A Mage's Stand: Empire State (Malachi English Book 3)

by Andy Hyland

  He didn’t say which one was Drag and which was Sklag, and to be honest it wouldn’t have mattered if he did. They both looked identically hideous from where I was sitting. The one on the left smiled, causing four of his boils to pop, and sending yellow pus oozing down his chin. Arabella had to look away. Me, I found it fascinating in a truly revolting way. “Malachi,” he said - or she, I suppose, it was impossible to say for sure - “you I have heard of, my friend.” Wasn’t too happy about being called a friend by a demon. Still, as long as they didn’t try to hug me I suppose it didn’t matter. “You - you stopped that prick Molech setting up a permanant base in town, didn’t you? That was work, my friend. That was good work.”

  It took me a moment to figure out he was congratulating me. “You’re not pissed off about that?”

  The other one chuckled. “Not likely. Molech’s one of those bastards with dreams of an empire – control, dominance. Us, we just want to get by, have a little fun, enjoy the delights of this age of the world before it passes. You know?”

  “Sure, I get that,” I said, wondering how they had any fun at all looking like they did.

  It was like they read my mind. “Trouble with this place,” the first one said, “is how difficult it is to maintain a human guise. You can’t keep it up, so we kind of…revert.” The second one pointed at its face and shrugged.

  “Yeah, that must suck,” I said, my mind churning as I tried to find a way to change the subject. “You been here long?”

  “Just before you guys, actually. That’s how we bumped into Zack. We were heading hellwards anyway. Just our luck that they picked us up. And the whole thing they’re fussing over - it happened millennia ago. But these bozos don’t forget.”

  “Heading out?” I asked, and Zack nodded, giving me a look. I’d asked the right question.

  They leaned in close and dropped their voices. It took everything I had to stay where I was and not lean away from them. Or be sick. “Word on the street,” the second one explained. “Massive shit-storm coming, and nobody’s hanging around. We were sliding over. Thought we’d catch a drink at Benny’s before heading deeper for a while. Just till it’s passed. Afterwards, apparently, is when all the opportunities are going to spring up.”

  “Yeah?” I asked, suddenly very interested.

  Too interested, apparently. The first one elbowed the second one in the ribs and hissed disapproval. “What?” the second one asked. “It’s not like they’re going anywhere, and neither are we now.”

  The bickering carried on and after a while they made their apologies and shuffled their way back down the steps.

  “What do you think?” Arabella asked me.

  “I’m intrigued. When demons sense opportunities it’s never a good thing. If we weren’t up to our necks in shit I’d be right on it. Still, we’re together, we have food and drink, and the neighbors don’t seem all that bad, considering. Could be worse.”

  “Well, sorry to spoil the atmosphere,” said Zack, “but now that you’re settled, we have an issue.”

  I paused with the bottle halfway to my mouth and looked over to him. “An issue? Apart from the fact we’re under celestial arrest and camped out over a giant endless pit, waiting our turn to be hauled up and summarily executed?”

  “I suppose when you put it like that, it’s only a small issue. Small-ish, anyway. Look, you see those two over there?” He pointed to the next ledge down and over to the left. Two guys, human-looking, squaring up. One threw a punch, but it never landed. Instead, the perpetrator flew backwards, down a set of steps, smacking his head against them every time he flipped over.

  I nodded. “Anti-violence runes, or casts. Same thing Benny’s got going. Makes you wonder where he got the idea from.”

  The guy who’d fallen got back up and wandered back to his tent. “See?” said Zack. “It’s not just violence against each other that’s being blocked. You can’t be hurt by the scenery either.”

  “Makes sense,” said Arabella. “They don’t want anyone to take the easy way out and escape what’s coming.”

  “I agree,” said Zack, “which just raises the question of how I managed to do this when I tripped up ten minutes after I got here.” He looked round, checking that nobody was looking, and pulled up his jeans, nearly as far as his knee. His shin was badly bruised, and blood was still trickling down from a cut. Nothing major, but it was the principle of the thing. “We need to investigate further.”

  I sighed and put my bottle down. “Fine. Go ahead. Nothing too vicious.”

  “Thanks man,” said Zack, and punched me in the head. Just a quick jab, but it definitely connected, and it definitely hurt.

  “Bugger,” I said.

  “Yep,” Zack agreed. “Whatever’s going on in this place, all the general protection going on has been withdrawn from us. Specifically us.”

  “And if anyone finds out about that…” said Arabella. Nobody needed the sentence completed. “No problem, though. We stick close, we don’t move from here, we eat and drink and we wait. Nothing can happen. Right?”

  A few hours later, we’d turned in for what we were going to call the night. It seemed to be a community decision. The fires died down to a low burn, without actually going out – yet more consideration from our genial Hosts. I lay there, just outside my tent, staring up into the black. I didn’t reckon we were going to be here for that long. What we’d done, what we’d been involved in, was too serious. How high on the grand scheme of things creating an unsanctioned vampire was, I didn’t know. But I did know that if the Host start waving around something as serious as a covenant, and you break it, nothing that follows is going to go well for you.

  The growl came in the stillness. I didn’t register it at first, but then it came again, closer. I sat up and looked around. There was nothing that I could see. Just the pit and the tents and the happy bands of campers spread out across the ledges. But the hair on the back of my neck was standing up, and you don’t ignore instincts carefully cultivated over years of near-fatal experiences. I crawled over and shook Zack. He was sleeping lightly, and sat up, eyes already bright and clear. “Listen,” I whispered, before moving onto Arabella, who was far harder to wake. She stretched and started cursing me before she was fully conscious, so I shoved my hand across her mouth until she was with it enough to know what was going on.

  “Whatever it is, it’s by itself,” said Zack. “That’s good. But it’s getting closer. That’s bad.”

  “Too much to hope it’s moving randomly,” I muttered.

  “Absolutely. This is a hunt. Stay still or get moving?”

  “What do you think?”

  Going back up would leave us completely exposed on the rim, and I wasn’t running back into the labyrinth of arches anytime soon, especially not with some growling freak of a thing on my heels. So we headed down, skipping down steps as quickly as we could. Every now and then we’d pause and listen. For the first few ledges it seemed we were making progress. We could still hear the growling but it was further away, and over to the left of the pit. That was reassuring, but it didn’t last long. Soon the growling was louder, and other noises became clearer. Like the scuffle of rocks as something leapt between ledges, cutting out the stairs altogether. We were heading down, but the effort was starting to get to us. I was sweating hard, and wishing like hell that I’d grabbed the water bottle when we started running.

  The sleeping forms we passed by were starting to change. Less humans now, more hellkind. Kappas, imps and Shamblers were pretty common, huddling together in groups. The more superior, prouder demons kept to themselves, staking out territory like it still mattered.

  “It’s close,” said Arabella. “This isn’t working.”

  “I know, but what else do you want to do?” I shot back.

  “You’ve got knives?” Zack asked. We nodded. “Me too. They’ll have to do. We’ll spread out. Whatever it is, it can’t attack the three of us all at once. Stick and move. Stay smart. Ready?”

&n
bsp; We didn’t have to wait long. “Holy shit,” I said, as our pursuer finally caught up and made the final leap down to our ledge. “What in hell’s name is that?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Holy shit!” shouted Zack, diving to his left. “What is that? Is there even a name for it?”

  “I hope not,” I yelled back, pulling off my own evasive maneuvers. “Because if there is, then that means there’s more than one of it.”

  It, in this instance, was a wolf-like creature with muscular legs, standing as high as an average human and twice as long. Shaggy and matted black fur clung to its hide, absent only in those areas where horrific white scars still snaked across its flanks and belly. There the resemblance to a wolf stopped. It had the misshapen head of a man, green-eyed and pale-skinned, but the jaw was impossibly large, hanging low. Out of its mouth came long tendrils, a serpent’s head at the end of each, whipping and flailing through the air, spitting poison and baring rows of sharpened teeth.

  “Three knives?” said Arabella, remarkably calm, all things considering. “We’re going up against this thing with three knives?”

  “We could hold two each and get it up to six?” I suggested.

  “Just keep moving,” Zack instructed. “Try to take down its legs. If it can’t run and jump, then we can have another crack at getting away.”

  “Hang on,” I said, a thought occurring to me. “What if the whole anti-violence thing is protecting it?”

  “Then, my friend, we have been royally screwed by an expert in the art.”

  Our first chance to check how we stood came quickly. The wolf-thing made a dive at me. I rolled low, snake teeth following my path and coming within inches of my cheek. As I passed underneath its belly I let my arm fly out to the side. The knife met and cut flesh, and the beast howled.

  “Good news, it can bleed,” I called out. “Bad news, I’ve pissed it off even more.”

  “To be honest,” said Zack ducking to the side and slashing at its ribs before diving away again, “I don’t think pissing it off is going to make a massive amount of difference either way.”

  We kept the dance up for ten minutes or more. It would take a run at one of us, leaving the way open for the other two to attack. But we were running low on energy and breath, and it hadn’t even started to flag, even with the numerous small wounds that we’d managed to inflict. The fight was drawing to a close. We all knew it. I could only pray that it took me first. That I didn’t have to stand by and watch my friends die.

  All too soon it looked like my wish would be granted. During one pass my knife drove into its side and hit a rib. I lost my grip as the wolf whirled around, knocking me back onto my ass, weaponless. I scrambled back on my elbows, but there was no getting round this one. Zack was still getting to his feet from an earlier blow. Arabella was scrambling to help but being shoved back by a dismissive paw. So many things to say, so many things to do. But time waits for no man, and if you miss your chances, they’re gone. I decided to go out with my eyes open. One last, pointless act of defiance.

  Something dropped between me and the wolf. I put my hand up instinctively so all I caught was a flash of wings covering black, leathery skin. A flash of light, a wolf wailing in agony, and the sound of a heavy body hitting the ground hard before falling away.

  “Don’t look at me, not like this,” a woman screamed. There was something familiar about the voice but it was coarse and rasping and I couldn’t place it. Then she spoke again, the roughness gone. “Shit. Now I’m naked. Keep your eyes shut. Where was that…damn it…fine, fine. You can look now.”

  I put my arm down and stared up at a slim woman with smeared make-up and a rats-nest of hair, clutching a white sheet around her which she was attempting to belt with a short piece of rope.

  “You can say thanks anytime you want,” she said, and looked round at Zack and Arabella. “That goes for all of you.”

  “Stacey?” I said. “That you?”

  “Shit,” she said, putting her hand to her face. “Do I look that bad? Am I hideous?”

  “No, no, not at all. You just look…different.” Stacey was a harpy who usually took great pride in her gorgeous appearance, not least because it was the bait for sucking in all kinds of admiring suitors. Who promptly became lunch.

  “Yeah, well you get dragged off the street in the early hours and stuck in here for days, and then see how you look.”

  “How did you do that?” I asked, looking over the ledge. No sign of the wolf.

  “Easy,” she said, pulling some grit away from her arm. “That’s the way it works in here. You attack someone, you’re the one that gets punished, all in line with how strong the strike was in the first place. That thing went in for a killing blow, so he’ll be out of action for a while. Just took something that was protected to get in the way. Raises the whole question of why you’re so vulnerable, though, doesn’t it?”

  “Good job you saw us,” Zack said, walking over and clapping her on the back.

  “Wasn’t really a problem. Everyone’s trying to watch. That was the most entertainment some of the inmates have had in eons.”

  I looked round as I got up, and saw hundreds of eyes pointed in our direction. “Guys,” I said slowly, “we have a new problem.” If our lack of protection was now common knowledge, we weren’t that far away from being someone else’s sport. Or food. “Can you escort us back up?” I asked Stacey.

  “Sure. But then what?”

  “Hide among the humans?” Arabella suggested. “Fine, if you’re going to look at me like that, why don’t you suggest something?”

  “Hey, calm down, sister,” said Stacey. “It’s a plan. Can’t see it working, but you go for it, girl.”

  “Let’s just move,” said Zack. “Sooner we’re back with our own kind, the better.”

  “Ungrateful ass,” Stacey muttered as she fell into line behind him, and we all started the long slog back up to the rim.

  Needless to say, heading up those endless flights of steps was a damn sight harder than skipping down them all had been, and that was bad enough. My calves were tight and my thighs were screaming at me. And to think that some people make exercise a part of their daily lives out of choice. The three of us didn’t speak - it was all we could do to keep sucking the air into our lungs. We passed our original ledge and camp, but I pointed upwards, telling everyone to keep going. I wanted a birds-eye view of the place, To see who, if anyone, was following us, and which way they were heading up.

  Stacey moved with little apparent effort, and quite happily chatted the whole way up, which was half-annoying and half a pleasant distraction. “You know you owe me now, right? This is a debt. Let’s call it a blood debt. That cool with you? Good, great. Because I just know, Malachi, that you’re going to come out of this as some shining hero, and you’re going to owe me big time. And you’re repaying me by getting me out of this hole. That okay with you? Excellent, I take your silence as agreement. Consider the contract verbally sealed. Or non-verbally, because of the whole silence thing. Anyway, it’s done.” I didn’t have the strength to argue with her, so I just nodded.

  Finally we collapsed at the top, taking a few minutes to lie on our backs and let our bodies stop complaining so loudly. A few kind souls had thrown bottles to us on our ascent, no doubt grateful for having something vaguely interesting to look at for the first time since they’d got here. I gulped down the first half of mine, then reined it in a bit and sipped the rest. We had no idea when the next supply drop was going to be, and I didn’t want to end up parched until then.

  “So, Stacey, you’ve been a naughty girl then?” Zack asked.

  “Shut it,” she shot back.

  “No seriously,” Zack pressed on, “Look, last time we saw you was yesterday, or thenabouts, at Benny’s, right? You’re a killer by nature. I’m not judging. Well, not much. You’ve been doing it for years – centuries. What the hell did you do to suddenly get yourself dragged here?”

  She said nothing for
a while, then sighed. “It’s my fault, really. I got a bit too fond of staying Earth-side. Tried to go back to the Fades, but it seemed so…empty. And everyone bored me. But to stay Earth-side you need money, and employment opportunities were getting harder to come by.” I nodded along as she said this, seeing where she was coming from. She’d tried secretarial work and accounting so far, but there are only so many bosses that you can murder and eat before people start getting nervous, even if they can’t pin it directly on you. “I was in Benny’s last week,” she continued, “and this guy I’d never met offered me some work. Carrying artifacts from the Fades through to Earth and dropping them off to his contact. Hard cash, good money, half up front. I bit his hand off. Figuratively speaking.”

  “And then it all went wrong,” offered Arabella.

  “Damn right. I’d only been through the veil five minutes when this black van rolled up and I was invited by the Host to join them for a little ride. They were cute guys though, don’t you think? I like my men with muscles.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t try to flirt,” I said. Her silence told me everything. “Wow. I wish I’d been there to see that. What happened to those artifacts? Still got them with you?”

  “No, so I’m never going to get the other half of that cash. They were in my bag, and that went missing somewhere along the way, so the artifacts are gone, along with all my makeup. And that stuff cost really good money. I miss it already.”

  “What were the artifacts?” asked Zack, his professional interest kicking in.

  “No idea. They were well wrapped. Package sealed with runes, so I wasn’t messing with that. And now, here I am. And I am so very bored. So you’re going to get me out.”

  I looked over at her. “Hate to break it to you, love, but we’re in even worse shape than you are.”