Minimum Wage Magic (DFZ Book 1)

by Rachel Aaron

  The light vanished. I stopped being able to see my body. The magic was starting to move now, swirling around me in eddies that quickly grew into crashing waves that were big enough to throw me around. The power was thick as water now, making me feel more like I was sinking than falling, but I still didn’t stop. I just kept going deeper and deeper, farther and farther. And then, just as the pressure started to crush me, something brushed my face.

  It was a wind. A grave-cold wind that came from everywhere and nowhere, tossing me up like a leaf on a gale. I was still spinning when it swallowed me whole, replacing the endless dark with something else entirely.

  ***

  The next thing I knew, I was in a bedroom.

  I had no idea how I’d gotten there, if I’d died or passed out or hallucinated the whole thing, but I definitely recognized the place. It was the bedroom in Dr. Lyle’s basement apartment. The one where I’d found his body.

  “Hello.”

  I jumped a foot in the air, whirling around with my fists up. To do what, I had no idea. I’ve never thrown a punch in my life, and my magic was thoroughly useless. It must have looked threatening, though, because the man behind me jumped as well, putting up his own hands—or rather, hand—in self-defense.

  “Stop! It’s me!”

  I blinked. “Me who?” Because I was certain I’d never seen this man in my life. He looked stereotypically professorial—fifties to sixties, bushy graying beard, slight pot belly, button-up shirt and khaki Bermuda shorts. The only thing he was missing was a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. That and his left hand, which was gone at the wrist, and I let out a long breath.

  “You’re Dr. Lyle.”

  It wasn’t a question, but the man nodded anyway, head bobbing excitedly.

  The blood drained from my face as the implications of that sank in. “Oh god,” I said, dropping to the bed. “Am I dead?”

  “I certainly hope not,” Dr. Lyle said briskly. “If you are, then I just stuck my neck out for nothing. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to convince the Empty Wind to save you.”

  That explained the cold wind that had caught me. Even so. “Why did you save me?”

  “For the same reason I gave you my hand,” he said, showing me the stump. “You’re the only one who can save my babies.”

  I blinked. “Babies?”

  “My work,” he clarified, looking at me very intently. “You have to understand, I didn’t know what Kauffman was going to do. I only took his money because I thought he was a fellow alchemy enthusiast and because no one else would give me funding. When I found out what he really wanted, I grabbed all my notes and ran. I’d already cast the ritual, but this kind of power takes weeks to build, and I was the only one with the location spell. I thought it would be a simple matter of hiding in my storage apartment and waiting it out, but then…”

  His rapid-fire speech gave out, and I sighed. “But then you died.”

  He nodded sadly, looking around at his windowless bedroom, which looked exactly as it had when I’d found it, minus the dust and the death. “I woke up here. This little room is all that’s left of my life, and the only reason I have this much is because of you. Even if it was just for profit, you looked through my life. You remembered me. That’s why I stuck my neck out to save you. You’re the only one who can save my legacy now. If Kauffman gets it, I’ll have done the greatest evil a man can. You have to stop him.”

  “Already done that,” I said smugly, lifting my arm to flex my muscle. “I fried him good.”

  “So I heard,” Dr. Lyle said. “But he wouldn’t be much of a combat mage if he couldn’t recover from a backlash, and he won’t stop until he wins. He made a lot of promises when he found me, and our employer isn’t the forgiving type. He’ll spend his whole fortune to bribe your partner if he has to. You’re the only one I can trust to stop him.”

  “But why me?” I asked. “I’m in this for the money too.”

  “No, you’re not,” Dr. Lyle said, looking at me as if I was being very silly. “If you were in this for money, you would have taken Kauffman’s first buyout. You wouldn’t have kept going after they shot at you or blown yourself up just to spite Kauffman. Money’s worthless if you’re dead, and yet you keep risking your life over and over, being more and more reckless. That’s how I knew money wasn’t the point in your case. It’s just a tool to get what you really want.”

  That was a lot more information about me than I was comfortable with a dead guy I’d never technically met knowing. “And what do you think I want?”

  He smiled. “Freedom.”

  I shook my head in wonder. “How do you know all this?”

  “Because you’ve had a piece of me,” Dr. Lyle said, lifting up his stump. “Granted, I spent the majority of my time in a box while that terrifying woman was hacking my security, but the bits I did see told me plenty. Keeping the connection open put a huge strain on what’s left of my soul, but it was worth it, because if I hadn’t gone so far, I wouldn’t know you, and I wouldn’t have been able to use that information to save you. Your defiance of your father and determination to keep your free life in the city is what convinced the DFZ to let us in, by the way. She doesn’t normally let the Empty Wind interfere with her domain. Spirits are very territorial. But we convinced her to make an exception.”

  “You convinced a god?” I said, shocked. “For me?”

  “No, I did it for me,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, you seem like a very nice girl, but I’m not risking my immortal soul for someone I’ve never met. I’m doing it because you’re one of the few people left who knows who I am. And of those few, you’re the only one with the skills and mindset necessary to save my life’s work. That I would gladly die for as many times as it takes.” He grinned at me. “Just as money is your tool, you are mine. I didn’t get much choice in the matter, but now that I have you, I’ll risk everything I have left to enable you to achieve victory, including saving you from the void. In return, though, you must promise you’ll save my work.”

  “I promise, I promise,” I said quickly. “If you get me back to the world of the living, I swear I’ll save whatever you want. But…” I stopped, dragging my hands over my bloody face. “I need that money,” I said at last. “I want to help you, and I’m definitely down with keeping everything from Kauffman, but if I don’t get at least ten grand, I go back to my dad tonight.”

  “I’ll leave that up to you,” he said. “So long as it doesn’t go to Kauffman, I trust you to do the right thing.”

  I narrowed my eyes. That sounded suspiciously blasé from a man who’d put his soul on the line to save his work. “What do you mean you trust me? You don’t even know me. How do you know I won’t be as bad as Kauffman?”

  “I don’t,” he admitted. “But that’s a gamble I have to take. I’m dead. I can’t do things for myself anymore. You’re the only tool I have, so you’re what I’ll use. But I like to think I’ve learned a little about you through all of this, Opal Yong-ae. I’m sure that when you see the product of my labors, you’ll feel the same way about it as I do.”

  Now I was super suspicious. “We are still talking about cockatrice eggs, right?” Because to hear him talk, you’d think this was a ritual to find the true meaning of friendship.

  “You saw my spell notes,” he said proudly as a breeze ruffled his thinning hair. “And I’ll have you know everything worked perfectly on the first try. Better than perfect! But you’ll see for yourself soon enough. We’ve been talking for too long already. It’s time for you to go.”

  It must have been. The breeze that had ruffled his hair turned into a torrent as he spoke. Other than tousling his hair, it didn’t seem to touch Dr. Lyle, but it was blowing me so hard I had to fight to stay upright.

  “Wait!” I yelled as the wind lifted me off my feet. “How do I find it? Your hand got broken!”

  “The same way you found me!” he yelled back. “Follow the wind!”

  That sounded like some Pocahontas nonse
nse, but before I could say as much, the wind blew me away, sweeping me out of the room, through the dark, and up, up, up into the air. I was still flipping over when my back crashed into something solid, knocking the breath right out of me.

  I opened my eyes with a gasp. I was lying on my back in the grass. Above me, the bottom of the DFZ hung like a galactic battleship while islands of disconnected city bits floated beneath it like clouds. I was staring at it in shock, wondering how I’d gotten here, when I heard Nik’s voice.

  “Opal!”

  I’d barely managed to lift my head before he grabbed me off the ground and yanked me into his arms. “I thought you were dead!”

  I pretty much had been. Before I could tell him what had happened, though, he hugged me tighter, burying his face in the crook of my neck as if he was trying to get as close as possible.

  I jolted, eyes flying wide. I’d never been this close to Nik before, let alone seen him show affection. To be honest, it was a little alarming, but it was also nice. Very nice. It had been a long time since I’d been hugged, and Nik was surprisingly good at it. You would have thought being hugged by someone with that much metal in his body would have been uncomfortable, but he just felt solid and warm, like a sun-baked rock. That plus the feeling of his ragged breaths against my shoulder was deeply comforting in a primal, proof-of-being-alive sort of way, and the longer it lasted, the more I liked it. I was about to try lowering my head to his shoulder to see if I could hear his heart beating through all the plates when Nik suddenly jumped away.

  “Sorry,” he said quickly, putting a good two feet between us. “I didn’t intend, that is…” He dropped his eyes, running his hands through his short-cropped black hair. “I’m sorry. That was out of line.”

  “You’re gonna be sorry,” Sibyl muttered.

  “It’s fine,” I said quickly, turning down my AI’s volume. “We all had a traumatic experience. I’m just happy you’re okay.”

  Nik’s head snapped up. “Happy I’m okay? You fell into the void!”

  There was a raw edge on his voice that made me cringe. I wasn’t used to thinking of Nik as a sensitive person, but I’d clearly scared him something fierce.

  “I thought you were gone forever,” he continued. “But then you just fell out of the sky behind me. It was like you’d gone in a loop!” He glared at me hard. “What happened? How did you get back?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” I said, looking up at the city floating above us. “I fell for a long time. I’m pretty sure I did almost die, but then the Empty Wind saved me.”

  He gave me an incredulous look. “A death god saved your life?”

  I nodded, which was a bit of a cop-out. I could have told him about the meeting with Dr. Lyle in a place that might or might not have been the afterlife, but that was all complicated and crazy sounding, and we still had a lot to do. Nik’s answer was close enough, so I let it lie and started looking for my bag.

  I found it right by my foot. Nik hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said I’d landed behind him. We were still on the same floating hunk of disconnected grassland where we’d gotten jumped, barely two feet away from where I’d been standing when Kauffman had grabbed me. The mercs were still there, too, moaning where Nik had dropped them. The only person who wasn’t in the same place was Kauffman. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been shoving me off his spellworked rock. Now he was splayed on his back in the grass behind Nik with his face battered, his eyes closed, and his body very, very still.

  “What happened to him?”

  “I did,” Nik said.

  I cringed at the naked violence in his voice, and Nik stuck his chin out stubbornly. “He pushed you into the void.”

  “Um, well, thanks for avenging me,” I said awkwardly. “Is he…?”

  “He’s still alive,” Nik said darkly. “I’m not letting him off that easy after all the trouble he’s caused. But we should get moving. Mercenary companies always have an emergency evac plan for teams in the field. There’s probably a whole squad scrambling to come rescue these idiots right now.”

  “Really?” I said, turning back to the wounded rent-a-soldiers. “Even in the Gnarls?”

  “You looked this place up on the internet,” Nik reminded me. “It’s not like it’s a huge secret. I’ve never had cause to come down here before, but Kauffman and Dr. Lyle clearly planned to do their business in the Gnarls way before Lyle bolted. I bet people do shady stuff down here all the time, and wherever people are being shady, you find mercenaries. They’ve probably even got a special protocol for it.”

  “You know a lot about mercenaries,” I said, sliding my bag onto my shoulder.

  Nik shrugged. “I’ve worked a lot of jobs. But I’d bet you ten to one that backup’s already on the way, and it’s best if we’re not here when they arrive.”

  “Good thinking,” I said, looking around. “Just give me a minute to…Ah ha!”

  I ran across the stretch of grass, dropping to my knees beside the pile of crushed scrap that was all that remained of Dr. Lyle’s hand.

  “What are you doing?” Nik asked.

  “Keeping a promise,” I replied.

  Working as fast as I could, I unzipped the front pocket of my messenger bag and scraped all the pieces inside, taking care not to leave so much as a screw behind. When I was certain I’d gotten everything, I held my bag up to the gentle breeze blowing past my face. “See?” I whispered to the wind. “I didn’t forget. I’m going to give it a proper burial just like I promised, and Nik and I are going to make sure that Kauffman doesn’t get anything of Dr. Lyle’s. I’ve done everything that was asked of me, so can you please guide us to the ritual site?”

  I held my breath as I finished, listening for a sign, a word, some kind of proof that I wasn’t just talking to myself, but the wind didn’t reply. It just blew a little harder, sending my hair into my eyes. I pushed the strands away again with a frustrated huff. “Could you be a bit more specific?” I said as I rose to my feet. “Priests might be able to get by on signs and portents, but I’m a Cleaner, and I’m on a deadline. Can I get a big flashing arrow or something?”

  I’d barely finished when the wind gusted so hard I was nearly knocked off my feet. I caught myself with a grin. “Thank you.”

  “Who are you talking to?”

  I looked over my shoulder to see Nik behind me with Kauffman thrown over his shoulder like a bloody sack of potatoes. “Why are you bringing him?”

  Nik snorted. “You think I’m going to leave him here to be rescued after what he pulled? He’s the client. The merc evac team will grab him first, so I’m not going to give them the chance.” He reached up to pat Kauffman on the back with his right hand—his original one, which he must have put back on while I was busy. “He’s coming with me.”

  I did not like that Kauffman was coming. Not that I was worried about him giving us any more trouble—he wasn’t even conscious, and his face looked worse than mine did—but given how many times Dr. Lyle had specifically warned me against him, bringing him didn’t feel like a savvy move. Nik didn’t look like he was going to budge, though, and my shoulders slumped in defeat. “Fine,” I said. “But no making deals with him.”

  “I don’t think he’s going to be saying much,” Nik said, then he gave me a funny look. “But what would we be making deals with him about? The hand’s destroyed, and we’re still half a kilometer from the ritual site.” He nodded at the islands swirling around us. “This whole place shuffles itself like a card deck every few minutes. I’m not even sure which way we were headed anymore. There’s no way we can find the ritual site now.”

  “Yes, we can,” I said.

  Nik sighed. “I know you’re desperate to get money to pay your dad, but this place is dangerous on a really freaky level. You’ve already fallen into oblivion once. It’s time to face up. We had a good shot, but it’s over. We can’t just poke around blindly, hoping we get lucky.”

  “It’s not over!” I said fiercely. “And we
don’t have to get lucky. I know how to find it. All we have to do is follow the wind.”

  I pointed in the direction of the breeze, which, though no longer roaring, was still blowing steadily in a specific direction. Nik, however, was looking at me like I’d lost my marbles. “Follow the wind?”

  “I know how it sounds,” I said. “But you saw the Empty Wind blow me up here, so give it a chance. The worst that happens is we wander lost in the Gnarls for a few more hours.”

  “That’s a pretty bad worst,” Nik said. “Did you forget the part about how people get lost down here and never come back? And I’m not sure the Empty Wind is someone you should be taking help from. Maybe he wants us to get forgotten down here, too.”

  “That’s not how it works,” I said.

  He arched an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”

  I wasn’t, really, but I needed this to be true, so I threw myself into it. “Let’s just try,” I said, looking him in the eyes. “Please.”

  Nik sighed and waved for me to lead the way. Flashing him a thankful smile, I pulled off my gloves, licked my index finger, and held it up to the wind. When I was certain of its direction, I turned and started walking, following the gusts through the loops and twists of the Gnarls toward what I hoped would be our prize.

  ***

  After what felt like a lot more than half a kilometer of corkscrew paths and jumps between floating islands, the wind suddenly stopped. I stopped as well, looking around to see where it had brought us.

  The answer seemed to be nowhere special. We’d just made it to a floating chunk of city that looked as if it had been part of a massive fire not too long ago. The whole thing was a maze of blackened cinderblock walls and big pits of rubble where buildings had collapsed. I could still smell the smoke on the air, but I didn’t feel any magic aside from the flood that counted as normal down here. Not that it was easy to feel anything what with the geyser of power constantly rushing past me, but I should have sensed something. Big spells always left a presence, a hum in the air. That was what made them so hard to hide, and why Dr. Lyle had secreted his down here. Assuming the wind hadn’t led me astray, he must have done a really good job, because I couldn’t feel a thing.