A Cat, a Thief, and a Wizard

I didn't know why I still got surprised by shit in crazy magic land. Giant scorpions. Yup. That was not on my bingo card for today.

They did not look like shadow summons. For one, both were much bigger than anything Duvessa could do. Two, they were more solid. Shadow summons had an etherealness, you know, like shadows. Not truly there.

These fuckers were solid. They were shiny and dark like black ink. I wasn't sure if they were summons or not. They were definitely magic though.

The fucker that came in the door at Alley did not seem intent on killing the kids. It snapped its claws at them as it skittered in, but never stung them. Or, at least it didn't try before Selendrith got a barrier up in front of it, trapping it in the area near the normal door.

A second scorpion skittered in behind Ned. Shit. There could be more outside.

"Up!" Selendrith cried. "Up the ladder! Get up and away from it!"

Smart girl. Alley was a smart girl too. She grabbed the littlest one and scrambled up the ladder with the others right after her.

Seth got a barrier up, but he didn't have the casting distance Selendrith did, and couldn't pin the scorpion or lock it outside. Booth had a knife out and was circling around, trying to flank Ned and the scorpion. Owen walked right up to Ned, leading with the dull school sword. Well, not so dull in Owen's hands.

Three on two were better odds than one on one with bystanders. I headed to the wall where I could sneak up on the scorpion and better the odds for Selendrith.

The scorpion was snapping and stabbing at the barrier, sending sparks of magic flying from each impact. It made me pause and wonder what in tiny tin toys I was thinking. Was I seriously going to attack a magic scorpion five times my size?

Why?

There was a barrier up already! Just let the kids handle it! It was the reasonable and logical thing to do. Also the safest.

And I knew the second I thought it, that I wasn't going to do that. At the same time, I knew my usual tactic of jumping on the thing with claws out would go very badly for me. I would be fully exposed to that stinger.

And who knew how bad the venom of a magic scorpion was. As small as I was, I would be toast, no question.

Well then, I'll just attack the stinger. Maybe I could sever it, even though it was thicker than my claws were long. Before I could lose my nerve, I jumped.

I grabbed hold of the scorpion's tail about half way up, gripped it firmly with my front claws and raked for all I was worth with my back claws. The scorpion spun in place and smacked me against the wall, but I held on. Chunks of insect were shredding beneath my paws.

These were nothing like the summoned shadows. The shadows I'd slain were fragile things. This thing was not fragile. It wasn't actually solid either. There might have been a chance I could sever the tail with a normal giant magic scorpion, but this thing was wet.

Inky water flowed into the wounds I was making and healed the scorpion. Fuck. Then the dumb bug spun around again, bashing me into the wall and knocking me off.

I landed on my feet, totally by my own skill and not the automatic cat reflexes that worked faster than I could think, and scrambled out the door and away from the nasty fucker. One small part of my brain was relieved when it chased me. It would be leaving the little ones and the rest of the kids alone.

The rest of my brain was a panicky whattheeverlovingfuckamIdoing.

I bawked and dodged, and bawked again as the scorpion stabbed at me with its stinger. It was bigger than me, it had more legs than me, and it was faster than me. The split second it took to line up for my bunny run nearly ended me and I used my last chicken dodge.

I thumped my back foot and booked it down the outside of the barn. At its core the bunny run was a panicky blind dash away from danger, and that was exactly what I used it for. Steering wasn't really a thing, and I needed a half second at the end of the dash to figure out where I was, and more importantly, if there were any more of the fuckers.

I'd gone the whole length of the barn and gotten some distance from the scorpion, but it was closing fast. In the instant I had to look around, I didn't see any more. Works for me, I'm outta here.

I turned and jumped up as high as I could up the side of the barn. Up up and away! My claws caught the wood and I scrambled to the roof.

I could hear the little kids at the far end of the barn; they'd climbed all the way up too. I looked down at the scorpion and realized there was something I'd forgotten about them that I really should have remembered.

Scorpions can climb walls too.

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Inside the carriage barn, Seth scooted sideways towards Booth while keeping the barrier he'd cast up. The barrier wasn't in the best strategic position, but he'd need to recast it to move it, and he wasn't sure he'd have the time to do that.

One scorpion was banging on Selendrith's barrier as she told Booth's siblings to flee. Owen was facing off with Ned at one end of Seth's barrier while Booth distracted the scorpion at the other end. The scorpion couldn't easily get around the barrier, and it couldn't get its tail in a position to strike at Booth, so instead it was trying to grab him with its pincers and drag him closer.

For the briefest of moments, the fight was a stalemate. Seth used it to work out what he could do to get control of the situation.

They had to kill the scorpions. The faster the better. Ned knew the family was in this area, and even if they won and he left, he would be back looking for them. They'd need to go somewhere else, probably Duvessa's like they tried to fool Ned into thinking.

To get the little ones away, he needed to know how many more gang members were here, and if there were more scorpions. Seth could either go outside and look, or he could get Ned to tell him.

Getting outside to look would be difficult with the scorpions in the way. On the other hand, Ned had gloated to Booth. He'd probably do it again. Seth just needed to get him talking.

Owen sidestepped Ned and sliced upwards with the sword. Ned backed up behind the barrier, eyeing Owen.

Seth decided to try it. "If Jimmy freed Matthius, why isn't Jimmy here? Or Matthius himself?"

Ned poked the barrier with his knife, pointing it at Seth, and nearly snarled, "Jimmy didn't do shit. I did that."

He took the bait. People tended to feel the need to correct people they thought were wrong. In this case, Ned could correct Seth and brag at the same time. Seth just needed to keep him talking.

"By yourself? Really?" Seth widened his eyes and tried to sound amazed.

Owen backed up a step to where he could see both Seth and Ned, his brow furrowed.

"You better fucking believe I did it by myself. Jimmy is such a timid asshole these days, jumping at every little thing. Fucking coward. I knew we needed our real boss back or the gang's rep would be shit. That's why I took the ring. I knew Matthius would make me second if I sprung him, so I did. And now Jimmy's out like yesterday's piss."

"It must have been hard to get in there," Seth said. "You'd need a really tight plan and a lot of help."

"Not with the skull ring!" Ned bragged. "That's the thing that made us. Booth, you really fucked up when you thought you could take that."

With Matthius free and Jimmy no longer in charge, Booth's month of grace was likely gone. Then Seth realized that Matthius had the ring now. Ned would have had to reveal he had it in order to free Matthius.

"I'm an idiot," Booth said shortly as he fended off the scorpion. "So what. Fuck you, Ned, you back-stabbing asswipe."

Ned actually laughed and took his eyes off Owen. He was on the other side of the barrier behind the scorpion, but Owen wasn't that far out of reach.

"You are such a fucking moron. First you take the ring, and instead of taking one of the junk copies you stole the real one. You ain't getting away with that. Then you had us thinking you were going to that rich bitch's place only to bail a minute before we were gonna jump the coach. Dan and the guys thought you leaving was a trick, but I knew you was stupid, so I left them there and followed you. You led me right to the prize." Ned pointed his knife at Booth. "Now all I need to do is deliver you to the boss."

Seth almost sighed in relief. As it was, he struggled not to show a hint of a smile. Ned was the only skull gang member here. Now to find out more about the scorpions.

"Those monsters are way stronger than Duvessa's summons. Faster too." Both statements were completely true. "I don't think we can hold it off much longer," Seth said, trying to sound nervous. To be honest, that statement might be true too.

Owen nodded at Seth. Seth hoped it was because Owen figured out what Seth was doing.

"Booth, switch," Owen said as he came up behind Booth to slice at the scorpion's claw where it reached around Seth's barrier. "I'm a better fighter than you."

"Fuck off, I got this," Booth said.

"See? Fucking stupid!" Ned crowed. "My summons would have stung you a hundred times already if not for your little buddy's spell."

"Your summons? You're a summoner now?" Seth didn't have to fake the surprise. He'd thought they were sent with Ned, not summoned by Ned.

"I'm a fucking wizard now too, assholes!" Ned gloated. "Ain't no one can look down on me no more!"

"Woah! These are way bigger than anything Duvessa can do, and they're much stronger too!" Seth's shock was genuine, and Ned ate it up.

"That's because they've got more than that fancypants bitch's power in them. Anything we catch in the cup is ours. Add some water summons, some smoke and other stuff to the shadows, and now we got these two beauties. And they're mine."

A cup. They were using an artifact, and now Seth knew what to look for. And there were only two scorpions.

Booth pulled back a bit from Owen and the scorpion and shot Seth a shocked look. Whether Booth was surprised at what Ned was saying, or that Seth got him talking, Seth couldn't tell.

Seth realized as the summoner, Ned would have more control over the scorpions. He glanced over his shoulder at where Selendrith and Mau had been facing off against the second scorpion. Selendrith had shut the door and locked it with the scorpion outside, and gone up the ladder after the kids. He could hear her talking up there, but not what she was saying. Mau was up somewhere above him.

"That's–" Seth tried to think of a way to keep Ned talking. "That's amazing that you have all that power. Would you register as a mage then? They make bank, from what I hear."

"Fuck that. The Skulls will be making bank with Matthius back in charge. I get to bust heads for fun and profit." Ned looked back at Booth and stepped around the barrier on the far side. "And your head is on the chopping block, asshole. Matthius wants to off you personally. Kill the farmboy," Ned said to the scorpion.

The scorpion squirmed around the barrier and attacked Owen in a frenzy. Ned lunged at Booth with both knives.

Seth let the barrier drop. It wasn't doing any more good anyway. He backed up towards the ladder the kids had gone up. He needed a couple of seconds to cast. His power would cooperate better if he shut his eyes, but doing that in the middle of this fight was suicide, so he'd try without it first.

As quickly and calmly as he could, he cast Wind Blade. Using a structured form of the spell definitely made it easier to cast than Saben's unstructured mess. It might not have been as strong as the unstructured variant, but it still cut two legs off the scorpion on one side.

The monster was still faster and more nimble than Owen, but he was holding his own and continued to fence with the monster.

Then came the terrified screams of Booth's siblings.