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

by Andy Hyland

  “What’s that?” Zack asked. “You said thank you, right? I couldn’t tell from up here, but I’m sure you did.”

  “I don’t know,” said Arabella. “Maybe we should go and let him find his own way out.”

  “Stop sodding about and lead the way.”

  “But he thanks you,” added Julie. “He really does.”

  Rick’s cab was round the back. He didn’t look remotely surprised when we skidded out of the service entrance and piled in through the back doors. “Where to?” he asked.

  “No idea. Just go,” I told him while we rearranged our limbs. I looked over at Zack. “Thought you’d got lost. I kept looking behind. Discreetly, of course.” Julie coughed, and I glared at her. “Didn’t see you anywhere.”

  “We weren’t behind you,” Arabella said. “We were in front. Less chance of getting made that way.”

  “You followed us from in front?” I asked. “How did you manage that one.”

  “We managed it,” crowed Rick from the front seat, slapping the wheel, “because Rick is the man, baby, and when you pay for someone as good as Rick, you get top quality service.”

  “He recognized the limo - or rather the decor on the plates,” said Zack. “Or kind of did, but he called up a buddy and confirmed it was a hotel car. So we were pretty sure where you were heading. Got there first, headed round to find a back way in.”

  “And distanced yourself from Julie.” I frowned. “We’d have no idea if you were out of range of the dampening field until you got taken by Host enforcers. I don’t like it. You use the knots?”

  Arabella shook her head.

  “Reckless,” I said.

  “Well,” said Zack, taking a swig from a bottle of water, “if we take a few risks we might die. If we play it safe, we definitely die. That’s the way I see it, anyway.”

  “And you were happy doing that?” I asked Arabella.

  She shrugged. “To be honest, I forgot. Too excited. We haven’t done shit like this for ages.”

  “There was the pit. And the vampire, before that,” Zack pointed out.

  “Not the same. The pit was nasty. And the vampire - vampires - that was dark. But this - saddling up and screwing up someone else’s day. Yeah, I’ve missed it.”

  Rick took his eyes off the road and looked round. “Look guys, I’m not complaining here, because my meter is running and all is good with the world, but are we actually going anywhere? If not, we can see some sights, take in some views. You wanna do that?”

  Arabella looked at Zack, who stared back and nodded. “I think it’s about time,” he said.

  I looked at Julie, who just shrugged. “What?” I asked. “Time for what?”

  Arabella leaned forward and started giving Rick instructions in a low voice. “Thing is,” Zack told me, “you’ve been out of the loop - no, don’t look at me like that, I’m not throwing accusations, just stating facts here. Things have moved on, and we’ve found a few things out.”

  “A few things out,” I stated flatly.

  He wouldn’t meet my eyes. Started finding interesting things to look at out of the windows. “A few things,” he repeated eventually. “But since you seem to be firmly back with us again, it’s about time we got you up to speed.”

  “Hold on,” I demanded, my voice getting louder, “back with you again? What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

  “No fighting in the cab,” Rick insisted. “You want to do that kind of stuff, you open the door and do it outside.”

  Julie put a hand on my arm. “Settle. Zack had his reasons. And pretty soon he’s going to tell us exactly what those reasons were. Right, Zack?”

  “Yeah, sure,” he said without enthusiasm or conviction.

  Arabella sat back down and looked round at us. “See? I leave the conversation for a few seconds and you all kill the buzz. Seriously guys, lighten up. We came, we conquered. The good times are rolling once more.”

  We headed north, past Central Park and into Harlem, where Rick started turning left and right almost at random. “What’s up?” Arabella asked.

  “We’re being tailed,” Rick said flatly, his eyes flicking between the road and the mirrors.

  “No we’re not,” said Zack. “I’ve been keeping an eye out. We’re clean.”

  “And I’m telling you we’re not,” said Rick. “You’ve been watching for a single car. You didn’t see one, because there isn’t one. I make four cars and two bikes.”

  “Sounds organized,” said Arabella, twisting round in her seat.

  My phone rang. Everyone looked at me. I looked at the screen. Blocked number.

  “May as well,” said Julie.

  I took the call. “Tell your driver to calm down,” said a familiar voice with a hint of a welsh accent. “I come in peace, and in no great numbers. Head where you’re heading.” Then the line went dead.

  “Well?” Zack asked.

  I raised my eyebrows. “Could be good news. Or we’re right back in it. Either way, it’s unavoidable. Far to go?”

  “No,” said Rick. “We’re right here. You want to settle up now, or hit me with the cash later?”

  A dirty back street, far from the gleaming lights of downtown. Nothing to see apart from some run-down housing and a long line of empty shops with beaten-up metal shutters.

  I gave Rick some money to keep him sweet, promising a healthily-stuffed envelope in a few days at the latest. We jumped out of the car and he rolled off. A few seconds after he disappeared, a second car rolled up. Small unwashed BMW. Nothing ostentatious, but not cheap. The passenger door opened and Liberty stepped out. Another guy exited from the back. Liberty slapped the roof and the car headed off. We faced each other, a few meters apart.

  “You’re back,” I said.

  “I only got fired,” he answered. “They were never going to kill me. You on the other hand…I have questions, obviously. Before you ask, I’m not reporting to the Host, and I have no plans to.”

  “High quality job, following us round town like that. Or so I’m told. Not exactly out on your own, are you?”

  “I’m officially no longer heading up the Union. But the Host pulled a real stunt, making an example of me, and people got upset. Technically, I have no authority whatsoever anymore. No title, no position, no badge. And no Library access - not that I’m in a hurry to go back. But at the end of the day, people don’t follow that crap anyway. What I do have is influence, and maybe that’s the only kind of power that counts. So if I ask to have you found and tailed, I can have you found and tailed. Took longer than I thought it would, so my congratulations on that front. You’re clearly improving.”

  “What about Mercy?” Zack asked.

  “Alive. The last time I saw her, anyway, which wasn’t that long ago. And she’s not in any imminent danger. They’ve got other things to focus on. One of which, incidentally, is you, boyo. We need to talk.”

  “Well let’s do it inside, shall we?” cut in Arabella. “Since, last time I checked, hanging around in broad daylight outside wasn’t part of the game plan.” She was over by one of the shutters with a ring of keys, running through them until she hit on one that got rid of the padlock. With a rattle the shutter rolled up, revealing a single, unremarkable door, with a small sign fixed in a square window. Madam Morgana’s Party Tricks.

  “Becky?” I said, not quite believing what I was seeing. “This is hers?” I was caught between laughing and crying.

  Arabella placed her palm on the door and closed her eyes. After a second, three locks clicked open in quick succession. “Everybody in,” she said, looking around the street to make sure we were still alone. “And seriously, don’t touch anything. Anything.”

  It was dark. Zack came in last and closed the doors. Then he pulled down an internal shutter. Once this fell, we stood in pitch darkness. “Hold on,” called Arabella. “Nearly got it…just…yep.” A switch flicked and strip lighting flickered on, starting above us and running forward, revealing a long, narrow room which had
to be fifty meters long and fifteen wide. Work tables ran the length of the place in two columns, stacked with trays, boxes and enough equipment to fill a high school chemistry lab or three. Shelving units lined the walls, holding yet more boxes. Technology intruded, with a server cabinet, powered down, halfway along on the left, and two workstations right next to it. Over to our right, a flight of stairs descended into a basement area.

  “Becky had a secret lair,” said Zack. “Like a bat-cave.”

  “Becky had one, Benny’s got one. Turns out they’re more popular than I thought. I feel left out,” I said.

  Julie stroked my arm. “Oh honey, you should get one. You totally deserve one.”

  Arabella snorted and choked back a laugh. I grimaced and turned to her. “Come on, tell me all about it.”

  “Well, not long after I moved into Becky’s old place, I was getting claustrophobic with all her old crap lying around - there was a ton of it. Besides, it could never really feel like home with so much of her life still there. So I did a deep clean on the place.”

  “You won’t have heard of that. I’ll explain later,” Julie told me.

  “There was a secret drawer in the kitchen unit next to the sink. Three sets of keys. For a long time we were stumped. Then I stumbled across a delivery note, followed a trail, asked a few questions, and we ended up here. The key opened the lock, the security runes seem to tolerate me - not entirely sure why, but I’m not complaining. And, well, we’ve spent some spare time over the past few months just going through the place, trying to find out what we’ve got here.”

  “And what have we got?” I asked.

  “An arsenal,” said Zack flatly. “You name it, it’s here. Along with a shitload of stuff you’ve never imagined and I don’t recognize. So congratulations. It’s all yours.”

  I took in the room, letting my gaze slip and slide over every surface. An Aladdin’s cave of magical wonders. And, knowing Becky, a good forty per cent would be utterly, utterly lethal. Butterflies flitted about in my stomach. All my Christmases had arrived at once. Still, it was time to address the elephant in the room. “You’ve known about his for months,” I said, not looking at anyone. “Found the place, started going through it. And now, only now we have no other choice, do I get to find out about it. I’m not bothered about the fact that it’s legally mine - or as close to legal as we ever get. I want to know why you didn’t tell me.”

  Cue an uncomfortable silence. “I’m not saying it,” muttered Arabella.

  “Fine, but you’re not going to like it,” said Zack. “Remember, I love you, man. I have always - always - got your back. But ever since you started living the high life, we’ve had concerns. No, hear me out, please. You’re close to the Mage-born, we get that, we can even see the benefits. But ever since we took down Balam, and the Aware and the Mage-born fought side by side, there’s been more interaction between us and them. Trade, for example. They’ve got the money and I’ve got the goods. But it hasn’t all been sunshine and flowers. Sometimes it gets ugly. Some of them - not all, but some - despise us. And there’s enough on our side that are pretty quick to take offense when something gets thrown their way, if you get what I mean.”

  “You didn’t trust me.”

  “It’s not like that,” he continued, pausing while he picked his words carefully. “We worried that you didn’t see the dangers. Didn’t see the potential. Face it man, you didn’t have your eye on the ball. You were doing what you thought was good work, and who knows, maybe it was. But in case it all went to hell and we found ourselves up to our necks in it, we wanted this place for the Aware. That’s it, I suppose. Nothing more to say.”

  I nodded. “Can you all give me a moment, please.” They all turned and found something interesting to wander off and look at. “Not you, love,” I said, reaching out and taking Julie’s hand.

  We perched side by side on one of the long tables. “I didn’t know,” she said, shaking her head and staring at the wall. “I promise you I didn’t know.”

  “Oh, I get that,” I told her. “If they weren’t going to tell me about this place then they’d keep you out of the loop as well. Makes perfect sense. I just need to know if I was really that blind towards what was going on. All this tension between the Aware and the Mage-born. The street and the opera house. From what we saw at the hotel today, the hatred runs deep and it’s not just Patrick. I mean, the tension was always there, but I thought it was just me they couldn’t stand. Did you see it? Was I really that switched-off?”

  Julie paused a long time before answering. “I saw the same thing you did. Snarky comments. Bitchy sneers. Some of them came my way rather than yours, mostly from the women, but that was about my magical status, not my relationship with you. I think. Or maybe it was all tied together. I think we were protected. Max had that entire group under his thumb more than we realized. Probably more than they realized. With him gone, it’s broken open like a festering sore. Away from Max, on the streets, in other encounters - yeah, I guess the Mage-born were less controlled. So no, in summary you weren’t blind. We weren’t blind. We were just living, temporarily at least, a very sheltered life.”

  “Understood. That all fits. Still, the blinkers are off now. Max is no longer in the picture, and it’s all pouring out. I don’t like Zack’s idea of this as an arsenal though. All-out magical war. It’s never happened before. Even the skirmishes with the hellkind were controlled, isolated, hidden. This scares me. Not just for what it is, but for what it could bring. How would demons react, seeing us splintered and too busy fighting each other to notice them?”

  “So what do we do?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know. But then that’s par for the course most days. For now, we just need to figure out how to do something. Hey, you ever met that guy before?” I nodded to my chin to the man who’d come in with Liberty. Bit shorter than me and ragged round the edges. Not in a scruffy street kind of way, but more in a 1970s geography teacher style. Sports jacket over brown corduroys. Sensible, blocky shoes. Dark skin with wiry uncontrolled hair, and a thick pair of glasses that still didn’t stop him having to lean in really close to the box labels to read them. He was moving quickly but methodically along the length of the room, taking everything in.

  “No. I’ve seen his type in the Library, but not him, I don’t think.”

  “Hey, Liberty,” I called. He stepped over. “Who’s your guy trying to scope out my new secret lair?”

  He smiled. “Eric Slade. One of the most useful people you’re ever likely to meet. He’s a Librarian.”

  “You mean, as in the Great Library. That type of Librarian. Wasn’t Mercy one of those as well, before she turned?”

  “Yep. Methodical. Systematic. Smart as hell. But Mercy had other qualities as well which made her very suitable for the…new role. Eric, he’s more extreme. Focused. Intense. You wouldn’t believe the stuff that’s crept into his head over the years. Give him a few days here and he’ll have the whole place catalogued. You’ll know what you’ve got and what it can do.”

  “He’s hired.”

  “Oh, consider it a free gift. He’ll report to me, of course. I just want to make that clear and put it out in the open. He always reports to me.”

  I nodded. “I think we’ve reached the point where we trust each other, you and me. Let him work. Be interesting to see what he comes up with. Arabella,” I called over, “Let’s get the runes adjusted to give Eric access, okay? He’s not going to set anything off, is he?” I asked Liberty. “Accidentally burn the place down, something like that? That would suck.”

  “Like all Librarians of his rank, he’s been magically sealed. He’s not immune like your lass here, but he can’t use any. Same as Mercy used to be.” He sat on a table facing me. “So, we’re in a right pickle here, aren’t we? I say we, but I mean you, of course. You’re wanted by the police, the Host and the Mage-born, all for murder. When you get in trouble, you don’t muck about, do you?”

  “I like to think tha
t I’m one of those people who fully commits to situations.” I laid out the whole thing for him, from the incident at Lennox Hill hospital, to the escape from the Great Library and Max’s death in his car in the alley. “So that’s where we are. The Host problem is the big one. The other two can be solved by getting to Patrick. I’ve got to convince him that I’m not Max’s killer, get him to pass that on to his little crowd, and then hand him over to the police. Simple, right?”

  “If he killed Max then he won’t back down from accusing you.”

  “He didn’t kill Max,” Julie said. “I can’t believe that, and I’m not being naive about the sort of person that Patrick is. He’s a snake. A shark. But his loyalty to Max was without question, and deep down he’s in a lot of pain.”

  “I agree,” I said. “We’ve got to open his eyes a bit. He said he’s got evidence - a confession. From the sound of it the council obviously know about it, but it’s not been made available to the Mage-born at large. That’s the big event we’ve got to stop. If he’s got anything that looks credible, then it’ll bury us. It’ll start the war.”

  “Well in that case,” Liberty said, pulling his phone from his pocket, “give me ten minutes and let me see what I can find out. I hope you’ve got a decent signal in here.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  I walked over to Zack while Liberty worked. He looked at me warily. I stuck out my hand and he shook it firmly, relief washing over his face. “We good?” he asked.

  “We always were. In your situation…I don’t know, I guess I’d have made the same call. I thought I was doing some good, building some bridges. It was all a major pain in the ass, but…progress. Julie had this grand idea that united we could stand against the hellkind, like we did with Balam, but permanently this time. Make the world a better place.”

  “Not a bad aim, and you did your best. You certainly got Max on your side, and that’s saying something. But the divisions run deep. Maybe it can be done, but it’ll take time. Anyway, that’s all wishful thinking at the moment. Got to stop this from boiling over first. And save our lives. I’d really like for us to be able to save our lives. What’s Liberty up to?” I filled him in. “Good idea. I might be able to try a few people myself.”