Taken

by Benedict Jacka

  Someone cleared his throat from behind me. “Hi, Lyle,” I said without turning around.

  “Ah,” Lyle said. “So, er . . .”

  “No, I haven’t been arrested.”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear it.”

  I thought about saying Are you? but held myself back. I turned to see Lyle looking awkward. He was wearing his usual suit and really didn’t fit into a place like this. I wondered why he’d agreed to meet Crystal here. “You want to know the story, don’t you?”

  “Well—”

  I sighed. “Oh, fine. That apprentice Anne was reported missing. I was the last to have seen her so those two came looking for me. Luckily Anne wasn’t missing after all.”

  “Ah. What happened?”

  “If you want to know the details, you’ll have to ask her.” Which was technically true: Lyle would have to ask her because I wasn’t going to tell him.

  “I see. Well, it’s good everything turned out well.”

  “Just a sec,” I said. “While you’re here there’s something I wanted to ask. What’s the deal with Anne and Variam?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “They’re a bit too good to be in the apprentice program. Why haven’t they taken their journeyman tests?”

  “Oh, I see.” Lyle relaxed a little. “Well, mostly because they don’t have a sponsor. Do you know their background?”

  I shook my head and Lyle settled down on the railing next to me, comfortable now. Gossip is Lyle’s element. “Well, both of them are in the apprentice program, but they didn’t start that way. Originally they were apprentices to a Dark mage named Sagash.”

  She was taught by a Dark mage. Her and that other boy, Variam . . . They started working for a monster! I remembered Natasha’s words from the gym yesterday. Maybe she had been telling the truth, even if it hadn’t been for the right reasons.

  “Anyway, there was trouble of some kind,” Lyle continued. “I don’t know the details but it ended with the two of them leaving Sagash’s service on bad terms. After it was clear that they weren’t going back, we got in touch with them via a Light mage named Ebber. He’d had some previous contact with them while they were staying at Sagash’s residence.”

  “And?”

  “And they turned him down flat. According to Ebber they were quite hostile. He would have been more than willing to put them in touch with a master, but they were totally uncooperative.”

  “Huh,” I said. “So instead they ended up with Jagadev.”

  Lyle shrugged. “Apparently no one else would have them.” He glanced around. “On the subject, Alex . . . what exactly are you doing here?”

  “Got an invitation.”

  Lyle frowned. “I’d avoid associating yourself too closely with Jagadev if I were you. He may have some influence amongst the Council, but he’s still a nonhuman.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. So how did your chat with Crystal go?”

  “I, er . . .” Lyle looked flustered. “I ought to be going.”

  I watched Lyle hurry off. I hadn’t expected that last comment to be the one to chase him away. Maybe I’d hit a nerve.

  Down below the night was in full swing, hundreds of people dancing to the thumping beat of the music. Looking down over the crowd and concentrating, I could sense flickers of magic. None were powerful but there were a lot of them. Was that what Jagadev had created here—a sort of haven for adepts? It made sense. Mages wouldn’t let a creature like Jagadev move into their own territory, but adepts aren’t something they concern themselves with.

  Up here on the balcony the crowd was thinner. I didn’t recognise most of the guests, but there were a few that I did, and they were generally people I didn’t want to talk to. Crystal and Lyle were leaving but Onyx wasn’t, and he was heading back towards me. I stepped out of his line of sight again, waited until he was past, then walked away in the opposite direction.

  As I did, I saw Anne. She was leaning on the balcony railing and looking out over the crowd, and everybody else was giving her a wide berth. I couldn’t see Luna. I considered it for maybe half a second before coming to lean on the railing next to Anne. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said, “but I think your normal clothes suit you better.”

  Anne gave me a glance and a half smile. She didn’t seem surprised, as if she’d known I was there. “Lord Jagadev likes me to wear it for gatherings.”

  “And you do what Lord Jagadev tells you.” I put the tiniest stress on the title.

  Anne looked out over the crowd. “It’s . . . difficult.” She was silent for a moment. “I don’t like everything he asks us to do. But there are worse things than having to dress up.”

  “Trust me, I understand that part.” I paused. “Thanks for showing up when you did back there.”

  “It’s no problem.” Anne turned back to me. “Did you find out anything?”

  I shook my head. “Looks like I’ll be around to give you updates though.”

  Anne gave me an enquiring look.

  “So what’s Jagadev’s end of the deal?” I said. “He uses his connections to keep the two of you in the apprentice program?”

  Anne looked away again. “That’s part of it,” she said at last.

  “And the other part?”

  Anne hesitated, seemed about to speak.

  “Anne,” a voice said from behind us.

  I turned to see Variam. “He wants you,” Variam said, ignoring me.

  Anne sighed. “All right.” She looked at me. “I’m sorry, I have to go. I’ll see you soon?”

  I nodded. “Till then.”

  Anne left. Variam gave me a flat unfriendly look which I returned blandly, then he escorted her away, glancing over his shoulder to keep tabs on me.

  I waited until they were out of sight, then followed. I was curious about why “Lord” Jagadev suddenly wanted to talk to Anne. Anne and Variam entered Jagadev’s court a little way ahead of me. I wouldn’t be able to follow them in without being noticed . . . but then, I didn’t need to.

  The technique is the same one I use for watching people, slightly modified. First you need to be close enough that you can reach them in only a few seconds. Then you look into the immediate future in which you approach. As I concentrated, in every future I was stopped before getting all the way up to where Anne and Jagadev were talking, sometimes at the door and sometimes a little farther in. But in some of those futures I’d catch a snatch of conversation, and by putting those futures together I could get the gist of what they were saying. It’s a pretty crude method of eavesdropping—an air mage could just carry the words right to his ears—but it does have the advantage of being almost completely undetectable.

  “. . . and what has been happening there?” Jagadev was saying.

  “Just duelling classes,” Anne said.

  “Which mages were present?”

  “Today? I wasn’t there, so I couldn’t see, but . . . Lyle, I think, and an air mage I don’t know. And there was—”

  Some people passed through the door, breaking my link and disrupting the futures in which I was watching them. I turned away and waited for them to pass. When they were gone, Anne was speaking again. “. . . nothing serious, really.”

  “I did not ask if it was serious.”

  “Well . . . there’s Natasha and her friend Yasmin. But it’s just talk.”

  “What kind of talk?”

  Anne sounded uncomfortable. “Little stuff. Talking about us to the mages, that kind of thing. It’s nothing important . . .”

  “What else do your classes discuss?”

  I frowned. Jagadev wanted to know about Anne’s classes? I kept listening and Jagadev kept asking Anne questions—the other apprentices, the teachers, everything. I pulled my vision back and looked at the rest of th
e room. This time, instead of looking to see how the people of Jagadev’s court acted towards him, I looked at how they acted towards Anne.

  And to my surprise I got the very definite impression they were scared of her. It was subtle; they didn’t look at her directly or come too close. But the more I watched, the more sure I became that the people in that room were almost as afraid of Anne as they were of Jagadev. Maybe that outfit wasn’t for decoration, but to make sure she was noticed.

  All the same, it was odd. I’d always heard that life mages were supposed to be dangerous, but it was hard to think of Anne as a threat. She seemed too—

  “Alex? Alex!”

  I jerked back to the present to realise that Luna was talking to me. She’d come up next to me while I was distracted, and she looked tense. “We’ve got trouble. Onyx just met someone and he’s coming this way.”

  I looked into the future to see how far Onyx was . . . and saw the person he was with. “Oh shit. Luna, get out of here.”

  “Where?”

  “Anywhere these guys don’t see you! Move!”

  Luna moved. I scanned quickly through the futures, looking for a way to avoid the men heading towards me, and realised it wouldn’t work. Giving Onyx the slip was one thing but the man with him had already spotted me. If I ran he wouldn’t pursue . . . but it would let him know I was afraid of him. I hesitated for an instant, then walked forward to meet them just as they turned the corner to come face to face with me.

  Onyx was on the left and his face darkened as he saw me, but it was the man half a step ahead of him that I was watching. He was average height with jet-black hair and the good looks and confidence of a man in his prime. Physically he looked thirty, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t. “Ah, Verus,” Morden said. “I was hoping we’d have the chance to chat.”

  Onyx didn’t move but I could sense that he was coiled to strike and I tensed, watching the futures. If he attacked this close I would have to move very fast. Morden glanced sideways. “Onyx, I’m afraid I’ll be late to our meeting with Jagadev. Why don’t you go ahead and give him my apologies?”

  Onyx looked at Morden with narrowed eyes. “Today, please,” Morden said. Onyx gave me a last glare and obeyed. I moved slightly to keep him in sight as he stalked off.

  “Well, then,” Morden said. “Why don’t we discuss how we can help each other?”

  Everyone else who’d been standing nearby had scattered, which reinforced just how dangerous Morden was, not that I needed the reminder. The first time I met Morden he scared off three veteran Dark mages just by looking at them. The second time he subdued those same three Dark mages without breaking a sweat. He’s very powerful and very ambitious, and quite frankly he scares the hell out of me.

  But if I’ve learnt one thing about dealing with Dark mages it’s that you don’t show fear. “Sounds great,” I said. “You can help by keeping yourself and your psychopathic Chosen as far away from me as you can.”

  Morden sighed. “Yes, I rather expected we’d have to work through this.” He gestured along the balcony. “Shall we?”

  “Shall we what?”

  “Walk. Unless you’d prefer to include your apprentice in the conversation?”

  I didn’t let myself glance towards where Luna was hidden. I began walking in the direction Morden had pointed. The Dark mage fell in beside me. “So let’s get this out of the way,” Morden said.

  “You kidnapped me, lied to me, and tried to kill me.”

  “I don’t remember you describing it as a kidnapping. In fact as I recall, you thanked me.”

  “That was before you tried to press-gang me into a plan that was supposed to get me killed.”

  “The next point,” Morden continued as if he hadn’t heard. “Perhaps you could explain how I lied to you?”

  “You said you wanted me as intelligence officer,” I said. “You didn’t mention the part where Onyx was planning to kill me as soon as we got inside.”

  “And?”

  “What do you mean, ‘and’?”

  “Which part did you think I was lying about?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. How about the part where we were meant to survive?”

  “I simply made you a job offer.”

  “And you forgot to mention that you’d told Onyx to take my head off?” I said. “What, did it slip your mind?”

  “Actually, I didn’t give Onyx specific instructions as to what to do with any of you,” Morden said. “That was left to his discretion.”

  I gave Morden a look. “I’m disappointed, Verus,” Morden said. “Don’t you recall our last conversation?”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “Dealing with Onyx was your responsibility,” Morden said. “If you were unable to manage such a situation, you would have proved yourself unsuited for the role.”

  “Let me get this straight,” I said. “You knew Onyx was going to try to kill me and you still seriously believed I’d be willing to work for you afterwards?”

  “Hopefully.”

  I shook my head. “You Dark mages have such a screwed-up way of looking at the world, you know that? I was stupid enough to work for you once. I’m never doing it again.”

  “Never is a long time.” Morden didn’t seem troubled. “You may have reason to approach me sooner than you think.”

  “Whatever,” I said. We were approaching the end of the balcony. “Are we done here?”

  “Are you really doing so well investigating these disappearances alone that you can afford to pass up help?”

  I stopped and turned to face Morden. “And what do you know about that?”

  “Let me guess,” Morden said. “You received an anonymous piece of information pointing you towards Fountain Reach. Am I correct?”

  “And you’re expecting me to believe that was why Onyx was there? Another tip-off?”

  “Why did you think he was there?”

  “Maybe because the two of you are the ones causing the disappearances.”

  “And what would I gain from that?”

  “Fewer Light mages, more Dark ones?”

  Morden sighed. “Light mages always think it’s all about them. Tell me, Verus, what made you so certain it was only Light apprentices who were disappearing?”

  I started to answer and then stopped.

  “Onyx was in Fountain Reach for precisely the reason you were,” Morden said. “The difference is that unlike you, we know the informant’s identity.”

  “Who?”

  “I believe you just implied you considered me a suspect,” Morden said dryly. “Now you want information?”

  I was silent.

  “Onyx will be at the White Stone,” Morden said. “Again, for much the same reasons as you. I believe the two of you could profit from cooperation but I won’t force you.”

  I turned and started walking back towards Jagadev’s room. “Sure you’re not doing all this just to get back at me for stopping you from getting the fateweaver?”

  “If that were my objective I would have killed you already,” Morden said. “I would have thought you would have firsthand knowledge of why the fateweaver is of little value to me.”

  “Fine. So if you expect me and Onyx to help each other, are you at least going to tell him not to try and kill me again?”

  “Honestly, Verus,” Morden said. “Haven’t you been listening at all? Your issues with Onyx are your own problem. I certainly won’t do anything to protect you from the consequences of your own actions. Not without something in return.”

  We’d nearly returned to the point at which we’d started. “Well, interesting as this has been, I have business to attend to,” Morden said. “I hope you and Onyx can work out your differences.”

  “Don’t take this personally,” I said, “but I hope I don�
��t see you again.”

  “Are you going to stop involving yourself in matters of importance?” Morden asked. He paused a second, waiting for a reply, then smiled slightly. “I thought not. Good night.”

  Morden left without a backward glance. I stepped out of sight and stood thinking.

  Luna peeked her head out from a doorway. “Alex?”

  “It’s safe,” I said, and shook myself. “I think we’ve outstayed our welcome.”

  Luna followed without argument. Once she would have complained, but she’s learnt a lot since then. “What did he want to talk about?”

  “I’ll tell you on the way home,” I said. “Let’s get out of here. Morden won’t take a shot at us if he sees us again, but Onyx will.”

  chapter 8

  I caught Luna up on what she’d missed, and we separated at Camden Town. She had classes the next day and we wouldn’t see each other until we met at the White Stone opening in the evening. I headed home and crashed.

  I woke up the next morning starving and light-headed. Obviously the effects of Anne’s spell hadn’t worn off. I had to eat everything in my flat and make a trip to the supermarket for a second breakfast before I was feeling human again.

  Sonder rang just as I was finishing up. “Hey,” I said into my phone, carrying the plates to the sink.

  “Alex?” Sonder said. “Those men who were after you and Anne? I found them.”

  * * *

  The block of flats was in Stoke Newington, not close to where the attack had happened but not all that far either. It was a border area between a run-down council estate and a nicer street of semidetached houses; the sort of area you’d find students, immigrants, and anyone who wanted a place with more-or-less affordable rent and not too high a crime rate. The flats were dark brick, spread wide, and three storeys high, and they were quiet. It was late morning and most of the people living here would be at work or school.