The Watcher of Dead Time

by Edward Cox

  ‘Me?’ said Samuel.

  ‘Not specifically, but yes,’ Bellow replied. ‘It’s a clever spell, cast by higher magic but one that higher magic cannot break.’ He gestured to the floating square. ‘But lower magic should not have a problem.’

  Scowling, Samuel stood alongside the Nephilim but was reluctant to put his hand into the magical light and take the final piece of the puzzle. ‘Are we sure about this?’ he said. ‘Right now, I’m not feeling particularly inclined to trust Amilee.’

  ‘Samuel,’ Bellow said with a tired air, ‘I’ve been waiting forty years for you to come, and you will do this. You could try to defy me, but do you really want to test your prescient awareness against a Nephilim?’

  Glogelder gave a throaty laugh at Bellow’s oddly amiable threat, but Namji and Hillem became tense.

  ‘Listen to the gift you were born with,’ Bellow added kindly. ‘Is it warning you not to do this?’

  Samuel pushed his hand into the light. The tingle of magic raised the hairs on his arm as his fingers closed around the last piece of the doorway. Solid. He pulled it free, the light disappeared and Bellow urged him to complete Amilee’s puzzle.

  It fitted snugly into the panel. There was a fizzing sound. The lines around the piece disappeared, merging perfectly with the pattern of mazes. Nothing else happened.

  ‘So what now?’ Hillem said.

  ‘The doors in the Nightshade are difficult to find,’ Samuel replied. ‘But when you know where they are, they will open to a magicker’s touch.’

  Samuel drew his pistol and laid his hand upon the panel. With a click, it swung inwards. Silver light shone from the chamber beyond. Samuel’s prescient awareness remained dormant.

  ‘At last,’ Bellow whispered.

  Stooping to pass through the doorway, the giant led the group into the chamber. It was smaller than the cavern, but the same red and blue veins lined the rock of its smooth walls and domed ceiling. And at the centre, bathing the group in sterile light, was a huge cube of glowing silver metal.

  ‘What in the bloody Timewatcher’s name is that?’ Glogelder grumbled. ‘Can’t anything be straightforward?’

  ‘It looks like thaumaturgic metal,’ Samuel said.

  ‘Is that a good thing or a bad one?’ Namji wondered.

  ‘Let’s find out,’ Bellow replied, and he began walking round the silver cube, studying it, clearly happy to have something new to do for the first time in decades. Hillem, as curious as ever, joined him. Samuel, Namji and Glogelder kept their distance.

  The cube was about fifteen feet high, wide and deep, and the magical energy in its light made Samuel’s skin tingle.

  ‘Do you know what gets on my nerves?’ said Glogelder. ‘Why do Amilee and her bloody avatar have to be so vague? Surely it would be simpler to just tell us what we have to do.’ He gestured to the Nephilim. ‘And what we’d find.’

  ‘I don’t think anyone’s playing games with us, Glogelder,’ said Namji. ‘This must be about timing – doing the right thing at the right moment.’

  ‘Well, if you ask me, Thaumaturgists are a strange bunch. Not to mention annoying.’

  ‘And dangerous,’ Samuel added as he joined Bellow and Hillem. ‘What have you found?’

  ‘It’s definitely thaumaturgic metal,’ Bellow said happily. ‘And I think it’s hollow.’

  The giant touched the cube. Its state began to change, shifting from solid to pearlescent liquid and finally to shimmering air. The cube did indeed have a hollow interior.

  Chunks of grey stone on the silver floor inside reminded Samuel of the remnants of golems after their animation spells had died and they fell apart. Lying face down and naked among the debris was a woman.

  Icy needles stabbed Samuel’s chest. ‘Shit,’ he hissed, ignoring Namji’s warning cry as he rushed through the wall of shimmering air into the cube.

  There was an ugly, weeping puncture wound on the woman’s lower back and her skin was mottled with ice burns. Samuel dropped to his knees and rolled her over, already knowing that he would see Marney’s slack and pallid face.

  ‘No, no, no,’ he pleaded, cradling her head. ‘Marney, can you hear me?’ She didn’t respond. Her eyes were closed. Samuel began patting her cheek. ‘Marney, please … wake up. Wake up.’

  He felt Namji’s gentle hand on his arm.

  ‘Let me look at her.’

  Samuel laid Marney down and allowed the Aelfirian magic-user to check her over, then he looked at Hillem, Glogelder and Bellow. The cube’s side had solidified behind them.

  ‘We never knew what happened to her.’ The flames of anger crackled in his voice. ‘We assumed the Genii had killed her.’

  The Aelfirian men looked startled. Bellow pursed his lips.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Samuel,’ Namji said softly. ‘I think she’s dead.’

  Samuel had known she was going to say it, but he wasn’t prepared to accept it. ‘You’re wrong,’ he stated.

  ‘I can’t feel a pulse,’ Namji told him. ‘I don’t think she’s breathing.’

  ‘I don’t care.’ Samuel’s voice was as cold as winter. ‘You must know some healing spells.’

  ‘Let me try,’ said Bellow. ‘Please, give me some room.’

  Namji moved out of the giant’s way, but Samuel remained at Marney’s side. Bellow crouched, laying one massive hand on her head, the other on her chest. Marney’s face looked pale and lifeless.

  For the first time in many years, Samuel prayed to the Timewatcher.

  ‘Hmm,’ Bellow murmured. ‘A spark of life remains in her, and I could heal her body.’

  Samuel felt a rush of relief. ‘Do it.’

  ‘Her mind is gone.’

  ‘Just heal her body,’ Samuel insisted. ‘We’ll worry about the rest later.’

  ‘No, you don’t understand,’ Bellow said gravely. ‘Her mind is gone. She would be a shell, nothing more. Healing her is pointless.’

  ‘Try anyway.’

  ‘Forgive me.’ Bellow’s blue eyes burned into Samuel’s. ‘It is time to say goodbye to your friend.’

  ‘You listen to me, Nephilim,’ Samuel said through clenched teeth. ‘You heal this woman to the best of your abilities or I will test my magic against yours.’

  Bellow’s expression became dispassionate.

  ‘Samuel,’ Namji hissed. ‘Don’t!’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Glogelder. ‘Let’s just stay calm.’

  Samuel glared at Bellow, unafraid, defiant, angry, heartbroken. ‘Marney is one of us. She sacrificed herself to give us a chance to defeat the Genii. Without her, you would have been waiting in this place for ever! We’re not giving up on her.’

  Bellow’s face softened, and for a moment he considered the human before him as if seeing something he hadn’t noticed before. ‘Very well,’ he said.

  From the sleeve of his habit, the giant produced a curved knife and nicked the end of his finger, just deep enough to draw blood. He used it to scribe symbols on Marney’s forehead, her chin, and her chest. He then began whispering words of blood-magic, which he blew upon the symbols. The blood dried instantly and Samuel was sure he saw a little colour return to Marney’s face. And then, blessedly, the empath inhaled a lungful of air and her chest began rising and falling with steady breaths.

  Samuel hoped she might open her eyes, but she didn’t.

  ‘Remember,’ Bellow said solemnly, ‘without her mind, she will never be more than she is now.’

  Samuel ignored him, removed his coat and wrapped Marney in it.

  ‘Good.’ Sucking the last of the blood from his fingertip, Bellow looked around the cube. ‘Perhaps now we can concentrate on getting out of the Icicle Forest.’

  The giant moved to the silver wall opposite the one through which the group had entered and studied it in silence.

  Glogelder puffed his
cheeks. ‘Never a dull day, is there?’ He nudged Hillem, suddenly grinning. ‘Who do you reckon would win a fight between them?’

  ‘Shut up, you oaf,’ Hillem said. He looked shaken.

  Namji said, ‘Samuel, are you all right?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ he replied shortly. He stood up, Marney in his arms, wrapped in his coat. She felt cold against him.

  Had Amilee known they would find Marney like this? Was it part of her plan?

  ‘Strange,’ Bellow said. ‘This wall is a different design from the others. It isn’t fixed to this cube. I suppose you could say it isn’t really here.’

  ‘Then where is it?’ said Hillem, standing alongside the giant.

  ‘Everywhere and nowhere,’ Bellow replied. ‘This wall is a conduit to other places. Perhaps it is the portal Amilee spoke of.’

  Bellow touched the wall, which changed its state but instead of becoming shimmering air it turned into a cream-coloured maze-patterned wall of the Nightshade. Bellow pulled his hand away, as though the feel of it was uncomfortable.

  ‘There is another door hidden in this wall,’ the giant announced. ‘It is charmed with the same spell as Amilee’s puzzle. Higher magic cannot open it.’

  Holding his friend tightly, struggling to order his thoughts, Samuel found himself recalling the night Fabian Moor had abducted Marney. The old bounty hunter had witnessed the event; he had seen the Genii open a portal that led to a chamber filled with silver light.

  ‘I know what this is,’ Samuel stated. ‘Fabian Moor must have returned to the Icicle Forest after the Genii War. He must’ve been in here while you were out there, Gulduur.’

  The giant looked bemused. ‘Why would Amilee wish for that?’

  ‘I don’t know, but if that wall is a portal, it must be how Moor got back to the Labyrinth.’

  ‘Then it could actually be a door to the Nightshade?’ Namji asked. ‘Perhaps the last place Moor travelled to.’

  ‘Why would Amilee want to send us there?’ Hillem said. ‘The Genii control the Nightshade.’

  ‘Samuel,’ said Bellow, ‘what is your magic saying?’

  ‘Nothing. But that doesn’t mean the Genii aren’t there. My magic can’t detect them.’

  Bellow thought for a moment. ‘Regardless, I, for one, am sick and tired of trying to guess what that cursed Skywatcher expects us to do next. So let’s just find out, shall we?’

  ‘I’ll second that,’ said Glogelder, drawing his pistol.

  Bellow stood to one side. ‘Samuel, please open this door.’

  ‘Here,’ said Hillem, ‘give Marney to me.’

  Samuel stared at him but made no move.

  ‘Trust me,’ Hillem continued. ‘I’m not the best shot in the world, and if there’s trouble waiting for us, I’d rather your gun hand was free.’

  ‘Bloody true enough,’ Glogelder added, priming his pistol’s power stone. ‘No telling what we’re walking into.’

  ‘They’re right, Samuel,’ Namji said, hoisting her crossbow. ‘We need your magic and your guns more than Marney does right now.’

  Conceding to reason, Samuel placed Marney in Hillem’s arms, albeit reluctantly. He drew the ice-rifle from the holster on his back, priming its power stones. His magic still giving no warning signals as he touched the wall of the Nightshade. The door responded with a click before swinging open.

  Flashes of purple light assaulted the group.

  There were many rooms inside the Nightshade that Samuel had never seen – doubted that even Van Bam had ever seen – and he didn’t recognise the chamber he walked into now. It wasn’t particularly large, around thirty feet square, and at its centre was a fat column of purple energy, droning and spitting, rising from a dome of grey metal on the floor and connecting to a second dome on the ceiling. The energy was surrounded by a ring of black monoliths that reflected the light like obsidian glass.

  ‘At least there’s no Genii,’ Glogelder muttered.

  Bellow walked towards the column. ‘I’ve heard it said that the magic of the Nightshade is sentient. And now I understand why.’ There was a strange, distant edge to his voice as he stared up at the column of energy. ‘My entire life I have suffered under the prerogatives of She who cast this Thaumaturgy. I know Her touch.’

  It was as though the giant spoke to himself. Samuel shared confused looks with the Aelfir.

  ‘This is the higher magic with which the Great Labyrinth was created,’ Bellow continued. ‘It is the First and Greatest Spell.’

  With Marney in his arms, the awe on Hillem’s Aelfirian face was evident. ‘How can you be sure?’ he said.

  ‘Because I have seen it before,’ Bellow replied. ‘Because the wisdom of the Thaumaturgist whose soul was used to create me still resides within my being. And it recognises the Timewatcher’s magic.’

  ‘Bugger me,’ said Glogelder.

  Namji turned to Samuel. ‘Did you know it was here?’

  ‘Yes, but … not like this.’ Samuel was speechless for a moment. Perhaps life could still surprise him after all. He had always supposed that the Nightshade had absorbed the First and Greatest Spell, carried it in its walls and foundations – not that it was a living spell held deep inside the building. ‘As far as I’m aware, no one knew it was here.’

  ‘Amilee obviously did,’ said Bellow.

  Samuel felt dwarfed by the spell’s presence. He didn’t know how much more he could take.

  Worriedly, Hillem asked, ‘The Genii control the Nightshade, so they must control this magic, too.’

  ‘No.’ Bellow’s voice was whispery. ‘This is the roots of the Spell, pure as the day it was cast, unsullied, uncorrupted, still bearing the Timewatcher’s touch. Given the nature of the charm on the door, I do not think the Genii can enter this room, or know what it holds.’

  Samuel looked back the way they had come to find the door closed, impossible to discern on the wall. His prescient awareness became a warm, bad feeling in his gut. It told Samuel that the door no longer connected to the Icicle Forest, and beyond it now lay the rest of the Nightshade, and beyond that, Labrys Town. He wondered, briefly, how the denizens – the one million humans the Relic Guild had promised to protect – were coping under Genii occupation, and how Councillor Tal was faring against the Panopticon of Houses, before his magic warned of the terrible things waiting to happen if he opened the door again.

  ‘I think I’ve found the way out of this chamber,’ Bellow announced.

  The Nephilim had moved inside the ring of black monoliths and now stood facing one of them. Samuel joined him and saw that the monolith’s surface was rippling like night reflected in water, absorbing the purple flashes of the First and Greatest Spell.

  ‘Another portal?’ Samuel said.

  ‘So it would appear. What does your magic tell you now, Samuel?’

  That this new portal was infinitely safer than the door through which they’d entered the chamber.

  Samuel looked back at Namji, Hillem and Glogelder. His gaze lingered on Marney’s unconscious form in Hillem’s arms. Timing, Namji had said; it was all about doing the right thing at the right moment …

  ‘This portal is the way forward,’ he told his colleagues. ‘We go through.’

  His words were met with silent agreement.

  ‘Splendid,’ Bellow said excitedly. ‘Would you like to go first?’

  Chapter Eleven

  Splinters of Her Fire

  A labyrinth. But not the endless maze that surrounded Labrys Town. This was something Clara had never seen before.

  There were no bricks or cobbles. The ground was spongy underfoot, with patches of what looked to be thick black grass growing from it – or maybe it was hair. The alley walls – leathery, skin-like – flexed in and out with sighs that did not belong to the wind. This was a living, breathing labyrinth.

  ‘I ca
n sense emotions,’ Marney said. ‘There’s someone else in here with us.’

  ‘Can you tell who?’ Clara asked.

  Marney slipped a throwing dagger from her baldric. ‘Maybe it’s more than one person.’

  The magickers stood at an intersection, clueless as to which direction to take. A fine, humid mist hung in the air. Above, glowing clouds of deep purple hid any moons or stars.

  Baran Wolfe’s warnings played in Clara’s mind. They had reached an area of Known Things where Spiral kept his darkest and most personal records. The memories here – the memories of the most powerful Thaumaturgist who ever existed – went far beyond Clara’s comprehension, beyond Marney’s, beyond that of any creature of lower magic. And somewhere among these treacherous secrets nearly a thousand Nephilim were trapped with Van Bam’s ghost. Clara hoped she and Marney could find them without experiencing anything else that might be kept in this place.

  ‘There,’ Marney said, using the dagger to point down the alleyway ahead. A green glow illuminated the gloomy mist. ‘Our guiding light.’

  They headed towards it at a cautious pace.

  Marney looked more comfortable with the blade in her hand, and Clara took solace in the fact she was as deadly with her daggers as Samuel was with his guns. The changeling wished her own magic was with her rather than out there somewhere, trying to rid her mind of Known Things. She missed her heightened senses and longed for the confidence that came with being the wolf.

  The magickers followed the green light further into the labyrinth. It drifted further away until finally disappearing down a left turn. It waited for them to round the bend and then continued on down a new alleyway to the right.

  The sound of breathing grew deeper. The leathery walls shivered, breaking out in gooseflesh.

  Again, Wolfe’s warnings plagued Clara. ‘Can you sense anything?’ she asked Marney, keeping her voice low. ‘What’s in here with us?’