At the Behest of the Dead (38 page)

I grabbed the cusp and managed a trickle then used it to pull Collin’s robe. He staggered back and missed. Doc moved out of the way of the flashing arc and nearly went down.

The elemental was still marching out to meet the demon.

I reached the gun and pulled it to my chest and managed to sit up. Power bled from the device
, so I borrowed a bit of it to patch up my shield, braced myself, and fired. The gun was so powerful that the recoil forced the barrel up, almost smacking me in the forehead. I lowered it again, sighted along the barrel, and fired.

Balkir
was punched back as the bullets ripped through him. Where they passed they left ethereal damage. Wounds the size of baseballs opened up and then tried to close. Balkir howled in pain as I lined up for another shot.

The demon was reaching for him when I shot it. I hadn’t ever practiced with a hand cannon and my shot was wide. The next one struck the creature’s wrist, tearing a chunk of skin the size of a small cow free.

I staggered to my feet and reached for the pentagram. The gossamer weave was so thin it was like trying to capture a piece of silk with chopsticks. I managed to get a piece of it, but it fluttered away.

I finally touched it and channeled as much power as I could muster into the new shape Doc had created.

Doc’s pentagram was ripped free of the rock surface. It hovered for a split second and then flew across the room to ensnare Balkir.

“That’s pretty fucking funny,” I gasped.

“You!” Balkir screamed.

“Rend!” Doc screamed and the demon rose to its full towering height.

The little elemental still moved forward to meet the demon.

Collin rose to his feet
, looking every bit a zombie. His chest was ripped open and the demon that had become his heart peeked out from the damage.

“You’re a dead man, Phineas.” Collin smirked.

Peaches, my erstwhile companion, trotted up to me. She was on all fours and had a tiny demon in her mouth. She crunched on its body, dropping limbs as she presented herself. Then she tore across the floor on all four fluffy feet.

“Bad dog. Don’t eat demons. T
hey give you indigestion.” I fell to the floor and thought about never getting up again.

She reached my side and licked my face with her
ichor covered tongue. Her breath smelled like shit. Some rescue.

“Oh this is rich. You
r demon pup is here to save you.” Collin grinned and stabbed Peaches.

She didn’t take too kindly to that.

Her form shook and shimmered as she unlimbered her true shape.

“Holy fu …” was all Collin got out before Peaches mouth distended and snapped shut over most of his head and one shoulder. Then she closed her nightmare of teeth, snapping Collin in half. His body fell to the side. Peaches chewed with glee as all eight eyes shifted to me
, as if looking for approval.

If I
’d had the energy, I would have thrown up.

Then the demon leaned over to stare at me with at least four of h
is eight eyes. I guess that meant one thing. I was next.

But Peaches surprised me by belching out Collin’s mangled head and spitting it on the ground. He still had one eyeball in his crushed head
, but the other socket just oozed white puss and blood.

Doc threw everything he had at the demon, trying to distract it while I suppose I was supposed to come up with a new plan.

I managed to snag the line to the pentagram again and tighten it around the demon, but that made him look even angrier than before. Balkir was already slumping into the demonic form so that only his head protruded. The pentagram must have been causing issues because he was fighting something unseen.

Then
Salazar rose from the stone and stood among us. He was stooped as if in pain, and so transparent I was sure a strong sneeze would evaporate him, but it was him.

“Good. Good,” Salazar
said, and eyed the little fish man that still flopped on the ground. “I hoped it was you, but will you help us?

“Go,” t
he little creature said.

“What will you do?”

“I will give this entrance to the wards something to think about for a very long time.” He then turned and opened his mouth.

“We must leave!” Doc and Salazar said at the same time.

A furious roar rose behind me as we moved. It was so loud it threatened to burst my eardrums. Like I was in a straight up take off at Mach five, my head compressed from the rushing air. I got my hands over my ears and pressed with what little strength I had.

The tiny
elemental expanded until he was the shape of a volleyball, then a car tire. He grew and grew, and as he got larger a gout of water rushed from his mouth. He grew larger still, until he was now the size of a Ferris wheel, and as he grew so did the water.

“Glenda!” I yelled. I couldn’t just leave her here to walk the ward forever.

Peaches nodded at me and rushed across the ground. He grabbed her body before it could be swept away and folded it, almost tenderly, to his breast. He came back on those disjointed legs as fast as they could carry Glenda. Then a hooked hand reached down and snagged my robe by the collar and dragged me toward the entrance to the cavern.

“Doc!” I yelled
, but he was right behind us and he had a special package in hand. Balkir, now a white ball of mist, was held fast by Doc’s pentagram.

“You got him?”

“You did all the hard work!” He exclaimed and we ran.

The water came faster and faster
, until it reached torrential levels as the elemental continued to grow into a tsunami.

The demon, free of
Balkir’s grasp, fought to escape the rush of water, but it was no match for the broken dam. The water was so loud it sucked my hearing away. I wanted to push us faster because the ground was shaking. I was worried about being cooked alive.

Salazar joined us, floating a few feet from my face as Peaches dragged me to the exit. I struggled to my feet but was tugged, unceremoniously, onto my ass once again.

“You did it,” he said.

“Let me up!” I grabbed Peaches hook
-hand and tugged. The demon stopped so I could at least stagger to my feet. I draped one arm over him and together we entered the cave. Behind me the little water elemental screamed a mournful tune.

Doc helped me stagger out
, but I mainly leaned on Peaches. The tunnel rumbled around us as we fled and I expected, at any moment, to be buried alive or swept away by the flood.

As we moved
, Salazar hovered over Glenda. He touched her forehead, and then the weapon that was still buried in her chest.

Glenda!

It hit me then that she was gone. Truly gone. We had floated around each other in an unspoken bond, an understanding that we might well fine each other again one day.  But there had never been time.

The worse thing was that we were on the other side of the cusp and there was every possibility that her soul was now adrift. With the water laying waste to the entrance to the ward
, I may never be able to track down the exact spot she had died and free her essence.

We broke into the wan daylight and started the trek to the cusp. The walk, this time, was much less exciting since the flaming balls of fire had died down. Instead of an erupting mountain, steam rose and became a mist before dissipating. It was much later that the water trickled down the side of the half formed castle.

My feet moved mechanically but I had nothing left. If not for Peaches, in hideous demon form, I wouldn’t have made it.

We reached the cusp and stopped for a merciless moment of rest.

Peaches set Glenda down while Salazar continued to hover over her.

“Glenda. I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

“It’s not your fault.” Salazar said near my ear, even though he was a few feet away.

“What do we do with him now?” I asked
, motioning toward the ball of coalescing rage that Doc carried.

“Now? Now we save Glenda,” h
e replied.

“How?” I whispered
, then looked pointedly at Doc.

“Which will it be?” Doc asked.

“Me. Use me. I’ve got almost nothing left, and Balkir must stand for his crimes,” Salazar said.

“
He’ll never make the crossing. Not like that,” Doc replied.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Phineas, you chose the necromantic arts, but you aren’t much of a necromancer.”

“
Pfft.”

“Just listen. You’re too strong and your skills are too varied. When I learned you were a child of the cusp
, I decided to sit back and watch, and you have not let me down,” he paused. “Except for that stunt on TV. Even though it was bound to happen sooner or later. If we don’t do this now, Glenda’s never coming back. She will start to decay and then her soul can never be returned to her body. What we are about to do is something they don’t teach any more.”

“Not ever … officially,
” Doc said.

“There is a lot to learn, a lot to know
, but the answers you seek are in the school. Go back and read. Recover, learn all you can of our arts. Master them and become a worthy leader and teacher.”

“Salazar, you were
the greatest teacher and my greatest friend. I’ll never be like you. I’m just not worthy.”

“Enough of that,
Phin. You’re like a son to me, and I will think about you every day I am allowed to remain in whatever world exists after this one, but never sell yourself short. You must return and make Balkir’s crimes known. Such as he must never be allowed to control the treasures I have protected for centuries. That jobs falls to you, so don’t screw it up.”

Salazar was fading
, but he attempted to put his arms around me while I stood dumbly, tears leaking form my eyes.

“I love you like a father.”

“And I you as a son.”

“I guess I have Doc to look after me now and send me on stupid hunts.”

“Stupid hunts? See here.”

“You sent me to find a non-existent book and I bought it hook, line, and sinker. Demonic book of secrets my ass.”

“Oh don’t be such a baby,” Doc chided. “I really needed those dragon molars and I knew that a lot of people had been asking about you over here. I thought it might be good for you to show your face, stir things up.”

“So you sent me to South of Heaven on a wild goose chase.” I used my irritation as a distraction so I could wipe away tears.

“Book chase.”

“Whatever
, old man. You sent me to a dead end. In fact, I almost ended up dead.”

“Someone must be looking out for you.” Doc looked up
, as if seeking the heavens.

I sputtered.
“You haven’t been to a church in your entire life.”

“The spirits, boy. Sometimes they whisper to me.”

I couldn’t wait to get better so I could chase Doc around with some weapon from the cache.

“What about Glenda?”

“Just get us back to the necropolis,” Doc said and reached over to pat my shoulder.

“I don’t understand.” I said
, and I didn’t. My mind had stopped processing, so I was forced to watch as they sacrificed what was left of Salazar, my teacher, and the best friend I had ever had, to save the woman I cared about.

“It’s for the best. I have nothing left. I’m barely able to manifest as it is. Before a week
’s time is up, I would be like one of the lost souls you are so good at tracking.”

“I can help. The guild, they’ll know what to do. I’ll go to them right now and beg for help.”

“There are some things that simply cannot be fixed, Phineas.”

I choked back a sob and stared at the ground until it started.

After the ritual, after Salazar gave himself up and was channeled into Glenda, Doc drew on her head with her own blood and chanted a spell that almost sounded familiar, but had odd inflections I couldn’t quite make out. Smoke gathered around the symbol, but just like that was gone again.

Doc helped me open a link to the cusp
, and with it I got us out. This time without the immense pain of the first crossing.

We stood near the jeep for a long time, just looking at the shimmering curtain. On the other side
, Doc had fashioned a trap with the dagger that had slain Glenda, dug a hole in the ground, and then tucked Balkir’s struggling form inside. He drew a glyph and uttered words that ripped at my eyes and stole the sounds from my ears. Doc drove the dagger into the ground so hard that it sank to the hilt, then he pushed until it smoked and went in as deep as the ball that adorned the tip. We both pushed dirt over the spot.

“Remember this spot,” h
e said, and taught me the glyph he’d drawn. With any luck, I would be able to sniff if out if I ever had to. For now, if I understood the spell well enough, Balkir had been embedded in the rock of the cusp and would never see daylight again. He could never leave and he could never be a threat. But his essence would live on until retrieved and dealt with.