Taken av-3

by Benedict Jacka

  Onyx walked forward and down, disappearing into the gloom.

  I waited for Onyx’s footsteps to fade away, then looked at Anne. “Might be safer if you stayed out here.”

  Anne thought for a second and shook her head. “I’d rather go with you.”

  * * *

  The basement at the bottom of the stairs was pitch-dark and silent. The air was dead and foul-smelling; there was obviously no ventilation. I clicked on my torch and its bright white beam revealed benches, shelves, strange equipment. Beakers and boxes were piled around the room and an open doorway led farther in. There was no sign of Onyx.

  “What is this place?” Anne whispered.

  “Looks like an old lab,” I whispered back. Something about the basement made me keep my voice down. I moved to one of the tables and studied the contents, then angled my torch downwards.

  “Do you think anyone’s here?” Anne whispered.

  I moved the splash of light from my torch across the floor. The stone foundations were covered by a thick layer of dust, broken only by the two halves of the door. Onyx’s footprints were clearly visible leading through the doorway and there were no others. “We’re the first ones to set foot in this place for years.”

  “So this isn’t where the apprentices have gone. .” Anne said, half to herself. She moved to one of the pieces of equipment resting against the wall. It looked like a giant angled casket made in black iron with odd-shaped pieces protruding. “What are these things?”

  “Research equipment,” I said. The table held nothing but long-corroded items, and I moved to the shelves. “For magical experiments.”

  Anne was studying the casket. “I’ve never seen any that look like this.”

  “You would have sixty years ago.” I focused on the immediate futures of myself searching the shelves and saw a cluster of futures around the right corner where I found something. I moved closer and narrowed it down to a cardboard box on the bottom shelf. “Standard doctrine in the first half of the twentieth century was to use wrought iron for lab gear.”

  Anne started towards me, then paused, looking towards the archway. “Onyx is coming back.”

  I opened the box to reveal a stack of dusty papers and notebooks. I lifted them out and gave them to Anne. “Here. Take these and wait upstairs.”

  “But-”

  “I’ll catch you up. Quickly.”

  Anne hesitated, then obeyed. I replaced the lid on the box and gave the room a final quick scan to see if I’d missed anything. A moment later I felt the presence behind me.

  Onyx was standing in the doorway. His dark clothes faded into the blackness beyond and the only parts of him that caught the light were his hands and face, pale and still. The torchlight cast his face in shadow and I could see the glint of his eyes as he watched me, waiting.

  “Find anything?” I asked.

  Onyx said nothing, and something about his eyes and stance sent a chill through me. I was suddenly aware of how alone we were. Nobody else knew we were down here and all the mages were at the tournament. There was Anne and that was why I’d sent her upstairs, but. .

  “Why’d you leave it behind?” Onyx said.

  “Leave what?”

  “The fateweaver,” Onyx said.

  I looked at Onyx, deciding how to answer. He looked relaxed and still but I wasn’t fooled; I could sense violence lurking in the futures ahead. “You think it should have been you, don’t you?” I said.

  Onyx stared at me. “You should know better,” I said. “What you have is what you can take.”

  “And right now,” Onyx said softly, “I can take anything from you I want.”

  “Tell me something, Onyx.” I met the Dark mage’s gaze. “If you had something as powerful as the fateweaver, would you give it up? Or would you make sure you could still use it?”

  “You think I’m stupid?”

  I just looked at him. I had given up the fateweaver. But I know how Dark mages think. Someone like Onyx would never give up that sort of power. And he’d never believe anyone else would do it either.

  Onyx started to say something, then stopped. I felt the futures shift and swirl. “So?” I said. “What’s it going to be?”

  For a long moment Onyx was still, then the futures settled. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.

  I turned and climbed the stairs away from Onyx. My back itched all the way up.

  * * *

  “ Okay,” I said into the phone. “No, it isn’t. . Yeah. . Yeah. . About ten. . We’re fine. . I said we’re fine. . Look, just be there, okay?. . Okay. See you then.” I hung up.

  “That was Sonder, right?” Luna asked.

  It was afternoon and the sun was already setting, the short winter’s day drawing to a close. Through the window, yellow-gold light painted the lawns and cast long shadows over the trees. Though I still wasn’t comfortable in the mansion I was finding that staying in the edge rooms near windows made it easier-the connection to the outside made it feel less oppressive somehow. Anne was sitting cross-legged on the bed while Luna was a safe distance away at the table, the silver mist of her curse moving in lazy arcs around her.

  “He’s with a team of mages trying to find Yasmin,” I said. “They traced her from here to the station and all the way to London, but they lost her in Kings Cross. There was a shroud. Sonder says he’s sure it’s the same one as before.”

  “Do they know where she is?” Anne asked. She looked worried.

  “Still searching. How’s it going?”

  “Well, I have no idea what most of this stuff means,” Luna said, dropping the folder she’d been holding. The table and bed were covered with the dusty papers we’d taken from the basement. Luna nodded to the bed. “Anne does though.”

  “Sorry?” Anne seemed to wake up. “Oh. Um. . I think most of this is life magic research. He doesn’t use the same words, but. .”

  “Research into what?”

  “Longevity,” Anne said. “Life extension.”

  I frowned. “Why would-?”

  I stopped and looked at the door. Footsteps sounded from outside, followed by a knock. I motioned to Luna and Anne to stay where they were and went to open it.

  Crystal was standing out in the corridor. She was wearing yet another expensive-looking business suit, this one a dark blue. Her eyes measured me up and down. “Verus.”

  “Hey there.”

  “I’ve received a formal challenge request against you from the Dark mage Onyx.” Crystal handed me a slim folder. “Here are the particulars.”

  I raised an eyebrow, flipped the folder open, and skimmed the contents. “Details of offence. .” I read aloud. “Damage of property. . attempted theft of property. . actual theft of property. . assault upon his person. . attempted murder. . trespass. .” I glanced up. “Don’t remember doing the last one.”

  “He doesn’t seem to like you,” Crystal said.

  “So I gather.” I closed the folder. “You’re overseeing the challenge?”

  “This is my property,” Crystal said coolly. “Do you have a formal reply?”

  “I don’t have to give one for twenty-four hours, do I?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, it can wait till then.”

  Crystal frowned slightly. “You don’t seem to be taking this very seriously.”

  “Oh, I am. How long have you lived here, by the way?”

  “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

  “Just wondering how you came to move in.” I leant against the door, folding my arms.

  Crystal studied me for a moment. “Perhaps I might be able to help you.”

  “That’s always nice. How?”

  “Onyx’s challenge requires my approval to be recognised,” Crystal said. She tapped her long nails on the sleeve of her coat. “It would be possible to. . delay that approval.”

  “And what were you thinking of in exchange?”

  “I would rather the two of you didn’t use my house as a battlefield,” Crys
tal said. “You and Onyx seem to get on poorly. It seems to me the best resolution would be for you to leave.”

  “Sorry. Don’t want to miss the tournament.”

  “There are other tournaments.” Crystal studied me. “I would suggest you think it over carefully. Fountain Reach can be. . inhospitable to those not welcome here.”

  I returned Crystal’s gaze, keeping my mind and expression blank. Crystal turned and walked away without looking back. I watched her go, not relaxing. Only when she was out of sight did I step back into my room and close the door behind me. I leant against the door and folded my arms, staring down at the floor with a frown.

  “Alex?” Luna asked. “What’s up?”

  “Change of plan,” I said. “Luna, Anne, I want you to go find out everything you can about Fountain Reach. Who lives here, its past history, what Crystal does here. Try to avoid drawing attention to yourselves if you can but you’re apprentices; you can ask a lot of questions before anyone gets really suspicious.”

  “What about all this?” Luna asked, gesturing to the papers.

  “I’ll look through them.”

  “Aren’t we going to look for Yasmin?” Anne asked.

  “I’m going to be honest,” I said. “I don’t have any idea how to find Yasmin, not directly. We could go where she was last seen and help Sonder and the mages there try and find her. But I don’t think we’d help much. Sonder’s better at that kind of thing than I am. Also. .” I frowned. “Maybe it’s just me but I’ve got the feeling that’s exactly what whoever took these apprentices is expecting us to do and that’s exactly what they’re prepared for. And so far they’ve done a really thorough job of cleaning up the evidence. But in the meantime a hell of a lot of people have been pointing us towards Fountain Reach and now Crystal’s just shown that she wants me out of here. I’m going to start taking them seriously.”

  Luna and Anne shared a look. “All right,” Luna said. “I think I’m supposed to have my first match this evening.”

  “I’ll be there. Go ahead and practice but make sure neither of you goes off alone.”

  * * *

  Once Luna and Anne were gone, I turned my attention to the papers. I’ve never gone in for magical research, but I’ve been around mages who have. As Anne had said it was longevity research, which actually made it easier for me to follow-it’s not the first time I’ve seen it.

  Life extension tends to be popular amongst mages. Like all people with power, they want to stick around so they can continue using it. At the lower levels, it’s not difficult, either-between modern health care and life magic, mages can expect a natural life span well into their nineties. Of course, the actual practical life expectancy of mages is a hell of a lot lower than that, due to other mages taking proactive measures to bring down the average, but that’s the theory.

  Once you get beyond a certain age though, longevity starts getting harder to pull off. The problem is that at a fundamental level humans just aren’t designed to live forever. As you get older it becomes more and more difficult to keep a body and mind in working order, until every part is breaking down faster than you can repair it. But this doesn’t stop mages from trying, and over the centuries they’ve tried a lot of ways.

  From the notes it looked like the author had tried most of them. Some of the avenues were described in detail, others referred to only obliquely, but reading them I got the definite impression that they hadn’t been a success. Most longevity spells are based on life magic and it didn’t seem as though the mage who’d conducted the research had been able to use life magic at all. Instead he’d tried workarounds that had nearly all turned out to be failures. The more I read, the more I also got the impression that the notes were incomplete. There were references to experiments that didn’t seem to have been recorded. . maybe because they were the kind you don’t want written down.

  I finished the last stack of papers, thought a bit, then pulled out my phone and called Talisid. He answered after only a few rings. “Verus.”

  “Hey, Talisid. Who used to live in Fountain Reach before Crystal? Say about sixty years ago?”

  “Sixty years?” I could picture Talisid frowning in thought. “The Aubuchons, I would have thought.”

  “Who were the Aubuchons?”

  “An old mage dynasty. Fountain Reach was their family home. Although as I understand it, they tore it down and rebuilt it practically from the ground up.”

  “When did they move out?”

  “Died out, not moved out. The last living member of the family disappeared back in the eighties.”

  “Huh.” I thought for a second. “How did Crystal get it?”

  “Oh, that was a couple of years ago. She claimed to be the closest surviving descendant of the Aubuchon family, not that anyone really cared. The place was on the market at the time and she just bought it and moved in.”

  “How did the White Stone end up being held here this year?”

  “Crystal pushed for it. What are you getting at?”

  “I’d just like to know a bit more about the place.”

  “There’s absolutely no evidence that Fountain Reach is connected to the disappearances.” Talisid’s voice was firm. “I know you’re not fond of the Council but we’re not idiots. You think we’d agree to let Crystal house more than fifty apprentices in a place we weren’t confident in?”

  “You’ve checked it?”

  “Every one of the disappearances was cross-checked against Fountain Reach before the decision was made to host the tournament there. In every case we found absolutely no connection. In fact, the conclusion reached was that the gate wards would make Fountain Reach one of the safest possible locations in England. It was the principal reason that it was chosen.”

  “What about Yasmin?”

  “We’ve narrowed Yasmin’s disappearance to Kings Cross in London. She might have been at Fountain Reach earlier that night but she wasn’t there when she vanished.”

  “Unless she was taken back.”

  “Do you have any evidence that she was?”

  I was silent for a moment. “No.”

  “Verus, are you sure you’re in the right place?” Talisid sounded sceptical. “I didn’t question your plan to go to Fountain Reach but the majority of the disappearances have been in London and they aren’t stopping. We could use you here.”

  “You got me for this job because you trusted my judgement,” I said. “No, I’m not sure. But it’s my best guess.”

  Talisid sighed. “All right. If you want to keep following this lead, I’ll dig up what I can find about the last people to live in Fountain Reach and pass it on. I hope it leads you somewhere.”

  So do I. “Thanks.”

  * * *

  Hours passed. I searched, but found nothing. There was an urgency to it now; I had the sense that I was running out of time. As seven o’clock drew near I went to the duelling hall.

  The hall was packed with mages and apprentices: dozens of competitors and five times that number there to watch. To one side two apprentices were sparring with focus swords, the inactive weapons striking each other with a clack-clack-clack. An older mage was giving some sort of demonstration to a group of apprentices, an illusory duel painted in blue-white light playing out in the air between them, while the mages placed in charge strolled around importantly calling out names. The hall was filled with noise and energy and at the far end a board showed the list of matchups. The two duelling pistes had been cleared, and spectators had already started to gather around them.

  Lyle appeared from the crowd as I crossed the hall, looking from side to side. I’d known he was at the tournament but it was the first time I’d seen him here. “Oh, Verus,” he said. He seemed distracted. “Have you seen Crystal?”

  “Not recently.”

  Lyle walked past. I gave him a curious glance and kept going.

  Luna was standing alone in a corner. She was fiddling with her focus weapon, flipping the whip handle between her fingers witho
ut seeming aware of it, and she gave me a grateful look as she caught sight of me. “Who are you up against?” I asked.

  Luna nodded past me. I followed her gaze to see a tall, strongly built, good-looking girl with blond hair tied up in a bun. She was carrying a slim staff about three feet long and she was listening and nodding to an unsmiling older woman who seemed to be giving her instructions. “Her name’s Ekaterina.”

  I looked at Luna, saw the way she was standing. “Relax.”

  “What if I mess up?”

  “It’s just a match.”

  “They don’t think it’s just a match,” Luna said. “Everyone takes this really seriously. And. . That girl’s going to be a mage, right? I’m just an adept. How am I supposed to fight something like that?”

  “Mages are still human.”

  Luna gave a short laugh. “Easy for you to say.”

  “You’ve stood up to mages before.”

  “And every time I do it I get kicked around like a football.”

  “Hm.” I studied Luna. “Might be time to change that. Back in a sec.”

  I crossed the floor towards Ekaterina and the woman. As soon as I got close they stopped their conversation and turned to watch me. “Hey there,” I said.

  “You are Verus,” the woman said with a slight accent. She was maybe fifty, with a hard unsmiling face.

  “Good to meet you.” I picked up a focus weapon from a nearby table, a dagger, and spun it in my hand. “Looking forward to the match?”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Ekaterina stepped into a defensive stance. To my mage’s sight light brown energy flared around her, and I saw the staff pulse slightly. I looked into the futures in which I attacked Ekaterina, seeing the outcomes.

  “What do you want?” the woman asked. She was standing at the ready, watching me suspiciously.

  “Just saying hello.” I put the dagger back on the table and gave them a smile. “Nice to meet you.”