Page 15 of Sinistram
“Show yourself and depart. Trouble the living no more,” Travis commanded. He drew a banishment sigil in the ground with an iron bar.
Brent’s Glock had silver bullets, and the shotgun slung over his shoulder held rock salt rounds. Silver and iron knives hung at his belt, and a rowan wood staff leaned against a tree within reach.
Loud thumps came from inside the old mine entrance. The ghosts had enough energy to appear like a gray cloud, a fury of moans and screams, interposing their whirlwind between the two hunters and the mine.
More thumps, louder now and closer. Whatever was inside had reacted to Travis’s incantation, heading toward them whether it intended to fight or depart.
The ghosts exploded from the mouth of the mine with gusts of wind that nearly knocked Travis and Brent off their feet. Whether the creature had contributed to the mine disaster or merely come later like a scavenger, the spirits clearly saw it as the enemy.
One second, the mine entrance looked undisturbed, and the next, a monster stood facing them, although the gateway remained sealed.
“Holy shit!” Brent shouted above the wind.
The short, squat creature only stood as high as Brent’s shoulders. Wrinkled, leathery skin covered its powerfully built body, except for a shock of tangled brown hair on its head. Its arms and legs were disproportionately long, and its hands and feet ended in wicked talons. Broken manacles dangled from the creature’s wrists and ankles. “That’s a tommyknocker, all right,” Travis said with a grim set to his jaw. “They’re a nasty piece of work.”
The tommyknocker’s eyes squinted as if unused to the light. A pointed nose and sharp cheekbones resembled drawings Brent had seen of gremlins, right down to the mouthful of vicious teeth.
The creature rushed at Brent, covering the distance faster than he expected. It swiped at him, and a talon ripped down his shirt, raising a trail of blood as it caught the skin beneath.
Brent shot at the monster, trying to buy time for Travis to finish his spell. The tommyknocker’s speed made it hard to hit, and the bullets that struck its tough skin didn’t slow it down.
The creature barreled into Brent, knocking him backward into a rusted section of old fence. Brent reached above his head,grabbed hold of the metal, and drew up both feet, kicking the mine monster in the chest with his full strength.
It staggered back, and Brent fired point-blank as it came at him again.
Brent knew magic couldn’t be rushed, but he feared that he might not survive long enough to keep Travis safe until the mine could be sealed and the creature banished.
Black ichor seeped from the bullet wounds, proving Brent’s shots had hurt it, but not enough to stop the attack. Ghosts swept in like a gray tide, trying to slow the creature down and keep him from reaching Brent. It swiped at the spirits with its long talons, and to Brent’s astonishment, the monster’s claws shredded the ghosts, who shrieked and vanished.
Out of bullets, Brent grabbed a length of steel pipe off the ground and swung two-handed, landing a bone-jarring blow to the tommyknocker’s head. It bared its jagged teeth and screamed in fury, throwing itself at Brent. The ghosts rushed between Brent and the creature, creating a whirlwind to slow its attack. Travis switched to a new incantation, one Brent recognized as a defensive spell. The monster slowed, then stopped as if trapped by an invisible force.
Brent switched to his shotgun and fired at the tommyknocker’s head and chest. The salt rounds affected the creature even more than the silver, and it stopped struggling.
“Cover me!” Travis rushed in with the new cuffs and chains, forged of iron. “I’m going to bind it.”
“By the power of iron and silver, I send you back into the deep places. Remain there, and do not trouble the living again.” Travis slammed the bindings closed on the tommyknocker’s wrists and ankles.
The monster’s image wavered, then blinked out. Appeased, the ghosts quieted, still powerful enough to make themselves seen even to those without special abilities. That meant Brentsaw faces and forms in the cloud around them, haggard men and boys who died before their time.
“Thank you,” Brent told the ghosts. “Thank you for protecting me, and for trying to protect the people the creature killed. That should keep him bound for a long time. Go in peace and take your rest.”
The ghostly images grew fainter and then vanished on the wind. Brent blew out a breath and turned to Travis.
“Did you see that?”
Travis nodded. “Yep. You, okay?”
“I want to sleep for a week, but it could have been worse.” Brent thought of the tommyknocker’s sharp claws and shuddered.
“How long do you think that will hold him? Another century?” Brent looked for shell casings and other evidence, satisfied when he was certain they had left nothing behind but salt.
“With luck. Maybe we can find a heritage group to preserve the knowledge of what we did so the binding can be renewed before it completely runs out,” Travis said as they packed out.
“You think that’s what we’ll find at Mammoth Mine, too? It’s had the same sort of attacks.”
“Maybe, but the devil’s in the details. I need to look deeper into how the mountain monsters differ. Don’t want to find out that for the one particular type we come up against, the fix we’ve been using doesn’t work,” Travis replied.
“That would be…awkward.”
