Dark Storm (15 page)

The wind rushed down the mountain while towering black clouds chased to the top of the atmosphere, churning and boiling with a dark, ominous anger. Lightning forked across the sky, whips of sizzling electrical currents, snapping and crackling with a kind of rage. Beneath her hands, Riley felt the rising volcanic gases and with those noxious fumes, something else—something horrifyingly evil. These men had come with her and she led them into certain danger. If they remained where they were, and she couldn’t slow the blast or redirect it, all of them would die.

“Miguel, you have to take the others and get out of here now,” she ordered, already grabbing her mother’s pack. “The volcano is going to blow. I can feel the pressure building in the earth.”

More than that, she could feel the spreading triumph of evil running below the surface. If she hadn’t fully believed the things her mother had told her before, she certainly did now. The malevolence was so acute, her stomach lurched. This was the source that had focused on murdering her mother. The porters were pawns, just as the insects and monkeys had been. Glee and triumph poured from the ground.

Tremors continued, the rain forest shivering constantly. Riley didn’t wait to see if Miguel took her at her word—they all had to know an eruption was imminent. She began to run up the narrow trail leading up the mountain. She wouldn’t make the entry to the cloud forest, but she’d get close enough. She glanced over her shoulder to see the men hesitating.

“Go now,” she urged. “Run.”

“Riley, it’s too late,” Gary called after her. He reached down and caught up her pack and raced after her. “You can’t be on the mountain when it goes.”

Riley didn’t slow down or acknowledge his concern. If she couldn’t ease the pressure in the volcano or redirect the blast, not even the archaeologist and his students would be safe. The explosion would be similar to a nuclear bomb going off, devastating everything for miles. She could hear Gary’s boots pounding up the trail after her, and then those of a second man and a third. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t stop them. Each one had to make their choice at this point, and hers was to try to save everyone and make a last effort to keep whatever evil thing dwelled in the volcano trapped.

With every step she took she judged the shivering, trembling ground. How close? How much time? She had to make it as far as she could, yet still give herself time to connect with the volcano and perform the ritual. She would try to seal the evil within the mountain even as she calmed and directed the building volcanic eruption away from the travelers. She could only pray there were no other people on the other side of the mountain, because if she couldn’t stop the blast, she’d try for a smaller eruption as far from them as possible.

The ground shook hard, the sound like a thunderclap, throwing her off balance. Gary’s hand caught her arm to steady her and they ran together, Jubal right behind them. She wished they hadn’t followed her, but a part of her was glad they had. She was fairly certain she wasn’t going to make it off the mountain alive and their presence helped to give her determination and courage. She wasn’t just fighting for herself. The next tremor, much stronger than the one before, lasted a long minute, warning her she had run out of time. She stopped abruptly and flung her mother’s pack on the ground. “It has to be here. We’re not where we need to be, but if we’re lucky, I can do this.”

“We can help,” Gary said. “We’ve participated in a couple of rituals. Tell us what you need us to do.”

Riley wasn’t going to ask how they knew what to do when she barely knew herself. There just wasn’t time, but if by some chance she managed to pull off a miracle, both men were going to answer a lot of questions. She yanked open her mother’s pack and removed a small handheld broom made of bunched willow tied tightly together. Hastily she began to sweep out a circle large enough to hold herself and the three men. She moved counterclockwise, brushing the debris free while she whispered her prayer to the four elements, calling them to her as she worked.

Riley had seen her mother perform the ritual of holding the volcano many times, but now that it was her turn, there was so much she didn’t know. She had to undo the strands of the evil power permeating the entire volcano and weave powerful strands of her own strong enough to keep the evil contained, holding it within its own constraints, and not allowing it to go free.

“Use the salt,” she instructed Gary. “Follow the circle. Jubal, there’s sage …”

“Got it,” Jubal said. He lit the sage and walked the circle three times, cleansing the area as he chanted softly under his breath.

“What the hell are you people doing?” Ben demanded. The ground shook continually, the tremors growing longer in duration and much stronger. “We have to get out of here.”

“Try to catch up with Miguel and the others,” Gary said without looking up. He continued to form the circle with the salt.

“No, whatever you’re doing, I’ll help,” Ben said. “But this is insane.”

“Can’t you feel the evil?” Riley hissed. She could feel him now, real and powerful, coming at her in waves—his malicious triumph in the murder of her mother. He thought himself safe with her mother dead, and so far, he had no inkling she was on his trail.

“Keep working, Riley,” Jubal said. “We’ll explain as much as we can to Ben.”

Riley was grateful. She had to shut out everything, even the terrible urgency of the moment. She had to find a complete calm and focus if she had any chance at all against so great an evil. She gestured to the men as she stood, inviting them inside the circle of protection just constructed. Even if she was defeated, hopefully she could make this small space safe enough to shield the others.

She walked the circle, envisioning the brightest light she could imagine, holding the black-handled, double-edged athame high. As the circle gained depth, Riley drew the quarters, setting the towers. She called to the elements. Air to the East. Fire to the South. Water to the West. Lastly, she whispered to the North, calling on Earth. Mother Earth. She forced her mind to concentrate on protections and block out the men moving around her.

Kneeling in the middle of the circle, she plunged her hands deep into the earth, focusing wholly on binding the evil. She struck fast and hard, using every ounce of strength she possessed.

“I bind thee darkness from doing harm.

To myself and those whom you would charm

I bind thee darkness to be free

As I lock thee away for none to see.”

Reaction was instantaneous. Shock. Fear. Rage. Insects poured through the ground and raced at the circle, surrounding them, clicking and chirping aggressively. Bats flew at them from every side, but none penetrated that sacred circle. A heavy, oppressive malevolence pressed in on them. Lightning forked across the sky, a long howling bolt, sizzling and crackling through the night to slam to earth just feet from the circle. Next came a series of fireballs pounding down like a meteor strike as evil fought back.

Ben started to run, but Gary and Jubal both caught at him, holding him motionless.

“Don’t leave the circle. This is the only safe place right now,” Gary warned.

“And don’t draw attention to yourself,” Jubal added in a whisper. “It’s fighting for its life. Either she can hold it inside the volcano or it will be loose on the world, and you saw just a little of what it can do from a distance. You don’t want that creature interested in you.”

Riley ignored them, barely aware of their presence. Without warning something moved against her throat,
inside
her body. Fangs ripped at her. Burning acid choked her. Claws wrapped in pure hatred raked at her. This was the creature who had murdered her mother, and it was fully aware of her now, and centering its attention on her.

She refused to allow loathing into her mind. This was her duty, her job. There could be no malice—she couldn’t give him a way to enter her mind. Illusion was his game, but she was stronger.

Riley refused to give in to the need to touch her throat, to feel if the blood pouring out was real or not. She whispered another soft chant to chain the evil entity inside.

“I draw upon thee light, surround me with your might

Set this evil in the ground, keep me safe from that which seeks to harm

Find the sender, track him back, let the darkness return his attack

Let the fuse be short burning bright, let his evil fall short this night.”

The evil entity pushed back hard, striking again and again at her throat. Raw. Burning. Torn open. Her breath barely pushed through her shredded vocal cords, the gaping jugular pouring out blood, soaking her clothing, splashing into the ground.

“Find him. Bind him. Hold evil chained.

Forged in fire. Hewn in rock.”

The earth whispered to her. Assured and comforted her. Riley kept her hands buried deep in the soil, fingers curled into tight fists, holding that evil thing captured, refusing to let loose, no matter how he struggled, twisted and turned, no matter how he stabbed at her, trying to tear out her insides. Pain burst through her like a star, and she knew if she looked down she would see that her stomach had ripped open, her lifeblood pouring out onto the ground.

“I call upon spirit and earth. Create a cocoon from which there is no birth.

Fit this space with black crystalline, to encompass this evil, to hold and bind.”

Arabejila. Emni hän ku köd alte. Tõdak a ho
aδasz engemko, kutenken
aδasz engemko a jälleen. Andak a irgalomet terád it.

The voice filled her mind. Turned her blood to ice. Riley forced her fear down. She was in the circle of protection. She refused to be intimidated.

With effort, she managed to push aside her fear and concentrate on the words he’d spoken. He’d spoken her ancestor’s name. She didn’t understand the rest of the words, but instantly recognized the language as the same the porter had mumbled to himself over and over. This evil entity
knew
her—or, more likely, her ancestor—and believed she was still alive. That realization gave her an important bit of knowledge she hadn’t possessed before. Whoever—whatever—this evil entity was, he wasn’t all powerful and he made mistakes. Moreover … alongside the threat in his voice, she heard fear. He feared Arabejila. Considering that she was the one who’d locked him in the volcano and kept him there for centuries, that made perfect sense. In fact, she might even be the only thing he
did
fear.

If the evil entity feared Arabejila, that meant he had reason to fear her and that meant he was vulnerable in some way. She took another deep breath and locked on to him, curling her fists tighter to hold him prisoner.

Another tremor jolted the mountain hard, throwing the men off their feet. With her hands plunged so deep in the soil, Riley felt the rising of the volcano. The blast would blow the top of the mountain away and flatten everything for miles. No one would be safe, not even the archaeologist and porters who had taken off earlier. They’d be caught as well as every animal and tribesman within miles. She had no choice but to try to calm the powerful force, and failing that, turn it away from them, redirect the blast if at all possible.

“Fire flame, show your light

Burning bright within my sight

Brightness burn deep within

So I may see where to begin

Bring me light as fire burns

So I may bind it with twists and turns.”

She chanted the words softly, eloquently, her hands deep in the soil, stroking and calming the ground, easing her way into the churning mass of gases and molten rock.

“We have to get out of here,” Ben shouted. “Right now. This thing is going to blow.”

Jubal and Gary kept a firm grip on him, holding him within the circle.

“You can’t outrun a volcano,” Gary pointed out. “She’s our only hope now. I have no idea how she can do it, but clearly the mountain responds to her.”

“What the hell can she do?” Ben demanded.

Riley ignored them, channeling power and energy into the earth. The ground shivered and shook continually, and she could actually feel a force rising.

“Fire leads me to the light