Fists of Justice (Schooled in Magic Book 12)

by Christopher Nuttall

  “Fishing Plaice,” Caleb said. “I said I’d bring you back with me.”

  Frieda cleared her throat, loudly. “Emily isn’t fit to travel. Bring your family here.”

  “I have to go,” Emily said. She could make it, if she tried. “Someone has to explain what’s actually happening.”

  She took a breath. “And someone also has to deal with Harman. He might have betrayed us.”

  “I’ll kill him,” Caleb vowed. “If he hurt my sister…I’ll kill him!”

  “I know.” Emily felt a sudden stab of envy. Marian was lucky to have siblings who cared about her. “And I’ll help you.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “SHE’S STILL ALIVE,” SIENNA SAID. “I performed a blood rite. She’s still alive, but I can’t find her.”

  Emily nodded, trying to breathe through her mouth as she stood in the kitchen. The tiny house in Fishing Plaice stank of rotting fish, along with other things she didn’t care to think about. Caleb had said, as they’d slipped through the streets, that it was a dosshouse for new immigrants, although most of them apparently moved on as soon as they found a decent job and better lodgings. It had been empty, apparently, until the resistance had turned it into a base. She could see why.

  Sienna paced the room. “I’ll kill him. I swear…I’ll kill him.”

  Emily kept her face expressionless. General Pollack had been utterly furious when Caleb had told him about Harman. Emily knew he could accept political differences, even outright enmity, but not betrayal. And it hadn’t just been General Pollack who’d been betrayed. His children had been lucky to escape the blaze…

  And one of them didn’t escape, Emily thought. Marian was taken by the Fists.

  She gritted her teeth in helpless frustration. Caleb’s description of the raid on Sorcerers Row had been confused, but the attack had clearly come without warning. Marian should have jumped into the escape shaft as soon as all hell broke loose, as her mother had told her to do. Instead, when they’d reached the meeting point, they’d discovered her missing. There had been no way to go back for her before it was too late.

  And God alone knows what they’re doing to her, Emily thought. The Fists could use a blood rite themselves, she supposed, but they’d still have problems localizing Sienna and the rest of her family. They might just have decided to sacrifice her.

  Sienna swung around to face her. “You said you had something important to tell us.” Her eyes burned into Emily’s. “What?”

  “I need to discuss it with everyone,” Emily said, firmly. She didn’t want to tell Sienna everything either, but…she sighed, inwardly. It looked as though the secret of the Mimics was on the verge of getting out too. “Were my chat parchments destroyed?”

  “Caleb didn’t have time to grab anything,” Sienna said. “They were probably lost in the flames.”

  Emily cursed under her breath. The chat parchments could be replaced, the next time she met up with her friends, but when would that be? Alassa and Imaiqah were in Zangaria, Frieda and the Gorgon were at Whitehall…she had no idea where Aloha was. Maybe she’d have to organize a reunion in Dragon’s Den. She’d meant to show off her house at some point. A sleepover would be fun, perhaps…

  She rubbed her eyes as Sienna turned away, pacing the room like a caged tiger. Emily felt sorry for her. Sienna wanted to go rescue her daughter, but the older woman’s training told her it was better to wait and make preparations instead of rushing into what was probably a trap. The Fists of Justice presumably knew who they’d caught. They had to know Marian would make excellent bait.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Emily said. “There are some other chat parchments in the bank.”

  “Getting word out may help,” Sienna said. “But probably not in time to be useful.”

  Emily nodded, slowly. Someone on the outside – perhaps with only a vague idea of what was going on – would be slow to send help. King Randor would be more worried about the theocracy spreading to Zangaria than anything else, while the White Council would need to seek political consensus before dispatching an army of sorcerers and soldiers. And neither of them would know precisely what they were facing. Justice would rip them to shreds.

  I might need to get out of the city, Emily thought. Someone has to tell the outside world what’s going on.

  She knew that wouldn’t be easy. Hell, she wasn’t sure if escape was possible any longer. The bridges were guarded, she’d been told, and the Gap was sealed. Teleporting wasn’t a possibility as long as Justice’s presence dominated the city. Sienna had warded the dosshouse thoroughly and yet Emily could still feel the presence at the back of her mind. The resistance was already struggling to maintain its numbers with Justice slowly wearing them down. Given time, the Fists would become invincible.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, quietly.

  “Don’t be,” Sienna said. “This wasn’t your fault.”

  The door opened. General Pollack entered, followed by Caleb. They both looked grim.

  “It wasn’t him,” he said, shortly.

  Emily blinked. “What?”

  “Harman didn’t betray us,” General Pollack said. “I poured various potions down his throat and Caleb cast a number of spells. He couldn’t resist us. The questions we asked…”

  He sat down, heavily. “He confessed to a number of accounting irregularities,” he added, as he reached for a bottle of wine. “Some voting fraud, some embezzlement…enough to get him a few years in slavery, if he’d been caught a week or so ago. But he wasn’t the one who betrayed us. He was doing what he’d been told to do before I nabbed him.”

  “Oh,” Emily said. She’d had been so sure. And yet, in hindsight, she’d known that trouble was coming even without seeing Vesperian’s books. “What…what happens to him now?”

  “Right now, he’s throwing up the potions we gave him,” General Pollack said. “He’ll feel like he’s been on a three-day bender for several days to come. And after that…he’ll probably want a little revenge.”

  “Blame it on me,” Emily said. Had Janus intended her to draw the wrong conclusion? Or had he merely had a stroke of luck? “I made a mistake.”

  “It wasn’t a bad guess.” Caleb looked down at the floor. “You just happened to be wrong.”

  “I’ll speak for you, if he does make a fuss,” General Pollack said.

  “We have other things to worry about right now.” Sienna sat down at the table, resting her elbows on the hard wooden surface as Markus and Frieda entered the kitchen. They both looked as tired as Emily felt. “Emily, I believe you wish to share some explanations with us…?”

  Emily sat down at the table, taking a moment to gather herself. Caleb already knew some of it – although she hadn’t told him everything – but the others didn’t, not yet. She wondered if she dared ask for an oath, yet…she shook her head. They had a right to know what was going on, without her trying to impose rules. Hopefully, they’d understand the need for secrecy.

  “It’s a trick,” she said, flatly. “That entity is no god.”

  “So it’s a trick,” Sienna repeated. “What is it?”

  “It’s…something akin to a Mimic,” Emily said.

  She launched into a long explanation, trying to get the idea across without giving too much away. It was probably pointless – her audience was composed of magicians – but she had to try. She told them about the Mimic in Whitehall, about how she’d worked out that it was actually an advanced spell…and how Justice had been designed along the same lines, although with a number of differences. They had to understand what the fanatics had done.

  “The Mimics are spells,” Sienna said, when she’d finished. “At what point, Emily, were you going to tell the rest of us?”

  Emily winced at the cold anger in Sienna’s tone. “The Grandmaster – the previous Grandmaster – believed the information was better kept secret. He feared that sorcerers would start trying to duplicate the spells if they knew it was possible.”

  “And
yet, you also found a way to stop them,” Sienna added. She still didn’t seem happy. “Didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” Emily said. “A simple dispelling charm should work against a Mimic.”

  Master Wolfe had definitely been a genius, she thought, as Sienna reeled. It had shocked her too, when she’d first realized the truth. Hardly anyone would reach for one of the simplest charms in the spellbook when confronted by a Mimic, let alone think to use it. But if one already knew the secret, dealing with a Mimic was easy.

  “I tried to dispel Justice,” she said, outlining everything that had happened in the temple. “It didn’t work.”

  “It might not be possible to stop it,” Sienna said, slowly. “If it absorbs magic and it’s largely immune to physical attacks…”

  “They’ll run out of people to sacrifice, sooner or later.” Emily grimaced as a nasty thought occurred to her. “They didn’t create an entirely autonomous creature, either. Justice seems to have limits. I think they need to make some preparations before they let him go out to hunt.”

  “Those staffs,” Caleb said.

  “I think so.” Emily kicked herself, silently, for not thinking of it first. In hindsight, scaling up the chat parchments so they could channel power was an obvious trick. Aloha was going to be furious when she found out. She’d invented the chat parchments, but she hadn’t taken them any further. “I think they use Justice as a source of power for spells, channeled through the staffs.”

  “So we force them to drain their power,” Sienna said. “Just like facing a necromancer.”

  “Justice has a lot of power.” Emily paused. “He’s also not particularly intelligent.”

  “You think,” Sienna warned.

  Emily nodded, curtly. Given time, Justice would grow into an intelligent being…or, at least, that was what she’d taken from the scrolls. Janus and his comrades really hadn’t known what they were doing. And when Justice did develop intelligence, all hell would break out. He’d know what he’d have to do to survive and he’d want to do it. Beneficence might simply be the first city to be sacrificed to keep him alive.

  “Perhaps you didn’t use enough power when you tried to dispel him,” Caleb suggested. “We could all try.”

  “It’s possible,” Emily said. “But the notes suggested that dispelling him would be very difficult.”

  She wished, suddenly, that she had a battery. She could have used it to power a dispelling charm and aimed it at Justice. It might have been enough to counter any protections built into the spell matrix. But his magic-absorbing aura would make focusing the charm difficult. She might accidentally feed him instead. Perhaps, if she pushed the charm a little further…

  I need time to think, she thought. Sienna was talking, but Emily barely heard her. And perhaps some more rest.

  Frieda nudged her. “Emily?”

  Emily looked up. “I’m sorry, I was miles away.”

  “I said that I will not leave my daughter in their hands,” Sienna said. “And we do not have time to waste. We have to take the offensive.”

  “I must agree,” General Pollack said. “The longer we delay, the stronger they get.”

  Emily glanced at Markus, who nodded. She agreed. Justice was steadily tightening his grip on the city. More and more people were surrendering to him as his constant presence wore down their will to resist. And there was no way to evacuate the city in the hopes that Justice would starve. He’d just cross the bridges and walk into Swanhaven or Cockatrice.

  We could blow up the entire city, she thought. The nuke-spell glimmered in her mind, a mocking reminder of a power she didn’t dare use. But would even that produce enough power to destroy him?

  “We might be able to limit his reach,” she said, remembering the cobwebs she’d sensed in the temple. “Cutting him off from his supporters and warding him might be enough to limit his power intake. He’d start to starve.”

  And if you’re wrong, her thoughts mocked her, you’ll lead everyone to their doom.

  Frieda cleared her throat. “We attacked them once,” she said. “Will it be so easy to attack them a second time?”

  “It wasn’t easy,” General Pollack said. “We lost fifty men in the attacks.”

  “And Marian,” Sienna said, quietly.

  “They knew we were coming,” Frieda reminded him. “General…getting close to the temple a second time might be impossible.”

  Emily nodded in grim agreement. It hadn’t been easy to slip through the guards the first time, even though Janus had implied she’d been allowed to enter the temple. She supposed he could have been bluffing, but he’d had no reason to lie. Now, with their temple damaged and their reputation tarnished, the Fists of Justice were unlikely to let anyone anywhere near their god. Getting close enough to do some damage might be impossible.

  We’ll have to think of something, she thought.

  “We could try to lure Justice out of the temple,” Markus said. “Perhaps we could start pushing the protesters back from the banks. They’d have to do something to remind everyone they’re in charge.”

  “We could go after the staffs,” Frieda offered. She winked at Emily. “They break as easily as wands.”

  “That would work.” Emily glanced at Sienna. “Can you get a rough idea of Marian’s location?”

  “Very rough.” Sienna shot an odd look at her husband. “Everything is a blur.”

  General Pollack looked worried. “I’ve never heard of anything that can cut a blood tie completely,” he said. “You should be able to find her.”

  “There are some forms of disownment that would cut all the ties,” Sienna said. “But I’d have to do the rituals to make them work. Marian couldn’t do it, let alone an outsider.”

  “And you might kill her,” Caleb said, quietly.

  “I might,” Sienna agreed. “There’s a reason they’re rarely used.”

  There was a long silence. Emily looked from Sienna to Caleb and back again, feeling an odd flicker of…something she didn’t care to name. Family…she liked Caleb’s family, but did she want to marry them? And yet, she wasn’t seeing them at their best. They’d lost one child to a necromancer, while another had been kidnapped…their house had been destroyed, leaving them homeless.

  “I think it’s time to start working on a plan,” General Pollack said. “I’ll gather the remaining forces, with the intention of luring the enemy out of place. Markus, I want you to try and find a way into the temple that won’t be risky. We could go through the drains.”

  Emily had to smile. That was a good thought, if it was workable. If nothing else, Janus and his ilk might not notice until it was too late. She might have an opportunity to take the cobwebs apart before they noticed her, trapping Justice in one place.

  “I’ll see what I can find.” Markus shrugged. “They might have sealed the drains, of course.”

  “They might,” General Pollack agreed. “Dear--” he looked at Sienna “--start working on ways to break their staffs.”

  “Or drain them,” Frieda said. “What happens if you cancel the spellware they use to focus the magic?”

  Emily glanced at Markus. “What happens if you use a cancellation charm on a chat parchment?”

  “I don’t know,” Markus said. “The magic is linked to blood, so it’s quite resistant…”

  He stroked his chin. “We do know that burning the parchment renders it useless,” he added, after a moment. “But smaller charms might not work.”

  “They won’t have used linking charms for their spellwork.” Sienna’s voice was cold. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  General Pollack nodded. “Emily, you know these creatures best,” he said. “See what you can come up with…”

  “I will,” Emily said. An idea was already at the back of her mind. The Hands of Justice had taken one idea and scaled it up a little. What would happen if Emily took their idea and scaled it up still further? “Can I borrow Caleb to help me? We do work well together.”

  “I bet
you do,” Markus teased.

  Sienna gave Emily a long, hard look. “Yes, provided you keep Frieda with you as well,” she said, firmly. “That is not negotiable.”

  Emily clamped down – hard – on the urge to make any number of sarcastic remarks. Caleb’s sister was missing. He wasn’t going to waste time making out with her when his talents were needed elsewhere. Caleb had his flaws, but he wasn’t that sort of person…

  “I understand,” she said. No doubt Sienna would have insisted on leaving the door open, if Frieda hadn’t been there to play chaperone. “Frieda will be helpful too.”

  “Good,” Sienna said. “We need to move as soon as possible.”

  “They’ll expect us to move at night,” Caleb pointed out. He jabbed a finger towards the stained window. It wouldn’t be long until darkness fell over the city. “They’ll be ready.”

  “We’ll see if we can get into the sewers,” General Pollack said. “And we’ll see what other problems we can give them too.”

  Emily rubbed her forehead. She was starting to feel hungry again. Her head ached…she gritted her teeth, remembering Pandora’s words. She’d have to find something to eat quickly before she got to work.

  “We have to stop them,” she said. Hurting the Fists of Justice wouldn’t be enough. Janus had to be stopped. “I don’t think they knew what they were doing.”

  Sienna’s eyebrows crawled up. “Are you sure?”

  “The scrolls were very basic in many ways,” Emily said. Whoever had written them – she was sure it had been Master Wolfe – had been a genius, but there had been a startling lack of explanation. Most sorcerers would know better than to cast a spell when they didn’t know what it was intended to do. “And Janus talked about summoning a god, not creating one. I think they don’t even begin to grasp the underlying theory.”

  She sighed. Janus had effectively hypnotized himself. “And when they lose control,” she added, “they might not even notice.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “NICE ROOM,” FRIEDA SAID, SARCASTICALLY. SHE sent a light-globe ahead of her as she hurried into the room. “I can’t imagine any monkey-business here.”