Wanderers: Ragnarök

by Richard A Bamberg

  Even as the netting fell away, Cynthia’s flame abruptly ceased.

  I turned to see her surrounded by more of the netting.

  Neither Cynthia nor I could use the same trick on her prison since she didn’t have my shield to protect her.

  Damn it, who was doing this? There had to be two of them. I turned toward the stands in time to see a row of seats flying toward me.

  I called down the wind and threw the seats back the way they’d come.

  Cynthia gasped and cried out as her bindings constricted against her. As strong as the spell had been around me, it would crush her ribs and kill her within seconds.

  I grabbed my bottle of salt and tossed it toward her as I spoke my circle spell. The salt landed in a thin line around her and I poured a bit of power into the circle. The containment circle snapped into place; the netting went slack around her.

  My circle would only allow my magic to pass and without magic to power the spell, Cynthia could escape the netting while I figured out who else was attacking me.

  Another snap of power announced the completion of the summoning.

  I whirled toward the pitcher’s mound as a dark cloud settled like fog around the mound blocking my view of the mage and her sacrifice.

  I called for the wind to sweep away the darkness, but even as I did it coalesced, becoming denser and separating into smaller clouds. My wind cleared a path to the mound as I ran toward it.

  Julie had already dropped her robe and knelt naked before the tall, robed figure. My wind had blown the mage’s hood back and for the first time I could see him clearly. Him? But last night it’d been a woman. There were two of them.

  Carl Nichols stepped behind Julie even as he drew his dagger

  “Let her go, Carl. It’s the only way you’re leaving here alive,” I yelled.

  He raised his gaze to meet mine and grimaced. “I don’t think so, Wanderer. I’m not daft.”

  Wanderer? Had everyone in this town heard of Wanderers?

  “I’m not asking again, Carl.” As I ran toward the pitcher’s mound, I snatched my own knife from my boot and flung it toward Carl.

  His circle was down; shattered by my iron ball even if the rushed shot had missed Carl. My knife flew true. As he lowered his dagger to Julie’s throat, my knife took him in the side.

  Carl screamed and dropped both his dagger and his grip on Julie’s hair. With a start, Julie came free of Carl’s mesmerism.

  Without breaking stride, I cast my freezing spell toward the knife.

  The mage yanked my dagger from his side as my spell activated. He dropped the blade as though it had stung him. He began a spell, and I raised my hand to call down the lightning and put a stop to his actions once and for all.

  Something sank teeth into my left calf with enough force to reach the bone.

  I screamed like a little girl.

  I looked down to see a shadow demon gnawing on my calf.

  Shit! Wrong time to throw my dagger away.

  But the situation was worse, much worse than that.

  Every clump of the black cloud had coalesced into a shadow demon. A full score of them surrounded the pitcher’s mound, and at least half of them were eying me as if I were a side of beef. The rest had divided their attention between Carl and his intended victim.

  Julie hadn’t had a chance to understand she was naked or what was happening, but she had plenty of time to see what surrounded her. She screamed.

  I brought the lightning, and the night burned incandescent as I summoned the lightning to me.

  That’s one of the advantages of being a Wanderer. While others’ magic affects us, our own magic has only minimal impact on us.

  The lightning cascaded through me and I spasmed with the jolt; it barbecued the shadow demon gnawing on my calf and knocked two or three of the closest ones back on their haunches. The barbecued one was turning to slime even as its teeth left my flesh. Blood seeped from multiple punctures in my calf, but at least it hadn’t gotten the artery.

  I faced the mound and saw what I’d expected. With the mage’s circle broken, the demons were just as likely, if not more so, to attack their summoner rather than anyone outside the circle. I’d love to let the little nasties eat him, but Julie was close enough that they’d take her, too.

  I ran forward, kicking one of the shadow demons squarely beneath its raised tail with enough force to lift it five feet into the air and sail it toward Carl’s face. Carl broke off his chant and flung his arms in front of his face to protect his eyes.

  Carl screamed as the demon sunk its teeth into his arm.

  The snap of Carl’s ulna cracking was almost as loud as his scream.

  I reached the mound before the demons reached Julie. I kicked the nearest one back and then triggered Carl’s circle with my own magic. The circle popped into place and two more demons bounced off its surface.

  Julie screamed again. There were three demons inside the circle with us. One was trying to eat Carl’s arm even while he beat the beast about the head. One of the others had a mouthful of Carl’s pants and leg, and the third demon was drooling toward Julie.

  I snatched Carl’s knife from the ground and leapt between the last one and Julie. Its easier prey blocked, it leapt for me and took the entire length of the blade in the throat. Blood, then gore, showered my arm with its smelly residue. I flung the dissolving beast aside and attacked the two trying to eat their way to where Carl’s heart would be if he had one.

  He was still beating at the one on his arm, but with less and less force. Blood darkened the pitcher’s mound beneath the struggling trio. Shadow beasts are single-minded creatures. Once they get their teeth into something, they keep chewing until full or until you kill them.

  I stabbed the one on Carl’s arm first, severing the demon’s spinal cord. The one on Carl’s leg had his face to me and actually growled at me around mangled meat and splintered bone before I plunged the dagger into its nearest eye.

  I stood still for a moment. Carl was barely conscious and no threat to me. The remaining shadow demons were snarling outside my circle. They couldn’t break through the circle, but they were too stupid to realize that. Every few seconds another would leap toward us, eliciting another muffled scream from Julie, before bouncing back like they’d hit a stone wall.

  Cynthia was still inside the other circle I’d set. She had pulled free of the last of netting and stood watching the fight. The shadow demons hadn’t noticed her yet. Beast stood near first base doing what he does best, waiting. Familiars rarely get involved in fights for Wanderers. Their respect for their own skins outweighs their concern for their temporary master.

  I recovered my own dagger, wiped the blood off on my jacket, and sheathed it. Then I gathered up the robe Julie had been wearing, shook the dust off it, and then held it open for her.

  She looked up at me from where she crouched in the dirt and then down at herself. She shivered, but then slowly stood and backed into the robe.

  “You’re Raphael aren’t you?” she asked as I pulled the edges of the robe together enough to cover her. Even with demon gunk mingled with the red dirt of the pitcher’s mound coating her hair, she was an attractive woman.

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you, for saving me. I—”

  “We’re not out of here yet. Just stand still for a minute and let me decide the best way to deal with these things.”

  She flinched as another demon bounced off the circle. “Okay.”

  I couldn’t just call down lightning. It wouldn’t bother me much, like a mild shot from a Taser, but Julie couldn’t take it. And there was still the problem of the other mage. Somewhere up in the darkened stands was a more potent threat than Carl.

  I looked up. Lightning with a clear sky doesn’t carry the same punch as it does during a thunderstorm. If I spread it wide, drawing it as a wide bolt rather than a narrow focus, I could lessen its strength even more. Would it be enough to keep Julie safe?

  She stood behind me,
lightly clutching my jacket with one hand while holding her robe shut with the other. I turned to her and gathered up the ends of the robe’s sash. She dropped her hands to her sides as I pulled the robe tight about her, then she held it closed while I tied the sash about her waist.

  “Julie, do you trust me?” I asked.

  She hesitated for a moment, and then she said, “I trusted Carl and look where that got me.”

  “I’m not Carl.”

  “I know.” Her face twitched as though trying to react in multiple ways at once and I thought she was going to cry, but she shuddered and said, “I trust you. It’s not like I have a choice.”

  “I wish there was another way, but I need you to stand a few feet away from me,” I said.

  I felt her grip on my jacket tighten and she pulled it slightly toward her. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ve got to drop the circle to deal with these demons, and I need a little room to keep you from getting hurt.”

  “I...all right.” She released her grip and stepped backward to the top of the mound. “Is this far enough?”

  “It’ll have to do. I don’t want you near the edge of the circle.”

  She crossed her arms under her breasts and hugged herself.

  I gave her a smile. “Come on, this will be fun.”

  “Yeah? Well, I’m not having much fun so far.”

  I released the circle.

  Shadow demons, as I said, are not that bright, and the pop of the circle collapsing meant nothing to them. It gave me a second to operate before another demon leapt toward us, and then the whole gang would realize my circle was down.

  I triggered my tat for the wind. Dust flew around us, bowling over several of the nearer demons; then the wind caught Julie. She let out a scream as she left the ground. She rose a dozen feet and flew backward toward home plate. I’d aimed her at the circle I’d placed around Cynthia.

  I canceled Cynthia’s circle and dropped the wind as the demons realized my circle was down. As one, they came for me. I had just long enough to see that Cynthia tried to break Julie’s fall before I raised my left hand to the sky, triggered my tat, and called down the lightning.

  The night exploded in energy around me, blinding and deafening me as energy pulsed down. I twitched in near uncontrollable spasms and held the bolt as long as I could, but finally I couldn’t take it any longer. I dropped my arm and canceled the spell, and my tat went dark.

  I dropped to one knee, drawing in a gasp of breath and reaching for my dagger. I held it at the ready while I waited for my sight to return. It came back within seconds, enough to make out the bodies around me.

  Most of the demons were already sliming away, but a couple still twitched. The smell was bad enough, but beneath the caustic stench of demon gunk was the smell of cooked flesh. I shifted my gaze to Carl’s charred remains. I’d like to say that I had forgotten about him, but I’m not self-delusional. I knew he couldn’t survive the lightning and had done nothing to protect him. But then, I had given him the chance to release Julie, and I had warned him of the consequences.

  No, that wasn’t exactly the truth either. I had offered to let him go or at least not kill him if he released her, but that would have only been a temporary reprieve. I’d have hunted him down and killed him if he had survived the night. It may sound cold, but that’s the only thing you can do when a night magic user begins to kill. It was a lesson Walt had tried to impress on me, but I only learned it after my own error.

  I went to the surviving demons and dispatched them with my blade.

  I felt a tingle of magic in the air and turned back toward the bleachers. The other mage was still out there.

  The wind was picking up sand and it stung my cheek. I reactivated my watch’s shield and let the wind flow around me.

  Julie and Cynthia were huddled together at the base of the bleachers where we’d entered. The sandstorm didn’t appear to be bothering either of them.

  If this were the best the mage could do then there’d soon be two dead mages littering the ballpark.

  The wind began to howl and sand swept past my shield, sending up little sparks of energy where grains struck it. In a second, I was blind again. I activated my own wind spell and pulled it down from the outfield. My wind grew until it cancelled out the wind coming from the stands.

  I still couldn’t see as far as home plate, but the sand was no longer swirling against my shield.

  “All right, mage, that was a good trick, but now that your partner is gone, let’s see if you can handle me on your own,” I called out. Bravado can be a weapon as sure as any sword. It gives your enemy the impression that they aren’t up to your standards and when used appropriately can turn a marginal victory into a rout. At least that’s the theory. Sometimes it works, sometimes…not so much.

  I walked down the lane from pitcher’s mound to home plate. Gradually I made out the bleachers and the backstop. Then I could make out the huddled forms of Cynthia and Julie.

  A tall, cloaked figure appeared in the bleachers above them.

  Before I could even shout a warning, the mage reached down, gripped Julie by the hair, and yanked her up onto the walkway.

  “No!” I screamed. I raised my right arm, focused on a tat beneath my forearm and aimed at the mage. My tat glowed blue and a ball of force leapt from my hand. The mage raised a dagger, but my spell slammed between them, driving the mage off her feet and into the bleachers and throwing Julie back onto the field near Cynthia.

  An energy blast tore my shield away and knocked me halfway back to the pitcher’s mound.

  I flipped end over end and landed face down in the dirt.

  What the fuck was that? I spat dirt from my mouth and stood or at least tried to stand. I fell back to the dirt collecting another mouthful of dirt in the process. Damn, the blast had just about numbed me. I could barely control my limbs.

  I heard a scream and knew it was Cynthia.

  Swaying drunkenly, I rose to my feet as a pop of energy told me that Cynthia had closed the circle I’d originally created around her. She was skilled enough to form a decent circle so the girls should be safe for a few minutes. I braced my feet and tried to get a line on my opponents. There was still too much sand in the air to let me see clearly and my own wind spell had quit when the energy blast got me.

  I called the wind back with every bit of concentration I could muster and cleared the air between the stands and the pitcher’s mound. Cynthia was standing, her feet spread, her arms aloft to reinforce her circle. Julia crouched in the dirt at her feet, still shaking from the force of my last spell. I hadn’t wanted to hurt her, but I hadn’t had time to do anything else before the mage would have killed her.

  The mage’s hood had fallen away and I could see now that it was Marian who stood on wobbly feet.

  I raised my left hand and summoned the lightning.

  Marian raised a hand over her head and formed a shield. Lightning slashed the night and lit the witch with a corona of energy. But Marian held off the bolt. Instead of burning to a crisp, she had the audacity to stand there untouched.

  Enough was enough.

  I canceled the lightning. Before Marian could escape, I raised both my fists, bent my arms at the elbow, and brought my forearms together. I triggered the tat pattern that wove across both forearms and it flared red. I poured energy into the tat and focused on the stands.

  The ground rumbled and broke in front of me. A jagged crack split the earth starting at my feet and racing toward the stands. The night howled as steel bleachers split and folded back from the force.

  Marian staggered crazily, teetered for a few seconds, and fell.

  The night tingled against my senses, and I had only a moment to cancel my spell and throw all of my energy into my shield as another energy bolt rushed out of the darkness and slammed into me. I fought to hold my shield together, but I was still weak from the first blast and the energy I’d already expended.

  I awoke facing upwards into a c
lear sky.

  There was movement and a dark shape blotted out the few stars I could see. I raised my left hand and tried to bring the lightning. My tat glowed briefly and went out. Hell, I was more tapped out than I could ever remember being. I needed time to recharge.

  The figure knelt beside me and I felt her long hair caress my face.

  “Rafe?”

  It was Cynthia.

  “Did I win?”

  “No, you fool,” she said with a sob that I hoped was relief. “I thought you were dead.”

  Another figure appeared over me, Julia knelt beside us.

  “Yeah, you know...me, too. I wonder why not?” I said.

  “What?” Cynthia asked.

  “Why didn’t they kill me when they had the chance? How long was I out?”

  “Less than a minute,” she said.

  I tried to sit up and failed miserably, just like everything else I’d done since coming to Huntsville.

  “Maybe you’d better rest. Julia can go get help.”

  I shook my head. “No, not here. If the police show up, I’ll have another body to explain and I think they’ll have noticed those fireworks.” I held out my left arm. “Help me up.”

  Cynthia gripped one arm and Julia the other and they pulled me erect. A spasm racked my chest as pain tore through me. Great, more broken ribs. I sucked in air, which only made it worse.

  I swayed like a sapling in the wind. Cynthia pulled me against her and maneuvered herself under my left arm. A moment later, Julia was under my right arm. We three started toward Beast, my feet half dragging in the dirt with each step.

  “Thanks. Cynthia, I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry for what?”

  “For letting Marian get away. I should have stopped her.”

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Julia said.

  Cynthia added, “You didn’t let her get away. You were amazing, Rafe, I’ve never seen such power except when Abigail is leading the coven in a ritual and even then it’s not the focused kind of assault you were doing. I still can’t believe it. I mean you killed Carl and still had the energy to kill those demons and fight off that other mage. It’s almost…”