I smiled without humour. ‘No, Keeper . . . Travis, was it? I’m going to be at the front. Try to keep up, because I’m not planning to hang around.’
Silence fell once more. I looked around to see if there’d be any more challenges. No one spoke and after a few seconds I hopped down off the box.
Behind me, Landis stepped up and started ordering squad deployments. Other mages crowded around him and Rain. I imagined that most were there to complain about me.
Luna and Ji-yeong appeared out of the crowd. ‘That was pretty good,’ Luna said. ‘Where do you want us when the fighting starts?’
‘Watch my back,’ I said.
‘Against Richard’s lot, or ours?’
‘Ours. Let’s get to the lines.’
The three of us stood waiting, our backs against a wall. The sun shone down from right overhead, casting small shadows beneath our feet. Luna was glancing around and spinning her wand between her fingers. Ji-yeong leant against the wall with her arms folded. I had my eyes closed, the sovnya in one hand.
‘Eastern perimeter is ready,’ Rain said over the comm. ‘Interdiction field holding.’
‘Understood,’ Landis said. ‘Last southern elements are moving up now.’
The building we were up against was blocking our view to Richard’s position, but it didn’t matter. Between my divination, the fateweaver and the dreamstone, I was only a moment’s thought away from knowing the position and status of every man and woman in the attack force. We had nearly four hundred in total, but I’d chosen to deploy less than a hundred and fifty for the initial attack, with the rest tasked to the reserves or the perimeter. A smaller group was easier to control, and I’d worked with Landis to make sure we had the right men for the job.
‘Verus,’ Landis said. ‘How effectively can Drakh block your divination?’
‘Very effectively, but he can’t be everywhere. He’ll focus on where he can do the most damage, probably using Vihaela. If we don’t give him space to weave those false visions, he’ll only have time to do it once or twice.’
‘Understood. All units, two-minute warning.’
There was a subtle distance in Landis’s manner that hadn’t been there before. A message and a warning: I know what you did, and I don’t like it. I was just glad he wasn’t taking it further.
‘Verus to all units,’ I said over the comm. ‘Once again: the first line of defence is mines, the second is poison. Once that’s been cleared, wait for orders before advancing further. Confirm.’
A chorus of confirmations came back. A few of the Keepers still sounded suspicious, but as far as I could tell, they’d do as they were told.
I’m leading a Council army into battle. Who’d have thought.
‘Once more into the breach,’ Luna said under her breath.
I studied the futures. It was time. ‘All units, advance towards the first line,’ I said quietly and calmly. ‘Go, go, go.’
The futures and the minds around me shifted and moved, beginning to roll forward.
Richard’s first line of defence was antipersonnel mines: claymores and improvised explosives with hidden triggers. I’d already mapped them out, and now sappers moved forward, Council security men with explosives experience. Each sapper had three riflemen and a battle mage to cover him.
Gunfire sounded over the rooftops. Richard had positioned scouts and snipers to shoot at anyone trying to defuse the mines. The futures began to scatter into the chaos of combat, and I shifted my focus to the fateweaver, letting myself sense the flow of the battle and its direction. There was resistance to our west, and I narrowed my focus to find out why. ‘Verus to Travis, your target has been reinforced,’ I said. ‘Expect heavy fire. Verus to Avenor, there’s a battle mage waiting to ambush you. Chimaera, advance to support Avenor.’
More gunfire stuttered. There was the flash of battle magic, followed by a boom as one of the mines went off.
The Council forces suffered their first death. One man from Slate’s group was advancing to support his sapper when his presence suddenly faded. A lucky shot, maybe, or a mine I’d missed. The battle moved on.
Avenor and Chimaera’s groups reached their target, enveloping the enemy mage and adepts. Landis’s group were clearing the south-east corner. The centre groups had opened up a hole in the enemy lines; I reached out through the dreamstone, urging them forward.
Battle magic flashed, again and again. There was a distant scream.
‘Target down!’
‘Tobias, first line is clear, advancing.’
I turned and began walking towards the sounds of battle. Luna and Ji-yeong followed. Another explosion echoed from up ahead, followed quickly by two more. More gunfire.
‘Move in!’ Avenor’s voice was hard. ‘Move in!’
I spoke over the comm. ‘Central teams, move to the second line and hold. Air mages, sweep those buildings of poison gas. Ilmarin, sweep from the east, Lizbeth, from the west.’
We passed what had been the first defence line. The entrance to the doorway was blackened; I could smell gun smoke and the chemical scent of plastic explosives. The dead body of an adept lay within, a weapon still clutched in his hands.
I felt air magic up ahead, sweeping through the next line of buildings, purifying the air within. The gas being flushed out was colourless and odourless: if we’d advanced into it, dozens would have died. But I could feel through the fateweaver that our advance was stalling, and I paused to find out why. We were clearing out the gas, but more was being laid. Where was it coming from . . . ?
There. ‘Wait here,’ I told Luna and Ji-yeong, then ran forward. ‘Verus to Ilmarin, move west,’ I called into my focus. ‘Skip the next building, sweep the centre.’
‘Acknowledged.’
I came around the corner upon one of the attack teams. A big Keeper called Trask – Slate’s friend – with his four men. They whirled to face me, ready to fire, then held off as they recognised me. I ran past them, out across an open space, then sprang from a low wall onto a pillar up onto a roof. I heard a shout but didn’t stop; the sovnya clanged on stone then I was running across the rooftop, crossing the width of the building in seconds before dropping onto its far side.
I came down behind two of Richard’s adepts. They whirled, eyes going wide; one was holding a handgun and the other some sort of focus weapon, but they’d been facing the building, watching the doorway, and they were a second too slow. The first died before he could raise his gun; the second scrambled back, whipped out a knife, realised too late that a knife was no match for a polearm. He opened his mouth to shout and the sovnya drove through his ribs. He coughed, choking on blood.
I wrenched the sovnya out of the dying adept and moved to press my back against the wall. I could hear shouts and gunfire all around; my dash had taken me behind Richard’s lines and I knew most of the voices I could hear were enemies, but they hadn’t yet realised I was here. I could sense air magic to the east, sweeping through the buildings as Ilmarin transformed the poison gas into breathable atmosphere. Running footsteps sounded from within, and I reached down and unclipped the flap on my holster.
A man burst out of the doorway, running past me. He was dressed in dull green and wore a long-beaked mask with goggles; canisters were mounted on his back. I could sense magic around him, toxic and deadly, and as he saw the adepts’ bodies, he twisted, one hand coming up.
I had my 1911 aimed and ready. I shot the mage twice, centre mass, then as he staggered I put a third bullet through his head. He went down and didn’t get up.
There was something wrong with the shape of the futures. I’d taken my attention off the larger battle, and now I scanned hurriedly, trying to catch up. Something was off— There. I spoke urgently into my comm. ‘Southeast teams, get to cover, there’s—’