shadowrun 40 The Burning Time

by Stephen Kenson

  He called to Aracos through the mental link they shared. "Manifest and protect my body, Aracos. I’m going after Gallow."

  Talon thought that Aracos was about to object, then a silver-furred wolf appeared next to Talon and sank its teeth into one of the squealing devil rats. It shook the rat hard enough to snap its neck before tossing it aside and going after another. Talon sank to his knees in the gravel, discarding his body like a robe, his spirit rising up into the astral. Talonclaw glowed in his hand, and the crystal Dragonfang shone at his throat.

  "Nice of you to vacate my property before I take up residence," Gallow said as Talon emerged onto the astral plane. "Come to watch your dear love’s final death throes?" Fiery tendrils squeezed tighter around Jase. He thrashed against them, but could not break free.

  Talon circled around the fiery spirit, mageblade in hand. "C’mon, Gallow. It’s me you want. Let’s finish this if you’ve got the guts to take me on."

  The hate radiated from Gallow like a blast furnace. "I’ve been waiting for this moment," it said. "No more pawns, no more distractions." It hurled Jase’s astral form away, but Talon didn’t dare take his eyes off Gallow to see if Jase was all right.

  "Today I become the master!" it bellowed, surging toward Talon with all its power.

  Talon met the charge as Gallow’s fury smashed into him. The flames could not harm him his astral form, but the pain still seared through him like a burning spear. He struck back, plunging Talonclaw deep into the spirit’s form. Gallow howled in rage and pain.

  They grappled, Gallow spitting flames and clawing at Talon in elemental fury, while Talon jabbed and slashed with his mageblade, tearing at Gallow’s very essence. Talon was skilled in astral combat, and his blade was a formidable weapon, but Gallow’s fury lent it incredible strength of will. To Talon, it seemed that his strikes were little more than insect pricks to the spirit.

  With a supreme effort of will, he managed to break free of the spirit’s burning grip, tumbling away a short distance as Gallow gathered itself like a cobra preparing to strike.

  "Now, mage," it roared with a voice like a furnace aflame, "you will belong to me, body and soul!"

  Just as Gallow began to lash forward, it was seized from behind by strong, wiry arms that held it tightly.

  "Haven’t you forgotten something?" Jase said.

  "Jase!" Talon cried, wanting to warn him off. But Jase’s ghost held on to the raging elemental, despite the pain.

  "Tal, get away," Jase said. "Hurry! I can’t hold him for long!"

  "I will kill you!" Gallow raged, struggling in Jase’s grip.

  "Sorry. You’re a little late for that." Jase tightened his grip. "Tal, please, trust me—GO!"

  Talon looked at his love for a long moment, prepared to rush forward to save him, then he looked down the tunnel, where his friends were battling the horde of devil rats. Some of the rats were going for Trouble, who lay on the ground helpless and unconscious. With one last look at Jase, he dropped back into his physical body and opened his eyes just as Aracos broke the back of another devil rat.

  Talon rushed toward Trouble. He kicked one of the rats hard enough to send it sprawling a couple meters away and drove Talonclaw down into the head of the other one. He felt the bone crunch under his blade as the devil rat squealed out its life.

  "Trouble! Wake up! We need you!" He cupped her face in one hand. "C’mon, Trouble. Wake up!"

  "No!" Gallow cried, still fighting to break free of Jase’s grip.

  Trouble’s eyes fluttered, and she looked up at Talon. "Hi," she said, somewhat dazed.

  "Hi, yourself," he said, then got to his feet. Trouble also scrambled to get up and reached for her gun when she heard the squealing of the devil rats.

  "You’re finished, Gallow," Jase was saying. "You’ve lost your host, and you’ve got nowhere else to go. How long can you last without one?"

  "Long enough to finish you!" With one final surge, Gallow broke free and materialized above the platform as a seething ball of fire. In the center of it was visible a vaguely humanoid shape whose red, scaly flesh glistened in the flames.

  "DIE!" the spirit cried, lashing toward Talon.

  Talon felt the heat from Gallow’s flames, then heard the sound of wings as a golden falcon struck at the spirit. Talon staggered back as Jase pulled Gallow away, helping Aracos against the maddened elemental.

  "Now, Tal!" Jase cried, and Talon lunged forward.

  "Talon’s Hate," he said, speaking the spirit’s true name, "you are no more!" Then he drove his dagger directly into Gallow’s fiery heart. There was a scream that tore at Talon’s mind and spirit, and Gallow exploded. The force of the blast picked Talon up and sent him flying back into the platform, knocking the wind out of him. Talonclaw dropped from his hand, and he landed on his side. He was starting to feel cold, and he knew that Gallow had burned him badly. As his vision began to go black, he felt a hand gently caress his cheek.

  "Now I know what I was here for," Jase said. "It was for this and to tell you to save your strength for the living, Tal. Gallow is dead. It’s over, and we can both go on. I have only one more thing to do. Goodbye."

  Talon reached out with a shaky hand and felt a gentle kiss. Then he passed out.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Consciousness returned slowly. The first thing Talon knew was a hand gently stroking his face. He stirred and opened his eyes.

  "Jase?" he murmured.

  "I think he’s coming around," someone said, and Talon looked up into a blurry, unfamiliar face. As his vision cleared, he could see that it was a young man, probably in his mid-twenties. Golden highlights gleamed in his long hair, which was pulled back from his face in a ponytail or braid. His eyes were deep blue, with flecks of silver glimmering in their depths, and he flashed Talon a smile. He wore street clothes, including a T-shirt with an elaborate Celtic knot design on it, under a battered brown leather jacket.

  "Who?" Talon said vaguely as he started to sit up.

  "Don’t you recognize me, boss?" the young man asked, his smile broadening. Talon looked deep into those eyes and saw the familiar spirit looking out through them.

  "Aracos," he breathed, "but how. . ." Then he felt the empty space inside of him, and the subtle tension that had been there since he’d first summoned his ally was gone. "You’re free, aren’t you?"

  Aracos nodded. "It happened when you passed out. I thought you were dead. I went to you, wishing I had human hands, and suddenly I did. I cast a healing spell so you would recover. If I’d known having a human body could be so useful, I’d have asked you to give me one a long time ago."

  "Jase. . .Jase is gone," Talon said.

  "Yes."

  "It’s okay," he said, and really believed it. "He was with me at the end there. He wants me to be happy. He wants me to live."

  Aracos nodded as he helped Talon to sit up. Dead devil rats littered the ground around the rusted tracks, and there were pockmarks in the concrete from bullets, stitched in bloody lines. Trouble lay on the ground nearby.

  "Trouble!" he said, but Aracos laid a hand on his shoulder.

  "It’s all right. She’s alive," he said. "I’ve already healed her injuries. She’s going to be fine."

  "Thank gods for that," Talon said, then smiled weakly. "But if you went free, why are you still here? Why didn’t you leave?"

  "You have to ask? You called me here, Talon. You gave me a life in this world, and you’ve been a friend, not a master. I don’t want to leave you."

  Talon’s smile quickly faded when he recalled all that had just happened.

  He heard Trouble stir and bent over her. "Hey, how are you doing?" he said as she opened her eyes.

  "What hit me?" she asked, sitting up. Suddenly her eyes widened in recollection, "Gallow! It. . ."

  "Gallow’s gone," Talon said. "It’s all over."

  "Well, not quite, chummer," Boom said from the edge of the platform above. "We’ve got one other little problem. It looks like there’s some kin
d of bomb set in a maintenance shaft up above this station, complete with the Pandora virus, and it’s counting down."

  "Help us up," Talon said, reaching a hand toward the troll, who hauled him and Trouble up to the platform using one hand for each. Aracos simply walked on air up to the platform like someone climbing a staircase.

  Hammer was standing under a circular opening in the ceiling, and three charred bodies lay nearby. Trouble took one look at them and gasped. "Oh my God! Ian!"

  She ran over and dropped to her knees on the concrete. She reached one trembling hand toward the charred body, then jerked it back as she began to sob. Hammer came over and encircled her shoulders with one massive arm.

  "Hey, kid," he said gently. "There was nothing you could have done. It’s not your fault."

  Roy Kilaro climbed up into the shaft above with a boost from Boom. For several long minutes, the only sound in the tunnel was Trouble’s sobs, then Kilaro called down from the shaft. "I can’t shut it down! It’s got some kind of encryption lock! I don’t dare tamper with it or I might set it off."

  Talon knelt down beside Trouble and Hammer on the platform

  "Trouble, do you remember anything about what happened while Gallow was controlling you?" he asked softly.

  She shook her head, wiping away tears with the back of her hand. "No, it’s a blank. The last thing I remember was being in my apartment. Then I woke up here, and Talon and Gallow were fighting, and then. . ." She looked at Ian O’Donnel’s burned body and stifled another sob.

  "We’ve got less than five minutes on the counter!" Kilaro said.

  "Trouble, we need your help. Kilaro can’t disarm the viral bomb," Talon said. "If we don’t disarm it, a lot of people are going to die, including us. We need you."

  Trouble glanced at the bodies once more. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath.

  "I understand," she said, opening her eyes again. "Just get me up there."

  "Okay, kid," Hammer called up to Kilaro. "You can come down now."

  Kilaro dropped out of the shaft, and Boom gave Trouble a boost. Talon and Aracos watched as she climbed up into the shaft.

  "Anything we can do to help?" Talon called.

  She looked down at him. "Did you kill Gallow?" she asked

  "Yes."

  "Good enough for me." Trouble then disappeared from view. A tense silence descended again as they waited and she worked.

  Finally, Talon turned to Aracos. "Is there something we can do to contain the virus if it gets out?"

  "Maybe with the help of an air spirit," Aracos said.

  Talon’s eyes flicked away for a moment as he looked within himself, feeling for the links to the spirits he commanded, but finding only emptiness.

  "Damn," he muttered. "They’re gone." It would take far too much time to conjure another air elemental to do the job. "Don’t suppose you’ve picked up any new spells in the last few minutes or so," he said to Aracos.

  "Afraid not. We may just have to wing it. Maybe you and the others should clear out, just in case."

  "No need," Trouble said from above them. Then she crawled out of the shaft, the terrorist bomb dangling from a strap slung her shoulder. One of the side panels was off, and multicolored wires dangled from it. The tiny LCD on the side showed that the timer had stopped with just under a minute to spare. Trouble handed the whole thing over to Talon, who took it gingerly.

  "The broken dreams of a good man," she said, looking at it with regret.

  "I’m so sorry," Talon said, and Trouble turned to him with tears in her eyes.

  "It’s not your fault," she said. "I think he always knew he would die in the name of the cause. I just wish he hadn’t died thinking I betrayed him. What. . .what Gallow must have made me do . . ."

  Talon handed off the bomb to Hammer and took Trouble in his arms. "I think he knows it wasn’t really you. In fact, I’m certain of it. If I learned anything from all this, it’s that the people who cared about us are out there, somewhere, watching over us."

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Mama Iaga waited impatiently in her lair deep below the city streets. Sitting by the fire, she felt the waves of magic spreading across the land, felt the fear and confusion they sparked. Soon those feelings would turn to anger as people lashed out at what they didn’t understand.

  She glanced at the antique clock resting on the mantle, its soft ticking and the crackle of the fire the only sounds in the room. The seconds passed, and the appointed time came and went. Mama reached out with mystic senses far beyond those of even most of the magicians in the city. She felt the growing power of the magic as it touched certain people here and there, awakening long-slumbering commands buried deep within their genetic code, instructions dating back to a time of ancient legend. Although the confusion was spreading, the fear growing, she could feel the moment slipping away.

  Where is my sacrifice? she wondered. Where is the moment that will imprint my stamp on these events, turning the tide of power and emotion to me?

  There was nothing.

  The viral bomb should have gone off by now. She should have felt the shift in power. Could Gallow have betrayed her? No, that was impossible. She held the spirit in unbreakable bonds, her mastery of it complete. There was no way Gallow could have knowingly betrayed her, though it could have failed her somehow. If so, it would pay dearly for the opportunity it had cost her.

  She rose stiffly from her chair and went closer to the fire. She traced her fingers through the warm, still air as she chanted words in a tongue that was ancient when the history of the world was still unwritten. She gazed into the fire.

  "I bid thee, Talon’s Hate," she called to her servant, using Gallow’s true name to draw it to her. "Appear before me!"

  She spread her arms wide as she completed the call, but again there was nothing save the crackle of the fire and the ticking of the clock. Gallow did not appear or answer her call.

  Destroyed, Mama thought. The only way Gallow would not appear was because someone had destroyed it. Someone who knew its true name, for that was the only way to demolish such a spirit.

  "Destroyed!" she shrieked, knocking the clock off the mantle. It flew to the stone floor, where it shattered, scattering tiny gears and springs with a pitiful pinging noise.

  She had planned so carefully, foreseen everything about this moment for so long! Gallow must have fallen into the hands of its summoner, the mage named Talon. Mama had underestimated him, but she would not make that mistake again.

  "Oh, no," she murmured. "I’ll deal with you, little mage, and I’ll make you wish you’d never been born."

  A stick cracked in the fire, and the flames flared up, glowing brightly at their center.

  Gallow? she thought as she sensed a presence in the flames. But it wasn’t the fire spirit. It was something, someone, else. The flames leapt up, and a form emerged from them, glowing brightly with a light that was painful to look at. Mama shielded her dark eyes with one bony hand as she squinted at the familiar face of the spirit that appeared before her.

  "No, this can’t be!" she said.

  "It is," said the spirit of Jason Vale. "You’ve made your bid, and you’ve failed. Those souls you imprisoned are free, and many other spirits have come to this plane with the passage of the comet. Most will remain, and the living will have to deal with them in the fullness of time. Others of us are ready to move on once we have completed one final task."

  "Arrogant pup!" Mama said, shaking her walking stick at him. "You think to dictate to me? Do you know who I am?"

  "Yes, I do now," Jase returned. "The time for your vengeance is long past. You no longer have a place in this world. You are of the last world, Mama Iaga, and I have come to take you home."

  "Pfah! You do not command me! Back to your cage, boy!" She pointed the head of her stick at Jase and uttered harsh, gutteral words. Then her eyes widened in surprise and fear when nothing happened.

  "My. . .my power!"

  "Is no more," Ja
se said. "You made your bid for power, and you failed. Now the time has come to put an end to this."

  The flames in the hearth flickered, and Mama could see shapes moving among the shadows all around her. They slipped toward her, dark and silent.

  "No!" she cried. "I will not be denied!"

  The shadows rose up all around her, and Mama could see their eyes, glowing faintly in the light cast by Jason.

  "Nooooo!" she cried out as the shadows reached for her. They dragged her, kicking and screaming, toward the fire. Her cane fell forgotten to the floor as the shadows contracted.

  "Be grateful that you have a chance for the peace you denied others," Jason said. "If it were up to me, I would not be so merciful."

  Her only reply was an inarticulate shriek as the shadows drew her into the fire. Then Jase, too, faded away, the light around him slowly dying out.

  The flames in the hearth exploded outward with a sound like a scream torn from the depths of the soul. The flames roared through the underground lair like a purifying torch, reducing everything within it to blackened ash, scouring the walls and floor clean of the taint that had built up there and even partially melting the great metal door that led into Mama Iaga’s domain.

  By the time her loyal servants managed to pry open the door and dared to go inside, all they found was blackened and empty rooms filled with scattered ashes and the silence of a tomb.

  The next night, Talon stood with Boom in the alley outside the Avalon nightclub and watched a dark limousine pull up, the glare from its headlights blinding in the darkness. A man got out, silhouetted in the harsh halon glare. He walked toward Talon and Boom, then stopped a short distance away. The two shadowrunners moved forward to meet him.

  It was Gabriel, the Seraphim agent they had first encountered on the Cross Technologies tilt-rotor. He wore a dark trench coat, no doubt lined with armor and concealing more than one weapon. His blond hair was immaculately groomed, and he wore dark sunglasses despite the lateness of the hour. Talon had no doubt that Gabriel’s eyes were able to adapt to any darkness.