Free Ghost in the Pact by Jonathan Moeller

fate,” said Callatas, tracing signs in the air. Once he would have found the effort of carrying on a conversation, holding a half-dozen wards in place, listening to Kotuluk Iblis’s shadow, and casting a new spell all at once to be an overwhelming challenge. Now it was nothing more than a minor annoyance. “She delayed the Apotheosis for a century and a half with her little stratagem. She made me waste decades looking for the relics in the Desert of Candles.”
    “Perhaps if you wanted the relics,” said Kalgri, “then you shouldn’t have burned Iramis. You ought to have known that Nasser would hide them.” 
    Again a wave of irritation went through him. Well, he would soon have no further need of the Red Huntress, once the Apotheosis was completed and the new humanity spread out to populate the emptied world. 
    “No matter,” said Callatas, drawing back his hand. “They are mine now.”
    “That spell,” said Kalgri. “It will…”
    “I know what it will do,” said Callatas. “Since when do you care about the lives of Immortals? They are tools, to be used for whatever purpose I please. Today, their purpose is to hold my enemies pinned in place while I strike.” 
    He gestured, and a shaft of golden fire ripped from his hand and slammed into the side of the miserable little tavern, soaking into the cheap brickwork.
    The transmutation began at once. 
     
    ###
     
    Arcane power spiked in the air, surrounding Callatas in a furious golden glow. To Caina’s valikarion sight, he blazed like a second sun.
    He had summoned a tremendous amount of sorcerous force, power enough to blast the Desert Maiden to smoking rubble. Annarah cast a spell of her own, a ward to turn aside Callatas’s wrath, but even the Words of Lore would not be enough to block that potent spell. 
    Caina turned, shouting a warning to the others, and golden fire lanced from Callatas and ripped into the side of the Desert Maiden. She expected the spell to strike the building with explosive force, but instead the power spread over the bricks, sinking into the structure. 
    For an instant nothing happened. 
    And then the entire building transmuted into sand. 
    Caina had a brief instant to recognize the spell. The Kindred assassin Anburj had set a trap to capture her, and while escaping from the trap, she fled through the House of Sozanat, a coffee house favored by minor Alchemists. One of the Alchemists had transmuted a staircase into sand, almost sending Caina falling to her death.
    Callatas had just transmuted the Desert Maiden into sand. 
    The roof disintegrated beneath Caina’s boots, and she plunged into the sand. It fell around her, smothering her, burying her, and hot darkness swallowed her as she struggled to breathe.
     
    ###
     
    Callatas watched the miserable little tavern collapse into a rippling sand dune. 
    The resultant sand dune was much lower than the original building. Much of what had once been the Desert Maiden had plunged into the cellar. Anyone caught on the ground floor and the second floor would have been buried alive without escape, including all the surviving patrons and Immortals. The sand overfilled the cellar, spilling into the streets like a minor flood. A few Immortals staggered from the wreckage, sand pouring from the joints of their armor, but Callatas saw no sign of his enemies. 
    Likely they had all been buried. 
    No matter. Mere sand could not conceal artifacts as powerful as the Staff of Iramis and the Seal of Iramis. 
    Kalgri was laughing, her voice filled with pleasure. The shadow of Kotuluk Iblis had sensed a score of deaths in the last instant, along with a few more every second as men asphyxiated within the sand. The Voice within the Huntress was feeding upon the deaths, gorging itself on the pain and stolen life force, and Kalgri feasted along with the nagataaru. 
    The woman was contemptibly venal. 
    Callatas strode towards the remnants of the Desert Maiden, the sand rasping against his