Hard Corps (Quentin Case Book 2)

by John Hook

  Baron Steel snapped his head toward me and sneered.

  “I don’t know how, but I sensed she is, well, a living human. Think of her now as an hourglass. Her blood is running out. That’s how much time you have to turn your power over to me.”

  Surprisingly, the Manitor said, calmly: “You may be overplaying your hand. This may not be the best idea.”

  Suddenly there was a spiral of ravens coming up from the ground and Guido appeared. I had never seen Guido with anything but ambiguity on his face, even when he grinned, but now he was clearly angry.

  Baron Steel looked at Guido. “Stay out of this! You are in our territory now. The Council has no say in this matter.” He turned back to me as if Guido was someone who could be dismissed.

  Guido made a low growl and turned to the other Manitor, but he did not move.

  “Do not let him do this,” Guido intoned deeply. It wasn’t loud, so I’m not even sure how I registered it.

  “Don’t interfere. You have to let it play out and you know it,” the jackal-headed Manitor intoned back.

  “Case!” the Baron shouted, making sure he had my attention again. “You don’t have much time.”

  I looked at Saripha. Outrage and deep sorrow fought for control. Blood from all four wounds ran down the walls of the tower. As a few drops fell to the ground, demons caught them on their hands and licked it with sick-looking tongues and they started their screaming laughter. Time was stopped.

  “Give it to me now!” the Baron shouted.

  I wasn’t even thinking. I didn’t even notice that the sky had begun to grow gray. I tried to bring the power inside me up. Complex, glowing, spider-web-like tattoos of glowing blue appeared on my skin. I could feel power rising but I had no idea what to do with it.

  “You hopeless idiot!” the Baron raged. “You don’t even know how to use your power and you drag all your friends into battles with gods, all for your own selfish satisfaction? Just will it to leave you and enter me!”

  I started to do just that, but my eyes felt compelled to meet Saripha’s. I had been trying to avoid them, but something pulled me. In those eyes there was no pain. In those eyes were strength and determination and I sensed a powerful admonition.

  “Don’t do it. Let me go!”

  And for just a moment, although it was impossible from this far away, I saw her lips move and say one word. “Please.”

  All at once, I noticed the sky had gone nearly black. The Baron noticed it too. He yanked on the razor wire around Saripha that he still held onto although there was no reason to since she was mortally pinned to the tower.

  “More tricks! Magic cannot save you! Only Quentin can.”

  Suddenly the clouds split open and rain came down in sheets. The Baron started laughing.

  “What? Do you think I will rust?”

  Then lightning flashed.

  I felt helpless. Watching Saripha through the rain. I knew in my heart she did not want me to give up my power. At the same time, I could not find a way to do it even if I wanted to. If I had only taken time to let Saripha help train me.

  Then there was a blinding flash of lighting. The first massive bolt passed near the Baron, electrocuting a couple of demons on the ground. Finally there was a flash so brilliant, I was momentarily blinded, but I knew it had struck the Baron. He laughed madly as the unbridled power of the bolt enveloped him, energy licking all around him, doing no damage.

  I realized harming the Baron was not her goal. I saw the energy travel down the razor wire he still held. Whatever the metal was that Baron Steel produced, it was conductive. Unimaginable voltage passed into and through Saripha’s body. Her face didn’t contort into a scream of pain but into a smile of victory and when the voltage stopped the life left her eyes. Her head slumped down on her chest. Her body went limp.

  I collapsed on my knees on the ground. A sound I didn’t even recognize started deep in my throat and became louder and louder as I threw my head back and wailed to the sky.

  The deepest, blackest sadness I had ever felt descended on me.

  Saripha, the one who had truly been human in this most inhuman world, had been the ray of hope in this place.

  I could feel myself being pulled down into that blackness.

  There was no hope now.

  23.

  The sky had cleared. The sun was bright, although I hadn’t noticed. There was a momentary stillness.

  Baron Steel tore Saripha’s body off the tower with disdain and let it fall to the ground among the demons.

  “No!” I shouted and for a moment rage won out over the sorrow. I ran over to Saripha’s body. The demons, who themselves were a little spooked by seeing a human die and not turn into a proto, must have seen something in my face. They immediately backed away and didn’t try to molest the body. I took Saripha into my arms and was unable to stop the sobbing that came from deep within my chest. The others had joined me and Rox put her hand gently on my back. I was lost again in my sorrow. Both Guido and the Jackal continued to watch without doing anything. I barely noticed, which was probably good because I could have mistakenly aimed my anger at Guido for not preventing this.

  “Case, looks like I’m going to have to fillet it out of you before you get all your friends killed.”

  I was barely even paying attention to Baron Steel.

  Rox suddenly took her nails and tore open my back, shirt and all. The pain washed over me and I nearly dropped Saripha as I looked up at her, angry.

  “Good, there’s life in there.” Rox had her black-eyed ferocious face on. “Look, what happened to Saripha broke all of our hearts and frankly I don’t give a fuck if you want to feel like it’s your fault or not. We don’t have time for mourning right now because you are the only one who can save any of this. You have what you need. Saripha knew that.”

  I stood up. Rox pressed her hands against my chest. Memories flooded in. It was what Saripha had taught Rox, that she could reverse the flow of empathy to not just absorb and heal but to connect and push her own memories. In this case memories of triumph, even memories of great rage. Her face softened.

  “Go get them, Tiger.” Rox smiled.

  Blaise grabbed Saripha’s body and they ran away from the tower. Strength was flowing into my body as the blue lattice-like tattoos appeared again. I felt powerful, but I didn’t really understand the nature of that power. I didn’t spend too much time trying to figure it out. As the Baron was floating down I leapt, obviously farther than he expected me to.

  He looked startled for just a moment, and then contemptuous. He struck me hard against the head with a metallic arm. The pain burned, but this time he didn’t break anything, for which I assumed I had the power to thank. I flew hard against the tower and fell to the ground.

  Baron Steel landed. He looked at Guido as I picked myself up.

  “Have you taught him nothing? Did you not at least warn him what he was up against?” The Baron smiled. “Of course you wouldn’t. The Council forbids it.”

  Guido let out a low growl from his throat.

  “Don’t do it,” The Jackal said calmly. “The Council says it is up to them. It doesn’t matter if you chose wrong.”

  Baron Steel yanked me up by my hair.

  “Now I wonder where in here I can find that power.”

  He let metal blades protrude from his fingers and cut into my chest. He wasn’t really hurting me that much, he was humiliating me. My tattoos glowed. I turned hard into him and threw him into the wall of the tower. He broke the surface and sank into the wall. The power surged with my emotion and I started punching the Baron over and over driving him deeper into the wall. I remembered when I felt the power with Janovic and felt the instinct not to do this. I knew this was wrong. I knew this was not what the power was about. The Baron started laughing as I pounded him. And then he kicked me away.

  “Let it out. Don’t keep it in,” Guido offered quietly.

  Now I was a little put off by him.

  “That’s it
? An aphorism is all you have to help me with right now?”

  The Baron pulled himself out of the wall. He stood a few yards away from me. A sharp metal javelin formed in his hand. He tilted his head slightly as he considered me.

  “Just end this. It’s hopeless. Admit that you took on more than a mere human could deliver. Just sit down and focus and will your power up to me.”

  There was a whistling in the air. The Baron turned as arrows bounced off him from all directions. He stepped in the direction of Izzy and some of the other archers he had joined. I knew what they were doing. They knew the arrows couldn’t hurt or even slow down the Baron in his present form. They were a distraction to buy me time. I turned to Izzy.

  “Stop! All of you move back.” I looked at the Baron, who had turned back toward me, interested, and then I looked back at the others. I knew Taka was holding back because events were unfolding still too near the tower.

  “The Baron is right. We have lost this fight. I have no choice.”

  Izzy opened his mouth and shut it. He began shaking his head.

  “It’s time. I need to be able to calm down and focus on giving the power to him. Then we’ll go and continue our lives in Hell, such as they are.”

  Izzy was so shocked he just dropped his bow and stared.

  I turned back to the Baron. “You will at least let us keep Rockvale.”

  A mean smile curled up on his lips. “Sure, why not? We can be reasonable.”

  I knew that was one promise he would never keep. What else was new?

  Blaise started to run over to me but Kyo stopped him. Rox’s eyes met mine and a very subtle smile played on her lips.

  “Quentin is right. We fought the good fight. Time to let this go.”

  Rox knew. Kyo knew. I think Guido knew, though you could never tell. I had bought myself time. The Baron was going to allow me time to figure out how to hand the power over to him because of what he assumed was my incompetence and he was finally getting what he wanted.

  I had no intention of handing over my power willingly. That, more than anything, would have been a betrayal of Saripha’s sacrifice. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t take it, but it was clear they couldn’t. I had to figure out something I could do with my power and I had to figure it out fast.

  I sat down, cross-legged, on the ground. I started taking deep breaths the way Saripha had taught me. Saripha. For a moment, the deep, painful sorrow entered my being, but I immediately pushed it away. The only honor I could do her now was to find a way for her death to mean something and sorrow wouldn’t get me there.

  I had refused to use the power against Janovic. I remembered not feeling comfortable with the power. I ended up using the power indirectly, through a symbol that was meaningful for Janovic. In his twisted mind, my typewriter had power, and it ended up having power over him.

  I had no such symbol for Baron Steel. He was more powerful than Janovic. I had a connection to Janovic and that somehow made it easier too. I had no key to Baron Steel. I had no real means for getting a handle on him, and ultimately, that was how I worked. I poked and I poked until I figured out what made a difference to someone who stood in my way. Sometimes they became grudging friends, like Roland. Sometimes they became enemies.

  Baron Steel was purely an enigma to me. He just was. He must have been human once. However, I had no connection to him and had no sense of any weakness.

  Pain ripped through my shoulder. I surfaced immediately out of my thoughts. The tip of the metal javelin had gone through my shoulder. He yanked it out.

  “Don’t take too long, Case. I was afraid you might be taking a nap on me.”

  I flared up.

  “Do you want this or not? If not, just turn me into a proto now. If you want it, you’re going to have to give me whatever time it takes for me to get a handle on this.”

  The Baron wasn’t moved. He just smirked. I could count on him to continue to intrude if I took too long.

  I let myself sink back down. I was frustrated and it was getting harder and harder to pull inside myself. I really was beginning to lose hope of coming up with something. If only I had let Saripha train me. Then I thought of something. I managed to get my breathing back and felt myself go deeper until I found myself falling and I was in the underground place where Guido had been.

  Of course, what I had hoped is that Guido would meet me here and be able to tell me exactly what I needed to do. Like most of my plans, what I expected to happen isn’t what did happen. I was there. The four remaining talismans were there. No one else was there. I called out to Guido. Silence. I shouted at the top of my lungs. Nothing. I even tried concentrating and sending a psychic call. Nothing.

  I looked at the other talismans. Maybe I needed to use one of those. I shook my head. I didn’t know how. Besides, I already had magical power I didn’t know how to control. I felt uncomfortable with it. It felt...

  (alien)

  Pain in my other shoulder snapped me rudely out of the peacefulness of that underground place. The javelin was in this shoulder now.

  “How about a little lower and to the left. I seem to have an itch I can’t get rid of. Be a good lad now.”

  The Baron stormed up to me without bothering to remove the javelin so that it slid almost its whole length through my shoulder. He smashed his fist into my face, breaking my nose. The blood felt warm.

  “I’m losing my patience,” he shouted.

  “I know.” I smiled. I licked the blood as it flowed over my lips.

  He pulled back and yanked the shaft out of my shoulder. His face became stormy.

  “Stop stalling and give me your power. All you have to do is will it. Do it now, or I will turn every one on this field into protos and I will burn Rockvale.”

  “Keep your shirt on, honey. It’s coming right up.”

  The Baron was uneasy because I had become flippant again. He was worried I had something up my sleeve, although he couldn’t imagine what. I still wasn’t sure either, but I had begun to feel something when I had been in that underground place. And, at this point, I had nothing to lose by being a wise ass.

  I pulled back into myself. I knew I had to do it now, whatever it was. There was something I had overlooked.

  (alien)

  Something that I should have noticed when I was remembering back to Janovic. Something about Janovic’s symbol and not having a symbol for the Baron.

  (alien)

  Something about not being comfortable with the power, about not trusting the magic. Because?

  Why couldn’t I use the power?

  Because it wasn’t mine.

  The thought confused me at first. Of course it was mine. Both Guido and Saripha had insisted that I draw it into me.

  But it wasn’t mine.

  And suddenly it hit me.

  I remembered the conversation I had with Guido in the underground place. It had meant nothing to me at the time.

  He said: “You will also have something else inside you. They key to such power is to surrender to it, not try and control it.”

  And then another memory, more recent, of Saripha in the Tower, saying: “Everything in nature can be influenced by magic. That is ultimately what magic is. Tuning yourself to the nature around you and allowing it to flow through you. You don’t wield it. You sense it and guide it.”

  My eyes opened. I stopped trying to make anything happen. I just opened myself up.

  Baron Steel looked puzzled. He was sensing something had changed. Every inch of my body became covered with very intricate tattoos of blue light until I was nearly blue myself. Blue light came from my fingers and formed a typewriter that appeared as if it were made of glowing, translucent crystal.

  It wasn’t Janovic’s symbol. That’s what I had missed. He had focused on it, but it was mine. I didn’t need a handle on the Baron. I needed a handle on my power.

  The Baron started laughing again.

  “Oh, this really is pathetic.”

  He threw the
javelin at the crystal typewriter. He meant to shatter it, but instead the shaft became liquefied and formed chrome trim around the typewriter. He stepped back, clearly disturbed by this development.

  I had no idea what I was doing. In fact, my mind was blank. Rox and Izzy came running up in spite of the danger.

  “Don’t tell me you can change what happens in the world with that thing?” Rox asked.

  “Not like I did with Janovic’s created world. Now, shush.”

  I kept my mind blank and just let whatever it was flow out of me.

  (alien)

  I began typing madly, I didn’t know what and there was no paper in the typewriter, but as I typed, a cloud of very tiny blue crystals began coming out of where the paper would have emerged as you typed. It unrolled up and up into the sky and began to form a cloud of the tiny blue crystals. To the eye, it just looked like a swirling cloud of dust. It was hard to see the texture of so many very small crystals.

  The cloud rose up getting bigger and bigger and beginning to swirl clockwise above Baron Steel. He was becoming afraid, and I sensed it was Baron Steel who truly didn’t understand his power. He bent it to his will. He had plenty of practice doing that. However, that only produced circus tricks, in the scheme of things. He could materialize elements out of thin air or coat his skin so that sharp objects couldn’t penetrate it. However, he did not really understand his power.

  Because understanding wasn’t possible.

  (alien)

  And then I saw what I thought looked like eyes in the cloud. I felt a presence that coexisted with me, neither sad nor angry and, as I kept typing, my perspective shifted from looking down at the typewriter to looking down at Baron Steel. And when I looked down at Baron Steel, I didn’t see a monster. I saw a malignancy that needed to be removed.

  Fingers of blue dust drifted over and around Baron Steel, who had drifted up on his platform.

  “What are you doing, Case? This trick can’t hurt me.”

  The blue dust started flowing past him on either side, like a fog, first a little and then more and more. It sparked and danced over the metallic grains of his skin.