Burned (14 page)

Summoning is a form of ritual magic, which is essentially a longer, more complicated version of focus magic: it’s how you produce more elaborate effects that don’t fall within your magic type (or anyone’s magic type). Rituals are much slower than normal spells, don’t have anywhere near the same flexibility and usually require various rare ingredients that are obnoxiously difficult to get.

But when they work, they
really
work.

The shards of the crystal came alight, sapphire energy swirling upwards from the broken fragments to take form. A humanoid figure materialised by the counter, vaguely feminine in shape and sculpted from blue light with yellow-gold accents forming patterns on the chest, arms and head. It turned its blank eyeless face towards me, waiting.

I pointed at the fire sprites. ‘Eat them.’

The creature swivelled to face the fire sprites. The first was just in the process of melting its way through the bottom left corner of my window. The blue and gold figure leaned forward slightly, as though bracing itself.

I heard footsteps behind me, coming to an abrupt halt. ‘I’ve got—’ Anne began, then stopped. ‘What
is
that?’

‘Spell drinker,’ I called without looking back at her. ‘It’s on our side. Don’t kill it!’

‘If you say so.’ Anne’s voice was dubious. She took a step forward, coming up to my side just as the glass in the corner of the window-frame liquefied and began to drip away, and the fire sprite that had melted the hole came squeezing through.

I’ve made more than a few enemies over the course of my life, and during the past five years, several have seen fit to come and pay me a house call. My shop and flat are well supplied with weapons, but against heavy-grade opposition, weapons aren’t always enough, as I was reminded a few years ago when a construct smashed its way through my front window and tried to strangle everyone on the premises, myself included. Once that affair had been dealt with, I went out looking for a defence system that was easy to maintain but also had enough punch to stop a significant magical attack on the level of the one I’d just faced. I’d considered an elemental, as well as several variants of magical sentry, but in the end I’d decided to go for a spell drinker.

Spell drinkers are magical creatures, and they’re sapient, if not particularly smart. They can be summoned as an elemental can, but behave quite differently. Elementals take a fair bit of energy to summon, but once they’re there, they’re there. The only thing limiting their effective duration is how compatible the environment is with the element in question. Spell drinkers work very differently. They burn through their energy reserves fast, but they can replenish those reserves off pretty much any source of magical energy they can get close to – that means active spells, charged and imbued items, constructs, magical creatures and even mages if they’re not careful. They’re not the safest creatures to summon, but as long as there’s a source of magical energy around that’s stronger than you, you’re usually okay. Just point them at the magical thing you want to get rid of, and get out of the way.

As the fire sprite entered the shop, the spell drinker came bounding forward, moving with a weird loping grace. It reached out its hand to touch the fire sprite, and as its fingers brushed the fire, the sprite was sucked into the spell drinker’s hand. It was like watching a cloud of liquid go down a plughole. One moment the fire sprite was there, spreading its wings, then it was gone.

Another chunk of glass melted and folded, this time at the top of the window, and another fire sprite tried to get inside. The spell drinker’s fingers caught it from underneath and it was sucked into nothingness. The third sprite vanished even faster than the first two.

‘It’s pretty powerful,’ Anne said quietly.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Just one problem.’ I pointed out through the glass and out into the street. ‘They’re still coming.’

The fire sprites hadn’t stopped streaming through the gate. The street was full of them, scrambling over cars and flapping over the centre of the road. As I watched, a fourth and a fifth fire sprite tried to force their way through the holes in the window and died, but there were at least fifteen more of the things and I didn’t think the spell drinker could stop them all. Already the window was more holes than glass; molten streaks were running down the sill and to the floor, and the temperature was rising.

As I watched, the window-frame at the bottom left corner caught fire in the heat. ‘
Luthia!
’ Anne called, levelling the wand. The flame winked out. Another sprite had its life extinguished as it came flapping through the growing hole at the centre.

‘Anne,’ I said, my voice tense. ‘These things are alive, right?’

‘
Luthia!
’ Anne called and another patch of flames vanished. ‘Yes.’

‘How much is it going to hurt if you life-drain them?’

‘I’d rather not find out.’

‘I think that’s about to stop being an option.’

Anne looked in the direction in which I was pointing and let out her breath in a hiss. The door was starting to glow with heat, and flames were licking around the frame and keyhole. Oddly, despite all the attacks I’ve had to deal with over the years, my front door had never been damaged, meaning that I’d never replaced it, and as a result it was still made of wood. As we watched, the door flash-ignited, flames leaping out. Anne levelled her focus and called out the command word. A small circle of fire winked out, but the instant the spell ended, the area ignited again.

‘Not going to work,’ I said. ‘Too hot.’

‘
Luthia
,’ Anne said. ‘
Luthia. Luthia.
’ She paused. ‘Crap.’

I turned and grabbed the CO
2
extinguisher from behind the counter, then yanked off the tag and lifted it up. It only took me a few seconds, but by the time I’d turned around again the door was ablaze. Pieces of wood were red-hot and glowing, embers crumbling off to scatter to the floor. Orange-red claws reached through, scrabbling. The spell drinker was still busy with the fire sprites coming through the window. Each time one of the tiny elementals came through it died, but there were always more.

Anne wiped out a patch of fire that had started to spread along the window. ‘How long until the fire brigade get here?’

‘Not soon enough, and it won’t make any difference.’ I could see glimpses of the sprites through the widening holes in the door.

‘
Luthia!
’ Anne lowered the focus, then straightened up and took a deep breath. ‘Okay.’ She tossed the focus back at me without looking and I caught it. ‘Time to do this the hard way.’

The door groaned and fell inwards, the bottom half breaking away and falling in with a
thump
, ablaze in flames. Fire sprites came through, one, two, three. One landed on the herb rack and ignited it in a
whoof
. The other two arrowed straight at us.

Anne was waiting. She stood with hands by her sides, fingers extended and spread. As the first sprite dived at her, her hand flashed up to touch it.

The reason that life mages are feared isn’t because of their lifesight. A life mage who can lay hands upon another living creature can control their biology, to heal or repair … or to kill. Green light flashed, something moving from the sprite into Anne almost too fast to see, then Anne was whipping her hand back and the fire sprite was falling lifeless, sprawling on the floor to dissolve into shapeless flame. The second one had aimed for me. I picked the future in which it missed and ducked aside, feeling the rush of heat in my hair as the thing swept past and hit the counter, its claws carving black streaks on the wood. Anne caught it before it could take off again, her hand curling around its neck and snapping back. The fire sprite shimmered and died, leaving flames licking at my desk. I sprayed them with CO
2
until they went out.

I looked at Anne. ‘You okay?’

Anne lifted her hand, examining it. The palm and fingers were an angry red, but as I watched leaf-green light glowed around her arm and the red burns began to recede. New skin grew to replace the burned patches, and in only seconds Anne’s hand was unmarked. ‘I’m fine,’ Anne said. She turned away without meeting my eyes. ‘Let’s kill the rest.’

I gave Anne a troubled look. ‘…Yeah.’

The battle at the window was still going, the spell drinker holding the line against a seemingly endless stream of fire sprites. The sprites threw themselves through the holes, fearless and quick, but they couldn’t hurt the spell drinker: every time the blue and gold figure touched one of them, light rippled through its body and it moved with greater vigour. The small amount of damage the heat was doing was being outweighed by the extra vitality it was draining from the elementals. The sprites were too simple-minded to coordinate their attacks – they just went for one of the two existing holes in the glass, scrambled through, and became food.

Anne strode towards the fire sprite on the herb rack. It looked up, opened its mouth to hiss at her, and died, its body dissolving into flame as Anne passed by without breaking stride. The herb rack was on fire, filling the air with the scent of burning verbena and lavender, and I moved up behind Anne to douse it with the extinguisher, white gas rushing over the flames and snuffing them out. Anne killed a fourth fire sprite near the door and stood ready, hands by her sides, waiting for the next target.

We’re winning this.
Anne was blocking the door and the spell drinker was blocking the window. The sprites weren’t intelligent enough to figure out a way through. We just needed to hold the line—

A horrible vision flashed through my precognition. I looked ahead for just one instant, then shouted at Anne. ‘Anne! Back to me, run, NOW!’

Anne didn’t hesitate. She darted back, crossing the shop floor to my side. I caught her and pulled her down behind the counter.

Fire magic surged, and the shop flashed red with a roar. A wash of heat and scorching air rolled over my head.

I stood to see that the entire front of the shop was a sea of flame. The window, the door and everything within ten feet of the front wall was ablaze. It was moving too fast; natural fire spreads slowly, but this one moved like a living thing, tendrils running out along the floor. The first rack of shelves smouldered and ignited, the flames growing in seconds from licking tongues to an inferno. I could feel the magic pouring down into the street from above, some kind of spell I didn’t recognise. I’d seen basic fire-starting before, but nothing like this. Anne caught up the focus and levelled it, shouting ‘
Luthia!
’ A small patch of fire flickered for half a second, one or two tendrils going out, then it jumped forward again, reclaiming the part of the shelves Anne had just extinguished. Already the fire had spread to the entire front half of the shop.

I caught Anne’s arm and pulled her back. ‘It’s no good!’ I shouted over the roar of the flames. ‘Run!’

Anne didn’t argue. The fire sprites were dancing in the inferno, revelling in the heat; the spell drinker was still up and moving, but more slowly. As I watched, it caught one more sprite and extinguished it, then another wave of heat stung my eyes and made me blink away. Two or three more sprites came flying out of the blaze. They were moving faster now; the fire seemed to be energising them. I snapped out a command word and a wall of force flared up along the line of the counter, cutting off the magic item section and the space behind the counter from the rest of the shop. The sprites slammed into the wall and went tumbling to the floor.

‘Alex!’ Anne shouted from behind me; she’d made it back into the corridor. I took one last look over the shop floor and saw that it was hopeless. The fire had engulfed the shelves and was creeping closer to the counter. A haze of smoke was in the air, stinging my eyes and throat, and only the forcewall was stopping it from growing even worse. I backed into the corridor and pushed the door shut behind me. I had one last glimpse of the spell drinker, still fighting the sprites amid the roaring flames, then the door slammed and we were left in darkness.

Spots swam before my eyes as my vision adjusted to the gloom of the stairs. Even with the door closed, I could still smell smoke, and I could still feel the heat. The forcewall wouldn’t hold back the fire for long. ‘Come on,’ I said, pulling Anne by one hand. Anne’s night vision is good, but she can’t outright ignore darkness the way I can. ‘Up.’

Anne let me lead her up the stairs. The roar and crackle of flames died away as we ascended. ‘Have you got anything that can put that out?’ Anne asked.

‘In a manner of speaking,’ I said. ‘Can you find the mage who’s maintaining that spell?’

‘I think it’s the two men on the second floor there.’ I felt Anne twist as she pointed. ‘They’re looking down at the shop. I can’t tell if it’s them, but—’

‘Good enough. Cover me.’

We’d made it back up to the landing where the assassins had been stopped. The ones Anne had knocked out were still knocked out; the one dead from the grenade was still dead. I crouched down in the darkness, searching quickly through their belongings. I found a pistol and a spare clip of ammo, but what I really wanted were some more grenades. The two unconscious men didn’t have any. I switched to the dead one.

‘Alex?’ Anne said. ‘The spell drinker’s hurt.’

‘Fire sprites?’ I asked. I was glad the light wasn’t on. Grenades don’t kill in quite as horrible a way as some weapons, but the effects they leave still aren’t pretty, and I didn’t need the distraction. The clothes under my fingers were pockmarked with sticky holes.

‘Seven … make that six.’

‘Tell me if they move up.’ My fingers closed on cool metal, egg-shaped with an irregular shell.
That’s one.
I flicked quickly through the futures in which I kept searching, but all my fingers found was blood.
It’ll have to do.

I headed up, opened the door at the back of the kitchen and stepped out on to the balcony. Cool air flooded into my lungs, a relief after the heat of the flames, but I could still smell smoke, even out here: the fire was spreading. I spoke to Anne, keeping my voice quiet. ‘Follow me up to the roof, but stay low. Keep the building between you and the men in that building opposite. Watch them and tell me if they move. Okay?’