Semper Fidelis
Chapter 21
The race through the Summer lands to Lighthouse Point was if anything even faster than our trip into the heart of Summer. It's funny how little things like the disfavor of a near goddess-like being can inspire one's feet to even faster actions. In part this was driven by how her demonstrated anger was creating a massive thunderstorm behind us from an otherwise clear sky and how the dark rolling clouds were churning fast and if not keeping pace with us then falling only slightly behind as we fled.
"Wow you really did piss her off." Honey said with more than a little worry as lands flew by. Thankfully the normally populated lands were free of being who might stand in our way either purposefully or by sheer accident. "What did you do to make her this mad? Did she catch you sleeping with her boyfriend or something?" I was hardly surprised by now that every thought the unicorn had would involve sex.
"No, I learned that she was the one who poisoned the Summer Lady and Summer Knight." I replied as I clung to her back. "Therefore she wants me dead before I can get word of this to Queen Tatania that her trusted lieutenant Abagalesi…"
Honey bucked me slightly to interrupt my explanation. "Don't say her name aloud." She warned me. "She will hear it and be able to focus her power on us." Damn it Honey was right and that fact was something Harry had told me about in my lessons.
"Sorry." I said hanging onto her mane. "I wasn't thinking." I said picturing a bolt of lightning arcing out of the sky and roasting the two of us the second I had said her name all because I had forgotten this little vital fact. Damn Harry was right telling me how it was usually the forgotten little things that got a wizard killed.
"Think nothing of it." She replied though there was obvious seriousness in her thoughts. This left me feeling awkward none the less and unsure of what to say.
"So the storm bitch poisoned the others in order to steal their power?" Honey sensed my discomfort and restarted the discussion. "What about the war with Winter?"
I almost said her name again but caught myself this time. "She is staging this war to create a crisis. She wants the Queen to transfer the power of the Knight and Lady to her immediately rather than look for another noble more worthy of this responsibility. Once she has that power, the Handmaiden and her hidden army will strike Winter by surprise rescuing the Queen and the lands of Summer in such a public way so that there would be no thoughts of not letting her maintain the power and authority she had been instilled with now that she was a hero."
"Yep she is just that kind of bitch to try something like that!" Honey agreed. "Although I would not be surprised if she actually waited for Queen Tatania to be killed by the forces of Winter before making her appearance instead. Why only collect the power of two of the Summer Court when you might be able to snare all three by playing your cards and timing right?" I had not thought of that as a possibility. That made her desperation even greater because of the planned betrayal of her Queen and therefore my death as a witness became even more important.
"Once we get to Lighthouse Point you need to get word to Queen Tatania of what we have learned." I said. "Even if she does not believe you completely, hopefully she will at least investigate the possibility before getting into a fight in which she is certain to lose. Any delay on this war gives more time for the leeches to do their job and Lily and Fix to wake up." God how does Harry make it through these situations? You know being a party wizard might be more fun; hell at least you get free cake!
"That will not be either as quick or as easy as you make it out to be." Honey replied telepathically. Not that I was at all surprised by this. Nothing ever seems to be quick or easy except of course my ability to get myself into these types of situations.
"Why not?" I asked. "Is the Summer Queen that far away from here?"
"No, her army is a few hours run at most. However that storm she is brewing is between us and the Queen and a certain pissed off handmaiden is making it even larger as we speak so that I will have to go all the way around it to avoid her catching me." Honey explained. "That will more than double the distance and the time at least."
"Yeah but won't it also hide you?" I said. "It's not like she can see right through a wall of rain, right?"
"Actually she can." Honey replied. "But that is probably not what she is doing."
"What do you mean?" Great, there is obviously something else for a perky apprentice wizard to worry about.
"She is probably building the storm up because through it she can travel like a lightning bolt anywhere under its reach. It is her favorite form of travel and means to attack by surprise." Honey answered. Oh this was just getting better and better.
"You're kidding?" I hoped but she mentally shook her head. "So sooner or later when the storm catches up to us she is going to come flashing out of the sky ready to do battle?"
"Yes, providing her arrival is not used to blow us into cinders with the first strike of her power." She answered. "Hopefully your friends will be at the Lighthouse and will already have a boat at their disposal to cross the waters of the Lethe. The open body of water will keep her from using this form of transportation. Since all her power is based on lightning were she to land on the water she would disperse and it might even kill her. She has hated this limitation on her power for the eternity it has bound her. That is probably the reason why she wants the Lady and Knight's power as well. It would give her options and abilities she does not currently have."
Okay so we had to get into the water as fast as possible because it would provide at least a temporary defense. We could hand out on the water for a day or two until Lily and Fix awoke and then… "Wait a minute did you say Lethe? I mean as in the River Lethe; the waterway that makes mortals forget everything by its touch and feeds into Hades; that Lethe?"
"Well it's more like the Lake Lethe here for it is the place where the concept of the lazy days of summer originates from." Honey said. "Its waters begin flowing into a river somewhere much further out but otherwise yes your description is what I am speaking of."
That gave me an idea? "Does its power work on immortals too?" I asked. "Maybe it might make a storm goddess of the faeries forget about unicorns and perky wizard apprentices?"
"Nope, sorry it does not have quite that level of power." Honey replied. "Immortals are immune to its memory leeching touch in that way. For them the touch of the water over time makes others, especially mortals but even immortals if the touch continues, forget about them completely. I have heard there are any number of greater beings who have suffered this fate before passing into the Void." I had heard this term before and knew it referred to the same place as what we wizards called The Outer Gates. "It is sort of like erasing them from the history books, which is why so many make sure their followers record stories of them on stone tablets and such so that there is always a record." She finished her description.
Okay not terribly useful but at least it was something more than I knew a few moments ago. "Okay if we get out into the water I am assuming I can't just stay there. Is there any place you know of safe to land and make my way back to the mortal realm?" I asked.
"If the Handmaiden is using the other islands for hiding her army as you suggest then the only other place is the Island of the Sirens. The sirens' song entices any who hear it, especially males. I've been told they whisper really hot secrets to guys about what they are willing to do. Had it not been for you and your Cosmopolitan journals I was thinking of trying to find a boat to go talk to them." She said with a bit of a mental blush.
The problem with Lighthouse point is that it rested on a peninsula and therefore Honey had to race out and then backtrack quickly back to ensure she did not get trapped by the building storm that was only looking worse as the minutes went by. This meant I had to leap from her back before she had even stopped, which I did surprisingly without even breaking or bruising anything in the process, as she spun and raced away. Thankfully the others were all standing there waiting for me.
"Where is the boat?" I asked looking around. "We need to leave immediately and get out to sea as fast as we can."
"There is no boat." Elaine replied. "At least there are none here right at the moment."
"That is true." Lord Kline said. "Although the sheer number of tracks near the water's edge is proof enough to me that your hidden army story is in fact true." He paused for a moment after this admission. "I must apologize to you Wizard Molly Carpenter for it seems I have indeed been manipulated into helping to cause harm to those who are undeserving. As such I feel it is only right to tell you the identity of my White Council wizard acquaintance so that you can see justice done for these crimes."
"Save it for now." I said pointing to the building storm. "We have much bigger and more immediate concerns. Queen Tatania's handmaiden was the one behind the poisoning of the Summer Lady and Knight. If we do not get out of here and onto the water immediately she is going to come riding down out of the sky on a thunderbolt and likely kill us all." I explained without pulling any punches to demonstrate our sense of urgency.
"Wow Molly you wizards are just outstanding at getting yourselves into all kinds of trouble aren't you?" Daniel said to me with a laugh and shake of his head. This chuck became a full belly laugh when having no better response to this accurate assessment I finally just stuck my tongue out at him like I did when we were we both kids.
"That is problematic I fear." Hisha said. "The waters of the Lethe allow no swimming and as we said there are no boats available though many recent signs of them remain."
"Wait I know that name." Daniel said. "Isn't that the river with the ferryman?" He asked surprising me with his knowledge of Greek mythology. I wondered if this had anything to do with his recent dressing up like King Leonidas of Sparta.
"It is indeed but that option is not a safe choice, even if we were not straddled by other factors." Lord Kline said. "Charon does not take passengers, living ones at least, for free."
Daniel nodded at this. "Yeah I know the Chris de Burgh's song." He said opening a small side pouch in his pack and pulling forth nearly a dozen of the gold coins he had been paid over the course of his weeks of work for Rumplestiltskin. It looks like that blood money could be put to yet another good use after all.
"Alright I grant you that you have taken care of the payment portion if we were so inclined toward this insane idea." Lord Kline agreed. "But the overriding issue remains we have no means at our immediate disposal to call the ferryman. If I recall the myths, it required a great conch shell or something similar to signal your request for his services."
"Or merely something that sounds like blowing into a conch shell I bet." I said pulling out one of the spider's mandibles and willing a stream of magic through it to meet my desires. Visual illusions required the caster to fix in their mind what form the illusion will take in the eyes of the viewer. Audio illusions did the same though with sounds. It was therefore relatively easy to simulate the sound and then use the magic to project it as loudly as possible assuming that a being who merely waited for this call would register it and come when beckoned. I mean really, how many of these calls could Charon really have to contend with on a daily basis?
"You are incredibly adept at problem solving young Miss Carpenter even when using newly acquired skills such as this for yourself." Hisha said with a smile and nod of approval. I smiled in response but noticed behind the old monk that Elaine however looked away from me and instead merely huddled further into her winter coat. I could sense that her fear and discomfort levels were on the rise once more. I walked over to her knowing that we would need her help in the battle to come.
"Elaine, you know what we are up against, you know our enemy the best." I said speaking of Abagalesidhe without mentioning her by name. "Surely you must know something we can use. What is her weakness? How do we get out of this situation alive?"
"We won't." She said without any hint of hope or possibility in her voice. "Or at least you won't." She paused and drew a long breath as if wanting to continue but then not having the strength to do so.
"But I take it you will?" I asked catching onto her phrase. "Let me guess, you still owe her a favor and so she will not kill you because that would be wasting a perfectly useful tool." I probably sounded just a little more harsh than I had intended to but it seemed to me that I was suddenly facing the very issue that made me not want to trust her to begin with.
"No, this investigation settled my debts to all of Summer Court." She explained. "As of the moment you learned who was truly behind the poisoning I was free and clear with no one holding any obligations over my life for the first time in more than twenty years." You would think that she would look upon that with pride but if anything that fact seemed to depress her even more. "It looks like I get to enjoy that freedom for perhaps an entire hour or two before it is lost again."
"Then you can help us beat her." I reasoned, still not seeing where the problem was.
"We can't beat her Molly." Elaine said looking at me without quite soulgazing. "Even if we get out to sea eventually we will have to land and she will be there. I know Harry trained you not to give up. I also realized that he killed Aurora. But do you really think we stand a chance against her power? I assure you we don't!" She was starting to lean toward hysteria. "She will kill each and every one of you and force me to watch in order to break me completely once more. Then when you are all dead she will put her dog collar back on me and I will serve as her trained pet that she will make do tricks in front of all her friends. I do not even have the benefit of looking forward to a quick death."
Like I said before I really do not like how some people so willingly roll over and accept bad things as inevitable. I clenched my fists and felt my anger bubbling up, not only because of Elaine's weakness but also because part of me knew she was probably right about how this would all play out. It pissed me off and unfortunately Elaine was the only target present for my anger. Thankfully though, before I said anything rash Daniel's hand came down lightly on my shoulder.
"Molly let me talk to her." He said softly. "I know what it's like to carry this kind of fear. You need to go make one of your wonderful plans you are becoming famous for to get us all out of this mess." He smiled, I mean really smiled at me. "Isn't that what your wizards like you and Harry are supposed to be good for?"
I nodded and gave him a quick hug, feeling my anger dissipate before I turned to Lord Kline and Hisha who were discussing tactics and possibilities. I went to join them while Daniel and Elaine stepped away to talk about fearful things in private. She even let him rest her head upon his shoulder as he put his arm around her for support.
"You realize your idea of putting to sea will merely delay the inevitable." Lord Kline said. "We have been conveniently outmaneuvered from the very beginning I fear and at this stage of the game, checkmate is inevitable. We can delay and play the game out further, but I fear that Wizard Elaine is correct, the results have already been written as far as we are concerned." His words were not accusatory or harsh, merely a simple evaluation of the situation through his eyes; eyes that could see a dozen moves out on a chessboard.
I turned to the old monk. "Do you believe we have lost as well Hisha?" I asked.
"I believe that everything shall happen as God intends Molly." He said not really answering the question. "The Handmaiden dares not leave any of us alive to speak of her treachery therefore she is committed to this course of conflict. Were we to flee back to the mortal world she would pursue and bring her wrath down not only upon us, but upon any who we may have spoken her secret to. For the lives of all these innocents we must face her and have faith in ourselves and in God that we persevere."
"To support that I suggest we seek a location of our choosing where if we do not have the advantage, then at least it does not favor her as much as the lands of Summer do." Hisha offered. "There is no easy path to Winter, but at least the islands off the coast are part of the realm of Wyldfae and not Summer so we have that benefit when the battle begins."
"Of course those lands are all currently filled with her most loyal armies." Lord Kline pointed out. "They will not willingly accept our word that their well loved leader deceived them and therefore they are unsuspecting tools of betrayal any more than I wanted to believe so. And their mere presence on the battlefield balances out any loss of home field advantage The Handmaiden suffers for setting this conflict in the lands of the Wyldfae."
"That is unless we travel instead to the Isle of the Sirens." I pointed out to what turned out to be a pair of immediately shocked faces. "You said yourself that the Summer forces would avoid this place so we should not have them to contend with right? We merely need to contend with some singing women with enchanting voices before we do battle with the Handmaiden." I pointed out what I thought was a viable option all things considered.
"I fear you have inadvertently subscribed to the equivalent of a political correct retelling of history where the Sirens are merely victims of fate and confined to an island in punishment like Circe the sorceress." Lord Kline replied. "However, there is a valid reason why the forces of Summer widely avoid the island. The Sirens are not beautiful women but vile hags with a taste for mortal and immortal flesh alike. They do not merely lure men, though their preferences are certainly for males, but rather they entice any and all who hear their voice. Those who listen to their song tend to jump over into the forgetful waters of the Lethe and swim to the island in order to become a pizza delivery. This course you offer is not an option toward a longer life, but rather a chance for a different type of death."
I was preparing to argue his point but Hisha interrupted me. "Our ferry has arrived." He said and I turned to note the approach of the boat that came out way and its sole occupant. "I have sworn to follow Molly's lead. She must make the decision." Great! All I needed was to take full responsibility for this entire mess. Maybe the ferryman might be able to offer another option that I was unaware of.
I was ready for the standard cloaked skeleton polling a rickety skiff but once again reality seemed to differ from the way Hollywood portrayed him especially in the recent movies. But I was travelling with a raksasha disguised as a Buddhist monk and a troll with a taste for fine English suits so why should I be surprised?
The 'ferry' was in truth nothing more than a large lifeboat, white with a single red stripe running all the way around the top. Its design was ancient compared to the shape and form of such things on cruise ships today and stood out as such even before I made out the notorious name painted on its side; RMS Titanic. It therefore was no shock that instead of the skeletal boatman in dark cloak and hood I looked upon our guide and saw the white bearded, grandfatherly Captain Smith who had been the master of the doomed vessel on its maiden voyage.
"Payment first!" The ghostly Captain held out his hand before allowing us to board. Daniel with Elaine in tow moved in front of us and turned over five gold coins for our passage. While that hardly fit the early twentieth century image, it seemed that mythology had gotten that part of the story right at least for Captain Smith stepped back and allowed us to board.
"Take us to Siren's Island." I stated as our destination before anyone could object or offer another course. The others merely looked at me and silently agreed, Daniel with trust in his eyes, Hisha faith, Lord Kline resignation, and Elaine with hopelessness. For my part I figured we could hardly be in any worse trouble so I might as well take the less traveled option.
"I hope you have a plan for dealing with the Sirens." Lord Kline whispered to me as he took his seat in the center of the boat where his greater weight would not endanger us with the potential for swamping. "I seem to recall now that they are immune to illusions as well."
Great, that might have been something good to know a moment or two ago. "Why would I start making plans now when stumbling from one crisis to another has served me so well so far?" I laughed and after an initial shock he smiled and shook his head.
His concerns about swamping were unfounded as the boat floated over passive waters even as the storm rose up around us and created waves that reached higher than the gunnels. But as the waves moved in our direction or crossed our path they would part or dissipate not even causing our vessel to rise slightly at their passing. Considering the danger the water posed to our minds I cannot say that I was at all displeased by this even if we did travel slower than I cared for since the storm quickly overtook us. I could sense the hatred in that storm and knew Abagalesidhe was up there waiting to strike.
While I was off in my internal ramblings I barely recognized when Daniel spoke softly from right beside me. "Do you hear that song?" He asked drawing my attention and seeing his eyes were glazing over like he was intensely straining to hear the song carried on the winds of the storm. "It's like nothing I ever heard before…"
I did not hesitate. I figured since Hisha had explained that a veil spell was nothing more than an illusion of bending sight away from an individual or a group of people then the same thing must be possible with sounds as well. I pulled the magic to me and called forth an audio curtain or silence around our boat as the first notes of the siren's song registered in my own mind.
It was an extremely close thing. Because of my distraction first at the danger and then on my task of casting the spell by the time my mind processed the song it had already been cut off. But even in that mere instant what I did register seemed to me a mixture of angels voices in prayer, the teasing whisper of enticing secrets, and the wanton, primal, unspoken desire of a lover's need tickling my ear. I had no personal experience with the third but the reaction of my body was enough for me to have to exert all my will to not drop the spell and listen some more. And from the looks on my companions' faces they all had heard the same things. Thankfully veils were relatively easy for me to maintain for significant periods without too much strain so this spell was not difficult to keep running either; especially knowing firsthand the allure and consequences of letting it drop.
"Wow that was…" Daniel said aloud but seemed unable to finish his thoughts.
"Yes it was." Elaine agreed with obvious flush on her cheeks and leaned even further into him, neither of the pair noticing that his arms was still draped protectively around and holding her tight during the entire event. I was not thrilled by this closeness of the two of them. The only thing I saw as positive was the fact that she rated higher in my book than Jenny Mercer, which really is not much considering the Sirens probably rated higher in my book too. But really, sisterly jealousy was not useful to focus upon when we were all likely about to die.
"I admit you have overcome the siren's song which I had not expected to but the trio still poses a physical threat that we will have to deal with shortly." Lord Kline replied. "Do you have another similar trick for this complication up your rather impressive sleeves young apprentice?" He pointed to the island where I could now see the three creatures standing side by side and awaiting our approach with full anticipation. It is likely they had no idea that their calls were literally falling upon the equivalent of deaf ears or they might have decided upon a different tactic. Thankfully they were accustomed to creatures purposefully crashing their ships upon the rocks so when Charon turned our course slightly away to head toward a patch of beach instead this left them surprised and scrambling as a group to reach us.
The obvious answer to this danger came to mind right then and before I could second guess myself I put this into play. "I don't think we have to worry about dealing with them ourselves." I said to the shock of the troll most of all but all the others to one degree or another. "Why should we fight the sirens and deplete our strength when time works in our favor not our opponent's? The sirens are an issue for Abagalesidhe." I said calling forth the name of the faerie in order to get her attention.
"Abagalesidhe we shall be awaiting you at the Island of the Sirens." I said once more seeing in the eyes of my companions that they understood what it was I was doing.
"Come and get us Abagalesidhe, YOU BITCH!" I said screaming up at the gathering storm above us.
Daylight exploded as a bolt of lightning brighter than two suns slammed to the ground on the island thirty feet or so from where our boat ran up onto the rocky and sandy shore. The trailing siren of the three had the unlucky misfortune of being right where the bolt struck, and unlike cartoons where a huge charge of electricity makes a character's bones stand out for an instant like an x-ray, this was bolt of pure energy was too bright to look upon when it landed. And in the instant after as the light returned to normal, all that remained was an upward trailing plume of smoke rising up from the ground and flakes of ash that I could only assume had originally been part of this first siren a moment before. It was from within this smoky, plume or terror and destruction that Abagaleside strode forth.
The siren's two surviving sisters had both been within ten feet of where the bolt had crashed to the ground and the shockwave of ionized air that created the roll of thunder also sent the pair of them flying a dozen feet or so through the air to crash hard upon the rocks that had destroyed so many ships. Any normal creature would have taken this as a good indication to retreat but the sirens, who I suddenly realized were probably each as tough as an ogre, found their feet almost instantly after landing and charged the Handmaiden with her death in their eyes.
Abagale was quick though, quick as lightning in fact, and before the first could close the distance upon the faerie another bolt of lightning arced from the noble's hand and struck the second siren right in the chest searing a hole clear though her torso in the process. As a testament to the creature's resilience, even though its body would register in a moment that it was actually dead, the second siren in the next moments was still able to stumble forward and land a blow on the Handmaiden body that caused the noble to stagger backwards and lose her footing upon the loose rocks that made up that edge of the island. As the second siren succumbed to death her third sister launched herself upon the now fallen fae to exact horrible revenge.
One at a time each of our group gingerly stepped out of the boat and onto the shore, making sure to avoid the tidal pools that held the Lethe's dangerous waters. "Don't go anywhere." I said to Charon/Captain Smith. "We will require your services again momentarily."
"It will most likely be to transport our souls to the Underworld but one never really knows where the apprentice Molly Carpenter is concerned." Lord Kline said dryly as his feet stepped upon the sand.
I wanted to say something but my mind was distracted back to the battle taking place among the rocks. I know that guys, many like my brother, think that a cat fight between two women is somehow erotic. I can say I do not share this opinion. In the few I've observed it is much more vicious and violent than a fight among guys. Men beat each other up while for the most part throughout maintaining some bizarre code of conduct of where it is authorized to hit their opponent and where it is not. And once the fight is done and the issue resolved through victory then in some cases the two can even immediately move on and go buy each other a beer and discuss what happened civilly.
Women on the other hand start at nuclear war level and from there get really nasty. I remember two girls in my chemistry class getting into a fight about a boy and the first blow swung was a glass beaker, thankfully empty, into the other's face. And as bad as that fight had been, the battle between immortal females was even worse. They would not be toasting each other with beer as much as savoring the other's blood!
The siren who had watched her sisters die showed no sign of letting up on the fae handmaiden until her rage was fully sated, and from the looks of things that would not be anytime soon. Her massive arms and wicked clawed hands struck repeatedly in quick succession, shredding protective Faerie armor and sending pieces of it, and the Faerie flesh beneath it flying in all directions as her rage played out on her opponent's body.
"Maybe the siren will solve our problem for us and we will only have to deal with her." I said with a hopeful voice.
"Or better yet the two will kill each other and we can leave without having to fight at all." Daniel said pulling out his iron crowbar and tucking his handmade rubber gripped dagger into his belt.
Since getting ready seemed a good idea I drew one of the mandibles and readied my left hand for calling a shield so I was ready for casting offensive or defensive magic as the situation called for. Hisha and Lord Kline stepped a distance away to each side of us to keep any one attack from taking us all down and prepared as well while Elaine remained standing in the spot she had come ashore on the beach and left her flail hanging limp. I was going to say something but she spoke first.
"You both still have no idea yet of the power of what we are up against." Elaine said in a resigned tone just as the storm above our heads broke open and a torrent of rain falling in sheets fell upon us.
While this limited my ability to see the battle to mere momentary flashes I got the impression that the added fury of the storm only made the siren that much angrier for her rage of cries rose up even over the now near deafening sounds of the storm. And then the lightning struck.
Another massive bolt flew from the skies and crashed to the ground right upon the combatants. This time standing upon the island I could feel the strike had caused the very ground to shake at its arrival. And being within twenty feet of it, the resulting boom of thunder was momentarily deafening.
As my hearing returned I could sense that the only other sounds now remaining were that of the rain as it struck the ground. Unfortunately my eyes showed the familiar image of a battered but undefeated Abagalesidhe the Fae rising once more to her feet and brushing away the remains of the third and final siren from her body.
"Prudence demands we strike now while she is weak." Hisha said moving forward as did Lord Kline on my other side, drawing the Handmaiden's attention to the pair of them as yet another bolt of lightning struck, this one not as vast, reached down to Abagalesidhe's upheld hand and literally transferred the power of the raging storm to her body.
In the wake of this devastating magic the former Goddess of Lightning strode forth toward our group now even more sure and determined than the instant before. Worse still her body crackled with electrical energy like a personal guarding ward for her protection. And ultimately even worse still was that many of the wounds sported upon her body by the fury of the now deceased siren's attacks were after this bolt only half the size they had been a moment ago. While the siren had caused some harm, she had obviously not even come close to killing the faerie noble.
Abagale looked from Hisha to Lord Kline who had both been slowed by this display of power. "What is wrong troll?" She said with undisguised scorn in her tone. "Did you think your kind the only ones granted access to regeneration?" She mocked him as I could feel the charge in the air condensing to form another bolt for her to command soon.
"I'd prefer not to think my noble bloodline was in some way tainted to produce a creature as ugly as yourself." Lord Kline replied charging forward. The gangly, green skinned troll calling the beautiful, if battered, fae ugly was not lost on any of us. We also all, with the exception of Elaine, chose that moment to attack as well.
"UGLY?" Abagalesidhe screamed. Wow someone obviously struck a nerve. I guess someone has image issues. But before Lord Kline could get into striking range the fae fired forth another charge of anger filled energy greater even than what she had blasted the second siren with. Lord Kline was many things, and at nine feet in height he was certainly intimidating, but for all of that he was not greater than a siren or an ogre.
The bolt struck the troll and before our eyes his body exploded into shards of bone and spatters of blood that was only inadvertently stopped from dousing all of us with his remains by the mere level of torrential rains that knocked these pieces from the air around us. I was shocked at the sudden and violent death of my companion; in fact he was my friend though I suddenly realized I was too late to tell him so.
Lord Kline's sacrifice though had given the raksasha turned monk the chance to close the remaining distance and strike through the electrical curtain of Abagalesidhe's defense using his wooden staff in a series of blows that kept the fae off balance and staggering even if she showed little physical damage from any of these strikes. I had only caught a single glimpse of Hisha's prowess when he had fought Rumplestiltskin and that was nothing compared to the demonstration he provided now.
The monk was incredibly fast, perhaps not more than lightning, but certainly more so than the hand of the fae that tried to move and target him as he landed each of his blows. As her hands tried to track him and continually fired much smaller bolts if only to stun and delay his attacks, Hisha spun, dodged, dove, weaved, leapt, and even rolled around her while landing a series of blows with the ends and tips of his staff that the fae could not ignore and that kept her reeling and off balance.
Finally as Daniel got close, Hisha swept her legs out from under the Handmaiden once more making Abagale land hard upon her back and therefore making the protective curtain of lightning around her flicker giving Daniel the opportunity he wanted to strike with his iron crowbar. Daniel unfortunately was nowhere near as fast as the monk and by the time his mind registered the opening and ordered his arms to make the strike, the fleeting target of opportunity was already closing and he could not recall the strike. The iron bar met the electrical curtain and the resulting explosion sent him flying back to land on the sand ten feet to my right. The crowbar like some mockery of Excalibur landed point first into the ground glowing red hot from its momentary contact with the shielding spell.
The resulting flash had also distracted Hisha. Not much, but unfortunately just enough for Abagalesidhe to finally line her hand up with his body and fire off enough of a bolt of energy to send his body flying off in the opposite direction only to crash down hard upon the rocks in spasms as the charge ran through his body.
"Bitch!" I screamed and pointed the mandible in her direction. "Feugo!" I screamed willing fire magic though this focus and striking the Handmaiden just as she began to gain her feet once more. The addition of a focus allowed me to create a lance of flame like Harry does with his blasting rod but I was still nowhere near his power level, not even with adding my rage to the magic. The fact that the downpour of rain reducing the strength of the spell by nearly half made this even less impressive as it seared a line across her body rather than cutting her in half like I had seen Harry do.
"Foolish child." Abagale said once more on her feet and stepping toward me having shrugged off my most powerful attack spell I had ever cast as if it were nothing to her. "Fire is an element of Summer. You could no more kill me with that than you could with sunshine."
"Good point." I said still pissed off and reached up with my left hand to touch my Winter token as I opened myself to channel as much magic as I could. "Infriga!" I screamed pointing to the area right above her. This time the magic spell did not attack the Faerie directly, instead it made the space from one to three feet above her head the cold of near absolute zero. The effect was that the sheets of raindrops hit this area and were immediately converted into millions of little icicles and hailstones already falling at terminal velocity.
Abagalesidhe's scream of pain was music to my ears and I kept the spell going as long as I could until my knees gave out in weakness from full exhaustion and the storm suddenly abated denying me my makeshift weapons in the process. Maybe any one of the attacks would cause only a pinprick's worth of damage but certainly millions of such pinpricks would be enough to kill her I reasoned. It was the same sort of logic that had worked for Harry against Aurora so it should work for me? Yeah, unfortunately Harry's opponent had not been surrounded by a curtain of electricity at the time.
Abagale's defense was not enough to stop all of these attacks since they were powered in part by the magic of Winter, but it did convert most of the blows, probably ninety nine percent, back into water before they struck. While one percent of a million is still ten thousand, I guess ten thousand pinpricks is not nearly enough to actually kill a Faerie noble since she stood up once more after my spell and the rain was gone. She was at this point covered in a wash of blood and looking not unlike Carrie at the prom but she was still able to stagger in my direction.
I wanted to do something, anything, but I was tapped out completely in both magic and my chi which also left me almost physically exhausted as well. I was helpless and there really was nothing more I could do, well except be made to suffer.
Abagale pointed a finger at me and suddenly I was surrounded by a cloud of static electricity, she was obviously weakened as well and this was the strongest spell she could manage at the moment. That is not to say that it was ineffective. I suddenly knew what it felt like to be tazered and decided right then and there it was not an experience to repeat if I somehow lived past the next few moments.
"Kill her Elaine." Abagalesidhe said no longer looking at me but to my last standing partner who still stood in the sand behind me. "Do as your godmother commands and kill her child and I will forgive your sins against me." She said without any actual sense of love.
"No!" Elaine said with a surprise of defiance I had not expected but pleased to hear. "I won't be your tool or anyone else's tool ever again." You go girl! Now if you would just kill her we might just make it out of here.
"Of course you will child." Abagale said as she stepped closer still before stopping. Had I still had any control of my body or the energy to move I could have drawn my sword and sliced right through her ankles but that was unfortunately beyond me as the static spell continued to wrack my body and leave me convulsing on the sand. Unfortunately Abagale noticed this proximity error on her part as I tried to reach for my sword and shuffled around to the side of me and more toward where Daniel had been thrown while keeping her attention on her godchild.
I sensed a change in Abagale's emotions as she suddenly grew more hostile at Elaine's rejection of her orders. She was up to something though I had no clue what.
"Of course you will." She repeated as if the words would make her command so. "You have been a tool from the very beginning. Justin DuMorne burned your house down and killed your parent to make you his tool. You fled him and came to me and then willingly accepted becoming my tool trading your free will for my protection and allowing yourself to be used for my amusement in whatever degrading way I could come up with. And we both know how creative my mind can be in that particular pursuit do we not my dear? Are you sure you want to anger me so that I come up with even more ways to punish you for this defiance?"
I realized then what Abagale was trying to do. She wanted Elaine if not to submit to her will then to strike with magic at her, fire a bolt of magical lightning at Abagale so that she could in turn heal from its effects. And from the emotional rage I could feel building within Elaine the faerie's plan was about to succeed and we would die. I fought and threw all my will and strength against the electrical spell numbing my body to prevent this from happening.
"Elaine don't!" The words screamed forth and while they were the very ones that I thought of, the voice that carried them was not mine. Instead it was Daniel's as he rolled himself over toward Abagalesidhe and drove his apprentice dagger, all twelve inches, through the faerie's foot so that even the hilt pushed into flesh and the blade tip reached through the wet and sandy ground into the stone layer that lay just a few inches below.
Abagale screamed again in pain and this time the remaining charges of electricity within her fled from her body through its grounding by this iron dagger and the saltwater saturated sand that made a perfect conduit for this form of magical power. While the former goddess's magic was still incredibly powerful, the rubber on the dagger's handle still provided its natural grounding protection and kept my brother being killed in the process of taking this foolhardy gamble. In moments all the magical electricity within Abagalesidhe had dissipated and her body fell back onto the sand with her foot still nailed securely into the ground to hold her in place.
With her unconsciousness the spell around me dissolved as well and left me able to take a breath unimpeded. "Should I kill her?" Daniel said pulling some iron spikes out of his pack at his side that looked like they were originally used for building railroad lines. I guess because he knew about the lethality of wooden stakes for vampires Daniel had assumed iron spike for faeries would be equally effective. I had never spent much time on it but I had to admit he was probably correct.
"No." Elaine said coming up to me and helping lift me into a sitting position and then doing the same for Daniel who was still shaky and now was leaning upon her.
"She will not stop coming after us. If Queen Tatania leaves her alive sometime in the future she will come after us to balance the score." I pointed out urgently but was too weak to do more. Personally I did not want to kill anyone, even a psycho Faerie bitch, but especially since she was defenseless at the moment I could not accept this was the right course. Harry would have explained to do so was to give my dark side more power and that was not a good idea since I was living under the Doom. But still I also did not want Abagalesidhe coming back after us and especially getting to my brother who had no way to protect himself.
"Probably." Elaine agreed. "But we still can't do it." She said again.
"Then we just leave?" Daniel asked.
"No." Elaine said. "Give me those." She pointed to the spikes he had in his hands. "And by any chance do you have a hammer?"
"What are you planning?" I asked.
"She loves power." Elaine explained. "She loves to have people powerless under her will. Maybe it's time for her to feel what that type of helplessness is like for herself." Elaine explained and over a period of a few minutes and with the assistance of Daniel's smith's hammer drove three more spikes through the faerie's hands and other foot and into the stony layer of ground beneath.
"She might still work her way free over time." Hisha said as he staggered forward, charred, limping, and leaning heavily on his staff but still alive and able to smile and offer wisdom. "That or someone may come to free her." He pointed out.
"I doubt that." Elaine said. "The iron will keep her weak and drain her power before she can raise enough to free herself." She explained. "And no one knows the sirens are dead so everyone will still avoid this place so there will be no one to free her. Those who go looking for her will never come here to find her."
"Why not make it so that no one comes looking?" I said trying to stand but not yet strong enough to make it to my feet. "Dig a trench in the sand all the way around her and let the water of the Lethe touch upon her hands and feet. That should eventually make people forget she ever existed if what we were told is actually true."
Daniel and Elaine got to work doing it while Hisha wandered off on his own scouting through the rocks obviously looking for something. When I found the strength to get to my feet I followed after him to try and see what he was looking for.
Between a large clump of rocks I found the troll's pack which had survived the attack though not without some charred patches. Inside were the four chess sets and luckily they still appeared undamaged, undoubted protected in part by the Faerie magic that enchanted them.
"Were you looking for these?" I said holding up the pack for Hisha to see.
"No actually I was hoping to find this." The old monk said holding up an odd shaped dark stone that when he turned I observed was in fact the charred skull of Lord Kline. The raksasha was smiling in obvious delight which I must say seemed a bit odd.
"You are not thinking of taking that as a trophy?" I said feeling a little queasy at the idea.
"Hardly." He said with a smile before shaking the skull and dropping something in his palm. "I assume you must not have had a lot of dealing with trolls my dear or you would know that they are extremely hard to kill. He held up a squirming to inch tall troll for my inspection that I noted looked exactly like Lord Kline except for the vast difference in sizes."
"How did you know you would find this?" I asked as the old monk smiled at me.
"This is hardly the first time my friend has been nearly destroyed. I will take and care for him, play a ghastly amount of chess, and wait for the year to pass that it will take for him to grow back to full size." He put the troll in a deep pocket of his robe and we set out to return to the ferry and eventually back to our own world.
"I take it you have done this before?" I asked him.
"Of course." The monk replied. "It is I who gave him his name as 'The Little Lord,' which of course he converted to Lord Kline." I was happy to know at least some part of the troll would live on.
We left the Summer Handmaiden crucified there on the beach, and though I like to blame the waters of the Lethe for it, in truth it was my intention to forget about her as soon as I possibly could.