Marked

14

At exactly 2.55 p.m., Anne and I stepped through the gateway into San Vittore. The gate linking our world with the bubble realm closed behind us.

There were two people waiting for us in the anteroom, a man and a woman. The man had been talking into a communicator, but as we entered he stopped what he’d been saying. ‘Never mind,’ he said. ‘They’re here.’ He dropped the communicator into a pocket. ‘Verus. I see you were delayed.’

‘Yes, sorry about that,’ I said pleasantly. ‘Busy afternoon.’ Which was two lies for the price of one. I’d carefully calculated the waiting time so that it was long enough to be a clear insult, but short enough that I could pass it off as an accident.

‘So you finally showed up,’ the woman said.

‘Yes, I did.’ I smiled at her. ‘So what can I can help you with?’

The two mages in front of us were Barrayar and Solace, the aides to Levistus and Sal Sarque. Of the two, I was most familiar with Barrayar. He’s slender, a fraction under medium height, dresses in expensive suits and has a polite, pleasant manner that gives away nothing at all of what he’s actually thinking. Underneath, I knew him to be calculating and dangerous. He’d been Levistus’s aide for something near to ten years, and he hadn’t kept his job by being incompetent.

Solace was the newer of the two, a replacement for Jarnaff, the mage Richard had killed last year in the Vault. She’s pale-skinned with mousy brown hair, and a particular look – slim but slightly pouchy – that I’ve learned to recognise. It’s a popular thing among Light mages to get life magic treatments where the life mage alters their physiology to give them the traits of being fit and athletic without them having to exercise. It kind of works, but once you know what to look for, it’s a lot like putting up a sign that says ‘easy target’. Given Sal Sarque’s background, I didn’t know why he’d gone for someone like that for his aide, but maybe his options were limited. In any case, I was pretty sure she was at least tangentially connected to the assassination attempts I’d been dealing with since last year.

As if that weren’t enough, I knew from asking around that there were a couple of Keepers present to be security for the negotiations. One of them had been approved by Levistus, while the other was Caldera, meaning that by my count, pretty much every mage occupying this facility other than Anne either disliked me, wanted me dead or both. This was not shaping up to be a pleasant visit.

‘Well,’ Barrayar said. ‘Since you’re here, I suggest we get started.’

Solace gave Anne a narrow look. ‘Why is she here?’

‘Mage Walker is my aide,’ I told her.

Solace curled her lip. ‘You mean she’s your bodyguard.’

‘She’s filled that role at times,’ I said. A lot of mages assume that me keeping Anne as my aide is kind of the equivalent of a short guy owning a giant German shepherd. I don’t do much to discourage it – being underestimated can be useful. ‘Shall we?’

We passed through into the anteroom. Security screenings hadn’t got any more convenient since my last visit.

‘… drugs or drug-related items or paraphernalia,’ the guard droned on, ‘flammable or corrosive liquids, alcohol in any form, poisonous or infectious materials such as pesticides, insecticides, cyanides, laboratory specimens or bacterial cultures, and are you carrying any gas or pressure containers including but not limited to aerosols, carbon dioxide cartridges, oxygen tanks, Mace, pepper spray or liquid nitrogen?’

Anne looked at the guard. ‘Oxygen tanks?’

‘Just answer the question already,’ Solace said irritably. She and Barrayar had already gone through and were waiting on the other side of the scanner.

‘No,’ Anne said.

‘Are you carrying any cameras or other photographic devices, mobile telephones or other communication devices …’

Is it me, Anne asked, or does Solace have something against me?

It’s not just you, I said. I’d kept our mental link open through the dreamstone.

Do you think she was the one who sent those men to my flat?

The one who made the decision? I said. Probably not. But involved in some way … I’d put it around seventy/eighty per cent.

‘About time,’ Solace told Anne as she finally made it through the scanner.

‘Why do you even care?’ I asked her. ‘It’s not as if you need us.’

‘Your presence is required by law,’ Barrayar said.

‘Really?’ I said. ‘So you won’t mind if we accompany you while you’re questioning Morden?’

‘That won’t be necessary,’ Solace said quickly.

I gave the two of them a look.

‘Verus, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make this take any longer than necessary,’ Barrayar said. ‘We’ll call if we need you.’

I shrugged. ‘I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding us. You never have before.’

Barrayar and Solace turned and headed for the wing where I’d met Morden last time. Did you actually want to be there when they talked to Morden? Anne asked.

Just wanted to see how they reacted. I turned to the guard. ‘You have somewhere we can wait?’

The guard looked at me unsmilingly. ‘We don’t have waiting rooms.’

‘You have interview rooms.’

‘Those are reserved for official use only.’

I gave the guard a look. ‘How big an issue do you want to make out of this?’

‘That took way too much effort,’ I said as Anne closed the interview room door behind us.

‘They’re Light mages,’ Anne said. She gave me a glance. ‘Clear?’

The interview room was bare and inhospitable, with a single table and three not especially comfortable chairs. There was one door and no windows. ‘We’re clear,’ I said. I gestured at the left wall. ‘That’s a viewing port. One-way glass: looks opaque from this side. But there’s no one in the other room and the cameras are out in the corridor.’

‘So we wait?’

‘We wait.’

Anne pulled out a chair. I stayed standing, leaning against the wall. ‘What do you think they’re going to be saying to Morden?’ Anne asked.

‘Trying to see if they can get him to spill some sort of secret in exchange for his life,’ I said. ‘I doubt it’ll work. If Morden hasn’t cracked yet, I don’t see why this would do it.’

‘Unless he’s been saving something up.’

I nodded. ‘I wish I knew what Morden’s game was. Ever since he surrendered last year, none of what he’s done has seemed to make any sense. I know how smart Morden is – he wouldn’t be doing all this if he didn’t have a plan. But I can’t figure out what it is, and it’s bothering me.’

‘Do you think he really is trying to be a martyr?’

I raised my hands helplessly. ‘It almost feels like it, doesn’t it? It’s like he’s daring the Council to kill him. But I just can’t square that with what I know of what Morden believes. Risking his life, sure. He’s no coward. But sacrificing it just to make a point?’

‘Either way, it doesn’t seem good news for us.’

‘Yeah, the way this has worked out, it’s played right into Levistus’s hands. Now he gets to remove Morden and probably me as well. He won’t be able to get rid of us straightaway, but once I’m off the Council, he can just pass another resolution to get me arrested again and there’s precious little I can do about it.’

Anne stretched, looking around. ‘I hope those two aren’t spying on us.’

‘They’re not,’ I said. Being on the Council teaches you to be pretty good at spotting surveillance. ‘Could always switch to mental if you’re worried.’

Anne shook her head. ‘I like talking to you the regular way. And it’s nice not to have to wait for you to start the conversation first.’

I had to smile at that. ‘You seem like you’ve found ways around that.’

‘I haven’t really,’ Anne said. ‘You know how many times I’ve tried to say something and found that the link’s been broken and I’m just talking out loud in my own head?’

‘Okay, but some of the time you can talk to me first.’

‘No, I can’t.’

‘You just did,’ I said. ‘Ten minutes ago, at the security scanners.’

‘That doesn’t count,’ Anne said. ‘You’re the one holding the link open. If I’m paying close attention I can tell, but it’s really easy to forget and start talking when you can’t hear me.’

‘Technically you’re still the one starting the conversation.’

‘Okay, okay,’ Anne said. ‘I still don’t think it really counts.’

We sat in comfortable silence for a little while. I find being around Anne relaxing these days. ‘What about the Tiger’s Palace, then?’ I asked.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You definitely spoke to me first then. I figured it was just a case of you getting more practised with it.’

‘Well, it’s easier for me to control what I’m thinking when I do that with you, sure, but I still can’t actually open the link. If you don’t reach out first, it’s like I’m just calling where no one can hear.’

‘I did hear though.’

‘Only because you spoke to me first,’ Anne said. ‘Out when you were in the queue, remember?’

‘No, I mean when we were inside.’

‘You hardly spoke to me at all when you were inside,’ Anne said. ‘I was really worried. I had no idea what was happening.’

‘We were a little busy.’

‘You’re not making me feel any better.’

‘And anyway, it wasn’t “hardly at all”. I was checking in with you all the time.’

‘You called me once,’ Anne said, ‘when you wanted to check that the person you were looking at was really Vihaela. After that, nothing. I had to call Vari to get any idea what was going on, and all he did was tell me to stay away and hang up.’

‘Oh, come on,’ I said. ‘You’re seriously exaggerating now. What about the running back-and-forth during the fight? From the sound of it, you might have had more of an idea of what was going on in that building than we did. You were practically commentating the fight from the stands.’

‘I know my lifesight’s good, but it’s not that good,’ Anne said. ‘It was way too chaotic in there with all the patterns.’

‘Then what about when you were telling me to get away from where I was standing?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘After Vihaela did her power-up thing,’ I said. ‘You warned me away from her, then you were telling me to get off the floor.’

Anne frowned. ‘When?’

‘I know your memory isn’t that bad,’ I said. ‘What about when you were saying that Vihaela’s signature had changed? “A lot less human and a lot more powerful” – wasn’t that how you put it? You’re seriously telling me you can’t remember that part?’

Anne gave me a confused look. ‘I’m not sure what to tell you,’ she said. ‘But Alex, I promise. I did not say anything like that, not through the dreamstone, and not any other way either. After that first conversation I didn’t talk to you at all. The next time I saw you was when I got into the club after the battle was over and we met up face to face.’

I stared at Anne. She looked back at me, clear-eyed and sincere. I’m pretty good at telling when people are telling me the truth, and I was one hundred per cent sure that Anne was being honest.

An icy chill started down my spine, growing stronger with each passing second. ‘Then if that’s true,’ I said slowly, ‘who was I talking to?’

Anne changed.

An odd expression crossed her face, and she looked at me, lips parted, as though she were about to say something, then her eyes unfocused and her head drooped. A moment later her head came up, and this time there was a very different look in her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was stronger, layered with exasperation. ‘You just had to make this difficult, didn’t you?’

I held very still. Alarm bells were going off in my head, but I didn’t let anything show on my face. ‘Anne?’ I said carefully.

‘You could say that,’ Anne said. ‘Here, see if this jogs your memory.’

Black tendrils emerged from under Anne’s clothing, twining across her hands, her face. She stood, and wings of darkness unfolded, filling the room from wall to wall. All of a sudden she seemed taller, looming over me. Her eyes as she looked down were the same reddish colour, but there seemed to be something else layered over her, looking down on me from a second set of eyes.

I scrambled back, the chair going over, nearly falling to the floor. My back hit the wall and I opened my mouth to yell.

‘Ah-ah,’ Anne said. ‘Trust me, you really don’t want to do that.’

I swallowed. ‘Who are you?’

‘Come on, Alex,’ Anne said. ‘Don’t play dumb. You know exactly who I am.’

I did. The black tendrils playing around Anne’s face were distracting, but I recognised the mannerisms, the way of speaking. I’d seen it before, in Elsewhere. But right now, what was really scaring me, making my breath catch and my thoughts turn to horror, was something else. The shadowy black aura around Anne was blurry but very distinctive, and it was the same one that had been surrounding that figure that I’d seen on Friday at the Tiger’s Palace.

‘It wasn’t Vihaela,’ I said, my voice unsteady. ‘It was you.’

‘Ding ding!’ Anne smiled. ‘See, I knew you were fast enough to keep up. Now before you do anything hasty, sit down and take a breath. Because there are some things you really want to hear.’

I stayed standing, staring at her. I’d faced this other Anne in Elsewhere, but back there I’d been fairly certain that she couldn’t hurt me, at least not seriously. Here was another story.

‘What have you done with her?’ I said. I managed to keep my voice level this time.

‘Relax,’ Anne said. ‘Nothing she hasn’t done to me. Actually, exactly the same thing she’s done to me.’ She cocked her head. ‘Why so tense? Feeling a little threatened?’

I didn’t answer.

‘Oh, all right.’ Anne glanced from side to side at the wings curling around her. ‘I guess they are a little intimidating, aren’t they? Let’s dial it back a bit.’ There was no sound, but the black shadows around her faded, the tendrils sinking back into her skin. In a moment, she looked like a normal girl again … almost. There was still something different in her eyes, a hint of something larger behind her. She sat down, smiling at me. ‘Now. I’m sure you’re thinking of yelling for help, or maybe using a communicator or that dreamstone. You’re not going to do any of those things.’

‘You think you’re fast enough to stop me?’

‘Yes, actually,’ Anne said. ‘But if I’d wanted to, I’d have done that already. No, the reason you aren’t going to call for help is that if you do, then once the story comes out, Anne’s going to be executed.’

‘She …’ I began to say, then stopped.

‘Oh good, you’re catching on,’ Anne said. ‘I mean, the two of you have had enough trouble keeping the Council off your back as things are. How do you think they’re going to act when they find out that she was the one who kicked the collective arses of that Keeper team up one end of the Tiger’s Palace and down the other? Not too happy, don’t you think? And that doesn’t even come close to how pissed they’ll be about what I’m about to do.’

‘That wasn’t her.’

‘Oh?’ Anne raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s going to be your defence, is it? “It wasn’t her fault, it was her split personality.” How do you think that’s going to play, Alex?’

I couldn’t think of anything to say. It had been hard enough to keep Levistus and his allies from getting us prosecuted for crimes when we were innocent. Keeping us safe from prosecution when we were guilty …

‘And don’t forget yourself!’ Anne said. ‘You were the one who sponsored Anne, remember? You picked her as your aide, and you brought her along here today. Somehow I don’t think the Council are going to be the forgiving types when it comes to this kind of thing, do you?’ Anne leaned back and smiled. ‘So you’re going to stay there and keep very quiet. Because the only chance you have of staying alive – not to mention keeping her alive – is for this to stay our little secret.’

‘Are you serious?’

‘Why not?’ Anne said. ‘They bought it last time, didn’t they?’ Black shadows flowed over her skin, turning her into a dark silhouette, just like the one I’d seen at the Tiger’s Palace, and the tone of her voice shifted. ‘Obviously Vihaela found a way into this prison somehow. Who knows what tricks those Dark mages have.’ The shadows pulled away to reveal Anne’s face once again. ‘I mean, it fooled you.’

I should have seen this coming. All the pieces had been there. When I’d seen that black shape at the Tiger’s Palace, I’d noticed that it was exactly as tall as Vihaela. I just hadn’t made the connection that with the shadow adding a couple of inches, it was also exactly as tall as Anne. And with ‘Anne’ telling me that it was someone else …

‘This would have been so much easier if you hadn’t insisted on talking about it,’ Anne said. ‘If you’d been a typical man and just communicated in grunts, everything would have been fine. But no, Anne has to pick the one guy whose idea of a casual conversation apparently involves checking their memories for inconsistencies.’ Anne shrugged. ‘Oh well, I was getting bored anyway.’

‘How did you do it?’ I said. ‘You took her over at the Tiger’s Palace, I can see that now. But how come she didn’t figure it out?’

‘You aren’t the only one who’s been learning new tricks,’ Anne said. ‘It’s not too hard to cloud someone’s memories once you know how. Only works if you’re very close, but obviously that’s not really a problem for me, is it? After everything was over, I gated back to where Anne had been hiding and left her with a bunch of confused impressions of waiting around outside for the fight to finish.’ Anne raised an eyebrow at me. ‘I was surprised that didn’t tip you off. You really thought she was going to just sit things out? One way or another, she was taking part in that battle. I just made sure she made an impression.’

‘So what’s the big plan?’ I said. ‘What do you want?’

‘What do you think I want, Alex?’ Anne leaned across the table to look at me, and she wasn’t smiling any more. ‘It’s my turn to drive.’

‘What are you going to do to her?’ I said quietly.

‘A better question is what you’ll do. You see, once we’re done with this conversation, I’m going to walk out this door. And you’re going to make absolutely sure that everyone thinks that I’m Vihaela. Because if the Council finds out, I think we both know what’s going to happen.’

I did know. We’d be totally and irrevocably screwed. There was no way the Council would have any mercy on us, not for this. It’d make Levistus’s attempts to kill us look like a friendly warning. ‘Here’s an idea. How about you turn back into normal Anne and don’t tip them off?’

‘Sorry, not on the cards,’ Anne said. She glanced past me at the wall. ‘Well, fun as this is, I’ve got a schedule to keep.’

‘Why?’ I said. ‘I thought you could do whatever you want now. That’s the idea, isn’t it? Getting your freedom?’

‘Unfortunately I did have to make some deals.’ Anne stretched, rising to her feet. ‘But I’ve got high hopes that you’ll help me out with that.’

‘What kind of help?’

Anne started to answer, then frowned, looking at me. ‘Wait. You’re trying to keep me talking, aren’t you? Buying time to think of something?’ She shook her head. ‘You are good at that. I guess you’ve never actually tried it on me before.’

Uh-oh. I tried to think faster. ‘Look. If you want to get out of here, you’ll need my help. You aren’t going to be able—’

‘Sorry, Alex,’ Anne interrupted. ‘Like I said, I’m on a schedule. And I don’t want you hurt, but I’d really rather not having you running around messing things up. So …’

I saw the attack coming, but there wasn’t anywhere to run. Blackness surrounded me, pulling me under.

It felt as though I was running through deep water. Anne was somewhere ahead of me, and I was trying to catch up with her, but my legs were heavy and slow and I was falling further and further behind.

‘Get up,’ Luna told me.

‘I’m trying,’ I tried to say.

‘Staff to the guard station.’ Luna said. ‘You need to get up.’

‘I know. Give me a second.’

Luna crouched in front of me. ‘Facility lockdown. Report.’

‘What does that even mean?’

Luna leaned in close. ‘Get up.’

My eyes snapped open. Light stabbed into them and I squinted, twisting my head. I was lying on my side in the interview room; one of my arms was numb from where my head had been lying on it. Aside from me, the room was empty.

Through the closed door, I could hear a rising and falling siren. A female voice was speaking calmly over a public address system. ‘Facility lockdown. All staff report to the nearest guard station. Facility lockdown. All staff report to the nearest guard station.’

I pulled myself to my feet, staggered and grabbed at the table to stop myself from going over. My head ached and my limbs felt heavy and sluggish. Anne. Where did she go? I reached for the door handle, got it on the second try, and pulled it open.

The siren was still going. It sounded like it dated from World War II, and it was loud as hell. I heard a scrabbling sound and turned to look.

The corridor met another one to form a crossroads just a little way down, and a guard had just backed out into my view. He had a radio in one hand and had been shouting something into it, but as I watched he dropped it with a clatter and scrabbled for his gun. He levelled it and got off two shots before something came around the corner and opened him up in a spray of blood.

It all happened almost too fast to follow. The guard was screaming, wrestling with something that seemed to be all shadows and sharp edges, then he was on the ground and there were two of the things on him, claws ripping and tearing, blood spattering on the floor. The screams died away in a wet throaty sound and his hands clutched and went still. The things kept mauling his body, then their heads snapped up to stare at me.

I froze. I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at. They looked vaguely humanoid, thin and spindly, but their bodies and limbs seemed to be made of solid shadows that twisted in the light. They looked almost translucent, but there was blood clinging to their claws, and eyeless faces stared into mine. I reached instinctively for a weapon, found nothing. The security screening. Shit. I looked into the future, searching for their attack path, ready to dodge.

Then the nearer one sniffed at the air, and futures in which it attacked flickered and vanished. It hissed, and one after another the two of them turned and slipped away down the corridor, leaving a bloody trail behind them. In an instant I was alone but for the guard’s torn body.

I shook my head. Too much was happening. What the hell were those things?

I moved to the guard’s body, and one look was enough to confirm that he wasn’t getting up. I took his gun, saw a ring of keys on his belt, took those too. The siren was still going, the recorded voice was still playing, and now that I listened, I could hear shouts and screams echoing down the corridors. I wished uselessly for my armour. I’d come today expecting politics, not something out of a horror movie.

I didn’t know what was going on, but something told me that whatever it was, it was going to involve Morden. I remembered the route to his cell from my last visit and took off at a jog. I could hear sounds of combat from all around, but my divination showed me a path clear of danger. I found another dead guard two corridors down, and a blood trail indicated where someone had been attacked but managed to get away. The shadow creatures, whatever they were, were still prowling the corridors.

I came to a security gate. One of the keys from the guard’s ring fit the lock and I opened it, letting it clang shut behind me. I could hear the sound of combat from up ahead, and it was getting louder. I hurried around the corner and stopped, looking at the scene ahead.

I’d reached the guard post just ahead of Morden’s cell. The last time I’d been here it had been staffed by mantis golems, but now the golems were lying sprawled on the floor, their eyes lifeless and dull. Two guards were lying there as well, though unlike the bodies I’d seen in the corridors, they bore no marks.

There were three people still upright – Barrayar, Solace and Caldera – and they were engaged in combat against more of those shadow things. Caldera was at the front, fighting hand-to-hand, while Barrayar was watching her back. Solace was behind them both, hiding in the corner. The shadows threw themselves at Caldera, claws ripping and tearing, but their strikes slid off her skin as though it were stone. Caldera fought slowly and deliberately, taking her time to line up each punch. The shadows might look insubstantial, but they were obviously solid enough to be hurt: each of Caldera’s blows sent them staggering. Barrayar was holding back, a barely visible blade of force held low and out of sight. One of the shadows tried to attack Caldera from behind, and Barrayar killed it almost too fast to see, his blade gutting it from stomach to throat.

I’d arrived at the tail end of the fight. There were only three of the shadow things left, and as I watched, the number became two, then one. The last of the creatures lunged at Caldera, hissing, and she smashed her fist right through its head. The decapitated body hit the floor, twitching, and Caldera whirled on me.

‘Whoa!’ I held up my hands. Caldera’s blood was up and I didn’t want her seeing me as a threat. ‘Easy!’

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Caldera snapped.

‘What do you think? What the hell are those things?’

‘How the fuck should I know?’

There were half a dozen of the shadow creatures lying on the floor, but as I looked, I saw that they were dissolving. Pieces of their bodies were flaking away, disappearing into the air. As I looked more closely, I saw that there were eight or nine bodies, not half a dozen; the ones I’d missed were already mostly gone. Soon there’d be nothing at all.

‘Summoned creatures,’ Barrayar said. He was kneeling over one of the ones he’d killed. ‘They’re discorporating now that the effect is broken.’ He looked at me. ‘Did you and Morden plan this?’

‘No!’ I said vehemently. ‘I have no idea what’s going on. I thought Morden was with you!’

Barrayar looked aside. ‘Solace?’

‘He wasn’t here,’ Solace said reluctantly. ‘He came from the interview room.’

They haven’t figured it out. I said a silent prayer of thanks. It’s the way that Light mages think – in Barrayar’s and Solace’s minds, it was only Council members that were the players. It hadn’t occurred to them to suspect Anne. Caldera, though …

But Caldera had other things on her mind. ‘Is Morden still here?’ she demanded of Solace.

Solace was looking down the corridor towards the airlock leading to Morden’s cell. ‘Yes,’ she said uneasily. ‘But there’s something in there with him. Another – or two – I don’t like this.’

‘You said it was Vihaela?’ Solace asked Barrayar.

‘I only had a brief look before the door closed,’ Barrayar said. ‘But it looked very much like the reports from the Tiger’s Palace.’

‘Wonderful,’ Caldera muttered. ‘What do you think those creatures are? Some side perk of whatever item she’s using?’

‘I would imagine so.’

‘They’re coming,’ Solace said suddenly. ‘Two mages – no, three – no, two …’

‘Would you make up your mind please?’ Barrayar said.

‘We should fall back,’ Solace said. She took a few steps away, placing Barrayar and Caldera between her and the airlock doors. ‘Report to the Council.’

‘Communications are out,’ Barrayar said curtly. ‘By the time we made it outside, they’d be on our heels.’

‘Then we should call for backup …’

Caldera gave Solace a look of contempt. ‘Will you shut the fuck up?’

Solace drew herself up. ‘You can’t talk to me like—’

‘What Caldera is trying to say,’ Barrayar said, ‘is that we are all there is. If anyone is going to prevent Morden’s escape, it will be us.’ He turned back towards the airlock. ‘Let’s see how this unfolds.’

Solace’s voice rose. ‘They’re coming!’

There was a creaking sound as the wheel on the airlock door spun. I knew from my last visit that that door was supposed to be impossible to open except from the guard post we were standing at right now; apparently it wasn’t that impossible. The wheel came to rest with a click and the door swung smoothly open.

Shadow creatures flowed out, filling the corridor. There were at least a dozen, but it was the figure following them that my eyes fixed on. A black shadow, opaque but recognisably feminine, slim and deadly-looking. The face was a black mask, but I could just make out the gleam of two reddish eyes. ‘Oh look,’ Anne called out. ‘Welcoming committee.’

Now that I knew what I was looking at, I wondered how I’d ever mistaken the shape for Vihaela. It was the same height, yes, the same rough proportions, but the movements were Anne’s. Even the voice was recognisable – it was deeper, distorted by the shadow, but the accent, the manner of speaking, was the same. Surely Caldera and the others would see it. They’d never paid Anne much attention, but now that I knew what to look for, it was so obvious—

‘Mage Vihaela,’ Caldera said coldly. ‘You’re under arrest. Stand down.’

‘Are you really expecting that to work?’ Anne moved out of the way. ‘Oh, and by the way, I’ve brought an old friend.’

Morden straightened as he stepped out into the corridor and swept his eyes over us with a smile. ‘Barrayar,’ he said. He was dressed in his full regalia, complete with his chain of office. ‘And Verus and Solace. Quite the convention.’

‘Morden,’ Barrayar said coolly. ‘You’re looking well, all things considered. I hope you aren’t expecting to breeze out of here.’

‘Actually, I am.’ Morden began to stroll down the corridor, Anne at his side. The shadow creatures slunk out of the way. ‘Please don’t make too much of a fuss. I’d prefer to do this the easy way.’

‘You wish,’ Caldera said.

‘Come on, Caldera,’ Anne said. The shadows hid her face, but I could imagine her smile. ‘Didn’t we do this once already?’

Caldera made as if to answer, then hesitated. ‘Caldera, Barrayar,’ I said quietly. ‘I don’t think we’re winning this one.’

Caldera didn’t turn around. ‘Shut up.’

‘No, I’m serious,’ I said in a low voice. I was pretty sure that either Morden or Anne could take on all four of us at once. Both of them together wasn’t even worth considering, not to mention the shadow things, which were crowding the corridor behind Morden and Anne, watching us with hungry eyes. ‘We really don’t want to—’

‘Shut up!’ Caldera’s voice rose to a snarl. ‘Okay, Vihaela. You want to take on the Council, you’re going to have to start by going through me.’

Anne tilted her head. ‘Okay.’

With Caldera blocking my vision I couldn’t see what happened, but it was over so fast that I’m not sure I would have caught it anyway. Caldera started to cast a spell, Anne moved, there was a flash of magic – life mixed with something else – and Caldera gave a grunt and rocked back slightly as if she’d taken a punch. Then she hit the floor like a ton of bricks. I stared down at her, then up at Anne, still standing next to Morden. She’d barely moved. Darkness twined around her right hand as she tilted her head at me, and somehow I knew she was still smiling.

‘Do we have another volunteer?’ Morden asked.

Barrayar let out a slow, measured breath. ‘Solace, Verus,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘Back up, please.’ He reached down to grab one of Caldera’s arms and moved to the side. Caldera must have been twice Barrayar’s weight and more, but he dragged her to the wall without apparent effort. I followed his example.

‘You’re just going to let them go?’ Solace demanded.

‘I’m not letting them do anything,’ Barrayar said in irritation. ‘They’ve won this round.’ He looked at Morden and Anne. ‘Whether they’ll make it out of San Vittore alive is another matter.’

‘We’ll take our chances,’ Morden said. ‘I’m glad you’ve decided to be sensible about this.’ He walked past us, Anne at his side. As he did, he glanced at me. ‘Here you go, Verus.’ He tossed his chain of office in my direction.

I caught it left-handed. My right hand was still holding the guard’s handgun, which so far was doing me about as much good as it had him. ‘What are you expecting me to do with this?’ I asked. ‘Hold onto it until you get back?’

‘No, I rather think my time on the Council has come to an end,’ Morden said. ‘Feel free to return it to the rest of the Council. Or don’t.’

Morden and Anne walked away down the corridor. The shadow creatures didn’t. They formed a semicircle in the guard post, pinning us against the wall. ‘Um, Morden?’ I said, raising my voice. The Dark mage and Anne were almost around the corner. ‘I think you’re missing your entourage.’

Morden gave a brief glance back at us. ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘They’re not mine.’ He gave me a wave. ‘Goodbye, Verus. Nice of you to visit.’ He and Anne turned the corner and were gone.

Barrayar, Solace and I were left alone, standing over Caldera’s unconscious body, facing a small army of shadow monsters. I tried to count them and stopped at twenty. They stared at us with blank white eyes. They weren’t making any move to follow Morden and Anne. In fact, I had the feeling that they were just waiting for them to get out of earshot. ‘This,’ I said to no one in particular, ‘has been a really shitty day.’

‘Thank you for the commentary,’ Barrayar said. I had to give the little bastard credit: his voice was as cool as ever. ‘I don’t suppose that given your position under Morden, you’ve learned any way to deal with these creatures?’

‘Barrayar, I hate to break this to you,’ I said. ‘But you know how you and Levistus have been telling everyone that I’m a traitor and a Dark mage, and that I’m working with Morden and know all his plans? It’s not actually true.’

‘So you have no idea what these things are.’

‘Not a clue.’

‘Well,’ Barrayar said. ‘That would seem unfortunate for both of us.’

‘They’re getting closer!’ Solace said from behind us. She’d somehow managed to position herself between us and the wall.

She wasn’t wrong. As I looked around, I realised that the shadow things were inching towards us. If I looked straight at them they’d pause, but each time I did, the ones on the other side of the semicircle would creep forward a fraction. ‘Thank you, Solace,’ Barrayar said. ‘I noticed.’

‘Well?’ Solace said. ‘What are you going to do about them?’

‘Solace,’ I said without taking my eyes off the creatures surrounding us. ‘I have to say, out of all the Light mages I’ve met in my life, I think you might be the most irritating.’

‘So how many of these things can you take on at once?’ Barrayar said conversationally. ‘Because I suspect we have maybe sixty seconds before they force the issue.’

‘Well, I can probably take two, and you can take four, and maybe the last fourteen will spontaneously unsummon themselves.’

‘Is that likely to happen?’

‘No.’

The semicircle had contracted to half its size. ‘Screw this,’ I announced suddenly. ‘Don’t take this personally, but if I’m going to die in here, I’m not doing it with you and Solace for company.’

‘Is there some other company you’d prefer?’

‘I’m going to go after those two and chase them down,’ I said. ‘They’re getting further and further away while these things waste our time. You can follow me or stand your ground, I don’t much care which.’

‘And how exactly—?’ Barrayar began, right before I launched myself into the middle of the shadows.

I’d had a lot of time to look at the futures of what would happen if I came into close quarters with these things, and one thing I’d noticed was that I wasn’t going to die straightaway. Plenty of futures in which I got slashed or cut up, but none where I got my guts torn out the way that guard had. Given how many other people they’d killed so far, that had made me wonder why.

And the best answer I’d come up with was that they weren’t trying to kill me at all. Anne had had more than enough chances to finish me off if she’d wanted to. She could have done it at the Tiger’s Palace, and again while I was in the interview room. But she’d left me alive, and now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure she’d told her summoned pets to do the same. Those two creatures that I’d run into earlier had backed off once they’d figured out who I was. Either that other Anne didn’t want me dead, the real Anne still had some influence over her actions or Morden and company had plans that involved me being alive. I didn’t know which it was, but I was going to take advantage.

I went through the shadow creatures in a rush, only fighting when I had to and leaving my sides and back unguarded. One got in my way and I shot it through the face, but the others fell back, hissing. The back of my neck was tense and all my instincts screamed against leaving myself open like this, but it was over in seconds and space opened up before me. I sprinted around the corner and slammed the security gate closed behind me with a clang of metal. A flurry of shadows and claws hit the gate about two-tenths of a second later, but they were too late. I was through.

I backed off, watching the shadow things hiss and tear at the metal. I could sense force magic from behind and I knew that Barrayar was fighting. I had mixed feelings about him, Solace and Caldera being left in their current position, but since I had no further ability to affect the battle one way or the other, my feelings didn’t matter very much. Perhaps I’d drawn off enough of the things to give them a chance. For now, I had bigger problems.

I sprinted down the corridors of San Vittore, chasing Morden and Anne. The prison was silent; the alarm had shut off and I couldn’t hear any movement from down the halls. I made it back to the entrance room to find it deserted, the scanner offline. The gateway focus was inactive, but from the residue I could tell it had been used recently. I activated it and stepped through, back into our world, and found myself facing the business end of ten sub-machine-guns.

There was a Keeper leading the squad, one I vaguely knew – his name began with a D. ‘Who else has come through here?’ I demanded.

‘Why are you—?’ the Keeper began.

‘I don’t have time for this.’ I stalked forward, ignoring the weapons pointing in my direction; they wavered as the Council security men holding them started to have second thoughts. ‘Morden has escaped. Did he come through here? Yes or no?’

‘How did—? No. What’s going on?’

‘Shit,’ I muttered. The bubble realm was supposed to be gate-locked so that the only way to leave it was via this point. Apparently Morden and Anne had found a way around that too. I pointed back the way I’d come. ‘The prison’s getting attacked by some kind of summoned monsters. They’re not a match for a Keeper, but a good fraction of the guards are dead and the survivors need help. Take your men in there.’

The Keeper held his ground. ‘Orders are to secure the entry point.’

I stepped closer and leaned in towards the Keeper, eyes narrowed. ‘Men are dying in there. Very soon now, calls are going to go out summoning the Council for an emergency meeting to figure out what to do about this clusterfuck. When that happens, people are going to start looking for someone to blame, and a Keeper who ignored direct Council orders and sat on his arse when he could have helped will make an extremely good scapegoat.’ I switched my glare to the squad behind the Keeper. ‘That goes for the rest of you as well. Move.’

Anger flashed across the Keeper’s face, then he took a breath and looked aside towards his men. ‘We’re moving out. Get the others in here.’

I walked past and out. I got sidelong looks but no one tried to stop me. Plans were running through my head. Where would Morden have gone? His mansion … no, too obvious. It was the first place the Council were going to check, and besides, Onyx was there. If I were in his place, I’d go to some sort of staging point, somewhere in another country, to make pursuit harder. I knew I wouldn’t be able to guess all the places Morden could have gone, but Anne was another story. I might be able to intercept her, catch up …

… and what? Even if I could catch Anne, what could I do? I’d seen how easily Anne had handled Caldera. What was I going to do differently?

But even as I asked that question, I knew the answer. I couldn’t match Anne in a fight, but there was a way for me to face her on even footing. I changed direction and started walking, pulling out my phone and hitting the signal to alert Luna and Variam. I knew there wasn’t much time.