Page 88 of The Malevolent Eight

He smiled up at her, in that moment looking far wiser than his years should allow, and precisely as wise as one who has spent every day of his short life watching the strands of potentiality shimmer all around him with all that their possible futures could be. ‘I do have a destiny, Mamma: three possible dooms, just like you always tell people. One was to die in the Pandoral realm, but Cade came to get me. Another is to return home to our realm and live out our lives with all those uncles and aunts. But the destiny I choose is’– he held onto her as he reached up on his tiptoes and whispered something in Eliva’ren’s ear that I couldn’t hear.

Which was when things really went nuts.

Chapter 50

Chaos and Order

During the seven years I spent selling my services as a mage-for-hire I’d fought in plenty of wars. Some of those armed conflicts were big, most were small, and all of them involved a fair amount of chaos. In fact, you could boil down pretty much all military strategy to the precise calibration of order among your troops and chaos in your enemy’s. In all those years and battles, I had never witnessed chaos of the kind unfolding on that unremarkable field outside the ruins of a fortress whose name I doubt anyone fighting that day had even bothered to learn.

Even before Hamun’s fateful words to the mother he’d just touched for the first time in either of their lives, the scene had been something of a shitshow.

‘The Celestines are trying to rally their troops,’ Alice warned, peering at the Auroral army some two hundred yards away. She really does have remarkable vision, even for a demoniac.

‘Which ones?’ I asked.

The vertical slits of her eyes narrowed even further. ‘There appear to be three left alive. The Celestine in command is the one with whom you claim to have fornicated.’

Like that’s something I’d brag about. Still, if the Celestine of Rationality came out on top, that might be good news for us.

‘What about the Devilish?’

‘Dead.’

‘All of them?’

‘Their corpses are being dismembered and eaten as we speak.’ She didn’t sound too broken up about that. ‘Most of their surviving forces have sided with Tenebris and his cabal. All diabolics, naturally.’

Well, they are the best schemers in the Infernal realm, I thought, though I had more pressing matters to contend with than what the new Infernal Hierarchy would look like. I felt like someone had pulverised every bone and sinew in my body to a fine paste, then sculpted it back into a semblance of me, only to have forgotten to let the clay set properly. Shame was barely able to stand and Galass had collapsed into the arm of Aradeus, who was still somehow managing to keep wielding his rapier to fend off some over-eager Demoniac Hellions. Corrigan’s Tempestoral bolts were getting feebler, while a squad of Angelic Valiants and Glorian Ardentors was growing bigger as more of them were deciding killing us was the best opportunity to gain favour with the Auroral Sovereign– who still was only a bullshit story the Celestines invented to keep everyone in line.

I hadn’t seen Temper get struck by any weapon or spell, but the kangaroo looked as if he wasn’t long for this life. He was moving weakly, stumbling over his own feet, still trying to guzzle blood from every single body he could find. Perhaps he thought the blood would cure him of whatever sickness had likely been killing him ever since I’d brought him to this realm.

Sorry, buddy. I should’ve cast that Pandoral spell on some unwilling bat rather than seeking out a willing spirit. I guess your species just aren’t that bright.

Meanwhile, on the patch of dusty field where I was trying to keep myself from vomiting for fear my still-unstable internal organs would come out my mouth, things were getting tense.

‘You know what will happen to him,’ said Fidick. Eleven-year-old kids really shouldn’t be able to sound so ominous, but I could see his words were having an effect on Eliva’ren. ‘Look around you, Jan’Tep. This entire plane of existence is doomed. It was poorly made, the walls between it and other realms too frail.’ He pointed to me. ‘The very phenomenon that allows wonderists to garner spells from those other planes of reality has brought this one to the brink of collapse. You think the Aurorals and Infernals are the only ones seeking to dominate this realm, to harvest the ecclesiasm of sentience so abundant and so wasted on the conscious beings who infest it? You will raise your child in a place where war is never-ending, because consciousness engenders separateness, and from that separation comes conflict. You will die, leaving your son to suffer for your mistake.’

There really wasn’t much fault I could find in Fidick’s argument. Despite everything I’d gone through to try and prevent an eternal war between the Celestines and Aurorals, all I’d really accomplished was to make it easier for Tenebris and his merry band of plotters to replace them. Would the new lords send countless generations of human beings to war against one another like an endless line of toy soldiers? Maybe not; I recalled what he’d said about winning the battle for souls through seduction and sensation rather than combat. Perhaps the entire world would be split down the middle, with brothels and paella restaurants on one side and pristine marble cathedrals on the other. Either way, people like us, wonderists who had just enough power to defy both sides, would become nothing more than targets to be eliminated so we couldn’t interfere in the future.

‘There’s still time,’ Fidick continued, his youthful voice growing more confident as he sensed Eliva’ren wavering. ‘Bring forth the doom of the other wonderists and I will refocus the gate within Cade to lead back to your world, your people, your family.’ He shot me an impressively innocent smile. ‘Alas, with the angelic dead, we’ll have to crack open his chest cavity to make room for you both to pass through, but no one said going home was going to be easy.’

I really wanted to punch that little prick in the face again, just once, but I was so weak it would only have embarrassed us both.

‘Mamma, please,’ Hamun repeated, tugging at his mother’s hand. ‘It doesn’t have to be like he says. We can help make things better here.’

Shouldn’t have added that last part, kid,I thought.Your mamma’s seen too much of this world to believe that.

Still Eliva’ren hesitated. She was watching me now, searching for some sign that maybe her son was right. I could have lied to her– hells, I pretty much had a sacred duty to do so, all things considered.

For once, my talent for deception eluded me. ‘It’s an awful place,’ I said. ‘I’ve travelled the length and breadth of this continent and two others, and everywhere I go, the powerful few find ways to oppress the many. Maybe on your world there are spiritual forces that reward decency and kindness and punish venality and cruelty. Not here, though. Whatever magic comes into this realm is wielded by guys like me– worse than me, for the most part.’

Corrigan fell back, a nasty gash glowing gold on his left shoulder where an angelic’s halberd had sliced him. ‘I really think you should leave the speeches to me from now on.’

‘Now,’ Fidick told Eliva’ren, a command, not an appeal. ‘Cade’s little crew are failing already. The angelic is too weak to fight, the blood mage can’t stand on her own. Their Tempestoralist can no longer summon so much as a spark. Their demoniac and totemist are reduced to fighting off their opponents with swords. The other creature—’ He made a sour face as he glanced at Temper, who was panting and swaying on his feet, no longer able to bend down even to lap the blood from an open wound. He was struggling to breathe, even as he growled his only word over and over again– and perhaps it really was the most apt word for this screwed-up existence in which he’d found himself.

‘Their doom is already unfolding, Eliva’ren,’ Fidick went on. ‘Your choice is merely to quicken it– wait too long and you will lose your chance to get home with your son.’

‘Cade. . .’ Her voice was gravelly, as if misery had become stones and broken teeth in her mouth. ‘I’m sorry.’

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