Order of Chaos (The Pendragon Agency)

by CT Knight

  Sasha had followed my lead and freed herself sooner. She shoved the woman out of the elevator and helped me do the same with the man. They both knocked into each other and fell to the floor. Sasha and I both repeatedly pressed the buttons for the doors to close until they finally did, blocking our attackers on the other side.

  “How’s your throat?” I asked hoarsely.

  She coughed and nodded her head that she was OK. We both stood against the walls closest to the doors, in case something like that happened again.

  “Final floor,” a computerized voice said from a speaker in the elevator.

  We both looked at each other and our expressions matched. It had been a long night and not only was it not over, but there was a good chance it was going to get worse.

  The doors opened to the sight of Acolytes standing in the observation deck, watching the rain.

  “What do we do?” Sasha whispered.

  “We can’t just leave them alone.” Lightning flashed and thunder cracked.

  Suddenly, a knife sang past me, just inches from my head. I turned to face its thrower. The Acolytes were all starting to look the same. Just how many were in New York? For that matter, could there have been others in other cities? Worse, were they attempting their own summoning?

  “Nruter!” I yelled, hoping the blade had been infused. Luck was on my side. The weapon spun back at the thrower, striking him in the head with the handle. Unfortunately, the other Acolytes took notice.

  “Stop the Chaos Bringer,” Sasha said, starting for the middle of the room.

  “I’m not leaving you by yourself with them!” I told her.

  “I can handle them.”

  “As a house cat?” I watched her shift into something far deadlier than a house cat. Turned out, she was holding back. It got me wondering what other secrets Sasha Verhaven was hiding.

  The panther form was much like John’s berserk wolf. Bipedal with opposable thumbs. The jet-black fur made her more formidable looking.

  “I can’t hold this form for long,” she said. “Go!”

  I took one more second to watch her dive into the oncoming crowd before I bolted for the stairs to the roof. I took one look back. It might have been the last time I saw her. I smiled at the way the Acolytes had quickly become her play things. Princess Sasha Verhaven was more savage than John Wallace. I had a new respect for cats.

  I shoved the door to the roof open to find even more Acolytes. Some were standing in a close circle around Prime while others stood around the edge of the building. Their desire for chaos must have been greater than their fear of heights. And we were very high up. I had a feeling a few of them were going to become ground decoration no matter how the night ended.

  Prime held the silver bowl of royal blood up as if in offering while the five Acolytes around him chanted and waved their arms in the air. The others were doing similar gestures only less pronounced.

  I had my own gesture for them. My gun came up, aimed right at the bowl. “Prime!” I yelled.

  “Arthur Pendragon!” Prime yelled back.

  “Put the bowl down.” I felt dumb saying it.

  “When we are so close to our lord’s arrival? When we stand on the edge of this momentous occasion?”

  “It’s the edge of insanity if you go through with this. Don’t think I won’t pull this trigger.”

  “Chaos, Arthur Pendragon. From which all things are born. It is the very essence of being. Can you not feel the conflict within yourself?” Prime asked. “To fire your weapon or not. You live through the very definition of chaos. How could you not welcome this?” He was right about one thing, and it wasn’t to shoot or not to shoot. There was an inner conflict. And as long as I didn’t use magic, I was winning.

  “Fine.” I lowered my gun, aiming it at Prime’s head and started to pull the trigger. But my finger wouldn’t move. It was like I was pulling on a brick. No movement at all.

  I glanced around the roof, searching for the conjurer who was at work. One Acolyte stood nearby, head down, arms outstretched and fingers formed into a sign. I recognized it. It was a cage spell. One ensnaring only my trigger finger.

  “Your resilience and your dedication to duty never ceases to amaze,” Prime went on. “I am overjoyed you will be able to witness the coming of the Chaos Bringer. But where is the Princess? She should bear witness as well. It is only by her blood that we may bask in the glory of the coming of the Chaos Bringer.”

  I knew enough about cage spells to know they worked on the intention of the trapped. If one was to run toward a tree, the spell would prevent that but nothing else. And since my intention had been to shoot Prime…Well, I guess I just needed to switch intention.

  I raised my arm, aiming back at the bowl, and my finger was instantly freed. I pulled the trigger and fired at the bowl, knocking it out of Prime’s hands. It was over.

  I had considered just shooting all of them for good measure but I didn’t have enough bullets. Besides, without the blood, there could be no ritual. Now I just had to make sure Sasha stayed safe so they couldn’t try it again. But that’s when the laughter started.

  There are three kinds of laughs: joyous, crazed, and vile. Prime’s was the third kind. It was the sound of someone who had one more trick up their sleeves. Even the warlord inside me knew there was more—I could feel his awareness.

  “A commendable shot, Arthur Pendragon,” Prime said.

  I was getting increasingly tired of the way he kept using my whole name.

  “It’s over. Without the blood, you’re just a cult with weird hoods,” I told him as if it was enough to make them all pack up and go home.

  “Is that what you think? That our lord’s arrival could be stopped by such a simple act?” Prime asked before laughing, again. The others joined in on the revelry. “You have only hastened it. The chanting is ceremonial. Wholly unnecessary. Haven’t you realized from where you stand? Look around you.”

  I did as he suggested. At first it was just a bunch of people standing around but I quickly realized the symbol they had created. It was an ancient summoning rune.

  “All that was left to do was pour the blood. I had hoped for a grander welcome to the Chaos Bringer but the deed is, nevertheless, done. Thank you for performing the task for us. Once again, you have proven most valuable to the Acolytes of Chaos. I am sure the Bringer will reward you the same as it will us.”

  Thunder, louder than I’d ever heard, boomed across the sky but the red light that followed was not lightning. And it was not from this world.

  “Behold!” Prime shouted as if seeing a naked woman for the first time. It was a sound of pitiful ecstasy. “The Chaos Bringer!”

  I turned to face the same direction as the others and saw two rips through the barrier between our world and wherever the Bringer was coming from. Through one rip I saw a giant arm, reaching slowly through the opening and into our world. Through the second rip, I saw a pair of eyes. They gleamed with only thoughts of destruction. And they were looking right at me.

  CHAPTER 21

  “It comes, my brethren!” Prime shouted. “Prepare yourselves! The Chaos Bringer comes. And with it, the glories of its gifts!”

  I finally figured out what the Acolytes were. Past all the kidnappings and attempted murders. The Acolytes were absolutely out of their minds. My guess was, that some of them probably thought they could control this thing. Its name should have been a clue that they couldn’t.

  I watched as the arm reached out from inside the storm. It hinted at how big the rest of the monster was. Its maroon color darkened along bulging veins in the crook of its elbow. Finger-nails the size of cars protruded from the ends of those fingers. I figured the whole hand could grip the entire half of the building we were on. And knocking the building over would have been as easy as a good shove.

  The arm had twisted as it reached out, hiding what looked like may have been bone spikes along its forearm. Based on what was revealed, anyone with only half a brain and bad vision wo
uld say the Chaos Bringer was a terrifying sight. Honestly, and this might sound like bragging but, the thing that looked at me from Hell was more frightening looking. The Bringer just looked powerful to me. I was more afraid of what it meant that what it looked like. Still, it was impossible to not look at it with some level of fear. There were terrible sights and there were terrible outcomes. The appearance of the Chaos Bringer heralded a terrible outcome.

  Screams and car horns blared from the street below. I rushed to the edge of the roof and pushed through two Acolytes to look down. At least two cars exploded. I hoped no one was in them. I couldn’t tell if anyone from the street could see what was coming. But things were getting worse and I had no idea how many casualties were going to be racked up before the night was over.

  So far it had just been the arm that came through. I was glad the thing was so slow but I couldn’t let any more of it pass into our realm. There was little thought process in my next move, as if my arms had minds of their own. I shoved the two Acolytes off the building.

  “No!” Prime yelled. “The rune!”

  I hated rune magic. It always felt cheap and took so little effort. Form a symbol anywhere. On a rock, paper, in the dirt, or in this case, with human bodies, then make an offer or shout a command and poof, magic. There were no incantations. No grand gestures or continuous chants. They didn’t take any real study or intentions. Runes were a shortcut to getting a desired result. They were the kinds of things kids played with to get revenge on a classmate. None of that lessened the danger, of course. It just made it come faster. But without those two Acolytes, I’d just broken the rune and hoped that would seal the monster back up.

  I watched as the rips in the fabric of our world closed. First to vanish were those eyes of total madness. That was a huge relief for me. I don’t think those things had stopped staring at me since they first looked through. Next was the rip that the arm had come from. I expected the monstrous limb to just fade away. Imagine my surprise when the closing of the portal severed it instead. The arm tumbled toward the ground. I knew it was going to make a dent somewhere. But at least the world was safe. Maybe it would have a million questions about why a giant monster arm fell from the sky but it was safe.

  “You think you have won, Arthur Pendragon?” Prime said. He didn’t have the look of defeat on his face. “You have only lengthened the time before your ultimate suffering!”

  “The portals are closed. It’s over!” I shouted.

  “You know so little of our lord!” Prime said. “It is far from over!”

  What did he know that I didn’t? A loud crash echoed up from below us. It sounded like glass shattering and steel bending. I looked back down only to see the Chaos Bringer staring up at me. It was smaller than what was on the other side of the portal and its eyes were less maddening but it was the same being. I’d failed. A Deity of Destruction had made its way to our world. And with it, I feared, it would get whatever it wanted.

  “They call me Prime. But all along, it has been you, Arthur Pendragon! You have been our Prime Acolyte of Chaos!”

  I sneered at the notion but he may have well been right. Every step I had made, from letting Sasha tag along to shooting the silver bowl, it had all been my fault. In trying to stop it from coming in, I’d just allowed the Chaos Bringer to set foot on Earth.

  John wasn’t going to be happy when he didn’t get his money.

  CHAPTER 22

  The miniature Chaos Bringer leaped onto the roof. Though miniature was putting it lightly. It was the same height as the first Chaos Minion that I’d fought but the energies from this thing were off the scale. And judging by the buzzing in my head, the warlord could feel it, too.

  I was right about the bone spikes in its arms. I wasn’t expecting the spikes from its knees or those in its heels. Except for its size, it had the same physique as a human. One head, two arms, two legs. Maybe its larger form had more but I took that as a good sign. At least that meant its vitals would be in similar places. Still, I was sure it was going to be harder to deal with than the minions.

  Several of the Acolytes had started to fight with each other. Just being near the Bringer was enough to rend the human mind into total chaos. A couple of others started to cry. I didn’t know if they were just overjoyed that their deity had showed or if it was just another effect the deity had. For all I knew, the Bringer was being selective in who was affected by its presence. That would explain why I felt normal. All of the emotions I’d felt about this case were manifesting in the Acolytes. I had figured on chaos being more violence and fighting. Especially after seeing the violence on the street below. It was easy to forget that chaos was just that, random occurrences.

  “O, grand Chaos Bringer. Deliverer. You exalt us with your—”

  “Who has summoned me?” the monster interrupted Prime. “Who has brought me to this new bounty?”

  “It was him, my lord.” Prime pointed directly at me which was odd considering the effort it had taken to finally get the Bringer here. I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t want the credit for it. Of all the Acolytes, he really did seem to be the only one who had a sense of individual identity.

  The Chaos Bringer turned to me with an expression of familiarity. Which was extremely uncomfortable. It reminded me of the thing from Hell that looked at me after a Soul Ripper was used. “Nanasaki Shiro Kagawa,” it said.

  I had no idea who it was referring to but the warlord inside me stirred with fear, anger and a thirst for battle. Was that the warlord’s name? After all these years, did I finally have a name to go with the title?

  “You summon me to your doom, Kagawa,” the Chaos Bringer went on. I don’t know if it saw the warlord or if it saw me but either way, it clearly had a mad on for the warlord.

  “My lord,” Prime said, getting the Bringer’s attention. “This is Arthur Pendragon. He sought to stop your arrival but heralded it instead.”

  “Pendragon?” the Bringer asked. His laugh was deep and full, giving me the shudders. I didn’t know what was so funny about my name. “If King Pendragon was immortal, I might believe you.”

  Now it made sense. “No relation,” I said to it. Antagonizing John was one thing but poking at the world-ending lord of chaos? Not smart. It was one of those defiant moments of mine.

  “I will turn this realm to chaos, then I will take your head, Kagawa.” He waved his hand at two of the fighting Acolytes, his magic launching them from the roof. They didn’t even seem to notice. I could only watch, frozen in fear. Not of the Chaos Bringer so much. I’d dealt with similar situations in the past, although this was still a bad one. My fear came from the Bringer’s relation to the warlord. Were they partners of some sort? Did they have a previous fight that the warlord had won? If that was the case, then luck felt like it was on my side. But did that mean I was going to have to use magic? Was it worth the risk or could there still be another way to save the world without putting it in further danger? Was I even hearing any of it correctly or was it all an effect of close proximity to the Chaos Bringer? There were too many uncertainties. It seemed like, no matter what, I was going to get involved in this.

  The Bringer stomped toward the crying Acolytes and grabbed them only to hurl them off the building. It was making room for something. “I do not like this smaller form, Kagawa,” it said.

  I played along. “I deal with it every day. You start getting used do it.”

  The Bringer made its way past me, truly intending to save me for last. It shoved off a laughing Acolyte. Those in the middle of the roof stood in horror at what might come next. I watched Prime looking at his brethren, some of whom had already fled toward the stairs, eager to escape the fate of their fellow Acolytes.

  “This…This is— My lord, please!” Prime said. “We have brought you here so that we may serve you. Why do you forsake your true followers?”

  “I have no need for followers,” the Chaos Bringer said.

  “But, all of our work. The texts spoke of your mercifu
l gifts.”

  I stood silently watching the two. There was no fear in Prime’s voice. Only confusion. I tried to warn him. I guess there was just no helping the insane.

  “You speak of gifts?” the Bringer asked. “Very well. Take yours and go.”

  “I graciously accept that which you see fit to bestow upon—” Prime couldn’t even finish his last words before the Chaos Bringer swiped at the lead Acolyte, knocking him clear off the building. I’d like to say I was shocked but I’d had a feeling that was coming. What did surprise me were the black tendrils of smoke that enveloped Prime, midair. Two other Acolytes vanished in the same portal spell. I had no idea where they’d disappeared to. Not that it mattered. They found out the hard way what summoning such a monster got them. And it wasn’t a reward.

  I shrugged off the thoughts. I had bigger concerns than where Prime and his followers went. The Chaos Bringer was the only important factor now. Prime would have to be saved for later if necessary. That or become someone else’s problem. I just hoped that Sasha was OK and didn’t have to deal with those that made it down the stairs.

  All that remained were myself and the Chaos Bringer. And with the Acolytes gone, the barrier dropped, letting the rain in.

  “I sense a greater skill in you, Kagawa,” the Bringer said. “You have been touched by Sho Xin.”

  How did it know any of this? The warlord’s name? My Professor’s name? Everything except Arthur Pendragon— the detective, not the King. I rode it out. If anything, it might give me time to come up with a way to send the Bringer back to where it came from.

  “That’s right,” I said in my most regal voice possible. “I have added the tutelage of the honorable instruction of Sho Xin. Master of magic and martial skill.”

  “Was it before or after you were brought low by him?”