Science and Sorcery (43 page)

“They can’t block them,” Matt said, bitterly.  Under normal circumstances, a single sniper could hold up an enemy army for hours, but Harrow’s thralls would just keep going and going until they were all destroyed, or their targets were killed.  Golem might have been right, he admitted, even though he didn’t want to admit it.  Once they started slaughtering New York’s population, why did they bother to try to prevent the use of a nuclear warhead?

“The army has MRLS systems in position to bombard the city,” Caitlyn said, after a moment.  “They could start firing on the mobs.”

Matt blanched.  Had they really run out of other options?

“At this rate, we’re going to destroy New York in order to save it,” he said, softly.  And how could he condemn Golem if he agreed to have rockets fired into the city?  But there was no other choice.  “Do it.”

“Understood,” Caitlyn said.  “We also have another Predator inbound.”

“Order it to engage the mob,” Matt ordered, feeling a part of himself die.  Perhaps it would be better to end it all, afterwards.  He snorted, rather sardonically.  Harrow would probably kill him and render the whole problem moot.  “And then try to keep it away from Harrow.  We’re going to need it providing top cover.”

They ran past the New York Public Library, now seemingly closed and locked, and then up towards the CUNY Graduate Centre.  Bodies were strewn everywhere, as if they’d been taken apart by the mob or simply died of hunger or the effects of mental control.  One of the logistics officers who’d been trying to help deal with the crisis had pointed out that feeding New York’s inhabitants wasn't an easy job at the best of times – and, right now, nothing was coming into the city.  He'd even suggested that they would wait for Harrow’s thralls to starve, but Caitlyn had overruled him.  Given a few days to make sacrifices and build up her
mana
, Harrow might just be completely unstoppable.  Besides, using a nuke would be kinder. 

The Empire State Building rose up in front of them as they reached 5
th
Ave; as always, it took Matt’s breath away.  Harrow had deployed another of her mobs around the building, blocking access, just before the latest spread of rockets came howling into the city.  One set were aimed directly at Harrow herself – Matt saw them explode against her wards – while the other set came down among the mob.  Those few who survived were grievously wounded, unable to interfere further.

“Start setting up the devices,” Golem ordered, as he stared up at the ball of light surrounding the building’s famous roof.  Harrow was taking no chances with her own safety, although in her place Matt would simply have cut and run.  The independent state of New York was doomed by simple geographical fact.  “I have to get up there to distract her.”

Matt looked over at him.  “Are you sure you can...?”

“I have no choice,” Golem said.  “Just have everything ready down here.”

Matt nodded, pulling his rucksack off his shoulders and then unpacking the first of the Niven’s Wheels.  They all carried two of them, broken down for easy transport; setting them all up took less than five minutes.  The SEALs took up guarding positions as explosions ran through the city, with missiles and cannon shells being aimed at the mobs.  But Harrow had millions of people in her thrall...whatever else happened, New York was never going to be the same again.  It was quite possible that the injured – or the relatives of the dead – would try to sue the army for killing them. 

A brilliant flash of lightning crackled down from the rooftop, lancing out towards Misty, who deflected it with an effort.  It was followed rapidly by a second burst, and then a third, seemingly aimed at random.  Joe Buckley howled as a flicker of lightning set fire to his fur, pushing his werewolf regenerative powers to the limit.  Mindy lifted her hand and shot a burst of orange-red light back towards Harrow.  It didn't seem to have any effect.

“I have to go now,” Golem said.  His red eyes looked, just for a second, alarmingly human, almost fearful.  He had to know that Harrow might well be able to overcome his protections and destroy him.  “Good luck.”

He bent down and then launched himself into the air, jumping right up towards the rooftop.  Matt watched him go, shaking his head in disbelief, and then looked at the wheels.  One by one, they were coming to life, draining all the local
mana
in the area.  They’d just have to hope that Golem could keep Harrow busy long enough to build up an area where magic would be impossible, where it would even be leeched out of her body.  And if she realised the trap and tried to escape...she might well manage to get out of range of the nuclear blast, leaving a devastated New York behind.

Matt pushed the thought aside.  Failure was not an option. 

Chapter Forty-Three

New York, USA

Day 37

Golem had no time for doubts as he slammed into Harrow’s outermost wards.  Unsurprisingly, she’d keyed them to resist modern weaponry, deflecting bullets and detonating missiles before they could reach her.  They
weren’t
designed to cope with a Homunculi who had had all kinds of powerful protections woven through his clay body, or the ability to use magic himself.  The wards cracked around him and he tumbled onto the rooftop and pulled himself to his feet, facing Harrow.

The sorceress looked worn, but she was still extremely powerful.  Perversely, the damage inflicted by missiles on her thralls was actually making her stronger by freeing part of her mind.  Golem stepped forward and smiled as Harrow released most of the other thralls.  She would need all of her power to face him.

“Enchanter created you, I assume,” Harrow said finally, in a language only the Brotherhood knew.  She hadn't moved from where she was standing, holding one hand up to defend herself.  “Why didn't he see fit to save himself?”

“He knew what he'd done to the world,” Golem said, in the same tongue.  It had taken him weeks to understand just what Enchanter had done to his civilisation.  The modern world was fantastic in many ways and yet it had its strange weaknesses.   “All of society was dying because of him.  I do not believe that he wanted to live.”

“Strange,” Harrow observed.  “Most magicians struggle to remain alive.”

“You sought permanent immortality,” Golem pointed out.  Up close, it was easy to see just what the Thirteen had been trying to do.  Given enough time – and knowledge, the knowledge that Enchanter had forbidden him to share with anyone – they might actually become gods.  “But you were also monsters.”

Harrow looked puzzled, rather than offended.  “What did we do that was different to what other magicians have done?”

She had a point, Golem knew, as he took another step forward.  Every sorcerer had committed some dubious deeds to become powerful – and sacrificing innocent humans to drain their power was often the least of it.  A sorcerer who wasn't hellishly ambitious for power was a very strange sorcerer.  But the Thirteen had done it on a much larger scale, although Harrow had trumped it by overwhelming New York.  Who knew
what
she would be able to do, given time.

“You would have destroyed everyone,” he said, finally.  “And Enchanter gave you what you wanted.”

Her eyes flashed with bright light.  “A trick,” she snapped.  “A tawdry shadow of what we could have been.”

Golem took another step forward, and another.  He could break her wards and then crush her skull, crippling her body long enough to find a more permanent solution.  Rejuvenation spells required a sizable amount of
mana
and her shattered body could be kept in a low-
mana
zone permanently. 

Harrow met his eyes.  “Stop,” she ordered.  “Now.”

Golem struck an invisible wall, right in front of him.  Calmly, he triggered two of the protections Enchanter had woven into his form, weakening the ward at a terrifying rate.  It should give Harrow something to worry about...unsurprisingly, she yanked a fireball out of nowhere and threw it at him.  The fireball slammed against his protections and sent him staggering backwards.  A moment later, she threw a burst of lightning that missed him by split-seconds.  He picked up a piece of debris and threw it at her, watching it glance off her wards.  It was easy to calculate, as he threw a second with a protective spell wrapped around it, where the other wards were placed.  Like most magicians, Harrow’s wards actually started several meters from her body. 

He smiled and started to walk forward again,  Harrow looked at Golem, one hand twisting in front of her, and then a complex and deadly spell lashed out at his body.  It would have killed a human instantly, but Golem’s life was wrapped up in clay as well as Enchanter’s protections.  In order to break him, Harrow would need to concentrate on the task – and that wasn't going to be easy.  Golem was hardly the only threat facing her.  If her wards dropped completely, a single missile would end the threat.  And then a new spell wrapped itself around him.

“Die,” Harrow said.  “You will not live to see the world we will create.”

Golem would have cursed if he had been human, balefire crackling around his body.  It would have killed a human instantly, but its effects on a clay-man might well be even worse, given time.  Desperately, he plunged forward and slammed right into Harrow’s wards.  The balefire snapped out of existence as the wards absorbed it, something that Golem had only seen in theory.  No one had survived long enough to test the theory in practice.  Calmly, he started to rend and tear at the wards, pushing his fingers into their structure.  As he had hoped, the wards converged on him, closing like a trap.

“Your time is up,” Harrow informed him.

Golem smiled at her, knowing she would find it disconcerting, just before he grasped hold and lifted her up inside her own wards.  No one had ever tried it before, but very few entities had ever become trapped inside another magician’s wards.  Logically, she was at the very centre of her own wards and he could pick her up, simply by picking
them
up.  But he hadn’t known it would work until he’d tried. 

Bright energy flashed around him, lashing into his fingers, as Harrow fought to free herself, but it was too late.  Staggering forward, using the wards to knock all of the barriers out of the way, he pushed her to the edge of the roof and jumped, heading down towards the ground.  Harrow might survive the landing – her wards were immensely strong – but she’d fall right into the low-
mana
region.  And then she'd have to spend her own energy just to keep herself safe.

***

Matt saw an immense ball of light falling off the rooftop, heading right towards 5
th
Ave at terrifying speed.  It struck the ground hard enough to shake the city, dislodging Golem who flew across the road and slammed into the nearby building.  Matt hadn't seen him very clearly, but his hands had looked to be a blackened ruin...

Harrow’s form was clearly visible inside the ball of light, which was flickering in and out of existence as she fought to keep it intact.  The Wheels had worked, Matt realised, draining most of the
mana
from a given area.  Harrow would have to tap into her own power to maintain her wards, which would make it harder to do anything else...

He lifted his rifle and opened fire, aiming right for her chest.  The SEALs joined in a moment later, bombarding her wards with thousands of bullets.  Deflecting them all, even without the Hunter charms that Matt produced instinctively, would cost her more power and concentration...and the
mana
was leeching away.  The more power she used, the more could be absorbed by the Wheels.  But she had an colossal reserve of power to draw upon.

“She let go of the city,” Misty shouted in his ear.  The former teacher had no weapon, but her own magic, which she was using to hack away at Harrow’s wards.  “They’re all free!”

Harrow seemed to stop, right at the centre of her wards, and concentrate.  A moment later, a flicker of light appeared at the edge of her wards, flaring out towards the nearest Wheel.  Matt caught his breath, but it faded out of existence before it touched the Wheel, vanishing into the ether.  It took time for
mana
to reticulate after  being channelled through a spell, he knew; hopefully, it would take longer than Harrow had.  But there was no way to be sure, he realised, as she fired another blast of light towards one of the SEALs.  The spell tore him apart in an single flash of light. 

“We need to push the Wheels closer,” Lesage yelled at him.

“We can't,” Misty insisted.  “She could destroy them if we pushed them any closer!”

***

Once, Calvin would have felt awe at watching magicians duel; Harrow had told him enough about the great duels of thousands of years ago to feel pleasure at the thought of testing himself on a level playing field.  But now, as a ghost, all he felt was the ebb and flow of
mana
and magic, and all he saw was the magical structures that Harrow had created to channel her magic.  And she might well be winning, he realised numbly, whatever it looked like from the outside.  The Wheels were reaching their limit, threatening to tear themselves apart...Harrow might just come out ahead after all.

Desperately, he felt for the link that bound him and Harrow together, and the link between himself and Mindy, and whispered instructions to his sister.  And then he threw the link open wide.

***

Mindy didn't hesitate, even though she’d never done anything remotely comparable in her entire life.  The link yawned open and she threw herself along it, blasting her anger and rage into Harrow’s mind.  On a physical plane, Harrow was easily her superior, but on a mental plane they were equals.  Mindy didn't try to take control, or even to trick the Queen of Nightmares; she just lashed out with all the power at her command.

Harrow howled in pain, somehow managing to hold herself together as Mindy’s rage seared into her mind.  Calvin was with her, somehow helping to direct her anger at weak points within Harrow’s mind, crippling her ability to channel her own power.  Harrow was far more experienced at any form of mental conflict, but she had too many other things to worry about.  Losing her control would see her body torn apart by the SEALs...

Insignificant little brat
, Harrow raged, her thoughts slamming into Mindy with staggering power.  Mindy felt herself waver, only to be bolstered by Calvin’s icy rage and determination to make up for his crimes.  Harrow’s voice seemed to grow stronger as she focused more on the link between Mindy and Calvin.  Her brother was a ghost, beyond permanent harm, but Harrow could still reach Mindy. 
I’ll crush your soul and rip you apart.  You will worship me as my foremost slave.

“No,” Calvin said.  Mindy felt red-hot beams of rage lancing into her mind, tearing through her memories.  But she had little for Harrow to rub in her face.  “You won’t.”

Mindy lashed back.  Harrow was ancient, far older than even Professor Dumbledore, and she had hundreds of thousands of memories waiting for someone to exploit them.  Her master, lecturing her on her dangerous habit of allowing her mind to wander during the night.  Later, her master beating her for refusing to lay down proper runes to protect herself from the dreaming.  Other apprentices, mocking her for her weakness, and what she did to them during the night.  Her departure from her master’s service, her first encounter with a necromancer, and her first kill.  And how she’d brought him back to life.

That will not scare me
, Harrow informed her. 
I grew out of my weakness.  Your brother never did.

The Thirteen loomed up in front of her, a cabal of magicians who had pushed the limits to the point that there were no longer any limits.  Harrow herself, the weakest of them, yet armed with nightmares as a weapon.  The twins, Trouble and Strife, who had been her friends as well as her allies.  Necromancer, who had been the first to realise the potential in human sacrifice; Star Lord, who had grasped the true nature of the universe.  And a shadow hanging over them all, a man they all acknowledged as their master.  Mindy tried to look closer...

Harrow pushed back at her, hard.  This time, struggle seemed futile.  Mindy could sense Harrow reaching into her mind, plucking at her thoughts and readying herself to warp her brain.  She seemed helpless...

And then Calvin broke the link.

***

Calvin had held the link as long as he could, but Harrow had vastly more experience in mental combat than Mindy and he’d known that his sister would eventually lose.  Instead of allowing Harrow to destroy her, he broke the link, wincing at the mental feedback, and then hurled himself into Harrow’s mind.  She would eventually eliminate him completely, he knew, but it would distract her for a few seconds.  And a few seconds might be just long enough to beat her.

***

He was dying.  Golem knew that for a fact, even though a human would have tried to resist the truth.  Either deliberately or through lucky accident, Harrow’s desperate attempt to force him out of her wards had started the process of destroying the spells that held him together.  His hands were already blackened and useless and it would only get worse as time went by.  All he could do was try to take Harrow out before he died.