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  “I’m up here. Just checking we’re alone in here.” The voice came from the second floor.

  Kat knelt next to Hunt who was with Vic, close to the fire. “How’s he doing?”

  “Whatever you did helped heal the laceration, but he’s got a high temperature, like he’s been—”

  “Infected. You’re right, he probably has,” said Algorine walking down the spiral stairs. “The weapon of the troll we fought was probably warded with a spell of some kind.”

  “Warded?” said Hunt.

  “No time for magic school doc, let’s just say he’s been poisoned.”

  “What’s the cause? Maybe I can find something—”

  “It’s not the kind of poison you might know, this is dark magic.”

  “Right . . . well what can we do for him?”

  Algorine looked at all the torn books and journals on the floor. “We need to exorcise the spell from him, there’s bound to be something in one of these books. Look for anything dealing with herbs, natural remedies, that kind of thing.”

  “Maybe I can try and heal him again?” said Kat.

  “It would have worked the first time,” said Algorine.

  “What is this place?” said Annabelle looking at the cold stone walls anxiously. “It does not look very safe!”

  “It will be. But first we need spells, so let’s get sorting through this mess,” said Algorine.

  * * * * *

  Vic laid on a bed, shivering. His wound now had purple streaks emanating outwards covering most of the upper right part of his chest. His eyes flickered partially open while streams of sweat rolled off him. Kat held his hand.

  “There must be more we can do for him?” she said to Algorine sitting on the bed opposite.

  “We’ve gone through everything we could, there’s nothing here about fixing hexes, which is strange seeing where we are . . .”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I think a whole lot of your grandfather’s things have been removed.”

  Kat looked away in thought. “There were a number of magical items in a cabinet in the main room, I don’t remember seeing them there.”

  “They didn’t just ransack the place, they took anything of any worth.”

  “Including Hack . . .”

  “A griffin is a valuable creature to have. Once it grows up, it’s a useful beast to have on your side.”

  Vic’s head shifted from side to side as if he was still fighting the battle from the night before.

  Kat’s throat tightened and a single tear started to roll down her cheek. “If I hadn’t brought us all here, this is all my—”

  Algorine walked across the room and placed her hand on Kat’s shoulder. “It’s the fault of whoever is causing the storm and bringing the creatures we keep seeing into this realm. You didn’t choose any of this.”

  Kat looked back down at the semi-conscious sergeant. “He didn’t choose this either, and now he’s dying . . . I have to try again!”

  Pulling herself away from Algorine, she placed her hand above Vics bandage and closed her eyes. She thought about the man in front of her as he was a day before, healthy and strong. Her ring started to glow white, but then faded.

  “Ugh! Why’s it not working!”

  “The spell which is causing this, is shielded from outside influence. It’s been designed so once it starts—”

  “It can’t be stopped.” Kat sighed.

  In the main room, Mills and Hunt were in the kitchen area standing alone inside the large pantry.

  “He’s going to die! We have to get him to a hospital!” whispered Mills.

  Hunt shook his head. “What hospital? Where? You saw what I saw on the journey in. There’s no life out there.”

  “Then we call in an emergency air evac!”

  “They’re not going to care about one soldier, way out here, even if we could contact the base!”

  “Then what? You’re just going to let him die, in this crazy basement?”

  “No! But I need to think!”

  Mills huffed and walked away.

  Darren looked at the new person to be added to the group, who was reading some of the many torn pieces of paper that were now sitting in neat piles.

  “So you know how to sword fight?” said Darren to Annabelle.

  She looked up at him. “Quelle? Sorry, I mean what?”

  He nodded towards the sword. “You knew how to use that thing?”

  “Oh, oui, well I fence. That sword is heavier than I am used too, but somethings are the same.”

  Kat appeared from the corridor and started clearing some of the broken furniture to one side. When she had asked Annabelle who she was, the day before she had not been given any answer which seemed satisfactory, at least none to explain why she appeared in a battle in her dream, or why the French girl was not more disturbed than most would be on seeing creatures that belonged in fairytales. She watched as she picked up the sword and swiped it through the air showing Darren how to handle it. Suddenly an idea formed in Kat’s mind.

  “The sword!” shouted Kat.

  Annabelle and Darren both looked at her.

  Kat ran forward. “The sword you took from those things on the motorway. Maybe it’s got the same spell on it that the weapon that hit Vic had!”

  “OK?” said Annabelle.

  Hunt was sitting at a nearby table. “Maybe we can create an antidote from whatever . . . err . . . magic is in this blade to help Vic?”

  Mills rolled her eyes, and carried on eating her cold soup.

  “I don’t know. Maybe Algorine would know—”

  “Know what?” said the Fae woman joining them.

  “Annabelle’s sword, what if it has the same dark magic then—”

  “Then we use that magic to dispel whatever is happening to Vic. It might work,” said Algorine.

  “Anyone know how to do that?” said Darren.

  “If only my grandfather was here, he would know—”

  Kat and Darren both looked at each other. “Journals!” They both said at the same time.

  Algorine ran past both of them to the spiral staircase. “Most of his journals are still here, they didn’t think they were of any value,” she said running up the steps. Kat ran after her, with Darren following more slowly.

  They all looked at the rows of bookshelves, and hundreds of leather bound volumes.

  “I guess we just start at the beginning and work our way through.”

  Each of them pulled a volume near the top of the first row and started reading. Annabelle, Hunt, and Mills appeared and were given a similar task.

  Silence descended upon them all as they busily read through the words of a man who started writing over a hundred years ago.

  “So this is all . . . real?” said Hunt.

  “Yup, keep reading,” said Kat.

  A few minutes later Mills pulled a face. “It says here he traveled to a magical realm called Avalon?”

  “If it doesn’t mention how to cure cursed weapons, it’s not important,” said Algorine.

  Thirty minutes later Darren spoke up. “Listen to this. ‘Today I fought with the witch we have been trying to find for the past two weeks. One of her wretched arrows caught my leg. It would seem to have been cursed, unsurprisingly and the witches magic is already making me feel weak. My attempts at healing myself have not worked, which leaves me with no other option but to find the witch and try to discern what spell she uses on her weapons . . . ’”

  “And?” said Algorine.

  Darren skimmed over the next page. “OK, I got it . . . He says ‘Managed to bind the evil creature with a spell, and then used her blood to destroy the infection in me. Good thing because—’”

  “Her blood? We don’t have the blood of whoever did this!” said Kat.

  “So there’s no way to use the other weapon?” said Hunt.

  Algorine took the journal from Darren and continued reading. “There’s nothing else here,” she said dejected.

/>   Kat shook her head. “We keep reading.”

  Over the coming hours as the sun rose outside, and each of them took turns to spend time with the sergeant while others read through Arnold’s journals.

  A commotion made Kat look up from the one that she was reading. Mills was pointing her rifle at Algorine.

  Kat ran down the staircase. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re taking him in the APC, we’re going to find a medical facility, don’t try and stop us!” shouted Mills, waving her gun between Algorine and Kat.

  “By moving him, you’re going to spread the infection quicker!”

  “Yeah, a magical infection! Whatever the fuck that is! Get out of our way!”

  Hunt appeared from the room with Vic over his shoulder. The purple roots had now taken hold across the whole of Vic’s back.

  “We can’t let you leave . . .” said Algorine with her hand prepped to grab her dagger.

  Kat’s ring begun to glow. Her eyes flitted between the people who she regarded as friends, but in reality, she hardly knew.

  Mills’s pointed her gun at Kat. “Stop that magic shit, I’m warning—”

  Vic started to convulse, so much so that Hunt had to drop him to the ground, to try and stop him from thrashing around. “He’s having a fit, someone help me keep him from breaking his bones!”

  Algorine sprung forward and knelt, holding Vic’s arms, while Hunt held his head.

  Kat joined them holding his legs to the ground.

  Vic started heaving.

  “He’s going into cardiac arrest!” shouted Hunt.

  Vic’s body slumped and he lay still as a statue, while Hunt cleared the sergeant’s airway.

  Kat watched the anguished face of the army doctor trying to start Vics heart again and those around her as if she was under water. Everything moved at half-speed and the desperate muffled sounds of panic seemed far-off.

  She realised she was still holding Vic’s ankles and let go.

  Hunt was alternating between beating Vic’s chest and breathing into his mouth, and those were the only noises in the cool air just outside the bedroom.

  Mills started shaking her head and pacing back and forth, while Hunt did his work.

  After what seemed like hours but was minutes, Hunt sat back, his face glistening with sweat. “He’s—”

  Before the doctor could finish his sentence, a broth of anger, frustration, sadness, and rage welled up from somewhere deep inside Kat and her ring started to glow more intensely than any of them had seen before.

  “No—” said Kat, quietly leaning over the dead man in front of her. As she did the light from her ring grew from just covering her hand, but also now covered her arm, and then all of her was glowing. The others slowly stepped back.

  Kat was only partially aware of the others around her, and placed both of her hands on Vics chest and let the energy flow through her and into the body lying below her.

  At first nothing happened, then Vic’s body started to rise a few inches from the ground.

  “The streaks. They’re going . . .” said Mills, more to herself than any of those around her.

  The light around Kat started to dim and Vic’s body gently rested back onto the flat stones.

  Hunt immediately knelt and felt for Vic’s pulse. “He’s alive . . .” He said it almost more as a question than a statement. He looked at Kat. “You did—”

  Kat’s never heard what he said next as her world turned black.

  CHAPTER 26

  Mills handed Vic a large mug of steaming coffee. He smiled, leaning forward, and letting the blanket that was wrapped around him fall away a little, he then grasped the mug.

  “Oh no, not your coffee!” he said.

  She smiled. “Hey, it’s instant, all I did is add water!” She leaned up against the mantel above the fire and paused before continuing. “You really think all of this is like . . .”

  “Magic?”

  “Yeah.”

  Vic took a sip on his drink. “I still don’t know what to think. But yeah, why not. I don’t think it’s the other thing we thought.”

  “It’s not aliens,” said Darren in the kitchen overhearing the conversation. He looked at them both. “I know it’s not because ‘aliens’ is kinda my thing.”

  “You one of those conspiracy nuts?” said Mills.

  Darren frowned. “There’s a lot of things that the people that you work for do, that the public don’t know about. Lots! Of things.”

  Mills frowned turning back to her sergeant. “Sure.”

  “Anyway point is, this is not ‘them’,” he pointed upwards. “This is the kind of stuff that you grew up thinking was fairytales. And well, now it’s not, now it’s real and we need to figure out a way to deal with it.”

  Mills shook her head.

  “He’s right Esta.”

  Mills looked at Vic surprised. She couldn’t remember the last time he used her first name.

  “Whatever this is, we need to get our noggins around how we do our jobs as soldiers. How we protect the people of our home. If that means believing all this magic and spells shite then that’s how it needs to be.”

  Mills nodded.

  Hunt appeared from the corridor.

  “How is she?” said Vic.

  “In a kind of deep sleep. If I didn’t know any better I would say she’s hibernating. But her vitals are strong.”

  Vic swallowed. “Good. Pull up a chair, we need to talk.” He then looked at Darren. “Move your chair closer to the fire.”

  “I’m fine where I am, thanks.”

  “I want your input, move closer.”

  Darren frowned but moved his chair closer.

  “Annabelle! Algorine!” shouted Vic, and then immediately coughed.

  “Oui!” shouted Annabelle from the floor above still reading the journals.

  “Come down here and find a seat.”

  “I think Algorine’s in the—”

  “I’m here,” said Algorine appearing from the door to the bedrooms and laboratory. “What is it soldier boy?”

  Vic smiled. “Pull up a chair.”

  Algorine grabbed one and sat down on it.

  All six were now huddled around the roaring fire.

  Vic looked at Algorine and Darren. “I’ve seen some strange stuff in my time in the army, but that’s been nothing to what me and each of us—” He looked at Hunt and Mills, “have seen over the past few days. I know Kat told us your story yesterday, but take us all through it one more time—” He then looked at Algorine. “I want to know about these ‘houses’, and the rings and anything you think that might be useful for us to know. Don’t hold back, I want it all.”

  Darren took a deep breath, while Algorine frowned.

  “OK, well I don’t know as much as the man that this sanctuary belonged to, but I’ll tell you what I do know.”

  Algorine set about telling the three soldiers what she knew of the world she was born into.

  After a few minutes, something seemed to occur to Mills. “So you’re not human?”

  “You’re a quick learner. So as I was saying . . .”

  Algorine told them what she knew of the houses, the Order of the Ring and as much history as she could remember being told by her mother while growing up. Once she was done a silence hung in the air.

  “You’re part of this world now.”

  The sound of Kat’s voice made them all jump a little. Hunt jumped out of his seat and ran to help her walk across to the fire. Darren went to do the same, but sat back down.

  “We thought we’d start the party without you,” said Vic smiling.

  Kat forced a tired smile. “What’ve I missed?”

  “Algorine was giving us some background intel on all of this,” said Hunt looking around the gray-blue stonework of the strange room they were in. He moved his chair closer to the fire and Kat sat down on it.

  “Glad to see you haven’t killed each other while I’ve been sleeping,” said Kat.
r />   An awkward snigger ran around the group.

  Vic turned in his chair and looked directly at Kat. “Before we go any further, evidently, I was dead, and then you did your thing and here I am now. So thank you for that.”

  Kat gave an embarrassed smile. “Don’t ask me to do that again, because I have no idea how I did.” She looked at the faces around her. “So, make any plans?”

  “That’s just what we’re about to do.” Vic turned back to Algorine. “So you know about this Goran fella that’s a major part of all this?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And he’s got one of your people, this Eden?”

  “Well she’s not ‘my people’ but yeah.”

  “Any reason to believe she’s still alive?”

  “Other than using her as bait to lure other custodians in, nope.”

  Kat’s mind flashed back to seeing Eden in the prison and pushed the image away.

  Vic looked thoughtful. “OK, I understand you’ve been making this up as you go and as you learn and you’ve done well to stay alive, but from here on out we need to plan our tactics. And we need a strategy for how we’re going to try and fix all of this.”

  Kat nodded.

  “It’s clear whoever is making this happen, wants these magical weapons for themselves and—”

  “And there’s whatever they were doing at the grand portal,” said Algorine.

  “You mean Stonehenge?”

  “Yup.”

  “What could they be doing?” said Kat.

  “Portals are used to travel between realms, and by the looks of what we fought against it seems that’s where they are getting their forces from.”

  Vic frowned.

  “Could you get the army to fight with us?” said Annabelle.

  “Maybe at some point, but right now my commanding officers are not going to believe any of this. They’re convinced it’s an alien invasion. Not that they told the public that.”

  “They don’t tell us anything!” said Darren seemingly having a conversation with himself.

  “Yeah, well at some point it will become obvious what’s happening and they will have to act—”

  “It might be too late by then,” said Algorine.

  “Exactly,” said Vic. “It seems you already have soldiers though, the people who fight for the seven houses?”