But then, through the crowd, I caught a glimpse of pale yellow hair. The brightness flashed in the dark mass of humanity and disappeared.
“Rook!” I thrust Porridge into the ward but met an invisible force. “Do it, do it,” I snarled, jaw clenched tight. I dragged Porridge, looking for any tear. “Open up!” I shouted, teeming with frustration. Porridge sliced into the ward like a knife through a piece of paper. I fell forward and landed on my hands and knees on the other side of the barrier.
I checked; the opening was gone. Racing into the crowd, I called, “Rook, come back!”
Screaming faces rose up before me. Elbows struck me in the stomach. Feet tripped me. I fought against the current, half insane with desperation. A small body collided with mine, arms wrapped tight around my middle. I pulled the little person away and found myself staring down at Charley. She wailed and sobbed, “I can’t find ’em! They’re not at home!”
“Who?”
“Mr. Hargrove and the others. Ellie and Billy! They’re all gone.” She wept, laying her head on my stomach. I gathered her into my arms and carried her. Rook’s fair hair was nowhere to be seen.
“We’ll find them,” I murmured over and over. The crowd thinned as a bright mass of fire spread ahead of me.
I heard Blackwood: “Magnus, you idiot, you’ll get yourselves killed!” My heart raced as I ran to them.
As I struggled through the last of the people and into an open street, the beast screamed above me. I gazed up and up into the blackness upon blackness, the Shadow and Fog.
Korozoth.
A great black funnel cloud, so dark that it stood out against the night sky. The beast towered fifty, sixty feet, and every time he roared, houses creaked and groaned. When the lightning flashed, I saw a great horned creature’s head perched atop the cloud with fiendish, slit red eyes. Tentacles, like those belonging to some undersea monstrosity, waved wildly from the center. One crashed into a window and sent half a brick wall tumbling down. Those tentacles had given Rook his scars.
Rook. I still didn’t see him, and I was glad of that. I set Charley down and turned her toward the fleeing crowd.
“Go with them.”
“But where’d they go?” she sobbed as I pushed her, begged her to run and hide. When she finally did as I asked, I strode toward the others. My palms were so sweaty I nearly dropped Porridge.
Their figures were dark blurs, brightened with the occasional burst of fire. I caught sight of Cellini as he went into a deep crouch and rapidly spun his stave in a circle over his head. He sent a cyclone roaring toward the beast, powerful enough to knock Korozoth backward.
Blackwood stood weaving a net of fire as quickly as possible, his face illuminated in the flame’s glow. Korozoth roared and twisted, filling the air with debris and dust. I ran to Blackwood and leveled my stave alongside his.
“What are you doing here?” he screamed, so furious that a vein stuck out in the middle of his forehead.
“How do I help?” I pretended not to hear him. He looked ready to throw me to the Ancient, but I said, “This will go better with another person.”
With an angry sigh, Blackwood showed me how to dip Porridge into the growing cloud, how to move my wrist to make the fire grow. I was slow and awkward, but not totally inept. On his command we willed it up and out. My aim wasn’t as good as Blackwood’s, but it worked. Korozoth wailed as our attack struck home, covering the mountain of Shadow and Fog with light.
Overhead, a figure flitted back and forth through the air, shooting bursts of flame. With a scream, the Ancient launched a tentacle in the figure’s direction, but received a blast across the mouth for his trouble. While Korozoth bellowed in pain, Magnus dropped out of the sky, landing gracefully beside us.
“Give us a light, then, Howel,” he said.
I built up flame in the palm of my hand. He swirled the fire into the air, waved in thanks, and raced toward the creature. Hovering at eye level with the beast for an instant, Magnus brought his arms down in a mighty swing and delivered another shot across the monster’s face. Korozoth, blinded, lashed out with all of his tentacles. Magnus floated back fast and landed beside us with a victorious cry. With his windswept hair and his coat flapping free, he looked like a hero from a storybook.
“I’m ready to see the lady sorcerer in action. What do you say?” he called.
“Yes!” I yelled back.
Magnus’s laughter was joyous. It didn’t take me long to realize that, for him, battle was a gift. Cellini ran to join us, talking excitedly at Magnus. When he saw me, he frowned.
“She shouldn’t be here,” he said.
“My thoughts exactly,” Blackwood snapped. “But right now, we can use the help.”
“Trust me, you’ll need it,” I shouted.
Cellini took his place near me, but leaned in and said, “You shouldn’t be here.”
As if he weren’t also here against Agrippa’s orders. We formed a diamond with me in front, Blackwood behind, Cellini and Magnus to the left and right. After all my difficulties in the obsidian room, I prayed I didn’t falter. My legs trembled; there was no running now. I gave us a small light, and we began. Cellini prayed in Latin as we wove another net of fire.
“Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum,” he called, and kissed a crucifix that hung about his neck.
“Italian sorcerers,” Magnus muttered as the net swelled. “They take war so seriously.”
Korozoth roared and unleashed a tentacle, the fat black thing striking the ground ten feet from where we stood. A voice inside me was screaming, but I couldn’t be afraid. Fear equaled death. It was time to respond.
“Get ready,” Blackwood yelled. We reached back and, as a unit, threw the fire toward the creature. It blanketed the shadow beast, slowing him down. Giving us time for another attack.
“Let’s do it again,” I cried.
Then I saw him. He appeared before Korozoth out of thin air and darkness.
Rook stretched a hand out toward me. His shirt was torn down the front, putting his pulsing scars on display. I could tell that his eyes were black, even from this distance.
“Rook!” I broke the pattern and ran for him. Blackwood seized me by the waist. “Let me go!”
Rook raised his arms and issued that high, unearthly scream. The fog swallowed him whole.
“No!” I beat at Blackwood. Porridge tumbled to the ground.
“It’s not real. He wasn’t there,” Blackwood shouted in my ear as Magnus grabbed my stave. “He tries to lure you in. It’s an illusion.”
An illusion. Not real. Rook wasn’t there. And then I heard her voice, her little voice as she raced toward the blackness, screaming, “Ellie! Billy! There you are!”
Charley ran to Korozoth, ran for the little brother and sister who she thought had appeared. Magnus and Cellini shouted for her to get back, but she was too far away. The child tried to put her arms around the two phantoms, mystified when they vanished. She looked up as the roaring blackness overwhelmed her, and disappeared beneath the folds of smoke and fog. Her high, thin scream sounded for an instant, then faded away. When the shadow moved back, Charley was gone.
Magnus attempted to assemble us into the diamond pattern, but I couldn’t join him. Fire heated me, and anger fed the flames. Head pounding, I wrenched away from Blackwood and rushed toward the towering black cloud.
The creature’s roar reverberated through my bones as I lifted my arms to welcome him. I was shaking. Come for me, you bastard, I thought. If you enjoyed the taste of that little girl, just see what I’ll do for you.
“Come on,” I said through my teeth. The tentacle appeared above me, poised to strike.
“Howel!” Magnus shouted.
Every inch of my body, from the roots of my hair to the bottoms of my feet, hummed with energy. I let the power have its way.