Enter the Janitor (The Cleaners) (Volume 1) Read online

  “Safer? What’s safe about this place?”

  He piled more trash into her arms, while she tried not to let the growing nausea wobble her legs too much. Hell existed, and she’d just checked in.

  “Folks’re tossin’ stuff aside all the time,” he said, “never realizin’ that every bit o’ crap they’ve held in their hands, even for the wee’est moment, becomes a part o’ them. Their touch leaves echoes of possession, lines that can be followed back to their source, or twisted ’round and pulled like puppet strings.” He plucked the air to demonstrate, showing off yellow nails, crusted with what she hoped was only mud. “Some folks realize how important trash is, and that’s why they can never force themselves to get rid o’ things. Others call ’em pack rats, but I call ’em smart little squirrels, keepin’ all their belongin’s close.”

  He continued digging through the piles, choosing certain items, tossing others back. Dani struggled to keep from flinging the trash aside and sprinting for freedom. Finally, with a last dump of junk, Stewart patted her butt and nodded to the exit. “Righto. Let’s go see if ol’ Benny’s finished.”

  Only her relief at stumbling out into relatively fresher air kept him from getting a bloody nose. She fumed as they rejoined Ben, who’d drawn a wavering circle in the earth, surrounded by arcane glyphs, one of which Dani thought looked suspiciously like a trash can, and another the three-arrowed recycling symbol.

  Stewart hummed as he checked over the drawing, then nodded and pointed at the middle. “Drop it all there, lass. Then you’s two gimme a few minutes to prepare the ritual. We’ll get those answers for ya, sure as snot dribbles.”

  Dani tossed the trash into the circle, perhaps with more enthusiasm than necessary. She drew a clean towel from a pocket and attacked the smears on her sleeves and gloves. Stewart bent over and muttered to himself as he arranged items at points along the circumference. Dani and Ben stood aside, watching until she whispered to him.

  “I don’t understand. Isn’t he Scum? I mean, he works with garbage. That can’t be Pure magic.”

  Ben frowned. “He’s a friend. Just ’cause the higher-ups wanna paint the fight between Purity and Corruption in black and white doesn’t mean a few shades of gray ain’t gonna slip in.”

  “Do the suits know you two are buddies?”

  “Oh, I’m sure someone’s got a file on him back at HQ,” Ben said. “But he ain’t no threat. He just likes spendin’ his time here with his collection. The Board cares more about Scum crazies like Sydney who get out in the world and preach the sweet song of obliviation.”

  “Oblivion.”

  “Whatever.”

  Stewart rose. “Righto. Here’s we go. All set for a good ’n proper divination.”

  Dani studied the pile of debris Stewart had arranged. It looked like a hairball hacked up by a giant robot cat. Seeing her dubious look, he nudged the heap with a toe.

  “Old newspapers are key. Teemin’ with information and oracular potential. People’s fingerprints, all their worries, fears, right here in ink. Magic older ’n the Rosetta stone.” Stewart looked between them. “I’s sure as not gonna ask for your blood,” he said to Ben. “And it’d be a crime to flaw the lady’s lovely skin, righto?”

  Ben frowned. “Didn’t think of that. Mebbe—”

  “Never bother,” said Stewart. He stepped around the circle, spitting at intervals. Dani cringed to see blood flecking his spittle. Then he moved into the circle and put his palms flat toward the ground. Dani gasped as static teased her hair and sparked over her lips.

  Ben glanced at her. “Feel it too? That’s good. Just don’t let it yank your chain much, a’ight?”

  She frowned, then realized she felt what he meant. The core of her that unleashed those awful spells had awakened with Stewart’s enacting of his own spell. The chaotic power rose within her, like a cobra flaring its hood.

  Ben must’ve sensed it as well, for he leaned in to murmur. “Hold steady. This ain’t gonna take long.”

  A sudden blue aura infused Stewart, as if he’d been hit by a spotlight. At the same time, the tension on Dani’s energies lessened and her power slumbered once more. She realized her teeth were grinding, and forced herself to relax.

  The mage’s eyes opened, and Dani was alarmed to see his eyes glowing bright blue, pupils washed out. As he took up a monologue, flashes of light sparked between his crooked teeth.

  “Lessee here. Dual cores. Manifestations. Pure and Corrupt? Nutters, I’s say. Waste of time. Mine, specific’ly.”

  Dani whispered to Ben. “This is divination?”

  “This is you yappin’ and distractin’ me,” Stewart barked, making her jump. “Shut it!”

  They stood listening to Stewart’s grumbling as the minutes stretched from five, to ten, to twenty. Dani shifted from one foot to the other, trying to keep herself awake by seeing how many items she could identify buried in the surrounding mounds. Ben kept his eyes locked on the trash mage, face serious, eyes troubled.

  Just as Dani counted her fifth Barbie doll—headless—Stewart stiffened.

  “Bloody balls, you’s right, Benny. All’s over … got sightin’s of a hydra with a mix of Pure and Corrupt heads. It died attackin’ itself. T’was a window-watcher who summoned a glasskin and got mauled by a blackshard instead. There be somethin’ new makin’ itself known.”

  “Got that part figured out,” Ben said. “Since we ain’t never seen anythin’ like this before.”

  Stewart’s head rotated Ben’s way while the rest of his body remained stiff. “I’s meanin’ new, as in … newborn.” He closed his eyes.

  “What Pantheon is it hooked up to?”

  “Both. Neither.” Stewart’s eyes popped open again. “Bats and bitches, Benny, what’d you’s get mixed up in?”

  The janitor made fists, voice going hoarse. “C’mon. Keep talkin’. Give me all you got.”

  “It’s … afraid. Hunted. So much power. S’like a baby with a nuke in its diaper.” Stewart’s voice rose until it scraped like razor blades down Dani’s spine. “It’s noticed me! No!”

  Ben stepped forward, shouting. “Release the spell. Don’t—”

  The trash mage choked as his blue aura brightened until only a glowing humanoid figure remained visible. Raising a hand against the heatless blaze, Dani stumbled back as Stewart stepped out of the circle, reaching for her. A hot-white glow emanated from his eyes, mouth and nostrils. It looked like he was screaming, but from such a distance that she couldn’t hear.

  Ben thrust himself between them, mop raised to bar the way. “Get back. It’s a Scouring. Don’t let him touch you.”

  She looked around him as Stewart staggered forward, arms outstretched like an extra in a zombie movie. “A Scouring?”

  Ben’s backpedaling forced her further away. “One of the Purest spells you can cast. It cleanses anyone and anything the caster touches, violent-like.”

  Stewart fell to all fours. When he rose to his feet again, the areas his arms and hands had hit left shining clear streaks in the dirt, like sand heat-blasted into glass. His footprints left the same results.

  “Why’s he coming after us?” Dani asked, hearing fear in her voice. “What’d we do?”

  “I ain’t thinkin’ he’s in control anymore.”

  “Well, get him back in control!”

  Ben scowled, first at her, then at the advancing mage. With growl, he triggered the electric end of his mop and thrust the sparking tip into Stewart’s chest.

  The blast threw Ben off his feet. His bony frame hit Dani’s shoulder a glancing blow and spun her down. Gasping for breath, she looked up as Ben rolled to a stop against one of the van tires, the mop still in his hands. Smoke rose from the metal tip. He didn’t move.

  Dani turned as Stewart neared, just a few steps away. His eyes and mouth were wide in silent agony as he reached for her face. She crawled backward, barely feeling rocks and metal slice through her gloves and into her palms. Desperation clutched her heart and squeezed, th
e quicksilver pulse of magic waking inside her.

  “Please …” she begged Stewart’s glowing form. “Don’t make me …”

  Her power flared and reached into the surrounding elements. A gust of wind kicked up, blasting dirt over and past her. Then another, until sheets of grit struck the possessed trash mage in a miniature sandstorm. The first few hits blew by harmlessly. But as the wind increased and the severity of each blast heightened, his steps slowed, then stopped, half a foot from touching her nose.

  Dani dug fingers into the ground to anchor herself beneath the storm she’d conjured. The energy writhed through her bones. She tasted blood and realized she’d bitten her tongue. Her power wanted full release, to obliterate any threat. But she refused. She gripped it in her mind and imagined herself choking a greased eel into submission. As much as she feared for her life, she couldn’t forgive herself if she killed the garbage man.

  Stewart staggered, but the blue glow had yet to fade.

  Dani screamed against the power’s burning insistence. “Just give me a break, already!”

  A last blast struck the mage, flipped him heels-over-head across the clearing, and slammed him into the side of a trash heap. The aura winked out, leaving him squished between a refrigerator and a stack of old televisions.

  Collapsing, Dani heaved for breath as her power subsided. It left her feeling empty, cored out. Yet the smallest seed of triumph planted itself in her chest.

  She’d fought back this time and won.

  ***

  Chapter Thirteen

  The business end of a mop planted itself by her face.

  She frowned at it. Wooden handle. Doesn’t Ben know wood is porous? It soaks up all sorts of germs and bacteria. It rots.

  With a groan, she rolled onto her back. Ben looked down at her, cheeks creased in concern.

  “Dani?”

  “You really should use a stainless steel mop handle,” she said.

  A small grin cracked his wrinkles. “You wanna carry a metal mop around all day, be my guest.” He checked around. “You actually throttled it down. I’m impressed.”

  “Didn’t feel like control.” She waited for the ground to stop tilting. “Felt like wrestling a nest of snakes. And a bull. And a charging elephant. Don’t know how I did it.”

  “I’m just glad you didn’t level the place. Let’s hope it wasn’t a fluke, eh?”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “Well? Whatcha lyin’ around for? Might wanna see if you killed the old goat.”

  “Don’t offer a hand or anything.” Her limbs quivered as she made it to her feet and joined him in tugging Stewart from the hole she’d knocked him into. She and Ben each grabbed an arm and slowly pulled the mage free. He appeared intact, if woozy. As they steadied him, he blinked and looked down at himself. Then he wrenched free and started hopping around, arms waving.

  “What’d you do? What’d you do? I’s clean! Look at me.”

  Dani squinted at the mage and realized he spoke true. All the grit and grime on his hands and anywhere skin peeked through his outfit had been washed away. As he raved, his teeth flashed a brilliant white and his fingernails gleamed as if manicured.

  “Side effect of the Scouring,” Ben said. “Coulda been worse.”

  Stewart shook his newspaper sports coat. The pages looked like they’d been printed yesterday. “Worse? What could be worse ’n this?”

  “For starters, your mind coulda been wiped and you’d be blubberin’ like a baby right now. Or your bones mighta been boiled clean.”

  The mage licked his lips. “Righto. Guess I’s lucky. No thanks to you draggin’ me into all this trouble. I’s not carin’ if you offer a whole deck o’ Baby Ruths. I ain’t peekin’ that way again.”

  “Not gonna ask it,” Ben said. “Wasn’t thinkin’ we’d get such a direct response.”

  “You’s stickin’ your fingers in the Pantheon’s pie,” Stewart said, poking Ben’s stomach. “Both sides are tryin’ to keep their business private until things get sorted out.”

  “I keep hearing people talk about the Pantheon,” Dani said. “What is it?”

  Stewart goggled at Ben. “She don’t know yet? What you been teachin’ her?”

  “Hold your horses,” Ben said. “This is only her second day.”

  A rumble shook the ground. He glanced at Dani, who raised her hands.

  “Not me! Honest. I’m perfectly in control right now. No earthquakes.”

  “Stewart?”

  “All my sentries just popped their tops,” said the trash mage, eyes closed and nose lifted as if scenting the wind. “Somethin’ nasty just busted through the main gate. One golem’s already down. The others be strugglin’. Gettin’ some rats into position to see what’s happenin’.”

  Dani met Ben’s eyes in unspoken question.

  He nodded. “Sydney. He musta followed us.”

  “And now my beauties are gone! All’s of ’em.” Stewart shook a fist at a far mound, toward the entrance. “Rot and piss! Don’t you know how long it takes to animate one of those? Pieces of art, and you ruined ’em!”

  “Thanks for telling him exactly where we are,” Dani said.

  A wad of phlegm flew past her face. “Don’t get snooty, lass. This is my home we’s talkin’ about. You all leastaways had the decency to respect the paths. He’s bargin’ straight toward us.”

  In the distance, a mound shuddered and collapsed, raising a cloud of dust and birds that scattered into the sky. This sent Stewart into another spasm of hopping and fist shaking.

  “No! M’kitchen!”

  “We gotta get outta here,” Ben said, rubbing his right elbow. “We ain’t nearly ready to face him.”

  Dani waved at the van. “Can’t we drive out? Is there another exit?”

  Stewart shook his head. “M’scouts are seein’ half a dozen mudmen at every gate. You’d be crackin’ your skulls tryin’ to plow through.”

  Mudmen? Dani frowned and looked to Ben for clarification, but he paid her no attention just then.

  “Stewart, I’m gonna owe you a big one if you get us into the Sewers. I know you got a junction under here.”

  The mage’s face wrinkled, reminding Dani of a prune. “And just how’re you knowin’ that? You been spyin’?”

  Ben matched the man’s scowl. “You know better’n that.”

  “Says who now? Sure’n no spy’s gonna give himself away.”

  “Stewart, I promised I’d never—”

  “And what’s your word worth these days? You’ve gone old on me, Benny. What’s to keep those whitey-tighties up top from pokin’ around in that soft brain o’ yours?”

  “You know me!” Ben waved his arms, almost striking Dani under the chin. “You knew us. When did we … I ever go back on my word?”

  Stewart stamped a foot and his prodigious nose looked ready to peck Ben’s eye out. “That was then! The both of ya runnin’ off, always heelin’ to your masters’ call. Like I was wantin’ no compn’y but the ones I’s made. Now you know what it’s like bein’ alone, huh?”

  Dani clapped between their faces. “Hey! Do we really have time to be arguing?”

  The men matched glares for another second, and then blew out and looked aside in identical embarrassed gestures. Stewart took his hat off and ran fingers through the few hairs clinging to his scalp.

  “She’s the one showin’ sense. But we’s havin’ words later, lad.”

  Ben glowered, but gestured for Stewart to lead the way. As they headed for the door into the mound, Dani looked over her shoulder.

  “What about the van?” she asked. “He’ll know we’ve been here.”

  “Got it covered, lass.”

  Stewart’s fingers twitched, and the two remaining golems animated. They leaned over, scooped up massive armfuls of garbage, and dropped them on the van.

  Remembering Tetris, Dani cried out and started to run that way. “Wait! I’ve got to—”

  Ben caught her arm. “Leave
the lizard, already.”

  “Lizard?” Stewart asked, still focused on directing his golems. “What’s you blatherin’ about?”

  Dani tried to wrench free from Ben. “I just got him back. And all my stuff …”

  “We’re gonna come back, a’ight? But ain’t gonna be no good either way if we get caught here. And where we’re goin’, he’s just gonna be a distraction.”

  Dani tugged once more before giving up. She winced at the clatter as more trash poured onto the van, and hoped Tetris wouldn’t be too frightened. After two more such dumpings, the vehicle had been buried.

  Finished, Stewart led them back into the mound, past the first room and through a winding maze of dank, oppressive tunnels dug through earth and muck. They passed through black curtains of garbage bags, rotting netting, and sheets of stained gauze. Dani tried to breathe through her mouth, but this made her taste the smells instead, and soon it felt like slime coated her throat.

  Ben must’ve noticed her struggling against her upchuck reflex, for he fished a dust mask out of a pocket and handed it over.

  “Figured you might be wantin’ this.”

  She took it with a look of silent blessing and snapped the band over her head. It didn’t reduce the smell, but at least she could breathe without wanting to disgorge her own stomach.

  After several minutes of ducking and weaving, they came into a passage with luminescent fungal growths dotting the walls and ceiling instead of the usual bulb strings. Stewart led down this until it branched off to the right into a dead end. He stuck his hand into the wall with a squishing noise that Dani would have nightmares about for weeks. Muck spiraled outwards and revealed a steep downward slope into darkness. The bitter drafts that wafted up from it made the rest of the dump smell like a field of daisies by comparison.

  “Through here.” Stewart stepped aside. “I’s be keepin’ my guests runnin’ in circles as long as I can.”

  Dani eyed the black path waiting for them with growing worry, while Ben nodded to the mage.