Laura gritted her teeth, clacked an Egg against her amulet, and threw as hard as she could. It sailed straight into the backseat, its flashing eclipsed briefly before it exploded. The roof blasted off and sparks danced over cobblestone. The infestation shrieked. Its arms liquefied and Okane leapt over them, stumbling over the curb just in time. The vehicle slammed into the shop. Laura met him near the door.
“You okay?”
“In one piece,” he said.
“Good. Fall back for now, okay?”
He didn’t need telling twice. She wrenched the shop door open. Five people were inside, one with his legs crushed under debris, three others pulling him out; the last one had been caught by the infestation’s charge.
“Hurry and get out of here!” she called. “It won’t be long before the infestation recovers!”
Sure enough, the black ooze on the floor was drawing back together. It pooled over the counter, slipped over the last person, and dragged the silent body into its bulk. The other four hurried outside and toward Baxter. Laura ducked back outside and threw another Egg.
The infestation reeled. The vehicle lurched back again, scraped to face her now, and sped forward, spitting infestation covering its every surface. Laura stood her ground.
“Okane! Bijou!” she shouted, rapping another Egg against her belt.
This one hit and burst on the hood, spewing gold and clearing the windshield. An inactive Bijou flew past and bounced just off the side, but it was close enough. The heat of the Egg blast set it off, and the Bijou veered back into the vehicle with a scream. The infestation seeped inward to protect itself, but sparks ripped through it. The whole mess wove past Laura, and she tossed in two more Bijou. This done, she tore off after the others.
“Three?” said Okane, shaking. “But how many did it take to—”
“Not important. We’re getting rid of this before it can grab anyone else,” she retorted. Louder, “You up ahead, don’t look back!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The two other Bijou caught. Within seconds they were all howling, spitting light, and burning enough that thick, roiling clouds billowed off the creature’s body. The infestation lashed, tossing this way and that so the car veered erratically. One swing of feelers sent a Bijou flying back out, but it curved in midair; once it hit the ground it raced along the cobblestone and under the vehicle. The glow dimmed for a moment. Next came a thundering bang. The vehicle burst into flame. Fire licked high, vivid but smudged at the edges. The wreckage rattled as the infestation thrashed. It seemed smaller now, less solid. Laura didn’t arm her Egg this time, simply lobbed it in. Its break wasn’t audible but the fire stained vividly yellow. The infestation curled up so it was completely invisible. The familiar black cloud issued, snuffing the fire and shadowing the entire street. Laura pressed her bandana close against her face. Some smell still got through, and her eyes watered.
“It’s dead. Is everyone okay?”
The shop victims crowded further down the street, but Baxter hovered over them like a fretful hen.
“Rattled but whole,” he reported. “And you? You weren’t harmed?”
“It’ll take more than that to take me out,” said Laura.
“Glad to hear, Miss Kramer.”
Okane all but collapsed onto the sidewalk. Laura knelt beside him.
“What’s wrong? It didn’t touch you, did it?”
“No, nothing like that.” He knit shaking fingers together and attempted a smile. “I’m just—Back in the interior, after Clae—I could touch infestations and they’d leave me alone. This one wasn’t afraid of me at all. Is it—was I not scared enough? Am I not that strong anymore? Was it stronger than months-old swarms?”
Laura didn’t know, and she didn’t like the idea. “This one could’ve been a lot older,” she suggested. “Mobs plant hibernating infestations all the time.”
His nose wrinkled. “Since when do they hibernate?”
“Since always. It’s a defense mechanism. If an infestation reaches a point when it eats everything alive around it and can’t sense movement, it pulls back into the amulet and goes dormant. It resurfaces to check the surroundings and starts up again if it senses anything. If not, it just keeps sleeping. It can go weeks, or years. Decades, even.” She paused. “That’s the reason we even have the wilds. Infestations eat nonliving things too, so if there was no dormancy they’d eat the trees, the ground. There’d be nothing left.”
Okane shuddered. “Scary.”
“Most dormant infestations are from the wilds, so mobs buy from the idiots who harvest them. God knows how they keep from being eaten themselves.”
“Or maybe it’s not older at all,” said Okane.
“What else could it have been?” said Laura.
Okane’s brow furrowed. “The hive mind learns. Maybe it’s already adapted past my abilities, after seeing us in November.”
A distant wail reached them, coming closer by the second. Another police car tore around the corner, followed close by a white-canvased ambulance. One of the local shopkeepers must have called for help during the ordeal. Baxter waved them down, and soon medics fussed over all of them. While most stuck to the victims, one jogged over to the Sweepers.
“Are you hurt at all?” she asked, looking them up and down.
“Rattled but whole,” Laura echoed.
Okane nodded slowly. “I’ll be okay.”
Once the medical personnel attended to all the victims, the Sweepers quickly retreated into the shop. It felt good to be there, safe, in a place completely saturated with the smell and feel of magic.
“I don’t understand what they were trying to do,” Laura said once they were inside. “I mean, at first that woman was trying to convince me of something, then she threatened me to stay on the right path, and then she doesn’t even give me a chance to follow her advice?” She threw her hands up in frustration. “What was the point? If you’re going to kill me in a flashy way, why not do it with the backdrop of a burning building?”
“Maybe it was just emphasis,” said Okane.
“On what?”
“They can catch—off guard.” He peered through the window, up the street at the damage. “They can catch us even in a place we thought was safe. If she was handling infestations so easily, it could also be emphasis on their own Sweepers.”
Every mob had a Sweeper force, rarely seen. In the past, most mob-related incidents were settled quietly or specifically left for the Sinclairs to clean up. With all the talk about one of the Mad Dogs being an ex-Sinclair, Laura had always imagined the Mad Dogs being Sweeper-heavy, but of course the Silver Kings would have their own.
“So what, they’re saying we’re not needed?” she grumbled, joining him at the window.
“I wouldn’t know,” said Okane. “Sullivan never met with Silver Kings. The few Mad Dogs he invited to the mansion didn’t talk much about Sweepers, but then again he never cared about such things.”
They were startled from their thoughts as the door banged open. The wind chime downright clanged, and in came Juliana.
“Are you two all right?” she cried, before she was even over the threshold. “We got a call from the police about some kind of mob hit on the shop, and came as soon as we could. You’re not injured, right? They didn’t actually catch you?”
Laura was too overwhelmed to respond as Juliana caught her by the shoulders and gave her a critical once-over. Finding nothing, Juliana simply stared at her.
“It was an infestation, not a bombing,” Laura said once she finally found her tongue. “We were able to take care of it, but you probably saw the damage outside.”
Juliana nodded solemnly. “Were any people caught up in it?”
“One dead, multiple injured,” said Laura. “We had a policeman already on-site and more arrived fast. They’ll have the official numbers.”
“I’m just glad you two weren’t caught up in it.”
Lester entered far more slowly. “Juliana, the officer o
ut here says it was a mob hit.”
“A what?” Juliana looked aghast.
Laura winced. “I think they were after me. One faction got upset over all the newspaper articles and decided to make a stand. It doesn’t make sense to me, though. I don’t see what they’d gain from it beyond public backlash.”
Juliana’s expression became thunderous. “Of all the ridiculous—If this is how they’ll be, fine. We’ll teach you to defend yourselves more. Lester, let’s move up the training schedule.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MIRAH BOLENDER graduated with majors in creative writing and art in May 2014. A lifelong traveler, she has journeyed and studied overseas, most notably in Japan, and these experiences leak into her work. City of Broken Magic is her debut fantasy novel. She currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Map
1. August 1233
2. The Two-Monther
3. (This Job Is) The Pits
4. Silver-Coin Eyes
5. What Do You Hate?
6. Silver is not Gold
7. Roots
8. Stormy Sweeper
9. Yesteryear
10. Numberface
11. Hitting the Grit
12. Kaibutsu
13. Two for One
14. Castoffs
15. Gods in the Rabble
16. Falling Feet-First
17. The Gin Cycle
18. Airedale
19. Derailing
20. Bone Polisher
21. Gossipmongers
22. The Family Business
23. Sickness in the Earth
24. Anselm
25. A Light in the Dark
26. Thunder Underground
27. In the Wake
Excerpt: The Monstrous Citadel
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
CITY OF BROKEN MAGIC
Copyright © 2018 by Mirah Bolender
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Tony Mauro
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-16927-3 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-250-16926-6 (ebook)
eISBN 9781250169266
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact your local bookseller or the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First Edition: November 2018
City of Broken Magic Page 47
