Shadowborn's Terror: Book IV of 'The Magician's Brother' Series

by HDA Roberts

  They came for me in a flood, shaped from terror and ugliness...

  And stopped five feet short of me, changing and smoothing out as they hit my aura; becoming my recognised forms, linking to my own Shadows and pulling away from her to surround me.

  I smiled.

  Ankiala's face widened in horror and shock.

  "No... that's impossible! How are you doing that?!"

  "The Shadows are mine," I said coldly, "They've forgotten you."

  She screamed in rage and pure hatred.

  "Maybe, but you can't command them if you're dead, and Namia Sutton knew more than enough to tear you apart!"

  She called Light.

  I called something else entirely, even as I was diving out of the way.

  Bring this place down! I commanded down my link before calling my Shadows to pull me around and away from her attacks. I returned fire with Demise's Staff, but Ankiala had Sutton's memories; she knew how to duel and caught my blast on a Will shield.

  I felt most of the energy I had left pour into the Shadow Realm, and dozens of Elementals sprang forth throughout the warren. There was nobody living left to protect, Sutton had killed everyone who wasn't a Hyde monstrosity and so my creatures started tearing it to pieces with wild abandon. The whole place began to shake as centuries-old caverns and chambers were torn apart.

  "NO!" Ankiala screamed as dark shapes appeared and tore into the columns keeping the chamber upright. There was a great thunder above; the roof trembled, shedding decades of dust that made me sneeze. Ankiala lashed out at the Elementals, Light attacks that forced them to retreat, but the damage was done. I saw the church far above collapse onto the level below, the impact brought that floor down too, and then the next.

  "This isn't over, Shadowborn!" Ankiala screamed as I opened a Gate behind a column and leapt through it, "I hate you! I'll hate you forever! You'll never be safe from me!"

  The gate slammed shut as the descending tide of rock struck the chamber, and I was plunged into safe darkness. I watched the Shadow Realm change to reflect the real world. Ankiala's grave was quickly buried under thousands of tons of rock.

  The Elementals returned to the Realm, swimming gently through the darkness, surrounding me.

  "Thank you," I said, "you saved my life."

  Honour for the One.

  Always, we are here.

  I expressed my thanks again and let myself relax a little as I Shadow-Walked back in the direction of the plaza where I'd left the others.

  Naturally, I picked the wrong moment to emerge and nearly died by friendly fire.

  Again.

  Chapter 30

  I emerged back into the real world in the shadow of a tree inside the circle of Wardens. The stench of death was all around us, and there were piles of dead monsters everywhere.

  One of the Wardens closest to me turned and launched a Lightning Bolt at my face, letting out a startled "Danger!"

  Thankfully I was still shielded, or I'd have died. As it was, my defences took a hard hit, losing the outer layer; I turned to glare at the idiot.

  "What is it with everybody's Wardens trying to do me in!" I barked loudly, turning every head towards me.

  "God, Matty!" Cassandra said, darting towards me. I dropped my shields and was subjected to a thorough going over for injuries before a crushing hug, "Was that you? Did you knock over a church?"

  "Technically, the Shadow Elementals I summoned did, so... no? -ish?" I offered as Demise came over and did much the same thing as Cassandra did, only with an even tighter hug at the end.

  "You two saved my life tonight," I said, handing their weapons back to them, "I'd have been so thoroughly screwed."

  They smiled.

  "What happened?" Kron said, storming towards us, Killian, Palmyra and Hopkins on her tail.

  I laid out what had happened, while looking for a place to sit down, I was knackered.

  "So, she's dead?" Kron asked sadly.

  "Hardly," Ankiala said from right behind me.

  Always... always from bloody right behind me!

  We all turned, lightning-fast towards the danger, everyone readying Magic. But Ankiala had her hands raised, and wasn't using Magic at all; she just stood there, calmly.

  "Peace, Archons, I mean no harm. I'm here to surrender."

  "What?" I asked.

  "Surrender, Lord Shadow," she said, "I offer it. I'm as much the victim of Namia Sutton's schemes as anyone else, I merely wish the chance to prove it."

  "Oh, this stinks," I said.

  "You murdered that girl," Kron said, readying her Magic.

  "I only acted in self-defence!" Ankiala said desperately, "She meant to enslave me! Use me as a weapon, how could I not act to free myself?"

  Killian walked forwards, "Easy, Van, hear her out."

  Bad idea, bad, bad idea...

  "I can tell you everything she knew about her Legion's criminal enterprises. I can tell you every evil thing she ever did, and I'll do it willingly. All I ask is that you listen, and judge me fairly. Lord Shadow saw everything that happened. My... nature allowed me to watch the world outside my prison, at least a little, I've been watching him; he's a man of honour. Tell them what role I had in my resurrection, my lord."

  I coughed, vastly annoyed, because she had a point. Whatever she intended to do, she hadn't actually done anything except free herself from probable, no, certain enslavement...

  "Nothing that I saw," I admitted, "which doesn't mean that she hadn't been working behind the scenes somehow."

  "How could I? I was dead," Ankiala pointed out.

  Oh, I hate it when the bad guys make good points!

  We were all looking rather shifty at this point, itching to blast her, but without any actual reason to do so. It was making me twitchy.

  "And you're willing to come quietly?" Kron asked.

  "Of course," Ankiala said, "I have to live in this world. I can't afford to make enemies of you. Accept my surrender, hear what I have to say, and I'll accept your fair judgement."

  "We're listening," Kron said.

  "I would point out that the last words you said to me before the church came down were, 'I'll hate you forever, you'll never be safe from me'," I said.

  "I've mellowed," she countered.

  "In the last half-hour?"

  "I'm not like you, Shadow," the monster said, "I think faster than your kind."

  "Doubt you think faster than me," I replied, glaring.

  I had, after all, just out-thought her quite handily... I'm still quite proud of that.

  "Oh, I know you think you're clever. Tell me, how ever were you in two places at once? You took that whore from one of my- her laboratories just as you were bringing down another."

  "Call her a whore," I said coldly, "One more time."

  The look in my eye made her gulp and step back.

  "My apologies, Shadow," she said, "I didn't know you were so... attached to the creature."

  "I'm beginning to get quite annoyed with you," I said; the world started to get that little bit darker.

  "What's this, Graves?" Kron asked.

  "Liaison issue," I replied.

  "Right, say no more," Kron said, turning her stare back to Ankiala.

  "Really?" the Fallen Goddess asked, "Just like that, you trust him? He broke his promise, after all, he wasn't watched by Demise while he was rescuing his demon."

  Apparently an Elder God that lost the majority of their powers or which was reduced to some sort of mortal or semi-mortal state was called a Fallen God; the terminology could drive you insane. I was brought up in a house where only one God got a capital letter, for heaven's sake, this was just maddening.

  "Technically speaking, my timeline was altered, and I was never actually gone. Technically," I said.

  "Barracks room lawyer," Kron muttered, but she smiled, just a tiny little bit, like a hair-crack in a granite cliff.

  I shrugged.

  "And also a corruptor. Look what he did to your loyal retai
ner, Lord Death. And the secret she carries, oh my..." Ankiala said, "You'd all kill her right here if you knew what she'd done. She betrayed you all."

  There was a rasp of steel and the sound of guns being cocked as Cassandra and Demise pointed weapons at her.

  "Shut your mouth," Demise snarled, her blade glowing black with Entropy.

  "Really? After what you did to your new 'lord', now you act righteous?" Ankiala said smugly.

  "I really think that's quite enough out of you," I said; my Shadows came at my call.

  I didn't believe a word of it. This bitch was trying to play a mind-game on us.

  "Lord Shadow, that's enough!" Killian said.

  I grunted, but obeyed, pushing my Shadows away.

  "Demise, what's she talking about?" Killian asked.

  "My lord," Demise said, "It's... I..."

  "She violated his mind," Ankiala said smiling in a manner I found deeply offensive, to the point where I almost wiped it off her face.

  "What?" Hopkins, Palmyra, Killian, Kron and I all said at once.

  "Still think you're smart, Shadow?" she said, "The vampire bit him, formed the bond with him, which he liked, by the way, let her mistress do the same... and then they helped precious Demise invade his mind. All for his own good of course; the things she told those pathetic creatures to get them to cooperate... I'm an ancient terror from the depths of time, and even I was impressed."

  Alright, I must admit, I didn't see that one coming. I figured Demise's secret shame involved her getting a little handsy with Crystal or something, not... this.

  Demise looked like she was going to be sick. Her sword was shaking in her grip. I put my hand over the one that was holding it.

  Don't get me wrong, I was pretty pissed off for a second there; but all I had to do was give it even the tiniest bit of thought, and that quickly turned to something else entirely.

  "Not your fault, Dee," I said softly, "I was dosed with Succubus stench. Nobody's actions that night were their own. I know that you had a good reason for what you did, hell, I could list them right now."

  And I could, too. She was the one sent to watch me, she had a prime opportunity to look in my head and really see what kind of man I was, to learn how to defeat me if it came to that, and she'd taken it. It also wasn't lost on me that it was after that intrusion that we'd really started to grow close. She taken a look at the real me... and decided that she liked me after all. She hadn't even told the others about the Time Sling, and she had to have known. How could I hate her for any of that?

  "I could list the other reasons, if you like?" Ankiala chimed in.

  I hit her with a Coma Hex and she dropped like a landed tuna.

  Everyone looked over at me.

  "What?" I asked, "It was the very least evil thing I could have done. Also, it's reassuring that her brain still works like a human's."

  "How can we interrogate her with one of your un-untangleable Hexes in her head?" Kron asked.

  "I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me, did it hurt?" I asked sweetly.

  "You want another beating?" she asked.

  "I'm actually starting to enjoy the rough treatment."

  "And you say I'm a freak," Palmyra said with a grin.

  Demise was still shaking, and I put a hand on her shoulder. She was looking down.

  "Give us a sec?" I asked. They nodded and backed off a bit, dragging Ankiala along by Will, her head juddering along the ground.

  "Look at me," I said gently.

  She shook her head.

  "Please?"

  It took a minute, but she did what I'd asked.

  "You've got nothing to be ashamed of," I said, quietly, "You are my friend. Nothing else matters to me than that. If you are feeling bad, don't. There's no tether for it in me."

  "You don't understand, Mathew," she said, "You trusted me, you saved me, and I still mistrusted you enough to do what I did... and then I saw you, really saw you, and I couldn't bear it. I'm so ashamed."

  "Dee, I can count on one hand the number of people who really know me, and the number of people who know me and still want to be around me is even smaller than that! You know me now, and you're still here. That's a gift, my friend. Am I thrilled that you went poking into my private places? No, of course not, but I'm happy about how it turned out, really I am. If anything, I trust you more now, not less. I trust you, my Warden. You keep me safe. That's what matters."

  She looked in my eyes, searching for the lie, I think, but she wouldn't find one there.

  "How can you forgive what I did?" she asked.

  "One, and I hope I'm saying this for the last time, not your fault; two, you were doing your job; and three, you kept my secrets, not that I had too many of them."

  That raised a smile from her. I cupped her face, and she leant into the touch.

  "And four, most importantly, you meant me no harm, and would never do me any, because you are my friend and my guardian, even then, especially now. I want this to be the last time you let this hurt you, understand?"

  "Yes my lord," she said with a smile.

  "Good. Now, let's go get a couple of quiet kicks in at Ankiala while she's passed out," I said.

  Demise laughed.

  We rejoined Cassandra while Palmyra sidled up to Demise.

  "I will pay you so much money for any details I can tease him with later," she stage-whispered.

  "Pixie attacks, all aimed at you," I said over my shoulder.

  "Spoilsport," Palmyra said.

  "The vampire said she recorded everything," Demise said.

  "What?" I asked, turning around.

  Demise clapped her hands over her mouth.

  "I don't know why I said that!" she said, mortified.

  "Lucille!" I said with a glare.

  "What? I have a trustworthy face," she said, all innocence.

  Hopkins was shaking with suppressed laughter. Killian was looking away, grinning evilly. Kron looked disgusted.

  We went back to the Hotel, and they had me dismantle my Coma Hex, but not until they'd slapped Spelleater Manacles on Ankiala.

  "Well, that was undignified," the Fallen Goddess said after she'd awoken.

  "Don't annoy the First Shadow, it's a lesson we all learn in time," Hopkins said, "He can be a little touchy and holds a grudge."

  I was sitting at the side of the room on a sofa next to Cassandra, Demise standing next to me. Ankiala was in an armchair, Killian sat in front of the prisoner, Palmyra and Hopkins nearby, on sofas. Various Wardens were close, Spells ready to go if she proved problematic.

  "You're telling me? He decapitated me for all intents and purposes," Ankiala replied.

  "Oh dear, how sad, never mind," I said in a dark mutter, quoting one of my father's favourite TV shows.

  "Explain that," Killian said.

  "I took this body and all it contained," Ankiala said, "For all intents and purposes, in that instant, I became Namia Sutton, just with a little extra... 'me' thrown in. I then began to hollow her out so I could get the rest of me in; widen her, what do you call it... Well? I managed to get the core of my personality and memories in, at which point your intrepid fifth cut me off! Which should have been impossible. I underestimated you, Shadow."

  "You wouldn't be the first, and God willing, you won't be the last," I said.

  Ankiala snorted, "Anyway, I barely got a tenth of myself into this shell, and that is diminished further by the alien nature of this body. I'll not be up to whatever my full strength is now for months, maybe years, and the Shadows don't truly obey me anymore," that last said with a venomous look my direction.

  I grinned evilly.

  "My point is that you have little to fear from me. I want to live. I want to grow rich and strong and decadent. I have no choice but to live peacefully and as well as I can. I will not go back to that endless, awful cold," she said, rubbing her stolen arms for warmth.

  "And getting into a war with you... and him," she continued, glaring at me at that las
t bit, "is badly counter to that goal. I just want to get as far away from this place as I can, go someplace beautiful and dark for a while. Get used to this... three dimensional flesh."

  "And what guarantees do you offer that you won't turn on us one day?" Kron asked.

  "Isn't that really your department, Lady Time?" Ankiala answered.

  "Too many possible futures, some good, some bad, some middling. No certainty," Kron said.

  "Isn't that true of everyone?" Ankiala asked.

  Kron grumbled, but nodded.

  "Are we forgetting the whole mortal terror, certain horror thing?" I asked.

  "May not apply anymore," Kron said thoughtfully, "I hope. She isn't Namia Sutton anymore."

  I slumped back on the sofa.

  "So, what do you think?" Ankiala said, "Are you going to condemn me for saving myself? Will you accept the information I have on Sutton's little empire in exchange for my life?"

  Kron and Killian looked at each other and then at Hopkins and Palmyra.

  "We need that information," Kron said.

  "Couldn't she give it to us from safely inside the Farm?" I asked.

  "Freedom or nothing," Ankiala said, "I won't be confined again."

  Kron led us into an adjoining room. I knew where this was going, and I hated it. I wanted that creature safely locked away where she couldn't do something unpleasant to me in the future.

  They discussed it, but they already had a consensus.

  "Matty, you've been uncharacteristically quiet; it's bothering me," Hopkins said.

  I sighed, rubbing my eyes, "Fine, let her go, just don't say I didn't warn you if she turns up one day with my head on a pike."

  "Such a drama queen," Palmyra said.

  I muttered under my breath, but the matter was resolved. And I think that it was almost certainly down to one factor: Ankiala was the occupant of Namia Sutton's body. My brother and sisters were hoping (somewhat desperately in my opinion) that Namia was still in there somewhere. I could empathise with that train of thought, the only problem was that they didn't really know Namia Sutton, they only knew the mask she presented to them.

  The real problem was that Sutton probably was in there somewhere, and she was all mixed up with an ancient horror, neither of whom liked me very much. I couldn't see a way those two ingredients could come up with something that wouldn't poison me at some point down the road.