Blood, Smoke and Mirrors

by Robyn Bachar

  The surrounding mob quickly focused its attention on Lex. It seemed odd that they ignored me-after all I’m sure they’d been sent here for me. Then a black-cloaked figure stepped into view and the portal closed behind him.

  It was my father.

  Strangely silent for once, Dorian strode toward me, weaving his way through the mob of steaming, swaying magma men, and I noticed that in addition to his clichéd black robes he’d added a sorcerer’s staff. He waved the staff at me, and as a blast of unseen force hit me I sailed backward and smacked into a wall. My top hat popped off as my head collided hard against the stone. Falling to the ground, I landed in a small snowdrift and the air exploded from my lungs. The courtyard faded in and out before me in a nauseous wave as pain throbbed through my head.

  “Bloody hell,” I slurred as I drew my rapier. I was more than a little irritated that my shields had fizzled out for no apparent reason, and I intended to take that frustration out on him. Dorian’s molten minions might not bleed, but I was willing to bet he would. He stood motionless as I charged toward him, ready to plunge my blade into his chest. The tip of my rapier bounced off his shield only a few inches away from his heart. Rookie mistake-just because necromancers aren’t good at shielding, doesn’t mean they don’t have any at all.

  With a cold smile he waved the staff, and I found myself airborne again. This time I flew in a new direction across the courtyard, landing with a bone-jarring thud in the middle of the battle of fire and ice. Our side wasn’t doing as well as we should be-the faeries should’ve wiped the floor with the invaders in a matter of moments. This was their home turf, and yet somehow they were losing.

  I was hauled to my feet and found myself standing next to Tybalt. “You’re bleeding,” I blurted, shocked. A blackened streak and a stream of blood flowed down the side of his face, a startling contrast against the frost-white of his skin. Concerned, I touched the wound upon his brow in an attempt to heal it, but nothing happened.

  “So are you. Leave it be, it’s not bad. Give that here.” Tybalt reached for my weapon and I handed it over. A line of frost and ice instantly coated the blade when the faerie touched it, along with a soft white glow.

  “Thanks. Will this get through Dorian’s shield?”

  “I’ll take care of that bastard. You get yourself behind your guardian and stay there,” Tybalt ordered. “Now go!”

  The faerie charged off in the direction of my father, and I looked around for Lex. Hurrying, I stumbled in the direction I’d last seen him, dodging flailing limbs and fluttering wings. A hulking elemental loomed in front of me suddenly, reaching out with red-hot arms to grab me. I jerked backward and almost lost my balance, and the creature swiped at me again. Before it could launch another attack the silver tip of a spear exploded out of its chest. With a smoking sizzle the weapon withdrew, leaving a hole burned through it. Like a broken doll it crumpled to the ground in a heap of glowing coals, and Lex stood on the other side of it looking like the modern incarnation of a god of war.

  “You’re bleeding,” he said, concerned. Crossing over to me, he grabbed my chin and turned my head, searching for the source of the blood.

  “Yeah I noticed. Tybalt’s gone after Dorian, we have to help him.”

  “This way.” Lex motioned for me to follow him, and he wove his way through the melee, knocking the occasional intruder out of our path. My cousin and my father struggled against each other, squaring off near the strange spinning web. Lex and I drew to a halt in front of it, and I was surprised at the sheer volume of tiny lights that whizzed around it like a thick cloud of angry fireflies.

  “It didn’t look like that before.” I resisted the urge to reach out and grab it, reminding myself that it’s a horribly bad idea to touch strange magic. Instead, I thrust the point of my rapier at the center of the web, but it bounced away, tearing the weapon’s hilt from my grasp. The rapier flew into the crowd and I lost sight of it.

  “Stop them!” my father’s voice bellowed above the crowd.

  My arm was nearly wrenched from its socket as something grabbed my forearm and pulled, searing agony shooting out from where it gripped me. Following the momentum, I fell toward my attacker, hoping to break its hold, but before I could show off my self-defense skills Lex thrust his spear through the creature’s neck. My skin was blackened and blistered where it had touched me, and the edges of my shirt smoked and smoldered around the wound.

  “Where’re your shields?” Lex asked. I ducked behind him as he fended off the elementals shambling in our direction.

  “No idea. Not working,” I said through gritted teeth. Biting back any further comments, I turned and stared at the hovering web. Any spell that’s been cast can be undone, provided you know what kind of magic was used. From the general design of the thing I figured it was a dreamcatcher gone horribly wrong-instead of being used for protection through trapping negative energy, it’d become a weapon that drained our strength. Everyone but Lex’s strength, that was. Why wasn’t it affecting him?

  “Hey, Lex-” I started, turning toward him. With amazing speed and skill he kept our attackers at bay, and a pile of crumpled, broken earth formed a half-ring around him. Suddenly the crowd parted and I saw Dorian striding toward us. “Look out!”

  Once more he swung his staff, but this time he aimed it at Lex. The impact wrenched the spear from the guardian’s hands and sent him flying past me, and I shrieked in terror as Lex smacked hard into the far wall of the courtyard and fell limply to the ground, where he lay in a motionless heap.

  “Lex!” My heart fluttered with fear, but before I could move to help Lex, Dorian raised the staff for another strike. This time I ducked and covered, letting my arms take the force of the blow. The wave pounded against me and rushed over my body like a blast of hurricane winds. The soles of my boots dug into the snow, and I could almost feel the bruises forming.

  “Just give up, Catherine. There’s no one left to protect you,” my father mocked. A nearby elemental took a swipe at me, and the blow sent me rolling across the ground. When I came to a stop I spotted the silver spear in the snow a few feet away, and I lunged for the weapon. The electric buzz of powerful magic shot up my arms as I picked it up and gripped it tightly. There were two options left to me: I could try to fend off the monsters closing in around me, or I could take out the disk and hope that its destruction would turn the tide of the battle.

  Clutching the spear, I staggered to my feet and rushed toward the web. With a loud battle cry, I stabbed the spear through the center of it.

  The lights shot out from it in an explosion of blinding rainbow sparks, and the rim hung limply on the end of the weapon. Shaking it off, I stomped on it for good measure. Satisfied that it was dead, I turned back to Dorian, but he’d disappeared. Without waiting to see where he went, I ran to the spot where I’d seen Lex fall. A magma man shuffled toward him, slow and menacing, and with a battle cry that would have made Xena proud I stabbed the spear through it. The shaft of the weapon bucked in my hands as it shoved through stone, and pain from my burn surged up my arm. I had a moment to ponder the fact that it was nothing like stabbing a target dummy with my rapier before the elemental fell forward and almost tore the spear out of my hands. Wrinkling my nose in disgust, I yanked it free and turned my attention to Lex.

  “Are you okay?” He looked bruised and a little bloodied, but otherwise intact. Lex stared up at me as though I’d announced I was an alien queen here to abduct him. “Umm, here’s your spear back.” Sheepishly I held it out to him, and he stared at both it and me for a long, strange moment.

  A series of loud, rumbling thumps echoed through the courtyard, and I turned to see the members of the shambling horde collapsing like marionettes with their strings cut. My father was nowhere to be seen, and the place was filled with battered but victorious Silverleaf faeries. Lex got to his feet and stood next to me, gently taking his weapon from my grasp.

  “Thanks, Cat.” The spear melted from view, returning to the thin air
it had been drawn from. Taking my hands in his, he turned them over and examined them closely.

  “It’s not that bad,” I said, assuming he was looking at the forearm burn. He nodded, distracted, but before he could reply Lex was cut off by a piercing shriek that made me shudder. A heartbroken wail filled the air, and I instinctively hurried toward it, spotting Portia crouched over something across the courtyard, her frosted wings drooping with sorrow. I stopped next to her and stared down at the figure cradled in her arms.

  Tybalt.

  “Oh no,” I said, my throat squeezed tight with emotion. “Lord and Lady, no.”

  Portia sobbed hysterically as she hugged her brother’s body. Tybalt’s head lolled at a very unnatural angle, and I realized Dorian must have snapped the faerie’s neck with that damned staff of his. My knees wobbled and Lex wrapped his arms around me. Resting my head against his chest, I wept bitter tears, and wished none of this had ever happened.

  Chapter Thirteen

  For the first time since the formation of Faerie, the Silverleaf clan buried one of their own.

  The call for vengeance was immediate and unanimous. They were eager to execute some vampires, and from what I could tell they intended to kill every vampire and necromancer connected to my father, from Lovely Laura on down to the lowliest minion she controlled. The scary part was that they could do it too, which made me wonder why Dorian had been stupid enough to try to attack me while I was within Castle Silverleaf. Sure he might ensure his position as Oberon if I was out of the way, but what good is the position when everyone he associates with is dead? All-the-way dead, not the average, everyday vampire dead.

  My cousins were busy planning their elaborate revenge, and I had to admit that angry, bloodthirsty Portia was the most frightening thing I’d ever seen in my entire life. Listening to her describe their plans in her sweet, sing-song voice was even more disturbing than watching the glee in the imp’s beady eyes as it recounted the plane crash it’d caused.

  They were going to kill everyone, and it was going to be glorious.

  My weapon training continued, but my heart was no longer in it. Lex spent most of his time with me, consoling me when I needed it and just generally keeping me sane-which was a tough job considering all the worries buzzing around in my brain. I wondered if I had gone after Dorian, would Tybalt still be alive? What if I failed the third test? What if Dorian became Oberon? Would I have to spend the rest of my life in Faerie, hiding from him? Would the vamps infect Faerie and spread through it like a plague?

  All that stood between me and the answers was the final test.

  One moment I was enjoying a peaceful sleep, safe in my bed, wrapped in my lover’s arms, and the next I found myself standing in the middle of the earthen room beneath the faerie mound of the Underhill clan. For a heartbeat I thought it was a dream-one of those horrible walking-down-the-hallway-of-your-high-school-while-naked-without-your-homework nightmares-but with a quick glance down I discovered I was wearing my usual clothes, and with a pinch to my arm I proved to myself that it was real. After adjusting my top hat I let my hand rest on the hilt of my rapier as I surveyed my surroundings.

  This time the cavern had been lit with a series of glowing spheres floating along the ceiling throughout the room. There wasn’t a dragon, but three other people stood near me, one of which was Lex. I reached out and took his hand, and he gave mine a reassuring squeeze. Cecelia of the Silver Crescent stood in front of us, looking as serene and perfect as ever, and on the other side of her stood my father, dressed in his somber black robes with a dour expression on his face.

  I snarled at him, filled with rage and grief, and Lex tugged me closer to him before I could do anything. I wanted nothing more in the world than to fulfill my oath and see Dorian dead.

  “Stay where you are, Catherine,” Cecelia warned. There was a subtle threat in her voice that made me pause. Balling my free hand into a fist, I took a deep breath.

  “What is he doing here?” Dorian asked, pointing an accusing finger at Lex. “He has no right to be here.”

  “Actually, he has every right to be here, but that is not your concern,” Cecelia informed him. “Each of you has progressed this far. This will be the final trial. Recent events have reminded the council of an important aspect of the position of liaison: the ability to survive an attack by one’s enemies. Your objective here is simple: to live. The test begins now.”

  “What the hell-” I began to protest, but Cecelia vanished from view. Dorian wasted no time in turning on me. Without a staff this time, he conjured a ball of fire and whipped it at me. I flung my arms up to protect my face as my shields snapped into life, surrounding both me and Lex and deflecting the fireball so that it bounced back at him.

  “Dumbass!” I shouted as he dodged out of the way. Shoving my anger down into the pit of my stomach, I resisted the urge to draw my sword, and instead poured more strength into the protective barrier.

  “Now that’s just mean spirited, Dorian,” Lex scolded. The silver spear appeared out of nowhere again, and he held the weapon in front of him. One by one the glowing lights overhead winked out, plunging the room into darkness. “Guess they forgot to pay the bill.”

  “Looks like it,” I agreed. I moved closer to Lex, and we stood together in the darkness as I debated our options. I could cast a light spell, but it’d weaken my shield. Sadly my lightstone was sitting in my apartment with a lot of my other trinkets, so that option was out. Though the darkness was terrifying, we were safe in my magical bubble, and if we were real lucky some big bad monster was out there eating my dad in one tasty bite right now. That deserved a victory cigarette, didn’t it?

  Dragging my smokes out of my pocket, I placed one between my lips and then held up my lighter, flicking it on. The small circle of light revealed my father inching close, a dagger in his hand. Startled, I forced myself not to flinch, and continued to light the end of my cigarette, blowing a stream of smoke in his direction. The smoke hit the invisible wall of my shield and curled back toward me, and I smiled.

  “If you light yourself on fire again, I’m not pattin’ you out this time,” Lex warned me dryly.

  “So noted,” I replied. “Careful, Dorian. You might hurt yourself with that thing.” Dorian lunged toward me, swinging his weapon, and it bounced off the barrier with an audible crackle and a small flash of light. “Not so tough without your evil trinkets, are you?”

  “Your mother thought her shields would keep her safe. She was mistaken,” he informed me in an annoyed growl as he rubbed his wrist. “It takes more energy to protect two people. You’ll tire soon enough.”

  My anger surged and the flame of my lighter shot two feet high. I nearly dropped it in response, but instead I took my thumb off the button and killed the fire. “Well, my shields are plenty tough, and you’re out there in the dark, completely unprotected, with whatever icky bad the faeries decided to throw at us. I’m just gonna stay in here and enjoy my smoke. I may even conjure up some popcorn while I wait.”

  “How do you know they put anything in here with us? Maybe we’re meant to kill each other.” His voice circled me, and I tried to follow the source.

  “Works for me, I’m all about killing you. But I’m still willing to put money on the icky-bad theory, say, fifty bucks? Hey, how fried did that dragon leave you? Original recipe or extra crispy?”

  An annoyed hiss sounded in the shadows, and I knew I’d hit a nerve. Another flash of light and a crackle of energy behind me alerted me when he took a second swing at my shield. Still no damage. If the darkness didn’t attack him soon, it was going to be a really long test.

  “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. Even if the monster out there in the dark doesn’t get you, the Silverleafs will. They’ve got extra excruciating plans for you and all your fanged friends.”

  Dorian’s stinging retort was interrupted by a loud roar that shook the ground and echoed off the walls. I paused, blinking in surprise, and then slowly lifted the cigarette to my mo
uth and inhaled a long drag. “Ooh, that sounds bad.”

  “Cat, I think your daddy owes you fifty bucks.” Lex chuckled.

  I doubted it could be another dragon lurking in the dark. The council wouldn’t pull the same trick twice. Puffing away at my cigarette, I listened intently for a clue as to what was going on outside the safety of my shields. The low drone of chanting indicated that my father was casting some sort of spell, and the awful stench of necromancer magic wafted toward me.

  “You smell that?” Lex asked me, his voice low.

  A new scent wove its way through the smoke and necromancy, surrounding me from all sides. I wrinkled my nose in disgust as I sniffed the air, and it took me a moment to identify the unfamiliar and unpleasant aroma.

  “Yeah. Sulfur.” It’s not magic, but instead it’s a smell that clings to summoners who delve too deeply into their art, desiring faster, more potent power. The mark of demonic taint. This changed the game-I’d never tested my shields against such concentrated evil, and there was an excellent chance they wouldn’t hold against a demon. What the hell was wrong with the Council, anyway? Letting demons loose in Faerie, had they completely lost their minds?

  “We’re going to need some light to work with,” Lex informed me.

  “Right.” Dropping the butt of my cigarette, I ground it out beneath my boot and wiped my hands on the legs of my cargo pants. Rummaging through my pockets as the gloom pressed in around me, I found my box of matches and struck one against the side of the box. A tiny flame leapt to life, and I held it aloft above my head.

  “Light of life, of right, and pure,

  Push back the night, let good endure.

  Burn bright for everyone to see,

  As I will, so mote it be!”

  A sphere of pure white light swelled from the tiny match and then hovered like a spotlight above our heads, illuminating the entire room. My father stood several feet away, two skeletons at his side. It was obvious he’d raised them with some components he’d carried with him, they couldn’t have been native to the area. Their bones were bright white, as though bleached, and they swayed back and forth with soft creaking sounds as the bones rubbed together. Awaiting their orders, no doubt. Disgusting.