cleanse the hospital of demons. I should help them, but this will probably be the only private time I get with Dervish. Things have a habit of moving swiftly when Beranabus gets involved. Once they finish off the last demon, talk will turn to the werewolf attack and there might not be any time to sit with my uncle and chat. I’ve devoted a huge chunk of my life to Beranabus’s cause. I’m due a few minutes of down time.
“I told you healthy eating wasn’t worthwhile,” I say, nudging Dervish in the ribs (but gently — he looks like blood mixed in with lumpy porridge). “You told me I should watch my diet. But who had a heart attack first?”
“As illogical as ever,” Dervish scowls. “I thought you might have matured while you were away, but obviously you haven’t.”
“Seriously, how have you been?” I ask.
“Apart from the heart attack?”
“Yeah.”
He shrugs, looking older than I’d have thought possible. “I’m about ready to follow Billy into the wide blue yonder.”
My face stiffens. “Don’t say that, not even joking.”
“No joke,” he sighs. “I was given a single task by Beranabus – guard the entrance to the cave – and I screwed it up. I told Billy’s mum I’d look after him — some job I did of that. I took you in and promised you’d be safe with me, then…”
“I was safe with you.”
“Yeah, I really protected you. Lord Loss and his familiars didn’t get anywhere near you on my watch, did they?”
“That wasn’t your fault,” I tell him heavily. “You did the best you could. For me and Bill-E.”
“Then why is he dead and why are you lost to me?” Dervish moans.
“Because we live in a world under siege,” I say. “Life sucks for mages and magicians — you taught me that. Bad things happen to those of us who get involved, but if we didn’t fight, we’d be in an even worse state. None of it’s your fault, any more than it’s the fault of the moon or the stars.”
Dervish nods slowly, then arches an eyebrow. “The moon or the stars?”
“I always get poetical when I’m dealing with self-pitying simpletons.”
We laugh. This is what I love best about my relationship with Dervish — the more we insult each other, the happier we are. I’m trying to think of something disgusting and hair-curling to say when Beranabus appears. He’s using baby-wipes to clean his hands.
“Still alive?” he asks Dervish.
“Just about.”
“We’re finished here. Time to go.”
It’s not fair. We’ve only had a few minutes together. I want to ask Dervish about Bec and how they’re coping. How he explained Bill-E’s disappearance to our neighbours. What’s happening with my friends. I want to complain about my life with Beranabus and boast about all the action I’ve seen.
But those are childish, selfish wishes. We’re in the middle of a maternity ward. I’ve seen several dead and dismembered bodies already — nurses, mothers, babies. There are probably dozens more scattered throughout the hospital. I’d be the shallowest person in the universe if, in the face of all that tragedy, I moaned of not having enough time to spend with my uncle.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“The roof,” Beranabus says. “We need to discuss the situation before moving on. It’s more complicated than we thought. Bec says the demons who struck were led by Juni Swan.” I stare at him incredulously, then start to shout questions. “Not now!” Beranabus stops me. “We’ll talk about it on the roof.”
“I don’t think I can make it that far,” Dervish says.
Beranabus mutters something beneath his breath – it sounds like, “I hate the damn Gradys!” – then picks up Dervish.
“I can carry him,” I say quickly.
“No,” Beranabus grunts. “Keep watch for any demons we might have missed.”
Settling Dervish on his back, the magician heads for the stairs. I follow a metre behind, eyes peeled for monsters all the way up the blood-drenched steps to the roof.
NEW MISSION
→ The voice of the Kah-Gash whispers to me as we’re climbing the stairs, stunning me by abruptly breaking its months-long silence. You can join with the others.
I pause, startled by its sudden and unexpected reappearance. Then, not wanting to let Beranabus know – he might toss Dervish aside in his eagerness to make enquiries of the Kah-Gash – I carry on as normal, addressing it internally. “What do you mean?”
Can’t you feel the magic inside Bec and Kernel calling to you?
I have been feeling a strange tickling sensation since I stepped through the window. I put it down to chemical irritants in the air — one thing you can’t say about the demon universe is that it’s polluted. I’ve become accustomed to fume-free atmospheres. But now that the Kah-Gash has clued me in, I realise the tickling is the force within myself straining to unite with Bec and Kernel.
“What would happen if we joined?” I ask.
Wonders.
“Care to be a bit more specific?”
No, it answers smugly. I’m not sure if the Kah-Gash is a parasite feeding off me, or if it’s woven into my flesh, a part of me like my heart or brain. But its voice bears echoes of mine. I’ve used that smart-alec tone more times than I can remember.
I’m worried about letting my piece of the Kah-Gash link with the other parts again. What would it do if I gave it free rein? Could we trust it?
You are the control mechanism, the voice says, the first time it’s ever told me anything about the nature of itself. With my help, you can unify the pieces and unleash your full power.
“But could we control it,” I press, “and make the weapon do our bidding?”
To an extent, the voice answers cagily.
“What does that mean?” I grumble, but there’s no reply. “Hello? Are you still there?”
Unite us, it says impatiently. Unleash me. Become the Kah-Gash.
“Without knowing what I’m letting myself in for? No bloody way!” I snort.
Coward, the Kah-Gash sneers, then falls silent. I feel the tickling sensation fade. I continue up the stairs, brooding on what the voice said and wondering what would have happened if I’d given in to it.
→ On the roof. Another Disciple, Sharmila Mukherji, was seriously wounded by Juni. Her legs are missing from the thighs down. Beranabus is working on the stumps, using magic to stop the bleeding and patch her up. She’s unconscious. It doesn’t look to me like she’ll ever recover.
Dervish is resting on a hospital trolley. Meera’s sitting beside him. Shark’s guarding the door to the roof, to turn back any curious humans. The rest of us are gathered around Bec, listening to her story.
She tells us about Juni Swan, who’s somehow come back to life in a cancerous mockery of a body. Bec says Juni is insane, but more powerful than before. Dervish blasted her from the roof, catching her by surprise when he recovered from the coma he’d been in since his heart attack. I want to go after her, to finish her off, but Bec is adept at sensing where people and demons are, and she says Juni has already fled. Revenge will have to wait for another night.
I thought it would be awkward being around Bec, that she’d remind me of Bill-E, that I’d feel resentful. When he died, she took over his corpse, came back to life, then remoulded the flesh in her original image. In effect, she stole his body.