The Conjuring Man, page 35
“Fight,” he urged, ducking another curse. “Keep fighting!”
His mind raced. They had to get the collar off her, and quickly. A standard slave collar would be bad enough, but one built on subtle magic and runic tiles would be worse. Given time, Lilith would become so enslaved that even removing the collar wouldn’t free her. How long did she have? He ducked yet another spell and cursed under his breath. How long did they have? Lilith wasn’t actually in control of herself or she would have used a spell that couldn’t be ducked so easily, turning them both into frogs or simply killing them on the spot. But if she was warped and twisted into a monster ...
Lilith turned slowly. He saw the desperate struggle in her eyes, the sheer wrongness of her movements. She really did look like a puppet ... Adam watched her hand lift slowly, her fingers twisting into a pattern he knew well. If she cast the spell ... he could see the horror in her eyes, feel her despair at what her body was going to do to him ... he wanted to tell her he understood, that it wasn't her fault, and yet ... he felt frozen, unable to move. What could he do that would save them both?
Taffy darted forward. Lilith’s hand twitched, the curse striking Taffy in the chest. She shrank rapidly, so quickly she barely had time to cry out before her face morphed into a twisted parody of a dog. Adam lurched forward, bracing himself for the impact as he crashed into her. One hand went to slap her face, something he knew would force her to defend herself, while the other caught the collar and pulled. The metal snapped in his hand an instant before an invisible force picked him up and threw him away. He landed badly, grunting in pain as he struck the floor. His muscles refused to move. He wasn’t sure if he’d broken something or not. If Lilith was too far gone, he was dead.
“Adam?” Lilith sounded broken. “Taffy?”
“It’s alright,” Adam managed. His body hurt. But it didn’t matter, because she was holding him. “It’s alright.”
Lilith held him tightly, then leaned back as a yapping sound split the air. “I’m sorry,” she said. A small dog – Taffy – was barking loudly. “I’m sorry.”
Adam blinked. “A dog?”
“Terriers have a habit of picking fights with bigger dogs,” Lilith said, casting a counterspell. “The” – her finger touched her neck – “wanted something small and harmless. I managed to twist the spell before it was being cast.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Taffy said, once she’d returned to normal. “The collar made you do it.”
Lilith shook her head. “It was getting to me, even before you showed up,” she said. “I don’t know how much longer I could have held out.”
Adam kissed her. “We came for you,” he said. “We did.”
Taffy giggled, as another explosion shook the castle. “Oh! And we brought your father!”
“Oh dear,” Lilith said. She let go of Adam and stood. “We’d better go find him then, hadn’t we?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“What’s happening?” Lilith sounded steadier as soon as they were out of the room. “How did you even get here?”
“Portal,” Adam said. The sound of fighting was growing louder. “Your father used your blood to target a portal, then hacked his way through the wards. It got us into the castle and then we just had to find you.”
Lilith smiled. “I knew the two of you would get along, if you had a chance.”
Adam frowned. “Well ...”
Taffy broke in. “We need to move,” she said. “Dalia is looking for the king, but if she doesn’t find him ...”
Adam nodded, curtly. The king wasn’t a complete fool. If he fled the castle and went straight to the nearest garrison, rather than trying to fight the invaders, he could rally his supporters and prolong the fighting. He’d been hiring thousands of mercenaries too, if the intelligence reports were to be believed, and they would be reluctant to surrender if they thought they were going to be massacred. His heart clenched at the thought. Dalia and her peers would want to slaughter the mercenaries – Adam understood their thinking, even shared it – but the deed would merely prolong the country’s agony. Giving them safe conduct out of the country might be a better move, in the long run ...
He put the thought aside for later as they hurried down the corridor. His skin prickled – beside him, he felt Lilith tense up as well – as they got closer to the fighting. Flashes of light and balefire darted through the air, making his hair stand on end. It was hard to keep going, even though he knew Master Dagon was between him and Arnold. If it was Arnold ... His lips twitched in cold amusement. If he’d known Master Dagon was that powerful and skilled, if he’d really believed it, he might have had second thoughts about dating Lilith ...
His hand dropped to his pistol, cursing under his breath as the fight came into view. The two combatants were surprisingly close together, the air between them glowing with light and magic. Master Dagon barely seemed to be moving his hands, allowing his powers to do the fighting, while his enemy ...
Lilith sucked in her breath. “That’s the king!”
Adam stared. Queen Violet had been sure her brother had no magic ...and yet King Ephialtes of Tarsier was fighting Master Dagon, trading dark curse for dark curse. He didn’t look anything like his portraits, but then they never did. The portraits were painted to a romantic ideal, rather than a true depiction of their subject ... it was hard to square the blond vision of manliness some crawling artist had painted with the young man in front of him, his hair dank with sweat and blood streaming from his nose and eyes. He looked nothing like his sister, to the point that – if he’d donned commoner clothes – he could have walked out and no one would have tried to stop him. He moved with flowing yet jerky motions, casting charms with gay abandon. How had he concealed his magic for so long?
He didn’t, Adam reminded himself, remembering how Princess Daphne had channelled Arnold’s magic and put up a pretty good fight against Lilith. Even working remotely, and at a considerable disadvantage, Arnold had held his own and come very close to winning. He’s been turned into a puppet.
Taffy swore. “What happened to him?”
Lilith’s thoughts were clearly running in the same direction. “The king is gone,” she said. “He’s just a puppet now.”
Ephialtes – Ephialtes’s body – jerked again, hurling a spell at Adam. Master Dagon blocked it, balefire crackling in all directions as it ran down the wards and crashed against the stone walls. The castle shook, violently. Adam felt dust and debris falling from the ceiling and into his hair, the floor shifting under his feet. It felt as if the two sorcerers were locked in a mortal dual, neither one able to break and run for fear of being hexed in the back. And yet, Arnold had the edge. If the battle went badly, he could just cut the link and leave his puppet to die.
“Adam,” Ephialtes said. His voice was slurred, as if he’d been punched in the face several times. Blood dripped from his mouth, splashing on the floor. His body bulged unnaturally, as if something were fighting to get out. Adam had seen dozens of people turned into animals or objects and yet, this was something else. “How ... good ... to see you again.”
“Fuck you,” Adam said. He would have been impressed – Arnold was talking and keeping up the fight – if the situation wasn’t so dire. “What have you done?”
“You really are quite impressive, and innovative,” Arnold told him. The king’s body jerked again. “The airship surprised my dear master” – his voice dripped honey and acid – “and actually teleporting into the castle ... my, that surprised him too. Pity I couldn’t leave him to his own devices any longer, but like all good tools he eventually outlived his usefulness. My interests are better served by chaos than a smooth transfer of power.”
He cocked his head. “I offered you magic, once,” he added. The king’s face twisted, as if the bones under his skin were threatening to shatter. “You could come with me, even now, and I’ll give it to you.”
“I made my own magic,” Adam hissed. “I don’t need you.”
His mind raced. It was ironic Arnold, of all people, would actually respect him enough to make the offer, but ... he wondered, not for the first time, if Arnold could actually keep his side of the bargain. If there were any way to give magic to mundanes, the magicless kings and aristos would have sold their souls for it. And yet, King Ephialtes’s body was casting spells ... he thrust that thought out of his head, quickly. Arnold was ... Arnold. He might swear an oath, one that would kill him if he broke it, and yet Adam was sure there’d be some nasty sting in the tail. Getting his heart’s desire might come with a terrible price ...
“So it would seem,” Arnold said, his voice surprisingly easy despite the king’s rapidly deteriorating condition. His body ... he looked like he was drunk, and being manhandled by an invisible force, and constantly on the verge of collapse. Adam recalled drunkards staggering along the streets and shivered. “What did you do to him?”
“A small man with great ambitions,” Arnold said. He wasn’t answering the question. “And a puppet who served me well until the time came to discard him.”
Master Dagon stumbled back as a powerful blast of magic slammed into his wards. Adam cringed. The Gorgon was nowhere to be seen, Lilith was in no state for a fight and he doubted he could get the magiwriter out of his knapsack before Arnold realised what he was doing and lashed out. Arnold might not realise what it was, but he knew enough to be wary of anything that might have come from the university. And ... Adam briefly considered drawing blood runes and triggering them, but his aim wasn’t very good. He might accidentally blast Master Dagon in the back instead.
“You brought me what I needed,” Arnold informed them. “And now I am on my way to claim the nexus point for my own.”
“You’ll never get through the wards,” Lilith snapped. “They know you now. They’ll keep you out.”
“Are you sure?” Arnold snorted. “You and your lover are not the only people who can come up with new concepts, you know.”
The king’s body straightened, still bulging in all the wrong places. Adam was sure he saw something under the skin, something truly unnatural. Master Dagon raised his hands for the first time and started to chant in a language Adam didn’t know. Lilith stiffened beside him, a gasp escaping her throat. Whatever it was, it was bad news.
“I’ve enjoyed our little chat,” Arnold said. “But now it is over. The king’s death will mean the end of you, all of you. There will be chaos, and chaos suits us well. Farewell.”
The king’s body stumbled again, twisting in ways Adam’s eyes refused to follow. Lilith whimpered – Adam stared at her, shocked – and staggered back. Tears streamed from her eyes, her sensitivity to magic ensuring she saw something mercifully hidden from Adam. The corridor seemed to bend and twist, the shadows shifting in ways that sent chills running down Adam’s spine. Taffy caught Lilith’s arm and pulled her back even further; Adam hesitated, unsure if he should try to grab Master Dagon or if Master Dagon was the only thing standing between them and a nightmare. The air turned rancid, utterly foul. He saw – he thought he saw – something in the gathering shadows, something so wrong his very soul rebelled against it. His legs froze, as if they’d been turned to ice. Daggers were being driven into his eyes. It was ...
“Lilith,” Master Dagon said. “I love you. I ...”
He stepped forward, muttering a final charm just loudly enough to be heard. Lilith cried out an instant before her father’s body exploded with blinding white light. Adam stumbled back, almost too dazed to realise he could move again; he nearly crashed into Lilith, who was staring at her father’s light ... Master Dagon’s entire body was lost in the light, nothing more than a vaguely humanoid form ...
The world seemed to shake, so violently Adam was sure someone had punched him in the brains, then plunged into darkness. Adam blinked, wondering numbly if they’d been condemned to one of the seven hells. A moment later, a faint lightglobe flickered up in front of them. The corridor was a shattered ruin. There was no sign of either Master Dagon or King Ephialtes.
“Father,” Lilith breathed. She was on her knees, tears dripping from her eyes. “Father ...”
Adam knelt beside her, putting one arm around her shoulders. He didn’t know what else to do. Master Dagon was dead ... no, he’d sacrificed himself to save his daughter. Adam’s eyes ached ... he reached up to touch them, just to make sure they hadn’t really been poked out by daggers. Whatever Arnold had tried to do in the king’s final moments, it had been too much for anyone to handle.
“I’m alright,” Lilith managed. She didn’t sound it. “I ...”
“I’m sorry,” Adam said. He was surprised to discover he meant it. Master Dagon had died a good father, whatever else could be said about him. And ... Adam knew what it was like to lose a father. Lilith was an orphan now and ... he hugged her tightly, hoping his arms could convey what his voice could not. Taffy was on the other side, holding Lilith too. “I ...”
The castle shook, again. Taffy stood, eyes flickering from side to side as the sound of running footsteps echoed down the broken corridors. Adam felt his blood run cold. Castles were tough, but this one had been built in the days before gunpowder, before magicians felt free to openly defy their peers and interfere in mundane affairs. Was it on the verge of collapse? He had no idea. A structure like Heart’s Eye wouldn’t last long without magic propping it up – he was surprised the former school had survived the necromancer long enough for the nexus point to be reignited – but a brooding castle? He didn’t know.
Lilith gathered herself, making a very visible effort to bottle up her emotions for later. Adam sucked in his breath, remembering how her father had done the same thing ...
“Arnold’s on the airship,” Lilith said. She stood, brushing tears from her eyes. The look in her eyes promised Arnold was not going to walk away, not again. “We have to get to him.”
Adam glanced down the corridor. He could hear shouting and fighting, but he had no idea what was going on. If the plan had worked ... where were the reinforcements? Arnold had thrown a real spanner into the works ... for all he knew, Dalia and her team were dead or wishing they were. Or ... Adam shuddered. Arnold could have given orders to butcher the hostages, then ruin as much of the kingdom as possible before the reinforcements arrived. He’d wanted chaos. He was likely to get it.
“I have a plan,” Lilith said. “This way.”
Adam nodded, following her up a flight of stairs. Taffy seemed a little more concerned. “How do you know where to go?”
“I don’t,” Lilith said. “But as long as we keep going up, we should get to the rooftop eventually.”
Adam gritted his teeth as they kept moving. The stairwell was terrifyingly narrow, so thin he suspected an overweight man would have problems getting up without finding himself caught. The steps themselves were almost child-sized ... he wondered, numbly if they had been designed for children before deciding they were actually intended to make life difficult for attackers. They’d have to come up the stairs individually, giving the defenders time to cut them down one by one. Lilith snapped out a spell as they reached the top of the stairs and walked into a large chamber. A man in mercenary garb stood in front of them, his expression trapped in shock. Adam had to smile, although it wasn’t funny. The man was lucky Lilith hadn’t turned him into a slug, then stepped on him.
“I figured they’d put Arnold’s chambers somewhere near the roof,” Lilith said. She looked around, her eyes darting from object to object. “Don’t touch anything, not until I give the word.”
Adam nodded. “Why so high?”
“The king wouldn’t want him to leave without permission,” Lilith said. “And Arnold wouldn’t have objected, because ...”
She giggled humourlessly, waving a hand towards a corner. “You know what they say about men on pitchforks?”
Adam followed her gaze. A simple pitchfork was leaning against the wall, completely out of place. It made no sense. The suite itself made no sense, as if it belonged to a nobleman, a sorcerer, an adult and a child, all wrapped into one. It was a strange mixture of lavishly ornate and coldly practical ... it reminded him, suddenly, of his own workroom. The thought annoyed him, more than he could say. Arnold and he had nothing in common.
Except you do, his thoughts mocked him. How else did he understand you so well?
“No,” Taffy said. “What do they say?”
“That they’re impotent and incompetent,” Lilith said. “There are plenty of potions to ... make something a little harder, and even a firstie can brew them. If you are forced to resort to something as frail as that sort of magic, it’s a clear sign ...”
Her voice turned bitter. “Clever of Arnold, really. Anyone who noticed the pitchfork wouldn’t think it was important.”
Adam nodded, then turned to look outside. Voidsdaughter was clearly visible, picking up speed as she flew west. He cursed under his breath. Arnold was clearly overworking the engines, intent on getting to the university before any warning could reach them. Adam had no idea if there was any way to get word out before it was too late. The portal was on the wrong side of the castle’s walls and ... he shuddered. It looked as if the city was finally rising against the monarchy. And that meant ...
“We can go after him,” Lilith said. “But only two of us.”
Adam exchanged looks with Taffy. “You go to the inn, see if you can warn the university,” he said. If the first portal was still open, she’d just have to step through. Graeme had some chat parchment too, if the portal was closed. “We’ll go after him.”
