The Watcher of Dead Time

by Edward Cox

  The spare ammunition and spell spheres inside the bag exploded with force enough to shake the ground. A fiery shock wave sped down the track after Glogelder, and Samuel knew he wasn’t going to outrun it.

  ‘Glogelder, no!’ Hillem shouted.

  Driven by his prescient awareness, Samuel shoved Namji out of the way and dragged Hillem clear. The shock wave punched Glogelder through the archway, sending him flying through the air like a rag doll. A great gout of fire spewed after him. As the fire receded, Glogelder hit the ground with a sickening thud, flipping over and over in the snow until he stopped … at the feet of a giant.

  Gaunt and pale, dressed in a brown habit, the giant stood ten feet tall at least. His hair was an unruly mess, hanging about his shoulders, and his eyes were orbs of pure, shining blue. Behind him, a dark cave had appeared at the base of the miniature mountain. Samuel aimed his rifle even though his magic warned of no fresh danger.

  ‘I’d stop gawking, if I were you,’ the giant said with a surprisingly calm and gentle voice. ‘Get inside.’

  The stampede of demons could already be heard rushing down the track again.

  ‘Move!’ Samuel shouted, but Namji and Hillem didn’t need to be told. The three of them sped through the blizzard towards the opening.

  The giant’s huge hands were smeared with blood and he began weaving symbols in the air as the Relic Guild ran past him. Once they had entered the cave, Samuel turned and saw the giant release a mighty spell that sped away from him, carving a furrow in the snow. The magical energy raced down the track and smashed into the oncoming horde, destroying every demon in its path. Samuel detected the tang of spent thaumaturgy in the air.

  ‘Oh, shit,’ Hillem whispered.

  The group’s saviour entered the cave, carrying Glogelder’s limp body. The big Aelf looked as small as a child in the giant’s arms. His coat, blackened and charred, still smouldered. The opening disappeared behind the giant, reverting to solid red rock, and a soft glow came from the back of the cave.

  Hillem was the first to speak, his voice pained. ‘Is … is he dead?’

  ‘No.’ The giant gave him a reassuring smile. ‘Your friend is a little beaten and broken, but I’m sure it’s nothing I can’t fix.’

  Namji stepped forward, her face awed. ‘Gulduur?’ She sounded stunned. ‘Gulduur Bellow?’

  The giant regarded her for a moment before his bright blue eyes widened in recognition. ‘Namji!’ His smile became a broad grin. He looked at Samuel. ‘You are travelling with a human. A human magicker. This is a good day.’

  Samuel’s magic might have fallen dormant, but he still had to resist aiming his rifle as the giant approached him.

  ‘I am so very pleased to meet you,’ said the giant. ‘I wonder – would you mind helping me complete a puzzle?’

  Chapter Eight

  Misinformation

  All was still. The buildings had no detail. Without doors or windows or signs, they rose as dark, blocky shapes on either side of the street as though they had been carved from shadow. The street itself was paved with damp and grimy cobbles and could easily have been mistaken for any street or lane or alleyway in Labrys Town. A moon hung in the sky, fat and full and bright. The only star shining amidst the silvery glare was the green diamond.

  With each step Clara took, she felt more grounded in this strange mindscape that belonged to both her and Known Things. Marney walked beside her. Neither woman knew where they were headed.

  ‘What happened to Gideon?’ Clara asked Marney.

  The empath gave her a sidelong look. ‘I’m not sure. Just be thankful his voice isn’t in your head any more.’

  ‘It wasn’t as bad as you might think,’ Clara replied truthfully.

  Gideon, the ghost of an ex-Resident and Van Bam’s spirit guide – Clara’s, too, for a time. No one really understood why his voice had appeared in Clara’s mind. His presence had been cold and mocking, malicious at times, but he had always worked for the good of the Relic Guild. So long as he was given the respect he demanded. Clara had stopped hearing his voice at the precise moment Van Bam died, and she still felt the emptiness he left behind.

  ‘Who knows?’ Marney said. ‘Maybe Gideon’s ghost took the final journey to Mother Earth.’

  ‘I hope so,’ Clara replied, not least because she needed to believe that even though the Timewatcher had abandoned humans and Aelfir alike, She still welcomed their dead souls into Her House.

  ‘The truth is, Clara, Gideon was an easy man to hate.’ Marney’s words had a bitter edge, suggesting she didn’t much care what had become of the ex-Resident. ‘I never knew anyone who wasn’t intimidated by him – well, except Samuel, maybe. Those two had more than a few run-ins back then.’ She shivered. ‘I spent a lot of time hiding from Gideon up here in your mind. He was very tenacious trying to find out what I knew.’

  Clara frowned. ‘But how did you know so much? Van Bam and Samuel couldn’t work out how you discovered the location of Oldest Place. Only the Timewatcher was supposed to know.’

  ‘It’s complicated, Clara,’ Marney replied. ‘There is so much about the Timewatcher and the Thaumaturgists that humans and Aelfir aren’t supposed to know.’

  ‘But you do?’

  ‘Not exactly.’ A faraway expression came to Marney’s face, and she looked up at the sky. ‘During the Genii War, it was a strange time in the Labyrinth. Some of us in the Relic Guild learned far more than we ever wanted to.’

  Up above, the green diamond moved in the sky, dropping to a lower position, brightening before dimming.

  Marney continued, ‘When Fabian Moor first came to Labrys Town, he was working under very specific orders. Spiral had planned for the war meticulously. He had divined as much detail as he could, until he reached the stage where the outcome of the war pivoted on one specific moment. There was a House – it doesn’t exist any more, but you might’ve heard of it. Mirage?’

  ‘That’s where Namji came from. Where Van Bam met the Nephilim.’

  ‘Exactly. Mirage had planned to invade the Labyrinth, and that was the moment, Clara. If the invasion had been a success, it would have started a chain of events leading to Spiral’s victory.’

  ‘But obviously the invasion failed,’ said Clara.

  ‘And that began a chain of events which led to Spiral’s defeat. As soon as that invasion failed, Fabian Moor knew his lord and master would lose the war. From that moment on, Moor began following Spiral’s second plan.’

  ‘Second plan?’

  ‘Spiral had seen it all, Clara. He divined that the Timewatcher would abandon the Labyrinth and the denizens after the war, and that She would go back to Mother Earth and not return. He knew that She would create a prison for him – Oldest Place – and that someone in the Relic Guild would come to know its location.’

  ‘You?’

  ‘Not directly.’ Marney sighed. ‘Amilee created an anomaly, something that Spiral couldn’t divine.’ She smirked. ‘You and me, Clara. Amilee made damn sure that Spiral didn’t see us coming.’

  In the sky, the green diamond flashed and dropped a little lower.

  Clara said, ‘So Amilee has known that the Genii would come back to free Spiral since … when? The end of the war?’

  Marney shrugged. ‘Amilee has always kept her secrets close. She’s been hiding, waiting, and there must be a damn good reason why she hasn’t shown herself yet.’

  ‘She sends her avatar instead.’ Clara thought of the blue spectre with a touch of frustration. ‘That thing could really do with learning how to speak plainly.’

  Marney chuckled. ‘Ah,’ she said, ‘I think we’ve reached our destination.’

  The green diamond had now dropped so low that it glowed like a lamp on the darkened street. The magickers rushed to it and discovered a house that was not smeared with darkness. Light shone through grimy windows, gli
nting off damp cobbles. Voices came from within, too low to understand. Marney pushed the door open and led Clara inside. But the strange world of Known Things did not greet them with the interior of a house.

  It was a silver room, perfectly square, its metal walls radiating sterile light.

  Clara gasped.

  ‘I know how you feel,’ Marney muttered.

  At the centre of the otherwise empty metal room, Fabian Moor stood staring at the wall. As pale as an albino, he wore the black cassock of a priest. Long white hair framed his face. A fresh burn wound on his forehead wept. He was unaware of the magickers.

  ‘Another memory,’ Clara said, keeping her voice low.

  Marney nodded. ‘But not one of mine.’

  ‘Then whose? Baran Wolfe?’

  ‘Like I said, it’s complicated.’ Marney studied the memory of the Genii. ‘Forty years ago, the Relic Guild believed it had killed Moor. I was the only one who knew different. I was the only one who knew that there was more to his mission than we had discovered. I just didn’t realise it at the time.’

  Moor spoke. ‘Yes, my lord.’ He bowed his head. ‘I understand.’

  ‘One last order, Fabian.’ The new voice came from a shadow that had appeared on the wall. Male, commanding, it flooded the silver room with a sense of disquiet.

  It’s Spiral, Marney’s voice said in Clara’s mind, as if speaking aloud might somehow direct the Genii Lord’s attention to her. This must be one of his memories.

  Clara quashed the nausea that threatened to rise in her gut.

  ‘Anything, my lord,’ Moor said.

  ‘When you reach the Nightshade, see if you can bring Simowyn Hamir to our side.’

  ‘Hamir?’ Moor looked up. ‘He is important to you?’

  ‘As of this moment, no,’ the shadow said, ‘but he could prove useful in the future.’

  ‘My lord?’

  ‘Do you doubt me, Fabian?’

  ‘Never!’ Moor bowed his head again. ‘But … but given Hamir’s past, can he be trusted?’

  ‘Simowyn is a whim. Either gain his compliance or kill him. He is a secondary consideration. Understand?’

  ‘As you wish, my lord.’

  The shadow moved across the wall, oily, spreading over the metal. ‘Prepare yourself.’

  Fabian Moor screamed and fell to his knees. The silver walls blazed, blinding Clara to much of what happened next. Moor appeared to collapse in on himself, his cries silenced abruptly as he imploded. When the light receded, the shadow had gone, and so had Moor. All that remained was a small terracotta jar sitting on the spot where he had stood. A jar containing a Genii’s essence.

  ‘Hamir,’ Marney mused, almost to herself. ‘Spiral must’ve been interested in him because of the Nephilim. Hamir did create them, after all.’

  ‘Well, I don’t think Hamir’s a factor any more,’ Clara replied. ‘He didn’t escape the Labyrinth with us. He was left behind and the Genii probably killed him.’

  ‘We don’t know anything for certain. We can’t be sure that Hamir’s dead.’ Marney aimed a curious look at Clara. ‘Just as we can’t be sure that I am.’

  ‘I … What?’

  Marney glared meaningfully. ‘I remember the night you joined the Relic Guild. I remember talking to you in the Great Labyrinth, but then I was inside your mind. I have no memory of what happened to the … real me after we met.’

  With a sinking feeling, Clara couldn’t bring herself to meet the empath’s eyes. ‘Moor abducted you.’

  ‘Well, I know that,’ Marney said offhandedly. ‘I let him take me – to throw him off your scent.’

  Clara reached out and squeezed Marney’s shoulder. ‘Once Moor discovered you’d given me the location of Oldest Place—’

  ‘He no longer had a use for me, and there was no reason to keep me alive,’ the empath finished. She smiled sadly. ‘But we don’t know that he killed me. Not for sure.’

  Clara didn’t know what to say, but obviously Marney detected what she was thinking from her emotions.

  ‘You think I’m a ghost like Van Bam.’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Marney.’

  ‘Funny …’ The empath rubbed her forehead, clearly confused. ‘I don’t feel dead. Known Things makes everything so real—’

  The sudden sound of weeping filled the room. Deep and sonorous, it tugged at Clara’s heartstrings and she flinched as the silver wall from which Spiral had spoken cracked open, parting with the groans of tearing metal. The weeping grew louder.

  The tear in the wall widened to form the entrance into a huge cavern. Marney shrugged at Clara, and they stepped inside.

  A giant wept. He sat on the plateau of a huge boulder surrounded by magical fire in a great bejewelled cavern of red rock. Wearing only a simple brown habit, the giant faced the high ceiling, where gems and veins of precious metals glinted like stars and nebulae in the night sky. Then he bowed his head, hiding his face in tangles of unruly hair, and his tears came with dry huffs. It was the saddest noise Clara had ever heard. She and Marney kept their distance.

  ‘Is … is that a Nephilim?’ Clara said.

  ‘I think so,’ Marney replied. ‘I’ve never seen one before, so— Look!’ A man had materialised on the boulder. ‘It’s him.’

  The giant dwarfed Baran Wolfe. Even in his seated position, he and the Skywatcher would have been face to face were the giant’s head not bowed. Silently, Wolfe reached out and laid a hand on the giant’s head, calming his tears.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ Clara wondered.

  ‘I don’t know, and I don’t think I care,’ Marney replied stiffly.

  Clara frowned at her. ‘What’s wrong? Why don’t you like Wolfe?’

  ‘Because I’m a Thaumaturgist,’ Wolfe called from the boulder. ‘But not just any Thaumaturgist. I am Lord Wolfe the Wanderer. My death started the Genii War. Marney is angry with me for that, perhaps even blames me for what occurred at the war’s conclusion.’

  ‘Not just you,’ Marney said hotly. ‘I blame all your kind. You abandoned us after we gave you everything.’

  ‘Ah, yes.’ Leaving the giant, Wolfe walked to the edge of the boulder. ‘It seems a strange decision to abandon the Labyrinth and walk away from you, but the Timewatcher’s reasoning was always a little hard to fathom. And let us not forget that I was not present when our Great Mother made Her decision.’

  Silver wings sprang from Wolfe’s back and he leapt from the boulder, soaring down to land elegantly before the magickers. Clara covered her eyes as the wings folded and stirred up a swirl of dust.

  ‘But I hope,’ Wolfe said to Marney, ‘that we can call a truce and work together, especially in light of the task ahead. Yes?’

  Marney nodded, though her expression remained sour.

  ‘And what about you, Clara?’ Wolfe looked at her as though he knew her. ‘Any feelings about my kind that you’d like to get off your chest?’

  Immediately, Clara recalled events she wished she had never experienced. ‘Sometimes I don’t know who to be angry with first, but definitely not you.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Amilee showed me a vision of your final moments at the Falls of Dust and Silver.’

  ‘Ah.’ Wolfe’s eyes were sad. ‘The House in which Spiral tricked the Nephilim herd. The House in which Spiral used me to make his first strike against the Timewatcher.’

  ‘I know how you felt,’ Clara said. ‘The sense of betrayal you experienced, the shock, the fear for the future, the pain …’ She swallowed. ‘I felt your agony when Spiral had the wings ripped from your back.’ She spared a quick glance at Marney. ‘The war, and what happened after, wasn’t your fault.’

  Wolfe seemed surprised by Clara’s words. ‘Empathy from the changeling but not the empath?’

  Marney didn’t say anything.

  ‘Thank you,
Clara,’ Wolfe said. ‘Now let’s see what we can do about righting a few wrongs.’ He looked back at the giant sitting on the boulder. ‘This impressive fellow is indeed a Nephilim. His name is Gulduur Bellow.’

  ‘Bellow?’ Clara blurted.

  ‘I found him in Mirage shortly before the war began,’ Wolfe said. ‘He had lost his herd. The only Nephilim to escape Spiral’s trickery. This is only my memory of Bellow. I’ve no idea what became of him after we met.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Marney. ‘You were in Mirage before the war, and you didn’t stop what they were planning?’

  ‘It wasn’t as easy as that, I’m afraid. I could sense that trouble was brewing in Mirage, though I couldn’t tell what. Please remember, my mind was troubled at the time, namely with the many nefarious plans of my fellow Skywatcher Iblisha Spiral.’

  Wolfe faced the boulder. The Nephilim was looking up at the bejewelled ceiling again. Through slits in Wolfe’s habit, Clara could see his silver wings resting against his back. She felt happy that he had them again.

  ‘I asked Gulduur Bellow to watch Mirage for me,’ Wolfe continued. ‘I asked him to stay and wait for someone who would need his help getting home. Lucky for us all that he agreed.’

  ‘Van Bam,’ Marney said, her tone emotionless. ‘Bellow saved him, and he was able to warn the Labyrinth of Mirage’s invasion plans.’

  ‘Precisely.’

  Marney stared at the cavern floor, lost to thought.

  Clara said, ‘So meeting Bellow connected Van Bam to the Nephilim in some way?’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Wolfe replied, but he was addressing Marney. ‘A secret was told to your illusionist friend. A secret I’m certain has not been heard by many humans.’ He looked back over his shoulder. ‘Do you know why the Nephilim are nomads? Do you know why they travel from realm to realm, never staying in one place for long?’

  Clara recalled something Van Bam had told her. ‘They’re searching for a House.’