Fated

13

The hands on my watch pointed to 2.13 a.m. As I stared, they blurred and seemed to swim until I was no longer sure what I was looking at. I forced my eyes to focus, knowing I couldn’t afford to sleep.

We’d been inside the tomb for four hours. The closer we spiralled in towards the centre of the facility, the more lethal and hard to bypass the traps and security systems were. Our progress had slowed to a crawl — worse, the number of paths was steadily diminishing, forcing us closer to the others hunting the fateweaver.

Cinder and Rachel were the easiest to spot, and I stayed away from them, not wanting to find out how long our truce would last. More of a concern was Khazad. He had split from the others and was searching the corridors on his own, and in the last hour we’d been forced to hide from him three times. Each time we let him pass, he reappeared again a short while later. I was starting to worry that it wasn’t a coincidence and that he was actively hunting us. I could vaguely feel his presence through the futures of our meetings, somewhere behind us and to the left. Having to stay constantly on the alert was wearing me down.

I shook off my fatigue and looked up at Sonder. ‘Which way?’

Sonder had held up better under the strain than I’d expected, but was looking tired as well. He’d managed to piece together a sketch map in his notebook, extrapolating from the parts of the facility we’d seen and from the designs of other Precursor structures he’d read about. It wasn’t perfect, but it was getting better. ‘Left, I think. It shouldn’t be trapped.’

I glanced ahead through the futures. We were standing at a T-junction. ‘They’re both trapped.’

‘There’s supposed to be a corridor. It might not be easy to open the other end, but … The right way is open, but I think the traps are denser.’

I sighed and slid down against the wall. ‘I need to rest. Try and figure out which path will get us through.’ I closed my eyes and made myself relax.

I’d been sitting only a few moments when a voice penetrated my thoughts. ‘Alex?’

I opened my eyes to see Luna looking at me. She was crouching in the room’s far corner, the crystal cube held absent-mindedly in her fingers, as though she’d forgotten about it. Luna had been quiet for the past two hours, her thoughts and manner more distant since the encounter with Cinder and Rachel, and I knew she’d been thinking about it.

When she spoke, though, the subject came as a surprise. ‘These traps and barriers. This isn’t normal, is it?’

I gave Sonder a glance and he shook his head. ‘No. We’ve found defence systems before, but nothing like this.’

‘I’ve been thinking about it too,’ I said. ‘All I can think of is what Abithriax said. Fateweavers were supposed to be very powerful. If what he said was true, his might have been the only one stable enough to be preserved.’

‘Why, though?’

I frowned. ‘Why the traps? To make sure no one could get it.’

Luna shook her head. ‘No, I understand that. I mean, why would they seal it away and not keep it for themselves?’

I opened my mouth to answer and stopped.

‘Maybe they thought it was too powerful?’ Sonder said doubtfully.

‘No,’ I said with a frown. ‘She’s right. If it was that useful, there’d have to be one hell of a good reason for them to give it up.’

Sonder suddenly got a thoughtful look. ‘You know …’ he began, but as he did my precognition flashed a warning. I looked into the future and my fatigue vanished as I pulled myself to my feet. ‘Damn it.’

Luna scrambled up, pocketing the cube. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Khazad again.’ I looked through the futures, calculated. ‘We’ve got less than five minutes. Sonder, which way?’

Sonder hesitated. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Then we go with your first guess.’ I turned left and started down the white corridor. Luna followed me without hesitation and Sonder hurried after.

We reached a crossroads. A doorway led into a long hall, while the corridor went further, bending out of sight. Behind, I could feel Khazad following in our footsteps. He was moving faster now and I wondered if he had some way of tracking us. ‘Into the hall,’ I said. ‘We’ll seal the door behind us.’

‘But we’ll be trapped!’ Sonder protested. ‘The door at the other end’s sealed too!’

‘We can open doors faster than Khazad can.’ I glanced back; I thought I could hear footsteps. ‘Out of time. Let’s go.’

Luna stepped through and with only a moment’s hesitation Sonder followed. I stepped inside and touched the control crystal on the wall. The area across the doorway darkened and became an opaque wall of force. The sound of distant footsteps cut off abruptly and everything was silent.

‘Can he get in?’ Luna asked absently. She was playing with the crystal again.

‘Eventually,’ I said, reaching out with my senses to search ahead. ‘We just have to …’ I trailed off. ‘Someone’s here.’

Luna and Sonder turned, their eyes flicking. The hallway was crowded with square pillars, providing plenty of cover. I reached into my pocket for a weapon. ‘Show yourself,’ I said, my voice echoing around the columns. The silence stretched out, tense.

Movement, footsteps. A man leant out from behind a pillar and stopped, staring. ‘Verus?’

It was Griff. I searched the hall quickly and verified no one else was inside. ‘Master Griff!’ Sonder said in relief.

Griff walked closer and the four of us stood still for a moment. Only Sonder had relaxed; Griff and I were watching each other closely. Luna had hidden the cube away, and I kept my hand in my pocket.

Then Griff spoke. ‘You okay?’

I nodded, and the tension eased suddenly. ‘You?’

‘So far.’ He looked at the door. ‘You closed it?’

‘Khazad’s outside.’

‘Shit.’ Griff ran a hand through his hair. ‘I was hoping I’d lost him.’

Now that Griff was closer I could see that he looked on edge. There were rips in his clothing, and he had the look of a man who’d been fighting hard. ‘What’s at the end of the hall?’ I asked.

‘Locked door. I was trying to get past when I heard you.’ He looked at Luna. ‘You got that cube? Maybe that’d do it.’

The four of us came together, Luna staying a little back. I took my hand from my pocket but didn’t drop my guard. ‘What happened at the entrance?’

Griff grimaced, his hand creeping towards a rip along the side of his coat. ‘Khazad and that bastard Onyx tried to take my head off. Didn’t miss by much, either. If they hadn’t been in such a hurry …’

‘No one else made it in?’ I asked

Griff shook his head. ‘We’re all there is.’

Which means it’s either you or Sonder. ‘Let’s have a look at that door.’

The hallway bent right and left and right again, ending in a sealed door. I studied the door for a second then nodded and walked up to the controls, pulling out a tool. ‘I can open it. Griff, I’ll need you to throw up some barriers. Khazad’s going to be in the hallway before long.’

Griff gave a glance at me and Luna, then nodded. ‘Will do. Sonder?’

Sonder jumped eagerly. ‘I’ll help!’ The two of them disappeared back around the nearest corner.

Luna watched them go, then looked at me. ‘You think it’s one of them.’

I nodded as I began working on the controls. ‘Or both.’

Luna stood there for a while. ‘Can you tell which?’

‘I can’t see beyond a choice that hasn’t been made,’ I said. ‘Right now we need them and they need us. Once that changes …’

I didn’t finish, and Luna didn’t ask me to. We couldn’t depend on either Griff or Sonder, and our only sure ally was Starbreeze. It was tempting to call her, just for the reassurance of having her around, but Starbreeze couldn’t carry Luna, and the air elemental was our one trump card. I didn’t want to reveal her to Sonder and Griff until I had to.

‘Alex?’ Luna asked.

‘Hm?’

‘Why did you let them go?’

My hands went still. I didn’t need to ask who Luna meant.

Why do we do what we do? I think the reasons run deeper than we can know, and often we can only guess at the truest one. ‘If you can’t have another ally,’ I said at last, ‘next best thing is to give your enemy another enemy.’

Luna was silent, but I could feel her gaze on me. She knew I was holding something back. I stopped work on the controls and sighed quietly. ‘That’s one reason. The other one is … whenever you kill someone, it becomes a little easier to do it the next time.’ I turned to look at Luna. ‘You’ve never killed.’

A shadow flickered over Luna’s face. ‘I’ve-’

I cut her off. ‘Not the same. I mean deliberately.’ I paused, looking at her. ‘It might come to that before this night is out. If it does … then be very sure about what you’re doing. Because either way, you’re going to have to live with the consequences for ever.’

Luna stared back at me, then dropped her eyes. After a long moment, I turned back to the controls. It took me a while to get back my concentration.

When I heard Griff’s footsteps again, I glanced back to see that Sonder was with him. ‘I’ve set some wards,’ Griff said. ‘But the lock on the door’s going screwy. You sure it’s Khazad?’

‘It’s Khazad,’ I said. ‘He’ll be inside in ten minutes. Your wards’ll hold him another ten, maybe less.’

‘Can you get this open before then?’

I nodded. ‘Give me a hand.’

Griff came forward to help, and Luna stepped back. The minutes ticked by as the two of us worked together, me guiding, Griff using the power of his earth magic to manipulate the controls more quickly than I could. Griff was skilled with wards, and smart enough not to question what I told him. We worked quickly and efficiently.

There was a distant grating from far down the corridor. ‘Khazad’s in,’ Griff said with a grunt.

‘So are we.’ I pointed. ‘There.’

Griff aimed a surge of earth magic, and with a rumble the door slid open. Beyond was a dark corridor. I scanned quickly ahead and confirmed it was safe. ‘Sonder, get the lights,’ I said. ‘You go in too, Luna.’

They obeyed. ‘Wait,’ Griff said sharply. He pointed back down the hallway, and I turned to look.

There was a scuffle of movement. I spun back just in time to see Griff dart into the corridor after Luna and throw a scattering of gold discs down at the floor where the corridor opened out into the hallway. As they struck the ground they flared to life and a wall of transparent force sprang up, blocking the entrance. Sonder had just gotten the lights working; now he spun. ‘Master Griff! What-?’

Griff gestured and a hammer of earth magic smashed Sonder into the wall with stunning force. Sonder’s head cracked against the stone and he hit the ground limply, his glasses bouncing away. In the same motion Griff swung back and Luna was slammed against the wall, dull brown energy pinning her arms and legs.

I hit the barrier as Griff turned back to face me. The wall didn’t give and Griff watched me struggle for a few moments before giving me a nod. ‘Sorry, Verus. Looks like you’re staying behind.’

‘You!’ I snarled, straining against the invisible wall. ‘It was you!’

Griff shook his head. ‘Don’t act so surprised. You were recruited by Levistus, same as me. Difference is I’m permanent and you’re temporary.’

‘Alex!’ Luna cried.

Griff gestured and the brown energy flowed up over Luna’s nose and mouth, cutting off her breath. I saw her eyes go wide with panic as she struggled to breathe. My fist tightened against the wall of force. I was fewer than five feet away but the barrier was just as unbreakable as the one I’d used on Canary Wharf. ‘Griff,’ I said, my voice low and deadly. ‘If you hurt her-’

Griff ignored me and stood and watched Luna choke. There was nothing I could do and he knew it. After a few seconds he drew his finger down and the energy withdrew just far enough for Luna to gasp in a breath. ‘Stay quiet if you want to breathe,’ he told her before turning back to me. I willed myself to remain calm. ‘You’re making a mistake,’ I said. ‘If we stayed together-’

‘Sorry, Verus,’ Griff said. ‘I’d been hoping to have you around to help with Onyx. But you see, it’s you Khazad’s after. He told me two hours ago. This way I get rid of you and him. That’s too good a deal to pass up.’

‘You want the fateweaver? Take it. Let them go.’

Griff shook his head and started working on the door controls. ‘Love to cut out the deadweight, but I need her along. The fateweaver’s got a lock that works the same as the front door, and she,’ he nodded at Luna, ‘is the only one who can open it. Well, her and that cube.’

I looked down at Sonder, lying sprawled at Griff’s feet, and hoped desperately for him to get up, but as I looked into the future my heart sank. Sonder was out cold. There was nothing I could do to stop Griff from sealing the door behind him.

‘Oh, one more thing,’ Griff said. He snapped his fingers and I felt a surge of energy from down the hall behind me. ‘I just took down the wards. Have fun with Khazad.’ He took a step back towards Luna.

‘Griff,’ I said. I didn’t speak loudly, but there must have been something in the way I said it. Griff paused and looked at me.

Griff was next to Luna, within her danger zone, and I could see the silvery mist of her curse drifting through the bonds imprisoning her. The strands flowed lazily through the air, reaching Griff, soaking into him. ‘You are going to find,’ I said, my voice soft, ‘that Luna is very bad luck for people who try and hurt her.’

Griff looked back at me, and I had one second to remember him like that: stocky and strong, his iron-grey hair mussed slightly from the struggle. He gave me an amused smile. ‘I’ll take my chances.’ He put out one hand and a fist of brown energy smashed the control crystals. The ones on my side flickered and went dead, and with a rumbling sound the door rolled across. I had one glimpse of Luna’s eyes going wide in panic, then the door ground shut with a thud.

I was alone in the hall. And distantly, from behind me, I heard Khazad’s footsteps coming closer.

Back when I was a prisoner in Richard’s mansion, Tobruk would sometimes play cat and mouse. He’d set me loose to run the dungeon, give me a head start, then come after me. Some of my memories of that time are blurred, but that feeling I remember crystal clear. Pressed against a wall, my heart in my throat and my breath coming fast, straining my ears for the sound of footsteps, feeling only dread because hiding never worked, Tobruk always found me, the only question was when.

Standing in that hallway, I felt all the old terror rush into me. Khazad was coming and he was stronger and crueller than I was, and when he found me he was going to hurt me and he was going to kill me, and there was nothing I could do. I scrabbled in my pocket, pulled out the glass rod and channelled a thread of magic into it, speaking in a rush. ‘Starbreeze. Starbreeze, can you hear me? I need you. Please come. If you’ve ever listened to me, come now, please-’

I broke off as I felt something black and cold open up within me. Starbreeze would hear me, and she would answer … but too late, far too late. I turned, searching frantically for a way out, another exit. There wasn’t one. All that was left was to face Khazad. Me with my tricks and toys against the full power of a Dark mage. I stood helplessly in the empty hallway, listening to the footsteps draw closer, and I was nineteen years old again, cowering in the dark, paralysed with fear.

And then something spoke inside me, something older and steadier. You aren’t a child any more. You told Luna there’s always a way out. Time to prove it.

I took a deep breath, stood up straight and waited.

Khazad came around the corner like falling night. The Dark mage was a small man, but as he walked a cloak of shadow seemed to gather around him, turning him into something larger and more menacing. The lights dimmed slightly as he passed, and didn’t brighten. Black eyes met mine.

‘Hello, Khazad,’ I said. My voice shook the tiniest bit.

Khazad strode forward without answering. I watched him and wondered as I did how I could have ever thought he looked like a bird. He moved with a smooth, unhurried grace, not taking his eyes off me. I knew he was probing the area, scanning for traps, making sure I couldn’t trick him the same way again.

Khazad came to a stop twenty feet away, studying me. ‘Where are the rest?’ he said at last.

‘Griff took them,’ I said.

Khazad smiled. ‘So he did something right.’

We stood looking for a moment more. ‘I want to make a deal,’ I said.

Khazad kept smiling. ‘Really.’

I gestured down at the bracelet of black metal that Khazad was still wearing. ‘I can switch that off.’

Khazad raised his eyebrows. ‘Like you did with yours?’

‘I can disable the receptor. Stop Onyx from activating it.’

‘And?’

‘A truce,’ I said. ‘You don’t harm me, I don’t harm you.’

Khazad stood looking at me for a moment, his eyebrows still raised, then lifted his hands and sent a bolt of black lightning straight into my chest.

The pain was so intense I didn’t even feel it when I hit the ground. My lungs had frozen and I struggled to breathe. Flashing spots swum before my eyes.

‘You have no idea how much I’ve been wanting to do that,’ Khazad said thoughtfully. As my vision cleared, I saw he was crouching down in front of me, only a couple of feet away. He was looking at me. ‘I told you this was coming.’

‘Onyx-’ I managed to say.

Khazad smiled, a flash of bared teeth. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. You didn’t know? I’ve decided to throw in with Onyx instead of Del. Wasn’t hard, after what she did in the forest.’ His smile widened. ‘Oh, Verus, you should have heard her after I left them in that room, once she realised I wasn’t coming back. I wonder if she’s still alive. Hope she is. I wouldn’t want it to be too quick.’ Khazad blinked and looked down at me. ‘But what are we going to do with you?’

I started to speak, and suddenly everything went blank.

The next thing I remember is lying against a pillar on the opposite side of the hall. I guess Khazad must have thrown me, though I don’t remember it. The back of my head was wet, and my right side felt like fire. Once my head had cleared enough for me to hear, I realised Khazad was talking again. ‘-and then Onyx told me to go back and kill you! Amazing how things work out, right? Even promised me a reward.’

I tasted copper and spat blood. I knew this was my last chance. Cat and mouse, I thought dizzily. The way to win is not to be the mouse. ‘Only one mage can use it,’ I said to the floor.

‘I mean, I’d have done it for free.’

I made myself look up. Khazad was strolling towards me, keeping a casual eye on me to see whether I was going to make things interesting. I drew a breath and spoke clearly, meeting his eyes. ‘Only one mage can use the fateweaver. That mage is going to be Onyx. Once he has it, he won’t need you. You think Onyx is planning to come back to Morden with anyone? You think he’s going to share the credit? Why do you think you’re still wearing that bracelet?’

Khazad stopped and I knew I’d gotten through. I kept pushing. ‘Onyx told you he’d take it off if you killed me, didn’t he? He’s lying. As soon as you’ve done your job, he’ll trigger it. Once he’s got the fateweaver, there’s no reason to leave you alive. Why do you think Morden didn’t care about us being recognised? We were never meant to survive this. None of us were. We’re just one more set of pawns-’

‘Shut up,’ Khazad said. He stared down at me. I held very still, and felt my life hanging in the balance. I knew Khazad was waiting for me to keep talking, but I didn’t. Everything I’d said was true. My only hope was that Khazad would realise it.

Khazad stepped forward and held out his right arm. ‘Take it off.’

I swallowed. ‘I can’t,’ I said very carefully. ‘But I can change it so it won’t work.’ I began to rise, just slightly.

‘Stay on your knees,’ Khazad said, and I froze. Khazad touched his left hand to the side of my neck. It felt very cold, and I could feel the tension of a spell hovering in his fingers, waiting to be let loose. ‘You have five minutes.’

I swallowed. ‘I do this, you let me go.’

Khazad studied me, and I knew exactly what he was thinking. ‘Agreed,’ he said at last. He held his right wrist in front of me, the bracelet gleaming dully. ‘Do it.’

Have you ever had to work under pressure? You probably think you have. You’re wrong. Real pressure is knowing that if you make a mistake you’ll be dead without ever knowing what you did wrong.

Believe me when I say I worked very carefully.

‘It’s done,’ I said after a few minutes, lowering my tool. Khazad looked down at the bracelet. It looked the same as before. I’d made the same change that I’d made to Rachel’s and Cinder’s.

‘If Onyx triggers it?’ Khazad asked.

‘Nothing.’

Khazad nodded. ‘You said you’d let me go,’ I said, my mouth dry.

Khazad looked down at me and I held my breath. His eyes were opaque, dark. Up close Khazad smelled of dust and death, the scent of old bones. I felt the thoughts running through his head, saw the futures shift. Come on, Khazad. I prayed silently. Be a typical Dark mage. Play with your food.

‘Go on,’ Khazad said, and stepped back.

Slowly I picked myself up. My head spun, and for a moment I thought I was going to fall. My body ached all down my right side where I’d been thrown against the pillar, and my head was pounding. When my vision cleared, Khazad was still watching. I limped away.

Khazad let me get almost to the end of the hall. ‘Oh, Verus?’

I stopped and turned. Khazad was standing there, smiling. The hallway was quiet.

As Khazad lifted his arm to cast the spell that would kill me, I made a small gesture with the fingers of my right hand, the same one Onyx had made.

Black lightning surged from the bracelet on Khazad’s wrist, crackling over his body, and the spell he’d been about to throw dissolved. Shock flashed across his face, followed by agony. He hit the floor with a scream.

‘Did you know death bracelets work on a signal?’ I said to Khazad. The bracelet was still discharging, pouring out lethal energy as Khazad writhed and screamed. I walked back towards Khazad and stopped, my voice absent. ‘They’re old magic, these things. Not many people study them any more. If you understand how they work, you can change the signal. Make it respond to your command, instead of someone else’s.’

Khazad’s head snapped up. He glared at me, but all he could do was twist in agony as the negative energy crackled into his body, his limbs, his heart. ‘You-’ he managed to gasp. ‘You-’

I looked down at Khazad without expression. ‘I warned you. At the ball. I gave you a chance. But you could never believe it, could you? That someone like me could ever be a threat to someone like you.’ I paused. ‘Tobruk was the same, you know. Right to the end.’

Khazad couldn’t speak any more, but he stared hate at me even as he clawed at the stone. I looked down and I watched the black lightning play over his body, and I waited for him to die.

I didn’t wait long.

When Starbreeze arrived I was slumped against one of the pillars. Starbreeze whisked in and hovered over Khazad’s body, looking down with wrinkled nose. She was in her elfin form, short sticking-up hair and skinny arms. ‘Dead man,’ she announced.

‘Dead man,’ I agreed. I pulled myself to my feet, wincing at the pain in my muscles. ‘Starbreeze, I need to get to the heart of this place. The centre. Can you take me there?’

‘Middle?’ Starbreeze said in interest.

‘Middle.’

‘Middle!’ Starbreeze swept around me and turned my body to air. I had one last glimpse of Khazad’s corpse, then Starbreeze whisked me forward, through the gaps in the stonework, carrying me the last stretch of the way.

The heart of the facility was a huge circular room. Columns rose around the edge, supporting a high-domed roof. There were inscriptions of some kind on the walls, but the light was too dim to make them out clearly. On the columns were magelights, weak and widely spaced, leaving the room just bright enough to see in, yet dark enough to cast shadows. The middle of the room was bare except for a dais at the exact centre. Upon the dais was a pedestal. Two figures stood before it.

Starbreeze set me down behind one of the columns, hidden in the darkness. As I scanned the area I felt other presences. We weren’t alone.

‘Alex,’ Starbreeze whispered.

‘I know,’ I said quietly. I peered around the column. Griff and Luna were on the dais at the centre, just visible in the gloom. Luna was standing stiffly upright, as if she was being held, and Griff was close. Too close. There was a small cage of force over the pedestal’s surface, and something was inside it.

‘Men,’ Starbreeze whispered.

‘I know,’ I said again. Griff and Luna weren’t the only ones here. I could sense three more: two hiding in the columns to the left, and one opposite. A moment later, I knew who they were. Cinder and Rachel to the left, and Onyx up ahead. From where they were standing, they could see Griff and Luna, but they couldn’t see each other.

‘Three more,’ I whispered to Starbreeze.

Starbreeze shook her head vigorously. ‘No!’

‘What?’

‘Another.’ Starbreeze pointed towards the ceiling.

I looked up and saw nothing. I scanned the area and again found nothing … and then had a sinking feeling as I realised who it was. ‘Oh. Right. Her.’

‘She’s wrong.’

‘You can feel her?’

Starbreeze shivered. ‘Wrong.’ She swept in a tight circle, looking distressed. I looked into the futures in which I moved forward towards the dais, getting a closer look.

The pedestal on the dais was three feet high, and resting on it was a plain, slim, ivory-coloured wand. A cube of unbreakable force topped the pedestal, just barely visible against the darkness. A moment later, I saw why Griff hadn’t opened it. On the rim of the pedestal, just outside the force barrier, were square holders exactly the right size and shape to place Luna’s cube into, just like the one at the entrance. Three of them.

Griff was up on the dais. He was holding Luna’s arm twisted up behind her back, forcing her onto tiptoes. ‘Think harder,’ he was saying.

‘I don’t know!’

I focused on Griff with my mage’s sight and saw that the silvery mist of Luna’s curse was crammed in so brightly around him that he looked like a searchlight, the glow so intense that it actually made it hard to see. I’d never seen the curse so concentrated, and more and more was pouring in. Griff twisted Luna’s arm a little higher, and she gasped; the silvery mist flowing from her into Griff seemed to intensify. ‘Think harder,’ Griff said again.

‘I don’t know!’ Luna’s voice was high, laced with pain. ‘How could I know? I’ve never been here!’

Griff pushed Luna sprawling to the floor. He lifted a hand, and pale brown energy glowed. The stone of the dais flowed and reshaped itself into chains, locking around Luna’s ankles and binding her to the foot of the pedestal. ‘Well, then,’ he said calmly. ‘We’ve got a problem.’

I snapped back to the present. ‘I’m going to get her.’

Starbreeze looked upset. ‘No!’

I shook my head. ‘Let’s go,’ Starbreeze urged. ‘Away.’

‘Griff’s going to kill her.’

Starbreeze shrugged.

‘You don’t care. I know.’ I looked at Starbreeze. ‘But I do. I need you to send a message. Whispering wind.’

‘Who?’

‘Cinder and Rachel. The two over there.’ I pointed, then leaned close and whispered into Starbreeze’s ear. ‘Cinder, Deleo. It’s Alex Verus. Onyx is waiting in ambush behind the column at the north side of the chamber, ten pillars to the left of where you are now. He’s expecting you to come from the middle.’

There was a moment’s silence as Starbreeze carried the message, then a whisper floated back. ‘Verus, you bastard! How the hell are you still alive?’

I smiled. ‘Hi, Cinder. Before you ask, we’ve still got a common enemy.’

‘You think we owe you anything?’

I didn’t reply. After a second, I heard Rachel’s voice through the whispering wind. ‘Is he moving?’

‘No.’

‘Tell us if he does.’

Then silence. Starbreeze looked at me. ‘Gone.’

I nodded and started to plan my course.

‘Alex!’

I turned to see Starbreeze floating in the air, gazing at me imploringly. She looked miserable, and even with everything else, I felt a sudden stab of pity. Starbreeze is a creature of whim and freedom and ever-changing movement. Violence isn’t in her nature. She was lost here, out of her depth, and I knew her instincts were telling her to flee. One word and she’d take me with her.

‘Sorry, Starbreeze,’ I told her. ‘I can’t run this time.’ I pulled up the hood of my mist cloak and disappeared into the shadows.

As I circled the room, I reached out with all my senses, keeping tabs on the other mages. Onyx was watching and waiting, a spider in his web. Rachel and Cinder were creeping around towards him, and as far as I could tell Onyx hadn’t spotted them. I knew I wouldn’t see Thirteen until she struck, so I didn’t waste time worrying about her. Most of my attention was focused on Luna and Griff. Once I’d circled far enough I stepped into the open, trusting to my mist cloak and my magic to keep me unseen.

I could make out the outline of the fateweaver through the barrier, and for the first time in days, I was calm. All my decisions were made. I would take the fateweaver and use it. If I succeeded, Luna and I would live. If I failed, both of us would die. As I walked softly forward, I wondered if Abithriax was watching us, pieces on the chessboard all fighting for the same prize.

My circling had taken me behind Griff, and as I crept across the open stone I could see that he was focused on Luna. ‘Put the cube in,’ he ordered.

‘I don’t know which!’

There was the thud of a blow landing, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I heard Luna gasp. ‘Figure it out,’ Griff said.

‘I don’t know!’

Another thud, and Luna cried out. I sped up, pushing the limits of how fast I could safely move. Griff knelt down next to Luna, giving me a clear view of her. Luna’s lip was cut, drops of blood staining her skin. She looked up at Griff, afraid, but Griff’s voice when he spoke was suddenly gentle. ‘Luna,’ he said. ‘I really don’t have anything against you. You’re obviously in over your head here, and it looks to me like you don’t have any idea what you’re dealing with.’ Griff looked at her, his voice steady. ‘But you see, I need that barrier opened, and if you can’t do it, you’re no use to me. So I’m just going to keep hurting you until you try.’

‘You said it’d kill me if I pick the wrong one!’

Griff raised his eyebrows. ‘Then you’d better make sure you get it right.’

I’d covered half of the distance to the centre. Across the room, I could sense Rachel and Cinder closing in. Onyx hadn’t moved. Luna was lying awkwardly on the stone chains that trapped her, breathing quickly.

Then Luna’s head came up, and I caught my breath at the look in her eyes. ‘I always hated my magic,’ Luna said quietly. ‘It’s taken away my life. But it’s what I am. It’s part of me and I’m not hiding from it any more.’ She stared up at Griff and spoke softly and clearly. ‘Die.’

I felt something shift, and I realised that all of a sudden I could actually feel Luna’s curse radiating from Griff, an aura of doom that was almost tangible. I reached the dais, swift and silent, as Griff looked down at Luna and the futures flickered and changed.

Then the futures settled as Griff made his decision. ‘You know,’ he said, and his voice was quite calm, ‘you don’t need to be healthy to use that cube. You just need to be alive.’

I saw then what Griff was going to do. Normal people, when something bad happens, get to tell themselves that they couldn’t have known. Diviners don’t. I knew what Griff was about to do, and I knew that if I tried to stop him he would swat me like a fly.

I held still.

Griff broke Luna’s wrist.

Luna’s scream was physically painful, like knives scraping down my spine. Griff waited for it to trail away into sobbing, then spoke again. ‘Try the cube.’

‘I–I-I-’

‘Try the cube.’

‘I won’t. I won’t. I-’

There was the sharp crack of another bone and Luna screamed again, a heartbreaking sound. I clenched my fists, a fine tremor going down my arms. ‘Try the cube,’ Griff repeated.

Luna only sobbed.

Griff made an exasperated noise, and I felt him channelling earth magic. I couldn’t see what he was doing; the pedestal was in the way. All I could see was the faint brown glow. Then Luna shrieked, and kept on shrieking. It was ear-splitting, but underneath it I could hear a grinding, scraping noise, like rock grating against rock. Griff spoke again, but this time I couldn’t make out his words. I dug my hands into the stone until they bled. I knew Cinder and Rachel were right on top of Onyx’s hiding place. Come on, I prayed, come on, come on, come on-

There was a roar and a flash of flame. The glow from the other side of the pedestal snapped out, and Luna went silent. Griff whirled, searching for the noise, and for an instant his back was to me. It was long enough.

Griff felt me coming. You don’t catch a battle mage totally off guard, no matter how quick you are. He was turning back towards me when I reached him, a shield of energy coming up to block my attack, but I wasn’t using a weapon. I slammed into him in a bull rush, and as I did I felt Luna’s curse suddenly take, hard. Looking into the future, it was as if every strand but one was extinguished. The one strand that led to Griff’s fate pulsed brightly, becoming real.

Griff staggered backwards, off balance, on the edge of falling but not quite going over. He kept going far further than he should have, and was halfway across the room before he came to a halt.

The shadows around Griff moved. Onyx strode out to his right, Rachel to his left, Cinder behind. The three Dark mages formed a triangle with Griff at the centre. Sea-green light flowed at Rachel’s hands; fire burned around Cinder’s. Onyx showed nothing at all. All three noticed Griff at the same time, and turned to stare at him.

Griff looked up, and there was just enough time for his eyes to go wide. ‘Oh, shi-’

Battle mages have a frightening amount of destructive power. Mages fighting a duel spend most of their energy preventing the other from landing a solid hit. It’s very rare for a mage to hit an opponent with all his strength, but when it happens, it’s always fatal. One spell from a battle mage can shred a human body like tissue paper.

The effect of three of those spells hitting at the same time doesn’t bear thinking about.

I won’t try and describe what it looked like. All I’ll say is that it was over very fast.

Then Onyx and Rachel and Cinder turned their attention to each other, and I dived behind the pedestal as the room lit up with death and fire. ‘Luna! Luna!’

Luna was leaning against the pedestal, her eyes fluttering. Griff’s stone chains still locked her ankles to the pedestal, her right arm was twisted at a horrible angle, and her face was dead white. ‘Don’t touch me,’ she said, her voice faltering. ‘It’s different, I-’

From the other side of the pedestal I could hear the roar of flame and the flat, deadly wham of Onyx’s force magic. ‘It’s okay. Don’t move.’ I looked around, trying to figure out some way to get Luna out of here. ‘We need to-’

I only had a second’s warning. I dived sideways off the dais, rolling, just as something swept through the spot I’d left with a swoosh of air. As fast as she had struck, Thirteen was gone. I came to my feet and slipped one hand in my pocket, tense, waiting.

Fewer than a hundred feet away a furious battle was raging as Rachel and Cinder hammered Onyx with all of their power, trying to break down his shields and kill him, but I couldn’t spare the time to look. I stood on the open stone, and it was Thirteen I was watching for, waiting to see how she would come at me — from the left or from the right or straight above. I couldn’t see her, but I could see into the futures where she killed me, and I could see how to move to make sure that didn’t happen. Not yet … not yet …

… now.

As Thirteen swept in I pivoted, and her claws missed my throat by inches. I kept turning, and as Thirteen flashed past next to me my hand flung a handful of glittering dust over her.

Thousands of the glowing grains of light fell to the floor and winked out, but hundreds more covered the air elemental and clung to her. Thirteen darted away, trying to shake the stuff off, but it had stuck. She was visible now, an outline of glittering particles in the shape of a woman. ‘What’s the matter, Thirteen?’ I asked. ‘Shy?’

Thirteen made a final effort to rid herself of the dust, then gave up. As she looked at me her invisibility faded and the lines of her body came into view beneath the dust. Pale white eyes looked at me, and she began to glide forward.

I backed away, a nasty feeling in my stomach. I could reveal Thirteen, but I had nothing that could harm her. ‘Listen,’ I began, ‘maybe we got off on the wrong foot. The truth is, I actually really like air elementals.’

Thirteen kept advancing, and I kept backing away. Thirteen was pushing me back in a tightening spiral, coming closer and closer to the pedestal. I could feel Luna slumped against the base, fighting to stay conscious, the battle still raging behind me. ‘You want the fateweaver, right?’ I said. ‘You need us to get it. If we’re dead, you can’t take it back to Levistus.’

Thirteen didn’t answer, and with a sudden chill I realised that she wasn’t listening to me because she couldn’t. She’d been made to follow orders and nothing else, and right now her orders were to kill me. Thirteen was getting closer and closer. ‘Wait-’ I said urgently, and Thirteen sprang, claws reaching for my throat.

Something flashed across my field of vision and hit Thirteen in mid-leap, knocking her sideways. I caught one glimpse of Starbreeze’s face, then the two air elementals were rolling away in a blur of motion and slashing claws.

I stared after them for a moment, then turned back. ‘Luna!’

Luna had managed to pull herself up against the pedestal, her crippled arm cradled in her lap. Her head was right next to the three receptacles for the cube, and the force barrier holding the fateweaver glowed silently above her, casting a faint white halo around her hair. ‘Go away,’ she managed.

I crouched down next to her. ‘Luna-’

‘Go away,’ Luna said. Her eyes were cloudy with pain, but her voice was clear. ‘Not you as well.’

‘Put the cube in one of the holders.’

‘I don’t know which, Alex, just go, I-’

‘Close your eyes and guess.’

Luna stared at me. Her eyes were clear again — I think the sheer craziness of what I was saying had shocked her lucid. ‘Alex?’ she said carefully as the battle raged around us. ‘This isn’t a good time for making jokes.’

From the far side of the room, there was a hollow boom and Cinder came flying through the air. He slammed into one of the pillars with the crack of breaking bone and hit the floor. A moment later Onyx appeared. His eyes had gone pitch black and wisps of darkness trailed from his hands as he turned on Rachel. Rachel faced him, and there was no fear in her eyes; beneath her mask, her lips were curled in a silent snarl. From the other side, Starbreeze and Thirteen were a whirlwind of deadly motion.

Two mages, two elementals, two battles; as soon as Onyx or Thirteen won, we were finished. ‘Don’t choose,’ I said to Luna, raising my voice over the sounds of battle. ‘Leave it up to luck.’

‘I don’t-’ Luna began, then stopped. Her eyes went wide as she understood.

From behind, I heard Starbreeze give a yelp of pain. ‘Alex! Hurts!’

Luna took a deep breath, then pulled herself to her knees, gasping slightly as her right arm shifted. My hands itched to help her but I stood my ground. Carefully Luna drew out the crystal, closed her eyes as the sounds of battle raged all around us, then reached out blindly.

The crystal slotted neatly into the leftmost holder.

There was no fanfare this time. The crystal pulsed, and the force field over the fateweaver pulsed with it. Then the barrier was gone, and the fateweaver was clearly visible: a simple, unmarked wand of ivory. I snatched it up, and-

— silence.

I didn’t hesitate. As soon as I felt the momentary dizziness I stepped back, looking around. I could see my body crouched over the pedestal, Luna slumped beneath. ‘Abithriax!’

‘Well, well.’ I spun to see Abithriax walking towards me across the floor, picking his way through the battle in his red robes. Onyx and Rachel were duelling all around him, and a blast of force passed straight through Abithriax’s image without touching him. ‘Things have gotten lively.’

‘I need to use the fateweaver!’

‘Yes, you do,’ Abithriax said. ‘Listen carefully. To use the fateweaver, you and I must merge. I will open my mind to you; my knowledge and skill will be yours. The link requires your willing consent.’ Abithriax’s eyes held mine. ‘Hold back even a little, and it will fail.’

Behind Abithriax, Onyx shattered Rachel’s shield into shards of sea-green light. I knew the kind of mind magic Abithriax was describing was dangerous. If I went along with this, I wasn’t sure who I’d be when I returned to my body. I looked down at Luna. She was crouched down on the dais, trying to hide from the battle raging around us. ‘Do it.’

Something flickered in Abithriax’s eyes, then they were smooth again. He nodded and walked up to the dais. ‘Then hold out your hand.’

I lifted my right arm. Abithriax reached out, then paused. ‘I suggest you brace yourself.’ He looked into my eyes. ‘This will feel … a little odd.’

Abithriax grasped my hand, and everything went white.