Half-hawks were a curious kind of creature.

Under better circumstances I could have learnt to appreciate their complexities and beauty, but these were not the right moments to become overly romantic about their appearance and uniqueness. An entire flock of the damnable creatures were descending on the palace grounds thanks to the thorough stink-bombing the surrounding area had received by unseen hands.

The pheromones in question were illegal to harvest and handle, as it usually required trapping or killing the half-hawk in order to collect it. As the national animal of Walser – they had been added to a protected species list instituted by parliament a few years ago. There was a real threat that the expanding industrialisation of the country would force them into smaller and smaller habitable areas, and maybe extinction in the far future.

If the postmaster saw vials of the stuff and caught that scent it would lead to an investigation as to what it was. He might have suspected that it was poison at first, but it was an entirely different kind of controlled substance. Either way it wouldn’t be let past the office and onto the grounds, and the police would be dispatched to figure out where it came from.

I couldn’t count the number of screeching birds assailing the palace from inside. Claws scraped against stone and skittered across the rooftops, punctuated with the occasional clatter of breaking class and the screams of the people inside. If a group of them thought females ready and willing to breed were nearby, they would come in droves and wreak havoc until they found them.

This was the type of plan a lunatic would cook up. They must have known that a group of half-hawks would be near the palace at this time of year, being surrounded on most sides by dense woodland and some small mountains that served as the ideal homes. They had men on the interior who worked the shifts, and they smuggled the pheromones into the palace grounds by pressuring some of the ladies in residence with promises of fortune and influence.

But it was also a suicidal plan. It was going to be almost impossible to get away even if they managed to find and kill Thersyn in the midst of the chaos. They would be tracked down by the guards with haste, and if they left the building they would be set upon by a group of horned-up animals with the claws of a lion and the sharpened beaks of a bird-of-prey. The people finishing the job would have to be true believers to take that risk.

Shadows crept across the long corridors, their bulky bodies blocking out the light coming from outside. I kept my head down and focused on making my way to the private sanctum on the third floor. That was where security was the tightest, but I was already starting to notice that a lot of the guards away from the secure area had left their posts to try and ward away the menacing creatures.

I saw beady eyes glaring through the glass. The servants and residents were barricading whatever doors they could find using the furniture they had on hand. I sprinted past them without a second thought. The callous calculation I was making overrode any desire I might have had to help out. If Thersyn died – it would be a lot worse than a small group of guards and royals being eaten by half-hawks; it would be an all-out war across the nation as the path to peace was closed off.

Ironically, saving the former monarch was the key to placating the republicans.

If people believed that the situation could be resolved and everything put back to how it was, they would be less liable to respond with violence. There would be recriminations for the massacre at the plaza, I was under no illusions about that, but it would remain mostly localized to the cities and not spread beyond them.

But I wasn’t thinking about the implications of the matter at this point. I was constantly looking around and keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of infiltration into the building by gunmen or magical animals. The hallways were wide enough that a half-hawk could barrel down one of them and crush whoever was unlucky enough to get in their way.

They should have built this palace with fewer windows.

I could forgive the architects for not foreseeing a hostile griffon invasion when they designed it. What I couldn’t forgive was the disorganized response I was witnessing during my mad dash to the sanctum. The rank-and-file guards were completely paralyzed by the chaotic situation, unsure of how to deal with the dangerous creatures without putting themselves at unneeded risk. Those rifles they wielded could stop a half-half with a well-placed shot, but getting one was the real challenge when they were flying through the air or thrashing around in an enclosed space.

I passed across a hallway lined with skylights. A deafening crash rang out from above my head, and I barely managed to dodge out of the way as a bloodied body came falling through and onto the carpeted floor with a wet thud.

“Holy shit!”

It took a lot to make me react like this, and the ghastly sight of a royal guard who had been cut to ribbons by a half-hawk’s claws and dropped from a great height was good enough to make me break character for a moment. He’d almost taken me out like a tossed projectile too!

He was a goner. There were three large gashes in his back that were bleeding profusely and covering the floor in a crimson puddle. They were so deep that it must have cut into the organs beneath his bones. If that hadn’t done him in – the fall certainly finished the job. There were limbs pointing in the wrong direction, not to mention the possible head and neck trauma.

That brief lapse of concentration meant that I wasn’t looking through the broken skylight. A clawed leg pushed through the gap and tried to reach down for his corpse to no avail. I got the hell out of there before it could make a meal out of me too. They were being driven wild by the pheromones, resulting in aggressive and territorial behaviour that put everyone at risk.

As I drew closer to the sanctum where Thersyn was hiding I started to hear more voices shouting, and even a few gunshots. It was impossible to know if they were trying to shoot down the hawks or gun down the King – but it carried me onwards all the same. I had to stop them from getting to him.

Before I reached the secure area, there was one notable face hiding in one of the corridors. Theodore was crouching by the windows, covering his head in a pointless attempt to keep the hawks from noticing him. He turned his eyes up towards me and panicked at being seen in such a state.

“Where are your guards?” I asked.

Despite the situation he retained his icy demeanour; “They rushed away to assist one of the injured servants. They told me to get deeper into the building and find a safe place – but these things are everywhere.”

Sensing that cowering on the floor wasn’t the best look, he straightened out the lapels on his jacket and cleared his throat. It was a momentary crack in his armour. Since I hadn’t spent any time with him beyond a chance meeting at the academy, Theodore was an unknown quantity to me. He might have been pushed in an entirely different direction to the game while I wasn’t paying attention.

“Where did these beasts come from?” he asked pointedly.

“I suspect that the dour smell you found was a glass vial filled with half-hawk mating pheromones. Someone is trying to kill your father – and they’ve concocted a novel distraction to try and access the inner sanctum.”

He frowned, “I knew this was going to happen eventually...”

There was no time to sit around and explain the entire situation to Theodore. If anything, I wanted him to stay well away from the carnage and out of eyeshot so he didn’t witness me putting some foolhardy assassins into an early grave. He never struck me as the type to keep a secret.

“This can’t be a safe place to hide. Don’t you know this palace like the back of your hand?”

“I don’t think the hawks can find me here. There’s hardly a room in this entire complex that doesn’t have at least one large window built into it!”

“Even the broom cupboards?”

“That would be a foolish endeavour. Those kinds of rooms aren’t in this building at all. The staff have to leave and return with their tools when they are in demand.”

That was inconvenient for both the servants and me. What the hell was this about? If there was an accident or a spill, they had to leave the building to find something as simple as a broom to clean it up? That was a level of class-division that boggled the mind. Having a broom closet was too much of an encroachment in their personal space!

“Then by all means remain here until the chaos is done with. I’m afraid I cannot stay. I have to find Franklin, and fast.”

Theodore frowned, “You don’t honestly mean to brave these murderous creatures on your lonesome.”

“Is that a surprise? I would have thought that you’d be the most familiar with my reputation and way of doing things. I will not be deterred – no matter the obstacle.”

I pushed ahead and left him in the dust. Prolonging the discussion was simply increasing the odds of him following me and causing trouble for my intervention. I descended one last flight of steps and came out onto the floor where the sanctum was located. This roundabout route had kept me away from the most dangerous spots in the building.

Stolen novel; please report.

If anywhere was in possession of a windowless room, then this segment of the palace would be it. This was a section of the building that only a select few could enter, and there was no way to look into it from the outside. The hallway was abruptly cut in two by a pair of heavy double doors that were normally guarded at all times. The places where the windows looked out onto were restricted.

There were no ‘hard’ security features, no bars on the windows or spikes poking outwards from the luxurious stonework. It was all intelligently designed to provide both comfort and safety to the residents. The sightlines were managed carefully to keep prying eyes out and potential killers from being able to see what was coming up ahead of them.

Most goons would never consider these factors. I noticed them from the first moment I stepped through the doors, which were both unguarded and left wide open. That wasn’t a good start, and the winding design of the sanctum interior meant there was no easy way to quickly learn the layout or figure out where the King was hiding. It was evident that the killers were already here – but I didn’t have my gun. That was still in my room, what felt like two damn miles away.

There were muffled voices coming from somewhere. Just being here was enough to blow my cover and wreak havoc for the rest of my days, but if they were going for broke then I had no choice but to respond in kind. I couldn’t let them kill Thersyn and toss a match into the powder keg they’d created with their coup.

Thersyn didn’t merely sign the Compromise, he was the compromise.

The deal held for as long as it did because it came with his backing. People were willing to accept that he was acting in the best interests of the nation as a whole. He was a popular figurehead even in times where the influence of the monarchy was waning. The monarchists could preserve the institution, and the republicans could establish a permanent role for parliament.

If Thersyn went, then the gloves would be off and all hell would break loose.

I didn’t have a choice. Gun or no gun, I was going to run into the secured area, possibly blow my cover, and maybe even get shot dead in the process. The only saving grace was my increasing belief in the insane amounts of convenience that were a common occurrence because of Durandia’s long-term planning. Sloan and his cronies weren’t going to be leading the charge, and she wouldn’t get rid of me until my role was done.

I marched onwards and started seeking out the voices that I could hear. There was a panic spreading inside of the building, and not just because of the half-hawks nipping at their heels and smashing windows like an angry mob. They timed their assault on the sanctum to perfection, being in position and ready to move the very moment the fighting broke out.

After getting lost and frustrated a handful of times, I found my way to the door where a group of three men were waiting with their guns bared. Hiding around the corner allowed me to get a measure on whose side they were supporting.

“Come on out and give us the key! We’ll let you go if you comply!”

“I’d sooner shoot myself than betray the King’s expectations and trust! You can try to break in here all you please. I will not be handing you the key!”

“Nobody’s coming to help Thersyn, or you – so you’d better wise up fast and pick the winning side if you want to leave here alive!”

It wasn’t a mystery what they were trying to do. It looked like my own panic was misplaced. They’d secured Thersyn and his family somewhere in the sanctum behind a door that they couldn’t blow through using small arms. No doubt a feature requested by Thersyn himself to modernize the security regimen at the palace.

“He’s not budging,” the second gunman scoffed, “Let’s blow the damn lock off of this thing and drag him out here already!”

That meant it was my time to shine.

I focused my senses and closed out the mayhem that surrounded me. Using my magic out of the gates was a tough price to pay for having not brought a pistol with me. I needed to preserve as much of it as possible in case they deployed those juiced-up mages to cause some havoc.

The point man on the right caught on too late to stop me. I fired a bolt of energy towards them, striking all three men simultaneously and knocking them out cold in a heap in front of the door. I hurried over and started rifling through their pockets, finding a concealable revolver on one of them. It was tiny and low calibre – and he didn’t even bring extra rounds with him to reload it.

What the hell is this shit? Was he planning on getting into fistfight range before opening fire on the enemy?

“Hey! Are you still out there?”

There was no need to stir the pot with the servant inside the barricaded room, nor did I wish to reveal my identity without a good reason. My only goal was to keep them from getting to Thersyn. If they were getting close then the key would be worthless, as it would likely come with a demolished door or wall to grant them access.

“I’m not falling for your tricks! You can stay out there and keep quiet, but I’m not opening this door until I hear from one of the other guards!”

Smart move, if not for the reasons he intended.

With a ‘weapon,’ in the loosest sense of the word, secured - and knowing that I was now on the right track I left the servant to cower in his room until the sounds of gunfire and screaming stopped.

I continued to marvel at how terrible the revolver was whilst I continued to progress through the sanctum. It was small enough that it looked almost normal sized in my palm, and the trigger felt like it would snap off and break at any moment when I tested it. I wasn’t even convinced that the hammer would hit the primer hard enough to fire.

The main living space for the royals was separated from the staff area that surrounded it. Even within this secured area there was a deeper part still, wherein only the family was permitted to enter. I followed the shouting until I came across the scene. A larger group of men were waiting at the door, headed by a familiar face.

“They’re not here with the keys. I’m going blow this bloody thing wide open! Step back!”

“You shouldn’t be too hasty, Charlie. I’d prefer that we save your magic for the fight.”

Charlie Sloan was here in the flesh, and now I had a name to put to the face thanks to Genta’s testimony.

“I’ve got more than enough magic to spare – thank you very much!”

I scrambled to get out of sight. The men surrounding Charlie broke away and ran for the nearest piece of cover before he blew them to kingdom come along with the doors. Charlie thrusted his hands forth and willed into existence a wave of pure energy. The blue pulse crashed into the door with a calamitous roar – only for it to stand firm and remain in place. The displaced force ran across the walls, stripping away the wood and wallpaper and revealing the bare brick beneath.

Those who didn’t make enough distance between themselves and the assault found their feet leaving the floor as they rolled down the hallway and tried not to injure anything on the way down.

The second-in-command hurried over before he could try again, “For goodness sake Charlie, I told you that it won’t work! This place is built like a bunker! Even you can’t knock these walls down!”

“What a load of horse shit! There’s no mortar or brick I’ve seen that can resist my magic, never mind a door!”

“These walls are four layers thick, with heavier stuff in the middle and rebar inserts to keep them from crumbling under stress. The doors are the same. They’re made of metal, double-layered, locked into place from the inside, and they’re designed to resist outside forces like that wave of yours.”

“Who the hell appointed you as the expert?” Charlie scoffed, unable to reply with an intelligent recourse.

“This is all information our inside agents gathered before we arrived. They found the plans too.”

“Maybe they should have secured the bastard key before they worried about what the walls were built from!”

“We were going to blow through the walls at first, and we only decided against it because of the info they collected!”

Charlie, being a child, was easily distracted by pointless spats that went back and forth for no good reason. The problem was giving a personality like that an immense level of deadly power that they could deploy at will. His temper tantrums could destroy an entire city block at worst.

“Screw this. I’m going to get that key myself. The rest of you stay here and watch the door.”

Thinking fast I fell back and retraced my steps until I found a breakaway point. Charlie waltzed past me without sparing a second glance. I tailed him for a few minutes until we reached the sight of my attack on his friends. He stopped in place and growled at the pile of unconscious bodies.

“You worthless pieces of garbage better not be dead!” he seethed.

I would have loved to sneak up on him and snap his spine using my magic, but the marble floor meant he would hear me long before I got the chance. He could spin around and blast me into next month at a moment’s notice, and he was in a bad enough mood to unleash his anger on anyone who tried.

He kicked their prone bodies and tried to resuscitate them to no success. He was not a gentle hand – and his blows would only make the situation worse. When that failed, he retargeted his anger to the locked door where the servant was hiding. I couldn’t let him blow that door open, even if it meant exposing my position.

I aimed the shitty revolver at his back and squeezed the trigger. The hammer worked, and the bullet flew through the air and struck him in the shoulder. Charlie staggered forwards from the impact, swivelling around with a furious scowl that was ugly enough to curdle milk.

“I can’t let you do that, Charlie.”

“You again? I thought you’d learn to stay well away after last time.”

“I can’t do that. As your elder, it’s my responsibility to put you on the right track in life...”

“What a load of crap. You’re one of those WISA attack dogs, aren’t you? They let go of your lead, and now you’re trying to stop us from saving Walser.”

I cocked the hammer and laughed, “Don’t pretend that you’re a true believer in any of this. You don’t know the first thing about what’s happening here. You’re just a daddy’s boy who needs a harsh lesson in reality.”

That pissed him off. He reached down to his boot and drew a serrated knife.

“I’m not even going to use any ammunition on you. I’m going to make it slow and painful, so you can think about how much of a big mistake you just made.”

“This ‘tough guy’ act is so unbecoming-”

He lowered the dagger into a charging position using both hands and ran at me with a sneer. I waited for him to close the distance before stepping to the side. He clattered into the wall behind me, sinking it a few inches into the wooden boarding and leaving it lodged there. His attempts to remove it were disrupted by a pair of hooks to his nose and brow.

I gripped the back of his hair and slammed him down into the handle, knocking him for a loop and causing him to fall back onto the floor. I yanked it free and flipped it around in the palm of my hand.

“-Especially when you fail to back it with action.”

“Shut up! You can’t kill me, even with that knife.”

“That’s right. Your blood congeals too quickly for a bullet or stab wound to have a lasting effect, but it’s curious that blunt force trauma still causes no end of problems for you and your ilk. Those electrical signals rushing around in your brain don’t benefit from the touch of the demonic.”

He jumped back to his feet and wiped the blood from his nose, “I don’t care about what you think, or any of that high-class nonsense you keep spouting. Hurry up and die!”

All it took was a moment of concentration for me to sever his spine and end this, but he was not going to give me that window of opportunity so easily. I was also keeping in mind the possibility of him reneging on his claim that he could win without his magic or gun. It was in a holster at the bottom of his back. I needed to be ready to defend myself from either at a moment’s notice, and that left less room for an offensive strategy.

This ‘problem’ needed to be nipped in the bud. Charlie was too dangerous to be left roaming around, and while it contravened my personal policy of never killing children, he’d willingly leapt into the battlefield. He couldn’t expect mercy when he was trying to kill others. The gloves were off when it was a matter of life or death.

“Allow me to show you that raw strength isn’t everything...”