Risen, p.25
Risen, page 25
part #12 of Alex Verus Series
My plan had been to use the distraction of the fighting to get close to Sagash, then disable him using the Council’s weapon. Looking at where the Dark mage had made his stand, I realised it would never work. To reach Sagash I’d have to cross nearly a hundred feet of open catwalk; he’d tear me to pieces before I got half that far.
We’d have to do this the old-fashioned way.
Quickly I issued orders. Caldera was still fighting below and Aether above; I assigned three mages to contain each of them while the rest converged on Sagash. Sagash hammered at the mages at the windows with deathbolts and beams from the black sun, and I let the mages give ground, sending impulses through the dreamstone for them to back into cover when threatened. Only when everyone was in position did I begin.
From my position, it felt like a game of chess. Hoarfrost and Tobias struck at Sagash from the west, then as he turned to answer I had Slate and Trask attack from the east. Slate’s death magic disrupted Sagash’s shield and as Sagash took a moment to repair it I directed Landis and another Keeper to strike at the black sun. The magical construct dissolved under a counter-spell; Sagash tried to re-form it, and as he did Hoarfrost hit him again.
It was like a pack of wolves bringing down a bear. With the ifrit’s power, Sagash was stronger than any of the Keepers, maybe stronger than any three of them put together. But I didn’t give him the chance to use it; every time he tried to focus on a single target I’d have a mage hit him from the other side, knocking him off-balance and forcing him to split his attention. From Sagash’s position, it probably felt as though he was holding his ground. He reacted to the flow of battle, attacking targets and countering their strikes, fighting with all of his power, each move natural and logical and taking him step by step towards his death.
I felt the exact moment at which Sagash lost. The currents of fate tipped and began to flow, first slowly then faster and faster. To an observer, it wouldn’t have looked like anything. A novice chess player doesn’t notice when he makes the move that loses him the game. He keeps playing and trading pieces, and only at the end, when it’s far too late, does he come to understand that he’s lost, not now but many moves ago.
Strikes of fire and ice slammed into Sagash’s shield, staggering him. Sagash tried to recover, hurled a counterattack at Hoarfrost, but a force blast from Aegis hit him in the back, throwing his spell off target. Sagash tried to re-summon the black sun; counter-magic from Landis and Tobias flashed out, disrupting the effect and causing the sun to collapse in on itself. More spells hit Sagash and now the Dark mage wasn’t attacking at all; it was all he could do to block the incoming fire. Sagash’s shield flickered, struggling to hold under the rain of attacks.
A lightning bolt from Thunder slammed into Sagash. His shield took it, channelling the electricity away down into the catwalk, but a firebolt hit a second later that weakened his defences. An ice strike from Hoarfrost pierced the damaged shield, freezing Sagash’s flesh. Sagash tried to recast his shield, but I’d already chosen the future I needed and a spell from Landis exploded around Sagash, the fire magic overloading the shield entirely.
Another lightning bolt hit, and this time there was nothing to stop it. Sagash’s body jerked as electricity coursed through it, and a force blade struck him from behind, severing his arm and shoulder, the limb spinning towards the floor far below.
Somehow Sagash got his shield back up. I didn’t know how he was able to stand, much less fight. His lips were still pulled back in that unnatural grin, and with his remaining arm he blocked a water blast from Tobias. I could sense death energy flowing through him, the tendons and muscles of his withered body still obeying his iron will. Once again, he tried to re-summon that black sun.
I pulled in the last strands of fate, and made an end of it.
Battle magic came in from all around, every spell timed to strike at the same instant. Ice, air, force, lightning and fire broke Sagash’s shield and met at a single point.
There was a thunderous crash and Sagash disappeared in a ball of multicoloured energy. The cathedral trembled; hot air rushed through the open doors with a roar, followed by silence.
I stepped out into the doorway. Where Sagash had stood, the walkway, railings and stone had been eradicated in a twenty-foot radius. The catwalk ended halfway across the room. Beyond, the cathedral’s northern walls were melted in a spherical pattern, still glowing with latent heat. If there were any pieces left of Sagash’s body, I couldn’t see them.
I scanned the futures. Caldera had sunk into the stone, and Aether was falling back towards the keep. The remaining jinn were in retreat. ‘All units, enemy forces are withdrawing. Advance on the primary objective and secure it before they have a chance to regroup.’
I started walking around the walkway. Around me, I could sense the Council forces advancing, sweeping north towards the looming shadow of the keep. Behind me, dimly, I was aware of Ji-yeong lingering, one hand on the walkway railing, looking out at the wreckage where her old master had made his stand.
The Council forces kept going. I directed them, ordering them to quickly burn through any pockets of resistance, using the fateweaver to push through favourable outcomes. Inwardly, I was tense; this was where we were most vulnerable. If Anne decided to come out and fight . . .
But she didn’t. The jinn continued to fall back in disarray until they reached the keep. They fled inside, disappearing into its shadow.
‘This is Sergeant Little,’ Little said over the comm. ‘Reached the primary objective. Building is secure.’
‘Slate, Hoarfrost, reinforce Little’s team,’ I ordered. ‘Hold that building.’
‘This is Thunder and Aegis. The lightning ifrit has withdrawn to the keep.’
‘Understood, monitor its position but do not approach. This applies to all units. Do not enter weapons range of the keep. Take and reinforce the target building but go no further.’
The sounds of battle were dying away. Every now and again a burst of gunfire would echo through the castle, but each time, the interval between shots would be longer. A lull settled in the battle, both sides catching their breath.
I strode across courtyards and down alleys, heading north. Luna hurried at my back, and Council security advanced with me, covering windows and doorways down the sights of their rifles. Over the walls and roofs ahead I caught glimpses of the keep, a huge, foreboding presence. We’d come far, but as long as Anne held that keep, the castle was still hers.
A soldier opened a door for us to stride through. A corridor and another doorway led us into an L-shaped room with open windows along both sides of the L that looked out onto an open courtyard. At the other side of the courtyard was the huge dark-stone shadow of the keep. More than a dozen people were there already, with more arriving all the time.
‘Sir,’ Little said with a nod. He was standing next to the door, his weapon pointed at the floor. ‘Should we set up on the roof?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘There’s a fixed emplacement on that south-east tower. You try to put heavy weapons up there, they’ll have a clear field of fire right down onto your heads.’
‘Snipe the emplacement?’ Hoarfrost said. ‘Could take out the tower . . .’
‘It’s reinforced,’ another mage said.
‘No, we stick to the plan,’ I said. ‘Compass?’
Compass was lying flat on the stone, head tilted to one side, sighting up through the window towards the keep. ‘Sec,’ she called, her voice slightly muffled.
I walked to Compass and knelt by her side, balancing the sovnya with its butt against the flagstones. I lowered my head and looked up, following Compass’s line of sight.
The corner of the keep was a rounded tower, made of dark grey stone. It looked forbidding even to normal sight. To magesight, it was more so. Protective wards ran through the stone, reinforcing it against both physical and magical attack, and tied into it was a gate ward designed to harden the area within against any kind of spatial disruption. The lines of power flowing through the wards were thick and powerful; if they had flaws, I couldn’t see them.
Footsteps sounded behind us. ‘Well?’ Landis asked.
Compass sighed and scrambled to her feet, brushing dust off her hands and clothes. ‘It’s going to be tight.’
‘Verus?’
‘I can feel the anchor point,’ I said, standing. ‘It’s less than thirty feet beyond the wall.’ Behind the walls of the keep, halfway to the top within the south-east tower, was a concentration of power where the lines of the wards converged. That was one of the four anchor points that we’d seen on Sonder’s map this morning. That anchor point was supporting the wards protecting the castle, the wards stopping us from leaving the shadow realm, the marid’s ritual, and, ultimately, the shadow realm itself. Knock it out, and all the dominos would fall.
‘Well, Compass, it’s all on your shoulders,’ Landis said. ‘Gate or assault?’
Compass hesitated for a long moment. The futures hovered, then shifted decisively. ‘Gate.’
Soldiers took up positions by the windows; others were sent out to make room. Mages gathered: Landis, Rain, Tobias, Slate, Hoarfrost, Aegis. All would be protecting Compass.
‘Up a bit,’ Compass told Rain. ‘Left . . . There.’
A beam of blue light stabbed from Rain’s hand at a forty-five-degree angle, disintegrating a neat twelve-inch tunnel through the ceiling. Rain held it a second longer, then cut it off precisely as it went through the wall above. Compass sighted through the hole, and nodded.
‘Jinn have been cleared out,’ Slate said. ‘Think that lightning kid’s in the keep, but hard to tell through the wards.’
‘Caldera?’ Rain asked.
‘Can’t see her.’
Compass looked tense and focused. ‘Don’t talk to me once I start.’
‘Understood,’ I said. ‘Package?’
A portal appeared at Compass’s feet; she reached in and heaved out a hiking backpack. It was the size of her torso and she struggled to lift it; I grabbed it with my right arm before she could drop it, then hefted it one-handed and walked towards the others. ‘Ozols,’ I called.
‘Yes, yes,’ Ozols said cheerfully. He walked forward and took the backpack, shifting under its weight.
‘Try not to bloody well kill everyone, all right?’ Little told him from a safe distance.
‘Is fine! No worry!’
Ozols carried the backpack over to the far wall, set it down with a grunt, and pulled it open. Several mages stepped away. Landis wandered right up and peered over Ozols’s shoulder.
‘Ji-yeong, you’re on point defence,’ I told her. ‘Cover us and Compass.’
Compass looked at Luna. ‘Mage . . . Vesta, right? How long do those blessings last?’
‘The more danger you’re in, the faster it burns off,’ Luna said.
‘Then save it for the gate,’ Compass told her. ‘If I mess up suppressing the ward, we just have to start over. If I mess up the gate, it’ll be a lot worse.’
‘All right,’ I said, looking around. ‘Everyone ready?’
No one objected. Even Slate gave a terse nod. The only one who didn’t respond was Ozols, still busy with the contents of the backpack.
I drew in a breath, let it out, then spoke over the comm. ‘Begin.’
Compass raised a hand towards the keep and began her spell.
Just as locks caused the invention of lockpicks, gate wards caused the invention of spells to pierce gate wards. And just like a lock, any gate ward can be broken with enough time and effort. Right now, Compass was probing the lines of power in that ward system, figuring out how to suppress them for just long enough.
But beating a ward system that’s defended is a different story. Compass was using as little power as she could, but the more progress she made, the harder it would be to hide what she was doing. If she was discovered – when she was discovered – our enemies could try to repair the ward network and fix the hole in their defences faster than she could bore it. Or they could just attack this building and kill her. Given the way this day had been going, I was betting they’d go for the second option.
‘No movement,’ Slate said, his voice tense.
‘Verus will give us warning,’ Landis said calmly. ‘Keep it quiet, boys.’
Thanks for the vote of confidence. In truth, giving warning was about all I could do. The lines of space magic that Compass was tracing were too complex for me to follow – bypassing gate wards like that is a specialised skill, and I didn’t understand it well enough to use the fateweaver to help.
Minutes ticked by. I felt the lines of magic in Compass’s spell shift, then shift again. A soldier coughed, then fell silent. The sun was still high in the sky, and the room was hot. I saw a bead of sweat trickling down Compass’s forehead.
There was a shift in the futures. It was small, but I’d been watching for it. ‘Movement,’ I said.
‘When?’ Landis asked.
‘Wait.’ I pushed with the fateweaver. A branch of futures was opening up, danger and violence and death. I tried to suppress it and guide us down a different path.
It didn’t work. ‘Got incoming,’ I said. ‘I’ll stall them as long as I can.’
The futures branched, possibilities spreading out. I pushed them down the path which seemed the least violent, and pointed towards the west wall. ‘Hundred and ten feet that way. They’re trying for a closer look.’
‘Tobias,’ Landis ordered. ‘Shroud.’
Tobias stepped forward, pulling something from his pocket. Blue light glowed, illuminating the brim of his hat from below, and I felt a fuzzy hard-to-see shell of magic envelop the building’s western end.
Magic flickered from the west. We couldn’t see it through the walls, but I knew that someone had just appeared. ‘It’s her,’ Slate said sharply.
‘Nice and quiet, boys,’ Landis said calmly. ‘Let her think there’s nothing to see.’
Thirty seconds ticked by. Sixty. The soldiers at the windows scanned the courtyard through their gunsights. I could feel the futures shifting. No one said a word.
The futures tipped. ‘She’s moving,’ I said. I pointed to the courtyard between us and the keep. ‘Popping up there.’
‘She’s going to see it,’ Rain said.
‘Hoarfrost, Slate,’ Landis ordered. ‘Don’t let her get a clear look.’
Hoarfrost and Slate moved to the windows. ‘Ten seconds,’ I said.
‘On Verus’s mark.’
I watched the futures shifting. ‘Seven,’ I said. ‘Six— four. Three. Two. One—’
The stone of the courtyard rippled, and Caldera rose from its surface.
Ice and death struck like vipers. Caldera flinched under the attack and sank back into the stone, but for a moment our eyes met through the window, and I saw her gaze flick from me to Compass.
It was only an instant, then Caldera was gone, leaving nothing but a circle of frost on the flagstones. But it was Caldera, one of the best investigators on the Order of the Star, who’d been passed over for promotion so many times but who’d always refused to quit. Last year, when I’d tried to cover up what Anne had done, she’d been the one to figure it out. So many times, back when we’d worked together, I’d seen her piece things together from just a couple of clues.
The futures shifted decisively, and in the distance, at the edge of my hearing, I heard an echoing whine like a hunting call. ‘Incoming!’ I snapped.
‘Positions,’ Landis ordered.
A wind rose in the distance, carrying the sound of movement. Jinn were converging on our position. ‘Jinn,’ Thunder called in over the comm. ‘North, west and north-east.’
‘Contact west,’ a soldier called. ‘Shit, there’s a lot of them!’
‘All units, fire at will,’ Landis ordered. ‘Do not let them reach this building.’
Gunfire opened up. Some of the mages moved to the windows, scanning for targets. A rifle stuttered as Nowy engaged a target; others fired a second later. The smell of gun smoke filled the air.
‘Verus,’ Landis said.
‘Watching,’ I said briefly. It was Caldera I was waiting for.
More and more soldiers opened fire. The air was heating up, becoming smoky and acrid. Hoarfrost and Tobias added their magic from the windows, icebolts and hydro-blasts. Shouts and warnings sounded over the comm. The chaos was making divination harder, bringing my view of the futures down to seconds at most.
If I were Caldera, this would be when I’d strike. I narrowed my focus, concentrating on the immediate futures around where Compass was standing. I closed my ears to the shouts and gunfire, closed my eyes to the flashing spells and the rush of movement. I focused my senses on the ground beneath my feet and what would be coming up from it. The battle around didn’t matter. There was only me, Compass and Caldera.
Nothing.
Nothing . . .
There.
Caldera was underneath, rising fast. I threw my energy into the fateweaver. She was too close to push away – all I could do was affect who she’d home in on. I made a snap decision, pushed the futures down that path, threw warnings into the minds of the mages closest to me and then I was out of time.
Caldera breached the surface like a shark lunging from the ocean. But she came up under my feet, not Compass’s, and as I jumped away her clutching hand missed my ankle. The focus was on my left hand; I twisted in mid-air, aiming the gold and silver lattice like a knuckleduster, and triggered it.
Energy surged out, engulfing Caldera as she finished rising from the stone. She staggered; the spell she’d been about to launch at Compass collapsed and Caldera fell to her knees.
‘Freeze!’ Slate shouted. Ji-yeong halted, her sword raised above Caldera’s head. Compass didn’t move, all her attention on her spell.
Rain came striding forward. ‘Verus. Is she—?’
‘Jinn’s lost control,’ I called over the gunfire. I was watching the futures very closely. ‘For now.’
