“Don’t sell yourself short, Daniel. We both know you could make enough mortars to equip the entire host of Asgard if you wanted to. But how long would that take, hmm? Weeks? Months? Would you ever truly be finished?”
Now I was the one grinding my teeth. “One battle.”
He inclined his head. “A single victory. With minimum force, even. I’m sure you don’t want to draw too much attention, or have the Moon Ghosts pestering you for a repeat performance. The battle will be in three days.”
“Fine,” I growled. “Then we’re done here.”
I pushed away from the table, and stalked away. Of all the stupid problems I could have run into, why this one? I thought I was rid of that smarmy bastard when he died. But no, apparently even that wasn’t enough to get the job done.
I could still see his hands on Avilla’s body, her face twisted in unnatural ecstasy.
Yeah, it hadn’t been his fault. I didn’t care. Every time I saw him I wanted to punch him in the face.
I pushed through the crowd around the stage, and stepped out of the club still lost in my thoughts. I really wanted to break something right now. Maybe I’d fly out to the wasteland around the Sunspire-
A lance of agony in my side interrupted my thoughts.
Assassin! Alanna’s voice sounded in my mind, just a moment too late. A weedy little guy with dusky skin was stepping away from me, and pulling another dagger out. The first one was buried in my kidney, gushing poison and death magic into my blood.
I staggered, reflexively throwing up a force barrier while I groped for the dagger’s hilt. But he just stepped through it, the magic sliding off like it couldn’t get a grip on him. I tried to fend him off with my free hand, and got a long cut down my arm for my trouble.
Then the dagger was out, and Alanna’s wooden form grew out to cover my whole torso. My amulet went to work trying to heal the wound, fighting with the death magic that wanted to snuff out my life. The blinding pain dropped to a more bearable level thanks to the pain block I’d integrated into the healing enchantment, and I could think again.
So this guy was protected from magic? Fine, how about physical force?
He stabbed me in the shoulder while I was getting my gun out, but this time the dagger just slid harmlessly across hard wood. His eyes narrowed, and he tossed a handful of something at my feet.
That was my cue to take flight. A column of light and flame erupted from the ground, blinding in intensity, and burned off my left leg from the knee down. But the rest of me was already outside the area of effect by then, and I finally had my gun lined up on him.
He started dodging frantically before I even pulled the trigger. I held it down and kept the weapon pointed at him as it kept firing, figuring I’d get a hit soon enough. The big iron bullets smashed into the street all around him, shattering the yellow brickwork. The pedestrians around us shouted in alarm, pulling back and drawing weapons.
No one screamed. It was just a momentary thought, but it struck me just how odd that was. In any other city I’d ever visited, helpless civilians would be screaming by now. But there weren’t any helpless civilians here. The elves who’d been nearby had cleared out with preternatural speed, although I caught glimpses of bows and slender blades appearing from behind cover all up and down the street. The dwarves just hunkered down against the nearest wall and let us pass, half of them pulling out hidden weapons of one sort or another. As for the humans, the einherjar had no fear of death. They just stopped and watched the excitement, as if we were a couple of street performers putting on a show.
The assassin threw a handful of knives at me, magical things that swerved to stay on course as I tried to dodge them. But Alanna had me completely covered in wooden armor now, and was starting to coat herself in steel. So I wasn’t too worried about knives, and kept most of my focus on my shooting.
I winged him with my next shot, and then the knives reached me. My flight was fast enough that two of them missed despite their magic, just grazing the edge of my force field. But the third one struck my chest, and set off a dispelling that momentarily blew away all the magic I had active. A banishment and some kind of poison attack hit me a split-second later, but neither made any impression on the steel breastplate Alanna had conjured.
My flight spell was gone, though, and my ring wasn’t smart enough to recreated it automatically. It took me a moment to realize I needed to turn it off and back on, and I smashed into the street before it could finish cycling. I was going about forty at the time, so there was a lot of tumbling and cursing involved before I fetched up against a stone wall.
Then I found out that the other two knives were still homing in on me when they caught up, and slammed into my back. One of them turned into a plasma bolt that blew my force field down again, and would have cooked me for sure without Alanna’s protection. The other unleashed a ball of acid that ate into everything it touched with a furious hissing sound.
I threw myself away, and conjured a torrent of water to wash myself clean. But when the water touched the caustic goop that coated me it exploded. I flew through the air, momentarily dazed, and landed on a rooftop.
At least the blast had blown most off the goop. But it was still eating my face, and there were little bits of something sticky burning furiously all over my armor. Something that burned hot enough to melt steel, albeit only in small amounts. I’d never been so glad for that pain block.
“Ow.”
Ow, indeed, Alanna agreed. I fear I may need your help, Daniel. I can shed my metal skin and grow a new one easily enough. But the poison from that dagger is most insidious, and I can’t quite seem to heal myself.
“How did you get poisoned? Don’t tell me that dagger actually cut you?”
It did, she admitted. It bore the Nine Trials of Set, an enchantment most inimical to all living things. I knew I should have kept my shell of cold steel intact.
I turned my attention inward, and saw the curses that were trying to kill us both. My amulet was slowing it down, but every time it healed those tainted wounds the curse just killed the flesh there again. Hell, flesh magic alone wasn’t going to be enough. I’d need to call on my mana sorcery as well, to figure out how this curse worked and then pick it apart.
Alanna was too strong to die easily, though, and my amulet would buy me some time. I just needed to make sure whoever that was didn’t try again while I was focused on healing. Where could we hide out? Not the club, that’s for sure. Moon Ghost Hall might be safe, but maybe not.
No, I needed a spot where no assassin would dare to tread.
Hang on, Alanna. I can break the curse, I just need to get us somewhere safe first.
I took off again, rising high into the air on a ballistic arc. In a couple of heartbeats I was pushing the sound barrier, leaving the assassin far behind.
What place would be safe from the Lightbringers? She asked, her voice pained. I had not thought their reach would extend to Asgard. But if they are here at all, they will have their usual network of agents and informants in place.
What the hell is a Lightbringer? And why would they be after us?
She was silent long enough to worry me.
Well, I suppose that proves Odin wrong, she finally said. Although I cannot imagine where you are from, that you have never heard of them. They are the most ancient order of the magi of Egypt, Daniel. They were formed to stand against Atlantis when the City of Dreams seemed poised to depose the gods from their thrones, and they have hunted the survivors of the cataclysm for all the ages since. They see themselves as the defenders of the natural order of the world, and they are backed by the full might of Egypt and its gods.
So, Odin has a leak, I realized. Someone found out that he thinks I’m one of those Atlantean wizards, and passed the word to these Lightbringer guys. How do they think they’re going to stop a bunch of reincarnating wizards, anyway? Don’t tell me they have a way to destroy souls.
No, Daniel. Destroying souls would be a violation of the
natural order they revere. They have traps that can capture a soul at the moment of death, to interrupt the cycle of reincarnation. When they catch an Atlantean wizard they take them to the pits of Badai Kudel, where they can lock them in a prison made of nightmares to be punished for the transgressions.
Well, shit. These were some serious assholes. Not to mention tough as hell. That assassin had been as skilled as an elf, and whoever made his gear knew how to fight wizards. This could be a serious problem.
But I had to live through the next hour before I could worry about the long run. I passed over the wall that surrounded the barren wasteland where the Sunspire stood, and picked out a spot to land.
Why are we here? Alanna asked. Are we not hurt badly enough already, without venturing into this cursed place?
That’s why we’re here, I told her. We can survive it, but I’ll bet those ancient magi don’t run into radiation very often. Even if they know a way to deal with it, their agents here aren’t likely to have the right protections.
I set down on an expanse of bare rock, and slumped. The flesh of my face was regenerating almost as fast as the remaining acid ate into it, but my vision was getting blurry. I needed to get this stuff off of us both before it did any more damage, and stop the bleeding from the stump of my leg. Then I could focus on figuring out that curse before it managed to stop my heart, or break Alanna’s connection to her tree.
Maybe if I kept myself busy, I could avoid thinking about how close I’d just come to dying. If not for Alanna I wouldn’t have survived that attack. Even with her help I would have been out of action without the pain block from my amulet, and I had no doubt that assassin would have circled back around to finish us off if he’d gotten the chance. Hell, if I couldn’t fly I don’t think I’d even have made it away. Hopping down the street on one leg certainly wouldn’t have gotten me very far.
I needed to have a long talk with Alanna about who these guys were, and what they could do. Then I had some serious prep work to do, before they took another shot at me.
Chapter 12
Gustav was waiting for me at the gate that led out of the wasteland.
“Not even here for a week, and you’re already causing trouble,” he grumbled, crossing his burly arms and scowling at me. “I’ve been listening to complaints from shopkeepers for the last hour. What happened?”
“Apparently the Lightbringers have a spy in Odin’s hall,” I replied. “One of their assassins tried to take me out in the middle of the street.”
He looked me up and down, and snorted. “Looks like you’re not as tough as you thought, doesn’t it? I’ll have to put a guard on you from now on.”
I’m sure I was a sorry sight. My leg was still missing from just below the knee, and I hadn’t bothered to heal the flesh of my face yet. The rest of me was completely covered by the armor Alanna had become, but the mere fact of its presence made it obvious I was worried about another attack.
Even so, I didn’t have much faith in any guards Gustav might assign me. If these assassins were as good as Alanna thought a squad of einherjar wasn’t going to slow them down much. Maybe it would buy me a couple of days while they planned out a way to deal with the obstacle, but that was the best I could hope for.
“What, do you have a secret anti-assassin squad?” I scoffed. “I don’t think regular troops are going to stop these guys.”
“No, but this way when we find your body I’ll be able to tell Odin I did what I could.”
“Your concern is so touching,” I said.
He smirked. “No use pretending, wizard. You know what I think if your kind. I suppose you’ll be laid up healing for the next month?”
“Just a couple of days,” I lied. “The leg is easy, but the damage the curse did will take some work to fix.”
“I’ll file a report,” he said. “If you’re going to die, try and hold off until we get the betting pool set up. Rolf, take your squad and escort the wizard back to Moon Ghost Hall.”
Ass. I should have just flown back, and left him wondering what was going on.
At least we made it back without incident. I locked myself in my quarters for a couple of hours then, so I could finish healing Alanna and think about what to do.
“They will try to avoid wholesale slaughter, at least at first,” Alanna advised me. “But now that they think you a target they will never give up. They will simply keep coming, using a different plan of attack each time, until they find something that works on you.”
“Well, this is a fine mess Odin has gotten me into. I’m pretty sure they must have heard about me from him, and not from reports of what I’ve been up to in Kozalin. Otherwise they would have been ready for my healing, and the fact that I can fly.”
“Agreed. Flight is rare, but you are not the first wizard to achieve it. I wish we could simply convince them of their error, but they will never believe it now. Not unless you can reveal the truth to them instead.”
The truth was that Hecate had violated some kind of truce between the elder gods of multiple worlds when she recruited me from my Earth. Revealing that would probably cost me her patronage, and who knew what kind of enforcement team a treaty like that might have? I might get the Egyptian magi off my back, only to end up targeted by a bunch of angry gods instead.
“That isn’t an option,” I decided. “No, we’re just going to have to beat them.”
She boggled at that. “Beat them? Daniel, the Lightbringers are the most deadly assassins in the world! The magi that back them have skills even the cultivators of China would be hard-pressed to match, and they operate under Ra’s blessings. They have hunted the survivors of Atlantis since the days when the sphinx was new, and defeated even the mightiest wizards in the end. Can you really hope to withstand them?”
Could I?
I had a lot of raw power, but I’d barely started to delve into the possibilities of my magic. These guys had been perfecting elaborate mage-killing weapons for thousands of years, and testing them against the most dangerous prey in Europe. That was an intimidating prospect even without factoring in the possibility of divine support.
On the other hand, Egypt was a decadent nation ruled by a decrepit old murderer and his pet band of sycophants. I had my own divine backing, and Hecate was a lot more proactive than Ra. I had my own brand of inscrutable magic, born of the terrifying discoveries of the atomic age, and with my mana sorcery I could figure out other people’s secrets with ridiculous speed.
“I think I have a shot at it,” I said. “Egypt is old and fading, and we’re a rising new power. But I can’t do it alone. I’m going to need help, from people like you and our dark elf friends, because I’m going to be playing catch-up for a while here. Are you with me on this? I know a shadow war with the Lightbringers isn’t what you signed up for.”
She studied my face carefully. “I would think this vainglorious boasting, if I did not know you better. But it makes no sense. I have seen the whole history of all the Nine Worlds and beyond, and there has never been a mortal mage who could win this fight. Yet I know well that you are no god, nor yet some otherworldly being of power. I would love to stand with you in triumph, my wizard, but my ancient heart fears that this road leads only to death. Can you show me some sign of hope’s trail?”
I put my hands on her shoulders, and looked into her eyes.
“I can’t reveal the truth right now,” I said. “But I can point out at least three ways we could have a chance. I might be part of some secret group that’s powerful enough to fight these guys. I could be from someplace you don’t know about, either a hidden plane like Skogheim or a place beyond the Nine Worlds, where we have better magic than the Lightbringers. Or hey, I could be from the future.”
“The future? Daniel, time travel is impossible!” She protested.
“How many times have you seen someone confidently make a declaration like that, and then be proven wrong?” I teased. “Anyway, it’s not like they can march an army into Asgard and demand my hea
d. Odin wants his superweapon fixed, and if they cause too much trouble he can send a god over to crack down on them. So they’re going to have to keep things subtle, and work with limited resources. All we have to do right now is stay alive until we figure out a solution to this mess with Odin.”
“True. But afterwards?”
“Getting agents to Kozalin won’t be easy, and we’ve got a whole clan of dark elf ninja guarding the citadel,” I pointed out. “I’m not exactly an easy target. But if things start to look hopeless we can always grab the girls and run off to someplace they can’t follow.”
“And just where would that be?” She demanded. “They know the world ways as well as I.”
“Have you ever been to the moon?” I asked.
“The moon?!” She said incredulously.
“Or maybe Mars,” I went on. “That’s a longer trip, but it might be worth the trouble. Think they could find us there?”
“Impossible man,” she laughed. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Completely,” I said. “It would take me a few weeks to set up, but I could build a ship to take us there. I’d just rather not, because we’d have to abandon most of our people.”
“Mars,” she breathed. “Daniel, I thought I had explored every nook and cranny of the Nine Worlds, and long since run out of wonders to see. I know the planets are worlds, but to travel the sky itself is such an impossible notion I never thought to see it happen. Even the gods have never ventured beyond Luna. Tell me, have you been there? Are there fresh wonders to discover, in that trackless expanse?”
“Enough wonders to last a thousand lifetimes,” I told her. “I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen the images send back by exploration golems. Mars is a world of vast canyons and endless frozen deserts, with the biggest mountains in the solar system. But that’s not the only place we could visit, when the war is over. Can you imagine mountains of ice and rock drifting through the void, or a world with storms bigger than the Earth that rage for hundreds of years? Worlds with dozens of moons, of all sizes and colors, and one that’s circled by a bright ring of dust and snow?”
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