A Mage's Gambit: New York Falling (A Malachi English book)

by Andy Hyland

  Behind Edwin, guarded by a solitary goon with a gun, stood Julie and Melanie. Julie looked a mess, her dress torn and ragged, her once-perfect hair an ugly bird’s nest. The make-up was smeared and tear tracks ran down her cheeks, but there was no blood and she looked otherwise unhurt. I couldn’t say the same for Melanie. She had her hands pinned behind her back by cuffs. More recent cuts and bruises than the ones Arabella had inflicted ran across her face and arms. She’d had a bad week by anyone’s standards.

  ‘Weird,’ I said to Becky, ‘that after Melanie helped them so much, they’ve treated her like this. You’d have thought she’d get special treatment, her own gun, something like that. Not get trussed up and slapped about.’

  ‘Who knows how those guys think,’ Becky muttered. ‘What now?’

  ‘Five minutes more. That should do it.’

  While the mages carried on hexing like there was no tomorrow, the special forces had put a plan together. Rather than pointlessly fire away at the rocks, they did enough to keep the demons’ heads down. In this way they were able to manoeuvre round the edge of the battle zone, coming from either side up the crater’s edge, flanking the hellkind.

  The demons, apparently unused to any sort of strategy in a battle that went beyond running headlong at an enemy and roaring while tearing them limb from limb, didn’t see it coming. Those on the edges went first. Harrk, lacking any peripheral vision from his empty left eye socket, didn’t spot the movement that came from a soldier scrabbling to get a clear line of sight. The bullet, when it came, tore through his red skin and drilled into his skull, blasting through and exploding in a wide exit wound the other side. He never knew what happened.

  Garshish in the centre of the action, screaming orders to the left and the right, figured out too late that the numbers responding to his calls had dwindled. A quick head count told him there were only ten or twelve demons still up and fighting. Faced with impending defeat, he chose to go out in a blaze of unbridled, joyful fury. Screaming as he jumped high into the air, he came down arms flailing, claws flashing, rending the flesh of his enemies as they howled in pain. Seven bullets from three directions put an end to him. The brave stand of the forty-four was nearing its end.

  We saw all this from a point some distance away, two thirds around the crater, crouching low and moving as silently as possible. We were nearly rumbled too soon, when we dodged round a rock and came face to face with two panicked mages. Their eyes brightened as they realized they were now up against three foes that they might stand a chance against. Hands twitched and the beginnings of casts were on their tongues when they simply…fell apart. Their skin sloughed from their faces, leaving a bloodied red grinning skull beneath. Only the eyes were left to register the shock, before these fell inwards, disappearing into the skull. The lifeless bodies collapsed to the ground, like marionettes with their strings cut.

  ‘Becky, was that you?’

  ‘No, that was definitely, definitely, not one of mine.’

  We turned to look at Bud, who was grinning at us but looking worried, as if we might be mad at him. Then he fell backwards and sat on the dust, panting hard. ‘Well whatever he did, it’s taken it right out of him,’ I said. ‘Becky, carry on to where we were heading. I’ll be there in a minute – got to check he’s okay. There’s no point us getting out of this alive if Benny murders me for getting his brother in harm’s way.’

  Becky jogged off, and I turned my attention to this world-class mage who sat in front of me with his puppy-dog eyes. ‘That was great work,’ I told him, clapping him on the shoulder. He relaxed and smiled a bit more. ‘Look, here’s the plan. You’ve got an important job. You see that girl down there – long blonde hair,’ I pointed out Julie, ‘if anything bad or unexpected happens, your job is to protect her and get her out safely. Can you do that for me?’ Bud nodded eagerly. It was tempting, now we’d found this amazing new weapon, to set him loose on the group at the bottom of the crater and see how he got on. I had a feeling he’d give them a headache, but it still wouldn’t be enough. This way, he kept safe and majorly improved Julie’s chances of making it home.

  Once I was certain he’d absolutely understood what I was asking of him, I moved on and joined Becky. We were kneeling low near the lowest point of the crater rim, directly opposite the rocks at the top where the demons had been fighting. That battle was nearing its end. A couple of our guys were still going at it, but everything would be over in a couple of minutes at best. In the crater, Monk’s senior colleagues had finally finished the runes on the flat sacrificial stone. Monk held his hands out over it, eyes closed, face to the sky, chanting softly. The runes started to flicker and glow. He smiled, and pulled a long, straight knife from his belt.

  This was it. Showtime.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  ‘Okay, you wanted to know what was going to happen, this is it,’ I told Becky. Her eyes bore into me as she listened intently. I pulled the small package from my pocket, the one that had been safely stowed there since Benny came up from the trapdoor in his cellar and pressed it into my hand. Pulling off the black covering cloth, I revealed a crystal orb, filled with a swirling mist. From somewhere inside, lights flickered and the mist darkened. It was like looking into a miniature storm.

  ‘Orb of Arkesis,’ I told her. ‘It directs and amplifies magical energy - massively. All I need is a clear shot at Monk and it’s game over. Nothing else we’ve got will touch him, not here, not now. But this,’ I span it round in my palm, ‘this is the game-changer. Ready?’ A frown appeared on her forehead and she opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again, and nodded slowly. ‘I need you to have my back Becky. I wasn’t kidding. This is all going to come down to you.’ What I didn’t tell her was that from here on in it was all about whether or not I’d guessed correctly. The fate of the world was resting on a hunch. A well-informed hunch, admittedly, but a hunch nonetheless.

  I stood in plain view, planted my feet shoulder-width apart, and tried to look as heroic as possible. In an ideal world my long coat would be fluttering in the breeze, but here there was nothing but the tang of magic in the air and the stench of sulphur coming all the way up from where Edwin Monk stood staring at me.

  ‘Ah,’ he called out, making sure that everyone else’s attention was suddenly on me as well. ‘Malachi English. I admit, I wasn’t sure that you’d have made it. Some sources were certain you couldn’t have escaped the collapse of my home. I will have to have words with them, to ensure they understand the need to be more accurate in future. Their new masters will not be as understanding as I have been.’

  ‘Not going to happen,’ I called out to him, pressing every iota of confidence into my voice that I could summon up. ‘This is where the grand plan ends.’ I held the orb up, clutching it tightly, aiming it towards him.

  He simply smiled and shook his head. ‘Oh, I think not. Now, if you please.’

  A crippling pain hit me from behind, starting in the centre of my back and spreading outwards, streaming up my spine and down the sciatic nerves into my legs. I sank wordlessly to my knees, the agony too intense even to draw breath and scream. Becky plucked the orb from my shaking hand and walked forward slowly, down into the crater, stepping from rock to rock, eventually sliding the last few meters until she stood at the bottom. Edwin held his hand out in welcome and she moved across until she was standing next to him, looking back up at me as I staggered to my feet.

  ‘Well, what seems to have happened here?’ Monk crowed. ‘All your plans come to nothing. All your schemes laid waste by a traitor in your ranks. Your misery, your confusion, is so very sweet.’

  In that moment he’d taken his eye off the ball. Julie lunged forward, kicked at his knee and grabbed the knife as he tottered slightly. One of his flunkies grabbed him, helping him stay upright, but now Julie was in charge. ‘I’m stopping this right now,’ she shouted out. ‘Malachi, you run, you get away.’

  ‘Not without you,’ I croaked, not even sure if she’d heard me.
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  ‘You want to take my life, right?’ she said to Monk. ‘You need to kill me for your portal thing to work? Steal my blood?’ Clearly Edwin hadn’t been able to resist telling her the details on the journey. He’d no doubt enjoyed torturing her with the knowledge of what she was facing at the end of the march. ‘Well, you’re not taking my life. I give it freely. Let’s see how that screws your plans up. Somehow I think it won’t carry the same magical buzz.’ She lifted the knife out in front of chest with two hands, turned the blade inwards, and drove it home.

  The blade glanced harmlessly against her chest, not even leaving a scratch, and flew across the crater to land on the ground beside the stone. She looked at her hands, not understanding what had happened, why she wasn’t dying, or already dead. I looked at my hand, stretched out, fingers splayed wide, and realized that I’d been the one to cast the ward and block the blow.

  Edwin Monk grinned like he’d won the lottery. Five seconds later he had his arms round Julie’s throat, squeezing hard and dragging her across to the rune-covered slab. The knife was in his other hand, pressed hard against her throat. There was no ward I could cast that he couldn’t overcome, not with the power he was packing at this point. He stumbled, tripping against the edge of the stone and almost sending the two of them falling. The knife nicked Julie’s skin and a few drops of blood fell down, hissing on the runes. The slab sparked, glowed – it was starting.

  ‘My Lords, your kingdom is at hand,’ Edwin cried in his moment of absolute triumph. Julie was helpless. Melanie had used the distraction to scramble backwards, climbing back up behind them all as fast as she could without the use of her hands. Becky stood silently a few paces away from Edwin, tears streaming down her face, still holding the orb. ‘Malachi, I’m so sorry,’ she called out.

  ‘It’s okay,’ I shouted back. ‘So am I. Bud,’ I screamed, ‘this is it.’ All that was left was for me to say the magic words. ‘K’latha, Artretta, G’lau.’ For a split second everything stopped. Edwin, Julie, the knife, the blood, the slab, Bud stretching out – all held poised in time. Then the orb exploded.

  The blast drove downwards and outwards. Becky was incinerated instantly. I threw everything I had into a ward around Julie, nothing held back, nothing for myself. The slab splintered sending shockwaves back along the paths of the beam in both directions. A wall of cleansing fire raced towards me, climbing the walls of the crater, unstoppable. But when it hit, it wasn’t the heat I felt, or the burning. There was just a cool, comforting wave as I fell, and finally, finally, I could see the white light ahead, gently calling.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  I don’t know how long I was out for. There were no dreams, no nightmares, no anything. A blissful nothingness. It couldn’t last. The pain brought me round in the end: the dull throbbing in my legs, the tightness in my chest, and the stabbing agony in my head. I tried opening my eyes, and after a struggle the right one opened. I was looking up at the night sky of the Fades, dark and empty. My body was in movement, being jolted and dragged along.

  ‘He’s awake,’ said a man’s voice. ‘It’s too soon.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked a woman in reply. ‘It’s been a while. We’ve got to check he’s okay.’

  ‘I’m sure.’ A rough hand touched my forehead and the nothingness reached up for me once more.

  I was allowed to wake fully and properly next to a small fire, lifted up into consciousness by the sound of voices talking quietly around me. My left eye was still refusing to open, and when I tried to touch it I found a bundle of cloth in the way.

  ‘Leave that,’ said a familiar voice. ‘Best I could do for a bandage at short notice. Cost you a coat sleeve, but all being well you’ll have two working human eyes when it all comes off.’ Benny smiled wryly from the other side of the fire. ‘Need a drink?’

  It was only water, but at this point it tasted every bit as good as the finest beer from his cellar. Bud wandered over and gave me an enormous hug, nearly knocking me right back out again. Melanie and Julie were sat talking some distance away, but ran back over when they saw I was up and talking.

  Everyone except Benny seemed beaten up. I hate to think what I looked like – probably best I didn’t know. Melanie was busted up pretty badly, but gave me a wink. ‘You okay?’ I asked Julie. Utterly inadequate as far as questions go – here we were, sitting in the Fades after she’d narrowly avoided being sacrificially murdered. But they were the only words that came.

  ‘Everyone’s been explaining,’ she said slowly. ‘It’s a…lot to take in, but unless I’m dreaming, I suppose it’s…all this…is true. Comes as a bit of a shock. How much more is there I don’t know?’

  ‘How long have you got?’

  ‘Sorry, Malachi,’ said Melanie, butting in, ‘I know this should be a touching moment, but I’ve got to know. Becky – what happened? Did you know?’

  I took a deep breath. ‘It wasn’t one thing that gave her away. More like the pieces of a puzzle fitting together over time. Remember what Zack said when we listened to the message about the Aleph? Malware?’ She nodded, and filled in Benny when he looked at me blankly. ‘I think it was that first contact with Edwin, when she scryed, trying to find Jerry for me. Her mind collided, fought with Monk, making the crystal explode. I think she got tainted by that. Not much, but enough. The Aleph malware got a foothold, and over time it took over.’

  Benny nodded slowly, putting it all together in his own mind. ‘What got you thinking in that direction?’

  ‘Few things. She turned off the security in her apartment – never known her do that. Must have been because it would recognize that she was tainted. She claimed Melanie was lying when she said she didn’t sell me out and let Monk knew where I lived. But Arabella used the verity chain that Becky had made herself. No way anyone could have held out against something that strong. After that I got suspicious, but there was nothing concrete. Not at that point.’

  ‘You think…Simeon?’ Melanie asked.

  ‘Yeah, pretty sure she gave us away there, got him jumped and killed. Whether she did it deliberately, or whether they had enough of a link to her to track us themselves, I’m not sure. And once he died I think she signalled Carafax that they could attack and take the library, get Julie. Before that his wards were too strong. The blow on her head she told me she’d got in the fight when I got back to the library – no chance. Nowhere near severe enough to stop her in her tracks. Becky would have died fighting – the real untainted Becky.’

  ‘So we lost her.’

  I shook my head. ‘No, I don’t think so. Never completely. She could have killed Arabella but she put her to sleep instead. Could have killed me any number of times. I mean, I spun some story about how Monk had missed something vital – the sort of thing worth keeping me alive to find out – but I think she’d have held out anyway. At points, though, the influence was too strong. Like it was right at the end. And now she’s gone.’

  ‘So the bomb…’ said Benny.

  ‘Kind of counting on her taking it to Monk, getting it close enough. I didn’t have much time to spin a story, but it turned out to be enough. Option two was to lob it and hope for the best. Don’t think that would have worked so well. Speaking of Monk, do we know what happened to him?’

  ‘Sadly, we didn’t find the body,’ said Benny. ‘Most of the Carafax group definitely died. Melanie had enough distance and ability to save herself – something she’s supremely gifted at. Between you and Bud there must have been a strong enough ward to hold Julie safe. I’m not sure how that was the case, with you both weakened. I suspect something else was at work as well, but I can think that over later. Anyway, you and Bud will both be feeling the effects of that cast for a few days. As for you, well, let’s say you’re lucky I figured out where my brother had disappeared to. Nick of time.’

  ‘What about the whole neutrality thing?’ I asked, looking at him.

  He refused to meet my eyes. ‘Well, I suppose we’ll see all about that shortly.’
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  ‘If you’d let me die,’ Julie said quietly, ‘let me take my own life, that would have worked as well. You stopped me doing that, and put the world at risk, betting everything on a hunch. Not sure how I feel about that.’

  Melanie glanced between Julie and me, and stood up. ‘You know what. I think you guys need some time to talk. Boys, why don’t we have a wander?’

  Benny nodded, and strolled off between Bud and Melanie. And Julie and I, we talked.

  ‘I hate to say it,’ said Melanie to me the next day (or so I counted the time after we all slept and woke – mornings aren’t really a thing in the Fades), ‘but I think I like her. I really didn’t want to, but she’s quite something. If you ever stand a chance of getting over me, you’ll need someone like her to do it.’

  ‘Oh, I think I’ve crossed the bridge as far as you’re concerned.’ I glance back at Julie, who was strolling along next to Bud. ‘How do you think she is?’

  ‘Given everything, I’m shocked. She’s adjusted abnormally quickly. But then, she didn’t go the same route we did. Wonder if that makes a difference – the whole dying thing. I mean, that’s got to mess you up, right?’

  ‘You trying to find excuses for us?’ I asked.

  ‘Well it would be nice if it was something else’s fault that we’re all so screwed up. Takes the blame off our shoulders a bit. Anyway, I think she’ll be fine. She’ll have to be careful – living in our world with no magic. I wouldn’t want to do it.’

  ‘Her father was powerful. Better than any of us. Maybe not Bud or Benny, but the rest of us…no contest. Possibly even a match for Becky.’

  ‘But why? Was that the Aleph, or was it somehow innate?’