Swift (Strangetown Magic Book 1) (15 page)

"Just got excited. I haven't seen, er, let's call him Dan for oh, must be since the thing with the boat. And our language, it all came back to me. Such a wondrous way to speak."

"Is Dan really a guy or..." Then it hit me. "The thing with the boat. You mean the ark, don't you?"

"That's the one," said Mack cheerily. "Boy were we busy then. Good old days. Apart from the rain, but we don't get that at home so it wasn't really a bother."

"Spare me. Come on, let's get closer." We'd come for one reason and one reason only, to get a sense for the place, to feel what Levick was searching for. He was looking for something, or waiting for something, so what was it?

Just a Hole

"It's just a hole," said Mack, leaning forward and peering into what he'd summed up perfectly.

It was a real letdown. He was right, it was just a bloody large hole about twenty feet deep the size of a football stadium. The city's innards could be seen jutting out from the edges. Cables, pipes, everything that made its heart beat. The rest was dust, gray and lifeless.

"There has to be something," I said, trying to get my thoughts together and banish the nightmare visions the talk in the demon mother tongue had conjured up. We took a few steps back and studied the area, but it was the same as it had always been since it got cleared up. Dirt, rubble, a hole. Even the birds stayed away, there was nothing for them here. The only creatures that came were the Strange, hoping to return home.

As the churning in my gut and mind receded, I looked up into a clear sky, thinking of Levick the night before and his search for something. What was it? What was he looking for, hoping for? A change in the air, or maybe a ripple in the Pool? That had to be it. He had to be expecting a sign of some sort from the Pool, a sense of the Rift returning, or was it something else entirely?

I didn't even want to think about something else happening. My imagination wasn't up to conjuring an event more terrible than what had already come. How much worse could it get? A lot, I guessed. We could have a million angry elves, or maybe hell itself, dumped right on top of our heads. I felt the weird distortions in the air, but they were the same as always. Not overpowering, but certainly not making me keen to stay.

"You want me to search the Pool for anything, go all undercover and shit?" Mack squatted to look into my eyes, but he was still too damn tall so I had to look up.

"Will you stop with the stupid catchphrases and weird talking. It's annoying."

"You love it really." He winked at me.

I couldn't help it, I smiled. "Idiot. But yes, see if it feels different to you here."

"Yeah, babe, I can do that." Mack settled down right at the edge of the hole, sat with his feet dangling into space, and leaned back to lie down.

With nothing to lose I joined him, staring up then closing my eyes, trying to get a sense of the magical field. Maybe him being here would help to get deeper and closer to the truth of how it happened. Maybe.

I don't know how long we lay there for, as when you go deep into the Pool rather than just draw on it time ceases to have any meaning. It's not a place so much as a feeling, a potential where pretty much anything is possible and what we think of as the laws of our Universe go out the window and are replaced with a new set of realities, if that makes any sense at all. See, this stuff is confusing.

All I do know is that when we both sat up and looked expectantly at each other, we had nothing. We didn't need to speak, and for once Mack was silent, just shook his head.

"Okay, guess this is a bust."

"You want a piggyback?" offered Mack.

"Why the hell not?" And for the next five minutes Mack ran around the hole with me on his shoulders, both of us making silly noises and him getting faster and faster until we were a blur and I was dizzy and laughing and screaming for him to stop. For a few glorious minutes we had genuine, innocent, wonderful fun.

As with all such things it came to an end all too soon, and we were left right back where we started. No better off, no miraculous insights, but at least we were happy. Friends, I guess you'd call it. A puny human and an immortal demon stood in the dirt next to a big hole in the ground.

"Thanks, Mack."

"No problemo. What now?"

"I think I'm just going to go see Levick and try to get some answers."

"I wouldn't confront him, that's not wise."

"You got that right. No, I'll just go see him and suss him out, nothing too heavy. But I need to look into his eyes, get a proper feel for the man. I've known him so long and this just seems crazy. He's a creep, for sure, but killing kids, in league with the elves, it's serious conspiracy stuff and I never thought he would turn on us."

"You want company?"

"No thanks, it's best I go alone."

Mack left me to it and headed into the city, saying he wanted to catch up on old friends now he was back in his normal form and was remembering the language.

With nothing else to do, and trying not to think about Pumi being left alone with Robin back at the church, I made my way through the streets as my mind raced. I could see nothing good coming out of anything I uncovered.

To calm my nerves, I smoked a cigar, hiding my unease behind a cloud of smoke.

All Business

Levick has always had a head for business, it's like he was born to be in charge. He's all about efficiency, getting the job done, and he does not do chit-chat. He does work, and not a lot else. I've always thought of him as the one that really keeps human Strange in order, keeping us on our toes here, his influence spreading out across the country through a series of loosely connected networks that all lead back to him, and to the Queen.

Ours isn't any kind of official government, we are way too different and too full of individuals for that to ever be possible. But for as far back as pretty much anyone can remember, and since we have known about each other, there have been certain rules you abide by and there have been those that are in charge if there are issues to be dealt with.

For the longest time this was all just background to our everyday lives, keeping us together in a kind of secret family that mostly never got on and didn't talk to each other, but it changed as acceptance became the norm, and when Strange showed themselves to the world, things inevitably became a little more organized.

Because the world now knew there were those that could harness the Pool, or those with magic-born gifts, or curses, along with those changed by a warped magic virus such as zombies or vampires, we had to keep control of our own kind more closely, ensuring the slow acceptance continued.

What was once a loose network of Justices around the city, the country and the world, took on a rather more formal organization, although us being us it has never quite become official. It's not like we clock in or out, go to the office every day, fill out paperwork or any of that stuff, that's not how most of us function and nobody would do the job if that was what it involved. We are, after all, human beings that can warp reality and use magic. Who's going to spend their life in an office when you can summon magic and get the boring stuff done by an immortal faery in exchange for some gossip?

But Levick, he's different, and I have never doubted that it is down to him that our kind have thrived under the new world order we finally found ourselves a part of. He loves the mundane, the detail, keeping us in line, giving orders and ensuring nobody uses their gifts in ways that will hurt the rest of us or the world at large.

Justice, that's what I am, that's what I give. We don't have trials or long-winded proceedings and interviews getting to the heart of the crime, if you mess up and abuse your gifts, get on the radar when ripples in the Pool are detected and you are found to be the one guilty, then you get dealt with.

Punishments vary, none of them involve a slap on the wrist.

Levick has always been fair, sending out a Justice to deal with the culprit, his orders purportedly coming from our figurehead, our true leader, the imitable, the stoic, the enduring Queen.

We have always had such a figurehead, a long line of kings and queens that are there to deal with issues that arise, to give us a sense of order, of belonging, of family. We all live under her care and protection, and her decision is final. Levick is her arm of our law, and he takes the job very seriously.

So how could this man, this upholder of our way of life, our very way of being, be corrupt and sending me to exact punishment on a man that was innocent, and do it knowing full well this was the case? How could he be the one involved in the death of an innocent, or enter elf HQ?

It made no sense. I had to see for myself, and I had to hope I wasn't making a bad move by walking right into the lion's den.

As the door closed behind me and I walked down the quiet corridor of the large building that housed the Queen's aides, the numerous people that managed our world and its subtleties, I got the urge to turn around and run the hell away. But that wouldn't lead to answers and above all else I needed those answers.

I had to find a way to help Pumi, to uncover the truth, and understand what was going on. Our world was in danger, and Levick was the key. There was no choice.

I was nervous, and I don't get nervous, but I put it aside, knowing I had to be the person I had always been, otherwise he'd see through me in a heartbeat.

I pushed open the door and breezed into his office. I never knock, so doing it now would be out of character.

"Levick, what in the Queen's name is all this shit with Pumi? You better have answers for me or I'll rip off that mop you like to pretend is real hair and turn it into a cat before I use your bald bonce as a ball and kick the living shit out of you?" That was all right, wasn't it?

Levick finished what he was doing on the computer, looked up, and smiled his utterly cold smile. "Ah, Swift, I wondered how long it would take you to come see me. Have a nice shower, did he?"

Aw, shit, is there anything this man doesn't know?

"Are you spying on me?"

"No, I am spying on everyone, and you, and him, happen to be included in that. You haven't forgotten who I am, have you?"

"You're a sneaky son of a bitch. You are playing games and I don't like it. So, no, I haven't forgotten who you are. Spill it, or I'll spill you, right here, right now." Okay, look, it didn't go according to plan. I couldn't help it, it's not in my nature to pussyfoot around. And anyway, one look at his face and I knew there was no way he was working against us.

"Please, spare me the weak one-liners. I have never been amused by them and I am not about to start laughing at your inept attempts at humor now. If you want an adult conversation then fine, if not..." He waved a limp hand at the door. Ugh, this man, he's too damn clever for his own good.

Without being invited, I took a chair, actually feeling better than I had since I got the job, knowing in my heart that whatever else Levick was he wasn't a traitor.

"What's going on, Levick? Why are you having me running around like an idiot almost getting myself killed, or killing innocents, when you know damn well what the truth is and are making me look bad?"

"My, my, you really should have had a longer shower."

Damn this man, did he have eyes everywhere? I took a deep breath, and said, "Just get on with it. The offer of a cracked head still stands."

"Do not presume to try my patience too much, Swift. You forget yourself. You forget who I am. What I am."

Then it hit me, I really didn't know who he was or what he was. He has always just been Fester, Levick, the boss in the Queen's stead. Yet I knew next to nothing about this man, nobody did, and that was why we mostly did as we were told—nobody ever wanted to find out.

You can feel it just being close to him, something deep and dark and powerful all around him, perplexing and strange like no other Strange are.

Magic.

Conspiracies

"I'm being watched," he said, matter-of-fact.

I couldn't help glancing around the room, as if surveillance equipment would be in plain sight, monitoring us.

"Come on. Nobody watches you, you do the watching."

Levick leaned forward and sideways around his monitor. "By the elves," he whispered.

"What!? How? Why? What's this all about?"

"I can't tell you anything else, not now and not—" Levick gasped and visibly shook as he glanced in shock at the open doorway.

I turned and a moment later my chair was pushed back. The air tingled as magic shot through my system like I'd been jabbed with epinephrine, and I was already blasting.

The stab of white light I shot from my outstretched hand went right through the creature and I adjusted my magic, the attack reflex useless against an elf wraith. It was the first I'd seen for months, and to be honest I'd hoped the previous was the last.

The wall across the corridor took the hit—plasterboard blew apart and the guts of the stud wall splintered. Someone screeched inside the room but I could see I hadn't hurt the poor woman.

The wraith, dark and trailing ancient elven clothes like spectral rags, wisps of smoke billowing as if in the midst of a hurricane, screeched and came not at me but at Levick.

His eyes widened and he pushed back on his chair, mumbling incoherently as the wraith drifted closer as fast as a vampire in a blood donor room. As my magic regained focus, essence adjusted to do the creature serious harm, Levick screamed, "No," and the thing's long neck stretched back tight as it howled like hell itself was paying a visit. Levick practically flew at it, arms burning dark, as corporeal as the wraith itself.

Spectral hands reached the screaming wraith and moved to grip tight around the exposed neck. Somehow, Levick's transformed hands connected with the long dead creature and squeezed. What was black became silver, tiny cracks appearing that spread as Levick's face hardened and his jaw clenched so tight I could hear his teeth grind above the scream of the wraith.