Veiled (17 page)

I jumped away, backpedalling, thumping into the wall. The golem adjusted its aim to focus on me, the laser emitter sighting on my chest.

Light bloomed from behind the golem. A blast of flame stabbed out, washing off the construct's back.

The golem halted, turned. A figure strode out of the dust, wreathed in flame. The fire around it hid its form; all I could make out was a vaguely humanoid shape with glowing eyes. A second blast hit the golem before it could finish turning around. This one was narrower, more focused, a near-white beam the width of two fingers that was too bright to look at. It burnt into the golem and I saw armour glowing and melting, molten gold spattering to the floor.

The golem fired, but as it did the figure raised a hand. The laser struck the fiery shape, hit a shield. The golden line fuzzed and faded. The white-hot beam didn't. It kept going, burning into the golem. The golem took one stride forward, then its back went white and the beam burst all the way through, streaming out the other side. The heat was so
intense that I had to shield my face. Through my fingers I saw the golem jerk, shudder. The beam sawed, melting the golem from the inside out.

With a groan the golem fell, toppling with a crash that shook the house. Just for an instant I saw
something
expand from the metal body, stretching, sinking into the floor, then it was gone. The golem's remains lay still and some light seemed to have vanished from its golden eyes.

The fiery shape turned to me and I nearly flinched. It looked like a man sculpted from flame, invulnerable, godlike. Fires had broken out all around it, licking at its feet. For a moment I felt as though I were facing down some sort of fire spirit, not a human being.

Then all of a sudden the flame shield winked out and Landis was standing there. He was dressed in some sort of close-fitting body armour I didn't recognise, and he looked brisk and full of energy. “Verus! Glad to see you made it, good job on the distraction. What's your status?”

The floor around Landis's feet was on fire. He didn't seem to have noticed, and I dragged my eyes away. “Caldera's hurt,” I said. Adrenaline was still pumping through me and I wanted to move, to fight. “The kid we were protecting, he ran that way. We need to find him.”

“Leaving some of the fun for us, eh?” Landis said cheerfully. He turned just as another fiery shape came out of the smoke behind him. Again the fire hid the person's features, but I recognised the signature of the magic and I knew it was Variam. “He's running,” Variam said. “Do we chase?”

“Not this time, we've got a civilian to find. Description, Verus?”

“His name's Leo. Boy, about ten, thin, blond hair. Wearing jeans and a black top. There was a force mage covering the door. He's gone, but—”

Landis was already heading for the door. Variam followed. “Shield off, Vari, there's a good lad. Standard cover. Verus, you stay with Caldera and take a breather. We'll take it from here.” They disappeared out into the street.

I was left alone in the wreckage of the living room.
Flames were still licking around and I tried to find a way to climb back up to the first floor.

It took me a minute, and by the time I made it up, I found Caldera slumped on the bed. Blood had soaked through the side of her jacket and into the bedclothes. “Caldera.” I kept my voice low. “Can you hear me?”

“Not like I could miss it, way you talk,” Caldera muttered. “Was that Landis . . . ?”

“It was him.”
Not good.
I hadn't realised how badly hurt Caldera was; she must have been forcing herself to keep going. “Vari's here too. We should be safe.”

“Didn't call for Order of the Shield.” Caldera's eyes opened; she stared at me suspiciously. “Should have been Star.”

I sighed. “Seriously? You're going to give me a hard time about this
now
?”

“You were on your phone. When I took the kid down . . .” Caldera sighed and closed her eyes. “Never follow orders, do you . . .”

“Yeah, well, you can shout at me later.” I was looking Caldera over. The gash on her shoulder didn't look bad—it was the side wound I was worried about. How deep was it? “We need to get you some help.”

“Already called for—”

“On your com disc, I know. I think we can give up on that, all right? You guys must have backup ways of getting in touch. Phone number?”

“There's a number.” Caldera didn't open her eyes. “For emergencies.”

“You think this might qualify?”

“I'll read it. Type it in.”

I made the call. It took longer than it should have to convince the woman on the other end that I was who I said I was. Finally I just passed the phone over to Caldera and let her give the authentication code. By the time it was done I could hear the strain in Caldera's voice.

At last it was done and Caldera hung up. “Hate those people,” she muttered. “Bureaucrats . . .”

Caldera was still slumped on the bed; she'd stopped
moving except when she had to, and when she'd lifted the phone to her ear I'd seen that it had hurt her. “You doing okay?”

“You always ask such stupid questions?”

“Yeah, I've got the feeling it might be a good idea to keep you talking until the medics get here.” I could still smell smoke; it wasn't getting any fainter. “Oh, and I don't want to worry you, but just so you know, the house is on fire.”

“Lovely.”

“On the plus side, I don't think it's going to collapse in the next ten minutes.”

“You know,” Caldera said, “even by my standards, this was a really shitty night out.”

“Oh, come on,” I said. “Quiet neighbourhood, door-to-door entertainment . . . there's even romantic candlelight.”

“My ribs are sticking out of my side.”

“You did say you wanted a match against someone who could challenge you.”

“Does this happen every time you go out with someone?”

“Hey, at least I'm not a boring date.”

Smoke rose from the floor below, ash drifting up into the night. We sat together in the ruined house as I searched through the futures, looking to see when help would arrive.

I
t was half an hour later.

Blue light flashed from the roofs of the police vehicles, reflected back from car windows and the fronts of the houses. The lights were out of sync, creating a weird strobing effect that made the shadows dance back and forth. Although the police were here, they weren't going into the house: the Keeper liaisons had done their job and the figures in the black uniforms and yellow hi-vis jackets were holding a perimeter and putting up crime-scene tape at either end of the road. People were leaning out of windows and watching from doors, peering at the house where we'd fought our battle, but there was nothing to see. Plastic screens had gone up at the door and windows and all the activity was taking place inside.

“What day is it?” the woman standing over me asked.

“Saturday,” I said. I was sitting in the open boot of a car. A mobile command centre had arrived, Keepers and other Council personnel were bustling around, and it all looked very official.

“What's the nearest tube station?”

“Uxbridge.”

“How old are you?”

“You don't know how old I am, so I could answer that question any way I liked, so long as I didn't lie too blatantly. I get it, you're checking to see if I have a concussion. How about if I tell you how old
you
are, will that prove I can think straight?”

She didn't take me up on the offer. “How are you feeling?”

“Beaten up, but I've had worse.”

“Nausea, headaches, problems with your balance?”

“Not yet, but shining that light in my eyes isn't helping.”

The woman clicked the light off. “Make sure you see a doctor before you go home.”

The rush from the battle had worn off, and I was utterly exhausted. My arms and legs were heavy, and I could feel all the bruises and scrapes I'd taken fighting the icecats. All I wanted to do was sit there. “Sure.”

The woman left. I looked down, examining the forearm of my armour. Both of the icecats had raked my arms and I could see light score marks on the mesh, but the claws hadn't penetrated to the skin. My armour had probably saved my life. The icecats might not have been able to kill me on their own, but if I'd been carrying those wounds when I went up against the golem, it would have slowed me down enough to make the difference.

I felt a presence to my left. “Looks like you got off easy.”

I looked up. It was a man, medium height and heavyset. The flickering blue light showed brown hair and a sour expression. A Keeper, one I'd met before . . . What was his name? Oh yeah, Slate. The one who'd goaded Caldera into that fight with me at Red's a couple of nights ago.
Just what I need.

“So the kid's gone,” Slate said when I didn't respond. “Only witness, from
our
case, and you lost him. Fucked it up right and proper, didn't you?”

“Yeah, it's not as if Caldera called you guys for backup as soon as we found out who the kid really was.” I was tired, bruised, still working through the aftereffects of an adrenaline
rush, and not in the mood to be diplomatic. “Oh wait, she did. You know what? Maybe if you'd pulled your finger out of your fat arse and come to help, your witness'd still be here.”

I'd expected Slate to lose his temper, but he just looked at me with a twist of his mouth, as though I were something a dog had produced from its rear end. “Don't see any blood.”

“And?”

“Kid got taken,” Slate said. “Caldera got hurt. You look like you got off pretty okay.” He studied me. “So what were you doing while Caldera was dealing with the golem?”

“Busy.”

“With what?”

“With one of the icecats.”

“That's convenient.”

I didn't answer. “How about you run through that fight for me,” Slate said.

“How about I don't?”

“I wasn't asking.”

“Well, that's great, because I'm not answering, so I guess we're all happy, aren't we?”

“You think you're pretty special, don't you?” Slate said. “Rules don't apply to you, right?”

I just stared him. “Don't think that card you've got makes you a Keeper,” Slate said. “You're not even an auxiliary. I could arrest you and take you down to the station right now and no one'd look twice.” He leant in close, eyes staring into mine. “What happened in that house?”

I looked up at Slate. I could have looked down on him if I stood up, but I didn't. “Let's get something straight,” I said. “Taking crap from Caldera is one thing. But I'm not going to fold to every Council mage who strolls up. You want to be my supervisor, you can go ahead and fight Caldera over it. But you might want to bear in mind that the last time you tried duelling her she kicked your balls up your arsehole, so if I were you I'd think twice before going back for a rematch.”

I saw Slate flush. That one had finally managed to piss
him off. “You can—” he began, then stopped as a hand fell on his shoulder.

Slate turned. Haken was standing there. “Captain wants you,” Haken said. He was watching Slate steadily.

Slate narrowed his eyes. I saw futures of him choosing to stand and argue; they flickered and disappeared. He gave me an ugly look and left.

Haken watched Slate go. “I know he's an arsehole,” Haken said once Slate was out of earshot, “but you don't need to pick a fight.”

“He picked the fight. I just fought back.”

“Slate's . . . he's got some history with Dark mages. I know how he acts, but he's got his reasons.”

“And I just nearly got my head hacked off trying to keep Caldera and your witness alive.” I felt bitter, and the fatigue was making it worse. “I can deal with taking shit from Keepers when I deserve it. But taking shit from you guys when I'm risking my life to
help
you is pretty hard.”

Haken sighed. “World doesn't always work the way we want it to, Verus.” Haken was maybe in his midthirties, but all of a sudden, in the flashing police lights, he looked much older and very tired. “Just have to live with it.”

“Isn't that the truth.”

“They've run the maker's marks on that golem,” Haken said. “It's part of a set of three that were reported stolen a few years ago. We didn't know White Rose had got them till now.”

“You think they were the ones behind it?”

Haken looked surprised. “Who else would it have been?”

I shrugged.

“That kid was from there, right? And he was meeting Rayfield?”

I remembered that last glimpse I'd had of Leo, shooting a terrified glance back at me before disappearing out into the street. I wondered if any of us were ever going to see him again.

Haken took my silence as agreement. “I know we don't have enough for a warrant yet, but we're going to be going
for one tomorrow. Could use you, if you can make it. Caldera'll probably still be out.”

“I'll check with her. Do you know what happened?”

“About . . . ?”

“Caldera called for backup,” I said. “Before the fight started. More than long enough for other Keepers to gate.”

“Yeah, I heard.” Haken frowned. “That shouldn't have happened.”

“Her communicator went dead during the fight.” I turned my head to look up at Haken. “Thought those things were supposed to be fail-safe?”

“That's what they told me too. Best guess, it was a glitch. I know these things are supposed to be good, but they're still new tech. We've had trouble with them before.”

“Pretty crappy reason to get killed.”

“Yeah, I'm not arguing. Look, I'll see if I can track down whatever the problem was, okay? I'm guessing someone screwed up, but at least we can stop it happening again.”

“Thanks.”

Haken turned to leave. “Oh,” I said. “Haken?”

“Yeah?”

“When Caldera made that call, did she talk to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Caldera told me a couple of weeks ago that you were her primary contact for cross-case work.” I kept my voice casual, but I didn't take my eyes off Haken. “Aren't messages like that supposed to go through you?”

“Usually, yeah, but I was out on the Rayfield case. Would have done if it hadn't been for everything else, but I didn't get the call.”

I nodded. Haken walked away.

Chatter and voices washed around me from the police and the Council personnel. The people at the police tape and the windows were still there, taking photos and watching. From inside the house, I felt a gate spell. I couldn't see through the screens, but I knew they were transporting the remains of the golem away.

So much movement, so much activity. In a way it was all
because of me, and yet everyone was ignoring me. It was good, I supposed—safer that way—but it felt weirdly isolating. I pushed myself up, holding the side of the car until the wave of dizziness passed, and headed for the ambulance that Caldera had been moved into.

I heard the sound of laughter as I drew closer. Walking around the back, looking into the brightly lit interior, I saw Caldera lying on one of the stretchers. She hadn't been bandaged, but her hands were clasped over her stomach and she was smiling. Landis was sitting on a chair by the stretcher, long arms and legs sprawled out like an ungainly spider, and he was in the middle of a story. “So then the fellow gets indignant and tells me, ‘I don't know what you mean, I haven't anything like that in my family tree.' Well, as I'm sure you know, I wasn't going to stand for that. I got up and told him—”

“Hey, Verus,” Caldera said, glancing up at me. “Thank God you're here—maybe you can shut him up. Nothing I do seems to work.”

“You wound me, dear lady.” Landis clasped a hand to his chest. “Can I not ask for a token of your favour?”

“Oh, bugger off,” Caldera said, but she was laughing. “I swear, you're lucky I'm not allowed to get out of this bed . . .”

I had to grin. There's a weird rush from making it through a combat. When you come out of one alone, then it doesn't last, but when you have friends around it turns into something happier. A celebration, I guess. You're alive, your friends are alive, and all of a sudden you're intensely aware of it. “Let me guess,” I told Landis. “You're on duty to make sure she doesn't try to run off for another round?”

“A fearsome duty, 'tis true, but needs must, eh? You hear that, my girl? Bed rest, that's the ticket.”

“Oh, you wish.”

“Well, well, one can hope. Ah, Verus, Vari and I had no joy, I'm afraid. Gave the place a good old search and quarter, but the boy's vanished into the ether.”

I nodded. It wasn't really a surprise. “Thanks for showing up so fast.”

“A bit of a sticky situation, eh? No need to worry, happens to the best of us. I remember this time out in Guernsey when—”

“Okay,” Caldera interrupted, “before you start another of your endless stories, how
did
you show up so fast?”

“Oh, just a friendly request from your new junior.” Landis leant back against the wall, nodding at me. “He mentioned you two might have a spot of bother, so I had Vari toodle over and take a look at the place so he could open us a gate. Better safe than sorry, eh?”

Caldera gave Landis a sceptical look. “Weren't you on standby for the Rayfield case?”

“And wasn't it fortunate that it turned out to be related? Happy endings for all!”

“Lucky for some.” Caldera glanced at me. “They have any idea who those people were?”

“Leo was connected to White Rose.” I looked at Landis, keeping my expression carefully neutral. “They seem to be the obvious suspects.”

“Yes,” Landis said, drawing out the word. “They do, don't they?” He jumped to his feet. “Well, I'll leave you in Verus's safe hands. If you see Vari, let him know he can take off for the night, eh?”

“I'll tell him.”

Landis hopped out of the ambulance, and I took his seat with a sigh. Caldera cocked an eye at me. “You all right?”

“I should be asking you that.” I nodded at Caldera's side. “How bad was it?”

“Oh, you know life mages. Always make it sound worse than it is.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Not quite sure that's true.”

“Yeah, well, they're going to keep me out for at least a day. You okay to go to the War Rooms as my stand-in?”

I nodded. “I'll be there.”

“Good.” Caldera paused. “Sorry for giving you a hard time in there.”

I looked at Caldera in surprise. “About the kid,” Caldera said. “Wasn't your fault. Just pissed off at myself.”

“For what?”

“Don't like not being strong enough to do the job,” Caldera was silent for a second. “Don't like losing people, either.”

“Neither do I.”

Caldera glanced up at me. “Why'd you go back?”

“When?”

“Middle of that fight, after the second icecat went for you and the kid. After you were done with that, you went straight for the golem.”

“Yeah.”

“Wasn't Leo out the door by then?”

“I thought you were too busy with the golem to notice stuff like that.”

“I've been in enough fights to know what's going on around me.” Caldera looked at me, eyebrows raised. “Don't dodge the question. You could have gone after the kid. Why didn't you?”

“There was a force mage covering the door,” I said. “At least one other guy too. If I'd gone after Leo, it would have meant going one-on-one with a force mage in an open street. I couldn't have won that. The best I could have managed would have been to get away in one piece, and they probably would have got Leo anyway. And I knew the golem was going to kill you if I left you. I figured that two on one, we had a chance to beat it. It was a choice between losing two people, and giving up one person to have a decent chance of saving the other. I picked the battle I thought we could win.”