‘Alex, Landis!’ Variam called through the communicator. ‘They’re moving!’
‘Moving where?’ I said, then called back over my shoulder. ‘Trask! Fire traps just after that second door up ahead, thirty foot spread.’
From behind, Trask wove a spell. Water magic flowed past, sweeping down the corridor. Red energy met blue with a flash and a hiss, the heat extinguishing.
‘Richard and Vihaela just vanished,’ Variam said. ‘The others are doing a fighting retreat.’
‘Shit.’ I turned and yelled, ‘Double time!’ then broke into a jog. Steam rolled away from the heated concrete as I ran through the disabled trap.
‘What’s going on?’ Luna yelled from behind.
‘They’re running!’ I called back. ‘Need to cut them off!’
We sprinted through the Tiger’s Palace. I listened with one ear to the reports from Variam and with another to Landis, trying to locate us in my mental map of the place. Richard was abandoning the adepts, pulling his team back. ‘He’s heading for the west wing,’ I called back to Landis. ‘Pull teams from the east and reinforce that perimeter!’
‘Our perimeter squad won’t last long against that lot,’ Landis warned.
‘I know, we’re going to have to catch— ah shit. Everyone back!’
The mages behind me slowed to a trot. We’d lost most of the Council security; Slate had been marking them off in ones and twos behind us, guarding the intersections. The corridor we’d been following ended in a stairway going up. I walked to the foot of the stairs.
Green and black death struck like a thunderbolt. I was already jumping back, the bolt crashing into the concrete where I’d been standing. The follow-up was instant, a black mote flying down the stairs to bloom into a sphere, and I only barely made it out of the spell’s radius. Death energy washed over me, stinging and numbing my skin. ‘Goddamn it, Vihaela!’ I yelled up at her. Those ones had not been aimed to miss. ‘Make up your mind!’
Vihaela’s laugh floated down the stairs. ‘Sorry, Verus. No more freebies.’
‘Not this bitch again,’ Slate growled. ‘Flank her?’
I shook my head. ‘It’d take too long.’
Landis cocked his head for a moment, listening. ‘Help’s on the way.’
‘We can only attack one at a time up these stairs.’ I looked at Landis. ‘Can you take her one-on-one?’
‘Thought you’d never ask.’
‘Come on, boys,’ Vihaela called down. ‘I’m getting lonely up here.’
Landis was moving along the wall, getting into position. ‘So how come you aren’t powered up any more?’ I shouted at Vihaela. I’d had a glimpse of her through the futures and she looked human again. ‘Did you run out of rings and have to turn back into regular Sonic?’
‘I can’t really follow the reference,’ Vihaela called back, ‘but if you’re asking why I’m not pulling out anything special, I’m not feeling pressured enough. Why don’t you do something about that?’
‘Funny you should ask.’
Landis stepped out around the corner. Vihaela struck instantly, but a barrier of flame roared into existence in front of Landis, intercepting her attack. Landis started climbing the stairs, moving slowly and steadily, one hand up maintaining the shield. Green and black flashes showed through the barrier as Vihaela’s spells struck it, but they weren’t getting through.
‘Come on!’ Slate shouted, running forward.
‘No, wait!’ I said, frowning. Something was wrong. I’d seen Landis go up against Vihaela before and they were closely matched. He shouldn’t be able to push her off the high ground this quickly. What’s she planning?
‘We can back him up!’ Slate said. But he didn’t move forward, and neither did Trask.
‘Wait,’ I said again, looking through the futures. It was hard seeing past the chaos of combat, but there were commonalities. Landis took another step up; he was almost out of sight.
Then suddenly I saw what Vihaela was planning. There was no time to talk; instead I reached out through the dreamstone, hammering a connection through. Landis, it’s a trap, get back NOW!
Landis moved instantly, jumping back down the stairs. As he did there was a flash and a hollow boom as the stairwell exploded, chunks of concrete flying out to be melted by his shield. Landis touched down and with a rumbling shudder, the stairway collapsed. A cloud of dust and smoke rolled over us.
‘What the fuck?’ Slate said, coughing and waving his hand in front of his face.
‘Demolition charge,’ I said curtly. Vihaela had been holding off on pulling the trigger, probably waiting until Landis was standing right on top of it. ‘Landis, you okay?’
‘Quite all right, thank you.’ Landis slapped at his shoulders, sending concrete dust puffing into the air. ‘That mine was quite deep-buried, wasn’t it? Would almost think they knew we were coming.’
‘Yeah, no shit. Slate, can you smash a way through?’
Slate and one of the other mages were inspecting where the foot of the stairs had been. The smoke was clearing to reveal a massive pile of rubble. ‘It’ll take all day to get through this shit,’ Slate said sourly. ‘We need Caldera.’
One of the other mages started talking into his communicator and I cursed. Too slow! ‘Come on,’ I called and started running in a different direction. If I got back far enough we could use the first floor corridor …
I’d made it up the stairs and had just started to double back when I felt the gate magic pulse. I’d been talking to Variam through the dreamstone, getting him to help organise the perimeter defence, but as soon as I sensed the spell, I stopped. Wait, I told Variam. Never mind.
What was that that just went off?
Gate spell. I slowed to a walk. There was no point hurrying any more.
I thought we had a ward up against that?
Yeah, so did I. I kept going, though I doubted there was much point. It was technically possible that some of the Dark mages might have stuck around, but I really doubted it. It’s over. Tell the others I’ll be down once I’ve had the chance to find out the details of exactly how this got screwed up so hard. I doubt I’ll be long.
‘So what’s the butcher’s bill?’ I asked Landis.
It was half an hour later. The club floor had been converted into an improvised headquarters, prison and field hospital, with mages standing around talking and directing security personnel. Over at the far side, Anne and a couple of other life mages were healing the wounded. The adepts from the crowd who’d been too slow or injured to escape were in a huddle against the wall, guarded by a security detail. Rain was out on a perimeter sweep, and Variam and Luna were deeper inside the building. The air was filled with the buzz of talk and orders.
‘Seventeen,’ Landis said. ‘Three of ours, six of theirs and eight from the crowd.’
‘Is that dead or wounded?’
‘Dead,’ Landis said. ‘Total casualties are far higher, of course. Still, the healer corps is doing good work, including your friend Miss Walker. I don’t expect we’ll lose any more.’
‘Who were the three of ours?’
‘Security men. Reynolds, White and Kowalski. All killed by sniper fire from those balconies. They were targeting the Keepers by preference, else it would have been worse. The shields kept the bullets away from the Keepers, but unfortunately most of the security detail were outside the defensive radius.’
I grimaced. I was pretty sure those snipers had been Jagadev’s work. It was the kind of thing he’d have done. ‘I should have figured out quicker where those shots were coming from.’