by J. F. Penn
Daniel stood up. “I will get the flag. I’ll wave to shore, make it clear we won. Then we can work out how to get back safely.” He smiled at Mila. “Elf will be pleased to meet you, too. Maybe you can come to our party?”
Dawn reached out a hand to her brother. “No,” she whispered. “You haven’t seen what she does.”
Daniel snatched his arm away. “What do you mean? Elf is our friend.”
Dawn shook her head. “She steals magic, she sucks it from you. When Jenny went for her party—” She turned to Mila to explain. “Jenny was my second best friend. She could make anything grow really big, insects and plants and animals.” Her face crumpled and tears ran down her cheeks. “I followed them, Daniel. I saw Elf pull something out of Jenny, like a magical spark, and she sank to the ground as if she was just empty skin.” The little girl shuddered. “I couldn’t run in case they saw me. I watched them sweep up her remains. She was dead, Daniel. Elf killed her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
Dawn sighed. “You wouldn’t have believed me, and anyhow, we couldn’t get away from her. If she found out I knew, she would have killed me, I know it.”
The eel outside smashed its tail into the door of the church once more, this time dislodging chunks of stone. A cloud of dust swirled through the water.
Mila looked up as a crack split one pillar to the side of the entrance, a fissure running up into the arch, dislodging the keystone. Another thump as the creatures outside battered their sanctuary. They didn’t have long before the entire place came down around them.
19
When Mila dived into the water, Sienna quickly took a step back. She pulled Perry away from the edge out of the line of sight from the main stage as people around them shouted and pointed in excitement.
“Another Waterwalker!”
It would only be minutes before the guards made it to this area of the crowd. They slipped into the mass of revelers, aware of suspicious stares as they retreated. Sienna slipped her arm around Perry’s waist and he hugged her close to his side. They giggled and joked as they pushed through, trying not to draw attention. Just another pair of drunken young lovers on their way to find somewhere more private.
The crowd thinned out toward the barracks at the back of the plaza and they ducked behind one of the huts.
“What is she doing?” Perry whispered, his fists clenched in frustration. “Now they know we’re here. What can she possibly hope to achieve?”
Sienna shook her head. “I don’t know if she even considered her actions. She saw the children and went to help. We don’t know how it feels to have her kind of magic. They are others like us, but she is—”
“A shifter,” Perry finished for her, and Sienna heard resignation in his voice. “She belongs here, doesn’t she?”
Sienna nodded. “Perhaps. But she might need our help to get the children out. We have to assume she’ll go to the meeting place if she can. We’ll get Zoe and wait for her at the cave.”
Perry grinned. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.” Sienna peered around the side of the barracks. “The crowd’s attention is still on the water but the guards will be looking for us. Sir Douglas knows of Mila’s gift. He must know we’re here.”
She looked toward the temple, its wooden beams over the ceremonial door urging her closer. An energy pulsed from within, something bound with stripes of shadow and flashes of light, a sickening mix that made her dizzy. Sienna closed her eyes, attraction and repulsion warring inside as the earth shifted beneath her. Nausea rose inside and she put her hand on the barracks wall to steady herself.
“You okay?” Perry asked.
Sienna nodded. “She’s in there. I’m sure of it.” Her heart thumped as she considered who else might be in there with Zoe, but they had no choice. The Weaver could not be left behind.
They darted between the huts, hiding as groups of guards ran past. Some revelers spilled out of the main plaza, drinking in groups around campfires as dusk turned to night. They shouted and sung together, drowning their miserable lives with cheap ale and the promise of human connection, even just for one evening.
As Sienna and Perry drew closer to the temple, the atmosphere changed. People clustered in groups to pray, prostrating themselves on the ground as they reached toward their imagined salvation. One woman beat herself with a flail tipped in glass, ripping open her tunic, blood flowing from her wounds and dripping onto the earth.
She swayed in ecstasy, her lips moving in a constant prayer. “Transform me, renew me, remake me.”
This place was a magnet for those who desired to become one with the Shadow, who would knowingly give their life force to join with something beyond their understanding. Perhaps it was ever thus, Sienna thought. Was her own quest to the Tower of the Winds any different? Was she really going to save Earthside or did she pursue it because she needed to see whatever called in her nightmares? The promise of power and the threat of annihilation would be held in balance until the moment she stepped into that place.
She looked up at the temple looming ahead. They had to get there first.
“Where are they?” Elf’s high-pitched peal of a voice came from the front of the building. “The children should have captured the flag by now. Get some guards out there on the water.”
She was distracted by the scene on the lake. They had a chance to get inside.
Perry ducked around the back of the temple, Sienna close behind. Two guards stood either side of a staircase, their attention distracted as they talked amongst themselves, unaware of the threat approaching. Zoe was in there, he was sure of it, and the thought of what his father might do to her made him feel sick.
Perry made it within a few meters before the guards saw him, eyes widening as they opened their mouths to shout a warning. He opened his palms and fired two perfectly aimed fireballs — small enough to swallow, expanding into a fast-burning flare.
The guards slumped to the ground, helmets smoking from the heat within.
Perry crept up the steps, wood creaking under his feet, the sound drowned out by the din of the celebratory crowd. He pushed open the door and slipped inside, hands raised at the ready. A dark blue flame flickered around his fingertips with barely restrained energy as Sienna followed him inside.
It was dark at first, and it took a second for Perry’s eyes to adjust to the dim light.
Zoe sat tied to a chair, arms bound to her sides, her face bloody and bruised, head hanging down, maybe unconscious. Perry wanted to run to her, pull her into his arms — but by her side stood the insubstantial figure of his father, Sir Douglas Mercator, the once regal frame reduced to almost complete shadow.
Yet, he was stronger now than he had ever been in flesh.
“I’ve been expecting you.” Sir Douglas stepped forward, although it seemed as if he glided more than walked across the floor. In the half-light of the lamps, Perry could see within the folds of his cloak to the shaded contours beneath. His body was almost completely gone, transformed into shadows that rippled and twisted in and out of what had once been flesh.
Perry raised his hands, turned his palms up and summoned his flame into writhing balls of fire. He lifted his chin, eyes fixed on his father as he channeled his magic, intensifying the flame until it burned hot as molten lava.
He had trained for this moment, summoning his father’s face in the practice rooms under Bath Abbey, slamming fire into that gaunt visage over and over until it splintered into ash. But now he was here, he felt a heaviness in his limbs, a resistance to the one task he had set himself.
His father drew closer. “Join us, my son. There is much opportunity for you here.” He reached out a hand toward Perry’s cheek, gentle fingers outstretched.
In his eyes, Perry saw a flicker of the man he had known as a child. The man who had taken him to the woods and shown him the gift of fire, encouraging him to use his power in secret, to keep his Halbrasse status quiet in case he was chosen to fight for ca
uses he did not believe in. A principled man — who had now given his life to the Shadow.
Perry stepped back and raised his hands again, causing flames to rise in pillars before him.
“We’re here for Zoe.”
Sir Douglas waved a dismissive hand. A curl of shadow extended out from his reach to swirl under Zoe’s chin, lifting her face toward them, her skin marred from a beating.
“She is nothing.” He snapped the shadow back and her head dropped again.
Perry heard Sienna’s sharp intake of breath, instinctively knew that she would go to her friend. In that moment, he saw the trap.
Sir Douglas had always and only wanted Sienna. Perry’s own power was nothing compared to that of a Blood Mapwalker, one who could be twisted to true darkness.
Sienna ran forward.
Sir Douglas wheeled toward her and opened his arms wide. He summoned a great veil of shadow that billowed high and wide, filling the air with dust and ash and the stink of the grave, obscuring the room with shade.
“No!” Perry cried. He shot his flames into the cloud of darkness, momentarily illuminating Sienna as she ran from Sir Douglas toward Zoe, her arms outstretched. But his fire crashed down into the floor, extinguished by the weight of particles in the air.
The Shadow Cartographer loomed tall above Sienna, his skeletal form suddenly filled out, as if darkness expanded his frame into some hybrid creature that straddled the realms of man. He stretched his arms wide and gathered her to him, enveloping her in shadow, their bodies shimmering as something rose in the darkness beyond.
A corridor. A portal. Back to the Tower of the Winds.
He couldn’t let his father take Sienna.
Perry bellowed in rage, summoning flames to surround his entire body. He ran, a burning torch, head down into the cloud of dust and tackled the fading figure of Sir Douglas.
The three of them fell to the floor, writhing in a pile of ash. Perry grabbed tight, wrapping his arms around his father’s chest, his knees latched on to what was left of the man’s legs. He called forth the flames within, burning hotter than he had ever tried to burn before.
His father writhed beneath him, moaning in pain. The sound echoed through his very soul, his heart almost bursting — and yet Perry would not let go.
As he thrashed in agony, Sir Douglas released Sienna, his grip loosening as his fingers crackled in the heat. She rolled away, hair singed, her clothes burning as she crawled along the floor, coughing and retching in the smoke.
She looked back at him and Perry saw horror in her eyes, a reflection of two entwined still-living corpses, burned flesh oozing together, becoming one in their inevitable end. She reached out a hand, shaking her head as she begged him to stop.
But Perry didn’t want to stop. This was his mission, the task he had come to complete. There would be no better chance to end the Shadow Cartographer. Flames roared in his ears, blood pounding in his head as the temperature rose. He gripped his father tighter, summoning all the power he had left, determined to burn them out of existence together.
The door burst open.
Brilliant white light shot through the cloud of ash, as sharp as a blade, throwing Perry off his father.
He pinwheeled across the floor, driven by the force of the light and slammed against the back wall of the temple, his flames quenched by the frosted silver that froze his skin instantly. The crushing pain of ice spread through his veins and Perry screamed as the shock of it rippled through him.
Sir Douglas lay moaning in a tattered heap of smoking rags, his arms a patchwork of oozing burned flesh with shards of bone visible beneath. Tendrils of shadow entwined with curls of smoke above him as the stench of charred skin filled the room.
Elf stepped through the open door, two huge muscled mutants behind her. She held one hand outstretched to hold Perry in place with the silver light, her eyes flashing an icy blue as she stalked toward her prey.
20
As Elf walked in, Sienna looked at the floor, her eyes fixed on the thick wooden boards, noticing the whorls within even as she tried to dampen down the magic that flowed inside, trying desperately to stop the eddies of shadow emerging on her skin.
Elf had only glimpsed her briefly in the refugee camp that night. Perhaps she would not recognize her now? Smoke and shadow shrouded the room, and the young woman’s gaze was fixed on Perry. But would like call to like?
Some part of Sienna wanted to stand and show the darkness on her skin, share the ties that bound them together and embrace the way the young woman so freely explored her magic. But if Elf realized the power that sat so close, Sienna knew she might not make it to the Tower of the Winds. Elf would take all she was and use it for her own ends.
Perry groaned and Elf stalked toward him, the others forgotten as she concentrated on her prey. She twisted her hand into a fist, crushing the silver light into a pinpoint. Perry doubled over, hands clutched to his belly where the beam focused.
She opened her fist again, her fingers spreading like a flower. The brilliance expanded, licking across Perry’s skin as his flame awakened once more.
But this time, it was not under his control.
Elf tore it from him as she pulled the magic out, her breath rapid, her face transfigured into something like ecstasy as she fed on his power.
Perry cried out, his tortured body shuddering as he convulsed in pain.
Sir Douglas raised himself up onto one elbow, weakened by the attack but not finished yet. His face was human now, less shadow, more burned flesh. One piercing blue eye remained while the other was swollen shut, the eyelid red and oozing.
“Leave him.” His voice trembled, but Sienna heard the edge of steel in his tone.
Elf tightened her grip. “So, this is your son. The one who chose his Mapwalker friends over you.”
She tugged harder on the silver cord and Perry jerked once, then collapsed into spasm, his body sagging in on itself as energy was sucked from him.
Sienna wept as she watched her friend suffer, with no way to stop his end as she could not have stopped Elf killing Xander and his lion, Asada. In that moment, she wished for a different type of magic, one that would enable her to fight back. She wished for Mila’s water, for Perry’s fire, for Zoe’s ability to manipulate the strings of the world, for anything but her own blood. She could escape right now, mapwalk out of here, but that would leave her friends behind. And she was nothing without them.
Elf laughed as she tore into Perry with both hands, teeth bared, nails ripping into the air, as her silver light dug deep within his bones for the last vestiges of power. He was silent now, a husk of the man he had been, his face pallid, eyes closed. Sienna felt the beat of his magic slow.
He was almost finished.
“Enough.” Sir Douglas reached out one blackened, twisted hand. A bolt of flame shot from his outstretched fingers, cutting off Elf’s silver blade of light and blocking its path. Perry’s body slumped to the floor, his chest rising and falling in a jerky manner. He still lived, but not for much longer.
Elf turned, her expression alive with cold anger but Sienna saw something else there. Excitement for a confrontation she had clearly wanted for too long.
Sir Douglas had reined the young woman in, his power too much for her to challenge. But now the old man lay crumpled on the floor, the shadows that normally writhed about him in powerful arcs were now merely shreds.
“Leave him. He’s mine to finish.” Sir Douglas stared at Elf, his one good eye meeting her piercing gaze.
She smiled and shook her head. “Not anymore.”
Elf raised her hands and shot darts of white light toward Sir Douglas.
He thrust out one palm, flames erupting around it, pushing back the white light, burning it with his crimson blaze. The hiss of steam erupted into the air as fire met ice. Elf reared back as the force hit her, but then she leaned into the fight, redoubling her efforts. She seemed to grow taller in stature as she called forth her powerful magic.
The last remaining shreds of shadow shrank from Sir Douglas, curling away from him like snakes deserting a home that would soon burn them alive.
Elf’s silver shard of light inched its way closer, forcing him back. Sienna watched as the last shadows left his body, his face contorted in pain as he became more like the man who had come to her in the map shop that first day. It seemed a lifetime away now.
Elf smiled in triumph. She walked across the still burning timbers of the floor, raising her hands higher. As her light broke through his wall of flame, Sir Douglas gasped in agony.
She tightened her grip and tore the last vestiges of magic from him. “Your time is over, old man. The Shadow favors me now.”
He convulsed as coils of magic shuddered from him. Elf threw back her head and screamed in pleasure as she drank in his power.
A sudden explosion rocked the building, a series of blasts from outside at the vats. A heavy beam jolted loose above.
Elf looked up, her eyes widening as it dropped.
Mila heard the explosions from inside the church, a series of deep booms that rippled through the water. A moment later, the attack on the door stopped and the giant eels darted away back to the shore. She didn’t know what had happened, but she could imagine the chaos of the drunken revelers on the beach running for the water. Food for the eels, after all.
She urged the children to their feet. “Quick, we need to get out of here while they’re distracted.”
Dawn shrank back on the bench. “I don’t want to go out there.”
Mila hunkered down in front of her. “They’re gone, but not for long. We can swim to the opposite side, get out the water there. I can take you to a safe place.”