Risen

15

The room Landis had chosen for his briefing was crowded. There was no projection table this time. Keepers, other mages and sergeants stood waiting for Landis to begin.

‘All right, boys and girls,’ Landis said without preamble. He was standing on a box so everyone could see him. ‘We don’t have much time, so I’ll make this quick. We are going to destroy Drakh’s force and remove his ability to project power within this shadow realm. Elements of the Order of the Star will hold the western perimeter while all remaining forces will push up from the south in standard sweep formation. We keep going until everyone in Drakh’s force is dead or captive, or until we run out of castle, whichever comes first. Now, I’m sure you have questions, but Councillor Verus has something to tell you.’ Landis stepped down.

I stepped up onto the box. The men looked up at me with expressions ranging from neutral to unfriendly. The bulk of these mages were Keepers, and up until three days ago, their job had included hunting me. I didn’t have many friends here.

‘Before you go into this battle, I’m going to tell you what you’re fighting for,’ I said, trying to copy Landis’s confidence. ‘We entered this shadow realm under a truce with Drakh. As you know, he betrayed us immediately. Now, the Council’s assumed that this was just Drakh doing what he always does and trying to weaken the Council to give him an advantage in the war. And that’s true, he was. But there’s another reason.

‘About a week ago, Drakh’s forces attacked the Southampton facility and stole the Council’s prototype anti-jinn weapon. Then two days ago, when Drakh met the Council for negotiations in Concordia, he told them that the marid’s ritual worked by granting the marid’s host, the mage Anne Walker, the power to more effectively summon greater jinn. We now know that that was a lie. The ritual affects the shadow realm, not the host.

‘So why did Drakh lie? Because he wanted to draw attention towards Anne – towards a person and away from the place. His goal was never to stop the ritual. He wanted to let it complete, then take control of the marid himself. The Council’s divinations confirmed that we could expect swarms of greater jinn coming out of this shadow realm. They didn’t say who’d be controlling them. We’ve been assuming that it would be the marid. Drakh intends that it’ll be him.’

‘Now that isolation ward’s been triggered, this shadow realm’s a ticking time bomb,’ Rain said. ‘How’s he planning to use it as a base?’

‘He’s not,’ I said. ‘Not any more. That part of his plan has failed. But the fact that he’s still here means that he still believes he can turn this into a win. Drakh’s got the item that the marid was bound into, Suleiman’s Ring. With that and the weapon, he probably thinks he can bring the marid back under his control. It’ll mean starting from scratch with a new host, but Drakh’s patient. If he gets out of here with that jinn, then sooner or later, in a few months or a few years, this whole thing is going to start all over again. The Council is not willing to let that happen. Neither am I.’

I held up my right hand, the too-pale fingers gleaming in the light. ‘This is a fateweaver,’ I said. ‘Those of you hunting me this past month will have been briefed on what it does. They were intended as tools for commanding armies. That’s what I’m going to use it for today.’

People looked around. ‘Commanding?’ someone said.

‘Hey, you’re not . . .’

Landis spoke loudly from my side. ‘Councillor Verus will have tactical command for this operation.’

A storm of protests and complaints broke out. ‘Are you frigging—’

‘—a Dark mage—’

‘—killed Levistus—’

‘—not going to—’

‘—crazy—’

‘ENOUGH!’ Landis roared at the top of his voice.

Silence fell. ‘I have spoken to Verus!’ Landis said, his voice ringing out. ‘I believe that he is the best choice to carry out this mission with the minimum amount of lives lost. This decision is final!’

A few people looked towards Rain.

‘I agree with Captain Landis,’ Rain said loudly. ‘We both vouch for Verus on this matter. You have a problem with it, take it up with us after the briefing.’

No one spoke, but their eyes turned back to me. They looked even less friendly than before.

‘The fateweaver gives me the ability to alter the flow of battle,’ I said. ‘I will direct you through comms and through a telepathic focus called a dreamstone. Sometimes I will give you orders to move, or attack, or pull back in a way that makes no obvious sense. When that happens, I need you to trust that I know what I’m doing, and obey immediately.’

‘Why should we trust you?’ a Keeper asked.

It was the big question. ‘Most of you have been fighting against Drakh for less than fifteen months,’ I said. ‘He’s been my enemy for over fifteen years. I have far more reason to hate him than any of you will ever have. On top of that, I struck a bargain with Councillor Alma before coming here. My half of the deal was to make sure Drakh ended up dead. I intend to keep it.’

‘From where?’ another Keeper asked derisively. ‘Back at the command post?’

I smiled without humour. ‘No, Keeper . . . Travis, was it? I’m going to be at the front. Try to keep up, because I’m not planning to hang around.’

Silence fell once more. I looked around to see if there’d be any more challenges. No one spoke and after a few seconds I hopped down off the box.

Behind me, Landis stepped up and started ordering squad deployments. Other mages crowded around him and Rain. I imagined that most were there to complain about me.

Luna and Ji-yeong appeared out of the crowd. ‘That was pretty good,’ Luna said. ‘Where do you want us when the fighting starts?’

‘Watch my back,’ I said.

‘Against Richard’s lot, or ours?’

‘Ours. Let’s get to the lines.’

The three of us stood waiting, our backs against a wall. The sun shone down from right overhead, casting small shadows beneath our feet. Luna was glancing around and spinning her wand between her fingers. Ji-yeong leant against the wall with her arms folded. I had my eyes closed, the sovnya in one hand.

‘Eastern perimeter is ready,’ Rain said over the comm. ‘Interdiction field holding.’

‘Understood,’ Landis said. ‘Last southern elements are moving up now.’

The building we were up against was blocking our view to Richard’s position, but it didn’t matter. Between my divination, the fateweaver and the dreamstone, I was only a moment’s thought away from knowing the position and status of every man and woman in the attack force. We had nearly four hundred in total, but I’d chosen to deploy less than a hundred and fifty for the initial attack, with the rest tasked to the reserves or the perimeter. A smaller group was easier to control, and I’d worked with Landis to make sure we had the right men for the job.

‘Verus,’ Landis said. ‘How effectively can Drakh block your divination?’

‘Very effectively, but he can’t be everywhere. He’ll focus on where he can do the most damage, probably using Vihaela. If we don’t give him space to weave those false visions, he’ll only have time to do it once or twice.’

‘Understood. All units, two-minute warning.’

There was a subtle distance in Landis’s manner that hadn’t been there before. A message and a warning: I know what you did, and I don’t like it. I was just glad he wasn’t taking it further.

‘Verus to all units,’ I said over the comm. ‘Once again: the first line of defence is mines, the second is poison. Once that’s been cleared, wait for orders before advancing further. Confirm.’

A chorus of confirmations came back. A few of the Keepers still sounded suspicious, but as far as I could tell, they’d do as they were told.

I’m leading a Council army into battle. Who’d have thought.

‘Once more into the breach,’ Luna said under her breath.

I studied the futures. It was time. ‘All units, advance towards the first line,’ I said quietly and calmly. ‘Go, go, go.’

The futures and the minds around me shifted and moved, beginning to roll forward.

Richard’s first line of defence was antipersonnel mines: claymores and improvised explosives with hidden triggers. I’d already mapped them out, and now sappers moved forward, Council security men with explosives experience. Each sapper had three riflemen and a battle mage to cover him.

Gunfire sounded over the rooftops. Richard had positioned scouts and snipers to shoot at anyone trying to defuse the mines. The futures began to scatter into the chaos of combat, and I shifted my focus to the fateweaver, letting myself sense the flow of the battle and its direction. There was resistance to our west, and I narrowed my focus to find out why. ‘Verus to Travis, your target has been reinforced,’ I said. ‘Expect heavy fire. Verus to Avenor, there’s a battle mage waiting to ambush you. Chimaera, advance to support Avenor.’

More gunfire stuttered. There was the flash of battle magic, followed by a boom as one of the mines went off.

The Council forces suffered their first death. One man from Slate’s group was advancing to support his sapper when his presence suddenly faded. A lucky shot, maybe, or a mine I’d missed. The battle moved on.

Avenor and Chimaera’s groups reached their target, enveloping the enemy mage and adepts. Landis’s group were clearing the south-east corner. The centre groups had opened up a hole in the enemy lines; I reached out through the dreamstone, urging them forward.

Battle magic flashed, again and again. There was a distant scream.

‘Target down!’

‘Tobias, first line is clear, advancing.’

I turned and began walking towards the sounds of battle. Luna and Ji-yeong followed. Another explosion echoed from up ahead, followed quickly by two more. More gunfire.

‘Move in!’ Avenor’s voice was hard. ‘Move in!’

I spoke over the comm. ‘Central teams, move to the second line and hold. Air mages, sweep those buildings of poison gas. Ilmarin, sweep from the east, Lizbeth, from the west.’

We passed what had been the first defence line. The entrance to the doorway was blackened; I could smell gun smoke and the chemical scent of plastic explosives. The dead body of an adept lay within, a weapon still clutched in his hands.

I felt air magic up ahead, sweeping through the next line of buildings, purifying the air within. The gas being flushed out was colourless and odourless: if we’d advanced into it, dozens would have died. But I could feel through the fateweaver that our advance was stalling, and I paused to find out why. We were clearing out the gas, but more was being laid. Where was it coming from . . . ?

There. ‘Wait here,’ I told Luna and Ji-yeong, then ran forward. ‘Verus to Ilmarin, move west,’ I called into my focus. ‘Skip the next building, sweep the centre.’

‘Acknowledged.’

I came around the corner upon one of the attack teams. A big Keeper called Trask – Slate’s friend – with his four men. They whirled to face me, ready to fire, then held off as they recognised me. I ran past them, out across an open space, then sprang from a low wall onto a pillar up onto a roof. I heard a shout but didn’t stop; the sovnya clanged on stone then I was running across the rooftop, crossing the width of the building in seconds before dropping onto its far side.

I came down behind two of Richard’s adepts. They whirled, eyes going wide; one was holding a handgun and the other some sort of focus weapon, but they’d been facing the building, watching the doorway, and they were a second too slow. The first died before he could raise his gun; the second scrambled back, whipped out a knife, realised too late that a knife was no match for a polearm. He opened his mouth to shout and the sovnya drove through his ribs. He coughed, choking on blood.

I wrenched the sovnya out of the dying adept and moved to press my back against the wall. I could hear shouts and gunfire all around; my dash had taken me behind Richard’s lines and I knew most of the voices I could hear were enemies, but they hadn’t yet realised I was here. I could sense air magic to the east, sweeping through the buildings as Ilmarin transformed the poison gas into breathable atmosphere. Running footsteps sounded from within, and I reached down and unclipped the flap on my holster.

A man burst out of the doorway, running past me. He was dressed in dull green and wore a long-beaked mask with goggles; canisters were mounted on his back. I could sense magic around him, toxic and deadly, and as he saw the adepts’ bodies, he twisted, one hand coming up.

I had my 1911 aimed and ready. I shot the mage twice, centre mass, then as he staggered I put a third bullet through his head. He went down and didn’t get up.

There was something wrong with the shape of the futures. I’d taken my attention off the larger battle, and now I scanned hurriedly, trying to catch up. Something was off— There. I spoke urgently into my comm. ‘Southeast teams, get to cover, there’s—’

The sky lit up in a green-black flash. Through the dreamstone, I felt a cluster of minds wink out.

‘South-east teams, report!’ Rain called.

‘Avenor’s down!’ It was a new voice, sounding frightened. ‘It’s—’ I felt another pulse of magic and the voice cut off.

‘It’s Vihaela,’ I said into the comm.

‘South-east teams, get eyes,’ Landis said.

‘I see her!’ Chimaera called. ‘She’s running north!’

‘Do not pursue,’ Landis ordered. ‘All teams, continue your advance.’

Ilmarin came running out of the same doorway the poison mage had used. He skidded to a stop as he saw me, then did a double-take at the bodies at my feet. Two soldiers came out behind him.

‘Air clear?’ I asked.

Ilmarin pulled his eyes away from the bodies. ‘. . . Nearly.’

‘Finish your sweep, then bring up the men,’ I told him. Ilmarin nodded and disappeared back into the building.

The shouts and gunfire were receding, leaving an eerie silence. I looked ahead, searching the futures in which I ran north. I hadn’t yet been able to see through to Richard’s inner defences. For a moment everything looked clear . . . no, that made no sense. I widened my search, checking the futures in which I cut east and west. This was a false future, I was sure of it. I just needed to find a gap.

Something flickered to the west. Richard’s optasia was good, very good, but he was having to cover a wide area in a short time. As I focused on that tangle of futures they blurred, becoming a placid screen, but I caught a glimpse of myself falling, a hand cut from my body—

—and gone. But I’d seen enough.

‘Eyes on Vihaela,’ Chimaera said urgently. ‘We can catch her.’

‘Do not pursue!’ I ordered. ‘There are monofilaments ahead. She’s luring you into a trap!’

I felt the futures ripple and our advance slowed. Magespun monofilaments are nothing like the kind that get sold for fishing line. They’re razor-sharp and so thin as to be almost invisible, and they can cut through flesh as though it were butter.

‘Change formation,’ Landis ordered. ‘Mages to the front. As soon as the gas is cleared, steady advance. Focus your magesight and look for faint signatures of metal or matter magic. Destroy the filaments on sight.’

I moved up, staying behind cover. One of Rain’s teams appeared behind me and I signalled them forward. Our forces were advancing on both sides, and I could sense flickers of magic as mages cut and burned away the filaments blocking their path.

More gunfire sounded from the front lines, along with the flash and roar of battle magic. Richard’s forces were still trying to withdraw, but they were running out of castle and their movements were starting to look jerky, reacting to our attacks instead of following a plan of their own. Richard’s adepts were used to Council forces that advanced slowly and cautiously, pausing at setbacks. This kind of aggression was new to them.

Darkness bloomed to the north-west, an inky cloud that sucked in light. ‘Shroud spells!’ a mage called. ‘Can’t see anything!’

‘It’s Tenebrous,’ I said over the channel. ‘Don’t advance into it: you’ll take too much fire. Wrap around his eastern flank instead. West perimeter, advance and cut in from the north. Tenebrous is only covering their south-east corner. We’ll trap him in a pocket.’

The battle raged just out of my line of sight. Men and women fought and died from bullets or fireblasts or stabbing blades. Someone was wounded and screaming, the sound almost lost in the gunfire.

I could sense something through the fateweaver, a key point in the flow of battle. A room in one of the buildings up ahead . . . orders, decisions. It was close. I could reach it in less than a minute, kill the people inside . . .

. . . no, I’d made that mistake once already. I was a commander now, not an assassin. ‘Verus to Landis,’ I said. I sent him a mental image of the building through the dreamstone, focusing on the room at one corner. ‘Suspected enemy command post.’

‘Thunder, Aegis,’ Landis ordered immediately. ‘Artillery strike. I’ll paint the target.’

‘Roger that,’ a new voice said. ‘Moving up.’

The fighting had stalled in the south-west; Tenebrous’s shroud was still holding the Council forces back. Our reserves were moving in from the west to cut in behind him.

‘Aegis in position,’ a voice said. I could feel spells building.

‘Fire,’ Landis ordered.

Battle magic flared, force and lightning. The ground trembled beneath my feet and I heard the rumble of falling masonry, then the air flashed white as lightning struck out of a clear sky, not once but again and again. Thunder crashed, hideously loud.

The echoes died away. I watched the battle. At first there was no change, then I started to sense a shift, movements becoming undirected. ‘Verus to all units,’ I said. ‘Envelop the shroud.’

Through the fateweaver I sensed mages and soldiers moving in behind Tenebrous’s position. I could see the exact moment at which the adepts there realised they were being trapped. A ripple of panic swept through their forces, and their resistance weakened. The shroud contracted.

‘Advance on the shroud,’ Rain ordered. ‘Tenebrous is the priority target.’

I was already looking elsewhere, searching for Vihaela. This was when she’d strike. I couldn’t sense her in the futures, but through the fateweaver I could feel where our forces were vulnerable. Not to the east . . . the centre . . .

There! No time to talk. Through the dreamstone, I sent information flashing into Landis’s mind.

The green-black of Vihaela’s death magic flashed in the centre of our lines in an area we’d thought clear. Landis’s magic mirrored it, fire leaping out to intercept. There was a crack; shouts echoed and two soldiers fell, but none were killed.

‘Eyes on!’ a Keeper shouted. ‘She’s running!’

‘Pursue but do not engage,’ Landis ordered.

There was battle magic and gunfire everywhere. Information poured in, more than I could process. Tenebrous’s pocket crumbling as Rain directed his men; Ilmarin and Landis leading attacks from the south; reinforcements from the west pressing in. All across the lines, Richard’s adepts were wavering and falling back.

To my west, the shroud vanished, its magic fading. ‘Tenebrous is gone!’ Rain said. ‘Wounded and fled.’

‘Lost Vihaela!’ someone shouted. ‘Trying to— Wait—’

There was a scream, abruptly silenced. ‘Move in on Vihaela,’ Landis said, his voice hard. ‘Do not let her out of sight.’

That last death had given me Vihaela’s position. I broke into a run.

I reached Vihaela less than a minute later. She was in an L-shaped courtyard, backed up against a building that looked like a mausoleum; six-foot tombs in the courtyard provided cover. Landis’s men were on the south side and up on the building to the west, firing down. Vihaela was fighting with a small group of adepts supporting her.

A fireball from the south flew towards Vihaela’s position; she blew it up in mid-air, then blocked a hydroblast from the west. An adept popped up to throw some kind of glowing red bead and a Council marksman shot him. Vihaela sent a black line scything across the courtyard and the marksman’s head came off his body in a spout of blood; the remaining Council soldiers hit the deck and the mages ducked out of sight.

All of a sudden everything was quiet. Smoke and the scent of blood hung in the air. I’d reached the corner on the short side of the L; if I took another step, I’d be in plain view. The mages and soldiers ahead of me stayed down, catching their breath.

I heard footsteps behind me and glanced back to see Landis. He was advancing towards me, more men at his back. ‘Vihaela!’ I shouted around the corner.

‘Hi, Verus,’ Vihaela called back. ‘Come to join the party?’

A low voice spoke into my ear. ‘This is Ilmarin. We’re on the east roof.’

‘Hold,’ Landis said quietly as he walked up next to me. ‘Wait for my signal.’

‘Vihaela, listen closely,’ I shouted. ‘I’d love to see you dead, but right now, Drakh’s a priority and you’re not. Surrender and I’ll guarantee your life. Refuse and we do this the painful way.’

‘I think I like the sound of the painful way,’ Vihaela called back.

‘This isn’t your fight,’ I shouted. ‘You’re going to die for Drakh?’

‘I’m not dying for anyone,’ Vihaela called. She didn’t sound afraid; I actually had the feeling she was smiling. ‘None of you are good enough to take me. But you’re welcome to try.’

I felt Vihaela start to channel a spell. ‘Kill her,’ I told Landis and his men.

Landis strode past me into the open.

The courtyard lit up, red-green-black. Spells stabbed from the rooftops, flashed across the open space. The stones of the castle splintered and burned. I caught a glimpse of the security men, ducked down with their heads low. The sound was a steady roar, mixed with the crack of discharging energy.

The adepts died in seconds. Vihaela didn’t. She was duelling Landis and the mages behind him and the ones on the rooftops all at once, using the blocky tombs to mask line of sight, popping in and out of vision and firing deathbolts as she did. She was so fast and deadly that even splitting her attention as she was, the mages she targeted were forced back. There were six mages on her, but she was moving so that no more than two ever had line of sight at once. And there was something more, something fuzzy about her signature on magesight. I snatched a glance around the corner, catching a blurred glimpse of her form—

A mist cloak. It had been a long time, but I recognised it instantly. That was how she’d been able to strike unseen.

Fire exploded off Vihaela’s shield; a counterattack nearly killed the mage to Landis’s left and Landis had to step in to block as Vihaela disappeared again. The fight was so fast I could barely follow it. Landis was throwing fireballs and pinpoint bursts of heat, the other mages were using water blasts and blades of force and air. Death was raining on the tombs, but Vihaela was slipping through, everything just barely glancing away. Both sides were going all out.

A bolt from Vihaela carved away the corner of the wall I was hiding behind; I felt the tingle as death magic missed me by a foot. A column of bricks fell with a groan towards Landis’s men. Two jumped back; Landis ran forward, a few stray bricks vaporising against his shield.

The fire on Vihaela slackened for a moment and she took the opening, sprinting away.

I saw the futures in a flash. Vihaela was trying to get back into the mausoleum. If she could make it inside with the mist cloak, we’d never catch her. Landis’s view of her was blocked for two more seconds. The only one who could reach her was Ilmarin, on the east roof. But if he did he’d be exposed.

I hesitated for half a second, then sent an impulse through the dreamstone.

Ilmarin reacted instantly, springing up out of cover and throwing out a wall of hardened air. Vihaela hit it, bouncing off, but as she did she twisted like a snake and green-black death flickered from her hand. Ilmarin jerked and fell.

The impact and the attack had put Vihaela off-balance. For just a second, Landis on the ground and Tobias on the roof had a clear shot.

I threw all my energy into the fateweaver, forcing one future through.

Water and fire slammed into Vihaela’s shield and the angles lined up in just such a way for the attacks to bring the maximum energy to bear. Tobias’s spell glanced off. Landis’s struck the same spot a tenth of a second later, and the weakened section of shield collapsed. Fire speared through shield and flesh, and Vihaela fell.

‘Target down!’ Tobias called.

‘Ilmarin’s down!’ I called at the same time. ‘Get someone to that roof!’

‘All units, overwatch,’ Landis ordered. ‘Hold position.’

All of a sudden everything was quiet. After the shouts and the crash of spells, the courtyard was eerily silent. Landis strode forward, his shield flaring bright, and crouched down next to Vihaela. There was a pause.

‘Cease fire,’ Landis ordered. ‘Move up.’

I was already advancing, scrambling over the rubble and walking across the courtyard, craning my neck to look upwards. There was a soldier up on the east rooftop where Ilmarin had fallen, but as I looked into the futures I saw what he was going to say. I felt something wither inside me; pain stabbed from my arm.

Vihaela was lying where she had fallen, eyes closed but teeth bared as if she’d struggled to the last. Most of her torso was charred, and the stench of burnt flesh was in the air. I forced myself to look into the futures where I pulled open the body.

‘Focused beam through the upper abdominal cavity,’ Landis told me. ‘Superheats the bodily fluids and organs and sends a shockwave up into the brain. A quick death. Better than she’d have given us.’ He looked down at Vihaela a moment longer, then turned away.

I could feel a stiffness in my upper chest, and without looking knew that the fateweaver had spread. I’d been using it heavily, and the fighting wasn’t over yet.

Up on the rooftop, the soldier finished checking Ilmarin’s body and began to report in. I turned away.