by Jasmine Walt
“Fair point.”
Skyla laughed between gasps. “This is the most fun I’ve had in months.”
“I’m glad to hear you two find this amusing!” said Nell. “What you did in there, Skyla, was dangerous—so dangerous—you shouldn’t be playing with second level magic, even on Earth!”
“Lighten up, Nell,” said Skyla. “It was all I could think of to get her out of there.”
“And it was amazing,” I said.
“Thank Jeth,” said Nell. “Did you know you were wearing the earpiece?”
She knew me too well. “Don’t ruin my victory, dammit!”
The lights changed and we hightailed it across the road. I was riding high on adrenaline and though the fear of being followed hadn’t quite dispersed, this was one of the most crowded parts of London. Still, I went tense again as we queued to ride the tube—Nell had had the foresight to bring my Oyster card. It’d be ridiculous to get apprehended for not paying train fare after breaking out of Central.
The train was rammed, so we didn’t get a chance to talk until we’d disembarked and were hurrying from the station, heading home.
Home. I could have cried. At last. I practically skipped to the front door, realising belatedly that I didn’t have my key. In fact, the Alliance still had my purse and ID and phone, too. Good job I’d used a fake address.
“Crap, my stuff’s back at Central,” I said, stepping back to let Nell unlock the door. “Is Jeth around, by the way?”
“The earpiece’s battery ran out,” said Nell. “That’s why it took him so long to answer your call.”
“Glad we got to trounce Central, anyway,” said Skyla, grinning. “That was fun.”
“Holy freaking crap,” said a voice, and I almost tripped over the doorstep as Alber tackle-hugged me.
“Alber—I can’t breathe, you idiot!”
“You’re the idiot,” he said, voice muffled in my shoulder. “I thought—dammit, Ada, don’t you do that to us again!”
Nell shoved me from behind. “Get in the house, people will come outside to see what the racket’s about. Honestly.”
I couldn’t stop smiling. We won, I thought. We beat the Alliance…
But Nell wasn’t smiling. A cold feeling grew, masking the happy buzz. Did she know what the Royals had done to me?
Was that really a conversation I wanted to have with her right now?
Tainted blood. Something had been implanted in me, when I was a baby, back on Enzar. Something that gave me the ability to use magic…
I’d never thought of it as unnatural before, but it chilled me to think of someone doing that to a baby. Even though I knew what the Enzarian Royals were capable of. I’d long since accepted that I could do nothing about my heritage. But now it gave me a bad taste in my mouth. I wished I’d stayed ignorant.
“We need to leave,” Nell said. “As soon as Jeth gets home. Alber, Ada, go and pack a rucksack for a few days away.”
“Wait, what?” I asked.
“We can’t risk staying here. People have seen us, and the Alliance will have circulated our names and faces within the day. All three of us. It’ll only be one step to finding where we live. We’ll go and lie low at one of the shelters.”
Alber, like me, gaped at her. “You can’t be serious,” he said. “They don’t know we live here.”
“They’re clever, and there are far more of them than there are of us. Once our photographs get into circulation… well, it looks like we’ll be needing to get some of that bloodrock back.”
My heart lurched. “You mean, change our own appearances. Like the refugees.”
Nell had never wanted to do that to me. Yes, I had to wear coloured contacts, but nothing else about my appearance screamed offworld. Same with Nell. Obviously, safety came first, but if I was honest with myself, I always wondered what it would be like to be able to walk around without my real eyes hidden. Sometimes I even slept wearing the lenses, and I certainly didn’t remove them anywhere other than home. Most people would run screaming from diamond-white eyes with pitch-black circles around the pupils. I could keep the lenses in for up to a day and not notice, but by now, it was like a constant itch. I had to take them out.
“We don’t have a choice, Ada,” she said quietly. “Every second we waste here gives the Alliance more opportunity to strike. One bag, each. Skyla, can I have a word?”
Skyla was peering through the letterbox. “Sure.”
I could hardly believe this was happening. Would I ever see my comfy box-sized room again? I grabbed a rucksack, giving myself a mental kick, and started filling it. Clothes. A battered sci-fi paperback. All the knives I had (sheathed, of course). After changing from the outfit the Alliance had given me into my own clothes, I stuck one in my boot. Too bad I’d have to leave my last spare pair behind—those combat boots didn’t come cheap. But carrying them would only slow me down.
I ran to the bathroom to pick up other essentials—toothbrush, towel, spare contacts. Getting the old contacts out was a relief to my sore eyes. I’d have liked to leave them out, just for a short time, but I hated even Nell seeing my real eyes. Hated that they marked the difference between me and her, that they were a reminder that she’d been a slave and I’d have been—what? A soldier? I didn’t like to think about it. Magic-wielders tended to have an odd quality to their eyes, like Skyla’s glittering black ones. But mine were practically transparent, while my pupils were like gleaming dark orbs. They’d have creeped me out on anyone else.
I was used to being different. But not like this. Not knowing there was something… alien in my blood. Whatever they’d done, I had no memory of it, but I’d only been a year old when Nell had brought me here.
Nell.
I went back into the hall to find Alber already packed and waiting, and Skyla hovering near the door. A rucksack lay at Nell’s feet, too. My throat closed up with unasked questions.
“Nell,” I said. “Where are we going, exactly?” Coward. But I just couldn’t ask with Alber and Skyla standing right there.
“To the Knight family’s place. It’s the nearest, and they have bloodrock in stores.”
I knew that because I’d been the one to deliver it what felt like a lifetime ago.
Nell’s phone buzzed. “That’ll be Jeth,” she said. “He’s almost home.”
The minutes stretched into awkwardness, no one wanting to acknowledge the humongous elephant in the room. Eventually, Alber asked, “Did they mistreat you? Because I’ll kick the ever-loving shit out of them if they did.”
“No…” I hesitated. “Some of the guards were douches, but I did try to escape a few times.” And then there was Kay Walker. I had no idea what to even think about him. Let’s face it, I’d been a total ass. He might be annoying, but he was only doing his job. He’d said his supervisor was going to try to get me out…
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to think about the Alliance, not now I was free.
“Bet you gave them a run for their money,” said Alber. “Come on, give us the details.”
Nell flashed him a warning look, but the silence was really getting to me, so I gave him a rundown of my capture, and the times I’d tried to escape. I didn’t mention Ms Weston’s assessment of me. I’d confront Nell in private, later.
Skyla listened with detached interest. “Good on you for fighting back,” she said. “Did they really not plan to let you go?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “See, there was another murder when I tried to escape the second time. I couldn’t have done it, and they knew that, but it slowed everything down. The woman who was interrogating me—Ms Weston—she was going to take my case to the Law Division. But then Jeth contacted me.”
“Weston?” said Skyla. “She interrogated you?”
“You know her?”
“I’ve eavesdropped on enough patrols. She has a reputation.”
“That figures,” I said, with a slight shudder. “She’s scarier than you, Nell. No offence.”
Nell glared. I
smiled benignly back.
Then there was a click of a key in the lock, and everyone jumped about a foot in the air—Nell ran to the door and slammed the person into the nearest wall.
“It’s only me!” said Jeth, hands raised, as Nell came within inches of getting him in a chokehold. “Jesus Christ, Nell.” As she stepped back, he saw me, and grinned. His fair hair stood on end like he’d been running his hands through it. “Holy shit, Ada. You’re alive.” He wrapped me in a bear hug.
“Cheers, Jeth,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. “It’s… it’s good to be home.” Dammit, I’d shed more tears over the past twenty-four hours than in the previous year. I stepped away from Jeth and looked at Nell. “Guess this is it?”
“Gimme a sec to get my stuff,” said Jeth.
“You are not bringing any computers,” Nell shouted after him.
“But my Xbox,” said Alber. “Seriously, Nell, is this really necessary? We just disappear? My friends will wonder what happened to me.”
“And my coworkers,” said Jeth. “But safety first, right? I hoped this wouldn’t happen, but well, you know, we’re in a risky business.”
“You’re not,” I said. “It’s my fault. I brought this on all of us.”
“Don’t you ever say that,” said Alber. “Seriously, stop talking, now. It is not your fault. Blame the dickheads at the Alliance.”
“Yes,” said Skyla. “This is all their doing. If it wasn’t for them making life so difficult for us…”
“Enough,” said Nell. “Jeth, are you ready?”
“Sure.” Jeth emerged from his room wearing a camper-style backpack. “All right. Where to?”
“Tube station. We’ll head west. Pretend we’re tourists.”
“Easy,” said Alber, eyeing Jeth’s backpack. “All right. Let’s go.”
No one was outside, and the street was quiet. We moved in a tight-knit group, not speaking. We passed by the broken-down pub by the alley that led to the Passages.
A whisper sounded—the only warning we got. They came out of the shadows like ghosts, but solid and grey and covered in armoured scales. Nell attacked so quickly her arms became a blur, knocking one to the ground with a series of blows. I spun around and delivered a kick to another that sent it sprawling. The rucksack on my back slowed me down, but I moved to kick another away from Alber. But they kept coming. Dreyvern, or ‘goblins’, were not like the small, crafty creatures from fairy tales. They were vicious killers.
And some had knives. I ducked a blow from one of them and backed into Jeth. The five of us now stood back to back.
A much bigger creature lumbered out of the alleyway, tusks bared and spittle flying madly. Oh, hell. A chalder vox—and high on pain. I screamed a warning. Nell kicked a dreyvern flying, and it got up, its natural armour having absorbed most of the blow. The chalder vox shifted towards us, its heavy body knocking pieces of brick from the alley walls, and I had a brief, stunned moment to wonder how it got out of the Passages before its fist came at my face.
14
Kay
“She did what?” Ms Weston’s shout could have shattered the windows. “You let her escape again?”
“It was that or kill both of us,” I said. “She somehow directed a magical charge into my communicator and destroyed it. The energy in that thing—it was impossible not to let her go. Level two at least.”
Ms Weston stood across from me, behind her desk, wrapped in a thundercloud of rage. I’d already mentally braced myself for those dreaded words, the ones that would exile me from the Multiverse forever.
I didn’t even want to contemplate what came after.
Ms Weston gave an impatient sigh. “I don’t know what to do with you, Kay, to be quite honest. We have lost a valuable prisoner, and if you hadn’t taken it upon yourself to interfere, it might not have happened.”
“She would have escaped sooner or later,” I said, aware that this was no excuse for fucking up like I had. “She had accomplices—and at least one magic-wielder among them.”
“Yes, it seems we might have a group of rogue magic-wielders on our hands. At any rate, there were witnesses, and we know the faces of her two companions.”
“There were more,” I said. “She talked to someone. She had a communication device, an earpiece, but I couldn’t see it. She was stripped down, right?”
“Yes, she was searched quite thoroughly. However, judging by the technology employed to lock her mobile phone, it’s safe to conclude that she has skilled friends out there somewhere.”
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about. After Ada had fled, it was chase her or subdue the smoking communicator, and common sense had won out. I didn’t want the device she’d blasted with second level magic destroying half of Central.
“What she did with the communicator,” I said. “She released pure magical energy into Alliance technology.” Dangerous—and a damn good idea, too. I was kind of impressed, though I’d have been less so if I hadn’t dropped the thing before it burned my hands off.
“That she did,” said Ms Weston. “I’ll arrange for you to receive a new one.”
She’s not firing me. I could breathe easier again.
“However, this situation is out of hand. The murders aside, we have good reason to suspect there might be an underworld of illicit magical activity here in London itself. Even within the Passages.”
The Passages. “The untracked one must be the one she used. If we can find it, it’ll lead us right to her. It must be near where she lives, or at the very least, the place where these illegal immigrants from offworld are sheltering.”
Ms Weston nodded. Her anger had all but evaporated now. “Excellent. We’ll need to send in an investigatory team. Would you be willing to lead?”
I stared. Didn’t expect that, not after I’d been deemed disappointing, let alone the total clusterfuck of Ada’s escape. “Of course,” I said. It was a chance to make up for the fiasco earlier. To redeem my position in the Alliance. And find out what was really going on with Ada. Why she’d stolen bloodrock.
Someone tampered with her.
“Good. Unfortunately, a number of novices were attacked earlier, as I’m sure you know.”
Yeah. Aric had been one of them. It was the shining light in an otherwise-craptacular day. Though it raised the question: who on Earth had the training to kick the crap out of a bunch of Alliance guards? There had only been two of them. I’d missed it all thanks to that communicator and the magic energy flying around the entrance hall. Two people had launched a direct magical assault on Central. What the hell were we up against?
Even two stunners didn’t feel like enough, but it was as many as they’d give novices going into the Passages. My team was assembled in the entrance hall. No one I’d spoken to before. Lenny was hiding in the office, having been taken off the patrol rota, Ellen had left early. I made a mental note to call her later, and then remembered my communicator was fried.
Carl came over to me before I led the team out. “Here,” he said, handing me a new communicator. “This one’s all set up. Just type in a new pass code.”
“Cheers, man,” I said.
“Good luck—you’ll need it.”
Tell me about it. But I gave orders to the novices with as much authority as I could summon. Judging by the looks some of them gave me, the Walker name’s reputation preceded me. Well, at least it’d make it easier.
There’s a whole Empire tearing itself to pieces out there, and you bastards won’t even lift a finger to help. I would do anything to protect my family. If you had a heart, you’d understand that.
Her anger carried a ring of truth. One I understood too well. Damn it all. Ada was beyond reach now. And yet… she’d been dead right that the Alliance had overlooked the war in the Empire for too long. Obviously, interfering in magical warfare was suicide, but it was like I’d said to Markos. There were other options.
And I had reason enough to challenge the noninterference stance. It sure as h
ell didn’t come from the entire Alliance. Just the council, or one name in particular. Twenty years ago. There were only three council members present at Central right now, and none of them had any ties to the Walker family.
I hadn’t wanted to get involved with them. I’d joined the Alliance intending to stay far away from the politics which had got my mother killed offworld thirteen years ago—not to mention avoid magic at all costs. So far, I’d failed on all counts. But if I could just do this one thing…
A wild scheme was forming in my mind—totally batshit crazy. Like the insanity of the past few days had unhinged me, I thought it might actually work. My name alone would make the council sit up and listen. That much I could count on.
My rational side hoped I wasn’t about to do something I’d regret.
Into the Passages. The same route Carl had led our team around before, down the sloping corridor to the lower level. No one said a word, but we kept in formation ready for an attack. This was the same place we’d found two chalder voxes, after all. My hand twitched on the stunner, the slight buzz of magic against my fingers like a building charge.
The chalder voxes’ bodies were gone, but the stench remained, and so did the green-lit side corridor. I indicated to the others to keep behind me and led the way towards the light. A faint gleam, like sunlight through an open door just out of sight. A staircase, and it led down to the lower level. I led the way, stunner at the ready. This was Cethrax’s stomping ground. Even the Alliance hadn’t mapped out this place. Blood streaked the walls. Wyvern blood. So it had come from down here.
The echo of footsteps was the only noise that sounded in the warren of corridors. And there were no doors, no stairs. Not yet. But the wyvern’s blood must be a clue. Ada had got into the Passages somehow, before she’d been chased. Not through the Alliance’s entrance. Which meant only one thing.
A knife swung through the shadows. I reacted instinctively, grabbing the owner’s hand and snapping the wrist. A squeal of pain, and then the dreyvern fully materialised, howling. Its ugly body was covered in grey scales, and its now-useless arm dropped to its side as I took the knife. It wailed, threatened by its own weapon, and turned to run. I kicked it in the ribs, and it slumped over on the ground—but there were more of them ahead.