Summoned to Die

by C L Walker

  “How are you healing?” she said to change the subject.

  “Faster than yesterday, slower than I’d like.” The wound was doing well, the hole almost completely closed, though there was internal damage that was still causing me trouble.

  “That’s good. I don’t want you dying on me.”

  “Yet,” I said. “Not before you’ve gotten your fill.”

  “Not before Doctor Keith has gotten what he wants from you.”

  “And what’s that? What did you promise him I could do for him?”

  She paused for a moment, considering her words. She wasn’t as oblivious as everyone else and she’d seen how I could twist words to my advantage. She was smart and careful. Not careful enough, but at least she was trying.

  “He believes he can turn you into a weapon,” she said.

  “He believes he can replicate what happened to me and use it on his men.”

  She nodded.

  “Does he know what I’ve done to my masters over the years? Because if he does then he’s an idiot to think making more of me is a good idea.”

  “He knows you can be controlled.”

  “Ha,” I barked. “Then he really doesn’t know anything about me.”

  “Bec managed it.”

  I stopped smiling at the mention of her name. Erindis noticed my reaction and decided to leave the topic alone. This was wise of her.

  “So is that it?” she said after a few moments of silence. “Is this all you wanted to say to me?”

  “I wanted to talk about our past.” She started grinding her teeth and I suddenly found my smile again. “I want to go over what happened between us, in excruciating detail.”

  “You know what will happen to me if you do that?” she asked.

  I nodded slowly.

  “Then you won’t do it. Because you can’t hurt me, and that would lead to me being badly hurt.”

  “I’ve shown you that I can hurt you,” I said. “I can do whatever I want, and if you’ve been paying attention at all you’ll know that being my master doesn’t stop me. It never did, and I’ve got a lot of reasons to punish you.”

  “But one in particular?” It was a throw-away comment, spoken without thinking, but it showed me something I hadn’t expected.

  “You’re jealous?” I said. “Of Bec?”

  “I want nothing to do with you.” She looked away, staring at the plain white walls as though all the answers to life were scrawled on it. Maybe they were.

  “Her death is your fault. There are a lot of deaths on your head.”

  “And on yours?” she snapped, turning back from her examination of the wall to glare at me. “I have done a lot of things in my life, a lot of things I’m not proud of. But compared to you?”

  “Your long, long life,” I said.

  “Watch yourself.” She uncrossed her arms and walked slowly across the room until she was in front of me. She crouched and lowered her voice. “You can’t hurt me, so the thing you’re desperate to say? Just shut up about it.”

  It was an order, whether she intended it that way or not. It limited my options, but not by much.

  “You know what I’m desperate to say?” I didn’t whisper. I made sure whoever was listening could hear me just fine. “I’m desperate to tell you that I love you. Still, after all this time and all you’ve done. I love you, more than anything in the world. I dream about you, when I get a moment to dream.”

  “Stop it,” she said. She didn’t tell me what to stop, though, so I continued.

  “I’m desperate to tell you that I’d still forgive you, if I thought you’d accept it and deal with the consequences of that acceptance. I’m desperate to tell you that I’m sorry, for what I did so long ago that caused you so much pain. I’m desperate to tell you that I’d take it all back, if I could, just because you want me to.”

  She whispered again, her voice even softer than before. “I’ll bring about the end of days,” she said. “That’s what you’ve always wanted, right?”

  “You need an elder-god for that,” I whispered back. “And they’re in short supply these days.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. But if you don’t stop talking you’ll never find out.”

  I had to consider what she was saying, because she was right; for all my long life all I’d wanted was for her to return and end the world, so we could build it back up into what we had dreamed of. It had been the thing that kept me going as master after master fell before me.

  But things were different now, and it wasn’t as easy to accept it. Besides, she wasn’t going to be able to pull it off anyway.

  “I’m desperate to say a lot of things,” I said, speaking loud and clear again.

  She backed away from me, almost tripping over her feet as she tried to escape to the door.

  “I’m not desperate at all to say the following, because despite everything, I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Don’t do it,” she said. It was also an order, but she specified nothing and so nothing was binding. I’d flustered her and she wasn’t thinking. And that lack of thought was going to cost her a lot.

  “Erindis is my wife,” I said. “She is as old as I am. She is immortal. She heals faster than me and she’s planning on using this place to her advantage.”

  “You’re a bastard.”

  “She’s my wife, and she has been for thousands of years, since before your history began.”

  She was shaking her head, angrier than I’d ever seen her. Angrier than when she’d screamed at me and first told me she hated me. Or perhaps it was fear, and she just didn’t know how to show it properly.

  She advanced on me with the baton and I let her. It was only fair, I decided; she got to shock me and I got to see her dragged away to be dissected.

  She jammed the end of the baton into my wounded stomach and hit the button. Pain bloomed, slower than expected but once it got going it was all-consuming. The world blew apart around me and I lost my senses for a moment.

  When I came back two guards were dragging her from the room and Keith was standing beside the door.

  “Interesting times,” he said.

  “Interesting times,” I replied, pressing down on the wound to stop it from aching.

  He turned and left. My wife’s screaming tirade was cut off when the door shut.

  “Step one,” I said to the listening devices in the room.

  Chapter 8

  A day later and I was almost completely healed. It was like the deadline had motivated something inside me and got things moving a little faster than expected.

  I was also in good spirits as I was marched to meet with Keith. There was no gurney this time and they’d brought me fresh clothes. There were people in the halls as well, which meant the plan was going well.

  Or, a traitorous voice whispered in the back of my head, Keith just wanted me to think it was going well.

  It was a flaw of being who I was that I always suspected an ulterior motive to everything, and this was no different. I had no reason to suspect he knew what I was up to and every reason to believe he didn’t. He hadn’t known about Erindis, which meant he didn’t know much at all.

  That’s right, I thought. Keep looking forward and don’t mind the monsters on the side of the path. Nothing to see here.

  The facility wasn’t that big, I learned. It was three floors of a building, though the winding corridors and security access doors made it take longer than normal to get from anywhere to anywhere else. We left the area with the jail cells in a minute and passed what looked like a nurses station. After that were some offices and an open plan area with twenty people tapping away at computers.

  I wasn’t allowed into the room, but they let me look. It was like going on a trip and marveling at the sights.

  We went up a flight of stairs and entered another set of brightly lit corridors and stopped at a metal door with a plaque on it that read Doctor Keith. No rank or position, just his name.

  The soldier escorting me kno
cked on the door and opened it for me. He stayed outside when I entered.

  Keith’s office was as spartan as the rest of the facility, with white walls and a tile floor. His desk was a little ostentatious for the surroundings, but it gave the place personality.

  Keith sat behind his desk and gestured for me to take a seat opposite him.

  “Don’t you ever get claustrophobic in here?” I said.

  “No windows?” He laughed and relaxed into his chair. “It can get a bit monotonous at times, but this is the kind of place we don’t want people looking into. Even by accident.”

  “So we’re somewhere populated, then?”

  “You are a very smart man,” Keith said. “I didn’t expect that. Your look suggests otherwise.”

  “How so?”

  “You’re a giant with a full body of weird tattoos and a permanent scowl. You can see why I might have formed a mistaken opinion.”

  I nodded. “You’re not mistaken. I’m not that smart, but I do pay attention.”

  “A valuable skill in your line of work.” He leaned forward, putting his hands together on the desk before him. “Is it a line of work, though? Or is it more of a calling?”

  “It’s a curse.”

  “It doesn’t look like one to me, I’ll tell you.” He leaned back again and gestured at a TV that hadn’t been behind me when I sat down. It had slid up from the floor, silent enough that I’d missed it. “Take a look.”

  A video started, showing what I’d done to the building the gang Chaos had once occupied. I’d been looking for Bannon – a soldier with mind powers who’d just taken control of all my friends – and Bec and the young man who was my master at the time.

  The video came from traffic cameras and at least one helicopter. It had been edited together to make sense, following the action as closely as possible.

  “Tell me,” Keith said, pausing when I stood before the building. “What is that behind you?”

  “A collection of broken hollow men,” I said. The picture wasn’t good enough to see individual people in the tangle of limbs and blood. “I needed their blood to complete my task.”

  “What is a hollow man?”

  “Those angels you said you picked up? Hollow men. Fallen angels who escaped the heavens to find a better place on earth.”

  “Fascinating.”

  “I’m surprised you don’t know all this, though,” I said. “You’re a government man, right?”

  “We know about vampires and a few other things. We know about witches, though we only watch the more powerful ones. We employ level one and two magic weavers from time to time, but nobody that can really do any damage.”

  Level one and two would refer to hedge-mages, like Roman.

  “So I’m kind of a big deal here then, aren’t I?”

  “That you are, Agmundr.” He pushed play on the tape and stopped almost right away. “What are you doing here?”

  I had my hands out in front of me as the tattoos dragged blood from the hollow men and fed themselves on it. It was the moment before I tore the front of the building off.

  “I’m strengthening the structure so when I open it up I don’t pull the whole thing down.”

  “And how are you doing that? We’ve analyzed the building and most of the supporting elements are pure diamond. That building would be worth more money than…well, more money than I’ve ever seen.”

  “If it could be sold.”

  He nodded. “Yes, if. So, what are you doing?”

  I wanted to come up with some great lie and wow him with it, but I had nothing and I didn’t want to get caught. So I told the truth.

  “I have no idea. When I use the tattoos for complicated things I leave it up to them to work out the details. As long as they have the power to do it they can make these things work better than I ever could anyway.”

  “Fascinating.” He played through the rest of the video, and we as I pulled the front of the building off and went inside, returning with a boy. I let go of the bundle of hollow men I’d been carrying around for fuel before taking to the air and flying away.

  Seeing it from the outside, I could appreciate how impressive it looked.

  “What we want is to work with you,” Keith said. He pressed a button and the TV slid back into the floor, displaying the last frame of the video. “We don’t want to experiment on you if we can work it all out without doing that.”

  “And if I say I’m happy to work with you?”

  “Then your stay here can be very comfortable.”

  “I’m going to need something a little more concrete than that, Keith.”

  “What were you thinking?” he said, still friendly and smiling, still in awe of what I’d done. If he was trying to flatter me and lull me into a false confidence, he was doing a fine job.

  “I want to know what you’re going to use the information for. I want to know who you really are and what you do. And I want to go outside.”

  He thought for a second before answering. He counted off his answers on his fingers as he spoke. “I can’t tell you, I can’t tell you, I can’t tell you, and of course not. Sorry.”

  “Then we don’t have a lot to talk about, Keith.”

  “Your first requirements aren’t possible because I’m not allowed to tell you. As I intimated, I’m a small cog in a large machine, and I can only do what I’m told. As to letting you go outside, well. You’re an intimidating guy, even if you’re not ripping buildings to pieces with your mind.”

  “It was magic,” I said. “You’re in a small room with me right now. If you were really worried about what I can do you’d be more afraid of what I can do right now.”

  “Are you threatening me, Agmundr?” He didn’t seem bothered if I was, which was stupid.

  “I’m asking a question.”

  He sat back again, tossing the remote for the TV on the desk. He stared at me, appraising me, weighing up his options. He wanted my help and he didn’t want to have to fight for it; that was obvious. And he didn’t appear to be afraid of me. Or, not as afraid as he should have been.

  “I’m concerned that you’re still just hiding your abilities from me,” he said at last. It looked like he’d uttered a great confession, and a weight had lifted from his shoulders. I didn’t see the big deal.

  “So you’re scared I’ll what, fly away if you let me outside?”

  “It’s a valid concern.”

  “Let me sweeten the deal for you, then.”

  “I’m listening,” he said.

  “Erindis wasn’t just hiding her history from you. She was up to something, some plan to act against you.”

  He laughed. “And how would you know that?”

  “Because I recognize her men, and one of them is pretending to be one of your guards.”

  He lost his smile. He believed me, though he didn’t want to. Or, perhaps, he didn’t know whether to believe me or not, but knew he couldn’t take the risk. Either way, I had his attention.

  “If I let you go outside you’ll tell me which one?”

  I nodded.

  “Do you know what she was planning?”

  “Not a clue,” I said. I had him and I knew it. He knew it too; I could see by the way he held himself, by the uncertain look on his face.

  “I will have them all detained and you can tell me which one it is. Once I have that I’ll see about getting you time outside. Fair?”

  “No. If you do something strange he’ll run and you’ll never catch him.”

  He shook his head. “This place is full of trained soldiers. He won’t get far.”

  “A moment ago you would have said he wasn’t here in the first place.”

  He mulled it over and I gave him time. I needed him to do what I wanted and if that meant we sat in silence while he pondered for a little while, then that was fine with me. I had patience.

  “I will have them assembled tomorrow,” he said eventually. “It is something of a viewing party for the men who’ve been working here.
I think you’ll enjoy it too. You can spot him there.”

  “Will I be chained to a wall?” I asked. I was pretty sure I could make it work even if I was, but it would be easier if I wasn’t.

  “No,” he said slowly, deciding as he spoke whether his words would be true. “But I’ll be keeping an eye on you. If you try to pull anything then I’ll put you down. Fair?”

  “Fair.”

  “And when this is done I want to start working on your tattoos. I want you to tell me how they work, or as much of how they work as you know.”

  “You get me some outside time and we can talk.”

  “Deal.”

  He stuck his hand out and I shook it, resisting the temptation to squeeze too hard. The urge was there, but there would be better times.

  I was shown back to my room. Neither of the soldiers guarding me were Peter.

  When the door opened I found the place transformed: the bed had been replaced with a bigger one, complete with sheets and pillows. There was a TV on the wall and a small wardrobe in the corner. Within I found more fresh clothes, and they were more expensive.

  It was a simple technique I’d seen used by tribesman a thousand years before; reward your prisoners for cooperating and they would slowly come to your side. Given time they would be your best men.

  I sat on the more comfortable bed and grabbed the remote, turning on the TV and ignoring it while my mind buzzed. I had a lot to think about and not a lot of time to do it.

  “Step Two,” I said to the room.

  Chapter 9

  They still felt the need to shadow me everywhere, and two soldiers were sent to escort me to the get-together Keith had arranged.

  My anticipation grew as we walked the halls of the prison section of the building; this was going to be my moment, the one time I could be sure everything I needed was in one place. I would have a hollow man to tap into, Keith and Erindis would be there, and it was in the same part of the building that he was holding the others.

  I wanted Bec to be alive. I didn’t want to lose control again, not after the fight with Bannon. Letting the red rage take control felt too good, too natural, and I was a different person in a different time now. I didn’t have the luxury of giving in to that side of myself, but if I found out they’d actually killed Bec I knew I wouldn’t be able to control what happened next.