Here is an encounter with
magic and mayhem from the first chapter of
The Resurrection Murders
Crash!
Simon was interrupted by the sound. For a moment both he an Allenda held their breaths—surprised, shocked. He quickly looked around the familiar room. It was large and circular with a high, conical ceiling crossed by sweeping, open beams. The window-filled walls were hidden in shadows created by the few white candles that lit the room. In the darkness the sound seemed to come from everywhere. Simon quickly made a visual check against his memory of everything in the chamber.
“What was that?” asked Allenda finally, a tinge of fear in her voice. She had seen enough strange things in the magic room to know that everything which happened in there meant something.
Simon found the cause of the sound and pointed it out to her. “It’s nothing, Allenda,” he told her, seeking to calm her nerves. “See? A mirror fell off of the wall, that’s all. It was probably shaken loose by a microquake or a big truck going by. And you know how poor I am at hanging stuff on the walls.”
They were both silent for a second as if thinking about the fallen mirror. In the silence they heard an eerie crackling sound, like the wrinkling of cellophane when it is being removed from a new toy. The sound sent shivers of fear up Allenda’s spine. Simon felt the same sensation but fought it and brought his attention back to discovering the source of the sound. He found that source in one of the thirteen large windows that filled the walls of the magic room. He watched, fascinated, as an uncanny spider-web of translucent lines crept from the lower, left-hand corner of the window up and across its length and width. When the window was covered with a maze of cracks the sound stopped for a second. All Simon could hear was their breathing breaking the silence. Suddenly, the window exploded inward, covering the area near it with shards of glass.
Allenda’s voice rose in fear as she called her teacher’s name, “Simon…”
The mage closed his eyes and opened his psychic senses. Instantly he felt a familiar, prickly sensation. It ran up and down his body like static electricity. The hair on his arms and on the back of his neck stood almost straight out.
Damn me for being overconfident! He further explored with his psychic senses and saw where an enemy had broken though his magical defenses. Simon, caught up in his daily responsibilities, had simply forgotten to regularly strengthen them. When this is over I’ll have to reset the magical wards, he thought. That would protect his home against unwanted intruders. But now there was work to do, magical work. The window to the left of the first one started to make crackling noises and a web of lines started to appear, marring its clarity.
“Okay, Alli,” he said in a calming voice, “move into the circle.”
Allenda started to grab her notebooks and some papers. My notes! My notes! I need them so I can help perform the rituals. The window shattered into the room, covering several tables and the floor around it with sharp blades of glass. A wind whistled through the massive, broken-edged holes which were once two sealed windows. Like walking into a grocer’s freezer, the temperature took a jump south. Allenda’s skin broke out in gooseflesh and her breath became visible in the dim light. “What’s happening?” she cried, trying to be heard over the increasing volume of the wind. Loose papers that had been on a desk flew off of it and blew across the floor like flat marionettes drawn by invisible strings.
“We’re under some sort of magical attack. Get into the circle—now! Let me work.”
Another window shattered into the room. Startled by this new crash, Allenda dropped the things she had gathered and bent to pick them up.
“Alli, forget about that stuff and get into the circle!”
“But how can I help you if I don’t have my notes and…”
“Get in the circle!”
Another window crashed into the room. She could barely hear Simon over the din from the wind that now blew freely from the outside. In all their work he had never raised his voice to her like that. The wind kicked up papers all over the room. The worn, leather cover on an ancient book flew open and the pages, as if animated by a controlling mind, flew at her, attacking as if they were alive. They covered her face, suffocating her. Allenda started to scream, but they flew into her mouth, gagging her. She tore them off and threw them aside, but for every one she removed two took its place. She fell to her knees, struggling for breath. Finally, the pages stopped coming at her and she was able to pull the remaining ones off of her face. Hunched over on her hands and knees, she sucked in the air around her. For some reason the air just smelled bad, like a sour smog. The air smells…evil, she thought. Allenda rose and followed Simon’s order to move into the circle. She moved slowly as the candles had long-since flickered out and the room was only lit from distant lights outside Simon’s home. She did not know the room as well as Simon did. She was also worried. How can I possibly be of any help without my notes?
Three more windows exploded, one after another, showering the room with glass. A large shard, seemingly a guided missile, struck a glancing blow on Allenda’s left calf. She cried out in pain as she fell to the floor. Simon, meanwhile, had assembled his tools on the altar that was in the middle of the room. The altar was formed of two cubes on top of each other forming a double cube a yard high and eighteen inches to a side. The top cube was painted white. The lower cube was black. On top of it now were a cup, a couple of daggers that were sharp on both edges, a strangely-shaped wand and something circular under a black piece of cloth. All of the items were colorfully painted and had strange symbols on them. When Simon heard Allenda’s cry he turned and looked at her. She waved him off and got to her feet. The cut was painful but Allenda thought it was neither serious nor deep. Even so, she left a trail of large driblets of blackish-red blood as she limped the rest of the way across the floor and entered the circle.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
The rest of the windows exploded inward, one after another. The howling wind made communication between Simon and Allenda virtually impossible. The huge chandelier above the center of the room swung randomly and ominously, buffeted by the wind which came, it seemed, from all directions. Allenda looked at Simon as he prepared the magic circle of protection. He will protect me just as… Alli gasped as she realized what she was thinking. …just as daddy had always protected me.
Simon folded both his hands around the handle of one of the daggers and pointed with the tip of it to his forehead. “Ah-tah!” he cried. A bright beam of pure, white, scintillating light came from far above and seemed to glow around his head. He brought the tip of the blade down to his stomach and cried “Mahl-koot!” The beam of light followed the dagger and went past it to the floor. Allenda knew that the spiritual light would descend to the center of the Earth.
He pointed to his right shoulder, then his left shoulder. “Vih-geh-boo-rah! Vih-geh-doo-lah!” Then he folded his hands at his chest, the tip of the blade pointing upwards. “Lih-oh-lahm, Vah-ed!” Simon was enveloped in a cross of purified, white light. The features of his face seemed to blend in with the light, as if he had united with the Divine. The ends of the bars of the cross of light seemed to extend onward and outward to infinity.
With each of his breaths the cross of light expanded until it surrounded the mage and his pupil. He moved around the altar to stand at the eastern point of the glow. This was also at the most eastern point of a white circle, nine feet in diameter, which had been painted on the floor. With the dagger he drew in the air a large, five-pointed star—the sacred pentagram!—with one point upward. The star glowed with the blue light of an electrical spark. The energy-form he had created hung in the air crackling and sizzling with magical force and power. He inhaled and drew the dagger up into the air. A reddish glow formed around the tip. As he exhaled he thrust the blade toward the center of the star, shouting “Yood-Heh-Vahv-Heh!” A torrent of reddish flame burst from the tip of the blade and went through the center of the pentagram to the ends of time and space. When he finished with his breath, the red line faded, leaving only some strange, reddish symbols in the center of the star. Simon had sealed the east with one of the sacred names of God.
Allenda, her pain forgotten, watched in awe. I’ve seen Simon in ritual before, but never like this! He was power incarnate, imbued with energy, self-confidence and strength. She longed to feel that energy, to join with it.
He pointed to the center of the star and moved around the circumference of the circle to the south, always pointing outward with the dagger. A line of blue fire, crackling with energy, followed the tip of the blade. Here he repeated his previous actions, calling, “Ah-doh-nai,” another of God’s names. The mad wind began to die down.
Simon continued the process to the west and the north, calling “Eh-heh-yeh!” and “Ah-glah!” respectively. Then he completed the circle, connecting with magical energy the northern pentagram to the one at the east. A ring of blue light with bright blue stars at the four directions, each with red symbols in their centers, surrounded them. As Simon concentrated, the ring expanded below and above, forming a sphere of protection. The wind roared once, as if in defiance, and was gone.
The sudden silence was eerie. Their breaths, the creaking of the chandelier as its swaying slowed on its support wire and the occasional rustle of papers as a calm breeze blew through the destroyed windows were almost painfully loud against the silence. The magic room was on the top floor of the turret that Simon had added to the house and he could almost always count on a breeze coming through open windows. Usually the wind was cleansing, purifying, bringing in clean air. Tonight it was stagnant, humid and noxious. All it did was gently move.
Simon opened a side of the altar and pulled out a candle. He placed the candle on the altar and lit it with a Bic lighter also taken from inside the altar. As the flame on the candle grew he peered through the spiritual lights that surrounded them.
“Is it over?” Allenda asked.
Simon closed his eyes. He sensed that the evil which had invaded his home was even stronger than before. He was furious with himself for being so overconfident. How could I have forgotten to keep my defenses strong? Why didn’t I detect this attack and deflect it long before it arrived? Simon tried to detect the direction the attack was coming from. Suddenly, his eyes grew big with a thought he had not wanted to face. Whoever did this is as at least as powerful—maybe even more powerful—than me.
“Simon, is it over?” Allenda repeated.
He didn’t bother to reply to her directly. Instead he used his foot to push aside some glass and sat on the floor. “Sit with me, Allenda. Let’s use our strength to increase the power of the circle.”
Allenda hobbled over to him, pushed aside some glass, and sat cross-legged, face-to-face with her mentor. Simon sat comfortably in the yogic lotus position. Damn! I wish I had his flexibility. She brought her mind back to the point at hand and concentrated with Simon on making the circle strong. Although she knew it was a sphere, tradition made everyone call it a circle. They visualized the energy that protected them grow stronger in their minds. Allenda looked around and took a deep breath. The blue of the circle had grown brighter. The white energy inside the circle was brighter, too.
The candle sputtered and went out. All Allenda could hear was their breathing. I don’t like this. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can’t stand it when I’m not in control! She squirmed. Her leg ached. Why couldn’t this be over? A new sound, unlike anything she had ever heard, assaulted her. It made her think both of an ugly, oleaginous, sticky substance and also the slitheriness of a demonic night creature.She detected some motion near one of the windows. What’s that outside the circle?
A fog unlike any she had ever seen hovered at the sills of all the smashed windows. Lit up from behind, the fog glowed like a mist from hell. It was on all sides of the room. As if on command, it oozed over the sills of the shattered windows. It slithered and burbled across the floor, moving slowly, inexorably undulating toward the circle....
And so begins the amazing terror and power revealed in The Resurrection Murders. This barely scratches the surface of what is to come. There if much more magic, mystery, murder, fascinating characters, bizarre sex, unbridled egotism, heroism and finally, redemption. You must read The Resurrection Murders.
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