Cursed

chapter 8

I run away a lot. It’s something you have to learn if you work alone and have a habit of finding trouble. Against these kind of odds-Belthas, Garrick, Meredith, Martin, and a dozen armed men on one side, and me on the other-staying to fight isn’t much different from suicide. I have absolutely no pride when it comes to combat. Running like a squirrel doesn’t bother me at all.

But leaving someone behind does. I’d been gambling that Luna and I could both make it out and now we’d been separated everything fell apart. I wanted to go back and help her, but there was nothing I could do against so many. Worse, as soon as Belthas realised I was there, he could threaten to hurt Luna unless I surrendered, and I knew he’d do it.

All I could think was to go deeper into the tunnels. Looking into the future, I could see that some came to dead ends, but others went down and down into darkness. If I was able to get deep enough, and if Belthas sent his men down after me, and if I could hide and let them go by and double back towards the entrance, and if Belthas hadn’t left enough men to guard Luna …

It was a desperate plan, the biggest flaw being that I didn’t have any equipment. I’d left my mist cloak back at my flat, and checking my pockets I found everything else had been taken. Within a few minutes the sounds behind me had died away and I came to a stop, looking into the futures ahead of me and hoping for some luck.

I didn’t get it. After only a minute I heard the sounds of movement again, this time in greater numbers. Belthas had gotten organised and he was sending every man he had down into the tunnels, sweeping each passage methodically from end to end. Looking into the future, I saw with a sinking heart that hiding wasn’t going to work. All I could do was back away deeper into the darkness.

The tunnels went down and just kept on going. It was pitch-black and sight was useless; only my divination magic kept me from tripping and falling. To begin with I kept trying to find a place to hide, but as Belthas’s men pursued me deeper and deeper I realised it would be all I could do to simply get away.

I don’t know how long that chase went on. It felt like hours, but deep beneath the earth there was no way to tell. The tunnels were solid rock, worn smooth, and they carried sounds of movement oddly. From time to time I’d hear the sound of Belthas’s men but at other times they’d fall ominously silent, and that spurred me on all the more. I didn’t let myself think of Luna or Arachne or Belthas or Meredith. All I knew was that to stop was to die.

As time passed the journey began to feel like a nightmare, one of those dreams where you run and run but never get away. Again and again I would stop and wait, hoping I’d lost them, and every time as soon as I stopped I would hear the distant echo of the men on my tail. It grew warmer as we went deeper and the air grew close. I kept staring blindly into the darkness, trying uselessly to see, until at last I shut my eyes and forced myself to rely on my magic. The only sound was my footsteps on the rock and the distant noise of Belthas’s men.

By the time I finally lost them, I was too exhausted to notice. The slipping, clambering path down the tunnels had drained my energy to the point where all I could think about was the next tunnel, and the next, and the next. I kept going, one ear open for the sounds of pursuit. Gradually I realised I couldn’t hear them anymore.

I stopped at last in a narrow, branching corridor and leant against the wall. My shirt was damp with sweat and I stripped off my jumper, tying it around my waist, before holding my breath and listening for a slow count of sixty. Nothing. I looked into the future and realised no one was coming. I was alone.

I’ve never liked being underground. Air’s more my element, even if I’m not close enough to it to use its magic; I like being high, able to see. Here beneath the earth, I felt tense, on edge. The air felt different: dry and stuffy. I could imagine the thousands of tons of earth and rock above me pressing silently down, and I forced myself to stay calm.

I think the only thing that stopped me from losing it was knowing I could find my way back. I was lost of course-there was no way I could have marked my passage in that flight, and the pitch-black tunnels would have turned me around in seconds. But as long as I have my magic, I can never stay lost. With enough time, I can always find the path.

Except in this case, the path led to about fifteen angry men with guns. I took stock of my position. No food, no water, no equipment, no friends. I had three choices: stay here, go forward, or go back.

In the end I went forward. It wasn’t so much a choice as a lack of one. I’ve been in a lot of really bad situations over the years and one of the small consolations is that you don’t have to worry much about consequences anymore.

The upper levels had had open chambers and rooms, which had narrowed down into twisting passages as I’d descended. Now, as I kept walking, I noticed that the passages were starting to open out again. They’d stopped sloping down, which was some consolation, but I knew I still had to be far beneath the surface. The tunnels would have to climb back up a very long way to reach another exit, which I was frankly starting to believe was pretty unlikely.

After a while-I couldn’t say how long-I became vaguely aware that something was different. I was making steady progress but it was getting harder to see what was coming. The corridors and passages were fuzzier, more difficult to tell apart. I felt as though I was walking down a long, straight tunnel but when I looked again I thought I saw a fork. I looked again and saw a T junction. Then I couldn’t see any tunnel at all.

I slowed and scanned around me. I was in a large chamber. No, not large-huge. I looked back, disoriented, trying to figure out where I’d left the tunnel, and realised there was no tunnel. There was nothing around me but open space. I stopped and heard my footsteps fade into the distance. They didn’t echo.

I was standing in a vast cavern. The walls were ragged and irregular but their edges were smooth. The colour of the stone ranged from grey to brown, and in places I could see the dull glint of crystal. A moment later I realised that I was able to see. There was no light, yet everything was visible.

Slowly I began to walk again, and as I did I noticed that something was wrong with the perspective in this place. Distances didn’t seem right, somehow. At first glance I’d thought the cavern was maybe a few hundred yards, but as I walked I realised it was taking far too long to reach the centre. The place was miles and miles wide, the roof so far above I couldn’t even see it. At the centre were craggy rock formations, and as I kept walking, they grew larger and larger until I realised that they were the size of hills. There was an entire mountain range at the centre of this place, curled around where I was standing, rising at the centre in a line of jagged peaks and descending on either side to form the shape of a crescent moon. To my left the mountains trailed away to a smooth point, while to my right they ended in a massive rock formation like a mesa.

The mesa rose into the air.

I stopped dead. The mesa was high off the ground, supported at an angle by a titanic pillar of rock. As I watched, it swung in my direction, crossing the miles between us with a kind of lazy grace. The mesa came to rest in front of me, towering over me like a skyscraper while I stood motionless.

Then the mesa opened its eyes.

It wasn’t a mesa. It was a head. The pillar of rock was a long, serpentine neck. And what I’d thought was a mountain range was the thing’s body. Two enormous eyes, each the size of a castle, focused on where I stood. They looked like rough-cut diamonds, with no pupils I could see.

I stood very still. Piece by piece, I slowly realised what my eyes had seen but my brain had refused to put together. The mountain range was a body, the folded hills beneath them two legs. The line of peaks was the ridge on its back and the trailing edge of mountains to my left was a long, serpentine tail. But it was the head that held my attention. It was long and wedge-shaped, the two eyes set far back before a pair of swept-back horns each the size of a tower, with two nostrils set at the front. Now that it had turned to face me, it was completely still. If I hadn’t seen it move, I would have thought it was some impossible rock formation.

The dragon watched me, silent and unblinking.

“Um,” I said. “Hi.”

It was, looking back on it, a pretty stupid way to introduce myself.

“Um, sorry to bother you,” I said. The creature before me didn’t react, and I raised my voice a little. “Didn’t mean to intrude.”

The dragon stared at me. I don’t know much about dragons. Nobody really does. Maybe it couldn’t hear me, any more than a human can hear an ant. I began to back off. “I’ll just leave you in peace-”

STAY.

The voice went through me as though I were hearing it with my whole body. It felt like an earthquake, thunder through distant caverns. I stopped.

ARACHNE.

I hesitated. “Yes?”

YOU WILL AID HER.

I hesitated again, trying to figure out what to say. It didn’t sound like an order. It was more like a statement. “I’m going to,” I said at last. “If I can.”

The dragon watched me silently. “Okay,” I said slowly. “Arachne’s above. She’s in her lair. She’s hurt.”

I waited for an answer. Nothing came.

“Can you go to her?” I said at last.

The dragon didn’t answer. I didn’t know what was going on. “If I brought Arachne here, could you help her?”

YES.

“Is there, uh … any way you could help me with that?”

The dragon reared its head back, opening its mouth like a chasm. There were teeth inside, glinting dully. One of its enormous front claws rose up out of the earth and broke off a tooth with a thunderclap. Then the claw descended towards me.

I would have fled then if I could. One brush from that claw would turn me into a bloody smear. I knew I couldn’t possibly get away but my instincts shouted at me to run anyway … and yet I couldn’t move. All I could do was watch that claw descend, bigger and bigger-

The claw was gone. The dragon was back as it had been. Its enormous diamond eyes watched me. GO.

Darkness.

I was lying on stone, face down. It was pitch-black, and the air was warm. I was back in the tunnels.

I sat up, searching around me with my divination magic, watching the futures of myself exploring. I was in a small tunnel with a smooth floor. One end sloped upwards slightly and I had the feeling it led back the way I had come. There was no cavern nearby, and looking into the futures, there was nothing like it within my range. It didn’t seem to exist.

I shook my head, disoriented. My memories of the cavern felt hazy, confused, and didn’t seem to make sense. Had it been real? Or a dream, my mind playing tricks from exhaustion?

Either way, I’d been down here for hours. The tunnels felt dead, empty. If Belthas’s men had been going to search this far, they would have caught up to me by now; they must have given up and gone back. Looking into the future, I couldn’t see any sign that the tunnels ahead were going to start sloping back up towards ground level. I turned and began retracing my steps.

It took a long time, but even so the way back was easier. Now I wasn’t in a panicked rush, I could see the tunnels weren’t as complex as I’d thought. There were only one or two main pathways, with the occasional side passage and dead end. The tunnels followed a single primary route, two or three times my height and much wider.

I kept to a steady pace, narrowing my visions down to only the next few seconds, focusing on my footing and my precognition. As I walked I thought about what I should do. Belthas had to be long gone; I couldn’t imagine him setting up camp in Arachne’s lair. If I was lucky he’d given up on me and sealed the cave, maybe with a booby trap or two. That would cause problems but I could deal with it. If I was unlucky he’d left guards, in which case … well, I’d just have to come up with something.

When the first sliver of light appeared, I almost didn’t recognise it; I’d been navigating by sound and touch so long I’d forgotten to use my eyes. As I drew closer I saw it was the reflected glow of the lights in Arachne’s lair. There were hollow caves around here, used as rooms; at a quick glance they held bales of thread and cloth. I was only two turnings away from the lair itself and I knew I had to be silent. Quietly, I moved forward to the T junction that led into the lair. My eyes weren’t yet accustomed to the light, and even the dim reflections off the rock were enough to dazzle me. I didn’t poke my head out; instead I stood with my hand on the rocky wall and looked into the future of me doing so.

It wasn’t my lucky day. It wasn’t really luck of course; it was that Belthas was so bloody thorough. But it was still hard to take. After everything I’d gone through this night I really needed a break, and I wasn’t getting one.

There was good news, bad news, and worse news. The good news, and the biggest surprise, was that Arachne was still in the lair, motionless in the corner, and as far as I could tell she didn’t seem to have been touched. I didn’t understand why Belthas would leave her here after going to so much trouble to get her but I wasn’t going to question it.

The bad news was that four of Belthas’s men were there too. They’d gathered the sofas and chairs at the centre of the room, giving themselves some cover and creating a killing ground in front of the entrances. One was watching the tunnels; a second seemed to be napping; the third was back at the mouth of the tunnel leading out onto the Heath, leaning against the wall. He was smoking and I could smell the cigarette from all the way across the room.

The worse news was that the fourth man was Garrick. He was tucked away behind the barricade, almost invisible behind one of the sofas. He looked to be settled comfortably, but even so, his weapon was propped up and levelled at exactly the space I’d need to cross to leave the tunnel. He looked half asleep but I knew he wasn’t.

I looked to see what would happen if I moved out. Hopeless. If I didn’t get shot down in the first few steps, there were explosives of some kind planted near the tunnel mouth, hidden so I wouldn’t see them before they tore me apart. And if I could get past that-which frankly, I didn’t think I could-I’d be in the middle of an open room with four men shooting at me. Even with my mist cloak I didn’t think I could have made it.

I took stock of what I had. My items were gone. About the only advantage I had was surprise-Garrick and his men couldn’t know for sure whether I was coming back, and they could have been waiting for hours. There were clothes and materials back in the caves behind me. I couldn’t think of any way in which they could help but maybe-

“Coming?” Garrick asked.

The man who’d been napping came awake with a start, and the other two raised their weapons, looking around.

I sighed. So much for surprise.

“He’s around the corner,” Garrick said.

The man who’d been on lookout peered up towards the entrance. “Wait, so-”

“Stay put,” Garrick said.

“What’s the matter, Garrick?” I said. I felt the men aim their weapons at the tunnel mouth, tracking my voice, and I got ready to run. “Losing your nerve?”

I felt Garrick smile. “What’s the rush?”

One of the men, thinking I couldn’t see him, started to creep forward, his feet soft against the floor. Garrick looked at him. The man drew back.

“So,” I said when they didn’t make a move. “Four men with guns, explosives round the door, all just for me.”

“Five,” Garrick said. “One’s posted outside.”

“Five,” I said. “I’m flattered.”

“Belthas thought it was over the top,” Garrick said. “I talked him into it.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, before you get any ideas, those mines have a remote trigger this time.”

I checked and verified what he’d said. Garrick’s finger was probably on the trigger right now. “You don’t think this is a bit excessive?”

“Consider it a compliment,” Garrick said amiably. “You’ve gotten away from me before.”

“Right,” I said. It hadn’t been by much, either. “You’re quite a marksman, by the way.”

“I keep my hand in,” Garrick said. “Didn’t know diviners could dodge like that.”

“The ones who can’t tend not to live very long.”

The men had settled down again, their weapons ready and aimed, listening to the conversation. “So since you aren’t having another try,” I said, “I’m guessing shooting me isn’t your primary goal.”

“Nope.”

“So you’re doing what?” I said. “Playing rear guard?”

“Something like that.”

“You know, there’s something I’m curious about,” I said. “When I first met you, you were doing a job for Talisid. Then you were working for Belthas. Then Belthas said you were working for Levistus. Now you’re working for Belthas again?”

Garrick waited with an expression of mild inquiry. “So?” I said when he didn’t answer.

“So?”

“Who do you actually work for?”

“Depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“Who’s paying.”

“You mean three different people were paying you to do three different things?”

“I’m freelance.”

“Wait a second,” I said. “You were working with Belthas at the start. So you must have been with Belthas at the factory for that fight with Deleo and Cinder over the barghest. Then Talisid paid you again to go back to the same factory to kill the same barghest?”

“Yep.”

“And you didn’t think to mention that it was already dead?”

“Client confidentiality.”

“No wonder you were so bloody relaxed,” I muttered. “So you work for whoever pays you?”

“Hey, fuck this guy,” the man who’d wanted to go after me said.

“Shut up, Mick,” Garrick said. “Yep.”

“Okay. I’ll pay you and your men twice what Belthas is paying you to switch sides.”

I thought I felt some of the men glance at each other. “Sorry,” Garrick said. “Under contract.”

“So what? Once you’re bought, you stay bought?”

“Yep.”

“An honest mercenary,” I said under my breath. “Great.” I raised my voice. “What about the rest of you?”

“Same answer,” Garrick said before the other men could speak. “Because they’re such loyal, trustworthy people. And because they wouldn’t live to spend the money if they said yes.”

This time I definitely wasn’t imagining the glances. Okay, so that wasn’t going to work.

I sat and thought for a minute. “So what’s the idea?” I said at last. “You’re just going to sit there and wait?”

“Yep.”

“You know there are other ways out, right?” I said. I was fairly sure there weren’t, but I was also fairly sure Garrick didn’t know one way or the other.

“Could be,” Garrick agreed.

“And you’re not going to stop me finding them?”

“Nope.”

“You know, for someone with a five-to-one advantage and all the weapons,” I said, “you’re very cautious.”

“We’re not coming after you, Verus,” Garrick said. “Don’t get me wrong, I could take you. But one thing I’ve learnt about you, you’re really good at running away. Five’s not enough to find you. But it’s enough to stop you getting out.”

“This way.”

“This way. But if you’d found another one, I don’t think you’d be here chatting.”

I was hoping he wouldn’t realise that. “So how long are you going to wait?”

“Few days should do it,” Garrick said. “These are dry caves. No water. You’ll be dead from dehydration by then.”

I didn’t answer.

“Or you make a break,” Garrick said. “Be interesting to see if you can dodge a mine blast.” He bent down to check something, then returned to his position. “Or you give yourself up. Your call.”

I stayed silent. I couldn’t think of a smart answer this time. I’d been sweating and I was already thirsty. There weren’t any supplies in the storerooms. I didn’t know how long I could last without water. I was pretty sure it was a lot shorter than Garrick was willing to wait.

Divination magic lets you avoid a lot of things. But it’s no use against thirst. It doesn’t do too well against a firing range filled with land mines, either.

I withdrew back down the tunnel. I knew that Garrick and the men were still waiting, their weapons trained on the entrance. I sat down and tried to think.

I could do what I’d threatened and go back down the tunnel, looking for another way out, but I had the feeling it was a bad idea. It was just possible I’d missed a passage somewhere on the way down, but if I tried a search and failed I might be too weak to do anything else.

Or I could use the supplies in the caves and hope to get past the blockade. I tried to think of some way in which a large pile of clothes could bypass a minefield and several armed men and came up blank.

In the end I did what I usually do. I looked into the future to see what would happen. Maybe Garrick’s men would go away or they’d be called off or …

…Wait, what? What was he doing here?

…That could work.

I waited a while, then went back up to the tunnel mouth. I didn’t try to stay quiet this time and I knew before I got there that all the men were looking at the tunnel, their weapons ready. The man at the tunnel leading back out into the Heath was still smoking. “Hey, Garrick,” I said.

“Yep.”

“I want you to know I actually kind of respect you. You do a job and you’re obviously very good at it. You’re more dangerous than most mages.”

“That’s nice,” Garrick said.

“So, out of professional courtesy, I’ll give you a warning. You should leave. If you don’t, all of your men are going to be killed and you might be too.”

“I’ll pass,” Garrick said.

I shifted my position so I could see down the tunnel. The men were focused on my location; they couldn’t see me in the shadows but they could hear the movement. Even the guard at the back was squinting at me. “Okay, one last question. If I told you someone was coming up behind you, and that you ought to stop paying attention to me and aim your guns somewhere else, would you listen?”

“No.”

“Good.”

There was a red flash and a whoompf from the far end of the cavern. Garrick and the other two spun, their weapons coming around.

The guard next to the exit had been holding a lit cigarette. The cigarette was still lit, along with the rest of him: His body was a blackened corpse, blazing fiercely on the floor. He’d been incinerated so fast he hadn’t had a chance to scream. A second later, the fire extinguished itself in a hiss and a cloud of choking smoke. The smoke spread, forming an opaque bank that started swallowing up the far end of the cavern.

The two other guards opened up with their weapons. No controlled bursts this time; I could hear the chattering ratatatatat of panic fire, the bullets zipping into the smoke. One of the guards advanced towards the grey cloud, firing as he went. He was about fifteen feet from the edge when a column of flame roared out, washing over him and setting him alight. He went down screaming.

Garrick aimed for where the flame had come from and fired three quick bursts, the shots forming a spread. The guard next to him lost his cool, flicked the selector on his SMG and started blazing away on full auto. Bullets ripped through the smoke, whining and bouncing off the walls, the chatter and roar filling the cavern. He emptied his magazine in only a few seconds and started fumbling for a reload. Garrick slapped his hand down with a snarl. “Stop it! You’re giving away-”

Something came flying out of the smoke. I got only a glimpse of it; it looked like a glowing ball of dull red light. Garrick reacted instantly, diving out of the barricade and rolling. The other man stared in confusion as the sphere dropped next to him and exploded with a noise that sounded like a giant cough. Smouldering bits of furniture went flying, along with what was left of the guard.

Garrick came to his feet. He’d discarded his rifle but kept hold of something else. I couldn’t see what it was but I knew what it did and as he pushed the button I ducked back. There was a echoing boom as the mines around the tunnel entrances all went off at once. Shrapnel and projectiles flew, snapping and whining off the walls. I heard the sound of running feet, followed by the roar of fire magic. There was another explosion, this one not so loud as the mines but lower pitched, making the stone tremble beneath my feet. A moment later came a groan, followed by the rumbling crash of falling rock.

And then there was silence.

Cautiously, I walked out into the lair. The stone around the tunnel entrance was blackened where the mines had gone off, and shrapnel clinked under my feet. I could make out the shape of Arachne to my right, obscured by the smoke.

The smoke began to clear, revealing a man. Red light flickered around his hands, which faded as I watched. He was as tall as me and heavily built, and until a few minutes ago, he’d been the last person I’d expected to see. He spoke in a rumbling voice. “Debt’s paid.”

I looked at Cinder thoughtfully. “Yeah,” I said. “I guess it is.”

Cinder looked from side to side, scanning the chamber. All three guards were dead; two were still burning. Arachne’s lair looked like a bomb site, and what was left of the clothes and furniture had been thoroughly trashed. The side tunnel leading to the storerooms had collapsed in a heap of rubble. “Garrick?” I asked.

“Who?”

“The last man.”

Cinder tilted his head in the direction of the sealed tunnel. “Might have got him.”

I nodded; Garrick must have mined the side tunnels as well, as a last-ditch escape route. I didn’t know if he was under that rubble or on the other side but at least we didn’t have to deal with him for a while. “How’d you find us?”

In answer, Cinder turned towards the tunnel leading out onto the Heath. “Clear.”

We waited for a moment, then through the clearing smoke I saw a small figure emerge from the tunnel. He nearly trod on the remains of the guard, shied away, and circled the body, covering his mouth. By the time he was halfway across the room I recognised who he was.

“Um,” Sonder said once he’d reached us. “Hi.” He looked from Cinder to me. “I thought you could use some help.”

The explanations took a while.

Sonder told his story first. When I’d failed to check in, Sonder had tried calling me and then Luna. When neither of us answered, he figured something had happened and went to the Heath to find out what. Upon seeing Belthas’s guards at Arachne’s lair, he did the smart thing and went for reinforcements.

The Council, needless to say, was a washout. First they gave Sonder the runaround, and when he persisted they hinted strongly that he’d be better off minding his own business. Instead of giving up, Sonder looked at the situation logically and decided that since the Light mages weren’t being helpful, he might as well try the Dark ones. Cinder had been sort-of-allies with me before, and once again he and I seemed to have a common enemy. So Sonder rang Cinder, and as luck would have it, Cinder answered. Looking back on it, I wonder if I’m setting the kid a bad example.

Sonder skated over the exact details of the conversation, which I have to admit I was morbidly curious about. Once they’d gotten past their mutual mistrust, though, it didn’t take them long to strike a deal. Cinder wanted to find Deleo, Sonder wanted to find me and Luna, and there was only one place to start looking. Sonder led Cinder to Arachne’s lair and the rest was history.

“There was another guard outside,” I remembered.

“Yeah,” Sonder said. He looked uncomfortable, and I noticed he was carefully avoiding looking at the bodies. “Cinder … dealt with him.”

“Well.” I looked at Cinder. “I guess I’m not who you were hoping to find, but thanks anyway.”

“Where’s Del?” Cinder rumbled.

“Belthas has her.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.” I looked at Cinder. “We team up until Belthas is dealt with or either of us quits. No hostilities until twenty-four hours after that. Deal?”

Cinder nodded. “Deal. How do we find Del?”

“By finding Belthas.”

“Is Luna back there?” Sonder asked.

I sighed. “No.” I hated having to admit it: Even though there was nothing else I could have done, knowing that I’d left her behind hurt. “Belthas took her.” Sonder’s face fell.

“So where is he?” Cinder said.

It occurred to me that Cinder was going to be difficult to deal with. He was brutally straightforward and would remain steady only as long as he could see what to do. Now that Belthas’s men were dead Cinder had no obvious direction, and if things stayed that way he was going to get frustrated quickly. “They worked for Belthas,” I said, looking at the remains. “Maybe they’ll have something that’ll show us where to go.”

Cinder thought about it for a few seconds. “Fine,” he said grudgingly. “I’ll loot the bodies for you.”

Sonder looked at the smoking scorched things that had been Belthas’s men and flinched visibly. “You mean …”

“Relax, Light-boy,” Cinder said, already turning away. “Don’t have to get your hands dirty.”

“Sonder, I need you to look back at what happened,” I said. “Belthas was here, along with Luna and Martin. Find out what they talked about and see if you can track them.”

Sonder nodded and turned away, his eyes unfocusing. Reluctantly, I turned towards Arachne. I needed to figure out how to help her before Cinder’s patience ran out.

Odds are you’ve never tried to give a giant spider a medical checkup. In case you’re wondering, it’s really hard. It’s not like you can take their pulse, and dealing with the fact that they have their skeleton on the outside of their bodies is weird enough on its own. After ten minutes’ examination, I’d managed to conclude that Arachne was alive, which I’d known already.

Figuring out what Belthas had done was easier. There was a short rod embedded at the back of Arachne’s body in her … neck? Back? Thorax? Whatever it’s called. The thing was about twelve inches long and made out of some iridescent purple metal that caught the light. It was a powerful focus with an active spell working through it. As far as I could tell, it was linked to something else, probably an identical focus with a similarity effect joining them. At the moment the spell was stable. It wasn’t draining Arachne’s magic or life force but she wasn’t getting any better either.

I ran my hand along Arachne’s back, feeling the stiff hairs brush against my fingers. There was something terribly depressing about seeing her like this. Ever since I first met her, Arachne’s always been one of the few stable points in my world, wise and strong. Having her still and lifeless felt wrong, and I couldn’t help wondering if this was my fault. If I’d dealt with Luna better, figured it out earlier …

“Hey,” Cinder called. I turned to see something flying towards me and caught it one-handed. I’d been standing on a battered sofa to get a better look and had to sway to keep my balance. I took a look and saw that it was a touch-screen phone. “What’s up?”

“Password.”

The phone had a password lock. I took thirty seconds and cracked it, then skimmed through the call and message history. The phone had belonged to Mick, aka Michael, and had apparently survived the blast that had killed its owner. I put it in my pocket.

“So?” Cinder said.

“Belthas took my phone. I need a new one.”

Cinder gave me a look.

“There’s nothing there,” I said. “Any luck?”

Cinder gestured at the pile of guns at his feet. The five men had been carrying enough weapons to stock an armoury: submachine guns, pistols, grenades, clips and boxes of ammunition, knives, radios, coils of wire, and what looked like plastic explosive. It was enough to fight a small war-unfortunately, at the moment, it was also completely useless.

I looked at the iridescent metal rod. “Know what this is?”

Cinder walked forward and squinted. “Yeah,” he said after a moment.

“You and Deleo got them from that mage, didn’t you?” I said. “Jadan or whatever his name was. The guy who came up with this bloody ritual.”

“Yeah.”

“How do they work?”

“Dunno.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Got his materials. Didn’t know how to use them.”

I sighed. “It’s just like last time, isn’t it? You guys never understand what you’re messing with but you do it anyway.”

“Would have been fine if you’d let us kill that enchantress.”

“Yeah, well, maybe if you and Deleo had done a bit less collateral damage I wouldn’t have gotten involved.”

“No.”

“No what?”

“Wasn’t why you were helping her.”

I looked at him. “How would you know?”

“She acted sexy and vulnerable and made you feel good,” Cinder said. “So you trusted her. Right?”

I was silent.

Cinder shook his head contemptuously. “Idiot.”

The sound of footsteps made us look up to see Sonder emerge from the tunnel out onto the Heath. Cinder walked away. “Sorry,” Sonder said as he approached. “He made a gate but I couldn’t see through the shroud.”

I nodded. “And in here?”

“They left three hours ago,” Sonder said. “Belthas, twelve men, Martin, and that woman. They had Luna.” He didn’t look happy. “Martin was dragging her.”

I thought about Luna and how she must be feeling. She’d trusted Martin and thought him a friend, probably in the hope he’d become a lot more, and he’d betrayed her in the worst way possible. Then there was the question of what Belthas would do with her or if she was even still- I shook my head and pushed the thought away. I needed to focus.

“Can you take it out?” Sonder asked.

I looked up to see that Sonder was pointing at the rod in Arachne’s back. “Not without killing her,” I said. “And even if I could, I don’t have the first clue how to fix whatever Belthas did.”

“I think it was a paralysis spell,” Sonder said. “I only saw bits of it but …”

I nodded. Ice mages are good at that sort of thing. Sonder looked at Arachne’s motionless body. “Could we get someone to heal her?”

“Maybe,” I said doubtfully. I stuck my hands into my pockets. “We’d have to-”

I stopped. There was something in my pocket and I drew it out. It was the fang of some enormous creature, made of some kind of grey stone, heavy and warm and eight inches from base to tip. It was a magical item and a powerful one. I’d never seen it before. I’d checked my pockets just after escaping Belthas and they’d been empty. How had it …?

“Wow,” Sonder said. He was staring wide-eyed. “What is that?”

“A gate,” I said. I realised I knew the command word. And it would take me to … “Holy crap,” I said quietly. “It was real.”

“Where does it lead?”

“To someone who could fix her.” I looked to see what would happen if I used it and saw that the fang would cut through the gate wards easily. For a one-shot item, it was incredibly powerful. “It’s designed to take two people,” I said. “User and one other … Crap.” As I looked at the consequences, my heart sank. The spell on Arachne was tied into her life force. Gating her would break the spell and sabotage Belthas’s ritual-but it would be fatal for Arachne.

Sonder looked at Arachne. “Can you-?”

I shook my head. “Moving her while that thing’s active will kill her.” As I thought about it, though, my spirits rose a little. “But now we’ve got a way to help her. Just got to figure out how.”

“Why’s it alive?” Cinder said from behind me.

I didn’t take my eyes off the fang. “She’s not an ‘it.’”

“Why’s she alive?”

“Because Belthas wants to use her for your damn ritual.”

“So why’s she alive?”

“Because-” I said, then stopped as I realised what Cinder was getting at. The ritual killed its target-I knew that already. So why had Belthas left Arachne here?

Because she couldn’t be moved. The spell stopped me from moving her but it would stop Belthas from moving her too. The obvious thing for Belthas to do would have been to have completed the ritual here, already. But he hadn’t, which must mean he wasn’t ready. Maybe Garrick hadn’t been there to stop me from escaping. Maybe Belthas had stationed him there to make sure nobody touched Arachne.

“He’s going to do the ritual somewhere else,” I said. I turned to Cinder. “Deleo knew bits of it, didn’t she?”

Cinder shrugged. “Bits.”

I nodded to myself. “That was why Belthas needed her alive. He won’t try the ritual until he’s absolutely sure it’ll work.”

Cinder looked at me sharply. “So he still needs Del.”

“Yeah. And he’ll probably keep hold of Luna too.” I saw Sonder perk up.

Cinder nodded. “Okay. We kill it.”

“What?”

“Ritual needs a live target.” Cinder gestured to Arachne. “Kill it, he has to find another. Gives us more time.”

I stepped between Arachne and Cinder, glaring at him. “No.”

“Going to be dead anyway,” Cinder pointed out.

“We are not touching her.” I stared Cinder in the eye. “You want Deleo. Fine. I’ll help. But you don’t touch any of my friends.”

Cinder met my gaze. There was a considering look in his eyes and I knew what he was thinking. I’m no match for Cinder. If he decided to kill Arachne, I wouldn’t be able to stop him.

Then Cinder shrugged. “Got a plan?”

I thought quickly. “Belthas doesn’t know what’s happened yet. We track him down and take him by surprise while he’s got his hands full with the ritual. Shut it down from the other end. We take Luna and come back here to transport Arachne. You take Deleo and go wherever you like.”

Cinder thought about it for a little while. “How long?” he said at last.

“Until what?”

Cinder gestured to Arachne. “Look and see.”

It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking Cinder’s stupid. He’s slow and deliberate but he’d seen the obvious point I’d missed: by looking into the future to see when Arachne was going to die, we could learn when Belthas was going to finish the ritual. I looked forward and saw the point at which energy would crackle over Arachne, drawing away her magic and with it her life. I looked away quickly. “Five hours.”

Cinder nodded. “You’ve got four and a half. Then I kill her before he does.”

We left Arachne’s lair so Cinder could gate us back. I felt better as soon as I was out in the fresh air, and I saw Sonder taking deep breaths, the colour returning to his face. Burnt flesh has a horrible smell, like charred beef but with a nauseating sweetness, thick and putrid and rich. It smells like nothing on earth and you never forget it. Cinder hadn’t shown any reaction. I guess he’s used to it.

Cinder gated us to the park near my home and we walked the rest of the way. It was the early hours of the morning, and Camden was as quiet as it ever got. My new phone told me it was two A.M.; it had been seven hours since I’d gotten Sonder’s call. It felt like more.

The first thing I did once I got home was take a shower. It cost precious time but I needed to think clearly and having my body caked with sweat was a distraction. As I stood under the falling water, I tried to figure out how to find Belthas and stop him from killing Arachne before Cinder did.

I came out of the shower and dressed in combat trousers, a T-shirt, a jumper, and old dark trainers. I filled my pockets with any items I thought would help, then opened my wardrobe and took out my mist cloak. I stroked it affectionately, feeling the soft cloth ripple under my touch, grateful I hadn’t worn it to Arachne’s lair-though I doubt it would have obeyed Belthas anyway. Imbued items choose their owners. I pulled it around my shoulders and walked out.

It was very weird to see Cinder in my living room. The armchair he’d picked seemed too small for his bulk, and a cup of tea sat untasted on the coffee table before him. Sonder was pacing the carpet. “Trace the rods,” Cinder suggested in his rumbling voice.

Sonder shook his head. “It’s a sympathetic link. There’s no trail to follow.”

“He’ll have wards anyway,” I said. I crossed the room to stare through the doors onto the balcony. A few lonely lights still shone in the windows of the buildings opposite, but everything else was dark. The night had clouded over, and there was no moon.

“Where would Belthas have taken them?” Sonder asked. He looked on edge, harried.

“A sanctum,” I said. I was sure of it. “He won’t do something this important except somewhere he feels absolutely safe.”

“Get your elemental to find it,” Cinder said.

“I can’t,” I said sadly. “I blew up my caller getting away from Belthas.” It hurt more than I’d thought it would. Without that focus I didn’t have any way of contacting Starbreeze, and only now she was gone did I realise how much I’d depended on her. Starbreeze had always been my ace in the hole, the one I turned to when everything else failed. Losing that safety net all of a sudden was frightening.

“Okay, look,” Sonder said. “Someone has to know where Belthas is hiding. Let’s call up everyone we know.”

I nodded, trying to look confident. It was worth a try, even if I didn’t really think it would work.

It didn’t. There were only a few mages I trusted enough to call in this situation, and at this hour many didn’t answer. Those who did were willing to help but they didn’t know anything this specific. With enough time I could dig it up … but time was something we didn’t have.

Sonder and Cinder didn’t have any more success. I saw Cinder glance at the time as he hung up from another call and I checked it as well, unobtrusively. Three hours left. I gritted my teeth. I wasn’t going to let it end this way.

“We could try his office …” Sonder said again.

I shook my head. “First place I looked. He’s not there.”

“There might be some leads.”

“And a bunch of security systems. We don’t have time to get caught up fighting them.”

Sonder turned away in frustration. “There has to be someone.”

I was about to answer when I realised what Sonder had just said. “There is,” I said slowly, my mind jumping ahead. “There’s someone who’d know. Luna.”

Sonder looked at me, puzzled. “But we can’t-”

“I can,” I said, thinking fast. “Cinder, I need you to gate back to Arachne’s lair and get those weapons. Bring as many as you can carry. Then get some of your own. I’ve got the feeling we’re going to need all the firepower we can get.”

Cinder tilted his head, shrugged, and walked out.

“Sonder, come with me.” I walked into my bedroom, Sonder following. I lowered the lights, then lay down on the my bed, carefully arranging the cloak under me. “Wake me in an hour,” I said. “If I don’t wake up … well, you’ll have to improvise.”

Sonder looked confused for a second, then his eyes went wide. “Wait, you’re going there?”

“Shh,” I said quietly. It was hard to relax but I knew I had to. Turning my head to one side, I could see the blinking lights of my alarm clock. Two hours fifty minutes. I closed my eyes, willing myself to sleep and beyond. The cloak seemed to help, soft and drowsy. I felt my mind slipping away. My last thought was to hope Cinder had shut the door behind him.