Chapter 42

The night hadn’t become any less chilly. Our breath was clearly visible as we four wizards left the farmhouse. We had assured our host that we had a plan to deal with ‘Mol’, and that it only required the four of us.

Not technically a lie, though the farmer probably imagined a more active role for his daughter in the plan. He had also been reluctant to hide in the basement; Lilja had nearly had to drag him down, though not before giving Kowalski a kiss on the cheek for luck.

“Don’t do anything stupid out there, okay?” she’d said.

“Guh… eh… he he…” the red-faced Kowalski babbled. I was worried he’d had a stroke. Still, when she was back in the house, I noticed he carried himself more confidently than before.

Once the door was firmly closed, Heida turned. “Well, I’ll go—”

Bryndísar flung the door open, catching us off guard with a loud bang. “You forgot the spear!” He limped forward, using the polearm in place of the enchanted walking stick I had clipped to my belt.

“So we did.” I hadn’t seen the point. Mariko wouldn’t touch the thing, Kowalski would need both hands free, since he was our combat mage, and the arming sword on my hip was almost more than I could wield one-handed.

Bryndísar held it out for Heida. “Go out there and make us proud. I wish I could do more for you.”

She gulped, reluctantly accepting the fabricata weapon. “Thank you, Pabbi.”

“Hold on, sir,” I said, fishing a small wooden cube out of my pocket and tossing it to him. He caught it in his strong right hand. “It just struck me that there is a service you could provide.”

Bryndísar peered at the fabricata. “What is this thing?”

“This will get out the alert to a friend of ours using Magical Resonance,” I replied.

“Oh, one of Yukiko’s Finding Devices?” asked Mariko.

“Exactly,” I said. I’d hoped to avoid exposing Yukiko’s lack of naming flair. “She can’t exactly get from Australia to Iceland in time to be helpful, but maybe she can get in touch with someone who can. Can you keep it charged, sir?”

He nodded. “Sure can, Skjor. You’ll need all the magic you can spare for the fight.”

Once he was gone, Heida was quiet for a long moment, contemplating the weapon in her hands. I nearly thought she’d been successfully guilted into accompanying us, which I’d have seen as a minor disaster. I hadn’t been kidding about her being a liability before.

Thankfully, her cowardice got the better of her. She ran off without so much as a goodbye.

Like I’d told Mariko before, a leopard cannot change her spots, and she was the only woman on the island as spotty as me. It’s why we got on so well.

“Wait, where is she going?” demanded Mariko.

“Keep it down; we don’t need her family to overhear,” I said in a hushed tone. “Somebody has to get the word out about Mol. We agreed upstairs it should be her.”

Mariko frowned, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “I thought that was Bryndísar’s job. You gave him Yukiko’s device.”

“That’s a longshot,” I said. “A backup, just in case Mol’s jamming travels further than we thought. Even if Yukiko notices it, calling for help will take time, and we don’t have much of that. Heida getting off a phone call is our best bet.”

“What sense does that make?” asked Kowalski, the confidence he’d gotten from Lilja shattered. “You’re hurt, man! You should be the one trying to get the word out! Or Ms. Yamada could, she doesn’t fight!”

Hm, how blunt should I be? “Heida’s talents are not in battle, either. I’d much rather have you both at my back.” I started walking towards where I could see Mulciber’s aura through my Mimic Sight, and Mariko and Kowalski followed behind…

Though not without protest. “Wait, why?” he asked, sounding incredulous. “I’ve never won a duel against you. She’s a graduate!”

“Well, I am the best swordsman in class,” I replied. It wasn’t bragging, but simply a statement of fact. “You aren’t entirely awful; I’m simply a rather high bar to clear. Though it’s going to be hard to balance with my wing clipped.”

“You will be more useful than me, Rafal,” said Mariko. “That thing is intelligent, after all.” She shuddered. “To think, I might have killed it if my aim had been a foot to the right.”

“Hm, indeed.” It would have saved us all quite a bit of bother. “If you hadn’t tried, it would be picking its teeth with both our bones.”

Kowalski shivered from more than the night’s chill. “Of all the things to be real, I can’t believe it was the pterodactyls. My sisters are really into videos about it on SatoTube.”

I clapped him on the back. “Then you can be the coolest brother in Gunma when you bring Mol home stuffed and mounted.” He chuckled, even as Mariko’s face fell. Time to make my point clearer. “Rafal, go on ahead; use those haybales as cover. We won’t be but a moment.”

He nodded, getting my meaning. “Right.”

Mariko bit her lip but met my gaze. “Soren, you know I cannot—”

“You proved you could earlier,” I said, cutting her off. “You saved my life back then; I don’t doubt that in the least.”

“Mol is a thinking being,” she said. “It was one thing when I thought he was a wild animal, but I don’t have the right to snuff out his life. He is a person.”

She was more defensive than before, more frantic. I knew the tells; her right hand’s tremors were so bad she went for a nerve pill from her purse. “You don’t have to fire the killing blow. In fact, I’d rather you focused on defensive magic. Mol can launch a Fireball without having to say the spell; we won’t have much time to react.”

“I would be an accessory,” she said. “It will be no different than if I slit his throat.”

“Yet, you came with us. I didn’t see you rushing off to go with Heida, and that wasn’t just because you can’t stand her. I thought that meant you understood what needed to be done.”

She hesitated. “You needed help, Kasasagi, and she was not willing to give it. I still do not know what you see in her. You are too good for her!”

“Oh, that ship has sailed,” I replied. “I know better now.”

“Ship has…” Mariko let out a shocked gasp. “Then does that mean…”

“Not now,” I said. “It’s hardly the time.”

She hesitated before nodding, looking disappointed. “You are right.”

“Anyway, I’ve told you before: there’s no sense in sparing him. Devils are already cruel beings, and whatever the Horde did to Mol wasn’t intended to make him gentler. He wouldn’t hesitate to roast you for his own amusement.”

Mariko’s eyes drifted down to my sling. “He did not show you much mercy, did he?”

There was such concern on her face; even in the moonlight, that was plain. Too good for Heida? Would she still think that if she knew what had brought Mulciber to this point? No, she’d be horrified that I’d framed him, doomed him to what I can only imagine was awful torture.

I felt unworthy in the face of that love. My cruelty had created this whole mess, after all. I might have once convinced myself I was proud of what I’d done to Mulciber, but such talk rang hollow. Too much a man to enjoy deviltry, too much a devil to be comfortable with human kindness. I wished I could have a drink and silence my introspective streak.

Still, even if I don’t deserve her sympathy, it might just win this argument for me. “Precisely. He’s a menace that will kill people and animals up and down Iceland until he’s stopped. He’s avoided detection so far, outside of conspiracy forums. This is our chance! I can track him with Mimic Sight, and he’s likely still recovering from before. I need you to promise me that you will not get in my way when the killing blow is struck. We will not get a third chance.”

She studied my face a long, tense moment. I had been lucky enough to talk her into helping with a hunt for a mindless animal. Surely there was no way…

She reached out to caress my cheek, forcing me to look into her eyes. “You do not want to do this, do you?”

“Hm?” I was so startled that I took a step back, but she kept pace with me. “Where did that come from?”

Her little smirk was loving and condescending all at once. “I can see through you, Kasasagi. There is regret in your voice, in your eyes. You did not hesitate to kill any of the Holy Brothers, but you have second thoughts about Mol.”

“What of it?” I felt defensive; more accusations that would have been fighting words back home.

“You have suffered so at the hands of devils; if you can still feel sympathy for them, then I am impressed. If you still think k-killing him is the only way when it is so hard for you…” She lunged forward, catching my free hand in hers. Her right hand was steadier than before; I suspected that was what she wanted me to feel. “Then I will follow your lead, Kasasagi.” She swallowed, looking as choked up as I felt. “I hate it, but I trust you.”

And that was how I fooled the pacifist Mariko Yamada into participating in a devil hunt using unearned sympathy. And here I thought I was unworthy of the name devil; I can still use mistruths to corrupt humans.

Once Mariko was on board, we reunited with Kowalski, who was still hunkered behind the haybales. I could only see Buddy in the gloom because of his nearly-luminescent eyes; he was in a form a bit like a sea anemone, with eyestalks stretching around the haybale to scan the area.

“No sign of him yet, Magpie,” he reported before I could ask. He even threw in a salute.

“Good on you, Rafal,” I said, returning the gesture. The blond boy… man seemed oddly excited. “Don’t tire Buddy out too much, though. He’s going to be right there in the thick of the fighting, and I can track Mol with Mimic Sight.” It was about all my magical reserves would be good for in this fight.

“I was wondering about that,” he said. “You said he’s throwing around magic like nobody’s business, right? Buddy’s weak to magic. One good tag, and it might take him down and knock me out cold.”

“Good point,” I conceded. “We’ll want to hold him in reserve as much as we can. In the terms from the War Games, we don’t have a shooter, unless you’re hiding a rifle somewhere. We’ve got two casters, and a duelist with one arm. Two medium range fighters, and a half-functional melee fighter against a flyer.”

“And one caster will not be firing offensive spells,” said Mariko firmly.

“Are you sure we don’t need Heida?” asked Kowalski with a quavering voice.

“It’s a tad late for that,” I replied, scanning the area with my eyes, then repeating it with Mimic Sight. Mulciber had moved off the roof of the barn and seemed to be fussing with his punctured wing. The artificial limb showed up brightly in my Mimic Sight, and I realized he was healing it. Not as quickly as an All Heal would have done; either his biology wouldn’t allow for it, or the lower-born devil hadn’t been taught or branded with the spell.

I wracked my brain, thinking about everything that had happened during the battle. There was one detail that stood out as incongruous, but might give us the most bang for our buck. Did I dare base a whole plan on it?

I might as well; I didn’t see an alternative. In the worst case, it would negate his flight. “Rafal, how would Buddy feel about being somebody’s clothing?”

He glanced between Mariko and I. “Whose clothing?”

“Let’s just say that his reconnaissance in Mariko’s wardrobe might bear fruit.”

“Kasasagi!”

I don’t think my teasing did much for their morale, but it certainly raised my spirits.