by Becky James
“Hm, you’re right,” I said. “I had best start picking you off to even up the odds.” I let the brick fly. It exploded with a terrific crash into one of the bigger men’s chests, and he went down so hard the ground shook, gasping for breath like a landed fish. “I’d like to offer you the chance to change your minds. Any and all of you can walk away from this.”
“Get him!” Dan shouted.
They all started fumbling in their trousers. I was nonplussed, but I wouldn’t waste the opportunity. I rushed another of the big men, heaving my shoulder into him. His head crashed against the wall, and he went still. Dodging back, I reassessed the group, my back and shoulders sending stabs of pain as a warning. I launched myself at one of the average men and managed to get a few punches in, leaving my target doubled up and holding his face.
The other men had pulled free their weapons. It was clear they thought them cleverly concealed against their thighs, and I had to admit they had fooled me. Three, including Dan, held thick, metal bars with a short range but a cruel hook on either end – Evyn’s crowbars. My brain tried to register something with me, but just then Dan lunged, swinging that thing. It whistled in the air past my shoulder as I twisted to avoid it. He swung it up and I dodged the other way, my torso screaming with the effort but coping through the rush of battle.
One of the others swung it crossways and landed a solid hit on my upper arm. The breath left my body, shoved away by the force, and my left side went numb. Kicking out, I managed to strike and push him back, but meanwhile my right side was unprotected. Instinct screamed at me; turning, I lifted my right arm into a high guard. A crowbar smashed down into my forearm but my guard held, protecting my head. Staggering back, I bent over my arms, my back slamming into the back wall.
There was nowhere to go from here.
The door burst open and Evyn screamed, “Get in!” I rolled across the wall and into the small gap she made.
Evyn was shoved out of the opening so fast her feet left the ground. I reached for her but my arms were too slow and numb, and she fell onto her front in the very centre of the hostile group.
I looked up into the face of the seventh man. He had ducked around to come at me from this angle, and he carried a knife. I stared at it. “That’s not allowed!”
“Right. Let’s have a chit-chat.” Dan hauled Evyn up by her shoulder. He nodded and the big man threw him his knife. I tried to snag it out of mid-air, but my arms would not move. “On your knees,” Dan ordered.
I fell to my knees, stones grinding into my shins. Panting, I catalogued what was happening: Dan had Evyn and he had a knife, the big man was behind me, Dan had Evyn, the one I’d kicked was circling round, Dan had Evyn, the one I’d hit with a brick was getting up, Dan had Evyn, the one I’d punched wasn’t moving, Dan had Evyn, the one I’d slammed into the wall was still down, Dan had Evyn…
I raised my arms slowly to show I was unarmed, biting down against the pain. My shoulders shook; I quivered all over. “You’ve got me. Yes? Let her go.”
Evyn squirmed and shouted but she went still when Dan pressed the knife against her stomach.
I jerked forward. “No, don’t you dare move, or else,” Dan hissed, and the big man behind me put his hand on my shoulder to pin me in place. He need not have bothered; I was not going to move, not with the threat to my soul so clear and dependent on my co-operation.
“We’re going to do this slow. Execution style,” Dan said. “No one comes between me and my family.”
“Your family… You don’t care about your family!” Evyn spat.
“Martin, hit his head off like a golf ball.”
Evyn’s eyes went wide as the man I had kicked came up behind me. He placed his crowbar against the side of my head, the hook lining up from my jaw to my temple. He held the other end with two hands, ready for a swing.
“You’ll kill him! Don’t! Stop!” Evyn screamed.
“You’d better hope it does, love. Otherwise, he’s eating out of tubes for the rest of his miserable life.”
Evyn gasped. “The attack – that was you!”
“Four!” the man behind me yelled, and everyone else seemed to think it hilarious. Snorts of laughter and outright hysterics. I kept myself still, the metal cold where it tapped against my cheek.
“It’s going to shatter his skull. Hundreds of pieces, they said. Turn his brain to something like paste.”
Evyn struggled. “Don’t, no, stop! Please, there’s CCTV, there has to be CCTV here!”
“We fixed that a long time ago.” Dan laughed, pressing the knife against her clothes. “This is my place, my own kingdom. No one comes here that I don’t want, and them I don’t want don’t walk away from here.” His gaze was calculating, as soulless as any ambitious mancer I’d ever seen. He moved the blade to watch me flinch. He knew I knelt frozen in place, not by the man behind me but by the fact that he held Evyn’s life in his hands.
“I’m recording! I put something up!” Evyn said.
“She’s lying,” Dan yelled at his compatriots. A few of them looked uneasily at their surroundings.
“I’m not lying! I did, I put my phone in that window there!” All their attention snapped to where she pointed, up and behind me.
My moment had arrived.
I launched myself at Dan, shoving him to the ground with Evyn between us. Grabbing his hand, I extracted the knife by crushing his wrist. Evyn screamed and I whirled, attempting to block an incoming crowbar with the blade. The bar twisted the knife out of my white-knuckled fist; at least I’d deflected the crowbar. Another crowbar came whistling out from the side and I thought, one last thing to try…
I caught it in my palm and halted it dead. My arm and shoulder screamed, so I screamed as well. Wrenching the bar from the swinger, I started flailing it wildly in a figure of eight, moving up to stand above Evyn and the writhing Dan. Someone got too close, and I hit their leg with a crack; I swiped at someone else, and my weapon locked onto their crowbar, hook to hook. I heaved upwards, and he tripped over Dan’s legs onto Evyn before the metal wrenched out of his hands. I got my two crowbars untangled and held one in each hand, eyes flicking to either side, looking for the next threat.
“I’m out,” one said, fleeing. I eyed the big man who was yet to properly enter the fight. He gave Dan a slow glance and then turned his gaze back up at me. I raised one of the crowbars, and he edged around the courtyard and away.
One left. I panted, sweat stinging my eyes, and carefully stepped off the pile underneath me. Still watching the one remaining man with a crowbar, I kicked the man off Evyn. She scrambled up and stood on Dan’s presumably broken wrist. He screamed; she jumped but didn’t move, her lips trembling.
“You seem unharmed. Do you wish to remain so?” I asked the final combatant.
“I… yeah,” the man stammered.
“Then take your leave. Farewell.” I kept my stance until I was sure he was gone. Once he was, I slipped down onto one knee, my hands hitting the floor to keep me from collapsing.
Evyn gasped. “Thorrn! Oh god, Thorrn, are you okay?”
That’s when Dan lunged up. He’d retrieved the knife from where it had skittered out of my hand. From underneath he was already in my guard and when he twisted up, he was able to reach my chest. I was spent and powerless to respond.
A crowbar smashed into his elbow and his arm bent back on itself. The knife point gently brushed my shirt at the zenith of its arc, its momentum lost, then plummeted back to the ground. The crowbar continued its journey, thudding into my chest. I groaned.
Dan screamed until I hit his jaw to knock him unconscious. I toppled to one side. Everything hurt; my chest pulsed with pain, my ribs hurt when I breathed, my arms were shaking and aching, my hips screamed, my legs throbbed.
Evyn fell to her knees. “Did he get you? Was I too late? Oh my god, I was too late.” She scrabbled at my clothes, trying to find a wound. Her trembling lips and the way she pushed aside her terror and tears to stay focused made my
heart ache.
“No… didn’t stab me. Crowbar in the chest… hurts,” I managed.
“Try not to speak, I’ll get an ambulance.”
“Is that the medimancers? Will they… know what to do with me?”
Evyn hesitated, biting her lip.
“Oh my god.” Evyn whirled around and I lifted myself onto my elbows, raising a crowbar, muscles screaming. But it was only Teresa, who stood in the doorway open-mouthed. “Evyn I’m calling an ambulance and the police, but I’m out, I’m going. Do you want me to help you out?”
“Yes,” I said firmly. I was not eager to encounter the Upholders or the lords of this world just yet. I remembered with a jolt that there was no magic here, which meant no medimancers.
Poverty healing for me, then.
“I will get up. It may take a bit of time. Evyn, go help Teresa.”
She shook her head.
“I’d rather do it by myself,” I admitted.
“Well tough. You’re not by yourself, are you? Now then.” Standing up, she brushed her knees off. “How do you want to do this?” She held out her hands.
I levered myself from my elbows to my backside, and from there got my legs under me. Taking Evyn’s hands for her touch, not because I needed them to pull me up physically, I let myself lean into her. Closing my eyes, I felt my heart lift and lighten as…
I opened my eyes. Evyn’s cheeks were pink with emotion. I grinned at her. “Well, I know what to do in the event I ever displease you again. Soundly defeat seven or more men.”
Evyn’s nose crinkled. “Soundly? You’re soundly defeated. You are completely out of it.”
“We’ll leave that bit out when we tell the story to others, shall we?”
Hobbling next to her while she held my waist, I gave myself over completely to the bond. I was euphoric in coming out alive, having successfully defended my soul companion. The post-battle thrill also helped. Evyn held onto me tight enough to hurt my various aches, and I did not care. I welcomed her embrace, the way she held me, supporting me.
Teresa was wide-eyed, pushing her child in a wheeled contraption in front, Evyn and I hop-stepping to escort her. Halting at the end of a road, we watched from a distance as Teresa stepped into a nondescript house with hand-drawn pictures bright in the window. Teresa waved one arm in farewell and recognition; I saluted in return but gently, so as not to crack a rib afresh.
We took one of the beasts home. “Bus,” I said. Evyn nodded, leading me to a seat to sit. The Earthians on the bus leant away from me. Evyn remained standing; she did not want to press against my wounds. The sight of her with her arms raised on either side of the chair I sat on, eyes watching everyone around us carefully, put me in mind of a sentinel.
We were dropped off at the park as the sun started to gild it with a golden edge. It was a short walk back and yet the longest I had ever faced, especially since no medimancer waited for me at the end of it. By the time Evyn used her key to gain entry, I leant onto her for real rather than just to feel her supporting me.
“Mum? Mum, come help!” I gathered that Evyn’s device had been unable to raise Rose while we were out.
My ears buzzed, straining to listen for any movement within the house. “There’s no one here,” I said.
Evyn went into the kitchen, returning with a piece of paper. She shut the door once I had limped in. “It’s a note from Mum. She’s gone back to Oberrot.” She held it out for me. I could just about read it in the poor light and given how tired I was: “Evyn, there’s something up with Gough. Popping in to check all okay. Back tomorrow. Love, Mum.” It had a time against it.
“How old is this note?”
“She left about three hours ago.” Evyn folded it and put it in a wastepaper basket.
“I take it this is normal?”
Evyn nodded. “Yes. Mum was always back and forth. I stayed with my gran a lot when I was younger. She has a canal boat named after us – the Evyn Rose.” My soul gave herself a shake. “I don’t know what to do for you. What do you need?”
“A bath and food please.” I appraised her carefully. “How are you?”
“Right. I’ll start the bath running and get something in… Pizza again okay?” She bustled away. I made my slow way up the stairs. Evyn came up and down a few times. I waited. I knew what was coming.
I was peeling my clothes off in the bathroom when I finally felt it. I left my shirt on the floor, too tired and sore to bend down to pick it up. Giving the sudsy warm bath a longing look, I limped my way back down the stairs.
Evyn sat curled in the kitchen next to the furnace, sobbing into her hands. She had tucked herself small. Small so no one would see her, and all would pass her by.
I had to hold onto the side and slide down the cupboard door to sit next to her. Hesitantly, I touched her back so she would know I was there, that she wasn’t alone. She spun around to face me, looking utterly heartbroken. I put my hands on her shoulders and gently pulled her toward me. She did not resist, entering the crook of my arm and laying her head on my chest.
“That was a brave thing you did today,” I said. “You helped your… well, not even friend. You helped someone. You stood up to oppose something. There was violence. You stayed calm throughout. You distracted them so I could re-enter the fray, and you honestly saved my life with your quick reactions.”
“You nearly died,” she sobbed. “You nearly died because of me. Look, you’re black and blue! Look at your arms!” They were getting to be extremely painful. Curled around her, my left upper arm was black and purple, as were my left ribs; my right forearm had swollen into a red lump with a black heart, distorting the design of my tattoos there. “You are hurt because of me.”
“No, because of Dan. And we got that little girl out of there.”
Evyn sniffed. “Jess is a little boy actually.”
“And we got that little boy out of there.”
Evyn gave a snort of laughter through her tears.
“We could have died,” I agreed. “You’re right. This is a natural reaction to it. It’s shock. This happens a lot. Happens to seasoned soldiers. Happens to some Special Forces after a close brush with death.”
“He had that crowbar, and he was going to hit you in the head with it, and—”
“But he didn’t. You thought fast. You thought of a way out. We worked as a team.”
Evyn took a bracing breath, shuddering behind her hands. “I didn’t know for sure that you would know to do something but I wanted to give you an opening.”
“That inkling was the start of the soul bond.”
Evyn sniffed. “And what’s that like?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never experienced it before. Something like that I imagine. But… much less violent.”
Evyn started laugh-crying again. “You were going out there to die. I could see it in your eyes. You were fully prepared to… to die. And for what?”
“So you could get away. Which, by the way, you didn’t do. But it turns out I’m grateful for that, so I will let it lie just this once.”
“I got Teresa out. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t just go. But, I mean, you don’t know me from Adam! Why would you do that for me?”
“I saw something I could correct. We needed to give the woman space to choose her path. You understand. We are souls, after all. By the same token, I could ask you why you came to help me, but I know why. It’s that truth. Not a thought, feeling or emotion, but a truth.” She nodded slowly. “I take it Earthians don’t have souls?”
“Not usually, yet there’s Mum and apparently me.”
“Hm. Did you know that there’s a legend that the kings and queens of Oberrot all had Earthian soul companions?” I looked down at her head. “How much do you know about what you mean to my world?” I did not want to scare her, not tonight, but dread curled its claws into my stomach.
“Oh, just that the most terrifying people who can wield magic would want to open up a vein and drink me dry. Not like a vampire but mor
e like a tap.” Pulling a tissue from her pocket, she wiped her eyes and nose. “Apparently Earthian blood enhances magic when used outside of me and reduces its effects when used on me. I reckon it’s down to magnetic resonance, but I haven’t had a go at any experimentation yet.”
“Nor will you,” I said firmly. “I don’t know how it works and to some extent I don’t care.” My arm tightened around her. “No one will ever find out what you are, and no one will ever use your blood. Mages and mancers would cause all-out war to get to you and once they had you…” My heart pounded. I took a breath to call the calm of battle down, flexing my hands to make sure I remained in control of myself. “Anyway, all this to say that the royals are said to have Earthian souls, as they are said to be immune to magic. Some say this was the result of matching between the worlds, back when we knew how to travel between them.”
“So I’m the product of a breeding experiment?” she said wryly.
“One which has gone astray. I’m just the son of the captain of Special Forces.”
“Was that Shard? He’s nice.” Then, “Oh. Oh! Shardsson. Fathername. I get it now.”
I looked at the ticking circle on the wall with its arrows pointing to numbers; the furnace that emitted unpalatable incineration fumes; the bright pottery festooning the walls, and the humming boxes happily continuing their song. “I… I am still deeply sorry. About how I treated you. How I didn’t give you a chance to step into my life as yourself as my soul companion instead of measuring you against a fantasy I had held onto for most of my life.”
“What changed?” she asked quietly.
I thought carefully. “When I said those things, I felt your pain. I knew then you were my soul and had been open to bonding but now no more. There was a moment, when we met, where we could have bonded, but I think I was too scared and unsure to let it really happen.
“I saw how you kept on at training. It was impressive. You faced down the entire contingent. I’m not sure I could do that. And also… I was starting to see you through others’ eyes. Shard was impressed with you, Sylvia and Ista too. I wanted a second chance to see what you are really like. And it turns out that you are far exceeding any expectations. So far, I have seen that you are caring, brave, loyal and intelligent.”