Burned (13 page)

Which is a long-winded way of saying that, while I
could
have acted differently in the short space of time after the pin was pulled on that grenade, having thought about it with the benefit of hindsight, I probably would have done the same thing.

As the grenade came flying through the open doorway, I stretched out my right hand and caught it, then with a flick of my wrist sent it flying back down the stairs at the same angle it had come from. Then I got back behind the sofa.

There was a brief, horrible scream, cut off abruptly.

I waited for the echoes of the boom to die away, then lifted my head and called down to the landing. ‘Next.’

There was a moment’s silence, then another volley of gunfire. More plaster went puffing into the air, accompanied by chips of wood and shredded paper. Some of the bullets must have gone through my bookshelf. I hoped they hadn’t hit any of my favourites. The books weren’t first editions or anything, but some of them had sentimental value.

I crouched quietly and waited for the shooting to stop. I already knew that as long as I stayed here, there were no futures in which I’d be hit. I tried to count the bullets and had got to seventeen or so by the time the shots cut off.

Silence fell again. My ears were ringing slightly from the gunshots, and I couldn’t hear anything else over it. I waited and explored the futures in which I looked out down the stairs.

‘We know you’re up there!’ one of the men shouted from below.

I didn’t answer. I was uncomfortably aware of how vulnerable I was. I was barefoot, dressed only in a T-shirt and trousers, and my sole weapon was a knife. The three men – two, now – had handguns. If they just rushed me, I didn’t like my chances. I’d get one, but there was a good chance the other would kill me. Could I get my armour on? Maybe I could stall them. I couldn’t see through the short-term combats to check, but I knew help had to be on its way.

Luckily, the men below didn’t seem keen on a suicide charge. Not many people are, even when it’s the best chance of success. Instead, looking into the futures, I could see they were about to …
Really? They didn’t learn from the first time?
Well, I wasn’t complaining. I moved up to the doorway again.

They did things differently this time. The guy with the grenade let it cook for two seconds after pulling the pin, and the other guy covered the doorway with his gun. Probably would have worked against anyone with normal reflexes. But one of the early tricks I learned with divination was how to apply it to thrown items. I can pick up an object and hit a target first time, every time, with only a second or so to aim – all I have to do is pick out the future in which I get the shot right. It takes a little work to synchronise the divination with your muscle memory, but once you do, it’s not hard to adapt it to other uses. Such as throwing stuff back.

I brought my palm around in an open-handed slap as the grenade came flying in, and batted it back down the stairs. There was the bang of a shot, but I already knew it was going to miss. I dropped flat instantly and felt the floor vibrate in the
BOOM!
of the explosion from below. I shook my head, trying to clear the ringing in my ears.

‘—you!’ the man below was yelling. ‘Fuck you! You piece of shit!’

I didn’t answer. The men below were angry and scared, which was good. They were also alive, which was bad. I could sense a force shield – that was probably how they’d survived the two explosions. The guy hit in the first blast must have been caught by surprise.

Impasse.
I couldn’t attack; they’d shoot me down as I tried to close the distance. But I couldn’t go back and don my armour either, or else I’d open up the possibility of them rushing me. They could reach the top of the stairs in seconds, and once they were through the choke point of the doorway, my chances of survival would drop fast.

The plus side was that I’d clearly scared them. I couldn’t hear what they were saying any more – they were whispering softly enough that I couldn’t make out the words – but the futures in which they tried to force their way up the stairs were few and far between. Unless I did something to make them feel as though they had an opening, they weren’t going to try anything just yet. I looked into the future in which I just waited them out, and—

Yes.
That was what I’d been hoping for.

From below, I felt a flicker of gate magic.
Not much time.
I hurried to the desk and grabbed a one-shot spell, then moved back to the door. I could still hear the whisper of their voices, and from the futures in which I showed myself, I knew they had their guns trained on the doorway. They were focused on me, but they’d still notice anyone coming up from behind them. Time to change that. ‘Hey,’ I called down the stairs. ‘Catch.’ Then I flicked the item in my hand around the edge of the door-frame.

Force magic flared as the adept below strengthened his shield, but it hadn’t been an attack. The small glass marble I’d thrown hit the stairs and shattered, and mist rushed out, clogging the stairwell with fog. I heard a shout, muffled through the vapour, and the
bang
of a shot – too late. I sat back and waited.

‘Where is he?’ one of the men called.

‘Shut up, listen!’

Silence fell. I knew that both of the men had their guns trained upwards, waiting for me to appear out of the fog so that they could shoot. It was a pretty good plan – even with the concealment, once I got close enough, they’d have a decent chance of hitting me as I came down the stairs.

Unfortunately for them, what they should have been watching for was somebody coming
up
the stairs.

There was a thumping, slithering noise, exactly the sound a body would make falling down a wooden stairway. There was a startled yell, followed by the
bang
of a shot. I felt a surge of magic, and green light flashed through the fog. Another thump. Silence.

A soft voice called up from within the fog. ‘Alex?’

‘Are there any more?’ I called back.

Quiet footsteps sounded and Anne materialised out of the mist. She was wearing an old, worn child’s T-shirt, with a thin jacket and a pair of tracksuit bottoms, both looking as if they’d been thrown on in a hurry. But her eyes were alert, and she was wide awake. ‘There’s no one else,’ Anne said. ‘Did they—?’

I gave Anne a quick hug, then pushed her back, scanning her. I couldn’t see any blood on her. ‘Are you okay? That shot didn’t hit?’

Anne shook her head. ‘No. What’s happening?’

‘Hell if I know.’ I moved quickly back to the bedroom, threw on a sweater and started putting my armour on over it. Anne stayed in the living room without having to be told, looking from side to side. ‘Looks like whoever I pissed off is getting serious.’

‘Levistus?’

‘Doubt it.’ I pulled on my socks and started tying my shoes. ‘Some adepts tried to work me over after you guys left Saturday night. I think they’re escalating. Can you see anyone?’

From where we were standing, there wasn’t much to see except the walls and a limited angle from the windows, but Anne doesn’t need to see someone to know where they are. Anne is a life mage, and can sense the presence of any living creature within a hundred feet or so. Given a little time, she can also tell you their sex, height, weight, general state of health, medical history and what they had for breakfast that morning, and if she can lay a hand on them, she can start affecting things more directly. That was how she’d dropped those two men on the landing – once she got within touch range, the only question was whether she chose to leave them dead or just unconscious. (They were unconscious, of course. I hadn’t asked and I hadn’t needed to. Anne’s magic is very good at killing people, but she doesn’t do it unless she has no other option.)

‘No one on the street,’ Anne said after a second’s pause. She was frowning. ‘The alley is empty as well. Shouldn’t there be more?’

‘Yeah.’ I came back into the living room and started scooping up items from the table to stuff into my pockets. ‘Buildings around?’

‘Lots of people,’ Anne said, glancing at the wall. I once asked Anne what people looked like to her eyes and she described them as living webs of woven green light. To her, the walls and buildings probably looked translucent, the glows of the people behind them shining out through the darkness. ‘Up on the first and second floors, mostly. But they look asleep.’

I thought for a second. ‘Check the buildings behind and the other side of the street. Look for a person awake and standing up, maybe up on the second floor or the rooftop. Anywhere they’d get an elevated view. But no matter what you see, stay still and don’t say anything until I ask. Okay?’

Anne nodded. It would be a pretty bizarre request to anyone who didn’t know how divination magic works, but this wasn’t the first time Anne and I had been through situations like this and we knew each other’s quirks. With Anne’s futures steady and non-disruptive, I was free to look ahead to see what would happen if we held still and waited.

The futures unfolded: quiet for one minute, then two. This had been an assassination, not a warning, and I could see two directions in which this could go once whoever had sent those men figured out that they’d failed. Option one would be for them to play it safe, cut their losses and withdraw. Option two was to double down. I really hoped that they’d go for option one—

The futures ahead bloomed into fire. ‘Shit.’

Anne didn’t look up. ‘I’m guessing that’s not good news.’

‘We’re about to have company,’ I said. I strode to the cupboard and started rooting through. I don’t keep many items outside my safe room, but I have a few on hand for emergencies. I pulled out an old, gnarled stick and tossed it to Anne. She caught it and looked at me, puzzled. ‘Air magic focus,’ I said. ‘It’s meant for extinguishing fires. Pulls the oxygen out of a small sphere as long as you concentrate. Command word is
luthia
, range is about thirty feet. You’ve got more power to fuel it than I do.’ I headed for the stairs.

Anne followed. ‘What fires?’

‘The ones we’re about to have.’ The mist from the condenser had dissipated and the landing between the first and second floors was filled with bodies, two alive and one dead. It was the first clear look I’d had at the three men who’d come to kill me. They were dressed in black and wore ski masks. ‘They’re trying to burn us out.’

‘How?’

‘Fire sprites.’ I touched the metal door to my safe room and said a word under my breath. There was no visual sign, but in my mage’s sight I saw the wards around the room glow, then subside. I’d just locked the room down, reinforcing it against any attack. I really didn’t want anyone getting in there.

‘What are—? Wait.’ Anne stopped, looking upwards, frowning slightly. ‘There.’

‘There?’

‘Up in that building,’ Anne said, nodding up and towards the wall. ‘Across the street and two down. There’s a man up in the second-floor flat. He wasn’t doing anything before, but another guy just appeared out of nowhere. I think it was a gate.’

I hesitated, precious seconds ticking past. If I went now, I might be able to get there before the fire sprites attacked, but … ‘No time.’ I hurried downstairs. ‘Keep an eye on them and tell me what they do.’

Down on the shop floor, I swept the desk clear and then shoved the chair away, clearing space above the runic circle carved into the floor. ‘What are fire sprites?’ Anne asked.

‘Mini fire elementals.’ I tore open a packet of dust and sprinkled it over the circle, making sure to get both of the rings. ‘Mages store them in embryo form, then feed them concentrated fire magic to start them growing. Really high energy requirements. Once they mature, they go hunting for stuff to burn, and they’ll keep burning until they run out of fuel.’

‘Are they alive?’

‘Your magic’ll affect them, yeah. Though touching them’ll hurt.’ I glanced up. ‘Need to do a summon. Try and get some water. Buckets, bottles, whatever. And get the fire extinguisher.’

Anne nodded and disappeared into the back of the shop. I grabbed a dull crystal from the drawer out of a selection of similar-looking stones, held it up above the circle, then started chanting.

There was a spike in the futures: gate magic.
Shit.
I was going to have less time than I thought. I kept chanting, calculating futures as I did. Thirty seconds until the summon was done. Ten seconds until the gate would open. This was going to be messy. Well, I was committed now.

Outside, in the street, white light bloomed. I felt the signature of space magic as a gate formed, small and circular, hanging in mid-air on the other side of the road, well out of range of my shop’s gate wards. The face of the gate was an opaque white glow; the gate was masked. I kept chanting, not looking away.

Something came fluttering through the gate, landing awkwardly on the pavement. It looked like a very small dragon sculpted from solid flame, with two wings and a long neck and tail. It raised its head towards my shop, two beady eyes looking out of a lizard-like head, then braced itself and jumped off the kerb, heading for the window.

Fire sprites look cute and pretty if you don’t know what they do. Problem was, I knew exactly what this one was here to do. Second problem: it wasn’t alone. Another fire sprite came flying out of the gate behind the first one. Then a second. Then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth.

The first sprite hit the window and bounced, flapping frantically. Others hit a few seconds later. Behind them, I could see that they were still coming through the portal, one after another. Claws scrabbled at the glass as more and more arrived, landing on the window like giant flapping fiery moths. The front window to my shop is bulletproof, magic-proof and fireproof … or at least I thought it was. As I looked at the futures, I amended that last descriptor to ‘fire-
resistant
’. Turns out that pretty much everything burns if you heat it up enough. It took the sprites less than thirty seconds to melt their way through.

Luckily, that was long enough. I finished my chant with a shout of ‘
ettul a nahame!
’ and threw the crystal down to shatter at the centre of the circle.