by Harry Nix
Alex gave a double blink at the third stall. There was a man behind it. He looked eerily like Monroe except he was only thirty or so. He also had a pair of shimmery wings sticking out of his back and had cut holes through his clothes to accommodate them. He wasn’t even flapping the wings and yet every time he moved he bounced up and down off the ground as though he was on the moon with low gravity.
“Magical bags, what do you want?” he asked Alex as they passed. Roma was hurrying on now so Alex didn’t answer, just followed along behind her. They emerged into the larger square. There were stalls set around the exterior but then also crowded into the center. Alex looked up, and although the sun was blazing above, the heat simply wasn’t getting through. He supposed that whatever barrier was protecting the black market was keeping most of the temperature out as well.
At the other end of the market, Alex saw another werewolf in hybrid form stalking between two stalls, talking to one owner and then the other before going back again. As his gaze swept over the market he noticed others that were definitely not in human form. There was a man, maybe three-feet tall, his skin was deep green like sea algae. Alex saw a few girls with pink hair just like April standing in the shade of a store that was festooned with cushions. It was only as he got closer that he realized they had manacles around their ankles and were chained to a pole.
“Nymphs for rent or sale,” Roma murmured. There was a woman in the back of the tent who was old and weathered, looking fragile enough that one good flick of his finger would kill her. For a moment, Alex wanted to walk in there, demand the keys to the manacles, and set the nymphs free. Then he let that idea die away. He had no idea what this place truly was, but he suspected people coming in to be heroes wouldn’t have a good time.
“Do you know what the bounty on your head is?” Roma asked.
“When did that happen?”
“Not long after you slaughtered all those Corvus mages,” she said.
“Did you go back to the bar to find that out?” Alex asked. Roma didn’t answer. They made their way through the market to the far side where there was another alleyway stretching off. This one was quite literally a dark alleyway. Whatever spell was blocking out the sun was working quite effectively. And as they stepped into the shade Alex felt his eyes adjusting. There was only one stall down at the far end and no other customers in this area. Roma, who had been walking meekly, now stood up straighter, seeming more confident as she walked down the alleyway.
Despite his enhanced vision, Alex found it difficult to make out the stall at the far end. As they approached the scene grew more indistinct until it was a blur. He knew someone was there, but he couldn’t see exactly who. On a whim, Alex brought up his spell screen and saw in the active spell list a line of question marks. There was some kind of spell working here and it was affecting him so he couldn’t make out the person or whatever it was.
“Roma,” came a deep gravelly voice. Then there was a kind of short hiccupping noise as though whoever was speaking had something stuck in their throat and was trying to swallow it. It didn’t sound like the frogs that Alex had encountered, but something else.
“Vorbo. This is Alex Lowe, who I’m sure you’ve heard of. We have rings to sell, and want to make deal for ongoing delivery,” Roma said. She took the box from Alex and upended it onto the table, spreading the rings out onto the fabric. Vorbo stepped closer and the gray blurs smeared more in front of Alex. He could only catch faint impressions. For a moment he thought he saw a reptilian skin and a claw, but then it was gone. Vorbo tapped a few of the rings with his finger or claw before stepping back.
Alex breathed in, trying to get his scent, but there was an absence there. It was as though there was simply nothing behind the stall itself. No odor of sweat or person. Alex couldn’t even detect a heartbeat. Whatever spell was affecting him, he wished he could copy it. It seemed like a particularly powerful concealment spell. Alex felt the attention of the blur turn towards him.
“It tickles me that you slaughtered those Corvus mages. How about you kill a thousand Tradinium and I’ll give you a thousand each, paid at the end?” Vorbo said. Alex quickly did the math: a thousand times a thousand was a million dollars. Was he serious?
“What’s the catch?” Alex asked.
“If you don’t kill a thousand within three months, then you owe me three favors, big ones, at my command,” Vorbo said.
Alex was almost tempted to accept the deal, except of course there was the little problem of trying to find Tradinium mages. He knew there were some in Baxter, but could Alex find a thousand within three months? Three big favors sounded bad, too. Juno had warned him not to make any agreements that he didn’t understand so he took her advice.
“I’m probably going to be killing Tradinium mages anyway but I think I’ll pass on the deal,” he said.
“No matter, the offer is always open,” Vorbo said and then made that weird hiccupping noise again. They stood there in silence for a moment. Alex feeling Vorbo examining him. He also realized that down here he could hardly hear the central market, which had been quite noisy as they’d gone through. If anything were to happen he wasn’t sure that anyone would know about it. Although he doubted anyone would come running anyway.
“I’ll buy the rings for forty thousand,” Vorbo finally said. Alex knew the last batch had gone for over fifty-five.
“Surely they’re worth more than that,” Alex said.
“It’s the black market. There are risks. Tradinium have come cracking down on everyone. So that’s the danger discount on the price,” Vorbo explained.
Alex looked at the rings. It wasn’t as much as they were getting before but forty thousand was nothing to sniff at.
“What about future shipments?” he said.
“Same price. I’ll set up some dead drops so you don’t have to come back here,” Vorbo said.
Alex nodded. “Agreed,” he said. He held out his hand just to see what would happen and then was surprised when Vorbo shook it. There was no sensation of skin on skin though. Whatever spell there was, it was working quite well. Alex still had his spell screen out and the moment he touched Vorbo a new line of question marks appeared with four plus marks after it.
As Alex let go, for a moment he saw a flickering in front of him. He didn’t see Vorbo. He was still hidden in the gray smear. What appeared to be a featureless wall behind him was actually bars of a prison cell. Gathered behind it were several small children, no older than seven years old.
The image came and went so quickly, Alex wasn’t quite sure what it was. Was it real? Was there actually a prison cell full of children behind Vorbo? Or maybe Vorbo—whatever he was—was testing Alex. Seeing if he was going to go all hero and leap the counter to free imaginary children.
Alex talked himself down from leaping back there, and as he looked at the scattered rings, a better deal came to mind.
“Instead of forty thousand I want you to give me thirty thousand and along with it supply to me any unusual spells on rings or other things that you come across. Deliver some with each shipment of money. If I can strengthen them or replicate them, I’ll begin selling them to you,” Alex said. Roma breathed in sharply but then seemed to get hold of herself, looking down at her shoes.
“Agreed,” Vorbo said.
The space in front of them was empty and when Alex looked down he saw the rings were missing too. On his spell screen the question marks were still there.
Roma turned on her heel and walked out of there and so Alex followed. When he was at the end of the alleyway he heard a faint cry from behind him, the kind of noise a child might make if struck. Alex froze in place for a moment, the hackles on the back of his neck rising, and then he walked on.
With their business done, Roma quickly took them out of the black market. She stopped him just short of the barrier which looked out onto the sunny street. Alex shifted back to human and stood in front of Roma.
“Tell me about Vorbo,” Alex said.
&n
bsp; “He sells children. Of all species including normals. He also sells other things,” Roma said. Alex grimaced, feeling once again the urge to shift to hybrid and go running back to rip Vorbo into pieces. He let out a breath, trying to concentrate on what was important. They needed money and Vorbo had been selling children yesterday before Alex had known about him. So what was different about today?
“How do you know about him? What kind of business did you do here?” Alex asked. Roma didn’t answer but just looked at the ground.
“I need you to answer. If you’re a risk to my pack you can’t stay. But I need you to tell me the truth,” Alex said.
“I’m a Medusa. I turn people to stone. It can be a pleasant dreamless sleep or a waking nightmare. My business here was on behalf of Prince. He would obtain the children of powerful figures. Most of them were adults, not actual children. I’d turn them to stone. The vampires playing their infinite chess. Sometimes he would direct me to bring them here to sell them. Sometimes in stone, sometimes not,” Roma said.
“So you can reverse the stone?” Alex asked.
Roma nodded. “Medusas can turn you to stone and only another Medusa can undo it,” she said.
“So when the vampires cut the heads off all those statues of men at your shop…” Alex said.
“They killed them,” Roma said. Alex looked back down the alleyway at the various market stalls and the people browsing them and he was surprised when Roma reached out to touch his hand.
“I know there is a lot of darkness here. Many of the supernaturals are homeless, marginalized. Mages and vampires don’t just roll over werewolves and witches. They hurt all of us. There are plenty in there who can be your people. You can come here, spend money, make connections, and help them. You might be able to turn away some of the darkness and get a power that comes only when you gather together the powerless,” she said. Alex looked at her hand, feeling his heart start to thud at her touch.
The good feeling from the morning had vanished. He guessed learning you were doing business with a child slaver could do that.
His mind strayed to what Darwin had said to him and Julius before about the Great Barrier. Even in the normal world where there wasn’t a Great Barrier, slavery still existed all around the world but at least people could work to fight it. They could pull the putrid trade out into the light and seek to destroy it. Alex could try to fight Vorbo, whatever he was, and free a handful of children kept in a cage. But what difference would that make? The mages and vampires would still come for him. Maybe Roma was right and he had to make allies wherever he could, even if sometimes they were objectionable.
“Thank you for your help,” Alex said finally. Roma suddenly stepped forward and gave him a quick peck on the lips before bolting out through the barrier. Alex stood there for a moment in shock, not quite sure what had happened.
She’s mine, an inner voice said.
“Shut up,” Alex murmured to himself before stepping through the barrier.
12
Two weeks slipped by in the blink of an eye. Alex fell into a routine which was pleasantly boring. He was beginning to appreciate the Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times”. His pack was still out tracking Xavo and Ignis mages and anyone else they came across. Alex spent most of his days enchanting and working on spells, attempting to compress the ones he had or to modify them to make something new. Sometimes he read the black runes, but that was a massive task and there was no way he was going to write a spell in it until he was sure he knew what he was doing.
His pack had leads on three more wards in various locations around Baxter. The map in Alex’s office now had three large vague circles on it, suggesting the area the ward might be in, but now they needed time to narrow down the locations exactly. Although Alex’s promises for alliance were a heavy burden, he felt they were finally catching up.
It was the first two weeks that Alex had without anyone dying or being kidnapped, or him nearly accidentally killing himself. The flyers they had been spreading around town had thus far had no effect that he could see, unless of course the peace was the outcome. The email address had received various messages, a few seeming convinced that the flyers were some sort of guerilla marketing campaign for a new game or movie.
After two weeks of boring bliss making money from selling rings and working on spells, they’d finally received a message from Henry the necromancer and had set up a meeting.
Alex sat back in a cheap foldout chair, his eyes closed, enjoying the slight coolness of the air. Summer had taken a break for a single day.
He was in an abandoned factory to the north of Baxter, only a few miles from where they’d executed almost a thousand Corvus mages. As he breathed in and out, smelling rust and dirt and dust and aging machinery, he let his senses expand trying to feel the network of werewolves spread throughout the territory.
He knew there were around eighty at the moment, spread across a few miles, hidden in abandoned homes or off on rooftops, keeping careful watch. Sometimes he could faintly feel the tendrils of connection, that elusive werewolf power.
It was no longer one thick strand like a rope that he had to grab at; with the werewolves spread about the place it was more like several fine strands of cotton, gently waving like jellyfish tentacles under water.
Taking hold of finer strands was far more difficult than when his pack was massed. He tried again but it slipped from his grasp. Alex finally gave up and opened his eyes, seeing a few of his pack gathered at the front of the factory, keeping an eye out for Henry. They’d sent him on a wild goose chase this morning from one location to the next. He was to come alone, and Alex had decided he was never going to meet someone again in a public place like a mall crowded with people he didn’t know.
Any meetings now would be in his territory surrounded by his pack so there was no chance of anyone hurling water balloons full of colloidal silver at him. While he waited for Henry, Alex took a ring out of his pocket and cast analyze on it, bringing the spells up, and then cast analyze again to break through the encrypted version of it down to the base code.
Vorbo may have been some repulsive being that Alex didn’t want to be in business with, but he had kept their agreement. So far he’d sent two rings with the payments. The first was a shield ring with twelve charges on it, far stronger than the ones Alex was creating. The code on it, however, was a convoluted mess that Alex couldn’t make heads or tails off.
There was simply no part of it that resembled any other code he’d ever read in any other spell. There weren’t even numbers to increase or decrease. The ring actually only held one spell, which Alex suspected was several spells mashed together into a single block by whomever the mage was who’d created it.
He’d spent quite a bit of time reading through the code, but thus far hadn’t made much progress. The second ring that Vorbo had sent had been interesting. It had come with a note warning Alex not to wear the ring, as it was cursed. Alex soon learned that a cursed ring was simply a ring with a spell on it that was harmful to the wearer.
This one had a spell on it that caused nausea similar to the vertigo spell and illness. According to Vorbo’s note the wearer would start to feel nauseous, and then grow sicker over a number of days, losing their appetite and vomiting.
If they didn’t remove the ring, which drew mana from the wearer, eventually they would become so weak and ill that they were likely to die. Vorbo had added to the note that this particular ring was a failure. At a certain point, the mechanism it used to conceal itself from the wearer would break down, and it would become obvious what was causing the illness.
That ring was a ridiculous thing; it carried a whopping four hundred spells, most of them no longer than three or four lines. It was far more readable than the twelve-charge shield spell to a degree, but because of the sheer number of spells, it was hard for Alex to pin down the mechanism of how it worked or where it was going wrong.
Having the spells diced and sliced the way they were cer
tainly made it easier to identify individual parts that could be useful later on.
Alex was really only interested in two parts—the mana draining aspect and how to cause illness.
He was reading this code when one of the werewolves at the front door signaled to him, indicating that Henry had finally arrived.
Alex wiped away the spells and sat waiting in the chair until Henry appeared in the doorway, nodding to the werewolves gathered on each side. He walked in as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He was carrying two large plastic bags, and despite the fact that Alex was in human form, he could smell the delicious scent of Chinese food coming from them. Henry nodded to him as he came over to the small table, before putting the bags on it and sitting down.
“Food always makes a meeting easier, yes?” Henry said, pulling plastic containers from the bags and opening them. Alex cast analyze on the food, not bothering to hide the spell as Henry laid out plastic plates and plastic cutlery. Like the greasy food-court food they had eaten last time, it wasn’t poisoned, although it had extraordinarily high levels of salt.
“The piece de resistance,” Henry said, opening a final container. It contained beef with chili and garlic, and smelled incredible. Henry loaded up his plate with food, so Alex shrugged and did the same. Once their plates were full, Henry sat back and started eating.
“Someone has been silvering werewolf land,” Alex said before digging into some fried rice.
“It’s not Xavo. Tradinium I expect. Silver isn’t cheap, yes?” Henry said. He then tapped his plastic fork on top of the container of beef with garlic and chili.
“There’s a herb from my home. It’s very much like garlic and chili combined and had a child together,” Henry said.
“So it tastes like garlic and chili?”
“No, no more than you are exactly half your mother and half your father. You’re something new made from those parts. You can’t get it here, so I mix garlic and chili and other flavors. I can’t quite get it the same,” Henry said.