When we reached what appeared to be a decorative pillar set into the corner of the room, Colin reached over and ran his fingers along it. A door popped open revealing a hidden compartment revealing another sigil. I didn’t know what I expected, but there sat a nearly identical sigil to the first.
“All right, it looks like this is going to be round two,” I said.
“Hurry, our time is short, and not only because of the encroaching dawn, but because someone might be able to sense the wards are changing too.”
“These still retain a charge, even if their polarity has changed. I certainly can’t tell that they have been altered. Can you?” I asked.
“No, but I’m not a Geomancer.”
He chewed on that for a moment, while I brought my stick to the mark. I retraced it, and then I was zapped back over to the other side again.
This time the world was different. The sky was green, and the land was a pink rock plantation. I turned around and found that I was standing beside a corner of a ziggurat. A large pillar statue stood at the nearest corner, and it was of another Isis. I stared down the walls to the left and right and saw additional statues at the corners of the structure, but from my vantage point, I couldn’t tell if they were all of Isis or of other deities.
I next looked all around, and once again, I was struck by the loneliness of the place, since there was not a single person in sight.
I brought my attention back to the task at hand and took out my stick. Once I made quick work of retracing it, but before the ground could react this time, I was yanked back to where Colin was.
Something must have gone wrong on his end.
I fell against him hard this time, and before I could ask what had happened, Colin covered my mouth harshly with his hand. Then he backed us both up against the wall. The torch had been extinguished, but I knew it was Colin who had grabbed me since I could smell his pine scent through the kerchief and I could feel his warm body against my own.
Once I relaxed against his body, he dropped his hand, but kept his arm locked around my waist. Voices came from the other room we had just vacated, and a bobbing light shown out from a door we hadn’t yet walked through. We were surrounded. Colin pulled me to the ground, and then he covered us both with his coat.
I heard a man’s voice say, “Don’t see her, but it’s got to be her. Who else could have tweaked the ward?”
“Blazes Carroll, where can the blasted cherry be?”
“I don’t know, but being down here gives me the creeps. Let’s head back up, or we’ll miss the show.”
“Yeah, I’d be guessing you’re right. She’ll be arriving on her own accord soon enough.”
“Blake will just have to deal with it.”
After they left, the room lost its war against the shadows as blackness enveloped us once again. We listened to their footsteps receding, followed by doors shutting. Colin then stood and helped me up.
“What did you make of their clipped conversation?” I asked him.
“I thought it was pretty obvious. Do you want to continue with the wards or go up for the show?”
“I’ve got to trap whatever they release. How long before dawn?”
“Thirty minutes.” We would be cutting it close.
“Bring me to the next sigil, while you scout out the last one and the service elevator,” I suggested.
“All right.”
He carried me through the door the men had went and then he dropped me off at the third stone. I didn’t hesitate this time. After retracing the ward sigil, I popped out the other side of the wormhole.
This time, when I turned around, I saw a small fountain in a lush garden. I felt exposed and vulnerable, but I swiftly found the sigil on the Isis fountain feature located in the middle of it.
I hesitated climbing into the fountain. Maybe this was acid and not water. I took off my kerchief and threw it into the water. It limply floated for a moment and then sunk to the bottom. I stuck a finger into it and when it didn’t melt off, I climbed into the fountain.
I walked over to the obsidian figure. This statue was carved with precision and elegance, and it was roughly the same size as I was. I reached out and just as I touched the ochre stick to the statue’s chest where the sigil was situated upon it, I heard someone call out, “Khalass!”
I finished halfway retracing the sigil before I turned my head to see who had spoken. It was a soldier dressed in a white tunic with a slate looking armor worn over it. He also held something in his hand that looked like a spear.
He said once again, “Khalass!” When I didn’t stop, he struck the bottom of the spear against the ground and light sprung up from its tip. I followed the line up into the golden sky, but couldn’t see the end of it.
I turned my back on him and refocused on the sigil. As I finished it, I prayed that Colin would pull me out of this world, before he put that spear in me.
Another man showed up next and approached the other one. A short conversation followed between them that I couldn’t follow, and then as if on cue, the earth below my feet began to shake. Blissfully, I was yanked out of this world before they could decide if I was worth killing or not.
One more to go.
“That was close,” I said once I found my bearings. He had relit the torch in my absence, so I was able to see that this room served as the hotel’s root cellar. Crates were stacked on top of each other with labels affixed to them. I could read the few closest to us, and they had words written across them such as potatoes and extra wine goblets.
“In what way was it close?” he asked.
“I was almost caught.”
He paused for a moment and then said with trepidation, “Perhaps three will be enough.” Then he read the skeptical look I shot him and added, “The last one is in that room over there.” I looked in the direction he was staring, and then we swiftly made our way over to it. We had precious little time to lose.
“This is the last room in the basement we are heading to, so I hope the lift is in here too,” he said
“If it isn’t, then those stairs over there leading up will have to do.” We both looked them over, and while there was a closed door at the top, I doubted that if it were locked, it would be much of a hindrance to Colin.
As we entered the last quadrant of the cellar, I concluded that it was the largest of the rooms. It had chairs stacked up against the walls and the middle was unburdened with furniture. Colin lifted the meter once again and after a minute of him scanning the room with it, he pointed across the room.
He told me, “It’s over there.”
We set off for the last wardstone, but when we walked further into the room, I stopped. It felt as if a rat had just jumped across my chest while I had been asleep. Something was profoundly wrong here.
“Colin, do you sense it too?”
He didn’t reply, but tilted the torch down. We both looked down on the floor where a line of ash was located on the ground. We followed its curve, and discovered that it intersected with other soot colored lines.
“Looks as if it is another casting circle,” Colin said, stating the obvious.
I looked up and spotted an intricately burnt sigil on the ceiling directly above us. It was not unlike the one we discovered at the church. This casting circle soared up, probably through the five stories above us and into the sky to an indeterminate height. We were able to walk freely through it, so it must have not been activated. I could only deduce that the original casting for it must have been made from the top floor or the roof.
“Something appalling has been done here,” Colin said.
“How much time do we have left?”
“Twenty-two minutes.”
“It is going to be close. Lead me to the last sigil. While I’m gone, see if you can find that elevator.”
“I can do better than that,” he said as he walked over to where the last marking was in the wall. “I’ve already found it.” He pointed to a cage located in the furthest corner of the r
oom. “I’m going to record the circle’s markings while you’re gone, even though it is similar to the one we discovered back at the church. It needs to be documented.”
“The consummate librarian, aren’t you?”
He stared at me, but said nothing.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it,” I said as I laid a hand on his arm. “I thought you might appreciate the compliment.”
“Don’t bother yourself, I am what I am, right? Go ahead now, tick, tock, tick tock.”
Great. He was mad at me now. I tried to push it from my mind. After all, I had a job to do.
“He’s not mad at you Mistress,” Calidum said, popping back into the room after putting his fire out.
“Calidum, I’m glad that you have returned safely to us.”
“Once the road collapsed, a pool of water gathered in the tunnel and I was able to bathe in it.”
“I think I need to banish you, before I seal you in here with us.”
“But I thought the fun was about to start,” he said sarcastically.
“If I die here, you could be trapped here with the bad people and a really big and bad demon. Also, if I banish you now, then I’ll be able to summon you again, when I do really need you. Will you let me do it?”
He sighed insufferably, but said, “Yes, you may.” Then he turned to Colin and asked, “If she dies, will you get another Summoner to summon me?” Little traitor.
Colin smiled and said, “I’m going to make sure she lives, but I fear that if she doesn’t make it, then you’ll be in a better place than this world is bound to become.”
He grumbled a bit, but finally said, “Do it, dawn is almost here and your minutes are slipping away.”
I quickly drew a small circle in the corner, and then Calidum hopped into it. I made the last marks and then he disappeared, on his way back to his own plane.
“Time?” I asked as I ran to the last sigil.
“Nineteen minutes.”
I reached out to it and traced over it sloppily with my stick. Then I was transported once again to an alien universe.
This one was swathed in a midnight blue light, and the air was thick with a golden aurora borealis that flitted by me in waves. I couldn’t see more than ten feet in front of me. I turned around and this time there was nothing. Just more of the golden lights.
I looked down as I slowly walked around, trying to see if the last sigil had been set into the ground. After about twenty steps, a pillar of light dimly lit up in front of me a short distance away. I walked to it, and it slowly resolved its silhouette as Isis.
This one was a work of twining blue and gold light that seemed to be drawn up from the ground, which was hard and flat. It fed into the wings of Isis’s form and resembled some of the early Illusionist’s work that had been illustrated in textbooks when they were summoned to wage past wars. I moved my hand close to it and was surprised when it gave off no heat.
I walked around it, determined to find the sigil that must be hidden within it. I looked carefully at it. The feet seemed fused to the ground, while the disc above her head glowed a brilliant gold that was sure to damage your eyes if you looked at it for too long.
I took my finger, for better or for worse, and then stuck it into the stream. It became disrupted and fluttered, but otherwise, there was no heat or discomfort. I withdrew my finger and it reformed, but before it did, I noticed at the base, where her feet were, the light flickered, revealing the last sigil. I readied my stick and then shoved my hand into its light again.
What is this? Came a discombobulated voice. I knew immediately that it was not the Cthulhu. It felt more like the voice I heard in my mind back at the church, when it asked me to look for sigils on the walls of the church.
If I ignored the voice, maybe it will think me simple and pass me by; besides, I only needed a few more seconds anyway. I touched the ochre stick to the sigil but paused about halfway through. There was a problem I hadn’t expected. The bone protruding out of this sigil was smack dab in the middle of the etched line that I needed to trace.
Fortunately, I didn’t hear the voice again, as I hastily coated the line around the bone. I hoped it would do the trick. Once that was done, I waited to be pulled back, but nothing happened. The ground didn’t vibrate and I remained where I was.
Who dares to violate my temple? This time the voice was much more forceful.
This wasn’t working. I leaned down to retrace the lines again, but this time I made sure to coat the bone as well. I had only just finished when I was finally pulled back into my own plane.
I opened my eyes and saw Colin’s shadowed face, inches from my own. “Hello Colin.”
“Hello Basil.”
“Are the sigils closed and reversed now?”
“I hope so. They appear to be humming oddly.”
“They hum?”
“Only very quietly.”
“Well, let’s see if my theory will be proven correct.”
“I haven’t had time to see if the service elevator still works or not.” Colin opened the cage and rust showered down upon the floor.
“Since there’s no electricity, is the manual crank turn workable?” I asked.
He walked into the cage and then he handed me the torch. I reluctantly took it, and then he said, “It has a pulley system chain.” I looked over the rusty chain and doubted for not the first time that this plan was going to work.
“Let me worry about this,” he told me. “Do you have a plan for when we get up there?”
If we let the ringleader go, he will just start this again in another town. I could not have that. I told him, “We need to stop Morlock Jr. That’s the only plan I need.”
“I was hoping you’d have a plan that included us getting out of this alive too, but I see the probability of that happening now is low,” he said.
How were we going to do this? Why did I even try? I thought back to my cousin who died because of me. My family who disapproved of me. I frowned. Colin was right, our chances of dying we fairly high.
Colin pulled at the chain and faster than I anticipated, up we went. It would only be a minute or two at the most before we arrived at the top floor.
He was right though. I had no real plan. I was gambling on strength over finesse once again. How was I going to break their circle, stop a goddess from coming through it, and save the town –not to mention possibly the world? I turned away from Colin to brush the tear that had collected in the corner of my eye.
If someone had to die and I could choose whom, then it was going to be me.
Chapter 20
Pentachorons
Rule number two: Know your foe.
Up we went, until we stopped at the third floor. “Why are we stopping?” I asked Colin.
“Something is wrong.”
“What?”
“It felt like I was crossing the ward.”
“How can that be?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s take the stairs up from here.”
I didn’t fancy the sounds of that at all, but out we muddled into a service closet. Colin went immediately to the door, listened and then opened it with his gun out, preparing for the worst. Unexpectedly, the hall was deserted. Either people were holed up in their rooms waiting for the apocalypse to fall, or everyone was enjoying the show upstairs. I was betting on the latter.
I wanted to tell Colin about what happened back in the last world I had visited, but I didn’t want to give our position away by talking. Who knew who was waiting for us to pass their room so they could jump out and attack us?
As we went up the first flight of steps, a pervasive feeling of wrongness would hit me and then, just as abruptly, it would be gone again. I too wondered if it was the stones, but why would that be? Shouldn’t the ward go straight up into the air from the corners of the building?
Colin herded me to one side of the stairwell and after ascending to the next floor, we found ourselves only one floor away from our destinatio
n. There were emergency gaslight sconces on each landing, but they only provided the barest of light. I relied heavily on Colin to take the best course up for us.
Colin found the last stairwell and whispered, “We have five minutes left, and as you know, we may or may not have the element of surprise.”
“Nothing matters now, but stopping them,” I said as much for his benefit as my own.
“Listen, I have a theory about that odd queasiness we keep experiencing, but you won’t like it.”
“I’m listening.”
“I think you may have inadvertently made a pentachoron.”
“A pentachoron?” I had never heard of the term.
“Have you ever heard of a tesseract?” he asked me.
“Yes, but that is from the fourth dimension, which is barred from Summoner’s to use.” A tesseract was a cube in the fourth dimension, one that existed in the realm of time, never existing in only one space, but many.
“I think when someone modified the wardstones in the basement, they made them form the base for a four sided, fourth dimensional pyramid, and you may have just activated it for them.”
A sinking feeling of dread stole my breath away. He was right. I had given them what they wanted from me all along. We had been herded into doing this for them the whole time. If we escaped the security shop, it was because they allowed it. Finding the tunnel was suddenly not a coincidence. Where did Horatio really go when he touched the sigil down in the basement? If I ever got my hands on him, I was sending him to the fifteenth realm.
“I think they need you to switch the polarity on a fifth sigil, one that should be located at the top of the metaphysical pyramid, at the penthouse. Somehow, it must be necessary in summoning the goddess. I think that when you find it, you should destroy it.”
“Then we better get up there before anything is released.”
“I suppose it is past time to reason with fools,” he glumly replied. Then he held up his revolver and said, “I have twelve shots, and then I’ll have to reload, but I am not much good with it. There will be a room of Users in there throwing whatever they have at us. We already know that they’ve been gunning for me since the beginning. I don’t want you to get killed trying to protect me.
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