Goetia

of the civic buildings surrounding Enfield Green. The building was austere and stark. Most of the windows were broken. The Cabalists living there had made no effort to replace them. Doing so would have drawn attention to their presence.

Armed guards met Warren and Naomi at the main doors. The men and women carried handguns in a few submachine pistols. The Cabalists preferred spells over weaponry, but not everyone was capable yet of using the magic that had returned with the demons. Those just in training were usually selected for guard duty and had to carry weapons.

Despite Naomi’s protests, the senior guardsman insisted on searching Warren.

“It’s all right,” Warren said. He stood still as the man searched him. “Idon’t have anything to hide.”

Naomi was still livid. “He’s here as our guest. The First Seer sent for him.”

“I’m just doing my job.” The senior guardsman took the long dagger fromWarren’s right boot. He slipped the dagger into his belt.

Warren hated to lose the knife. It was his only weapon outside of the pistol he could use. He had never been much of a fighter, but over the last four years he had learned a lot. Still, he had no chance against the group around him. He had never liked feeling helpless.

Even though his weapon had been confiscated, the senior guardsmen and the other security people seemed content to give Warren plenty of space. At least they didn’t try to restrain him. However, his reception strengthened hisimmediate impulse that he had made a mistake in coming to see the First Seer.

What is your name?” Naomi demanded.

“Cedric,” the grizzled old warrior stated. If he was uncomfortable aboutgiving his name, it didn’t show.

“Your job isn’t to offend our guests,” Naomi said sharply.

“No, ma’am, my job is to keep the First Seer alive.” The senior guardsmanremoved a coal-oil lamp from a nearby peg and nodded toward the doorway. “Ifyou’ll follow me I’ll take you to the First Seer.”

From the look on her face, Warren knew Naomi wasn’t through with theargument. He touched her arm with his human hand and caught her eye. He quickly shook his head.

Naomi shared her anger with him. She took her arm out of his touch and folded both over her chest. With a sigh, Warren turned and followed the senior guardsman into the building.

The interior of the building had been gutted. A few remnants of papers and plaques—things that had once been part of the activities there—remained, butthey were scattered. Smashed cases that had held civic awards and trophies hung on walls. Documents hung askew behind broken desks. Evidence of squatter nesting showed in piles of materialgathered in corners and against the walls. Ashes remained of small campfires. The bones of small animals and empty tins mixed in with the debris.

Cedric skirted the piles of refuse of and headed to a stairway that led down into the basement. More guards held positions at the entranceway to the stairs.

The basement area was far larger than Warren would have guessed. Lit only by coal-oil lanterns, the hallways didn’t reveal much but Warren noticed evidenceof expansion. Someone had worked long and hard to excavate extra space under the building.

Part of him wondered how the work had been carried out. It couldn’t have beeneasy. Making the space required moving a lot of earth, and that dirt had to have been put somewhere. Signs of building would have drawn the demons immediately.

A lot of effort had gone into the construction. Warren saw that immediately when he took note of the many hallways that shot off the main one they traveled. Cedric went without hesitation, twisting and turning along the path. Warren gave up trying to memorize the route when he realized that Cedric brought them back through the same tunnels more than once.

The hallways also connected the basements of other buildings. Along the way, Warren saw various earthworks that he suspected could be collapsed to block of tunnels. Some of them could block off a tunnel at either end to create a deadly trap.

The underground wasn’t just a sanctuary, it was also a carefully sculptedbattlefield.

Eventually, they arrived at one of the larger rooms. Coal-oil lanterns hung on the walls and filled the area with dulled yellow illumination. Someone had made an effort to turn the area, intoa reception room. Tables and chairs stood neatly arranged in the center of the room.

A man, watched over by a half-dozen fierce looking men and women, sat at the center table and stared into a circular mirror on the tabletop. Although he’dhadn’t seen him before, Warren knew this was First Seer Cornish.

The man was younger than Warren would have guessed. He was probably no more than thirty. It made sense, though. The younger Cabalists tended to have the most power. They harnessed it far more easily and more naturally than older Cabalists.

As a result, many of the Septs and the Voices among them tended to be young. Warren had heard of many splits among the Cabalists over power issues. The youthful often commanded the raw power, but their seniors knew more about the demons and the nature of the magic they used.

First Seer Cornish looked up. He had a thin, sallow face, but the tattoos were the first features most onlookers noticed. They were so black and so thick that at first Warren wasn’t sure what race the man was. His eyes looked hollowand glassy. Black and shiny rams’ horns curled on either side of his head. Hisscalp had been overlaid with demon’s skin that was mottled and covered inprotruding spikes like those of a porcupine. He wore dark robes covered in symbols.

Cornish turned away from the circular mirror on the tabletop and smiled a little. His gums looked black, and it wasn’t until then Warren noticed Cornishhad replaced some of his teeth with demons’ fangs. Warren had never heard of theprocedure, but he knew the Cabalists were using extreme measures to tap into the same power the demons used.

“Naomi.” Cornish smoothed his robes with a hand. “I