Walker narrowed his eyes. “Your heroism won’t save her.”
“I don’t do heroism, mate.” Nick raised his hands again and closed his eyes. He gritted his teeth and suppressed a scream. His fingers twisted into a fist. An arc of lightning crackled out and enveloped Walker in a sheen of blue. The hunter shrieked, but it was silent under the snapping of electricity. Walker convulsed, bending at the waist. The javelin arrow blackened and fell from his fingers. Smoke rose from around his torso and he took two steps back. His metal feet hit the edge of an icy patch and he dropped hard, cracking the stones. Walker rolled back down the steps with a thundering sound, then crashed to a wheezing halt of powerless machinery.
Nick gasped for breath and fell against a pillar. Kate reached for him, but he waved her off. His hands were red and blistered.
Kate said quietly, “I didn’t know you could summon lightning.”
“I don’t do it often.” Nick tried to sound tough, but he wasn’t successful. “Now I remember why.”
Hogarth staggered back up the steps to the veranda, sparing an impressed glance at Nick, and went to where Ishwar was still struggling to untie the cords around his true self. Hogarth pulled a small dagger from his boot and cut the ropes. The real Ishwar flopped onto the floor and groaned. Their Ishwar suddenly froze in place and began to transform into loamy soil. Hogarth and Kate helped the newly conscious vivimancer into a sitting position. She looked at the collapsing mound of mud with some regret.
Nick pushed himself to his feet with a groan and started unsteadily toward the edge of the terrace, muttering something to himself. Kate turned to warn him to be careful when his body jerked as if hit by a powerful blow and he flew back to slam into one of the columns. He hung there, shaking uncontrollably, his feet dangling above the paving stones. A glowing javelin protruded from his chest, pinning him to the stone pillar like an insect in a collection.
“Nick!” Kate shouted and started toward him.
A steady stream of blood ran from Nick’s body and stained the snowdrift red. His eyes were open and he struggled to breathe. His jaw hung slack and red liquid dribbled from his lips. Hogarth joined her and put his strong hand on the now cold javelin. Behind them, they heard the whirring of Walker’s machinery and thudding footfalls coming up the steps. Kate motioned for Hogarth to free Nick as she turned to look out over the snowy terrace. She brandished her weapons, listening to the grinding sound of metal limbs drawing nearer.
Ishwar leaned weakly between columns. “I will see to your friend.”
Hogarth slowly pulled the long steel lance from Nick’s chest, eliciting a pathetic grunt of pain from the wounded man. He caught the bloody figure in his powerful arms and set Nick down next to Ishwar, who was struggling to his knees.
“Katie!” Walker’s voice rang out. He was still out of sight and the sounds of his movement had ceased. “Come out, Katie! I can come in and get you, but make it easy on yourself. I’m going to kill you and cut off your head so I can show it to your father one day, just before I dismember him.”
Kate stayed quiet, watching Ishwar place his swollen bloody hands on Nick’s slack face. The vivimancer closed his eyes and began to chant quietly.
From inside the entry hall, a sudden blinding light shot up from the floor beneath Simon’s boot and knocked him onto his back. The key’s runic symbol glowed from the flagstone and the air began to shimmer a few feet above it. The usual circle of disruption swirled into being. This time, however, it was horizontal, like a pool of weirdness a few inches thick hanging above the ground. The world map appeared and a new dot flickered to life nearly on top of the spot already located in Nepal.
From the floor, Simon laughed in triumph and turned expectantly to find the others. When he took in the frightful faces on the far side of the columns, and saw the blood-drenched form of Nick, he scrambled toward them frantically. “Good God. What happened?”
A shadow rose up at the edge of the terrace with a sudden roar of machinery. Walker appeared again and charged at Kate. She had been looking at Nick, and was surprised by the sudden appearance of Simon. He rushed past her, shouting an ancient word in a fury. Walker was fast and a metal fist swept out. Simon barely had time to get his hands up before a great weight crashed against him like a battering ram. Before he could recover, a steel hand clamped his neck.