Page 15 of The Malevolent Seven

I passed the time gathering my wits and contemplating who I’d need to kill to make the others think twice about having their wicked way with me. Not that I had any real expectation of freeing myself – a guy like Narghan spends his whole career mastering a single form of magic because being the best at something is how you attract the attention of the highest-paying employers. He wasn’t alone in that, either. Smoke and Locke and several of the others were similarly expert in their respective disciplines, while I’ve always been more of a generalist. I like to have as wide a range of spells at my disposal as possible, which Corrigan wrongly maintains is conclusive evidence that I have commitment issues.

Whatever the truth, I wasn’t going to be pulling off any daring escapes any time soon. The trick to surviving the wrath of a coven of wonderists– other than by not making them angry in the first place– is to have your ploy worked out well ahead of time,ideally by laying traps for them before they even walk into the room. Corrigan, despite looking for all the world like a big, dumb, piss-drinking brute, was always better at forward planning than I was, which explained why he’d had that second bat ready. I, on the other hand, had been heading for Lucien’s tent with no particular plan other than to improvise a way to murder the Ascendant when I got there.

I concluded that my best hope was to catch Corrigan’s attention again and appeal to our friendship, however transactional it might be. Unfortunately, what I saw when I swung back around was Zyphis’ gangly silhouette slinking towards me.

Ugh. Why does it have to be Zyphis?

He was an interrogationist: his spells supplied the most effective ways to terrify and torture his targets. I’d been told he was barely twenty years old, but with his wrinkled bald head and sagging jowls, he looked more like a youthful corpse. The way he walked was what bothered me most, though: his limbs moved with an awkward jerkiness, as if his joints had been attached backwards. His fingers were the longest I’d ever seen– and you only needed to watch those filthy nails of his slither into human flesh with both ease and enthusiasm once to know you did not ever want to be the object of his interrogation. Zyphis was the only person I’d ever met who appeared to take genuine pleasure in the looks of disgust everyone else gave him. He and Narghan adored each other.

His nails clacked as he approached. I was pretty sure that while the others were still arguing over what to do with me, Zyphis was going to cast a quieting spell on me, kneel down so he could get his face right up close to mine, reach down my throat with one of those long, skinny arms and dig around my internal organs for a snack.

I screamed before he got within three feet of me.

‘Zyphis. . .’ Corrigan warned, and I was pleased to hear in that one word enough to convey a host of very logical arguments as to why my premature evisceration was a bad idea, let alone the implication of anextensivelist of punishments that would be inflicted on the skeletal creep should he refuse to back off.

Zyphis hissed at me– actuallyhissed.

I really have to get out of this business.

‘All right, look,’ Corrigan said, taking charge once again. ‘Until we know what the justiciars are planning, we can’t risk killing Cade. None of us know their rituals. What if they want to torture him before the execution? We’ll have lost our one bargaining chip.’

When I mentioned earlier that Corrigan and I were friends, I was using the term loosely. We were more like casual acquaintances who appreciated the same jokes.

Lady Smoke piped up, ‘No matter his other crimes, Cade’s been keeping secrets from the rest of us– he’s always sneaking off to his tent, refusing to tell anyone what he’s been up to. I don’t trust him.’

‘Yeah,’ Locke agreed, ‘and the dumb fucker keeps getting in Ascendant Lucien’s face every time he issues an order Cade doesn’t agree with.’

Zyphis hissed again. ‘Give him to me. I want to feel the vibration on my tongue as he screams while I suck upon his intestines.’

Somebody in the back chimed up, ‘What about his wages? Shouldn’t we see if we can get his back pay from the quartermaster before we kill him?’

Meet my brothers-in-arms, folks.

There was a thunderclap as Corrigan slammed his hand on one of the tables. ‘Enough! I’m captain of this misbegotten troop and I’m telling you there won’t beanyexecutions tonight.’ He turned to me and I thought I saw something approaching remorse peeking out behind the braids of his indigo beard.

‘What, then?’ Lady Smoke asked. ‘You expect us to justforgivehim?’ She said the word like she’d had to look it up in a dictionary first.

Corrigan looked over at me. ‘No. Cade’s been keeping too many secrets and taking too many risks pissing off Lucien. He needs to be reminded who his friends are. I’ve known him longest, so I’ll take point. A few burns, a few bruises, a couple of broken bones– I’ll make sure he can still cast his spells, mind – and tomorrow’– he turned me around to face him– ‘tomorrow Cade will prove his loyalty to us and to the Ascendant by leading the massacre of Archon Belleda’s people.’

‘You would exalt the traitor by putting him in the vanguard of the destruction?’ Lady Smoke demanded, and several of the others grumbled along in agreement.

I could see Zyphis, however, grinning so wide you could count on his teeth just how many years it had been since they’d been cleaned. ‘I like it,’ he said. ‘I can see how his spirit withers at the mere thought of such a massacre of innocents. His soul will truly be burned by this, never to recover.’

‘All right, then,’ Corrigan said, sounding eager to get this over with. ‘We have an agreement.’

Narghan’s tether kept me turning so I was now facing the wall. I couldn’t see what the others were doing but I heard the heavy thump of Corrigan’s boots moving closer. ‘Sorry, Cade. Going to have to work you over some. Nothing personal.’

‘Nothing personal,’ I agreed.

I resolved to be a better friend in future. I’d kill Corrigan quickly once the massacre began tomorrow. Well, quicker than I was going to kill Zyphis, anyway.

I was just tensing up in anticipation of the first blow when the sudden crack of a door bursting open was followed by a cacophony of preparatory incantations, arcane objects being whooshed from pockets and Zyphis hissing again. That guy never shuts up.

‘Silord Wonderists! Silord Wonderists!’ shouted the frantic, youthful voice of Cousin Green, the kid who was supposed to be formally joining the company tonight. ‘I bring terrible news!’

‘Get out of here, Green,’ Corrigan roared. ‘I told you this was a private meeting!’

‘But Silord Indigo, there has been a—’

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