“Gentle!” I scolded as one of the soldiers pulled her from me and began to bind her wrists with some form of wire tie.
The soldier looked in deference to me and did appear to treat her a little better. Allie’s head tilted to the side as she looked down at me. A lonely tear slid down from her eyes across her cheek and down onto her shoulder. Her stare lasted only a few seconds, but her expression said everything she needed to. There was no coming back from this.
The soldiers pulled her roughly to her feet as a new voice cut into the earpiece. “Stand down and await new orders.”
I recognised that voice too, it was Marcus’s. What was going on? A van should have been sent to recover us and get us out of here. We were vulnerable here, if nothing else domestic forces would be closing in on us as we spoke. It was madness to remain behind.
“What’s going on?” a third voice cut in. Levenson seemed almost as confused as I was.
There were several seconds of silence before Levenson thundered, “Get that van there now!”
“Belay that order,” Marcus said calmly down the line.
I glanced at the soldiers to see which of the two instructions they seemed more inclined to take. They stared stonily back. They weren’t exactly pointing weapons at me, but they had a sense of hostility about them. This was new.
“We should at least get off the street.” I tried, but the soldiers didn’t reply.
This wasn’t right. Something was definitely off here. I looked around warily. I hadn’t dropped my shield yet so it wasn’t like I was in any danger, but I definitely didn’t like what I was seeing. Several seconds passed before I realised how stupid this was.
“Give me the girl,” I ordered as I stepped forward, “I’m getting out of here.”
Immediately two soldiers raised their rifles at me and the third, who was holding Allie, stepped back protectively.
“This is stupid,” I said as I let the Mana flow down my arms. “You can’t stop me.”
“No,” the third soldier replied calmly, “but this will.”
He placed the barrel of a pistol against Allie’s head. My breath held in my throat. Time stopped. My eyes slowly panned between the barrel of the gun at Allie’s head and the eyes of the soldier holding it.
“That is a death sentence,” I said. “You pull that trigger and I will tear you to pieces.”
“Step back Sir,” one of the soldiers ordered as he gestured with his rifle.
“Levenson! What is the meaning of this?”
“Meaning of what?” Levenson’s voice was agitated. “What the hell is going on?”
This left two options. Either Levenson was the greatest voice actor I’d ever met or these soldiers weren’t operating under his orders any longer. Nothing led me to believe that Levenson was play-acting. That only left one real option – these soldiers worked for Marcus.
“Marcus,” I hissed into the earpiece, “Don’t do this. This is between you and me! Leave her out of this.”
“This has nothing to do with either of you,” Marcus replied darkly.
What? That made no sense. Of course it was about me. It was always about me.
“Execute the girl on my command,” Marcus continued.
A shiver went down my spine and the Mana unconsciously rose in fury. This wasn’t going to happen. This couldn’t be allowed to take place. I was responsible for Allie. I was the one that had brought her down. I was the one who had disrupted her and left her defenceless. I was the reason she was standing there helpless whilst that mindless thug pointed a gun at her.
“You don’t want to do this,” I advised the soldiers, all three took several cautious steps back and their guns wavered slightly at the threat. I could almost see the soldier’s finger twitch on the gun pointed at Allie.
Allie was staring at me with open eyes, her Mana field was still scrambled, but I could see her desperately trying to gain some control. It didn’t look like she would be successful though, her Mana signature was still erratic.
“Put the gun down,” I urged, “No one needs to die here. We can….”
I never got to finish. The sound of a loud explosion of Mana cut me off mid-sentence. The soldiers to each side were immediately swept away as threads wrapped around their necks and flung them down the street. It had happened so quickly. It was brutal in its efficiency. The thread tore through them as if they were no more than ragdolls.
The third soldier had obviously already pulled the trigger by the time the thread reached him, but for some reason the gun didn’t appear to have fired. He must have had the safety on. I was glad that I wasn’t the only one to make that mistake. The thread caught the gun pointed at my sister in a savage twist and most likely broke every bone in the soldier’s wrist.
Allie stumbled forward a few steps as the man supporting her was swept away. Allie’s head tilted to the side gently. She appeared to smile for a second and for a brief beautiful moment I thought everything was going to be okay.
The hatred and anger from her eyes fled before the smile and her face became young and beautiful again. Her smile lasted only a second but was reflected for all time in the light of her eyes. Then ever so slowly, her smile faded and her eyes swept upwards to look at the night sky.
At first I didn’t notice her jaw slacken or the blood flush from her cheeks. I didn’t notice the small but growing blood-stain on her shoulder from the bullet wound behind her head. I didn’t see her steps falter as she weakened. I didn’t see the Mana in her slowly begin to fade. Soldiers don’t make mistakes about the safety lock.
My sight was locked firmly into my sister’s eyes as they went dark. For that second in time her eyes were so beautiful, so clear and so pure. I wanted it to last forever. But it didn’t. It couldn’t.
Allie stumbled and fell forward. Unable to brace herself because of her bindings she crumpled against the hard concrete of the footpath. I would have done anything to have been able to catch her and lay her gently down, but I was too far away.
I was at her side in seconds, lifting her from the ground and cradling her in my arms. A fog of disbelief washed over me. There was so much blood, it covered her right shoulder and back. I pulled her to me and pressed my face against her forehead.
“He’s here,” a voice boomed through my head. The words were surreal and I didn’t understand them. At first I thought the words were some figment of my imagination. Some horrid construct created by my mind unwilling to face the reality of my sister’s death. I soon realised the words were coming from the earpiece in my ear.
It didn’t matter where the voice had come from. It didn’t matter what was said. I held my sister in my arms and turned her face towards mine. I desperately needed to see that light in her eyes again. I needed to see something, anything in her eyes that would let me know that she was going to be okay. But her eyes were cold now. The light had gone.
They say that in death, a person’s face relaxes and their worries and cares seem to fade away. The hatred and anger they felt in life can no longer affect them. This is a lie. Allie’s face in death was cold and her eyes reflected only the hatred and loss that I knew could be seen in my own.
Her eyes amplified my pain back at me tenfold. In her cold dead stare I felt every failure I had committed. Every injustice I had perpetrated against my sister. She had been young and she had been innocent. It was my actions that had turned her into something that should not have been. She had paid the price for my callousness and for my arrogance. This should have been my fate.
I should have left her in Omeo, I should have not begun her training. I should have tried harder to keep her from Victor. A thousand conflicting thoughts smashed through my mind as my world collapsed into no more than her two darkened and accusing eyes.
She was lying so still in my arms. Although she weighed almost nothing at all, her weight bore down upon me. I held her until I could stand her gaze no longer. With shaking hands I gently closed Allie’s eyes. And just like that , she was gone.
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I needed to be alone with my grief. Free for but a few moments before the world intruded again. I needed to say something, do something that would let her know how sorry I was. That I regretted the way things had turned out. That this wasn’t the way things should have gone. But I wasn’t alone.
Victor Whittlesea was standing behind me. He kept his distance, but eventually it dawned on me that he was there. He stood no more than a dozen steps away from me. His grief was clearly visible, as clear and as strong as my own. It was the first time I had seen loss or pain on his face and for a second it floored me. As with Marcus, emotion wasn’t something that I attributed to Victor. I had seen annoyance and anger, but nothing like this. The mask that protected him from the world without wasn’t just lowered, it had been shattered.
I had no words. For several seconds we were comrades in our grief. Shared companions in pain, then it dawned on me. Victor had studied Necromancy! He could bring her back!
“Save her” I croaked.
“I cannot,” Victor said softly, “I can only reanimate the remains – and I will not do that to her.”
The fury and rage threatened to overtake me once again. This was the man responsible, the man who had caused all this. He was just as guilty as I was for my sister’s death. Once I would have leapt to my feet and struck at him with all the power that my frustration and pain would allow. I would have made him pay for making me feel this loss. Some unconscious part of my brain screamed at me to do so.
“Yes! Give in to your anger! Use it! Right the wrong! Make yourself strong!” my psyche whispered to me.
I would have loved to have risen to my feet to do as my psyche commanded, but the truth was I couldn’t. Some wrongs can’t be righted. I clasped my sister’s body to mine and broke down. The walls that I had built around me came crashing down as the wave of grief overcame me. The power that I sought fled before my pain and for a moment in time I was nothing.
Victor for his part let me have my grief. He did not intrude, did not comment. I’m not sure how long I spent huddled on that sidewalk. The world without could go to hell for all I cared. It didn’t exist for me any longer.
“Master Wills,” Victor’s voice pierced through the cloud of fog and pain. It was soft but filled with steel. I thought at first that his anger was directed at me, but it wasn’t. It was a warning.
We weren’t alone any longer. Six Mages stood on the rooftops surrounding us. At their centre was Marcus. He was staring down at us with disdain. This was the reason for all this. This had been nothing more than a trap for Victor. I recognised some of the Mages in Marcus’s group, they were powerful supporters of Marcus. Victor would not walk away from this.
“Master Deveraux. You lured me here with the threat to a loved one.” Victor intoned. “You are truly a monster.”
This had obviously been the intent of Marcus’s plan. He had been unable to draw Victor out and knew that he would respond if Allie were in danger. He also knew that I represented the biggest threat to Allie. He had used me.
This wasn’t a surprising revelation to me. I had expected him to betray me. I just hadn’t realised how far the man would go. The rage that I had been unable to summon at Victor surged through my very soul. The Mana rose within me like wildfire as my anger finally found a target. Marcus was responsible. He is the one who would pay for my sister’s life.
“You cannot escape,” Marcus informed Victor, “and you must understand that you are horribly overmatched.”
“I wonder if you are prepared for this?” Victor replied. “A direct confrontation between the two of us here can only end in disaster.”
Marcus didn’t answer.
“I suspected as much,” Victor said. “This was your intention all along… ”
Victor didn’t get a chance to finish before they attempted to strike him down. They all struck at once, hoping to bring the Arch Mage down before he was adequately prepared. The magical shockwave that followed almost swept me away.
The street was smashed into pieces and the surrounding buildings were reduced to rubble. The flare of so much Mana being deployed at once was blinding. Once my vision returned there was only rubble where Victor had once stood. It didn’t even remotely resemble an urban street any longer. It was now a war zone. If I had thought my fight with Allie had created collateral damage then this was taking it to a whole new realm.
Marcus has chosen his companions well, they were powerful and they were determined to end Victor’s life. Had Victor remained where he had been standing he would have been immediately vaporised under that level of magical power. But somehow he wasn’t standing there any longer.
It didn’t take me long to figure out where Victor had gone. Two of Marcus’s number fell immediately as Victor returned his attack. One was knocked unceremoniously from the rooftop and the other disembowelled as Victor’s thread pierced through his shield and out his back. The remaining four Mages turned on him, but this time their attack wasn’t co-ordinated. As inelegant as their attacks were, it looked like they still might overwhelm him through sheer strength. There were too many of them and Victor was quickly forced back onto the defensive. The end result appeared forgone. At least until I chose to intervene.
I don’t think I interjected on a conscious level. I don’t recall thinking that I was trying to save Victor’s life. If I had been thinking clearly I probably should have let them end him. Everything that had happened to me, from the moment that I had met Renee had been the result of the feud between these two men. Aaron’s death, Allie’s death, my father’s death – these could all be laid at the feet of these men. No, I wasn’t thinking logically. My hurt and pain had taken over.
* * * * * *
There are few things more dangerous in this world than someone unwilling or unable to control their power. My attack was launched with a primal scream as I struck against Marcus. My thread wrapped around him and pulled him from the rooftop. Marcus shrieked as the thread drew him from the battle. I could see his shield straining under the pressure I was applying but it didn’t look like it would fail. As I brought the Arch Mage before me I could see his face was a twisted mixture of outrage, fear and anger. I don’t think he had expected me to survive the initial assault, let alone side against him with Victor. He should have.
“Devon! Let me go!” He snarled desperately. “He needs to die! We can finish this tonight! You know this!”
He was right – Victor did need to die, but Marcus would die before him. This was the man directly responsible for Allie’s death. This was the man who had given the order. This was the man whose soldiers had shot her. He would be the first to suffer the consequences.
My grip tightened and I could see Marcus was sending everything he had into the shield to keep it intact. His eyes boggled at the level of power he had been forced to employ to keep me from cracking his shield like a melon.
Had I have been thinking more clearly I would have realised that this wasn’t going to achieve the end that I wanted, that this was giving him too much of an opportunity to escape. But it had become a contest of wills, of who could exert the most power, who was the greater, and I was determined to prove myself his superior.
I was drawing upon reserves I didn’t even know I had to end the man’s life and it still wasn’t enough. I could see it was costing him though, I could see it in his face. He was contemplating his own death and it was consuming him. Had I been allowed to continue, I suspect that I eventually would have cracked through his shield and ended him, but I wasn’t allowed to continue.
My furious attention to the Arch Mage had blinded me to all other distractions, which proved to be a mistake. One of Marcus’s companions swept through my shield with an attack and sent me reeling. My shield had been a flimsy shell anyway with all my power directed into my assault on Marcus. It crumbled around me and my breath was forced from me as the thread impacted on my side.
My shield must have at least softened the blow before caving because the thread didn�
��t kill me instantly. Instead my entire left side went numb with shock at the impact. It may have broken some ribs, but I didn’t think so. I could still breathe freely enough. The strike sent me reeling down the street. Before I struck the ground I raised another shield and flipped myself back around onto my feet to land.
I immediately launched several threads in response. My attacker seemed to be amazed that his strike hadn’t killed me. Even from across the street I could see the wideness of his eyes as my thread launched towards him. I couldn’t see where Marcus had gone, I assumed to take his fight to Victor, either that or the bastard had run from me.
In fact I couldn’t even see where Victor and the other Mages had gone, but I could hear them. The sound of destruction and of Mana clashing filled the air. I could also hear the sound of sirens. The local authorities had finally become involved.
My opponents threads arched over me as he launched a follow up attack. I savagely twisted my own thread to block his, leaving a vast chasm in the concrete road from the impact. He recovered with practiced ease and sent his threads weaving back to attempt to break through my defence. He didn’t have a chance and he quickly realised it. He didn’t have the skill or strength of Marcus and I had already proved that I was greater than he had been. This wretch couldn’t stand against my might for long.
I was slowly but surely closing the distance between us and once I got close enough I would finish him. He was being pushed back down the street as I advanced upon him. I would kill this man and then go on to find and finish his Master.
I had almost reached point blank range when his thread just vanished mid strike. My thread swept through and destroyed the building behind him, but quickly rallied. Unfortunately that allowed him enough time for his next move. He should have used the opportunity to escape, but he did not. That mistake would cost him his life.
I had just about brought my threads around to finish him off when a volley of light assaulted me. I instinctively brought my hands up to protect my face as waves of fire rolled over me. The force of the blast hit my shield like a thunderbolt, but once it had passed it was like I was in the calm of a storm.
Mage Dissolution Page 27