Dresden Files/The Sentinel 7/7
Here it is, the final part of Shaman You!
Thanks once again to aeron_lanart for beta/handholding duties.
Disclaimer:Nothing you recognise is mine.
You can read the fic from the beginning here
Shaman You Part 7
Once we’d damaged Emerson’s pentacle enough that it would be ineffective for his ritual, Jim, Blair and I continued our search of the building. We didn’t find any further evidence of Emerson, except for the empty containers he’d carried the blood in dumped in a trash can.
As we walked the auditorium, Blair grew thoughtful and took me to one side while Jim continued to search the stalls.
“Harry, there’s no prison that’s going to hold Emerson, is there?” he asked. I shook my head. “So you’re going to kill him?”
Blair had a determined look on his face, he seemed to accept that Emerson had to die, but I could also tell he wasn’t happy about the idea. That was good; taking a human life is no small thing, no matter what they’ve done.
“I’m going to fight him.”
“But he will have to die,” Blair persisted. I sighed and shrugged.
“I hope not, but if he’s too far gone to the Dark Side then we have no choice. Either he dies in the fight tonight or…” I stopped myself before I mentioned the Council. Non-wizards aren’t supposed to know about them.
“Or the council Emerson mentioned will execute him,” Blair finished. I nodded.
“The White Council is the wizard ruling body,” I said. I didn’t have to explain further as Jim finished his sweep of the room and joined us.
“If you two have finished, we’ve still got the press booth and the vendors’ area to search,” he said and walked away without waiting for a response. Blair and I grinned at each other and then followed after his partner.
The stadium doors were opened and the first few people were beginning to enter as we finished our search of the building. We’d not been able to find Emerson, but that was okay; it would have been better to take care of the problem before any innocent civilians got there, but we could still go ahead with our plan.
Once everyone was safely indoors and watching the pre-game entertainment I would go to the parking lot, which was outside the copper band that encircled the building. Blair would then seal the circle, leaving me and Emerson outside to duel while the civilians were safely protected inside a shield that only Blair could break.
The three of us watched the crowds as they entered, keeping lookout for any sign of Emerson trying to enter. He didn’t appear and it looked like my plan was going to work.
Once everyone was safely inside and we were sure there were no more stragglers arriving we headed in the direction of the parking lot and the circle. I could almost feel Blair’s tension as he walked beside me. Couldn’t blame him; although the magic required was no more than anything he’d already done it must have seemed like a daunting task to him to protect thousands of people.
“Remember, all you need to do is feed a little will into the metal. The circle will do the rest,” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring tone. “Do or do not, there is no try,” I added in my best Yoda impression. That got a chuckle and a grin from Blair.
“Piece of cake,” he replied but from his tone I could tell he didn’t believe that.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have us outside the shield, Harry?” Jim asked. I looked over my shoulder at him and smiled.
“I admit I’d appreciate the extra firepower, but guns might not do any good and I’d feel better with you two safely on this side, out of harms way,” I replied.
“Guess it’s your turn to stay in the truck, big guy,” Blair said with a grin. I think I was missing some shared joke there.
As we neared the boundary circle, Jim slowed his pace and then stopped.
“Do you hear something?” he asked, causing Blair and I to stop as well. We listened for a moment but I couldn’t hear anything and shook my head.
Jim was staring intently into the middle distance at something Blair and I couldn’t see. He shook his head and pointed to a low wall a few hundred yards away.
“I can hear some kind of chanting, I think there’s someone over there,” he explained. Before we could move to investigate, I felt a prickle on the back of my neck and then I was hit by an invisible force that sent me flying backwards through the air.
I landed awkwardly on the ground, knocking the air from my lungs with an audible ‘oof’ but I leant on my staff and got to my feet again quickly. Jim was already running toward the wall he’d pointed to but Blair was still in place; he looked torn between helping me and following his partner.
“I’m ok, go with Jim. I’m right behind you,” I said. Blair nodded and turned to follow Jim. I ran forward a few steps and then found myself lying on my back again.
I sat up.
“Blair,” I called out. The detective stopped and turned back to me. “You raised the shield?”
“Wasn’t me.”
Crap. Just once I’d really like it if the bad guy didn’t spoil my carefully laid out plan.
“It’s Emerson. Hell’s bells, I can’t get through and only he can break it now,” I explained. “I’m trapped, I can’t help you.”
Suddenly our attention was grabbed by a shot ringing out. Jim had found Emerson and fired, but the bullet had been deflected, presumably by a shield, and now Emerson was raising his staff again.
“Jim!” Blair cried out and raised his amulet. I winced, preparing to see poor Jim get blasted into oblivion as Emerson threw a fireball at him.
But it glanced harmlessly off. Blair had protected his Sentinel despite the great distance. I’ve never seen anyone pull off something like that; best I can manage is to make my own shield large enough to protect a few others close to me. I could never project one onto someone else, let alone that far from myself.
Emerson continued to throw spells at Jim but Blair’s shield was holding well. Jim tried firing a few more shots at Emerson, to no effect, until a force spell from Emerson made Jim stagger and drop his weapon down a drain.
Seemed the Dresden luck was going par for the course. I should have known things were going too easily.
Blair had pulled his gun with his free hand and was aiming it at Emerson, but he was too far away and Jim was too close for a clear shot. Frustrated, Blair lowered his gun. He spotted something on the floor and picked it up. It was my blasting rod; it must have fallen out of my duster when I fell.
Blair looked thoughtfully at it and then back to where Emerson was continuing to throw spells at Jim.
“Harry, how do I do what Emerson’s doing?” Blair asked.
“You don’t have that sort of power, Blair, I’m sorry,” I shouted back at him. Blair glared at me.
“Just tell me the damn spell, let me try!” he yelled back. I shook my head, knowing it was useless, but I still instructed him on how to try and summon a simple force spell. He tried but, as I suspected, he failed.
“What good is me being a Shaman if I can’t protect my Sentinel?” he ground out in frustration.
“You are protecting him, Blair. Your shield is keeping him safe.”
I sympathised with his frustration as I paced my side of the circle, feeling useless.
Blair tucked my rod in his belt and pulled out his gun again with his free hand and took aim.
“Blair, don’t chance it. If he’s still shielding it might rebound and hit Jim,” I warned.
Blair nodded but he fired anyway, aiming a little to the left of Emerson, presumably trying to distract him.
It worked; Emerson looked to find the source of the shot. But he obviously wasn’t as green as he was cabbage looking since he stopped attacking Jim and turned his attention to Blair, sending a big-ass fireball in his direction.
Blair was able to switch the focus of his shield back to himself in time, but with only split seconds to spare he was still thrown hurtling towards where I stood by the force of the impact. He hit the circle about three feet in the air with a loud thump and collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor.
“Blair,” I called to him, hitting my hands uselessly against the circle wall.
“ ‘mokay. I’m okay,” he muttered as he clambered to his feet.
Jim had taken advantage of the distraction and had lunged at Emerson, sending them both crashing to the ground where the two men were now wrestling, Emerson’s staff lying a good few feet away. Emerson wasn’t well-built and I doubted he’d have much of a chance against an ex-Army Ranger. Advantage Ellison, I hoped, but unconsciousness might not be enough to break the circle.
“Ok, so I can’t work offensive spells and bullets seem to be useless against this guy,” Blair muttered and I could practically see the cogs of his brain churning as he weighed up options. “Harry, this other place, the… what did you call it?”
“The Nevernever.”
“Yeah. Do I have enough power to open a door to there?” he asked. I nodded.
“That sort of work takes more finesse than power,” I replied and gave him a curious look. He grinned.
“Well, it strikes me that if this guy made a deal with a creature and he didn’t keep his end of the bargain…”
“Then the creature is gonna be pretty pissed,” I finished, getting the idea. I smiled and nodded. “But you’ll have to spray the potion first and seal the door again quickly or else Fenris might try to come through anyway. Do you have a bottle with you?”
Blair nodded and pulled out the bottle in question from his jacket before he threw a worried look toward where his partner was. Jim was bleeding from his head and arm but he seemed to have the upper hand for the moment; Emerson was surprisingly scrappy though. I quickly instructed Blair on how to open a door and then close it again.
He began walking toward the two combatants, feeling his way along like a man in a darkened room would feel along a wall, looking for a weak spot he could use to create a doorway.
“I think this is where Fenris is. Oh, man is it pissed. I can actually feel this seething rage,” Blair commented, his hand still raised to a spot in mid-air.
“The walls must be thinner there. Go a few feet closer to Emerson; if you’re too close to Fenris it might try to escape before you throw Emerson through.”
The geography of the Nevernever isn’t like ours; it only intersects with our realm in certain places and those places may be close together for us but they might lead to opposite ends of the Nevernever. With a bit of luck Blair would open a doorway miles from Fenris; close enough for it to find Emerson, but far enough away that we could close the door first.
I moved along the edge of the circle to get a better view of Blair and watched as he followed my instructions, all the while keeping an eye on how Jim was faring with Emerson. He reached out with his hand and his senses; I was close enough to feel the tingle as he channelled energy into opening a doorway. I watched as the air in front of him began to change. Instead of a view of the stadium, a rectangle of air showed an empty, barren field covered in snow. Looked like he’d opened up somewhere near the Winter Court so I hoped there weren’t any pissed off Faeries nearby; we had enough troubles already.
The door was a neat piece of work; Blair clearly had an aptitude and finesse that I don’t. Once it had resolved itself fully, Blair lowered his hand and sprayed the contents of the bottle all around the edges. Job done, he went to help Jim.
Jim must have had some sense of what we were doing, or at least that we were trying to help him, as he had manoeuvred the fight in our direction and they were now only a few feet from the door.
I heard a deep growl from the other side of the doorway.
“Guys, hurry!” I called out.
Emerson was now in front of the doorway and Jim was struggling with him, trying to push him through. Emerson had pulled a knife from somewhere and although Jim had a firm grip on that arm it was making things more difficult.
I felt a prickle on my neck as someone, I guessed Emerson, gathered his will and a moment later Jim let go of Emerson’s wrist, shaking his hand. I could see a band of metal around the wrist and I figured that was Emerson’s shield charm. He must have used it to force Jim to let go.
As soon as his knife hand was free again he stabbed Jim. The knife went into the detective’s left shoulder and it looked like he was going to pull the blade and strike again, except that at that moment Blair delivered a flying tackle, knocking the warlock off balance.
In surprise Emerson let go of the knife and began to fall backwards toward the door, arms flailing for some balance. Jim grunted in pain as he brought his right fist up to connect squarely with Emerson’s jaw, sending him through the door.
I couldn’t see what was happening where Emerson had landed from where I was standing, but there was the sound of growls and screams from the other side. Jim staggered back and collapsed to his knees, so Blair ran to him, concerned for his partner, the doorway forgotten.
The shield collapsed and I ran forward toward the doorway.
“Blair, the door!” I yelled. Blair looked up at me and then back at the door as he realised what he’d done but it was already too late.
Fenris was trying to get through.
The wolf was perhaps more huge and terrible than I’d imagined. It was much bigger than a horse, more like an elephant, and its coarse jet black fur was matted and coated in gore. I figured the freshest blood around its snout belonged to Emerson. Its shoulders were too wide for the doorway and it scratched at the edges with paws and teeth, but Bob’s potion seemed to be doing its job. Fenris was stuck in the door like Pooh down Rabbit’s hole. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so terrifying.
Red eyes full of intelligence and malevolence glared at me as I snatched my blasting rod from Blair and raised it. Fenris let rip a snarl and scratched some more at the doorway.
“Forzare!” I cried, summoning as much will as I could to send not only the stored energy in the rod but everything else I could throw at the damn thing.
It didn’t even wince.
Beside me, one of the detectives was firing a gun at the wolf; it was having about as much effect as a pebble against a Sherman tank, but I couldn’t blame them for trying. I kept hurling spells at it, all to no effect.
The potion wasn’t going to hold forever and then Fenris was going to tear at that door until it could squeeze through. We were seconds away from the destruction of all life on the planet and there didn’t seem a damn thing we could do about it. Wasn’t going to stop me going down swinging though.
A sick little part of my brain decided to start singing to itself ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it’. Except I decidedly did not feel fine.
Desperate, I ran in close and smacked it in the nose with my staff. What? It’s not that stupid; it works on real wolves and I was all out of ideas. But, unsurprisingly, it had no effect other than bringing me within Fenris’ reach. I guess I must have been bothering it a little, much like a fly I’d guess, since Fenris decided to swat me. Its jaws snapped shut around my outstretched arm and I could feel not only its power but its magic too.
Thank the stars that my duster is covered in protective wards, so instead of ripping my arm off, Fenris only just broke the skin. I could feel its anger as it lifted me off my feet and with a shake of its head it threw me aside like a rag doll.
I hit my head hard enough to see stars for a moment and when my vision cleared I was lying next to where Jim and Blair were. Blair reached down to help me to my feet again and I gratefully accepted his hand, as I stood I discovered that my ankle was probably sprained and I winced from the pain in the arm Fenris had bitten as I used my staff to steady me.
Jim opened fire again; evidently he’d taken Blair’s gun from him. Blair shook his head and he still had hold of my hand as he gently touched Jim’s shoulder to stop him. As he made contact I felt a sudden surge of energy flow into me.
Suddenly the light was much brighter; every detail in my vicinity came into sharp focus. I could see individual follicles of Fenris’ fur and the tiny little flea-like things that crawled through it. The air was thick with the smell of cordite and blood and Jim’s final gunshot was like a crack of thunder beside me.
The power that was flooding my body didn’t feel like any magic I’d experienced before. I could feel it coming to me through Blair and Jim. A brief thought about Deeper Magic flashed through my brain and was gone.
I had only a vague idea where the power had come from, but I knew exactly where it was going. Raising my rod one last time, I levelled it at Fenris and let rip with everything I had.
“Forzare!”
There was a yelp from Fenris and then everything went black.
*_*
When I woke up I was lying on my back again and my head was pounding. I groaned.
“See, I told you he was alive,” Blair declared cheerfully.
“Barely,” I muttered. A hand reached down and helped me to my feet again. It was Blair.
I looked around me; everything seemed to be normal again. The only evidence of what had happened was Emerson’s staff lying a few yards away, some specks of blood on the floor and the blood staining Jim’s shirt from the wound caused by the knife still embedded in his shoulder.
“I closed the door as soon as Fenris backed off,” Blair said with a note of pride. I smiled as I bent down to pick up my staff and then winced in pain. I was going to be sore for a week.
“How did you do it?” Jim asked. Blair had taken off his jacket and Jim was now holding it to his shoulder to pad the wound until someone who knew what they were doing could remove the knife.
“With a little help from my favourite Shaman,” I said. “I didn’t think you had it in you,” I added and clapped Blair on the back.
“I don’t think I did,” he replied and looked over to Jim. “I think we did it.”
“When you touched my shoulder, there was a moment like…” Jim began cautiously but stopped, lost for words.
“Like that day in the fountain,” Blair confirmed. I gave him a puzzled look so he explained. “A few years ago, I drowned, but Jim brought me back. Not with CPR or anything but through a vision. We both had a similar vision just now.”
“The jaguar and the wolf as one,” Jim added, and I could hear a mix of emotions in his voice; he was probably struggling to cope with what had just happened.
“Come on in, man, the water’s nice,” Blair said with a grin. Jim stared at him for a moment before breaking into a smile too and shaking his head; obviously I was missing another shared joke.
Somehow, maybe on some deep subconscious level, Blair had been able to call on some major Earth magicks and funnel them from Jim, through himself, adding his own power in the process and then into me. This was some old magic that I didn’t even begin to understand, but I was glad they’d been backing me up.
Looked like Incacha had been right about the Sentinel and his Guide; they were the guardians of the Great City. Although I’m not sure I’d call Cascade ‘the Great City’, I’ve seen greater, but I guess when you’ve lived in the jungle your whole life any city would seem impressive.
No matter, the important part was we’d prevented a massacre, saved the world and the Jags had won the game. Not a bad day, even if I was going to be limping for a few days.
“Adrenaline’s a marvellous thing, but shouldn’t you get that looked at?” I said, indicating the large hunting knife sticking out of Jim’s shoulder. He glanced at it.
“Yeah, probably should. Come on, there should be EMTs on call for the game,” he said and began slowly walking toward the stadium.
“We work well together,” Blair commented as we fell in step together.
“Like the Three Musketeers,” I said with a grin. Blair chuckled.
“Cool. So which one am I?” he asked. Jim and I looked at each other before we both answered in unison
“Aramis.”
*-*
The next morning, a bandaged Blair and Jim gave the official version of events to Captain Banks, which ended in the death of the suspect in the ritual killings and the detectives finding proof of his guilt upon later entering his house.
“If he’s dead, then where’s the body?” Banks demanded.
“Do you really want to know, Captain?” Jim asked. Banks gave him a suspicious look.
“This is one of those Sentinel things that give me headaches,” he surmised.
“Sort of,” Blair agreed. Simon held his hands up in surrender.
“Then no, I don’t want to know. As long as I can say ‘case closed’, you two can write up the damn reports,” he muttered before waving us out of his office.
Blair snickered as we walked out to the bullpen.
“That’s going to be an interesting piece of fiction,” Jim commented with a grin. “Sounds like a job for the king of obfuscation.”
“Oh, no! I wrote up the last three reports, it’s your turn, partner,” Blair replied, poking Jim in the chest to punctuate his words. Jim shook his head and laughed.
“But whose idea was it to bring in Harry in the first place? Not mine. Besides, I have to requisition a new gun and you know how many forms that takes.”
I grinned at the bickering partners, enjoying their back and forth as much as they were. I wouldn’t have chosen to help the unusual detectives, but I was glad that our paths crossed. I’d finished the job I’d been paid to do; perhaps I’d stick around for a couple of weeks, teach Blair a little more about being a Shaman.
Besides, I figured I deserve a vacation.
FINIS
Thanks once again to aeron_lanart for beta/handholding duties.
Disclaimer:Nothing you recognise is mine.
You can read the fic from the beginning here
Shaman You Part 7
Once we’d damaged Emerson’s pentacle enough that it would be ineffective for his ritual, Jim, Blair and I continued our search of the building. We didn’t find any further evidence of Emerson, except for the empty containers he’d carried the blood in dumped in a trash can.
As we walked the auditorium, Blair grew thoughtful and took me to one side while Jim continued to search the stalls.
“Harry, there’s no prison that’s going to hold Emerson, is there?” he asked. I shook my head. “So you’re going to kill him?”
Blair had a determined look on his face, he seemed to accept that Emerson had to die, but I could also tell he wasn’t happy about the idea. That was good; taking a human life is no small thing, no matter what they’ve done.
“I’m going to fight him.”
“But he will have to die,” Blair persisted. I sighed and shrugged.
“I hope not, but if he’s too far gone to the Dark Side then we have no choice. Either he dies in the fight tonight or…” I stopped myself before I mentioned the Council. Non-wizards aren’t supposed to know about them.
“Or the council Emerson mentioned will execute him,” Blair finished. I nodded.
“The White Council is the wizard ruling body,” I said. I didn’t have to explain further as Jim finished his sweep of the room and joined us.
“If you two have finished, we’ve still got the press booth and the vendors’ area to search,” he said and walked away without waiting for a response. Blair and I grinned at each other and then followed after his partner.
The stadium doors were opened and the first few people were beginning to enter as we finished our search of the building. We’d not been able to find Emerson, but that was okay; it would have been better to take care of the problem before any innocent civilians got there, but we could still go ahead with our plan.
Once everyone was safely indoors and watching the pre-game entertainment I would go to the parking lot, which was outside the copper band that encircled the building. Blair would then seal the circle, leaving me and Emerson outside to duel while the civilians were safely protected inside a shield that only Blair could break.
The three of us watched the crowds as they entered, keeping lookout for any sign of Emerson trying to enter. He didn’t appear and it looked like my plan was going to work.
Once everyone was safely inside and we were sure there were no more stragglers arriving we headed in the direction of the parking lot and the circle. I could almost feel Blair’s tension as he walked beside me. Couldn’t blame him; although the magic required was no more than anything he’d already done it must have seemed like a daunting task to him to protect thousands of people.
“Remember, all you need to do is feed a little will into the metal. The circle will do the rest,” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring tone. “Do or do not, there is no try,” I added in my best Yoda impression. That got a chuckle and a grin from Blair.
“Piece of cake,” he replied but from his tone I could tell he didn’t believe that.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have us outside the shield, Harry?” Jim asked. I looked over my shoulder at him and smiled.
“I admit I’d appreciate the extra firepower, but guns might not do any good and I’d feel better with you two safely on this side, out of harms way,” I replied.
“Guess it’s your turn to stay in the truck, big guy,” Blair said with a grin. I think I was missing some shared joke there.
As we neared the boundary circle, Jim slowed his pace and then stopped.
“Do you hear something?” he asked, causing Blair and I to stop as well. We listened for a moment but I couldn’t hear anything and shook my head.
Jim was staring intently into the middle distance at something Blair and I couldn’t see. He shook his head and pointed to a low wall a few hundred yards away.
“I can hear some kind of chanting, I think there’s someone over there,” he explained. Before we could move to investigate, I felt a prickle on the back of my neck and then I was hit by an invisible force that sent me flying backwards through the air.
I landed awkwardly on the ground, knocking the air from my lungs with an audible ‘oof’ but I leant on my staff and got to my feet again quickly. Jim was already running toward the wall he’d pointed to but Blair was still in place; he looked torn between helping me and following his partner.
“I’m ok, go with Jim. I’m right behind you,” I said. Blair nodded and turned to follow Jim. I ran forward a few steps and then found myself lying on my back again.
I sat up.
“Blair,” I called out. The detective stopped and turned back to me. “You raised the shield?”
“Wasn’t me.”
Crap. Just once I’d really like it if the bad guy didn’t spoil my carefully laid out plan.
“It’s Emerson. Hell’s bells, I can’t get through and only he can break it now,” I explained. “I’m trapped, I can’t help you.”
Suddenly our attention was grabbed by a shot ringing out. Jim had found Emerson and fired, but the bullet had been deflected, presumably by a shield, and now Emerson was raising his staff again.
“Jim!” Blair cried out and raised his amulet. I winced, preparing to see poor Jim get blasted into oblivion as Emerson threw a fireball at him.
But it glanced harmlessly off. Blair had protected his Sentinel despite the great distance. I’ve never seen anyone pull off something like that; best I can manage is to make my own shield large enough to protect a few others close to me. I could never project one onto someone else, let alone that far from myself.
Emerson continued to throw spells at Jim but Blair’s shield was holding well. Jim tried firing a few more shots at Emerson, to no effect, until a force spell from Emerson made Jim stagger and drop his weapon down a drain.
Seemed the Dresden luck was going par for the course. I should have known things were going too easily.
Blair had pulled his gun with his free hand and was aiming it at Emerson, but he was too far away and Jim was too close for a clear shot. Frustrated, Blair lowered his gun. He spotted something on the floor and picked it up. It was my blasting rod; it must have fallen out of my duster when I fell.
Blair looked thoughtfully at it and then back to where Emerson was continuing to throw spells at Jim.
“Harry, how do I do what Emerson’s doing?” Blair asked.
“You don’t have that sort of power, Blair, I’m sorry,” I shouted back at him. Blair glared at me.
“Just tell me the damn spell, let me try!” he yelled back. I shook my head, knowing it was useless, but I still instructed him on how to try and summon a simple force spell. He tried but, as I suspected, he failed.
“What good is me being a Shaman if I can’t protect my Sentinel?” he ground out in frustration.
“You are protecting him, Blair. Your shield is keeping him safe.”
I sympathised with his frustration as I paced my side of the circle, feeling useless.
Blair tucked my rod in his belt and pulled out his gun again with his free hand and took aim.
“Blair, don’t chance it. If he’s still shielding it might rebound and hit Jim,” I warned.
Blair nodded but he fired anyway, aiming a little to the left of Emerson, presumably trying to distract him.
It worked; Emerson looked to find the source of the shot. But he obviously wasn’t as green as he was cabbage looking since he stopped attacking Jim and turned his attention to Blair, sending a big-ass fireball in his direction.
Blair was able to switch the focus of his shield back to himself in time, but with only split seconds to spare he was still thrown hurtling towards where I stood by the force of the impact. He hit the circle about three feet in the air with a loud thump and collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor.
“Blair,” I called to him, hitting my hands uselessly against the circle wall.
“ ‘mokay. I’m okay,” he muttered as he clambered to his feet.
Jim had taken advantage of the distraction and had lunged at Emerson, sending them both crashing to the ground where the two men were now wrestling, Emerson’s staff lying a good few feet away. Emerson wasn’t well-built and I doubted he’d have much of a chance against an ex-Army Ranger. Advantage Ellison, I hoped, but unconsciousness might not be enough to break the circle.
“Ok, so I can’t work offensive spells and bullets seem to be useless against this guy,” Blair muttered and I could practically see the cogs of his brain churning as he weighed up options. “Harry, this other place, the… what did you call it?”
“The Nevernever.”
“Yeah. Do I have enough power to open a door to there?” he asked. I nodded.
“That sort of work takes more finesse than power,” I replied and gave him a curious look. He grinned.
“Well, it strikes me that if this guy made a deal with a creature and he didn’t keep his end of the bargain…”
“Then the creature is gonna be pretty pissed,” I finished, getting the idea. I smiled and nodded. “But you’ll have to spray the potion first and seal the door again quickly or else Fenris might try to come through anyway. Do you have a bottle with you?”
Blair nodded and pulled out the bottle in question from his jacket before he threw a worried look toward where his partner was. Jim was bleeding from his head and arm but he seemed to have the upper hand for the moment; Emerson was surprisingly scrappy though. I quickly instructed Blair on how to open a door and then close it again.
He began walking toward the two combatants, feeling his way along like a man in a darkened room would feel along a wall, looking for a weak spot he could use to create a doorway.
“I think this is where Fenris is. Oh, man is it pissed. I can actually feel this seething rage,” Blair commented, his hand still raised to a spot in mid-air.
“The walls must be thinner there. Go a few feet closer to Emerson; if you’re too close to Fenris it might try to escape before you throw Emerson through.”
The geography of the Nevernever isn’t like ours; it only intersects with our realm in certain places and those places may be close together for us but they might lead to opposite ends of the Nevernever. With a bit of luck Blair would open a doorway miles from Fenris; close enough for it to find Emerson, but far enough away that we could close the door first.
I moved along the edge of the circle to get a better view of Blair and watched as he followed my instructions, all the while keeping an eye on how Jim was faring with Emerson. He reached out with his hand and his senses; I was close enough to feel the tingle as he channelled energy into opening a doorway. I watched as the air in front of him began to change. Instead of a view of the stadium, a rectangle of air showed an empty, barren field covered in snow. Looked like he’d opened up somewhere near the Winter Court so I hoped there weren’t any pissed off Faeries nearby; we had enough troubles already.
The door was a neat piece of work; Blair clearly had an aptitude and finesse that I don’t. Once it had resolved itself fully, Blair lowered his hand and sprayed the contents of the bottle all around the edges. Job done, he went to help Jim.
Jim must have had some sense of what we were doing, or at least that we were trying to help him, as he had manoeuvred the fight in our direction and they were now only a few feet from the door.
I heard a deep growl from the other side of the doorway.
“Guys, hurry!” I called out.
Emerson was now in front of the doorway and Jim was struggling with him, trying to push him through. Emerson had pulled a knife from somewhere and although Jim had a firm grip on that arm it was making things more difficult.
I felt a prickle on my neck as someone, I guessed Emerson, gathered his will and a moment later Jim let go of Emerson’s wrist, shaking his hand. I could see a band of metal around the wrist and I figured that was Emerson’s shield charm. He must have used it to force Jim to let go.
As soon as his knife hand was free again he stabbed Jim. The knife went into the detective’s left shoulder and it looked like he was going to pull the blade and strike again, except that at that moment Blair delivered a flying tackle, knocking the warlock off balance.
In surprise Emerson let go of the knife and began to fall backwards toward the door, arms flailing for some balance. Jim grunted in pain as he brought his right fist up to connect squarely with Emerson’s jaw, sending him through the door.
I couldn’t see what was happening where Emerson had landed from where I was standing, but there was the sound of growls and screams from the other side. Jim staggered back and collapsed to his knees, so Blair ran to him, concerned for his partner, the doorway forgotten.
The shield collapsed and I ran forward toward the doorway.
“Blair, the door!” I yelled. Blair looked up at me and then back at the door as he realised what he’d done but it was already too late.
Fenris was trying to get through.
The wolf was perhaps more huge and terrible than I’d imagined. It was much bigger than a horse, more like an elephant, and its coarse jet black fur was matted and coated in gore. I figured the freshest blood around its snout belonged to Emerson. Its shoulders were too wide for the doorway and it scratched at the edges with paws and teeth, but Bob’s potion seemed to be doing its job. Fenris was stuck in the door like Pooh down Rabbit’s hole. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so terrifying.
Red eyes full of intelligence and malevolence glared at me as I snatched my blasting rod from Blair and raised it. Fenris let rip a snarl and scratched some more at the doorway.
“Forzare!” I cried, summoning as much will as I could to send not only the stored energy in the rod but everything else I could throw at the damn thing.
It didn’t even wince.
Beside me, one of the detectives was firing a gun at the wolf; it was having about as much effect as a pebble against a Sherman tank, but I couldn’t blame them for trying. I kept hurling spells at it, all to no effect.
The potion wasn’t going to hold forever and then Fenris was going to tear at that door until it could squeeze through. We were seconds away from the destruction of all life on the planet and there didn’t seem a damn thing we could do about it. Wasn’t going to stop me going down swinging though.
A sick little part of my brain decided to start singing to itself ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it’. Except I decidedly did not feel fine.
Desperate, I ran in close and smacked it in the nose with my staff. What? It’s not that stupid; it works on real wolves and I was all out of ideas. But, unsurprisingly, it had no effect other than bringing me within Fenris’ reach. I guess I must have been bothering it a little, much like a fly I’d guess, since Fenris decided to swat me. Its jaws snapped shut around my outstretched arm and I could feel not only its power but its magic too.
Thank the stars that my duster is covered in protective wards, so instead of ripping my arm off, Fenris only just broke the skin. I could feel its anger as it lifted me off my feet and with a shake of its head it threw me aside like a rag doll.
I hit my head hard enough to see stars for a moment and when my vision cleared I was lying next to where Jim and Blair were. Blair reached down to help me to my feet again and I gratefully accepted his hand, as I stood I discovered that my ankle was probably sprained and I winced from the pain in the arm Fenris had bitten as I used my staff to steady me.
Jim opened fire again; evidently he’d taken Blair’s gun from him. Blair shook his head and he still had hold of my hand as he gently touched Jim’s shoulder to stop him. As he made contact I felt a sudden surge of energy flow into me.
Suddenly the light was much brighter; every detail in my vicinity came into sharp focus. I could see individual follicles of Fenris’ fur and the tiny little flea-like things that crawled through it. The air was thick with the smell of cordite and blood and Jim’s final gunshot was like a crack of thunder beside me.
The power that was flooding my body didn’t feel like any magic I’d experienced before. I could feel it coming to me through Blair and Jim. A brief thought about Deeper Magic flashed through my brain and was gone.
I had only a vague idea where the power had come from, but I knew exactly where it was going. Raising my rod one last time, I levelled it at Fenris and let rip with everything I had.
“Forzare!”
There was a yelp from Fenris and then everything went black.
*_*
When I woke up I was lying on my back again and my head was pounding. I groaned.
“See, I told you he was alive,” Blair declared cheerfully.
“Barely,” I muttered. A hand reached down and helped me to my feet again. It was Blair.
I looked around me; everything seemed to be normal again. The only evidence of what had happened was Emerson’s staff lying a few yards away, some specks of blood on the floor and the blood staining Jim’s shirt from the wound caused by the knife still embedded in his shoulder.
“I closed the door as soon as Fenris backed off,” Blair said with a note of pride. I smiled as I bent down to pick up my staff and then winced in pain. I was going to be sore for a week.
“How did you do it?” Jim asked. Blair had taken off his jacket and Jim was now holding it to his shoulder to pad the wound until someone who knew what they were doing could remove the knife.
“With a little help from my favourite Shaman,” I said. “I didn’t think you had it in you,” I added and clapped Blair on the back.
“I don’t think I did,” he replied and looked over to Jim. “I think we did it.”
“When you touched my shoulder, there was a moment like…” Jim began cautiously but stopped, lost for words.
“Like that day in the fountain,” Blair confirmed. I gave him a puzzled look so he explained. “A few years ago, I drowned, but Jim brought me back. Not with CPR or anything but through a vision. We both had a similar vision just now.”
“The jaguar and the wolf as one,” Jim added, and I could hear a mix of emotions in his voice; he was probably struggling to cope with what had just happened.
“Come on in, man, the water’s nice,” Blair said with a grin. Jim stared at him for a moment before breaking into a smile too and shaking his head; obviously I was missing another shared joke.
Somehow, maybe on some deep subconscious level, Blair had been able to call on some major Earth magicks and funnel them from Jim, through himself, adding his own power in the process and then into me. This was some old magic that I didn’t even begin to understand, but I was glad they’d been backing me up.
Looked like Incacha had been right about the Sentinel and his Guide; they were the guardians of the Great City. Although I’m not sure I’d call Cascade ‘the Great City’, I’ve seen greater, but I guess when you’ve lived in the jungle your whole life any city would seem impressive.
No matter, the important part was we’d prevented a massacre, saved the world and the Jags had won the game. Not a bad day, even if I was going to be limping for a few days.
“Adrenaline’s a marvellous thing, but shouldn’t you get that looked at?” I said, indicating the large hunting knife sticking out of Jim’s shoulder. He glanced at it.
“Yeah, probably should. Come on, there should be EMTs on call for the game,” he said and began slowly walking toward the stadium.
“We work well together,” Blair commented as we fell in step together.
“Like the Three Musketeers,” I said with a grin. Blair chuckled.
“Cool. So which one am I?” he asked. Jim and I looked at each other before we both answered in unison
“Aramis.”
*-*
The next morning, a bandaged Blair and Jim gave the official version of events to Captain Banks, which ended in the death of the suspect in the ritual killings and the detectives finding proof of his guilt upon later entering his house.
“If he’s dead, then where’s the body?” Banks demanded.
“Do you really want to know, Captain?” Jim asked. Banks gave him a suspicious look.
“This is one of those Sentinel things that give me headaches,” he surmised.
“Sort of,” Blair agreed. Simon held his hands up in surrender.
“Then no, I don’t want to know. As long as I can say ‘case closed’, you two can write up the damn reports,” he muttered before waving us out of his office.
Blair snickered as we walked out to the bullpen.
“That’s going to be an interesting piece of fiction,” Jim commented with a grin. “Sounds like a job for the king of obfuscation.”
“Oh, no! I wrote up the last three reports, it’s your turn, partner,” Blair replied, poking Jim in the chest to punctuate his words. Jim shook his head and laughed.
“But whose idea was it to bring in Harry in the first place? Not mine. Besides, I have to requisition a new gun and you know how many forms that takes.”
I grinned at the bickering partners, enjoying their back and forth as much as they were. I wouldn’t have chosen to help the unusual detectives, but I was glad that our paths crossed. I’d finished the job I’d been paid to do; perhaps I’d stick around for a couple of weeks, teach Blair a little more about being a Shaman.
Besides, I figured I deserve a vacation.
FINIS