by Sean Stone
That meant I’d have to come back and kill him later. The only way I’d be able to get a second audience with him was if I did actually pledge my allegiance to his side of the war. But then he’d undoubtedly test my loyalty. He’d assign me a job I wouldn’t want to do. I wouldn’t be granted a second audience until I’d done it. How far was I willing to go in order to finish this job?
Neil turned to leave the promenade and a blast of magic flung him toward the river. Instinctively, I brought up a shield to protect myself. The four guards surged forward, creating a wall between Neil and the threat. The substitute Prime was sprawled on the ground, but other than his ego nothing was harmed. Whoever had attacked us had not been looking to kill him.
The same could not be said of the guards. A shower of attacks flew at them. One of them ran past me, his entire body ablaze, and threw himself into the river. I looked over at our attackers and saw Drew. Even with the magic-charged ring he always wore, he wouldn’t be able to cast lethal spells. I nearly died of shock when I saw the wizard who was fighting by Drew’s side. It was Jeremy, one of the Elders. He was committing career suicide, if not actual suicide, by attacking his own people.
The guards were no match for an Elder so I left them to Jeremy. My focus was on Neil. He was the ticket to Magraval. The little wizard was pulling himself back to his feet. His legs were trembling as he watched his guards get torn down.
‘Stay still and you won’t get hurt,’ I told him, keeping my tone firm but also reassuring.
Neil fumbled around in his pocket.
‘Neil, stop it!’ I warned him, raising my hand and charging it with magic.
He pulled a small raisin-like object from his pocket. It was dark green and shrivelled.
‘Drop it,’ I said dangerously. I pulled in energy from the various sources around us and began charging myself with additional magic.
‘Okay, calm down.’ Neil raised both hands above his head, flinging the raisin-thing away from him as he did so.
The raisin hit the concrete and exploded in a pool of swirling green fluid. It expanded into a circle, roughly the size of a small paddling pool and then stopped.
‘What the fuck is that?’ I asked.
Neil lunged at the pool, answering my question. It was some kind of portal.
‘Rabole,’ I said. My spell hit Neil and knocked him back to the pavement. I ran forward and booted him in the chest, knocking him even further away from the portal. A blast of fire whacked into my shoulder and sent me staggering away from the kid. I threw up a hasty shield and looked over at the reinforcements from the Hall. Either they’d been nearby already, or Magraval had sent them. If Magraval had sent them that meant he knew what was happening. He was probably watching from nearby. I whirled around, searching for the hidden wizard, but he wasn’t in sight.
The few pedestrians had long since fled the area. They’d made their escape the moment they saw a flaming man jump into the river.
Neil was back on his feet. He ran toward the reinforcements and I dragged him back toward me with a spell. I ducked to avoid another attack from the reinforcements. I glanced around over at Jeremy and my uncle and saw them finishing the last of the original guards. They came over to my side.
‘Did you get tired of being an Elder?’ I asked the Library Keeper.
‘I got tired of my fellow Elders,’ he said resignedly.
‘Yeah, I think I’d quit if my new boss was a curly-haired brat,’ I said, indicating Neil who was cowering near my feet.
‘Do you think that portal leads to Magraval?’ Drew asked, eyeing the green stuff.
‘Wanna take a dip and find out?’
‘Gentlemen perhaps we should deal with the approaching foes first,’ Jeremy suggested. He unleashed a flurry of spells on the wizards who were running our way. I joined him in the battle. Drew used his ring to block incoming attacks and the three of us worked together quite well. The six or more Hall wizards outnumbered us, but we had them out-skilled.
Once again Neil tried to get to his portal. This time Jeremy brought him crashing back to the ground with a far more forceful spell than I would have used.
‘Sit down, boy!’ Jeremy commanded. Neil went tumbling to our left where he lay still. Cuts had opened up over his face from the continued abuse.
The screech of tyres drew all our attentions over to the road that lay to our left. Two black range rovers had stopped nearby. The doors opened and several pairs of feet hit the ground. One of them belonged to Simon Delacrue.
‘Who called the cavalry?’ I asked.
‘I did,’ Drew confessed. ‘If Magraval was going to be here I thought we could use the back up.’
Neil obviously recognised the wizard who was leading the Orchids toward us. ‘No,’ he whimpered, his voice shaking. He flew to his feet and made a run for it. Simon was faster. A blast of green light struck the boys shoulder and he screamed as he spun on the spot from the force of the blow.
‘No!’ I yelled as I saw what was happening. Neil lost his footing and fell backward right into the portal in the ground. The green substance submerged his body and the boy vanished. I ran for the portal but the green pool irised closed and vanished from sight before I was even halfway there.
‘We needed him,’ I screamed, turning to face Simon.
Some spell hit me in the arm but my defences were up and I barely felt it. I whipped my arm out in a furious gesture. I opened my mouth to cast a spell, but instead an angry scream flew out. Bizarrely, it had the same effect as the spell I’d been planning on casting. The wizard who had tried to attack me exploded into chunks of bloody flesh, as did his companions. Blobs of bloody bone and flesh rained down over the promenade as the last of our enemies died.
The entire charade at the Hall of Wizardry had been for nothing. We were no closer to finding Magraval and the one person who could help us had escaped. I had no idea where Neil had been taken by that green gateway, but I strongly suspected we would not be seeing him again.
Chapter Seven
‘We needed him!’ I shouted at Simon, pointing at the empty patch of concrete where the portal had been.
‘You’re welcome,’ he replied, snidely.
‘Oh, please. We were doing fine without you,’ I said.
‘And yet your uncle called me nonetheless.’
‘Watch it, Jacob,’ Drew growled before I could retort. His tone reminded me that Simon had plenty of backup with him. This was not a fight we would win. Nor was it one we wanted to start. Simon was our ally, despite his bungled attempt to help us.
‘Listen to your uncle,’ Simon said.
‘Jacob is just stressed. We went to a lot of trouble to try and apprehend that boy. He could have led us to Magraval. We’re both grateful that you came,’ Drew said. It was oddly diplomatic of him. Usually I had to remind him to be tactful.
‘And you are both welcome. However, I must ask why the two of you are standing with one of the wizarding Elders?’
Jeremy shifted uncomfortably under Simon’s scrutinising gaze. ‘He helped us,’ Drew said. ‘Came and told me Jacob had been taken away by that kid. By the way, is he in charge now?’ Drew turned the last question to Jeremy.
The Library Keeper shook his head. ‘Not entirely. He’s Magraval’s puppet. This way the true Prime can stay hidden.’
‘Such an admiral trait in a leader,’ Simon said.
‘I haven’t seen Dorian outside his mansion in a while,’ Drew muttered.
Simon fixed him with a cold gaze and then turned back to Jeremy. ‘You are yet to explain why you betrayed your order.’
‘Putting an apprentice in charge was beyond the pale. I cannot remain in the Hall under Magraval’s leadership any longer. His tenure as Prime has been insult after insult.’
‘So you’ve turned traitor,’ Simon said with disdain.
‘I’d rather be a traitor than a known associate of a man like Dorian Gray.’
‘Perhaps we could find a more convenient place to argue?’ I su
ggested, seeing Simon’s eyes bulge in outrage. Snide though he might be, he was loyal to his boss.
‘Agreed,’ the Orchid said curtly.
Not long later we were all sitting down in a nearby bar. It turned out that Dorian owned the place so it was easy enough for Simon to clear the few customers present and secure the building against any attacks. Not that we were really expecting any. Simon threw up a couple of defensive spells and had his guys guard the doors.
The four of us sat around a small brass table and the barman brought us over some drinks. I gulped down my rum like it was water and then ordered a second. Simon spared me a look of disgust but said nothing. Jeremy looked pretty disapproving himself. It was only midday but they hadn’t had the twenty-four hours I’d had. Last night a headless horseman with a spinal column had attacked me, and today I’d come within a hair’s breadth of finding Magraval only to lose the one lead I had. Plus, I strongly suspected that my mysterious enemy was none other than the beloved cousin I’d thought dead for the last fifteen years. The circumstances more than warranted early drinking.
‘How did that portal work, I’ve never seen portals like that before?’ I asked.
‘It was a very potent form of magic. Not something a wizard could have pulled off alone. Did you see how the portal was conjured?’ Simon said. I disliked the guy passionately, but I respected that he knew magic like few others. He’d taught me a couple of things in the past.
‘He had some kind of squishy thing like a green raisin.’ I made a gesture that was so bizarre that even I wondered what it was supposed to be.
‘Hmm,’ Simon said, he stroked his bare chin ruminatively. ‘Perhaps Magraval has learned new ways of magic that enable him to create portal opening raisins.’ He clearly did not enjoy describing the object as a raisin, but he had no alternative since he hadn’t seen it. The only other description for a green raisin-like thing was a bogey, and everybody at the table was too mature to use that word.
’Clearly none of us know how that device works, so why don’t we move on to a topic that we know a bit more about,’ Jeremy suggested.
‘So perhaps you could start by explaining to me what on Earth possessed you to walk willingly into the Hall of Wizardry?’ Simon said, staring at me incredulously.
‘Not that I need to explain anything to you,’ I started, ignoring the warning glare my uncle gave me. ‘But, I was summoned by the Elders — Marcus in particular. I thought I could use it to my advantage. I thought I could try and use the situation to get some clues as to where Magraval was.’
‘Sounds like a rather long shot.’
‘I thought so too, but let’s not forget that it worked,’ Drew said in my defence. He lifted his whiskey, but then thought better of it and placed the glass down. He obviously wanted to keep a clearer head.
‘Yeah, that little twerp was leading me to Magraval.’
‘So he said. For all we know he could’ve been leading you to your death,’ said Simon.
I shook my head. ‘If Magraval wanted me dead he’d have made his move by now. He wouldn’t bother with such a convoluted…’ I trailed off as I realised that was exactly the sort of thing he would do. Everything he had done so far had been pretty convoluted. But he hadn’t directly tried to kill me. He’d goaded somebody else into trying to kill me, but I got the impression he’d wanted me to survive, and he’d known that I would.
‘Surely you, an Elder, can lend us some insight?’ Simon said to Jeremy.
Jeremy had been staring distinctly into his cup of tea, his mind far from the apparently mundane conversation we were having. His head snapped up and he looked around the table quickly, his dim eyes finally settling on Simon.
‘Magraval doesn’t tell us his plans. Even if he did, I’d be last in line.’
‘Ah yes, the least respected of the Elders,’ Simon said snidely. My dislike of the man increased about two sizes when he said that. Jeremy was already down in the dumps, he’d just painted a bloody target on his back, he didn’t need the likes of Simon to kick him too. ‘Are you regretting your decision to ally with him now?’
Jeremy’s eyes darkened and took on a cold glint. ‘I voted against Magraval becoming Prime. It’s unheard of for a Prime not to have been an Elder beforehand. And to appoint an outsider whose real name we didn’t even know… That is how much my colleagues hate your boss. Dorian has poisoned this city so badly that people are willing to invite an unknown malignant entity in just so they can get rid of Dorian.’
‘Dorian built this city,’ Simon said slowly, enunciating each word carefully.
‘Listen,’ I said quickly, throwing my hands up to try and ease some of the tension. ‘We are all on the same side here. We all want Magraval gone. Sure, we might not all be Dorian fans. Maybe we don’t like the way he controls the city. But I think we can all agree that at least with Dorian we know what we’re getting. Dorian’s rules are for the most part fair. If we stay out of his business he’ll leave us to it. Magraval is a wild card. This city will not survive if we leave him to terrorise it.’
‘Better the devil you know. Is that what you’re saying?’ Jeremy asked.
I nodded. ‘Exactly. I appreciate your help today Jeremy. It means a lot that you betrayed your order to help me. But if you’re not comfortable with working with Dorian then you should go now.’
Jeremy laughed drily. ‘I have nowhere to go. As soon as word reaches the Prime that I attacked my own people he’ll have wizards and witches searching for me. He’ll want my head on a pike as an example.’
‘How very medieval,’ Simon said with distaste.
‘Let’s not forget that your boss recently had members of the Hall decorating its steps to set an example. Dorian isn’t any better than Magraval. He just doesn’t wear a mask.’
‘The fact that you are sitting here indicates that you believe Dorian is better than Magraval. But I feel this conversation is looping back on itself. Let us move on to this boy whom Magraval has doing his bidding. Tell me about him,’ Simon said.
‘Neil Garland. He was an apprentice in the spells department. He worked under Marcus. Marcus did not speak highly of him. He considered Neil to be a waste of time and resources, but without cause he could not expel him. I believe that Magraval chose him to be his puppet for two reasons. Number one, he is easy to control. He’s young impressionable and there’s no chance of him actually taking any real power in this situation.’
‘And the second?’ Simon asked.
‘Marcus disappointed Magraval. Because of his failure, the Hall was breached by yourself and your associates. We lost a lot of people that night. Whilst we may have driven you all back and won the battle it still cost us dearly. Magraval was not in a forgiving mood. His fury was… well it was unrivalled by anything I’ve ever seen. Myself and the other Elders were all amazed that Marcus wasn’t killed on the spot.’
‘Very interesting. So, the easiest way to get to Magraval is through Neil,’ Simon concluded. ‘Find the boy and we find the Prime.’
‘We already know where Neil will be. At the Hall. He’s no use to Magraval anywhere else,’ Jeremy said.
‘The big question is, can you get us in there?’ Drew asked him.
Jeremy squirmed and let out a groan. ‘I doubt it. My Elder status will be revoked by sunset. Any one of us can walk past the magical protections. Even Simon could do that. The guards on the other hand…’
‘Is there a chance they’d still follow your instructions?’ Drew asked. I understood what he was getting at. Years of being taught to do as the Elders said would have built up a habit in their minds. Even if they were told Jeremy was a traitor they might still hesitate to disobey him. Unless another Elder was present.
‘It doesn’t matter. Even if I could get us past the lobby guards, my access to the restricted areas will be revoked. We won’t be able to get near Neil. Not unless we plan a full scale assault on the Hall and that will take a lot of people and a lot of magic.’
‘Both of which we
have in abundance. By we, I mean the Orchids,’ Simon said. ‘But Dorian will not risk a bloodbath. The city is tense enough.’
‘What you mean is, he’s only just regained control of the city and painting the streets red might turn everyone against him again?’ Drew said.
‘Any who turn against Dorian will be eliminated,’ Simon said coolly. His voice took on a warning tone as if he suspected Drew might be planning some dissension.
‘Dorian’s barely holding on to the reigns of this city. The police are just waiting for their opportunity to seize the advantage. It doesn’t matter who Dorian puts in City Hall or who he kidnaps.’
‘We need to draw Neil out,’ Jeremy said, turning the conversation back to the matter at hand.
‘Or have him brought out,’ I suggested. ‘Dorian said he has one of the Elders in his pocket. If Dorian tells that Elder to bring us Neil then that would save us a lot of bother.’
‘If Dorian will do it. He’s been reluctant to compromise his mole so far,’ said Drew.
‘How on Earth did he get a mole in the Hall in the first place?’ Jeremy said, clearly astounded.
‘This is Dorian,’ I reminded him. Dorian had moles everywhere. He probably had a spy working in one of my clubs.
‘I can ask Dorian if he is willing to sacrifice his inside man. If he feels the benefit outweighs the risk then he will do so,’ Simon told us. ‘Now, if that is all I will leave the three of you to do your jobs and I shall go and do mine. You’ll hear Dorian’s response as soon as I have it.’
Simon left the bar, taking his Orchids with him. The three of us didn’t hang about after he’d left. We wanted to continue speaking in private and a bar owned by Dorian probably had ears inside the walls. Literally. I gulped down the remainder of my drink and then we all headed over to my apartment.