Chapter
Eleven
Marigold Moonbeam Schwartz definitely had known better days. Even though she felt like she had to sit on her hands to keep from doing or saying something she’d regret, she managed to stay quietly in the shadows. Her mother was a skilled witch with years’ more experience than Mari, but it was so difficult not to make at least a few tiny suggestions.
Gritting her teeth, she breathed
deeply of the soothing, vanilla-scented candle her mother had lit
and set to one side of the daybed here in her parents’ home. With a
studied patience she really didn’t feel, Mari watched while Spirit
sprinkled herbs around the dazed and bound Lemurian chancellor,
while Freedom, Mari’s dad and Spirit’s long-suffering spouse, sat
and tapped out a monotonous rhythm on his worn set of bongo
drums.
Thank goodness she had Darius here as
a reminder that yes, magic did exist, and no, her parents were not
nearly as loony as she’d always thought. And, if Mari still
doubted, there was that sliver of bespelled crystal lodged forever
in her heart, the crystal that—along with Darius’s crystal
sword—had given her immortality.
Some days, the boring banker’s life
she’d once led didn’t sound all that bad, but today was just flat
out terrifying. Life had been simpler when all she’d had to worry
about was whether or not she’d still have her job come morning, or
who her ex-fiancé was sleeping with now.
Ever since Eddy Marks and her sexy
lover Dax, the ex-demon, had brought Chancellor Artigos to her
parents’ house last night, Mari had been worried. She was barely
used to this whole “invasion by demons” thing, much less the fact
that Lemurians weren’t just a silly legend after all, or that she
was a witch with some pretty amazing powers she’d never
expected.
Her skills as a witch were so new,
however, that she’d immediately deferred to her mother’s expertise
in the matter of drawing a demon out of the Lemurian leader. And
she sure wished Eddy and Dax and even that talking dog of theirs
had hung around a bit longer, but they’d gone without sleep for
much too long and needed rest. Having Eddy and her amazing crystal
sword close by with all this other weird shit going on was a
constant reassurance to Mari that she wasn’t completely
wacko.
There were only so many new things a
girl should have to accept at one time, and this week had taken
Mari over the top. In just the past few days she’d lost her job,
her fiancé, her car, and her heart.
Literally. Not only had she fallen in love
with a Lemurian guardsman, she’d battled demons with magic and
died.
None of that had been on her schedule
when she’d headed home to Evergreen to help her mom run the little
crystal shop Spirit had owned for almost forty years.
Neither had exorcising
demons.
Now, though, Mari’s heart went out to
Gaia, the Lemurian chancellor’s lovely wife. The woman obviously
loved her husband and worried terribly about him. How she managed
to sit so calmly with such a regal look about her while a strange
witch and an even stranger wizard attempted a dangerous exorcism
was beyond Mari. Of course, after this past week, Mari felt like
there was a whole lot way beyond her.
Gaia had every right to be worried.
Demon possession was a terrifying concept, and if what her old
friend Eddy Marks had told her was even half true, demonkind had
already staked a powerful foothold in Lemurian society and was
currently pushing hard against Earth’s totally unprepared
defenses.
She’d seen evidence of that push with
her own eyes, right here in Evergreen. Thank goodness she had
Darius and his amazing crystal sword for protection. Mari was
getting better with her demon-killing spells, but she still had a
long way to go before she could wield magic the way Darius wielded
his crystal blade.
The chancellor let out a long, low
groan. His body arched, straining against the ropes that tied him
closely to the bed. Gaia leapt to her feet, but Darius was there
immediately, catching hold of her arm and steadying her as her
husband began to cry out, thrashing back and forth on the
bed.
Spirit’s voice rose, and her rhyming
chant took on a fierce resonance. Freedom pounded the drums harder
and faster, until the thundering beat seemed to meld with Spirit’s
spell.
The growing pressure in the room drew
Mari to her feet. She moved closer to her mother as a palpable
sense of dread closed in about them. Darius drew his sword while
still keeping one arm wrapped tightly around Gaia’s slim
waist.
He glanced at Mari. Go to your mother, he said, speaking to her,
mind to mind. She needs your strength to
battle this demon. It feels like a powerful foe, one that intends
to fight back.
Quickly Mari moved to stand beside her
mother. Spirit reached for her without pausing in her continuous
chant. Her hand latched tightly onto Mari’s.
The moment the two women connected,
Spirit’s voice gained power. Vibrating now with Mari’s added
strength, her words seemed to take on an actual presence. Freedom’s
drumming picked up speed as Artigos writhed and twisted against his
bonds.
Mari joined her mother’s chant. She
had no idea how she knew the words to say, where she might have
learned this spell, but she had no doubt she owned these words,
this powerful magic. She raised her voice as if in song, chanting
in counterpoint to her mother’s strong voice, adding her own pure
contralto as she worked with Spirit to draw the demon
out.
This was no common foe. It wasn’t
anything like the simple creatures of darkness she’d fought with
Darius. This thing that
existed within Artigos, this powerful entity had grown in strength
for millennia. Somehow, Mari knew it had sucked much of the life
force from its host, existing as a parasite within the Lemurian
leader. Feeding from him even as it controlled him.
Mari knew these things just as she
knew the words to say. She had no idea how or why, or where her
newfound magic powers came from, though she was learning to accept
them. To accept the woman she was becoming, just as she accepted
that tiny shard of crystal embedded in her heart—a piece of magic
that had changed her life forever.
She felt Darius beside her and loved
him all the more for his steady presence and honor, for the
strength he gave so freely so that she might work this spell. She
had accepted him just as easily—evidence of the changes in her life
and herself.
Aware of the growing magic—of the
power pouring through her body—Mari raised her hands above her
head. Vaguely she sensed when her mother stepped back and
relinquished the spell to her.
Without truly understanding how or why
she knew what to do, Mari let her hands fly in an intricate dance,
as if she drew forth a long thread from the chancellor’s body.
Singing now in an unfamiliar language, her voice rose and fell in
an ancient rhyme, in words only the demon would
understand.
Hand over hand, she pulled an
invisible thread from Artigos’s body. She could feel the thread. It
was no longer something of her imagination. Now it was an ice cold
line with tensile strength, anchored tightly to something within
the chancellor, pulling back even as Mari pulled forth with all her
might.
Artigos had stopped fighting her and
lay still. His eyes were wide open, and he watched her, but she
knew the demon saw through the chancellor’s eyes. Hatred burned in
him and the sense of dread, of evil, grew stronger the harder Mari
tugged the invisible line.
The drumming became a heartbeat, a
thundering call to the demon that the creature fought with all his
ancient power. He denied its seductive lure with every bit of his
evil will, but Mari was stronger. Her voice rose and fell in song,
and her fingers danced, hand over hand, straining at the heavy
weight that somehow anchored the line deep within the Lemurian
chancellor.
The thread glowed a dark and fiery
red, yet the temperature in the room dropped until Mari’s breath
puffed from between her lips in frozen clouds of steam. She pulled
harder, but the demon actively fought her now, until it felt as if
she were trying to land a huge fish on the end of a line. Her hands
burned from the horrible cold and the sharp bite of the line she
pulled. The tension grew stronger, as if the demon wanted to drag
her down with it, down into the hell that had been the chancellor’s
soul.
Blood flecked her hands where the
frozen line cut into her fingers, but she wrapped it around her
palms and pulled even harder. Her shoulders ached, and her fingers
burned. Her breath came in gasps.
Spirit moved close and stood behind
her daughter. She rested her hands on Mari’s shoulders, sharing her
strength and holding her steady.
Power bloomed in Mari—her mother’s
power—and she reached down, closer to the chancellor’s rigid body,
until she grabbed hold of the icy line close up against his chest,
wrapped it once again around both her hands in spite of the blood
and the pain, and gave a mighty pull.
There was a horrible screeching sound,
as if metal dragged against metal. Artigos cried out, and the room
filled with the sulfuric stench of demon.
Spirit fell back, and Freedom’s hands
paused above his drums. Eyes wide, he stared at the black, oily
mass that Mari dragged slowly out of Chancellor Artigos. The bound
man screamed again, a horrible shriek of unimaginable
pain.
Gaia cried out and reached for her
husband, but Darius shoved her behind him. He thrust savagely with
his crystal blade and caught the demon as it began to take shape
mere inches above the chancellor’s body—but it wasn’t focusing on
Artigos.
It was looming over Mari, growing in
form and substance, finding its demonic shape, and reaching for her
with multiple arms and long, sharp claws.
Darius’s sword passed through the oily
mass. Sparks flew, and the creature howled, but Mari still held on
to the line connecting her to the fearsome thing.
“Mari!” Darius shouted as he drove his
blade into the demon. “Turn it loose. Let it go!”
Mari untangled her hands and dropped
the line. She spun out of the way as Darius struck the demon once
again. This time his blade cut true. More sparks flashed. There was
a loud concussion that felt and sounded like a sonic boom. The
demon let out a horrible banshee cry and burst into a roiling ball
of fire that blossomed upward, spreading out in a mushroom cloud of
smoke and flames against the ceiling.
Freedom grabbed Spirit and rolled her
to the floor, protecting her body with his. Darius shielded his
eyes with his left arm and swept his crystal blade through the
remnants of the dying demon. Then, as the flames and smoke
dissipated, he quickly sheathed his blade and reached for
Mari.
She’d thrown herself over the
chancellor’s body to protect him from the burning demon. Now, head
down and gasping for air, she trembled from head to foot as she
pushed herself away from the man and reached for Darius. He leaned
over and gathered her up in his arms. Blood trickled from her hands
and ran down her wrists, but she didn’t care. Hanging tightly to
his neck, she hugged him close as he carried her across the room to
an overstuffed couch and sat down with her in his lap.
Gaia ran to her husband’s side.
“Artigos? My love, are you all right?”
“I need to go to him.” Mari tried to
crawl out of Darius’s arms, but he held her close.
“Not yet,” he whispered. “Let Gaia
have a moment with her husband. She’s the one he should respond to,
if he can.”
Spirit and Freedom—who moved slowly
and painfully from recent surgery—walked unsteadily across the
room. Spirit flopped down on the couch beside Darius and Mari. She
handed Mari a towel to wipe the blood from her hands, staring
blankly at her daughter and shaking her head in disbelief. Then she
let out a big breath of air and said, “What the fuck was
that?”
“Mother!” Mari choked back a startled
laugh.
Spirit just shook her head. “I’m
serious. Really. What was that disgusting thing?”
“That was a demon, Mother. A very
large and powerful demon, if I’m right.”
Darius kissed the top of Mari’s head.
“I’ve seen a lot of demons, but I’ve never seen anything like that
one. It was beginning to take form when I killed it, something they
can’t easily do in this dimension.” He sighed and stared at Gaia
and Artigos. “I imagine it’s been part of the chancellor for so
long that it’s gained strength from him, living off his life
force.”
“Look.” Mari gestured toward Gaia and
Artigos. Gaia had loosened the ropes that bound her husband and was
helping him sit up. He appeared confused, but at least he was
alive. This time when Mari tried to stand up, Darius turned her
free.
She helped Gaia get the chancellor
settled on the edge of the bed. “Are you okay,
Chancellor?”
Artigos gazed at Mari with an almost
childlike expression. Then he turned to his wife. “Who is she,
Gaia, my dear? Who is this woman, and why does she wear such
strange garments?”
Mari glanced down at her faded blue
jeans and the ribbed sweater she wore. Softly, she said, “I’m Mari,
Chancellor. I helped remove a demon that’s been living inside
you.”
He stared at Mari for a long moment.
Then he merely looked away and smiled at his wife. “Will you take
me home, my love? I really want to go home now.”
Gaia smiled, but her eyes were filled
with tears. “Later, Arti. When you’ve rested. Lie down now, dear,
and sleep.”
He nodded, still smiling sweetly. Then
he obediently turned and lay back down on the bed. Gaia covered him
with a soft quilt. Freedom quietly gathered up his drums, and
Spirit swept up the herbs she’d scattered. The last thing she did
was lean over and blow out the vanilla-scented candle she’d left
burning beside the daybed.
Mari and Darius followed the others
out of the room. Gaia paused at the door. “I’ll stay with him,” she
said.
Mari took her hand. “Is he okay, Gaia?
He sounded almost like a little kid.”
Gaia nodded. “I believe the demon has
taken much of my husband’s spirit, but he is alive, and he
remembers me. That’s all I can ask for. Go now. Sleep.” She sighed
and glanced at her sleeping husband. “I have a feeling you’re going
to need your rest, that things are about to move very
quickly.”
Mari glanced at Darius. “I’m afraid
you might be right. If you need anything, Gaia, I’ll be here a
while longer. I’m going back to my own apartment in a bit, but my
mother and father are just down the hall.” Then she and Darius left
the room together, while Gaia returned to her husband’s
side.
Mari’s mother waited in the living
room. She handed the telephone to Mari. “It’s Eddy. She wants to
know how he’s doing.”
“I’ll take it.” Mari grabbed the phone
and tried to figure out how to explain exactly what had just
happened. She still wasn’t entirely positive. The demon was gone,
but what was left of the chancellor? That was not the ruler of an
entire civilization sleeping on her mother’s daybed. Not
anymore.
Alton ran his finger down the list one
more time and sighed. “Six out of the nine—if you include my
father—possessed by demonkind. I had no idea it was this
serious.”
Ginny chewed on her bottom lip and
stared at the names. She’d sat beside Alton the night before when
he’d called the council members together, and DarkFire had
confirmed her suspicions. “That gave them a clear majority when
your father was chancellor. Six against three, and those three have
no idea what they’re up against. Even with you now siding with the
three who aren’t possessed, demons still have a simple
majority.”
“I wonder why those three haven’t been
taken over? What is it that protects some and not
others?”
Ginny shook her head. “I’m not sure,
though they all appear to be decent, honorable men. Maybe it’s the
strength of a person’s character, his personal honor. Integrity?
Who knows?”
Alton smiled sadly. “I have a feeling
you’re right, though I hate to think that’s it. I would rather
believe my father’s possession was more arbitrary, not that he was
so weak that he allowed the possession to occur.”
Alton’s sword pulsed blue. “Someone
comes. DarkFire has removed the lock on the portal. Be
prepared.”
Ginny didn’t say a word. Instead, she
slipped behind a curtain hiding a storage closet, where she had a
limited view of the room, but wouldn’t be visible to anyone coming
through the portal. She’d barely gotten out of sight when two men
barged into the room without announcing themselves first as was the
normal protocol.
She recognized Maxl and Drago, the
same ones who had sent a third to snoop through the chancellor’s
office. Obviously they weren’t all that big on proper
procedure.
Alton stood up, towering over both
men. “Maxl. Drago. What brings you here?”
Drago drew himself up to his full
height, which, while above average by human standards, made for a
rather small Lemurian. “As chosen representatives of the Council of
Nine, we demand to know what you’ve done with Artigos. We have no
proof he’s taken ill, no proof you haven’t kidnapped him, or even
murdered him to usurp his position. Your mother is missing. Have
you kidnapped her as well?”
Alton folded his arms across his chest
and looked down his nose at both men. “And what did the two of you
have in mind, searching for my mother? She has no part to play with
the council. Where she is and what she does is no one’s business
but her own.”
“Not if you’ve harmed her. She’s a
good woman.” Maxl took a step closer, invading Alton’s
space.
“That she is, Maxl. A very good woman,
which is why she chose to be with my father while he is being
treated.”
“Where?” Drago slapped his palm down
on the desk beside Alton. “Where is Artigos and what kind of
treatment? He was perfectly okay when we saw him
last.”
“That’s right,” Maxl said. He was an
even smaller man than Drago, but every bit as pompous. “We know
you, Alton. You’ve been a bane to your father’s existence for as
long as we can recall. There is no way he would turn his seat over
to you and that impersonator who calls herself a
Lemurian.”
Ginny sensed Alton’s anger—his very
powerful struggle for control. There was steel in his voice when he
answered. She wondered if Maxl and Drago had any idea just how
furious Alton was—or how close they both were to ending up in a
world of hurt.
“You will leave my woman out of any
conversation, Maxl. Remember that if you wish to survive long
enough to remain a member of the council.”
“Are you threatening me, Alton?
Please, continue. Especially since I have a witness.”
Drago shook his head. “There’s no
need, Maxl. Alton, you’ve refused to tell us where to find
Chancellor Artigos, who is the rightful leader of the council. We
have no choice but to call a vote when we next meet. There is a
solid majority willing to vote you out of your position. We can’t
remove you from the council without a two-thirds vote, but we can
take you out of the chancellor’s seat.”
Ginny’d heard all she could take.
Gritting her teeth, she stepped into the room. “I’d like to see you
try it, Drago. Do you have any idea what’s going on here?” She got
right in Drago’s face. “You and Maxl are possessed. You harbor
demons in your black little hearts. Are you aware of
that?”
DarkFire glowed in the scabbard and
actually vibrated against Ginny’s back. She slipped the dark
crystal free and held it firmly under Drago’s nose. The blade
shimmered with its unusual dark light, and tiny purple sparks raced
up and down the blade. Both Maxl and Drago moved back a
pace.
Drago was the first to regain his
composure. “Standing behind a woman, eh, Alton?”
Alton shook his head and grinned at
Ginny. “No. Not at all. I stand beside Ginny in all things.” He
whipped HellFire from his scabbard, but he merely held the weapon
as if he were showing it off. “Interesting thing about a sentient
sword. Not only does it speak with the voice of an ancient warrior,
it has powers we’re only now beginning to fully
understand.”
He turned the blade this way and that,
flashing light off the facets in a mesmerizing, hypnotic pattern.
Both Maxl and Drago stared unwillingly at the blade, as if their
gazes were trapped in the flashing, dancing light.
Though, as aristocrats, the men must
have had crystal swords of their own, Ginny figured they were
probably stashed in a closet somewhere. They weren’t wearing them
at the moment, and no way would crystal work for anyone possessed
by demonkind. They certainly wouldn’t shimmer and sparkle the way
HellFire did, but it was obvious to Ginny that Alton’s blade was
showing off.
Finally, with what had to be a
powerful act of will, Drago forced his attention away from the
shimmering blade. He blinked owlishly a moment. Then he scowled and
focused his anger on Alton. “What kind of powers? What do you speak
of?”
Alton smiled. It was the kind of
expression that sent chills along Ginny’s spine—and they weren’t
the good kind.
“Well, for instance, HellFire and
DarkFire work really well together. Take Maxl here. We discovered
last night he was not alone in his body. He’s got a parasite living
with him. An ugly, dangerous parasite.”
Maxl glanced from the crystal blade to
Drago and then stared at Alton. “I don’t have any parasite in me.
What are you talking about?”
“This.” Alton pointed HellFire at
Maxl. Ginny did the same with DarkFire, and brilliant beams like
laser fire shot from both swords. Blue-white light from Alton’s.
Dark, dark purple from DarkFire.
The blast of light bathed Maxl in cold
flame, and he stiffened, caught in the laser-bright power of the
crystal. Drago backed away and shielded his eyes, coughing as the
room filled with the stench of sulfur. After a full minute, Alton
lowered his sword.
Ginny did the same. She glanced up and
caught his shrug as he sheathed HellFire. Drago clutched his
partner’s arm and steadied him. Then he cursed Alton. “What the
nine hells was that all about?”
Alton folded his arms over his chest.
“Do you recognize that stench, Drago? It’s the scent of demonkind.
That’s the parasite Ginny was talking about. She was not making a
joke when she said both you and Maxl are possessed by demons. So
are your cohorts on the council. Have you invited the bastards in,
or did they take you unawares? How does it feel, to know that you
serve Abyss and demonkind, not Lemuria?”
“You lie, Alton. Everything you say is
a lie. Your days are sorely numbered, Alton of No One. What right
have you to attack a member of the council?” Looping an arm around
the other man’s waist, Drago helped Maxl walk drunkenly away from
Alton. Then the two of them passed through the portal.
Alton stared at the dark gateway. Then
he whispered, “Every right, Drago. Every right as a proud Lemurian
and heir to the chancellor’s seat. I will not let demonkind
prevail.”
He sighed, put his arm around Ginny’s
shoulders, and hugged her close. “We should have killed the demon.
A little more power would have forced the creature
out.”
Ginny shook her head. “If we’d removed
the demon, it could have killed Maxl. Even if we wanted to, I don’t
believe either of our swords would allow it.”
“You’re probably right. But damn it
all, it would sure make our job a lot easier.” He leaned down and
kissed her. “Or not.”
Ginny kissed him back. “We will win,
Alton. Somehow. But you need to retain your position. How long can
you hold off a vote?”
“A couple of days, max. Drago is
right. They’ve got the numbers to boot me out of the chancellor’s
office. I haven’t got a chance of pulling any of this off if I’m
not the chancellor. What are we going to do, Ginny?”
“Hope like hell your grandfather is
still alive, that Taron gets the swords to the Forgotten Ones, and
that your father comes through his exorcism okay. Oh, and that the
demon king doesn’t decide to make a reappearance.”
He chuckled and kissed her again.
“That’s all? What the nine hells could possibly go
wrong?”
Exactly. Ginny stared at the portal and
refused to let herself think of all the potential for failure, and
how little chance of success they really had.