Death's Mantle: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Revelations Book 1) (16 page)

Amy swallowed and looked away from the old man as the feeling that his words were right welled up inside her. So she was a horseman. It seemed impossible, but she had been abducted by a guy claiming to be the Norse God Vali, and now she was being sent into a magical realm to fight one of Loki’s monstrous children. When she thought about it that way, finding out she was one of the harbingers of the apocalypse and was going to fight monsters wasn’t actually that weird.

She was about to ask Sabastin about it when a tornado of emerald fire filled the space between her and the old man. She covered her eyes with her arm, shielding them from the glare even as every muscle in her body tensed. She glanced to where Ian’s bloody sword lay unmoving on the steel floor. She didn’t know how long it would take to reach the weapon, but she was going to try anyway.

The flames died away as she leapt from the stairs, landing hard on the metal. Her knees screamed in pain as she took several staggering steps toward the weapon. The flames died down as she knelt toward it, and just as her fingers were about to touch the hilt, she felt it. The blade called to her, begged her to wield it once more, for her to drive it through her enemies. It whispered a promise into the air. If only she would take it up, she would hear the lamentations of her enemies.

She pulled her hand back, eyes wide as she stared at the weapon. This weapon was bad. She swallowed, turning her head toward the dying blaze. Whatever that was didn’t feel quite as bad as this sword. Amy stood and readied her fists, and as she did so, crimson flames trailed along her skin, flickering around her body like she was the human torch. She took a step toward the swirling green tornado as it burned itself out.

Her breath caught in her throat, and her own flames vanished like they’d never been there at all. Caden stood before her, his bandaged, broken body barely able to support Kim. Her head fell bonelessly against his shoulder.

Caden met her eyes, and he sighed in relief. “Thank god, someone I know is here.” His legs shook as he tried to drag Kim toward her. Amy reached out, swinging Kim’s other arm over her shoulder and Caden grunted in relief.

“What’s going on?” Sabastin called, his eyes set into a hard mask. “How did you get in here? You shouldn’t be able to make it up here without one of my people as an escort…”

Caden stepped backward so quickly he nearly dropped Kim. He struggled for a moment, nearly falling to the ground before Sabastin reached out, gripping his shoulder and stabilizing the boy

He took a deep breath as his eyes took in Sabastin’s scarred form. “Are you Sabastin?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes.”

“Malcom told me to tell you Polyphemus is dead, and he is going after the one responsible.” Pain flashed across Caden’s face. “I’m hoping you know what that means.”

“Dammit!” Sabastin cried, grabbing Caden by the shoulders and shaking him. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, that’s what he said right before he thrust Kim into my arms and sent me here.” Caden swallowed. “It was like he was saying goodbye.”

Sabastin turned to face Amy. “You have to stop him. Malcom has not embraced enough of his mantle to stop Jormungand…” Sabastin nodded to himself as thoughts swelled in his eyes. “Okay… maybe we can salvage this.” He looked at Amy. “Amy, I need you to go after Jormungand, can you do that?”

Amy swallowed as the words rattled around in her brain. Was he being serious? How was she supposed to go and stop Jormungand on her own? She’d never met the creature before, but she’d felt its presence. Just that feeling had been like staring into the vastness of space and realizing you were a tiny, inconsequential spec. Then again, he didn’t seem like the type to send her after Jormungand if he didn’t think she could win.

“I’ll do my best, but I don’t know where to go,” Amy said as Sabastin pulled Kim from her arms and made his way up the stairs. He stared at Ian for a moment before dumping Kim in along with him.

“The tank is only made for one person, but it will have to do,” Sabastin said, leaping from the stairs and turning a dial all the way to the right on the base of the fishbowl.

“Is that safe?” Amy asked as sparks began to leap across the surface of the goop.

“In a word, ‘no,’ but desperate times…” He trailed off as he reached out and grabbed Caden’s wrist. “Malcom transported you here?”

“Yeah he did.” Caden smiled weakly.

“Perfect, that means you’re in touch with his power, at least a little.” Sabastin placed his hands on Caden’s head. Green fire crawled across Caden’s skin, flaring brightly before winking out. A low moan escaped Caden’s lips as he collapsed haphazardly to the floor. “Oh… that’s way, way worse…”

“What do you mean?” Amy asked, not sure if she should help Caden or not. Part of her wanted to make sure he was okay, but well, she wasn’t sure touching him right now was the best idea.

“He’s not going after Jormungand at all. He’s going after Loki.” Sabastin swallowed. “But Loki isn’t trapped in some nether realm like we figured. He’s in the middle of a major city. If he tries to stop Loki there, the collateral damage will be immeasurable.”

“Maybe I should go help him?” Amy asked as fear welled up in her. If the choice was between going after Jormungand alone or facing Loki with Malcom’s help, well, weren’t two better than one? “Because, honestly, taking out Loki sounds like a great plan, all things considered.”

“No. Loki can’t be killed unless all three of his monstrous children are destroyed. For Malcom to succeed in killing Loki, Jormungand, Hel, and Fenris have to be dead. All Malcom will do is release Loki and get himself killed.” He sighed. “Hopefully, you can see why that is bad.”

“If I kill Jormungand would that weaken Loki enough for Mal to stop him?” Amy asked even though the idea of facing off against a Norse Deity alone made her blood run cold. Next to her, Caden got slowly to his feet, steam curling off his skin.

“I could get used to magic healing,” he said, running his hands over his body as a smile flashed across his face.

“No. Loki’s an immortal god, and unfortunately, his immortality is tied to his children. As long as one of them lives, he can’t actually die,” Sabastin replied, shaking his head. “It doesn’t even matter anyway because it’s going to take all four of you to kill Jormungand. That’s not really the problem, though.”

“The problem is Mal is broken in his head.” Caden flexed his hand. “He may have healed me somehow, but he’s gone dark. If Mal is going after someone, well that someone is in trouble.”

“What do you mean?” Amy asked. Mal always seemed pretty normal to her. Granted, she’d never really been around him one on one, but they were in all the same classes and he’d never so much as raised his voice.

“Mal has these blackout periods sometimes where he gets really angry and can’t remember what he did. It was never a big deal, really because…” Caden steeled himself. “Because he wasn’t some kind of god before… but now…”

“But now he’s got a whole lot of power and a lot of anger issues,” Sabastin said solemnly. “And the others won’t awaken for a long time. Not soon enough for you guys to stop him, assuming you could.” Sabastin gritted his teeth together.

“So what do we do?” Amy asked, already dreading his answer.

“I’m going to send you to Jormungand’s realm. When your friends Fames and Victoria awaken,” he gestured at Ian and Kim, “I can send them right to you. Maybe the three of you can defeat Jormungand before Mors does something stupid.” Sabastin smiled weakly, and it was anything but reassuring. “The three of you should be strong enough if you work together…”

“That’s my kind of plan. Kicking ass and taking names,” Caden said, reaching out and gripping Amy’s hand. He was trembling.

“You’re not even part of the team,” Sabastin said, glaring at Caden. “You have no useful skills, no magic. You’ll only be a hindrance.”

Caden smiled, his grin so big it practically engulfed his face. “But I can offer Amy one thing on her trip that no one else is able to right now.”

“What is that?” Sabastin asked as Amy turned to look at him. What could Caden possibly offer her but a chance to get killed like Jesse? The thought chilled her. She couldn’t be responsible for another of her friend’s deaths, she just couldn’t.

“Companionship.” Caden pointed at the tank. “Those two are out of commission, and I’m reasonably sure you aren’t going to leave to go with her because someone needs to stay here to watch them. I could stay but I don’t know how stuff works. So unless you want to send a high school girl after a Norse Deity by herself, well, I’m pretty much your only option.”

Sabastin stared at Caden for a long time before nodding once and looking at Amy. “It’s up to you, Bellum.”

“I don’t want you to die, Caden.” Amy shook her head, tears filling her eyes.

“I won’t die. You’ll protect me,” Caden said, clapping her on the shoulder, and strangely it was more comforting than she expected. “Now let’s go kill us a giant snake. Besides, there’s no way I’m going to sit here and let you go alone. We’re supposed to be friends.”

“Okay… if you think that’s the best plan…” Amy said as something inside her shook its head, receding down into the depths of her soul. Whatever it was agreed with her. This was a horrible plan.

Ian 01:11

Ian awoke screaming, his limbs flailing wildly in what seemed to be raspberry jelly. The mask on his face clung to him tightly, almost suffocating him. A face bobbed in the goop next to him, and he tried to cry out as his heart nearly exploded in his chest. He reached up, grasping for something to pull himself free when something wrapped around his wrist with the force of a vice and jerked him upward out of the slime.

He hung there, blinking in the suddenly bright light as the mask was torn from his face. Cool air hit him at once, and he shut his eyes against it as he sucked in a breath that tasted like bubblegum and jasmine perfume. Before he could orient himself, he fell forward, tipping over the edge and plummeting to his doom.

Ian slammed into the steel floor a moment later, pain shooting through his shoulder as he lay there, trying to blink the world back into focus.

“Nice of you to join us,” Sabastin’s too loud voice rumbled. “Get up. I have a job for you, Fames.”

“I feel like I’ve just been born,” Ian replied, crawling to his hands and knees as slime dripped drown his body and pooled on the cool metal beneath him. “I don’t remember being naked.”

“If the world revolved solely around our memories, it’d be a very sad world we lived in,” Sabastin told him, handing him what looked like a skintight black jumpsuit. “I pulled one of my people’s uniforms out of storage while you were sleeping.”

“My mother once told me that sometimes all we have are our memories. Once those are gone, we’re just shells,” Ian said, getting slowly to his feet and accepting the outfit. He stared at it for a moment before reluctantly pulling the clothing on. The jumpsuit clung to his gel-covered body, accentuating it in a way that wasn’t exactly flattering. Whoever these jumpsuits had been made for were in way better shape than he was. He sighed miserably and rubbed his hand over his belly. The spot where Amy had stabbed him ached, and he could feel the hard knot of scar tissue from where the steel had penetrated him.

When he finally looked up, Kim’s face stared back at him from within the tank. “So that’s who it was…”Ian placed his hand against the glass and watched her bob. She looked like a corpse, and the thought chilled him.

“Where’s Amy?” he asked, and Sabastin shuffled behind him.

“You have two options, Fames. The first one is for you to sit back and wait for her to wake up,” Sabastin said, holding out his hand and sticking one finger in the air.

“That wouldn’t really help me. I feel like I should be doing something,” Ian replied, turning to stare at the scarred old man. “What’s the second option?”

“You can go after Mors and try to stop him from doing something incredibly stupid.” Sabastin shrugged at him. “It’s the more dangerous of the two options. If it was me, I’d go with option one.”

Ian felt his skin flush. “Am I really so useless, you’d rather I sit on the sidelines instead of helping?”

“For now.” Sabastin sat back in his chair. He seemed to age ten years in the space of a minute. “Don’t bet your self-worth on right now. Base it on what you do when it matters.”

Ian stood there, and the air around him grew colder. “So I’m waiting, then?”

Behind Sabastin, something pinged on the large screen in the center of the room before bursting into a cacophony of blues that sort of reminded Ian of a lava lamp. The screens on either side of it blazed to life a moment later, casting purple and red light respectively across the floor.

Sabastin whirled and stared at the three monitors. Before he could do anything, text in a language Ian couldn’t read scrawled across them. The same text. Three different colors. While he watched, a bad feeling crept up his neck and settled there on his shoulder, whispering doubt in his ears. Something was wrong…

“You have to be kidding me!” Sabastin heaved himself heavily onto his feet. His chair fell to the ground, clattering on the metal. “Are you sure you want me to do that?”

The word “Yes” flowed across them in at least three languages Ian could understand, filling the screens up with endless repetitions of the word in every language imaginable. Sabastin let loose a breath that seemed to hang in the air.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” he told the machines before picking up an object wrapped in black fabric from its perch beside the keyboard. “Are you sure?” he repeated.

“Yes!” filled the center of the three screens, huge and imposing. Sabastin shut his eyes for a long moment.

“I’m going to trust you this one time,” he whispered to the computers. Sabastin’s words were barely audible to Ian’s ears as the man turned woodenly and held the bundle out in front of him.

“Last time you wielded Haijiku, you let it control you. The spirit within is incredibly dangerous. If you let it, the spirit will be able to commune with your mantle, Fames. Last time, it clouded your vision, drawing on the hunger of your mantle.” Sabastin pulled the black wrapping away and let it fall to the floor. Sabastin thrust the hilt of a katana as black as the darkness itself and twice as menacing into Ian’s hands.