The Pit of No Return (The King Henry Tapes Book 6)

by Richard Raley

  “If I did, we wouldn’t be back together, Miss Ward.”

  “Well, Mr. Price, let’s go make a deal with the grown-ups. As for London . . . I’ll only go if you promise not to end up in jail again. I’m not the Assistant Director of International Recruiting any longer and I won’t be able to get you out.”

  “Yeah . . . well, apparently I know a guy on the Learning Council.”

  “Part of me wants to get recognized just so I can be at your first Council meeting . . . but it’s a pretty small part.”

  “Hey, forget Ceinwyn’s spare bedroom, let’s have sex on the Learning Council’s table.”

  Both of us weren’t able to breathe after that one.

  All we been through, all we still had to go through . . . at least we were back together.

  Try Number Only.

  King and his Queen.

  Volcano in the making.

  Watch out world.

  Ceinwyn’s up to bat.

  You’re next Massey.

  Session 181

  Eureka.

  Epiphany.

  Had plenty of those this week.

  Obadiah Paine was gone.

  Been dead for an hour or more by now.

  Susan was Anima Mad, but not listless and empty like Mom.

  Team Needs a Better Name was all still alive and kicking.

  T-Bone’s left ass cheek had seen better days, but we all have to make sacrifices.

  Sacrifices. Responsibility. All that shit I’m not good at. All that shit making me already regret accepting my rightful place as a Maximus. Guess the saying is true. Ain’t a lot of bliss to be found on this side of the truth. Still . . . find the right person, maybe you get enough to keep fighting.

  Val was there beside me, back with the group. Got her own Vicky Welf Surprise Hug. Even got one from Jesus, who I didn’t think had it in him. Not unless you had four legs and a case of the mange at least. Pocket thanked her for saving him and Jesus from Isabel, which seemed to help more than any of the hugs did. Me, I never say the right thing, but Pocket always had that silver tongue shit down to stop a fight before it was about to happen.

  Good friends to have.

  Even the Half-Assed Wonder himself.

  “You know you’re making a squishing sound when you walk, right?’ I teased T-Bone. “Strange didn’t make you put a diaper on, did she?”

  “I took a bullet because of you,” he complained.

  Yeah, I’m gonna hear that one for decades now.

  “Don’t get your diaper in a bunch, dude,” Pocket joined in with a grin.

  “It’s not a diaper! It’s a salve poultice! With plastic taped over it . . . so my pants won’t have a wet spot.”

  “So you were worried about being undignified,” Jesus reasoned, “and decided that a diaper was better than all of us thinking you wet yourself?”

  “My grandpa made the same choice,” Val added.

  “Stop picking on my boyfriend’s diaper!” Vicky warned us all.

  Way we all stood and grouped together showed the divisions between us, even after the battle had been fought.

  Ceinwyn and Moira Welf standing side by side. The rest of us across from them, me at the center and a semi-circle working out from me. Val, Jesus, and Pocket on my right. T-Bone, Vicky, and Welf on my left. Yeah, Welf was on my side.

  Feels strange, man.

  Speaking of strange . . . Miss Strange had Susan.

  More thorough examination than Welf could give. Would be more tests once they got her back to the Asylum, I was sure. Tests, monitored care. Same shit Eva had to put up with since the Ouroboros. Being weird’s fine as far as mancers are concerned. Odd, grouchy, cranky, eccentric. All fine. But the second you take that step into the wonderland of the unknown . . . system clamps down on you tight. Starts judging you. Starts readying the long knives. Or . . . the long needles make you fade out, disappear. Either kill you outright or make you go night, night long enough for them to transport you to the Pit.

  Not my sister.

  “Shall we begin?” Ceinwyn asked. “I need to talk with the ESLED agents here and then I’ll need to call the Lady so she can let the dogs off their leashes. At the rate we’re going we won’t reach the school until tomorrow morning.”

  ESLED had shown up finally. Just field agents like Estefan, no strike teams. Was guessing that’s what Ceinwyn meant by ‘the dogs.’ Our dogs had already cleared out. What was left of them. JoJo might have killed him if he didn’t help save Susan, but I’m sure as fuck gonna need to pay off the King of the Coyotes again . . . bastard always makes sure his side of the ledger is the one with room to spare, don’t he?

  No news choppers, but a single news van had pulled up to the barricades they put in place. Random people hovering around too . . . though for some odd reason trying to capture video of the area only resulted in static. Wonder if it’s some specialized electromancer skill or if they have an artifact that does it?

  That’s me.

  Mouth don’t get me then it’s gonna be my curiosity gets me killed.

  Shit, way I’m going, gonna be my conscience gets me killed. Barely even got one and I already dislike it. Annoying ass feelings . . . girlfriends and sisters and . . . mentor smiling at me like she wants me to be the one shows my hand first.

  Wasn’t just Ceinwyn.

  Everyone was waiting on me.

  What did I want?

  Killed Paine.

  Had the spot of his hideout . . .

  Leverage, was always about leverage. Leverage to cover my stay in the Pit. Wasn’t in the Pit no more. Felt like I didn’t even need the leverage Ceinwyn could offer. Killed Paine. Took up the World-Breaker. Claimed my right as Maximus. Could handle Massey on my own now. My terms.

  All of this was about my terms.

  My coming out party.

  Pit of No Return . . . why is it that if you fall for long enough it starts to feel like ascension?

  Floor was close now.

  Could see it.

  Looks awful hard.

  Even a few spikes down there.

  So how daring I want to be? Could buy myself a trampoline. At least a wagon full of hay. In the videogames T-Bone’s always playing, people are always jumping into wagons filled with hay and living through the fall.

  Why stop now?

  Maybe I’m just a gambler believing in fallacies. On a hot streak. Won more than I ever imagined. Why stop? Keep it going for just a little while longer.

  Faster.

  Must go faster.

  Words so fine that Jeff Goldblum said them in two different movies.

  “King Henry?” Ceinwyn prompted, still not offering up any of her own ideas on what to do for me. To be fair . . . in her mind she probably thought I should just hand it over. Mama Welf . . . maybe not. Loyal to the Asylum, yes, but loyal to her family most of all. She understood. Welfs were all about getting the best deal, the best position possible.

  Not a comparison makes me happy, but don’t think life is simple as having a single slider goes just right and left. Being more like Moira than Ceinwyn in one way didn’t mean that’s the whole of me. Way you come at the position makes you different. Welfs are clinging to what they already got. Me, I’m grunting and snarling as I climbed up a very sharp cliff.

  That thought made a memory rise up. Me just after the first time I met Paine. When he kicked my ass and I was a bloody mess. Crawling to live. Up a wooden set of steps, a patio, up to a door, bare hands, legs with nothing left to give.

  Ended different this time, didn’t it?

  He was the one on his back.

  He was the one grunting and whining.

  Defiance.

  Still.

  What kept me alive both times.

  What was about to carry me through with Massey.

  What was about to carry me through with Ceinwyn too.

  Didn’t answer her still. Reached over into Val’s pocket, pulled out her phone, and gave it a few taps. Put the phone up to my
ear, still staring at Ceinwyn.

  She smiled back at me, unsure, but delighted.

  How interesting.

  What started our relationship and there it still was. Unlike with the Lady or Moira, controlling doesn’t come naturally to Ceinwyn. Why we had that rupture. Foresight and control ain’t the same thing. Difference of dodging a punch and taking one. Difference between a breeze and a mountainside.

  Had it in me to control.

  Down deep.

  Maybe even down dark.

  Never wanted it, but somehow I was learning the skill, especially these last months. Might need it more in the years to come.

  Phone clicked. Heard some Guild secretary give a greeting. “This is King Henry Price,” I didn’t bother to respond in kind. “Put Massey on.”

  “Bringing Alexander into this merely complicates it,” Ceinwyn seemed puzzled. “I thought you agreed to let me handle him later?”

  “Appreciate the offer, and I would’ve taken it even a few days ago, but now I got new room to maneuver,” I told her. “Besides . . . if I’m stuck on the Learning Council then I need to learn how to play the game myself, don’t I?”

  “I can teach you politics along with the rest if you want,” she offered. “Though I have a feeling you’ll be a better anima student than a political one.”

  I nodded. “Good place to start while we wait. Training for me and Val, even if she ain’t recognized. No more bullshit about what we can do. If it’s you teaching, that’s fine. Want to get someone else? That’s fine too.”

  “I could—” Moira started.

  “No,” Ceinwyn overrode her. “My students, my teaching.”

  “You have never even tried it,” Moira pointed out. “At least I know what it takes from the experience I gained while teaching Heinrich.”

  “I’ll teach you, King Henry, as agreed,” Ceinwyn still ignored her. “As time permits, of course, and if it doesn’t I’ll find suitable substitute teachers.”

  “Eva as well,” Val put in.

  I glanced at her. “You sure? Threesome with Eva ain’t my sexual fantasy, it’s T-Bone’s.”

  Val rolled her eyes at me. “Lucky you, because that is never happening. She is however in our class and is apparently a Maximus now. She deserves to join us. It’s the least the Institution can do for Eva’s sacrifice in the line of duty.”

  “He’s coming. Please don’t hang up!” the secretary squeaked in my ear.

  “Val makes a good point. Eva too.”

  Ceinwyn nodded, taking this all in and adjusting her plans accordingly. “Fair enough. Pocket and Jesus want medals, I’ve heard.”

  “Big ones,” Pocket said.

  “And a new finger,” Jesus added.

  Ceinwyn smirked. “That will be reattached free-of-charge once we return to the school. Mancers don’t actually have medals, but I suppose the Lady can issue some sort of decree. Plus a raise?”

  This idea seemed to shock them. “If we give up the medals, can we get even bigger raises?” Pocket tried.

  “Too late!” Ceinwyn barked a laugh.

  “Need a house at the Asylum for Val and me,” I kept laying out the terms.

  “Just for the two of you?” Mama Welf asked. “Forgetting the entire reason we came to this god awful city already? My, my, but glory has blinded this one.”

  “He always had a rather large head,” Ceinwyn agreed, even if I saw those ageless eyes wondering what I was up to.

  Val did too, although her expression was less guarded and more proud, maybe even smug as she waited to see what trick I was about to pull and how.

  I put a finger up to stop Ceinwyn from moving on to some other carrot she had prepared, all in the hopes it would make me spit that location out quicker. “I’ll give you this, boy, you’re a fool, but you’re a fool with a giant pair of testicles,” I heard Massey’s greeting over the phone.

  “Don’t know why you’re so pissy,” I told him while trying to be chummy. “My little disappearance gained you more distraction time from your little vote, didn’t it?”

  “For that to work, I would have to be able to call an end to the meetings, wouldn’t I?” Massey rebutted. “And I can’t do so until you answer for your crimes.”

  “Crimes, is it? What happened to hearing and censure and all that stuff?”

  “It disappeared when you escaped from the Cleansing Sphere!” Massey yelled into the phone, any vestige of composure and control extinguished. What can I say? I do that to people. “The second escape this year! A guard missing! Not a clue to where you went or how you managed it! The only relief for me was that no other power or organization knew where you had disappeared to either. Even Maudette Lynch herself was in the dark. At first I thought Dale had something to do with it, but no . . . she was already in the air long before you disappeared. So . . . how? How did you do it?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it. Tell you why I left. Tell you what I been up to even. Plus, maybe I’ll even put on that defense I never got to give. How that sound?” I offered magnanimously.

  “You’ll return to our custody?” Massey sounded shocked by that possibility.

  “Don’t know about that. But how about you gather up as many Guild brothers and sister as you can find in that sweet rotunda of yours? I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” I promised him. A promise I can’t wait to keep.

  “You’re in London still? Wait . . . are you in the building?” Massey tried to reason it out while missing the biggest piece.

  “You know what? Make it twenty minutes. Some of the older members have trouble getting around; we don’t want to rush them. Also, what I want you to do with that extra five minutes, is I want you to go check your fucking Vault, okay?”

  Could still hear him yelling as I clicked off the phone and handed it back to Val. Everyone was staring at me again.

  “Well,” Moira Welf couldn’t help but spell out to her rival, “there went a fair bit of your capital. What is it the kids say nowadays? You just . . . got schooled? By a boy half your age?”

  Ceinwyn’s face warred between being impressed and frustrated with me. I’m good at that one too. “That was rash, don’t you think?”

  “Couldn’t have handled him on my own when all this started,” I agreed with her, “but now? After Paine it shouldn’t be too hard.”

  “You can’t kill Massey.”

  “But I can make him wish he was dead.”

  “Fine then,” Ceinwyn sighed. “Enough games. You obviously want something far larger for this location than the range any of us were thinking in. But on the other side . . . you can’t not give it to me. Not with all those people still locked up inside.”

  “People you’ll lock up as soon as you rescue them . . . or worse,” I countered.

  “And I’ve made it clear to you why this law is so harsh,” she said, getting a little less interesting and a little more frustrated with me. “We’ve been through this!”

  “Yeah, I know. I know the world is shit,” I agreed. “Know we’re in a corner. Know all you people in charge are doing whatever you can day to day . . . you’re trying. But you’re losing.” Threw my arm out at the bodies still around us, finally being moved into body-bags by some of the ESLED agents present. “Proof of that right here.”

  “So what? War with the Vampire Embassies? All of you were lucky enough to survive this skirmish but you won’t survive that. And what if we win and then we face the next threat? How did your Geo Realm like whatever it was you did to defeat Obadiah? Hmm?”

  Moira Welf frowned at this. “Geo Realm?”

  I gave her a canine grin. “What? You think I disappeared and took Paine to Pittsburg?”

  One of the few times I seen Moira Welf blanch in fear. “Ceinwyn . . . is he saying—”

  “Later,” Ceinwyn promised. “When we’re home, I’ll give my report to the entire Council, Moira.”

  “You’ll give it to me before! What did you involve me and my family in, Ceinwyn? The Curator was enough to mak
e me drag my feet, but this! What have you done?!?” Mama Welf turned to me. “You’re a child playing with a hydrogen bomb!”

  “He’s an adult trying to stop the ticking clock,” Val rose to defend me. “Hear him out instead of cowering in fear that the world might change . . . he might muddle through it and he might get a little dirty in the process, but so far he has a habit of changing it for the better.”

  I nodded my thanks. Wish I could do more than that, but I suppose that has to wait until I get her alone. “Ain’t about making the bomb go off. That was the guy we just killed. But I do want to disarm it and that means opening the cover.”

  Ceinwyn barked. “You’re more likely to accidentally break the thing.”

  “Whatever works,” I said. “Don’t even see why you’re fighting me so hard, Auntie Badass. You the one set me on this path. Same goal you set Paine on too. Was your dream first, ain’t it?”

  Now she squinted. “What does Obadiah’s hideout have to do with curing Anima Madness?”

  “Because it’s not just his hideout,” T-Bone caught on, being raised by an accountant who thinks about value in every asset. “It’s what’s inside of the hideout.”

  “More Anima Mad Wilders?” Welf scoffed.

  “Artifacts. Design documents. Any valuables he’s stashed away or stolen,” T-Bone listed.

  Ceinwyn tilted her head at me. “So now you’re a mercenary?”

  “Everything found in Paine’s hideout will be jointly owned by me, the Guild, and the Learning Council,” I finally got to my stipulation after all that work laying the foundation. “Any artifact line created from an artifact or influenced by the knowledge inside of Paine’s hideout will be joint property between me, the Guild, and the Learning Council. Profits from said property or for objects found at the hideout will be required to either go towards care of Paine’s victims or towards the construction of a new research center dedicated towards curing Anima Madness. I will head this research center with Guild supervision and it will be built no more than one day’s travel away from the Asylum. Furthermore: Anyone found in Paine’s hideout will be given a dispensation.”

  Ceinwyn Dale . . .

  . . . smiled.

  “Told you,” Val said with her own smirk, hand reaching down to clasp mine.