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Wilbur shrugged. “I’m not so sure I can either—”
“Not a problem,” I said. “Iris can and she’s on her way.” Before they could ask, I added, “Smoky’s home, so Bruce is bringing her down in his car.”
As I moved away from the group, Trillian and Morio joined me.
“The lizard coming?” Trillian looked put out, but not angry.
“Not yet,” I said, barely hearing my words. My thoughts were wrapped up in so many things, not the least of which was a turmoil of curiosity over what had happened at the Dragon Council.
Iris showed up before too long. She walked the perimeter of the field, feeling out the energy. Wearing a thick cape against the ever-present rain and the increasing fog, she’d brought her Aqualine crystal wand with her.
As we watched, she began using it like she would a dowsing rod, searching for the exact point where the Bonecrusher had cast the spell into the ley line. Before long, she stopped. She was standing beside a drain that had been placed in the center of an access path next to a row of graves.
“Here it is. This grate drains into a culvert that runs out to the sewer. At least, that’s my guess. It keeps this section of the cemetery from flooding. The grate—and the drain—also happen to run directly along the ley line. By shooting her magic into the culvert, it got sucked into the energy of the land.”
“Good going,” Morio said, joining her. He leaned over, staring through the grate. “That’s probably why only these graves were affected. The newer parts of the cemetery are east of here, through the gates. Far enough from the ley line to remain untouched by the spell.”
“We should really map this out,” Delilah said, shoving her hands in the pockets of her jean jacket and shivering. “Tomorrow, I’ll come down here with Iris and diagram out exactly where the line runs through the cemetery.”
“What next? How can we help?” I joined them, closing my eyes. I was tired, but I could still pick up on the hum of demon magic as it raced near my feet, along with the low pulse of the ley line. Together, they formed an odd cadence, though twisted and off-key.
“You can help by standing back and being prepared to fight anything that comes oozing out of the drain or bursting out of the ground. This is a tricky spell,” Iris added. “When I sever the flow of magic, it will pour out of the ley line and there’s a good chance it’s going to create something ugly. Real ugly, and I’m not talking about just in the looks department. I’ll be too busy making certain that the lamia doesn’t feel the break, so you guys will have to cover my butt.”
We moved into position, ready for anything and hoping for nothing.
Iris motioned for us to be quiet as she focused on the drain grate.
I could see the energy now, the vortex caused by the Bonecrusher’s spell as it intruded into the energy of the land. A swirl of winds, clashing against one another. Iris worked a few yards away from the actual juncture of energy, pinching the spell so it didn’t suddenly bleed out and alert Stacia. She deftly wove her magic, latticing the lamia’s spell in a frost-shrouded net. Then, she began to tighten it, pulling it fast.
The energy would eventually back up, and Stacia would figure it out, but if we were lucky, we’d have found her and wiped her out before she fully realized what was going on. One blessing to fighting a powerful opponent: They weren’t always up to speed with all their meddling, and they ran enough magic for something like this to go overlooked for a few days.
Some fifteen minutes of intense concentration later, we were all a cold, sodden mess. Iris looked at me and nodded. She held out a short dirk that looked both sharp and ruthless. With one swift motion, she stabbed into the palpable braid of energy and sliced through it, severing the cord.>I jumped back from the skeleton coming my way. Edged weapons weren’t exactly the best defense against bone, but my dagger would have to do for now because the magic I’d just run through my body had burnt me out, and I’d need a clear head to call down the magic of the Moon Mother, considering how much chance for disaster there was when it backfired.
A quick glance over my shoulder told me that Morio had engaged the zombie that had attacked him. The shouts of the others rang out as they clashed with their opponents. Hoping Chase would be okay—he was the most vulnerable of us all—I brought my attention to bear on the skeleton again. As I moved in, trying to gauge the best way to attack the creature, it sidled to the left. I didn’t have any of Delilah’s fancy spin-kicks or Menolly’s strength behind me, but I wasn’t a total couch potato when it came to Bruce Lee-ing my way through a confrontation.
Sucking in a deep breath, I lunged, slicing at the bone-walker.
A hit! I actually hit its right hand. As my silver dagger slashed at the bone, there was a pale flare of light and I managed to sever the hand from the wrist. The skeleton’s hand scuttled across the ground, trying to find something to attack. But now that it no longer had its body to back it up, there wasn’t much danger from it. The thing would just drag itself blindly around until it ran up against something it could grab hold of. Unless somebody munched it first, or the spell dissipated.
The skeleton’s eye sockets gleamed with a sickly green fire, and its jaw clattered, as if it was trying to talk. Lucky for me, it didn’t have sentient magic that would allow it to speak. I danced away as it lashed out with its other hand, grasping to catch hold of me. The thing might not be wielding a sword or dagger, but it had unnatural strength and it could crush my windpipe without so much as a blink.
I heard a cackle from my left and turned to see Menolly landing smack on top of another skeleton. It fell beneath her and she began ripping it bone from bone with her bare hands, laughing all the while. Delilah was near her, her dagger singing in the night as she kicked and slashed her way through another bone-walker. Turning back to my own opponent, I made another calculated attack and managed to catch the left hand the same way I’d severed the first.
“Anybody need a hand?” I shouted, feeling a rush of excitement. The Hunt was still flush in my soul, and the exhilaration of the chase came flooding back to my tired muscles, giving me a much-needed boost.
With a victory cry, I decided to try Menolly’s method and launched myself headfirst toward the skeleton. It stumbled back, but not quick enough and I body slammed it, knocking it to the ground as I fell on top of it. We landed in the mud, but the bones were hard and rigid, and it felt like I’d fallen in a rocky field. Ignoring the pain, I brought the hilt of my dagger down on the skull of the creature, smashing a hole through the forehead, into where the frontal lobe would have been located if it still had a brain.
It shrieked as I brought the hilt down again, this time cracking through the bone between the eye sockets and nose. Though it waved its arms around, without any hands it couldn’t do much more than smack the arm bones against me. Or at least that’s what I thought until I felt the creature embrace me, elbows wrapping me tight as it struggled to crush me against its chest.
Cripes. Obviously, I hadn’t thought this all the way through!
I tried to break free but it was stronger than I, even with all the damage I’d done to it. The bone-walker was squeezing my waist like a bony python.
Pushing against the ground, I attempted to gain enough leverage to bust free of the vise grip, but my hands were too slick to manage any real purchase. Everything was starting to look blurry and I realized I wasn’t getting enough oxygen.
“Relecta de mordente!” Wilbur’s voice rang loud and clear and the skeleton’s arms loosened. It tried to scramble out from beneath me to get away from the necromancer’s bone-be-gone spell.
I rolled away and pushed to my feet, sucking in deep lungfuls of air, covered from head to toe in grass stains and mud. As we stood there, Wilbur steadying me with one hand, Menolly rushed past us. She was wielding a femur from one of the other bone-walkers, and she swung it right toward the skeleton’s waist, bludgeoning the creature in half. She then proceeded to pound it to smithereens.
