[2]
On a hot summer's day Hyde Park is a lively place covered in greenery, full of people playing and children laughing. On a day like this however, it looked more like a marsh surrounded by concrete and cars. Getting closer to midday, the city was gearing up for the lunch time rush. Horns sounded from every direction as cars cluttered the roads; pedestrians marched the streets at quickened paces, trying to in vain to escape the sky's watery assault. In the centre of that city based chaos was my destination, the Marble Arch. For most it was a tourist attraction, for a few it was a place to meet and discuss things in secret, away from spying eyes and prying ears.
I hopped out of the cab and hurried to the central arch, trying in vain to stop myself getting any wetter. Once out of the rain I lowered my hood and looked around to make sure no one was watching me. Checking that the coast was clear I placed my right hand at the centre of the central arch's left hand wall. I sent out a little of my will, my magical energy, through my hand and mutter quietly "Odael Var".
Now if you don't know what that language is, it's the language of the Elves. You see magic comes from within, so first of all you have to believe in it otherwise it won't work. To work a spell you need to visualise it, shape it with your mind. But by doing that you are also opening your mind to the forces of reality. To help shield a Wizards mind they associate a word or phrase with spell they are trying to perform. It has to be something unfamiliar to the Wizard, some language they don't know so they can focus on it while pulling those energies together. It can't be something you're used to speaking or it's going to fail, and then you are going to have the worst headache of your life for about a week. Some people use Spanish, French or even Egyptian. Me, I use Elvish because, well let's face it, it sounds pretty frigging cool.
If it worked for Aragorn, then why can't it work for me?
I muttered the words and the energy flowed out of me and into the wall. Dust started to fall as a small section of the central arch's wall began to move and open revealing an alcove with a ladder leading up into the upper section of the structure. As I began to climb, I could hear the wall start to close back in on itself, leaving me in near darkness with only a small single sliver of light twinkling above me. I could hear footsteps coming from higher up, at least three different sets, one of which was pacing back and forth, and sounding nervous, agitated, like the wait was terrifying them.
He must be new to the Wardens.
I reached the top of the ladder, secured my balance and with a little effort, pushed against the ceiling of the alcove, lifting the door leading to the upper room. As it began to give way, light flooded down into the alcove and into my eyes, blinding me momentarily. I continued upwards as my eyes adjusted to the brightness, to find myself half emerged into an antique office staring up at two silver swords pointed directly at my face.
"Jeez fellas, thanks for making me feel welcome." I said, staring up at two men, their grey Warden's robes draped over their shoulders. Simultaneously they withdrew their blades and sheaved them, letting their robes fall over their arms, hiding them from view. I recognised them as soon as my vision returned, by face if not by name. They often accompanied members of the Senior Council as bodyguards whenever they were out in the open.
Granted, the Senior Council is compiled of seven of the most powerful Wizards in the world so they can look after themselves, but I guess it's always nice to have someone watching your back.
I climbed up and into the room proper, closing the door to the ladder behind me. The room looked as if time had stood still, stuck in time since its erection in the Victorian era. Finely hand crafted wooden chairs sat in a row of three at the far end, next to the wall. The two Warden bodyguards stood like silent statues, never letting me out of their gaze. Their robes hung from broad shoulders, concealing their bodies and weapons from view. I got the distinct impression that these guys didn't like me. But maybe that was just me.
Thick, elaborately sown carpets lay across the floor, covering and hiding the door leading down to the ladder. In fact if you didn't know the trapdoor was there, you would never know to look for it. Following the carpet along the floor lead my field of vision to a nervous looking figure, eyes wide and anxious, his features shifting from fear to confusion to caution in the space of half a second. His Warden's robe hung off him like it was two sizes too big.
God, he barely looked twenty. Were things really so bad with the Wardens that we're having to recruit people so young? The Wardens are supposed to be the fighting force of the White Council, but what good are we if we're mostly comprised of kids who have never even cast a defensive spell let alone seen actual combat.
Past him sat a dark oak table displaying yet more examples of intricate designs that could have only been carved by hand. Resting his elbows on the desk sat the man who had convened this little meeting.
Senior Council member, Ebenezar McCoy.
A short stocky man, white tuffs of hair fringed his mostly bald head and a white beard covered his mouth and jowls. His skin had a tanned, almost leathery look, no doubt from all of his years working on his farm in his robes and the purple stole of the Senior Council covered up what I knew to be his usual white tee-shirt and denim overalls.
"You took your time kid," he said, a hint of sarcasm lacing his speech. "What took you so long? Not want to get your hair wet?"
I smiled and replied "When you have hair this good you don't want to spoil it. I would ask if you know how that feels but I'm sure you can't remember that far back."
He let out a stifled laugh before his features changed, settling into a far more serious frame.
"Marcus really isn't very happy with you. He was doing everything but demanding that action be taken against you for insubordination. Captain Luccio managed to calm him down but he's still not happy." Luccio was the Warden's leader, well tested, well respected and one of the deadliest fighters that I'd ever witnessed in action.
"We've spoken about this Gabe." McCoy looked at me with stern eyes. I met his gaze with equal intent without breaking eye contact.
A power that all Wizards have is something called a Soulgaze. A meeting of the eyes that transforms into a highly personalized and revealing look at the other person's psyche and soul, and one of the reasons why people instinctively don't look deep into a Wizard's eyes. It is an immediate way to identify someone or something flawlessly and whatever you see during a Soulgaze stays with you. Good, bad or downright terrifying, no matter what, it's yours for keeps; permanently etched into your memory. Thankfully it's something that only happens the once, afterwards you can stare into that person's eyes for as long as you like and nothing will happen.
McCoy had demanded that I Soulgaze with him a long time ago. It was just after my first year as a Warden, not long after he was voted onto the Senior Council now I actually think about it. He said that it was the only way to know for certain who was worth trusting.
I guess I passed inspection.
"Marcus is an arsehole!" I snapped back in response, causing McCoy's gaze to take on a steely glint.
"You might be right," he challenged me, "but he's also your immediate superior. Why don't you tell me what's really eating you Gabe?" I took a deep breath and forced myself to keep my cool.
"I'm out there risking my life for the safety of the Council," I said, trying hard to keep the frustration I had from boiling up into my voice. "I'm trying to make sure that the Vampires don't kill any more of us than they already have. Yet how many judgement executions have Marcus and the other Warden's in the UK carried out in the last three months alone?"
McCoy quickly broke eye contact, staring past me first, before looking down at the desk.
"I can't recall the number," he replied in a reluctant voice, as if the words themselves didn't want to leave his mouth. That in itself was weird. Ebenezar McCoy was a man who stood by his decisions with the stubbornness of a mule, regardless of whether people agreed with him or not. For him to respond in a manner of retreat, almost shame, there was definitely something going on.
"Don't use the company line with me Ebenezar," I shot back "How many?"
He once again met my gaze, his eyes saddened yet somehow maintaining some form of anger about the subject.
"Fourteen." He said. His features twisted as if the words had left a sour and unpleasant taste in his mouth.
"Fourteen," I repeated. "While I'm out there trying to stop the Red Court, the Council itself is doing the job for them."
"You're starting to sound like someone else I know. He's not a big fan of trying convicted Black Magic users either."
"Well maybe this guy has a point. I mean I know not everyone can be saved, but are we even trying anymore? Why am I trying to save and protect the Council if they're not interested in trying to save themselves?"
The room fell silent. I could feel the eyes to the two Wardens on me, trying to burn me with glares of disapproval. What would they know anyway? They were just guard dogs not allowed to think for themselves, concerned only with the protection of the man they escorted, everything else was outside of their notice.
The nervous Warden standing in front of me by McCoy regarded me with what seemed to be a sympathetic gaze. I noticed him trying to keep his expression neutral, remaining impartial to the topic of conversation. Seeing as how he seemed to be new to the Wardens, I can only imagine he was trying to conceal his opinions from the others.
"Listen kid," Ebenezar said, breaking the tension, "I know things seem bad right now, believe me I know, but some of us are trying to get things back on track. I need you to trust me and I need you to deal with something important. I'm coming to you because there are fewer and fewer people who have the ability and the skills to handle the current situation and even fewer still that I trust."
Wow.
I've never known McCoy to be a man of many words, but for him to have said something like that, things must really be bad.
I let out a quiet sigh, shook my head and said, "What's going on?"
"Tell me kid, what do you know about Icarus?"
I cocked an eyebrow confused but answered the question anyway.
"Icarus used wax to make wings but then made the mistake of flying too close to the sun. It's one of the greatest epic fails in Greek mythology. What's that got to do with anything?"
"Well," he said as he rose up out of the chair and started to move around the desk towards me. "The Vampires have in their possession a powerful artefact known as the Icarus Charm. From what we've been able to figure out this charm was given its name because it's said that whoever has possession of it will be free from the sun's wrath."
I looked at him momentarily shocked, trying to process this new information.
"So you're saying that this charm..."
"The Icarus Charm," McCoy interrupted, "has the power to make the Vampires immune to sunlight."
"That's not possible," I exclaimed, "If an item that powerful existed, it would have surfaced a lot sooner than this. Plus surely the Council would have known about it and tried to seize it before anyone else caught wind of it."
Ebenezar leaned back and rested on the edge of the wooden desk, looking at me, his features twisting in contempt.
"It does exist and the Council did know about it but..." his sentence trailed off slightly as if he was trying to find the right words to use. "...It was stolen from us; things aren't right with the Council at the moment Gabe. Being truthful it was only by luck that we found out about the Icarus Charm when we did. What with everything that's going on..."
"What do you mean, what's happening?" I said, interrupting Ebenezar mid sentence.
He took a deep breath, his expression once again displaying a discontented emotion.
"We've been losing Wizards left and right over the last day or so. Senior Councillor Cristos called the whole Council into session, you weren't there because of your recent missions against the Red Court. Cristos called for a truce with the Vampires and as such invited Arianna Ortega to speak on their behalf."
"He did what?" I said somewhat surprised and shocked. Duchess Ortega was a major power player in the Red Court, the daughter of the Red King himself and wherever she went, back handed tactics, shadowy mind games and usually death followed.
"Ortega is preaching for peace," McCoy continued. "She believes this war has gone on long enough and it's time we tried to settle things amicably."
"Please tell me no one believes her?"
"Well Cristos has a lot of supporters who are backing his and Ortega's call for peace. A few more groups were possibly considering it until Warden Dresden stormed in, but that's another story. We've got Wardens going missing, eight in total according to reports. It's been noticed that the missing Wardens were very vocal in their distrust of the peace talks, but I've got people looking into that. Plus there seems to be some type of illness going around the Council. So far only a handful people are sick but we've got our best healers at work trying to stem the tide."
I stood there in shock for moment, unsure of what to say. Could things really be this bad?
"What is the Senior Council going to do about Cristos? I mean surely the Council doesn't believe Arianna Ortega is really an ambassador for peace."
"Crying out loud Gabe," Ebenezar spat. "Of course we don't. The Merlin wants to wait and make the Vampires tip their hand, forcing them to attack and expose their vulnerabilities, so we can wipe them out. As for Cristos, well the Senior Council is backing away from him, giving him room to hang himself."
I ran my hands through my hair, letting them rest on the back of my neck, trying hard to process the tumult of information. The Merlin was the leader of the White Court, a tradition that reportedly went back to the days of King Arthur's court and was widely regarded as the most powerful Wizard on the planet, but he was playing a very risky game, a game that could cost a lot Wizards their lives if it didn't play I started to pace back and forth, arranging my thoughts out loud.
"There are two sides to this. If the Merlin is using this as an opportunity to see if the Vampires will trip up, who's to say the Red Court aren't doing the same thing. And if so, they are going to want something to tip the balance in their favour. They're going to want this Icarus Charm and if it does what you say it can, they would be able to attack us when we least expect it."
"Which is why it is important that you find it and get it back under lock and key!" Ebenezar said, passion and urgency reverberating in his tone.
"But what makes you think it's in London?" I asked.
McCoy took in a deep breath before answering.
"Honestly? We don't know for sure that it is," he said. "At the moment it's purely speculation. Our scouts have reported sightings of Red Court Vampires heading south from Scotland, but with the Council being based in Edinburgh it feels like too much of a coincidence for them to be spotted so soon after the Charm was stolen. Plus London has a well known Red Court cross over point into the NeverNever, we've got people watching it, so far they haven't made a move towards it. By now they've surely reached London, but we've got no idea where they are."
I stood there for a moment not saying a word, just thinking, processing. The Nevernever is the spirit world. It exists alongside our own as a sort of an alternate dimension but its shape is not the same as the mortal world; in fact its shape is always changing, slowly warping. The Nevernever touches the Mortal world in places where they have something in common, a resonance of energies if you want to get all magically technical; with the right knowledge and know how, a person can open a path to the Nevernever from where it over lapses our world and use it to travel quickly between crossover points. Because of how misaligned our world is with the spirit world, you could theoretically enter the Nevernever in, say London, walk two hundred yards, then cross back over and end up in Sydney Australia. It really helps to keep the travelling expenses in check and considering how magic and technology react to each other, it's generally a lot safer for a Wizard to use then say, a plane.
Of course there's no danger of a nightmare monster snatching you from your path on a plane.
"Ok," I began, "so if you have something as important as the Icarus Charm then you're not going to want people knowing about it. You won't want to draw attention to yourself, so crossing over to the NeverNever when you know people are watching would be a bad idea. So instead you will want to lay low, wait for a more opportune time, when those watching have to look away." I said, allowing my train of thought to run free down its track. "But these are Red Court Vampires, they're predators. They will need to feed and no matter how much they want to lay low, their very nature won't let them, at least not for very long. And when they need to feed, people will start to go missing."
I turned and knelt down, reaching for the trapdoor.
"I'll check with one of my contacts, see if that sheds any light on the matter." I said, pulling up the door and revealing the ladder leading down. I started to slowly climb down when McCoy called out.
"Gabe," he said. "Watch your back. This is a possible game changer and the Vampires will not give up the charm without a fight."
Smiling I said, "But fighting Vampires is what I do best."
I didn't wait to get a response and started climbing down the ladder.
The Icarus Charm. If it does what it says on the tin, then this artefact could be what gives the Red Court victory in this war. They could attack us at any time, day or night. We would have to be on watch constantly, be prepared at all times and with the Icarus Charm, the Vampires could play the long game. Just because we're Wizards, doesn't mean we don't get tired. The longer it goes on for, fatigue will set in and then mistakes will happen. In this kind of situation, one mistake is all it takes to get everyone killed. I needed to find this thing and fast. I couldn't let the Vampires leave the city with it but in order to stop them I needed to know where they were and to know that I needed to follow the signs.
I just had to hope that I could do it in time.