Dan got the engine started, but with the water below them rushing into the darkness and the nearly hurricane force winds buffeting them, they’d be lucky if they didn’t capsize anyway. Already waves taller than the boat were tossing them about. Having always figured he’d end up shot to death, he’d never considered drowning a serious possibility. It just went to show that life could be full of surprises.
Carr was holding on to the side of the boat for dear life. The Grimnoir were a little more stoic, until Ian threw up. Toru was just glaring at Sullivan with his arms folded. “When the Pathfinder destroys the world because you died badly on this fool’s errand, I hope you will be happy.”
“Hey, you said your father wanted you to have that sword,” Sullivan shouted back over the wind, “so apparently we’re supposed to drown here.”
“I said when you die badly. I am an excellent swimmer.”
Whatever internal struggle that was keeping Crow stuck in one spot must have ended, because he started wading out into the river. As the smoke around him struck the water, it was blasted aside, and Crow walked after them.
“Like Moses parting the Red Sea,” Heinrich said.
“Too bad this guy’s on Pharaoh’s side!” Dan shouted back.
“You had better set me free before my associate gets here, Mr. Sullivan,” Carr demanded.
Sullivan took a good look at the animal insanity on Crow’s twisting face. “I figure he’s more likely to eat you than rescue you, Doc.”
The darkness consumed the last bit of beach. Mason Island was completely gone. Crow was headed right for them, and their boat was being sucked his way fast. Their engine was helpless against the brutal new current.
Suddenly, Faye appeared in the air over Crow’s head. He turned to meet the new threat, but Faye dropped straight out of the sky and landed on him. They both disappeared and the water came smashing back into the empty space.
“What’s she doing?”
“There!” Ian pointed high into the air.
It was difficult to see them because of the darkness and the distance, but two figures materialized in the air over the top of the crackling black hole. They fell, tumbling, toward the center of the vortex. There was a flash of lightning right before they hit and Sullivan lost sight of them.
“Faye!” Dan cried.
“ Mein Gott, she killed herself!”
“She killed herself to kill Crow.” Ian was awestruck. “I can’t believe it.”
Sullivan wasn’t so sure. Faye was crazy, but not suicidal crazy. A moment later something appeared in the air, then splashed into the water next to them, but disappeared beneath the waves before he could see what it was. Toru left his sword in the boat and immediately dove over the side.
“He better have been telling the truth about being a good swimmer, or he’s fish food,” Sullivan muttered. Toru came up thirty seconds later, with a limp form under one arm. There was a mass of blonde hair floating. “Damn it.” Sullivan hoisted her out of the water while Heinrich and Ian pulled in the Iron Guard. Thankfully, she began to cough and spit. “What the hell was that, Faye?”
“I don’t swim good,” she gasped. “Quit yelling at me!
“Good work, girl. Good work.” Sullivan pulled her close, hugged her tight, and began to laugh.
Awkwardly, she joined in a moment later, and everybody except Toru did as well. The Iron Guard just put his sword back over his shoulder and glared sullenly at them. “I am wet,” he complained. That just made Sullivan laugh harder.
There was still the issue of the expanding darkness to deal with, and their boat’s motor just wasn’t cutting it. “Hate to interrupt, but could you be a love and Travel us to land before we all die?” Ian asked Faye. She nodded. “Oh, thank goodness.”
Sullivan figured she’d pop them back and forth, one by one, like she’d done on a few other desperate occasions. So he was rather surprised when the entire boat suddenly appeared a foot in the air over solid earth, and then crashed hard into the ground. Several boards broke and Ian went spilling over the edge.
“Good work, kid.” Sullivan let go of Faye and stepped out onto dry land. “Damn near bit my tongue off, though. Warn me next time before you do something like that.”
“Show-off,” Heinrich chided. Then Faye came over and hugged him. “Yes, dear. I missed you as well.”
“I cried when they told me you’d got blown up,” Faye said, embarrassed.
“Do not fret. I cried when I heard that as well.”
She’d dropped them on the Virginia side. Lance had picked a home that had been foreclosed on back when the economy had fallen apart. There had been plenty to choose from. It had a small dock, and it had made a good staging area. Dan dragged the Coordinator out of the boat at gunpoint. They’d gone through a lot of work to bag him, and it wasn’t about to go to waste. Though knowing Dan, a few minutes of conversation and he and the good doctor would be best buds.
Faye Traveled off to check on Francis, and Sullivan walked over to the shore where John Browning was watching the commotion over Mason Island. “Mr. Sullivan,” he tipped his hat in greeting. “It appears that all of us except for Miss Giraudoux and Miss Hammer wound up on this side of the river. I have been in communication with them.”
“They okay?”
“Miss Giraudoux said that they were securing a very large truck filled with explosives. Apparently everyone in the city has come out to watch this… disturbance. She says it is rather chaotic. With your arrival, I do believe that everyone is accounted for. You will be very interested to hear what the other Active prisoners have to say about their treatment at the hands of the OCI, and it appears that you brought along another guest. Excellent work as usual, Mr. Sullivan.”
“Except for that thing.” He pointed at the vortex. It was as tall as a high-rise. The whole island was gone, most of the bridge was gone, and it was stretching toward the shore on both sides. “Is it going to eat the Capitol?”
Browning was calm. “I do not believe so. I have heard rumors of such a thing once before. It is an extremely rare type of magic. The last Active I know of that manifested this Power took his own life after he accidentally killed his entire village and everyone he loved. Luckily for us, that occurrence was in a very remote area in the jungle. The knights involved with that case took to calling him a Nixie, and so did some scientists when they heard rumors of the event. The largest area he ever affected was about half a mile across. I believe that it has already slowed and should be collapsing on itself soon.”
“Where does it lead?”
“I have no idea.” Browning folded his arms behind his back. “I just hope that I’m correct in my assessment.”
“I don’t know… If it ate all those politicians, would that really be so bad?” Sullivan asked. Browning chuckled.
The darkness stopped growing. A few minutes passed while it seemed to fill out until it was a perfect dome. “Just as I expected,” Browning said. And then the darkness instantly vanished, leaving a staggering hole in the earth. Sheer walls of water stood on both sides for the briefest instant, and then it all came crashing down. The noise was deafening. Every one of the knights had gathered along the shore to watch the spectacle. Sullivan had been to Niagara Falls before. This was like that, only deeper and in a circle.
It seemed like the spell had been round, and that meant that it had also devoured untold tons of dirt from below. Sullivan had absolutely no idea how deep the river was, but he figured that the Potomac had just gotten one heck of a deep spot. It was now very early morning, so hopefully there hadn’t been anybody out boating…
It took a surprisingly short time for the hole to fill in. Despite the muddy color and the turbulent waves, a few minutes later it was almost as if it had never been there at all.
“What’s going to happen when all the people that were already scared of magic find out that an eighty-acre island, walking distance from Washington, D.C., just magically disappeared?”
“I do not know the answer to that, Mr. Sullivan,” Browning said, “but the possibilities terrify me.”
Sullivan had no response to that. By trying to fix things, had they just made them a whole lot worse? In stopping Carr’s schemes, had they given their enemies even better ammunition to use against Actives?
Faye appeared at Sullivan’s arm. “Francis is going to be okay. Jane’s the best. She said that he needs to rest
