Thaumatology 12: Vengeance (28 page)

‘I see nothing on the concrete itself,’ he said, ‘so that’s one worry out of the way. Lift it another half-inch.’

The cube was moved slowly upward and Ed angled the mirror so that he could peer at the underside. ‘It’s definitely marked, but I can’t make out… There’s a ring of runes… Another half-inch?’ Again the cube was shifted upward. Ceri could hear Ed muttering as he examined the inscription under the block.

‘Ed?’ Ceri said.

‘A charging mechanism,’ Ed said. ‘There’s a trigger… Energy storage and release… A receptor…’ His tone suddenly grew urgent. ‘It’s charging. It started when we took the thing off the floor. You have to get it out of the generator. Now!’

He pushed himself sideways, off Ceri so that he ended up landing on top of Gwyn, but by that time Ceri had a firm grip on the cube and was turning in the other direction. The metal, which had been cool to the touch all evening, was now warm and getting hotter. Ceri bolted for the inner circle of pylons.

If she could get it out of the generator the charge would stop building, but what then? It seemed likely it would still release the energy it was holding… What if removing the strong field was the trigger for release? Either it hit a threshold and took the reactor with it, or it was removed and it killed whoever it was near. As she crossed the outer circle, she pulled up a ball of thaumic energy and wrapped the cube in it. The thing was starting to get hot enough to be uncomfortable, but she had to keep holding it. Get it out. Get it…

She cleared the outer ring and yelled, ‘Everyone get under cover!’ Not waiting to see whether they had done anything, she ran across the hall to the emergency cage, yanked open the door, and tossed the cube inside. Then she slammed the door, threw herself backwards and curled into a ball, summoning up a spell she hoped was going to be all she needed to survive this.

There was a sound like the dull thud of a distant explosion, and then the air was screaming. Ceri closed her eyes as lightning burned over her skin, skipping across spell-protected flesh and earthing against the concrete. There was a very strong smell of ozone.

And then there was silence, aside from the thrum of energy from the generator. Ceri uncurled and looked around. The hut had been built from silver-iron mesh mounted on a wooden frame, and the frame was now on fire. Right now, Ceri decided, she did not care. The thing had done its job; it had converted a lot of thaumic energy into electricity, just the way the generator did.

‘It is done,’ Jehoel said from behind her. He held out his hand to help her up; the man had come a long way from being a relatively callous angel before he was stuck as a human. ‘I can feel the effect is gone. You have done Him a service, Ceridwyn Brent.’

Ceri took his hand and winced as the friction of skin on skin pulled at the burns on her palms. She had not even realised she had been burned. ‘You stuck around to say goodbye?’ she asked.

He did not smile, but he stepped back as light began to pour from his skin. Huge wings spread from his shoulders as the rather sickly man was replaced by the angelic form he should have had. ‘Not goodbye. We will meet again.’ Then he beat his wings upward and vanished into the air.

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

‘I’m off, Mister Hooper.’

The aging manager of the hotel looked up from his desk and smiled. ‘Goodnight, Dre. I heard you playing. Beautiful. You have real talent.’

Deirdre was pretty sure that Hooper would not have known musical talent if it walked up and French kissed him, but she smiled and said, ‘Thank you, Mister Hooper.’ Then she turned around and walked across the foyer to the front door to leave.

She was pushing through the revolving door when she felt it, the same tension in the back of her neck that had happened before. Glancing back she saw the tall Asian man at the bottom of the main staircase. Well, he was a guest and had a right to be there. But he was watching her again. She pushed through and quickened her pace toward the bus stop, and the feeling faded.

That was until she was about ten yards from the shelter and it returned. When she looked behind her she saw nothing, but she could
feel
something there, someone following her. She walked past the stop and turned right down an alley.

~~~

Huanglong saw the girl walk into the side street. She knew he was there. Her senses were well developed, it seemed. He had used a spell to fade into the shadows, but still she could sense him. Huanglong smiled and followed her into the alley…

And she was gone.

He could feel her presence, but she was nowhere to be seen. Somehow she was hiding from him.

He walked on, a man out in the evening taking a constitutional. The girl was a distraction, and one which could wait. Huanglong had other fish to fry.

~~~

Dre watched as the man looked directly at her, saw nothing, and then walked on down the alley. He had looked right at her, hidden in the shadows, but right there, right in front of him.

She had always been the best at playing hide and seek.

Waiting to be sure the man did not come back, Dre finally turned back toward the bus stop. Hopefully she was never going to see him again.

Soho.

‘To still being here,’ Alec said, raising his glass. He rarely drank on duty, but he was making an exception for this one.

‘And to Ceri,’ Ed suggested, ‘without whom we wouldn’t be.’

‘Let’s just stick to Alec’s suggestion,’ Ceri said, ‘or we’ll be listing half the population of London. To still being here.’

There was drinking, and then Lily had to put her glass down and rush off to table five.

‘You should have seen it though,’ Cheryl said. ‘I was waiting outside with Jehoel and Ceri comes running out with this big ball of light in her hands, yells at us to get down, and then throws the ball into the refuge hut. I saw the sparking starting on the corners of the frame, threw the table over, and dragged Jehoel down with me. And then there were lightning bolts flying in all directions.’

‘It sounds suitably dramatic,’ Carter commented.

‘Considering it was mostly boring and uncomfortable,’ Ceri said, ‘the ending was moderately action-packed. I could live without having to do that again.’

‘Any word on… the enchanter?’ Alec asked.

‘None that I’ve heard.’ Ceri looked to Michael.

‘No one’s told me if they have,’ he replied. ‘My guess? He knew Ceri was working on the cube and high-tailed it out of London hoping he’d come back to look at the smoking hole.’

‘It makes sense,’ Carter agreed. ‘It leaves him in the wind, however. I find that disquieting, so I think we should forget about it until the morning at the very least.’

‘That,’ Alec said, ‘is definitely something to drink to.’

Kennington, April 25
^th
.

‘You’re going to the university this morning, Ceri?’ Twill asked as she busied herself making breakfast. Michael was still there, so she was ensuring that ‘a growing boy’ had a good start to the day. Michael had decided not to argue with the ‘boy’ comment since he was getting one of Twill’s cooked breakfasts.

‘Uh-huh. We were out all last week. There’s bound to be stuff to catch up on. I haven’t even checked mail since Friday.’

Twill nodded. ‘I think there’s something you should know then.’

Ceri gave the fairy a frown in reply. ‘I don’t like the sound of that.’

‘No. You mentioned that Carter thought the Order was getting interested in you again, and that he was unsure how they were getting their information. I requested help.’

‘Kipple?’ Ceri asked, wincing.

‘Indeed. I had him check our phone line. Sure enough he found a tap on it. However, he back-traced it and it’s official. It was set up under a directive from the Home Office.’

‘Avery Sachs,’ Ceri growled.

‘Based on that, I asked Kipple to go over your lab. It’s bugged. I understand Carter sweeps his club on a frequent basis, but you may wish to suggest he does so again.’

‘You sent Kipple to our lab?’ Ceri asked, ignoring the actual problem in favour of something far more disastrous.

‘Oh, he was very keen to stay on your good side. He promised not to touch anything.’

‘Heard about the whole demon queen thing, huh? What did this little job cost?’

‘Nothing too terrible,’ Twill replied blandly. ‘He was keen to stay on your good side, remember. And Ishifa was curious.’

Flickers of pink light danced around Ishifa, who was helping with the cooking.

Lily did not help. ‘How was he?’ she asked.

‘Enthusiastic,’ Ishifa replied. ‘
Very
enthusiastic.’

Lily giggled. ‘What are you going to do about the bugging?’

‘I guess I’d better find out what Sachs knows,’ Ceri replied. ‘And what he plans on doing with it.’

Wembley.

Avery Sachs pushed open the door of his house and stepped inside. There was the reassuring beep of his alarm system, but he knew he had plenty of time to close the door before he disarmed it. It was a practised art, something he did every day, just as he then checked the building to be sure that the alarm was not lying. He classified it as healthy paranoia, given his line of work. Even though the house’s wards were some of the best available and anything the alarm failed to spot, the wards would have caught, it always paid to be cautious before letting down one’s guard.

The alarm disarmed, he checked the lounge and kitchen before going upstairs. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. His sense for the magical, something anyone capable of performing magic had, detected nothing. The lounge, with its single, large, very comfortable chair, sofa, and entertainment system, appeared as it had when he had left. There was a bowl in the sink from breakfast which would need to be washed.

Upstairs the hot tap on the bathroom sink was dripping. He made another mental note to see about getting it repaired before checking the two bedrooms. He had a guest room, even though he almost never had guests. The sheets would need changing soon, because he changed them once a month, even though no one slept in the bed. His own room was as tidy as ever; he always made the bed before leaving, even if the dishes waited for his return.

Satisfied, Sachs walked back down the stairs, mentally sliding into the relaxed state he allowed himself only when he felt quite secure in his own home. He walked into the lounge, sat down in his chair, and picked up the newspaper he had not read yet.

Then he said, ‘This house has exceptional wards, I am not in the phone book, and I
am
a wizard. Would you mind telling me
how
you are sitting on my sofa, Miss Brent?’

‘You don’t want to know why?’ Ceri asked.

‘Why after how. Call it professional curiosity. If my security is that poor I may need to find alternate employment.’

Ceri gave a little shrug. ‘Twill’s family are a bunch of conniving bastards, but they’ve been spying and sneaking for longer than… Well, a long, long time. Twill doesn’t like them much, but they did teach her a thing or two. Ishifa’s not so well trained, but she can be invisible when she wants to be. They followed you home. They’ve been watching your office since lunchtime.’

‘Which explains how you found this place…’

‘And there’s pretty much nothing that can keep me out of somewhere if I know where I’m going. You should close your curtains.’

‘And that, presumably, brings us to the why section of the interrogation.’

‘You’ve got my phones tapped and my place of work bugged. I checked the wards on
my
house and scrying attempts have been made. Carter’s pretty good about security at the Tir and his wards were designed by my parents so you probably haven’t managed to put anything in there.’

Sachs looked across at her. ‘I’m not hearing a question,’ he said.

‘What do you know? Who have you told?’

He looked at her thoughtfully for a few seconds. He was, she had no doubt, assessing the situation and deciding what to do. He could, after all, call the police, but she would be gone without a trace by the time they arrived. She had an alibi set up, and he likely assumed that she would. As she watched his face, she tried to pick out the tiny telltale signs which would give away his thoughts, but Avery Sachs was very hard to read.

‘You never use the name, but you speak of demons and a castle, and refer to “the other side” and such. I’m a wizard, I know something about demons. The Castle of Bones, the legendary stronghold of Gorefguhadget, Overlord of All Demons. There his crown, made of iron, sits upon a black throne, awaiting the return of his rightful successor. After the Dragonfall you were missing for several months. Now you vanish off with a lot of your friends to attend a “conference” at the castle.’

He paused, but she could tell he was going to continue. ‘Then there are the stories and rumours. A number of wizards have heard that a new Overlord has arisen. It’s said her name is Ayasha, that she travelled the demons’ world to rescue her pet succubus, destroying armies and evil queens as she went, before going to the Castle of Bones and taking up the crown. Ayasha is a Devotik contraction meaning “blue eyes.” Blue eyes are extremely rare in demons. Almost unheard of in fact.’