ spelled swords with star rubies set in the pommels. Oriel and the other three cast glamours and disappeared.
“Oh, no,” I said reaching out and grabbing Oriel before he completely faded, “you aren’t coming with us. Invisibility and speed won’t protect you. Wait until we clear the guards.”
“And if we can’t clear the guards, then get away from here,” McGregor said. “We’ll be running. No sense in fighting a lost cause.”
“We’ll wait until we think it’s safe for us to move in,” the Fae woman said, her voice eerily coming from the air a few feet away from me.
I circled to our left to where a tree cast a long shadow into the clearing. Normally, a personal shield is transparent, but when I was young and didn’t have complete control over my magic, my shield tended to blur. A slight adjustment recreated that blur, which would help to make my form less distinct in the darkness.
Laying down, with my sword held in reverse in my left hand, I slowly crawled on my belly toward my target. Every time the Knight looked in my direction, I froze.
I managed to get within ten feet of him without being spotted. I had to assume that McGregor was in position, as I couldn’t see him. He had assigned me to give the attack signal, so I formed a ley missile and hurled it at the Knight in front of me.
As I did so, I leaped to my feet and charged. The missile hit his shield and rocked him. Before he recovered, I poured energy into my arm to increase my strength as I swung my sword and took his leg off at the knee. His scream alerted everyone in the clearing but also momentarily froze them in place.
I pivoted to my left, and three steps brought me in range of my next target. My backhand strike took his head off before he could raise his sword to block me, and I moved on to the next man. I didn’t look back. No one attacked me from behind, so I knew McGregor had done his job.
The next Knight was ready for me and blocked my strike. He was a lot bigger than I was and had reach on me. I blocked his counter strike, but it caused me to take a step back. I hit him with a ley missile and saw his shield flare. When he hesitated, I fired another ley missile at him and another one at the witches in the circle. Three of the witches vaporized.
That caused enough distraction that I was able to duck under my opponent’s sword and skewer him under the breastbone.
Two of the guards charged toward me, and a witch to my right drew her sword and took a step in my direction. Whirling away, I put some distance between us and got to a point where I could see all three of them at once.
The witch stiffened, arched her back, and fell. One of the invisible Fae had stabbed her from behind.
I hit both of the other Knights with ley missiles, and their shields flared. Moving to my right, I maneuvered into a position where one of the Knights blocked the other one fro
m coming at me. I feinted at the closest man, hit him with another ley missile, then closed on him. Our shields touched, and I absorbed the energy from his shield into mine, then kicked him in the knee. He staggered and dropped his guard. My strike opened his belly.
The second Knight’s sword hit my shield but didn’t penetrate. I tried to duck away from him, then stumbled on the uneven ground and fell awkwardly, landing on my right arm and my sword.
I looked up to see the Knight standing over me, his sword raised above his head. I struggled to roll and free my arm while pouring more energy into my shield.
A ball of rose-colored energy hit the Knight, lighting up his shield. He stood there like a statue, his sword raised, and I saw panic on his face. The tiny Fae woman materialized between us, and she thrust her Knight’s sword into his belly. The reddish glow faded, and he crumpled to the ground.
I scrambled to my feet, looking for other threats, but McGregor and Moira were the only people I saw still standing. All of the Knights lay on the ground, and the clearing was covered in blood. Then the rest of the Fae and Oriel became visible.
Chapter 11
The Fae wasted little time before looting the Knights’ bodies of communication devices and the rubies on their swords. McGregor was a little more thorough, taking identification and money. He also stripped a man close to his own size, then took the uniform of a slender woman, and gathered up two of the Knights’ swords.
Walking over to me, he held out the woman’s clothes and one of the swords.
“Put these in your pack. They may come in handy,” he said.
I rolled up the dead woman’s clothing and stuffed it in the small backpack I carried. I lashed her sword and scabbard to my scabbard. It was a little awkward to carry them, but I took a couple of swings with my sword and determined that the new arrangement didn’t interfere with my ability to fight.
“Where do we find the next circle?” I asked.
Knights Magica: An Urban Fantasy (Rosie O'Grady's Paranormal Bar and Grill Book 5) Page 8
