by Isaac Hooke
Lightning men? So they'd already begun uncollaring the Denizens. Hoodwink didn't see anyone uncollared nearby though, save for Jacob.
"We'll help you, Cap," Hoodwink said. "Don't be getting all upset on me. Tanner and I, we got some things that can help you, we do. We'll tilt the odds in your favor, don't you worry." He glanced at Tanner. "Return to the Outside, and send in a couple of those new gifts you told me about. Use my position."
Tanner drew his handmirror and strode away to begin the process of disbelieving reality.
"Been waiting for an attack for years," Cap said. "Watching, and waiting. Wondering if I'd wake up in the night to the shouts and screams of the dying. Time passed. I became complacent. Guess I never actually believed it would ever happen. Should've seen it coming though. Should've better prepared my men. Oh they're veterans of wars against other factions, don't you fret. But that's a different kind of fighting. A fighting set in the shadows, with assassinations in the dark. Not the close-quarters, in-your-face fighting that's coming."
"Tell me there's a secret back way out of here," Hoodwink said.
Cap nodded, and exchanged a knowing glance with Al. "There's a back way, through the sewers. The outlet is by Fen Street. Back of the Den."
"There's a working sewer system in the Den?" And you made my Cora use a chamber pot?
Cap frowned. "Never said it was working."
"Ah." Hoodwink should've figured as much. "Well. Working or not, it's an escape. We have to get the women and children out."
Cap ground his teeth. Probably wanted to save his own skin first. Then he glanced at his men, and his face softened. Hoodwink regarded the men now too, and saw the mixed emotions there. Fear, and yet an inexplicable resolve. Hoodwink realized that every man present likely had a wife and child, Cap included. And when your life was a whirlwind of crime, all you really had to anchor you to the world was your family. No matter how tough you were on the outside, without them you'd be left adrift.
Sort of like Hoodwink.
"You're right," Cap said, with a sigh. "You're right. The women and children first. We may be criminals, but we're not heartless. Family is all we have. We'll wait here, hold the ranks off as long as we can. Then we'll join our wives and sons."
"So there's honor among thieves after all," Hoodwink said. "Assuming you keep your part of the bargain. It's usually the women and children who get screwed. Literally."
"I'll keep my part," Cap said. "As will my men. Just bring those gifts of yours."
Hoodwink nodded. "I will. Once I make sure the Dwarf is on the way out." He glanced meaningfully at Jacob.
Jacob nodded. "Let's go. The Dwarf's in the Warehouse, along with the Boxes."
Hoodwink followed Jacob. He was glad the Dwarf was at the Warehouse, because that's where Cora was too.
Cap addressed someone behind Hoodwink. "You there, see that the families begin the evacuation."
Hoodwink hurried away with Jacob. When he was only about five paces from the gate, he heard a shout from behind.
"They're rushing the walls!"
"To arms!" Cap said, and the area around the gate erupted in activity.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hoodwink almost had trouble keeping pace with Jacob, who moved with surprising speed for an old man. Still, he preferred it that way. Have to get Cora!
Tanner appeared at his side. "How did you know about the bomb back there, Hood? I've never heard of gols being able to sense bombs. We don't have that ability."
Hoodwink couldn't keep the anger from his voice. "They can't," he snapped.
"Then how—"
"Aren't you supposed to be throwing off this reality? I recall giving you the order to go Outside. Now would be a good time to listen to me, don't you think? Given that we're under attack."
Tanner opened his mouth, but then bit back whatever he was going to say. He lowered his eyes. "You're right. We don't have time for this. The rush on the walls distracted me. I'm sorry." He turned to go, but paused. "Once I inject a few presents, I'll come back in, and help hold the Direwalkers off. Buy you and the women and children some time."
"Dangerous," Hoodwink said.
"It seems like the right thing to do. Ari would have done it."
Hoodwink nodded. Ari. "All right. I can't stop you. Good luck, man. But please, when the fighting starts in earnest, retreat to the sewage outlet."
Tanner nodded. "I'll do my best. Good luck, Hood."
Hoodwink hurried after Jacob.
"Why do they want the Dwarf so badly?" the old man said when Hoodwink reached him.
"I don't know," Hoodwink lied. "Have you revised the Dwarf yet?"
"No."
"Too bad." Though that was probably good.
"We should've listened to you, Hoodwink," Jacob said.
"How so?"
"The Den is perilously undermanned. Even though you warned us not to, Cap sent about two hundred of his best to take over the mayor's house. We'd been uncollaring them all morning. And this is the fallout. I know it is."
Hoodwink frowned. "Uncollared men would have been useful here. But sent to the mayor's house? Likely they're all dead."
"We should have listened to you."
Hoodwink found it hard not to feel smug. Still, he'd never been the I-told-you-so type, so he held his tongue.
When they reached the foyer of the Warehouse, Hoodwink turned down a side hallway. "I have to get Cora. Where should I meet you?"
Jacob considered this, the furrows in his forehead momentarily deepening. "I'll wait for you in the Control Room. You have three minutes."
"Good enough." Hoodwink hurried off.
After some moments he reached the room that held Cora, and he barged past the two New User guards, Green-cloak and Gray-cloak.
"We're under attack," he told the old men over his shoulder.
He found Briar inside with Cora. Briar, of all people.
"You!" Hoodwink stepped forward.
Briar's face turned a bright red and his jowls shook. His lips moved, but no sound came.
That's when Hoodwink realized he'd raised his hand and was choking Briar above the bronze bitch, his fingers buried in the folds of his brother-in-law's neck.
Hoodwink regained control of himself and flung his hand away, a little disgusted at himself. He could've easily killed the man with this gol body.
Still, his fury was white-hot, and he couldn't hold back the words that came next. "You led the gols right to me when I came to your house in peace, looking for Cora. You could have warned me, you sycophantic, castrated toad! I thought we were friends. Friends!"
"That was ten years ago!" Briar was leaning against Cora, panting. Hoodwink was surprised Cora could even hold up the man, given his bulk. It's a simulation, he reminded himself.
"Ten years?" Hoodwink's fist trembled. "Not so long for me."
"Did you come here to fight with Briar?" Cora said.
Hoodwink clamped down on his rage. It wasn't easy when he got all riled up like that, but he managed. "No. I came to see you out of here. Jeremy's attacking the Den."
"Attacking?" Briar said. "By the whoremongers, what do you mean, Jeremy's attacking?"
"My meaning is plain, Briar. And I suppose I'll have to rescue you too, or Cora will never forgive me." Hoodwink forcibly hauled the fat merchant into the hall, and Cora followed behind.
"With us!" Hoodwink told the New Users who had remained loyally at their posts. The two old men hastened alongside Cora, and together the small party made its way through the halls of the Warehouse.
Hoodwink glanced at Green-cloak. "Your job is to guard Cora?"
It was Gray-cloak, the ancient one, who answered. "With our lives!"
"That's what I wanted to hear." Hoodwink turned his attention on Briar next. "When we reach the sewers, I want you to take Cora and her guards to one of your houses."
"My houses aren't safe!" Briar said. "Why do you think I'm here? I'm Jeremy's sworn enemy now. He knows it was me who helped steal
the Control Room. Damn ravens saw me kill the sentries outside his mansion. Jeremy knows. And I didn't even get paid!" His voice seemed particularly whiny over that last part.
"You'll get paid. Look, you have to take Cora somewhere safe. Away from all the fighting. Can you do that for me?"
"I— I suppose. Is Tanner coming?"
"No, why?"
"I saw him earlier today, walking about as if nothing happened. I—" Briar glanced around, as though uncertain he wanted to say any more. "I was standing at the window of my house when it happened."
"When what happened?"
Briar lowered his voice, as if what he had to say was of the utmost secrecy. Or horror. "He died! He was cut in half. Damn shame. I saw it. He was just..." Briar chopped one hand into the other. "And now he lives. I know he's a gol, but even a gol couldn't survive that. What— what's going on, Hoodwink?"
Hoodwink glanced at Cora. She was listening very attentively. Briar hadn't lowered his voice enough apparently. "Better that you don't know, Briar. Much better."
The group reached the foyer of the Warehouse. "Back in a sec." Hoodwink hurried away through the halls, and came to the Control Room.
It was empty.
"Well I'll be an icicle of shit!" Hoodwink swore. "Jacob didn't wait."
Truth be told, Hoodwink had probably taken longer than three minutes.
Well, nothing for it now. He'd just have to catch up with Jacob and the Dwarf later.
He hurried back to the foyer and led his small group outside.
There were people rushing to and fro. The shouts and clangs of battle could be heard in the distance. Already he could see the smoke plumes.
The air above the snowpack flickered just ahead, and he held out a hand to halt his companions.
A sword belt materialized.
"What in the nine hells..." Gray-cloak said.
Hoodwink scooped the sword belt up and tied it around his waist. He drew the blade. On the steel was etched a fire-spitting raven, its wings trailing cinders. The familiar flow of vitra surged through his veins—life, sex, and everything else besides. But it was more than that. The flow seemed unlimited somehow, just as if he could siphon all the vitra the world contained through that single blade. Tanner hadn't been kidding when he'd said the sense of power the swords gave you was mind-blowing. Hoodwink felt like doing some mighty rash and reckless things.
He grinned maliciously at Briar. "Want to see some magic?" Hoodwink released a burst of flame.
Strangely, his brother-in-law seemed unimpressed. "I've seen the swords before, Hoodwink." He might be unimpressed, but Briar was still frightened, if the quivering in his jowls was any indication.
But Cora was more than impressed—the look of horror on her face instantly wiped the smile from Hoodwink's lips.
Hoodwink sheathed the blade, wondering if he should say something to her. But then there was another flicker beside him. A pile of ten rings appeared on the snowpack. Hoodwink scooped them up, glad for the distraction. Each ring had a lightning bolt etched in fine detail across the surface. He supposed Tanner had intended him to share these gifts, but Hoodwink felt he was the best qualified to use them, so he distributed the rings across the fingers of both hands. The fit was tight, and except for his pinkies he could only slide the rings on by varying degrees. Even so, he'd probably be needing a big tub of lard to get the things off again.
He reached into all the rings at once with his mind, and he felt vitra literally blast through his being. He staggered. Never had so much lightning flowed in one person—the electricity pulsed through him in a tidal wave of fury. With these rings, and the sword, he was unstoppable.
I am thunder.
The ground shook, and for a moment Hoodwink thought he himself had caused the tremor, and he almost laughed.
But the screams far to the left told him that he was not the source.
A bomb had breached the walls of the Den.
He pulled up the city map in his head. "This way!"
He led his small group after the panicking crowd of women and children to Fen Street, where the sewer outlet awaited.
The situation was bad at the outlet. The line of refugees had dissolved into a squirming mass of chaotic bodies, with everyone clawing at their neighbor and fighting to be the first inside. There was no sign of Jacob and the Dwarf.
"Please!" one woman said, hugging a crying newborn close to her body with one arm, and gripping the hand of a little girl with the other. "I have two children. Please!" But she couldn't squeeze by.
Without warning a wall of Direwalkers flooded onto the far end of the street and raced straight toward Hoodwink and the refugees.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Hoodwink watched one of the Direwalkers break ahead of the pack and make straight for Cora—
He waved his hand—
The Direwalker went spiraling away in a pinwheel of electricity.
Cora gasped, but he ignored her, the power inside him taking over.
He raised his hand and loosed another jolt of electricity. The blow arced from body to body, and he took down three Direwalkers with the one strike.
He strode forward. Gray-cloak walked on his left, Green-cloak on his right.
Hoodwink spread his arms wide and launched bolts into the onrush. He and the two New Users cut a swath of carnage through the enemy ranks. Merciless carnage. Each of them released their lightning in controlled bursts, careful not to use up their charge unnecessarily, all three of them well-versed in vitra.
Armed Denizens joined them and defended their flanks, dealing death to any Direwalkers that evaded the lightning. Sometimes a freshly uncollared Denizen would appear, thanks to Jacob's blacksmith no doubt, but usually the inexperienced thug would exhaust his charge in the first or second strike and have to pick up a sword before the Direwalkers ripped him apart.
Motion at the periphery of Hoodwink's vision drew his attention, and he saw a rock plummet from the sky. He watched it crash into a nearby building. More rocks came, at slow, regular intervals, crashing into streets and buildings with no regard to friend or foe. Direwalkers and Denizens alike fell beneath the random strikes.
"Catapults," Hoodwink muttered. "Jeremy's sent catapults."
Hoodwink turned back, leaving the New Users and Denizens to their work. He had to see Cora to safety before he returned to the fray.
He reached his wife and grabbed her by the arm. "Time to go."
"You're a User?" She stared at him in disbelief.
"No," Hoodwink said. "The rings give vitra. They— ah hell, Cora, there's no time."
He led her toward the sewer outlet. Briar tagged along just behind.
The refugees were still fighting each other to get inside. Hoodwink tried to shove his way through, but received a punch to the face for his efforts. A hand caught Cora in the forehead and almost scratched her eye out.
Hoodwink pulled back. "Dammit!"
All he wanted to do was see Cora safely into the sewers, but this milling mass of humanity wouldn't let him.
He drew the fire sword and let vitra flow into the blade. It glowed a bright red. Electricity from the rings sparked up and down the sword's surface, adding to the constrained power.
He pointed the weapon at the refugees and amplified his voice with a gol trick.
"YOU WILL BACK AWAY FROM THE OPENING."
Briar shouted a warning beside him.
Too late.
A Direwalker leaped onto Hoodwink's back and dug its teeth into his shoulder.
Grimacing, Hoodwink got one arm around and tucked it under the Direwalker, shoving the thing to the ground. He plunged the sword into the body and unleashed the pent-up flames.
The Direwalker instantly dissolved into windblown ash. The snowpack below melted right to the cobblestone.
Hoodwink turned back toward the milling crowd. A few were glancing nervously at him, but what he'd done only spurred the remainder to even more frantic pushing and shoving.
"I SAID, YOU
WILL BACK AWAY FROM THE OUTLET. I WANT AN ORDERLY LINE, NOW!"
His threat had to seem real for this to work. He aimed the red-hot weapon at the refugees, letting more and more vitra into the blade until it shook with power. Plumes of smoke billowed from the scorching metal. The handle was growing hot now, too. His fingers started to sizzle.
The refugees screamed, and clawed madly at those in front of them. But not a one moved to obey his command. Not a one.
Hoodwink sighed. This wasn't turning out the way he thought it would.
He started to lower the sword when Cora stepped between him and the refugees. Her eyes were red and her cheeks glistened with tears.
"Cora..." He immediately let the blade wink out.
"Leave them alone, Hoodwink," Cora said. "Just leave them alone, you hear? You'll have to cut me down first!"
"I—" He wanted to tell her that she didn't have to worry, that of course he was never going to harm the refugees, and that he just wanted to impart some order.
But he never had the chance.
Because one of those falling rocks smashed the ground right in front of him.
Hoodwink was sent sprawling, and when he got to his feet again, there was no sign of Cora.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hoodwink stumbled to the other side of the large rock.
Cora was there, unconscious, her body crushed underneath from the hips down.
She wouldn't have been there if he hadn't aimed his blade at the refugees.
It was his fault.
"A shard!" he shouted. "Someone bring a healing shard!" Why hadn't Tanner sent any Inside?
But no shard could heal this.
He fell to his knees beside her. "Cora. My Cora."
He dropped the blade, wrapped his arms around the rock, and hefted for all he was worth. Even with his gol strength he couldn't move the thing.
Maybe he could break apart the boulder with his sword. He retrieved the weapon.
Cora awoke just then.
"Hood." Her voice was little more than a whimper.
"Cora. I'm going to get this rock off you, I will!" He hefted the sword, preparing to jab it into the boulder, hoping against hope that fragments wouldn't fly into her upper body.
