“Terrific,” I said, rotating around to the left to avoid a cluster of densely packed magic. “It’s a weird alarm system. Why strands?”
“Magic often works in unexpected ways, and discovering new spells is difficult,” Lionel said. “This particular spell has proved effective against most would-be thieves. Though woodfolk cat burglars are becoming more common in the city, and they have the ability to sense magic and the dexterity and speed to avoid strands. An upgrade may be needed.”
“What can you all tell me about the necromancer we are chasing?” I asked, taking a large step over an almost stationary but thick strand, then darting forward a few paces. Talking was making things easier for me—it allowed my instincts to take over.
“We don’t know anything about him or her,” Lionel said. “Gabriel discovered that a necromancer was after the swirl key, but that was all he knew.”
“Can someone explain…” Where to get started? “Well, basically everything. Where is the swirl key kept? What exactly is a magtroller, and what does it have to do with the swirl key?”
“Sure,” Lionel said. “The swirl key is—” He made a choking sound.
“Are you okay, Li?” Alessa asked.
After a short pause, Lionel’s strained voice returned. “Sure. I just stumbled. With my life force low, holding this open is more difficult than I expected.”
“Are you sure you can manage?” Danielle asked. “If you can’t hold on, the mindtraps will fall upon Alessa and Slate. There’s still time to abort.”
I had never been captured by a mindtrap, but just as I had been able to overcome Lionel’s magic when he’d tried to freeze me, I knew that the resistance of a helsing warrior to the mind magic of mages would give me a chance to escape.
“I’ll be okay,” Lionel said. “I just need to concentrate. Maybe someone else can explain to Slate what he wants to know.”
I dropped to the floor and took several rolls, then stood and twisted sideways to let two strands pass me by. Red light flashed across the corridor ahead as a pirouetting Alessa spun from one side of the corridor to the other. I was catching up with her. Above us, the seeing eye floated close to the ceiling, emitting light and showing Danielle’s worried face.
“I already explained what the swirl key can do,” Danielle said.
“It creates a portal through the swirl,” I said. The swirl divided our world from the underworld and was the source of all magic. The five colors of the swirl were white, green, blue, red, and black, and each color corresponded to a power. White for the magic of the mages, green for helsing warriors, blue for the dragongods themselves, red for vampires, and black for the power of the underworld. Necromancers couldn’t access the black magic of the swirl directly; they gained their power through the help of underworld demons. So it was no surprise that a necromancer would be interested in creating a portal to the underworld.
“The swirl key is in Cressington Tower, hidden inside the latest in magictech security, a magsafe,” Danielle said. “The only way to get a magsafe open is with a magtroller. Magtrollers are universal controllers for advanced magictech devices such as magsafes and mage-controlled robots. The magictech for these devices is so new that only a few prototypes exist: two magtrollers, two mage-controlled robots, one magsafe. Because the two robots are currently being tested in the Dulane Building, both existing magtrollers are currently in the central chamber up ahead. That is why we are here. That is why the necromancer is here. Whichever of us gains a magtroller will have made a large step toward being able to open the magsafe and take the swirl key.”
I shuffled my feet to avoid a strand that slithered close to the floor, then ran alongside the wall for several heartbeats before shifting back into the center of the corridor. “Even if you had the magtroller, surely gaining access to Cressington Tower won’t be easy,” I said.
“No,” Danielle agreed. “It’s a start, though.”
Looking around, I realized that I had almost caught up with Alessa and that both of us were close to the end of the corridor. I also realized that I had gotten myself into a dangerous spot, having been forced into a section dense with strands. I glanced behind, but going back didn’t offer any better routes.
Hold on tight, I warned Harps.
I leaped forward, then danced sideways with several quick steps, seeking an opening, only to be forced backward. With strands closing in from all directions, I was running out of options. I sprang high into the air, swiveling around so my legs touched the ceiling, and then I used the ceiling to propel me forward. I couldn’t see a clear path out, but keeping high above the tangling strands offered some hope. A gamble, but a necessary one, given the situation.
And when I found myself hurtling toward a pair of low strands with no way to avoid both of them, I realized the gamble had failed. Unable to change direction mid-air, I was going to set off the alarm. Then a hand wrapped around my forearm and pulled me upward, adjusting my trajectory just enough to land safely.
Alessa released me, and I stumbled away from her.
“You don’t have to thank me,” she said. “I was saving my ass, not yours.”
The skin on my forearm burned. “Don’t ever touch me again,” I growled.
She shook her head. “Come on, we are nearly through.”
It was true. The few remaining strands were easy to avoid.
“Are we nearly there yet, people?” Lionel’s voice cracked slightly. “I hate to be that guy who keeps asking, but it’s easier to keep holding on when I can visualize that the finishing line isn’t too far away.”
“We’re very close, Li,” Alessa said as we reached the end of the corridor. “We just need Danielle to unlock the final door.”
The seeing eye passed through the doorway in front of us. “Shit!” Danielle said. “There’s someone already in the chamber. It must be the necromancer. I think he, yes, he already has the magtroller.”
“We’re too late,” Lionel said. “After all this.”
“Not if we can get through fast enough to stop him before he gets away,” I said. “Get this door open, Danielle.”
“I ca… can’t.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The magical locks are a different configuration than the ones on the outer door, more complex,” Danielle said. “I haven’t come across ones like this before. They must be new.”
“You can do it,” Alessa said. “You figured out how to disable the other ones. Take your time and work through it.”
“We don’t have time,” I said. “The necromancer will get away.”
“Don’t rush her,” Alessa said.
“Yes, yes, I’ll manage,” Danielle said. “The configuration isn’t that different.”
“How long?” I asked.
“Give her a chance,” Alessa said.
I’d only just met Danielle, but I was already well aware at how badly she reacted when pressure came on. We couldn’t rely on her now. “I haven’t come this far to fail.” I pulled my leg back. Alessa, seeing what I was about to do, dived for me, but I didn’t give her the chance to stop me, kicking the wooden door in front of me off its hinges. I got a brief look at two robots and a shadowy figure between them, then colors shifted around me, blurring.
A mindtrap had captured me.
Chapter 8
I was in a forest. Around me, leaves dissolved and dripped down in heavy drops of green rain. In front of me stood Dagger Blackthorn.
Dagger’s head was bald, and his face was brown, wrinkled, and tough, like the bark of an old oak. The skin knotted into a puckered scar where Dagger’s right eye should have been. It was the scar, not his remaining eye, that provided the mirror to Dagger’s soul. And in that moment, the scar was twisted into a maelstrom of dark emotion. “How dare you return as a failure,” he said. “After all I’ve given you.”
I bowed my head before his fury. “Forgive me for failing you.”
He slapped me across the face, and my head snapped back. I s
taggered, my ears ringing. My cheek flared hot, and I raised my fingers to touch it.
“You are worthless filth,” Dagger spat.
“I tried my best.”
“Don’t lie to me.” He slapped me across the other cheek. “I know you worked side by side with her. You didn’t even try to kill her?”
Tears blurred my eyes. Shame burned hotter than the heat blooming in my cheeks. I turned away, stumbling. The colors blurred around me, and Fierce blocked my path, the wolf’s gray hair flecked with black. It crouched low, a threatening rumble emerging from deep in his throat. Flint stepped forward to stand beside his familiar, putting a hand on Fierce’s back.
“Where do you think you are going, brother? Are those tears?” Flint was built like a tank, squat and wide. “You think you can disgrace our family like this and just walk away.”
“I did what I had to. You have to understand.”
Flint nodded. “I understand in a way that Dagger and Crystal don’t. You see, I always knew what you were. I always knew you weren’t a true warrior.”
Green raindrops fell on my face, burning my eyes. The earth shook, and I fell. The world spun beneath me, and I dug my fingers into the dirt at my feet, holding on with all my might. When the spinning stopped, I looked up to see Crystal standing in front of me with Glade, her cougar, close by. Crystal’s hair had never been cut and was braided into a long brown tail that reached down to the back of her knees.
Crystal crouched down and rested her hand on my head. “I knew you were weak, the weakest of us, but I didn’t realize it would come to this.” She closed her fist around my hair and lifted my head, forcing me to look into her disdainful eyes. “I always thought that the world could contain nothing worse than vampires. Now I know that’s not true. That a helsing warrior could become corrupt enough to consort with them. To help them.”
I screamed as Crystal wrenched my hair upward. I sensed Glade coming for me, and I wrestled myself free. From the stabbing agony as I got away, I knew Crystal held on to half my hair. I ignored it, running away. At my feet, the carpet of leaves melted into a green sludge that dragged at me, slowed me down. From all directions came the sound of brush crashing. Despite my helsing speed, Glade and Fierce were gaining fast.
No, this wasn’t right. I focused. This wasn’t real. I slowed, and turned to face Glade and Fierce. When they jumped at me, I didn’t dive away. They aren’t real, I told myself. This isn’t real. Glade and Fierce passed through me and disappeared, and as they did so, everything changed.
I was in the corridor, a broken-down door lying several paces in front of me. To my left, Alessa was frozen in place, her face twisted into a rictus of horror.
“Slate, Alessa, what can we do to help?” Danielle shouted, looking down from the seeing eye.
My legs didn’t want to move, but I forced myself to take a step forward.
Colors swirled around me, and everything went green again as I returned to the forest. Harps shrieked, and I ran toward the sound. In a clearing, they all waited for me. Dagger with Flint and Crystal on either side, all three surrounded by their shimmering green aura. Glade and Fierce stood in front of them. And Harps—No! I raced forward. Harps was in Fierce’s jaws, shrieking with pain.
Help me, please, Slate, please! his mind cried out. He didn’t struggle, but I could see matching blood on his fur and Fierce’s teeth.
Harps’s frantic pleas tore at my heart, and I wanted to surge forward faster than I had ever gone before, but instead I forced myself to slow. It wasn’t real. I couldn’t let myself be pulled in by the illusion, no matter how much it hurt to hear Harps’s cries and not help him.
“Are you not even going to help your familiar?” Dagger asked, a sneer on his face.
I turned away. Sorry, Harps, I thought.
“Good,” Dagger said. “At least you are doing one thing right. A familiar should add to a warrior’s strength, and that monkey is just another weakness.”
“No, he’s not…” I stopped myself from continuing to engage.
My name was screamed in my mind again and again as I continued to walk away from Dagger and the others. The corridor blurred back into view. I dragged my leg forward, forcing myself to take another step. My limbs didn’t want to respond, but I didn’t let myself stop.
“Slate, Alessa!” Danielle screamed. “What’s going on?”
“I’m free,” I said, stumbling through the doorway and into the chamber beyond, shaking my head to clear the fading shades of forest green from my mind.
Help me, Slate, help me! Harps thought.
I twisted my head to examine Harps, reaching up to stroke his fur. Are you okay, boy? He was shaking.
Fierce bit into me. I could feel the blood squeezing from my body and hear my bones crunching.
It was just a dream. Although Daggers and the others hadn’t been real, it seemed Harps’s agony had been. He had experienced the same things I had. A mindtrap dream. Climb into my coat for a while. Try to forget what happened.
I lifted the lapel of my coat and guided the shivering monkey inside. As he disappeared into the pocket, I examined the chamber before me. Two stationary robots stood frozen in the center of the room. Beyond them, a man with a bowler hat on his head was strolling toward a far door, the black shimmer around him showing him to be the necromancer.
“What about Alessa?” Lionel’s voice came through the earpiece. “How is she doing?”
I looked back to where Alessa still stood trapped, frozen. Her arms stretched out before her, her fingers curled into claws. The muscles in her neck stood out like tent poles, and her face was a mask of horror. Her irises had turned blood red, and fangs spiked over her lips. Usually only the red aura, which only I could see, marked her out as something other than human. Her vampire nature was now clear for all to see.
“She’s still trapped,” I said. “I’m sure she’ll escape in time.”
Just as I said that, Alessa emitted an unholy screech and fell to her knees. “You can’t make me!” she screamed, her voice ragged with pain. “I am not a monster.”
“You have to help her,” Lionel said.
I took half a step toward her, then stopped myself, remembering the accusations of Dagger, Flint, and Crystal. They might not have been real, but their reactions were. My job was to stop the necromancer. “I can’t do anything for her,” I said. “Vampires have a natural resistance to the mind control magic of mages.” Just as I had. “She should be able to escape by herself.” If she couldn’t deal with a simple mindtrap, that was her weakness.
I ran after the necromancer, rapidly increasing speed. Hearing my footsteps, he looked over his shoulder. Instead of continuing to escape, he came to stop, a smile spreading across his face.
My step faltered slightly, unsure what gave him such confidence. The two robots were not far ahead of me, but they were inactive. Just as I had that thought, one robot’s eyes flashed red, and it straightened. “Halt!” it ordered.
I skidded to a stop, just out of the robot’s range. Its head swiveled back and forth in a jerky motion, and its metal fingers closed into fists. It was humanoid-shaped with a metal skeleton, slightly bigger than me. Whoever had designed the robot had clearly watched the Terminator franchise too many times. I took a step back. The necromancer continued to watch me, his smile still broad.
Through the earpiece, I could still hear Alessa’s screaming.
“Danielle, what’s going on with Alessa?” Lionel demanded. “Can you help her?”
“I don’t know what to do!” Danielle’s voice sounded frantic. “Lionel, it’s terrible. She looks like she’s been tortured.”
“No point in me holding on to the outer wards anymore,” Lionel said. “The alarms have been sounded. I’m coming in to help her.”
“Your life force must be completely spent,” Danielle said. “What will you be able to do?”
“Whatever happens, I can’t let Alessa be—”
“Mage team off,” I said, deciding
to concentrate on the robot in front of me and the grinning necromancer behind it.
“Give yourself up now and you will not be harmed,” the robot said. The voice didn’t sound like that of a machine, but rather a man, and I remembered that Danielle had called it a mage-controlled robot. Clearly this robot had its magtroller still in place, and a mage now saw through its eyes, and spoke through its mouth.
“It’s not me you are looking for,” I said. It felt slightly silly to be talking to a hunk of metal, even knowing that a human was controlling it. “It’s him.” I pointed out the necromancer. “By the far door.”
The robot’s head swiveled around, but his gaze didn’t stop on the necromancer. It didn’t seem to see him at all.
The necromancer’s smile widened. The fuzzy blackness that surrounded him wasn’t an aura, I realized, but demon magic. He had made himself invisible to the robot’s controller.
The robot’s head swiveled back across to its partner. “What have you done to Alpha One?”
“It wasn’t me. The person who…” I trailed off. Since he couldn’t see the necromancer, the mage controlling the robot was never going to believe me. I couldn’t even blame him.
“Give yourself up,” the robot told me. “The Dulane Building is being surrounded. There is no escape.”
“Sure, I surrender.” I walked straight at the robot.
“Step back,” the robot said, raising his arms and forming fists. “Don’t come any closer.”
“Don’t you want to cuff me?” I reached out with both hands, grabbed one of the fists, then used the leverage to vault myself over the top of the robot’s head. I landed on the other side, then sprinted straight at the necromancer.
From a distance, I dived at him, aiming to tackle him to the ground, then…
I splashed head first into an oily pool. I clambered to my feet, in shock. The necromancer still stood before me, but everything else had changed.
A swirling darkness surrounded me. All around, thick-limbed black trees swayed back and forth, moving as if a storm battered them, though no wind blew. My feet sank into wet mud, and all around, standing water rippled and bubbled. The water that flowed off my hair and clothes was thick and viscous, like molasses.
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