Taken

by Benedict Jacka

  “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,” Crystal 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 without 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.”

  I walked back to Luna. “Okay,” I said once I was close enough. “Ekaterina’s an earth mage. Remember that guy we ran into in Tiger’s Palace?”

  “Yes . . .”

  “Same sort of thing. Augmentation to physical strength, defensive reinforcement of her body. If she lands a hit she’ll probably knock you out so don’t let her. You have two advantages. First, your whip gives you range—she can use ranged earth magic but she obviously isn’t comfortable with it or she wouldn’t be relying on that focus weapon. Second, all her defences are designed to counter physical attacks. She doesn’t have an answer to your curse.”

  Luna had been staring at me. “Okay, so . . . I keep my distance and try and hit her?”

  “You’re going to have to get used to facing mages sooner or later,” I said. “This is good practice. And I think you’ve got a good chance.”

  A stir of movement from the end of the room made me look around. People were gathering around one of the pistes. “What number are you?” I asked.

  “Fifth,” Luna said. “Variam’s second.”

  I caught a glimpse of Variam through the crowd; he was alone, holding an oddly shaped sword, and seemed to be searching for someone. I slowed and Luna moved ahead of me, her attention on the match. I frowned; something was nagging at me.

  I looked around the hall. It was crowded with people, and everyone was drifting in the direction of the second piste. All the attention was on the duel. Variam was about to start his match. Luna was busy with hers. And I should be busy with Luna’s. All of us were busy, our attention somewhere . . .

  . . . where was Anne?

  I hesitated for only an instant. Luna was my apprentice and I wanted to be there to watch, but this might be important. I looked through the crowd, searching for Anne, but she wasn’t there. I moved towards the edge of the room, catching a glimpse of her through the futures—

  And suddenly Anne was right in front of me. While I’d been looking for her, she’d been looking for me. “Alex?” Anne said in her soft voice. “Can you help me with something?”

  “What’s happened?”

  “There’s someone who says he knows about the people who used to live here in Fountain Reach,” Anne said. “He agreed to meet me but only if we do it right now.”

  I glanced back at the duelling hall. I could hear someone announcing the names for the first match but the crowds blocked my view of Luna. To one side I caught a glimpse of Crystal standing on a podium with arms folded, watching. “Let’s go.”

  * * *

  “His name’s Hobson,” Anne explained as we threaded our way through the maze of Fountain Reach, searching for the way out. From behind I could hear the murmur of sound from the duelling hall, but the corridors were deserted. Everyone in the mansion was at the match. “He said he used to work here.”

  “How’d you find him?” I said.

  “I didn’t,” Anne said simply. “Sonder did.”

  “Oh,” I said. It made sense. Luna and I got to know Anne because Sonder asked her to second for Luna’s apprenticeship ceremony. I was starting to figure out how Anne was so well informed—she just talked to everyone. “How?”

  “I rang Sonder and asked if there was anyone I could talk to who knew about Fountain Reach,” Anne said. “He called me with Hobson’s number and I called Hobson.” Anne hesitated. “He was . . . I think Hobson was nervous. He didn’t want to talk at first, but at the end he said he’d come meet me at the motorway services.”

  “How are you getting there, by car?”

  Anne nodded.

  I remembered Jagadev’s silver Bentley and the hunched figure I’d glimpsed behind the wheel. “Is that same guy driving you?”

  Anne nodded again. “He’s out there now.”

  We came into the entry hall. It was filled with long tables and side doors led off into reception areas and a coatroom. I thought about what to do. I could catch a lift in Jagadev’s car but some instinct warned me against that. Besides, if Hobson was nervous he’d be more likely to talk to Anne if she was alone. “Wait five minutes, then have him go,” I said. “I’ll follow you to the meeting. Hopefully nothing’ll happen, but I’ll stay close in case it does.”

  Anne nodded and left. As soon as she was gone I headed into the coatroom. Most of the guests at the mansion had moved into their rooms but there were still a few dozen coats, bags, and jackets lying around. I scanned them quickly, then walked to one of the coats and pulled a set of keys out of one of the pockets before t
urning to leave.

  Variam was standing in the doorway. He was carrying his focus sword in his right hand down by his side, and he was staring at me. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting my car keys,” I said. I walked towards the door. “Haven’t you got a match?”

  Variam moved to block my path. “Where’s Anne?”

  “Go ask her.”

  Variam narrowed his eyes and I felt magic stir around him. The sword in his right hand was broad and heavy-looking and I could sense he was ready to use it. “I don’t have time for this,” I said flatly. “Anne’s going to talk to someone and I’m going to make sure she gets there safe. If you’re not going to help, get out of my way.” I brushed past Variam and headed for the door.

  Futures of Variam attacking flickered ahead of me and I tensed, ready to dodge . . . and then he hurried after me. “I’m coming with you.”

  I really didn’t want Variam along but I didn’t have time to argue and having him start a fight now would cause a delay I couldn’t afford. “Then follow me and shut up.”

  The front drive of Fountain Reach was dark, only the lights of the windows illuminating the rows of cars. The sun had long set, the sky was overcast and shadowed, and the countryside around us was pitch-black. To anyone else it would have felt like stepping from light into darkness but for me it was the opposite; as I crossed the threshold of Fountain Reach the oppressive blanket of the wards fell away and I could see clearly again.

  It took me only a second to pick out Jagadev’s Bentley, its engine off but the driver sitting in his seat, parked in a spot out of sight of the front door. I turned away and started down the rows of cars, letting my feet down quietly on the gravel. Variam followed behind. I could feel his gaze on me, close and suspicious, but he didn’t speak. I held the keys in my hand and concentrated and the futures of me trying them in every car in the driveway unfolded before me. In one of them the key turned and I headed towards it, the other futures fading away.