Deliverance (30 page)

I’m tired. The ritual drained me, not only physically and mentally, but also emotionally, but we can’t waste time. What we’ve performed here has shifted the balance of power and we have to act while we still have the element of surprise. Ramtin has enough witches, mystics, and small time Jinn that he could make a few Gargoyles if he felt threatened.

We pile into two cars. Aude and Guillaume come with me since Garnier says he can’t face Guillaume yet. The other three ride with Garnier.

I speed through the streets of south Tehran and up to the north, avoiding the pedestrians and random motorcycles that seem to come out of nowhere.

“Thank you,” Aude says, “for everything.”

I smile at her from the rear view mirror. It was my choice, but I’m a little on edge. A little bitter.

I slow down as I pass a man leading several camels into town. “That’s weird.”

The old man dressed in desert garb turns to look at me. He gives me a huge toothless grin and his eyes glow orange. Instinctively, I look to his feet. He has camel feet. He’s a desert Jinni.

“What is this guy doing in the city? Something is happening.”

The other two look out the window but say nothing. Flocks of bird swirl over Ramtin’s house. I’m pretty certain that Kateri had nothing to do with them this time. “Are they expecting us?” I whisper.

But the birds start falling from the sky, just as they did yesterday and I shudder. Because I can feel that the birds are different this time. I know if I was closer, I would see their eyes burning. The Jinn hadn’t waited for us. They have brought the war here already. My hands tremble on the steering wheel. I’m not ready for this.

I stop the car. “We should walk from here.”

Garnier parks beside me. “What’s going on with the birds?”

“They aren’t really birds.”

“What’s going on?”

“The Jinn are amassing. They’ve started a war.”

“Maybe we can just wait and see who wins,” Kateri says.

The thought is tempting. But I know this is the time to fight. I know Ramtin needs to be stopped, and this is our opportunity. The Jinn won’t stop him. They are too easily distracted, too consumed by their own war. This is no longer about Ramtin for them.

“We have to go in.”

Garnier holds my hand and gives me a firm nod. I can’t resist; I wrap my arms around his neck and put my head against his chest. He lifts up my chin so I am looking right in his eyes.

“We’ve got this.” His words are barely more than a breath.

I press my lips against his and tighten my arms around him. He holds my waist and pulls me closer to him. Fire spreads over me. I feel desperate for him. It’s my fear, my love, my anger, my pain, my sense of belonging with him, all mingling into one irresistible emotion. But this isn’t the right time. It takes everything I have but I start pushing him away. He takes a deep breath.

“We will be alright,” he whispers to me. He turns to the others. “We will be okay. Let’s go.”

They nod to each other, but I see the pain in their eyes. They’ve already lost too much. Hand in hand, we march towards the fray. The chaos around us stops me in my tracks. I’ve never seen anything like it. Creatures of all sorts, both unbearably beautiful and unbearably ugly fight each other with tooth, nail, weapons, and magic. There is no sense or logic. I spot Ramtin immediately. He’s in the middle of them all, in Gargoyle form. He pounces and snarls and I can’t help but think he’s having a good time. The other creatures can’t get close to him. I send out a probing strand of essence and immediately it bounces back. Someone is holding a protective spell over him.

The Gargoyles jump into the fight while the shamans stay well away so they can dance and chant their spells of protection. I’m alone. I look longingly to Garnier and wish I could join him, but I know I’m most powerful this way. I’m also more vulnerable, but I already feel the Earth magic surrounding me. I nod my thanks to Kateri and her grandfather who are keeping an eye on me. The Gargoyles must be communicating through mind voice because they attack in an organized manner. Other creatures join their side and aid them. I’m shut out.

I have a purpose though. I have to find the witches protecting Ramtin. Then, I can drain him. My purpose is the most important. I couldn’t have left it in Aude’s hands.

Still, I feel cheated.

I walk around the perimeter of the battle. A few creatures come at me, but I drain them quickly. I focus the essence into my known allies. I’m not aligned with them as if I was a de Rouen witch, only with Aude, who is my creation. Still, I could give them all essence, though it wouldn’t be concentrated like it would be were I aligned with them. I focus on Aude.

Aude is my creature. I hadn’t realized this would happen, but it makes sense. I can use my mind voice with her. I tell her that she is still a de Rouen witch and she can disperse the essence to the boys and I leave them in her hands.

My task lies elsewhere. I continue looking for the witches, casting my essence here and there. They have to be somewhere safe. It’s difficult because I keep on getting interrupted and I don’t even have a weapon to defend myself with. Other than my mind, that is.

A larger Jinni comes at me and I concentrate on him. His essence is bound up a different way. I don’t know how to untie it. I back away from him but he keeps coming towards me. I trip and two more Jinn notice me. None of the ones fighting on our side have noticed me.

'Aude!'
 I call in my mind voice.

But I hear nothing back. I lash out with my essence at one of the other Jinn and manage to unravel his immediately. He melts and bubbles and is absorbed into the ground. I keep his essence around myself as a barrier. But it does little. The hooked and clawed creature lashes out at me physically. It tears the skin off my arms and I fall back to the ground, still trying to get away. I press my hand over the wound to stop the bleeding but the wound is more than a physical one and I begin to feel weakened. I grab him with my essence but he’s too slippery. Too much in control. Where are my protectors when I need them?

‘Aude!’
 Why was I left alone?

Suddenly there is a release in the pressure on my arm. A small stone griffon is fighting the Jinni in front of me. He’s getting a good beating but it’s enough to distract the creature from attacking me. Enough that his barrier is gone and I find a small way in before he knows to protect himself.

His essence makes me sick. I hold on to it even as I double over to retch on the floor. I pick myself up off the ground and yank his essence right into me to heal myself. The Jinni ignites and disappears into smokeless flames. Deleer is already pouncing on the next one but he’s hurt and limping badly. I try to stream essence into him, but I hit stone. He’s protecting himself too well and I don’t have an inside path since he’s not my familiar.

I worry about Aude and the others. We shouldn’t have divided. It seems so obvious now.

I send my essence into attacking the last Jinn and he unravels like the other two. The sooner I can get to the witches, and hopefully to Leyli, the sooner we can end this thing.

Deleer stays close to me. I’m not actually alone after all. As I get to the walls of the compound, I feel them. There is so much power there that every creature that comes within a five foot radius of that spot disintegrates. Leyli is in a group of witches standing in front of the wall. She isn’t fighting. Actually, she isn’t even moving. The witches standing on top of the wall control the show. And right now, I can’t get to them. I need a distraction. I look to Deleer but sending him to the witches would be the same as sending him to his death. Can I do this to him?

Can I sacrifice another life for the sake of humanity? The answer should be yes, but I’m not so sure I can do it. The part of me that is a sixteen-year-old girl just cannot come to terms with it. Deleer decides to take things in his own paws and pounces towards the witches. I use my essence to block him.

“Come on boy. I have another plan.” I need to find Kateri.

I go back outside the rough limits of the fighting zone and find the shamans still dancing and chanting. Their arms are spread wide and I can feel the energy they are channeling.

“I need the ground to tremble,” I say. “But not right away.”

I point to the spot from which the witches are holding down the fort. They aren’t visible from here. “Once I am near there, I need the wall to come down. Is that possible?”

Kateri turns to Old Man Robert. “The two of us together can do that, but it will leave the Gargoyles vulnerable for a few minutes.”

I squint my eyes to try to spot Garnier through the fray. I can’t see him. Another decision I have to make. Another possible sacrifice. I bite my lip but nod my head. “This is important. But return their protection as soon as you can.”

I whistle to Deleer and we run back towards the wall together. I love this dog. I send him a thread of warm essence and he returns the emotion by rubbing himself against my leg and nearly tripping me.

We are intercepted along the way by a few Jinn and some minor stone creatures but I dispel them quickly. I remain well out of the witches’ radius and wait for the shamans to do their thing.

I don’t have to wait long. The earthquake knocks me off my feet. As it does everyone else. The moment the wall begins to crumble, I leap up and jump on the witches. I punch a blonde girl in the face while Deleer pins another one. I recite a few spells and mantras under my breath to concentrate my magic and render them immobile. I wish I could just drain them, but they are too well protected and I have to hurry.

Anyway, I know they’re not all evil, so they can sort it all out amongst themselves once Ramtin is no longer able to control them. Ramtin is my priority. That and saving Leyli. I grab her by the arms and she follows me in the same passive manner Aude used the previous day. Except that instead of having a few witches on my butt, this time I have about two dozen Jinn. And they have all shifted their focus to me. Luckily the good Jinn and Gargoyles have also shifted their focus.

I pull Leyli towards Kateri and Old Man Robert, narrowly escaping several creatures. Once Leyli’s safe, I turn to face them. I keep my hands on my hips and scan the crowd to find Ramtin. I place a large essence marker on his head so everyone can find him. Then I begin to probe him with my essence, looking for any opening to let me in. But he is as solid as rock. The Gargoyles attack him but he throws them off effortlessly.

I clench my fists tightly and try to find a weakness. In the centuries I’ve known him he’s never shown weakness. There was a long time when I thought I could be his weakness, but he dispelled that when he tried to kill me. I had loved him in the only way I had known to love, then. I had competed with him to be worthy. And he’d not only pushed me away at every turn, he’d tried to dispose of me. My anger starts bubbling to the surface, slowly simmering and turning into rage. My very essence shifts and turns. It no longer is cool and tingling, it burns like a smokeless fire.

Every Jinn, good, bad, and those who were neither but simply wanted a fight, move away when I walk past. They move away and then disappear back to wherever Jinn go to when they no longer want to be part of our world.

Before long, the only ones who still stand are the witches and the Gargoyles. Deleer still remains on my heel.

I can’t control my furry. Essence blows all around me like orange flames. My hair flickers with it. Ramtin transforms to his human shape and I ignore his nakedness. His perfect body.

His smile is sad. “I’d hoped you could find it again.”

“Find what?”

“The power you had before you were a Gargoyle.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You were not only the best court musician and the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, you were also the most powerful witch I had ever encountered. And you weren’t even aware of it.”

“I …” I don’t know what to say. He’s trying to trick me. I force myself to stay steady. I force myself not to let my fury fade. I send out my essence towards him again and find him strangely vulnerable. Does he think I’m so stupid that I’ve fallen for his words? Does he think he doesn’t have to protect himself?

I press on and find the loose place everyone has inside of them. The place you can pull and rip their soul from them. But something else gets my attention. His essence isn’t completely corrupted. Under the bad stuff, it’s pure. Are all people like this? I proceed with more caution. It has to be a trick. I unravel his essence and I see some of his soul.

He drops to his knees but I continue.

I find his anger. I find his thirst for power. I find his jealousy. I feel the pain he inflicts as well as the pain that has been inflicted on him. Under everything, there is fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of being nobody. This man wanted to end the world as we know it because he felt he had something to prove. I unravel slower and slower, letting the essence disperse in the air. It seems wrong to give it to somebody else.

And then I see something that makes me pause. I see myself. I see me like he saw me. I kneel in front of him and try to lift his chin up to face me. I don’t understand what I see in his soul. I don’t understand how this man could have both hated me for so long and loved me so much at the same time. I place my hands on his cheeks and keep his eyes level with mine. I continue to pull away his essence. I continue to kill the monster I had created.

Tears roll down my cheeks but I don’t stop them. I don’t stop anything. I know he’s too far gone to save. The people he has killed to try to impress me won’t come back to life when he is gone, but no one else can be his victim again. I’m letting him go mercifully and with love.

All these years, I had been the one with the power. When I thought he’d pushed me away, I had been the one pushing him away. When I thought he was getting rid of me, he was the one who saved me. He was the one who wanted me to find my true power again. The locket was all him. He wanted me to leave my stone restraints. Nagissa the Gargoyle had been hard.

My strength lies in the same place as Garnier’s. It lies in my weakness.