by Annie Percik
For a second Alessandra wanted to run into her mother’s arms and be held safe and warm, like she was a child. The bite of the mana around her body quickly dispelled any such notion.
‘In case you haven’t noticed, mother, my friends and I are being hunted. And you’re apparently on the other side. People are being rounded up and subjected to who knows what in the name of artisan superiority.’
Her mother narrowed her eyes. ‘Believe me, I know. And I intend to find out what’s happened to them as soon as I sort out the mess you’ve created.’
Alessandra felt her rage rising and battled it back. She inhaled slowly and said, ‘Mess? Or a fight for justice?’
Laleh laughed. ‘You wouldn’t know justice if you tripped over it. Do you think you and Abelard are the first people who wanted to tell everyone in the world that they could be an artisan? How much of an ego do the two of you have, to think that everyone who knows is part of some evil conspiracy and only you can bring us all to your so-called justice?’
Alessandra spat back, ‘You’re the one keeping all the mundanes in the dark when they could all be artisans.’
Laleh sighed, closed her eyes and Alessandra could almost hear her counting to ten.
‘We’ve been keeping them safe for hundreds of years.’
Now it was Alessandra’s turn to laugh. ‘You were always so keen for me to study hard in school but you can’t even get our own history right! Mana wasn’t discovered until–’
Laleh cut across her daughter’s burgeoning speech. ‘No. Mana was discovered on the 18th of August in the year 1521 by Brother Theobold of Rummenken. He was so scared of what it could do that he told no-one for many years until he eventually formed the Artisan Council. It was the genius idea of Robert McPherson to channel mana into artefacts so everyone could gain from it without … Well, you’ve seen what happens when there’s a sudden massive new group of untrained artisans.’
She paused but Alessandra could think of nothing to say. Abelard was apparently also speechless.
Lelah continued. ‘You would have been inducted into the Inner Circle in another few years and all this could have been avoided. If only you’d given me a chance to explain rather than heading straight off to broadcast your limited knowledge to the world.’
Alessandra felt her anger break through her mental dams. ‘You sent men with guns after us! What was I supposed to think?’
Laleh was obviously struggling to control her own emotions. ‘That was Walter, though I admit telling him your plan wasn’t my best idea and I haven’t done much good trying to control his actions since. But couldn’t you trust that what we were doing was for a good reason? Given half a chance I’d have explained why we have to pick the right people to become artisans. Even when properly trained, do you want everyone to be able to do this?’
She held out her hands, palm up. Blue light encased each one and two streams of dirt spiralled up from the earth to fill them. A second later the light brightened and one handful of dirt was glowing red hot while the other was covered in frost. Laleh dropped them both to the ground.
‘You have a child’s understanding of what mana can do!’
She threw out one hand towards a shattered window pane. Blue light again coursed between her fingers but this time it jumped towards the damage. As Alessandra watched wide-eyed, thousands of tiny pieces of glass whirled from their resting places in a tight maelstrom around where Laleh had pointed. A second later the window was whole once more.
Seconds passed.
Laleh resumed. ‘Every artisan outside the Inner Circle is like you. They think that mana is something that’s used to make artefacts and that anything else that happens is a side-effect. We’ve been excellent at convincing people of that for generations and you’re in the process of bringing it all down. The Inner Circle is small and we have enough potential petty kings in our group already without that also applying to who-knows how many people out there.’ Her shoulders sagged and she fell silent.
Alessandra’s anger had mostly subsided but she wasn’t quite finished yet. ‘You’re rounding up all the new artisans and–’
Laleh looked distressed. ‘That’s Walter again. And I told you I’ll make sure they’re safe. And what about you? You’ve got an army of super-charged brain-e-facts backing you. How can you criticise us for being worried about where that might end?’
Alessandra shook her head. ‘We just want more people to know the truth! And the brain-e-facts have gone. That’s a whole other story. We haven’t got an army, just a few friends of Gerald Simpson’s.’
Laleh paled. ‘You’re with Gerald? This is even worse than I thought.’
Alessandra blinked repeatedly. ‘You know Gerald? How …? What?’
Laleh put a hand to her face. ‘He used to be in the Inner Circle. Then he started talking about how there was no point in having godlike powers if we couldn’t act like gods. We stripped him of his spark and kicked him out.’ She ran her fingers through her hair. ‘And then you turned up and gave him access to mana again. We think Gerald was behind the mana surge that caused all the new artisans. It’s all coming together now. He probably designed it as a test.’
By this point Alessandra was lost. ‘A test of what?’
Laleh clenched and unclenched her fists. ‘Don’t you think if you can instantly create hundreds of new sparks, you can also reverse the effect and extinguish the sparks of everyone not on your side in one giant explosion? Then before they can regroup, you move in, slaughter your enemies and then you can rule like a god!’
Alessandra shook her head. ‘That wouldn’t work. The Artisan Council would just create new artisans and so would we.’
Laleh looked to the sky for a moment and then back at her daughter. ‘If I’m right and this happens, the Artisan Council will all be dead soon. How many people in your group can create new artisans?’
Alessandra had never really thought about that before. ‘Um, just me now that the brain-e-facts have gone.’
Laleh rolled her eyes. ‘So you’ll likely be his next target.’ She stopped and stared at Alessandra, aghast. ‘Wait a minute. How did you end up with Gerald in the first place?’
‘He’s Mateo’s cousin.’ Then she realised her mother wouldn’t know who Mateo was. ‘Mateo is Abelard’s best friend. Or he was. Now he’s a brain-e-fact. But that doesn’t matter. Mateo took us to Gerald’s compound when we first escaped the viz-e-fact station. We’ve been hiding out there ever since.’
Laleh held her arms out at shoulder height. She snapped her fingers and the mana holding Alessandra and Abelard to the wall disappeared. A blue glow of mana leapt around Laleh instead and she lifted slowly into the air, stopping a few inches up.
‘We need to finish what you started.’
Before Alessandra could respond there was a series of loud clicks from Laleh’s combat armour and it began to disassemble. The parts flew through the air and clipped into place around Alessandra instead.
‘Um, what about me?’ Abelard said, but Laleh ignored him.
Laleh looked down at her daughter one more time. ‘You have to get back and warn the others. Gerald is dangerous and Walter’s on his way to the compound to confront him. I don’t want you to get caught in the middle but I’m assuming you won’t abandon your friends and just come with me now?’
Alessandra shook her head. She could feel the cold metal kiss of the contact ports at her wrists, through which mana flowed freely into her body.
Laleh sighed. She looked old and exhausted. ‘I would hug you but frankly I don’t trust you not to crush me to death in that thing. I love you, sweetheart. Save your friends and try not to die.’
Alessandra expected to find herself scoffing at her mother’s use of the endearment. Instead she was shocked at the effort it took to hide a small sob in her throat.
‘How will you manage to get back?’
Laleh shook her head. ‘You still have no idea.’
Alessandra took an involuntary step back as h
er mother clicked her fingers and faded from sight. There was a sudden gust of cold air and she was gone.
Alessandra looked out across the desolate landscape and found herself trembling. A failed attempt to summon her best sneering voice instead came out as a half-whispered, ‘I love you too.’
Grabbing Abelard’s hand, Alessandra leapt into the sky.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Abelard stumbled as Alessandra landed them both back on the ground just inside the compound perimeter. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Eventually his brain decided on flippant.
‘Well, that was intense. And not exactly how I imagined meeting your mother.’
‘Quite.’ The skin around Alessandra’s mouth was tight.
‘How could she do all that stuff with mana?’ Abelard knew from experience just how draining direct mana manipulation could be and he had never seen anyone do it so easily and with so much precision.
‘I have no idea. I’m getting the sense there’s a lot I don’t know about my mother. But we have more important things to worry about right now.’
‘Yeah. If Gerald set off that mana explosion the other day, he basically killed Mateo. His own nephew!’
‘And Walter is a force to be reckoned with as well. I don’t relish the idea of getting involved in a fight between the two of them. But we don’t have a choice.’
‘We have to find Jen first and make sure she’s safe,’ Abelard said. ‘Let’s go.’
* * *
Walter grinned as he flew towards the location his analysis team had pinpointed. He had been forced to borrow an inferior float-e-fact from the Gadg-E-Tech pool but even that couldn’t dampen his fierce joy at the prospect of the imminent confrontation. It had been a long time coming and Walter experienced a surge of satisfaction that he would be the one to finally bring Gerald Simpson to justice after Laleh and Brother Theobold had failed.
There was nothing on the float-e-fact’s screens to show the compound existed. In fact there was so much nothing that it now stood out as a void in a way that should have tipped Walter off before. Gerald must have erected some kind of shield to protect himself from the prying eyes of the artisans. Clever but not clever enough. Whatever the explosion was that Gerald had set off over the weekend it had burst through the shield over the compound and had shown up on their scans anyway.
The shield might protect the compound from scans but there was nothing physically stopping Walter from flying the float-e-fact right into the grounds and landing it in the central courtyard. Foolish, he thought. Or brazen.
He activated the vehicle’s cast-e-fact system and spoke, his words projecting loudly to the area outside.
‘Gerald Simpson! Your day of reckoning has arrived! Come out and face me!’
Walter picked up his stun-e-fact, made his way to the float-e-fact’s door and stepped out into the open air. He peered around and couldn’t help another wolfish smile as a large shape emerged from one of the buildings and made its way towards him.
‘Walter Snyder!’ the shape called out. ‘I expected Theobold to send one of his lapdogs but to have it be you, the feted up-and-comer … I’m honoured.’
Walter moved out from the immediate protection of the float-e-fact and they faced each other, about twenty feet apart on open ground.
‘Got tired of hiding, did you?’ Walter said. ‘Decided to make yourself known at long last?’
Gerald shrugged. ‘An opportunity presented itself so I took it. The world needs more artisans, as I’ve always said. The opportunity to meet you is just an added bonus.’
Walter raised his stun-e-fact. ‘You won’t think that when I’m through with you. The threat of your anarchic plans has troubled us long enough. It’s time someone dealt with you once and for all.’
He aimed and fired but Gerald jumped out of the way with superhuman speed. Walter saw a mana unit strapped to his back, connected to an artefact Walter didn’t recognise. He should have expected that. Even without a spark, Gerald wasn’t just going to let Walter win. But Walter had his own mana reserves to draw upon and he wasn’t afraid to use them. This might be fun.
Walter stalked his prey, relishing the cat-and-mouse of pursuing Gerald through the compound. Gerald might know the terrain and all the hiding places but Walter was younger and hungrier for the showdown. Gerald also had more to lose. One good hit from Walter’s gun and he would be incapacitated and at the mercy of the Inner Circle. Walter scanned the area but couldn’t see where Gerald had gone. As he approached the spot where he had last seen Gerald, a blast of light hurtled towards him from the left. Walter dodged sideways but wasn’t quite fast enough and a burning pain lanced across his shoulder. Once he was round the corner of the nearest building he glanced down to see a charred gash in his jacket, the skin blistered and reddened underneath.
‘So it’s like that, is it?’ he murmured. ‘I see. Well, two can play that game.’
He threw his stun-e-fact to the ground and drew on his direct mana reserves until sparks crackled between his fingers and his eyes glowed blue. He stepped back out into the open. Now he was angry.
* * *
Abelard and Alessandra found Jen in the main house and hustled her through the building towards the front doors. Before Abelard could open them, he heard the sound of a float-e-fact descending outside.
‘Walter’s already here.’
They found a back way through the kitchens and slipped out into an extensive vegetable garden.
‘Where are we going?’ Jen asked.
‘Not sure yet. Hopefully away.’
Finding a gate in the far side of the fence, Abelard avoided the central courtyard and eventually found his way to the barn that housed the float-e-fact Terry had stolen.
Alessandra fiddled with the viz-e-fact system until the screen showed a picture of the main courtyard. There was another float-e-fact positioned right in the middle and two small figures engaged in what looked like a complicated dance.
‘What are they doing?’ Jen asked.
‘Fighting,’ Alessandra said.
On the screen the two men were advancing towards one another, their arms outstretched. Between them two streams of mana collided in mid air, the meeting point growing steadily brighter.
‘It looks like egos are prevailing over common sense,’ said Alessandra. ‘That amount of mana build-up is really dangerous.’
‘We can’t just let them carry on like that,’ Abelard said. ‘We have to try and stop them.’
Before the others could react, he ducked back out of the float-e-fact and dashed to the barn door. It looked like the mana from the two streams was combining into an extremely volatile cloud of energy.
‘Stop!’ Abelard yelled, stepping out into view.
The mana streams ceased abruptly. Walter and Gerald turned to look at him.
‘Blowing each other up isn’t going to solve anything. We know about the Inner Circle now. This is much bigger than just the two of you.’
Walter sneered. ‘Ah, the engineer. So both my targets are in one place. Perfect.’
He raised his arms again, pointing one towards Gerald and the other directly at Abelard. Mana crackled between his fingers. A futile instinct sent Abelard into a tight ball on the ground. Then he felt arms encircling him and he glanced up to see Alessandra next to him, with Jen huddled close by. Alessandra reached one arm up towards the sky and a shimmering sphere of mana energy dropped around them all, enveloping the barn as well. Beyond the barrier the light grew so bright that Abelard couldn’t make anything out. Then there was a tremendous crack and he felt a shock-wave that sent them all sprawling.
Alessandra let the mana shield go and collapsed flat on her back, gasping for breath.
‘Are you okay?’ Abelard asked.
‘You complete idiot! What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed!’
Jen was staring past them, her hand over her mouth. Around them was a scene of almost total devastation. The second float-e-
fact was a pile of burning wreckage and the buildings of the compound had not fared much better. There was shattered wood and broken masonry all over the place and small fires flickered everywhere. A couple of charred, smoking lumps drew Abelard’s gaze but he looked away again quickly before his brain could fully register what they might be. Only the barn with their own float-e-fact inside had survived intact.
‘I suggest we get out of here,’ Alessandra said.
They stumbled back inside the barn and climbed aboard the float-e-fact.
Alessandra manipulated the controls with expert calm, directing the vehicle out of the barn and into the sky. They all watched the blackened site of the compound shrink on the float-e-fact’s screens until they could no longer make it out among the trees.
Abelard let out a sigh of relief as the tension of immediate danger dissipated.
‘Are Walter and Gerald really dead?’ Jen asked.
Abelard shuddered. ‘It looked like it, yes.’
Alessandra’s lips were a thin line and she concentrated hard on the controls.
‘So where do we go now?’ Jen asked.
Abelard thought for a moment. ‘Well, I still think you could probably just go home if you want.’
