A Flicker of Steel

by Steve McHugh

  “So you’ve tried?” Layla asked.

  “I’m suddenly feeling hatred for some of my friends,” Remy told them.

  “Remy, I know you like to get . . . involved,” Layla said, trying to put it diplomatically, “but Hades wants his people more engaged in stuff like this. The only reason they weren’t kicking in the mansion door with us back in Louisiana is because it was meant to be a simple job.”

  Remy kicked a stone across the barn, striking the wall. “Sure, I guess. I just don’t like waiting around for things to happen.”

  “No, you prefer causing things to happen,” Diana said.

  Before Remy could answer, the soldiers’ commander stopped the search of the huge open barn and looked back toward the group. “Nothing here.”

  Layla turned 360 degrees, taking in her surroundings. The floor was covered in hay and the stables were currently empty of everything except more hay. A ladder went up to the next level, and a soldier peered over the railing high above them. He confirmed that there was nothing up there but more hay and a large quantity of spiders.

  “What kind of spiders?” Remy asked. “Do we need to burn this whole place?”

  “Not a fan of spiders?” Layla asked.

  “I met some very large ones a while ago,” Remy said.

  Diana shivered. “That was not a fun experience.”

  “How large?” the soldier called out.

  “Bigger than you,” Chloe called back.

  The soldier looked over his shoulder and climbed down the ladder a lot faster than he’d climbed up it. “Yeah, they’re not that big,” he said as he walked past them.

  “So, we got screwed,” said the commander. The leader of the soldiers was a woman who looked like she was in her mid-thirties, but could have been hundreds of years old, depending on her species. Like the rest of her team, she wore dark body armor with runes inscribed on it to deflect or absorb at least a portion of magical attacks. “I’ll contact Hades and let him know.”

  “Wait,” Layla told her, and reached out with her power. “There’s a small dock on the beach, and an empty barn full of hay. Why would someone put a barn here?”

  “It looks pretty old,” Diana said. “A century, at least. Who knows what someone thought back then.”

  Layla continued to push out her power, sensing all of the screws and rivets that sat in the timber around her. She pushed a little further and felt as if her power had vanished. She simply couldn’t see past a certain point.

  Layla frowned. “That’s weird.”

  “We back to talking about Remy again?” Diana asked.

  “That was a low blow,” Remy said with mock indignation.

  Diana apologized and looked back at Layla. “Go on.”

  Layla explained about her vanishing power. “It’s under the barn. There’s something under here that’s stopping me reaching down further. There are metal pieces down there, screws and hinges, and something else, like a door, a metal door, but past it . . . there’s nothing. Like a void. I can’t tell you where the entrance is, but it’s under us.”

  “So there’s an underground lair?” the commander asked. “Okay, people, we’re looking for a secret entrance to something underneath here. Rip the place apart. No magic, powers, or bullets; we don’t want anything being set off. Old-fashioned brute strength only.”

  The soldiers went back to the helicopter and returned with several axes, before they set about destroying a large part of the barn in their effort to find the way to get beneath it. It didn’t take long before the soldiers found a metal door and a set of stairs leading to it, below the large hole they’d made in the barn floor.

  “There was no secret entrance or anything,” the commander said.

  “They must use an earth elemental, or someone with earth magic to move the floor about,” Remy said.

  “There are marks here,” Diana told everyone, pointing to them on the floor. “The boards can be lifted as one, but they must get scratched as they’re moved. I imagine whoever did this isn’t an old hand at using their power.”

  It didn’t take long for the rest of the floor to be removed, exposing the stairs in their entirety.

  “We’ll go first,” the commander said.

  “I think you might need me to open that door,” Layla said, pointing to the dark red runes that were inscribed on its surface.

  The commander looked at her team and then back down at the door. She turned to Layla. “I think you’re probably right. You can read the runes?”

  Layla shook her head.

  “They block magic,” Diana said. “That’s all I can tell you. I’m not a rune expert by any means.”

  Layla descended the narrow stone staircase and stood in front of the door. It was ten feet tall, but about as wide as a normal-sized entrance. There was a brass handle, which Layla tried just because she didn’t want to be one of those people who forced open a door that was actually unlocked, but it refused to budge.

  As an umbra, Layla’s power wasn’t based on the laws of magic. It came from the energy supplied by the drenik and the words written in the scroll. She wasn’t sure if her ability would let her bypass the security on the door, but it was better than just standing around while everyone twiddled their thumbs.

  Layla placed her hand on the door and reached out. She still felt nothing beyond it, but she pushed her power all over the front of the door until it was covered. Layla then clenched her fists and pulled her power in two directions at once. The door tore in half with a horrific noise. It bent back on itself, twisting and turning until it was unrecognizable and nothing more than a metal outline to a large hole. Layla made sure there were no sharp edges and looked inside.

  Lights flickered in the distance, and Layla, stepping through the hole, noted the stone floor beyond the doorway. The lights in the room instantly came to life, showing it for what it was: a library. A cavernous library.

  “Holy shit,” Remy said as he stood beside Layla. “That’s a lot of scrolls.”

  There were hundreds and hundreds of metal bookshelves, which stretched from the floor to a ceiling twenty feet above them. Each one held hundreds of scrolls.

  “It’s a football field in length,” Chloe said. “British football, that is.”

  “Get Hades here,” the commander said to one of her people. “Get him here now.” Two soldiers ran off to do as they were told, while the rest stood guard at the entrance to the cave.

  Layla reached out with her power and realized that with the door gone, she could feel the metal all around her. It was oddly comforting. She sighed. “I’m glad I’m not powerless in here,” she said. “There are a lot of things that could be hiding in the shadows.”

  Everyone shared a glance.

  “Why in the name of Satan’s testicles would you say that?” Remy asked, hurriedly sniffing the air, before visibly relaxing. “I’ve got nothing. Mildew and old scents. Nothing obvious that could be considered a threat.”

  The group started looking through the piles of scrolls and found that most of them were blank, or about something other than umbras. It took them a few hours to walk the cave’s length, looking around as they tried to get a good idea of the number of scrolls they’d need to remove.

  “Tens of thousands,” Diana said.

  “That’s not quite as scientific as I’d hoped,” Remy said.

  “At least thirty thousand scrolls,” Chloe said, looking up from her phone. “That’s based on how many scrolls were on one shelving unit, multiplied by the number of shelving units in this whole place. There’s not actually as many as I thought. Most of the cave is empty.”

  “That’s still an awful lot of scrolls,” Layla said. “We need to get them out of here. And we’re going to need something huge to transport them.”

  “There’s a large port near here,” the commander said. “Maybe we can figure something out. Do you think this is all of them?”

  “No,” Remy said. “I was told that hundreds of thousands of scrolls hav
e been made. I think that this is a large number of them, but Nergal wouldn’t put all of his eggs in one basket.”

  “Even so, this is a big score for us,” Diana said. “If only half of these are spirit scrolls, that’s a considerable amount of danger removed from the hands of Avalon.”

  Hades arrived on a second Black Hawk soon after, with more heavily armed soldiers. He walked around the cave, picking up the occasional scroll, unfurling it, and replacing it before moving on. Layla felt oddly nervous, as if her teacher was examining her homework and about to grade it in front of everyone.

  Hades met with the team at the mouth of the cave. “This here is a big deal, people,” he said with a smile. “You did good today. We’ll sort out the logistics of getting all of this removed, but to be honest I’d rather hide them all in a deep, dark pit somewhere.”

  “You can’t,” Layla and Chloe said in unison.

  Hades raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

  “There are spirits trapped in there,” Layla said. “We don’t know what happens to them once the scrolls are destroyed.”

  Hades looked thoughtful. “You’re right. We’ll check with the people who helped make these things and find out what to do. It’s my belief that the scroll spirits aren’t actively aware of time in the same way as you and me, and so I don’t think they would feel anything if the scrolls were destroyed. They’d just vanish into the ether with the normal spirits, but it’s worth looking into.”

  “Besides, we could have an immense level of power here,” the commander said.

  “It’s too hard to create an army with them,” Hades said. “Nergal knows that only too well. People don’t always adjust to having the spirits and drenik inside of them. Any umbras on Earth have remained hidden for thousands of years. It’s only since Nergal started trying to make an army out of them, in the last decade or so, that we’ve come into contact with them on a regular basis. Getting a human, the spirits, and a drenik to bond is a lot of work. We can’t use these ones as soldiers. We’re lucky to have Chloe and Layla.”

  “So, what do we do with them?” Layla asked. “The amount of knowledge in some of these scrolls could shed light on so much history. And not just human history.”

  Hades looked back at the scrolls. “You’re right. I just need to figure out how I’m meant to put them to good use. First thing is getting them back to the base. Second thing is finding out how many of these are actually still usable. I saw several that weren’t even spirit scrolls. One was a Babylonian recipe for cheese. After that we figure out where to go. In the meantime, I’m ordering you all back to base.”

  Diana raised an eyebrow. “Ordering?”

  “Sorry, I meant suggesting,” Hades said. “Strongly suggesting.”

  Diana nodded and smiled. “That, I can live with.”

  “You all need rest. And by rest, I mean sleep, food, and actual rest. I’m sure we’ll have new missions soon enough, so please don’t spend all of your time training.”

  “What about Alfred?” Layla asked as everyone made their way back to the sunlit beach.

  “He’s being exceptionally cooperative. Sky has a way with people like Alfred.”

  “She scares them,” Remy said.

  “Not all of them,” Hades said. “Just the ones who need scaring.”

  “And the prisoners we found?”

  “Deposited at hospitals in and around Louisiana, all of which are secretly helping those of us who don’t think Avalon is particularly healthy at the moment. They’ll be looked after and put in contact with loved ones as needed. They all have a long road ahead of them, but we can help them. Mental health professionals are in attendance to aid their recovery, too.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Layla said as they all reached the Black Hawks. Four identical helicopters now sat on the beach, and Layla wondered if it wouldn’t look like an invasion force to anyone who accidentally came across them.

  “Those three women you saved,” Hades said. “They wanted me to say thank you. They’re strong people and, I won’t lie, they’re going to have to be even stronger to get through it, but right now they are very happy to be free from Alfred. I’m glad you decided to stick with the team when Arthur declared us all enemies. Stuff like what you did today really makes a difference.”

  Layla climbed aboard the helicopter with the others. “Keep an eye on them, okay? I want to make sure they do well.”

  Hades nodded. “I will.”

  Layla felt the power of the helicopter’s engine, and they were about to take off when Layla spotted someone walking up the beach. She signaled to Hades, who turned around as Diana told the pilot to cut the engine.

  A few seconds later, they jumped out of the Black Hawk and walked toward the young woman, who was being screamed at by the soldiers to lie face down on the beach. She obeyed them without a word as one of the female soldiers patted her down.

  “Nothing,” the soldier said as she got back to her feet, her MP5 pointed at the woman, who got up slowly and held her hands where everyone could see them.

  “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” the woman said, complying with the orders barked at her.

  “She has no scent,” Diana said.

  “And that means?” Layla asked.

  “Nothing good,” Remy whispered.

  The woman was about five-and-a-half feet in height and looked athletic. She wore some kind of fitness band on her wrist that was turquoise in color. She had shoulder-length, dark hair that was tied into pigtails. Layla assumed that she was trying to look innocent, but it didn’t come off well. The woman’s blue eyes were just . . . wrong. Layla couldn’t put a finger on it, but something about the newcomer reminded her of her father.

  “And you are?” Hades asked.

  “My name is Kristin Tusk,” she said. “I told Nergal not to leave so many of his scrolls here, but he doesn’t listen to me.”

  Anyone watching the woman who might have relaxed was instantly woken up at the mention of Nergal’s name.

  “Where did you come from?” Remy asked.

  “Oh, I was on my way here when your helicopters arrived. I didn’t want to cause a scene, so I stopped at the end of the island and walked over. It’s a nice day for a walk.”

  “You work for Nergal?” Diana asked, a low growl leaving her throat.

  Kristin nodded. “I live here. I take care of the scrolls and things. Make sure the rats don’t eat them. We had a rat problem a while ago. Massive buggers.”

  “How did you get down into the cave?” Chloe asked.

  “Oh, there’s a rune in the barn,” she said, as if telling everyone was no big deal. “I assume you just tore it apart? Shame. They used to use an earth elemental to lift it, but the man was an idiot, so I had to slit his throat and push him into the water.”

  The ease with which she admitted killing visibly startled several people. Layla took a step toward her.

  “Why don’t you have a scent?” Remy asked.

  Kristin shrugged. “Never considered it before. Does it make you afraid of me?”

  “Things with no scent either means magic, or that you’re not real,” Diana finished. “I see no evidence of magic, and you’re definitely real.”

  “Maybe I’m something new?” Kristin said with a laugh.

  “You’re coming with us,” Hades said. “We’ll question you further in a more secure location.”

  “I think I’m meant to know you,” Kristin said to Layla, ignoring Hades. “But it’s been a while since I was back home, so I’m not sure.”

  “Lucky me,” Layla said, trying to figure out if the woman was telling the truth and, if so, where she might have met her. She couldn’t come up with anything. And judging by the strangeness Kristin exuded, Layla was pretty sure she’d have remembered the woman if they had met.

  “Depends on your definition of luck,” Kristin told her. “Well, this has been pleasant, but I really do need to get going.”

  Kristin turned to walk away, and several soldiers move
d to stop her. One of them got too close and Kristin quickly grabbed the man, getting behind him and holding his pistol against his temple.

  “Don’t,” Hades said. “You don’t need to hurt him.”

  Kristin laughed. “Hurt him? No, you’ve got it all wrong. I don’t plan on hurting any of you. Did you notice the runes inside the library? Spirit scrolls can’t be torn, or burned, or broken. Normally, anyway.” She pushed the man forward, placed his gun under her chin, and pulled the trigger. The blast removed a portion of Kristin’s skull and brain, and she collapsed lifeless to the sand as the soldier scrambled away.

  A second later a massive explosion ripped through the air as the barn collapsed and the ground rumbled. The commander removed the fitness band from Kristin’s wrist and turned it over. “It was linked to her heartbeat,” she said. “She killed herself to blow up the cave. We’re lucky none of our people were inside.”

  “What kind of person sacrifices her own life just to destroy a bunch of scrolls?” Remy asked.

  “The kind that doesn’t have a scent,” Layla said.

  “That was strange,” Diana replied, sniffing the air. “Still nothing from her. It’s odd. And we’ve lost all of those scrolls.”

  “Better they are destroyed than allowed to be used by the likes of Nergal,” one of the soldiers said.

  “All of those spirits . . . gone,” Layla said. “How many people were in those scrolls? How many spirits . . . how much knowledge have we just lost?”

  The soldier shrugged and walked away.

  “He has a point,” Diana told her.

  “We’ll get down there and search for any scrolls that survived,” Hades said. “If they’ve discovered a way to destroy spirit scrolls, I’d like to know about it.”

  Layla looked over at the smoking ruin of the barn. She wondered if the scrolls inside the cave were totally destroyed, or if any of them had survived the blast. She didn’t feel lucky. She felt that fighting Avalon was like going one step forward, and two steps back.

  6

  Kristin had been happy working for Nergal. She’d been happy doing as she was told, going on missions for Avalon and removing threats as needed. Right up until she’d discovered something awful: that someone who was meant to be dead, wasn’t.