Witch Clan: Warriors! - John Stormm (best thriller books to read txt) 📗

dragon to its death in the abyss below. Emma awoke in a sweat.

* * *


Johnny chaffed at the idea of having a Yellow Jacket escort him everywhere, but his friends were natural experts at diversion and evasion. As he stepped out his front door to the awaiting officer, Charlene Chang was coming up the walkway dressed in a bright new dress and shoes and carrying a bouquet of flowers. The Yellow Jacket’s attention naturally shifted to her the moment she entered the property and this was her cue to stumble and drop the flowers and weep. Immediately, the officer was at her side and helping her to pick up the spilled bouquet.

“Our teacher wanted me to give these to the Atlantean Matriarch,” she whined.

“Don’t worry, young lady,” the cop assured her. “I’m sure we can save most of these and put them in some kind of order to be presentable.”

Johnny adjusted himself in his Weight Belt so that he weighed nearly nothing and sprang for the rooftop while the officer’s attention was focused on gathering the flowers. From the ledge, he moved towards the center of the roof to be out of sight, just in case the Jacket looked up. On the roof next door, Cat and Sylph were watching his progress. Sylph flexed her knees and motioned upwards with her hands. He wasn’t sure if she was commenting on how she was impressed with the way he made it to the roof or if she had an idea. He added only a pound to his weight and ran for the ledge to leap to the other roof with the girls when in mid-leap, Sylph raised her hands and whistled and a whirlwind caught him, whisking him over the housetops towards Market District and Broome Alley. It took him only a moment to realize this was Sylph’s handiwork. A slow smile spread across his face and he relaxed, stretched and enjoyed the semblance of flight watching the city folk below him going about their daily business, completely oblivious to the boy soaring over their heads. What a day this was turning out to be.

Gently the zephyr of wind set him down on the roof over Windwalker’s Eatery. Keeping his weight light, Johnny opened his coat a little and drifted down to the alley behind the establishment, noting that Hex and his sister, Jinx were already waiting for him there.

“We hope you enjoyed the ride,” they said in unison. “It’s not a trick we’ll be doing too many times.”

“It was nice,” Johnny replied. “It seemed a safe enough way to travel through the city without attracting all sorts of Yellow Jackets.”

“Don’t bet your life on it, pal,” Hex said.

“If the wizards see an unregistered witch flying over the city,” Jinx added.

“You can believe they will do anything in their power to get that witch properly institutionalized.” Hex continued.

“Even those that can’t fly or whistle up the wind can blink you out of the sky with a simple Stinger.” Jinx said.

“We keep safe and free here by never being caught using the same trick twice,” Hex explained.

It was easy to understand why the carrot topped twins were the ringleaders and chief strategists here. Johnny was already a known witch, but due to his diplomatic status, there wasn’t anything the government dared do to attempt to separate him from his grandmother. The other Witch Kids had no such guarantees. As he had soon learned, this had been the natural way of life here for generations. Sally’s father, Mr. Gwynn, a.k.a. Windwalker had been a Witch Kid ringleader in Broome Alley many years ago. Now he owns an eatery bordering his old turf. It would be impossible to feed all the street kids three square meals a day, but saving all his leftovers and scraps, he sees to it that present generations of Witch Kids don’t starve. Proof positive that the system and its counterculture worked in this world. Johnny pondered that even in a whole world of witches and wizards that persecution of those who were different was still the norm. Even here, one was not exactly free to be a witch no matter how talented they might be. It was still something that many found best served by secrecy.

“Heads up,” Cat called out as she performed an acrobatic leap into their midst from a nearby fire escape balcony. “Sylph’s on her way up the alley and Foggy is running interference for her.”

“Who’s after Sylph?” Hex demanded.

“What went wrong?” Jinx asked.

“Charm’s decoy worked as usual,” Cat explained, “but Shadows were watching and nabbed her after she tried to drop the flowers off to Grandma Emma.”

At this point, Sylph made her way up the alley, sobbing heavily. Foggy wasn’t very far behind her. Charlene and Sally were best of friends since they had known each other. Charlene shared Sally’s room above her father’s eatery. Jinx and Cat had been known to join them on the colder nights for a group sleep over. But Charm was a regular and had her own bed and dresser with Sylph.

“Shadows were watching the place the whole time,” Sylph sobbed. “Two of them blinked her on the sidewalk and stuffed her into a van, and the other three tried to corner me and Cat. What will we do? You know that once they get her through the City Council, we‘ll never find out where they send her to be re-educated. They don‘t keep records of such things so that it never leaks out to anyone who could use it to do harm.”

“Don’t worry, Sylph,” Hex comforted her putting an arm around her shoulders, “Dodger has been nabbed before and knows the system well enough to have an idea of where they’ll take her next.”

“We don’t care who they think they are,” Jinx added passionately, “they won’t just make off with one of our own without a fight that will leave them with a permanent limp.”

“Where’s Dodger now?” Johnny asked.

“He was your back up,” Hex explained, “He’s probably following the van to the safe house and will get back to us as soon as he knows where it stops.”

“Then we’ll work out a plan to get our Charm back home to us,” Jinx added.

“Won’t it be dangerous for her to be seen here?” Johnny asked. “Every cop in town will have her description and be looking for her.”

“Not if we get her before she’s processed,” Hex insisted. “Until then, we have a cell of only five Shadows who know her face and they don’t keep any kinds of records that can be traced to them. We’ve had to do the same for Dodger when he was new here.”

“Once me and the gang give them the Fog treatment,” Foggy bragged, “they’ll be lucky if they can remember their own names.”

“The trick is,” Jinx explained, “that we’ll have to find them fast and keep them all in the one place and work them over good. Has anybody seen Jolt? We‘re going to need him to spread a whole lot of blink into a room full of Shadows.”

Within the hour, Dodger and Jolt were back in Broome Alley with the gang and plans were being made to rescue Charm from a safe house on the far eastern side of the Market District. Apparently there were more than a single cell of Shadows involved and another group was standing guard on the rooftop of the small defunct warehouse they were using. It was overcast that evening and Johnny had an idea.

“You can’t go,” Hex insisted. “Everyone in Logres knows your face from the scrybox.”

“I can make a mask,” Stormy objected. “I’m the Witch Kid responsible and I can help. Jolt can wear my coat for protection as he blinks a room full of Shadows. I can wear a full face mask and get the guards on the roof and keep them there.”

“They’ll still recognize that belt buckle of yours,” Jinx pointed out. “Will it still work if we cover it with a sash? Do you think?”

“I know what your thinking, Jinxie,” Cat said with enthusiasm. “We can use that red cowl and trim a bit off the cape to make a concealing sash for his belt. By the time those Shadows get a gander of our scarlet caped crusader on the rooftop they’ll be blinked just trying to figure out what’s up.”

“And I can drop him in from the skies,” Sylph added, no longer crying. “It’ll be perfect.”

“It’ll be something completely unexpected,” Hex said approvingly.

“What kinds of weapons do Shadows usually carry?” Johnny asked. “Are they invisible up there on the roof?”

“Usually, the Shadows carry force lashes,” Dodger said, “which are very lethal and can burn you like a lightning strike. But the Shadows that nabbed Charm were using Stingers, which hurt like blazes but only stun you and leave no burns. Your whole body goes spastic and you just sort of lie there blinking uncontrollably until the effect wears off. It’s anybody’s guess what the ones on the roof are carrying, but it‘s pretty chilly out and there‘s no need for them to be invisible. Coming out of an overcast sky at night, you‘ll see them before they see you. The red you‘ll be wearing looks dark in low light.”

“Are you sure you still want to loan me your coat?” Jolt asked. “At worst, I’ll only get blinked and nabbed, but you’ll get flashed.”

“Hang on to it,” Stormy insisted. “I don’t want any other Witch Kids getting nabbed on my account. If anything happens to me up there, you keep it with my blessings. It was a gift to me from the Sidhe. I‘ve still got a few tricks that Little Fox taught me.”