by C L Walker
The dagger was in a glass case on the enormous desk before the fifteen-foot glass wall that looked out over the city. I lifted the glass and took the dagger.
And time sped back up. One moment I was moving so fast that breathing was a problem because air couldn’t get into my lungs quick enough, and the next an alarm was going off and the door I’d burst through was slamming closed. It bounced off the bolt that shot from the wall, the security precaution foiled by me destroying the lock.
People were scrambling, running for the stairs. I was trapped, but I couldn’t see any opposition yet.
What was happening? The dagger had no power to negate my magic; not that I knew of anyway. Which meant there was something active in the room, protecting Key’s investment. It was too late to do anything about it, but it was annoying to be so close and have everything go to hell.
Such was my life, I lamented.
I ran for the door and pulled it open, though it fought me bravely. I stepped out into the main office to see security leaving the elevator, guns drawn. They saw me too, and started running.
A shield appeared in front of me and sputtered out just as quickly. The tattoos conjured another one and it died too.
I didn’t have time to worry about what was causing the problem. I had to deal with the result of that problem, and it was running my way and getting ready to shoot.
I was on the far side of the office from the elevators, and security was running around the glass-filled interior. The solution seemed obvious.
I ran through the center, smashing the glass as I went. I was showered in bits of glass and shards fell at my feet, but the glass walls were built not to kill people when they broke. I was leaping over conference tables and pushing heavy furniture out of my way, not caring about the damage I caused.
I wondered, as I smashed through the last of the glass and vaulted the reception desk, if Keith had a value for the glass I was breaking and if he’d factored it into his equation.
I made it to the doors and pressed the button. Security still wasn’t shooting, which was good because my shields still weren’t working. The doors opened and I stepped inside and hit the button for the lobby. The sound of the alarm cut out as the doors closed.
There was a tune playing in the elevator, something that was meant to be whimsical but was being mangled by the electronic instrument playing it. I liked it anyway; it was calming, and it took my mind off worrying about what I was going to have to do when the doors opened.
I would miss this, too, I thought. Working at a problem and beating it. I’d counted success in the number of heads I severed, once upon a time. Now I counted it in the number of people I didn’t have to hurt, but it was the same. It was the act of striving for a goal, and knowing I only had one more goal left was depressing.
As the elevator arrived at the lobby I hit the button for the executive parking level and stepped to the side. A bullet whizzed past my head before the doors closed again.
So they were taking it seriously, now. Seriously enough to risk killing someone over a decorative knife.
The elevator went down three more floors and opened on another reception area and another wooden desk. A young man stood behind this one. He looked up and smiled as I walked out.
“Calling it a night, sir?” he said. Apparently nobody had told him he was supposed to shoot me.
“Long day,” I said.
“You work at Billingsley? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
I walked slowly to the counter. The dagger was in my coat pocket and I was dressed nicely enough that he shouldn’t suspect anything. But I was seven foot tall and built like the bad guy in a children’s story; I stuck out.
“I just started at the new place,” I said. “I don’t think I parked down here but…”
“I understand,” he said.
I punched him, hard, and he went down. He had a collection of keys behind the counter and I grabbed one. The parking area only had a few cars in it, all high-end European models. I hit the little unlock button and a large black Mercedes beeped and flashed its lights.
I drove out onto the street, and headed for ACDCs.
It was my last mission on earth, the last time I’d have to retrieve an item or hurt anyone. My next mission had me leaving for the last time. And I’d enjoyed myself, and kept the collateral damage down. I’d been downright professional about it.
I put the radio on and listened to some pop song about a girl who’d been cheated on. I even liked the music, and wondered if I’d miss it.
“Sentimental idiot,” I said, smiling all the way to the bar.
Chapter 28
I hadn’t expected leaving to be as hard as it was. Killing myself was meant to be the hard part, not walking out of a bar.
Bec was sullen, making drinks and not talking to me. Roman was just quiet, sitting on the long couch beside me and pretending not to watch me.
I had to go, but I didn’t want to leave until I’d spoken to them. I wanted to have a proper goodbye, for the first time in my life.
Sentimental, I thought.
“So,” Roman said. He was drinking something blue from a tall-stemmed glass, and he looked up at me for the first time in ten minutes. “Do you think Buddy can hold the line?”
“I hope so, and I’ve roped in the others to help.”
“You said the demons weren’t interested,” he replied. “And Seng…I mean, really? Seng?”
“I couldn’t leave him locked in a hell for eternity. Assuming this works that’s how long he’d be stuck there, because the demons are making it their priority to keep him trapped. For me, apparently. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“He killed people,” Roman said.
“I’ve killed people,” I replied.
“Yeah, but it’s different.”
“A lot of people. More people than Seng could ever, and can ever, kill.”
“That’s right,” Bec said from the bar, finally talking to me. “Big, bad Agmundr. So scary.”
I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or if she meant it. Or if she meant something else entirely. Reading her was impossible.
“Still,” Roman said, looking in Bec’s direction and then deciding better. “He tried to kill a lot of people.”
“Leave it alone, Roman,” I said. When he looked down at his drink again I relented. “He’ll be better now. He’s got the world domination thing out of his system, I’m sure. Besides, if he joins the fight he could change the outcome.”
“Alright.” Roman sipped at his drink through the tiny blue straw.
“Never question him, Roman,” Bec said. “He’s always right. He knows what to do and everyone should just shut up.”
“Do you have to?” Roman said. “Now, really?”
“Oh, sorry,” she replied. “You think I should save all this for when he’s off killing himself. Like a coward.”
“Shut up, Bec.” My voice silenced them both, the instant anger enough to scare them. “Sorry. I just don’t want it to be like this.”
“Then man up and fight.” Bec stepped out from behind the bar and stomped over to us. She stopped a foot from me and glared. “Be a man and stick around. Fight back, don’t run.”
“I’m not running,” I began.
“It looks an awful lot like you are, you spineless asshole.”
I stood up. I didn’t even think first; it was involuntary. I matched her anger, looking down at her. To her credit, she didn’t back away.
“What are you going to do, big man? Hit me?”
“No,” I said. “I’m going to leave. Thank you for the drinks.”
“Get out of my bar. Coward.”
I stepped past her, trying not to touch her for fear that I’d push her over and that would be the last memory she would have of me. She’d called me a coward and I’d been programmed from birth to think that was an insult, so I was angry. But she didn’t need that to be the thing she remembered.
I stopped at the door and lo
oked at my feet, wrestling with myself. There was so much I thought I had to say and so much I wanted to say, and none of it was happening. I’d had a simple picture of the evening, one with three friends who’d been through a lot, sitting around and having a brief conversation and then saying goodbye.
Instead it was dramatic, and confrontational, and hard. Why did everything always have to be hard with them?
“I just want to say something before I go.” I turned back to them and tried to keep my face neutral, calm. They didn’t need anger or remorse, not in that moment. “Thank you. Both of you. You showed me something I didn’t know I was missing. You were my friends when you didn’t have to be, and you’ve helped me when it made more sense to run away. I appreciate it, more than I can ever express.”
Roman was crying and I felt uncomfortable. Bec wasn’t angry or sad, or anything else. Bec was just Bec.
“I’ll see you,” I said without thinking. “Sorry.”
“Dude,” Roman said. “My time with you has been the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced. I can’t say I would do it again, but I’ll miss having you around. Like, a lot.”
“Thank you, hedge-mage.”
“And, like, thanks,” he continued. “For, you know, what you’re doing.”
“I’m sorry for what’s coming,” I said. “I—”
“Oh shut up, Agmundr,” Bec said. “This isn’t your fault. You don’t get to apologize for it. This is that bitch you married, not you.”
“Still.”
“Just shut up.” She stepped toward me and froze, then took another step and froze again. It was like she was fighting herself, like something was forcing her to move and she didn’t like it.
She reached me and took hold of my shirt, pulling my head down. Then she kissed me on the lips. It was a chaste kiss, but she held it for a little longer than she should have.
“Thank you,” she said when she pulled away.
I nodded and straightened. “I’ll see you…dammit. Sorry. Goodbye.”
I stepped out into the night air and took a deep breath. More things I was going to miss, and now I was running late.
I sped up, running to the gate instead of getting a car. I stopped at the open gate and checked the night around me.
Vampires, everywhere. They lined the rooftops and leaned against the walls of every building. If this was what Artem thought was a small population I would have to have a word with him about it, because there were too many vampires there.
I would have to get someone else to have a word with him, I corrected myself. My time of dealing with the vampires was done.
Nikolette and Artem were waiting inside the government building with Keith. They stood up when I walked in.
“You have too many subjects,” I said. “I thought you’d be out there with them.”
A new voice came from behind me. “The king wanted to say goodbye.”
It was Ashe, Artem’s former rival and now his second in command, or girlfriend, or something. I guessed she’d been let out of whatever prison Keith had put her in.
“You’re late,” Nikolette said.
She was all business, and I appreciated the lack of sentiment. She had a chalk circle drawn on the floor with elements at the five points: a bottle of earth, a glass of water, an empty jar presumably for wind, a lit candle for fire, and a heart on a plate for life. Symbols adorned the entire circle, complex and far too powerful for me to comprehend.
“Then let’s do this,” I said. I took off my jacket and my shirt and stepped into the circle. I handed the witch the dagger.
I knelt and she stood behind me, tracing the tattoo the same way Erindis had done. She knew what she was looking for but she said it helped focus her magic, made it stronger without having to draw on the dagger as much. She was afraid of it, and she was right to be.
When she found what she was looking for I felt my skin lift to meet her hand. When Erindis had done it that was all I’d felt before the tattoo came free, but it was different with Nikolette. It was painful, and I could feel the magic she was using in the air. My hair stood on end and my head hurt. It took longer, too, and as the minutes passed by I began to wonder if she could do what she thought she could.
I didn’t feel the tattoo leave my body, but she went on tracing my skin and I knew it was done. Two more to go.
The next one was faster, as though she was getting the hang of it now. A minute of searching and a minute of pain, and then she was tracing my skin again. She’d told me she could take the tattoos from anywhere, as long as they were the right ones, but it was easier on my back. More room to work with.
The last one came off right away, without any pain.
She stepped out of the circle and moved around to where I could see her. She had a jar with the blood in it and I couldn’t stop staring at the dull red liquid. It was the focal point of my curse, the reason I’d been a slave for thousands of years, and it looked like nothing more than it was: a jar of old blood.
“Is it done?” I said.
“Should be,” she replied. “Do you feel any different?”
I didn’t, and it worried me. But there was nothing I could do about it if she was wrong. It was too late to change our minds, and Erindis would be there soon. If Nikolette had made a mistake then everything was about to go wrong.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said. I took the dagger back from Nikolette, stood and put my clothes back on. I could feel the gate waiting for me, calling me, but I wasn’t ready yet.
“Good luck,” Keith said. He looked uncomfortable, twitching and trying to look at anyone but me.
“Thank you,” I said. “All of you. And good luck to you too.”
I stepped through the gate and into a warzone.
Chapter 29
Hollow men lay on the ground all around me, healing slowly or dead. The statues that I had grown so used to in the heaven were moving, walking the land and joining in the fight. Peter and Dave were fighting a half mile away.
The army of Erindis had grown; where I’d collected a few angels along the way she had collected the rest, somehow forcing them to fight for her. They swarmed the plains and were overwhelming the hollow men defending the gate. The clear blue skies painted everything in lurid detail.
Erindis stood still in the chaos, watching Peter destroy Dave. The smile on her face was the same smile I’d seen in the throne room when she’d thought she had me beaten.
I shouldn’t help them. I couldn’t waste the time, not when she was so close. I had to get far away so she couldn’t stop me, and couldn’t bring me back when I had done what I had to do.
Still, I had to find out if Nikolette’s work had severed the bond to the vessel.
I ran across the plain, dodging battles in progress. Two hollow men had an enemy angel on the ground and were repeatedly stabbing her with their ornate daggers. Further, a short demon – like Imp-thing – had his hand down the throat of one of my hollow men. He was reaching inside and ignored the frantic scrabbling of his victim. Before I got there he pulled something out of the fallen angel’s throat, his stomach perhaps. Entrails followed the organ out of the hollow man’s mouth.
I swiped at the creature as I ran passed, taking off its head.
Erindis saw me coming and she turned to face me. This was the moment of truth; I was bound to my masters through the vessel, so she should have no control over me. If she did then I’d find a way to twist her words and leave. If not, I’d just leave; I knew I couldn’t face her in combat anymore.
“I was wondering when you’d stop hiding, Agmundr.” Her voice filled the battlefield like rolling thunder. Fights between our forces broke up for a moment as people staggered, their equilibrium ruined by the force of her mere utterance.
I kept running right at her and smiled when she flashed anxiety. She raised her hands, ready to defend herself.
I diverted at the last moment and threw myself at Peter. He had Dave on the ground and his sword in the air for the killing stro
ke. He didn’t see me coming.
I tackled him to the ground, breaking bones and knocking him senseless for a moment. I used that moment to crush his skull and tear off his head. His blood bathed the tattoos on my arms, but I didn’t need it.
“Agmundr,” Erindis called. I ignored her, grabbing Dave and running for the relative safety of a knot of my people. She yelled after me, shaking the ground. “Stand and fight.”
Buddy took Dave from my hands. He was battered and had been cut multiple times, but he was standing and I couldn’t help smiling to see him.
“How are we doing?” I said.
He pointed at the field with both hands. He didn’t have to say anything.
“Alright,” I said. “I’m going to get us some reinforcements. Keep holding the line.”
“I’ll do my best.”
I ran for the gate to the HND. I felt Erindis follow me as the ground beneath my feet vibrated with her advance. The tremor’s intensity increased as she grew closer, throwing fighting men off their feet as she passed. I reached the gate and stepped through.
I dodged the demon’s hand and ran for the settlement.
“Why are you here?” the demon said, suspiciously. He looked down on me before shifting his gaze to the gate. “She is coming.”
I looked back at the gate; dotted around the landscape were piles of twitching bodies, people who had tried to come through before me and been crushed by the fifty-foot inhabitants. The gate I’d come through, usually invisible and barely detectable, was starting to glow.
“I told you we weren’t interested in fighting.” The demon’s voice still vibrated in my bones, but a new vibration had begun, as though the entire realm was trembling in preparation of her arrival.
“I don’t think she cares whether you’re involved or not.”
“You did this, Agmundr.” He sounded like he was in pain, like he knew what was coming and it hurt him. “I will not forgive this. You will be punished.”
I shrugged. “Better to apologize, right?”
The demon got to his feet, staring at the brightening gate. I couldn’t keep my eyes off it either; the only time I’d seen something like that before had been when Seng was trying to break open a hell gate.
