Free Book 1 - The Man With the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green

"It’s an attack on the Sanctity!"
    He didn’t need to say any more. James and I were already running
full pelt after him. James had a gun in each hand too now. And all I had was my
needle gun. I didn’t draw it. I was pretty sure frozen holy water wasn’t going
to be enough this time. The Heart was the source of the family’s power. Its
stored energies made all our magics and super-sciences possible, including the
living armour we all depended on. But the Sanctity, the great chamber that holds
the Heart, was the single most heavily defended and protected part of the Hall.
It’s supposed to be invulnerable, inviolate. A direct attack on the Hall was
rare enough; an attack on the Heart was unprecedented, unthinkable.
    James and I ran on, plunging through corridor after corridor at
breakneck speed, both of us breathing steadily to conserve our wind, as we’d
been trained. More and more members of the family came running from everywhere
to join us, men and women with shocked, strained faces and all kinds of weapons
in their hands. Young and old, fighters and researchers and even duty staff;
people who should never have been needed, given the guaranteed safety of the
Hall.
    We were closing in on the Sanctity now, at the very centre of
the Hall. I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck. There was a
pressure, a presence, on the air, like the cold shadow of a place where bad
things had happened. Something Big is coming, that’s what old Jacob had said.
Something Big…Something Bad. And it was close now. Very close.
    Uncle James and I caught up with the Sarjeant-at-Arms just as he
slammed through the great double doors into the Sanctity, and there was the
Heart: a single huge diamond shining like the sun, so big it filled the massive
chamber the family had built to contain and protect it. A diamond bigger than a
bus, a million facets blazing and shimmering so brightly none of us could bear
to look at it directly. The room was full of its light, and entering the
Sanctity was like diving into ice-cold water. It took your breath away, like a
shock to the soul. The Heart blazed with an otherworldly light, holding and
harnessing the power that made our family’s job possible. A light or an energy,
a science or a magic; even after all the centuries it had been with us, we were
no nearer to understanding it.
    The Heart was surrounded by powerful protections. I could feel
them even as I edged into the Sanctity, hammering on the shimmering air. Some of
the family couldn’t even bring themselves to enter the room. But still the bells
and sirens were shrieking, summoning the family to defend the Heart from an
attack by someone or something unbelievably powerful. Only the most terrible of
our enemies would dare launch so blatant an assault. I circled slowly around the
gigantic diamond, one arm raised before my eyes to shield me from its
overwhelming glare. The light seemed to blaze right through my fragile flesh,
like an X-ray. James was there with me, and the Sarjeant-at-Arms, and I sensed
as much as saw other members of the family moving slowly around the Heart,
searching desperately for some sign of the enemy.
    I had my needle gun in my hand. I didn’t have a lot of faith in
it, but just its presence made me feel better. I hadn’t armoured up. None of us
had. We were all still thinking in terms of threats to the safety of the Heart.
It never even occurred to us that we might be in danger. This was the Hall, and
we had always been safe here.
    I felt something approaching from a direction I could sense but
not name. It was a Presence, something so vast and alien and utterly other that
its terrible nature actually eclipsed and overwhelmed the Heart. It drew closer
and closer, straining to materialise inside the Sanctity, trying to force its
way in from some other dimension of reality. It seemed to be closing in on us
from every direction at once, and just the sense of it