Tenfold

by Mark Hayden

  Lloyd let go. A wash of magick flowed up my arm, then flowed back down when it didn’t find a Gnomish Imprint to bond with. Was there a residual tingle, or was that my imagination? It was heavy, of course, far heavier than a fencing sword, and it would take a lot of getting used to. ‘I am honoured to be a Swordbearer of Clan Flint.’

  ‘Good. Can we go now?’

  ‘Assuming we’re not trapped in the Labyrinth again.’

  He took a small plastic disk from his pocket, about the size and weight of a high end casino chip. He held it up to show me Niði’s crest. ‘The master gave me a new key. We’re good.’

  We left the scene of battle and took one turn. We were back at the entrance to the Labyrinth, the tunnel up to the old Hall ahead of us. Lloyd showed the chip to the crest on the wall and we moved on. As we climbed the ramp, the back of my neck tingled with magick. The trap was now re-set.

  ‘Rockseeds,’ said Lloyd. ‘I thought you handled the master well, given that Hledjolf is the only Dwarf you’ve met before.’

  ‘I think I can see the resemblance. Greed, pride, lack of empathy. They’re all in Niði, just not so bad. And Niði is an artist. That’s the biggest difference.’

  ‘It is. Our master is the oldest Dwarf in Britain or Ireland, but hasn’t been here the longest. That honour goes to the guy in Cornwall. Did the master show you the spawning rock?’

  ‘The one with a new Niði emerging? Yes. Very creepy.’

  ‘Tell me about it. You know that a Dwarf and his Hall are linked?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘They’re more than linked. They are different aspects of the same creature, though most humans don’t believe that. When Theseus took Niði from Crete, there were two of them.’

  It is quite mind-bending. I could accept that the mostly digital Hledjolf has a shared consciousness, like a distributed computer. It was harder to believe with something like Niði. I guess that’s magick for you.

  ‘What happened to their Hall on Crete?’ I asked.

  ‘It was collapsed into one of the Niðis. When they got to what we could call Denmark, and they couldn’t have got that far without Odin’s help, they dug down. One of them cut himself and bled out into the rock. He became the new Hall.’

  After what I’d learnt about the breeding habits of the Fae, this wasn’t so shocking. ‘I think I’ve got that.’

  We were back in the old Hall. Lloyd took a moment to touch the spot where his father had fallen, thirty years ago. He took his axe and chipped a bit off the wall. ‘For the cairn,’ he said.

  We headed for the dock and daylight. ‘You haven’t mentioned Rockseeds,’ I said.

  ‘Just coming to that. To the Dwarves, a Rockseed is like the Philosopher’s Stone, the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant all rolled up in one. A Rockseed allows one Dwarf to plant a second Hall and share them.’

  ‘So Niði could plant a Hall in Nottingham and be present in both Halls at the same time?’ Lloyd nodded. ‘And I thought that General Relativity was hard to understand.’

  We had reached the doors on to Niði’s dock. Lloyd took out the new key and held it up. ‘If you had the Codex, would you swap it for the Philosopher’s Stone?’

  ‘Of course not. It’s way too good to be true. No deal could be that good.’

  ‘Which is why you’d make a terrible Dwarf. Not nearly greedy enough. Let’s see that diamond again before we leave.’

  I took out the box with the diamond in it. When I was applying to join the Watch, I went to see the Crown Jewels. The Great Star of Africa is worth about $400,000,000. That’s right. Four hundred million dollars. The stone in this box was bigger.

  ‘If the Dwarf is so greedy, why am I walking out with this monstrosity?’

  ‘Do you want my honest answer?’

  ‘What use would any other kind be?’

  ‘Gnomes can be just as greedy as Dwarves. Niði got rid of your sidekick before he told his story, didn’t he? And it wasn’t me who said that Desi needed urgent medical attention. You’re the only one not of the rock who knows of his stupidity. He expects me to kill you up here, round about now, and take the diamond.’

  ‘And why aren’t you?’ I said. Was I scared? Of course I was bloody scared. You’d be scared if you had to look at that axe.

  ‘Because I’m not a Dwarf, either. Killing you would be too easy, compared to the reward.’ He pointed at the diamond, using his axe as a pointer. ‘That thing is either cursed, or it’s not what it seems. There’s far too much Dwarven magick in the Hall for me to tell, but I can guarantee that you are not about to walk out with a half-billion diamond in your hand.’

  ‘Let’s find out, shall we?’

  He opened the doors and we walked out together. Boy did that Black Country air smell good. We must be due a storm, because there was very little light coming down. It must have clouded over. Funny. That wasn’t in the forecast.

  As soon as the doors closed behind us, the gem started to turn black, its atoms rearranging themselves from diamond into graphite. Allotropes. Not a word you use very often, but that’s what we had here.

  ‘So obvious,’ said Lloyd, frowning. ‘I’m losing my touch. So bloody obvious. The one who tricked the master used Lux to make a temporary diamond, then immersed it in a flask of Mother’s tears. Try rubbing it, but don’t use your fingers. That pure graphite is a bugger to get off.’

  I had a small towel in my pack. I tipped the black blob on to it and rubbed. The graphite smudged and broke up. At the heart of the blackness was a much smaller diamond. I showed it to Lloyd.

  ‘May I?’ he said, hovering his fingers over the stone.

  ‘Of course.’

  He rolled it round his fingers, held it up and frowned. ‘Three point seven carats. Not a bad reward in the end. You must get it analysed, because there’s magick in there. The master wasn’t lying about this being the fake Rockseed. Whoever tricked him has left a trace of themselves behind.’ He gave me a very Gnomish grin. ‘And when you’ve analysed it, bring it back here and I’ll get my cousin to set it in a ring for you. I’m sure that Mina would love an enchanted engagement ring. If you haven’t already proposed, that is.’

  That wasn’t a bad idea, in its way. She’d either love it or throw it down the well. Women are funny like that.

  He blew away the last of the graphite and returned it to the box. ‘I’ll get some of that tarpaulin to wrap your sword in. It might cause a bit of a stir if you carried that through the museum.’

  I’d been carrying the sword, because I didn’t have anywhere else to stow it. I put it down next to the wall for Lloyd to deal with and focused on priorities. I put my pack down and got out my phone and my cigarettes. I also got out the bag of detonators so that I could return them. I pressed the button to power on my phone and lit a fag. Lloyd wrapped up the sword, and did some other housekeeping. When he saw what I was doing, he said, ‘I’d forgotten about my phone. Good idea.’

  I stared up the narrow cleft in the hill, trying to see sky. I’d thought it was dark because of cloud, but I could see a couple of stars and therefore it was night time up there. I checked my watch and it was only three o’clock? What? My stomach agreed, saying that it had missed lunch, but not tea and supper, too.

  I was about to check the clock on my phone when I heard a noise from the left and glanced at the light in the tunnel. There should not be a light in the tunnel. It should not be coming this way. I stepped aside so that I could watch the expression on Lloyd’s face. ‘Who’s that?’ I said.

  ‘What the fuck?’

  Gnomes have a good poker face, but they’re not actors. Whatever was coming down the tunnel was as much of a surprise to him as it was to me.

  26 — A Warm Welcome

  The noise I’d heard was splashing from the nose of an inflatable boat as it slapped the water. They must be using an electric motor, or magick, because I couldn’t hear an engine. I lit the last of the lightsticks and placed it further down the dock. The boat appeared fro
m the tunnel a few seconds later.

  I could see a male figure in the back, holding the arm of an electric outboard, and a very familiar female figure in the front.

  ‘What’s your boss doing down here?’ said Lloyd.

  ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’

  ‘Thank God you’re alive,’ said Hannah. ‘Where’ve you been?’

  ‘Didn’t you get Vicky’s message, ma’am? And how did you get here so quickly?’

  The boat had drawn up to the dock, to the left of the little raft we’d come in on. The man in the back had black hair, wore black and was quite short. Very likely a Gnome. He tossed up a rope, which Lloyd caught and fastened.

  Hannah waved her hand. ‘I was always here. This mission was too important not to have backup. Not that I don’t trust you, of course.’

  I held out a hand for her to get out. ‘And Vicky’s message?’ I was worried that Hannah didn’t know what had happened to Desirée, and the sooner she knew that, the sooner we could get the shouting over with.

  ‘I won’t get out. This skirt’s too tight, and I’ll be getting back in soon. There’s no mobile signal down here, not in the other basin anyway. How did it go, and where is Vicky, anyway? She must be all right or you and the Clan Second wouldn’t have been having a little bromance on the dock.’

  ‘Long story, ma’am. Do you mind if I make myself comfortable?’

  ‘Put that cigarette out if you’re going to sit anywhere near me.’

  I stubbed out my fag and took off my coat, taking a packet out of the pocket first. Lloyd was waiting politely to the side. I tried to catch his eye, but he was messing with his phone. Typical. The next few seconds could be very, very important.

  I opened the little bag and popped a pork scratching in my mouth. ‘You must be starving ma’am. Have these. It’s all I’ve got.’

  I handed the packet of scratchings to Hannah, who glanced at the grinning pig on the packet and put them down. ‘In a minute, when you’ve told me how you got on with the Dwarf.’

  I was still leaning down by the boat, having passed over the tasty pork product. Hannah had come closer to me, too, so she was in easy reach. I shouted. ‘Lloyd!’ as loudly as I could, and made a grab for Hannah’s throat, diving into the boat as I did so.

  As soon as I touched her, she burst into a bubble of violet smoke. I was pushed hard back and bounced on the inflatable side of the boat then up into the dock wall. The smoke filled the boat. I couldn’t see anything, but I did hear a splash from my left. A dagger appeared out of the smoke and stabbed at me. The other person clearly couldn’t see anything, either, and I was able to roll away. The knife stabbed into the rubber, embedding itself with a hiss.

  Lloyd blasted air across the boat to clear the smoke, and I found myself face to face with Irina.

  She was scrabbling in the bottom of the boat. Over her shoulder, I could see the other person wading towards the tunnel, and Lloyd, standing on the dock, torn between pursuit and helping me. I had a split second. Did I go hand-to-hand or reach for my gun? I went for the gun as she picked up a plastic spray bottle.

  I had the Hammer out of the holster, but I was half on my side and I couldn’t bring it round before she had the chance to spray me with that bottle. I rolled away from her and brought my left arm over my face. Liquid hit me and started to burn straight away.

  ‘Help!’ I shouted, and drew in my right hand to avoid more spray. I also worked my legs round to try and kick her, then something slammed into my right hand, and I was disarmed. Half a second later, there was a splash. I couldn’t risk taking a look, in case she still had the bottle of acid. I bucked and thrashed, trying to connect with legs, arms, anything. Until she punched me in the groin.

  If that wasn’t bad enough, more liquid landed on my head. There is no pain quite like an acid burn. It’s like putting a cast iron pan on the hob and trying to pick it up an hour later, but you can’t drop it, you have to keep holding on to that pan no matter how much it burns because you can’t let go. What the hell was Lloyd up to? If he’d gone down that tunnel, I was in serious trouble, because the pain from my groin washed up to meet the pain from my head and there wasn’t a lot of me left in between.

  The boat rocked. I heard the rasp of the knife being pulled out of the rubber tubing. That was my one chance. I dug my feet in to the side of the boat next to the dock, still keeping my arm over my face, and launched myself out, out of the boat and into the canal. When the cold water hit my head, the pain doubled and trebled, but at least I’d let go of that hot pan.

  It was deeper here than in the tunnel. Deep enough to take a stroke and get myself out of acid range. I surfaced, shielding my eyes with my hand in case she’d followed me into the water. When my head broke water, I saw why Lloyd hadn’t jumped to save me: we had company, and they hadn’t come to rescue us.

  Another boat had come out of the tunnel, longer and carrying three men and three women, all wearing black helmets, black balaclavas and black combat fatigues under hefty stab vests. Their boat was at the far end of the dock from me, and three had already jumped out. The boat containing Irina was in the middle, and Lloyd had retreated to the near end, because that’s where he’d put his axe down.

  Irina saw me and raised her hands, feeling the air for magick. The canal was about five foot deep. Sodden and wearing boots, I couldn’t swim, so I started to circle left, towards the dock, because I knew what she was checking for. As soon as she’d robbed me of the Hammer, my Ancile had collapsed. I was about as close as you could get to being an actual sitting duck in the water.

  Five of the six wannabe ninjas were now out of the boat. The three men and one of the women took a defensive position on the dock, protecting another woman at the back. That would be the boss. The front four had knives out already, until the sixth member of the team tossed them a selection of weapons from the boat. Taking turns to cover each other, they started to pick up shields, machetes and in one case, a spear.

  I could only spare them a glance, because Irina had figured out my vulnerability and I was still four strides from the dock. She drew back her arm, ready to launch a blast that would cut me in half. The bed of the canal was sloping up, just a bit. I reached for the dock, still ten feet away, and I saw Irina adjust herself. When she brought her hand down, I used the sloping bed to launch myself backwards.

  I’ve been next to an exploding grenade before. It’s what blew my leg to pieces. This had more energy, but the water saved my life. Her blast struck two metres in front of me, and the wave pushed me back like an involuntary surfer. A sonic boom reverberated around the dock basin as my back smashed into the opposite wall. The good news was that I was alive. The bad news was that I was now even further from the dock.

  ‘What happened to your Ancile?’ screamed Lloyd.

  I coughed water. ‘On the gun,’ was all I could manage. Irina was winding up for a second go.

  ‘Shit,’ said Lloyd, then he did the only thing that might save me – he charged at Irina.

  If I’d been the boss of the black-clad muppets, I’d have moved forward to protect Irina, but no, they’d stayed at the opposite end. That meant she was stuck in the middle when Lloyd ran at her, swinging his axe.

  The posse realised the danger to Irina and started forwards, but they were never going to get there in time. Irina pivoted round and used the blast meant for me to cut the rope tying her boat to the dock, pushing her out at the same time, so much so that she overbalanced and landed in a heap in the boat.

  Lloyd stopped in his tracks and backpedalled, which is exactly what I wanted, because I was across that canal and rolling onto the dock when he got back to cover me with his Ancile. When Lloyd had retreated, the posse had stopped their charge and waited for orders.

  I took a second to scan the opposition. None of them were short enough to be Gnomes, a good thing. The three men were armed with thoroughly illegal machetes and small riot shields, and the woman with them in the vanguard was holding the spear. I couldn
’t see much under their balaclavas, just enough to know that one of the men was black, and everyone else was white. There was just enough room on the dock for the front four to spread out.

  ‘What do you want?’ I shouted. ‘I wasn’t lying about Vicky. We got through to the Dwarf, and Vicky left by the new exit. She’s long gone. Killing us won’t change anything, and most of you will die trying.’

  Irina glanced at the posse, then turned to us. ‘Stand back, Lloyd. This isn’t your fight. You can walk away, and I’m sorry about your arm. You’ve given a lot on Watch business, and what has the clan gained? Let the King’s Watch fend for themselves. You don’t have to give your life to them as well as your arm.’

  ‘Too late,’ said Lloyd. ‘When you attacked the Watch Captain, you attacked a Swordbearer. I stand as clan second.’

  I’d been holding my breath during Irina’s little speech. Holding my breath and glancing around. When Lloyd backed me up, I breathed out and bent down into the shadows. Gnomes are very tidy, and Lloyd was no exception. I flipped the catches on the black box and unzipped the soft case.

  Irina blinked. Just once. ‘He is no Swordbearer. Only the chief can confer that honour. Stand aside before you go down with him.’

  ‘I am clan second. I chose the Swordbearer. Bring Chief Wesley down here and see what he says.’

  The woman in black, the boss, said, ‘Here,’ to Irina, pointing to the dock. Irina didn’t look happy about that. She would have preferred to sit in her boat, away from the dock. She reluctantly obeyed, twisting the grip on the electric motor and guiding the inflatable as best she could given that one of the air chambers was ruptured.

  ‘Hold still,’ I said to Lloyd. ‘Just a few more seconds. What can you tell me about them?’

  Irina didn’t try to dock. She brought her boat to the bigger one and the sixth ninja helped her out.