We all go down at once, he’ll just cut the cables and watch us fall.
Luna hesitated.
I softened my thoughts slightly. I’ll follow, I promise. Go!
Luna ran after Ji-yeong. The old lift had reached courtyard level, and Ji-yeong was waiting impatiently by the door, a lever in her hand. As soon as Luna ducked through, Ji-yeong pulled the lever and darted after her. The lift descended with a shudder, Luna and Ji-yeong disappearing from sight.
I was alone in the courtyard. There was no sign of Sam. His lightning jump would have carried him out of range but he’d have had time to get back down to the edge of the rooftops. He would be up there now, looking to re-engage.
Parts of the courtyard had overhangs, blocking any direct view of the sky above. I drew back against the wall and called out softly, using the fateweaver and the echoes to twist the sound of my voice. ‘You’re fast, Sam. Or I guess I should be calling you Aether now.’
Silence.
I moved right, hugging the wall, careful not to let my footsteps ring out. ‘I remember that lightning trick from the last time we fought,’ I called up. ‘You remember? When you and Darren brought Anne here. You were working for Crystal then.’
The walls and shadows were silent. My ears were still ringing, but I could dimly make out the clanking of the lift. If Sam had been focused on the fight, he might not have noticed that it had shifted from going up to going down.
I kept talking, using the fateweaver to throw my voice. The narrow courtyard cast echoes, and it wasn’t hard to bounce the sound off a first-floor window, making it seem as if I was hiding in its shadows. ‘Crystal’s dead, by the way. Anne killed her. And from what I’ve heard, so’s Darren. You’re the only one left. But you’re not really left, are you? Because you’re not Sam, or Aether, or any of the other names you used. You’re something else, wearing his body. Is the real Sam still in there somewhere? Can you hear what’s going on, or is it—?’
The courtyard went white. Lightning split the sky, striking into the window opposite. Stone chips went flying, bouncing and skittering around the courtyard.
‘Okay,’ I said once the echoes of the thunderclap had died away. ‘Touchy subject.’
My feet and legs were still numb. They were moving, but not quite as fast as they should; maybe a ten or twenty per cent drop in agility. ‘So, jinn,’ I said. ‘Ifrit, general, whatever you call yourself. Are you sure you should be trying this hard to kill me? Because I think Anne would much rather take me alive.’
Silence. I’d expected the jinn to have dropped back down by now. I couldn’t get a handle on its reactions well enough to predict them. I widened my view of the futures and a variety of different attacks played out before me. The patterns were confusing, different from fighting a human.
‘Maybe she was in too much of a hurry?’ I called. ‘I’d think twice, in any case. She’s going to be very upset if you . . .’
I trailed off. One future was eclipsing the others.
The smell of ozone in the courtyard grew stronger. Light flickered and I turned to look. A mote of electricity sparked from a piece of scrap metal in the corner, first once, then again and again. More sparks flickered from the sheet metal piled against the walls, from the iron wheels behind, from the levers by the lift, from every part of the machinery at the centre. Everything metal was sparking.
The sparks grew brighter, crackling. The stink of ozone grew stronger. Electricity flashed, joining an iron bar to a sheet of metal, a piece of scrap to a railing, a wheel to a lever. A distant hum began to rise, faint at first, then growing louder and louder.
From the opposite side of the courtyard, the lift machinery clanked to a halt.
I took one look at the futures ahead, then lunged for the lift shaft.
Electricity exploded outward. It was as if my movement had triggered something, and a hundred tiny bolts of lightning flashed out, connecting every piece of metal in the courtyard with each other, the walls, the floor. I wove a path through them and realised in less than a second that it wouldn’t work, there were too many. The lightning was trying to path through me into the ground.
So I jumped. Air magic surged from my headband and sent me flying in a low arc.
Lightning flashed all around me in a lethal spiderweb. I couldn’t dodge any more but the fateweaver worked its magic, bending away the electricity, finding a safe path through the maze of death. Seconds seemed to stretch out as I soared through the air, strobing energy all around, every hair standing on end, half-blinded eyes seeing the black square of the lift shaft draw closer, closer—
I went flying through the doorway, slammed into the opposite wall, and fell. The roar and flash of lightning cut off and I was falling through darkness. The sovnya scraped the wall, sending me spinning; cables burnt the back of my hand.
I channelled through the headband, air magic wrapping around me. My spin slowed and stopped, my speed dropping until I was sliding downwards at a comfortable ten feet per second. The darkness felt warm, comforting. Light glimmered below and I saw the roof of the lift rise up out of the gloom to meet me.
My feet hit metal with a clang and I rolled forward, coming out of the shaft to drop onto bare rock. I spun instantly, the sovnya coming up. The lift was seven feet tall, the gap from the top of the lift to the edge of the ceiling three feet more. I held the sovnya back, ready to strike.
Seconds ticked by. My eyes were glued to that three-foot gap. If Sam followed me down, he would drop onto the roof of that lift. For an instant he’d be off guard, and I’d have the chance to cut through his shield and into his legs. I’d have to kill or cripple him with the first strike.
Silence. I held absolutely still. The lift shaft was silent as the grave. I looked through the futures and couldn’t find any in which Sam came down the shaft in the next few seconds. I searched further ahead. One minute. Five minutes. Ten.
Nothing.
He wasn’t coming.
‘Alex?’ a voice said from behind.
I exhaled and turned, letting the tension seep out of my muscles. Luna and Ji-yeong were standing just behind me, weapons ready. ‘We’re clear,’ I said.
We’d come down into a natural cavern beneath the castle bedrock, pitch-black but for Luna’s and Ji-yeong’s lights. Huge rusting iron pipes loomed up out of the darkness, silent and ominous, running away to the north and south-west.
Ji-yeong relaxed, lowering her short-sword to sheathe it at her waist. Magelights danced around her, four tiny spheres weaving over her shoulders and at her sides, coloured a bright vibrant green. ‘I didn’t think he’d be that strong.’
‘It’s not really him,’ I said.
Ji-yeong nodded. ‘That’s it, isn’t it? I’ve always been a match for Sam. But it isn’t Sam any more.’ She grimaced. ‘Everyone’s stronger than me now.’
‘You get used to it,’ Luna said dryly.
‘You know where these caverns go?’ I asked Ji-yeong.
‘This must be the old water main,’ Ji-yeong said. ‘It’ll run to the north caves. The western route should lead to the keep.’
‘North it is.’
We started walking. The caverns were ancient, smooth uneven rock that rose and fell under our feet. Luna and Ji-yeong stumbled occasionally, but Ji-yeong’s magelights flew low over the stone, illuminating the drops and holes. Hermes appeared briefly, painted green in the glow, then disappeared off ahead. ‘I gave you bad advice,’ Ji-yeong admitted.
‘Wasn’t just you,’ I said. ‘I underestimated him as well.’ I’d made the mistake of treating Sam as though he were human, and I’d nearly died for it. The feeling was starting to return to my legs, and with it was coming burning pain.