Page 8 of The Malevolent Eight
As the lead Valiant’s sword pierced the chest, droplets of melting flesh sloughed from skin and muscle, only to then slither back like hissing snakes. The Auroral blessings were tearing through what they perceived as the sin permeating the angelic’s very bones: skin crackled like paper dropped in the hearth, sinew sizzled into ashes and one by one her exposed ribs popped open like fingers being pried apart. I hadn’t known until then that angelics had hearts, or that they looked like flowers, the petals unfolding as they died, revealing a delicate golden butterfly whose wings burned away into nothingness before the last grey flakes drifted down to the ground. And all the while, the dying Valiant was smiling at me.
‘We’ll see each other again,’ said the wonderist as the Valiant’s tongue was turning to ash inside a pale jaw no longer clad in once-flawless skin. ‘Three more times before my bosses order me to kill you.’
One benefit of having witnessed any number of atrocities in my relatively brief career as a wonderist was learning not to waste time on disgust or despair. ‘What bosses?’ I asked quickly. ‘Who are you working for? What do they wa—?’
‘They want peace, Cade,’ she replied as the ruined body she’d possessed slumped down to the wooden platform, perfectly filling the contorted, unnatural shadow waiting for it. ‘Just not the peace you were hoping for.’
Chapter 5
Self-Defence
‘Spirits of decency!’ Galass cried, rushing over. She wasn’t concerned with me, of course, only the dead angelic. She was the only one to bother; unlike Corrigan, Shame, Aradeus, Alice and even Temper, she hadn’t worked out that the butchery wasn’t quite done yet. But Galass was young and still determined to make the world a place worth saving, even if she had to bend it into shape with her bare hands.
‘Cade, what just happened here?’
‘I don’t know.’ I might as well have plastered a villainous leer on my lips and declared, ‘Why, it’s all part of my evil plan, of course!’
‘You!’ screamed the leader of the Valiants predictably, still staring aghast at the golden blood of his comrade staining his blade. ‘This was some Infernal trick of yours!’
‘Hey, arsehole,’ Corrigan said, keeping one fist behind his back to hide the indigo sparks erupting across his knuckles. He too had had plenty of experience with supernatural beings convinced of their own holiness. ‘Have youalreadyforgotten that we just took out an entire troop ofactualInfernals to save your increasingly worthless existence?’
‘All part of your ruse, thunderer,’ accused the Valiant. His remaining comrade indicated his agreement with that preposterous conjecture by drawing his own sword.
‘Whoa,’ I said evenly. For Galass’ sake, I was determined to give diplomacy one final attempt. ‘Whoever possessed your fellow angelic clearly wants us to fight. Did you not hear what she said about letting the war unfold? The Lords Celestine are being set up, so maybe the Lords Devilish are too. We need to figure out who’s behind. . .’
I let that futile entreaty die unfinished. The identical looks on the faces of the two Valiants made it painfully obvious that some calamities reallyareinevitable.
‘Seven deaths, each bloodier than the last, will you and your foul coven die at our hands!’ declared the leader as he raised his now-flaming sword.
‘As it is spoken, so shall it be!’ cheered his fellow paragon of Auroral forbearance.
‘Oh, come on, man,’ I said. I really shouldn’t have been so astounded at how genuinely convinced these two morons were, not only of their righteousness, but that the great Auroral Sovereign– who doesn’t exist, by the way– was going to grant them victory. ‘Can’t you guys see this is all part of some—? Ah, forget it. You know what?Thisis why I became a mercenary war mage instead of a diplomat.’
With that, I stepped back, giving Corrigan free rein to blast the living shit out of the remaining Angelic Valiants. Normally, their Auroral blessings would remake their physical forms faster than any Tempestoral bolts could tear them apart, but Galass was using her sanguinalist abilities to prevent their angelic blood from spreading the healing blessing, while Shame was disrupting the transmutation of their angelic flesh. It was weird as shit, watching the battle as the bodies of the two Valiants fluctuated back and forth between destruction and resurrection.
The stalemate ended only when Alice decapitated both Valiants with a single slash of her whip-sword.
How the hells are we going to stop a war between two unimaginably powerfularmies led by hierarchies of zealots, neither of whom can be dissuaded from believing that their own victory is inevitable?
The two golden heads tumbled to the wooden platform and went rolling along the planks to stop at my feet. One of the many creepy things about angelics is that even beheaded, their mouths can always whisper final maledictions against you. We weren’t worried, though; we were already on the Celestines’ shit list.
I decided a moment of silence was in order at the passing of the angelic warriors, mostly because I needed a minute to stop my hands shaking.
Of course, not everyone shared my delicate disposition.
‘Temper, stop that!’
The kangaroo completely ignored me. He’d snatched up one of the severed heads and was eagerly slurping the golden blood from the neck.
This is why smart people don’t accidentally summon vampiric beasts from savage realms and then recruit them into their covens just because a certain Tempestoral idiot insists, ‘We’re called the MalevolentSeven, Cade. Seven. Not six.’
‘You look frightened, child,’ Shame told me.
‘I am.’
‘No, you do not understand. I can always sense your fear, your anxieties, your worry that you have set us on the wrong path.’ She reached up with a finger and pushed at one corner of my mouth as if to try and force a smile. ‘Usually, you hide it from the others.’
What do you expect? The whole world’s going mad– madder, I should say, and now there’s a new player on the board with powers I can’t explain who is apparently convinced we have a shared history that I can’t remember.
