Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles-ARC

by Larry Correia

  There was very little panic. He’d come to marvel at how pragmatic Americans were. Harkeness did not join in the conversations of the other hotel guests. He recognized the work of a Peace Ray, and knew that there was only one within range. The sheer audacity of the operation impressed him. The fact that it had happened to destroy one of only twenty Grimnoir safe houses in the country narrowed down the list of culprits even further. He did not need to share his thoughts with Isaiah since he could tell that the man was Reading them anyway. He made no effort to disguise them. It was quicker that way.

  What now? Isaiah sent. We’ll have to find another way to track down Southunder.

  He was right. Timing was essential. For as impressive as the scorched hills were in the distance, the Peace Ray paled in comparison to the awesome destructive might of the Geo-Tel. Once the Chairman had it in his grasp, there would be no hesitation. It would be used and that would change everything.

  Harkeness pulled something out of his coat pocket and held it up for Isaiah to see. The gold and black ring appeared dull in the red light. There is one way.

  Southunder is too suspicious. That’s why Pershing picked him.

  The Pale Horse nodded. Southunder was a sly one, but he was also loyal to a fault. He’d had a falling out with the Society, but he had a problem with their leadership, not their mission. He would always be faithful to that. He will answer the call.

  It’s too risky. Isaiah shook his head. Spook him and we’ll never find it.

  If that is the worst that happens then we just have to wait for the Chairman’s Cogs to reverse-engineer the final piece.

  Isaiah gave a sardonic laugh. A few other guests scowled at him, and someone muttered something about impertinent negroes. He paid them no mind. He’d endured far worse in his life. I’d prefer not to die of old age in the time it’ll take Unit 731 to decipher the genius of the greatest Cog that’s ever lived. Tesla may have been crazy, but that man sure could build some mighty things. Why are you suddenly so rash? It isn’t like you. You are normally the patient one . . .”Wait . . .” Isaiah said aloud, Reading deeper. You lost someone out there? Why didn’t you say so?

  He clenched the Grimnoir ring in his bony fist. It was a small sacrifice to pay for our duty.

  It’s a shame when you outlive your own descendants. I’m sorry.

  Harkeness frowned. Damn you and your pity. Let’s finish the mission. Call for Southunder. He will come.

  “Very well . . .” Isaiah said, turning to face him. “We can—” He grimaced, raising his hands to his head as if a terrible headache had come upon him. Harkeness could see inside his friend’s body, all the inner workings, blood moving, organs working, bone, pressure, even impulses of the nervous system, but he saw no reason for the pain, and knew that it came from Isaiah’s Power. That he could not see. Harkeness took him by the sleeve and led him away from the crowd.

  “What is it?” he whispered.

  There is a place. It has been ringed with focal spells. They’re calling for help. “Pershing’s knights. Some of them are alive . . .”

  Harkeness looked back to the distant wastes and felt a flicker of hope.

  Mar Pacifica, California

  “Faye? Can you hear me?”

  It was pitch black, so completely dark that even her grey eyes couldn’t see a thing. The air was wet. The ground was damp and slick and cold under her side. Hands were on her arm. “Francis?”

  “Yes, it’s me. Are you injured?”

  Her head really hurt. When the blinding light had come down the stairs, she’d fallen. She couldn’t remember much after that. Her hair felt sticky and there was a huge throbbing lump on the back of her head. “I’m okay, I guess.” She resisted the urge to sit up, because she had a fear that she’d hit her face on something. It felt tight and scary in the dark.

  She checked her brain map and recoiled in shock. Other than a few separated spaces of air and salt water, everything else around them was solid rock as far as she could feel. The tunnel had collapsed behind them. They were in a tiny cave. Waves crashed right below. She backed out of her head, brought her knees up to her chest, and held them there as she rocked back and forth. She didn’t like being somewhere she couldn’t Travel out of.

  There was a rustle in the dark as something heavy crawled toward her and Francis. “How’s the kid?” Lance asked.

  Francis sounded relieved. “I’m glad you’re awake, Lance.”

  Hearing his gruff voice made her feel better. The last she’d seen of Lance, he’d been falling from the ceiling. “Fine,” Faye answered. “What happened?”

  “Hell if I know,” he grunted. “I’m in bad shape. Feel like I went twenty rounds with Jack Johnson. Status, Francis?”

  “Browning is the worst. He was wearing one of those tight-woven silk vests he’d been working on, so the bullet didn’t go through, but I think a bunch of his ribs are broken. He’s having a real hard time breathing.”

  “Doesn’t Jane have any Power left?” Lance asked.

  Francis swallowed so hard that Faye could hear it. “Jane’s gone, Lance.”

  Another voice came from Faye’s other side. “Madi took her.” It was Mr. Garrett. He sounded so sad that it broke Faye’s heart. “We’ve got to get her back.”

  “We will, Dan, we will. You injured?”

  There was a long pause. “I’ll live.” She couldn’t see him in the dark, but there was something wrong with the way he sounded. Mr. Garrett was in a lot of pain, and she couldn’t tell if it was his body or his heart that was more hurt.

  There was a thump from above. “The stairs are blocked.” Heinrich said. “I tried to Fade through the rocks, but I’d run out of Power before I made it very far.”

  Faye could have told him that. All the rock around them was making her real nervous. “Where’s Delilah?”

  “Over there,” Lance said moving in the dark, not realizing that it was so dark that it didn’t matter. “Sullivan’s got her.”

  “Is she—”

  Lance cut her off. “Don’t you mind her, Faye. She’ll be just fine, so don’t you worry.” He was a terrible liar. “We need to figure out how to get out of here. Anybody got a damn light?”

  “Broken,” Heinrich said. There was a tiny flicker of flame as he flicked open a lighter. “This is all I’ve got.” It was so feeble that Faye could barely see Heinrich, let alone anything around him.

  “There were some crates stashed down here with supplies,” Francis said. “But the roof caved in over them.”

  “Never a Torch around when you need one,” Lance muttered. “I already used my ring. If there’s anyone else in the Society within range, they’ll come, but I don’t know how long that’ll be. Command was supposed to be sending somebody to replace the General, and if we’re lucky, they might already be in San Francisco, but they might not.”

  “If it was a full-power blast from the Peace Ray, then San Francisco’s gone,” Heinrich said. “But I doubt that, since we’re still alive.”

  “Ideas?”

  “We wait for low tide and some of us swim for it,” Heinrich said. “We go for help to get the wounded out.”

  “I don’t think Browning’s got that long,” Francis said. “The water’s still high. I can swim for it now. I’m a strong swimmer.”

  “And you’ll drown or get smashed on a rock,” Lance said. “No.”

  “What is this place?” Faye asked.

  “It’s been here forever. Everyone from pirates to bootleggers has used it over the years,” Francis said. “My father had Mexican booze brought in this way and sold it in the city. It wasn’t like we needed the money, but I think he just liked the excitement. When the tide goes out you can bring a little boat right to the rocks outside and wade up here. I can make it now, Lance,” he pleaded. “It’s only partially submersed. There are plenty of spots to come up for air. I used to play down here as a kid.”

  Faye went back to her head map. The way out to the ocean was filled with crashing w
ater. There were no spots to come up for air. Either it was a lot tighter than Francis remembered, or he was lying, willing to risk almost certain death to try and get help for his injured friends.

  “I don’t know . . .” Lance muttered, tempted to believe his young friend. “Hang on. Let me check on Browning first. If he’s got time, we’ll wait for low tide, if not, you can go for it and risk your fool neck.” Faye noticed that he didn’t mention needing to check on Delilah and that filled her with dread.

  “You did the best you could . . .” Lance had told him softly. “I’m sorry . . . I’ve got to check on the others.”

  Sullivan held Delilah in his arms and rocked her back and forth. “No . . .” he finally said aloud, long after the Grimnoir had left his side. I failed her. He began to weep.

  When the light had come he’d fallen along with the others. The energy of the Peace Ray had briefly snuffed out consciousness like a candle before a gust of wind. He’d come to, not sure if seconds, minutes, or hours had passed, and found Delilah at his side, one arm thrown over her protectively. Her breathing had grown much weaker.

  In the pitch black it was impossible to check her wound. Her skin was clammy and cold to the touch. He’d left a pack of matches in his room and cursed himself for not picking them up when he’d grabbed his guns.

  The Grimnoir had begun to stir and he’d screamed for help, for a light, for anything. The German had joined him first and produced a small cigarette lighter. The flickering light had revealed a grisly wound. The ninja had opened her up from belly button to pelvis and her insides were exposed like a tangle of purple snakes. They were kneeling in a puddle of blood.

  He’d pulled the trench knife from his belt. There was no time. “What are you doing?” Heinrich had hissed.

  “I need your coat,” he’d answered. The German had been splattered with the Greater Summoned’s blood-oil. The light vanished for a moment as Heinrich complied without question. Lance had joined them a moment later, realizing immediately that he was attempting the same thing that he and Browning had tried to save Sullivan’s life.

  Sullivan had been meticulous as he’d cut perfectly straight lines into her abdomen. The design was perfect. The healing spell a copy of the one on his own chest, a proximity to the geometric thing that was the living Power, and then he’d burned the second triangle over it with the smoking oil from Heinrich’s coat. Then they’d waited.

  Nothing had happened.

  Heinrich left to check on the others. Lance had a box of matches and struck one to replace the light. He burned it down until it hurt his fingers, and then he did another, and another. Finally they sat there in the shadows. It was there in the dark that her breathing had become weaker and weaker, until it sounded like a bare snore.

  Now Sullivan was alone, holding Delilah tight against him. While his mark was burning, repairing his body, hers was as cold as the cooling space inside her chest. Why? Why didn’t it work? He had done everything right, but his magic was weak. He was useless. He knew more about magic than almost anyone else in the world, but even then, he was blind, stupid, a helpless child playing a man’s game.

  He’d actually seen the Power, not as some nebulous idea, but as a creature that lived and fed through them, but he didn’t understand it, and his failure was going to end the life of the only woman he’d ever had feelings for.

  “Please, baby, please hang on,” he whispered. “If you can hear me, you need to touch the Power. I drew the spell for you. It’ll start fixing you. Come on. Reach for it. Please. Please. You can do it.”

  Not like this. I need you. I love you.

  Delilah stopped breathing.

  And just like that, it was over.

  A dam of rage broke loose inside of him. Sullivan lifted his face and screamed at the darkness.

  The sound that came out of Mr. Sullivan was so terrible that Faye cringed, half expecting the rest of the cave to collapse around them and she knew that Delilah was gone. His voice finally broke after what seemed like forever. The sound tapered off to a hoarse wheeze and then nothing.

  Delilah had always liked the sunshine so much. It didn’t seem fair to die in the dark, in a wet hole far underground. She crawled toward Mr. Sullivan, but a hand fell on her shoulder. “Leave him be, Faye,” Lance said gently.

  “You lied. You said she’d be fine,” Faye shouted.

  “Yes, I did,” he responded sadly.

  “What about Mr. Browning? Is he going to be fine too? And what’s wrong with Mr. Garrett? Is he going to live like you said Delilah would?”

  Lance sighed. “Quiet down, girl. You want the truth? John hasn’t long unless we get him to a Healer or a real hospital. Dan’s hurt bad, but I don’t think the bullet that went through him is the worst of it. You go over there to Sullivan and he’ll take your head off right now.”

  “How do you know that?” she spat.

  “Because I been where he is before is why. That burned house, where we met? That was my house, Faye. The last time the Imperium found us I lost my wife and I lost my baby daughter.”

  She thought back to the charred timbers and the feeling of sadness in those ruins. “I didn’t know.”

  “How could you? Listen, Faye. That’s the life of a knight of the Grimnoir. It’s pain and loss and suffering, but we keep on going, no matter what. Your Grandpa understood that. We’re a dying breed. There’s fewer of us every day and nobody in control seems to care, and there’s gonna be even fewer if we don’t get John and Dan some help soon.”

  She could hear Mr. Sullivan sobbing and it seemed extra sad to hear somebody that strong break. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  “Francis seems to think he can make it. If he goes now he could maybe get a boat back here by the time the water goes down and we can get everyone out. Or I can send a young man to drown in a futile gesture to save an old man’s life . . . John’s got a few hours in him, but that’s it. I hate being in charge, but I’m the senior man, so I get to make that call.”

  Don’t kill Francis. He’s nice. “Can’t you get a bird or a fish or something?”

  “Too much rock. My Power can’t see through it.”

  “Mine either,” Faye muttered. “I could Travel up top in seconds. It isn’t that far, but farther than I can feel, so I’d probably die . . . If only I was like Heinrich and could walk through walls, then I wouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck.”

  “Hmmm . . .” Lance said. “That gives me an idea. Heinrich!”

  He crouched next to them a second later. “Jah? What do you need?”

  “Can you Fade with another person? I mean, can you take another body through solid objects with you?”

  He was quiet for a moment. “I have done this before. It is very draining. I can only do it briefly, but it is just like taking the clothes on my back or a firearm, but the more mass I have to Fade, the faster it uses up my Power. If I run out while embedded in something . . . well, I’ve seen it happen to others. The matter becomes fused together. It is not pretty.”

  She understood what Lance was thinking. “I can Travel with more than one person!” Faye clapped her hands with glee. She wasn’t exactly an expert at it, since she’d done it exactly once, and that had been in a moment of panic. “If I was all . . . fadey . . . I wouldn’t be worried about getting stuck in something when I Travel. I could go further than I could see, and not die!”

  “What do you think?” Lance asked Heinrich.

  “It makes sense,” he answered. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

  Lance grunted. “Besides getting stuck together into a big lump of meat or maybe somehow screwing up and getting embedded in solid rock? I don’t know.” Lance said. “So it’s either drown Francis, let John suffocate in his own blood, or kill the two of you . . . I got to do the math here. It was a stupid idea. Forget it.”

  There was a flicker as Heinrich thumbed his lighter. He held it close to her face. He was looking into her eyes, studying her. “Can you do this
thing, Faye?”

  “You didn’t trust me before. Do you trust me now?”

  He shrugged. “There are easier ways to betray someone than a suicide trip through a cliff.” He grinned. “Poor Lance, trying to be responsible with such impulsive young people under his command. How much time will you need?”

  “No,” Lance interrupted. “John wouldn’t want you to do this.”

  “I can go super fast. I can probably do it in two, maybe three hops. So, figure five or six seconds.”

  “I am good for double that,” Heinrich said. “You do not appear to weigh much.” He closed the lighter and then took her hands in his. “Please try not to kill us and do not let go.”

  “No way. Too dangerous. That’s an order, damn it.”

  “Lance, don’t be such a wet blanket.” She would have to push extra hard. When she’d Traveled with Francis, she’d gone a much shorter distance than she’d expected for the amount of push she’d given it. It was terrifying to think about Traveling into the unknown. “Ready?” Faye asked, but there was no need, as her body suddenly felt very tingly. It was like she was made out of fog. With a shock she realized she was sinking into the floor. It tickled.

  Faye grabbed her Power, more than she ever had before, and was surprised how much there seemed to be there, just waiting for her to use.

  “Sto—” Lance had begun to bellow but then everything around her and Heinrich was solid, like being buried in the ground, only they weren’t in the ground, the ground was in them. It was like her body was made of little tiny bits and Heinrich had spread those bits out wider, and the tiny bits that made up the ground were passing in between her bits. There was no air, no light. They were stuck in the cliff! Panic hit her like a club and she nearly let go of Heinrich and killed them both.

  Go! Her head map was useless, and she grabbed all that extra Power that she’d always been afraid to mess with and hurled them both straight up.

  Too far! She shrieked as they appeared in the sky, tumbling through the air, suddenly falling. The light was blinding and she blinked as they spun. Heinrich released his Power and she could feel that he was holding onto her hands so hard that she thought the bones would break. He was screaming something but the wind was rushing by too fast and all she could hear was it beating her ears.