Witch's Bell Book One

  Chapter 21

  Ebony finally, carefully, and ever so delicately, opened the door. The glow from around the door frame extinguished at once, and she found herself facing a dark room.

  “Ah, Harry?” she whispered, putting a hand up to the side of the door in an effort to find the light switch.

  The traveling bag gave an almost nervous twitch. “My word,” Harry mumbled, “Quite remarkable.”

  “What’s remarkable, I can’t see anything.” Ebony took a step into the room, putting Harry down so she could free her hands. “It’s just so dark in here!”

  It really was dark, a very unusual dark. The kind of dark that flows in after a light has been extinguished. Any witch knows that such darkness has a different quality to the denser, heavier stuff you find in perpetually black caves or out in the lightless reaches of deep space.

  This was quick dark. It had speed and agility, like a panther leaping from tree to tree in order to stay ahead of its prey. It could wrap around you, or wend its way from behind in such a flash it was impossible to see. Scientists may say there is nothing in the universe faster than the speed of light, but anyone with an ounce of magic knows that isn’t true. Certain breeds of darkness move significantly faster. In the time it takes you to turn on the light, the dark has to get well and truly out of sight.

  Even the light filtering in from behind Ebony through the open door didn’t seem all that strong. It felt like it was very far away – like it was far-off on the horizon – while she was stuck in some cavernous pit down below.

  Ebony stretched out her hands, not wanting to trip over something and fall heavily to the ground. She didn’t like the idea of breaking her ankle and crawling out, only to bump into Nate’s legs, enabling him to give her a swift and deserving kick.

  She could hear Harry bouncing around on the floor, still muttering to himself. “Oh yes, old energy,” he said for the second time, “Ancient stuff. Hmmm!” he trilled. “Very invigorating. Reminds me of when I was a boy.”

  Ebony softly bit her lip and moved her hands in front of her, as if fighting off a slow, invisible enemy. She didn’t want to bump into something, she reminded herself, just as her thigh dug into something hard and pointy.

  “Ow!” she yelped, falling forward onto what felt like a stone bench. Something hard, metal, and cold came up against her skin as she tried to steady herself.

  “Ebony!” Harry gave a yelp. “What have you done?”

  “I haven’t done anything.” She steadied herself. She wondered just how exactly she was meant to navigate through this room and find Nate’s secret, if it was so darn dark. And it wasn’t as if she could simply go and find a torch either. Ebony knew enough about magic to know that when you faced darkness like this, you needed more than a torch to see through it.

  She huffed.

  Then she felt it and heard it. She even fancied she could smell it. But in the darkness she had no chance of actually seeing it.

  “Ebony!” Harry roared. “Duck back!”

  She floored herself, launching to the side with a thud as something whistled past her ear.

  There was a crash as something heavy and metal sliced into the floorboards by her side.

  “Get back, Ebony! Time to do some blasting!” Harry was making such a tremendous crashing that it sounded like he was rocketing around like a bouncy-ball in a glass shop.

  Ebony backed off, scuttling along the floor like a backward crab. She still couldn’t see, and the light from the doorway was only getting dimmer, making it feel more and more like she was fighting something terrible in the confines of her own, darkened mind.

  “You’re in the way, Ebony! Duck back, girl!” Harry made even more noise now. He sounded like one of those old war klaxons winding up as it got ready to blare defiantly into the dark night.

  If Ebony was in the way, she couldn’t tell, it was just so dark! She heard something metal clink against the floor, as if something heavy was walking in pointed, solid shoes. Then there was another whistle as something sliced right past her face.

  Ebony screamed, lying down on the ground with a snap and rolling to the side until she hit what was either the wall or that strange stone table.

  Once again something metal slammed down right next to her, barely a centimeter from her head.

  She kicked out wildly, not knowing in which direction, but not caring. She had no idea what was fighting her – no idea of the size, the dimensions, or the power. So she simply struck out at everything.

  Her foot connected with what felt like a leg, but the thing was so covered in thick, tough metal, she instantly regretted it. A terrible pain shot up her unprotected toes, and she sucked in a wheeze.

  “Got ya now,” Harry suddenly blurted, a hot, white streak of energy erupting from the bag and flying over Ebony’s face. It appeared to impact with something – the sound of clinks and thuds erupting by her ear.

  Something crumpled beside her, as if she’d been standing too close to a suit of armor as it toppled over.

  Just as she allowed herself a strangled but thankful breath, the lights turned on.

  The room suddenly filled with a bright, quite normal glow, and Ebony turned to see an actual suit of armor right next to her. It was crumpled, empty, and burnt all over from Harry’s blast. It also had a massive, terrible looking broadsword in one of its giant metal-gloves.

  “Oh my—” She whispered, pushing away from the thing as if she expected it to either spring to life again or burst into flames. As she pushed back, she brushed up against what felt like another set of legs.

  “Word,” the owner of the legs finished her sentence.

  Ebony shrieked, sure it was another knight out to get her.

  “Ebony!” Harry rattled from the corner. “We’ve been sprung! Run!”

  A hand latched onto her shoulder – an actual warm, fleshy, human hand. And while Ebony wasn’t going to rule out there being a sword in the thing’s other hand – she realized with a gulp that it was way more likely to be a gun.

  Nate.

  “Get up,” he growled.

  She pushed up, just as he yanked at her shoulder, and she turned, just as he tried to twist her. Though the pain in her toes from karate-kicking a suit of armor was still intense, she forced herself to stand on her own two feet.

  Nate. Detective Nathan Wall. Here he was. In his own house, in his own secret little room, facing off against his shoeless home-invader.

  Ebony sucked in her lips, shrugging backward in order to release herself from his iron grip. Not that he’d let her.

  “What are you doing here?” His expression was… she’d never seen him look like this. No, she’d never seen anyone look like this. It was as if she wasn’t staring into his face at all – as if his eyes, mouth, jaw, and crumpled brow weren’t anything but details belying what was truly inside. Because past the stare, the frown, and the clenched teeth, was something else. Something….

  “Ebony, what are you doing here?” He squeezed her shoulder, grip like stone on flesh.

  She shrugged back, this time putting more effort into it – twisting at the right time until she could use her momentum against him. She pulled herself free. She hobbled backward several steps and kept staring.

  “What are you?” she asked, voice soft and barely audible.

  He snorted as if that was the last question he’d expected her to ask. His expression changed briefly – his eyes flickering, his frown inching inward.

  He was like a puzzle, Ebony realized. It was as if everything on the outside – the way he looked, the way he flattened his tie, the way he said “right,” at every moment, regardless of how wrong things were – it was as if all of it was some kind of code. A puzzle that, if you knew how to assemble it, would unlock what was within.

  Nate wasn’t the tie, the voice, or the face. He wasn’t the need to drive painfully slowly; he wasn’t the need to quote the rule book at people; and he wasn’t the need to work twenty-four hours a day. Nate was whoever w
as behind all that.

  “What am I?” he repeated crossing his arms, expression still so angry, so cold, and so… something else.

  “Ebony! You stand back,” Harry whistled from the corner, “Because if he tries anything, I’ll blast him rotten.”

  Nate flicked his gaze over to Harry. “Tell me you didn’t bring him along?”

  “That’s right, boy, I’m here. And let me tell you, try anything macho on my girl and I’ll blow up your house, your stuff, and your face. Your little magical armor there attacked us – almost killed my Ebony! So don’t you get cocky with me!”

  Nate shook his head, clearly not worried and not amused. “You broke into my house with a magical bookstore in a bag – nice. And the armor? I doubt it would have actually killed you,” he added, tone subtle.

  It took Ebony a moment to realize he was talking to her – Nate wasn’t facing her, after all. He was, instead, staring behind her at the suit of armor Harry had blasted.

  “I knew you were going to be hard to handle,” he said to himself with a shake of his head. “But this is incredible.”

  “Sorry.” She kept backing off, wanting to get away from Nate and the magical armor, and over to Harry, where things were more likely to go “boom,” but less likely to involve her. “I don’t get it.” She took a breath. “And you need to explain it to me right now.”

  “Atta girl,” Harry rumbled appreciatively. “You tell that rotter. You understand, Mr Detective? We’re here to question you, and not the other way ‘round. You’ve got a secret, my lad, and we’re here to extract it from you!”

  Nate’s eyebrows pressed together. He was either confused, or slightly amused. “Right. Or you’ll blast me, right?”

  Ebony swallowed. “Look. You have to tell us right now where you stand. I don’t know what’s going on.” She crossed her arms and sniffed. “But I have a feeling you do – the Grimshores, their book, the spell I’m being rewritten into – I have a feeling you know what’s going on.”

  He stared at her, but didn’t speak, move, or change his expression. They may have been standing in his secret room, with a mysterious set of armor that had moments before been moving of its own accord – but Detective Nate still had no intention of giving anything away.

  She decided to press on. This was how it was going to be, she realized with a swell of defiance in her chest. If the Grimshores were going to take her down, she was going to go down kicking, screaming, and cursing. “So what is it, Nate? How come you don’t seem affected? You’ve always been different.” She pointedly looked down at the armor with its enormous glittering sword. “Though I hadn’t realized quite how different ‘til now. But here’s your option – no, you don’t actually have an option.” She stared at him, her eyes level, her mouth set, and her cheeks stiff. “Who are you, what are you, what do you want, and who do you work for?”

  Nate, contrary to all expectations, laughed. And it drew on for entirely too long. “You want to know all about me Ebony?” He raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t figured it out by now? What have you been doing all this time—”

  “You better hurry up and answer the question, Mister, or I’m going to blow up your house,” Harry warned with a drawn out grumble.

  Nate didn’t look fazed. “Fine. I’m a knight,” he said simply.

  Ebony’s features pressed together, but she hardly had an ah-ha moment. “Sorry? Is that meant to be revealing?”

  “You’re not exactly the world’s best witch, are you? Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of knights—”

  “Hmm,” Harry said thoughtfully, “You, a knight? I doubt it Mr Right. Knights are sworn to uphold the rights of all humanity. They are the most powerful of all the non-magical races, even though they have a special magic all of their own. They fight dragons,” Harry said appreciatively, “And protect the weak from the strong. No, you can’t be a knight. You’re too boring.”

  Nate chuckled. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m a knight.”

  Ebony watched their interaction, still not following. “Hold on, I’ve never even heard of knights. If they’re one of the magical races, then why don’t I know about them?”

  “Non-magical races,” Nate corrected as he adjusted his tie.

  “Oh no, they have a special magic all of their own,” Harry countered quickly. “It’s will magic. Very powerful stuff, that.”

  “Whatever,” Nate shook his head, “And it doesn’t surprise me that you haven’t heard of the Knights. We hardly advertise ourselves anymore.”

  “Oh no, you love your little secret societies, and hush-hush round-tables. Cloak and dagger stuff, knights.”

  “Amour and sword stuff, actually,” Nate interjected.

  “Hold on, knights are real? I mean, more than just historical? Like, real real? Like there are knights running around with their swords and gauntlets fighting dragons and saving damsels, today?”

  Nate shook his head. “No. Well, yes, but no too. Knights are real, and we do fight the occasional dragon and save the occasional damsel,” he said with the barest smile directed right at Ebony. “But that’s not the bulk of our work and never has been. We are sworn to protect humanity from whatever threats gather in the darkness. We’re sworn to uphold the Good, the Right, and the Truth. We’re sworn to—”

  “We get it, Mr Detective,” Harry interrupted. “But I still don’t believe you’re really a knight.”

  “I have a suit of armor that moves at will, isn’t that evidence enough?” Nate gestured at the crumpled armor on the floor.

  “I’ll admit that is weird,” Harry grumbled. “But a true Knight is bound by more than words. Show us your registration, chump.”

  Nate rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

  Then he began to do something entirely unexpected. The upstanding Mr Detective began to unbutton his shirt.

  Ebony sucked in a breath. “Ah, what are—”

  But before she could squeeze out the words or a whistle, Nate whipped off his shirt to reveal, much to her disappointment, a singlet.

  “Right…” she said carefully. “Do knights, as a rule, always wear singlets? Is that why you took off your shirt?”

  Nate pointed at the small tattoo on the tip of his left shoulder. It was about the size of a coin. It was a small circle with another circle inside. That was it.

  Ebony, already bored by the tattoo, let her eyes drift to the rest of the detective. To say he had impressive arms, was the understatement of the century.

  “Ah, I see,” Harry said carefully. “You are a knight. My mistake.”

  Nate buttoned up his shirt, catching her gaze and cocking an eyebrow. “You done?”

  She sniffed carefully. “Okay… so just because he has a really small tattoo, we believe his story?”

  “That’s not a tattoo,” Harry said. “That’s a Point of Registration. The man’s a knight, definitely.”

  She blinked hard and then threw her hands in the air. “What is going on here?”

  “I’m a knight. We just covered this.”

  “So, why are you here, Mr Knight?” Harry’s voice had lost the edge of antagonism. Perhaps the prospect Nate had fought dragons impressed Harry. “You knights don’t act without orders from your Round Table. So what is it? Fess up – what’s going on?”

  “You’re very direct, bookstore. You want to know why I’m here.” He turned to take a long look at Ebony. “I’m here because of your Portal,” he said simply.

  “Why, there something wrong with it?” Harry grumbled.

  “You could say that. For a couple of years now, Portals around the world have been decreasing their output of energy. We don’t know why.” Nate pressed the bridge of his nose. “But the fields that support the Portals have been fluctuating.”

  “Fluctuating?” Ebony asked. “And? How is that important?”

  “Sorry, you an expert on thermic-field dynamics? No, well I am. The flow of energy into and out of the Portal has to be balanced, otherwise….”

  “Rea
lity goes pop.” Harry rattled around on the ground. “But you’re wrong, Mr Knight. If anything, Vale’s Portal has been increasing its output. Ever since I’ve been here its magical fields have only been growing stronger. Why, I remember when it was hard to raise a good fire-spell, now every nancy wizard can do it.”

  “And that’s why I’m here.” Nate crossed his arms and sighed. “For some reason, the Vale Portal is bucking the trend. For some reason, every other Portal on the planet is taking in less energy than they’re sending through, except for Vale.”

  Harry’s buckle clicked. “Oh my. Sounds like something is trying to come through from the Other Side.”

  “We hope not,” Nate sighed heavily. “We really hope not.”

  “So, hold on,” Ebony interjected, still not following, but not wanting to be left behind either. “You knew about the Portal all along? Then why did you ask me all those questions in my shop? Why did you borrow all those books?”

  “To see what you knew,” he answered simply. “We suspect that someone is working with… whatever is trying to come through the Portal. Maybe they’re trying to help it come through or maybe they’re being used themselves. We don’t know. But I wanted to know how much you knew about the Portal, to cross you off my list. I figured, as the witch consultant to the police force, that you should be investigated first. With the kind of connections you have with the Coven and the Force, you would be in an excellent position to manipulate the Portal without anyone knowing.”

  Ebony crossed her arms tightly. “And what exactly did you learn, Nate?”

  “Ha!” he chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry. You’re about as capable of pulling that off as Harry is of winning a Manners Contest. I ruled you out ages ago.”

  She huffed. Not sure whether she should feel annoyed or relieved.

  Nate offered her a half-grin. “Something wrong? You’d rather you were still under investigation? You want to be pulled up before the Round Table while you’re fighting for your life against a rewriting spell? You really that masochistic?”

  Ebony pressed her teeth together and stared at him. “How do you know about the spell?” she asked. “In fact, it was you that drew my attention to the fact I couldn’t act-out against the Grimshores. If you hadn’t shown me, I probably would never have found out, and I’d probably still have friends, a job, and a hope!”

  “Ah, well. I haven’t been completely honest with you there.” he was unusually sheepish, considering his forthright nature.

  She kept her arms crossed.

  He patted a hand along his neck. He was having great difficulty saying whatever was on his mind.

  “Oh no,” Harry suddenly growled, “You didn’t, did you? You didn’t use Ebony as bait?”

  Nate clenched his jaw and sucked his lips in. “Yeah, I did.”

  “What?” Ebony snapped.

  Nate put up a hand. “Okay, I used you as bait. I knew that spell was on you… because I was the one that found the book in the crypt.”

  “But you… you said no one had found it!” Ebony’s voice was tight and high.

  “I lied. I found it and took it home.” He shrugged. “And you’re lucky I did. Otherwise whoever is working for the Grimshores – whoever is manipulating the Portal – they would have grabbed that book instead. And if they’d gotten it, Ebony,” he looked directly at her, “You wouldn’t be here anymore.”

  “Hardly an excuse,” Harry roared. “Taking the book for protection was one thing, but you haven’t broken the spell! You’ve just left it there, letting it run its course, letting it sap at Ebony’s life while you just stand around and straighten your tie.”

  Her skin began to prickle. “Why?”

  Nate, for perhaps the first time in his life, looked truly ashamed. “I had to,” he tried to explain. “Ebony, you don’t understand how important this is. What’s happening with the Portal—”

  She put up a hand. “You think the Grimshores are somehow manipulating the Portal—”

  “No, I think whoever is helping the Grimshores is manipulating the Portal. You don’t get to be where the Grimshores are without having connections, magical connections. And I’d say that whoever is helping them, is probably the person I’m looking for—”

  “Probably? You’re not even sure, are you? This is all speculation,” Ebony’s voice was getting louder. “You think someone magical is helping the Grimshores. You think someone is manipulating the Portal. You think the two are connected. And based on all those thoughts, you put me in danger.” She nodded her head slowly, even though she wasn’t agreeing with anything.

  “You rotter,” Harry concluded.

  Nate pinched his nose again. “Look. You don’t understand. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you. I saved you from the mugging, remember? I had my eye on you, Ebony. I wasn’t going to let any real harm happen to you. I just had to find out—”

  She stared at him. “No harm? Everyone has turned against me. I’ve lost my job. I’ve had my magic taken away—”

  Nate clicked his fingers. “Exactly. You were punished for the slightest of crimes before the Grimshore spell could really take effect. That’s why I acted in the way I did, Ebony, I swear. It doesn’t make sense that you were punished the way you were unless the Coven, or one of the Coven Witches, had something to gain.”

  “But why?” Ebony’s voice peaked with desperation. “None of this fits together!” She put her hands on her neck, trying to alleviate the growing tension. “In the crypt, in the cemetery – there was something gathering.” She suddenly remembered the eyeless birds and shivered. “It was all too easy. Something had come before me and sapped the magic out of the protection spells…. And that man in the crypt, he didn’t have a clue what he was wearing, what he was saying – he was setting himself up to be attacked, to be absorbed, to be consumed by a greater magical force….” Ebony tipped her head back and took a deep breath. “If you’re right, if a witch was working for the Grimshores, then why on Earth was it so easy for me to stop the spell? Why was the magic so weak to begin with? Any witch worth her money would have known that other creatures would be flocking to that cemetery—”

  “That’s the point.” Nate kept trying to straighten his tie.

  “Oh, I hope not,” Harry muttered from the floor, “Because that is a terrible point.”

  “What? You all seem to know what’s going on, and I don’t have a clue.”

  “Whoever is working with the Grimshores, isn’t necessarily working for them,” Nate nodded. “The Grimshores were being set up, just as you were.”

  “Set up?”

  Nate closed his eyes. “Whatever is coming through the Portal, Ebony, it’s big. And it needs power, a lot of power. Now, whoever is working with it – whatever witch or wizard is trying to pull it through the Portal – they’d know this. Their task would be to find it power; to find it magic; to find it opportunities.”

  Things began to click into place, and she found herself staring into Nate’s piercing gaze. “You mean they’re feeding “it’? They’re finding purposeless-magic and throwing it to whatever beast waits at the other side of the Portal, like a keeper throwing meat to the lion?”

  Nate nodded. “The more they can disrupt things, the more they can encourage magic with no purpose, the more they feed it. The Grimshores were probably meant as an offering, of sorts. Whoever has been planning this has likely fattened the Grimshores up for years, just waiting to pull the rug from under their feet and let the lion descend.”

  “Years? The Grimshores have had their power for almost a century—”

  “Some magical-creatures can live for an eon. You know that. And it takes time – lots of time and lots of power to try and bring through a creature from the Other Side.”

  “You’re suggesting someone has been planning this all for what, a hundred years? Isn’t that a little farfetched?”

  Nate crossed his arms and stared at her. “You are being rewritten by a spell you accidentally consummated when you ca
relessly let yourself get stabbed in a crypt, while you were trying to prevent a man from summoning Death. I think you have reason to suspend your disbelief for a time, don’t you?” He shook his head. “It’s all speculation, Ebony, but that’s all I have to go on now.”

  Ebony huffed. She was overwhelmed, she decided, simply snowed-under by all this information. What was she meant to think, let alone do?

  “Wait a second.” She looked back up at him. “If you have the book…. If you have the book from the crypt, then we can end this spell.” She curled her hands into tight fists.

  “Technically,” Nate conceded.

  “Technically?” Harry roared. “Go get the book, you rotter, and I’ll blow the ruddy thing into a thousand pieces.”

  “I’d really rather you didn’t,” Nate said evenly. “I need that book, and I need the spell on Ebony, for now.”

  Ebony, despite the situation, laughed. “Excuse me?”

  “I’ve come this far… can’t hardly give up now.” He shrugged shoulders.

  “You’re going to let the spell complete itself.” Her head ticked quickly to one side. “Let me be rewritten, let me die, just so you can catch your little criminal?”

  “I’m not going to let you die.” He rolled his eyes. “But yeah, I need to find out who—”

  “You need to go get that book right now,” Ebony hissed. “Before I get Harry to redesign your house and half the block.”

  “Be reasonable, Ebony. The safety of the whole planet is on the line. If a creature comes through that Portal, it will—”

  Before Nate could finish his sentence, there came a noise from the front door.

  A very specific noise: a bang.