‘This is Sergeant Little,’ Little said over the comm. ‘Reached the primary objective. Building is secure.’
‘Slate, Hoarfrost, reinforce Little’s team,’ I ordered. ‘Hold that building.’
‘This is Thunder and Aegis. The lightning ifrit has withdrawn to the keep.’
‘Understood, monitor its position but do not approach. This applies to all units. Do not enter weapons range of the keep. Take and reinforce the target building but go no further.’
The sounds of battle were dying away. Every now and again a burst of gunfire would echo through the castle, but each time, the interval between shots would be longer. A lull settled in the battle, both sides catching their breath.
I strode across courtyards and down alleys, heading north. Luna hurried at my back, and Council security advanced with me, covering windows and doorways down the sights of their rifles. Over the walls and roofs ahead I caught glimpses of the keep, a huge, foreboding presence. We’d come far, but as long as Anne held that keep, the castle was still hers.
A soldier opened a door for us to stride through. A corridor and another doorway led us into an L-shaped room with open windows along both sides of the L that looked out onto an open courtyard. At the other side of the courtyard was the huge dark-stone shadow of the keep. More than a dozen people were there already, with more arriving all the time.
‘Sir,’ Little said with a nod. He was standing next to the door, his weapon pointed at the floor. ‘Should we set up on the roof?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘There’s a fixed emplacement on that south-east tower. You try to put heavy weapons up there, they’ll have a clear field of fire right down onto your heads.’
‘Snipe the emplacement?’ Hoarfrost said. ‘Could take out the tower . . .’
‘It’s reinforced,’ another mage said.
‘No, we stick to the plan,’ I said. ‘Compass?’
Compass was lying flat on the stone, head tilted to one side, sighting up through the window towards the keep. ‘Sec,’ she called, her voice slightly muffled.
I walked to Compass and knelt by her side, balancing the sovnya with its butt against the flagstones. I lowered my head and looked up, following Compass’s line of sight.
The corner of the keep was a rounded tower, made of dark grey stone. It looked forbidding even to normal sight. To magesight, it was more so. Protective wards ran through the stone, reinforcing it against both physical and magical attack, and tied into it was a gate ward designed to harden the area within against any kind of spatial disruption. The lines of power flowing through the wards were thick and powerful; if they had flaws, I couldn’t see them.
Footsteps sounded behind us. ‘Well?’ Landis asked.
Compass sighed and scrambled to her feet, brushing dust off her hands and clothes. ‘It’s going to be tight.’
‘Verus?’
‘I can feel the anchor point,’ I said, standing. ‘It’s less than thirty feet beyond the wall.’ Behind the walls of the keep, halfway to the top within the south-east tower, was a concentration of power where the lines of the wards converged. That was one of the four anchor points that we’d seen on Sonder’s map this morning. That anchor point was supporting the wards protecting the castle, the wards stopping us from leaving the shadow realm, the marid’s ritual, and, ultimately, the shadow realm itself. Knock it out, and all the dominos would fall.
‘Well, Compass, it’s all on your shoulders,’ Landis said. ‘Gate or assault?’
Compass hesitated for a long moment. The futures hovered, then shifted decisively. ‘Gate.’
Soldiers took up positions by the windows; others were sent out to make room. Mages gathered: Landis, Rain, Tobias, Slate, Hoarfrost, Aegis. All would be protecting Compass.
‘Up a bit,’ Compass told Rain. ‘Left . . . There.’
A beam of blue light stabbed from Rain’s hand at a forty-five-degree angle, disintegrating a neat twelve-inch tunnel through the ceiling. Rain held it a second longer, then cut it off precisely as it went through the wall above. Compass sighted through the hole, and nodded.
‘Jinn have been cleared out,’ Slate said. ‘Think that lightning kid’s in the keep, but hard to tell through the wards.’
‘Caldera?’ Rain asked.
‘Can’t see her.’
Compass looked tense and focused. ‘Don’t talk to me once I start.’
‘Understood,’ I said. ‘Package?’
A portal appeared at Compass’s feet; she reached in and heaved out a hiking backpack. It was the size of her torso and she struggled to lift it; I grabbed it with my right arm before she could drop it, then hefted it one-handed and walked towards the others. ‘Ozols,’ I called.
‘Yes, yes,’ Ozols said cheerfully. He walked forward and took the backpack, shifting under its weight.
‘Try not to bloody well kill everyone, all right?’ Little told him from a safe distance.
‘Is fine! No worry!’
Ozols carried the backpack over to the far wall, set it down with a grunt, and pulled it open. Several mages stepped away. Landis wandered right up and peered over Ozols’s shoulder.
‘Ji-yeong, you’re on point defence,’ I told her. ‘Cover us and Compass.’
Compass looked at Luna. ‘Mage . . . Vesta, right? How long do those blessings last?’
‘The more danger you’re in, the faster it burns off,’ Luna said.
‘Then save it for the gate,’ Compass told her. ‘If I mess up suppressing the ward, we just have to start over. If I mess up the gate, it’ll be a lot worse.’
‘All right,’ I said, looking around. ‘Everyone ready?’
No one objected. Even Slate gave a terse nod. The only one who didn’t respond was Ozols, still busy with the contents of the backpack.
I drew in a breath, let it out, then spoke over the comm. ‘Begin.’
Compass raised a hand towards the keep and began her spell.
Just as locks caused the invention of lockpicks, gate wards caused the invention of spells to pierce gate wards. And just like a lock, any gate ward can be broken with enough time and effort. Right now, Compass was probing the lines of power in that ward system, figuring out how to suppress them for just long enough.
But beating a ward system that’s defended is a different story. Compass was using as little power as she could, but the more progress she made, the harder it would be to hide what she was doing. If she was discovered – when she was discovered – our enemies could try to repair the ward network and fix the hole in their defences faster than she could bore it. Or they could just attack this building and kill her. Given the way this day had been going, I was betting they’d go for the second option.
‘No movement,’ Slate said, his voice tense.
‘Verus will give us warning,’ Landis said calmly. ‘Keep it quiet, boys.’
Thanks for the vote of confidence. In truth, giving warning was about all I could do. The lines of space magic that Compass was tracing were too complex for me to follow – bypassing gate wards like that is a specialised skill, and I didn’t understand it well enough to use the fateweaver to help.
Minutes ticked by. I felt the lines of magic in Compass’s spell shift, then shift again. A soldier coughed, then fell silent. The sun was still high in the sky, and the room was hot. I saw a bead of sweat trickling down Compass’s forehead.
There was a shift in the futures. It was small, but I’d been watching for it. ‘Movement,’ I said.
‘When?’ Landis asked.
‘Wait.’ I pushed with the fateweaver. A branch of futures was opening up, danger and violence and death. I tried to suppress it and guide us down a different path.