A Mage's Stand: Empire State (Malachi English Book 3)

by Andy Hyland

  “So are we ready to start now?” Arabella asked.

  “What’s the hurry?” asked Zack.

  Liberty turned to her. “Tabbris is the one who will pronounce the sentence. We’re still waiting on Kushiel. He will take his place on the granite seat. It’s his role to announce the crimes and question each of you. If it looks like he’s enjoying himself, it’s because he is. I’d advise you to keep your answers factual and short.”

  “I don’t suppose begging at this point would help?” asked Zack.

  “Don’t give the git the pleasure,” said Liberty. “Like I said, short and sweet. Don’t let it get dragged out.”

  “And the gold throne?” I asked.

  “Symbolic,” said Liberty. “To remind us that only One sits in judgement, and the granite and steel are only his tools and agents.”

  “So,” said Zack, “and I want to be clear on this, there’s no chance of the Big Guy on the gold throne turning up and dispensing some loving kindness.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it. Once these things start their course, there’s no stopping them. Not that I’ve ever seen, anyway. Still, here’s hoping.”

  We waited as the whispers grew, and subsided, and grew again around us. Benny and Bud had wrestled Julie back into her seat. Bud had his thick arm across her like a restraint on a roller coaster. He wasn’t moving, and so neither was she.

  “Is this normal?” I asked after a while. “The wait, I mean. Do they keep us standing here for effect?”

  “No,” said Liberty. “This is a first. Punctuality and efficiency are normally the orders of the day. Hold on, what’s this?”

  Tabbris had beckoned the tall bald guy up onto the platform and was questioning him. He kept his eyes respectfully lowered and held out his hands, palms up, as he spoke to her. She waved him away and he stepped hurriedly across the floor, back the way we’d entered.

  “She’s not happy,” I said. “My guess is that Kushiel’s going to get it in the neck for being tardy.”

  “Don’t joke,” Liberty snapped. “Last thing we need is her pissed off.”

  “Or what?” snorted Arabella. “She’ll kill us twice?”

  I tried to keep a straight face at this, but it was a struggle. Then Zack lost it, and his shoulder shook while tears or mirth sprang from his eyes. That was it. I cracked up, doubling up and laughing out loud. This attracted a good amount of interest from the encircling ranks of the Host above us.

  Tabbris saw us taking the situation somewhat less than seriously and clearly decided that now would be a great time to bring the gathering to order. She stood, and silence swept across the floor and up the rows of seating. She gazed slowly from left to right, turning her head and taking it all in, making sure she was the focus of everybody’s attention.

  “It is time,” she began, her voice low and with a cutting edge to it, swelling out and filling the chamber, “to bring this little experiment to an end. We have before us, and can be assured of their utter guilt, the very forces of chaos and lawlessness that we have given so much to strive against, to end. Our brothers and sisters have fallen, time and time again, and for what, I must ask you. For what? An act of mercy and love has led to what can only be seen as an embarrassment for the Host and, by extensions, the heavens. Let us end it now, and quickly.”

  “Has she got the right people?” Arabella whispered. “Thought we were up for illegal vamping. All that shit.”

  I inclined my head over to answer out of the corner of my mouth, but then it all kicked off.

  We heard the scream before we saw anything. Actually, scream is the wrong word. It doesn’t do the sound justice. What hit our ears was an unearthly wail of loss and grief and anger and confusion that shook us to the core and drove us to our knees.

  The black-robed man had re-entered the chamber of judgement, not leading or following Kushiel, but carrying him. Once he came into view things moved very quickly. A black blur was all anyone could see of Tabbris as she sprinted past us. The sound of a thousand beating wings came from above as the Host rose and descended to the floor.

  Four glimpsed images were all that I registered. Firstly, Kushiel’s lifeless eyes rolling back in his head. Secondly, his blue coat ripped open, its fine fabric slashed and torn. Thirdly the silver lines across his wrists. And finally, most terribly, his chest cracked open, and the shaft of a knife rising from where his heart should be. Then I was being dragged backwards by an impossibly strong arm that had me round the neck. I twisted and writhed, trying to free up enough space to gasp down some air.

  “Malachi, it’s us,” a voice hissed into my ear. I glanced round and saw Benny. He had Julie’s arm in one hand and Arabella’s in the other. The tree trunk of a bicep clamping down on my throat belonged to Bud, who had the back of Zack’s shirt collar in his other, oversized paw.

  We were going against the flow, being pulled across and over to the side while everyone else in the chamber was fighting to get to Kushiel. This made life difficult, but we had a Bud and we weren’t afraid to use him. We rearranged ourselves into a single line with him at the front, and as long as we stayed tight behind him, it was like being behind a snow plough.

  Benny shouted directions to him, and gradually we made headway. An alcove appeared just ahead, and we ducked in, though a silver-rimmed ornate door. Zack was last through, and Benny slammed the door behind him. I stood there with my hands on my knees, trying to get my breath back, and my head around what we’d just seen.

  “We can’t stay here,” Benny said to himself, pacing the floor, holding his head in his hands. “Can’t stay here. But where to go? The place will be on lockdown.”

  “No back doors?” asked Arabella.

  “No,” said Benny. “For you, there are just the two entrances. Earthwards and heavenwards. They’ll both be heavily guarded, and by the time we reach them they’ll have been closed off. The library will be impregnable, and that means that we’re not getting out.”

  “So we hide until it dies down,” said Zack. “Hole up somewhere. It’s a big place, right?”

  “Dies down?” said Benny, leaning towards him. “Dies down? Kushiel of the Justice Flight was just slaughtered in the chamber of solitude in the Great Library. It’s unheard of. And it’s unheard of because it’s impossible. There is nowhere – nowhere – that we can hide from this.”

  “Why?” asked Arabella. “It’s not like it’s our problem. Everyone could see where we were when it happened. We’re innocent. Clearly.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” Benny conceded. “But you’re still under sentence of death. All we’ll achieve is a delay while this is dealt with. And that’ll mean you going back into holding. For years, possibly.”

  “That’s a death sentence in itself,” I said, and gave him the rundown of our little adventure in the pit.

  “So we get out of here, or we die,” said Zack. “Sooner rather than later, I’d say. Come on man, there must be a way out of this.”

  “You don’t understand,” said Benny, pacing again, “this is the Great Library. You’re on the outskirts of the Realms here. You don’t slide in and out like you’re heading to the Fades.”

  “They don’t,” said Julie from the corner. “I do.” She held up the feather charm around her neck that allowed her to slide at will, even though she was immune to magic in all its various forms.

  That got us all listening, but Benny was looking concerned, and if that happened then you’d best sit up and take notice.

  “She’s done it once with me,” I told them. “Grabbed me from her apartment and we slid straight through to Dark Manhattan.”

  “But it’s not the same,” insisted Benny, now looking like he was about to hit somebody. “Her, with that, yes, but to take you…”

  “Let’s try it,” Julie said. “I’ll take one at a time and slide back for the next one. Unless anyone else has any suggestions?”

  “You can’t take us?” I asked Benny.

  He shook his head. “Once upon a time
, maybe. But any privileges I had in that area are long since revoked. I can do it alone, as can Bud. But only alone.”

  “So it’s decided” said Julie, and with that look in her eyes nobody was going to argue with her. “Who’s up?”

  “Arabella.” Zack and I spoke simultaneously. If anyone was getting out, it was going to be her.

  “Wish us luck,” Julie said. She didn’t waste time. Just walked over to Arabella, took her hand, and slid. They winked out of sight with only a small gasp of air as it rushed in to fill the void they left behind.

  That left the rest of us waiting in a bland, square room, wondering what was going to happen first: Julie returning, or the host beating down the door to get to us.

  Julie came back first, but it wasn’t good. She slid back into view, looked at me, and fell to the floor. We all surrounded her, but Benny waved us away. He placed his hand on her forehead for a few seconds, reaching out to her. If any of us tried that, we’d just find a blank space, a magical black hole. But with Benny, I wasn’t so sure.

  “What is it?” I asked. Julie’s eyes were rolling up into her head and her breathing was shallow.

  “Put it this way,” Benny said, standing up and leading me across the room to talk. “You know when you attempt a magical activity you draw on your reserves, right? And after those reserves are depleted, you risk real damage to yourself?”

  “Soul-shock,” I said, nodding. “But Julie has that charm.”

  “Which works for her. Taking Arabella though – different kettle of fish entirely. She drew on magical reserves that she never had to begin with.”

  “Oh shit.”

  “Nobody else is getting out of here with her, Malachi. Neither of you would make it back. The willpower it must have taken just to get herself back here…incredible.”

  “Damn it. But she can get back, right? If you help her?” He nodded. “And is there any point to you and Bud being here? Any way that you can help us?” His face told me all I needed to know. “Well that makes this easy,” I told him. “You and Bud take Julie and get out of here now. She can still slide under her own steam, right?”

  “Sure. Just needs a push and a bit of guidance. But leaving you and Zack here…”

  “It’s got to be done. Do it now, before anyone finds us and we’re all stuck here.”

  He gave me a long look, and then dropped his eyes. “Come on Bud, time to take Julie home.”

  Bud’s brow creased as he looked across at me. “Bro? Help, Bro?”

  “Not this time,” Benny told him. “Our job is to help Julie. We’ll worry about them later.”

  Bud clearly wasn’t happy, but tenderly took one of Julie’s hands while Benny took the other one, and gave us a last glance. “See you on the other side. Don’t disappoint me.”

  Then they too were gone.

  “So,” said Zack, looking at me across the room. “What happens now?”

  What happened was that the door flew open, and two jacked-up guards of the Host barged into the room. “We have them,” he called out. “Get Tabbris in here. We have the murderers.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  I was fresh out of ideas, so the best I could do was position myself between the two members of the chain gang and Zack. Hopefully he had a distraction, or even better, something approaching an escape plan in mind, because if he didn’t then I couldn’t see things ending well.

  “Hang on,” I said, thinking about what they’d just said. “Murderers? Oh come on, you don’t think that we… ? Bloody hell, you do, don’t you? Get real, boys. You think any of us could take down Kushiel? Seriously?” They looked at me blankly, standing stock still. “Zack?” I muttered. “Tell me you’ve got something, mate. Anything, at this point, would be a step forward.”

  No answer came back. I looked back, expecting to see him racking his brains, or beginning some sort of desperate and pointless do-or-die cast, but he looked as still and blank as the enforcers did. That’s when it dawned on me. I sank to my knees and lowered my head. “My lord,” I said quietly.

  His voice was just like I remembered it - cool and calm but with a hint of amusement skimming across the top, like a shallow stream across stones. “We’ve spoken about this before, Malachi. You don’t kneel before me. That kind of thing could get me into serious trouble. Get up.” A hand took my elbow from behind and lifted me to my feet.

  I turned round. He stood there, about my height but looking, if anything, slightly younger. Certainly less well-worn round the edges. A mop of dishevelled blond hair perched on a pale, luminous face, almost translucent skin letting an inner light through. His eyes went straight through me, their blue more intense than any other member of the Host I’d encountered. He leant casually against the wall in a fitted black suit, collar open with no tie.

  “My lo-”

  “And stop calling me lord,” he snapped. “That’s another big no-no. Come on, Malachi, we spoke about this, didn’t we? How can you be so quick on the uptake with some things, and just not get this stuff? No bowing, no lording, no obsequious behavior of any kind. It’s not just wrong, it’s deeply uncomfortable for me. Are we clear?”

  I relaxed slightly, and couldn’t stop a smile breaking out. “Got it. So what do I call you?”

  “Hamon will be fine. I’d ask you to call me John - that would be fun - but I don’t think you’d go for that. So let’s go with Hamon. It’s one of my less ostentatious names, and hence my favorite. Unless you do want to try John, which personally I’m totally up for?”

  I shook my head. “Hamon will be fine. Not going any lower than that though.” I looked round at the enforcers and Zack, captured in a moment of time. “Is the whole place like this?”

  “The Library? Yes, temporarily. I can’t keep it up for too long. Well, I could, but Tabbris and a few others would notice, and I don’t want to have to deal with her at the moment. She’s so intense, don’t you find?”

  “She doesn’t lighten up much,” I admitted. “Mind you, since we were here to get executed, I wasn’t expecting to see her fun, bubbly side.”

  Concern clouded his face for the first time. “Yes, I heard. I would have been here sooner, but the message only reached me very recently. By rights I should have been notified much earlier. The delay was…irregular”

  “Problem?”

  “I do not know. Yet. The difference between willful disobedience and bureaucratic ineptitude is a very fine one indeed. The two are virtually indistinguishable most of the time. In any case, my apologies.”

  “So the vampire…” I began, feeling that some sort of explanation was in order.

  He waved my words away with a flick of his hand. “Trust me, I’m fully up to date on that one. And compared to recent events, that little move pales into relative insignificance, don’t you think?”

  “I didn’t touch him. No way can you think I killed Kushiel.”

  “I don’t think that at all. In the right place at the right time, you might stand a very, very small chance against him. But here? Now? You’re right, you couldn’t have touched him. But I strongly suspect that little fact won’t stop anyone here from exacting a brutal kind of justice.”

  “Can’t you talk to them?”

  He sighed and pushed himself off the wall, walking slowly over to me. “I could. And they would have to listen. But there’s a lot going down here, and you’ll find things Earthside every bit as complicated, I suspect. Plans within plans.”

  “Are you going to elaborate, or just talk enigmatically about them?”

  “Enigmatically? Oh, good choice of word.” A grin spread across his face. “I would elaborate, but some things are still unclear to me, and to be honest I’m meant to be somewhere else.”

  “So you’re not going to do anything?”

  “Of course I’m going to do something. You think I could just leave a situation like this unresolved? A major player in the Host murdered, the Union in turmoil, and - well, you’ll see the rest of it in good time. No, I can’t just walk a
way from all this without doing something to help.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  Hamon became serious for a moment and put his hand on my shoulder. “Well, personally, I’m not going to do very much at all. You know how I feel about these things. I campaigned to establish the Union for a reason, against some pretty stiff opposition. If the Host ride in like the cavalry to save the day every time a crisis looms, then humanity will never learn. Never grow. Never attain your full potential.”

  “You really think after everything you’ve seen that we’ve got potential?”

  “I have it on very good authority that you do. I know a guy, you know.”

  I sighed. “So you ‘re not going to help us? You’re just going to stand at the sidelines and do nothing?”

  “Certainly not,” he sniffed, adopting an air of mock indignation. “I’m putting my best man on the job.”

  This was something. Finally. “Great. When does he get here?”

  He just smiled at me, until I got the message. “Oh bloody hell, you have got to be kidding.”

  “A good name, Malachi, even if I say so myself. Malachi. My messenger.”

  I couldn’t stop the ice creeping into my tone as the words fell out. “They think you’re mistaken, you know. Everyone out there - every member of the Host I meet - they think you’ve got it all wrong. They see me as a screw-up, and frankly I’m having a hard time arguing with them. The great disappointment. I think that’s how they refer to me. You should have left me in that slaver camp. Or let me die on the hellplains.”

  Now it was Hamon’s turn to sigh. “It’s strange,” he mused, “that creatures who measure time in eons can frequently be so very short-sighted. Personally I blame soap operas. Attention levels have dropped considerably since they came along.”

  “Seriously -”

  “Very well then, seriously. Seriously, I looked in your eyes the moment I rescued you and I saw what you are capable of. I am an astoundingly good judge of character, and the only disappointment I have with you is how little you seem to trust me. A small tip, if you’ll take some advice. Try to think about yourself as little as possible. You notice far more that way, and your sense of perspective will increase astronomically.”