Modern Sorcery: A Jonathan Shade Novel (32 page)

A dog leaped from the bank of the river onto the boat, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t have three heads.
 
The boat rocked on the water.
 
The dog growled and looked ready to pounce on us but Sharon laughed.

“Hi, Cerberus.
 
Did you miss me?”
 
She knelt to scratch two of the heads behind the ears.
 
The dog instantly settled down.
 
“It’s good to see you, boy, but you need to get back to guard the entrance.”

Cerberus barked twice then leaped back to the riverbank.
 
Sharon rose and nodded to Ravenwood.
 
“The pull on your soul is getting stronger.”

“It’s not happening,” he said.

As we sailed deeper into the cavern, a lantern on the bow started glowing.
 
Ravenwood grabbed Sharon.

She shook her head.
 
“You can’t transfer to another host down here,” she said.

He released her then flexed his hands.
 
Sweat beaded on his forehead.

“Your magic won’t work down here either.
 
Bob should be able to force you out in a few minutes.”

“Bob?” I asked.

“My replacement,” Sharon said.

Up ahead, the river flowed around an island.
 
I could see people gathered there.
 
They didn’t seem to be moving.

The boat glided over to a pier and stopped of its own accord.

“This is my stop,” Naomi said.
 
“I go to be judged.
 
I’ll face up to all that I’ve done, and I’ll accept whatever judgment they render.
 
But only one opinion matters to me: yours.”
 
Her eyes pleaded with me.

I considered what she had done.
 
She had used me.
 
She had played me like a well-tuned guitar.
 
Her actions had cost people their lives.
 
However, she wasn’t asking me to forgive her for them.
 
That wasn’t my place.
 
She only wanted my forgiveness for what she had done to me.

I stared into her eyes.

“Can you ever forgive me?” she asked.

I shook my head.
 
“What’s sad is that after all this time, you think you have to ask.”

She tried to embrace me, but her arms passed through me.
 
She moved her ghostly face close to my ear and whispered, “I love you.”

It was the first time she’d ever said those words to me.

With that, she turned and walked away.
 
She climbed off the boat and walked down the pier toward a group of spirits.
 
While they looked human, they didn’t seem to pay much attention to anything.
 
They simply stood around without any expression on their faces.
 
I guess the afterlife is pretty boring.
 
Either that or they must enter some sort of suspended animation until Judgment Day.

The boat started to pull away from the dock.
 
Now that his duty to Naomi was complete, Ravenwood was no longer bound to the office.
 
He jumped out of the boat to the pier and raced toward the group Naomi had joined.

“Damn it,” Sharon said.
 
“We can’t let him stay here.
 
Bob will be missed, and if that happens, I’m in some seriously deep shit.
 
I can’t set foot on the grounds here without alerting some unsavory types that I’m here.
 
That would
not
be a good thing.”

“I’ll get him.”
 
I started to follow Ravenwood.

Sharon grabbed my arm.
 
I turned to face her.

“If you can’t catch him fast, remember that blood makes the grass grow.”

That didn’t make any sense to me.
 
Was it part of some ancient mythology?
 
I could never keep all the mythologies straight, and even when I did remember them, the reality was often quite different.

I jumped to the pier, sword in hand, and followed Ravenwood.
 
He ran through spirits.
 
They didn’t seem to notice him; they simply stood on their mist-shrouded ground.
 
I saw Naomi step into a line of people and close her eyes.
 
My heart wanted to drop out of my body.
 
I forced my eyes away from her and focused on Ravenwood.

“Aren’t we a bit old to be playing hide-and-seek?”

Many of the spirits looked to be soldiers and warriors.
 
I couldn’t remember what, if anything, that meant.
 
Was this some realm discussed by Virgil that gave military men a place to go that wasn’t quite the same as Hades?
 
I had no clue.

Ravenwood tried to hide behind a group of spirits.
 
I knew I didn’t have much time.
 
I didn’t want to miss the boat, and trying to swim in the Acheron didn’t strike me as a good idea.

I ran right at Ravenwood.
 
When I drew close, I whipped the sword around and tried to slash him.

“Blood makes the grass grow,” I said.
 
It sounded so familiar.

Ravenwood jumped on me.

I flipped him to the ground, and the rest of the saying emerged from the murky reaches of my brain.
 
“Marines make the blood flow,” I said.
 
Of course, I wasn’t in the Marines, but I still didn’t understand what Sharon was trying to tell me.

Ravenwood tried to kick my legs, but I easily avoided his attack.

“You’ve been a real pain in the ass,” I said.

“You can die here as easily as in your city,” Ravenwood said.
 
He rolled to his feet and rushed me.

Without his magic, I knew he wasn’t much to talk about, so I punched him in the face.
 
Pain thundered up my arm, but he did not go down.

He grabbed me and swung me hard.
 
I tried to keep my balance, but he was incredibly strong.
 
I flew sideways, lost my grip on the sword, hit the ground, and rolled.
 
I picked myself up off the ground and faced him, ready now.

“I may not have my magic,” Ravenwood said, “but this body does have some advantages down here.”

I attacked but he caught my fist in the air.
 
I tried to hit him with my other hand, but he caught that one too.
 
He kicked me hard in the chest.
 
I felt the air burst from my lungs, and when I hit the ground, I couldn’t breathe.

He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a long, wooden staff.
 
It looked to be the same one he’d left on the boat.
 
I didn’t know if it was a case of that being part of his office and that the tools were always at his disposal or if he’d opened a rift and pulled it from the boat.
 
It didn’t matter.
 
The end result was the same.

He swung the curved staff and brought it down hard.
 
I rolled to the side but still caught a glancing blow on the ribs.
 
It sent waves of agony shuddering through me as they were the same ribs the Sekutar had bruised several days ago.

I curled up into a fetal position, trying to protect my vitals as he pounded me with the staff.

Finally I managed to catch my breath.
 
My arms and sides screamed in agony.
 
No wait, that was me.
 
I tried to crawl away, and he smashed me across the back.

I did a face-plant and rolled over as he swung again.
 
I managed to block the blow with my forearm; then I rolled hard to the left and cut myself on Kelly’s sword.
 
Smooth move, moron
.
 
I got to my knees and touched the cut.
 
My hand came away bloody.

“Feel free to try the sword,” Ravenwood said.
 
“I’ll wait.”
 
He kept his distance.
 
The smile on his face told me he was enjoying this.

I picked up the sword and rose to my feet, using my bloody hand to push myself up.
 
For a moment, I thought one of the spirits had moved toward me, but when I looked at it, I saw that it stood motionless.

“Ready?” Ravenwood asked.

I responded by rushing him.
 
I swung the sword, and he managed to parry with the staff.
 
I spun and slashed downward at him.
 
He dodged and laughed.

“This is more like it,” he said.

We attacked and parried and jabbed.
 
The clang of steel on wood filled the air.
 
I kept thinking the sword should cut into that staff, but the wood didn’t look even nicked.
 
Ravenwood swung hard and I jumped back to avoid the attack, and when I hit the ground, I did a backward somersault to my feet.
 
I saw blood on the grass, but it disappeared into the ground.
 
One of the spirits shifted on his feet.

I looked at the spirit, but now it wasn’t moving.
 
It stood as impassive as the ages.

Ravenwood attacked again, and I parried and countered.
 
He didn’t seem to grow tired, but I found the effort of swinging the sword beginning to wear on me.
 
My shoulder burned and my shirt was stained with blood.
 
I jumped to the side to avoid another swipe of the staff.
 
I fell through a spirit, and the spirit suddenly straightened.
 
Once I passed through, it resumed its old stance.
 
I glanced at my shoulder.
 
The bloodstain was gone.
 
I could still see the cut, and blood began to seep out of the wound again, but passing through the spirit had cleansed it momentarily.

Blood makes the grass grow
.

I looked at the sword.
 
Naomi’s blood still stained the steel.

“Are you tired?” Ravenwood asked.

I nodded.

“Ready to give up?
 
I can kill you fast and end your misery.”

“I’m not
that
miserable,” I said.

“The woman you love is dead.
 
You failed to save her.
 
You can’t win, Shade.
 
You are a pathetic excuse for a man.”

I laughed.
 
“This pathetic excuse for a man has fought your sorry ass to a standstill.”