Wolf in the Fold, page 22
She shook her head. “If they weren’t completely self-centred when they started, their brand of magic would make them self-centred very quickly – or dead.”
“And yet if you could control the power, surely you could use it,” Serigala mused. “Couldn’t you?”
“No,” Emily said. She knew she had trained her magic extensively, although she had a long way to go before she could match Void, but there was no way she could control such a surge of raw power. It would break through her wards and poison her brain, driving her mad if it didn’t kill her outright. “There’s just no way to control it.”
She frowned, recalling how Void had used magic to create a handful of items from raw power ... showing off in a manner that seemed unimpressive, unless you knew enough about magic to grasp just how much power and control it required to craft even a relatively small item. He’d done it, yet it had cost him ... she wondered, suddenly, if it could be done with a magiwriter. The devices were designed to contain vast amounts of magic, channelling it in the right direction ... even using the magic to power wards to contain the rest of the magic. Perhaps with the right set of programming ...
She shut down that thought quickly. She didn’t want to experiment. She knew better.
And yet, part of her was tempted.
“With the right amount of magic, you could do anything,” Serigala mused. “There are suggestions the old gods were actually powerful magicians ...”
“You might be able to do it, in theory,” Emily agreed. “If you have a block of metal, one cubic metre of metal weighing about a million tons, and you have an unlimited number of strong men, could those men lift it with their bare hands?”
Serigala considered the question. “Perhaps,” he said. “It would be tricky.”
“It would be impossible,” Emily said, flatly. “On paper, you have more than enough muscle power to lift the cube. In practice, you couldn’t get anywhere near enough men around the cube to lift it. Yes, in theory, with enough magic you could do anything. In practice, there’s no way to muster the power or control necessary to actually do it.”
She shook her head. “The moon plucked from the sky, whole armies turned to toads, entire countries collapsed into rubble ... the stories are grandiose, but they’re just impossible. There’s no way to gather the magic to do it, and if you could do it you wouldn’t need to.”
Her lips twisted. Pulling the moon out of the sky would destroy the human race and probably the entire planet. It might be an easy mistake to consider, if you didn’t realise just how big the moon was, but ... no, it had never happened. It couldn’t have.
“But it could be done, if you had the power and control,” Serigala said. “Why not?”
“Because you can’t,” Emily snapped. “Haven’t you been listening?”
Serigala showed no sign of irritation at her words, or her tone. “A great many things have been considered impossible over the years,” he said. “And we have figured out how to do them.”
“The risk is too great,” Emily said. She kept her thoughts to herself. “We don’t need a sane necromancer, not when madness is the only weakness they have.”
“So they say.” Serigala cocked his head. “If the nexus points are the root of magic, where does the magic come from?”
“I have no idea,” Emily said, sharply. She could imagine several answers, but she had no way to know which – if any – was true. “And there is no way anyone will be happy with you poking around their nexus point.”
Serigala kept talking. “There’s a giant underground lake near Heart’s Eye. The settlers dug into the soil and accidentally opened the lake, unleashing a burst of water that nearly drowned them before they managed to escape. What if the nexus points work on the same principle, giant reservoirs of magic resting in pocket dimensions that are slowly leaking into our world?”
“It’s an interesting theory,” Emily said. It might be true. Nexus points were timeless - that was how they could be used for time travel – but otherwise, he might be right. “But the last time anyone experimented with a nexus point, they created the Desert of Death.”
“You’re not curious?” Serigala gave her an odd little look. “You don’t want to know?”
“I don’t want to kill millions of people, including myself,” Emily pointed out, controlling her irritation with an effort. “The people who created the Desert of Death killed themselves and countless others. I don’t know if they got any answers, but they didn’t live long enough to enjoy them.”
She leaned back, letting her eyes linger on the fire. “If it was just my life at risk, I might take the chance,” she admitted. “But I won’t risk millions of others to satisfy my curiosity.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Emily tried not to think about Serigala’s questions, as they resumed their march the following day. The riddle of just where magic came from had bothered her, since her arrival on the Nameless World, but as far as she knew, besides Serigala, the only ones who’d ever asked those questions were herself and Void. Magic was a part of life here, a part of the natural world ... certainly, there weren’t many magicians who would ask questions for fear of accidentally looking too closely and breaking it. And yet, Serigala, someone without magic, had asked the question himself. Where did magic come from and why?
Perhaps exposure to magic encouraged the evolution of a subspecies of magical humans, she mused, not for the first time. Or perhaps they were created by a more advanced race.
The thought nagged at her as they made their way across yet another blighted landscape – it might have been a city, once upon a time, or a rocky structure ground down by years of erosion and tainted magic – and crossed a river that stunk so much she feared anyone who fell into the water would be dead before they could get out again. The riverbanks were dead and cold, suggesting the poison was spreading into the surrounding landscape ... she wondered, grimly, if the river was carrying the poison down to the sea. It wasn’t much, compared to the sheer immensity of the ocean, but she dreaded to think what sort of damage it could do to the local ecosystem. If an oil spill could spread far and wide, poisoning countless animals, what could a magic spill do? She didn’t want to know.
Something else to worry about, when I have the time, Emily reflected. Where did the river even go? She didn’t know. It wasn’t on any map. There are ships that circumvent the continent, aren’t there? They might have spotted something.
They paused, again setting up camp for the night at sunset. Emily was relieved not to be on watch, even though it made her feel a little guilty. Riding behind Caleb and Frieda wasn’t fun, all the agony of spending most of the day on horseback without the freedom of feeling the wind running through her hair, but at least she hadn’t been guiding the horse. She supposed she understood Alassa’s love for the beasts a little better now, although there was absolutely no way she’d spend any more time on horseback than necessary. She helped Penny cook dinner by dropping chopped ration bars in a pan to make a thick soup, then went to bed as Frieda stood watch. It was a peaceful night.
“I thought I sensed something, last night,” Cat said, the following morning. “But whatever it was, it didn’t try to cross the wards.”
Emily nodded, slowly. They’d set up camp on an incline, ensuring nothing should be able to reach them without setting off a dozen alarms. She had been careful to check the ground too, just in case something was lurking in the soil, and drawn a blank. Perhaps the faint contact had been a local beast, something smart enough to give the campsite a wide berth; perhaps it had been something else. The faint sense that something was wrong, that they were being watched, nagged at her again as they packed up and resumed the journey. She couldn’t spot anything, but that didn’t mean they were alone. They could be being followed from a safe distance.
She kept the thought to herself as they rode towards another set of jagged mountains. The map said the mountains should have been higher, with only a handful of passes, but they looked smaller, as if centuries of erosion had been compressed into a few short decades. She felt magic darting through the air as they headed to the nearest pass, faint suggestions of deadly powers lurking in the shadows ... she gritted her teeth as pain spiked through her head, pools of tainted magic flickering at the corner of her mind. The pass was narrower than she’d expected, the rocky walls closing in rapidly. In places, the path edged along a sheer drop that forced them to dismount and lead the horses one by one; in others, the path was so cracked and broken it was easy to wonder if they’d stepped off the path without noticing. She told herself, firmly, that no one had bothered to maintain the path for centuries, after the war had swept over the Blighted Lands. The necromancers certainly hadn’t bothered.
“I’m starting to think we should have spent more time mountaineering,” Caleb muttered, as they inched along a narrow path with sheer walls on one side and a deadly drop on the other. The river at the bottom of the gorge looked awful, eerie greenish water flowing in and out of a cave network that drew her eye and tempted her to explore even though she knew it would likely get them all killed. “We’re not ready for this.”
Emily couldn’t disagree. She had spent some time exploring the local mountains, but she’d only visited the truly dangerous places with Sergeant Miles and the rest of her Martial Magic class years ago. They’d had the right equipment and experienced men to show them what to do and help them if they got into trouble. Here ... Cat knew what he was doing, she supposed, but they were a very long way from help if they needed it. She eyed the path warily, her legs threatening to freeze of their own accord. The horses didn’t look happy. If the path narrowed further, they’d be unable to advance or retreat. They might have to abandon the horses.
Something moved, overhead. Emily looked up, just in time to see a rock crashing down the mountainside, falling past them and landing in the poisonous water with a splash and a sizzle. Acid? Emily didn’t know ... there were more rocks falling, getting closer and closer ... she thought she sensed a flicker of magic from high overhead. Were they being attacked? Or had they accidentally triggered an avalanche?
“Get under the overhang,” Cat snapped. There was a piece of rock ahead of them, one that might provide some cover. “Hurry ...”
Another rock fell, landing too close to Frieda. She slipped and tumbled off the path ... Emily cast a summoning charm, not daring to rely on anything more complex. Frieda zoomed towards her, crashing into Emily ... they fell against the rocky wall, magic cracking through the stone as the mystery attacker launched more rocks. Frieda caught herself and hurried to the overhang, Caleb and Emily right behind her. The horses looked as if they were re-evaluating their life choices ... Emily had to use magic to drag Frieda’s mount under the overhang before it was too late. Something crashed into the rocky wall above ...
“Shit,” Cat muttered. He held up a hand, trying to feel out their attacker. “We can’t get out.”
Emily glanced at Caleb. Cat was right. They were cowering under the overhang, unable to move north or south without exposing themselves ... she wasn’t sure she dared try to teleport without being certain of her destination, even if she could do it safely. Something hit the top of the overhang, sending dust drifting down to mock them. If their enemy hit it hard enough, the overhang would come crashing down and kill them all. Cat and Penny were already trying to strengthen it, but there were limits. Too many limits.
Serigala looked nervous, hands brushing the wall. Was he looking for a secret passageway? Or trying to determine if they could cut into the rock? Emily didn’t know and she doubted they had time to do it before the enemy managed to smash the overhang or panic the horses or ... something worse. They’d all been in tight spots before, but this ...
A thought crossed her mind. “Caleb, pass me the broomstick. Quickly.”
Caleb looked hesitant. Emily knew what he was thinking. The device had never been properly tested. Lilith had fallen off when she’d tested the broomstick and no one knew what had gone wrong ... unless Adam had solved that problem after Emily and Caleb had left Heart’s Eye. Not that it mattered, given there was no way for them to get a better broomstick now ... she took the device and swung her legs over it, bracing herself for flight. Penny might be a better choice, having learned how to fly a pitchfork at Laughter, but Emily owed it to herself to take some risks. Besides, Penny might assume the broomstick would handle just like a pitchfork. Emily doubted it.
“Cover me,” she ordered. The magic running through the device felt weird, as if she were riding a motorbike rather than a pitchfork. “I think ...”
She shot forward, accelerating so rapidly that she flashed across the gorge and nearly smashed herself into the rocky wall on the far side. A twitch sent her flying up instead, the broomstick speeding faster and faster; wind battered her body as she flew out of the gorge, slapping her face so hard she thought she’d flown right into something. And it was still climbing ... she wrapped her hands around the stick and struggled to take control, feeling the magic crackling around her. It felt as if the laws of physics had gone out the window. A memory surfaced – you could block a hurled projectile by using a simple cancellation spell – only to be pushed aside as she turned the broomstick around. The ground below started to blur as she zoomed down, faint flickers of light bursting around her as the broomstick reacted to the magic in the air. There was something down there ...
A hooded figure looked up. Emily couldn’t see a face, but he held a wand ... she dodged, instinctively, as a fireball darted out of the tip and flashed towards her, only to evaporate as it ran into the broomstick’s protective wards. The enemy magician threw three more in quick succession, suggesting he didn’t know what he was doing or that he was weak enough to have to depend on a wand, bursts of heat brushing against her face as the range closed sharply. She cast a spell of her own, only to see it evaporate ... she cursed her own mistake a moment later, remembering that Adam had said the flyer couldn’t use magic. The wards were too strong.
Ice ran down her spine as the enemy magician gestured with his wand. More rocks hurtled toward her. Weak magician or no, there was nothing wrong with his mind. It was an effective tactic ... she darted up again, the broomstick quivering in her hand, and evaded the rocks as she came back down. She got closer, to see if she could to ram the broomstick into the enemy magician. Up close, there was something wrong with him. His hood and cloak hid a body that seemed to twist in strange directions, as if he wasn’t wholly human. If he’d ever been human. Decades in the Blighted Lands could have warped humans into something entirely new, something inhuman.
He jerked aside, rolling around and losing his grip on his wand. Emily hoped it would be enough to slow him, perhaps even stop him, as she pulled away again, but he waved his hands in a complicated pattern and cast a spell that fizzled harmlessly against her wards. Her eyes narrowed – it was a foolish tactic, and wasteful too – before a handful of shockwaves battered the broomstick, nearly throwing her off the device and sending her to the ground. It hadn’t been as foolish as she’d thought. Thundercracker spells were of limited use on the ground, if only because they couldn’t be scaled up to the point of deafening the victim, but in the air ... she cursed under her breath as she came about, one hand reaching for her pistol. The enemy magician didn’t seem to realise the danger as she took aim, hoping the shot would upset him even if it didn’t hit its target. That was interesting, she noted. Magicians had originally dismissed firearms as nothing more than toys, harmless to a man who could cast fireballs or freeze someone in their tracks or even turn them into toads with a wave of his hands. They’d learnt the danger the hard way. Now ...
She fired, twice. Accuracy was terrible, but ... for a moment, she thought she’d hit him. He jerked so violently that she wasn’t sure just what happened ... his hood kept his face in shadow, yet she caught a glimpse of red eyes ... a necromancer? It seemed unlikely – most necromancers wouldn’t have tried to kill people they needed to drain, and she couldn’t feel the surge of magic she’d learnt to recognise nearly a decade ago – but she had to admit it was possible. There was no time to worry about it. She shoved the broomstick forward, flying right at him. If she could grab hold, or even use her wards to take down his wards ... if he was a necromancer, undoing his wards would destroy him. He stared at her, red eyes pulsing with malice, then vanished in a flash of light. Emily pulled the broomstick up, head reeling. She’d never met a necromancer who could teleport. It was beyond them.
Crap, she thought, slowing the broomstick as much as she dared. The mountains were craggier than she’d realised, much bigger than the map had suggested. A couple were covered in eerie greenish slime – her stomach churned, the stench somehow reaching her even though they were miles away – while others were seemingly unmarked. Where the hell did he go?
She rotated around, scanning the ground. There was nothing, nothing beyond endless stone ... she dropped down, flying into the gorge and back under the overhang. Penny smiled at Emily as she landed, the broomstick seeming to lose power a moment later. Emily guessed the spellware would need to be regenerated and recharged, before she could go flying again. It was something she’d have to figure out later.
Cat chuckled, then sobered. “What was he?”
“Something inhuman,” Emily said. She closed her eyes for a second, wishing she’d gotten a proper look at her foe. Humanoid, of course, but that covered a lot of ground. Red eyes normally meant a necromancer, yet ... the enemy had teleported, proving a greater command of magic than most necromancers possessed. It nagged at her, something she was missing ... but what? “We need to move.”
