The Order of Merlin, page 30
Lennie leaned over and whispered in Nandi's ear, prompting a wrinkling of her forehead.
"I can tell you most emphatically that he's working to stop the invasion. When we rescued him, we found the old bastard stuck in stasis between this realm and the other, stuck through with a thousand blades. He'd been trying to escape."
"What was he doing there?"
"Trying to stop it," said Pi. "Look, if he wanted to open up the barrier between realms, he would do it. He has that power on his own and the artifacts to support it. We'd be swimming in scorpics and mantics if he so chose."
When Nandi looked to Lennie, he said, "She believes she's telling the truth."
The Coterie mage frowned. "He could be mind-controlling them somehow."
"Trust me," said Pi, "that would never happen. He's all about free will and the brutality of consequences. Besides, he knows my sister is a goody-two-shoes girl scout who can't help but throw herself in the way of oncoming trains. He doesn't have to control her."
Aurie made muffled, angry noises behind the gag. Pi smiled and lifted a shoulder. "Sorry, sis. It's true." Then to the others she said, "We've been, well, I've been quite forthcoming with our information. What about you? I think it's time to share."
"Why would we do that?" asked Nandi.
Pi paused before she answered. She knew they were close but she needed to push them over the edge, and she couldn't use magic or they'd know they were being manipulated.
"I don't know. Hubris? Doubt? I mean, how do you know you're the good ones? We're working for Invictus, the most famous mage in the world, the one that made it okay for people like us to be mages. Unlike before, when we were hunted as freaks and monsters. But you? You've straight up tried to murder us in cold blood. Had we been a little slower in the warehouse, none of this would have happened."
"You killed Beckett."
"He killed himself. Reflected spells are a bitch. Would have saved him if we could but the damage was too great. I'm sorry if he was your friend."
The squeezed lips from Nandi suggested he was more than a friend. She looked away and then back to them.
"We know we're the good ones," said Nandi with the annoying confidence of just about every mage from her hall. Doubt was not a thing that Coterie of Mages encouraged. If you were going to push the limits of arcane studies, then doubt was an emotion that would get you killed. She knew since she'd spent a year in that hall.
"The prophecy? Or reading? I still don't know what it is you thought you heard. But you're wrong. You're being fed lies, a carefully constructed fiction that is helping you cause the very thing you're trying to prevent."
"How do you know it's not you that's creating it?" Nandi chewed on the inside of her cheek as her gaze shot between the two of them. "You don't know what we know."
Pi leaned her neck onto the back of the chair, staring at the wood-paneled ceiling. "We don't, really, but at least we weren't trying to kill you. For all you know, we're the only ones that can stop the invasion and if you kill us, then there will be no one standing in its way."
"You should tell her," said Lennie. "Maybe she can explain the parts we don't understand."
"We agreed not to."
Lennie checked over his shoulder. Sammi was visible through the window. "They're being paranoid and we need answers. Besides, we're in complete control."
The weight of the decision fell heavy upon Nandi's shoulders. She pinched the bridge of her nose between forefinger and thumb and sighed.
"If it makes you feel any better," said Pi, "we're not sure we're doing the right thing either. This whole thing is a mess. Why not work together? Think about it. The two groups combined would be unstoppable. Surely we could prevent the invasion."
"Fine. I will tell you, but only if you promise that you'll explain what you know." Nandi rubbed her upper arm. "And then you'll see why we don't trust you or Invictus."
"I promise," said Pi.
Nandi didn't seem like she believed her, but she went ahead anyway after taking a big breath. When she started speaking, it was the voice of memorization, of words so impactful that they'd imprinted themselves in her mind.
"In the time of joyous return
When all think right of the world
The celebrated sisters will ensure its doom
At the hand of the fallen father
When the newest of the connected eight
And those that call her friend
Ignore the seeds of the past
And make a triumphant return home
Thus ensuring that order will fall
And with it the city of sorcery."
The expectation of explanation was heavy on their captors' brows. Pi would have liked a consultation with her sister, because she seemed to have understood it more clearly, but since she was in charge, she went with her gut.
"That sounds like a metric ton of bullshit to me," said Pi. "I'm all for prophecies, I've tried to follow my fair share of them, but isn't it a little too convenient?"
"We followed the rituals, spoke to the Shaytan'asrar as required in the benehajar," said Nandi with the feverish gaze of a believer. "This was the answer we received."
"I'm telling you what it sounds like," said Pi. "Even if I didn't understand half those words."
"We're the last line of defense for the city. The societies, all four, were made like pieces of a puzzle to protect and serve the Hundred Halls. The ritual was handed down from class to class. The warnings have grown ever more dire, but now we know that the time is upon us. We'll do anything we can to stop it. Even if means killing you. I'm sorry. The lives of this city outweigh the few."
"You did the ritual at the wrong time," said Pi. "You don't know that was the Shaytan...whatever it was you said."
"How can you know that?"
"Ares Charmer told us."
"He's cursed," said Nandi. "That family, all of them, are known to consort with demons. That's why they'd linked themselves to the Dreadmarshs, the oldest of demon lovers."
"But Beckett?"
"He was trying to amend for the sins of his family. He saw his duty to the Halls was greater than his last name." Nandi took a step forward, fists at her side. She'd worked herself up and Pi feared the end was coming soon. "We know the rumors about you, Pythia Silverthorne. It has not gone unnoticed that you once tried to bring Pazuzu, Prince of Storms, into the city and then made yourself useful to the most criminal elements."
"Hey, Radoslav's not a bad guy. You just have to get to know him." She grinned, hoping to delay while she thought of a plan to escape. They were rapidly running out of time.
"What the fuck?"
Lennie was staring out the window. While they'd been speaking, the sky had grown dark, and winds were picking up at a furious pace. A section of clouds broke free and swirled towards the ground, kicking up plumes of dust. A crimson light shone through the fledgling tornado that was rapidly gaining speed. It was headed directly at the cottages. They both looked to Pi and her sister.
"I haven't the slightest clue," said Pi. "That is not us."
Chapter Forty
"What are they saying?" asked Pax in the hidden blind.
"Quiet," said both Zayn and Kitty as they leaned forward.
The sisters had entered the cottage minutes ago and things had gone wrong right away. They'd bound Aurie's mouth and Andromeda was nowhere to be found.
Pax dug her fingers into Kali's thick fur. She really wanted to get up and walk around since they'd been in the cramped blind all night. It wasn't made for five. The only consolations were that Kali made a great pillow during the night and that it hadn't rained despite the thickening clouds that threatened a storm.
"Have you figured out where Andromeda is?" whispered Moriganne.
Zayn waved her off. They'd said she was in the cottage where Aurie and Pi had been brought, but no one sensed her presence. During the night, she'd somehow been whisked away. Zayn and Kitty had been taking turns watching with their superior senses, but they both claimed they'd seen and heard nothing.
"If we can't get to her, then they'll kill Aurie first thing," said Moriganne.
"Quiet," said Zayn, "they're telling them the prophecy."
Can you sense her, Kali? I know you tried before but we need to find Andromeda. Is there a blank spot like last time?
"We need to do something," said Kitty. "They're going to kill them soon. I can hear it in Nandi's voice. She's nervous."
"But if we don't know where Andromeda is, they'll just kill Aurie and Andromeda too," said Zayn.
"They have to be in one of the cottages," said Kitty.
"Is there a basement?" asked Moriganne.
"I'd check online but we left our phones back in the Spire," said Pax.
"We have to make a decision, quick," said Zayn.
"I'm getting out of the blind," said Moriganne. "I'll cause a distraction."
Zayn wrinkled his forehead. "What kind of—"
"Don't worry," said Kitty, putting her hand on his forearm. "We need to get into position." She looked back to Pax. "Make sure that creature doesn't cause any problems."
Moriganne climbed out. The blind was hidden in the trees about a hundred yards from the cottages. Thick foliage added an extra layer of reduced visibility. Pax went out the other side with Kali, preparing to creep towards the open field between the trees and the cottages whenever the distraction happened.
The blonde Charmer began singing in a soft, ethereal voice that made Pax think of wind whistling through the trees. The song was almost imperceptible. Pax couldn't see the other mages, but hoped it wasn't loud enough for them to notice.
As she watched Moriganne's chin rise, along with the volume and intensity of the song, Pax could see the decades of experience in the way she held herself. Tiny movements, the masterful control of the notes—all proof that she was the septuagenarian inside. Not that Pax needed proof. Kali had made cryptic comments about Moriganne when she first arrived, sensing that her interior age was much greater, even if her companion didn't understand why.
The song switched from effortless mood music to tempest levels in the matter of a few heartbeats. Gusts battered the trees and the sky above the ward grew black with hints of green. The air pressure pushed into her ears. Through the gap in the leaves, Pax saw Sammi and her companion glancing into the ominous sky.
Pax didn't know what Kali meant until she saw past the cottages into the grassy field beyond. Part of the cloud layer had broken free and was condensing into a swirling rotation. A cyclone. When Moriganne had said she could handle herself, Pax had no idea that it was this level of magic. She was both proud of her new friend and frightened.
"Come on, Kali, let's get into place."
Pax checked back to the two assassins to find them no longer present. They were likely moving towards the cottage to free Andromeda—if they could find her.
The cyclone touched down in the field, sending up plumes of grass and dirt. A crimson light infused the spinning winds, making it hard for Pax not to stare at it, rather than move towards Sammi and the cobra-headed creature.
When they broke free of the tree line, Sammi's head snapped towards them. Pax hated the idea that she was going against a former classmate of Animalians.
Blind the creature.
Pax didn't wait to find out if Kali had accomplished the task. She used the magesteel enchantments in her shoulder blades to cross the gap between her and Sammi. The cobra-headed creature turned towards her approach.
The urgency in Kali's mental voice made Pax stumble to halt, halfway between the trees and the middle cottage. Cobra-head extended its shimmering brass wings and a twisting plume of superheated coal smoke came firing out in a column. Without the magesteel enchantments, she would have never avoided a fiery death. Pax shot perpendicular as the grass beneath the breath charred black. The heat was unbearable for a few seconds until she ran out of the corridor.
Thinking she had escaped the immediate danger, Pax slowed near a copse of trees, ready with a spell, but the dirty-blond Tinker mage popped his head through the leaves of the tree and tossed a small box towards her. It tumbled through the air faster than she could move, exploding into a sticky web that splattered across her body, pinning her to the grass.
"Gotcha."
Chapter Forty-One
Kitty had only stepped through the Veil a few times in the presence of another living human. She glanced to her right to see Zayn moving towards the middle cottage. A faint mist flowed from his skin and she wondered if the same was true for her. The greenish sky of the nether realm mimicked the stormy one of theirs. Lightning crackled above the cottages. In the distance, she heard a shrill cry, a warning they shouldn't be in the Veil long. Dark shapes winged through the air.
They'd agreed to split up. Kitty headed toward the cottage near the front of the camp while Zayn took the one with Aurie and Pi. Kitty didn't bother going through the front door. She dove through the window as she shifted out of the Veil, glass shattering around her, the wooden grills bending around her upper body, which she shook off as she rolled onto her feet inside the quaint cottage.
As the tornado swirled towards the camp—sending loose grass against the windows and making the hair on the back of her neck stand up—Kitty scanned the interior of the cottage. She could tell something was wrong. There was a visual annoyance like an itch she couldn't scratch. Kitty spun on her heels, looking for the disturbance, when a loud burst was followed by a punch in the stomach, knocking her backwards.
Kitty put her hands to her stomach, coming away with bright blood. There was a hole in her gut. She didn't understand until a shimmering field near the old timey themed bar evaporated, revealing the sixth member of the other team. It was the girl that nearly got Pi while she was distracted with the cobra-headed creature. She was thinner and mousier than expected, with a sour, disappointed gaze as she held a pistol between two shaky hands.
Behind the bar, Andromeda was bound with a series of rods and chains clearly designed to keep the oestomancer from escaping using her body modifications. But saving her younger sister had become the least of her worries. The gunshot wound was deep. Nearly point-blank range had meant maximum damage. It'd be fatal if she couldn't get to a hospital or healer soon.
"I'm sorry," said the girl as she appeared to be aiming for the final shot.
Kitty could have thrown her knife. She wasn't sure who would be faster. The whole arm motion versus the squeeze of a trigger finger, but the gun wasn't the larger concern as she spied the spinning wall of wind hitting the cottage. She threw herself behind the couch as the front of the building cracked in half.
Chapter Forty-Two
Through the window like Kitty would have been the most expedient manner to enter the cottage, but unlike hers, this cottage had two dangerous mages inside. If he wanted to save the Silverthorne sisters, he wasn’t going to be able to do it with brute force.
Nandi and Lennie were distracted by the whirling tornado. Zayn found it hard to believe Moriganne had created the violent rotating column, but there it was, hurtling towards the cottages beneath a crimson-tinged sky. The sound was like the roar of a train going overhead. He used the distraction to slip inside the cottage behind the two mages.
Both Silverthorne sisters saw him, their eyes widening with relief, but they weren't the only ones to notice his entrance. Lennie spun around. He punched the air, which hit Zayn like a fist, throwing him into a side table and shattering the lamp. He put his elbow through the window as he dove out of the way of the massive mage.
Winds from the storm whipped into the cottage, throwing open the door and sending loose grass swirling into the room. Zayn rolled onto his feet. Nandi sent a force bolt at his head, but he jammed his foot into the ground, redirecting himself into a leap. A blade appeared in his fist, but it never made it from his fingertips, as Lennie tackled him into the wall.
The big man moved faster than expected. Zayn wasn't aware that Protectors could move that quick, but everyone had their secrets. Lennie tried to knock him out with a blow to the head, but Zayn exploded a force wave into the big man's gut, throwing him away. He looked like popcorn exploding from a pan as he hit the ceiling.
Pi was shouting from her chair, but between the tornado and the battle, he couldn't understand what she was saying. Ghostly chains swirled around their arms, keeping them from using magic. He'd thought Pi could use her voice, but she didn't seem to be trying.
A huge crack sounded from the cottage to their left as the tornado slammed into it, sending half the roof into the sky. Zayn hoped that Kitty had gotten out before the impact.
But he had more immediate problems. Nandi was behind Aurie, hands curled in readiness near her head.
"Move and I'll splatter her brains across the wall."
Aurie's wild-eyed plea made him freeze in his tracks.
"It's over," said Nandi, nostrils flaring as the tornado demolished the first cottage.
Chapter Forty-Three
Moriganne had never unleashed the full might of the tempest. There'd been times she'd let the winds kick up and create havoc, but she'd let them dissipate before they grew too wild. She'd never summoned them beneath the open sky, nor when the air seemed poised for a storm already.
In the years spent in Thailand, she'd thought that she'd become a different person. Teaching the kids in the idyllic mountain house had given her that illusion. Without her previous claustrophobic hidden life as a Charmer, the stress of school, and the demonic threats that had plagued her family and friends, Moriganne had begun to believe that the bad things that had happened before were gone. She was safe. A new life was possible.
But back in the city of Invictus, her youngest sister in danger, those old fears came back. She let her emotions flood into the music, letting the tempest winds rise. There was so much potential energy in the storm already. It'd been lingering around the city, waiting for a moment like this. It was like directing a firehose of gasoline into an electrical field.
