No, It's Wabbit Season...

I moved in near silence from tree to tree, careful not betray my position by stepping on any stray sticks or other forest debris. The whispering wind covered what little sound I did make. It was moments like this that I was glad that breathing was purely optional for me. My body didn’t need oxygen or any other gas contained in the atmosphere to keep functioning, but I did need air to make my vocal chords work, so I kept a moderate supply of air in my lungs in case I needed to shout something out to surprise my foe.

The sound of a twig snapping to my left and rear stopped me short. I froze in place, focusing my attention on my hearing, trying to sort out the various normal sounds of the woods at night from that which didn’t belong. Unable to locate the culprit with my hearing, I shifted my vision in the Shadowland—one skill that I had retained, thankfully.

Scanning the woods around, the only forms I could make out were those of the normal critters of the night that often go unseen, if not unheard, by normal folks.

I unfocused my eyes and scanned the area all around very slowly. There, just beyond the large leaning pine tree to my far left was the blurry outline surrounding what can only be described as a void. Once I located the outline, I narrowed my focus to discern who or what the form was.

It was laying low, perhaps even stretched out on the ground, which is one reason that it had been so difficult to see on my first couple attempts to locate the form. Unsure as to whether the creature saw me, I swung around to face it full on and dropped into a cautionary crouch. It was maybe fifty feet away, but there were several trees scattered between us, some large, some small, but none preventing a direct line of sight between us.

The form shifted slightly, its movement accompanied by a soft, metallic click.

Sensing that the form did see me, I decided it was time to shift tactics, none too soon, either.

I leaped forward and upward into the air from my crouching position higher and farther than any Olympic-caliber athlete could hope to match and grabbed for a thick branch of the solid oak tree about a third of the way between us just as the first burst of projectiles sliced through the air where I had just been standing.

The bullets had a weird, glowing tracer effect in my current mode of vision that reminded me of my military days and learning how to shoot at night using tracer rounds with my M-16. Before the glow from the first burst had faded though, I was using the momentum of my leap to swing around in a slightly different direction to land no more than fifteen feet from the prone figure as it let loose another barrage at the branch I had been hanging from.

I landed in a crashing roll that made enough sound to wake the dead, but I added to it with a wild war hoop that I hoped would freeze or shock my nearly invisible foe as I leaped for the now visible rifle that it was trying to bring to bear on me.

Let me digress a little bit here on a subject about which I happen to know way too fucking much about:

Getting shot sucks.

Getting shot in the chest by a hi-powered rifle at really close range that you are leaping towards out of desperation only adds to the level of suckitude.

Getting shot in the chest by a hi-powered rifle at really close range that you are leaping towards out of desperation because you know that the bullets have been magickally enhanced to take down banes and other supernatural badasses (which you happen to consider yourself to be one of) raises the suckitude to almost mythic proportions.

The impact of the bullet threw me backwards into trunk of a smaller oak tree that shuddered under the impact of my rather significant bulk and the remaining momentum of the bullet slamming into my chest. I felt my head crack into the tree and then the scraping of the bark against my scalp as I slid down to my ass. The impact had knocked all of the remaining air from my lungs and had put a serious dent in the silver-coated chest plate that I had been wearing for just such an occasion.

It took a moment for me to get through the pain enough to draw in a breath to complain with.

“Fuck me, but that hurts! I don’t know why I ever agreed to this shit.”

The figure got up giggling. “Why, Daddy, you do it because you love me…and because you are our only renewable resource as a bad guy.”

I shock my head and felt around the chest plate for the impact point of the bullet. I found three serious dents all closely clustered around where my heart was—each one easily a half inch to an inch deep. “Yeah, but I thought you were going lower the power on those bullets of yours. If you missed the plate, I might not be so renewable anymore. There are limits even to my healing abilities.”

She giggled even louder through her helmet. “Don’t worry, Dad. Herne has said that I am the best natural shooter he has ever trained. He said I could probably have made the Olympic team if I wanted to.”

I shifted my vision back to normal mode in time to see a heavily camouflaged Jasmine rise from her prone firing position, her rifle in her left hand and her new helmet in the other. “So how does that new helmet work?”

She strode over to stand over me, tucking the helmet under her left armpit before reaching down to help me stand with her now free right hand. “Oh, it is so cool! I was able to see in the Shadowland just like you’ve talked about, I could see you sneaking through the woods a hundred yards away. I can’t wait to tell everyone how easy it is to use as well. Alora really outdid herself this time.”

Every bone in my body ached as I stood up and tried to ‘walk it off’ as every childhood sports coach I ever played under had told me to for every type of injury I had sustained in those games.

“And, for your information, Father, those bullets were only slightly charged. If they had been at full strength, I would have had to clean you off of that tree rather than help you up with a hand. We need to be able to take down a Doppelganger or a Bane with these things, and that’s not easy to do.”

I nodded as we began the long walk back down to the compound. “I’m sure Herne will be more than happy with your full strength batch, Jazz. Just do me a favor and make sure that you don’t grab any of those bullets for any of these practice sessions, OK?”

She wrapped her right arm around my waist and gave me a good, hard, and ever so painful squeeze. “Don’t worry, Daddy. I won’t let anything happen to you that you can’t handle.” I heard her sniffle just a little bit. “I miss Kenny so much!”

“So do I, Jazz, so do I.”

A War of Shadows...Part 2

Calling upon the Shadow to speed my travel, I breezed through the last three hundred yards of my journey. I emerged in a large clearing that was more of a shallow depression. Near the center of the roughly circular depression stood the obelisk that I had known would be waiting.

The obelisk rose from the center of the depression, its brooding dark presence dominating the space. A quick glance around the far perimeter of the clearing showed the brightly-hued Spirit forms of Herne’s assault team, over twenty strong in all. Herne was waiting in the center of the depression next to the obelisk. Next to him were Cerrydwen, Ravyn, Alana and Jim.

I reached out to touch Herne’s Spirit form. He flinched before recognizing my touch. “Damn, I’m glad that’s you Rusty. Our Spirit vision is blinded by this obelisk of yours.”

“Herne, there’s not much time to get ready, they will be here soon. I need your guys to get into place quickly. Did you bring the weapons we discussed?”

He nodded. “Yes, Jasmine has been very busy. We have enough weapons for everyone.”

“Good. Remember, don’t worry about me. I’m going to be in the crossfire but don’t let that stop anyone from firing. You guys are not going to have very much time before the surprise wears off. Oh yeah, keep an eye on the sky, I’m not sure what will happen to the Dragon when I activate the trap.”

Herne nodded again, but Ravyn spoke up first. “Rusty, how many Banes should we expect?”

I touched her shoulder, enjoying the shudder of a reaction caused by touching her Spirit form directly. “Three. Malaxifer the Dragon, Arixtocles the Wise and Kosferaxtu the Demon. Leave the last one for me, he’s the one who killed you at the Coop, he’s the most powerful. Now go, quickly. I need to activate the obelisk or this trap will be sprung before it ever begins.”

I didn’t have time to watch as they scrambled back up the far slope of the depression and into their positions. I had far too much to do in a very short time.

Instead, I reached out to touch the obelisk to activate our first line of defense.

In my travels through the Shadowland over the last few weeks, I had finally begun to reach the full potential of abilities and skills that Drake and John had envisioned bringing about in one person. I had also discovered additional abilities that neither one of them had planned.

The obelisk responded to my command readily. Deep inside it a small light began to growing, pulsing stronger and brighter with a regularity that reminded me of a heartbeat. Within moments it would be glowing so brightly that not even the Banes who would soon be here would be able to see the Spirit forms of my allies. This obelisk was a powerful beacon that would serve to effectively blind anyone nearby in the Shadowland from being able to peer into the real world. There was no corresponding tower in the real world, but the corresponding depression in the real world was a small lake that was noted for the healing power of its water in the brief Alaskan summer. In the dead of winter, like now, it was frozen solid.

The howling of the pursuing pack ended as the first wolves streamed from the dark of the forest into the bright light of the obelisk. They circled me, staying close to the forest edge, almost as if they feared to come too close to the pulsing white light of the tower.

I reached up and grabbed the hilt of Excalibur. Before drawing the blade though, I gathered myself and exerted the control over it that I had developed in the last few weeks. It hadn’t been easy, but I had finally imposed my Will on this unruly, independent-minded blade. I felt the blade respond to my grip, both physically and spiritually.

Even as I drew Excalibur, I was working on the last task that needed to be completed before the enemy arrived in full force. Using every ounce of concentration I could spare from controlling my sword, I quietly called the Shadow up into me through my feet. I silently reached out with tendrils of Shadow to the ancient trees surrounding this clearing, imploring them to lend me their strength. As each individual tree acknowledged me and responded, the secret net that I was weaving grew stronger and tighter.

After the wolves, dozens of Reavers crashed out into the open, shambling forward into the light, unconcerned about their already decaying bodies. Each Reaver held a weapon of some sort, ranging from large lawn tools to actual swords and axes. A few carried rifles or shotguns, but many of those were carried more like clubs than as firearms.

I could feel the Banes drawing closer, but the only one that I could see was Malaxifer the Dragon. His massive silhouette was just barely visible over the tree line, but only because of the massive amount of light being thrown off by the obelisk. The other two Banes were coming closer, but were still hidden by the forest.

Despite their clear agitation, the wolves continued to circle the edges of the clearing. The Reavers moved in closer, but not close enough to be of any threat, at least not yet. None of these lesser creatures were willing to face me without the help or motivation of a Bane. I had slain dozens of the wolves in the last couple of weeks, slaughtering whole packs that had come too close. Reavers and Doppelgangers had also felt the bite of Excalibur of late.

I continued building the hidden web of Shadow even as I stood facing the growing crowd of enemies. ‘Damn, this plan better work or this is going to get ugly.’

Watching the numbers of wolves, Reavers and Doppelgangers build, I began to worry about whether or not Herne had brought enough firepower to have a chance at winning this battle. That concern only grew stronger as Kosferaxtu’s massive frame emerged from the forest. He stood over eight feet tall, but seemed even larger with his huge black wings sprouting from his back and his massively muscled frame. His skin was entirely black, very shiny and as hard as obsidian. His glowing yellow eyes bore down on me as soon as emerged from the shadows of the forest. He pointed on of his massive claws towards me and issued his challenge in the ancient language of the An’girasii, his voice booming throughout the clearing.

“Puny man-thing, your time is over! I will crush you and throw your broken body to my slaves.”

I saluted him with Excalibur and stood my ground. “Come Demon, if you dare! I will be glad to add your name to my tally of fallen foes!”

That challenge angered him as I hoped that it would. I needed all three Banes to get within range of the web that I had set up.

Before the Demon could do more than shake his clawed fist at me, Arixtocles followed him into the clearing. This was my first time seeing this Bane in person. He had retained a very human visage. He was at least seven feet tall, but very thin. His face resembled the image I had of Confucius in my mind—Asian eyes and complexion, long, thin white beard and white hair. He was wearing long white robes and carried an elaborately carved staff of some black material.

His voice was calm and measured when he spoke to his fellow Bane and me. “Relax dear Kosferaxtu, he cannot escape us now. We have heard of your exploits, Mr. Bones, but as impressive as they have been to date, even you shall not be able to face the combined might of three of the mightiest Banes. You should have fled while you still could.”

I could sense that Arixtocles was weaving some spell of his own as he spoke, but I was too wrapped up in my own to be able to tell what exactly he was trying to do. I needed to keep them talking long enough for the Dragon to get in range.

“So, the two of you are the mightiest Banes that serve the An’girasii?”

The Demon stomped and snorted before responding. “I am the mightiest Bane. You fled from me before, but I shall not let you escape this time, whelp!”

Both the Demon and Arixtocles continued to move closer as we spoke. The Demon’s steps thundered. Each footprint trailed tendrils of smoke as soon as his foot lifted form the ground. Arixtocles glided forward, his feet never seemingly touching the ground, his legs unmoving as he traveled inches about the dark earth of the Shadowland. As they advanced, the wolves and the Reavers made their own tentative advances on either side of the two imposing figures.

From behind the two advancing Banes, a group of figures emerged from the woods. From their very quick, intense movements, I could tell that these were Doppelgangers, but they had taken the forms of human-like warriors. Each was sheathed in shiny black armor and carried wicked looking scimitars in each hand.

The Dragon’s pride must have been tweaked by the Demon’s claim at supremacy because his voice roared from above as his massively scaled body swooped in from over the forest, smoke trailing from his mouth as he belched out his own claim.

“I, Malaxifer, am the mightiest of the Banes, puny human! It is I who shall end this battle before it ever begins!”

The Demon roared his own challenge and rushed forward as soon as he saw that the Dragon was diving towards me.

I smiled. The An’girasii apparently liked to foster competition among their chief servants, which I had been able to manipulate to my advantage. Or at least it would if my crazy plan worked.

As long as the obelisk was showering this place with its powerful light, I was not going to be able to call upon the Shadow with enough strength to make my spell worked. Holding Excalibur forth with my right hand, I reached out with my left to touch the tower. With a simple command, the light switched off like a bulb going out, plunging the area into darkness.

The Dragon continued his dive, smoke and fire trailing his open jaws and barreled toward me at the base do the tower. The Demon was brushing aside his lesser servants as thundered toward me at a dead run. Only Arixtocles hung back as he appeared to mumbling his own spell, his eyes closed.

Calling the Shadow with all of my Will, the web of Shadow sprung from the edges of the forest, coving the clearing with a dome of darkness. By calling upon the ancient trees of the surrounding forest and amplifying their power with my own, I was able to create a portal between the Shadowland and the real world that encompassed the entire clearing. With a twist of my Will, everyone and everything in the clearing, except for the obelisk, shimmered and was transported from that world of darkness into the world light and life…

A War of Shadows...Part 1

The Shadowland whizzed by in a blur of grey and black images as I slowed a move fast trot. It was proving difficult to move too quickly through this stretch of wilderness since thick, twisted and very substantial trees existed both in the Shadowland and in the real world.

John had once told me that this only happed in the oldest of forests. “As trees age, their spirits strengthen, expanding their presence beyond the world of light to the land of shadow. It is almost as if their essence transfers slowly from one world to the next once they reach the height of their majesty. In some places in the Shadowland there are majestic, towering trees where there is now nothing but fields or cement roads in the world of the living. But alas, over time, those forests fade away in the Shadowland as well once the living trees have been gone long enough.”

My guess was that this stretch of Alaskan wilds hadn’t been significantly touched by Man for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

The howling of my pursuers grew louder, likely both because they were drawing closer and because their numbers were growing. If I didn’t pick up the pace soon, they would be upon me.

I tapped my forearms for reassurance, making sure that my batons were securely in place. Excalibur was practically humming in its sheath, eager to be called upon, but I continued to ignore the blade. I didn’t want to make it that easy for my pursuers to find me.

I pushed deeper into the tangled mass of branches as I wondered how much further it was to my destination. It was going to be a close call as to whether or not I would be able to beat my pursuers to it. If I didn’t win this race, things were going to become very unpleasant.

It wasn’t the shadow wolves that concerned me, but their masters…


***


“Rusty, you got a minute?” Herne’s face was showing the strain of several weeks of stress.

“Yeah, Herne, what’s up?”

He nodded and took my left arm by the elbow. “Come walk with me.”

I allowed him to guide me deeper into the Bat Cave, through the control room and towards the privacy of the small library that had been designated for command-level meetings. It was one of the few places where people weren’t bunked down.

Once we were in the library, he closed the door. I was surprised to see that we weren’t alone in the cramped space. Ravyn, Cerrydwen, the Frau, Alan and Jim had been waiting for us.

“What’s going on?” I was extremely curious about the need for a seemingly secret command meeting.

Everyone remained silent until the door clicked shut and Herne threw the bolt into place to lock us in. He was the first to break the silence. “Rusty, we think that our enemies have found a way to track some of our away parties through the Shadowland.”

This was a new development. “What makes you think that? I didn’t think that was even possible.”

Cerrydwen answered. “No one did. But the evidence is beginning to mount that El Diablito or the An’girasii themselves have found a way.”

Herne nodded. “On the last supply run, Jordan, one of Alana’s students, heard the sounds of what seemed to be wolves of some sort as soon as they entered the Shadowland to make their way back here. Jordan was smart enough not to lead them here, but led them off towards Canada before going to ground back in the real world. Once he could, he called for help. I just got back from that mission myself. I took a few of the security team with me. We ended up hitting a pack of shadow wolves that kept hanging around where Jordan and his crew had left the Shadowland. One of the creatures only looked like a wolf when we hit them. It was really a Doppelganger. It managed to jump one of the men in all of the confusion and escape.”

“Shit. So if they can track us in the Shadowland, it may only be a matter of time before they manage to track us back to the Bat Cave here.”

The Frau nodded, her eyes showing her concern. “That’s why we wanted to have this meeting in private. We’ve suspended all travel in and out until we can figure out the danger those trips are actually posing and how seriously they are looking for us.”

Ravyn was the next to speak. “Right now, Rusty, you’re going to be the only one we allow to travel in and out. We are also wondering how willing you would be serving as a decoy? I know how much you enjoy getting yourself into trouble.” She gave her most impish grin as she finished, knowing that I would take the bait.

I could see the logic of their thinking and nodded. “Well, if they are looking for any of us more than the others, I would certainly be the main target. But I am also the one best equipped to face any kind of attack as well.”

Cerrydwen’s eyes narrowed as she stepped forward to speak. “You are most familiar with the Shadowland and its strange rules. If you were willing to go out and wreak some havoc on a couple of their strongholds and make a lot of ‘noise’, it might attract the attention of whatever forces they have looking for our away parties.”

Herne folded his arms across his chest. “And, if you found that there was some basis for our concerns about being tracked, we would like to see about setting up an ambush…”


***


I had spent the better part of a week stomping around the Shadowland and the real world, stirring up trouble in a number of places. In that week, I had doubled back and slain the wolves that had picked up my trail on at least three different occasions. But it only took a few hours after each battle for a new, larger pack to catch my scent and begin the hunt anew. The pack that both trailed and flanked me now must comprise at least twenty individuals.

This pack, though, was not only larger and better organized than the last couple, but it was smarter. This pack wasn’t comprised solely of shadow wolves. There was some thing, or a group of things, that were just behind the wolves. I could feel it, them, there driving the wolves on.

I pushed on through the forest of giant black trees knowing that my allies lay in wait ahead…


***


Once I had confirmed that the wolves were indeed able to track me in the Shadowland and that there was a concerted effort to do so, I slipped back into the real world to make a phone call.

“Yeah?” Herne’s voice was gruff.

“It’s me. I’ve been tracked twice now. I’ve eliminated the wolves each time, but a new pack takes over within hours for the ones I kill.”

He grunted. “So our worst fears have been confirmed. Are you prepared to move forward with the plan as we discussed?”

“Yes. I’ll see you at the rendezvous point in three days time.”

“Are you going to be able to stay ahead of them?” There was concern in his voice as he asked that question.

“I’ll be fine. Both Drake and John taught me well. Just be ready for the party when I get there, I intend to bring as many of to the event as I can find.”


***


My destination was only a few hundred yards ahead. My pursuers seemed to sense the coming climax as well—the howls grew louder and more insistent. The pack behind and around me had grown in the last hour as well. I could sense the presence of at least one Bane and had glimpsed a group of Reavers out of the corner of my eye. I could only presume that several Doppelgangers had joined the pack as well.

As soon as I emerged onto the trail that Herne had told me would be there, I picked up the pace and gained a few valuable seconds in my quest to beat the enemy to the rendezvous point. I just hope that Herne had been able to get everyone into place in time…

Little Keep on the Borderlands...Part 3

I gripped the batons in my hands and stepped forward onto the bridge that the Frau had created and led the way towards the shattered doorway of the tower.

Jim followed close behind, muttering half heard imprecations under his breath. Ravyn swung back onto the Frau’s humped back, burying one hand into the thick black fur to maintain her balance. With Ravyn secure on her back, the Frau shambled behind Jim, bringing up the rear of our small party.

Passing through the portal, I felt a wave of magickal energy pass over me that was similar to passing from one world to another. Inside, the dark grey monotony of the Shadowland was replaced by the vibrant colors and rich textures of the ‘normal’ world. I was standing in the brightly lit foyer of what could have easily passed for a modern office building. The walls and floors of the place were of highly polished red and white marble tiles while the abundant golden fixtures gleamed in the bright yellow light that they put out.

I had stopped in the middle of the foyer, caught off guard by the opulent setting until Jim bumped into me from behind. I stepped to the left and forward, batons held at the ready despite the apparent emptiness of the place, to allow Jim and the others to join me inside.

Jim stood there as stunned as I was. All he could muster was a whistle and a look of consternation that reflected how I felt myself.

Ravyn slipped off of the Frau’s back again and stood to her right, eyes narrowed as she tried to take in the sights as well.

The Frau gave off a wuffling snort and scraped a disdainful paw across the marble. “Children,” she called out to us mentally again, “don’t let this man’s illusions distract you from what we are trying to do. Rusty, watch out!”

Just as she called out, I felt more than I saw the presence of another being come up in front of me. Her warning came just in the nick of time as I jumped back just as the head of a huge warhammer landed right where I had been. The fine marble flooring shattered under the impact, sending red and white shards to go flying.

Excalibur leapt into action as the hammer head hit the floor. Before the unseen creature who had swung the massive weapon could pull it up for a second swing, the shining, singing blade lashed out and sliced into the massive wooden haft of the weapon, severing the metal head from the handle, pulling the surprised Jim in front of me as it did so.

A lancing bolt of red hot flames erupted from Ravyn’s outstretched hand and struck the unseen creature full in the chest. The explosion of energy that ensued shattered the illusion of opulence and modernity and laid bare the face that we were in a huge, unlit stone chamber that was littered with the bones and refuse of a trio of troll-like guardians.

The other two creatures that had been shambling into position to lay their own ambushes on us now gave up all pretense of sneaking by roaring out their own challenges and coming forward in attack mode.

The troll who had been hit by Ravyn’s flame bolt staggered back as it tried to put out the flames that began to consume him in earnest.

The Frau gave an excited snort and leapt to the attack against the troll on the right who was wielding a huge spiked mace. Even as she ducked under his first wild blow, she was growing and morphing into a larger, browner bear with much longer claws. Rearing up on her hind legs, she was as tall and nearly as massive as the nine foot tall troll that she now wrapped in a massive hug of claws, teeth and fur. The two of them tumbled to the ground, growling and snarling at each other in a titanic battle of beasts.

Seeing the final troll rear back and prepare to throw the massive spear in its hands, I dropped my batons so that I could reach and grab Jim with my left hand and Ravyn with my right and dove to my left, dragging them to the ground. The spear struck the stone floor where Jim had been standing creating a shower of sparks and a spray of pebbles.

(to be continued tonight)

Little Keep on the Borderlands...Part 2

The Frau’s voice echoed in our minds. “Once we get inside that thing, we can’t count on Rusty being able to get us back out of there with his power over the Shadow.”

I glanced in her direction. “Why do you say that?”

She returned the glance before swiveling her back towards the tower and grunting. “I see El Diablito’s handiwork all over this thing. He has created this tower out of magick that hasn’t been used in centuries, if not millennia.”

The Professor was curious now. “You mean things like this tower have been created before? I don’t recall reading about any of these in my text books.”

Ravyn chuckled and gave Jim’s cheek an affectionate pat. “Of course not, silly! Things like this would only be found in your fairy tales and myths when you were growing up, although now you can find references in all sorts of modern fantasy. The Frau is right though, this more than just a traditional Mage’s Tower.”

I looked the thing up and down again, trying to see what it was that made this place seem so unique to them. “I have to admit I haven’t seen too many towers of black rock rotating in the middle of a giant chasm before, even in the Shadowland, but what’s the big deal? I practically own this place. I should be able to zip us in and out without a problem.”

It was the Frau’s turn to chuckle. “Rusty, this tower exists not only here, but in many other places simultaneously. It probably has doorways to each of those places and allows the Little Devil to travel between different worlds almost as easily as you do. It isn’t fully of any one plane, so the only one who knows all of the rules and all of the spells that are active inside of it is El Diablito.” She shifted on her paws and moved closer to the edge of the chasm. “El Diablito is and has been made all too aware of your ability to travel freely in the Shadowland using the power of the Shadow. I am sure he has prepared his sanctuary for just this eventuality.”

“What, so we shouldn’t even try to get inside of it?”

She shook her massive head. “Not for a minute, Rusty. We need to get in and get back out again with any of our loved ones that we can locate, but I just wanted to make you aware that you may not be as free as you think you are to help us escape. In fact, I would caution against summoning the Shadow except in the direst of circumstances once we get inside. He may have any number of traps laid out for you that would take you and anyone who travels that way with you into a place from which there is no escape.” She was looking me right in the eyes as she projected her thoughts. There was a wry twinkle in her eye as she made her last point. “It is what I would do, if you were my enemy.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I got you. I won’t be calling on the Shadow unless there are no other options.”

She nodded. “Good. Now, Ravyn, my Dear, would you be so kind as to unlock the door for us?”

Ravyn’s smile was as wicked as I had ever seen. “I thought you would never ask.”

Sitting upon the Frau’s broad back, Ravyn raised her hands above her head and closed her eyes. The palms of her hands began to glow, first orange, then red, and finally turning bright white. Bright white rays of energy left each palm, joining together at a point a few feet in front of her head into a bright, swirling ball of energy that kept growing in size until it was fully as big as she was.

As the ball of energy seemed to reach a critical mass, Ravyn pushed it forward with a downward thrust of her palms towards the door.

It hurtled towards the massive double doors of the tower and exploded in a shower of energy and sounds. We were showered with white, crackling sparkles and bits of dark matter from the impact.

Jim was the first to break the silence. “Now what? How are we going to get over there?”

The Frau reared up on her hind legs and let forth a bellowing roar that echoed across the chasm.

Ravyn must have been warned because she sprang backwards adroitly and seemed to be waiting for something else to happen.

The Frau roared once again, this time even louder and more insistent than before.

The ground beneath our feet began to shake, at first gently, but soon was rocking pretty violently. The screeching of stones cracking and rubbing together in unnatural ways began to drown out the Frau’s voice.

Pillars of solid rock began to jut forth from all different angles both beneath and beside us, coming together to form an arcing mass of jumbled stone that began to bridge the span between us and the tower. Within minutes the bridge was complete.

I looked at both of my female companions with a new found level of respect as I shook my head. “So much for trying to sneak in.”

Jim grasped the glowing blade of Excalibur in both hands again, glanced around at each of us and nodded. “Screw the sneaking, it’s time to go kick some ass, take some names, and save our friends.”

Little Keep on the Borderlands...Part 1

Visibility in this place is always limited, as Shadows flit about, drawn to light sources like moths in the mundane world. Here, our vision was further obscured by the thick, almost bubbling fog that rolled over us in successive waves from the direction where the troll had come from before pooling around our knees. It gathered around the now dissolving mass that was the troll.

Undaunted by any unseen dangers that may have been lurking, I stepped into the mists towards where I had felt the location of El Diablito’s stronghold to be. I soon found myself on a rocky path between steeply rising walls of wet, black stone. The path would have been barely wide enough for that troll to walk through without brushing its shoulders against the sides.

I heard others as they followed behind, Jim right behind me, with the Frau and Ravyn guarding our backs.

The path continued at a slight up hill angle for a few hundred yards, twisting first right and then left. The fog was so thick and flowed so strongly into my face that I felt like a salmon swimming up stream at spawning time. I caught myself leaning into the flow of the fog even though I didn’t feel any resistance. It just seemed like there should be.

The walls on either side fell away as we rounded the last bend and the ground leveled out onto a large, flat ledge that at first seemed to overlook a vast empty chasm. The fog here was much thinner as it flowed in small wispy clumps to form the river of white as it rolled down the constricted path we had followed to get up here.

Jim came up next to me, Excalibur held forth in both hands as if he were trying to keep the alien blade at arms length. The blade was emitting a high-pitched hum that accompanied the pulsating white light that pushed the Shadow back with its harsh glow. “Looks like a dead end, Rusty.”

I shook my head and pointed with my left hand. “No, we’ve just got to find a way to cross over to that…thing.”

He peered into the darkness, straining to see anything. “What, I don’t see anything.”

The Frau padded up beside us and snorted. Her voice echoed in our heads as she projected her thoughts to us. “Rusty’s right, Jim. Show him, Ravyn.”

Ravyn nodded and sent a small red orb flying from her extended palm. It wasn’t very bright, but it didn’t have to be. The light emitted by the orb illuminated a sight that caused us all to gasp.

“Son of a bitch…”

“How the hell is that even possible…”

The orb had only gone about thirty feet out into the darkness before it came to float next to a huge black wall of stone that was rotating clockwise in the air. Ravyn’s hand motions guided the thing up and down, then back and forth until it was clear that the chasm was occupied by a huge, rotating tower of black basalt that was floating in that seemingly empty space. The thing was easily as big as a modern skyscraper, but it had all of scare factor of some Dark Lord’s Tower of Doom.

As we watched in horror and awe, the tower continued to rotate. The opening of what may have been a doorway began to come into view. The rotation slowed as the entrance came to fully face us, not thirty feet away, but with no visible way of crossing the yawning chasm between us and it.

From the Frying Pan into the Fire...Part 5

As I called the Shadow, I formed a heavy, protective bubble around the four of us. The only light in this bubble came from one Ravyn’s small red stones that she held forth in her left palm. The stone’s soft red glow gave the space the feel of a submarine.

“I’m going to take us to the place in the Shadowland where Nicholas was taken by Rose and then made the wrong choice by choosing Rose’s door—which led to a cell. We didn’t get to see all of the different doors in Nick’s memory orb, so I think that is the place to start. I’m not sure if that corridor corresponds with a single actual location or serves as sort of Transit Station within the Shadowland linking multiple different locations. Hang on!”

With the power of my Will, I sent our little capsule hurtling through the Shadowland towards a place we had seen only briefly through the memories of a man I had never met.

The passage didn’t take all that long, but the tension inside the capsule grew thicker with each passing moment.

Jim passed Excalibur back and forth between his sweating hands, using each handoff to dry the offending palm on his jeans.

The Frau shifted on her heavy paws, anxious to be moving.

Ravyn checked and doubled checked her array of pouches and pockets, making sure that the ties that held them closed were secure, but not too secure.

I flexed my palms and fingered the forearm sheaths where my familiar batons were holstered, ready to drop down into my hands with a flick of the wrist.

Sensing that we were drawing near to the place, I set the capsule down gently and looked to my companions.

“As best as I can tell from inside, we’re here. Let’s stick together until we get the lay of the land.”

The Frau grunted and snorted, presumably in agreement as the dark substance of the capsule dissolved, allowing her to set paws upon solid ground once again.

Jim yelped in surprise as Excalibur came alive in his two-fisted grip. He spun in place and lashed out behind the Frau as lumbering figure emerged from the fog, massive club in hand in a pulverizing downstroke that he and the sword managed to parry.

The force of the blow buckled his knees, but the blow that otherwise would’ve crushed Ravyn’s skull was deflected harmlessly into the earth beside the Frau.

Remember the strange physics of the Shadowland, I launched myself into the air as I dropped both batons into my palms and flicked my wrists to open them to their full extension on my way towards the beasts head.

The Frau swung around slowly so as not to unseat Ravyn and shuffled back.

Jim’s upstroke sliced into the troll’s leg just below the groin, Excalibur scythed through the rock hard flesh like a hot knife through butter. Dark fluids erupted in a thick spurting stream towards the spot where Jim had been, but his spinning attack had taken him to the side, sword held aloft in his best hitter’s stance.

Meanwhile I slammed into the troll’s head, smashing his nose and crushing one eye with a series of swings with the batons. The creature’s thick skull and plate like skin protected him from any kind of killing blow, but my attacks were enough to forget the foes at its feet as he dropped the club and reached for my hovering form.

Seeing his chance and feeling the pull of Excalibur, Jim stepped into a two fisted swing that would have made Gary Sheffield jealous and eviscerated the creature as the glowing, singing blade again slipped through the heavy armor of the troll’s hide. Jim had to dodge to the side as the rush of the creatures insides came with a gush.

It took the troll a few moments to realize that it had been slain. When it did, it collapsed onto his knees first, and the toppled forward with a loud, splashing whumpf!

I dropped down beside the thing, looking towards Jim.

His face glistened with sweat and exertion, but his eyes glowed with exhilaration. “Holy shit!”

“Are you alright?”

He nodded, looked at the blade, and gulped. “Yeah, thanks to this thing. I can’t believe how much fun that was! Ravyn, are you OK?”

Ravyn hopped down from the Frau’s back and bounded over to Jim. She planted a big, wet kiss on his lips before answering. “Thanks to you I am.” She spun to face me, accusatory finger pointing in my direction. “Do you think you can avoid getting me killed again, Rusty? If you do get me killed, I’m going to haunt you from now to forever.”

The Frau sniffed the fallen troll and swung her massive head around towards us. Her voice came through telepathically to all of us. “This guy isn’t the only one of these things that guards this place, but it has been awhile since any of the others have been here. I’d say we not take too much time celebrating this small battle when we might not have much time before someone else comes by.”

From the Frying Pan into the Fire...Part 4

After the initial surge of adrenaline passed, Jim looked back to me. “Wait a minute, are you sure this is the best idea? Won’t you need this weapon if we face any powerful foes?”

I shook my head. “If we were going in to make an all out attack and to cause damage, then yeah, I’d keep the blade with me and leave you somewhere safe. But right now we just need to get in, find as many of our people as we can, and get back out again. I also don’t know where we would be able to leave you where you would be safe right now. We don’t know who our mole is, other than it is likely not any of the four of us, and so I don’t think it is wise for us to split up in any way.”

The Frau nodded. Her voice came through telepathically again. “I agree with Rusty. Excalibur seems to be OK with you holding it, so let’s not argue about that. I also agree that splitting up is not a wise idea. We’re going to need to move fast and stay together so that Rusty or Ravyn can get us out of there in a hurry if things get too bad. Ravyn, my dear, I’m going to suggest that you ride on my back. We should make quite the formidable duo!”

Ravyn’s face lit up. “That sounds like fun.” Her expression grew more serious. “I’ll carry the computer with us as well since Jim’s going to have his hands full.” She then walked over to Jim, reaching into a pocket of her skirt and pulled out a small pouch. She poured out three small, red, round stones from the pouch into her hand. “Jim, open your other hand please.”

He did so, slightly confused.

She placed the three stones in his hand and closed his fingers over them slowly before planting a kiss on his cheek. “These things will explode on impact when thrown and become fireballs like the one I threw at the Asylum. Just call out ‘Phoenix’ as you throw it. Be careful, you will want to be at least ten to fifteen feet away from the impact point. These things don’t discriminate like that sword does.”

Jim gulped as looked down at the miniature red fireballs in the palm of his hand. “Uh, I’m not sure I want to be carrying this much firepower in my pocket, if you know what I mean.”

Ravyn gave him a sly wink. “Don’t worry, it will only add to what’s already there.”

Jim blushed, cleared his throat and slipped the red pellets into his pants pocket, unwilling to trust his voice at any retort.

I stepped up to his rescue. “OK, when we land, I’ll take the lead. I will try to manipulate the Shadow in the area to obscure our presence as much as possible. I’ll take down any guards as quickly and as quietly as possible while the Frau and Ravyn search around for any prisoners, once any of them are located, let me know, and I will either break the doors down or slip inside through the Shadowland.”

Both Ravyn and the Frau nodded in agreement.

“Jim, you stay right behind me unless I get tied up with a bigger opponent. Don’t try to help me out unless you don’t have any other choice. I’d rather you watched my back. If I have to slip into the Shadow to rescue a prisoner, I’ll want you to be near Ravyn and the Frau. Trust the sword. It won’t generally allow you to swing at something or someone that it doesn’t feel deserves it. Use those fireballs of Ravyn’s to cover our retreat, if necessary.”

He gulped and nodded as well, still holding the sword out away from his body.

I surveyed all of my companions before speaking again. “The opponent I am most worried about is Locks. If he shows up, I’ll take him on myself. He has grown in power and seems to have access to a lot of the abilities that I have, so don’t try to play the hero with him. His body has clearly been highly modified much like mine. I also have a very bad feeling that he is the one that is most tied up with the An’girasii.”

Jim cleared his throat. “Can you face him without this sword?”

I smiled and nodded. “One reason I thought to give you that blade for now was because I have the strangest feeling that the blade would not allow me to use it against him. It would probably allow you to swing at him, but that sword has a perverse sense of fair play that can be all to annoying. So, is everyone clear on the plan so far?”

Ravyn sighed and chuckled. “Yeah, it’s as clear as mud, since we hardly know this place that we are going to, we don’t know who or what we will face, and who, if anyone, will be there to be rescued. Other than those few, insignificant details, it’s about as good a plan as you’ve ever come up with Rusty!”

“OK then, let’s roll!”

Ravyn giggled as she grabbed a handful of thick black fur on the Frau’s shoulder and hoisted herself up onto the Frau’s back. She adjusted her skirt and reached out to take the briefcase that Jim was handing up to her. She took out the shoulder strap from a side pocket and clicked it into place before putting the thing over her shoulder and sliding it to her back, leaving both hands free.

“Last call for all passengers for Zombie Air, Flight 666, going straight to Hell!”

From the Frying Pan into the Fire...Part 3

The transit through the Shadowland and into another world was brief and almost random in nature as I felt the need for us to land in a place that I had never before been and to which it could not be predicted that we would retire to.

I had to reject two worlds because they presented survivability problems for my friends, and third world was rejected because the portal would have taken us to a strange looking city teeming with inhabitants of unknown dispositions.

The fourth attempt finally resulted in place that was less than ideal but seemed to meet our immediate needs for safety and privacy.

I closed the portal immediately.

As soon as she regained her bearings, Ravyn knelt down next to Jim. “Are you all right Jim?”

Jim groaned once and retched onto the ground away from her. His let go of the bat and grabbed his temples. “Ugh. I don’t think trans-dimensional travel is going to help my concussion any, but it was probably better than another punch in head from Papa Locks.”

The Frau gave the cold air a sniff and started circling the small, barren valley that we found ourselves in.

I turned to Ravyn and Jim. “I don’t think anyone could have followed us here, so we’re probably safe for the time being. We need to come up with a plan.”

Ravyn stood back up. “Well, we need to see if we can find a way to rescue Alexa, Naomi and Cerrydwen. We can’t leave them to El Diablito. Then we need to find out how our safe houses are being discovered and attacked.” She threw up her hands in exasperation. “Everything we’ve worked so hard to build over the last ten years is being taken from us. Worse yet, our friends are getting hurt and killed!”

I held up my hands. “Hey, I agree. We can’t let those monsters have any of our people, if we can prevent it. Especially if El Diablito is foolish enough to think that he is pulling a fast one over the An’girasii. I don’t think that he has the first clue about dangerous and powerful these creatures are.”

Jim sat up, picked his bat back up and used it to help him get to his knees before he stopped to recover. He fought off another bout of nausea before looking up at us. “I don’t think I’m in any condition to be of much help in any rescue attempt.”

Ravyn reached down and gave him a hug. “You gave as good as you got, Jim. I don’t think El Diablito will be doing any dancing in the near future, not with the way I heard his knee crack when you pasted him!”

Jim smiled at the thought of landing those blows. “That did feel good.”

The Frau came shambling down the nearest slope before parking herself next to Jim. Her voice came through telepathically. “Rusty, do you remember the memory orb that you watched from Nick’s encounter with Rose?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Do you think that you can take us to that place where Nick was held? I have a feeling that we will find at least some of our friends there.”

I nodded again. “I was able to get enough of a feeling for that place. I do think that I can find it again. But wouldn’t that be right in the middle of El Diablito’s organization? We’d probably have to fight our way through.”

She grunted. “We might. But the best defense is often a good offense. I think they’re going to need some time to recover from Ravyn’s fireball. I doubt that they are going to be expecting us to strike back immediately. If we wait, they might realize that we can get to their stronghold and move their prisoners somewhere else. We might also be able to gather some much needed intelligence on who their source on organization is.”

Ravyn nodded. “I agree. I’m tired of being a damn victim. Let’s hit them for a change!”

Jim stood up, groaning as he did so. He wobbled as he spoke. “I’m game, I think. Just point me in the general direction and stay out of my way.”

Seeing how green he looked around the gills, I wasn’t too sure this plan had any chance of success. Then an idea came with a flash. I reached up to the hilt of the blade on my back and projected my thoughts into it.

With more than a little surprise, I felt an acknowledgement from the blade and grudging acceptance to my request.

I drew the blade and held it out towards Jim. “Jim, I think Excalibur will serve you better than that bat of yours.”

Jim looked shocked. “I’ve never used a sword…I wouldn’t know how…”

“Hey buddy, in case you hadn’t noticed, I never used a sword before either. That’s the beauty of this blade-it will pretty much wield itself. Hopefully, we can get in and back out without you having to really wield it in battle, but I will feel much better if you have this thing in your hands than if you are trying use baseball bat against people who can throw magick around. This thing will protect you from most of what anyone can throw at you.”

Jim reached out tentatively to take the hilt of the blade in shaking hands. He flinched as his fingers touched the hilt.

I let go as Excalibur settled into his grip. Color returned to his face as if healing energy flowed from the blade through his arms and into his body. He blinked as he stared at his reflection in the glowing blade of the sword.

“Whoa. I never would have guessed that this sword could be so light.” He looked back to me, nodding. “I feel much better now! I’m ready to go!”

Sole Asylum...Part 4

Hurtling sideways through the ether of the Shadowland while holding onto the rear bumper of an F-150 Ford pick-up truck is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the easiest place to try and summon up the concentration needed to open a portal to the ‘normal’ world.

When you add in the complications of needing to open a portal large enough for a truck to go through and the concern for the safety of the occupants—and of any potential bystanders who might be nearby—the task only got harder.

But it was absolutely critical that I find a way to solve this problem in a way that left open the possibility for a safe landing.

My one advantage, other than sheer desperation, was that working with the Shadow was extremely easy in the Shadowland itself.

So, ignoring the precarious position that I found myself in, I began weaving the strands of Shadow together into a web-like bubble. I was careful not to seal it up completely until I had some idea of where we would land.

Before I could seal the bubble and activate the portal, I experimented by throwing out tendrils of Shadow to slow our momentum and orient the whole bubble in what I hoped would be the right direction. The sheer mass of the truck and its contents and the speed with which it was traveling, made the task nearly impossible to accomplish in the short time that we had.

After several fitful attempts at getting us oriented, I sealed the portal, closed my eyes, and prayed.

The jarring, crunching impact of the truck threw me into the air, spinning as I went flying.

The front end of the vehicle crumpled up, just as it was designed to do, as it plowed into the trunk of a thick tree. Before I landed myself, I did note that the airbags deployed before anyone’s head smashed through windshield.

My own first impact took place about twenty five feet away and fifteen feet above theirs. It also happened upside down and backwards as I slammed into the tree trunk ass first. Just as that impact registered with a loud cracking sound, I began the slide down through the spindly branches of the now-destroyed tree to land head first in a bush.

By the time I managed to get on my feet and look back to the truck, I saw the passenger door being pushed open by a grumpy looking black bear. Jim wrenched open the drivers door, pulling off his cap as he wiped away the trickle of blood oozing from his nose. Ravyn quickly followed him, bouncing out unscathed, but none too pleased at having a second near-death experience within 12 hours of her first…

Sole Asylum...Part 3

Shuffling around like silent zombies, we loaded up Jim’s truck with a few overstuffed bags of clothing and personal items and several boxes of groceries from the Frau’s enormous pantry.

Ravyn and I piled into the narrow back seat of the truck while the Frau rode shotgun.

As we set off through the quiet, narrow back country road that would take us north to I-94, the winds began to kick up as the edge of a large, dark, bank of clouds rolled over us from the west.

By the time we reached the highway entrance ramp, enormous drops of water were splattering on the hood and windshield of the truck. Jim pushed up the bill of the second cap. “I didn’t think that rain was in the forecast for the next week.”

A flash of lightning was soon followed by the rolling booms of thunder, signaling for the real downpour to begin. Sheets of water sluiced down across the road.

The Frau chuckled, pushed up her own glass and pointed towards the clouds with her cane. “My bones are telling me that this is no ordinary storm. The hair on the back of my neck is standing up as well. Someone or something doesn’t want us to get where we’re going.”

Jim grunted and punched a button on his radio. He fumbled around with the knobs, adjusting them back and forth several times, only to come up with crackling static. “That’s strange. This radio is normally pretty good.”

Ravyn scanned the highway from her seat next to me. “Hey, I can’t ever remember seeing I-94 this empty. There isn’t another car or truck in sight in either direction.”

I leaned forward from my seat behind the Frau. “Jim, stop the truck. Pull over to the side of the road, but leave it running and in gear.”

Jim pulled over to a stop. As the vehicle stopped, so did the rain.

The tension in the truck was thick. Ravyn clenched and unclenched her fingers, clearly itching to start throwing fire at whatever was causing this weather weirdness. The Frau clutched her cane in white knuckled hands as she scanned the horizons. Jim’s hand gripped the steering wheel, his shoulders hunched and tense.

I patted the seatback in front of me. “Frau, I’ll need to get out of the truck.”

She nearly jumped at my words, but she nodded and started fumbling with the door handle.

The rain had now stopped completely, but a low rumbling sound could be heard coming from the west.

The Frau opened the door and stood on the running board of the truck still holding the door open as she looked back to the west. “Oh my! That looks like a tornado coming our way.”

I clambered out of the back seat and through the rear half-door to stand on the shoulder of the road. Looking back, I saw the huge black funnel cloud that was barreling its way down the highway right towards us.

I slammed the half-door shut and waved the Frau to get back in. Over the growing roar of the oncoming tornado, I called out to Jim. “We’ll never outrun this thing, someone is controlling it. I’m going to open up a portal through the Shadowland. When I wave at you, gun this thing and go through, I’ll follow along as soon as I can!”

Jim’s eyes grew wide for the briefest of moments before he set his jaw, clamped down even harder on his steering wheel, and nodded his agreement. Ravyn seemed to be yelling something, but whatever she said was lost to the howling wind and the shutting door.

I rambled forward to a spot about a hundred feet in front of the truck and turned to face the coming funnel cloud and the hopeful looks of my dear companions.

I had never before created a portal that could fit something as large as a pick-up truck. I was not entirely sure that it was even possible to transport a mechanical machine like and automobile through a magickal, spiritual place like the Shadowland, but we were clearly very short on options.

It was hard to take my eyes off of the looming, ever-closer tornado and the havoc that it was creating less than half a mile behind my friends, but it was necessary if they were going to have a chance at surviving.

Instead, I stared at a spot about twenty feet in front of me. I focused my Will as I called more of the Shadow to that spot than I had ever called upon before.

Darkness formed as the Shadow pooled into the spot I had chosen. It grew rapidly, but nearly as rapidly as the tornado bore down on us.

With my left hand I continued to pour as much Shadow as possible into a puddle on the ground that rippled with dark energies, while I raised my right hand and waved for the truck to come forward.

The winds were whipping, it was getting more and more difficult to stand tall in the face of blowing, churning air.

Jim released the brakes of the truck and punched the accelerator. The truck lurched forward as the engine strained to get up to speed. Jim turned the wheel ever so slightly to align the vehicle with the pool of darkness that now stretched across the entire right lane of the highway.

A tree branch crashed into me as I stood stock still. I maintained my concentration as the truck raced with the screaming tornado to reach the portal.

I began striding forward myself, using both hands now to direct the dark energies of the pool to rise up and form an arch that would be large enough for the truck to go through.

The truck, the tornado, and I all met just feet from the Shadow Gate.

The back of the truck was lifting from ground and sliding to the left as it was caught by the funnel cloud, but its momentum continued to carry it through the gate as it spun in the air. Still using most of my concentration on keeping the portal open, I leapt forward, grabbing onto the rear bumper as it swung into the portal first.

There was an immediate silence as I passed into the calmness of the Shadowland that almost immediately shattered by roaring of the truck engine as Jim continued to hold his foot to the pedal, despite the lack of any ground for the wheels to gain traction on.

As soon as I saw that the front of the truck was through, I closed off that portal and began working on another to get us close to the Asylum…

Phoenix Down

The scene I returned to was vastly different than the scene that I had left.

I emerged from the Shadow directly across the street form the Coop compound, just on the chance that a trap had been laid by the Dream Weavers. But there was no sign of them.

Instead I saw the flashing lights and heard the idling motors of several fire engines. Emergency personnel crowded the streets as firemen moved to hook up hoses, police officers were keeping the growing crowds of spectators back, and camera men moved to get clearer shots of the orange flames that were so greedily consuming the Phoenix Coop.

I didn’t see anybody I recognized from the Coop in the gathered crowds or being assisted in any way by emergency response crews, so I summoned the Shadow before I was noticed and slipped back into the Shadowland.

The normally dull and silent landscape of the Shadowland was a kaleidoscope of clashing colors formed by crowds of people, the chaos of the battle that had just been fought, and the physical destruction of the Coop itself by the fire. Instead of trying to slip through the crowds, I allowed myself to float over it, passing above the commotion below and through the perimeter of the Coop grounds.

The massive energy of the fires raging through the Coop made it difficult to sense anything else coming from inside, but I had the nagging sensation that Ravyn was still inside and in need of my help. I sped up.

On a hunch, I slipped around the back of the house and landed near the now gaping hole that led into the library. The fire raged all around, but I was able to pass through it unfazed, as the vast majority of the damaging energies were limited to the primary world. The afterimages that I saw here were the shadowy essence of the fire itself.

I pushed through the blaze and into the library, looking for any clues to the whereabouts of Ravyn, Katherine, Zenny Al Farhan, or any of the students of the Coop.

The floor of the library was normally crowded with tables and chairs and several comfy sofas for the small group of students who used the place for their studies, but it was quite evident that a battle of some sort had taken place here. Bits and pieces of the tables lay scattered about and the sofas had been pushed back and overturned. I stepped over one to come into a space that looked like it had been the epicenter of some sort of blast.

The haze cast by the raging fires in the real world obscured almost everything, but something moved, catching my eye.

I pushed forward. I was glad to not have to worry about getting toasted, but I was also worried as to what I might find.

I was right to be concerned.

Stepping over another overturned couch and over the debris of another table, I came to the center of the room and saw two figures.

The one laying still on the ground with her Spirit form growing dimmer by the second was obviously Ravyn. The second figure was leaning over her, face down toward her neck. It was a Bane. As her Spirit dimmed, his grew stronger, darker, and more vibrant.

I drew Excalibur and stepped from the Shadowland into the blazing heat of the real world as if it were one easy action.

If the noise of blaze was any indication, we were standing in the middle of a raging inferno. I had to yell to make myself heard, although I think the creature sensed my arrival more than he heard what I had to say to him. “Get off her, asshole!”

The creature rose to its full stature, which was considerable, although it was shorter and stockier than the form Anthraximander had used. Its face may once have been human, but it was extremely hard to see any resemblance. His skin was as black as ebony, so dark and shiny that it reflected the light of the raging fires around us. He had two horns sprouting from his forehead, which swept up and curled back so that the ends pointed backwards over his head. He had a snout that protruded from his face like that of a bat, but with much sharper and longer teeth than any bat I had ever seen. Blood dripped from his mouth. Enormous black wings were fold on its back, each tipped with a wicked looking claw. He had two enormously muscled arms tipped with large ebony claws.

The creature looked at me with feral yellow eyes and flicked a forked, snake-like tongue across its fangs.

It said something in response to me, but his words were lost in the loud crash as supporting beams of the second floor came crashing down behind me.

For once, I decided to take Drake’s advice and just attacked. I didn’t really care to engage in conversation with this thing.

I leaped forward, holding Excalibur back as I did until the last moment, figuring it would lash out with one of its huge claws.

It didn’t disappoint. As it swung up one arm to toss me aside, I brought the blade down in a huge overhand slicing motion right at the wrist joint, hoping to use my momentum and the power of the blade to sever the wrist.

It almost worked.

The blade smashed into his hand, driving it down easier than I expected, but the blade didn’t really penetrate his exoskeleton-like skin. That was a first.

I did, however, manage to exert more force than he expected me to, pushing him backwards. Luckily, he was large enough that his step back was big enough to avoid crushing Ravyn’s skull.

Despite my surprise at Excalibur not being able to penetrate his skin on that first blow, I rained down a series of blows. Each one making solid contact, each one bouncing off of the hard skin of his arms or legs, but each impact driving him backwards away from Ravyn.

It didn’t take long however, before he was able to deflect a blow with a blow of his own. That stopped the momentum of my attack and threw me into a defensive posture as he spread his wings and took a more aggressive posture, ready to attack.

Excalibur was no longer glowing like it normally did during confrontations with creatures of this ilk. For some reason, it no longer seemed interested in the battle, which was another first for me.

The creature seemed to sense the changing dynamics of the situation and licked its lips as it roared and pounced towards me.

Keeping in mind that Ravyn was laying on the ground behind me, I used every ounce of concentration that I possessed to land right next to her, shielding her body with mine and calling the Shadow to slip both of us through the Shadowland and to a world before the creature landed on us.

I half expected the creature to follow us into the Shadow, but was relieved to find just the two of us laying on the rocky precipice that I brought Bernstein to once before. I shuddered at the fact that my subconscious had decided to bring us to this place.

I laid Excalibur to the side, just in case the Bane decided to show up later, and looked down at the battered and bloody form of Ravyn Fyre.

She lay there almost completely still, barely breathing. Her face was blacked by soot and bruised, as if the creature had bashed her in the side of the face. Blood trickled from the gash that ran along her cheek and down the left side of her neck. Her clothing lay in smoking tatters loosely around her, revealing more bloody wounds and blackened skin. Her left arm splayed out at an odd angle that indicated that it was definitely broken in more than one place.

I had no idea how, but she still lived.

I reached down to touch her face. “I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, darling. I’m going to get you to someone who can help you.”

Remarkably, she stirred at my touch, calling out a name softly. “Jim?”

“It’s Rusty.” I had to keep my face close to hers in order to hear her.

She seemed to nod, it was almost imperceptible.

“Where are the others? Do I need to go back in there?”

She licked her cracked, blackened lips and seemed to shake her head slightly. “They’re gone.”

“Where to?”

She swallowed, it was painful to watch her do it, but I could tell she wanted to respond, so I waited. “Safe. I sent them away.” Her body shuddered as she heaved with pain, gasping for more breath. “Betsy gave herself up to make it happen.”

I could see that she was using vital energy to speak, using her nearly indomitable Will to keep her body conscious and functioning in the face of tremendous pain and physical trauma. Looking at her Spirit form, I could see that it was dangerously diminished, as if her very Spirit had been drained by that creature and her exertions.

“Hush now. I need to get you to the Frau and Cerrydwen. You are in dire need of medical attention.”

Her Spirit seemed to flicker briefly as she exerted herself one more time to speak. “Tell Jim that my answer is…yes.” The last word came out in a sigh as her body went limp.

I panicked as I saw her Spirit form separate from her physical form. I called out to her. “Ravyn, don’t you leave me! Your time is not up yet, dammit!”

She looked at me, at her body laying beside me, in a distant, dreamy manner. She smiled and waved as her Spirit form dimmed and then disappeared without saying anything, pulled by some unknown force from this dreary place.

I was left cradling her broken, battered body wishing for all the world that I could shed the tears and release the emotion that I was feeling at that moment…

Hell's Bells...Part 5

Ravyn turned to me, her rage burning brighter in her eyes than in her still flaming fist. “Rusty, take these two to Cerrydwen and come back as soon as you can.” She glanced back at Naomi, “You remember the emergency password don’t you, darling?”

Naomi nodded. “I do.”

“Good. When you get to Cerrydwen’s place, make sure you tell Rusty what they are, OK?”

Naomi nodded again as she stood up with Alexa before grabbing a small bag that she had managed to pack. “I’m ready.”

I turned back to Ravyn. “Are you going to be alright?”

She shrugged. “I’ll be alright so long as I know that these two are safe. If you hurry back, you can help me to save as many of the others as possible.” She glanced back down the hall before looking at me again. “Get these two to safety. We can’t let Alexa fall into the arms of these monsters.”

“I’ll be back.”

A tear rolled down Ravyn’s cheek as she turned away and stalked off to do battle. “Good.”

I sheathed Excalibur and picked up the rucksack that I had dropped earlier. I reached my left hand out toward Naomi. “Come on. Let’s get you two to Cerrydwen.”

As she and Alexa drew near, I focused my Will and summoned the Shadow.

Nothing happened.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong, Daddy?”

I waved my free hand to silence the questions and tried again, this time though, I reached as deep inside of myself as possible, summoning all of Will. I would not, could not, be denied.

Except that I was. Again, nothing happened.

“What the fu…dge?” I looked at Naomi. “I think something is blocking me from calling the Shadow.”

Her eyes narrowed. “How can they do that?”

I shrugged. “I wish I knew…”

I was interrupted by an ear-piercing, unearthly scream of rage of fear that was itself interrupted by an explosion that rocked the foundations of the house. I held on to Naomi tightly as the floor buckled and lurched beneath us. For the briefest of moments there was a dead kind of silence, but that was soon shattered by the sounds of other battles being fought elsewhere in the house.

Once things stopped shaking, I slammed the door to the room shut and ran over to the shattered window to get a view of what was happening out there.

At first, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, which was strange in itself. Sensing that all was not as it seemed, I shifted my sight into the Shadowland. That’s when everything became a hell of a lot clearer and I became a hell of a lot more concerned.

In the Shadowland, I could see the ring of man-sized figures that stood stock still, arms extended towards each of their neighbors. Extending between them was a web of crackling energy that seemed to form a dome over the entire Phoenix Coop. I had no idea who or what these creatures were and how they were doing it, but they seemed to have created some kind of bubble that was meant to keep anyone from leaving the place, especially through the Shadowland…

Homeland Insecurity...Part 6

Stennos took less time than I thought he would need to recover from his. His face was still pale, but he straightened his uniform calmly as he picked up the stub of his cigar, tapped the pile of ashes from the end and took a long draw. He rubbed the end out in the ash tray and looked back up at me, his eyes narrowed.

“So, Agent Bones, what support do you need from me to end this incident your way?”

“I can get to the tanker, Commander, and I believe that I can neutralize the folks that have taken the thing over, but I’ve got no idea how to control a ship like that.” I pulled my phone from the pocket where I kept it. “If that creature on the ship doesn’t fry the circuits on my phone, I will call you to let you know when it will be safe for your people to come board the ship and take control of it.”

“And if your phone doesn’t survive, or you fail to neutralize the terrorists?”

I shrugged. “Do you have a flag I can use?”

He cocked his head. “What kind of flag?”

“Well, how about a Coast Guard flag, if you have a spare? I can raise that up the flagpole of the ship. That should serve to notify your cutters that the ship is safe for boarding. As to my failing to take the enemy out, well, then I guess your friends out there will have their chance to do what I fail to do.”

He sighed. “I was afraid that you would say that.” He moved over to a cabinet that stood next to the window and opened it. He reached in and took out a neatly folded piece of cloth. “Here is a Coast Guard flag. It is my personal flag, so I would certainly appreciate getting it back.” He walked over and set the flag into my outstretched hands. “You’ve shown me things that I never imagined were possible. I don’t know how you did that, or how you’ve come to have these strange abilities, but are sure that you can take on this whole task yourself?”

I took the carefully folded flag and tucked it into place inside my jacket. “Commander, I’ll do my best, I can guarantee that. As much as I might want to have some assistance from your people, I can’t in good conscience take anyone else with me on this mission. It is far too dangerous.”

He nodded. “OK, I’ll take care of my friends out there. How soon will you leave?”

I looked out the window into the bright California sunshine. I had dropped the Shadow covering from the windows upon our return. Everything looked so quiet and peaceful. “I should go soon. I want this over before the sun sets, one way or another.”

He extended his hand to me. I shook it, careful not to squeeze too hard. “Alright, Agent Bones, you take care out there. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

I had to admire the man. He had just been taken on a tour of the Shadowland by a pasty-faced, zombie of a federal agent who he was now trusting to avert either a huge environmental disaster or a large scale terrorist attack on an area over which he had responsibility. I didn’t know too many other ‘normal’ people who could have taken all of this in stride as easily as he did. I had seen his Spirit when I first met him, and had decided that he was a strong soul who was also a trustworthy public servant, but I was still surprised to discover the depth of his strength.

He had turned to reach for the door. He stopped just short of opening it however as I called out to him.

“Commander Stennos.”

He turned back to look at me. “Yes, Agent Bones?”

I patted the outside of my jacket where I placed the flag. “I’ll make sure you get your flag back.”

He smiled. His complexion had returned to its normal hue. “I’ll hold you to that, Agent Bones.”

I pulled the Shadow close about and stepped back into the Shadowland.

Homeland Insecurity...Part 5

Before Commander Stennos could reply, the tall man in the dark suit arched his eyebrow at me and spoke up. “This is a Homeland Security matter, Agent Bones, I’m not entirely sure that the Bureau should have been brought into this incident.”

I saw that this could quickly devolve into a pissing contest over turf, so I ignored the man and looked at Stennos square in the eye. “Commander Stennos, are you the current Incident Commander?”

Stennos nodded, obviously unsure of where I was going with that question. “I am. These folks are here to brief me on the assets and capabilities that their agencies can bring to bear on the situation, just as you are Agent Bones.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not here for that.”

That set him back on his heels and seemed to raise the hackles of both of his companions. “What do you mean by that Agent Bones?”

I smiled, making sure to show my less than pearly whites and my blackened gums in the process, knowing how much that tended to unsettle folks. “I’m not here to advise you on anything, or to represent the Bureau in some multi-agency boondoggle. I’m here to solve your problem without blowing that ship up or otherwise causing an environmental disaster.”

That sent all three of them to sputtering. “Excuse me…” “And just how is that even possible?” “How could you…?”

I raised my pale, scarred left hand and waved them silent. “I am not at liberty to discuss my methods with just anyone. Commander, I’ll need to speak to you alone, if you would. The methods and means that I will be using to put an end to this crisis are Top Secret and can only be revealed to the Incident Commander on a need-to-know basis. So, Commander, do you have somewhere that we can speak in private?”

Stennos nodded and pointed the way to the door to his office, despite the sputtering objection of his advisors. “Right this way Agent Bones. I have yet to see any potential solution that doesn’t end in some sort of disaster, so if you have something that will prevent that, I’m all ears.”

I followed him into the well-appointed office that looked out over the Port of Long Beach. A dozen large container ships and the cranes that unloaded them could be seen from the large picture windows opposite his enormous redwood desk. He pulled the door shut behind us and bolted the lock into place. “I don’t see how you can really offer much of a solution to this crisis, Agent Bones, but I am more than thankful just to have a break from all of those nattering harpies out there.” He slid behind his desk and plopped down into the plush leather chair and opened the lid of cigar box. “Would you like a smoke?”

“No thanks, Commander. I haven’t been able to enjoy a smoke in years.”

He went through the ritual of preparing the cigar for smoking. He carefully broke the seal of the clear cellophane, pealed it off, and brought the cigar to his nose, giving it a good, long sniff to absorb the aroma of the raw tobacco. He looked back up at me, only to see me glancing out the window to the busy port outside.

“Thank you for allowing an old man his indulgence. But this situation is truly grave. So if you really do have a solution to this situation, I need to hear it soon.” He waved dismissively with the cigar at the door behind me to the conference room before bringing it back down and slicing one end of the cigar off. “Those harpies won’t give us much time before they insist on creating the largest oil spill in the history of California.”

I reached into the same pocket that contained my credentials and pulled out the small envelope that I had been saving for just this kind of situation. It had been given to me by Zulu after I had recovered from the incident involving Ma Grendel. It was sealed with the personal seal of the President of the United States. “Bones,” Zulu had said at the time, “this envelope contains evidence that you speak with the full faith and confidence of the President. Keep it with you at all times, but don’t use it unless it absolutely necessary.”

“Commander, you are about to hear some very strange claims come out of my mouth. I am also going to take you on a small demonstration of what I am going to claim to do, but this letter will serve as confirmation that I am not as crazy as all of this will sound. I would like you to open this letter and read the contents.”

He put down his lighter after getting the cigar lit and reached out to take the letter with his left hand. His eyes grew wide as he noted the seal on the flap. Without saying anything else, he picked up his letter opener and carefully slit the envelope open, pulling the parchment out.

His eyes grew even wider as read the document, his lips moving silently to form the words as he read them. He set the cigar down into the large, spotless glass ashtray and took the letter in both hands, bringing it closer to his nose.

He put the letter down on the desk as far away from him as he could reach, picked the cigar back up and took a couple of deep draughts on the thing. He finally looked back up at me.

“OK, Agent Bones, that’s the strongest letter of recommendation that I’ve ever seen. But I still don’t know how you will be able to help end this situation.”

I nodded. “I understand, Commander. I’m about to show you how I’ll be able to help, but you needed to see that first, for your own sanity, if nothing else.” I approached the large glass windows and passed my hand across them, from right to left. A curtain of Shadow fell across the windows, plunging the room into almost total darkness. By the time I finished, the only light in the room was coming from the red glow of his cigar, the blinking of the voice mail button on his desk phone, and my own red eyes.

“What the hell…?”

“Relax, Commander. I will turn on a light for you in a moment.”

Once the windows were obscured, I stepped up to the lamp that sat on his desk and pulled the string that caused the fluorescent light to flicker on.

“How did you do that?” He was pointing to black curtains of Shadow over the windows.

I shook my head. “You might as well save your questions until I’m done, Commander. Are you a religious man?”

He nodded. “I don’t know too many sailors who aren’t.”

“Very well then. What you are about to see and experience may well challenge some of your most dearly held religious beliefs, and for that I am sorry. It is not my intent, nor my desire, to bring about a crisis of faith for you, but I am going to have to show you some things that may spur one. If you would, please come over here. It would be best if you left the cigar in the ashtray.”

He complied, moving to stand right next to me as indicated.

“We’re going on a small trip. We’ll be back before your cigar burns out.” I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently, hoping to reassure him. He flinched at my touch. “You’ll be safe with me, but don’t try to leave my side.”

To his credit, he straightened out to his full stature and simply said “I’m ready, Agent Bones.”

I called the Shadow to envelop us and took him on a unique tour of his facility and the Port of Long Beach.

Homeland Insecurity...Part 4

I was glad that Commander Stennos was waiting for me on land. I emerged from the Shadowland and into a dark storage room at the Coast Guard station at Long Beach, California. I was kind of dreading the next trip that I would have to make through the Shadow, since it would necessarily involve trying to land precisely on a ship that was traveling across the ocean.

The open water was one of the most dangerous areas of the Shadowland. The creatures and entities that lurked within the chaotic, turbulent oceans and lakes of the Shadowland were very reminiscent of the monsters that ancient mapmakers drew along the edges of unknown waters. I had learned that lesson the hard way very early on, but that will be a story for another time.

Stepping up to the closed door of the storage room, I discovered that it was locked. I didn’t want to destroy the door, and I didn’t really want to emerge from the Shadow in full view of the maintenance crews working in the repair bay on the other side of the door, so I had to resort to another trick that I had learned recently.

I placed my hand over the lock and closed my eyes. I called upon the Shadow to coalesce inside the lock itself, filling the gaps that the key would, and turned the ShadowKey with a twist of the wrist. The lock clicked, allowing me to open the now unlocked door. I smiled as I did so. That was going to be a handy skill to have.

“Hey, who the hell are you and how did you get in there?”

I held up my empty hands to show that I wasn’t a threat to anyone. There were three fresh faced young men in their late teens or early twenties lined up next to the heavy set, older NCO with oil-darkened hands who had challenged me as soon as he saw me open the door.

“I’m sorry, I must have gotten lost.” I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out my badge and credentials, flashing them with practiced ease. “I’m Special Agent Rusty Bones of the FBI, I’m looking for Commander Stennos.”

The NCO grunted, bobbed his head towards one of his young charges. “Johnson, escort this…agent…to the Commander’s office.” He picked up his wrench, shaking his head as he looked back to the disassembled boat motor laid out in pieces his workbench. “I don’t know how you ended up in that room, Mister, but I would appreciate it if you remain with Johnson here, he’ll make sure you get to the conference room with all of the other muckety-mucks.”

“I appreciate it. I’m not too familiar with your facility.”

I followed the shy young man as he led me through the warren of hallways, stairs and doors until I found myself in a large, airy conference room with several Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force officers joined by several other men and women in the professional attire of civilian officials.

Commander Stennos was a short, solid looking man with a balding pate, a broad, lined face, and the dark complexion of his Mediterranean heritage. He was speaking with a taller man in a dark suit and a female officer in Navy dress whites as I entered.

The room fell silent as I crossed the threshold, leaving the young mechanic to return to his tasks. I flashed my credentials again as I moved towards Commander Stennos. “Hello Commander, Agent Rusty Bones.”

His eyes narrowed as he glanced at my credentials and extended his right hand. “Agent Bones, I’m glad that you’re here. I don’t know how you got here so quickly, but you were true to your word.”

The Navy officer looked me up down disapprovingly. “Commander, didn’t you say this Agent was coming from Michigan?” She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow as she looked me in the eye. “How did you get here so quickly?”

I shrugged, knowing that none of these folks would believe me if I actually told them how. “I am from Michigan, but you happened to catch me out visiting a friend in LA. I was worried about traffic, which is why I asked for an hour.”

Stennos nodded. “You should have said something when we spoke. I could have sent a driver for you.”

I shot him a grin. “No worries. I’m here now. So are there any changes to the situation in the last hour?”

Opening Gambit...Postscript

I slammed the phone down. “That bastard has something up his sleeve.”

Ravyn nodded. “I’m very interested in what Zenny discovered about him just by touching that front door.” She glanced over to where Zenny had been standing moments ago and did a double take as she realized that Zenny wasn’t there any more. “Hey, where did she go?”

I looked around as well. “Zenny? Where are you?”

No response.

Ravyn shook her head and turned in a circle, looking about the empty room. “She can’t have gone very far.”

I nodded over toward the farthest door in the room, shifting my vision partially into Shadowland. “What’s that over there? I think she’s in there.”

My boots scuffed the cement floor as I walked, stiff-legged to the door, Ravyn close behind.
I pushed the door in, revealing a small back office that I hadn’t seen in my last visit to this shop.

Inside the cramped office, Zenny was kneeling on the floor and rocking back and forth in a rhythmic manner. Her bare hands were clasped together. Her eyes were clenched as tightly as her hands while her lips were moving in sync with her body. Zenny’s gloves lay stacked on the floor next to her. The office itself was lacking in any major furniture, but there was a blizzard of paper scattered about.

Ravyn slipped around me as I stopped at the doorway. She knelt down next to Zenny without actually touching her. “Zenny, what’s going on?”
No response. She continued to sway, her eyes remained closed, and her lips continued to move silently as if deep in meditation or prayer.

I stepped into the room. I reached deep inside the captured memories from Ma Grendel, looking for words in her native tongue. I spoke to her in Arabic. “Do you need help?” I reached out to touch her.

Ravyn stopped me from interrupting her. “No, Rusty. I think she needs to do this. There is powerful magick taking place right now. If we break her trance, there’s no telling what may happen.”

I stood back up and retreated. I let slip the connections between my body and Spirit form and slipped spiritually into the Shadowland. There I saw Ravyn’s fiery red form now focused back on the kneeling form of Zenny.

My attention was immediately drawn to Zenny’s form. Normally, Zenny’s Spirit form ranged from soft, dark violet to deep blue. Right at the moment, however, her colors had shifted to vibrant, pulsating hues of orange and yellow. The glow was strongest at her clasped hands, as if she were trying to contain something very powerful within them.

Using a portion of my essence, I stretched out a tendril towards her hands, getting as close as I could without actually touching her. It was quite difficult to do, because there are unseen fields of resistance between different individual Spirit forms. The resistance can be overcome through force of Will but it is exceptionally hard to push very close to another form without actually completely overpowering that resistance.

The closer I got though, the more I sensed something desperately wrong. I felt an overpowering sense of evil emanating from that source between her hands. I could also tell that she was trying desperately to shield us from the pain that she was so clearly experiencing.

That was enough for me. I snapped back into my body and dropped to my knees in front of her and took her still clasped hands in mine.

“Rusty, what are you doing? What’s wrong?” Ravyn’s voice was cracking with concern.

“She’s got a hold of something. Whatever it is, it isn’t good.” Her fingers were clenched tight. Gently at first, I began to pry her fingers away from whatever it was that she was holding.

Zenny gasped in pain as both her rhythm and her grasp was broken. Her left hand loosed and went limp as I managed to reach inside and grab the object. She collapsed into Ravyn’s arms, her chest heaving, tears running down her face. Her choking sobs were loud at first, but were quickly soothed by a deliberately calm Ravyn.

I opened my own palm and looked at what had caused all of this fuss. It seemed innocuous enough—the small metal head of what looked to be a stethoscope. But turning it over in my palm, the back side of it showed something far more sinister. A small symbol was engraved on the backside. It was symbol that even I recognized. It was a swastika.

“What is it, Rusty?”

Even without slipping into the Shadowland, I could feel the power of the thing. Deep inside of my being, the dark whispers of entities slain and consumed long ago by Ma Grendel awakened once again. Their voices ate at my consciousness, calling out in glee at the discovery of this evil tool.

“Feed us!”

“Let us take them!”

“We hunger!”

I closed my hand around the object and tamped the whispers back down into the bowels of my soul. The realization at what I had in my hands had shaken me to my very core. “It’s something from the Nazi’s. I think it was used by El Diablito in the concentration camps for something, but I can’t open myself to it just yet. It is stirring up things inside me that I can’t risk letting loose right now.”

Zenny had stopped sobbing now and seemed to be resting Ravyn’s arms.

“We need to get back to the Coop and find out what she has seen, both from this damn thing and from the door.”

Ravyn nodded. “Let’s get back there quickly.”

I shoved the stethoscope head into my pocket and reached down to pick up Zenny. “We’re taking the express road back, babe. Don’t forget her gloves.”

I stood up and waited for Ravyn to collect her gloves and join me. I called the Shadow as soon as she was ready. This time, Zombie Air provided direct, door-to-door service right back to Ravyn’s study.

Opening Gambit...Part 2

Ravyn, Zenny and I walked through the cold Chicago air, our feet crunching the crusted snow cover as we moved towards the small stone circle behind the Phoenix Coop. Jim followed behind.

Zenny hugged her arms tightly about her body, her teeth chattering as she shivered. “Why must it be so cold in this place?”

Ravyn reached out to touch her shoulder. “I’m sorry dear, I forgot. This will help.” Ravyn closed her eyes for the briefest of moments, uttering a word under her breath that was lost to the whipping winds. A soft red glow slipped from her hand and spread from Zenny’s shoulder to cover her entire body, fading gently as it did.

Zenny brightened up considerably as the glow disappeared. “That’s so much better. I wish I knew how to do that.”

Ravyn threw back her head in laughter, the sound echoing in the still night air. “We all have our own talents dear. Remember, there are things that you can do that I wish I could do as well. But the key is that we all use the abilities that we do have to their best effect. My affinity with fire does come in very handy in these drearily cold Chicago winters. I can’t wait to someplace where I don’t need to worry about making myself or others warmer!”

I led the way into the circle, passing the large, rounded boulder that I always remembered for the way that Betsy had introduced herself to me by killing and devouring a dark wolf-like Spirit that had followed me back from the Underworld into the Shadowland. I had used this place several times since then as a transit point, but that image stuck with me.

Zenny followed close behind, arms still held about her torso as if she were expecting the cold to return at any moment.

Ravyn was the last to enter, but only after she had turned to give Jim a hug. They exchanged a few whispered sentences between themselves in the darkness, but again the bitter, whipping winds rolling in off of the not so distant Lake Michigan claimed those words, preventing me from hearing what was said.

I leaned over to Zenny and quietly posed my own question. “So how long have these two been acting like this with each other?”

“That is none of my, or your, business, Shaitan.”

I looked at her in surprise, until I saw the sly smile cross her face.

‘Shaitan’ was the name that she had first called me when I had rescued her in the Jordanian desert from a bunch of mercenary contractors hired by Dr. Geek. She had been nearly delirious after having been severely damaged by multiple rapes and by a lack of food and water. She had believed me to be an avenging spirit that she had been praying for. Unfortunately for those mercenaries, that was one expectation that I had lived up to.

She had not called me by that name in many months. She hadn’t, in fact, spoken directly too me very much at all in the months since she had been with Ravyn healing and learning to harness her own magickal talents. The fact that she was willing to now joke with me was very promising.

Ravyn bounced through the edge of the circle and came to a stop directly in front of me, fists planted on her hips. “And just what did you mean by that quip?”

I looked up from Ravyn to Jim, who had his own arms folded across his chest as he looked down at us over his glasses. I saw no support there at the moment.

“I…uh…was just wondering…ah…never mind.”

“Good idea. Now, are you done gawking, or do you a question to ask me directly?”

I held up my hands in surrender. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

She glanced back at Jim briefly, a knowing look passed between them. “Good, then let’s go to Hialeah.”

As previously instructed, both Zenny and Ravyn took one of my hands. I summoned the Shadow, opening the path to the Shadowland, and stepped through.

In that place, this stone ring looked almost exactly the same as it did in the world of the living. Now though, I could see a dark stain on the rock where Betsy had dropped and then consumed that wolf-spirit. Jim’s Spirit form stood there watching us as well. His Spirit form was nearly as large and tall as he was in life, roughly in the shape of a bear, standing on his hind legs. The colors of his form shifted slowly from dark blue to a more violet color as he began to worry about us.

I knew that Jim didn’t have the conscious ability to see into the Shadowland, but it was hard to resist one last nod of acknowledgement as I shifted my concentration from getting to the Shadowland to now moving through it to where we needed to go.

Even though the Shadowland was almost a mirror copy of the world of the living, the world in which we experience on a daily basis, time and distance are different concepts here. Moving from place to place within this realm was both much easier and much more difficult than in the traditional world of human experience.

Here in this transitory place, there are portals to many, many different worlds. Not all of these portals, however, work in both directions. It takes a special skill and recognition of the different kinds of portals and where they might lead that can only be acquired through trial and error.

Luckily, I have a well-spring of hard won knowledge of the Shadowland that I gained first from the remnants of Ma Grendel that I still hold within me, and from my own hard-won experience.

I must admit that being (un)dead helps me to overcome almost all of the mistakes I make when traveling through this place.

When John Red Bear taught me to free myself from the bounds of my Chakra by slip my spirit form into the Shadowland and through this place into the Underworld, he taught me to travel as a Shaman, spiritually.

It wasn’t until later, when I was able to observe Papa Locks use the Shadow in this way that I realized that real physical bodies, living and otherwise, could travel here as well. Upon discovering that I had this ability after my confrontation with Ma Grendel, my existence fundamentally changed.

Once in the Shadowland, I could, as a matter of Will send myself flying at such extraordinary speeds that I could arrive in Hialeah within moments. But by flying through the Shadowland that quickly, there would be a risk of passing through some random portal to a world that I would rather not go to. Because I was traveling with Ravyn and Zenny, and because the places we might end up in were just as likely to be inhospitable to living beings, I couldn’t take that chance, unless it was an emergency.

So instead of a single, speed of thought flight through the Shadowland, I drew a cocoon of Shadow about our bodies to keep us hidden from any of the nasty critters and unassociated Spirit forms (those Spirit forms no longer tied to living bodies—but who have been unable or unwilling to seek the next stop in their Spiritual journey—often called ghosts) and made our journey in dozens of shorter, bouncing flights along paths I felt to be safe.

The whole journey took less than half an hour, although it felt like much more by the time I dismissed the bubble of Shadow and we emerged in the dark alley outside the entrance to El Diablito’s old metaphysical shop, NextWorld in the heart of the warehouse district of Hialeah, just a few miles north of Miami International Airport.

Ravyn was the first to let go of my hand as she stepped away, brushing away the fleeting tendrils of dark Shadow substance that still clung to her clothing as if were stray pet hair. “OK, I like my way a LOT better.” She gave me a wicked grin and winked at Zenny. “Remind me again why we decided to travel by Zombie Air?”

Zenny steadied herself against the hard brick wall of the warehouse with both hands, trying to regain her balance. Her normally dark complexion had whitened considerably, but was now beginning to regain her normal hues. “Is there a better way than this? I did not like that very much.”

I shrugged, brushed myself off and grinned back at Ravyn. “Well, coming into the middle of Metro Miami with either a great big flash of fire and smoke or on the back of a flaming Phoenix might have brought a little more unwanted attention than my way did, but hey, I’m open to better suggestions.”

Ravyn stuck her tongue at me before going over to Zenny and helping her.

Having no tongue to stick back out at her, I turned to check out the door to the old shop. It looked very much like I had left it, several years before, when I first received my Chakra. The Cuban-born cabbie who had dropped me off here seemed to have been quite afraid of this place, or the neighborhood, or both.

I crossed the alley and came to the door that led into the front of the shop. The metallic sign hanging overhead creaked as it swung reluctantly in the stiff night breeze. The door had a simple pull handle, no key hole for a lock and no hooks or latches for a padlock of any sort.

As the gals came up behind me, I reached out to the handle.

Ravyn called out in a hushed whisper. “Rusty, wait!”

(To be continued)