Last to Rise(35)

The father’s fists clenched and unclenched a few times and his face creased but I got the impression it wasn’t me especially that he was pissed off with. Made a change anyway, and a good job too, because using my magic had made me a bit light-headed, except in the places it was very dark indeed. Things seemed to swim in and out, up and down, and I was very nearly sick on the floor. I tried to get a grip on myself, but only partially managed it. Something big and black swam past my vision and I was sure only that it had glowing eyes, striped skin and big, hungry teeth.



Concentrate, for fuck’s sake. Hold on, because the last thing we need is to demolish anything.



It took a few minutes, but given my state of mind I was happy to wait. The father finally seemed to come to a decision and I braced myself. It didn’t really help against what he said.



“Beat the Storad.” He snorted in disgust. “Yeah, that’s what they say. We all need to beat the Storad to survive, ‘our patriotic duty’, do what the Goddess tells us – what the priests want us to do, more like, save their skins for them. Cardinals are sending everything they can out through the Mishan gate, getting themselves out too because they can. Because they can pay and the Mishans aren’t taking anyone who can’t. Storad are coming, got to be strong, keep our heads down, pray for help, that’s what the priests are saying. The Goddess will help. But who else is helping?



“I volunteered, you know. Went up far as they’d let me, said I’d fight. And they said, ‘Sure, you can fight.’ Wouldn’t give me no weapon though. All the guards and Specials, they got guns. And I know we’ve got guns and to spare – I did a couple of days’ work next to one of the factories that’s making them. Saw some get shipped out to – well, not to our guards, let’s put it like that. But give a gun to a man from Under? No. They don’t know who we might shoot. They want us to fight, but those same cardinals, they aren’t letting us, except as the poor bastards that’ll be first to die. Well they’re going to find out, oh yes, sure as shit stinks, because I’m not the only one thinking this way: that this could be an opportunity. All right, so you’re a mage. And the boy too. You mages fighting for them, for Ministry? Or for us?”



I opened my mouth to say, “Not for Ministry, are you crazy?”, and then had to stop. Because I was, in a way. Perak was Ministry, Archdeacon, Mouth of the Goddess, though he wasn’t representative of all those cardinals. He had pretty much the same opinion of them as I did. I was still working for Ministry. When had I gone from hating them so bad I’d happily kill them all, to this? When it was my brother. It made this tricky though, so I did the best I could. My best is usually lying, so I went with that.



“Not for them, for everyone. Without Glow, you’re dead, and so am I, from the damned cold if nothing else. We beat the Storad, then we can fuck over every cardinal we can find, and I promise you I’ll take great pleasure in it. But will you let me take the boy? Even if I don’t, he’ll still be a mage and without knowing what he’s doing… it could be messy.”



A look passed between father and son, and it was hard to say what kind of look Perhaps a regret on the father’s part – that he thought he had more time before his boy made his way into the world, and that this wasn’t what he’d hoped for. On the boy’s part, it was part dread, part hope perhaps. I remembered the feeling vividly – knowing there was something different about me, something awful and wonderful, and not knowing how to control it, or even what it was. At least he didn’t have to hide it, not as I had when mages were illegal. A small consolation perhaps.



“All right,” the father said at last. “Cabe, you go with him. He screws you over, you come back home.” Then to me, “You’ll look after him, right? You said food too. Proper food.”



“Proper food. It’s not much, but it isn’t rats.”



Not yet anyway – it might come to that, but there wasn’t any point saying that part. And then, because I couldn’t get the thought of those rat bones out of my head, and because my conscience was getting to be a pain in the arse just lately, “Look, what’s your name? Quillan, all right. You take him there, say I sent you. And if you get hungry, you come visit your boy and maybe I can squeeze an extra place at the table.”



Simple as that, I had yet another poor sap roped into a life of hurting themselves for the good of everyone else.





Chapter Nine





Clearly, we were up to our necks in shit. Given that we were a hundred levels above the bottom of Mahala, that’s a lot of shit.