52

Kevin and Kent began their chant, and it would be a couple of hours before my part was due, but mine was going to need the most power to set its effect, so I sat back, relaxed, and watched the waters of the strait and the barrier for a moment before beginning. The sun was up just barely and its reddish glow gave the waters the appearance of liquid fire dancing to the flow of the wind. The barrier hung midway into the strait, a grey reddish sparkling barrier that appeared to be fog, but at the same time had a harder, almost crystalline sparkle in the early morning sun.
It looked magickal, and it was, but a hard, harsh kind. There were few birds here, most of the fish and water creatures had died when they came in contact with the barrier, and over the first few years the barrier was up, the whole strait reeked of the dead and decaying animals it had killed. Now it looked placid, and beautiful, but the disguised the sterility of the waters and the lack of birds and other life. That became more apparent when you tried to listen for birdsong, and there was none.
I wasn't certain at all what might have survived on the island, with all such things dying around it. Prince Edward Island is small, and as provinces go, it's the smallest one in Canada. It made up for that in the past with scenic beauty and a smart local government that looked forward and forward in balance with the past. All that was long dead since the barrier went up. That people had survived at all was one of those things that kept reminding humanity of how tenacious we are as a species, and how adaptable.
I began my chant and heard both Kent and Kevin's adjust slightly as I began building power along with them. We were drawing power from pretty much the same source and area, but with the three of us, we overlapped in intended use and we actually were able to coax the power up easier together than we would if separate. It was one of the side-effects of group ritual magick. You felt the others and were comforted by them in a way I have yet to be able to hear explained in any way close to the true sensation. It was glorious.
Cobb had remained by the car since we had arrived and set up, conspicuously staying away from us 'murderous' humans. Truthfully, I was glad for the reprieve, he had worn out his welcome and the only reason now to have him here was his concealment spell, and the trip back and forth across the way to prove it was open.
Kevin and Kent's chanting filled my ears and I watched as the echo of the bridge began to take shape, reaching out across the strait towards Prince Edward Island. The echo started from the edge of the bridge where I sat, and formed like mist outwards towards the barrier. The barrier sat out there, a hard, grey shimmer that was harder than the fog it resembled. The echo reached the barrier and stopped, it had reached the end of its range until the barrier was penetrated. Kevin now increased the pace of his chant, and I felt a pressure build as his chant built.
Cobb was suddenly beside me, I could see his shoes just at the edge of my peripheral vision. I was focusing outward and didn't have the time to be distracted. Then Kevin pierced the barrier, the pressure flowed away from us and we could see the barrier dilate like an iris. The circular opening grew in size rapidly until the echo was able to continue through. I heard Kevin slow the chant and hold it at it's present size. Kent continued to pour power into the chant and the echo grew and extended to the limits that I could discern.
“It's almost to shore,” Cobb said loudly, and I think that was the first thing he'd actually done to help us. Kent continued and then his tenor changed, I believe he felt the connection to the other side. Both were handing the completed spells to me, and now it was up to me to hold the two spells, while Kevin and Kent tapped that dark power in me so they could pour power into the echo and the hole to solidify them both, then there would be locking the spell, and concealing it.
Ritual magick is great for slow projects that are intricate, you can coax power to do your desire, and given time you can really build powerful spells. That was what I was doing while the others built their parts. I would be the one working the most power into the spell to anchor it and create a permanency where there was just the barest existence built. It wasn't delicate or difficult, just a lot of time and power needed. I didn't really have the time at the moment, however the power was all around if one cared to get a little reckless.

51

As I finished closing the trunk, Kevin appeared lugging his duffel towards us. I opened the trunk and he threw his in and closed it for me. “I'm ready, let's chow.” he said and hopped in the passenger seat. We drove a short way over to Keneally's, a nice small hole-in-the-wall diner, that has some of the best sausage and gravy that I've had in a long time. We all tucked in and soon we had finished and Kevin eyed me as I grabbed the check.
“Is Cobb going to be there today?” he asked me in a carefully neutral voice. “Probably, though I'm not certain. He volunteered for this, and since he wants this done I'd expect him to show” I said equally neutrally. “Is there a problem with him and you that I don't know about?” He shrugged slightly, and then shook his head. “I just don't know for certain.” He shrugged again. I got the feeling whatever he was going to talk about had given him troubles for a while.
“The Doc said that my wound was from a large rock chip, not claws. I think I got that when you shot the ground near it. When it dropped on me, all I could think on was how you said it was so lethal, and that I was going to die. But all it did was drop on me. It took me all night to think through what bothered me about that fight. It just laid on me.” He shrugged yet again and looked first at Kent, then at me. “I just thought you two should know about that.”
“Well, that is very interesting, you think we should brace our associate up about the creature when we see him again?” I thought hard about that question. “No, if he's running some kind of scam or game on us, it's better that he doesn't know we've gotten wind of it. He might try something else. This way we can watch and maybe see what he's trying to hide or keep our attention away from.”
Kent had sat there and listened intently to Kevin's story. “You know Fern, you might be looking at this backwards. He may not have an agenda.” He held up his hands in mock surrender when I started choking on my tea. “Hey, I know he's a manipulative son of a bitch, but what I'm saying is maybe you're not looking at things from the proper line.” He stopped for a moment, and let his words sink in. He then launched in again. “What if that creature had been trying to do something else, like warn us or protect Kevin from something? Not saying that's what is was doing, just saying what it did do doesn't fit with what I'd expect from a hostile.”
They had me there. Looking back, I have to agree, it never mad a threatening move at me, just tried to stagger away towards Cobb at the end, when I'd shot it. At the time I was really keyed up from the previous attacks, that I didn't want to give it another chance at me or anyone with me. Maybe the creature was not an enemy, and maybe it might be, just not the way we think. Cobb, no matter how I looked at it, was an enemy. He just happened to be on our side. But he was an enemy. Until this service I owed was done, I couldn't afford the luxury of thinking he might be something else, too much had gone on.
We got up from the table and I left a ten dollar tip. Once out to the car, Kent grabbed the front seat and Kevin got in the back. We got out to the bridge, and Cobb was waiting for us there, just at the same place near Kent and Kevin had set their wards the previous day. The wind was blowing fiercely today and whitecaps danced in the strait. The wet wind cut through my clothes and chilled me almost as soon as I was out of the car.
“So we gonna do this Fern?” asked Kent. I looked out again at the strait. The wind was going to make things difficult, and being cold and having to stay out in the open was going to chill us all pretty thoroughly, but if we got the casting done, we wouldn't have to come back again. “Yeah, we're going to do it.” I glared at Cobb, who was happy to glare back at me. “Faster started, faster done with this bloody thing.” Kent and Kevin went back out to the spit of land and used some brushes to clean the old septacles away and ready the ground for the new wards.
I hiked back up the bridge to the edge and used a steel welding brush to clear away my own septacle and clean the ground for the new one. Cobb, just sat and watched the preparations. He saw me watching him and gave me a insolent grin and turned slightly to look out over the strait. I sat down to wait my start, which would coincide with Kevin opening a quiet hole in the barrier. I couldn't figure in all this time why someone hadn't tried to do this before, it seemed that someone would have thought of it long ago. BUt then again, we were trying to go to the island, not come from it, and it had been a long time since anyone had tried to breach the barrier magickally, angry dragons tend to discourage that.

50

I went over to the Northumberland Inn and got four rooms, and paid cash, then I left Cobb at the motel and went and got Kevin and Kent, who'd gotten out of surgery. I gave them their room keys and drove them back out to the motel. The night was spectacular with the northern lights in their full glory, a luminous greenish curtain across the sky that undulated like waves lapping against a shoreline. That's one thing the magick did right. WIth less light, you could see more stars at night, and I never got tired of them.
As I was standing there, Cobb walked over from the small field behind the motel. “Having trouble sleeping, or still upset about us not doing it your way Cobb. How about you do this. Stay out of the way and let us do what we're here for and then you do what you volunteered to do.” He glared at me but made no comment and walked over to where I was and looked up at the sky momentarily, and then back over to me. “Is that all it takes to distract you? No wonder this has been such a tedium. If humans could focus, this would have been over and done days ago.”
“You are fucking kidding me!” I screamed at him. “Focus? You wouldn't know what the word means Cobb, you've been wating for us to finish this, and did you ever bother to think it might be good to help out? No. All I got from you was an atempt to walk in and take the job over when the work was done! What's the matter, no answer for that?” I snarled in his face and he took an involuntary step back. I followed, angry and poked a finger in his chest. “You have been trying to get me thrown off this service ever since I accepted it! You wanted Larry Potter? You ever thought to ASK for his help rather than trying to use me to trap him into it? That pretty well guarantees you're not going to get no matter what now.” I glared at him again, and waited.
Cobb looked at me, and I watched all emotions get dragged away from his face and all I saw after a moment was a face made of wax. “You do not understand, and you never will” he said in a flat, unemotional voice. “You do not have the intellect, nor the maturity.” “Why you pompous, idiotic cretin of a fae!” I clamped my mouth shut. He was goading me into this arguement. Why?
The easy answer was he was trying to get me to say something in a heat of moment he could lever me with. I'd had enough and turned and stalked angrily back to my room. I heard Cobb say something, but I was focusing only on getting to my room without going back and trying to rip him apart verbally. The slamming door was like an opening bell in a boxing match, and I went and beat on the bed and the pillows for I don't know how long cursing and snarling ant them until I was near collapsed from the anger and the activity. I had no clue why Cobb wanted to work me up so badly, but I was certain it had to do with the service. He was hiding something and I wanted to know what it was.

#

The next morning I put my pack in the car and knocked on Kevin's door. He answered sleepily and opened it as far as the security chain would allow. “Fern, what's up?” he said sleepily. “How's your arm Kevin?” He disappeared behind the door for a moment, and I heard him tear something. “Huh” I heard, and he re-appeared in the chained doorway. “It's sealed over and there's no pain. Doc did a good job.” He closed the door, and I heard some things being moved around. “I think I'm ready to go Fern, let's hit it after breakfast.” “Okay, see you then.” I stepped a few paces to my right and started to knock on Kent's door when it pulled open and Kent was there, dressed and ready to go.
“I'll just throw this in the trunk then and we'll be off to breakfast.” he said with a smile. He carried his duffel over to the car and waited for me to open the trunk, and flipped it in just beside mine. “You think they have espresso out here?” I shuddered theatrically. “Ugh, barbarian, you're trying to eat your stomach away?” He chuckled and said, smiling, “I'll have you know that espresso is the penultimate civilized drink. All the caffeine that you'll need for a day in one four ounce cup. Saves time and water.” “I stick with my beliefs, you won't see me touch that vile concoction.” I told him.