by Alan Baxter
‘Archaeology?’ Silhouette asked.
Haydon barked another humourless laugh. ‘Yes. I’m a university man. A bloody professor, if you can believe that. Look at me now! Jennifer was in my department, we got on splendidly. Quickly became wife number two. But Carter was always there when I was working late. So buried in my studies I didn’t even notice her drifting away from me until I found her in his bed. Well, on the couch in his office, but it amounts to the same thing. So she was gone too. Two wonderful women in my life and I threw them both away in search of something greater. And what’s greater than love, eh? Let me ask you that! And it’s only led me to hell.’
Alex patted the man’s arm. ‘I don’t think we’re in hell, Nicholas. Your occult studies and interests may have lost you those wives and may have led us here, but those same studies can get us out again, right?’
Nicholas tipped back his head with a derisive, ‘Ha! You think?’
‘I know. You have the ritual still within you, right?’
Nicholas became resigned, tired once more. ‘Yes.’
‘Then work with me, Nicholas. And we’re going to get out of here.’
Silhouette leaned back, caught Alex’s eye. ‘He’s ridden, you know that?’
Alex grinned at her, nodded. ‘Of course he is. Him and Rowan. Those Fey bastards worked them both to get me. Whatever happened to the ridesprite that left Rowan, I wonder?’
‘We found it. It’s dead. I’ll explain later. But his,’ she nodded at Haydon, ‘is very much alive.’
‘Yep. It’s there to help power the ritual. We need it.’
‘Bring everything back.’ Haydon’s voice was suddenly melodic, almost singing. ‘Bring all of this back. All of it back.’
Silhouette’s eyes hardened. ‘Alex, we cannot allow that anchor stone back to our world!’
‘I know. It’s okay. I told you, I have a plan. It may not work, but I won’t risk that anchor stone coming back, I promise.’
‘But Alex …’
‘I need you to do something for me, Sil.’
Silhouette slowed and Alex used their joint grip on Haydon to drag her along.
‘Don’t you dare tell me to go without you, Alex.’
‘You have to. You have to go and warn everyone.’
‘Alex …’
‘Sil, I plan to bring all of this back. What used to be a small village is now … this!’ He gestured with one hand, taking in all of Obsidian. ‘These people deserve a chance and I plan to give it to them. But who knows what stands now where Averleekan used to be? I don’t even know if it’s possible to bring all of this back, but if I do and there’s a city there now, can you imagine the destruction? You have to go back, contact Armour and get the area evacuated. We can only hope Jarrod has already set some things in motion.’
They turned another corner, narrowly avoided a mob of lowen rushing past holding aloft the battered and bloody corpses of two hierarchy Priests. ‘This way,’ Silhouette said and pulled them along again. ‘We’re nearly there.’
‘Good. I’m not sure how much time we’ll have or how much resistance we’ll face, but I have to try this. And I need to rest first, that fight in the pits has drained me. Promise me you’ll go through and try to warn people.’
Silhouette grimaced, her eyes haunted. ‘What if you fail, Alex? What if you can’t get back?’
‘Then I guess you’re going to have to take regular holidays in Obsidian to visit me.’
‘Not funny.’
Alex cringed inside at just how unfunny that was. He knew if he did fail, everything would be lost. But he had seen the magic supporting this bizarre isolated city. He knew that without the Kin influence here it would start to crumble. Lily and her revolution were to be lauded, but Obsidian could not survive under the rule of mundane humans, at least not for long. He wanted to save himself, but he wanted to try to save the lowen too. Everything had fallen into anarchy so quickly, the only options that remained were for the lowen to drive out all the Kin and govern themselves, which would be a short-lived freedom at best, or for the Kin to regain control, in which case the lowen would be more heavily oppressed than ever. Life as a farm animal was no life at all. It might kill them all, but it just might save them all. Or some of them. And he had to try.
‘Promise me, Sil. When we get there, you run straight for that pathway and you find Armour and you try to prepare them.’
Silhouette stared at Alex with wet eyes. Her mouth opened to protest, closed again. With an annoyed sigh she looked away. ‘Fine. I will. But if you fuck this up, I will kill you.’
Alex laughed. ‘This is why I love you.’
‘Shut up, Iron Balls.’
26
Even with the mayhem surging through every street in Obsidian, Oldtown was still deserted. The strength of a good haunting myth could even deter revolutionaries, it seemed.
‘That way.’ Claude gestured with one arm. ‘There’s an old church. That’s where we need to meet.’
Several of the group looked nervously left and right. Murmurs of dissent began to circulate.
‘Ye’re sure about this?’ Lily asked.
Claude straightened up, checking around them. No one could be seen. ‘This area is off-limits for a reason. It’s where the hierarchy travel back and forth between my world and this place. They spread the rumour of it being haunted to keep you away. There’s nothing here you need to fear, I promise.’
As if to corroborate his story, the sound of pounding feet suddenly rang between the buildings. Claude and his friends ducked behind a low wooden structure, fallen almost to nothing, as two hierarchy Priests ran past. Their faces were drawn in fear as they tried to look in every direction as they ran.
‘They still behind us?’ one asked, gasping.
‘I don’t think so. They won’t follow us here. I think we’ll make it.’
They turned behind a ramshackle house and disappeared from sight.
‘You see,’ Claude said. ‘They’re running from you now and they’re running here. Because this is the way out. But only for them. We have different blood and we need to find a different way.’
‘Out,’ one of the lowen said. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘You will, if we’re successful.’
‘How will we be successful?’ Lily asked.
Claude shrugged, his own mind a fog of confusion. ‘We have to hope Alex comes up with something.’
As they got up to move, more running feet descended on them. They ducked once more as three more hierarchy ran past, a female Priest and two male Guard.
Once they had passed, Claude stood. ‘You see? Rats leaving the sinking ship. Come on.’
Worrying much less about caution in the strangely safe environment of Oldtown, they travelled more quickly, heading for the church. He hoped Alex did have some plan, because this place had truly gone to hell and it was not somewhere he wanted to find himself trapped.
Alex and Silhouette avoided another streetwide skirmish, made their way around an entire crooked block, and got back on track. ‘We’re nearly there,’ Silhouette said.
‘Good.’ Alex pointed. ‘Look.’
Two Autarch Guard skulked along the side wall of a building, scanning left and right. When the way was clear, they bolted, heading in the direction of Oldtown.
‘They’re leaving, aren’t they?’ Silhouette said.
Alex nodded, laughed softly. ‘They’ve lost control, so they’re getting out. Some Guard are still fighting, trying to wrestle back the city, but it seems most have given up.’
‘That can only be good for the lowen, no?’
‘Not really. Not in the long term.’
Before Silhouette could question his reasoning, Alex moved on again. Haydon continued to stumble obediently between them. Alex didn’t want to explain to Silhouette what he had planned because to think about it in too much detail scared him. And he had no idea if there was even a chance it could work. ‘Which way?’
‘Through there
. That’s the start of Ward One.’
The streets quickly became less occupied. They found themselves on largely empty boulevards, seeming wider than they had before without the bustle of the population all around. They tensed at the sound of running feet, moved to one side, and two more Autarch Guard hammered past them.
‘Looks like all they’re interested in now is getting out,’ Silhouette said. ‘There’s the start of Ward One. You can see Oldtown beyond.’
They moved more swiftly, forgoing any further caution. No lowen wandered the streets of Oldtown. The occasional Kin who hurried past had no interest in them whatsoever, concerned only with making the pathway and saving their own skin.
Before long they rounded a broken-down house and Silhouette pointed to a stone church, less damaged than most of Oldtown. ‘In there.’
Alex nodded, looked up the street. ‘Right. Here’s where we split up.’
‘Alex, I don’t want to leave you.’
‘I know. And I don’t want you to go. But you must. Get to the pathway, find someone, anyone, and make sure the area is clear.’
Silhouette’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are you serious? You’re not just saying this to send me away while you stay here to die?’
Alex laughed. ‘You could always come back again if you don’t believe me. You go and I’ll wait as long as I can, gather my energy again, then I set this thing in motion.’
‘What thing, Alex?’
‘It’s hard to explain. I think I can make it work.’
Silhouette took his face between her palms, kissed him. Alex slipped his hands around the small of her back, held her close and returned her kiss passionately. Desperately.
As they parted, he said, ‘I’m coming back to you.’
‘But the anchor stone in the mortal realm …’
‘Except for that.’
They held each other’s eyes for a moment longer. Alex broke the moment by kissing her again.
‘Go. I’ll see you soon.’
With a grunt of annoyance and frustration Silhouette planted one more kiss hard on his lips and turned and ran. She disappeared between two buildings without looking back.
Alex tugged on the sleeve of Nicholas’s robe. ‘Right then, you. This way.’
He led them across the open street and towards the church. As they moved, he opened his vision to see the shades around the building. The moment his shields were down the force of the magics almost overwhelmed him. He saw shards and planes of might bursting up from the building like a mammoth geyser. The magesign swirled and danced hectically. The strength of the contained power was awe-inspiring. He stood still, stunned, staring at the shifting colours and eldritch shades as they flowed up and out, spreading through Obsidian and up to form the curving blue dome above. The dome itself shimmered and shifted, the electric blue coalescing in places, thinning in others, the empty black infinity of the Void clear beyond.
Alex pulled his mind in close again, to protect himself from the intensity of the energy around the place. He dragged Haydon through the broken-down doors of the church. Surprised gasps stopped him as a group of people turned. Alex smiled. ‘Claude, Lily. You made it.’
Their reunion was sweet but brief. Introductions were made.
‘Whose voice did I hear in the pits?’ Alex asked.
‘My grandfather. He’s seen ye for most of his life, he said.’
‘Seen me?’
‘Visions, dreams. He knew one day ye would defeat slavering beasts and that would mark the beginning of the fall of the hierarchy, so he told me. And it’s happening. The start of a free Obsidian. But I had no idea it would be anything like this.’
‘Where is he now?’
Lily gestured back towards the centre of Obsidian. ‘Back there, so he didn’t hold us up.’ Her eyes were sad.
Alex nodded, squeezed her shoulder. ‘I’ve come to learn that the things we think we know rarely go the way we expect them to.’
‘And now?’ Claude asked.
Alex pushed Haydon forward. ‘This is Nicholas Haydon. He’s our ticket out of here. But we have to wait a little while.’
‘Wait?’
Alex pushed Haydon towards a rickety church pew. They all sat. ‘The plan is a bit roughshod at best. Silhouette has gone to the pathway, to go through and try to prepare. We need to give her time. And after that battle in the pits, I’m seriously depleted. I need to rest before I can try to pull this off.’
‘Pull what off?’ Claude frowned, pointed out the doors of the church. ‘Obsidian is in utter fucking chaos out there, in case you hadn’t noticed. How long do you think we have?’
‘I don’t know. But we have to wait while we can. All the time we can hide here, I think we should. Give Silhouette time. Give me time.’
‘We saw Autarch Guard and Priests running through here,’ Lily said.
‘They’re abandoning you all. I hope they don’t interrupt Silhouette getting out.’
‘So what about the Autarch and his council?’ Claude asked.
Alex nodded. ‘That’s the wild card. I’m just hoping they’ll leave, get out while they can.’
‘And if they’re still intent on finding and finishing us?’ Claude’s eyes were wild.
Alex put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, tried to settle him. ‘The plan is not as simple as creating a portal like the one we used to get here. It’s rather more … massive than that. We have to give Silhouette a chance to prepare.’
Nicholas Haydon stood suddenly, his eyes more alive, more focused, than Alex had ever seen. ‘This is the place! Here is where it can happen.’
Alex pulled him down to the floor, gently tied him against the pulpit with strips of linen from a torn and bloody shirt on the floor. ‘I know, Nicholas. Your time is nearly here. Do you know how long this ritual of yours will take?’
‘With all the pieces in the right places it will only take a few moments. It’s powerful magic.’
Alex patted Haydon’s arm. ‘Good. Prepare yourself. We just have to wait a little while.’ He sat beside the broken man and closed his eyes, desperately hoping he could regain enough energy in whatever time they had left. His magic drained him significantly and what he had planned was perhaps the biggest magic he had ever considered.
Silhouette ran through the streets of Oldtown, refusing to let the brimming tears spill. She could not help thinking Alex had just said goodbye forever. What chance did he really have of getting out? If he refused to risk bringing the anchor stone back, which would be a catastrophe the scale of which he was only too aware, then surely hope was lost.
She had trusted him before and would trust him again, though a part of her remained convinced it was over. That brief, intense, flaring love affair was done and she was on her own again. Well, fuck it. So be it. She had lasted long enough without love and she would do so again. The pathway gave her a route back to the real world, out of this blackened, glass insanity. She would take it. She would do what she could to warn them and she would even come back and see if Alex had survived. But right here and now she began to harden her heart, build protective walls in preparation.
She turned a corner and the large, stone-based building that housed the pathway stood before her. A bloodied, staggering hierarchy Priest stumbled inside, disappeared into the gloom. So many of them seemed to be simply running away. She could hardly blame them, given the absolute anarchy in the streets of Obsidian. There was every chance that a coordinated, merciless crackdown could bring the people back under the power of the hierarchy, but the uprising had been so swift, so unexpected and so total that it seemed unlikely.
She carefully approached, peered inside. No one. The stairs leading down were shrouded in shadow and she heard no sounds from below. The cellar was still lit with guttering oil lamps, but no one was there. Anyone running, it seemed, just kept on running.
The large stone square in the middle of the cellar rippled with light. Silhouette dropped her shields, let herself bask in the essence of the magic. Wh
at would be waiting on the other side? Where would it even be? Would she walk right into a massed gathering of pissed off hierarchy and be torn limb from limb instantly? Only one way to find out.
She took a deep breath and stepped forward. Casting one last glance back over her shoulder, thinking of Alex and wishing desperately to see him again, she stepped into the pathway.
The light flexed and shattered around her. She was stretched thin and expanded at the same time. Magic coursed through her and she knew she was travelling. Not any real distance in terms of miles or metres, but moving through vastness, infinity, from the Void back to her own world.
27
Flickering magelight glimmered off rough cut obsidian walls as the Autarch and his council slipped quietly through passages only they knew about. They carried the few items of value they could easily transport and not easily leave behind in satchels or backpacks. The best grimoires, icons, valuable mementoes of the land they had created, ruled and lost.
‘It’s not much further,’ the Autarch said in a low voice. ‘Let’s keep it quiet. They could be anywhere in Oldtown.’
‘It looks like our Kin are leaving Obsidian in droves,’ Katherine said. ‘I don’t think Caine and his friends would likely wait at the pathway and risk running into them.’
‘Perhaps not, but they may well wait within sight of it, watching out for us.’
The Seven hunched in the secret passages and moved silently. The Autarch dimmed his arcane light and they moved cautiously up rough hewn steps and paused, ears pricked for any sound.
A zap of magic. A pulse of realmshift they felt through the thick floor above them.
‘Another chickenshit runs away,’ Henri spat.
The Autarch shook his head in the darkness, sorry for his friend. ‘We’re all running away. I’m glad you decided to come too.’
‘If everyone had stayed, we could have taken back control.’
‘No, Henri. We couldn’t. Shh.’
Silence sank heavy as a cloak once more. After a minute without another sound, the Autarch pressed his palm against the hard black glass over them. His magic swelled and a flicker of blue light shivered in a rectangle across the roof. With a push, assisted by the others nearest him, they moved the opening up and into the space above. Climbing the last few steps took them into the pathway chamber. The large square of four stones stood before them, glimmering darkly.