Evil within Yourselves Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  What Has Gone Before

  Chapter 1: Prelude (Titania)

  Chapter 2: My Heart is Yours (Tal)

  Chapter 3: Faerie Fiasco (Carla)

  Chapter 4: Faerie Fracas (Tal)

  Chapter 5: Ghost of a Chance (Jimmie)

  Chapter 6: Cold Hands, Warm Heart (Tal)

  Chapter 7: Saint Sebastian Does His Stuff (Jimmie)

  Chapter 8: Justice? (Tal)

  Chapter 9: Surprise Attack (Tal)

  Chapter 10: Runaway Djinni (Shar)

  Chapter 11: Calling the Order to Order (Tal)

  Chapter 12: Strategizing for Armageddon (Vanora)

  Chapter 13: Speak of the Devil (Tal)

  Chapter 14: Finding a Way to Hy-Brasil (Tal)

  Chapter 15: Always Expect the Unexpected (Shar)

  Chapter 16: The Song of Creation (Tal)

  Chapter 17: Love Hurts (Shar)

  Chapter 18: You Have to Be Taller to Take This Ride (Khalid)

  Chapter 19: Unexpected Rescue (Tal)

  Chapter 20: Hanging with an Archangel (Khalid)

  Chapter 21: Making the Team (Alex)

  Chapter 22: Working the Con (New Dark Me)

  Chapter 23: Poison (Vanora)

  Chapter 24: Destiny Calls (a watcher upon Snowdon)

  Chapter 25: Unpleasant Surprises (Tal)

  Chapter 26: Unexpected Castle (Tal)

  Chapter 27: Saint Jimmie (Jimmie)

  Chapter 28: Change of Heart (Tal)

  Chapter 29: Surprise Attacks and Reinforcements (Tal)

  Chapter 30: Repentance or Hellfire (Carla)

  Chapter 31: Demons and Darkness (Jimmie)

  Chapter 32: Captured (Tal)

  Chapter 33: That Plan Could Have Gone Better! (Tal)

  Chapter 34: Deus Ex Machina...Sort of (Tal)

  Chapter 35: Last Things (Tal)

  The Adventure Isn't Over

  About the Author

  Evil within Yourselves

  By Bill Hiatt

  Copyright © 2015 by William A. Hiatt

  All rights are reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without written permission from the author.

  The cover illustration and design were created by Peter and Caroline O’Connor of Bespoke Book Covers. (http://bespokebookcovers.com/). All rights are reserved. This image may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Names of places and companies are either fictional or are used fictionally.

  Dedication

  This novel is dedicated to Beverly Hills High School, where I taught English for thirty-four wonderful years.

  What Has Gone Before

  Evil within Yourselves is the fourth book in the Spell Weaver series. If you are interested in reading the previous books first, you can find links to them in “The Adventure Isn’t Over.” However, if you can’t wait to read this book, I have tried to include in the text enough information about earlier events in the Spell Weaver series to make it possible for someone new to the series to understand and enjoy the adventures in this book without having read the earlier ones.

  Chapter 1: Prelude (Titania)

  William Shakespeare had been dust for centuries, but I still remembered watching unseen as an actor spoke for the very first time those now famous lines from Henry IV Part II: “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”

  I had not suggested those lines to Will. Frankly, I was so put out about the way he handled the secrets I had whispered to him before that I would hardly have given him the time of day, much less suggestions for another one of his plays. Even now I still resented the way he twisted my tales, making me look ridiculous in Midsummer Night’s Dream. I still from time to time sneaked into the theater during performances, however, and that particular line was carved indelibly into my mind. At the time I did not understand why. Now, as I stood at risk of losing both crown and head, I wondered if that moment had been prophetic, if Will had somehow known I would be in the audience and that one day I would experience the kind of suffering human monarchs did.

  Uneasy? Henry IV had never faced quite the trauma I now endured. Oberon, my husband, languished in prison, accused of deeds I would scarcely have believed had I not witnessed some of them myself, yet in my heart I knew that they were somehow not his, that an as yet unknown evil force had led him down a darker path than he would ever have trod on his own. I had no proof, though, and I was met everywhere with ill-concealed scorn if I tried to suggest he might be innocent. Not only that, but my once loyal subjects looked at me with mistrust, for if my husband had done such evil, how could I have been as ignorant of his vile purposes as I claimed? Even the members of my court were no better, whispering that perhaps I too belonged in prison. I lay awake each night, fancying I heard my rivals sharpening the daggers that would assassinate me. No, assassination was too risky for those cowards to attempt. It was the executioner’s axe they sharpened, for the time when I would be condemned as my husband’s co-conspirator.

  It was not cold in the room where I hid myself, but I shivered as much as if a chilling wind were knifing through me like the very daggers of my imagination. With difficulty I silenced my fears and focused on the task at hand.

  I knew the dangers of entering the mortal world, far greater now than they had been when I had tried to make a friend of Will Shakespeare. Nonetheless, I had no choice: I needed to reach Taliesin Weaver, and I had no way to do that except to seek him out in person. I hardly knew him, having only met him once, and then under circumstances unlikely to win his trust. Still, I had to have his aid; whether he trusted me or not, I had to trust him. There was almost no one else I could turn to.

  Despite the urgency of my need, I dared not appear randomly in his world. Allowing myself to be seen by other humans would simply feed the flames of the funeral pyre my enemies were building. Before venturing from my realm to his, I had to locate him. Peering into his world was in some ways more tiring than just going there, and certainly more time-consuming, but at least I knew the general area in which he could be found.

  Robin Goodfellow, perhaps the only subject who remained truly loyal, had flown all the way to Taliesin’s town and scouted the area for me, so when I did find Taliesin, Robin could open a portal for me. I could not use magic to reach a place I had never been, and I doubted I had the time to fly there as Robin had.

  Robin had returned and was with me now, quieter than I had ever seen him, kept silent by the gravity of my situation and particularly by my need to find Taliesin as quickly as possible. Even Robin’s breathing was a whisper of what it normally was; a tomb would have been only a little more silent than this tiny chamber in which my body sat while my mind reached out into the mortal world, searching for Taliesin.

  I did not immediately find him, but in my visions of his world I did find a structure Robin told me was the Santa Brígida High School gym. The door was shut tightly, but I could still hear the music—or at least what passed for music with human teenagers—from inside. I could almost feel its vibration in the otherwise still night air, though certainly that must have been my imagination. Robin had heard there was to be a dance in commemoration of Saint Valentine’s Day, and if this was that event, it was more than likely Taliesin was inside. If so, how was I to reach him without attracting unwanted attention from other mortals?

  I noticed there were two teenage males standing outside the gym, looking around in a way that suggested they did not wish to be observed. One was tall, blond, and muscular. The other was
shorter, had black curly hair and a leaner build. I had only seen Taliesin’s warriors once, but I was almost positive these two teenagers were two of them, Daniel Stevens and Stanford Schoenbaum. Heartily sick of the feeling of being spied on everywhere, I had not intended to eavesdrop on them, but I needed to make sure I was right about them. If my memory had served me well, they would know where Taliesin was and could probably call him to me, saving precious time and reducing risk.

  Daniel, if that was who he really was, gazed at the one I assumed to be Stanford as if Daniel were trying to stare him down. Stanford looked nervous but did not seem ready to back down.

  “Stan, we have to tell Tal!” Daniel said in what I took to be an attempt at a commanding voice.

  “Tell him what?” replied Stanford. “That he’s under a spell?”

  “He has to be!” Daniel insisted. “What other explanation is there?”

  “We asked Nurse Florence to check,” replied Stanford patiently. “She couldn’t find any hint of a spell, remember? And Tal’s mom is a seer. She can sense things happening on other planes of existence. You think she would miss what’s happening under her own roof?”

  “We’ve seen many things that didn’t make any sense but were true anyway,” replied Daniel stubbornly, “and you know that as well as I do.”

  “Has it occurred to you that Tal might actually have fallen in love with Carla on his own? Dan, you suggested that he give her a chance yourself, didn’t you?”

  Daniel laughed in a way that made me shudder rather than want to join in. “Yeah, and that’s one of my reasons for thinking something’s wrong. One or both of us has been Tal’s best friend as long as any of us can remember. Has either of us ever been able to talk Tal into anything when his mind was already made up?”

  Stanford didn’t respond right away, and I thought about opening a portal at that very moment. I knew the Tal they referred to was Taliesin, so they must be who I thought they were. I hesitated, though, because of the possibility that Taliesin really was under a spell. Something like that could doom my effort from the very beginning. Rather than commit myself too hastily, I decided I needed to listen just a little while longer.

  Daniel seized the opportunity created by Stanford’s silence. “Nothing to say, Stan? You know I’m right. The guy’s part mule for sure. And even if Tal were easier to convince, look at all the other things in this situation that just don’t make sense. For four years now Tal has been pining for Eva, trying to recapture that childhood crush they had. Then, suddenly in a twenty-four-hour period, Tal decides he and Eva are just friends, after all—”

  “We know a lot of guys who’ve changed their minds pretty quickly…where girls are concerned,” interrupted Stanford.

  “But not Tal, you must admit!” replied Daniel, again attempting an authoritative tone. “I don’t know if it’s because of being able to remember all of his previous lives or what, but Tal isn’t anything like most guys our age as far as romance is concerned. Look at the number of girls on this campus who would have been happy to take his mind off Eva. No, don’t even worry about them. How about the women who wanted him? Ceridwen, Morgan le Fay—”

  “Both of whom were evil!” protested Stan. “Anyway, they were just toying with him.”

  “Yeah, right. I know a lot of teenage guys who would turn down sex with a beautiful woman because they weren’t sure of the woman’s motive. Sure! But forget about them, too. What about Aphrodite? The Greek goddess of love, in the flesh—quite literally, from what we could tell—and Tal turned her down because he didn’t want to be disloyal to Eva…and he and Eva hadn’t been a couple for four years!

  “You remember when we first arrived on Olympus, and Aphrodite greeted us with a little of her charm? I would have done her right then and there. So would you, in front of everybody if need be.”

  Stanford blushed intensely but said nothing.

  “We got only a small dose of what she could do, Stan, only a fraction of what Tal got later. Yeah, yeah, don’t say it, I know his will is stronger than ours, I know he has magic, but still…do you really believe he could have resisted if not for his stubborn determination to cling to Eva no matter what?”

  Stanford shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. “I’ll admit that Tal’s resistance to temptation would be…hard to explain unless he had some very strong motive to resist.”

  “And then,” said Daniel, pressing his advantage, “even if he were ready to move on, how could he pick Carla right then? You and I both heard that shouting match. Carla tried to trick him into thinking the only way to ever be with Eva would be in another life…after marrying Carla in this one.”

  Stanford nodded his head reluctantly. “Tal did feel betrayed.”

  “Well, buddy, I know more about what Tal does when he feels betrayed than anyone else. If not for that…situation in the Underworld, I don’t think he would have forgiven me yet…or ever, maybe.”

  “The circumstances aren’t even remotely the same,” insisted Stanford. “You aren’t a supernova-hot girl, for one thing.”

  “And yet,” Dan interrupted quickly, “Tal himself pointed out to Carla that I was much younger when I…did what I did.” Daniel paused, looking uncomfortable, perhaps haunted by the memory of that past betrayal. Stanford, looking just as uncomfortable, waited for Daniel to continue rather than taking the opportunity to jump in.

  “What about the fact that Nurse Florence couldn’t find any trace of unexpected magic on him?” asked Stan finally. “Wouldn’t it be impossible to cast a spell on Tal that couldn’t be detected by someone who knew what to look for?”

  “You know what, Stan, I don’t have a clue, but after all that we’ve been through, is there really anything that could truly be impossible? Tal and all of us have magic weapons, which we carry around with us invisibly, with no more thought than other people give to carrying cell phones.

  “And why do we carry magic weapons everywhere?” asked Daniel more loudly.

  “Keep your voice down!” cautioned Stanford.

  Daniel rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like anyone could hear us over the music. I think it’s starting to vibrate the fillings out of my teeth. Anyway, you know what I mean: we carry them just in case some bad guy, who may or may not be human, but probably not, tries to get the drop on us. We carry them so they’ll be handy in case we need to take a quick trip to Annwn, or maybe Olympus, and who knows where next? I spend every day half expecting to be told that Narnia is real and that we have to go there to save someone or retrieve some artifact.”

  “Be—”

  “Tell me to be quiet one more time, and we’ll do some impromptu combat training right here! I could be shouting so loud my lungs would pop, and nobody inside would hear us.” Stanford looked a little annoyed, but also just a little uneasy. I could understand that feeling all too well, and I knew Taliesin had been told in no uncertain terms that there could be no more information leaks to mortals—under any circumstances. Daniel was right, though; that music would cover their conversation even if he screamed. I also noticed that they, accustomed to observing their surroundings in combat, were keeping a watchful eye, each looking over the other’s shoulder. They had positioned themselves so they could see anyone coming to or from the gym.

  “Stan, we’ve fought the undead, witches, rebel faeries, mortals hyped up on nectar and ambrosia, giants, demons, former Greek gods, and even a dragon once. A year ago, hell, six months ago, we would have said that none of those things existed.

  “And look at our little group,” Daniel continued without giving Stanford a chance to respond. “Tal is the reincarnation of King Arthur’s bard, you’re a reincarnation of…King David.” Again Daniel seemed hesitant, and I remembered Robin had told me there were rumors that the David presence in Stanford was a separate consciousness, which would mean David could easily be listening in. Perhaps being overheard by someone like that intimidated even the generally self-confident Daniel.

  “Oh, and we can’t forget t
hat Shar was once Alexander the Great…mostly because he never lets us! Carla is the sorceress Alcina returned, our school nurse is a modern-day Lady of the Lake, Shar’s family has adopted someone his parents think is a fugitive but who is really a half djinn, and, oh yeah, until a few weeks ago my little brother was a dead nine-year-old haunting us, and now he’s a very much alive sixteen-year-old, even though nobody knows how that happened. You know what? None of us can really say impossible anymore.”

  “Suppose you’re right,” replied Stanford a little defensively. “What can we do about it? We have no proof. If Tal is under a spell, what makes you think he’s going to listen to us?”

  “Honestly, Stan, grow a pair!” snapped Daniel. “It’s a risk, but not any worse than any of the other risks we’ve run. And Tal is still Tal, spell or not. He may not believe us, but I doubt he’s going to whip out his sword and hack off our heads for suggesting the idea.

  “I get it,” he continued, much more gently. “I know you don’t want to do anything that would hurt Tal, and he seems so happy now. It’s fake happiness, though. I’m sure of it. Maybe real happiness will come his way, maybe not. Whatever happens, he deserves the chance to find out, and he’ll never get it if Carla is bewitching him somehow.”

  Stanford leaned against the wall, looking almost sick. I imagined that with all his heart, he hoped Daniel was wrong…and so did I. What I had to ask of Taliesin would be hard enough to accomplish when he was at his best. It might well prove impossible if he were compromised by a spell.

  Nonetheless, Daniel could be wrong, and Taliesin remained my only real hope, even if hostile magic had impaired him somehow. I realized listening to the conversation had been a waste of time after all. Placing the weight of all my plans on this one teenage human was a risk either way…and either way I had to take it.

  I opened my eyes and nodded to Robin, who quickly cast the spell that opened a portal, its swirling silver glow inviting me to step through.