Walking The Razor: A Montague & Strong Detective Novel

by Orlando A. Sanchez

Evers watched him leave, and then turned back to face pseudo-Monty.

  She smiled again, creeping me out.

  “It’s no use, Tristan,” she almost whispered. “No defense you have prepared will protect you from me, from my vengeance.”

  Pseudo-Monty remained silent, in lotus position with his eyes closed. Evers stepped closer, narrowing her eyes.

  “You dare ignore me?” she said, forming one of her silver-black orbs. “Your schism must have you more addled than I thought. Let’s begin your suffering.”

  She unleashed the orb, which crashed into pseudo-Monty. The simulacrum writhed on the floor for a few seconds, before disappearing slowly. I felt the veil lift slowly as the entrance, and only exit, disappeared, replaced by a stone wall.

  “A lure?” she yelled, looking around. “Where are you, Montague! Show yourself! Are you too much of a coward to face me?”

  I stepped out of the corner, Grim Whisper in hand.

  “I’m your huckleberry,” I said in my best Val Kilmer drawl. “Are we playing for blood?”

  “Simon Strong,” she hissed. “You’re still alive?”

  The arrogance of mages usually contributed to their downfall. She must’ve thought the orb she released on the skywalk had finished me. Mage egos only came in two sizes: enormous and obnoxious.

  “Still,” I said, “Monty’s not here. He had other, more important matters to attend to. Left me here to deal with the trash. Guess he meant…you?”

  Even in the dim light, I could see the rage flit across her face.

  “He left…you…to face, me? Alone?” she asked, incredulously. “I thought he was your friend?”

  I fired Grim Whisper.

  She rolled to the side and unleashed three small orbs at me. Only my reflexes saved me from the attack. I slid behind a column as the small orbs punched holes in the stone. I didn’t even see her gesture to create the second set: she was fast and dangerous.

  “Step out so I can end your miserable existence,” Evers said. “You should have let my orb finish you. It would have been quick. Now, you will suffer.”

  I peeked around the corner and fired Grim Whisper again, ducking behind the column and rolling as I heard more orbs impact the column.

  “Tell me,” I said as I reloaded Grim Whisper, “why would a mage want to get rid of all magic?”

  “You would never understand,” she said. “How could you?”

  “I wouldn’t understand that you’re insane?”

  “To some, yes,” she answered, as I felt a surge of energy from her direction. “It’s simple calculus. Mages and magic users upset the balance. The only way to restore that balance is to—”

  “Eradicate magic?”

  I shifted to another column, but I didn’t want to get too far away from the null wall. The last thing I wanted was to be across the room from my last-resort play. A large, silver-black orb smashed into the wall next to me. The energy of the orb spread out several feet along the surface of the wall, which was reduced to dust in seconds.

  I made a mental note to avoid her orbs.

  “Not all of it…just some,” she answered. “Starting with the magic wielded by those named Montague. It’s a simple, elegant equation. Magic without the Montagues equals balance.”

  She laughed then—it was a small sound, just loud enough to convince me.

  She wasn’t insane, she was beyond insane.

  Her madness held the certainty exhibited by genocidal maniacs who justified their actions because they felt it was necessary, for the greater good. The greater good always included themselves.

  “What gives you the right?” I asked, shifting again. At this point, I was going to run out of real estate soon. “Who are you to determine who has magic?”

  “I’m the only one willing to do so, to do the hard work. Left unchecked, magic does more harm than good. I am the check. I am the balance.”

  “You are the judge and jury?”

  “And in your case”—she unleashed another orb—“the executioner.”

  I ran across several columns, but she wasn’t aiming for me. I turned in time to see the orb smash into the symbols of the null wall…turning them and the wall to rubble and dust.

  That…was bad.

  “Dex is going to be pissed if you keep breaking the place. He’s not going to appreciate your renovation.”

  “Dex,” she said, the name like a curse, “will be dead when I’m done. Stop hiding, Strong. I recognized the symbols as soon as I saw them. You have no hope of making this room into a null zone. Surrender, and I promise you a mage’s death.”

  “Pass, thanks,” I called out, and moved as orbs hit the column where I had been a second earlier. “Not a mage, never will be.”

  “Then you will die like the dog that you are.”

  That escalated quickly. I ran down a narrow passage at the edge of the room, as the columns were being blasted to bits behind me. She was getting angry at my expert evasiveness—also known as hiding.

  How did I ever think this was a good idea? I was outclassed and outmatched in a closed room, with no way out.

  TK’s words came back to me: This is one of the few times I would actually suggest speaking. It will unbalance her. You have an uncanny ability to anger everyone when you do.

  Outclassed and outmatched, but not outwitted.

  I needed to get her unbalanced; after all, she was still a mage.

  “You sound angry,” I said. “Maybe some therapy would help…like a century or two of it.”

  “You mock me?” she said, gathering more energy. I noticed the pattern. She needed to restore her energy after every few attacks. I was guessing the temple had something to do with that. “Magic took everything from me.”

  “Starting with your mind, it seems.”

  “I will kill you slowly, Strong. You will beg for the mercy of death and I will deny you its release.”

  “You let it control you,” I said, ignoring the threat of a slow, agonizing death…well, not completely ignoring it. “You were weak.”

  “Magic is corrupt. The world would be better without it.”

  “Starting with you?”

  She was stalking me—even as I moved around and directed my voice at the walls to bounce the sound. She was doing the same, and getting closer.

  “Of course. I’m an object lesson in the dangers of power. Watch how I destroy your world.”

  “You’re twisted.”

  “Am I? Ever since you fell into this world of magic, has your life gotten better?”

  “Yes, and I’m happier, too.”

  “Don’t insult me with your lies,” she scoffed. “Before, you may have had human enemies, but now? Monsters and gods want you dead…Kali’s Chosen.”

  “I’ve been promoted, haven’t you heard? My new title is Marked of Kali now.”

  “Frying pan and fire, Strong,” she answered. “The world is better off without magic—it stole everything from me, like a brutal thief. It’s over.”

  Her voice was on my right, but she appeared on my left and I knew in that moment, she had outplayed me. If we were playing chess, she’d just executed a checkmate.

  Except I wasn’t playing chess.

  I raised Grim Whisper to fire, only to see it fly across the room, as several orbs impacted my wrist, breaking my grip. Another, larger orb, headed right for me. There was no time to dodge. So I didn’t.

  I ran forward.

  And slid…under the nasty-looking orb. The surprised expression on her face told me everything I needed to know. She recovered fast, but I knew she was off-balance. I formed Ebonsoul as I came out of the slide and thrust the blade forward.

  In her hand she held a silver, rune-covered blade about as long as Ebonsoul, parried my thrust to the side and introduced the side of my head to a hammerfist.

  “Shit,” I said as I stumbled back. I must have been wearing the same expression of surprise she had moments earlier. “Nice blade.”

  I moved into a defensive sta
nce. This had gotten worse. Much worse.

  Dex’s words flashed in my mind: Unless you can think like evil, really understand it, then you’re defenseless.

  I was treating her like an enemy mage, not a force of evil. I was going to need to adjust my attitude before she adjusted it for me…permanently.

  “You thought you could face me?” Evers asked, circling around me. “I am a war mage. We are trained to stand and die, in any and every circumstance.”

  “So I keep hearing,” I said, recovering from her strike as the familiar warmth flushed my body. “Can we hurry to the part where you die?”

  “You first,” she said, moving to the side. “Didn’t Tristan show you?”

  “I must have missed that lesson,” I said, reaching for the energy around me. The shocking cold erased any warmth I was feeling. “Why don’t you educate me?”

  “With pleasure,” she said, stepping in with a thrust I barely parried. She was fast. “The energy we wield is a tool; what matters is the will. I don’t need orbs to destroy you. With or without magic, you will die by my hand today.”

  For the first time in my life, I was thankful for the torture sessions with Master Yat. Evers was an accomplished blade fighter. She slashed, feinted, and evaded my counters, cutting me. My body healed, but this was a battle of attrition. She was good—better than me, by orders of magnitude. I was barely holding on.

  In scientific language: I was getting my ass kicked.

  She and her blade whirled around me. I moved, dodged, and slid away, only to find myself at the end of her blade. The expression ‘death by a thousand cuts’ suddenly held new meaning.

  She slashed diagonally. I pivoted at the last second, causing her to miss, only to encounter one of her silver-black orbs waiting for me as I turned. The orb smashed into my chest with a whump, catapulting me into a column, nearly shattering it, as bits of debris exploded around me.

  My body flushed hot as I fell to the ground, but I was too banged up, bleeding from too many small wounds, to recover in time. The black energy of the orb covered me and slowly evaporated.

  I spit up blood as she approached.

  “Have you had enough?” I asked. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

  “My orb did nothing to you,” she said, driving a brutal kick into my side and cracking a rib, while stripping Ebonsoul from my hand. It turned to silver mist a second later, reabsorbed into my body. “It seems I will have to end you the old-fashioned way.”

  I managed to roll out of the way as she slashed down, missing me. My body was dealing with damage overload. I was healing, but the damage she’d caused was so extensive, it seemed to be slowing the process down. I felt like I was running a fever and freezing at the same time. I stood slowly, but the situation was bad.

  There was a good chance I would die here.

  My curse and the energy around me fought in my body for dominance, until I stopped struggling against both. I fell back, suddenly tired, and leaned against a column, one of the few that remained intact.

  “We should take a break,” I said, raising a hand. “I’m sure you’re exhausted…”

  She leapt forward with a thrust aimed at my chest. I moved my hand to deflect the blade, but my reaction time was off, and I miscalculated. She stabbed right through my hand and kept pushing.

  “I’ll take a break,” she said with a twisted grin, “once I see you, Tristan, and his uncle dead. Look around you, Simon. Tristan left you here to die. There is no one here to save you”—she twisted the blade in my hand and I bit back a scream—“and no one is coming. You are forgotten, abandoned…alone.”

  “He is not alone,” a voice said from the other side of the temple. “He is thoroughly irritating and exasperating, but he is a true friend, closer than my brother.”

  It was Monty.

  Which meant I was truly hallucinating, because he was supposed to be at Fordey Boutique with LD, not here facing off against psychomage Evers.

  Evers pulled the blade out of my hand and backhanded me across the floor for good measure. I gently moved my jaw to make sure it was still connected to the rest of my face.

  “Stay there, scum,” she said, looking down at me. “I’ll be right back to put you out of your misery.”

  That’s when I heard the growl…and smiled.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  My hellhound padded up to my face, dropped Grim Whisper in my lap, and gave me a slobbering of a greeting. I holstered my gun and hugged my hellhound.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  “How quaint. Your beast came to say goodbye,” Evers said, looking at Peaches with disgust. “What kind of mutation is that?”

  I hugged Peaches to my side, and replied with a one-fingered answer.

  “No matter,” Evers said, turning to Monty, ignoring me. “I will dispatch that creature along with the both of you. Thank you for saving me the trouble of finding you, traitor.”

  “I did what was right,” Monty said, his voice low. His body was covered with dark energy that crackled with bursts of violet light as it criss-crossed his body. “It needed to be done.”

  “You cost me everything, everyone,” Evers answered. “I will erase you first, and then you will suffer, like I suffered. You will beg me to kill you, and I will refuse.”

  Monty drew the Sorrows.

  “Evers, how many times must I remind you, that only simpletons spend their time talking when there is killing to be done?”

  Evers let out a low growl and raced at Monty, blade in hand. If I ever thought I could take Monty in bladed combat when he was serious, I was mistaken. Evers was dazzling to watch. She moved in a blur, attacking, causing openings only to have them close again. For all her skill, Monty made her look like an amateur.

  She was good. He was better.

  He wielded the Sorrows as an extension of his body. Every slash, every attack from Evers was met and countered. Then I saw it—he wasn’t attacking, but only defending.

  “What’s the matter, Tristan?” Evers asked. “Can’t deliver the killing blow? Seems like the schism affected you more than you anticipated.”

  She was right. He was doing his best to stop her attacks, but couldn’t capitalize on the openings. She was too fast, and he was slowing down.

  “You plan on wrapping this up anytime soon?” I asked from where I stood. “Or do I need to lend a hand?”

  “I’ve been told you’re keen on helping,” Monty answered as he fired a violet orb at Evers, only to have it deflected into a wall. “It seems like there is still power in the one to rule them all. Now would be a good time to use it, I think.”

  I looked down at the totem.

  “You can’t beat me,” Evers snarled at Monty. “Not you or your uncle. I’m stronger than you, I always have been.”

  “That has always been your weakness,” Monty said. “Your self-reliance.”

  “I need no one,” Evers snapped. “My self-reliance is my strength.”

  “My friends and family are mine.”

  Monty parried a sword thrust and followed up with one of his own. Evers deflected his thrust, ducked under a slash, and launched a fist at Monty’s chest. If it had connected, it would’ve shattered his ribs.

  Monty executed a cross block that absorbed most of the blow and sent him back, sliding across the stone floor for several feet. Evers gestured, and Monty shot me a glance that said, It’s now or never, but now would be preferable.

  Evers unleashed a barrage of black orbs at Monty. Another swarm materialized behind her, and sped at me. I reached for the energy around me again. It felt like dunking my
head in a bucket of ice water.

  I took a deep breath, as the sensation of cold washed over me.

  “Ignisvitae,” I said, as golden light exploded from the ring. A large, golden orb formed in front of me, like a miniature sun. “What the…?”

  I saw the fear in Monty’s eyes.

  “Release it!” Monty yelled as he dove to the side. “Now!”

  I mentally let go of the orb, and it raced at Evers. It devoured her swarm of orbs, cut a trench in the stone, and punched through several of the columns as if they were made of paper.

  Evers, figuring I wasn’t much of a threat, turned at the last second.

  She was too late.

  She raised both hands and created a shield of silver energy, but it wasn’t enough. The orb slowed for a few seconds, and then, as if revving up, steamrolled through her shield and her, engulfing her in energy.

  She screamed for a few seconds, and then suddenly went eerily quiet.

  She was gone, but the orb remained.

  It didn’t stop.

  It blasted through the far wall, and started to expand once it was outside the temple. I sensed the energy around the orb grow. The ring went black and crumbled to dust around my finger.

  TK peered through the newly created opening, glared at Monty for a second, then looked back out in the direction of the ever-growing orb. She stepped into the temple and examined the destruction.

  “Whoever unleashed the runic nova will get to explain to Dex how you obliterated the entirety of the Sanctuary,” TK said, gesturing and frowning. “Tristan, I need your assistance. The orb is siphoning the energy faster than I can cast a circle. We are running out of time.”

  Monty limped over to TK and began gesturing.

  Together, the two of them managed to get a faintly glowing, green circle to materialize under them. I grabbed Peaches and ran over to where they stood. By the time we made it across the floor, they were gone.

  I looked down at Peaches.

 

 

 

 

  I lacked the energy or will to argue with my bottomless hellhound. Distant rumbling followed by tremors reached the temple. I looked out of the blast hole and saw the orb still growing. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once.