Bound

chapter 15

Talisid was as good as his word. I’d expected to be left hanging all night, but he called me back barely an hour later. “The Council have agreed to your offer,” Talisid said, “but with conditions.”

“Okay.”

“The Council will lift the death sentence on you and Anne Walker,” Talisid said. “In exchange you will both accompany Morden’s team on whatever mission they order. You will be exempt from any criminal charges for any actions you take during this operation and during your past tenure as Morden’s aide, providing you can demonstrate that you performed those actions under duress. In exchange, the two of you will both cooperate fully with any criminal case brought against Morden, including testifying against him. If you don’t, the deal is off.”

It was more than I’d dared hope for. “How exactly did they get Levistus to agree to that?”

“Levistus was . . . not happy,” Talisid said dryly. “Neither was Sal Sarque. However, Bahamus and Druss voted in your favour, and Alma and Undaaris were sufficiently convinced by the urgency of the situation. The final vote was four to two.”

“In other words, they were afraid that their own necks might actually be on the line,” I said. The fear Morden had stirred up was working to my advantage. “Undaaris voted for me?”

“Yes.”

So after being bribed by Levistus last year to betray me, Undaaris had turned around and betrayed Levistus right back. There was a certain justice to it. “Agreed,” I said.

“All right,” Talisid said. “You and Anne are to meet with Morden and—”

“Not so fast,” I said. “Let’s have it in writing.”

Talisid paused. “Now?”

“No time like the present.”

“The Council are more than a little busy—”

“Talisid, maybe you don’t remember, but this isn’t the first time I’ve made a deal with a Council member,” I said. “I’m done with working on credit. I get my payment in advance or I don’t do it at all.”

“That . . . may take some time.”

I sat back, putting my hands behind my head. “I’ll wait.”

| | | | | | | | |

There was more negotiation, but I held firm and to my amazement, the Council actually went through with it. By the next morning, I was holding a piece of paper in my hands with the Council seal stipulating that should I follow the terms listed below, et cetera, et cetera, the outlaw status for myself and my dependents, to wit, Anne Walker, was annulled.

“I hope you realise how rare this is,” Talisid said dryly.

I gave a short laugh. “Realising isn’t exactly top of my thoughts right now.”

“What is?”

I was silent for a moment, weighing the piece of paper in my hands. It was thick and stiff, with only a little flex. One small sheet of paper, with maybe a couple of hundred printed words. “It was a resolution like this that got Anne and me outlawed last Christmas,” I said quietly. “One sheet of paper. That was all it took to drive us out of Britain and have us hunted across the world.”

“Yes . . .”

“And now another sheet of paper, and it’s all whisked away.” I looked at the communicator, even though I knew Talisid couldn’t see me. “You could have done this at any time.”

“The decision wasn’t—”

“I know it wasn’t yours,” I said. “It was the Council’s. From that chamber in the War Rooms, they make their laws, and everyone else lives or dies by them. It would have been five minutes’ work for them to end our exile. They didn’t. That’s how much we mean to them.”

I heard Talisid shift. “The situations have changed somewhat . . .”

“Yeah,” I said. “This time I’ve got something they want. Don’t worry, Talisid. I’m not going to do anything stupid. But I think I understand how Council politics work a little better now.”

Talisid didn’t have an answer to that. “Are you going to be ready?” he said at last.

“I’ll be in touch.”

We finished our conversation and I sat silent for a moment. I knew I should be happy—this death mark had been hanging over my head for so long—but it was hard not to be bitter. All that pain and hardship, and the Council had wiped it away almost absentmindedly. This was how quickly they could have done something if they’d actually cared.

Then I shook the feeling off. I might have squared things with the Council, but getting that death sentence lifted was only going to help if I survived.

| | | | | | | | |

“There’s going to be a what?” I asked over the phone.

“A demonstration.”

“About?”

“The thing with Daniel Goldman,” Lucian said. “You know?”

Lucian is an adept I first met a year or two ago when he wandered into my shop looking for advice. Most of the adepts I meet that way drift off, but a few stay in touch, and over the years I’ve picked up a pretty decent information network as a result. It’s not much good for learning about what the big dogs are doing, like the Council or Richard—those guys don’t really get down to street level—but it does come in useful. “I heard about it, yeah.”

“So you heard what they did? He was just in that club for a night out. Then the Keepers burst in and they just burnt him to death. No warning, nothing.”

Just in the club for a night out? “That’s not exactly what . . .” I began, then changed my mind. “Never mind. Since when?”

“Last few days, I guess? Ever since the Council cleared that Keeper.”

I frowned. I hadn’t been keeping up with the details, but I had noticed that at some point Daniel Goldman’s death had become politicised—adepts had been holding him up as a symbol of the innocent lives crushed under Council oppression. When the results of the inquiry had been released, it had criticised Reyes but had stopped short of issuing any actual punishment, which unsurprisingly hadn’t pleased anyone. Still, there was something that didn’t quite fit. “Weren’t those findings released about three weeks ago?”

“Yeah.”

“So why are they holding a demonstration now?”

“Took them a while to get organised, I guess.”

“So what are they going to do? Make a bunch of signs and walk up and down outside the War Rooms?”

“Dunno, but a lot of adepts are going,” Lucian said. “Sensitives, too. Everyone’s talking about it, it’s supposed to start after sundown. I think it’s going to be big.”

Something about this was bothering me. The idea of all those adepts just sitting around for three weeks before suddenly deciding to take action felt wrong. Why would they wait so long?

Unless someone’s chosen this particular evening for a reason. “Are you going?” I asked Lucian.

“I was thinking about it,” Lucian admitted.

“If I were you, I’d stay away.”

“Why?”

“Because right now the Council are expecting an attack,” I said. “If you march a crowd of adepts up to the War Rooms they are not going to respond well.”

“We’re the ones getting attacked.”

“Just listen to me, all right? This is sounding like a really bad idea. And spread the word if you can.”

Lucian agreed, but he sounded halfhearted and I wasn’t sure if I’d convinced him. I hung up with a bad feeling, and the more I thought about it, the worse it got. The idea of a crowd of angry adepts trying to do a protest march just as the Council was going to a war footing made me uneasy.

I called Variam, but Vari had his own news. “I’ve been drafted,” he told me.

“To do what?”

“Defend the War Rooms, what do you think?”

“Jesus,” I said. “They’re pulling in apprentices now?”

“More like they really don’t want to lose. The whole Order of the Shield’s been mobilised, and half the Star as well. Called in reserves and everything.”

I did some quick mental arithmetic. “So you’re telling me that more than half the combat-capable Keepers in Britain are going to be at the War Rooms just waiting for someone to stick their nose in so that they can blow it off.”

“Looks like,” Variam said. “Piece of advice, don’t walk in first.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“You know, I’m kind of hoping that Morden does go ahead with this stupid plan,” Variam said. “I’d love to see the look on his face.”

I frowned. “This feels wrong.”

“Seems pretty right to me.”

“No, I mean we’re missing something,” I said. “Morden isn’t this stupid.”

“Maybe he actually thinks he’s going to win,” Variam said. “I mean, that’s what a lot of Dark mages believe, isn’t it? They think all Light mages are wimps. And yeah, plenty of them are, but when you never run into the ones who aren’t . . .”

“Yes, but Morden’s spent the past year and a half on the Council. He should not be making this sort of mistake.”

“Will you stop worrying about what Morden’s going to do?”

“It’s kind of important to know.”

“No,” Variam said. “It’s not. You’ll find out sooner or later, and then you’ll do what you have to do. You should be worrying about you and Anne.”

I sighed. Yet another problem I don’t know how to solve. “I am worried. I just don’t know what to do about it. When she wouldn’t talk to me, I thought that maybe she just wanted to work through it on her own, but she doesn’t seem to be getting better.”

“Yeah, well, here’s the thing about Anne,” Variam said. “And this is something that most people don’t get. Most people, once they learn what she can do, they think she’s indestructible or something. And they’re right, kind of. She can take a beating and get back up. But she’s got limits . . .” Variam trailed off.

“Limits?” I asked when he didn’t go on.

“Never mind. Just stay close to her.”

“I tried talking—”

“The last thing she needs is another pep talk.”

“Fine,” I said. “You’ve known her longer than I have. What do you recommend?”

“I dunno, how about you try telling her how you feel for once?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean.”

I considered that idea for maybe an eighth of a second before shying away. I did not want to deal with that right now. “This isn’t really the time.”

Variam was silent for a moment. “You know,” he said, “for someone who’s supposed to be so bright, you can be really dumb sometimes.”

“Vari, something useful please?”

“Just remember what I said.”

| | | | | | | | |

The day seemed to take forever, and my mood got worse and worse. Finally, I called Talisid. It took me a while to get through, and when he learnt that I didn’t have any new information about Richard or Morden, he didn’t seem very interested in continuing the call.

“Verus, I appreciate the information about the adepts,” Talisid cut in, “but it’s something we’re aware of. What we want to know about is Morden’s plans.”

“I don’t think he’s going after the War Rooms,” I said.

“You’ve heard from him?”

“No.”

“You’ve heard from someone else in his cabal? Or from Drakh’s?”

“No,” I admitted.

“Then what’s changed?”

“It doesn’t feel right.”

“Unless you have something solid—”

“Listen to me, all right? None of this feels right. You guys are setting up a trap based on the assumption that Morden is stupid. I’ve spent the last eight months working for him, and trust me when I say that that is one thing he is most definitely not.”

“Yes, Verus, I know,” Talisid said. “What you may have failed to take into account is that neither are we. You’re right: it’s very possible that he’s not going to go through with this attack. In fact, I’d say that it’s likely. Now, consider. What will happen if he calls it off?”

I was silent, thinking. “Everyone’ll know he backed down,” I said after a moment.

“All of the successes Morden has had in the past year have come from being seen as the winning horse. If he commits his forces to an attack, he’ll lose. If he backs down, he will also lose.”

“Is that what all this is about?” I said. “Is that why you’ve called in so many Keepers to defend the War Rooms tonight? A show of force?”

“It’s the ideal solution, don’t you think?” Talisid said. “Regardless of what happens, everyone will know that Morden attempted to overthrow the Council, and failed.”

I thought about it. Suddenly the Council’s actions in calling in Vari and the rest of the apprentices made sense. They didn’t want a fight—they wanted to win without fighting, by forcing Morden to blink. It was a very Light-mage solution, and from their perspective, it made sense.

And set against that was . . . what? Why did I feel that things were going to go so badly? Maybe because I knew Morden better than the Council did. I’d spent a lot of time with the Dark mage over the course of this year, and over the months I’d been forced into a kind of unwilling respect for him. He was clearly and unapologetically one of the bad guys, but he was also very good at what he did, and I didn’t believe he’d be beaten this easily.

“Look,” I said. “The whole reason you wanted me in this position was so that I could report on Richard and Morden’s plans. Well, this is my best guess at what they are. Are you going to take it to the Council or not?”

“Yes,” Talisid said after a moment’s pause. “But I can already predict what they’re going to say. They’re expecting you to hold up your end of the deal.”

“Great.”

“Let me know if you hear anything more.”

| | | | | | | | |

I spent the last few hours before Morden’s deadline in the Hollow.

“So?” I asked Luna, turning. “How do I look?”

Luna studied me critically. “Pretty good,” she said. “Though I still think you should be taking that submachine gun.”

I was wearing my armour, the plate-and-mesh that Arachne had made for me, over a set of black clothes. Thin gloves covered my hands (partly for protection, more to avoid fingerprints) and I had a webbing belt around my waist and hips with half a dozen nondescript-looking pouches holding everything from gate stones to healing salves. My feet were covered with a pair of black running shoes, and I had a mask tucked away to hide my face if it became necessary. “Sends the wrong message,” I said. “Assuming it really is the War Rooms, the main people we’ll be running into are Council security, and I don’t really want to shoot them.”

“Won’t stop them from shooting you.”

“Which is why I want to be as unencumbered as possible,” I said. “Besides, if I look unarmed, there’s more chance they’ll yell at me to put my hands up instead of just shooting on sight.”

“Doesn’t carrying a handgun behind your back kind of invalidate the whole ‘unarmed’ thing?”

“I said I wanted to look unarmed,” I said. The gun was in the small of my back, held in a holster designed for concealment. I’d have to pull back the flap before I could reach the gun, which could cost me precious seconds in combat, but you can’t have everything. “I’m not leaving my knife behind, either.”

“I don’t know what’s weirder,” Luna said, “the fact that you carry a knife with the kind of people you run into, or that it actually seems to work.” She leant back against the tree and sighed. “I wish I was coming with you.”

“No, you don’t,” I said. “Besides, our deal with the Council only gives amnesty to me and to Anne.”

“I know, I know. You’ll call if you need backup?”

“I will, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. If it really is the War Rooms then there’ll be gate wards, and without some way to get you in . . .”

“I’ll be sitting this one out,” Luna finished. “Great.”

I walked over to the table where I’d laid out my gear. “So if you’re attacking this place,” Luna asked, “and Vari’s been drafted to defend it, what’ll happen if you come face to face?”

“Then I guess we’ll be putting on an amateur dramatic performance where he shouts, ‘Surrender, Dark villain!’ while I yell that he’ll never take me alive.”

Luna grinned. “I’d like to see that. What are you staring at?”

“This,” I said, tapping the dreamstone.

“You’re taking it?”

“Thinking about it.”

“Not sure it’s really the time for experiments.”

“Normally I’d agree with you,” I said. “I’d do that kind of testing in a safe, controlled environment, using divination to make it as risk-free as possible. Which is what I’ve been doing for three months straight. Maybe it’s time I stopped being so safe and controlled.”

“Mm.” Luna watched me as I slipped the dreamstone into one of my pouches and sealed it closed. “Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“You said that if Morden did attack, then the Crusaders were going to do something.”

“Yeah.”

“Like sending a bunch of people to stop him?” Luna said. “Including those two mages who tortured Anne?”

“That does seem like a possibility.”

“Is that why you’re doing this?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“It’s more like a potential side objective.”

“Alex . . .”

“I’m not planning to take any chances I don’t have to,” I said. “But let’s just say I’ll be on the lookout for opportunities.” I checked my gun one last time and turned to go.

| | | | | | | | |

I got back to the real world to find a message from Morden giving me instructions to meet Vihaela via gate and follow her orders. I scanned through the futures, then once I’d found out what I could, I called Anne.

“All we have to do is survive,” I said once I’d finished catching her up. “If Morden’s going ahead with this attack—and it looks like he is—then the Council’s going to crucify him. We just have to stay alive until then. Once we do, it’s over. We’ll be away from Morden and out from under that death sentence, too.”

Anne was silent.

“Anne?”

“Yes.”

“You okay?”

“We’re going to be meeting Vihaela,” Anne said.

“Yeah.”

“She scares me.” Anne’s voice was distant. “It feels like she wants to take something.”

I sighed inwardly. That death sentence had been hanging over us for a really long time and I’d hoped that the news that it was lifted might have made Anne happy. So much for that. “Anyway, there’s good news and bad news,” I said. “The good news is that we’re not going to be immediately grabbed, accused of being traitors, and tortured for information the second we step through. So either Morden doesn’t know that we’ve gone to the Council, or he’s not planning to do anything about it just yet.”

“What’s the bad news?”

“The bad news is that Deleo is going to be there too.”

“All right.”

I paused. “There anything you want to talk about before we go?”

“Let’s just get on with it.”

The tone of Anne’s voice worried me. Fleetingly, it occurred to me that while dealing with Morden and Talisid and the Council hadn’t exactly been fun, it had at least kept me busy. Anne had had nothing to do but brood, and maybe that was making things worse. But we didn’t have time to talk things over. “Okay. Let’s go.”

| | | | | | | | |

We gated through into a small sitting room, the kind you’d find in a medium-sized house. Bright daylight was coming through the windows and the air felt warmer than the autumn chill of London—we were probably somewhere far south and either east or west, but I couldn’t tell where. Anne had arrived a few seconds before, and I stepped through my own gate and let it close behind me.

The two women in the room were exactly the ones I’d expected to see and exactly the ones I didn’t want to spend time with. Vihaela was standing in the centre, dressed in brown and black and red. Rachel—Deleo—was to one side. She had her mask on and was leaning against the wall with her arms folded. She didn’t look happy, but then she rarely does.

“Verus,” Vihaela said. “I’m glad you finally decided to show up. I’d hate to think we were keeping you from something important.”

I didn’t rise to the bait. “I was told you’d have orders for me.”

“I think you mean ‘for us,’” Vihaela said. “Oh, and it’s so nice to see you again, Anne. I was almost starting to think you were avoiding me.” She gave Anne a smile. “Still no name? You really should do something about that.”

Anne returned Vihaela’s gaze silently. “So where are we going?” I said.

“You,” Vihaela said, “are going to wait here.”

“Wait for what?”

“Wait for my call.”

“And then you’ll want us to . . . ?”

“To do what I tell you.” Vihaela’s smile didn’t alter. “I think it was explained to you that you were to follow my instructions?”

I didn’t reply.

“Good. Oh, we’re under strict communications discipline, so no calls in or out please. I’m sure the three of you will be able to keep yourselves occupied. There’s probably a pack of cards or something in the drawers.” She turned and left. I felt her opening a gate the next room over, and then she was gone.

Anne and I exchanged looks. I didn’t want to show it in front of Rachel, but I was confused. I’d been expecting some kind of large-scale preparation. Why were we just being left to wait?

Well, there’s one person who knows the answer. “So where are we going?” I asked Rachel.

Rachel stayed with her arms folded, leaning against the wall. “Where you’re told.”

“I got that part.”

Rachel shrugged.

“I thought there was going to be a fight.”

“Because you’re so useful in those,” Rachel said sarcastically.

“If we’re fighting—”

“No, we’ll be fighting,” Rachel said. “You are going to be useless as always.”

I looked at Rachel, unease nagging at me. Something’s wrong. Rachel was talking as though there was going to be a fight and she was angry at being left out. But if there was going to be a fight, why was she being left out? Richard didn’t have so many servants that he could afford to bench someone as powerful as Rachel without good reason, which meant that whatever she was accomplishing by staying here watching us, it was more important than being out there taking part in the attack . . .

They know. All of a sudden, I was sure. Somehow Morden and Richard knew that we’d betrayed them, and we were being held away from the location of the attack until they could deal with us properly.

Rachel spoke without looking at me. “Don’t even think about it.”

Damn it. Had I shown something? Never mind. I glanced sideways at Anne and saw her looking back at me, watchful; from her stance, I knew her thoughts hadn’t reached the place that mine had, but if I did attack, I knew she’d back me up. On the other side of the room, Rachel shifted slightly, pushing off the wall. I studied the distance between us. Both of us could cross it in maybe one second. Rachel’s shield would block my attacks but not Anne’s, and if Rachel went for Anne, I could dispel it and use my gun before she could throw it up again. Except . . .

Except in that second, Rachel would have enough time for a disintegrate spell. She couldn’t hit both of us; if Anne and I timed our movements correctly, then one of us would be certain to get her, but the other would just as certainly be killed.

I looked at Rachel. Behind her mask, her eyes were alight, and with a chill, I realised that she wanted me to go for her. Not much seems to make Rachel happy anymore, but as far as I can tell, hurting me is near the top of a short list. I looked at the futures, calculating our chances.

And I found something odd. Rachel would fight, hurt me if she could, kill me if she had to . . . but only if she had to. If I just ran, she’d try to stop me, but she wouldn’t try to put a disintegrate ray into my back. About the only thing I could think of that could explain that was the threat of extreme force, which meant explicit orders from Vihaela, Morden, or Richard . . . actually, probably just Richard.

You don’t go out of your way to keep a known traitor alive, especially not if you’re about to finish them off anyway. I hesitated.

Rachel shook her head in disgust and looked away. “You just never change.”

I looked at Rachel. I’m going about this the wrong way. Rachel’s always had the edge on me when it comes to brute strength; I shouldn’t be trying to outfight her. “So, have you thought about it?”

“Thought about what?”

“What I told you last time.”

“No.”

“Seems like Vihaela’s settled in pretty comfortably as your boss,” I said. “And she’s giving you orders to your face now?”

Silence.

“I guess Richard and Morden must really trust her, to give her authority over a job like this,” I said. “I mean, it’s obviously really important to them. They’d want to have their best people on it.” I tilted my head. “Kind of odd they’ve set you to watch us.”

Rachel’s eyes snapped, but she didn’t have an answer. “You do realise you’ve been replaced, right?” I said. “Back then, you were Richard’s Chosen. Now you’re just another mage.”

“I’m still his Chosen!”

“If he’d been going to move you up to bigger and better things, he’d have done it by now. There isn’t going to be some big reward waiting at the end of the tunnel. You’re not his star pupil. You’re just an early experiment.”

Rage flashed in Rachel’s eyes, and she took a step towards me. I watched her warily but didn’t jump aside; I still couldn’t see any futures in which she actually attacked. “You,” Rachel said tightly. “You think you’re so clever. I hope Vihaela does take me along. It’ll all be worth it if I get to see the look on your face. Whatever she’s got in mind—” Rachel stopped.

“What?” All of a sudden, I was wary. “What are you hoping?”

Rachel turned away.

I took a step towards her. “If there’s something you want to—”

“Shut up,” Rachel said. “I might have to watch you, but I don’t have any orders about having to listen to you running your mouth. He only said I had to keep you alive. Nothing about being able to talk. So if you don’t shut up right now, I’m going to break your jaw.”

I wondered if Rachel was bluffing, and I looked at the futures where I tested it. Ouch. Okay, she wasn’t bluffing. I looked at Anne, who only gave me a tiny shrug.

Time passed. I stayed standing in the room, and to all appearances it would have looked as though I was doing nothing, but in truth I was looking into the futures in which I used my phone or communicator, trying to get in touch with Luna or Variam or Talisid. In all of them Rachel interfered, but I was able to get brief glimpses in which I was able to try completing the calls. In every case, I didn’t get an answer, and that made me uneasy. The longer we stayed waiting here, the more certain I became that something was happening. I didn’t know what that something was, but I didn’t think it was anything good.

I looked sideways at Anne, but she didn’t meet my gaze. She was staring through the window, and that bothered me too. Anne and I have been through a lot, and I’d become used to her intuitively reading my moods. Now all of a sudden we felt disconnected, as though she’d signed off. It felt ominous, as though I was on my own. I wanted to boost our chances, but I couldn’t see any course of action that wouldn’t make things worse.

I sensed Vihaela coming back a long time before she returned; she still wasn’t coming to kill us, but she was bringing company. The futures were spidered, shifting; it seemed events were altering her plans. For a moment, it looked as though she’d be here in five minutes; then there was a shift and it was fifteen, then ten, then all of a sudden she was making the gate right now and I turned my head towards the door as I felt the portal opening in the next room.

Vihaela came striding in, and her manner had changed. She looked keyed up and alert, and there was a blackened patch on her clothes that I didn’t think had been there before. Behind her was Archon, dressed in his signature head-to-toe armour and full-face helmet. My divination had seen him coming, so I wasn’t surprised, but the sight of him made me realise just how many people Richard was committing to this.

“We’re on,” Vihaela said to Rachel. She didn’t speak to Archon, but something about their stance suggested they were familiar with each other. “Get moving.”

Rachel pointed at Archon. “What’s he doing here?”

“Gating you to the control room,” Vihaela said. “Do as he says.”

“I’m not taking orders from him.”

“Do not even think about giving me shit on this one, Deleo.” Vihaela’s voice was hard and she stared at Rachel with a raptor’s gaze. “You do as I say or I’ll burst every blood vessel in your lungs and leave you to drown in your own blood. Pick one. Now.”

Rachel glared hate at Vihaela, and just for an instant I saw a flash of deadly violence, then it was gone. “Fine,” Rachel said, biting off the word.

Vihaela was already turning to Anne. “Come with me.”

“Where—?” Anne started to ask.

Vihaela’s eyes narrowed. It was a very slight movement but it was enough to make Anne stop. Vihaela jerked her head and Anne began to follow.

A spike of dread went through me. “Wait.”

“Verus, this is a very bad time to get in my way,” Vihaela said. “So I will only say this once. If you try to argue or spin me some line about taking you instead, then I will hurt you.”

That had been exactly the approach I’d been about to try. Vihaela and Anne started towards the door and without thinking, I took a step forward, opening my mouth—

“Alex,” Anne said to me without turning. Her voice was soft but clear. “Don’t.”

I hesitated, then Anne and Vihaela disappeared and the moment was gone. I was left alone with Archon and Rachel.

“I wouldn’t worry,” Archon said. “You’ll see her soon enough.”

I shot the Dark mage a look, but Rachel was already turning on Archon. “You think we’re just going to do whatever you say?”

“It would be advisable,” Archon said. I felt him starting to cast one of those strange gates that wasn’t a gate.

“And what if I don’t?”

“Follow, or don’t,” Archon said. “The choice is yours.” He glanced at me. “Oh, and once you step through, duck.”

“Step through to where?” I asked. On the other side of the portal-to-be I could sense battle and danger, but I couldn’t recognise the destination.

“I’m not going anywhere without—” Rachel began.

“Time,” Archon said, and a black gate flickered and formed in the air in front of him, revealing a tiled hallway. He stepped through without waiting.

I hesitated for an instant, but wherever Archon was going, our mission was there and so was Anne. I stepped through.