“You’re saying she could summon hundreds of creatures like those things that attacked Conryu? How would we even begin to deal with something like that?”
“If it happens, all the wizards in the city wouldn’t be enough to stop every shadow beast before it killed someone. We need to handle this before the island returns. Have you finished mapping all the potential hiding spots?”
“All the ones the computer and I could come up with.” He typed a command and an aerial map of the city appeared on the screen. Hundreds of little red dots littered it.
“Can you overlay the path of the floating island?”
Another command produced a wide gray path over the city.
“You can eliminate anything outside of that swath.”
Dozens of little dots vanished, leaving far too many behind. Lin hung his head. “That’s still a hell of a lot of spots to check.”
“She’ll want to open the portals in the most densely populated part of the city, so you can eliminate everything outside the city center.”
“Okay, that leaves around sixty left to check. That’s a lot, but manageable. If we deploy the city police we should be able to clear the lot of them in a week.”
Terra shook her head. “We’ll need to send wizards. Mercia will have hidden the boxes behind illusions and magical defenses. If you send regular cops and they trigger a trap… No, that might be almost as bad as a portal opening.”
“So, you and me, maybe Clair and the security guy…Adam, right? If we can coax the police into loaning us the department wizard she could check a few locations.”
“That should work. Once we find one box I can calculate the approximate location of the other four. I’ll round up Clair, you call your former boss. We’ll meet downstairs in an hour. Oh, and be sure to print out a list of all the addresses.”
Lin guided the car through the early afternoon traffic. After months of frustration they were finally close to cracking the case. In the time since his reassignment he’d had more than a few doubts about whether they’d ever make any progress, or if Mercia was too clever for them. He never should have doubted Terra. That woman had determination to spare. Though if he never had to look at that list of descriptions again that would be okay.
Beside him Terra stared out the window. They were still a ways from the park where they hoped to find the first box, so he doubted she’d detect anything. Maybe she was mentally preparing herself for whatever they’d have to deal with. Lin felt far out of his depth most days at his new job. Sometimes it came as a relief that they’d just stuck him in an office with his packet of clues. If he’d had to comment on some magical matter he’d have sounded like an idiot.
The light turned red, forcing him to ease to a stop. He glanced at Terra again. She seemed to be in her own world.
He enjoyed the profile of her face and neck for a moment then said, “What’s on your mind?”
She jumped as though she’d forgotten he was there. “I was thinking about the warehouse and what sort of trouble we might find when we track down the rest of the boxes.”
Lin grimaced. It had been a near thing last summer when he accidentally triggered magic protecting the box they recovered. Only Terra’s power had allowed them to escape with their lives, though she’d paid a high price for the effort.
“Maybe it won’t be that bad.”
“Wishful thinking. Mercia has had months to prepare her defenses and unlike the first one we found, these boxes still have their artifacts inside. No, if all we encounter is a swarm of shadow ravens I’ll consider us lucky indeed.”
Lin tried to think of something encouraging, but the light changed forcing him to focus on the road. That was probably just as well. Only inane words of encouragement came to mind and she’d see right through them.
Five minutes later he pulled into a space beside the park. It was only half-hour parking, but his government plates should keep them from getting a ticket. He waited for a break in the traffic, climbed out, and joined Terra on the sidewalk.
The park only covered four blocks and according to his research had a single fountain. If the information the biker left was accurate, then the box had to be near it.
“What should I do?”
Terra took her magic-enhancing glasses from a pocket of her gray robe and slid them on. “Just keep your eyes peeled and don’t touch anything.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry, I learned my lesson.”
The air was bitter as they walked down the path toward the fountain. The bare branches of the trees cast a spiderweb of shadows across the trail. Lin was glad he had on his heavy wool jacket. He assumed Terra used some sort of magic to keep the air around her warm as her robe seemed far too thin for the weather.
One advantage of the cold, it kept all the people inside and out of their way. If this went sideways, the fewer people around the better.
Terra muttered under her breath as they walked, her gaze flicking back and forth. He doubted they’d find anything this far from the fountain, but she appeared to be taking no chances.
They spent the better part of ten minutes at their deliberate pace to reach the center of the park. Some kids had built a pair of snowmen off to one side. The fountain was a simple octagon of gray stone about hip high and filled with ice. He wanted to draw his pistol, but there was no threat visible and he doubted it would be much use against anything they might encounter.
Terra strode over to the fountain, her chanting rising in volume as she worked her way around it. She examined the sides and top before making a mystical pass that evaporated the ice to allow a better view inside the bowl.
Finally she fell silent and turned to face him. “This place is a bust. There’s not even a hint of magic.”
Lin shrugged. It was too much to hope they’d hit it on the first try. “Shall we head to the next one?”
They had barely gotten in the car when Terra’s phone rang. “Clair? You did? We’re on our way.”
“What is it?” Lin fired up the car and cranked the heater.
“They found one of the boxes. Clair says it’s warded six ways from Sunday and her magic can’t touch it. She wants me to come over and lend a hand.”
“What’s the address?”
Terra spotted Clair and Adam outside the door of an abandoned building. The sign over the door said “for sale by owner,” but there was no name or number written on it. The derelict building sat between an apartment complex and a minimart. A trickle of people eyed the unusual pair loitering around the old building as they made their way up and down the street, but no one took the time to talk.
Lin pulled in behind Clair and Adam’s car and they climbed out. Terra marched straight over to Clair. “What did you find?”
“You’d best have a look yourself.” Terra followed her inside.
Beyond the door was a large open space covered in graffiti and littered with cigarette butts and empty beer bottles. It looked like the local youth used the place as a hangout. If they couldn’t do something about the box, they’d have to make sure no one entered the building.
Clair pointed to a spot on the wall near the ceiling. Terra slipped on her glasses. “Reveal.”
A section of the wall shimmered in her enhanced vision and revealed a cutout. A wooden crate sat below the opening. When she climbed up for a better look Terra flinched. A web of dark magic filled the space, the black box barely visible through all the threads.
“Not screwing around, is she?” Terra asked as she climbed back down.
“No. I cast my best breaking spell and it didn’t even draw a twitch from the wards. Even together I doubt we’d penetrate it.”
“I agree. And even if we did we couldn’t open the box itself.”
“So what do we do?” Clair sounded nervous and Terra didn’t blame her. Despite the evidence it was hard to square what they knew of Mercia from her time at the Department with what she’d accomplished here.
“We need to set up stakeouts at all five locations.
If Mercia comes to check on her handiwork they could potentially follow her back to wherever she’s hiding out.”
“That’s a pretty thin plan. She can trigger the spells from anywhere. And whatever else she is, Mercia isn’t an idiot. No way she’d do anything to compromise her hiding places or headquarters.”
“All true.” Terra ran a hand through her hair. “Maybe we should just cordon off the place to keep the locals out. I doubt anyone would bother this box given its location and the illusion hiding it, but if they got to partying and smashing stuff you never know what might happen.”
“What do you think, an aversion ward around the building? That should keep any non-wizards out of the area, and if it’s broken, it will give us warning that something was happening.”
“Good call. Can you handle it? I want to try and figure out where the remaining boxes are most likely hidden.”
“No sweat.” Clair limbered up her fingers.
Terra left Clair to her casting and walked out of the building. Adam and Lin stood on either side of the door, hands thrust into pockets and steam coming out their mouths. The poor guys were way out of their depths and she felt bad reducing them to chauffeurs and bodyguards. Not bad enough to send them home. It was pretty handy to have someone good with a gun if they should run into any of the more corporeal undead.
“So what’s the deal?” Lin asked. “Can you two handle it or not?”
“Definitely not. Clair’s going to fix it so the local kids can’t go in there anymore. Let’s see if we can figure out where the other four are hiding.”
“I’m up for anything that gets me out of this cold.”
While Lin started the car and cranked up the heat Terra turned to Adam. “She won’t be long if you want to wait in your car.”
Adam shook his head. “I’ll guard the door until she comes out. How are we going to resolve this crisis, Terra?”
Terra offered a tired smile. “When I figure that out, you’ll be one of the first to know.”
Adam grunted.
Terra climbed into the car beside Lin who already had his computer open and the map on the screen. He highlighted their current location and marked it “number one.” “Now what?”
“Eliminate anything further from this point than the diameter of the island.”
Lin typed and over half the remaining points vanished. Terra studied them. It didn’t take long, using the one position they’d confirmed as a starting point to find the four points that completed a pentagram.
She pointed them out one by one and Lin highlighted them. “It seems so simple now,” he said.
“Getting rid of ninety percent of the false locations helped a lot.” Clair tapped on the window and she rolled it down. “All done?”
“Yup. Anyone getting too close will have an overwhelming urge to puke their guts out. That ought to convince them to party somewhere else. How about you?”
Lin turned the laptop to show Clair what they’d discovered.
“Standard pentagram layout, nice. You want to ward the other four like I did this one?”
Terra nodded. “For now that’s all we can do. Which ones do you want?”
Clair shrugged so Terra gave her the two closest, a church and a funeral home. “Shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. We’ll have to update the chief when we’re finished.”
Terra sighed. “Yes. He’s not going to be thrilled with our results.”
“I’m not thrilled with our results.”
Terra couldn’t argue with that.
“Well the clue was right,” Lin said as he pulled the car off the access road and parked beside a chain link fence. “It’s certainly dark and wet.”
They were approaching the location of the final box, a culvert seven feet in diameter that directed storm runoff to the ocean. This was the one he was looking forward to the least. He’d fished more than one body out of these drains over his years on the force.
Lin slid out of the car and shivered. Sunset wasn’t for another two hours, but the temperature was dropping already. He walked around the car and joined Terra beside a gate in the fence. It had a padlock of course, but a wave of Terra’s hand combined with a muttered command popped it open in a jiffy.
It was a short walk from the gate to the culvert. A wide, concrete gully funneled water from all over the city to this drain. More than one person had drowned over the years when they were caught in a flash flood. One good thing about doing this in the winter was they didn’t have to worry about a flood. Pneumonia, on the other hand, seemed a distinct possibility.
“How about sharing a little magical heat over here?”
Terra glanced at him like she’d forgotten he was even there. “Sorry.”
She put her hand on his back and warmth flooded through him, drawing a long sigh. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Let’s get moving. We don’t want to do this after dark.”
“No, but we have over an hour of daylight and we don’t want to slip and break our necks.”
The warning proved apt. You could hardly take a step across the snow-covered concrete without hitting a hidden patch of ice. Lin feared he really would break his neck before they reached the culvert.
An iron ladder hammered into the stone granted access to the drainage gully. Lin eyed it and frowned. The black opening of the culvert gave off a bad vibe. “I don’t suppose you can ward it from here?”
“Afraid not. First we have to confirm the box is actually down there. Just because we got the other locations right is no guarantee on this one.”
“Come on.”
“We have to be sure. If it makes you feel better I’ll hold your hand when we reach the dark part.” She whistled and hopped off the edge of the gully. Terra drifted like a leaf in a breeze to the icy floor.
Must be nice.
He crawled down the ladder, testing each rung as he went. When he reached the bottom his hands ached from the tight grip he’d held on the freezing rungs.
“Shit! I left my flashlight in the car.”
Terra hissed and waved a hand. A handful of fire orbs flashed into being. “I think we can manage with these.”
She gestured and the balls of flame flew into the culvert opening. Icicles hung from the top and a foot-wide path of brown ice ran down the center. He really didn’t want to know what was mixed with that water. At least the cold held down the stink.
He blew out a breath and marched toward the opening, determined to complete the job as quickly as possible. He’d barely taken three steps when Terra grabbed his arm.
“What?”
“Something’s not right. The dark magic feels different here, less contained.”
Lin reached for his pistol, taking his time, waiting for her to reassure him that it wouldn’t be necessary. Terra remained silent, her focus on the still-hidden recesses of the culvert. That told him all he needed to know about the seriousness of the situation.
The flaming orbs drifted deeper into the culvert. He caught a glimpse of pasty white skin and yellow teeth then the moans rang out.
“Aim for the head,” Terra said. “I need to stop the overflow of energy so you’ll have to deal with the zombies.”
“Right.” He worked the slide, putting a bullet in the chamber.
Terra whistled and flew up into the leaden sky.
“Hey!”
“Draw them away from the entrance so I can get inside. You’ll be fine, zombies are slow.”
“Great,” he muttered. “Zombies are slow. That’s her big piece of wisdom.”
The first of the undead shambled out of the culvert and into the light. It was an ugly thing; most of its face had been eaten by rats. Where there had once been eyes there were only black pits.
Lin drew a bead on its head, then lowered his weapon. She wanted them away from the opening, so dropping the first one a step away from it wasn’t the best plan. He waved his arms. “Hey, you ugly fucks. Come and get me.”
The lead zombie oriented on him and
picked up the pace, speeding up to a quick walk.
Lin backpedaled, maintaining the distance between them. One after another walking corpses emerged from the culvert until five of the hideous things were chasing after him in a slow-motion race.
When they were a hundred feet up the gully he put a bullet in the forehead of the closest zombie. It collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
But only for a moment. The zombie sat up and the hole in its head closed as he stared in horror.
This was going to be harder than he thought.
When the first zombie Lin shot sat back up Terra stared in disbelief. When he dropped a second one and it climbed to its feet again she knew she had to hurry. They were far enough up the gully now that she could land without fear.
She conjured more flaming spheres and surrounded herself with a light magic barrier. With her defenses in place she landed and eased her way into the culvert. Behind her more shots rang out.
The zombies were drawing power from the energies of the box and using it to heal wounds that should have destroyed them. Until she sealed that leak Lin couldn’t defeat them.
Terra positioned her flame spheres every ten feet as she made her way deeper into the cold darkness. There was really nowhere to hide anything in the culvert, it was just a metal tube with no shelves or hollow walls. She couldn’t imagine Mercia simply tossing the box on the ground. A flood would wash it out into the ocean.
Something moved at the edge of her light. She pointed and a flame sphere flew toward it.
“Ugh.” She gagged and put her hand over her mouth and nose.
A lumpen mass of flesh sat off to one side of the culvert. Pale, putrefied, and covered in bristly hair, once upon a time it might have been a pig. Deep, slowly regenerating gouges covered the thing. In the center of the mass sat the box.
Disgusting as it was, all she needed to do was conjure a sealing circle around the mass. That should weaken the zombies enough for Lin to finish them off.
“Mine,” a guttural, inhuman voice said. From behind the mass an emaciated, hunched-over figure emerged. It had an elongated jaw filled with enough teeth to do a shark proud. A foot-long slime-covered tongue flicked from side to side.
The Chimera Jar: The Aegis of Merlin Book 3 Page 4
