Marcus groaned with the realisation that things had somehow turned very, very bad, but he was too far away and in too broken of a state to do anything about it, and besides, it was too late. The Assassin stared down at his wound impassively, then up to Keithus with narrowed eyes.
“You must be feeling pretty silly around about now,” the wizard said earnestly.
The Assassin spat blood, hitting the wizard square in the hat, and died.
“Tch,” Keithus said, taking his hat off to survey the damage. “Always with the last gestures. That’s not going to come out in the wash. Oh well,” he added, thoughts veering away from him as he seemingly remembered that he still had living company, “time to do something nasty to you two, I guess. Then I’ll be on my way.” He wandered over to the large hole in the wall and peered out of it. “There’s my grand army, moving superfast. They’re good lads, my faceless collection of horrible creatures,” he said, turning back to face Marcus and beaming. “They’ll do me proud, I’m sure.”
“With what?” Marcus asked weakly.
“Smashing up Portruss, of course. Haven’t you been listening? I mean, I’m only after the Viaggiatori, but hell, if you can destroy the whole city, why not? It’s not like it means anything to me. Practically a figment of my imagination. Yeah, that’s what I said.”
To Marcus it suddenly seemed the Keithus was addressing someone else, an invisible party, but he shook the thought off. He probably was – or thought that he was, at least. His madness had not exactly been well-concealed thus far.
“I’m not mad, you know,” Keithus said suddenly, snapping his head around to stare at Marcus, who jumped. “I did think I was for a while.. but no. Despite everything, I kept my head about me. Or within me. See, Marcus, what you don’t understand yet is that we’ve been living in a dream world. You and me both. The actual fact is that everyone else is mad-”
“No,” said another voice, quietly, and Marcus turned to see that Kendra had pulled herself to her feet, and was staring defiantly at Keithus. She was supporting herself against the wall that she had been so vehemently introduced to, and holding her injured side, but nonetheless she was standing, and though her eyes were full of tears she looked angrier than Marcus had ever seen her.
“No?” Keithus asked brightly.
“No,” she said again. “You are the mad one. A total sugarloop crazy person. Not even in a good way. You’re mad and you’re a murderer and we’re going to kick your ass sideways.”
“Pah,” Keithus said, good humour suddenly gone. “If you’re going to say things like that,” he began in a lecturing tone, then spun his staff quickly and sent a massive fireball her way. She slipped back down into a crouch with a further cry of pain, desperately attempting to duck, but the fireball never made it to her. Marcus, moving faster than he had ever thought he was capable of, stepped into the path of the spell and whacked it aside with a quick spin of his scythe. It bounced upwards, crashing into the ceiling and dislodging more debris and the last chandelier, shards of which fell around him as he stood between Kendra and Keithus, practically emanating defiant anger.
“Do not threaten her,” he told Keithus levelly, and the wizard actually took a step back. “Oh my,” he said, raising an eyebrow that the Assassin would have approved of, had he not been dead, “your turn to be the hero, Marcus? You who doesn’t even know what he’s fighting for?”
“I do actually,” Marcus said brightly, starting towards Keithus. “I’m fighting because I don’t want to die, and because I don’t want other people to die, and I’m fighting you because it pretty much seems like you’re the one going out of his way to get in the way of that philosophy.”
“People die all the time, idiot,” Keithus snapped, raising his staff.
“Not my people,” Marcus declared. “Not any more of them, not if I can help it. Life is better.”
“Oh man,” Keithus said, face cracking into a crazy grin. “You really have no idea how hilarious what you’re saying is. Well, if you want to try your luck, then-“ and without so much as changing his expression, he spun his staff and fired. Marcus had been ready for it, though, and swung the scythe. Instead of reflecting the hit with the flat of the blade, he sliced through the spell as it closed around him, and felt it fall apart. Enraged at his attack’s failure, Keithus began casting more and more spells, but Marcus span for all he was worth, sending them all either flying away or dissipating into oblivion.
“Stupid magical weapons,” Keithus complained, and then didn’t have any time for words as Marcus was within scything range, and he had to convert his use of his staff into a melee weapon to deflect the blows. Marcus kept them coming, as the man surely had to weaken eventually. The rage that had been driving him was beginning to ebb away and be replaced with the sooty cobwebs of exhaustion, but the wizard did seem to be slowing down as well; all he had to do was hold on, and..
Keithus suddenly roared with triumph, and fired another hefty blast of air off at close range. Marcus casually deflected it, wondering why the wizard would suddenly appear so confident, then realised that Keithus hadn’t been watching just his scythe, but specifically the blade, and what he’d seen reflected in it. As this conclusion dropped into his mind like a bomb, it acquired evidence as the deflected spell hit Kendra, throwing her against the wall again with another cry that was as jarring as a blow to the back of the head. Marcus couldn’t help it; he spun away from Keithus to see what state she was in, and was promptly cracked across the back of the head by the wizard’s staff.
Perhaps not quite as jarring, he thought dreamily, as his body threw up all manner of bills that his mind couldn’t cash, and almost shut down from the effort of making excuses. He fell forward, vision full of pretty colours, and hit the ground hard for at least the fourth or fifth time that day. His scythe fell away to the side, and he felt the last of the adrenaline that had been keeping him going wave a sad salute and depart at the same time. He was left only with incredible pain.
“Whew,” Keithus said, from somewhere in the pink direction of Marcus’s vision. “I was almost starting to think I wasn’t going to get the shot, as well. You might even have had me there, Marcus. Excellent brawl, quite excellent. Sorry about the head but hey, at least you’re not dead. That’s what you wanted, right?” Marcus couldn’t make out the shape of the wizard’s vicious grin, but he knew it was there. “Pretty good takedown, I thought. Four attackers reduced to none in record time.”
Marcus felt the man pat down his pockets, and tug out his battered cigarette pack. Keithus made himself at home on a nearby rock, lighting a cigarette with a click of his fingers before throwing the packet back to Marcus. “In some ways, this is really quite unfair,” the wizard said conversationally. “In fact, if it weren’t for the irony making me giggle, I’d be furious. The Viaggiatori drag you back over to your own world, but what about me? I bet you didn’t even ask for it. I did! Admittedly I got a little angry then, too, but, well, I think I had a damn good reason. Sadly, I never got the chance to tell them what it was. Maybe I could have handled that better.” Keithus’s wan smile dissolved into a scowl. “Well, too late now, we’re long past the point of talking. Some things are unforgivable, and I will have my vengeance. Then I will be returned to the people who need me. As for you,” he said to Marcus, aiming down the length of his cigarette, “you should go and look at my crystal ball, like I said. It was the last thing I looked at before I came to meet you guys, so it’s still there. Just down that way, in my quarters. You deserve to know the tragic truth, if only to realise how hilariously ironic this entire situation is. One of us, supporting the Viaggiatori? Heh. Nice smokes, by the way.”
Keithus sat and enjoyed it for a moment. Marcus rolled over feebly, so that he could just about make out Kendra through his slowly restoring vision. She appeared to be moving. That was nice.
“I guess I should make a move,” Keithus said suddenly. “I’ve savoured this victory enough. It has been fun, you kno
w. But now’s the part where I use the Viaggiatori’s own methods, a trick they don’t even know they can do, against them, and I’m looking forward to the reactions I get from them. I know, I know, I keep banging on about how I’m not exactly their biggest fan, and then I go using their trickery, the stuff that got us here in the first place.. but, well, I have a dream, and I’ll take any means I can get of making it come true.” He rose and strolled over to the window. “Look at my army move! Better get shifting, or there won’t be any left for me.” He walked over to the full-length mirror that was propped next to the big red lever, which had miraculously survived recent events unscathed, and poked it. His reflection was vaguely obscured as the glass began to shimmer.
“Alright,” Keithus said, turning back to give Marcus a mock salute. “Time for me to go home. Maybe I’ll see you on the other side, eh?” And with a final, Cheshire cat grin, he extinguished his cigarette, stepped through the mirror, and was gone.
Marcus blacked out. Again.
28
Marcus felt himself being dragged rudely into the world of the conscious, and tried to resist. It was to no avail, as someone was crouched over him, shaking him and calling his name. Painfully, and against his better judgement, he opened his eyes, and saw Kendra’s concerned face looming in his vision.
“Phew,” she said, leaning back at this sign of life. “Thought you were gone there.”
Marcus pulled himself up into a sitting position, all sorts of new flares of pain and pretty colours flashing through him in protest. He groped around himself semi-blindly, only to have Kendra hand the scythe to him, before she fell back into a kneeling position, wincing and clutching her side.
“Are you okay?” Marcus asked quietly, fearing the effect louder noise might have on his head.
“Been better,” she said wanly. “Lost a rib or two, plenty of bruises where I hit the wall.”
“Well that’s good,” Marcus said, and fell silent.
“Shouldn’t you be asking if there’s anything you can do for me?” Kendra asked after a moment.
“Probably,” Marcus said, staring over towards the pile of rubble from which the Assassin’s body still protruded like a tenacious, blood-soaked weed, the final sheath of his own blade. “Why is it so quiet?”
Kendra bit her lip. “Can you stand? I’ll show you.”
“I can stand,” Marcus said absently. “Can you?”
“I’ve been injured worse in my time, Marcus. Come on.” She grabbed his arm, pulled him upright with only a small tightening of her eyes to suggest pain, and dragged him over to the window.
“Oh,” Marcus said, looking out. Down below, the plateau that had so recently been swamped with creatures was now bare. What remained of Keithus’s army was moving slowly through the abandoned remains of their campsites, heading north towards the great mirror, where their reflections were lost in the distortion of the shimmer that now danced across its expanse. As Marcus watched, a troupe of orcs moved up to stand before it, hesitated briefly, and then pressed on, disappearing into whatever lay beyond. “They’re leaving.”
“Well spotted.” Kendra leant against the window frame, looking puzzled. “But where are they going? It doesn’t make sense. If Keithus has had the knowledge of how to use the Mirrorline all along, then why the need for this? I mean, this all started from him wanting to get to Earth, for some reason. Can’t he just cross straight over? Where is he going with these people? Aah, so many questions!”
“Portruss,” Marcus said, his stomach turning at the thought of such an army descending on the city. “That’s what he said. He’s going to the city.”
“But..” Kendra frowned. “From this side the Mirrorline only leads to Earth. That’s not how it works, you can’t use it to.. shortcut across the same world..”
“Are you sure?” Marcus asked. “He said he was.. using a trick you didn’t even know you had. What if.. he knows how to move from place to place in this world, but not how to move across? Then he can move his army to Portruss, kidnap an actual Viaggiatori.. I don’t know. He’s clearly mad, you said so yourself. He’s probably just making it up as he goes along.” With a sigh, Marcus slumped down from the window. “Either way, I guess we’re done.”
Kendra didn’t reply, as she had been staring at nothing ever since trailing off before. “There was one guy who thought..” she began, and suddenly her face lit up with understanding. “Marcus, we have to find the dungeons, or the prisons, or whatever, of this castle! I may have an idea..”
“About what?” a new voice interrupted, and they turned to see Musk stroll into the room somewhat unsteadily, massaging his heavily bruised hands and generally looking very much the worse for wear. He took in the general wreckage, and the dead man sticking out of it, and sighed heavily. “It feels almost trivial to ask if we won at this point, but.. I don’t suppose there’s any chance..”
“No,” Marcus said flatly, and Musk sighed again.
“Damnit. What happened? I should have been here, damn, damn, damn. I can’t believe it, knocked out right before the showdown. Some bloody leader I am - mission failed, man down.. Lucin was right to disdain me all this time. Where is the bastard? Left us to fend for ourselves? Dead?”
“Yes,” Kendra said carefully.
“Great,” Musk said, sinking to a sitting position on an abandoned rock. “Hey,” he said to Marcus, who had just lit a cigarette, “throw me one of those.” Marcus rolled his eyes at their sudden popularity, but tossed him the packet. “I may have mentioned that I don’t smoke, but right now I don’t see much point in not doing. So, what happened?” he asked, striking a match off his rock.
“We got curb-stomped,” Kendra said frankly. “He sent Lucin.. somewhere.. then he killed the Assassin, then he got me, then he got Marcus. Then he jumped in a mirror and left. That’s about the gist of it.”
“What? He jumped in a mirror?”
“Yes, and left.”
“But.. why? If he could do that..”
“That’s what we were saying. He said he was going to Portruss, not Earth.”
“But that’s not how it works!”
“Yeah I was saying that too. But then I thought – hey where are you going?”
This was addressed to Marcus, who had stood up and crossed between the conversation, heading for the back of the hall and the corridors beyond. “I’m going to look in Keithus’s crystal ball,” he explained.
“Why?” Kendra and Musk asked at the same time.
“Because he said I’d find out the truth there. Sounds like a great idea.”
“It’s probably just a trap!” Kendra protested. “Marcus, please, don’t.”
Marcus just waved over his shoulder, without slowing down. Kendra groaned.
“Musk,” she said, addressing the other man. “Can you, please, erm, I need you to find the dungeons or whatever, where the prisoners are kept. I think.. there’s someone important there. Could you do that?” Her eyes returned to Marcus’s departing form.
“Sure,” Musk said with a shrug. “Ain’t much else to do now. All the orcs have crawled off to die somewhere out there, the only one left is that big troll lady, still unconscious. I guess I can go check on Fervesce as well whilst I’m at it. Any idea which direction to head in, boss?”
“Down,” Kendra said absently, running off after Marcus.
“Of course,” Musk said, taking a drag from his cigarette.
Kendra caught up to Marcus halfway down a long corridor, walking towards a bright light. “I just gave orders to Musk,” she said with a giggle. “Oi,” she added, punching Marcus’s shoulder when he didn’t respond and probably causing more pain to herself than to him. “You listening?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Marcus said, without slowing.
“Hey,” Kendra said, grabbing him and bringing him to a halt. “What’s up with you?”
Marcus made as it to shrug her off violently, but sighed and instead gently removed her hand. �
�All sorts of things are up with me,” he said. “I don’t know. I guess, somewhere along the line, I actually started believing in all that stupid stuff about being chosen and connected to Keithus, actually thought maybe I stood a chance, maybe I was destined to be able to stop him.” He laughed. “And well, look how that turned out. Another disappointment, but I don’t know what I expected, really. Either way, I’m right back where I started, with just as little idea what the hell this was all about. But he said that if I looked into his crystal ball, I’d find out, so why not? He also said some unpleasant things about the Viaggiatori, which right now I’m trying not to dwell on, lest I come to agree with him.”
“Come on, Marcus,” Kendra said weakly, “that’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” Marcus shot back. “I’d love to know how it’s not fair to level criticism at the people who have had me dancing on their strings since the day they bought me here and filled up my freedom with a big stupid, abstract pile of steaming destiny. I know, I know,” he added, as Kendra opened her mouth, “it was only the freedom to die. But is that any worse than living as fate’s fool? That’s what really needles me, Kendra. If there ever was any greater cause behind all this, well it never bothered to clue me in. After everything we’ve done, we’re none the wiser. Keithus offered me an opportunity to find out what this was all about, so why not take it? I feel I’m owed an answer or two.”
He started walking again. “What if it’s a trap?” Kendra asked, following him.
“Keithus.. he wouldn’t have not killed me himself just so that he could point me towards a trap that he couldn’t know for sure that I would walk into. I know how his mind works because it’s the same way mine works. Whatever our connection is, he as good as told me that he’s been affected by it too, and he wanted to bring me up to speed. I’d have done the same thing. Especially if I’d just totally won and it wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Seriously, at this point, what do we have to lose?”
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