Risen

14

Time passed.

Men filtered through the smoke, guns sweeping left and right. One saw me and called; after a minute, Little walked up. ‘Mage Verus?’

I nodded.

‘You all right, sir?’

‘I’m not hurt,’ I said. It was an effort to talk.

‘I’m pulling the squad together,’ Little said. ‘No one’s dead, but we’ve got some injuries and Lisowski was thrown from the wall. We’re going to need medevac.’

I nodded again.

Little paused. He looked as though he wanted to say more, but then the moment passed and he signalled to the men beside him, then turned and left.

I sat alone for a while.

Something nudged my left hand and I looked down to see a vulpine head and amber eyes. Hermes poked his nose into my hand, then looked up at me.

‘Hey, you,’ I said tiredly. ‘You’re good at getting out of trouble, aren’t you?’

Hermes blinked, then curled up next to me and settled down. His fur was a solitary patch of warmth against the cold.

The wind blew, chilling my wet clothes. The image of Sonder’s death played over and over in my mind; again and again I saw that deadly green flicker, watched him slump lifeless to the stone.

Sonder and I had been friends once. I’d met him the same year I’d met Anne, and for a few months Sonder and Luna and Anne and Vari and I had formed a little group of five, meeting in my flat in the Camden evenings to laugh and talk and play board games. My friendship with Sonder hadn’t lasted, but it had never quite been forgotten, a lingering memory of happier times.

And now he was dead, and the fact that he was dead at Anne’s hands made it so much worse. For the first time since we’d entered the shadow realm, I felt helpless. What was I supposed to do?

It was maybe forty-five minutes after the explosion when Luna came picking her way through the wreckage. ‘Jesus,’ she said, looking around at the devastation. ‘I thought they were exaggerating.’

I pulled my eyes up to look at Luna. She looked like she’d been through a lot, but she didn’t seem hurt. ‘What happened at the tombs?’

‘We won, I suppose,’ Luna said. ‘Though it doesn’t feel like it.’

‘Losses?’

‘I didn’t stick around for the count,’ Luna said with a grimace. ‘Makes me feel like a bit of a coward. But seeing it was bad enough. At least ten or fifteen of those men we went in with are dead. Because of Sagash, mostly. That black sun was horrifying. I think it would have been even worse except Landis and Tobias managed to push him back just long enough for Jiyeong to sabotage those controls. The moment she did, Caldera and Sagash stopped attacking, just like that. Caldera opened up a hole in the wall and they did a disappearing act.’

I nodded.

Luna hesitated. ‘Is it true about Sonder?’

I nodded again.

Luna looked shocked. ‘I got told over the comm, but . . . Anne would do something like that?’

‘It’s not Anne any more,’ I said tiredly.

‘He probably thought he was picking the safest place,’ Luna said. She looked sad. ‘Only group that wasn’t supposed to be in combat. Poor Sonder. He always did try to stay away from fights.’

We sat in silence for a little while.

‘So Vari’s got the monkey’s paw,’ Luna said.

I nodded.

‘That was what you meant last night, wasn’t it? I was wondering why you weren’t pushing more to get that weapon off Richard.’

Nod.

‘Damn it,’ Luna said. She paused, then shrugged. ‘Well, we’ll just have to figure something out.’

Luna kept trying to talk but I didn’t have much to say and eventually she got up and left. I knew I should do the same, but I couldn’t muster the energy.

I was still sitting by the pond when Landis came striding over. ‘Ah, Verus, there you are,’ he said. He gave Hermes an inquisitive look. ‘Is that a blink fox? Fascinating.’

Hermes tilted up his muzzle and blinked.

Landis squatted down next to us and offered his hand for Hermes to sniff. ‘Losses from the tombs are nineteen dead, including two Keepers,’ he told me, his voice brisk and business-like. ‘Fourteen more seriously wounded, some of whom will almost certainly die in the next twelve hours if we can’t get them back to the healers at the War Rooms. Chop-chop, Verus, no time to sit about.’

‘We just put everything we had into that attack, and we’re right back where we started,’ I told Landis. There was an edge in my voice. ‘What do you want to do, find another accumulator and do it all over again?’

Landis held up one finger and recited:

‘If you can make one heap of all your winnings,

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings,

And never breathe a word about your loss.’

‘I’m not really in the mood,’ I told him.

‘I understand the men stationed here took casualties,’ Landis said. ‘You took command of them, I believe. So what are you doing sitting out here?’

I looked at Landis resentfully.

Landis met my gaze with clear, calm eyes. ‘Footsoldiers are allowed to complain and feel sorry for themselves. Commanders are not.’

‘I’m not in command.’

‘You entered this shadow realm in order to save Anne and Variam, and to prevent Drakh and the marid from carrying out their plans. Is that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘Has that changed?’

‘No . . .’

Landis nodded, then touched my clothes with one finger. Fire magic pulsed; the water soaking my clothes and hair evaporated into warm vapour. In an instant, I was completely dry.

Landis straightened. ‘Then get to work.’

I looked up at Landis, then down at Hermes. The fox gazed up at me and blinked.

‘All right,’ I said. I pulled myself to my feet.

Landis and I started back towards the castle. Hermes shook himself and trotted after us.

‘Right, Rain,’ Landis said. ‘Let’s hear it.’

We were back in Landis’s ready room, looking over the projection table. The focus had been zoomed in to show the north-east of the castle, a closely packed area of tall buildings overlooking small courtyards. It looked tighter and more confined than the areas we’d fought in before. The north and east sides of the projection showed the castle’s edge; to the south and west was an irregular arc of blue marking the positions of Rain’s men.

‘Drakh’s forces have gone to ground here,’ Rain said, his voice slightly tinny through the speaker. His figure was a small holographic projection floating next to the castle; unlike Landis and me, he was on site. ‘Scouting reports put his numbers between a hundred and thirty and a hundred and fifty.’

‘Composition?’

‘Some mages, but the majority seem to be adepts.’

‘All the rest will be adepts,’ I said. ‘Don’t expect any normals.’

‘Current status?’ Landis asked.

‘They didn’t contest the perimeter or the interdiction field, but they’ve pushed back hard the couple of times we tried to probe,’ Rain said. ‘We haven’t forced it since Nimbus’s orders were to keep them pinned. And speaking of, where the hell is Nimbus? I’ve been trying to contact him and all I get is orders to hold.’

‘We’ve heard no more than you,’ Landis said. ‘Can you hold?’

‘Against the adepts, sure,’ Rain said. ‘The problem’s Vihaela.’ He made a gesture and half a dozen target marks appeared on the map, spread out over his forces. ‘She’s been sniping at us ever since we moved in and she’s deadly. We’ve lost one Keeper and sixteen security just to her. All dead, no wounded. She pops up somewhere we’re not expecting, kills one before we even know she’s there, kills another as the rest scatter, then vanishes.’ Rain’s projection turned its head towards Landis. ‘She’s picking us apart and it’s wearing down morale. No one wants to stick their heads out. And when they ask me what the plan is, all I can do is tell them to sit tight.’

‘We’ll have to—’ Landis paused and put a hand to his ear, then looked at Rain. ‘It’s Nimbus.’

‘About bloody time.’

Landis strode out of the room and began speaking quietly into the focus. ‘How’s Vihaela moving around without your mages spotting her?’ I asked.

‘Wish I knew,’ Rain said. ‘Between our Keepers, we’ve got mindsight, lifesight, deathsight, detection for air and cold and heat and at least three things more, and Vihaela’s not showing on any of them. She’s flitting from one side of the perimeter to the other without anyone noticing. We could use your help.’

‘You’ll have it, but I’m not sure it’ll do much. Drakh’s got a way to block my divination too.’

Rain swore. ‘What’s keeping Nimbus? We’re sitting ducks out here!’

I started to answer, then paused and turned. Through the door I could see Landis standing stiff and still. He said something into the comm, his manner curt: whatever Nimbus said back, he clearly didn’t like it.

‘Verus?’ Rain asked.

‘One sec,’ I said, frowning. Landis and Nimbus were speaking through a private channel, but they weren’t too far away . . .

‘What the hell?’ I muttered. That doesn’t make sense.

‘What’s going on?’ Rain asked.

‘He’s about to tell us,’ I said absently. I looked ahead, sorting through the futures in which we contacted Talisid.

Landis broke the connection with a sharp movement and strode back through the door. ‘Director Nimbus has issued new orders,’ he told us. His expression was flat, giving nothing away. ‘Rain’s force is to pull back.’

‘For what, an attack on the keep?’ Rain asked.

‘To Nimbus’s command post.’

‘I don’t get it,’ Rain said.

‘We’re not attacking,’ Landis said, his voice clipped. ‘Nimbus’s orders are to establish a defensive position and wait until the Council can break through the wards on the shadow realm and reinforce us.’

‘What?’

‘That’ll take days,’ I said. I was still busy with the futures, pushing our conversation aside with the fateweaver to explore possibilities. ‘If we’re lucky.’

‘This is ridiculous,’ Rain said. ‘Landis, I don’t want to launch an attack either, but . . . this is just stick your head in the sand and hope.’

‘I agree,’ Landis said curtly. ‘Unfortunately, Nimbus holds command. I’m going to have to go over his head.’

‘Won’t help,’ I said. ‘Council are divided.’

‘Talisid?’ Rain asked.

‘Nimbus has told Talisid that a ground attack is hopeless,’ I said. ‘Talisid isn’t willing to overrule him without something more to go on.’

‘Dammit!’ Rain said.

I made my decision. It was surprisingly easy. ‘Rain, keep your troops where they are,’ I told him. ‘Landis and I will come over to see the lay of the land.’

‘And Nimbus’s orders?’

‘I’ll deal with it.’

Rain’s projection looked dubious, but he nodded. ‘All right. I’ll meet you at point K.’

Rain’s image winked out and I turned to Landis. ‘Could you gate us please?’

Landis was watching me closely. ‘What are you planning, Verus?’

‘I think I can see a way to make this work,’ I said. ‘But . . . I’m going to need you to trust me.’

Landis’s eyes rested on me, considering.

We came through the gate to arrive in a small room inside a castle building behind Rain’s lines. Rain was waiting with another Keeper called Ilmarin. ‘All right, Verus,’ he told me. ‘Where to?’

‘Easternmost point of your lines,’ I told him. ‘That big flat rooftop.’

Rain led us out on a snaking route through narrow passages and halls. ‘Vihaela’s been using some sort of custom spell,’ he told us as we walked. ‘Launches a small conductive bolt wrapped in a shell designed to pierce shields. When it hits, it discharges a death pulse that stops the heart. Very low signature, very hard to detect. We’re trying to close off her firing angles, but . . .’

We were passing the men (and occasional women) of the sieging force, deployed in small groups behind walls and improvised barricades. They were huddled behind their cover, hiding or waiting or just sitting slumped. Few met our eyes. The difference compared to Landis’s force was like night and day, and it worried me. Battles are usually won or lost by morale; a combat force will break and run long before they run out of men. These soldiers had taken heavy losses last night, they’d had bad news all day, and right now they were being forced to sit and hold a position under sniper fire. I wasn’t sure how close they were to falling apart, but it didn’t look good.

We came out onto the rooftop, squarish in shape with a waist-high parapet. A couple of soldiers gave us brief nods but stayed down on the staircase, out of sight. ‘Keep your eyes open,’ Ilmarin warned. He was a long-faced air mage, one of the few Keepers from the Order of the Star who didn’t seem to have a problem with me. He seemed to be acting as Rain’s second. ‘We’re about due for Vihaela to take another shot.’

Rain looked around the bare rooftop. There was no cover, not unless you went right up to the parapet and ducked down. ‘Sure you want to stay here?’

I nodded.

Landis glanced towards the complex of buildings to the north. ‘So this is where our old friend Drakh has chosen to make his stand, hmm?’

The three of us left Ilmarin at the stairs and walked out to get a better view. To the north we could see where Richard’s force was gathered, a close-packed sprawl of one- and two-storey buildings laid out across the castle’s north-eastern corner. Dozens of windows looked down over small courtyards, mostly hidden from our view.

‘Yes . . . just a second.’ Rain put a hand to his ear, then looked at me. ‘Nimbus wants to know if we’ve started to withdraw.’

‘Tell him we’re staying,’ I said.

Rain and Landis looked at me.

‘I’ll handle Nimbus,’ I said.

Rain raised his eyebrows but spoke quietly into the focus. Landis was studying the buildings to the north. ‘Does look like a challenge, doesn’t it?’ he said conversationally. ‘You think you can assault the place, Rain?’

Rain cut the connection and looked up. ‘On paper, we’re stronger. In practice . . . ?’

‘I might be able to do something about that,’ I said.

‘All right, Verus,’ Rain said. ‘You’ve dragged us up here; let’s hear it.’

The futures that I could see looked brooding and still. But with Richard somewhere in those buildings, I didn’t trust my divination for something like this. Instead I reached out with the fateweaver. I knew what I was looking for, and began to shape the direction in which the futures would go, sketching out the rough lines of what I needed.

‘I’m sure the Council’s told you about the item I have,’ I said, lifting my right hand for a second before letting it drop. ‘So far I’ve been using it for personal combat, but that wasn’t what fateweavers were made for. They were tools for commanding armies. During the attack on the tombs, I got a sense for how that would work.’

‘Were you using it?’ Landis asked.

‘I tried, but every time I’d try something on a large scale it’d fizzle out. I’d try to bring about a favourable outcome, but every single person on our side was trying to do the same thing on a smaller scale in different ways and they’d pull the futures in a dozen different directions. It was only later that I realised what the problem was. In the Dark Wars, fateweavers were carried by generals.’ I looked between Rain and Landis. ‘To make this work, I need tactical command. The Keepers and soldiers in the attack have to be following my direct orders.’

Rain snorted.

‘It’s not a joke,’ I said.

‘Verus, there’s no way in hell Nimbus is giving you command,’ Rain said. ‘Hate to break it to you.’

‘It’s not Nimbus’s support I need,’ I said. ‘He might be director, but it’s the two of you that the Order of the Star and the Order of the Shield really trust. Being assigned command doesn’t matter a damn if the troops won’t listen. But the Keepers do listen to both of you.’

Rain and Landis looked at one another.

‘I think I can win this battle,’ I said. ‘With much fewer losses than we’d take otherwise. But I’ll need you two to vouch for me.’

‘Even if we take your word for it,’ Landis said, ‘might I raise the inconvenient point that we have been specifically ordered not to attack, and that we are, furthermore, disobeying our orders right at this moment by continuing to stand here?’

I nodded. ‘On that subject, I think we can expect Nimbus any minute now.’

Rain and Landis didn’t say anything more, and neither did I. We stood and waited on the rooftop. The midday sun shone down, heat radiating from the stone.

We heard Nimbus coming before we saw him. Raised voices sounded from below roof level, drawing closer. There. I pushed with the fateweaver, aiming for a point five or ten minutes away.

Nimbus came striding up the stairs, looking pissed off. Two Keepers were trailing him, Slate and Avenor; I knew both, and neither liked me. ‘Rain,’ Nimbus demanded as he walked towards us. ‘What are your men still doing here?’

Rain glanced at Landis.

‘I’m afraid a withdrawal isn’t viable,’ I told Nimbus.

‘I wasn’t talking to you,’ Nimbus snapped. He came to a stop ten feet away, with Slate and Avenor standing a step back. Rain, Landis and I stood facing him, the six of us forming two sides on the sunlight roof. Back at the stairs, a few other men hovered nervously.

‘We’ve got some concerns,’ Rain said.

‘I don’t care if you have concerns! You’ve been doing nothing but bending my ear about the attacks you’ve been taking. Well, now you’ve got orders to pull back. I’d have thought you’d be grateful.’

‘And then what?’ Rain asked.

‘That isn’t your concern! I am in command of this task force and I am giving you a direct order. Withdraw your men now!’

Behind Nimbus, I saw Slate shift. He and Avenor didn’t show anything on their faces, but I could tell they were uneasy.

‘Your command authority over this task force is delegated to you from the Council,’ I said. ‘You were granted that authority on the understanding that you’d use it to complete the mission’s objectives.’

‘A withdrawal is the best way to achieve them.’

‘How?’ Rain asked bluntly.

Nimbus looked as if he wanted to explode, but controlled himself with a visible effort. ‘With the loss of the accumulator, we no longer have a means to destroy the wards on the keep,’ he said, his voice tight. ‘Withdrawing will allow us to set up a strong defensive perimeter where we can wait for the Council teams to overcome the wards on this shadow realm. Once they do, we can bring in reinforcements as well as specialised siege equipment and end this battle without further casualties.’

‘The last I heard from the Council ward teams, they had no estimate for how long it would take them to break in,’ I said. ‘It could be hours, days or weeks. You’re gambling on something completely out of our control.’

‘I did not ask for your opinion, Verus!’

‘Second,’ I said, ignoring him, ‘anything that gives us time also gives them time. Drakh is going to be fortifying his position and laying contingency plans. He’s seen us attack once; next time he’ll be better prepared. And the situation with the marid is even worse. We killed Barrayar, but we didn’t kill the ifrit inside him. All the marid needs is another host body, and it can summon it straight back. Or summon something worse. The marid is an escalating threat. Pulling back and leaving it alone is the worst way to fight it.’

Nimbus looked at me in fury.

‘Director, I’m afraid I do rather share Mage Verus’s concerns,’ Landis said politely. ‘In addition, I feel we should bear in mind that the men comprising this portion of the task force are somewhat dispirited. They suffered heavy losses last night and they’ve heard what happened at the windmill. Add on the losses they’ve taken over the last few hours, and it’s starting to look rather like an unbroken string of defeats. If we order them to retreat, I’m quite certain they’ll do it, but I rather suspect that once they’re inside that defensive perimeter, they won’t be willing to leave.’

‘They’ll obey the orders they’re given,’ Nimbus said, his voice hard. ‘As will you.’

Silence fell. Neither Rain nor Landis moved, and the six of us stared at each other across the rooftop. The only sound was the whine of the wind.

‘Director, we were told that the marid represented a threat to the whole country,’ Rain said quietly. ‘If we’re not stopping it, what the hell are we doing here?’

Nimbus looked about to snap, then drew in a breath and seemed to calm himself. ‘All right,’ he said. He glanced around: no one else was in earshot. ‘You want to know the real problem? We’ve been in this shadow realm less than a day and we’ve got six dead Keepers and four dead mage auxiliaries. Ten mages. If the wounded don’t make it, it’ll be fifteen. We started this war with less than a hundred Keepers in the Order of the Star and a third of that in the Order of the Shield, and we’ve been bleeding numbers ever since. We just lost over ten per cent of our remaining combat-effective Keepers in one day. You want to lose even more? The Keepers are the backbone of the Council. The reason anyone does what the Senior Council tells them is because we’re out there making them. We go away –’ Nimbus snapped his fingers. ‘– and that’s it. Won’t matter who’s won.’

‘If the marid is able to carry out its plans and begin mass-producing jinn-possessed mages,’ Landis said, ‘then it will matter very much who won. How exactly are you expecting us to maintain the Council’s authority when there are twenty or thirty Calderas and Barrayars running around?’

‘Then we call in help,’ Nimbus said. ‘Or step up security recruitment. It doesn’t matter. There’s a line for acceptable losses and we’re over it.’

The futures looked peaceful – too peaceful. It couldn’t be much longer now. ‘Council orders were to stop the marid,’ Rain said. ‘At any cost.’

‘Oh, come on,’ Nimbus said impatiently. ‘You know what the Council means when it says something like that. If we win this battle but lose most of our Keepers, you think they’re going to care when you point to that order? Maybe they won’t put us on trial, but it won’t matter. It’ll be round our necks for ever.’

‘This is bigger than you or me,’ Rain said.

‘You going to tell yourself that when they pension you off?’

Rain looked at Nimbus in disgust.

‘Look, Rain, it doesn’t matter what you think,’ Nimbus said. ‘The Keepers here aren’t expendable. End of story.’

‘You don’t understand the Council as well as you think, Nimbus,’ I said. ‘In the long run, everyone’s expendable.’

‘Maybe you are,’ Nimbus said, his voice hard. ‘The rest of us? Not so much.’

I could feel the futures through the fateweaver, strands of fate drifting around us. I felt them brush over the men on the rooftop, considering. Slate and Avenor were ignored after only a touch. Rain was measured, then discarded. It was between me, Landis and Nimbus.

‘We have the opportunity to finish Drakh’s forces and end this war,’ I said.

‘It doesn’t matter what you think,’ Nimbus said.

Me, Landis, Nimbus. Landis, Nimbus, me. I pushed with the fateweaver, feeling the strands of fate shift under the pressure. It was harder without my divination, but combat is a chaotic thing. There are always little things, gusts of wind, shifts of position, tiny events that can nudge someone to choose one target over another.

‘Enough of this,’ Nimbus said. ‘Withdraw those men.’

Landis and Rain looked back at him.

Me, Landis, Nimbus. Nimbus, me, Landis. Landis and Nimbus. Nimbus and Landis. Nimbus. Only Nimbus.

The moment of stillness before the shot.

‘I will not ask again,’ Nimbus said, biting off his words. ‘I am issuing a direct order and you will obey or—’

The projectile came darting in too fast to see. Nimbus’s shield flared in my magesight, triggered by the incoming spell; the projectile pierced it in a green-black flash. Nimbus jerked and fell.

Shouts rang out across the rooftop. Shields flew up; Slate threw a deathbolt in the direction of the attack; Ilmarin came running across the roof. ‘Incoming!’ I shouted.

Another shard of green-black death came flashing in. Landis’s magic met it at the edge of the rooftop and exploded it into light and heat, then he, Rain, Slate and Avenor all struck back. The corner of the building from which the attack had come disintegrated under a barrage of fire.

Ilmarin grabbed Nimbus’s body, and he and Avenor dragged him back towards the stairs. Landis and Rain covered them, backing away with their shields glowing red and blue. I ran after.

Avenor and Ilmarin didn’t set Nimbus down until they were back at ground level, the buildings around us blocking our view. ‘He’s not breathing,’ Ilmarin said.

‘He’s not going to,’ Slate said, his face twisted in anger. ‘He was dead before he hit the roof. Fucking Vihaela.’

We stood around the body. After the brief flurry of combat, everything was quiet. Soldiers were peering out at us from where they’d been stationed, their eyes going down to rest on Nimbus. The former Director of Operations of the Order of the Shield was lying on his back, eyes open in a last expression of surprise.

‘Well,’ I said, and turned to Landis. ‘I suppose that puts you in command.’

Landis looked at me. I returned his gaze, my face showing nothing.

‘Captain?’ Ilmarin asked.

‘. . . Yes,’ Landis said. The futures flickered for just a moment, then he turned away, business-like once more. ‘Ilmarin, please take Nimbus’s body to whatever you’re using as a morgue. Have your healer take a look, though if Slate says he’s dead, I’m sure he’s dead. Rain, assemble your Keepers at your forward command post with as many of your squad leaders as you can afford to pull off the line. Order the rest of the men to stand down. Briefing is in ten minutes.’

The people around Landis looked around, then began to disperse. I joined them. I felt Landis’s eyes on my back as I walked away.