“I don’t think that’s true.”
She turned to face me. “And how could you possibly know that?”
“I saw her on that battlefield. She was honorable. Noble. I’m sure the killing did bother her. As it would me.”
“And your point?” asked Astrea curiously.
“Well, if we didn’t care, we would be no better than the Maladons. And then what would be the point of defeating them?”
This comment seemed to surprise her. “You figured that out without any help whatsoever from me.”
“I’ve had to figure out a great many things on my own,” I said quite seriously. “But that still doesn’t answer the question of whether I can kill if I need to. I don’t even know what the spell is to do it. Is there a particular one?”
“Rigamorte,” she said immediately, her features deadly serious. “It is the most powerful of all curses. While we have other spells that can eventually lead to death, that is the one guaranteed to produce it.”
“It even sounds hurtful.”
“Point your wand at me and say it.”
“What?” I exclaimed in astonishment.
“Point your wand at me and say the incantation.”
“But I can’t do—”
“Now,” she screamed, “or I will do it to you. Now, Vega!”
Terrified, I raised my wand and cried out, “Rigamorte!”
My wand gave what amounted to a little sneeze and that was all.
“I guess I need work,” I said lamely. “But you would have blocked it or countered it if—”
“There is no shield. Only inevitable death.”
I was horrified. “Then if it had worked?”
“It could not possibly have worked, Vega. You were scared. It was why I screamed at you. One cannot perform the curse while scared. It is not the emotion required.”
“What is, then?”
“Something more than loathing. Or even hatred. An emotion so strong that it blocks out every other feeling you have. It must be like molten lava in your blood vessels. You must want to kill above all other things. To end the life of another living thing, Vega. Otherwise, you’re simply wasting your breath. It is horrible to kill someone. So to take the life of another, you must become horrible.”
I cleared my throat and said slowly, “I don’t know if I could ever feel that way about anyone. I mean there were blokes in Wormwood that I didn’t much care for. But I couldn’t kill them. I mean I just wouldn’t.”
“Would you rather it be you dead, or your enemy?” she retorted. “For I can tell you quite plainly that a Maladon confronting you will not hesitate to kill.”
I sat back and thought this through. To get through the Quag and do what I needed to do, would I have to become a killer?
It seemed that I would.
Viginti quinque: A Warning
I rose early next light and dressed quickly. I could hear no one stirring yet. Even Harry Two was still asleep at the foot of my bed. I walked down the hall and stopped in front of one of the doors that had refused me entry my first night here. I took out my wand, gave it three parallel flicks and said, “Crystilado magnifica.”
I jumped back so far that I actually slammed into the opposite wall.
Full in my face, burning a hole in my brain really, was a jabbit curled up in a cage made of brilliant light. The terrible creature was fast asleep, its hundreds of eyes closed. But sleeping or not, I wanted to run away shrieking.
Instead, I tapped my wand against my leg, hissed “Pass-pusay” and thought of my destination. Anywhere but here, actually.
Moments later I was outside the cottage and also free of the green dome.
I looked around at the peace and quiet of an early morning’s light. I got a running start and took to the air with Destin firmly around my waist. I kept my gaze swiveling back and forth both above and below, my wand at the ready.
A sudden gust of wind hit me and I went into a dive. I caught myself in plenty of time, at least a hundred feet up in the air. Righting myself, I looked ahead and paled. The clear sky had turned to a towering darkened mass. Jagged skylight spears were being cast out of the black clouds. Accompanying thunder-thrusts pierced my ears. I had no choice but to flee to the ground.
I landed hard and stumbled a bit before regaining my balance. I looked upward. The sky was once more crystal clear.
What the Hel?
I bent my knees and shot upward. I was immediately engulfed in horrendous wind and torrential rain. I was flipped and shoved all across the sky, the rain hitting me so hard it felt like whacks from a piece of wood. The water blasted in my eyes and down my throat, making me gag.
I shot downward and sprawled on the ground, soaked to the bone.
I rolled over and looked up once more. The sky was all blue again.
I twisted my hair, wringing the water out of it, and did the same with my clothes. When I looked to my right, I was so astonished I touched my arm to make sure I was still where I thought I was. Because it was me approaching me! Barely ten feet from me, it stopped and stared. Now, I’ve had experience with a maniack, a despicable creature-thing that can take the form of someone and then clutch on to you and make you relive your worst fears while it slowly crushes you to death. But I had never been confronted by, well, me.
Of course I knew it wasn’t me. It had to be some creature that was intending to do me harm. Well, I was prepared for that. I would just do something to scare it off. I raised my wand, pointed it at the creature, gave my wand a flick, kept my eyes on the thing’s right arm and said, “Injurio.”
The pain was so immediate and so intense that I gasped, bent over and grabbed my right arm. That had really hurt. I must have done the spell wrong.
I pointed my wand at my arm and said, “Eraisio.” The pain stopped.
I looked at the creature. It had drawn closer. It was my exact double. And now my fear was mounting. Though it had done nothing threatening, every instinct I had was telling me to be very afraid.
Focusing my mind, body and spirit, I pointed my wand at its leg, gave a slashing movement with my wand and said, “Jagada.”
Four rips in my leg appeared and I howled in agony, dropped to the dirt and clutched my wounded limb. Tears in my eyes at the pain, I looked up to see the creature now standing barely a foot from me.
The thing’s mouth opened and I saw inside hideous rows of blackened, sharpened teeth. Then a tongue flicked out and licked my face. But it wasn’t a pleasant touch. I could instinctively tell it was tasting me. Blind with pain and fury and not wanting to be eaten, I raised my wand, gathered my hatred for the thing, focused my mind, body and spirit and screamed, “Rig—”
I never finished because my voice was gone, which meant I couldn’t complete the spell. This thing must have done it. And without my voice, how could I stop it from eating me?
The thing opened its mouth wider. All I could see was this impossibly large black hole big enough to actually swallow me whole.
“Impairio,” a voice said.
A blindingly white light hit the thing full in the face. It instantly changed into a blackened husk that was all teeth and gnarled limbs with a single massive eye.
Then the same voice said sharply, “Rigamorte.”
A coal-black beam shot out and hit the creature directly in the chest. It burst into a huge ball of smoke and then was gone.