by O. J. Lowe
That sort of weary sarcasm made me smile, if only briefly. Felt like the day had been long and before the night was out, it would be even longer.
“Blood,” Battleby said. “It’s for holding blood. Inside one of these things, so the stories go, Divine blood can be preserved for years. Maybe it’s the celestial nature of it, maybe it’s something about the receptacle. I don’t know, the theories are all a little hazy.”
“Terrific.”
“Settle down, Agent Butcher,” I warned him. Bolshiness was okay, I could go along with that. We didn’t want to show these Vedo that we were a soft touch after all. But outright disrespect was something I was not prepared to tolerate here. After all, we were on the same side and I doubted we could do the job without them. And maybe, just maybe, there’d come a point where they’d need our help too.
“Receptacles like this are placed within the Forever Cycle,” Battleby continued as if neither of us had spoken. “Blood is power, it is a link to heritage and what came before. With that blood, the presence of the progenitor remains. The blood of seven will power the cycle.”
“How many names in those pages?” I asked, looking at Battleby. “How many possible candidates?”
“We’re just accepting this is happening now?” Joey asked. He was starting to look a trifle disturbed, I couldn’t entirely blame him. A few hours ago, I’d found myself in his position. I’d come to wonder about things and the more I thought about them, the more I’d started to realise perhaps there was something to it. We all worship at least one Divine or another. I mean some of us worship them all, just to hedge our bets, some of us might only pray to one sporadically in a time of need, but I don’t think faith has ever been a problem in the five kingdoms. We might lack it sometimes, but we never entirely lose it. There’s too much wonder in the world. I wonder if that was what was running through my subconscious mind back then, that there had to be mysteries we’d never entirely understand. We might walk in the light but sometimes you must look for things in the dark where you might not want to venture.
“Six, including yours,” Battleby said. “Six out of a possible thousand.” He reconsidered the numbers in front of him. “Ish, anyway.”
“So possibly five missing people?” I asked. “Joey, get those names, go talk to someone at HQ. See if we can find if they’ve been reported missing. Or dead. Or drained of blood. Anything.”
“Okay, Director,” Joey said, Battleby went with him to translate as they headed out of the room. Just Arventino and myself remained in, I looked at the knife and then at the Vedo.
“I take it this is what they use to cut people open for their blood,” I said. The words felt hollow and dry. It was a statement of the obvious, but I needed confirmation, mainly for my own peace of mind. The knife was proof of intent. It was a statement that things had moved away from the theory and into the practical. If they had used the knife, they’d hurt, and they’d possibly killed, and they needed to be stopped. “There’s stains on the blade.”
“That would appear to be correct,” Arventino said. “There are some deplorable human beings in the kingdoms. No matter how hard the rest of us try to rise above it, there are always those who seek to pull us down.”
“So how about we find them and make damn sure they can’t do this to anyone else?” I asked. “I mean, I assume you have an address.”
“What makes you think that?” Arventino smiled. It was not a pleasant smile.
“I can read people, Mister Arventino. I know what people are like. I know they lie. And I know when they’re hiding something. You don’t want us to come with you when you go for them, do you?”
“This is going to be dangerous, Mister Frewster.”
“And I’m damn dangerous as well, Mister Arventino. Don’t think that myself and Agent Butcher can’t handle ourselves.”
“You’ve never handled anything like this before.”
“Then there’s no time like learning on the job now, is there?” I surprised myself with that comeback, snappy as it might have been. “These guys want to kill me. I’m very committed to making sure that they don’t succeed.”
“Then stay well back and let me and Master Battleby do our jobs. We do have a history of killing Cavanda…”
“That what these guys are?” I asked. “Cavanda then?”
He needed at me and I stubbornly folded my arms, difficult with the weapon I still held but I felt making the point. Targeted by magical maniacs who wanted to use my blood for some sort of ritual. Terrific. How great to be me? I did think that most mornings but rarely sarcastically.
“The equipment, the language, that would appear to be the guess,” Arventino said. “Even this place. When the Cavanda pull an operation like this, they like to make a place a staging point, somewhere they can mount their attacks from and retreat to if they are routed. Secret places. Out of the way holes where nobody would dream to look for them. Everything about it hints at Cavanda training, yet I doubt it’s the main body.”
“Extrapolate,” I said. He’d gotten me curious now.
“Most high ranking Cavanda, and of course, they’re the ones who make the policies, couldn’t give a fig about what happens in the next life. They’re more concerned about doing something with this one and in a strange sort of way, I can respect the hells out of that. Wanting to make the most of the time you have rather than chasing the chance to extend your life when it might not even be worth it. Maybe some of the younger ones broke away or were expelled and wanted to strike back. I can only speculate.”
I was stroking my chin in bemusement when Battleby and Joey returned to the room, Battleby looked thrilled by what he’d found out and I didn’t see that coming. Battleby looked like the dour one.
“We’ve got a location, narrowed it down,” he said. “Tell them Agent Butcher.”
“Right,” Joey said. “Five missing people. No bodies. What we could do as triangulate the position of their homes and we overlapped their cones of influence to see if there were any intersections.”
“And were there?” I asked.
“Just one place,” Joey said. “Right in the middle of Graham’s Field.” He triumphantly held the data pad up with the map on it. “That’s where we’ll find them. I’m sure of it.”
Nick smiled. He knew that area of Belderhampton all too bloody well. Graham’s bloody Field. The unchanging area of green in the middle of the city, the patch where they held that damn carnival every year. He should remember what that was like, he’d been to the last one. It was unlikely they were repeating it this year. Coppinger liked bombs as methods of crowd control, the more rudimentary powerful they were, the better. They’d proven that over and again, deploying them in crowded areas wherever possible. The purpose of terrorism was to inflict terror. It felt like if that was her aim, then she’d succeeded in fantastic fashion.
It just felt strange how some things just kept coming back around, how even in death people still had a part to play and places kept drawing people back to them however much they might want away from it all.
When you looked at it, he found it increasingly harder to doubt the presence of the Divine in a world whose mysteries were slowly running out. That there was something out there they weren’t mean to understand just made it that more special. Something to aim for.
That and the theory that the philosopher James Michael Tan had always pushed, Nick didn’t remember much in that line, but he always remembered this.
Those places that have seen blood will inevitably do so again, for the air of violence taints thoroughly.
“My one bloody consolation with this whole thing as we headed for Graham’s Field was at least that there’d be none of the travelling folk involved. That just would have been inviting trouble, all them milling about looking like trouble. Honestly, letting the travelling folk into Belderhampton was a bloody bad idea. I mean, they had their uses at first but soon they started gambling and drinking and fighting. an endless series of horn-headed buffoons croppi
ng up determined to prove themselves as the hardest. I don’t mind them fighting amongst themselves but when they start to attack others, it gets tricky. We weren’t allowed to discriminate against them, but the problems were there the moment they showed up. If we cracked a few heads, they cried foul. If they cracked a few of ours, they’d whoop and holler and party into the night. A truly unpleasant people, I can see why they were persecuted out of Serran.
Thankfully there were none of them about as the four of us made our way into the field. A security guard had tried to stop us, if you can believe he had the temerity to do so. Do these men not know who we are? I jest with this, Nicholas. I flashed my badge, Arventino and Battleby did something with their hands and I saw the blank looks flash across his face. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. They were only doing their jobs after all, it wasn’t right to mess with them in so cruel a fashion.
Into the darkness we stepped, this time all of us with flashlights. Battleby explained that they dare not use their powers this close to the enemy lest they give their position away. The element of surprise would serve us well, I agreed with him on that. We couldn’t afford to be found out until we were in position to strike.
In addition to the kinetic dispersers, Joey had brought more heavy weaponry. Mines. Magnetic grenades. High-powered blaster pistols, more potent than our regular sidearms. He knew his stuff. When we’d served together, he’d always said that overwhelming firepower was the best sort and I agreed with him on that. Never have too much of it when venturing into the unknown.
You’ve probably been there, Nicholas. You know what the Field is like. People see it all lit up come carnival time and they think it’s a happy place. They associate it with joy. What they don’t realise the rest of the year is that it’s a dark and unforgiving place at night. You can die in there if you don’t know what you’re doing. There’s no sort of light that you don’t bring with you. The moon doesn’t shine as brightly when you’re in there. Something to do with the gases in the earth someone once told me. There could be all sorts of phenomena under the ground there, but of course, they aren’t allowed to dig it up and find out. The laws protecting that field are very clear. You don’t go there at night.
Someone hadn’t told these gentlemen that, we saw them sat there around a fire of ebullient black light. Strange that the flames were the same colour of the darkness yet the radiance from them was more beautiful and brighter than anything else I ever seen. We saw it from a distance, yet I doubt they would from the city. The closer we got, the more uneasy I felt about this whole thing. Joey didn’t look too secure himself, Arventino looked to the both of us and grinned.
“It’s the aura of their Kjarn,” he said. “They’re casting malevolent intentions to keep people away not versed in their arts. It’s what they did in that apartment unless I’m mistaken, I sensed the faintest traces of it in the stonework.” I remembered what the woman said and nodded.
“How do we guard against it?” I asked. My hands were shaking on my weapon, I wanted them to be steady for when the shooting started. “Is there some sort of ward?”
“Nothing we can teach you in time,” Battleby said. “Maybe you two should stay back, at least until the fighting starts. Last thing we need is liabilities in combat. If you’re twitching, then you’re not going to be helpful.”
“Not a chance!” Joey said, his whisper harsh in the darkness. “We’re going to kill these fucks for making us feel like this, fear or not!”
“Fear isn’t the problem,” Arventino said. “Fear can be conquered. This is more than fear. This is shear unabated terror seeping deep into your muscles and your bones, you don’t realise how much it’s affecting you. It’s a slippery descent. The closer you get, the closer you find yourself to falling off the edge. And once you do, you won’t make it out of there. This is black magic, not the sort you just walk away from unless you can ward your mind from its effects.”
I kept quiet. As preposterous as it might have sounded, I had a feeling that they both spoke the truth. It’s hard to lie about something like that and sound so serious when the words sound so fanciful. I doubted they were in the habit of producing falsehoods when it could get us all killed.
“So, what do we do then?” I asked. “Is there a source of it that you can remove, and we can come charging in to help you?”
“You come charging in, it’ll be slaughter,” Battleby said. “But when we break their parley up, it should disrupt their aura. How something like this works, you can have one man generating all the energy, but it causes a great strain on the system, especially in an area like this. In an enclosed building, it’s not too bad but out here it would burn you up in hours, and even then, only if you carried an uncommon level of power. What they’re more likely to be doing is splitting the effort, sharing it out amongst all of them. It takes a little focus to sync up that many minds, so when we attack, it should negate a lot of the effects. Fighting for your life tends to remove all other thoughts.”
“We strike first,” Arventino said. “You guys hang back. Maybe attack from a distance. Create confusion into their ranks. Just don’t shoot me or Master Battleby for Divines sake!”
Nick’s summoner trilled, momentarily interrupting the recording. He frowned, glanced at the ID. Icardi. He could wait. He wasn’t talking to him yet, not without hearing what happened fifty years ago. It died out eventually and the dead man’s voice resumed.
“I handed Arventino a magnetic grenade, he looked at me like I’d tried to hand him a pile of my own faeces. “And what is this for?” he asked.
“You know what these weapons are?” I asked. “Magnetic grenades work by creating a powerful magnetic field…”
“Obviously.”
I ignored that. “Across a small area. The field draws in all ferrous materials towards it. Anything. Quite deadly in enclosed environments where there’s a lot of metal. Works on all sorts. Weapons, for instance. Best way to kill someone is if they can’t kill you back while they’re doing it.”
The look of realisation dawned on his face. I continued to speak. “They talk about honour and decency in battle. I don’t go for that. I want to survive. Using a magnetic grenade on a group like this is akin to using a sledgehammer to kill individual flies. It’ll get the job done, but it’s massive overkill.” He looked like he was going to open his mouth, I smiled at him. “In a situation like this, against foes like that, I think overkill is probably called for. Even up our odds.”
“Director Frewster…” It was the first time he’d used my title and I felt a little swell of pride in my chest. “I think we’re entirely in agreement on this.”
“Throw it in the fire. The confusion should be worth a few extra seconds for us all to get into position.”
He laughed. “I like it, Director. The sort of dirty trick I appreciate. With a mind like that, you’d have made a first class Vedo.”
“I think I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said. I felt the need to return it. “And I’m damn glad that I’ve got you at my back. Could have done with a few more like you back in the war. Things might have gone a whole lot damn differently a couple of men like you in our company.”
Arventino chuckled. “One day, Director, I may share the story of the role the Vedo played in the Unifications War. It may surprise you.”
“I hope we live to hear it,” I said. Another wry chuckle was my answer, and then it was time for us to go. We all looked at each other, nodded in sequence, me to Arventino, Battleby to Butcher, Butcher to Arventino, me to Battleby. You probably know what that moment’s like Nicholas. That moment where you all stand together before the shooting starts, not entirely sure if you’ll see each other alive again after. A moment to reflect with your comrades because there may not be another.
In this bit of Graham’s Field, there used to be an overhang of hill which would shield anyone below from the elements. We decided between us that Butcher would be the one to hurl the grenade, his arm was more powerful than mine. We c
rept into position as Battleby and Arventino headed up the overhang. Given the chance, they’d spring their ambush. All we needed was a signal to commence. We’d worked it out. The night birds weren’t uncommon round here, we’d simply set up a relay call to announce our movements. When one team was ready to move, they’d whistle. Anyone who gave one back agreed that they were good to move. Anyone who didn’t reply, we all held back.
We both sat there, juggling with our terror until we distinctly heard the distant sound of the birdcall. Ka-kee-ka-kee. Great spotted diver duck. Not uncommon around here. Easy to impersonate. My heart was beyond pounding, it had become a constant beat of unease in my chest and I didn’t want to think too hard about what might be coming if we got this wrong. I could see the outlines around the fire, maybe nine or ten of them. Not quite close enough to count for sure.
I thought of my life so far and the choices I’d made as I watched Joey pull his arm back and pop the pin out of the grenade, discarding it. He rose to his feet, hurled it as hard as he could towards the fire. From a distance, I watched it bounce off the grass and come to a halt just in front of the black flames. Some of the Cavanda were already on their feet, rising faster than I’d ever seen a human move. Weapons were already out for some, blades ignited. They were fast. Not as fast as the explosion that ripped from the grenade, tore weapons out of hands. More than one of them was immediately maimed as the base of their kjarnblade swung beyond their control. That had gone a lot better than I’d expected. The feeling of terror vanished, I watched as twin glowing blades fell out of the sky, Arventino and Battleby entered the fray. The fire hadn’t completely gone out, I could see them moving around at superhuman speeds, weighing into the confused Cavanda before they even realised that they were there. In a matter of seconds, half their number was down or disabled and I genuinely found myself believing we could do this.
