Message Bearer (The Auran Chronicles Book 1) (29 page)

‘I believe it did. I
shall call our friend and let him know. The window of opportunity will be narrow.
We must be ready.’

‘You have great faith in
this plan, and yet it can all go wrong at the last. Such is the fragility of
this house of cards you have built.’

Marek levelled a gaze of
steel at the daemon. The alliance with the sheol was something he did not
enjoy, yet it was a necessity if his plan was to succeed. They felt the same,
and now more daemons were coming through, and not just the rambling hordes that
possessed the weak minded. Even now he could feel their loyalty to him
wavering. The Consensus was almost weakened beyond recovery. If it failed
completely, the sheol would be free to cross without burden.

Marek smiled. That would
not be allowed to happen. He gave his most polite nod before leaving.

‘Cade, you must sit down, this endless
pacing is going to do you no good.’ Silas said.

‘Sit down?  Really, Father?
After what’s just happened?’ Cade turned and resumed walking up and down in
front of his father’s desk.

How had it gone so wrong?
How did they not know that they were walking into a trap? Those magi! Those
useless goddamned magi! Four people had died, Seb had been taken. How the hell
could he just calm down?

‘Father’s right, dear Brother,
the magi were out of their depth. Their losses are regrettable, yes, but
really, isn’t it just what they deserved?’

‘Deserved?’ Cade rounded
on Reuben, his older brother even more infuriating by the way he slumped, legs
over one arm of the chair, gnawing on a ham hock taken from the canteen. ‘How
the hell is any death deserved?’

‘You sympathise too much,
brother. The magi brought this on themselves; perhaps now they will reconsider before
they embark on such foolhardy missions.’

‘Foolhardy?’ Was this for
real? He looked back at his father, at Reuben, and then back again. Neither of
them couldn’t give less of a shit if they tried. ‘What am I not seeing here?
Why do you not care? Nothing’s changed, the sheol are still coming though, and
now we’ve lost our only point of information.’

Silas sighed, the motion
exaggerated, clearly for effect. ‘I am sure there will be another way to
correct this unfortunate situation.’

‘Situation?’ Cade was
about to explode. The door opened to their private chamber and his father
raised a hand, silencing him before his rant continued. Albert had a phone in
his hand, he waved it at Silas, nodding him over.

‘If you will excuse me,
my son,’ Silas said, the fake sadness gone as he leapt from his chair.

‘You need to let it go,
Cade, I mean that.’ Reuben said.

‘Let it go, or what?’

‘You just need to decide whose
side you’re on, that’s all I mean.’

Cade squared up to his
brother. His temple pulsed, adrenalin flooding his veins. ‘Again, I ask, or
what?’

Cade felt the guards at
the side of the room - Reuben’s men - bristle at the looming confrontation.

‘Really, Brother, me now?
Is this how far you’ve fallen?’

There were four guards in
total, all of them the best of those ranks that made it through in recent
months. He could take them, all of them, but not before Reuben had put a knife
in his back. Reuben knew it too, and the smile on his face only increased the
growing fury.

‘Reuben,’ Silas called over,
entering the room with Albert. ‘A word.’

Cade watched as his
brother moved past him. He stared at the floor, drawing in deep breaths.
Something wasn’t right. The Nexus. The ambush. The loss of Seb. Now this crazy
behaviour. It just didn’t sit right.

‘Cade.’

The word, uttered in a
tone of ice, made him turn on the spot.

‘What is this?’

Silas stood by the door, Reuben
next to him. The guards were stood to attention, hands resting on their weapons.

‘I am truly sorry, my son,’
Silas said, slowly shaking his head.

Something tugged at Cade,
a hot pain that got stuck in his throat. A sudden grief swallowed his anger. ‘What
is it, Father, what’re they doing?’

‘Don’t make this more
unpleasant than it already is, Brother.’ Reuben said, taking a step forwards,
his men mirroring his step.

Cade took a step backwards.
He folded his arms, one hand slipping into his other sleeve.

‘Don’t, Cade, this is not
necessary.’

‘You tell me what is
going on, and then I’ll decide what’s necessary.’

‘The world is changing, Brother.
The magi are extinct, a relic of a dying age. We must turn to something more,
our roots, our true Brothers, in order to prosper.

 ‘What
are you doing, Father?’ Cade backed towards the desk. Two of the guards had
detached themselves from the wall. They maintained their distance, matching his
movement. Silas stepped forwards, flanked by Reuben and his remaining warriors.

‘Cade, you are truly your
mother’s son, but, like her, you simply don’t have the stomach to do what needs
to be done.’

It struck him like a
sledgehammer.

‘The Nexus? You set us
up? You’re in league with
them?’

‘You see, you simply don’t
have the vision. You cannot see.’

Cade shook his head. ‘Cannot
see what? That you’ve sold yourselves to the devil? You’ve broken the Oath!’

‘That Oath isn’t fit to
exist anymore!’ Silas said. Reuben smiled. The others nodded with earnest. Cade
lowered his arm, putting his hands in his pocket. He found what he was looking
for. He pressed the touch screen from memory, hoping it would call the right
recipient.

‘The magi are lost. A
relic. They are not what they once were and we,’ Silas said, calm returning to
him now, ‘are no longer bound to a memory.’

‘And what? So we sign up
with the other side instead? What’s it all for, Dad? What do you get out of it?’

Silas smiled as if it was
the most obvious thing in the world. ‘Why, to rule of course.’

‘Rule?’ Cade passed the desk.
The line was dimmer here, away from the glowing ambience of the chandelier.
Reuben sensed it too. Cade saw his brother tense, shooting a directing look at
the goon nearest him.

‘Of course. We are
imbued. The sheol are strong, but they cannot thrive here, the Consensus
prevents it. The humans are cattle. They are merely shells of blood and water
without any connection to the Weave. We would be like kings, and they will be
our slaves.’

He was insane. Cade could
see that now. The act of benign ruler, loyal servant of the Oath, defender of
the Brotherhood, it was all an act. A show to obscure the truth.

‘So why take Seb, what
does that accomplish?’

‘He’s stalling for time,
Father. Let us end this so we can get to the mansion and complete our mission.’

Their eyes locked across
the room, a mutual understanding grown from years of training. Reuben wasn’t
intending to let him leave the room alive, but neither did Cade intend to let
himself be taken.

‘Take him!’

Cade wasn’t a fan of
gunplay, but he wasn’t averse to using it when required. Before the two
warriors nearest him could move he’d put a bullet in their heads, the pistol
holstered against his back out in the blink of an eye. The others cartwheeled
away as he fired across the room, upholstery exploding in plumes of stuffing,
wood splintering as bullets sprayed.

Reuben bundled Silas out
of the door, narrowly avoiding a bullet that pinged off the door frame.  Reuben
shot a look of pure hatred back at Cade as it shut behind them.

Two brothers had fallen
in his surprise attack. Two remained, and now his weapon clicked, the barrel
empty.

‘Oh dear, oh dear, Cade,’
Korban, Reuben’s right hand man, said. His voice, laced with a sneer, drifted
through the gun smoke. ‘It looks like -’

Cade was up and over
already. Korban saw him coming but froze, his brain caught between speech and
action. Cade was on him, silver garrotte drawn taut between clenched fists.

The other warrior
barrelled into Cade from the side, his reactions better than that of his
leader. The wind left Cade as he smashed into a marble pillar. He blocked a
follow up kick to the face, but another found the side of his head and he was
sent tumbling across the floor, throbbing heat on one side of his face. He
vaulted up, hands up in a receiving stance, the room swaying before him.

Korban had recovered now
and bounded over. His face was a rictus of rage, the warrior shamed that he’d
almost been killed because of his own arrogance. He gripped a silver-flecked
short sword in one hand and a throwing knife in the other. Cade shook his head
and tried to focus, the room constantly shifting.

Korban raised the knife.
Cade tensed, readying himself, but the knife never came. The other warrior,
eager for his own scalp, stepped in front of Korban, the other warrior cursing
as he moved round, trying to find another vantage point.

Cade didn’t need a second
invitation. This was his one opportunity. He darted forward, diving inside the
clumsy attack from the first warrior. He came up inside, a punch striking the man’s
stomach, driving the air from him. Cade followed through, aiming an elbow at the
man’s exposed chin. The strike glanced against bone, knocking him back, before
a searing pain suddenly erupted in Cade’s back.

Cade fell away,
staggering from his stunned opponent. Korban stood before him, one hand empty
of the knife that now protruded from Cade’s side. Blood poured from the wound,
but it was light, not dark, no major organs injured. He could feel the burning
already though, the daemon-killing poison already worming its way through his
veins.

‘What’s the matter,
Bossman? Not feeling too good?’ Korban circled round him, smiling. The other
warrior came forward at the same time, rubbing one hand over his jaw. Before
Cade could even react, the warrior backhanded him, sending him sprawling in a
heap against the desk.

‘My, oh my, your brother
said you’d put up more of a fight than this, I didn’t think it would be so
easy.’

Korban stepped closer.
Cade couldn’t see him, but he could sense the movement in the air, the distance
only a couple of feet at most. A shadow cast over him, the other warrior taking
up position on his other side. Korban moved lightly, his steps not audible, but
the other bounced on cold stone. It smacked of overconfidence, of opportunity.

Cade rolled onto his
stomach, bringing his knees upwards. The other man stepped closer. A foot away
now.
Just a little closer.

‘We should take a picture
of -’

Now.

Cade whipped the knife
out of his side, ignoring the flash of pain, and hurled it sideways. It was a clumsy
throw but the distance was next to nothing, almost impossible to miss. He heard
the familiar hiss of tearing flesh as the man pivoted, eyes wide, hands
clutched against his neck where blood pissed through his fingers.

Cade rolled away,
springing to his feet. Korban was experienced enough not to be fazed by the
sudden event and he didn’t disappoint. The warrior was on him already, sword
slashing, the blade clanking against the iron rods in Cade’s sleeves. Cade backpedalled,
completely on the defensive without a weapon of his own. With every passing
second the poison crept that much farther in his veins. Stabbing points of pain
stung his legs and black veins cracked over his vision.

Cade parried two more
strikes that were aimed at his chest. With the third strike, Korban feinted.
Cade saw the move but his leaden limbs couldn’t match his mind. Korban kicked
him hard in the stomach, sending him flying into the wall, the wind blasted
from his lungs.

He was done. Korban
rushed forwards, business end of the sword aimed at his heart. His limbs were leaden,
the energy wiped from them. He fixed Korban with eyes that saw just shadow, and
waited for the inevitable.

The door exploded
inwards, sending shards of wood flying through. Someone, a figure, a blur,
roared into the room. Korban shouted. A gun fired. Cade winced, expecting the
worst. Something grunted and hit the ground next to him with a wet thud.

‘Cade!’

Someone, a familiar
voice, came close. A shadow fogged his vision.

‘Shit, he’s poisoned! Get
me some anti-venom, now!’

‘Father...’ It was his
voice, but distorted, far away.

‘Don’t worry about him
for now. We need to get you safe.’

‘They betrayed us. They
betrayed us all.’

Darkness came, and he
fell into the abyss.

‘So, what’s your story?’ Seb said.

The escape from the
church had been remarkably incident free since they burst out of the passage.
Two sheol had met them there, but they were half-mad, half-starved. Sylph
dispatched them before they even realised that she was there. After that they
forced themselves through a section of broken links in the fence, before running
down a steep, wet hill of grass that ran down the back of the compound. Now
they walked down a narrow side street, keeping to the shadows, the only light
from a couple of streetlights that flickered intermittently.

‘What do you want to know?’
Sylph stopped at a corner, pressing herself flat against the wall. She did this
a lot, Seb noticed, apparently not trusting their own
sense
. When she
was satisfied they were still in the clear she moved out, keeping again to the
shadows.

‘Let’s start with you.
You’re not a daemon. You’re not possessed. Why are you working with them?’

‘I was deceived. I
believed they were something they are not.’

Seb raised an eyebrow. ‘Really,
what did you hope they were? They don’t exactly try to hide their nature with
smiles and a warm demeanour.’

Sylph stopped. She spun
around, fixing him with an icy stare.

‘We do things we have to
do in times of war, even if we don’t want to.’

‘Are you for real? You
agree with what they were doing? Taking the weak, the feeble? Possessing them
like they were nothing more than empty vessels?’

Sylph’s eyes flared in
the dark. ‘They were the lost. They were possessed because they
could
be, nothing else. If the sheol hadn’t done that then they’d be dead anyway, by
what means I’ll leave that to this wonderful world of yours.’

‘It doesn’t excuse what
they’ve done. What you’ve done!’

They were nose to nose
now. Energy crackled in Seb’s fists, and he could sense Sylph’s posture
shifting, tensing.

‘You have no idea what I’ve
been through. What my people have been through,’ Sylph whispered, her voice so
sharp it could cut through glass. ‘You live here, on Earth, in your safe place.
You have no idea what’d gone on before you arrived on the scene. How many lives
have been lost because of what your kind did!’

‘My kind? The magi?’

‘Yes! And you’re
betraying Brotherhood.’ Tears streamed down her face now, her arms trembling as
she spoke. The aggression drifted away like a breeze, allowing another, rawer,
emotion to rise to the fore. He remained silent. She needed to get this out.

‘We claw out an
existence, the survivors of Balor, the true followers of the One God, living on
rocks like a mollusc, hiding in shadows, living in fear.’

‘I’m sorry. I had no
idea,’ he said, shaking his head.

‘You wouldn’t would you!’
she spat. ‘None of you do! History is written by the winners, by those who
survived. Great Danu and his followers managed to escape the Sharding, but what
about those who followed Balor? We were meant to be both sides of the same
coin, that’s what the scriptures told us. But no, you survived, and we were
left to fend for ourselves.’

‘I didn’t know there were
two factions. The tomes I read only talk of Danu and the Crossing. I’d never
heard of Balor’s followers.’

‘Looks like both of us
have been deceived then.’

Sylph turned away without
a word. She walked ahead of him, the mood following her like a cloud. She
sniffed as she walked, stomping down the middle of the alley, splashing through
puddles and knocking debris to one side with a clatter. Every now and again another
sniff filled the air.

They stopped twenty
minutes later. Sylph paused, scanning the alley for something.

‘What is it?’ Seb cast
his sense forwards. Sylph’s aura fluctuated before him. A beam of Weave-energy
projected out from her. He stopped.

‘You’re skills are good.’

Sylph didn’t look round.
She moved along the wall, her fingers trailing over the uneven stone. ‘You
sound surprised.’

‘Marek has taught you a
lot.’

‘He was good to me, once.’

‘How did you come to be
with him? You know he was once one of us?’

‘He told me. He was one
of them, but became disillusioned with their ways. How much of this is true
anymore I don’t know, but he told me that when he found out about the plight of
the Baloran’s he begged the Magister for aid, but they rejected him.’

‘So you’re a Baloran? A
native from there?’

Sylph held out her wrist.
A red rune, faded with time, was etched into the skin.

‘It’s a Baloran symbol. I
don’t remember anything about my childhood. All I know is that I’m not human,
and that I’ve struggled to fit in all my life. That is, until Marek found me.’

‘Then why help me? Why
now?’

‘I saw Sarah’s dreams. I
realised that Marek had betrayed me too. He’d told me that the sheol were
victims of Danu’s betrayal too, that they were our kin.’

Sylph let out a rueful
laugh and looked to the ground.

‘What did you see?’

‘The sheol. They were
desecrating Balor’s holy site.’

Sylph’s head rose. Eyes
brimming with fury faced him.

‘What was Sarah doing
there?’ Seb said.

‘Marek believed she was
working for him, obtaining some ancient Runic Script that Balor had created to
help him defeat the magi on this realm once and for all.’

‘But Sarah was working
for them, sorry,
us
. She saw the risk and fled with it?’

‘She betrayed me. But in
a way, I can understand why. She was loyal to her cause as I was to mine. She
intended to bring it back before that
thing
found her.’

‘Clementine? You saw it?’

‘It is the last memory of
hers I have. She was so near to freedom, yet when she saw the fiend, all hope
died.’

‘And that’s when she ran
into me.’

Sylph ignored him. She stopped
at a point along the wall.

‘Here.’

Seb moved to her side. To
the normal world it looked like a rusted metal door covered with rotten wood
and sheets, but as Seb shifted his vision, allowing him to perceive beyond the
illusion, the wood faded away, the sheets becoming loose cobwebs hanging over a
simple wooden door. The Weave echoed from the barrier, a subtle hiss like an
out of tune radio. As Sylph pulled the handle the noise rose in pitch before
vanishing as they entered the narrow tunnel beyond.

‘How did you know this
was here?’

‘Marek found them years
ago. We don’t know who put them here, but they’re scattered all over the place.
Most of them have collapsed or have been blocked. Some, like this one, still
have their uses.’

Sylph stepped inside,
vanishing into shadow. Seb took one last look down both sides of the alley
before following.

‘How many of these things
are there?’ he said.

The tunnel was near-black,
with only the same purple moss that he’d seen in the Nexus illuminating the way
ahead.

‘What? Ways?’

‘Yeah. Like this one.’

She shrugged, ‘Dunno,
most of them were lost, along with most of the other useful things the magi
once knew. I found this one when I was sleeping with a young acolyte. He tried
to impress me.’

‘Did it?’

‘For a time. A sheol
gutted him ten minutes after showing it me, so any chances of reciprocation
were lost.’

‘You sound really cut up
about that,’ he said.

Sylph shrugged and
continued. They walked in silence for what seemed like hours. Eventually the
air began to lose its musty odour. A freshness came, and the darkness began to
recede in favour of faint shafts of light. The angle of the tunnel shifted, and
Seb’s ears popped as they began to ascend.

The tunnel terminated at
a wall of brick, the once vivid red now a faded brown, overgrown with lichen.
Seb pressed his hand against the wall, and turned back, shaking his head.

‘Great, now what?’

Sylph shot him a look of
disbelief as she pushed past him.

‘They really didn’t teach
you anything, did they?’ She reached her hand into the darkness that still
clung to the outer perimeter of the wall. ‘Ah,’ something clicked, and before
Seb could even comment Sylph stepped
through
the wall.

‘Apparently not.’

He followed her through,
squinting as he pressed his face into the brick.