Murder Between the Worlds: A Between the Worlds Novel (19 page)

Liz gave her a strange look, and started to say something, then stopped.

“Anything helpful so far?” Bleidd queried.

“Not directly relating to the case yet, but I’m getting a crash course in some hardcore witchcraft. I’d never suspected my grandmother of even knowing about this stuff, never mind doing it,” Allie bit her lip, frowning at her tea. “But I’ll push through if the answers we need are in there.”

“Just don’t push too hard, Allie. You have your limits,” Bleidd said, softly. She met his eyes and the honest emotion there and looked away.

“I better hit the bathroom and then get back to reading” she said evasively, sliding out of her chair. “Thanks for the tea Liz–and making me stop and eat Bleidd. I needed that.”

             **********************************

She retrieved the book from the couch and retreated to her room, sitting on the bed with the grimoire spread open on the blanket in front of her. She read with a renewed sense of purpose as the afternoon shadows lengthened and darkness fell. The Guard had stayed out in the hallway, giving her the illusion of privacy and she was grateful for it, because she was often unable to hide her reactions to what she was reading. At some point, as she sat reading in the dark room the door opened. She spoke without looking up,

“Jess, this stuff is horrific.”

He sat next to her, reaching out to rub her shoulders, “You are pushing yourself too hard. You need to rest.”

She shook her head, “No, I’m just getting to the part where she’s talking about the ritual being developed.”

“What ritual?” He sounded resigned.

“The ritual, the one the killer is basing his stuff on. Oh, right you don’t know.” She looked up “My grandmother was in the coven that created the actual ritual being used by the killer here, although he’s modified some things. Is this more synchronicity then? My grandmother’s book has the exact ritual in it?”

Jess was looking at her, open mouthed. She cocked her head to one side, “What?”

“This book has the exact ritual in it? Not just the general theories being used or similar ideas?”

“No, it looks like the base ritual being used is in here, although the part I’m at right now they–my grandmother’s coven–is just beginning to frame the idea. I can see where it’s going, though…What?”

“I must tell Zarethyn this immediately,” Jess said, obviously agitated.

“Alright. You do that, I’ll keep reading,” She turned back to the book, yawning widely.

He hesitated or a moment, torn between telling her to rest and doing what he knew was his duty. Finally he stood up. “I will return as quickly as possible.”

She nodded distractedly not looking up as he left the room.

He tried and failed to reach the Guard Captain on the phone and finally saw no choice but to drive to the Outpost. He traveled as swiftly as he could and returned within the hour with Zarethyn; they entered Allie’s room to find her lying across the book sound asleep. Jessilaen took a deep breath, “I will wake her.”

“No,” the Elven Captain said, “Let her rest. If Brynneth is correct we have several weeks before the next girl will be killed, and with Aeyliss dead, Aliaine is the next logical target for the killer to eliminate to protect himself. It will serve no purpose to keep pushing her into exhausting herself.”

“You still believe she is pivotal to finding this killer? Her role in this is not finished now that the book is found?” Jessilaen asked quietly.

“I may have thought so, but knowing that the exact ritual is in this book,” he shook his head, contemplating the sleeping young woman. “No, her part in this is not ended yet.”

“May I remain with her tonight?” Jessilaen asked.

Zarethyn turned his contemplation to his second in command. “Are you so certain already that your heart is lost to her?”

“It is what it is,” Jess replied cryptically.

Zarethyn nodded, “Remain with her then, and see that she rests. I will stay here tonight as well. We will meet in the morning and see what she can tell us about what the book has revealed.”

Allie woke up in the morning, in bed but fully dressed, with Jessilaen’s sleeping form, also fully dressed, pressed against her back. For an instant she lay there trying to figure out why she was under the covers fully dressed, then she realized that she must have fallen asleep reading and Jess had put her to bed. It was an oddly comforting feeling, knowing that he was watching out for her. She sat up, trying not to wake him, but as soon as she moved he moved with her, making her wonder how long he’d been lying there awake.

She sat at the edge of the bed and felt her head dropping, as the strain of the past week hit her. He sat behind her, one leg to each side, and began rubbing her shoulders, “You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” she sighed, relaxing as his fingers worked out the knots in her muscles.

“Probably because it’s true,” he answered gently.

“Hmmmm. Well, true or not I need to get dressed, get breakfast, and make my own report,” she said, wishing she could just stay there and relax instead.

“Zarethyn is expecting everyone to meet at 9 this morning.” Jess offered. She automatically glanced at the clock: 7:30 am. Plenty of time to eat.

“Okay, well, as much as I’d rather let you keep doing that for the next 90 minutes, better to get moving,” she said. He leaned in and kissed her neck, making her breath catch. “That isn’t helpful.”

He laughed and pushed her up gently from behind, “Is that better?”

“More helpful yes, but I think I prefer the kissing.” And they both laughed. Feeling more rested than she had in the past few days she took the time to find one of her better pairs of jeans and a nice charcoal grey sweater, not that she thought looking nice would make what she had to say later any easier. The approving look Jess gave her did satisfy her though.
Wow, Syndra would never believe I’m standing here caring what any guy thinks about how I look
, Allie thought ruefully.

After breakfast she gathered everyone, including all of her roommates and the four elves from what she had begun to think of as “her” squad into the living room. She had asked that the detectives be present too, but they were notably absent; the new squad member had said he was unable to get in contact with them, and Allie didn’t doubt his word but was sure the human police wouldn’t appreciate being left out. Jess had finally introduced her to the new member, Natarien, who Allie had to admit was both kind and friendly. Jason, Liz, Syndra, and Bleidd found places to sit around the room, while the elves all stood at near-attention in their armor. Allie went over to the room’s fireplace and started a fire while everyone got settled. For early spring the morning had a decided chill to the air, and Allie wondered if it might even snow later.

Finally she couldn’t stall any longer, and she turned to face the room.

“You have to keep a couple things in mind, okay? This was all about 80 years ago, within 20 years of the Sundering. Some of the wars were still going on and the body count was huge.”

“This was before the Great Truce?” Syndra asked. The humans were frowning trying to put what Allie was saying in context. The elves had all lived through it and remembered it well enough without the refresher.

“Yeah, about five years before that. This was actually the worst part of the wars, I think, when the human lands were sending iron wielding armies into the Fairy Holdings and the fairies were responding with magical assaults that wiped out whole human cities.”

Everyone nodded, and Allie continued. “My grandmother was born in the year after the Sundering. At some point in her late teens she joined a small coven led by a high priest who was very interested in dark magic. Even early in the book he was teaching her some hard core blood magic.”

Liz interrupted, her voice tight “I just can’t believe our grandmother was into dark magic.”

“That’s why we need the perspective,” Allie said, and Liz gave her a long look. “No, really, Liz. It was in the middle of a massive war, two decades after the world basically fractured in a way that people thought was some sort of sign from the Gods, end of all things, omen. The way she writes about it in the book, dark magic, blood magic, was what a lot of people were turning to either for answers or to protect themselves.”

Liz still looked unconvinced, but Syndra was nodding, “Yeah, I can see that.”

“Right, well,” Allie said going on. “A couple years into her training, when my grandmother was around 19 I think, the group’s high priest went crazy, and I mean literally. Apparently he came from somewhere called “Texas” which almost entirely shifted to Fairy in the Sundering–it became the Great Southern Holding…“

“That is King Trassien’s realm,” Zarethyn said.

“Yes, that’s the one. Well, after the Sundering his whole family, except for one son who was with him here at the time, were living in a Borderland town at the edge of that realm, and during the wars, in retaliation for a human raid, the elves destroyed the town and killed everyone in it. When he found out that his whole family had been killed he went nuts, locked himself in a room for weeks, and when he came back out he had come up with this idea for a way to repair the worlds.”

“What?” Several people spoke at once, and Allie held her hands up.

“He was crazy. He came up with this series of rituals, based on the idea of using opposite energies; inverse fertility, death instead of life… all warped riffs on sex and death magic. He believed that a full series of these rituals, over the course of a year, would separate the worlds. But after the first three my grandmother lost her nerve. She couldn’t bear seeing the girl’s suffering and dying.”

“I should fucking hope not!” Syndra burst out, while Liz looked down.

“Just keep in mind–and I’m not defending any of this–but it was the middle of a war. They convinced each other that a dozen deaths for the cause were better than the hundreds of thousands dying every day in the fighting over territory.” Allie swallowed hard. “Anyway, my grandmother turned them in to the police–the human police of course, since there was no Truce there was no treaty and no Guard here, so I don’t think the elves ever knew about any of this. The police tried to raid the high priest’s home during a ritual and it ended really badly; the guy died as did several other coven members and he destroyed his own book rather than have it confiscated. The surviving coven members were never charged with anything, I think because they cooperated with police, and all the blame was placed on the ones who had died. From what my grandmother wrote in her grimoire all the books were destroyed and she told the authorities that hers was burned. I still don’t know why she didn’t, but that’s why she hid it.”

“Would it have worked?” Liz asked into the stunned silence.

“I don’t think so. He was working on a flawed assumption about what had caused the Sundering that was popular at the time, but was disproven decades ago.” Allie said, frowning.

“Are you sure?” Liz asked. Syndra gave her a disturbed look and Liz waved her off, “I want to know why my grandmother thought it would work, enough to do it in the first place.”

“Well, honestly, I don’t know but the theory isn’t sound, so I can’t see how it would have worked,” Allie replied. “It would have done something, of course, all that energy has to go somewhere, but what it would do I have no idea.”

“So, the killer is recreating these rituals?” Zarethyn asked, his voice flat.

“No, worse than that,” she replied, rubbing her eyes.

“What can be worse?” Syndra asked sounding resigned.

“Whoever this killer is, he’s taking the next logical steps. He’s innovating and making changes to try to improve on the original. Most likely doing what the coven’s high priest would have done when the first series failed, which they would have. The original victims were all human–this killer is targeting mixed bloods as symbols of the Sundering he’s trying to undo. Basic sympathetic magic–using one thing to represent another related thing. In this case the girls are symbolic of the joining of the worlds and killing them symbolizes trying to separate the worlds again. The original used minor torture to create energy to power the spell but this one is using massive amounts of torture based on a separate theory the high priest talked about elsewhere in the book.”

“What theory?” Zarethyn asked.

“I don’t want to get into too much detail, because it’s pretty awful stuff, but–he was onto something with that.” Allie said shaking her head. “He found a way to use pain and suffering to create an echo–kind of the same theory that revenant ghosts are based on–a perpetual echo that acts like an energetic battery.”

“Isn’t that what blood magic does anyway?” Jason asked quietly.

“Oh no–usually blood magic is like any other kind of magic using a finite energy source. It’s like if you have a cup of orange juice–once you drink the juice, it’s all gone and you need to get more to refill the cup, right?”

Everyone, including the elves, nodded. She felt her skin crawling just talking about it.

“That’s why blood magic is usually only used to create temporary effects or one time things and stronger sources–radiant Earth energy and ambient Fairy magic is used for bigger, long term things. The thing is the ambient stuff is innately weaker and you need more of it to do less. Blood magic is much stronger but the resulting energy raised is finite. This guy found a way to use pain, suffering, and torture to create an imprint of the pain that would act as a permanent energy source. He is using that to power his spell and each ritual strengthens it.”

Zarethyn inhaled sharply. “That is impossible.”

“It should be. But it isn’t. He found a way to do it, trying to…” she winced and looked apologetically at the elves. “He was trying to find a way to use the energy he felt was being wasted when the Fairy prisoners of war where dying.”

Everyone looked equally appalled. “But you see that was in an earlier section of the book before the ritual was developed; whoever this killer is, he’s combining the two to create a much stronger effect. I still don’t believe it can ultimately work, but it’s impossible to say what it will do.”

She walked over and picked the book up off a side table. “I know I offered to copy this out, but this book is far too dangerous to be kept. I don’t know why my grandmother hid it, except that maybe some part of her felt guilty over her part in what happened, and she couldn’t bring herself to let it go. Some of the things in here are worse than anything I’ve told you about so far. You have no idea how “dark” dark can be. I thought I knew but this is leagues beyond anything I could ever have imagined. If even half of what’s in here got into the wrong hands the results could be devastating. I know you only have my word on that, but you’re going to have to trust me that using the pain of someone being tortured as an energetic battery is actually not the worst thing in here. ”

She walked over to the fireplace, pulling back the protective fireplace screen. She heard several people gasp as they realized what she was going to do, but she couldn’t let her resolve waiver; in one swift motion she tossed the book into the flames, which flared blue and green as the magic invested in the grimoire fed the fire. She heard Syndra, mutter “Holy shit” behind her. She turned back to face the shocked faces of the group, “The book is gone now, but we still have to find this killer.”

“How could you do that Allie?” Liz asked.

At the same time Syndra said, “That was our best clue.”

“I read through the whole thing, I know everything that was in that book and if it’s important I can tell you, but the things that were in there were too dangerous to risk getting out.”

“That makes you a pretty big target Al,” Syndra said unhappily.

“I know, but it’s the only way,” Allie took a deep breath, feeling relieved knowing the book was burning, and at the same time horrified that she’ had just burned a book, “At this point it’s better that I die and take what I know with me than that what was in that book get out.”

“No,” Jessilaen said sharply, “that is not acceptable.”

“I didn’t mean that I want to die,” she said, wincing at the odd surge of panic she felt over his distress. “I meant that the book had to be destroyed and if I am killed, I had to know that the book was already taken care of.”

Jess was tight lipped and still obviously upset, but Zarethyn was nodding, “How do we proceed from here?”

Having the Guard Captain ask her for direction was so unexpected that she found herself speechless. Everyone was looking at her, waiting expectantly so she licked her lips.

“Ummm. Well. Whoever this person, this killer, is he must be related to one of the original coven members. There’s no other way he could know so much about the material in the book without knowing about the original group and its inner workings”

“Can you be sure there isn’t another copy?” Brynneth asked.

“I can’t be absolutely sure,” Allie answered, “but I think it’s almost impossibly unlikely. My grandmother’s copy survived in part because she was the one who turned the group in so the police trusted her when she said she had destroyed her book. From what she had written the other books were collected and destroyed en masse. If you can track down the descendants of the original coven members, you can find your suspects.”

“How do we do that without the book?” Syndra asked.