Spiritwalker 3: Cold Steel (90 page)

Find out more about the author at
www.kateelliott.com
. You can also find extras there, including short fiction set in the Spiritwalker
universe.

If you enjoyed

COLD STEEL,

look out for

THE IRON WYRM AFFAIR

A Bannon and Clare Novel

by Lilith Saintcrow

Emma Bannon, Sorceress Prime and servant to Britannia’s current incarnation, mentally
ran through every foul word that would never cross the lips of a lady. She timed them
to the clockhorse’s steady jogtrot, and her awareness dilated. The simmering cauldron
of the streets was just as it always was; there was no breath of ill intent.

Of course, there had not been earlier, either, when she had been a quarter-hour too
late to save the
other
unregistered mentath. It was only one of the many things about this situation seemingly
designed to try her often considerable patience.

Mikal would be taking the rooftop road, running while she sat at ease in a hired carriage.
It was the knowledge that while he did so he could forget some things that eased her
conscience, though not completely.

Still, he was a Shield. He would not consent to share a carriage with her unless he
was certain of her safety. And there was not room enough to manoeuvre in a two-person
conveyance, should he require it.

She was heartily sick of hired carts. Her own carriages were
far
more comfortable, but this matter required discretion. Having it shouted to the heavens
that she was alert to the pattern under these occurrences might not precisely frighten
her opponents, but it would become more difficult to attack them from an unexpected
quarter. Which was, she had to admit, her preferred method.

Even a Prime can benefit from guile,
Llew had often remarked. And of course, she would think of him. She seemed constitutionally
incapable of leaving well enough alone, and
that
irritated her as well.

Beside her, Clare dozed. He was a very thin man, with a long, mournful face; his gloves
were darned but his waistcoat was of fine cloth, though it had seen better days. His
eyes were
blue, and they glittered feverishly under half-closed lids. An unregistered mentath
would find it difficult to secure proper employment, and by the looks of his quarters,
Clare had been suffering from boredom for several weeks, desperately seeking a series
of experiments to exercise his active brain.

Mentath was like sorcerous talent. If not trained, and
used
, it turned on its bearer.

At least he had found time to shave, and he had brought two bags. One, no doubt, held
linens. God alone knew what was in the second. Perhaps she should apply deduction
to the problem, as if she did not have several others crowding her attention at the
moment.

Chief among said problems were the murderers, who had so far eluded her efforts. Queen
Victrix was young, and just recently freed from the confines of her domineering mother’s
sway. Her new Consort, Alberich, was a moderating influence—but he did not have enough
power at Court just yet to be an effective shield for Britannia’s incarnation.

The ruling spirit was old, and wise, but Her vessels… well, they were not indestructible.

And that
, Emma told herself sternly,
is as far as we shall go with such a train of thought
. She found herself rubbing the sardonyx on her left middle finger, polishing it with
her opposite thumb. Even through her thin gloves, the stone prickled hotly. Her posture
did not change, but her awareness contracted. She felt for the source of the disturbance,
flashing through and discarding a number of fine invisible threads.

Blast and bother
. Other words, less polite, rose as well. Her pulse and respiration did not change,
but she tasted a faint tang of adrenaline before sorcerous training clamped tight
on such functions to free her from some of flesh’s more… distracting… reactions.

“I say, whatever is the matter?” Archibald Clare’s blue eyes
were wide open now, and he looked interested. Almost, dare she think it, intrigued.
It did nothing for his long, almost ugly features. His cloth was serviceable, though
hardly elegant—one could infer that a mentath had other priorities than fashion, even
if he had an eye for quality and the means to purchase such. But at least he was cleaner
than he had been, and had arrived in the hansom in nine and a half minutes precisely.
Now they were on Sarpesson Street, threading through amusement-seekers and those whom
a little rain would not deter from their nightly appointments.

The disturbance peaked, and a not-quite-seen starburst of gunpowder igniting flashed
through the ordered lattices of her consciousness.

The clockhorse screamed as his reins were jerked, and the hansom yawed alarmingly.
Archibald Clare’s hand dashed for the door handle, but Emma was already moving. Her
arms closed around the tall, fragile man, and she shouted a Word that exploded the
cab away from them both. Shards and splinters, driven outwards, peppered the street
surface. The glass of the cab’s tiny windows broke with a high, sweet tinkle, grinding
into crystalline dust.

Shouts. Screams. Pounding footsteps. Emma struggled upright, shaking her skirts with
numb hands. The horse had gone avast, rearing and plunging, throwing tiny metal slivers
and dribs of oil as well as stray crackling sparks of sorcery, but the traces were
tangled and it stood little chance of running loose. The driver was gone, and she
snapped a quick glance at the overhanging rooftops before the unhealthy canine shapes
resolved out of thinning rain, slinking low as gaslamp gleam painted their slick,
heaving sides.

Sootdogs. Oh, how unpleasant
. The one that had leapt on the hansom’s roof had most likely taken the driver, and
Emma
cursed aloud now as it landed with a thump, its shining hide running with vapour.

“
Most
unusual!” Archibald Clare yelled. He had gained his feet as well, and his eyes were
alight now. The mournfulness had vanished. He had also produced a queerly barrelled
pistol, which would be of
no
use against the dog-shaped sorcerous things now gathering. “
Quite
diverting!”

The star sapphire on her right third finger warmed. A globe-shield shimmered into
being, and to the roil of smouldering wood, gunpowder and fear was added another scent:
the smoke-gloss of sorcery. One of the sootdogs leapt, crashing into the shield, and
the shock sent Emma to her knees, holding grimly. Both her hands were outstretched
now, and her tongue occupied in chanting.

Sarpesson Street was neither deserted nor crowded at this late hour. The people gathering
to watch the outcome of a hansom crash pushed against those onlookers alert enough
to note that something entirely different was occurring, and the resultant chaos was
merely noise to be shunted aside as her concentration narrowed.

Where is Mikal?

She had no time to wonder further. The sootdogs hunched and wove closer, snarling.
Their packed-cinder sides heaved and black tongues lolled between obsidian-chip teeth;
they could strip a large adult male to bone in under a minute. There were the onlookers
to think of as well, and Clare behind and to her right, laughing as he sighted down
the odd little pistol’s chunky nose. Only he was not pointing it at the dogs, thank
God. He was aiming for the rooftop.

You idiot
. The chant filled her mouth. She could spare no words to tell him not to fire, that
Mikal was—

The lead dog crashed against the shield. Emma’s body jerked
as the impact tore through her, but she held steady, the sapphire now a ringing blue
flame. Her voice rose, a clear contralto, and she assayed the difficult rill of notes
that would split her focus and make another Major Work possible.

That
was part of what made a Prime—the ability to concentrate completely on multiple channellings
of ætheric force. One’s capacity could not be infinite, just like the charge of force
carried and renewed every Tideturn.

But one did not need infinite capacity.
One needs only slightly more capacity than the problem at hand calls for
, as her third-form Sophological Studies professor had often intoned.

Mikal arrived.

His dark green coat fluttered as he landed in the midst of the dogs, a Shield’s fury
glimmering to Sight, bright spatters and spangles invisible to normal vision. The
sorcery-made things cringed, snapping; his blades tore through their insubstantial
hides. The charmsilver laid along the knives’ flats, as well as the will to strike,
would be of far more use than Mr Clare’s pistol.

Which spoke, behind her, the ball tearing through the shield from a direction the
protection wasn’t meant to hold. The fabric of the shield collapsed, and Emma had
just enough time to deflect the backlash, tearing a hole in the brick-faced fabric
of the street and exploding the clockhorse into gobbets of metal and rags of flesh,
before one of the dogs turned with stomach-churning speed and launched itself at her—and
the man she had been charged to protect.

She shrieked another Word through the chant’s descant, her hand snapping out again,
fingers contorted in a gesture definitely
not
acceptable in polite company. The ray of ætheric force smashed through brick dust,
destroying even more of the road’s surface, and crunched into the sootdog.

Emma bolted to her feet, snapping her hand back, and the
line of force followed as the dog crumpled, whining and shattering into fragments.
She could not hold the forcewhip for very long, but if more of the dogs came—

The last one died under Mikal’s flashing knives. He muttered something in his native
tongue, whirled on his heel, and stalked toward his Prima. That normally meant the
battle was finished.

Yet Emma’s mind was not eased. She half turned, chant dying on her lips and her gaze
roving, searching. Heard the mutter of the crowd, dangerously frightened. Sorcerous
force pulsed and bled from her fingers, a fountain of crimson sparks popping against
the rainy air. For a moment the mood of the crowd threatened to distract her, but
she closed it away and concentrated, seeking the source of the disturbance.

Sorcerous traces glowed, faint and fading, as the man who had fired the initial shot—most
likely to mark them for the dogs—fled. He had some sort of defence laid on him, meant
to keep him from a sorcerer’s notice.

Perhaps from a sorcerer, but not from a Prime. Not from me, oh no. The dead see all
. Her Discipline was of the Black, and it was moments like these when she would be
glad of its practicality—if she could spare the attention.

Time spun outwards, dilating, as she followed him over rooftops and down into a stinking
alley, refuse piled high on each side, running with the taste of fear and blood in
his mouth. Something had injured him.

Mikal? But then why did he not kill the man—

The world jolted underneath her, a stunning blow to her shoulder, a great spiked roil
of pain through her chest. Mikal screamed, but she was breathless. Sorcerous force
spilled free, uncontained, and other screams rose.

She could possibly injure someone.

Emma came back to herself, clutching at her shoulder. Hot blood welled between her
fingers, and the green silk would be ruined. Not to mention her gloves.

At least they had shot her, and not the mentath.

Oh, damn
. The pain crested again, became a giant animal with its teeth in her flesh.

Mikal caught her. His mouth moved soundlessly, and Emma sought with desperate fury
to contain the force thundering through her. Backlash could cause yet more damage,
to the street and to onlookers, if she let it loose.

A Prime’s uncontrolled force was nothing to be trifled with.

It was the traditional function of a Shield to handle such overflow, but if he had
only wounded the fellow on the roof she could not trust that he was not part of—

“
Let it GO!
” Mikal roared, and the ætheric bonds between them flamed into painful life. She fought
it, seeking to contain what she could, and her skull exploded with pain.

She knew no more.

The Spiritwalker Trilogy

Cold Magic

Cold Fire

Cold Steel

Crossroads

Spirit Gate

Shadow Gate

Traitors’ Gate

Crown of Stars

King’s Dragon

Prince of Dogs

The Burning Stone

Child of Flame

The Gathering Storm

In the Ruins

Crown of Stars

Jaran

Jaran

An Earthly Crown

His Conquering Sword

The Law of Becoming

Writing with Melanie Rawn & Jennifer Roberson

The Golden Key

Writing as Alis A. Rasmussen

The Labyrinth Gate