Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

A yelp escaped me when heat exploded out of my hand. A flaming sword appeared in my grasp and I started back, striking my head hard against the iron bars. The moment I moved, the fire was extinguished. I gaped at my palm with its intact skin. Only a tingling sensation proved to me that something had happened.

The mummies had paused their advance at the sudden burst of flame but they resumed their shambling walk toward me. I waved my hand and flicked my thumb like a pretender lighter. “Come on!” I shouted as my back pressed against the wall. “Whatever the hell you are, work!”

A few sparks shot out of my palm as one of the creatures grasped my arm. I jerked my hand back and the flaming sword burst out of my palm again. This time the creature was close enough that the fiery blade stabbed through its body and poked out the other side. The mummy froze and its jaw dropped open as both it and I looked down at the protruding sword.

The creature let out a high-pitched scream and stumbled back, ripping the sword from my hand. The weapon vanished the moment I lost contact with the ‘hilt’ but that didn’t stop the mummy from catching fire. It spun around and raced into its brethren, catching their dry and ragged clothes aflame.

“Roll, my charges!” Father Silas shouted as he struggled to pull the key out of his pocket. He fumbled with the metal before inserting it into the lock and shoving open the door. “Stop-”

I grabbed the bars and slammed the door in his face. He stumbled backward and fell onto his back where he lay still. I scurried over him, making sure to step on as many limbs as I could in my hurry, and scrambled up the stairs.

The fresh air of the church was most welcome and I crumpled onto the nearest pew where I could catch my breath. My heart pounded loudly in my chest as I lifted one hand and stared at my empty palm. There was no sign of any burning or scorching. A faint whiff of smoke, however, did emerge from cracks in the floor.

Noises from the cloister made my head shoot up. A half dozen robed individuals came from that direction.

“Perhaps one of the torches merely fell!” one of them suggested.

“We shall have to see!” the leader insisted before his eyes fell on me. “A moment, miss, and the Grimton will be ready for viewing!”

“Take your time,” I quipped as I climbed to my feet. I didn’t want to be around when they found their fallen father.

I had only reached the halfway point down the aisle when shouts came from the stairs. The sounds made me turn and I was just in time to watch one of the brothers go flying out of the stairs. They landed with a crash on the front row of pews and the seats were knocked backward. The man’s limbs twitched a bit before he lay still.

More cries came from the stairwell and I crept closer. A brother scurried up on hands and knees or tried to. Something grabbed the back hem of his cloak and yanked him back, but not before I saw his expression of terror. He, too, was sent flying in the air and crashed into the altar.

My heart gave a leap as Will’s head was shown above the floor. Father Silas’s prone body was draped over his shoulder and he carried another brother by the back of the man’s cassock. Will noticed me and his eyes widened. He tossed the limp fellow onto the floor and hurried over, unshouldering his burden by dropping Father Silas on the ground near me.

Will grasped my upper arms and looked me over. “Are you unhurt?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but I have something to-” A groan from behind Will interrupted us.

We turned and watched as Father Silas was roused from his slumber. He eased himself onto his bent legs and clutched his forehead where a nice egg-shaped lump had formed. Father Silas lifted his eyes to us and they widened. He tried to scurry away on his hands and knees, but Will snatched the back of the man’s collar and lifted him high off the floor so their faces were even with one another.

Father Silas shrank from Will’s hard eyes. “Mercy! I beg of you, have mercy!”

“You will have mercy when you have given us the information we seek,” Will told him.

The man bobbed his head. “Whatever you desire!”

“What connection do you have with the Agency?”

Father Silas’ face turned as pale as a sheet and his body quivered. “N-nothing! Nothing at-ah!” Will had extended the fingers of his free hand into sharp claws and pressed them against the man’s throat. The father lifted his chin and tried not to take a big swallow. “P-please! Mercy!”

“What do you know about the Agency?” Will demanded. “Speak!”

Father Silas winced and sweat ran down his brow. “W-we deal with them only scarcely. To transfer packages along their mail route.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Mail route?”

He shook his head. “I know nothing more than that. We are paid to transfer the packages between portals.”

“Then show us these portals,” Will commanded as he opened his hand.

Father Silas crumpled to the floor at his feet. He reached a shaking hand into his robes and drew out a card. “T-this is the method we use to open the portals, but I know not how the magic works.”

Will snatched the card from him and I stepped up to his side to study the faces. One was a plain side with a few etchings of vines and flowers. The other showed a bent man in a robe drawn in a medieval style. The figure traveled down a dusky dirt road with countryside in the background. He held a lantern in one hand and a compass in the raised left palm.

“How do you activate the portal?” Will questioned him.

The father swallowed a lump in his throat. “We. . .we speak the word ‘forthcoming’ and the portal is opened.”

“And you have not yourself climbed through it?” he continued.

The father grasped his bandaged arm. “Only once did I dare and my hand was so horribly burned that even after these four months I still cannot use it.”

Will tucked the card into his jacket and leaned down to grab the front of Father Silas’ cassock. He lifted the man off his feet and carried him over to the altar. “Now I will have you swear on your ruined altar that you will never again forfeit a woman’s life to the undead.”

Father Silas grasped Will’s arm with both hands and shrank from the duty. “But they-”

“They have no more connection to the living than the dust in which they sleep,” Will snapped as he held Father Silas high over his fallen brother. “Now swear it.”

Father Silas wiggled in Will’s grasp before he nodded. “I-I swear on this altar there will be no more brides for those in our care!”

A hard rap echoed on the closed front doors of the church. “Father Silas? Brothers? Are you there? Is everything alright?”

Will opened his hand and Father Silas dropped on top of his fallen brother. Father Silas scurried up onto his arms. “Whoever that is, please tell no one of what I told you! We would all be killed!”

The brother that had slumped over the pew roused himself from his slumber and rolled onto the floor. He scurried past us, keeping one eye on Will, and nearly slammed into the doors. The brother flung them open and dropped into the arms of. . .Officer Folcred?

The officer caught the brother as the man fell limp against him. “Monster!” the brother exclaimed as he pointed one shaking finger at Will. “He attacked us without cause!”

My mouth dropped open. “They tried to marry me off to a dead guy!”

Officer Folcred’s eyebrows crashed down and he cast his stern gaze down at his burden. “Is this true?”

The brother shrank from the accusation. “I-I don’t know, sir, but they had no right to attack us like that!”

“You attacked me first,” Will countered as he took my hand and led me down the aisle. He tried to pass the officer, but Folcred stretched out one arm to block our path. Will frowned at him. “Are you detaining us?”

“I would like you to answer some questions,” Folcred revealed as he looked us up and down. “Starting with what brought you here.”