Fallen

chapter 7

I had a brief wait before the door opened again. Long enough to see who was coming, and to prepare for the worst.

A woman walked in and shut the door behind her. “Hello, Verus,” she said pleasantly. She was a little taller than average, with sculpted features and gold hair that fell around her shoulders. She looked maybe thirty, though I knew she was at least ten years older. She wore an expensive-looking suit, and her eyes were cold.

Cold was a good word to describe Crystal. When I’d first run into her, she’d been in charge of an apprentice tournament at Fountain Reach. I later found out that she’d been responsible for sending several of those apprentices—and who knows how many others—to be slaughtered in a blood ritual. I’d never seen any sign that she felt the slightest remorse for what she’d done. Crystal was a mind mage, a domination specialist, and her presence here meant nothing good.

I looked back for a moment before answering. “Anne should have killed you back in Sagash’s castle.”

“Anne is stupid.”

“So what did Richard promise you?” I said. “Power?”

“Of a sort,” Crystal said. She pulled back a sleeve of her jacket to reveal a bracelet. “I imagine you recognise this.”

“Yeah,” I said. The bracelet was thick, as long as Crystal’s thumb, and made of age-darkened silver. Spiralling patterns were carved on it, and a pink-purple stone was set into the centre. Unlike some of the imbued items on the Council’s list, it didn’t have a name, but its description had mentioned that it acted as an amplifier for certain applications of mind magic.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Crystal said. She held it up, the stone’s colour shifting as it caught and reflected the light. “I always had my eye on this one back when I was a Light mage. The Council wouldn’t let me have it. It would have made things so much easier if they had. Do you know what it does?”

I looked at her in silence.

“Domination has so many drawbacks,” Crystal said. “You can control the target, even make them take complex actions, but you have to direct them for even the smallest things. It makes their behaviour clumsy. Stilted. You might fool a stranger, but not someone who knows the target well. This item allows you to overcome that limitation. It smooths the control, and taps their memories to copy incidental details. You choose the behaviour, they carry it out.”

I thought about attacking Crystal, going for the throat. With surprise and a little time, I might be able to break her neck. But I wouldn’t have surprise—she was very much ready for me—and there were guards outside ready to burst in.

“You’ve sabotaged my plans twice now, Alex,” Crystal said. “Once at Fountain Reach, once in Sagash’s shadow realm. I could have retired by now. Gone somewhere nice and relaxing. But you took all that away.”

“I guess we don’t always get what we want.”

“Oh, I think I’m going to do quite well out of this,” Crystal said. “If Drakh succeeds in his plan—and I have good reason to believe he will—I’ll have all the resources of the Council to plunder. That’s quite a step up, don’t you think? But let’s get down to business. When Drakh told us what he wanted to achieve with Anne, Vihaela told him that she could do it in five minutes by torturing you while Anne watched. Have you ever seen Vihaela work? She’s very good. Obviously that kind of manipulation wouldn’t influence anyone sensible, but as I said, Anne’s stupid. And she actually cares for you for some reason.” Crystal shrugged. “I imagine it wouldn’t take long before Anne called up that jinn to make it stop. But Drakh chose my plan instead. Do you want to know why?”

I didn’t answer.

“Drakh thought it was more elegant,” Crystal said. “And it is, but that wasn’t why I picked it. I picked it because this way is going to hurt you so much more.” Crystal straightened. “I’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time.”

Mental pressure crushed down on me like a vice. I’d been ready for it and tried to push back Crystal’s attack, but it felt like trying to push back a wave. There was no point of leverage.

I braced myself, holding my defences. It felt like holding up a circular wall, with my thoughts and self protected at the centre. But the pressure from Crystal didn’t stop; it just kept mounting and mounting. There was no way for me to strike back. At least not mentally—

I took a step forward, but Crystal was already speaking a command word. A wall of force flared up between the two of us, and I came to a halt, staring at her. She was only a few feet away, but it might as well have been a mile. Holding Crystal off wasn’t getting any easier; it was getting harder. Already I was getting tired, and as I looked at Crystal I felt fear. She was smiling, and didn’t look tired at all.

“That wall should last a few minutes,” Crystal said. “Probably enough for me to finish the job. But if I can’t, what does it matter? You can’t beat me in psychic combat; all you can do is hold me off. And there’s no one coming to help.”

I’d been looking frantically through the futures, trying to find one where I won. There wasn’t one. In every future I could see, Crystal overwhelmed me. The only variable was how long it took. And even as I watched, the numbers were shrinking. There was no rescue coming, no reprieve that I could reach if I held out. Before long, the futures in which Crystal hadn’t won would dwindle to dozens, then a handful, then three, then one, then zero.

Crystal was going to take control of me.

I was terrified of what that would mean. I fought back desperately.

It wasn’t enough.

Ten minutes later, I exited the room, closed the door behind me, and walked out past the guards and down the corridor. Reaching the end, I turned left. My movements were steady and normal.

Or that was what someone would have seen. The truth was, it wasn’t me at all. The steps I took, the movements I made, even where I focused my eyes, were all under Crystal’s control, while I watched helplessly. It was like being a passenger in the back of a car with a screen between me and the front seats. I could see and hear, but I was just a spectator. It was a terrifying feeling, like falling through a black void. Through my eyes, I watched my body go up a flight of stairs, turn into another corridor, then open a door.

The room inside was a bedroom, and Anne jumped up from where she’d been sitting on the bed. Her restraints were gone; her clothes had taken some damage, but she looked in perfect health and her eyes lit up as she saw me. “Alex!”

I wanted to scream at Anne, to warn her. Instead I watched helplessly as my body took her in its arms. “It’s fine,” I heard myself say. “I’m okay.”

Anne held me tightly for a moment, then pulled back to look at me, worry visible on her face. “I couldn’t tell where you were. Vihaela was here and she told me that Richard was talking to you. What happened?”

My head shook. “It doesn’t matter. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. They just wanted to . . .” Anne trailed off and looked me up and down, frowning slightly. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

My heart leapt. No! I’m not! Anne, it’s not me. You can tell that, can’t you?

“I’m fine,” my voice said. “Why? What happened?”

Anne hesitated and for a moment I felt hope, then she shook her head. “We can talk about it afterwards.”

My heart sank. Anne had been scanning me with her lifesight. It’s a perfect tool for diagnosing illness or injury, but it’s useless against mind magic, and right now it was telling Anne that there was nothing wrong with me. “Talk about what?” Crystal said with my voice.

“It doesn’t matter,” Anne said. “How did you get them to let you in here? What does Richard want?”

“He wants us to cooperate with him.” My body walked past Anne, sat down on the bed facing her. “I don’t think we can get away with turning them down this time.”

Anne looked unhappy but not surprised. “When Vihaela started talking to me, I thought that was the deal she was going to offer, or something worse. Though she didn’t . . .”

“Didn’t what?”

“Never mind.”

“I do mind.” My body leant forward, towards Anne. “Something’s bothering you. What’s wrong?”

“She was just trying to stir things up. It doesn’t matter.”

“How? What did she say?”

Anne hesitated, glanced around at the door. “Should we be talking about this here?”

“Richard said he’d give us time to talk privately.”

“That was what Vihaela said too,” Anne said. “Before . . .”

“Before what? Tell me.”

Anne! It’s not me! Can’t you tell? Crystal’s imitation was good, but not perfect. My voice and words were off from how the real me would have acted: I wouldn’t have spoken that way, wouldn’t have pushed so far. But it was close, too close. Maybe in a calmer environment, with more time, Anne might have been able to figure it out, but here . . . I tried to reach out to Anne telepathically, link to her mind, and ran into what felt like a solid wall.

“All right,” Anne said slowly. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

“What?”

“Anything you want to tell me,” Anne said. Her reddish eyes stayed on me.

“What kind of thing?”

Anne looked at me for a long moment, seemed about to say something, then shook her head. “Never mind. It can wait.”

“No, it can’t.” My voice was harsh, forceful. “I want to hear it now.”

Anne drew back slightly, frowning. “I don’t . . . All right. Back when we first met, how much did you know about Jagadev?”

The question caught me off balance. Jagadev? Why . . . ?

“I’d never met him before,” Crystal said.

“What about after?” Anne was watching me closely now. “Did you find out anything?”

“Nothing important.”

Anne waited. When no further answer came, she frowned. “Do you mean—?”

“Can you get to the point?”

“All right.” Anne seemed to brace herself. “Vihaela said . . . she said that all those deaths in my family and Vari’s, they weren’t accidents. They were because of Jagadev. I mean, I knew he had something against us, but I never knew exactly why. I thought it was just that we were humans, or mages, or . . . Is it true?”

“Yes.”

Anne stared at me.

“When did you find out?” Anne said when I didn’t speak.

“Probably around the time I met you.”

Anne drew a breath. “You knew all this time and you didn’t tell me?”

“Did you want me to?”

“Did I—? Yes!”

I felt myself shrug. “I didn’t think it mattered.”

“How could you think that? These are my parents!”

“I suppose.”

Anne looked at me in disbelief, then stood and walked away. She stood facing the wall, her shoulders rising and falling, before turning. “I spent years thinking about it, after my father died. When it was my mother, I was too young to remember, but after . . . I kept feeling it was my fault. That I’d done something wrong. And that was why I was in that house in Canonbury instead, with them treating me like . . . But if it was my fault, then I deserved it anyway. But now . . . you’re telling me it was Jagadev? For two years we were staying in his house, eating his food, doing what he told us. All that time, it was him?” Anne shook her head. “I know I’ve never talked much about my family. But you had to know how much this would matter. How could you keep this a secret all this time?”

Watching Anne’s expression felt like a knife twisting in my flesh. I wanted to writhe, look away, but I couldn’t, because it was true. I had kept it a secret, because—

“Because I’m a diviner,” my voice said. “Finding out people’s secrets and using them is what I do. And I couldn’t see any good way to make use of that one.”

Wait, no! That wasn’t—

Anne was staring at me. “I thought you trusted me.”

“Yeah, well, maybe you’ll know better for next time. Now how about we deal with the stuff that matters?”

“This does matter—”

“No, what matters right now is getting out of this mess that you put us in.”

Anne had been about to answer; now she stopped. “That I . . . ?”

“Yes, you. We’re here because of you. First you picked up that jinn in the Vault, then you used it to go on a rampage against a bunch of Light mages. I haven’t been saying anything because I figured that maybe I could cover it up, make it work. But you managed to be so incompetent, so stupid, as to let slip to the Keepers that it was you. And that was why they came down on our heads.”

“What? No! I didn’t tell anyone! Alex, I promise, I don’t know how they found out, but it wasn’t—”

“Then who else was it? There were exactly four of us there, and somehow I don’t think Morden and Vihaela are on speaking terms with the Council these days. That leaves you and me, and I know it wasn’t me. So who do you think it was?”

“I—I don’t—” Anne faltered.

“You’ve destroyed my life,” Crystal said. “Do you know how much I’ve lost because of you? I was on the Light Council. I had status, a home, a position. Now I’ve lost it all in a few hours, and if Richard decides he doesn’t need me, I’m going to be dead. Getting involved with you was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Anne was crying now. The tears in her eyes were painful to watch; the hurt and betrayal in them was a hundred times worse. Stop it! I screamed silently at Crystal. Okay, fine, you win! I’ll do what you want! Just stop!

Crystal didn’t answer, not in words, but I could feel her emotions. Amusement, satisfaction.

“I’m sorry,” Anne said in a small voice. “What do you want me to do?”

“There’s exactly one thing you can do that’ll save us,” I heard my voice say. “Call that jinn back and use it to get us out of here.”

Fear leapt into Anne’s eyes. “No. I can’t—”

“Yes, you can.”

“Alex, I can’t. You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Why not? Wasn’t that why you picked up that stupid thing in the Vault? Because it was the only way out? Well, it’s the only way out now. So use it for someone apart from yourself for a change.”

“I can’t! If I call it back, if I call her back, I’ll be gone. They’re too strong now. Please, you have to—”

“I don’t care!” It was a shout this time, and Anne jumped. “This is the only useful thing you can do, so do it!”

Tears were streaming down Anne’s cheeks. She shook her head mutely.

“You stupid bitch!” My legs moved, carrying me close to Anne, looming over her. “How many times have I risked my life for you now? Now the one time it matters, you can’t even do this?”

“I—I—”

My hand hit Anne across the face. It caught her so totally by surprise that she didn’t even flinch. She went down to hands and knees, looking up at me in disbelief.

“Do it!” my voice shouted down at her.

Anne shook her head.

My body moved like an automaton, hitting Anne again. Inside, I was screaming, fighting. Useless. I was locked out; Crystal held the controls. I wanted to fight back, to rage, to look away. I couldn’t.

Anne tried to protect herself, but her movements were weak, shocked. I knocked her arm away and hit her in the face again, this time hard enough to split her lip and send her sprawling on the floor. She looked up at me with blood at the corner of her mouth and haunted, frightened eyes. It should have made me stop, would have made any decent person stop.

Crystal made me kick her. Anne fell back against the bed.

“No . . .” Anne’s voice was barely coherent. “Please . . .”

My body reached down, hauled Anne to her feet. Her eyes stared up into mine, wide and terrified. “I hate you,” my voice said. “I should have left you back in Fountain Reach.” I threw her away. Anne tripped over the bed, hit her head against the wall.

I stalked around the bed towards her. Anne was lying curled up on the floor, head down, her hair hanging over her face. “Get up,” I told her, and reached down to grab her hair.

Anne’s hand caught mine.

Fire flashed along my nerves, paralysing me. As I stared down, Anne looked up at me. Tears streaked her face, but her eyes were clear and alight. “You wanted to see the jinn?” she said softly. Slowly she rose to her feet, her eyes staying locked on mine.

I felt the pit drop out of my stomach. Oh no.

The room seemed to darken. The lines of Anne’s figure blurred and warped, black strands spreading from under her clothes. Shadows unfolded from around her, stretching from wall to wall like wings. Anne leant towards me, and all of a sudden she seemed to be the one taller, as though something was looming up behind her, looking down on me. “Wish granted.”

White-hot agony exploded in my hand, bursting through my body. I felt Crystal’s control snap and all of a sudden she was gone. I fell like a puppet with its strings cut, my head slamming into the floor. My hand was numb and pain was flashing through my body, but I was in control again. I looked up at Anne, fumbling for the words. “Anne—I—”

The door burst open with a crash.

Anne and I turned to see the doorway filled with people. Vihaela was there, dark and predatory, her eyes fixed narrowly on Anne, and to one side was Crystal, half hidden by the wall. And at the centre was Richard. He was ignoring me, looking straight at Anne, and in one hand he was holding something that thrummed with power.

Anne looked at Richard, and an expression of utter disgust crossed her face. “Ah, shit.”

Purple light shone from Richard’s hand. Magic reached out from him and the two women to Anne; mind, life, others. Anne’s eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped to the floor. The darkness around her winked out, the black strands vanishing.

“Bring her,” Richard ordered.

Vihaela walked forwards. I tried to pull myself up but there was something wrong with my hand. “Wait, don’t—”

Vihaela flicked a hand, as if shooing off a fly. Pain and nausea rolled over me and I fell. Through clouded vision, I watched as Vihaela reached down and picked Anne up without apparent effort. She turned and carried her out. From the doorway Richard and Crystal spared me a glance before turning away. Crystal looked satisfied; Richard’s expression was harder to place. Distance? Regret? Then both were gone.

I tried to pull myself to my feet but the aftereffects of Vihaela’s spell made me collapse. My vision greyed, and there was a roaring in my ears. Gradually it subsided. The pain didn’t. No, Anne, come back. Please . . .

Dimly I heard the footsteps of someone else entering the room. There was a pause; the door closed, and the foosteps drew closer. Turning my head, I saw a pair of women’s shoes. With difficulty I looked up.

“Hello, Alex,” Rachel said.

My eyes slid past Rachel to the door. I couldn’t make myself care about her, not now. Have to get to Anne. I tried to pull myself to my feet.

“Ah, ah.” Rachel gave me a shove with one foot, sending me sprawling. “Richard doesn’t want you interfering with what he’s going to do to your girlfriend. Not that she’d want to see you. You saw that look on her face?”

Vihaela’s spell was wearing off but my hand was still numb. I couldn’t feel it, and when I tried to use it to prop myself up, it didn’t work.

“We watched the whole thing on camera,” Rachel said. She pointed to the corner of the room. “Richard wanted to make sure his investment wasn’t damaged. I was just there with popcorn.” She tilted her head, looking down at me, eyes bright. “You really beat the crap out of her. I couldn’t believe she just sat there and took it. She really is a doormat, isn’t she? But I guess you always liked those sorts of girls. Wait, are you crying?”

I turned my head away from Rachel, blinking back the tears. “You are!” Rachel said. “Look at those tears! I love it when men like you do this. You act so tough, but as soon as something goes wrong, you cry like a baby.”

I’d never hated Rachel so much as in that moment. I stared at her, too filled with pain and rage to speak.

Rachel laughed. “Oh, you’re angry? What are you going to do about it? It pissed me off so much when Richard ordered me to keep you alive, but it was worth it just to see this.” She paused. “What, nothing to say? Come on, Alex, you’re supposed to be smart, right? Tell how this was all part of your plan.”

I didn’t answer.

Rachel waited, then her smile faded. “No, you don’t have anything to say, do you? You never did, not when it mattered. It was all just bullshit.” She crouched down in front of me, her expression suddenly cold. “You want to know why this happened? Because of you. I hope you’re paying attention, because I really want you to understand this. Everything that’s happened, all of this, it was all your fault. Richard gave you so many chances. He took you in and you tried to betray him. He invited you back and you turned him down. And then after all that, he still gives you a last chance to play along, and you say no again. I mean, what did you think was going to happen? You thought he was going to say ‘oh well,’ and let you go? Or maybe you thought someone was going to swoop in to save you? Newsflash, Alex. Richard has been the one sweeping in to save you. Doesn’t work so well when you piss him off too. But I guess you never thought about that, did you? You just figured you could do whatever you wanted and it’d all work out.”

“Get out of my way,” I rasped. Anne was on the other side of that door and getting farther away.

“Or you’ll do what?” Rachel said. “You still don’t get it, do you? Richard doesn’t need you anymore. You don’t get to call the shots.” Rachel paused. “He’s going to enslave her, by the way. Use that focus of his and Crystal’s spells to bring the jinn under his control completely. Once that happens, you can say bye-bye to your girlfriend. She’s not coming back.” Rachel extended a hand. “Unless you want to try to stop him?”

I looked at what Rachel was holding in her open palm. It was my dreamstone.

Rachel was watching me closely. “This is yours, right? I took it off those Council idiots. It’s supposed to be a mind magic focus, isn’t it? Maybe if you had it, you might be able to do something. What do you think?”

I looked at Rachel, and even through the pain, I realised what she was doing. She wanted me to try to go through her, to start a fight. Richard hadn’t given her the go-ahead to kill me, and she was hoping I’d give her an excuse.

But she didn’t know what the dreamstone could do, and she didn’t know that I could use it without touching it. I could reach out to Anne, talk to her, and—

—what? Despair filled me as I realised how useless it would be. Arachne had told me that I could use the dreamstone to step into Elsewhere, but I couldn’t manage that now, not injured with Rachel ready to disintegrate me the instant I moved.

Maybe if I weren’t so beaten down, I would have tried to do something myself. But instead I reached out through the dreamstone and screamed for help, for someone, anyone, to listen and to come. It was fuelled with all my desperation and pain, and I felt barriers shatter as I threw everything I had into the call.

Rachel flinched, catching herself instantly. “What did you—?” She glanced down at the dreamstone, then back at me in sudden suspicion.

I was swaying. The combination of Crystal’s mental assault, Vihaela’s spell, and the drain from that call had left me barely able to hold myself upright. Seconds ticked away. Rachel stared at me, and I saw my life and death balanced in her eyes.

There was a bang from somewhere below and Rachel spun. Before she’d even finished turning, something flowed under the door and coalesced in the centre of the room. It was a humanoid figure sculpted out of transparent air, like an artist’s sketch drawn in vapour. To normal vision she was invisible; to my magesight she took the form of an elfin girl with slightly pointed ears and big eyes.

She was an air elemental, one that I hadn’t seen in almost six years, and her name was Starbreeze.

“Hi, Alex!” Starbreeze told me.

Rachel looked at Starbreeze in recognition. “You?” She brought up a hand, green light gathering.

Rachel is fast. Starbreeze is much faster. By the time Rachel had finished saying you, Starbreeze had enveloped me and turned me and my body to air. She started towards the door, turned around, reached out to touch the dreamstone in Rachel’s hand, turned that to air as well, then as Rachel’s hand came up, Starbreeze shot out back under the door and out into the corridor, taking me and the dreamstone with her. Ooh, you got one of those? Starbreeze asked. They’re fun!

Starbreeze, help! I need to find Anne!

Who’s Anne?

There was a pulse of water magic, and the door disintegrated in a green flash. Ooh, Starbreeze said in interest. Pretty. Rachel appeared in the doorway, eyes locking onto us, and Starbreeze whisked away around the corner and down a flight of steps.

She’s my friend, she’s somewhere here. Please, can you find her?

Your hand’s wrong, Starbreeze said in interest.

Please, you have to help. I could feel the seconds slipping away and I was desperate. She’s been taken over by a jinn—

Starbreeze fled, zipping down the staircase and several corridors. I saw a mage flash past, eyes wide in surprise, there and gone. No, wait! You need to find her—

Jinn are bad, Starbreeze said decisively.

But you could reach her!

Mmmmmm . . . I felt Starbreeze shake her head. No.

From above I could hear shouts and the sound of an alarm. Starbreeze! I shouted. Please!

You’re hurt, Starbreeze said curiously. Home?

What?

Home.

Starbreeze zoomed off down the main hallway. I had an instant to see a double door approaching at terrifying speed before we hit a barrier.

It felt like being thrown through a jet engine and out the other side. Everything went white and I was falling through space.