Page 22 of Time's Fool

It turned out that being buzzed by a bunch of witches on broomsticks was the last piece necessary to turn chaos into pandemonium. A horse bucked and reared and ran in a circle, threatening to close down the whole street; dogs barked and darted everywhere, tripping people up; the crowd screamed and pointed overhead, while others started trying to climb onto the rooftops themselves to avoid being trampled. But most ran, a huge surge of panicked life, and so did we, taking off as windows burst in a line behind us, after spell-fire sprayed the front of the house where we’d been sheltering.

But the vamp wasn’t out of tricks, and the next time I looked, a huge portal had opened in the air in front of us, too late for many of the pursuing witches to avoid.

It was partially transparent, allowing me to see their panicked faces through the swirling storm clouds as they flew straight into it. And then disappeared, one after the other, right before they would have reached us, as the portal gobbled them down. Some of their sisters in back of the pack managed to veer off, with one crashing into a roof in her hurry, knocking the broom out from under her and flinging her into the street below.

And then the vamp gestured outward, sending the portal shooting through the air after the remaining witches, chasing them off.

“Where . . . did you send them?” I asked breathlessly.

“Where we came from. They can see how well they like rural Lancashire,” he said dryly, clutching the activator in his hand in case he needed it again.

I’d seen those types of portals before, although never so finely made. This one looked like a small silver ball covered all over in fine etching, like an expensive pomander. And as with the protection that men and women carried against bad smells, it screwed apart in the middle.

But instead of a space for sweet smelling herbs or flowers, the device was solid inside save for some runic devices scratched onto the metal. One half of the charm activated the portal, bringing an opening to wherever you were. The other half was the designator, which told the portal where to open on the other end.

I wasn’t sure how that part worked, having never been able to afford one myself, but the vampire seemed to be able to go virtually wherever he wanted. I wondered what it had cost him; probably more than I’d make in a lifetime. And then I wondered again who he was.

I’d never heard of him, although he was obviously wealthy and powerful. That was a good trick in itself: to wield power in the vampire world, yet do it quietly, without making yourself a target. How many could say the same?

He shut the portal down after a moment, I guessed so the witches couldn’t fly back through. Or because he didn’t want to use up all of its power, as we might need it to get out of here ourselves. But we weren’t doing that yet, and I didn’t have to ask why.

His eyes were scanning the crowd below, looking for the witches’ leader. But that might be harder said than done, as the dozen women she’d had at the shop with her appeared to have grown in number. By a lot.

And it didn’t take them long to spot us.

A spell took out the wall we’d been standing in front of, and a good portion of the roof above it. But Mircea had seen it coming and fled inside the house, through a window that shortly thereafter didn’t exist anymore, a spell taking it out. And then down a hall into some fine gentleman’s dining chamber, where the family had gathered to say grace.

Where they were still sitting, looking at us in shock as we tore through at vampire speed.

But it wasn’t fast enough. We entered another hallway, a wood paneled rectangle with windows all on one side, and a door at the far end. One that was being stampeded by witches, because someone had spotted us.

So, we went out one of the windows instead. But, unlike the other side of the building, which overlooked the bridge, this one faced the river. And a sixty-foot drop into the water below, which I didn’t make, because a witch grabbed me halfway down. I was plucked off of the vamp’s shoulder as we fell, and heard him scream something that I didn’t understand because the wind tore it away.

And because I was in for the fight of my life.

Or maybe that should be for my life, since the witch tried to stake me. I knocked her weapon aside just in time, and it went spinning off into the night. But a barrage of spells I had to duck and dodge followed in a panicked rush, because I didn’t think she’d planned this.

I didn’t know what she had planned—to grab me and throw me into the water, too far away for the vampire to save me? To get close enough to cast a spell that wouldn’t miss, only to misjudge the distance? To crash into us, like a madwoman?

It could have been any or none of those, but she looked surprised to have a woozy dhampir suddenly straddling the broom in front of her. And then punching her repeatedly in the face, because I wasn’t that woozy. But all I was hitting was her shield, and bloodying my knuckles on its smooth surface while achieving nothing.

Except to rattle her head back and forth, causing it to crash into her own protection as she threw more spells that missed and went wild, with one knocking another witch off a passing broom. I redoubled my efforts, but she nonetheless managed to singe my hair on one side and to punch me in the ribs—a solid blow. The woman had some muscle, and fighting experience, too, by the feel of it.

She also appeared to be trying to gnaw my nose off, biting and snapping at me without avail because her own shield protected me. But it caused me to stop and stare at her for a second, unused to seeing anyone as mad as I was. And then I threw her off.

She fell from maybe twenty feet, since we’d been drifting downward as we fought, onto one of the starlings. It was a pile of dirt and gravel hedged by wooden posts, but her shield held—at least through the first bounce. I didn’t wait for a second, and couldn’t have even if I’d wanted to, as the broom took me underneath an archway and out the other side.

And, when I turned my neck back to look for Mircea, it followed the motion.

I blinked down at it for a moment, nonplussed. I’d have thought that it would have been tied to the witch who’d enchanted it, but apparently not. I waggled my body back and forth, and it did the same.

And then whipped around in a circle when I leaned hard to the left.

I realized that I had a magic broom on my hands, which I could steer simply by tilting to one side or the other. And go faster or slower by leaning forward or pulling back. It was like riding a well-trained horse—a horse in the sky!

I grinned in disbelief, and leaned hard forward, my body tucked close to the wooden shaft to make as small of a target as possible as I went hurtling back through the arch to where something was attracting attention in the water.

Half a dozen broom riding witches had clustered around the surface, holding glowing spheres in their hands as they searched for someone who was no longer there. Someone who was probably the vamp I’d come in with. I saw concentric ripples, gold on black, and felt a weird sense of fear grip my heart.

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