Consensus Breaking (The Auran Chronicles Book 2)

by M. S. Dobing

  Seb froze and shot Caleb a disbelieving look. ‘Twenty-five years? What the hell? This could’ve been a bloody Starbucks by now! We could’ve appeared halfway through a wall!’

  ‘Yeah, well, we didn’t, did we?’ Caleb peered through the misted windows, wiping snow from the glass with his gloved hands. ‘It got us here didn’t it?’

  ‘God knows how.’

  Seb took a couple of steps away from the wall. The moon was full, illuminating the dark alley and the surrounding buildings. He turned about, then looked up.

  ‘That’s it, isn’t it?’

  Caleb followed his gaze. In the distance, seemingly resting on a layer of fog, was a cluster of twinkling lights. ‘That’s it. That’s Osgog.’

  ‘It’s not as near as I’d hoped.’

  ‘I’ve got a friend here; they’ll lend us some wheels.’

  ‘Caleb, do I need to remind you that you died not long ago. You’re in someone else’s body, and you haven’t seen this friend in twenty-five years. How do you know he’s even alive? That he’ll even believe it’s you?’

  ‘First of all, it’s a she. And trust me, she’s alive. She was here long before me, and she’ll be here long after.’

  ‘A mage?’

  ‘Something else. A story for another time.’

  ‘Fair enough, we don’t have time to argue about it. Can you get hold of her?’

  ‘I can. You wait here.’ Caleb trudged a couple of steps before turning back.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘You sure you want to do this, Seb? It’s not too late to go back.’

  Seb looked towards Osgog. He cast his sense, only lightly. Faint echoes came back. He couldn’t pick them out directly but he was sure he felt Cade and Sylph amongst them. Something else was there too. An alien presence that sent icy spikes into his stomach. For a fleeting second he did reconsider. They were as good as dead. They couldn’t beat Sedaris with Kranor and the Ninth. They just didn’t have the power or the numbers. But whilst his friends were alive there was no other option, not really.

  ‘I’m sure. Get your friend.’

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Cade watched, melded into shadow as the human patrol came round the corner, their boots clattering on the metal walkway. The two were armed with submachine guns and clad in ballistic armour. Great against bullets.

  Useless against a sword.

  As they passed him, oblivious to his presence, he dropped out of the shadows, landing silently on the floor. His blades struck twice in quick succession and the soldiers dropped to the ground, eyes still wide with shock, even as death took them.

  ‘That’s the last of them,’ he said. ‘Sylph, you’re up.’

  They pushed open a heavy door, the hinges creaking but thankfully drowned out by the sound of the growing storm.

  Directly across from the building they were in, which adjoined the base of the cooling towers, loomed the central security tower that stood like a sentinel in the centre of the compound. The hexagonal observation booth glowed with yellow light, and a mage clad in black thermals patrolled the outside gantry, the air around him shimmering as the elements bounced off his shield.

  Without a word, Sylph clambered onto the tower. It hadn’t received anything resembling maintenance in years, and she was able to scale the uneven brick with ease. Within seconds she had vaulted up onto the tower gantry, landing silently on the metal walkway. The mage stood before her, gazing out onto the compound. Sylph ignored him - for now, and skirted the other way towards the open door.

  Inside, two more soldiers murmured in conversation, obviously not considering that the compound could be at risk.

  Big mistake.

  Sylph flew inside, two throwing daggers laced with venom leaving her hand like bullets. The two guards slumped noiselessly forwards, drinks spilling out onto the table.

  She carried on past the table, her eyes not leaving the mage. She stepped up behind him and drew her dagger across his throat, clasping one hand over his mouth as he bucked and thrashed, blood spilling out onto the gantry.

  When the mage no longer moved. Sylph went back inside the control room.

  ‘Where is it? Where is it?’ She scanned the control panel, looking for what Cade had told her about.

  There!

  A panel of grainy black and white CCTV screens, all displaying various aspects of Osgog. Below those, a simulated blueprint of the complex displayed on a screen, with various red lines where the security doors stood. She found the one that she was looking for, the one that opened the service hatch that led below ground. The text underneath it said “armed”.

  ‘Here we go,’ she whispered, and flicked the switch.

  Immediately red lines under the door vanished. The “armed” key was no longer lit.

  Sylph ran out onto the balcony. She caught Cade’s yellow eyes staring up at her from below. She nodded once, before turning and vaulting onto the rooftop.

  ***

  Cade stood from his hiding place and pressed the flat of his palm against the service door that led into the inner compound. Beyond here the passage led straight down into Osgog itself. His sense revealed nothing to be wary of. The surface floors were largely empty, but down below a combination of magi and soldiers roamed. Hopefully Sedaris had sent most of the magi through the Junction to take the Stones, meaning that most of the remaining forces would be skeleton crew. Still, speed and efficiency were key. Once contact was made, that was when hell would break loose.

  ‘Once we go in, there’s no turning back, understood?’

  No one spoke. Grim faces staring back.

  ‘Good, then good luck all, see you on the other side.’

  Cade pushed open the door.

  ***

  Caleb slowed the vehicle to a halt. He left the engine running but turned off the wipers. In seconds the windscreen was blanketed in snow.

  ‘You just be careful, okay?’ Caleb said, his voice cracking slightly.

  Seb’s throat tightened. He wanted to say something, anything, to reassure Caleb that he’d be coming back. But he couldn’t, he just couldn’t. He was confident in himself, Cade and the others. They were trained for this, years of experience between them. But Sedaris? Kranor? What could they do against those? He had no words, nothing to reassure. So he did the only thing that felt natural.

  He leant over and hugged Caleb. The old man responded in kind. For a few moments they sat, the only sound the wind as it buffeted the van. Eventually Seb pulled away and wiped away the tears from his eyes.

  ‘See ya,’ he said.

  Seb pushed open the door and stepped out into the snow. His shield came up instantly, the wind howling, but no longer biting. He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing his Avatari to max out, his limbs filling with imbued energy. Sentio came next, the world becoming clearer on countless levels. Now fully channelled, he opened his eyes.

  Osgog lay ahead. The buildings barely visible in the storm.

  His friends were in there somewhere, fighting for their lives.

  Seb locked his eyes on the nearest fence, easily five hundred metres away. He called the Script to mind.

  And vanished.

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Seb materialised a hundred yards from the Osgog’s main gate. Two watchtowers stood either side of the gate, firing dazzling beams of lights into the compound.

  He hurried along a shallow trench at the side of the road. The bottom of the trench was slick with ice and he kept slipping as he moved, Avatari not preventing him cracking his knees on the solid ground, although it did at least dull the pain.

  The fence was much clearer now, the proximity meaning the blizzard wasn’t obscuring the view completely anymore. Seb peeked over the ridge.

  Two guards. One was on a phone or radio. The other had his back to Seb, the man’s assault rifle strapped across his back.

  The only way into the compound was via the gate. The fence itself was topped with a vicious-looking barbed wire. The gate itself see
med to be a cobbled together mess of iron sheets and mesh, allowing plenty of capacity for scaling. Which meant only one thing.

  The guards had to go.

  The time for doubt was over. This wasn’t about the politics of the magi, or how best to deal with the emerging Aware. This was simple. Reality was threatened. His world was threatened. Already his friends were risking their lives trying to avert the coming storm, and he wasn’t going to let them do it alone.

  The guards would be the first to fall.

  He was halfway across the tarmac that surrounded Osgog before the guard with the radio casually glanced up. He did a double-take, not quite realising what he was seeing, before he hit his comrade while scrabbling for his own weapon. The other guard spun, fumbling his rifle free of its strapping.

  Too late.

  Seb raised a hand. The guards were Unaware, but had worked with the Ninth. They were used to seeing feats that defied explanation, meaning that the Consensus was weak around them.

  It would be their undoing.

  Seb called the first Script, a simple jolt of telekinesis. He pushed, and the guard with the radio could only watch in shock as an invisible force sent his rifle flying off into the snow. A second Script proved more lethal. Seb sent an iron-hard wedge of force that was aimed at the guard’s throat but struck his head instead. The guard snapped back, his skull cracking against a concrete post. His aura turned to nothing in an instant.

  The other guard had managed to free his weapon, but Seb, imbued with Avatari, was on him. He swatted the weapon to one side with the outside of his right hand before striking the guard in the gut with a powerful front kick. The guard smashed into a boulder, his bones breaking with the impact. He dropped to his knees. Seb took his staff and cracked the guard on the side of the head.

  He didn’t slow. He didn’t think about the men he’d just killed. They had shown no mercy when they’d massacred the magi at Domus and deserved none in return. Instead he continued at pace, running up half the height of the gate before he needed to gain a handhold. As gravity began to win the battle, Seb threw his hands forwards and took a firm grip on the gate. The remaining few feet were conquered with ease.

  Seb crouched at the top of the gate for a second, risking a quick sense of the compound. The results were confusing at first. On the surface at least a dozen Ninth soldiers were moving slowly around the grounds, their auras calm, relaxed. But there was some kind of interference effect going on that meant his probes were echoing back, distorted. He couldn’t detect Cade or Sylph, not directly, but they were there, that much was certain.

  He dropped down and moved to the right, skirting a large building that had clearly been left to the elements. The corrugated iron roof had collapsed in on itself, and mounds of snow had piled up inside.

  He peeked round the far edge of the building, and froze.

  A lone figure, dressed in winter thermals, was huddled against the other end of the wall, looking into the main area of the compound.

  Seb only sensed the movement above him a split second before he felt the shift in the air. He rolled forwards as a blade sliced downwards, just missing the spot where he’d been crouching. The other figure was up already, their previous position a ruse. They hurled something at him which he smacked out of the air, Avatari and Sentio saving his skin. The opponent behind came up close. Seb snapped his head back, not getting a clean hit but forcing them to stumble backwards. The other lunged at him from the front, runed blades glowing in the darkness.

  Runed blades?

  He didn’t have time to process the thought. His staff was in his hand with a crackle of Weave energy. He parried a flurry of blows from his opponent before he sent a clumsy push, knocking them back into the snow. He began to whirl round to face the opponent to the rear when the warrior on the ground hissed at him.

  ‘Wait!’

  He froze, staff ready, his other opponent facing off against him.

  ‘Seb?’

  What the hell? He sensed out, focusing on the one before him.

  A sigh of relief escaped his lips.

  Brotherhood.

  He shrunk the staff and swung it onto his back. ‘That’s me.’

  The two Brotherhood warriors rushed to him, pushing him against the wall, out of sight.

  ‘It’s me, Dmitri,’ the one that had spoken said.

  Dmitri was one of Cade’s right-hand men, and had been there at Sanctuary.

  ‘Good to see a friendly face,’ Seb said.

  ‘Indeed. Behind you is Roxie, former brother returning to the fold.’

  ‘Hey,’ he said.

  ‘Back at ya.’

  ‘What are you doing here, Seb?’ Dmitri asked. ‘I heard bad things had happened to you at Domus.’

  ‘It’s a long story, but in simple terms I made it out, and now I’m here to help.’ He rubbed his hands together and stamped his feet. ‘So, what’s the deal?’

  ‘Cade and the rest have gone in via the service hatch. We’re covering to ensure we can get out cleanly, if that’s even possible.’

  ‘And where is this hatch?’

  ‘Over there. Next to the cooling tower.’

  ‘Are you in contact with them?’

  ‘No, there’re some weird elements in the rock. They interfere with communications equipment.’

  Seb moved up ahead and peered round the wall. The soldiers were out of sight now, but he could sense them still, on the far side of the compound. ‘What’re your orders?’

  ‘Like I said. Keep the escape clear. Prevent anyone raising the alarm. We need to give Cade as much time as he can to destroy the Manyway.’

  ‘Are you okay here, if I left you?’

  ‘We’ll cope. The blizzard is working to our advantage. As long as we keep moving we’ll be okay.’

  ‘How many are there of us?’

  ‘Counting us three? Ten in total.’

  ‘Right. It might be a squeeze but I’m sure we’ll cope.’

  Dmitri frowned. ‘Cope with what?’

  ‘Ca…An ally is waiting down the valley with a van. Once we get the order to get out, head that way. He’ll get us out of here.’

  ‘There’s a Way not far from here. It’s how we got here in the first place.’

  ‘True, but if this all kicks off, then travelling under the full control of the Consensus might keep the Ninth magi off our backs, plus any sheol that make it out.’

  Dmitri thought on that.

  ‘It’s an option,’ he said, ‘you going to find Cade?’

  ‘If I can.’

  ‘Good luck.’

  Seb waited until the Ninth soldiers were as far out of sight as possible before moving off from the building. He cast a quick look back. The two brotherhood warriors were already melded back into the shadows. Invisible to the eye. Faint to the sense.

  Impressive.

  Using the main tower as a guide he circumvented another series of abandoned shacks, buildings and other remnants from when the factory was operational, eventually coming round on the far side of the raised concrete structure that served as one of the service entrances to the underground area of the compound. He crept round, sense ready, but nothing came back. He peered round the edge, where an unlocked fire door was prised slightly open.

  No one was there.

  Seb ducked inside the door, vanishing into the dimly lit passageway.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Aside from the initial encounters, when Cade had taken out a handful of patrolling sentries, the group's progress thus far had been slow, but relatively low in encounters with the Ninth. A lone mage had stumbled out of some kind of dormitory, eyes still bleary with sleep. Sylph had silenced him before he could utter a word of warning, and they’d stuffed him back into a locker inside the dorm, but not before Barach had ripped what memories he could from the dead man’s mind.

  Barach’s theory had held so far. Most of the forces the Ninth possessed had been sent back through the Ways at Junction, seeking to retrieve the Spoke St
ones from the Families. With any mage of substance dead, it was the perfect opportunity to acquire the Stones. That meant that only a minimal force had remained at Osgog.

  It seemed the Ninth had never expected an attack to come in their own backyard.

  ‘Where now?’ Cade said, his yellow eyes scanning up and down the corridor.

  ‘Left. Then down. This is the last floor of what we’d consider normal. Beyond this corridor there’s a set of security doors that lead into the catacombs. These are part natural, part man-made, but are imbued with the Ninth’s dark magic. The Manyway is there. Right at the bottom.’

  ‘Can we get lost?’

  ‘Yes, quite easily. Which is why you need to come closer.’

  Cade didn’t hesitate. He didn’t share Barach’s beliefs about the Weave and who can access it, but the mage had proven several times over the past few hours that he was a worthy ally, almost invaluable, in fact. He motioned for the rest of the group to follow likewise.

  ‘I will share the memories I’ve found of the caverns. This mage had been there, although not recently. There are sheol there, not many, but enough to worry about. These should help us navigate down to the Manyway.’

  They formed a huddle. Barach sent a gentle pulse out, connecting their minds. They were all Aware, some more than others. Cade shivered when he felt Barach’s mind touching his own, the sensation like having icy water trickled down his spine. Then the memories came, fractured images at first, then sounds, smells, scenes.

  ‘That’s amazing,’ one of his brothers said.

  ‘It won’t last. They never do for non-magi. It’ll work for a few hours though.’

  Cade broke away from the huddle. Surreal didn’t cut it. From being completely in the dark about this place he suddenly had memories of being here before, but obviously not his own. It was as if Barach had planted a series of mini-movies in his mind that he could call on at will. Straight away he knew that left was the right route, leading down into the caverns. He saw the Manyway, not how he’d imagined how it would look, but as it was. A raised stone platform surrounded by bizarre, bone structures that framed it on all sides.