Heart of Gold: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Clans of Shadow Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  The change in lighting overhead was obvious, even as I tried to tell myself it was normal. The blue glow shifted to purple, but what was a bit more subtle through the dimness was the never-ending hall stretching out before us.

  “This is new, Abbie,” I said, totally keeping the sudden panic at the thought of being stuck in a never-ending maze out of my voice. “Forget to turn off the security system?”

  Gabriela glanced around with a thoughtful frown. “I didn’t feel the usual twist of a dimensional shift or a teleport, not that I’m sure Frank could even be affected by it. What the hell is going on?”

  The big lug turned slowly, his flat voice taking a turn for the distantly interested. Nice to see some bits of personality in the guy, but I had hoped for more concern than this. “Considering the potential danger of the Bearer, it is not inconceivable that Tabitha put extra measures into place, ones that would not be easily undone by the power of la Corazon. Despite my advanced position here, not all things are done under my purview.”

  I narrowed my eyes as the rock in my ribcage thumped hard. My vision shifted into that weird look of threads and strings, and I strained, looking for a patch or weave to rip loose. If I could, we’d be on our way, easy peasy, right? Unfortunately, everything around us looked plain wrong, as if there were some antsy spiders running along the threads, undoing and reweaving threads like mad.

  “I have no fucking idea what I’m seeing here,” I said, echoing my inner monologue. “Shit’s being changed constantly. There’s nothing to grab onto!”

  “In the actual tapestry?” the Doc whispered. “That’s impossible, unless it’s a very advanced bit of chaos magic, shifting and obfuscating the truth so–” She cut herself off as a door ground open behind me. “Frank, zombie!”

  I had seen a lot of strange shit already, but there was still a moment of incredulity, of total disbelief at what Gabby was saying. Strange living things were one thing, but the dead rising from their graves? That moment was just long enough to let clammy, slimy hands clamp around my shoulders as side doors along the tube opened to disgorge more shambling bodies.

  The smell was far worse than the corpse’s cold fingers on my shoulders. You know how in horror flicks when the random victim wanders into the killer’s lair full of corpses and they get surprised when they actually see them? That’s total bullshit because a dead body with any kind of decay smells to high holy Hell.

  Trying not to gag, I twisted in the thing’s grip, a little surprised with how easy it was to escape. A few zombie fingers actually ripped free as the decaying ligaments in its hands gave way.

  Abner barely seemed to notice our new predicament, idly sweeping a huge clay arm to push back the zombies. His beady eyes focused on the air around us. “The chaotic weave not only defends the enchantment, but it warps the fabric of time-space into an infinite loop.” He shrugged slightly. “It is a standard high-level Ender trap. Navigating it is actually quite simple when one understands the nature of the trap.”

  The Doc tore fruitlessly at the magic-nullifying bracelet as she kicked an oncoming zombie in the chest. It stumbled backward, ribs caved in as the Doc stared forlornly at her goo-covered shoe.

  The zombies were dressed in identical black jumpsuits, and I was shocked once more at how non-threatening they were, at least outside of the stench. The smelly bastards were as slow, weak, and fragile as an actual decayed corpse, er, well, if that corpse moved. Yeah, it’s not the best way to put it, but you think of a better one!

  I laced my hands together and smashed my own assailant with a sledgehammer blow, knocking the corpse’s jaw and neck askew.

  “Uh, it’s nice you say that, Abner, but living corpses?” I shouted, wiping the glistening gunk clinging to my hands onto my APD shorts. I was definitely going to need a new uniform after this, which I’m sure my boss would add to the list of things we’d be discussing at my next performance review. Somehow, I was pretty sure saving the world wasn’t going to carry a lot of weight with him. “Though they aren’t very dangerous, which is honestly kind of a letdown.”

  Gabby pushed the zombie she’d kicked to the curved floor. “Well, they are corpses. Simple zombies like this are only used by necromancers as distractions and obstacles, ways to keep their foes from concentrating or frightening mundanes at Halloween parties.” Her hands came back covered in decaying bits of tissue, and she choked back some vomit.

  She had a good point. I had seen some horrible things in Afghanistan, but there’s a core biological gross-out factor involved with decaying bodies, not to mention most people would just shit their pants upon seeing a walking dead body.

  “So why the fuck are these guys here then?” I stomped a zombie head into a gooey bag of flesh and bone.

  Two of the zombies from the far end of the hall grabbed onto the golem who ignored their attempts to gnaw on him. “This tesseract requires concentration to navigate. Think of it like a maze, but one through the weave instead of the physical realm. These base creatures simply delay and distract from the actual trap itself.” He threw off his assailants with a casual shrug as he looked at me. “Frank Butcher, gaze into the tapestry. I will show you the way.”

  “This doesn’t look like a glowing blue cube.” Abner gave me a hollow look that, if I were getting a gauge on his expressions, meant lack of comprehension. “You know? Avengers movie? No?” Well, not everyone would get every reference. “Why me?” I called, pulling Gabriela back as another zombie lurched forward from the darkness. “Doc’s the brains here. I’m just the muscle.”

  Gabby flashed a quick smile at me, which was more distracting than the corpses’ stench. “You’re the one who needs to learn. You did fall asleep a bit early in the lecture last night.”

  I scowled at her. “Okay, Play-Doh, I’m looking.” Hoping Gabby could take care of herself as well as I thought she could, I took a deep breath and focused on the heart beating in my chest once again. The magical threads sprang forth from the stones, the people, even Abner and the zombies. Those fucking spiders were still at work and my eyes started to squirm from the chaos. “Goddamn, what the fuck am I looking at?”

  “Refrain from such blasphemy please,” Abner chided, smashing a corpse apart with a big, red fist. “The chaos magic seeks to twist and turn Yahweh’s creation, yet it cannot truly change anything. Even through the seeming randomness, there is a pattern as there must be a pattern in all things. Concentrate on finding it and you can lead us through the travail.”

  I grunted my affirmative and tried not to think about the stomach-churning smells, the underlying moans of the zombies, or the chunks of gore covering the walls while Abner and Gabriela struggled with the dead bodies the Enders had stocked by the score in wherever-the-hell this was.

  Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that Frank Butcher is not the concentrating type, that Frank Butcher is a slack-ass goob who has probably eaten more books than he’s read. I won’t confirm or deny that last bit, but you don’t become the reigning APD Trivial Pursuit champion by being a dumbass.

  It only took a moment to realize that this frantic insanity, the constant stitching and rewinding of the threads, was nothing different from the chaos that engulfed any modern battlefield. The smell of gunpowder, the cries of the wounded and dying, and the echoes of explosions were as bad as anything this crazy chaos magic bullshit could do. Dropping into that strangely comforting frontline mindset, everything started to become clear.

  I smirked like the cocky bastard I was. “Easy as pie, folks.” I took a step forward. “Just keep smashing zombies, Abner. I’ll do the hard part.”

  Once I started forward, I soon reached the staircase, and with it, the edge of the tesseract. After that, Abner had no problems getting away from the zombie and out of the building. Guess someone upstairs was looking out for the big guy because Abner’s little prayer thing kept that little trap from setting off the alarms.

  Still, I saw what the walking Pottery Barn meant about blowing his cover.
As he pulled the classic “the boss wants me to take these guys somewhere” gambit, I knew it wouldn’t be long before the guards realized they were being fed a big fat lie. Thankfully, we were out of the building before that happened.

  By the time we made it outside, it was late in the evening. As we walked briskly away from the Pendleton Building, I could tell the Doc was nervous, way nervous. She earned one of my flashy, cocky smiles. Sure, I was at least as nervous as she was, but I was a bit better at hiding it.

  That said, I had the sinking feeling I was selling my soul or some shit. Still, I wasn’t going to let her or Play-Doh Man know that. Besides, I had said I’d save her kid. If I had been willing to sell out to the Enders, I wasn’t going to hesitate to sell out to the White either.

  “So, Abner,” Gabriela said as we hurried away from the building, “did the Enders find my car?”

  “We received no word of any vehicle being located, doctor.” He didn’t bother to look back as he spoke, but he did stop a moment to let the two of us catch up. “Let me remove your fetters so you may lead me to it.”

  You’d think a guy with giant clay fingers would have problems with handcuffs, but all it took was what I figured was a brief Hebrew prayer, and they fell away. As I rubbed my wrists (I fucking hate chafing handcuffs), I tilted my head up at Abner and eyed him suspiciously. “You know, chief, you’re a bit too much of a wide load for a Taurus. Do we need to grab you a truck or a trailer? Crane, perhaps?”

  There was a blank look from those cold, wet clay eyes before he pointedly turned to Gabriela. Idly pulling off her magic-suppressing beaded bracelet, he said, “Please lead on. My arrangements have already been made by the Magus.”

  “Whatever you say, Abby,” I said, shrugging. Even this late in the day, there were still a few people out on the streets, but they didn’t seem to pay any mind to the black-robed slab of earth strolling down the street. At this point, I didn’t even feel the need to ask a question about it. All I’d get for my breath was a remark about a cloaking spell or a magic artifact or a gift from God or some shit.

  Speaking of God, there was something that had been bugging me ever since I’d figured out what Abner was and now was as good a time as any to ask before we parted ways. “Mind if I ask you a question, Abner?”

  Gabriela gave me a suspicious glance. I suppose I was being pretty polite at that moment, enough to invite that. Abner, though, didn’t seem to notice or didn’t care. “You may make your query, Frank Butcher.”

  “So magic is real, and I’m down with that. I mean, who doesn’t love a good ‘hocus pocus’ if you know what I mean, but what about God or Yahweh or whatever you call him? I’ve heard some of you people mention spirits and crap, but you’re the first to mention the big guy upstairs.”

  “That’s a complicated subject, Frank,” Gabby started to say, but Abner overpowered her with that booming voice of his.

  “There are many worlds and planes of existence, Frank Butcher. Many of the creatures humans count as fantasy exist in these other places. Among these realms live those many would call gods and spirits.” His head turned to look at the cloudy night sky. “Which of these reigns supreme over the hearts and minds of mortal man is not my place to say, but I can assure you that Yahweh or Allah or God, as your kind call him, certainly exists. What power He has in this world, though, is limited by the concords made between the Peacekeepers and Him.”

  “So that’s why you’re in the game, huh?” I stretched my arms behind my head and stifled a yawn. Despite my nonchalant posture, I was at a bit of a loss, well, more like a complete spiritual flummox. Look, it’s one thing to wrap my head around magic; I could come to terms with that. God though? Or technically gods, I guess. That one was going to take a loooong time to process.

  For now, though, I had to push that aside to worry about later. After all, we were heading down the back alley where we’d stashed the Taurus. Forcing myself to focus, I continued, “You White guys win, God gets to get all Old Testament again … or New Testament, depending on your druthers?”

  “My own reasons for being and acting have no weight at all, Frank Butcher.” There hadn’t been a shred of emotion in the golem’s voice until now. Unfortunately, that tinsy smidge of emotion betrayed full-bore volcanic anger hiding deep down. “I must do the bidding of the rabbi who sculpted my form and inscribed the word of life upon my brow. That is all that matters.”

  We came to a stop alongside the car, still hidden behind a street dumpster. Even if Abner hadn’t just confirmed the existence of the Almighty, I’d have been inclined to believe in God anyway. Why? Because our ride hadn’t been vandalized, burglarized, or even tagged with graffiti. It was a fucking Christmas Miracle.

  “It is here that our ways must part.” Abner didn’t wait for us to respond, turning down the alley the moment the words had left his mouth.

  “Wait, chief, don’t I go with you?” I blurted out. “I mean, I’m supposed to be at your boss’s beck and call now, and what about the Doc’s keys?”

  “You are the Bearer.” Some of the other Enders had used that term too, but when Abner said it, there was a chilling finality to it, like I’d just gotten a fancy crown that said ‘Chosen One’ on it. “Open your eyes to the tapestry and where you will meet the Magus’s troops will be obvious. As for the keys to the car–”

  “I don’t need them at all,” Gabriela finished, concluding her statement with a snap of her fingers. There was a spark of magic, and the Taurus sprang to life, the engine turning over as the lights turned on.

  I whistled at the little magic show and turned back toward the big lug. “Okay, well, thanks…” I began but found my voice trailing off. The eight-foot wall of clay had completely vanished in the brief moment I hadn’t been watching him. He totally Batman’d me. “Huh.”

  The Doc opened the driver’s side door and hopped in the seat. “Well, I really don’t know what to say at this point, Frank. Much as I hate it, I guess we have to trust in the White for this one.”

  “To be totally honest, you pick really shitty folks to hang around with, and I’m not just talking about the White at this point.” I waltzed over to the passenger side. “Why aren’t I driving again?”

  “Apparently you’re our navigator, O’ great and mighty Bearer.” Bless the Doc’s heart, she was really trying to keep a stiff upper lip. I had been through plenty of shit in my day, yeah, but Gabriela was getting dicked over by everyone right now. That’s the problem when you’re everybody’s friend. When those friends get in a fight, you get caught in the middle, and well, you get shit on. My way was simpler. I kept my friends in DVD cases on a shelf. Wow, that sounded way less pathetic when I initially thought it.

  “Well, Mr. Play-Doh said to just open my eyes so let’s do this thing.” I took a deep breath and listened for the thudding echo of la Corazon in my chest. It was easy now that I had done it a couple of times. In an instant, everything turned into that world of threads and stitches that lay beyond normal vision.

  It was the first time I had used this vision when I wasn’t fighting for my life so I could actually appreciate the vibrant world around me. Gabby had been right, threads of magic glowed like neon strings. They flowed through every little bit of the world, air, earth, and all.

  I’m not a guy who waxes poetic, but I do have my cinematic appreciation cred to call upon. Let me tell you that this had better, more sweeping visuals than any sci-fi epic or high fantasy (yes, even better than the best of Cameron, Lucas, or Spielberg). There was something a bit wrong though.

  Something had wound up these tiny threads into tight knit cables of power, stretching up through the sky and winding up into a giant web-like array in the sky. Where the lines of magic had been pulled together, there were dark holes in the tapestry, where some force had ripped the energy clean out of the matter itself. Every few moments, a gentle pulse of power ran up those cables and through that web, all flowing in one direction. I wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but even my inexper
ienced eyes new one thing. It wasn’t good.

  “Shit.” I slid into the car and buckled in, still gazing skyward. If we didn’t hurry, those cables would tear clean through, and if that happened, the whole sky looked like it would be covered by that vast emptiness. “I think we’d better get a move on, Doc.”

  13

  It was a good thing I wasn’t driving because I couldn’t pull my eyes from the glowing strands of magic twirling and dancing into a web above our heads. As la Corazon beat with a steady, powerful rhythm in my chest, my initial wonder was quickly replaced with good, old-fashioned, one-hundred percent American righteous anger.

  The cracks in the magical tapestry, were just plain wrong. It was like watching an original print of Star Wars slowly melt right before my eyes. All I wanted to do was beat down the guy responsible.

  “Frank, you’re going to crack the door latch if you squeeze any tighter.” The Doc was eyeing me sidelong as she maneuvered the Taurus through the late-night streets.

  “Sorry, Doc,” I growled, “but seriously, what the fuck are these asshats thinking? They can see this shit, right? They know what they’re doing with this fucked up shit?”

  Gabriela let out a low hiss of breath. “They should, but the thing to keep in mind is no one really knows what would happen if there were no magic in the world. I mean, it’s never happened, so the End is convinced it won’t have any real negative effects.” She shook her head. “It’s like trying to imagine a world where money doesn’t dictate politics. It’s nice to think it’d work out nicely in the end, but that’s only a guess because it has never happened.” She let out a cynical laugh. “After all, half the time the only thing that saves us from government is corruption.”

  “Well, if your politicians are like our politicians that makes me awfully nervous about what Saruman wants with me.” I shook my head in annoyance. “Besides, we all knew Saruman wanted to use the one ring for his own nefarious purposes, not to help the Shire-folk and Treebeard.”