"Don't you think?"
He considered, acquiesced with a nod, and painted it on her cheek with the smallest finger of his left hand. There was enough mixture left to give the others a symmetrical smear on the other cheek, though Grey's was a bit smaller and not so symmetrical.
"What do we do now?" Harry asked.
"We should probably try binding the magic together first," Elinor said.
"That's your job, Pearl," Grey said. "The binding is in the blood, and you're the one working blood magic."
"It should be Amanusa doing this." Pearl didn't know enough. She was too new to this.
"You are my sorceress." Grey's vehemence shocked her. "You and no other. Amanusa might top you in sheer power, but you have finesse, and you have me. You can do this."
He truly believed she could. She sensed it through their bond. Pearl had her doubts, but if Grey thought she could-she had to at least try.
"I think," she began tentatively, "that we should start first with protection. Like the wall around the dead zones, since we already know how to build that spell. But it will be mobile, rather than stationary, so we should probably hold hands. If we can successfully block the-the power spray, perhaps we can . . . push it at the demon."
"Sounds reasonable to me," Harry said. He took Elinor's hand and began reciting his protection spell.
Elinor and Grey each clasped one of Pearl's hands as she caught the strands of magic, reaching through Harry's blood and the chalk dust to pull it in. Elinor started her spell, and Pearl captured that magic, binding it to Harry's.
"You go next," Grey said. "The spirits will come quicker if the sorcery is already there for strength."
She called on the blood and the magic it carried, bringing in Harry's, Elinor's, Grey's, even magic from the everyday miracles in the nearby hospital, where right now several women labored to bring new life into the world. Pearl tied it to her own blood and spoke the words invoking protection and warding against the massive power shed by the battling beings.
Then she brought in Grey's magic as he spoke his spell. It was already there, but she pulled in more, blended spirit magic with the rest, welcoming the old, old spirits who answered his call. Blood and spirits, earth, and green growing things, all joined together to protect fragile mortal existence from power beyond imagining.
They built their wall of magic, spreading it high and wide. Harry laid in the strength of stone and the irresistible force of flowing water, giving it motion. Elinor and Pearl and Grey added life, more strength, more motion, and sheer bloody-minded determination. That last came from the spirits mostly. Some came from the magicians.
Pearl held all the threads in her fingers, allowing the others to tweak this and adjust that. She was simply in charge of holding it together.
Slowly, she became aware of hands clapping. Just a few at first, then more and more until a crescendo of applause threatened to break her concentration.
"Brava!" That was the voice of Archaios. The alchemists must have arrived. "A master's work if ever I have seen it."
"Let's see if it works," Pearl muttered.
"It blocks the backspray," Amanusa said, pointing to the brilliant power that hit the shield and stopped, seeming to glow in midair. "Count off into fours-wizard, sorcerer, conjurer, and alchemist. Do we have any more wizards? I know most of our sorcerers are students, but perhaps we can yet contrive to build more walls, if we have enough wizards. Where is Ferguson?"
"Dead," Grey said flatly. Nothing more.
Pearl wondered at Amanusa's order-giving, until she remembered that Amanusa was the only magister present not bound into this magic. With Sir William inside the hospital and Nigel Cranshaw who knew where, that gave her the greatest authority present. Fortunately the magicians here all proved willing to follow her lead. The battle overhead probably had much to do with that.
Pearl retrieved a bit of Harry's magic threatening to sink too low and wound it more securely through her metaphysical fingers. She couldn't let her thoughts wander.
"All right," Harry said. "Since we know it blocks that stuff they're throwin' around, let's see if we can push it back on that thing."
"Agreed." Grey squeezed Pearl's hand reassuringly. "One step at a time, down that alley. Shall we?"
"You want us to walk physically closer to it?" Elinor's voice squeaked, just a little. "I thought we would just push the magic at it from here."
Pearl's heart pounded harder. "I'm not sure how well I can hold everything together, if it gets too far away from me."
"We," Harry said, "are the anchors to this wall, not twigs an' sigils an' such. It's us the magic 'olds on to."
"So we march." Elinor stepped out, as brave as if she'd never hesitated. Caution wasn't cowardice, Pearl reminded herself. Caution was just stopping to think things through, something she needed more of, herself.
And so, arrayed like dressed-up savages, they marched hand-in-hand into battle.
29
ONE STEP AT a time, the four magicians moved toward the railway station where the battle still played itself out. The demon's greed had a purpose, it seemed, for now that it found itself deprived of victims, its power diminished with every blast the angel threw. The demon screamed, ripping off roofs and crashing through walls, hunting more prey as it tried to fight back.
Pearl began to hope. Until she heard a rising squeal that cut through the crashing down of walls and the aetheric scream of the demon. The sound of a train braking hard. Her sudden alarm had her grabbing for the magic as it wavered.
"Pearl!" Elinor cried.
"I've got it, I've got it!" She steadied herself, steadied the strands of magic.
"Did no one alert the incoming trains?" Grey shouted.
"Sir Billy said the home secretary was notified, but seems not everyone got the word," Harry shouted back.
"Head south." Grey turned them. "Toward the tracks. Maybe we can-"
The demon saw. It picked the train off its elevated track and tore off the engine, shaking the driver and coalmen into its mouth before tossing the locomotive aside and shooting a fresh blast at the angel. The angel waded closer, in a ferocious attack before the demon could refill its power.
"Push," Pearl cried. "Push the magic at the demon, before-"
People were jumping from the passenger cars at the end of the train, willing to chance the fall on to the soft, marshy ground.
Pearl pushed as hard as she could while still holding the magic together. It was like trying to push water and like pushing boulders, both at once. Harry joined her, setting his shoulder against the weight. Grey's spirits stepped in, sweeping the magic before them. Elinor's magic moved as well, though Pearl wasn't sure how. She just knew it was there and it was necessary.
The demon ripped the freight cars from the train and tossed them away, scattering goods clear to Westminster Road. The human magic didn't seem to be doing anything to affect the battle one way or the other. The angel still attacked. The demon still defended. It lifted the passenger cars high to shake the contents onto its waiting pink tongue.
The worst thing, Pearl thought, besides the devouring, was that the demon still had its original beautiful shape. It hadn't transformed into some hideous monster with horns and a tail and warts or scales or scars. It looked exactly like it had before, only bigger. And bloodier. And much more terrible.
"Concentrate." Grey nudged her through their bond. "Don't let the horror of it distract you."
Pearl settled the magic again, weaving back in the bits that had slipped. "But it's not doing any good."
"Yes, it is," Elinor said. "Look."
They rounded a building, coming into the gap where the track rolled through, descending from its elevation to enter the station. People were on the ground where they had fallen or jumped from the cars. Those who could walk were helping those more injured limp and hobble away. The demon grabbed for them, but it couldn't reach them.
Their wall slowed it, more and more as it pushed farther into the magic, so that by the time its clawed hand pushed through, it moved so slowly that even the hobbling injured could evade its grasp, even in the wet, mucky footing.
With a howl of rage, the demon went back to shaking people from the passenger cars so it could slurp them into its mouth and fight the angel with its other hand. It sidled along the tracks as it fought, heading toward the hospital.
"This way." Harry tugged from his end. "If we get round this side of it, maybe we can push it back into the angel."
"More teams of magicians would help," Grey said. "Dearest, would you pass the word?"
Mary flashed out of Grey's protection, and flashed back an instant later. Done.
Pearl didn't see how they could do what Harry suggested, with the buildings and the columns holding up the track in the way, but Harry led them right at the demon. Apparently he intended to "get round" smack under its nose. She let the others lead her, closing her eyes to concentrate on holding the magic together and holding onto Grey's hand and Elinor's. Perhaps it was cowardice, not wanting to watch. If so, so be it, for she simply couldn't bear any more.