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Getting rid of the local witch is the sensible thing to do. You okay?
Yes, but the lure isn’t. The ambos may not get here in time, and I don’t want to leave the stain of her magic on him.
Good idea. Even if it doesn’t hamper his journey, it might somehow alter the trajectory of his rebirth.
That’s what I thought. You comfortable?
Yeah, go for it.
I took a deep breath to center my energy, then carefully reached out with my ‘other’ senses. What I couldn’t physically see instantly became visible. The spell was a fist-sized mass that sat just above the long cut that had gutted him. Tendrils not only ran up to his brain but also around his heart; the latter explained his pasty skin and blue lips. For whatever reason, she’d been controlling his heart rate.
Perhaps she didn’t want him going into cardiac arrest and damaging his heart before she’d had a chance to dine on it. Belle’s mental tone was grim. The spell’s construction is somewhat unusual, isn’t it?
She knows she’s dealing with another witch, so I suspect she’s taken steps to prevent interference.
A final snare?
More than likely. I scooted around to the side of his body and studied the spell from a different angle. And caught, through a slender gap between two of the concealment spell’s threads and a still gaping bit of wound, something that looked a whole lot like metal. Darkish-colored metal. I shifted again and leaned closer. It was definitely metallic…
A horrible suspicion stirred. Hoping like hell that I was wrong, I peeled back the nearest section of dressings and used them to carefully open the wound up. It revealed exactly what I’d feared. The final trap wasn’t just magical; it was also physical.
Something had been shoved into the internal cavity created when she’d gutted him. Something I rather suspected might be a grenade, given the little I could see of its shape.
Which means the spell has probably been designed to remove the pin the minute anyone tries to dismantle it, Belle commented. How the hell are we going to counter that?
I don’t think we can. I simply didn’t know enough about this sort of magic. I think our best bet would be to remove both the spell and the grenade from his body.
What if it’s primed to go off if it’s moved?
That’s more than possible. I put the dressing back over the wound, even though there was probably little point to worrying about infection now. Not when a grenade had been unceremoniously shoved into his gut. I think I’ll call—
I stopped, my heart leaping at the sound of a twig snapping. A second later, Tala stepped into the clearing. She quickly scanned the area, then looked at me. “The area’s safe to enter?”
“For now. Where are the ambos?”
“Waiting for the all clear. Define ‘for now.’”
“There’s a spell-wrapped grenade shoved into his stomach; I can’t dismantle it, and I’m not sure if it’s safe to remove it.”
She stared at me for a second. “Seriously?”
“Very.”
“Why the hell are you still sitting next to him, then?”
“Because it’s the only way I’ll feel the spell—” I stopped as the stranger’s breathing changed—became a desperate rattle. “Shit, he’s going. Get the ambos in here.”
“I can’t if we’ve an active threat—”
“He’s going to die—”
“Bet
ter one than four.” Tala’s voice was grim. “It’s procedure, Liz. Until the device is deactivated, I have to cordon off the area—”
“Damn it, Tala—”
I stopped again. The rattle in the stranger’s breathing went silent. Several seconds later, his soul rose.
