Life was good for Harry and the group. They got used to their new world over the next two weeks. Some things were easy to get used to. The fact that they could openly practice magic and not only were they not called freaks or reported to the ministry, the locals loved every bit of it. Half the time they cheered when they performed the smallest of tasks. From making a huge half barrel grill for the big town founding celebration. To the time Harry stopped a group of young men from robbing the town bank with a wandless stunner.
Harry walked in 'unarmed'. He saw the three young men and as soon as their guns were pointed at him he stunned them all with three quick spells.
"How'ed you do that?" Bobby asked as Harry bound the three kids and took their guns.
"I'm on the mage level, wandless magic comes naturally to me. And out here the air is practically swimming in magic. I can cast spells all day out here." Harry said floating the three kids out of the bank.
But for the bigger feats of magic the group did, they were treated like gods. The mine collapsed trapping dozens of miners underground. The group was called and in an hour they fixed the cave in and made the mine more structurally sound. They also healed the wounded miners, and they separated out the ore they excavated from the rocks they cleared out of the mine. The whole town was there watching them work and they were cheered on the whole time. A massive mine collapse that should have killed at least a hundred people and shut down the mine for weeks was fixed in an hour and the worse thing that happened was a few miners needed to take a few days off to finish healing.
"Well Mr. Williamson, you're mine is back in good standing and we fixed the structural supports so this won't happen again. Although, and I'm not telling you how to run your mine, but you're losing money by mining into the mountain and not strip mining the whole thing. There are huge deposits of lead, iron, and even small bits of gold in that big rock just waiting to be pulled out." Harry said.
"But we can't smelt it all out of the rocks. It's easier to just follow the silver vein and try to get all the silver out." Jim Williamson said.
"You can't but I can, in fact all of us can." Harry said casting the goblin spells at the huge pile of rubble. The pile lifted up and melted into a huge ball of glowing glass and metal. He waved at the ground and there were stacks of 100 ounce bars of silver and gold, as well as a pile of 25 pound bars of lead, iron, copper, and tin. There was also a big pile of sand.
"MY GOD!" Jim said looking at the stacks of bars.
"That took a lot out of me I must admit." Harry said swaying on his feet. Hermione made a simple wood chair and Harry dropped into it.
"You okay Harry?" Jim asked looking worried, everyone did. Harry and the group had become very important to the town in a short amount of time and the last thing they wanted was for them to get hurt.
"I'm fine, or I will be in a minute. Fixing the mine, and the refining magic took a lot. That being said, I could cast that spell on a big load of rubble like that three times a week. For that I want a tenth of the gold and silver, and half of the rest of the metal that comes out of the mine. I'll even transport it to Salt Lake City to get you the best prices for your gold and silver for free." Harry said.
"Deal. In fact take a quarter of the gold and silver and ¾ quarters of the other metal, clean pure silver and gold like this is worth so much more than the bars we make and it will be safer for the men. Not to mention the saving from not having to run the refinery." Jim said looking at the gold bar in his hand.
"Deal. Start at the top and work your way down the mountain. I'll cast that spell three times a week. And we'll exchange your gold twice a week in Salt Lake." Harry said.
"Boys, count out those bars and separate them out three to one. We need strong boxes." Jim said as Sam handed Harry a bottle of beer.
"Thanks Sam." Harry said trying to hand him two silver dollars.
"On the house Harry." Sam said laughing as he patted him on the back.
"Good man Sam, you're a good man." Harry said popping the swing top and taking a deep drink as Neville helped collect the bars in his bag.
Another impossible feat of magic Harry did that made the people treat him like a god was he built a wall around Hamilton with a few spells. He started with the huge pile of sand he got from the mine and a few dozen bars of steel. He made steel by refining the iron bars and adding carbon to make 4150 steel. He stood in the middle of town and cast the goblin charms and turned the sand and steel into a 60x30 foot sandstone frame that was faced on all sides with steel. It was 10 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide.
He floated the structure up in the air 50 feet and hit it with an expansion charm. The frame expanded into a 1500x750 foot outer wall that was 20 foot tall and 5 foot wide. On the top of the wall was 4 foot plate steel rampart and ladders to get to the top of the wall. The front gate in the wall was two big steel doors that swung shut on big hinges and locked with a big dead bolt.
"There, now you don't have to worry about anything." Harry said looking drained.
"No shit. I didn't even think you could do something like that." Roy said looking at the wall.
"It takes a lot of power. I mean a lot. This was the first and only thing I'm going to do with magic for the next two days. You'll notice I cheated the walls south by a lot more than your old wall. That's because that big rock in the southeast corner marks the northern tip of a gold and silver deposit. It's about twenty feet under ground and from the detection spells I cast it's a big deposit. Big enough to make this small town very rich and give you all something to do for the next twenty years. Dig out as much ore as you can and I'll melt it down for you." Harry said pulling out a candy bar.
"Harry, how the hell are we ever going to make up for all the things you've done for our small town?" Roy said.
"You can't repay me because I still owe you. The amount of purpose I feel when I come here stays with me for days. You have to understand something Roy, I was not a good person where I came from, I killed people. That was my job. They were all bad guys, and my job now is a lot like that too, but I used to do it from the shadows. Now I get to be a hero, a good guy, and I love it." Harry said with a smile.
Then there were things that were harder to understand and get used to. Things like the magic people tended to use. It was weak and limited which kind of made sense after they heard that the magical school at Salem was destroyed twenty years ago by dragons killing off a good portion of magical kids and most of the best teachers in America. Like the two magical wars in the UK, there was a lost generation of kids and they would have been the adults of today. Because of the destruction of the school most magical parents home schooled their kids with the basic magical knowledge they had in between working their asses off trying to get by on the small wages they made.
Like the language of Latin itself magic was slowly dying out in America. The simple spells, first level potions, basic conjuring and transfigurations, and entry level battle spells were all that most of them knew. High level battle magic, advanced transfiguration, enchantments, hard to brew potions, curse breaking and wards were impressive feats of magic to the wizards of America. They assumed it was different in Europe but they didn't know. If it was the same there too then the girls were the most knowledgeable witches in the world.
That being said magic had advanced in some aspects beyond where they were when they came back. As they found out quick enough flying was the best way to get around. It was safer to fend off the very random dragon attack then it was to fend off everything else on the ground. Or that was how it was explained to Harry the first time he saw a flying ship.
Harry was patrolling the air above the town of Hamilton on his way back from Salt Lake with the mail at the end of his first week as marshal. He made the mail trip twice a week and it gave him or Neville something to do on light days. As he flew around looking for something to shoot at he saw something big in the distance. It was a brown dot and as he flew at it at top speed it's form became clearer. It was a ship. A classic looking pirate ship without sails or a mast. The ship was 250 foot long, 90 foot wide, and 50 foot tall from deck to ship bottom. It had two small pairs of wings made of canvas and brass framework ribbing. One pair on the sides of the ship aligned out and down looked like stubby bird wings and the other pair of wings were attached to the back and acked as a tail fins/rutters. There was a pair of big multi bladed propellers in the back pushing the ship along. It was flying a few thousand feet off the ground and moving at a good clip.
Harry got within a few hundred feet of the ship and saw a crew of 10 sailors in heavy wool Navy blue deck uniforms of thick pants, wool turtleneck sweaters, peacoats, and ski caps. They were acting as look outs in all directions and manning the ten guns on the deck of the ship as a man in a dress Navy uniform and long coat stood on an upper covered deck steering the ship with a big wheel, and a few sets of brass levers. He flew closer to get a better look but stopped as a voice came booming out of the ship at him.
"Halt Your Approach, And State Your Business!" the voice said and Harry could see the three heavy deck guns on the closest side of the ship to him were aimed right at him.
"I'm Marshal Harry Steel From The Town Of Eureka! I Saw Your Approach And I Came To See What You Were!" Harry called back holding up his silver star.
"You May Came Aboard!" Came a reply and Harry flew over and landed on the deck. He was greeted by two sailors with revolvers out.
"Let's see that star if you don't mind marshal?" One of the men said holding out his hand.
"Sure, here." Harry said pulling back his coat to show off the star as he looked around the ship with wide eyes. It was a nice ship to start with, hand carved details everywhere, high gloss varnish and polished brass fixtures.
"Sorry about that marshal, as you know ships like ours are prime targets for broom raids. They are few and far between but they happen. Welcome aboard the St. Mary. We run cargo for United Shipping and we have all of our US stamps and seals if that's what you're here to check. I'm first mate Ron Butterfield. Our captain is James Carver." The head sailor said putting away his gun and having his men follow.
"No offence taken. I just saw you guys on the horizon and came to see what this was." Harry said looking at the breech loaded parrot guns, and the belt fed gatling guns mounted on swivels.
"First time seeing an airship up close marshal?" He asked with a grin.
"Yes. How the hell are we flying?" Harry asked.
"How was your broom flying? This ship works with the same spells and enchantments. The St. Mary was made by the Cannonball broom company and this is a bulk carrier class ship. We make the run between major cities hauling goods, precious metals, the mail, and money. We just made a delivery in Salt Lake City and we're headed to Sacramento and then on to San Francisco next before we head south on our way back to our home base in Chicago after making our way around the south and east coast. The trip takes about six weeks with loading and unloading." Ron said.
"I have so many questions. First off, how fast does she go?" Harry asked.
"At half load like we are now we can move at a good clip. We're doing about 120 miles an hour. Fully loaded like we will be when we get back to home base, we'll barely top out at 75. Empty this big girl could do 190. Close to 200 if we had a good tail wind." Ron said proudly.
"How much does one of these cost?" Harry asked.
"This ship cost just a hair under 3 million dollars." Ron said.
"Holy shit! Are they all this big and expansive?" Harry asked looking around the ship.
"No. Airships come in all shapes and sizes. They make make small ones that are a lot cheaper but this ship is a mega haler. She has three cargo decks and 186,000,000 cubic feet of cargo space and a crew of 75. We are one of six ships in the rotation around the US, and we are tasked by the US government to handle all mail shipments around the county. The St. Mary is also 15 years old. Newer ships are cheaper now that there are a few companies that make different classes and types of ships. You can find everything from small 25 foot personal racing/fighter type craft to the huge dreadnought class ships the Navy use. They're big steel clad sleeker models that are loaded down with guns and have a higher top speed." Ron said walking him around the deck of the ship before walking him up to the captain.
"Marshal I hope we don't have an issue, we're running late thanks to the dock workers in Salt Lake and we need to make up time." Captain Cutter said checking his gold pocket watch. The captain looked like a no nonsense military type that lived and died by that watch.
"No problem at all Captain, I was making a patrol and spotted you. I just came over to see what you were. Your air ship is the first one I ever saw. Your first mate was just giving me the rundown on your ship and I must say the St. Mary is impressive. I'm sorry if I held you boys up. I wish you all safe passage and I'll be on my way." Harry said shaking the captain's hand and hopping on his broom.
"Thank you marshal. Have a good day." The captain said as Harry took off and flew back a few feet. He pulled out his phone and shot video of the ship to show his brother. They needed one. He didn't care what it cost. They would have a ship like that.
When he got back to the cube and showed Neville he was just as excited. That night they turned the 19 big 400 ounce gold bars they had into 76 saller 100 ounce bars and added them to the 19 gold bars they got out of the mine so far and set it all aside in a trunk marked airship. At $24 an ounce that was $228,000. When they had half a million dollars they would go buy an airship.
It wasn't all fun and good times though. Hamilton, Eureka, and Ely were all attacked on Halloween night by dragons. It was a conclave of 7 dragons, 3 dragons attacked Eureka, 3 attacked Ely, and 1 attacked Hamilton. In Hamilton's case. The night watchman sounded the alarm and all of the residents made it to the town hall and they portkeyed to just inside the front gate of Eureka and right into the fight. A few minutes before their town was attacked the 3 dragons attacked Eureka's wards and the watchmen sounded the alarm to wake up the town.
Harry had been waiting for something like this all day. He got up that morning waiting for the other shoe to drop. Abby thought it was funny.
"Harry, nothing bad is going to happen today. Everything is going to be fine. There is nothing special about this day other than the fact that it's a holiday." She said with a laugh but she was the only one laughing.
"I hate to break it to you, but Harry is cursed. Something bad always happens on Halloween." Neville said checking his guns and loading his bag with extra ammo.
"Every year. Big or small, bad shit always happens." Harry said cleaning and loading his four colts.
"Mia, you don't buy into this too do you?" Abby asked.
"He's cursed. What's to buy. I've personally seen a number of really bad things happen to him on October 31st." Hermione said looking on edge as well. She was seated at the table with her books as always but she was wearing her snake skin vest and her gun belt.
"Really? Like what?" Abby asked.
"Let's run down the list backwards. 2015 I got shoot by a regular bullet. It happens all the time but this one went through my dragon hide vest and tore me up inside. That was the only time in the history if these dragonhide vests failing. 2014 I got hit by a car driven by a drunk driver as I was crossing the street in London. I broke both my legs and cracked my skull. 2013 I took a vacation, I was flying around in a small plain and a flock of birds hit the plane. I had to ditch over a freezing cold lake. 2012 I was hit in the head by a big pipe and ended up in a coma that lasted three days. I still get random migrans from that one. 2011 I was stabbed in the back by a Chinese spy, literally. We were going at it in bed and she pulled a knife out of nowhere and stabbed me in the kidney. I almost died. 2010 I walked up to a car I thought was a cash hand off and the car blew up with me ten feet away I took a bunch of shrapnel all over my body and I have a few really nasty scars still to this day. 2009 I fought with a double agent selling secrets in a hotel in Miami. We fell into a pool and he almost drowned me. 2008 wasn't too bad I think." Harry said scratching his chin.
"In 2008 you Halo jumped into what we thought was an Al Qaeda prison camp where they were holding allied prisoners. But we got bad intel and you ended up inside a terrorist training camp and they knew you were coming. It was an ambush and you got shot like ten times trying to make your way out of the wards they had up to stop you from portkeying out. That's the reason we have the emergency watches that work even under an anti-portkey ward." Hermione said.
"Right. I forgot about that." Harry said making a face.
"In 07 you got blown up by an IED in Egypt." Neville said laughing.
"That's right. That one left a good scar too!" Harry said laughing sadly.
"Of course 06 was the worst." Hermione said looking sad.
"What happened in 2006? You were shot, stabbed, and blown up all at the same time?" Abby asked laughing but stopped when Harry stood up and walked away.
"On Halloween 2006 Harry proposed to his long time girlfriend Susan on her birthday. She said no, and she left him. He almost drank himself into a coma." Hermione said sadly.
"Oh god." Abby said looking ready to cry.
"You didn't know. It's fine. You coming Nev? Let's get this day over with." Harry said from the doorway dressed in his long snakeskin coat with his rifle over his shoulder.
"Yeah Harry. Let's get it over with." Neville said kissing his wife before following him out of the house.
That day went off without a hitch. Instead of that fact making him happy, Harry got more and more unnerved as the day went on. That night he slept in his full armor and gun rig in a recliner chair in his living room. He heard knocking at the front door. It was loud and panicked knocking and he was out of his chair, with a gun in his hand before he knew what was going on. He ran to the front door. He got there almost at the same time as Neville who also had a gun in his hand and a confused look on his face. From the way he was dressed it looked like he slept in his clothes minus the vest. Harry opened the door and heard air raid siren he saw a panicked Alice.
"WHat's going on?" Harry asked.
"Dragons!" She screamed.
"How many?" Harry asked pulling her inside the cube and slipping out to see.
"Three! They bounced off the wards. They are attacking the wards to get to the farm!" She half screamed and half said.
"Stay inside and stay calm." Harry said as the girls showed up looking panicked.
Harry's bag, and coat came flying at him a second in front of Neville's gear. Harry pulled on his bag and coat. He pulled out his broom and took off with Neville right on his tail. They blasted up into the air and saw the three good sized dragons bouncing off the ward dome over the town. Harry flew right at them as he pulled out his 500 nitro express rifle with shrapnel rounds. The bullet weighed 64 grams or 2.25 ounces and it was propelled by 1,500 grains or 3.4 ounces of magical gun powder. The bullet was made of magical red brass. It had a jacketed core of hardened steel. On impact the red brass case exploded apart inside the animal and the core tore a huge hole out the other side of the animal. It was made to hunt big magical things like dragon, troll, and giant. It hit like a freight train and put a foot wide hole through things. Harry stopped a few hundred feet away and made sure Neville had his gun out too.
"I'm going to the big orange one to the left, you go for the one on the right and we'll both take the one in the middle. If we miss I'll play the rabbit." Harry said sighting in on his 25 foot long dragon.
"Ready when you are." Neville said aiming at his dragon.
Harry pulled the trigger. The gun bucked in his hands and threw him back a dozen feet making him almost fall off his broom. It also bruised his collar bone but the round struck true. He blasted a foot wide hole through the big orange dragon's four foot wide neck. It reared back and let out a choked screech as blood shot out of it's neck like a fire hose. It grabbed its neck before it tried to fly away. It got over the mountain before falling out of the sky. Neville's dragon suffered a similar fate. The round struck its head right where the neck attached to the back of the head. It severed the dragon's spine and it fell out of the sky. It hit the mountain, bounced and fell into the field next to Kate and Bobby's farm house dead.
The third dragon however saw what happened and locked eyes on the two men on brooms. Harry saw this and slung his gun over his shoulder as he flew right at the dragon. The dragon looked confused for a second before it lunged at him. Harry dove over the mountain with the big dragon on his tail. Harry lead it away from the town and straight into the ground. At the last second he pulled out and shot back up. The dragon was on him until he heard a shot in the distance and heard a screech. He chanced a glance back over his shoulder and saw the dragon fall out of the sky. He cast a flare spell over the town making it bright enough to see everyone who was gathered in the town looking confused until they saw him and Neville.
"Everyone remain calm!" He called out quieting the crowd. "Thank you. We killed the three dragons. Hermione gather the dead dragon corpses and drop them in the field in front of the farm. We need to take them apart now or they will go bad. Were…" Harry was interrupted from asking if there were anymore dragons when a big orange dragon came flying at him at top speed and bit at him. If he didn't roll out of the way he would have been dinner.
The dragon flew out and came back at him. Harry swung up his rifle and blasted it in the face right above it's snout. The momentum of it's flight took it's dead body past Harry and into the side of the mountain that made up the left side of the town. It hit the rock wall with a heavy slam and started to fall onto the town but Harry stopped it's fall and drug it to the farm where he let it fall. He was about to relax when he saw fire in the distance.
"Dragon's are attacking Ely. Mia take care of these, we have to go." Harry said.
He waited until she giving him the thumbs up before he took off towards Ely at top speed. The trip took less then 10 minutes and as they approached they saw the dragons start to bring down the wards. They flew in close and took out two of the dragons with head shots but again the third dragon saw his friends die and went right for Harry. He dove out of the sky with the beast fireballing at him. He arched over and just avoided getting snapped in half by the giant maw of the beast. He heard the shot and felt heat as the beast tried to burn him before he died.
Harry again repeated his calming words as they boxed up the dragons in expanded trunks and hung them from their brooms. By the time they landed they were mostly done skinning the first dragon. He looked down at his watch and saw it was one minute after midnight November first. He looked up at the sky, shook his head and laughed a sad laugh.
"October 31st. Hallo-fucking-ween. Every fucking year." He muttered before going to work on breaking down the dragons. It took all night and it was just after seven in the morning when they were finished with the last dragon. Harry walked into his room. Took off all of his clothes and fell into his bed where he slept all day until the next morning. When he was woken up by Neville knocking on his door.
"What?" Harry said rolling out of bed.
"Emergency in Hamilton Harry." He said.
"Shit." Harry said shooting out of bed and pulling on his clothes. He came out of his bedroom door 30 seconds later buttoning his vest with his gun belt and shoulder rig over his shoulder. "What's going on?" Harry asked pulling on his shoulder rig and checking his two colts.
"A fucking army of undead is making it's way towards the town from the south. Watchers on the wall counted hundreds of them. They are really dead and moving slow but they will overrun the town if we don't stop them." Neville said as Harry pulled on his gun belt and checked his other two colts.
"So we'll fly over to Hamilton and take care of it." Harry said walking into the dining room and grabbing a piece of toast off Hermione's plate.
"Hey I was eating that." She said.
"Can't talk, gotta run." He said grabbing her coffee cup and drinking half of it before making a face. "It needs sugar." Harry said setting her cup back down before walking away.
"Worst brother ever." She said with a smirk.
They grabbed their coats and hat and they were about to fly to Hamilton when Harry turned and headed north to the mine.
"Harry where are you going?" Neville asked.
"I got an idea." Harry said landing at the mining office close to the mine.
Five minutes later they were flying at top speed with three crates of dynamite. That was 375 sticks. That was way more than they needed but Harry had other plans for it. As they got closer they could hear the gunshots. As they approached they saw the horde of undead. There had to be more than two thousand of them. And unlike the ones they were used to these looked less fresh. They were mostly bone and dried flesh. At this point they were at the wall. In fact if the wall wasn't there the town would have been under the horde. As it was they were stacking on top of each other to get over the wall like a flood. A few men in the town were on the wall shooting the ones that made it over. But there were only four of them and they had shitty old double barrel shotguns and hunting rifles. Harry flew down to the wall and pulled his two colts out of his gun belt and blasted three zombie's heads clean off.
"Clear off the wall and fall back to the ward line. If they get by me take them down. Here, take these." Harry said pulling a canvas sack out of his bag and tossing it to one of the men. Inside was 8 beat up colt single actions and gun belts. "Arm the rest of the able bodied men." Harry said taking out five more zombies that made it over the wall. Six more came over. He basted them and when he ran out of bullets he holstered his guns and drew his second pair.
He waited until the men got away before he took off on his broom. As soon as he cleared the wall Neville started lighting sticks of dynamite and dropping them at the back of the horde. Ten big booms later and the horde was much smaller. They tossed a few more sticks before they dropped down closer and started popping heads. It took an hour to get them all and a few made it into town but the men took care of them. The clean up took longer. Harry started just summoning things into piles. They ended up with 384 revolvers and gun belts. Hundreds of blades. A big pile of gold and silver jewelry and teeth. And a big pile of bones. Harry cooked them all with a flame spell and turned the pile of gold and silver into 6 bars of gold and 8 bars of silver which he pocketed along with the guns and blades. When they were done the men tried to give the guns back but Harry waved them off.
"Keep them. I'll bring some more ammo later. For now arm the watchmen with those." Harry said before they headed off.
They flew south to see where the horde came from. They tracked the path of the zombies for miles. It was not hard to see where they traveled. The ground was littered with foot prints and drag marks a mile wide. They followed the path back all the way to a mass grave close to Troy peak. The grave was the sight of a big fight. The forest by the base of the peak was the the sight of a secondary rip were a bunch of horrible things came out. A lot of people died in the surrounding areas and they must have been dumped in a mass grave pit. But not all of the undead they killed that day came from the pit. They saw a smaller path leading to the the southeast. They were about to follow that when they got a call from Hermione.
"Guy you better portkey back right now!" She said looking worried.
"Why? What's going on?" Harry asked.
"A floating skeleton is attacking the wards at the front gate with a hundred undead." She said.
"We're portkeying to the cube now." Harry said pulling out a gold pen and holding it out to his brother. They vanished and reappeared in the cube's front hallway. They ran out and saw big blasts of green spell fire from the wall. They hopped on their brooms and flew to the gate where they saw Hermione casting spells at the floating skeleton as a hundred undead battered at the gate. Harry light a stick of dynamite and tossed it into the undead. When it blew up the number of undead battering the gate was cut in half. Neville tossed a stick closer and got most of the rest. Both men pulled out their rifles and shot at the floater but he just kept eating bullets. As his skull was caved in by a round from Harry it fell but then it got back up and the hole was gone.
"It's no use. He just reforms." Hermione said casting spells at the wards to strengthen them.
"That's because he's a litch. We need to find his phylactery." Alice said helping Hermione.
"Right. What's a phylactery?" Harry asked.
"A vessel with the litch's soul. It can't be too far from here. Once you break it he should die." Alice said as Neville kept shooting the litch in the face. It wasn't killing it but it was keeping it down.
"Good to know." Harry said trying to summon it. Nothing happened. He tried locate it but the spells weren't helping.
Then he looked down at the undead. These zombies, unlike the horde that attacked Hamilton, were fresh. And they were all indians. Duckwater was a reservation 40 miles south of Eureka. Harry took off headed south of the town looking for anything that would act as a soul vessel. He flew up high and searched out with his magic. Then he felt it. Something cold and dark. He followed that feeling to a gold jug hiding in a pile of rocks. Harry landed close by and scanned the area for any more undead. He was lucky he did, a group of six fresh undead ran at him with guns in their hands. Harry drew his guns and blasted them all before they got too close. He took aim at the gold jug and shot it but the bullets just bounced off.
He tried hitting it with a bombarda but it just blew up the rocks around the jug. He tried a flame spell, and an aicd spell but they too failed to make a dent in the jug.
"Fine, no more mister nice guy." Harry said as he lit five sticks of dynamite and placed them next to the jar before flying up. It exploded shattering the jar in a blast of green dark magic. In fact if he wasn't fast enough with a powerful shield charm he would have been blasted with death magic. He got a call a few seconds later.
"Good job. The litch is down." Neville said.
"Good to know. I'm bringing the philactor... thingy back." Harry said summoning the pieces into a bag and flying back. They were collecting bones as he dropped down.
"We have to destroy all of this and scatter what's left over." Alice said.
"That's my cue. What are we talking about here? Fire? Explosives? Melt it down and turn it into something else? You pick." Harry said dumping out the bag next to the bones of the litch.
"Fire, lots and lots of fire. Until there's only ash left, if that. As for the gold, can you use that refining spell to strip away any leftover dark magic. Then make a few coins and ditch them in a big city." Alice said.
"Yes Ma'am, I can do that. Can I have everyone back up a bit." Harry said waving them back before hitting the bones with a fire spell that blasted everyone close by with intense heat and turned the bones into ash. He then banished the ash. He turned the gold bits of the vase into a small gold bar that weighed 47 ounces. He summoned anything he could from the dead into a trunk and burned the bodies. It was mostly gun belts with revolvers, knives, tomahawks, and native american jewelry.
"There, now we have to get back to the search. This time we have to do a fly by over Duckwater. If I'm right, we're going to find the town empty. I have a feeling we just killed off the people of Duckwater." Harry said sadly.
"Was that where you found the Phylactery?" Alice asked sadly.
"On the road to town. Duckwater kept to themselves. They never wanted or needed our help so I wrote them off in my head. I mean the town was protected by tribal wards and the town was well armed. But I can't help this feeling in the pit of my belly. I should have tried harder to help the small town. They were in our county. It was on us to look out for them." Harry said looking tired and worn out and the day wasn't even halfway over yet.
"Harry you can't beat yourself up over this. You and Neville have done ten times more for the county then the last twenty marshals ever did. The world is a dangerous place Harry. The fact of the matter is a litch raised an army of more than 2,000 undead and sent them to attack Hamilton. Probably on their way here after killing and turning everyone in that small town. The litch attacked Duckwater where it turned all of that small town into the walking dead. If you two weren't here we'd all be dead and an army of 3,350 undead would have hit the town of Ely. From there an army of close to 5,000 undead would have hit Salt Lake City, by way of all the small towns between us and the city. Even if we lost 130 odd souls in Duckwater it's still not as big of a tragedy as it could have been." Alice said patting Harry on his face with a sad but thankful look. It was a look that spoke of the tragedies she had seen in her life.
"I understand Alice. I'm just not looking forward to finding a ghost town." Harry said with the same sad look in his eyes.
"I know dear. Did you find were these things came from? Are we out of the woods now?" She asked.
"We're not sure. We tracked the path of the zombies back to Troy peak but the tracks of a smaller horde continue south and east of there." Harry said.
"That makes a lot of sense. Adaven is south east of there." She said sharing a knowing look with marshal John.
"What's Adaven?" Harry asked.
"It's a small town... Was a small mining town a bit bigger then Hamilton. But when the mine dried up and the rip opened near Troy peak the townspeople fled. After the rift closed we heard stories of the town. Stories of a cult of dark wizards practising all sort of dark magic. Human and animal sacrifice. Orgies. Cannibalism. It's a place where nightmares are made. No one goes there. In fact we stay out of that part of the state and any place where a rip opened. The dark magic in the air is palpable." Alice said.
"Well it looks like we have a target. Let's head off Nev." Harry said.
"Maybe we should take a break first Harry. Get something to eat. Load up on ammo and then head out." Neville said.
"Good thinking, I'm almost out of .45lc ammo." Harry said heading back to the cube as he went the townspeople cheered for them and patted them on the back. Harry nodded and waved back before they made it into the cube. Abby made some dragon steak sandwiches from the leftover slow cooked dragon roast they had the night before and they ate as they processed the day so far.
After lunch Harry cleaned out all the spent brass casings he used into a tin five gallon bucket they had. They traded the bucket to Smith for half off their monthly ammo bill which at this point was up $150. The smokeless powder filled brass jacketed lead rounds cost five times more per box than standard ammo but the rounds were five times better. Harry filled his gun belt and his coat pocket with two boxes of ammo. He also pulled out his MP5K and ditched the enchanted magazine. They spent the next twenty minutes loading the 50 standard 30 round MP5 magazines they had with bulk NATO 9mm.
"Do you think it's a good idea to load up on regular brass Harry? This stuff doesn't vanish like the magical brass dose." Hermione asked.
"I don't plan on leaving any witnesses or brass laying around. We're going to do recon on the town under invisibility cloaks and if it's as bad as Alice says it is then we're going to drop a set of ward stones over the town and clean it out. When were done, and we know there's no one left in the town we'll summon all the spent brass burn the bodies and collect the lead and brass from the bullets. Then we'll call you guys in when it's all clear and you guys can search the town for anything useful. But first we have to check on Duckwater. We have to see if there are any survivors, and if there are we need to help them. If not then we need to clear out the town of anything useful. In fact you girls can help us do that. We'll fly there and check it out and then call you in after we secure the town. We have two sets of ward stones right?" Harry asked.
"We do, but I don't feel really comfortable sacking a town Harry." Hermione said.
"Me either Harry. It seems wrong. We just killed the townsfolk and now we're robbing from them." Abby said.
"I know. Trust me I know. I feel more guilty than either of you two about the town. But if we don't collect anything useful out of the town then some band of crooks are going to take it. We have to get all the guns, ammo, food, horses, and anything like that out so the ghost town doesn't act as a supply hub for a group of outlaws. As it is I'm thinking about shrinking the houses and moving them to Hamilton. The town was small but well stocked with can goods, meat, guns, furs and hides. The townspeople were hunters and traders. They didn't have much in the way of cash. But the food they had will go a long way this winter. We can either leave it in the ghost town for criminals or we can take it, and hand it out over the winter to the townspeople that can use it. This world is a lot darker than ours. We in turn have to be a bit harder." Harry said loading a magazine into his MP5K and standing up. He handed half the magazines to Neville and put the rest in his bag. He slung the gun over his shoulder and put on his coat and hat.
They headed out of the cube and flew to Duckwater or what was left of it. It was clear to see from a distance that the very small town had been wrecked. A few of the houses looked partially destroyed, and the wall around the town was smashed. They dropped in over the small town made up of eight barracks like buildings, two watch towers, and a pen for horses. As soon as they got close they could see what happened to the town. There were bodies littering the ground. Undead with missing heads as well as dead townsfolk that were ripped open and their insides were tore out. Most of them were children. There were a few shotguns, rifles, and revolvers on the ground scattered amongst the dead.
"Fuck." Harry said as he scanned the small town that was smaller than a football field.
"Jesus Harry." Neville said looking at a small girl about six years old that looked half eaten.
"I Know. I ran a scan on the town. There's no one left." Harry said looking really pissed off.
"These were children. There's blood everywhere. They were alive when they were attacked." Neville said looking green.
"Go check the horses. I'll take care of this." Harry said.
"No, I'll be fine. But if we find a dark wizard's den then we're killing them all." Neville said.
"I already planned on it. Let's summon all the bodies over here into a pile and I'll burn then." Harry said moving the undead in the streets into a pile.
Neville saw his brother was blocking it all out of his mind. Trying to get the town cleaned up so that the girls didn't have to see this. He summoned the dead bodies of half eaten children and undead into the corner. Harry made a pile for any valuables they had. He then burned the bodies to ash. Both men had tears in their eyes as they watch the fire consume the bodies.
Harry saw movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned with his gun up pointed at a huge man standing by the broken front gate. He was about six and a half foot tall, and four foot wide. He had a wild mane of red hair and a big bushy red beard. He was wearing a mix match of leather and fur clothing topped off with a confederate cap. He had beat up looking Sharps rifle in his hands but on his belt he had three cap and ball revolvers, a cavalry saber, two tomahawks, and a big knife. His eyes were locked on Harry but his rifle was in the low ready position.
"You do this?" The big man asked in an odd sounding voice. Like his tongue was too heavy and dry.
"No, we're marshals from Eureka. I'm going to pull back my coat to show off my star." Harry said turning slowly and pulling back his coat.
"Well Fuck." The big man said looking angry and sad at the same time as he slung his rifle on his back.
"Were you a resident of the town?" Harry asked trying not to stare at the pile of burning mangled body for too long.
"No, I live in the woods. I traded with the town." The big man said walking into the town he stopped and looked at the pier. "Fuck." He said again. "WHo did this?" He asked.
"Undead. A litch came through with a group of undead and tore this town apart. They hat a few other towns too. We managed to stop them. We think the undead as well as the litch came from Adevan. Ever heard of it?" Harry asked.
"It's south of here." The big man said coldly turning to walk away.
"You got a name?" Harry asked.
"Shamus." The man said grabbing an old beat to shit broom that was leaning up against the wall where he came in.
"Your a mage?" Harry asked.
"Untrained." Shamus said.
"Where you off to?" Harry asked with a knowing tone.
"Adevan." Shamus said grabbing a gun belt and two colt single actions out of the pile Harry made.
"Your one man." Harry said with a small sad smile.
"With six guns." Shamus said with a finality to his words.
"If you wait a few minutes we're headed that way too." Harry said in a cold tone.
"I can wait." Shamus said leaning against the wall and watching the magical fire consume the bodies.
Harry banished the ashes and fixed the wall around the town with a few spells before they called in the girls. Hermione, Abby, Alice, Kate, and marshal john landed next to the horse pen where they dropped the portkey. When the girls landed they saw the haunted looks in their eyes and knew it was bad.
"We burned the dead, and fixed the wall but the wards are done for. The litch must have overloaded the ward anchor stone. We're headed to Adaven with Shamus over here. Take what you can from the town and be ready to move at any moment. John, can you keep watch from the tower by the main gate. If you see more undead or anything like that I want you guys to portkey out." Harry said.
"We will Harry." Hermione said touching his hand before going to her husband and kissing him. "How bad?" She asked softly.
"Worser then you can possibly imagine. This will haunt me for a long time." Neville said holding her tighter.
"We'll talk later." She said as he pulled back.
"We'll call you when we clear out the town." Harry said mounting up his broom alongside his brother and the mountain man they picked up.
The three men made the 50 mile trip to Adevan in a half hour thanks to the speed of Shamus' old beat up broom.
You had that broom a long time?" Harry asked trying to make conversation.
"I was assigned to the magical mounted cavalry." Shamus said. The more he talked the less odd he sounded. It made Harry realize the man did have a speech impediment he just wasn't used to talking this much.
"They had a magical mounted division in the Civil war?" Harry asked.
"It was a small unit formed at the end of the war." Shamus said.
"How much Magic do you know?" Harry asked.
"Not much. I never went to school. I picked up little things along the way. Fire shells, water, light, explosions, things that are useful." He said.
They stayed high in the clouds and hidden under disillusionment spells. They surveyed the town and found the cesspool of dark magic they were looking for. If George Romero, Steven King, and Wes Craven combined all of their worst nightmares together they would have come up with this place. To start with there were flayed dead bodies and heads on spikes around the top of the outer walls surrounding the town of 28 buildings. Patrolling outside the walls were three very big spiders with green glowing stones embedded in the top of their skulls. Patrolling the town were undead. Dozens of them. They saw a bunch of men in black robes walking about the town. It was a bizarro world down there. Things were like a normal town but dark and twisted. In the center of town where it looked like a church used to sit was now a black stone altar with a big wooden X. On the X was a naked woman that looked dead by the amount of blood and cuts that covered her body. In the butcher's shop instead of sides of beef there were flayed bodies hanging in the window.
"How do you want to do this Harry?" Neville asked.
"Lets drop the ward stone set around the town, land in a back corner of the town and go building to building just taking them out quickly and quietly. The more we can do this without raising suspicion the better. If we alert the villagers we'll take to the air and finish them off starting the with spiders and undead. If shit really gets bad we'll drop sticks of dynamite on the town and pick through the rubble later. By my count I feel more than 200 living people in that town. I have a feeling they are not all dark wizards. Some of them may be people they captured. But I have to think we're dealing with about 200 targets. Lets keep it quiet for as long as we can. Shamus, this is a silent gun." Harry said pulling the sig226 from undercover rig and handing it to the man.
"The fuck is this?" Shamus asked looking at the semi-auto handgun.
"You hold it like this and pull the trigger. It has 150 rounds. The slide comes back when you shoot it so watch your hand. Think you can handle it?" Harry asked.
"I think I got it but I'll stick with my tomahawks." He said tucking the gun into his belt.
"Okay. I would offer you an invisibility cloak but the disillusionment charm should work well enough for you. You're a hunter you can be light on your feet.
They dropped six glowing red stones around the town a hundred feet from the town wall and when the last one hit the ground a light shot between all the stones and they glowed brighter. They pulled on their invisibility cloaks and flew to the back corner of the town where they spotted a wizard in black robes having sex with a witch in black robes on a chair behind the house. Both of them were covered in tattoos. Harry shot both in the head with his MP5, turned them into coins, and they moved into the house where they found three more wizards in black robes sleeping in cots Harry pulled out his knife and the other two followed his lead. A minute later they slipped out of the house which was full of dark objects, booze bottles, opium hookahs and, the torso of a young boy hanging in the corner with bits cut from his body.
They moved from that house to the next and found more of the same. Five knocked out wizards, opium, whiskey bottles, and more dead bodies. They made quick work of them, turned them into coins, and moved on. In each house in the town they found dark witches and wizards either passed out or still partying from the night before. They made it through 21 buildings before they ran into trouble. Six undead wolves. They walked into a building and came face to face with six huge wolves that knew they were there. Half of them leapt at them as the other three started barking. Harry flipped the selector switch to full auto and sprayed the wolves with his mostly full magazine. Neville followed his lead but the jig was up. They heard shouting from outside. They ran out of the house and pulled out their brooms. They were in the air over the town in three seconds and they flew out of spell fire range
"Well that worked better than I expected." Harry said changing out his empty mag.
"Way better. With three of us working we made it all the way to the end before we got fucked." Neville said following his brother's lead.
"Now what?" Shamus asked.
"Now we finish them from the air starting with these big fuckers. Attack using anything you want. They know we're here." Harry said before attacking the spiders with his MP5.
They put the spiders down but it took a half a magazine each to drop them. They saw black robed figures rushing around the town trying to alert everyone that they had intruders. They picked off the undead and the stragglers from the air. Harry scanned the town and felt 30 living people in the town still. Harry ditched his cloak and flew closer to the town. He cast the sinuous.
"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! THIS IS THE US MARSHALS!" Harry called out but he got no response. He waited a minute before they landed in the town and split up to search out the stragglers. Harry felt a few people in the saloon. He pulled his cloak back on and check through a window and saw three men in black robes with guns and wands. Harry hit them with a short burst of full auto through the window. He still felt people inside so he came into the saloon through the back door and tracked the feeling to a cellar where he found kegs, crates full of bottles, and two more black robed wizards. He shot them both and turned them into coins before heading out. He made it up the stairs when he heard Neville call to him.
"Harry you need to see this!" He called out from the doorway of the old sheriff's office. Harry was going to cross the street when a green spell hit the wall next to him. He turned and found a wizard in the doorway to the casino. He was about to return fire when a tomahawk came flying into the man's head from the back.
"Thank's Shamus!" Harry called out as he ran to the sheriff's office. As soon as he walked in he saw six children in the holding cell. They looked like hell and they looked like they saw hell. They were all between the ages of six and ten.
"Hey kids, you got names?" Harry asked in a soft voice but they just stared blankly at him.
"It's no use, they're shell shocked Harry." Neville said.
"Hermione can erase their memories. For now guard them and I'll finish the clean up with Shamus. There are only a few of them left out there. Then we'll make the call. To tell you the truth, I feel like we should just summon guns, ammo, cash, and any thing valuable and then burn this town to the ground." Harry said heading out of the building in search of the rest. He was out of luck though, he felt eight people but only four of them were dark wizards. He found four naked women in the old brothel. They were tied to beds and they looked more then half dead. As soon as he approached them they started screaming.
Harry ran out and made the phone call to his sister. Soon Hermione and Abby were helping the women as Alice and Kate looked at the children. John looked around at the town and got sick. In the end they had to stun the women and children, transfigure them into coins and transport them back to Eureka to be taken care of. They ransacked the town as it got dark. When they were all done Harry tossed molotov cocktails through the windows of all the buildings and hit each roof with a fire spell to make sure the town burned.
Harry sat on his broom next to his brother and their new friend watching as Adaven burned to the ground.
"Shamus, you got a place to stay?" Harry asked.
"I have a place in the woods close to Duckwater. A magical tent ina cave. Now that Duckwater is gone I might move on." He said watching the bonfire.
"You should try heading to Eureka or Hamilton. You don't have to stay inside the city if you don't want but you have friends in both towns and work as a Marshal if you want it." Harry said.
"Maybe." Shamus said flying away.
That night Harry had a bottle of scotch for dinner. He drank it in his room sitting in a wing backed leather chair in sweats and a heavy bathrobe with the lights off. The only light came from the small fire burning in the fireplace in front of him. He had taken a long very hot shower and he still couldn't get the smell of rotting flesh off of his body. It was in his lungs. He heard a knock at his door. He was going to ignore it but he answered it in case something else happened. He saw Abby standing there in a bathrobe and white silk night gown. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and her face was free of makeup.
"I don't want to be alone tonight, and I don't think you should be either." She said softly.
"I'm not in the mood for sex. Not tonight." Harry said.
"Who said sex? I just can't sleep alone. I tried. I layed in bed and I couldn't sleep." She said.
"Come in." He said opening the door to let her in.
She walked into the dark room and over to the fireplace. She picked up the mostly empty bottle of Highland Park 25 year old and poured herself some in a glass she made with a wave of her wand as Harry took a seat in his chair. He thought she would sit in the other chair but she expanded the chair he was sitting on into a loveseat and sat next to him. For a while they just sat next to each other, drank, and watched the fire burn.
"Harry, how do you do your job? How do you see bad shit like we saw today and still go on living?" She asked.
"As you can see by the mostly empty bottle, shit like today affects me. I just have to keep thinking about the good things that happened today. We saved two towns from being overrun by zombies, we took out a litch and a dark magical cult, and despite how bad they are now we rescued four women and six children. It's going to take a lot of work on my sister's part to erase all the bad shit they witnessed but in a few weeks they will be normal again. They'll recover and live normal lives. As for the bad shit we saw today? That's going to live in my nightmares for the rest of my life. I saw horrors today that are way worse then anything I ever saw before. Murder I can deal with. Cannibalism on the other hand?" Harry said.
"That cult was like reavers. You know, from Firefly." Abby said.
"What's Firefly?" Harry asked with a smirk.
"What!? You've never seen Firefly?" Abby asked looking shocked until Harry laughed.
"Of course I've seen it. How many brown coat references have I made since we got here?" Harry said.
"You remind me of captain Reynolds you know? You live by a code. You take care of your family. And you do what you have to do when the chips are down." She said.
"I always pictured myself as Jayne." Harry said.
"No that's Neville. Big, tall, strong, scary guy that he can be at times." She said.
"What about you and Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Hermione is a mix of Kaylee, Simon, Zoe, and Shepherd Book. She's good at fabricating things, she can patch you up if you're hurt, and she's ready to back you up in a fight. But she also keeps you in check, and she's wise. As for me? I think I'm Inara in this crew." She said.
"I can see that. You are all pretty and such, and you got culture and what have you." Harry said laughing softly as the booze and energy drain where catching up with him.
"No like Inara I studied cultures and tribal customs. I can be a diplomat to Native tribes for this team. A big part of me feels bad about today because I feel like if you would have told me about the Duckwater situation I could have helped. I have magical tribal ink. I could have tried to talk to the town elder and made an inroad with them." she said.
"You could have?" Harry asked trying to push away the fog of all the scotch he drank.
"Yes. You have to come to the whole group with things like that. I have skills. I know you see me as a weak young girl. But I'm well read and ready for field work. I know you and Neville would never let me out into the field. And a part of me knows I'm not ready to take on this new world alone. But I want to be more of an asset to the team. I'm more than a bookworm. I just need field experience. That was what I was trying to get before we ended up here." she said softly.
"Look. I'm way too drunk to remember most of this conversation. But I'll try to get you out there more. But you have to speak up too. You're not a bench player Abby. If we talk about something at the table and you have imput speak up. I know you have skills, but like you said you're not battle tested, and I hate to say it but when shit hits the fan out there I need to know that my brother has my back. We've been through wars together and he will always be the first person I call for backup. But we can start bringing you on patrols with us. The thing is you're usually busy helping my sister. And to tell you the truth you're more valuable to her then us. We're meatheads with good aim and flexible morales. If I ended up here by myself I'd be dead by now. Hermione is the brains of this operation. So if she has need of you then you stay here. Her work is more important. I can get townspeople to help protect the two towns. In fact that's what I'm going to do tomorrow." Harry said standing up and headed to bed. He slipped into bed and looked at her.
"Well, you coming to bed or you plan on sitting in that chair all night?" Harry asked. Abby finished her drink and walked over to the big bed. She ditched her robe and slipped into the big king sized bed.
"Thank you for letting me stay here." She said. She got gentle snoring in response. She rolled over closer to his side and watched him sleep for a minute before she cuddled to his side and for the first time that night she fell asleep.