Heart's Darkness

by H D A Roberts

  We were out on Blackhold's grounds, this time, so as to give us both plenty of Space (see what I did there?). She had a Portal of her own up and running so I could see what was necessary, and it was helpful, but it was also hurting my head trying to manipulate Space when it was already being warped right next to me. And Space-sense itself was a bloody pain; I frequently had vertigo while using it, and I'd thrown up twice in the last four hours.

  Naturally I got no sympathy (but more than a few laughs).

  "It's all about knowing where you are and where you want to be," she repeated.

  "With my sense of direction?"

  She snorted and knelt behind me, her hands on my shoulders.

  "Relax, you tense up and you'll end up in Siberia, and we know you can't handle the cold. Or the heat. Or anything remotely uncomfortable, you're like a little girl in many ways," she said, making me laugh.

  "I'm writing all these barbs down, you know. Revenge slithers its way towards you," I said in as threatening a manner as I could manage.

  "Ooh, I'm so scared," she said, tickling my ear, "Now concentrate."

  I did as I was told, and very slowly, the air started to shimmer, and then warp. It flared and flickered, turning bright purple before brightening into a light blue oval...

  Through which a soaking wet, thoroughly naked, Kandi tumbled with a screech as she fell into my lap along with an entire bath's worth of soapy water.

  I was flattened, and Hopkins barely avoided the deluge, howling with laughter, as the Portal closed with a pop. Kandi and I tried to disentangle ourselves, while I apologised profusely.

  "Matty, what the hell? If you wanted to see me naked, all you had to do was ask!" she said, now laughing as I covered her up in Shadows.

  Naturally Hopkins was still rolling around on the grass, near to wetting herself as far as I could tell.

  "Oh, just wait 'till I tell Lucille! His first successful Portal, and he drops a naked redhead in his lap! Don't need Freud to interpret that one!" and then back to her guffaws.

  "Sorry, Kandi," I said sheepishly.

  "How did this happen, exactly?" she asked, her Shadow-covered arms crossed.

  "Well, I was thinking about where I was, and where I wanted to be, and then I wondered what you were up to, because I was looking forward to playing chess tonight, and then I remembered you said you were taking a bath about now-ish, and then there may have been a stray thought about where I'd actually want to go, and... well, Magic took care of the rest," I said, rubbing the back of my head, going bright red.

  "Your train of thought meanders through quite a few strange stations, doesn't it, Sweetie?" she said, stroking my cheek, grinning all the while.

  "I'm working on that, I promise."

  She snorted and wrapped me up in a hug, kissing my cheek.

  "Next time, just knock on the door, you know that tub's big enough for two," she whispered before turning on her heel and walking back towards the house. I put some extra energy into the constructs covering her so they'd last a while away from me.

  I grinned like an idiot and turned towards my teacher, who was still lying on the ground, grinning and emitting the occasional chuckle.

  "The next time you mess up, I'm going to laugh, and then you'll be sorry, you big hyena," I said, dropping to the grass next to her. I cast a little spell that drew the water out of my clothes.

  She laughed and patted my thigh, "God, I love teaching you, Matty. None of my other students made me laugh," she said, and I knew she meant it.

  "You do have to admit, when I screw up, I do it in style," I said, lying back.

  "That you do, little brother."

  We laid like that for a while, and I yawned, starting to doze.

  "Oh no you don't!" she said, startling me, "Start again, from the top, and try not to drop any naked women in your lap this time."

  "Maybe I like dropping naked women in my lap," I said straight-faced.

  She rolled her eyes and swatted my ear.

  "Concentrate!"

  That was how I spent my Wednesdays. I loved it, truth be told; and I'd missed Hopkins. She and I liked to 'debate' things. We called it that because if we told people we sat around for hours nitpicking each other, they'd say we were insane. We'd spend the mornings practicing, and then afternoons arguing about it in increasingly vague and tangential ways until an early supper time, at which point we'd stuff down food while continuing the fight, and the rest of the household looked on in horror.

  Then there was more practice, which, as you saw, was actually getting me a bit better. The actual mechanism for creating a Portal was fairly simple; it was just navigation that was a problem.

  Days went by. Jocelyn still hadn't returned my attempts to contact her, leaving me feeling a little blue. At least I hadn't heard anything about Solomon in a while. I even allowed myself to hope that he wouldn't come back at all.

  I should have known better.

  On a Thursday towards the end of November, I was walking back to Naiad with Mary and a group of her girls, when my phone rang.

  "Hello?" I said, still chuckling at a joke Mary had told.

  "Mathew, you need to come home, someone took Kandi," Cassandra said.

  For the record, never moved so fast in my entire life.

  I didn't bother with Shadow Walking, I simply called my Shadows and flew home, my heart hammering in my chest, fury warring with terror as I streaked over Stonebridge's rooftops, close and fast enough to tear roof tiles away in my slipstream. There would be a lot of annoyed people the next time it rained.

  I almost failed to decelerate in time and nearly ploughed into my lawn. As it was I got fairly serious whiplash, which would take me ages to fix later. I sprinted for the door, and was met by Cassandra.

  "Where's Tethys?" I asked. If anyone could tell me who to burn, it would be her.

  "She went after her," Cassandra said, "That was... half an hour ago. We haven't heard from her since."

  "Who?" I asked, my voice becoming very low and very cold as I stopped being able to contain my temper and my fear.

  "Thornsby, Kandi's father. Tethys tracked her phone to his building."

  "Why?" I asked.

  "As far as I know, they managed to take a controlling interest in his company this time yesterday. It would appear that they underestimated his willingness to go to any lengths to address his grievances."

  "Where's the building?" I asked as quietly as I could, my hands now shaking, the room darkening as my Shadows responded to my fury.

  "Matty, I don't think that-"

  "WHERE?!" my voice resonated through the Shadows, coming out ugly and horrible.

  The house shook, Cassandra took a step back.

  "God, I'm sorry," I said, suddenly ashamed of myself, looking away.

  Cassandra pulled me into a hug, and I trembled, fear making my legs weak.

  "It's going to be alright, Matty, we'll get them back."

  I nodded and pulled away.

  "Where are they?" I asked, more calmly this time, "And where's Kandi's Warden, is she alright?"

  "Demise found her, she's banged up, but she's okay. They just left her in an alley, the bastards. She never saw it coming."

  "So, where are they?" I asked again.

  "Are you calm?" she asked, looking me in the eye.

  I nodded, lying.

  "One-seventy Warmington Plaza. Thornsby International Securities," she said.

  That might be a problem. They'd told me in passing that 'International Securities' was business-code for 'Mercenaries'. In theory, they shouldn't have been allowed firearms, not in the UK, but enough money could buy you a lot of leeway with the right people.

  Not that this mattered much to me. I was still going.

  "Follow along with a team. I may need backup in a few minutes. If they're not out by..." I looked at my watch, "twelve, come in and don't stop until you get to them. I am not a priority in that case, understand?"

  "Absolutely not."

  "Gl
ad we had this conversation," I said dryly, pulling out my phone and tapping the address in.

  I didn't have time to argue with her. I went to my usual bathroom and opened a Gateway.

  It took only a few minutes to find the building. In the real world, it was a thirty-storey silver monstrosity on the outskirts of Stonebridge, where there was a small commercial high-rise district. It was one of those art-deco horrors that had a lop-sided pointy top, I'd have hated it even if my two favourite people weren't being held there against their will.

  I had to stop for a moment and force myself to be calm. Every fibre of my being wanted to tear that building to the ground and visit every unspeakable thing I knew onto the inhabitants. I can honestly say that, in that moment, I'd never been closer to the darkness that I feared so much, and it was only my desperate need to keep Tethys and Kandi alive that prevented me from falling to it.

  I forced that part of me away, but the best I could do was mute it a little, just enough to come up with a coherent plan, to take it slowly, gather the information I needed. I opened my mind to the Shadows, and I started hearing voices through their counterparts in the Newtonian World.

  Come on. One of you say something...

  There!

  A laugh, Tethys'.

  I brought myself to the relevant Shadow.

  "That's right, keep laughing, bitch," a man's voice growled.

  "Oh, I will. You have no idea who you're dealing with, it's actually rather hilarious," she said as if she were sitting in her study, not a prisoner in a mercenary stronghold. It helped to calm me.

  A little.

  I opened a tiny Gate in a shadow behind a potted plant, just in time to see the man slap my Tethys hard in the face.

  He nearly, oh so nearly, died then and there.

  "Leave her alone!" Kandi screamed.

  The room was wide and expensively furnished. Tethys and Kandi were tied to chairs, the former was bound by silver chains that worked in much the same way as Spelleaters, only for non-human powers. They looked a little banged up, but not too badly, thank God; Tethys was bleeding from her lip and Kandi had a black eye.

  "Shut up," the man said, turning to glare at Kandi.

  He was one of five Mercenaries, all armed, all carrying Spelleaters. They were sneering or leering at my friends, which didn't improve my mood. They were dressed like soldiers, in body armour and urban camouflage, complete with helmets, goggles and gloves. They wore complete sets of webbing, festooned with equipment, pistols holstered at their hips, knives pinned to their chests for an easy draw. Their long-arms were slung on their backs, a collection of rifles and shotguns, all of which looked well maintained. They looked fit and healthy, packed with muscles, or lithe and graceful; these were not slouches.

  And they were clearly expecting me.

  Tethys started laughing again.

  "You know," said the man who'd struck her, "the boss says we can keep you when we're done with all this hostage crap. You put on a good show, maybe we'll let you keep those good looks for a while."

  The others smirked or grinned at that. One or two licked their lips.

  Tethys laughed even harder, "Oh, you poor, poor man," she said, her voice sweet like honey, "You really shouldn't have said that."

  "Yeah?" he said, grabbing her hair, "And why's that?"

  "Well, it's my employer, you see. He likes to think he's an enlightened sort, women's rights and all that. But secretly, he's very old-fashioned, thinks women should be taken care of. It's all a little backward-thinking, really, but very sweet. The problem, as far as you're concerned, is that he can't abide people doing women a mischief, and if there's one thing you probably shouldn't have said where he could hear you, it's something like that."

  "Good thing he can't hear me then. Maybe I'll start early, tell the boss you tried to escape," he said, drawing a long, shiny knife.

  "That's the thing, precious," Tethys said, her voice a deep, sensual whisper, "my Love is already here. And unless I've missed my mark, he's angrier than I've ever known him. If I were you, I'd jump out the window now. It'll be much quicker than anything he'll do to you."

  A bluff? Or could she sense me through my Gate?

  Not that it mattered, I couldn't pass up a cue like that.

  The man smiled and moved his knife towards Tethys' chest. Naturally, he didn't get it very far.

  I hadn't just been sitting around, twiddling my thumbs. While I'd been watching, I'd also been drawing in heat through my Gate, lots of it. That's why I hadn't acted. I didn't want any of them to die.

  That would be far too easy for these pigs.

  My Shadows exploded through a rapidly expanded Gate, burning with all that heat I'd drawn in. The first hit sheared the knife-wielder's arm off half way between elbow and shoulder, the heat cauterising the stump, stopping the blood-flow. He screamed. I liked it.

  I stepped out of my Gate, now large enough for the task. I called my Will and yanked their Spelleaters away one by one, putting Shadows between them and the girls as they opened up with their guns.

  "I told you," Tethys said acidly to the screaming man on the carpet next to her.

  "Kandi, close your eyes, you don't want to see this," I said as I stepped towards the second man. He was tall, looked young and strong; my Mage Sight detected the faintest trace of Kandi's blood on his knuckles.

  Here's something you might not know; if there's one person you don't want to get mad with you, it's a skilled Flesh Mage, and, not to blow my own trumpet, but I was very, very skilled, especially after all that time in Hadleigh's class. I'd actually been giving this some thought, only idly until that moment, but with what I knew, I could do some rather monstrous things to a human body. I could cast a spell that would cause complete, instant, metabolic shutdown (otherwise known as death), another that could leave a human being in searing pain for the rest of his life, another that would cause skin to slough off in seconds, leaving a person a raw mass of exposed musculature... a dozen others came to mind, each more horrific than the last.

  But those weren't what I was after here. Those things were too quick, too easy for these people.

  They were going to hurt Kandi and my Tethys.

  Death was too easy for them because Tethys was right. I'd never been this angry before.

  I took the second man's sight; seared his eyes out of his skull with shards of burning darkness. He dropped his weapon and screamed. The third started convulsing as his muscle mass dropped to a quarter of what it had started at, and all the while his bones were growing too brittle to carry his body weight. His legs snapped and he crumpled, in too much pain to make a sound. The fourth's tongue grew rapidly in his mouth, becoming four inches long, then five, then more. In seconds, it had expanded like a balloon, breaking his jaw before snapping off his teeth. He fell to the ground, clutching at his face, wailing a muffled sound. The last, I sent my Shadows for, taking his legs and his gun hand before he could do anything more than pass out from the pain.

  The first, the animal that had handled Tethys... he tried to raise a gun with his remaining hand. If he'd pointed it at me, then perhaps he might have gotten off rather more lightly... but he pointed it at Tethys, and that made me... angry. Spikes of Shadow erupted from under his sleeves, flensing the skin from his bones before curving down, for his legs and hips. Each spike was burning hot and punctured him a dozen times, back on forth, through muscle, flesh and bone, searing each wound closed until he was left in an insensible, mewling heap, his legs ruined, his one hand a stretch of singed meat.

  The room filled with screaming and terror, some of them had soiled themselves. The one I'd blinded was tearing at the remains of his eyes, weeping and begging. In the end I took a certain amount of pity on them, and I knocked them all out before sweeping them into a heap in the corner with my Shadows. The room was suddenly quiet, but I could feel minds approaching from all around us, drawn by the awful noise.

  There was one door, and I blocked it with solidified Shadows before goi
ng to Tethys's side. I used my Will to tear those nasty shackles away as I dropped to my knees next to her, looking her over for damage. She smiled at me and threw her arms around my neck before I was half done, holding me tightly.

  "Never do that again," I whispered, "You scared the hell out of me."

  "I wasn't scared," she replied, "I knew you were coming, Love. I do feel a little stupid for letting these Neanderthals get the drop on me, though."

  "Can I look yet?" Kandi asked, her eyes had been shut tight the whole time.

  "Sure," I said, letting Tethys go so I could attend to her.

  I unlocked Kandi's cuffs with a wave of my hand. Tethys and I both hugged her tightly, and she burst out crying. I rubbed her back and she buried her face in my shoulder.

  "God, I'm sorry," she sobbed, "I'm being such a girl!"

  "We'll give you a pass this time," Tethys said, stroking Kandi's hair as I attended to the redhead's scrapes and bruises. The swelling quickly went down and the cuts healed cleanly as we held her.

  "Okay," I said, "let's get you two back home so I can have a chat with the boss around here."

  "Oh, you have to let us come!" Kandi said, "It's personal now."

  "Kandi, you... you don't want to see what's about to happen to him," I said.

  "I've been waiting twenty years for him to get what's coming to him, Matty," Kandi said, steel in her voice, "I wouldn't miss it."

  I looked to Tethys for support, but she just shrugged.

  "You two stay behind me at all times, understand me?" I said.

  They nodded.

  I released the Shadows around the door, and a pair of men fell into the room, off balance and stumbling, another dozen right behind them. I cast Sensory Overload, it would have taken too long to relieve them of their Spelleaters one by one. Wow, they sure had a lot of those; they were expensive, six figures each as a matter of fact.

  The men dropped to the ground. I made sure that there were no more coming, and went to relieve them of their Amulets, which was much easier when they were unconscious (the Spelleaters ran on Living Energy, but shut off when the user was unconscious, a safety measure to prevent injury). I handed the amulets off to Tethys, who grinned and stuffed them in a pocket (no need to break them, they were a valuable resource, and the company technically belonged to me, now. Not that I'd be running it, or anything).