Over half of his opponents were down now, but the survivors opened up with grenade launchers again. With the ground itself trembling under Damien’s feet as part of the library roof came down, he missed the weapons until it was too late.
Six high-explosive grenades bracketed him and detonated at close range within a second of each other. His shields compressed under the impact, energy backlashing into him with overwhelming heat and force.
Somehow, somehow, he held it together—even as the backlash drove him to his knees. He began to rise, only to be hit by a follow-up salvo of magic. His shields stopped most of it before collapsing, but one beam of fire slammed into his shoulder.
Force and heat flung him across the room again, and he used his own magic to carry himself farther, crashing down mostly safely into one of the piles of debris, buying himself a moment of time.
Before he could do anything with it, however, a force field settled onto him, pressing him onto the ground. Looking up, he wasn’t surprised to see Ndosi approaching him, her hands outstretched and her Rune of Power flaring with light and energy as she pinned him in place.
“Yield, Damien,” she ordered. The surviving Mages were behind her, adding their own strength to the spell holding him in place. “Even you have limits. Even you can die. I don’t want to kill you.”
He relaxed under the magic, feeling into the weave of it, identifying where the Hand’s magic began and where the other Mages were supporting her. If they’d still had all twenty Mages, they might have been able to hold him. If he was uninjured, a mere eight supporting the Hand would never have been enough.
Looking up, he met Ndosi’s gaze and smiled sadly.
“I’m sorry, Charlotte,” he told quietly—then struck.
It was a tiny piece of magic, really. Something he’d taught himself long before to carve the first Rune of Power on his own flesh.
Charlotte Ndosi was a powerful Mage in her own right. Augmented with a Rune of Power, she ranked highly even among the Hands…but without the Rune, she would be no match for a Rune Wright with five.
His power tore through her Rune and broke it, ripping the silver polymer from her skin in an attack that sneaked through her defenses because it was almost gentle in its action…and vicious in its results.
Her power collapsed and the spell went with it. Damien was on his feet, fire flashing from his hands as the Mages began to realize what had happened.
All but one went down in moments, but the last deflected his strike and ran to Ndosi’s side. Damien thought the man was going to try and help the Hand, and hesitated for a precious moment.
Instead, the Mage shot her. Four shots echoed around the cavernous chamber and the woman’s small body lurched with each blow.
“Stop!” Damien bellowed, raising power to strike the man down—but the shooter simply threw him a salute and vanished in the crashing noise of vacuum filling.
He’d teleported away, leaving Charlotte Ndosi bleeding out on the chamber floor.
#
She was, amazingly, still alive when Damien reached her, kneeling in the blood and dust. None of the bullets had been instantly fatal, but it was obvious even to him that her lungs had been pierced in multiple places and the woman had at most minutes to live.
“We’ve got to get you help,” he told her.
“No time,” she gasped out. “You have…to run. Now.”
“I’m not running, Charlotte,” Damien replied. “This place…it isn’t worth a Hand.”
“Have to…disagree,” she said, her voice growing weaker and more interspersed with bloody coughs. “Swore… an oath. Dead man’s switch. Nuke.”
His heart ran cold. If she died, the entire place would blow up. That was why the last Mage had shot her. To make sure the whole place was incinerated.
“Octavian…was supposed to recruit…to co-opt…not destroy,” she whispered. “Someone…betrayed us…as well. So…much blood.”
He wasn’t sure if she was talking about herself, the room, or how many people were now dead because of Lawrence Octavian.
“I can teleport us both, get you to a doctor,” he assured her.
He reached out to grab her, but she grabbed his hand instead. Blood was still dripping from where he’d destroyed her Rune of Power.
“Sorry, Damien,” she got out clearly. “I am a Keeper and my oaths will be kept.”
He felt her magic trigger before he could stop her, the last ounces of energy Charlotte Ndosi had sweeping through the air around him—and carrying him away in the familiar warping sensation of a teleport.
Blinking against the setting sun, he managed to orient himself and turned back toward where the mountains should be. She hadn’t moved him far, maybe twenty kilometers.
He was still close enough to see the mountain explode when the nuke went off—taking the Royal Order of the Keepers of Secrets and Oaths into history—along with their secrets, their library, and Hand Charlotte Ndosi.
Chapter 45
Mage-Captain Denis Romanov, Royal Martian Marines, wasn’t expecting to find anyone in his borrowed office when he came in the morning after everything went to hell. The room had been temporarily handed over to him to help him coordinate security around the Archives and Montgomery’s quarters, interfacing his Marines with the Secret Service for both the Hand and the rest of the Mountain.
Despite that, he found Julia Amiri perched on the edge of his desk, waiting for him.
“Special Agent Amiri,” he greeted her. “How can I help you?”
“It’s just Julia now,” she told him with a smile. “As of this morning, I’ve officially resigned from the Secret Service. I’m catching a Navy courier this evening, heading to Ardennes.”
“Getting married, I hear?”
“To my shock and surprise, yes,” she admitted. “Still wrapping my brain around it, but… First Lady and Minister for Defense. My now-fiancé knows how to throw a party, it seems. But, nonetheless, I have one last task to discharge for both Montgomery and the Secret Service.”
Denis eyed her askance as he took a seat behind the desk.
“Which is?”
“Montgomery’s security detail needs a new chief,” she told him. “Like most Hands, he’s picked up extras beyond the Service: you and your company. Honestly, your people have always outnumbered the Secret Service detachment assigned to him, though you’ve been thankfully cooperative in regards to working with us.”
“The Secret Service is responsible for the Hand’s security,” Denis pointed out. “I was mostly just…assigned to help out.”
“Which you did with skill and aplomb,” Amiri agreed. “And let’s not pretend I’d be comfortable leaving Damien’s safety in the hands of a stranger.”
“Ma’am, like you said, the Secret Service is in charge of his security,” he said slowly.
“Indeed,” she agreed. “You’ve been seconded to the Secret Service for the last couple of weeks, and we’re impressed. We’d like to offer a more permanent position. You’ll be the Special Agent in charge of Montgomery’s detail, much as I was. You’ll remain technically seconded from the RMMC and continue to accrue seniority as a Marine Captain.
“Before you ask, yes, you will actually receive both salaries,” she continued with a grin. “We’re well aware that this kind of poaching, regardless of technical seniority, does set you back in the Corps. But…Damien needs someone watching his back, and you’ve been doing better than I would have expected.”
Denis exhaled slowly.
“That’s…quite the leap to consider,” he admitted.
“I’m just the presenter,” she told him. “You have a few days to make up your mind; no one’s looking for an immediate answer. You’ll probably stay attached to Damien for a while regardless, though, and this way, you’re in charge of the whole mess.”
“It’s tempting,” he said. “I’ll have to think about it but…I’ll admit you’ve probably got your man.”
#
Normally, th
e Royal Guards’ presence around the Mountain was subtle. They were a backstop to the Secret Service, not intended to act as formal or ceremonial guards. In the aftermath of the Keepers’ abortive attack on the Mountain, however, they were far more obviously present.
Two red-exosuited Guardsmen led Damien to the Mage-King’s office, where another pair of red-armored Guards let him in. The Secret Service agents were still around; they just seemed to fade away next to their armored and magic-wielding big brothers.
Which was probably just fine with the Service, and a deadly mistake for anyone trying to attack the Mage-King.
“Damien,” the Mage-King greeted him as he entered the room. Desmond Michael Alexander the Third stood next to a window that made Damien want to pull the man away. Armored with transmuted titanium or not, near the peak of Olympus Mons and therefore opening onto unbreathably thin air or not, the window still made him a target.
“Your…interesting case files were less disturbing before they managed to reach not merely to Mars but into my home,” Alexander continued. “We have confirmed, by the way, that Lawrence Octavian left his mission at a time that would be consistent with Keeper of Oaths’ interception of Duke of Magnificence.
“He has not been seen since. Congratulations, you are now the only person to have ever killed two of the Mage-King’s Hands.”
Damien winced. There was no avoiding that. Two of the twelve Hands of the Mage-King had been up to their necks in the Keepers, and both were now dead.
“I wish there had been another choice,” he admitted.
“In neither case did you have another choice,” his King replied. “Octavian picked his fight, knowing the consequences if he was discovered. Ndosi…” Alexander sighed. “Ndosi linked a nuclear bomb to her vital signs to make sure the Keeper’s secrets were never uncovered. I only wish I knew what my grandfather charged them with that made them so fanatical.”
“Beyond that aliens were the source of the runes in Olympus Mons, I don’t know,” Damien said quietly. “But that on its own gives me some ideas.”
“Everything we thought we knew,” Alexander said. “Everything we knew about the origin of magic and the Protectorate is now called into question. The consequences could be severe.”
Damien nodded wordlessly.
“The Keepers launched their attack at a bad time for us,” the Mage-King continued. “Three Councilors, including the Legatus Councilor, were here when the Mountain came under attack. All of them now have access to sensor footage showing a nuke was detonated on Mars.
“They’re already asking questions. Shortly, they will learn that two Hands are dead, and then they will ask more questions. We have never let the death of a Hand go unavenged before, but they were guilty of treason.”
“So, we tell them the truth,” Damien suggested. “They are part of the government of the Protectorate. Don’t we owe them honesty?”
“You of all people know there are secrets we keep from them,” Alexander replied pointedly. “They question the power of the Mage-King. If they know Hands betrayed us, it will be a weapon they will use against the Mountain.
“Telling them the truth will trigger a constitutional crisis we don’t need—and will put you on trial for the deaths of two Hands, Damien. They have always had the right to question the actions of my Hands. There is no way they will let a Hand killing two others go unquestioned, unchallenged.”
“So, we lie,” Damien said flatly. “Perhaps we set up a brand-new Royal Order to keep the secret. And then in, what, a hundred years they start killing to protect that lie?”
It was Alexander’s turn to wince.
“I wasn’t planning on going that far,” he said. “Just…holding out for an opportune moment.”
“I suspect that the Keepers did have conditions under which they would release their secrets, an ‘opportune moment’ to tell everyone,” Damien noted bitterly. “Why else keep the data and not just destroy it?
“We’ve just seen the consequences of lies and deception, my King. We…must tell at least the Council the truth. We’ve broken the Keepers’ power, but some of them escaped.”
“What you suggest threatens my power and your safety,” Alexander snapped. “You serve me, Montgomery. If I order you to keep the secret, would you betray me?”
“No,” Damien sighed. “But I would resign. This is a threat to the heart of the Protectorate. We do not have the right to keep it secret…but if you order it, I will. I will also give you back your Hand and go home. I’m sure Commodore McLaughlin would love another Jump Mage.”
“You’d be Governor inside a year,” Alexander pointed out with a sigh. “I doubt Kenneth McLaughlin would wait a month to announce his resignation in your favor—probably along with pointed hints about his granddaughter’s marital status.
“My daughter would kill me,” he concluded. “And…” He sighed. “You’re right. All we could do is spin out time, and our political position versus the Council is desperately in need of…clarification.
“I’m not joking about a trial, though, Damien,” Alexander warned. “Are you prepared to face that?”
“My liege, after all I have done in your service, defending my actions seems…necessary,” he replied. “And, frankly, somewhat less likely to get me killed. I’ll face the Council’s judgment.”
“I’ll back you. You did what had to be done.” The Mage-King of Mars sighed. “You just may have set into motion the shock that will finally fracture our nation.”
###
Damien’s adventures will continue in Judgment of Mars.
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Other books by Glynn Stewart
Starship’s Mage
Starship’s Mage: Omnibus
Hand of Mars
Voice of Mars
Alien Arcana
Judgment of Mars (upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Castle Federation
Space Carrier Avalon
Stellar Fox
Battle Group Avalon
Q-Ship Chameleon (upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Duchy of Terra
The Terran Privateer
Duchess of Terra (upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
ONSET
ONSET: To Serve and Protect (upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Stand Alone Novels
Children of Prophecy
City in the Sky
Alien Arcana (Starship's Mage Book 4) Page 30
