"Slavers of the Secret World"
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dochermes"Slavers of the Secret World"
10/19-10/21/2012
I.
Three teenagers swooped down out of the deep blue sky near the brick structure of VILLAGE PIZZA with the roar of a tornado. Haley was getting better at controlling the winds she summoned, lessening the two hundred mile per hour force down to a mild breeze as they neared the parking lot, but the trio still hit the paving hard enough that they stumbled and Gina fell flat on her face. At once, Bentley was helping her up and making sure she hadn't been hurt.
Haley Lawson twirled the heavy blue cloak with a dramatic gesture and flung it back over her shoulders. At five feet eight, she was the tallest of the three and the oldest, having passed her eighteenth birthday a week earlier. She had on her Windcatcher outfit, the white sneakers, snug blue shorts and long-sleeved white crewneck shirt as well as the blue cloak which fastened around her neck with a clasp. With her chestnut hair and huge pale green eyes, Haley was cute rather than gorgeous and she was satisfied with that. As soon as she got her footing, the Windcatcher hurried over to check her two friends.
"Sorry about the landing," she said blithely, "It's the trickiest part."
"Whoo. Ohmigawd," Gina gasped. "My legs are wobbly. Gimme a second."
Bentley was a skinny youth in a black T-shirt that read JACKSON STRONG WORLD TOUR on the front and had a list of concert dates on the back. Tight blue jeans and clunky work boots completed his outfit. That summer, he had been cultivating a mustache but so far had only bristles to show for it. The tenderness in the way he helped Gina stand up was a bit overdone but then they were still at the infatuation stage. "Yeah. That... that was not what I was expecting."
Haley's grin faltered. "You guys didn't like it? I showed you Glenville from the air at a hundred feet. I thought you'd have a blast."
"Yeah. Yeah." Gina Giacomo went over to lean back against someone's beat-up old pickup truck. "I dunno, it was fun but a bit TOO exciting, ya know? My heart feels it's going a thousand beats a minute." Not much over five feet tall, Gina had glossy black hair down past her shoulder blades and a curvy little figure that was the envy of most girls in the senior class. She was wearing a matching outfit to Bentley's, since they were both fans of the Jackson Strong band. "I need a minute to catch my breath."
"You guys aren't cut out to be super-heroes," Haley muttered but she joined them in leaning against the truck. Fastened to the clasp at her throat was a beautiful oval stone of a deep blue with paler streaks running its surface. She pressed a finger to it thoughtfully."Although, maybe I'm more comfortable with the Air Gem because I'm used to it. I'm sorry, Gina, I expected you to love the ride."
Bentley had an arm around Gina's shoulders, and she snuggled against him. "I was thinking, Haley, maybe the magic in your stone protects you somehow. You have no trouble breathing up there but I felt like I was caught in a storm and couldn't handle it.'
"It could be," Windcatcher admitted. She unsnapped the clasp of her cloak, leaving the gem fastened to her shirt collar, and rolled the thick material into a cylinder which she tucked under one arm. "I'll ask Mom. She owned the Air Gem back in her day, maybe she can explain some more."
The three of them went into VILLAGE PIZZA, pondered their order as if it was the most portentous decision of the ages and emerged with three meatball subs on paper plates and a 64-ounce bottle of Pepsi with some red plastic cups. They settled down around the cast iron table with its glass top and dug into the food with a vengeance.
"Slow down, Gina," Haley laughed at one point. "You look like a chipmunk with your cheeks full that way."
Bentley chugged a glass of soda and punched himself in the chest to release an epic belch. "You know what's the weirdest thing about your whole Windcatcher game, Haley?"
"What?"
"Everyone is so blase about it. I can't figure it. You fly around town in plain sight, you put out that garage fire on Vandermark Street by pouring rain on it and you rescued that old man who was drowning in Coogan Lake at the Fourth of July festival. But everyone takes it for granted."
"You know, I've been wondering about that," she admitted. "I was expecting to be more of a sensation, you know?"
Gina finally finished chewing and swallowed before adding, "Honestly, you should be in all the papers. TV news crews should be following you around. I expected SIXTY MINUTES to do a big interview with you. But nothing. Nada, zilch, bupkis."
"Bupkis?! Where did a nice Italian girl like you hear that word?" Haley said. "But you two are right. Not that I'm looking to be a world famous celebrity, well, actually I am. But instead the world ignores me. It's hard to figure."
"Hey, someone stole my sub!" Bentley yelled in mock indignation. "It was here a second ago."
"Right now, it's on its way to your lower intestine," said Gina, rubbing his back. She wiped her pouty little mouth with a napkin and gazed over at Haley Lawson. "I bet it's some side effect of your jewel, Hales. You said it's unimaginably old and powerful. I have a hunch that the stone is someone keeping everyone from freaking out over you."
"Could be." Picking up the last bit of crust, Haley was frowning at the thought. A few months earlier, she had met her mother's old friend Jeremy Bane, who had spent an evening explaining the Midnight War to her. Along with his somber warnings and unsolicited advice, he had told her the history of the Air Gem she possessed... how it was one of four talismans created thousands of years earlier by someone called Malberon, how her mother and the rest of the family had been known as the Heirs of Buliwyf years before Haley had been born. Not much of the lecture made sense to her.
"I guess there's some deep dark mystery to my gem," she said at last.
Bentley was gathering up the grease-stained paper plates and crumpled napkins. "I'll get rid of this stuff and we can head over to the Green. The rest of the squad is probably there. Scott's showing off his guitar and everyone will want to fool with it."
"You guys go ahead," Haley said as she got up and tucked the rolled-up cloak under one arm. "I think I'll head home for a while."
Leaning over, Gina ruffled Haley's dark reddish hair. "Aw. Thanks for the ride! We'll try it again a few times and get used to it. Send me a text if you wanna come over tonight. We do have Netflix, you know. Bentley and I will be fully dressed."
"Yeah, right, with your shirts on inside out and buttoned up wrong. Thanks, I'll be checking in later." Haley smiled as she watched her two friends hustle across the parking lot. It was Friday afternoon. She had no way to know that was the last anyone in town would see of them.
II.
At a few minutes to midnight Saturday night, Haley soared over Glenville with an agitated heart. No one had heard from Bentley and Gina since they had left his house late Friday night. Bentley usually walked her home since her parents wouldn't allow her to stay overnight with him, but she only lived a few blocks away in any case. They had both vanished at that point. Texts and calls only returned an out of service message. Both sets of parents had checked with all the teens' friends and come up blank. By Saturday afternoon, the town police were called in but their policy required a forty-eight hour minimum before a missing persons alert could be declared.
The friends and family had started a search but nothing was found. All of Gina's clothes and personal effects were still in her room, and the same was true of Bentley's. Neither teen had ever mentioned the possibility of running away together. Gina was busy in several school activities and Bentley had a blog where he criticized local bands, all his posts were normal. The parents were getting hysterical and the kids' friends were also worried.
As for Haley, she had spent much of the day high overhead, searching the woods and the lake area from the sky. It was warm enough even overnight that anyone outdoors would not suffer from exposure. At dusk, she had returned home for dinner and to clean up. Her mother insisted she eat a good serving of the stuffed shells and take a shower before setting out again. Despite herself, Haley had dozed off in a chair for an hour and a half before waking up refreshed, and she had to admit she needed the break.
As she took off again from their backyard, Haley realized how supportive her mother was of the whole Windcatcher career. But then, Lisa Lawson had been one of the Heirs of Buliwyf along with three family members when Lisa had been younger than Haley was now. It seemed she understood just how powerful the Air Gem was and how Haley could take care of herself. The meeting with old ally Jeremy Bane earlier that summer had also helped ease any apprehension Lisa felt.
On the outskirts of town, where the Atlantic Ocean could be glimpsed a few miles away, Haley started to try a technique that Bane had suggested to her. Swooping lower, skimming tree tops in the night, she relaxed her conscious mind and let the Air Gem take her where it would. It wasn't easy to do. After a few minutes, she found herself swinging south and picking up speed as the tornado winds driving her intensified. The talisman reacted to nearby gralic force, as Bane had mentioned. In a few minutes, she was dropping down still closer to the ground. Haley lowered her legs, eased up on the winds supporting her and made a decent landing where she barely had to wave her arms to keep her balance.
In front of her was the decrepit cottage left when Old Man Russo had died years earlier. The roof sagged in the middle, the windows were boarded up and the grass had grown chest high. Once someone bought the property, which had reverted to the county for unpaid taxes, then the shack would be torn down and probably a new prefab structure would go up.
A few times, kids had snuck in to smoke dope and make out but no one seemed eager to ever go back. There was an ominous air of not being safe around the place. Haley threw her cloak back over her narrow shoulders and placed her fists on her hips as she studied the area. Why had the gem pulled her here? Bentley and Gina would have no rational reason to have come to this falling-down hut, she thought as three men emerged from the shadows all around her.
None of them seemed to be holding a gun. All were shrouded in heavy robes of coarse burlap with cowls pulled up to conceal their faces in the gloom. Haley was not afraid in the slightest. With a thought, she could summon winds at forty below zero from Antarctica or searing unbreathable fumes from over an active Hawaiian volcano and knock these goons unconscious instantly. She had sublime confidence in her abilities. Raising empty hands up to shoulder level, she blithely asked, "Do you think you guys can help me find my friends?"
"Heh, we will do better than that, my dear," whispered one of the hooded men. He held up a ghastly thin hand that seemed to be made of knobby bones. "We will take you to them." As he spoke, lurid deep red light flared up around all of them in a silent fireball. When it faded, they were gone from this world.
III.
Even someone as resilient and cocky as Haley Lawson was struck speechless at the transition. They were standing in a dank, chilly swamp which stank of sulfur. Thick mist curled around their ankles. Nearby, a row of one story structures built of closely-fit stone blocks stood. These houses, if that's what they were, had only narrow slits for windows and a doors only wide enough for a person to pass through sideways. The area was silent, with no signs of activity except for Haley and the three men.
"What- where- how--" she began, then caught hold of herself. "Oh, very nice trick, mister. You should be doing a show in Vegas. You can explain later how you pulled that one off."
"Child, you are in Perjena," said the leader of the three. "This is the realm of the Nekrosim." With that final word, he tossed back his hood to reveal a hideous hairless head and a face that closely resembled a living skull covered with taut yellowish skin. Under a massive brow ledge, deepset dark eyes mocked her. The nose was a mere stub, the wide mouth grinned wickedly. "I am Brithomanus, the most learned sorcerer of my Race."
"Well, you don't make a good first impression," Haley snorted. "Jeez. Moisturizing wouldn't hurt you any. Where are we again?"
"I said, Perjena! Have a care, little one, your life hangs by a thread."
"Says you." Haley knew what the adjacent realms were. Bane had explained all that to her, but she had not expected to actually travel to any of them yet. Still, she would not let these skull-faced freaks rattle her. It was time to show them what Windcatcher could do. She focused her thoughts on the ancient jewel she wore on a choker under her shirt and summoned hurricane winds. Down in the Caribbean off the Virgin Islands, she knew a tropical storm had just been upgraded.
Nothing happened. Her heavy cloak did not even rustle. Haley's mouth dropped open and she tried again but no blast of wind materialized. An unsettling thought dawned in her mind. "Errr, excuse me," she said in a meeker voice than usual. "Do you have hurricanes here? Or tornadoes maybe?"
"What? Are you mad to ask about such thing in your position? This is Perjena. Our entire realm is as you see it, peaceful marshes and fens with a few rivers making their way to the sea. A soft comforting drizzle is the closest we have to the unruly storms of your world."
"Oh, heck. I wasn't expecting this," she said. "How about a frozen North Pole? You have one of those?"
"Enough! Be still! Human child, you are my property now. Do not fear, as long as you are obedient your beatings will be mild. We treat our slaves well."
"Not a sentence I ever wanted to hear," Haley scoffed to hide her dismay. She had never considered the possibility, but when in an adjacent realm she could evidently only summon whatever air was present there. Her weapons of freezing gales or searing blasts were not available. Without strong enough winds to lift her, she couldn't even fly. This was a setback.
Brithomanus was studying her reactions. It was difficult to read expressions on that bony fleshless face but he seemed intrigued. "I believe you are bearing a potent talisman. Yes. One of the four Malberon sigils from the Darthan Age. There, fastened to your collar, the Air Gem itself."
Hearing this, the other three Nekrosim whipped out curvy-bladed daggers from beneath their robes and held the weapons point-up ready to slash. They moved apart from each other, circling around the young girl in their midst.
"It is of little use to you here," the skull-face warlock continued. "Hand it over. Perhaps I can find a use for it."
Reaching up to unsnap the clasp holding her cloak, Haley paused. "First, bring me my friends. I want to see they're okay. Then you get the jewel."
"You are in no position to set conditions," rasped Brithomanus but he relented at once. "But why not? You will be joining them anyway." The sorcerer snapped his fingers and one of his followers hustled over to unbar the door of a stone house. Gina and Bentley ventured out uncertainly. Their clothing had been taken from them, they were barefoot and wearing only a knee-length sleeveless shirt of the same rough material their captors' robes were made from.
As they saw Haley, both teens shrieked in delight and rushed to embrace her. A confused babble of all three talking at once ensued until finally Brithomanus shouted for silence.
"Draldros alone knows why I am being so patient with you slaves!" he yelled. "I can see discipline will have to be beaten into you three before you know your station in life."
"Get behind me, guys," Haley told her friends. "Listen, Britho-whatever, don't think you can get by on your looks cause you can't. You are going to send me and my buddies here back to Glenville and you are never ever going to show your so-called faces in our world again."
The warlock Brithomanus sighed. "I have seen this before. Your weak Human mind cannot adjust to so much change. Men, take them inside. Change the new slave into an appropriate shirt and chain them all up. Hunger and thirst will make them reasonable."
Haley's response was a smug smile that made her green eyes narrow. She had been thinking about conditions here in Perjena and how she might use them.
IV.
Behind her, the three Nekrosim advanced but only took two steps before coming to a halt. They struggled to even lift one foot, and could not advance. Haley smirked at them but did not explain. She had drawn done as much air as she could manage and had compressed it into a dense mass between the skull-faced men and herself. They were trying to move through high pressure air as dense as tar. Even if there were no extreme weather conditions here in Perjena, the ability to manipulate air remained a powerful weapon.
Turning back to the startled Brithomanus, Haley said, "You're dealing with Windcatcher now. Long Island's only resident super-hero! Send the three of us home and you won't get hurt."
The Nekrosan sorcerer scowled so fiercely that the expression was discernible even on his inhuman face. He raised one hand and a nimbus of red gralic force crackled around it... but before that blast could be launched at this defiant captive, Brithomanus wheezed and staggered back a few steps. He clutched at his throat and his mouth gaped open like a frog's.
"Having trouble catching your breath?" asked Haley. "Hang on. I've left you a little bit of air so you don't croak right away. I calculate you are at Mount Everest oxygen level now."
The warlock dropped to his knees and lowered his head, gasping audibly.
"Listen closely. You don't want your lungs to collapse and go into full respiratory failure, do you? I didn't think so. Stay the way you are." She jerked a thumb at the Nekrosim behind her, who were staring in horror as their leader seemed about to die. "One of you, get my friends' clothes and bring it all out here. Pronto, move, let's go!"
Rushing with comic urgency, a Nekrosan ran into the nearest stone structure and emerged with two bundles of clothing which he placed in front of the teens.
"I knew you wouldn't let us down," Gina said. "I kept saying, I bet Haley will come get us."
"She really did," added Bentley. "She was praying to the Saints and to Mary, but she kept mentioning you as well."
"Glad to be appreciated," Windcatcher laughed. "You two have everything, especially your phones? Good. Okay. Brithomanus, I'm going to give you a little more air. Send us home and no tricks or you won't have time to be sorry. Do it!"
Another blinding flash of deep red energy exploded noiselessly. The three Humans sprawled on the rank grass in front of the old Russo house again. There was no sign of the Nekrosim. For the next five minutes, all of them were hugging each other, hopping up and down in jubilation and talking at the same time so no one could be understood.
Finally, Bentley disengaged himself and picked up the folded bundle of his clothing. "I guess I'll go around back there and get changed so we can head home. So. That's the Midnight War you've been telling us, Haley?"
"I guess," she said. She didn't let on that her hands were trembling a little from all the adrenalin. "Kind of scary. It's a good thing the Midnight War doesn't enter our lives too often."
"You were great!" Gina yelled. "Windcatcher to the rescue! Only... I dunno if we should tell anyone what really happened to us. What do you think? Should we tell the story?"
"Oh, hell no," said Haley. "You want the whole town to think you're crazy? I bet your parents would sign you up for therapy and you'd be tested for drug use at a clinic. No. We'll make up something believable. Tell everyone you guys went hiking and go hopelessly lost or whatever."
"Let me use your phone," Gina said, holding one small hand out. "Mine's dead. At least I'll call my folks so they know I'm all right. And they'll call Bentley's family."
"Ummm, say that you twisted your ankle and couldn't walk, and he stayed with you. That'll do for the moment."
Coming back around the corner of the shack,Bentley was in time to hear this. "Sounds plausible enough.Our folks know we like to go off to be alone together. It's funny, but those monsters didn't really mistreat us. They kept talking about whippings and beatings but I guess they wanted us to look our best for some sort of auction. They gave us water but no food, I'm starving."
Gina handed the phone back. "No one even tried to cop a feel, but they DID watch us change clothes and I bet they enjoyed the show. Haley, I explained a little bit to my mom and dad, and they were so glad to know Bent and I are safe that they didn't ask any questions. I told them we'll be heading home with you and we'll explain everything."
Haley Lawson drew the heavy cloak around her against the night air. She was pleased and slightly amazed at how well her friends were processing all the bizarre events. Maybe it was an effect of the Air Gem again. "We can work out some details. But one thing is for sure, we are NOT going to mention that you guys were going to be house slaves for a bunch of people with skulls for faces."
3/4/2019
10/19-10/21/2012
I.
Three teenagers swooped down out of the deep blue sky near the brick structure of VILLAGE PIZZA with the roar of a tornado. Haley was getting better at controlling the winds she summoned, lessening the two hundred mile per hour force down to a mild breeze as they neared the parking lot, but the trio still hit the paving hard enough that they stumbled and Gina fell flat on her face. At once, Bentley was helping her up and making sure she hadn't been hurt.
Haley Lawson twirled the heavy blue cloak with a dramatic gesture and flung it back over her shoulders. At five feet eight, she was the tallest of the three and the oldest, having passed her eighteenth birthday a week earlier. She had on her Windcatcher outfit, the white sneakers, snug blue shorts and long-sleeved white crewneck shirt as well as the blue cloak which fastened around her neck with a clasp. With her chestnut hair and huge pale green eyes, Haley was cute rather than gorgeous and she was satisfied with that. As soon as she got her footing, the Windcatcher hurried over to check her two friends.
"Sorry about the landing," she said blithely, "It's the trickiest part."
"Whoo. Ohmigawd," Gina gasped. "My legs are wobbly. Gimme a second."
Bentley was a skinny youth in a black T-shirt that read JACKSON STRONG WORLD TOUR on the front and had a list of concert dates on the back. Tight blue jeans and clunky work boots completed his outfit. That summer, he had been cultivating a mustache but so far had only bristles to show for it. The tenderness in the way he helped Gina stand up was a bit overdone but then they were still at the infatuation stage. "Yeah. That... that was not what I was expecting."
Haley's grin faltered. "You guys didn't like it? I showed you Glenville from the air at a hundred feet. I thought you'd have a blast."
"Yeah. Yeah." Gina Giacomo went over to lean back against someone's beat-up old pickup truck. "I dunno, it was fun but a bit TOO exciting, ya know? My heart feels it's going a thousand beats a minute." Not much over five feet tall, Gina had glossy black hair down past her shoulder blades and a curvy little figure that was the envy of most girls in the senior class. She was wearing a matching outfit to Bentley's, since they were both fans of the Jackson Strong band. "I need a minute to catch my breath."
"You guys aren't cut out to be super-heroes," Haley muttered but she joined them in leaning against the truck. Fastened to the clasp at her throat was a beautiful oval stone of a deep blue with paler streaks running its surface. She pressed a finger to it thoughtfully."Although, maybe I'm more comfortable with the Air Gem because I'm used to it. I'm sorry, Gina, I expected you to love the ride."
Bentley had an arm around Gina's shoulders, and she snuggled against him. "I was thinking, Haley, maybe the magic in your stone protects you somehow. You have no trouble breathing up there but I felt like I was caught in a storm and couldn't handle it.'
"It could be," Windcatcher admitted. She unsnapped the clasp of her cloak, leaving the gem fastened to her shirt collar, and rolled the thick material into a cylinder which she tucked under one arm. "I'll ask Mom. She owned the Air Gem back in her day, maybe she can explain some more."
The three of them went into VILLAGE PIZZA, pondered their order as if it was the most portentous decision of the ages and emerged with three meatball subs on paper plates and a 64-ounce bottle of Pepsi with some red plastic cups. They settled down around the cast iron table with its glass top and dug into the food with a vengeance.
"Slow down, Gina," Haley laughed at one point. "You look like a chipmunk with your cheeks full that way."
Bentley chugged a glass of soda and punched himself in the chest to release an epic belch. "You know what's the weirdest thing about your whole Windcatcher game, Haley?"
"What?"
"Everyone is so blase about it. I can't figure it. You fly around town in plain sight, you put out that garage fire on Vandermark Street by pouring rain on it and you rescued that old man who was drowning in Coogan Lake at the Fourth of July festival. But everyone takes it for granted."
"You know, I've been wondering about that," she admitted. "I was expecting to be more of a sensation, you know?"
Gina finally finished chewing and swallowed before adding, "Honestly, you should be in all the papers. TV news crews should be following you around. I expected SIXTY MINUTES to do a big interview with you. But nothing. Nada, zilch, bupkis."
"Bupkis?! Where did a nice Italian girl like you hear that word?" Haley said. "But you two are right. Not that I'm looking to be a world famous celebrity, well, actually I am. But instead the world ignores me. It's hard to figure."
"Hey, someone stole my sub!" Bentley yelled in mock indignation. "It was here a second ago."
"Right now, it's on its way to your lower intestine," said Gina, rubbing his back. She wiped her pouty little mouth with a napkin and gazed over at Haley Lawson. "I bet it's some side effect of your jewel, Hales. You said it's unimaginably old and powerful. I have a hunch that the stone is someone keeping everyone from freaking out over you."
"Could be." Picking up the last bit of crust, Haley was frowning at the thought. A few months earlier, she had met her mother's old friend Jeremy Bane, who had spent an evening explaining the Midnight War to her. Along with his somber warnings and unsolicited advice, he had told her the history of the Air Gem she possessed... how it was one of four talismans created thousands of years earlier by someone called Malberon, how her mother and the rest of the family had been known as the Heirs of Buliwyf years before Haley had been born. Not much of the lecture made sense to her.
"I guess there's some deep dark mystery to my gem," she said at last.
Bentley was gathering up the grease-stained paper plates and crumpled napkins. "I'll get rid of this stuff and we can head over to the Green. The rest of the squad is probably there. Scott's showing off his guitar and everyone will want to fool with it."
"You guys go ahead," Haley said as she got up and tucked the rolled-up cloak under one arm. "I think I'll head home for a while."
Leaning over, Gina ruffled Haley's dark reddish hair. "Aw. Thanks for the ride! We'll try it again a few times and get used to it. Send me a text if you wanna come over tonight. We do have Netflix, you know. Bentley and I will be fully dressed."
"Yeah, right, with your shirts on inside out and buttoned up wrong. Thanks, I'll be checking in later." Haley smiled as she watched her two friends hustle across the parking lot. It was Friday afternoon. She had no way to know that was the last anyone in town would see of them.
II.
At a few minutes to midnight Saturday night, Haley soared over Glenville with an agitated heart. No one had heard from Bentley and Gina since they had left his house late Friday night. Bentley usually walked her home since her parents wouldn't allow her to stay overnight with him, but she only lived a few blocks away in any case. They had both vanished at that point. Texts and calls only returned an out of service message. Both sets of parents had checked with all the teens' friends and come up blank. By Saturday afternoon, the town police were called in but their policy required a forty-eight hour minimum before a missing persons alert could be declared.
The friends and family had started a search but nothing was found. All of Gina's clothes and personal effects were still in her room, and the same was true of Bentley's. Neither teen had ever mentioned the possibility of running away together. Gina was busy in several school activities and Bentley had a blog where he criticized local bands, all his posts were normal. The parents were getting hysterical and the kids' friends were also worried.
As for Haley, she had spent much of the day high overhead, searching the woods and the lake area from the sky. It was warm enough even overnight that anyone outdoors would not suffer from exposure. At dusk, she had returned home for dinner and to clean up. Her mother insisted she eat a good serving of the stuffed shells and take a shower before setting out again. Despite herself, Haley had dozed off in a chair for an hour and a half before waking up refreshed, and she had to admit she needed the break.
As she took off again from their backyard, Haley realized how supportive her mother was of the whole Windcatcher career. But then, Lisa Lawson had been one of the Heirs of Buliwyf along with three family members when Lisa had been younger than Haley was now. It seemed she understood just how powerful the Air Gem was and how Haley could take care of herself. The meeting with old ally Jeremy Bane earlier that summer had also helped ease any apprehension Lisa felt.
On the outskirts of town, where the Atlantic Ocean could be glimpsed a few miles away, Haley started to try a technique that Bane had suggested to her. Swooping lower, skimming tree tops in the night, she relaxed her conscious mind and let the Air Gem take her where it would. It wasn't easy to do. After a few minutes, she found herself swinging south and picking up speed as the tornado winds driving her intensified. The talisman reacted to nearby gralic force, as Bane had mentioned. In a few minutes, she was dropping down still closer to the ground. Haley lowered her legs, eased up on the winds supporting her and made a decent landing where she barely had to wave her arms to keep her balance.
In front of her was the decrepit cottage left when Old Man Russo had died years earlier. The roof sagged in the middle, the windows were boarded up and the grass had grown chest high. Once someone bought the property, which had reverted to the county for unpaid taxes, then the shack would be torn down and probably a new prefab structure would go up.
A few times, kids had snuck in to smoke dope and make out but no one seemed eager to ever go back. There was an ominous air of not being safe around the place. Haley threw her cloak back over her narrow shoulders and placed her fists on her hips as she studied the area. Why had the gem pulled her here? Bentley and Gina would have no rational reason to have come to this falling-down hut, she thought as three men emerged from the shadows all around her.
None of them seemed to be holding a gun. All were shrouded in heavy robes of coarse burlap with cowls pulled up to conceal their faces in the gloom. Haley was not afraid in the slightest. With a thought, she could summon winds at forty below zero from Antarctica or searing unbreathable fumes from over an active Hawaiian volcano and knock these goons unconscious instantly. She had sublime confidence in her abilities. Raising empty hands up to shoulder level, she blithely asked, "Do you think you guys can help me find my friends?"
"Heh, we will do better than that, my dear," whispered one of the hooded men. He held up a ghastly thin hand that seemed to be made of knobby bones. "We will take you to them." As he spoke, lurid deep red light flared up around all of them in a silent fireball. When it faded, they were gone from this world.
III.
Even someone as resilient and cocky as Haley Lawson was struck speechless at the transition. They were standing in a dank, chilly swamp which stank of sulfur. Thick mist curled around their ankles. Nearby, a row of one story structures built of closely-fit stone blocks stood. These houses, if that's what they were, had only narrow slits for windows and a doors only wide enough for a person to pass through sideways. The area was silent, with no signs of activity except for Haley and the three men.
"What- where- how--" she began, then caught hold of herself. "Oh, very nice trick, mister. You should be doing a show in Vegas. You can explain later how you pulled that one off."
"Child, you are in Perjena," said the leader of the three. "This is the realm of the Nekrosim." With that final word, he tossed back his hood to reveal a hideous hairless head and a face that closely resembled a living skull covered with taut yellowish skin. Under a massive brow ledge, deepset dark eyes mocked her. The nose was a mere stub, the wide mouth grinned wickedly. "I am Brithomanus, the most learned sorcerer of my Race."
"Well, you don't make a good first impression," Haley snorted. "Jeez. Moisturizing wouldn't hurt you any. Where are we again?"
"I said, Perjena! Have a care, little one, your life hangs by a thread."
"Says you." Haley knew what the adjacent realms were. Bane had explained all that to her, but she had not expected to actually travel to any of them yet. Still, she would not let these skull-faced freaks rattle her. It was time to show them what Windcatcher could do. She focused her thoughts on the ancient jewel she wore on a choker under her shirt and summoned hurricane winds. Down in the Caribbean off the Virgin Islands, she knew a tropical storm had just been upgraded.
Nothing happened. Her heavy cloak did not even rustle. Haley's mouth dropped open and she tried again but no blast of wind materialized. An unsettling thought dawned in her mind. "Errr, excuse me," she said in a meeker voice than usual. "Do you have hurricanes here? Or tornadoes maybe?"
"What? Are you mad to ask about such thing in your position? This is Perjena. Our entire realm is as you see it, peaceful marshes and fens with a few rivers making their way to the sea. A soft comforting drizzle is the closest we have to the unruly storms of your world."
"Oh, heck. I wasn't expecting this," she said. "How about a frozen North Pole? You have one of those?"
"Enough! Be still! Human child, you are my property now. Do not fear, as long as you are obedient your beatings will be mild. We treat our slaves well."
"Not a sentence I ever wanted to hear," Haley scoffed to hide her dismay. She had never considered the possibility, but when in an adjacent realm she could evidently only summon whatever air was present there. Her weapons of freezing gales or searing blasts were not available. Without strong enough winds to lift her, she couldn't even fly. This was a setback.
Brithomanus was studying her reactions. It was difficult to read expressions on that bony fleshless face but he seemed intrigued. "I believe you are bearing a potent talisman. Yes. One of the four Malberon sigils from the Darthan Age. There, fastened to your collar, the Air Gem itself."
Hearing this, the other three Nekrosim whipped out curvy-bladed daggers from beneath their robes and held the weapons point-up ready to slash. They moved apart from each other, circling around the young girl in their midst.
"It is of little use to you here," the skull-face warlock continued. "Hand it over. Perhaps I can find a use for it."
Reaching up to unsnap the clasp holding her cloak, Haley paused. "First, bring me my friends. I want to see they're okay. Then you get the jewel."
"You are in no position to set conditions," rasped Brithomanus but he relented at once. "But why not? You will be joining them anyway." The sorcerer snapped his fingers and one of his followers hustled over to unbar the door of a stone house. Gina and Bentley ventured out uncertainly. Their clothing had been taken from them, they were barefoot and wearing only a knee-length sleeveless shirt of the same rough material their captors' robes were made from.
As they saw Haley, both teens shrieked in delight and rushed to embrace her. A confused babble of all three talking at once ensued until finally Brithomanus shouted for silence.
"Draldros alone knows why I am being so patient with you slaves!" he yelled. "I can see discipline will have to be beaten into you three before you know your station in life."
"Get behind me, guys," Haley told her friends. "Listen, Britho-whatever, don't think you can get by on your looks cause you can't. You are going to send me and my buddies here back to Glenville and you are never ever going to show your so-called faces in our world again."
The warlock Brithomanus sighed. "I have seen this before. Your weak Human mind cannot adjust to so much change. Men, take them inside. Change the new slave into an appropriate shirt and chain them all up. Hunger and thirst will make them reasonable."
Haley's response was a smug smile that made her green eyes narrow. She had been thinking about conditions here in Perjena and how she might use them.
IV.
Behind her, the three Nekrosim advanced but only took two steps before coming to a halt. They struggled to even lift one foot, and could not advance. Haley smirked at them but did not explain. She had drawn done as much air as she could manage and had compressed it into a dense mass between the skull-faced men and herself. They were trying to move through high pressure air as dense as tar. Even if there were no extreme weather conditions here in Perjena, the ability to manipulate air remained a powerful weapon.
Turning back to the startled Brithomanus, Haley said, "You're dealing with Windcatcher now. Long Island's only resident super-hero! Send the three of us home and you won't get hurt."
The Nekrosan sorcerer scowled so fiercely that the expression was discernible even on his inhuman face. He raised one hand and a nimbus of red gralic force crackled around it... but before that blast could be launched at this defiant captive, Brithomanus wheezed and staggered back a few steps. He clutched at his throat and his mouth gaped open like a frog's.
"Having trouble catching your breath?" asked Haley. "Hang on. I've left you a little bit of air so you don't croak right away. I calculate you are at Mount Everest oxygen level now."
The warlock dropped to his knees and lowered his head, gasping audibly.
"Listen closely. You don't want your lungs to collapse and go into full respiratory failure, do you? I didn't think so. Stay the way you are." She jerked a thumb at the Nekrosim behind her, who were staring in horror as their leader seemed about to die. "One of you, get my friends' clothes and bring it all out here. Pronto, move, let's go!"
Rushing with comic urgency, a Nekrosan ran into the nearest stone structure and emerged with two bundles of clothing which he placed in front of the teens.
"I knew you wouldn't let us down," Gina said. "I kept saying, I bet Haley will come get us."
"She really did," added Bentley. "She was praying to the Saints and to Mary, but she kept mentioning you as well."
"Glad to be appreciated," Windcatcher laughed. "You two have everything, especially your phones? Good. Okay. Brithomanus, I'm going to give you a little more air. Send us home and no tricks or you won't have time to be sorry. Do it!"
Another blinding flash of deep red energy exploded noiselessly. The three Humans sprawled on the rank grass in front of the old Russo house again. There was no sign of the Nekrosim. For the next five minutes, all of them were hugging each other, hopping up and down in jubilation and talking at the same time so no one could be understood.
Finally, Bentley disengaged himself and picked up the folded bundle of his clothing. "I guess I'll go around back there and get changed so we can head home. So. That's the Midnight War you've been telling us, Haley?"
"I guess," she said. She didn't let on that her hands were trembling a little from all the adrenalin. "Kind of scary. It's a good thing the Midnight War doesn't enter our lives too often."
"You were great!" Gina yelled. "Windcatcher to the rescue! Only... I dunno if we should tell anyone what really happened to us. What do you think? Should we tell the story?"
"Oh, hell no," said Haley. "You want the whole town to think you're crazy? I bet your parents would sign you up for therapy and you'd be tested for drug use at a clinic. No. We'll make up something believable. Tell everyone you guys went hiking and go hopelessly lost or whatever."
"Let me use your phone," Gina said, holding one small hand out. "Mine's dead. At least I'll call my folks so they know I'm all right. And they'll call Bentley's family."
"Ummm, say that you twisted your ankle and couldn't walk, and he stayed with you. That'll do for the moment."
Coming back around the corner of the shack,Bentley was in time to hear this. "Sounds plausible enough.Our folks know we like to go off to be alone together. It's funny, but those monsters didn't really mistreat us. They kept talking about whippings and beatings but I guess they wanted us to look our best for some sort of auction. They gave us water but no food, I'm starving."
Gina handed the phone back. "No one even tried to cop a feel, but they DID watch us change clothes and I bet they enjoyed the show. Haley, I explained a little bit to my mom and dad, and they were so glad to know Bent and I are safe that they didn't ask any questions. I told them we'll be heading home with you and we'll explain everything."
Haley Lawson drew the heavy cloak around her against the night air. She was pleased and slightly amazed at how well her friends were processing all the bizarre events. Maybe it was an effect of the Air Gem again. "We can work out some details. But one thing is for sure, we are NOT going to mention that you guys were going to be house slaves for a bunch of people with skulls for faces."
3/4/2019
