The other three were strangers. There was a black guy, and a man and a woman who looked Japanese. All were wearing matte-black combat gear with low-level magical enhancement that looked like a weaker version of my own combat armour. I’d glimpsed them in my path-walking, enough to have a vague idea of what they could do, but not in detail. November? Give me a report on those three.
November answered instantly, the thoughts and information flashing into my mind. Coleman Ward, aka Crash. Elemental adept, ranked near-mage level. Force magic: enhanced strength, speed, toughness, mobility, personal range only. Ito Ryuunosuke, aka Jumper. Universal adept, ranked mage level. Space magic: personal and touch-range teleportation. Ito Midori, aka Stickleback. Elemental adept, ranked near-mage level. Force magic: creation of circular force planes, offensive and defensive utility. Group status: limited affiliation with Light Councils of North America, Japan, and Korea; outlaw status in China. Employment status: long-term retainer contract with Levistus. Primary duties: personal security of Levistus and two designated priority locations, of which this is one.
I didn’t like the sound of that. Adept mercenaries don’t live long enough to make a name for themselves unless they’re good. I scanned the futures, looking for ways out.
There weren’t any. I couldn’t reach any exits from the data centre apart from this one, and the wards prevented me from gating. Worse, Rachel was on her feet and heading for me. She’d appear at the end of the corridor in less than fifteen seconds.
Okay, time to go back to thinking like an underdog.
Rachel was less than five seconds away. My supply of one-shots was low, but I still had a few that I’d saved for a rainy day. I pulled a condenser from my pocket and waited. Rachel came around the corner thirty feet away. I let her get a glimpse of me, then as her hand came up I threw the condenser to shatter at my feet and kicked open the door.
Water magic flared: both the weak magic of the condenser as its mist cloud rushed out to obscure everything around me, and the sharp deadly signature of Rachel’s disintegration spell. I sidestepped and the beam flashed past through the doorway towards Barrayar and the three mercenaries. There was a shout but I was focused on Rachel. She hadn’t stopped casting, and even blind, Rachel’s guesses at my location were way too accurate. I twisted aside from one beam and then another: the wall behind me puffed into dust, and more beams sped through the gap. Then I felt more magic from behind.
I sprinted through the gap and away down the edge of the building, catching a glimpse of a violet-tinged disc of force cutting horizontally through the mist. I came out of the light and into the dazzling sun, ducking around a corner and breaking line of sight to Barrayar and the mercenaries.
I jumped over a pipe and skirted a pair of huge fans. Behind me, the bright September day lit up in a furious exchange, force magic against the sea-green light of Rachel’s disintegration beams. I didn’t have time to see who was winning, and didn’t care. I was focused on whether any of them were coming after me. I’d only been in sight for a moment, but that might have been long enough for them to catch a glimpse and figure out—
Force magic pulsed. I came to a stop and turned.
Barrayar came flying down from his jump like a falling missile, and landed on top of a flat-roofed shed with a crash. The small concrete-and-metal building shook under the impact, and Barrayar stood up. The wind ruffled his hair and tie, blowing them out to one side, and his eyes were hard. “It’s in that backpack,” he told me. “Isn’t it?”
“Hey, Barrayar,” I said. As I spoke I was path-walking in all directions, scouting the terrain. The part of roof I was on was largely bare, cluttered with industrial equipment but with no way down. “So how are things—?”
“I’ll only say this once.” Barrayar’s voice was clipped. “I don’t care about catching you, not today, but that synthetic is more dangerous than you can possibly understand. Drop it right now and you can leave. Do anything else, or try to stall, and I’ll kill you.”
“Dangerous how?”
When Barrayar had said “anything,” he’d meant it. A thin line of force magic flashed out like a bullet.
That line was the width of a fingernail, and invisible. It was also powerful enough to rip through my armour and internal organs and go right out the other side. I twisted, my divination giving me warning to dodge left even as I used fate magic to pull the attack to the right, and felt the vibration as Barrayar’s spell punched a neat hole in the roof. Barrayar tracked me, firing again, and I ran, the impacts lacing lines of death through the futures.
I put a small building between us and ducked as Barrayar shot through it blind, the attack going over my shoulder. I’d run too far and now I was out of roof. Up ahead was another skyscraper, a little lower than Heron Tower; down below, the traffic on the A-road wound its way around a growing cluster of police vehicles that looked like toy cars.
There was another crash as Barrayar landed on the building right behind. I turned to see him looking down from less than twenty feet away, his eyes narrowed. He aimed his right hand at me, palm first, taking his time to make sure he hit, maybe wondering why I wasn’t dodging. Then he paused. He’d sensed the same thing that my magesight had: a powerful elemental source, rising fast.
With a whoosh Cinder burst up into the sky like a phoenix. Wings of fire spread from his shoulders; dark red flame burnt about one hand, while on his other a gauntlet shone with power. Cinder reached the peak of his leap, hovering, and aimed downwards; Barrayar jumped away as the roof of the small building erupted with a roar.
Cinder floated forward and down, landing in front of me with a thud. A fiery shield burned around him, the flames licking at his hands and legs without consuming them. “Why are you standing around?” he growled.
I grinned. “Never been so happy to see a Dark mage.”
Starbreeze came flitting up behind Cinder, giving him an interested glance before looking at me. “Where did you go?”
Cinder leapt up with another flash of fire magic into a smaller jump. He landed on the scorched roof where Barrayar had been, and strode out of sight. “I’ll tell you later,” I said to Starbreeze. “Mind getting us out of here?”
“Oh, okay.” Starbreeze swept around me. I felt her starting to transmute my body to air. Just a few more seconds, and we’d be—
The transmutation stopped with a sudden jar, my body turning back to flesh and blood. Starbreeze separated from me, floating away. “Can’t.”
“What?” I said. “What do you mean, ‘can’t’?”
“Can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
Starbreeze pointed at my backpack. “He’s heavy.”
“What do you mean, ‘heavy’? That doesn’t make any sense!”
The air above Heron Tower flashed red, fire magic meeting force with a boom that sent a shiver through the building. November, I said. Why can’t Starbreeze transmute you?
Ah . . . assuming Starbreeze is the air elemental mentioned in your files, I’m not entirely sure. My core was constructed using certain hybrid materials that are held in a more unstable state than is typical for—
I don’t need a science lesson! Can we fix it?
Well . . . given the timeframe, no.
Sea-green light flashed. I was running out of time: Cinder couldn’t keep everyone busy and it wouldn’t take them long to track me down. “Go watch the fire?” Starbreeze asked.
“No! Look, if you can’t transmute us, carry us.” I pointed across the gap to the nearest skyscraper: it was only a street’s width apart, maybe sixty feet across and about as much down. “Get us there.”