A Web of Crimson

by Alexander G R Gideon

  A Web of Crimson

  A Book of The Law

  Alexander G.R. Gideon

  For my Dad.

  This one’s for you.

  Contents

  1. The Snow Ape of Zermatt

  2. Upon the Mountainside

  3. Rimmed with Frost

  4. The City of Soot

  5. The Salisbury

  6. A Little Breaking and Entering

  7. In the Office of Samuel Mathers

  8. The Knight Mages of the Crown

  9. Mark Mason’s Hall

  10. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

  11. The Web

  12. Elaine Simpson

  13. A Guest in the Night

  14. Take up Arms

  15. The Solstice Rite

  16. The Spider

  17. I Will Give You Power

  18. For Better or Worse

  Falstaff Books

  Friends of Falstaff

  About the Author

  1

  The Snow Ape of Zermatt

  The yeti’s grubby paw tightened on my leg and the bone creaked. If he broke it, I didn’t know if I could make it off the Matterhorn. Especially since he was dangling me off a cliff near the top, and death awaited if I fell. Snow whipped and wailed beneath me, hiding the world below in a veil of white. The yeti roared, and the sound reverberated off the mountains around us. This high, any noise risked avalanche.

  “Lower your voice, please.” The beast responded by shaking me. A rude gesture in the face of my politeness.

  I raised a hand and gathered will in my palm. “Ignis.” I kindled my will into a flame and sent it rushing at the beast’s face. The fire fizzled on impact, but the sudden flash startled it, and the snow ape yelped. It stumbled back, and I thanked the divine that I no longer dangled over open air.

  Angry, he lifted me to eye level and huffed a rancid breath in my face. Disgusting creature. The beast’s long, white-furred arm kept me out of striking distance, but still close enough to reach its small, deep-set eyes with my magic.

  I gathered my will to the tips of my fingers and muttered, “Perforo te.” The piercing spell stabbed the creature’s dark orbs and blood gushed from his face. He dropped me and I landed hard in the snow, too close to the cliff’s edge. One leg slipped over, and I scrambled to keep from falling, the snow too loose to get a handhold. Panic crawled up the back of my throat.

  “Glacio,” I cried, throwing my will at the snow. A strip in front of me froze solid. I wrapped my arms around it, my legs dangling over the edge. My stomach fluttered at the open air beneath me, and I dragged myself back up. Panic fading, I collapsed into the snow. The yeti roared and flailed, blinded and hurt, but still searching for me. I clambered to my feet and hurried down the ridge away from the beast until I spotted a divot in the snow. Inside lay my injured, nearly frozen mountain guide.

  When I fell to my knees next to him, the snow came to my waist. I squinted up at the sky and the raging storm. The snowfall showed no signs of letting up, which worried me more than the howling yeti. Even my will could do nothing about the weather. I placed my hand on my companion’s chest, letting my magic seep into him. I murmured a warming spell, keeping the process slow so I didn’t shock his system. Steam enveloped us as his rising temperature melted the snow.

  His eyes fluttered open and focused on me. “Good to see you awake, Matteo.” I smiled and gave him a pat. “Your wife will kill me if I don’t bring you back in one piece.”

  He smiled in return and said, “Thank you for saving me, Mr. Crowley. I did not wish to become one of the monster’s victims.”

  I’d seen the ravaged bodies the beast had left behind on our way up, and I had to agree. Over the last several months, the yeti had eaten dozens of vacationers traveling here for the beautiful scenery and the wonderful skiing, turning the mountain into a cemetery. The Swiss had requested aid, and the Knight Mages of the Crown had sent me to clean up the mess.

  A roar cut through the wind and Matteo’s eyes widened. I stood, helping him to his feet. “I can handle him,” I said, reaching down to unhook one of his climbing axes from his belt. “Get back to camp and prepare to weather this blizzard. I promised your wife I’d bring you back, and I intend to keep my word.”

  Matteo nodded and hurried down the ridge toward our campsite while I trudged back toward the snow ape. The wind whipped across the ridge, pledging to hurl me against the side of the Matterhorn and I channeled a bit of will through my feet to anchor me to the mountain. Blowing snow made it hard to see, but with the yeti’s deafening bellows, I didn’t need to. The ridge opened onto the cliff top once more, and the yeti stumbled into view, clawing at his face.

  I closed my eyes and dove deep within myself.

  It took most magi hours of meditation to open the seven gates of power, the natural dampers that keep a magician’s full potential in check, and even longer to pry them open in precise order. But “most magi” didn’t include me. I bypassed the first few and opened only the fifth gate. The gate of water. It took no more than a push of will, and the swirling energy within released. My exhaustion sloughed away, my muscles strengthened, and my vision cleared as power surged through me.

  I knelt and sent my will into the snow, using its crystalline structure to carry my magic. I pictured the snow collecting around each of the yeti’s legs, then freezing solid. Once again, I whispered, “Glacio.”

  And I made it so.

  Snow crawled up the yeti’s legs and solidified. It roared in frustration, fighting to move. I leaped and slammed both feet into his chest. He pitched back and fell, making a crater in the drift behind him. I drove the point of my climbing ax into his throat and jerked. With my added strength, the ax ripped through the carotid and trachea, spraying me with the beast’s blood. A rancid smell, like rotting flesh, rose into the air. But already the wound began to heal, its flesh knitting back together. The beast remained resistant to my magic, so I kept hacking, severing his jugular as well. More blood drenched me, but I kept at it until its head separated from its body.

  I stood there a moment, breathing heavy, trying not to gag at the smell of the beast’s blood. Powerful stuff, but it stank worse than a London sewer in summer. I pulled a leather flask from within my coat, and with a thought the blood flowed off me and into it.

  You can use the teeth as well, said a deep voice in my head as I corked the flask.

  I snorted a laugh. Not a peep out of you when the beast charged, but now you worry about collecting its teeth? I reached down and picked up the head by its shaggy hair. Good to know my well-being remains a high priority, Vex.

  Must you call me that, Aleister?

  I’d asked his name a thousand times since he’d come wailing out of the ether into my mind over a decade ago. Well, if you told me your real name, I might use it.

  He remained vexingly silent.

  Typical.

  I started back down the ridge as evening approached, further limiting visibility through the gloom of the blowing snow. The wind bit through my leather climbing clothes and I whispered a warming spell. Keeping the fifth gate open so long had begun to tax me, and the added spell work drained strength from my limbs. I needed to get back to camp.

  About halfway back, a peculiar sight materialized out of the storm. A man in formal dress, complete with top hat and monocle, wore a large furred overcoat draped across his shoulders that made him look more bear than man. He watched me, one hand on his hat against the wind, the other resting primly on his cane. To top it off, not a single snowflake landed on him.

  He straightened as I approached and tipped his hat in greeting. "Crude, but effective. Good work, Agent Crowley,” the man called to me. His shoes left not a single impression i
n the snow as he walked toward me. “The residents of Zermatt will thank you for slaying such a bothersome beast.”

  Bothersome. Nearly fifty dead because of the yeti, and he calls it bothersome?

  “Julian Baker,” I shouted over the wind.

  He offered his hand to shake.

  I looked at it and decided to ignore it. The corners of his delicate mustache drooped as the smile slid from his face. I smirked and said, “Why the bloody hell did you come here dressed like that?”

  2

  Upon the Mountainside

  They sent me to monitor your progress.” Julian stood over us twirling his mustache as Matteo and I tended the fire and cooked dinner. We set our camp against the wall of the mountain. It sloped forward, giving us a bit of protection from the wind. Julian had spelled the area to keep the blizzard out, and we had a wall of snow several feet high around us already.

  “Naturally.” I said, scowling at him and stirring the soup. “The Archmage should banish me from the ranks and be done with it. I’m tired of these far-flung missions he keeps sending me on.”

  “He would, if he could get the Synod to agree to it.” Julian chuckled. “They might be stuffy old men, but they still have some sense.”

  “Really?” I spooned up a lump of potato and held it out for Matteo to try. He chewed, then shook his head. “A first time for everything, I suppose. I thought the other Knight Mages wanted my head after the Black Forest.”

  “You should be thankful, especially after what happened in the Black Forest.”

  “I assure you of the necessity of my actions in the Black Forest,” I said, grinding my teeth. “The centaurs planned to march on the loggers. While I understand their status as a threatened species, only their deaths could keep those loggers safe. No ready explanation existed otherwise. An incident of that magnitude held the potential to draw worldwide attention and expose the existence of the supernatural.”

  “Those centaurs might have lived if you’d followed the Archmage’s wishes from the start,” Julian said, his words colder than the ice around us.

  I hated the truth of those words. The Archmage personally sent me as diplomatic envoy to the German Guild of Mages to quell the unrest among the centaur herd. I couldn’t stand by and watch as the loggers worked to destroy the centaurs’ age-old home, so I used my magic and tricks to frighten the workers. But I didn’t count on the tenacity of the foreman. He offered double pay to anyone willing to brave the haunted wood. His new crew started work early the next morning, and by the time I arrived, I couldn’t reason with the centaurs. No other choice remained.

  “I couldn’t let them lose their home,” I said quietly. “I thought I could protect both the humans and the centaurs.”

  “For that, I respect you,” he said, catching me by surprise. “You chose a risky course of action, one certain to cause backlash, and you acted decisively to prevent a larger catastrophe. I applaud you, sir.”

  Julian clapped, and I looked up. He sat in a winged leather armchair.

  I’d not felt him cast the spell. “How the bloody hell—”

  He raised an eyebrow, amusement in his eyes.

  I looked back down at our soup, determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing me rattled. The leather creaked as Julian stood and came to stand by the fire. Matteo eyed him suspiciously but said nothing. It surprised me how well the reedy man accepted Mr. Baker’s aberrations. But I supposed Julian seemed normal after facing a yeti.

  “You and I have never seen eye-to-eye, even in our youth, but your actions in the forest impressed me. I fought to keep your status as an agent and offered to shadow you on this mission. After seeing how the locals trust you,” he nodded toward Matteo, “I think you a perfectly capable agent. One of our best, in fact.”

  “Kind of you to notice,” I said as sarcastically as possible.

  “That attitude will never gain the respect of the Synod.” Julian turned his back to me, shaking his head. “A pity. You possess marvelous magical capabilities, and those you help sing your praises. On paper, you should already sit on the Synod, yet you insist on disrespecting your betters.”

  “Do you think yourself my better, Julian?”

  “No,” he said, turning his face to the black sky. Illuminated with firelight and framed by the blowing snow of the blizzard he made a surreal sight. Again, I wondered at Julian’s heritage. The moment passed, and the man glanced over his shoulder. “The Synod does, however. They receive our orders from the Queen, and not even the Archmage can move without their approval.”

  “They can burn for all I care.”

  Julian heaved a weary sigh as he collapsed back into his armchair. “I don’t believe there exists a more insufferable man than you.”

  “Good to know we share the feeling.”

  Matteo tasted the soup again and this time nodded his approval. I pulled a set of bowls from my pack, ladled soup into one, and handed it to my guide. He smiled his thanks and dug in like a starving urchin. I chuckled, filled another bowl, and offered it to Julian. “Hungry?”

  He looked down his nose. “No, thank you.”

  “More for us.”

  Silence reigned while we ate, making it the most peaceful moment of the day. Snow still fell in droves, and I smiled. Our magic allowed us to enjoy the beauty of the blizzard, and I marveled at it as I ate. I finished before Matteo and spooned a second helping, careful to leave my guide some should he want it. Julian never moved while we ate. With a sigh I said, “Tell me why you’re really here.”

  Julian smiled, a real one this time. He stood and meandered over to the fireside between Matteo and I. Tucking his cane under his arm, he held his hands out above the flames. “I brought you a mission. One that will prove your merit.”

  “No,” I said immediately. “You may leave now.”

  Julian’s calm facade cracked. “At least let me finish.”

  “I don’t want it no matter what you say. I plan to return to England and spend some time focusing on my own research.” Matteo reached for a second helping, and I intercepted him. The man endured enough today; I could at least serve him dinner. Once he happily tucked in again, I looked up at Julian. “I tire of the menial tasks the Synod throws me.”

  “You’ll find this one a bit more challenging.”

  “Fine.” I knew he intended to keep needling me until I heard him out. “Go on, then.”

  “This mission will require stealth and cunning, as well as the diplomacy you show with your native friend, here. I believe you the best man for this job.”

  “No need to keep pitching it,” I said with a scowl. Matteo finished eating, and I claimed his bowl before he could start cleaning.

  “Even so.” Julian laughed, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “A new order of so-called mystics grows in the shadows of London.”

  “Magi?”

  “Hardly,” Julian scoffed. “This Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is nothing more than idealistic neophytes willing to believe they can obtain more power than they already possess. However, the founder and leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, may well be a blooded mage.”

  “So, you think this man seeks to train unblooded humans?” I stood and made my way to my tent. “Without magic in their blood, they will only ever attain infinitesimal power. “

  “Mathers possesses a sizable following, including many of the members of Parliament,” Julian said gravely as I stood.

  Now that got my attention.

  “Do you think Mathers has magical blood?”

  “Almost certainly.” A shadow passed across his face. “Parliament has abandoned important legislation within the last month to focus on odd matters. The suddenness of this change cannot be a coincidence. The question isn’t whether they are being influenced by someone with magic, but to what degree.”

  “Then I gather my mission is to find out if Mathers is the one ensorcelling Parliament, and stop him if he is,” I said quietly.

  Julian nodded. “The wi
nter solstice approaches, and we fear that whatever this rogue magician is planning, they will enact it then.”

  “That’s only a couple of weeks away,” I mused to myself. I took a deep breath and let it out. This was no small investigation. The fate of all Britain relied on its success. Which begged a question. I looked at Julian and said, “Why me?”

  “Because I believe the Synod underestimates your skills. And, despite your insufferable nature, I rather like you.”

  He gave me his best smile, and I snorted a laugh.

  I stood and started toward the tent Matteo and I shared to prepare to bed down for the night, only to find Julian blocking my path.

  “Will you take the mission?”

  I sighed. I wasn’t keen on taking another mission with this one only barely finished. Especially after the last few left me bloodied and bruised, not to mention hated by half the supernatural world. I also wanted to tell Julian to bugger off on principle alone. But what choice did I have? If the intelligence gathered by the Synod proved correct, then all of the British Empire was under threat.

  Take the mission, Aleister, Vex said softly.

  Why? Because it’ll increase my standing with the Knight Mages? They can burn in—

  Baker is scared, Vex interjected. I blinked in surprise. You can see it in his eyes.

  I looked at Julian then. Really looked. And I saw what Vex meant.

  He hid it well under his foppish façade, but Julian’s eyes were sunken, and there was a fear there I’d never seen in the man before.

  “What’s really going on here, Julian?”