No Deadly Thing

by Tiger Gray

  The energy around them whipped the wind into a frenzy as if it were a physical thing, and maybe now with such a fuzzy barrier between reality and the astral, it was.

  No. Not just special. Chosen.

  "You asked why He could not manifest." Sarah said, and despite the nature howling around them, Liu heard her as clearly as if the other woman was whispering in her ear. She wondered, in a distant way, if the Fae blood in her was making the weather rebel like it was. "He needs you. His avatar. His bride. The perfect one."

  Never in her life had anyone described her as perfect. The other locks started to shear open, and she knew that if she only took that God-shard into herself, they would snap in half. To have that power again...! Normally it would have terrified her, but she could feel Him reaching out to guide her, to help her control it. She could use it after all. The mages had been wrong to cast her out!

  She hadn't done it in a very long time, but she remembered how to reach, how to interact with the magical world using only her will. She focused and dropped her shields, plunged her hands into the water. Scales coalesced there and crawled up her arms, and instead of coming apart, the mage locks exploded.

  Images impressed themselves on her raw consciousness. In her mind's eye, a black sea opened to the sounds of chanting. She felt her heart lift in worship and terror both as something unspeakable issued forth from the waves, and she knew, as the essence Sarah had called fused itself to her, that this was The God, its flesh hanging in strips, its rotted heads looming over those who had called it as it loomed now before her.

  Choose.

  Her mind was nothing but yes as she started to change, too, taking on those snake aspects Sarah had already manifested. The ability to change her form, the knowledge of the God and His blessings so that she could show His favor on her skin. Aware of rising to her feet only distantly, she nevertheless looked out across the water, roiling and frothing as the half-formed shade of the leviathan now filling her soul rose from the depths. So many glowing shards of light! As soon as she turned her mind on them, she knew that she could sense all the humans in the area, humans who had not yet had the revelation she had.

  "Call them, Liu," Sarah said, ecstasy clear in her voice. "The humans. They'll come to you and know Him."

  Please. Liu thought, as she reached for those glimmering shards of energy, willed them to find the lake and the truth that waited within. Take this sickness from me. Bless me for bringing these souls to You.

  She felt selfish for asking when she had only just accepted His blessing herself, but now it felt unacceptable to have anything within her not allowed by Him. She wondered at how quickly the change had taken hold. She felt new strength and energy already. She could sense it now, the spells that had made her ill, and she felt another surge of pride: she hadn't been wrong. It had been magic.

  The corruption uncurled, stretching between her and the magnificent shade of the God himself, now mantling above the waves, each head with its mouth agape and screeching. Liu knew what it was the second she saw its corrupted red-black form. Blood magic.

  But who...?

  The shuffling of feet distracted her from the thought. The people from the nearest houses had come out into the night, stumbling towards the water as if drugged. The God made his pleasure felt and Liu thought she might collapse again, though this time out of sheer joy. The bloody strands wrapped around her pulled taut and in a moment of indescribable relief, the God's unfathomable will bid them break.

  It took her a long time to realize that Sarah had come to stand beside her. All around them, people were bending their heads to drink from the lake. A few fell and didn't move again, but mostly a great shout rose up as the spirit came over them.

  "The God bids you be crowned in gold and clothed in white," Sarah said, "that you take up your sword in His name."

  "Sword?" She thought only paladins like her Dad had swords. She pushed thoughts of him away.

  "Only imagine it and it will come to your hand. As with all things, through Him."

  She hesitated, despite the new energy in her. "My family..."

  "They have their roles to play, Liu. Have faith that they too will see the truth." Sarah stared into the lake. "Or that they will give themselves up for what is right."

  The truth. She could feel it. She couldn't say that about the divine Dad and Ashrinn talked about. She wished for the blade, and a moment later the handle weighted her palm. Black and green, like the vipers she'd seen in the zoo.

  "You're my family," she said. Sarah grasped her free hand and her grip was hard, as if she were overcome with emotion. Liu could read that, now. She watched the God, and despite His glory, she knew that He was not yet made manifest. The thought filled her with sorrow. "What else does He need to come through?"

  Sarah looked up at the massive bulk of their Lord, and her gaze was utter adoration. "Only the blood of the eagle king."

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  "Watch your pack," Ashrinn said, the communicator jammed in his ear picking up his barest whisper. "You're buggered if you drop it."

  He watched Jericho's black-clad form, clinging to the side of the skyscraper they'd chosen for this particular exercise. He never would have spotted her if he hadn't known exactly what to look for, and even then he required his high powered binoculars to even perceive her outline. She'd let the strap on her kit bag slide when she'd reached for a new handhold. She hadn't worn it clipped across her chest like she should have.

  She adjusted with a couple of deft movements, ameliorating his annoyance. Quite a feat eight stories up, even if it was her own damn fault. He put the binoculars back in their case and edged closer to Sonth --- Tor, as long as she was working --- standing in the shadow cast by the alley wall. The fact that the shadowmancer was on her feet was the only thing that kept her from looking dead, stiff and wide-eyed as she was.

  He tried not to shudder. It felt ungrateful somehow, even if Sonth had most of her attention focused on hiding them in the relative darkness between buildings and couldn't spare the energy to pick up on his distress. He knew Daniel well enough that he could practically feel the man's unspoken agreement from behind him, as surely as he felt the smattering of cold evening rain on his brow. He wished Lizbet were here instead of waiting two blocks away for her signal. Her magic often comforted him.

  At least I don't have to put up with Gerolt. I hope the cocky shit enjoys playing hostage.

  As a position, their little hideaway had its disadvantages, like the machinery yard behind them, but so far the noise hadn't scrambled his communicator despite its sensitivity to his voice. Daniel had every right to be proud of having crafted it. In part this exercise was an excuse to stress test his tech again, and so far it was bearing up quite well.

  The alley did let him look right at their objective, however, the slender, taller brother of the library hunched nearby. The library itself was a geometric monstrosity, covered in honeycombed steel more decorative than functional. Ashrinn had to wonder how a whole team of architects had thought that was a good idea, but hoped it would serve as further distraction, reducing the chance of someone bothering to look up in Jericho's general direction down to nil.

  Ashrinn had seen how stressful it was for Jericho to avoid the patches of light that indicated occupied offices so he tapped his communicator, letting Lizbet know it was time for her to move.

  Lizbet sauntered out to the sidewalk a couple of blocks up. She gave every impression of having just come from the accessories store nearby, pouting as if she'd arrived only to find the shop closed for the evening.

  "She doesn't look like the kind of woman who would want something from a private office, does she?" Daniel said, though Ashrinn knew he was teasing rather than criticizing the structure of the exercise. It wasn't as though it were meant to be overly difficult, not with so many innocent humans around to get caught in the crossfire if something went wrong. Ashrinn spared him a brief grin.

  "If I looked like that, I'd probably ne
ed an attorney," Ashrinn said, referencing the legal offices on the bottom floor. "And they work late."

  "If you say so," Daniel said. They both watched Liz pause on the corner, glance up at the skyscraper, then down at a piece of note paper as people streamed past her. She was a good actress, and looked just like a woman from one of Seattle's more expensive neighborhoods trying to find the right address. He thought that she, in her high heels and diamond necklace, looked like the effortless version of what Kiriana always strove for.

  He made a mental note never to never repeat that out loud.

  "Commander, in position." Lizbet's voice on the earpiece. He knew from simple observation in the days prior that the front doors were sliding glass, opening on to a wide lobby, and that she would have only a single desk minder to contend with. Nothing for her, with her natural charm.

  "You're clear," he said. Liz walked inside, and he could just make her out as she found the human tending the place. In this kind of scenario her thick accent helped her. She was just foreign enough for people in the wealthier parts of the Pacific Northwest to find her endearing, and not brown enough to frighten them.

  "Your turn, Gearhead," Ashrinn said. Daniel slipped out to the grey-blue street, shoulders hunched against the drizzle and hands jammed into the front pocket of his sweater. He looked like any other Seattlite trying to find a place to duck into before the clouds opened up. Ashrinn thought once more that he seemed just like a student at university. No one had to know the big backpack he wore had Stinger missile parts in it instead of textbooks and revision notes.

  Sonth shielded Daniel as he came close to the building. Ashrinn found it eerie, being alone with her. He hated to think it, but he could see why the Faceless employed such harsh methods to keep their shadowmancers in line, even if he would never support said methods.

  Ashrinn checked his equipment to take his mind off his nervousness. He unzipped his leather jacket so he could indulge and take the garrote wire from one of the pockets on his combat vest. It was still at home in his hands, fitting into the grooves he'd long ago worn into his palms. He'd always been quite good at that kind of killing, preferring the wire's simplicity.

  He replaced the garrote, refocusing on the objective. A series of clicks over the communicator told him Daniel had made it inside, and a few moments later another series told him the security system for the building had been successfully disabled. He sent Jericho her signal:

  Go.

  * * *

  Jericho slipped into one of the darkened windows at the Commander's sign and stashed her glass cutting tools in her vest. She'd picked a good floor. She could tell it was empty even without her wolf senses, the hallway dark and musty, quiet in that heavy way that reminded her of backstage storage. Gerolt's scent was too subtle to find like this, so she called her wolf form.

  It was simple now. She'd gotten better at blocking out her section of the hive mind, too. It would be some weak ass shit if they could sense her every move. Like now. She didn't trust Brenna, even though Brenna had been helping her.

  She trusted Ashrinn.

  The freedom that came with shifting was what made it so damn attractive. She could have raced through the hallways all night and called it good.

  Gerolt. That was why she was here. The thousands of scents now obvious to her were so real they stood out like fluorescent runners of color would have to her human eyes, shimmering in the air and in bright trails on the carpet. Where was his?

  Cigarette smoke cheap perfume sex coats carpet cleaner bathroom soap --- -! She stretched into a run and took the corner at the last second, ignoring the wailing just below her conscious awareness, the voices of the crazy Wolfen she heard even despite the shields she'd made for herself.

  There! She rebounded off the wall in a flurry of paws, shifting human in midair. She came to earth in a crouch, breathing heavy. The door in front of her was marked with a red ribbon looped around its handle, which meant it was trapped. For the purposes of the exercise, anyway.

  Not enough I got to rescue this motherfucker, but now I got to defuse a bomb? Can't give a nigga a wire cutter or nothing? She tried not to growl. It was a small thing, but she could already hear Ashrinn lecturing her about how even a tiny noise could give away her position. Frustration made her light headed; strong emotions could make her lose control of her shift.

  Don't fuck it up.

  Just as she was trying to convince herself that just bashing through would be a great idea despite all her instincts that said otherwise, she remembered Daniel's earlier signal.

  Fuck yes.

  As long as that ribbon meant it was supposed to be connected to the building's security system instead of hooked up to its own separate alarm, she was good.

  She performed procedure, approaching the entryway and scanning it with senses both physical and magical. The wolf clung to her still, Gerolt's smell lingering in her nostrils. No question that he was inside.

  Her breath caught in her throat. This was the moment of truth. She palmed the flashbang on her belt, checked the sidearm lying cold and hard against her ribs, thanked Jesus her stuff shifted when she did.

  She shoved her shoulder into the door. It flew open and she rolled, coming up on one knee. Gerolt, bound on the floor, faced away. Wrists crossed at the small of his back. Two paper cutouts meant to represent the enemy, one kneeling with its hand touching her team mate, the other standing off to the left and slightly behind.

  She rose and tossed the grenade. That part was real. She felt bad for Gerolt, so close to it. She knew Sonth could filter the sound despite everything her friend was already responsible for.

  Five seconds.

  That was how long it would take for the enemies to get some vision and hearing back. She could use it. Her heart pulsed in her throat, and she took the wolf body mid-leap. With every shift her forms blurred more and more, and she changed them without having to work at it.

  Wolf! Acrid fear dust death!

  She leapt on the marker touching Gerolt. Fierce joy pounded through her when she did it without so much as grazing her teammate. She was good. The marker crumbled under her and she swiped her claws across its face and throat. She turned, baring her teeth, and bounded towards the second marker.

  She ached with the want to take her nastiest form, the Nightmare thing she'd first seen charging at her from out of that Detroit back alley. She stopped halfway though, dimly aware of Brenna's garbled mind voice bright with alarm. So the bitch wasn't sure if she could handle herself? Fuck her. She shredded the marker, forgetting it was just paper.

  She crouched there for a long moment with what was left of the dummy under her. Her mane hung in her eyes, her paws grotesque on the end of human arms. Gerolt made a soft sound in the back of his throat and she swung her heavy head towards him.

  He'd lost his swagger for sure. She grunted and moved over to him, her misshapen body awkward. When she wasn't fighting she felt like a crow picking through garbage, clumsy and inefficient.

  She checked him for anything harmful and he squirmed at her wet nose on his neck. The ropes holding him in place were elaborate. The commander had tied them, and he knew how to tie a knot better than any goddamn Eagle Scout. Gerolt's skin was an angry shade of red-purple, and resentment and pain pulled his body tight.

  He knows the Commander trussed him up extra special.

  Jericho's annoyance flared as bright and sudden as the flash bang she'd thrown earlier. They had all had to play hostage at least once. If he didn't have such a mouth on him, maybe he wouldn't have gotten the shit job on a live mission. He was worse than a thug on PCP sometimes, posturing, brash, impossible to talk down.

  "I'm tempted to just leave you here, Flash," she said. "Do you have your dog tags?" She let her hands go back to normal and pulled the rope free after a couple minutes work. He rubbed his wrists, grimacing.

  "Taken. Check the bodies."

  She did so and found them quick. No other marker but the Storm's single lightning bol
t, but anyone who knew what to look for could puzzle his signature out from the magic in it. Nothing else. If the enemy had any important documentation, they weren't carrying it with them.

  "Can you walk?"

  "I'm all right, Morlock," he said, sitting up. "Hard to kneecap someone when you're made of paper." He showed some humor and she warmed up to him even though she thought he was a prick a lot of the time. He was still her teammate, and that mattered more. He'd always had her back. She stood and offered her hand. He met her eyes and took it. She hauled him to his feet, hoping he'd decided to get the fuck over himself a little; he usually ribbed her over her code name, but not this time.

  "Come on. Let's --- "

  A lash of wild magic knocked her to her knees. She hadn't felt her wolf like this in months, throwing itself against her mental wards, howling to be free. Her psychic shields bowed outward, spider webbed with cracks.

  ~And so you see why this man has no power to redeem. He cannot stop the Nightmare. The God rises and will swallow you, too.~

  It was Brenna's helplessness that got to her, the stupid sorrowful dumb cow acceptance. Jericho had heard that shit a thousand times, a thousand goddamn excuses for why things just had to stay the same, for why everyone just had to keep on suffering like they were, how they couldn't change their situation.

  She heard Gerolt's horrified whisper the same as when they'd seen their first corrupted person --- "What the fuck." --- and knew things had to be at least as bad. Something from far beneath the earth --- ~from between the stars~ --- a creature from the same swirling chaos that had birthed her and her kind.

  ~The bride takes up her crown and stars spin out of their spheres. You can still come to us.~

  Strong emotion could make her lose control, sure. But this time it gave her control, made her pour power into focusing her will and mastering the wolf, feeding on the power that came with whatever that thing was and using it for herself.