"Quite a collection of stuff," I said. "And the steel Noise is using doesn't look summoned. I see you’re not as cut off as the citizens of Grantsville."
"My shop's enchantments still work with a bit of effort. My colleagues are willing to donate equipment to the cause but are of course too busy to send actual help."
Screw beating around the bushes. "Because you’re doomed?"
"We're not doomed. We just need more tass, which I would really appreciate you helping to gather, Thomas." Jules's tone was level, reasonable.
I popped my head around a corner of a laser cutter, which consisted of a metal box six inches taller than my shoulders with a ventilation tube running from the back and under the flap of the tent. "A hundred people are dead due to a new shallowing. I bet that’s just the latest. People have been dying from that hunger plane all along, haven't they?"
Jules grimaced. "That’s regrettable. We don't have as much control over the transition as you think we do, Thomas. The egg is far more of a predictive mechanism for the majority of planes."
"Don't bullshit me. I saw how you stitched up the roads so they'd all lead into each other. That's not easy."
"We have control over this plane, yes. Very fine control," Jules said, that last bit sounding low, threatening. "But the others…they're orbiting like planets."
"Then let the townsfolk out. If they don't die from being trapped in a reality blender, then hunger is going to get them and I don’t mean the black plane."
"Oh, and invite the damn inquisitors over for tea? That's sure to be absolutely fabulous!" Jowls voice pitched up like a spear between the ears. "They're dead anyway, Thomas. That's the sad fact." Jowls stood, ears plastered to the side of his head. "It’s just as much your fault as ours. I suspect whatever you let out of that trap turned it inside out on purpose."
"You're keeping them all here, Jowls. Let them go. Then run away if you have to." I stared at Jowls, and he didn't blink. Not a trace of guilt on his face. Cold dread crept along my spine, and it took conscious effort to keep my claws sheathed.
"It’s not that simple, Thomas," Jules said. "The Veil here is dead. We didn't think that would happen nearly as fast as it did, but I think transitions actually physically hurt it. With it dead, these mundanes are no longer in its power. They never will be, Thomas," Jules said. "If we let the Veil in, along with the Inquisition, a natural disaster will befall the town, culling the survivors down to a few crazies that no one will believe."
So pat, so logical. I didn't believe it. The unfortunate souls. They're dead anyway, so why bother? Both Jules and Jowls looked surprised as a ragged hiss escaped my throat. "Then find a better way! Magic can do anything, given time, knowledge and tass!"
Jowls sighed. "The birth of a House is a bit like making an omelet, Thomas. Mundanes die. They do that without our help. You said you'd help us establish House Technomagi. This is all part of it. No magus will blame us."
"Except the ones you're so scared of," I snarled, not caring if the pair saw my teeth or not.
"Yes, but they don't care about the mortals. They care that we damaged the Veil and made it angry. So we need enough tass to buy them off. You need this tass as much as we do," Jules said.
"With your crimes, Thomas." Jowls grinned. "The murder of two Archmagi will be considerably more... hrm, expensive to buy off."
My stomach lurched as if hit by an unseen fist. "I didn't do anything!"
"Aww you can’t lie to ol Jowls Thomas, you’re terrible at it.” Jowl's eyes glowed with pride. "Richard allowed me to get a good look at that fancy new chain of yours. We knew Archibald very well, Thomas. That’s not his work. I'm certain no magus alive could even replicate the way it’s woven into your flesh and soul. Poor thing. That Dragon literally took you apart and put you back together again, didn't it? Not that I blame you. It was probably a very good deal. It dispatched Sabrina and Cornelius handily, no doubt, and what did you care about a couple of old magi anyway. You didn't know them."
I swallowed down on the rising bile in my throat. "Archibald and the others had been torturing it for over a century. You're all lucky I convinced it not destroy Grantsville!"
Jowls grin turned triumphant. I mentally smacked myself. "A valid choice that I appreciate, Thomas, but maybe the Council would think differently. You can see this from their perspective, can't you?"
"I'm sure in your case the most likely sentence for your crimes will be death by vivisection," Jules said, "to gain knowledge back that you have deprived the Council by killing two of their members."
"Point is, Thomas," Jowls purred, "you have more skin in this game than you think. I love that you're so addicted to being the hero, but you need the protection of House Technomagi even more than we do. With enough tass, those niggly questions about the night Sabrina died will never be asked."
I closed my jaw, which had fallen at some point, and swallowed. I tasted bitterness on my tongue, but it was nothing I'd eaten. Was this how it would always be? Any clients or magi I worked for would be nothing but sociopaths looking to get ahead in the games they played with one another. If I didn't buckle under Jules or some other patron, would I'd be following Sir Rex's path and die for a principle? I looked to Richard, who stood at the entrance flap. Sweat dotted his brow. He'd closed the link when we entered the tent. I ripped it open. And what do you think? The murder of an entire town. That's all business as usual?
His head was a snake pit of fear, his thoughts going in circles. Thomas, listen to Jules, he pleaded. We have to see this through. It's our only chance at survival!
"It’s not so bad, you know," Jowls said. "Jules always manages to find what you need when you need it." He gave a tiny smile. "We'll fix your thumb deficiency, no trouble at all. A set of robotic arms. How's that sound?"
"Like it’s a petty thing to worry about after a hundred people just died," I snapped.
"Power has cost, Thomas. Just as your personal power came at the cost of three lives, House Technomagi will be born from the ashes of Grantsville," Jowls said.
"The deal was six. Sabrina, Cornealius, Medoci, Ghenna, Rasasha and Scrags. I doubt you'll know the names of the people in this town," I spat, tracking the auras of Tom and Harry outside the tent, fumbling with something between them.
"We’re getting deep in the weeds here, Thomas. You're no better than the rest of us. I want you take an Oath of Fealty," Jules said, expression neutral as if his request was as simple as handing him a wrench.
"I'm terminating our agreement," I snarled. I broke my bond with Richard right there, snapped it out him like a whip. He crumpled to the ground, clutching his head without so much as a squeak. The other two of the trio screamed in pain behind the back flap of the tent where they'd been hiding.
Something heavy hit the ground. Jules eyes flared, his hand diving into the jacket he wore as I darted behind the biggest machine in the tent. Note to self: the rules of cover changes when dealing with magi. A flash of yellow and the machine slammed into my side, staggering me sideways. Another flash and it felt as if something seized my entire back half and pulled, wrenching me off the floor. I screamed as my claws lashed out, latching onto the very machine that had just nearly run me over, and I wrapped my forelegs around the control panel.
"Way to make a mess of things, Thomas!" Jowls said. "There is no way for you come out of this alive now. We were offering you a pathway. You could have been part of a rising House!"
"Great! Sign me up for Murder Inc. and Quarterly Genocide." Jules didn't seem to be pulling me anywhere now. I'd seen his toy move cars, so he probably could have torn me in two if he wanted to. But I'd be a nice bargaining chip to hand to the inquisitors, and so he didn't want to kill me yet. Coming back had clearly been a dumb idea. I clung to the machine vainly, attempting to muscle it between Jules and myself. Then it moved again.
"You impertinent ignoramus! I'm trying to save you!" Jowls howled with indigence.
"Blackmail is a funny way to save someone," I grunted as
I strained against the machine. If I could just swing it around, I could break the path of the beam that held me. Jules wasn't holding me steady anymore. He kept looking at Harry and Tom, who were fussing over the device they'd dropped.
Jowl huffed so hard his entire body jiggled. "If you're so eager for your day before the Council, then fine. Hold still and we'll store you safely until your trial."
Grunting, I swung the machine wide, but Jules raised my ass well clear of the machine, preventing it from blocking the beam.
I laughed, remembering the arc of Cyndi's body after I'd broken her neck. That cat had been a monster. I realized what I really did to monsters, what I might do to all the magi if they proved as callous as this group. I laughed harder, a full belly laugh. It hurt. Cats aren't made to laugh like that. We chuckle and snort but never a full guffaw. A creeping sensation of dampness grew in the fur around my eyes as a huge knot of emotions unfurled.
All of them were looking at me as if I'd gone mad.
"Surrender," I rasped, still gasping to recover my breath. "That’s your choice. Surrender or I'm going to murder you all." It'd sounded way more badass in my head.
Jules made a disgust sound and sneered. "He's gone mad."
"A true shame," echoed Jowls.
Jules looked to Tom and Harry, who had a reworked LAPIS device between them and opened his mouth to give an order.
At that moment I twisted myself around, snagged my claws on the canvas ceiling, which Jules had helpfully put in reach when he'd lifted me, then pulled it down between myself and the beam. With the beam blocked, I began to fall, but not before hooking the thin metal poles in the ceiling and pulling the entire tent down on me. A flash of purple and a foop! of displaced air emanated from my former position. The portal shone above me for a brief second as I tunneled under the falling canvas.
Difficult to control, my ass, I thought. Bastards had built themselves a portal gun. I paused as sunlight met my eyes from the lip of the canvas. I could see Jules' aura struggling with the canvas, but Tom and Harry stood resolute, probably having taken a step out of the tent as it fell. If I stepped out, they'd have a clear shot.
"What hell's going on?" Noise bellowed. "Get your hands off me!" The pair with the portal gun swung out to the left toward her.
"NOISE! DODGE!" I cried and dived back under the canvas then beelined it for Jules. One bite would end this whole fiasco.
Voop! Two purple flashes lit up my vision as a focus fired, vanishing Jules and the smaller one that had to have been Jowls. In the next instant I caught the same two flashes, further away and to my left, over by the pill itself. I changed course for Harry and Tom, leaping up and slamming my weight down on the portal device, ripping it from their hands and dashing it to the ground. The two men shouted and scrambled away from me. Harry rolled onto his back and pulled a long rod from his jacket, the same one he'd ripped off the front of Grover's Grocery with. One blast from that thing and I'd be the world's first cougarnaut. I pounced and ripped it from his hands, taking a few fingers with it.
The black man screamed, clutching at his hands as he rolled away. Growling, I attempted to break the device in half, but it didn't yield to my jaws. Tom held his hands up, empty as he backed away from me. Instinct screamed for his throat. Behind him I finally saw Sandra. She'd climbed onto the bleachers along the baseball diamond, leveling a black rifle, not at me, but at Noise, who wrestled with two of the clanks. One had wrapped itself around her leg, weighing her down like a leaden toddler, and the other had its arms around her neck in a deadly game of piggyback.
I dropped the stick to shout, "NOISE! GET DOWN!"
Noise ducked but not quite fast enough. The gun thundered. Blood burst from Noise's left shoulder. In retrospect, probably one of the worst things you can do when facing down a 600-pound werecowwolf is almost miss. With a bellow of pain, Noise ripped the robot off her neck and hurled it directly at Sandra. The woman dived out the way, flinging herself from the top the bleachers.
Maybe Noise and I could battle royale our way out of this with fang and fury. The trio was down. How much harder could the rest of the technomagi be?
There are certain questions you shouldn't even think. At that moment the air within the partially constructed building pulsed with green energy and dark shapes pooled within the structure. Jules had cavalry as well as a force wand. Jules and Jowls were no mere technomagus and familiar. They had more tricks in the pocket of that button-down shirt.
Noise crushed the clank's head on her leg with her fist and leapt at Sandra. Sandra recovered, whipping out her wand as Noise reached the top of her arc. The beam didn't send Noise flying, but it stopped her jump dead in the air. For a moment she hung there like a cartoon character that had walked off a cliff and not realized it yet. Then she fell with a thunderous impact, her hoof-like paws hitting the baseball diamond like a pair of meteors.
I bolted toward her and Sandra, leaping over the fence and barreling down the hill, the pop and ping of bullets following me. I didn't stop to see who was shooting now. Someone inside the building. Sandra kept her beam trained on Noise, who set herself like a linebacker against it, the dust streaming around her planted feet.
Bullets whizzed behind me as the sporadic pops changed to a staccato ratchet of full auto. Unlike spells, I can't see bullets coming. My run toward Sandra became a zig-zag as I searched for some sort of cover. They'd pulled down the dugouts and the backstop, so the only structures nearby were the bleachers. Behind the bleachers lay a steep slope, an almost straight ninety degrees to another flattened area with a covered picnic shelter; its columns could provide some cover. Beyond that lay several grassy hills that ramped up toward the town pool. Figuring a little bit of cover is oceans better than no cover, I ran up the hill behind Sandra and flattened myself against the cold, soggy grass. Bullets whined over my head so close that my whiskers trembled from the displaced air, but the shooters on the ground floor of the building didn't have an angle on me.
Figures, men-like shapes with lumpy rifles and veiny green skin, were climbing into the second story of the half-complete metal structure. Had Jules summoned an infantry unit from another reality to fight for him?
I remembered the force wand clutched in my jaw and spat it out, desperately looking for some way to make it work. The tip was a crystal that pulsed with kinetic energy and the rod itself contained a meshwork of spells. Nubby dials dotted its length and there, just below the crystal, was a friendly red button. I pointed the rod roughly in the direction of the iron scaffolding and slammed my paw down on it.
I missed. Small and nestled right under the fitting that held the crystal, the device hadn't been designed for those of us with manual dexterity issues. A normal, calm me would have carefully extended a claw and depressed the button. However, panicked me just slammed the thing over and over again, shouting, "Fire! Fire! Fire!"
On the tenth shot I on found the right angle and the yellow light flicked out in a broad cone. It ripped open the ground in front of me and flung sod at the building in a massive chunk. The green soldiers caught in the beam lost their footing and either sailed backward or made grunts of pain as the beam pinned them to the walls they'd been climbing.
The structure itself held. Either it was just that much stronger than Grover's Grocery or one of those knobs had the device dialed way down.
With the chatter of guns quieted I heard a high-pitched tink and Sandra's beam winked out. With a roar, Noise barreled down on Sandra, who tossed her overheated wand away and reached into her back pocket. As Noise reached her, the technoshaman stepped off the bleachers and a golden ward flared to life around her. A panic ward, similar to the one Rinoa had used on my behalf, enclosed Sandra.
Noise swung her fists down like two hammers. Sandra screamed as the ward deformed like a ball of silly putty, bending inward under the force of those massive fists. They came within six inches of Sandra's prone form before the ward surged back to its original shape, flinging Noise into the bleachers.
The wand I held was heating up and the scent of overtaxed electronics filled my nose. More green summoned men were appearing within the safety of the building's lowest floor. Too many to fight. Magic is one thing, but lots of guys with guns are another. "Noise! Come on!" I shouted as I attempted to angle the rod downward. The steel groaned under the force of it. Noise kicked out spitefully at Sandra's ward before dashing up the hill toward me.
"Just keep running!" I shouted and snatched up the rod, running after her as she passed me. I didn't run directly after her. Instead I curved around the picnic area. An isolated gunshot rang out as I flung the rod down and smacked it, flinging the thirty-odd picnic tables out onto the field. The gunfire stopped as wooden tables crashed into the structure and set it ringing, forcing the things clinging to the scaffolding to stop shooting. I joined Noise in hightailing it into the woods before they could regroup.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
We were running so fast that we never saw the web. One moment I was right on Noise's heels. Next I was pressed against Noise's legs, swaying back and forth ten feet above the ground, trapped in a net woven of fine chain that stank of motor oil. My only weapon, Harry's rod, lay on the ground below us.
Noise let out a low moo of distress as sweet laughter rained down from above. "Oooh yes, I knew if I was patient I would catch something tasty, but now I have both something tasty and something interesting." The grinning toolbox lowered itself out of the canopy. Precisely how I read the facial expression from eight ratchet eyes and screwdriver fangs I can't be sure, but that eight-legged bitch positively vibrated with amusement.
Marking Territory (Freelance Familiars Book 2) Page 21