by Alan Baxter
Frank shook his head. ‘Nope. Not gonna happen. Now, your girlfriend here has great tits, but they’re going to mess up my circle.’ The man began shouting again, noises of frustration and agony as the girl whimpered and screwed up her face. Frank leaned down. ‘No matter, I can only do my best.’ He sunk the point of his knife into her upper chest and drew it around once, trying to keep his circle as true as possible despite the contours of her body. Her scream pierced the early morning stillness of the camp.
‘That would be Frank enjoying his tasks,’ the Sorcerer said, looking up.
Lars grinned. ‘I hope he doesn’t enjoy them too much.’
‘Frank is not that stupid.’ The Sorcerer helped Lars to deposit the semi-conscious Faith into a canvas director’s style chair in his tent. He put one hand against her forehead and concentrated for a moment. ‘She’s angry with you.’
‘I know. She’s angry with all of us and scared about what’s actually happening. She’s smart enough to realise that something is up.’
‘You did well to string her along for as long as you did.’
‘It was easy enough. Once things began to move more quickly it became a lot harder. But it’s done now. She’s going to be right for your needs?’
The Sorcerer nodded. ‘Great natural talent, but no real skills. You found exactly what I needed, Lars.’
Lars smiled, basking in the glow of his Master’s approval. ‘So what now?’
The Sorcerer began removing Faith’s clothes. ‘We will keep her soporific like this until she is needed. Thank you Lars, you can leave us.’
Lars nodded, casting one last look at Faith.
‘Will you miss her?’ the Sorcerer asked, an eyebrow raised in interest.
‘I suppose I will, to some extent. It was... passionate, the time we had together.’
The Sorcerer looked down at Faith’s body as he removed the last of her clothing. She wriggled in the chair, like someone trapped in a bad dream, desperate to wake. ‘And so young and nubile. Well, you’ll have to enjoy the memories.’
‘I will, Dominus. Do you need anything else? Anything at all?’
‘No, son. Go and help the others spread the word. Help to organise the Gather so that everybody is in the clearing by noon. And make sure I am not disturbed. Not for any reason at all.’
Lars bowed his head quickly and left the tent. Once he was gone, the Sorcerer stood before Faith’s naked body slumped in the rickety chair and began to incant, under his breath, almost silent. The words were ancient, ugly things that floated through the air like pungent smells, lingering, drifting. The words themselves had substance, presence. The words began to coalesce around Faith’s recumbent form, forming an invisible cloud around her. Once or twice she arched her back slightly, straining subconsciously against the weight of the arcane magic being woven around her. The Sorcerer drew a connection between her and his carefully tended garden of power, the distant yet potent Custodi Cruor. He felt their desperate yearning as he connected their consciousness with that of this vibrant, powerful young woman. He entwined them, bound them across the vast distance and made Faith into an anchor of their power in this place. She began to pulsate with the energy of the repulsive source his power. She writhed and moaned, every aspect of her being becoming open to the fetid, viscous, mewling touch of the Custodi.
The Sorcerer sank to his knees before Faith, his eyes shut in concentration as he worked his sorcery, building the powerbase that he needed. He knew this was where the real risk began, where all they had worked for came together. He knew he risked discovery now as he stretched the boundaries of his magics. But there was no choice. Now or never and this most delicate of work would take several hours. He needed to be ready by noon.
19
Isiah sipped hot green tea gratefully. Sometimes the most mundane things had the most power for healing. ‘This is great, thanks.’
The old man nodded. ‘You are welcome.’
‘I’m glad there was somebody here. I was worried that everyone would be out and about.’
The old man shook his head. ‘There is always somebody here at the Temple of the Dragons. Caretakers if you will. I am too old to be gallivanting around the world like the young folk.’
Isiah nodded. ‘Cai Wu had that same attitude, but I talked him into going out again.’
The old man laughed. ‘Cai Wu makes out that he is old and would rather stay at home like me, but he relishes the chance to get out into the world. There is a lot of vitality in him yet.’
Isiah’s brow furrowed. ‘You imply that you’re older than he is.’
‘I am. I’ve been around an awfully long time, young fellow. You’re a child compared to him. He’s a child compared to me.’
‘That’s incredible. The experience you must have!’
The old man’s face softened. ‘I have seen many things.’
‘Why aren’t you in charge here if you’re the elder?’
‘It doesn’t necessarily work like that. There are a couple of us here older than Cai Wu, but we have no desire to lead. Besides, Cai Wu is the most powerful human here and it’s his place to lead.’
Isiah’s eyes narrowed. ‘The most powerful human?’
An enigmatic smile spread across the old man’s face. ‘More tea?’
‘What did you mean by that?’ Isiah tried to politely see more of this man, to feel his true presence without being intrusively rude. The old man held up the teapot, one eyebrow raised.
Isiah, can you hear me?
Isiah laughed. Typical timing. Yes, are you ready?
I am. Follow my presence. Follow these images.
Isiah saw outback scrub in his mind’s eye, felt the heat of the Australian summer even in the semi-light of early dawn. Petra’s presence reached out to him like a beacon flashing in a dark sea. He looked at the old man, a rueful smile on his face. ‘Lucky escape, old timer!’ He handed over his cup.
The man grinned impishly, taking the cup. Isiah deliberately let his fingers trail across the man’s hand as he drew back and felt incredible age. Eternal age, wisdom, power. And something else, something familiar yet unclear. Then it was gone. ‘You’re a smart kid,’ the old man said, the mischievous grin still in place. ‘Have a think about it.’
Isiah nodded. ‘Keep an eye on us all out there, will you?’
‘Of course.’
Isiah nodded once and Travelled.
The moment the heaviness of his corporeal presence weighed down on him, along with the dry, weighty heat of the Australian outback, Petra’s own physical weight pulled him to the ground. Isiah laughed as her arms encircled his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist in a death grip as he sunk to his knees. Her kiss was urgent and hard, desperate, almost daring him to not be real after all. Isiah wrapped his arms around her strong back and returned the kiss, reassurance that he was alive. For a moment the passion was intense, then Petra unwrapped herself and stepped back from him. Her eyes smouldered in the soft early light. As they narrowed, Isiah braced himself, knowing what was coming. Her strike was like a whip lashing across his jaw. ‘I felt you die!’ The hurt and accusation in her voice were more painful to him than the blow that preceded the words.
He reached out a hand and took hers, sat back on his heels. ‘I’m sorry. You know, for a minute there I did die. I think. I thought it was over.’
Petra’s eyes softened. She came to him and wrapped herself around him again while he told her exactly what had happened. Eventually she just buried her face in the shaggy hair at his shoulder and held him. ‘Don’t you ever do anything like that again,’ she whispered.
Isiah smiled. ‘It’s not uppermost on my agenda.’
Petra drew in a sharp breath, leaning back to look him in the eyes. ‘So your... contact is a little more on side then?’
‘Well, the Balance is never really on any kind of side, but it would seem that I do have a small amount of information to go on and the merest hint of endorsement to do it.’
‘I
t must be hard working so autonomously. We should be more grateful that we have such guidance from Master Cai.’
Isiah nodded. ‘You should. Although I rarely work at such a remove from the Balance. Regardless, we need to move forward.’ He looked around himself. ‘What is this place exactly?’
‘Come with me back to Master Cai and the rest. I’ll explain what we’ve learned so far as we go.’
By the time they reached the Umbra Magi camp Isiah had a solid mental picture of the ONC camp and the general situation. Cai Wu’s expression when he saw Isiah was unusual. Something in it registered relief, but there seemed to be a certain suspicion there too. Perhaps he was simply reacting as any general in the field would, taking nothing at face value. Isiah decided to let his actions assuage Cai Wu’s concerns. After the initial shock of his return had passed, they all sat to decide the next step.
Cai Wu stroked his chin, thinking. ‘We need a plan of attack, but we are outnumbered massively. Do we simply observe? Do we need to interfere? Suggestions?’ He looked pointedly at Isiah.
Isiah breathed deeply. ‘The entity I deal with is Balance. The very concept of Balance. Suffice to say that whenever there looks to be an imbalance in the power of belief among people, we step in. A single dominant religion, a single all-powerful god, would essentially remove humanity’s free will. Religion does enough damage to free will as it is. Imagine that power in the hands of one deity. Deities being, almost without exception, vain, egotistical, rambunctious children born, as they are, from the basest desires and fears of the people that create them.
‘So people have their beliefs, their beliefs give substance to their gods and this mutually dependant symbiosis arises. This is fine, but every once in a while a god plays for a bigger slice of the pie, or a human does something that sets in motion a course that would lead to drastic imbalance. That’s the last few centuries for me in nutshell, dealing with that shit. In this instance, the ONC are claiming to raise a new god to power. Or reinvigorate an old one. Whatever. We don’t know exactly and that’s the really scary part. I’m not used to the Balance not knowing. Now the Balance doesn’t really care that it doesn’t know. It’s amoral. A completely emotionless force in the universe. To be honest, I’ve struggled many times with exactly what it is, but never really satisfied myself with an answer. However, it doesn’t know what’s happening here. It doesn’t care about that, but it give me the heeby jeebies in epic proportion.’
Petra looked up from studying her hands while she listened. ‘Perhaps that’s what you’re for in part.’
‘What?’
‘Well, you’re the human agent of this entity here on earth, but perhaps you’re also there to be a sort of human consultant. If the Balance has no empathy to humanity’s feelings, perhaps it needs someone that does.’
Isiah nodded thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps. I’d never really considered that, but you could be right. Which brings us to the main issue. The Balance tells me that there are enormous magics at work here that are hiding the activities of this group. They’re masking their true activity from everything. The power of this magic is enormous, and must be taking incredible effort to sustain. To me that only means one thing.’
‘Risk.’ Cai Wu nodded as he spoke. ‘They are attempting something with enormous risk and they know others would try to prevent it.’
Isiah smiled. ‘Exactly. They are masking their activities from everyone and everything, which means it must be something massive. For us to know what is happening, for us to have any idea how we might stop it, we need to interrupt those magics. That’s the only direction of any kind that I’ve received from the Balance.’
There was silence as everyone digested the information. Then Meera spoke up, her voice soft but strong in the stillness. ‘If balance is so essential, who are we to interrupt these people?’ There was some muttering among the gathering until Meera spoke up again. ‘If balance is essential and these people are raising a new god into the world, won’t that only make the spread of balance wider. Isn’t that a good thing?’
She was smart, this one. Quiet with a razor sharp mind. ‘You’re right. The more gods, the more religions, the more humanity’s will is spread out.’
‘And the more fighting there is while people try to convince all the others that they’re right!’ someone said gruffly.
Isiah laughed. ‘Also absolutely correct. But people will find reasons to fight one way or another and religion has simply become the most common rallying call. I dream of a day when humanity gives up religion altogether and gets over this urge for constant conflict, but I fear we’re a long way from that. So yes, letting the spread of Balance increase is a good thing, most of the time. And here’s the nub of our dilemma and it’s not very scientific, I’m afraid. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’
He scanned the gathered Magi as they muttered to each other or returned his stare with a raised eyebrow or a nod. ‘It’s our human condition,’ Isiah went on. ‘We have intuition. The Balance has no idea and doesn’t care. If a really bad situation arises that it didn’t predict, it won’t beat itself up about it. It’s emotionless. It’ll simply start to deal with that situation. And it’ll use me. I’m still human, however, and I have intuition and concern. I’m convinced that something is up here and that if we fail to prevent it, the consequences could be dire. And in its own way, the Balance is starting to endorse that position.’
‘And our collected prophecies would seem to back you up,’ Cai Wu said. All eyes turned to him. He looked up and scanned those eyes. ‘We all know the prophecies.’ People nodded. ‘We have to do something.’ He looked to Isiah. ‘We just need a course of action. Attacking the camp is probably not the best option.’
Isiah shook his head. ‘No, it’s not. The numbers there are one thing, but most of them are whelps, dragged along by their love of this anarchic Ordo Novus Cruor. And they’re all subdued by the level of mind control that their leaders submit them to. It’s those leaders that we really need to worry about. Trust me, they’re wily bastards. And the Sorcerer himself, the one they call Dominus, is a very dangerous man. We need to see more.’
‘Stealth?’ Meera looked from Isiah to Petra. ‘Could you get in?’
Petra shook her head. ‘I doubt it. Their wards are strong and encompassing, they have guards patrolling. For a valley in the middle of nowhere, it’s locked up pretty tight. And what would we do if we could get in?’
‘Perhaps you could learn something that would help us.’
Petra shook her head again. ‘I found a great vantage point. I could see everything from there and it was well concealed. It’s ready for us to move into if we want to and we’ll be able to observe the camp. But even from there we can’t see into the tents or into the large building at the head of it all. And if the wards on those things are anything like the wards at the Sanctum we’ve seen in the past, infiltrating the camp will be pointless.’
Meera nodded, looking at the ground. ‘There must be something we can do,’ she whispered.
‘There is.’ All eyes turned to Isiah. ‘The Balance will be able to see more if we can interrupt their magic. If we do, the future might be ours to see. Then we can decide how to act. Our first priority is finding out how to interrupt that magic.’
Petra raised her hands, frustrated. ‘How? If getting into the camp is as hard as it is, what are we supposed to do?’
Isiah smiled. ‘This group has been moving all over the place, engaging in all sorts of activity. Yet their magic has remained constant. Somewhere, there has to be a seat of power. If we are going to stand any chance of doing anything, we need to find out where it is. And I wouldn’t rule out a big fight yet either.’
The Sorcerer could feel rivulets of sweat run down over his old, scrawny frame. The weight of his coat seemed to increase with every passing minute. The heat of the Australian summer was nothing compared to the heat he was generating with his efforts. But all these things were like someone else’s thoughts and feelings. All he ca
red about, all he gave his attention to, was the sorcery that he worked with his Custodi and this girl. This young, powerful fulcrum that would be the success or failure of his endeavours. So much rested on these next few hours and so much rested on this girl’s ability to sustain the magic he worked. And on his ability to successfully work that magic.
Faith, naked and prostrated, moaned and whimpered, writhing. She was powerful indeed. As the Sorcerer drew magic through her, conducted raw power through her mind and body, she tried at every turn to resist it. It made his job harder but it also gave him hope. If she was this strong, she should be more than capable of performing the task required of her. Never had he tried to use this much magic before, never had he been so audacious in his plans. But his god, his lord Yath-vados, that had come to him through his life’s work, had offered bold and outrageous suggestions that he would never have considered possible. He had little choice now but to see it through.
Dieter cursed the heat of this godsforsaken place, even this early in the morning. The sun barely above the ridge of the valley and already it was becoming unbearable. He worked in front of the large barn, erecting the frames as he had been instructed and he wondered if all this was going to work. He wondered again what all this was exactly. But his faith in his Master, his Dominus, was without question. If the Dominus planned to work such great magic and had asked Dieter to be a part of it, then Dieter would do exactly as he was directed. If only this damned heat was avoidable. But no matter. It was simply another trial to be overcome.
The three wooden frames, each a large X supported from behind to stand up almost vertically, took shape at the head of the clearing, before the doors of the barn. He dug the support struts into the hard, red ground and checked all the lashing, ensuring that each structure was solid and capable of supporting the weight required of it. If anything was going to go wrong today, it would not be his fault. His part in all of this would be perfect.
