The Hunt for the Three Roses

by Jason Hubbard

  “He sure told you, Brad,” Johnny said with an amused grin.

  “That’s fine, young man, I just don’t want you hiding behind me,” Brad said. “You do that, and I’ll spank you like the toddler you are.”

  As Sean rolled his eyes, Don produced an amethyst from a pocket and frowned at it. “Shit, it’s still not working. I thought it would in close proximity, but no such luck.”

  “You made a seeking stone?” Sean asked, observing how the stone gave off a light that pointed skyward.

  “Yeah. Not many people know this, but that woman he killed fought back with a knife, cut him enough to bleed onto the floor. I used that blood to make this stone, but it’s not pointing anywhere.”

  “Must not be his blood, then,” Brad said. “Shame.”

  “I was so sure it had to be his. But dammit, looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way. We’ll split up and comb the entire place.”

  “The entire place?” Johnny whined. “It’s a pretty damn big place.”

  “You got a better idea? Hell, you know it better than any of us, you should know where a psycho killer should be hiding. We’ll just follow you.”

  “Whatever. I’m just saying you should have made sure that stone was working before you dragged us out here.”

  Don offered no further argument; he only passed out four blue stones to his teammates. “These are distress stones. If you see the son of a bitch, you just put a little bit of magic in it, and—” He did so with his stone, and all four stones lit up, their light beams pointing towards Don. “Just follow your light, and we’ll regroup where our target’s at. Just a little bit of magic, mind you; you don’t want your stones to pop in your hands. That’d ruin your day a smidgeon.”

  “You said this place has a water system,” Sean said. “Do you think Rainer could be hiding underground?”

  “Of course. Lots of cellars, too, but don’t go poking around in one alone, or you’ll get yourself cornered. Shit, if we don’t find him today, we’ll have to bring in the guard to help us. Our reputations as mages will be blown to hell.”

  “I say we blow the whole place up and look for Rainer’s body in the aftermath,” Johnny said. The way he casually said it gave Sean the chills, making him recall the fate of Knox’s Stand.

  “Yeah, we could do that. Ten years or so in the palace dungeon don’t sound so bad. Or we could use lassos. You have them, Brad?”

  “Constrictors, Don, they’re called constrictors. You throw them at the target, and they’ll wrap around him and keep him in place. His killing days will be over.” Brad reached into a satchel and pulled out short ropes with steel orbs on either end. He gave two to each of his teammates, who tested their weight by swinging them around.

  “Yup, you don’t even need to be a gold-winning athlete,” Don said. “Just toss ’em, and they’ll do the rest.”

  Good, this might be easier than I thought, Sean said with a smirk.

  “All right, we don’t have all day,” Brad said. “I want to find this man before nightfall. Remember, don’t go blasting at every moving thing you see. There are still people living here who don’t wish anyone harm, and even if you see someone doing something illegal, ignore him. It’s Rainer we want, and he’s all we’re looking for.”

  Don used a key to unlock the gate, and the team ventured into the Red Borough. It wasn’t long before Sean saw what Don meant by “weird things,” for the effects of the explosion’s residual magic gave the area a sense of … wrongness. For one thing, the sky, which had been blue only moments ago, now had a tinge of brown to it, as if a broad cloud of smoke had dropped and settled across the land. And it wasn’t just the sky; everything seemed to have been drained of natural color. Sean felt as if he was looking at a painting that had been dragged through mud and couldn’t ever be clean afterward. The unnatural atmosphere also made the plant life appear sickly—not exactly dead but near Death’s door. The grass couldn’t grow wild and was dotted with yellow patches, and the trees had tiny leaves that had withered earlier than the rest of the city’s.

  And then there was the whine. It was hardly noticeable at first, but the further in they went, the more it assaulted Sean’s hearing: a high-pitched noise like the buzzing of bees, only stronger and more piercing. He plugged his ears, but he could hear the awful noise deep in his head as if some insect was flying around within his skull. He earned amused looks from the others, so he dropped his hands and tried to bear the annoyance.

  “Can’t be put into words, can it?” Don asked. “It’s something you have to see for yourself.”

  “I can see why no one can live here,” Sean said. “This place would drive me mad if I had to stay much longer.”

  “I’ll have to rip my ears off if we have to keep searching after dark,” Johnny said.

  “I would have come with wax to fill our ears with, but we’re looking for a killer,” Don said. “We all need to stay sharp, even if that means we have to keep from killing ourselves.”

  Once the group reached a street corner, Don had them split up, sending Sean to the north. Sean soon found himself completely alone, ambling down a street with patches of weeds and broken signs. He took deep breaths to steady himself, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that tainted his heart. When he woke up this morning, he never thought he’d be in a place like this, searching for a notorious killer while magical residue played tricks on his eyes and filled his head with an incessant whine that made him want to scream.

  “Damn that man,” he muttered, thinking of Don Orlov. Don was the apparent leader of the group, and he seemed to be more worried about his reputation than having a solid support of city guards. It was true that society considered any one mage to be more powerful and effective than one armed guard, and having four mages look for one man might seem like overkill. But having more eyes and ears would be helpful in the search, and an armed force would give Sean peace of mind. Hell, having an armed escort should be standard procedure in a manhunt like this. Don, however, wanted to play by his own rules, relying only on fellow mages probably to show how better they were than non-mages.

  Sean soon came across a park complete with walkways, a small lake, and swing sets. The area must have been beautiful in its heyday; he could imagine children playing in the fields and married couples going out for strolls only to return after dark to their homes which spread across a distant slope. He would have loved it here, but now the trees were barely clinging to life and the lake appeared murky and dull. There wasn’t even any birdsong to lift his mood. This place truly appeared Godforsaken.

  He crossed the park and skirted the slope to enter a residential area where the horrific whine intensified even further. Debris littered the streets and dwellings stood with broken windows and crumbling walls. He believed he knew where he was headed, and sure enough, he rounded a corner to discover the site of the explosion from five years ago. The resulting crater was roughly five meters deep and wide enough to fit four houses, exposing the sewer network which still spewed a steady stream of water. It was a sunny day, yet in this place it appeared to be twilight in spite of the sun nearing its zenith. The surrounding area was little more than outlines where houses used to be, covered in piles of bricks, glass, and smashed furniture that spoke of happier times. Sean looked around for leftover remains of victims, but there were none to be had. Some brave souls must have come and collected the dead for proper burials a long time ago.

  He circled around the crater and headed north again, eager to get as far as he could. In his mind’s eye, he saw Rainer rise from that crater like a ghoul from a crypt, and Sean didn’t know if he’d have a clear head to face him properly. The whine was getting to him, making him plug his ears again as he clenched his teeth together.

  Suddenly, the distress stone in his hand lit up, its beam pointing west. Sean swallowed hard and ran in that direction, trying not to trip on the debris. He held onto h
ope that he could reach the scene to help whoever had activated his stone. Problem was, the Red Borough was a big place, so each mage may have strayed too far from each other to meet up in a timely fashion.

  It took him around fifteen minutes to spot Johnny on a street in the middle of a slope, waving an arm to get his attention. Brad was already with him by the time Sean reached him. “I saw him!” Johnny exclaimed. “Big, ugly bastard with crooked teeth and a wicked sword.”

  “Where did he go to?” Sean asked.

  “He went up a house. He’s probably looking at us from a rooftop.”

  “And you say you threw your constrictor?” Brad said.

  “Yeah, yeah, I threw your lasso—or ‘constrictor,’ if that’s what you want to call it. But it didn’t work.”

  “He must have a negating crystal on him. We’ll have to use other means.”

  “But I didn’t feel one on him. Negating crystals have a certain feel to them, you know? I threw a hex at him real close, and it landed on him but didn’t do anything.”

  “What kind of hex?”

  “It was to clamp his mouth shut, but he acted like it was nothing. A crystal would have ruined my casting, but I made the spell perfectly.”

  “I knew we should have brought guards with us,” Sean said.

  Johnny agreed, but Brad shook his head. “Nonsense. We’ll just have to use the environment to our advantage. A crystal can’t block a wind or a fire if we keep our distance as we cast them.”

  “So, the idea is to injure him or lay him unconscious? Very risky if we’re to take him alive.”

  Brad made no reply as he scoped the area for any sign of their target. Sean did the same, scanning the rooftops for a figure looking down on them. He felt like a sitting duck while standing on the street, so he tightly held his wand, ready to put up a barrier at the first sign of trouble.

  Don eventually joined them and got updated on the situation. “He’s probably cowering in a corner somewhere,” he said with a sly grin. “We’ll have to go into one of these houses and look for him.”

  “I say we split up again and wait for him to come to one of us,” Brad said. “We’ll stay on this hillside.”

  “Hmm, okay. Don’t worry about his crystal; just keep peppering him with hexes, and one of them will stick when that crystal wears itself out.”

  The group agreed on that plan, although Sean was reluctant to do so. As they strayed apart, Sean caught Johnny drinking a vial of red potion. The man had seemed shaken by his encounter with the killer, and he wanted to be prepared for another one with an extra boost of magic.

  Just as Sean was bracing for another long, lonely slog through this hellish district, he spotted a dull glint from above. He raised his wand and set up a barrier around two meters in diameter. A dagger bounced off its surface, prompting its thrower to curse aloud.

  “I found him!” Sean cried. Brad was already on it as he sent a fireball from his staff; it flew to the rooftop, leaving a stream of black smoke in its wake, and it exploded above Rainer’s head with a bang powerful enough to rattle Sean’s teeth. Rainer jumped down from two stories above, landing on the street with a grunt.

  So that’s him, Sean thought. He had heard plenty of things about him, and he sure looked like a man who went through life without a conscience. With his thin, arcing eyebrows, sharp nose, and lips that could make either a sneer or a smile appear threatening, he looked a little like the Devil incarnate. He wore a brown padded tunic, along with steel vambraces and greaves and a short black cloak.

  Sean took one of his constrictors from the crook of his left arm and swung it a few times before throwing it. It flew straight and true, but Rainer deftly caught one of the balls and tossed it aside. The constrictor should have wrapped itself around his arm, but its magic was blocked somehow.

  “Get back!” Brad ordered. Sean retreated just as Brad and Don threw their own constrictors. The enchanted ropes made a beeline for Rainer over a good distance, but Rainer drew his shortsword and smacked them aside with the flat of the blade.

  “You came just to play fucking games?” the killer snapped, his strong, commanding voice cutting through the air like a hot knife.

  Johnny threw his one remaining constrictor, which met with the same fate as the others. With a frustrated yell, he drew out his falchion and used it as a conduit to toss a broad wave of fire at Rainer, covering him in flames just as he raised an arm over his face.

  “Johnny!” Don bellowed. “Did you forget we need him alive?”

  “I don’t care!” Johnny countered. “He’s a hired killer! He’s murdered more than just three people in his lifetime. I see this as me doing a public service.”

  Sean hated to admit it, but he sided with Johnny. Taking out a contract on King Hugo’s life was bad enough, but slaying a defenseless cleric and a mother of two was truly unforgiveable. Better to let the man roast than let him stew in a cell till natural causes claimed him. Then there’d be no chance he’d kill again.

  All eyes were on the burning figure, waiting for his inevitable collapse. But incredibly, Rainer stepped out of the fiery area and brushed off ash and flames that lingered on his person. He then leered at his shocked opponents and swung his sword, his skin and hair perfectly fresh, untouched by the flames that should have seared him to death.

  “Oh my God,” Don muttered. “How did … how did he …?”

  Sean shook his head, completely mystified. No negating crystal could have saved him from that fire; that’s just not how such crystals worked.

  Johnny rushed at him, his mighty falchion meeting Rainer’s lesser shortsword. If one judged from weapon size alone, Johnny had the clear advantage, but Rainer was as agile as a cat, easily sidestepping his opponent as he slid his blade along Johnny’s time and again.

  “Get out of there, you idiot!” Don cried. He looked ready to issue a hex, but to his credit, he was reluctant to cast it with Johnny in the way.

  After a minute of fighting with no advantage gained, Johnny stepped away and tried something new, running his free hand over his blade to imbue it with a quick enchantment. The blade glowed with yellow light and distorted the air with its intense heat, but in his overzealousness and desperation, he had poured too much magic into it, and the enchantment flared too brightly. Rainer turned with his head down and stepped away just before the falchion burst, Johnny’s face taking the full force of impact. Johnny screamed and dropped the falchion’s smoking remains to bury his face in both hands, hundreds of steel shards embedded deep in his skin. He bent over as he sobbed and cursed his fate, completely heedless to the murderer approaching him. Rainer grabbed his hair from behind, put the shortsword to his throat, and made a quick slice. Johnny dropped to the ground, chocking on his lifeblood.

  Brad held his staff with both hands and created a barrier wide enough to prevent Rainer from circling around it. “Don, if you have a plan, do it now!”

  “Shit!” Don yelled, and he issued one hex after another from his bare hands, the spells easily passing through the barrier to strike Rainer. They were meant to debilitate him, but just as with Johnny earlier, the hexes had no effect on him. Don may as well have been tossing autumn leaves at him.

  Rainer approached the barrier, his intense gaze a promise of death and ruin. After his blade struck the barrier three times without leaving a scratch, he looked unsure of himself and contemplated his next move. He then laid a gloved hand on the barrier and surprised himself when a spiderweb of cracks appeared from his palm. He tentatively pushed on it, and while the barrier did not shatter, it did give in as if it was mere cloth, the cracks spreading even further.

  Sean looked to Don, wondering what the older and wiser man made of this. Don was terrified, for he had never seen a situation get out of control this quickly. His usual methods hadn’t worked, and now he was witnessing the impossible.

  Rainer tore through the barri
er with his fingers and pushed aside two flaps to make himself an entryway, his eyes gleeful as Brad grimaced from the dismantlement of his spell. “Go! I’ll hold him off!” Brad dropped his concentration, and the barrier disappeared as he met Rainer’s blade with his staff.

  “Come on, kid, move it!” Don grabbed Sean’s shoulder, prompting him to retreat. Sean looked back a few times, worried that Brad would fall next. The man had some talent using his staff as a melee weapon, but Sean had seen lancers in the army with more skill. In what was perhaps an inevitable turn, Rainer grasped the staff with his free hand and slashed the side of Brad’s head. Brad unlatched his staff and did his best to ignore his bleeding temple, but his focus had wavered, allowing Rainer to take the staff again and go for a mortal blow across the throat.

  Don ducked into a house and urgently bade Sean to follow. After looking around the gloomy living room, he cast what looked like a yellow orb from his fingers, which landed in a corner only to vanish. “Was that a bomb?” Sean asked.

  “Yeah, it’ll blow on my command. If fire can’t stop that bastard, I’ll bring this whole house down on him.” He placed another bomb in an opposite corner, which disappeared from view. “Listen to me,” he said with a hand on Sean’s shoulder. “I want you to lure him in here. I’ll blindside him so you can escape, then you run the hell away from here. It’ll get messy.”

  “You’re going down with him?”

  “Not really,” Don replied with a wink. “Put up a barrier to slow him down if you have to, just get him to come in here. Now go!”

  Sean left the house with his heart in his throat. Johnny and Brad had suffered terrible fates, and he wondered if he’d meet a similar end at Rainer’s hands now that he was actively trying to be prey. With his wand clutched in a sweaty palm, he looked around for the killer but couldn’t find him. Sean’s dead partners lay down the street with Rainer nowhere in sight.