Leashing the Tempest 2.5 by Bennett Jenn

Author:Bennett, Jenn [Bennett, Jenn]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy, General, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9781451695076
Publisher: Pocket Star
Published: 2012-12-17T08:00:00+00:00

It was a pain in the ass, what with the cramped space and the boat rocking and the pressure of being moments away from death at sea, but I managed to draw an Æthyric level binding triangle on the floor of the captain’s quarters with a broken stick of red ocher chalk. Everyone but the old man sat on the narrow bunk, an unhappy audience squished together like sardines.

“Okay, Christie. Ready to play bait?”

Sweat beaded on the bridge of his nose. “Not really.”

“Stand here,” I instructed, ignoring him and pointing a narrow space between the base of the triangle and the outer cabin wall.

“You sure you can trap her? She’s fast.”

“I’m sure.” I wasn’t.

Caduceus in one hand, I knelt by the side of the door on the other side of my handiwork, which amounted to a potent series of scrawled arcane symbols and words forming three sides of the trap and ready to be awakened with magick. After loosening my neck, I exhaled and wielded a pocketknife I’d borrowed from Lon. It only took a few quick gouges to scratch out an integral symbol on the doorframe that had been holding the cloaking spell together. Without it, the bright-white Heka charging the spell fizzled, popped, and faded.

I dropped the pocketknife and unlocked the door. Slid it open. Crouched out of sight.

We were now sitting ducks.

Some kinds of magick are semi-permanent and all-inclusive, like the ward on the yacht and the cloaking spell: when activated, they can be crossed freely. As long as the cloaking spell was charged and the symbols intact, you could step in and out of the room without worrying about breaking the spell. It’s like a public park: anyone can use it.

But a binding trap is different. It’s temporary, and it has a one-way charge. As long as the charge is active, whatever is trapped inside it cannot leave; however, it can be broken from the outside. All it took was a single toe over the triangle’s border to fizzle the charge.

This meant that I had to light the charge while the demon was inside the trap. That could be tricky. If I didn’t trap the Rusalka mermaid in time, she could move right through the uncharged trap and attack the captain. I had a tiny window to charge it while she was standing inside the triangle . . . before she wised up to the situation.

It was a risk, sure, but so were our other choices. I looked up at Jupe, who would, if I failed, have to rely on Lon’s flare gun to protect him from the Rusalka. I hoped to God it wouldn’t come to that.

My hands shook. Heart hammered against my rib cage. I waited, muscles straining, as I listened for movement outside the quarters.

It didn’t take long.

I heard a clatter in the salon. The sound of flesh slapping on kitchen tile. And when a bolt of lightning briefly cast her slithering shadow along the far wall of the corridor, I held my breath and braced myself.

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