Dark Rain

by Tony Richards

  And with those words, her image vanished. My surroundings came flooding back.

  Trapped in her room as she seemed to be, the Girl could only point me in the right direction. Although I felt very grateful that she had.

  We were turning onto Colver Street, and heading east.

  Below us, to our right, the cloud was spreading even wider. It was black as tar, an amorphous hole cut in reality. And as I watched, a few thin strands of lightning began flashing deep within it. So the Manitou’s endgame was well underway, precisely as the jewel had predicted.

  When this had been shown to me before, it had been all sped up. So I had no idea what the genuine timeframe might be. How long was it before Saruak appeared – before Union Square began to shake and fall apart, taking a load of people with it?

  Cassie didn’t need any encouraging. She already had the throttle to its limit, gunning the Harley onward as hard as she could. Its engine let out a bone-vibrating shudder. The houses going by us seemed to merge into each other, like they had been drawn in wet paint and it had started raining.

  My head was still tucked down. And I was still thinking about everything the Little Girl had said.

  Someone in the crystal, trying to protect me. Why?

  Cass’s words came back to me, after the fight at her place. How she believed that I had changed, post Goad. The ways that I seemed different from the person I had been.

  And then there was the way that Saruak had kept returning to me. Peering at me curiously, almost every time. I’d been wondering why he did that, ever since I’d met him.

  Had he sensed something about me, from the very start? Had he seen that I was different from most humans that he encountered?

  All of it seemed to fit. But another question raised its ugly head. Why me?

  Cassie slowed again, the needle dropping to seventy. We both leaned over to the side as she went around another corner. And then we were heading up my own street. I remembered – it felt like a lifetime ago – standing out here, talking idly with one of my neighbors. Only a few days back. Ancient history, by this stage of the game.

  This district was as deserted as the rest of town. A curious bleakness overcame me, as I peered along it. I was trying to imagine if it could ever be put back the way it once had been.

  But then we were screeching up outside my house. And, leaving Cassie behind, I was off the pillion again and running.

  FIFTY-ONE

  It was dark inside. All the drapes were still pulled shut, the way I’d left them. But I didn’t waste time switching on the lights. I simply went into my living room and flung open the cabinet.

  The gemstone sparkled gently when I stared at it, as though it could create illumination all by itself. For the first time since I’d brought it here, I put my fingers to the chain and picked it up.

  Something like a freezing blast of air went through me. Maybe I was just imagining that, I told myself.

  The pendant swung in front of me, the clear, bright facets of the jewel glistening. I could see the small black flaw inside, and the tiny markings round the setting. There were plenty of magical devices more impressive to the eye than this – I’d had some of them shown to me, the past couple of days. But sometimes it was the simplest looking ones that were really the strongest.

  Regan Farrow had worn the thing, and so had Jason Goad. And look what they had done. I peered at it a moment longer and then, steeling myself, grasped it in my palm.

  “No!”

  The voice came out of nowhere, hissing through my skull. But it wasn’t the Little Girl this time. I looked around, and could see no one.

  “You must not do that!” it told me, sounding extremely insistent.

  It was old and husky, with the strangest accent to it. Very flat, for all its urgency. It echoed in my head. It had to belong to the woman I’d seen, I had no doubt of that. But there were more questions than answers here.

  Despite the fact that it was what I’d come here for, it still alarmed me badly. And my first reaction was an instinctive one, devoid of any common sense. I shook my head fiercely, like I was trying to rid myself of the voice or weaken it a little. But it turned out to be no use. It would not quiet down or go away.

  “You must not use magic. You are the Defender. It is prophesied.”

  I forced myself to calm down. It had to be coming from inside the pendant, that much I was certain of. But it was using words that had no meaning in the slightest to me. Defender? And a prophecy? What in Christ’s name was this about?

  I opened my hand again and peered at the jewel uncertainly.

  Without any warning, changes started to come over me. My temples began pounding badly. Pressure was building behind them. And the details of the room around me became vague, then actually began to fade away.

  I thought I could smell a wood fire somewhere, and hear a distant murmuring on the air. Almost as if there were others, watching us from somewhere that I could not even see.

  My whole body appeared to sway. It was a struggle just to keep my footing. Or was I imagining that too?

  “Who are you?” I managed to ask.

  “I am Amashta,” the voice replied.

  Which didn’t even help a little bit. I couldn’t seem to get a grasp on anything that was happening.

  “What are you?”

  “A leader, in my day.”

  And when had that been?

  “I’ve had this pendant two years! Why am I only hearing you now?”

  “It is time.”

  More riddles. I felt so dizzy I could barely think.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It is time for action. The world has turned sufficiently. The Final Hour is drawing near.”

  What was she referring to? The threat imposed by Saruak? My skull began to ache severely and I clutched my free hand to it. God, it felt like someone had gone at it with a power drill. I couldn’t make out my surroundings at all anymore. A blurry haze had filled my vision.

  Then it cleared a little. But the room was gone.

  A shudder ran down my spine. I seemed to be out in the open air, and on a plain of some kind. I thought that I could make out the outline of vast rocks, off in the distance. Where exactly had I traveled to?

  The scene remained there a short while. Then the details of the room came back. It tried to let go of the pendant, but couldn’t seem to manage it. It seemed to be clinging to my hand, even when my fingers let it go. The chain swung below it, quivering, letting out a tiny rattling noise. The tiny jewel glowed brighter still.

  There was a rumble from the distance, off in the direction of the square. I hoped that it was only thunder. All those people, still in danger. That consumed my thoughts now, driving out all the bewilderment.

  I managed to get my head straight, finally. I was trying to save this town and all the people in it. Anything else was a distraction. And I wasn’t about to be told what I could and couldn’t do, not even by this strange being.

  “If I can’t use magic, where the hell am I supposed to take this?”

  “Release me,” she replied.

  “What?”

  “Release me, while we still have time.”

  But could I even trust her, if I went that route? Look at what she’d brought down on us so far.

  Except … it wasn’t any worse than what the Manitou was bringing, I managed to tell myself.

  I wasn’t even sure that I could do what she was asking. Surely such a thing had to involve some kind of spell?

  “How do I do that?” I asked.

  But the voice did not come back to me. There was only silence in my head, backed up by a faint rushing sound, like something had been in there. The pain had stopped at least, which was something I guessed I was grateful for.

  This woman, this Amashta, had told me what she wanted. But apparently, it was up to me to figure out the rest for myself. And I couldn’t see the sense in that. I got the feeling, all over again, that I was being toyed with.

&nb
sp; There was nothing else that I could think of, though. So I lifted the gemstone closer to my face. It looked as solid as a diamond. Would it even break, if I smashed it against something? But that seemed a rather crude approach. I held it between my forefinger and thumb, and turned it over.

  And it started to become a little clearer in my frantic thoughts. Trapped, the Little Girl had said. And surely, trapped by sorcery. The setting was oversized, and did look like a grasping claw. I’d noticed that several times already. And all those crude little markings round it … might they form some kind of spell that was holding the woman prisoner in there?

  I didn’t even have my pocketknife left. The only tools remaining were my own bare hands. So I started pushing at the silver with my thumbnail, trying to work the gemstone loose.

  It should have been easy for a man of my size, but it proved to be anything but. At first, it wouldn’t budge the tiniest fraction. All I got for my efforts was a drop of blood springing up under my nail.

  Something happened that was so bizarre I almost dropped the pendant. The bead of red touched the gemstone’s setting. And was absorbed by it, soaking in and vanishing.

  I halted nervously for a long moment. Then I got to work again.

  There was the faintest crunching sound, and I pushed even harder. It felt like I was trying to drive the jewel in through the surface of my skin.

  The gemstone shifted, glinting wildly. And then dropped into my palm.

  Next moment, there was a white flash, so intense it seared right through my eyelids, even when I closed them. And accompanying it, a massive cracking sound. Something warm spilled out across my palm, like water. But when I looked down, there was nothing there.

  The jewel had split in two halves, right across the flaw I’d seen.

  Despite the fact I was indoors, the newspapers on the couch started to rustle, moving gently, and the corners of my drapes began to flap. It was no longer dark in here. A yellow glow was spreading out directly above my head. It seemed to have sparks of other colors in it, like some unworldly kaleidoscope.

  Amashta’s voice filled up my head once more.

  “I must use you now, Defender.”

  At which I stumbled back, afraid I really had been tricked. But her voice was reassuring.

  “There needs to be a physical presence to do what I must, and I have none anymore. You may not cast spells yourself, but you can be my conduit.”

  I took that in as quickly as I could. And acknowledged that I’d come this far unharmed. More thunder was erupting from the center of town. So I was simply going to have to trust her, I could see.

  I stood straight, ready for whatever happened next. When the glow started to descend across me, I kept myself entirely still, not even flinching.

  I felt the light pour into me. And there was warmth accompanying it again, filling up my whole body and making it seem to expand. All my tiredness dropped away, and all my doubt at the same time. Don’t ask me how, but I now knew she wasn’t going to harm me.

  I flexed my fingers, raised my arms. There was brand-new strength in them, like in the river, but more powerful.

  “Are you ready?” the voice asked.

  As ready as I’d ever be.

  The room began to whirl around me, growing dark again.

  Then becoming almost black.

  Then it was gone.

  FIFTY-TWO

  The darkness lifted. There had been only the vaguest sense of motion, like the world had tilted very slightly underneath my feet. But when my surroundings came back, I really was outdoors this time, on another rooftop to the west side of the Town Hall. I almost lost my balance. But I held myself together, then gazed down at Union Square.

  There was something else the Eye of Hermaneus hadn’t shown me. In the scene I’d watched, the banners had been flapping agitatedly for sure. There had obviously been a heavy wind.

  But up here, closer to the spreading cloud, the air was moving with the violence of a hurricane. It howled and tore at me, ripping at my hair and clothes, dragging across my cheeks. I pushed against it, managing to remain upright.

  The ceremony was in full flow. Aldernay had taken a back seat. And the major adepts had stepped forward, forming a broad semicircle, stretching out their arms and joining hands. Each one had a microphone in front of them, and they were leading a slow, sonorous chant that was being repeated by the crowd. It seemed that everybody knew the words. Perhaps that was a touch of magic too. They rang across the broad square like the chiming of a bell.

  Half the sorcerers, the judge included, were crying out in English. But Gaspar Vernon was using Ancient Greek, his great voice booming. I’d heard him cast spells in it before. The McGinley sisters were speaking in some kind of Celtic tongue. And Kurt van Friesling … Dutch or Flemish, something along those lines.

  And I reckoned all the different languages gave an added dimension to the witchcraft. But it sounded like Babel below me.

  There was not the slightest hesitancy that I could make out. Not the tiniest awareness that they might be headed in the wrong direction. I had almost got to Levin before, making him reconsider. But all of that had been swept away. The adepts looked totally engrossed, the same way that the ordinary folks were, wrapped up in the solemnity and power of the moment. Their voices reverberated from the speaker system, certain and unstoppable.

  I swung my attention to the crowd. Saul Hobart was still there, high up on the statue’s plinth. He had his riot gun in both hands and was, unlike everyone around him, staring directly upward. He’d figured which direction the trouble, when it arrived, was going to come from. And I wasn’t sure what he hoped to achieve. But it didn’t even occur to the man to back off.

  Among all those townsfolk, I had never seen the big lieutenant look so very tiny. And had never seen him stand so very tall.

  Some things are revealed, in desperate circumstances. Like the true nature of someone that you only thought you knew.

  In the torchlight, I could see the way the other faces had become. They were still happy, but looked less dreamy than before and more intent. All this chanting was their ticket out of this place, yes, their passage to a safer life. They seemed quite convinced of that.

  There was so much glittering down there. The bright winking of metal and the languid flash of crystal. Almost every person had brought something magical along. Pendants and amulets, talismans, fetishes and charms. Some of them must have been bought only a few days ago. Others had, doubtless, been in people’s families for generations. Individually, they counted for nothing all that much. But all massed in one place?

  It was – they didn’t even know it yet – a part of the engine that was driving them toward their own destruction.

  I inclined my head back, staring at the cloud above.

  It seemed to be no more than a dozen yards above me. Either it had simply thickened, or the thing had actually dropped lower in the sky. Its black vapors rolled and swirled, but its darkness was not absolute. Dazzling bolts of lightning were passing through it the entire time, and more thunderclaps rang out.

  It could only be moments until Saruak’s face appeared. And what was supposed to happen – how was I supposed to stop it?

  The voice of Amashta drifted through my head again.

  “I cannot destroy your enemies, Defender. That is your task. I can help you, but I cannot save you.”

  In which case, I wondered why she’d even bothered bringing me here. And all that talk about me being her conduit?

  “It is a matter of free will. In time, you will come to understand. But you must make the choices and decisions. What would you do now?”

  And that was all the explanation that she gave me. Did she expect me simply to have faith in her?

  A dozen thoughts all tumbled through my brain at once. I wanted Saruak gone. I wanted everything put back the way it had been. But I wasn’t sure how much of that was even possible.

  I kept staring at the crowd. And began to see what the right answ
er was.

  “You’ve held yourself aloof and distant for so very long a time, Defender,” the strange voice went on. “You have made a shell of your own anguish, curling up inside it. You must let go, if you want to save these people. Think about them all as though they were your own.”

  I felt my eyes widen as I gazed at them. Families, the same as mine, all squeezed together tightly by the pressure of the throng. And if anything bad happened to one of them, they’d hurt no less than I …

  Than I …?

  “What do you genuinely want to happen?”

  And I knew what the first task was, the most important one.

  “Get all of these people out of here.”

  “Agreed.”

  A strange emptiness overcame me, for a moment. Then the warmth I’d felt was surging through my arms again. I started to understand it. She wanted to use me as a lightning rod. And so I lifted them toward the mass of people, tipping back my palms the way I had seen Kurt van Friesling do.

  Thousands of glittering points of brightness – little golden sparks – came flowing from them the next instant. It wasn’t me making this happen, whatever it might look like from below.

  They were no larger than motes of dust, but the wind that was still buffeting at me had no effect on them whatever. They moved in a perfectly straight line at first, pouring evenly outward. Then, when they were over the crowd, they began to spread. Until the whole of Union Square was covered with a gossamer-thin brilliance, a shining golden veil.

  I was almost breathless as I watched what happened next. The sparks began descending, breaking off into paired up groups of two as they did so.

  Each pair found the eyes of a congregant. Stopped there, winking for a moment in that person’s gaze. Then vanished, as though drawn inside. And it wasn’t only selected people. It was happening throughout the crowd. Only the adepts were untouched.

  The chanting subsided, then drifted to a total halt. The townspeople’s content expressions were all gone in the next instant. Most of them looked startled. All of them were peering round. The kids were beginning to get frightened. There were wails, and then a loud, scared murmuring started up.