Hidden

Chapter 13

And that was that. Mostly.

The Keepers didn’t catch Crystal, which wasn’t exactly a surprise given that she’d probably been out of the country again before I’d finished that phone call. They settled for interrogating us instead. I gave them an edited version of the story which I don’t think made them very happy, especially the “working with Crystal to escape” part. I claimed that it had been under duress and I’d had no other choice, and given that Sagash wasn’t exactly going to come down to the station to give a statement contradicting me, there wasn’t much the Keepers could do to prove otherwise. All the same, I got the definite impression from most of the Keepers I spoke to that they didn’t think saving Anne in exchange for Crystal had been a good trade. I disagreed, but since no one seemed to care very much what I thought, I kept my opinions to myself.

The Keepers had a try at interrogating Sagash too. I didn’t get to watch, which was a shame since by all accounts it was fairly entertaining. After a brief but eventful exchange of views, Sagash sealed off his shadow realm, leaving the Keepers twiddling their thumbs outside. A full assault on the shadow realm might have been possible, but without Crystal there no one on the Council had the motivation to push it through. Instead the Keepers ended up trying to enforce some weird kind of interdimensional siege, which isn’t really very effective when the residents of the place you’re sieging can gate to any place on earth. On the positive side, it did give Sagash a reason not to come to London after me, which from my point of view was just as well.

Ironically enough, the one who came out of the whole thing looking the best was Sonder. He’d been the one in charge (on paper at least), and right from the start he’d gone on record insisting that Crystal had been behind Anne’s disappearance, even when no one else believed him. Caldera probably could have poked some holes in that story, but she kept quiet and Sonder got the credit.

For my part, I had to put up with a certain degree of grilling, but it was nothing I hadn’t done before. It also helped that with Caldera and Variam, I had a couple of Keepers on my side for a change. Compared to the shadow realm, it was actually kind of relaxing.

I got out of the Keeper station in Westminster the day after getting back to London. It was late afternoon and the street was filled with noise, the road busy with cars and buses. Someone was waiting for me on the street, and as I started down the steps I shook my head. “Why does it not surprise me that you knew where I was?”

“You did send a message,” Talisid pointed out. He looked the same as ever, blending neatly into the Westminster crowds. I started walking north and Talisid fell into step beside me. “I’m glad to see you’re in good shape.”

“I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you got the story from the Keepers.”

“The story you and Anne told them, yes.”

“Yeah, well, I told them the truth, just not all the details.” I paused, not looking at him. “We met Richard.”

Talisid didn’t break stride. We kept walking along the pavement, adjusting our course to avoid the pedestrians coming the other way. “I see,” Talisid said.

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“I had my suspicions.”

“Yeah, I know. You were right.”

“I appreciate the information,” Talisid said. “Does this mean you’ve come to a decision on my offer?”

“I’m glad you brought that up,” I said. I’d had a lot of time to think in between the rounds of interviews by the Keepers. “You know, the more I thought about what you were offering, the more it seemed a little weird. Don’t get me wrong, I could do the job. But so could a lot of other people.”

“Fewer than you might think.”

I shrugged. “Either way, I couldn’t shake the feeling that you were putting in just a little more effort than I was worth. So I started thinking about what might be so special about me. And the biggest thing that stood out? My link to Richard.”

Talisid didn’t answer. “You said you wanted me to work as an investigator,” I said. “You didn’t say what I’d be investigating.” I stopped, looking at Talisid, forcing him to turn and face me. “Richard found us in the shadow realm. He offered me my old job back. I think you’ve known for a while that this might happen. You didn’t want an investigator. You wanted a double agent. Someone close to Richard and reporting back to you. You wanted to recruit me before Richard did.”

The pedestrian traffic streamed past as Talisid hesitated, people giving us irritated looks. I knew he was deciding what to tell me. “The truth, please,” I said quietly.

Talisid sighed slightly. “Part of my job involves planning for future possibilities. The possibilities are not always pleasant.”

“Really.”

“Our models estimated a low to moderate chance that Richard would attempt to recruit you within two years of his hypothetical return,” Talisid said. “The probability was assessed as being too low to justify the security risk of sharing the information.” He paused. “I requested that you be told regardless. I was overruled.”

“And that was my role in your model,” I said. “Spying for the Council. Just out of curiosity, what life expectancy did your analysts give me if I said yes?”

“Believe me when I say that I understand exactly how dangerous Richard is,” Talisid said. “But for that very reason it’s critical that we learn more about his plans. I know how much we would be asking, and I’d be authorised to offer a great deal in exchange.” He paused. “You would probably be doing more to work against Richard’s goals than any other mage in the world.”

I was silent.

“Forgive me for asking,” Talisid said. “But when Richard asked you to join him, what was your answer?”

“I gave him the same answer I’m going to give you right now.” I leant close to Talisid. He didn’t flinch, and I spoke very clearly. “I am not going back to Richard. Not ever.”

Talisid studied me for a long moment before replying. “He may not give you the choice.”

I walked away, disappearing into the crowd. Talisid didn’t follow.

That evening found me alone in my flat.

After meeting Talisid, I’d been to visit Arachne. I told her everything that had happened, both in the shadow realm and after. We talked for a long while, and by the time we’d finished and I’d left to make my way home, the sun had set. I was tired, but I was too wired to sleep. I sat at my desk and stared out the window, my thoughts going round in circles.

I’d been at it for an hour before something made me look up. I turned around on my chair to see a blink fox sitting in the middle of my living room floor, its tail curled around its legs.

I stared at it. “How did you get in here?”

The blink fox just looked at me. “I have gate wards specifically to stop people sneaking in like this,” I said. “And I didn’t give you my address.”

The blink fox yawned, came smoothly to its feet, and disappeared out the door. I got up and followed to see it sitting in my kitchen. It looked at me, then at the fridge, then back at me.

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

The fox blinked twice.

“Okay, I know I promised I’d help you out, but this is ridiculous. You do not need my help to feed yourself.”

The fox looked at the fridge again, flicking its tail from side to side. I’d just opened my mouth to say something else when I heard the bell ring downstairs. “Now what?” I muttered, and turned to the door before pointing at the fox. “You stay here.”

The fox tilted its head.

I opened the shop door. “Hi.”

“Hey,” Anne said. She looked better, if a little tired. It actually felt a little weird to see her in normal clothes again.

“The Keepers let you out?”

“A few hours ago. Vari picked me up.”

“Oh. Cool.”

There was an awkward silence. Anne stood on the doorstep. Outside on the street, a car buzzed by.

“Do you want to come in?”

“Sure.” Anne stepped inside and glanced up. “Did you know you’ve got a fox in your kitchen?”

I sighed. “I don’t suppose that lifesight is any good for figuring out what blink foxes eat?”

“. . . and they didn’t ask much else,” Anne said fifteen minutes later. We were sitting in the living room; the muffled crunch of eating came from the kitchen. “They didn’t seem to care about anything except Crystal.”

“Did they give you any trouble?”

“Not compared to last time.”

“That’s not saying much.”

“It’s not, is it?” Anne said. “I think my standards are getting low.”

“Did you come here from the station?”

“Vari picked me up. We . . . had a lot to talk about.”

The crunching sounds from the kitchen stopped. A moment later the blink fox trotted into the living room, jumped up onto the sofa, turned around several times before settling down in a tight curl, nose to tail, yawned loudly, then laid its head down and appeared to go to sleep.

“What’s it doing here?” Anne asked curiously.

“I have no idea,” I said in annoyance. “I thought this thing was trying to get away from mages. I figured as soon as I gave it a way out, it’d disappear into London and we’d never see it again. I wasn’t expecting it to walk into my bloody living room.”

Anne smiled slightly. “Maybe it trusts you.”

“Don’t know why.” I looked at the fox; it seemed to have gone to sleep. I couldn’t figure out why it would let its guard down like that. If my experience of mages had been limited to ones like Sagash and his apprentices, I wouldn’t have been that keen to find more of them. But everyone has their own story . . .

I stole a glance at Anne. She was sitting quietly on the other end of the sofa, dressed in her street clothes, looking out the window at the Camden nightlights. Yet only yesterday I’d seen her walk into a duelling circle, bloodied and half dressed and surrounded by enemies, and destroy Crystal in five seconds flat. No matter how vivid the memory, it was hard to match it with what I was seeing now. It really did feel as though she were a different person.

“Do you mind if I ask you a favour?” Anne asked.

“Sure. What is it?”

“Vari and I went back and had a look at my flat in Honor Oak,” Anne said. “It’s not damaged or anything, but . . . well, after what happened, I think I need somewhere a bit safer. So I was wondering . . .”

“Wondering?”

“Whether you could help me set up some defences,” Anne said. “Like you’ve got here. Gate wards and things, so people can’t just teleport into my bedroom. Sonder’s letting me stay over for now but . . . sooner or later I’d like to have my own place. Somewhere safe.”

I looked at Anne for a second, then nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”

There was a pause. Anne hadn’t brought up the subject of what I’d told her before that duel, and it was making me feel awkward. If she was upset, she wasn’t showing it.

Well, maybe you should stop guessing and ask. “I’m sorry about yesterday,” I said. “About what I said at the arena. I didn’t mean to . . .” To hurt her? That had been exactly what I’d been trying to do. Okay, so telling the truth might not be the most diplomatic option . . .

Anne looked down at the blink fox. It was snoozing, its chest rising and falling very slightly. “If you hadn’t told me that, I’d probably be dead.”

I didn’t answer.

“Vari was telling me about what happened while I was gone,” Anne said, looking up at me. “Did you know that he and Luna were looking for a way to gate into Sagash’s shadow realm?”

“I heard,” I said. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about the fact that one of the things I’d told Anne in that arena had actually been true. If Vari and Luna had been able to pull it off, they might have saved us both . . . and they might have died pointless deaths.

“I told Vari he shouldn’t have been trying to go after me,” Anne said, partly echoing my thoughts. “He said he didn’t care, he’d have done it anyway. It made me . . .” Anne trailed off, started again. “I know I haven’t been the easiest person to be friends with lately. I knew I was in danger, but . . . I never really put it together that I was putting all of you in danger too.”

“You ought to be thanking Luna,” I said. “She was the one who pushed me into going back to your flat.”

“I will. But . . . you didn’t give up on me, even when I wanted you to.” Anne looked at me. “I won’t forget that.”

“Yeah, well, don’t make a habit of it, okay? I really don’t want to go jumping into any more shadow realms after you.”

Anne smiled slightly. “No, I think I got the message this time.”

We sat quietly for a little while. The fox opened one eye briefly, then stretched out on its side and went back to sleep. “That other version of you that I met in Elsewhere,” I said. “Do you talk to her?”

Anne shook her head.

“Maybe you should try.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think . . .” I hesitated, trying to figure out how to say it. “I think you’ve been so afraid of that side of yourself that you’ve gone too far the other way. You’ve been pushing yourself to be good and peaceful all the time, and you don’t have any kind of safety valve. I know I might not be the best role model but . . . speaking from experience, accepting your dark side works a lot better than trying to shut it away.”

“Even after seeing her?” Anne said quietly.

“I’m not saying I’d like to have her around for dinner. But I don’t think it’d be a bad thing if you let yourself act a little bit more like that.” I shrugged. “Besides, if she can’t reach you, you can’t reach her. If you always keep her shut away, then how’s she ever going to get better?”

Anne looked surprised, then thoughtful. Talking to Anne felt more comfortable now. Somehow I’d never really noticed how much she’d been keeping back until she started doing less of it.

“Have you heard anything more about Richard?” Anne asked.

I shook my head.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” I said. I got up and walked to the window to stare out into the night, then sighed slightly. “But I know what I need to be doing.”

Anne waited, listening. The living room was silent but for the whisper of nighttime traffic. “Back when I first met you, my life was . . . I want to say easier, but that’s wrong. Simpler, maybe? It wasn’t safe, but all the dangerous stuff was temporary. I always knew that if I could just last it out, then things would go back to normal. And when that was done I spent most days running my shop. I had time.”

“And now you don’t,” Anne said.

“You remember the last thing that Richard said? ‘Until next time.’ He doesn’t give up.” I turned to look at Anne. “He’ll be back. I don’t know how, or when. But there’s a clock now. A month, six months, two years—I don’t know how long, but I can feel it ticking. And when it runs out, if I don’t have what I need . . .” I shook my head. “Most of the last ten years, I’ve been drifting. I can’t do that, not anymore. I need to be ready.”

“Not just you,” Anne said. “We.”

“You know how powerful Richard is,” I said. “He’ll have allies.”

“So do you,” Anne said. “Luna, Vari, Arachne. Me. And the mages you know from the Council, like Sonder and Talisid. You’re not Richard’s apprentice anymore. You’ve got friends.”

I looked back at Anne, then smiled slightly. “I guess that’s a good start.”

I stayed standing by the window. After a moment Anne rose, moving next to me. We stood side by side, looking out into the darkness of the Camden night.