Taken

chapter 11

It was one hour later.

Anne, Variam, Luna, Sonder, and I were in the woods behind Fountain Reach, in a small clearing on the other side of the hill from the mansion itself. The winter night was only a few degrees above freezing but a small fire burned at the centre of the clearing, its heat forming a bubble of warm air that kept away the cold. The five of us were spaced around the fire, Luna a little farther away. Around us the forest was dark and quiet, the only sound the rustle of wind in the trees.

We’d assembled on the grounds of Fountain Reach before heading into the woods. Sonder had been the last to arrive, having had to make the journey up from London, and as soon as he’d shown up we’d gotten out of sight. The burns on my arm and hand were gone; Anne had healed them along with Variam’s broken leg to the point where I couldn’t even tell where I’d been hurt. Now everyone was looking at me. I’d led them out here and they were waiting for me to tell them what to do.

“Anne,” I said. “Before we start-are we alone?”

Anne nodded. She was sitting on the thin grass with knees up and hands clasped on top of them. “Yes.”

Luna looked at her curiously. “How do you know?”

“I can feel them.”

“Who?”

“Anyone,” Anne said in her soft voice. “Their body, their shape, whether they’re hurt. .”

“How much can you see?” Luna asked.

Anne looked at Luna. “You’ve got a bruise on the side of your left knee from where you fell a couple of hours ago fighting Ekaterina. And you pulled two of the muscles in your thigh a little.”

Luna’s eyes widened slightly and her hand went to her leg. “We don’t have to worry about anyone sneaking up on us,” I said.

“Who are you worried about?” Sonder asked. He’d taken off the parka that he’d worn here and was sitting on it.

“Before we get to that,” I said, and I nodded to Anne. “Tell us what you found out from Hobson.”

As Anne took out the pad she’d been writing on and began to look through it, reminding herself of the notes she’d written during her conversation, I studied her. The firelight flickered off Anne’s dark hair and the lines of her face, leaving most of her body in shadow.

She didn’t look like the sort of person who should be getting assassination attempts. But someone had just tried to have her killed for the second time in four days and I didn’t know why. Usually when a mage is attacked it’s because they’re a threat, but Anne seemed like about the most unthreatening apprentice I could imagine. I had to be missing something.

“Okay,” Anne began in her soft voice. “Hobson told me that he used to work for the family who lived there, the Aubuchons. He didn’t. . Well, he didn’t say they were mages, but he knew some of it. Enough not to ask questions.

“The master of the house when Hobson started working there was Vitus Aubuchon. He was in his seventies and he was really concerned with his health. He’d always been sickly and he had a lot of doctors on call making house visits. When he wasn’t with them he’d shut himself away in his private rooms. His wife had died a long time ago and the only other member of his family was his son. Hobson had the idea Vitus was an inventor, but”-Anne glanced at me-“I’m pretty sure it was magical research. Anyway, a few years went by. The research didn’t seem to be going well and Vitus stopped seeing anyone.

“Then all of a sudden things changed. Vitus came out one day and ordered the house torn down. He kept the central rooms and the basements but the two wings got demolished. Then he started rebuilding. He had a set of plans he was working from and he’d come out every day to check that it was being done right, and he’d fire builders who didn’t do it the way he told them. No one could figure out what he was doing. Fountain Reach used to have a little summerhouse that Vitus used with a hedgemaze around it, and he built right over it.”

I stirred, something catching at my memory. “The reconstruction took two years,” Anne continued. “On the day it was finished Vitus took a walk around Fountain Reach to do his final checks, then he went inside and Hobson says from that day on he never left the house again. But he started to act differently. Before he’d always kept Fountain Reach private, but from then on he started inviting groups to come and tour the mansion. He wrote to local councils and tourist agencies and made Fountain Reach open to the public.

“Things kept on that way for a long time, but then there were problems. Hobson and the other servants started overhearing arguments between Vitus and his son. They’d never gotten on all that well, but things got worse and worse as Vitus got older. And people stopped coming to Fountain Reach.”

“Why?” I said.

“No one seems to know,” Anne said. “But Hobson said there was a police investigation, although it was hushed up. Apparently a travel group had been to Fountain Reach and someone went missing.”

Sonder frowned. “Wait. You mean-?”

“Keep going,” I said.

“After that Vitus Aubuchon wouldn’t see anyone at all, not even the servants,” Anne said. “His son left the mansion, then one night when most of the servants were away he came back. Hobson was there and he said Vitus’s son was drunk. He told Hobson and all of the others to get out of the house and never come back, then he went looking for his father.

“That was the last anyone saw of either of them. Hobson and the other servants woke up the next day and couldn’t find Vitus or his son. When they searched the house they found fire damage in one of the inner rooms-it looked like somebody had tried to burn the house down during the night. The police were called in and searched the house from top to bottom. Months went by and the house was closed and they kept on searching but they never found either Vitus or his son. And Hobson never went back.”

Anne fell silent. “Someone went missing in Fountain Reach?” Luna asked. “How long ago?”

“Thirty years ago,” Anne said. “She was our age.”

“Why was this Hobson guy telling you this stuff?” Variam asked.

“I’m not sure. He was. . odd. He seemed really jumpy the whole time. And he never asked why I wanted to know.”

“That’s weird,” Luna said curiously.

“No, it’s not,” Variam said. “He was bait for a trap.”

Anne frowned. “I know it looks that way but I didn’t get that feeling from him. He was nervous about something, but he didn’t seem like he knew what was going on.”

“But why would anyone want to kill you in the first place?” Sonder asked, echoing my thoughts from earlier.

“So she couldn’t tell anyone what she knew,” Variam said.

“Doesn’t make sense,” I said. “The constructs were after Anne, not Hobson. And whoever sent them had to know it would draw more attention to Hobson.” The more I thought about it, the odder it seemed. Between the tip-offs and the attacks, it was as though someone wanted to point me towards Fountain Reach. But why?

I came out of my thoughts to realise Variam was arguing about something with Luna. “Sonder,” I said, cutting them off. “Did you get anywhere in London?”

“What? Oh, the investigation. No. It’s just like all the others. We can trace them up to the point where they disappear, but the shroud stops us from getting anything useful.”

“What about the information I asked for?”

“What information?” Luna asked.

“About the Aubuchon dynasty,” Sonder explained. “Well. .” He pushed up his glasses and leant forward. “It matches with what Anne said, really. The Aubuchons were a hereditary magical line. They used to be very famous but they dwindled over the years like a lot of mage families. Vitus Aubuchon was the last.”

“What about his son?” Luna asked.

“He was a normal. No magical talent. Apparently Vitus wasn’t happy about that.”

“The rebuilding of Fountain Reach,” I said. “That was when those wards were put up, wasn’t it?”

Sonder nodded. “That’s something I was able to find out. The reason he was doing that rebuilding was to build the wards in with the house from the ground up. Basically all of Fountain Reach is one giant focus. Lots of people were curious because it seemed like such overkill. I mean, everyone has wards, but those ones are about five times as strong as they should be.”

“Did they figure it out?”

“Not really. The best guess was that the wards were acting as the skeleton for an envelopment focus.”

“What’s that?” Luna asked.

“It’s a large-scale focus that acts as a magnifying effect,” Sonder said. “As long as you’re within the area you can use the energy to power spells that are much more powerful than normal, or ones from a different type of magic than you should be able to use.”

“If they’re so good, why doesn’t everyone use them?” Variam said.

“Well, an envelopment focus only works within the physical area it covers. And the spells that run it are unstable, so they need a lot of maintenance. Basically it makes you more powerful, but only as long as you stay in one place.”

“Why didn’t any other mage take Fountain Reach for himself after Vitus disappeared?” I said.

“They couldn’t get the wards to work,” Sonder said. “Vitus had attuned them to himself.”

I nodded. “And if it had been built in with the physical design of the place, it would have been more trouble than it was worth to change it.”

“If those mages couldn’t get Fountain Reach to work for them, how did Crystal do it?” Luna asked.

“Guess she figured it out,” Variam said.

Sonder frowned. “But the mages who investigated the wards after Vitus’s disappearances were. . Well, I actually know two of them and they know more about focus magic than almost anyone else in the country. If they couldn’t reattune the wards I don’t see how she could have.”

“Who cares?” Variam said. “Maybe she just didn’t bother.”

“But that would have problems too. Even if they aren’t directly designed to defend the location, living in a place where you don’t have any control over the ward layout is-”

“Okay, look,” Luna said. “What about that missing girl? It has to be the same thing, right?”

Anne and Sonder looked at each other. “I’m not sure,” Sonder said. He looked troubled.

“I am,” Luna said. “Alex, do you think if we went looking we’d find a bunch of other people going missing there?”

I thought about it for a second, then nodded. “Maybe not obviously. . but yes.”

“I don’t know how they missed this,” Sonder said. “Fountain Reach was investigated-”

“Fountain Reach was investigated for disappearances involving mages,” I said. “But I’ll bet you the Council never looked into what happened to normal people who went there.”

“But it still doesn’t make sense,” Sonder objected. “It’s the apprentice disappearances we’re trying to solve, and there’s still no connection-”

“About that.” I got to my feet. “Come with me for a second. There’s something I’d like you to check.”

* * *

Fountain Reach was a cluster of light against the winter darkness. Stars twinkled down from above, and from the mansion dozens of windows glowed. We were at the edge of the woods bordering the gardens and even across the lawn we could hear the chatter of voices through the thick walls. Everything else was black.

“What are we doing here?” Sonder asked, shivering. Away from the warmth of Variam’s fire spells, his breath was a pale shadow in the cold air.

“What you just told us was useful,” I said, “but it wasn’t why I asked you to come down. When’s your best guess on when Yasmin went missing?”

“About one o’clock this morning.”

“I want you to look back into the past over the period immediately after that. Let’s say a three-hour window.”

“Look, even if it was here, you know the wards would stop any-”

“The wards prevent scrying inside the house,” I said. “I want you to search the grounds around the house.”

“For what?”

“Nothing,” I said truthfully. “See what you find.”

Sonder sighed and closed his eyes. Behind him Anne, Variam, and Luna were half hidden by the trees, though only Luna was shivering. “Do you want me to look around the front?” Sonder asked.

“No,” I said. “The farther out of view the better.”

Sonder fell silent. The only noise was the murmur of voices drifting across the gardens. I kept my arms folded against the chill, trying not to show how tense I was. Minutes passed and I forced myself to stay patient. I went over the reasoning in my mind, checking it for holes. It all hung together. Sonder ought to find. .

“Huh,” Sonder said, interrupting my thoughts. “That’s funny.”

“What?”

“There’s an empty patch.”

“A shroud?”

“Yeah. One-fifteen to one-eighteen.”

“Okay,” I said, making sure to keep my voice calm. “Is it the same shroud? The same as when-?”

“Yes,” Sonder said. He was looking at me. “The same one that was used at Kings Cross and all the others.”

“Now check the time the last apprentice disappeared,” I said. “Vanessa. Same deal, the period immediately after she went missing.”

It only took Sonder a minute this time. “It’s the same,” he said. I couldn’t make out his expression, but he was looking at me. “Alex, this means-”

“Check them all.”

* * *

It was the same with all of them. The disappearances of all the missing apprentices matched up with a period of shrouded time in the back of Fountain Reach. By tracing the exact activation of the shroud, Sonder was able to figure out that the person using it had come from the woods to a little-used side door set into the mansion, half hidden by the bushes. Backtracking, we found that all of the routes led back to one of a pair of clearings a few minutes into the trees, where they stopped.

“But where did they come from?” Luna asked once we’d withdrawn back to the campsite nd had warmed up again.

“A gate spell,” Sonder said. “It has to be.”

“Why didn’t they just gate into the mansion?” Variam said.

“They couldn’t,” I said. “The wards over Fountain Reach stop you from gating inside. But they don’t stop you from gating nearby and walking in. It’s how half the guests have been getting here.”

We sat around the fire in silence for a minute. “This means it’s Crystal, doesn’t it?” Luna said at last.

“We don’t have any proof of that,” Sonder said.

“It’s her house.”

“Yes, but all we know is that someone used a shroud,” Sonder argued. “I know it’s suspicious but it’s not enough to bring to the Council. Anyway, we don’t have a motive.”

“Harvesting,” Variam said instantly.

I shook my head. “It was one of the first things I thought too, but it doesn’t fit. Harvesting is incredibly dangerous. Even doing it once is likely to kill you. To do it over and over again you’d have to be suicidal, and Crystal isn’t.”

“But how could it be Crystal?” Anne asked.

“Why can’t it be?” Luna said.

“That missing girl,” Anne said. “She disappeared back when the house still belonged to Vitus Aubuchon, thirty years ago. Crystal is. . thirty-four?”

“Thirty-five,” I said.

“So Crystal couldn’t have done it,” Anne said. “She would have been five years old.”

“So maybe that was some other mage,” Variam said.

“Come on,” Luna said. “Two different mages just happen to kidnap a victim of the same age at the same place?”

“What do you think?” Sonder asked me.

“It can’t be a coincidence,” I said. “But if I had to guess, I’d go with Luna. I think it’s Crystal who’s been doing this.” I looked around the four of them. “Something that’s been bothering me from the start is how neat all these disappearances have been. The victims never seem to fight back-it’s as if they just walk out the door. Well, maybe that’s exactly what has been happening. A mind mage like Crystal can overwhelm someone fast, especially someone young and inexperienced. And it would explain why we’ve never had any witnesses. Wiping memories is well within her range.”

“But what about the girl from thirty years ago?” Anne asked.

“Before I met Crystal I did some digging,” I said. “She’s never taken an apprentice or taught any classes. In fact, until this tournament she’s never shown any interest in apprentices at all. I think it stems from when she came to Fountain Reach.”

“Isn’t it supposed to be her family home?” Sonder asked.

“Yeah, and I’m pretty sure she was lying. You heard Anne’s story. If Crystal was really the heir to the Aubuchons, why didn’t the house go to her when the last two members of the family died?” I shook my head. “I think Crystal found something here, something hidden. And whatever she found was the reason she bought the house and arranged this tournament.”

“But why the tournament?” Sonder said.

“That’s the bit I can’t figure out,” I said. “Because until now the kidnapper has gone to a whole lot of trouble to keep these disappearances away from here. Yasmin was right here on the grounds, but they waited to grab her until she was all the way away in London.”

“Why?” Variam said.

“To draw attention away from Fountain Reach,” I said. “But if that’s the case, why hold the tournament?” I shook my head again. “There must be something they think is worth the risk. .”

“What do you think’s happened to the apprentices?” Anne asked.

“Nothing good.”

We talked for another hour. Although everyone agreed Crystal was the most likely suspect, it was clear we didn’t have enough to go before the Council. Sonder thought we should go to Talisid and report what we’d found. Variam didn’t trust Talisid or anyone else from the Council and wanted to keep it a secret. Luna wanted to investigate more, and Anne stayed quiet and didn’t volunteer an opinion either way.

“All right,” I said once the conversation had started going in circles. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Sonder, I want you to go back to London and buy some video cameras. Tomorrow night we’re going to set up surveillance on those two clearings that are being used to bring apprentices in here. It won’t do anything to help the ones already gone, but it should give us some proof if they get used again. There’re some other things I want you to check up on too; I’ll tell you those later.

“Luna, Anne, Variam, I want you to stay around the tournament. Keep on listening, keep on digging. There’s got to be some reason the White Stone is being held here and we need to know what it is. And while you’re there, see if you can figure out where in the house those missing apprentices might have been taken. They came into Fountain Reach and they sure as hell didn’t leave, so where are they?”

Luna nodded. “What about you?”

“I’m going to follow Crystal,” I said. “I still think she’s the one responsible for this and I’m going to shadow her. If I’m lucky she’ll lead us to something that can let us know what’s going on. While I’m doing that, I want the rest of you to stay away from her. Crystal’s really good at reading surface thoughts and the last thing we want is for her to know we suspect her. Before we go I’ll teach you a couple of mental exercises to help with that.” I looked around. “One last thing. I know I’ve told you this before, but don’t go anywhere alone as long as you’re inside Fountain Reach.”

“You just said all the disappearances were happening outside Fountain Reach,” Luna pointed out.

I sighed. “Look, I don’t have any good answers. I just know that the longer I stay in that place, the more it creeps me out. It feels like there’s something in Fountain Reach and it’s watching me. And I really don’t like that we’ve got so many apprentices staying there.” I straightened up. “All right, that’s it. Any questions?”

There were plenty, and by the time everyone was satisfied it was long past midnight. Variam doused the fire and we made our way back to Fountain Reach. The mansion was going dark as the people inside withdrew for the night, the lights in the windows vanishing one by one. I dropped Anne and Luna at their room and Variam at his before going to bed.

* * *

The dream came again that night. I was walking the corridors of Fountain Reach, and I was alone. The mansion felt different, dead; the halls were darker, the rooms older. Fountain Reach had always felt alien, an unwelcome place to live, but this Fountain Reach was different: It was hard to imagine anything living here. An old crooked door appeared before me and I stepped through.

Mud squished under my shoes as I entered the hedges. The branches and leaves were shrivelled and dead from lack of light. As I turned the corners I started to hear whispers around me, lost voices at the edge of hearing. The hedges parted before me to reveal a small ancient building with a metal door.

The room inside was lined floor to ceiling with cold grey tiles. They might have been white once but now were cracked and darkened with age. A metal table stood in the centre of the room with straps down its length, battered and stained. There were pipes along the walls, and in one corner was an old metal bathtub. The room was silent but for a slow dripping sound from the corner: plink. . plink. . plink.

A wave of fear rose up inside me, but I forced myself to go closer. Dust and debris crunched under my feet as I moved. As I drew closer I saw that the bathtub was filled with some sort of liquid, dark and still. The scent was horrible, something ancient and sickening, and I stopped, afraid to go closer, listening to the drops falling: plink. . plink.

Then I heard a soft sighing sound and felt breath on the back of my neck.

* * *

I came awake with a gasp, heart pounding in my chest. The weapon under my pillow was out and in my hand and I was scanning for danger before I knew I was doing it. Futures leapt out at me, lines of light in the darkness that represented threat, a sudden change-but as I looked closer I couldn’t see anything happening. I came fully awake, searching for what it was-

— And it was gone. All of a sudden, the futures were blank and uneventful. I sat on my bed, checking and rechecking, and found nothing.

My room was dark, but looking through the window I could see that the eastern sky was starting to brighten. A thick bank of cloud had come in overnight and its underside was beginning to light up with streaks of red: Once the sun rose it would block out the rays entirely. I stared out the window, letting my breathing slow and my heartbeat steady. Only once I was calm again did I turn back to my room.

The clock beside my bed read seven thirty-five-I’d been asleep only a few hours. From the rooms around I could hear the sound of the mansion’s inhabitants waking up for the second day of the tournament. My room was quiet and undisturbed, the alarms hadn’t been tripped, and everything was where I’d left it. Yet though I couldn’t put my finger on what it was something about it felt off, like the feeling you get when you walk into your house at the end of the day and know someone else is there.

I dressed, threw on my mist cloak, and went out to find the others. The halls of Fountain Reach were cold but stirring with activity as more people woke, lights coming on one by one. Variam was still asleep but Luna and Anne’s room was empty and I went looking for them.

I found them in one of the practice halls, and they weren’t alone. A raised voice was echoing through the open doorway; it was a girl, not quite shouting but close to it. Moving into the shadow of the doorway I saw Anne and Luna on one of the duelling pistes. They looked like they’d been in the middle of practice when they’d been interrupted by the two apprentices opposite them.

“What have you done with her?” the girl said. It was Natasha, the round-faced girl who’d been sniping at Anne and Luna before. Back then she’d had a smile on her face, but she wasn’t smiling now.

“I haven’t done anything,” Anne said. She looked troubled.

Natasha clenched her fists. “You’re lying!” Her voice was high-pitched, on the edge of breaking. “You were fighting with her before!”

“I wasn’t fighting with her-” Anne began.

“We don’t know where Yasmin is,” Luna said at the same time. “The last we saw her she was with you.”

“You’re lying!”

“Tash, come on,” the boy next to Natasha said. It was Charles, the same boy I’d seen with her before, and he looked uneasy.

“I know it was you,” Natasha said. She stared straight at Anne, ignoring Charles. “I know what you’ve been doing. Give her back or I’ll make sure everyone else knows too.”

Anne looked unhappy but didn’t answer. “You’ve got it all wrong,” Luna said. “Look, we’re trying to find the guys doing this, okay? We don’t-”

“You too!” Natasha whirled on Luna. “You think you can help her? I’ll get you as well!”

“Listen, you stupid-” Luna began.

“Okay,” Charles said loudly. “We’ve got to go.” He pulled Natasha away towards the door. Natasha didn’t resist, but as Charles led her out of the hall she shot Luna and Anne a glare and there was hate in her eyes. Then she was gone and Anne and Luna were left alone.

I stayed silent in the doorway, scanning through the futures to see if anything was coming to threaten them. “Well, this is just great,” Luna said. “Now she thinks we did it. What do you think she meant about what you’ve been doing?”

“I’m not sure,” Anne said. But there had been a moment’s hesitation there.

Luna didn’t seem to notice. With a sigh she sat on a bench, the whip handle dangling from her hand. “This is impossible. Onyx wants to get Alex, someone wants to get you, Natasha wants to get both of us, and in two hours I’m supposed to win a duel against some apprentice who’ll be way better than I am.”

“You don’t have to win,” Anne said.

“Mm,” Luna said. “I want to.”

Anne looked at her curiously. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Luna said. “I guess it’s just. . I keep feeling useless, you know? Like I’m always leaning on Alex. I mean, it’s taken me this long just to get to where I probably won’t hurt whoever I’m with.”

“Alex and Sonder don’t seem to think you’re useless.”

“I always wonder if they’re just pretending.” Luna rested her chin in her hands, the whip sticking out to one side. “Don’t you ever feel like you need to do something?”

“No,” Anne said simply.

Luna twisted to look at her. “Really?”

Anne shook her head.

“Why didn’t you enter the tournament?” Luna asked. “Does your magic not work that way?”

“It’s not that. I can. .”

“Why don’t you want to, then?”

“I don’t like hurting people.”

“I can think of a few I’d like to,” Luna muttered. “Like Natasha.”

“She did just lose her best friend.”

“I’m not sure mages have friends.”

“I’m a mage,” Anne reminded her gently.

Luna sighed and straightened. “Sorry. Can we have one more try with the stance thing? I think I was getting it by the end.”

No sign of danger was showing through the futures I could see, and it looked as though Natasha had gone. As Anne and Luna went back to the duelling piste I withdrew silently-I didn’t want to disturb either of them and I knew Luna would be focused on her coming match.

Overhearing these sorts of conversations always gives me a strange feeling, like looking through a window onto a view I don’t usually see. My “adventures” with Luna tend to be so dangerous that I’ve got my work cut out just to keep us both alive, so it had never really occurred to me to wonder how she felt about it. It’s been a long time since I was an apprentice, but I can still remember just how scary it can be to go up against an experienced mage-hell, it still scares me, which is why I do it as little as possible. But I had the feeling that trying to make her feel better was the wrong way to handle things. Luna might have come to the wrong conclusion-she’d never been useless-but she was right about needing to stand on her own feet. The best thing for her to do would be to learn to face up to mages herself.

Outside the sun had risen, and the mansion was coming fully awake. I didn’t think Luna or Anne would be in any danger and so I went searching for Crystal. She wasn’t in or near the main hall, so acting on a hunch I headed for the place where I’d eavesdropped on her the last time-that empty corridor towards the top of Fountain Reach where I’d heard Crystal talking to what had seemed like thin air.

She was right where I’d expected, but someone else had gotten there first. I heard the murmur of voices from all the way down the hall and quietly moved closer.

As I got within earshot I realised the man with Crystal was Lyle. “I’m just not sure it’s possible,” he was saying, and he sounded troubled. “I mean, it was a worry before, but now. .”

“Fountain Reach is the safest place these apprentices can possibly be.” Crystal’s voice was cool. “You tested the wards yourself.”

“Yes, but with this girl disappearing, what was her name-”

“Yasmin didn’t disappear in Fountain Reach. Wasn’t that what you told me?”

“Yes, but-”

“You reminded everyone to ensure that their apprentices didn’t leave the mansion. It’s hardly your fault if they chose to ignore you.”

“But Sarissa had told her.” Lyle sounded uneasy. “She kept saying Yasmin wouldn’t have left the grounds-”

“Lyle,” Crystal said. She moved closer, and through the futures I could see that she was resting a hand on his shoulder. “You worry too much.”

“I supported the nomination of Fountain Reach to the Council. If it turns out. .” Lyle hesitated. “The Council wouldn’t be pleased.”

Crystal sighed and I heard her move away. “Is the Council all you think about?”

Lyle was silent. I was one door down from Lyle and Crystal’s room, my hand on the handle, ready to slip inside should they come out. They’d actually left the door to their room open, which seemed odd but made sense in a way. Between Lyle and Crystal, nothing thinking or feeling could get into the corridor without them noticing. . unless that someone was wearing a mist cloak.

“Have you thought about that offer?” Lyle asked.

“Working for Levistus?”

“It’s an important position.”

“I’m sure it is.” There was faint distaste in Crystal’s voice.

“I could. . make some recommendations. We could-”

“We could do what? Run the Council’s errands for them? Do all the work and take all the risk for a few crumbs of reward?” Crystal shook her head slightly. “I never understood your focus on the Council.”

“They’re the most powerful mages in the country.”

“I can think of a few Dark mages who might disagree.”

“Dark mages aren’t an institution. They’re just anarchy.”

“At least they provide some opportunity.” Crystal walked to the window and glanced back at Lyle. “Oh, stop thinking that. I haven’t turned to their side. But I’m not going to serve the Council either.”

“You could rise-”

“To the top of that old boys’ club?” Crystal’s voice was cool and precise. “After decades of bowing and scraping and cutting deals and begging for favours? Then once I’m old and grey, I could rise? I think not.”

Lyle was silent. “I know what you want to ask,” Crystal said.

“Could we-?”

“No,” Crystal said. “Not as long as your first loyalty is to the Council.” She turned to Lyle. “But there are alternatives. You made me an offer, now let me make you one. What if I could offer you something better?”

Lyle sounded taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“A way to have what we want without depending on the Council.”

“How-”

Crystal shook her head. “Not now.” She walked past Lyle, towards the door. “I have a tournament to oversee. Think about it.”

I’d seen Crystal coming and was inside the room with the door drawn to by the time she stepped out into the corridor. She turned and left, heels clicking on the wooden floor. Lyle followed a minute later.

Once they were gone I stepped out again, looking after them quizzically. Lyle and Crystal. . Well, it was interesting, but I couldn’t see how it was much use. Crystal’s words were much more suspicious though. Whatever Crystal’s “something better” was, I had a feeling it wasn’t anything good.

* * *

I’m always reluctant to take off my mist cloak. Invisibility is such a safe feeling and it’s so tempting to stay there rather than make yourself vulnerable again. But it doesn’t make your problems go away-all it does is delay them. I hid the cloak and sat down.

There was something I’d been putting off and I couldn’t ignore it much longer. My formal reply to Onyx’s challenge was due in a few hours; I’d been avoiding thinking about it in the hope that it’d go away. It hadn’t, and I needed to figure out what to do.

My odds of winning a duel against someone like Onyx were basically zero. Duels are designed to be fair fights, and I’m very bad at fair fights. With no cover it would come down to strength against strength, and even the weakest elemental mage outclasses me several times over in terms of raw power. I might give Onyx a surprise or two but there was only one way it could end.

What if I went in expecting to lose? I couldn’t beat Onyx, but losing a duel wouldn’t kill me. It’d be humiliating and I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I’ve had worse.

But while losing a duel wouldn’t kill me, losing a duel to Onyx might. Traditional duels aren’t supposed to be fatal but more than a few mages have died from “accidents” in the ring. Onyx would never get away with it, not in front of so many witnesses, but that wouldn’t be much consolation to me. And I really didn’t feel like trusting my life to Onyx’s self-control.

I leant back with a sigh, staring at the ceiling. I hate dealing with this stuff. So much of mage politics involves these no-win situations. I’m much happier hanging out with Luna and Arachne or minding my shop.

How would I deal with this if I were in my shop? If some random guy walked in off the street and challenged me to a duel, what would I do?

I’d tell him to get lost. Then if he tried to start a fight anyway, I’d make sure it wasn’t a fair one.

Was there anything stopping me from just saying no? Now that I thought about it I didn’t think there was. By custom a mage is supposed to answer a challenge, but there aren’t any actual penalties for refusing. Traditional Light mages would see it as dishonourable, but the traditional Light mages don’t like me anyway.

The real danger was that I’d appear weak. But elemental mages already think diviners are weak, and it works to my advantage as often as not. Besides, I couldn’t see how declining the duel could do any more harm to my image than having Onyx publicly kick my ass.

I noticed that I was about to get a call. I took out my phone and hit the green button midway through the first ring. “Hey, Talisid.”

“Glad I caught you,” Talisid said. “There’s been a development.”

“What’s up?”

“Two Keepers have been sent to Fountain Reach. Avenor and Travis.”

I frowned. “What are they doing here?”

“They’re assigned to the apprentice investigation, so if they’re coming to you it’s a safe bet they’re following some lead.” Talisid paused. “It seems you’re starting to convince people that Fountain Reach may be the right place.”

“Well, I don’t know who convinced them but it wasn’t me.”

“You haven’t spoken to them?”

“No. When did they leave?”

“An hour or two ago. I’d expect them to be at Fountain Reach by now.”

“Um.” It bothered me for some reason. It sounded as though someone had tipped them off. But who?

“Have you made any progress?”

“Yes, but not over the phone. Talk to Sonder; he’s working on something from his end.”

“I will. Oh, and next time you go for a drive, make a little less mess, will you?”

“Yes, Talisid, the next time I have a bunch of unkillable construct assassins after me I’ll make it my number one priority to make sure you don’t have too much mess to clean up afterwards.”

“Glad to hear it.” Talisid sounded amused. “I’ll be in touch.”

I hung up and went to the duelling hall.