Cursed av-2

by Benedict Jacka

  Luna didn’t scream this time. She was frozen, stiff and staring. I looked around to see that the mist had closed around us. I couldn’t see the exit. “Luna. Luna.”

  Silence. I moved back to back with Luna, trying to look in every direction at once, my instincts still screaming at me to watch for danger even though my head knew it was useless. The thing was inhumanly fast; if it wanted to snatch me I didn’t have a hope of stopping it. “Luna!”

  Luna stayed rigid against my back. I took a deep breath and stepped around to look at Luna face to face, leaving my back exposed. Her eyes flicked up to meet mine but they were horrified, blank. “It’s not real,” I said quietly, putting every bit of belief into my voice that I could. “They’re shadows, phantoms. That’s how this place works. It strikes at your fears, where you’re weak. Your real parents are still alive, out in the world, but if you want to see them again you have to get out of here!”

  Luna shivered. Her eyes came back into focus and she stared at me. Then her eyes shifted to focus on a point over my shoulder and slowly, very slowly, she looked up.

  A horrible empty feeling opened up inside my stomach. I turned around.

  The creature was standing right behind me. The mist had closed in and now we were at the centre of a ring barely twenty feet across. The creature was almost twice my height, the empty white eyes looking down at me, and it smelt of something cold and ancient. Red blood made ghastly spatters on the white skin, but it was already fading and I knew that in only a few minutes the blood of Luna’s parents would be gone. Just as mine would be.

  The creature moved. I’d like to say I did something brave but I didn’t. I shut my eyes.

  Nothing happened. One heartbeat, five, ten. I opened my eyes to look.

  Luna was standing in front of me, shielding me. Against the backdrop of that monster, she looked tiny, like a child. She was in range of those lethal claws and one strike would have cut her in half, but the creature stood still, its blank eyes looking down at her as Luna stepped forward to meet it. She reached up to place her hand flat against its smooth muscled chest.

  There was a single blinding flash and I flinched. Spots swam before my eyes and I scrubbed at them. As my vision returned I realised I could make out the shapes of buildings around me. The mist was gone.

  I looked from side to side. There was no trace of the mist, or Luna’s parents. The stones of the square were clean, with no blood. Where the creature had stood, only Luna remained … and as I looked at her, I saw the silver mist begin to seep from her skin again, strengthening until it formed its aura around her, just as it always did.

  Luna didn’t look at me. She nodded to the black doorway of the house in front of us. “We can go.”

  I hesitated. “You first,” Luna said. Her voice was distant. “I don’t think I’m very safe to be near anymore.”

  Carefully I circled Luna. She was staring into the doorway, her face unreadable. A pace short of entering, I stopped. “Are you …?”

  “Don’t worry,” Luna said. “I’ll follow.” Her eyes met mine. “It’s not like I’ve got anything to stay for, is it?”

  I looked at Luna, then nodded slowly and turned to face the doorway. It was lightless, a black void, and I stepped through. Cold froze my bones and I fell into nothingness.

  chapter 10

  I came awake with a gasp, my heart pounding. Sonder had pulled a chair close to my bed and as I jerked upwards he flinched and nearly went over backwards, his arms flailing before he recovered his balance. “Ah! Alex! You scared me.”

  “Jesus,” I muttered. My heart was thumping against my chest and I was shivering. I could still feel the bone-freezing cold of the gateway. I pulled my cloak around myself, trying to get warm.

  “Alex?” Sonder said. Behind his glasses, he looked worried. “You okay?”

  “Freaking, goddamn …” I glared at Sonder. “If Luna EVER invites you into Elsewhere, say no!”

  “Um. Okay?”

  I stayed hugging myself a little longer, waiting for my heartbeat to slow and the deadly cold to fade. Just being back in my room helped and I felt my shivering slow as my cloak drew away the chill. “What did I miss?”

  “Cinder’s back.” Sonder hesitated. “I … think he’s getting impatient.”

  “Then let’s not keep him waiting.” I swung my legs off the bed and stood up. I nearly fell straight back down but managed to catch the table and kept hold of it until I’d stopped wobbling.

  “Um-” Sonder said.

  “She’s okay,” I said as I headed for the door. “And I know where to find her.”

  Cinder was waiting in my living room, not quite pacing. Luckily, I had what he wanted. Five minutes at my computer found us a map of Black Craeg and five minutes more found the only place that fit Rachel’s description. We geared up and I led us out the back door, locking it behind me. Once we were in the back alley, Cinder opened a gate to a staging point and we stepped through.

  We travelled though a desolate, broken forest, then an abandoned quarry. At the end of the quarry Cinder raised his hand to cast another gate and I held my breath. Gating to an area you’ve never seen is dangerous. If Cinder messed this up …

  But he didn’t. The black oval flickered briefly, then steadied and opened, revealing a dark slope. I went first and Cinder brought up the rear, letting the gate close.

  The first thing I noticed was the cold. In London the autumn weather was only cool, but we were five hundred miles north and two thousand feet up. I’ve been to Scotland a few times and I’ve grown to like the clean, fresh scent of the air up here, but it’s still bloody freezing. I pulled my cloak tighter to stop myself from shivering and looked around.

  There wasn’t much to see. I could tell the view would be spectacular by day but it was a cloudy night with no cities or towns and the visibility was only one step above pitch-black. I could see we were on the side of a hill or mountain and that was it. I closed my eyes.

  “Where are we?” Sonder whispered. A chill wind was blowing and I could hear his teeth chattering.

  “Wait,” I whispered back. Something about the black emptiness made us keep our voices down. “Don’t show a light.”

  I looked through the futures ahead of us, seeing our paths branch out in every direction as we explored outwards, making our way down, up, and across the mountainside. Most of the choices were dark; a handful led to the lights of a building. I followed them closer-

  “Perfect,” I said. “You dropped us right on target, Cinder.”

  I felt Sonder looking around. “Um-”

  “We couldn’t land too close,” I said. “Cinder put us a little way around the mountain.” I took Sonder’s arm and pointed upslope towards the dark mass above us. “Belthas’s manor is over that shoulder.”

  Cinder started walking towards it, and I followed. Sonder looked around at the darkness one last time, muttered something under his breath, and came after.

  Crossing a mountain in the dark isn’t fun. I had the easiest time with my divination magic and Cinder toughed it out on brute strength. Sonder found it hardest and before long was lagging behind. But it wasn’t a long trip, and after only a little while longer Cinder came over a rise and stopped. I reached his side and we looked down the northeast face of the Black Craeg.

  Belthas’s manor was most of the way up the mountain, about three hundred feet downslope from our perch. Its windows were lit, turning it into a splash of bright light against the blackness around. I could see two storeys from our angle but as I scanned with my magic I realised there was a lower level, built into the slope. Luna had said her cell was in the basement; she must be below.

  Cinder looked at me. “So?”

  “Let me scout it,” I said.

  I’d expected an argument but Cinder only nodded. I crouched down and focused, searching through the futures of us going down into the radius of those lights. Sonder caught up a few minutes later, breathing hard. He looked at me, then down at the manor, and se
ttled down to wait.

  Eventually, I stirred. “There are two guards outside. One at the front, one at the back. At least eight or ten more in the building. There’s a gate ward over the manor; gate magic is going to be difficult from about fifty feet away and impossible inside the walls. There’s an alarm system and attack wards too. Belthas is on the top floor in a shielded room.”

  Cinder looked at me silently. Sonder looked taken aback. “That’s … a lot.”

  “Yeah,” I said. I checked my watch.

  “How long have we got?” Sonder said.

  “Until Belthas finishes the ritual and kills Arachne …” I calculated. “One hour, thirty-five minutes.”

  “When do we go?” Cinder asked.

  “We’ll want to hit it in about an hour,” I said. Looking around, I found a rock to sit on. “Till then, we wait.”

  Sonder looked at me in surprise. “Why?”

  Cinder glanced at me, then leant against a boulder. I knew he understood but didn’t want to explain. “Right now Belthas is getting ready to start his ritual,” I said. “If we attack he’ll be on top of us in two minutes flat. But if we wait until he’s started he won’t be able to come after us without abandoning the ritual, which will screw it up. The closer he is to the end of the ritual, the less he can afford to be disturbed. He’ll leave the battle to his guards and wards and hope he can finish before we can break through.”

  “But the later we leave it,” Sonder pointed out, “the more likely he will finish before we break through.”

  I nodded and Sonder fell silent as he realised what I was saying. Too early and we’d have to fight Belthas and his guards at once. Too late and Arachne would be dead.

  “What’s the plan for getting past the guards?” Sonder asked eventually.

  I sighed. “We kill however many it takes before the rest run. Somewhere between most of them and all of them.”

  Sonder stared at me. “But …”

  I didn’t answer. “They’re Council security,” Sonder said. “Okay, I guess some of them are with Belthas, but … they’re loyal to the Council. They’re just doing their jobs.”

  “Do you know any spells that’ll knock out ten to fifteen armed men?” I said. “Or any way of getting them to surrender and let us through?”

  “No, but-”

  “Neither do I,” I said. “And neither does Cinder. If I was an enchanter or a mind mage I could cloud their senses. If I could use life or death magic I could disrupt their bodies and knock them out. But I’m not and I can’t. The only thing I’ve got that can drop them fast enough to be safe is this gun. If we screw around taking prisoners we’re going to get shot.” I paused. “Actually, there’s a pretty good chance we’re going to get shot anyway.”

  “There’s got to be something else,” Sonder argued. “I don’t want anyone to get killed.”

  Cinder made a disgusted noise. I didn’t look at him. “Belthas is down there,” I told Sonder. “Along with at least a dozen armed guards in a warded building, and that’s not counting Meredith and Martin and whatever else he’s got up his sleeve.”

  “I know,” Sonder said. “That doesn’t mean we should try to kill them!”

  “The point is,” I said quietly, “that the odds are against us. Really against us. Even if we don’t make any mistakes, there’s a good chance that anyone who goes into that manor is going to end up dead. The more restrictions we go under, the bigger that chance gets. When you’re playing odds this long, the only way to win is to use every edge you’ve got.”

  I could feel Cinder’s eyes on me. Sonder looked desperately unhappy. I couldn’t really blame him; I knew it felt to him like an impossible situation. But the truth is, it’s not about what’s possible. It’s what you’re willing to live with.

  But I might as well cut him a break. “Anyway, it’s not up to you,” I said. “We’re going down there, and when we do there’s going to be a fight no matter what.” I sat down on one of the rocks. “Take a look around but make sure you’re not seen.”

  Sonder and Cinder moved away and I was left alone in the darkness, which suited me just fine. I scanned through the futures in which I went down there, skipping over the parts where the strands branched into a blur of combat. I didn’t try to see how it would go-fights are too chaotic to see more than a few seconds ahead. Instead I searched for openings, doors, alarms, building a mental map of the manor below.

  While my mind looked through the futures, my hands moved over the weapon at my side. Most of Belthas’s men had been carrying submachine guns of a type I vaguely recognised as MP5s. Garrick had been carrying a model I hadn’t seen before, square and blocky with only the tip of the muzzle protruding from the gun, and it was this one I’d taken. It was less than a foot and a half long, made of some black polymer which was surprisingly light, with a retractable stock and laser sight. The bottom of the magazine stuck out from the handle. It held thirty rounds and I had three more full magazines stowed away. One of the men had been carrying a 1911 pistol like mine, with the addition of a silencer, and I’d taken that too. I’d also brought a handful of more dangerous things in my backpack, riding awkwardly under my cloak.

  I’ve never been all that comfortable with guns. Partly it’s for practical reasons-they’re illegal, for a start, and they don’t usually get good reactions from mages-but it’s also that I just don’t like the things. Carrying a gun makes me uneasy in a way that carrying a knife doesn’t, and if I’m going out I’ll almost never take one. But I’ve used them before, and even if I’m not as good a shot as I am with throwing, I can hit a target pretty well. When you can’t use offensive magic, guns are a big equaliser, and sometimes you can’t afford to be fussy.

  I sensed Cinder returning well in advance. Sonder was still back up the slope, struggling with his conscience. I waited for Cinder to get close before glancing up. He was looking down at me, arms folded. “Ice wards.”

  I nodded.

  “Plan?”

  “I sneak inside,” I said. “I’ll try for Deleo and Luna, get as far as I can. When the shooting starts, I’ll open up a way in and you do what you do best. We go for the girls first, Belthas second.”

  Cinder nodded. We both knew he’d follow my orders only as long as they suited him. I took a breath. “One more thing. If I don’t make it out, make sure Sonder and Luna get away safe. I’ll do the same for Deleo if anything happens to you.”

  Cinder looked at me. Standing in the darkness, it was hard to make out his expression. An icy wind was blowing, but Cinder let it sweep over him as though he didn’t notice. Probably he didn’t.

  “Why?” Cinder said.

  “Why what?”

  “Help them.”

  “Who?”

  Cinder just looked at me, as if refusing to answer such a stupid question. “Because I want to,” I said.

  Cinder studied me for a moment, then nodded in the direction Sonder had gone. “You’re not one of them.”

  I was silent. “Talk, don’t fight,” Cinder said. “Don’t get your hands dirty. How they think. You don’t.”

  “I’m not exactly the fighting type.”

  “Bullshit,” Cinder said. “You act it. Fool some people. Fooled me once. You’re a predator. You just hide it.”

  I raised an eyebrow at Cinder. “Pretty weak for a predator.”

  “Yeah?” Cinder said. “Last ten years. How many people tried to kill you? Don’t mean a skirmish. A proper try.”

  I shrugged. “Haven’t kept count.”

  Cinder nodded. “How many still alive?”

  The question brought me up short. A few people had tried to kill me over the years. Actually, more than a few. Cinder and Rachel didn’t really count-they’d always been more interested in getting their piece-but Khazad did. So did Tobruk. Levistus had ordered my death through Griff and Thirteen, and Morden had done the same through Onyx. Then Garrick had tried to shoot me a few days ago, and there had been that bomb-maker at the Deptford factory. There w
ere more-a lot more. As for how many were still alive, the answer was …

  …not that many.

  Most of them were dead.

  In fact, most of them were dead quite specifically because of me.

  I don’t often look back over my life. Between paying attention to the present and looking forwards into the future, I don’t have much time left to look over my past choices. Now I did and realised what picture they made, and it wasn’t all that reassuring.

  And I was about to add a whole bunch of new names to the list. If everything went to plan, a lot of people down there were going to die. And as I thought it over, I realised I was going to go through with it. At the end of the day, given a choice between Belthas and his men on one side, and Luna and Arachne on the other, I was going to pick Luna and Arachne, and if it meant Belthas and his men dead then that was what I’d do. I knew exactly how ugly and vicious the battle was going to be and I was going to do it anyway.

  I didn’t know what that said about me. Maybe later, I’d think about it. Right now all I cared about was getting the job done. “What do you want, Cinder?” I said. “You want me to back out?”

  Cinder shook his head.

  “Then what?”

  “Del hates you,” Cinder said. “Thinks you’re weak. I reckon she’s wrong. You’re ruthless as her. Just hide it better.”

  “Thanks. I think.”

  “I’ll save your pets if you go down,” Cinder said. “But I don’t reckon you will. I think end of tonight, you’ll be around. And Belthas won’t.”

  I looked back at Cinder, trying to figure out if that should make me feel better.