A Cloak of Glass, Page 2

what I told myself. A split second later the crowd had carried him away, lost among the river of humanity.

  The ring had dispersed too, people already hurrying about their daily business like it had been nothing. It almost made me wonder if it had really happened. After all, for “people like us”, adding new memories was just as easy as removing them.

  We scurried on into the dark, the rain pounding ever harder across our run of patchwork iron. Soon even Saga was struggling to keep her balance, although she would never admit it. Wordlessly she took shelter underneath an awning, pulling me in beside her.

  ‘How did Llyrian do that?’ I muttered, pressing back into our dim alcove. Saga waved her hand dismissively.

  ‘It was probably just some trick. Street performers, you know how they are.’

  I frowned, shrinking into a tight ball against the rain.

  ‘It didn’t look like a trick to me.’ I grumbled, peering out at the black sky. Lightning forked in the distance, the low rumble of thunder rolling over us a moment later. Saga said nothing for a moment, content to watch the storm alongside me. Out there on that ledge… I was glad we were together.

  ‘I hope Riku is alright out there,’ I murmured, leaning against my sister, ‘…wherever he is.’

  She put an arm around me soothingly. It was easy to forget she was only twenty minutes older than me sometimes. Staring out into the storm, Saga remained silent.

  --

  The storm swept across the city in great sheets, but that too passed eventually. After a couple of hours the rain had eased into a thick mist, the neon adverts hurling bawdy spears of colour through the gloom. The moment Saga deemed our rooftop run passable, she tugged me from our brief shelter. Darting through the darkness, we leapt forth once more into the spiderweb shroud of cables and pipes that smothered the city below.

  Soon the Ryu no Kakurega loomed before us in the mist. It was a casino that dominated the grimy street with garish adverts of the riches inside.

  ‘We are just in time…’ Saga muttered, nodding at the line of gunmen standing outside. Gangs rarely left anything to chance.

  I strode forwards, heading for the doors. Without our permission, the guards of course would not be able to see us. We brushed past the confused looking bulk of a fat gunman, and disappeared inside the revolving doors.

  The casino was huge- a vast hall adorned with every piece of gambling equipment imaginable. Card tables, slot machines, roulette… they had every category of idiot covered.

  We, however, were not there for games. Back at the far end of the room, two gangs were meeting- a dozen men with an impressive array of heavy arms to boot. The other patrons seemed to be ignoring them completely; I saw a woman stare at the floor as a man shoved her aside with the butt of a pistol. The gang members, for all their power, might as well have been invisible.

  ‘I guess fear works just as well as a mental shield sometimes,’ I thought to Saga dryly. We hurried forwards, zigzagging among the tables.

  ‘Stay focused,’ she snapped back, ‘If the shield wavers for even a second, we will end up bullet ridden corpses.’

  ‘Alright miss,’ I fumed, ‘You don’t need to lecture me.’ It was still a sobering thought. When all that stands between you and death is a cloak of glass, anything is possible.

  Getting closer, I could see the gangs more clearly now. In the finest suits, two representatives were coming forwards, one with a black and silver suitcase. The exchange was about to take place.

  ‘You take the men on the left.’ Saga muttered.

  I nodded, furrowing my brow. Wiping a memory was easy, but doing so with six people simultaneously? That was gruelling work. I opened myself to the flow of consciousness, a half dozen trains of thought crashing and sliding through each other in snaking wisps. I gripped hold of them, twisting their perceptions with all the subtlety I could manage. We had to be absolutely perfect. Invisible.

  Maintaining the illusion, Saga strode forwards and seized the case in one smooth motion. The two sides hesitated. I grimaced as their thoughts leapt into motion, slimy brown waves that swept over me.

  …had to do it, there was no choice. The woman didn’t…

  The fragments whispered to me in strange voices, I cut them off as best I could in my struggle. Most of them were terrified of their superiors and that only made things even more complicated. I bit my lip, wrestling minds into submission, sliding new memories in all the while. I soothed anxieties, calmed worries… thick beads of sweat ran down my face as I struggled with the invisible tangle.

  Someone grunted. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest as another gang member stepped out of the shadows, face wrought in anger and a pistol gripped in one powerful hand.

  ‘What the hell are you doing!?’ he roared, advancing on us.

  ‘Shaaya, we missed him out!’

  Spinning round in panic, I grabbed hold of his mind forcefully. He stumbled as I flailed at his thoughts, his head shaking as the new memories manifested. His mind squirmed under my ghostly grasp, whipping this way and that as I tightened down on it. He staggered forwards, a hacking cough driving him to his knees before me. What if he forgot how to walk? How to breathe? I had to be fast.

  …shouldn’t have set fire to it. All those schoolchildren…

  I scowled, cutting the connection off. Snippets of memory, that’s all it was. No concern of ours. A mask of calm precision cloaked my face as I shakily reached into his mind, adding fond memories of myself to his muddy life history.

  He lowered the gun hesitantly, staggering upright once more.

  After what seemed like an age the representatives bowed formally, the two gangs turning and marching out of the casino.

  I breathed deeply, relief washing over me. I had been warping seven minds at once… seven! Dealing with so many people was difficult at the best of times, let alone at gunpoint. Memories had a way of leaking across connected minds; it was enough to make you want to scrub yourself down sometimes.

  The gangs had forgotten the suitcase entirely, simply remembering a round of drinks with some old rivals. The mind was an orb of glass to us- transparent and beautiful in its complexity, but incredibly fragile.

  ‘That was too close for comfort… we should be more careful.’ I thought bitterly. Guns were horrible devices.

  ‘Not getting soft on me, are you?’ Saga retorted stonily.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I laughed, hefting the case up to look at it properly. It was made of dark leather inlaid with Chinese dragons; a work of art in itself.

  She smiled back mischievously, already wondering what might be inside. Whatever it was, it had to be valuable.

  ‘Let’s get some drinks and see what we scored.’ I beamed.

  ‘Of course.’

  We simply walked behind the bar and pulled a few cans from the fridge, the bartender staring blankly out at the empty casino. They were soft drinks; we had learned the hard way that alcohol and the power to control minds did not mix well.

  We grabbed a booth in the corner, laying the case down in front of us.

  ‘I always love this part.’ I whispered in her mind, ‘It’s like Christmas, isn’t it?’

  Saga laughed, sliding the clasps open. ‘Let’s see what we got…’

  The lid opened slowly, revealing stacks upon stacks of money. I gasped- there must have been a hundred million yen in there- enough to buy a small mansion!

  ‘We hit the jackpot!’ I cheered, reverting to audible speech in my excitement. Fishing was the only reason we were still in Tankenkuro; it certainly paid off sometimes.

  ‘With this, we could retire to the country!’ I laughed.

  ‘Calm down, calm down,’ Saga grinned. The smile was short-lived, however.

  A westerner in a large overcoat took a seat at our table, hanging the coat neatly on the back of his chair. He swirled his drink and coughed politely.

  ‘This one is taken.’ I uttered to his subconscious, but he merely raised his eyebrows at me.


  ‘What on earth?’ Saga muttered, ‘The shield is up; he shouldn’t be able to see us at all.’

  I frowned, reaching for his mind with a silent tendril of thought.

  ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ he asserted, laying his hands down firmly.

  I shrank back. People generally just shuddered or grimaced when we tampered with their mind. Nobody had ever really noticed before- let alone blocked us. His mind felt like a fortress of solid bone; insurmountable and smooth.

  I examined the man curiously. Something was fundamentally wrong about him, but what? His face looked young, but something about the cast of his eyes, and the smile at the corner of his mouth that betrayed his illusion of youth. His skin was strangely pale, giving him a wild, alien look once you noticed it. He was lean, flesh drawn tight across powerful muscles, his golden eyes set beneath locks of dark red hair. He said nothing at first, simply smiling as our eyes drilled into him furiously.

  ‘My name is Tyr,’ he said at last, breaking the silence. His voice was calm and firm, but somehow unsettling. Those eyes of his burned with ambition; I had seen the like before. He paused for a moment, smile widening. He adjusted his scarf, eyes never leaving my own.

  ‘…and,’ he intoned, ‘I am like you.’

  The table returned to icy stillness once more. My sister’s eyes drilled into him, absorbing every detail they could possibly scrutinize. I knew that look.

  ‘Explain.’ She demanded, leaning back and folding her arms.

  Tyr merely laughed, taking a sip of his scotch.

  ‘I came here to get a