A Flicker of Steel

by Steve McHugh

  The commander shook his head.

  “Well, I for one wish we had a sorcerer right now,” Remy said, with a touch of sadness in his voice.

  “Crack the crystal. Not a problem,” the commander said, then turned around the wall and fired two rounds directly into the oni’s forehead.

  The large creature roared in anger.

  “Not with a gun,” Zamek shouted. “Not even silver will hurt that thing.”

  “It absorbs kinetic energy, yes?” Chloe asked.

  “Yes,” Zamek said.

  “Excellent. Me too.” Chloe ran out from behind the wall and charged at the oni, who was tearing apart the main gate with its bare hands. It looked back at the woman running toward it and laughed. When she was only a few feet away, Chloe changed. Her skin cracked as red-and-orange power leaked out of it, her hands became claw-like, and her fingernails grew sharp as talons.

  Layla watched as her friend allowed the drenik inside of her to take control, and as the oni pulled back and punched Chloe with a fist the size of her head. The drenik-Chloe was forced back several feet before she unleashed all of the power she’d gathered from the punch. Layla had seen it before, seen the power Chloe had inside of her, but, even so, it was incredible to witness her friend unleash enough power to knock an oni off its feet, screaming in pain as its crystal cracked.

  “That’s our cue,” Zamek said, and the strike team swarmed over the injured creature. One of them turned into a werebear mid-leap and landed on its chest, tearing out huge chunks as a second strike team member—an alchemist—placed a hand on the wall beside the beast and collapsed it on the oni’s head. The rock smashed with several times more force than gravity alone would have managed. The spirit inside the oni left its body, which dissolved.

  An SUV crashed through the remains of the wall close to the puddle that was the dead oni, and Diane, Jared, and several more strike team members jumped out, ready to fight.

  Layla sprinted around to where Irkalla had been and saw her rip the crystal out of the curved-sword-carrying oni’s head. The woman shivered slightly, and Layla knew that she was absorbing the oni’s spirit.

  Layla walked up to Irkalla, who kneeled on the ground, her eyes closed, concentrating on what she’d just absorbed. “Irkalla?” she said softly.

  “Too much power at once. The oni are powerful in a very specific way; their spirits are essentially pure energy. They are difficult to absorb.” She gasped. “It was young. A mere child in oni terms. No wonder we defeated them so easily.”

  Caleb stood beside Layla as the rest of the group made their way toward them.

  “The vehicles are done. And this isn’t over,” Layla said.

  “The radios are out,” Malcolm said. “What have you brought down on us?”

  Before Caleb could reply, the sound of banging drums floated over the air, malignant and foreboding.

  “Nergal really wants you,” Remy said to Caleb.

  “Yeah, that’s come up before.”

  Layla looked at the sky, which had become dark since she’d entered the prison. “Dawn isn’t for a few hours.” She removed the phone from her pocket. “No reception, no nothing. We’re out here by ourselves.”

  “Many people here don’t deserve to be caught up in this,” Kase said. “We need to get Caleb away from here.”

  “We’ll buy you time,” Diana said. She’d changed into her werebear form and towered over everyone.

  “Irkalla, can you move?” Layla asked.

  Irkalla got to her feet, albeit shakily. “I do not think I can contain more spirits. And frankly I’m not sure that if I expel the oni’s spirit, the power won’t just destroy indiscriminately. It will take me time to reduce its power to manageable levels. I say we keep to our original teams. Is there another way out of this place?”

  “There’s a maze of tunnels underground,” Cody said. “They were here when the prison was built. They run from the town to here, and then from here up to the mountains. It’s not a short walk, but it’s much safer than running through the woods.”

  “We’ll keep them here,” Jared said, taking hold of Layla’s hand. “Give you time to escape.”

  “I’ll take the woods,” Remy said. “I can get through them quicker than you lot, and frankly I’d rather let Hades know what’s going on. I can get out of range of this comms block, get hold of our people, and hopefully have reinforcements here before we have to play Butch and Sundance.”

  “If they want Caleb this badly,” Diana said, “they’re going to tear this place apart looking for him unless we make a stand here.”

  Layla and Jared looked at one another and nodded.

  “Okay,” Layla said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Hello,” a voice called out through a megaphone at the front of the jail. “Is Layla there?”

  “I’ll go,” Layla said. “Keep my dad here.”

  “We’re coming,” Kase and Chloe said in unison.

  “You need me?” Remy asked.

  Layla shook her head.

  “I’ll catch you up. Be safe.” He took off out of the hole in the perimeter wall and vanished from sight in the dense and dark forest.

  Layla, Kase, and Chloe walked toward the corner of the prison yard so they could see whoever was talking. When they arrived, Layla noticed that Harry was next to her.

  “Harry, you’re human,” she whispered through gritted teeth.

  “And you’re my friend. Not letting you do this alone.”

  “You could get hurt,” Layla told him.

  “So could you,” Harry said, not breaking her stare.

  “I don’t have all day,” the megaphone-enabled voice said.

  “I’m here,” Layla shouted, stepping from the corner of the building with her hands raised. “What do you want?”

  A woman stood just inside of the ruined gate. She didn’t look to be too much older than Layla and wore black body armor over jeans and a t-shirt, and carried a sheathed sword against her hip. Layla recognized her as the same woman who had killed herself on the beach only yesterday.

  “How are you alive?” Layla shouted. “Kristin, wasn’t it? I watched you blow yourself up.”

  “I’m very special,” Kristin said. “Just so you know, this sword isn’t made from metal. Don’t want you getting any ideas.”

  A man stepped over the rubble and leaned against the guard tower.

  “You killed the guards in those towers?” Layla asked.

  Kristin smiled. “Of course. They died the second you stepped inside the prison.”

  “And the rest of the guards?”

  She shrugged. “You’re less freaked out than I expected.”

  “You’re either an umbra or something I haven’t met before,” Layla said. “Nothing to freak out over.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you again. Sorry about the loss of the spirit scrolls, but we couldn’t have them falling into your hands.”

  “Where are the rest of the guards?” Layla asked again, more forcefully.

  “We’ve known about your father for a few days now. But we wanted to wait and get as many of Hades’ little friends as possible into the bargain.”

  “You’re not answering my question.”

  “Fine. The guards are mostly still alive. Can’t say how long that’s going to last, though. How’d you like the oni? To be honest, I was expecting them to be more impressive.”

  “Irkalla says they’re young.”

  “Yes, the older they get the less likely they are to take orders from those they don’t like. Or anyone. Solitary creatures by nature, so you have to get them young to make them work for you.”

  Layla resisted the urge to run back to the rest of the group and tell them what she’d heard, and looked up at the nearest guard tower. She saw a blood elf watching her.

  “Blood elves, again?” Layla asked.

  “They’re just good cannon fodder,” Kristin said. “They take orders like champs and they really like killing people—someti
mes a bit too much, you know? No rifles up there. We weren’t sure just how powerful you’ve become, so we didn’t want to take any chances with metal, hence the ceramic sword. It’s not just ceramic, you understand—that would be bad, if my high school science lessons were accurate. No, this is something we managed to cook up in Nergal’s laboratories. Smart people work for him. Less smart people stand against him.”

  “What do you want? Apart from my dad?”

  “Oh, there’s no back-and-forth here? I was expecting more banter. Okay, if that’s how you want it, you will all stand down and come with us, or we will slaughter you and Caleb comes with us anyway. That’s it.”

  “Or we kill you?” Chloe asked.

  Kristin laughed and pointed to a middle-aged man, who stepped over the rubble accompanied by a blood elf, who held a sword to the man’s neck. Blood elves have purple skin, with blotches of lighter or darker purple across their bodies. The one in front of Layla had a bald head and wore blood-red leather armor. Its sword was black, and she knew from experience that the creature would happily use it to torture rather than killing quickly. Like all of its kind, the blood elf had black eyes, and its teeth were small, sharp triangles, like those of a piranha.

  It pushed the man forward slightly, and he stumbled, waving his arms in an effort to keep from falling to the ground.

  “This is subject 4942, I think,” Kristin said, turning to the man. “Is that right?”

  “Yes,” the man said softly.

  “He’s an umbra with a very distinct power. He can block electronic communications for several hundred meters in all directions. That means landlines, too. And he can screw with the electrical signals that people give off, making us invisible. It’s quite impressive. There’s no call for help, no cavalry coming, and the only people who can save you are locked up for horrific crimes. Oh, actually that’s a lie. I have a few dozen blood elves currently slaughtering every living thing inside that prison. They started the second you left solitary. You were all so busy with the onis, with no comms, they didn’t stand a chance.”

  “So, our choices are surrender or die?” Layla asked.

  “Yep. Nergal wants your father, but he also wants you. I think you might have pissed him off a bit. I tell you what, I’ll give you five minutes to talk to your friends, and then all of you can lay down your weapons and leave. Or we can start butchering you, and I get my cardio for the day.”

  “Or, like I said earlier, we kill you first,” Chloe repeated.

  “We have a horde of blood elves. I don’t even know how many that is, but it’s a lot. And we have a few other surprises, too. I’m looking forward to you watching them in action. A gargoyle—have you ever seen a gargoyle? They used to be sorcerers and basically screwed up their bodies with blood magic and turned themselves into monsters. They’re a bit messed-up, and they really like hurting people.”

  The bullet came from beside Layla. Chloe had fired without a word. Kristin collapsed to the floor with a hole in her forehead.

  Layla aimed toward the nearest blood elf, instinctively firing twice as it advanced, hitting the creature in the throat and chest. It dropped to the ground and subject 4942 fell upon its body, pounding on it with his fists. The elf wasn’t quite dead and drove a dagger into the man’s throat; both of them died a moment later.

  “We need to get back to the others,” Harry said. “Because . . .”

  The doors to the prison opened and dozens of blood elves poured out. Chloe shot two in the chest, knocking them to the floor despite their leather armor. Kase had changed into her werewolf form and was flinging blood elves around as if they were made of paper, while everyone else fired at anything that moved.

  Layla looked for Harry and discovered him fighting an elf. The elf clearly thought that attacking a human would be easy, but Harry had been trained by the best and carried two batons—Harry called them eskrima sticks—he’d spent time working with. He’d converted one of them to give a massive electric shock upon impact, as the elf quickly discovered when Harry smashed the stick into its jaw. The creature collapsed to the ground, convulsing for a second before lying still.

  As more elves left the prison, the four friends turned and ran back toward the rest of the group, who were dealing with an even larger number of blood elves. The strike force was putting them down in huge numbers, using the silver-rounded Heckler and Koch MP5s to deadly effect as everyone made their way toward the hole in the perimeter wall.

  Layla noticed that Cody and Malcolm were in the thick of the fighting and ran to their side as Caleb calmly avoided any blood elf that got too close, never lifting a finger to fight them or protect himself.

  “We need to get out of here now,” Layla said.

  “Go,” the strike team commander shouted. “We’ve got these.”

  “Go!” Diana ripped the head clean off one blood elf and tossed it at another close by.

  Malcolm and Cody led Irkalla, Chloe, Kase, Harry, and Layla to the rear of the prison as blood elves on the towers starting firing at them. Jared killed two of the creatures and ran toward the group.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said. “Fenix is going to hold them back before joining us.”

  “Didn’t know freedom was so close,” Caleb said as Zamek brought him over to the group.

  Everyone ignored him as Cody and Malcolm pushed aside overgrown vegetation to reveal a metal door. Layla moved her hands and the lock spun with incredible force. A second later the door opened by itself.

  The group ran into the dark tunnels beyond, with Layla last so that she could shut the door. She paused as Jared stood guard, firing at any blood elves who got too close.

  “You coming with us?” Layla asked.

  Jared shook his head. “My place is here with the team. We’ll catch you up, I promise. Now go.”

  “Be careful,” Layla said as she closed the door. There was no point in arguing with Jared. He had made up his mind, and she needed to get everyone to safety. She pulled the metal around the door, making it impossible for anyone to follow unless they had a blowtorch or another oni.

  The sounds of fighting were heavier now, and she hoped that everyone who’d stayed behind just so they could get Caleb to safety would be okay.

  She turned to the rest of the group.

  “They’ll be okay,” Irkalla said. “No one out there is going to let Nergal and his friends win.”

  Layla nodded. “Let’s get going. We have a lot of distance to cover and not a lot of time to do it.”

  “We can stop off at a town close to the border,” Cody said. “It’s called Winterborn. It’s the only big town between here and Red Rock.”

  “At least we will be able to rest, get some supplies, and check in with your friends to see if they’re okay,” Malcolm said. “And I can check with my family. They’re going to be worried.”

  “Sounds like as good a plan as we’ve had so far,” Chloe said.

  The group set off down the dark tunnels; the occasional hanging bulbs the only lights to guide them.

  11

  “Two clones in two days,” Kristin said angrily. “I’m beginning to get really fed up with it.” She stood just outside of the prison grounds in a makeshift command center that consisted of a few SUVs and a truck that had been parked together.

  “And we lost some elves,” Abaddon said from beside her.

  Abaddon had insisted on coming with Kristin, which she didn’t mind so much as find confusing. She didn’t know the ancient necromancer well, and honestly wasn’t sure if anyone could claim to, but she knew that Abaddon wasn’t overly fond of Nergal. She didn’t want it to turn into a pissing contest, but Abaddon had never seemed interested in throwing Nergal from the inner circle of New Avalon—as it had been named internally, a title which Kristin personally hated. She was more about pointing and laughing when it all went wrong.

  “More importantly, we lost Layla and Caleb,” Abaddon said without any kind of mocking or anger, just stating facts.

&
nbsp; “They’ll go to the closest city,” Kristin said. “Winterborn.”

  “If that’s the case, they’ll want to head to an area that Hades controls, such as Red Rock. The exact place Nergal is trying to take.”

  Kristin nodded. “And that’s fine. We control Winterborn.”

  “We must take Red Rock,” Abaddon said.

  “Why?” Kristin asked.

  “Because I say so,” Abaddon told her, making it known that the conversation was closed.

  Kristin shrugged and continued toward a black BMW SUV parked at the rear of the assembled military vehicles that Nergal had deployed. She paused at the car and looked back. For the first time, it struck her that Nergal wasn’t using his own people. Most were blood elves that Abaddon had brought with her, and they outnumbered Nergal’s forces two-to-one.

  “Something funny?” Abaddon asked from beside her.

  Kristin sighed and turned to face the necromancer. “No,” she said. “I’m going to make a call.”

  “To Nergal?” Abaddon asked. “I’d like to be in on that.”

  Kristin tried not to snap. She’d been told to offer Abaddon every courtesy in their dealings together, and Kristin knew how deadly the necromancer was. There were good reasons why people feared her. She hadn’t seen Abaddon cut loose herself, but she’d heard stories from people she trusted. The necromancer had murdered people who used to be considered gods. She stood at the right hand of Arthur. She hadn’t accomplished those things through luck.

  Kristin climbed into the rear of the SUV and dialed Nergal’s number.

  “How did it go?” he asked as Abaddon sat beside Kristin, placing a finger to her lips as if to ask Kristin to remain quiet about her presence.

  Kristin thought for a second. Give up Abaddon, or deal with the necromancer’s anger. It wasn’t much of a choice. “They both escaped,” Kristin said. “Along with several more of their group.”

  “Goddamn it,” Nergal snapped, which was followed by the sounds of things being flung around. “I knew you were useless, but I figured you’d at least be able to take them down without making this more complicated.”

  Kristin chose to ignore his unpleasantness. “Their only choice is to head toward Winterborn.”