Wordscapist: The Myth (The Way of the Word Book 1) (40 page)

      We reached the end of a corridor when I saw a petite woman in civvies, holding a CCC quirt, coming rushing through a door, banging it behind her. Zauberin immediately sent a bolt from her spell in the woman’s direction. The woman was fast though, and quickly absorbed the bolt with her quirt. She returned fire with a shock pulse, but Zauberin’s spell just absorbed it into the glowing blue ball. The woman had not tarried to see just what she had managed to pull off. She dived down the fire exit, and we could hear her clattering down the stairs. Zauberin rushed after her and I was left in the corridor, wondering what I should do now. I turned around and looked through the viewfinder to see a zombie walking towards me. I felt sick at the sight of the animated dead body lurching towards me, holding a baseball bat in its rotting hands. I was frozen right where I stood, recording what could well be my death approaching me.

     I heard sounds of gunfire, and saw three of the mercenaries rush out of one of the doors, firing wildly. The zombie was right in their way and took a wild swing, connecting the bat with one of the mercenaries, right on his skull. The cap that was part of his uniform and part of his scalp went flying, along with a piece of the bat. The man collapsed right there, dead or grievously injured. The other two mercenaries took one look at their fallen comrade and got the hell out of there, screaming at the top of their voices. They had been pretty spooked to start with. The zombie had been the last straw. They crashed through the door at the end of the corridor. I heard their screams die out abruptly, and wondered what nightmare lay beyond that door. Whatever it was, it had a zombie walking towards it. The zombie ignored me and followed the two men through the now shattered door, groaning and trying to say something that I could not quite catch. A few moments later, the zombie went silent too.

     Right then, Zauberin came charging out of the fire exit. She took one look at me staring at the door and whatever might lie beyond it, and then dashed right through its sagging frame. She had spunk, that woman! But then, she did not know that she was on the track of a zombie who hit home runs with people’s heads. Actually I reconsidered quickly. I felt sorry for the poor undead creature.

     I wondered if I should take the opportunity to run. It was then that I discovered what the three mercenaries had been running from in the first place. I heard the rhythmic clattering of claws on the gleaming floor as one of Sign’s beasts walked through the door they had run out of. The midnight blue from its coat, green from its beady eyes and yellow from its drooling fangs combined to light up the dim corridor in an eerie, other-worldly glow. It looked at me and snarled. For once, I did not freeze. I ran right after Zauberin through the shattered door, zombie or no zombie. I could hear the creature bounding after me. As I neared the door, I felt the creature spring into the air. In desperation, I launched into a flying leap myself, literally soaring through the door.

     For an instant, I saw the tableau laid out in front of me. Silvus and Zauberin were facing each other, ice-covered bodies covering the space between them. I could see wisps of a fast collapsing scape-warp on the floor. But what caught the eye, even in that one instant, was a huge glowing sphere suspended in the air in the middle of the corridor. It was a riot of glowing colours, rapidly expanding, clearly on the verge of exploding. Silvus had a snarl of rage on his face. Zauberin’s broad back was right in front of me. I could hear her shrieking and she sounded pretty pissed off too. She was shouting something along the lines of ‘No!’ when I flew full tilt into her firm derriere.

     The collision sent her crashing to the floor. As I fell, I saw the shape of the beast fly past, mere inches above me. It was a surreal moment as I watched its muscular, alien form glide past me – missing me and rather neatly disappearing into the sphere. There was a huge gloop of sound and then the sphere simply collapsed in on itself. Sphere and cat were gone but Silvus however remained, and he was glaring at Zauberin and me, his staff glowing with the power of a summoned spell. 

Amra

     That devil of a boy had managed to pull off much more than I could ever have imagined. I had no clue how. What struck me in the midst of all that chaos was the sheer cheekiness with which he went about everything, reminding me all over again that he was just a boy; an evil and dangerous boy though. I knew just how dangerous the Yaqui was. But he had been rendered completely ineffective. The demon that the boy had conjured up was perfect to counter the Yaqui and his knives. It had a dozen blades and whip like things all about it, and it pirouetted about like a damn ballerina in a free-for-all knife fight. And he had just whistled it up, like it was a pet dog of some sort!

     With the Yaqui down, I had to make a quick exit. They were too strong for me to take. I jumped through the hole the Yaqui had left, hoping desperately that another one of those deadly spells would not hit my exposed back.

     I did not waste any more time. I had to get out and get backup. I ran up the corridor and yanked the door open, banging it close behind me. Things just got worse. I saw the ungainly frame of Lily ‘Zauberin’ Pendleton before me, ready to attack with a huge glowing ball of energy. She even had a historian behind her, recording the encounter. I could not believe the woman’s guts; to attack the CCC, engage a CCC officer in combat and to top it all, record all that was happening using a historian! I did not have the time to be outraged. I did not even have time to duck, as a bolt came right at me. I brought up the quirt to absorb the spell, quickly threw a shock pulse at the murderous woman and ran to the fire exit. I needed to get out of here. I rushed down the narrow metal stairs, willing myself to go fast. I could feel the stairs shuddering as Zauberin clanged heavily after me. For once, I was grateful for my small size. I could move faster. I soon hit the ground and took off in a fast, weaving run across the courtyard. I felt a bolt surge into the earth to my left, tearing up a huge chunk of concrete and dirt. This woman was aiming to kill me. I could not keep up the running and I couldn’t teleport either without the teleport unit inside the building.

     I had no other option. I called to my Yen. I needed his summons! At the same moment, I leapt violently to the left, rolling as I landed on the hard floor. I was just in time. I saw another bolt searing into the spot I had been a second before. I rolled desperately, clutching my quirt hard, waiting for the next bolt to hit me and finish me. The bolt did come. But I was in luck. An instant before the bolt reached me, I felt the tug of a Yen summons. Everything froze, and still I saw the bolt inch forward, flattening up into a web of blue light on the port that had opened up. A moment later, I was in the infinite, formless white of Alter, sprawled flat on my back. A teleport block worked only with conscious teleports. They did not work with summons. That was the card I had been banking on. But it still had been too close for comfort.

     I gingerly picked myself. The Yen was levitating in the standard posture, suspended vertically, leaning forward a little with arms and legs bent slightly as if floating in some liquid. He was looking at me expectantly. There was someone else in front of him. I looked closely, unable to believe my eyes. It was a little man with wings and all, looking very much like a faerie. I had seen something like that in one of those fairy tale books back in my childhood. But there he was, fluttering his wings lazily as he too stared at me rather curiously. I could see that he was translucent and wondered if this was a mental projection of some sort. The Yen did have a strange sense of humour.

     “Amra?” the Yen spoke, his voice an unmistakable query.

      I quickly saluted, offering the standard greeting, “Health and peace, Yen-Hito.

      “To you too, Amra. What was that about? You sounded desperate.”

     “The Free Word is attacking the Glasgow bureau, Hito. I had to make a quick exit.”

      “I know about the attack. I have sent Yen Alahae with his team to help you.”

     “Oh, you knew?” I was taken aback. I did not think the call for backup would have reached the Yen.

     “Well, De Vorto here helped some with an advance notice on what was happening.”

     “De Vorto?” I looked incredulously at the fluttering faerie, “Alain de Vorto?”

      The faerie gave me a rueful grin. “The boy did this,” he explained with a gesture to his form, “I must say I do not find it so shocking now. It is pretty convenient to have this form and shape, especially when you’re a spirit.”

     “Alain de Vorto?” I repeated, rather stupidly.

     “Yes, Amra,” I could feel the smile in the Yen’s voice. Yen expressions always remained the same. You had to watch the voice for inflections that betrayed what they actually felt like. “De Vorto gave himself up to the CCC some time back, asking for a Yen, specifically me, to come pick him up. We have some history, going back a while. I have always been curious about all that he did and how he managed to stay off the CCC records. We were having a nice chat when I received your request. And gathering by the state you are in, I guess it was an emergency.”

     I stole a glance at myself and discovered that my clothes were torn and stained in a dozen places. I remembered the circumstances I had left in. I felt myself flush with embarrassment and anger. It was a matter of some pride to me that I was always immaculate in presentation. “I apologise, Hito. I was engaged in combat with Lily Pendleton, Zauberin as she now is. She took quite a few shots at me with a lethal energy spell.” I felt the surroundings swirl grey as the Yen’s rage sympathetically affected the section of Alter we were in.

     “She dares! The Corps will be avenged, Amra. Each one of those wordsmith rats and the norms with them will be hunted down like Continuum vermin.”

     I saw the grey swirling pretty violently, making me dizzy as the entire space around me changed from pristine white and took on the appearance of the centre of a storm cloud. I was not surprised though. The CCC was firm in Continuum management and just about ruthless when it came to any kind of law-breaking. An attack on the CCC was completely unprecedented and needed to be dealt with swiftly and without mercy. They would be made examples of.

      I waited patiently for the grey to turn a lighter and more comforting shade. De Vorto too faded into the background, his translucent form almost disappearing into the grey around him. I could not help wondering at the almost casual air between the Yen and De Vorto. It was almost like two friends catching up. There had been an order out for the execution of this character, and now the Yen was having a ‘nice chat’ with him. It was pretty confounding. Presently, the grey started clearing up. I sent the Yen a thought, not wanting to speak out the query aloud, “Hito, I was under the assumption that Alain de Vorto was a terminal convict. I do not understand the state of affairs right now.”

    “I can understand your confusion, Amra,” the Yen went on, his voice still trembling from residual rage, “this last hour has been most enlightening. De Vorto has cleared up a lot of misunderstandings. The Lirii have been playing the obsessive alarmists all over again. We’ve had this problem with them in the past. They tend to act like their eyebrows are on fire the moment they see someone smarter than them. De Vorto had been busy the two hundred odd years he was active, and his work is commendable. I do not understand how the Lirii could have read any of his actions as threatening; especially when he went to such lengths to minimise the impact of his scapes on the Continuum.”

     I realised that my jaw was slightly agape, astounded by the way the Lirii had just been written off like a bunch of paranoid spinsters. I had taken the report, word for word, as the absolute and incorruptible truth. All my actions had been guided by these very assumptions. Now, as what the Yen told me started filtering down and making sense, I felt like a complete idiot. I was not ready to give in, though.

     “But Hito, the boy has resisted arrest and woven scapes that are incredibly powerful. He has probably done more damage to the Continuum than the rest of the miserable bunch of wordsmiths put together. He has also hurt and humiliated CCC officials. We cannot let him go!”

     The last traces of grey around us disappeared. The Yen spoke, the smile once again apparent in his voice, “Perspective is a wonderful thing, Amra. I could have wrung that boy’s neck myself an hour back. Talking to De Vorto has been most enlightening. I have seen how the boy was torn from his world, thrust into the skewed realities of the Way of the Word, stuck with De Vorto here as a voice in his head. It would have driven anyone insane, leaving a trail of bodies on the way. Instead, the boy maintained his cool, and learned to weave under the most stressful conditions. I must say, I haven’t seen any damage due to his scapes yet.”

     “He has only sought to stay alive in a world where everyone he met tried to do him harm,” De Vorto said, flitting forward. “Tell me, Amra. Do you blame him?”

     I ignored the little figure. “Hito, I’m afraid I must bring him in for a trial. I agree that he is not a candidate for terminal execution anymore. But boy or not, I will not let him get away with all that he has done.”

     “I appreciate that, Amra,” the Yen said, nodding his head, “And I support that decision. Justice must always be served.”

     I could see that De Vorto was not too happy about that, but then that was the best he was going to get. I wondered if I should push my case for a conviction for Alain de Vorto too, but then decided to leave that to the Yen. I just wanted to get the boy alone in a scape-proof room for an hour. I think I owed myself that for the hell he had put me through.

     I decided to leave. I wanted to be part of the team that hunted down the Free Word murderers. “Hito,” I saluted, “Permission to leave. I would like to be part of the team hunting the Free Word members.”

     “Permission granted, Amra.” The Yen nodded.