Soul Magic (16 page)

“You know not of what you speak.”  Sarina chose to challenge him, ignoring his angry glare.  “Have you ever faced down a denizen of another realm before?”

“Enough.”  Darrick roared, before Geoffrey could reply.  He looked to Alanna, who continued to cuddle the still sleeping child.  “What course of action do you suggest?”

Alanna saw pain flash across Geoffrey’s face, followed by resignation.  He liked it not that his liege lord turned to her for assistance, though he had no choice but to accept it. 

“I do not advocate a battle.”  With a dip of her chin Alanna indicated Ellette.  “Nor do I think we can outrun them.”

“What are our choices?”

Sarina and Alanna exchanged another look.  Alanna spoke slowly, knowing the rest of them would not like what she had to say.

“Together, Sarina and I might be able to summon enough power to send you all to Rune.  There you will be safe, for the time being.”

Of all the men, Darrick alone caught her omission.

Sheathing his sword, he glowered at her.  “I have told you we are men, not cowards.  What do you plan to do, while bidding us tuck our tails between our legs and run like frightened dogs?”

“I will stay and fight.”

“How?  Do you possess some secret knowledge of our enemy, or some hidden weapon you have not revealed?”

“No.”  Stubborn, she lifted her chin.  “I do not.  But I must try.  Times runs quickly.  I must fight and survive to ride on.  I have to find my son.  I would rescue your mother as well.”

“We will fight.”  Darrick’s scowl dared her to say otherwise.  The others muttered their agreement.

“Try to use your magic to help us.”

“If I can, I will.”

Geoffrey leaned forward.  “What about finding your son? If you have such power, can you not use it to locate him?”

Alanna shook her head.  “Would that I could.  But I’ve tried.  Others have as well.  We have not enough magic to do such a thing.  Gorsedd has many magical abilities, among them strong shields.”

“Listen.”  Glancing over his shoulder, Darrick’s tension seemed palpable.  “Can you still hear the sound of their coming?”

Alanna went still.  The ghostly hoofbeats, while louder, still seemed far in the distance.

“They draw closer.  They are moving fast.”

Sarina dipped her chin and sighed.  “Have you enough magic to protect yourself?”

Alanna shrugged.  “I know not.  We have no choice but to try.  I cannot risk my son.”

With a nod, Darrick rode forward.  “Nor I my mother.  Let us go forward. We must pick up our pace.” 

“We dare not gallop, not in such darkness.”

Still, they urged the horses into a faster trot. Darrick cast frequent glances over his shoulder. 

“There has to be a way to protect ourselves. Think.  Do you remember any legends of things such as these?”

Grimacing, Alanna glanced back too.  The awful wickedness that she’d sensed before grew stronger, fouling the air.  The scent of sulphur more keen.

“If they are what we think they are, they cannot appear in daylight.”  Alanna looked up at the still-black sky, frowning.  “How long `til sunrise?”

“Several hours.  What are they?”

“Demons from a place much like your hell. Ride faster.” 
              Now they urged the horses into a gallop.  Hooves thundering, they rode into the black night.  Behind them, their pursuers kept coming, narrowing the distance.

The night air became more chilled, more foul.

“Ugh.”  Alanna shuddered.  “They are nearly upon us.  We must find a solution quickly.”

In the gloom ahead, something white and ghostly appeared. 

“A church.”  Geoffrey spoke up, pointing. 

They burst upon it, the fog having grown so thick they could barely see the place until mere yards away. 

The wooden structure would afford scant protection.  Yet in these type of battles Alanna knew that
belief
counts for more than most swords.  If Geoffrey and his men truly thought the church would provide protection, who was she to say otherwise?  After all, most of these old churches were built on top of pagan temples.

And, `twas better than nothing.

The church was deserted, the heavy wooden doors unbolted.  They brought the horses inside too, dismounting and tying the animals to a post inside the door. 

On foot, they entered the sanctuary as a group.  It was a small, country church, simple and unadorned.  In all the commotion, Ellette stirred in Alanna’s arms and woke.

“Mama?” she cried.  “Mama?”

Feeling as though her heart might break, Alanna hushed her.  “Shhh, little one.  It will be all right.”

Blessedly, the child fell silent. 

A few steps later, they reached the altar and stopped.  Like the rest of the church, the holy place was simple and unadorned.  Wide-eyed, the men huddled together, Geoffrey at their center.  Darrick, Sarina and Alanna stood apart. 
              Ellette cried out again, squirming to be put down.  She began to sob, her piteous cries seeming to ring out in the tiny sanctuary.

“Shhh.”  This time the child ignored her.  Finally Alanna set her down, holding Ellette’s hand tightly while she jerked against Alanna’s arm. 

Outside the wind began to howl.

With a gulp, Ellette ceased her crying.  She held out her arms to Alanna, wanting comforting.  Alanna scooped her up, murmuring wordless sounds and smoothing back the baby-fine hair.

The building creaked and groaned, shuddering.  The horses grew restless, nervously whickering and stamping their feet.  The wooden structure began to shake, and Alanna heard the roof thatch screech as parts of it peeled away as though by giant claws.

Falling to his knees, Geoffrey began to chant his prayers.  A couple of the men joined him.  Alanna looked to Darrick, to see what he would do.

Instead of praying, Darrick came forward.  He motioned to Alanna to set the child down.  Slowly, she did, watching as Darrick held out his hand to Ellette.  Peering up at him, unafraid, she chortled and took it, her chubby fingers swallowed in his larger ones.  He then motioned to Sarina, who understood immediately and went to him, grasping the child’s other hand. 

In turn, Sarina looked at Geoffrey, beckoning to him urgently.  Continuing with his prayers, he ignored her, closing his eyes and raising his voice. 

Darrick shook his head as she closed the circle by taking Alanna’s other hand in his.

A circle!  An ancient way of gathering power.  Pleased that Darrick remembered, Alanna reached deep inside herself, knowing Sarina would do the same.  Whatever spark of magic remained within her, Alanna sought to call it forth, fanning it and urging it to blossom.  She had little left, not nearly enough for such a Herculean task.  But she had to try.  Otherwise, they would all die and she would never see her beloved son again. 

The roar of the wind became a bellow.  A summoning.

“Close your eyes,” Alanna shouted, even as she watched the walls of the church began to bleed in oozing sores.  She could not wait to see if the men obeyed her, instead shut her eyes and continued to focus on her tiny flame of power that fluttered to life in her mind.

The answer came to her in a rush. 

“A shield.  We must erect a shield.”

“How much can you summon?” Sarina gasped, her grip on Alanna’s hand painful.  “Please tell me you can call upon more than I.”

Alanna could tell her no such thing.  Even as she sought to erect a protective shield, the thing’s full fury reached them.  Blackness.  Jagged bolts of energy.  Roiling hatred.  All with bludgeoning force.

“Aiyeee.”  One of the men screamed as the altar tumbled, crashing on top of him.

A second later, the dark riders rode full tilt into the church.  They crashed into the wooden structure, and the building began to fall.

CHAPTER NINE

Heat. Burning. Fire. What the--?  It felt as though flame seared his flesh, pain shooting up his arm to his hand and out through the tips of his fingers.  Agony.  Darrick grunted, the edges of his vision turning gray.  With a shout he tried to yank his hand free from Alanna’s.

He couldn’t.  Their fingers seemed melded together.

Head thrown back, eyes squeezed shut, her mouth worked in a soundless grimace.  Evidently, she too felt the torture of the inferno generated by their touch.

Human – Fae – poet and nobility - one pair of pairs.  The legend, come to life?

Looking at her, he tried to speak.  Couldn’t – Dragon’s blood, he couldn’t even hear his own thoughts for the roaring in his ears.  Or was it?  Dazedly he realized the roaring wasn’t inside his head, but all around them, sweeping through the tiny church.

Miraculously, most of the wooden structure still held. Buffeted by the force of the attack, ripped apart in places, one wall was down but three still stood upright.  Still a structure, still a holy place.  A church.

Kneeling before the altar, Geoffrey continued to pray, his loud voice doing battle with the wind.

Foul darkness swirled around them.

Darrick could not see the horsemen – he wasn’t even certain they
had
corporeal forms.  But as they attacked, he could hear them, their vicious shrieks and threats tainting the sanctified air.

Then this, this
blazing
from him and the others.  What was it?  What did it mean?

Exultation filled him as he realized it did battle with the dark forces. 

In the clash, the church shuddered.  Held.

Again Darrick suffered the heat, and when it felt as though the skin would surely peel from his body, he bellowed.  A moment later Alanna screamed out his name.

A second burst of White light
. Blazing from his and Alanna’s joined hands.  The force of it surged through him, from him, filling the sanctuary.  It flashed, sweeping, cleansing, driving out the intruders.

Darrick shouted again, this time in victory.  Never had he felt such might, an elemental welding between himself and the forces of nature, culminating in power. 

Magic.
 

Another flash, another shuddering of the air, and it ended.  Instead of the awful roaring, Darrick heard a low-pitched hum.  Then this too subsided into the ringing shock of silence.

The pain in his arm subsided to an ache, then a tingle.  He looked at Alanna.  Still gripping his hand, she opened her eyes and laughed.

Darrick found himself grinning back.  He could not yet put words to what they had created between them, but they were alive and the threat was gone.  It was enough.

Ellette giggled, jerking her hands free.  Lifting them skyward, she spun around in a joyful dance.  A laughing Sarina joined her in her jubilant celebration. 

“What in the name of God was
that
?”  Picking himself up off the floor and brushing away shards of wood, Geoffrey, goggled at them. 

“Magic,” Alanna said softly, still smiling at Darrick.  “Somehow we made magic.”

Belatedly he realized that he still gripped her hand.  Releasing her, he glanced at the others. 

“Magic,” he said, seconding Alanna.  “We made magic and it saved us.”

“And what magic it was.”  Still twirling, Sarina dipped and spun over to Geoffrey.  “I’ve not seen the like in my lifetime.”

Geoffrey frowned, obviously trying to puzzle things out.  Darrick knew he would not rest until he came up with what he deemed a rational explanation.  Never would he believe the simple truth – that by magic they’d fended off the forces of darkness.

One by one the rest of the men dusted themselves off and joined them, all of them unharmed.

Ellette continued to pirouette and twirl, humming gaily.

“Will you dance with me?”  Standing before Geoffrey, Sarina smiled and held out her hand. 

Glaring down at her, his jaw worked.  “I—no.”

“Suit yourself.”  With a spin, Sarina danced away, rejoining Ellette, who chortled with glee.

“Have they lost their minds?”  Geoffrey’s words rang out with conviction.  “`Twas my prayers that saved us, nothing more.  God chose to save us and we should fall on our knees and give thanks.”

With all that he had seen, Darrick could not fathom how Geoffrey could still think in such a way.  He shook his head, trying to clear the fog from his mind.  “They merely celebrate in their own way.”

Beside him, still laughing, Alanna shook her head.  She tapped her feet, as though she’d like to join the other women.  “We won, Geoffrey.  Be glad.”

Be glad
.  Darrick’s heart pounded in his chest.  He still could not clear his head.  First he’d need to make sense out of what had occurred this day.  But when had he ever been able to make see clearly around Alanna?