Two to Tengu (Secret Magent Book 2) Page 9

  Two and three steps at a time, I mounted the steps, higher and higher until I got cut off. Just as I reached the top of the third floor, I found myself face to face with a hit squad of gunmen coming down from above.

  Mere men, mortal men, but with enough firepower to make a Cyclops think twice about attacking. Too far away to get to grips with them. Too winded to look like anything but suspicious fugitives.

  I zigzagged to my right as guns cocked, and burst through the third floor door. If I was lucky there might be a secondary stairwell I could climb up.

  The operative word being lucky. Luck and I have never seen eye to eye very well.

  What I had hoped to be a furniture crowded area rife with back doors proved instead to be an elegant, artful balcony wide enough to fit half a ballroom onto. It had a lovely view out to the wide open sea. And absolutely nothing else on it.

  I drew in a deep breath, regarded the beautiful view, and made a mental note to give the architect a piece of my mind when I eventually met him in Hell.

  I turned around and waited for the guards to surround me and punch my ticket.

  Grins and cruel chuckles resounded from the gathered throng of men and Tengu alike. I must have had twenty trained gunmen drawing a bead on my forehead. Then the first smile faltered and fell. Another followed suit. Then another and another as a gust of wind and a noise like a jet engine started ringing in my ear.

  I turned around in time to see the words United States Army emblazoned on the camo green background of the helicopter gunship’s body.

  “Oh Hell yes,” I whispered.

  A swarm of missiles shot out of the leftmost honeycomb pod, destroying the marble floor of the balcony and sending gunmen flying left and right. The onslaught of gunfire and missiles didn’t stop until almost the entirety of the balcony was covered in a uniform coat of black ash and shrapnel.

  “Some good fishing spots around these parts, Agent Locke,” spoke a voice from the gunship’s loudspeaker.

  “If O’Connor wants a son in law he’s doing a damn fine job of convincing me to marry his daughter. Pick me up and let’s get the hell out of here,” I shouted.

  The masked pilot shook his head. “Negative. My bird’s ass is too fat. Pad up top, can pick you up there.”

  “On it.”

  In through the balcony doors and up the vacant stairs I ran. Another squad of gunmen greeted me at the top of the stairs, but what this hallway had that the others didn’t was windows. I ducked behind the heavy metal door for cover as a shadow fell on the far side of the hall.

  Another explosion. The odd plink of an anti armor missile, if I had to guess. I turned to find the far hall had been converted into an open roof veranda.

  “I never knew I needed an Apache helicopter before today,” I replied, stepping over a groaning gunman and finally overcoming the last few steps up to the tower apex.

  It wasn’t really a helipad. It was like an observation tower that had yet to be prettied up like the balconies below. All clear. I found the gunship and signaled it to close up. The ladder dropped from above. I was prepped to hook my foot into the first rung, and I even managed to convince myself everything was going to go according to plan when it happened.

  Count no man lucky until he’s dead. That’s what the sudden bolt of lightning striking from up above reminded me. The gunship was struck head on, listed in the sky like a drunken gnat, and then fell, trailing smoke behind it.

  I turned around in time to avoid the explosion, and to come face to face with the Tengu lord from before.

  Bloody nose. Hair standing on end. A ringed staff much like Momodara’s was clenched in a claw like hand, and a sneer of contempt skewed his face.

  “Charles Locke. The sorcerous secret agent of Nine Towers,” he spoke. “You almost avoided the wrath of the Tengu today. Almost.”

  Chapter 21

  Some things never change. The scent of a rose is always going to be fragrant. The heartache of love lost will always hurt. And the sight of two mages about to have a round of magical fisticuffs will always scare the crap out of you.

  The Tengu lord, none the worse for wear, circled about me. And I circled him. We were a regular pair of wolves just waiting for the slightest sign of weakness.

  “If I’d known you were going to be a genuine bother, I would have downed you more permanently,” I said, eyes glued to his clawed hands.

  “Cramped quarters aren’t good for a Tengu. It’s nice to spread my wings again. Home field advantage is nothing to trifle over, ape.”

  He didn’t mean spreading wings figuratively, either. That’s probably how he caught up with me so fast. Out the nearest hatch, spread out his large gray feathered wings, maybe a little air magic for a tailwind and a logical deduction as to where a large noisy copter would need to land.

  I drew my wand, took a calm breath, and used that brief moment of inner peace to focus as much of the latent magic around me into it’s tip.

  “After you, chicken.”

  A sneer, and then the onslaught began.

  The Tengu drew his claw out, willed a whistling gale into his palm and crushed his fist tight on the magic. What went in was harmless air. What came out when he threw the contents at me however was a handful of extremely thin and extremely sharp strands of solidified air.

  Ducking and rolling out of the way fast enough spared me any harm. Or so I thought. By the time I regained my footing though I felt a dozen tiny cuts begin to bleed angrily. Looking down, I saw my left arm was a mess of finely shredded skin.

  I hadn’t been sitting on my ass waiting for him to attack though. As soon as my feet found solid ground I launched from the tip of my wand a shard of pure arcana dead center at the Grand Tengu. Shame he it batted aside without any effort.

  A curse fled my mouth, and I opened my bleeding left palm and ducked my eyes away as I unleashed a flash of light. Now was my chance. My wand flashed with the magical might I poured into it. It sprouted a blade of hard arcana, and raising my magic sword high, I thrust it forth like a rapier right at the Tengu’s throat. My heart leaped when I felt it strike true.

  Then my heart promptly fell into the pit of my stomach.

  “Fool me twice,” the Tengu spoke, my blade caught in a miniature whirlwind he’d conjured between his forefinger and thumb, “Shame on me.”

  I couldn’t help the cry of pain that escaped my throat as I felt roughly a million volts of electricity scour my body. I had to let go of my wand to break the current. My locus fell to the floor as I struggled to think up a plan.

  As I fell to my knees as the Tengu approached, savoring my fall.

  “What a weakling. To think that Nine Towers would use you to corrupt Momodara so terribly.”

  I blinked in surprise. “Corrupt?”

  “Indeed. Corrupt her to greed. Use her aid to locate Lord Nodara and then slay him.”

  I felt like I’d just woken up halfway through a three hour movie.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

  The Tengu shrugged. “Perhaps Lady Momodara can yet be redeemed for her part in her father’s murder. But you? You’re well beyond-- what is that trinket?”

  I sucked in breath after breath, my fist clenched around the rope that held the almighty Lantern of Weakness at the end.

  “More tricks, is it?” The Tengu scoffed. “That won’t work.”

  I felt the air become slick with grease. My tired legs leaped just in time to avoid the brunt of a thunder strike where I’d just been standing. My legs went numb. As more bolts of lightning fell haphazardly upon the lookout tower and the island as well.

  The Tengu raised his claw high and caught the last bolt to fall. Murderous contempt danced in his eyes and golden arcs of electricity ran up and down his arm.

  “Cho,” I cried out.

  “Water, Charles.”

  “Not my weakness. His!”

  Cho fell silent. My last hope suddenly sparked and faded into darkness.

  My pistol
would be worthless against a master air magician. He could just will the air away from the pistol, making it unable to ignite the round and fire. Hell, he was probably skilled enough to create a harsh enough gust to blow the damn bullet away!

  Just as the Tengu raised his electricity riddled hand, an ingenious thought was born in my head. Water would be a weakness for anybody with this much electrical current being thrown about. Even the Tengu.

  The Air sorcerer fired his bolt. I drew a little blue jewel from my breast pocket, slammed it against the concrete side of the tower as hard as I could, and then I pointed it right at the smug bastard.

  Electricity coursed through me. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Then, something I didn’t usually deal with happened.

  Science happened.

  Slick with the torrent of water that poured out of Taro’s Tide flowing Jewel, the Tengu was soaked to the small clothes. The lightning followed the electricity, and hit the Tengu with the force of a missile.

  Magic is a lot more finicky than Mundanes think. There’s a reason why the secretive wizard schools of the world spend the first few years of a student’s apprenticeship going exclusively over safety exercises. When you suffer enough of a fiery backlash, all the magics around you tend to join in on the sorcerous havoc, and turn a rudimentary mistake into a spectacularly combustive failure.

  Magical duels are a lot like two guys covered in gasoline throwing matches at each other while trying not to accidentally set themselves on fire in the process.

  The Tengu was likely wearing a small treasury’s worth of magical items on him, because after about two seconds of getting hit by his artificial lightning bolt, he exploded. A huge shock wave slammed me against the concrete tower wall, sent the Tengu lord soaring fifty feet out into the air on a collision course with rock bottom, and parted the clouds above us.

  “Goose cooked,” I muttered, picked up my wand, and forced myself up to unsteady feet.

  I looked over the top of the chest high wall, surprised that I actually managed to win. That’s when I saw my lucky break waving pom poms and wearing a miniskirt. A trio of boats had been moored on a forgotten beach. They must have called in their patrols when they had trouble with the main base. The patrols beached the vessels in a rush before double timing it to see what the hullabaloo was all about.

  I grinned wickedly. Fortune smiled at me with sharp teeth.

  The tower jutted out of the installation just far enough that there was only water over the south side. That or hidden jagged rocks just beneath the waves. Only one way to find out.

  My clothes felt heavy on me as I hit the water. They’d be thick and sodden soon, and I was in no position to keep my head above the water for much longer. Fatigue was always the most dangerous enemy on the battlefield.

  I crept up on the boats, grabbed the one that had the words “Lady Luck” printed on the side, replete with the silhouette of a bikini clad, offensively cute woman kicking her feet up. I revved the motor to a purr after only two pulls of the old school engine’s string, and made good on my escape.

  It was smooth sailing all the way back to Tokyo harbor.

  Chapter 22

  “Maki,” I spoke into the phone, pain coursing up my free hand. “Did you get the file?”

  “Downloaded it now,” the sanctioned sorceress replied. “I’ll give it a once over and get back to you as soon as I can.”

  “Finally. Some good news.”

  “Not so fast,” came her reply. “Half the files, the juicy ones I’ll bet, are super mega ultra wonderfully encrypted. That’s bad.”

  “How long will it take you?” I asked, stifling a groan of pain again.

  “Not sure. I’ll call you up when I have it set. Sayonara, Locke.”

  I shut my phone off and let it drop onto the bed.

  I’d managed to get back without a problem, and even managed to settle down in the new safe house Lis texted me the address for before I collapsed into a pile of spent flesh and tired bones. By the time I was rested enough to manage sarcastic remarks again, Lis was just about done putting me back into working order.

  I’m sure all this good will would end up on the bill too. One soul. Plus tax.

  “So, are you going to tell me what happened?” Lis asked, tying up the last bandage onto my lacerated hand. “You look like you high fived Zeus, Thor, and Indra back to back.”

  Laughing hurt.

  “I got into a fight with an overgrown chicken. The results of the fight may shock you,” I replied.

  “Wow Charlie. The girls must really be clamoring after a guy with puns like that. That’s not quite what I meant though,” she shot back.

  “What then?” I asked.

  “I mean that you’re hiding something from me.”

  A chill crawled up my spine. Sweat stained my palms, and my heart started racing all on its own.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “You shouldn’t lie, Charlie,” Lis began, before adding in a deep and baleful voice, “Liars go to Hell.”

  Was she wise about my attempt to uncover her weaknesses? Had she suspected Cho all along? No. That’s impossible. If she knew, she wouldn’t waste time asking what I was hiding. That meant I had just one chance to misdirect. I gulped.

  “You’re going to laugh at me,” I warned.

  “Moi? Never,” the she-devil replied, her tone anything but reassuring.

  I sighed convincingly. “Every month I find myself fighting bigger and scarier things. Cult leaders, dragons, wraiths and worse. I’m beginning to really feel the gap between my power and those of my foes.”

  Everyone always seems awfully surprised when I tell them about my terrible secret. Some are so shocked that they go through all five stages of grief before coming to accept the little known fact that--

  “It’s cause you suck at magic,” Lis said, bluntly.

  Charles Montgomery Locke, renowned warlock and problem solver of the esteemed Nine Towers federation, was almost completely without magical aptitude of his own. If you’ve ever wondered why I never get fed up with a particularly wrathful spirit or abyssal fiend and just blow it up with a huge fireball, it’s because I can’t.

  “Oh no, I didn’t hurt your little boy feelings, did I?” Lis asked.

  “Teach me,” I muttered.

  I saw Lis blink out of the corner of my eye. That got her attention.

  “Say again, Charlie?”

  “Teach me something to help me out. Please,” I asked.

  “Well, I did teach you how to use wands, didn’t I? Wand swords are super useful. Arcane shards have plenty of uses too. I’m not sure what else is left. I know I’ve teased you about this before but I’m quite serious when I say that I don’t have any other spells that you could actually use at your talent level.”

  I’ve won trophies in fencing. I could swim a lake and perform CPR by twelve. I put myself through violin classes with all the damn scholarships I won! Imagine my horror when Nine Towers told me that when it came to magic, I was totally talentless.

  “Lis. There has to be something. I need every advantage I can get. I can’t afford to keep making mistakes because the next time you might be dancing on my grave instead of patching me up.”

  The words must have sounded sincere, because Lis once more got that strange look on her face. Rare and illusive. A far off gaze, but not like she completely tuned out. Her eyes shone with intent and focus.

  “All right. I think I’ve got a trick for you. Positions please.”

  I felt sixteen years old again as I sat down on the apartment floor, legs crossed, head level with Lis as she assumed the same position.

  “Watch close.”

  I did. Lisistrathiel extended both her index fingers and traced a circle in the air. As the hum of magic echoed in my ear, I could just pick up faint white light tracing the path her fingers had taken. Done, Lis flicked the center of the circle and a thin ‘clink’ echoed dully throughout th
e room.

  “The mirror of many names. Aegis. The Aurora Shroud. Backfire. People without imagination just call it ‘Lesser Reflect’.”

  A pop and the circle ceased to exist about three seconds later. Lis always put an emphasis on utility when teaching me spells. This one was surely no different, but I couldn’t think of a single way that this would be useful to me.

  “Think fast,” Lis said, aimed a finger at my chest, and fired a bolt of fire right at me.

  I scrambled, only half prepared. She had a habit to make it very painful to forget her lessons. She would fit right in with the ancient Spartans.

  My fingers traced, and before I knew it a shield of vaguely violet light came into being right in front of me. With a strange sound, the bolt of fire plinked right off my shield and sailed right back at Lis. A deft tilt of her head and the fire bolt flew past her and crackled in the side of the wall. It left a blackened crater that I was sure the hotel would charge me for.

  “There. Wish granted.”

  “It’s useless,” I replied instantly. “Unless I correctly predict the oncoming spell, figure out exactly where it’s going to hit and then react fast enough to make a Nascar driver jealous-- Isn’t there anything else?”

  Lis shrugged. “A greater talent could manage much more.”

  I sighed. It was my own damn fault.

  “However,” Lis added, a grin splaying her lips wide. “A wiser mind needs not more than what was given.”

  She almost sounded reassuring. Encouraging. I felt warm, fuzzy, and creeped out all at once.

  “With the Tengu lead drying up until Maki Hashinaki gets back to me, all I can do is scope out the other side,” I told her.

  “Are you sure that’s wise?” Lis asked, perking a jagged eyebrow.

  I shook my head. “Nope. But I owe somebody an apology.”

  “Suicide isn’t going to wipe away your debt, you know.”

  I flinched at that. “It’s not a suicide mission. I just can’t stand sitting on my ass right now.”