A Life Less Ordinary (38 page)

“Oh, be quiet,” Master Revels said, sharply. I think he recognised my distress and was attempting to divert attention to himself. “If you want to gloat, you really need a goatee and a white cat to stroke.”

Cardonel opened his mouth angrily, but somehow managed to control himself. “The bad news is that your body and soul are too...old to contain the new surge of magic,” he added, nastily. “You will be blown apart by the surge when it rages into you, as will the Thirteen and all the others who have sought to hold us back. Your energies will end up serving us.”

He turned and stalked back towards the altar. I watched him go and then triggered the ring, praying that Fiona could get here in time. I was suddenly very aware of the mechanical clock at one end of the giant chamber, ticking away the seconds until the ritual began. The Hill Fort was designed to stop an invasion from alternate dimensions and realities. What if Fiona couldn’t reach us in time? I tried to pull free of the glue again, but it was impossible. There was no way out.

Space warped madly in front of us and a full-sized dragon appeared from nowhere. Several of the people in the room ran screaming, even though Cardonel held his ground. Fiona blew a fireball towards him, which he deflected with ease, and then another wave of fire towards us. The glue melted under the heat and I fell to the floor, tearing the remaining glue away from me before it could cool. Master Revels fell to the ground beside me, coughing and choking. He was far too old to tolerate such treatment for long. Like me, he was gasping helplessly for breath.

Fiona whirled round, somehow floating in the air over the magical nexus without apparent trouble, and concentrated on Cardonel. The half-elf seemed to have no problem holding his own; he pointed a long finger at Fiona and blue fire flared around her snout. She howled in pain as his magic interfered with the magic holding her impossibly-bulky body in the air, twisting and turning in a desperate attempt to evade him. He ran forward, pushing her back with his blue fire, seemingly immune to the fireballs she spat at him. The entire chamber seemed to be unworried by the fire.

I ran myself, out over the nexus and towards the altar. The girl was lying there, staring; I wondered if she’d lost her mind. I started to tear at the golden cord and pulled it free, despite the presence of a dozen security spells intended to keep the girl firmly bound and helpless. Somehow, all the magic in the room was being sucked towards Cardonel and Fiona. I freed the girl, pulled her into my arms, and thrust her down one of the balconies to Master Revels. He could get her out of the chamber...

Fiona howled in pain again and then fell, as if the laws of the mundane world had suddenly asserted themselves on her body. The dragon splashed into the pool of wild magic and vanished in a blinding flash of blue light, suggesting that she’d been completely disintegrated by the mere contact with wild magic. A tidal wave of magic rose up towards us, sending me collapsing to the balcony as my senses swam, just before Cardonel turned and saw me. I don’t know what was going through his head at that moment; he had to know, somehow, that I’d just ruined his plan. The ghosts, all suddenly more physical because of the wild magic, were tearing at him. He muttered a word under his breath and there was a flash of light, sending the ghosts flying backwards. I swallowed as I saw him starting to walk towards me.

“It’s over,” I said. Master Revels had gotten the girl out, or so I told myself. Besides, the longer Cardonel stayed focused on me, the less time he’d have to find her and get her back onto the altar before time ran out. “Give up and...”

Something hit me from behind. I fell forward. If it hadn’t been for the sword’s presence in my body, I would have blacked out. As it was, I rolled over and realised that Robin had come up behind me. She pulled at me with one strong hand, as if she intended to pull me onto the altar. There was something about the scene that bothered me, even as I found myself laughing; I wasn’t
innocent
, so I couldn’t be used as the sacrifice. Yet...I had forgotten something. What was it?

Cardonel grabbed me from her and threw me aside, as easily as a man might pick up a baseball and throw it across the room. It struck me a second too late – as the clock began to strike twelve – that Cardonel had always had a back-up plan. He had told me that he’d intended to use a random person, perhaps someone snatched off the streets, as a sacrifice before the girl I’d rescued had fallen into his hands. Robin, whose faceless face was a reminder of the evil that a proud sorcerer could do to the person pledged to serve him, was another innocent. She could be used as the sacrifice!

I heard Linux crying out – perhaps guessing the truth at the same moment I did – when Cardonel hit Robin and threw her onto the altar. I felt, more than heard, the ghosts crying out in horror as he stabbed her chest with the stone knife. The altar shattered as she died and I felt her soul start to leech out of her body. The ghosts, pushed in by the magic Cardonel had created, found themselves following her as she fell away from her body and onwards to the next world. My senses seemed to follow her as well, as if I was being tugged out of my body and pulled onwards, forcing me to grab onto reality as the balcony appeared to heave and tilt under me. I had the terrifying impression that I was going to fall, like Fiona, into the nexus of wild magic and die in a brilliant flash of light.

“Yes,” Cardonel was shouting. His magic was growing stronger all the time, stronger and stronger as he tapped the nexus below. He was glowing with brilliant blue light, his face changing as everything human was burned away, while everything immortal was transfigured. “Yes, yes, yes...”

“NO,” a single voice said.

It sounded like the demon I’d defeated on my way in, but far – far – worse. The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. I wanted to be sick and only the fact I had the sword inside me prevented me from throwing up all over the balcony. The demon’s voice seemed to grow stronger, as if it would never fade away. I heard it everywhere in my mind.

Everything clicked and I realised, in a flash of horror, just what had gone wrong. Robin hadn’t been innocent at the end, not when she’d willingly taken part in a plan to kidnap and kill a child – and acted to prevent me from saving the girl. Cardonel had sacrificed her anyway, unaware – or unheeding – that her soul was going to hell. God might overlook some sins, or allow them to be punished in the mortal realms, but not others. Robin might have started life in the magical world as a victim, yet she had become a victimiser.

I looked towards Cardonel and shivered. His form was still glowing, but the blue fire was steadily being replaced with an eerie red glow. He was taking on the form of a demon, one who wouldn’t be bound by the laws that defined Heaven and Hell. As a half-elf, he had enjoyed immunity to Cold Iron and some of the other elfish laws; as a half-
demon
, who knew what he could do? Perhaps he wouldn’t be as powerful as the full demons, but he wouldn’t share their weaknesses.

“KNOW THAT WE ARE PLEASED WITH YOU,” the demon said. I pushed my hands against my ears, but I couldn’t block out the hellish voice. “WORM THOUGH YOU ARE, YOU HAVE CREATED A NEW GATEWAY TO THE INFERNAL REALMS, ONE THAT MAY NOT BE BLOCKED OR BOUND BY THE MOST FAVOURED OF THE ALL-HIGH. WE ARE FREE UPON YOUR WORLD AND WE WILL NOT BE CHAINED AGAIN.”

I tried to block my senses, but it was impossible. The demons were reaching out of Hell now – I couldn’t even
look
in the direction of Hell – and reshaping the magical field to suit themselves. The ghosts were screaming as they saw their eternal damnation ahead of them. Robin’s body was burning now as the demons reached our world, tearing through the walls of reality as if they were made of nothing more complex than tissue paper. I could hear them, laughing and cheering as they burned through, making humanity – and every other race – terrible promises of suffering to come. I could hear the Great Powers howling their fear and panic, I could see the Elves realising that there was something greater and more terrible than them on their way, sense the sudden outpouring of violence and horror into the mundane world. The forces that Cardonel had unleashed would never be contained within the magical world.

The sword spoke to me, mind to mind. A series of visions poured through my mind. I saw what would happen. I saw the demons tearing the magical world apart, killing each of the Great Powers and luring the magicians into sin. I saw the demons walking into the Elfish Kingdoms and burning them to the ground. I saw the Sisterhood and a thousand other groups wiped out in a split second. I saw the demons reaching into the mundane world and unleashing Hell on Earth. I knew that it would happen, unless it was stopped. I knew, also, that there would be a price. The price was my life.

I hesitated, just for a second. The world hadn’t been good to me until the last year. If they’d asked me to give my life for the world a year ago, I might well have rejected it. Now...now I’d seen that there was so much more to life. There were good people in the world that deserved to live. Perhaps even the worst people deserved a fair chance at life. I had had my chance at a life less ordinary and now I had to die to save my world.

It hurt, but I pulled myself to my feet. Cardonel was floating ahead of me, his eyes staring at nothing as the demons reconfigured his body to serve as their gateway into the human world. I knew that he was still alive and aware; the demons wouldn’t have been happy unless they were showing him just how foolish he had been, tormenting him endlessly with the thought that he’d gained the immortality he wanted, an immortality of never-ending suffering. It was unwise to make bargains with demons and even more unwise to fall into their hands without any protection. Cardonel had had none. They could do anything to him.

The sword was suddenly in my hands, glowing brightly, and the demons recoiled. I sensed them marshalling their power, to reach out through Cardonel and swat me like a bug, but it was already too late. His form changed, became far less than human, but the sword guided me towards my target. I ran forward and rammed the sword right into his body. The magic field surged around me, there was a brilliant flash of light and then the world started to fade away. The last thing I heard was Master Revels shouting my name...

And then I was gone.

Chapter Thirty-Four

I awoke.

I was lying in my bedroom back home. I pulled back the covers and looked around. My old stuffed teddy bear, Mr Grumbles, was sitting at one end of the bed. I found myself wondering, as I swung my legs over and climbed out of bed, if it had all been a dream. Had I truly entered a world of magicians and witches and wizards, or had I dreamed it all. The door opened and my mother entered, carrying a breakfast tray. I felt myself burst into tears as I saw her again, as happy as she had ever been, and reached out for her. She took me into her arms and held me until my sobs had faded away.

“This isn’t real, is it?”

My mother looked down at me. “It is as real as you want it to be,” she said. “You are welcome here.”

I shook my head sadly, staring down at myself. I could see, now, just how weird the room actually was. I was wearing my old nightgown, which had been too small for the seven-year-old child I’d been, yet it fitted perfectly. The bed, too, was too small for my adult form, yet I hadn’t had any problems sleeping in it. Everything was perfect, but subtly wrong. I shook my head again and almost started crying. I should have known better. It was too good to be true.

“It is true,” my mother said, quietly. “Everything is true in its own space and time.”

“Oh,” I said, wiping my face. “Who are you?”

She looked at me for a long second. “In terms your human mind can comprehend,” she said slowly, “I am God.”

I stared at her. There was something about her – a sense of inhuman perfection, compassion and peace – that made it impossible to doubt her word. The more I looked at her, the more I became aware that there was far more to her than I could ever comprehend. She held up a hand and deflected my probes, smiling sadly. I realised that she’d done me a favour. If facing an elf or a demon could come close to destroying my mind, what would happen if I stared into the true face of God?

“You don’t have to be scared,” she said. “Trust me; I don’t need your worship and I certainly don’t need your starship.”

I found myself giggling. “You’ve seen the movie?”

“I’ve seen everything,” she said. There was something indefinably sad about her voice. “I’ve watched every last sparrow fall from the trees I created. I’ve watched the human race from the dawn of time until the final hour. I know everything about you and your family; I know everything about everyone. I’ve seen every movie your race has ever produced.”

“Oh,” I said, again. I was stunned. “Should I start apologising for every sin I have ever committed?”

“If you like,” she said.

I frowned. “Would it make any difference?”

“Your race has the idea that I serve as judge, jury and executioner of every last person in history,” she said. “It doesn’t work that way. I created humanity so that you would lack the self-knowledge that is my curse, the objectivity that makes it impossible for me to be anything else than what I am. When you live, you lack objectivity; when you die, your souls are no longer connected to linear time and you see yourselves as you truly are. If you feel that you have sinned, you condemn yourself to a hell you create. I mourn every last fall and I wait for the purified souls to rise up to join me.”

She smiled, anticipating my next question. “I don’t interfere openly very often,” she added. “I sometimes answer prayers, sometimes whisper in a person’s ear; I do little else. Your race has to rise to heights you can barely imagine without me pushing you along.”

I found myself struggling for words. “But there are people who do horrible things in your name,” I said, slowly. “Why don’t you stop them?”

Her face darkened. “There are those who think that I grant them sanction and forgiveness for their crimes,” she said. “They can never forgive themselves when they die and realise the truth. I have often allowed such a soul to reincarnate on Earth rather than suffer in a self-imposed hell, granting them forgetfulness. They do better the second time around.”