Episode 10: For The Perfect Day, Chapter 4

Cassandra drew her hair to the side, allowing Jacob to fasten the necklace in place. He took the opportunity to place a gentle kiss on her exposed neck and then her cheek.

"Focus," she smiled. "We have a job to do."

"Yeah, and a dangerous one," he murmured in reply. "I ain't passin' up an opportunity to kiss you while I can. Heaven only knows if we're all gonna walk away from this."

"I know," she whispered, squeezing his hand. "I love you."

"Ditto," he grinned.

Behind them, Jones checked the pilot flame on the makeshift flame thrower Jenkins had constructed for him. "If you two are done playing Tommy and Tuppence, can we go hunt down the creepy man-eating monster before the light fades. The worst thing any monster hunter ever does in any horror flick is go hunting in the dark. It never ends well."

"Yeah, yeah," sighed Stone, taking charge. "Come on, the exit to the grounds is this way."

They edged into the kitchen, Stone unsheathing the sword as he moved to the external door. It hung open, a smear of blood running across it at chest height. The sword gleamed red in the light of the evening sun as they moved out into the hotel gardens.

"You sure that's the right sword?" Jones asked. "I don't see much fire."

"It's the right sword," murmured Stone, leading the way through the shrubbery along a path to the far end of the grounds. "It'll have a flame when it needs one."

They fell silent, moving in an arrowhead shape: Stone at the front, sword held before him, then Jones and Cassandra on either side and slightly behind, their eyes watching the land around them. Nobody met them. The staff and guests were still confined to the safety of the hotel while the police searched for the wild animal responsible. The police themselves had departed as soon as the light had started to fade, retiring to the warmer, safer positions of research at the office or rest at home. They were not aware of the urgency the Librarians were toiling under. Gradually, like a shape emerging from the clouds, the pedestrian gate at the far end of the hotel grounds became visible. Stone stepped aside to let Jones pick the padlock that chained the six foot wrought iron gate to its fence.

"I'm gonna vote we don't lock the gate after us," said Jones, dropping the latch back into place once they were through. "We don't know if we're gonna need a sharp exit."

"We don't kill this thing tonight, we lose Baird," said Stone. "Then we have to kill her too. We ain't gonna be using any sharp exit."

"Whether we kill it or not, there are plenty of other critters in these hills that like to hunt after dark," Jones reminded him. "Growing up in Australia you learn to respect how many wild things there are out there trying to kill you."

"It's Australia," Stone shrugged. "Isn't that just everything?"

Jones winced, then considered this, following on behind the other two. "Dude has a point," he admitted quietly.

The walk to the mines was long and over rough terrain. By the time they saw the entrance, the light was fading and it was merely a darker patch against a shadow-strewn rock face. Jones couldn't see what exactly Stone did, but with a flick of his wrist the sword in his hand burst into flame, illuminating the interior.

"To shout or not to shout," murmured Cassandra. "If we call for Baird, we might draw the monster. If we don't..."

"We might not find the monster in time," finished Stone. "We need to draw it here. Are you ready for this?"

"Don't I look ready?" Cassandra asked, and Stone looked round to find himself addressing thin air. Thin air kissed his lips.

"Well, that was weird," he smiled.

"I really want to borrow that ring when we're done here," muttered Jones.

"No," chorused the couple.

"Baird!" Stone yelled, his voice echoing through the tunnels. "You here?"

The echoes died away and faded into silence. They stood frozen, listening. Ezekiel looked up. "She's here. She's deep in though. I can hear her, but only just."

"Which way?" Cassandra asked him.

"I don't know," he shook his head. "Left I think. Move that way and try again."

They circled left, holding positions looking out from three points of a triangle. Once again, the tunnels echoed with Baird's name. This time, Ezekiel nodded and they set off down the left tunnel, calling out and listening as they went.

"Stone!" Baird's voice called faintly when they reached the next junction. "Jones! Cassandra! Down here!"

They followed the voice, slowing at every junction and looking to Jones whenever there was a difference of opinion over direction. Gradually, the dripping of water joined the call of the Colonel and its constant echoes began to bounce around. Eventually, the distortions to Baird's voice were reduced by proximity. They turned a corner, the light from the sword reflecting off the damp walls, and saw her, lying there on her side. In the red light of the sword's flame, the pool beside her could have been anything. Cassandra ran some through her invisible fingers, assessing the feel of the liquid as much as its colour.

"It's water," she said. "Mostly water anyway. She does look like she's lost a lot of blood though. I think we have to assume she's been bitten. Colonel Baird? Eve? Can you stand?"

"Hungry," Baird moaned. "So hungry."

"I vote we keep back from the hungry half-monster until we know she's safe," said Jones, reaching out a hand to the invisible Cassandra. He missed, but she moved back anyway.

"I know: we have a wendigo to kill," she muttered, getting to her feet. "Colonel Baird, has the creature been back? Do you know where it is? We need to kill it to save you."

"Need to eat," groaned Baird. "Hungry."

"Have you seen it, Eve?" Cassandra persisted. "Where did it last go?"

With a whimper, Baird pointed a shaky finger in the direction of the dripping water. The path led further into the mines, into the group of tunnels that had been marked as flooded on da Vinci's map.

"Okay, Cassie, stay here and keep an eye on her," ordered Stone. "Keep that ring on. If Baird's about to go postal, the last thing we need is her finding you."

"I can knock her out if I have to," Cassandra reminded him. "I don't just do fireballs and force fields."

"All the same," he replied, dropping his voice to a gentler tone, "I'll feel better if I know you're safe."

"I know," she answered. "I'll keep it on."

An unseen hand reached out and touched his face. He caught it and kissed the invisible palm. "Okay. Jones! You're with me. Let's go find this thing."

Hoisting the temporary flame thrower, Jones followed Stone deeper into the mines. "Are we sure it's in here?"

"You saw Baird," muttered Stone, not bothering to keep his voice down.

"Yeah," shrugged Jones. "Not that I wouldn't normally trust every word that comes out of Colonel Baird's mouth, but she's hardly a reliable witness right now, mate."

"She's the only one we've got," retorted Stone. "Start yellin'. Let's see if we can't draw this thing to us."

XXXX

Cassandra listened to the drip of the water and the regular, receding shouts of the two men. The part of the mine they were in was wider than most, with a short, dead end bulging outward and away from her, behind Baird. She heard the Colonel groan again. This time it sounded less like the cries of a woman in pain and more like the growl of a wild beast. She twisted the ring on her finger. Taking a deep breath, she let her synaesthetic vision switch on, analysing the depth and height of the cavern. Faint blue lines shimmered in the air. She looked at her hands and saw them outlined in blue, the ring glowing brightly. She looked at Baird. The faint blue aura she had noticed that morning had grown. It was pulsing brightly. At it's brightest, it obscured everything beyond it. When the pulse darkened, however, Cassandra spotted something that made her blood freeze.

Behind the Colonel, another blue aura crouched back by the rock wall. It was the wall furthest from them, where the light from the sword had only cast shadows. She moved to the side to get a better look. Without the Colonel's new aura in the way, she could see a faint blue umbilical connecting the two beings. Looking back at her friend, Cassandra wondered if she was fast enough, or skilled enough, to take on two of the creatures at once. One wendigo would make a challenging target. Two on the other hand...

She edged further from the two, wondering if she could knock out the Colonel without the wendigo noticing. Wondering what it would do if she yelled for the boys. Would they even hear her? Their cries were fainter now. She could barely hear them. But Jones had better hearing than her, didn't he? Time and again, he had proven it. Being able to listen for trouble was part of what had made him such a good thief.

"Hey, Jones!" Cassandra called jovially, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. "What was that dinosaur called in Jurassic Park? You know? The one nobody had ever heard of then everyone was scared of?"

She waited, eyes flicking between Baird and the creature in the corner.

Deep in the mines, Jones put a hand out and grabbed Stone's arm. "We need to go back," he hissed urgently.

"We ain't chickening out now, Jones," growled Stone. "We need to find this thing."

"You didn't hear her," Jones persisted, retaining his grip on Stone's arm. "Cassandra shouted. Asked me something about velociraptors."

"Why the hell would she do that?" Stone frowned. "And why does that mean we need to go back, anyway?"

"Because she already knows everything about velociraptors," Jones explained patiently. "We watched the film back when I was ill. She's eidetic, mate, she doesn't forget stuff. She just asked me what those dinos were called, when she knows I know that she knows exactly what they're called, and exactly what they do."

"And that is?" Stone's eyes narrowed. His gut told him he wasn't going to like the answer.

"They're intelligent," replied Jones. "They hunt co-operatively. They use one of their number as bait, while the other, or others, hide and wait for their prey. She's telling us it's there. Baird lied. She's not our Guardian now. She's bait."

Stone bolted back up the tunnels so fast that Jones had to grab him before he missed their turning. The two men raced through the mines, flaming sword lighting the road ahead, and reached the cavern only to stop short, Jones cannoning into the back of Stone. The scene was exactly as they had left it, with Baird by the far wall, moaning in pain, or hunger.

"Cassie?" Jacob whispered.

"I'm here," said a voice to his left, next to the cavern wall. "It's okay, they know you're here already. They can hear you, but I don't think they can understand you. You don't need to whisper."

"Where are they?" Jones asked, scanning the shadowy walls.

A fireball appeared in mid-air off to Stone's left, and floated up to the far end of the cavern. Three gaunt creatures hissed and shrank back from the light. Two were on the ceiling. The third was in the corner closest to Colonel Baird.

"The one in the lower corner is the one that bit Baird," said Cassandra. "I'll explain later. I can take it out okay, but as soon as I do the two up above will attack, maybe Baird too."

"Can you fire those things from behind us without hitting us?" Stone enquired, his eyes on the upper monsters.

"I don't see why not," shrugged Cassandra.

"Get behind us then," he told her. "You take out the corner guy. Jones and I will deal with the top two. Once you've zapped him, Baird should be released from the venom, right?"

"Should be," echoed Jones. "We don't know how long it takes to kick in though."

"True," nodded Stone. "Cassie, you need to be ready to block her, or knock her out."

"I'm ready," murmured Cassandra's voice behind him.

An invisible arm snaked out between the two men and Stone felt a hand placed gently on his shoulder. Light blossomed in the air before them, rotating into a globe of fire and shooting across the cavern like a comet. The wendigo barely had time to move, and certainly none to escape. Its dying shrieks filled the tunnels with echoes even as its two fellows dropped from the ceiling and dived for the trio. Baird too leapt into action, teeth bared and eyes wild, but she rebounded off a wall of pure magical energy and fell senseless to the ground. The flame thrower spewed fire like a miniature dragon, holding off the further of the two enraged creatures and engulfing the other. Stone swung the sword, side-stepping round the monster to outflank it and force it closer to Jones' flames. It hissed and gurgled angrily, throwing its head back and forth between the two heat sources. Slowly the two men backed it into a corner, herding it over the two fallen, charred bodies of its pack members. The flame thrower roared again, and the wendigo's death screams filled the cavern. As the echoes faded, Jones and Stone hurried over to where Cassandra, now visible, was crouched over Baird.

"She's still unconscious," she told them, looking up at Stone. "You'll need to carry her. Give me the sword."

"Can't you just make one of your fireball lanterns, like you did a minute ago?" Jones asked, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.

"I don't want to run out of power," Cassandra replied, standing and taking the sword from Jacob. "I'm already tired."

"Let's just get out of here and back to the Library," said Stone. "We can call Jenkins and get him to set the door to one of us. It'll probably crop up in one of the office huts out there."

"There's something else we need to do," said Cassandra as they made their way back through the tunnels. "You call Jenkins once we're out and get him to set the door, but Ezekiel, I need you to steal something from the mine supplies before we leave."

"And what's that?" Ezekiel looked round, half suspecting.

"How are you with explosives?" Cassandra asked.

XXXX

"I still don't see why you had to blow up the mines," muttered da Vinci. "Surely Miss Cillian's extraordinary abilities would have been sufficient to create a seemingly natural cave in. That would trap the creatures just as effectively."

"Miss Cillian's extraordinary powers are just that," chided Jenkins. "Extraordinary. We have no way of knowing how much strain it would have put on her to do such a thing, or the cost it would have entailed, and magic always has a cost. No, much better to blow up the whole entrance tunnel. Nothing would be coming out of there through the fire of the explosion, and nothing will be fighting its way through those tonnes of rock any time soon. The mine was closing down anyway."

"How's Baird?" Stone sighed, looking down at the sleeping figure of the Colonel. Beside him, Cassandra was sitting down, watching the Colonel sleep with a worried look. She should be resting herself, he thought.

"She'll be fine," said a hoarse voiced Flynn. "You cannot know how grateful I am..."

"Don't," said Ezekiel. "It's not necessary. It's Colonel Baird."

"All the same..."

A movement on the bed broke Flynn's chain of thought. Eve opened her eyes and winced at the light. Slowly she began to raise herself up. Flynn and Ezekiel rushed to help her, filling the space behind her with cushions and Flynn. Jenkins handed her a glass of water.

"How do you feel, Colonel?" Jenkins asked, taking back the empty glass.

"Like I've been hit by a truck and half eaten by a shark," she replied, running a hand over the bandaged wounds in her side. "Do I even want to know what happened?"

"You're okay now," smiled Cassandra. "That's all that matters."

The thief nudged Stone and nodded at the table behind him. He looked down at Cassandra, who met his gaze and nodded. Jenkins too, he noticed, was watching him expectantly. He turned and picked up the item on the table.

"We had planned to give you this at the wedding, or after it," he said, turning back with sword and scabbard in his hands. "It's our gift to you. Cassie and I came across it when we were looking for Surt's sword. We know it can't replace Cal, and it still seems a little shy, but when the Library led us to it we thought she was trying to tell us something, so here it is."

Flynn and Eve accepted the sword from Stone, the former drawing it forth while his fiancée held the sword belt and scabbard. Flynn looked the blade up and down, examining the detail of the hilt, or lack thereof. A flash of light reflected up its length. Flynn frowned and shifted the weight of the sword in his grip. Flames burst from the blade, making Eve jump back in surprise.

"Next time, warn me," she told him, eyes wide. "What is it?"

With another movement the flames died away, leaving only the suggestion of their presence in the heat and light that shone from the undamaged metal. Flynn's smile grew.

"This is an angelic blade," he breathed. "This is the sword of Uriel, guardian of Eden. Stone, where did you find this?"

"Like I said," shrugged the cowboy. "We came across it in our research. Found a few leads, called in a few favours. We may have used the occasional artefact, but everything's safe and nobody suffered any lasting ill effects so..."

"Thank you," said Eve. "For this. For everything you went through to get it. For everything you went through to get me back. Thank you."

"I second that," said Flynn, sheathing the sword and reaching out a hand to each of them in turn. "I am forever grateful."

"Yeah, you haven't been on your stag night, mate," grinned Ezekiel. "I wouldn't thank him too soon. He won't even give me a hint at what he's got planned."

"I'm sayin' nothin'," laughed Stone. "You'll just have to wait and see."