Chapter Twenty-Four
As the sun rose over the Skull, the coven heads and their apprentices prepared for the ceremony.
From near the back of the waiting area, Willow looked around through the eye slits of her mask. Darius seemed utterly unflappable, standing at loose attention with Amity at his side in a perfect mirrored pose, her Amethyst Artisan mask hiding her own expression. Raine had their eyes closed and was twitching their fingers in something like the patterns of a violin, Derwin doing something similar. The Iron Trapper was glancing around as they absently petted Eberwolf, Willow wondering who the Beastkeeping apprentice was under the mask. Emira, under her glamour of the Cyan Vision, leaned against a wall waiting on Head Witch Carroll.
Willow looked more closely at the other head witches and their apprentices.
Cernunnas seemed even more calm than Darius, though the Tonic Indigo was wringing her hands. Cicero Nikolai was quietly discussing something with the Brass Alembic. Heph Starret was standing at attention, stoic as a boulder, with his apprentice at his side. Pythus Mawe seemed to be mediating, and the Indigo Eye was writing something in a journal.
Despite everyone's calm appearances, an unmistakable air of tension hung in the room.
"Nervous, Dear?" Lady Feronia asked from beside her.
"A little, Milady," Willow said, her stomach twisting with nerves. Nerves about the conflict she knew was approaching fast … and about the woman standing beside her. Lady Feronia had claimed something like neutrality in what she knew was coming, but it still made Willow feel awful. It felt like Feronia had betrayed her as a mentor, while Willow had also betrayed her as an apprentice. This woman had taught her so much and had gone out of her way to save Hunter's life, but also refused to fight against Belos's mad attempt to merge two realms.
It was confusing, and that the last thing that she needed before a pitched battle.
"Children of the Isles," Belos's voice proclaimed from above them. "For too long, our world has been subject to an insidious pox. But today, united under the Titan's will and with the power of the eclipse, we shall wipe out wild magic forever. Paradise awaits!"
"It's time," said a familiar voice. Head Witch Carroll entered, looking absolutely terrible … and with his tail showing. He glared at Emira and gestured for her to follow. "Let's go."
"Graye," Willow whispered, a bout of intuition showing her the truth.
"Don't worry for her, Dear," Feronia said, "she'll be fine. Let's get moving."
"Graye," Darius said, the Caudal demon's pause confirming Willow's intuition, "if I might borrow your apprentice for a moment?"
"Do what you want," Graye said dismissively and finished leaving.
"We will join you momentarily," Darius said, then lowered his voice for the masked Blight sisters. Lady Feronia shrugged and placed a hand on Willow's shoulder to gently steer her along. They followed the other coven heads and apprentices to the top of the tower for the ritual, passing Kikimora — and was that Angmar? — at the foot of the stairs. Belos stood proudly in the center of the platform, his mask absent as he smiled to them all in a mockery of grandfatherly warmth.
"Greetings to you all," he said cordially, and Willow barely hid a shiver. Darius brought up the rear, accompanied by Amity and Emira, who took their places behind their mentors like the other apprentices.
"Now before we get started," Belos said, his tone menacing under the false warmth, "there is a matter of propriety to attend to." He gestured to the apprentices and made rounds to check their wrists for coven sigils, keeping their wrists bared for the ritual. When he passed Emira, he narrowed his eyes and gestured for her to step forward as he examined the others. He did the same after looking over Amity, and then made it to Willow.
"Ms. Park," he said, his tone sharp enough to cut flesh. He snatched the mask from her face to carelessly toss it away and took her wrist in a bruising grip to examine her coven sigil, eyes narrowed.
"I believe her sigil has been established, Emperor Belos," Lady Feronia said calmly, though her eyes were murderous.
"Indeed," Belos said, a cruel smile lifting the corners of his lips. "Which is why she will be taking your place, Feronia." Feronia's eyes widened and her nostrils flared as she placed a protective hand on Willow's shoulder. "Is that a problem, Head Witch?" Belos asked mildly.
"She is young, her powers not yet fully developed," Feronia said. "Is it wise to jeopardize the ritual?"
"If she is half as strong as your reports suggest, then she will endure just fine," Belos said nonchalantly. Then his voice turned cold as he said, "Step back, Feronia, and give your apprentice room."
Feronia was practically trembling with anger … but she did as she was told. Belos nodded with satisfaction and roughly guided Willow to her place by her wrist before he moved toward the center of the dais. Belos then approached Amity and Emira, gesturing for them to remove their masks. They glanced at each other before doing so, Amity taking hers off and placing it in the folds of her dress while Emira tossed hers to let it disperse into mist.
"Show me your sigils again, ladies," Belos commanded. They did, and Belos's gauntlet glowed with artificial magic as he passed it over their arms … and glamours faded to reveal sigils from the Emperor's Coven, rather than Abominations or Illusions, and leather bracelets set with cloaking stones that cracked and fell apart into dust. Belos looked each of them in the eyes and lifted a hand, the metal of his gauntlet still glowing.
Darius gasped as he was lifted by the throat with invisible force.
"Such attempts as deception are disappointing, Darius," Belos said calmly, as if discussing the weather. "Almost treasonous." Then he snorted and released the coven head to fall to his knees, coughing as he caught his breath. "But given that it is a special day, I will allow you to continue with the ritual. Ladies, return to your places." Both of them did, silently and with their heads bowed in fear. Then Belos gestured to each of the remaining apprentices for them to remove their masks as well.
In the brief pause that followed, Willow got to see each of the apprentices' faces for the first time. Besides Amity, Emira, and Derwin — whom she had already met — there were five new faces.
The Iron Trapper was a tall Kogtisty demon — the same species as Kikimora and Pythus Maw — with yellow-green skin and brown eyes, the talons on his head stretching down both sides of his angular face like a shoulder-length haircut and a single snaggletooth on the right side.
The Violet Eye was a male triclops demon — much like Boscha — with soft features and blue skin. He had fair hair that hung in a waist-length tail, all three of his eyes dark and piercing as if to contrast his hair.
The Tonic Indigo was a small, slim, female Gannit demon — the same species as Warden Wrath — with orange skin, a sheet of black hair freed from her hood, and yellowed fangs, her beady eyes burning red.
The Bronze Mason was a Tusken demon, marked by the strong build, grey skin, and a single prominent fang jutting from the left side of his mouth in a hot pink color. His hair was hidden beneath a hood, but his eyes were blue and focused.
Finally, the Brass Alembic was a male witch with bleached yellow hair cut close to his scalp that contrasted a copper complexion, as well as yellow sclera that also contrasted purple irises. A cluster of small burns were spread across his face, as if acid had splashed him during an experiment.
"Oh, one more thing," Belos said, pitching his voice to all of them. "I've decided to alter your arrangements." He flexed the fingers of his gauntlet and all of the coven heads and apprentices grunted or, in Graye's case, outright yelped as they rose a few inches into the air, an aura of crimson magic surrounding them. They were rearranged with Nikolai and Eberwolf at the ends of the rounded horseshoe-shape, Darius and Graye beside each of them. Starret and Raine were next inward on each side, and then Cernunnas and Mawe, with Willow in the center of the curve.
Willow gulped at being separated from all of her allies. Scratch that — another glance around at the arrangement showed that every known rebel had been separated from their fellows!
Belos began to draw a deceptively simple diagram in the dirt at each of the coven heads' — and Willow's — feet before returning to the center of the arrangement as the moon touched the edge of the sun. He lifted his staff and magic flared from it.
"God be praised," Belos intoned, and then clapped the butt of his staff to the diagram, golden light shining within the lines of the diagram, a spark of powerful magic igniting when the sun seemed to first touch the darkened disk of the moon. Everyone's sigils began to glow as the ritual began, and the coven heads and apprentices caught the sigh of thousands of voices gasping with awe.
With the ritual underway, Belos turned to green sludge and disappeared underground.
"Sweet success!" the Collector cheered. "The rite is in place and on its way." The shadow leered and curled along the walls around Belos as he emerged from the ground. "And now for your end of the bargain, Philip," she crooned. "The Titan's Blood, if you please. Freedom is calling."
"Titan's Blood?" Belos asked, removing his robe to bear the blue coat and other clothes he'd worn when he first arrived. "Whyever would you need this," he removed a skull-shaped vial of the indigo fluid from his coat, "to be free?"
"You know why," the Collector said, her voice turning dark. "Free me, as per our bargain."
"You would have me waste such a powerful resource on breaking your prison?' Belos asked, affecting innocent curiously. "Oh, Collector, that cannot be."
"You dare to play such a game?" the Collector asked. "You cannot break the bargain we made. You will die and forfeit your soul to me!"
"Our bargain all those years ago, Collector," Belos said, his false smile falling into seriousness, "was that you would be freed no later than the Day of Unity. Do not impugn my honor, Star Child. My end will be held up." He again gestured to the Titan's Blood in his hand. "But I never said anything about this." Belos scoffed and moved toward the generator that would power the portal, removing the in-built dropper from the vial and squeezing four large drops of the Titan Blood into it. The portal powered up, light flaring and charging for the main event.
"What are you planning, Philip?" the Collector asked.
"I think a better question, Collector, would be: 'What have you already planned'?" He chuckled. "But then, I would only need to ask if I didn't already know. Do you take me for a fool?" He looked over his shoulder to her silhouette. "You think I didn't notice the smaller ritual hidden in the Merging Spell? A rite that will channel part of that power harvested from the populace into the glass of your prison?"
He moved to a table and tore a cloth from over said disk of transparent crystalline substance.
"It is not the Blood that is needed for your freedom," he mused, "but rather the power of a Titan. And while Titan's Blood is certainly a rich source of that power, the magic funneling into the Merging Spell will do just as well." He shrugged. "So tell me, why would I waste the Titan's Blood on a foregone conclusion? Hmm?"
"Free me, Belos," the Collector growled.
"What ever happened to the patience of an immortal?" Belos asked. "I really am having trouble understanding your ire. You will be freed this day, one way or another. Why demand it mere minutes early?"
Darkness spread across the walls and swallowed the light within the chamber, muting even the shine of the portal door. Belos kept his face carefully serene, even as his stomach twisted with dread. He wore an arrogant and confident mask around the Collector, but in the deepest vaults of his mind he was willing to admit … he was afraid of her.
That was why he had negotiated so heavily for after the Day of Unity to protect humanity from her. As long as he lived, his own kind would be off-limits for this eldritch being's experimentation.
"Well played, Philip," the Collector chuckled, her shadow contracting back into the feminine cloak with the cupid's-bow lips in a smile. "Had any other fool made that gamble, I would have had them destroyed when I freed myself. But given our history, I will offer you clemency."
"How generous, Collector," Belos said tightly, a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. He pinched his fingers and dragged them over the streak of rotten green crossing his face, red artificial magic forming a glamour to hide it. "Now then, let us see the fruits of our labor," he said, picking up the disk and preparing to transport again, "shall we?"
"We're almost there," Hunter reported. "We'll be at the Skull in about fifteen minutes."
"What then?" Edric asked.
"I have an idea," Alador ventured, but another airship marked with the sigil of the Emperor's Coven emerged from behind a cloud.
"This is restricted airspace," a scout reported. State your business and prepare to be boarded!"
"And keep the Emperor's last shipment of Abomi-tons from him?" Odalia asked, magic from her brooch forming a megaphone shape that amplified her voice. "I hardly think so."
"We see no Abomi-tons," the scout called back, but her voice seemed unsure.
"Under an illusion to hide them from any wild witches," Odalia replied snootily. "Can't have those barbaric fools doing something they'll regret, now can we?"
Luz growled, but Edric placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
"Now, shall we make our delivery and join the assembly?" Odalia asked. "Or would you prefer we report our tardiness to the Emperor as your fault?"
There was tense silence for long, excruciating moments … and then the scout called back, "Proceed, Mrs. Blight. We'll scry ahead and make sure you're not hassled again." The airship flew away to keep patrolling and everyone looked in surprise at Odalia. The Blight matriarch, for her part, let out a tense breath and slumped against the guard wall of the airship, sweat finally beading her brow.
"I can't believe that worked," she gasped.
"Mom, that was awesome!" Edric said with a wide smile.
"'Bout time you used that snooty entitlement for good," Luz teased, and Odalia glared daggers at her. Dull daggers. "So what was your idea, Alador?" Luz continued.
"Pretty much exactly that," Alador said, moving to place a hand on his wife's shoulder to steady her, to which she offered a weak smile.
"Anyone have ideas for what to do next?" Gus asked.
"I've got a plan," Hunter said, turning the wheel and pulling levers, his focus on the palismen in the corner of his eye.
"Team One is moving into position," Eda said into the crow-phone perched on her shoulder as she led the way with Amber at her side, both of them dressed in scout uniforms. Behind them, following in a line like little lindworm hatchlings, were the cloaked forms of Viney, Jerbo, Barcus, and Amelia.
The Troublemakers and one of the Banshees. A killer team.
The CATs had organized the students into teams of four and one of five, each led by two main members of the CATs. Eda was partnered with Amber, partly because of the girl's inexperience and partly to curb her initial distrust of strangers. They figured her respect for "Mama Eda" would help her play nice with the rest of the kids.
At the moment, everyone was getting ready to begin the assault, the moon drifting over the sun as they did so.
"Team Two is a go," Katya's voice said from the crow's beak. That would be Katya and Steve, leading Mattholomule, Quincey, Tuck, and Ira. Eda wasn't sure whose bright idea it was to pair Steve with both his new girlfriend and his little brother, but she had a strong suspicion it was Raine.
"Team Three is in position," Lilith reported. Severine had been partnered with her, Lilith's calm confidence helping to ground the nervous former scout. They were leading Hugo, Bo, Ladon, and Edwin. All of them seemed like down-to-earth and obedient kids, so as not to strain Lilith's patience or Severine's nerves.
"We're ready to strike, Witchlet," Gwen said. She, of course, was partnered with Dell. They were leading the team of Boscha, Celine, Skara, and Cat, plus Jasper. They figured Gwen's firm personality and experience with willful teens would keep Boscha's ego in check. Plus, all of the kids were on good terms with the grudgby captain and so more likely to work well with her.
"Ma, for Titan's sake, don't call me that on a mission to save the world," Eda grumbled affectionately.
"The end of the world is no place for pride, Edalyn," Lilith said, though her tone was teasing as well as corrective. "Our main priorities are protecting the others and securing the coven heads."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Eda said. "Raine and four of my kids are up there."
"The edge of the moon is halfway across the sun," Katya said. "That's our cue."
Eda nodded and fished Owlbert from her hair, along with the rest of the kids' palismen to pass out to them. Including Barcus's little fish-dragon, Kerr.
"You ready, kids?" Eda asked.
"Let's do this, Lady Calamity," Viney challenged, mounting her staff. Eda nodded with approval at the answer and led the way as they raced into the air.
Given timing her breaths from one to four and back on her fingers would be a clear sign of distress to the coven heads, she focused on timing them in her head. 'One, two, three, four - hold - four, three, two, one. Repeat. One-' She checked under her wrist as she kept up the count and her deep breathing, and something was … odd.
All of the coven heads' sigils were shining with golden light like the ritual pattern at their feet. Willow's … wasn't. And the ritual seemed to be suffering for it as the light from the sigils and the diagram began to dim.
"What in the world?" Graye asked, actually striking his wrist with the heel of his other hand as if to knock the ritual back into motion.
'What is happening?' Willow wondered, just as confused as everyone else.
Then Pythus Mawe lifted his head in a sharp motion and traced a circle that sent a bolt of violet flames racing out of the crystal ball clutched in his lower hands to intercept a powerful spell launched at the dais. Cernunnas swept her arm into a circle formed by her entire palm that created a massive shield styled after the bandage-wrapped hand of the Healing Coven that caught a further onslaught of fire bolts.
Willow kept her face carefully neutral as the CATs and Hexside students raced up over the edges of the dais, spell circles ready.
"Take them!" Lilith snapped, her voice ringing with command of a coven head.
"Take 'em down hard!" Eda shouted, shifting into her harpy form.
Three of the coven heads — Mawe, Cernunnas, and Graye — prepared themselves for battle in earnest. Three others — Nikolai, Starret, and Feronia herself — tensed and prepared themselves, but seemed to prefer to wait and see what was happening. And the three members of the CATs — Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf — seemed utterly relaxed under the "surprise" attack, each of them with a faint smirk that Willow would never have noticed if she weren't expecting it.
And then an alarm went off and a collection of twenty-seven Abomi-tons — three for every head witch — climbed over the lip of the dais to take positions around it. They clapped their hands, spread them, and then lifted their right arms to form a massive spherical shield that would protect the tower from outside forces. They also, in the same motion, produced cannons from their left arms that were leveled in the general direction of each of the coven heads.
"Oh, shit!" Amber shouted.
As if that were not bad enough, airships loaded with coven scouts and more Abomi-tons began to converge on the dais, far too quickly to have been reacting to a surprise attack.
"They knew!" Steve shouted, firing a bolt of lightning from his pointer finger that lanced through the balloon of one of the airships.
"Break formation and fight for your lives!" Lilith ordered, and they did just that. All twenty-five of them scattered into the wind to engage the forces of the Emperor's Coven.
Willow watched with bated breath as her friends and fellow students all raced through the air like pixies, avoiding the barrages of spells and cannonfire from the scouts and Abomi-tons on the airships, dealing occasional counterattacks when they got the opportunity. She only caught images as they flew, such as Boscha hurling flaming grugdby balls, Eda spiraling through the air on her wings, or Gwendolyn summoning a swarm of gargoyles that both attacked airships and protected her and Dell with their stony, scaly skin while Dell summoned the wind and focused it into waves and blades.
Willow glanced at the CAT coven heads and found them all with wide eyes and tense lips as they seemed to be thinking through their next move.
"The ritual is still failing," Cernunnas reported, her and all the others' coven sigils still slowly losing their glow.
"Why are the Abomi-tons targeting us?" Nikolai asked.
Willow didn't have time to wonder further before she yelped in pain as her own coven mark flared with white light and burst into green flames in a tiny mushroom cloud of magic.
… What?
Willow shouted in shock as something big grabbed her around the chest and lifted her into the air before slamming her bodily to the ground between two of the lines of the diagram. Her upper body was held in the clutch of a massive hand of violet magic, attached to a long, spindly arm that emerged from Pythus Mawe's crystal ball. Another, smaller arm branched off of the first and grabbed Willow's arm to lift it and reveal her bare wrist, only singed by the mark that had been there before.
"It would seem," Mawe said in his dusty voice, "that we have a traitor in our midst."
Chapter twenty-four, and the race to the conclusion finally begins!
*Darius held Emira back to administer the EC sigil she had during Belos's check. If you'll recall, Caroll didn't brand her, and he wasn't available the last few days after the Hexside raid. Darius actually branded Amity with an EC brand from the beginning, and the brand he placed on her before Belos in "Masks" was a temporary tattoo. The cloaking stones to disguise the sigils were made by Steve.
*Willow's coven sigil failing was planned for as far back as "Marigolds" when she got the blasted thing. That will be explained next time.
*The "line of lindworm hatchlings" is my take on the Boiling Isles equivalent of "a line of ducklings."
*I did not initially plan to reveal the non-major character apprentices' in this chapter. It just hit me that this would be the perfect time as I was writing the scene. Funny how things work out!
*The Indigo Eye being a triclops is centered on the idea of the third eye being a symbol for otherworldly sight.
*Gannit demons, like Warden Wrath and Braxas, are named for the Latin word for "snarl" - which works on two levels because to snarl can be to bare your teeth at something, and Wrath and Braxas have nothing but fangs to snarl with - or to entangle or ensnare something like Wrath's tentacles.
*A Tusken demon is the same species as Red, Green, and Blue Fang from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen." The name is a play on "Tuscan" referring to hailing from the Italian region of Tuscany, and tusk, as in a large tooth.
*It struck me that I've never made up a palisman for Barcus, and so I gave him a dragon shaped like a fish. It's based on the Knucker of English folklore, which also gave its name, Kerr.
*I like the idea that the Troublemakers refer to Eda as Lady Calamity (since they now know "Lord" Calamity is a woman) as a term of respect.