half-lich 02 - void weaver

by martinez, katerina

  “I feel it,” she said, “I only feel this when—”

  “Void magic is present, I know. I’m not used to sensing it, so I needed you to double check.”

  “So I don’t feel this only when Nyx is around?”

  “Thankfully, no; otherwise we would be having a different conversation.”

  “Does this mean someone nearby is using Void magic?”

  “No,” Isaac said, approaching, “The trail is faint, but someone who was standing in this very spot has left the mark of the Void, sometime in the last twelve hours.”

  “Logan?”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know. But if it was him, then he’s even more dangerous than I thought. And if he has Cameron… it may already be too late to help him.”

  “What?” she asked, her eyes wide with alarm, “You can’t mean that.”

  “I don’t know what I mean, Alice, but Void magic is… it infects mages who get too close to it. It spreads from mage to mage, corrupting them, empowering them… and eventually killing them. If one of them is using it, then they may all be infected. Cameron too.”

  “I hope you’re not suggesting we do nothing,” she said, her cheeks flushing crimson with hot blood.

  “I’m not suggesting that at all, but we need to be careful—and fast.”

  “Give me the phone.”

  Isaac considered for a moment, but he offered it to her. “What are you going to do?” he asked.

  “I’m going to call that number.”

  “We don’t know what will happen if you do—I need to analyze the phone first, find out if there are any enchantments on it. It could be a trap.”

  “If it’s a trap, then it’s a trap. I’m not waiting for you to prepare, Isaac. We can’t be careful and fast. Being that this is the case, I choose fast.”

  Alice pressed the button on the side of the phone and it glowed to life. On it, a picture of a man—Cameron—surrounded by big cats sprang up. It’s his after all, she thought, and then she unlocked it, opened up the phone app, and punched in the number. But in the instant after hitting the green button to initiate a call, Alice’s invisible senses picked up the same current they had felt back at the forest, and she pulled the phone away from her ear as if it were a live grenade.

  Isaac’s hands flew up, his magic bangle glowing blue, and suddenly they were both pushed to the ground by a powerful shockwave. The boom kicked up massive clouds of dust and dirt, sending them in all directions. For a single, terrifying moment, Alice thought the phone had exploded. She thought it had blown up in her hand, and now her fingers were gone. She was numb, her ears were ringing, her heart was pounding, and she couldn't get up.

  But then she felt the phone still grasped in her hand, and when she turned her head toward it she saw that all of her fingers were there. The phone too. It hadn’t exploded at all.

  “Isaac,” she said, coughing as she struggled to get up. “Isaac, where are you?”

  The dust clouds were thick, so much so that she couldn’t see through them very well, but she could see a shape standing nearby. A human, male shape.

  A powerful breeze suddenly churned through the area and the man standing in the middle of the road knitted himself together out of the churning dust. She didn’t recognize him. He was tall, probably about as tall as Isaac, and he was wearing a buttoned shirt and… a pair of spectacles on the bridge of his nose.

  He pushed them back into place and dusted himself down, but then he saw Alice on the ground and immediately came running to her side.

  “Miss,” he said, “I’m so sorry. Are you alright?”

  He extended his hand, but Alice withdrew and quickly rose to her feet. “Who the hell are you?” she asked, “And how did you do that?”

  “That? Yes, sorry, that was teleportation and bumpy teleportation at that.”

  “Jim?” Isaac said.

  Alice turned her head to look at him. He had a slight cut on his cheek and was covered in dirt, but was otherwise fine. “Jim?” she asked, “The librarian?”

  “You’re dead,” Isaac said. “I watched you die.”

  “Ah,” Jim said, “But here I am. I do apologize for the manner of my arrival, but getting a lock on your position has been incredibly difficult. The resultant frustration made it difficult for me to safely perform this spell, to the point where I had to force the magic through in one great push.”

  “That was you?” Alice asked.

  Jim looked at her and smiled, pleased with himself. He was about to open his mouth to speak, but Isaac enveloped him in a hug that took the breath out of Jim’s lungs. “Christ, Moreau,” Jim said, “Careful, will you? I didn’t escape that cave entirely intact.”

  Isaac pulled away from Jim, still smiling from ear to ear. “You’re not dead,” he said. “How are you not dead?”

  “I’m not. And yet, you’re the one who looks like death. Since you’re in one piece, however, I gather your little jaunt through time and space went well?”

  “Guys,” Alice said, suddenly noticing something. The phone in her hand was displaying an active call, one that had been going on for thirty seconds. Thirty-one. Thirty-two. Someone had picked up on the other side and had likely been listening to what had been going on here. She put a hand up to silence both men and then put the phone to her ear.

  “Hello?” she said.

  CHAPTER 25

  Taking the Bait

  “That sounds like a good reunion,” Logan said from the other side of the phone, “I’m glad to see things are going well for you.” Isaac approached, but Alice stuck her hand out and stopped him from getting any closer. “How many of you is that, now? Three? They can’t help you.”

  The fires of confrontation burned hot inside her chest. She knew she had to be careful around this man, but she also wanted to goad him out.

  “I’ve taken down bigger bullies than you,” she said, “Better ones, too. You’re having a pretty tough time capturing a mortal. But then again, what can you expect from a thug masquerading as an authority figure. Just like old times, right Sergeant Hodges?”

  “You remember me after all. Good. I was starting to worry your memory was getting a little blurry, Werner.”

  “Where’s Cameron?” Alice said.

  “Here. With us. Do you want to see him again? I bet you do. So how about you give yourself up and we’ll make this easy. Nothing has to be done the hard way.”

  “There’s only one way we do this, Logan, and that’s my way. You’re gonna tell me where Cameron is, and then we’re going to go get him. If you’re still there when we get there, you’re going to regret it.”

  “If you want him back,” Logan said, “You’re going to have to come and get him. But since I’m feeling nice, I’m going to let you decide where the exchange happens. If you don’t show, we kill him.”

  Kill? He hadn’t said kill before.

  “Alright, an exchange,” Alice said, “Me for him.”

  Isaac’s eyes widened, alarmed. He came up to her, but again she put her hand out and with her eyes told him to calm down. She had to think, and she wouldn’t be able to if he came too close. Where, she thought. It had to be an open place, one with plenty of room for people to hide in, but also one far away from human eyes—where people rarely go.

  “There’s a graveyard,” she said, “I saw one riding up here. It’s a couple of miles back down 95, toward the city. You’ll see it on the right.”

  “I know it.”

  “Good, then in that case I’ll be seeing you in an hour.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Not as much as I am.”

  Alice killed the call, stuffed the phone into her pocket, and ran her hands through her hair. A thin film of sweat had developed on her brow and behind her neck, but the air out here was cool and fresh on her skin.

  “Well?” Isaac asked.

  “We need to go,” Alice said, before turning and walking toward the Mustang.

  “What’s this abou
t a graveyard?” Jim asked, following Alice, and now Isaac too.

  “They have Cameron, and they’ve threatened to kill him.”

  “Kill?” Isaac asked, “That’s insane. He’s out of his mind!”

  “We knew this before, Isaac. He attacked you while you were in prison, and then he came here and kidnapped Cameron. The man is a loose cannon, and he runs your police department? There’s a reason why we kicked him out of ours, you know.”

  “He’s baiting us,” Isaac said, “And we’re going for it.”

  “I know we are.”

  “Then we need to prepare.”

  “We can’t prepare, Isaac. You need to learn that there isn’t always going to be time to compute the variables.”

  “I don’t like this.”

  “I don’t either, but we don’t have a choice. Cameron risked his neck to save my life and now I’m going to do the same for him. I don’t care if I’m being baited, I’m not about to sit here and try to figure out another course of action. Remember what I said about being fast or being careful? I tried to do both this time. so you’re just going to have to trust me.”

  Isaac fell silent. Jim too.

  They walked up to the car in silence, stepped in without saying a word, and for a moment seemed to be having some kind of telepathic conversation Alice hadn’t been invited to. They had their heads down, their brows were furrowed, and both men had their hands clasped in front of their mouths.

  “Jesus, you’re like twins,” Alice said.

  They both looked at her, puzzled.

  “Why are you silent?” she asked.

  “I’m trying to figure out how all of this happened,” Isaac said. “But the only thing I can come up with is the idea that Logan has somehow become obsessed with finding out the truth about you, a truth I tried to hide from the magistrate as soon as they brought me in for questioning.”

  “I don’t think any of us know whether that’s true or it isn’t,” Jim said, “But the fact is that this man is clearly willing to do anything to try and get to Miss Werner here, and as long as that’s the case, Cameron won’t be harmed.”

  “Is this normal?” Alice asked, “Do mages often go around kidnapping and killing other mages?”

  Jim and Isaac exchanged a knowing glance. “Yes and no,” Jim said, “Mages are megalomaniacs at heart; we’re obsessed with knowledge and the pursuit for power, and when someone has more of it than someone else, friction ensues. A thousand, probably even a hundred years ago, the kind of overtures we have seen today would have been commonplace—just part of the everyday game of being a mage. But we have rules now, and these rules are rarely broken to this extent. And much less by a legionnaire, whose job it is to enforce our rules.”

  “Let me guess—the legionnaires were formed to keep infighting to a minimum?”

  “No, infighting and heresy are handled by our inquisitorial branch. The legionnaires were formed to fight our wars and protect our borders from invasion. But ever since the inquisition crumbled, the legionnaires have been doing both jobs.”

  “Invasion?” Alice asked. This was the word that had interested her the most. “Invasion by who?”

  “Not by who,” Isaac said, “But by what. When your kind holds the keys to the world of magic, you make a lot of enemies. Entire species of them.”

  “And when somebody else holds new keys you decide you want, you send the legionnaires after them. Yeah, you guys are really enlightened.”

  Alice turned the key in the ignition and the Mustang rumbled to life. She peeled back, and then pulled the car out of the dusty parking lot, drove it across the dirt road, and back onto the highway. She was glad to slip onto smooth asphalt. The dirt under the car was probably getting everywhere and in everything. It had already turned her shiny, chrome car a dull brown.

  “How far is the graveyard?” Isaac asked.

  “Just a couple of miles down,” Alice said.

  “We won’t have the element of surprise. They heard us all talking, so they know Jim is here. This won’t be easy.”

  “I know.” Alice gripped the steering wheel more tightly and slowed down to a steady cruising speed, allowing her nerves a moment to settle. “I’m not expecting it’ll be easy, but we do have the element of surprise.”

  “How?” Jim asked. “There’s three of us travelling down a relatively quiet highway in a car that isn’t inconspicuous. We’re also going to be the only ones turning into the graveyard, so if they have spotters they’ll see us coming quite literally from a mile away.”

  “It’s the whole reason why I picked a graveyard. They may know what you’re capable of, but they have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  “This would be a bad time to ask exactly what you mean, wouldn’t it?” Jim asked.

  “It would. You’re just going to have to trust me too. If you don’t know what to expect, then neither does Logan, and that gives us an edge. But if he’s the Logan Hodges I remember, that still may not be enough.”

  “What do you know of him?”

  “You know the legionnaire, but I knew the man underneath all of that. I didn’t know who he was at first, but it clicked when we were talking over the phone. He worked for the Ashwood PD, but before that he served a tour in Afghanistan.”

  “He was military?” Jim asked, “That explains a few things.”

  “Logan was an alcoholic, too. Still might be, I don’t know. His drinking is what got him kicked off the force. He was drunk the night he tried to put a plant on someone. If he hadn’t been drunk he would have gotten away with it, because the police look after their own kind in this city. When it’s a cop’s word against a perp, the cop’s word is always the one that wins. But the beating he gave the guy was severe, as was the inquiry that followed. One officer suspected he had been drinking so they gave him the breathalyzer and he failed.”

  Isaac’s eyes narrowed and he scanned the landscape of Alice’s face. “There’s more,” he said, “Isn’t there?”

  She nodded.

  “What is it?”

  “I was the officer who thought he had been drinking. I didn’t know him personally, but I knew of him. On the night he entered the station, after the beating, I thought I smelled booze on his breath so I told my superior.”

  “So when Logan discovered who you were…”

  “Yeah. It’s personal.”

  “How long ago was it since that happened?”

  “This was a little over two years ago, a few months before I left.”

  “He’s been Legio Prime for over three years,” Jim said.

  “Christ, and nobody knew about this?” Alice said.

  “That he’s an alcoholic who got kicked off the police force because he put a plant on someone? No. We have a vetting process when selecting our officials, but he was hand-picked due to his skills as a tactician so he bypassed the usual interview.”

  “That doesn’t matter now. What matters is that he’ll get there before we do,” Isaac said. “I’m almost sure of it.”

  “And he’ll set wards up,” Jim added. “Our magic will be useless.”

  “Theirs too, though, right?” Alice asked.

  “Not necessarily. It depends on how much time they have to set the wards up. If they have enough time, they’ll be able to make themselves exempt from the wards’ power and they’ll be able to use magic.”

  Alice put her foot on the gas and watched the tachometer quickly start to climb. The Mustang purred smoothly along the asphalt like a train on a track. If Logan’s priority was to beat Alice to the graveyard, then she would make sure he had to focus on beating her and not on preparing his defenses.

  “It won’t be enough,” Jim said, “Wards or not, we’re outmatched here. You’re forgetting that he won’t be alone.”

  “I’m not forgetting anything,” Alice said, “I’m just trying to even our odds.”

  “We’re going to have to try harder than that. Isaac, you have to agree with me on this.”

  “What is it
exactly you’re proposing?”

  Jim gave Alice a glance in the mirror, and then looked at Isaac. “We need to bring in the magistrate.”

  “Absolutely not,” Isaac said.

  “Isaac, we’re running blindly into a trap we know is waiting for us, and I know jumping headfirst into a risky situation without a plan isn’t your style.”

  “It isn’t, but I will not risk involving the magistrate in this. We deal with Logan alone.”

  “No,” Alice said.

  For a moment she couldn’t believe she had said it, but the words had left her lips. She could tell by the way Isaac and Jim had shut up. In the few seconds of silence that followed, Alice had a chance to think about what it was she had just objected to. What she had said hadn’t been a delayed reaction to Jim’s suggestion of involving the magistrate. It had been an objection to Isaac’s decision to not involve them.

  Jim was right. They needed backup. Cameron needed backup, and the three of them would not be enough.

  “Alice?” Isaac asked.

  “We need to get your people here, Isaac,” she said, “Your dog has gone mad, and he needs to get picked up by his masters. Logan may see us coming and he may get a chance to state the terms of the engagement, but he would never expect us to bring down the magistrate on him. Not from what you’ve told me about him and what he said over the phone. This is personal to him, remember?”

  “You realize what you’re saying,” Isaac said, “What you’re agreeing to by suggesting we involve the very same people who imprisoned me.”

  “I do. They’re gonna come down here with the swift hammer of justice and they’re gonna chew you out for escaping, but Logan won’t get away with what he’s about to do and Cameron has a better shot at coming out of this in one piece.”

  “Alice,” he said, “I can’t do this. They will take you away from me if they can.”