126 – Mom to the Rescue

  Rox stood for a moment, catching her breath, and focusing her mind on the magic pattern she had been taught. Then she yelled/cast her daughters name at the house, in English.

  “Diana Margaret Caplan, come her now.”

  She took her staff to a ready position, not sure what to expect. She could sense some commotion inside, and then her little girl came cannonballing out of one of the windows. She tumbled to her feet, looked around, and ran most of the way to Rox, yelling what Rox had ached to hear.

  “Mom!”

  But Diana stopped a few feet short, not quite recognizing her mother. This was understandable, as there was little about Rox that was quite the same as it had been before this all started. As well there was almost no light and Diana was seeing Rox with her expanded senses for the first time.

  Rox had prepared for this.

  As her daughter stopped, the door to the house opened, and a local elf woman came out calling for Diana to come back into the house where it would be safer.

  Rox moved a step closer. “Diana Margaret Caplan. You come here now. We are leaving.” Roxanne had rarely used that tone of voice, but Diana instinctively knew it and that to hesitate to obey it meant tears before bedtime. She moved, doubts put aside for a moment.

  The strange costume that her mother was wearing was new, but fitting. She ran to her mother and wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist.

  Rox cradled Diana’s head a moment, then batted the incoming magic aside with her staff. Diana shied away from this around behind her mother, as Rox turned to face the Urnvtai elf witch.

  “Give me that little girl.” The witch took a few steps out away from the house, mainly to avoid damaging it in the conflict that was about to happen.

  Right then, Rox saw Cyrril, who was looking for her. “Cyrril!” Rox was still using her command voice. The little dragon arrowed right for Rox and her outstretched hand. Diana had not let go of Rox’s belt, since latching on to it. The witch was busy formulating a spell. Rox had to clear the field before getting into this fight.

  “Cyrril, take my daughter aside. Protect her.”

  The dragon’s thoughts were indecipherable to any but Caspian, but Rox could briefly see the mental conflict and resolve in the little beast. It wanted to report to Caspian, but also recognized the primal tone of a mother protecting its young, and the unstated consequence of failure in that charge.

  Cyrril chirped, and climbed from Rox’s hand to Diana’s shoulder, wrapping his tail around her throat as a protective necklace. Diana tried to look at him as he moved, while also maintaining a hold on her mother. But with her distracted, Rox had herself free from her daughter.

  Right then a blinding flash and rush of air crashed through them, as the witch fired her opening salvo.

  Diana had cowered to cover as Rox covered her, hoping her shields would hold.

  They did.

  Leaving her child with the little dragon, Rox turned and activated both ends of her staff. Something about filling a giant with terrible resolve slipped through her mind as she charged at the witch.

  The witch had thought this to be a quick route and then clean up. That Rox was relatively untouched was a surprise. That she was charging took a moment to register, and that the gold chains and attached jewelry were alive with energy never got a chance to get on any mental list. Instead the witch stopped her next spell, and activated a ring on her finger, pushing out a wall of force.

  Rox could sense the wall coming. An expanding ring of energy emanating from the ring in the witches hand. Rox countered with her staff again, swinging it so that both ends struck the wall, one that stopped its expansion, and the other shattered the spell with the energy evaporating.

  The witch completed her spell, and tossed a small sphere of energy at Roxanne.

  Rox had never played any game like lacrosse, softball, or golf, mostly from lack of interest. But she swung the staff, connecting with the ball of energy and batting it away hissing and spitting to land where it would harmlessly fizzle with out actually going off.

  Rox was now in striking range of the witch, and let her have it with both ends of the staff. She connected with each of the witch’s arms shattering the bones in them, and finished jabbing the witch in the sternum. The witch fell over backward, gasping for breath that would not come.

  Rox stood ready for the fight to continue, but she had already won.

  Rox watched as panic spread across a face that appeared not that far different from her own in age. Before the panic could reach full bloom the life behind it began to noticeably fade, already slipping into unconsciousness. Death would soon follow.

  Rox had not thought about killing this elf. And as she watched the features relax they reverted to their natural beauty. Rox moved again, as she had since starting, with thoughtful urgency. She deactivated her staff, and knelt beside the elf woman, no more a witch. Rox reached out with her magic sense, looking for healing magic. There; on the amulet in the woman’s purse at her side.

  Rox dumped the purse out, and picked up the small piece of black marble set in a holder of metal. Rox took this, and then drew a blank. She tried to remember the phrase for a generic activation, but couldn’t.

  Two someone’s stepped up behind her, surprising Rox. Caspian and Diana stood there; Cyrril still on Diana’s shoulder.

  “Caspian, what was the General Activation?”

  Caspian knelt, took the necklace. “Let me.” He spoke a phrase that crackled with power, and the amulet unlocked and started emanating organizing power. Caspian quickly put it around the elf woman’s neck. He looked at her a moment and then took the arm closest to him, and holding on the elbow and wrist he spoke another sharp set of words and pulled the arm straight. He then spoke a softer set of words, these wrapping around the arm to splint it. He then moved around and did the same on the other side.

  “She won’t be able to do anything with her arms for several days, but they will heal.”

  Roxanne and Caspian stood, Diana moving to her mother’s side and taking her hand.

  Caspian looked around. “Time to go. They are already getting the fires under control. Then they will be looking for us.” He turned to head back the way he had came, Rox following with Diana, when Diana tugged her mother in another direction.

  “This way, Mom.”

  The adults followed the child between a few houses, into another open area. Diana looked quickly and raced across it to a child’s playhouse, and crawled in. Parties of locals could be heard nearby. Rox and Caspian looked briefly at each other, and around. Rox quickly followed Diana inside. She briefly thought of Lewis Carroll, then pushed that aside.

  Inside the playhouse was a hole in the floor. Diana was already climbing down a rope ladder. Rox tested it, then followed her daughter, holding her staff in one hand as she went down. Caspian followed after.

  The shaft went down into a maze under the town. Diana led them through several tunnels and into the first chamber. There was phosphor on the walls, but not very bright; the air a bit staler. Caspian called them to a stop here.

  “Roxanne, I realize we need to get out of here, but Diana reeks of magic. We need to diminish that now.”

  Roxanne knew what he meant, they having talked about it on the way here. The magic had been in her senses, but she had been focused on other things. She turned to her daughter. “Diana, come here.”

  Rox knelt to look Diana in the eye, as Caspian commenced drawing on the ground with his staff. Cyrril was still on Diana’s shoulder. Rox looked at him.

  “Cyrril. Thank you. Go help Caspian.”

  Cyrril blinked, turned and leapt off, Diana turned to watch him go.

  “Mom, he’s a dragon, isn’t he.”

  “Yes.” Rox took her daughters shoulders in hand and turned Diana to face her. Some uncomfortable memories were in the back of her mind, but she had to put her daughter through the same things she had been through.

  “Now listen to me. Caspian and I need to remove some magic from you. To do this you need to be brave, get undressed, and do exactly as you are told and nothing else. This is going to be uncomfortable but it won’t hurt. All right?”

  Diana looked dubious for a moment, but nodded her agreement. She then looked at Caspian as he finished his first circle, still muttering. Suddenly Diana felt very warm, and began removing the clothes she wore.

  Rox felt the temperature shift as well. As Caspian completed the Warding Barrier he also removed the chill from the air to help Diana be more comfortable on the cold stone.

  Rox took her staff, and while Caspian drew the circle, she drew the pentagram with inscribed octagram. She finished this and noticed that Diana was hesitating to finish undressing. She went to her daughter.

  “Diana, what’s wrong?”

  “Him, being here.” Something about Caspian disturbed Diana.

  Rox guessed, correctly, that the local elves had already begun to try to indoctrinate Diana into dark magic, so she would already be adverse to a white wizard. But that wasn’t all of it. Then it came to her.

  “Oh. I see. In this case it’s all right. Like being at the doctor’s office. Remember?”

  That physical had not been a high point for Diana but she had survived it.

  Rox could sense her daughter’s reluctance, and something else, more than just being indoctrinated. Caspian would later explain that she was sensing some dark magic that had already been bound to Diana to turn her natural personality to a more malevolent bent. And that Diana was fighting it. But to win right here, she needed her mothers support.

  “Quickly now, the sooner you lay down, the sooner you can get dressed and lead us out of here.”

  Rox took the tunic her daughter was wearing and pulled it over Diana’s head and off.

  She tossed this aside and then noticed the little necklace Diana was wearing. A black piece of rock in silver setting; similar to the one that the witch had.

  Rox fingered it, and looked at Diana. “Where did you get this?”

  Diana’s features and aura shifted suddenly, and she tried to turn and flee, wearing only her breach cloth.

  Rox having had some practice at this game caught her daughter before she got one step.

  She quickly picked her daughter up, and holding her with one arm she pulled the breach cloth off with the other. Diana was kicking and starting to scream.

  Rox and Caspian had prepared for this, hoping they would not encounter it. Rox spoke the prepared spell. The crackling power of it shocked her as it wrapped Diana up and rendered her body limp, effectively severing the connection between Diana’s mind and her body. She then carried Diana to the center of the octagram and lay her down in it. Caspian had completed his part of the spell and had been waiting for this. He had felt the power of Rox’s spell and gave a slight shake of his head at its necessity.