Heart's Blood(75)

Pearl had to stop and catch her breath when they reached it. Amanusa and Jax were already there.

"Elinor's inside," Amanusa said, "setting up treatment for the injured. Where is the fire? What's burning them?"

"Look with your magic sense," Grey gestured toward the battle edging nearer to the railway station. "Pure magic power. Both angel and demon." He was breathing hard, but not bent over and gasping like Pearl, the wretch.                       
       
           



       

"Oh, dear God," Amanusa breathed. In prayer, Pearl thought. "Is it-?"

"Eating people, yes," Grey affirmed. "It seems to be eating only ‘proper demon's meat,' the unrepentant and unforgiven. Far too many of those."

"We have to-"

"We can't," Grey interrupted her. He touched her hand in comfort. "We can't. But we can protect people from the power backspray. Pearl says we need sorcery."

"Here," Pearl choked out, still struggling to catch her breath. "Mothers. Babies. Lots of magic."

"Yes, of course." Amanusa seemed to understand instantly. Grey still looked puzzled.

"Blood's shed in childbirth," Pearl said, a trifle more steadily. "And for weeks after. Natural. Part of the process. It makes magic from-from-"

"Love and new life," Amanusa filled in. "It's naturally protective. Mothers wrap it around their babies without conscious thought."

"But there's lots left over. Especially here." Pearl began to gather the abundant magic and send it out again, to protect the people without their own defense against the collateral damage of the epic battle taking place over their heads. Amanusa joined her, and Katriona.

Harry appeared, hurrying up from inside the hospital. "Elinor's got all that sorted. She'll be along soon. She says the burns are kin to alchemist's fire. Don't stop burnin' till they're quenched, an' they ain't easy to quench. I got alchemists comin'. They're behind the conjurers and wizards, since it seemed those were needed more, but they're comin'. We'll get the burns stopped quick as we can."

"Right." Grey looked around, as if trying to see what needed doing next. "Where's Sir William?"

"Inside the hospital, supervising," Elinor said, appearing out of nowhere. Pearl knew she'd actually just come from inside, like Harry, but it seemed from nowhere.

Pearl pushed the magic a little farther and, teamed with the hordes of ancient spirits, it seemed to block the wild spray of crashing power. "Did you see that?" she whispered to Amanusa.

"I did. Do you suppose . . . ?" Amanusa frowned in concentration.

"What are you supposing?" Grey asked. "Do we need to go back to the station?"

"Who's in charge there?" Harry asked.

"Meade and one of Simmons's lads. Norwood, I think."

"I think," Amanusa spoke across the men, "that we can help the angel."

"Maybe," Pearl said. "It might be that we can only block the power from shooting out everywhere."

"How?" Grey asked, and she showed him.

"I think," Amanusa said, "that if we add the other two magics to the mix, it will do more."

"How do we do that?" Harry asked. "Buildin' a wall's one thing. Fightin' a battle is somethin' else. And neither Elinor nor me's familiar to anything or anyone, remember."

Everyone fell silent for a moment, thinking.

"But . . . we all have blood," Pearl said. "That's the one thing we all absolutely have in common. That has to be the way to mix it."

"Jax?" Amanusa looked at her husband.

He shook his head. "Yvaine didn't like to share her power. I don't remember her ever mixing power with other magicians to work together. I can't help you with this."

"We need to go to the station," Amanusa said. "At least discover if it's been evacuated."

"Almost." Grey passed on a communication from one of his spirits. Pearl hadn't heard it because she'd let go of his hand. "But we can't evacuate the hospital. Not quickly enough."

"So we make our stand here," Harry said. "Best we can, whatever we can do."

They walked to Edward York Street, closer to the station, and that much farther from the hospital. While they walked, Pearl thought furiously, trying to come up with a way to bind the magics. She assumed Amanusa did the same, for when they reached the street crowded with fleeing civilians, despite the Briganti and policemen trying to keep order, they turned to each other.

Grey's spirits, who had expanded their protection to encompass the others, kept the crowds away, creating a little bubble of stillness in the jostling flow.

"All I can think of is to mix the blood together," Pearl said.

"I, too." Amanusa frowned at the bricks paving the street. "And perhaps-" She mimed swiping her thumb under her jaw. "Painting it on?"

Elinor made a face. "Is that absolutely necessary?"

"I do not know." Amanusa turned her hands palm up. "We've never fought a demon before."

"We don't have time to quibble." Grey held out his hand for lancing. "Do it."

"We need your pencil case," Pearl said. "We can mix the blood in one side of it."

"Right." He got it out, emptied it into a pocket, and proffered his fingers again, holding the case with his other, ready to receive. Pearl lanced and squeezed a fat drop into the side of the case with the least chalk dust.

"Leave the dust," Harry said, as Amanusa lanced his finger. "It's a mineral. Might help mix the alchemy in."

Elinor brightened and drew a foil packet from somewhere. "Salve," she said, squeezing a bit into the case. "Concentrated herbs and magic. It should help with the wizardry."

Pearl stirred it into the droplets of blood and chalk dust with the tip of her lancet, as Amanusa squeezed Elinor's finger over the concoction until another drop was added.

"Now you, Pearl," Amanusa said. "Grey is your familiar. I will stay out of this mix. If it works, we can build other quartets to help in the fight. Katriona-"

She turned to the girl who'd come back with them from the hospital. "You watch and learn. You will have to teach the other sorcery students what do to when they get here, if this works."

"Yes, ma'am." Katriona looked determined to succeed, and also as if she'd rather the sorcerer's magister hadn't recalled her presence. Pearl didn't blame her. Amanusa hadn't questioned Katriona's presence, but now she turned a sharp eye on her.

"And when this is over," the magister said, "we shall have a discussion about foolishness and wisdom, and the consequences thereof."

"Yes, ma'am," Katriona said in a smaller voice.

Pearl had lanced her thumb while watching the little drama, and squeezed out several drops to add to the mix.

"Aren't you putting anything else in?" Elinor asked Grey. "To help it carry conjury?"

"Don't have to," he said. "Spirits respond to blood without needing anything else. Remember Paris? Blood strengthens them. And since I am Pearl's familiar-"

"Changed your tune about that right quick, 'aven't you?" Harry said.

"The wise man does, when confronted with proof of his folly." Grey looked down his nose at the other man, which crossed his eyes. Even now, he could make Pearl laugh.

"If we are going to do this," Elinor said, "let us do it. The battle is getting closer."                       
       
           



       

It was. The street was almost clear now. Only Briganti and magicians and a few brave policemen remained.

The demon still flung power at the angel with one hand while it rummaged through ripped-up buildings for prey. The angel still sent power blasting at the demon in steady bursts. Neither of them seemed to be tiring.

Pearl realized she couldn't expect them to react like mortal beings. Perhaps they would eventually tire, but it might not be in her lifetime. She put her thumb in the bloody mix and reached up to tuck the mark behind Grey's ear.

"No." He pulled back, removing his head from her reach.

"Grey-" she began her scold.

"Not there." He ran his thumb at an angle across his cheek. "Put it here. It's war paint."

"Right," Harry said. "Exactly right."

Pearl wasn't so sure, but she swiped her thumb along Grey's cheek as he wanted. The red-brown smear, darkened by gray chalk and green salve, made him look barbaric. A primitive warrior.

That's what he was, what they all were in this moment. Pearl dipped her thumb in the magic and dragged it along Harry's cheek. She dipped again and turned to Elinor, who backed away, then braced herself with a sigh. "Yes. It's war paint. Do it."

Pearl felt a fierce grin break across her face as she painted Elinor's cheek. She turned back to Grey. "You do me," she said. "A safety sigil."

Grey's brow went up. "You're sure?"