Hero's Curse (19 page)

I’m not used to caring about how others see me, and I’ve never worried about other people’s feelings. Mina was my genetic ‘true love.’ It made sense that she’d feel the same overwhelming attraction to me as I did to her. I had been doing everything possible to avoid her. I could see why she thought I was immune to her feminine charms. It was hilarious; I burst out laughing. After it was clear I thought the situation was funny, Mina started laughing too. It took a few more seconds but Andi started laughing as well.

I got a call on my cell. My voice wasn’t completely under control when I answered, “Yeah.”

It was Aidan, “Victor, we have an emergency. We need you immediately at the Carmelite Monastery on 5714 Holladay Boulevard. Get to Foothill and head south…”

My need to laugh vanished. Aidan sounded like his mother had died. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll use my GPS.”

“Oh good, we’ll be waiting for you on the street, out in front.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I turned off the phone. Mina got serious as soon as my expression changed. I put my hands on her shoulders and pulled her toward me, my back to the others. In a low undertone I said, “I’m sorry, I have to go to work. I wish I could tell you when I’ll be back but I can’t. I really want to talk when I get home.”

I still couldn’t believe I had broken down and kissed this girl. I was tempted to try to take it back, maybe peck her on the forehead on my way out. She was calm now but, but that could change like the weather. I decided if I kissed her forehead she’d kill me.

Oh well, the milk had been spilt. A major part of me was glad. She was about to say something when I kissed her. The first time we’d kissed had been a surprise. Although I knew I had to leave, I took the time to savor the experience. I slowly tasted her lips and took pleasure in the pressure of her body against mine. I used every sense, both mundane and magic. I could hear the rhythm of our heartbeats begin to synchronize. I smelled the lemon and herb scent of her shampoo. Every time I moved my lips, I pulled back slightly to caress her with my gaze. I took in her clear blue eyes, and the red fullness of her mouth.

To my magic senses, she felt like the first ray of sunshine after weeks of rain. I realized I was peering directly into her soul; it was beautiful. I could feel her power. It was less than mine and even more unschooled. She had protection spells on her, but I knew she hadn’t placed them herself. I had to force myself to pull away. With my eyes, I promised her I’d be back. I walked out the door. As soon as door closed, I heard Andi say, “Oh my GOD, Sis!”

I ran to my truck and headed toward the Monastery.

Chapter 13: The Sisters

It was one of those days; I hit every red light. While I was waiting for a particularly long one, I pulled up the official website for the Carmelite Monastery. The nuns had been in Utah since 1952; they had been in this location since 1972. The seventies was the decade of really bad taste—the leisure suit, disco, hairy-chested guys with thick gold chains, and a specific style of butt-ugly brick architecture. The Monastery didn’t disappoint. The picture on the website showed a long, single story, dark brown brick building attached to a chapel. I couldn’t tell for sure but based on the pictures on the website it looked like the complex was on a couple acres.

I heard sirens while I was still a couple blocks away from the monastery. Cop cars were lined up on the side of the street opposite the complex, and gawkers were lining up on the sidewalk. A six foot tall stone wall blocked my view of the building, but I could see flames and smoke shooting high into the sky. I drove slowly by the entrance gates and spotted Aidan and Tim. When I pulled up, Aidan motioned for Tim to stay while he jumped in my truck. He directed me to a side street nearby where I could park.

His usual jolly demeanor was gone. He looked grim. “Victor, the monastery is on consecrated ground, and members of the Oath Brotherhood have been living there since it was built close to forty years ago. There are hundreds of protection spells on these grounds. It should be impossible for a fire of this magnitude to occur; I seriously doubt this fire was accidental. I need to get into the complex to see if Sisters Catherine, Josephine, and Beatrice are still alive, and if possible, determine how the fire started.

“Since it is daylight, it’s unlikely we’ll be attacked by minions. However, the impossible has happened; the unlikely seems extremely probable. If we get attacked, you will need to gear up and defend us. Don’t worry about bystanders or witnesses. If we’re not attacked, please keep it low key.” He handed me a small flat disk of polished wood on a loop of leather cord, and motioned for me to put it on over my head. I did so, and he continued, “The pendant has a spell that makes people want to ignore you. It’s not quite the same as an invisibility spell, but in some ways it is more powerful. Instead of seeing you, the spell causes them to see ‘just some guy’, nobody special, not worth a second look. Do something unusual—make a loud noise or fight a minion, and the illusion will be broken.”

“It sounds like a useful item. Can I keep it?”

Aidan gave a flicker of a smile but shook his head. “I had to make the pendant this morning. The spell wears out in a couple hours. It would have been much easier to cast the spell on you directly. One of these days, when we have the time, I’ll teach you how to cast this spell on yourself.” He gave me a sharp look. “Your inability to trust is an inconvenience.”

He kept looking at me like he wanted a response, so I shrugged. There were things I’d change about myself if I could. Being more trusting wasn’t on the list. We got out of my truck and walked back to the entrance of the monastery. Tim waited for us, holding a large leather satchel. He looked nervous, but then he always did. He acted like he was about to speak, but he took a quick look at Aidan’s face, reconsidered, and gave a wave instead.

Three cops were standing guard at the entrance. The leprechaun held up his empty hand like he was flashing a badge, and they let us through. Firefighters were swarming around the outside of the burning building like ants on a rotting carcass. We stopped about twenty feet from the firefighters. Tim opened his satchel and pulled out some sort of antique optical instrument made of brass and copper, that was mounted on a short tripod. He pointed it at the monastery, and Aidan stepped forward, made some adjustments, put his eye to the scope and began slowly surveying the building. He described what he saw in a low monotone; Tim took notes.

I didn’t have the vocabulary to adequately describe how the monastery grounds appeared to my magic senses. Aidan had said that this was consecrated ground. There were a few spots here and there where I could still feel peacefulness and calm. The rest of the grounds were filled with a metaphysical stench, one that defied detection by the ordinary senses. It was so similar to the stench of troll I had killed, I wondered if I had ‘smelled’ it with my magic senses and not my nose.

I was here to provide protection. I ignored Aidan and Tim and kept a lookout for anything unusual. The flames roaring out of the brick monastery were too intense to be the result of a natural fire. I couldn’t tell if the fire had been caused by magic, but some sort of accelerant had to have been poured throughout the building. The firefighters’ efforts had no effect, and it looked like they’d given up trying to put it out and were just controlling the burn. None of them tried to enter the building.

There are times when you can feel an emotional aura coming from an object or a place. Walk through a graveyard at the dark of the moon and you’ll know what I mean. As I stood guard and watched our surroundings, I could feel pain emanating from the burning building. It seemed ludicrous to use the word ‘raped’ to describe a building but I could feel a sense of loss and mourning—of something loved, now defiled.

I hadn’t been paying attention to what Aidan was saying. I knew I had missed something when Tim froze, closed his eyes with a sigh and then bowed his head. Aidan got up from his instrument, took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes. He looked weary. I walked closer and gave him a questioning look. He faced me and in a cold, flat voice said, “Sisters Catherine, Josephine, and Beatrice were dead before the building ignited. There is a holocaust spell that prevents the fire from being extinguished until all the fuel is consumed. There’s nothing left for us to do here.”

Tim and Aidan took down their equipment. We walked back to our vehicles; no one said a word. At the entrance, there were reporters with their camera crews, and there were now hundreds of rubberneckers. The street where I’d left my truck was now completely lined with cars. Tim used his remote control to unlock a white van parked a few cars ahead of mine.

Aidan turned to me. The brogue in his voice was strong. He had the expression of a man who’s given up. “Victor, nineteen Jotunn attacked the monastery. They have the numbers and the power to overwhelm the defenses at our store and at your home. I am going to make some calls and see if I can get help from another city’s Oath Brotherhood.” He gripped my arm to make his point, “Mina, Ben, and Andi Swenson do not know their father was a paladin. They don’t know how much danger they’re in, and we need to convince them to leave the city. Tim will take the van back to the store. I will head back with you.”

I had expected Tim to be doing his version of a decapitated barnyard fowl. He was pale and unusually silent, but he wasn’t shaking or showing other signs of fear. He simply said, “See you later” to both of us, climbed into the van and drove away.

As soon as Aidan got into my truck he made a phone call. “Philippe, it’s Aidan Cahill from Salt Lake City…Well, not so good. We have had a major attack…You, too?...It looks like the Jotunn you drove off are now in Salt Lake City…Yes, nineteen sounds right.”

It was annoying listening to just one side of a conversation but I got the gist. Three weeks ago, the Boise Paladin had been attacked at his home by twenty-two Jotunn. He called for help. Fifty Oath Brothers answered his call. Three Jotunn were killed, and the rest forced to withdraw at a cost of twelve Oath Brothers. Aidan made arrangements for the Swensons to stay up in Boise. Philippe promised to keep an eye on them. Aidan didn’t ask Philippe to send help.

After the phone call to Boise, Aidan called Billings and a couple other cities. All of them had been attacked recently by the Jotunn. Instead of attacking the paladin directly, the Jotunn had been targeting Oath Brothers. In the last few weeks, hundreds of Oath Brothers had been killed.

Aidan got off his phone as I pulled up into the driveway. I turned to him; he was slouched forward staring at his phone. “You never asked for help.”

He gave me a tired shake of his head. “Oath Brothers are bound to cities just like paladins. Every Brother I talked with is in a city that has been recently attacked. As long as their cities are in danger, they can’t come to help even if they wanted to.”

“What’s going on, Aidan? Why is every city being attacked?”

“I don’t know, Victor. I haven’t seen anything like this in all the centuries I’ve been an armorer to the paladins. What I DO know is the Great Game has very strict rules and dire consequences for those who break the rules. Somehow, they are circumventing the rules.” Aidan shook his head with in bewilderment, “The Mythic Hero always crosses into another dimension by himself. He is allowed to find companions, but I have never known of any to gather more than two or three. Heroes are usually young and impulsive. Mythic Heroes want to kill their monster, gather their treasure, and return home as soon as possible. They never go after auxiliaries or noncombatants. It must have taken years, maybe even decades of infiltration and hiding for the Jotunn to form a warband of twenty-two.”

Aidan put away his phone and placed his head in his hands. “Victor, I killed the sisters. The Brotherhood leaders have been communicating by email for the last two weeks. All the Brothers have been spending their nights together in case they get attacked. The emails have been going to Greg Smith, our leader who was killed two weeks ago.” He pounded his fists against his thighs. “I have been planning every day since then to formally announce to the National Oath Brotherhood that I am now the de facto leader of Salt Lake City, but I have allowed myself to get distracted by something I thought was more important each and every miserable, wasted day. If I had just taken two lousy minutes to send an official email, I would have gotten the warning about the Jotunn and the sisters would still be alive.”

I don’t know if leprechauns are more emotional than humans or if Aidan really liked the sisters, but he started silently crying, shoulders heaving. In the little time I’d known him, I’d developed a respect for him, but we weren’t friends. I briefly considered patting him on the back but, instead, I waited quietly a few seconds then continued with the questions. “How powerful are the Jotunn?”

He looked up miserably and wiped his face clean with a handkerchief. “Loki, the Norse God of Fire, is a Jotunn. The ones picked to be Mythic Heroes will not be nearly as powerful. My best guess: the Jotunn who attacked the monastery are as powerful as you on the low range and close to twice as powerful on the high.”

My shitload kept piling higher and higher. I needed to know how deep it went. “And unlike me, they’ll know how to use magic?”

“Yes and no. The Norse are extremely reluctant to teach each other magic. They are as likely to attack each other as they are their enemies. Most of them know how to heal all their wounds except those caused by fire. Many can shapeshift into human and animal forms so they can get around in the daylight. If they stay in their natural form during the day, they risk being turned to stone. If they take another shape, they lose most of their powers, so they don’t like to fight during the day. Given their likely youth, the odds of the Jotunn here knowing other spells are fairly low.”