by Alix Hadden
The only way was what he'd done earlier, with Ali and Matt. Drawing from his own essence. At least Ali had insisted on all of them having those damn biscuits. He wasn't exactly at full strength, but he was pretty sure he still had something. And all he had to do was to wrap it away from the earth for long enough to dig it out. Surely he could do that.
Gently, he reached out to it with his mind. The orange glow that was visible to his eyes was scorching to the touch of his mind, to the point where it was hard to get close to. Carefully, he pulled power out of himself, just a little, and wrapped it across the surface of the representation of the thing he was holding in his mind.
The thing dimmed. It was working. He did it again, wrapping more mental folds over the object. Then he bent to pick up the trowel -- and realised that he couldn't put it into the earth. The clay was dense, here, and all the energy he had was going into holding the thing away from the earth so that he wouldn't just fly backwards again. He had nothing to spare for doing anything physical at all.
Shit. What was he going to do?
There was a gentle tug on the rope, Zach asking for reassurance. and he returned it without thinking; then swallowed and bit his lip. Zach. Three tugs to come down. Zach could come down here and do the physical part while Kir devoted himself to the magery. In all honesty even if he had been able to get the sodding trowel in, splitting the job up with someone else would make more sense; he had no idea what was going to happen once that thing came out of the ground. Would it die out, would it flare, would it try to attack again, even?
But right now Zach was at least slightly safe, up there out of reach. There was the fact, too, that Zach was supposed to be there to rescue Kir himself, if it all went horribly wrong. But Kir wasn't anything like as bothered about that as he was about Zach's own safety. He didn't want to put Zach in danger, and it was pretty clear that it was far more dangerous down here than it was up there.
Zach was a grown adult. Zach would be absolutely furious if he knew that Kir was even debating this. Zach, Kir knew, would help without hesitation. Zach would be really angry that Kir was even waiting to think about this. But then, Zach would maybe be angry, but he would be safe.
Kir bent down to try digging again. It was just as successful as it had been the time before, which is to say, not successful at all.
He wasn't going to be able to do this on his own. He couldn't just leave it here, either, that was clear now. He didn't trust Matt any more; Ali wasn't physically capable right now of either handling the magery solo, or of bending down to dig the damn thing up. It was Zach or no one; and 'no one' meant the job wouldn't get done. With Zach...
Kir took a deep breath, and tugged on the rope three times.
He couldn't tell whether it was a long or a short time later when Zach came scrambling down the slope through the mist, both hands on the rope. He couldn't tell whether he felt relief or bone-shaking terror to see Zach's cheerful face.
Maybe both.
"What's up?" Zach said, a little out of breath. "God, it's dark down here. I tied the rope off to the JCB, by the way. If we need to we should be able to haul ourselves out."
Ourselves, he said, but Kir was the only one who was attached to the thing. Kir swallowed.
"We need to dig this out," he said, pointing at the bundle which he was still holding wrapped in folds of magery. "I can't hold it with magery and dig at the same time, I haven't got enough energy. And if I let go of the magery then it sticks itself to the ground."
"So you want me to dig," Zach said. "Right you are."
He grabbed the trowel. Kir held out a hand, and Zach stopped and looked up.
"Just -- I don't know what's going to happen. When it comes out."
Zach frowned at him for a moment, then huffed a laugh. "Oh, I get it. You're trying to tell me this is dangerous, right? Well. Seems like leaving it there is dangerous, too. So let's just get on with it, eh?"
He was bending down and attacking the clay with the trowel before Kir could formulate an answer.
He had no idea, then or afterwards, how long they were there, Kir holding the bundle of whatever-it-was tight as it seemed to wriggle and pulse, Zach digging into the clay, sat back on his knees and bending over the hole, his face tense in the weird light that was emerging from the bundle. As he dug in around it and it began to come free, it became ever more magically active, and Kir began to worry about what was going to happen.
"Zach," he said through his teeth, and Zach looked over his shoulder at Kir. "Look. When this comes loose, I think it's going to try to blow."
"You're going to tell me to get out of the way, aren't you?" Zach said.
Kir shrugged helplessly. "I don't see how you can get out of the way and still get that last bit loose, that's the trouble. I guess -- get your head down and hang onto me if you need to?"
"Gotcha," Zach said, and turned back.
He'd put Zach in danger. He was still putting Zach in danger. Zach had chosen to be here, and Kir could trust him. Maybe that was a better way to think of it.
"Next one it's coming loose," Zach said, after another interminable period while Kir struggled mentally with the thing. It was pulsing visibly now, not just in the feel of the magery.
"Ready," Kir said, and Zach dug into the clay.
Kir grabbed the thing with both hands and yanked upwards, throwing every ounce of magery he had at it. He could hear noise around them, but muffled, as if he was hearing it through something. The orange light blazed and he had to shut his eyes; even through his closed eyelids he could still see it. He felt the burn on the palms of his hand and screamed. Something was happening underfoot; and he could feel Zach's arms around his waist, Zach's body behind his, what the hell was Zach doing? The bundle squirmed and leapt in his hands, the burn agonising now, and Kir reached inside himself for more magery that he didn't even have.
It wasn't going to be enough. He didn't have enough power.
Then Zach reached both hands around and put his hands over Kir's, and without even thinking about it, power was coming from Zach too now, power mediated by Kir, shit, this was dangerous for both of them, he hadn't meant to hadn't meant to...
The light went out, and the bundle started to crumble in his hands, and he fell onto his knees with Zach falling nearly on top of him. His knees sank into the muddy clay, and water was coming up through the clay, creeping up his legs. The ground shifted and Kir tried to get his balance, his hands still full and Zach slumped against his back. His knees slid out from under him, and he fell, face-first into the water which was still rising around him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
What remained of the bundle came out of Kir's hands as he went into the water, and he was only vaguely aware of the fact that he was floating, now, as he stared at it hanging in the water in front of him. The blue light was still there, underwater, but fainter now, not strong enough to hurt his eyes. He knew the water was muddy; he shouldn't be able to see the thing this clearly, but it didn't quite seem to matter. Pieces were coming off it, dissolving into the water, and the blue light was spreading out, becoming fainter. The pulsing was slowing down, the feeling of danger fading away into the background pulse of magic until he couldn't feel it any more. Was there still any light in the water at all? Kir couldn't tell any more. The last shreds of what had been the bundle flaked away into the water as Kir watched, and he felt -- peaceful. He'd done it.
He floated, staring into the water, and thought of nothing. His eyes were aching, now, and his lungs, what was wrong with his lungs? There was some reason, something he should be thinking about, wasn't there? He opened his mouth, and water streamed into it. His body jackknifed, and choking and spluttering, he remembered where he was. Water. He was underwater, and so was Zach, they had to get out, now. He pushed himself towards what he deeply hoped was the top of the water, broke the surface and got a mouthful of air, and looked around desperately for Zach. The pool of water was a good ten metres across now; and there was Zach, floating face-d
own halfway across it. Kir scrambled across to him and hauled him up, his body suffused with dread, but as soon as Zach's head was above the water he took a huge breath, and started coughing, spluttering up water. Zach's eyes weren't quite focussed. Kir needed to get both of them out, and Zach wasn't attached to the rope.
Getting to the edge of the water, dragging Zach with him, seemed to take forever, and once he got there, Kir collapsed out of the water and onto the mud. The ground rumbled under his cheek. It was cold, and wet, and he could feel Zach's weight on top of him. He felt like he couldn't possibly move again -- but the ground was making noises, and he had no idea if the water was going to rise any further, and really they had to get the hell out of there.
They'd both nearly drowned. That was bad enough, but he'd got them out of that. That last bit of magery, though...he might have drained Zach. He might have drained himself. He felt cold, all the way through. It would have to wait. They had to get out of there. He couldn't see anything in the mud and the dark, but the rope was still around his waist, so if he followed that, they would at least be going in the right direction, and he hoped to hell that the right direction wasn't back across that damn water.
"Zach," he mumbled, and pushed upwards enough to move Zach's weight a bit. "Zach!"
Zach stirred a little and said something that Kir couldn't make out.
Kir grit his teeth and heaved himself sideways, rolling Zach off him entirely. He struggled to his knees. Zach was pale in the dim light, and his eyelids were fluttering. He wasn't going to be able to get himself out of here. Kir got all the way to his feet, hauled Zach semi-upright with strength he was getting from he didn't know where, grabbed Zach around the waist, and shoved one of Zach's arms over his shoulder. Then, one-handed, he started hauling them up out of the pit using the rope.
The ground was shaking more, now, and they were making incredibly slow progress. Kir was shaking, too. At least once he'd hauled enough of the rope in to get it taut, he knew they were on the right side of that bloody lake of water. After the first couple of steps up the slope, Zach roused enough to start getting his feet under him, but Kir was beginning to panic that they weren't going to make it, or that the whole thing was going to collapse under them. He needed to seal it up again, but there was no way he had enough energy to do that himself. Matt, or Ali, once he got back to them...
There was a sudden jerk on the rope under his hand, and then someone was pulling it in. Kir felt tears of relief welling up, and shoved them back down again as hard as he could. No time for that right now. It went quicker now, once whoever was up there had pulled up all of the slack, and all Kir had to do was to put one foot in front of another and guide a semi-conscious Zach up to the JCB. It loomed out of the mist, finally, and the figure next to it came clear -- Matt, jaw set, hauling up on the rope like it was the most important thing in the world.
"Oh thank fuck," he panted. "You made it."
"Sort of," Kir said, not wanting to go into anything more just yet. Even if he had drained them both, they were still alive. He could hang onto that. "We need to get that settled down, there."
"England doesn't have earthquakes," Matt agreed, solemnly, and a bubble of wholly inappropriate hilarity rose in Kir's chest.
"I can't help," he said, hating to admit it.
"Didn't think you could," Matt said. "You've done your bit. God, the two of you are drenched, what even happened down there? Ali's going to help, when I give the signal. We didn't want to do anything when the two of you were still down there." He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled sharply, then turned to focus on the pit downslope of them, his face tensing.
There was something about the sight -- Kir had worked magery with Matt before, knew what he looked like, what his quirks were -- that was calming. And the ground was calming, too, as he, and Ali up in the building, worked.
"There," Matt said. "Think it should be okay now." He frowned. "What happened to the -- the thing?"
"Dissolved," Kir said briefly. "It's gone. Can we get back inside, now? Zach needs..." He tailed off. Needed warmth, and something to eat, and something to drink, and for Kir not to have ruthlessly used him to fix Matt's stupid problem, that was what.
"Yes. Of course, right, yes."
Matt came round to Zach's other side, and the three of them made their way up towards the lights of the building, where Ali was stood bracing herself on the railing and looking anxiously down towards them. Her face brightened as she saw the three of them.
"You did it!" she called out. "Bloody brilliant. Come in and get warm."
Kir wished that he could believe that would be all it took.
Once they got inside -- which was at least noticeably warmer -- he realised that what Zach really needed was a hot bath, and blankets, and things like that. None of which was readily available in an office block. Kir's flat had all of those, but would Zach want to go back to Kir's flat now? Kir had used him, and hurt him in the process. Zach most likely wouldn't want anything to do with him. But he didn't even know where Zach's flat was, and Zach didn't seem to be in a state to get him there, and anyway, would it be worse to go back to Zach's flat and be in Zach's space without his permission? On the one hand, if Zach woke up and wanted him out he could just leave; on the other hand it felt like an invasion.
He put Zach down on one of the shiny grey sofas. Zach was just about awake enough to sit up, his eyes half-closed, still shivering; but he didn't seem to want to say anything. Kir stood there, dithering, until Ali came up to him and shoved a mug of milky tea in his hand.
"Not exactly the best stuff but it's what's here," she said. "Lots of sugar. Drink it. What's up? Other than the fact that you nearly drained yourself entirely out there. Not to mention drowned, from the look of you. You need towels, but I can't find anything remotely useful here."
"I nearly drained Zach," Kir corrected, miserably.
"You are both going to be fine," Ali said. "Matt and me are going to get this all squared away, then you can take him home and get him sorted out, okay?"
"I don't know if he'll want me to," Kir said under his breath.
Ali put a second mug of tea in Zach's hand, and watched for a moment. Obediently, he took a sip, still clearly not entirely with it, and she nodded. "Drink that, I'll be back in a sec," she advised, and stumped off to where Matt had climbed back over the railing.
Kir could feel that it was reasonably straightforward for them to settle the earth back down again, with the help of the slightly sad-looking handful of pot plants scattered around the office. Had the thing been draining them, too? But the earth wanted to be calm, really; the bundle or whatever it was had been working against the flow of the energy, which was probably why it had been sucking mage-source in like that. The water would most likely drain away overnight, but even if it didn't, the builders would just think they'd hit an old spring or something.
"Matt," Ali said, once they'd finished. "We really are going to have to talk about this, okay? But Kir's wiped, and Zach needs looking after, and I'm going to point out that both of those things are your fault. So. Up to about an hour ago I'd have expected that I could have trusted your word that you'd be available to decide what happens now, when we have the ability to have that conversation. But now, I think for obvious reasons, I am having some trouble with that." Matt winced, but didn't say anything. "So I'm going to make you make a blood-vow instead."
Kir was mostly focussing on Zach, who seemed to be still slowly drinking his tea, but at that he blinked and looked at her in shock.
"Kir, shut up. It's brief, it's easy, it's to the point. Matt, your alternative is that I call Priya and she takes custody of you. I'm guessing she won't be thrilled at having to drag out here at this time of night, and she might ask some very pointed questions. Questions which you are going to answer sooner or later, of course, either way, but..."
"It's okay," Matt said quietly. "I'll do it."
Kir bit his lip, but didn't interfere as Matt took a shallow slice at the
base of his thumb, and let a drop of blood fall into Ali's palm.
"I bind you to return when I call, until I release you," Ali said, then dusted her hands together, smearing the blood. "Right then. Matt, sod off, I am for reals fed up of looking at you." She turned away from him, obviously dismissing him. "Kir. Get Zach home."
Kir bit his lip, then spoke to her quietly, not wanting Matt to hear. "I don't know if I should do that."
"What the fuck. What else are you going to do, leave him here?"
"No! No. I just -- I hurt him, Ali. I used him, his energy. That last little bit. I don't know if he'll want to see me again. Maybe you should take him home?"
"There's not really room at mine, and I don't know where he lives," Ali said. "Also you have a better bath and really nice towels. Also you're talking total bollocks. He knew what he was doing."
"He didn't," Kir said obstinately.
"Wow, you are really averse to learning anything, aren't you? Zach volunteered. Okay, he doesn't know much about magery, but he knows a bit about where power comes from and the risks of that. I am honestly prepared to bet good money that he is going to be entirely fine when he wakes up. But, tell you what, if you're worried, how about I come back with the two of you? Would that make you feel better?"
Kir nodded. "It would -- he'd have protection, then, or something. Backup."
Ali rolled her eyes. "You are being absurd. Zach doesn't need protection from you. But okay. You're ordering curry, though, okay? I feel the need for a huge quantity of carbs, and both of you could use it too, and it heats up better than pizza if Zach falls asleep. Also -- and this is very important -- no sex while I'm in the flat, right? Right."