Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood)

by Megan Joel Peterson

  She was staring up at him. At the blood on the window. At the smoke curling beyond.

  He drove an elbow into Stephen’s midsection. Choking, the wizard released his grip and staggered backward, regaining his footing a moment later with a pained glare.

  Ignoring him, Cole reached down to the little girl. “Close your eyes,” he said.

  Scooping her and the staff into his arms, he stood and looked back through the blood-splattered glass.

  His father…

  He…

  Gripping Lily tightly, Cole stumbled away from the window and ran from the room.

  *****

  “Breathe, your highness,” Elias murmured.

  In the center of the marble lobby, Ashe flicked her gaze to him before pinning it back on the infuriating young aide behind the front desk of Chaunessy Tower.

  She drew a slow breath. “I am.”

  He hesitated, and then returned his attention to the guards and security cameras lining the walls. “Just checking.”

  “Sir, I told you,” the young man repeated to Brentworth tiredly. “I’ve been watching the monitors all morning. Everything is fine. And if the council was in this building somewhere, which I won’t confirm they are, I can assure you, they’d be completely fine too. The only threat right now is these… people… you felt compelled to bring here.”

  “And I am telling you,” Brentworth replied, his cultured voice coming perilously close to a growl. “I am well aware that the council is here. I am also well aware of what these people are. And I am ordering you to stand aside and let them speak to the leaders of Taliesin, or so help me, I will personally–”

  A dryly amused look flickered across the aide’s face. At his uncle’s side, Luke blanched and looked away.

  “Do you have any idea who I am, young man?” Brentworth snapped.

  The amused expression increased. “No, sir, to be honest, I don’t. But with all due respect, it doesn’t matter. There is no way a bunch of Merlin scum are ever going to be allowed near–”

  “Enough,” Brentworth interrupted, his patience finally giving out. “You will call your superiors and tell them that Councilman Brentworth is here.”

  “I will not–”

  “Now.”

  The aide paused. Drawing a breath, he tossed a glance to the black-clad guards arrayed along the walls, and then forced his face into a semblance of a smile.

  “Very well,” he said tightly.

  As the young man picked up the phone, Brentworth turned. Expressionless, Ashe met his gaze. He tried to give her a politely reassuring look, and when it failed, he sighed and looked back at the aide.

  With ostentatious patience, the young man dialed a number and waited. Gritting her teeth, Ashe focused on the guards. Standing at military attention against the marble walls, the bulky wizards bore every resemblance to standard human security guards, down to the brass badges on their chests and the firearms strapped at precise angles on their sides. For every single second of the minutes Brentworth had been arguing with the aide, the Taliesin had watched them, the implicit threat in their eyes easy to read. All around her, Nathaniel and his own contingent had been returning the favor, leaving the tension in the cavernous lobby nearly enough to set the air on fire. A suggestion of magic hovered around both groups, as though to remind their opposing number with whom they were dealing, and the result left Crystal and Ghost wincing.

  And yet, aside from the tension in the room, everything was disconcertingly still. The soft whir of the air conditioners could be heard from time to time, chilling the already refrigerated atmosphere. Sunlight streamed past the two-story high windows behind them, and through the dense glass, no whisper of traffic could be heard.

  Compared to the firestorm they’d all known they could have been walking into, the silence was eerie. And a bit disturbing.

  “Yes, that’s what I said, sir,” the aide repeated into the phone. “Seven Merlin and two cripples. They want to speak to the council and–” He cut off, obviously interrupted. “Six men and one girl. Yes, sir. Just a boy and a girl. They – no, I don’t think so. Well, Councilman Brentworth led them to the front door. Councilman Brentworth, sir. No, sir, I’m fairly certain he’s not. He– Their names? I didn’t ask but…” The aide paused and Ashe glanced back to see him studying them all. “Yes…” he allowed. “It’s possible. But there’s only the– oh. Are you sure you–” He cut off, blanching. “Yes, sir. Right away, sir. I–”

  The aide paused, and then set down the phone. He cleared his throat. “One of my superiors would like to meet in the conference room.”

  Brentworth snorted.

  Jaw tightening, the aide pretended not to hear. “This way, please,” he said, gesturing to the far end of the lobby and then casting a swift look to the guards. Six of them stepped away from the wall.

  With a glance to Elias, Ashe followed Nathaniel, with Ghost coming a step behind. Startling at the sudden motion, Crystal pulled herself from her surveillance of the street and hurried after them.

  “Anything?” Ashe asked softly.

  Ghost shook his head, and Crystal worriedly echoed the motion.

  Taking a slow breath, Ashe returned her focus to the guards. The Taliesin strode ahead of them, while behind her, the aide followed with a few of the Merlin acting as a buffer between the unhappy young man and their queen. Ahead, the lobby narrowed between two marble walls lined with the reflective doors of elevators. Another door waited at the end of the corridor, and above its wooden surface, brass letters hung, denoting the space beyond as the central conference room.

  A Taliesin pushed open the door and stepped aside. As the other Taliesin headed in, Nathaniel glanced back at her.

  Without a word, she waited a moment with Crystal and Ghost, letting the large wizard and Brentworth precede her.

  Gray soundproofing boards hung on equally gray walls around the windowless expanse. Folding tables rested against the rightmost wall and a tall stack of metal chairs teetered precariously beside them. A presentation screen hung on the far side of the room, flanked by twin doors of pale wood and, in the center of the colorless carpet, a Taliesin wizard stood speaking into his cell phone while two additional guards waited like statues by his side.

  Stirring the stale air with their motion, the lobby guards started toward the man while the aide turned and walked back to his desk, letting the doors swing closed behind him.

  “My apologies for the confusion, councilor,” the man called as they approached. Sliding his phone into the pocket of his sport jacket, he ignored the lobby guards as they joined the other Taliesin around him. “Our desk staff can be rather obstinate at times.”

  A meticulously diplomatic smile presented itself to the Merlin and Brentworth.

  “Now,” the man continued. “What was it you wished to discuss?”

  The Taliesin struck as one.

  Ashe’s defenses buckled and the air raced from her lungs as she slammed to the ground. Gasping, she rolled to her feet, her magic rushing back up around her.

  Crystal lay on the floor next to her, staring emptily toward the ceiling. Unsteadily, Ghost pushed up from the carpet at her side.

  His gaze came to rest on his sister. He shivered once.

  And then he began to scream.

  Ashe stumbled back as the boy lunged up and rushed toward the Taliesin.

  Magic tore through the air, spinning him as it passed. Meeting her eyes with a last look of horror, Ghost crashed boneless to the ground.

  She couldn’t breathe.

  People were shouting. But half the Merlin guards lay dead. His face bloody, Nathaniel struggled to rise a few yards away, while Elias was nowhere to be seen. Brentworth was under attack by three Taliesin and Luke lay crumpled by a wall.

  The door on the far side of the room burst open. More Taliesin flooded through.

  One of them spotted her. Instinctively, she strengthened her defenses and before his magic reached her, it was already gone. The Taliesin tumbled
backward, carried by his own attack turned against him.

  A man with a graying ponytail strode through the doorway, a blonde woman coming a step behind.

  They looked human.

  And then their magic struck her.

  *****

  The walls hurt. Magic radiated from them.

  Gasping with pain, Cole gripped Lily as they raced down the hall on Stephen and Vivian’s heels. The ground shook beneath them, the product of explosions he could hardly hear, but overwhelmingly feel.

  By an elevator door, Vivian skidded to a stop. With panicked intensity, she jabbed the call button repeatedly, cursing through gritted teeth till the door slid back, revealing the dull metallic interior of a service elevator.

  “Get in!” the woman snapped, putting her words to action by rushing inside.

  The ground rocked again. Someone was blowing up the world nearby.

  Not waiting to see if he followed, Vivian smacked the elevator controls. Growling, Stephen grabbed Cole’s arm and hauled him and Lily through the opening.

  The door slid closed. The elevator slid down.

  Everything lurched and the door buckled inward. Lily shrieked, her arms tightening around Cole’s neck enough to choke him. Swearing, Stephen braced himself on the wall, and Cole winced as the wizard’s magic pressed on the air.

  The elevator kept moving.

  “A-are we good?” Vivian asked, eyeing the ceiling.

  Stephen didn’t respond, his gaze locked on the digital readout above the door and his mouth moving silently to urge the decreasing numbers along.

  Distractedly, Cole loosened Lily’s grip and moved her arm down to his shoulders.

  “Sorry,” the little girl whispered.

  He couldn’t answer. He could barely think, and the cause was only partly the magic pulsing through the air.

  An explosion sounded in the distance below. The elevator shivered.

  The numbers kept counting down.

  Several floors down, magic reverberated through the shaft and the elevator rocked.

  Stephen cursed, watching the glowing numbers.

  Lily’s arms clenched around him. Inching to one side, Cole pressed his back to the cold metal wall.

  The numbers became single digits. The glowing buttons on the wall ticked toward the ground level.

  Magic shredded the elevator ceiling.

  And the world became weightless.

  Emergency brakes howled and then the ground arrived. Metal screamed and glass shattered. Support beams and cables scythed down, carrying the lights with them. Cole crashed to the ground as the floor and the walls crumpled.

  The lights flickered overhead, sending off sparks. Broken glass fell from him as he pushed up on an aching arm. Beneath him, the little girl groaned.

  “Lily?” he gasped, shoving away from her.

  “What happened?” she whimpered.

  Cole didn’t answer, running his gaze over her. She seemed okay.

  He remembered how to breathe.

  Blinking in the fitful light, he looked up from the girl to what was left of the elevator.

  He wished he hadn’t.

  Stephen was dead. That was certain. No one could survive what that support beam had done. A few feet away, Vivian was braced against the wall, her gaze locked on the dead wizard and her mouth working silently.

  Swallowing hard, he returned his gaze to Lily, noting the splatters of Stephen’s blood covering his own arms. Forcing himself to breathe, he grabbed the staff with a shaking hand, and then wrapped his other arm around the girl.

  “Keep your eyes closed,” he told her. “Hang onto me.”

  Unquestioning, Lily reached up and clung to him again. Taking another breath, he adjusted his grip on her and then struggled to his feet.

  The elevator door was ajar and the building floor was several feet above the uneven ground beneath him. Dim lights shone past the opening and as he stood, explosions rocked the area beyond.

  He tried not to swear, uncertainty hitting him. But there was nothing else to do. Swallowing again, he glanced to Vivian. The woman gave no sign of seeing him. Unsteadily, he inched toward the door and then peered cautiously through the gap.

  Footsteps rushed past. Gasping, he jerked away and plastered himself against the elevator controls.

  While most of the footsteps continued on, some slowed. Approached. And stopped inches from the dislodged doors.

  Breathless, Cole pressed farther back against the buckled metal, his grip on Lily tightening.

  Beyond the opening, he heard a man chuckle. At the sound, a woman murmured a response, her words too low to hear.

  A burst of utterly painless magic sliced across the elevator, pinning Vivian to the wall. Electricity tangled over the woman and she spasmed, her head cracking over and over into the metal handrail.

  The magic faded. Vivian crashed to the ground.

  And then the footsteps walked away.

  Cole couldn’t move. Air made its necessity known to his lungs, and after a moment, he gasped, and then choked as the shaking started.

  Closing his eyes, he turned his face away, trying to pretend he hadn’t just seen what he’d seen. Ordering himself to stop shaking, he turned his head to the door and opened his eyes, watching for the slightest hints of motion, but none came. After the eternal span of a few heartbeats, he made himself step away from the wall and ease toward the door.

  The hallway looked empty.

  He drew another breath. “Keep your eyes closed,” he whispered to Lily.

  The little girl didn’t answer. He glanced over. Below her coal black waves, her skin was bloodlessly pale. He shuddered, wishing them anywhere but here. The kid had to have heard everything, even if she hadn’t seen a bit of it.

  “Good girl,” he told her.

  Forcing himself to stay steady, he shifted Lily around and then hoisted her onto the ledge. Carefully, he set the staff at her side before pulling himself up onto the cold tile floor.

  “Here,” he said, pushing the staff into her hands.

  “Can I open my eyes?” she whispered.

  Glancing to the elevator, he pulled her farther down the hall. “Yeah.”

  Blinking, she eyed the dim corridor.

  “What do we–” she started.

  Six men rushed around the corner, running in the same direction the others had gone and bringing a migraine’s worth of magic with them. Cole stumbled back, pushing Lily behind him, while with widening eyes, the wizards slowed.

  “Wait,” one said. “Are you–”

  Lily screamed. Cole spun.

  She was staring at the bodies in the elevator. Swiftly, he grabbed her and pulled her away. Panicked, she turned to him, and then her eyes went to the wizards.

  They started forward.

  Her magic obliterated the hall.

  Shaking, Cole straightened and opened his eyes. The walls were missing, he noted. Some of them, anyway. Through the hole where the end of the corridor had been, he could see an alley. Dust poured from what was left of the ceiling and suddenly, he couldn’t hear the sounds of other explosions anymore.

  His gaze moved to the wizards. With difficulty, he swallowed.

  Lily whimpered. He turned back. Paralyzed, she clutched the staff in both hands, her gaze locked on the tile.

  “Everything’s fine,” he told her, his voice less steady than he would have liked. “Just… close your eyes.”

  Trembling, the girl obeyed.

  Bending down, he scooped her up again and then shifted her around to keep the staff from being pinned between them. He glanced to the direction the others had gone. A pile of debris blocked the end of the hall, beyond which he couldn’t see a thing. Drawing a breath, he headed for the alley.

  They’d flown, most of them. Past remnants of plaster, he could see a few of the wizards on the far sides of the newly revealed rooms. Others had hit the metal struts and supports within the walls. Hard.

  He drew a breath, unable to turn from the sig
ht of what Lily’s magic had done.

  The wizards had been wearing badges and guns. They looked like security guards. He wondered whose side they’d been on, and then he pushed the thought away.

  At the corridor’s end, another body lay slumped and tumbled in a position too awkward to be survived. Through the broken wall beside the wizard, the sounds of traffic filtered.

  Carefully, Cole stepped around the body and then paused.

  Swallowing dryly, he returned his gaze to the dead wizard and the weapon clasped at his side. Before he could question the thought, Cole shifted the girl around and then tugged the gun from its holster.

  Slowly, he exhaled. It wasn’t much, but…

  He glanced to Lily, uncertain of the thoughts now clamoring deep inside. He was fairly certain his conscience was among them.

  Tightening his grip on the gun, he headed for the alleyway.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The wave of magic slammed into her and then came the wall.

  Pain shot through her as she crashed into the drywall and the support beams. Her defenses shuddered and her vision exploded into stars as she hit the ground.

  Gasping, Ashe scrambled for her feet.

  Magic shot past her toward the Blood wizards.

  She spun. Half a dozen corpses behind him, Elias strode between her and the Blood and struck out again.

  The ponytailed man smiled, his shields barely rippling from the attack, while behind him, the blonde-haired woman sent her magic racing toward the councilman.

  Frantically, Ashe intercepted it. The magic rushed around Elias and flowed into her, burning like acid and making her cry out at its strength. Gasping, she flung it back at the Blood.

  As his shields buckled, the man’s eyes went wide.

  “Grab the girl!” he shouted.

  A battering ram of nothingness mowed down the Taliesin as they ran at her. Bruised and bleeding, Nathaniel shoved an attacking wizard from his path and struck again, sending the surviving Taliesin flying.

  “Get her out of here!” Nathaniel yelled.

  Elias rushed toward her.

  The wall behind the Blood wizards exploded.

  Ashe whirled, ducking instinctively as the blast flung her to the ground. Debris strafed the air as the walls disintegrated and the tortured ceiling collapsed with a roar. Steel and plaster crashed down on the center of the conference room.