Free The Magpye: Circus by CW Lynch Page B

lot of revenge to go around.
Magicians lived a long time, and picked up plenty of grudges along
the way.
    "For your sake, I hope so."
said the witch. "Because Cane King is going after whoever it is
that's been hunting him, and things are going to end very badly for
whoever it is, and for anyone they're connected with."
    "If whoever it is has got you rattled," said
Marv, "Perhaps Cane King is the one who needs the
warning."
    "I've put a lot of time and
energy into that family," hissed Grace. "I've watched generations
come and go, honing them, forging them. It's not just Cane they'll
be up against, it's me too."
    "Then it's my turn to tell you to run," said Marv. "Because
it isn't me you're up against, but I do know who it is. I'm not
sure what it is, but I do know who. I thought I'd seen
things, Grace, I thought I knew how the world really worked. What
I've seen him do? It's beyond anything either of us ever even
attempted."
    Grace frowned. She never backed
down from a fight, Marv remembered that only too well. Fighting was
in her nature, no witch could have lived as long as she had
otherwise. But she wasn't sure if she believed him.
    "If you know who he is, then
give him to me now."
    "No," said Marv flatly. "I've
given you fair warning, and I consider my debt to you paid. Get out
while you can, Grace. Write this generation off, come back for the
next lot of Kings, and call it evens."
    "And if I don't?"
    "Then my debt is still paid," said Marv.
" And you're one more dead
witch. " He left the table
before Grace could say another word.
     

FALL DOWN DEAD
    Where: an old print mill, a
relic from the days when the Kings made their money in the print
media and a front page headline was as powerful as any bullet.
When: midnight, which was pure theatricality on Cane King's part.
He wanted to make a statement, wanted the world to wake up to a new
order of his making.
    How, for the most part, had
been left to Grace. She'd spent hours in the mill, fortifying it as
if they were under siege. She commanded King's thugs and hired guns
as well as anyone he had ever seen, a natural general, and even
Jack Taylor fell into line. The plan was perfect. An iron clad
defence, except for one crucial mistake. A mistake that Grace was
relying on her prey finding. Well hidden enough so as not to be
obvious, but there. Exploitable by the right opponent. Perfect.
    Except for one thing.
    Perfect except for Wally
Wu.
    Wally was a contortionist. He
had died hidden in a crate in the big top, folded up as tight he
could, praying that nobody would find him. Wally was a coward,
everybody knew. He said he'd learnt how to hide himself when he was
a kid. Anyone who asked how, or why, didn't get an answer, but
there was something in Wally Wu's eyes that told you that he'd had
something to hide from. And so Wally Wu died the way he'd lived,
hiding, heart racing, and a prayer on this lips. "Please don't let
them find me". And nobody did. Just a stray bullet, its lethal
trajectory through Wally's right lung nothing more than a bouncing,
clattering, dice roll.
    In death, Wally wasn't a coward
anymore. He'd found a place to hide where no-one could touch him,
and like all the others all he thought about now was bloody
revenge.
    That was why Wally Wu had shown
Magpye how to fold his body, how to contort and squash and squeeze,
how to dislocate and relocate and rotate. It was Wally Wu who had
put Magpye into an old packing crate down in the basement of the
place hours before Cane, Grace, or any of the others had even
arrived. They had built their trap around them, never knowing that
they were there, and all the while Wally had kept on praying.
    "Let the bastards find us, let
the bastards find us."
    But they hadn't. Not until
Magpye had pushed the lid off the crate with his feet and slowly
unfurled his body, which was not the shape of a normal body any
more. The sound of bones cracking back into place had brought an
inquisitive guard their way, and he had been the first to