Chapter 22: The Locking Spell
Belmont Hold
Yvette drew an arrow as Trevor charged his demon.
Her demon stood there, wings protecting itself. They were very hard to hurt, that breed. But there was a few small points of weakness. And Yvette could see one of them quite clearly. She nocked the arrow and drew it back. Then she aimed...and released. The arrow sailed across the air and the arrowhead slid between the tiny gap between the wing and the underside of the exo-skull.
The arrow pierced its throat.
The demon fell back dead.
Yvette walked over and sliced the head from the shoulders.
Sypha moved quickly. She finally found the last piece of the puzzle. 'That's it!' Jumping up, Sypha raced down to where Alucard was. She sharply stopped, though, when one of the demons landed heavily in front of her. It rolled up and looked at her, and then it began moving towards her – and her hands were full.
Her heart caught in her throat.
Trevor suddenly jumped from an overhead balcony and kicked it away from her and down an aisle. He caught himself on the banister before shooting forward to finish it off. Sypha continued on her way down to Alucard, book clutched to her chest. The dhampir was leaning against the mirror.
'Do you see the castle?' she asked, coming around behind him.
Alucard pointed. 'Take a look.'
Sypha looked into the broken mirror and saw a castle with all sorts of strange outreaches and...were they upside-down towers? How on Earth had he managed that? But Sypha was much more concerned with the city she could see all around the base of the castle. The sooner they could move it away from there, the better.
'Good. Keep focused on it.' She moved over to set her books down. 'I have to be able to see it to put my intent on it.' She gave the notes one last look-over.
'Your intent?' Alucard asked.
'That's all magic is, Alucard,' Sypha said. 'Changing things in accordance with my intent.' She turned and marched back over. 'And my intent is to drag that grotesque thing here.'
Her hand tightened around the sheet of paper she had. The spell written down on it was what would give it power. This spell had been designed to use the written word. And goodness knew a solid object was easier to grasp. As the spell intended, she burned the paper and she could already feel it. The determination and dedication of three centuries of Belmonts were gathered in the palm of her hand. Her fireball quickly turned to a blue orb.
Sypha brought her other hand around, another orb in that hand, and crossed her arms across her chest. She curled her middle fingers in. The two orbs she did have fused and reached out jagged arms for the Distance Mirror – electricity. It seemed logical that the Mirror was here solely for this spell. Sypha closed her eyes and concentrated.
Then she snapped her arms apart and brought her hands together as an image appeared in the middle of the castle, over it – a three-dimensional hexagon that seemed to be rotating. That had to be the conduit that Dracula used to move his castle! Perhaps it was a device and it wasn't actually moved through magical means. It wasn't, after all, like any Belmont had seen the device before.
Truth be told, they were only guessing when they said he moved it through magical means.
Looking at it now, Sypha could hold her hands out like she was holding it. She could now take command of it.
Braila
Carmilla's forces came off the bridges and charged for the castle.
They came to the sealed doors and the commander stepped forward to examine them. Orders were given and a mighty battering ram – with the head in the shape of an actual ram – was brought to the door.
It was slammed into the door with all of the considerable strength of the vampires using it.
Inside the Castle, the remaining soldiers were being lined up in preparation for the imminent attack.
Zufall turned his head and looked at the remaining forgemaster.
Isaac stepped forward and overlooked the soldiers. But the sudden bang on the doors made both of them turn and glare at the doors, both tensed in preparation for the coming attack. The soldiers and the generals prepared themselves for the attack that was now literally banging on their front door.
Isaac narrowed his eyes.
The door burst open and the vampires streamed in, swords raised.
Dracula's vampire generals led the counterattack.
Isaac killed all of the vampires that got in his way with hardly any effort. Yet he had a different objective in mind. He rushed up the stairs and to Dracula's study. He found the vampire king sitting in his chair, in front of his fire, as if nothing was the matter. Had he not heard the chaos going on outside?
'Dracula!'
Dracula turned his head. 'Did we meet resistance at Braila?'
'We're betrayed at Braila,' Isaac told him, and then glanced over his shoulder. 'I do not recognise their colours, but the castle is invaded by vampire soldiers.'
Dracula scowled. 'What colours do they wear?'
'Black, with white trim.'
Dracula stood up. 'That is the livery of Styria.' He walked over. 'Carmilla has made her move.'
At that moment, the entire castle shook. They both looked up.
'What was that?' Isaac asked.
'I'm...not sure.' Dracula looked back at him. 'Do we have anyone else loyal to us?'
Isaac had no idea. 'There is a pitched battle in the main hall. I gathered about a dozen more on my way up there. They're outside.'
'Then we go downstairs, Isaac.' Dracula's eyes blazed, looking more alive than he had in too many months. 'Nobody takes my castle from me.'
If there were cosmic forces, they must've fallen about in laughter.
Belmont Hold
Alucard watched in astonishment.
Sypha ground her teeth. Sweat dripped down her face. She likely wasn't even aware of the fact that Yvette had walked over and stood just a few steps back, watching. She struggled against the force of the castle. 'It's...fighting me!' Maybe there was some magic. 'It's...like I'm pulling against an anchor! And a waterwheel – all at once!'
'He moves the castle using an engine,' Alucard told her. 'That's what's acting against you.'
At that moment, Belmont's fight passed overhead and the demon obviously charged at him just a little too hard and went through the banister. It immediately plunged down.
'Shit!' Belmont cursed as the Morning Star jingled in his hand.
Alucard got ready to fight the demon off, but Yvette said, 'Don't bother.'
As she said that, he saw the glowing end of the Belmonts' family heirloom shoot down and hit the demon. It exploded. Yvette pulled the lid off of a jar she'd gotten from somewhere and swung it in a wide arc at the flaming remains. The fire dispersed before it even got near them. At the same time, Sypha struggled with the castle and slammed her hands together.
Dracula's Castle
Dracula led Isaac and his soldiers down to the main hall.
He stopped and held a hand up as he heard something. 'Wait.' There was electricity crackling around the pillars of the castle. Dracula just about growled. 'Magic!'
Someone actually had the nerve to try and pick up his castle and move it.
The Belmont, no doubt.
Belmont Hold
Yvette decided she'd made a very good call with this.
It would take a mage of Sypha's calibre to do what Sypha was doing. Trevor really needed to get with her, even if they couldn't get married, so that this level of magic was introduced into their bloodline. If they ever had to do it again, Yvette didn't appreciate the idea of going out and actively looking for a talented sorcerer just for that.
Sypha grunted in effort. 'Do...as you're told!'
Braila
Carmilla spun around and stared as blue lightning crackled around the castle.
She'd never seen such a thing before. Even though she knew what it meant, she was stunned. It was obvious the surviving Belmont had decided to end this now and was forcing the confrontation. But how the hell was he managing that? And, more than that, the castle actually vanished...and then reappeared a few feet away.
Then it happened again.
And again.
And again. And, suddenly Carmilla couldn't worry about that. It had reappeared in the river, which meant she had a tidal wave of holy water coming right at her. Not willing to lose her forgemaster, she grabbed him and jumped out of the way. Her army, she knew, was as good as dead. That holy water would be going absolutely everywhere. The only survivors might – might – be the ones in Dracula's castle.
And they wouldn't live for very long.
They landed on a rooftop, but as the castle swung around, Carmilla had to grab Hector again and move him before the side of the castle hit the rooftop they were standing on.
The castle disappeared again – for good this time. It created a huge gust of wind, which centred into what was essentially a holy tornado. Anyone not standing in an area as well covered as she and Hector were would be sucked in instantly, it was so strong. She stared up at the place where the castle had been in shock.
Even though she knew intellectually, Carmilla breathed out. 'What the fuck just happened?'