Monday, November 19, 2007

Solomon Ch. 10

Solomon: Chapter 10

"Silver?" said Solomon, looking into the pocket mirror that the boy had given him when they first met.
Silver's smiling face stared back at him through the tiny rectangle of glass. "Hey, Sol. What's happening?"
Jacob shook his head. "None of that. What happened with Vivian? Is she in or out?"
Silver's smile widened into a grin. "She's in. What about Mort? Is he in or dead? I figured those would be the only possibilities with you two."
Now Jacob allowed himself to smile a little bit. "He's alive, and he's decided to help us. How soon can we get the pact forged?"
Silver's shrug was barely detectable from the limited view Jacob had of him. "I'm not sure. I think Felicity seemed okay with the prospect of doing it today. You should probably go talk to her about it. I'll be here waiting for you."
Jacob chuckled. "You don't want to come with me, then?"
Silver shook his head enthusiastically. "Absolutely not. I have some very important business to attend to here."
Jacob grinned back at his friend. "Well. If it's that crucial, don't let me tear you away from it."
"Not a chance that I would," Silver jovially assured him. "Gotta go, talk to you later."
The mirror was now lifeless, reflecting only Jacob's face back at him as he looked into it. Jacob turned his head and called to the Necromancer. "Mort, you up for a visit to our Fateweaver?"
"I suppose," Mort said. "It will be interesting to meet this prodigy you speak of."
Jacob made his way to the door, pausing to put on his jacket and hat.
Mort locked the door behind them. The two magicians made the entire thirty- minute trip without exchanging a word between them. It was something of a relief to Jacob. Silver was well and good, but it was nice to spend a bit of time with a fellow practitioner of the darker magics. Mort and Jacob both understood the value of silence. Any prolonged experience with the forces they regularly wielded almost universally destroyed a sunny disposition. As a user of the dark arts, one learned to interact with the magical world rarely but forcefully. Given the choice, neither Jacob nor Mort would make smalltalk, but when they did speak, it would be abrupt and powerful.
They reached Aidan and Felicity's house and Jacob knocked on the door. Felicity opened it and smiled when she saw it was Jacob.
"Hello Solomon," she greeted.
"Hello, Felicity," he responded. "May we come in?"
"Certainly," she said, stepping aside and motioning them in with her arm.
"This is Mort," said Jacob as the Necromancer entered the house. "Mort, this is Felicity, our Fateweaver."
Mort bowed to the little girl. "It's a pleasure."
"Nice to meet you, too," she said.
Jacob took off his hat and hung it on a rack of pegs by the door. Strange, he hadn't noticed it the first time he'd come here. He proceeded to hang his coat in the hall closet. After that, Jacob led Mort into the kitchen with Felicity following them. Aidan was already seated at the kitchen table, waiting for them. He stood and extended a hand as Jacob introduced Mort.
"Mort, this is Aidan. Aidan, Mort."
Aidan glanced at Felicity, then back to Jacob as he broke off the handshake. "So what kind of caster is this guy?"
"I am a necromancer," answered Mort. "A worker of death magics."
Aidan nodded respectfully. "That's pretty cool. We'll set up a system: I burn them up, you animate the bones." He grinned widely at Mort.
Mort actually cracked a smile. "That sounds like a workable plan to me."
Jacob interjected and spoke to Felicity. "How soon can you be ready to cast the Pact, Felicity?"
Felicity looked up at Jacob. "I'm ready now. You just need to get everyone here so I can perform the ritual."
Jacob nodded. "Fine then. I'll go to get Lucinda. Someone go pry Silver and Vivian apart. I'll be back in under an hour."
With that, Jacob retrieved his jacket and hat and left the house again.
Jacob walked briskly in the direction of Lucinda's apartment, neither slowing nor stopping till he reached the front door of the complex. He rang the buzzer and conducted himself in a very businesslike manner.
"Hello?" came Lucinda's voice.
"Lucinda, it's Solomon. You should come on down. We've got some work to do."
There was a brief pause. "I'll be right down."
Lucinda was at the doorway within three minutes. She was wearing a sensible, black, ankle- length skirt, a light hooded jacket, black blouse, and white sneakers. She was ready to walk as soon as she closed the door behind her, which is exactly what happened.
Jacob and Lucinda immediately made for Felicity and Aidan's home. As they walked, Jacob brought Lucinda up to speed.
"We've got all seven now. You, Silver, Aidan, Felicity, and me you already knew about. Silver brought over Vivian and I recruited Mort. It's a nice, balanced Cabal."
"Well that's--" Lucinda stopped mid- sentence. "Iz, do you feel that?"
Jacob nodded, moving his hands into a ready- to- cast position. "Someone's here."
With a start, Jacob realized that they had ended up in a particularly deserted section of the park near the woods on their way back. At three o' clock in the afternoon on such a mild day, an empty park meant one thing-- magic. Figuring that the enemy obviously knew where he and Lucinda were at this point, Jacob slipped into magesight, his eyes glowing dimly with Hellfire. Lucinda did the same, her eyes becoming faintly luminous with a soft white light. Both of them saw what they feared most: There were three fateweavers spaced evenly around the perimeter of the park. They were keeping the mundanes at bay. Emerging from the woods were four magicians.
Tactical error number one, thought Jacob. They've decided to take on a Luminary during the day. Tactical error number two: They've decided to fuck with Jacob Absolom.
"Come on," said Jacob as the four of them circled up around Lucinda and him. "Let's see what you've got."
Two blood magi, a shocker and a screamer according to his magesight. Not more than he could handle, though the screamer would give him problems. Lucinda would be able to take care of him, though.
The screamer sneered at Jacob. "We hear that you're trying to start a cabal, Solomon. The Baron can't have that sort of behavior going on on his turf. You're to be made an example of, along with all of your little friends."
How did they know?
One of the blood magi spoke up, as if answering Jacob's mental question. "The Baron has spells set up to let him know when one of his servants dies. This morning, Tim Frost met his end. We tracked it to you."
So Timothy had been in with the Baron all along. It figured.
"Enough talking," said Jacob. "Are you going to talk at us all day or are you going to do something?"
On cue, the shocker sent a bolt of electricity crackling from his fingertips toward Jacob. The look of surprise on the magician's face when his attack was deflected by a giant flaming axe made Jacob wish he could capture the moment for ever.
Jacob rushed the shocker who narrowly dodged a blow that would have rent him in two. The blade came so close that the magician felt the heat of the Hellfire as it passed through the air where he had been an instant before. The shocker rolled into his dodge, coming up and loosing another volley of pure electricity at Jacob, who was not able to deflect this one.
Meanwhile, Lucinda had opened the battle by shoving her palms into the eyes of the screamer when he was momentarily stunned by Jacob's manifestation of the axe. Blinding light flared from her hands, leaving the screamer writhing on the ground, living up to his name through no magical prowess. She drew a silenced pistol from her coat and dispatched the blind magician.
The blood magi had knives out and simultaneously slit the soft flesh of their left palms, chanting as they squeezed their left hands into fists seeping blood. Lucinda's gun aged and corroded, crumbling into rusty dust in her very hands. Lucinda held her hands to the sky and seemed to redirect the sun's rays, concentrating them on the two blood magi, and burning their faces.
Jacob was shaking off the effects of the electrical blast when he felt another start to gather. This time he was fast enough, once more acting with almost preternatural speed to deflect the bolt. He launched himself into the air, turning himself completely head over heels and twisting midair as he completed an impossibly high arc over the shocker, who had just enough time to turn around with a look of bewilderment on his face as the axe came down on his head, bisecting him vertically.
Lucinda had manged to knock the two blood magi to the ground and manifested a sword of light in each hand. In one quick motion, she snuffed out their lives. She held her right arm straight in the air, index finger extended. Three beams of light raced forward from it and sniped the fateweavers. Lucinda fell to her knees, drenched in sweat as Jacob dismissed the axe and ran to her.
The high- damage spells that Lucinda had cast had taken considerable toll on her. She was tapped out; she had nothing left to give. Jacob held her close as she struggled to catch her breath, then helped her to her feet.
"We've got to try to keep moving, Lucy," he said urgently. "They might have gone after the others too. We've got to try to get to them as fast as possible."
Still too out of breath to speak, Lucinda nodded mutely, using Jacob as a support as they continued on their way to Aidan and Felicity's house as quickly as they could.

Word Counts
-This Chapter: 1683
-Overall so far: 20555

4 comments:

Steven said...

So, what are the chances you'll actually be finishing this book for the novel in a month contest? I know last weekend you still had a couple thousand words to write.
I might possibly have a selfish interest in this, as I'd really like to see the ending of this story...
The characters are interesting, the setting seems pretty cool, and the different styles of magic seem nicely varied and unique. I also like that you assume the reader knows what most of the different magic types are without explaining it every other paragraph, unlike some authors I know. Of course, it can be frustrating too, since I'm the type of person who likes to know everything I can about a subject (this is someone who read all of Tolkien's supplemental works, including the Silmarillion). Anyway, good job, hope to see more.

Unknown said...

You're Steven, aren't you? I finally figured it out! Maybe I'm wrong though, because I think Steven used a different profile to post on Derek's thing. Hmmmm. . . Oh! You initially posted as "Steven," then switched to this name. Okay. Anyway. For information on what's going to happen with Solomon, check out "More Words of the Drewcifer" at http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ablatt

Steven said...

Guilty as charged. Man, you must've posted all that stuff to your Purdue blog shortly after I posted, because I'd swear there was no update on the site at the time.

Unknown said...

Also guilty as charged. That's exactly what happened.