The castle was built upon a tall rocky island, with cliffs dropping into the sea. To the island’s north was a stack – a pillar of rock – separated from the castle by a stone bridge. Upon the stack was a huge forbidding-looking structure made up out of the same yellowish stone as the rest of the castle. Ji-yeong had called it the tombs.
‘According to our intelligence, the building upon that stack contains the spawning infrastructure for the shadow constructs that we’ve been fighting since we got here,’ Nimbus said. ‘Destroying their regeneration source will eliminate the shadows and thus remove half of the marid’s army.’ Nimbus looked around. ‘It is an attack the marid cannot afford to ignore, and it will respond accordingly.’
‘Respond as in, in person?’ a Keeper asked.
‘No, that shouldn’t be possible,’ Sonder said. He pointed, and a small glowing white symbol appeared at the centre of the keep in between the four diamonds. ‘She— I mean, the marid was able to attack us last night because the ritual hadn’t been started. Now that it’s been set in motion, it needs constant supervision.’
‘As such, we expect the marid to deploy its jinn against the attack to the north,’ Nimbus said. ‘Divinations have confirmed that we can expect our attack to be answered by ifrit-possessed mages as well as jann.’ He looked at Landis. ‘Your task will be to press the attack sufficiently to draw in the ifrit, and either destroy them or keep them engaged so that they cannot redeploy. Once this has been accomplished, you will send the signal to the accumulator team. The code word is “trident”.’ Blue arrows stabbed against the red on the northern island. Nimbus pointed at the map and a thin beam of light extended from one of the castle towers. It pierced through the keep and touched the nearest of the four diamonds, and with a flash the whole corner of the keep disappeared. Nimbus stepped back. ‘Any questions?’
‘So who has the honour of using the focus?’ Landis asked.
Nimbus nodded to one side. ‘Mage Lumen will use the accumulator’s reserves to launch a directed-energy attack.’
Directed-energy attack? Luna asked.
Lumen’s a light mage, I said. She was a small woman with neat brown hair in a pageboy cut, and didn’t look especially happy to be here. She’ll launch an attack spell and the accumulator will supercharge it. Basically it’ll be a giant laser cannon. Hang on a sec. I held up a hand. ‘Director Nimbus?’
Nimbus looked at me, thin-lipped. ‘Yes, Verus?’
Several other Keepers stopped talking and turned to watch. ‘What happens when the accumulator gets attacked?’ I asked.
‘The purpose of the diversionary attack on the northern island is to ensure that the marid has no available forces to spare.’
‘And what if it does?’
‘An attack on the accumulator is not a concern,’ Nimbus said stiffly.
The Keepers watching Nimbus didn’t look away. Their expressions clearly indicated that they were waiting for a better answer.
Nimbus gave an irritated sigh. ‘Sonder?’
‘We’re using an experimental apparatus to transfer the energy flow from the accumulator through a specially modified gateway,’ Sonder said. ‘I’ll be monitoring the situation at the accumulator through a video link. As soon as it looks as though the accumulator’s under threat, I’ll give Lumen the signal to fire. So anyone watching will sense the energy build-up in the accumulator, but they won’t know where the attack’s going to come from until it’s too late. We won’t activate the focus until it’s time to fire, and the video link will be non-magical, so there’ll be nothing visible on magesight to warn them.’
‘Understood?’ Nimbus said, paused for only a second, then nodded. ‘Good. Auxiliaries Sonder and Lumen and Captain Rain will remain here to answer any further questions. Captain Landis, I need to discuss assignments of your men.’
11
The briefing broke up. Nimbus disappeared off with Landis, while most of the Keepers had gathered around Sonder. Tobias had walked over to Talisid’s projection and was questioning him about timings.
Could you follow all that? Luna asked.
It’s simple enough, I said. Scorpion tactics. Pincers hold; tail strikes. I reached forward and closed my thumb and forefinger in the air. Rain’s force pins down Richard. I did the same with my other hand. Landis’s force pins down Anne. I arced a finger over the top. Accumulator fires.
Oh. Why didn’t they just explain it like that?
I noticed that Rain wasn’t occupied and walked over. ‘Captain Rain.’
Rain had been frowning down at a tablet; now he glanced at me. ‘Verus,’ he said in his deep voice. ‘Been a while.’
‘Glad you’re not under orders to arrest me any more,’ I said. I’d always rather liked Rain. ‘How’s it look?’
Rain hesitated and I saw futures flicker as he decided how honest to be. ‘Not great,’ he admitted.
The tablet held a list of names, with separate columns for killed and wounded. ‘How many did you lose last night?’
‘Counting all serious casualties . . . a hundred and three.’
‘Jesus.’
‘We were supposed to be bringing over five hundred, with as many more in reserve.’ Rain didn’t let anything show on his face, but his voice was grim. ‘Right now, we’ve got maybe two hundred and forty effectives. We’re missing half our main force and all of our reserves and we’ve barely scratched them.’
So they’d been able to bring about three hundred and fifty into the shadow realm last night. And they’d lost almost a third of them already. ‘How were you hurt so badly?’ I asked. ‘Anne?’
Rain gave a nod. ‘She’d hit from the flanks, then fade away as soon as we brought mages to bear. Used those jann and shadows as distractions. She couldn’t stop our main force but she damn near bled us dry before Nimbus gave the order to fall back.’
I glanced towards the door where Nimbus had left. ‘Surprised he was so confident.’
Rain hesitated again, and through the futures I could see him caught between worry and discretion. He shook his head as he made his decision. ‘He’s not,’ Rain said, lowering his voice. ‘He spent half the night arguing with the Council. Wanted to hold position until they could bring in reinforcements. He’s only doing this attack under direct orders.’ Rain’s eyes flicked in the direction of Talisid’s projection, still talking with Tobias. ‘Your friend there’s watching to make sure Nimbus does as he’s told.’
‘Well,’ I said. ‘That’s . . . not good.’
‘No shit,’ Rain said. ‘Listen, Verus, I know this woman’s your girlfriend, but . . . we’re going to need you for this one.’ His dark eyes bored into mine. ‘You with us?’
I was silent for a moment. ‘It’s not my girlfriend making the decisions any more,’ I said at last. Anne would never have fought as Rain described; Dark Anne would have gone in swinging, and Light Anne wouldn’t have attacked at all. ‘I’ll do all I can.’
Rain gave me a nod and went back to his tablet.
It was strange, but Council politics felt simpler these days. It was as though I’d only started to really understand the Council after I’d been kicked off it. Maybe you can’t see an organisation clearly until you’ve looked at it from both inside and out.
Luna had joined the Keepers around Sonder. I moved over to listen in. ‘. . . would have taken part in the ritual,’ Sonder was saying. ‘Each of them would have invested one of the focus crystals to reinforce the overall structure. They were doing that through the early hours of the morning.’