Page 10 of The Malevolent Eight
There was one exception to our don’t-kill-humans-unless-you-have-to rule: Glorians. Whether they were Justiciars like I’d been, or Ardentors, Parevals, Arbiters or any of the rest, the way I saw it, you accept the supernatural blessings of the Lords Celestine, you take your lumps. The same was true of human wonderists who signed with the Aurorals or Infernals, although those who were still alive after the débâcle with the Seven Brothers up in the Blastlands were pretty much keeping their heads down– which was why I was surprised at the enthusiasm when Aradeus and Galass returned from a scouting mission to a nearby settlement rumoured to have thrown their lot in with the Aurorals.
‘My Lady Galass was marvellous!’ Aradeus enthused as the two of them entered the room we’d rented above a roadside ale-house; luckily for us, the owner preferred to spend his nights at his lover’s cottage. The rat mage began removing a clever little totemist glamour from himself and Galass, grey-gloved hands weaving in the air as he shooed away the odd dust motes into which his spell had manifested. It hadn’t altered their appearances, just made it so that others would perceive them as utterly unremarkable, regardless of the situation.
‘It was nothing,’ Galass said, looking down at her feet and blushing.
‘Nothing?’ Aradeus turned to me. ‘Cade, she had a Glorian Pareval eating out of her hand, revealing secrets no amount of torture could ever have loosened from his tongue, all while the golden-garbed fool thought he was correctingheron theological discrepancies in the Auroral Edicts!’
‘What secrets?’ I asked.
Galass waited silently until Aradeus was done banishing his glamour. Despite his unimpeachably gallant nature, the proximity ofanyone’shands so close to her body tends to make her hair turn scarlet and stabby.
Once he’d finished, she sat on a cot and began, ‘The Lords Celestine are beginning to worry about a certain group of wonderists interfering with their war preparations.’
‘Damn right!’ Corrigan interrupted. His biggest problem with my strategy of making recruitment unprofitable for them had nothing to do with the likelihood of our deaths, just that no one would even notice our efforts. He pounded me on the back. ‘Told you it would work,’ he said, although he never had. Not once. ‘Soon, every Auroral and Infernal will be whispering our names, fearful of the day the Malevolent Seven will descend upon them and kick their arses off the Mortal realm once and for all.’
‘The Apocalypse Eight,’ Galass said.
Corrigan stopped thumping me on the back. ‘What?’
‘The Apocalypse Eight,’ she repeated. ‘Apparently, there’s another group of wonderists out there staging sneak attacks on hidden Auroral and Infernal spies and scouts, binding them up and dropping them on their enemies’ doorstep.’
Spy-hunters?I wondered silently. Every army has squads devoted to chasing down enemy scouts and rooting out spies, but unlike sabotage operations, this wasn’t something they farmed out to mercenaries.
‘The Aurorals and Infernals both believe this shadowy coven is working for the other side,’ Aradeus continued. ‘It’s causing quite a stir among their respective leaderships, who have been working hard to keep these unusual events secret. Cade, do you suppose our rebellion is inspiring other wonderists to take up the cause?’
‘Absolutely not!’ Corrigan thundered, figuratively and literally, indigo flames flickering up and down the braids of his beard. ‘First of all, “The Apocalypse Eight” is a stupid name. Second of all. . . well, that should be enough.’
‘Keep it together, would you?’ I told him.
Temper hopped over and patted Corrigan on the head before resting his muzzle on the big man’s shoulder.
‘You’re right,’ Corrigan said– although not to me. ‘I shouldn’t take these things so personally.’
Anyone referring to me as the ‘leader’ of this coven probably meant it ironically.
‘Any word on the attunements of this coven?’ I asked Galass and Aradeus. ‘Could the wonderist who took control of the angelic Valiant have been one of them trying to screw with us?’
Galass shook her head. ‘We didn’t get any specifics– not even descriptions of their appearance, except that they go around wearing uniforms, almost like some sort of military order.’
Temper growled.
Corrigan reached up and stroked the kangaroo’s ears. ‘It’s all right, my friend. She didn’t mean to hurt my feelings.’
I sighed to myself.I’m pretty sure one of my three dooms is going to involve being eaten by a vampire kangaroo because I didn’t let Corrigan buy us all matching uniforms.
I turned to Alice and Shame. Neither had spoken yet, which was usually because they didn’t much care about mundane matters like rival gangs of wonderists or where the next slaughter of their respective former allies would take place. They were staring at each other, and not with their usual animosity.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
They hesitated, both tried to speak at once, and finally, Alice gestured for Shame to go first.
‘The prophecies speak of a time called the Choosing Hour, when every soul must take a side before the war begins,’ Shame began. ‘However, within the Auroral hierarchy, there has always been an unspoken concern that the Lords Celestine are too eager to launch the Great Crusade.’
‘It is the same among the Infernals,’ Alice agreed. ‘Among us, this period is called the Setting of the Board.’
And you don’t start the game until every piece is in place. . . unless the players are too keen to get started.
‘So while we’re trying to keep the Aurorals and Infernals from completing their military and spiritual preparations, you think this other group of wonderists, this’– I glanced at Corrigan, who wasn’t looking at me, then caught Temper’s glare and continued more cautiously– ‘these irrelevant pricks who are in no way a proper coven and no doubt have very poor taste in attire. . . you think they might be trying toacceleratethe war? Like some sort of doomsday cult?’
