shadowrun 40 The Burning Time (26 page)

Hammer and Boom sprayed gunfire into the front ranks of the onrushing creatures, eliciting squeals and shrieks of pain as the 9mm rounds chewed up many of them. The rest simply climbed over the fallen bodies of their comrades in their frenzy. Talon spoke the words of a spell and pointed at the head of the surging mass of rats. A jet of flame shot from his outstretched palm, sweeping across the front ranks of the horde and burning several of the rats to a crisp. But still the devil rats kept coming.

A pair of them broke through the line being held by Hammer and Boom, their charge aimed at Kilaro. He shot one of them as the other leapt onto his chest and barreled him over.

"Help!" he screamed as the vicious rat tried to bite him with its razor teeth.

"There’s too fraggin’ many of them!" Hammer yelled as he continued mowing down the things down.

"Aracos, help me!" Talon sent to his familiar. Fighting the devil rats one-on-one was a losing proposition—there were dozens of them. He focused on the crystal claw pendant around his neck, feeling the cool pulse of its power, and then he felt the addition of Aracos’s strength as he worked another spell. Several devil rats rushed toward him as if drawn by the power of the focused magical energies.

"Close your eyes!" he said to the others.

He extended his arms, and a sphere of light appeared between his outstretched hands. The light was blinding, as bright as the sun, and it illuminated the whole tunnel. Squeaking and squealing in pain and fear, the rats immediately began to retreat from the source of the light, scattering down the tunnel and escaping through narrow holes and wider cracks in the walls. Talon lowered his hands, and the light dimmed.

Boom helped Kilaro back to his feet. "Nice work," he said to Talon.

"It won’t keep them away forever," Talon said. "We’ve got to keep moving."

They hurried down the tunnel and around the bend. A faint, flickering light became visible on ahead. Talon glanced at Hammer and Boom, who nodded, and they all charged toward the light, weapons at the ready.

The tunnel opened onto an old subway platform. When they reached it, a sheet of flame shot with a giant whooshing sound across the space above their heads.

"Get down!" Talon cried out as the flames roared overhead. They were standing down on the rusted tracks, deep enough that Talon could stand upright without touching the fire above them. Boom and Hammer had to crouch down, and Kilaro ducked, covering his head with his hands. The heat from the flames was blistering, but not harmful. When the fire cleared a moment later, they looked up to see Trouble standing on the edge of the platform, smiling down at them. Talon shifted to astral sight and saw that the aura surrounding her body was not hers. It flickered with ghostly flames of triumphant hate and pulsed with mystic power.

"Hello, Father," Gallow sneered. "It took you long enough to get here. Dear Trouble has been missing you."

The spirit leapt off the edge of the platform and landed smoothly in the gravel some four meters from where they stood. Trouble wore a gun at her side, but Gallow had no need of weapons. It glanced past Talon, its astral senses aware of the spirits hovering nearby in astral space.

"Interesting company you keep, Talon. That thing must be my replacement. It seems your conjuring skills have declined since you summoned me. And what have we here? A spirit in the form of the dear, departed Jason Vale or. . ."

A slow smile spread across Trouble’s features. "Ah, the genuine article! How rich! Hello, Jason. A pleasure to meet you. I’m Gallow, the spirit Talon summoned to avenge your death. How fitting that I shall now have the opportunity to end your existence again."

Jase’s eyes went wide as he looked from Gallow to Talon and back again in disbelief. Talon felt his face get hot with anger and shame.

"You’re not threatening anyone," Talon said, stepping forward. "Let Trouble go."

Gallow only laughed, a chill sound that echoed down the tunnel. "Why should I? I know you want to destroy me, Father. But if you try, you’ll only harm dear Ariel’s body. Don’t you already have enough blood on your hands?"
It glanced back at Aracos and Jase. "Besides, if you try to attack me, what will become of your friend’s spirit, eh? Or them, for that matter?" it said, pointing toward the rest of the team. "Can you keep me from destroying them?"

"What do you want?" Talon asked, gritting his teeth, already knowing the answer.

"That’s simple: you. I want you to give yourself to me willingly, without resistance. Let me take your body, and I will free Trouble and the rest of these misfits you call friends."

"Tal, don’t do it!" Jase said, becoming visible and audible to everyone. "It’s lying!"

"Don’t trust it, Talon!" Aracos added, but Talon paid no attention.

"Swear by your true name," Talon said.

Gallow smiled in triumph. "I swear by my true name that I shall not attack your friends."

"Or harm them in any way," Talon said.

"Or harm them in any way." Gallow nodded inside Trouble’s form. "Are we agreed then?"

Talon glanced at Jase, who returned the look with pleading eyes. Then he turned again to Trouble, his friend.

"Yes," he said.

"Yes!" Gallow roared.

Instantly, Trouble was surrounded by an aura of fire that licked out at Talon. Something like a face appeared in the flames, and laughter echoed through the tunnels as Gallow reached out to claim what was his.

"No!" Jase said. Moving with the speed possible only to a spirit, he leapt at the surge of flames reaching for Talon, grappling with it in mid-air and pulling Gallow back from its prize.

"Jase, don’t!" Talon screamed, but it was too late.

Gallow roared in anger, rearing up as it struggled with the ghost of Jase. "The oath is broken!" it shrieked. "Kill them all, but leave him to me."

The sounds of squealing and scrabbling feet came from all directions as devil rats poured down the tunnel and over the edges of the platform, diving down onto the tracks to attack the shadowrunners. Boom and Hammer opened fire, hosing down the oncoming rats with 9mm rounds, but as before, the next wave trampled over the bloody corpses of the dead ones and kept coming. Kilaro drew his gun and shot one of the rats in the throat as it leapt from the platform.

Talon drew his enchanted dagger, while Aracos leapt into the fray to help Jase, who was clearly overwhelmed by Gallow’s power now that the spirit had recovered from its surprise.

"How fitting," Gallow gloated. "I’ll be able to destroy these weaklings before claiming you for my own. Prepared to watch Jase die again, Talon?"

Gallow’s flames encircled Jase like tendrils, catching his astral form in their grip. Jase struggled as Gallow squeezed, and he screamed in pain.

"Leave him alone!" Talon shouted, stabbing at Gallow with his blade. The spirit danced aside, and Talonclaw sliced through empty air.

Gallow had all the advantages on its home turf. In its true spirit form, it was a creature of quicksilver and shadow, incredibly fast, too fast for Talon to keep up with. But if Talon tried to confront it on the astral plane, he would leave his physical body at the mercy of the devil rats and anything else Gallow had up its sleeve.

He slashed at Gallow again, but the spirit easily danced out of his reach, still holding the struggling Jase. Talon knew he had no choice but to go astral.

He called to Aracos through the mental link they shared. "Manifest and protect my body, Aracos. I’m going after Gallow."

Talon thought that Aracos was about to object, then a silver-furred wolf appeared next to Talon and sank its teeth into one of the squealing devil rats. It shook the rat hard enough to snap its neck before tossing it aside and going after another. Talon sank to his knees in the gravel, discarding his body like a robe, his spirit rising up into the astral. Talonclaw glowed in his hand, and the crystal Dragonfang shone at his throat.

"Nice of you to vacate my property before I take up residence," Gallow said as Talon emerged onto the astral plane. "Come to watch your dear love’s final death throes?" Fiery tendrils squeezed tighter around Jase. He thrashed against them, but could not break free.

Talon circled around the fiery spirit, mageblade in hand. "C’mon, Gallow. It’s me you want. Let’s finish this if you’ve got the guts to take me on."

The hate radiated from Gallow like a blast furnace. "I’ve been waiting for this moment," it said. "No more pawns, no more distractions." It hurled Jase’s astral form away, but Talon didn’t dare take his eyes off Gallow to see if Jase was all right.

"Today I become the master!" it bellowed, surging toward Talon with all its power.

Talon met the charge as Gallow’s fury smashed into him. The flames could not harm him his astral form, but the pain still seared through him like a burning spear. He struck back, plunging Talonclaw deep into the spirit’s form. Gallow howled in rage and pain.

They grappled, Gallow spitting flames and clawing at Talon in elemental fury, while Talon jabbed and slashed with his mageblade, tearing at Gallow’s very essence. Talon was skilled in astral combat, and his blade was a formidable weapon, but Gallow’s fury lent it incredible strength of will. To Talon, it seemed that his strikes were little more than insect pricks to the spirit.

With a supreme effort of will, he managed to break free of the spirit’s burning grip, tumbling away a short distance as Gallow gathered itself like a cobra preparing to strike.

"Now, mage," it roared with a voice like a furnace aflame, "you will belong to me, body and soul!"

Just as Gallow began to lash forward, it was seized from behind by strong, wiry arms that held it tightly.

"Haven’t you forgotten something?" Jase said.

"Jase!" Talon cried, wanting to warn him off. But Jase’s ghost held on to the raging elemental, despite the pain.

"Tal, get away," Jase said. "Hurry! I can’t hold him for long!"

"I will kill you!" Gallow raged, struggling in Jase’s grip.

"Sorry. You’re a little late for that." Jase tightened his grip. "Tal, please, trust me—GO!"

Talon looked at his love for a long moment, prepared to rush forward to save him, then he looked down the tunnel, where his friends were battling the horde of devil rats. Some of the rats were going for Trouble, who lay on the ground helpless and unconscious. With one last look at Jase, he dropped back into his physical body and opened his eyes just as Aracos broke the back of another devil rat.

Talon rushed toward Trouble. He kicked one of the rats hard enough to send it sprawling a couple meters away and drove Talonclaw down into the head of the other one. He felt the bone crunch under his blade as the devil rat squealed out its life.

"Trouble! Wake up! We need you!" He cupped her face in one hand. "C’mon, Trouble. Wake up!"

"No!" Gallow cried, still fighting to break free of Jase’s grip.

Trouble’s eyes fluttered, and she looked up at Talon. "Hi," she said, somewhat dazed.

"Hi, yourself," he said, then got to his feet. Trouble also scrambled to get up and reached for her gun when she heard the squealing of the devil rats.

"You’re finished, Gallow," Jase was saying. "You’ve lost your host, and you’ve got nowhere else to go. How long can you last without one?"

"Long enough to finish you!" With one final surge, Gallow broke free and materialized above the platform as a seething ball of fire. In the center of it was visible a vaguely humanoid shape whose red, scaly flesh glistened in the flames.

"DIE!" the spirit cried, lashing toward Talon.

Talon felt the heat from Gallow’s flames, then heard the sound of wings as a golden falcon struck at the spirit. Talon staggered back as Jase pulled Gallow away, helping Aracos against the maddened elemental.

"Now, Tal!" Jase cried, and Talon lunged forward.

"Talon’s Hate," he said, speaking the spirit’s true name, "you are no more!" Then he drove his dagger directly into Gallow’s fiery heart. There was a scream that tore at Talon’s mind and spirit, and Gallow exploded. The force of the blast picked Talon up and sent him flying back into the platform, knocking the wind out of him. Talonclaw dropped from his hand, and he landed on his side. He was starting to feel cold, and he knew that Gallow had burned him badly. As his vision began to go black, he felt a hand gently caress his cheek.

"Now I know what I was here for," Jase said. "It was for this and to tell you to save your strength for the living, Tal. Gallow is dead. It’s over, and we can both go on. I have only one more thing to do. Goodbye."

Talon reached out with a shaky hand and felt a gentle kiss. Then he passed out.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Consciousness returned slowly. The first thing Talon knew was a hand gently stroking his face. He stirred and opened his eyes.

"Jase?" he murmured.

"I think he’s coming around," someone said, and Talon looked up into a blurry, unfamiliar face. As his vision cleared, he could see that it was a young man, probably in his mid-twenties. Golden highlights gleamed in his long hair, which was pulled back from his face in a ponytail or braid. His eyes were deep blue, with flecks of silver glimmering in their depths, and he flashed Talon a smile. He wore street clothes, including a T-shirt with an elaborate Celtic knot design on it, under a battered brown leather jacket.

"Who?" Talon said vaguely as he started to sit up.

"Don’t you recognize me, boss?" the young man asked, his smile broadening. Talon looked deep into those eyes and saw the familiar spirit looking out through them.

"Aracos," he breathed, "but how. . ." Then he felt the empty space inside of him, and the subtle tension that had been there since he’d first summoned his ally was gone. "You’re free, aren’t you?"

Aracos nodded. "It happened when you passed out. I thought you were dead. I went to you, wishing I had human hands, and suddenly I did. I cast a healing spell so you would recover. If I’d known having a human body could be so useful, I’d have asked you to give me one a long time ago."

"Jase. . .Jase is gone," Talon said.

"Yes."

"It’s okay," he said, and really believed it. "He was with me at the end there. He wants me to be happy. He wants me to live."