Magus

by R H Frye

  An awkward silence settled over the examining room as the shaman and the police officer evaluated each other. Finally, John broke the silence as he stepped forward to offer a handshake to the policeman. “I’m John Raintree.”

  “Lieutenant Mike Donovan. So, do you want to tell me what the hell is going on around this place today?” There was a slight smile on Donovan’s mouth as he asked the question, but the smile never came close to reaching his brown eyes. Those eyes were speaking to John. They said, “Look buddy, I don’t know exactly what you’ve been into here, but I intend to find out, and I can spot a liar from a mile away.”

  John decided that honesty, as is often the case, was the best policy. “Well, I don’t know everything that has gone on here today, but I can tell you my part of it. The real question is this. How much are you prepared to believe? Because believe me, even I’m having trouble believing some of what you’re about to hear, and I saw it all happen with my own eyes.”

  Donovan recognized and appreciated a straight answer when he heard one. He nodded slowly as he said, “Buddy, after what I just saw outside, I’m apt to believe a lot. I’d never had a suspect try to jam a lightning bolt up my ass before today, so let’s just say that I’ll keep an open mind to whatever you have to say. Just keep in mind that I have a knack for knowing when I’m being lied to.”

  John allowed a tired smile to bend the corners of his mouth as he said, “Don’t worry. I’ll tell you the whole long truth of it. But we may need to find somewhere more comfortable…and private…to talk.”

  Donovan nodded. “I agree. And I need to go find out about one of my men that died here today. Care to tag along?”

  John’s heart sank as he heard Donovan speak of a dead police officer. What else had Maraydel been up to? And just where was Sarah anyway? In a moment, he realized that he had never answered the officer where he stood looking expectantly in John’s direction. Recovering quickly, he said, “Sure, I’ll tag along. I’m looking for someone anyway.”

  Donovan started to ask a question regarding John’s cryptic comment, but he thought better of it. The man had already agreed to answer his questions, and Donovan’s instincts were telling him that this was a good man. They were also saying that this was a man in some sort of trouble, but he had a feeling that it was a trouble that the man had stumbled into instead of a trouble he had made, so he turned without another word and left the examining room. After locating the nearest information signs, Donovan began to follow their directions to the Pediatrics ward with John trailing just behind him.

  Sarah was sitting with her head cushioned on her arms where they were folded on the table of the conference room. The officer that had been taking their statements had received a call over his radio and had stepped out of the conference room. Sarah had moved to the doorway shortly after he left to look through the door’s long rectangular window. The officer was standing just outside speaking to another officer that was obviously guarding the door, so she had returned to her seat and laid her aching head on the pillow of her arms. One of the nurses had been good enough to provide Sarah with some ibuprofen, and the medicine had served to take the edge off of her headache, but she had a feeling that this headache would only really be cured by a few days’ rest and some loving attention from her man.

  Thoughts of John shoved their way back into Sarah’s head, and she wondered if he was okay. She had failed to even reach Maraydel, and she was bitterly angry with herself for allowing Amy to sidetrack her. God only knew if John was still alive and fighting. What would she do if she had found the love of her life only to lose him in days? She had no idea. She only knew that she could not imagine a life without John in it. He had only been a part of her life for a day, but she loved him completely. Any life without him would be cold and dreary.

  Such morbid thoughts were chased from her mind as the door to the conference room opened. A thickly built police officer with a flattop haircut and brown eyes stepped through the door, but it was the man behind the officer that had Sarah’s full and wondering attention. It was John! How could he be here? And what was he doing with the police officer that had preceded him through the door? Sarah neither knew nor cared. All that mattered was that John was okay and somehow, incredibly, he was here.

  When John saw Sarah sitting at the table, he felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart. He brushed past Lieutenant Donovan and pulled Sarah from the chair into a fierce embrace. Donovan’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but he held his peace for the long moments of the couple’s embrace.

  John finally leaned back from the hug to look at Sarah. She’s okay. The thought kept repeating itself in his head, and he had to force his mind to other matters. He noticed that Sarah’s face was pale, and she seemed very nervous about something. Abruptly, he realized how odd the situation was. Sarah was in the conference room with a nurse in a bloodied uniform, and Donovan had obviously been coming into this room for a reason. John turned to face the lieutenant.

  “So, I take it you two know each other.” The question was really a statement, and John did not bother to answer it other than to nod briefly in reply. “Well then, let’s get down to it. Why don’t we all take a seat?”

  Chapter 18

  Danny awakened to the antiseptic smells of a hospital room. He blinked his eyes a few times to clear the fog of sleep before looking around the room. He was surprised to see that he had visitors.

  John and Sarah were sitting in chairs near the room’s long row of windows. They were watching Danny patiently, apparently waiting for him to clear the cobwebs from his mind and get his bearings. Danny looked around for the bed’s remote control for a moment before finally finding it clipped to one end of his pillowcase. He studied the remote for a moment to figure out the bed’s simple controls. Eventually he was able to raise one end of the bed to a position that was comfortable for sitting. When he was settled in, he looked at John and said, “You’re that guy from the woods, right?”

  John was a little surprised that Danny recognized him. He had not realized that Maraydel’s unwilling slaves had been waiting just out of sight during his first bizarre clash with the magus in the clearing near the Appalachian Trail. Setting aside his surprise, he said, “And unless I’m mistaken, you’re Danny. I’ll bet you’ve got one hell of a story to tell us, huh?”

  Danny’s eyes drooped closed for a moment. When he opened them, unshed tears shone from his eyes, and John realized how tired and scared the young man must be. “Yeah, I’ve got a story alright. You’re probably the only person on the planet that will actually believe me, but I’ll tell you if you want to hear it.”

  “First, let me ask you a question. You’re Danny. This is the address tag from your backpack.” John held up one of the tags that he had rescued from the clearing in the woods. He held up his other hand and had another tag in it. “So was Carol the young woman that was helping him to escape from the hospital.” John carefully refrained from mentioning his enemy’s name. He had vivid memories of the last time that the wizard’s name had been spoken aloud, and he had already had enough confrontations to last a lifetime.

  The tears that had been welling up in Danny’s eyes finally spilled over his eyelids to run down his face. “Yeah, that was Carol.” The young man seemed ashamed of his tears, and he reached up to brush them fiercely away. “I killed her, but he brought her back.”

  “You killed her? What do you mean?” Danny’s bald admission of guilt concerning the death of a young woman that was obviously alive was at least as confusing as all the other things that had happened since John’s grandfather had died. “She looked pretty much alive to me, Danny.”

  Danny sighed. “Let me just start at the beginning. But first, could someone get me something to drink? This is going to take a while.” Sarah left the room for a moment while John and Danny waited quietly for her return. A few minutes later, Sarah returned with a Coke. She pulled the tab open on the top of the can and handed it to Danny without a word. “Thank you,�
�� Danny said before taking a long drink. When his thirst was temporarily sated, he placed the cool can on the dinner table that was waiting beside his bed before leaning back and beginning to speak.

  “So, when I saw what he was going to do to that cop, I couldn’t just let it happen. If I had attacked the bastard, it would only have come back on me, but I figured if I helped that cop, maybe he could help Carol. And the last thing I really remember is flying through the air to land on the hood of that car. The next thing I knew, I was waking up here.”

  John and Sarah sat silently staring off into the distance. Danny’s tale was so horrible that they were still trying to take it all in. How can any kid go through what he’s been through and still have the courage to try to help someone else? John was overwhelmed with a feeling of love for the young man that was lying in the bed in front of him. The saddest part of it all was that Danny would probably always be haunted by what he had been through, no matter what happened with Maraydel. From the things that Danny had told them, John knew that Danny had more raw determination than just about anyone else he knew. There had to be a way to help him. The trick would be to find it.

  Sarah’s thoughts were nearly a mirror to John’s, but she was more concerned with Carol, what she had been through, and how to find and save the young woman. Something must be done. She had no idea of what she could do to help, but she knew that there had to be something. And next time she would not allow herself to get sidetracked. The fact that John had managed to somehow escape the trap that Maraydel had set for him was yet another miracle in a life that was suddenly filled with miracles.

  Danny broke the long silence that was stretching out between them. “So, what happened to the cop? Did he make it?”

  “Lieutenant Donovan is fine,” John answered. “He’s going to want to hear your story too, but right now he’s dealing with the press. They’re all over him about the officer that attacked Sarah.” John noticed the question that was forming in Danny’s eyes and realized that the young man was in the dark regarding the officer that had been killed. John took a few moments to fill Danny in on the details concerning the attack on Sarah and the near rape of the nurse, and he was dismayed to see more tears forming in the brave young man’s eyes.

  “Don’t you see? It’s my fault. I killed Carol, and by killing her I brought him back to life. If I’d just been strong enough to fight him, none of this would have happened.”

  Sarah could not stand to see Danny suffer any more. She got out of her chair and moved to give the young man a comforting hug. For a time, Danny clutched Sarah to him with panicky tightness and sobs wracked his body. Sarah could feel the young man’s tears wetting the shoulder of her shirt where his head was resting, and tears of empathy spilled from her own eyes. At length Danny’s sobs began to quiet and his breathing settled from gasping sobs to a deep, tired rhythm. When he had regained his composure, Danny leaned back once more against his mattress and looked gratefully at Sarah. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Sarah replied. She left Danny’s bed and moved back to her chair beside John. When she was seated, her hand slipped to John’s lap and twined itself in his hand.

  “Danny, you need to know that none of this is your fault. You’ve done what you had to do. You were controlled. I’ve seen what that monster can do firsthand. I’ve scrapped with him several times now, and each time I felt like I barely escaped with my skin intact. So, don’t you dare sit there and blame yourself, okay?” John finished speaking and waited expectantly for Danny to answer.

  Danny took another shuddering breath. “Okay. If you say so, then okay.” A new thought occurred to him, and he asked a question of John. “So why don’t I feel worse than I do. I mean, I’m tired, but I figured I’d be burned after whatever it was that he hit me with. My back is barely even sore.”

  “I’m not sure. Lieutenant Donovan is as surprised as you are. He saw you get hit, and he saw you fly through the air to land on that car. He was amazed to hear that you were going to be okay. The hospital only admitted you for observation because you were unresponsive.”

  Danny took a moment to think things over before speaking again. “Well, what are we going to do? I’m assuming I’ll be released soon since I appear to be okay, and I can’t just abandon Carol to him. I’ve got to do something.”

  “Don’t worry, Danny. We’ll think of something. But the first thing we need to do is get you cleared to leave the hospital.” John turned to Sarah. “Honey, can you go let the nurses know that our young friend here is ready to be up and around?” Carol nodded her reply and left the room to find a nurse. John turned his attention back to Danny. “Danny how old are you?”

  “I’m 18. My birthday was in May. Why?”

  “Well, do you have any insurance?”

  “Oh, I see where this is going, I think. No, I’m still covered by my mom’s policy. Do you think I need to call her?”

  “No, no. I figured as much. I’ll just take care of the bill myself. I don’t think you want to explain all this to your parents just yet, do you?”

  “But John, I can’t let you do that. I don’t know what this is going to cost, but it’s not your responsibility to pay for it.”

  John shook his head at Danny. “Knock it off. The person that should really be paying for all this probably doesn’t even understand the concept of money yet. And I think we’ll make him pay some other way before it’s all over with. In the meantime, just realize that I may not be rich, but I’m not hurting for money either, so I’m taking care of this bill. No more arguments.”

  “Well I appreciate it. And I’ll do my best to pay you back.”

  “Fair enough.”

  The two men were stopped from saying anything else as a nurse entered the room behind Sarah. “Oh good, you’re awake,” the nurse said brightly. “And how are you feeling?”

  “I feel fine. So, can I get out of here or what?” Danny started to sit up in the bed, but the nurse pushed him back against his pillow.

  “You just wait right there, young man. I need to check your vitals, and you can’t go anywhere until your doctor clears you, so just relax and enjoy the rest.” The nurse bustled about the room for a few moments while she checked Danny’s pulse rate and blood pressure. She seemed satisfied with the results of her tests, and in a short time she left the room to look for Danny’s doctor.

  Danny looked at Sarah and said, “Well, I think we should go check in with Mike so we can get out of here as soon as they say Danny’s ready to go.”

  “That sounds good to me. I hope the reporters haven’t been giving him too much trouble anyway.” Sarah moved to the bed and pulled Danny briefly into her caring arms. “You take care of yourself kiddo. We’ll be back in a little while.” She moved from Danny’s side to the door and waited while John took Danny’s hand in a firm handshake. When John had caught up to Sarah at the door, she pulled it open and left the room.

  Chapter 19

  Carol sat watching Maraydel while the television babbled mindlessly in the background.

  Maraydel was sitting in her father’s leather recliner. He had been sitting in the same meditative trance for hours now, and in all that time Carol had been alternating between watching the television and watching the magus. And during all that time, there was one constant…her hatred for the wizard. Her mind kept racing in furious circles like a rat in a cage. She considered trying to kill the man that had destroyed her life and stolen her innocence, but it all seemed pointless now. Danny was dead. She had seen him blasted through the air by the man that was sitting in her father’s chair. Killing Maraydel would not bring Danny back, but it would almost certainly kill her. And Carol had decided that dying once was one time too many. She wanted to live, and that was the horrible misery of her life. She hated what had been done to her, but she remembered crossing over from life to the cold emptiness of death and she wanted to delay another such crossing for as long as possible.

  So, Carol sat and studied her defiler. She hated t
o admit it, but he was looking much healthier. The blisters and charred skin of his naked body had mostly been replaced with new, pink skin. The bullet hole in his shoulder had faded to a puckered scar. Seeing that scar made her think of the wound she had suffered during the wild, magical battle that had raged behind the hospital. The bullet had just grazed her side, leaving little more than a painful, bloody groove in the flesh below her ribcage. As she watched another burnt patch of skin flaked away from Maraydel’s left bicep and more new skin was revealed. Only a few small patches were now left to be healed at random locations across his body.

  Carol stopped focusing on Maraydel’s body and widened her perspective to consider the whole man. She was surprised to find that there was something about him that she actually found attractive. At first, she had been repulsed by the idea, but the wizard was possessed of an evil sort of charm. His body was attractive by modern standards. He was tall and lean, and his muscles were well defined. He would never be considered bulky, but he had an undeniable air of wiry good health about him. His long black hair hung limply to just past his shoulders, and Carol knew from first-hand experience that his eyes were a startling, icy blue.

  Carol shuddered when she realized that she was actually looking at the man that had killed her, resurrected her, and raped her with something other than revulsion.

  Maraydel chose that moment to chuckle. “I can feel you looking at me. And I feel your wanting.” The magus had not opened his eyes, but a smug smile was playing across his haughty lips. “Don’t worry. You’re not the first woman to want me.”