Stone Guardian (32 page)

Aislynn’s calm acceptance went a long way to help him regain control. Her jaw tightened for only a moment, but her voice was even when she spoke. “This is unhappy news, but not a surprise. It was a matter of when, not if. What of Rhaum and the Dream Crafter?”

Fallon must have decided to keep a lid on any more emotional displays to keep tension levels at bay. She replied in an even voice, “Inara tells me that he expects to have her in a couple weeks and to be ready for his mini-majesty’s summons when the time comes.”

If Rhaum said he would have her, it was as good as done. “I’ll want you and Laire to meet with her and explain the situation.”

Fallon’s mouth quirked at one corner, but her eyes still held that unsettling flicker. “Sure. Why not? I always enjoy playing puppet master to someone’s life.”

Before the conversation could go any further, the building shook in violent motions, a back and forth that had the three of them scrambling to stay on their feet. “What the-”

The shaking stopped and deep bellows sounded from the corridors, followed by the clang of sword on sword and high-pitched screams of pain.

Wulver spun away from the doorway and ran toward the sounds of fighting. Before him, orcs and goblins overran every free inch of space, their mottled green-skinned bodies blocking exits and using swords, axes, and bows to strike down anyone who came out of the doorways to fight them.

As soon as he was close to the main section Wulver leapt. The pain inside was dim, far away, easily ignored. Bones lengthened and teeth sharpened and senses magnified. With a hungry grown he crashed into the largest of the orcs. His jaws clamped over the creature’s face, tearing off skin and bone before he ripped into the thing’s throat, disgusting sludge coating his tongue and sulphur clogging his nostrils.

Aislynn’s arrows whizzed by his head as the archer stayed back to rain down death. Fallon took up position beside him and in concert they destroyed their enemies. Orc after orc stepped close to the moving Fallon only to have Aislynn’s arrows bring them down. Fallon twisted Tenro and slammed the sword into the chest of the creature in front of her. Before she could clear her sword an orc attacked from behind. She ducked and kicked back to hit the creature in the knee, which brought him down. Freeing Tenro, she sliced him in half and used the momentum to get the orc who came at her next.

Aislynn’s arrows flew past, striking some of them in the distance. Pandemonium reigned across the control room. For every enemy brought down, three more took its place.

Darkness swirled across the floor and Shadow rose to join the fight, taking out a goblin at Aislynn’s back. The elf tipped him a quick smile but did not stop her assault on the advancing hordes.

A ball of fire appeared in the middle of the latest group of goblins which appeared and proceeded to explode, creating piles of flame and ash and the explosion knocking down several nearby.

Fallon turned. “Dammit Laire, what took so long?”

Laire shrugged. “Had to find my shoes.” Motioning with her fingers she brought down bolts of lightning from the ceiling and fried the orcs in its path. “The whole place is chaos. Everywhere needs help.”

Laire looked to say more but a large orc came behind her. Fallon grabbed a dagger from her waist and threw it so it hit the orc in the eye. The dead creature would have crashed into the mage if Fallon hadn’t grabbed her and pushed her to the side.

Laire looked at the dead orc and gave a full body shiver. “That would have been ugly.”

“That’s why mages stay at a safe distance. How are you on spells?”

“Medium.”

There were still large groups of enemies. Fallon lifted Tenro. “Stay back and save power for the big stuff. Tell us what happened while I’m kicking some ass here.” And with that, Fallon charged into the melee and dragged a goblin away from a young female healer who was being pulled out of a nearby room. “How the fuck did they get past the barrier?”

Laire crossed her arms and leaned against the wall as Shadow vivisected a particularly ugly specimen ten feet in front of her. “Suicide onslaught. There were so many who hit at once the barrier was overwhelmed.”

Aislynn frowned before she let go of an arrow that brought down a hanging screen, killing several things that were under it. “It would have taken hundreds to do that, perhaps thousands.”

Laire’s expression was uncharacteristically somber. “Yeah.”

Aislynn shook her head in disbelief, risking a glance away from the battle toward the mage. “What are they after? What can they expect from this?”

A fresh batch appeared in the doorway, and Laire groaned. “Gods, how many are there? Can’t they stop coming? Hang on… Fallon, at the entrance!”

At Laire’s scream all eyes turned toward the gathering across the room, to see Larissa Miller in the middle of the pack of enemies. Fallon called out, “Time to use magic. Laire, get her.”

Laire created another ball in her hands that looked like an overgrown soap bubble. She aimed it and threw it at Larissa, hitting the woman dead center of her torso.

Nothing happened.

Laire stared at her hands, than back up at Larissa. Laire’s mouth moved, though no sound came out. Then her eyes widened, and all color fled to leave nothing but a chalky residue behind. “Oh gods,” Laire voice was low and terrified.

“Laire?” Aislynn’s voice held uncertainty, seeing their normally unflappable mage become this upset.

“She’s a null. That’s why they are after her. She’s a
null
!”

Fallon got knocked over in battle and fell to the ground. Before the orc could land another blow on her she flipped over in a handstand and brought Tenro up to slice the orc between his legs, from crotch to brainpan. Without stopping the motion she pivoted to bring Tenro down and cleave another orc in two.

Aislynn let loose several more arrows to take down the creatures around Larissa. The arrows struck true, but as soon as one fell another took his place. Whatever Larissa was involved in was their primary goal. “Laire, what do we do about Larissa? What the hell is a
null
?!”

Laire muttered to herself in the corner before crying out, “The vault! They’re using her to get into the vault!”

Aislynn could now see it wasn’t orcs and goblins which surrounded Larissa. A necromancer and his acolyte were at Larissa’s back. They made their way to the elevator which led to the vault, unconcerned with the battle that raged around them.

Laire darted across the battle scene, her focus on Larissa and the necromancer.

“Laire,
wait
!” Aislynn cried out. The mage didn’t stop, so Aislynn followed. An orc appeared in front of her. Aislynn jumped onto its shoulder, aiming an arrow and firing into his forehead before catapulting over him.

A troll tore across the floor and headed straight for Laire. Laire turned in time to see it and enacted a quick barrier in front of her, but the troll rocked against it and hurtled the mage across the floor.

Before it could get any closer to her Wulver jumped on him, his claws sharper than the skin, tearing a hole into his chest. While the creature was trying to throw Wulver off, Aislynn drew back and fired into that hole. The troll howled in pain, and Aislynn fired off several more arrows.

As one, the orcs and goblins all lifted their heads. The next moment they disappeared, magic letting them escape the building with the speed of thought, leaving blood and chaos and the bodies of their dead behind.

Wulver turned back into his human form, blood-drenched and eyes blazing as he came to stand before Laire. “What the fuck happened?”

Aislynn helped a shaky Laire onto her feet. “Laire, what were you saying before?”

“The vault.” Laire brought her hand up to her bleeding head and winced in pain as her palm met the torn flesh. “They wanted the vault.”

Wulver and Fallon took off, while Aislynn helped Laire before they went down to the vault as well. The mage and the elf entered the vault area in time to hear Wulver yell, “
Gods Damn
, how could they have done this?”

The vault door, one of the most magically protected items in the entire world, was hanging off its hinges. Items were scattered over the floor in sparse clutter while row upon row was empty. While not everything was taken, even someone with no knowledge of the contents could tell it was sacked.

Wulver hit a comm panel. “Tec, talk to me.”

A posh British accent replied. “Fully half our people are damaged, over fifty confirmed casualties which includes several of our healers. I’ve made the call for back-up but that will not be a quick process. I’m compiling what has been taken from the vault and will be finished shortly.”

“Get down here as soon as you have that list.” Wulver turned to Laire. “How did they get into the vault? A hundred mages working together shouldn’t have been able to break that open, and a lone vampire waltzes in here and does just that?”

“Larissa Miller. She’s a null. Magic has no effect on her. Walking into that vault was as easy for her as walking into a grocery store.” Laire began banging her knuckles into her forehead. “I should have caught it. I should have thought.”

Fallon grabbed Laire’s hand. “Stop the crazy. How could you have known?”

“She was born at the Great Collision. I concentrated on the fact that magical powers never materialized, but the ability to not be affected by magic is also a power. It’s just so much rarer I overlooked it.”

“But you put a shield on her and that worked,” said Aislynn.

“No, I didn’t. I put a shield
around
her. She only affects magic she comes into contact with. If I bothered to look into it, I would have found dozens of examples of how magic items broke around her.”

“And she didn’t know this about herself?” Aislynn asked.

“She lives in the most perfect place to
not
know it. Think about it. The least amount of magic they can get by with, no interest in pursuing magic, and while powers materializing would have made an impression, how do you figure out you cause the absence of something?”

“Yet somehow the vampires knew about her when we didn’t.” Anyone who knew Wulver knew that tone of voice did not bode well for anyone in his path.

Before any response could be made the elevator opened and Tec walked out, his gingery curls sticking up at all angles, testifying to hands being run through them dozens of times. “Three-hundred and forty-seven items,” he said without preamble, a list in his hands which was grabbed by Laire before he came to a standstill.

“Almost half gone,” Wulver said, voice low. He scratched his cheek, fingers curled against the angry-red scar. The fingers stopped and he looked up, his eyes tight on Laire. “They didn’t spend all that effort to get her solely to break into the vault. They need
her
for something very special. Search the list – what is big enough to start the rip, and it specifically needs a null?”

Laire was the embodiment of concentration, her eyes flying over the list. Her eyes stopped their movements and she jerked back, her mouth forming a soft
o
. “What day is today?”

“Tues-” began Ais, but Laire pulled out her phone and scrolled through the calendar. Her teeth ground together, a sound of pain escaping when she found what she had been searching for.

“
Well?
” demanded Wulver.

Laire’s eyes were wide, horrified. “They have the Stone of the Four Souls and the Dagger of Kerith Tay. They’re going to use her to release the Four Demons.”

“The demons the gods themselves had to band together to trap?” Aislynn’s voice shook. “There is no way a necromancer could control them. Not even to rip the realms asunder would they chance bringing them into this world.”

“I might not have any love for fangboy,” Laire said, her lips giving a little twist. “But I can admit how powerful he is. If any necromancer ever had the ability to control them, it would be Reign.”

“And he’s arrogant enough to be willing to try,” Fallon finished. “When?”

“Tonight,” responded Laire. “Tonight is a blue moon. It has to be tonight, when the moon is at its zenith. It’s the only time.”

Aislynn spoke. “It’s impossible to go against them tonight. Even if we knew where they are. Our forces are decimated. The mages used most of their spells to fight the invasion, the healers are overwhelmed, and our warrior strength is cut in half.”

“We can discover where the ceremony will be held.” Shadow stepped through the wall and pulled someone behind him. It was the acolyte from earlier, the one who walked with Larissa and the vampire, his hands bound behind him. “I caught him on the way out. I’ve already blocked his link with his master.”

“I do love that freaky shadow magic stuff you do,” Laire said, normal smart-assy coming back into her voice. Shadow tilted his head toward her, the only concession he heard the praise.

Wulver’s lips turned up. He turned to Fallon and arched his eyebrow. “That only leaves making some new friends to help us out tonight. Can you handle it?”

It was in the form of a question, but there was an undeniable order underneath that. Fallon nodded. “Of course, boss. I’m always up for making new friends.”

The acolyte watched them, a fervent gleam in his eye. “What makes you think I’ll talk to you and abandon my master?”

“Trust me when I say you don’t have a choice,” said Wulver.

“But I think I do.” And the Acolyte stuck out his tongue and bit through it. The pink fleshy nub fell to the ground and spurts of blood squirted from his mouth.

Before the tongue hit the ground Fallon pulled a knife from a sheath on the outside of her thigh. “Laire,
fire
.”

Laire complied, and Fallon’s knife went red-hot. Fallon grabbed the acolyte’s head with her empty hand and forced his mouth open, bringing the knife against his gushing tongue, burning lips and cheeks and any other skin that lay in the way and sent the smell of burning flesh spiraling through the air.

The man flailed and wrenched, but in long moments his wound was closed.

Wulver watched with no expression. When it was done, he turned to the mage “You need to bring Kyo. You would be fastest.”