John Levitt - Unleashed

“Building a cage will be comparatively easy,” said Victor. “Getting it into the cage might be another matter.”

“Then what? Why would it help us?”

“We can bargain. If that doesn’t work, there’s always Bertram.”

“No,” said Eli. “That’s not a good idea.”

“He’s effective. He can be very persuasive.”

“Doesn’t make it right.”

“Why not? This Wendigo is a monster, after all.”

“We don’t know that. And no, we’re not using Bertram. End of discussion.”

Eli doesn’t say things like that very often, but when he does there’s no arguing. Victor shrugged and turned away. I was just as glad we weren’t calling on Bertram for help-his methods were unpleasant in the extreme, and he enjoyed using them.

Eli returned his attention to the large tattered book he was thumbing through, the kind of book you usually see in the rare-book room at the library or in specialty book-stores.

“We’ll need to find a way to compel it to enter. Ironic, is it not, considering how it operates?”

He closed the book and knelt down on the floor where Victor was arranging items according to some criteria I couldn’t even guess at. My improvisational use of talent has served me well, but it was at times like this that I realized how little I know. And how useless I was in this type of endeavor.

The two of them discussed strategies. Victor wanted to grind up a few of the stones and incorporate them into a larger matrix. Eli thought that too dangerous and unpredictable; he wanted to use the stones themselves to form a template. Neither one asked for my opinion, which was just as well since I didn’t have one.

Finally Eli won out on that point. They took half the stones and arranged them in a rough circle, not much larger than it would take to contain a person. I wasn’t sure if half was all they needed or if they were saving the other half in case something went wrong. A layer of salt was poured out, snaking in and out between the stones, and each stone was dusted with a small amount of iron shavings.

Most of the folk knowledge about magical operations is laughably wrong, but there are two items that crop up in myth all the time: iron and salt. And those two are real. Salt is practically a universal substance in any ritual designed to bind something, and iron is almost as common. All metals, except silver and sometimes gold, are difficult to work with. But iron is by far the most difficult; it’s almost as resistant to talent as is an Ifrit.

Victor spoke a command and let energy flow into the circle. He didn’t need much; it was like lighting a match to a bonfire of kindling. Power welled up, strong and fierce. Eli took a step backward, and even Victor seemed slightly intimidated by what he’d done.

“Now the attraction spell,” said Victor. “Mason, I could use your help here.”

At last I felt useful. Eli knows more about the operation of magical constructs than anyone I know, but he personally has only a minor amount of intrinsic power to work with. It’s too bad; if he’d been able to combine his knowledge with Victor’s power, he would have been one of the most powerful practitioners on the planet. But maybe he wouldn’t have been Eli then.

Victor reached over for the battery, connected a length of copper wire to each terminal and the other end of the wires to one of the green stones.

“He’s making an electromagnet,” Eli explained, “or at least that’s what it would be if it were hooked up to a metal rod. Same principle, though.”

Victor took hold of one of the wires and gestured for me to take the other one.

“We don’t want to try pouring energy directly into the stone,” he said. “That could cause problems. When I speak the code word, just feed it into the wire and it will flow into the stone. Got it?”

I nodded and grasped the wire firmly. Victor had one hand on his wire and the other on the stone. “Attract,” he said, and I let loose with a surge. Then he took his hand off the stone, saying, “Release.” I dropped the wire, but as he spoke he released another small pulse of energy into the circle. I understood what he was trying to do-set up code words that would activate an attraction spell or release it on command. I wasn’t sure it would work, though.

“How are you going to isolate its effect?” I asked.

Victor reached over to the circle of stones, took one out, and rearranged the others so that a circle remained. He then reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a flashlight. A quick consultation with Eli, a drop of liquid from one of the bottles rubbed on the lens, and then a few words spoken while holding the rune stone up to the flashlight. When he turned it on, the flashlight beam passed right through the stone, casting a green light on the far wall.

Back to the desk drawer, this time for some duct tape. He neatly taped the stone onto the front of the flashlight, securing it in place.

“Very elegant,” I said, looking at the duct tape.

“It works,” he said, shortly. Eli looked over at Lou and Maggie, who had uncharacteristically been looking on with great interest.

“We should test it on one of them,” he said.

“Why them?” I asked.

“Because Ifrits, as you well know, are immune to all sorts of magical compulsions. Aversion spells mean nothing to them. If this works on them, it will work on anything, even our tree-dwelling friend. It won’t hurt them any.” Victor looked a question at me.

“Why not?” I said. I pointed over to where Lou and Maggie were sitting. Maggie took one look at me and stalked over to the other side of the room. She was having no part of it. “Lou. We’re going to try something. If you feel a pull, resist. Fight it.”

He licked his lips nervously, but didn’t make any other protest. Trying to prove he was braver than a mere cat, perhaps. Eli nodded and Victor said, “Attract.” The runes around the circle flashed once. The he turned on the flashlight and played the beam of green light over Lou’s body. Lou stiffened, then started walking stiffly toward the circle. It wasn’t like what the Wendigo had done to me; this was more of a physical compulsion and Lou was fighting it all the way. He twisted his head around to look at me, either in supplication or disgust, but his steps didn’t slow for a moment. Seconds later he was inside the circle, and Victor turned off the flashlight.

“Can you get out?” I said to him.

He circled the perimeter once and sat down in the middle of the circle. He wasn’t even going to try.

“So far, so good,” said Victor, and he released the power flowing through the circle.

Lou trotted out, ignored my outstretched hand, and joined Maggie on the other side of the room. Showing that he preferred even her company to mine at the moment was his way of letting me know he was seriously pissed.

“Now you,” Victor said to me.

“Me? Why not you?”

“I need to check for possible flaws.”

After offering up Lou as a guinea pig I could hardly say no. I shrugged and walked into the center of the circle. When Victor activated it, I understood why Lou hadn’t even attempted to get out. I’d expected lines of force, or even a dome of energy blocking any escape, but nothing like this. It was like being locked in a bank vault with nothing but a butter knife to pry the door open. No magical energy could escape, either, and hopefully that would include the seductive power of the Wendigo’s voice.

Sheer force wasn’t going to do the job, but that’s not the way I handle things anyway. I probed for weaknesses, but there weren’t any. Those stones held immense power, and Victor had been his careful self in crafting it. There was no way out. Except, there’s almost always a way around things if you’re clever enough. Sheer force isn’t everything, and there was one weakness Victor hadn’t thought of. The circle couldn’t be affected from the inside, but what about from the outside? I signaled to Lou, who was still sulking on the other side of the room.