by C. M. Lance
Sig and Giselle rode with Professor Herman. He dropped them by the side of the road a quarter mile from the Dean′s compound and waited while they jogged through the shadows. The Maybach rolled past Sig when he was fifty feet from the Dean′s driveway.
The damaged gate leaned against the stone fence, awaiting repair. The remaining gate stood open.
Professor Herman stopped his car in the circular drive in front of the flagstone stairs leading to the front door. Before he got out, he checked his cell phone to ensure that the message was ready. It said, 'I′m in′. He only had to press the 'Send′ button to forward it to Sig, Giselle, Rick, and Jacob.
A minute after he rang the bell, the door opened. A butler in tie and tails stood in the doorway, bowed stiffly, and held his hand out toward the folder.
The Professor pressed 'Send′ and placed the phone in his coat pocket. Holding the folder close, he asked, "Is Dean Heathcoat in?"
Sig and Giselle ran toward the house, dashing from shadow to shadow as they came.
The Professor waved his hand in front of the butler as Grampa Thor had done to the Watchers. Sig changed to Battle Wizard shape when the Professor′s magic revealed that the butler′s glamour concealed a zombie. An arrow sprouted from one of its eyes. As Sig and Giselle sprinted up the steps, it raised an axe that the simulacra spell had hidden.
At the top of the steps, Sig sliced the zombie in half from top to bottom before it could swing the axe. Its still twitching halves collapsed to either side of the doorway.
The Professor dropped the folder onto the zombie. "I′m sorry. Were you looking for this?" He stepped over it as Sig preceded him into the expansive marble foyer. Giselle followed, carrying her bow, an arrow nocked at the ready.
Sig recognized the room from his escape. The same Chinese vase with a fresh floral arrangement sat on the carved antique sideboard. This time, a foul smell wafted up the stairwell to mingle with the stargazer lily scent.
The Professor started toward the stairs. Giselle pointed her bow at the flowers, "Look."
Sig glanced at the sideboard. The flowers were turning black and withering. A familiar miasma of evil floated up into the foyer from the stairs. He leapt forward and pushed the Professor to the side, raising his sword just in time to slap aside a fireball that hissed up from the basement. It burst against and shattered an ornately carved full-length mirror. Flaming embers splattered around the foyer and pattered on the polished floor.
Through the flames bounded Andras on wolfback, screeching like a hunting raptor. An arrow bounced off his feathered head. The wolf pivoted away from Sig and drove for Giselle, who loosed another arrow and then another. One ricocheted away as the demon blocked it with his sword and the other pierced the wolf′s shoulder. Its charge didn′t pause as the demon rider plucked it out and cast it aside.
Sig reached Giselle in time to block a sword strike aimed at her head. He followed up with a hard sidekick to the wolf′s side. Its claws scrambled for purchase as it slid across the marble floor.
Andras leapt off and advanced upon Sig in a fencer′s shuffle, while the wolf circled to get behind him. Sig moved to keep both in view. The wolf charged and the Professor hurled a fireball at it. "I′ll keep him busy. You take Andras." The fireball struck the wolf a glancing blow and sprayed around the room. Its fur flamed.
Andras closed with Sig who blocked a slash and thrust and followed up with a thrust of his own that Andras didn′t quite dodge. When it slashed his side, Andras squawked and followed the smoking wolf down the stairs to the basement.
Sig jumped down the stairs in pursuit. The smell of brimstone strengthened and a wall of fire erupted at the bottom. His momentum carried him through the fire and he threw up an arm to shield his eyes. Clothing burning, he tumbled into a roll to extinguish the flames. Before he could finish slapping out smoldering embers, Andras and his wolf attacked. When he dodged the wolf′s jaws, Andras drew blood from Sig′s shoulder.
Sig backed into a corner. Using the block, block, attack technique the Amazon Training Master taught him, Sig held his own against them. A tunnel formed behind them in the still burning wall of fire and two more wolves dashed through from the stairs.
Rick and Jacob attacked Andras′ wolf, chasing it through the door to the basement recreation room.
Sig redoubled his attack on Andras and pressed him back. The training worked. He could attack as well as defend.
He blocked a thrust by Andras and flipped a backhand slash at his leg. The tip of his sword sliced a shallow cut into Andras′ thigh drawing blood to match the blood trickling down Sig′s arm. Squealing, Andras ran into the recreation room. Sig entered cautiously. Rick and Jacob had the demon wolf backed up to the shuffleboard table, but they couldn′t get closer. Its teeth grew into a mouthful that would have done a Tyrannosaurus Rex proud. He lunged and snapped, keeping them at bay.
Each snap sounded like a steel trap clashing shut.
Andras jumped on the billiards table, leapt over the wolves onto the shuffleboard and raced up it to the door at the end. His wolf turned and followed him through the door.
Rick and Jacob started to chase him down the stairs, but Sig shouted, "Stop, wait, let′s go together. Trolls, wizards, more demons, we don′t know what′s down there. The stairs are narrow. We can only go one at a time."
The Professor entered the room followed by Giselle. She had her bow at the ready.
Jacob changed to human form. "Describe the layout down there."
"Below these stairs you′ll find a stone hallway, ten feet wide. There are five doors on each side and a door at each end", Sig said.
He pointed to the left. "On that end, the door leads to a large room outside a jail cell where I woke up to the trolls." Gesturing to the right he said, "Another door is on that end. I don′t know what′s behind it."
"We′ve lost the element of surprise and have no idea what opponents are down there," Jacob said with a frown.
The Professor pulled an object out of his pocket. In his open hand lay an eyeball. "I borrowed this from the zombie upstairs. Happily, Giselle and Sig left one eye intact. Does anyone have a mirror or some other shiny object?"
Giselle handed him her cell phone, which had a large shiny black screen. "Can you use this?"
He looked at it and nodded. "This should do." Holding the cell phone and eyeball together in one hand, he waved his other hand over them, while he muttered incomprehensible words. The eyeball rose out of his hand and darted down the stairwell. He peered at the screen on the cell phone and the others crowded around to see.
A scene appeared on the surface of the phone screen. It floated down the stairwell into a wide passage. The view panned along the hall, past mostly closed doors. It zoomed into the nearest open doorway and panned around. Sig′s stomach roiled as it revealed the frilly dress partially covering the same carnage he saw on his last visit.
Backing out of the room, the view swung to a doorway at the end of the hall. The scene spun rapidly to view the doorway at the other end. Andras, astride his wolf, guarded that doorway. Two trolls stood in the hall halfway between the eyeball and the door Andras guarded. One troll stepped forward; his reaching hand blocked the view. The next view revealed the troll′s mouth growing in size before it winked out.
The Professor handed the phone back to Giselle. "Oh well, the zombie didn′t need that eye anymore."
"Rick and I will take out the trolls and then help Sig with Andras and his wolf," Jacob said.
Giselle held out her bow. "I can take out at least one of the trolls with this. That will give you more time to help Sig."
"Good idea. I can use all the help I can get."
Jacob looked between Sig and Giselle. "All right. If the trolls aren′t out of it when Rick and I reach them, we′ll have to take them. Don′t shoot us. The quarters down there are tight. Somebody is going to get hurt. Be careful. We don′t want fatalities to anyone on our team."
Jacob transformed back into a wolf. He and Rick
bounded down the stairs. Giselle hurried to catch them.
They stopped in the hallway. One of the trolls looked down at them. "Doggies."
Giselle stepped between the Weres and rapidly dispatched four arrows. Each troll sprouted arrow fletchings protruding from its chest. Another arrow appeared in each troll′s right eye. They crumpled, dead before they hit the floor.
The Weres dashed forward silently. Sig followed.
Andras′ wolf bounded toward them with a roar, leaving Andras guarding the doorway. The wolf ran up the wall to the ceiling and dropped onto the Weres from above. The unexpected movement allowed the wolf to grab Jacob′s rear leg in its oversized jaws. It shook him violently. Jacob yelped and squealed in pain.
Rick leapt on it from behind and savaged its ears. It released Jacob′s leg and whirled toward Rick. Jacob lunged up from the ground and grabbed the wolf′s hind leg in his jaws. They pulled Andras′ wolf in separate directions until Sig ran up and sliced through its torso.
The Weres dragged the still struggling wolf halves to opposite sides of the hallway. Jacob′s rear leg dragged as he limped backwards on three legs. Rick kept shaking his half to keep the still snapping jaws from closing on him.
Sig strode between them toward Andras who lunged forward, weaving his sword in a pattern that made it look like a curtain of steel.
Sig broke through the steel curtain with blocks and thrusts. He couldn′t use his full repertoire because of the small size of the hallway. Nevertheless, because of his greater reach, he forced Andras back.
At the doorway, Sig thrust at Andras and then grabbed the small table to the side and threw it. Andras chopped it to kindling while still in the air, but Sig managed to nick his shoulder. Andras stepped back and threw a fireball. Sig ducked under it, but it felt like sticking his head in a hot oven. He heard a yelp in the hallway behind, but couldn′t chance a look.
Inside the room, Sig saw Dean Heathcoat sitting in the middle of the floor wearing a yellow and crimson robe. A sorcerer′s circle, inscribed on the floor, surrounded him. In a remote part of his brain, Sig registered that the white streak was on the right side of the Dean′s head.
With more freedom to move inside the large room, Sig kept pressing Andras back toward the Dean. Tears ran down the Dean′s cheeks.
Andras stopped at the edge of the ring on the floor. His earlier wounds had already healed. He leaned as if his back was against a barely visible wall and he fought more desperately. Sig kicked him in the side of the knee and Andras fell backwards but stopped in mid-fall against a faintly shimmering bubble of force.
Sig thrust at Andras but missed when he twisted his torso to the side. Sig′s sword pierced the force bubble and Andras fell inside, knocking Aðalbrandr loose. It dropped inside the bubble with Andras.
The Dean screamed. At the far end of the room, a door opened. Another Dean Heathcoat stepped out in time to see Andras chop the first Dean into pieces. The first hack went through the Dean′s neck, and blood splattered on the inside of the force field. The headless Dean tumbled sideways and the field collapsed. Andras continued chopping.
Sig focused his concentration and Aðalbrandr flew into his hand. He stepped forward and severed Andras′ head. Andras fell forward but disappeared with a pop before he hit the ground.
"Giaaaaannnnnnnnni!"
Sig turned to the other Dean in the doorway. The white streak blazed on the left side. The Dean glared hatred at Sig and hurled a lightning bolt. Sig deflected the bolt with Aðalbrandr and ran toward the door. The Dean stepped back and slammed the door shut.
Sig jammed his sword between the locked door and its jam and pried it open. The door ripped off its hinges.
He bent to enter the doorway, but straightened up when the Professor grabbed his arm. "Stop! Don′t go in there."
The Professor looked around Sig, at the doorway casing. He maintained his hold on Sig′s arm. "Look at the inscriptions surrounding this doorway. It′s probably an inter-dimensional portal. We don′t know where it goes, or if you will even end up in the same place. He must be desperate, or is more advanced than I can credit." He touched the sigils surrounding the door casing and then snatched his hand away as if it burned him.
Professor Herman gestured at the door Sig had torn off. "Put that back over the opening. We don′t want anyone wandering in there until we remove the sigils enchanting it."
As Sig replaced the door, he saw what looked like gray clouds boiling on the other side. It was probably a good thing the Professor stopped him.
"I can′t find anyone, but some of the doors are locked." Sig and the Professor turned at the sound of Giselle′s voice. She stood in the doorway to the hall. She raised her hands and said, "The little girl. If you remember, we came to rescue a little girl. One of you will have to open the locked doors to see if she′s there. In addition, Jacob can′t walk. His leg is damaged."
Sig went down the hallway, kicking in doors while the Professor and Rick used Giselle′s shirt and the Professor′s belt to bind Jacob′s leg.
None of the locked doors concealed anyone. It was a relief to learn that they arrived before the Dean had kidnapped another child.
Naked, Jacob lay next to a pool of blood. Blood soaked his bandage. He groaned when Sig picked him up and carried him up to the recreation room in the basement. Smoke rolled down the stairway from the main floor. A sheet of flames roared in the room at the top, sealing off that exit. "Crap, there were too many fireballs flying around." Flaming pieces of ceiling fell to further block the stairway. "We have to get out of here before it burns down around us."
Sig turned and ran to the basement window at the end of the hall. Holding Jacob in one arm, he shattered the window with Aðalbrandr and scrapped shards out of the way. Rick made a cradle with his hands and hoisted Giselle up to climb out. Rick followed her. Sig handed Jacob through to them.
He heard a hiss and roar. He whirled. The Professor ran from an explosion of fire that shot out of the recreation room. When the Professor reached him, Sig shouted over the roar of flames, "What happened?"
"I unleashed a few fireballs to eradicate any evidence. Please give me a boost."
Sig helped him out the window and then changed forms. His Battle Wizard shape wouldn′t fit through the opening. He climbed out, joined them on the manicured lawn, and turned to watch the house.
Fire shot out of the windows on the main floor. Smoke and flames curled from the second floor windows. Sig changed back to Battle Wizard and picked up Jacob. "Let′s get out of here before the fire trucks and police show up."
They ran. Sirens whooped in the distance.
The great fire at Dean Heathcoat′s house became the main topic of conversation around school the next day. The Dean′s continuing absence fueled rumors. One told of a dismembered skeleton found on the front porch.
The news coverage didn′t contain many details other than that the mansion was a total loss. The four-alarm fire had taken most of the night to put down.
Rick stayed to tend to Jacob at the Professor′s home. He called the Professor early in the afternoon to let him know that Jacob′s pace of healing would probably allow him to drive home in a day or two. It was another confirmation of the phenomenal healing power of Weres.
When Sig left his afternoon class, Professor Herman waited for him in the hallway. "I′d like to try a few tests if you have time."
"I don′t have anything pressing."
"Good, meet me in the measurement lab in fifteen minutes."
Sig drove to the Physics of Magic lab. The Professor was alone. "Why don′t you run through the standard sequence?"
"Standard precautions?"
Professor Herman nodded.
During Sig′s regular exercises, they discovered that although his magic still wasn′t apparent, strange things happened at random times after he finished the exercises. Sometimes items he tried to levitate were found broken on the floor across the room on the next day. Candles he tried to light ended up as melted pu
ddles later in the day. The cause remained a mystery until a candle Sig had used earlier exploded, splattering a technician who was using the room with scalding wax.
Liquid evaporated out of pans of water he used for attempts at distance views. Another time, boiling water burned a student assistant when she emptied the viewing pan.
Since none of it ever happened while Sig was around, as a precaution, they made him place all of the props into nonflammable, locked boxes at the conclusion of his tests. He also removed them for the next exercise.
For this test, he pulled out two candles, a pan for water, and a prism and placed them on a table against the wall.
While he filled the pan with water, the Professor said, "Please place your amulet on the table as well. I want to see you levitate it."
Sig placed his amulet next to the prisms on the table. Stepping back several paces, he focused on one of the candles. When nothing happened, he changed his focus to the other candle. Still nothing.
The prism didn′t levitate, but Aðalbrandr flew through the air and smacked satisfyingly into his hand.
The Professor, standing next to the measuring monitor, applauded. "Bravo. Now try the prism again."
Again, the prism remained motionless on the table. The Professor looked disappointed when Sig glanced at him.
When he noticed Sig looking at him, he smiled and shrugged. "Try the pan of water."
The bottom of the pan remained clear and in focus, despite Sig′s use of the approved magical gestures and prescribed incantation.
The Professor patted him on the back. "I had hoped that perhaps… Well, put your things away and I′ll meet you in front of the building."
Sig finished, locked up, and exited the building to find Professor Herman talking on the phone. He overheard the end of the Professor′s side of the conversation. "… I see. Very well, we′ll be over immediately. Thank you for the call. Goodbye."
He looked at Sig as he finished and disconnected. "That was the hospital about Thorval. We should get over there right away. There has been change in his condition. Come with me. I′ll drop you back here to pick up your vehicle afterwards."
