by Sue Tingey
He was caught off-guard, and propelled backwards towards the window – too late, I realised this was probably not a good thing – I wasn’t bothered at the thought of him going through the window and ending up splattered all over the pavement, but I didn’t want to go with him – I was only half-daemon, after all.
He hit the glass with an almighty thump, the window shuddered and, with a sound like the crack of a whip, fractures radiated out across the pane. The glass bowed behind him, but it must have been safety glass because it held, and he came back at me with a punch to my stomach that sent me sprawling backwards.
I really hoped I wouldn’t land on the coffee table; Jamie having to pick glass out of my backside would do nothing for my dignity. Fortunately for me, I smacked into what felt like a brick wall – until it collapsed beneath me and I found myself lying in a crumpled heap on top of a gurgling daemon.
I struggled to sit up, and to my consternation found my hands slick with something sticky. ‘Oh God—’
‘Lucky!’ Jamie cried. ‘Are you all right? Are you hurt?’
I lifted my hands. They were covered in blood – jade-coloured blood. ‘No, I don’t think so. I’m probably a lot better than him anyway …’ I got up off the fallen daemon.
His gurgling turned to gulping, then to wheezing, then silence. Jamie rolled him over as his eyes flickered shut: the point of one of his own wickedly sharp scythes had pierced his throat; the other had sliced into the artery in his thigh.
His heart gave one final shaky beat, his head flopped to one side and it was all over. For a brief moment a dark stain coloured the air above him, fluttering like an injured bird, and then it was gone. I glanced at Jamie, wondering if he’d seen it, but I didn’t think he had. It was my gift – or curse, whatever – not his.
Hawkman staggered to his friend’s side and dropped to his knees, all the fight gone from him.
‘I knew it was a mistake not to bring the swords,’ Vaybian commented, holding his arm and trying to staunch the blood trickling through his fingers.
‘Here, let me look at that,’ Kerfuffle offered.
Kayla sat down next to Vaybian while Kerfuffle saw to his wound. ‘It’s not serious,’ she told me, ‘although it probably hurts like shit.’
Jamie gave Hawkman a few moments to grieve for his friend, then went straight in. ‘Where’s Amaliel?’
‘Fuck off.’
‘You will tell me.’
The daemon looked him up and down from where he was kneeling beside his friend. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Do you want to end up like your friend?’
‘It’s better than what Amaliel will do to me if I told you where to find him.’
‘If we find him, you’ll be safe.’
‘If you find him, you’ll be dead – or worse.’
‘It’s only a matter of time before we find out where he’s hiding.’
‘Then you won’t be needing my help.’
Jamie crossed his arms and scowled down on him. ‘If you don’t help us I will kill you.’
The daemon gave a snort of laughter. ‘Here – let me help you with that,’ he said, and before we had a chance to stop him, he grabbed the scythe protruding from his friend’s throat and sliced it across his own.
‘No,’ I shouted, ‘no!’ and I fell to my knees, grabbing his arms and holding him upright. ‘Don’t you bloody well dare!’ A strange tingling sensation ran down my arms and into my fingertips.
Hawkman stared at me with triumph in his eyes – then the triumph turned to panic. He wasn’t dying – at least not yet.
Jamie gazed down on him. ‘She is the Soulseer, with the power to see a soul on its way – or not. Amaliel isn’t the only one who can bind a soul for all eternity.’
‘No,’ Hawkman whispered, looking this way and that as though searching for some way to escape.
‘Oh yes,’ Jamie said, crouching down beside him. ‘Tell us what you know, and she’ll let you pass. Refuse, and you’ll spend all eternity in this place – or maybe somewhere worse.’
‘Please, lady—’
‘Where is Amaliel?’ I asked. ‘And even more importantly, where is the Deathbringer?’
‘If I tell you, he’ll—’
‘He can’t kill you,’ Jamie interrupted, ‘you’re already dead. He can’t curse or bind you to this world, for once she releases you your soul will be gone.’
‘You’re sure?’ he said, looking from me to Jamie and back again.
‘Absolutely.’
The daemon glanced down at his dead friend. ‘If I tell you, you’ll let me leave?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
He lifted his hand to his slit throat. ‘The High Celebrant of this world has acquired a place that was once holy to mortals: it’s there that they will bind the Deathbringer in Blue Fire and conduct the ceremony to bind his soul.’
‘Where is this place?’ Jamie asked.
‘It’s on the outskirts of a village south of this city. I can tell you no more than that.’
‘A name – give me a name.’
His beak clicked a few times and he cocked his head to one side as if thinking. ‘Saint Bartholomew the Martyr,’ he said at last.
‘The name of the village.’
‘I don’t know. Truly, I don’t know.’
Jamie stood staring down at him for several seconds. ‘All right,’ he said eventually, ‘you can let him go now.’
I released his arms, hoping that if I was no longer touching him, that would do the trick, but nothing happened.
‘You promised, you promised,’ the daemon said.
‘It takes a moment,’ I said, giving Jamie a panicked look.
‘Do what you usually do,’ Jamie whispered, so I got to my feet, closed my eyes and thought of the gateway.
A few more seconds passed. Nothing. I opened one eye, hoping against hope a pinprick of light had appeared. No such luck.
‘Please let this daemon move on,’ I said inside my head.
Still nothing.
‘Jamie, nothing’s happening.’
‘Be patient and it’ll—’
He was interrupted by an ear-splitting crack like a clap of thunder, and a black void appeared behind Hawkman.
Jamie grabbed my arm and pulled me back a step. ‘You can see it?’ I asked.
‘Oh yes.’
Hawkman’s eyes jerked from me to Jamie and back again. ‘What’s happening? What’s wrong?’ Then he flopped forward, and the daemon’s spirit knelt there staring down at his recently vacated body.
Black tendrils of smoke crept out of the void, gradually solidifying as they crept up on the kneeling daemon.
‘Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,’ I heard Kerfuffle say. ‘I wouldn’t want to be in his boots.’
‘He’s not wearing any,’ Shenanigans pointed out.
‘I was speaking figuratively,’ Kerfuffle explained.
Hawkman finally realised something was going on behind him. He glanced over his shoulder just as the first tendril slithered around his ankle and he leaped to his feet, but he was too late: the oily black tentacle had shot up his leg and was wrapping itself around him. A second grasped hold of his other foot and within moments he was covered by glutinous strands that began to weld together, enveloping him in a shiny second skin. As they reached his throat he began to scream, but no sooner had he opened his beak than the disgusting stuff slid inside his open mouth, cutting off his shrieking. Within seconds he was completely covered, until he was nothing more than an elongated black blob. More tendrils oozed out of the hole and began to drag the struggling daemon towards the gateway. Then he reached the void, and with one final tug from the tendrils, he fell inside and the opening shrank shut with a final phlegmy slap.
‘Well, that was … different,’ Vaybian said.
‘His friend might have got off lightly,’ Jamie said.
‘I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘They’ve probably ended up in the same place – but I get the impression that if
a soul doesn’t leave immediately it has to be collected.’
‘I think I might just stay where I am,’ Kayla said with a grimace.
‘You’re destined for the better place,’ I told her.
‘You don’t know that.’
‘Yes, I do,’ I said, and I was sure I was right. Someone who had protected a small child from anyone who might harm her couldn’t be considered bad enough to be dragged off to the terrible place where Hawkman was going.
I went to wash the blood off my hands, leaving Jamie tapping away on the iPad. I assumed he was searching for references to Saint Bartholomew. When I came back, he was sitting on the sofa with the others crowded around him, looking over his shoulder at what he was doing.
‘So, if you put in a name of someone or something, the information comes instantly to hand?’ Vaybian asked.
‘Pretty much,’ Jamie told him.
‘I thought humans didn’t practice magic?’
Jamie chuckled. ‘Most don’t, but this isn’t magic, it’s what humans call “technology” or “tech”.’
‘Seems like magic to me,’ Kerfuffle grumbled. ‘Why pass the runes when you can find someone by tapping their name in to a slab of … What’s it made of anyway?’
‘Plastic and other components, mostly human inventions.’
‘Any luck on Saint Bartholomew?’ I asked, dropping down beside him. Pyrites, back to being a Jack Russell, hopped up and dropped his head onto my lap. Jamie and Shenanigans looked human again, but Vaybian was still green and neither Kerfuffle nor I had changed either.
‘I think so,’ Jamie said, looking up. ‘I can find only one church of that name, in a place called Sussex – it’s south of here.’
‘Right then: that’s where we head next.’
‘Let’s hope he wasn’t lying,’ Kerfuffle said. I looked up at him and he shrugged. ‘Just saying.’
Jamie got to his feet. ‘Well, it’s all we’ve got at the moment—’ He stopped as his mobile began to ring. ‘Kubeck?’ His expression turned to a frown. ‘On our way down now.’ He pocketed the phone. ‘We have company,’ he told us, making for the door.
‘What sort of company?’ I asked.
‘Men wearing brown suits.’
‘Sicarii?’
‘I suspect so – who on earth wears brown suits these days?’ Which was a fair comment.
‘Probably best we take the stairs,’ Shenanigans suggested, so I scooped Pyrites up into my arms and hurried after the others to the white door marked Fire Exit.
Jamie peered down the stairwell. ‘They’re not on their way up.’
‘Kubeck is probably distracting them.’ Shenanigans started down the stairs.
‘Did he say how many?’ Vaybian asked.
‘No,’ Jamie replied, ‘just that they’d pulled up in a vehicle similar to ours.’
‘So possibly as many as seven or eight?’
‘Possibly.’
There was still no sign of them when we reached the ground floor. Jamie led the way, followed by Vaybian, Shenanigans and Kayla, who always wafted ahead when anything exciting was happening. Kerfuffle and Pyrites stayed with me.
I could see only four Sicarii; they had reverted to daemon form and were dressed in flowing robes. Three were obviously unconscious and piled in an untidy heap on one side of the entrance lobby, another, clad in grey, was hanging from Kubeck’s meaty fist.
‘Is this it?’ Jamie asked.
Kubeck gave us a toothy smile. ‘Yes. I thought you might want this one conscious.’
‘Put me down, you bag of pus,’ the Sicarii hissed.
Kubeck gave him a hearty shake. ‘That was very rude.’ He was still smiling.
‘If you don’t put me down this instant I’ll make you sorry—’
Kubeck gave him another shake, and something black and crusty fell out of the Sicarii’s hood and drifted to the floor.
‘That is so disgusting,’ Kayla commented, and I murmured my agreement.
I had seen what was generally hidden beneath a Sicarii’s robes, and it was more than gross: the creature’s desiccated, ash-grey flesh was encrusted with blackened patches of mould as well as open pus-filled wounds. Even the thought of what else the robes might be concealing made me feel queasy.
‘I am not the one who should be concerned about my welfare,’ Kubeck said, shaking him again. ‘There are several here, myself included, who would be more than happy to snuff out your miserable existence.’
Jamie crossed the lobby to stand beside Kubeck. ‘I’m in a hurry,’ he said to the Sicarii, ‘and have very little patience. Answer my questions the first time I ask and I may well let you keep your life. If not, you won’t see another minute.’
‘Do with me what you will, but I will not betray my brothers.’
‘Then you will die.’
‘And I will sit at my master’s right hand in the afterlife—’
‘You obviously weren’t at the temple when the Soulseer opened the gateway to the other side,’ Jamie said.
Kerfuffle giggled. ‘They certainly didn’t see that coming.’
‘You cannot intimidate me,’ the Sicarii said, but there was a hint of something in his tone that made me think we probably could.
‘Shall I open the gateway and see what happens?’ I suggested, sauntering over to stand beside Jamie.
‘You need souls waiting to pass before you can call upon the other side,’ the Sicarii said, but he didn’t sound so sure.
I gave him a sunny smile. ‘Let’s see, shall we?’
‘I am not afraid to die – my Lord Astaroth will—’
Jamie burst out laughing. ‘Lord Astaroth? Please don’t tell me you’ve let Amaliel feed you that old rubbish.’
Kerfuffle giggled again, and Shenanigans and Vaybian joined in the laughter. ‘The Sicarii are as deluded as Amaliel,’ Vaybian said.
‘Oh no,’ Jamie said, ‘Amaliel isn’t deluded, he’s very clever, and very manipulative. He’s got the Sicarii eating out of the palm of his hand, believing every single lie he tells them.’
‘Why would he lie to us? We are his people.’
‘I’m betting not a single one of the Sicarii who were at the temple the day Lucky opened the gateway is alive today,’ Jamie said.
‘You know none escaped – you and Deathbringer slaughtered them.’
‘What?’ I said. ‘They never did!’
‘Amaliel couldn’t let his followers find out what really happens to them when they die – if they did, they would probably choose to leave,’ Jamie explained. ‘So everyone who saw what happened had to be disposed of.’
‘Also, there’s the small matter of him lying to them about being able to cross over to the other side and return unharmed,’ Kayla added, ‘which we know is impossible.’
‘When we have collected enough souls, we will never die,’ the Sicarii said firmly.
‘You know what,’ Kerfuffle said, ‘why don’t we just kill him? It’s daemons like him who give us all a bad name.’ Shenanigans and Kubeck agreed loudly.
‘Tell me Amaliel’s intentions,’ Jamie said.
‘Go fuck yourself—’
Jamie grabbed the Sicarii and gave him a really hard shake, and more debris floated to the floor.
‘Not too hard,’ Kerfuffle warned, ‘he might just fall apart.’
‘For daemons who reckon they’re going to live for ever, they don’t strike me as particularly healthy,’ Kayla commented.
‘Last chance,’ Jamie said. ‘What are Amaliel’s intentions?’
‘What do you think?’ the creature sneered. ‘If it isn’t blatantly obvious you must have shit for brains.’
With that, Vaybian stalked across to Jamie, pulled a knife from the side of his boot and stabbed it straight into the Sicarii’s throat.
‘What th—?’ Jamie stared at Vaybian as gouts of blood the colour and consistency of tar oozed down the front of the Sicarii’s robe.
Vaybian calmly wiped the blade on the Sicarii’s robe.
‘He wasn’t going to tell us anything, and we have enough problems to be dealing with. Besides, we know where we’re headed.’
Jamie lowered the Sicarii to the floor. ‘We could have made him talk.’
‘And say what? We know what Amaliel wants, we know how he’s going to get it. We even know where they’re hiding out.’
‘I could have made him confirm it.’
‘And in the meantime we could lose the Deathbringer and any hope for this world and possibly ours. We have no time for this.’
‘Since when have you cared one way or another?’ Kerfuffle said.
‘If you recall, little man, the Sicarii abducted my princess, and slaughtered my friends, then Amaliel tortured and murdered Kayla: I would see every one of their heads bleeding on spikes for eternity if I had my way.’
‘So it’s about revenge?’
‘No, it’s about making sure my world isn’t ruled by monsters. The Guardian and Deathbringer are the best daemons for making sure it doesn’t happen.’
‘Unless Jinx turns rogue,’ Jamie said, his voice almost a whisper.
‘Let us hope for all our sakes that we get to him in time,’ Vaybian said, and began moving towards the door.
‘What do you want to do with them?’ Kubeck asked, gesturing at the heap of comatose brown-robed minions.
‘I suppose dowsing them in oil and putting a flame to them would be out of the question?’ Kerfuffle muttered.
‘As satisfying as that might be,’ Jamie said, ‘I think it best to leave them here. Then when they wake they can …’ Jamie smiled. ‘We can follow them.’
‘But we know where Amaliel is,’ I argued.
‘We think we know. If they lead us to this church, we will know for certain.’
‘They may not be going back to the church,’ Shenanigans said. ‘They may have some other part to play.’
‘In which case, wouldn’t it be a good idea if we knew what it was?’
