“Albert Horatio Wallenby.”
That brought me up short. “Wallenby?” Herb Wallenby, benevolent necromancer and suitor to my former partner, had killed his father, who had become a lich. The father’s name had been Albert. “As in, the necromancer family?”
Mr. Albert blinked. “You know of us? That’s impressive. My father was the last really good necromancer. He died a while back, rest his soul. My son inherited a bit of the talent, but never did anything with it.”
“And you became a lich.”
I hadn’t been intending to say that, and obviously, Albert hadn’t been expecting it, either. But instead of an angry reaction, the pinpricks of light in his pupils dimmed, as if in sadness. “Yes. I made a horrible, horrible mistake. I believed that the afterlife promised by all the religions was a farce, and that the only way to attain true immortality was to become that undead monstrosity.” He gave a baleful snort. “It’s funny how you can justify things, small evils that gradually lead to atrocities, each one just a stepping stone to the next. Before you know it, you’ve bargained away everything that was dear to you, and destroyed the person that you were. I did… unforgivable things.” Mr. Albert’s eyes were wet. “My Nora. She died of cancer, and I brought her back, reanimated her. She told me that she’d been in Heaven, had been happy, pleaded with me to let her go back, but I wouldn’t let her go. I couldn’t be without her, and I convinced myself that her memories of the afterlife were just fabrications of her mind. I was convinced I was right. And when a person is that convinced they’re right, very little will sway them from the path they’re on.”
“And you would have kept going if your son hadn’t come along and stopped you.”
Mr. Albert tilted his head as he looked at me. “You must be one of Herbert’s friends, yes?”
“We’re acquainted. Kindly continue.”
“Herbert and my father came to my lab one night. Herbert sent his mother back to her rest with a shotgun blast, and then turned the weapon on me. Well, on my phylactery, that is. You’re familiar with the devices, yes?”
“You store your soul in them, yeah.”
“Right. Well, Herbert destroyed my phylactery, and my lich form along with it. But I was clever, oh so clever. Or so I believed, anyway. I’d made a bargain with a man named Laras to create a second phylactery for me.” Laras. That name brought back all sorts of bad memories. Laras was a Keeper, someone who made bargains for a living, and those bargains rarely worked in his customers’ favor. Luckily for the universe, he was dead now.
“Unfortunately for me,” Mr. Albert continued, “the secondary phylactery did not function as I’d expected. It preserved my soul, but my soul before my transformation into a lich. Imagine my surprise when I re-formed, not as an ultra-powerful paranormal being, but as a sort of ghoul with my original soul.”
He sighed. “It’s been eighteen years since that night. Eighteen years for me to reflect on the horrors I committed. My son, my wife, my father, I pushed them all away in a narrow-minded pursuit for power. I couldn’t make things up to Nora, but I tried to keep an eye on Herbert. He…” Albert trailed off for a moment. “He didn’t run in the sorts of circles where I could monitor him, though. I have some friends topside who are clients of his. His accounting practice, that is. But they haven’t heard anything from him in a few days. Have you heard from him?”
I rubbed my chin, then wrapped Mr. Albert in telekinetic bands. Not tight, but enough to let him know he was being restrained. “Excuse me for a moment,” I said. I stepped into the back room and called Galahad. I wanted to make sure what I was about to do wasn’t against protocol. I spent a minute filling him in on the situation, then asked my question. “Boss, should I tell him that we’ve got Herb?”
“Don’t let him know Herb’s location,” Galahad said, “but the man has a right to know. Depending on how cooperative he is during the investigation, we may even let him see Herb. But don’t promise him anything.”
“No problem there.” After everything that had happened with Megan, I was never using the p-word again. I thanked Galahad, hung up, and then returned to Mr. Albert. The shopkeeper hadn’t struggled or even moved during my phone call; I’d have sensed it. I took the seat across from him, released the telekinetic bands, and rested my hands on the table.
“I met your son about a week ago. It’s a long story, but here’s the short version. He started dating my partner, Megan. When Megan was kidnapped, he came with me into a pocket dimension to rescue her. We tried to sneak in, but ultimately had to fight our way out. He was amazing, and if it hadn’t been for him, neither Megan nor I would’ve made it out of there alive. Unfortunately, he was injured during the fight and is in a coma now.”
“A coma?” Mr. Albert’s voice was concerned. “Agent Corinthos, necromantic magic is actually quite good at reversing those, when applied properly. I could help your physicians.”
I shook my head. “He was impaled by a supernatural weapon called the Rosario. It—”
Albert’s sudden intake of breath told me he knew all about Paracelsus’ legendary paranormal killing weapon. “He was impaled by the Rosario and he survived?” Albert’s voice held a note of awe. “That boy is tougher than I ever gave him credit for.”
“The Rosario was damaged,” I continued, “partially melted. It’s got Herb’s soul trapped in a sort of limbo. We believe that if we repair it, we’ll be able to heal him.”
“Repair the Rosario,” Albert breathed. “What in God’s name would you even use for such a thing?”
“Celestial metal,” I replied.
Albert blinked at me. “Celestial metal? Egad, you’re not asking for much. That stuff’s next to impossible to find. However, I have something that might help you. Would you come into my shop, Agent Corinthos? You may handcuff me or use any manner of restraint you feel necessary. I realize I’m in trouble, but if my boy is in danger, I want to do what I can to help him. To make things right.”
I didn’t handcuff him, but I did wrap a very loose telekinetic band around his chest. If he tried to run or attack, I’d cinch it closed, and he’d be incapacitated.
I waved him on, and we headed back into the shop. Albert walked straight over to one of the shelves, crouched down, and pulled a small, clear glass brick with a compass rose etched into it. “This is a metal detector of sorts,” Albert said. “The only one of its kind, so far as I know. Calibrate it to whatever sort of ore you’re looking for, and the detector will point the way to the nearest deposit of it.”
“This really works?” I asked, taking the brick.
Albert smiled at me. “How do you think I got the money for this shop and all these little treasures, Agent Corinthos? I used it to find platinum and gold. It should work for celestial metal, too.”
“So how do we calibrate it?”
Albert took the brick back from me and walked behind the counter. “You need to place a bit of whatever you’re searching for here.” He touched the side of the brick, and a small tray slid open. “Close the tray, and the compass points the way. It’s that simple. Now, for the bit,” he rummaged beneath the counter and came out with a tiny box, the kind of thing you’d put a ring in. He opened the box and showed me a thin sliver of glowing silver metal. It pulsed with a light all its own, and I could feel magic and energy coming off of it.
“This is the only celestial metal I’ve ever come across,” Albert said. “Barely three quarters of a gram, and yet you can feel the power it radiates.” He popped it into the brick, then held it out to me. “Take it. I will do whatever I can to help you and the Caulborn, Agent Corinthos. Anything to help Herbert. You have my word.”
I took the brick and thanked him as Kristin joined us in the shop. “Jake and Doc Ryan are on their way to collect the body and give Mr. Albert a ride to the Undercity PD for further questioning.” I gave Kristin my not
es, and Albert sat down quietly in a chair behind the counter while we waited for Jake and the doc to arrive. We stepped out of Mr. Albert’s earshot, and I filled Kristin in on what I’d learned. She nodded when I finished. “If he’s aboveboard then he may be able to help Mrs. Rita heal Herb when the time comes. Let’s talk with Galahad about it when we get back to HQ.”
“Would you mind fielding that?” I asked. “I need to take care of something down here.”
“Something with your kobolds?”
“Yes. I need to check in on them.” Gods in the old legends weren’t much in the way of hands-on with their followers, unless they were mutilating them, having sex with them, or having sex with them while they mutilated them. That wasn’t how I rolled, and I hadn’t spent as much time with the kobolds as I’d like. And then there was that odd request Commander Courageous had hit me with, to request two vials of something called Astral from the kobolds. Now seemed as good a time as any. Outside, an ambulance straight out of the 1980s rolled up, the spinny lights on its roof swirling red all around the street.
“Go ahead,” Kristin said. “I’ve got this.”
It was a ten-minute walk to Cather’s place. I could have portaled there, but I wanted a few minutes to put my thoughts in order. Things had been moving too fast lately, and I wanted to make sure—
I glanced up and realized I wasn’t on the Undercity streets any more. Extradimensional energy flickered around me and tendrils of shadows flitted at the edges of my vision. I felt reality itself twisting, folding, like a piece of paper that’s being origamied into some bizarre shape. Was this a pocket dimension like the House of MacCreeth, where I’d fought Ulysses Pendleton?
A thick mist appeared in the air, like sinister gossamer curtains. There was no sound aside from my own breathing, and the air had the mixed scents of both the Undercity and a fetid swamp. Where the hell was I? And how had I gotten here? I held a telekinetic burst at the ready and felt the reassuring weight of my switchblade up my sleeve. Stay sharp, Corinthos.
The mist faded, and I got a good look around. I was inside a giant extradimensional bubble. It was about thirty feet in diameter, and its walls and ceiling were made of a hazy blue light. Half of the floor of the bubble was an Undercity cobblestone street, the other half was marshy earth. And then I realized I wasn’t alone.
A trio of figures was approaching me, creatures I’d never seen before. The shortest stood nearly seven feet tall, and all three of them were covered in scales. They wore tattered leather loincloths, and their fingers were tipped with claws. Their faces were smooth, almost completely featureless, save for the texture of the scales. I didn’t see eyes or nostrils, but each had a tiny slit above its chin that I was guessing was a mouth. That guess was confirmed when the lead figure spoke.
“Human,” it whispered. “You have been given a great honor. Our Lord Sakave has spoken with you.”
I racked my brain. Sakave? “I’m sorry, is that a name I should know?”
“He graced you with his voice while you battled in Ashgate. Perhaps you remember his gaze?” A pair of purple eyes split open on the creature’s face, then vanished.
I snapped my fingers. “Yes, I do remember now. He was that joker who possessed that pukwudgie and the pigman.”
The creature hissed at me, its body shaking with rage. “Watch your tongue, human. You should be flattered Sakave deigned to speak with you.”
“Uh huh. And why is that?” I poked around with my extradimensional energy, looking for a way out of this bubble. I could just Open a portal and leave, but I was genuinely curious about how the bubble had been made. It was like two different spaces had been smushed together and then held in place with extradimensional glue. I wondered if I could do that. And of course, while I was pondering extradimensional puzzles, the creature had responded to my question and was now impatiently awaiting a response from me.
“Sorry,” I said, raising a hand. “My mind wandered. What was that?”
The creature’s companions let out a low, rumbling growl, and the speaker’s jaw clenched. “I said, Sakave has a place for beings like you. We nirrin”—he gestured to himself and his pals—“will make ready the way for Sakave. When he arrives, he will need more than just us to control this realm. You have been marked as one with potential.”
“And what will he do, once he’s here?” Hmm. It felt like the whole bubble was stitched together with a single thread of extradimensional energy. I skimmed along that thread looking for its edge.
“He will end all war, end all crime, and impose his will and law over all living things. Through his infinite wisdom, he will remake your world according to his own grand design.”
Hearing that explanation made me lose my concentration, and I lost the thread. Typically, the big guys like this arrived with talk of crushing their adversaries and enjoying the lamentations of their women. Coming in and saying they planned to end the problems that plagued humanity was new. A part of me wanted to be optimistic about this; maybe these guys weren’t so bad, after all. Then again, imposing his will and remaking our world didn’t sound all that friendly, and they had just pulled me into their own pocket universe without my consent. “And what if the people here disagree with Sakave’s law? What if they find it unfair?”
The nirrin tilted its head at me, as if such a question was moronic. “Then of course, those who resist would be executed, used as an example to others.”
“Hmm.” I held up a finger. “You know, tempting as that sounds, guys, I think I’m going to have to pass. When it comes to things like this, I find I’m usually on the side that winds up kicking the shit out of assholes who walk in and tell everyone else how to behave.”
One of the speaker’s pals didn’t appreciate my comment and surged toward me. He rebounded off of a telekinetic wall and staggered backward, landing flat on his ass. I bound him in telekinetic bands and pinned him against the ground.
“That was impolite,” I said, conjuring an aura of pyrokinetic flame around one hand. I looked at the other two nirrin, my eyebrows raised. Instead of rushing me like I’d expected, a pair of slits appeared in the speaker’s face, about where his nose should have been. Those slits expanded as he leaned toward me and inhaled. “You smell like Urisk,” he whispered. “How is that possible?”
Well, well, it seemed that these guys didn’t know everything about me after all. I was marked as someone of importance, yet they didn’t know the Urisk were my followers? Man, and I thought the Caulborn had communication problems. “You might say the Urisk and I are acquainted,” I replied. “What’s it to you?”
“The Urisk still live?” He sounded surprised.
“Um, yeah.”
The trio of thugs began babbling to one another in a language I didn’t know, but they were definitely excited about something. Even the one who was bound up in telekinetic bands seemed to have forgotten his imprisonment as he was chattering, too. I took advantage of the moment to feel around the extradimensional energies of the bubble again. Ah, there it was. The thread of energy connecting two separate points, linking them together. All I had to do was tug on that thread, and the whole thing should unravel.
The nirrin who had spoken was animated now. He was practically hopping from foot to foot as he addressed me. “You know where the Urisk are now, yes? You will take us to them at once. Lord Sakave would be most pleased with you, perhaps even bestow a part of the realm to you to rule. Your name would go down in history as one of Sakave’s Chosen, a true honor few enjoy.”
“Going to have to pass, guys. Tell this Sakave character to stay off of my plane and he won’t get hurt. Otherwise, he’s going to have to deal with me.” With that, I released the nirrin I had bound, then hit all three of them in the crotch with telekinetic lances. As they whimpered in pain, I pulled on the thread of energy that held the bubble together. The little bubble evapo
rated, and I found myself back on the streets of the Undercity.
Well that had been fun. Still, it was nice when the bad guys announced their intentions in advance. It gave us good guys a better chance of stopping them. They’d also given me an idea of a new way to use extradimensional energy. I’d have to play around and see if I could make bubbles of my own.
Taking a page from Kristin’s book, I phoned Uncle Dave, the Caulborn’s lifeline, and told him what had just happened. “I’m unharmed and am headed to a secure location now,” I told him. That’s the great thing about being in the Undercity. The place is exclusively populated by paranormals, so I didn’t have to speak in cant, like I did when I was topside.
“I’ll pass that along to Galahad, Vinnie,” came Uncle Dave’s thick Massachusetts-accented reply. “You stay safe.”
I hung up and rounded the corner to Cather’s place. While I was on the phone with Uncle Dave, I’d telepathically contacted Kleep, high priest of my kobolds, and told him I was on my way. An honor guard of four kobolds appeared out of nowhere and flanked me. Invisibility was one of the kobolds’ favorite tricks, and I’d grown quite fond of it myself. That’s one of the great things about being a god; anything my followers can do, I can do, too. Anything they know, I know, too. And thanks to my mental kobold-pedia, I now knew that Astral was a drink that granted the imbiber visions. Why Commander Courageous wanted me to have a vision was a little sketchy, but he’d never steered me wrong before, even if I didn’t know who he really was.
My honor guard escorted me to the door, which opened to reveal Kleep himself. He greeted me with a deep bow. “Welcome, Lord Corinthos,” he said. “May I offer you a Pepsi?”
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