Shadow City (39 page)

“The four apes are still walking around. Those things are like tanks. Nothing seems to penetrate. Plus a couple of the ghouls,” Alexander said. He had his hand on Max’s hip as if he couldn’t bear not to touch her.

She looked at Ilanion. “Go see if you can find her. Try not to be seen. And don’t start a showdown until we get there,” she added when his eyes shifted suddenly to pure gold. He wanted the chance at the other mage. Fine by her, but if he lost, she wanted to be there to finish the job.

The eagle mage didn’t answer. He simply leaped up into the air and skimmed away.

“Let’s move,” Max said. “I don’t trust him to wait.”

“Beyul has the trail,” Alexander said, and they followed the Grim.

Drida’s people met them two blocks away. The gargoyle looked pleased. Or as pleased as a statue can look. He and his team fell in behind without a word.

Asherah had taken time to set more traps. They were easy enough to avoid. Max was starting to wonder if the bitch had any plan whatsoever or if she just relied on brute force to get her way. It wouldn’t be all that surprising. If you were the biggest bully in the schoolyard, why not just smash away the opposition? Why finesse anything? It would be a waste of time. And eventually, no one would challenge you anymore, and you’d let your fighting skills get rusty, if you ever had any to begin with.

They were warned that Asherah was near when they heard the explosions and saw a cloud of dust and debris rising into the air.

“Bastard didn’t wait,” Max said, breaking into a run.

They raced out into an open area and stopped. It was thick with choking dust and littered with a maze of rubble. Streaks of magic flashed through the cloud, and buildings exploded, sending stone and steel flying.

There was no way to tell where Asherah and Ilanion were. Nor was there any sign of the apes or the ghouls. Then a scuffle began among Drida’s men. Max spun around. The apes had come out of nowhere and were tearing the gargoyles limb from limb and trampling them into the ground.

The Blades launched themselves into the fray. But Alexander was right. Nothing seemed to slow them down. They were impervious to everything.

Oz was knocked into the air. Tyler dropped down from a roof and wove in and out, punching and kicking until he was knocked in the head and fell in a heap. Thor, Max, and Alexander had about as much luck. Where the apes struck, bones broke. The gargoyles fared little better despite the rock strength of their bodies. The apes ground them to dust or used them as clubs.

Spike dove in, snapping and biting, but had little effect. The two Grims hung back. What they were waiting for, Max had no clue.

Giselle blasted the apes with magic, but the creatures shook it off and continued their assault.

Max dodged a massive fist. Thor was being crushed in a bear hug. Alexander was hammering at one ape with a length of pipe. Thor went limp, and the ape dropped him and snatched at Alexander. Before he could grab him, the ground opened beneath his feet. He fell into a hole and vanished. Seconds later, another did the same. Then the third and the fourth.

“What happened?” Giselle gasped as Alexander checked Thor. Tyler was helping Oz to his feet.

“The Zo’on,” Drida said. He was swaying drunkenly, and one of his eyes was gone.

“Earthworms?” Oz said as he swayed, wiping blood from his chin. “Fucking fantastic. ’Bout time they got here.”

“Are those apes dead? Or will they be digging out of their graves?” Alexander asked.

“The Zo’on will make sure they can’t dig out,” Drida said, and there was a sharp look of triumph on his face.

“That just leaves the last two ghouls and Asherah,” Max said, turning her head to look for them.

“Easy as gettin’ laid in a two-dollar whorehouse,” Thor drawled sardonically.

“Do those even exist?” Giselle asked, startling the Blade.

He grinned. “I hear they do in heaven,” he said.

“So you’ll never know for sure,” Tyler said. “Since you’re going to hell in a handbasket.”

“I was thinking I’d be going in a rocket, myself,” Thor said. “Maybe real soon,” he added as the ground shuddered and all around them the buildings creaked and shook ominously. “I’ll save you a seat.”

“Asherah still has her panties in a twist,” Max said as she ran a hand through her hair. “Time to take her down. Everybody ready?” There were nods all around.

“What about Ilanion?” Alexander asked as the ground trembled again and dust whirled into the air.

“I told the fucker to wait,” Max said. “He deserves what he gets.” But she was already moving, prowling carefully through the dust fog toward the source of the magical concussions. She stopped and grabbed Giselle’s arm. “Stick close,” she told the witch. “Watch for the ghouls,” she told the others. “This dust is perfect for them.”

The others spread out in a skirmish line on either side, and she lost sight of them. Giselle curled her fingers into Max’s waistband. Suddenly, the sounds of battle went silent. Max’s skin prickled. She couldn’t smell or see. Sounds seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere in the murky fog of dust. She felt like a sitting duck.

“There,” Alexander said softly from the left, and then he bounded past with Beyul at his side.

Max’s chest clenched as a screech tore through the air, followed by shouts and a long, eerie yowl that sent spider chills crawling down her spine.

The sound cut off suddenly. One ghoul down. She hoped.

“Everybody OK?” she called, then jumped as Spike nosed her leg. “Tyler? Thor? Oz? Alexander? What happened?”

There was a chorus of replies, and then Alexander stepped out of the fog and pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “One ghoul gone,” he said with a wolfish grin as he dusted his hands together. “One to go.” He whirled away before she could say anything else.

“He’s actually hunting them,” Max muttered, her intestines knotting with worry. “He’s going to get himself killed.”

“He won’t. Not with you to come home to,” Giselle said.

Max twisted to look at her. “What the hell do you know?”

The witch smiled thinly. “Not enough, apparently. But I’m learning. One thing I can say is that Alexander isn’t going anywhere until you tell him to. And probably not then.”

“Right. Because you’re so good at relationships,” Max said.

“Maybe not. But like I said, I’ve been learning. Alexander has been making a point of teaching me,” Giselle said wryly.

What had been going on at Horngate while she was gone? Max wondered.

Another screech sounded and cut off as fast as it began. “And then there was one,” Max murmured. “A hell of a big one.”

“We’ll get her,” Giselle said.

“We’d better, and fast. Or Scooter is going to die. I’ll be right behind. I promised I’d save him or die trying.”

“You did
what
?” Giselle exclaimed, and magic sizzled through her fingers and jolted Max like she’d licked the end of a power line. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking—” Max broke off. She was thinking that she and he were a lot alike. What Giselle had done to Max the Korvad had done to Scooter. “He’d been tortured and mutilated. Everyone he’d trusted had betrayed him. He needed someone to fight in his corner, and I was the only one he had.”

For once, her tone was neither bitter nor accusing. Scooter’s experience mirrored her own all too closely, and Giselle knew it. But Max couldn’t scrape up any anger at the moment. It was all old news, and the world was a different place now. There was no time left for old feuds.

Giselle sighed, her body wreathed in snaking black magic. “I don’t want to lose you,” she said quietly.

“Tell me something I don’t know. I’m your favorite punching bag and pit bull,” Max replied, scanning around her, trying to see
anything
.

“No. I fucked up our friendship thirty years ago, and I want a chance to—”

Max was shocked and not a little bit irritated that Giselle thought she might be able to fix the betrayal. “What? Make it up to me?”

“Maybe. Maybe I just want a chance to be friends again.”

Max snorted but didn’t tell the witch-bitch to go fuck herself. Maybe it was losing Niko. Maybe it was the fact that the world was a new and dangerous place. Or maybe it was looking down the barrel of her own mortality, but Giselle’s comment didn’t ignite the usual hatred inside Max. Instead, she let the idea settle inside her for later consideration and focused on the problem at hand.

She heard the beating of wings overhead. For a moment, her heart clutched, but Tutresiel and Xaphan were dead. She swallowed the tight ache in her throat. Ilanion was still alive.

There was a crunching of rocks and a rolling of rubble, and Tyler swore. “What’s wrong?” she called in a low voice.

“Can’t see a fucking thing in this soup,” he said. “Where is Asherah?”

“I am here, little man,” came the mage’s voice. It was a ribbon of satiny promise circling them.

The building debris trembled and rattled. The air began to spin in a slow circle. It wouldn’t stay slow for long, Max thought. Asherah liked to beat her opponents into the ground. Soon the spin would be a full-blown tornado. They were out of time.

“Alexander and Tyler, find her,” Max ordered into the churning dust. With the Grims to help protect them, they stood a better chance of surviving if they tripped over her accidentally. “Everyone else, come to my voice. Ilanion, you, too!” she shouted.

A few minutes later, she was surrounded by Drida and his team, the two earthworms, Oz, Thor, Giselle, Spike, and last of all Ilanion. He glided down in a bubble of clear air. He was bloody and bruised, his armor dented and scratched. Blood coated his lips and chin.

“You OK?” Max asked.

“I’ll be better when Asherah is dead,” he said. His gaze flicked to Giselle and then to everyone else. “Glad you all made it.”

“I thought I told you to wait for us before going after Asherah,” Max said.

Ilanion grinned without remorse. “Did you? Must’ve forgot that.”

The wind was speeding up, and Max was beginning to feel the pull. Her ears popped with the changing pressure. “We’ve got to take her down—and quick. Anybody have any ideas?”

“Best chance is to use the witch chain and cut her throat when she’s unprotected,” Oz said.

Max nodded. “First, we have to pinpoint her and then keep her distracted while we get close.”

“Ilanion and I can do that,” Giselle said. “We’ll keep her too busy to notice what you’re up to.”

Max turned to Drida. “Can the earthworms—the Zo’on—come up underneath like they did with the ape critters? They shouldn’t try to be too stealthy. If she thinks they are our ace in the hole, she’ll be so proud of herself for fending them off that she won’t look for us.”

Drida spoke to the earthworms and turned back to Max. “They will.”

“We’ll need a signal to let them know when to strike. And I only want them to get noticed and then get the hell out before they get killed.”

He spoke to them, and their stubby pink heads bobbled in what Max thought might be nods. Their voices were wet noises that sounded like mud gurgling.

“One of us will stay with you and stamp the ground,” Drida said.

“They’ll hear that?” Oz asked doubtfully.

Drida gave a little smile and slammed his foot into the ground. Max felt the shiver of the impact in her bones. “Good enough,” she said.

“That leaves actually getting the chain on her and killing her. My unlocking ability might let me through her shields,” Max said. “But we can’t count on it. So the witch chain is our only leverage. We’ll only have a split second before she protects herself again. It would help if she doesn’t see us coming, so we can hit her fast before she realizes what the chain can do. Got any ideas on how to get close?”

“Set up an ambush and let her come to us,” Thor suggested.

“We’d have to see to do it,” Oz said doubtfully. “Otherwise, we won’t be able to herd her where we need her to go.”

“So we’ll get Asherah to clear the air,” Ilanion said. “Or do it for her.” He looked at Giselle. “I’ve got some ideas about that.” He pulled her aside, and they started talking together.

Max shrugged. “All right, suppose they can pull it off. How do we make it work?”

“Alexander and Tyler will have to use the Grims to move her. She’s not going to back down from anybody else.”

“And us,” Giselle said, rejoining the conversation. “Between Ilanion, me, and the Grims, we should be able to maneuver her.”

“We can bait her. She likes to attack. Let her come after us,” Thor said.

Max shook her head. “Not you and Oz. You’ll be with me to kill her. Drida, tell your people to wait here, and once the air is clear, start shooting her with your arrows. All they’re trying to do is piss her off. She won’t care if they hurt her or not. She’ll just be mad that they have the gall to attack at all.” She looked around. “Anyone think of anything else?” When no one answered, she nodded. “Then all we need is Asherah and some room to see.”

Just then, Tyler pushed through the whirling wind. It whined, flinging stinging bits of rock and debris through the air. Gritty blood made a spider-web pattern over his cheeks and forehead. A moment later, Alexander joined him. Like Tyler, he was caked with blood and dirt.

“Found her,” Tyler said, coughing and spitting out the dust.

“She will not stay still for long. She is distinctly unhappy,” Alexander said.

“That’s all right. We don’t plan to make her wait.” Max laid the plan out tersely for them. “Now, Tyler and Alexander, it’s up to you to figure out where the ambush should happen and then establish positions. After that, Giselle and Ilanion start clearing the air, and we get down to business. Timing is everything. One last thing: if we don’t kill her, fall back, and we’ll figure out another plan. And try not to die.”

She turned to follow Tyler and Alexander. The two Blades put their heads together for a few moments and then set off. Everyone stuck close, with Ilanion and Giselle sandwiched in the middle. The earthworms squirmed down into the dirt and vanished from sight, and the gargoyles hunkered down to wait for the air to clear.

The wind was growing stronger. Bigger pieces of debris were beginning to swirl in the murk. Something thumped against Max’s shoulder, cutting deep. Spike pressed against her leg and miraculously didn’t poke holes into her.