by HDA Roberts
Was I being set up? Had the Triumvirate planted evidence? Falsified a report?
"Send your own investigators," I suggested, "they would quickly determine that I had nothing to do with it. Hell, I can produce witnesses that put me far away from that country when they died!"
"Are you not practiced in Portal Magic?" Haughter asked, picking up another sheet of paper. "Qualified for intercontinental transit? I have your certificates here."
"Well, yes, but-"
"Then we're going to have to come up with a better alibi for you, I'm afraid, that one won't do."
"Wait just a minute, I don't need an alibi, I haven't done anything wrong!"
"Of course, of course," he said, tipping me a wink, which stunned me.
What the hell was going on here?
"What about the parasites, then? We haven't found a trace, and neither has the Triumvirate. Can you provide us with a sample? Something to prove that they existed?"
"No, of course not. I destroyed what was above ground, and Lord Killian almost certainly got rid of the rest."
Haughter scowled and leant back in his chair. One of the women leaned forwards, looking at him. He nodded at her.
She was a bit younger than Haughter, appearing in her mid to late fifties, with fine lines around her eyes and mouth. Her green eyes were a little watery, but there was intelligence there.
"Mildred Lovenay, Councillor for the Alliances," she said, looming over me, glaring hard.
I couldn't say it was all that intimidating, but then I've been glared at by Demons.
"You are rather painting yourself into a corner, Lord Graves,” she said after a moment. “You say that an organism killed these people, but no trace of it has been found. You say you weren't there, but then you say you were, because you destroyed the creatures, you must get your story straight."
"I said that I arrived after the parasite killed them, I never claimed not to be there."
"And was it really necessary to destroy that mountain?” said yet another Councillor, one with a long white beard and a nearly bald head. He waved a paper file at me. “That’s a national park, you know.”
“The caverns under the mountain were the source of the organism. They needed to be blocked.”
“Ah yes. The parasites, of course,” Haughter said, tipping me that wink again.
I was getting really sick of that wink.
“My Lord, you need to be more careful when out and about. You live and study here in the United Kingdom, and anything you do reflects on us. We will, of course, do our best for you, but slaughtering local Magicians is rather bad for the image, and it’s very hard to suppress.”
“I’m telling you, I haven’t killed anyone!”
“Really?” Haughter said, frowning. He pulled yet another sheet of paper off the stack.
“Then you didn’t murder a Vampire Elder in front of a hundred witnesses?”
“That was self defence,” I protested. This was spiralling out of control.
"Lot of that going around, apparently. May I introduce my colleague, Rowland Stoke, Sub-Councillor for Interspecies Relations?" Haughter said, waving at another man.
This fellow was short and quite rotund. Some people make that look cheerful, but he appeared as obviously belligerent as a wild boar; his great moustache even looked like tusks, projected out to either side of a fat-lipped mouth.
"Thank you, Chairman,” Stoke said before turning his head and his eyes on me. “This relates to the death of the Elder, I believe. Through our allies in the French and Spanish Conclaves, we were alerted to some financial... manoeuvres that were connected with the recent internal disturbances in the Vampire House Aurelia. After some discreet enquiries, we managed to determine the source of this work and make an arrest.”
An arrest? Who the hell could that have been? And why hadn’t I heard about it? Was it one of Tethys' agents? One of Price's?
“Our interrogation bore quite some fruit and I’m sorry to say that things wouldn’t look very good for you if this information became public. Our prisoner informs us that you were the architect of this whole affair, if not the actual mastermind behind the individual transactions and so-forth.”
I went very still. There weren’t ten people who knew that information, and five of them were Archons.
"I see you know what we're talking about," Stoke’s tone was light, but his piggy little eyes were dancing.
"We are further informed that this was all part of a covert economic war on an allied Vampire House, during the course of which you personally assaulted and murdered four more of their Elders. I believe this was after trapping them in their stronghold in the south of France?"
"I most certainly did not! I killed Vallan Myrddin, I’ll admit to that, but that was a necessary act! He was controlling a rift to the Realm of Darkness! As for the other four, the last time I saw them, they were alive and well, just under Coma Hexes!"
"The Realm of Darkness?" Haughter said condescendingly. "Come now Lord Graves, that is a myth. There's no such thing. And even if that were true, you must admit that the rest looks bad. If our source is to be believed, and there's no reason why it shouldn't, then you made a very great deal of money out of the destruction of what was ostensibly an allied Vampire House, nearly causing a minor economic crash in the French and Spanish markets into the bargain. It's one thing to wage an idealistic war, or even a racial one, but to make war for money... that's difficult to explain away."
"None of that is true!" I said. "The Aurelias attacked me first-"
"Oh, not this again," said the one with the beard, gaining him some laughs. "He'd have to be the most persecuted man in England! You need to lie better if you're to have any future in politics!"
"I am not lying!"
I picked up the Truth Stone.
Truth Stones were rather complex bits of Mental Enchantment designed to measure the veracity of a statement in real time, turning black if they detected a lie. They couldn’t measure objective truth, of course, but they could tell if the user believed what he or she was saying. As far as I was aware, they were impossible to fool. It would prove my innocence without a doubt.
"I did not attack the Aurelia first,” I said firmly. “They attacked me, my family and my friends and refused my offers of peace and settlement. I killed Vallan Myrddin in defence of others, and only for that reason. I did not kill any other Aurelia Elders except for Vallan Myrddin."
The looks of the people on the panel shifted, ranging from smugness to vindication. None looked surprised.
"What?" I asked, exasperated.
Haughter nodded at my hand.
The Stone was black as pitch.
"This is a mistake," I said, my face scrunching in confusion, as I contemplated the Stone.
"What is your name?" Haughter asked, "Just to check."
"Mathew Samuel Graves."
The stone turned white.
"Did you attack the Aurelia for personal gain?"
"No!"
The Stone turned black again.
Shit!
"Did you kill those Elders?"
"No!"
It stayed black.
Haughter leaned forward.
"Well, this is a problem, Lord Graves," he said, his gaze somehow darker than it was before, almost predatory.
"This is over," I snarled, dropping the stone back on its pillow before backing away from the podium, "and this is a farce!"
"Yes, one of your creation. And, as I said, we have evidence," Haughter said, his eyes alight with sadistic glee. He snapped his fingers and two men opened a door in the wall to one side of the committee’s desks.
I was still going to leave, but then I heard chains and turned to look.
Two more men were dragging in a figure whose hands and feet were bound by Spelleater Manacles. I felt my heart stop as I saw who it was, panic searing through me as I took in her injuries. She wore an orange jumpsuit, her black hair was tangled and brittle, her eyes were bloodshot and exhaust
ed, there was blood on her nostrils, a cut on her lip and her left eye had been blackened.
"Tethys?" I gasped.
Chapter 42
I didn’t wait for an explanation, I simply moved, running towards her. The guards who’d brought her in let her go and tried to stop me approaching. Behind them, Tethys slumped to her knees, her eyes blank and unseeing.
Seeing her like that... it took everything I had, and I do mean everything, not to kill those two men on the spot. Even so, my Shadows were far from gentle. They came from under the nearest tables, coalescing into two broad tendrils that smashed into the men, hurling them away with terrible force. Bones broke, blood flowed; one of them managed a long, drawn-out scream before passing out, but I didn’t care about any of that.
I dropped to my knees next to Tethys, reaching out with my Will to snap the Spelleaters away from her wrists and ankles.
“Tethys?” I said gently, taking her hand while casting Flesh Sight so I could get some idea of what was wrong. “Can you hear me, Love?”
She might have mumbled something, but that was all, and I soon saw why.
Her Well was almost completely empty.
For Succubae, the energy in their Wells wasn’t just used to power their esoteric abilities. Much as in Vampires, it was also the energy that sustained their bodies, that gave them life and animus.
Letting her Well empty like that was tantamount to starving her to death, and they knew that. We had ways of feeding Succubae in custody; this had been deliberate. Worse, from what I could tell, not only had they not fed her, but they'd done something to cause her Well to drain almost down to nothing. If it had emptied completely, there could have been permanent damage to her brain and vital organs. I could have fixed the latter, but the former...
Even Magic had its limits, and these... bastards had pushed my best friend right up to them.
My rage grew further.
Tethys let out a groan as I touched her, and she slumped against me, her eyes closing.
For a terrible moment, I thought that she'd died, but Flesh Sight told me that she was still breathing, if shallowly, and her heart was still beating.
I let out a sigh of relief and set about giving her Well a desperately needed boost.
As you might imagine, feeding a Succubus was generally a rather... intimate thing, but there were a few quick and easy ways of providing the energy they needed without taking your clothes off. I'd learned the basic Spell while I was dating Crystal. She’d actually come to prefer an Energy Infusion over biting. The energy was purer, and thus more ‘nutritious’.
I dimly heard shouts in the room behind me. Many of them were angry, so I threw up a Shield around us as I worked. I knew that I should probably deal with them first, but Tethys’ remaining energy was so low that I didn’t dare.
Still, I worked as quickly as I could. I started by siphoning off a chunk of my Magic, which I then stripped of my energy signature, similar to the way I would construct a Dispel. The idea was to create a piece of neutral Magic that would easily integrate with the aura, then Well, of the consumer. It was tricky work, requiring quite a bit of complex manipulation.
Thankfully, I’d had enough practice to do it right the first time.
The voices were getting louder. They were telling me to step back. I felt Magicians approaching.
I ignored them all, and started the energy transfer.
I’d barely given her enough energy to restart her metabolism when I felt the first stirrings of Combat Magic being prepared. I could feel energy being gathered, force, gravity and heat, mostly, but there was also a lot of Mental Magic going on, which was what forced me to pay attention.
I looked up and frowned at what I saw. The seven Councillors had gathered behind me, and they had linked their minds and Wells into a single cohesive unit, with Haughter at the centre, controlling it all.
I’d only seen something like that once before, when Glass and his Crows came to my rescue back at Windward Academy. I’d never even heard of anyone else using this technique. It wasn’t that it was hard to figure out, though it was a tricky bit of Magic, it was just that most Magicians were... well, egomaniacs. We didn’t like putting other people in charge; much less of our minds, and that was what was required to get it to work right. There had to be a complete union of purpose, power and control or it would all fall apart.
Now, one on one, or even as a group, they shouldn’t have been a worry to me.
But as a single joined Circle, seven minds linked into common purpose under a single Directing Intelligence... they could be a problem.
"That is our prisoner, Lord Shadow, step back, please," Haughter said, his smile wide and sneering.
“No,” I said softly, glaring right back at him, continuing to feed Tethys energy all the while.
“Oh, but you must!” Haughter said, his voice slick and nasty. "She is awaiting trial for some rather serious crimes, after all. You wouldn't believe the things she confessed to... once we'd softened her up a bit."
It was the way he said it, full of innuendo and nastiness, sadism and delight.
Something in me just snapped.
Shadows went hurtling towards him, only to be met by a wall of pure, bright light, which banished them before it was then sent blasting towards me. I threw a hasty Dispel, causing the wall to explode into sparks. Before they could reply, I stood and turned towards them. I reinforced my shields, and additional defences sprang into being between us. A thought, and heat, electricity and kinetic energy poured towards me, gathering in my Aura, ready to be used.
"Now, now, Lord Shadow, we don't want any fuss," Haughter said, still smiling. The others remained silent, their concentration on the link and their tasks, alone. "Just put her manacles back on, and we need say no more about this little outburst of yours. However, she is a prisoner of the Conclave, I'm going to have to insist that you return her to our custody."
I just stood there wrestling with my temper; hatred and fury building in my chest until I thought it would burst.
“If you want her,” I finally said, my voice resonating through the room like some ugly bell. “Then you can come and get her.”
"Honestly, all this emotion over a whore?" Haughter said, laughing in my face. "After what we did to her mind to get all that lovely information out, I doubt there's enough left for you to.... enjoy. Trust me, she's not worth it. Not that she was before-"
I interrupted him with a Chaos Lance that carved his left leg off. That really had been as far as my temper was willing to let him go. Frankly, I’m surprised he lasted as long as he had.
For all Haughter’s bluster and evident confidence, my attack popped their combined defence like a soap bubble before blowing a molten hole in the wall behind them and setting the room beyond on fire. Haughter stood there on one leg, an almost comical look of shock on his face, before he slowly tottered over, crashing into my podium on the way down.
Alarms started to blare, but the other Councillors were already attacking. Their link had been briefly interrupted, but Stoke had already taken over as the Directing Intelligence, and the entire group had pulled in closer, overlapping and concentrating a smaller defence. Two of them started hurling balls of light and kinetic energy at me, trying to keep me distracted.
While they were doing that, the guards who had been lining the room came up behind me and started throwing lightning, ice and fire into my rear shields. They were a real threat, not just building security as I’d thought. They were combat-trained Magicians one and all; the Conclave’s elite Hunters, if I’d had to guess. Their Spells had that precise, focussed feel to them. Hunters were the people the Conclave sent in when the SCA called for help; they were skilled, dangerous and experienced.
I’ll admit, it was a pretty good trap. They’d set all of this up to goad me, to get me on the back foot, to make me angry and leave me off balance before bringing Tethys in and setting me completely off my rocker. They’d wanted an excuse to bring me down and thought they’d
come up with a pretty good way to do it, too.
I barely cast a pair of Dispel Cannons in time to receive the Hunters’ second volley. The room filled with light and explosions as all those conflicting energies cancelled and disrupted each other. Such was the intensity of the attacks that I added a second double-cannon, and directed both pairs behind me while I focussed on dealing with the frontal attack.
Haughter, at least, appeared to be down for the count, still staring dumbly at the charred stump of his leg. The remaining Councillors were still fighting, though, and well; clearly determined to find a way through my defences. They’d graduated from distraction to full on attack, working together to craft Laser Lances of impressive power.
Quite a few of the Spells I was dealing with were Light-based, as a matter of fact. There was light everywhere, orbs circling the room, layered through individual shields and woven into attacks. It was as if this group, or the Hunters at least, had been trained to deal specifically with Shadowborn.
Or, more likely, with me.
Alas, they were a little late. I was a long way away from being a simple Shadowborn.
I was quite capable of using light too.
And there was a lot of it going to waste in that relatively small room. Some of it was under the direct control of another Magician, and so was out of my reach, but a lot of it wasn’t, and I just drank it all in. I drew in more and more, and then more still, until their little generators and light-lined shields were tiny islands of illumination in a black sea, darker than the darkest night. Lightning strikes barely illuminated their points of impact before my Drawing Spells and Elemental Defences drained them of their energy.
To my great pool of light, I added Dispels, weaving a complex web of cancelling energy into the pulsing ball of photonic power that I was making ready.
With a snarl of rage, I released a Laser Lance that made Des' look like a cheap classroom-pointer in comparison, a finger-thick beam of energy that seared through six overlapping Shields to burn a smoking hole through the shoulder of a male councillor with big, bushy eyebrows and a fearsome overbite.
He saw the attack coming and tried to dodge, but that only made things worse, as he went in the wrong direction. The Beam, which should have passed relatively harmlessly through his shoulder (leaving him temporarily crippled, but otherwise fine in the long-term), cleaved into his chest and burned a nasty hole into his right lung, which was an altogether more serious proposition, not that I could say that I really cared in that moment.
