“World-Breaker, huh?” I worked on the best poker face in the history of mankind. “Don’t have it on me.”
Paine snorted again. “Of course you do not. You never have it on your person . . . do you know how many times I have watched you from afar, little dog? A great deal since you escaped me. Every time I hope and every time you are without it. An artifact that powerful would blaze like the sun . . . so, you must have hidden it away somewhere.”
“Must have,” I played with the truth this time, easier than a straight lie.
“Of course you did,” Paine whispered, anger flaring over my rebellion in making things harder than they needed to be. “I would do the same.”
“You are ever my role model in all matters, Obadiah. Especially the way you’re such a coward. You waited to confront me until I don’t have any anima to kick your ass with. Hell, even waited until Massey did your job for you and took my artifacts away.”
Paine barked again, even throwing his head back. “Too late the little dog learns that his fists mean nothing. That his yapping means nothing! Only the intelligence that he has wasted and squandered means . . . anything.”
“Pretty smart last I checked. Killed your beast for one,” I pointed out.
Paine shook his head at me. “Such a subpar intelligence that he does not realize how manipulated he has been, how completely outclassed he’s been. You surprised me the once, awoke me to the truths of this world the once and . . . only the once. Since then every interaction, every word, every sacrifice on my part has lead us to this moment, little dog.”
“Claiming you’re pulling Massey’s strings now too?”
“No need when I can predict what you will do before you do it,” Paine sure did love fluffing himself. “After you escaped me, you gained my attention, King Henry Price. At a level few have ever gained my attention. Not only from afar, but as an analysis of your future and past. Who was this boy who stole what was mine? Who lucked upon a World-Breaker?”
“Ceinwyn’s got some tapes if you’re really curious,” I tried to be helpful.
“DO NOT SAY HER NAME!” Paine shouted, closing on me like he might strike, but barely holding himself back.
“Hard not to, being I’ve seen her every other hour for the last couple days.”
Silence as he took that in. Finally he said, “Yes, I can see it. So scared of what your actions have wrought that you have reforged your chains. Doing her will, doing their will, all to be free of Alexander Massey’s punishments. Really, little dog, even from you I expected a better fight.”
“Fight’s coming,” I promised him.
“With what?” he goaded me.
“You don’t got anima here either.”
“No . . . but I have my artifacts and my muscles and you are as weak as a babe,” Paine ridiculed. “No more threats, little dog, or I will punish you for them.”
Somehow I kept my foul mouth shut this once.
Come closer, Paine . . . maybe I don’t just flee into the Geo Realm, maybe I take you with. Knew I couldn’t beat him in the Pit, wasn’t sure if I could beat him in a fair fight, but in the Geo Realm? I’d have the edge. Only . . . that valley won’t have any more mountains once we got done knocking them down.
“Silence . . . so beautiful,” he mocked me before returning to his circular pacing. “Silent and blind. Blind to the truth that I anticipated this very moment, that I prepared for it. Once I delved into your life, into the deal you had made with the Learning Council, it was obvious that Alexander Massey would leverage your chain if it became valuable enough. As such . . . I took great strides in infiltrating the Guild, more than I had in the past for fear one of my Brothers would know me as Paine and not the Curator fiction. Fate was on my side, as the Brothers are only the top of this organization and the cracks are near the base. Luckier still that our beloved Institution has so many records easily obtained by allies I have already accrued. There I learned of your family and of your schooling. Of the Ward girl, of the Welf boy. Potential targets to manipulate you with, but I learned of someone even better, someone . . . special.”
“Isabel,” I said.
“Yes,” he agreed. “A corpusmancer without equal, imprisoned here where I was already working so hard. A wonderful trial run of my strength and an ally of power almost equal to my own. Madder than I am sane, yes, but a tool for espionage like I have never had before, and so completely loyal to me that no other can come close . . . even you, little dog.”
“All yours, Obadiah. Especially the nights you make her facechange into Ceinwyn.”
He punched me. No iron fist in the Pit and Paine’s a scientist, not the rough and tumble type. Still . . . snapped my head back and sent me out onto all fours. “I did warn you,” he hissed.
Hands up, I kept playing it cool.
“Isabel told me of your other enemies,” Paine said after he had finally calmed down.
“The Three Queens.”
“Three Ultras to join my ranks, Institution graduates or near enough, not just the Wilders and debris I have been able to train in my own asylum. Not mercenaries like Conan Sapa or others I have hired from time to time. First Tier Ultras falling into my hands and all because you happened across that warehouse in Tacoma. Better for the Powers That Be if you had died then and there, little dog. Thanks to that night, thanks to your revelation, I have never been stronger and I only grow stronger still.”
“You’re a god among men, Obadiah,” I said with a straight face.
His blazing eyes screamed even as he kept up his explanation about how very fucked I was. “Catherine was only too pleased with my plan to test Maximus Transference by murdering Moira von Welf. She admitted the truth to me then about her own parentage and her own need for vengeance. More proof that Fortune is on my side in this endeavor, giving me such a perfect partner. There is . . . so much hurt inside of Catherine Hayes. She is . . . so quick to see intuitions about how this world works. I have not met a woman like her since, yet now . . . I should thank you, little dog.”
“Don’t. You ain’t fucking her too, are you?”
This time Paine pointed at Salt, who slammed one of his massive fists into the middle of my back, right between the shoulder blades. Knocked the wind out of me as I went face first into that padded floor. Pads or not, it didn’t feel very soft. I stayed there, cheek against the fabric as Salt returned to the door.
“Isabel and Catherine both fight for my approval, both fight to be the only one by my side when my new world rises from the ashes of the old . . . even I am conflicted over which is the stronger. One day they might have to settle the question on their own,” Paine mused like many a normal man has over women. “This was her home . . . this very cell. From the moment you betrayed her and she was taken from your class, she lived here. Without her rightful power. Alone. Only herself. For you or I that would be hardship, we would sink into our minds, but for a creature as beautiful as her, as uniquely gifted in the body as her . . . the mind is too malleable for any pursuit of inner self.”
“Why didn’t you kill her to test your theory?” I whispered from my place on the floor. “She has to be the Maximus of the Body.”
“That she is and I did consider it . . . would have done so without question if she had not proven herself loyal. But she’s mine, my tool, my follower, my champion in ways I cannot fight. Case in point: how she fooled Heinrich Welf for months while waiting for Conan Sapa to do his part in killing the corpusmancer friend.”
“Fucked up that for you, didn’t I?”
“Yes,” Paine spat, “as we have spoken of before, you did very much. But . . . what a chance it gave me, little dog. A chance to speed up the process, to speed you here, to this room with me. All it cost me was . . . letting you enjoy a small taste of revenge.”
I finally pushed myself back up to my knees, all so I could glare at Paine, at that broken smile on his mouth more like an android than a human. “Bullshit.”
“I told you when we last spoke that I had
my reasons, little dog. What better reason than to let King Henry Price do something so very public and so very illegal? Something to catch Massey’s attention? To remind him of the time the Lady overstepped herself, to the time she manipulated a Brother for her ends yet again. Even with that fuel on the fire, my timetables still placed our date at a year or more.
“Imagine my delight when your pride found a way to grow after you killed Sapa, as if the feat was anything difficult for an Artificer. Even as augmented as I made the man, it was never a fair contest, was it? No . . . it was an execution. If you were truly my equal, you would have noticed this at once, but it only fed your ego. You never recognized how I manipulated you, never recognized that I wanted you here.”
Fuck me, he’s got me on blast and he’s doing the same thing he’s blaming me for. Never even considered maybe I wanted to be in the Pit or that maybe I had my own plans. Sure, I’d wondered about Sapa. Sure, also hadn’t seen this coming. But it was such an astounding amount of megalomania on Paine’s part that my mistakes paled in comparison to his. But as pale as it is, might not matter, since he’s still got me by the balls.
“Really does make a fellow consider his blind spots,” I managed to say without sounding too sarcastic.
Sure, I have blind spots. My rage, my joy at smashing faces, fact I can’t relate to normal people most the time, fact I just don’t care like most would the other half of the time, fact I obsess, either over Anima Madness or Ceinwyn or Val or . . . stupid things. Stupid things like the stupid ass I was stuck in this room with. Or the stupid jade dildo one of us was going to die over. Today or tomorrow, no way out of it.
Still on my knees, I turned from the golems and towards Paine, who paced back and forth on the other side of the cell like a caged tiger. If I needed to reach for the World-Breaker in my coat, then my own body should provide the cover I needed to manage it. T-Bone made me practice quick drawing one day. You never know, you could have an arrow flying at you and you’ll need to retreat or something!
Score another point for paranoia.
All through Paine’s talk I kept wondering if I could’ve possibly seen this coming. Him goading me with Conan Sapa’s death only made me wonder more. Not sure how I could have. Paine and me were both maneuvering against the other in the fog of war. One of us was about to get a lance up our backside, no idea if it was me or him.
He hasn’t killed me yet . . .
Kept thinking about that too.
Still alive . . . look at that. Huh. Weird.
More talking.
More self fluffing from the Curator.
And a little more . . .
All this was leading towards some point, a bloody point, a sharp end that will cut a bitch. Paine enjoyed it all too much for it to end in anything but blood.
Still alive . . .
“Each month was torture,” Paine kept on, “but my whole life these last twenty years has been a struggle. A similar kind of agony to her being unaware of my continued existence. Worse perhaps. The knowledge that I could kill you so easily, but that in doing so I would lose the most precious artifact ever crafted. So I have kept you alive all these months. I feared for you in fact, little dog. I feared when the Divines took you in, but somehow you triumphed. I feared when you arrived at that gaudy hotel, that Horatio Vega might make an attempt on your life, or one of the other mongrel abominations. Try they did, but still you lived.
“Countless times I considered killing those closest to you. Your love, your Valentine. Or one of your friends, perhaps the floromancer you befriended as a Single? Or perhaps your father? But I wonder . . . would that not bring you joy? A tormenter from your youth struck down?”
Surrounded, without anima, outmatched a billion to one, just a normal guy called King Henry or not, my hands formed into fists and my knuckles cracked.
The gesture made Paine smile again, just as fake as always. “It was worse after Catherine had her own taste. Beyond the scope of my orders or not, it created such wonderful havoc to see all of you weep over Eva Reti’s predicament. Then Fines Samson died and Eva Reti lived and . . . I knew. I had an answer to my experiment even without Moira von Welf’s death. The Maximus power passes on.”
My dirt eyes promised we’d both die before I saw him with that power. “So I heard,” I managed to grunt out.
“Is it you, little dog?” Paine asked. “I hope it is. I’m going to kill you anyway one day, but please, give me even more joy on that precious day your spark stops.”
“Learning Council doesn’t seem to think I am,” I lied again with the truth. Recognized by only Ceinwyn Dale. Not the mancer governments.
Paine studied me like I was a bug and those wings of mine might look better pulled off my back. “If true . . . this is good for you, little dog. I must settle just for killing you over withholding the World-Breaker then . . . if you had held two powers that rightfully belong to me . . . I would have been most inventive. I do like being clean when I cut my ties.”
“Good to know,” I deadpanned. “Not that there seems to be much killing going on . . . or torture . . . not that I’m complaining.”
“No need,” Paine whispered. “I had planned on it once. A whole night of torture. Massey finding your ruined body in this room the next morning. But . . . no need. I have something you want. Something you will trade anything for. Your life, the World-Breaker, perhaps even your Valentine.”
“Not so sure about that,” I thought aloud, “plus I don’t think women like it when you say they’re for trade.” The joy in Paine’s face made all the jokes wilt. Whatever it was—even if he was discounting my own plans landing me in this room just as much as his had—he thought he had all the leverage between us. “T-Bone called, told me you tried to steal it out of my safe. How that go?” I tried to bait him instead.
No rise at all. Just that same assured superiority, so much of it even Heinrich Welf would have gagged on it. “I had to be sure,” Paine admitted. “If it had been in the safe I could have killed you tonight. Which would have been a shame . . . then you never would have heard what I am about to tell you.”
“You’re wearing a cheetah spotted g-string?” I back-talked.
Still nothing. Still not striking me down with his point. Build up, glorification of his own self. Of his talent, of his mind, of his luck. “It was Isabel who alerted me to it. I use a number system for my patients, you see, but she’s taken an interest in them all . . . between their bouts of insanity. Even my methods have only kept them so sane . . . still, they’re productive for society and they yet breathe . . . they have a life, of sorts; so . . . everyone is happy, are they not?”
“Pumping out that anima to crash the Quota,” I growled at him.
His smile grew into the first grin I think I’d ever seen on Paine’s face. First time I saw his teeth for sure. One of his canines was cracked. Had to fucking hurt, but he’d never gotten it Slushed or even repaired by a normal dentist. “You have been learning, little dog, good for you. All for naught, all too late and all too easy, but good for you. Isabel enjoys trying on their bodies and while she does . . . they speak of past lives, before they were graced by my presence. Imagine Isabel’s surprise when one of my flock told her about a little brother named King Henry.”
.
.
.
That’s the sound of my world crashing down around me.
[CLICK]
“You’re lying,” I said, because what else do you say to Fate sticking her entire fist up your pee-hole?
Not the asshole.
The pee-hole.
Also apparently popped up to my feet. Don’t remember doing that.
The smugness rolling off of Paine fed my fears. Every fear I’ve ever had about this day. My worst nightmares about where Susan might have disappeared to were never even this terrible. Didn’t think about her every day, but I did wonder and worry and . . . imagine. Imagine horrible things. Her dead. Her Anima Mad. Her with some new family, with a husband and ch
ildren I’d never know. But this . . .
“You’re lying,” I repeated, almost directly into Paine’s chest.
I also didn’t remember closing in on him like that.
So close . . . could smell the grease he used to lubricate his artifact limbs. Could smell the cologne he wore to cover that smell. Just had to reach into my coat and then grab his arm and I’d have him. At my mercy, or at least a fight on my turf. Fuck the mountains. Fuck the farms. Fuck the cities. I’d watch them all die around me if that’s what it took to kill Paine. If he really . . . if he . . .
“Susanna Belle Price,” Paine whispered right into my face. “Very beautiful.”
I grabbed him around the collar, Paine motioning behind my back for the golems to stay in place. “Lying piece of friend-killing shit,” I got out between gritted teeth.
“I have had her for years,” he was so very happy to tell me. “Number Thirty-Seven according to her chart. I am well past two-hundred now, little dog. Contrary to your grotesque imagination about me, I do care for them all. Clinically care for them, not emotionally, but they are provided for. Some I have seen taught to quite proficient levels of anima use, even put them to tasks around my compound, others I only teach to use an anima vial, so I can drain them daily.
“Unlike what the Learning Council assumes, my process does a much better job of keeping them sane than sending them to this hell. The disappearance of anima is far worse than overfilling with it. I do not make the claim they are sane like I am, but . . . I have managed to keep some of their minds intact. Also, beyond your assumptions, I do not often find my castoffs in mental hospitals, by then ESLED’s hounds are already sniffing after them. I focus on procuring them far earlier, at psychologist offices. I do admit to kidnapping them just like I did Christmas Ward and many others, and it is a hassle with adults, but it is for their own health.”
“Ain’t seeing any proof, Paine!”
“Paine now! Not Obadiah! Not a joking matter anymore, is it, little dog? Not with precious Susan’s life on the line!”
Susan . . . if I killed Paine, if I even escaped alone . . . if Pocket and Jesus hadn’t actually managed to find the compound, even if they did, all it would take was one phone call and then . . .
The Pit of No Return (The King Henry Tapes Book 6) Page 49