Mike Shevdon - The Eighth Court

He swept in again, testing my guard, making me sweat. The air was getting bad, filled with acrid smoke, but it didn’t seem to bother Raffmir.

“I’m doing you a favour,” he said. “You should thank me for lifting the burden from your shoulders.”

Somewhere in the house, something collapsed, and there was a whoosh as the flames caught and spread. I could hear the fire now. We didn’t have long before Raffmir wouldn’t need to skewer me on his sword, I would be roasted instead. I edged back towards the doorway.

“Oh, no,” said Raffmir. He danced in, stepping in with rapid thrusts and short sharp cuts, so that I was driven back from the doorway. “You’re not leaving me, the party’s only just started.”

Over the whistle and pop of the fire, another sound came. There was a rhythmic thumping and then a whine as a helicopter banked over the house.

Raffmir listened attentively. “Do you hear that?” he said.

“A chopper,” I said. “Military by the sound of it.” I was getting tired, and I knew it. I didn’t have the stamina he had. He was rested and prepared. I wasn’t.

“It’s the sound of the cavalry arriving too late,” said Raffmir. “It would be great if they would help you, but they won’t. That’s what you fail to understand. I told you before, they will never accept you. No one will. You’re a misfit.”

“No,” I told him. “You’re the ones who don’t fit. You tried to pull this off before and you messed up. You got your arses kicked and you had to run. That’s what really gets to you isn’t it? Then you and your mad sister failed to kill me. Then I stopped you infecting the world with your mad diseases. Every time you’ve failed.”

“You know, I tire of the whiny tone of your voice.” He slowly circled me.

“Niall?” said Blackbird from the doorway. I could see her outline through the smoke.

“Hasn’t Altair shut you up yet?” asked Raffmir.

“Altair’s dead,” said Blackbird. “I killed him.”

“Ah, then it’s all to play for,” said Raffmir. “There will be a new Lord of the Seventh Court, and I fancy I may be up for the part.”

“Get out while you can,” I told her. “Get people out.”

“I’m not leaving you,” she said.

“You hear that?” said Raffmir. “She’s not leaving you. That means that when I’ve killed you I can kill her too. That should be enough to secure my position on its own.”

“You?” I said. “You’re not capable. It’s just one failure after another. You know what? You couldn’t even best my daughter. A fifteen year-old girl and she had the better of you.”

“That’s an argument we can settle, right now,” he said. He danced in, rattling blows off my guard. He moved in, and I saw it coming.

“Niall!” screamed Blackbird.

He whirled in front of me and I did the only thing I could think of. I did exactly the same. I spun on the spot, twisting my sword in an elaborate spiral, just as he’d demonstrated for me. I heard a tang , as his blade rang off mine, and then felt a thump which travelled down the blade.

I opened my eyes. I wasn’t even aware I’d closed them. In front of me was Raffmir, close enough for a kiss. He looked down at my hands wrapped around the hilt, the blade of my sword piercing his chest. The blade fell from his hand and clattered on the floor.

“No,” he coughed. “That’s too rare, too special.”

I jerked the blade in and up. He spasmed.

“You’re enjoying this,” he gasped. “We’re alike, you and I.”

“No we’re not.” I told him. “I’m not dying.”

“Here,” he said, lifting his hand. “If I must go…” he laughed a hollow laugh. “A parting gift. Something for… old… times.” He opened his hand and there was a tiny light there, like a minute star.

I pulled the blade. It slid with a sucking sound from his chest, and in a move which would make Garvin proud I arced the blade around and struck his head clean from his body. It sailed into the corner of the room where it bounced once and rolled into the corner. His body folded in on itself and crumpled to the floor.

“It’s done,” I said, stepping back, the smoke coiling about me.

“Niall?” said Blackbird. “What’s that?” Above Raffmir’s remains, the tiny star floated in the air. Now I looked more closely it seemed to be shimmering.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Raffmir made it.”

“It’s still there,” she pointed out.

“I can see that’” I said.

“It should have disappeared when he died,” she said. “You’re sure he’s dead?”

“His head’s over there,” I pointed out.

I put my hand out and the star floated gently over to it, hovering over my palm. It was bright white, like an intense spark, but persistent. I passed my hand around it. It followed my hands, almost as if it liked me.

“It’s strange,” I said. “Almost as if it has a life of its own.”

“We have to get out,” said Blackbird. “The house is going to go.” I could hear bangs and cracks as ancient beams warped in the heat, and the crash and whoosh as a ceiling came down or a wall gave way.

“It’s growing,” I said.

“What do you mean?” she asked me.

“It’s getting bigger. It was tiny at first, but now it has a distinct size.”

“Well make it stop,” she said. “In fact, make it disappear altogether.”

“I don’t even know what it is,” I said, coughing at the encroaching swirls of smoke. I extended my senses, looking into the light. It had an intensity that belied its size. “I’m going to try and extinguish it,” I said.

I extended my hand and the star hovered over my palm. As a creature of the void I had a sense of the space between things. If I could collapse it, then it should vanish. I subtracted the space from it, expecting it to wink out of existence. Instead it grew brighter. I tried again, and once more it grew brighter. You could see the whirls and eddies of smoke by the light it shed.

“It’s getting stronger,” said Blackbird.

I let my senses extend and gathered power from the surroundings. The room cooled and warm air rushed to take its place. I could hear the flames roar nearby as the breeze I was creating fuelled it. “Niall! What are you trying to do, fry us all?”

“I have to see it,” I explained. “It’s operating in a space of its own. I need to be able to sense the void to see what it’s made of.” I continued to draw power until everything began to fade around me. Strangely the star did not fade. In comparison to everything else it grew brighter, more dominant.

With my senses extending into the void I began to see it more clearly. Whereas it looked like a point, in the shadow world between things it was a twisted knot. It writhed and turned in on itself, turning inside out and then twisting to invert again.

“Niall! We have to get out.”

I reached into the knot with my sense of the void, pulling at one of the threads that made it. It wriggled under my gaze and inverted, gaining size and strength.

“Niall!”

“What? Give me a minute. I have to try and work this out.”

“Niall, look at your face. Look!”

I retreated from the void and found myself looking at a twisting ball of light. In the radiance it shed, I could see my hands. They were red and starting to blister. I felt my face — it stung just to touch the skin.

“It’s not hot,” I said. “It isn’t heat that’s driving it.”

“No,” said Blackbird, stepping aside from the doorway. “It’s radiation.”

“What?”

“Whatever that thing is,” she said. “It’s like you have sudden sunburn. You’re being exposed to some kind of radiation — maybe light, maybe more than that.”