Blood had spattered the walls and pooled on the floor. Dark footprints showed where Domain had walked unheedingly through the blood. The corpse of a young woman stood unsupported in the middle of the room, her head hanging limply to show a broken neck. Her eyes were open, but they saw nothing at all. Blood had run thickly from her nose and mouth, and dried blackly on her neck and chest. Flies buzzed around her. MacReady wondered briefly if she’d died before or after Domain lost his mind.
I’ll kill her if I have to, to keep her with me.
“It’s all right, darling,” said Domain to the dead woman. “Don’t be frightened. This is John MacReady. He’s just come to talk to us. I won’t let him take you away. You’re safe here, with me.”
The corpse walked slowly towards him, her head lolling limply from side to side. The corpse stood beside the sorcerer, and he put a comforting arm round its shoulders, and hugged it to him. MacReady smiled at them both, his face open and guileless.
“Hello, Susan; it’s nice to meet you. Well, the first thing I have to do is report back to my superiors that you’re alive and well, and with Domain of your own free will.”
“Of course she is,” said Domain. “We love each other. We’re going to be married. And nothing will ever part us. Nothing ...” His voice trailed away, and his gaze became troubled for a moment, as though reality was nudging at his mind, but the moment passed and he smiled fondly at the dead woman, animated only by his magic. “Don’t worry, darling. I won’t let them hurt you.”
“Is there anything you want me to tell the authorities?” said MacReady carefully. The response would tell him a lot about what was going on in the madman’s mind.
“Yes,” said Domain flatly. “Tell them to go away and leave us alone. Susan and I will be leaving here soon. If anyone gets in our way, I’ll kill them. Tell them that, John MacReady.”
“Of course.” MacReady bowed formally. “May I go now, sir sorcerer?”
Domain dismissed him with a wave of his hand, all his attention fixed on the dead woman at his side. Quiet music rang out on the air from nowhere, some pleasant, forgettable melody that had been popular recently. Domain took the dead woman in his arms and they danced together to music that had been their song, once.
The SWAT team had found a columned porch to shelter under, and stood huddled together in the narrow space, staring out into the rain. Hawk scowled, and shifted impatiently from foot to foot. He hated standing around doing nothing. A thought struck him, and he looked suddenly at Winter.
“If MacReady’s immune to any kind of attack, why doesn’t he just grab the girl and punch out Domain?”
“The charm won’t let him,” said Winter sharply. “If he behaves aggressively, the charm stops working. If he tried anything with Domain, he’d be dead in a second. His job is to talk to Domain, and that’s all. Don’t worry about it, Captain; he’s very good at his job. He’ll get the girl out alive if anyone can.”
“Something’s happening.” said Fisher. “There’s movement down the street.”
They all turned to look. A stream of people were pouring out of a house halfway down the street and running towards the SWAT team. Some of them glanced back at Domain’s house, or at the bodies lying sprawled in the rain, but for the most part the only thing in their minds was flight. Their eyes were fixed and staring, and they ran with the awkward, determined speed of desperation and sheer terror.
“They must have been caught in the street when people started dying,” said Winter. “Dammit, why couldn’t they have stayed in the house? Do they think it’s all over, just because it’s been quiet for a while?”
“You have to stop them,” said Storm. “If Domain should see them ...”
“There’s nothing I can do,” said Winter. “Nothing anyone can do now.”
They stood together. watching the group run, hoping they’d make it to safety and knowing the odds were they wouldn’t. They were close enough now for the SWAT team to hear their pounding footsteps on the broken ground, even through the rain.
“Run,” said Storm quietly. “Run your hearts out, damn you.”
There were seven men in the group, and three women. Hawk could just make out their faces through the rain. His breathing speeded up as he silently urged the runners on. They were closer now, only a few seconds from safety. The man in the lead faltered suddenly, frowning as though confused, and his head exploded in a flurry of blood and gore. His body stumbled on for a few more steps, and then fell twitching to the blood-slick cobbles. The woman behind him screamed shrilly, but ran on through his blood and brains. Her screams were cut off suddenly as she was jerked up off the ground and high up into the air. She clawed desperately at her throat, as though pulling at some invisible noose. Her eyes bulged, and her tongue protruded from her mouth. She fell back towards the ground, gathering speed with every second until she was falling impossibly fast. She hit the street with a sickening sound, her body crushed by the impact into something no longer human. The others kept running.
One woman just disappeared. For a moment the rain outlined an empty silhouette, and then there was a flat, popping sound as air rushed in to fill the space where she’d been. Two men collapsed and fell screaming to the cobbles. Their bodies melted and ran away in the rain, leaving nothing behind. Their screams seemed to echo on the air long after they’d gone. The five surviving runners suddenly stumbled to a halt, four men and a woman soaked to the skin by the pouring rain. They looked at each other, and started laughing. They stood together in the rain, their faces blank and their eyes empty, and laughed their minds away.
Hawk beat at one of the portico’s columns with his fist. Fisher was cursing in a flat, angry whisper. Storm had looked away. but Winter watched the scene before her with a cold, detached professionalism. Barber was still watching Domain’s house at the end of the street. The front door opened, and MacReady stepped out into the rain. He pulled the hood of his cloak well forward and walked unhurriedly back up the street, stepping carefully to avoid the pools of blood. He gave the laughing group a wide berth, but they didn’t even know he was there. Hawk looked at Storm.
“Wasn’t there anything you could have done to protect them?”
“No,” said Winter. “There wasn’t. Domain mustn’t know about Storm yet. He’s our ace in the hole, in case we have to end this siege the hard way. How many times do I have to say it, Captain Hawk? Our responsibility is to the city, not individuals. Compared to the hundreds Domain could kill if we don’t stop him, those few people were expendable. They should have stayed where they were. There’s no room in a SWAT team for sentiment, Captain; we have to take the long view.”
“Is it all right if I feel sorry for the poor bastards?” said Fisher tightly.
“Of course. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of the job.”
The SWAT team watched in silence as MacReady made his way through the rain to join them. He stepped into the porticoed shelter, shook himself briskly, then looked at Winter and shook his head.
“How bad is it?” said Winter.
“About as bad as it could be. Susan Wallinger is dead. Domain has animated her corpse, and talks to it as if it were alive. He’s quite mad. There’s no way I can reach him with logic or promises. I hate it when they’re mad. Takes all the fun out of it. I was really looking forward to rescuing the girl.” He looked back at Domain’s house. “Bastard.”
“What’s the present situation?” said Winter, ignoring his bad temper.
MacReady sniffed and shrugged. “At the moment I’m supposed to be negotiating a safe passage for Domain and Susan to leave the city. But you can forget that. In his present condition he’s too dangerous to be allowed to run loose, even if we were leading him into a trap. He could lash out at anyone or anything, for any reason. In his madness he’s tapping into levels of power that would normally be far beyond him. As long as we’ve got him bottled up here, there’s a limit to the damage he can do.”
“So we’re going to take him ou
t,” said Barber showing an interest in the proceedings for the first time. “Good. I haven’t killed a sorcerer in ages.”
Storm gave him a sideways look but said nothing. Hawk coughed loudly, to get everyone’s attention.
“I think we can safely assume that the time for negotiations has passed. From the sound of it, Domain very definitely doesn’t have both his oars in the water anymore. So what’s the procedure, Winter? Do we just burst in under Storm’s protection and kill Domain?”
“Not exactly,” said Winter. “You and Fisher will go in first, making as much noise as possible, and hold Domain’s attention while Barber sneaks in the back and cuts him down from behind. Not very sporting, I’ll admit, but I’m not taking any chances with this one. He could do a lot of damage before we take him down. So please; no heroics, from anyone. If you screw up on this, you won’t be the only ones to suffer.”
“Wait a minute,” said Fisher, frowning. “What can go wrong? I thought Storm was going to protect us against Domain’s magic?”
“I can protect you from any direct magical attack,” said Storm quickly, “but Domain’s a very versatile sorcerer. He’ll almost certainly animate the bodies of those he killed and use them to defend himself. He might even animate the physical structure of the house itself. I can’t protect you from things like that without dropping the wards that protect you from his magic.”
“Relax,” said Fisher. “We can look after burselves.”
“I’m sure you can,” said Winter. “After all, you’re the infamous Hawk and Fisher, aren’t you? If you’re as good as your reputation, this should be a walk in the park for you.”
Hawk smiled coldly. “We’re not as good as our reputation. We’re better.”
“Then this is your chance to prove it.”
Fisher glared at Winter, her hand resting on her sword hilt. Hawk drew his axe. Barber stirred, and moved a little closer to Winter. The atmosphere on the crowded porch was suddenly uncomfortably tense. Hawk smiled coldly at Winter, and looked across at Barber.
“I don’t suppose you’ve any of those incendiaries left?”
“Sorry. They were only experimental prototypes, and I used them all in Hell Wing.”
“Got anything else we could use?”
Barber shrugged. “Nothing you could learn to use quickly, and like Winter said, we’re pushed for time. You just go in there and do what you’re good at; hit anything that moves. I’ll be around, even if you can’t see me. Now let’s go, before Domain figures out he’s not going to get what he’s waiting for.”
Hawk nodded, pulled his hood up over his head and stepped out into the rain. Fisher gave Winter one last glare, and hurried after him. She sniffed loudly.
“Walk in the park,” she growled to Hawk. “Has she seen the park lately?”
They strode down the middle of the street, not bothering to hide themselves. Domain would know they were coming. They avoided the laughing victims, staring sightlessly ahead as the rain ran down their contorted faces like tears. They stepped carefully over and around the dead bodies, and Hawk gripped his axe tightly. He looked constantly around him, but there was no sign of movement anywhere in the street, and the roar of the rain cut off every other sound. The first he and Isobel would know about any attack was when it hit them.
Hawk and Fisher were almost halfway down the street when the sky opened up. Lightning stabbed down, dazzling them both with its glare. The cobbled street split open under the bolt’s impact, sending Hawk and Fisher staggering sideways as the ground heaved beneath them, but the lightning didn’t even come close to touching them. Hawk broke into a run, with Fisher right beside him. Storm’s magic might be able to protect them as thoroughly as MacReady’s charm had protected him, but Hawk didn’t feel like putting it to the test. Domain’s house loomed up before them, strange lights glowing at its windows. Hawk kicked in the front door, and they darted into the hallway while lightning flared impotently in the street outside. Hawk slammed the door shut behind them, and put his back against it.
They stood together a moment, getting their breath back and staring round the gloomy hall. Hawk pointed at the stairs, and Fisher nodded. They moved forward silently and took the steps one at a time, checking for booby traps and keeping a careful watch on the dark shadows around them. They’d barely reached the halfway mark when the front door slammed open behind them. Hawk and Fisher looked back, blades at the ready. A dead man stood in the doorway, rain running down its face and trickling across its unblinking eyes.
Hawk ran back down the stairs and threw himself at the lich. His axe flashed briefly as he buried it in the lich’s chest. The dead man staggered back under the impact, but didn’t fall. It reached for Hawk with clutching hands, its colorless lips stretching slowly in another man’s smile. Domain’s smile. Hawk wrenched his axe free and struck at the lich again, this time aiming for the hip. The impact drove the lich to the ground this time, and Hawk bent over it. He pressed a boot on its chest to hold it down, and jerked the axehead free. The lich grabbed his ankle with a pale hand, the dead fingers closing like a vise. Hawk grimaced as pain shot up his leg, and swung his axe with both hands. The heavy axehead tore through the lich’s throat and sank into the cobbles beneath. The dead hand’s hold tightened, and Hawk had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out. He used the axe as a lever and tore the lich’s head from its body. The head rolled away into the rain, its mouth working soundlessly. The grip on Hawk’s ankle didn’t loosen, and the body heaved beneath his foot as it tried to rise again.
Fisher was suddenly at his side, and her sword sliced through the lich’s wrist, severing the gripping hand. Hawk staggered back, and between them, he and Fisher pried the hand from his ankle. It fell away into the street, its fingers still flexing angrily, like a huge fleshy spider. The headless body heaved itself up onto its knees. Fisher moved in behind it, and cut through its leg muscles. More dark shadows appeared in the rain, heading towards Hawk and Fisher with fixed eyes and reaching hands.
Hawk cursed quickly and darted back through the open front door. Fisher glared at the approaching liches, and then hurried into the house after him. The dead moved purposefully forward. Hawk pushed the door shut and slammed the bolts home. There were only two, and neither of them looked particularly sturdy. Hawk looked quickly about him.
“I wonder if there’s a back door to this place?”
Fisher raised an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting we make a run for it?”
“The thought had occurred to me. I don’t like the situation, and I definitely don’t like the odds.”
“It’s going to make a bad impression on the SWAT team if we run away.”
“It’d make an even worse impression if we got killed.” Hawk scowled. “But you’re right. We can’t leave. We’ve got to hold Domain’s attention until Barber can get to him. Or there’s no telling how many more Domain might kill.”
“So what’s the plan?” said Fisher. “Make a stand here, and hope we can hold off the liches until Barber makes his move?”
“To hell with that,” said Hawk. “There’s too many of the damn things, and if they’re all as determined as that first one, they’re going to take a lot of stopping. All it needs is for one of them to get in a lucky blow, and we could be in real trouble. We can’t even keep them out of the house. That door won’t last five minutes against a determined assault. I’ve got a better idea. Let’s head up those stairs, find Domain, and cut him into little pieces. That should hold his attention.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Fisher. “Assuming Storm’s protection holds up under attack at such close quarters.”
“Would you rather face the liches?” asked Hawk.
“Good point,” said Fisher. “Let’s go.”
A headless body lurched out of the room to their left, reaching for them with blindly grasping hands. Hawk and Fisher separated, and hit it from different sides. Hawk slammed his axe into the lich’s ribs, throwing the dead thing back against the wall. Fisher’s
sword licked out and sliced through the back of the lich’s left leg, and the creature sank to one knee. Hawk pulled his axe free, and swung it with both hands. The heavy blade all but severed the lich’s right leg below the knee, and the dead man sprawled helplessly on the floor. Hawk indicated the stairs with a jerk of his head, and Fisher nodded quickly. Hawk kicked the headless body aside, and ran for the stairs with Fisher right beside him. Behind them, the lich scrabbled furiously on the floor, trying to pull itself after them with its arms. The front door shuddered suddenly in its frame as dead fists hammered on it. A window shattered somewhere close at hand. Hawk and Fisher pounded up the stairs, and didn’t look back.
Barber made his way unhurriedly down the rain-swept street, and neither the living nor the dead saw him pass. He carried his sword at the ready, but he didn’t expect to have to use it yet. No one knew he was there, and no one would, until he’d thrust his sword into Domain’s back and put an end to all this nonsense. In the end, as in so many SWAT operations, it all came down to him and his sword. Storm could cast his spells, and MacReady could talk, and Winter could plot her strategies, but in the end they always turned to him and his sword. Which was why he stayed with them. He needed to kill just as much as they needed him to put an end to killers.
Not that he enjoyed the killing; he took no pleasure in death or suffering. It was simply that he was so very good at what he did, and he took a real satisfaction in doing a difficult job that no one else could do, and doing it superbly. He didn’t care who he killed; he barely remembered their faces, let alone their names. He didn’t even care what they’d done; their various crimes or outrages were of no interest to him. All that mattered was the opportunity to kill; to kill with a style and expertise that no one else could match.
And the Council actually paid him to do it.