C. E. Murphy - No Dominion - A Garrison Report

“Give him a taste of his own medicine?”

“Send him mewling back to his caverns like a whipped dog,” the god agreed. An eager growl rumbled through the Hunt, men an’ hounds alike. I changed my grip on Jo’s sword, getting ready to use it again. Cernunnos’s stallion stomped a couple times an’ the whole damned Hunt took to the skies, ready to meet the Devourer on his own turf. I barked a laugh, surprised even though I shouldn’t have been, and bent low over Imelda’s neck to keep the wind from tearing tears from my eyes. When we were good and high, high enough for Cernunnos to be sure he’d gotten the Devourer’s attention, he shook the Morrígan off his sword.

Except insteada falling, she rose into the sky an’ came back down at us, hands clawed like she was one of her own ravens. Blood was turning brown on her armor already, and ran in a purple streak down her blue robes, but she wasn’t half as dead as I figured she oughta be. Cernunnos laughed, so I guessed it wasn’t a surprise ta him, but me, I wished she’d stayed dead. Especially as she was comin’ after me, even though Horns had been the one to stick a sword through her. ‘course, I’d distracted her so he could do it, and—

—and she didn’t have a sword of her own anymore, having dropped it on the battlefield when she got stuck. Jo’s rapier had a four-foot reach. The Morrígan came at me, an’ I stood in Imelda’s stirrups and thrust.

The rapier flared as it smashed into the same hole Cernunnos had made. A bright flash of silver shot up her body and connected to the necklace she wore. Outlined it in blue, so I could see real clear that it was the same one Joanne wore, silver links with a quartered cross sittin’ in the hollow of her throat.

Blue splashed into her skin and lit her up from inside, movie-like, so her bones shone through for a split second. All of sudden I saw Joanne between me an’ the Morrígan Her eyes were wide and scared as she yelled, “ Gary !” but then she was gone again, an’ Cernunnos was knockin’ the Morrígan off my blade like Mickey Mantle at the bat. This time she fell, limp and bloody, all the damned way to the ground. My sword hand was tingling, power itching through it while I tried to remember what Jo had said about that necklace. It and the sword were both made by the elf king Nuada, I knew that. That coulda meant there was just some kinda interference between one piece of magic silver and another, but the burst of blue had seemed like more than that. I was gonna hafta ask Jo about that later.

Assumin’ there was a later. Cernunnos shouted something and I looked up to see the Devourer coming straight at me.

Funny thing was, I knew I oughta be scared, but all the fear flooded right outta me. I was old enough to die well, even if I didn’t much want to. I’d stopped being afraid of it when my wife died. For a long time I’d just been counting the hours ‘til I went with my Annie, but Joanne had changed alla that. I’d have been a better target for him before Joanne, but today I was ready to look him in the eye.

For such big guns, he wasn’t much to see. Just an old man on that pale horse, just about as skinny as a skeleton. His hair was thin an’ long, and his teeth were yellow, and he carried a staff instead of a sword. He wore robes kinda like the Morrígan’s, and like hers, they showed off blue knotwork tattoos around his upper arms. His were faded where hers still looked bright and new, but they were the same pattern, binding them together. He lifted his staff and pointed it at me, black magic gathering in the thing so strong I could see it whether the Sight was still working or not. Feeling way too calm for good sense, I shook my sword hand and waited.

Most of a year ago, Jo had found me a spirit animal. A tortoise, a real protective kinda spirit, good for armoring up and hunkering down. Maybe not so good for quick draw fights like this was gonna turn out to be, but I had to figure a spirit animal that could protect itself could fight, even if that didn’t necessarily follow in the real world. Either way, I drew the idea of that big mottled shell around me and felt the tortoise come to life at the back of my mind, ready and willing to take the hits that were comin’ my way.

A tar ball of black magic blew outta the Devourer’s walkin’ stick and tore across the sky at me. I snapped Jo’s rapier up, deflecting it as best I could. Her gunmetal blue healing power turned the blade electric, slicing through the worst of the blast and still leaving me reeling in the saddle. The air sucked right outta my lungs and stars spun in my eyes. The rapier got hot, like it’d been filled up with hate and the only way it could release it was by burning. I danced it in my fingers, but there was no way I was dropping the thing. It was my one link back to Jo. I hated ta think what might happen if it and me got separated.

The Devourer’s host of riders swept around him and crashed against the Hunt. They were all kindsa amazing, awful things, not fallen angels at all. They were shimmering blues and blacks, light falling through ‘em like they’d left their bodies behind a long time ago. A lot of them passed right through the Hunt and rushed for the field below, where Brigid’s army was gathering again. I had to think they were going to fight, not to take up new bodies from the dead, ‘cause that was a kind of sick I didn’t want to know about.

I looked up again an’ found myself face to face with the Master.

Cold rolled off him like he was something from between the stars. The air got thin all of a sudden. I dragged in a breath an’ didn’t let it out, kinda figuring I wouldn’t be able to suck in another one. Imelda trembled, tryin’ ta toss her head and stomp her feet, but she couldn’t move any more than I could. The Master’s eyes weren’t any kinda color, just pale, and I felt like he was looking straight into the bottom of my soul. He didn’t say a word, which was worse than talking, ‘cause it gave me room to hear everything he was seeing in me, and everything he was thinking.

He didn’t think the Morrígan was dead, not for a minute, but she was hurt bad enough that he had to come patch her up, and I was the mortal with the magic sword. I might not have put his Girl Friday down for the count, but I’d scraped her up with it, an’ I got the idea that made me interesting. Interesting meant something for him to deal with.

He went through me like a deck of cards, lifting every part of my life up, glancing at its face and casting it away. The kid I’d been, living out in White Center, Washington before Seattle grew up big enough and absorbed it. Tinkering with cars that looked simple compared to today’s machines, but at least a guy could fix ‘em. The first girl I’d ever kissed, and then standing for her groom at a wedding a couple years later. The complicated pride on my ma’s face when I joined the Army ‘cause it was the only way I’d finish the college education she wanted me to have. The first time I saw Annie Macready, and knew I was gonna marry that girl.

He hooked onta that and spun it out so fast I couldn’t follow, even after living it. Then he fell back with a death’s head grin on his bony old face, said, “She will be my vengeance,” and turned his skinny, arrogant back on me.

I never saw red before, not like they talk about doing, but I did then. Blood red misting over everything except the son of a bitch threatening my wife’s life, an’ he stood out like a lighthouse beacon, best target in a hundred miles. Imelda was moving before I even knew I’d put heels to her, and Jo’s rapier was lifted like it had a life of its own. Blazing blue, connecting me to her across the years, and for one crazy second I thought it was all gonna end right there.

The Master, casual-like, threw his staff over his shoulder. A blast of power shot at me, bigger than the last and twice as fast. I couldn’t get the rapier between me an’ it quick enough. The last thought that rolled through my mind was sorry, darlin’ .