Knight of Stars

by Tom Lloyd

  Suth appeared strongly, Teshen too – both of them knife-sharp and cold like steel. Toil was a blazing fire of determination that caused everything around her to smoulder. The relentlessness of her frightened Sitain, more so than the dispassionate killers or even Deern’s restless latent anger. Its scale and capacity overshadowed the others and burned all it touched.

  As Atieno embraced the magic, however, her sense of the marked Cards faded. Instead, something new rose up, the shifting presence of Siere and then the other mages joining their ritual. Sitain opened her eyes and saw as well as felt the influence of the tree spread – not fast this time, not riding the vast power Sitain had commanded, but stealing steadily over them. The marks of willow leaves appeared faintly on their skin, little more than a suggestion but it was enough.

  Atieno broke off and looked around, allowing the other mages a few moments to wonder at the changes. He exchanged a look with Sitain and the young woman forced a grin.

  ‘Looks like it’s going to be gradual,’ Sitain said. ‘No passing out, hopefully. No images of horny mercenaries running through your heads.’

  ‘We will continue this way,’ Atieno confirmed.

  It took a moment to get the others concentrating again, but they were experienced mages and aware of the severity of matters so before long Atieno had resumed the link. He held it for a while. Sitain could feel him gently probe the powers of each mage – manipulating it, drawing it out and getting a feel for how it reacted to him, then retreating. Only when he’d done that with each of them did Atieno start to gather the strands together.

  ‘Shit!’ Atieno exclaimed a few moments later, cutting through Sitain’s reverie.

  She opened her eyes, not even realising she’d closed them. The aftertaste of magic hung in the air, bitter and sharp, while the stone wall ahead now bore a jagged ash-grey scar.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘It just got away from me,’ he replied, not looking her way. ‘Such is the way with tempest magic. Another.’

  Ustirtei stepped forward, a hearth brush of all things in his hand. With a few deft strokes he fussily brushed away at the central shelf in the V-shaped rock then produced a small glass ball which he set there. That done, he stepped sharply away and left Atieno to try again.

  Siere placed two fingers on the ball, both greyish and dead-looking but now with a pattern traced across them, while resuming her hold on Sitain’s hand. The other mages placed their hands on her; Atieno’s palms flat against her back while the light mage rested a hand on her shoulder. Sitain didn’t know what discipline Atieno’s two attendant mages were, but they also put hands on his back. Before long Sitain felt threads of her magic slowly play out like a reel unspooling.

  She closed her eyes and focused on the sensation, finding nothing worth looking at. The night magic and light opposed each other, turning slowly in unison, while a core of roiling tempest magic merged with more sedate types within. She guessed at stone and wind there; one solid and sluggish, the other elusive and quick. The longer she looked, the longer she was amazed – not at the complexity of the working, but at the control required of Atieno.

  She could sense Siere guiding him a little, perhaps the others lending a steadying hand as well, but the work was done by Atieno. His was the controlling force that kept each element in movement as he brought the five together. Again it failed, the tempest core seeming to dart away and tear into the stone magic. Atieno only sighed and tried again with a new glass ball.

  The next time she tried to assist him, but her efforts brought about immediate disaster. Fortunately for them all, it was early in the process and only a scrap of magic had been drawn. Not enough to escape Atieno’s grasp and put them all out, but still Sitain felt her cheeks burning as it brought reproving looks from all directions. They tried again, then again and again until Luverno called a halt.

  ‘I can continue,’ Atieno said, looking up.

  ‘A few minutes,’ the mage insisted. ‘Stand up, walk around. You may forget about your body when working magic, but your body has not forgotten about you.’

  It was clearly a lecture he had delivered many times and the other mages were already up – stretching their backs and muttering to each other in their own language. Sitain reached out and patted Atieno on the shoulder.

  ‘Come on, old man, do what teacher says.’

  He gave her a baleful look, which Sitain ignored, so was left with no alternative but to comply. Sitain went to investigate the brutalised wall, brushing a few fragments of stone from the fractured sheets of rock. The other mages stood and set about properly inspecting the emerging white tattoos on their skin, still very faint but a definite pattern of willow leaves.

  ‘None of this was you,’ she commented when Atieno went to join her. ‘That’s good.’

  ‘We are not at the dangerous part yet.’

  ‘True. Ah, sorry about trying to help back there. I should’ve known better.’

  Atieno nodded. ‘It is natural, but do not allow it to happen later.’

  ‘I won’t.’ Sitain gave him an askance look. ‘All going about how you thought?’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘Still confident we’ll be ready?’

  His hands tightened briefly, but Sitain didn’t think it was anger at her – rather the reminder of what was to come.

  ‘I believe I can do this. I … I realise there is much depending on it.’

  Sitain nodded. ‘One lap around the room then. Keep the blood flowing then we get back to it. They’re stupid bastards in the main, but our friends won’t die for lack of us trying.’

  He nodded. ‘So they’re your friends now, are they?’

  ‘Until I find some better ones, sure,’ she said, smiling briefly. ‘Life ain’t fair on that front, but when is it?’

  ‘Fair isn’t for the likes of us,’ Atieno agreed. ‘Let’s just do what’s right instead.’

  When they returned, it took an hour before he got it right. As the minutes ticked by and Sitain fought the urge to grind her teeth with impatience, she could sense the fatigue building even as Atieno’s workings became more and more deft. Finally, they were rewarded with a small glass ball sitting in the palm of Siere’s hand.

  It was dark – not quite black but a heavy, threatening grey that seemed both solid and possessed of some shifting, restless quality. Sitain felt uncomfortable just looking at it. The utmost care Siere took to handle it told volumes, but they were far from done. A second was made, then after a break three more. There were failures too. Three of those ripped sections from the stone wall behind the shelf and the last required other mages to be fetched to shore up the bedrock before they could continue.

  Finally, there were five, almost identical, balls of dark glass each in their own divider on the table behind. Ustirtei inspected each one in turn very slowly as the mages checked the progress of their tattoos. He turned the balls with a wooden tool he’d produced from a pocket, reluctant to touch them with his own skin. Finally, he pronounced them satisfactory, but there was a grey and fearful look on his face as he did so. Atieno looked similarly pleased with their success, but he didn’t hesitate before asking for the God Fragment to be brought out. It was time to create something altogether more powerful and terrible.

  ‘So that’s it?’ Anatin looked up at Sitain. ‘Is this a pissing joke?’

  She pointed at the cartridges set snugly into a steel-frame box. ‘That right there’s a bloody minor miracle.’

  ‘Really? ’Cos it looks like you two had your thumbs up your arses for half the day then knocked a couple out in the last half-hour.’

  Lynx glanced up at the darkening sky. By his guess, they had maybe half an hour of decent light left before the city was the playground of monsters again. The whole Mercenary Deck stood behind Anatin, armed and ready for battle and disturbingly quiet by their standards.

  ‘Have you got any damn idea how to make mage cartridges?’ Sitain demanded. ‘No? Well then, shut the hells up. Atieno risked his
life doing this – all our lives most likely. Damn stuff is tricksy like you wouldn’t believe. Any flaws at all in the glass, even ones that’d be fine for a normal cartridge, meant the thing wouldn’t charge, went off halfway or started to degrade almost immediately. The fact he managed to do it all is a testament to his power an’ the skill of the mages here.’

  ‘Oh aye, right bloody heroes you are, eh?’

  She shook her head. ‘I did crap all, just sat there and let him draw on my strength. I don’t know about any of this, but I got to see first-hand the difficulty of the job. You all should be giving him big manly hugs or whatever it is you lot do to express gratitude. He’s still working, by the way, well after the point even the Militant Orders would have thought it unsafe to continue pushing. You might get more cartridges in time to use, but here’s the chance you asked for.’

  Sitain had raised her voice to almost a shout. Anatin wasn’t one for proper respect towards officers, but there was a limit and they could all see she was skirting it.

  ‘Here’s our chance,’ the Prince of Sun mused. ‘Ten shots to take down three golantha. How many earthers did it take to kill the last one? Or rather, knock it off a wall and let the fall kill it?’

  ‘These aren’t earthers,’ she insisted. ‘Not even bloody close. Ask any mage, they won’t want to go near them.’

  ‘Ten shots,’ Anatin said, only half listening. ‘Guess we should spread our precious cargo then. Let’s say five teams of two, a Mastrunner for each team to pass messages and guide. The rest of the company stays holed up in some dark corner as back-up.’

  He turned to face the Cards and started to point.

  ‘Teshen, you’re up. Reckon you and Sanshir have one more run in you?’

  The man’s face went taut. The play of emotion was hard to read, but eventually he gave a cautious nod. Sanshir was similarly closed off, but signalled her agreement by shouldering her mage-gun.

  ‘Good – as for the rest. Kas, Safir, Suth, Reft. Toil, I take it you won’t be backing down?’

  ‘No chance – unless it means leaving out a better shot than me. This isn’t about ego.’

  ‘Yeah, but the best shot may not be who we need. We don’t have much luxury to miss, so you’ll be taking your shots so close you’re wetting yerselves, even you, Suth. Understand? Good. This is about getting the job done any way we can. We can’t outrun or outclimb these things so Aben and Lynx, you’re also in. The last spot goes to Deern, in the interests of using bastards who’ll get the job done right.’

  He raised a hand as several Cards protested. ‘Enough, this ain’t a discussion. Layir, if we were facing men you’d be in, but you’re young and hot-headed which I don’t need now. Varain, Colet, we’ve only got one shot and neither of you aim so well these days.’

  ‘The tattoos won’t be a problem?’ Toil asked Sitain.

  The young woman shook her head. ‘So I’m told. If Atieno and I aren’t drawing magic at the time, you shouldn’t stand out. He’s going to stop work at nightfall.’

  Lynx cleared his throat. ‘And the plan? These things won’t fall for the same trick twice, they’ve shown that much.’

  ‘Mebbe so, but don’t give ’em too much credit. They’re still dumb beasts.’

  ‘So’re maspids,’ Toil pointed out. ‘Those are smarter than dogs all the same and can plan around dangers.’

  Anatin nodded and pulled the stump of his arm tight against his body. ‘Point taken. First of all we give ’em what they’re out there to hunt.’

  ‘A mage?’

  ‘Some sort of magery,’ he confirmed. ‘Not Sitain’s “look what a big wand I’ve got” from last night, but something of a different flavour. They want mages, we must still be able to find some of those.’

  ‘And we ambush them on the way? What if they sniff us out?’

  ‘We’ll need a few mages, something to distract ’em. Hit one and run, lead the others into a second trap.’

  ‘Pick somewhere with two main routes for them to use,’ Toil suggested. ‘Two teams on each with one assigned to take the first shot so we don’t waste these. Whoever kicks it off will get the attention of any remaining golantha. They need an escape route and the second pair to watch their back. That leads to the fifth pair with an ambush ready further back with the bulk of the Cards.’

  ‘Always planning, ain’t you, Toil?’ Anatin said in a voice that sounded half irritated and half pleased.

  ‘It keeps me alive,’ she replied with a shrug. ‘Normally it’s just Aben backing me up. Teshen, Sanshir – reckon you can find suitable locations?’

  Sanshir nodded. ‘Most of the district will be deserted.’

  ‘Time to move then,’ Anatin announced.

  The Cards he’d picked each walked up to select one of the precious mage cartridges. Lynx looked at his before putting it in his case. The cartridge was plain and unremarkable, its end sealed in wax rather than fired clay and unmarked by a designation.

  ‘Guess the mages are going to have to come up with a symbol for them,’ he commented as he safely stowed it, clear of the others so he wouldn’t mistake it. The contents of Lynx’s case looked pretty forlorn now. A couple of icers and one earther were all that remained. Anything else wouldn’t be much use and would only make him a more obvious target.

  ‘Let’s hope there’s no call for it, after today,’ Toil muttered as she took hers.

  The rest of the company had the same, a few shots plus any remaining earthers. A couple more had been scared up by Sanshir’s boss, Kabat Jo-Sarl, but most of the city’s stock were gone. What was left had been collected up by Foren, a terrifying collection of burners and sparkers under normal circumstances, but now they were a last resort. In Shadows Deep they’d used them as a makeshift bomb, but it wasn’t far off like throwing bucketsful of water at a man. He might be overwhelmed eventually, but up to a point he was just thirsty and waterproof.

  ‘Let’s just hope these damn things work,’ Deern said. ‘Did you even test one?’

  ‘Test one?’ Sitain said, almost startled. ‘When we’ve only got ten? You want to pull the trigger on yours, just let me get out of the way first.’

  ‘You’ve not even fucking tested them?’ Anatin roared. ‘Oh broken gods and shitweasel priests! This just gets better and better.’

  ‘We’ve tested the magic,’ Sitain snapped back. ‘That’s as good as you get unless you want to risk one shot per monster. Atieno warns there may be misfires, it’s far more likely than you’d normally get, but we can’t help that. The effect of the magic on any tiny flaws in the glass core means that’s inevitable – and for pity’s sake don’t drop the bloody things because they’re far more likely to blow up. I’ve no idea about range but you’re getting as close as you can anyway.’ She paused and pulled something from around her waist. ‘Here, there’s this as well. A last resort sort o’ thing.’

  Toil took the belt from her. ‘Mage balls?’ she asked.

  Sitain nodded. ‘The ones we didn’t test. There’s five left. Not powerful, nothing like the cartridges, but …’

  Toil nodded and strapped the belt around her waist. ‘Better’n nothing,’ she confirmed. ‘Let’s go be heroes.’

  Chapter 41

  Sanshir ushered the ambush group to the docks where a long, narrow barge sat waiting for them. They didn’t wait for the rest of the company but set off immediately. A second boat would bring the rest of the Cards plus a few co-opted mages – each boat boasting a water mage to see them across the lagoon as fast as possible.

  The shadows had all merged into one by that point, a dull darkness settling over the lagoon. A long stream of small tysarn rose up into the evening sky from the hellmouths. Their numbers were much reduced from previous days, so far as Lynx could see. The frenzy of their larger kin perhaps, one that had built like a tidal wave since Lastani had inadvertently triggered it.

  ‘Hear us, our gods,’ Safir suddenly called out, standing high in the prow of the boat. ‘Let your spirits come forth t
o guide us in this hour of need.’

  Sanshir turned to watch him, startled by the outburst, while Teshen and Kas both solemnly bowed their heads.

  ‘This city of faithful servants stands on the brink of destruction, oh most powerful of beings. Without your blessing, all will come to ruin here, but before we get to the begging, let’s talk about blame, eh? Lords of Earth and Darkness, Ulfer and Insar, which one of you pricks is going to claim these golantha as your own? Or were these horrors just the product of some idiot drunken bet?

  ‘Veraimin, great god of light and all forms of fiery bluster, I … well probably this one isn’t on you I guess. But don’t think that means we’re friends. Catrac, master of passion and invention – ten bloody cartridges, just ten. Is that meant to be funny? Some sort of pissy lesson for us maybe? Either way, don’t think we’ve forgotten it was a Duegar artefact that sparked this whole mess off.

  ‘Lastly, Lord Banesh. Let’s just hope your servant Atieno hasn’t shit the bed in such a catastrophic way as you did, back in the day. Otherwise we’re all fucked and anyone who survives is coming for whatever little pieces are left of you five bastards, that I promise. So we pray.’

  ‘So we pray,’ most of the Cards intoned in response. Sanshir just rolled her eyes and looked away.

  They cut across to Xi Le island in a matter of minutes and soon disembarked at an abandoned dock. There was debris scattered across the northern part, where a building had been shattered. Blood was everywhere, but as Lynx crept forward he saw the long claw of a tysarn wing-tip through one empty doorway. A cloud of insects and smaller tysarn danced up as he moved, but soon settled again, unwilling to leave their meal.

  ‘We’ve not got much time,’ Sanshir reported. She’d been looking up at the nearer tor where a light was flashing. It was followed by whistles, staccato bursts of sound that echoed around. The Cards instinctively raised their guns, feeling surrounded, but Sanshir simply whistled an acknowledgement and beckoned.