Liberty

by Niall Teasdale

Edward sagged. ‘Well, that settles it, doesn’t it? My son’s a hero. My daughter can make light shine from her hand.’ He shook his head slowly. ‘What is it you do, Josie?’

  ‘I… run very fast, sir,’ Josie replied. ‘They call me Fleet, as in “fleet of foot.” I can run over water and up the sides of buildings at almost four times the speed of sound. Jekyll wanted me because if I hit something at that sort of speed, I survive and the thing I hit usually doesn’t.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘That explains why you found it so easy to visit Brian while you were living in Bethesda,’ Felicity said, smirking.

  ‘Um, yes,’ Josie agreed. She looked back at Edward. ‘You think Brian’s a hero, sir?’

  Edward nodded slowly, almost reluctantly. ‘Any man who’s willing to invade a secret government facility to save the woman he loves has got to be some sort of hero.’

  ‘He saved you before that. When that alien came in here and Cygnus threw him out again. The alien would have shot you all if Brian hadn’t made his gun malfunction.’

  ‘Ah… I did wonder why some high-tech blaster decided to fail just at the right moment.’ Edward’s gaze fixed on his son. ‘This is going to take some adjustment, son.’ He glanced at his daughter. ‘Quite a lot of adjustment. But I’m willing to try. Perhaps some of my ideas are a little… old-fashioned.’

  Brian could think of a few other words for his father’s beliefs on the matter, but if the man was willing to try… ‘Well, maybe we could start with Beth coming to the Union HQ on Saturdays with us. She can learn to use her powers. Even if she doesn’t end up using them for anything, she should learn how. And maybe you could come with us one week. If you see what the others are like, what the Union people are like when they’re not on TV. Then maybe you’d feel better about Ultras. All of them, even the ones as powerful as Cygnus and Twilight, are just people.’

  ‘People who don’t wear much in the way of clothes,’ Felicity said, getting a giggle from both Josie and Beth.

  Edward’s face finally cracked into a smile. ‘That was always the part I liked,’ he said, and there was more laughter.

  From the shadows in the corner of the room, Andrea watched the exchange, nodded to herself, and slipped back into the greater darkness. Zap was going to be okay. Another life had been put back on track.

  ‘That’s making quite a big assumption about the boy’s father,’ Midnight said from somewhere just behind Andrea’s left ear. ‘He still might–’

  ‘Shut up, Midnight,’ Andrea said softly. ‘Just for one night, let’s believe things can turn out to have a happy ending.’

  ‘Well, just for one night…’

  Epilogue

  Los Angeles, CA, 2nd June 2017.

  The fact that Belphegor was going through his second plate of food with some gusto was an indication that things had turned for the better as far as the Seven Princes were concerned. There were still just five of them at the meeting, but business was going well. Their competition in San Francisco was a thorn in their sides, but there had been little to disturb them since Mink had put them on to an attempt by the Four Queens to move into Los Angeles.

  Lucifer sat at the table with a smile on his face. He had an announcement to make, but he was waiting for the right moment, which would be when Belphegor moved on to his third lunch. As the plate was brought out by one of the fat man’s mind-controlled slaves, Lucifer got to his feet. ‘Gentlemen, I have good news. I have found a replacement for our incarcerated brother, Beelzebub.’

  ‘Do we really need another Beelzebub?’ Asmodeus asked. ‘Our influence hasn’t diminished badly since we lost him.’

  ‘Your efforts to maintain that influence have been noted, Asmodeus, but the replacement I’ve found comes with some very attractive advantages even you would find difficult to duplicate. I’ll call him in and you can see.’ Turning, Lucifer gestured to one of the women with the blank looks. She opened the doors behind her.

  A column of twisting, writhing blackness moved in through the doors. If you looked very closely, there seemed to be a humanoid shape in the middle of the column, but any details were entirely obscured and it might have just been a shadow.

  Asmodeus lurched to his feet, his face paling visibly. ‘Have you gone insane, Lucifer?! What is this?’

  The shadows fell away, twisting down around the figure within them until there was nothing left. The man was dark, swarthy perhaps. His hair was short and black and he had a short beard carefully trimmed around his jawline. He was attractive in a dark, slightly malign way. His eyes were probably brown, but they were so dark as to almost be black, and he dressed all in black too.

  ‘This,’ Lucifer said, ‘is Mister Iain Jankowski. He used to belong to the Shadow Court, but he left them during Twilight’s absence, and he took all his toys with him.’

  ‘What possible use could we have for one of Twilight’s ex-flunkies?’ Asmodeus demanded.

  ‘I am very good at uncovering secrets,’ Jankowski said. His voice had an accent, probably Eastern European, but too faint to be certain. ‘There are many things I know, or can find out, which could be useful to the Seven Princes.’

  ‘Name just one,’ Asmodeus said, his tone a challenge.

  Jankowski smiled. ‘What if I were to tell you that I can give you the real identity of the mysterious heroine known as Mink.’

  ###

  About the Author

  I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

  Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

  I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.

  Recently I took the big step of quitting my day job and taking up full-time writing. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, J.D. Robb, and Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.

  For More Information

  Take a look at the Witches and Ray-guns blog: http://witchesandrayguns.wordpress.com

  Links to book vendors and other information can be found there, along with a view on what I’m up to and when it might happen.

  Other Books by this Author

  The Thaumatology Series

  Thaumatology 101

  Demon’s Moon

  Legacy

  Dragon’s Blood

  Disturbia

  Hammer of Witches

  Eagle’s Shadow

  Ancient

  Dragonfall
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  The Other Side of Hell

  For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll

  Vengeance

  Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe

  Tales from High Towers’ Study

  Tales from the Dubh Linn

  The Aneka Jansen Books

  Steel Beneath The Skin

  The Cold Steel Mind

  Steel Heart

  The Winter War

  The Greatest Heights of Honour

  The Lowest Depths of Shame

  Hope

  The Ultrahuman Books

  Ugly

  Shadows

  Hunting Mink

  Frostburn

  Guardian

  True Dark

  Liberty

  The Unobtainium Books

  Kate on a Hot Tin Roof

  The Reality Hack Books

  Reality Hack

  The Fox Meridian Books

  Fox Hunt

  Inescapable

  DeathWeb

  Criminal Minds

  Emergence

  The Ghost in the Doll

  Eden Burning

  Dominance

  The Hellas Find – December 2018

  The Princeps Venator Books

  Hunter’s Kiss

  Be My Valentine

  The Gunwitch Books

  Gunwitch: Rebirth

  The Children of Zanar Series

  The Zanari Inheritance

  The Misfits Series

  Misfit Magic

  Misfit Witchcraft

  The Sondra Blake Series

  The Vanity Case

  The Shil the Huntress Books

  The Eyes of the Huntress

  The Twilight Empress Trilogy

  The Iron Princess

  Table of Contents

  Part One: New Beginnings

  Part Two: Undercurrents

  Part Three: Faith

  Part Four: Iron Cap

  Epilogue

  Table of Contents

  Part One: New Beginnings

  Part Two: Undercurrents

  Part Three: Faith

  Part Four: Iron Cap

  Epilogue