The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword) (6 page)

With her back turned to the rest of us, proudly watching the chimera flee, Cindy doesn’t see
Borin and Stewart turn their attention to us.

Borin
is the first to move. He tries to step around me either in an attempt to block our escape or attack Cindy directly. Neither is going to happen, not if I can help it.

The
guy is bigger and heavier than I and it makes me wish I’d taken more self defense classes, but there’s nothing to be done about it now. I move two steps to bring me face to face with him, knowing a direct bit of confrontation like this is going to set him on edge. I can only hope he swings at me rather than use some sort of crazy mind-melting magic.

He swings. With his weight and strength fully behind the punch, I know if it lands, I’m out cold. But it also means all of his balance shifts forward, making it easy to
duck under the swing and grab hold of his arm. As I straighten from my dip, I push the arm further to throw his balance completely off.

Before he has a chance to right himself, I use our combined momentum to spin all of the way around and land a hard kick to the back of his knee. Not hard enough. He doesn’t go down as I hope and so my next kick lands lower than I expect. Worse, when I
realize it won’t hit where I want, I end up pulling the kick and it strikes with less strength than I’m capable.

Even though I know I should attack again while he’s still somewhat disoriented, my focus is pulled to Stewart. There’s no reason why I need to pay attention to him right now. He’s not an immediate threat, but my gut screams to watch out.

The weird thing is he’s not paying attention to us, not really. His eyes are on the box in his hands while the fire inches ever closer behind him.

Borin’s
arm wraps around my chest and throw me at the barn wall. It’s far enough away the impact isn’t particularly painful; still, I feel the wall shift as I hit. The building weakens every second, and if we don’t get out, there’s no doubt the whole place is going to collapse on us.

With my focus split between the fire and Stewart, I don’t have enough attention to spare for
Borin. Luckily Cindy is watching him. As Borin comes after me to finish what he started, she manages to wrap the rope he used on us around him. It catches his neck, and when he rushes forward, he chokes himself.

His eyes bulge both from the lack of air and
from anger as he turns to Cindy. The second he does, my attention is back on Stewart. It’s as if my disgust from him touching the box earlier has increased to a point where if I don’t stop him, I’ll never forgive myself. I have no idea why, but he can’t hold it for one more second.

When I see he’s already flicked the latch and lifting the lid, I snap forward. He notices me only as my foot flies up to knock the box out of his hands. It lands hard on the ground and I cringe as it teeters upside down with its lid wide open. If there’s another mini-man in there, there’s no way he would have survived the fall.

Stewart’s and my eyes lock for half a second before he raises a hand as though to throw something at me. In the same moment, I fling myself to the ground and into a somersault, grabbing the box as I roll. I don’t know how quick Stewart will be with his magic, and I’m sure he’s going to use it against me since brute force seems to be more Borin’s specialty, so I keep moving and give him no chance of an easy target.

When I move several feet closer to the door, I glance back at him. He’s not looking at me. He’s staring at something on the ground, more or less where the box landed. I glance back at the door and escape, but something about him draws my attention again. Another peek and he hasn’t moved. At all. It doesn’t even look like he’s blinked.

I drag my eyes away from him and turn to Cindy for answers. She’s the same. And Borin. It’s like they’ve been frozen, mid-step, as they stare at the same spot. My instinct is to follow their gaze, but I manage to stop myself.

The fire is getting worse, the smoke irritating my lungs. I crouch in order to
keep out of the worst of the heat. Why aren’t the others doing the same? I want to run, but there’s no way I’m going anywhere without Cindy. So, why isn’t she coming?

“What’s happening?” Al asks. “Why’ve you stopped?”

“No one’s moving.” Speaking comes with uncontrollable coughing.

Al on the other hand doesn’t seem to have any trouble with the smoke. “Why?”

“They’re staring at something,” I croak. The heat’s getting to be too much. “I don’t know what.”

“Don’t look!”

“Guessed that,” I say while forcing myself to gaze everywhere except where my eyes are drawn. “What do I do?”

Everyone is still completely motionless. The fire is so close to Stewart, it’s starting to char the bottom of his pant legs. Bits of flaming pieces of old hay and boards crumble from the loft and fall around all of us, causing sparks to spread and the fire to grow. I duck instinctively as a piece comes within inches of hitting Stewart in the head.

“Get out.”

“Not without Cindy.”

He sighs. “She’s not moving either I take it.”

I answer with another coughing bout.

“There must be some sort of spell capturing them. Probably something requiring the target to maintain eye contact with an object. Whatever you do, don’t get between the wizards and the object.”

“An object?” I ask, with another glance around the room.

This time when my eyes pass over the others I notice the keys on the table. Fire is already eating away at the table’s legs, and I’m betting the shiny metal is going to be extremely hot. Unfortunately, it’s also our only way of escape.

“It probably came out of the box.”

“What did?” I ask while distracted by the keys.

“The object.” Another chunk of wood falls, the largest yet. The smash and spray of flames causes Al to pause for a second. When he speaks again,
it’s in a rush. “You knocked the box to the ground, did you not? When it fell, it must have dropped out.”

“You were the only thing in there.”

His frustration at my slow understanding and the fact that I’m not getting out of the crumbling barn as quick as he’d like causes his voice to be tight.

“Yes, that time.”

The heat and smoke is making an already messed up situation much more confusing.

“Explain later.” The smoke is so thick the space between the others and me has become blurred. Even with the spell capturing her, I have no idea how Cindy hasn’t passed out yet. There’s no more time. “You said to stop the spell I need to break their eye contact, right?”

“Correct.”

“Perfect.”

I dash forward, grab the keys and instantly shove them into my purse, which I also grab off the table. The heat’s done its number on it, turning the off white leather a dirty brown and making the metal clasp next to impossible to touch, but it’s better than holding the keys directly. Plus my cell’s in there. When I turn to face Borin and Cindy, I know there’s no way I can block the view of one but not the other. I’m going to have to make this quick.

Something else catches my eye and at first I look away, thinking I’ve somehow gazed at the very item I’ve been trying to avoid. Little by little my brain processes what I’ve seen, and I
realize it is the blue bag Stewart taunted me with, not whatever froze everyone. He must have dropped it along with the box.

Above me something snaps and the entire roof on Stewart’s side of the barn
succumbs to the fire and collapses. I have seconds before the rest falls, if I’m lucky. I dash forward, dip down to grab the bag and without any hesitation slam myself against Cindy, full force.

All I can hope is whatever magic is on her doesn’t leave her prone to broken bones.

The hit knocks her back and breaks the spell. Without waiting for her to regain her balance, I pull her forward and toward the exit. A coughing fit slows her down enough I know we won’t be able to outrun Borin, who is also now free.

I spin around, using the motion to force Cindy forward through the door and giving
Borin no time to react to my next move. As he reaches to grab my shoulder, I kick. Low and hard. He doubles over in pain and I know it’s going to take him more than a second to recover.

Without another glance at the two wizards, I follow Cindy outside to the amazingly cool fresh air.

“Keys,” Cindy says between coughs with her hand stretched toward me.

“I’ve got them,” I tell her while racing to the driver’s side of the car.

“Great,” she says. “Give them to me.”

There’s no time to argue, and there’s also no way I’m giving her the keys. After standing still in the heat and smoke I know she’s not going to have the reaction time and clear head needed to keep the vehicle going. Plus, with my adrenaline as high as it is, I need to be doing something to get us out of here.

Without another word, I jump into the car and dig for the keys. If only I’d taken a smaller purse.

“You said you had them,” she says once she’s in the car and
realizes what I’m doing. “Where are they?”

I ignore her and keep searching. I hear her slap down the lock on her side before she reaches across to do the same to mine.

“Now would be good.”

She cringes away from the window and a loud thump follows. I force myself
not to look up and instead focus on the keys. There. I shove the right one into the ignition, missing a couple of times because of my shaking hands.

Whoever attacks the car gets one last hit in as the engine turns over and I throw the vehicle into gear. As I squeal out of the driveway, the tires digging up dirt and grass as I go a little onto the lawn, I look back to see
Borin holding a large piece of wood. Stewart walks calmly from the burning building and watches us with a smile on his lips.

“Breathe
, Lou,” Cindy says once we’re well away from the barn.

There’s no sign of anyone following us, but I’ve changed lanes and taken so many turns, I don’t know where we are. It’s no wonder they haven’t found us yet. I look out the mirrors and then glance over my shoulder just in case.

“Jesus Christ!” Cindy shouts while grabbing the wheel to put us back onto our half of the road. “Stop before you kill us.”

“They’re coming.” I tighten my hands around the steering wheel to stop from shaking. It doesn’t help. “I know they’re coming and they’re going to find us and then the animal is going to eat us and...” gasp “I can’t...” gasp “do this.”

“In and out. If you need to puke, do it out the window.” She even goes so far as to reach over and wind my window down. “I am not cleaning that shit up.”

I put my hand over my mouth and hold it there. I hadn’t thought about throwing up, but now my stomach feels like
the entire contents of the past week want out.

“Think about something else,” she says.

But I can’t. All I can think about is the fire and the creature and being tied up and was there a red truck behind us?

Cindy catches the wheel again. “I know! You could put all of your concentration into DRIVING. Seriously, Lou. I thought you got your permit. Can’t you at least stay on the pavement?”

“No, this is good,” Al says. “Don’t do anything predictable. It’ll make it harder for them to figure out what your next move is.”

Cindy shifts the wheel a bit more. “Not helping,
Mini-Al.”

“Do we have a next move?” I ask.

“It would help if we live long enough to get to a next move. Lou!” She slams her foot down as though she’s trying to stomp on the brake. “There was a car in that lane.”

I’m shaking so badly and my hands are so sweaty I can hardly keep
them on the wheel. I don’t know how Cindy expects me to drive any better under these circumstances. Plus this car sucks. I don’t know why I ever wanted it for myself. Mom’s car is way easier to drive. Or at least it was the two times she let me take it the six blocks to the grocery store with her in the passenger seat.

“Good work with the rope
s,” Cindy says after I’m able to steady the vehicle, more or less. “I still have no idea how you got us out of them, but it was a pretty sweet move.”

“I didn’t do it,” I say. “I thought you must have.”

“I was talking to Al. You keep your eyes on the road.”

There’s a little hesitation before Al replies with a shy, “Nice work with the dust. I’ve never seen it used before in such a way.”

“You’re the one who told me what to do,” Cindy reminds him. “And do you see how good I’m being at not asking how you know so much about magic?”

Al remains quiet for a second, which is way longer than I can take right now.

“We nearly died, and there’s all this crazy stuff happening and you guys are treating it all like it is some game.” I use my hand as a puppet while imitating them. “‘Oh, good work.’ ‘Yeah, you too. High five.’ ‘Hey, why don’t we go out for pizza now to celebrate?’ ‘Sounds great, because whatever happened is so five minutes ago.’”

“I could go for some pizza right now,” Cindy says. “I don’t like pizza, but I’m so starved I’d happily eat at the greasiest diner.”

“CINDY!” I slam my hand on the wheel and without meaning to, my foot smashes down too, pushing the old car up to an alarming speed before I hit the brake a little too hard and jerk us back to something more manageable. “What is going on?” I demand.

Neither of the other two says anything for a few seconds.

“Jeez, relax, Lou.” She rolls her neck to work out the kinks from my erratic driving. “And you know I go by Sin now.”

“Cindy!”

“Fine, fine. But I don’t know much more than you.”

“Don’t give me that.” I reach over and smack her shoulder. Not hard enough to actually hurt her, but hopefully it’s enough to convince her to stop stalling. “What was with the dust?”

“It isn’t anything special.” The pride in her voice says something else entirely. “It’s a combination of a few different things. Ground together they can cause hallucinations and enhance fears.”

“Yeah, except stuff like magic dust doesn’t exist in real life.”

As I say the words my eyes drift down to Al. I don’t need Cindy’s next comment to know I’m being ridiculous. If he can exist, why can’t magic dust?

“Obviously it does, since you saw me use it.”

“Most people can’t make it work,” Al adds. “Only someone who can manipulate the magic the powder holds can force people to see and hear things like you did. A sorceress, for example. Or a talented witch.”

“I’m not a sorceress,” Cindy says as though she wishes she were.

“I know,” Al says.

“About that,” Cindy tone turns suspicious. “Are you going to explain how you know so much about all of this? Or am I going to have to beg?”

She’s right. He knew about the chimera and wizards and the magic on the door and he even mentioned something about the box. I didn’t have time to ask then, but since we’re relatively safe I want to know what he was trying to say. Except now he seems intent on staying silent.

“Please,” I say. “I need to know what’s going on.”

“I don’t know much either,” he says which makes Cindy growl with annoyance.

“Anything will help.” I sound as kind as possible to counter Cindy’s anger. Hard to do when my voice is shaking from nerves. “You said something about the box before. What were you talking about?”

“It was something the wizard, Stewart, said,” Al says. “He was looking for a portal and said your grandmother was the guardian of one.”

“So what?” Cindy snaps.

“This isn’t my world,” he says. “Combined with the fact I don’t remember being inside the box for more than a second, and it’s the only conclusion I can come up with.”

From Cindy’s snort, I can tell she gets what he’s talking about right away. My brain, on the other hand, is too busy driving the car and watching out for anyone tailing us to be able to figure out what he means.

“I don’t understand,” I admit after a moment’s silence.

“I’m not sure,” Al says. “But I think the box is what Stewart was looking for. The box is the portal.”

“Portal in a box.” I check the rear-view mirror in order to avoid processing the information for a little longer. “Why not?”

“It makes sense,” Cindy grudgingly admits. “I’m betting the rock with the holding spell on it came from your world too.”

“A rock,” Al says. “Thank you for telling me what held you. Not knowing was frustrating.”

Cindy grins. “Good call about the chimera, Mini-Al.”

“What call?” I ask.

Were they ever going to start explaining rather than talking around me as though I don’t exist?

“When he cut our ropes, he told me to concentrate the dust on the creature. It doesn’t have the magical immunity the wizards have.”

“Al
cut
the ropes?” I imagine him climbing around us, hacking at the rope like a lumberjack. It doesn’t seem feasible. “They were as thick as he is tall. How is that possible?”

“My blade can cut through anything,” Al says simply as though it should be obvious. “It was a gift from my sister. She was always good at choosing gifts.”

“Yes, of course,” I say. “A blade that can cut anything. Fear and hallucinations caused by powder. A portal to another world inside a box and a bag full of toenails and magic.” I laugh at the absurdity of my words. “Yup, I’ve gone completely insane.”

“You can’t ever open the bag,” Cindy says. “Never. You hear me?”

“But, I mean, it doesn’t really hold my magic.” I laugh at the absurdity of the idea, but quickly realize no one else is laughing. “Can it?”

“All you need to know is not to open it. Ever. It’s what Gran wanted.”

“Stewart said...” I can’t believe I’m going to say the words aloud, they’re so ludicrous. “He said I’m a sorceress. Like Gran.”

Cindy stares out of the passenger window without saying anything.

“He can’t be right. Gran wasn’t... and I’m certainly not...” Silence. “Cindy, why won’t you look at me?

“Gran was a sorceress,” Cindy says in a matter-of-fact sort of way. “She was born with magic and could use it to do pretty much anything she wanted.”

“Like you?”

After what I’d seen in the barn, I wouldn’t doub
t her if she said she could fly.

“No, don’t be an idiot. Do you think I’d spend so much money fixing this damn car if I could do the same with magic?” She brushes my words away with a wave of her hand.

“But, the dust...”

“A manipulation of pre
-existing magic.” She sounds disappointed in her own abilities, though her tone turns wistful as she talks about Gran. “Gran, and others like her, can create magic on their own.”

I’m terrified of the answer, but I have to ask. “Others, like me?”

“Just, don’t open the bag, hear me?” Cindy says by way of an answer.

After a minute I finally have the nerve to speak again. “Are you a wizard?”

“Who me?” Cindy laughs. “No way. Wizards steal magic from people and twist it into something sick. I’m all about using what’s available naturally. Anything I want to do with magic requires time and planning.”

“She’s a witch,” Al says when it’s obvious Cindy would rather tell me everything except a straight answer.

“A witch!” I laugh. “Of course. Actually explains a lot. Wait, can you really fly? On a broomstick?”

She rubs her forehead and refuses to answer the question.

“Al,” she says. “You still haven’t explained how you know so much about all of this.”

As interested as I am in his answer, I’m more curious about Cindy right now. “I want to know more about you being a witch. What does that mean exactly? Where’s your hat and green skin and...”

Cindy interrupts. “Shut up, Lou.”

“I’m serious.” I move my hand in a ‘calm down’ gesture. “What is a witch and what else can you do?”

She considers her answer for a minute. Her hesitation makes me think she’s going to refuse to answer.

“We work with spells, generally. It takes us a lot longer to prepare even a little bit of magic compared to sorceresses, and everything has to be organized in advance. I can’t instantly cast magic if I haven’t readied the spell in advance.”

I’m about to ask more questions when she continues.

“It’s all a matter of balancing different aspects of the elements. It’s easier to show you than tell, but right now I’m more interested in Al.”

I would interrupt again, but something about the look Cindy’s giving Al keeps me silent. It seems to have the same effect on him.

“Tell me how you know so much about magic or I’ll remind you how much bigger than you we are.”

I doubt he actually feels threatened, but he makes the decision to start talking.

“My sister,” he says. “She’s a sorceress.”

“Your sister...” I never thought I’d see Cindy be too shocked to finish a sentence.

“Is a sorceress,” Al finishes for her. “Was. I guess.”

Always the one to be blunt, Cindy asks, “She’s dead?”

“I’m so sorry,” I say quickly to cover up her insensitivity.

“She isn’t... not entirely.” His voice is cold, as though he’s separating himself from the event and ultimately the emotions he doesn’t want to express. “A wizard found her. He took her magic and left her...empty.”

I expect Cindy to say something rude, or disrespectful, or stupid, or something along the lines of ‘shit. That sucks, dude.’ But she doesn’t say anything at all for a long time. Or at least a long time for her. When she does speak, it’s a quiet, “Sorry.”

“Yeah.” He clears his throat. “Well, one thing I’m sure of is wizards never give up when they find something they want.”

“You mean, you think they’re following us?” I look at each of the mirrors and turn my head to look out the back window, but there’s nothing there as far as I can see. The screech of the tires brings my focus back to what’s in front of us.

“I swear, if you get so much as a scratch on this car, I will kill you.” Cindy lets go of the wheel when she’s sure I’m paying more attention. I focus on where I am on the road. Even so, I can’t stop my eyes from flicking to the mirror more often than necessary.

“I don’t see them,” I say when Cindy’s a little less angry.

“They might not be right behind you,” Al says. “But they will come after you. You have something they want.”

“The box,” I say.

“It’s not the only thing,” Al says.

“What else is there?” My eyes are drawn to my purse and the bag inside.

I already know the answer when he says, “You.”