Carpathian 20 - Dark Slayer

while women pressed hands to their wombs as they felt the drawing of the microbes as they answered the call of darkness.
    Ivory raised her hands in response to the darkness quickly spreading through the cavern. In her right hand she held high a boline, a harvesting knife, the handle of which was set with white bone. The boline was curved, bearing the mark of the crescent moon, made of precious metal from her sacred cave, the sickle edge serrated, ready for harvest.
    With great caution, Ivory recited Xavier’s foul spell backward, mimicking in reverse the movements that Razvan had so patiently taught her as she placed her feet carefully, weaving the pattern backward with her hands.
    Ivory. I see you. I name you . Xavier’s voice, harsh and cruel, whispered through her mind. Sickened her. Weakened her. I see you .
    â€œNo, he does not,― Razvan said, his voice calm. He flooded her with peace. “He feels your power and trembles.
    Do not let him break you.―

    Using the sacred boline in place of Xavier’s bloodstained ceremonial knife, she cut the palm of her hand and allowed her blood to drip over the two babies, just as Xavier had shed his blood over the incubator of microbes. Three drops precisely over each child. The infants shrieked as if burning embers had been dropped on their innocent newborn flesh. Savannah cried out and staggered to her feet.
    â€œStop her,― Razvan ordered. “She must not break the circle.―
    Savannah would have lunged toward her children if her own parents, Raven and Mikhail, hadn’t wrapped their arms around her to hold her back.
    â€œWhat is happening?― Gregori snarled.
    â€œEvil fights back.― Razvan eyed the Carpathian legendary healer bleakly. “It will get worse, Gregori. Much worse. You and your lifemate must both be strong. Talk to your daughters.
    Sing to them. Be strong for them. Tell them they fight the evil mage in your story for them. Now is their time.―
    While Razvan tried to calm an agitated Gregori, Ivory tried her best to silence the babies’ screams from her mind.
    Xavier’s evil was hurting them. She was hurting them.
    No, fél ku kuuluaak sÃvam belső—beloved—you are saving them. You cannot stop no matter what happens .

    She forced herself to continue moving, to continue weaving the patterns of the spell. When she had completed Xavier’s entire ritual in reverse, she raised her knife to the cavern’s chimney and pointed it toward the small sliver of moon that shone overhead.
    I
    call
    on
    the
    lady
    of
    the
    dark
    moon ,
    She
    who
    stands
    at
    the
    crossroads ,
    Who counsels us that we must leave the old before we take up the
    new .
    I
    seek
    the
    spiral .
    Bring me forth to the center of stillness in absolute darkness That I may dispel this evil with light .
    Light flashed across the blade of the boline, as if the moon herself had entered the birthing cave. Overhead, the stalactites rocked and vibrated. Crystals sparkled like tiny, faraway stars scattered over the ceiling and along the walls of the cave. Veins of gold and silver intertwined and brightened, throwing light across Ivory’s pale face. She placed the sacred boline carefully between the twin girls, the curved blade in the exact mirrored position of the outside crescent moon.
    The infants writhed. One convulsed. Their skin grew hotter.
    Savannah fought her parents, tears pouring down her face.
    â€œPlease, Gregori,― she entreated. “Stop this abomination. She’s hurting them.―

    Gregori wavered, his face a mask of pain. The Carpathians began to murmur protests.
    â€œLet them die in peace,― Savannah pleaded, clasping her hands together, sagging against her father’s restraining arms. “Give them to me. Let me hold them as they go into the next life.―
    â€œNo, Gregori,― Razvan protested. “Evil fights hard.
    Stay to the purpose.―
    â€œThey wish to live, Savannah,― Gregori said hoarsely.
    Once again Ivory lifted her hands. Now there were tiny droplets of bloodsweat beading her body and her hands shook with the effort to bear the weight of evil. Razvan’s reassuring presence, his warmth and belief in her, steadied her as she chanted.
    I call to the blight upon this earth, I see into your heart .
    You who were thrown into this soil, transformed and then torn apart .
    â€œI will