Night Rune (Prof Croft Book 8)

by Brad Magnarella

  Before Caroline could reply, Malachi murmured from Gorgantha’s arm. “The bluffs…”

  We all turned toward him. His eyes were closed, but his hooked hands were twitching as through trying to claw his way back from sleep.

  “What bluffs?” I asked.

  “On the Hudson,” he slurred. “That’s the way to … to Seay’s time.”

  “No jokin’?” Gorgantha said.

  “What time period is that?” I asked.

  Charges of anticipation were going up and down my body at the thought we could soon have eighty percent of the Upholders back together. But though Malachi’s lips sputtered, no words emerged. I prompted him a few more times, but he’d lost his struggle and fallen back to sleep.

  Caroline peered around. “The bluffs are northwest of us. And frankly, I don’t think we’re going to find much refuge here.”

  “Especially with an active demon,” I agreed.

  “I’ve had my fill of 1861 anyway,” Bree-yark grunted.

  “Damn sure know I have,” Gorgantha said.

  We crept from the coops and headed west under the light of a half moon. Beyond the squatter shacks, the landscape turned into cleared building lots and empty streets. Here and there lights burned from what looked like a boarding house or small estate. We avoided them, sticking to the most undeveloped parts of what would become the Upper West Side.

  Soon, I made out the wooded heights over the Hudson River—the bluffs Malachi had mentioned. We could duck out there until Malachi recovered enough to show us the location of the portal.

  “Riders coming,” Bree-yark announced.

  He had taken the rear, and I turned to find his glamoured ears perked up. Soon, I heard the distant rumble of hoofbeats. Torchlight glowed into view a moment later, flickers of orange over several streets.

  “Dammit,” I muttered.

  Caroline pointed out a grove of trees. “We’ll have better cover that way.”

  “Let’s go,” I said, pulling Arnaud by the manacles. “Gorgantha, see if you can wake Malachi.”

  We took off running toward the trees, Bree-yark stooping intermittently for stones to arm his sling. I attempted to speak a shield into being, but the ley energy was even more scant here than a few blocks back. After a few sputtering attempts, I gave up.

  As we reached the grove, the cracks of gunfire sounded. The lead riders had come within about a block of us.

  “Give me Arnaud!” Caroline shouted.

  I passed the demon-vampire to her and waved for her and Gorgantha to continue to the wooded bluffs. Bree-yark and I followed them through the grove for several rows of trees before taking cover from the riders. There were about a dozen of them, their dead auras betraying their soulless states.

  “Hit ’em hard,” I called to Bree-yark. “There’s no humanity left in them.”

  With a grunt, he slung his first stone. It smacked the forehead of the lead rider and sent him into a backward tumble from his mount. More shots cracked, splintering bark past my face. I had a handful of invocations that could have scattered them like bowling pins, but I lacked a decent energy source.

  As Bree-yark loosed another stone, I eyed my blade’s banishment rune and spoke a Word. Hallowed white light flickered around the etching—and just in time. A rider was charging up my row. I waited until he was almost even with me and swung. The contact of blade on rider was glancing, but it was enough to send holy flames ripping up his side. The horse bucked him to the ground and bolted. Meanwhile, Bree-yark had taken down another rider, but we had eight more coming.

  “How you doing?” I called to him.

  “A shot nicked me, but I’ll live,” he grunted. “You?”

  “Fine, if I can get close enough to these guys.”

  More gunshots went off, pinning us behind our trees. I looked toward the bluff. Caroline, Gorgantha, and the others had disappeared from view, and I imagined them crouched inside another of Dropsy’s glamours. I felt better knowing Gorgantha was with them in the event any riders got past us.

  “Get yo’ ass back here!”

  I looked over to find the massive mermaid charging into the grove from the west. What the…? Ahead of her was what at first appeared to be a bag of rags blowing in the wind before I made out the shape of Malachi. His tattered clothes and long hair flew every which way as he raced toward us like a man possessed.

  “Down!” I called to him. “Get down!”

  But he kept coming. The remaining eight riders veered toward him. Bree-yark and I broke from our cover to try to head them off. I shouted to get their attention, but they were locked onto Malachi. If the riders took him out, we would not only lose our friend, but our guide to the time catches.

  The demon Malphas clearly knew this.

  I pumped my glowing sword like a relay baton, struggling for another speed. Bree-yark slung several stones, but they were off target. Malachi slowed, seemingly confused by the sudden attention, his Bible clutched to his chest.

  As the first riders closed in on him, Bree-yark and I were still too far away. But Gorgantha wasn’t. Reaching Malachi just ahead of the riders, she scooped up a thick branch and swung it. The branch split against a rider’s head and knocked him to the ground. Two more riders aimed revolvers, but Gorgantha had the presence to duck behind a tree before shots exploded from barrels.

  The remaining riders circled Malachi until he was blocked from our view. Shit.

  I aimed my sword. Though there wasn’t enough energy for a banishment blast, I had another option: drawing power from Arnaud’s wards. It would mean weakening the demon-vampire’s restraints, but to spare my teammate and friend, I’d have to chance it. A silent flash detonated among the riders.

  But it hadn’t come from me. A moment later, the riders thudded to the ground. Their horses remained a moment longer before bolting away. At their former center stood Malachi’s hunched figure.

  I completed my run toward him. “Hey, are you all right?”

  White light lingered in Malachi’s eyes as he looked around. Gorgantha stepped from her cover and peered from him to the fallen riders. “You were wondering how he’s survived all this time?” she asked.

  Yeah, no kidding, I thought.

  Somewhere along the line, his banishment abilities had reached apostle level.

  “Hey, uh, Everson,” Bree-yark said, jogging up to us. “We’ve got more coming.”

  I turned and swore. In the middle distance, a second wave of riders was approaching.

  Malachi snapped his fingers as if suddenly remembering why he’d run toward us. “You wanted to know where to find Seay?” he asked, the light that lingered in his eyes dwindling to points. “This way!”

  He took off toward the bluff. The rest of us exchanged puzzled looks and followed. When we reached the trees, Caroline emerged from her hiding with Arnaud.

  “He just got up and ran,” she explained of Malachi.

  “It’s all right,” I said. “He’s taking us out of here.”

  Malachi led the way at a crooked run that was surprisingly fast. In fact, we had to call for him to slow down several times so we wouldn’t lose him. Behind us, the fresh wave of riders had reached the grove. Ahead, the woodland fell steeply to the Hudson. We were running out of real estate.

  “Watch out!” Gorgantha called.

  Malachi’s arms flew up and he dropped into a crevasse. The rest of us slowed to a stop and peered down. The fracture in the earth was rocky and littered with leaves, but there was no sign of our teammate.

  “The opening is there,” Caroline said.

  A moment later, I picked up the small fold of multicolored energy.

  “Let’s go,” I said, relieving Caroline of Arnaud and waving the others down.

  Bree-yark wasted no time jumping into the crevasse. Gorgantha, who looked skeptical, chose to scale her way down. Both disappeared into the fold. Caroline gave me a small wave and stepped from the edge.

  I took one final look at the approaching riders, t
hen seized Arnaud around the waist and dropped in too.

  29

  I crunched into a foot of snow and nearly fell, but Gorgantha was there to steady me. I held her arm and squinted past the icy pellets stinging my face.

  By all appearances, we were on the same bluff we’d left behind, only it was daytime, and we were in the clutches of a winter storm. A bracing wind flapped my trench coat while snow fell in a steep slant over the wide river below. The far shore—what would become New Jersey—was a pale presence thick with trees. We were somewhere else in New York’s distant past.

  “Can we go back?” Bree-yark asked.

  The goblin stood in a shivering hunch, his back to the driving snow. Having shed his scorched coat at Barnum’s, which had been his glamoured bomber jacket, he was wearing only a tight undershirt. Large goosebumps covered his tattooed arms.

  I looked past him to Caroline, who’d raised the hood of her cloak. Beyond her, Malachi was pacing at the end of the ledge we’d ended up on, muttering and ticking items off his fingers. When I called his name, he hustled over, apparently unbothered by the weather despite his ragged clothing.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Well, that’s the Hudson River, and—”

  “I mean when?” I interrupted. “What year?”

  He squinted upward, then shook his head in apparent frustration. “That escapes me, but it’s Dutch times.”

  “Dutch?” Gorgantha said.

  “And this is where Seay is?” I asked to be sure.

  “She’s in the settlement, in the settlement with the others. In New Amsterdam.”

  New Amsterdam had been the predecessor to New York City, a 1600s settlement on the island’s southern tip. “Then that puts her about six miles away, give or take.”

  “What’s known as the Old Indian Trail runs east of here,” Caroline said. “It follows the general course of what’s now Broadway.”

  “All right, good to know,” I said.

  That would deliver us to the settlement, but we were looking at a three-hour hike in single-digit temperatures. I couldn’t shield us for that long. If Caroline had been at full strength, she could have warmed us, but she wasn’t, and my face was already going numb, my words turning mushy. Bad for casting.

  “Is there somewhere we can shelter?” I asked Malachi.

  He nodded readily. “There are some caves up this way, up this way.”

  Like a skipping record, he was repeating words and short phrases. Another effect of jumping between time catches, evidently. Without waiting, he scampered down the ledge to the ice-crusted shore. The rest of us followed, me guiding Arnaud while Bree-yark told the winter weather all the things it could do to itself.

  “Not far, not far,” Malachi kept calling back.

  We soon arrived at a honeycombing in the bluff’s stone base. Malachi led us inside the deepest one, out of the elements. As I shook the snow from my coat, I noted the blackened fire ring in the middle of the floor and the wood stacked against a back wall. I scanned the cave again to make sure we were alone.

  “Oh, that’s mine,” Malachi explained, retrieving a small box and a handful of kindling from behind the wood pile. “I’ve stayed here a few times, a few times.”

  He opened the box to reveal steel, flint, and tinder. While he arranged the fire-starting implements, Bree-yark and I tee-peed the kindling inside the ring. Malachi got a spark to take, and we were soon blowing life into the budding flames. As Bree-yark began setting larger pieces in place, I saw the bloody gash on his neck where the bullet had nicked him. The ley energy was stronger in this period than the time catch we’d left, but when I offered to heal him, he waved me off.

  “Save it for someone who needs it,” he barked.

  He snuck a peek at Gorgantha, clearly wanting to impress her. I hoped he wasn’t forgetting Mae, but this felt more like hero worship than attraction. At least he hadn’t mentioned Gretchen again.

  Gorgantha remained near the mouth of the cave, water puddling around her feet following a plunge in the river to rehydrate.

  “Aren’t you freezing?” Bree-yark asked her.

  “For a New England mer, this is beach weather. That fire would dry my scaly ass out. I’ll keep watch on the river.”

  Appearing disappointed, Bree-yark pulled Dropsy from his pouch and set her in the spot he’d apparently been saving for his new idol. The lantern peered around, but soon abandoned the fire ring to explore the rest of the cave. Across the flames, Malachi was back to muttering and ticking his fingers.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  When he saw the rest of us watching, he chuckled nervously and stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets. I realized it was the same jacket—hell, the same everything—he’d entered the original time catch with. Nothing else would have made the transitions, much like the watch Maggie had given me. Gone now.

  “I have a system for keeping track of the time catches,” he explained. “Where to get in, where to get out.”

  “How did you find the interfaces?” Caroline asked.

  “Some through wandering, others by divine inspiration.”

  Malachi used to have dreamtime visions, and I wondered now if the power that had boosted his banishment abilities had also done the same for his divine sight. It might also have helped preserve his clothing.

  “How many time catches are we talking?” Bree-yark asked.

  “Oh, hundreds probably,” Malachi said offhandedly. “Most are from long ago, before there were people. I avoid those, but sometimes you have to go through one to arrive at another, to arrive at another.”

  Despite the repeats, he seemed more coherent than he’d been back at the tavern before Caroline’s intervention. But I still wanted to test him. “Do you remember entering the first time catch with the rest of us?”

  “That was a long time ago, but yes. I remember being worried about the British soldiers, the British soldiers.”

  “How long is long?” Caroline asked.

  He searched the ceiling of the cave, lips pursed. “Fifty years?”

  “Holy thunder,” Bree-yark muttered.

  I exchanged a glance with Caroline before saying, “You’ve been in the time catches for fifty years?”

  “I’m estimating, but around that, yes.”

  “What have you been doing?” I pressed.

  “At first, looking for you and the others, the others. I don’t remember quite how, but we were separated. You went after a demon, I think…” He trailed off. “Is that him?”

  I followed his gaze to Arnaud, whom I’d sat on the floor beside me. Above his muzzle, hollow eyes stared at the flames. His infernal energy had dipped, likely from exposure to the extreme cold. I was hoping the heat would restore him.

  “Long story, but yeah,” I said. “And we need to protect him, keep him warm. He’s our ride home.” I cinched Arnaud’s wrist restraints, which had begun to loosen around his emaciating limbs.

  Turning to Gorgantha, Malachi continued his story. “You swam to the city for something. And, and Seay and Jordan had a fight. Went their own ways.” He paused as though searching deeper inside his memories. “The Divine Voice was telling me that worlds were on a collision course, collision course. I only understood when I crossed into another time. It took me years to find the others.”

  Gorgantha made a confused face. “I was in that museum months, not years.”

  “It was different for you,” Caroline explained. “You only passed through two time catches. Malachi here has transitioned through hundreds, each one with a different temporal structure. And all warped.”

  I was still trying to get my brain around the concept, but I was a professor of mythology, not theoretical physics.

  Malachi continued as if we hadn’t been talking. “The thing was, I couldn’t make any of the Upholders recognize me. Tried everything I could think of, could think of. Went back more times than I can count. They thought I was drunk or, or crazy. But the Divine Voice kept sayi
ng I needed them, needed them.” He wrung the dingy end of his jacket in frustration. The burned skin where his symbol had been gleamed in the firelight. “Then the Divine Voice told me to find the St. Martin’s plot.”

  “The 1776 one?” I asked to be sure.

  “Yes, the burned one. There are a few others, a few others, but a church occupies those sites in one form or another.”

  Making it too dangerous for the demon Malphas to attempt to manipulate that ley energy, I thought. Hence the focus on the 1776 site, after faith had shaped the fount and the Great Fire had torn down the channeling structure.

  “That’s where the demon apocalypse would commence, the Divine Voice told me,” Malachi continued. “It took me twenty years, maybe more, but I finally found it, found it. A platform had been built.”

  I sat up a little straighter. “A platform? On the site?”

  “Or what looked like a platform. I couldn’t get close enough, close enough to tell. When I tried, I was met by a force. Felt like my skin was melting from my bones, my soul shaking loose. The energy was so raw, so intense.” He drew his burned hand into a fist, the passion of old returning to his eyes.

  It sounded as though the copper plates were active, directing ley energy back at the massive fount, making it too strong to approach. I wondered now if the smarter course was to journey to the St. Martin’s site first. We could shut down the plates, effectively thwarting Malphas’s plans. That would also introduce some stability to the time catches. Who knew how much longer these realities would remain solvent?

  “What if we went there now?” I asked Malachi.

  A dreadful look came over his face. “Now?” He drew his fingers down his scraggly cheeks. “No, no, we must go together. That was why I chose you. Chose all of you.” He looked over at Gorgantha to include her. “It’s so clear to me, clear to me. The Upholders must face the forces of the demon apocalypse together.”

  “But if we can disarm the site…” Caroline began.

  Malachi shook his head, sending his hair in all directions. “No, no, no, no,” he repeated.

  When he didn’t stop, I was afraid he was going to have a breakdown. “Malachi,” I said sharply, but he kept on. Bree-yark edged away from him, while Dropsy peered out cautiously from behind the woodpile.