Untitled (49 page)

What was she supposed to do?

A Marilith fell in two pieces and roughly bounced off of her Sten, a victim of Dav's glinting CARG. Instantly Marilith's guise fell away, and she reverted into a short, homely girl with spiked red hair, the look of shock and surprise indelibly etched into her now-dead face.

She tried a TK. Quick, easy to use, and powerful, TKs were an oftoverlooked staple of any Black Hat's arsenal. In her many battles with the Sisterhood, she'd seen them do amazing things with it, TKs being not flashy enough for a Black Hat. She tried to pick a Marilith up with TK; she was going to toss her about a bit, use her like a club against the others. As she did, a flock of little pink bird trinkets, scattered about on the floor by the Mariliths, took flight and happily chirped about the corridor. The Mariliths joyously laughed. Somehow the birds absorbed and diverted her TK energy.

The TK was defeated in a flock of pink birds.

Syg tried to Dirge. "Y
ou there!
" she Dirged, picking one out of the crowd. "F
all on your own knife!
"

The Mariliths laughed. A toy frog resting on the floor amid the various trinkets began speaking, mimicking Syg's Dirge, somehow muffling it, rendering it harmless.

Her Dirge was defeated.

Not knowing what else to do, she Pointed. She felt a bit shy about using such a gruesome killing Gift such as the Point with Dav around—she didn't want him to see that particular aspect of her—but what could she do? They were in a serious, no-quarter fight, and she had to help out. The "Marilith" she'd picked out recoiled in pain as the deadly Point energy wrapped around her. Reaching into a pouch at her waist, she pulled out a small blue flower. The flower began growing, began taking in the potent Point energy. She quickly advanced on Syg, holding a long, cruel knife in the other hand. She reared back and lunged.

The knife came through the Sten like it wasn't even there.

Syg, Stenned in place, couldn't move her legs, but she could still duck, and the blade missed—barely, biting into the wall.

"Marilith" reared back for another attack.

Syg Pointed with her other hand—a deadly Double Point. The flower began growing at a much faster rate. A second later, at capacity, the flower exploded. The person in the image of Marilith looked at the ruins of the flower in her hand and had just enough time to begin to scream before she exploded, her body ripping apart and spraying the corridor in sundered gore, her knife, covered in blood, dropping to the floor.

A "Marilith" pulled out of the twisting, roiling group and leveled a long projectile weapon at her. Before she could fire, Dav sliced the weapon in two, opening himself up for a cutting attack, which he barely rolled away from in time.

Syg watched Dav for a moment and admired him; she had never seen him in action before, fighting with his CARG. He was nothing short of incredible. He was surrounded, outnumbered, and in close quarters, but he was holding them back, even pressing the fight and methodically thinning their numbers, his CARG wheeling around in a blur. Her Dav could fight. Thoughts of the balcony momentarily re-entered her head.

Syg felt helpless. What could she do? She was used to the direct, heavy-handed approach to fighting, to erase lots of enemies quickly and thoroughly, but these people, Cloaked to look like Marilith, seemed to somehow have an answer to most of the things she normally used. She recalled Dav mentioning to her that the most effective thing, he thought, in the Black Hat arsenal was a Shadow Tech monster; autonomous, tough, and virtually impossible to fully defeat, Dav had said if the Black Hats he met in Metatron had used those instead of Blasts, Points, and Stens, he probably would have been killed there, either by Beth or by Suz.

Somebody's bloody arm flew past her Sten, and then a veiled leg.

The problem was, creating a Shadow tech beast was extremely difficult. You couldn't just produce the Shadow tech, wind it up, and send it on its way—you had to bind it, combine it, give it a heart, give it a soul, and give it a purpose. A good Black Hat Painter could produce a fully task-driven beast in half an hour. A Black Hat novice, however, took months to create a small, feeble creation

She wracked her brains. Dav couldn't keep this pace up for much longer. He needed help—she had to help him.

Wait …

She remembered all Painters had what they called a Familiar—a small, simple Shadow tech monster that they practiced conjuring many times. A Painter could dial up a Familiar in a matter of moments. It was meant to be used in a pinch.

What had she done before? She hadn't created a Shadow tech beast in years—except for …

She had the answer and created a large blob of Silver tech. It floated out of the Sten and then began twisting and changing in mid-air, like a silver storm cloud.

* * * * *

Davage parried a blow from a large, heavy knife. He knocked the knife loose. The "Marilith" in front of him wasn't expecting his CARG to be such a dense, heavy weapon and couldn't hold onto her knife. Without another thought, he put his weapon through "Marilith's" chest. He had initially been fighting to wound, to incapacitate, but after they began attacking Syg behind her Sten, he realized that these people had infiltrated his home and were threatening the lives of all within: Syg, his friends, his sisters, his nephews, his house staff … everybody, and their lives were therefore forfeit.

These people, whomever they were, fought well and fiercely, but they weren't fighting masters by any means. They had begun the battle supremely confident, armed with cruel weapons and strange trinkets. They were certain that they could easily handle him—that they might even have a bit of deadly fun at his expense, reducing him down in a slow, torturous exercise to a pleading, quivering mass.

Suddenly they were falling, sliced in twain, headless, armless, legless, fatally cleaved, and their demeanor changed to angry, determined … frightened. They realized they faced a very dangerous, very capable opponent who was not to be trifled with. They set themselves to the task.

Even though he was badly outnumbered and surrounded, Dav was fully in control of this fight, his Sight laying the near future out for him in a vivid tapestry, allowing him to anticipate and counter any thrust or movement he considered dangerous.

Every so often he Sighted one leveling a weapon at Syg, and he instantly took care of them.

It was a strange fight to be sure. He'd badly wounded a "Marilith" at the beginning of the battle, and a nearby toy cat resting on the ground seemed to take the blow for her, Marilith's wound being somehow greatly lessened by the presence of the cat. Davage went ahead and took her head off, for which the cat had no suitable answer. He thought he saw Syg trying a TK, and a flock of pink birds took flight in a commotion. Every so often, one happened to fly into his CARG and shattered in a puff of feathers and an odd lavender smell. He also recalled Syg trying a Dirge and a toy frog, in a mocking voice, squelched it. These people, whoever they were, had style. He had to give them that.

He kept glancing over to Syg, making sure she was still safe behind her Sten. She looked pained, sick even. He could tell she didn't know how to fight like this—she couldn't clear the corridor with him in it. He thought about Wafting away and giving her a clear shot, but he wanted her to struggle, he wanted her to be creative. She would need that little extra edge in battle when and if she ever met up with the real Marilith.

She suddenly appeared inspired and cast out a large glob of undulating Silver tech, which floated in the air.

Curious, he watched it form for as long as he could. The "Mariliths" also watched. Eyes glittering with delight, they began digging through their pouches.

The silver formed into the image of the
Seeker
, about four feet long and one foot high. Dav was amazed. This time she did a pretty good job, unlike her first two attempts over Metatron; it had a head, a long neck, and a winged rear section—it even had a little light-emitting version of the main sensor that panned about throwing a silvery beam of light. A very decent attempt.

He guessed the "stern" talking to he gave her paid off.

The Mariliths laughed at the sight of the floating
Seeker
and pulled little green flowers out of their pouches. They brazenly presented them to the ship.

Dav watched as a miniature silver version of the port Battleshot batteries opened up. Instantly, three of them and a whole bunch of fluttering pink birds vanished in a hail of silver shot and smoked feathers scented with lavender. The survivors appeared utterly shocked as they took a second glance at the silver ship and their green flower totems—clearly they had been expecting Shadow tech, not Syg's Silver tech. They utterly lost their previous confidence and began scattering in a messy panic. Reaching into their pouches with grasping fingers, they produced little black vials, unstoppered them, and began splashing the contents about the corridor; a distinct smell of jasmine filling the air.

The remaining frogs, cats, birds, and balls began growing, growling, deforming, and attacking.

The monsters hit Syg's
Seeker
in a heap, clinging onto it with claws, biting with tooth-filled maws. They stuck in, but the little silver ship, much as the real thing, kept flying and attacking.

Another blast from the tiny silver Battleshot batteries—another group of "Mariliths" went down. A gaggle of hideous frogs also met their end, with the smell of mint.

This battle had quickly gone to shambles, and the Mariliths appeared to have no more stomach for it, they either dying under the silver guns of Syg's
Seeker
or by Dav's screaming CARG.

They ran back toward the robed man—their portal, their point of ingress and egress—eager to make their escape. One, having already halfway disappeared through him, suddenly fell—shot through the head with a League pistol.

Kilos, Ennez, and Beth appeared.

The remaining Mariliths spread out to engage them instead of Syg's Silver
Seeker
and Dav's wickedly fast CARG. Birds, balls, frogs, and cats joined them.

Beth stopped and Pointed the nearest one; again, "Marilith" drew a blue flower from her pouch, and it began growing, absorbing the Point energy. With her other hand, she produced a large brass knife, and in a froth of fear, she charged.

Ki shot the growing flower out of her hand with her smoking SK.

She regarded the shattered remains of it in her hand for a moment with horror.

A second later, she exploded.

A cat, lunging, fell dead, shot, reeking of rosemary.

Another cat got TKed to death by Beth … crushed. Score one for Bethrael.

Three Mariliths advanced on Beth, but before they got within five paces, Ennez put twenty blows on one with his whirling Jet Staff. She fell a hopelessly battered mess. The remaining two advanced on Ennez, and he did the same thing to them, these people apparently not knowing it wasn't wise to engage a Hospitaler up close.

They also seemed to be completely unprepared for an armed Marine with a fully loaded SK; Ki gunned down Mariliths and animated trinkets mercilessly, and they just stood there and let Ki shoot them.

Beth tried to blast a Marilith with Shadow tech, hers still not fully changed to Silver tech. The Marilith produced a green flower. The Shadow tech was drawn to the flower, and Beth screamed in agony.

Ki shot the flower-wielding Marilith in the face, her triumph with the green flower short-lived.

Several balls managed to clamp onto Ki's shoulder, getting a mouthful of Marine coat. Ki's SK put a hole through one, and Beth's TK popped the rest like over-ripe grapes with a smell of pine-needles.

A flock of birds went down in a chirping, feather-laced pile, seemingly all at once by Ennez's hyper-speed Jet Staff.

The
Seeker
finished up the remaining five or six Mariliths, and soon all were dead. None would be taken alive.

The thick smell of burnt shot propellant from Ki's SK mixed with blood, lavender, jasmine, mint, rosemary, and pine trees. The corridor smelt like a spice rack.

10

Dav took a deep breath. "Syg, are you all right?"

She dropped her Sten and ran into his arms, her Silver tech
Seeker
forgotten. It lazily bounced off of the walls and slowly descended, shrinking and fading. He held her tight, still thinking of the knife speeding for the back of her head.

"Is everyone all right?"

"Fine, sir," Beth said, always calling Dav "sir."

"I'm good, Dav," Ki said, reloading her pistol with a new cartridge and lamenting the ragged hole in her coat. "We heard the commotion."

Ennez nodded and didn't say anything.

"Ki, I need you to call down to the
Seeker
and have Com send for the Magistrate. You also might as well summon the Sisters; I'm sure they're going to want to see this. The rest of you, let's go check on Poe, Pardock, and her children."

Ki pulled her communicator out and went to find a window.

They went to the other side of the castle and found Pardock and her sons. Dav told her what happened, and Enoch was mad that he had missed it. Dav suggested she take Poe and go to Castle Vincent for a while until this Marilith thing blew over.

Pardock said she wasn't going anywhere. Poe neither.

They then went back to the corridor and awaited the Magistrate and the Sisters.

"So, do we have any idea who these … individuals are?" Davage asked.

"I remember the spiked red hair from somewhere—can't quite place it, though," Syg said.

"I think I know," Beth said. "I remember my Hulgismen getting into an occasional dust up with a rowdy group of red-headed tuffs tarrying near the base of my temple. They were a group of disaffected roughnecks and urchins from Nalls, which is near Moane. I think they were calling themselves the Fanatics of Nalls."

"The Fanatics of Nalls—yes, I've heard of them. An upstart sect from the dregs of Xaphan Society. I heard they were hoping to make a name for themselves, that they were wanting to move up in the ranks and even challenge the Black Hats."