“Devon?” A voice cut into my reverie from behind me. I turned my head to see Emily Perry cautiously approaching from behind. “Is Glave with you?”
“He’s dead,” I replied curtly.
“When?” She didn’t seem surprised.
“A few hours ago.”
“Are we in any danger?” Emily breathed softly as she scanned the skyline.
“Where is the boy?”
“He’s safe,” Emily replied, obviously a little annoyed at my tone. “Devon,” she whispered, drawing my attention behind me. “I wanted to apologise for our argument earlier. I shouldn’t have said those things.”
“It’s okay.” I kept my eyes focused on the city. She was lying to me. I could see it on her face. Normally I couldn’t get much from her expression, but now her expression was literally screaming distrust and deception. Something had changed.
“No, it’s not,” Emily replied firmly. “I misjudged you and I immediately assumed the worst.”
“You probably weren’t far from wrong,” I grunted, hoping to end the conversation quickly.
“No,” Emily said, “I don’t think so – Glave or any of the other mages wouldn’t have saved the boy. They would have simply ended his life and been done with it.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” I conceded. “I’m still not sure I’m doing the right thing.”
“Why did you do it?” Emily pressed.
“I’m not sure,” I answered. I was surprised by just how honest I was being with this woman. Especially considering she wasn’t exactly being honest with me. “It just doesn’t seem right to kill the boy. It’s not his fault.”
“So what is your plan then?” Emily continued. I could see she trying to keep it light.
“I really don’t know,” I grunted, as I sat down. “But I think my time with the army is just about done.”
Emily raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t expect you to say that.”
That cinched it. I could see it in her eyes. She definitely had a plan here, and it depended upon me remaining with the army. If my suspicions were correct, she would now attempt to keep me talking for as long as possible.
“No?” I smiled. “Perhaps you don’t know me as well you think you do.”
“Where would you go?”
“Does it really matter? One place is pretty much the same as another to me.”
“I suppose.” Emily smiled. “Will you take me with you when you go?”
“Why would I do that?
“Do I mean so little to you?”
“Lady,” I sighed, “I barely know you. Why would I take you with me? Why would you even want to come with me?”
“I thought we had something…” Emily seemed unsure of herself. That reaction seemed genuine. She really did think she’d made some kind of impact on me. She was probably right. I wouldn’t like to see harm come to the girl, but I was hardly going to bring her with me. Especially now that I was coming to suspect a horrible truth about her. All that remained was to see what she would do once I rejected her.
“No,” I declared firmly.
I wasn’t surprised when the deception that she’d been holding in place dropped from her face and I could see the cunning desperation behind her eyes. I had thought that my mask was still firmly in place too, but she must have read my reaction from my own features. With a snarl she pulled a gun from her side holster and placed it against my face.
“I don’t know if you’ve got a shield up or not,” she hissed, “but this isn’t loaded with ordinary bullets. You’re tired from battle; you won’t be able to stand against it. It’ll plough straight through your shield and into your head in seconds.”
She was right about my abilities. I was tired, I was weak. I hadn’t slept in god knows how long. I had often wondered about my ability to shrug off the need to sleep - I certainly hadn’t had that skill as a child. In my teenage years if I didn’t get a solid eight hours sleep I would fall apart the next day. Now, it seemed I could go for weeks. Was this a by-product of Mana?
I knew Victor had studied it; he had claimed he survived on Mana alone, without the need to sleep, eat or consume water. I had found no mention of this in the spell books I had recovered, but the technique may have been stored in newer spell books I hadn’t found. As I thought about my time with him in Singapore, it seemed to confirm my suspicions. I had never seen him eat or drink. His housekeeper cooked meals only for me and his other student, Aaron Chen. Perhaps he had used the Mana to sustain himself. It was strange that he had never taught me the technique. He had always been very careful to keep his studies into Necromancy from me.
“Then shoot me,” I whispered.
“You’re baiting me to shoot you?” Emily exclaimed as she lowered her gun in surprise. “I would say it was arrogance, but I think you genuinely want to die.”
“Raise your side arm,” I ordered.
“No… I don’t want to.”
“Raise it,” I snapped harshly. “Point it at me.”
Emily did as she was ordered and pointed her gun back at me. I could see the indecision in her eyes.
“Do as you have been ordered,” I murmured.
The gun shook in her hands. If she wasn’t careful she was going to drop it.
“Do it!” I hissed.
“Why couldn’t you have been like Glave? Or any of the others? It would have been so easy, but you – you’re different.” Emily sighed uncertainly. She lowered her gun. “What are you going to do now?” Emily whispered, her eyes wide with fear.
“Nothing,” I stated. “I’m going to do nothing.”
I reached out and took the gun from her fingers and threw it on the ground. Her eyes never left mine.
“The next time you’re in this position,” I advised, “fire and keep firing, then run. Others of my kind won’t be so courteous, but you already know that, don’t you? You’ve killed my kind before.”
I didn’t need to see the evidence in her eyes to know I had spoken truth. I didn’t need to see the slumping of her shoulders to know just what she was. She killed my kind when they lay sleeping, when they were defenceless. She killed them after forcing them to trust her. I turned from her and began to walk away.
“So that’s it?” Emily exclaimed, her eyes narrowing in anger. “You’re not going to ask me who sent me or why?”
“No,” I replied simply without turning around. “I know why, and I already know who. You were sent by Levenson. He is trying to clean up all the loose ends in this mess he helped create.”
Emily didn’t seem to register what I was saying. She hadn’t known Levenson had been involved in starting this whole mess. It had been his collusion with Marcus that had led to the stand-off with Victor, which had sparked off this war. It was Levenson who had recruited me, and it was he who had recovered my broken and shattered body after my battle with Victor and encouraged me to turn myself into a weapon against my kind. I don’t think he had expected the war to escalate to the point it had, and it wasn’t surprising that he was trying to clean up his mess. In some ways he was right - I was a liability that would need to be dealt with, and it would be cleaner to deal with me quietly before the war ended. It was all guess work at this point, but it seemed to fit the facts. I didn’t begrudge him this betrayal. In his place I might have done the same. No, that’s not true, I reflected. I would have succeeded.
“You knew I was sent here to kill you,” Emily mused. “What would have happened had I fired?”
“I would have killed you,” I answered. “I can withstand cannon fire. Your special bullet wouldn’t have made any difference. I was never in any danger.”
Emily blanched slightly at my reply. It was obvious that her decision not to fire had been a close thing.
“There is one question you could answer,” I continued. “Why now? Why not six months ago? What has changed?”
“I don’t know,” Emily whispered. “I was told something about missing civilians. We thought you were colluding with the enemy. I d
idn’t think you were rescuing children.”
Missing civilians. I sighed wistfully. So Levenson knew about my experiments, or at least he knew that I was taking civilians who were never returned. It was perhaps lucky that we had found Justin when we had. It was logical that Emily would jump to the wrong conclusion. I had thought I had been more careful in covering my tracks about my test subjects, but obviously I hadn’t. This meant two things: one, someone within my division was independently reporting back to Levenson; and two, my time serving with the allied forces was indeed finished. It was about time.
It was a good thing that I didn’t bother to register my return to the camp with command. If Emily’s orders had changed, then I could only assume the good colonel’s had too. If that was the case, I could very well be walking into an armed confrontation when I went to recover the boy.
As much as I feared it, I didn’t have much choice. I quickly collected some private effects, placed them in a backpack and threw it over my shoulder.
“You’re taking the voice recorder?” Emily interjected.
I hadn’t bothered to notice that she’d followed me. What else was she going to do now? She’d had orders to kill me. She’d failed.
“Yes,” I replied gruffly. “Perhaps I’ll do as you asked me and record my memoirs.”
Emily didn’t react at my harsh tone. “You should. You really should. I think it’s important for people to know why you did all this.”
There was a hint of reproach in her voice, but I let her have her little retort.
“You should be gone when I leave,” I advised.
“I will be,” Emily promised. “I think it’s about to get very exciting here in a few minutes and I have no interest in being involved.”
“Smart girl.” I chuckled. “Do you know if they’ve moved Justin?”
“No.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Devon.” Emily sighed. “Be careful.”
“I’ll be all right.”
“I wasn’t worried about you,” Emily called as I turned and left her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Brandon had moved Justin from the infirmary. There was only one reason he would have done that. I had hoped Brandon wouldn’t get in my way, but I was wrong and now a large number of soldiers were going to pay for that mistake. There weren’t too many places secure enough to hold his prisoner - locating Justin would not be difficult.
Unfortunately, though, my arrival at the infirmary had been noticed and I was intercepted before I could reach my destination. A contingent of soldiers barred my entry from the makeshift brig; at their head was Colonel Brandon himself.
Looking behind me I saw a second contingent approaching from behind.
“Where have you been?” Brandon grunted by way of greeting. He wanted to play it like we were all one big family? Fine, I’d play along.
“Destroying enemies of the state,” I answered lightly as I glanced around.
“Where is the other mage?” Brandon continued in his gruff tone.
“Dead. He fell yesterday.”
“You didn’t think to report this?” Brandon snarled. This was the first time he had shown any sign of anger. He usually seemed calm – too calm.
“No,” I replied softly in the face of his rage. “I thought it more important to avenge him.”
If Brandon had any intuition or skill at reading people, he would have seen my words for the lies they were. He gave no indication that he had sensed my deception though. As I stared into his eyes, I saw nothing but relief. Brandon was a far worse liar than Emily. So, Glave had been on the kill list too. Once I would have accepted the necessity of the big man’s death. Now it seemed like a waste. It was ironic considering I had been the one to kill him.
I glanced briefly around at the soldiers arrayed before and behind me. They were prepped for combat; they knew what this was and I could see from the grimaces on their faces they also knew the odds. I had no wish to kill these men, but I would do so if forced to.
“Where is the boy?” I whispered.
“Why do you want him?” Brandon’s eyes were firm. He wasn’t going to back down.
I saw the brief nod that was the order issued. Brandon tensed as he awaited the response to his command. I felt the impact of the gunshot spread across my shield, rocking my head forward. The sound of the bullet impacting my shield rang out across the compound. It actually stung a little. This must have been one of those fancy bullets Emily had spoken of. I didn’t turn around to see who had fired on me. Colonel Brandon’s eyes flared in triumph and immediately faded as he realised I was untouched.
“That was a nice try,” I murmured softly. “Take me by surprise. Keep me focused on you, while you shoot me from behind. It might have worked. But I lost a friend that way.”
I turned around to see Marcellus’s grimacing face. He was looking at me in horror, a smoking gun still held in his hands.
“I told them it would do no good,” he whispered with a resigned look on his face.
This betrayal hurt far more than the bullet had. I had trusted him. I hadn’t quite realised just how much I had relied on him. To see him standing before me, having tried to kill me, was almost more than I could bear.
“Why?” I gasped.
“You were killing us,” Marcellus accused, a single tear rolling from his eyes. “You could have saved us, but one by one you let us die. There’s only you and me left.”
The accusation hit home. I didn’t know the rest of my original squad had died. I suppose I should have checked in with Marcellus, but there wasn’t time.
“When?”
“Camerons was killed on the beachhead and Morre never made it off the carrier,” Marcellus muttered. “And now, there will only be you.”
Marcellus fired again, point blank into my chest. He knew, as I did, that the bullet wouldn’t pierce my shield. He knew I would immediately kill him. I probably should have, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. He had betrayed me, sure, but although he was the one to pull the trigger, he wasn’t the one to give the order. I clenched my teeth as I stared into the face of my friend, who was prepared for me to kill him. For the sake of what we had once had, I would fail him in this.
Unfortunately I hadn’t expected the others to take action. I suppose I should have. These were trained soldiers and their instincts were those of honed killers. If the first shot doesn’t down your prey, then you fire more. With military precision the soldiers formed firing lines around me and opened fire. It didn’t make any difference to me, but unfortunately Marcellus was standing very close to me, and assault rifles aren’t known for accuracy. I watched in horror as bullets intended for me hit him. Time seemed to slow down as small bullet holes appeared in my friend. He began to fall so very slowly. I leapt forward and wrapped my arms around him before he could hit the ground. He would be protected by my shield from any further shots, but I could see it was already too late. He was dying. I could have extended his life as I did with Gabriel, but there didn’t seem much point.
“Why?” Marcellus whispered as blood trickled from his mouth. “Why did you let us die? We trusted you. We believed in you. I believed in you.” His words ended in spluttering coughs.
“Because,” I murmured sadly, “there are greater evils than me.”
I had once thought that way, that the end result would justify the means. Now I saw the truth for what it was. In my actions I had become as great an evil as anything I had sought to protect people from. This was a truth I couldn’t deny.
I could see the same truth reflected in the dying man’s eyes as he looked up at me. I could see the accusation. To him there was no greater evil than me. I couldn’t fault him.
“Rest easy, my friend,” I whispered as I placed him on the ground. I was going to promise him that his death would be avenged, but there didn’t seem to be much point. His death had been pointless. A meaningless accident. Even the soldiers firing at me weren’t really responsible. Killing them w
ould mean nothing. In fact, killing the soldiers wouldn’t bring Marcellus any peace. I closed my friend’s eyes and quickly stood up as more bullets bounced off my shield.
With my shield at full strength I could barely feel the impact. There was nothing to stop me from teleporting away, but that wouldn’t achieve my goals. I could also kill every soldier within a ten mile radius, but I’d already determined that I wasn’t going to do that. No, I needed something more subtle. This was unfortunate, as subtlety wasn’t my strong suit.
I reached out with a telekinetic thread and immediately broke that thread into a vortex of smaller threads. I had once thought I had mastered this technique years ago. I had used it to literally tear a car to pieces once and sent its occupants falling down onto the highway. My mastery then was nothing compared to what I could do now.
A nexus of threads spread out across the soldiers. The threads crept into their rifles and triggered the safety catches. Thirty soldiers gasped in unison as they were disarmed and their weapons fell to pieces in front of them. Several soldiers attempted to pull out side arms, only to shout in dismay as those too were disassembled.
By this stage, most of the soldiers had a pretty good idea which way this was going to go and were attempting to beat a hasty retreat, but that wouldn’t serve my purposes either. With a flick of my fingers, I sent the threads around thirty necks and pulled them from their feet. Hands clawed at their throats as I kept them floating several metres from the ground. I pulled the unfortunate colonel before me. His eyes bulged as the telekinetic thread cut off his breathing canal. He gasped for breath as I grabbed him by the chin to force him to pay attention to me.
“Is the boy alive?”
He couldn’t move his neck freely with the telekinetic thread, but he signalled that the boy was inside the brig.
“This was a waste,” I whispered into his ear. “You had no chance.”
“Orders,” the colonel gasped. “We had orders.”
I let the colonel fall to his knees. He immediately rubbed his neck as he gazed up at me. “Killian Voll has been reported dead this morning,” he croaked. “We had orders.”
Mage Emergence Page 18