Eddie Lancaster Box Set 2, page 39
part #4 of Eddie Lancaster Series
The dynasts rallied together to form a line and as one marched forwards after him. They halted in the middle of the room when they saw him climb back to his feet. ‘Not bad,’ he said, brushing splinters of wood off him. ‘But you’re going to have to do a lot better. Now, why don’t I return the favour?’
He spread his arms out violently and every single chair shattered into hundreds of splinters. Hundreds of thousands of tiny shards of wood rose up in the air and then Nick sent them charging at the dynasts like bullets. Fearing that he might have forgotten about me I threw up my shield again. The dynasts had the same idea. Within moments I could see nothing but swirling wood as it flew around trying to find its mark. I could hear cries, but I couldn’t tell if they were groans of pain or exertion. The attack went on for the longest time until finally the wood fell noisily to the ground. Six dynasts were still standing. A blotchy-skinned woman was lying on her side, her whole body penetrated by tiny shards of wood, a pool of blood spilling out from her corpse. Either shield had been weak, or she hadn’t got it up in time.
Clara glared up at Nick as the others moved away from the blood and reorganised their line. ‘One nil to me, I believe,’ Nick said with a wry smile. Then he vanished. When he reappeared, he was flying through the air from behind, his hands glowing with magic. The dynasts were prepared. They spun round and projected a barrier that he charged headfirst into. He bounced off and rather embarrassingly slid across the floor on his arse, he slammed into the wall that separated the main floor from the stands.
‘No!’ I shouted as they prepared to attack him as one. If they hit him now whilst he was dazed they might actually beat him. I ran at them, preparing a spell. A bony woman turned and thrust a ball of pure magic my way. I got my shield up just in time and the ball fizzled into it, the force still knocked me off my feet and I landed painfully on my coccyx. Nick was suddenly behind her. Her body sort of jerked and then jellified before falling uselessly to the ground. Nick was staring at her corpse furiously, her spine gripped in his bloody hand.
‘Nobody touches my grandson,’ he said in an angry whisper. His eyes reddened, and black tentacles spread out down his face, travelling down his neck to his body. I realised they were his veins glowing with black power. He issued a guttural growl as he spun round on the spot unleashing a flurry of spells. Sorcerers flew away from him as the spells hit. Some managed to block them but the forces of Nick’s fury still knocked them back. Even Clara was having trouble parrying him now. One of the dynasts I didn’t recognise got too close. Nick snatched her by the throat and the black-coloured magic snaked out of his skin and into hers. It forked up from her throat, covering her face. She moaned as her eyes filled with black and black sludge treacled out of her mouth. Nick dropped her lifeless body and moved on without hesitation. The dynasts didn’t have time to return fire, he threw spells out so fast. He was also moving around with such speed that a vampire would have trouble keeping up. I could tell that Nick’s goal was Clara. Every step he took was towards her, but she seemed to pick up on this and kept moving away. Every now and then she managed to throw out a spell, but she didn’t have time to focus her energy properly between avoiding Nick and blocking his attacks. If this was the best the AOC had to offer then they seriously needed to revisit the drawing board. One of Clara’s spells hit Nick’s shield and he jolted forwards. As he did so the Ambrotos Dagger slipped out from his belt and clattered to the floor. He seemed not to notice and carried on fighting. I stared on in disbelief. He’d dropped the one thing they could actually use against him and he hadn’t even noticed. Clara had though. She no longer sought to evade Nick. Now she ran straight at him. I knew what she was up to and ran after her. As she reached Nick she skidded to the floor and snatched up the Dagger as she passed. She moved like an acrobat. She spun around, rose back to her feet at the same time as Nick turned to face her. She didn’t hesitate. She plunged the Dagger straight into his heart. Every dynast stopped moving. I stopped just centimetres from Nick and Clara. I had no idea what would happen now, but I imagined I was going to wake up in a cell. Again. Unless I could get the Dagger out of his heart before it was too late.
Then Nick laughed. Clara stared at him in horror as she realised she’d been played. ‘It’s a fake,’ Nick revealed as the Dagger turned to dust. Nick’s hand shot up into Clara’s face and as she fell unconscious he caught her by the hair. The other dynasts dared not to move now that he held their leader in his hand.
‘Nick, please,’ Arthur said, as if trying to reason with an old friend.
‘You fought fairly well. But if you wish to survive our next bout you’ll have to get better,’ Nick said with a satanic grin. He reached out with his free hand and grabbed my shoulder.
‘No!’ Arthur shouted, and he and the other dynasts surged forwards. But it was too late, we were already gone.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
As Nick released me I staggered and only just managed to keep my balance. I hadn’t been expecting to teleport so suddenly. We’d arrived on some sort of tiny island. There was a white stone villa surrounded by grass. We seemed to be atop a cliff and there was a long winding path that led downwards to the shore where there was a small unkempt dock. There was no boat there and I got the feeling that it wasn’t used very often. Why would it be when Nick could teleport?
The silver-haired warlock who’d visited me in Maidstone not so long ago came out of the house with a comical look of surprise on her face. ‘You’ve got her,’ she said, pointing at Clara.
‘Don’t look so surprised, Selina,’ said Nick. He shoved Clara towards her and the unconscious sorcerer landed in an undignified heap on the path. ‘Put her away.’
Selina held out her hand palm up and Clara floated up into the air. Selina then walked inside the villa, leading Clara behind her as if on an invisible string. I wondered what Nick had planned for her. Torture? Death? I wasn’t sure that Clara deserved to die but she certainly couldn’t be allowed to continue with her plans.
‘Where are we?’ I asked. All around the island all I could see was water. Not even a boat was in sight. The wind blew off the sea making my hair dance about. I needed a haircut, it had been a while and my hair had grown a quarter of the way over my ears. I was surprised Gabe hadn’t arranged one for me. I quickly pulled out my phone and sent him a text to let him know I was alright and still with Nick. He replied immediately letting me know that he was back in Maidstone and everything was fine.
‘This is my home,’ Nick said. ‘We’re not far from England. I like my solitude, so I protected the island with a spell. No-one can find it without my invitation.’
‘It looks like we’re pretty far away from everything,’ I said, searching around for anything that wasn’t water. I was unsuccessful. There weren’t even any birds.
‘That’s part of the spell. If I broke the spell you’d see England right over there.’ He pointed East but all I could see was water.
As we neared the villa I noticed that there were statures along the roof, carved into the shape of the hideous gargoyles that had attacked the AOC not so long ago. I shivered as I looked up at them. Even the stone effigies had creepy eyes. Then I remembered the stories I’d heard about gargoyles when I was with Rachel. She told me that when the sun hit them they turned to stone. ‘Are they real, or statues?’ I asked, pointing up at them. Nick gazed up to where I was pointing.
‘Quite real,’ he confirmed. Then he nodded for me to follow him inside.
It wasn’t as grand as I’d expected inside. The brick walls were left bare and the tiles were old and some cracked. The furnishing was very minimalistic. What few furnishings were there all served a specific function. There was nothing superfluous or decorative.
‘I used to be far more lavish,’ Nick said, as if he was reading my mind. ‘Now I don’t put much stock in possessions. I keep only what I need.’
We went through to a sitting room which had just a collection of armchairs all looking like they’d been there as long as the building. We passed straight through into a room that was far fuller. It was a library but not just any library. Vast would have been an understatement. The room was the size of a grocery shop and filled from floor to ceiling with books. There were free standing shelves towards the middle of the room and they too were crammed with ancient tomes. There wasn’t a modern book in sight. Some books were locked behind glass doors and I had a hunch they were likely protected with magic. The centre of the room held a large square table and a couple of wooden chairs.
‘This room is the most important room in the villa. Here,’ Nick gestured around us. ‘is every important book on the subject of magic. These pages hold magical secrets that people today never even knew existed. These books have taught me more than any single person ever has.’
I was in awe. I used to think that Margie’s grimoire collection was impressive, but it was child’s play compared to all this. I could quite happily stay in this room for a hundred years. No wonder Nick was so skilled if he had all this at his disposal. All this knowledge in his head.
‘Volumes from Ancient Egypt, Greece, the Aztecs,’ Nick said as he walked slowly through the room, touching various books lightly. ‘There are books in this room that would burn a mortal’s eyes out of he simply looked at the words.’
‘Oh,’ I said, suddenly not so keen to read all of the books.
‘They’re hidden from sight,’ he said with a warm smile. ‘I know you want to read every page in this room, Eddie and I want you to. I want to teach you the ways of magic that only I know. I want you to be as great as I am.’
‘I want that,’ I said, nodding eagerly.
‘I know you do because you are my blood and you are like me. But it would be pointless to show you these books in your current state. You don’t have the power to master the spells here. You need more.’
I understood what he was saying. ‘Then give me more,’ I said. Nick had gathered magic from creatures all around the world. Even creatures from other worlds. He could make me more powerful. I suspected that he had a reserve of magic in this villa somewhere.
‘I cannot give you magic, Eddie. Nobody can. That’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way. If you want magic, you must take it.’
‘Alright,’ I agreed. ‘I’ll take magic. Where can I get enough to learn from these books?’
‘Come.’ I followed him through the villa and out onto a spacious patio. The patio ran right up to the edge of the cliff where it dropped sharply onto jagged rocks below. There was a single metal bench to one side of the patio and in the middle was a rusty metal cage. It was just the right size for a dog but not tall enough for a person. Inside still lying unconscious was Clara Winters.
‘Take it from her,’ Nick said.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
‘I don’t know…’ I rubbed the back of my neck as I tried to figure things out. I hated Clara for what she’d done but stealing her magic didn’t seem right. Seeing her in the cage looking like an animal made me feel uncomfortable. Everything about this situation seemed wrong. She was lying face down on the floor of the cage, her blonde hair scattered around her head untidily. Her jacket and skirt were tattered and torn from the fight and there was barely anything left of her tights.
‘It may seem like it’s wrong to take her magic, but you simply need to alter your perspective,’ Nick said from behind me. ‘This is the very thing she wanted to use you for. To take magic from those she deemed unworthy to have it. You have declared her as your enemy so does that not make her unworthy of having magic?’
‘It’s not for me to say,’ I argued. I was hardly the poster boy for worthiness. Plus, if I started making decisions like that then I was just as bad as she was.
‘It’s not for her to say either. She is your enemy now, Eddie, as you are hers. That means she will come after you again in the future and she has the distinct advantage of being a lot more powerful than you. Change the balance. Neuter her and you’ll no longer need to see her as a threat.’
He was right, she would keep coming after me. She’d already said I was too valuable and too dangerous. She would never leave me alone. Taking her power was justified. It was Clara’s own plan for those she saw as enemies to her alliance so why shouldn’t we do it back to her? She could hardly argue with us unless she wanted to admit she was a hypocrite. I knelt down outside the cage, still wary. Still not quite ready to touch her. It was like stroking a sleeping tiger. You never knew when it might wake up and bite your hand off.
‘You should do it before she wakes up. I assure you it will be quite impossible to do it after,’ said Nick. As if he couldn’t just put her out cold again.
I took hold of her wrist. Her skin was icy. I could feel her pulse beating slowly. I thought about the consequences to my actions. Once this was done there would be no going back. No backing out of the war with the AOC. They would be coming for me just as much as they were coming for Nick. I’d have no choice but to destroy them. Dean would never come to me to apologise for Clara’s behaviour. He’d most probably come after me as an assassin. I’d already made my choice to side with Nick and I wasn’t taking that back now.
I gripped Clara more tightly and started siphoning. Her power was not as euphoric as Nick’s, but it was still unlike anything I’d felt before. Rivers of it flowed into me and I had a hard time keeping hold of her. The magic flowing into me felt grubby, as if I was ingesting mud. I could feel the wind tearing around me. I heard windows shatter. As the last dregs of her power became mine I released her wrist and was slammed onto my back. I didn’t even feel the contact with the concrete, the high from the transfer was too great. My whole body was tingling with magic. The grubbiness was gone, replaced by ecstasy. I didn’t feel threatened anymore. I felt like I could win any fight. I stood up, grinning inanely.
‘Feels good, doesn’t it?’ Nick said, smiling back. I nodded. I’d forgotten how it felt to consume magic in such big bursts. It seemed like I hadn’t done it in forever.
‘Come with me. Let’s put that magic to good use.’
We went out front and he taught me to teleport. I was scared at first. He made it look easy, but I was sure it was anything but. Literally moving yourself from one place to another was probably one of the hardest spells to master, that’s why so few humans could do it. Rachel had taught me that humans were not supposed to teleport, those that could had learned the trick from races with the inherent ability to do so, like Fairies or Jinn. For a human to be able to do it, it took a tremendous amount of power.
‘But if Clara had the power to teleport then why didn’t she?’ I asked, still reluctant to try it. I didn’t want to end up leaving my legs behind or something. I don’t know if that’s a possibility, but I think it was in Harry Potter, so best not to risk it.
‘Because Clara had nobody to teach her. It’s tricky to pick up but once you’ve figured it out it’s as easy as a sleeping spell.’
Three hours. That’s how long it took for me to pick it up, but just as he said, once I’d figured it out it was as easy as piss. Actually, I think the saying is easy as pi. Annoyingly, whenever I teleported there was a loud cracking sound. Nick said it was because I was displacing atoms or something, but when he teleported he did so silently. He didn’t have an explanation for that, but suspected it was due to having gathered magic from so many beings. I wondered if I would ever be as skilled as Nick without doing the same. Maybe I should go on a power hunt, it would be a pretty fun adventure. A bonding opportunity for us.
We were just finishing up when there was a crack and a greasy-haired warlock appeared.
‘News?’ Nick asked him as if he’d been expecting the intrusion.
‘The Alliance is in full panic mode. Two covens have already gone home and more are threatening to if Clara doesn’t return soon. They believe she was their only hope of fighting you and without her they have no chance,’ he said.
Nick smiled to himself. ‘Naive of them to think they had any hope at all,’ he said musingly. ‘You see, Eddie, the alliance is about to crumble. The war is nearly won already.’ He turned back to the other guy. ‘Ben, I need you to go and fetch the witness.’ Ben walked off towards the villa.
‘Witness?’ I asked. It sounded awfully mysterious.
‘When they realise Clara isn’t coming back there will be some who refuse to disband. Arthur will be able to hold some of the covens together,’ he said, ignoring my question about the witness. ‘There will be so few, however, that it will take no time at all to end the war once and for all.’
‘Clara’s not going back? She’s no threat without her magic so we don’t need to keep her,’ I said. I didn’t like the woman, but I felt like we’d punished her enough. Keeping her locked up was overkill, even if she had threatened me with the same. Besides, a life without magic was worse than a life behind bars.
‘I have no intention of keeping her,’ he said. ‘We can’t send her back either. If freed, she would not rest until she had taken back her magic and killed the both of us. No, to end all this nonsense finally, Clara must die.’
‘No,’ I said firmly, shaking my head. ‘I am not up for that. That’s not justice, she doesn’t deserve death.’
‘Justice?’ Nick said, as if it was a joke. ‘You think she deserves justice? What kind of justice did you have in mind, a trial with judges and juries?’ he mocked.
‘Yeah, sure. That would be fairer than just killing her,’ I said, prickling with annoyance.
‘You want justice? Very well. Let’s hold a trial for Clara Winters. You can reside as judge.’
‘You’re really going to let me decide her fate?’ I said, it seemed unlikely considering I was against his plans.
‘Oh yes, I believe that once this trial is over, you’ll have a change of heart.’
