A Matter of Death - Chapter 4

As I've said in the other samples, I'm posting in the order of how A Matter of Death originally began two years ago. Cthulu! I can't believe it's been that long already. 😄

This series is much more ambitious in scope than anything I've written before. There's things I need to layer in that will make sense in the next three books. So the changes you'll see in the published version expand the original story. But it'll give you a taste of the craziness a writer goes through to produce a readable book.

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If the demons were in the tunnels, that meant—

“Oh, sweet Balance!”

Luc’s expression was equally shocked before he roared, “Go!”

I jerked on my borrowed boots, grabbed my sword, and ran. Tyra appeared out of the cross hallway.

“Send clergy to the vacant temples!” I ordered as I passed her. “Demons are in the tunnels!”

She whirled and started shouting the Diné words for “demon” and “tunnel”. If nothing else over the past few days of the siege, we’d learned the important terms in order to communicate with each other. With the alarm bells ringing, people raced to their assigned posts, some in a half-dressed state.

One of the Diné Lights priests caught up with me at the cracked marble steps into Balance. Elizabeth would have been a better choice to augment my efforts, but my doubts about her loyalty would have leaked through our link.

The bones and debris had been cleaned out of the main courtroom and the hallway to the sleeping quarters. Magic tingled behind me as the priest ignited a light ball. In my hurry, I’d forgotten it was dark inside the Temple to normally sighted folk.

ANTHEA! Reverend Father Nizhé'é' silent speech echoed through my head.

Whatever is happening at the gates are a feint. I sent a wordless impression of what Luc and I had felt. The demons are in the tunnels.

He issued orders through silent speech, ones that were echoed by a high brother of Conflict from each of the four nations trapped inside Tandor in their native languages. I had to tune out the noise inside my head.

Elizabeth’s former quarters were as bare as High Brother Dav’s had been when we arrived in Tandor. We’d destroyed anything organic in the Temple with our efforts to take out one of the skinwalkers. I skidded to stop before the sandstone block that served as the Balance entrance to Tandor’s tunnel system. My sword clattered to the floor when I dropped to my knees and held out my palms.

Alien magic scratched on my psyche from the other side of the wall. It seemed…hesitant.

“Does the energy seem odd to you, Justice?” the Diné Light priest asked in the Peaceful Sea trade tongue as he knelt beside me.

I frowned. “It’s too much to hope they’ve learned to fear me.”

The Light priest chuckled. “I pray to Thief you’re wrong. They should fear you.”

The magic within the block was nearly as low as it had been after I activated the Balance defenses. The demons must sense the weakness here.

We were fools. We should have charged this entrance once we’d retaken the city. We should have brought down the tunnels with flashbangs when we had the chance. If only we could prime a light ball like a flashbang—

A memory went off like the Jing device inside my head. I turned to the Light priest.

“There’s spell in the Light library that can produce the same effect as flashbang. Do you know it?”

He looked at me as if I were mad. Maybe I was.

“Yes, but it won’t do us any good on this side of the wall, Justice.”

“I’m going to put it on the other side of the wall, only seven days ago. The last time this passage was opened. Can you delay the spell’s activation?”

“I can’t.” A sly look appeared on his face. “But you could.”

Three spells enfolded on each other. Well, it couldn’t be any more difficult than the layers of a truthspell, the blocker, and the counter to the blocker. Balance help us if I was wrong.

I frowned and looked around the bare room. “Once I’ve frozen your flashbang spell, get in the bathing room.”

“Why?”

“In case this goes very badly.” I grinned at the Light priest. “You can tell High Brother Luc I was an idiot if you survive.”

The demon magic scratched more insistently at the weak essence of Balance. We needed to hurry. I motioned for him to start the flashbang spell. On his last two syllables, I concentrated and murmured the time freeze spell.

Very carefully, he set the contained explosion on the floor beside me and scrambled into Elizabeth’s bathing room. I tried not to think about the possibility of my freeze spell failing before I finished, but I couldn’t freeze the whole room. Nor could I put it in a container since I couldn’t guarantee I could pass a three-dimensional object through time. Balance take me, I wasn’t sure I could pass energy through time, but I was out of options.

I sucked in a deep breath and concentrated on seven days ago when Elizabeth and I came in to close the passageway to the tunnels. Time rewound. I shoved the writhing ball of Balance and Light magic through the block that was there and not there.

Footsteps in the hallway sent a trill of alarm through me, and I jerked back. There were voices. I shuddered when I recognized my own and Elizabeth’s. We were coming to seal the passage.

I knew how cynical and suspicious I could be. If I saw myself, I could quite literally destroy my own spell. I scrambled to the bathing room, yanked my cowl low over my face, and folded my hands into my sleeves.

The faint outlines of the time ghost versions of Elizabeth and me entered the room. We didn’t appear to notice the spells on the floor of the tunnel. Of course not. The magic was literally a few minutes behind them unless or until I yanked it forward.

Elizabeth cocked her head as if she heard something. She looked over her shoulder, and her eyes widened.

She was totally blind. She couldn’t possibly see me, either as a real person or a time echo. It was the whole reason our order needed someone to recite events when we rewound time. But her mouth opened, and she reached out toward the past me beside her.

I held my index finger to my lips and prayed to Balance Elizabeth would take the hint. Finally, she nodded. I relaxed and let the timeline run forward. When time synched again, I yanked on my other spell.

A crack of thunder pounded against the wall. It was followed by screech of angry and injured demons. However, the scratching of their magic against the Temple stopped.

“That was impressive.”

I jumped at the voice. The Diné Light priest. In my panic at Elizabeth being able to perceive me, I’d forgotten he was in here, too.

“I hope the demons were impressed as well.” I marched over to the wall, knelt by the block once again, and placed my palms on the sandstone. The alien presence of the demons seemed to be receding. Despite their efforts, the weak seal on the passage was intact.

For now.

“The Reverend Father will need to assign watches on all the Temples.” I rose to my feet and picked up my scabbard.

The Light priest nodded. “I’ll stay here and keep guard. He will want your report, and he’ll need your vision if the demons still assault the city gates.”

“Thank you—” I cocked my head. Despite real effort on my part, I still had trouble with people’s names, but I was fairly sure the priest and I hadn’t been formally introduced.

He smiled. “My public name is Bumblebee.”

“Bumblebee?”

He shrugged. “It was a childhood nickname. My grandmother said I was destined for Light because I could not stay away from sunflowers.”

“Thank you for assistance, Brother Bumblebee.” I bowed and strode from the room.

The instance of Elizabeth seeming to see me through time bothered me more than I cared to admit. She wasn’t a skinwalker. That I was certain of. But if she were a demon dressed in a human skin, why did she try to warn the past me instead of the demons?

I had too many questions and not enough answers. If we held back the current offensive wave against Tandor, I needed to truthspell Elizabeth. I couldn’t put it off any longer.