Burned

12

The Dark mages spun to face me. Black energy leaped to the hands of one, fire to the hands of another. I kept still, not making any sudden moves. The good news was that I was pretty sure that Rachel and Onyx weren’t here. If they had been, they’d have shot first and asked questions afterwards. ‘Hi, guys,’ I said. ‘How are you doing?’

Several of the Dark mages just stared at me. I think the sheer lunacy of what I’d done had caught them off guard. ‘Looking to die, Keeper?’ one of them said.

‘That’s not really up to you, is it?’

Two of the mages turned to look at each other. ‘Burn him?’ the fire mage asked.

‘I wouldn’t,’ I told him.

‘Yeah?’ the fire mage said. From the subtleties of the magic playing around his hands, I could tell it wasn’t Cinder. Pity. ‘Give me a good reason.’

‘Because it’s not your decision.’ I turned to one of the figures at the centre of the group and played my best card. ‘It’s Morden’s.’

The Dark mages stared at me in silence. I looked back at them without blinking. ‘This guy nuts?’ one of the others asked.

‘Fuck it,’ one of them said. ‘Just kill him.’ But he didn’t move.

I kept looking at Morden. His face was shrouded in darkness, but I knew it was him. ‘Well?’

‘You’re very confident for one caught alone,’ Morden said. There was an odd buzz to his words, and the pitch was different. The more he spoke, though, the more I could recognise his voice. Spells can only hide so much.

‘So, here’s what I had in mind,’ I said. ‘You guys pack up and leave, and I won’t say anything to the Keepers about who you are or what you were doing here. We all go home happy.’

One of the Dark mages laughed. ‘That’s an interesting offer,’ Morden said. ‘Unfortunately for you, you’re in no position to enforce it.’ He gestured to the two mages by the sarcophagus. ‘Get back to work. You two, if Verus tries to interfere, incapacitate him. Make it painful but non-fatal, please.’

The mage Morden had been talking to looked unimpressed at the ‘non-fatal’ part but obeyed. ‘I’d go with my plan if I were you,’ I said.

‘Or you’ll do what?’ one of the Dark mages said.

‘Or I’ll let you go,’ I said. ‘Then once you’re gone, I’ll give a full report to the Keepers. In particular, I’ll explain how you, Morden, were personally involved in attacking Keeper personnel and taking a relic against express Council instructions.’ I looked at Morden’s back. ‘How much longer do you think you’ll keep that Council seat once that happens?’

Morden paused.

‘Take your time,’ I said.

‘Verus, you’ve survived until now by not putting yourself in direct opposition to the mages you deal with,’ Morden said. ‘I would advise against changing that.’

‘Everyone finds something to take a stand for sooner or later.’

‘You think the Council will take your word for it?’ Morden said. ‘With your reputation?’

‘You think they’ll care? The Crusaders and the Guardians hate you way more than they hate me. Levistus and the rest of his faction will jump on it hands first. I mean, I could let them do a mental probe, but honestly, I doubt they’ll even want one. They couldn’t care less if I’m telling the truth. They’ve been looking for an excuse to get rid of you ever since you walked into the Conclave.’

Morden stayed silent for a moment. ‘Interesting,’ he said at last. He turned to face me, his face shadowed and blank. ‘You make a compelling case. However, there appears to be one point you have overlooked. To speak to the Council, you have to be alive.’

I felt the mood in the group shift. The two mages who’d been working on the sarcophagus looked up. I could sense spells ready to go, primed and eager. ‘Not quite,’ I said.

‘Why?’ Morden said. His voice was soft. ‘Think fast, Verus.’

‘Because time mages can use timesight,’ I said. ‘Mind mages can use telepathy. Space mages can scry. The Council might be bad at a lot of things, but one thing it’s not short on is resources. If you kill me, there are a dozen ways they can find out that it was you, and once they do, you’re done. Oh, I’m sure you could get away, but you’ll never hold Council office again.’ I looked at Morden. ‘Ever since I first met you, this Council seat is what you’ve been working towards. Now you’ve got it. Is this relic really more important to you than the ambition you’ve spent your whole life pursuing?’

‘And if it is?’ Morden said quietly. ‘Are you willing to take that risk?’

I shrugged.

Morden stared at me. The bubble realm was dead silent. I couldn’t hear the battle from below, or any movement from behind us; we were alone in a tiny circle of light, the only living things in a dead and empty world. The other Dark mages were tense, ready. I knew there was no way I could dodge this many attacks from this short a range. If Morden gave the word, I’d be dead in seconds.

But I couldn’t see any futures in which that happened. And that was why I’d been willing to try this insane plan in the first place. Trying to divine a future through conversations with other free-willed creatures is one of the hardest uses of divination magic, but if you’re good – and I’m very good – then you can pick up a sense of what is and isn’t possible. And while I’d been hiding in the darkness, I’d noticed something: I couldn’t detect any futures in which Morden actually killed me. There’d been plenty where I’d been attacked by the other Dark mages (usually if I’d done something to provoke them), but I’d never seen Morden himself raise a hand against me. In fact, in quite a few futures, he’d been the one keeping me alive when another Dark mage had wanted to kill me and be done with it.

For whatever reason, Morden didn’t want me dead. Maybe my guess had been right, and he didn’t dare take the risk of killing a Keeper auxiliary, not where it could be traced back to him. Maybe he wanted me alive so that he could use me in some future plan. Maybe it was some other reason that I had no way to know about. It’s the same story as always with my magic – I know what’s going to happen, but I don’t know why. But sometimes, you don’t need to know why. You just have to be willing to take advantage.

‘Withdraw,’ Morden said.

The fire mage stared at Morden. ‘Are you—?’

Morden didn’t look at him. ‘Don’t make me repeat myself.’

The fire mage looked at Morden in disbelief, then stared at me. He wasn’t the only one. Even behind the masks, I could feel the enmity in those stares; if I’d been alone, I wouldn’t have fancied my chances. But Morden’s authority held, and one by one, the Dark mages rose and disappeared back into the darkness, leaving the lights behind them. Morden and I were left alone.

‘This won’t earn you the Council’s gratitude, Verus,’ Morden said. ‘Or their loyalty. They’ll turn on you soon.’

‘I guess you’d be the expert on that.’

‘Just remember what I’ve said,’ Morden said. ‘I’ll be seeing you.’ He turned and walked away. The blackness swallowed him and I was left alone.

I stood quite still for five seconds, checking to make absolutely sure that he was gone, then let myself sag, the breath coming out of my lungs in a huff. All of a sudden my muscles felt weak. I walked on shaky legs to the sarcophagus and knelt down, bracing myself against the stone. I could feel wards on the thing, half deactivated – the Dark mages had almost broken through before I’d interrupted. I could probably finish the job, given a little time. I fumbled in my pocket for a conductor probe. Most of my attention was still on Morden and his cabal, and I was tracking them through the futures, looking at the possibilities in which I pursued them, making absolutely sure that they were gone. I was mostly focused on the Dark mages in front of me and the wards on the sarcophagus that I was kneeling next to, and it didn’t occur to me that the electric lights were still on, illuminating me clearly in the middle of the open platform, and so when the attack came from behind it caught me almost completely by surprise.

My precognition saved me, but only just. Futures of pain and death screamed at me and I threw myself into a backwards roll, heat washing over me as a narrow beam of fire passed overhead. I came to my feet to run and had an instant to see the next spell coming in. I saw all the possible directions in which I could dodge, the futures making a curving shape on the open stone floor. Before the next spell hit, I had just enough time to get to anywhere within about a ten-foot radius.

The spell coming in on me was going to create a blast of flame with more than a ten-foot radius.

Divination’s good for dodging. It’s not always enough.

Searing heat flashed around me and the world went red. I managed to take the worst of the blast on my back and keep running, trying to get out of the light; a third spell missed but I could smell burning hair and cloth and knew that my clothes were on fire. There was pain all through my torso and I rolled on the ground, frantic, trying to put the fire out; my cloak was engulfed in flames and I tore it off and let it fall. Another spell was coming in and I managed to dive away just before it hit, lighting up the darkness in flame.

All of a sudden everything was still. My clothes were smouldering and there was pain down my back and right arm, but I wasn’t on fire and for now at least I was hidden by the darkness. At the centre of the platform the electric lights cast their glow, and to the right my cloak was a burning mass, but everything else was black. I didn’t move.

Flame shimmered in the darkness, and a man emerged on to the edge of the circle of light. His figure was hidden by a shield of fire, but I knew who it was. ‘Come on out, Verus,’ Ares said. His voice echoed weirdly through the flame shield. ‘Let’s make this quick.’

Very slowly, I backed away. Pain was still spiking through my body, but it wasn’t as bad as it should have been. I could feel a strange sensation at the top of my chest, and carefully and quietly I touched my hand to the top of my shirt. My fire-hunger stone was there, hidden underneath my clothes … or at least it had been. As my fingers brushed it, I could feel that it was twisted and warped. The stone had burned itself out, but it had absorbed enough of that fireball to keep me alive.

Ares kept walking forward. I kept backing away. I was hurt, but I could still run. More importantly, I knew that he didn’t know where I was. Fire mages can see heat, but the supernatural darkness was obviously messing with his magical vision as well as his normal eyesight, otherwise he’d have picked me out already. More Keepers had to be on their way. As long as I stayed quiet and didn’t let him hear me …

Ares walked forward. I couldn’t see what he was doing through the fire shield, but he seemed to be looking or listening for something. I kept easing backwards very slowly. As long as I stayed out of sight, he had to guess at which direction I’d gone in. For all he knew, I was moving towards one of the ramps – I couldn’t from my current position, not easily, but he didn’t know that. Ares walked towards my burning cloak and stopped again. I saw him turn to look in my direction.

Lucky guess? I kept creeping away, letting my feet fall softly on the stone. Ares was out of sight now, and I had to track him through my divination. I saw him look down, then up, then start walking towards me. I sped up a little. He kept following.

How does he know where I am? I couldn’t understand it. He couldn’t see me, the darkness was—

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. Oh crap.

Ares wasn’t looking up, he was looking down. He was tracking me by the heat of my footsteps.

I thought fast, fighting off panic. The pain was making it hard to concentrate. I could try to shoot him, but I could tell from my magesight that his shield was reinforced with kinetic energy this time – he’d obviously learned his lesson from two nights ago. Without my fire-hunger stone, the next hit would kill me. Run? No, he’d hear the movement and block off my movement with walls of fire. I could feel the edge of the platform behind me, a black void falling away into nothingness. One of the one-shot items I carry with me is a life ring, an air spell that slows your falling speed. I could break the ring and jump off, and I’d drop at a slow, steady rate … except that there was nothing to drop to. I’d be falling for ever.

Almost out of time. If Ares caught me up by only a few more steps, he’d see me. As if he could tell that, Ares sped up. I had to choose—

The platform shook, trembling as if in a very small, localised earthquake. Brown light bloomed in the distance, fuzzy and vague, and a figure came striding out of the darkness. ‘Ares,’ Caldera said. Her voice was flat. ‘Back off.’

I felt the flame shield around Ares wink out, replaced with his own light spell. ‘What are you talking about?’ Ares asked.

‘I’m not that fucking stupid, all right?’ Caldera said. ‘Back off from Verus, right the hell now.’

I felt the futures flicker as Ares considered lying, then decided against it. ‘You know,’ he said, ‘this would have been a lot easier if you’d stayed out of it.’

‘Yeah, well, I’m not.’ Caldera was ready to attack; I could sense it and I knew Ares could too. ‘What’s it going to be?’

‘The Council have ordered—’

‘Don’t care.’

‘You work for the Council.’

‘Yeah?’ Caldera said. ‘Then if this is all so official, where’s your warrant? How come Verus was allowed on the op?’ Caldera came to a halt a little way from Ares, her hands by her sides, her gaze locked on to him. ‘Know what I think? I think you’ve got someone paying you under the table to bump Verus off. Which makes you guilty of treason. So unless you’ve got legal authority that you can show me, then you’re going to walk away. Or we’ll find out whether fire mages can fly.’

‘Verus isn’t on our side,’ Ares said.

‘Still don’t care.’

Ares shook his head in frustration. ‘You know what the consequences are going to be for this.’

‘You haven’t got a warrant and you’re not the ranking officer,’ Caldera said. ‘Means you’re not in charge. Simple as that.’

Ares studied Caldera. ‘I suppose to you it is, isn’t it?’

‘Well? Going to make a fight of it?’

Ares looked at Caldera for a long moment. ‘No,’ he said at last. ‘I won’t kill a Keeper. Not an honest one, at any rate.’ He shrugged. ‘You win this one, Caldera.’ He walked away.

Caldera turned to watch Ares go, tracking him as he disappeared into the darkness. Only once he was gone did she turn to me. ‘Alex? You all right?’

I walked into Caldera’s light. I didn’t have far to travel; Ares had been very, very close. Caldera’s eyes widened as she saw me. ‘Jesus. You look like shit.’

‘Thanks,’ I said wearily. ‘Help me get to that sarcophagus?’

Caldera moved to my side and let me lean on her as I limped back to where the Dark mages had set up their electric lights. ‘How badly did he get you?’ Caldera asked.

‘Burns on my back and arm,’ I said. ‘I can run, but I’m not going to be doing much fighting. What happened to Landis and Vihaela?’

‘Vihaela’s here too?’

‘You didn’t see her?’

‘Too busy tracking you,’ Caldera admitted. ‘Hope Landis is okay. That woman’s bad news.’

We reached the sarcophagus and Caldera helped me down. I pulled out my conductor probe and started working on the wards. ‘Thanks,’ I said quietly, without looking at her.

‘Don’t worry about it.’

‘I don’t have many friends. When someone goes out on a limb for me, I notice.’

‘Yeah, well, don’t get too used to it. If he had had a warrant, I’d still have kicked his arse, but I’d have arrested you right after.’

‘Could you have done it?’

‘Done what?’

‘Beaten him.’

‘Probably not,’ Caldera admitted. ‘But he didn’t know that.’

I worked in silence a little longer. ‘Sorry for not telling you what was going on,’ I said at last.

‘Just get this frigging relic so we can go home.’

Traps and other obstacles are only really effective when defended. Rivers, minefields, barbed wire and similar inconveniences can slow down an armed force, but on their own, they’re just a nuisance. Rivers can be forded, minefields can be cleared by engineers and an apron of barbed wire can be removed by a single person with enough determination and a set of bolt cutters. Add some hostile snipers, though, and all of a sudden those obstacles take a major jump in difficulty. If you have to clear a minefield while someone’s shooting at you, then you’ve got a problem.

The wards on the sarcophagus were elaborate, and moderately powerful. But without any hostile mages trying to blow my head off, getting through them was really just a matter of time. And when some people did show up, they were on our side.

‘Verus, Caldera,’ Rain said. Slate and Trask were with him, along with a scattering of security men. ‘You all right?’

‘In one piece,’ Caldera said.

‘What happened?’ Rain looked around. ‘And where did those lights come from?’

‘We had some visitors,’ I said absently, not looking up from the sarcophagus. ‘There.’ I straightened up. ‘Go ahead and roll it.’

Caldera nodded and put her hands to the sarcophagus lid; it was solid stone and probably weighed close to half a ton. Caldera levered it up and slid it aside, dropping it to the floor with a thud.

Rain took a step forward and hesitated. ‘Is it safe?’

‘Wards are down,’ I said.

Cautiously, Rain moved forward. As he came closer to the lights, I saw that the side of his coat was cut and darkened with what looked like blood. It didn’t look like he’d received any healing, but then we hadn’t brought along any healers; it’s Council policy not to deploy life mages on missions. Rain didn’t seem to be seriously hurt though, and after only a moment’s pause he reached into the sarcophagus to draw out a box. It was small, no more than a foot or so square, and crafted out of some kind of dull metal. I could feel time magic radiating from it. ‘This it?’ Rain asked.

‘It’s a Minkowski box, or close enough,’ I said. ‘Can’t promise more than that.’

‘Time?’ Rain said to one of the security men.

‘Fifty-five minutes, sir.’

‘It’ll take us nearly that long to make it back,’ Slate said. ‘I say we get the fuck out.’

Rain looked at Trask. ‘Are any of the other teams still engaged?’

Trask shook his head. ‘Nothing on the comms.’

‘All right,’ Rain said. ‘Tell everyone to fall back to the regroup points. Anyone who can’t regroup, withdraw on their own. We are leaving.’

Slate nodded and turned, disappearing into the darkness. Trask put one hand to his ear and began issuing orders. Caldera looked around to see that I’d moved. ‘Alex?’

‘I’m coming,’ I said absently. While Rain had been talking I’d moved to the site of my brief, abortive battle with Ares. On the floor was a small pile of ash and charred cloth. I knelt down, running my fingers through the remains.

Caldera walked over to me. ‘Alex? You okay?’

‘More or less,’ I said. I’d been hoping against hope that my mist cloak might have survived, but as I looked at the remains I knew that there was no way. Imbued items aren’t like machines; you can’t replace their parts. They’re either alive or they’re dead. My mist cloak was dead.

I’d been trying to avoid using my mist cloak for some time. I’d made the mistake of relying on it a little too much a couple of years ago, and I’d nearly been lost for ever. Ever since then, I’d steered clear of it when possible, going out with my armour instead. But looking at the charred remnants, the first thing I felt was a sense of loss. My mist cloak’s saved my life more times than I can count. Even that time two years ago, it had only been trying to protect me, in its single-minded way, and it had protected me one last time now.

‘Come on, Alex,’ Caldera said. ‘It’s just a cloak.’

I got to my feet and walked away, Caldera at my side. I didn’t look back.

The journey back was quicker than the journey in, but there was also more of a sense of urgency – we were on a clock, and everyone knew it. The marker lights placed at the top and bottom of each ramp showed us our way back, but between them we were plunged into blackness. I had to take point again, guiding us back from one island of light to the next. Not all the lights were deserted either; I found men clustering around several of them, in ones and twos and threes, mostly Council security who’d become separated in the fighting and had pulled back to the lights to wait for rescue. They joined up with us as we passed, swelling our numbers.

One of the first people we picked up was Landis, and I felt a little relief as I saw him standing at his ease in the light, fiddling with some contraption he’d been carrying in his pocket. ‘Landis,’ I said. ‘You’re okay?’

‘Hmm?’ Landis glanced up. ‘Ah, Verus. Where did you get to?’

‘Where did I—?’ I shook my head. ‘What happened with Vihaela?’

‘Oh, her. Was a bit of a sticky situation there for a while.’ Landis stuffed the gadget into his pocket and fell into step beside me. ‘She does know what she’s doing, doesn’t she?’

‘That’s one way of putting it. What happened?’

‘Well, we were in the middle of our little difference of opinion when she made her apologies and left.’ Landis looked thoughtful. ‘Honestly, I have the feeling she was just trying to slow us down.’

We kept moving, picking up people as we went. Rain was constantly on the comms, giving orders and coordinating. From time to time someone would call out how long we had until the gate cut off. Forty minutes, thirty-five, thirty …

‘Alex,’ Caldera called from behind me. ‘Hold up.’

I stopped and retraced my steps. Rain was in the middle of a small crowd, illuminated by half a dozen lights, and he was on the communicator to someone. ‘Can you figure out your position?’ he said. ‘Yes … Look for the lights. Can you see the lights?’

‘What’s going on?’ I asked Caldera quietly.

‘One of the units got cut off,’ Caldera said under her breath. ‘They managed to hold out but they lost their bearings in the fight. They’re somewhere near but we don’t know where.’

Rain listened a little longer, then cut the connection and looked at Slate. ‘How long have we got?’

‘Twenty-seven minutes.’

‘Verus? How long back to the gate?’

‘Only three more ramps,’ I said. ‘Five minutes if we run.’

‘We can search,’ Slate said.

‘We don’t have time,’ another Keeper said.

‘Yes, we do!’

‘Can’t risk everyone for one security team.’

‘There’s long enough—’

‘Not if something goes wrong.’

‘Enough,’ Rain said. ‘Slate. Do we have any way of reliably tracking them?’

Slate was silent. ‘We could try,’ he said.

Rain stared at Slate, then past him into space. The others fell silent, watching Rain. I felt the futures shift, then settle, and Rain looked back at Slate. ‘We pull out.’

Slate looked at Rain angrily. ‘You’re going to leave them?’

‘They knew the risks when they took the job.’ Slate started to answer and Rain made a negative motion. ‘Discussion’s over. Lumen, Trask, get everyone moving. We’re heading out.’

I sighed. I was burned, tired and aching. I really didn’t want to do anything more today. ‘Rain,’ I said.

Rain paused, looking back at me with a frown. ‘We don’t have time for—’

‘I’ll find your guys,’ I said. ‘Caldera can guide you the rest of the way. Just leave the door open.’

There were arguments. Caldera objected and so did Rain. I shrugged it off and walked into the darkness.

It was a relief to be on my own again. Divination magic is solitary by nature, and in a lot of ways being alone is a diviner’s natural state. It’s just so much easier to look ahead when you don’t have a bunch of other people talking and moving and messing up your carefully laid-out future paths. Other mages can understand the theory of how divination works, and they can try their best not to disrupt you, but even the best of them can’t compete with simply walking off by yourself. So what if I was enveloped in darkness? To my eyes, the mass of noise and chaos following Rain’s Keepers stood out like searchlights against the void. It didn’t take me long to find the missing Council security – they were hardly any distance away at all. I headed down the nearest ramp on a path that I knew would take me to them.

But despite the time pressure, I didn’t hurry as much as I should have done. I was tired – not just physically, but mentally. Yes, I was carrying muscle strains and burns from my fight with Ares, but those were superficial; the problem was something deeper. I’d lost too much, been on the run for too long. I felt rootless, unattached.

I came to a stop at the foot of the ramp. Up ahead were the Council security men I’d come to find. To the left and to the right was only emptiness. I found myself wondering what would happen if I just wandered off, sat down somewhere and closed my eyes. The gate would shut behind me and I’d be left alone. I wouldn’t have to worry about Levistus, or assassinations, or politics. Peace.

Of course, Luna and Anne and Variam would still be out there. Just because I was gone, that wouldn’t stop the resolution from being passed.

And then there were those three men. There are more than enough mages who treat other people’s lives as expendable. If I left them here, I’d be as bad or worse.

I shook off the lassitude and walked forward to meet up with the men I’d come to find.

The three Council security were happy to see me, to say the least. One had taken a bullet in the fighting – probably friendly fire from a stray round – and needed help to move. There was a brief argument where the younger of the three men almost-but-not-quite suggested leaving the wounded man behind so that we could escape. I made it clear that we had plenty of time to get him out the normal way, and thankfully the third man (a sergeant who’d managed to keep a level head despite the suffocating darkness) backed me up. The sergeant and I each slung one of the wounded man’s arms over our shoulders, and we set off, the younger recruit leading the way, his eyes white as he tried to point his gun and torch in every direction at once.

I’d left Rain’s group twenty-four minutes before the gate was due to close. It took me three minutes to find the missing security men, four minutes to get there and one to get them moving. The journey back to the gate took twelve minutes, pushing ourselves but not so much so as to risk an accident. We made it through with three and a half minutes left. Plenty of time.

A cold line slid along my skin as we passed through the veil, and then we stepped out into dazzling light. We were back in our world.

Light and noise overwhelmed my senses. I’d spent so long in the darkness and silence that it felt as though a crowd of people were yelling and shining spotlights in my face, and I put my free arm up to shield myself. As my ears and eyes adjusted I realised that the basement was packed with Keepers and Council security, and they were yelling. I tried to step back into a defensive stance, but it was hard with the wounded guy’s arm around my shoulders, and I braced myself to dodge.

‘Hey!’

I turned to see Caldera grinning at me. A medic and another guy took charge of the wounded man, and Caldera clapped me on the shoulder, making me stagger. ‘You really are something, you know that?’ Caldera said.

‘What did I do this time?’ I said. I had to raise my voice to be heard over the shouting.

‘What?’

‘What are they yelling at me for?’

Caldera stared at me. ‘They’re cheering.’

I blinked. Come to think of it, the voices didn’t sound angry. Looking around, I saw what I hadn’t noticed at first, that the people looking at me were grinning rather than scowling. The mood wasn’t angry – it was happy. ‘Why would they be cheering?’

Caldera gave me a disbelieving look. ‘Seriously?’

Slate and Trask pushed their way through the crowd towards me. Slate was shaking his head. ‘Are you fucking serious?’ he said. ‘You actually found them?’

‘Well, yeah.’

‘Why?’ Slate said.

I shrugged.

Slate shook his head again. ‘Frigging diviners.’ He walked away.

Trask started to follow, paused and looked at me. ‘Nice work,’ he told me before going after Slate.

‘What happened to Ares?’ I asked Caldera.

‘Made an early exit. He’s already gated back to London.’

‘What about the attack? Wasn’t there a small army headed right for here?’

‘Coatl told me,’ Caldera said. ‘Those guys didn’t have any magical support. Elandis’s unit tore them apart. After half of them went down, the rest turned and ran.’

‘What about—?’

‘Alex,’ Caldera interrupted. ‘We won, okay? It’s over.’

The sergeant who’d been helping me carry the wounded man came up to me. ‘Mage … Verus, wasn’t it?’

‘That’s right. Your man okay?’

‘He’ll live, thanks to you.’ The sergeant offered me his hand. He was about forty, with a compact build and piercing blue eyes, and he wore a black beret. ‘Never introduced. Sergeant Little.’

I shook the man’s hand. ‘Alex Verus. Glad I could help.’

Sergeant Little nodded. ‘We lost two men today. Without you, it would have been five. I won’t forget that, and my men won’t either. You ever need help, you call us up.’

I wasn’t sure what to say. ‘Thanks.’

Little nodded again, and gave a tip of the hat to Caldera. ‘Keeper.’

‘Caldera,’ a voice said from behind us. We turned to see Rain. ‘We’re leaving in ten minutes. Get everyone ready.’

‘Got it,’ Caldera said, and left.

Rain gave me a slight smile. ‘Enjoying being hero of the hour?’

‘Honestly, it just feels weird,’ I said. I still didn’t understand why all of a sudden everyone was happy with me. ‘I didn’t do that much.’

‘You guided us in, grabbed the relic single-handed and then went back to rescue a few men when you could have just led us out. Seems like plenty to me.’

‘I spent half that trip doing basic divination and the other half running away,’ I admitted. ‘Doesn’t feel that impressive.’

Rain shook his head. He doesn’t smile much, but he was smiling now. ‘You want some kind of reward or something? I’m already going to be writing this up in my report, but if you’re looking for something special…’

A reward from the Council? Now that was a weird thought. ‘I don’t think—’ I stopped as an idea occurred to me. ‘Actually, now you mention it, there is one thing…’

We gated back into Keeper HQ to an enthusiastic reception. Medics and life mages came rushing out to lead the wounded away, on foot or on stretchers. Mostly, though, people were cheering us, or laughing and joking. There’s a rush to surviving a combat operation, a kind of euphoria. The Council security squads had taken losses, yet all the same, I had the feeling that this had gone better than they’d expected.

Maradok was waiting for us at the centre of the room. His gaze rested on me for a moment with no visible surprise, and I wondered if Ares had already delivered his report. Then Maradok’s eyes fastened on the box in Rain’s hands. I walked up to Maradok, a step behind Rain.

‘Councilman,’ Rain said.

‘Captain Rain,’ Maradok said. ‘Congratulations on your—’

Maradok stopped as Rain turned and passed the box to me. I stepped forward and smiled at Maradok. ‘Hello, Councilman. I believe I made you a promise.’

Maradok looked at me, his blue eyes expressionless.

I took another step forward. Maradok reached for the box but I held on to it. ‘And if you send any more assassins like Ares after me,’ I said in a low voice, ‘then I will mail them back to you one piece at a time.’

Maradok’s hand stayed on the box. So did mine. ‘I think this matter should be considered closed,’ I said quietly. ‘Don’t you?’

Maradok looked at me. I looked at him. I felt the futures shift, then settle. ‘Very well,’ Maradok said.

I let go of the box. Maradok started to turn away. ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘One more thing.’

Maradok paused. ‘And that is?’

‘I think you owe me an apology.’

Maradok looked at me unemotionally for a few seconds. ‘Don’t push your luck.’ He turned and walked away.

Rain and I watched him go. ‘Some history?’ Rain asked.

‘Actually it’s pretty recent,’ I said. As I watched, Maradok disappeared through the door. I got one last look at the dull metal box before it vanished. I wondered exactly what was in it, and whether it really had been a bound jinn, and decided I didn’t care. The Council would lock it up in a storage facility somewhere, and as far as I was concerned, it could stay there. It wasn’t my problem any more.

‘Come on,’ Rain said, patting my arm. ‘Let’s get you to debriefing.’

‘Joy,’ I said with a sigh. ‘Couldn’t I deal with some more Dark mages instead?’

Rain snorted and we turned away, moving to join Caldera and Landis. A few more hours, then I was going home.