by Ben Reeder
“Wizard Corwin. Who’s yours?” I countered. Button Down did a bit of a double take at that, then pasted a fresh sneer on his face.
“I’ve heard of him,” he said.
“He’s weak,” Polo Shirt said.
“Chance, no,” Lucas said. He laid a hand on my arm and nodded toward Dr. C. I stopped and looked down, trying to do the right thing and move on. But I couldn’t make ‘moving on’ equal ‘the right thing’ in my head. Another moment passed, and Polo Shirt took a step closer, ready to say something. “Dr. Corwin,” I said, my voice soft, “is a powerhouse. Dragons owe him favors. Vampires avoid him. Even demons beg him for mercy. He’s the guy the Council goes to when they think the Sentinels need help. He’s the Wizard of New Essex. Who was your master again?”
“Whatever,” Polo Shirt said and turned away, just a little too casual.
“If you’re too ashamed of your master to tell me who he is,” I said, “he must be pretty pathetic.” I saw Polo and Button Down start to turn my way and turned my back on them with a dismissive gesture. A few seconds later, I felt something hit my mental shields. Since the first Law of Magick was not to violate Free Will, magi don’t teach their apprentices mind control. But other kinds of mental attacks are just fine, I had learned. The Franklin Academy specifically forbade them, but outside those hallowed, ivy covered walls, mind spikes, psi-drains and psychic attacks were fair use for magi and warlocks alike. For me, fine control is twice as hard as it should be, and my magick might be rough enough around the edges to grind diamonds, but after spending eight years learning to keep a demon out of my head, my mental shields are damn near impregnable. So, when I say I felt a mental assault hit my defenses, it was kind of like what a semi feels when a bug splats on its windshield. Short, high speed attacks like that were likely mind spikes designed to disrupt neurons and leave the victim with a bad headache for an hour or so afterward.
“Yellow alert,” I muttered to Lucas as we walked away. “Raise shields.”
“Raising shields, aye,” he responded. “Oh, I felt that one. That’s nasty.” He concentrated for a moment, then he gave me a sidelong look. “That’s going to get irritating.”
“If that,” I said.
“Yeah, you have like, Cap’s shield around your head though,” he said. “I’m not quite so bullet-proof.” I felt his shields flare, then his eyes narrowed slightly.
“What is it?”
“They switched it up. It’s a sustained attack now, and I can feel my defenses getting weaker.”
“Psi-drain,” I growled. “It’s like a leach, draining the energy from your shields so the other guy can feed on you.”
“Is he feeding on the shields, too?” Lucas asked. When I nodded, his face lit up.
“Then let’s give him something to chew on.” Lucas brought his hand up and made a series of gestures I recognized, then added a couple of new ones. The part I recognized was to raise a full combat shield. I cracked my Third Eye open a little to see what the little additions on the end had done, and I saw a slight reflective sheen on his shield. When I turned my head a little more, I could see the psi-drain hit it, then rebound back in a slightly different color. Lucas had made his shields toxic to feed on, as well as sending the original attack back with the extra oomph. Someone was in for a nose bleed and a headache.
Dr. C was still waiting outside the door to the Council chambers when we caught up to him.
“I take it you met some of the locals,” he said after a quick glance at us.
“Yeah, I’ve been making friends left and right,” I said. “So, you think Polter’s going to help us out?”
“Do people in Hell have ice water? He’d turn me down for just about anything he could.”
“What about Master Draeden?” Lucas asked. “Couldn’t he order Polter to do it?”
“He could, but he’d burn a lot of leverage to do it. Frankly, it’s not worth the political capital to him.”
“Then why are we wasting time here?” Lucas asked.
“Because I have to,” Dr. C said. “As the acting Wizard of New Essex, I have to at least try to follow the official channels first, even if I think they won’t pan out.”
“I have an idea,” I said. I pulled my cellphone out and scrolled through my contacts, then hit the call button when I came to the one I wanted. “Hey, it’s Chance,” I said when the line opened. “I need to ask for a favor.”
Moments later, the oak double doors swung open, and a young apprentice in brown robes came out and bowed to Dr. C.
“They will see you now, Wizard Corwin,” the apprentice said. He gestured to a table beside the doors. “If you and your associates would please disarm before entering the Council Chamber?” he asked. He watched us set the paintball guns, our wands and my gauntlet on the table before he turned and ushered us in. I didn’t like it, and from the frown on Dr. Corwin’s face, he didn’t either, but I figured we were going to be hanging out with Council members. All of them were Masters, which meant they were more powerful than Dr. C was, and under the complex laws of hospitality, as long as we were disarmed on their turf, by their request, they were obligated to protect us. I might not have had the warm fuzzies for most of the Council, but I knew I was safe enough from outside threats while I was in their house. The Council might have wanted me dead at one point, and they didn’t mind throwing me in harm’s way when it suited them. But if anyone else tried to kill me, they’d probably take it kind of personally.
The chamber we were led into was a mix of darkness and light, with an oval of light shining on the center of the room. The walls I could see were white marble with an inlay of gold in the floor. The wall at one end was covered in white banners that had black symbols embroidered on them. Five people sat in the center of a crescent shaped table made of the same white marble as the walls at one end of the lit area, looking down at us. The whole set up gave a sense of isolation, with the rest of the room shrouded in shadow. Polter sat to the left of a Master I remembered as Hardesty, and the oldest looking person there, Master Moon, sat on the right end. The one on the far left and the one to the right of Hardesty were unknown to me. Polter still looked like a mutant frog to me, with his thick, wet lips and broad, puffy face. Hardesty’s narrow face looked a little less severe, but there were no soft lines to it. Her cheekbones stuck out sharply, and the outside of her eyes came to a narrow point. I didn’t want to get too close to her for fear that I might cut myself on her face. Even her gaze felt sharp, and I wondered if she was going to leave a pair of holes in Dr. C’s shirt from the long look she gave him. Moon, on the other hand, was looking like his day had just taken a turn for the better, with a slow smile spreading through his white beard. He looked to Polter and Hardesty, and the smile reached his green eyes. The Master next to him was a woman with pale blonde hair and stunning looks. Full red lips pursed as she looked us over, and I could just imagine that she was wearing something perfectly fashionable and outrageously expensive under her white robes. One elegant hand came to her face, and she touched her lower lip with a finely tapered red nail, the other three fingers curled up but not so far as to hide a fist full of gold and jewels. A tennis bracelet sparkled on her exposed wrist, just so. But the look in her eyes was not one of distaste or disappointment. No, she was seeing everything that was happening between everyone in the room. She just happened to be able to look damn good while she did it. The Master on the left end, however, struck me as the one to look out for. Perfectly styled dark hair turned into a trimmed beard that framed his face and emphasized exactly how square his jaw line was. Pale blue eyes looked down at us, and so help me, he brought one hand up to cup his chin. I saw the Franklin Academy ring glinting on the middle finger of his right hand, and the thick leather band around his wrist. Our eyes met for a split second, and I felt the beginning of an udjat or Horus Gaze begin. I tried to clamp down on it and stop it, but it went for a microsecond longer before I felt him release me. In that moment, we both got a glimpse of the other. Just
the fact that he could force a Horus Gaze on me scared me more than a little, since I was one of the few people who could stop one at all. More than that, I had seen the force of will behind this man. That alone didn’t scare me. It was that I could see nothing else.
I blinked and tried to sneak a look at his expression, but there was no sneaking around. He was looking straight at me. His expression was unreadable, and he tilted his head forward a fraction of an inch before he looked elsewhere. Whoever this guy was, he was strong, he was calculating, and, I suspected he was heartless. My eyes went wide as I recognized something even worse.
Everyone has a little bit of darkness to them. Most people don’t know it, and don’t know how to hide it. Even a casual moment of eye contact is enough for me to see it, to feel it. But this guy? Total blank slate. I couldn’t get anything off of him, which meant he was actively hiding it. For some reason, that just bugged the Hell out of me.
“Corwin,” Hardesty said, sounding like she was getting something unpleasant off her tongue. “What do you want?” Her tone was almost sharp enough to leave a rip in the fabric of reality.
“Oh, the usual,” he shrugged. “World peace. A new car. Lasagna. But it isn’t about what I want to day. It’s about what a resident of my city wants. I’m sure you’ve heard that New Essex has had some excitement the past couple of days.”
“The Council was aware of the incident with the Furies,” Master Moon said. “Have there been other attacks?”
“Someone summoned a type three demon,” Dr. C said. “That happened this afternoon. A resident came to me and asked for succor for himself and those under his protection. As the acting Wizard of New Essex, I am honor bound to do so by our own bylaws.”
“So, why are you here?” Hardesty asked again.
“Because, Master Hardesty, there is a rash of attacks and killings going on right now leading up to an event known as the Rending, which takes place in a few days’ time. Thus, I formally request the assistance of the Sentinels in providing the protection my resident has requested.”
“No,” Polter said almost as soon as the last word left Dr. C’s mouth. “You’ve been called in to handle a situation that the Council deemed outside the capabilities of the Sentinels. It would be irresponsible of us to ignore that and put them in even greater risk by sending them in to deal with a situation that even the mighty Wizard Corwin doesn’t feel he can handle alone.”
Dead silence fell on the chamber when Polter finished, and the other Council members turned to look at him. Even Hardesty had a frown on her face.
“Master Polter,” she said slowly, “am I to understand that you are denying relief to a resident of a city under our protection?”
“I have been instructed not to interfere in what is going on in New Essex,” Polter said, raising his chin and looking down his nose at us. “And those orders come from Master Draeden himself. Even if Corwin is here beseeching this council to countermand its own directives, we must stay true to our orders. I see no room for leeway here. Now, if the head of the Council were to rescind his orders, I’d be more than happy to send all the help you need.”
I felt my shoulders tense up and my upper lip began a slow curl upward. Before I could say something stupid, though, Master Moon spoke up. “This is exactly the attitude Master Draeden encouraged us to avoid last July, Andrew,” the older man said.
“I will leave it to him to give me advice in that direction, then,” Polter said. Outside, I heard the rings on the transit platform begin to spin up. “Until he does so, however, I will follow his last orders.”
“To the letter, if not the spirit,” the blonde Master said. If disdain could be made solid, it would have been dripping off every word she said, and it would have done so perfectly.
“Master Polter,” the dark scary Master said in a rich tenor. “Are you going on record as refusing this request, then?”
The doors opened behind us as Polter answered. “I am…suspending action until I get clarification from the head of the Council. In the interest of safety for those I command.” I turned to see who had come in, but I couldn’t make out any faces in the shadows. Still, I thought I knew who might be there.
“Let the record show that Master Polter refuses the request, pending clarification,” Hardesty said, her face looking a little pinched as she put emphasis on the last two words.
“Tell him not to bother,” a familiar voice said from the edge of the darkness. We turned to see T-Bone step into the light, with his partner Cross and Steve Donovan on either side of him. Dressed in a long-sleeved black shirt and cargo pants, he was still carrying his pistols in their drop-leg holsters. Donovan and Cross both carried swords slung across their backs, with the pommels sticking up over their right shoulders. Cross’s sword was a simple, straight handled affair wrapped in dark gray sharkskin with a flared pommel. Donovan carried the Maxilla Asini, literally, the Jawbone Of An Ass. The handle was leather-wrapped bone, which flared into a cross guard. I could feel its presence from across the room, and I knew Donovan could as well. He was the one chosen by the sword to wield it, but I also had a connection to it: I was the blade’s Seeker. If he ever fell, my job was to find it and keep it safe until another Wielder came along. Looking at Steve now, I had a hard time believing that anything could slow him down, much less kill him. He stood a good two inches taller than Cross, who easily topped six foot two, and his shoulders took up enough room for me and Lucas. In the world on our side of the Veil, he’d earned a new nickname: the Nazirite. While it wasn’t as scary sounding as the Left and Right Hand of Death, Cross and T-Bone’s official titles, it carried weight.
Where Donovan and Cross were a pair of walking brick walls, T-Bone walked with a loose limbed, laid back gait that spoke of speed and agility coiled just under the surface.
“Excuse me?” Hardesty said. “Why ever not?”
“Because we’re gonna do it,” T-Bone said. “He doesn’t have to worry about it.”
“Nonsense!” Polter spat. “You two, er, three, have more important responsibilities than this.”
“If you’re not willing to send the Sentinels in because you’re worried about their safety,” Cross said, “then we’re the best choice. Besides, we make the final decision on what we do, not you.”
“And we’re doing this,” Donovan said.
“This decision appears to be taken out of our hands, then,” Hardesty said, sounding relieved. “Do you have any other business to bring before the Council?”
“If you wouldn’t mind validating our parking…” Dr. C smiled.
Master Moon chuckled, but Hardesty’s lips became an even thinner line. “Please, Trevor, get a new joke,” she said. “That one got old the second time you told it, and that was in the early Eighties.”
“I’ll consult with my apprentices,” Dr. C said. He turned and gestured at Lucas and me, but I hesitated.
“Sir?” I asked. “Could have a second?” He nodded, then tapped his watch. “I’ll make it quick, I promise. Master Moon, if I could ask…how is Gilbert Vasquez doing?”
Master Moon smiled. “He is doing remarkably well, young man. Country life seems to agree with him, and he’s begun working at one of the local animal hospitals after school. I’ll tell him you asked after him.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said. “What about…the other thing?”
“We still haven’t found his brother,” he said, the smile fading from his voice. “But we’re still looking. But the odds of finding him alive…frankly, they’re not good. But, if we learn anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Again, thank you sir.” I gave a short bow and turned to go with Dr. Corwin. Junkyard had Steve rubbing his belly at the door, and Cross and T-Bone were squatting next to him. I went to one knee beside them, and Junkyard scrambled to his feet and came over to me, his tail wagging hard and what I swore was a canine smile on his face. I rubbed behind his ears, and his hindquarters started moving in time with his tail.
“Yeah, someon
e knows who gives the best love,” Lucas said. With my hands on his fur, I could feel energy course through him, and he looked up at me with his head tilted to one side. Something in those big, puppy dog eyes seemed to change, like a spark of recognition. Then he licked my chin, and I was looking at the same dog I’d rescued from the junkyard a year ago.
“Yeah, you know,” I said. I stood and went to the table with all our stuff on it, more than ready to go home. Gilbert Vasquez, the kid I’d kept out of a demonic contract with Dulka, was doing good. Their father had told me that his sister pretty much aced her first semester of nursing courses and was doing well this semester. But we were still falling down in trying to find his brother. All of the good we were doing didn’t seem to balance out that one failure. It was a heavy feeling on my shoulders as I joined Dr. C and Lucas. Donovan and the Hands were waiting beside the transit platform for us, ready to go.
As we waited for the operator to finish the current transit and give us the go-ahead to get on the platform, I looked back toward the window. New York was bright and loud on the other side of that glass. Home was darker and harder. And I couldn’t wait to get back.
“All clear!” the transit platform operator called as the rings spun down. Once they stopped moving, they rotated until three rings became two, then again until two became one horizontal circle hovering above the platform. They slowly sank to the surface of the platform, and the three people in the middle hustled off.
“Second City transit clear,” the operator called out. “Night City is next for transit.”
“Second City,” Lucas said. “Is he talking about Chicago?”
“Yeah,” I said. “And Night City is New Essex. Home to the most night dwelling species of any city in the U.S.”
“It’s a goddamn war zone,” T-Bone said.
“Yeah, but it’s our war zone,” I said. “So be nice.”
I pulled into the driveway late, but there was still a light on in the front window of the house. Mom looked up from her e-reader and smiled as I came in.