A Flicker of Steel

by Steve McHugh

  “You are a sight for sore eyes,” Chloe told him. “Any luck?”

  “Well, yes and no,” Remy said. “I got hold of Hades, and he wants us to head to Red Rock. The plan is to send dearest Papa Psychopath through the realm gate there, and so remove the piece from being played by either side, in the interim, at least. Then they’ll destroy the gate. Thunder Bay has been attacked, and even though they’re putting up a great defense while they evacuate, sooner or later it’s going to fall, and then Red Rock is next.”

  Everyone turned to look at Zamek. “I knew about the plan,” he said. “I also told them it was only possible in a theoretical sense.”

  “So, you’re going to destroy a realm gate theoretically?” Remy asked.

  “In theory, any alchemist should be able to destroy it,” Zamek said. “Just because the dwarves built it doesn’t mean we have to be the ones to destroy it. You only need to remove the parts of the inscribed runes that allow it to regenerate.”

  “Which means you need to be at Red Rock,” Kase said.

  Zamek nodded.

  “Irkalla is weakened,” Layla said. “Everyone else is close to exhaustion, and my father needs to get to that realm gate; a realm gate we’re going to use to strand him in another realm.”

  “Our options are limited,” Zamek said. “I get that you really don’t want to make your father the problem of a whole new realm, but what are our options?”

  Layla rubbed her eyes. It had been a long few hours. “I get it. I do. But it does mean I’m going to have to go with him. That is something I hadn’t really considered. But on the plus side, at least we know exactly where we’re meant to go.” She looked up toward Caleb, who was being shadowed by Irkalla, Malcolm, and Cody. Layla wouldn’t want to be her father if he crossed Irkalla, even in her weakened state. She wondered if he would try to escape once they got to the new realm.

  “The good news keeps coming,” Remy said, bringing Layla’s thoughts back to the present situation. “There’s a house about two miles to the west of here; it’s in the middle of nowhere. We can rest there and figure out how we’re going to get to Red Rock.”

  “What about the strike team and Diana?” Layla asked. “What about Jared?” His name almost caught in her throat as she said it. She couldn’t imagine that Nergal’s people would make their stay hospitable.

  “If they have Jared and the others, we’ll find them,” Chloe said. “And then we’ll make the bastards regret ever taking them.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” Harry said. “And a plan that means we can get out of the cold much quicker than the original plan.”

  The group moved swiftly with the newly found impetus of avoiding a day-long hike. They walked for nearly an hour before they saw the brick house in the center of a large clearing. It was a lot larger than anything Layla had been expecting. There were three levels; the lowest was a huge garage. Stairs led up from the drive to the front door, and there were many windows and solar panels on top of the roof.

  “Ah shit,” Malcolm said. “Bill’s house?”

  “Who’s Bill?” Chloe asked.

  “He used to be some sort of Wall Street guy,” Cody said. “He made a fortune from other people’s misery. Now he comes here every summer to be a pain in everyone’s ass.”

  “And they call me a monster,” Caleb said, standing close enough that when he spoke the prison guard darted out of the way.

  Layla noticed the smile on her father’s face. “Why?” she asked him. “Why do something just to get a reaction like that?”

  “It’s fun,” he said with no shred of enthusiasm or enjoyment. “Not as fun as killing those who deserve it, but you take enjoyment where you can get it when you’re locked up for twenty-three hours a day.”

  “You find killing people entertaining?” Chloe asked.

  “Don’t you?” Caleb asked her. “Killing the wicked, your enemies, people who think that they’re predators . . . Don’t you get a thrill out of showing them otherwise? How many have you killed since you started working with Thomas Carpenter and his allies?”

  Chloe turned to face Caleb. “No, I don’t enjoy it.”

  “I’ve killed many people in my life, but there was one in particular,” Caleb said as if Chloe hadn’t spoken. “He was the third person I eliminated on my crusade to remove the scum from this planet. He worked on Wall Street and got away with killing someone with his car. I followed him home and beat him to death with a meat tenderizer.”

  “How can you say that as if you’re talking about making a sandwich?” Layla asked.

  “I did actually make a sandwich after,” Caleb said. “He had this phenomenal rye bread that I’ve never been able to find. I think it was homemade. I should have gotten the recipe. That was back in the days when I was more impulsive and always after the rush of the kill. Took me a while to realize it’s the buildup that needs to be the sweetest.”

  “Shut up,” Layla snapped. “Please.”

  “I’ve seen evil before,” Chloe said. “My mum was evil, and you have that same look in your eyes. That look that means you believe you’re right, and everyone else is wrong.”

  “I am right.”

  “No, you’re a psychopath. Just like my mum was.”

  “Your mom is dead, I suppose? Did you kill her?”

  “No,” Chloe said forcefully. “Someone did it before I could. Turns out, he did me a favor. The world is better off without her in it.”

  “Don’t antagonize my friends,” Layla said. “Or anyone at all. We got you out of prison so you could help us, because it’s that or help Nergal.”

  “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you?” Caleb suggested with another smirk. “As you wish.” Caleb walked on, leaving Chloe and Layla alone.

  “I’m sorry about him,” Layla said.

  “I’m sorry for you,” Chloe told her. “I’d heard stories, but his eyes are just empty. It’s like whatever was there—whatever emotion and feeling he had—is just gone. I know this must be hard for you.”

  “I’ll manage. It’s that or push him down a ravine.”

  “We could push him down a ravine,” Remy said. “Repeatedly, if it doesn’t work the first time.”

  “Remy—” Layla started.

  Remy held his hands up in surrender. “Just kidding. Not a lot of it going around at the moment, obviously. Don’t let your emotions get the better of you. I don’t want to have to stop you from bludgeoning him because he said one out-of-line thing too many.”

  “What about your dad?” Chloe asked as the three of them started walking. “Mine died because of my mother, Layla’s is—” She waved her hands in Caleb’s direction. “What about you?”

  “My father is a tale of alcohol, assholery, some more assholery, and a touch more alcohol. He was a mean drunk, and he was drunk all the time. He was a wealthy French aristocrat who married an English woman to gain all of her wealth.

  “Unfortunately for yours truly, in the eighteenth century, it wasn’t like you could just go and tell someone that your dad was a dick. Your rich, politically connected, highly influential dick of a father. He beat my mother and me, and my brother. Less so my sister; I think she scared him. She looked a lot like his mother when she was young. My father respected, hated, and feared my grandmother. I don’t think he could raise his hand to my sister because of it. I certainly never heard of him doing such a thing. My brother was older than both my sister and me by a few years, and my father used to attack him without provocation. Me, he’d wake from my sleep so he could tell me what a useless runt I was and how he should have drowned me in the river when I was born,” Remy finished.

  “Holy shit,” Chloe said.

  “Yeah, he was a peach. He died when I was ten. An accident, so I’m told. He accidentally got stabbed forty-two times. Once for every year he was alive.”

  “Did you do it?” Layla asked. “Sorry, that’s none of my business.”

  “It’s fine. And no. My brother and sister did the deed. She was
seventeen, and my brother nineteen. My brother joined the army, and I never saw him again. My sister married a wealthy landowner, had lots of children and seemed to be happy with her life. I envied her that. It took a few years, but I became a drunk reprobate, who either spent my wealth in brothels or . . . actually no, just brothels. I liked brothels. They were, frankly, awful places, but it was better than being at home alone. My mother re-married and moved to Ireland, leaving me to deal with my own shit at the tender age of sixteen. Which I did: drunkenly, and with as many naked women on top of me as possible. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as fun as it sounds.”

  “I didn’t exactly expect that,” Chloe said. “I knew you were the son of someone rich, but the rest of it was awful. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

  “Turned out okay in the end,” Remy said. “I pissed off more than my fair share of people and had to flee to England, where I resumed the duty of trying to kill myself through alcohol. From there, it all went a bit crazy. I got turned into a fox by a witch coven for sleeping with someone I shouldn’t have and then spent a few centuries becoming a damn sight better with sword and pistol. I was lucky in a way. My father could have killed me, or he could have lived another decade and pissed all the money away, instead of allowing me to do it; or he could have just murdered everyone in the house in a rage because my mum did something that displeased him. He’s dead, screw him.”

  “Damn, Remy, that’s an exceptionally crappy upbringing,” Chloe said.

  “We all have our highs and lows. It’s just that my lows were the entire first few decades of my life. I learned a lot during that time, although mostly I learned not to piss off women who can do powerful magic.”

  “You didn’t know that before then?” Layla asked.

  “I never said I was a smart son of an aristocrat.”

  A few minutes later, the group arrived at the drive of the house. Kase helped Irkalla up the stairs and into the building while everyone followed soon after.

  “That’s a bit impressive,” Chloe said as she stepped inside.

  The entire downstairs was one huge, open room. There was a kitchen at the far end, a large dining room table after that, and then a couch that could have fit a dozen people on it. A TV that probably took three people to carry had been hung on the wall. A set of stairs led to the floor above, and there were three doors underneath the staircase.

  “Bathroom,” Remy said. He pointed to the door the furthest from the stairs. “Other two are cupboards.”

  “What’s that door?” Kase asked, pointing toward a gray-painted door at the far end of the floor.

  “It has trophies in it,” Remy said. “Of the hunting variety. Lots of guns, too. Lots of guns.”

  Zamek walked over to the door and opened it, stepping inside the dark room while Layla flicked on the light switch and looked around at the menagerie of stuffed animals and guns.

  “That’s a lot of weapons,” Kase said from behind Layla as she looked into the room. “And that’s a stuffed wolf. That’s messed up.”

  “And a bear,” Remy said, pointing to the large animal at the far end of the large room. “Bill has a grizzly bear in there.”

  “You ever killed for sport?” Kase asked Remy. “You being the son of an aristocrat and all.”

  “Nothing we didn’t eat after,” Remy said. “I’m all for hunting, if you eat what you kill. And we used bow and arrows. Try taking down a grizzly with a bow and arrow, and I’ll be impressed with your hunting prowess. Shooting an animal from hundreds of yards away, from the safety of wherever you’re holed-up, doesn’t strike me as very sporting, or as much of an interesting experience. But to each their own.”

  The four of them left the room, switching the light off as they went.

  “Where’s my dad?” Layla asked.

  “Malcolm and Cody took him to the back room,” Harry said. “I, for one, am happy about that situation.”

  “I remember hunting as a young woman,” Irkalla said from the sofa, changing the topic. “It was called surviving. You didn’t hunt, you didn’t eat.”

  Everyone looked toward Irkalla, who’d been considerably quieter than her usual self up to this point.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Just getting used to the idea of the power I took. My body is adapting to it, trying to make sure I don’t blow up a city block if I use it. I’ve never taken the spirit of an oni before. I do not wish to have this experience again.”

  “We’ll try very hard to not let you kill an oni,” Remy told her.

  Irkalla smirked. “I’m sorry, I interrupted your conversation about hunting and the like. Please do continue.”

  “Pretty sure I was done,” Remy said.

  “I’m going outside to try to contact Tommy,” Layla said, checking her phone and finding it still had no reception. “Or not.”

  “Use the Wi-Fi,” Harry said.

  Layla changed the settings on her phone and left the house to make the call, sitting on the stairs and dialing Tommy’s number.

  “Layla, everything okay?” Tommy asked, his voice slightly frantic.

  “We’re okay. Have you heard from Jared, Diana, or the other members of the strike team?”

  “I’m sorry, Layla, but it looks like Nergal’s forces took them. We’ll get them back, I promise.”

  A hollow feeling hit her in the gut and she was glad to be already sitting down. “I know. We’re going to Winterborn, and from there we’ll head to Red Rock. We think Winterborn is Nergal-controlled.”

  “That’s our assessment, too. Before we discuss the next step, how are you doing?”

  “My boyfriend has been kidnapped by insane fanatics hell-bent on killing a large number of people, my father is a psychopath, who I’m certain will kill his way across the country if he ever gets free, and somewhere Nergal’s forces are waiting for us. No one appears to have followed us from the prison, although it’s entirely possible Nergal’s people have someone else who can hide them from us. Either way, Nergal doesn’t strike me as a just-give-up kind of person. If we can go around Winterborn, that would be helpful. Any chance you guys can get a Black Hawk to this location?”

  “Is there enough room?”

  “We can make room, Tommy,” Layla told him. “It would be safer than going through a town that’s under enemy control. And going around it will take too long.”

  “If you stay where you are, we’ll sort something out,” Tommy said. “Won’t be until tomorrow morning, though—there’s too much bad weather around here to take off at the moment. I’ll get Hades to talk to people in Red Rock, hopefully divert something your way.”

  “Thanks, let me know,” Layla said.

  “Take care, Layla. We’ll get you back here and then we’ll find Jared, Diana, and the others. Commander Fenix is with them, so wherever they are I’m certain he’s making his captors’ lives hell. And I can’t imagine a single situation where Diana’s captives would be happy to have her. Go rest. We’ll speak tomorrow.”

  Layla stared at the phone for several seconds. She hoped it would work out. Or she hoped that they could at least save those Nergal had taken. She looked out through the forest of tall, thick trees, and then down at the large drive. Landing a helicopter was going to take more space than they had. At least everyone was going to be kept busy.

  13

  Layla relayed what she and Tommy had spoken about, and the team immediately started figuring out how to remove enough trees to let a helicopter land.

  “I’ll do it,” Irkalla said. “I need to get some of this power out of me. I’ll walk into the forest and let loose. Should clear enough of a space, although it’s not exactly going to be scientifically done. We might still have to clear stuff out, and there’s a good possibility I’ll need to rest afterwards.”

  “It’s not like we’re inundated with ideas,” Kase said. “Who goes with you? Because I’m damned if I’m letting you go alone.”

  “I’ll go,” Remy said. “Worst case scenario, she kills me,
and I come back to life. Besides, I’ll be able to smell anyone coming. You’re about to kill a lot of wildlife.”

  “Can’t be helped,” Irkalla said. “Hopefully, once I start dumping the power created by this oni, most things will get the general idea and run for it.”

  “We seem to be missing the most important part of all this,” Zamek said. “We’re officially at war with Nergal. Which means we’re officially at war with Avalon. Thunder Bay will fall, and Red Rock soon after. We need to get to Red Rock as quickly as possible.”

  “We were already at war,” Harry said. “It’s just that it’s not a war people hear about on TV. If there’s one thing Avalon is good at, it’s keeping information out of public consumption.”

  “What about those of us who were taken?” Kase asked.

  There was silence for several seconds. Layla could feel everyone looking at her, and she knew what they were thinking: they could either save her boyfriend and the people who had sacrificed themselves so they could escape, or save thousands of innocent lives from Nergal’s war machine as it headed toward Red Rock.

  “Shit,” Layla said softly. “We can’t leave them in Nergal’s hands. I won’t leave them there.”

  “You have a plan?” Chloe asked.

  “We split up. The helicopter comes and takes Caleb, Zamek, Irkalla, and Kase to Red Rock to help with the defense. Everyone else gets moved somewhere safe—Greenland, a hidden fortress, wherever is best. I’ll go to Winterborn. One person will be better than a crowd.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Harry said. “Humans aren’t exactly seen as threatening to these people.”

  “Me too,” Chloe said. “No arguments.”

  “Then that’s the plan,” Layla said. “Hopefully we can at least figure out where Nergal is keeping them so we can help Hades’ forces launch a rescue.”

  As the group discussed further ideas, Irkalla left with Remy to go and destroy part of the forest. It was going to take her half an hour to clear the area, so everyone sat around and tried to rest. Layla found her father handcuffed to a bed at the rear of the property. Malcolm and Cody sat beside him.