by Alix Hadden
Ali couldn't crouch, exactly; she was sitting down on the ground, her crutch next to her. Kir was awkwardly aware that she wasn't going to be able to run, in an emergency.
"Kir," Ali said, quietly. Kir looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "I think we need backup."
Kir grimaced. "I should have brought Matt, you mean."
Ali shrugged one-shouldered. "Well, we thought this was just an exploratory mission, right? We weren't expecting to run into someone poking around down here."
"Are you assuming that whoever that is is responsible for what's happening?" Zach asked, leaning over. Kir felt the warmth of Zach's side next to his.
"Well," Ali said. "Whilst I don't exactly want to leap to conclusions -- so far we've got weird glowing shit, and someone going down to look at the weird glowing shit late at night. I'm not seeing a hard hat or one of those nice hi-viz jackets, and they haven't got a torch, so I'm pretty certain it's not anyone from the site who's here legitimately."
"We're poking around the weird glowing shit late at night," Kir said.
"But we're all here," Ali said. "Sure, there are a couple of other mages who know about it, but I can't imagine they would come investigating without us."
"And they don't know about the leylines," Kir said, then reconsidered. "Well, Matt does, but he wouldn't just come down here unannounced, you're right. Not on our turf. And he seemed pretty doubtful anyway."
"Could just be someone out nicking stuff," Zach suggested.
The figure had reached the bottom of the hole now, next to the glow, and had crouched down to do something that Kir couldn't quite see.
"Then they should be going for the porta-cabins, or the diggers, or wherever they keep the hand-held equipment," Ali said. "Not the bottom of a muddy hole without anything in it except that sodding glow."
"So -- what, are we going to go down there and, I dunno, grab them?" Zach asked.
Kir looked over at Ali, trying to work out say what he wanted to say tactfully. Ali rolled her eyes at him.
"I'm not up for grabbing anyone," she said, bluntly. "I'd be a liability. And we have to assume that whoever that is has some kind of mage ability, which does make me wonder why we haven't spotted someone like that on our patch, but that's another matter. So we've got a mage, on top of what we think might be the source of those sodding mud-things, which sounds like bad news when you've got one fully-functional mage, one semi-mobile mage, and one -- no offence, Zach -- with no magical ability at all."
"Matt's the closest," Kir said.
"Half an hour, you thought?" Ali scowled. "Well, I guess we can sit tight here and watch and hope nothing goes down in the meantime."
"Can't see an alternative," Kir said, kicking himself again for not bringing Matt in on this in the first place. But they hadn't expected anyone to show up in person. He hadn't even really believed in the damn leylines until right now, come to that.
"Leylines," Ali muttered, echoing his thoughts. "Fucksake."
Kir pulled his phone out of his back pocket and found Matt's number. He cupped his hand over his mouth and the phone speaker -- it didn't seem that whoever was down there could hear them talking quietly up here, but he might as well take precautions. At the other end, it started to ring.
Down in the bottom of the hole, a phone started to ring.
Kir, Ali, and Zach looked at one another, wide-eyed. Kir felt something sick in the pit of his stomach.
The figure poking at the glowing stuff straightened up in a hurry, and pulled their phone out. The ringtone stopped. In Kir's ear, there was a click, and the recorded voicemail message started.
Kir took the phone away from his ear, and swallowed.
"Matt," Ali breathed. "It's Matt. Holy shit."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"That's your friend? Down there?" Zach asked. His voice was incautiously loud, and Ali and Kir shushed him, though Matt, down at the bottom of the hole, didn't seem to notice. He seemed to be intent on what he was doing. Whatever that was. Generating more mud-things?
Kir was feeling deeply unwell. How could it be Matt who was doing this? Matt who was a friend, Matt who -- Kir couldn't quite believe it.
Ali was swearing under her breath. He could understand the impulse.
"Apparently so," Kir said, answering Zach. "Which -- I have no idea what's going on. But we have to stop him."
"He's pretty good, Matt is," Ali said. She was chewing at a fingernail. "If -- you spoke to him earlier, right, Kir? If he thinks you're about to find out what's going on, he might be, I dunno, bringing anything he was already planning forwards?"
"But what is he planning?" Kir asked. "What on earth can he be doing here?"
"Also, why here," Ali said, darkly. "Why not on his own damn patch."
"Because he wants to be able to use magic on his own patch, without being attacked?" Kir suggested, bitterly.
"Crap," Ali said. "That means that if we use magic right now, we're going to risk setting them off, doesn't it?"
"Then let's not use magic," Zach said. "Let's just go straight down there and punch him. Basically."
"I can't punch anyone," Ali said, irritably.
"Me and Kir between us ought to be able to do it," Zach said.
"I've never punched anyone," Kir objected.
Zach shrugged. "Keep your thumb out of your fist. And expect it to hurt."
"Oh great," Kir said, but he couldn't think of a better option, and whatever it was Matt was doing down there, time must be running out for them to stop it.
"If it gets really hairy, I can cover you from here," Ali said. "But -- in that case, you'd better start running, because I'm guessing that it'll be mud beast central more or less immediately."
"So only worth it if it looks like things are worse than the mud-things would be," Kir said. "Oh great."
Ali shrugged. "Otherwise, I guess I'll make a run -- hobble -- for it and get the West London crew out."
"Should we wait for them anyway?" Zach asked.
Kir shook his head. "No time. We don't know what he's doing there. We're going to have to try it."
"Off you go," Ali said, her anxious expression belying her casual tone.
Kir and Zach stood up, and edged out from behind the JCB.
"Go," Kir said.
They both pelted down the slope as fast as they could, straight towards where Matt was kneeling down in the mud. He looked up, startled, as he registered their approach, but by then they were almost on top of him.
"No!" he shouted, just as Kir ran straight into him, shoulder first, knocking him into the ground.
Zach was there straight after, and punched him on the chin. Matt's head snapped backwards into the mud with a squelching sound.
"Come on, get him away from here," Kir panted.
He grabbed Matt under one shoulder, and Zach grabbed the other. Matt wasn't actually unconscious, but he wasn't entirely with it right now, either.
"No, Kir, you don't understand," he was saying, his words slightly slurred.
"You can explain once I've got you out of here," Kir said grimly, "and away from whatever the hell you've seen fit to unleash in my patch."
They were dragging him up the slope now, back towards where Ali was waiting by the JCB, visible now around its edge.
"'M not unleashing," Matt said, and tried to pull his arms away from them. Kir resisted, fairly forcefully.
"Could have fooled me," Kir said. "You're not the one who wound up in fucking hospital from this, are you now? So shut the fuck up."
They were nearly back where Ali was now.
"Impressive," she called down to them. "Very butch, lads."
Then Kir saw her look over their shoulders. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. "Shit!"
Kir glanced back over his shoulder, and nearly dropped Matt. Behind them, around the glowing bottom of the hole, the mud was starting to churn.
"Not unleashing," Matt insisted. "Trying to contain it, honestly, you don't understand, it's going to...
"
Zach had turned to look as well, now. He looked back over at Kir.
"Please tell me you can do something about this," he said, trying for optimistic and missing by quite a long way.
"Drop him," Kir said, and they both let go of Matt, who sat down hard on the ground.
Kir had no idea what he was going to do about this. The mud was still churning, and it was starting to rise up. He could feel a vibration through the soles of his feet.
"Oh fuck," Matt said, which seemed to Kir to be an entirely reasonable assessment of the situation right now.
"You were trying to stop this?" Kir demanded. Matt nodded. "Great. Got any bright ideas?"
Matt blinked up at him. "I don't..."
Beside him, Ali was already muttering something under her breath, face intent.
"I can't find anything to draw on, Kir," she said."I hate to say this, but we might just have to make a run for it."
"And then what?" Kir said. "Whatever's happening there just swallows up the neighbourhood? This is our job, Ali!"
"Not like they bloody pay us for it," Ali muttered, but she nodded. "Help me up."
Kir hauled her up, and braced her as she got her crutch into position.
She looked over at him. "If there's nothing to draw on..."
"Yeah," Kir said, bleakly.
He reached inside himself, and thrust power outwards at what was now a rising pillar of mud. It felt like hollowing his bones out. He could do this for a while, but he knew just as well as Ali did exactly how limited this sort of power was.
"Zach's getting clear," Ali said.
Kir turned and looked around, and saw absolutely no sign of Zach. Where had he gone? Had he thought of something that Kir had missed? Or was he just being sensible and getting out of the way of the magic to give him and Ali a clear run? There wasn't time to think about it now, either way. He'd have to trust Zach. Which was easy enough, because he did trust Zach. Even in the middle of all this, not knowing how the hell they were going to get out of it, the thought gave him a warmth in his stomach.
"Matt!" he said. "You started this, right? Stand up and help us finish it."
"Too strong," Matt said, shaking his head, but he too pulled himself up to his feet. Kir shoved a hand through his elbow, helping him stand upright.
"Three, two, one," Ali counted down, and all three of them threw power at the thing down in the hole, slashing at it as hard as they could.
Kir swayed slightly as the power tore out of him.
"Again," Ali said. "I think that did something. Again."
There were little spots at the corners of Kir's vision now. He wasn't at all sure how many more of those he could do. Why the hell wasn't there any greenery around here?
"It's pulled it all in already," Matt said, and Kir realised he'd spoken aloud.
"Again," Ali insisted.
This time all three of them were swaying afterwards. The column -- well, Ali might be right, it might be less than it had been, but it was still huge. They weren't going to have enough. And Kir couldn't think of anything to do. Water, sure, but there wasn't any water on site that he could see. Just mud. And they'd need a hell of a lot of water to get rid of this thing.
The column was still rising, although it swayed every time they hit it, and pieces of it flew off and away. As far as Kir could see, the pieces weren't either returning, or generating new mud-things. Which was one small mercy. But the ground around the base of the column was churning up, being pulled into the base of the column. The hole was getting larger, stones and mud tumbling downwards to be pulled into the base of the column as it rose up. And it was starting to extend lumps now, lumps that might yet turn into those tentacle-like pseudopods. They were making an impression on it, but Kir was painfully, scarily aware that they weren't making enough of an impression, and he felt like he was about to fall over already.
His stomach felt empty, and his legs were shaking. He could feel Matt and Ali on each side of him were shaking too.
"Again," Ali said, her voice hoarse, and this time they took a huge chunk out of the column, but they were slumping into each other afterwards, trying to prop one another up while none of them could stand properly. Kir felt light-headed.
"It's not working," he said.
"What the hell else are we going to do?" Ali demanded.
"We need water," Kir said.
"Water?" Matt asked.
"You melt them," Ali said, leaning over a little to see around Kir and nearly falling down. Kir only just kept her upright. "Sort of. Lots of water."
"Where the hell are we going to find water?" Matt asked.
Which was the crucial question, of course.
There was a smell in the air now, a smell of earth and stone, and a choking dust was beginning to rise around their feet. Kir coughed, and the cough only seemed to draw more of the stuff into his lungs. Next to him, Matt was retching slightly, bent over. Dust -- water would settle this too, but none of them could move now, there wasn't water here. There must be water underneath somewhere, sewers or water pipes, Kir thought frantically, even the bloody water table surely couldn't be that far under the surface. Could he reach down and splinter it? He didn't have the energy any more, didn't have the energy for anything.
The column was higher again. Fuck, people were probably seeing it from the road now, and the glow was at the top of it, reaching outwards into the growing tentacles that were reaching towards them.
"Again," Ali choked out through a mouthful of dust, and Kir reached into the core of himself, felt his heart faltering, and it wasn't going to be enough, couldn't possibly be enough...
There was a noise behind him.
"Watch out!" someone called. "Hang on!"
Water was flowing down towards them, down the slope from where they'd climbed the fence. Lots of water.
For a moment, Kir just looked at it blankly, unable to work out what was happening. Then the first of the flood hit his feet, his ankles; and he blinked and grabbed at Ali, already unsteady on her feet.
"Holy shit," Ali said, and they turned just in time to see the water hit the base of the column.
They turned to see Zach with a hose, aiming it down the slope. The hose was going full strength, which explained the quantity of water. The base of the column was starting to dissolve as the flood surrounded it.
"It's rising," Matt said, and pointed to where the muddy puddle around the base of the column was spreading up the slope towards their feet. Hastily, Kir scrambled back up the slope a little ways, helping Ali, who was swaying on her feet and whose crutch kept sliding out from under her. The things had never yet been dangerous once they were dissolved into enough water, but he didn't particularly fancy being up to the ankles in muddy water anyway.
As they backed up the slope, Zach moved the hose upwards a bit. The stream of water arched past them, shining slightly in the faint light from the streetlights, and hit the middle of the gradually sinking column of mud and dirt and stones. The stream of water drove straight through the mud-column like it was a drill bit, dissolving everything around it, even as the flood at the bottom was still eating into its base. Prudently, Kir shuffled back a bit further, taking Ali with him, to avoid any splashback. By the time he stopped again, the column was almost entirely gone.
"Where did Zach even get that from?" Ali marvelled.
The water slowed to a trickle and cut off.
"I have no idea whatsoever," Kir said. "But I am impressed."
Ali glanced at him sidelong. "Would it be inappropriate to suggest that we should be very glad that he's here?"
"Yes, thank you," Kir said, slightly irritably.
"I'm telling you you were wrong," Ali said, in helpful tones.
"Yes, thank you."
"Water destroys them?" Matt asked, and Kir half-turned to look at him.
"Which brings us to the next question," Kir said, ignoring the question. "What the hell did you think you were doing?"
"Is this a question we can
answer somewhere warm and dry and indoors?" Ali asked, sounding -- no doubt deliberately -- slightly pathetic.
Kir heard footsteps coming down the slope, and turned to see Zach, looking flushed, out of breath, and absolutely gorgeous.
"Indoors I can do," Zach said. "And I can raid the kitchen in my office, too. Looks like all of you could use that."
"My hero," Ali said, fervently.
"That was amazing," Kir said. "You dealt with it. You're amazing."
Zach shrugged. "I can operate a hose. It seemed like the obvious thing to do. You were the ones holding it back for long enough for me to get there."
Kir curled his fingers into the lapels of Zach's jacket, and tugged him in for a kiss. Zach's mouth was warm, and Kir's fingers itched to pull him in closer still, to get him somewhere they could be private...
"Debriefing!" Ali said loudly, and Kir pulled reluctantly away from Zach. "And I don't mean that sort, either! Come on, Zach mentioned indoors. Lead on, and all that."
Zach insisted that everyone take their shoes off rather than tracking mud into the carpet -- which was probably fair enough -- then led them all upstairs to his office, which had a couple of sofas at one end of it.
"Very modern," Ali said approvingly. "Do you have sleep pods or anything?"
"You're thinking of Google," Zach said. "Or a startup spending too much cash, one of those. This is just where we try to shake down corporate donors by giving them chocolate biscuits and acting all matey."
"Chocolate biscuits?" Ali said hopefully, and Zach produced a half-empty packet from a cupboard.
"There's tea, but the coffee machine broke last month," he said. "Hence the runs to the cafe."
It all seemed very normal to Kir -- somewhere between terrifyingly and reassuringly so. Matt was hugging himself, hovering just by one of the sofas as if uncertain whether he was allowed to sit down.
"Matt," Ali said impatiently. "We're not going to be any more pissed off with you if you sit down. I'm not sure we could be any more pissed off with you right now, to be honest."
Which possibly wasn't the most helpful thing she could have said, in Kir's opinion, but on the upside, Matt did sit down.
