Obsidian

by Alan Baxter

  Alex’s grin became a laugh. ‘I did, actually, but fuck that, eh? What would we hold on to anyway?’

  ‘Yeah, this isn’t a Tarzan movie, Iron Balls.’

  Shouts and screams from the stands shifted in waves as lowen pushed for the exits. Broken, bleeding bodies, lowen and hierarchy alike, littered the seats. Silhouette had cast off her Guard uniform and stood in her regular clothes once more. Lowen began clambering over the barriers, trying to drop down to the pit floor. They pointed and shouted at their friends, eyes wild for carnage.

  ‘She’s with me!’ Alex yelled. ‘Go, find the hierarchy and make them pay for what they’ve done to you.’

  Crowds stopped, started, looked around. A revolution without a leader, bloodlust without a target. ‘Go,’ Alex said again. ‘We’re going after the Autarch and he’ll pay too!’

  Some lowen nodded, turned away. Others dropped to their knees in obeisance, bowed deeply to Alex. Still more continued to clamber over the barriers, clearly desperate to reach him. As they dropped, risking broken legs from the fall to the hard earth, Alex pulled on Silhouette’s arm. ‘Let’s get out of here.’ He took hold of Haydon with the other hand and they ran for the doors he had entered through.

  ‘What about that thing in there?’ Silhouette asked. ‘It might not stay calm without your influence.’

  ‘Too bad. We have more important things to do.’

  Silhouette skidded to a halt, pulled him up short. ‘No, wait.’

  Alex stopped, looked at her confused. What did she want from him?

  ‘It’s one thing to leave it here in the pits, but I bet it could escape easily enough. You can’t leave it to run riot in Obsidian.’

  ‘I don’t know where it’s kept, Sil.’

  Silhouette nodded, her eyes sad. ‘I know.’

  Alex turned from her to look back towards the farald. The lowen who had dropped into the arena, at least those unhurt, warily made their way past the creature. Alex nodded. He closed his eyes, concentrated his energy, drew power through the Darak. He felt a moment’s pity for the beast as he pictured furnace flames in his mind. He opened his eyes, stared hard at the creature as he agitated the air around it, summoned the very essence of fire. The farald started, its eyes widening with sudden fear and rage as it burst into roiling flames. Lowen scattered, screaming, as the beast, now a giant, ambulatory furnace, leapt and thrashed. It ran one way, back the next, reared up screaming and fell. The fire quickly consumed it, leaving a blackened skeleton stark against the ground.

  Before the lowen could gather themselves, Alex and Silhouette turned and ran, dragging Haydon with them.

  ‘Your ability to simply immolate something like that is fucking scary,’ Silhouette said. ‘Why didn’t you do that before, instead of leaping onto the thing and stabbing it in the eye?’

  Alex laughed. ‘It takes a lot of concentration. And more time than I had. Creating fire is much harder than moving earth!’

  ‘I thought the Autarch had somehow contained your magic.’

  ‘He had, but I found a way out.’

  Silhouette grinned. ‘You are a fighter. Why didn’t he just trap you again when he saw you were free?’

  ‘He tried, but I was ready for it. Once I’d seen the shape of his spell, I could shield against it. Come on, we have to move.’

  They ducked through the doors into the room where Alex had been stripped of his clothes. He snatched shirt and boots as they ran and headed for the door he had been led through earlier. ‘This leads into a house, then up to the square opposite the Tower of the Autarch.’

  ‘Are we really going after him?’ Silhouette asked.

  Alex stopped, shut the door behind them. He sat back against it and pulled on his shirt and boots. ‘You don’t think we should?’

  ‘Well, sure I’d like to see that fucker suffer, but there are seven of them. And they’re old, powerful Kin.’

  ‘He tried to kill me. I can’t let that go.’

  ‘What’s more important?’

  Alex looked into Silhouette’s eyes, saw genuine concern there. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘This guy,’ she gestured at Haydon, ‘can get you out of here, right?’

  Alex made a half-grimace. ‘Well, kinda … I have an idea of how to work with him.’

  Silhouette crouched, took both of Alex’s hands in hers. ‘I can leave here any time, and so can they. But you can’t. Is risking your life for vengeance really more important than getting home?’

  Alex couldn’t hold her eyes. He looked at their intertwined hands, anger burning hot in his chest. He desperately wanted to tear the Autarch limb from limb. The bastard had taken his magic away, locked him in a cell, tried to destroy him. Anger burned through him, but Silhouette’s words brought him to his senses. ‘You make a good point. They might already be heading for the pathway.’

  Silhouette nodded, lips pursed. ‘If they feel like they’ve lost control of this place, they’ll run, leave everything to its fate. We should do the same.’

  ‘I guess you’re right,’ Alex said quietly, still not meeting her eye. ‘But I’m reluctant to leave these people here, trapped …’

  Silhouette’s eyes narrowed as she put a hand under his chin and forced him to look at her. ‘They’re not our responsibility.’

  Nicholas Haydon sniffed loudly, his eyes red, wild. ‘What are you two talking about?’

  Silhouette turned to him. ‘Don’t worry. We’re leaving.’

  ‘I need to be at a different place.’ Haydon looked around the dim corridor like a man in a dream trying to remember where he was supposed to be.

  Alex put a hand on Silhouette’s arm. ‘I think he’s cracked,’ he whispered. ‘It’s all been too much for him.’

  ‘Is he going to be any use?’

  ‘Yeah, he knows the ritual we need and I have an idea of how to use it. Sil, you have to trust me. I can tell you now, you’re not going to like it.’

  ‘Alex …’

  ‘Silhouette, please. Trust me.’ He kissed her. ‘And thanks.’

  She pulled back, suspicious. ‘Thanks for what?’

  ‘For helping me see clearly. For coming for me.’

  ‘I love you, Alex.’

  ‘I know. I love you too.’

  ‘What are you planning?’

  ‘Let’s go. Please.’ He kissed her again, stood, pulling Haydon up with him. ‘Come on, Nicholas, time to go. You remember your ritual to get home?’

  ‘Everything back,’ Haydon said dreamily.

  ‘Do you remember the ritual?’

  ‘Oh, yes. Every word, every gesture. But this is the wrong place.’

  Alex smiled, led the bemused man along. ‘I know where we need to be. At least, Silhouette does. Right?’

  ‘Yes, I know. And Claude and Lily are going to meet us there.’ Her eyes were hard, still suspicious. ‘But we can’t risk the anchor stone going back to our realm, Alex.’

  He smiled at her, saw her frustration melt into resignation. ‘Let’s go,’ he said, though fear churned his guts.

  They hurried up through the building and paused at the door to the square. Lowen teemed everywhere and the vast majority seemed to be forcing entry into the Tower.

  ‘Looks like the people are doing your vengeance for you,’ Silhouette said.

  ‘Let’s hope they’re successful.’ Alex looked left and right out the door. ‘I’d rather we weren’t spotted. I get the feeling anyone not lowen right now is going to have a hard time.’

  Silhouette pointed. A small group of Austere huddled not far from the door. They watched the ravening crowds nervously. An open door right behind them led into what looked like an empty building. ‘Let’s hope everyone is out on the streets,’ Alex said. ‘You take the one on the left, I’ll take the other two. Try not to hurt them too much.’

  He pushed Haydon down to the floor behind the door. ‘Stay here. We’ll be back in just a moment.’

  ‘But … don’t leave me here!’

  ‘I pr
omise, we’ll be back in no time.’

  Silhouette gave him a nod and they ran, covering the distance between themselves and the Austere in seconds. Silhouette grabbed the first and Alex used both arms, one each across the chests of the other two, and they dragged all three into the dark interior of the building. Quick, sharp strikes and the three unfortunate aesthetes were stilled.

  Alex stripped their robes off and pulled one over his own head, handed the other to Silhouette.

  ‘Feels kinda safe and familiar, doesn’t it?’ Sil said with a laugh.

  They put up their hoods and shuffled back across to Haydon. Once all three were hidden again in the plain grey garb, they moved back out into the square, Haydon between them, held by each arm.

  ‘Lead the way,’ Alex said.

  Silhouette gestured with a nod of the head. ‘It’s this way. It’s going to take a while to get there.’

  ‘We’ll hurry when we can. I don’t think anyone is going to pay too much attention to Austere acting strangely right now. Nothing in Obsidian is following its usual path today.’

  Keeping a wary eye open, moving as fast as they felt they safely could, they made their way towards Oldtown.

  25

  The Autarch and his council slew their way through the Tower. Blood arced in arterial waves across walls and floors as the seven of them morphed between human shape and their preferred monstrous form, rending lowen with tooth and claw.

  ‘We can’t hope to save anything!’ Katherine yelled as she threw a limp corpse away. ‘We just have to get out.’

  ‘Everything collapsed so quickly!’ Archibald said, disgusted. ‘How easily those bastards destroyed everything we’ve built.’

  ‘We have never been far from chaos here,’ the Autarch said. ‘Purity was our only ally and we’ve maintained that for centuries. Once it was infected with humans from the outside, it was destined to fail. It should never have happened. Shouldn’t have been possible. But it was.’ His voice was resigned. He looked at the blood-soaked floor, the lifeless bodies around them. A moment’s calm made their situation seem surreal, strange silence in the clamouring revolution. Shouts and cries from the streets of Obsidian drifted up to them. ‘You’re right,’ the Autarch said suddenly. ‘Everything we have here is lost. Time to leave.’

  ‘I have many things of value stored in my apartments here,’ Henri said. ‘I don’t plan to leave them.’

  Gerald scoffed. ‘You’ll never get out with them alive. The Autarch’s right — our reign is over.’

  ‘I won’t leave my things to these poxy lowen!’

  ‘They’ll swarm you, outnumber you. You try to leave burdened with chattels and you’ll be swamped!’ Salome’s voice was quiet, dejected. ‘We’ve lost.’

  ‘We all have good lives in the real world,’ the Autarch said. ‘I would rather lose everything here and keep that life, than try to save things here and fail. We may have lost, but so have they. You think these lowen can really survive without our help? They might make it for a little while, but we control the magic that keeps this place alive. They might have won their freedom for now, but all they’ve actually ensured is their death. We’ve had it good here in our own little empire for a long time, but it’s over now. Take what you can easily carry and let’s go.’

  Henri grimaced, ground his teeth in rage. ‘I could stand against every citizen here if I had to! You think these lowen can really defeat us? We are Kin! We are the Council of Obsidian! I will not run away.’

  The Autarch put one meaty hand on Henri’s shoulder. ‘You’re welcome to stay, brother. If you think you can survive, restore some kind of order, then more power to you. If you can take it back, Obsidian is yours.’

  ‘You almost look relieved.’

  ‘I am simply accepting the reality. Yes, it makes me fucking furious, but what can we do? It was fun while it lasted, but it’s over.’

  ‘Nothing is over!’ Henri snarled.

  The Autarch smiled. ‘Then good luck, Autarch.’ He turned away, headed for the door. ‘I’m leaving. Feel free to join me or stay. This place is dead, it just hasn’t stopped kicking yet. The humans who fucked it all up for us are trapped here and they’ll die with the rest.’

  He went through the door, headed for the stairs. In his mind, a switch had flicked. His rage at the destruction of all he had built, all he had controlled for centuries, had become a simple realisation of inevitability and, with it, his fury drained. Like the rest of the council, he had a real life to which he could return. That would have to be his whole life now. This day he had been forced to retire from ruling. But this Alex Caine and his friends would pay. Of that there was no doubt. He planned to leave, but he wanted to devour them before he went.

  He could only assume they would head for the pathway. They knew of it, had already sent that Jarrod bastard through. The part of the plan about escaping with the Kin bitch as hostage was still valid.

  He looked back over his shoulder. Henri stood in the middle of the carnage they had left behind, fists balled at his sides in rage. The others followed, resigned. A smile tipped up one side of the Autarch’s mouth as he saw Rowan, trembling, slinking along behind. There was one route to their hostage right there. Could Caine and his friends resist vengeance against this worm who had turned on them?

  ‘We’ll run into plenty of lowen getting back to the tunnels,’ Katherine said.

  The Autarch nodded, smiled. ‘And we’ll kill them all. I have a feeling Caine and his friends will be heading for the pathway. They’ll expect us to try to leave. Remember that defiant gesture of Caine’s right before we released the farald? He’ll want me, so I think he’ll wait for me. Let’s go and meet them. We still need a hostage to get out, I think. At least, I’d rather have one than not.’

  Gerald made a rueful face. ‘That might not be such a good thing. The way he beat those farald. You think we can defeat him? Contain him?’

  The Autarch nodded, smiled. ‘It is a shame he destroyed my pets. I enjoyed growing them here. They were … unique. But we are infinitely more powerful and cunning than dumb beasts. If we want to get out of here, we have to try to subdue Caine and capture this Silhouette. I’m sure, with our skills and smarts combined, we won’t have any trouble laying that whelp down.’

  The streets rang with a wild revelry. His head down, watching the dirty black ground slip past under his feet, Claude could almost imagine they were hurrying through some kind of celebration, a fiesta. In a way, he supposed they were. Then a scream or a snapping bone would punctuate the joyous rabble-rousing and his group would quickly veer aside, turn a corner, hurry away from the latest outbreak of violence and death. In some instances, lowen in numbers managed to overpower one or two unfortunate hierarchy and beat them viciously to pulp. In others, the hierarchy’s far greater strength, skill and magic made short work of agonised, screaming lowen, tearing the poor people limb from limb. In a matter of minutes, Obsidian had descended into a hell of ferocity, blood and hatred.

  Raised voices kept interrupting the raucous shouts and cries of pain. Lowen taking shelter in buildings or on rooftops called for calm, implored the citizenry to stop their mindless violence, to not give in to the cajoling of demons. Heartfelt cries to remember the protection of the hierarchy, to stop risking their place in Ascension, to please stop before everyone dies. But every plea fell on bloodlust deafened ears, eyes blinded to anything but the surge of the uprising.

  ‘We might have condemned everyone here to death,’ Lily said as they moved. Tears streaked her cheeks.

  ‘Better to die free than to live under the yoke of tyranny,’ another lowen said.

  Claude shook his head, amazed these ideas persisted even in such a closed, contained society as Obsidian. The human desire for freedom, the very essence of living your own life, seemed to be ingrained into the human DNA. A part of him swelled with pride at the sentiment, even as another recoiled from the bloodshed all around.

  ‘How much further?’ he asked.

  �
��We keep having to redirect to avoid fighting,’ Lily said. ‘But we’re moving in the right direction again now. Not far.’

  And what will we do when we get there? Claude thought.

  Alex and Silhouette dragged Nicholas Haydon along the hectic streets of Obsidian. Wherever the violence was loudest, the crowds thickest, they turned and went another way. The slow growth of the city over centuries had led to a random spread of crooked streets and dead ends. No clear path between the pits and Oldtown presented itself and their progress was slow.

  ‘Nicholas,’ Alex said as they turned again, slipped along a small alley between buildings. ‘Talk to me, Nicholas. You okay?’

  Haydon laughed, more a sob than a sound of mirth. ‘Clearly I’m in hell.’

  ‘In hell? No, I think we’re a long way from hell.’

  ‘I played too long with forces beyond me and I’ve finally been sent to hell. My first wife warned me, you know.’

  Alex decided he needed to keep the man talking, whatever they might talk about. If Haydon disappeared too deeply into trauma-induced introspection, he might become useless to them and his was the only ticket out of Obsidian. ‘Your first wife?’

  ‘Polly. She was lovely.’ Haydon’s voice took on an air of wistful remembrance. ‘She was tiny, you know. Only four foot ten, like a fragile china doll to look at. Quiet, with a cascade of wonderful dark hair all the way down her back. But she was strong, oh wilful she was.’

  ‘What happened to her?’ Silhouette asked.

  ‘She left me. Ha! Of course, she left me. “If you keep playing with occult things you don’t understand, one day they just might turn around and play with you!” Can you believe she said that?’ Haydon looked up, scanned the streets, winced at a sudden, gurgling cry of pain followed by shouts and sounds of fighting. ‘Bloody prophet, she was. Here I am in hell.’

  ‘She left you because you wouldn’t stop pursuing your occult studies?’ Alex asked.

  ‘Yes. Bloody fool, I am.’

  ‘You said your first wife. There was a second?’

  ‘Yes, there was a second. Jennifer. She left me too, but that’s because that bastard Carter in Archaeology got his claws into her.’