Nemesis (34 page)

“Right,” he said, in a low voice. “What was your plan? I’m guessing you weren’t just running through the forest at random.”

“Act as a shield,” I said. “Stupid idea, I know. But I don’t know how to fight a force like that without magic. We need to destroy their weapon.”

“Yeah,” said Kay. “We do.”

“What
is
it?” I asked. “It’s not any source I know, right? Not bloodrock.”
Or adamantine.

“It’s called lustre,” he said, quietly. “And few people know that. It’s an amplifier. I don’t know if it
can
be destroyed, but it isn’t antimagic. If someone hit it with magic, even an Alliance stunner, it would be enough to turn it into a bomb. I guess they planned to take it through that doorway. If they activated it here, they’d die, too.”

Crap.
We needed to move even if we had no solution. Still invisible, we made our way as fast as possible through the trees. Down below the cliffs, the four people working on the machine were regrouping, by the look of things. One man shouted something, agitated, but their backs were turned on their work. We navigated our way down the cliff, approaching the machine carefully. Interlocking metal plates encased a gleaming multi-sided hunk of metal-like black rock. I would have taken it for adamantine if I didn’t know the difference now. This source didn’t absorb magic but enhanced it.

“What the devil did you bring that here for?” That was Conner. I recognised him from when Kay had dragged him into the clearing.

Another man shouted, “I told you, they took the Campbells’ base! If we’d left the rest of the machine there, Enforcement would have taken it. I haven’t heard from Leroy. I’ll bet they have him already. Wynn, you drew too much attention.”

“Oh, so it’s my fault?” a woman shot at him. “You’re the one who said we couldn’t leave it at the Campbells’. The Alliance will be there by now. We can open another door and get it out of here while they’re preoccupied.”

“And so are you,” Kay muttered, almost too quiet to hear, as we got close enough to reach the machine.

The rocky ground had been split open down the middle. There was no more lustre. They’d taken all of it to put into their machine.

“Ada.” Kay spoke, the faintest whisper. “I think you can get it out of there. Most people wouldn’t be able to touch it. But–”

“I can absorb magic.” Whatever defences they had, I might be able to absorb them. If I was willing to take the risk. “Okay.”

He squeezed my hand, pressing something into it. “The earpiece. I contacted Markos already, but just in case. Can you take care of those guys?”

“Take care of?” My heart beat fast.

“However you want to.”

He meant, I could kill them or silence them another way. Like he’d knocked out those guys in Campbell HQ. Which I’d choose depended on how merciful I felt towards the people who’d captured and tortured my family.

“Wait…”

But his hand slipped from mine. “I’m still drawing on its power. I don’t know how much I have left. I’ll divert their attention. You get that lustre out.”

“Kay–no!”

Too late.

I hope that didn’t mean goodbye.
I climbed the rest of the way down the incline, towards the machine.

The lustre was in the direct centre, surrounded by a tangle of wires I could only assume activated it as a bomb… but the lustre was the only place I felt the magic coming from. Which meant one of the Conners had to be able to use magic to activate it. If I took the lustre out, they wouldn’t be able to use it anymore.

I dropped down the incline and reached for it. Magic seared through me, but as heads turned in my direction, a fork of lightning shot from the sky on the opposite side of the plains.

A voice rang out. “Show yourself, magic-wielder!”

My heart dropped. A tall woman had broken away from the group, and headed in the direction the lightning had come from. Towards Kay. She must be Aric’s sister.

Kay appeared, directly beneath the door, fury etched on his face.

“You,” he said. “If any of you people interfere, you’re dead.”

***

KAY

So this was her. Wynn. Aric’s sister, who’d been behind the wyvern incident. Who’d tortured Ada’s brother, and killed a dozen officers on Valeria.

“You’re Walker,” she said, predictably. I didn’t even bother arguing, just fired a shot of magic at her. She dodged, but I meant her to.

I’d already turned invisible again and charged her, slamming her into the ground. Magic sparked around her, sending both of us rolling across the plain into a gap between the rocks. I landed on my feet, pinning her to the wall as the backlash shot over our heads.

And then she held a dagger to my throat. An Alliance-issued, adamantine dagger. Magicproof.

Fuck.
I hadn’t prepared for this. I was backed against the rock, no room to manoeuvre, and even magic–

She grinned. “Gotcha. Never expected that, did you, Walker?”

There was maybe half a metre between her and the opposite wall. Magic sparked around her dagger hand. The blade was icy-cold.

I took in all these details in the split-second I made up my mind.

I pushed at the air, the magic forcing her to back against the opposite wall. As her dagger swiped again, I raised my left arm to block the blade, and grabbed for the handle with my right.

Her eyes widened.
Never expected that, did you?

Thanks to her and the wyvern, I couldn’t feel the blade slice into my skin, even as blood dripped down my arm, and her surprise was enough to give me the advantage. My fingers closed over the wyvern-hide handle and I pulled, hard. She only resisted a second before letting go before I broke her fingers.

I could kill her now. But I wasn’t about to risk being trapped again. Grabbing her arm, I dragged her out of the incline. Magic sparked around the dagger as I held it to her throat, and pressed.

Something flashed in the corner of my vision. In a second, everything seemed to slow down, details hitting me all at once–the doorway had disappeared, ten or more centaurs gathered on the clifftop, and a dozen spears were flying right at us.

***

ADA

Again, I extended my hand towards the lustre, and met an invisible shield that set every nerve in my body vibrating. Like second level magic. I jerked to the side, sweating all over.

Was this what it felt like to be killed with magic, burned from the inside out?

No. I’m adamantine. I’m unbreakable.
I pushed through the invisible shield, and closed my hand over the cold, gleaming black metal.

Magic seared through my veins, and I clenched my teeth to keep from crying out. My hand shook, the rock pulsing with power, but I held on. My other hand locked around the lustre at its base. The buzzing rose to a fever pitch as I pulled all the magic towards me. Into me.

Like before. No. Not like before. This time… I could control it.

I let the magic flow through my fingers. I was the conduit, and the magic flowed out of the bomb, through me, into the atmosphere. I dug my heels into the ground, and gave one last tug.

The lustre came free of its casing with a sharp noise, lost under the sound of the fight. My hand tingled with heat, but didn’t burn. The lustre’s black gleam was fading. I’d drained the magic right out of it.

Kay and the woman were still fighting. Both alive. My heart beat faster.

And then Mr Conner turned around. Saw the dismantled machine, and shouted.

Shit.
I froze on the spot. Rustling noises sounded in the trees, and a thrill of dread went through me. Centaurs emerged from the edge of the forest, on the cliff-top, spears and crossbows pointed. At Kay, who still grappled with Aric’s sister.

I cried out, but too late.

A spear soared towards them, plunging into Wynn Conner, and Kay, pressed to her back, went still.

***

KAY

The spear pierced Wynn through the heart, stopping only inches from mine. I held my breath, blood streaming from my arm, as she fell.

At the same time came the sound of several other bodies hitting the ground. The three men, the Conners, all fell in a haze of blood, speared by the centaurs’ crossbows.

“Ada!” She wasn’t amongst the dead. She must still be invisible…

“Justice,” said a voice, in Aglaian, and other centaur shouts rang out in agreement.

ADA

Holy hell.
My knees went weak with shock. That spear… had almost hit Kay.

The bodies of the Conners lay only metres away. The centaurs had already re-armed themselves, led by their new queen. She’d been the one to throw the spear.

“Ada!” Kay scanned the fallen bodies, eyes wide.

Breathe, Ada.
I concentrated on the magic still swarming around and switched off the camouflage. Instantly, a dozen spears pointed in my direction.

“Stop,” said Kay, taking a step forward. One arm was dripping blood. “Lower your weapons.”

“That’s enough.” Markos stepped up besides his sister. “Let them go.”

“Kay,” I said, taking that as the cue to run to him. “You’re bleeding. Holy
shit!
” It was a wonder he was still standing. Blood seeped down his left arm.

“I’m all right, Ada. We have to get out of here.”

“You–seriously.” He didn’t object when I took his arm and pushed up his left sleeve to show a long, vicious cut, right across the wyvern scar. “Can you really not feel it?”

“Lucky I can’t.” He half smiled. “She didn’t know. It was her goddamn wyvern that did it. Nice bit of irony.”

“Jesus Christ, Kay. Not being able to feel pain doesn’t mean you can’t bleed to death, you idiot!”

He rolled his eyes. “Never mind that.”

Markos waited at the cliff top, between us and his sister. Eidora regarded us with anger in her expression, but her brother must have told her to step aside. Markos filled us in on what had happened while we’d been stopping the Conners. The doorway they’d opened was nowhere in sight, thanks to the council, apparently, who’d used Alliance tech to close it. The kimaros had gone, back to whatever ghastly world they came from. And Aric had disappeared, too. Either he’d wandered off on Aglaia or he’d gone into the Passages through the open door. Either way, I didn’t particularly care. I wanted to get back to my family.

And we had a long walk to explain it to the council. Doing that without mentioning the lustre source was tricky, but Markos and Kay managed to tell the story while glossing over that particular part of the explanation. The council were more concerned with the treachery of the Conner family.

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Kay muttered. Though his arm was bandaged, he was still pale.

“Kay, seriously. Let someone carry you or something.”

“Like hell.”

“Piggyback on Markos?” I suggested innocently. The centaur glared at me. “What?”

“Aric bloody Conner.” Kay glanced over his shoulder. “I’ve no idea if he escaped into the Passages. I still don’t trust him.”

“You let him go, though…” I said, slowly.

“Guess I did. He was kind of clueless about what was happening. But someone gave him a magic-boost.” Kay’s expression darkened. “His family were messing about with Klathican tech. I’ll have to look into that when we get back.”

“You’re already thinking about the next crazy thing you’re going to do?” I shook my head. “You’re impossible.”

“I prefer ‘improbable’,” said Kay.

Improbable. A human amplifier. I’d felt the same thing from him when he’d amplified my power as I did from the lustre.
Kay amplified the magic from the Chameleon to turn invisible.
So the experiment his father had orchestrated hadn’t involved bloodrock, though that had kick-started all of this. Someone had stolen it from the Alliance, who’d confiscated it from the Knights. The ravegens had used it on the orders of the Conners… but how had they even known it existed in the first place? Maybe from Delta, whose family had been involved with Cethrax at some point, using the monsters as a diversion just like the Conners had.

It was all I could do to walk upright. I just wanted to sleep for a year and leave someone else to deal with the fallout. Go back to my family. And Kay… I glanced at him again. I wanted to know what else he could do with magic. But then, I barely knew what
I
could do. I’d never thought I had the ability to pull the magic right out of another source before.

Once we reached the main Passage, a crowd swarmed us. People from all the worlds, descending on the council, demanding to know what happened. Markos swore, grabbing Kay’s non-injured arm. Kay shook him off, and Markos signed melodramatically.

“Come on, humans.”

He cut a path right through the middle of the corridor, the crowd instantly shrinking away from him. Turning the corner to the corridor with the doorway to Earth, we almost collided with Carl.

“What the devil happened?”