Page 84 of The Malevolent Seven

I slowed my pace just enough that everyone would be able to hear me. ‘If the brothers were building gates outside themselves, they’d be draining their own attunements to do so. They’d be at their weakest now, and we’d have the advantage.’

‘But even if the gates are within them, aren’t they still weakened?’ asked Galass.

‘Weak is a relative term,’ Shame explained, sloshing alongside us. ‘Every wonderist– even an angelic like me– is, in a sense, a gate. Spells are momentary fractures between two planes: they allow the physical laws of one to leak through into the other, under the control of the wonderist. That is how a wonderist is able to enact their will in ways that would otherwise contradict the laws of nature. Even though such leaks are like tiny cracks in a huge dam, allowing only a feeble drip to pass from one side to the other, that drip is still enough to summon forth magics as powerful as any army.’

Galass paled. ‘So if the brothers. . .’

Shame looked at her. ‘Indeed. The brothers willbecomethe dam, and should they unleash the river within them, our own magics will be as nothing but the smattering of raindrops flung against a raging sea.’

Poetry aside, the angelic had the right of it. The situation was actually worse than she described, but I decided not to point that out, in case my brave companions lost their nerve. I wasn’t sure how much more some of them could take. I wasn’t sure how much moreIcould take.

For all the flashy spells we throw around, a duel between mages isn’t really about magic. It’s about the body. Fire spells, drowning spells, agony spells– they all rely on the physical laws ofthisplane to weaken or destroy the opponent’s body. Your enemies, in turn, will use magic to deflect or evade the effects of your attacks, creating shields or using transubstantiation or even illusion, which they can then follow up with their own attack against your physical form. It’s a bit like a fencing match, with thrusts and counter-thrusts, parries and ripostes.

But how, I wondered,do we attack a living gate into a magical plane? What physical laws apply to them?Corrigan could hurl all the lightning and fire he wanted, Galass could attempt to exsanguinate every drop of the brothers’ blood, but it was likely their ‘bodies’ wouldn’t be affected, because they were now governed by a completely different set of physical laws– laws we didn’t understand.

In other words, we were pretty much—

‘Fucked!’ Corrigan shouted, finally catching up to me.

He spun me around and got his face so close to mine that even the sewer smell couldn’t block out the stench of rancid liquor escaping his lips. ‘We can’t fight these bastards, Cade, you know that. Whatever it is they’re planning to do, they’re going to succeed. We don’t have the means to stop them.’

I turned my gaze to Fidick, hoping– praying, really– that the boy really did have some secret knowledge about how to defeat the brothers that he would now reveal.

‘Mister Corrigan’s right,’ the boy said, smiling placidly. ‘What comes now cannot be stopped.’

‘See?’ Corrigan said, jabbing a finger into my chest. ‘Even the creepy little freak agrees. We’ve got to turn back, Cade, now– we need to get the hell out of this tunnel and as far away from this place as we can.’

‘And where will you go, Mortal?’ Alice spat. ‘Three hundred beings from the Pandoral realm do the brothers seek to bring here, and with them such supernatural power as to be like gods to your people.Three hundred gods.’

Corrigan was shaken, but he tried to cover it up. ‘Well, then, all hail our new shitty gods,’ he said. ‘Can’t be any worse than the old ones.’

‘The Lords Devilish and Celestine have left you alone for the most part,’ Shame said. ‘They have never been able to physically cross over into your world. You Mortals have had it easy. Until now.’

Not, perhaps, how I would have described the situation, but I figured even Corrigan had to take her point. ‘We can’t allow this,’ I told him, gripping his arms, ignoring the bruising pain where his thumbs and fingers were pressing forcefully into mine. Locked in this strange sort of embrace, neither of us were willing to give in or let the other go. ‘It’s down to you and me now, Corrigan: no more pretending we’re just two self-serving pieces of shit who don’t give a damn about the rest of the world—’

‘Idon’tgive a damn about the rest of the world.’

‘Stop it!’ I shouted in his face. ‘Don’t you get it yet? There’s no one else left to fix this– what little freedom humanity has ever had in this life, it’s going to be taken away from them unless you and I stop the Seven Brothers before it’s too late.’

‘Freedom?That’s what you want me to die over? There’sneverbeenany freedom, you idiot! I’ve been trying to teach you that simple truth since the day we met. Life is a river of filth, just like this sewer. You either go with the current and enjoy the ride as long as you can, or you push against it and drown in shit.’

He shoved me away and I slipped and landed on my arse in the muck, which I guess was his way of emphasising his point. When I tried to stand, he shoved me back down again, twice as hard.

‘I don’t know what rubbish has been bubbling around inside your head all this time, Cade. Maybe that crazy old mentor of yours filled you up with stories of humanity’s contradictions being its own redemption or some nonsense like that, but those arejust words. It’s all fairy tales– and Irefuseto die for a fucking fairy tale!’

‘Then go,’ I shouted back at him, ‘follow the river of shit downstream and pretend you’re enjoying the ride.’

‘No.’

‘No?’

I had a bad feeling I knewexactlywhat he was about to do; I’d known it even before we learned what the brothers were really up to.

‘I’ve been a good comrade to you, Cade,’ he said, grabbing me by my lapels and hauling me back up to my feet. Shaking me like a doll, he went on, ‘You, on the other hand, have mostly been a pain in my arse. But you’re the only friend I’ve got, and I’m not letting you kill yourself for this. You’re coming with me.’ He turned to the others. ‘So are the rest of you, if you ever want to see another sunrise.’

I tried to pull away, but Corrigan was strong and he held me fast. In the corner of my eye, I saw Aradeus preparing to draw his sword. Alice had already summoned hers; I could hear it hissing.

‘Nobody move,’ I ordered them, hoping I could somehow keep them out of it.

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