by R S Penney
“I will not-”
He shoved Gerald to the ground, the big man landing on his ass and shaking his head. “How dare you-”
Dalen ignored the fool, marching past him into the middle of the crowd. “Listen to me!” he yelled. “We can’t stay here! The city isn’t safe anymore! Go back inside! Get a change of clothes and all the food you can carry!”
Several dozen eyes fell upon him, people wondering whether they should listen to this stranger who was ranting and raving in the middle of the street.
“Now!” Dalen bellowed.
That was all they needed; the crowd scattered, people running back into their houses to carry out his orders. At least, he hoped that’s what they were doing. He couldn’t afford to stay very long. If they didn’t return in five minutes, he would take his companions and go. They could sort out the food situation when they weren’t in immediate danger. And Tommy? he wondered. Miri? Will you be able to find them?
One problem at a time.
To his relief, several people emerged from their houses, fully dressed and carrying bags full of supplies. Should they leave? Was anyone else coming? How long could they remain here?
Mrs. Carmichael hurried out her front door in a simple, black riding dress, carrying two sacks in each hand. “I brought everything I could,” she said, trotting down the front steps. “Some carrots, apples. A loaf of bread and some cheese. Hopefully, it’ll keep.”
“Where do we go now?” a skinny, black-haired man asked.
Dalen did a quick headcount. Over thirty people stood in the street: men, women, children. The good folks who had hopped to obey his commands had brought their families out. They were ready to go.
“Follow me,” Dalen said.
Reining in Champ, Desa brought the horse to a stop. Midnight kept going for a few paces but quickly halted, ignoring Tommy’s repeated attempts to spur him into motion. The stallion would not leave without her.
Dropping out of the saddle, Desa ran up to a man who stood on the curb, a tall fellow with a round belly and bushy, gray eyebrows. He blinked when he realized that she was standing right in front of him.
“You have to flee the city,” Desa said. “All of you do.”
The man started. “Why would we do that?” he demanded. “This is our home!”
Without looking, she pointed westward to the glowing pillar that lit up the night. “That is a barrier,” she said. “A barrier created by a being far more powerful than either of us to contain something much worse. And when it fails, everyone in this city will die.”
The infuriating fool of a man only laughed at her. “You’ve had too much to drink,” he said. “Go home, woman!”
Kalia stepped up beside Desa to offer her support. Her face could have been carved from ice. “Tell me,” she said. “Have you ever seen something like that before?”
“Aladri witchcraft,” the man said. “I’ve heard stories.”
Tossing her head back, Desa winced. She pressed her fingertips into her temples, groaning in frustration. “This isn’t ‘Aladri witchcraft,’” she said. “No Field Binder could ever produce that kind of-”
She was cut off by a devastating screech, a horrible, ear-splitting cry that sounded like the death of hope itself. She turned, gazing westward to the distant mansion, and felt her heart sink when the beam of light faded away.
“Mercy,” she whispered.
It was too late for all of them.
Hanak Tuvar was loose.
17
The road sloped gently downward, running westward back to Delarac’s mansion. From the top of this small hill, Desa could see over the wall that surrounded the man’s property. She could just make out the roof of the mansion from half a mile away.
Something dark landed on it, a squid-like creature that let out a menacing wail. Its oily tentacles dug into the shingles, tearing them up. And then it was slinking forward, dropping into the front yard.
The portly man almost fell over, bracing a hand against a lamppost to steady himself. His thick, gray eyebrows tried to climb up his forehead. “What was… What was…”
Desa shook her head in dismay. “That is the thing that will kill you if you stay here,” she said. “Gather your neighbours and get them out of here as quickly as you can.”
“Hurry, Desa,” Miri urged. “We have to find the others.”
Starting down the slope, Desa closed her eyes and sighed softly. “It’s too late for that now,” she said. “The rest of you go. Find your friends and get out of the city.”
“Where are you going?” Tommy demanded.
She twisted around, looking back over her shoulder with a glare that insisted she would suffer no arguments. Tommy and Miri stood side by side, both backing away when they sensed her resolve. “To buy you time.”
She opened her mouth to protest when Kalia fell in beside her, but the other woman spoke up before Desa could get a word out. “You are not going to face that thing alone. I’m going with you, and that’s final.”
“Fair enough,” Desa said. “Replenish your Infusions.”
She made herself one with the Ether, the world transforming into an ocean of writhing molecules. Kalia did the same, light exploding from her body with the fury of a thousand suns. Such power! Shouldn’t this have been enough to defeat Hanak Tuvar? No, that was foolishness. If Mercy couldn’t do it, what chance did two Field Binders have?
She could feel the squid-creature creeping across Delarac’s front lawn. And that wrongness that surrounded it, that strange halo that distorted the very laws of nature: she could feel that too. Why so slow? Surely that thing could move faster. Perhaps Mercy had weakened it. In the end, it didn’t matter; if Hanak Tuvar wanted to give her more time, she would use it.
The denizens of this neighbourhood were fleeing, following Miri and Tommy. She scanned the nearby houses and found that most of the people were gone. A few were cowering in their basements or in closets, but it was the best she could do. If they wouldn’t leave, she didn’t have time to argue with them. Champ fled as well, choosing to stay with Midnight, the only one who made him feel safe. Good. Better that he got as far away from here as possible.
Desa began with the Gravity-Sink in her belt buckle. As it stood, she would get another twenty minutes of continuous use out of it. Not good enough. If she was going to fight a demon from the void, she wanted every advantage she could get. Directing her thoughts with an ordered focus, she thickened the strands of Ether that formed the Sink’s lattice.
Hanak Tuvar crawled over the wall.
Desa moved on to the Electric-Source in her ring, replenishing its supply of energy. The Force-Sink in her bracelet was already as strong as she could hope to make it. She hadn’t needed to use it. Kalia was restoring her Infusions as well, working quickly and calmly despite the impending danger.
Hanak Tuvar began scuttling up the street, roaring at them, its tentacles cracking the cobblestones with every step. Desa ignored it, completing her work. After everything she had been through, she would not be intimidated by this thing! What did scare her, however, was the halo.
It didn’t just surround Hanak Tuvar. No, it expanded a short distance in front of the beast and left a trail in its wake. A trail of wrongness stretching back to Delarac’s house. Whenever the halo enveloped a lamppost, it melted, the flames puffing out in an instant. Pools of liquid steel dotted the sidewalks. If Desa was caught in that distortion, every piece of metal on her person would melt as well. And who could say what else might happen?
Opening her eyes, she released the Ether. “You want me?” she said. “Well, here I am.”
Bending her knees, she triggered her Gravity-Sink and leaped, shooting off the ground like a firework rising into the night sky. Kalia severed her connection to the Ether and did the same, flying high into the air.
“Bullets won’t work,” Kalia said. “How do we kill it?”
Hissing air through her teeth, Desa stared down at the beast with rage burning a hole in h
er heart. “We’ll have to find another way,” she said. “I’m going to draw it away. You get behind it, and we’ll see what we can do.”
Lessening the flow of gravity into her belt-buckle, Desa slowly lowered herself onto a nearby rooftop and then killed the Sink entirely. She caught a glimpse of Kalia claiming a perch on the other side of the road. This would have to do.
The squid was down in the street, its tentacles pounding the pavement as it closed in on her. Somehow, the halo allowed her to see it despite the lack of lamplight. Any trace of lethargy was gone; the creature now moved with frightening speed. Perhaps it had recovered from whatever Mercy had done.
It scurried up to the base of her building, tilted its monstrous head up and shrieked. That mouth was an abyss threatening to swallow her whole. With surprising agility, it hopped onto the front wall of the boarding house and began climbing.
Cocking her head, Desa smiled down at it. “Impressive,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought you could haul that ugly lump of flesh you call a body all the way up a building.”
Backing away across the flat rooftop, Desa reached for the pistol on her right hip only to realize that it was lying on the floor of Delarac’s ballroom. Not that it would do much good, but she still wished for a second gun. You’d be surprised how many problems could be solved with a well-placed bullet.
Hanak Tuvar crawled onto the roof, standing up on its tentacles. That strange, crimson haze surrounded it, spreading like an infection. “This is how it should be,” Desa said. “Just you and me.”
Indeed, a voice whispered in her mind. You have been a worthy opponent. It pleases me to face you in my true form.
“You…”
The sound of Hanak Tuvar’s laughter reverberated inside her skull. Did you think that I was merely a savage beast? it whispered. I no longer possess the ability to utilize your primitive, vocal communication, but my ability to comprehend it has not changed.
Desa stepped forward with her head held high, summoning as much courage as she could muster. “That’s good,” she said. “Then you’ll understand when I tell you that I am going to kill you.”
Impossible.
“We’ll see.”
The creature surged toward her.
Pulsing her Gravity-Sink, Desa jumped and back-flipped over the narrow gap between this building and the one behind it. She landed on the slanted incline of a gabled roof, backing away until she reached the peak.
Townhouses.
She was atop a block of townhouses, each one pressed close to its neighbours without an inch of space between them. She heard the voices of a dozen people in the street behind her, idiotic gawkers who wanted to see what had caused all this commotion. “Get out of here!” she shouted at them.
Hanak Tuvar launched itself from the flat roof and sailed across the gap with ease. It slammed into the back wall of the townhouse, tentacles digging into the bricks, tearing out chunks of rubble. And then it was climbing.
Desa retreated down the front slope of the roof, gasping for breath. She looked about frantically, trying to form a plan. Think! There had to be something she could do. She could feel Kalia’s Gravity-Sink. The other woman was getting close, coming in on Desa’s left.
The squid-demon came into view, raising two of its oily limbs into the air and wailing. That was enough to convince those idiots in the street to flee. Kalia was hiding behind a chimney, several houses over, on her left.
Turning right, Desa ran along the slanted roof, using her Gravity-Sink to make herself lighter. At a quarter of her normal weight, it was easy to avoid a fall. She didn’t dare look back, but she could hear the shingles cracking as Hanak Tuvar pursued her.
When she had put another two houses between herself and Kalia, Desa finally turned around. Her heart was pounding. Her lungs burning with more than just exertion. There was no use in denying it; she was afraid.
Hanak Tuvar was further up the roof, crawling along its peak. It had left a trail of holes in its wake along with that ugly, scarlet haze Yes, that would do nicely.
“Force-Sink!” Desa bellowed.
Trusting her partner to understand, she extended her closed fist and projected a blast of lightning from her ring. A jagged lance of electricity struck the chimney that Kalia hid behind, shattering it to rubble. Rubble that seemed to hang in the air, immobilized.
Kalia popped up from behind that pile of floating bricks, and with a scream, she sent them zipping toward Hanak Tuvar at incredible speed. Every single one of those projectiles passed easily through the red halo and drove itself into the demon’s body.
It screamed, rearing like a horse, its tentacles flailing about. Its weight came down on the roof, leaving a spiderweb of cracks.
Desa turned and jumped, using her Gravity-Sink to propel herself across the street. She landed atop a townhouse that was identical to the one she had left behind, whirling around to find her enemy squirming and writhing.
“So,” Desa said. “You can feel pain.”
The creature dug its slimy limbs into the roof, ripping out the shingles, holding them in a tight grip. One by one, it flung them at her.
She had just enough time to get her arm up and activate her bracelet, bits of debris hanging suspended in the air. In less than ten seconds, she had quite the collection of floating garbage. “Turnabout, huh?” Desa called out. “Well, I’ve never been one to play fair.”
She thrust her open palm toward the cloud of rubbish, triggering the Force-Source in her ring at the same instant that she killed the Sink in her bracelet. The blast of kinetic energy sent every piece back across the road.
They pelted Hanak Tuvar, causing the beast to screech and recoil.
The roof gave way beneath its girth, the massive squid dropping into a third-floor bedroom. And then the screams started. Someone was still in that house! Someone who hadn’t fled with the others.
A thick, black tentacle came up through the hole, wrapped tightly around a golden-haired woman in a filmy nightdress. The rest of Hanak Tuvar followed, its mouth stretching into a gaping maw that sucked the poor woman in.
“No!”
To her shock and horror, Hanak Tuvar grew, its body inflating, its limbs extending. Only a few inches, but the change was noticeable. How little you understand, it whispered. Within my realm, my power is absolute.
The red halo expanded, spreading down to the sidewalk and then to the curb. It somehow managed to encompass three separate lampposts that ripped themselves out of the ground. They didn’t melt! Why didn’t they melt? The question was driven from her mind when the three lampposts tilted slightly, angling themselves toward Desa like a volley of arrows ready to fly. The first one streaked toward her.
Desa turned, running along the rooftop, heedless of the unsure footing. Her Gravity-Sink would keep her aloft. The lamppost crashed into the front wall of a house behind her, leaving an enormous hole and rattling the entire block of buildings.
Another one came at her.
This second missile punched through a window, taking a large section of the wall with it. And some of the floor as well. The house was a ruin, chunks of brick and plaster falling to the ground. And still, she ran.
The third lamppost flew across the street.
With a thought, Desa made herself weightless. She bent her knees and jumped, flinging herself into the sky just before the roof collapsed beneath her. A sharp wind stole the warmth from her body, but she barely even noticed.
Twisting around in mid-flight, she found Hanak Tuvar crawling over the townhouses toward Kalia, the red haze expanding to make room for it. Luckily, the other woman was no fool. Desa could track her by her active Gravity-Sink; she was already on the move.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Desa growled.
She communed with the Ether and directed her thoughts into the townhouse beneath Hanak Tuvar, going floor by floor, searching for any innocent bystanders. She found no one within that residence or either of its two neighbours. Mercy be praised.
&n
bsp; The Ether fled as she drew her left-hand pistol, the one with Infused ammunition. “Your power is absolute, is it?” Furious, she fired a single shot, a Gravity-Source bullet that melted into a puddle of lead when it got within two feet of Hanak Tuvar. That made no difference. An Infusion remained intact no matter what happened to the molecules that it was bound to.
Desa triggered it.
The surge of gravity combined with Hanak Tuvar’s weight caused the roof to collapse, pulling the squid down into an empty bedroom and anchoring it there. Unable to move, it screeched and feebly waved its tentacles like a man shaking his fist.
With her enemy trapped, Desa fired a second shot.
Her bullet became a drop of metallic goo that landed on Hanak Tuvar’s bulbous head. At her command, it released a torrent of heat, enough to kill a man and scorch his flesh. Hanak Tuvar might not have died, but it certainly didn’t enjoy the experience.
Its misery was compounded when the floor gave way, and it plunged into one of the house’s lower levels, taking the Gravity-Source with it. Cries of rage echoed through the night.
Kalia was nearly a block away, leaping from the rooftops to land on the sidewalk and continuing on foot. Excellent. With Hanak Tuvar distracted, she’d had the time she’d needed to get away.
Desa gasped when the squid-creature emerged from the ruined townhouse, crawling back onto the roof. Her Gravity-Source was still active, still tugging on the beast with a force twice as strong as the Earth’s natural pull, but Hanak Tuvar just ignored it.
Within my realm, my power is absolute.
It didn’t bother using its tentacles; it just screamed, and the buildings crumbled around it. Bricks, shingles, pieces of wood from inside the house: they all formed a cyclone around a huge, black creature that hovered despite the pull of a Gravity-Source. A storm of rubble came hurtling toward Desa.