Chapter 43 43
“Do you remember a while back. Oh how long ago was that now?” I wrapped my hand again while I tried to find a reference point. “Oh, right. You weren’t born yet. So let’s go with a century or so ago, humans stumbled across an Aztec treasure trove. And being humans, they started opening things that should not be opened. They let out a Texoxqui or evil sorcerer who had been entombed for his deeds. He was wreaking havoc on Mexico and it’s neighbors. I went down to give the locals a hand at containing the guy before the humans caught on to what was going on. Well, I showed up in time to see the Nahualli blow through his ward, take out a freaking dragon and the Texoxqui without so much as breaking a sweat or throwing a single punch. Man, it was like watching art the way they handled things. I ended up helping them track down everything the humans had stolen. As a thank you for my efforts they gave me the stones. Said I might need them some day.”
“Ok, if that story is true and that’s a mighty big if, why does the council think they were stolen?” Connor was so untrusting. It’s not like I lie to him. Often.
“Hard to say. I’d guess the Nahualli didn’t want to risk making me a target for someone who wanted the stones.” I pulled my phone from my pocket to check the time. “Alright, time to get a move on. Sun sets in two hours. I don’t want to be trampling through the woods in the dark with a posse possibly out there looking to kill us dead dead.”
We hurried over to the west corner of town to a spot between the town and circle clearing. As I was placing the stone with the tip of the triangle pointing towards the center of town, Connor asked “Are you sure we shouldn’t put the clearing in the ward?”
I shook my head. “Nope. It’s been too much of a hot spot lately. Too big of a chance they could reverse a portal through the ward and come up inside of it. I think it’s a safer bet to leave it outside the perimeter.”
After I completed the ritual we quickly went to the southern corner to place the last stone before heading back to the town square.
We found Jeremiah and Matthew waiting for us by the town plaque. I looked at Matthew. “Everyone ready?” He nodded. “All righty then. Everyone stand back. Connor, keep an eye out. I’m not sure what’s about to happen. I’ve never actually used these things.”
That got me a dirty look from all the men folk standing around. Geez. Next time I won’t be honest. I took a deep breath and raised my hands up with my palms facing out. I turned slowly counter clockwise, reaching out with magic to find my blood on each of the stones. Once I had them connected to each other and me, I stretched my arms above my head with my palms facing up and chanted the enacting words. Whoa. I became some kind of magical conduit. My magic was flowing through my feet, traveling across the ground to the stones, then, flowing in a straight angled line to a point above the town. I could feel the magic gathering above me. When I managed to look up I saw a faint golden cloud forming. It seemed to double in size between blinks of an eye. I had never channeled this volume of magic into any spell. It just kept pulling more magic and the cloud kept getting bigger until it seemed to cover the entire town. I wondered briefly if I had enough magic to do this. I’d heard of some magics that bit off more than they could chew with a spell that drain all the magic out of their bodies. Their descriptions never made it sound pleasant. All their talk of feeling like the bodies were being ripped apart on the subatomic level and all.
I swayed slightly from the magic loss. Connor tried to steady me, but, stopped when I gave him a look.
No way to know if it could pull his magic too. One of us needed to be in fighting shape just in case. Huh. I’m technically a magically reanimated corpse. If all the magic leaves my body, will I turn into a pile of ash? Or would I just be a deanimated corpse? A surge of magic later, I fell to my knees with the town spinning around me. That’s odd. I didn’t recall anyone saying the stones could do that. Oh hey, why was everything getting dark? Oh right. The sun was supposed to set soon. But, why was it setting so fast? Wait, why did the grass race up to my face? Vaguely I heard my name being called. Connor seemed a bit on the frantic side. As soon as I could see again, I was so taking his man card.