Reign of Evil

CHAPTER 35

While everyone else checked weapons and loaded kit, Holmes and Sassy had a private conversation in the back of the room. He decided to begin, letting her know as close to what he felt as he could afford.

“First of all, I appreciate everything you’ve done for us. We’re more used to things we can shoot and kill. A lot of folks might think that to do our job we’d need a lot of special equipment. But they’d be amazed at what a simple round from a rifle can do if delivered on target.” He checked to see if she was listening and she nodded. “But the hounds are another matter. We can’t affect them. Our bullets do no damage. That is, unless you or the Tuatha have something to help us.”

She started to say something, then stopped, as if she was listening to something. When she looked up, she said, “There’s little mortal hands can do to deter the hounds of the Wild Hunt.”

“What about magic? Is there something, I don’t know….” He felt silly saying the words aloud, but there was no other way he knew to describe what he wanted. “Can you make magic bullets?”

Sassy smiled, but it wasn’t her smile. It was too wide and too strained. There was a flash of fear in her eyes before it was replaced with a competent calm. “The residual of our magic is what mortals like my host tap into for power. These are nothing but slick shadows of what we once were. The hounds were created from original magic. It is pure.”

“So you’re saying there’s nothing we can do?” He had a hard time believing that. He frowned. Was this some sort of test? He knew he was speaking to the Tuatha now. However it was happening, he wouldn’t have much longer if it was against Sassy’s will. “Then how were you defeated before? Who was it, the Milesians?”

Again with the alien smile. “You’ve studied my people. What is it you want to know about them?”

“They defeated you. What did they use?”

Gone was the smile, to be replaced by a look of such intense hate that had it been one degree worse her face would have cracked and broken. “They were given the gift of iron before they were ready.”

Swords. Metallurgy. Arrowheads. Holmes could see it. He tried to remember the eras. Where was Laws when he needed him? No, there wasn’t time, plus this was a commander issue. Hadn’t it been the Bronze Age? With everyone using weapons made from tin and copper, the appearance of iron would have been as a superweapon.

“What’s the other thing?” Holmes asked.

“Faith.”

“What? Like Catholic or Baptist?”

“Those are words, not faith.” Then Sassy’s face slipped into something more akin to a coma patient’s. Her eyes went glassy; her mouth dropped, lengthening her face. The only thing that told him that she was still alive was a tic jerking the corner of her right eye.

He waited about thirty seconds, wondering what he should do. Just as he reached out to give her a gentle shake, she shook her head, blinked several times, then curled her lips into a knot of anger.

“How long?” she asked in a voice that would make a snake shed its skin.

“A minute. Maybe two.”

“What’d it tell you?”

Holmes thought about it but decided to tell her. So he did. He still wasn’t entirely convinced she was on their side. He was certain that as long as he and the team were doing the same thing she was doing she’d help. But if his mission went cross-purposes to her desire, he had no doubt she’d do whatever it took to get her wish, even if it meant stepping all over SEAL Team 666.

She listened, her brow knotted. When he was done she said, “It has the feel of truth. Listen, I know you don’t entirely trust me, but you have to trust me on this. The Tuatha does not care about us. We are humans, mortals. We are nothing to it, no matter how easily it’s able to manipulate us through its charismatic magic.”

“But you said it was telling me the truth?”

She smiled for the first time, her own smile so unlike that of the Tuatha. It was as if the Tuatha didn’t know the limitations of a human face. “You should know, Sam, sometimes it’s what they don’t tell you.”

Holmes hated this part of it. Why couldn’t he just plan a straightforward mission to take down a terrorist in Waziristan or pirates in Somalia? Why’d they choose him to lead Triple Six? He frowned inwardly and smacked down the little devil who was distracting him. He knew exactly why they’d chosen him. The same reason he couldn’t go into any casino in Vegas or Atlantic City. He had luck. No, it was more than that. He had the ability to miraculously pull victory from the jaws of defeat. This could be part of it. What had she said… it’s what they don’t tell you? In order to know what they don’t tell you, you have to know what questions to ask.

“What’d it leave out and why?”

“The why is the most important. Once you realize this, once you get it through your head, make it your mantra.” When she saw he was ready she said, “It will do anything to keep you from killing another Tuatha. Anything.”

Holmes thought about this for a moment. “How strong are you? Will it take over during the battle?”

“I’m strong, Sam. I’m stronger than most any you’ll see. And after all that, I’m also a fairly good person too. At least I have my moments.”

“I’ve known plenty of strong women who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and lived to regret it. What happened to you back there?”

“Think of containing the Tuatha as holding down a thousand-tentacled octopus. I thought I had all of them pinned down, but I must have missed one…. I triggered it when I tried to communicate with it. Well, it won’t be able to pull that one again.”

He’d take that one at face value. “What is it that it didn’t tell me?”

“While I was in there I saw flashes of things yet to be… alternates. Things that could happen. The Tuatha are vulnerable inside the mounds. How can I explain it?” She closed her eyes. “The insides of the mounds are like our outsides. It’s their normal universe. Inside they are as mortal as we are.”

“And their magic? The hounds?”

“The same.”

“Then we need to figure out a way to get into the mound of Glastonbury Tor.”

“I’ve been working on that and I have an unconventional idea.”

“What is it?”

“We go through a back door.”

“How are we going to manage that?”

“I’ll need to exert some control over the Tuatha. It might even hurt a little.”

“Are you sure that’s good?”

“After today, I’m positive.”