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"Forget it—they won't do much better" I said, stepping forward. "Your weapons just don't work very well on most Fae or Crypto creatures. If you nuked them, yeah, or went kamikaze, maybe, but goblins are tough buggers, and that skin of theirs passes for a form of natural armor. Get your men out of danger, and let us take care of it."
The officer turned to Chase. Chase glanced at me, then at the rest of us and nodded slowly. "They're right. Tell the men to fall back. Any more bullets go spewing around the area, and some bystander is going to get hit. No matter how hard we try, there's going to be some joker who sneaks beyond the barricades. Just because they're stupid doesn't mean they should die."
Morio let out a low growl. He was starting to change; he could do a lot more damage in his youkai form. Chase stared, eyes wide, as Morio began to grow, his body morphing into a mixture of fur and flesh, claws and tail, hands and feet. His eyes took on a yellow shine, and a primal, feral yip erupted from his throat. Close to eight feet tall, he was a merger of human and Canidae features, forming a terrifying blend of the two.
"Jeezus… remind me never to get on his bad side," Chase said as Delilah pushed him behind her. She unsheathed her silver dagger—a match to my own. Our father had given them to us, and they were almost as long as a short sword and twice as sharp.
I moved to the front, Morio flanking my right. Iris on my left.
"I'll set up a barrier of frost," she said. "I can hold off the darts long enough for us to get too close for them to use blowguns. Just don't waste any time."
The lightning was within reach now, and though I was tempted to use the horn to strengthen it, I remembered Eriskel's warning. Never abuse. What if a demon popped out after we'd cleaned up the goblins? Not knowing how many jolts I could get out of the horn, I erred on the side of caution.
Inhaling deeply, I sucked a breath of the supercharged air into my lungs and held it as the lightning went coursing through my arms, legs, from the tip of my head to the soles of my feet. Then, ready to play French fry the goblins, I straightened my shoulders and marched toward the corner.
Beside me, Iris murmured a low chant. As the first goblins came into view, a clear barrier rose between us, their darts bouncing off to the side. They looked confused as we rushed toward them. And then we were within striking range. The battle was on.
Chapter Nineteen
The goblins were thick in the park, a small, roughly triangular space wedged on the corner where First Avenue, James Street, and Yesler Way intersected. There must have been fifteen of them. Squat, brutish-looking creatures with inky green skin and shoulder-length hair that hung in matted knots, they had solidly muscled potbellies and a bowlegged swagger. Their needlelike teeth glistened as they eyed the fallen men. Goblins weren't above eating their enemies. My stomach dove for cover before I lost my breakfast.
Iris's barrier was still holding, but I could sense it weaken as their shaman focused some sort of shield-breaking energy our way. I picked up the pace and charged ahead, the others following. When we were within striking range, I let loose with the bolt of energy, and it shot out of my hands in a fork of silver lightning. The barrier went down as two of the goblins screamed, hit full-on by the blast.
I held my breath, but no sign of magical backlash. Score one for our team.
Morio and Delilah raced in to engage the brutes in combat, while Iris held out her wand, murmuring another soft chant. I turned to find myself facing one of the beasts as he bore down on me. He was a good eight inches shorter than me, but he wielded a nasty-looking dagger, and I had no desire to be on the receiving end of his love bite. As I whipped out my own blade—he was too close to chance another magical attack—he lunged at me.
The bricks under our feet were slippery, and as I leapt to the side, my heel slid, and I found myself on my butt as the goblin laughed and raised his blade. As he plunged his dagger down, I rolled to the left, and the metal bit into the wet sidewalk. I came to my feet with a war cry and lunged for him. We both went down, this time with me on top. As he scrambled for his dagger, I thrust my blade into his chest and fell on it, pushing as hard as I could.
The silver sparked as he screamed—goblins and silver do not mix well. He thrashed as a bloody pool welled up and out of the wound. There was no time to think, only act. I jumped off him, pushing myself to my feet. As I turned, I saw we'd been mistaken about the number we were facing. Another group of at least twelve goblins raced across the street to help their shrieking comrades. Where the hell had they come from?
Iris had frozen two in place—some sort of frosty freeze spell—and as I watched she whipped out what looked like a serrated icicle and slashed their throats, knocking them over when she was done.
Delilah and Chase were scuffling with a group of three goblins; it looked like they'd dropped at least two more. Morio had changed into full demonic form. He had a goblin clenched in his teeth and was shaking him by the throat. That left eight alive, with five on the loose. And the twelve that were incoming.
I whirled as a sound near my back alerted me. Two goblins on the hunt. I had to get clear. One goblin, I could take on in a physical fight. Two would be pressing my luck. I raced across the bricks parallel to the low iron fence that encircled the totem pole and the trees in the little park, my opponents following. They were fast, but I was faster, and when I'd put enough distance between us, I spun around, calling down the lightning.
As it crackled out my fingertips, a shrill scream—it sounded like Delilah—distracted me, and the spell sputtered and flew wild, splitting one of the giant trees. Oh shit! The London plane tree shuddered as its forked trunk split in two and, heaving a great sigh, half the tree cleaved off and thundered to the ground, right atop the iron pergola that had only a few years back been restored. I winced. Hell, that wasn't supposed to happen.
I darted a glance over Delilah's way to see her nursing her left arm before a hoarse laugh brought me back to the fight. The two goblins had paused, but now they were advancing again. I tried one more stab, this time focusing on the Mordente spell that Morio had taught me. I didn't like to use death magic without him by my side because it was tricky, but my adrenaline and anger fueled the power.
"Mordente, mordente, mordente …" I focused solely on the two goblins as they approached, feeling a dark shadow rise within me. The shadow of crows, of beetles and spiders and bats. It began to trickle down my arms, into my fingers, like thin rivers of ice and steel.
The energy knocked on my heart, and as always, a shiver of doubt made me fear opening myself to it, but the look on the goblins' faces was enough to shake me out of hesitation. I lowered my resistance and let the wave of shadow flow through my heart, through my soul, through every cell in my body.
"Mordente, mordente, mordente…"
And it swept through, a roiling cloud bank—gray and heavy and looming—as it rolled out of my hands to surround the approaching goblins. Only they and I could see the clouds, and their eyes went wide as the fog began to seep into their bodies, into their lungs, squeezing the air out of their lungs, shutting down organs, draining the life from their souls.
The cloud quickly dissipated. I wasn't strong enough to take both of them fully to the end using the spell. The pair dropped to the ground, moaning. They'd be hurting from the inside out. As I watched them struggle, it occurred to me that the Moon Mother hadn't cast me out since I'd begun practicing death magic. No, the Lady of the Moon had her own dark side, and when the Moon went silent, the bats and undead and spiders came out to play.
Forcing myself out of my dark reverie, I hurried over to dispatch the goblins. A quick thrust of my silver short sword, and they were history.
I turned in time to see Iris running from a goblin at full tilt, but before I could take off to help her, Morio came swooping in from behind and body-slammed the creature high into the air and out into the road.
Delilah and Chase had managed to take down their three and were facing another queue. I was starting to think that we'd be damned lucky to get through this without anybody getting seriously hurt. We needed something that worked better than what we were doing now.
As I prepared to take on the next group of miscreants headed my way, the sound of a whistling freight train rumbled through the area, and the next thing I knew, Smoky appeared, fresh out of the Ionyc Sea no doubt. With one look at the chaos around him, his lips curled into a delicate smile as he took aim toward the three coming my way. They barked out something I couldn't catch and prepared to engage him in battle. And that was all she wrote.
