Luna was still on her hands and knees, shaking her head; she hadn’t had the instant’s warning that I had. Another adept came barrelling towards me; I deflected him out of Luna’s way, caught Luna by one hand and pulled her to her feet. Luna, it’s me. Follow me.
Alex? What’s going on?
Flashbangs. We need to get to cover.
The crowd was panicking, adepts pushing and shoving. I saw a girl go down under a pack and be trampled. Up above I could catch glimpses of the battle, magical attacks soaring overhead in eerie silence. One of the Keepers crossed the room in a single enormous leap, wings of fire trailing behind him. Another bolt of darkness leaped out from that shape next to Richard, knocking him down into the crowd and out of sight.
Alex, are you there? It was Anne’s voice. Don’t get close to Vihaela!
Not my priority right now! An adept cannoned into me and I bounced off, still trying to shield Luna. Another swung a fist, maybe deliberately, maybe in panic. I hit him in the neck and he went down gagging, then I pulled Luna into the shelter of one of the speakers near the wall.
My hearing was starting to come back; I could hear distant shouts and screams. The crowd was a whirl of motion and faces and I couldn’t see what was going on. Vari! I called, reaching for him.
Little busy! Variam shouted back.
Can you patch me through to whoever’s in charge?
No! Nimbus was the only one with the permissions to do that and he’s down. Stop distracting me!
I swore, then pushed myself up on the speaker, craning my neck for a view. The crowd of adepts was a panicking mob. On the near side of the room, the line of Council security was holding, but on the far side they were engaged in a mêlée, batons and fists rising and falling. I couldn’t hear gunfire yet but I knew it wouldn’t take long. Spells still flew back and forth between the Keepers and the Dark mages on the balcony, but the layers of overlapping shields on both sides were holding off the attacks.
Right now it was hard to see who was winning, but I’d spent a lot of time working with Council forces over the past year and I could tell that they were leaderless. Their two wings were disjointed, uncoordinated. I looked to the right and saw the door Luna and I had used earlier, still unguarded. I could get it open, try to fight my way up to Richard and Vihaela …
I hesitated for a long moment, then dropped down. Luna. You’re okay for me to leave you?
I … yeah. Go do your thing.
I turned and walked towards the line of Council security, tearing Arachne’s bracelet off my wrist and dropping it to the floor. The spell fizzled away and I was myself again. The crowd around me didn’t notice: they were far too busy pushing and shoving to get away from the men with guns. I twisted, letting them bounce off me, as I pulled out my wallet and took out a sheet of paper, unfolding it just as the crowd parted to leave me face to face with the Council security line.
Three or four sub-machine-guns shifted to point at me. I kept walking forward at a steady pace, holding up the sheet of paper in plain view. ‘I’m Mage Verus of the Junior Council.’ I had to shout to be heard over the yells and roars. I pointed at one of the security men. ‘Who’s your commanding officer?’
The security men hesitated, their eyes flickering from me to the paper. ‘Uh …’ the guy I’d addressed began.
‘Take me to him.’ I folded up the paper, sticking it back into my pocket, giving the men just enough time to see the letterhead, but no more. It was a memo on parking regulations outside the War Rooms. ‘Rest of you, hold the line.’ I walked straight through the guns, which wavered, then went back to pointing back in the direction of the crowd.
Somehow no one questioned me. The line closed up behind me as the security man led me through the ranks, ducking as bolts of fire screamed overhead. I was searching with my eyes and my divination, looking for order in the chaos, and I spotted it before the security man did, changing direction towards the steps leading up to the exit.
There was a small knot of figures there, and at the centre was Rain. He’s a captain in the Order of the Star, and my old boss, tall and dark-skinned and intense. Right now he was holding a blue-tinged shield in a bubble over the Keeper ranks, while arguing with a mage behind him. Other Keepers stood around him, their attention on the long-range battle with the Dark mages on the balcony. ‘I don’t care!’ Rain was saying. ‘He’s not around and we need those men!’
‘Rain!’ I shouted.
Rain’s head snapped around. ‘Verus? What the hell are you doing here?’
‘Your left flank’s overextended,’ I told him. ‘If they keep pushing forward it’s going to turn into a bloodbath. I need command of this force, now.’
‘What?’ Caldera appeared from behind Rain. ‘You can’t—’
‘I’m a Council member and with Nimbus down, I’m taking tactical command,’ I said. I didn’t take my eyes off Rain. ‘Rain. Please?’
Rain hesitated for a long moment, then nodded. ‘All right. What do you need?’
I pointed out towards the adepts. ‘That crowd is panicking. They’re trying to run, but there’s nowhere for them to run to. If your line of men keeps pushing they’re going to start trampling each other and they’ll end up fighting like rats in a trap. We need to move this whole force to the right. Stand aside and let the crowd funnel out through these doors.’
‘We’re here to detain them, not let them get away,’ Caldera said angrily.
‘That crowd outnumbers you ten to one,’ I told her. ‘Right now they’re in too much of a panic to remember that. If you try arresting them one at a time, that’s going to change. Either way, this is not a request. I’m giving you an order as a member of the Junior Council. If you can’t follow it, get out of the way and leave it to someone who can!’
Caldera glared at me and I turned to Rain. ‘You take the left flank. Pull them back. I’ll take charge of the right.’
Rain nodded and turned away, pushing his way through towards the left. Okay. I took a breath and turned back the way I came. Movement at the corner of my eye caught my attention and I pointed. ‘Slate. Trask. You two, with me.’
Slate gave me a narrow look. A stocky and tough-looking death mage, he’d never liked me even back when I was with the Order of the Star, but he was one of the few of the Keepers I was sure wasn’t corrupt. ‘Doing what?’
‘You going to follow orders or not?’
Slate scowled but didn’t argue. I kept moving and felt the two of them move in behind me. Up ahead, I could see that the right flank of the Council lines was stable. The battle mages were still taking shots at each other, but everyone had had enough time to get shields up. A couple of security men had gone down to something I hadn’t seen; ahead, a scattering of adepts were on the floor as well. There was a no-man’s-land between the two groups maybe fifty feet wide.
I strode out into the open, turning to face the line of Council security. ‘All right, boys!’ I had to shout at the top of my voice. ‘Everyone move to the right in an orderly fashion! Yes, I said right!’ I swept my arms to get the message across, pointing. ‘You! Stop staring and move your arse!’
Some of the security men hesitated, and I caught mutterings.
‘… is he?’
‘… no, that’s Verus, I saw …’
‘… why? I thought—’