Halfway down Stevenson Street Margo faltered.
"A paterghlum?" she said. "And Ngralth shall war with the rainbow."
Seventy yards behind her, Giles shuddered, and sped up.
Margo looked sideways at Buffy. "Is tha up to a challenge, love?"
"Why are you asking?" Buffy said, looking suspiciously at Margo.
And so she should. Margo had made it very clear she thought a slayer should attack all demons on sight. Giving Buffy a choice didn't fit.
Cordelia wasn't close enough to join in the conversation though; she was still lagging five yards behind Giles. She could only hope Buffy had enough sense not to let Margo lull her suspicions.
"All t'demons tha's fought tonight were little more than vermin, not deserving of caution," Margo said. "We've been avoiding owt truly dangerous."
Buffy stared disbelievingly at Margo.
"Twere for tha friends' sake. They are brave, Buffy, but they are not yet ready for the rigours of battle." Margo shrugged. "It irked me to pass such evils by, but the rate they're killing each other, I could live with it."
A policy Cordelia approved of, though she would have preferred to have been told in advance.
"Ngralth, I can not pass by," Margo said. "In the hour I saw my Helga die, I promised her vengeance on the ghouls, and all their foul kin. I will not break my word."
"Of course not," Buffy said. "I'll kill this demon for you."
"We'll kill it together, love" Margo said. "Alone, tha'd have little chance."
"No!" Giles gasped, "It's suicide."
"Giles —" Buffy began.
"—would be as much use against Ngralth as a chocolate teapot," Margo said firmly, then looked round. "Mr Giles, tha can guard the gate while we fight, but tell t'others the score first. They deserve fair warning."
Then Margo ran off again, Buffy following after a few moments hesitation.
Looking despondent, Giles slowed to a jog, giving Cordelia and the others a chance to catch up.
"Catule tenebrae, audi me et contremisce" Margo shouted as she ran, her voice once more ten thousand knights, charging into battle. "quia veni cum hasta augustissima ut mortem portem omni quae vorant mortem."
"A spell?" Willow shouted, still a few yards behind Cordelia.
"A challenge," Giles shouted back. "Essentially, 'Die, demon, die,' but with more style — and maybe a tiny spot of magic."
"Filia terrae, audi me et contremisce," a voice replied, oozing through the air like pus squeezed from an infected wound. It was a voice woven from the sounds of a myriad deaths, the gurgle of blood gushing from a punctured lung mingling with the crack of a breaking skull, screams of agony mingling with the final whimpers of the deathly ill as they succumbed to their coughs and fevers, and behind it all, the buzz of flies and the busy sound of maggots chewing through rotting flesh.
An unpleasant sound, but set against the voice that had whispered in the darkness of her nightmares it seemed no worse than Snyder; an amateur effort, holding no terrors.
Giles stopped running and turned round, his face pale and trembling.
"Quia Ngralth sum, qui te vincet sicut mortem vicit," Ngralth said. "Pede supplicabis et implorabis vorare carnem hastae tuae a manu meo."
"Challenge heard, and accepted," Giles said quietly.
"What's it … mean?" Willow asked, still panting from her run. "Hast high, that's what Margo calls Buffy, right?"
"Hastae," Giles said, nudging his glasses. "Um, it was just boasting. That's all. Standard demonic practice. Not significant. Mustn't be taken literally."
"You sound nervous," Willow said carefully. "Is Ngralth really that bad?"
"You sound rather calm," Giles said.
Xander smiled. "We've heard worse. You did, yesterday."
"Muffled," Giles said. "And you coped with that surprisingly well, too. Um, maybe … but we can leave that until later. Ngralth is a paterghlum; in English, a father of ghouls."
"So, he'd be worse than a ghoul?" Cordelia said carefully, deliberately giving Giles an opening for a lecture. The delay might give Buffy a chance to kill the demon while Cordelia was still at a safe distance and, if not, knowing the demon's weaknesses should help Cordelia keep herself alive.
"Much worse," Giles said. "He is a master of the magics of death and decay. With one touch, he can riddle your flesh with rot, slaying you in a heartbeat, or inflict on you wounds that will endlessly fester, devouring your body from within, even as the pain drives you insane. He can summon zombies from their graves with a single word, chain unwilling ghosts to his service, or simply shape his minions from the essence of death itself. He—"
"But Buffy's got superhealing now," Xander said. "He won't be able to do anything to her."
"Maybe," Giles said. "If the blood demon was stronger than Ngralth is, and even if it was, the side-effects from the clash of two such magics are … unlikely to be desirable."
"He's been killed before," Willow said. "He must have some weakness."
"He is vulnerable to the magics of life," Giles conceded. "Last time, the council used the greater invocation of Ishtar; not quite strong enough to actually kill him, but sufficient to weaken him enough that the slayer could."
"So, you and Margo do that," Xander said. "Where's the problem."
Giles smiled. "Quite apart from the hours of chanting, that invocation requires five women simultaneously to give birth at a heliacal rising of Venus, each woman being located both on one point of a pentagram within which the target lies and also at the center of a smaller pentagram marking that point, with five couples at the points of each such smaller pentagram and each of those couple being in coitus at the critical moment."
Giles paused, looking at Xander. "I suspect we might encounter some small difficulty in making the necessary arrangements at this short notice."
"No need for sarcasm," Xander said, scowling.
"Margo thinks she can win," Cordelia pointed out. "She must know some other way."
"There are simpler options—" Giles said.
"Why didn't they use them, last time?" Willow interrupted.
"They require great power, and the council does not directly employ anyone with such. It would create too many internal security problems."
"What about Margo?" Willow asked, and Cordelia sighed. It was an obvious question, but this was not the right time to ask it.
"If Dame Margo had possessed this level of power when she was young she'd have been placed in one of the covens. It must be another of the benefits of alchemy," Giles said. "Or maybe of this so-called higher arcanum."
"Margo thinks she can win," Cordelia repeated, before Giles could digress further. "Why don't you trust her to."
"Firstly," Giles said. "The, admittedly baroque, rituals provide a safety net. Without them, if Dame Margo is pushed too near her limits there's a strong chance she'll lose control of her magic. Um, think of it as like a dam burst. There'd be a surge of wild magic that would sweep away Ngralth, and half the town with him."
Not good, but Margo clearly didn't think that would be a problem, and she should have a better idea of her limits than Giles did.
"Secondly," Giles said. "Dame Margo believes in dying gloriously; noble sacrifices for the greater good, and all that."
"She won't do that tonight," Cordelia said, immediately catching the implication. "She's already booked Sunday for that."
"There are other board members who could step in," Giles said, "but there are no other white magics so potent as that of a willing self-sacrifice."
"You think Margo's going to kill herself?" Xander said. "What about Buffy?"
"Dame Margo would expect Buffy to be grateful for the chance of a glorious death."
"Buffy doesn't think that way," Willow said sharply. "We can't let it happen."
"I don't want to, but—" Giles began.
Ignoring him, Xander ran off, towards the graveyard.
"There must be something we can do," Willow said, scowling at Giles, then ran off after Xander.
Cordelia looked at Giles. "Don't give up. I've seen Buffy walk into certain death before, and live."
"The visions you were shown," Giles said quietly, then smiled. "And the new prophecies do say she will return from death at least once."
Giles looked at Cordelia a moment longer, then he too ran off.
Cordelia shrugged, and followed him. She might have preferred to stay put, at a safe distance from the fight, but not alone.
Giles caught up with Xander a few yards short of the cemetary gates.
"Slow down," he said. "We need a plan."
"A good plan," Cordelia agreed, as she drew level with Willow.
Xander scowled at him. "Buffy's in danger. We can't just stand around, talking."
"Um," Willow said, looking at the demon, "I think Giles is right."
Cordelia nodded. Ngralth was in the middle of the cemetary, sitting on a large pile of broken coffins, but even at that distance she could tell he would be no pushover.
Physically, he wasn't much to look at: short and grossly fat, his arms and legs almost lost amidst the great rolls of pallid flesh glistening with slime, but this night Cordelia had senses other than sight.
It hadn't take her long to realise the more dark energy a demon had, the more deadly it was. Vampires had the least, barely enough to animate their undead flesh, and they died easily. The demons had more, sometimes enough to fill their bodies with shadow, and they put up much more of a fight than the vampires had.
Ngralth wasn't merely full of dark energy; he was overflowing with it, his aura fouling the air for five yards around him, and with his hands he was gathering more power from the air, shaping it into some geometrical construct.
He'd had dozens of ghoul minions too, before Buffy arrived. Most of them were now laying amidst the open graves, only three were still fighting, creatures almost human in shape, but with green skin and canine muzzles.
Cordelia frowned suspiciously. Half the ghouls were wearing normal clothes, only slightly torn.
"How does Ngralth make new ghouls?" she asked, looking at Giles.
Margo ducked beneath a punch, then smashed the ghoul's knee with the backside of her fan.
"The details are uncertain," Giles said, nudging his glasses, "but it is thought he has some way of filling the dead and the living alike with his hunger for flesh. Once converted, there is no cure."
Buffy punched one ghoul out, then spun round and kicked a second in the jaw. It staggered backwards, towards Margo, who casually slashed its throat with her fan, then shook off the blood.
"Are you sure?" Willow asked, grimacing.
The last ghoul crumbled to the ground, hit on the head by Buffy.
"Yes," Giles said.
"How do I kill him," Buffy said, looking at Margo.
Ngralth smiled, his mouth opening inhumanly wide. "You don't."
"Use tha intution," Margo said, ignoring Ngralth.
"I have laid cities waste," Ngralth said, "Devoured nations."
"Old news," Margo said, knights charging. "Three thousand years have passed since tha last great feeding, and for the —"
"Silence," Ngralth said, in his voice the screams of dying knights. "I have the strength of seven slayers and the speed of a striking serpent. I am a bringer of decay, a bearer of plague, an herald of doom, and there is naught of this world that can stand against me, for the hope of man has f-f-f—"
"I can neither lie nor be lied to," Margo said, as Ngralth struggled to speak. "So know this. Tha doom has been sealed. For thi there can be no lasting victory."
Willow looked at Giles. "We're of this world. Is Buffy? That is, I know she's not an alien but, with the slayer stuff …"
"Nothing lasts for ever," Ngralth said. "This night I will break this city to my will. All who live here shall serve me; quick or dead, human or demon, they shall serve me. Together they shall form an army such as has not seen in ten thousand years, and you shall carry our banners high. Across all the lands of men we will ravin, until this world is mine."
Listening, Cordelia tensed. She knew Margo's no-lie spell couldn't really apply to talk about the future, or Margo would be able to make anything happen simply by saying it would, but Ngralth clearly believed he could do those things, which fitted with what Giles and Margo had been saying.
The few dozen yards between Cordelia and Ngralth was looking less and less like a safe distance.
"Uncertain," Giles said quietly to Willow. "But magic is always otherworldly, and only intentional deception is prohibited."
"My children shall roam the lands," Ngralth went on. "devouring all life, until only they remain, and then I will turn them upon each other. Ghoul shall devour ghoul, in a cycle without end, while I reign over all, the conqueror of death. So it shall be, until the stars grow cold."
Ngralth smiled happily, his voice growing misty. "It shall be glorious."
"What's he on?" Xander said, staring at Ngralth. "What's the point of that?"
Cordelia nodded. Ruling the world had obvious attractions, and she could understand why someone might want to destroy it, out of pique, or to feel the thrill of power, but the demon's fantasy was pure madness, the product of a deranged mind.
"You would have only days to enjoy your victory," Margo said. "Pkhrxng Fshlfn Dhlkbch is stirring."
Giles frowned uncertainly, and began mumbling weird words under his breath.
"What?" Ngralth snapped, leaning forward. "That cannot be."
"So it is written," Margo said, "in prophecy."
"There must be some mistake," Ngralth said.
"Sharksong?" Giles said hesitantly. "Xeng Falsh? Thychlth?"
Then his eyes widened, and he grew pale.
"Ngralth shall war with the rainbow," Margo quoted, "but victory shall avail him not, for Pkhrxng Fshlfn Dhlkbch stirs. Before three days have passed he shall stretch forth his hand to claim this world."
Ngralth stared at Margo, his face the image of despair.
Cordelia smiled approvingly. Psychological warfare might not look dramatic, but it would as much to weaken Ngralth as any merely physical assault.
Willow looked briefly uncertain, then smiled. "It's not just grey between black and white, is it? Who's Pukkch-, Pikre-, Pichreksung—"
She spluttered to an halt, unable to pronounce the name.
"I think he's the one we normally call Fein Dahlk," Giles said. "The father of the fathers of ghouls."
"Dysfunctional family?" Cordelia guessed.
Giles nodded, looking thoughtful. "Fein Dahlk is to Ngralth as Ngralth is to a common ghoul. Should he return, Ngralth would be just another minion, or maybe a snack."
"Three days." Ngralth said, then laughed sardonically. "So short a time …"
"Any weaknesses?" Willow said uncertainly.
Giles hesitated. "They'll have to open the Ragnarok Vault. Nothing less would do."
"Ma—" Xander began, smiling, then frowned. "We're talking apocalypse, right? How many is that this week?"
Margo looked at Ngralth, still whining about his life being cut so tragically short, then discreetly gestured at Buffy.
"Too many," Cordelia said. One a year was more than enough.
"Everything should calm down once Dame Margo seals the deathgate," Giles said.
Buffy shrugged at Margo, who repeated her gestures more vigorously.
After a few seconds Buffy nodded.
Margo casually stroked her chin with four fingers, then with three, with two.
"It's starting," Willow whispered, unnecessarily.
One finger, and Buffy sprang at Ngralth.
The pile of coffins exploded into flame.
Dazzled, Cordelia rubbed her eyes, then looked back at the fight.
Beneath Ngralth, the coffins had already crumbled to ash, leaving him suspended ten feet above the ground.
As he fell, Buffy's kick caught him on the chin.
Ngralth blinked, then blurred, and Buffy was sent hurtling headfirst towards a gravestone.
Margo began singing, "Where has tha …"
Catlike, Buffy twisted in mid-air, hitting the gravestone elbow first
Ngralth landed amidst the coffin ashes, then turned to face Margo.
"… since I saw thi …" Margo sang, slowly walking round Ngralth, clockwise.
Buffy rolled away from the gravestone, then jumped to her feet, looking carefully at Ngralth.
"Woman," Ngralth said, "there—"
Buffy hurled a stake at him.
Ngralth laughed as he plucked it from the air, then flipped it round.
A blur, and Buffy staggered backwards, a stake though her navel.
"… Moor baht'at. Where has tha …" Margo sang.
"There is no power in your song," Ngralth said. "You are no threat."
Willow looked uncertainly at Giles. "Is that really true?"
Buffy pulled out the stake and cast it aside, the hole immediately beginning to heal.
"It's not any form of magic I recognise," Giles said, tapping his fingers against his lips and winking.
"… baht'at. On Ilkley …" Margo sang.
"What is it she's singing?" Willow asked.
"A Yorkshire folk song," Giles said. "Completely unmagical."
If that were really true, Margo wouldn't be singing it, but Ngralth was too arrogant to realise that. Like every other demons he wouldn't take Cordelia and her friends seriously, until it was too late.
"How many verses?" Willow asked, winking.
"Oh, at least twenty," Giles said. "Thirty-four if she includes all the special verses, but she hasn't been drinking quite that much."
"She did have a few bottles of wine with dinner," Cordelia said, ostentatiously glancing at Ngralth.
Ngralth smiled at Buffy, "Think that spell will protect you?"
"Margo's good at magic," Buffy said, a nice piece of misdirection.
"Dame Margo assured me that would not be a problem," Giles said. "She said that wine isn't a real drink, not like Yorkshire ale. She said any real Yorkshirewoman could drink ten bottles of that weak foreign stuff, and still be able to walk thirty miles across the moors in a blizzard then kill a dozen demons with nothing but a broom. Think Texas, with sheep, and heather, and ferrets."
And if Ngralth was arrogant enough to believe even half that nonsense whatever Margo was planning would take him by complete surprise.
"… catch tha death of cold, without thi trousers on. …" Margo sang.
"There is no spell any mere human can cast that I cannot break," Ngralth said.
"Um," Xander said, hiding a smile, "can she do it without a broom?"
Ngralth started singing in a strange language, and as he sang his dark aura swelled outwards, forming tendrils that caressed Buffy's skin.
"Assyrian," Giles said. "He's trying to break the quick healing spell."
"… ducks play football." Margo sang. "Then we shall have to bury …"
Buffy hesitated, then started to back away from Ngralth, across the graves.
A quick gesture, and a grave opened beneath Buffy, then slammed closed, trapping her legs.
"Giles," Buffy shouted, "What—"
Ngralth sneered, then pointed at Cordelia, and the others, with his left hand.
Cordelia tensed, ready to dodge.
The dark mist thickened round his hand, condensing into a ball of shadows.
"Watch, and know despair," Ngralth said, sending the ball racing towards Cordelia before resuming his spell.
Still singing, Margo sketched a shape in the air, her fingers leaving a rainbow trail, then flicked it towards Cordelia.
Accelerating, the ball veered up, stopping when it was directly overhead.
Margo's spell hit the ground a few feet from Cordelia, a small tangle of rainbows.
The ball cracked open.
The rainbows unfolded, a delicate filigree spreading around Cordelia's feet.
"Not bad," Ngralth said, "for a human. If you were neither drunk nor deranged you might almost be a nuisance."
Something squirmed out of the ball; a worm; fat and slimy, with a shark's mouth.
The filigree was forming recognisable shapes now; a seal of Solomon inside a circle inside another seal, all decorated with strange symbols, but too late.
The worm demon slithered through the air, straight towards Cordelia, behind it three more worms squirming out of the disintegrating ball.
"No!" Giles shouted.
Cordelia dodged right, but the worm demon followed, faster than she could move, its jaws opening wide.
"Giles!" she said, struggling to sound calm, then the demon's jaws snapped closed, around her head.
There was no pain.
A blur of shadows, and the demon vanished.
Cordelia spun round frantically, trying to see where it had gone, then froze.
"Giles," Willow said, her voice tinged with mingled shock and despair. "What …"
Cordelia tuned out the words, her attention locked on the demon in front of her, squirming round inside Willow's head.
Hastily, she looked at Xander, and saw another of the demons, getting comfortable behind his eyes.
Possession, then? She didn't feel any different, yet.
Giles grimaced in concentration as the last demon bit down on his head, and its teeth shattered, as if on some invisible shield.
Cordelia's chin started itching.
"Resist," Giles said, backing away from them. "Try to resist. They can't take your body while you live without an invitation. Nothing can."
Just like nothing could open a deathgate from the far side. Exactly like, in fact; it was all part of the same spell, a spell that had already failed once. She couldn't trust in that hope.
But this was her body, her life. She wouldn't give it up without a fight.
Cordelia's stomach rumbled.
She twitched, but ignored it. She'd eaten far more than normal today. She couldn't be hungry.
But she was. Cakes and buns weren't filling enough. She needed meat.
She'd had that at dinner. She wasn't hungry now.
But that was ages ago. She needed to eat now.
'Demon,' Cordelia thought angrily, realising what was happening. 'I am not hungry, and there's nothing to eat here anyway. Get out of my head, now!'
Talking to herself like that wasn't healthy. The hunger must be getting to her.
'Demon, I know it's you. Get out of my head.'
What she needed was meat, lovely succulent meat.
'You are not welcome here. Get out,' Cordelia thought, trying to remember how Giles had done that exorcism.
A nice rare stake, something she could really get her teeth into.
Cordelia licked her lips. 'Not interested, and stop pretending you're me. I saw you.'
That was cheating. She shouldn't have seen a thing, just been overcome by hunger.
'Tough,' Cordelia mentally snapped. 'I'm warning you: leave now, or be exorcised.'
She should give into her hungers, all of them.
'No. This is my rightful body. Leave now, or be exorcised.' Repetitive, but from what she remembered she needed to say everything three times.
She was hungry, hungrier than she'd been since before that last diet. She had to eat.
No, she wasn't, not really. Cordelia ignored her grumbling stomach and focused her attention inwards. 'This is your final warning. Leave now, or be exorcised.'
Pork would be good, or something similar.
Cordelia hesitated. After the warning came the curses, but she couldn't use the same ones as Xander had. This was a demon; it didn't care if it couldn't use a comb. No, she needed stronger curses, curses terrifying enough to send a demon running.
Xander shrieked in pain as he fell to his knees, blood pouring from his eyes and nose.
The worm demon crawled out of his skull, trailing etherial slime, and lurched away from Xander.
That couldn't be right. The demons couldn't be beaten by untrained children, not in the presence of their master.
'It lost,' Cordelia told the demon. 'And so will you.'
"Nightmares," Xander said quietly, his voiced tinged with terror. "Remember."
Yes, that should work. Not even a demon would want to be cursed to suffer those horrors.
Nothing would work. She might as well surrender to her hungers.
Her eyes closed in concentration, Cordelia summoned up the memories of nightmare, letting them flood her mind. She'd-
Pain!
Cordelia fell to her knees, the demon's terrified screams filling her thoughts.
A blur of shadows, and the demon was lurching away from her.
Cordelia sank into meditation, quickly pushing the memories to the deepest recesses of her mind.
When she opened her eyes again Giles was crouching in front of her, a tissue in his hand.
"—erly impossible!" Ngralth shouted. "It cannot be. It can not be. It can not be."
"It is," Buffy said, still struggling to free her legs. "You lost."
Cordelia took the tissue, and began wiping the blood from her face.
"Remarkable," Giles said. "The Staniforth meditation?"
"It's OK, Willow," Xander said, hands nervously hovering above her shoulder. "The demon's gone."
"No," Cordelia said. "It was the nightmares. They fled the moment we thought about them. Right, Xander?"
"Nightmares?" Ngralth said, turning to face Cordelia and the others.
"Yes," Willow said, her voice shaky, then took a tissue from Xander. "But you didn't have any, Giles. How did you keep it out?"
"He's a watcher. He'll have had special training," Cordelia said. He'd probably learnt a lot in his Ripper days too, being possessed by Eyghon.
"I know that," Willow said, wiping the blood from her face. "I want to know how he did it."
Giles nodded, looking thoughtful. "I do have some books on the subject. Um, you're sure it was the nightmare memories that drove them off?"
"Yes," Xander said. "Does it matter?"
"What nightmares?" Ngralth shouted. "Answer me, or taste my wrath."
Giles looked down at the three wounded demons, each one now bashing its head against the rainbow seal. They were clearly hurting themselves, the light boiling away their shadows, but still they persisted.
The other demon, the one that had targeted Giles, huddled in the centre of the circle, looking nervously around.
"There are not many things that can drive a demon to suicide," Giles said as the first demon died. "Given their source, it's certainly conceivable your memories are among them, but that does raise worrying questions."
The fourth demon burrowed into the earth.
"Suffer!" Ngralth shouted, sending a large ball of black mist hurtling toward Cordelia.
She smiled as it splashed harmlessly on the outside of the rainbow seal, then shouted "Pathetic."
Ngralth couldn't harm them now, not with the seal in place, and if he wasted his time on futile attacks that should improve Buffy and Margo's chances.
"Trying to tickle us?" Xander shouted at Ngralth, then looked at Giles. "What questions?"
"Later," Giles said. "I need to consult my books."
"… come and eat up ducks, …" Margo sang, still circling Ngralth.
"Isn't that good?" Willow said. "No demon will be able to possess us. Will it work on telepaths too?"
"Probably," Giles said absently, then looked sternly at Willow. "Don't try it, except as a last resort. To embrace such memories could shatter your mind."
"Suffer!" Ngralth shouted, hurling another spell at Cordelia, and the others.
As it splashed against the seal, Buffy finally freed herself.
Giles frowned, then stood and faced Ngralth.
"These three have faced a whisperer in darkness," he said. "Your puny terrors can have no power over them."
"What!" Ngralth screamed. "You fools! You damned fools! Don't you know what that means? You must destroy them. Rend their unclean souls now, or the world is doomed."
Cordelia frowned. That was too much like what the blood demon had said for comfort.
"No," Giles said firmly. "We will find another way."
"Margo," Ngralth said. "I am not lying. They must be destroyed, for all our sakes. Withdraw your feeble magics, that I may more easily destroy them. Pkhrxng Fshlfn Dhlkbch will reward us both for this great deed. He might even grant us godhood for this, and dominion over all the worlds that be."
Margo did not respond, but went on singing. "… we shall all have eaten thi …"
Ngralth started chanting.
"Now he's trying to break Margo's seal," Giles said. "We've got about ten minutes, if he plays safe."
"If not?" Cordelia said quickly.
"Ninety seconds, at the risk of overextending himself."
And yet, Giles didn't seem worried. Margo must be near the end of her song.
"What's he so scared of?" Willow asked. "He sounds like the other demon did."
Giles nudged his glasses. "Dame Margo said I had no immediate need to know. She would be taking care of that problem herself. She did point out a book on the whisperers the board had sent, but it was in Linear A, which I can't read. It'll take me a few days to find a dictionary, and decipher it."
"Whisperers? You mean like the shadow tree," Cordelia said, showing off her quick comprehension.
She'd have preferred to know what was scaring the demons, but knowing there was an acceptable solution did help. Margo wouldn't try throwing Cordelia out of the universe, or destroying her soul.
Giles nodded.
"… Ilkley Moor baht'at," Margo sang. "On Ilkley Moor baht'at, on Ilkley Moor baht'at, for death is but a joke."
There was a moment of silence, then Margo blazed with a rainbow light, brighter than the midday sun.
Under that radiant glare, the dark mists evaporated, clearing an ever-growing circle of the energies of undeath.
"Tenebrae mea," Margo said, pointing at Ngralth, and the light swept over him.
He screamed, a small dark blot amidst the rainbow glory, fast melting away.
Dazzled, Cordelia blinked, then shielded her eyes from the spectacle.
"Mors jocum est non," Ngralth said, his voice a feeble croak, and the light wavered. "Vincium eadem rem minimam est non."
"Buffy," Margo said. "Get him while he's weak."
Buffy looked uneasily at the light, then picked her stake back up.
"Vivo," Ngralth said. "Debellabo. Vincam."
The rainbow faded, flickered, then was gone.
"That stung," Ngralth said, a blatant quarter-truth.
Most of his dark aura had been swept away by the rainbow light, and with it, it seemed, all the trappings of his power.
Advancing towards him, Buffy threw the stake.
He dodged, barely.
"He's weak enough physically that you can kill him now, Buffy," Giles shouted. "Try for a decapitation."
Cordelia nodded. His great speed had gone, leaving him no faster than Buffy. His voice had gone; the symphony of death reduced to the whine of a single flute. Nor was his appearance unchanged.
He no longer looked like the demon he had once been, when he lived, but like what he truely was, a zombie possessed, the body of a middle-aged man dressed in rotting rags clearly visible behind the faint image of his other face.
"Do it again, Dame," Xander shouted. "We can sing along."
"That won't be necessary," Giles quickly said. "Ngralth will not—"
Ngralth gestured, and the ground opened beneath Margo.
"—be fooled the same way—"
Margo smiled as she fell, and the earth shifted underneath her, gently breaking her fall, then lifting her up high.
"—again. Nor will he underestimate her—"
Buffy kicked Ngralth in the small of the back.
"—much."
Ngralth half-turned, aimed a punch at Buffy's stomach, then tripped her as she dodged, before he turned back to face Margo.
Margo threw a small rainbow ball at him, but he caught it in his left hand and grinned. "Subferre!"
Groaning in pain, Margo stumbled back a few steps, then steadied herself. "Argento vincire!"
The earth round Ngralth's feet fountained up, chunks of soil swirling round him in complex patterns. Then they shimmered, becoming a net of silver chains, tightly binding him.
"Anyway," Giles said as Buffy took advantage, "Singing along would only work if the song was ritual magic, which it cannot have been. It would be against all the rules I know."
Ngralth laughed as he snapped the chains, then outfeinted Buffy, kicking her in the kidneys.
Xander winced. "We should do something."
"We can only watch," Giles said as Margo set Ngralth's rags on fire. "If we tried to join that fight we'd only be a distraction."
"We're guarding the gate," Cordelia said, then frowned. Margo had sounded so certain they could that Cordelia had never thought to wonder how.
Ngralth pointed at a gravestone behind Buffy, which exploded, shredding her legs, then turned and leapt at Margo.
She rolled with the impact, slashing at his chest with her fan, and shouted "Hominibus omnibus!"
A rainbow flicker, and Ngralth retreated, his undead flesh fast healing.
"Why?" Xander said, "From what? We should help Buffy."
"How?" Giles said flatly.
A command from Ngralth, and the air around him thickened, congealing into a swarm of flies.
Xander looked briefly uncertain, then repeated "We should do something."
The swarm flew toward Buffy.
"We are," Giles said. "We're guarding the gate. If any other demons came to help Ngralth—"
"Fight him," Cordelia corrected. They'd already seen three demon-demon fights so far, as well as the ones she'd heard about from Angel. "Demons don't play well together."
Buffy franticly tried to brush the flies away, but more and more kept landing, crawling all over her, until she was completely covered, and still the flies came.
"A three cornered fight would be … messy," Giles said. "An ally for Ngralth, disastrous. Either way, we need to keep any other demons out."
Margo smiled. "Bellus fite!" and the flies became moths, flitting away on the breeze.
Buffy spat out a few dozen flies, then brushed herself down.
Willow looked at the fight, then at Giles. "We might have to fight demons?"
"Hasta mortis," Ngralth said, and a long bone spear appeared in his hand.
Giles nodded.
Ngralth hurled the spear at Margo, who leaned sideways, opening her fan.
"Without Buffy?" Willow asked.
Giles nodded again, a little more slowly.
The spear hit the fan, and disintegrated, leaving Margo untouched.
"Lots of demons? Big, strong demons? With magic powers?"
"Maybe," Giles said. "This fight will have been noticed."
"How?" Willow said. "Without Buffy?"
Cordelia nodded. They could fight off a single vampire, maybe two if they were both young and she got lucky with the crossbow, but not demons, not yet.
Ngralth laughed as the ground beneath Buffy melted into a pool of foul-smelling pus.
Giles winced, and started polishing his glasses. "It might be a little difficult—"
"Mors tua vide," Ngralth said, pointing at Margo, and she froze.
"Difficult?" Cordelia said. "Understatement, much?"
Xander smiled. "He is English."
"So I won't give up," Giles said, half-smiling. "We will do our bit, when the demons come, for Buffy's sake."
"Of course," Xander said. "We'll show Buffy what we're made of."
That was what Cordelia was afraid of, but she couldn't say that. It'd make her look bad.
Buffy clambered out of the pool, then made a half-hearted attempt to wring the pus from her hair.
Willow frowned. "We won't have to kill the demons ourselves, though, right? We just have to hold them off until Buffy wins, and is free to rescue us, which won't be long now, will it?"
"Maybe," Giles said, putting his glasses back on. "Whatever Margo did greatly weakened Ngralth. He's on a par with Buffy now, physically, and Dame Margo seems able to match him magically, but he has millennia more experience than either of them."
"Anima," Ngralth said, and deep within the pool of pus the dark mist shimmered, forming a complex knot of undead energies.
"A death to be proud of," Margo said smiling, then Ngralth punched her in the mouth.
"If Ngralth slips up, this fight might be over in five minutes," Giles said.
As Margo stumbled backwards, something crawled out of the pus, vaguely human in shape.
"If not, it could last hours, maybe days, hence the restraint they're both showing."
The pus creature charged at Buffy, who easily dodged.
"Days?" Willow said, "What about sleep?"
"Buffy's the slayer. She can go a few days without sleep, in an emergency, and I suspect Dame Margo will have made similar enhancements to herself, but I doubt it'll come to that. Ngralth should be weaker in daylight."
A second creature crawled out of the pool, then a third.
A quick word from Margo, and the pool was water; the dark knot in its depths snuffed out.
"If we're supposed to be guarding the gate, perhaps we should be facing the other way," Cordelia said, turning round.
She wouldn't be able to see what Ngralth was doing but, on the plus side, she wouldn't be able to see what he was doing, and it wasn't as if she could do anything if Ngralth won.
Xander looked at Willow, stared briefly at Buffy, now fighting off all three pus creatures, then nodded and turned to face the gate.
"Giles," he said, after a short silence. "You are going to teach us how to fight demons, right?"
"How to defend yourself against them," Giles corrected. "Dame Margo's arguments were most convincing."
"Now might be a good time to start."
Thirty minutes later, Cordelia stood peering into the darkness beyond the gate, trying to see if anything was moving out there.
They'd been lucky so far; two vampires, which Giles had dusted with his crossbow, and a loser demon, which had run away when it realised the scale of the fight, but on the hellmouth luck never lasted for long.
"—and encourage them to gloat," Giles said quietly. "Anything to buy time."
Xander nudged Giles, then tapped his own ear.
Cordelia leaned forwards, listening intently; footsteps, and a faint rattle, slowly approaching.
She could see movement now, two shapes, both human-seeming, one of them pushing something, and neither of them had any dark mist inside them.
Not undead then. They must be living demons, or possibly human, but people didn't normally visit graveyards at midnight.
She could see them clearly now, two robed figures, one in black, pushing a pram, the other in an ugly shade of mustard.
Besides her, Xander tensed.
They were both wearing masks, the same colour as their robes, and fastened with many leather straps.
Cordelia began loading her crossbow.
"Relax," the one in mustard said, stopping just outside the gate. "We're here to help."
"Then show your faces," Giles said
"Mr Giles," mustard robes said jovially. "There's no need for that attitude. We're just a couple of concerned citizens, here to help the community."
Cordelia smiled. Judging by his stance, and the confidence filling his voice, mustard robes was someone accustomed to authority who thought they had a lot of charisma. They clearly expected to be able to bamboozle Giles with a few sweet words, but they weren't in Margo's league.
They couldn't hope to succeed, but they might give themselves away. Already, Cordelia was near certain that they were human, and well known.
"You know who I am," Giles said. "Let me see your faces."
"We're being watched," mustard robes said, then looked at black robes.
"No," black robes said. "This isn't right. I won't do it."
"Did you read your contract of employment?" mustard robes said.
"Yes."
"Including the small print?"
"Um, not all of it, but—"
"It clearly states that you agree to be terminated if you do not meet my standards."
Black robes shuddered, then slowly lifted a baby out of the pram.
"Is it still clean?" mustard robes asked.
Black robes nodded, then looked at Giles. "I have no choice."
Drawing the obvious conclusion, Cordelia aimed her crossbow, then hesitated. Mustard robes wasn't a demon; he was human.
"Giles," Willow frantically whispered, "Stop him."
"Willow," mustard robes said, taking the baby, "I'm here to help you."
"Put that child down," Giles said, "or I will shoot."
Mustard robes shoved the pram at Giles.
Giles dodged, losing his aim.
Mustard robes pulled out a dagger.
Cordelia fired her crossbow, aiming for the heart.
She missed, the bolt whirring over mustard robe's shoulder.
"A sacrificio hoc," mustard robes shouted, plunging the dagger into the baby's heart. "Liberos noctis veto inire hic."
Then he tossed the baby aside, throwing its corpse into the gutter like a discarded cigarette.
Burning with fury, Cordelia swore and reloaded the crossbow.
"Kill him," Willow shouted, her voice distorted by rage as Xander charged at mustard robes.
"No," Giles said. "You mustn't kill people. Don't let him provoke you."
Around them the black mists swirled, funnelling into the little corpse.
Black robes stared at his hands, his shoulders trembling.
"Who dares?" Ngralth shouted, somewhere behind them.
Cordelia fired again, grazing mustard robe's hip.
He wobbled, then steadied himself and pulled some tissues out of his robes.
Willow scowled at Giles. "He deserves to die."
Xander swung wildly at mustard robes, who dodged then kneed Xander in the groin.
Giles nodded. "It's not him I'm concerned about. It's you."
Still the energies of undeath poured into the corpse, wave upon wave.
"Stop," Margo said, steel in her voice. "Necromancer, I name thi a traitor to humanity. Tha'll neither leave this place, nor harm any living soul until I have passed sentence upon thi."
Mustard robes hesitated, then slowly backed away.
"Stop!" Margo repeated, her voice the thunder of a charging army.
Mustard robes stopped mid-stride, then hurriedly started cleaning his hands with the tissues.
Cordelia half turned and stepped backwards, giving herself a clear view of both Margo and mustard robes.
Buffy had been swallowed by the earth, again, but Margo and Ngralth were circling round each other.
"He is mine," Ngralth said, throwing a spell at Margo. "He has had the temerity to tamper in my domain."
"This is my town," mustard robes said, only a slight tremble in his voice. "You are not welcome here."
"This world is mankind's," Margo said, throwing a spell back at Ngralth, "and those within it, their own masters. Both your claims are spurious."
The mists shuddered around the corpse, and a shape rose up; the baby's ghost, wrapped in writhing chains, its face contorted in a silent scream.
Cordelia winced. Those chains were barbed, ripping holes in the ghost's flesh as they slid over its skin. She had seen worse, of course, but mild torture was still torture.
At least Margo had only given them deathsight, not death ears, Cordelia could always look away from the ghost's torment, if it got too gruesome; she would not have been able to block out the sound of its screams.
"Xander," Giles said sharply, "get back in this circle."
The ghost floated towards Cordelia, and the others, stopping in the centre of the gate.
"Madam," mustard robes said, "Ngralth is our common enemy. Quarrelling amongst ourselves will only aid him."
If mustard robes thought that would work, he must have no idea who Margo was.
"Liberare," Margo said, and the earth freed Buffy from its grip, letting her climb out.
"Subferre," Ngralth said, hurling a ball of shadows at mustard robes.
"He is my enemy. Tha's only his rival," Margo said, "I will not treat with a betrayer of mankind."
As it passed over the gate the ball swerved, abruptly diving down to hit the ghost.
The ghost convulsed as ulcers opened on its ravaged skin.
Xander straightened up, looking warily at the two robed men, then hurried back inside the circle, ducking under the ghost as he passed through the gate.
"I've barred this gate against Ngralth for y—" mustard robes said, choking on the last word.
"No lies, traitor." Margo said. "Your methods are unacceptable."
"Vermes," Ngralth said, pointing at Margo, and maggots crawled out of the earth, swarming up her legs.
Disgusting, but no real threat. Ngralth must be trying to fray Margo's nerves, a strategy which would take a long to work, if it ever did. Ngralth would probably lose his patience first.
"My methods work," mustard robes said. "Rainbows fade but death is forever. My ward can hold Ngralth here for centuries."
"How?" Willow asked quietly. "Why can't it climb the wall?"
"Incende," Margo said, and the maggots burned in rainbow flames. "Tha'd release him once he agreed to serve thi. I have faced tha sort before."
"The gate is the only legitimate exit," Giles said. "Blocking it symbolically blocks all exits."
"I would never serve a mere human," Ngralth said, shaping a skull-headed mace from the air.
"Tha may believe that now," Margo said, "A few years of hunger 'd change tha tune."
Buffy dodged the mace, then shattered Ngralth's left knee with a kick.
Ngralth stumbled sideways, then opened yet another pit under Buffy, but she did not fall.
This time she had anticipated, jumping backwards to land on the new pit's edge.
"It works," mustard robes said. "Isn't that enough? Let me go."
"No, traitor," Margo said. "That tha need ask condemns thi."
Cordelia nodded, wondering what punishment Margo intended.
Ngralth threw another spell at mustard robes but it too veered off course, hitting the ghost.
"To see the mighty Ngralth reduced to this …" mustard robes said, laughing. "Madam, your people should be able to dispose of this pathetic wreck."
"Moriere!" Ngralth shouted, and again the spell was stopped by the ghost.
"Let's leave them to it," mustard robes said. "We can discuss important matters while they play."
"I will not negotiate with thi, traitor," Margo said, conjuring up a rainbow circle round Buffy.
"Surely we can come to some mutually beneficial agreement?" mustard robes said.
Cordelia smiled. Mustard robes must be feeling desperate if he was resorting to that old cliche.
"Enough of your slights," Ngralth shouted. "I will toy with you puny mortals no more. Face now my unfettered fury, and know fear."
And it sounded like Ngralth had lost his temper, always a bad move. Buffy should be able to kill him quickly now.
"Potentia maxima mihi da," Ngralth said, then laughed. "I will be invincible."
"Great," Giles groaned.
The dark mists surged out of the earth, up through Ngralth's body, and out in four massive streams of shadow; one of them aimed straight at Cordelia.
The stream splattered harmlessly against the rainbow circle, dark mists oozing down an invisible shield and seeping into the ground.
"What's he doing?" Willow asked.
Pus oozed out of the mist-fouled ground as the grass crumbled away.
Deflecting Ngralth's attack with her left hand, Margo said "Abluere," aiming a thin rainbow beam at him.
"Trying to overwhelm all the protective wards by brute force," Giles said, without looking at Willow. "He's tapping the deathgate directly."
As the ground dissolved into a sea of pus the air filled with the stench of decay.
"I'm guessing that's bad?" Xander said, watching Buffy throw another stake.
Ngralth dodged, and the shadow streams briefly wobbled off-target.
Giles nodded. "Normally, magi—"
Then he paused and smiled. "Perhaps this is not quite the right time for an explanation of the fundamental principles of magic, as I understand them."
The streams started to pulse, flowing now weaker, now stronger.
"Into the middle," Giles said, pointing to the center of the rainbow circle. "Not much longer now."
As all four of them crowded into the absolute center, away from enshrouding mists, Willow asked, "Until what?"
"Ngralth isn't strong enough to control this much magic without extensive ritual," Giles said. "Even before Dame Margo crippled him, he would have struggled. Now, he has no chance. He will lose control of the magic, and it will destroy him."
"Hubris," Cordelia said dryly, to show she was listening. "Every demon's favourite hobby."
Xander smiled. "Not seeing the bad."
"He might take us with him," Giles said.
"Oh," Willow said. "The dam burst effect? But we've got protection, right?"
A chunk of rotting flesh fell off Ngralth's left arm, splashing at his feet.
"I don't know," Giles said. "That death ward will hold, but it's empowered by human sacrifice. This circle isn't. It might hold, or it might not."
"What if it fails?" Cordelia said. There had to be something they could do or Giles would have stayed silent rather than worry them.
"This cannot be!" Ngralth screamed as his right arm oozed off his bones. "It is impossible."
"We'll be bathed in necrotic magic," Giles said. "But we've got souls, which are thought to be tied into the magics of life, and the magic will be unfocused. Theoretically, if you have a strong self-image, your soul should be able to hold mind and body together until the surge ends."
"You mean, we need to believe in ourselves," Cordelia summarised.
"Impossible," Ngralth shouted as his body rotted away.
"Not quite," Giles said. "You need to know who you are."
"That all?" Buffy shouted, looking hopefully at Giles.
Willow looked briefly thoughtful, then smiled.
Ngralth's skeleton collapsed, strewing the ground with bones, and the stream targeting
"Impo—"
His bones crumbled away, silencing his rant, but the streams of dark mist did not die with him.
For a brief moment a fountain of mist was visible where Ngralth had stood, then it exploded.
"Brace yourselves," Giles said quickly.
An ever-thickening sea of dark mist filled the graveyard, the energies of undeath running wild, and the rainbow circle flared bright.
Cordelia began mentally reciting her many virtues, preparing for the worst.
The circle began to shrink, the light retreating before the advancing dark.
Somewhere distant, mustard robes laughed.
The light guttered out.
Cordelia closed her eyes, ignoring the spreading numbness of her skin. She knew what she was, beautiful, brave, and honest too; she could survive this.
All sense of her body gone, only the small spark of her mind remaining, she seemed to be no more than a pinpoint of light plunging through an endless abyss, but she knew that must be a lie. Her body must still be there, standing in that graveyard, lungs still breathing, heart still beating, as they always had and always would, though all her senses told her otherwise.
Remembering what Giles had said about self-image, Cordelia concentrated on her memories of her perfect body; the feel of a brush on her long lustrous hair, of a hand brushing her flawless skin, of cool water lapping round her toes.
Her body was part of her identity, a barrier between her soul and the world. She wouldn't let the death magics steal it from her, no matter what.
She couldn't, if Giles was right, not and remain Cordelia.
Instead she wrapped the memories round herself, imagining what she should be feeling with all her willpower, and her body came back.
The graveyard was still missing, leaving her tumbling in the void, but her body was back, in all its glory.
Cordelia quickly patted herself down, checking that everything felt right.
There were other shapes drifting in the dark; an empty tomb, a skeletal hand reaching for the earth, a skull with cold stars wheeling in the empty caverns of its eyes.
Had they been real, she might have been intimidated, but she knew they couldn't be.
Ignoring the lies, Cordelia started to imagine the graveyard back around her, then hesitated.
Giles had said she needed to concentrate on her self-image, and graveyards were no part of that. Thinking about them might be dangerous.
Instead, she concentrated on herself, remembering how great she was, how charming, how witty, how loveable.
She mustn't forget her hidden depths either. She was a natural leader, with a lion's heart, willing to-
An ebon wing sliced through the dark, and the world returned.
Cordelia turned her head sideways, and spat the dust from her mouth, then looked around.
There were no graves visible now, just bare rock strewn with bones, and over everything lay a thin blanket of metallic dust.
"Everyone OK?" Buffy asked.
"You survived that?" mustard robes said.
Buffy glared at him.
"The wisdom of the watchers runs deep," Margo replied. "We do not fear death's regard."
As Cordelia stood up, she looked at the others, and frowned.
Giles looked his normal self, Xander too, only somehow more so, but Willow looked different, prettier. Nothing was majorly different, Willow was still recognisably herself, but there had been dozens of slight changes to her face, each subtly enhancing her appearance.
Beyond the gate, mustard robes was still stood in the same spot, unable to defy Margo's command, but black robes appeared to have run off with the pram.
"Willow," Giles said sternly, "that was not a good idea."
Willow looked at her hands, and smiled. "It worked."
"What wasn't?" Xander said. "What happened?"
"We were touched by Death itself, Mr Alexander," Margo said, walking with Buffy towards Giles. "There's not been many as could say that, only a few dozen in all the long annals of the board."
Margo still had her disguise on, making it impossible to tell if she'd changed at all, but Buffy looked normal enough. Her dress, though, was pristine, all the blood and pus that it had been soaked in gone. Something had definitely happened.
"Death, dame?" Xander said, giving Willow a concerned look. "Is it, um—"
"Death is not our enemy," Margo said.
"It's just misunderstood, dame," Cordelia said sharply, wondering just how close she'd been. Margo might be able to blithely dismiss death, but she was old, with weird ideas. Cordelia was still young, too young to die.
"Madam," mustard robes said nervously, "can we come to some arrangement quickly?"
"Tha's young, Mistress Cordelia." Margo said, smiling. "I'll excuse tha ignorance, and Mistress Willow's."
"Me?" Willow said.
"Leave them alone," Buffy said. "They've been through enough tonight, because of you."
"Doesn't tha think tha friend ought to know what damage she may have done her self?" Margo asked, looking straight at Buffy.
Buffy twitched, and looked away.
"The rest of us were only lightly touched," Margo said, "with what precise effects I can't say, this not being a topic I have studied in any great depth, but they'll be subtle. Mistress Willow though, opened her soul to Death. For her the consequences will be more serious. I can't say owt for certain, but I believe it will involve the slow manifestation of uncomfortable affinities."
Willow stared at her feet, mumbling something under her breath.
"Vague, much?" Cordelia said. "Can't you tell us anything useful, dame?"
"Not without several months of research in the Board's library," Margo said.
"Dame Margo, if you didn't know what damage the necrotic surge might do," Giles said. "Why did you subject my slayer to that unknown risk?"
"If you look that way," Margo said, pointing at the gate, "you should be able to see them coming now."
Cordelia looked; three demons and a dozen vampires, at the far end of Stevenson Street. The vampires didn't look like anything special, and the demon's were only average, but if they'd arrived in time to join the fight it would not have been good.
Still, that would have been better than what actually happened. At least then she'd have known what kind of danger she was in.
Best of all, of course, would have not to have gone near Ngralth in the first place. Certainly, he'd needed killing, but Margo hadn't needed to drag Cordelia along for that. She'd barely needed Buffy. No, Margo should have left everyone else out of her grudge match.
In fact, there were a lot of things Margo should have done, starting with sticking to a single objective. She could test how good Buffy's friends were, the way she had claimed she wanted to do, or she could hunt down the big bads. She couldn't do both.
Cordelia smiled confidently. The night would have gone a lot more smoothly if Margo had had the humility to recognise Cordelia's superior talents, and taken her advice.
"Madam," mustard robes said. "If you do not lift your geas you will be responsible for my death."
"Good," Buffy said.
"No," Margo said. "We don't kill people, however vile. Mr Giles, explain to them what Mistress Willow has done. I will pass sentence on this traitor."
"Willow," Giles said, as Margo walked over to the gate. "What were you thinking?"
"It seemed like such a good idea," Willow said quietly, "and it did work. You said we needed to know who we were, but no one really does. Our self-images are always airbrushed. Since, from what you said, that wouldn't hurt, or you'd have given different advice, any small errors in our self-image couldn't matter either."
"Not if they were accidental," Giles said. "Intent matters."
"You didn't say that," Willow complained. "And my intentions weren't bad. What the consequences of small directed changes, ones not big enough to endanger me, might be was an obvious question to ask, with two obvious answers. It might have been that nothing would happen, but that was the less plausible option because there had to be some transition zone between no change and failure, or it might have been that we would become what we imagined ourselves to be, opening possibilities worth taking a risk for. Like you said, Buffy, seize the day."
"I didn't mean like—" Buffy hesitated. "Whatever you did."
"Mind over matter," Giles said. "This place was so saturated in necrotic magic no skill was needed to wield it. When Willow imagined herself better the magic made her imaginings real."
So Willow had exposed herself to weird mystical forces just to make herself prettier?
With Willow's looks, it wasn't surprising she'd been tempted, but she hadn't achieved much, no more than a good beautician might in a week, which wasn't enough of an improvement to be worth that kind of risk.
Willow should have just asked Cordelia's advice.
"You didn't need to do that," Xander said softly. "You already looked fine."
"I didn't do this for looks," Willow said sharply. "That was just so I could see straight off if it had worked. What I was concentrating on was being cleverer."
Not good. If that really had worked Willow would be harder to keep secrets from.
"You didn't need to do that either," Xander said, sounding fondly exasperated.
"Traitor," Margo said. "Is tha willing to accept tha guilt."
"I did nothing wrong, madam," mustard robes said. "I saved lives. It was my ward that confined the necrotic surge to this graveyard. Without it, thousands would have died, or become abominations."
"Irrelevant," Margo said. "Human sacrifice is never acceptable."
"It was for the gr-gr—"
"Lieing to me is not advisable," Margo said. "I hereby judge tha motives were as foul as tha deeds."
"We do have courts in this country, madam," mustard robes said. "You have no moral right to usurp their place."
"Do not think to argue morality with me, traitor," Margo said. "It is both my right and my duty to judge such crimes as tha's."
Mustard robes looked over his shoulder at the approaching demons, now just two hundred yards away. "Then do your worst, madam, but don't make me stay here."
"For your crimes past," Margo said, her faked accent fading, "these three dooms I lay upon you: no word you shall speak that is not true, no spell you shall cast that is not white, no joy you shall feel that is not pure."
Then Margo lifted her hand, and the earth spoke.
"No word you shall speak that is not true. No spell you shall cast that is not white. No joy you shall feel that is not pure."
Margo looked up, and the sky replied.
"No word you shall speak that is not true. No spell you shall cast that is not white. No joy you shall feel that is not pure."
"As it has been decreed, so shall it be," Margo said, bowing her head in apparent humility. "You will leave here, traitor."
Mustard robes immediately ran off, limping slightly as he darted down the first alley.
"You're letting him go?" Xander said. "He'll kill again, dame."
"Mayhap," Margo said, her accent back, "but he hasn't yet. We can not punish people for what we think they are going to do, only for what we know they have done, and for that he has been fully punished."
Inconvenienced, certainly, but it wasn't enough, not for what he'd done. Mustard robes deserved to suffer.
"Anyroad," Margo said, "as I read the prophecies, he'll be dead within the year, by his own hand."
"Not soon enough," Buffy said. "He killed a baby."
Margo nodded. "I'd gladly dance on his grave, but I will not kill people. We only kill demons, like those."
Margo pointed at the approaching demons and vampires, now fifty yards away and moving fast.
Cordelia stepped back, behind Buffy. They must be complete idiots, attacking after the display Margo had put on, which would make them easier to kill, but she still didn't want to be in the front line.
"Go, do your duty," Margo said.
Buffy scowled at her, then charged the oncoming demons.
"I'm not sleeping here," Cordelia said, fifty minutes later.
"You can sleep over with me," Xander said gently.
Cordelia nodded. Even Xander's house would be better than sleeping in there, with those things underneath her.
"That might not be entirely appropriate," Margo said. "Mr Giles should be able to accommodate you for one night."
"One night?" Cordelia said. "I'm never sleeping here again."
"We must consider Mr Giles's reputation, Mistress Cordelia."
"Cordelia's mental well-being is more important, Dame Margo," Giles said. "We can't expect her to sleep there."
"Tomorrow, tha'll not be able to see owt untoward," Margo said.
"But I'll still know it's there," Cordelia said. "I'm not sleeping here ever again."
"Can't we kill it?" Buffy said. "Do your rainbow thing."
"It's too powerful," Margo said, looking down at the shapes, coiled below the foundations of Cordelia's house. "All I could do, unaided, is wake it up."
"It?" Willow said. "Don't you mean them? Look, there's one head there, one there, one over there—"
"Look deeper, Mistress Willow," Margo said.
Cordelia looked more carefully. There were five heads down there, each one half the size of her house, their necks entwined round each other, merging into each other deep under the centre of the block.
"A hydra?" Willow suggested. "Another escapee from the death gate, dame?"
"Those wards strongly suggest it has been here somewhat longer than that," Margo said. "And do remember what the death sight shows is a highly symbolic representation."
"How much longer?" Cordelia said. "How long has that thing been under my house?"
"Almost certainly since before the house was built," Margo said. "Tha does recall what I told thi about such wards?"
Cordelia quickly nodded, looking at the ward; another baby's ghost wrapped in chains, its face contorted in agony, but two of these chains stretched across the block, linking this ghost with the others she could dimly see in a large pentagram.
Knowing that ghost was right outside her bedroom window would have been enough to keep her awake, even without the creature beneath the house.
"The bodies must be buried near the site of the sacrifice," Cordelia said. If the body was put anywhere else, the ghost would be forced to wander the earth in eternal torment, unless it was buried in holy ground. Do that, and the spell would be broken, freeing the ghost.
They'd be able to do that for mustard robe's victim soon. He'd managed to hide the body, but he'd have to bury it under the gateway within a few days, if he didn't want to be haunted, and when he did Giles would be able to dig it back up and give it a proper funeral.
"They could have done that any time," Xander said. "These are big gardens."
"Not close enough," Margo said. "In cases like this, the bodies are always entombed in the walls."
"But that's my bedroom," Cordelia said, growing pale. "Are you saying I've got a baby in my bedroom wall?"
"Apparently so," Margo said.
Feeling unsteady, Cordelia grabbed at Xander's shoulder. "Get it out."
Xander looked surprised, but started mumbling reassurances.
Buffy smiled. "You can sleep over with me tonight. I've got a big tub of chocolate ice cream."
"If I did that," Margo said, "the seal would fail. There is nowt in my armoury that would be an adequate replacement."
"There must be some alternative, dame," Willow said. "They must have kept that imprisoned some other way before these houses were built."
"It is not imprisoned," Margo said. "These wards are not strong enough to achieve that. It is sleeping."
"Then what are the wards for, Dame Margo?" Giles asked.
"Without them, that creature's aura would taint the minds of all this town, Mr Giles," Margo said. "How long has Mistress Cordelia lived here?"
"All my life," Cordelia said, straightening herself up and moving away from Xander. This was an unpleasant end to a long night, but not so bad she needed anyone's help.
Margo frowned. "Then, without this seal she would now be, at best, arrogant to the point of madness, with an unquenchable thirst for power. That she is instead heroic shows the seal's effectiveness."
Willow looked thoughtfully at Cordelia, but said nothing.
Buffy frowned, then whispered something in Xander's ear.
"Do you recognise the creature, Dame Margo?" Giles asked. "I regret to say I can't."
"I'm afraid I can't either, Mr Giles," Margo admitted. "I can only tell that it is an Old One of godly stature, and sleeping lightly."
"Could the creation of the deathgate have disturbed it, Dame Margo?" Giles asked.
"No, Mr Giles," Margo said, "those wards shield that creature from any external influence. Even if tha were to rip open both the hellmouth and the deathgate its slumber would be undisturbed. The only way to wake it up would be to bring a powerful focus of malign magic within the wards."
Xander whispered something in Buffy's ear.
"A cursed object?" Willow said. "Won't there be a lot of those here, because of the hellmouth, dame?"
"Powerfully cursed or deeply evil," Margo corrected. "A portable hellmouth would be sufficient, or a dark god, but little else. Even in this town, tha could go a thousand years without seeing such."
"What about Parandol?" Cordelia asked. That would explain why they wanted ownership of the houses badly enough to make that ludicrously generous offer.
"Ownership would convey a degree of authority," Margo said, "but not sufficient to remove those wards. Still, we can not permit parties of uncertain allegiance any influence here. I will arrange for agents of the board will take the appropriate action."
"There's nothing you can do tonight?" Buffy asked.
"No," Margo said. "We'll need to research the history first, see if we can identify that creature. Then it may take several more months to uncover an effective countermeasure."
"I'm not sleeping there until you do," Cordelia said. Awake, she might be able to escape if the creature stirred. Asleep, she'd have no chance.
Buffy nodded. "You can stay with me."
"I believe tha mother might have summat to say about that," Margo said. "Mistress Cordelia's parents might not be too pleased either."
"She's not going to sleep here, with that thing under her bed," Buffy said, glaring at Margo.
"We don't have to decide everything now," Giles quickly said. "Cordelia, what do you want to do tonight?"
"Buffy," Cordelia said. She couldn't stay with her long, their families would cause too much trouble, but a few nights should be enough to make alternative arrangements, and a bonding experience with Buffy could prove useful.
Buffy smiled triumphantly at Margo.
Xander smiled too, his eyes unfocused, then he shook himself. "You'll need some night things, won't you?"
"She can borrow mine," Buffy said.
"Won't fit," Cordelia said, looking at the house, "and I'll need clothes for tomorrow too. I'll have to go inside."
It was either that, or get stuck wearing one of Buffy's fashion disasters.
Cordelia walked slowly up to her gate, then took a deep breath. The horror below was asleep. It wouldn't hurt her. She could do this.
Cordelia inched her gate open.
"I'll help you carry stuff," Willow said, stepping up besides her.
"Me too," Xander said.
Willow smiled. "You can carry her school stuff."
Buffy started to speak, but Margo interrupted. "Buffy will stay here, in case we're attacked."
"What about us?" Xander protested.
"Owt as could attack tha inside those wards could steamroller Buffy," Margo said. "Go, help tha friend, and don't take too long. Tha can always come back later."
"Giles—" Buffy said.
"If Buffy leaves me alone with you, Dame Margo," Giles said, "I'm sure we'll manage."
"I'll stay," Buffy immediately said, quite rightly. With her there it would be harder for Margo to pressure Giles.
Her friends at either side, Cordelia pushed open the gate and walked up her own drive, almost without hesitation.