Mage Dissolution Page 2

  This was a luxury that I wasn’t afforded. I had been declared an outcast and to assist me was to invite death. This was one of the reasons why I kept a wide berth between myself and other Mages.

  Renee was the one who often gave me hints on where to continue my search. I don’t know how she was able to obtain this intelligence but I was very grateful. Renee had actually been the one who had highlighted the accountant’s importance to me.

  Through Renee I learned that the Primea, the leader of our kind, had fallen sick and had retreated from social appearances. In her absence the fight between my former Master and Marcus, Renee’s father had escalated. This wasn’t surprising. It had long been presumed that the only thing preventing all out Mage War between the two had been the Primea.

  This would be a war that would be felt in the real world. I didn’t even care much about that, as long as I got my cousin out of it before the shells starting raining down. I had no interest in a Mage war between Marcus and Victor and I definitely had no interest in choosing a side. Due to the conflict Victor had also withdrawn from the Mage society and had become a recluse, but to hear Renee talk about it, it was easy to see his hand in the political actions of his allies.

  He was still pulling the strings, but no one could figure out from where. This was the crux of my problem. If I could find where he was hiding, I was sure that my cousin would be with him. I should have perhaps come to Germany first in my search, I knew that Victor was German by birth, but I foolishly thought he would move further north from Singapore.

  He hadn’t, I’d wasted much of my time searching the Asian continent for some sign of Victor.

  I kept in regular contact with both Renee and Marcus during my travels, more so with Renee. Marcus was too embroiled in political infighting to be of much help, and I was loath to call upon him as I knew that there would be a cost for his aid. I never fully trusted Marcus, I suspected his assistance was nothing more than a helping hand to someone who could potentially damage his rival.

  Marcus was adamant that I join him in his fight against Victor and had tried to recruit me to his cause several times. I refused, I wasn’t going to be drawn into his fight. If truth be told, I suspected it was a losing cause anyway. Of the two of them, Victor was the more powerful and the more likely to win in the long run.

  My relationship with Marcus had soured after he had tried to physically force me to join him during his last attempt to recruit me. Harsh words had been exchanged at my reluctance to sign up to his cause and he had lost his temper. I had always known him as a dangerous man, but I do not think I’ve ever been closer to death than when he had faced me down. It had gotten messy and I still count myself lucky to have gotten away with my life.

  I refused several more invitations to meet with him after that confrontation. I sensed another trap and wasn’t prepared to take the risk of another meeting between us. Renee had accepted my decision, although she had made comments that Marcus could help me. I never really understood the relationship between Renee and her father. She had been raised by Victor, her grandfather, and had only discovered that Marcus was her biological father a few years ago. She seemed that have adjusted to this news well, but I could tell that there was tension between the two. Unfortunately Renee would never discuss so sensitive a subject with me. In some ways she was even more close mouthed about her feelings than I was.

  * * * * * *

  A small bell clanged as the door opened and brought me back from my reverie. My prey was here. I didn’t turn to look at him, but I could feel that it was him. There was no possible way that I should have heard the bell over the sound of the barroom, yet I swear that I did.

  I waited until the accountant made his way through the crowd to get to the bar. He didn’t look over at me as he sat down, but I hadn’t expected him to. He simply sat at the bar and mechanically pulled his drink to his lips. After a few sips he appeared to sigh slightly. He glanced around the barroom warily, but quickly returned his focus to his drink.

  “You seem nervous,” I whispered to him in my stilted German. He snorted into his drink and ignored me. He might not have heard me though as he didn’t respond.

  “You should be nervous,” I continued, switching to English.

  He turned to look at me. I could see him inspecting my face looking for something familiar. I was a little surprised when His face went white with recognition.

  “You!” he gasped. I couldn’t tell if he was getting ready to flee or not, but he must have been considering it.

  “If you run for it, you won’t make it to the door,” I commented darkly.

  He nodded briefly and I could see him scanning the room for a possible rescue. I could tell by the dropping of his shoulders and the slouch that he realised that he was trapped. The crowded bar room would actually count against him here. If he should move away from the bar and into the crowd it was unlikely that anyone would see what would happen to him. At least here he was in the open and unlikely to be attacked.

  His hand slipped down to what I presumed was a mobile phone in his pocket. I could tell he was trying to be subtle about it, but he was obviously terrified and it’s hard to be subtle under those circumstances.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I advised softly.

  His hand jerked away from his pocket and hurriedly placed it upon the bar between us.

  “That’s good,” I said gently. “There’s a good chance that nothing is going to happen to you…” I let my tone go a little darker, “…if you co-operate.”

  “What do you want?” I asked me timidly as he tentatively took another sip of his drink. His hand was shaking so much that he hand trouble bringing the glass to his lips.

  “I want to know where Miss Burton is.” I said, referring to my cousin by her surname.

  “I do not know who that is,” he replied in German.

  “There is no point lying to me.” I snapped back in German as I slipped a photo from my inside pocket and passed it across the bench top.

  It was a photo of Victor and Allie, and he was standing right behind them as they walked from his office building. It had been taken a month ago, I wasn’t sure by whom, but Renee had passed it on to me. It was what had led me to Berlin. To his credit he didn’t try to lie any further.

  “You cannot blame me for trying,” he mumbled.

  “No,” I agreed readily, “in your place I would have attempted the same.”

  “What happens now?” he whispered.

  “That depends.” I shrugged. I wasn’t really sure what he hoped I was going to say here. There wasn’t much to say.

  “I cannot betray Master Whittlesea.”

  “Yes, you can. You have no choice.”

  “No, I cannot.” He sighed, “he has seen to this.”

  Damnit. Victor’s compulsions. I should have foreseen this. Victor had the ability to compel people to do his bidding. He had obviously compelled the man to remain silent, which was infuriating as I had no ability to counter the compel effect. I had scoured through the training documents that I had stolen from Victor but this was the one piece of his sorcery that I was unable to find any reference to. I did not have access to his full suite of books on Mana, but I had hoped to find at least some reference to it.

  I had once spoken to Master Marcus on the subject but he didn’t seem to understand the spell any better than I did. We couldn’t duplicate the effect, but we could protect ourselves from it. This had been enough up until now.

  “This is going to be unpleasant then.” I whispered softly, “Finish your drink. We will need to go somewhere quieter.”

  “Why would I go with you?” he scoffed as he took another sip of his drink. He made no move to get up.

  “Because I will kill you if you do not.” I replied casually as I got to my feet.

  “And lose your information?” he smirked.

  “If need be,” I shrugged, “you’re nothing more than a means to an end for me. I have other avenues, you were merely the
easiest.”

  It was a lie, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. My statement made him rethink things though. I casually looped a Mana thread around his hand resting on the table. I caused the loop to tighten around his little finger on his left hand. He looked up at me in shock and tried to pull his hand away. Unfortunately for him, a Mana thread is a powerful force. He was unable to break free.

  “Listen to me,” I sneered as I leaned in, “I don’t care for you, and I don’t care for your laws. This crowd of people does not make you safe. If I wanted to I could leave you broken and bleeding on the floor and no one in here would know any better, until I left.”

  He had gone white. This wasn’t unexpected as I had been gradually increasing the level of pressure around his little finger. It must have hurt horribly, but to his credit he remained silent and stared at me balefully. I could see what it was costing him though. I could see the pain behind his eyes, he would break soon. Unfortunately for him, his finger broke before he did.

  There was a surprisingly loud cracking noise as his finger caved in. I had placed my loop just above his knuckle and I could see the digit twist as it collapsed in on itself. He bit back a shriek. The barman looked over at us, but was unable to see anything out of the ordinary.

  “You should co-operate now,” I said darkly. “If you’re quick enough you might even have enough time to get to a hospital in time to save that finger.”

  He gasped as he looked down at his mangled hand and nodded quickly as he got to his feet. I followed him through the crowd at a leisurely pace. I was certain that he would make a break for it at some point, but I could handle that when it happened. I was surprised when he didn’t. Perhaps I had finally gotten through to him. There was no point in resisting.

  Once we got outside he tucked his hand inside his pockets, nursing his shattered finger from the cold. I surveyed the street and assessed my next move. It wasn’t that late so there was a still lot of people about, making their way home from work. It was a pity that it wasn’t less crowded.

  “Where to now?” He asked.

  “The alley,” I grunted, gesturing across the street. Once I got him into the alley I could safely teleport us both away.

  “No,” he stated loudly. “I will not go with you.”

  “It seems a little late for heroics now, don’t you think?” I commented wryly.

  He kept glancing nervously about. In hindsight I really should have picked up on it sooner: he had used my temporary distraction to ring for help on his phone. Mana threads arched across the skyline and ended in the alley. The very alley that I had been going to use to escape. That was annoyingly ironic.

  A loud shattering bang heralded their arrival. Three Mages emerged from the alley.

  I smiled, stretched my shoulders and flexed my fingers feeling the power flow out as I drew upon my Mana, “Don’t go anywhere,” I said casually as assessed my enemies.

  I could tell from the complexity of their Scry threads that they weren’t very powerful Mages, but they were skilled enough to pull off a Scry thread and a teleport spell so they must have had some skill. Also, there were three of them. This could be challenging.

  They would already know who I was and where I was. They would have seen me through their Scry thread on the way in. They would have seen how powerful I was, but they were young and to judge from their expressions they were very obviously over confident. I grinned to myself in spite of the danger.

  Once they got closer I could see that my assessment was correct. They weren’t as powerful as I was in sheer strength, but then again few were. I doubted that they were apprentices of Victor, it was more likely that they were trained by one of his allies. None of this made my difference in the long run though, there were three of them and one of me.

  “You may surrender now,” the one in the lead called once he got within speaking range.

  “And if I choose not to.”

  He balked a little at this, I suspected that he was under the impression that I would be cowed by his superiority in numbers. He was in for a surprise.

  “We can’t fight here on the street,” he stammered.

  “You can’t, maybe,” I said as I let the Mana flow down my arms and formed powerful Mana threads to each side of me. With a slight flick of my wrist I raised a Mana shield over me. I could see them visibly gulp as they pulled shields over themselves.

  The one on the right looked for confirmation from the leader. He obviously wasn’t sure that they should be doing this. He was probably right, they shouldn’t be. This was against the rules. Mages can’t fight in the open street like this, but I could. I’d already been kicked out the order. I could see the emotions battle across his face. He very much wanted to attack me, but every fibre of his being was screaming against it.

  His conflict proved to be to my benefit. I didn’t wait for them to strike, in fact I was pretty sure that they weren’t going to. They were still too worried about the people walking down the street around us. This placed the advantage of the first attack in my court.

  I launched both threads around in a swinging motion, scissoring between them. The two Mages on each side wisely decided to leap over my strike, but the leader arrogantly thought he could endure my attack on his shield unscathed. To be fair, he almost did. Almost.

  There was a devastating cracking noise as my threads impacted with his shield and brought it down. The thread tore through his body and brought him face first to the ground.

  He didn’t get up. It must have looked pretty strange to everyone else. To those without Mana sight it would have appeared that I had waved my hands at him and he fell down. I could see several passers-by look on in horror. It must have been obvious that this wasn’t street performance. This led to several shouts of terror as people fled in all directions.

  I didn’t have to examine my fallen foe to know that he was horribly hurt. He was definitely still alive as I could see his chest slowly rising and falling, but he didn’t look like he was going to regain consciousness anytime soon. I could see the Mana still surging through his body in reaction to the threat. The flow of Mana ebbed and faded as his body grew weaker. It wasn’t a certainty that he would survive this. I didn’t feel any pity for him, his own arrogance and stupidity had led him to his fate. He had deserved it.

  My head jerked around as a thread impacted onto the side of my shield. The blow wasn’t that strong, but it was enough to send me staggering back several steps. A second impact spun me round from the other side. I was amazed that I managed to keep myself on my feet after the power of that strike. My opponent obviously felt the same way as I could see his surprise on his face through our shields.

  They had obviously expected to have dropped my shield by now. I lurched forward and out of the way of another one of their attacks. They were relentless in their pursuit. I glanced around for the accountant, but he must have taken the opportunity to flee. I didn’t much blame him. This was only a minor problem, I’d simply collect him later.

  I retreated down a busy side street beside the bar in an attempt to bring the odds more into my favour. They couldn’t attack me from both sides if we were in a crowd. I could also hear the sound of police sirens in the background, so it probably wasn’t a bad idea to move off the main street. The last thing I needed were cops getting involved.

  A short and savage flurry of blows forced me to defend myself as I drew them deeper into the street. To be honest though, I didn’t have much choice. Now that they were prepared for my attack it was hard to pierce through their defence. They weren’t as powerful as I was, but they were still well trained. It would take some time to break through their defences. I just couldn’t get a decent shot through with any strength to make a difference to the outcome.

  I used a break in the attack to vault backwards over the wall behind me and found myself in a narrow courtyard. It appeared to be the back of a factory or something. It was deserted. I tried to catch my breath back as the two vaulted as one over the wall.<
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  I used the opportunity to attack. A short sharp shout of pain indicated that I had been successful as I knocked one of them savagely back against the wall. He slid down the wall and fell into a heap at the base. I knew he was still alive from his Mana signature, but he certainly was out of the fight, for the moment at least.

  His companion landed with grace and launched several strikes at my chest level but his shot went wide and I was able to side step around him. He rose into the air swinging.

  Unfortunately for him, without his companion to assist him he was no match for me and the tide of battle quickly turned to my favour. He must have realised very that he was over matched as his strategy altered towards the defensive.

  “You should run,” I grunted at him between strikes. He looked at me uncomprehendingly and I repeated my advice in German. He didn’t respond but launched another attack at me, which I easily defended and countered knocking him backwards. He stumbled and fell and scrambled away from me. I let him regain his feet.

  “You can’t win.” I said, not bothering to switch to German.

  “I don’t have to win,” he snarled in halting English, “I only need to keep you busy.”

  If he had timed that statement, he couldn’t have timed it any better. As soon as he had finished speaking the gates to the factory burst open and a plain black van charged into the clearing. It screeched to a halt and black suited soldiers in riot gear issued forth from the rear doors and panned out forming a rough circle around me, pointing assault rifles in my direction.

  “You should surrender!” my opponent said, mocking my previous statement.

  I smiled wryly at him as I allowed the assault team to complete their circle around me. They kept a healthy distance from me; they obviously knew what I was capable of.