“Leave me alone!” I shouted back.
“Alex! Alex!”
* * *
I came awake with a gasp. My precognition was screaming at me—danger danger danger!—and I rolled out of bed while still half asleep, grabbing for a weapon. I came down onto the floor on one knee, bleary-eyed, knife in my hand, looking left to right.
The knocking on my door came again. “Alex?”
I should know who it was, but my sleep-fogged mind couldn’t process it. I looked around the room. The flash of danger on my precognition had gone. The room was safe. I looked at the alarms I’d set before going to bed: the chair under the door handle with glasses balanced on it and the ward stone that would have triggered if something hostile had appeared in the room. Nothing had changed. I was alone.
Knock-knock-knock went the door. “Alex? Are you there?”
“Coming,” I said vaguely, looking around. Something had woken . . . no, it had set off my . . . what had it been? The dream was fading and I couldn’t remember. I shook my head and reached for my clothes.
I opened the door to see Anne standing in the hallway, dressed in a long-sleeved blouse and a purple skirt. Her hair was styled neatly around her shoulders, and she looked as though she’d gotten up early—or at least a lot earlier than me. “Hey,” I said. I looked from left to right. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Ah . . .” Anne said. “Luna’s practising with Gabriel in one of the azimuth rooms, Variam’s getting ready for his first match, and everyone else is in the hall waiting for the first round to start.”
“You’re on your own?” I glanced up and down the hall again. Somehow that bothered me.
“There’s something wrong,” Anne said. As I looked at her I realised that she looked worried. “Yasmin’s gone missing.”
“Yasmin?” I frowned. “Who—?”
Suddenly I remembered. The girl from yesterday, Natasha’s friend, who’d been trying to bully Variam and Anne. An image flashed through my head of her face turning away, mud, and tall hedges. I put a hand to my head, feeling a sudden chill. “Alex?” Anne asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine.” Suddenly the walls of the mansion felt oppressive. We were alone and I couldn’t sense anyone in the present or the future but I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. “Walk with me. We’re going outside.”
* * *
As soon as I was out in the sunlight I felt better. It had turned into a clear, crisp winter’s morning, a low sun shining from a cold sky. The gardens of Fountain Reach were all around us, well kept and beautiful. Away from the wards my divination magic was back to full strength and the creeping unease had gone. A few other people were out and about, elderly gardeners tending the plants and apprentices walking in the sun.
“She was supposed to have been back last night,” Anne said. We were walking along one of the gravel paths, curving slowly around towards the back of the house. “Natasha woke up this morning and found she never got in.”
“She was outside the mansion when she vanished?”
“I think the last anyone saw her was at the station.”
“And no one’s been able to get in touch with her since?”
“I don’t think so.”
It sounded familiar—too familiar. I knew the Keepers would be searching but my gut told me they’d have no more luck than with the previous ones. “The tournament’s still going ahead?”
“I don’t actually think most of the apprentices know that she’s missing.”
I gave Anne a look. “So how come you do?”
“Um . . .” Anne said. “I guess people just mentioned it?”
I had a feeling there was more to it than that but let it slide. I took a glance around. The fountain in the central driveway was visible over the hedges and people were in sight in the gardens. From outside, the mansion and everything around it looked normal, peaceful . . . but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong here.
“Jagadev sent you and Variam here,” I said. “What did he tell you?”
“He told us to help you.”
“But why here? What does he know about Fountain Reach that made him send us to it?”
Anne frowned. “Variam asked, but . . . I got the feeling it was something about the place, not the tournament.”
“What about the place?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
I thought for a second, then nodded. “Okay, I need to do something dangerous. Can you give me a hand?”
Anne hesitated for a second. “. . . All right.”
* * *
The corridors of the mansion were empty as we headed back. I could hear the buzz of voices from the direction of the central hall, followed by a roar. The first round of the tournament had begun. “He’s this way,” Anne said. “Um . . . there’s something you should probably know. Morden and Jagadev don’t get on very well.”
“So I gathered,” I said as we started down one of the corridors. “What’s up with that?”
“I’m not sure. But Morden once asked me if I’d leave and be his apprentice.”
I glanced sharply at Anne. “What did you say?”
“I said no,” Anne said. She sounded very definite.
We walked a little way in silence. Through the walls I heard a muffled cheer from the duelling hall, along with someone shouting something. “You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to,” I said. “But what exactly is the deal you and Variam have with Jagadev?”
Anne sighed. “Everyone thinks it’s something really crazy. They think we’re being trained as his apprentices or we’re bonded to him or we go out and murder people on his orders or something. No one ever believes me when I tell them the truth.”
“What is it?”
“He gives us a place to stay,” Anne said. “That’s all, really.”
We reached an intersection and turned left down a long hallway. We were moving deeper into the mansion, and the sounds of the crowd were fading behind us. “But if you’re staying with him, you’re part of his household,” I said. “You might not be his apprentices but every mage is going to treat you as though you are.”
Anne was silent. “That’s it, isn’t it?” I said. “It’s for protection.”
“Jagadev . . .” Anne hesitated. “Mages . . . know about him. As long as we’re with him they won’t want to cause us any trouble.”
“Variam told you that, right?”
Anne glanced up at me, then back down at the floor.
“Was Variam the one who made the deal?”
Anne shook her head. “Jagadev came to us. It was when we were in London, after . . . He said he could make sure nobody else came after us.”
“And what does he get?” I asked. “What do you do for him?”
“Little things. Deliver messages, be around for gatherings. He’ll ask me for information but he won’t ask us to do anything dangerous.”
“Until now,” I said dryly.
Anne was quiet for a moment. “Jagadev didn’t make me come here,” she said at last. “I . . .” She stopped and looked in the direction of the wall. “He’s there.”
I glanced into the immediate future and confirmed it. “Okay,” I said and took a breath. “Let’s do this.” I walked through the doorway and into the next room. “Onyx,” I said, raising my voice. “Hi.”
Onyx moved like lightning. One moment he was standing facing the wall, the next he was turned towards me, slightly crouched, one hand extended towards my chest. A very faint hum sounded from his hand, and with my mage’s sight I could see the outline of the blade of force ready to be thrown. Looking into the future, I could see it streaking from his fingers and tearing through my chest in a spray of gore. I held quite still.
Then Anne stepped out ne
xt to me. Onyx’s eyes flicked to her but his hand didn’t shift. “Not going to say hello?” I said. My heart was racing and it took an effort to keep my voice casual.
Onyx’s eyes shifted between us but he didn’t answer. Dressed in black, he stood out against the old, musty room. Bookshelves made it look as though it had once been a library, but most were empty and the carpet smelt of dust. “Relax,” I said. I deliberately turned away from Onyx and walked to one of the shelves, taking Anne out of the line of fire. “I’m just here to talk.”
Onyx’s hand moved to track me, but he didn’t turn away from Anne. “Brought some protection?” he said.
“Protection?”
Onyx tilted his head towards Anne and gave me a thin smile. “I’ll kill her before she makes it three steps.”
I sighed. “Would you please quit the bullshit?”
Onyx held my gaze for a second longer, then lowered his hand, the force blade dissipating. “Okay, I’ll play. What do you want?”
“I figure you might be able to help me,” I said.
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Here’s how it is. What Morden sent you here to do is the same thing I’m trying to do right now. Now I don’t like you and you don’t like me, but for today at least we’re on the same side and this’ll go a lot faster if we work together.”
Onyx curled his lip. “And what are you going to do?”
“I find things out,” I said. “It’s what I do. You, on the other hand, break things and kill people. I can do things you can’t. This is why mages cooperate.”
“If I want something from you,” Onyx said, “I’ll take it.”
“And that worked out so well for you last time, didn’t it?”
Onyx stared at me. “Let’s start small,” I said. “You’re thinking of cutting through that wall, right?”
Onyx’s eyes flicked to the wall to his right before he could catch himself. “What’s it to you?”
“It’ll set off the same alarm you triggered the last time you trashed this place. The tournament might be keeping the other mages busy, but not that busy.”
Onyx didn’t answer but I saw the future of him carving through the wall with his force magic waver and vanish. I hadn’t been able to see many details, but I’d seen enough to know that the reaction would have been instant: that same psychic scream that had come before. “My turn,” I said. “If you’re thinking of going digging, you’re looking for something. What is it?”
Onyx stared at me a moment longer, then gave a tiny shrug. “Bodies.”
I relaxed very slightly, though I didn’t let myself show it. To my left I could feel Anne watching, keeping silent. “So Morden thinks the missing apprentices are here in Fountain Reach,” I said. “Why?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“He didn’t tell you, huh?”
Onyx stared at me again. He had a flat unblinking way of fixing his eyes on someone that was really creepy, like a predator picking out a target. “Why here?” I said.
“Sealed room.”
“Then let me find a way in.” I moved to the bookcases, studying them.
The wards over Fountain Reach damped all kinds of scrying magic, reducing the range at which I could use my divination. To a new diviner, they’d probably be crippling. But I’m not a new diviner and I hadn’t wasted the free time I’d had since getting here. Since I couldn’t see as far into the future, I put the energy I would have spent into searching a larger range of short-term futures instead, and as I looked at the bookshelves a thousand future copies of myself studied them in a thousand different ways. I stepped back. “That one.”
Onyx gave me a look. “There’s a way in behind it,” I said, giving it a nod. “The bookcase isn’t fixed to the floor. Move it sideways.”
Onyx didn’t react. “I know you can do it,” I said. “I’ve seen force mages lift ten times that weight.”
“You don’t tell me what to do.”
“Fine. Please could you help move that bookcase so we can see what’s on the other side?”
Onyx looked as though he was trying to think of a reason to say no, but after a moment he grudgingly twitched a hand. With a creaking, scraping noise the ten-foot bookcase rose and pivoted in midair. Dust bloomed around us and books toppled and fell to the carpet with thumps but the bookcase didn’t wobble, held by bands of force. As it twisted away, a door was revealed in the wall. It was faded and looked ancient. “It’s locked,” I said. “Give me a second and I’ll—”
Onyx made a flicking motion and the door burst inwards with a crunch of splintering wood, leaving the lock still attached to the door frame. Beyond were stairs descending into darkness and a clattering sound echoed up to us as the bits of door went bouncing down the stairs to hit the bottom with a double thud. “Or you could just do that,” I said.
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 alo
ne 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.
Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) Page 71