Wizard Dawning (The Battle Wizard Saga, No. 1) (12 page)

Rapping on the bedroom door woke Thor.

"Who is it?"

"Meredith"

"What time is it?" He muttered into the pitch black in his room.

"Almost midnight."

"Just a minute." He flicked on the light on the table next to his bed and grabbed a robe.

She stood with her hands clasped at her chest when he opened the door.

"Yes dear?"

"Sig hasn't come home and he hasn't called. I called his cellphone and it goes straight to voicemail."

"That's good—isn't it —going to voicemail? Then he'll know you called."

She gave him an exasperated look. "If it goes straight to voicemail, it means it's turned off, broken, or he's out of range."

"Oh." He paused and thought. None of those options seemed good. The expression on Meredith's face surely confirmed that diagnosis.

After almost 200 years maybe he could finally read women. . . Nah.

"I've made some coffee," she said.

"Good, thinking goes better with coffee." Better for waking up, too. He rubbed his face. "Let's go downstairs and talk about this."

In the kitchen, she poured two stout black coffees. Rarely did their neighbors and friends ever stop by for her coffee. Minnesotans liked brown water. Probably due to Grampa's influence, their family liked hefty black coffee. Spoons were only used to see if they would stand up in the coffee.

Thor cradled the coffee mug, warming the ache in his hands. "Where did Sig say he would be going tonight?"

"To work on his geology lab project."

Thor raised his eyebrows. "His lab partner's a girl if I remember correctly. An attractive one?" He looked quizzically at Meredith.

"I think so."

"You haven't met her?"

"No, she's new in town, from California."

Thor nodded wisely. "California girl. They're sometimes a little more sophisticated than Minnesota girls. Have you called her?"

Meredith shook her head. "She's new in town. I haven't met her and don't have her number. They were supposed to meet at the library."

"What's her last name? We can call information."

"Her last name is Wican, but she's living with her uncle. I don't know his name."

Thor's eyes widened. "Wicca? W-I-C-C-A?"

"W-I-C-A-N."

He paused. "Close enough. Let me get dressed. Get the address of the library." He hurried back to his bedroom.

After pulling on his clothes he uncovered and lifted the revolver out of his dresser drawer. He hesitated over the mixture of bullets in his cartridge case. Neither silver, expanding, nor fragmentation felt right. He loaded the gun with standard cartridges.

The ten-inch hunting knife went into the sheath between his shoulder blades. He picked up his cellphone between thumb and forefinger and grimaced before he dropped it into his shirt pocket.

He bent and opened the lower drawer and peeled back the false bottom. Selecting several charms, he laid the false bottom back, before he closed the drawer.

In the kitchen, he asked Meredith, "Is there any way you can get her uncle's name, address, business number….?"

"I could call Chief Dahman."

"Do it."

"But it's after 2 a.m."

"He's a cop; they're used to late night calls."

"It's early morning."

"Used to those too. Call him." He grimaced. "I have my phone." He patted his shirt pocket. "Call me when you get the info. I'm going to the library."

†††

Thor pulled his Ford dually pickup truck into the library parking lot next to Sig's abandoned truck. He mumbled several incantations in order to check out the parking lot on several planes. Nothing showed.

He got out and checked again. Still nothing.

The driver's door on Sig's pickup was locked. So was the passenger door. The interior was empty.

Thor thought for a moment. Until recently, Aðalbrandr has been his. Perhaps he still had a connection. He uttered a seeking summons focused on Aðalbrandr. A point of light formed and began to move toward the parking lot exit, but it faded, and fell apart, like dust sprinkling down. It slowly faded to black. Damn talisman. Resistant to spells.

Behind the backseat in his pickup, he grabbed a tire iron and returned to Sig's truck. As he raised the iron to break the window, his phone rang.

He considered using the tire iron on the phone, but answered it instead. "What?"

Meredith, accustomed to his telephone manners, said, "Are you ready to write down her address?"

"No, you may think I'm a doddering old fool, but I can remember an address. Just give it to me." He nodded as she recited it, then clicked off and climbed into the dually.

†††

He stopped in front of a home thigh high weeds growing in the front yard. His bumper almost touched the unmarked police car already parked in front. Unmarked police car, carriage, horse, whatever, they all had the same official look.

The officer climbed out as Thor stepped down from his cab. "Thor Arnsohn?" he inquired.

Thor nodded. "Captain Dahman. It's been a few years. What do you know?"

"I know the school principle is irritated at being woken up in the middle of the night for an address." He gave Thor a sour look. "I just got here. The place looks deserted."

"That's why you're police chief. You have those refined detective skills. Have you knocked?"

"Thought I'd wait for you."

"Much appreciated. Me or you?"

"Go ahead. This isn't an official call so I'll wait."

Thor walked up the sidewalk, climbed the porch, and rang the doorbell. After a minute, he rang again and knocked on the door. After a few moments, he knocked again. Since Captain Dahman stood behind him, he muttered a spell and jiggled the door handle. He turned with wide eyes. "It's open."

"Interesting."

Thor stepped next to the wall before he reached out and pushed the door open. "Hello." He hollered.

Dahman hurried to the wall on the other side of the door. Thor pointed to himself and indicated he would enter first. He dashed inside as quickly as he could hobble.

Dahman hustled through to the other side of the entryway with his hand on the pistol in his holster. Puffs of dust rose from their footsteps. Dahman coughed. Thor hollered, "Anyone home?" Echoes floated back and died out.

No furniture or carpet muted the echoes.

Dust coated the kitchen counters and linoleum floor. Theirs were the only footprints.

Empty bedrooms denied signs of occupation.

Dahman came upstairs from the basement. "Nothing down there."

"You're sure this is the address?"

"No, I just made it up to screw with you." He gave Thor a sarcastic look. "This is the address they gave."

"No one's been here in a long time." Thor ran his hand across the dust on the counter and held it up to demonstrate what he meant.

"Do you want a job? Your deductive skills are simply amazing." Dahman smirked.

"Okay, what next steps do you suggest master sleuth?"

"Let's go back to the beginning."

"I just came from the library."

"Before that. From when the girl started school."

"We'll start on that tomorrow?"

"It's already tomorrow. Get some rest and meet me in my office at 9 a.m."

"Okay".

Dahman turned to go and then looked back. "Call me if he shows up."

"Right after I read him the riot act." Thor said grimly.

At midnight, the Dark Mage heard the door behind him open. "Right on time. I appreciate punctuality." He turned to look at Madeline as she shut the door to the rest of the barn.

She looked around this side room of the barn that served as The Black Wizard's laboratory. A large intricate pentacle inscribed in gold in the marble floor occupied the center of the room. There were two smaller pentacles engraved on either side of the larger one.

Carcasses of various types of animals hung above the workbench; dogs, cats, sheep, deer, rabbits and others she didn't bother trying to identify. Flesh showed pink and red on some that had been skinned.

She displayed a small expression of distaste.

He walked over and handed her several pieces of chalk and a paper. "We will begin from the beginning. Those are your instructions. You must etch your own pentacle. Use the chalk."

She glanced pointedly at pentacles carved into the floor.

"My dear, I hope you don't plan on doing all of your summoning here." He shook his head and tsked. "You need to know how to draw your own diagrams." He gestured. "Over there, in the clear space. Get to work."

She sat cross-legged in the open space and studied the instructions, reading them through twice and then going back over them again.

"This seems fairly straight forward. I just utter the name of the demon at this point in the summoning?" She called across to him.

"Yes, it's simple, but only if you know it."

"Can I summon Balam with this?"

"Oh, aren't you ambitious? A King of Hell, Can I assume you want to know of the future?"

"And also a few details of the past." She frowned.

"Yes Balam will come."

She picked up her backpack and retrieved a medium sized stone and string from it. She placed the stone on top of one end of the string. Crawling on her knees, she used the other end to begin scribing chalk lines at the proper distance in a circle.

Referring frequently to the paper, she continued to build the prescribed summoning circle. Many of the forms were unfamiliar to her.

"What is this?" She asked.

He bent to look where she pointed. "The Sumerian symbol for Mushhushshu. It means furious snake. It is the protector of the gods."

She looked at him skeptically. "I want to summon a demon, not a god."

"In many cases, there is little difference between a god and a demon. Demon comes from a Greek word, daemon, meaning "spirit" which is neither good nor bad. It depends upon your belief system. However, this isn't a theology class. That is the prescribed symbol."

"What about this one?"

"Ah, the Babylonian symbol represents Marduk. He is featured prominently in
Enuma Elish
, the Babylonian Epic of Creation, which interestingly is written on seven tablets."

"Interesting?"

"Yes, many scholars have noted the similarity between the seven tablets of
Enuma Elish
and the seven days of creation in the torah which became part of the bible. One follows the other. Of course the Babylonian came first."

"Of course." Madeline rolled her eyes before she continued to inscribe the pentacle, using up three pieces of chalk in the process.

She stood to admire her handiwork and re-check the symbols. She then checked them again. Satisfied, she looked around for the Dark Mage. He was nowhere to be seen so she entered the pentacle, held up the papers and began chanting the words at the end.

As she finished the chant, he came through the door and looked at her with a sly smile.

She smiled back at him in triumph as smoke began to rise from a point in the middle of her masterpiece. The smoke thickened and seemed to solidify.

She first made out the form of a bear. Astride the great bear, a form solidified into a huge beast. The beast's head trifurcated. It formed into three heads, first of a man, then of a bull, and finally the head of a ram formed.

The Dark Mage raised a hand. "Did I forget to mention that it's best if you don't occupy the same pentacle in which you summon the demon?"

She looked to the demon. All three heads swung toward her. The human head smiled. It resembled the smile of a wolf contemplating dinner.

She screamed. The scream abruptly cut off. Blood splattered across the pentacle, but never left its confines.

The Black Mage looked away with a grimace.

After a few minutes of growling, smacking, and crunching, the demon stood and turned to the Mage. The bear it rode in on reared up, placed its paws on the invisible wall inscribed by the summoning circle, and roared. Bloody smudges seemed to float in the air where its claws contacted the barrier.

The Mage looked at it calmly. "It appears your summoner has left the room. You are free to go."

The bear and the beast began to fade and disperse. Smoke filled the circle before it too evaporated leaving an empty space on the floor.

"Now I'm the only one who knows of his grave." He frowned. "Who will bring him flowers?" The Dark Mage tsk-tsked, shrugged, and walked out the door again.