by C L Walker
“That’s all I can ask of you. Thank you. Is Seng still trapped in your hell?”
Seng was a god who had threatened to release a hell on earth in order to gain his old powers back. I had trapped him in the hell he’d opened, which was the same hell as the demons in the HND.
“We brought him with us,” the demon said. He chuckled – the low rumble growing stronger when he did – and pointed to one of the shacks. “We thought you would appreciate us keeping an eye on him.”
“May I speak to him?”
“Of course.”
I opened the door to the shack and stepped inside. There was nothing to see within, but I felt the prickling of a barrier as I crossed over the threshold.
“Have you come to torment me further, Agmundr?” Seng’s voice was made of the shifting of the winds outside and the creaking of the structures as they slowly decayed. He had no body so he had no voice, and his power was limited to the body he inhabited. In this case there was no body, so no real power.
“I’ve come to ask you a favor.”
“No you haven’t.” His voice rose, dragging in more elements from the world outside and even my own heartbeat, to form his anger. “No you haven’t. You’ve come to torment me, to pick on me again. Why don’t you just kill me, Agmundr? Do it and stop this pain.”
I was taken aback, but not entirely surprised. Seng had led a terrible life and it was my fault. He’d tried to defend his love and I had killed them both, and when he tried to regain his godhood I’d killed him again. If anyone was going to be blamed for his misfortune it was rightly going to be me.
“No tricks, Seng,” I said. “No torture. There is a war coming and I need your unique abilities to help.”
“You don’t trust me, barbarian.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Your strength is your berserker rage, not your tiny brain. What strategy could you cook up in that empty melon on your shoulders?”
“Seng, let’s not do this. I don’t have time.”
“What? You have to be somewhere? You have to destroy someone else’s life?”
I spun around and walked out. As much as he was able, he screamed for me to return.
“Are you going to be more helpful?” I said.
“I will try,” he replied. “Seeing your ugly face drives me a little crazy.”
“If I let you out would you help me? And would you promise not to try and break everything again?”
He was silent for a long time, though I thought I could hear his murmurs in the breeze, or in the rumbling of the demons outside. He had no reason to help me, but then I had no reason to trust him. It would be desperation on both our parts.
“No,” he said eventually. “After a considerable amount of consideration, I’ve consigned you to contemp.”
He giggled at his words, as though they were the height of wit. He’d been the ghost of a god for a long time, and there was a chance it had broken his brain.
“You would be saving a lot of people,” I tried. “You would be redeeming yourself and your godhood. And you’d get a body out of it, too.”
“Which you will destroy as soon as I’m done helping you. No, Agmundr, I won’t help you. And damn you for even asking.”
I could respect his decision, cataclysmic though it could be. I turned and left the shack. As I crossed the threshold I tasked the tattoos with destroying the barrier that held him inside. It came down with the tinkling of broken glass.
I had no other actions to complete. If the war was coming then we were as prepared as we could be. If neither Seng nor the demons would help then there was little I could do about it. I had to hope that Buddy and his angels would be enough, and if they failed that Fairbridge could take the brunt of it.
“Why?” Seng said, his composite voice sounding inches from my ears.
“Release you? Because I was always going to release you, Seng. Your madness is my fault, and trapping you for eternity wouldn’t be fair.”
“I tried to kill you,” he said. “I’ll try again.”
“That won’t be a problem. And if I don’t do it now then you’ll never be released.”
I walked away from the town, waving to the demon and preparing for a potential attack from his doppelganger at the gate.
“This won’t make me help you,” Seng said. “I am not so easy to bribe.”
“I understand,” I replied. “That isn’t why I did it.”
“Bullshit. Of course it is. You think you can guilt me into saving your ass. You think I’ll ride in on a white horse and save the world. Be its protector. I won’t, Agmundr. I warn you, I won’t.”
“That’s fine, Seng. Listen, I have to run. Good luck with whatever you do decide. Try not to hurt anybody, alright?”
I ran to the gate and slipped through before the demon could react, and before Seng could continue an argument he was having with himself.
I ran through the angel camp, too fast for them to react and detain me, and stepped through the gate to earth.
I appeared and someone punched me in the face immediately. Someone strong. I fell over backward, blood flowing from my nose.
“Stay down,” the woman who’d hit me said.
Chapter 26
She had a blade on her belt, but she didn’t need it; someone who could floor me with one punch was strong enough that their fists were weapons.
I rolled back into the wall and stood. The tattoos erected a magic shield as I rose and I paused to examine her. She was smaller than me, just over five feet, and built like an athlete. There was nothing to indicate where her strength came from; she wasn’t well-built and she didn’t have any kind of magical aura. In fact, when the tattoos tried to probe her presence they came back with nothing, as though she wasn’t standing before me at all.
She attacked and I waited for her to bounce off the shield. She stepped through it like it wasn’t there. When she punched me in the stomach I doubled over and fell to the floor.
“What the hell?” I said. I raised my hands to ward off her blows, which came quickly and every one hurt. She was faster than a normal person, very well trained. Every attack was perfect, her form precise and dangerous.
I knew who I was facing; or what, anyway. I’d fought someone like her before: Merikh, the assassin who’d bested me with ease when I first arrived in Fairbridge. He was immune to magic, so my normal protections didn’t work. Even my physical hardiness had been negated by his anti-magical nature.
I scrambled out of her way, still trying to get out from under the deluge of punches and kicks coming my way. She gave no quarter and didn’t grow tired. I was covered in bruises, and I was bleeding as I backed away and ran into another wall.
I had to do something. The soldiers who had been there before were still there, their rifles raised and ready in case their pet assassin wasn’t good enough.
Their rifles. She was immune to my greatest strength, but she wasn’t bulletproof.
I put everything I had into grabbing her arm. It was difficult and she pulled out of my grasp with ease over and over, but eventually I got a grip and spun in place, throwing her across the room and giving myself a moment to breathe.
I ran at the nearest soldier, a shield appearing to protect me from any gunfire. He didn’t have time to react, though. I grabbed his gun and clubbed him to the ground, then turned the weapon on the rapidly approaching woman.
I fired and it was like she was able to dodge the bullets. She wasn’t moving fast enough, I was sure, but wherever I fired she had simply moved out of the way. And then she was on me again.
She snatched the rifle from my hands and discarded it. She didn’t need anything so pedestrian. She leapt at me, landing with her legs wrapped around my chest to give her leverage so she could overwhelm me with punches to the face.
“Enough,” I said through the blood flowing down my face. She didn’t stop and I was running out bones in my head for her to break. The tattoos were healing me as quickly as they could, but witho
ut a way to fight back she was going to wear me down.
I grabbed her around her waist and body-slammed her into the ground. I heard the air rush out of her. I held on, lifting her up and slamming her down again. Up, and down again, and this time something inside her made a popping noise and she groaned. She didn’t stop fighting, though.
I had control of her movements as long as I could keep her in my grasp. She had control of the access to punch me in the face as long as her legs were wrapped around me.
I sped up, focusing through the pain and the constant pummeling, and giving the order to the tattoos. They exploded with red light. I ran for the far wall, smashing us through the soldiers there and running her into it at full speed.
This time I didn’t hear a pop, I heard a series of cracks. She screamed and released me, and I let her go down. I stepped back, wiping blood from my eyes so I could make sure she stayed down. She squirmed on the floor, her legs bicycling and sending her into a tight spiral where she lay.
“That’s enough,” Doctor Keith said. He stepped between his men, who all had their guns raised.
I turned on him. Shields appeared around me.
“I’m trying to save you,” I said. He didn’t back away as I advanced on him and we ended up near the edge of the room, before the exit door, with him looking almost straight up at my angry face.
“You are under arrest,” he said, with barely a hint of the fear he felt.
“You can try to arrest me, little man, but I don’t think it’ll go well for you.”
I was breathing heavily and my blood was dripping from my face and landing on his grey suit. He didn’t move or acknowledge it.
“Then what am I supposed to do with you, Agmundr?”
The question was so simple and honest I didn’t have a response. I’d expected blustering, threats, something aggressive. Instead he just looked afraid.
“Stop fighting me and help,” I said. “Stop camping here and attacking anyone who comes through. Those are my people and they are trying to save you.”
“From what?” Now he stepped back, though it looked more like it was due to a pain in his neck than because he didn’t like me bleeding on him.
“Erindis. She’s coming, and she’s going to tear this place apart. Your men are standing here holding guns that won’t stop me or the people fighting for me.”
“We need a defense.”
“This isn’t it.” I looked around at the men, all highly trained and all still waiting for the order to fire. The assassin had stopped twitching on the ground and now lay still, her breathing even and deep. “I am your defense, and I’m getting sick of having to fight with you.”
“Why would Erindis want to tear anything apart?” he said after a moment of silence. “How could she?”
This was a critical moment, I realized. I wanted to kill everyone in the room and leave the mess for the government to clean up, but they’d simply send more people and I’d have to deal with them, too. But if I calmed down, if I looked past what he’d done and had planned to do, then perhaps I could come out the other side with a better solution.
“I’m not a thinking man,” I said. “So forgive me if I misspeak. Your actions have helped her get her hands on the power she has always craved. It has ensured that she can blast this little team of yours, and the building they’re standing in, and the city around that, to pieces.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
I sighed. “And that’s why you need to do what I say. Or get out of the way. Or help, if you feel like it. Just stop slowing me down.”
“You’re talking about a large event,” he said. “Something apocalyptic, and I don’t think I believe in such things.”
I raised my hand and aimed it at the emptiest wall. I formed a lance of pure energy and sent it out. It collided with the wall and destroyed it, exploding out into the early morning light.
“Do you believe that?” I said. “Think of what I can do, what you’ve confirmed that I can do. Now think about this: I’m afraid of what Erindis is going to do when she gets here. That should make you soil yourself.”
He held my gaze, thinking about what I’d said. It was better than the alternative, and I gave him the time. I still had my shield in place and his men couldn’t do anything. The assassin was trying to get up but I’d broken something important and her legs were no longer working properly.
“Everybody out,” he said. “You, help her out and then follow the others.”
The men jumped into action, following his orders without question. They cleared the room and carried the assassin out, closing the flimsy door behind them.
“Tell me what’s happening,” he said. “Don’t leave anything out and don’t presume I won’t believe you. I will evaluate your words and make a decision.”
I told him, trying not to leave anything out. I told him about Fletcher summoning me when Seng first found a body and a plan. I told him about Invehl, the god of envy, and how he’d tried to devour the afterlives and how he’d worked with Erindis to control me. I told him about Bannon, who had wanted to be me so badly he’d started a cult and brainwashed my friends.
And I told him about Erindis, and what she was doing now. I told him who we had been and who I could see her becoming. When I was done he staggered backward and leaned against the wall.
“Are you alright?” I said. “Did you believe any of that?”
“I have to believe some of it,” he said softly. “I’ve seen the evidence of it. And that was all you?”
I nodded.
“I can’t believe everything you’ve said.” I started to talk and he held up his hand. I shut up. “But I’ll take it on faith that what you’re saying isn’t all just madness. If I find out you’re lying to me about anything big, I’ll find a way to make you pay.”
“So, what does this mean?”
He sighed and shook his head. “It means I know where the dagger you’re looking for is. If you give me a few days I’ll have it delivered.”
“I don’t have a few days. You don’t have a few days.”
“Then you’re going to have to steal it, I guess.”
Chapter 27
I returned to ACDCs and slept for a few hours. I figured the end of the world would only be averted if I could stand up, and I was close to exhausted. Besides, I didn’t want to hurt anyone and the building the dagger was in was full of people. I’d have to wait until nightfall anyway.
Bec disappeared between me falling asleep and me waking up. The bar was empty and I grabbed a drink, enjoying the silence.
My first night in the twenty-first century had been at the bar. I’d sat and listened to a man playing a guitar, singing about lost love and regret. I’d watched the people around me and I’d watched Bec, and I’d hated every moment of it.
Now I’d give anything to do it again. I wanted more of it, more of the life I could see here in Fairbridge. I had never had the chance to live in the city, to live in this century, and for the first time in my long life I wanted it. I wanted all the normal things that Bec fought against. That I had always fought against.
I finished my drink and put the glass in the sink. I fetched my coat and I walked out.
There was no point in wanting something I couldn’t have, and my actual life was waiting.
I caught a taxi across the city. The unmarked cars were still there, as were the Chaos gang members, but the unmarked cars were now tasked to look after me and they kept the gang members at bay. My destination wasn’t that far away anyway.
The dagger had been sold by the head nurse of a hospital outside town. How she’d come by it and what she’d done with the money was unknown, but Section Thirteen, Keith’s private army, had kept an eye on it. It was in the private collection of a man who owned a building in the center of downtown. He was never there, but he had great security.
Keith promised that the authorities wouldn’t interfere, as though that was something I’d be concerned about. He also promised that he wou
ld look the other way, as long as I kept the carnage to a minimum.
To a minimum. Not no carnage, just not too much. It was like he had some math he had to do to work out the value of an action, and the people who might get hurt were just a part of his equations. I didn’t like it, but I wouldn’t have to put up with it for long.
I walked into the lobby of the building and went straight to the elevators. Building security didn’t question me and I pressed the button for the top floor, swiping the card Keith had made for me on the access pad inside the door. Having the government on my side made things easier, but he couldn’t help me when I got upstairs.
The doors opened on a lavish reception area. A long wooden desk filled the space before me, with glass walled conference rooms occupying the floor between me and the office on the far side. I knew which one I need to check.
“Can I help you, sir?” the chirpy woman at the desk asked. She had a headset on and the light on the side was flashing red.
“I’m looking for Mr. Key,” I said. “He told me to come down and wait for him.”
My. Key owned the building, and it was in his office that I would find the dagger.
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Key isn’t in today.” She frowned, looking down at her computer screen. “He isn’t scheduled to return for several weeks.”
“I must have the wrong week, then,” I said. I smiled, nodded my head, and went back to the elevator. The door dinged and I stepped inside, pressing the button for the lobby.
As the doors began to close I ordered the tattoos to speed me up. The elevator seemed to stop closing and I slipped through the gap, running as fast as I could.
The woman was talking on the phone, frozen in mid utterance. The others in the office, walking from room to room or sitting at hot desks, were also frozen in place. I rushed through, checking the names on the doors as I went.
Key’s office was a giant corner room behind a locked door. I grabbed the handle and forced it open. When the people in the office caught up with me they were going to be very confused.