Taken av-3

by Benedict Jacka

  “Or Harvesting,” Talisid said.

  There was a silence. “Even the Council wouldn’t stand for that,” I said at last.

  “No,” Talisid said.

  “It’d start another war.”

  “Yes. But there’s no proof.”

  We stood quietly for a moment before I shook my head. “Why the secrecy?”

  Both Luna and Talisid looked at me. “It’s not enough,” I said. “Okay, this’ll cause trouble. But any mage who put in the work could learn it. In fact, it sounds like lots of them know about it already. And if they do, they can figure out the same things I just did. Why is it so important to keep this quiet?”

  Talisid looked back at me for a moment. “If you wanted to find a missing apprentice,” he said at last, “how would you do it?”

  “If I had the resources of the Council?” I thought about it and shrugged. “Locator spells and detective work. Then I’d get a time mage and ask him to scry back to the missing person’s last known location.”

  Talisid nodded. “We’ve done all those things.”

  “It didn’t work?”

  “It didn’t work.”

  “Shrouds?”

  “Yes. And something else. In every case, the missing apprentice disappeared somewhere where they couldn’t be traced. No witnesses, no physical evidence. And once they vanished, they didn’t come back.” Talisid’s eyes were grim. “Every disappearance was neat. Too neat. If these were simple kidnappings, we should have picked up some trace by now. Another apprentice, a witness, something overheard. . by simple law of averages there should have been something. But we haven’t found a thing. It’s as if every missing apprentice has simply vanished into thin air.” Talisid shook his head slowly. “I don’t believe it’s luck. I think they’re receiving information from an inside source. Someone with close access to the Light apprentice program is providing information on where apprentices can be found and how they can be caught alone.”

  The office was quiet. Outside, a flash of white showed against the rooftops; a tortoiseshell cat. It stalked out from behind a chimney stack, stretched lazily, braced itself on the edge of the roof, and jumped down out of sight to a balcony below.

  “You don’t know whom to trust,” I said at last.

  Talisid nodded.

  “But you trust me?”

  “You aren’t directly associated with the Council,” Talisid said. “Besides, I think it. . unlikely that you’d be responsible for something like this.” He looked steadily at me. “There is another issue. If we accuse someone without evidence, it will not only cause enormous discord but also put those responsible on their guard. We have to be sure and we have to have proof.”

  I thought for a second, then shook my head. “So no leads, I can’t ask for help from other Light mages, and even if I do find out who’s responsible it’s useless unless I can prove it. You don’t ask for much, do you?”

  “I warned you it was difficult.”

  “No kidding. You’re at least going to give us copies of your research, right?”

  “A little better than that.” Talisid handed me a thick brown folder. “I can put you in touch with the one who wrote them.” He smiled slightly. “I believe you know him?”

  I opened the folder, flipped to the name at the bottom, and laughed. “Okay. So I get some help after all.”

  “Let’s hope it’s enough.” Talisid’s smile was gone again as he rose to his feet. “I’m afraid everything I’ve tried so far has brought me up against a blank wall. So I hope you succeed, because if not, I don’t know when these disappearances will stop.” He nodded to us. “Verus, Luna. Good luck.”

  By the time we got back to the hall the excitement of Charles and Variam’s duel was over. Everything set on fire had been extinguished, the furniture was only smouldering, and Lyle was reading the riot act to Charles and Variam. “-absolutely unacceptable,” he was saying. “Absolutely unacceptable! You could have killed each other, not to mention everyone else! A duel is a formal test of skill, not some crude brawl. You’re supposed to be upholding the traditions of the Council-”

  “What happened?” Luna whispered.

  “I get the feeling Charles and Variam don’t like each other very much,” I murmured.

  “And another thing-” Lyle caught sight of us and cut off. An expression of frustration crossed his face and he threw up his hands. “Go on! Class is over! You’re dismissed!”

  The apprentices dispersed, grabbing coats and packing bags. “So where do we start?” Luna said.

  “We go back to the shop,” I said. “First thing is to work through the material Talisid gave us.”

  The short wooden sword focus Luna had been using was still by her bag. She picked it up with a grimace and returned it to the table. “I hate that thing,” she said as she came back. “It felt wrong.”

  “Wrong how?”

  “Like the wrong size. Scratchy. It felt like my magic was fighting it the whole way.”

  “Mm.” I looked at Luna, thinking. “Maybe it’s time we got you a focus weapon.”

  “Please not that one.”

  I shook my head. “Not if your magic reacted that badly. Try a few others.”

  The focuses on the table were all swords or sticks, and Luna started picking each one up and taking a few practice swings. As she did I focused on her with my mage’s sight and realised that Luna was right: Her magic was fighting the weapons. Each time it was drawn immediately to the weapon and soaked in, but instead of channelling through the focus it seemed to be attacking the alien object, trying to destroy it. “Huh,” I said at last.

  “They don’t feel right,” Luna said again.

  “They’re not.” I tapped my fingers. “Maybe a sword’s the wrong kind of weapon for you. I’ll have a think about it.”

  I was concentrating on Luna and didn’t notice that someone had approached until they were right next to me. I’d half-expected Lyle, but as I looked up I got a surprise. It was the girl Luna had been fighting, Natasha. “Hi!” Natasha said to Luna. “Are you okay?”

  Luna looked up at her, then away again quickly. “I’m fine.”

  “Oh good. Listen, I just wanted to warn you. You really don’t want to be hanging around her.”

  “Who?”

  “Her,” Natasha whispered. She tilted her head towards Anne and Variam, at the other end of the room. “Anne.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, you know where’s she’s from, right?”

  Luna looked blankly at Natasha.

  “Oh God, you don’t know!” Natasha covered her mouth with both hands, then looked at Luna with wide eyes. “You really haven’t heard?”

  “Heard what?”

  “You really should be more careful.” Natasha shook her head. “I can’t believe you didn’t find out.”

  Luna was silent. Natasha waited a little longer and then unbent, dropping her voice and leaning closer. “She was taught by a Dark mage,” Natasha whispered. “Her and that other boy, Variam. They were both apprentices to him. And do you know what they did next?”

  Luna didn’t answer. “They started working for a monster,” Natasha whispered. “A demon. That’s where they’re going now. Nobody knows what it is.”

  “If nobody knows what it is, how do you know it’s a monster?”

  Natasha looked at Luna in annoyance. “I’m serious. You’ve seen how she is. She’s really rude to all the tutors and she won’t do as they say. And it’s a really bad idea to hang around her.”

  Luna met Natasha’s gaze in silence. “You know,” she said at last, “they say the same thing about me.”

  Natasha stared back at Luna, then shrugged. “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She turned to where I’d been standing quietly, and made a good pretence of only just noticing me. “Oh, hi, Mage Verus. Bye!”

  Luna watched Natasha go and shook her head. “I really hate her.”

  I made a noncommittal noise. Personally, I sympathised with Luna.
Natasha’s speech had sounded like pure trouble-stirring to me, and she’d carefully timed it so I’d hear it too. But it left me uneasy all the same.

  Lyle and Charles had vanished while we were talking, and Natasha was on her way out. Anne and Variam were talking under their breath. The way they were standing made me think they didn’t want to be overheard and as we approached I glanced through the futures in which I sneaked up on them, trying to eavesdrop. In most I was spotted, but in one I was able to catch a few words. “-sure it’s him?” Variam was saying quietly.

  “Yes,” Anne said. “He just left-”

  Variam saw me and made a quick gesture to Anne, and the futures of their conversation vanished abruptly as the two of them turned to watch us leave. Anne gave Luna a smile and a wave. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See you!” Luna said. Variam said nothing and his eyes tracked us as we left, suspicious and wary.

  * * *

  Luna was silent as we left the building, and stayed silent as she unlocked her bike from the railings and we started back towards my shop. The walk from Islington to Camden is a nice one, and despite the winter season the sun was shining with enough warmth to make it a pleasant journey.

  We settled into a walking pace, both of us on the pavement with Luna wheeling her bike in between. “You met Anne three months ago, right?” I said. “At the acceptance ceremony.”

  Luna nodded. “How much do you know about them?” I said. “Her and Variam, I mean.”

  “She doesn’t talk about herself much.” Luna’s voice was doubtful, and I knew it was bothering her too. “And Variam never talks at all. I thought he just didn’t like me, but he’s the same with everyone.”

  “Do they always show up together?”

  “Mostly. Anne used to come on her own, but these days they’re always together. Variam never lets her out of his sight. It’s really hard to talk to her with him scowling all the time.”

  “Are they going out?”

  “Anne said no.” Luna frowned. “I can’t figure Variam out though. He’s always watching her but he doesn’t act like he even likes her.”

  We walked a little way in silence. The air was crisp and clear, and cars buzzed past importantly. A cyclist overtook us, riding with her back straight, her front basket filled with shopping and making the bike rattle as it went past. “Do you think it’s true?” Luna said.

  I knew she was talking about what Natasha had said. “Allowing for exaggeration. .” I shook my head. “I don’t know. But there’s something odd about those two.”

  “They could have started late, right?” Luna said. “Like me.”

  “From what I saw of Variam he’s pretty damn good for a late starter.”

  Luna walked on, brow furrowed. “Does it matter?” she said. “If they were Dark apprentices before?”

  “There are Dark mages and Dark mages,” I said. “From what I hear some of them treat their apprentices okay. The others. .” I shrugged. “One thing’s for sure-it’d matter to the Council. It would explain why they’re still apprentices. They’d have trouble finding anyone to sponsor them with a background like that.”

  “That was what happened to you, wasn’t it?” Luna said. “You used to be a Dark apprentice, then got out.”

  I didn’t answer. “Alex?” Luna said. “Could I ask you something?”

  “I don’t really want to-”

  “What’s the Council?”

  I turned in surprise to see that Luna was looking straight at me, her blue eyes serious. The winter sun was shining down over the rooftops, picking out the waves in her light brown hair. “What do you mean?”

  “I know there are people in charge and everything-” Luna stopped. “I mean, what are they-” She trailed off again and looked down at the pavement, frowning. “It’s-Okay. When you first told me about the Light Council and the Dark mages I thought the Light mages were the good guys and the Dark mages were the bad guys. Then there was what happened with Griff.” Luna’s hand crept unconsciously to her right arm. “And Levistus and Belthas. But now I’m training with them. And we keep working for Talisid.” Luna looked up at me. “Should I trust them or not?”

  We walked in silence while I tried to figure out how to answer. “It’s easier to understand Dark mages than Light mages,” I said at last. “Dark mages are. . honest, I guess. Bastards, but honest bastards. They say what they believe and they live it. Light mages are more complicated.” I glanced at Luna. “You know how things were in the old times? Before the Light Council got formed?”

  Luna shook her head.

  “Okay. First thing to understand is that there were a lot more magical creatures back then. And I mean a lot. Think monster-of-the-week TV show. Except the heroes didn’t win as much as they do on the TV shows, and when the monsters won a lot of people died. And sometimes the mages were the monsters. There were Dark mages around back then as well, and if half the stories are true they made modern Dark mages look nice.

  “Well, the Light mages grew up in opposition to that. They believed they should use their powers to protect others. Not just mages, but normal people too. They wanted a world where human beings wouldn’t have to live in fear of monsters. And that was what they worked for. Identifying the most dangerous magical creatures and learning their weaknesses. Tracking down the ones that fed off humans and destroying them. Guarding towns and cities. Stopping Dark mages from setting themselves up as tyrants. They kept doing it for hundreds of years.”

  “What happened?” Luna said.

  “They won,” I said simply.

  Luna looked at me curiously. “I’ll give you an example,” I said. “Vampires.”

  “They’re real?”

  I nodded. “Not all the stories are true, but they get the basics right. Vampires were supernatural predators who fed off human life force by drinking their blood. They lived forever or until something killed them, and the older they got the stronger they got. They had powers related to mind magic-they could dominate their prey, make them willingly come back to be fed upon. And they could make more of themselves. One vampire could control a whole city, and they did. For a while they ruled most of the world.

  “But then the mages got organised. It was one of only three times in history where the Light and Dark factions united. Even if they couldn’t agree on anything else, they knew they didn’t want to be vampire food. They smashed the vampire-controlled armies, and then they hunted the vampires down one by one and exterminated them. Not just some of them, all of them. They spent about a hundred years searching with a fine-tooth comb to make sure they got every last one.” I shrugged. “There aren’t any more vampires.”

  Luna was silent.

  “The same thing happened to most of the really nasty monsters,” I said. “Manticores, ogres, nightmares. The smart ones fled into other worlds or hid themselves away. The ones who didn’t got hunted down. Mages had seen what it was like being prey and they didn’t like it. They wanted to make sure humanity was at the top of the food chain. And that was what they did. And they did it so well that most people nowadays don’t believe those creatures ever existed.”

  I fell silent and we walked to the sound of our footsteps on the pavement and the click-click-click of Luna’s bike. “This is one of those stories that doesn’t have a happy ending, isn’t it?” Luna said at last.

  “Well, there aren’t monsters stalking the city every night,” I said. “But the Council-well, it sounds weird, but their problem was they succeeded. They wanted mages to protect normal humans from the magical world. But with the monsters gone, the biggest threat from the magical world was. . mages.

  “The Council’s old purpose is pretty much gone these days. It’s still the biggest power in magical society but nowadays people join it because they want to be in power, not because they believe in what it does. Every now and then a monster shows up and they get rid of it, but mostly they spend their time jockeying for position.” I sighed. “I don’t think they’re actively evil. Not most
of them, anyway. But they’ve made so many compromises you can’t really count on them for anything. I don’t know if there’s anything they do believe in anymore. Stability, maybe. Keeping things the same.”

  Luna thought about it. “So does Talisid believe in the Council’s old mission?”

  “We’ll see.”

  * * *

  My shop is in Camden, down a little side street and in the middle of a tangle of bridges and railway lines. It makes a small profit, though it’d make a lot more if I actually kept regular hours instead of hanging up the CLOSED sign every time I’ve got something else to do.

  Inside the shop is quiet and cool, wide windows letting in lots of light from the street outside and a faint herbal smell in the air. Standing shelves hold just about every faux-magic item you can think of, from crystal balls to exotic powders, while a small unlabelled roped-off area to one side holds the stuff that really is magical. It’s not designed for high turnover, but all in all I prefer it that way.

  I ate lunch with Luna and then she had to leave; she had another class with a different set of apprentices in Kilburn. I waved as she cycled off, then headed up to my flat to get started on the report Talisid had given me. My flat is just above my shop, with a nice view out over the Camden rooftops. I settled into my chair and started reading.

  I’ve never had any formal training as an investigator but I’ve had a fair bit of practice, enough to figure out the basics of what works and what doesn’t. To be honest, I don’t actually think I’m all that good at it. Other people tend to assume I am and I don’t go out of my way to correct them, but the way I generally find things out is by cheating and using my divination magic. But divination doesn’t help with a written report, and so I wasn’t really expecting to find anything in Talisid’s folder that other people hadn’t spotted already. What I wanted was a feel for the facts.

  I got one, and it wasn’t pretty. Since the beginning of autumn a total of three members of the Light apprentice program had vanished without a trace. The earliest disappearance had been three months ago; the most recent was less than a fortnight old. It looked like Talisid was right; there wasn’t any sign of this stopping. I picked up my phone and tapped one of the names in my address book. It rang five times before there was a click and a voice spoke from the other end. “Hello?”