“I need a doctor!” I snarled at the confused-looking receptionist and several other support staff. At first I wasn’t sure they could understand me until the receptionist pulled out a pistol from under the counter. She wasn’t pointing it directly at me, but her message was clear.
“No, no doctors here, no drugs either. You go away. There is nothing for you here.”
“Nurse then!” I demanded. “Is there a nurse, someone skilled with medicine?”
“Mage!” one of the other support staff screamed as they finally noticed my eyes.
This seemed to have a drastic effect on the receptionist, who immediately dropped the gun. She was smart. In fact, the more I looked at her, the more I suspected she wasn’t just the receptionist. She was wearing scrubs, but then so was everyone there. The difference was her scrubs were dirty. There was blood on them.
“You’re a nurse?” I guessed.
“You have injuries?” Her accent was strange, but her English was understandable.
“No,” I grunted. “You will come with me.”
“I will not,” she replied forcefully.
“You will,” I stated, “or I will kill everyone here.”
Her eyes widened in shock. She glanced quickly at my face to determine if I was telling the truth. It must have only been several seconds before she answered me, but it felt like eons.
“No, I will not go with you,” she repeated, staring me down. She was now holding the gun under the counter.
“It’s my son,” I begged. “He’s sick. You were right, I won’t hurt anyone, but I need your help.”
“Bring him here.” Her gaze was iron.
“No,” I snapped. “It’s not safe! You need to come with me. I promise I will return you unharmed. I promise!”
It was a strange reversal of situation. I had come in here full of fire and fury, and now I was literally begging this woman to help me.
“Boy is injured?”
I shook my head. “Fever, sickness.”
I didn’t know how to explain Mana sickness to her, but I knew that if something wasn’t done about the fever, his life would be in danger. We needed someone who wasn’t a mage to tend him while he was sick. Once the fever broke it would be safe for us to be in his presence again. It was only for the next twenty-four, maybe forty-eight hours that we needed her.
“I will get my bag,” she eventually conceded. “But you will pay.”
“Lady, if my son survives, money is no object.”
I didn’t say what would happen if he died, but I could tell from the steely gaze in her eyes that she was well aware of what was going through my head. She disappeared for several seconds before returning with a small black carry bag. She headed for the door and I followed quickly. It was when we got to the car park that I realised my next problem.
My original plan was to immediately teleport her back to the estate; unfortunately that wouldn’t be any good. If I teleported the woman, she would most likely arrive nauseated and in no condition to help my son. Any magical transport option this side of a rift was going to result in the nurse being unable to do her job, and I wasn’t going to risk a rift for this. No, this would have to be handled the old-fashioned way.
“Do you have a car?” I asked, cursing my own stupidity. I should have foreseen this, but I had rushed in without thinking.
The nurse looked at me like I was crazy, but eventually nodded towards the rear of the building where there were several cars. She headed towards a small, soft-top Jeep and hopped into the driver’s seat. This led me to my next problem: I had no idea where the estate was in relation to the surgery by road. There’s a big difference between a scry vision and the street directory.
“What’s your name?” I called over to her. It was difficult to talk with the wind rushing between us through tears in the vinyl canvas.
“Carla,” she yelled back, as we tore out of the car park and onto the road. It only took us several minutes before we were on the main highway out of the settlement.
“Thank you, Carla,” I yelled over the howling wind - now that we were on the highway the noise was almost overwhelming.
“I do not do this for you.” It was strange the way her voice cut through the noise from the road.
“I know, but thank you all the same.” I smiled as I launched a scry thread in an attempt to locate the estate.
Launching the scry thread straight up into the air allowed me to get a bird’s eye view of the highway and surrounding lands. It looked completely unfamiliar in the dark, but eventually I found a few landmarks I recognised and directed Carla towards them.
The drive took the best part of an hour, and I was beside myself with worry with each second that passed. May was waiting for us in the driveway as we made our way up to the front door. She ushered us inside with a minimum of greeting and directed Carla towards Ethan’s bedroom.
“Where is Renee?” I hissed as the nurse rushed to my son.
“She’s outside.”
“Give her whatever she needs,” I ordered, gesturing towards Carla as I headed for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To stop Renee from doing something stupid,” I called back.
Renee was standing out on the second-storey balcony looking at the sky. She had her back to me and seemed totally engrossed in the view.
“He’ll know,” Renee murmured as I emerged from the doorway behind her. “I don’t know how, but he’ll know and he’ll come for him.”
I nodded silently.
“I can fight him,” Renee hissed. “I can stop him.”
“Getting yourself killed won’t help our son.”
“He won’t kill me!” Renee snarled back. “He can’t bring himself to do it!”
“No, maybe not,” I reflected, “but you won’t be able to defeat him and won’t accomplish anything.”
“I need to do something!” Renee said. “I can’t just wait.”
“He won’t come here,” I murmured as I wrapped my arms around her. “Not while I’m here.”
I hoped to God that this was true, but I had no way of knowing for sure. This was an unusual situation. I’d never been in a position where Victor was scared, and that made him more dangerous than ever in some ways, but more predicable in others. No, I doubted he would come for the boy while I was present. He would have to deal with me first. Winner takes all.
“Why are you so special?” Renee hissed as she pulled back from me. “Why does he fear you?”
“Because I know how to kill him,” I said, letting her slip from my arms. “I almost did kill him.”
Renee stared at me in disbelief. “He can’t be killed, Marcus proved that.”
“I don’t know what Marcus had planned,” I cut her off. “He never got a chance to complete his plans when I killed him.”
“You killed him?” Renee whispered darkly.
“You didn’t know?”
Renee shook her head as the news sunk in that I was responsible for her father’s death. “Why?”
“He was responsible for my sister’s death,” I said.
Renee was operating under no illusions; she knew who her father was and what he was capable of. She had known just how unscrupulous he could be. He had used me for his own ends in his fight with Victor. Renee knew just what kind of man her father had been.
“I mean, I knew he was dead,” Renee murmured. “I just assumed that Victor had done it.”
“No,” I said sadly. “I killed him, and then in my anger, in my stupidity, I thought I could take on Victor. I thought I could end it all in one fell swoop. I was wrong. Victor broke me and left me for dead, but he couldn’t kill me. I was stronger than that. I waited. I planned for this day and nothing will stand in my way. I have to be the one to stand against him.”
“He’ll kill you,” Renee whispered.
“Maybe,” I nodded, “but there is no one else.”
“Why does it have to be you?” Renee murmured as she threw hersel
f back into my arms. “I don’t think I could bear to lose you again.”
I held this woman in my arms as if the very act of holding her could change the fates, but she knew as I did that there was no escaping this. I would have to face Victor again, I knew it, and as much as Renee might rail against it, she knew it too.
“Renee,” I whispered. “Where is Victor hiding?”
“Melbourne,” she replied. “He’s hiding in Melbourne.”
Of course it was Melbourne; how could it have been anywhere else but Melbourne? Victor had assumed he had killed me. He hadn’t known that Levenson had pulled my wrecked body from the ruins of Melbourne. Melbourne was far enough away from the fighting that it would be unlikely he would be disturbed. He had used Melbourne for such a purpose in the past; he had originally chosen Melbourne to hide Renee from others of our kind.
It made perfect sense that he would hide from me in Melbourne. It had been destroyed in the fight between Marcus and Victor; it had been the place where my sister had died and where I had been broken. I had no desire to return home. But I was going to.
I held Renee tighter as I worked my way up to saying goodbye for the last time. My chances of beating Victor were by no means in my favour, and it was incredibly unlikely that I would return.
“Devon,” Renee murmured into my shoulder. “Goodbye.”
“I love you,” I whispered back. “I’ve always loved you.”
Renee didn’t reply. With a final kiss on her forehead I turned to leave. She didn’t watch me go, her eyes were firmly placed on a small door that led into our son’s bedroom. I would have liked to have said goodbye to my son as well, but due to the Mana fever I couldn’t be near him. I said a soft goodbye from his doorway, which was as close as I dared before retreating.
* * * * * *
I stood on the edge of the estate, trying to gain the courage to leave. It was harder than I had thought it would be. The magic within me just didn’t seem to want to leave my son.
“You’re going then?” a voice from behind me cut in.
“Yes,” I said without looking around. May’s voice was easily recognisable.
“Good,” May murmured with satisfaction. “Because I’m going with you.”
“I’ve just had the same argument with Renee,” I said firmly. “Must I have it with you too?”
“No,” May replied. “No argument; if you go alone you will die. We are amongst the most powerful mages left amongst our kind, if not the only two who could claim the title master. Everyone else are just apprentices or learners.”
“No,” I repeated once again.
“You don’t have a say in the matter,” May replied forcefully with a smile. “I am going with you.”
I sighed inwardly. “Why?”
“Because I want revenge,” May whispered, “and I doubt I will ever get a better chance.”
At least she was honest.
“You might not return,” I said, hoping to dissuade her.
“I’ve come to terms with that.” May sighed. “There is very little for me here.”
I smiled darkly at that. The exact opposite for me was true: there was a whole life here for me. I could almost see it. It was so close I could touch it. I would become a different man here, the man I had meant to be. I would cast off the filth of the Necromancer and even leave the temptations of being a mage behind. Here, I could become what I was always meant to be – a man.
“Come if you must,” I grunted bitterly.
We left the estate the same night. I didn’t really have time to waste; like Renee, I knew that Victor would somehow be aware that Ethan had gone into Mana fever, so we had a few days before he would come for the boy. I planned to get to Victor first, but before that happened I needed some things.
I turned on the mobile phone Levenson had issued me with and dialled his number. Levenson’s grumpy voice answered.
“Aren’t you in hiding yet?” I said, smiling down the phone. “I’m surprised you’re still there.”
Levenson grunted, “What can I do for you?”
Levenson didn’t talk while I explained what I needed from him. He knew as well as I did what I was asking for. I needed something that Victor wouldn’t expect coming. I needed some assurances.
“Are you sure?” he whispered finally.
“Yes.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
It was strange to return to the city of my birth. I had gone to great lengths to avoid going back during the war. There were too many memories here, too much pain. My city hadn’t fared well in my absence; it had become little more than abandoned ruins, controlled by roving bands of thugs and people looking simply to survive. Melbourne had had six years to recover from the battle Marcus had launched in an attempt to take down his former master, but it seemed any attempt to repair the damage or take control of the city had been repelled. It didn’t take much guesswork to determine by whom. Victor would value his privacy.
The moment that May and I teleported within sight of the city, I felt my former master’s presence. I didn’t teleport directly into the city - I wasn’t ready for that yet. I needed to see my home for one last time before I did battle in it, plus it would be too dangerous to teleport directly into the battle zone. I teleported to the Dandenong ranges, where there was a lookout spot that gave a beautiful panoramic view of the city. I had been there as a boy on several occasions; seeing it as an adult was a vastly different experience. As a child everything seemed so large – now it all looked so small. I had seen too much of the world. I had travelled too far. The world was far larger than my small piece of it. My home looked small and insignificant, but it wasn’t. Well, it wasn’t to me. It was my home and I had lost it. It was time to take back my home from my former master.
I glanced across the suburbs that I had grown up in and I thought about my childhood friends and wondered if they were okay. I could have visited them, but there would be time for that afterwards. I had ensured that they had gotten out of Melbourne before the real war had started, though I had done so through agents rather than directly. My mother and friends were now securely tucked away in Omeo, with my sister’s parents. It was remote enough and far enough away from the war that they would be safe. Early in the war I had scryed on them from time to time, but it quickly became too painful. I never once thought to visit them, better to let them think that I was dead. It would be a kindness. I wondered if I would get the chance after all this to return to them, to let them know that I was still alive. I didn’t think so, the boy they had known was gone, and I doubted that the man that I had become would bring them any comfort. No, they were safe and that was enough for me.
“Why are we here?” May grunted as she looked out across my home.
“Because Victor will not be alone,” I murmured softly. “He has collected others - he will send them against us first.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he is scared.”
May looked at me like I was crazy, and I didn’t blame her. I was having trouble coming to terms with the concept as well, but I could feel it. I knew my former master because in many ways I had become just like him. Victor was terrified. I wasn’t going to underestimate him.
“Are you ready?” I whispered softly.
May nodded in agreement.
“Good,” I replied softly, “because I’m not.”
I didn’t teleport directly into the city. It was still too risky for that. Instead May and I flew across the suburbs, heading towards the city with all the speed that two master mages could attain. The landscape below us blurred into a haze as we passed over it. I didn’t look at my home as I sailed across it save for the scant moments it took to determine where my next Mana thread was going to latch to propel me forward. We travelled as spiders across a web would travel, thread after thread pushing us forward as we crossed suburbs in mere seconds.
It didn’t take long to get to the city proper where, as I had expected, Victor had prepared a suitable welcome for us.
We could see them long before we got there – they had been waiting for us and had been for some time. Three distinct Mana signatures were standing on top of a toppled building, and I saw numerous soldiers on the ground waiting for us.
Victor had known we were coming. It confirmed that he was aware my son had become a mage and he had taken suitable action against just this event. Against my better judgment, I continued. I should have turned back, I should have tried another angle, but time was running out. Should I delay, Victor would slip through my fingers.
The sky seemed to open up with fire as the soldiers on the ground began shooting at us. I watched with amusement as the heavy cannon ordinance exploded around us and bullets whizzed past. They couldn’t harm us, but they weren’t the threat. There was no more than a passing interestd as two of the mages launched themselves into the air in an attempt to intercept us. They seemed determined to keep us out of the city. The third mage remained behind; perhaps he was supposed to stop us if we got past the first two.
“They’re only apprentices!” May called with glee as she narrowed into an attack path. I could only hope she was right, but something didn’t feel right here. The threads that the two mages had executed were well formed, but they weren’t very powerful. Victor had done his best, but the apprentices weren’t anywhere near as powerful as we were. That might have explained the lightshow of military fireworks. It was a distraction that would allow his apprentices to get the better of us. If that was the plan, it was a poor one.
I gestured towards May as I selected my target. She nodded and eagerly swooped in to deal with the other. I lost sight of them in a haze of gunfire and smoke, but knew May was far more powerful than her opponent. The end result of this skirmish was all but assured.
I waited until my own target was almost on me before I let the thread holding me in place fall and I dropped to the ground like a rock. I could see the shock on his face as I disappeared beneath him and he soared uselessly over me. He had forgotten one of Victor’s most prized tenets: true strength only comes when your feet are firmly on the ground. It took him several seconds to gain control of his momentum and he swung around in fury and launched himself at me, barrelling down in triumph - he thought he had an easy victory. I waited until mere seconds before his thread was to collide with my shield before I let out a primal blast of telekinetic power. It wasn’t well formed, but it was powerful. The blast radiated out from me in all directions, destroying the road and sweeping his pitiful thread away as if it were nothing more than a child’s toy. It took several more seconds before the shockwave hit him directly with the fury of a hurricane, and by then of course it was too late.
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