by Ben Hale
The truck trembled as another figure landed in the bed of the truck. He looked back and saw a semblance of the girl that had served him vodka in the shop. Her skin had darkened to the color of ash, and her body had grown like she'd added a hundred pounds of muscle. Her hair was mottled grey, and her hands resembled the claws of a beast. A short mane of green had grown on her shoulders. And then there was her face.
The pretty blue in her eyes had been replaced with pure white, and her mouth had grown to accommodate the larger teeth. Baring them, she bellowed a piercing howl that briefly startled the others on the truck to silence. Then the creature attacked.
In a fury it caught a man and flicked him over the side. Large and round, he probably weighed over a hundred kilos, but the Twisted tossed him like a discarded apple. The man bellowed as his body bounced across the frozen road. Then he was claimed by the dark.
James drew his pistol and aimed at the thing, but couldn't get a clean shot as the others in the truck tried to avoid it. Bellowing, it ripped into them. Its claws made short work of a man that tried to strike back, and his lifeless body tumbled from the truck. A woman jumped out before it could get to her. She screamed as the Dark swallowed her.
James spotted the highway and turned toward it. There were a few cars, but they were all going in the same direction as he was. If he could make it there he could speed up and leave the Dark behind.
If he could make it.
The creature grabbed two more and threw them into the truck's wake—but their absence gave him a clear shot. Swiveling in his seat, he aimed through the glass of the cab and released four shots. The first shattered the window. The rest pummeled its body. It released a howl as the blows knocked it to the back of the truck. Before he could fire another shot the last person in the truck had grabbed a piece of pipe in the bed. Swinging it like a baseball bat, they struck the Twisted in the head. It issued a shriek as it flew off the truck.
Retaining a grip on the pipe, the person darted to the broken cab window. To James's surprise it turned out to be an attractive woman who reached out of his view and picked up a child. In spite of the bouncing vehicle, she passed him through the opening and dropped him onto the seat.
"Get down!" she shouted to the boy in Russian. Then she started to climb through herself. Just as she slid into the seat beside him there was another thud on the bed. Then two in quick succession.
James looked back. The Dark had claimed the tailgate of the vehicle, and from it three men had appeared. All appeared as the girl had, but their bodies were even more twisted than hers, suggesting longer exposure to the Dark.
These thoughts were fleeting as he palmed his pistol again. "Take the wheel," he shouted.
The woman grabbed the steering wheel and he turned in his seat. Four shots, three kills. By then several had climbed onto the truck. Realizing his only chance was to escape, he grabbed the steering wheel again and offered the gun to the woman.
"Do you know how to use this?"
She grabbed it from him and aimed through the back window. Without hesitation she unleashed a furious volley into the creatures lunging at the cab. He flashed a grim smile and fumbled a spare clip into her hands. She reloaded and kept firing, allowing him to devote his attention to the upcoming turn.
"Swinging right!" he shouted, and yanked on the steering wheel.
Their momentum slowed, and the Dark engulfed them. He jammed his foot on the gas as the whispers assailed him. Like steel claws, the words tore into his ears and consciousness. In seconds they found his deepest fears, his worst memories. Dredging them from the depths of his mind, the whispers forced him to relive his darkest deeds until they nearly consumed him.
James fought back. Clenching his jaw, he growled at the whispers and kept driving by memory. Twice he bounced off the rail, and each time he resisted the impulse to overcorrect. Then the area began to lighten. Snarling at the hint of victory, he willed the truck to speed up.
Inch by agonizing inch they pulled free of the Dark, and the voices grew faint. Their absence allowed him to hear that the woman was still firing, preventing the creatures from gaining a foothold on their vehicle.
"Last magazine," she yelled as she racked the slide on the weapon. Five shots later she stopped firing.
He threw a look back and saw that they were thirty feet from the wall of black, and gradually leaving it behind. As if it realized they had escaped its grasp, the shadow rippled. A two-hundred-foot face pressed out from the wall. The features were unlike anything James had ever seen, more animal than human. Its massive jaws opened in a silent roar. Then it withdrew.
"What was that?" he said in English.
The woman turned to him, her blue eyes bright with intensity. "It knows we escaped," she answered in English with a Russian accent.
"You think the cloud has a mind?" He frowned at the note of uncertainty in his voice.
She nodded, and gestured at the bed of the truck, which was splattered with blood. "The creatures come when we escape."
Does it know what I did? He twitched, unable to dismiss that thought entirely. "Name?"
"Tanya," she replied, "and Sergei, my son."
"Jim," he said, using his alias. "Cop?"
She shook her head. "I was soldier before husband left. You?"
"I was too," he replied. "US Army."
"Thanks," she said after a minute. She shuddered and looked out the window.
"You saved me too," he said. "You kept them off our backs."
She swallowed and didn't look at him. "I knew one of them. Demetri was good man. I killed him."
"I don't think he was in there anymore," James said, and hoped it was true.
"Why you visit Odessa?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Just traveling. Visiting friends and all."
"Not good time to travel."
He didn't answer. His cover for this op had been thin as it was, and even after what he'd just witnessed he couldn't discard his training so readily. He also recognized the talk for what it was. Neither one of them was ready to face what they had just been through.
She didn't speak again, and neither did he. For several miles there were just the sounds of the damaged truck and the faint whimpering of Sergei. She held him, and only looked back a few times.
He looked through the mirror, and the wall of black remained. Defying belief or reality, it reached to the heavens, and continued to swallow the ground in their wake. The face did not reappear, nor did the creatures, and yet he knew they were there. His tactical mind drew several conclusions from that, but two questions remained unanswered. Even if someone figured out how to stop the Dark, how many had joined its ranks already?
And what were they becoming?
Chapter 32: The Order of White
"Everyone ready?" Tess asked.
Shorn, Iris, and Derek nodded in turn, and then they separated. One by one they gated to different schools. Tess went last. Like stepping through a layer of water, she exited into one of the fire practicum chambers.
"Welcome back, Oracle," the Ironguard said.
She turned and smiled at the face on the door. "I'll be back soon," she said. The face withdrew into the liquid metal and the door swung open. Tess strode from it in search of her first target. It didn't take her long to find them huddled in a field behind the gravity school. Mike looked up at her approach. His expression turned to relief when he recognized her.
"Tess?" Mike asked. "What's up?"
"How's the gambling going?" Tess asked.
Laura shook her head. "We're tracking the Dark's progress. Do you know it's passed 800 miles from the epicenter at Mt. Elbrus?"
Tess's gut constricted at that news. "Do you want to practice with me for a minute?"
Mike's eyebrow lifted at her tone. "Er . . . sure."
Tess smiled and led the way to the practicum chambers in the fire building. The moment they had entered a practice room together Laura rounded on her.
"What's going on?" she asked. "If you
act any more suspiciously you'll bring the Voidlings down on our necks."
"Do you want to fight?" Tess asked.
"What?" She clearly hadn't been expecting the question.
"The Harbingers have taken over the school, the city, and the entire mage world. Do you want to fight them?"
Mike began to laugh. "You're serious, aren't you."
Tess nodded. "We've formed a group, and have a plan. Do you want in?"
"How dangerous is this plan?" Laura asked at the same moment Mike grinned
"We're in."
They looked at each other, and Mike shrugged. "You know we're going to do it."
Laura sighed and met Tess's gaze. "When do we start?"
"Now," Tess said, and turned to the Ironguard. "Show her the way."
The door rippled, indicating that the gate had been opened. Tess gestured to it. "Just step through."
Mike threw her a glance, and then stepped through the door. Laura made to follow, but hesitated on the threshold.
"Trust me," Tess said.
"I do," Laura said, and then walked through the metal gate.
Tess followed her in, and joined them in the refuge.
"What is this place?" Mike said in awe.
"It's Siarra's Refuge," Tess said.
Laura jerked to look at her. "The Siarra's Refuge?"
Tess nodded, smiling in spite of herself. "Welcome to the Order of White."
Without any prompting the couple set to examining the domed chamber while Tess waited for the others. Derek arrived first with Warren, his roommate and a skilled body mage. Skinny and awkward, Warren nevertheless was the best of anyone they knew with the requisite magic.
Iris came next, and the boy at her side couldn't have been more different. Overweight and short, Benny wasn't their best option for a memory mage. He was the only option. They were lucky that Iris had befriended him after coming to Tryton's. Shy and quiet, he was purported to be the only memory mage to enroll in Tryton's in a decade.
Shorn and Kyle came last, and were accompanied by Quad. Of the thirty-seven anti-magic mages currently attending the school, he was considered to be the best. He was also Kyle's younger brother.
Short, with dark hair and eyes, Quad looked nothing like his hulking brother. He surveyed the room with interest as he joined the group gathered in the center of the chamber. As distracted as Iris was, she threw him a lingering glance when he'd entered.
"So," Quad asked, "What's this all about?"
They all looked to Tess, and she said, "Before I begin I should let you know that what we are planning is dangerous. If we're caught it's entirely possible that we could see our magic taken."
"Or the Voidlings could kill us," Derek said. "So if you want out, now's the chance."
"So? What's the plan?" Quad asked, and folded his arms. His lips twitched into a smile.
When no one moved Tess said, "We want to strip Drake of his magic."
Kyle broke the silence. "I would love to do that to my former captain," he grunted, "but that's not possible. The horrending curse requires complex spells that they guard closely."
"And why do it anyway?" Benny said, so quiet they could barely hear it.
"Because if I can learn on him, I—"
"Can do it to Alice," Quad finished. His eyes sparkled. "I like it."
Kyle jerked to face him. "Don't sound so eager," he growled. "If you get hurt Mom will kill me."
Quad waved his concerns aside. "I'm not going to die. Look at this place. They planned for everything. We learn the magic, get the horrending blade, and then trick him down here."
"You say it like it's going to be easy," Iris snapped.
Quad laughed, and motioned to Tess. "Look at who's here. Everyone knows who she is. If she believes we can do this, we can."
"Your file marks you as a troublemaker," Iris said. "What makes you think we can trust you?"
Quad's eyes widened. "How did you read my file?"
She sniffed. "The Harbingers may have cracked down on the mage net, but the school files still use the old hexes to protect them. Do you want to know what else it says?"
"That's enough, Iris," Tess said.
Iris cast her an annoyed look and turned away, muttering to herself. Inwardly, Tess sighed. Ever since her mom had appeared, her roommate had been distracted and quick to anger. The response to Quad, though, suggested something more. Did she not trust him?
The awkward silence was broken by Derek. "First things first—we learn the spells required to do this. Warren is here for the body spell. (He began to fidget when his name was called.) Quad will perform the anti-magic, and Benny will do the memory charm.
Shorn nodded. "Drake is a level eighteen mage in fire and twenty-one in gravity. Tess and Kyle will do the fire suppression curse together. Shorn, and either Mike or Laura will do the gravity well hex."
Mike looked to Laura. "I'd love to say I should, but you are better at gravity than I am."
For once serious, Laura gave a reluctant nod. "I'll do it."
Tess smiled. "Good. It's going to take all of us working in sync for this to work. Iris?"
Iris grunted, and motioned to the group. A flowing script sparked into view in front of each of those called. Benny's eyes widened as he read his.
"These are the instructions for the battlemage absenters that do the horrending," he murmured. "How did you get them?"
"From a friend," Iris said. She didn't elaborate, but her eyes flicked to Tess and her lips twitched in a smile.
"You're as talented as you are pretty," Quad said, eliciting several shocked looks for his boldness.
"Careful, Quad," Derek warned. "That's my sister."
Quad didn't hear him. He read his list a second time and then turned his back to the group. Ink magic poured from his hands and swirled into the shape of a man. Before anyone could comment the anti-magic morphed into a thousand spikes and compressed inward.
Quad turned back with a smile. "The leech curse isn't so different from the barrier curse. It just requires me to pierce his body with a million hollow needles."
Warren shuddered. "I don't envy him."
Tess nodded with satisfaction. Quad was everything that she'd heard. "Let's get started, everyone. The Dark is killing aurens every day, so time is of the essence. Once I learn my spell I will rotate with each of you. It's imperative that I learn every aspect of this. I will need it if I'm going to go after Alice." She glanced at Iris, her thoughts on Trina.
How much time do I have?
Warren leaned over to Benny. "Are we crazy for doing this?" he whispered.
"Yes we are," Benny murmured back.
Visible only to Tess, Eleana shimmered into view at her side. "Are you sure you can do this? Learning the spell is difficult. Doing it to a person is something else entirely."
Tess nodded. I have to.
Chapter 33: A Rising Army
They set to work with a vengeance. As he'd demonstrated in the first gathering, Quad excelled at his magic and was the first to master his part. Working in sync, Kyle and Tess got theirs by the third day. Shorn and Laura weren't too far behind, and with extra coaching Warren managed to learn his spell. Benny continued to struggle.
As the days wore on Tess became increasingly agitated. Calling her parents had become more and more difficult, and Iris disappeared for unexplained lengths of time. Derek informed her that Iris was meeting with her mom at the Spirus.
For the first time since Tess had come to Tryton's, she felt a gap between herself and Iris. Marked by her roommate's absence at meals and classes, Iris was pulling away. Even when they were together there was an air of tension that refused to be dispelled. Tess would have blamed herself, but Derek and Iris had gotten into fights so loud that both had been Darkened by Voidlings.
To make matters worse, Drake had begun tracking Tess's movements. Whether it was because he'd noticed how much they were in the practicum chambers or because he'd been ordered to, his attention magnified the likelihoo
d they would be caught. Derek had responded to that by asking if he could invite others to join the Order. With so many studying in the 'practicum chambers' it would be less likely for them to be caught.
While Benny worked with Tess to learn the forgotten magic curse, their numbers grew. The weekend after they had found the refuge Tess needed a break, and went to help Derek train the new members.
"Focus," Tess said to Max after finding him struggling.
Max stabbed a finger at the makeshift target. "This is ridiculous. How am I supposed to use sound magic to hurt a dummy?"
Tess rubbed her forehead, and tried to be patient. "We've been over this. Audible magic can be focused until it causes intense vibration in your target. Done properly it will incapacitate an enemy."
He jutted his chin out. "Where did you learn that? They don't teach this stuff in class."
Abruptly her irritation boiled over, and she whirled to the dummy. Opening her mouth, she issued a burst of sound. Focused as it was, it barely reached her own ears. What she did hear sounded like nails scraping on a chalkboard. The stone figure's head shattered. Max winced at both effects.
She turned back to him. "We both know you are talented, Max. It's why I recruited you from class. I've seen you enhance sound and dampen it better than anyone, but if we get into a fight you are going to need something stronger than a silencing charm. You should have no problem with the reverb curse."
Max's face had turned a little green. "Is that what it will do to people?"
"Stone shatters, making it easy to tell if it's working. This spell is debilitating, but not lethal. Talk to Kent if you need help."
Max seemed to recover, and tried again. The stone arm of the figure rattled, but didn't explode. His face turned red as he tried harder, and abruptly a tongue of fire reached out and slammed into the dummy. Max was knocked to the ground.
Tess bent to help him up. "I didn't know you had fire magic."
