Hero's Curse (23 page)

“Excellent, that was perfectly cast. Now, you must be able to see how much of your soul you’ll use up before you cast a spell. This protection spell has two parts…”

“Aidan, I think I know how the protection spell works.”

He waved me on, “By all means, proceed.”

“To figure out how much power a spell will use, I have to first say the spell but then delay the actual casting until I know how much of my soul will be used up. I’ll have to come up with a word or phrase that will trigger the actual spell casting. And unlike the soul gauge spell, the protection spell will use a lot of power.”

“Victor my boy, it’s a pleasure teaching you.”

“Is there any reason not to cast the protection spell now?”

“No.”

“I-ay ant-way a-ay otection-pray ell-spay at-thay ill-way ell-tay e-may ow-hay uch-may of-ay y-may oul-say ill-way e-bay used-ay up-ay y-bay any-ay uture-fay ell-spay I-ay ast-cay. Y-may elease-ray ase-phray ill-way e-bay ake-it-so-may.” A third of my soul gauge turned red. I felt like I had downed half a fifth of scotch in one gulp. If I hadn’t prepped myself I would have fallen. When Aidan came to support me, I motioned him away. I had a headache from hell.

Aidan kept his distance, but he still sounded concerned, “Victor, you’re hypoglycemic. Some food is what you’re needing to take care of your headache. There’s orange juice and candy bars up in the kitchen. Get some of that in you and you’ll soon feel better.”

I stumbled out the door and started up the stairs. If I hadn’t kept my grip on the railing, I wouldn’t have made it. After downing two large glasses of OJ and three Snickers bars, I felt human again, and wanted the answer to my original question, “So, how does a healing spell work?”

“There’s many a way. The simplest is to record a metaphysical image of yourself when you’re rested and healthy. If you’re injured or sick, you’ll cast the spell to revert to your original healthy baseline. The amount of power that’s necessary is dependent upon the severity of your injuries. Don’t record you image now; you’d best wait until your soul is fully recovered.”

“How much power does it take to record the baseline?”

“Not much, about the same as soul gauge spell.”

“Will the heal spell work against poison?”

“As long as the poison hasn’t been magically enhanced. If it has, it depends on who’s more powerful—you or the person who enhanced the poison.”

“What if I need to be healed, but don’t have enough power to survive the healing spell? Is there way to just heal myself partially—just enough to keep myself alive?”

“Excellent question, my lad. The best way to do that is to make individual baseline images of your vital body parts so you can just heal those areas, as needed.” I made a mental note to myself to record baseline images of the Swensons the next time I saw them.

There was so much more I wanted to know about spells. I could have easily spent a couple more days asking Aidan questions on how to perform magic. I was curious how he had enchanted the pendant I had used earlier today. As usual, I didn’t have time. “Aidan, I need to talk to the Boise Paladin. You have his number? What’s his name?”

Aidan pulled out his phone and showed me the Paladin’s name, Bill Samson, and his number. I called Bill on my phone. The Paladin picked up on the first ring, “Yes?” His voice reminded me of Darth Vader—deep and calm and full of implied menace. I pictured a guy the size of a pro linebacker.

“I’m looking for Bill Samson.”

“This is he.”

“I’m Victor Paladin. Aidan Cahill gave me your number. Don’t know if you’ve heard, but I do what you do in Salt Lake City.”

There was silence for a few moments, but when he answered his voice was still relaxed. I couldn’t hear any evidence of excitement or surprise. “I hadn’t heard.”

“That’s not surprising; I started just a couple days ago. I wanted to give you a heads up. I’m headed up to your neck of the woods tonight and I plan on bringing trouble along with me.”

“Interesting, tell me more.”

“We’ve been having the same problems with the same bunch of riff-raff you’ve had. I’ve learned they have real time intel of what the local defense forces are doing. If I tell you everything now, there’s a chance the riff-raff won’t be surprised. I’ll tell you more when I call later tonight. It’d be good if you and your men are ready when I call.”

“I’m looking forward to our next conversation.”

I ended the phone feeling slightly better. I had just told Samson that trolls were coming his way; the last time it hadn’t worked out all that well for his men. He hadn’t said much or done more than stay calm and collected during our conversation. I don’t know why, but I got the sense he was looking for some payback.

Movies and books are filled with reluctant heroes; warriors who hate to fight but are good at it. Like most things in movies and books, it’s complete bullshit. Show me a Hall of Fame baseball player who hates baseball, a Nobel Prize winning scientist who hates science or composer who hates music. But no—fighters have to be different; they have to be reluctant—yeah, right. I try not to lie to myself. I hoped my instincts were correct—that it wasn’t just wishful thinking that Samson was as good as I needed him to be.

Aidan interrupted my train of thought, “I’ve been meaning to tell you, one thousand shotgun rounds are ready to be picked up. Shall we drop by the Thorgrin Warehouse on the way out of town?”

A few hours ago the answer to this question would have been a no-brainer. You can never have too much ammo in a firefight. “Aidan, you’ve known the Swensons since they were little. Do any of them know how to shoot?”

“I think not. Their father owned no guns, and I’ve not heard of any of them ever doing any shooting. I’ve not used a firearm before, either. Tim used to hunt with his family when he was younger.”

The Jotunn had spies getting them real time info on us. If an angel was helping them, we were screwed. I couldn’t see how I’d be able to take out an angel. I had to believe it was an Oath Brother or one of the Swensons—a spy I had a chance against. What did I really know about any of them? I couldn’t even be sure of Mina, my one true love. People hurt the ones they love every day.

Only Tim knew how to shoot. Even if he wasn’t a traitor, there was no way I wanted him behind me with a loaded weapon. Even if none of them were traitors, did I want any kind of noob behind me with a shotgun? There wasn’t much of a practical difference between being shot from behind by an enemy on purpose, versus shot from behind by an idiot by accident. As much as I needed backup, my reluctant answer was no. “Aidan, we’ll leave the ammo behind. Let’s go. We’re losing daylight.”

Chapter 16: Road Trip

Tim and the others were ready to go, waiting in the kitchen when Aidan and I got to the house. The leprechaun had been planning to stay the night at our place and his bags had never been removed from the van. I grabbed the shotguns and training ammo I’d bought and ran them to my bedroom. I’d been living out of luggage the last few days. All I had to do was grab my toothbrush and razor and zip up my luggage.

I needed backup and the best place to get it was Boise. A year ago, there were hundreds of Oath Brothers in Salt Lake City. Yesterday, there had been five. Now, there were two. If Salt Lake City was an example of a cluster fuck, Boise was the shining ideal. The Paladin there and most of his Oath Brothers were still alive. My best bet was to get my ass to Boise as soon as possible. They probably had someone spying on them, too. Somehow, they’d been able to keep their mole under control.

On my way downstairs a thought occurred to me. Aidan wasn’t around; Tim was in the kitchen, “Hey Tim, there’s got to be a way to track the trolls, right?”

“If there is, we haven’t been able to find it. The problem is that it’s easier to magically hide than find. All of the Jotunn have power and some of them are very strong—too strong for any of us, even you, to track them.” Tim’s expression grew even more morose. “It makes no sense at all that the Jotunn are able to track us.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Tim raised his hands helplessly, “Mythic Heroes have to be on par with the monsters they’re sent to fight. The Jotunn can’t be that much more powerful than paladins. To be able to scry us, they’d have to be almost as powerful as archangels, but they can’t be and still be Mythic Heroes. What they’re doing should be impossible.”

Fuck! I did not want to hear that. Tim was making it sound like Samael was the mole. I forced my mind back on the problems I could do something about. “Tim, give me the keys to the van. Someone else needs to drive.”

Tim gave me the keys. I locked the back door, picked up my bag and we walked toward the van. The rest of the group was already there. Mina was standing off to the side of the van talking with Andi and Aidan. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted to stop and talk to her. I looked away and threw the keys to Ben. “You’re the designated driver to Boise. You know how to get there?”

Ben looked mildly insulted, “Sure, it’s just I-15 to I-84 straight into Boise.”

I turned to Aidan, “Do we need to put ourselves to sleep now?”

Aidan opened the door of the van, “We should be good until we pass Bountiful. I’d like to stay awake for as long as I can.”

We piled in after him. The van had three bench seats. Ben got in the driver’s seat with Andi riding shotgun. Mina got in before me and was sitting in the second row. When I got in, she gave me a look that told me I’d better sit next to her. I stared longingly at Aidan in the back row; there were so many questions about magic I wanted to ask him. It was almost like she was reading my mind. The look turned into a glare—a promise of hell to come. Nineteen trolls and an archangel wanting to kill me weren’t enough; I also had to deal with a relationship. I wondered if this day could get any better as I sat down next to her.

“What’s going on, Vic?”

I told myself that Mina wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass. I tried to keep my irritation from having to explain myself from my voice as I spoke quietly near her ear, “Besides the obvious, I can’t tell you. The Jotunn somehow are getting real time intel of what we’re doing. I’m worried if I tell you now, I’m also telling them. When we get to Boise and we have some protection, I’ll explain everything I can.”

Mina’s expression didn’t change, “The Jotunn need to die.”

My anxiety evaporated. We all have blind spots—mine were becoming obvious. I had a hard time believing a beautiful woman wouldn’t be a pain in the ass. This was the second time today that Mina had surprised me. Failing to learn from experience was stupid. If I wanted to maintain my own self-respect, I needed to stop underestimating her. When I replied I didn’t have to hide my feelings, “You and I have the same goal. But in order to get to it, I need to ask Aidan a bunch more questions. I’m not trying to put you off.”

At that moment, Aidan interrupted, “I could not help overhearing that, Victor. You can ask away but first I have some good news.” He scooted forward on his seat until his head was just a foot from Mina’s and mine. “Tim just told me about your previous discussion about tracking the Jotunn. I have been working on that for some time. This morning, I had an idea that I think will work.”

The leprechaun handed Mina an Etch A Sketch. In the center of the screen was a line drawing of our van. “If a group of more than nineteen creatures—animal, human, or in-between—come within twenty miles, even if they’re split between different vehicles, they’ll show up on the screen.”

Tim wedged his head into the conversation. “But will it track the Jotunn?”

Aidan leaned back, “It should. It finds every creature with a heartbeat in a twenty mile radius. If there is a group of nineteen or greater animals following us for more than a couple of miles, they’ll show up on the Etch A Sketch.”

The leprechaun sounded amused as he tapped my shoulder from behind, “Tim, as much as I like being called a genius, if it hadn’t been for Victor here, I never would have gotten the idea to look for a human tech based solution to our scrying problems. His idea to use firearms—modern human technology—made me think of tracking the Jotunn the same way human intelligence agencies would—by their actions. Since we’re looking for them by what they do, rather than who or what they are, we should be able to bypass their defensive spells.”

His apprentice looked confused, “Their actions? Their actions how?”

Aidan was so pleased with himself he actually chortled, “As you well know Tim, all the scrying spells I have taught you work by looking for the target’s soul. The defense spells you know make it difficult to magically home in on a person’s soul. None of the typical defense spells against scrying obscure or hide a person’s actions.

“No matter what shape the Jotunn take, they will have a heartbeat. My spell looks for a group of nineteen or more heartbeats moving in our direction. Most of the groups we pick up won’t be trolls, but better false warnings that than not getting a warning at all. I see no reason why the Jotunn would think to obscure their heartbeats or split up, so it should work.”

Shit! He looked so proud. I could tell the leprechaun had no idea that he’d stepped in it. “Aidan, I was just saying to Mina, there’s a good chance the Jotunn are scrying us now. You’ve just have given them a good reason to obscure their heart beats. Can you modify the spell so it can track them some other way? And for God’s sake man, don’t tell us how you’re doing it!”