Kneeling, I sank my hand into the chilly mud at the tree’s base, reaching into the tree’s root structure, where it held nutrients to weather the winter. I skimmed a tiny bit of power, not so much that it would hurt the tree, but enough that it would bloom later next year. Tapping the Deeps again this quickly would be inadvisable.
“Thank you,” I told the tree, and breathed out, channeling power into the gems, the twig laid between them. It was a crude ritual, but I hadn’t the time or the tools for a sedate working.
The onyx glowed, then pulled slightly in my hand.
“This way,” I said, walking into an alley.
The stone led us two streets down before turning back toward the towers. I was far from an expert in Deep-forging, but my tracking rituals were perfectly respectable. For that, I had my mother to thank.
In the coldest week of my eighth winter, Mother had driven me ten miles from home and deposited me in the middle of the forest. My tools: a single agate and a pocketknife.
“Make your way home. If you make it by nightfall, you’ll have dinner waiting. If not, then you go to bed hungry.”
I stumbled in hours after dark, heading directly up to bed to collapse, wrapping myself in a dozen blankets and still shivering myself to sleep.
The police had failed to cordon off a small sewage runoff sluice, and there were no officers posted on the cordons on either side. This was our way in. A cramped, calf-straining way in, but it was enough.
Once we were inside the cordon, the stone tugged directly for the burning tower. Three fire trucks were positioned by the building, hoses running, teams of firefighters ferrying people out in pairs and clusters of families. Some had smoke-stained clothes, some were bloodied, and others were brought out on stretchers.
My ears burned, and not just because of the staggering heat rolling off of the tower. But that heat would be a problem, since I’d need to maintain the working to siphon the thermal energy into the ruby, which would leave me unable to do much else. And I definitely didn’t have enough time to create a stable working to perpetuate the effect, let alone a second one for Antoinette.
“We need those firefighter suits,” I said.
“What? We couldn’t even move in those things! I tried one on when I was in high school, and I felt like I was a Victorian diver crossed with a mummy. But we do need something for the heat.”
“It would take me the better part of half an hour to create enchantments to protect us using these rubies,” I admitted. “Elemental magic is not my forte.”
“Do what you can while I try to call Carter,” she said, working her phone and then pressing it to her face, covering her opposite ear.
“Will do,” I said in a soft voice, largely to myself. Trading out gemstones once more, wishing Antoinette had inset rings like Father and Mother used, I drew out two rubies and set them on the ground in front of me, letting the sparse flows of magical energy suffuse them to begin the ritual.
For a greater duration of the effect, I added a sunstone, which also had the sympathetic resonance of sun to fire.
Next, a power source. The working would become largely self-powering when put into effect, but there was the initial outlay necessary.
I could reach to the Deeps for another quick solution, but even an hour hadn’t returned me to a fresh state.
The only sensible option was to stab myself.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
Using the ritual knife, I drew a cut width-wise across the back of my wrist, squeezing my fist. Blood dripped onto the stones, and I spoke in Enochian.
“Shield from heat. Draw it in and sustain yourself.”
The blood sizzled on the stones, hardening, flaking, then disintegrating as the working solidified. With more time, I could have brought in more elements, created a shield against smoke and pressure as well. But the order of the day was quick and dirty, and so that is what I managed. I focused for several moments more, holding the energy in place, creating a vacuum to ensure that the working could complete without interference. I maintained the flow of power from the ley line, until I was sure that the working would hold, even weak as it was.
Sealing off the working, I swept the stones from the ground and stood. I pulled my sleeve back over the cut, wincing as the shirt brushed over the wound. I’d neglected to bring gauze or bandages from home, so eager was I to get on the road. Thank goodness for black shirts. Not that I wouldn’t have to throw out this entire outfit anyways.
Antoinette had put away her phone.
“Were you successful?” I asked.
“No answer. But the phone rang, so I’m guessing it’s on.”
“And that’s good?” I asked, far from certain when it came to anything on phone etiquette.
“Maybe,” Antoinette said. “We good?” she asked, gesturing at the stones.
“As good as I can do in this short amount of time. You’ll need to keep it in contact with your skin for it to work. And it won’t protect against smoke inhalation. That we must manage mundanely.”
“I got you covered,” Antoinette said. “We just need to steal masks from the firefighters,” she said, making her way to a fire truck.
“And how are we going to do that?” I asked.
“Fighting isn’t the only thing spirits can do, you know,” she said with a wink.
It took a few minutes for Antoinette to call the spirit, negotiate a bargain at a good rate, and procure the spirit’s help in distracting the firefighters long enough for us to procure the equipment needed.
So equipped and enchanted, we made our way inside. Except now I had one hand locked around a ruby, my vision obscured by a clearly lower-grade mask, and no clearer idea where Esther was than what was given by the infrequent tugging of the agate as we made our way into the conflagration.
We entered through a side door, following the agate while moving at a brisk walk. I had the ruby and agate in one hand, the ritual knife in the other, with several more gems easily at hand in my exterior coat pocket. The ground floor was buzzing with emergency workers but didn’t seem to be aflame itself.
The agate stood on end, pulling up, so we found the nearest staircase and made it all of three steps before something screamed in an inhuman voice, sounding like the offspring of a backfiring engine and a braying donkey. The sound had come from not far up. I jumped up to the first landing and looked back to see a jumble of wood, plaster, and steel banging around the stairwell in the rough shape of a human, a bullhorn for its face. It yelled again, and my temples pounded like they were being crushed in a vise.
Antoinette yelled something, but I could not make it out, as my ears were still rebelling at being subjected to such an overpowering sound.
“Let’s find another way up!” I shouted back, turning around and pulling Antoinette out of the way as the construct hurled a meter of rebar precisely where she’d been standing.
When we were back on the ground floor, my ears attempted to equalize, and we found another stairwell at the opposite end of the “H” leg.
We made it up three flights this time before encountering another construct, this one mostly made of discarded clothes and trash. Since it was far softer in composition, we decided to merely pass it by.
I shouldered the creature aside and Antoinette slid past beside me. We ran onto the third floor.
There was smoke gathered at the ceiling, a door ablaze at the far end of the hall. A firefighter’s ax shattered the door, and smoke poured out into the hallway.
The agate pulled to the left. We made the turn, moving (of course) into thicker smoke.
I found the source of at least some of the flame: a fire elemental, living flame in the shape of a vulture. The thing spotted me and shot a gout of flame my way.
Holding out the ruby, I prayed that the working had been sufficient for the heat.
The fo
rce of the blow knocked me flat on my back, the ruby absorbing most of the power, but not all of the kinetic energy, it would seem.
The physics quandary would have to wait, since the elemental winged across the hall in our direction, its fiery beak raising to strike.
My hematite was gone, so I didn’t have a channel for earth-based magic to counter the flame. So I jumped up, holding the ruby forward again, opening up a funnel to catch the fire.
As the elemental hit, the heat passed into the ruby, but the momentum took me off my feet again. And as I slid back, the ruby slipped from my hands, leaving my coat to catch fire as the gem clattered down the hall.
Heat seared my exposed skin as I flailed to shed the coat, right myself, and get eyes on the elemental again.
I heard something high-pressure go off in a stream, and saw Antoinette hosing the elemental down with a fire extinguisher. Quite effectively.
“Huh,” I said, dumbstruck.
Emptying the extinguisher, Antoinette’s attack left the elemental diminished to one-fifth its original size. I took up my coat and dove on the elemental, smothering it, stamping it out with Antoinette’s assistance.
Shaking out my coat, I gave Antoinette my best nod of approval.
“Good thinking.”
“Thanks. Where next?”
Oh no. I’d watched the ruby fly out of my hand, but what about the agate?
“I lost the agate.” Pointing down the hallway, I said, “It has to be over here.”
We squatted low as we searched, keeping out of the smoke that was gathering at the ceiling. If the third floor was this bad, what would the others be like? And how many elementals were there?
But little of that would matter if we didn’t find the agate. We swept the hall, checked under and inside shoes left at doorways on mud flaps and shoe racks (which revealed the ruby); we checked under doormats and went all the way to the end of the hall to the stairwell door, which had its own flap that would have prevented the agate from sliding past.
This left only a few options.
“It must have bounced into someone’s apartment,” I said.
Which led to an entirely-too-lengthy digression including knocking on doors, Antoinette speaking as a “first responder” and getting people to vacate. I don’t know how they’d ignored the fire alarms, the smoke, and the screaming, but we emptied three apartments and a total of seven people before we found the agate in the third apartment, wedged underneath a bookshelf.
Having at least helped a few people escape from the fire, we continued invigorated. The agate led us up two more flights of stairs. The fifth floor was thick with smoke and heat, one entire hallway consumed by the conflagration.
Luckily, the agate led elsewhere.
Instead, we headed across the floor, then up another flight of stairs and back down one of the limbs of the building’s H shape.
“Why do I feel like this agate has no fucking clue where we’re going?” Antoinette asked.
“Because uncertainty and anxiety are magnified in times of extreme stress, compromising logical thinking. Alternatively, Esther may be on the move.”
Another fire elemental emerged from an apartment, wreathed in flame and smoke.
Antoinette produced her fire extinguisher and let the elemental have it, while I stood at her side, ruby at the ready.
Nervousness erupted into laughter as the elemental struggled, spewing flame while it flailed under the foamy assault.
Once again, we dispatched the miniaturized elemental, and moved onward, the agate pulling back the other way.
Directly into the flame-consumed hallway.
“That’s not good,” I said to Antoinette, gesturing at the agate.
And to make matters worse, three more elementals emerged from the conflagration, heading our way.
Antoinette turned and fired the extinguisher, which made not a confident spray, but an impotent gasp.
“Oh,” Antoinette said.
I raised the ruby, closed my eyes, and wished for the best as the trio breathed fire at once.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
The force of the blast lifted me off my feet, slammed me into Antoinette.
We slid all the way back into the stairwell door.
This time, I kept hold of the stones, and raised them into position before pulling myself up. My crude shield in place, I found my footing.
By now, the ruby was flush with power, and I was tired of being thrown around like a rag doll.
I fished in my pocket and plucked out the amethyst, associated with air.
“Choke!” I shouted in Enochian, and slammed the ruby into the amethyst, channeling the absorbed energy through to the other stone and shaping a dome of solidified air around the elementals. I clenched my other fist, collapsing the dome down and in on the elementals.
Deprived of air as fuel, the spirits sputtered, flames flickering and eventually giving out entirely. I left the dome intact for several seconds after the flames had died out, then released the effect, exhaling.
I turned to Antoinette, who smiled. “Nice.”
The agate continued to point through the conflagration, but we decided it was better to try to work around, heading up a floor, across the building, yelling for people to evacuate as we went, and then descending back to the same floor, where the agate pointed us into the fiery hall.
“It was worth a try, I guess,” Antoinette said, her voice muted by the gas mask.
I wiped soot from the plastic surface of my own mask, then held the ruby tight, saying, “I’ll head in myself. Only follow if I call for help.”
“I can handle the ruby enchantment, Jake. You don’t need to take everything on your shoulders all the time.”
“It usually ends up there, regardless, but by all means,” I said, turning and walking into the flame, the ruby burning as it drew in incredible amounts of energy. The enchantment would fade within minutes, and with that, I’d no longer be able to draw off such levels of heat just through concentration. We needed to find our companions, and soon. There was also the possibility of the building collapsing on us, given the conflagration.
In summary: Not my best day ever.
I stepped into the fire, the ruby burning again. It wouldn’t actually cause tissue damage while the enchantment lasted. Hopefully.
The agate turned and pointed at one of the doors. I pushed on it with my elbow, and the door refused to give.
“Carter!” I shouted, the crackling fire and alarm drowning out my voice. I pounded on the door with my elbow and yelled again.
I was leaning into an elbow strike when the door opened and I stumbled face-first into Sveta, nearly bowling her over.
Sveta closed the door and pushed me up against it with puissant ease, and as I hit, I realized that this apartment wasn’t burning.
At all. The air-conditioning was even on. Over Sveta’s shoulder, I saw Carter sitting on a couch, his arm in a sling. Across from him were several more South Asian men and women, all loaded down for war.
“What?” I said, unable to be much more articulate.
“Magic, kid. Where’s Antoinette?” Sveta asked.
“She’s in the hall. What’s going on?”
“We’re hiding out from that crazy bitch, that’s what we’re doing.”
“Why not head out the window?”
“I don’t have climbing gear here is why,” Sveta said. “Plus, this time, we’re taking the fight to her. We just need some more time. Get Antoinette in here.”
“What about the fire?” I asked.
Sveta rolled her eyes and stepped past me. “Fine. Take a seat.” Wisps of hair crawled up as if charged by static electricity, then her whole head of hair started moving like a flickering flame.
Sveta opened the door and stepped out into the fire.
“Greater Raksha. Fireproof,” Carter said.
“Of course!” I said in a full voice, talking over the incessant fire alarm.
I went to take a seat by Carter, nodding to my roommate. He returned the gesture, then I remembered myself and stood again, offering my hand to the weapon-sharpening, rifle-reloading others.
Carter made introductions. “This is Husna, Rahim, and Usman.” The three nodded in turn as they were named. Husna was a small, round woman with an assault rifle; Rahim was of middle height, had a prominent nose, and was polishing a silver-handled talwar. Usman had a metal shield not unlike Carter’s, and a spear laid across her lap.
“What was Sveta talking about in terms of waiting?” I asked, looking between Carter and the armed trio.
Husna stood and pointed behind her. On a shelf was a candle set atop an altar, flame sticking out of a melted mass of red wax. Judging by the width of the wax, it seemed that the flame had been burning for quite a while.
“And that is?” I asked, not familiar with the effect.
Antoinette and Sveta walked back into the apartment. Smoke should have rolled in, but it hung flat against the plane of the apartment, as if it were contained by a glass wall.
Husna continued. “The candle is devoted to Shiva. When it burns out, the prayer will be complete, and Esther will be cut off from a portion of her power.”
“And then we kick her ass,” Carter said.
“How much longer are you expecting before the prayer is complete?” I asked.
Sveta said, “It will be done when it’s done. We don’t rush these things. Divine intervention is not something that can be expedited or rushed to fit a human schedule.”
I shifted in my seat. “Does anyone know where Esther is, then? I cannot say that I’m comfortable hiding out in a building engulfed in flames for an indeterminate amount of time. I haven’t enough rubies or strength to protect us all from the flame.”
“I’m covered,” Sveta said.
Younger Gods 1: The Younger Gods Page 19