There was a final cough. The wall groaned and collapsed, taking the section of floor I was on with it. I’d been ready for it and rode it down, jumping off at the last second to land in the living room, rolling to soften the fall.
I came up to see the golem turning to face me. Plaster dust was in the air, and broken drywall littered the floor. Taking down the wall hadn’t collapsed the house, not quite, but it wouldn’t take much more. Caldera was hidden by the remains of the ceiling. From the back garden I heard a yell, then the golem moved to attack.
The laser burned a line across the carpet as I dodged right. The golem approached, swords coming down, and I backed away. The living room flashed, lit in the glow of spells from outside: red, blue, red again. I couldn’t take the time to look and see. All my attention was focused on the mantis golem.
The laser fired again and again, a glowing golden line of death. I stepped aside from each blast, calculating how to position myself to dodge the next. The golem was herding me, pushing me towards the corner. The spells from outside had stopped; the dust in the air was cutting the visibility but I could see the futures that were approaching and knew what I had to do. Just need a little distraction . . . I stepped forward to go under the next laser blast, letting myself be drawn into melee range. The golem’s swords came down.
I jumped away, backpedalling, thumping into the wall. The golem adjusted its aim to focus on me, the laser emitter sighting on my chest.
Light bloomed from behind the golem. A blast of flame stabbed out, washing off the construct’s back.
The golem halted, turned. A figure strode out of the dust, wreathed in flame. The fire around it hid its form; all I could make out was a vaguely humanoid shape with glowing eyes. A second blast hit the golem before it could finish turning around. This one was narrower, more focused, a near-white beam the width of two fingers that was too bright to look at. It burnt into the golem and I saw armour glowing and melting, molten gold spattering to the floor.
The golem fired, but as it did the figure raised a hand. The laser struck the fiery shape, hit a shield. The golden line fuzzed and faded. The white-hot beam didn’t. It kept going, burning into the golem. The golem took one stride forward, then its back went white and the beam burst all the way through, streaming out the other side. The heat was so intense that I had to shield my face. Through my fingers I saw the golem jerk, shudder. The beam sawed, melting the golem from the inside out.
With a groan the golem fell, toppling with a crash that shook the house. Just for an instant I saw something expand from the metal body, stretching, sinking into the floor, then it was gone. The golem’s remains lay still and some light seemed to have vanished from its golden eyes.
The fiery shape turned to me and I nearly flinched. It looked like a man sculpted from flame, invulnerable, godlike. Fires had broken out all around it, licking at its feet. For a moment I felt as though I were facing down some sort of fire spirit, not a human being.
Then all of a sudden the flame shield winked out and Landis was standing there. He was dressed in some sort of close-fitting body armour I didn’t recognise, and he looked brisk and full of energy. “Verus! Glad to see you made it, good job on the distraction. What’s your status?”
The floor around Landis’s feet was on fire. He didn’t seem to have noticed, and I dragged my eyes away. “Caldera’s hurt,” I said. Adrenaline was still pumping through me and I wanted to move, to fight. “The kid we were protecting, he ran that way. We need to find him.”
“Leaving some of the fun for us, eh?” Landis said cheerfully. He turned just as another fiery shape came out of the smoke behind him. Again the fire hid the person’s features, but I recognised the signature of the magic and I knew it was Variam. “He’s running,” Variam said. “Do we chase?”
“Not this time, we’ve got a civilian to find. Description, Verus?”
“His name’s Leo. Boy, about ten, thin, blond hair. Wearing jeans and a black top. There was a force mage covering the door. He’s gone, but—”
Landis was already heading for the door. Variam followed. “Shield off, Vari, there’s a good lad. Standard cover. Verus, you stay with Caldera and take a breather. We’ll take it from here.” They disappeared out into the street.
I was left alone in the wreckage of the living room. Flames were still licking around and I tried to find a way to climb back up to the first floor.
It took me a minute, and by the time I made it up, I found Caldera slumped on the bed. Blood had soaked through the side of her jacket and into the bedclothes. “Caldera.” I kept my voice low. “Can you hear me?”
“Not like I could miss it, way you talk,” Caldera muttered. “Was that Landis . . . ?”
“It was him.” Not good. I hadn’t realised how badly hurt Caldera was; she must have been forcing herself to keep going. “Vari’s here too. We should be safe.”
“Didn’t call for Order of the Shield.” Caldera’s eyes opened; she stared at me suspiciously. “Should have been Star.”
I sighed. “Seriously? You’re going to give me a hard time about this now?”
“You were on your phone. When I took the kid down . . .” Caldera sighed and closed her eyes. “Never follow orders, do you . . .”
“Yeah, well, you can shout at me later.” I was looking Caldera over. The gash on her shoulder didn’t look bad—it was the side wound I was worried about. How deep was it? “We need to get you some help.”
“Already called for—”
“On your com disc, I know. I think we can give up on that, all right? You guys must have backup ways of getting in touch. Phone number?”
“There’s a number.” Caldera didn’t open her eyes. “For emergencies.”
“You think this might qualify?”
“I’ll read it. Type it in.”
I made the call. It took longer than it should have to convince the woman on the other end that I was who I said I was. Finally I just passed the phone over to Caldera and let her give the authentication code. By the time it was done I could hear the strain in Caldera’s voice.
At last it was done and Caldera hung up. “Hate those people,” she muttered. “Bureaucrats . . .”
Caldera was still slumped on the bed; she’d stopped moving except when she had to, and when she’d lifted the phone to her ear I’d seen that it had hurt her. “You doing okay?”
“You always ask such stupid questions?”
“Yeah, I’ve got the feeling it might be a good idea to keep you talking until the medics get here.” I could still smell smoke; it wasn’t getting any fainter. “Oh, and I don’t want to worry you, but just so you know, the house is on fire.”
“Lovely.”
“On the plus side, I don’t think it’s going to collapse in the next ten minutes.”
“You know,” Caldera said, “even by my standards, this was a really shitty night out.”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “Quiet neighbourhood, door-to-door entertainment . . . there’s even romantic candlelight.”
“My ribs are sticking out of my side.”
“You did say you wanted a match against someone who could challenge you.”
“Does this happen every time you go out with someone?”
“Hey, at least I’m not a boring date.”
Smoke rose from the floor below, ash drifting up into the night. We sat together in the ruined house as I searched through the futures, looking to see when help would arrive.
Chapter 8
It was half an hour later.
Blue light flashed from the roofs of the police vehicles, reflected back from car windows and the fronts of the houses. The lights were out of sync, creating a weird strobing effect that made the shadows dance back and forth. Although the police were here, they weren’t going into the house: the Keeper liaisons had done their job and the figures in the black uniforms and yellow hi-vis jackets were holding a perimeter and putting up crime-scene tape at either end of the road. People were leaning out of windows and watching from doors, peering at the house where we’d fought our battle, but there was nothing to see. Plastic screens had gone up at the door and windows and all the activity was taking place inside.