by Alan Baxter
Silhouette moved closer, put her arms around him. ‘It’s not your fault.’
Alex looked up sharply. ‘It is my fault!’ Several people in the pub turned, surprised by the loud outburst, then quickly looked away again. ‘It is my fault,’ Alex said again, more quietly. ‘All of this. I got tangled up with Patrick fucking Welby and everything, all of this, has happened because of it. Everything then, Obsidian, now Sydney and London. All because I couldn’t take my own advice and tell Welby to fuck off and leave me alone.’
‘It wasn’t that simple. And lots of other stuff has happened.’ Silhouette kissed him. ‘You found me, for one. And think of all the people you freed from Obsidian. You had Uthentia beaten and contained too, until Darvill screwed things up by letting him out. It’s not all bad. Didn’t you just tell Jean to throw off guilt that wasn’t hers to carry?’
Alex and Jean shared a look, a crooked smile. Her tear-stained eyes were soft and he knew they shared something these others couldn’t comprehend in detail. Perhaps he and Chang could support each other somehow. He nodded softly, reached out to squeeze Jean’s hand. She squeezed back, looked away, fresh tears over her cheeks.
‘It’s pretty bad, though,’ Alex said with a humourless laugh. ‘Pretty fucking awful, really. But I tell you this, I will defeat Hood. He’s my fault and I will find a way to finish him. I have to. And I have to do it before Friday.’
Silhouette frowned. ‘Why before Friday? Dealing with Hood and dealing with the Fey don’t have to happen in that order.’
Alex shook his head, looked away, unable to hold Silhouette’s gaze. ‘Apart from the damage Hood can do in the meantime, I have a definite way of ending the Fey threat. But I refuse to die before Hood is handled.’
‘Alex, fuck that!’
‘No, don’t make this about us, Silhouette. The entire world could be overrun by Fey again if they find a way to get this.’ He jabbed a finger into his chest. ‘But if I die, it dies, and that threat dies with it. It’s a final solution. But I can’t let it happen until Hood is dealt with.’
‘And what if it’s not a fucking solution?’ Silhouette’s eyes were dark with fury, but wet with sadness. ‘What if you die and that stone is still available to them somehow? Then what?’
Alex reached for her, pulled her back into a hug even though she tried to resist. ‘I love you, Silhouette. I love you so much. But if we can’t find another answer, this is all I’ve got. I can at least make some kind of amends for what I’ve done.’
Silhouette relented, gripped him tightly for a moment before pushing away. ‘I won’t accept that. We need to find a way to deal with Hood and the Fey. I’m not losing you.’
Alex shrugged, stared into the last inch or two of beer. ‘I’d love to find a way too, but I don’t know if we can.’
Emma Parker slapped the table again. ‘Once more, enough melancholy. Action plan time. My shielding is centred on you two, because you’re the ones Darvill knows and is tracking.’
‘He also knows me very well,’ Jarrod said. ‘And Jean. If he can’t find them, he might try to track us. Do they know we’re here?’
‘I don’t know, but let’s assume they do. Therefore, you four have to stay close together to stay under the umbrella of my protection. Not in each other’s pockets or anything, but always within, say, ten metres or so of each other. If we need to split up, I can try to accommodate that with my shields. And I’m sure you can do a certain amount of warding on your own. The key is to keep moving, never more than a few hours in any one place. That way it’ll be very difficult for Darvill to home in on us. To that end, the Armour sub-branch in Bristol is sending up a big motorhome. It’ll accommodate us all and we can stay on the move and not worry about being still for too long.’
‘Seriously?’ Alex couldn’t keep a slight smile from his face. ‘We’ll be like Scooby and the gang in the fucking Mystery Machine!’
‘So be it. We can sleep and move by driving in shifts, never stay still long enough to get found. Meanwhile, I can move fairly freely, liaise with Armour and start to formulate plans.’
‘Any idea what those plans might be?’ Alex asked. ‘We have some pretty big tasks here.’
‘What about using those two big tasks against each other?’ Jean said, almost too quietly to be heard.
‘Speak up, lass.’ Emma leaned forward, brows knitted. ‘What are you thinking?’
Jean looked nervously around the group, fumbling with her bag as she returned the tablet out of sight. ‘Well, er …’ She cleared her throat, drew herself up. ‘I mean, if one big threat is the Lady coming for Alex on the next thin day, then we only have to wait until Friday. If Hood is desperate to see Alex dead, which he is — it’s an obsession like you wouldn’t believe, nothing matters more to him — then perhaps we can use that.’
Emma shook her head. ‘Not with you, love.’
Alex smiled, gripped Jean’s shoulder gratefully. ‘I am. Good thinking. If Hood is desperate to see me dead, he won’t want anyone else to get the pleasure of killing me. That means if we stay on the run until Friday, when the Lady is going to be gunning for me, and somehow put her between me and Hood, then Hood will surely do all he can to get to me. The way he is now he could probably take out the Lady. He nearly did in Faerie, after all. We could potentially use him to eliminate the Fey threat. Or perhaps, even better, she’ll be able to take out Hood. Either way, we’re left with one problem instead of two.’
Silhouette laughed, a derisive noise. ‘That’s the plan?’
‘It’s a plan,’ Alex said. ‘Which is something. Sort of. I have no idea how to face up to the Lady, no idea how powerful she might be, but she already completely annihilated my ability to resist her once. I’m prepared for that now, I’ve seen that magic in detail and can deflect it, but what else might she have? I don’t fancy giving her the chance to try anything. Setting her and Hood against each other is a bloody good idea if you ask me. One or the other of them will come out worse and only leave us one threat to deal with. Or we can finish them both while they’re occupied with each other.’
‘I suppose so. Desperate fucking measures.’
Alex squeezed her. ‘Desperate fucking times!’
‘It’s good to see you thinking about fighting, Iron Balls. Do not give up on me. On any of this.’
‘I won’t give up until there’s no other choice.’ He turned to Emma. ‘Can Armour start looking into that possibility, do you think? Can they suggest a strategy? A place where it might be safe for us to engineer this fight? We need to make it happen far from people and property, because we know very well Hood has no qualms about collateral damage. I’m sure the Fey don’t, either.’
Emma nodded. ‘Yes. Okay. Bloody hell, that’s a plan I wasn’t expecting, but it’s something to work with. And we have some time. Apart from anything else, if we can organise this and get everyone in the same place at the same time, we can hit them all at once with everything Armour’s got. And when it’s organised, Armour’s got a lot. Come on then, let’s keep moving. I’ve arranged a rendezvous with our new motorhome for an hour’s time, across town. I’ll contact York on the way.’
Claude Darvill ground his teeth and tried to ignore his father’s incessant blather. The man had been an impatient bastard at the best of times before his transformation. Hood paced and whined and chattered and, occasionally, became distracted by his passenger. Again Claude had tried to establish just what or who that passenger was and how much control Hood had over it, and again Hood headed off the questions.
It was quite amusing, however, to see the man who had been such a stalwart for business and profit, so controlled a capitalist, such an excellent player of people, distorted into a monster of rabid passion and violent energies. Claude had to admit he rather liked this new and improved version of his father. But he remained determined to keep a distance once this Alex Caine situation was past. Leaving his father to his own devices had to be the wisest choice. Black Diamond could run itself, managed by
the board. The fortune the company wielded was more than enough to keep Claude and his father while they enjoyed their various, and separate, adventures in the outside world.
But first, Caine. To think they had come so close so many times, yet repeatedly missed the bastard. And that Caine had landed almost in their laps through sheer luck and still managed to slip away. Darvill would never quite match his father’s desire for Caine’s demise, but he was coming close.
Concentrate. He breathed deeply, let the drug course through his system. He had been using this particular psychotropic a little too much lately. He wondered absently if it would have any permanent effect. It was certainly less effective in conjunction with his magic. Perhaps his body and mind were getting too used to it. He would have to find an alternative.
Snags and ripples distracted him. He could sense places where Caine had been, places not too far away. But nothing concrete, nothing clear. He should be able to pinpoint them with crystal clarity, but his searching was occluded, like trying to find a darkened house on a mist-thickened night.
‘Still nothing?’ Hood was back from his latest sojourn arguing with his passenger.
‘Obviously not,’ Darvill snapped. ‘Or I wouldn’t be sitting here trying to fucking concentrate.’
‘They’re using shields similar to the stuff protecting the Armour bases?’
Claude nodded, eyes closed, tried to maintain his spell. ‘Yes, similar, but adjusted. Even that London base is already under a new set of wards I can’t see through very easily. But we know they haven’t returned there, they wouldn’t be that stupid. I keep getting hints and echoes, but they must be moving around. I can’t pin anything down.’
‘Then we have to change tack.’ When Claude didn’t answer, Hood shook him roughly by one shoulder. ‘You hear me? Change tack!’
Claude hissed annoyance as his magic shattered and spiralled away like the glassy surface of a pond destroyed by a thrown rock. ‘Yes, we’ll have to now, or I’ll need to start over.’ He winced, gripped the bridge of his nose between forefinger and thumb. Fatigue chewed at his bones. Too much running around, too much fighting, too much magic. Not to mention his injuries and lack of proper sleep.
Hood clapped his hands together. ‘Not to worry, son. I’ve got a plan.’
‘Do you?’
‘Yes. Well, the start of one at least. We’re going to need to get some help, so let’s organise some subcontractors.’
‘To do what?’
Hood grinned, like a kid let loose in a toy store. ‘We shouldn’t be running around trying to catch Alex fucking Caine like a couple of dogs on a fox’s trail. Let’s make Caine come to us.’
20
Alex sat half turned in the driver’s seat of the parked camper van, watching Emma brew another cup of tea. Her capacity for imbibing the stuff was almost supernatural. At least once an hour she would announce it was ‘Time for a cuppa!’ and insist they pull over somewhere. Traffic whooshed by on the main road, making the van rock slightly in the narrow rest area where he had pulled up.
‘I can’t help you with this situation, I’m afraid,’ Emma said as she doled out tea bags into plastic mugs. ‘None of my experience encompasses this sort of thing.’
‘There must be a way to make his stone worthless to the Lady,’ Silhouette said. ‘Surely!’
Alex shook his head, self-consciously removed his rubbing hand. ‘It’s part of me. It’s like suggesting there must be a way to remove my heart.’ The irony of the statement, the Darak being part of the Lord’s removed heart, was not lost on him. But that level of magic was beyond them all.
Silhouette leaned forward on the passenger seat, reached across to put both hands on Alex’s knees. ‘But there is a way to do that, sort of! Modern science, artificial hearts, all that shit.’
‘She has a point,’ Jarrod’s voice rumbled from the back, slightly muffled as he reclined on the narrow sofa. ‘There are all kinds of ways to replace organs these days. Maybe there is a magical equivalent. The Lord did it, right?’
Alex frowned, remembering the pain of the Lady’s ministrations, the experiments of her underlings. ‘They had me in a lab, cutting, poking, casting all kinds of enchantments over me. If the Fey themselves can’t figure out a way …’
‘But the Fey are half blind,’ Silhouette interrupted. ‘They’re arrogant, trapped in their own paradigm. Perhaps we can bring a non-Fey mindset to bear, think of something they wouldn’t consider.’
‘The Fey will find a way.’ Emma turned, began handing out steaming mugs. ‘Their mastery of magic is unlike anything we can imagine. It will take them time, that’s all, to figure it out. But Silhouette makes a fair point. Perhaps we need someone else on the case. The Lady knows this stuff inside out and she couldn’t find a way to get her stone back yet. So who do we know who might have a clue? Who can help us beat her to the solution?’
The vehicle sank into silence as people sipped tea and thought. Faces were glum.
‘What about the Umbra Magi?’ Silhouette asked eventually.
Alex looked up, surprised. ‘What about them?’
‘They helped us enormously when we originally had to deal with Uthentia. I mean, I know they kinda fell through after a certain point, but they have amazing stores of knowledge and incredible magical ability. Could be worth asking them.’
Alex pursed his lips. ‘I suppose it could. How would I contact them?’
‘You had that link with Meera, remember? Contacting her telepathically. Is it still there?’
Alex shook his head. ‘No idea.’ He closed his eyes, concentrated. Being trapped by the book that Uthentia was using, desperately trying to find a way free from its curse, seemed like a lifetime ago. It really wasn’t all that long, but so much had happened. He found himself sinking into despair, thinking again about the peace of oblivion. And every time that desolation rose in his soul, the icy touch of the Void rippled through to his core. Appealed to him. But he owed the world an end to Hood before he could allow that and if he could fathom a way to remove the Lady and the Fey from his life, he would try it. There was the slim possibility that all this could end, even if he couldn’t see the route there. He focused on Meera’s face — the woman’s skin such a dark black, her eyes so vibrant. Her bald head, the way it would shine in the slightest light. She had been very useful to him before, supplying information via the secretive Umbra Magi group, directing him in his search for the Darak. He hoped she could help again. He cast his mind out, let his power through the Darak swell up and float free. Mentally, he called out into the aether, Meera, can you hear me?
He waited, feeling foolish. Nothing echoed in his mind. Meera, it’s Alex Caine. Are we still … connected? I really need you.
He waited again. Still nothing. With a sigh he opened his eyes. ‘Nothing. It’s like I’m just shouting into …’
Alex?
His eyes popped wide, her voice crystal clear in his mind. ‘Wait!’ He concentrated again. Meera, you can hear me?
Of course. Are you okay?
Not really. I’ve got a bit of a situation and I was wondering if maybe you guys could help me with some information.
I can feel where you are. You planning to stay there?
Not for long, but I can if you …
Wait. I’ll be there.
The connection severed and he looked up, surprised. ‘She’s coming here.’
Emma frowned, turned sharply. ‘From where? We can’t stay here long, you realise. We’re sitting bloody ducks if we’re not careful.’
‘I don’t think we’ll need to wait long. These Umbra Magi are …’ He was interrupted by a light tapping on the camper’s side door.
Jarrod bolted upright, face stern. Jean Chang shrank back in the seat across from him. Emma Parker raised one eyebrow.
Alex grinned. ‘Told you.’ He opened the door.
The small woman smiled, her slight build completely belying her ability. Alex had seen her fight, albeit briefly, when she had delayed th
e Subcontractor to allow him and Silhouette to escape that time in London. He had felt her considerable power. ‘Hello again,’ she said.
Alex stepped back, gestured into the cramped confines of the van. ‘Hey. Thanks for coming.’
‘You caught me at a good time. Master Cai is about to start classes, but I was able to slip away.’
‘Thanks. Silhouette you know. This is Jarrod, Jean and Emma.’
Meera nodded to each of them. ‘Hello, all. So, what’s the problem?’
Emma stepped forward. ‘Sorry, just a minute. Where the bloody hell did you come from so quickly?’ She smiled, but suspicious curiosity burned in her eyes.
‘We have a talent at translocation,’ Meera said. ‘It takes a long while to develop, but we have time. And very experienced teachers.’
‘That’s a bloody useful skill! Can you teach me?’
‘I could, but it would take a long while.’
Emma stepped back, looked Meera up and down. ‘I think Armour could use a good long chat with you and your people.’
Meera nodded subtly. ‘You’re Armour? We know about you lot. You do great work most of the time.’
‘Most of the time?’ Emma’s tone was indignant.
‘Yes, most of the time.’
‘The Umbra Magi are a scholarly group,’ Alex said, hoping to head off any argument before one could begin. ‘They tend to simply observe and collect information. Right?’
‘Right,’ Meera agreed. ‘We try to be impartial to events, just make sure knowledge is preserved. So, what’s the situation here? I’ll be happy to help if I can.’
Emma made yet more tea while Alex relayed everything he could about their current situation. Meera sat quietly, listened intently, not interrupting once. By the end, she nodded and sat in quiet thought. Eventually, she said, ‘I think your situation is unique, Alex. No one has done what you’ve done. I don’t know that anyone would have a clue about undoing it.’
