Taken

by Benedict Jacka

  “But how could it be Crystal?” Anne asked.

  “Why can’t it be?” Luna said.

  “That missing girl,” Anne said. “She disappeared back when the house still belonged to Vitus Aubuchon, thirty years ago. Crystal is . . . thirty-four?”

  “Thirty-five,” I said.

  “So Crystal couldn’t have done it,” Anne said. “She would have been five years old.”

  “So maybe that was some other mage,” Variam said.

  “Come on,” Luna said. “Two different mages just happen to kidnap a victim of the same age at the same place?”

  “What do you think?” Sonder asked me.

  “It can’t be a coincidence,” I said. “But if I had to guess, I’d go with Luna. I think it’s Crystal who’s been doing this.” I looked around the four of them. “Something that’s been bothering me from the start is how neat all these disappearances have been. The victims never seem to fight back—it’s as if they just walk out the door. Well, maybe that’s exactly what has been happening. A mind mage like Crystal can overwhelm someone fast, especially someone young and inexperienced. And it would explain why we’ve never had any witnesses. Wiping memories is well within her range.”

  “But what about the girl from thirty years ago?” Anne asked.

  “Before I met Crystal I did some digging,” I said. “She’s never taken an apprentice or taught any classes. In fact, until this tournament she’s never shown any interest in apprentices at all. I think it stems from when she came to Fountain Reach.”

  “Isn’t it supposed to be her family home?” Sonder asked.

  “Yeah, and I’m pretty sure she was lying. You heard Anne’s story. If Crystal was really the heir to the Aubuchons, why didn’t the house go to her when the last two members of the family died?” I shook my head. “I think Crystal found something here, something hidden. And whatever she found was the reason she bought the house and arranged this tournament.”

  “But why the tournament?” Sonder said.

  “That’s the bit I can’t figure out,” I said. “Because until now the kidnapper has gone to a whole lot of trouble to keep these disappearances away from here. Yasmin was right here on the grounds, but they waited to grab her until she was all the way away in London.”

  “Why?” Variam said.

  “To draw attention away from Fountain Reach,” I said. “But if that’s the case, why hold the tournament?” I shook my head again. “There must be something they think is worth the risk . . .”

  “What do you think’s happened to the apprentices?” Anne asked.

  “Nothing good.”

  We talked for another hour. Although everyone agreed Crystal was the most likely suspect, it was clear we didn’t have enough to go before the Council. Sonder thought we should go to Talisid and report what we’d found. Variam didn’t trust Talisid or anyone else from the Council and wanted to keep it a secret. Luna wanted to investigate more, and Anne stayed quiet and didn’t volunteer an opinion either way.

  “All right,” I said once the conversation had started going in circles. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Sonder, I want you to go back to London and buy some video cameras. Tomorrow night we’re going to set up surveillance on those two clearings that are being used to bring apprentices in here. It won’t do anything to help the ones already gone, but it should give us some proof if they get used again. There’re some other things I want you to check up on too; I’ll tell you those later.

  “Luna, Anne, Variam, I want you to stay around the tournament. Keep on listening, keep on digging. There’s got to be some reason the White Stone is being held here and we need to know what it is. And while you’re there, see if you can figure out where in the house those missing apprentices might have been taken. They came into Fountain Reach and they sure as hell didn’t leave, so where are they?”

  Luna nodded. “What about you?”

  “I’m going to follow Crystal,” I said. “I still think she’s the one responsible for this and I’m going to shadow her. If I’m lucky she’ll lead us to something that can let us know what’s going on. While I’m doing that, I want the rest of you to stay away from her. Crystal’s really good at reading surface thoughts and the last thing we want is for her to know we suspect her. Before we go I’ll teach you a couple of mental exercises to help with that.” I looked around. “One last thing. I know I’ve told you this before, but don’t go anywhere alone as long as you’re inside Fountain Reach.”

  “You just said all the disappearances were happening outside Fountain Reach,” Luna pointed out.

  I sighed. “Look, I don’t have any good answers. I just know that the longer I stay in that place, the more it creeps me out. It feels like there’s something in Fountain Reach and it’s watching me. And I really don’t like that we’ve got so many apprentices staying there.” I straightened up. “All right, that’s it. Any questions?”

  There were plenty, and by the time everyone was satisfied it was long past midnight. Variam doused the fire and we made our way back to Fountain Reach. The mansion was going dark as the people inside withdrew for the night, the lights in the windows vanishing one by one. I dropped Anne and Luna at their room and Variam at his before going to bed.

  * * *

  The dream came again that night. I was walking the corridors of Fountain Reach, and I was alone. The mansion felt different, dead; the halls were darker, the rooms older. Fountain Reach had always felt alien, an unwelcome place to live, but this Fountain Reach was different: It was hard to imagine anything living here. An old crooked door appeared before me and I stepped through.

  Mud squished under my shoes as I entered the hedges. The branches and leaves were shrivelled and dead from lack of light. As I turned the corners I started to hear whispers around me, lost voices at the edge of hearing. The hedges parted before me to reveal a small ancient building with a metal door.

  The room inside was lined floor to ceiling with cold grey tiles. They might have been white once but now were cracked and darkened with age. A metal table stood in the centre of the room with straps down its length, battered and stained. There were pipes along the walls, and in one corner was an old metal bathtub. The room was silent but for a slow dripping sound from the corner: plink . . . plink . . . plink.

  A wave of fear rose up inside me, but I forced myself to go closer. Dust and debris crunched under my feet as I moved. As I drew closer I saw that the bathtub was filled with some sort of liquid, dark and still. The scent was horrible, something ancient and sickening, and I stopped, afraid to go closer, listening to the drops falling: plink . . . plink.

  Then I heard a soft sighing sound and felt breath on the back of my neck.

  * * *

  I came awake with a gasp, heart pounding in my chest. The weapon under my pillow was out and in my hand and I was scanning for danger before I knew I was doing it. Futures leapt out at me, lines of light in the darkness that represented threat, a sudden change—but as I looked closer I couldn’t see anything happening. I came fully awake, searching for what it was—

  —And it was gone. All of a sudden, the futures were blank and uneventful. I sat on my bed, checking and rechecking, and found nothing.

  My room was dark, but looking through the window I could see that the eastern sky was starting to brighten. A thick bank of cloud had come in overnight and its underside was beginning to light up with streaks of red: Once the sun rose it would block out the rays entirely. I stared out the window, letting my breathing slow and my heartbeat steady. Only once I was calm again did I turn back to my room.

  The clock beside my bed read seven thirty-five—I’d been asleep only a few hours. From the rooms around I could hear the sound of the mansion’s inhabitants waking up for the second day of the tournament. My room was quiet and undisturbed, the alarms hadn’t been tripped, and everything wa
s where I’d left it. Yet though I couldn’t put my finger on what it was something about it felt off, like the feeling you get when you walk into your house at the end of the day and know someone else is there.

  I dressed, threw on my mist cloak, and went out to find the others. The halls of Fountain Reach were cold but stirring with activity as more people woke, lights coming on one by one. Variam was still asleep but Luna and Anne’s room was empty and I went looking for them.

  I found them in one of the practice halls, and they weren’t alone. A raised voice was echoing through the open doorway; it was a girl, not quite shouting but close to it. Moving into the shadow of the doorway I saw Anne and Luna on one of the duelling pistes. They looked like they’d been in the middle of practice when they’d been interrupted by the two apprentices opposite them.

  “What have you done with her?” the girl said. It was Natasha, the round-faced girl who’d been sniping at Anne and Luna before. Back then she’d had a smile on her face, but she wasn’t smiling now.

  “I haven’t done anything,” Anne said. She looked troubled.

  Natasha clenched her fists. “You’re lying!” Her voice was high-pitched, on the edge of breaking. “You were fighting with her before!”

  “I wasn’t fighting with her—” Anne began.

  “We don’t know where Yasmin is,” Luna said at the same time. “The last we saw her she was with you.”

  “You’re lying!”

  “Tash, come on,” the boy next to Natasha said. It was Charles, the same boy I’d seen with her before, and he looked uneasy.

  “I know it was you,” Natasha said. She stared straight at Anne, ignoring Charles. “I know what you’ve been doing. Give her back or I’ll make sure everyone else knows too.”

  Anne looked unhappy but didn’t answer. “You’ve got it all wrong,” Luna said. “Look, we’re trying to find the guys doing this, okay? We don’t—”

  “You too!” Natasha whirled on Luna. “You think you can help her? I’ll get you as well!”

  “Listen, you stupid—” Luna began.

  “Okay,” Charles said loudly. “We’ve got to go.” He pulled Natasha away towards the door. Natasha didn’t resist, but as Charles led her out of the hall she shot Luna and Anne a glare and there was hate in her eyes. Then she was gone and Anne and Luna were left alone.

  I stayed silent in the doorway, scanning through the futures to see if anything was coming to threaten them. “Well, this is just great,” Luna said. “Now she thinks we did it. What do you think she meant about what you’ve been doing?”

  “I’m not sure,” Anne said. But there had been a moment’s hesitation there.

  Luna didn’t seem to notice. With a sigh she sat on a bench, the whip handle dangling from her hand. “This is impossible. Onyx wants to get Alex, someone wants to get you, Natasha wants to get both of us, and in two hours I’m supposed to win a duel against some apprentice who’ll be way better than I am.”

  “You don’t have to win,” Anne said.

  “Mm,” Luna said. “I want to.”

  Anne looked at her curiously. “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Luna said. “I guess it’s just . . . I keep feeling useless, you know? Like I’m always leaning on Alex. I mean, it’s taken me this long just to get to where I probably won’t hurt whoever I’m with.”

  “Alex and Sonder don’t seem to think you’re useless.”

  “I always wonder if they’re just pretending.” Luna rested her chin in her hands, the whip sticking out to one side. “Don’t you ever feel like you need to do something?”

  “No,” Anne said simply.

  Luna twisted to look at her. “Really?”

  Anne shook her head.

  “Why didn’t you enter the tournament?” Luna asked. “Does your magic not work that way?”

  “It’s not that. I can . . .”

  “Why don’t you want to, then?”

  “I don’t like hurting people.”

  “I can think of a few I’d like to,” Luna muttered. “Like Natasha.”

  “She did just lose her best friend.”

  “I’m not sure mages have friends.”

  “I’m a mage,” Anne reminded her gently.

  Luna sighed and straightened. “Sorry. Can we have one more try with the stance thing? I think I was getting it by the end.”

  No sign of danger was showing through the futures I could see, and it looked as though Natasha had gone. As Anne and Luna went back to the duelling piste I withdrew silently—I didn’t want to disturb either of them and I knew Luna would be focused on her coming match.

  Overhearing these sorts of conversations always gives me a strange feeling, like looking through a window onto a view I don’t usually see. My “adventures” with Luna tend to be so dangerous that I’ve got my work cut out just to keep us both alive, so it had never really occurred to me to wonder how she felt about it. It’s been a long time since I was an apprentice, but I can still remember just how scary it can be to go up against an experienced mage—hell, it still scares me, which is why I do it as little as possible. But I had the feeling that trying to make her feel better was the wrong way to handle things. Luna might have come to the wrong conclusion—she’d never been useless—but she was right about needing to stand on her own feet. The best thing for her to do would be to learn to face up to mages herself.

  Outside the sun had risen, and the mansion was coming fully awake. I didn’t think Luna or Anne would be in any danger and so I went searching for Crystal. She wasn’t in or near the main hall, so acting on a hunch I headed for the place where I’d eavesdropped on her the last time—that empty corridor towards the top of Fountain Reach where I’d heard Crystal talking to what had seemed like thin air.

  She was right where I’d expected, but someone else had gotten there first. I heard the murmur of voices from all the way down the hall and quietly moved closer.

  As I got within earshot I realised the man with Crystal was Lyle. “I’m just not sure it’s possible,” he was saying, and he sounded troubled. “I mean, it was a worry before, but now . . .”

  “Fountain Reach is the safest place these apprentices can possibly be.” Crystal’s voice was cool. “You tested the wards yourself.”

  “Yes, but with this girl disappearing, what was her name—”

  “Yasmin didn’t disappear in Fountain Reach. Wasn’t that what you told me?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “You reminded everyone to ensure that their apprentices didn’t leave the mansion. It’s hardly your fault if they chose to ignore you.”

  “But Sarissa had told her.” Lyle sounded uneasy. “She kept saying Yasmin wouldn’t have left the grounds—”

  “Lyle,” Crystal said. She moved closer, and through the futures I could see that she was resting a hand on his shoulder. “You worry too much.”

  “I supported the nomination of Fountain Reach to the Council. If it turns out . . .” Lyle hesitated. “The Council wouldn’t be pleased.”

  Crystal sighed and I heard her move away. “Is the Council all you think about?”

  Lyle was silent. I was one door down from Lyle and Crystal’s room, my hand on the handle, ready to slip inside should they come out. They’d actually left the door to their room open, which seemed odd but made sense in a way. Between Lyle and Crystal, nothing thinking or feeling could get into the corridor without them noticing . . . unless that someone was wearing a mist cloak.

  “Have you thought about that offer?” Lyle asked.

  “Working for Levistus?”

  “It’s an important position.”

  “I’m sure it is.” There was faint distaste in Crystal’s voice.

  “I could . . . make some recommendations. We could—”

  “We coul
d do what? Run the Council’s errands for them? Do all the work and take all the risk for a few crumbs of reward?” Crystal shook her head slightly. “I never understood your focus on the Council.”

  “They’re the most powerful mages in the country.”

  “I can think of a few Dark mages who might disagree.”

  “Dark mages aren’t an institution. They’re just anarchy.”

  “At least they provide some opportunity.” Crystal walked to the window and glanced back at Lyle. “Oh, stop thinking that. I haven’t turned to their side. But I’m not going to serve the Council either.”

  “You could rise—”

  “To the top of that old boys’ club?” Crystal’s voice was cool and precise. “After decades of bowing and scraping and cutting deals and begging for favours? Then once I’m old and grey, I could rise? I think not.”

  Lyle was silent. “I know what you want to ask,” Crystal said.

  “Could we—?”

  “No,” Crystal said. “Not as long as your first loyalty is to the Council.” She turned to Lyle. “But there are alternatives. You made me an offer, now let me make you one. What if I could offer you something better?”

  Lyle sounded taken aback. “What do you mean?”

  “A way to have what we want without depending on the Council.”

  “How—”

  Crystal shook her head. “Not now.” She walked past Lyle, towards the door. “I have a tournament to oversee. Think about it.”

  I’d seen Crystal coming and was inside the room with the door drawn to by the time she stepped out into the corridor. She turned and left, heels clicking on the wooden floor. Lyle followed a minute later.

  Once they were gone I stepped out again, looking after them quizzically. Lyle and Crystal . . . Well, it was interesting, but I couldn’t see how it was much use. Crystal’s words were much more suspicious though. Whatever Crystal’s “something better” was, I had a feeling it wasn’t anything good.