by Andy Hyland
‘What the hell was this for?’ I demanded. ‘Why? Just why?’
‘Go outside,’ said Grikk, waving me away. ‘You’ll see. And,’ he added as we turned to leave, ‘I had my own reasons for helping you out this one time, otherwise it wouldn’t be so cheap. Next time, you pay more. Bring many coins, or something interesting to haggle with.’
He’d be waiting a long time if he was expecting repeat custom. Becky helped me stagger outside the tent. Our demon escort was scattered around, some looting, others playing a game with dice carved from bone. One of them was dead, a blade sticking out from his chest and his sightless eyes staring at nothing. We were down to forty-four, because the ignorant morons couldn’t go a couple of hours without starting a fight.
That wasn’t what interested me though. There was a double-vision aspect to everything I saw. My human eye gave the normal spectrum of colours. The piss-and-powder altered demon eye tinged everything yellow, lighting up the darkness of the Fades like it was noon in Florida. The real surprise – the reason for this whole agonising process – was the sight of the beam that flooded through and out of Sitri’s palace, along the path of destruction in Rarkshah, and out into the desert. It wasn’t entirely straight – it jumped left and right slightly in the distance, leaping between points. And it pulsed – a dull flickering pulse that ran strongly from the start and dissipated as it reached the horizon.
‘You see anything?’ asked Becky.
I described it. ‘I reckon we’re looking at some kind of beacon trail laid along the way – the way it switches directly slightly every now and then. The pulse is weak but the bridge isn’t complete yet. That’s what we’ve got to stop.’
‘Speaking of which,’ said Becky, ‘we need to talk.’
I nodded. I’d been expecting this for a while, and was slightly surprised that it had taken this long. ‘About us,’ I said.
‘Damn right. I mean, we’re close, Malachi. Tight. I mean, I’d never consider you boyfriend material in a million years so don’t flatter yourself or get your hopes up, but we are friends, aren’t we? So why are you shutting me out here? You’ve got a plan that you won’t tell me about. You walk along lost in your own thoughts. I get it’s important, but – what about us? Am I here for decoration, or what?’
‘Becky,’ I said, staring straight at her, ‘I promise you that you are nothing short of essential to getting the job done. I can’t tell you what the plan is yet, but I will soon. And I’m going to need your help, so please carry on trusting me, if you can. Only for a little while longer.’
‘You’re the boss Malachi, but I’m not happy about this. It’s hard for a control freak to adjust to, you know?’
‘You’re a screwed-up control freak?’
‘We’re all screwed-up control freaks, Malachi. That’s what life’s done to us. I thought you’d noticed. So, then, we’re off to wage war?’
‘Let’s check out a beacon first,’ I said, nodding forward into the desert. ‘If we can take one of those out, the problem goes away for now. Might buy us some time.’
Suddenly the demons were on their feet, shouting and stamping, weapons drawn. My hand flew to the katana as I pushed Becky back, Before I realized that none of them were looking at, or coming for, us. Instead they were looking at some point from back the way we’d come, blocked from sight for me by a corrugated tin shed. ‘Oh great, what now?’
Chapter twenty-five
I ran to get eyes on the problem as quickly as possible – I was, after all, meant to be in charge here. Then I laughed. Coming up the dirt street, happily swinging a Jorogumo’s head as he marched along, came the huge, bald, smiling figure of Bud.
He saw me, dropped the head and waved. ‘Bro!’ he called. ‘Bud! Bud help!’
‘That is?’ asked Becky at my elbow.
‘That is my new friend, Bud. But I think we’re going to have to send him right back to his brother. Bud! What are you doing, mate?’
He came right up and threw an arm round both of us. ‘Bud help. Bro need help, Bud help. Okay?’
I pushed him away gently. ‘Sorry Bud, wish we could take you with us, but I don’t think it’s going to work. Does your brother know you’re here?’ Bud’s eyes turned shifty and he stared at the ground, kicking the dust. ‘Didn’t think so. Bud, this could get nasty. I don’t want you getting hurt. I really don’t want to have to tell Benny that you got hurt. Go home, mate. Be safe.’
He stamped his foot a little. If he threw a tantrum, people were going to get hurt. Hell, with forty-four nervous demons behind me, we could have an all-out skirmish on our hands. The mission would be screwed before we’d properly started. I looked at Becky. ‘Help?’
‘Don’t ask me,’ Becky said. ‘Maybe he’ll give up and go home if we carry on.’
The clock was ticking and I wasn’t going to leave Julie with Edwin Monk a second longer than absolutely necessary. ‘Fine, we leave. Bud, you’re not to come.’
As expected, Bud ignored this order completely and trotted faithfully along behind us. The demons followed him, at a distance. I wasn’t quite sure what their problem was. Sure, he was a massive dude who could probably match any of them one on one in a straight physical fight, but he came across at the moment as a really big, happy puppy. What wasn’t to love? I can only guess that even then they saw something we couldn’t. Even with my new demonic orange eye.
Harkk jogged up beside me as we set off. ‘Word going round is that we’re in for some heavy fighting,’ he said, staring straight ahead with his remaining eye. ‘Word is, we’re going to get slaughtered.’
I didn’t trust him more than I trusted any other demon further than I could throw them, but he’d earned the right to some straight answers. ‘Chances are we’re all the walking dead,’ I confirmed, ‘but the alternative is to do nothing and die anyway. I suppose you could run as far and fast as you can, see how far you could get before it all catches up.’
‘Honesty. Strange tactic given the circumstances. But thank you.’
He dropped back and we marched onwards, Rarkshah soon lost to sight behind us as we followed the path of the beam towards the first turning point, which I’d guess would be the first beacon. Bud showed no sign of flagging, and I began to find his cheerful face a comfort as all around turned to ash and dust. With travel in the Fades being as much mental as physical, and since nobody in the party was resisting the pace, we moved quickly, slowing only when the beacon came into plain sight.
The ground fell away into a huge crater, revealing the flint-studded rock beneath the top layer. At the bottom of the crater was a square, flat stone, runes lining its edge, black and red, glinting and shifting. In the center of this slab was a small body, curled up as if asleep. The throat was slit from ear to ear, but there was no blood – that had all been drained and used. Thankfully I couldn’t see the boy’s face. His clothes were dated – I’d say seventies, maybe early eighties. If he’d lived, he’d be, what, in his forties by now? Damn the bastards, and damn the parents who’d handed him over to be used like this.
‘I’m not leaving him like that,’ Becky declared and started forward.
I grabbed her arm. ‘You can’t see it, can you?’ She shook her head. ‘Can you?’ I asked the nearest demon. He nodded. A great shaft of blue light surrounded the rim of the crater straight into the air. ‘Throw something at it,’ I told him. He took out a knife and threw it hard. There was no collision, no spark – the knife simply ceased to exist. ‘But you saw that, right?’ I asked Becky.
‘Oh yeah, I saw that. Any way to switch the protective field off?’
‘If there was, I don’t think they’d leave it unguarded. And look at the kid – he’s been like that for thirty-five years or more, out here where nobody would stumble across him. I think we’ve got to scratch the easy option.’
‘Shame. So it’s back to plan A then. You going to tell me what you’re going to do yet?’
‘Soon. Very soon. Come on. Not far to go now, I think.’
<
br /> The distance was immense, but we moved swiftly. If you listened intently you could hear the air rip and tear quietly around our group as reality shifted and we warped and wefted our way ever closer to the point where the final beacon waited to be activated. Where, unless we made it there in time, Julie’s blood would soak the ground and she’d be lost to me. Everything else would be lost as well, but somehow that didn’t bother me quite as much.
‘Movement ahead,’ Harrk called out softly, and we stopped and crouched.
I waved to a gnarled demon to my left called Garshish, who had pitted and pocked skin that shed and flaked as he moved. ‘Check it out. Be quiet, and be quick.’ He nodded and moved on stealthily, circling round to the side as the ground raised slightly. Fortunately, we’d come to a rugged area with large rocks at irregular intervals, enough for our party to take cover behind.
‘You think this is it?’ Becky whispered.
‘One way to find out,’ I said. ‘Wait here.’ I crept forward, darting from rock to rock. My senses were as strung out as my nerves, and while there was definite activity ahead, none of it was at present directed towards us. It was a strange experience to have a bunch of demons behind me and not be overly concerned about it. Just shows that when it comes to most things, including the descent into evil megalomania, humans are right up there and can mix it up with the best of them. Not a particularly reassuring thought.
I got to a point high enough to see what I needed to see, and nodded to myself. The beam from this end faltered and died, the waves still pulsing but dying at the end, which was very close to where we were currently hidden. Ahead, not too far in the distance, a beam came from the other direction, again dying out only a few hundred yards away. I moved back to my home base boulder. ‘This is it,’ I confirmed. ‘This is the nexus. They must have been at this for hundreds of years, working their way in.’
‘And only activated the beam now,’ she added. ‘Do it too soon and you give everyone too much notice, too much time to act. Do it right before you’re ready to make the final connection…’
‘And nobody can mobilize fast enough to deal with you. Patient in the build-up, speedy in the execution. Masterful, really. Quite the piece of work. Heads up – here he comes.’
Garshish came jogging back, keeping low and maintaining cover where possible, coming to a stop beside us. His skin was shedding more than usual, which was saying something, and coming to rest in a fine film at his feet, falling like light red snow. I wasn’t sure if it was nerves, or adrenaline, or whether this just happened to him sometimes. Didn’t seem like a great time to ask. ‘Their forces dwarf ours,’ he said in clipped tones. ‘I counted a hundred and fifty warriors, I’d estimate fifty more out of sight. Heavily armed.’
‘Guns or magic?’
‘I see the guns, I feel the magic.’
‘Packing both. Great. What about Edwin Monk?’
‘Didn’t see him, but I only got a clear view of the perimeter. If he’s down in the crater, that would explain him being out of sight.’
‘And it also means we’re really short on time,’ said Becky. ‘Plan, please.’
‘With the numbers we have, it’s unlikely we can take them all out. We did not exactly have time to prepare for this.’ Garshish was angry, but not with me. Sitri ruled by fear, not loyalty, and he’d sent them out on this death march.
‘We don’t have to kill them all. I need time. Time and some space to act. Is there any way we can gain any sort of advantage here?’
The demon nodded. ‘They created the crater recently, and quickly. The excavation work left debris around the rim, and the work is uneven. If we can take out the small force they have on the highest point…’
I nodded. ‘Then we have cover and high ground to engage the rest of them.’
‘There are ways they could deal with us, even then,’ Garshish said warily.
‘Look,’ I reassured him. ‘You’ve got the edge on them here. You are warriors, mighty and experienced.’ Didn’t do any harm to massage their egos at this point. His chest puffed as I spoke. ‘They are not military – well, most of them aren’t. They are well-resourced and they are cruel and vicious and ruthless bastards, but that’s because they’re mostly bankers. They’ll have a few special forces goons with them, at a guess, but the majority of them are going to be junior staff and private firm-trained security. And like I said, you’re not pushing for complete victory. We only have to hold them. Get their attention.’
He weighed this up. ‘For how long?’
‘As long as it takes. Until they’re ready to talk.’
‘How long do we have to prepare?’
I shook my head. ‘We move now. They’re here, and they’re ready. I doubt they got here much before us, but we’re still out of time. Get everyone filled in.’
Becky turned to me while Garshish scuttled between the rocks, filling in small groups, co-ordinating movements and generally doing all the hard work for me. I tutted to myself. Demons. Such potential, so wasted. ‘Look,’ she said, grabbing my shoulder. ‘Tell me now. I’m going into this for you, and I’ll be right at your back, but you’ve still told me nothing.’
‘I promise you,’ I said. ‘Before I make my move, before it all finally comes down to do or die, you will know. It’s got to be this way, and I’m sorry. So sorry.’
‘Fine, be like that.’ It wasn’t how I wanted our great world-saving quest to end, with her pissed off at me and our friendship hanging by a thread, but bigger forces than us had pushed us to this point. At the end of the day you play the hand you’re dealt. Simeon told me this once, back in the early days, soon after my change, when the world seemed so unfair and I was railing against everything from God downwards. You play the hand you’re dealt with, and you trust that someone, higher up, the one who dealt the cards, has got things in hand. I missed Simeon already. If any of us managed to get out of this, nothing was going to be the same.
‘Any questions?’ I asked the huddled troops as they gathered together. ‘No? Good. It is, after all, pretty simple. Kill the bastards, and then try to kill more of them. Magic, rocks, swords, use what you want, go wild. This may well be the last thing any of us get to do, so express yourself. Garshish, you’ve seen the lie of the land, you know what needs doing, you’re taking lead on this. Everyone else – good luck.’
‘Express yourself,’ Becky muttered in my ear. ‘You know, I’ve heard some pretty good motivational speeches in my time – most of them in The Lord of the Rings films, admittedly – but I’ve never heard anyone use the phrase “express yourself” before.’
‘I figure they’re a sensitive bunch who need to let the world see their inner beauty,’ I whispered back. ‘Anyway, I don’t see anyone complaining except you. Let’s get this show on the road.’
The first assault was glorious. I’d been on the receiving end of small numbers of demons launching ferocious assaults – who hasn’t? – but forty-four of Sitri’s trained warriors in all their terrible glory were something to behold.
It started stealthily, with nobody getting too carried away. Garshish made the first move and got the first kill, taking the Carafax goon from behind, clamping his taloned hand over the guy’s mouth, squeezing the head hard. It might have been the skull being crushed, or maybe huge amounts of Garshish’s skin shedding and clogging up his throat. Either way, it was over without a struggle. Still no shots fired.
Harrk had been taking stick the whole journey since losing his eye at the start, and had something to prove. He fought with two curved scimitars, twisting expertly, dazzlingly fast. His victims were on lookout duty and heard his footsteps, but their heads left their bodies before they were able to get off a word, let alone raise the alarm.
And so it went on – a group of four or five of our troops would skirt forward, eliminate and take down the opposition. They would be leap-frogged by another group who’d do the same thing. In this way our little army progressed smoothly towards the rocks that would provide the nece
ssary cover on the upper side of the crater. So far no magic had been used, and the operation was silent apart from the odd muffled groans and snapped bones, none of which could be heard by anyone more than a few meters away. Carafax still had no idea that we’d arrived.
All of that was about to change. Garshish raised his hand high above his head and brought it down. This was the signal for chaos to break loose. Fireballs and lightning flew from the rocks down upon the other Carafax troops gathered around the edge of the crater. Those standing together in groups were targeted first and taken out quickly. The ones who were left got wise quickly and scattered. From this point on they could only be attacked as individuals, which was much more time-consuming.
There was an instant division between the way the Carafax mages and the bought-in special forces chose to operate. The mages, no doubt intoxicated by the way that magic flowed so much easier in the Fades, and drawing on some of the energy that the Aleph had been supplying, threw hexes hard and fast at the demons. Most hit the rocks, causing them to shudder and splinter, gradually destroying the cover we’d been taking advantage of. Demons leaped from these to new positions of advantage. Some made it, some got hit and exploded, entrails gushing over their comrades. The Carafax soldiers stuck to what they knew, firing in short bursts from their rifles, dodging and moving rapidly, never sticking in one place for long. I didn’t see one bullet hit home. Not yet.
My orders had been explicit: Edwin Monk and anyone anywhere near him were not to be touched. I had a feeling he was going to be keeping Julie very close, and there was no way I was losing her to a stray shot at this stage of the game. I needn’t have worried. Edwin Monk, along with four others, who I took to be the other more senior partners in the firm, were at the base of the crater. Edwin stood to one side, looking up and seething, while the others hurriedly scribbled runes along the edge of the ceremonial stone that lay at his feet. They were in such a rush to get the blood out of their arms for the runes that one of them dug too hard and too fast with his knife, collapsed, and bled out on the stone. His blood, evidently, wasn’t up to the job, and was absorbed to no effect by the dirt and rock beneath. The others kicked his body aside, swore at the mess he’d made, and got on with the job.