Part three of the cliffhanger quadrilogy.
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Chapter Ten: The Morrigan's Fury
The Morrigan advanced towards the group, her every step setting the grass below aflame. Her eyes burned through the rain, and her expression was a study in rage. At a guess, one could gather that she was annoyed. "Which of you is first?" she demanded.
"What, you think we're gonna be dumb enough to take you one at a time?" snapped Dipper, "What do you take us for? Idiots?"
"Aw, dude, I totally forgot!" exclaimed Soos, "I think I forgot to turn the oven off at home! Aw, this is a terrible time to remember this!"
Dipper groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Very well," said the Morrigan, "I shall kill all of you at once. Save for the ones I decide to torture for all eternity, I'm still not decided on that one."
"You keep your dirty mitts of these kids!" thundered Stan, breaking into a run towards the Morrigan.
"Grunkle Stan, no!" exclaimed Mabel.
Stan charged the sorceress, throwing all his weight into a shoulder charge.
The Morrigan thrust out an arm towards him.
She caught him without flinching and pushed, throwing Stan onto his back. Stan rolled to the side as she stamped down, missing his head by an inch, then he swung his cane at the Morrigan's leg.
She shrugged off the blow and snatched the improvised club, pinning Stan with a foot. "I forgot to thank you, Pines," she said. "After all, you did free me all those years ago." She raised the cane over her head. "And then you destroyed my new empire. So...swings and roundabouts."
The cane was snatched from her hands.
"Nobody does that to Mr. Pines!" shouted Soos, and tackled the Morrigan. She shoved him away, but had to back away from him when Wendy swung Sam's axe at her. She climbed to her feet, but doll-Mabel tripped her up.
"You will not humiliate me!" the Morrigan yelled. "I shall not be denied! Not again! De réir an cumhacht ag an cloigeann liath!"
Wave after wave of crimson magic washed over the field.
One hit Dipper. He screamed and dropped the journal.
Another wave hit Soos as he helped Stan up. They both screamed and fell, flailing.
The waves stopped, and a chill spread over the area.
The Morrigan, now floating a foot off the ground, raised an arm, but no further magic appeared.
"That's not very nice," said Gordon scowling. All that could be seen was his head and shoulders, just reaching the edge of the crater.
"Have you not been defeated enough today, Winter Knight?"
Gordon responded by creating a spike of ice and throwing it at her head – she barely dodged it.
"Not this time," she said, and conjured a circle of flames around herself. "I have you all right where I want you!" The Morrigan began striding towards the crater – her flames moved with her, leaving a wide trail of scorched earth behind.
Mabel, once again in human form, jumped into the Morrigan's ring, closely followed by Wendy and Soos.
"You're not getting Gordon that easily," Wendy said, giving the axe a twirl.
The Morrigan rolled her eyes, extinguished the fire wall and a blast of force threw all three away.
Dipper hastily flipped through the journal, looking for something, anything, that might help, but wasn't finding anything. Gremloblin? Didn't have one. Zombies? No, more zombies wouldn't help. A guide to summoning and containing He Who Walks Beyond? Didn't have the time, or the cockerel. It was the first time the journal had ever failed him.
Gordon froze the ground between him and the Morrigan, but the ice disappeared as she advanced.
Dipper opened two pages that had been gummed together and glanced at the heading. Normally, I'd be sceptical of a page titled 'magic spells', he thought, but the zombie one worked and now's the time for desperate measures.
He picked a spell with a promising description, leaped to his feet, pointed at the Morrigan and shouted, "Magicae telum!"
The sorceress, caught off-guard, was blasted off her feet by a magical projectile about the size of Dipper's fist.
Dipper was hit by a wave of exhaustion, and nearly lost his balance.
The Morrigan climbed to her feet. "How quaint," she said, "a striking spell." She gave up on the crater and advanced on Dipper, who was too tired to run. He tried anyway, but tripped after a few steps.
"Dorchadas, shíolraigh," the Morrigan hissed, and the sunlight disappeared as the entire field was wrapped in shadow.
Dipper couldn't see his hand in front of his face, and he couldn't lay hands on the journal. But there was no way he'd leave it for the Morrigan to find. He began to scrabble around looking for it.
He heard the Morrigan say, "Codladh." Then he passed out.
Sam very gingerly slid the mine he'd dug up into place.
Just as he was about to put the finishing touches on the spell, utter darkness fell and the rain picked up, soaking him despite the jacket.
"Damn it," he said. "Tân arnofio."
Several small flames sprung up in the air around him, giving him just enough light to see by. They hissed and spat in the rain.
The circle was fairly complex. The mine that would power the spell sat on the edge of the circle, in one of five evenly spaced smaller circles. The others contained several objects – a hand mirror, a small pool of Sam's blood, a tiny wolf's-head totem and a working miniature birdcage.
Sam had taken the time to mark the circle exactly. It would do the job.
One last thing, he thought.
He reached down with his magic, down into the ground, and found the energy that ran through the battlefield. It had no guiding spirit, no genius loci, but there was enough entropic energy for him to sever the Morrigan's Mantle from its bearer.
He drew it up, through himself and out into the circle, which glowed dully in the dark. It was like breathing, only mental – in and out. In and out.
"Come on, Sam," he told himself. He grimaced from the pain as the surging energy tore through him. "Don't lose it now."
Stan tried to keep his guard up, but it was difficult because he couldn't see anything.
He could hear movement, but he couldn't make out any voices – at a guess, the Morrigan's darkness spell was muffling sound, too.
He heard a twig snap behind him.
He whirled and came face to face with Dipper.
"Grunkle Stan!"
"Dipper? Stay close, the Morrigan could be anywhere." Stan pulled Dipper behind him, and turned to face outward. "Watch my back, okay?"
"Of course, Grunkle," Dipper said, drawing a fist back and letting a faint red glow of magic surround it. "Say, Grunkle?"
"Yeah, what?"
"Go to sleep."
'Dipper' punched Stan hard in the back. The spell took hold and Stan dropped like a sack of potatoes.
The Morrigan took on Stan's form for her next deception. This was more fun than she'd had in a long time.
Sam released the last of the energy he was using and leaned back against the crater wall, breathing heavily. "That's that," he said. "Now all we need is the Morrigan."
The circle was ready. As soon as the Morrigan entered it, he could rip the Mantle from its host. Until then the circle would be glowy, but inert.
Once the spell was active, it wouldn't be that hard to trigger the mine. The sensitive tech inside would probably go haywire as soon as the spell took hold – magic and technology tended to dislike each other.
"I gotta stop the rain," he said to himself. The running water was grounding out the magic – if he fired up the spell with that downpour going, the magic would just drain away.
He glanced up at the rim of the crater.
"Okay, Morrigan, you've riled the wrong knight."
Mabel and Soos were walking slowly towards where they guessed the crater was – it was hard to tell, because they couldn't see more than a few yards in the dark.
"I gotta tell you, hambone," Soos said, "I'm not sure how we're gonna get outta this."
"Don't worry, Sooster, we've got a plan," Mabel replied, patting his arm.
"Hey, you two!"
They turned and saw a tall shape emerging from the gloom. It gradually revealed itself to be Wendy.
"Have either of you seen Gordon?" Wendy asked. "We need to find him, fast. This dome has got to go."
Soos and Mabel glanced at each other. Their minds were back in the painting.
"How do we know you're the real Wendy?" said Mabel, narrowing her eyes. "You could be phony. Or fake. Or even ersatz."
"What?" Wendy seemed taken aback. "Come on, guys, it's me. Now can we go find the Winter Knight? Soos, talk some sense into her."
"I dunno, dude, she might be right," Soos replied. "Tell us something only the real Wendy would know."
"This isn't fooling you, is it?" 'Wendy' blurred at the edges, then flowed like liquid into the Morrigan's form. "Well, have at thee, then, if you're so insistent!"
Mabel had just enough time to shift into doll form and then decide that she liked the feeling of being thrown through the air by magic before she hit the ground. Being a doll, she wasn't winded, but it still took her a few seconds to get her bearings.
Soos had landed next to her, quite hard, and was still recovering. She saw the Morrigan coming for her, glowing brightly enough to be seen across the field. She wasn't far from the rim of the crater.
Gordon was lying a short distance away. "I've got a plan," he groaned. "Get her over here."
Mabel nodded and charged towards the Morrigan. "Hey, Morrie!" she shouted. "I've got something to tell you!"
The sorceress ran at the doll, which was leaping along through the grass towards her at a decent pace.
"You're still a horrible Mabel!" The doll-Mabel leaped at the Morrigan's face and she shouted, "Teganau!"
She returned to human form just in time to slap the Morrigan hard across the face. At the same moment, Gordon iced over the ground where the Morrigan was standing.
The sorceress went down.
The shadow dome vanished and the dull, cloud-blocked sunlight came flooding back in.
Dipper, Stan and Wendy were all lying on the ground, out cold from the Morrigan's touch but otherwise seemingly unhurt.
The Morrigan struggled to her feet, putting Mabel to sleep and throwing the girl off her in the process. She strode forwards and raised her arms threateningly. "Any more challengers?" she taunted.
A rock slammed into her right temple. She spun to confront the thrower.
"E-yep," Sam said, drawing a gladius from his belt. "At least one."
"Summer Knight," she said, mockingly mimicking his drawl. "I thought you were sitting this one out."
"I changed my mind." Sam spun the short sword in his hands. "Now bring it, crazy lady."
The Morrigan grinned wickedly. "With pleasure."
U VCHY JVY NOGYL!
AN: The next chapter should be up pretty fast. Watch this space.