by HDA Roberts
He screamed and fell, his part of the link going dark and making me smile. Two down, five to go.
While I’d been focussed on the active Councillors, Haughter had been crawling away. I’d thought he was just trying to get out of the line of fire, so I’d ignored him.
He yanked the door open just as I was drawing a bead on my next target.
That gave me a sudden thrill of panic. There had been guards out there. Had they been Hunters, too? Was Cassandra alright?
My worst fears seemed realised when Haughter snarled, "Get in here you idiots, it's already sta-"
He stopped because instead of the six Conclave Hunters he'd been expecting, he found a mangled pile of humanity with a pissed-off Cassandra standing in the middle, throttling the last Hunter to remain upright. She looked a bit worse for wear, with a bloody nose, charred rips in her clothing and a nasty cut above her right eye, but she also looked triumphant, like she could take on the world.
Cassandra would later tell me that those poor idiots had actually tried to arrest her. She had been forced to remind them that it was rarely wise to attack a properly-motivated Demigoddess-Wizard at close quarters.
As soon as the door opened, and the Muffling Enchantments broke, Cassandra turned towards Haughter, and saw what was happening beyond him.
That was when she got really pissed-off.
That's right, she'd done all of that to six combat-trained Wizards and Sorcerers, and she wasn't even really angry yet.
She wasted no time dispatching the last Hunter; she simply grabbed his head and threw it into the nearest wall to hit with a wet crack. That poor bastard was quickly joined in concussive unconsciousness (henceforth known as the Cassandra-Special) by Haughter, who she kicked once on her way past, drawing her gladius as she came.
She took a second (if that) to take in the scene, pushed a little Magic into her sword, and then she moved.
She moved so fast that it was as if she vanished from her spot by the door and reappeared next to Councillor Lovenay. Her sword was practically shining with White Magic as she brought in down on the Councillor’s combined defences.
Before her recent training and all that practice, Cassandra been fast, strong and capable; dangerous, certainly, but she’d really only used her Magic in the most minimal way possible during combat. She’d defended herself from Magical attack and enhanced her speed; that was it.
Now, she was much more versatile, and that made her terrifying.
She was still conservative; she didn’t have vast piles of energy to throw around, after all, but if she was fast before, she was a speed-demon now. She’d practiced moving during her opponents’ blinks, combining that with a kind of skin-tight Will-Shield that greatly increased her strength and durability. Combine that with all the practice she’d put in at Dispel Magic, and there were few Magicians alive who could stand up to her at close range.
At least, on their own.
Five Magicians working in perfect harmony, though, could. Their overlapping shields were too strong. They still took a nasty hit, but they held. Cassandra dashed out of the way before they retaliate. She may not have broken through, but she’d distracted them, and that gave me a very nice opening that I did not waste.
I cast my Laser Lance again, and it ploughed into their weakening shield, nearly bringing it down completely, until two of them worked in concert to shove a Dispel Wall into place. My Lance hit and there was a minor explosion that obliterated the Councillors desks and set the carpet on fire.
I grunted and started reforming the Lance. I was nearly through. Just as I was ready for what I hoped was a more successful attack, I noticed that the Councillors were actively controlling the air within their shield, likely to keep me from using some sort of Chemical attack.
That was sensible, I was doing much the same thing within my own Shields. But, because I used that method myself, I knew that it could also leave you vulnerable to certain dirty tricks if you weren’t prepared.
And they weren’t.
I smiled.
I started with a pair of Dispels. The first blew apart their Dispel Wall, and the second dissolved the hasty Will Shield the Councillors tried to put in its place. They managed to get yet another defence in the way, and they’d even ducked out of the line of fire as soon as I started releasing the Lance, but none of that mattered.
My Laser Lance incorporated every last scrap of photonic energy I’d managed to gather, and it was more than enough to puncture their remaining shields. But, as the energy finally reached the interior, I released my hold on the beam's coherence, as good as pouring all that light... and its associated heat, into a tiny area of contained, static air. Because the Councillors were maintaining it directly, and not allowing it to mix with the outside, any ability they had to diffuse all that heat was terribly insufficient.
Their mental link shattered as the Councillors recognised what was happening and acted to defend themselves. Three were fast enough to avoid serious injury, but the other two fell to the smouldering carpet, screaming horribly as every exposed scrap of flesh was scalded by superheated air.
Meanwhile, understanding that she’d been out of her weight-class, Cassandra had switched targets, pulling her brand new pistol to draw a bead on the Guards/Hunters behind me. The new gun was much like the one I'd bought for her a while ago, a silver-coloured revolver fitted for Dispel. This one was of a larger calibre, though, and it came with a useful little Enchantment which switched fresh rounds for spent casings by means of a clever little point-to-point Teleport built into the accompanying ammunition pouch. Essentially, this meant that she'd never need to reload the gun (though she'd still need to fill the pouch).
She fired on the clutch of Hunters behind me, dropping two with four rapid shots before the others wised up and leapt behind cover. I pressed my attack on the Councillors, secure in the knowledge that Cassandra could take care of herself (and watch my back into the bargain).
The two who’d been scalded were down for the count. One was unconscious from the pain and the other was whimpering, rocking back and forth as he cradled his lobster-red face. The rest were frantically trying to raise their own shields, as their combined defence had collapsed along with their link. They managed to avoid the heat, though, I’ll give them that, but they still left themselves terribly vulnerable.
I sent a wave of kinetic energy that smashed into them like a small car, sending them tumbling across the room and into whatever hard surface was closest to hand.
Their wounds weren’t too bad, only one or two broken bones, but the impact was all the distraction I needed to cast a wide-angled Sleep Hex that dropped them into unconsciousness. I quickly reinforced my work with Coma Hexes so that there was no chance of them getting up again for a long while.
Then I turned my attention to the Hunters. I knew that it wasn't really fair to blame them for what had happened to Tethys, but someone had to have done the dirty work, and I’d seen them with their hands on her. That was enough for my slightly rage-addled mind.
There were only two of them left after Cassandra’s fusillade and my earlier work, and I plunged a quartet of sharpened Shadows through the ruined desks the pair was using as cover. What little wood remained after the earlier explosion was shredded, and my attack descended on them like the world’s ugliest bug-stomping shoe.
They screamed as the hardened darkness stabbed through their shields and crushed the vulnerable flesh below before hurling them up and over to land at my feet.
One was almost insensible from pain, barely coherent. One had enough wherewithal to look up at me, though. Something in my eyes made him wet himself on the spot.
I’ll admit, I struggled. I was so angry with them, with the Councillors, the Conclave...
They’d hurt my Tethys, starved her almost to death, kidnapped her, invaded her mind. I wanted them to pay, and I wanted them to pay in blood.
Maybe I would have done something, too, but it occurred to me (just in time) that anything lik
e that would have played right into their hands. They’d wanted to paint me as the villain, and nothing says villain like mutilating your fallen enemies. Besides, none of these poor sacks of mangled meat were the masterminds behind this mess. If Haughter, or anyone else in that room, had the political power to arrange all of this, then I’d have heard of him long since.
Someone else was to blame, and torturing these poor devils wouldn’t get me to him.
Oh yes, him. It rather had to be. Nobody else could have targeted Tethys. Nobody else would have been stupid enough, and also brilliant enough, to try it. If Haughter had really known who Tethys was to me, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere near her because... well, I’d cut bits off him.
So, knowing that it was the right thing to do, and also the necessary thing to do, I controlled my temper and dropped Coma Hexes into the fallen Hunters’ heads instead.
I took a breath and turned to Cassandra.
"Cassie, watch the door?" I asked.
She nodded and went to stand next to the slightly mangled entryway while I checked on Tethys. She still wasn’t awake, but the energy I’d given her was enough to keep her stable for a bit longer. I went around the room and dropped Coma Hexes into the heads of everyone who didn’t already have one. I needed a little time to work in, and I didn’t need anyone waking up and causing more trouble.
That done, I turned my attention back to my friend and resumed my careful feeding.
"We can't stay here, Matty,” Cassandra said. “I can feel more coming. A lot more. Thirty-plus from every direction."
"Close the doors," I replied.
She obeyed and I stopped the feeding long enough to lay a great bank of Shadows over the doors before giving them the additional power and Spell-structure required to solidify them.
"That should buy us the time we need," I said. "I won’t be long."
Cassandra frowned, but came over and knelt next to me.
"Jesus," she said, gently sliding an errant curl from Tethys' face, her expression filled with concern. “Is she going to be alright?”
“If I have anything to say about it.”
Cassandra nodded. I continued upping my supply of energy to Tethys until she took a great, gasping breath and her eyes snapped open.
“What the hell?!” she barked, looking around herself.
"Easy," I said, continuing the supply, increasing the flow. Now that she was conscious, it was safe to give her a little more. Think of it as giving water to someone who’s dehydrated; she could have rejected it if given too much, too fast.
"What the ever-loving Hell happened in here?" she asked, looking at the carnage, but then she sighed and her eyes closed as she felt her Well refilling faster and faster.
"Ooh, Matty, is there a little bit of you inside me?" she whispered, practically purred, actually, which made me smile.
"You had to make it tawdry," I replied.
She kissed me very gently on the cheek, "You know it."
Before long, her wounds and blemishes started to vanish. Her skin resumed its normal pale perfection, the bags under her eyes disappeared along with her bruises, and her hair became smooth and silky again.
“Do you remember what happened?" I asked as the last of her injuries vanished.
"Yes. All too well, unfortunately,” she said, her expression turning sad. "Lexi... Lexi set me up. That island was one great big trap. We weren't there half an hour before I was surrounded by thugs and then zap, I was down for the count. Bastards."
"And you're sure it was Lexi’s doing?" I asked, my anger coming back with a vengeance.
"She just stood there and watched as they took me down, and then she provided the Portal to some jail. No idea where, but it was bad. It drained me, and they wouldn't feed me."
She shuddered.
"God, I am so sorry," I said, holding her close.
"Why? How is it your fault? I'm the one who let a bloody Conclave mole into our lives. How could I have been so dumb?!"
"As much as I'd love to explore your humiliation, I think they're about to break through," Cassandra pointed out.
I nodded.
"Come in close," I said to them both. "And close your eyes."
"Oh, not the Shadow Realm," Cassandra complained with a sick look on her face.
"I already tried creating a Portal. We're blocked. It's the only way out of here without making a huge mess."
"But they know you can do that, Matty," Cassandra said. "Why wouldn't they block that, too?"
"Because they can't, apart from anything else," I replied. "It requires more than an Archon's worth of High Magic to cut off an entire dimension. Myrddin could just about manage it, but that was before, and these idiots aren’t him."
"But they can block Portals?"
"That's relatively simple. Jen can cut through a jammer, no problem, any good Space Mage could, but I'm intermediate at best. Hence Shadow Realm. Unless you want to try and fight our way out?"
"I wouldn't mind that," Tethys interjected. "I'm looking for a little payback."
"And you'll get it; believe me," I said. “Just not today, alright?”
She nuzzled in a bit tighter to me, "Okay."
Cassandra grumbled, but then the first of the Laser Lances breached my Shadow Barrier and she stepped in close as well, wrapping her arms around my waist and grabbing on a bit tight.
"Close your eyes," I reminded them, "and don't open them again until I tell you."
They did as they were told and I opened a Shadow Gate. I wrapped all three of us in a cocoon of Shadow and took us through, away from the Conclave building and quite possibly the biggest mess I'd made in my entire life.
A trap had been set, and I had blundered right into it. I didn’t know what the eventual consequences would be, but if the Conclave was as thoroughly involved in it as this incident suggested, then things were going to get an awful lot worse before they got better.
Chapter 43
I kept the journey as brief as I could, and we soon stepped back into the real world, slightly squashed into one Blackhold’s downstairs bathrooms.
"Why always in the loo?!" Cassandra complained as soon as she opened her eyes.
"They’re usually dark," I replied.
I turned to Tethys, who I was still holding. "How are you?"
"I feel like an idiot," she said, looking up at me.
"Well don't! Nobody suspected a damn thing! She gave a flawless performance," Cassandra said before I could say more or less the same thing. I nodded my agreement.
Cassandra opened the door and Tethys stepped away from me once there was space.
"I'll be right back, I need to change; and shower so many times. How long was I gone, by the way?"
"Five days," Cassandra said.
"Seriously?" Tethys said with a frown, "It didn't feel that long. But I was pretty out of it."
I twitched a little at that last bit. I was seriously considering going back to that Conclave and burning it down.
Tethys came back to me and wrapped me up in a warm hug, "I love it when you get that look in your eyes. It makes me tingle in all the right places."
I blushed and she giggled.
"I'll be back in a minute. You... you should call the others. This is about to get bad. I'm pretty sure you just declared war on the Conclave of Great Britain."
Cassandra sighed, "Well, it was bound to happen eventually."
"Oh, ha, ha!" I said with a glare as Tethys left.
She seemed alright, but I was worried for her. Like Cassandra had said, it had been days since Tethys was taken and, if she was correct (and Haughter wasn’t lying), I had to assume that someone had been in her mind for most of them.
Tethys’ mental defences were very strong; her mind was very disciplined, she had training and I’d put protections in place to prevent anyone getting in when she was asleep.
That explained why they’d been starving her.
The only way into her memories would have been to disorient her, fragment
her thinking; not easy with a Succubus as powerful as she. Without that power, though, and with her mind slowed by lack of energy, she would be significantly more vulnerable to intrusion. It even explained the memory loss, as that kind of deep probe could cause all sorts of problems if the interrogator was sloppy.
Oh, I was going to make someone bleed for that...
“Cassie, would you check in with our people and make sure that nobody else has gone missing?”
“Sure. And I’ll put everyone on alert, just in case.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you calling them?”
I nodded, “Can’t not call them, can I?”
She snorted.
“Seriously, I’m looking for a reason.”
She smirked and thumped my shoulder, “Go face the music.”
“Haven’t I been through enough today?”
“No.”
“Just no?”
“Yes.”
She walked off, leaving me alone. I sighed and headed for my library.
Hopkins was my first call.
"What?" she hissed. "Repeat that."
"The Conclave kidnapped Tethys and used her to bait me into a fight with a Sub-Council while they moved a Hunter team up to arrest me. And I’m pretty sure Myrddin is behind the whole thing."
"Yes, that's what I thought you said."
I heard her sigh.
"Are you alright? Is she?" she asked.
"I’m fine, so’s Cassie. Tethys seems alright."
"Seems?”
“She was with them five days and only remembers a tiny bit of it. I’m worried they may have done some damage.”
Silence.
“Check her over, Matty. Very carefully. If it had been me, and I'd managed to capture your... well, everything, then I wouldn't have dangled her in front of you like that if there was the slightest chance I couldn't keep her... or unless I had her on a leash."