Science and Sorcery

by Christopher Nuttall

  “With great power comes great responsibility,” Mindy said, solemnly. She’d watched all of the Spiderman movies, enjoying every moment. Peter Parker – the actor playing Peter Parker – had been cute and funny, rather like her brother. “Why didn't you learn that before it was too late?”

  “I was a fool,” Calvin admitted. “I don’t want you to be a fool too.”

  Somehow, having her brother admit to his foolishness showed her precisely what they’d lost. Her family would never be the same again; her life would be forever twisted by magic.

  “You gave your life for me,” Mindy said, as she stood up. At least she had been able to find a small set of clothing that would provide some protection. Calvin’s protective spells would add more. “I won’t let that go to waste.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  New York, USA

  Day 37

  Harrow staggered under the weight of so many minds.

  She’d never held so many minds in thrall before; offhand, she couldn't think of any sorcerer who had come even remotely close to controlling so many mundanes at once. Even the ones she had merely influenced, instead of controlling, were linked to her mind through the dreaming, leaving them in a waking dream that had become a nightmare. Her servants, the ones she'd brainwashed into obeying her, were doing what they could, but mind control spells had their limits. The ones who were brainwashed completely lost all of their ability to think for themselves and the ones struck with simple loyalty spells were only doing what she told them to do, nothing else.

  Harrow hadn't anticipated what would happen when she used her talents, but then how could she? There had never been a city as big as New York in her time, certainly not one so densely populated. And none of these mundanes knew their place. In her time, she could have scared most of them into behaving themselves, but here they kept trying to fight her the moment her control relaxed. So far, there had been no response from the local government to her offer of a truce, yet she couldn't help wondering if they’d realised that she’d bitten off more than she could chew. Sorcerers who spread their minds too far tended to eventually lose all cohesion and die.

  But she had survived Enchanter’s prison, where the only thing between her and death had been her sense of self. Right now, she couldn't spread herself far enough to kill her, even if she couldn't secure her control over the city. Given enough time, she’d have enough loyalists to take control of the mundanes, allowing her to relax. And then she could proceed with her original plan.

  Calvin’s memories had never suggested the danger, but then she hadn't really taught him to be aware of the limits of magic. Or, rather, the limits of the human mind. Mana needed direction to be focused and that direction could only come from a human mind, one with the discipline to impose its will on the universe. Harrow was easily the most advanced sorceress in the modern world, at least until the remainder of the Thirteen emerged from their cage, but even she had difficulty handling so many different problems at once. It didn't help that local mana levels were already dropping because of her demand.

  She stood up, staring out over Manhattan. Flames and smoke drifted up from unattended fires, where her mobs had gotten out of control; she could hear alarms howling all over the city. The modern city was so big...but it had fallen. There was no true opposition left, even among those stubborn enough to hold out against the mobs or her mental pressure. She could relax slightly and allow the mobs to roam the streets, while she gathered herself for the next phase. Locating other magicians wouldn't take long at all. One advantage of the city’s sheer size was that it had to have a number of potential magicians within her sphere of control. And they could be sacrificed to boost her power, even if she did have to do it personally.

  And then, with enough power, she could start unlocking the rest of the prisons.

  She stopped as something caught her attention. Someone was saying her name, the name she had chosen and bound to her power. She could hear him...and then there was another, and another, and another. Hundreds of thousands of people were saying her name. Her mind started to jump from place to place as they spoke, confusing her; suddenly, it was hard to hold her thoughts together. They were all saying her name.

  ***

  “Fucking eerie,” Matt muttered, as the Coast Guard boat turned into Long Island Sound. “Look at the sky.”

  Manhattan seemed to be wrapped in dark clouds that glowed with an eerie, unpleasant light. Brilliant flashes of lightning seemed to break through the gloom for a long moment, before fading away and vanishing into nothingness. A cold wind blew from the city, carrying with it hints of fire and death. The Coast Guard had reported that hundreds of boats had fled the city in the early hours of Harrow’s conquest, but now they were alone on the waters. Harrow didn't seem to have thought about capturing the patrol boats before it was too late.

  Water transport was less important in her day, he thought, remembering Golem’s endless lectures. Magic had screwed up the world, providing portals that allowed people to step from one town to another instantly, rather than risk a long journey through the wilderness. He wondered just how it must have been when the magic had faded away, shattering trading networks that then had to be rebuilt, with roads instead of magic paths. Golem had talked about spells to deter bandits from attacking travellers, spells that must have failed along with the rest of the magic. The bandits must have had a field day before the swordsmen built proper armies.

  New York itself looked strange, almost alien. The massive skyscrapers seemed to cast long shadows that didn't quite match their shapes, while there were very faint distortions running through the air that reminded him of the desperate encounter at Arlington. He couldn’t tell if Harrow was already sacrificing hundreds of people or if it was just a side effect of her presence, but it sent a chill running down his spine. It was impossible to ward something the size of New York, according to Golem, yet there was no reason why Harrow couldn't have scattered a thousand warning spells around the city. She might know they were coming already.

  But she should be distracted, he thought. The media had been ordered to tell everyone to say the name Harrow, time and time again. If only ten percent of the American population said her name, it would be spoken millions of times. Matt wasn't entirely sure of the link between Harrow, her power and her name, but Golem seemed convinced that she would hear every single time it was uttered. It wouldn't have been a danger in her time, yet in the modern world it would be a massive distraction. They’d just have to hope that she couldn't retaliate against the speakers.

  “The mobs just seem to be roaming at random,” Lesage said. The SEAL held out a small pocket terminal, hardened against EMP and electronic distortion. No one knew just how well it would perform in a high-mana environment, although the WANDs indicated that the mana level was definitely dropping. “If there’s a pattern there, we can't see it.”

  Matt scowled. In his experience, mobs tended to lash out at everyone nearby and then loot, pillage and steal before the cops arrived. The fact that Harrow’s mobs weren't causing more than a limited amount of property damage suggested that she was keeping them under firm control, yet why was she allowing them to run riot at all? She might be searching for stragglers, assuming that there were people who had managed to keep their minds shielded against her, or she might be relaxing her grip. There was no way to know.

  “Yeah,” he said, finally. On the downside, the speed that the mobs moved though the city would make them damn hard to avoid. “Where do you want to dock?”

  Lesage shot him a sharp look. The SEALs would have preferred to make their approach to the city underwater, or on one-man gliders, but most of the team was utterly untrained in their favoured infiltration tactics. And Golem was probably too heavy to use a glider. He’d told Matt how he’d walked from Atlantis to the United States, completely underwater.

  “Here,” Lesage said, finally. “The UAVs think there’s no one nearby, so we can come ashore and start walking into the city. You got a lo
cation for the bitch yet?”

  “Here,” Misty called. She’d been working with Mindy – and Calvin – to locate Harrow, by taking bearings as they approached the city. “I think she’s near the Empire State Building.”

  Matt winced. If places of power were places that had been touched by trauma, Harrow wasn't too far away from the former World Trade Centre, a place that might well be usable in a bid to release the rest of the Thirteen. It was just another confirmation that they needed to learn much more about how magic worked before the remainder of the Thirteen got free. Jorlem was already suggesting that the Thirteen wouldn't stand a chance, assuming that the modern world had a year or two to develop new tactics that combined science and magic. But how long would they have before the shit hit the fan.

  He smiled at the thought, glancing at his watch. They had six hours, thirty-seven minutes before the nuke was launched at New York City. If Harrow wasn't dead by then, New York would fry, along with its entire population. They had to stop it, whatever it took. And if the nuke didn't kill her...

  “They made themselves immortal,” Golem had said. But he didn't know how – and all of their speculation had turned up nothing more than useless theories. “The best we might be able to do is render them helpless.”

  Matt looked up again at the looming skyscrapers and shuddered. Rendering a magician, even someone untrained, helpless was clearly easier said than done.

  “Here we go,” Lesage said. There were two SEAL teams on the boat; one to provide an escort, one to spread out through the city and provide a diversion. They were the best America could produce, Lesage had assured him, but Matt hadn't been able to avoid the feeling that they were going to their deaths. “Once we pull into the dock, I want a complete sweep of the surrounding area.”

  Matt braced himself, holding his rifle in one hand, as the boat slipped into the private dock. The SEALs moved at once, jumping out of the boat and spreading out, hunting through nearby facilities for any signs of life. Matt listened as the reports came in, one by one, announcing the discovery of several dead bodies, all torn apart by brute force. There was no sign of anyone living.

  “I saw something like this in Yemen,” a SEAL said. “There was a shopkeeper who was accused by his enemies of selling food contaminated by pork. The mob just appeared out of nowhere and tore him apart.”

  “Bastards,” Lesage commented. “Matt, the local area is secure. It's time to move.”

  Matt looked over at Misty, who looked terrified, and Mindy, who seemed to take it all in stride. But then, the ghost of her brother was right behind her, barely visible even to Matt. The local mana field was definitely weakening; as far as they’d been able to tell from a handful of tests, ghosts drew on the mana field too. And then they were only visible to people with magic sensitivity of their own. Golem was the only one who looked completely calm and it was impossible to pick out expressions on his face anyway.

  “Come on,” he said, quietly. “It's time to go.”

  ***

  Mindy could feel Harrow’s presence pervading the air as she climbed out of the boat and started to walk towards the edge of the dock, her legs still wobbly from the voyage. The evil sorceress seemed to have the entire city under her control, even those who weren't under her direct control were absorbing some of her influence. Calvin had no idea how she managed to maintain a field of such power, but everyone within its sphere of influence would fall to her, sooner or later. Mindy could understand, finally, why Calvin had allowed himself to be lured astray. Harrow had the power to seduce almost anyone.

  Mindy had grown up in the suburbs and she’d only visited Manhattan once, back when her family had attended a memorial ceremony for those who had died on 9/11, but she was pretty sure that it wasn't supposed to be deserted, even now. There should have been vast numbers of people thronging through the city, yet the streets were empty, without even a single moving car. She could hear the sounds of animals roaring in the distance, but she couldn't see a single living creature.

  The streets were littered with crashed cars, as if the drivers had been in motion when they’d collapsed into madness and slammed their cars into other cars, or the nearest building. She caught sight of a body within one of the cars and shuddered, doing her best to conceal her reaction so that Miss Reynolds wouldn't see and send her back to the boat. It was funny, but she’d never realised what death actually was, not until she’d grasped the true nature of Calvin’s crimes. His victims would never be able to return to life, even when the mana field rose to truly vast levels. The best any necromancer could do was either reanimate their body, creating a zombie-like creature, or summon a spirit back to the mortal world. And Calvin’s sacrifices might have even swallowed up their souls...

  “I can lead you right to her,” Calvin said, softly. “Or I could go ahead and spy on her.”

  “Yes, you could,” Matt said, when Mindy had passed Calvin’s words on to him. “And you might be seen by her.”

  “She’s trying to control a whole city,” Calvin pointed out, “using spells that require her direct attention. She won’t have time to see me.”

  Matt looked down at Mindy for a long moment. “Very well,” he said, finally. “But don't go too close.”

  Her brother’s ghost vanished, leaving Mindy feeling alone as they walked towards the Empire State Building. The streets were still deserted, but the sounds of human wild animals were growing louder, howling torn from a multitude of throats. They turned a corner and came face-to-face with a pile of bodies, all crushed by the mob and dumped in the middle of the road. Mindy staggered back, unable to keep herself from vomiting up the meal they’d eaten before setting out on their mission; beside her, Miss Reynolds wasn't doing much better. She took a swig of water from her canteen, washing out her mouth, and then passed it to the older magician, who smiled at her gratefully.

  “Curious,” Lesage said. “There is no sign that any of the people here were raped.”

  Matt scowled over at him. “And that’s a good thing?”

  Miss Reynolds pulled Mindy away before she could hear any more of the conversation, much to Mindy’s irritation. She knew what rape was, at least in theory; it had been one of Calvin’s many crimes even if she didn't fully understand it. And Calvin had also talked about Harrow raping the minds of her victims. She found herself looking around for his ghost, but saw nothing. Calvin was still somewhere near Harrow, lost in the twist of rampaging mana that surrounded the Queen of Nightmares.

  “We need to move on,” Matt said, as the SEALs scoped out the rest of the route. “We have to get there before she realises we’re here.”

  Mindy nodded and walked past the dead bodies, trying not to look at them. She couldn't understand why Harrow had wanted them dead, although Calvin had speculated that she was trying to cut down on the number of minds she needed to control. One of the SEALs muttered that they didn't look to have been sacrificed, which was a relief. If Calvin had been able to do a great deal of damage with only six victims, what would Harrow have been able to do with over fifty?

  And where was Calvin?

  ***

  Being a ghost was strange, Calvin had discovered. Quite apart from seeing things, including himself, clearly, without any of the lies and deceptions that humans frequently practiced upon themselves, ghosts saw the world in terms of mana. Harrow’s presence was easy to see, even without the link between them, because of the effect she had on the local mana field. He started to walk towards her before realising that he was binding himself with human limitations. A ghost could drift through the air, or even fly. It wasn't as if anything other than his own preconceptions were holding him back.

  He drifted towards the mana flow, rising up until he was looking down at New York from a great height. Harrow was standing right on top of the Empire State Building, her thoughts pulsing out all over the city. Calvin could see hundreds of thousands of tiny strands linking her to her victims, all helpless against the influence she pushed into their minds. If she�
��d started on a smaller scale, he realised grimly, she might have succeeded in taking the city without overstraining herself. As it was, the mere act of keeping her thralls under control was pushing her to the limit.

  Calvin’s eyes, no longer limited by humanity, peered at her. Harrow was no longer fully human, if she’d ever truly been human. Her thoughts extruded out of her human mind and into the mana field, shaping it in a manner that even a ghost found difficult to comprehend. Once, long ago, he’d read a science-fiction novel where mighty AIs would extend their thoughts into hyperspace to allow them to run faster; now, looking at Harrow, he wondered if she’d somehow done something comparable. If the Thirteen had truly intended to become gods, becoming creatures who were formed from mana would be the first step.

  But what happens when the mana runs out? Calvin asked himself. They’d just blink out of existence like the old gods...

  He leaned closer, trying to study what she’d done to herself. It looked as through her thoughts were slowly passing into the mana field, reshaping it...and, perhaps, overcoming her human limitations.