Chapter 26 #2
Apart from a few Conclave members standing near the door, no one moved.
Instead, they started muttering among themselves.
Hallie looked around in disbelief. They had been told they were in danger, and none of them seemed to be taking it seriously.
She wanted to shout at them, but if they weren’t paying attention to the director, no one was going to listen to her.
Meantime, she was stuck in here while Findo and Russet Welliver were somewhere else in the building carrying out whatever they had planned.
She didn’t imagine for one moment that they were going to stop at a few grenades.
Cotovatre detached herself from a pair of white-haired men at the foot of the stairs, one of whom was Ocvran, and made her way up. Hallie took another step down to meet her.
“What’s happened?” Cotovatre asked. She was maintaining her calm, but Hallie could see the concern in her ancestor’s face.
“Someone threw grenades at us. At least two people armed with explosives are in the building,” Hallie answered, urgency adding an edge to her voice.
She didn’t know much about the rest of the Conclave, but she cared deeply about Cotovatre and wanted her as safe as possible.
“They managed to gain access through the parking area earlier this morning. We need to get everyone out so we can do a proper search and make sure it’s safe. ”
Cotovatre kept her eyes on Hallie’s face for a long moment before looking past her to where the director and the others were standing.
Then she gave a quick nod, much as the commander had not long before.
“We’ll go with you.” She turned away and raised her voice.
“We should listen to the director. We have charged him with our safety. So, let’s go now. ”
“I’m not going to run from danger,” Hoel Buchanan said from his position by the table. Even from that distance, Hallie could see the disdain on his face.
“That’s your choice,” Cotovatre said, a hint of impatience in her voice, “but if you value your life and well-being, I would listen to the director and his people.”
With evident reluctance, the Conclave members began to stir, heading towards the exit. They were still moving too slowly for Hallie’s liking, but at least they were moving. Finally.
As they moved, a muffled explosion sent a shock wave through the air, shaking the ground, reverberating through Hallie’s chest, sending a static charge across her skin.
The zauber woke up at her hip, coming fully awake and watchful between one heartbeat and the next.
Cries of alarm, swearing, and a few shouts of anger and disbelief had her turning to follow the direction everyone was looking in, out of the double doors.
There was a wave of golden light heading towards them.
No. Not light. Gold. Molten gold. Hallie could feel the heat of it even from that distance.
Hallie’s mind spun. The golden bubbles. The endless waterfall from the great entrance to the building.
It had to be. Someone had blown it up, with enough force and enough heat to melt the bubbles and turn them into a river.
A river of super-heated metal that would consume everything in its path.
And not just heat, but Hallie could sense fragmented magic in the river.
The magic that had been used to keep the perpetual waterfall in place.
Hallie opened her mouth to cry out some kind of warning.
Before she could make any sound, Peredur was moving and shouting. “Close the doors.”
As he moved, Hallie could see that he was going to be too late. He was going to be an eternity too late.
There was only one person next to the doors.
Mel. Melechan Mills. The hochlen who despised Hallie and who would happily have killed her.
But he moved. Not to save himself, as Hallie would have guessed, but instead to close the doors, swinging the great heavy slabs of wood shut even as the molten metal streamed closer, the heat of it scorching Hallie’s skin.
Mel didn’t have a chance. He closed the doors, swung the latch into place, tried to move away, caught as molten metal poured through the paper-thin gap in the doors, sliding across his shoulder, arm, then his whole body.
Mel died screaming as more metal poured over him, setting him alight until there was not one bit of him left.
Hallie had no time to feel anything but shock at the sudden, violent death as the doors simply evaporated, barely slowing down the river of metal as it continued into the room, sweeping forwards towards the investigators, Conclave members and their aides.
Panicked shouts and cries of alarm filled the air as the people closest to the river - a few Conclave members and their aides - tried to run from it.
Hallie watched in open-mouthed horror as the molten river caught the trailing end of one of the member’s robes and flames licked up the fabric, engulfing the man between one heartbeat and the next, swallowing him whole, even the screams.
The zauber flared, a shield forming in the air in front of Hallie.
She braced herself, holding her hands out, pushing the shield forwards, her whole body shaking from the heat and the effort.
It wasn’t bullets this time, and the white hot heat scorched through her, sending her to her knees as she struggled to contain the metal river and the bits of broken magic she could sense coiling through the depths.
Dimly she heard more cries and shouts behind her. Not panicked this time. Cotovatre, speaking with firm authority, calling out for Emmet and another two names Hallie barely knew and didn’t have time to place.
Then she felt Cotovatre’s presence beside her and heard the lady’s voice, gentle and firm.
“Emmet is almost here. I can’t channel my energy into the shield.
I don’t have that ability. But Emmet can, and he can link us.
Hold on, Hallie. Just a few moments more.
” As Cotovatre spoke, Hallie felt a trail of her magic rise.
Her ancestor was using a different spell, her magic blessedly familiar.
A cooling spell. Useful for reducing a fever, or trying to tamp down the fierce heat of molten metal.
Hallie was blind and gasping for air, sweat coating her body from the heat, every part of her skin feeling singed, but the shield was holding. Just. Long, slim fingers curled around her wrist and another familiar presence joined her.
“Let me help you, Hallie Talbot,” Emmet said.
She could feel his presence and somehow, through him, Cotovatre and beyond that another two people.
Dimmer, weaker, but still there. Her ancestor, the sinisir and the other two together lifted some of the weight of the shield from her, holding the metal in place.
As the metal came to a halt, Cotovatre’s magic did its work, cooling it down, enough that the river stopped trying to flow, dammed up by the solid end.
The shield cooled as well, adding to Cotovatre’s power until the river slowly, slowly, turned back into solid metal.
Beyond the end of it, Hallie could sense there were still some super-heated parts.
But they were cooling, too, held back behind the solid dam formed by the metal wall.
Relief made her light-headed. The worst of it was contained.
“That’s enough,” Cotovatre said, her voice trembling. “Enough. Hallie, do you hear me? The metal is contained. You can drop the shield.”
Hallie muttered something in response and let go of the magic, sliding helplessly to lie on the step, blind eyes staring up.
The zauber in her pocket was almost gone, its presence the faintest flicker.
She panicked, thinking it was dying, but received a brief snort of derision in response.
Not gone. Just depleted. So she concentrated on trying to breathe in the sticky, hot air, the taste of metal in her nose and mouth.
As she lay, just breathing, she could hear furious voices shouting all around her and some quiet, heartfelt sobbing.
More than one person had died. Not just Mel and the Conclave member Hallie had seen die.
Others, too. Sadness weighted her chest along with a stab of guilt and more than a little irritation as she realised a lot of the shouting was being directed at Peredur, blaming him for the deaths and the mess they were in.
“Gentlemen, do you really think now is the best time for this?” Peredur’s voice cut through the air.
There was no deference in it at all. Hallie heard a couple of sharp intakes of breath and felt a dark smile pull at her lips.
The director had been careful to play politics up to this point, but she had a feeling that the Conclave was about to meet the true Peredur for the first time - a highly competent investigator and someone with little patience for games.
“We need to get everyone to safety. Head towards the side door now.”
More muttering.
“I said now.” Peredur’s voice lashed through the room. “Move now, if you want to live.”
“We will not be spoken to in this way.” The voice was clear, full of self-importance and Hallie thought it belonged to the florid-faced man. Nanters Gable. Yes, that fit what she’d observed of the man.
“Here, a little healing.” Emmet’s voice, close to Hallie, distracted her from whatever Peredur said next.
Emmet’s cool fingers rested on her wrist, sending a soft wave of magic through her, washing away the burning of her skin, letting her breathe more easily.
She managed to blink, restoring her sight, and sat up slowly, every part of her sore and stiff.
“Drink this,” Girard said. He was kneeling at her side and held out one of the energy drinks she was becoming familiar with. She took it without complaint. “Well done,” he added.
Hallie made a noise in response, she wasn’t quite sure to what purpose.