Chapter 21: Casualties

Everyone hurried back inside when they saw Uma and a part of her gang approach through the main road of the isle. Uma's face spelled trouble.

She marched through the street with Harry Hook and Gil on her heels and some other members of her gang lacking a little further behind. She was on her way to the den, she had just gotten a report from one of her subordinates that she had to check out. If what was being said was true, then there would be hell to pay.

Ahead of her were the first of Solomon's sentries guarding the outer limit of his territory, as soon as they saw her coming they stood up and took position on the road.

"Woah, what is the meaning of this Uma?" one of them asked.

"Just wait here while- Aah!" the other yelled as Uma grabbed his stuck-out hand and roughly twisted his fingers.

Harry pushed the other sentry aside and Uma and her group continued their way to the den.

As she and her group approached the den, Uma saw how multiple of Solomon's people had taken up defensive positions, apparently word of their coming had spread throughout the isle. Uma saw that although multiple look-outs had bows in their hands, they had not aimed any arrows at them yet. As if it had been scripted, Zevon stepped out of the den's main gate and approached Uma with his usual sly smile.

"Uma! To what do we owe this pleasure?" he said with a sarcastic bow.

"Where is Solomon!?" Uma asked loudly.

"Oh, he's inside. He's awfully busy though, so he would appreciate it if you could come back at a later time. Should I schedule you in right now?" Zevon replied with a grin as he pulled out what looked like a small appointment book.

Uma was perplexed for a moment about being treated this way but recovered quickly. "I want to speak to Solomon!" Uma scowled.

"Who doesn't right?" Zevon replied, "I mean, my master is a genius and extremely influential. But as I said, right now he's busy and he'll have time for you later!"

Before Uma got a chance to answer, two of Solomon's thieves dragged someone out of the den. Uma recognized the man as one of the former subordinates of the red queen. Solomon's thieves roughly threw him to the ground and headed back into the den. The man was not dead but had apparently been weakened. This confirmed Uma's suspicion and she angrily turned back to the still smiling Zevon.

"I will go inside and see Solomon right now, don't even try and stop me!" she said loudly, and she pushed Zevon aside before walking into the den. When Zevon yelled after her and tried to get up, Harry pushed him down again.

When Uma entered the den, she saw a bunch of people sitting in the hall that gave access to the four rooms of the den. All people seemed kind of nervous and a couple of Solomon's thieves guarded them. They all saw Uma enter, but decided not to comment since she looked quite pissed.

Right as she looked around the hall, she heard a high-pitched scream come from the arena. She directed her attention there and the two thieves who stood guard decided it would be better for them to let her pass.

Uma entered the arena and looked around. Several of Solomon's thieves were seated on the benches surrounding the arena, the cauldron stood in the middle and in front of it stood Solomon, Maddy and Ginny with another isle inhabitant groveling at their feet, still screaming his lungs out. In another flash of anger, she saw Anthony Tremaine and two of Harriet's goons sitting to her right and in a flash of both anger and astonishment, she saw CJ Hook sitting on a roof beam above her.

"Horns!" Uma yelled. "What is the meaning of this?"

Solomon looked up and grinned at Uma, he was panting slightly and had his right hand raised at the person squirming in front of him. "Hey Uma. What's up?"

"I just received some word from some of my scouts that they saw some of your thieves taking people from their homes!" Uma yelled, trying to make herself hearable over the man's continuing wailing. "What are you doing? Why wasn't I briefed? And what are they," she pointed at Anthony and CJ, "doing here?"

Solomon raised a finger at her, in a way of shutting her up for a second, made one more convulsive movement with the hand he had pointed at the man on the ground and then relaxed himself. The man had stopped screaming, and just laid on the ground making an occasional spastic movement. Ginny handed Solomon a rag and he wiped the sweat of his forehead. Solomon directed himself to Uma as he vaguely gestured to the man on the floor and immediately two of his thieves showed up to drag the man out the door.

"This," Solomon said as he gestured to the room in general, "is my way of activating the cauldron. You are not stupid Uma, you know who these people are and how they are of use to me. Think!"

Uma looked at the door where the squirming man had just been escorted out, and then thought about all the other people she had seen in the hall. "They are magic wielders." She told Solomon.

Solomon pointed at her. "See! As I said! She knows what's up."

"So, what are you doing to them? Are you transferring their magic to the cauldron?" Uma asked.

"Ehm, yes and no. See, at this stage, I'm transferring their magic to me. And later on, I will channel my magic to activate the cauldron." Solomon explained.

"Why wasn't I told of this?" Uma asked. "When we made our deal, you said that you would share every thought concerning the plan! You said that I would be there whenever you would make any decision! This is a breach in our contract, horns!"

Solomon raised his hand. "Woah, there. First, I promised to inform you on any detail of the plan that would be of any concern to you. As far as I know, this does not immediately concern you. I don't need you for this ritual, nor does any of its aftermath trouble you, I thus did not think it necessary to invite you to watch."

Uma was taken aback for a moment before finding herself again and pointing at Anthony. "So, what's he doing here? Did you think that it was necessary to inform Harriet?"

"No, I did not actually." Solomon said scratching his chin. "It's just that Harriet is such a very mistrusting person, it's annoying as hell actually, and she insisted of having at least two of her goons here at all time."

"Really, the pleasure is all mine." Anthony intervened uninterested.

"Again, why was I not told of this?" she spat at Solomon.

"Okay, okay. I think we got off on the wrong foot here. I apologize for not further expanding on the conditions of our so-called pact, okay? If you have any further questions, go and ask them now. As you probably saw, I still have quite a busy day ahead of me." Solomon said.

Uma pondered this for a second. "Alright then, how long has Harriet been stashing her goons here?" she eventually asked.

Solomon seemed to think. "How long ago did we get back onto the isle?" he asked.

"Three weeks ago." Uma said.

"Yeah, alright. Then I guess they've been here for about two weeks and six days." Solomon said dead serious.

Uma did not look amused at all. "So, you've been under one roof all this time? I'm sure you've had plenty of meaningful conversations together."

Solomon pulled up his shoulders. "She mainly positions them here to see what we are doing. We don't converse all that much. This was just one addition to the demands she had made." He said with a fake smile. "Believe me when I say I would rather not have them here."

"You know that this does complicate things." Uma said. "I will now make sure some of my people will be here at all times as well."

Solomon groaned. "Aww, come on now Uma! Don't be like that. Look here, how about we first talk to Harriet about her getting her goons out of my den before you start storing them here as well. My headquarters are not a bloody hotel, you know! That way, both of you do not have to worry about the other, since none of you has any eyes in here."

"Nah, this is just your excuse to want to get rid of us. What more are you hiding?" Uma asked.

"As I have already told you a dozen times, Uma, I have been completely open with my plan thus far! I am not hiding anything! If you have a question feel free to ask, and I will see if I feel the need to answer that question!" Solomon replied.

"Okay then." Uma said. "What is she doing here?" she said as she pointed at CJ.

Solomon rolled his eyes and gestured to CJ to get down from the roof beams. CJ let herself slide off of the beam, did a little flip and landed perfectly right next to Solomon. "CJ, here, is the newest member of my gang." Solomon said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Now hold on just a minute!" Harry Hook shouted. "With newest member, do you actually mean that she's now a part of this?" he said as he gestured all around him.

"Precisely." Solomon replied with a grin.

"How!? Why!?" Harry shouted, more to his sister than to Solomon.

"He kinda made me an offer I couldn't refuse." CJ casually said. "And it's nice to be in a gang without any annoying family members out to kill you or betray you." She said with a bit of sass towards Harry.

Harry approached CJ. "Look, CJ. I'm really sorry for what happened. I didn't mean to leave you, I just panicked. I don't know what this snake has told you, but please don't stay with him!"

Uma stared at CJ, who, for a second, actually looked lost for words before replying. "You're not my boss, Harry. I make my own decisions now and I've decided to look out for myself, getting involved with him is just my way of moving forward and leaving all of you in the past."

Harry was about to reply, but Uma placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. "That's enough out of you Harry." She spat, "Go back to the shop, we'll discuss this later."

Harry was about to rebuttal, but one more intense look from Uma shut him up. He gave one more pleading look at CJ before abruptly turning around and leaving.

Uma turned her attention back on Solomon. "Something else you forgot to mention." She said as she gestured at CJ.

"To be fair, it has been a recent development." Solomon smiled, and his hand tightened on CJ's shoulder.

"I don't want her here." Uma said as she crossed her arms.

"Sucks." CJ said, and Uma unsheathed her sword lightning fast, followed immediately by CJ.

Solomon calmly stood between the two with an almost bored expression. "Now, now ladies. Let's all just remain calm. If any blood splatters onto the cauldron I will be very annoyed."

"Then you should tell your little puppy to stop barking." Uma said with a vile look at CJ.

"Oh, suck it up, won't you shrimpy!" CJ scoffed.

Just as Uma was about to strike, Solomon already back-handed CJ to the face. Even Uma was shocked at this as she saw CJ hold her cheek in surprise.

"That's enough!" he spat. "CJ, leave! And not a word!"

CJ looked back indignant at first, before angrily turning her back to the two and storming out the room.

"That was quite a show." Uma said amused as she sheathed her sword. "Seriously though, getting her involved complicates things. You know how Harry and Harriet feel about her."

"Do I look like I give a damn. Even you must admit that she's a good fighter, I have a feeling that she might become useful on our side." Solomon replied.

"Fine, just keep her away from me and Harry." Uma spat back.

"I fear that I won't be able to put her on a leash." Solomon said. "Now, if you don't mind, I wish to continue with what I was doing before you so violently interrupted me."

Solomon whistled and after a couple of seconds another man entered the arena flanked by two of Solomon's thieves.

Solomon approached the man and shook his hand smiling. "Thank you for responding, you are helping in the establishment of an extremely significant project."

"I didn't respond to nothing." The man spat, "These thugs basically pulled me out of bed and told me something of a reward!"

Solomon gave a dark grin. "There will be a reward, if you comply. Drink this." He said, and he handed the man a cup with a bright, purple liquid which had been handed to him by Ginny.

"What is this?" the man said as he sniffed the cup.

"Drink it, and you will be rewarded." Solomon simply replied.

The man gave Solomon one more doubtful look, but when seeing Solomon's intense, dark stare, he quickly gulped the liquid down.

Solomon immediately drank a similar potion and pointed his right hand at the man, who immediately fell to the ground and started screaming and convulsing in pain.

Uma stared at the scene in front of her in shock but did not intervene. Solomon then started speaking an incantation in a language she did not understand, and the man's screams grew louder.

Uma was not necessarily shocked or appalled, more intrigued. She had never seen anyone use this type of magic and eagerly wanted to see its effects.

It took over a full minute before Solomon made another convulsive motion with his hand and the man on the ground stopped screaming, though the tremors in his body did not stop.

Ginny once again handed Solomon a rag and some water this time, which Solomon eagerly drank. Solomon snapped his fingers and the wailing man was dragged out of the room.

"Impressive." Uma said. "So, this is how you tap their magic?"

"Precisely." Solomon replied. "A little potion and spell combination my father once invented. It will allow me to strip every magic wielder of their abilities, thus enlarging my own strength and increasing our chance of activating the cauldron in the foreseeable future."

"How long will you continue doing this?" Uma asked.

Solomon gave a questioning look at Ginny, who looked on a notepad. "Three more to go." she eventually said.

"There you go. Three more to go and I will have basically exhausted every magical resource on the isle, we can only hope that when you and Maddy join up it will be enough to activate the cauldron." Solomon said.

"And if not?" Uma asked.

Solomon shrugged. "There are other sources to drain." He said darkly.

"We are giving him too much power!" Harry loudly said to Uma. "Letting him take all that magic, what are we thinking? He will use this against us, mark my words."

"Chill out Harry." Uma said as she lazily sharpened her sword while sitting on her throne.

"How can you be so calm? You were the one who said we'd have to intervene if he would cross a line! What he does is crossing a major line! I say we take him while we still have the upper hand!" Harry said.

"Enough!" Uma yelled, and she saw that Harry was taken aback. "Please don't act like you're actually concerned for the plan, or what Solomon might do to us. You've had weeks to consider that, but only now do you come to me all panicked. Come on Harry, we're better than this. This is about CJ."

"And what if it is!?" Harry said.

"I already told you that I want nothing to do with her!" Uma spat.

"I would have been fine if she would have stayed out of all this, but to have her team up with that snake Solomon!? That crosses a line for me! He's dangerous and things might just turn ugly for her very soon." Harry replied.

"Believe me when I say that I would have rather not seen her join his gang as well." Uma told him. "But it happened, and we can only make the best out of it."

"I'm sorry Uma, but if I find out that he hurt her, or used her, or harmed her in any way, even you won't be able to hold me back." Harry said raising his hook.

Uma immediately decided not to tell Harry how Solomon had slapped CJ during their short confrontation. "Where do all these sappy feelings suddenly come from Harry?" Uma said with a grin. "Do you feel guilty for leaving her? Is that it? Do you want to make things right?" she said as she descended her thrones and stroked Harry's face with her hand.

"Of course, she's my little sister. As much as she annoys me, I want her to be happy and healthy." Harry replied sheepishly.

"I appreciate that you told me this." Uma said, "But I need you to snap out of it. Don't let your feelings for CJ blind you in our attempt to take over Auradon!"

Harry looked into her eyes. "I won't let them blind me, they're nothing but slightly distracting."

"I need you to trust me." Uma said to Harry. "Can you do that?"

"It's all I do." Harry replied.

Uma gently slapped Harry's face. "Who's the first mate?" she asked purring.

"I am." He replied with a smile.

"And who is the captain?" she asked.

"You are." He answered as Uma cupped Harry's face with her hands.

"And what's my name?" she finally asked.

"Uma!" Harry replied.