Chapter 4 #2
“Look there.” He grabbed Travis by the shoulder and pointed. “Something’s opened the entrance.”
They moved closer with their weapons ready. “And it sure looks like the digging came from inside,” Travis pointed out, and Brent saw how the dirt fell, and the ragged opening definitely looked like it had been dug by something in the tunnel.
“That explains how it got out,” Brent said. “But what woke it up? Because the deaths have all been in the last few months…and nothing for long periods before that.”
“It might go dormant for a time and then become active again. Either that, or someone intentionally reactivated it,” Travis replied. “I like the first explanation better, but given what we’ve seen elsewhere, I’m afraid the second is more likely to be right.”
Brent laid down a large salt and iron filing line that encircled the mine opening. Travis set out an offering of whiskey and cheese inside the circle.
“I hope it’s hungry,” Brent said as Travis placed the last of the bait to draw the monster out of the mine.
“The ghosts are watching,” Travis told him. Brent couldn’t see the spirits, but he felt observed.
“I don’t see any of the recent victims in the crowd,” Travis added. “Ready?”
Brent nodded and shouldered his shotgun, filled with rock salt rounds.
Travis spoke the incantation he had copied at the Sinistram library to summon and bind the gnome. At first, nothing happened. Brent wondered if the creature had moved on or fallen back asleep.
A deep growl sounded from inside the mine, and the gnome burst free in a spray of dirt and loose rock.
It stood roughly the height of a fire hydrant, with a similar stocky profile, and was covered in pale, leathery skin.
Powerful arms and legs protruded from a squat, muscular, naked body with clawed feet and hands.
It had a flattened face and small eyes, with a mouth filled with rows of sharp, pointed teeth, and it confronted Travis and Brent with a deafening howl.
Travis chanted his spell to permanently banish the gnome and created an unseen barrier to keep the monster from rushing them.
He threw one of his flash-bangs to slow it down and buy himself more time.
The fire and protective additions only distracted the gnome for a moment before it came at them again.
After their run-in with the tommyknocker, Brent had brought some heavier firepower this time.
He fired a non-explosive armor-piercing round from their grenade launcher, augmented with iron and salt.
It struck the gnome in the chest, tearing a ragged hole that still did not stop the creature’s attack.
The wounded gnome threw itself at the invisible barrier, shrieking in anger when it couldn’t break through.
Brent fired again, aiming for the gnome’s head, but it dodged just in time and roared.
Travis kept chanting, and the gnome focused on the sound, turning to face him and shrieking again before it dropped to all fours and began to dig, trying to get under the magical boundary.
The ground crumbled, breaking the barrier, and the gnome came at Brent faster than he thought possible.
“Oh, hell no!” Brent fired again and knocked the gnome onto its back. “Chant faster!”
Brent’s shots didn’t keep the gnome down for long, even though it oozed ichor from several wounds.
Solid and heavy despite its small size, the gnome tackled Brent, knocking the grenade launcher out of reach and pinning him down.
Sharp claws dug into Brent’s arms and thighs, and it was all he could do to keep the vicious teeth from his throat. Pain lanced through his bad leg.
The air around Brent suddenly dropped to freezing as the mine ghosts entered the fight and made themselves visible. They wrapped around Brent and the gnome, keeping them apart as Travis’s voice rose above the clamor.
The gnome snapped at the ghosts but didn’t let go of Brent. Massed together, the spirits had the strength to show themselves and to keep the gnome from sinking its teeth into Brent, but he didn’t know how long they could keep up their barrier.
Brent struggled to free his dagger. He pulled it loose and rammed it into the gnome’s belly, sinking the blade to the hilt.
“Return to the darkness from which you have come!” Travis commanded as the spell wound to its conclusion. “Sleep in the deep places and do not awaken.”
The gnome’s grip faltered. Brent bucked under it, feeling the claws rip free, as magic and the ghosts sent the creature backward to the mine entrance. It vanished into the hole and did not reemerge as Travis shouted the last words of the spell.
The ghosts swept away from Brent toward the mine. He didn’t know whether they meant to chase the gnome deeper into the tunnels or just keep it inside.
“Brent!” Travis ran to where Brent lay and gave him a once-over, assessing the damage the troll had caused.
“Seal the mine. I won’t bleed out that fast.” Brent gritted his teeth. “Don’t let that son of a bitch get back out.”
Travis looked conflicted for a moment, then nodded. Brent knew his friend’s first instinct was to protect him, but they would be in trouble if the gnome rallied for a second round.
Travis hurled one of his modified flash-bangs into the mine to drive the creature farther into the tunnels and got out of the way in case it caused a rockfall or set anything inside on fire.
When that didn’t happen, he breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that would keep the creature away from the mouth of the tunnel long enough for him to seal it up.
He grabbed the bucket of ready-mix cement they had brought and returned for a couple of cement blocks they had also carried in. Both the mix and the blocks were treated with a combination of ritual elements designed to create and hold a binding on whatever they enclosed.
Brent worked as quickly as he could, ignoring the pain, and fixing the blocks in place to seal the entrance.
Then he covered them and the entire front of the opening in the quick-drying mixture.
Travis spoke a litany of binding commands as he worked, and to Brent’s relief, the ghosts did not try to stop him.
When he finished, Travis returned to Brent and checked the punctures where the gnome had grabbed him.
“You need to see Matthew again and make sure those don’t get some freaky gnome infection.
” Travis tried to lighten the moment. “They probably hurt like a mother, but there’s not a lot of tearing, and they don’t look as deep as they probably feel.
Although you’re going to be riding home in your boxers. ”
“They felt like he was going straight through the bone,” Brent said through the pain as Travis helped him to his feet. His bad leg hurt, but it held his weight. Brent looked over toward the mine. “Do you think what we did will hold him?”
“I hope so,” Travis said. “We’ll check back in a few weeks. But I do wonder what people will make of the cement.”
“Given the attacks, it might not seem mysterious,” Brent said, “although they might question who did it.” Travis stayed close to him, and they headed back to the car.
“How bad is it?” Travis asked after he had done what he could to wipe off the wounds with antiseptic and bind them enough to stop the bleeding.
Brent shifted in his seat. “I’ve had a lot worse.
Uncomfortable, but not terrible.” Time in the military had taught him an entirely new scale for what hurt.
“And of course, it’s the leg I already fucked up.
” A long-ago shattered bone left Brent with screws and pins, and a leg that functioned but ached when it rained.
“Did I imagine it, or were the ghosts fighting the gnome?” Travis changed the subject.
“They definitely were, just like with the tommyknocker,” Brent confirmed. “The spirits were able to make themselves visible, and they kept trying to get between me and the gnome and throw it off. Which makes me question the accounts we heard.”
Travis nodded. “Someone could misunderstand and think the ghosts were attacking them instead of being protective, but I think you’re right that the people who were attacked and killed weren’t hurt by the ghosts.
And now that the gnome is locked up again and hopefully asleep, there shouldn’t be any more casualties. ”
“Which makes me wonder about the two hunters who died near here in a car wreck. We were quick to think the ghosts caused a problem, but what if it wasn’t either the ghosts or the gnome? What if whoever summoned the gnome was watching and playing backup?” Brent asked.
“Shit,” Travis muttered as they buckled in, and he turned around. “Then I’m gonna need to ask you to ride shotgun and help me, in case whoever-that-is has some sort of way to know if someone is near the mine.”
“I didn’t see any security cameras.”
“If they used magic, they wouldn’t need it,” Travis replied. “And that’s likely, since whoever is causing the problems is tied in somewhere to the supernatural community.”
Nothing had tried to stop them on the way in. The Crown Vic had its own protections, marked in hidden places with sigils and warded with protection and distraction spells. That should have made it easy to evade any arcane traps set to stop hunters who survived the gnome.
But as they neared the top of the approach road, the car suddenly jerked toward a stand of old trees, their thick trunks scarred from the last fatal crash.
“Grab the wheel!” Travis shouted.
Brent lurched toward the driver’s side to wrestle for control as Travis slammed on the brakes and shouted words of power.
The car fishtailed, taking all of Brent’s strength to keep them on the road as Travis spoke defensive spells. At this speed, the big trees would make a mess even of the heavy steel in the Crown Vic. Worse, Brent thought he glimpsed rocks and a ravine.
Travis chanted and Brent swore. It felt like invisible hands fought for control of the steering wheel as Brent felt the strain in his shoulders and arms.