Necromancer's Revenge (3 page)

“There’s a
community round the next corner. The guy was probably from there.
It’s the biggest around and they try to keep track of the comings
and goings.” I thanked her before we rounded the last corner and
entered the small square. There were a couple of door spaces on one
of the buildings, indicating that it had been meant as a garden
square. The visible sky above looked like it might even give a
little light in the middle of the day.

“Stay close,” I
told Ali. She took my arm as I looked around.

“Are your tacs
alright. You seem like you’re struggling.”

“A little. I
don’t need guided just yet but I don’t know what state I’ll be in
by the end of the night. When they go, they go quick.” I patted her
arm and gestured her to go forwards. I wasn’t planning to take the
tacs out even if they did stop working. They helped my eyes to look
more normal, making them mid-blue instead of palest grey.

“Track.” Ali
shouted across the square and a man who looked more like a rugby
player than a homeless person looked up. We wandered over to him
and settled ourselves outside a small tent that I thought might be
green. Low level lights littered the square, giving just enough
light for a normal person to see by. I’d turned off my torch and
let Ali lead me. I could see shapes and colours but I’d never be
able to identify anybody. I just had to hope that the recording
from the tacs was running better than the real time
adjustments.

“Ali, never
thought to see you back here looking like that.” He held out a big
hand for us to shake and I saw that he wasn’t overweight or built
up. He looked more like he had a medical condition, gigantism
maybe. My medical degree had to come in handy sometimes, even if it
was only for diagnosing people on the street.

“This is Mal.
She needs to ask you some questions,” Ali told him as he shook my
hand in both of his. He helped me back into my seat like I was
fragile. I supposed that to him a lot of people looked fragile.

“Hello Track.
We would like to know about a man who was found out on the roads
last night. 34 years old, but aged more. Dark hair, streaked with
bits of grey.” I glanced at Ali to double-check and she nodded.
“He’d been running, said something about a silver haired man with a
bloody knife.” I left out the fact that he’d not been alive when he
spoke. Trying to imply that he’d told someone about it before he
died. Because there was no question we’d be there if he was still
alive.

“Harry? So thin
he looked like he might break in half? Marks everywhere?”

“That could be
him,” I replied. I wished I’d gotten down to the morgue for a
better description, but there hadn’t been any way to explain my
presence there. “Could you tell us about him?”

“Junkie, always
in debt to someone. But he really went down hard the last month.
Poor guy, probably ran out on his dealer. He was pretty heavy into
the blues so I wouldn’t trust too much what he said.” I wasn’t
particularly up to date with the street names of drugs but Ali
helpfully told me they were hallucinogens.

“So what was he
injecting?” I asked Track.

“No idea, maybe
a booster or something. Cheaper than real food around here
sometimes.” I nodded. Boosters I did know about. They were often
used to help get hospital patients back on their feet. Or to
counteract blood loss without having to give out blood.

“Thank you.
Will you be here later if we have more questions?” I asked him. He
told us that he would and waved us off with an affectionate bop to
Ali’s behind. She swatted at him but kept smiling.

“Track’s
alright. He’s big enough not to get any trouble and he likes to
look out for the small ones. Parents were illegals but they threw
him out when he started growing, superstitious idiots. He got some
treatment at the hospital but they couldn’t get him on the state
because he doesn’t exist in the system.” I let Ali guide me around
the rest of the square to ask more questions. One guy said that
Harry had been going off somewhere else for his fixes lately but
could only give us a vague direction.

“How well to
you know the Lowers?” I asked Ali. She just shrugged. The Lowers
were the parts that were in danger of falling off the cliffs and
into the sea. The defences kept the buildings safe but a few stupid
souls had taken to building into the rock face. Sometimes using the
defences themselves. I couldn’t be completely sure but given the
direction Harry went for his fixes, I was betting he’d made some
new friends down there.

“Nobody really
knows the Lowers. I stay away, no safe houses. Hell, you don’t even
go there for a prozzy.” Yet Ali’s steps were sure as she guided us
in the indicated direction. “Don’t worry, I’ve enough light not to
send us off a cliff. But damn if that guy didn’t choose the worst
area to get his high.”

“The veil take
it,” I said as we approached the more precarious ground. “How did
he run from here to the roads. There’s nothing but back alleys for
a mile!” Most of the buildings were either condemned or were huge
offices interlinked to fronts on the roads. But places were cheap
so close to the edge. And they had better light, being completely
uncovered on one edge.

“I guess we’ll
find out. Do you want to wait here?”

“I think that
I’m safer here than you are my dear,” I told Ali, a smile tugging
at my lips. The Lowers may cater to the scum of the county but it
wasn’t my first visit. Hell, I might even manage to get some new
tacs. “Shout if you see an electrical. I need new tacs if you want
to ever stop guiding me about.”

“Sure thing.
You come here often?” The fear that vibrated around her gave the
lie to the casual way she spoke. That wouldn’t do, there were
things in the Lowers that liked that fear. Not all of them
precisely human.

“Not since my
mother died.”

-----------------------

There were
wooden and metallic bridges and supports intermingled once we got
past the concrete of the main back alleys. The harsh wind picked up
as we got close then lessened once we hit clean air. There was
nothing to funnel it out here but it still swept my skirt about
something dreadful.

“Don’t go too
far down. Whatever Harry was here for wouldn’t have been below the
second level.”

“Why?”

“Because
nothing human goes down that far.” I let my hand trail along the
slate as we descended. There were a few platforms to allow people
to pass but we didn’t meet anyone. I stopped at the bottom of the
steps. They felt solid enough but I had trouble trusting something
only half held up by physical means. The air practically vibrated
with spells. It would be telling which ones were going to bite us
that would be the issue.

Releasing Ali,
I took out my tacs, putting them back in their little case. I still
wanted the vids off them later if I could get them. In this place,
it wasn’t vision that was going to get us back out, it was senses
that Ali just didn’t have. Although I’d still need her to keep me
from stepping completely off the edge. With just the waning
moonlight to see by I was almost completely blind.

“Let me go
first.”

“But you can’t
see.”

“Trust me, I
can see better than you can here.” I stepped around Ali. I could
just about make out the edge of the walkway, but I could see
further down. The whole place was wreathed in magic. Spells laid on
spells, so many that I was betting nobody even knew what they were
all for any more.

The steps
continued down but we turned off onto a platform. It was solid,
although I could feel the growing pressure of the magic from below.
The way the rock sat suspended would not look natural from below.
These communities had grown up after the borders closed. The only
people who would see it wouldn’t be living long enough to tell
anyone. Salt spray didn’t reach up that far but I could still hear
the crashing of waves. The sounds of the city were muted on the
Cliffside.

“Come on. I’d
like to stay on this level if we can. No consultancy fee is worth
going any further down.” I waved Ali to follow me and started along
the path cut into the side of the cliff. There were empty alcoves
mixed in with wooden boards. People had cut spaces into the slate.
I just had to hope they’d done something to strengthen the flaky
rock along the way.

Ali jerked me
to a halt outside a rough wooden door. She pointed up at the sign
above it. Something I shouldn’t have been able to see, but the
circle and two V shapes seemed to have been magically carved into
the stone. Saved on tools I supposed. More than that, it was a
symbol I recognised.

“You should go
home Ali.”

“No way, you
won’t get back home without me. What is this place? Is it to do
with the dead guy?” The rush of questions threw me a second and I
had to re-centre myself. Drawing in power, I shook my head. The
girl was observant but also seemed to be unerringly curious. Or
maybe she just didn’t feel the same sense of danger that I did.

The door moved
easily under my palm and light flooded out. Not electrical light
either, someone was trying to impress with the sheer number of
candles it took to fully light a room. No windows meant that they
would need to be burnt all the time. Unless they opened the door
during the day. Somehow I doubted it.

Ali gasped as
she got a look. I let my poor eyes have a second to adjust. My
power was flowing around me, enough that it would alert anyone
inside as to what I was. I’d yet to come across a situation when it
was better to hide than to show off when dealing with
supernaturals. Especially this supernatural.

“Carlo. Get out
here, or by the veil I’ll drag you out by your balls.” My voice
resonated through the space, echoing off the walls and coming back
to me. Ali shrank to the wall and let go of me. Although she’d seen
my attempt to be scary earlier, she hadn’t seen what anger did to
my appearance. Not with my power about me. “Carlo.”

“Keep your hair
on dearie. No need for talk like that.” A man moved from deep
within the cave. At his full height he was easily 2 metres tall.
Towering over the lounging figures around him. “I never thought to
see you again. Come to fulfil your mother’s bargain?”

“That bargain
ended when you died,” I sneered. My betrothed was handsome, or at
least he had been when we were 15. I’d need my tacs in to really
make an assessment now. He seemed more hollowed out than I
remembered him. Of course, that can happen when you drop off the
grid and start to mix with the lowest of the low.

“You look a
little gothic there Mally.” He stopped half way towards us, his
hands held out in a peaceful sign. “And I much prefer the copper to
the blood colour you know.” I swallowed some of my power. I knew
that my hair would settle back into copper curls as I did. “What
brings you here?” I just looked at him, cocking my head slightly
and using my second sight more than my vision.

“You’re dying
Carlo.”

“No, no, not
dying. Not quite.”

“Then you’re
treading an awfully thin line. What, was my mother’s life energy
not enough? Or was it your father’s healing spells that failed?”
Taunting him might not have seemed like a good idea but there was
little he could do to hurt me. Beyond throwing me off the cliff, he
had become little more than a Wraith. The reason we didn’t bring
back the dead.

“I have
enough.”

“You trade
drugs for blood. Do they know what else they give you? Do they feel
the life as it leaves them, ages them?” I asked him. A few faces
looked up from around the room. They lounged in a stupor for the
most part. Flying too high to give a care what I said. But still
not too far gone to completely ignore the intonation.

“It doesn’t
take much. They don’t last long anyway, plenty going spare.”

“And the ones
that were found on the roads?” A sharp intake of breath was my only
warning before he was on me. He slammed me into the wall. Missing
the door by centimetres. I just kept looking at him. My eyes still
white with power. I threaded a tendril around him. Caressing him
from head to toe. He shivered and relaxed against me.

“You’ve learnt
a few tricks since we were together.”

“I’ve learn
more than tricks Wraith.” I spiked the power through him, shoving
energy into him and cycling it out again. The pain that flashed
across his face matched the fresh rigidity in his body. When I
stopped he slumped fully down to pool around my knees. All I had to
do was bend down and take his chin in my hand.

His eyes were
as dark and clear as ever but lines marred the once pristine skin.
He wasn’t as aged as the man on the roads, but it wouldn’t take
much to push him over the edge. My mother’s last gift no doubt.
She’d never spoken about it but I knew she wouldn’t have let them
go unharmed. Not when they took the better part of her own life
energy with them.

“It appears
it’s not possible to raise someone without sacrificing someone
else. How is your mother?”

“Dead two
years. All her years went into you.” I released his face and kicked
him back as I stood. He groaned and picked himself up.

“I had nothing
to do with it.”

“You jumped off
the cliff.”

“I was attached
to a rope!” I just shrugged at him. He didn’t look like he got to
indulge much in adrenaline chasing much any more. “Get out.”

“No, you draw
too much attention.” I went to push him back again but he held his
ground. Entrapping my wrists tight enough to send tingling through
my fingers.

“And you bring
a human here.”

“I bring
whomever I wish. Are yours so bound?” The tightening around his
eyes was enough. I twisted a bit of his silver hair around my
fingers where it fell down around my hands. “Silver hair. Bloody
knives. Although dagger is probably more appropriate. The dead say
the strangest things.” I all but whispered the last.