D. Jackson - A Plunder of Souls

“I’ll use an illusion spell now to tell my crew to unload them. If you don’t believe me, use an illusion spell of your own to watch.”

“Do not trust him, Kaille,” Mariz said. “Even now, he tries to deceive us.”

Janna nodded, her eyes on the captain. “I agree.”

In recent days, Ethan had been too trusting, too willing to believe that he could reason with Ramsey. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake. Ramsey had lost control of the shades; he could not escape unless he first rid himself of his ghosts. He was prepared to fight to the death, and he didn’t want his father to bear witness to whatever end awaited him.

Ethan understood this. But from the outset of this ordeal, his first goal had been to win the freedom of the dead, so that they could rest once more. He couldn’t waste this opportunity.

“All right,” Ethan said. “I’ll cast with you. Once I see you give the order to your men, I’ll release your father.”

Janna gripped his arm. “Kaille, no!”

“We cannot let you do this,” Mariz said.

“You have to! As long as he has those body parts, he can do this again. He can keep all of us from conjuring.”

Mariz shook his head. “Not if he is dead. Order the shades to kill him, just as he did to your friend, Gavin. Then this will be over.”

Hearing this, the shade of Nathaniel Ramsey drew a knife from his belt, and lunged at Patience, seeking to stab her through the heart. Ethan didn’t know what damage one shade could do to another, but Patience leaped back out of Nathaniel’s reach. The other shades scattered, as frightened as she of the old captain’s wrath.

And perhaps sensing that this was his one chance to get away, Ramsey cut himself again. “ Ignis ex cruore evocatus! ” Fire, conjured from blood!

A great ball of flame, seething and swirling, the color of a setting sun, burst from his hand, soared upward and crashed into the warehouse ceiling. The flames spread as if fueled by oil, and smoke began to fill the building.

Ramsey sprinted toward the hole in the wall through which Sephira and the others had escaped.

Ethan slashed his forearm. “ Pugnus ex cruore evocatus! ” Fist, conjured from blood!

He needed only to knock the captain off balance, and this spell did. Ethan’s conjured fist struck Ramsey in the back and sent him sprawling onto the floor, his arms splayed.

Nathaniel Ramsey’s shade still had his knife out, and was stalking Patience’s ghost. Ethan thought that if he managed to destroy her, it might well return control of the other shades to Ramsey.

He cut himself again. “ Dimitto te, Nathaniel Ramsey, ex cruore evocatum. ” I release you, Nathaniel Ramsey, conjured from blood.

He didn’t usually use blood when dismissing spirits, but he feared that Captain Ramsey would resist a less powerful dismissal. As it was, at the thrum of power, the shade whirled toward Ethan, eyes blazing, and started in his direction. But the ghost had already started to fade; he was gone well before he reached Ethan.

Patience marshaled the other shades once more. Ramsey was back on his feet, but Mariz blocked his path to the opening in the wall. Janna and Ethan both stood between the captain and the door.

“You can’t win, Ramsey,” Ethan said, walking toward him.

“I don’t have to win. All I need to do is not lose.”

He backed away from Mariz, and at the same time carved another wound in his arm, which was already livid from all the spells he had cast.

He spoke a second fire spell, throwing the flame at another section of the ceiling. His knife flashed again, and he set the nearest wall ablaze. Twice more he cut himself and cast fire spells. The warehouse was fully engulfed now; flames roared, and black smoke filled the building, making Ethan’s eyes and throat burn. The heat was intensifying. The ceiling groaned; it would collapse before long.

And still Ramsey cast more spells.

“You’ll kill us all!” Ethan shouted at him.

“If I have to!”

“I can’t let you leave, Ramsey! Not unless you get your men to unload the body parts.”

“You do what you have to, Kaille. I’ll do the same.”

He cut himself yet again.

Before he could cast, Ethan spoke a spell of his own: a shatter spell that he hoped would break Ramsey’s arm and incapacitate him. But though his spell hammered at the captain, it didn’t fell him or break a bone, or keep him from conjuring another mass of flame, which he sent spiraling upward into the ceiling and through. Burning pieces of wood pelted down onto them all.

Janna coughed, clutching at her chest.

“Get her out of here, Mariz!”

“I don’t need-” Another fit of coughing cut off her objections.

“Patience!” Ethan called.

The shade faced him, her expression pained. She seemed to know before he spoke what he would say. She had been a gentle soul in life; now he would ask her to kill.

“He can’t be allowed to leave. Do you understand?”

She nodded.

“ Dimitto omnes eorum ex cruore evocatos! ” Ramsey said, his conjuring interrupted by a paroxysm of coughing of his own. I release all of them, conjured from blood!

Ethan felt the spell, but the shades remained. It seemed that when the captain lost control of them, he also lost his ability to send them away.

Mariz and Janna had almost reached the door. Ethan had no desire to die in this inferno, but he had to be sure that Ramsey didn’t find a way out.

In that instant, though, with an unearthly growl and a shower of sparks and blackened, fiery wood, the center of the roof gave way. Another part of the roof nearer to where Ethan stood did the same. He heard Mariz and Janna calling his name, but he couldn’t see them, and he had no clear path to either the door or the gap.

Ramsey had cut his arm again and turned toward the nearest wall.

“ Discuti ex cruore evocatum! ” he shouted over the roar of the fire. Shatter, conjured from blood.

“Ramsey, no!”

No doubt he was trying to break the wall, to forge a path to safety. Instead, he brought down what was left of the ceiling, as well as the nearest walls. Ethan jumped back, stumbled over a fallen beam, which was blackened and still aflame, and fell, nearly landing on a pile of burning timber. Still, he saw Ramsey go down, saw fiery debris come down on top of him. He shouted the captain’s name, but heard no response.

Another section of wall caved in. Ethan scrambled to his feet. He couldn’t see much, and he could barely breathe. He felt the pulse of a spell and wondered if it had come from Ramsey, struggling to get free, or Mariz, trying to reach him.

He turned a quick circle, saw nothing but flame and charred wood. And Patience, beckoning to him. He ran toward her, and realized that she might well have saved his life. There was a path, barely; he could see no way through that wouldn’t leave him burned. But if he remained where he was, he was a dead man.

He cut his arm. “ Tegimen contra ignem ex cruore evocatum. ” Protection from fire, conjured from blood.

Though he felt the spell, he had no idea if it would work; he had never attempted such a conjuring. He pulled off his waistcoat, and wrapped it around his right arm. And with one last deep breath, he sprinted into the narrow gap Patience’s shade had pointed out to him.

Before he had taken more than a half dozen steps, he was convinced that he had made a grave mistake. He no longer could find the path he had spotted mere moments before. He could hardly see for the bitter smoke; his eyes stung and tears coursed down his cheeks. Heat clawed at him, searing every bit of exposed skin. He used his wrapped arm to bat aside burning planks that got in his way, but it seemed that flame and smoldering wood were everywhere.